President of Council Marjorie Harlow called Council to order on
November 4, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.
The governmental body and those in attendance recited the pledge of
allegiance.
Mrs. McNear took roll call. Present were Council members Danbury,
Diehl, Galster, Squires, Vanover, Wilson and Harlow.
Mrs. Harlow reported that the wife of Randy Campion’s wife,
Janice, passed away suddenly after a brief illness. We’d like to extend our
sympathies and prayers to the family.
The minutes of October 21, 2009 were approved with six affirmative
votes. Mr. Squires abstained.
COMMUNICATIONS
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none
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE -
none
ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS
ORDINANCE NO. 26-2009 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH CINCINNATI BELL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS RELATED TO A JOB
RETENTION INCENTIVE AGREEMENT AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Danbury seconded.
Mr. Parham stated the amount of $28,800 listed in the Pending Legislation Report was an
old number. I indicated to you that we forwarded a copy to Cincinnati Bell for their
review. There has been a slight adjustment to the agreement. I am asking Jeff Tulloch to
explain those changes and what we’re proposing.
Jeff Tulloch said the agreement with Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions is similar to
the Cincom agreement. Roger Smith is the person who selected the building. Cincinnati Bell
Technology Solutions provides IT services to national and international companies. They
will be occupying 42,000 square feet at the 111 Tri County Parkway building. They will
initially employee 90 people at the facility with the anticipation of growing to over 200
employees over ten years. The new agreement took into account growth and provides for a
base amount of incentive based on payroll at 1 ½% and 30% of that amount. It is
structured as a line of credit which legal counsel advises is tantamount to a forgivable
loan which is acceptable under the Ohio Revised Statutes. That is paid out in arrears
annually based on a level of payroll that they anticipate hitting. If they get to within
90 percent of that number they get to draw on the line of credit and it’s
simultaneously forgiven. This agreement allows this incentive payment to increase by ten
percent over the terms of the lease.
Mr. Wilson pointed out a typo on paragraph two that refers to $31,500. Mr. Tulloch said
that should be $31,590 and I will correct that.
Mr. Galster made a motion to adopt Ordinance 26-2009 as amended. Mr.
Vanover seconded. The motion passed with seven affirmative votes.
Ordinance 26-2009 passed with seven affirmative votes.
ORDINANCE NO. 27 -2009 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR
TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH DONALD W. WHITE TO SERVE AS MAYOR’S COURT MAGISTRATE
FOR THE CITY OF SPRINGDALE, OHIO, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Galster seconded.
Mayor Webster said Mr. White has been our magistrate for five or six years. The
compensation is $17,500, the same as 2009. He’s done a marvelous job. I urge you to
vote favorably for this as well as Ordinance 28 approving the contract with Mark Piepmeier
as prosecuting attorney and Ordinance 29 for Jonathan Smith as public defender.
Ordinance 27-2009 passed with seven affirmative votes.
ORDINANCE NO. 28-2009 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH MARK E. PIEPMEIER FOR PROSECUTING SERVICES FOR THE CITY OF
SPRINGDALE, OHIO, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Vanover made a motion to adopt and Mr. Squires seconded.
Ordinance 28-2009 passed with seven affirmative votes.
ORDINANCE NO. 29-2009 “AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CLERK OF COUNCIL/FINANCE DIRECTOR TO
ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH JONATHAN SMITH FOR PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES FOR THE CITY OF
SPRINGDALE, OHIO, AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY”
Mr. Squires made a motion to adopt and Mr. Vanover seconded.
Mr. Danbury asked how many cases are there?
Mr. Parham replied I don’t know the exact number but the numbers
vary anywhere from one to six per year.
Mayor Webster said it is $150 a case, no retainer.
OLD BUSINESS
Mrs. Harlow said I do want Council to think about nominations for the
boards and commissions that will be addressed at our first Council meeting in December.
Mr. Parham stated we have identified 233 single family homes as rental
properties. We have inspected all of those. There have been 337 re-inspections where a
problem had been identified and the inspector had to go back. We have issued 189 rental
permits at $50 per permit.
Mr. Parham said the City has received $20,000 for 2009, and will
receive another $20,000 in 2010 and 2011 for the home improvement repair program for
exterior home improvements. We have received 27 applications. One was denied because the
income was too high. Twenty-three were approved but one was revoked. The applicant had
roof damage and had received $7,000 from their insurance company. They expended that money
thinking that we would reimburse them the full $7,000. The applicant couldn’t get the
contractor to do the work so we revoked the application. There are three backup
applications. Not everyone who is approved finalizes the project. Of the $20,000 allocated
for 2009, all but $54.58 has been allocated. Of the $19,945.42 allocated, $10,696 has been
reimbursed to applicants. To date we have received $4,181 back from the County. We just
sent three requests for a total of $2,556 to the County this week. The 2010 program will
begin in March or April 2010.
Mayor Webster said on two occasions when the applicant did not have the
money upfront to pay for the improvements, SOS paid the money upfront and will be
reimbursed by the grant money.
Mr. Galster asked if the three pending cases will roll into 2010 or
will they have to reapply.
Mr. Parham answered I believe they have to reapply.
Mr. Galster asked will we send those three a notice?
Mr. Parham responded yes, we can do that.
Mr. Diehl said you said we have 233 rental properties. How confident
are you that we got 100% of the rental property?
Mr. Parham replied it is challenging to know if we’ve captured
them all. There are some that we believe to have been a rental property that a child owned
the home and the parents were living in the home and not paying rent. In those instances
we do not charge. Some you know because some people have multiple rental properties,
others you know by some other involvement with the homeowner, or maybe someone has
notified us.
Mr. Galster said I have noticed more For Rent signs out so I assume our
inspectors note that and check it against our list.
Mr. Parham said yes, and some of the forty-four that have not had
permits issued, may not have anyone there and you don’t have to pay if you don’t
have tenants.
Mayor Webster said I apologize for the H1N1 presentation two weeks ago
so we pulled the information together and Mr. Parham will give you that information.
Mr. Parham stated we ordered 1600 doses of vaccine. As of November 3 we
have received 1,010 doses. Nine hundred of those were injectables and 110 were the nasal
spray. The priority groups are first responders, pregnant women, children six months to 24
years old. We have administered 29 doses to our Springdale paramedics, 16 doses to police
officers, 250 doses at Springdale Elementary, 300 at Heritage Hill Elementary and 66 at
Calvary Christian School. The EMTs helped administer those shots at the schools. We will
go back 21 to 28 days later to administer the second dose to those children under ten
years old. Over time the Health Department has received calls about the vaccine. We have
taken their names. We don’t want to hold onto the vaccine so if there is an
opportunity to get it out we will do that. The eleven providers in the City of Springdale
have not received their doses so we are having some discussion about whether to loan them
some of our vaccine and then when theirs arrive they reimburse us. That’s not
finalized but one idea. We have to make sure we have enough doses for those children 21-28
days out. We did administer 45 doses on October 30. Tomorrow we will have an in-house
administration of the H1N1 for people on the first tier, pregnant women, young children
and young adults. We are looking to have a clinic for the general public at some time,
perhaps two weeks from this past Friday. The City of Sharonville has notified us that they
do not need our assistance in vaccinating the high school and middle school students.
Mr. Galster said based on the numbers you have given me for what was
administered at Springdale Elementary and Heritage Hill Elementary, it seems like an
awfully low percentage for a pandemic type and the amount of press out there. I understand
the risks and conflicts the parents are going through deciding whether to get their
children vaccinated. If we’re only vaccinating that small a percent it seems
we’re not quite doing the job. I know that’s not our control but when 45 percent
are not getting vaccinated, it seems like there is a lot of risk out there.
Mayor Webster said I don’t think that’s a reflection of what
we’re doing. If we don’t have the permission slips we can’t give the
vaccine. Maybe the state health departments and Health and Human Services out of
Washington need to do a better job of educating the people. Some people are dead set
against doing it.
Mr. Parham said with all you see on television, there are people who
are fearful on both sides of the issue. You have those who are fearful of their child
getting H1N1 but you also have those fearful that it is not a safe vaccine. CDC says they
developed the vaccine the same way they developed the seasonal vaccine.
Mr. Parham said I stated we ordered 1600 doses. We have received 1010.
They trickle in. We are looking at whether Maxim, the company that helped with the
seasonal flu shots, will have access to H1N1 vaccine and perhaps they can come and
administer vaccine for a small charge to our residents once we have exhausted our supply.
Mr. Wilson asked is the authorization form that goes to the children
bilingual?
Mayor Webster replied I would bet the ranch it is. There’s no way
they would send out a form that wasn’t bilingual.l
Mr. Parham said one of our most recent hires at the Fire Department
speaks Spanish as well and was assigned to assist with Heritage Hill that day. I
understand he was a tremendous help for the staff.
NEW BUSINESS
Mrs. McNear said Council, you received a liquor license request for
Tacqueria Azteca, 322 Northland Boulevard for a D-1 license. There were no objections.
Mrs. McNear said we had a request to dispose of municipal property, a
1994 Ford Crown Victoria that has not been roadworthy for quite some time and it has been
used for parts even longer. The total value is less than $200. A company will haul it away
and pay us $200 for it.
Mr. Vanover said Sunday sales was on the ballot in our area. I assume
we will be getting notification of those licenses as they come in or are being issued.
I’m still perturbed that this is the second year in a row that this has popped up and
we don’t get any notification.
Mrs. McNear said I don’t know but I’ll check it out.
Mr. Parham said as we are preparing for our 2010 budget and looking at
revenues over the next five years, the numbers are not coming in as strong as we would
like. With the economy as it is, a number of employers are instituting measures to assist
them in cost savings. We have found ourselves in that same predicament and we are going to
put a number of things in place and want to bring legislation before you at a later date
to request a plan that I refer to as cost containment measures. Under that plan we are
looking at implementing furloughs, unpaid days off work for an individual. We’ve
identified with our hourly employees ten days that we’re going to implement a
furlough. Five of those ten days will be a general furlough where the individual schedules
that time off and will not be paid for those days. Last year we implemented a voluntary
program. In 2010 it will not be only a voluntary program. The other five days we are
looking to close down those public buildings that can be closed. The Police and Fire
Departments will remain open. Public Works and Parks employees will be required to report
in for duty if we have a snow emergency on those days in order to clear the roads. I have
had a number of PR meetings. I have met with the administration of the Police Department
as well as the union representatives of the Police and Fire Departments. I even had a
meeting with all the patrol officers who fall under the police contract to make a request
to them as well as identify to them what we plan to do in the year 2010 as we are trying
to find ways to save costs which translates in the long run, saving jobs. We’ve
identified five days that the municipal and other buildings will be closed. They are April
2 (Good Friday), May 7, August 6, October 22 and the day after Thanksgiving. All of these
dates are on Friday. The holiday schedule for 2010 includes eight days which are New
Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day,
Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas and New Year’s Day in 2010 will be
observed on Friday. The other five days will be observed on Monday. Four of those five are
always on Monday. It just happens that Independence Day is on Sunday and will be observed
on Monday so I wanted to focus more on Fridays because when we close the building it will
have an impact on the residents we serve and we want to have the least amount of negative
impact. I have tried to identify Fridays that did not precede Council meetings. With these
types of measures I think it is important that we have all our resources available to us
the Friday before that meeting in case something comes up. We will have an article in the
newsletter that goes out in December so we can begin to inform the public that the office
will be closed on those particular days. We will have legislation before you to outline
that plan. We also will be going before the Civil Service Commission to have them adopt
rules for a vehicle that allows furloughs. We are not exempting non hourly employees but
the Fair Labor Standard Acts prohibits us from reducing by way of furlough, the salary of
a salaried employee. As a salaried employee it doesn’t matter how many hours you
work, you receive that salary. For those on salary we will do a salary reduction plan
reducing our salaries by the equivalent time that we are going to implement for all the
other employees. I have a meeting scheduled for next Monday and will meet with any and all
employees to answer any questions and concerns they have and also to continue to outline
the program. I have met with department directors and shared the information with them.
They have held meetings with their individual departments. If there are any other
questions employees may have I will be there from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to answer those
questions.
Mayor Webster said this is not very pleasant to have to talk about but
I think Derrick, Jerry and the directors have done a marvelous job in putting this
together and trying to identify all the ramifications of this and there are many. You will
see requests for legislation as we go forward with this program. We wanted to try to make
sure that we didn’t lay anybody off. We’ve had a hiring freeze and we will
continue that freeze. We have several retirements coming up next year which will help the
situation through attrition. We’re going into 2010 several employees short. We have
several police officers retiring next year and we are going to ratchet that number of
officers down. We hope by not replacing these retirees and by implementing things such as
the furlough program it will negate having to lay people off. We have been trying to be
open and fair with the employees by saying we’re asking you to make these sacrifices
but if we put the numbers together and we still have a deficit budget we’re not going
to have any choice but to start cutting programs, cut back on services or cut back on the
number of employees. In the Police Department we have an authorized complement of forty
officers. We have several programs that are community pleasing efforts. The block watch
programs and DARE are feel good programs. Those are great things to have in a community;
however, when push comes to shove you have to start prioritizing and we’re not going
to be able to continue some of those programs. We had a fine Police Department with 35 or
36 police officers so we will just have to roll back expenditures until the revenues catch
up.
Mr. Galster asked is there any consideration of hourly employees having
a percentage pay cut as the salaried employees do? Could they take a percentage over the
course of a year and make that less of a burden on them or will they only have the option
of taking the five unpaid days?
Mr. Parham responded we thought briefly of a rollback in salaries. Sometimes I think the
perception in reducing my pay rate is a little different than days off. We’re doing
our best to eliminate overtime. There will be times that we generate overtime but we plan
to let the employees use it as comp time. I think shutting down the office for those
particular days gives us other savings as well.
Mr. Galster said absolutely. My concern is the other five days. Different people’s
perception of a rollback might be a bigger issue to you than someone else. Is that
creating too much of an accounting nightmare?
Mr. Parham replied I think it begins to get too complicated. We are trying to be as
consistent as we can through the entire organization.
Mr. Galster said if you got most of the people to take a rollback rather than furlough our
staffing will stay up. We’re not running short on all those days. If I were an
employee in some of those departments it would be a benefit to be running full strength as
opposed to always being a man down. I’d like the employees to have that option
because then the departments are operating at full levels.
Mr. Parham said I appreciate what you are suggesting but there are often times when an
employee takes vacation, comp time or sick leave. I think we will still be able to provide
the level of service we are targeting. The goal is to continue providing the top quality
service that we’ve always provided to our residents and at the same time trying to
retain positions. I don’t think that will affect the level of service. We do have a
few challenges with public safety because they are open 24/7 but we are also looking at
different programs with them to have a minimum impact on them today as well as when they
begin to project out into their retirement because it does have a negative effect on the
individual looking at retirement.
Mr. Diehl asked did a large percentage of employees take advantage of the voluntary
furlough in 2009?
Mr. Parham stated we are operating under two different retirement systems, the Police and
Fire Pension System and PERS. Some employees in the Police Department are in the Drop
Program, the program that requires the Chief and other employees to retire in January
2011. If you are in the Police and Fire Pension System and you take a day off in a
voluntary program, it costs severely. It pushes back their date, reduces their amount
tremendously so none of those individuals have taken advantage of the opportunity, only
the people in the Drop program have because their number and their date has already been
identified. A number of employees in the PERS system have taken advantage of it. Just
about everybody in the Health Department has taken advantage of the program on a voluntary
basis. One of the officers who is also in the Drop program has submitted his resignation.
He is planning to take advantage of this program this year and in 2010 just prior to his
retirement. We also want to offer the voluntary furlough in 2010 as well as the mandatory
furlough.
Mrs. Harlow said I know it has not been an easy task but anything we can do to save jobs.
I know Council and Administration have been very prudent about our expenditures and
cutting programs we do not have to have.
Mayor Webster said I would like an ordinance at the December 2 meeting
confirming my appointment to replace Mr. Hawkins on Planning Commission.
MEETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Planning Commission
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November 10
Board of Zoning Appeals
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November 17
Finance Committee (tentative)
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November 23
50th Year Celebration
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November 15
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE - none
UPDATE ON LEGISLATION STILL IN DEVELOPMENT - none
RECAP OF LEGISLATIVE ITEMS REQUESTED
Replacing Lawrence Hawkins on Planning -
December 2
Cost Containment Measures
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?
Council adjourned at 8:12 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Kathy
McNear
Clerk
of Council/Finance Director
Minutes Approved:
Marjorie Harlow, President of Council
__________________________, 2009