President of Council Marjorie Harlow called Council to order on April 15, 2009, at 7:05 p.m.

    The governmental body and those in attendance recited the pledge of allegiance. Mrs. McNear gave the invocation.

    Mrs. McNear took roll call. Present were Council members Danbury, Diehl, Galster, Squires, Vanover, Wilson and Harlow.

    The minutes of April 1, 2009 were approved with six affirmative votes. Mr. Galster abstained.

    COMMITTEE AND OFFICIAL REPORTS
    Civil Service Commission                     -     no report
Rules and Laws        -    no report
Finance Committee        -    no report
   
Planning Commission - Mr. Vanover said they had a preliminary look at a farmer’s market to be held at the Springdale Town Center jointly sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and the City. It would run from April to October.

Mr. Tulloch stated the Chamber of Commerce is working in conjunction with the Health Department and Meyers Y Cooper to establish a farmer’s market in Springdale. It’s a work in progress. We are going through the procedures to allow it to happen. It could happen in May, June, later this year or even next year. The products will be produced locally. We anticipate ten to fifteen vendors.
   
Board of Zoning Appeals        -    no report
   
Board of Health – Mr. Squires said they discussed the Health Department Annual Report. In the past, school inspections were only recommendations but now it is a state mandated program with laws/rules. Due to the Virginia Grame Baker Act public pools must have drain covers that meet certain standards and the drains must be three feet apart. The City pool does meet this standard. All pools in the City have been notified of these standards. A rabies clinic will be held on September 26 at the Police Department. The Children’s Health Fair had 477 third graders go through the hands on exhibits.

Veteran’s Memorial Committee – Mr. Wilson reported the fountain will start on April 28 and run for thirty days to make sure the challenges we had with it are corrected. The bases of the statues will be delivered the week of May 4 and the statues the week of May 11. The entire order of new pavers are to be installed by April 27. The dedication ceremony will be May 24.

O-K-I – Mrs. McNear stated OKI approved infrastructure projects. They had a small video presentation and Springdale’s SR 4 area was shown. A few months ago I reported that a new law was put in place to allow receiving federal money whereby a police officer could stop a motorist just for not wearing a seat belt. That law has been dropped.
   
Mayor’s Report        -    no report
   
Clerk of Council/Finance Director – Mrs. McNear said we had $3.3 million collected in earnings tax during the first quarter. Last year we had $3.4 million. We did not collect any real estate taxes, and last year we collected $442,000. Since the end of March we have collected $600,000. Local government funds are up $121,000 and our estate tax is $147,000 for the first quarter compared to $322,000. We collected $67,000 in paramedic services compared to $43,000 last year. Those items I mentioned account for ninety-one percent of our revenue. We had $2.9 million available to transfer out to funds; however, we have only transferred $600,000 to date.
   
Administrator’s Report – Mr. Osborn said Ordinance 9-2009 is the Municipal Road Fund agreement for the $86,300 share towards the SR 4 lane addition project. The LTIP funding of $282,909 has also been approved. This project overall has a cost of $432,525. Our local share is $86,306. We’re covering this by redirecting some funds that would have otherwise gone to an urban paving project at the south end of SR 4. We have elected to postpone that because we can get a bigger return on investment from using that money on this project as opposed to that urban paving project. The lane addition project was applied for and passed over but when they injected the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into the State system, that money trickled down to this program. They have gotten down to 36 projects and cleaned out several that have been waiting. They called to let us know that the Northland Boulevard project would be funded under LTIP but we are already being funded 100% directly from the ARRA.

Mr. Osborn continued the annual Law Enforcement Week will be May 10 to May 16. The Police Department would like to make their annual presentation at Council on May 6. Greg French and Dave Buschmann will receive the proclamation from the Mayor on behalf of the Police Department and we have one officer who will receive an award from MADD for his efforts in DUI enforcement over the past year.

Mr. Osborn said the Princeton boys’ basketball team will be in on May 20 for a resolution.

Law Director’s Report         -     no report
   
Engineer’s Report – Mr. Shvegzda said the signal work is progressing and we are waiting for the asphalt work to begin. The SR 4 continuous northbound lane north of Glensprings project is scheduled to start April 27 with a completion date of September 30 but they expect it to be substantially complete in July. The SR 747 ODOT paving is expected to begin construction in the fall. An environmental document will need to be prepared and approved by ODOT for the SR 4 southbound lane addition at I-275. ODOT determined that an environmental document will have to be prepared for the Northland Boulevard repair and resurfacing project because of the excavation for the sidewalk.    

    COMMUNICATIONS                     -     none

    COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE         -    none

    ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS

ORDINANCE NO. 8-2009 “APPROVING THE WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP JEDD-I JOINT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT CONTRACT”

First reading.

ORDINANCE NO. 9-2009 “AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT RELATIVE TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF SPRINGFIELD PIKE IMPROVEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF SPRINGDALE AND THE BOARD OF HAMILTON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS”

Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Squires seconded.

Ordinance 9-2009 passed with seven affirmative votes.

ORDINANCE NO. 10- 2009 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO AN ADMINISTRATIVE AGREEMENT WITH UNITED MEDICAL RESOURCES (UMR) AS THE THIRD PARTY ADMINISTRATOR OF THE CITY’S SELF-FUNDED HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”

Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Squires seconded.

Mr. Parham says Ordinances 10 and 11-2009 speak to the City’s self funded insurance program. Ordinance 10-2009 is the agreement with our third party administrator as the memorandum I supplied Council with on April 13. It indicates that the only adjustment in the third party administrator rates is a $.25 increase for access to the HealthSpan network of doctors and hospitals. Being part of that network we see savings in the neighborhood of 45% to 55% in our claims costs. The last time there was an increase requested by HealthSpan was in 2007 and it was a 4% increase over a two year period. With United Medical Resources I would suspect that since we are locked into a two year rate, next year we will see a requested increase on their part for administering our claims and administering the health insurance program.

Mr. Parham said outside of claims the bulk of our fixed costs are located with the reinsurance. We have, to date, exceeded in claims costs what we did for our contract year 2007-2008. The contract year runs May 1 to April 30 each year. The rate increase that was proposed if we were to maintain at a $30,000 specific limit for each individual that is covered under the program reflected a 21% increase. I think sometime in the past I shared with you that I was pretty reluctant to suggest that we increase the specific limit because once you start increasing those numbers you never really have a chance to see the current number, $30,000. At $30,000 for a claim for a covered member of the plan, the City pays all costs up to that number. Once we exceed that number then the reinsurance kicks in. The other issue that we have incorporated throughout the year is the corridor. Since 2006 when we instituted the agreement with them for a corridor, on top of each of us having that $30,000 limit, you now add in another $55,000. If one individual or a combination of covered persons exceeds $55,000 above that $30,000 limit that’s when they start kicking in. So they’ve added an additional cushion for themselves to keep us out of their pockets. This year, as I look at the data, we have had three covered members who have exceed $30,000 and a combination of those three gets us above the $55,000. If those individuals experience additional costs up to the end of this month, we should receive reimbursement on the part of the reinsurer back to the plan. My recommendation is that we look at increasing the specific limit from $30,000 to $35,000 in order to try to keep our costs down. The increase right now would be a 21% increase for the proposal at $30,000. If we move that number to $35,000 then it’s a 6% increase. Our current rates are $65 per contract per month for a single and $147.42 per contract for a family member per month. The rate at $30,000 for a single is $79.24; family goes to $177.90. If we increase the specific from $30,000 to $35,000 then it’s $69.31 for a single contract and $146.79 for a family contract. I don’t think we’ll ever see a proposal for $30,000 if we make that move, but I think in our current economic climate, we are trying to find ways to keep the numbers down and absorb the additional $35,000 risk. Again, we had three individuals who exceeded the $30,000 this year. There are a number of others that are $7,000 to $10,000 or higher. I think it’s a risk worth taking at this point.

Mr. Parham said the other part of the insurance proposal is an aggregate limit. Using our experience they establish a composite number that they multiply by the number of employees per month to figure out the aggregate amount they are willing to provide us at a rate we will not exceed. They have also built a separate corridor into that number as well. This year they have provided an increase for the corridor of 27% moving from $6.06 per employee per month to $7.86 per employee per month. The opportunity they provide for us is to pay a one-time annual fee of $10,375 which factors out to $7.14. The good thing is that once we pay it, if the economy improves and we find ourselves employing additional persons, we don’t pay anything else on that. At the same time, if employees leave our employment and we don’t replace those employees, we don’t get a rebate. I think just the initial savings is worth making the one time flat payment.

Mr. Wilson said on Exhibit A, #3 it talks about other miscellaneous costs. Down below it says includes prescription drugs, utilization management. Are there other items that they break down?

Mr. Parham said over the years they have provided a breakdown of what the prescription drug administration costs would be, and what the utilization management costs would be, but over the years I’ve just combined them into those two numbers.

Mr. Galster said the old corridor was $55,000. Even though the $30,000 changed to $35,000, does the corridor stay the same?

Mr. Parham said the corridor stays at $55,000.

Ordinance 10-2009 passed with seven affirmative votes.

ORDINANCE NO. 11-2009 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH HCC LIFE BENEFITS CORPORATION TO PROVIDE FOR STOP-LOSS INSURANCE AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”

    Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Squires seconded.

    Ordinance 11-2009 passed with seven affirmative votes.

OLD BUSINESS

Mr. Danbury reminded everyone of Reds’ Day on April 25. Mr. Danbury said we had some challenges trying to include Heritage Hill because they lost some funding from Macy’s. Mayor Webster said at the last meeting maybe we could get some companies to help us try to make this happen. Both CDS and Wood & Lamping offered their help. Blue Agave and Jim Dandy’s in Sharonville both provided support but La Plaza Tapatia is giving the lion’s share. I also want to thank Sandy Leach of the School Board and the administration from Princeton. They have sanctioned this as a field trip and eliminated the school bus cost.

Mayor Webster said Springdale Offering Support also offered support.

Mr. Danbury said SOS has stepped up also as they have in the past.

    NEW BUSINESS

    Mrs. McNear said Council, you have a copy of a request for a liquor license for Tan Thai. There were no objections.

    MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
   
    Opening Day                             -     April 18
    Board of Zoning Appeals                     -     April 21
    Board of Health                         -     May 14
   
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE        -      none

UPDATE ON LEGISLATION STILL IN DEVELOPMENT
Ordinance 8-2009 (second reading)             -    May 6

RECAP OF LEGISLATIVE ITEMS REQUESTED    -    none

Council adjourned at 7:59 p.m.

                        Respectfully submitted,




                        Kathy McNear
                        Clerk of Council/Finance Director

Minutes Approved:
Marjorie Harlow, President of Council



__________________________, 2009