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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 02/20/1997CITY COUNCIL 20 FEBRUARY 1997 The South Burlington City Council held a meeting on Monday, 20 February 1997, at 7:00 p.m., in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street. Members Present: William Cimonetti, Chair; James Condos, David Austin, Terry Sheahan Also Present: Charles Hafter, City Manager; Peg Strait, Asst. City Manager; Margaret Picard, City Clerk/Treasurer; Lee Graham, Police Chief; Don Whitten, WPC; Bruce O'Neill, Tom Hubbard, Recreation; Claire Buckley, Community Library; Anna Johnston, The Other Paper; Channel 17 1. Comments & Questions from the Audience (not related to Agenda Items): No issues were raised. 2. Announcements & City Manager's Report: Mr. Hafter reported the following: a. Several members are unable to attend the next regularly scheduled meeting on 3 March. Members agreed to meet on 4 March. b. The School Board has requested a change in the Steering Committee meeting from 13 March to 20 March. Members agreed. c. The Corrections Center Liaison Committee will meet on 26 February at 4 p.m. d. The City has received bids on the final design of the Bartlett Bay Facility. Four bids were received and all are within budget. Interviews will be conducted and a recommendation will be made to the City Council on 17 March. e. The new tower truck is on its way and should arrive on Tuesday. 3. Review of Several Legislative/State Issues: a. Mr. Hafter said that staff will follow the Charter Change on eliminating the machinery tax through the Legislature. b. The question has been raised that if a state-wide property tax is enacted, what would happen to towns that have eliminated the machinery tax. c. The City has been working to transfer the Bike Path project from the state to the City. Archeological issues are now resolved. Mr. Hafter addressed members' attention to a memo from the state. He said he has been assured that when the city is ready, the state will do it. The cost will be about $800,000 of which the city pays 10%. Mr. Chittenden noted that it is good that the bridge the state is designing will be wider than the one on the Wheelock property which is too narrow. d. Mr. Hafter noted that City Managers have a "no lobby" policy; however, they have taken a position in opposition to Bill H213 which would require binding arbitration in labor issues. Mr. Hafter noted there is binding arbitration in the Police contract which was used once. He said it is the Managers' feeling that binding arbitration would take away the Council and community's right to control local budgets. A similar bill lost last year by 4 votes, but 8 of those who voted against it are no longer in the Legislature. e. Mr. Hafter said a bill that City Managers do support is H-277 which would allow municipalities to regulate liquor licenses based on entertainment permits. He asked the Council approval to testify in support of this. Members gave their approval. f. Regarding the Brigham Decision, Mr. Hafter said the decision did not declare the property tax illegal. What is illegal is how it is allocated. Taxes will be due on 15 March as usual. Mr. Cimonetti said it looks like the Legislature will have a bill out of committee next week on this. Mr. Hafter noted that the message from the Governor is that communities should do their budgets the same way as they always do. 4. Presentation of 1997-8 Budget: Mr. Hafter began with a review of budget/Charter limitations. $4,872,915 is the maximum to be raised by taxes. The 1996-7 Grand List was $7,263,000, and the 1997-8 Grand List is estimated at $7,372,000, an increase of 1.5%. The maximum tax rate was 65.1% in 1996-7, and the maximum tax rate for 1997­8 would be 66.1¢. The proposed total city tax rate would be 82.7¢, down from 82.8¢ last year. This is due to a buydown in debt service. Mr. Hafter expressed pride in the operating tax history, noting that since 1991 there has been only a 7.2% increase. The total budget is up 2.3% this year with the general fund operating budget up 3%. a. City Council Budget: City Council reimbursement will remain unchanged. The Chair receives $1280 and other members $1050. Each receives an additional $60 for service on the Liquor Control Board. VLCT dues are up 1% this year. VLCT is moving into new headquarters in Monpelier's City Center this year. Mr. Hafter said he would like to see one year when VLCT dues stay the same. Mr. Chittenden said that now that the city is self-insuring, perhaps they no longer need to belong to VLTC since the major benefit in the past was reduced insurance costs. Mr. Hafter said the city gets a lot of information from them. Mr. Chittenden felt it wasn't worth $7,000 and that the information could be gotten elsewhere. The Social Services budget remains the same. The allocation recommendation has not yet been received. There will be a slight decrease in the Senior Center. This is the last year of the agreement with the Center. Mr. Chittenden asked what the Chamber of Commerce provides. Mr. Hafter said they promote hotels and businesses in South Burlington. Mr. Cimonetti added that the Sheraton, Holiday Inn, and other hotels strongly support this allocation. b. City Administrative Insurance: This is for all departments excluding Police, Fire and Highway. Group health has been level funded. There is a slight increase in dental and life insurances and a slight decline in pension. With regard to liability insurance, actuals are much less than budgeted. Their price will be low next year, but Mr. Hafter said he didn't want to cut the budget way low in case it tightens up. Departments were told to cut their allocations by about 5%. The total is now $45,000 for all departments concerned. $8,000 has been budgeted for the Insurance Consultant, but a contract is not yet recommended for this. If no contract is issued, the money won't be spent. Mr. Hafter noted that a Self-Funding Insurance Advisory Board has been formed. d. City Manager: There is a 2.5% salary increase for existing personnel. Printing costs have been reduced. The city used to mail out its Annual Report to all taxpayers. There are now made available at City Hall. Legal expenses includes a $30,000 retainer. There is a 5% increase in ambulance service to $20,000. Mr. Hafter said this is one of the best deals going. He also noted that the Ambulance Service receives about $7,000 in donations, so the city's cost is only about $13,000. There is a slight increase in street lights. Mr. Chittenden asked if there has been discussion on how competition among power companies will affect the city. Mr. Hafter said there has been talk of pooling efforts among communities to get a better bid. He felt that GMP would do everything it can to stay competitive. Under furniture and equipment, there is a $200 item for a new chair. e. Police Department: Chief Graham noted a 2.5% increase in personnel salaries. There is also an increase of one officer to be hired after 1 January. The Department is also hoping to receive a grant to pay part of this salary. Liability insurance has gone down. The Department has a new computer system and are now part of the State system. The State provided all equipment which gives the City access to the statewide data base. It is hoped that E-911 service will begin in April 1998. It is anticipated service will start from the south and work north. Mr. Hafter noted that Chittenden County communities wanted their own dispatch centers. Eventually, communities said they would go with the State system for answering if they would also handle the dispatch. Mr. Graham said they are trying to work out issues of governance. They will be working out of a site in Williston. He said the E-911 system will remove the time-lag factor and the misinformation piece that exists today. Under capital expenses, the Department will replace 3 cruisers. Regarding the cusi unit, Mr. Cimonetti said he would like to see all communities giving a cash contribution instead of some giving cash and some providing personnel, etc. Mr. Hafter noted providing an officer is a benefit to South Burlington because that person returns to the city very highly trained. The question of off-duty service was raised. Mr. Hafter said that this is break even item as money received by officers is shown under income. Mr. Chittenden asked why hiring companies don't pay the officers directly. Mr. Cimonetti said it was an IRS issue, and it was decided to do all off-duty hiring through the municipalities. Chief Graham then reviewed the department's organization. He noted they will be promoting a captain soon. After community policing training, there will be a realignment of positions and job functions. Some of the record keeping will be done by an Administrative Assistant. f. Recreation Department: Mr. O'Neill said very little has changed. Salaries are within guidelines. There is $3400 less in the operating budget. Major expenses include a new chair and a computer for the Secretary. Lighting at Dorset Park had been underestimated so there is an increase to $800 this year. g. Community Library: Ms. Buckley that to come within the City Manager's guidelines they were going to have to reduce the purchase of books by $2,600. However, they have received a bequest from Mr. Blanchette, so that item could be funded. Ms. Buckley noted that on a per capita basis, South Burlington's library is the lowest funded. Mr. Hafter noted that the Library will be using only the interest from the bequest. The gift will be a minimum of $200,000 and is to be used for non-fiction only. Mr. Cimonetti suggested a Council Resolution to establish this policy. Ms. Buckley said the Library is proceeding with automation. Mr. Hafter noted there are three sources for funding for this: gifts, the schools and the city's budget. Ms. Buckley noted that with the opening of the Children's Room, there are a lot more families coming into the Library. Mr. Chittenden asked if there is any volunteer help at the Library. Ms. Buckley said they get 80-100 hours a month aid from volunteers. But she noted that a lot of staff time is needed to train these volunteers. Mr. Chittenden asked about the situation where Burlington is charging people from other communities to use the Burlington library. Ms. Buckley said that with the money Burlington gets from this, they are not in a position to change their policy. The decision was made by their Board of Trustees. h. Water Pollution Control Dept: Mr. Whitten said there is a slight decrease in personnel costs due to retiring a 25-year employee and starting a new employee. They have delayed adding additional personnel for another year. There are now 6 full time employees in the Department. It is necessary to add 5 more stations to the telephone/alarm system. This costs $800 per station to install plus the cost of the phone line at $800 per station per year. Mr. Whitten then discussed having the Department go to the SCADA system for all 20 stations. The cost would be $42,000, but there would be a cost savings over 6 years and when the system is paid off, there would be no further costs. This would save $60,000 over 15 years. The Department will have 15 stations on this system within 12 months and then bring the smaller ones on line. Mr. Whitten noted that CWD uses this system. It monitors high water and power outages. There would also be a savings for the cost of employees who now have to check all the stations on a daily basis. Sludge management is now costing $350,000. Mr. Whitten didn't know where the bio-solids facility is headed. The city is producing 3,000,000 gallons of sludge a year and it is costing an average of $135 per wet ton, including debt service. The Department got good prices for contracting on dewatering and is saving about $30,000 a year on this. Dry fill is going to Coventry, Vt. now. This is an added cost while the bio-solids facility is down. Mr. Hafter noted that Mr. Whitten has done an excellent job in keeping this amount down. Mr. Cimonetti commended the work on sewer lines in East Woods. Mr. Whitten said this saves about $24,000. Under capital expenditures, this is the first year there will be no general tax levy to pay WPC debt. All money will be for the Bartlett Bay expansion. There will be a 5% increase in sewer rates. Mr. Condos asked about the functioning of the Living Technologies project. Mr. Whitten said they have been on-line for a year and it is working excellently. They hope the state will soon accept it. It is also a great educational tool, and there have been many school tours of the facility. h. Other Agencies: Mr. Hafter explained that the city does not control these expenses. There is a slight increase in the County Court. Since no request has been received from Winooski Park, they will be level funded. The Regional Planning Commission and MPO are down slightly. CCTA is up. They are requesting $194,000. $190,000 has been budgeted. Mr. Chittenden asked why busses don't run on Sundays. Mr. Hafter explained that they get less use on Sunday and the cost would be $8,000 a year more. Added costs for CCTA are partially for Special Services, a total of about $25,000. They eliminated the route into Hanafords which saves about $3000 a year and also changed Country Park to "on-demand" service. There is a question of the use of Medicaid passes. These are supposed to be used only for medical visits but since the card is not controlled, there has been abuse of the system. Mr. Cimonetti noted the city gets excellent service but that it is worth continued scrutiny. Debt Service: Total bonded debt is $762,486 with an additional debt for WPC of $81,020 for a total of $843,506. All of this is voter approved. Of that total, $95,500 comes from special assessments on Dorset Street which is not paid in the tax rate. There are also special assessments paid by Country Club Estates. Mr. Hafter noted that the School Board is planning two bond issues. One would be a 6¢ override of the tax rate and the other a technology bond. The city has no bond issues planned. The next budget meeting will be on 24 February. 5. Review Zoning Board Agenda for 20 February: No issues were raised. 6. Sign Disbursement Orders: Disbursement Orders were signed. 7. Liquor Control Board: Mr. Condos moved the Council adjourn and reconvene as Liquor Control Board. Mr. Sheahan seconded. Motion passed unanimously. a) Approval of Second Class Liquor License, Sisters and Brothers Investments Group, dba Graceys Liquor Store, 1333 Williston Road: Mr. Hafter said all is in order. Mr. Sheahan moved the Board approve the Second Class Liquor License for Sisters and Brothers Investments Group, dba Gracey's Liquor Store. Mr. Austin seconded. Motion passed 4-0. b) Approval of First Class Cabaret License, Speedy's Diner, Inc, dba Cosmos Diner, 1170 Shelburne Road: Mr. Hafter said the application is complete and in order. Mr. Sheahan moved to approve the First Class Cabaret License for Speedy's Diner, Inc, dba Cosmos Diner. Mr. Austin seconded. Motion passed 4-0. c) Approval of a Second Class Liquor License, Odessa Corp., dba, Champlain Farms, 1800 Williston Road: Mr. Sheahan moved to approve the Second Class Liquor License for Odessa Corp., dba Champlain Farms. Mr. Austin seconded. Motion passed 3-0 with Mr. Condos abstaining. As there was no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 9:55 p.m. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.