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13 City Council (08/14/03)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 14, 2003 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session, Thursday, August 14, 2003, 6:00 P.M. at Paris Junior College, Bobby R. Walters Applied Technology Building, Room 1206, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Mayor Curtis Fendley called the meeting to order with the following Council Members present: Jim Bell, Jay Guest, Francine Neeley, Willie Weekly, Jr., and Benny Plata. Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. Mayor Fendley moved to item 2B, "Receive input from interested citizens of Paris proposing services or projects to be included in the 2003-2004 City of Paris Budget" and called for input from interested citizens of Paris with regard to proposing services or projects to be included in the 2003-2004 City of Paris Budget. Vickie Bonham, representing the Lamar County Human Resource Council, came forward requesting $10,000.00 again this year and discussed the services their agency provides the community. Stephanie Hunt, representing the Children's Advocacy Center, was present requesting $10,000.00 for their agency and discussed the services their agency provides the community. City Manager Malone advised Council of the information requests that will be sent to each agency for them to return to provide information to the Council to make funding decisions. He said that information requested would include a copy of the requesting organization's budget, a copy of a current financial statement showing all cash on hand, and assets, a list of all current and proposed employees by position and salary, all employee benefits offered and the amount of any cost of living adjustment or any raises, an overview of the program or activities for which funding is being requested, along with statistics to back up the request, a statement of the purpose for which funding is to be used, an outline of the proposed benefit to the City of Paris taxpayer, the amount of funding requested, and a copy of an outside audit or review of the requesting agency performance if the agency is subject to such a review by state or federal agencies. Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 2 City Manager Malone said this would be mailed out when he knew the date of the public hearing. Cindy Bolin, Executive Director of Models of the Maker Women's Shelter in Paris, appeared before the Council requesting $10,000.00 in funding for her agency and described the services their agency provides to the community. Mayor Fendley closed discussion on item 2B and moved to item 2A, "Consider and discuss proposed 2003-2004 Budget and accompanying Tax Rate for the City of Paris". He said he had asked Karl Louis, Police Chief, to discuss his budget first. Chief Louis came forward advising that he had his staff prepare the salary comparison chart. He said they requested a 5% increase in salary for the officers in the Police Department this year, and when the printout came out, it only had the 3.4% included in that and he wanted to make sure that the City Council was aware that they had requested a 5% increase. Chief Louis said they not only requested 5% for this year but for the next two years, as well, and the Council was given a chart showing what the current base salary is by each rank, what the 3.4% represents in base salary, what the 5% represents in base salary, and also one with a 15% increase. Chief Louis said even if they received a 15% increase in this budget, they would still be below the City of Greenville in every rank of their current salary. Chief Louis asked the City Council to consider the 5% increase this year with the possibility of trying to do it the next two years. The 5% increase would amount to approximately $37,000.00. Mr. Bell asked Mr. Anderson if the salary in the budget figures were 9 month figures or 10 month figures. Mr. Anderson said he would check those figures and bring an answer back to the City Council. Mr. Bell also questioned the difference in the quarterly report that they were furnished and the proposed budget. City Manager Malone said when these issues come up, Mr. Anderson will check those and make corrections if necessary. He said last year there were problems because they had to propose a much larger budget than they expected to pass because the city had a firefighter pay referendum and an election, so they Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 3 were really scrambling at the time to get the figures into the budget. City Manager Malone said they are not allowed to alter the budget figures in that column because that was the budget that was adopted. If there is some disparity between the present fiscal year and the proposed budget, they can go through individually when they have those questions because there is plenty of time to research that and bring that back to the City Council. City Manager Malone explained that the computer is not printing the proposed budget from a database of the so called incorrect figure, but rather it is printing the proposed budget from the data base of the actual pay plan and the employees we have presently and those that are proposed. He said that it is not just taking this current year's budget and adding 11% to it. Mr. Anderson said he knew what Council was asking. He said that the number that is shown in there for the budget is what was adopted, and he will go back determine what discrepancy there is between the quarterly report and what this year-to-date is and be able to tell Council when this number goes through. Councilman Guest asked Mr. Anderson if that would take into account hospitalization and the pension program. He said that under the pension program, according to these figures, the annualized year-to-date figures would represent a 14% increase per department request and that will skew the figures also. Mr. Anderson advised that it would skew the figures to a certain extent. Mr. Anderson told the Council that the previous City Council allowed the employees to increase their contribution from 5% to 6% and that also affects the city's corresponding share and this was actually put in place in two phases. The one they initially started paying in the year 2003 was 11.10 percent and that changed to 11.84 as part of the phase in. Councilman Guest said the totals under the hospitalization only reflects a 13% increase and, in their last conversation, he felt that is not near what they are anticipating. Mr. Anderson advised that it is just a flat amount that the city contributes for each employee. He said that, as he mentioned the last time, the city has some heavy claims for a large number of employees. He advised that the hospitalization number represents $6,000.00 per employee for hospitalization Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 4 plus the city provides $15,000.00 life insurance per employee and that cost is approximately $50.00 a year. He advised that there was long-term disability. Councilman Guest stated that there is a 13% increase that is going to happen. Mr. Anderson advised that talking with TML and letting them help analyze the city's claim data, they recommended $487.00 or $497.00 contribution a month per employee and they feel that $500.00 will cover the claims. Mr. Anderson said, hopefully, if they have a good claims year the city could make up and exceed some revenue. Mayor Fendley pointed out to Councilman Bell that he is looking at the summary, which is account 100 and that account picks up everything; payrolls, workers' compensation, and health coverage. Mr. Anderson said that is correct, but when you look at the detail of salary those other items are making that cost go way up and they are all falling under that same account. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy entered the council chambers at 6.34 P.M. and assumed his seat at the council table. Mr. Anderson advised that the Police Department has a number of different activities, such as the 00 activity code and the others representing grant funding of police officers in the pages following and on page 85 there is a summary of those activities. Councilman Bell stated that they can start measuring if there is going to be an 11% increase due to all of the increases to go along with the 3.4% in salary. Mr. Anderson stated the numbers included both salaries and benefits. Councilman Bell said the 3.4% increase in salaries will equate to an 11% increase in cost of the budget for personnel across the board because they are all this way. Mayor Fendley said that depends on the departments because the Workers' Compensation is going to be more for a police officers than it is for a clerical person. Councilwoman Neeley asked if a lot of the increases will be due to the increase in hospitalization. Mr. Anderson advised that the city has been contributing Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 5 $350.00 and the city has increased the contribution to $500.00 a month. Councilman Plata asked if they had thought about going up on what the employees are paying. Mr. Anderson said they have considered that, but one of the drawbacks of that is the employees did not get a pay increase last year and if they were given a 2% increase in salary, the hospitalization would have taken all of that raise back, and, in that case there will be no raise and employees will be losing ground. He said that Mayor Pfiester appointed a Salary and Benefits Committee that he thought was going to address all of those issues, and Mayor Pfiester ended up not working on that and the city did not do anything, thinking that the committee was going to address that matter. Mr. Anderson advised that for a single employee, the city pays the entire portion of the hospitalization. If an employee has his entire family covered, the cost is $220.00 and if it is only a spouse it is $135.00. Mr. Anderson said the split is 90/10 and there are some parts of the coverage that is split 80/20. He said that one of the things that he has asked TML to look at it changing this ratio. Mr. Plata said when they get a raise at Kimberly-Clark, what do you think they are doing to us on insurance? He said that Kimberly-Clark had not told them what they are going to do this year, but he felt employee insurance costs are going up dramatically, and here Council is furnishing the city employees a 90/10 split. Mr. Anderson explained that staff realizes the plan needs to be modified and have requested cost estimates from TML if they make modifications. Mayor Fendley asked Chief Louis if he had any change in total staff. Chief Louis said total staff remains the same in the proposed budget. Chief Louis said that there are three officers at the school which are paid by grants and part of that grant required that the city had to agree to keep the officers an additional year after the expiration of that grant. He said they have already worked a deal out with North Lamar that they will absorb one-half of the officer and the city will pick up the other half. Councilwoman Neeley asked what is going to happen with PISD, and Chief Louis said they have continued that program with PISD paying one-half and the city paying-one half of the cost. Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 6 Councilwoman Neeley asked if it is standard that cities our size pay 100% of the employees insurance. Mr. Anderson said that in most of the cities he knows, this is pretty common. The variable portion comes in on how much the cities ask them to pay on the dependent coverage and there has been a lot of changes because the health cost has gone up so much. Mr. Anderson advised that the way the city is set up with TML, they have negotiated discounts. In some cases, it is hard to apply the percentage whether it is costing the city more on 90/10 or like Kimberly Clark's 84/16 because of the negotiated discount, but they have requested that the lower index works, which is the providers, they negotiate special prices to go from 80% to 90% and for out of network down to 50%. What they want to do is encourage employees to go where they can get a discount off the top. Mayor Fendley questioned the overtime in the Police Department. Chief Louis explained that when the city allowed them to put on the additional change in shifts this spring, they went to 12 hour shifts. He said they hoped to see a decrease in that overtime. They have only had a few months to look at it and it has decreased a little, but they hope over a 12-month period to see a substantial decrease in the overtime pay. He said another thing you have to look at is weather problems, and emergency situations that come up throughout the year, so they do have extended overtime. Chief Louis said even if officers are added, he could not guarantee the overtime would decrease significantly, but they do hope that the 12 hour shifts will help decrease the overtime. Councilman Guest wanted to know how many officers the Police Department lost in the last 12 months due to getting a better job. Chief Louis advised that he lost one to the DPS and probably one more, and they are about to lose one more to the DEA. Chief Louis felt that they would see that accelerate because of the salaries of the cities surrounding Paris and the competition is going to be a drawing card for some of his officers to leave. He thought that if Paris's pay scale was more in line with other cities the officers would stay. Councilwoman Neeley asked if the city starting pay is a little better than some of the other cities, Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 7 but once they pass that they fall behind. He said that is correct. The hire-in pay is higher and after they go off probation that is when the civil service pay increase steps in. He advised that Civil Service is paid by rank and all officers are paid the same. Chief Louis said that Greenville's hire in-rate is $33,000.00 but their patrol officers make $44,000.00 and they continue to increase at a higher rate. Mr. Bell questioned the stability pay. Mr. Anderson explained that part of the process of analyzing and studying this software was to see why they were having problems. They made a change in that previously only a small number represented stability pay for non-civil service employees and in order to get the software to perform accurately they had to roll into that stability pay for civil service employees. The reason those numbers are different is the stability pay for non-civil service employees are only paid one time a year. The stability pay for the civil service employee is paid on each pay check. They treated those differently because they had to convert that stability pay for the civil service employees down to an hourly rate because they do not work the standard 40 hours a week. Mr. Anderson explained that stability pay is based on years of experience. He said the stability pay for civil service employees, Fire and Police, is based on $1.85 per pay period for every year with the city, because the civil service law says it has to be paid in this manner. Mr. Anderson said in order to make the software work, they pulled the stability pay out of the salary figure and placed it in the stability account. Councilman Guest questioned who had car allowances and Chief Louis advised that he and the Assistant Chief had a car allowance, and they have those in lieu of a city vehicle. He said he drives his own car which he uses both on and off duty. Chief Louis said if the city wanted to buy him a car that could be done also. Councilman Guest said you park a lot of cars at night, and he wonders why the city does not provide him with one of those cars. Chief Louis said it could be done if he was allowed to take that vehicle home. He said that if there was a policy change, he could take a look at that. Chief Louis indicated that he was always on duty and that many times that he is in his car, he handles traffic infractions and calls in DWI's all the time. Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 8 Councilman Bell questioned the photographic supplies because they seem to keep asking for the same amount. Chief Louis said that last year they were allowed to purchase digital cameras with discs and there was a decrease in that the account and can be decreased to $12,000.00. Councilman Bell said that in another account, machinery and tools, they are asking for $32,000.00. Chief Louis stated that the department needs $12,000.00 to move the 911 system and wiring for their new facilities and, if this does not occur this fiscal year because that is equipment that we currently have and own, Chief Louis said they will have to move it to the new building. He said they also placed $20,000.00 in the budget for normal maintenance. Mr. Bell said he would like to see that removed from the operating budget and placed in the cost of the building. Chief Louis said that they may get help from Ark-Tex COG in the form of a grant to help move the system. Mr. Anderson pointed out that the Architect has utilized the entire amount of the bond money. City Manager Malone said bids have not been received and we may still save some money. Councilman Bell said he has approached the Mayor and he does not know if the previous Council has used this, and that is to establish a Council ?roprietary Fund where the City Council could move these monies like the $12,000.00 out of the operating budget to that account, and over time be able to process this budget down to get a real handle on it, but take this money and place it over in the City Council's fund. He suggested that money coming out of that fund could be only authorized by the City Council. He said that if an expense comes up and if it is not covered by the GO Bonds, then it would come out of that fund. He said that, in that case, all future Councils could have a much better opportunity of budgeting. Mr. Anderson explained that the General Fund has a contingency fund of $150,000.00 that he thought they would arrive at the same place and it has to be approved by the City Council to be moved. Mr. Anderson explained that the budget is adopted on a department by department level, and towards the end of the year, they come in and look and see where there are departments that are not Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 9 going to quite fit in and the continency fund is used to cover any overages in the departments. City Manager Malone explained that the budget is an estimate. Department funds can be moved around, but if they have some unexpected occurrence it is covered with the use of the contingency fund. Mr. Anderson said under the City Charter the City Manager can move funds within a department at anytime, but the City Council cannot change a department total until the last three months of the year. Councilman Bell questioned the Electronic Data Processing of $420,000.00. Chief Lewis said that is the fiber optic connection to the building in order to connect. Councilman Bell said that is something that should come out of the bond money. Chief Louis said the six million dollars in bond money was for the building. Chief Louis said they are in the process of pricing at this time and if they have money left over, they can use that money for these things. City Manager Malone explained that the plans and specifications have not been approved by the City Council. City Manager Malone explained that if the architect estimates change and there is money that is available there is not a problem. If the estimates turn out to be higher, they will have to go in and make changes to the plans by making reductions to make that move. Chief Louis asked the Council to keep in mind the employee's contribution toward health insurance when they consider salaries for his employees in the budget. If the employees receive a significant increase in their insurance contribution, it will negate the salary increase. Tommy Haynes advised that he was doing a comparison for all employees. Councilwoman Neeley stated that she knew that Police, Fire, and EMS have asked for 5% increase and basically everyone had 3.4%, and wanted to know if the city was locked in or could it be pro rated by position. City Manager said the process was reclassification. He said most of the civil service employees are not Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 10 on a step and grade pay plan, but within the other departments they can reclassify by moving a position to a higher classification, but you would not want to change the percentage on the overall pay plan because it would wreck all the steps. Mr. Anderson explained that the step and grade plan has five steps and it takes three years to get up to a five and there is a mathematical amount between each step and grade. He explained that if the Council did not apply the same percentage to all of the steps of all the grades, they might have a case where a grade five, step five is suddenly more than grade seven step four, and it just would not work. Mr. Anderson discussed the difference in industry and city maintenance with Councilman Plata, comparing them to Kimberly-Clark. Mr. Anderson said that the city cannot compete with private industry on basis of salary because the city cannot afford it. He said the way they try to compete is more in benefit plans and competing with other municipalities. Mr. Anderson said the grade and step plan actually saves money. City Manager Malone said if they want to take any position and make a study and compare with other cities where we are competing for labor you will find that police officers may be paid less than you think is desirable to compete with these other cities. The city can reclassify that position and that has been done in the past and raised their base pay. Mr. Anderson said if the city does that, and makes a gap between a patrolman and a corporal, you are not going to have anyone take the corporal test and move up, and if you make the same mistake with the corporal and sergeant, you will have the same problem. City Manager Malone said we consider we have a problem if employees are leaving. Another consideration is whether our pay is lower than desirable to retain our employees as compared to cities or agencies that are currently hiring. Mayor Fendley announced that the City Council would take a 10 minute break at 7:25 P.M. Mayor Fendley reconvened the meeting at 7:35 P.M. Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 11 Mayor Fendley advised that the City Council budget would be considered next. City Manager Malone advised that he has not presumed to make a lot of changes to expenditures, but he gave them a handout regarding their budget. City Manager Malone said the first figure is for Workers' Compensation and for a cost of $13.00 the Council can be covered, or for $333.00 annually, they can cover all of the elected and appointed officials on the boards and commissions. City Manager Malone went over the office supply account and postage account. He said in the food account he budgeted $6,500.00. He said the City Council may want to set policies on how they want to set food expenses. Mr. Malone explained that a lot of the meals for the Council have been charged on a credit card, and suggested they might want to set policies regarding business meetings or attendance of events such as the Chamber Banquet, the NAACP, or other things that they might go to. City Manager Malone explained that the City Charter says that Council Members are not compensated but their expenses will be paid. He said he did not feel that staff role is to question the expenses of the Council. He said they will have a question come up about whether you wish to attend the TML meeting, and how you wish to handle that expenditure. He said that hotel reservations can be made and paid by check, and a lot of time they go out to eat as a group and the waitress does not want to give them a lot of tickets and he is looking for guidance in that area. City Manager Malone said they can give you what has been spent in terms of food, travel, and tuition in previous years. Councilman Bell said that every organization that he is a member of has a standardized form and anytime there is a business meeting they pay out of their pocket and submit a reimbursement request with receipts and get the reimbursement. Councilman Bell said they have to say what it was in order to get the reimbursement. He said because the credit cards, with the questions being asked about from The Paris News, they need to look at all the credit cards that the city has and bring them down to a necessary one or two and restrict their usage and go to a voucher or request for reimbursement form. Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 12 Mr. Anderson said the city has a voucher and in most cases it works that way. It has not always operated that way with the City Council because they do some unusual type things and do things as a group. Mr. Anderson said when he travels he uses his own credit card, fills out the form, and puts all the documentation with it. Mr. Anderson said the City Manager has a credit card, there is one in the City Council's name, and the City Attorney has one in his office. City Manager Malone pointed out that some of that money that showed up on those reports like $500.00 from California was for software purchased with his credit card for the MIS Department. Councilman Plata said for appearance sake he felt that here in town they should not take the City Council out and use a credit card to pay for food. It was the consensus of the Council that they agreed with Councilman Plata. City Manager Malone suggested that the City Council establish a policy with regard to that because that will assist the staff in that they are subject to the will of the Council as individuals because the Charter authorizes expenses to be paid. Councilman Plata suggested that the expenses be paid when the Council is out of town or something like that and that they do not have expenses in town. City Manager Malone said the city has paid for pagers, cell phones, answering machines, and long distance telephone calls. Mayor Fendley said if a Council Member is attending a meeting out of town, whatever expenses you have you should be reimbursed for milage, food and hotel expense, but in town he does not have a problem picking up his own meal ticket. Mr. Anderson said that is Mr. Malone's purpose of wanting a policy so that city staff will have the policy to go by and if anyone wanted to deviate from it, staff can pull it out. City Manager Malone said account 0301 includes long distance services, parts of the internet web hosting, cost of city listing in the telephone directory, and repairs to the telephone system. Councilman Bell pointed out that the miscellaneous account is really high. City Manager Malone explained that under miscellaneous each year at TML the city Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 13 is sponsoring a Think Child Safety Booth. There are employees from the Fire, EMS, and Police Department that go and man this booth. He said this account includes expenses for the awards banquet, flowers and books for illness and funerals, rentals for special meetings, retirement plaques, and gifts. He said that it also has included in it a monthly fee for assistance in interviewing personnel and the cost of taping council meetings, which will be moved to another account. City Manager Malone said the account Associations includes annual membership fees that are paid to Ark-Tex COG, Texas Municipal League, Texas Coalition of Cities, TCCFUO, TXU-Oncor Standing Committee, Red River Valley Association, General Services Commission, and Texas Economic Development Commission, etc. Mr. Anderson explained that the Texas Economic Development Commission is the sales tax that is collected. He said the city does not actually budget for that but he had to place it somewhere in order to account for it. Mr. Bell asked about the court cost. City Manager Malone advised that is associated with any general law suits against the city. The City Attorney said these are the type of lawsuits that have been approved by Council that do not involve TML insurance coverage such as the litigation with the City of Reno over the annexation. City Manager Malone said in the Contribution Account he placed the same amount that what was in the previous year. He said the City elected to contribute to charitable organizations and presently what is in there is $10,000.00 for the Lamar County Human Resource Council; $10,000.00 for the Children's Advocacy Center; $5,000.00 for Keep Paris Beautiful; $10,000.00 for the North East Texas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse for a total of $35,000.00. The City Manager said the balance of $160,157.00 is the city's 50% contribution to the projected shortfall of the funding for the Paris/Lamar County Health Department. City Manager Malone explained that most of the funding for the Paris/Lamar County Health Department is paid by various grants from the state. He said the Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 14 city includes the Health Department in its budget. He said he has no authority over any of the employees of the Health Department. Mr. Malone said they are treated as city employees for purposes of benefits and pay and receive a city pay check, but there is a Director and a self-governing board appointed by the City Council and the Lamar County Commissioners which runs the department. City Manager Malone informed the Council that he and the County Judge have been talking about a way to improve collections at the Health Department. They need to get the Board completely appointed, get a financial statement to them and focus on that. He said that collections need to be improved whatever it is going to take. He said that he and the judge do not feel that they are getting the Medicare-Medicaid reimbursement that is available and the Judge does not feel they are getting the indigent health care money, which they could receive for some patients, from the County. Councilman Plata asked about the lighting at Woodall Baseball Park, the Pee- Wee Football Field, and the Soccer Fields and wanted to know how much the city is contributing. Mr. Anderson said he would furnish that information to the Council at the next meeting. No action was taken on agenda Item Nos. 2A, 2B and 2C. Mayor Fendley set meetings for Monday, August 18, 2003, at 6:00 P.M. and Tuesday, August 19, 2003, at 4:00 P.M. and they would go to about 6:00 P.M. each evening. There being no further business, a motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, seconded by Councilwoman Neeley, to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed 7 ayes, 0 nays. The meeting was adjourned. CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR Regular City Council Meeting August 14, 2003 Page 15 ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK