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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 07/28/1980CITY COUNCIL JULY 28, 1980 The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on Monday, July 28, 1980 at 8:00 p.m. in the Conference Room, City Hall, 1175 Williston Road Members Present Paul Farrar, Chairman; Michael Flaherty, William Burgess, Martin Paulsen, John Towne Others Present William Szymanski, City Manager; Recreation Director Bruce O'Neill, City Clerk Peggy Picard, Bookkeeper Gloria Yandow, Planner David Spitz, Zoning Administrator Richard Ward, Don Duell, Darla French, Albert Audette, Marie Gallant, Diane Gadhue, D. Mackenzie, Gary Rounds, Everett Talvo, Sidney Poger, Rob Eley, Free Press; James Lamphere Agenda additions 1. Discuss report on dog problems. 2. Appoint member of the Regional Council. Minutes of July 21, 1980 Mr. Burgess moved to approve the July 21 minutes and Mr. Flaherty seconded. All were in favor. Sign Disbursement Orders Disbursement orders were signed. Review City Manager's recommended employee pay grade changes and discuss Highway Union Contract Mr. Farrar stated that he had received a letter from Richard Ward, representing City Hall employees. The Council also had input from the City Manager, Fire Chief and Highway Department. Mr. Ward noted that the City Hall Employee proposed contract called for a grade change review by committee. That has not happened yet. They do not disagree with the proposed grade changes made by the Manager, but do not want it to end there. They want a committee set up to do the review and they do not care who is appointed to this committee. This does not apply strictly to the City Hall employees, but would be a general review of job structures and classification levels and how one job relates to another. Mr. Ward also noted that the employees had requested that the Personnel Rules and Regulations be updated and that has not happened yet. The Council asked whether the recommendations of the Manager were a step in the right direction and should be made, with other changes to follow in the future, or whether the employees felt there were other changes which were more important than the ones recommended here. Mr. Ward felt many of the problems the employees were concerned with did not involve money. Mr. Burgess was concerned that the relative value of jobs be arrived at rationally. Mr. Flaherty felt that whoever decided the question, the decision would be arbitrary. Mr. Audette, from the Street Department, asked how to go about making a change. Mr. Farrar stated that the Charter gave the Manager the right to make recommendations, and perhaps to implement them, but State laws require that the city respond to employees. Mr. Farrar felt the City Hall employees were asking the Council to implement what is proposed here, but they also want to view the situation from a broader perspective. He said the problem with that was that if a problem is found which is larger than the one they have corrected, they have decreased or eliminated their ability to deal with it. Mr. Flaherty moved 1) to accept the City Manager's recommendations for pay grade changes, as per his memo of July 14, 1980, pages 1 and 2, 2) to form a committee, the composition of which will be determined after this discussion, to review the grade structure of all employees in the city to see if they are properly placed on the grade structure (said committee shall report by October 1), and 3) to set or reaffirm the procedures for review of requests for grade changes. Mr. Towne seconded the motion. Ms. Yandow requested an unbiased outside committee. She also noted that the Salary Review Board had set standards that past experience be awarded, which did not apply to City Hall employees. She asked if this would be considered. Mr. Rounds noted that many people had spent a lot of time on the Salary Review Committee doing all this work before and he felt the Council was just going to do it over again. He also noted that the Personnel Rules and Regulations had never been signed by the Council. The motion carried unanimously. Mr. Rounds spoke about the Highway Union contract. He stated that the employees were satisfied with the pay increase and that they requested a change in vacation time, as had been offered to other employees. They request double time for working holidays, where they receive 1 1/2 times pay now. Mr. Audette felt they received 2 1/2 times pay for working a holiday during regular work, but Mr. Rounds disagreed. Mr. Farrar saw no problem with the vacation time adjustment, which all employees will receive, and he wanted to be sure that if the overtime provision was changed, it would solve problems in a consistent way. He was not ready to answer that question. Mr. Audette asked whether all employees would receive 18 days sick time on July 1, and, when told it was probable, noted that no one had ever told him about this. Mr. Flaherty felt an annual benefit letter should be sent to all employees to inform them of what they would receive. Ms. Yandow brought up the police contract. She said it was not written that 100 days must be left on the books when 10 sick days are converted. The Council said that it had been the intent to leave 100 days. Mr. Burgess felt the Council could decide on the overtime pay question at its next meeting. Mr. Flaherty asked the City Manager to write an overtime pay procedure for the Council. Discuss an additional bond issue for the municipal building There can be no vote on the prepared resolution tonight because it is too far ahead of the date of the election. It will be voted next week. Mr. Szymanski had put together a list of furniture needs and an estimate. After some discussion it was determined that the original control center cost estimate given by the firm involved was $30,000 and that had grown to $90,000. The city would be short $40,000 for furniture according to the memo of the Manager. Mr. Szymanski and Mr. Lamphere were asked to determine how the control center cost had grown so dramatically. Mr. Burgess also asked how much it would cost to replace fire and police equipment - what is the present day cost of the equipment now in operation. Mr. Lamphere had a letter of intent ready to be given to the contractor, but the City Attorney needs to look it over. It is to start construction August 4, which would allow the city to be in the building, except for site work, by January 30, 1981. The building would be closed in the third week of November. Mr. Poger, Planning Commission Chairman, noted that the city would have to come before the Commission again on the building, but he saw no problem. Mr. Flaherty moved to empower the City Manager to sign the agreement with Pizzagalli after review by the City Attorney and Mr. Burgess seconded. Mr. Paulsen requested some time to study the letter of intent and Messrs. Flaherty and Burgess withdrew their motion and second. The letter can be signed at the next meeting. Review updated draft of the City Master Plan Mr. Flaherty asked about the request to rezone land in the Quadrant to Industrial and Mr. Poger explained what had occurred regarding that sketch plan. Mr. Flaherty asked why more Industrial land was needed when most of it, according to figures in the Plan, was not used now. Mr. Spitz said the Commission had felt that the area they are requesting to rezone is a good area for Industrial uses. Mr. Farrar said he would like to look at where the city wanted to go in the long run. Looking at the amount of land allocated for Commercial/Industrial vs. the Residential land, there is not enough Commercial. He wanted to see the land zoned in such a way that it did not have to be changed again in 10 or so years. He felt that if the city was going to want more Commercial land, it should say so now so that people would not build houses all over the Quadrant and preclude any chance of changing the zoning to anything other than Residential. He asked why the Commission had not extended Industrial land down to the end of the airport approach zone. Mr. Poger said the Commission had wanted to rezone a little of the Quadrant now and put tighter controls on the rest of it. He noted that the Plan was not meant to cover forever, but only for the next 5 years Mr. Farrar felt the city should decide what it wanted in 20 years, and set it down now. Mr. Poger said the Commission had put more severe restrictions on building homes in the Quadrant. Mr. Burgess was also concerned that if the zoning were not changed now, it might not be possible to change it later. Mr. Poger suggested it might be possible to say some land left as it is now zoned could be reserved in certain areas for future Industrial uses. It could be left in its present zoning, but it would be reserved for Industrial. Explaining how the zoning of the majority of the Quadrant would be tighter with this Plan, Mr. Spitz said that the ordinance now allows a developer to build 1 in 10 acres without city services, but 2 per acre if he extends services. The wording change makes the developer only able to build 1 in 10, even if he extends services. The Commission wants to keep a large area of the Quadrant relatively undeveloped for the present time. Mr. Farrar asked what was wrong with the way the zoning is today, with incentives for developers to extend services. Mr. Poger replied that the Commission wanted to encourage development in areas where services already exist, which they feel is in the city's best interest. Mr. Farrar was not sure about that. Mr. Burgess also liked the 2 per acre incentive. Mr. Towne was uncomfortable with the proposed Plan regarding the Industrial area and the limit on Residential growth. The Council agreed that it did not want to foreclose its options on zoning for Industrial land in the Quadrant. It felt the land should be reserved now. It also wanted the Residential zoning in the Quadrant to remain as it is, or in similar wording. Mr. Farrar will work on the amount of Commercial land needed and Messrs. Flaherty and Paulsen will look at language regarding Residential land. Mr. Farrar also had some other concerns. He asked what it meant in terms of city services when 100 housing units, for example, were built. He also wondered whether major roads within developments should be public, not private. Mr. Poger said the Commission had not been able to develop standards regarding city services for certain numbers of units, but he urged the Council to set such standards, and to refer to them in the Plan. On recall of the Council Chairman the South Burlington Southern Connector Citizens Committee will meet on August 14, 1980 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Hall Conference Room Mr. Farrar felt it should be the call of the Committee Chairman, not him. The meeting has been requested by the State. Old business The Council discussed the composition of a committee to review pay grades and the Personnel Rules and Regulations. Mr. Burgess wanted to see a relative balance between job classifications. It was felt the committee should be about 5-7 people and some names were mentioned. Mr. Szymanski will look into it further. Report on dog problems Mr. Szymanski stated that he had received a reply to the allegations raised at two Council meetings against Goldset Kennels from the kennel's lawyer. He was asked to make copies for the members. Appoint member to the Regional Council Mr. Burgess nominated Mr. Farrar as the South Burlington member of the Regional Council. Mr. Flaherty seconded and there were no further nominations. Mr. Burgess then nominated Mr. Flaherty as the alternate to the Regional Council and Mr. Paulsen seconded. There were no further nominations. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 p.m. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.