Finance and Personnel Committee
of the
Lee’s Summit City Council
Minutes
Wednesday, March 25, 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
Darlene Pickett – Assistant Finance Director
Kari Holwick – Budget Officer
Joe Piccinini – Police Chief
Scott Lyons – Police Major I
Michael Black – Police Captain
Bill Ward – Purchasing Manager
Randy Dickey – Chief Technology Officer
Pam DeVault – Court Administrator
Chairman Cockrell opened the meeting at 5:45 p.m. Attendance was taken.
Item 1 – Presentation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Requirement Analysis Findings
Randy Dickey stated the existing AS400 based Financial/HR/Utility billing software from New World Systems has been in place for over 20 years at the City. The system provides many key core services and also functions as a primary integration point for other related processes and systems. The vendor is on a path to migrate customers from the AS400 to a Windows based solution and the AS400 based software is no longer being upgraded and will likely be discontinued in the future.
Mr. Dickey also stated Schafer Consulting was selected as the vendor of choice to complete the Requirements Analysis for the replacement of the City’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Their findings and recommendations are as follows:
-Information is hard to access and share because the City currently uses several disparate systems.
-It is costly and inefficient for employees to perform a significant amount of their work using manual processes.
-The existing systems do not support processes that the users have identified as necessary.
-The existing systems do not meet the City’s reporting needs.
-Lack of System security and lack of audit trails.
-Work processes need to be improved.
It should be noted that the City’s potential search for a new ERP system is occurring at an opportune time where shifts in City service demands and the current economic climate may present real opportunities to capitalize on reallocation of resources to best realize savings from process improvements.
In addition to these financial benefits, many non-financial benefits could be realized. These include improved service to constituents, vendors, customers and City personnel, improved internal controls, improved data integrity, better analytical and reporting tools for decision making, more unified technology and seamless integration.
Schafer Consulting’s recommendation indicates that employees who work with the current version of New World System are relying on inefficient processes to complete their day-to-day tasks. Employees must frequently work around the system instead of working with it. Furthermore, there are significant gaps between the features users have stated the need in an ERP system as compared to what the current system can do. The results strongly indicate that the City should move forward with the purchase of a new ERP system. Schafer Consulting recommends Option 4 for the City to initiate a RFP process for the replacement of its existing New World System with an Enterprise Total Solution, which could provide the flexibility of reviewing multiple Tier 2 ERP vendors along with Point Solution vendors. This flexibility would minimize the risk of functional gaps, as many viable ERP vendors may score well overall, but may still lack the required functionality in certain modules.
Councilmember Hallam asked did it matter in terms of what training is going on and implementation of this type of project. Would it be better to do it when there is not much going on or better to do it when there is a lot going on? Mr. Dickey stated it would be better to do it during times when there are the least demands on the system.
Councilmember Rhoads asked if the system would be phased in or done all at once. Mr. Dickey replied it would be phased in, with a defined start and finish date.
Councilmember Hofmann asked how “user friendly” will it be for staff. Mr. Dickey stated on the long term basis it will be extremely more “user friendly” than the current system.
Presentation only.
At this time Chairman Cockrell asked that the purchasing items be presented next before the budget items.
Item 3 – Award of Bid No. 09-075 for a One Time Purchase of (19) Rock River AR-15 Assault Rifles and Ammunition in the Amount of $48,191
Chief Piccinini stated the Police Department would like to purchase 19 Rock River AR-15 Assault Rifles and ammunition. The amount of ammunition has been reduced from 30,000 rounds in the amount of $8,480.10 to 10,000 rounds in the amount of $3,200. The total trade-in of miscellaneous firearms is $11,846 with a net cost of $31,065.50. Chief Piccinini stated the department had not purchased new assault rifles since 2000.
Bids were evaluated by staff from the Police Department and the Purchasing Department for the lowest and best responsive bid that met all specifications stated in the Invitation to Bid. The bid from Bear Creek Outfitters/Tactical offered the best responsive bid that met all minimum specifications and they are the low bidder overall.
By using funds obtained by trading in older weapons and supplementing that with funds from the law enforcement federal asset forfeiture account, the program could move forward and improve the PD’s capabilities without spending new tax dollars.
Councilmember Hallam asked if training was done with live ammunition. Chief Piccinini replied yes. Councilmember Hallam then asked if by reducing the amount of ammunition would that limit the amount of training officers received. Chief Piccinini replied no. Currently there is an ammunition shortage so the department is going to do a taking the longer turn-around time into consideration when ordering.
Councilmember Cockrell stated there were two bidders and it looked like B&R Guns were the lower bidder. Captain Black stated B&R Guns did not want to bid on ammunition. If they were required to do so, they would charge $.45 a rifle round whereas Bear Creek bid $.37 a round and on pistol rounds B&R would bid $.32 and Bear Creek bid $.28. Councilmember Cockrell asked that the bid table be modified to reflect these prices.
Councilmember Rhoads made a motion to approve Award of Bid #09-075 for a one time purchase of nineteen Rock River AR-15 Assault Rifles and ammunition less the trade in of miscellaneous firearms to Bear Creek Outfitters/Tactical. Councilmember Hallam seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous.
Item 4 – Award of Bid No. 09-091 for a Six Month Contract for Radio Feasibility Study for Police, Fire and various other City departments to Tusa Consulting Services in the amount not to exceed $46,478.75
Chief Piccinini stated the City’s current radio system is a conventional repeater system that has the following issues for consideration:
1. Technology is over 20 years old
2. System has dead zones
3. System does not have capabilities inside some buildings
4. Possibility for public safety hazard
5. No radio engineer on city staff
6. Unable to meet Federal mandate on reducing radio bandwidth (2013) (25KHZ to 12.5 KHZ)
7. Unable to meet a future Federal mandate to further reduce the bandwidth (6.25 KHZ)
8. There will be a need for a coverage study to comply with the bandwidth reduction and a need to add radio towers
9. No interoperability capability
10. No seamless communications capability
Also, in order to meet Federal requirements, all systems and equipment recommendations must be consistent with the Dept. of Homeland Security P25/ISSI standards and SAFECOM requirements (redundancy and backup generators).
Chief Piccinini stated MARC’s goal is to have a system where each city can communicate seamlessly with each other.
Councilmember Hallam stated he felt some of the questions listed had already been answered and wouldn’t this eventually come back to the Committee in an RFP. Chief Piccinini stated yes, but with the study staff would be able to fill out the RFP with the knowledge of what exactly is needed.
Councilmember Cockrell stated when looking at the Tusa bid it looks like this is being bid in three phases and what staff is currently requesting is just Phase One which is $46,478.75. Then Phase Two would cost $7,477.80 and Phase Three would cost $38,655.90. Councilmember Cockrell stated staff should ask for the total amount instead of bringing each phase to the Committee and see if a better price could be negotiated for all three.
Bill Ward stated ultimately staff would like to gather information for the RFP by asking this firm to give answers to our questions. Major Lyons stated the City is not tied to using the same company for all phases and that this study is done in phases because they build upon each other. Councilmember Cockrell stated the City should spend whatever it cost and have one consultant do all the phases at once.
Councilmember Rhoads stated it may have been a case of staff trying to stay under budget. Councilmember Cockrell stated that could be, if so then staff needs to ask for more money for the project.
Chief Piccinini stated budget was the reason for bringing this survey to the Committee in phases and he would work with the Finance Department regarding the money needed.
No committee action taken at this time. This item will be presented again at a later date.
Item 5 – Approval of Contract with United Missouri Bank for Purchasing Card Services
Bill Ward stated a Purchasing Card (P-Card) is a form of a company credit card that allows goods and services to be procured without utilizing a traditional purchasing process. It was designed to help agencies maintain control of small purchases while reducing the administrative cost associated with those purchases. P-Card users make their purchases for the goods and core services from the suppliers authorized by management. On behalf of the agency the bank pays the supplier with 72 hours and at the end of the month (billing cycle) the agency pays the bank the pass through amount.
The City has been using P-cards for over 10 years. The cooperative language in the State of Missouri contract with United Missouri Bank (UMB) allowed the City to use the contract without need of the competitive bid process. At that time a contract was signed by the then City Administrator with UMB. Two recent audits (one in Account Payable, the other in Purchasing) recommended that the City officially move from its “pilot” card program to an official P-card Program. In April 2008 the decision was made to transfer the day-to-day administrative control of the P-card Program from Finance to the Purchasing Division while the accounting functions would be retained by the Finance Division. Mandatory Purchasing Card training was conducted jointly by the Purchasing and Finance Divisions and new Purchasing Cardholder Agreement Forms were signed by all existing and new P-card holders as part of the training. The official transition date was July 1, 2008.
In review of the existing contract with UMB, it was determined that a new contract was appropriate. Additionally in as much as the pass through amount is now bordering a million dollars annually, it is considered prudent that the Council be notified of the contract at this juncture. The State of Missouri Contract for this service is good through February 2016. Our agreement allows the City to terminate the contract with 30 days written notice.
During FY07-08 the pass through amount paid to UMB was $901,940.13. Pass through payments so far in FY08-09 are $719,216.94 with four months remaining.
Councilmember Cockrell asked if there was policy with the bank that this card could only be used for goods or services. Conrad Lamb stated each card can be set with dollar limits and types of purchases; which has been done.
Councilmember Hallam made a motion to recommend to the City Council approval of the Contract with United Missouri Bank for Purchasing Card Services for the City of Lee’s Summit. Councilmember Hofmann seconded the motion. Vote was unanimous.
Budget Presentation – Police
Chief Piccinini presented the FY2009-2010 Proposed Budget Presentation for the Police Department.
Significant Changes and Initiatives include:
· Facilitate the implementation of technological advances in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of police services by completing the migration of in-car video cameras to digital and installing wireless PC cards on all mobile data terminals (MDT’s) in each patrol car.
· Institute community-oriented policing philosophy through district realignment, training and tracking foot patrol, saturation patrol and neighborhood watch
· Continue to work toward full accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA).
· Provide the community with upgraded animal control services
· Seven new police officers and one communication specialist are included in Police’s fiscal year 2009-2010 budget.
Budget Overview –
Total Expenses FY 2010: $18,143,250
Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Budget: 6.3%
Percentage Increase/Decrease from FY2009 Projection: 6.3%
Forecasted Personnel Needs for Future Years –
This is year two of a four year plan to increase the number of Police Officers.
Major Expenses over $30,000 –
Complete migration of video in-car cameras from 8mm to digital (year 3 of 3-yr plan $47,600)
Budget Presentation – Municipal Court
Pam DeVault presented the FY 2009-2010 Proposed Budget for Municipal Court.
Significant Changes include:
· Enhanced prisoner review process, including 48-hour review, reducing costs of pre-trial confinement
· Utilization of CourTools, including public and court staff surveys, identifying areas needing improvement as well as areas of success
· Implementation of Division 263 all day dockets, improving customer service and enhancing the administration of justice
· Implementation of x-ray and screening devices, resulting in a safer, secure environment in the courtroom
· Utilization of bi-lingual public defender as well as enhanced application process, resulting in more efficient and cost effective operation
· Expand part time Chief Bailiff to full time Court Security Officer to increase safety during court hours of operation rather than only during court sessions