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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1998/06/11Thursday, June 11, 5:40 p.m. 1. ROLL CkLL: PRESENT: ABSENT: ALSO PRESENT: SPECIAL MEETING/WORKSHOP OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA 1998 Council Conference Room Administration Building CALL TO ORDER Councilmembers: Moot, Padilla, Rindone (arrived at 5:53 p.m.), Salas, and Mayor Horton. Councilmembers: None City Manager, David D. Rowlands; City Attorney, John M. Kaheny; and City Clerk, Beverly A. Authelet BUSINESS/BUDGET HEARINGS 2. LEGISLATIVE/ADMINISTRATIVE - Microcomputer Support; City-wide Classification Study; City-wide Training Pool; Worker's Compensation Reserve; Public Liability; Chula Vista CONVIS; Performance Measurement Program; and Cable T.V. Franchise Fee. MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SERVICES Microcomputer Support: Louie Vignapiano, Management and information Services Director, stated he was requesting an additional $72,000 for additional staff for the MIS Department to support the expanding use of technology throughout the City. Councilmember Padilla asked if he envisioned having a fully dedicated section for maintenance and upgrading of the internal city-wide network; and if so, when. Mr. Vignapiano responded that he envisioned this is something that in the near future we are going to have to make sure we prepare for, because technology changes are moving at an ever increasing rate. Councilmember Moot stated there are a number of small law firms that are going "paperless". Is that a realistic option for the City? Mr. Vignapiano responded that realistically it will be lessened. But whether we ever get totally paperless is questionable. It is more of a comfort level for people who will want to take something home to read as opposed to reading it on a laptop. ACTION: MSUC (Moot/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. RESOURCES DEPARTMENT Citv-wide Classification Study: Candy Emerson, Human Resources Director, stated there is a need to do a comprehensive city-wide classification and compensation study. Staff is requesting $80,000 for the conduct of such a study. There has not been a city-wide classification study done for about twelve years. The norm is to conduct such a study approximately every five years. This will be the Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 2 largest study that this City has undertaken. We are looking at more than 300 classifications and more than 500 non-safety employees. She hoped the result would be fewer classifications. The $80,000 was for the conduct Of the study and the appeal process which will result from that. It will not include the implementation of the study. Hopefully, once we see what the costs are, we can begin the implementation during the next fiscal year of 1999/2000. Depending on the costs, it may be something which will have to be phased in. Councilmember Rindone stated that what is really important when you do a classification study is that false expectations are not raised. There can be a significant price tag to this. We need to be very careful we do not convey this will be fully implemented in the first year. It may be, but we don't know until the study is completed. We need to look at simplification of categories so that employees who have good skills could have opportunities to be retained in a variety of areas and also be given an opportunity for promotion. MSUC (Rindone/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. City-wide Traininq: Ms. Emerson stated that there was a request for $25,000 for training. We had excellent employees, but the more we can develop that pool and provide job enrichment, the better off we are as a City. We will retain quality people and give them opportunities to enrich their jobs and opportunities to move around and do different things. Part of that is an emphasis on training. With $25,000, there are a number of things we can do to start a comprehensive training plan. We are in the process of doing a training needs assessment. Once we do that, then we are looking at the development of a strategic five-year training plan. Councilmember Rindone stated that he did not see ethics training included. Ms. Emerson replied that was a non-cost so she did not include it. We have an inhouse trainer. It is definitely in the training plan. MSUC (Morton/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. Worker's Compensation: Teri Enos, Risk Manager, stated that this is a $250,000 allocation from the general fund for the worker's compensation reserves. For 1998/99 the total worker's compensation is $1.6 million which is allocated to all City operating departments based on a pro-rata basis of their historical expenditures on worker's compensation costs. Included in that is the $250,000 reserve figure. We are budgeting the reserves at the City-self insured retention which is $250,000. Generally accepted guidelines for determining reserve requirements is based on looking at the end of the year open claims and then add an amount equal to your SIR. You then do some adjustments for assumptions that you make to the number of claims that will close and some other liabilities you may incur. Unfortunately, it would be about $450,000 for 1998/99. Due to the City's fiscal constraints, we are going to work toward that funding, so we are recommending the $250,000 for this year. Councilmember Moot asked why would you put more into it than your self-retention level? Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 3 Ms. Enos responded that it was because that was per claim. You could have more than two or three claims spanning more than one year that might come due at the same time. Mr. Rowlands stated that this fund has been underfunded in order to balance the budget, so we have money going back in. MSUC (Moot/Padilla) to give conceptual approval. Public Liability Reserve: Teri Enos, Risk Manager, stated that normal liability expenses are included in the insurance budget. The reserves for liabilities are budgeted in a separate public liability fund, and we are also budgeting those at $250,000 which is our self insured retention. This is a minimally funded reserve, because of our fiscal constraints. We are budgeting this with the understanding that should there be any unusual things happen, then those monies would have to come the general fund reserves. To address this issue as far as public liability, we are also requesting an actuarial evaluation be done for these reserves so we can be building toward a comfortable reserve level for those losses. SANPIPER, our pooled insurance group that we purchase our excess insurance, requires about $800,000. The recommendation is $500,000 for this year. MSUC (Moot/Horton) to give conceptual approval. Chula Vista CONVIS: Gerald Young, Principal Management Assistant, stated that the proposal within the Chula Vista Convention and Visitors Bureau is for an increase in the budget related to the amphitheater and water park revenues that were initially projected to come in within 98/99. The request for this fiscal year is for $15,000 that would be by adding those amphitheater and water park revenues into an existing formula that we have with the Convention and Visitors Bureau which is in part an operation of the Chamber of Commerce which equates to about 10% of our transient occupancy tax revenue. In this particular fiscal year, we have about $147,000 going to that fund. The rest of our TOT revenue and whatever revenues we are able to realize from the amphitheater and the waterpark this year, are already plugged into the budget. The reason staff is recommending denial of this request is because since we do have the formulas set up by Council policy that determines the amount that is earmarked toward this function each year, there is already the ability for those funds to increase either as the economy goes up or as new hotels are developed. Second issue is that the Convention and Visitors Bureau when it was started about four years ago was initially thought to have the potential for memberships and dues. Finally, the waterpark and amphitheater funds haven't had a whole lot of history. While we have a number of demands on these funds, it is staff's feeling that it is more prudent to wait until we have some history and collection of these funds before we start earmarking them to any purpose. Staff's recommendation is to not support any additional funds toward this program at this time. Rod Davis, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, stated that when they came to Council four years ago with the Motel Association to start the Convention Visitors Bureau, they proposed a 2% increase by taking the TOT from 8% to 10%. That 2% increase represents this year in excess of $294,000 of which half of that $147,000 goes to the Convention and Visitors Bureau purposes. The Chamber has asked to include the revenues from the amphitheater and the water park because we have four attractions: the nature center which is not a money-maker, the Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 4 Olympic Training Center that charges no fees, the amphitheater, and the water park. He stated that their goal was to do more and to bring more people to town. He was working with four new hotel developers who were looking at sites. They would like to see the amphitheater and water park put some money into the pot like the hotels do. The Chamber would be content to have the Council adopt this as a formula payable after you have had a quarter of experience. They were looking for a way to grow the CONVIS to continue to bring more people to town and continue to bring more businesses to town. Out of the 40 CONVIS' throughout California, Chula Vista is the lowest funded. MSUC (Moot/Padilla) to approve staff's recommendation to deny the request. Performance Measurement Program: Dawn Herring, Budget Manager, stated this is a continuation of something we began sometime ago with the budget process in trying to make it more performance based. In order to assist staff in this, staff is recommending a consultant to assist us in setting up the program and training staff so it can be implemented throughout the City. The benefits of looking at performance measures is that an organization needs to know if it is fulfilling its mission and accomplishing what it set out to do. Staff recommends approving the $6,250 to fund implementation of this program. Mr. Rowlands stated that this will be brought in by IMCA. It is a nation-wide program which will benchmark our services. Our goal is to get the budget process focused on performance measurements. MSUC (Padilia/Morton) to give conceptual approval. Cable T.V. Franchise Fee: Gerald Young, Principal Management Assistant, stated that this is a revenue issue which totals about $275,000. While the franchise fees which the City collects are general fund revenue, they do support a number of activities within the City including review of the cable company's rates; regulating the franchises themselves by insuring that there is no breach in the franchise; dealing with the customer complaints; televising the City Council meetings that we do by contract; and right-of-way maintenance which has to be done after several agencies trench in the streets. In the last couple of years, we have been relying upon gas tax funds for street overlay. As those funds have been depleted, we currently have a backlog of street overlay which requires approximately $5 million in expenditures over five years to get this done. Also, the standard franchise fee that most other cities in the Country charge is 5% which is both the federal and state maximum that can be charged. The recommended increase will be approximately 58 cents to the customer. Staff recommends that Council give staff direction to negotiate a franchise amendment with Cox Cable. The projected revenues have not been included in the budget. No change will happen until the item is brought back to Council for approval. Councilmember Salas asked if there was any relationship in the economies of scale and the kinds of services that you provide out of the franchise fees such as the rate reviews. Mr. Young stated that it varied. There are some cities that do not fill a role as Chula Vista does as a local franchising authority with rate review authority. They allow the cable companies to act and all regulation is done at the FCC level. Chula Vista is much more active on that front. Some cities are very active in doing their own televising of city events or city produced programming. Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 5 That is something Chula Vista has not been as active in aside from the fact that we do have a contract that we do approximately $45,000 to tape and televise the city council meetings. Councilmember Salas stated when the question of rate increases Come before the Council and its a part of our authority to do the rate review and yet we hear that it has no bearing with the FCC anyway. So why do we bother to do the rate review? Mr. Young replied that actually the City has had a good history of performing its rate review function. In 1995, there was a case with Cox Cable that resulted in rate refunds to the customers. It was partially due to the fact that Chula Vista and other cities who partnered with us reviewed the filings that was made. In 1996, there were a couple of issues on which the City and the Cable Company did not agree. Two of those were eventually sent to the FCC for review. On one of those issues, they found in Cox Cable's favor. On the second one, it is still being reviewed by their attorneys. There is a limited role for the City to take, but in others the application of those formulas is not always done in a straight forward manner and there is a legitimate role for cities to take. Councilmember Salas stated that there is such a disparity in size and competitive ability between the Cox Cable and Chula Vista Cable. Could we increase Cox at 5% and keep Chula Vista Cable at 2%. Mr. Young responded that one of the significant issues with cable and cable like services over the last couple of years is the issue of competitiveness. As telephone companies and other technologies look to get into this type of field, it is something that the federal government looks at very carefully that regulations and fees are applied in a competitively neutral manner. Chula Vista Cable is a much smaller company, and it may not be able to compete at the same level as the larger companies in the Country, but because of its size and because of a recognition of those factors by the federal government, it is also not subject to the same restrictions that the larger cable companies are. Where Cox Cable and other larger companies are subject to rate regulations, companies of the size of Chula Vista Cable are not. They are free to charge whatever rate the market will bear and whatever rate will recover their costs of operations. Councilmember Rindone was pleased that staff did not include this revenue in the budget because we have had this discussion on different occasions. He was opposed to raising the franchise fee for the reasons he has stated before. It is a regressive tax that will be passed on to the consumers, many of which can least afford it. Mr. Rowlands stated this will give Council the option to (1) use this to augment the capital budget for additional overlay funds; (2) in the general fund, it gives Council more opportunities for other programs such as the afterschool program. Councilmember Rindone disagreed with that. This would be raising $275,000 on the backs of our rate payers. The merits of what that could be spent for is the subject of what this Council has discussed. He would not want to tie this to the afterschool programs, because it is an additional revenue source that would be raised which could benefit anything. He did not want to have it passed because we have four afterschool programs, but this doesn't have to be the source of where we find money to enhance these programs. He was in favor of the afterschool programs. He was opposed to the increase Of this tax. Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 6 Mr. Rowlands stated that this is a revenue source that we are allowed to do. It has minimal impact upon the rate payer. It is the norm in California in most cities. This will be a pass through, but the amount of money being borne is very small. Councilmember Moot stated the reason it is called a franchise fee is because it is not a tax. Tax is something that is imposed on everyone equally. It is not in any traditional sense a tax; its a franchise fee. Councilmember Salas agreed. We have been reluctant as a Council to bring the franchise fee up to parity with what other cities have been doing and what is the norm. The burden of 58 cents per month to an individual who wants to continue to subscribe to cable was minimal. When you look at Our ability to do some very positive things with the money that will have very little impact on community members, she was in support of raising the fee. Councilmember Padilla stated the problem he has had in the past has had more to do with the process than with the concept. Some of those difficulties have been cleaned up. For that reason, he will support exploring this again and getting it into the budget and getting it up to the market. He would add a caveat that he did not want to see this to be used to supplant other revenues. We should make it very clear that we want to utilize the revenue generated in some specific fashion. Mayor Horton stated that it would be most appropriate way would be to continue to provide and expand the afterschool programs. Councilmember Padilla thought that if the School District officials are talking about matching dollar-for-dollar, then that is well worth the effort. MSC (Horton/Padilla) to give conceptual approval to include using this for the after school programs and working with the School Districts about their matching the funds dollar-for-dollar. Councilmember Rindone felt the fact is for many people it may seem that cable service is a luxury and not a necessity, but as we move into the technology age, the use of cable services and the other services in the technology area become more and more as a norm of standard. The concern too is that we also have to be very conscience of boosting everything up with additional fees, taxing, assessments, charges, etc. and be aware that not everyone can afford those additional rates. The Council has that responsibility. The fact of couching it as a relatively small amount from the taypayers to fund a program he was supportive Of which was the afterschool program, was not right. VOTE ON MOTION: approved 4-1 (Rindone voting no). 3. PUBLIC SAFETY - Position Reductions; Overtime; Expansion of School Resource Officers; Police Support Amphitheater; and Ladder Truck Response Time to Eastern Territory. Position Reduction: Rick Emerson, Police Chief, addressed the issue of lessening the police department's impact on the general fund with the reduction of a lieutenant, a sergeant, and an agent. Mid-year, we will save the City $110,000 this year and in following budget years, we will save the City about $220,000 to $225,000. We are going to put more officers on the street which comes as a Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 7 result of the City being granted six officers under the Universal Hire Program. It is a three-year program. Normally the funding is about $25,000 a year, however, because of some good work by staff in submitting the appropriate paperwork to the federal government, we were able to get that changed to 90% funding for the three-year program. Therefore, Our match is minimal and that match is going to be made up with the school district's contribution to the School Resource Officer Program. We are reducing three management positions; however, we are adding six positions at the street level. One of those is a School Resource Officer for the high school district. The five police officers will be used at the street level increasing our sworn complement Of patrol officers from 69 to 74. There is no net increase to the general fund in order to do this program. Councilmember Rindone asked of the additional ones, do you anticipate any of those to be on a foot patrol or are you looking at any realignment. Chief Emerson stated we are looking at regular patrol officers. The issue is that we have added School Resource Officers and street teams. We have not added to the patrol complement. We do have an offer from the federal government for additional Universal Hire officers. We will see if we can work the same deal of 90% funding. If we do that, then we may look into some of the specialty positions. Councilmember Rindone asked what about the complement of equipment. Chief Emerson replied that the equipment comes with the officers and has been taken care of; it is in our budget. It is not an increase in the general fund. Councilmember Padilia stated that at some point, he would be interested to see the geographical layout of the calls to service and also by crime nature. This would help to give the Council a visual picture by region of the City as to what those particular volumes look like. Chief Emerson stated they could do that. That is where the CAD is going to help us; we will be able utilize technology to help us. Councilmember Rindone asked if we still had the four quadrants? Chief Emerson replied that we have three sectors that entail ten beats. The basic east/west dividing line is the 1-805 freeway. There are two officers assigned in that area, but the geographic area continues to grow. Officers and dispatchers must learn the new street names as we continue to put more roadways in. Councilmember Rindone asked if Council could get some information on that. MSUC (Rindone/Horton) to give conceptual approval. Overtime/Holiday Compensation: Chief Emerson stated that overtime and holiday compensation totals $873,411. The holiday compensation part totals $157,887 for the six hard holidays, it is roughly $30,000 per holiday to run our minimum staffing. The other $717,667 deals with overtime issues. Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 8 Councilmember Rindone stated he did not understand the minimum coverage. Would the additional 5-6 patrol units that you are adding abate any of that or are they unrelated. Chief Emerson replied that it can abate it. If we are fully staffed, and we don't have people who are off on injuries or sick, then we technically would not need that overtime amount. Based upon sicknesses, the ability to have enough people to fully staff those ten beats, then we have to have a minimum amount of officers who can be out there to respond to calls for service. That is where that overtime is utilized. Mr. Rowlands added that this year they have changed the salary savings figure to lower it down so we can hire people faster. Also, we have agreed to transfer staff from other assignments, other patrols, to minimize that figure. Historically there is an agreement that we would underfund this account to help balance the budget. Then as we got more data about the true cost of this operation, the Chief got accused about mismanagement of the budget. We have attempted to clarify this with the true cost of overtime and the true cost of his operation, so this should cover upfront all year long his overtime account. There should be no more coming back with budget overruns. Councilmember Moot stated that we have fully funded this account at the time the budget was done. Would that have required cut back in services or layoff of employees to balance the budget? Mr. Rowlands replied yes. $250,000 per year was taken off the top as a balancing number. The Council was blessed with a policy of not bringing forward enforcement of Council to make cuts in service. You have allowed various pots of money to keep this ship afloat. You have done a very good job on that, but it did not give you a true cost of operation. We have $1.3 million going back in this year into these pots to give us a level playing field. The $250,000 that was taken out on top was a consensus of a policy of the Council to do that. Councilmember Moot stated this would be an opportune time to discuss this. It was Council's policy to not lay off employees and not reduce services. When we made that policy decision, we were creating negatives in certain accounts that were going to have to be dealt with as economic times got better. When times get better, the first money in should pay back deficit accounts rather than do programs. Councilmember Padilla wanted it on the record that he did not want to turn this into a philosophical debate where we are trying to assert that there weren't probably policy decisions that we could have made better and that there weren't administrative actions that could have been done better. He thought long and hard as a member of the Council on those administrative and policy changes in the last four years. He was not going to pretend that never happened and those concerns were not in existence and were not real. He applauded the changes, but he will not pretend that both the Council or previous administrations were 100 percent of the time correct, because mistakes were made. This is about getting beyond those and correcting them. MSUC (Padilla/Horton) to give conceptual approval. Expansion of School Resource Officers: Chief Emerson stated that we are going to add an additional School Resource Officer for a total of four officers Minutes June 11, 1998 Page 9 assigned with the Sweetwater Union High School District. The School District has met with us and they have found the money to add an additional officer. They will pay 50% of that officer, we will pick up the rest. We will use our Universal Hire Grant to take up that position. There is no net increase to the general fund, but we will have an additional officer. That will give us ten School Resource Officers: five in the high school district and five in the elementary school district. With the addition of the new middle school this will give us good coverage at the high school level. Total cost will be $63,335. MSUC (Rindone/Horton) to give conceptual approval. Police Support - Amphitheater: Chief Emerson stated that there are 34 events planned which is a short schedule because of construction. We will be providing security and traffic control at the site. It will all be done on an overtime basis. We have met with the amphitheater and have laid out tentative plans. At some concerts, the police involvement will be minimal; at others, based on the group that is there, we will have to increase the number of officers. We have agreed that they will put $81,600 in our overtime account. Our officers will work on an overtime basis and will utilize those dollars. If there is any left, it goes back to them. There will be no net increase to the general fund. Mr. Rowlands stated we are trying to place reserves back in the actual program, so that it reflects a true cost of operation. MSUC (Horton/Rindone) to give conceptual approval. 4. OTHER ITEMS - there were none. OR/%L COMMUNICATIONS None OTHER BUSINESS CITY M~3~AGER'S REPORT(S) - None 6. MAYOR'S REPORT(S) - None 7. COUNCIL COMMENTS - None The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. ADJOURN"MENT Respectfully submitted, ~Aut~elet, CMC/AAE City Clerk