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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1992/07/06 MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CHULA VISTA CITY COUNCIL Monday, July 6, 1992 Council Conference Room 4:35 p.m. Administration Building CALL TO ORDER 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Councilmembers Grasser Hotton, Malcolm (arrived at 4:37 p.m.), Moore, Rindone, and Mayor Nader. Absent: None Also Present: John D. Goss, City Manager; Bruce M. Boogaard, City Attorney; and Beverly A. Authelet, City Qerk. CONSENT CALENDAR (Items 2 and 3) (Consent Calendar offered by Mayor Nader, reading of text was waived, passed, and approved 4-0-1 (Malcolm absent). 2. VVRII'I'EN COMMUNICATIONS: 2a. Letter of resignation from the Montgomery Planning Committee and the Southwest Redevelopment Project Area Committee, Nancy L. Palmet. 3. ORDINANCE 2522 ADOFFING AN AMEND~ TO THE FAStlAKE I PLANNED COMMUNITY DISI'F, ICT REGULATIONS AND APPROVING THE KAISER DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT (second readinR and adol~tion) - The proposal is to construct a 1,350,000 square foot Kaiser Permanent Medical Office Center to be located in the City of Chula Vista. Staff recommends Council place ordinance on second reacting and adoption. * * End of Consent Calendar * * PUBLIC HFARINGS AND RELATED RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES None scheduled. ORAL C0~CA'IIONS There were none. ACTION ITEMS 4. DISCUSSION OF MA'I-I'FJ~S RELATING TO HIRING FRFIZE Mayor Nader stated he was not in attendance at the meeting where the original discussion took place, but MINUTES July 6, 1992 Page 2 there was apparently some difference in understanding among Councilmembers and staff as to the extent of the freeze that was adopted by Council. City Manager Goss stated he was under the impression when the motion was made that it was directed toward the new positions that was created in the budget. It was claffied at the last meeting that it was not the case, but it had to do with all vacant positions. The hiring freeze was not applied to the part time positions because we had to get the summer recreation program going. He felt there was a need for clarification to see if this applied just to full time or whether it applied to all positions and if there were any exceptions to it. Mayor Nader asked Mr. Goss how he would carry out the motion if it had been as he had interpreted it. Mr. Goss responded that his intent was to basically hold all positions except for those where a department head made a presentation that there was a need which was extremely critical to the city operations. An example of this was the appeal made by the Police Chief for police officers. He has not received an appeal from anyone else, although there is a critical position coming up for Fleet Manager which is a vacant position due to a retirement. His intention was to hold the line on the full time positions and fill the part timers. Councilwoman Grasser Horton asked how this would affect the new fire station. Mr. Goss responded that with the new fire station, those position were filled last fiscal year so it would not impact those new positions although there are several vacancies in the fire department that we will probably hold until we see what happens with the State as long as it does not impact service levels. Councilman Moore stated it was his motion and felt it needed clarification because part time and emergency staff is entirely different. His intent was for all new hirings. However, what do we tell those people with advertising already in the mail, etc. This needs to be clarified. Mayor Nader stated he saw three areas where we need to give the city manager some discretion. One is public safety. The second would be the seasonal employees, and the third would be previously existing positions where we are currently paying someone on a temporary basis and looking at hiring someone permanent. Mr. Goss felt that in most positions we can fill in with other people. If this situation goes on too long, there are positions which do not have general fund impact that we can look at. Currendy, the only position where there would be a problem would be the Fleet Manager because they do have to maintain the public safety fleet, and there was a concern over the management of that operation. Councilman Malcolm stated that we do not have to hire anyone else in the Fire Department and it won't affect services, but as soon as the budget situation gets better then we will hire these people. Why do we need to hire anyone additional then? He felt the City should look at what Oceanside has done. Every department head has to pay their own PERS and make numerous slashes. There are less maps and less building permits being issued (1987 was the biggest year), but we have more employees this year then we did in 1987. He felt the problem was that no where in government was there any type of accountability. He was not convinced that we need the "kingdoms" in every department. There was no reason why there can't be more cooperation between deparunents with more authority so work can be combined, streamlined, and reduced. He felt the Council should lead by example. The Council has a temporary position to be made permanent, but he felt that if we are willing to cut other deparun ents, then Council should be willing to give up someone in their department. He did not feel Council could increase their department with all the part time people and asked the other departments to cut. MS (Nader/Moore) we make the following exemptions for the hiring freeze: MINI, rYES July 6, 1992 Page 3 1. Public Safety 2. Seasonal employees 3. Positions which existed prior to the new budget which are currently being filled by temporafies 4. Fleet Manager 5. Positions which have no general fund impact. Councilman Moore felt that "all other hirings will be brought to the Council for final approval" should be added to the motion. Nader included it in the motion. Cotmcilman Rindone expressed that he would vote no on the motion since he could only support the first two provisions. This is an interim measure, the original direction of Council is still appropriate since we have no definitive answers from Sacramento. Council concurred to split the motion. Divided Motion: To place the following exemptions on a hiring freeze: 1. Public Safety (Coundl concurred that this would include police and fire only). 2. Seasonal employees Divided motion carried unanimously 5-0. Balance of Motion would allow an excepton to the hiring freeze for: 3. Positions which existed prior to the new budget which are currently being filled by temporafies 4. Fleet Manager 5. Positions which have no general fund impact. Councilman Malcolm stated that he would not vote to hire a permanent secretaxy in the Council office. Councilman Moore felt that there was not an emergency in filling these positions, and they could wait. The City Manager could come back to Council to request authority to hire if there was an emergency. After further discussion on this issue, Mayor Nader withdrew the balance of the motion. Councilman Malcolm asked the City Attorney to look at the mnlti-year contracts to see ff we have any flexibility and let Council know by memo. Councilman Rindone wanted to also add to Councilman Malcolm's request that ff the hit is greater than we are anticipating, that we explore other creative measures in order to preserve jobs. OTHER BUSINESS 5. t.;l'lY MANAGER'S REPORTS 5a. At Council's direction of last week, he did talk to the City Manager of San Diego regarding the water reclamation plant. The advise of the staff of San Diego is that we observe but not file in connection with the hearing coming up this Friday. The staff feels that the proposal of the consumer alternative on the Clean Water Program being submitted is probably an extreme that won't be adopted as the EPA position. What MINUTES July 6, 1992 Page 4 they are hoping is that the judge will order them to go together and negotiate somewhere in between. San Diego staff feels we will get our water reclamation plant in the time frame we have talked about. Council concurred that a written letter over an official signature with a copy to the Clean Water to substantiate why the need for the water reclamation plant. 6. MAYOR'S REPORTS There were none. 7. COUNCIL COMMENTS There were none. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:13 p.m. to the regular City Council meeting on July 21, 1992 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. Respectfully submitted, City Clerk