Manager's Notes to Council

for August 17, 2010 Meetings

There will be one action item that will be the same on several agendas.  I have written a memo that is included in your packet explaining why I would like to suspend the monthly furlough days for the remainder of the fiscal year, remove the longevity pay reduction, and restore the salaries of exempt employees.  Briefly, when we started the budgeting process in late February, we were anticipating "digging" into the cash forward position in the General Fund about $750,000.  By late April we were thinking about $1,200,000.  That is the point we started running the numbers on employee reductions, compensation reductions, benefit reductions, and everything else.  Everything was on the table.  By the time the dust settled late last month, through the efforts of the staff in the areas of cost containment and hiring we came in better than expected.  We utilized $600,000 of the reserves.  Our sales, use, and tobacco taxes in total are running ever so slightly ahead of last year.  All other revenues are tracking as expected.  Considering the contingency amounts we had budgeted, we think it safe to move forward with the restoration of compensation as outlined above and in the memo.  You are being asked to consider this action in the Recreational Authority, Public Works Authority, Solid Waste Authority, Industrial Authority, and the City Council.

Also under the Public Works Authority there are two other action items.  The first is to satisfy ODEQ about who owns and operates the water and waste water plants.  I really cannot explain why we are just now doing this after all these years other than to say "to satisfy ODEQ."

The second action item under the Public Works Authority is to finish the last of the contractual obligations with Severn Trent.  That is to lease two pickups to S/T.  We are obligated to provide the pickups under the contract.  However, we need to get the City tag, insurance, and decals off the pickups and allow S/T employees to drive them.  We can't do that unless we lease them to the company and allow them to tag and mark the pickups.

Other than the action item mentioned in the first paragraph, the City Council has five action item for consideration.  The first is to approve our annual $50,000 agreement with ODOT for Gary Blvd. street repairs.  Every year we ask for an increase in the funding amount that reflects the increases in repair costs and every year ODOT tells us no.

The second action item is a hold over from the previous agenda.  You are being asked to approve the "roll-over" of William G. "Bill" Forrest's entire retirement fund to the Severn Trent Retirement Fund.  You took no action on this at our last meeting.  We are being asked to do this because Bill was a vested employee of the City.

The third item is a Mayoral Proclamation regarding Bone Marrow Matching Awareness.  The next action item is to consider the surplus and sale of certain City owned property.  It has been 30 days.  I really would like to get this off the plate one way or the other.  The agenda item is written in such a manner that you may discuss some more, vote on the whole list, or vote on an amended list.

The final action item is to consider the renewal of our agreement with Blackboard Connect for the Community Notification System.  We have approved this with the budget approval but the total amount of the contract is over my spending authority by $500.