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02 City Council (8/25/03)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 25, 2003 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session, Monday, August 25, 2003, 5:00 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: Jay Guest, Joe McCarthy, Francine Neeley, Willie Weekly, Sr. , and Benny Plata, Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. Mayor Fendley called for receiving input from interested citizens of Paris proposing services or projects to be included in the 2003-2004 City of Paris Budget. Dr. William DeG. Hayden, Chairman of the Lamar County Historical Commission, was present to discuss the Gibraltar Hotel. Dr. Hayden said it was his considered opinion that the salvation of this building rests solely in the hands of the city government, commencing with the structure that survived the fire of 1916 as a busy hotel. Dr. Hayden said for the past 45 years, he has watched it deteriorate through a number of owners. Without a doubt, practically every citizen is aware of this derelict in the midst of our community. Dr. Hayden said he has come to the conclusion the only viable scenario would be for Christus St. Joseph's Hospital or a future purchaser of the hospital to offer this building as a gift to the city and for the city to accept it. Once it is accepted, for a moderate expense, the city could improve it cosmetically by closing the openings by simply using tinted windows that would give the building a sense of usefulness. Dr. Hayden said this could be done with the aid of the prison labor, which the city has used so successfully in the Depot restoration. In time the lobby floor and the Mezzanine could be converted into offices with upper floors closed, which would then become a source of additional space and would preclude fundamental additional building forever. Dr. Hayden said he had listed the advantages and the disadvantages in the material which has been provided. He said acting as chairman of the Historical Commission, he has discussed this matter with Peter Maddox, who is the Supervisor for the sale of Christus St. Joseph Hospital, and he seemed to be Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 2 very interested in the proposition knowing that the hospital was interested in disposing of the building. Dr. Hayden said at the end of their conversation he assured him that he would work to see that this is favorably considered, not only with Christus St. Joseph, but with the successful bidder. He said it would be a very good public relations move for the hospital, and he agreed it also would be good for the city to accept the donation. Dr. Hayden pointed out that there is a window of opportunity and he was confident that the city will give it every consideration. Mayor Fendley announced that the Council would go into a budget workshop session to consider, discuss, and take possible action on amendments to the 2003-2004 budget. Terry Townsend, Director of Public Works, came forward presenting the budget for the Public Works Departments. Mr. Townsend said he was assuming that the City Council received his memorandum with all the changes. He said this has all the changes in the departments that are in the General Fund. The Public Works Department also includes the Water Distribution and Sewer Maintenance divisions. Mr. Townsend said in Public Works, the only real change is the $1,000.00 increase in the Communications-Telephone line because they have over spent that line item this year and the only reason is they were not being billed for their T-1 line over a couple years since it was installed. Once the phone company realized it they started back billing the city for that and we had to start paying for the back billing. Mr. Townsend said that the cost for Main Street is also included in this account and that person is included in the personnel cost. Mr. Townsend moved to the Parks, Recreation, and Rights of Way Division. He pointed out to the Council that there are 17 employees in this division. He said the only increases will be funds that he has placed in there for the park road at Lake Crook, Lake Gibbons, and some of the parking lots at Ellis Park Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 3 that are still gravel that need upgrading. The other increase in this department is a$15,000.00 increase of electricity. Mr. Townsend said it looks as if they are going to spend more this year with the addition of the Sports Complex. Mr. Townsend pointed out that they had split out the Municipal Pool in an effort to try to separate that spending to make sure they knew what they were spending on the pool and the programs, including the maintenance. He said that is why they have placed $15,000.00 into that budget and that is why it appears in the regular budget. That line item actually stayed the same, which was $65,000.00. Mr. Townsend said that the pool account was nonexisting. Another thing that Mr. Townsend explained was that on page 164 on the 2001- 02 actual, they will see there are some figures in there and this is actually because of how the accounting works. That is not the pool, it is really the Main Street, which was under Parks and Recreation and it was moved to the Public Works Department. Mr. Townsend explained that they have not added any funding, they have just separated the funding out so they could better track the pool facility. The only other item changed was the $50,000.00 for electricity. Mr. Townsend said they actually make money, not profit, but they have made about $80,000.00 in program revenue in Parks and Recreation alone. Mr. Townsend discussed the issue of city residents not being able to get into the pool because of people from outside the city. He said they did have a problem the first year, but for the past two or three years, he has not had that happen one time. There has not been anyone standing in line to get into the pooL Mr. Townsend said they had not tracked it, but he has not had any complaints. Mr. Townsend pointed out that across the entire department of Public Works, in November they created a second shift to the Water and Sewer and it starts on Tuesday and works 1:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M., and works 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. On Saturday. The intent of doing this was to cut down the overtime they have in the Water and Sewer because the majority of the calls that they were having to bring employees in for in the evenings were really running up the overtime cost. He said by creating that second shift, he has actually cut Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 4 those overtime accounts almost in half. Mr. Townsend said they have also found that it cut the overtime in the other departments because those same divisions outside the Water and Sewer Department were being called back in if there was a large wreck or something that they have to clean up behind them, or a tree falls in the road and the Parks Department has to come in and remove it. They were being called in to do that, which was costing overtime in those divisions. Since this crew is in place and working this shift, and if there is not some sort of emergency they are working on that evening, they are taking those calls; therefore, cutting the overall overtime and the savings is about $57,000.00. Mr. Townsend said one of the things the Council will notice in the Parks Department, which may be confusing, it appears as though they have cut this budget by 1.4 million dollars. He said that it basically has more to do with an accounting issues of the Sports Complex Project and the Street Scape Project that they will be doing will be completely accounted for out of the Certificates of Obligations and not through the General Fund. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy questioned the mowers, if they were replacements. Mr. Townsend explained that one is a replacement. The other one placed in the budget is a new mower due to the addition of the Sports Complex and the new Police Station. Mr. Townsend called the Council's attention to Page 170, Department 44, which is Solid Waste. He again said there is a decrease in overtime. There is a large decrease in the landfill fee. They pay $184.66 per load to the landfill and on an average, their monthly bill is around $28,000.00. The cost for picking up the brush, which is about 50 to 60 stops a month, as well as their bulk pick up is included in there. Having those figures and even leaving themselves somewhat of a bumper, they feel very comfortable with the number of loads that they have picked up on a regular basis do they can decrease that line item. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 5 Mr. Townsend said there is another decrease in lease and rental and it is due to the pay off of a piece of equipment. Mr. Townsend said the $30,000 in the Solid Waste budget for post closure is for work at the landfill requested by TECQ. They have contracted with a company to do this work and they are coming to a closure. Mr. Townsend said in the Street Department, Page 175 is the summary, again they have a small decrease in overtime. There is also a decrease in bridges and culverts of $10,000.00 because there are very few bridges in the City of Paris. Mr. Townsend said there is a$77,500.00 increase in the street overlay project because there were no funds allocated in the 2002/2003 budget. Mr. Townsend explained that most of their overlay money has come out of the Certificates of Obligation funds. This last year they had money in the General Fund to do overlays. Mr. Townsend said they do have funding in the budget for chip sealing and that is budgeted under Street and Alley Repair. City Manager Malone explained that at one time funds were placed in the budget for overlay proj ects, then council started using the bond money for other purposes. The last $500,000.00 that was scheduled for an overlay was switched by City Council to help fund the Sports Complex. Mr. Townsend said the next division for consideration was the Traffic Divison. Mr. Townsend said there were really no changes in excess of $1,000.00 excluding personnel cost. Councilman Plata questioned the cost for electricity supplied to Woodall Field and the soccer fields. Mr. Anderson said he could pull that figure out and bring it back to the Council. Mr. Townsend explained that the categories for utilities and traffic lights in the Traffic Department budget are for street lights on residential streets. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 6 Mr. Townsend said Division 49, Garage, has decreased by $3,400.00 excluding the personnel cost. He said he was comfortable with the decreases in this department. Mr. Townsend advised that Division 83, Water Distribution, was on Page 246, and, excluding personnel cost, this budget was cut by $3,400.00. There are not a lot of changes in this division. Mayor Fendley asked why Contractual was such a large item for this year. Mr. Anderson explained that this had to do with where they were charging some pumping costs in the distribution system that had been charged to one of Mr. Campbell's accounts. He said in the process of doing a settle up agreement on the bulk water contract with Lamar County Water Supply, they pointed out in the contract that the city could not include these pumping costs as part of the distribution cost. Mr. Anderson said in order to back that out so it would not have to be done manually this year, they reallocated and placed it in the distribution cost in this budget rather than placing it in Mr. Campbell's budget. Mayor Fendley wanted to know about the water meters because he has been receiving a lot of calls regarding tenant property owners. He has received a lot of e-mails regarding the locks on the water meters and wanted to know if that is what the item is on 0912, on page 251. Mr. Anderson said this is routine trade-out of the meters. Mayor Fendley asked if they were doing anything about the locking meters for tenants. Mr. Anderson explained that he has requested a list of rental property from the several landlords who have told him they wanted lockable meters. He had told them that the city would make these addresses a priority. Mr. Anderson explained that if you built a new rental property under the current code, you would have to have the water cut off between the meter and the house, but a lot of the old structures do not have that. Mr. Anderson said he made a suggestion to one of the large rental property owners that he could do that by bringing it up to code and he can shut the water off at will. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 7 Mr. Townsend said the last of his divisions is the Sewer Maintenance Division and the largest decrease is in overtime in the amount of $15,000.00. The total budget was decreased by $18,000.00 excluding personnel. He said there would be an increase of $25,052.00 in this department when personnel is included. Mayor Fendley announced that the next budget for consideration would be the Emergency Medical Service Department. Kent Klinkerman came forward presenting the City Council with a handout that giving general information about the EMS Department. He said they serve all of Lamar County's 920 square miles, with a population of 48,000. They have three ambulances staffed with paramedics 24 hours a day and provided a map showing the districts that are created on the East Side, North Side, and South Side. He advised the Council where these ambulances are located. He said all of those numbers represent the First Responders that they work with. They are registered under the City's license from the Texas Department of Health. He said they coordinate paying for all of those except for the Paris Fire Department. He stated that he is the training coordinator for the state. He and other staff inembers, along with PJC, assist in the training for First Responders and others. Mr. Klinkerman said that the only place they have any increases are going to be in the personnel section. He said the number of staff inembers has not changed. Councilwoman Neeley asked why has the overtime increased. Mr. Klinkerman advised that he requested Mr. Anderson to increase that number to more accurately reflect the number of runs. He said their overtime is based on call volume such as Dallas trips, out of county trips and things of this nature. They have to call people in to make those trips in order to keep those three emergency ambulances here in Lamar County. Injuries and illness have also created a lot of the overtime. Mr. Klinkerman advised that he had five people off at the same time a month ago and he still has three off on injury leave. He Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 8 advised that a portion of that is built in overtime on how they pay. He said that the department averages 20 to 25 out of county trips per month. He said that one of the things that impacts them is there are three shifts and three crews and a supervisor and when someone takes off on vacation, the supervisor drops back in their slot in order to save overtime. They do not call people in to work that slot. If they have someone off and another person calls in sick, injury or illness, they do not have a choice, they have to pay someone to work that slot. Mr. Klinkerman advised that they also hire part time people to fill in when they can. On a question by Councilman Weekly regarding the furniture and fixtures account, Mr. Klinkerman explained that this was due to the new HIPPA Law, the Patient Privacy Act, which requires them to do a lot of things with their patient records. They are required to keep them locked up and secure and inaccessible to anyone. He said they have file cabinets that are 15 years old that do not lock and they were unable to fit them with locks so they have to enclose their storage area to protect the records. They maintain in paper form about 5 years of patient records. These records are microfilmed and now they are imaged going back to 1987. Mr. Klinkerman said they have file cabinets and storage shelves along with replacing furniture at the 4 stations because over the years the furniture gets worn out with the stations being manned 24 hours a day. They plan to replace chairs at the North and South side Stations and probably replace a refrigerator. They managed to get one at a lower price this year so the $600.00 for a refrigerator can be removed from their budget. He said the computer desks were actually in the surplus to be sold at auction and they took those, so they would not have to buy new ones and placed them at the stations. Councilman Guest wanted to know what the new dispatch console was for. Mr. Klinkerman said the Police Chief is picking up the cost of one of them, and the Fire Department and EMS is going to split the cost of one console that will replace the existing console at the dispatch center. Mr. Klinkerman said that account can be reduced by $3,500.00. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 9 Councilman Guest wanted to know how many ambulances were owned by the department. Mr. Klinkerman advised that there are seven ambulances. There are three front line MICU's, one transfer truck, and one truck for out of town transfers. In addition there is one backup truck and one truck in reserve. The backup ambulance has the most modern equipment and there are some that do not have all of the front line monitors. Mr. Klinkerman added that it is not unusual to run six ambulances on an average day. Mayor Fendley asked about the collections for the EMS. Mr. Klinkerman advised that they are collecting about 65% to 66% of cash on the cash credits. There is a certain amount that they writeoff that is required by the Federal Government. They add those back in, then the collections are up in the 80's. He said they do not have a choice with medicare, medicaid, workers' comp, railroads, or tricare because when they file those claims, we must accept what the government decides they are going to pay and the city cannot bill the patient for the difference. It is an automatic writeoff. Councilman Guest wanted to know the basic transfer cost. Mr. Klinkerman said the basic transfer for a non-emergency transport is $220.00 and an emergency transport can be from $350.00 to $450.00. It depends on what is done on the patient and this is a base rate. There is also a mileage chart that is used on a distance transport. Mr. Klinkerman said two or three years ago he positioned the Paris EMS to have a profile in place before the new rates change. If a profile is not in place, they will hold the city to the lowest reimbursement. They received their structure in place first; got their history and profile put in; and then when the start reimbursing they allow the lowest fee but they will give the EMS the maximum amount. They will continue to see mileage increase $1.05 every year until the year 2006. Mayor Fendley asked what the anticipated contract with Lamar County would be. Mr. Klinkerman said it is $298,000.00. He said they have a settle up clause in the contract at the end of the year. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 10 Councilman Plata asked if the car allowance in the budget was for Mr. Klinkerman. Mr. Klinkerman advised that the car allowance was started last October after the policy was changed to not allow them to drive their cars home. Councilman Plata said he did not see it in the budget last year. Mr. Klinkerman said his department covers the entire county and if there is anything going on, driving back into Paris to pick up a car to go manage an incident at Arthur City, for example, is not feasible. Mr. Klinkerman said he could be anywhere in the county on official business. It was determined that if the car would not be available he could be reimbursed. Councilman Guest asked what the provisions were prior to that. Mr. Klinkerman said he had a car and it was outfitted with radio, equipment, etc. Mr. Klinkerman said they still have the car and they use it to go out of town for training and things of that nature. Mr. Klinkerman said this vehicle was paid for part by the county and he did not feel it should be placed somewhere else. Councilman Plata said that car is still in the budget plus they pay for the car allowance. There was another vehicle that was used for going to training session and things of that nature, but it was placed in the surplus. City Manager Malone said in other words, they reduced one car and passed that one down and now you now have one car and one car allowance. That way there are no cars going outside the city on a regular basis. The City Manager said that was the part of the basis of concern and complaint of the Council Members that there were vehicles being driven home. Mayor Fendley asked the City Attorney if there was a legal liability problem with Mr. Klinkerman using his car and he has an accident on city business and asked if the city should get a certificate of insurance telling what his liability limits are to protect the city. He asked that this be checked with TML. Mayor Fendley announced that the Council would take a five minute break at 6:16 P.M. Mayor Fendley reconvened the meeting at 6:30 P.M., and announced that the Council would go to Agenda Item No. 4. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 11 Mayor Fendley announced that at 6:34 P M., the City Council would go into executive session pursuant to Section 551-071 of the Texas Government Code, Consultation with Attorney, to receive advice of legal counsel pertaining to pending and possible litigation: A. Cause No. 66751, styled Campbell Soup v. Lamar County Appraisal District, in the 6th Judicial District Court of Lamar County, Texas. B. Cause No. 71750, styled Campbell Soup and Campbell Soup Supply Company v. Lamar County Appraisal District, in the 62na Judicial District Court of Lamar County, Texas. At. 7:15 P.M. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy departed the executive session. At 7:24 P.M. Mayor Fendley announced that the executive session closed, and the City Council would go back into the special meeting. Resolution No. 2003-143, authorizing and accepting a settlement on such terms and conditions as the Lamar County Appraisal District shall deem appropriate in pending litigation with Campbell Soup Company, was presented. A motion was made by Councilwoman Neeley, seconded by Councilman Guest, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. Resolution No. 2003-144, accepting the Work Skill Enhancement Grant; authorizing the execution of an employer training account agreement; making other findings and provisions related to the subject, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Guest, seconded by Councilman Weekly, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 5 ayes, 0 nays. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Regular City Council Meeting August 25, 2003 Page 12 CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK