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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 05/02/2011CITY COUNCIL 2 MAY 2011 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Monday, 2 May 2011, at 6:30 p.m., in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset St. Members Present: M. Emery, Acting Chair; J. Knapp, P. Engels, R. Greco Also Present: S. Miller, City Manager; R. Rusten, Assistant City Manager; Chief T. Whipple and other members of the Police Department; Chief D. Brent and other members of the Fire Department; J Rabidoux, Director of Public Works; K. Murphy, City Manager’s Staff; K. Kattilio, T. Fraga, G. Yandow, B. Stuono; families and friends of honorees 1. Executive Session: Mr. Knapp moved the Council meet in executive session to discuss personnel, contract negotiations, and litigation. Mr. Engels seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Regular Session: 1. Agenda Review: Agenda item #8 was deleted as this has to be done by Ordinance. Added to the agenda were an agreement with Gloria Yandow and the appointment of Mr. Rusten to the Board of Trustees of the Dorset Park Skating Association.. The three “honoring” resolutions were moved to the top of the agenda. 2. Resolution to honor Ken Dattilio for 34 years of service and dedication to the South Burlington Fire Department: Ms. Emery read the Resolution. Mr. Dattilio spoke of what it has meant to him to service his community in his chosen profession. He thanked the City Council and past Councils for their support of him, the Fire Department, and the community. He stressed that the Department can’t provide its services with that support. He also stressed that the goal of both the Fire Department and the City Council is to serve the public. 3. Resolution to honor Tom Fraga for 35 years of service and dedication to the South Burlington Police Department: Ms. Emery read the Resolution. Mr. Fraga said that people in public service are there because they want to be a part of their community. He also thanked the Council for its support and noted that people in the city feel safe because of those in the Fire and Police Departments. Mr. Fraga also noted that moments such as these mean a lot. 4. Resolution to honor Gloria Yandow for 38 years of service and dedication as Bookkeeper for the City: Ms. Emery read the Resolution. Ms. Yandow noted that she has worked under all three of the city’s managers. She has enjoyed all the years with the city and particularly working with the new management and the new auditors. 5. Comments & Questions from the Audience not related to Agenda Items: No issues were raised. 6. Announcements & City Manager’s Report: Ms. Greco: Attended a session in Montpelier with Ms. Emery on how to be a City Councilor. Asked that the City Manager’s new contract be posted on the website. Ms. Emery: Attended the DARE graduation at Orchard School. Noted that at the Montpelier session they were told what kind of questions to be asking. Attended the Baby Brunch at the Library on Sunday, a nice annual event. Mr. Miller: The City has a waiver for the 2 uninstalled blowers at the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Chaired the VLCT Financial Responsibility Committee meeting last week. They are working with League staff to come up with policies, etc., to avoid some of the problems the city has seen. Mr. Rusten: briefly reviewed how the city has been addressing some of the concerns raised in the Auditor’s management letter, including: working with CWD on a process for receivables, etc; the Council will get monthly financial statements; discussion is ongoing regarding the former City Manager’s house and other loans to now former employees; there is a new process for approving escrow accounts and the disbursement of them; the city is moving ahead with pension issues; the city will have paid off all of the debts that were not properly approved. Mr. Rusten said they will be working on other items this week, including the initiation of a purchasing system and policy. Mr. Miller added that they are looking at models from other communities. Ms. Emery noted that the Council can authorize one member to sign warrants, if necessary, and other members could then sign later. Mr. Miller said that 3 signatures are still required to sign checks. The objective is to send them to City Council members in advance. There can be a designated member to come in on a Friday or Saturday and ask questions, etc. 7. Consider Approval of a Resolution Amending the City’s State of Vermont Clean Water State Revolving fund Construction Loan for the Airport Parkway Project Pursuant to 24 VSA, Section 4754 and the State of Vermont application to an existing Construction Loan: Mr. Miller noted that this is the additional money needed to fund the gap in funding for the upgrade of the sewage treatment plant. There is a verbal OK to go ahead with this. Funds will be dispersed in September. This is the best financing mechanism with an interest rate of 2% and no payment due for 2 years. Mr. Rabidoux said there is a possibility of seeing some assistance to the rate payers. Mr. Knapp moved to adopt the Resolution amending the city’s State of Vermont Clean Water State Revolving Fund Construction Loan for the Airport Parkway project, pursuant to 24 VSA, Section 4754 and the State of Vermont application to an existing construction loan from $19,800,000.00 to $23,300,000.00 as presented. Mr Engels seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 9. Consider endorsing an application for the Community Drug Investigation Grant Program. Chief Whipple explained that the amount the city could be awarded is unknown. They will be asking for $10,000 to help write off some overtime for drug investigations. There is no local match. It will take only a small piece of his time to manage the grant. Mr. Engels moved to approve the application for the Community Drug Investigation Grant Program as presented. Ms. Greco seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 10. Update on Fire Department Ambulance - consider designating a new ambulance supplier: Chief Brent advised that pricing of the ambulance with the approved supplier wasn’t where the city needed to be and so they approached a secondary vendor, Osage Ambulance Co. out of Albany. They came last week and brought a demo for the Department to look at. The committee was very pleased. The numbers will be provided as soon as the trade-in is settled. Mr. Miller asked if the transaction would be within budget figures. Chief Brent said it will. Mr. Engels asked if the workmanship is A-1. Chief Brent said it is. He also noted that Williston, Burlington and Shelburne have these ambulances and are all very pleased. Ms. Greco asked if there is a problem with the Quint as well. Chief Brent said there isn’t. Mr. Engels moved to negotiate with Osage Ambulance Company for an ambulance and to authorize the City Manager to sign the purchase order. Mr. Knapp seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 11. Consider Approving a Power Purchase Agreement with Encore Redevelopment: Mr. Miller explained that this is a short-term purchase of solar energy which should save the city $4200.00 a year in electricity costs. Mr. Knapp added it is basically a credit to the city on its electric bill. Mr. Miller said it is a 2-year agreement which is renewable for one additional year. Mr. Knapp moved to authorize the City Manager to sign the Term Sheet and complete and sign the Metering Agreement with Encore Redevelopment, subject to legal review by the City Attorney. Ms Greco seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 12. Discuss City Council Retreat: Mr. Miller said he had a draft agenda for the facilitator. He felt the Retreat will take 2 sessions, and there is a scheduling problem with the facilitator for the second session. This may require a new facilitator. Members agreed on 18 June for the first session and will then work on an agreeable date for a second session in July. 13. Consider request for Charter Change: Mr. Miller noted that Jay Zaetz had submitted a request to change the City Charter to eliminate the CPI requirement in the budget approval process. Mr. Miller felt the request has some merit and would make South Burlington the same as other communities. He recommended referring the request to the City Charter Review Committee and also to ask the School Board for their input. Mr. Knapp moved to refer the proposed Charter change to the City Charter Review Committee. Mr. Engels seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 14. Minutes of 4 April and 19 April 2011: Mr. Engels moved to approve the Minutes of 4 and 19 April 2011 as written with one noted spelling change. Ms. Greco seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 15. Sign Disbursement Orders: Disbursement Orders were signed. 16. Liquor Control Board: Mr. Knapp moved that the Council adjourn and reconvene as Liquor Control Board. Ms. Greco seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Miller presented a liquor and tobacco license application for Orchid Restaurant which is pending completion of the DLC seminar, and a tobacco license application from Kaigles Citgo. Mr. Knapp moved to approve the Tobacco and Liquor License application of Orchid Restaurant pending completion of the DLC seminar, and the Tobacco License application of Kaigles Citgo as presented. Mr. Engels seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Ms. Greco moved to adjourn as Liquor Control Board and reconvene as City Council. Mr. Knapp seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 17. Other Business: A. Agreement with Gloria Yandow: Mr. Miller advised that in the 1980's it was noted that Ms. Yandow had accumulated over 4000 hours of comp time. There was an agreement reached that when she retired, if she still had over 2080 hors, she would be paid for them. She also had over 1600 hours of vacation time. There was an oral agreement to pay this upon her retirement. Mr. Miller noted the total for these agreements comes to over $90,000. An agreement has been worked out to pay this to Ms. Yandow over a 5 year period, beginning in 2012, with no interest accruing. The bargaining unit has agreed to this as well. Mr. Stuono asked if there is a system in place to prevent this from happening again. Mr. Miller said there is. He explained that there was a system in place when all this occurred, but the employee did not know the City Manager did not have the power to enter into such an agreement. Mr. Knapp felt there has to be a “reasonable belief” that people are telling you the truth. Mr.Miller stressed the employee acted in good faith throughout this process and did nothing wrong. Mr. Rusten said the city is legally required to pay comp time. The problem was that this accumulated. Mr. Miller added that the employee was the only one in her department and was thus denied the right to take that comp and vacation time. Mr. Stuono asked if there is a basis for a claim in this situation. Mr. Miller said the city is looking at this. Mr. Knapp moved to authorize Vice Chair Emery to sign the memorandum of agreement between the City of South Burlington and Gloria Yandow on behalf of the City Council. Ms. Greco seconded. Motion passed 3-1 with Mr. Engels voting against. b) Appointment of Bob Rusten to th Board of Trustees of the Dorset Park Skating Association: Mr. Miller noted this is a City Manager’s appointment which replaces Tom Hubbard who has been serving on this Board. The Council had no issues with this appointment. c) Discussion of possible trauma services: Mr.Engels suggested discussion of available services to victims of post traumatic stress and domestic violence. He said there would be no cost to the city. Mr. Miller said if the Council is interested, the materials can be passed on to the Fire and Police Chiefs. Members recommended doing this. As there was no further business to come before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. _______________________________ Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.