Finance and Personnel Committee

of the

Lee’s Summit City Council

Minutes

Tuesday, February 17, 2009¨ 5:45 p.m.

City Hall Chambers

Councilmembers:

Councilmember Ed Cockrell, Chair – Present

Councilmember Randy Rhoads – Present

Councilmember Kathy Hofmann – Present

Councilmember Jim Hallam - Present

Staff:

Conrad Lamb – Finance Director

Teresa Williams – City Attorney

Steve Arbo – City Manager

Brian Scott – Assistant City Manager

Bill Ward – Purchasing Manager

Randy Dickey – Chief Technology Officer

Barbara Moberg – Director of Human Resources

Mark Stinson – Fleet Manager

Steve Aldridge – City Architect

Kari Holwick – Budget Officer

Chairman Cockrell opened the meeting at 5:45 p.m. Attendance was taken – Councilmember Rhoads arrived late.

NOTE: AS THERE WAS AN AUDIO MALFUNCTION, THIS IS A SUMMARY OF THE MINUTES FROM THE MEETING

Item 1 – Award of Bid No. 09-082 for the purchase and installation of Five (5) Snow Plows for the Public Works Operations Division to American Equipment Co. of Kansas City, KS for the total amount of $22,015.

Bill Ward stated this equipment is part of the new snow removal plan that was approved with the Fiscal Year 2009 budget. Smaller pickup trucks in Public Works Engineering and Codes Administration have been upgraded to larger four wheel drive pickup trucks for snow removal operations in residential areas. The purchase and installation of these snow plows will complete this upgrade.

Five bids were received and were evaluated by staff from the Fleet Division, Public Works Operations Division and the Purchasing Division. Upon review, the overall lowest bid was determined to be American Equipment Company.

Councilmember Cockrell asked when the City last purchased snow plows and what was the cost. Mark Stinson stated snow plows had been purchased a year ago and the price was about the same.

Councilmember Hallam made a motion to recommend to the City Council approval for Award of Bid No. 09-082 for the purchase and installation of Five (5) Snow Plows for the Public Works Operations Division to American Equipment Co. of Kansas City, KS for the total amount of $22,015. Councilmember Rhoads seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

Item 2 – Award of Bid No. 09-020 for a one year contract with two possible one-year renewals for HVAC repair, maintenance and new installation for various City departments to Benso, Inc. as the primary contractor and for a new one year contract with two possible contract renewals for HVAC repair, maintenance and new installation for various City departments to Stanger Industries Inc. as the secondary contractor, based on unit prices reflected in the attached bid tabulation.

Bill Ward stated 14 bids were received and evaluated by staff from the Fire Department, Central Building Services, Water Utilities Operations, Parks & Recreations, and Purchasing Division for the lowest and best responsive bid that met all specifications stated in the Invitation to Bid. The bid from Benso, Inc. offered the best responsive bid that met all minimum specifications and Stanger Industries was a close second.

Staff determined that it would be in the best interest of the City to award to two vendors. Benso, Inc. would be the primary vendor and Stanger Industries would be the secondary vendor. In the event of an emergency where the primary could not respond in a reasonable amount of time during working hours, the secondary vendor would be contacted to see if they could respond during working hours. This would help control the need for after-hour calls that would lead to higher expenses for the City.

Mr. Ward stated $18,435.50 was previously spent last fiscal year on HVAC repair maintenance; $15,972.25 (87%) of this was spent for On-Call service repair while $2,463.25 (13%) was for preventative maintenance.

Mr. Ward stated the current On-Call charge is $71 per hour and the current overtime charge is $107 per hour. Mr. Ward also stated three major goals of this bid were to secure an on-call repair and maintenance price, secure a preventative maintenance price and provide us with a “new work/installation” cost price.

Councilmember Rhoads asked what makes the bid official. Mr. Ward replied once it is approved by the City Council.

Councilmember Hallam made a motion to recommend to the City Council approval for Award of Bid No. 09-020 for a one year contract with two possible one year renewals for HVAC Repair, Maintenance and New Installation for various City departments to Benson, Inc. as the primary contractor and for a one year contract with two possible one year contract renewals for HVAC Repair, Maintenance and new Installation for various City departments to Stanger Industries, Inc. as the secondary contractor, based on unit prices reflected in the attached bid tabulation. Councilmember Hofmann seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

Item 3 – Award of Bid No. 09-074 for the purchase and installation of One (1) Crane Service Body for the Water Utilities Operations Division to American Equipment Co. in the amount of $44, 829

Mr. Ward stated this equipment will be used by the Water Operations Division for field service maintenance and repair of City water infrastructure and the funds for this unit will come from the VERP fund.

Three bids were received and evaluated by staff from the Fleet Division, the Water Utilities Operations Division and the Purchasing Division. Upon review, the overall lowest bid was determined to be American Equipment Company.

Councilmember Cockrell asked what a crane service body is. Mark Stinson replied this was a large truck body with tool boxes and a small crane mounted on the right rear. Councilmember Cockrell then asked if this price was for the truck and everything. Mr. Stinson replied no, this was for the body and crane only. The truck was ordered separately from the joint vehicle bid.

Councilmember Rhoads made a motion to recommend to the City Council approval for Award of Bid No. 09-074 for the purchase and installation of One (1) Crane Service Body for the Water Utilities Operations Division to American Equipment Co. in the amount of $44,829. Councilmember Hofmann seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.

Item 4 – Budget Presentations

FY2008/09 Policy Discussions and Report on Cost Containment Efforts.

Steve Arbo stated there have been several positive steps that have been taken since the Finance and Personnel Committee budget review process for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008/09 budget. A review of these steps and the potential impact on future budgets may be helpful to discuss prior to embarking on the departmental budget reviews.

In addition to the “Policy Matters” that were identified by the Committee, city staff has proactively worked towards “cost containment” of the existing budget as well as the proposed FY 2009/10 budget.

Policy Matters identified are:

  • Purchase options for street light system
  • Ambulance fee analysis
  • Alternative fuels usage analysis
  • Review of Airport business plan, schedule of fees
  • Recycling Policy
  • Planning Commission laptop cost analysis
  • Employee health insurance cost sharing
  • New City Hall cost analysis
  • KCATA Bus Service expansion

Personnel Decisions Supporting Cost Containment Efforts

  • Recruiting for 18 critical jobs - $254,042 year-to-date savings
  • 8.5 FTE’s on hold – Restructuring or decreased workload - $131,643 year-to-date savings
  • 4 FTE’s removed and 3 FTE’s downgraded - $137,281 year-to-date savings
  • $522,966 total year-to-date savings
  • If pattern continues, a total of $630,536 saved this FY

Councilmember Cockrell asked what the critical jobs were. Barbara Moberg stated six were fire fighters and nine were police officers.

Mr. Arbo then presented the 2008-09 Projected Year End Balance as follows:

Beginning Fund Balance $21,201,763

Projected Revenues $56,287,491

Projected Expenditures ($54,342,961)

Revenues Over/(Under) $ 1,944,530

Ending Fund Balance $23,146,293

Some employee-based cost waving initiatives were:

Services –

-  Reduce uniform purchases

-  Limit organizational affiliations

-  Reduce Holiday party expenses

-  Reduce number of computer software licenses

-  Review life of computers, monitors, printers

Personnel –

-  Reduce full time to part time where warranted

-  Reduce temporary positions

-  Job loaning

Utilities/Vehicles

-  “No Idle” policy

-  Turn off lights in City facilities

Information Technology Services

Randy Dickey presented the ITS Fiscal Year 2009/10 proposed budget.

Total Operating Expenses FY2010: $2,440,431

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Budget: -.04%

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Projection: -1.1%

Total MERP Expenses FY2010 $414,844

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2008 MERP Budget: ($546,207) -24%

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2008 MERP Projection: ($507,864) -18%

Significant Changes/Initiatives

1.  Completion of migration to new Applications, Permitting and Inspections Tracking system. In Fiscal Year 2007/08, a Request for Proposal (RFP) was conducted and the City is preparing a contract with Municipal Software for an upgraded and expanded solution. The new system will allow further extension of the mobile inspections process to staff in Public Works and Neighborhood Services while also extending the E-Government permitting services to support on-line applications.

2.  Implement action items as a result of the ITS Management Study completed in FY2007/08. While significant progress has already been made, long term efforts around disaster recovery, improving IT policies and service delivery will be areas of focus for FY 2009/10.

3.  Implementation of approved FY2009/10 IT expansion initiatives, which represents a reduction in overall expansion and a resulting decrease in staff time charge to capital project work. Major projects which have been proposed include an assessment of open source alternatives for Microsoft GIS, integration of GIS with pavement condition tracking software, Fire mobile computing for fire apparatus and replacement of 911 call recorder at the Police Department.

4.  Further consideration of an RFP for the proposed migration from our current New World Systems financial management software to a new Enterprise Replacement Program (ERP) system.

5.  ITS offered internal training programs will be reduced to address increasing demand for help desk support. External training services will be utilized when cost effective to provide an alternative when necessary.

6.  End user equipment, which is in production use but not being managed via the MERP program, will be added to reduce the on-going support costs for managing older equipment which does not have warranties and is often outdated or non-repairable.

7.  New City website design will be applied to the main city portal and to all sub pages of the City web site.

Personnel Expansion Requests:

Inventory and Records Specialist - $38,675 (including benefits) - Conversion of an existing temporary professional position with a current annual expense of $26,732.

Forecasted Personnel Needs for Future Years

The 2008 IT Management Study identified several short term positions to be addressed in order to ensure existing service needs and expanding IT requirements could be provided and supported to industry accepted levels. These near term positions include:

·  Inventory & Records Specialist

·  Senior Support Analyst

·  Supervisor, IT Infrastructure

·  Database Server Administrator

Longer term personnel needs will be a result of specific initiatives and projects implemented in conjunction with the IT Strategic Plan. These would coincide with demands related to growth in the scope of enterprise technology as well as the deployment of any major new technologies within the City.

Major Expenses over $30,000

1.  $150,192 – Part Time Salaries: Inventory/Records and Administrative Assistance, Council Meeting Audio/Visual Support and Network and PC/printer support. ITS depends very heavily on part time resources to account for seasonal and project specific fluctuations in demands for resources. Part Time positions are also more heavily involved in supporting production systems due to increasing demand and consistent full time staffing levels.

2.  $33,336 – Professional Fees Expenses: External Website customization (specialized only), ongoing Database Administration Support and advanced technical support on an on-call and as needed basis.

3.  $130,000 – City Wide MERP Payment: Provides for ongoing replacement of core infrastructure network and computing system hardware. Significant increase in last 2 years as a result of growth in number of servers, network connection upgrades and increasing electronic storage space requirements.

4.  $348,209 – Software and hardware maintenance and vendor support agreements. New items added for FY10 included 100% increase in imaging system licenses installed, new development/permitting system going on-line in FY09, Fire video conferencing, downtown wireless and additional hardware for disk space.

Fleet Operations

Mark Stinson presented Fleet’s Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Proposed Budget.

Mr. Stinson stated the Fleet Operations Fund is an Internal Service Fund. Internal Service Funds are used to account for the financing on a cost-reimbursement basis of goods or services provided by one department to other departments within the same governmental organization.

Key Issues:

·  Implemented changes to various department’s Vehicle & Equipment Replacement Fund (VERP) schedules, in effect, decreasing the forecasted number of years and recognizing savings in the yearly VERP charges

·  Comprehensive review of all vehicle and equipment lifecycles; 28 vehicles will be retained from the previous year, allowing for the 26% decline in capital expenses

·  All fuel sites have been placed into service and complete tracking of on-road diesel vehicles maintenance service intervals have been increased by 1,000 miles. This eliminates on the average, one oil change per year and saving an estimated 600 gallons of motor oil

·  With all fuel site fuel orders placed by Fleet, a cost savings has been recognized by placing bulk fuel orders

Total Operating Expenses FY2010: $ 880,858

Total VERP Expenses FY2010: $4,158,814

Total FY2010 Budget Expenses: $5,039,672

Central Building Services

Steve Aldridge presented the Central Building Service’s Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Proposed Budget.

Total Operating Expenses FY2010 $1,181,668

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Budget: 1%

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Projection: 3%

Total Building & Equipment Replacement Fund (BERP) Expenses FY2009: $134,500

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Budget: - (56%)

Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Projection: - (56%)

Significant Changes/Initiatives

The Capital Project Management program will be heavily involved in the replacement of Fire Station No. 2 including design development and construction documents and construction phases. Other initiatives include the BERP funded projects listed under Major Expenses. The Facility Maintenance and Custodial services programs will continue to provide cost effective support services for all departments at City Hall and stand alone facilities.