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02 City Council (9/23/03)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL September 23, 2003 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session, Tuesday, September 23, 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, 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 declared the public hearing open on the proposed amendments to the city Manager's proposed budget for fiscal year 2003-2004 for the City of Paris. Mayor Fendley called for those who wished to speak to come forward. No one came forward and the public hearing was declared closed. Mayor Fendley called for consideration and discussion, and take possible action on amendments to the 2003-2004 budget. No action was taken on this item. ORDINANCE NO. 2003-043 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, PARIS, TEXAS, ADOPTING A BUDGET FOR THE ENSUING FISCAL PERIOD BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2003, AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 1, 2004, AS AMENDED, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF PARIS; APPROPRIATING THE VARIOUS AMOUNTS THEREOF; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; REPEALING ALL ORDINANCES OR PARTS OF ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT HEREWITH; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE, WAS PRESENTED. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy stated that regarding the charitable organization, they cut everything but the Paris Band and wanted to know if it is considered a Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 2 charitable organization. Mayor Fendley advised that it was not a charitable organization. Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy wanted to know why they did not make an adjustment to Woodall Field electricity donation as Council had cut the other organizations. Gene Anderson, Director of Finance, advised that the City of Paris had provided Woodall Field with electricity for a number of years. They do not belong to the city, but they get the benefit of that field without having to maintain it. Councilman Bell said he looked at it as a very inexpensive park and in that aspect the city is not having to expend the other funds to maintain it and the city has a cooperative effort on their part. He thought it is something that needs to be looked at, but would like to see it left in the budget. Councilman Plata wanted to know why they could not cut it by two or three thousand dollars. Councilwoman Neeley asked in their presentation did they not say they have asked other entities for help. Mayor Fendley said that they have approached them, but has not heard from them. Also he said there is no longer a baseball program at the Boy's Club. He said this is an outreach to the community and he realized that it is a service club, and there are not a lot of park / recreation facilities in the city. He said this is an investment in the city's youth and well spent. After further discussion a motion was made by Councilman Weekly, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, to cut $2,000.00 from the contribution to Woodall Field. The motion carried 4 ayes, 3 nays, Councilman Bell, Councilwoman Neeley, and Mayor Fendley voting no. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilwoman Neeley, for adoption of the ordinance as amended. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 3 Resolution No. 2003-157, directing the Director of Finance to transfer funds from unencumbered appropriation balances to over-expended accounts, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilwoman Neeley, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Resolution No. 2003-158, a resolution of the City Council, of the City of Paris, Paris, Texas, expressing support for financial incentives for the expansion of Campbell Soup Company in Paris, Texas, and urging in the strongest possible terms Governor Rick Perry to utilize discretionary State Economic Development Funds in furtherance of said proposed planned expansion, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilman Weekly, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Mayor Fendley called for the presentation by various staff on the status of an inquiry from the resulting investigation by the U. S. Department of Labor. City Attorney Schenk advised that the particular labor official that assigned to the city in reviewing the city in this matter and wanted to summarize the authority over the Federal Minimum Wage laws; overtime pay; Child Labor Law; records keeping requirements under the Fair Labor Standard Act; Davis Bacon Act; Service Contracts Act; Family Medical Act; and the immigration laws. He said that in that sense, the city the expectation that with regard to the review that was performed by that individual would encompass all of those statutes. The official that was assigned to the city was very professional in his approach, and he was pleased to say, with regard to his participation in that there is a shared professionality between representatives of the city under the DOL providing all the information requested by the Labor Department. Given the scope of his authority, he thinks that the city could assume the review that was conducted and the results of that review that was conducted, the results would indicate any noncompliance on the part of the City of Paris, Texas with regard to any statutes that he mentioned. Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 4 City Attorney Schenk said the scope of the review by the DOL official, the thought that Gene Anderson, Director of Finance would concur was extensive including reviewing of the details of the city's payroll records, immigration records, overtime records, interview of selected employees, etc. He said they were also cooperative in providing any information requested by the DOL official. City Attorney Schenk said he wanted to tip his hat to that individual he was very accommodating in providing the city significant time to locate and provide the documents, which were requested. City Attorney Schenk advised that this is the first formal review that has been conducted on the city's payroll and FLSA complaisance in approximately ten years. First of all, in reviewing the documents the DOL official was complimentary of the way the records were kept and the conditions of those records. City Attorney Schenk stated that as a consequent of that review, the DOL official identified only one minor anomaly in the way the city has been paying under FLSA. That anomaly involved how overtime is calculated for city firefighters who are required to step-up to another position when a firefighter normally occupying that position is not available to serve. In other words, if a firefighter served in a step-up position. City Attorney Schenk said then the firefighter incurs overtime and a different calculation is required from the one the city has been applying changing the way the city paid firefighters last year from 212 hour basis to a 53-hour basis aggravated that problem. As a consequent after reviewing the methodology, the regulations, interfacing with the DOL officials, the city identified $2,109.53 in back overtime for the last two years, which it will pay approximately 31 firefighters of approximately $65.00 on the average on each of those employees. With the exception of this adjustment, no other anomalies or violations were identified with regard to this investigation including the much speculated issue of how the city compensates the EMS employees pursuant to what is referred to as the seven K's. City Attorney Schenk said that he and Mr. Anderson were appreciated of their advice of the Department of Labor has provided them in correcting this minor matter so for the future of this methodology can be incorporated into the way the Fire Department initially calculates the overtime due in the way such overtime is subsequently paid by the Finance Department. Otherwise, the City of Paris has been given a clean bill of health with regard it's Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 5 pays all of their employees. City Attorney said it goes without saying that the level of speculation which accompanying this inquiry, and an investigation was regrettable, because it caused undue concerns to potentially affecting city employees. He said he felt affected from the feedback that he received from those employees. City Attorney Schenk stated that he hoped and was sure it is a relief to those employees to find no further adjustment will be necessary in the way the city pays it's overtime. All city employees involved in the preparation and calculations of salaries, compensation and overtime should be complimented for their efforts in complying what is and has been recognized under the law and by the local media as a very complex law and accompanying set of regulations. City Attorney advised that they were not allow to make comments until the investigation was concluded, and that is they way these matters are conducted. Mr. Anderson came forward stating that was not going to go into how the calculations were made. He said that the City Attorney was right that this was a very complex issue and it is not a really clear-cut issue. Mr. Anderson advised that they were examined ten years ago by the Department of Labor with the same issue and they found no fault they way the city was calculating the overtime. He did not know details affected that and he was not sure any of it was. It is a matter of interpretation. The amount was insignificant and could not see any reason for not going ahead and complying with this particular investigator's opinion of how it should work. Mr. Anderson explained that mechanically what will happen, is they have reported to the City Council, and he will go down to the Fire Department in the morning and he has the check for this back pay completed and will leave them at the Fire Department for affected firefighters to pick up. At the time they pick up their checks, the Department of Labor requested that the sign a receipt acknowledging that they did receive payment and those receipts will be sent to the Department of Labor as they requested. Mayor Fendley called for discussion of and possible direction to staff regarding privatization of various city services. He advised that this is an item that the Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 6 discussed in June or July, and they placed it on hold until after the Council had gotten finished with the budget. He said they were bringing it back and discuss it again to see if the Council wanted to discuss it again and see if they wanted to look at any of these departments for privatization, and if they do what process they want to take. Councilwoman Neeley stated that the water billing is privatized, is it not, and if so, how is that working and has it been worth it. Mr. Anderson advised he felt it was privatized and being outsourced because it is for just the printing and mailing. All of the actual bill calculations and everything is prepared by city staff and electronically forwarded to this company. This company downloads it and processes it. Mr. Anderson advised that it has worked very well. He said it is pretty much break even for what the city could do it and the reason he recommended that the city change from that was the folding stuffing equipment was going to have to be replaced and it saved that capital expenditure, which was approximately 15 to 20 thousand dollars. He said it also reduced the overtime required to do that process, which is a very labor intensive process. Mr. Anderson also advised that essentially the city outsourced the tax collection process. He said they did that to save money at the time the savings was about $10,000.00 when they turned the tax collection over the Lamar County Appraisal District, but the trade-off was the city lost all control over the process. Mayor Fendley advised that the area that the City Council left the discussion was in the area of the Water Production Department and they could start with that issue. He asked what methodology does the Council want to look at. What do they want to look at in particular and how does the Council want to go about looking at it. Councilman Bell said in the previous discussions, he has not seen a guarantee a suggestion possibly they may have some savings, but not a guarantee. Mr. Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 7 Bell stated that the service the city receives is a good service. He stated that if they can't get savings or they can't improve upon the service, there would not be a reason to do this. He didn't know if they have properly interviewed the communities that have done it. Councilman Bell said they have heard some comments from a few people who have talked to us stating they were satisfied with it, but he has not had recommendations to do it. He said they did know that there was some communities that did change to privatization and then came out of it. The city received comments that the coming out of it was very difficult. He could not see investing staff time at this point to put out a full request for proposal. Councilman Bell said that all the figures that the City Manager is concerned with about having to work all those up at this point and if the city does not know what those are. He said the Council would have to state what data and figures they will need, and what type work is it going to take, and thought those cities needed to be interviewed and see what the reason was for doing it. Mayor Fendley stated that the need to talk to the industry, the end users in those community to see if they are happy with what they are getting and are they getting the right service for the cost. Councilman Bell said he was reminded of the fact that when they looked at privatization, the City of Paris is not upside down in the Water Department in cost due to production. They are upside down due to debt and privatization will not improve that one bit if the city can't make the debt go away. Councilman Plata felt that the city should let someone else give the city a proposal who is a professional in that department as far as water and they can give the city another opinion on it. He said they have told him they could save him quite a bit of money over a few years. Mayor Fendley stated that the city could not just take one persons word, you can't just go with one company's word because they are going to try to sell their product. He said the city would have to go out for an RFP. He thought that the Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 8 city would have to see how much time the city will be faced with, talk with industry such as Campbell Soup because he felt they have had privatization issues in other communities and see what their problems were. Mr. Anderson said that one thing the city staff would have to know what services they wanted to charge, does this include full maintenance, personnel, everything to do with operational including the regulatory filings, or do you want to just hand over the total operation. Councilman Bell advised that Karl Louis had come up with a plan to reorganize the Police Department and he would like to have this placed on the agenda and allow him to tell the Council about it. City Attorney Schenk advised that they could place this on the agenda because they need to have a brief ineeting Monday, September 29, 2003, to set the tax rate based on what the Council did tonight. If the Council wanted to add the reorganization plan to that agenda, it could be done. Councilman Plata asked if they could have a couple of representatives come from privatization companies come in and talk to the CounciL Mayor Fendley said he preferred that they talk to city staff to see what they are going to need and the only thing he said is they would have to take the whole production and look at that, but he has the same feels as Councilman Bell that it is not going to save any money. Councilwoman Neeley said before they put the staff to work on this see if they could get some answers from the local industry and see if they have experience in dealing with privatization. Councilman Plata told the City Council that he had talked to Richard Quarles at Campbell Soup and he strongly advised that the city should go out for proposals. Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 9 Councilman Bell asked that the city staff write a letter to cities that are under contract with their brief comments concerning privatization and with the question, if they had to do it again, would they, and that the city staff to ask two companies to provide them with information for what it entailed in a request for proposal. City Attorney Schenk advised that they have already requested copies of contracts from cities that were using OMI communities, but to say that every city that is privatized send them a letter. He did not know if there is a central index for privatized cities. Councilman Bell said he would like to locate some cities across the board with a simple letter from them of whether or not they would do it again. Councilman Bell did not want a big long report or staff spending a lot of time on this. The letter could be duplicated. Councilwoman Neeley said she would like to have letters sent to companies that have opted out and why the opted out. She said that Reed and Stowe should have that information and wanted to know if they would have that information. City Attorney Schenk advised they could ask if they have that type information, but what you are looking at is not only trying to identify cities that are privatized and decided to change back. He did not know how that could be identified. Mayor Fendley said that Reed and Stowe could be a starting place and report back to the Council. City Attorney Schenk presented the following petition for referral to the Planning and Zoning Commission at their meeting in November: Tyron Roundtree and Dorothy Diggs, Lot 18, City Block A, East Park Addition 1700 N. E. l Oth Street, from a One Family Dwelling District No. 3 to a One Family Dwelling District No. 3 with Specific Use Permit, Manufactured home. There being further business, a motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Mayor Fendley, to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Regular City Council Meeting September 23 , 2003 Page 10 CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK