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03 Council Min 08-31-04.wpd SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL, CITY OF PARIS August 31, 2004 The City Council of the City of Paris met in Special Session, Tuesday, August 31, 2004, at 6:00 p.m. at the Love Civic Center, 2025 S. Collegiate Drive, Paris, Texas. Mayor Fendley called the meeting to order with the following Council members present: Jim Bell, Jay Guest, Mary Ann Fisher, Don Wilson and Karen Wilkerson. Also present were Interim City Manager Terry Townsend, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk and Asst. City Clerk Sherian Dixon. Mayor Fendley called for consideration and discussion of and taking possible action on the 2004-2005 City of Paris Budget. Finance Director Gene Anderson reminded the Council that they had asked about the sick leave wages as a percentage of the regular gross wages for the Fire Department, Police Department and Public Works. He gave the Council a hand out containing the following figures: Dept. No. Of Emp. Percentage Police 84 3.11 Fire 55 4.32 Pub. Works 86 3.04 Fire Chief Ronnie Grooms handed out a paper showing the total number of sick and injury hours for the 2003 fiscal year. Councilman Wilson said the sick and injury leave hours added up to about 12,300. Chief Grooms said that he didn’t always have to call someone else in when one of the Firemen was sick, but he did most of the time to maintain minimum staffing. Chief Grooms reminded Council that the Firemen worked 24 hour shifts and other departments worked 12 or 8 hour shifts, so it was hard to compare. Chief Grooms said there needs to be a policy set that the employee can only take sick leave when sick, so this can be controlled. The policy of obtaining a Special Meeting, City Council August 31, 2004 Page 2 doctor’s excuse when sick was discussed. Chief Grooms explained that when a Fireman is sick, he notifies one of the deputy chiefs; then, it is up to the deputy chief to ask for a doctor’s excuse if he feels it is warranted. Councilman Bell asked if the Wellness Program would alleviate some of the sick leave. Chief Grooms felt that it would. The possibility of using light duty for those off on injury leave was discussed. The City’s policy of pay during injury leave and the Civil Service policy for injury leave were discussed. Councilman Wilson said we need to check and see how much injury leave is costing the City. Chief Grooms said the use of sick leave is an issue that needs to be addressed. Council discussed with Chief Groom the alleged abuse of sick leave in the Fire Department. Councilman Guest asked Chief Grooms if he was told he only had $100,000.00 for overtime, could he deal with it. Chief Grooms indicated that if Council told him that, he would have to deal with it. Councilman Wilson explained that they were having to work with all the employees of the City and not just one department and when one department doesn’t control their overtime, it hurts all of the employees. Councilwoman Wilkerson asked how often was there an internal audit in the Fire Department. Chief Grooms said he had never done one. Finance Director Anderson said the regular City audit would examine each department’s payroll. It was the consensus of the Council for the department heads to bring back the Sick Leave and Overtime numbers. Special Meeting, City Council August 31, 2004 Page 3 On a question from Council, City Attorney Schenk said actions and changes to the budget could be made tonight but they must be published and heard in a public hearing. He gave the different deadlines for those. Mayor Fendley said that Finance Director Anderson was supposed to bring back figures on changing the 1 to 1 match to the 1 to 1 ½ match for the retirement. Finance Director Anderson said Councilman Wilson’s figures had been correct, that it would cost the budget $140,000.00. He said there would be an additional adjustment of about $13,000.00 for the garage because the garage was not in the original budget. Councilman Bell questioned if there was also going to be a freeze in the step raise. Councilman Wilson said he would like to leave the step pay in and cut the budget elsewhere. He explained different possible cuts and said the City could keep the surplus from those and put the retirement back to the 1 to 1 ½ match. Councilwoman Fisher asked if there was a possibility of putting the match back to 2 to 1. Councilman Wilson indicated that would cost too much. Finance Director Anderson explained that the Fire Department could contribute as much as they wanted to retirement because of Civil Service laws if they voted and agreed on the amount, but the City’s match would be the same for all employees. He said the TMRS employees could only contribute the percentage set by the Council, 5%, 6% or 7%. Mayor Fendley asked Police Chief Karl Louis if he would rather see more money in his department for wages or for retirement. Chief Louis said he always wanted more money for his officers, but at the moment, he was 3 officers short and had the possibility of 5 getting called up for active duty. He felt it wouldn’t be safe to do without those officers. Councilman Wilson talked about the possibility of moving officers around. Special Meeting, City Council August 31, 2004 Page 4 Chief Louis said the Council was talking about reducing staff two more officers and that would make it 5 officers short. Chief Louis said full staffing was 9 officers on 2 shifts and 8 on the other, which is 35 officers. He said minimum staffing was 6 per shift, but because of sick leave, vacations and other things, it was better to have 9 so no one gets hurt. Councilman Wilson suggested having 8 officers per shift. Chief Louis said he gave up 2 patrolmen last year and 2 records clerks earlier in the budget process. Councilman Wilson suggested using the school officers when needed. Chief Louis said because there are officers at the schools, it keeps his street patrolmen from having to respond to incidences at the schools. He said these officers also have a positive effect on the students and have helped gang activity to go down. Chief Louis said having 9 officers per shift keeps the citizens safer and the officers safer and safety is more important than money. Councilman Wilson suggested disannexing some property to help reduce the amount of calls. Chief Louis indicated they would have to disannex a significant portion to go down to 5 officers per shift. Council discussed with Chief Louis the various school districts and how many officers they had on campus. Chief Louis said they had applied for a State grant to also put an officer at Chisum but had not heard back as to whether they had received that grant. Interim City Manager Terry Townsend said he currently had three positions open in Public Works and could eliminate those from the budget without anyone losing their job. He said he could use some temps or seasonal help when needed to mow the grass. Finance Director Anderson said the minimum net savings for that would be $61,856.00. Councilman Wilson suggested that Chief Louis either cut one patrolman or find $49,000.00 worth of budget cuts in his department. Special Meeting, City Council August 31, 2004 Page 5 Mayor Fendley recapped the following budget cuts: 1. $61.856.00 cut from Parks Department 2. $50,000.00 overtime cut from the Fire Department 3. $50,000.00 cut from the Police Department Councilman Wilson made a motion to approve those budget cuts. Councilman Guest seconded the motion and it carried 6 ayes, 0 nays. Councilman Bell made a motion to restore the retirement benefits to a 1 to 1 ½ match. Councilman Wilson seconded the motion and the motion 4 ayes, 2 nays, Councilman Guest and Mayor Fendley voting no. Interim Library Director Priscilla McAnally wanted to clarify if the $40.00 Out- of-City Library Fee would be per household or per family. It was the consensus st that it would be per family and would become effective October 1. Community Development Director Lisa Wright came forward to present her research on using the Fixed Base Operator to manage the airport. She indicated that she had already discussed this with the FBO at Cox Field and they would be willing to manage the airport. She said this would be a savings of approximately $10,000.00-15,000.00. Councilman Wilson made a motion to negotiate the contract for the Fixed Base Operator to take over operations of the Airport. Councilman Bell seconded the motion. There was a discussion of FAA regulations concerning this and who would have the oversight to make sure things were done according to FAA rules. It was agreed that the City would take care of the supervision of the FBO. Mayor Fendley said Finance Director Anderson could take over billing and collections. The motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. Special Meeting, City Council August 31, 2004 Page 6 th Mayor Fendley said there was a meeting set for September 9 and September th 16. City Attorney Schenk said there would need to be a Public Hearing on the th amendments for tonight at the regular Council meeting on September 13. Resolution 2004-149, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Paris setting a Public Hearing for the proposed amendments to the City Manager’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2004-2005, was presented. City Attorney Schenk said that meeting would be Monday, September 13, 2004 at the Civic Center. Councilman Guest made a motion to approve the date for the public Hearing, which was seconded by Councilwoman Wilkerson. The motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. It was requested to put on a future agenda an update on what is happening on the renovation of Old Central Fire Station. Councilman Bell asked to be excused from the next item because of a conflict of interest. He was excused and Mayor Fendley called for a short break at 7:44 p.m. At 7:48 p.m., Mayor Fendley convened the Council in Executive Session pursuant to Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code, Consultation with Attorney, to receive advice of legal counsel pertaining to pending or possible litigation and to receive advice of legal counsel pursuant to the duty of an attorney to his client under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas, regarding Marieta B. Oglesby vs. The City th of Paris, Cause No. 73003, 6 Judicial District Court, Lamar County, Texas. Mayor Fendley reconvened the Council in Open Session at 8:02 p.m. Councilman Guest made a motion to enter into legal defense as discussed in Closed Session. Councilwoman Fisher seconded the motion and it carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned. _______________________________ Special Meeting, City Council August 31, 2004 Page 7 Curtis Fendley, Mayor Approved As To Form: ______________________________ Sherian Dixon, Asst. City Clerk