SUMMARY MINUTES OF A WORK SESSION
OF THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2001, AT 4:00 p.m.
Mayor pro tem Pavão called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
Council members present were Flicka Bateman, Joyce Brown, Pat Evans, Kevin Foy, Bill Strom, Jim Ward, and Edith Wiggins.
Mayor Rosemary Waldorf was absent, excused.
Staff members present were Town Manager Cal Horton, Assistant Town Managers Sonna Loewenthal and Florentine Miller, Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, Assistant to the Manager Bill Stockard, Finance Director Jim Baker, Assistant Finance Director Kay Johnson, Police Chief Gregg Jarvies, Fire Chief Dan Jones, and Town Clerk Joyce Smith.
Finance Director Jim Baker said the primary mission of the Finance Department was to provide financial and technology oversight and direction to help the Town make the best possible use of its assets.
· Key Services
· Provide support for the budget process including an accurate and informative budget document.
· Oversee Town purchasing and contracts.
· Monitor the Town’s fiscal position and provide for appropriate investments and borrowings.
· Efficiently provide accurate and informative financial records.
· Provide the structure, equipment, software, and support for staff, citizens and other interested parties to use Town information efficiently within a secure environment.
· Finance Department does not directly generate revenues.
· Department Base Budget Cost Estimates
· Key Base Cost issues
· Operations—slight increase (amount over 3% offset by capital decrease)
· Key Services Going Well
· Budget preparation
· Purchasing and contract oversight—including the development of a Town procurement card program
· Cash, investment, and borrowing oversight
· Provision of accurate and informative financial records. The Department has received, once again, the Excellence in Financial Reporting Award.
· Improvements to network speed
· Key Information Systems Costs included in base budget
· Continuing Support ($46,571)
· Network Wide Area Data Lines ($22,700)
· Capital Equipment ($29,000)
· Network software licensing ($50,000)
· Supplies and Training ($22,100)
· Proposed Additions
· Additional 7.5 hours for part-time Payroll Clerk position to allow the Finance Department to assume responsibility for payroll-related data entry currently assumed by Personnel and to allow more time to ensure the accuracy of payroll and related reporting ($6,000)
· To support improvements proposed in the Technology Plan as presented to the Council on February 26.
· Full-time position for Information Technology Support and Training ($54,000)
· Funding support for server replacement ($25,000)
· Funding support for technology-related contracted services ($28,000)
· Funding for geographical information systems improvements ($9,000)
· Funding for departmental web publishing software ($15,000)
Council Member Wiggins asked Mr. Horton if the Council would be seeing the budget of strictly Finances separated from Information Technology. Mr. Horton said that this would be separated, but there were some instances when staff overlapped into the other category. He said any changes above the present level of effort would also be identified.
Council Member Ward asked if the Department would prioritize any changes. Mr. Horton said the staff would be presenting the priorities to the Council further along in the budget process.
Item 4 – Legal Department (out of order from the Agenda)
Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos said his budget was simple, with only two employees, and a budget for professional services, and the library. He said the area of professional services was the only area, from year to year, that had the potential for fluctuation, because there was no way to project what services might be needed. He said the library was working well with the computer services, and that enabled the Department to save a little money on expenses. Mr. Karpinos said that the Executive Assistant, Toni Pendergraph, was taking on additional responsibilities, and he felt her position should be upgraded in the personnel review.
Council Member Bateman asked what prohibited earlier involvement of the Department in development of agenda memoranda and other policy recommendations. Mr. Karpinos said the recommendations from departments would move along at a faster pace if his department could have them sooner, in order to have input. Mr. Horton said he is requesting the departments to get the material to Mr. Karpinos earlier, but it was a periodic problem. He said, as a result, the recommendations had to be withheld until Mr. Karpinos had time for a complete legal review.
Council Member Evans asked if this was the time when the Council sees the annual report of on-going law suits. Mr. Karpinos said that report was generally presented in August, and there was not a lot of active litigation at the present time, mentioning a few various issues. Mr. Horton said he wanted to underscore the value the Department received from the Police Attorney.
Council Member Wiggins pointed out that, in addition to helping the Town advisory boards and commissions, the Department also helped ad hoc committees. She asked if there was time for all these services, and how one person could perform all these additional services. Mr. Karpinos said he had anticipated the need for a second attorney to help with more intense zoning enforcement responsibility with the Building Inspections Department, and the prospects of the Rental Licensing Program. He said because of the turnover in the Building Inspections Department, his Department would not be fully involved until that department was fully staffed. Mr. Karpinos added that the Rental Licensing Program had not yet been developed. He said right now things were working out, but there was money in the budget to hire attorneys in anticipation of the zoning enforcement. He added that Chapel Hill was not the smallest or the largest city with only one attorney. He said the big challenge was the varieties of the issues to be addressed.
Council Member Ward asked Mr. Karpinos to factor in the cost, when the Council discussed the Rental Licensing Program, and what it would cost the Town.
Council Member Strom said that he and Council Member Wiggins were carefully evaluating every aspect of the Rental Licensing Program, as to what it would cost, and the staff would make the decision as to what the program would cost, assuring that it should pay for itself.
Police Chief Gregg Jarvies reported on his Department.
· Key Services
· Community Policing Services
· Preventive Patrols
· Criminal Investigations
· Traffic Enforcement
· Youth Services
· Community Services and Crime Prevention
· Public Records and Information
· Public Housing Resident Series and Human Services
· Crime Analysis and Planning
Chief Jarvies said the biggest challenge for the Police Department was the Town’s growth, especially with the addition of Southern Village and the growth of Meadowmont. He said it was the intention of the Department to keep these services at the highest level, by being smarter, more flexible, and more technologically savvy. He said that, with the addition of Southern Village, the Department felt it could no longer provide this same quality of services with the current personnel on the staff, and this was the reason for the request for six additional personnel. He said he felt these additional positions would allow the Department to cover the growth, not only in Southern Village, but also the growth in Meadowmont at least through the current year, before the addition of Phase II. Chief Jarvies said recruitment of the best people was getting more competitive, and the Department needed more competitive salaries and benefits packages, and, though the package adopted by the Council last year was a great help, currently Chapel Hill paid the lowest salaries of the agencies in the Triangle.
Chief Jarvies added that retaining employees was all-important and the training program needed improvement, and the budget for this had remained static for the past five years although the demands for training had grown. He said the Department was seeing more older people being recruited, such as people changing jobs and retired military. He felt that the benefits package and the training were both factors in this development. Chief Jarvies said the impact of technology has had a significant impact on the Department, and the Department would continue to seek grants for funding this technology. He said the Department was looking to develop its own web page.
Chief Jarvies said one officer was working closely with the courts and the attorneys on tracking the cases of those brought before the courts. He said the revenues for the Department were down 10%, and all Community Policing grants had expired. He said that funding from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools system would cover 75% of the cost of four School Resource Officers (SRO), and next year these positions would be funded 100% by the school system, and the additional SRO for the Smith Middle School would be funded at 100% by the school system.
Chief Jarvies said the overtime costs were projected to reach $150,000, with approximately $50,000 earmarked for routine overtime expenses, and the remaining $100,000 for managing special events. He said the Capital Costs—police cars—had been shifted to the Public Works budget, which worked well for the Police Department in that cars were safer and more available. Chief Jarvies said the Police Department would continue to focus its resources on the continuing quality of life, traffic enforcement, property crimes, and neighborhood issues. He thanked his staff for the good job they do, and introduced some of the staff present, and highlighted their duties.
Council Member Brown asked Chief Jarvies how the Town’s benefits package compared to other communities and what that did to the overall salary in comparison. Chief Jarvies said he believed that the benefits package was one of the reasons that people came to work in the Department, and mentioned some of the programs.
Council Member Brown asked if the benefits put Chapel Hill on a level playing field with the other communities, despite the lower salaries. Chief Jarvies said he thought it certainly was an attraction for working in Chapel Hill.
Council Member Wiggins said the residents of the Northside neighborhood had high praise for the increased activities of the police in their area, but that the issues of crime and drug activities still remained. She asked Chief Jarvies what could be done. Chief Jarvies said there was a multi-faceted plan which involved the community, the courts, efforts at rehabilitating some of the properties, the efforts of EmPOWERment and working with landlords to determine how they develop their leases and to whom they rent property, and involvement of the residents of the neighborhoods.
Council Member Evans asked Chief Jarvies to think about some kind of an educational program for incoming students at the University, regarding living in Chapel Hill. Chief Jarvies said there already was a program, ongoing for several years. He said every fall he had had dinner with the fraternities in their houses to talk about the various responsibilities they have as residents of the community. He said he was working closely with University Police Chief Porch, and there were brochures in the orientation package. Mr. Horton suggested raising the same issue with Chief Jones of the Fire Department.
Council Member Ward asked if the schools were clear about the Council’s position regarding funding for the SROs. Chief Jarvies said the schools were well aware of the funding responsibility, and had been applying for grant funding. Mr. Horton said he also alerted the schools that the Town would be charging the schools for reimbursement for school-crossing guards.
Council Member Ward asked Chief Jarvies to quantify what the addition of personnel in the Traffic Division would mean. He asked what this would mean a better response to citizens’ concerns about traffic enforcement. Chief Jarvies said there would be more presence of traffic officers and an increase of traffic citations, with the new technology. He said this would help in tracking seasonal problems on the roads.
Council Member Ward asked how it would be possible to improve the education of automobile drivers and bicyclists, as to rules and safety. Chief Jarvies said he and University Police Chief Porch had been working on an education and safety program on campus. He said it was a matter of changing habits, enforcing laws, and educating young children in the schools. He said it could be done locally.
Council Member Strom said if the Council waited for a year or two to annex Southern Village, what would that mean to the request for the six new officers, and to the Department at the present time. Chief Jarvies said for the routine matters it would be somewhat of a burden, but would be manageable, except in a quick response to emergencies.
Council Member Strom said his question meant not annexing Southern Village, and when did the Chief plan to hire the six new officers in anticipation of annexation. Chief Jarvies said the current growth could be managed, and the hiring, training, and recruitment would take six to seven months, after the fact.
Council Member Evans asked if the Police Department discussed night reflectors on bicycles, particularly those used by students, and did the police ever ticket bikers for riding without reflectors on both the front and back of the bicycles. Chief Jarvies said they were ticketed rarely, but they were warned. He said the courts preferred other types of enforcement because of the overloaded dockets on other matters in the courts.
Council Member Evans suggested that when the patrol cars were technically equipped with reporting system, the police and their cars could park their cars at strategic parts of Town, and do their reports from there, as this would make for more police visibility and possible slow the traffic down. Chief Jarvies said that was a good point, and he did encourage his officers to do so.
Council Member Foy asked what type of, and what the prevalence was, of computer crimes. Chief Jarvies said there were crimes involving the transmission of illegal information, citing the various types of information theft. He said that the white-collar crimes were now frequently being done over the Internet.
Council Member Wiggins said she thought the use of parked, empty police cars was very effective.
Council Member Ward asked Mr. Horton for a complete packet of salaries and benefits, and how they compared to other nearby communities. Mr. Horton said that was done periodically, and he would get a copy for the Council. He said Pat Thomas, the Human Resources Director, was presently preparing a report on comparisons of benefits.
Fire Department Chief Dan Jones reported on his Department and said that the services had not changed.
· Services
· Fire Suppression
· First Responder—Emergency Medical
· Vehicle Extrication and Technical Rescue
· Fire Code Enforcement through an Inspection Program
· Disaster Management
· Public Education through In-house or Out-Reach Programs
· Fire Cause and Determination Investigations
· Contact Department for Citizens’ Inquiries/safety and environmental
· Key Cost Issues for Base Budget
· Maintenance of health screening services for employees
· Increase of 21% in Fleet Maintenance addition of “Insta-Chains” to Engine 32 and Tower 71, aging fleet and fire pump maintenance contract
· Increase of 66% in Building Maintenance to continue station improvements, renovations, furniture replacement and continue annual maintenance funds for training facilities. Much of the maintenance and renovations are done by Fire Department personnel.
· Increase in employee uniform expenditures
· Continued regular replacement schedule of fire hose, radios and protective clothing
· Purchase of scene lighting tower for use at emergency scenes
· Key Programs and Services Going Well
· First Responder services, serving the Town and University. The program places fire department staff trained in pre-hospital first aid at the scene of medical emergencies prior to ambulance arrival. Key to the program involves use of automatic defibrillation in cardiac arrest situations, which have seen survival rates climb from 5% to over 20%. Benefit in the future would be to expand the program to the Advanced Emergency Medical Technician level enabling fire personnel to administer certain lifesaving medications and starting intravenous fluids.
· Public Education programs offered by fire department staff continue to provide important services to the community in efforts to reduce fires, injury and death and include an injury reduction program, Child Safety Seat inspections/educational program and varied pubic education sessions focusing on fire prevention and injury reduction, and public education tours through the station.
· Key Programs/Services that could be improved
· Due to increasing federal and State training requirements, increasing technical aspects of training and increases in Fire Department staffing, the strategy of using a training coordinator part-time with other responsibilities continues to amplify the need for a dedicated Training Officer tasked with administering a consistent, objective-based program.
Chief Jones said that having a set pay plan in place had a positive effect on recruiting, promotions, and career development. He said the major issue was preparing for the growth to the south and the opening of the Number 5 Fire Station. He said that in order to comply with the “Two In/Two Out” OSHA regulations, 2 personnel were placed on a small attack pumper at Station 3, and when at a fire they must remain on the outside of the fire in order to be present for the safety of those firefighters working on the fire, in case they needed to be rescued. He said six people were approved last year in anticipation of the new fire station, and would be hired in the last quarter of the current fiscal year, so they can be trained and become acquainted with the community.
Chief Jones said the last 6 positions were requested in the budget for 2001-2002. He said this would bring staffing up to the total personnel needed to man the new fire station. He said the other major request was for funds to replace the Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus to meet new NFPA and OSHA requirements, improve safety and replace discontinued models currently being used.
Council Member Bateman asked Chief Jones what his priority was for the other costs that he had requested. Chief Jones said the requests listed were pretty much in priority order.
Council Member Ward asked what the difference was between staffing at Station 2 and Station 4 and Station 5. Chief Jones said that Station 2 had the minimum amount of staffing, and when there was a vacancy there people had to be moved in from another station. He said that there was enough cushion from the other stations to cover Station 2, but at some point that issue would need to be addressed.
Council Member Bateman, noting she frequently sees fire trucks parks around Kenan Stadium, asked why they were present there. Chief Jones they were probably participating in training or area inspection, and they park at the Stadium because it is a central location with adequate parking for the large trucks. He said another reason might be physical fitness training, using the tracks on the field.
Council Member Bateman asked what the fire trucks did at motor vehicle accidents. Chief Jones said the duties of the police were traffic direction and accident investigation, and the Fire Department’s duties were as first responder for injuries and hazard reduction, such as disconnecting the ignition to prevent fires. He said they sometimes helped the police with traffic control, if needed.
Council Member Evans asked if there was a possibility of obtaining grants for the self-contained breathing apparatus. Chief Jones said the Department planned to apply for these grants, which were not highly funded, adding there was a lot of competition for such grants.
Council Member Ward asked if the training tower was a revenue producer and how significant was the maintenance cost for the tower, and was it worth the expense. Chief Jones said it was not a revenue producer, and other departments did not want to have to pay to use it. He said that the Carrboro Fire Department did use it and did pay a fee. Chief Jones said the fire tower was the only place for the firefighters to train and it was very much worth maintaining, and it would have a definite negative impact on the insurance services rating for the community, if the Department discontinued using the tower for training.
Council Member Ward asked if the smoke had become an issue with the surrounding neighborhoods. Chief Jones said it has not been an issue because they tried to limit nighttime training, and Public Works had put up a fence around it, as well as landscaping, to screen it from the public.
Town Clerk Joyce Smith presented a brief overview of these divisions
· The Operations Budget:
· Mayor’s office—reflects an increase of 2.6%, to cover the costs of Business Meetings and training.
· Council—increase in the operations line item of 8%, primarily in the increase in Business Meetings and training account. Cost of registration and travel is rising each year.
· Manager’s office—increase in the operations line item of just under 3%, due to personnel agency items to cover the costs of temporary employees, generally secretarial assistance.
· Services going well:
· General services to citizens and the Town Council
· General management of daily operations of the Town
· Development of operating budget within Council guidelines
· Service that could be improved:
· Public information services, such as E-mail and upgrading the website
· Budget analysis activities
· Clerk’s office—increase of 25.9% increase, due to the funds required for the local election in November, to pay a large portion to Orange County and a small portion to Durham County to cover the expenses of the portion of Durham voters living in Chapel Hill
· Services Going Well:
· Preparation of Council minutes—available within two weeks of meetings.
· Town Code of Ordinances was recently reformatted, updated and published to enhance readability and usefulness. Code revisions are included in the Code within two days of adoption.
· Providing information services to citizens, Town Council and Town staff.
· Council agenda packets prepared and delivered as scheduled.