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07122007CouncilMinutes - Work SessionCITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2007 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION THURSDAY, July 12, 2007 4:00 P.M. Discussion Items: 1. Financial Report FY 2007 YTD 2. FY 2008 Budget Planning 3. Rockwell Development / Woodland Hills Park Donation 4. Centennial Gazebo 5. Water Conservation Program Update 6. Cottages French Drain Project Update 7. Misc. MINUTES The work session started at 4:10 p.m. in the City Building, 2135 South Ammon Road, Ammon, Idaho, with the following City Officials present: City Officials Present: Mayor Bruce Ard Councilmember Lee Bean Councilmember Dana Kirkham City Administrator Bruce Rose City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Officials Absent: Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Randy Waite DISCUSSION ITEMS : 1. Financial Report FY 2007 YTD: Councilmember Bean inquired when we get our next tax money. It was discussed around the end of July. Councilmember Bean inquired to Lisa about some budget issues. He inquired about the Fire Department account for a plan check fee for $2000 and a fire suppression connection fee; he would like to know if we collect for the connection fee. Lisa stated we are, only under commercial though. He inquired about softball sponsor fees and the negative figure there. He asked Lisa to check into that because it must be wrong. Councilmember Bean inquired about the sewer department regarding any monies from the City of Idaho Falls in June for flow charges. Lisa stated she has not received anything from them. Councilmember Bean asked her to call them because that is not characteristic of them. Councilmember Bean inquired about sanitation with the negative figure in the transfer. The sanitation improvement fund has a negative figure also, and he is wondering if you have reversed the debit/credit. Lisa stated that is probably what happened. Councilmember Bean commented they made an executive decision regarding bankcard use for utilities only. Leslie Folsom stated we also use them for animal fees. 2. FY 2008 Budget Planning: Council discussed that the departments that over budget need to be notified when they are over. Overtime was discussed. It was discussed expenses need to be controlled. Bruce Rose stated it is not that simple. Councilmember Kirkham stated we have to stay in the budget. It is usually brought before Council after the cost has been incurred, and then we have to find a way to pay for it. Councilmember Bean stated they are not trying to micromanage, but he feels we can control our expenses better. Councilmember Bean stated he feels we need to analyze situations where overtime is involved. It was discussed how much each dumpster costs and the value of having Ty doing them. Councilmember Bean stated he would like to get together with Leslie to work on this further. Councilmember Bean stated he doesn’t understand why they can’t do this budget. Bruce Rose responded that he needs guidance on this. Councilmember Bean stated that the budget is short for this next year and needs to be cautious with spending. Councilmember Kirkham stated she will contact the department headsand back out the Special Work Session Council Minutes 07/12/2007 -- 1 $10,000 and let them know they have to find the money somewhere. Bruce Rose stated he will work with Councilmember Kirkham concerning speaking with the department heads. Councilmember Bean inquired to Lisa if she found out what the procedure is for taking foregone tax amounts. Lisa stated she spoke with Ronald Longmore and asked for information but has not received it yet. Councilmember Bean stated she needs to call him and keep on it. Councilmember Bean stated the next thing she needs her to do is concerning the Acct. # 330550 with Bonneville County Sales Tax and Use. He does not know what that is. It was discussed she would find out what that is. Councilmember Bean stated he does not know what to put in for income for fire plan check fees or fire suppression connection fees. Mayor Ard stated on the liquor store portion that he spoke with Dyke Nalley, State Superintendent, and started the wheels rolling for getting a liquor store for Ammon. Once we get business built up to $2 million we will be getting more than what we have been getting. He stated Leslie will talk to Glen, accountant, to see if he can adjust the time frame for distribution to allow for a set-up mid-year. Councilmember Bean stated he has struggled trying to get the budget balanced. It was discussed the liquor money comes about every quarter. Councilmember Bean asked for a figure. Leslie stated about $175,000 and could go down next year. Mayor Ard stated we would have to do a public hearing for the liquor store and I told them to start the process. It was discussed this one would be on Hitt Road. It may take away from the Channing one, but eventually build back up. Councilmember Bean asked Stacy regarding the fire fees. Stacy guessed about $3000 for the fire plan check fees and about $1750 for the fire suppression connection fees. Councilmember Bean inquired who collects the fees. It was discussed it would be the building department. Councilmember Bean asked when the building department collects those fees, who will receive them. It was discussed Gay will. Councilmember Bean spoke about the Parks grant. He also indicated to Bruce Rose that he has $60,000 for the developer chip seal which will be done this summer. Bruce asked if it is budgeted for this year. Councilmember Bean stated it is not unless it is under a different line item. Mayor Ard suggested putting it under road construction and improvement. Bruce stated it is not in 2007, so it must be 2008. Bruce Rose explained they have received the st deposit already. They discussed budgeting for October 1. It was discussed the County will be doing it and they have given us a price. Bruce stated it would be around $24,000. Councilmember Bean stated he can put it in either. Bruce stated it was scheduled to be done it August. Councilmember Bean stated then he will take it out of this year’s budget. Councilmember Bean stated every department will have to look at the expenses. He has $25,000 budgeted for audit. They bumped some line items up. Councilmember Bean stated Kent Foster will come on line in August and probably bill us in September. Councilmember Bean spoke about City Election budget amount and Leslie stated she has never done one before, but she assumes that will be a good amount. Travel meetings were bumped up for future training. Councilmember Bean stated he took everything out of telephone because they go under IT. Everything that Bruce asked for IT is in the budget. He pulled $1000 out of computer maintenance and supplies for computer support. Mayor Ard commented that Bruce is going to have to pay close attention and realizes everything is coming out of his budget. Bank fees and charges were pulled out and spread out on others. He stated the Ammon Days celebration is going to be an ongoing expense from now on. Councilmember Bean spoke about moving the Engineer to a separate building. He spoke about office furniture and equipment and pulled it out of capital expenditures. There is money for shelving, office furniture and chairs. He feels we should have plenty in there. He would like to see the general fund cover the overhead for the streets department. He boosted the animal shelter by a couple of thousand. Councilmember Kirkham stated it is going to be more than that. Councilmember Bean stated we cut our income by about $40,000. It was discussed we over budgeted on some expenses, too. We can determine if we want to do more or less than what is budgeted for Parks. Councilmember Bean spoke about the recreation fees and line items. He spoke about the building department line items. He stated we are way down on building fees this next year. He spoke about the Street Reserve and stated we really need to look at this one. He asked Lisa to look at the figures again. He spoke about the Street fund and let Bruce know that is where his grant money is for safe schools. Councilmember Bean inquired what is in Operations and Maintenance for $75,000. Bruce Rose stated it would be best to pull the detail on that because there is a lot to it. The Cottages French Drain Project is in there, etc. Leslie inquired why we don’t have anything for electrical in there. There was some spent last year. Councilmember Bean stated he must have missed that one. Bruce stated that is how we pay for the electricity for our street lights. Lisa stated she would look at that one, also. Councilmember Bean also mentioned that we have $235- 240,000 in our street reserve fund that are dedicated funds. Councilmember Bean indicated to Bruce there is $20,000 budgeted in there for the linear drains. The figure was $85,000 which is what Bill Manwill stated it would cost for us to do it ourselves. If we get to a point where we have to put them in or have someone else put them in, then we will have to take it out of the ten wheeler. Councilmember Bean stated if you look at your expenses versus your income, you are about $15,000 off the water fund. If you look at account #800 that is the excess we have left over. We need to start funding the bond Special Work Session Council Minutes 07/12/2007 -- 2 reserve money. Bruce Rose commented on the figures for the Pearl House amount. He stated it will not be spent unless they build. Councilmember Bean stated the sewer department poses more of a problem. He is concerned about the regional sewer project. We will not get the funding from the feds. Mayor Ard stated he spoke to Larry Craig and we still should keep on it, but we won’t get any money this year. Councilmember Bean stated Ted is recommending that we design our phase, but we have to do it at our cost with the potential we will not get it back. It was discussed they haven’t even started the Shelley plant. Councilmember Bean stated we need to budget it, but we need to have some serious discussion regarding the issue. He explained the $250 for the oversize interceptor is low. He explained what Bill had explained to him regarding the costs. He explained he is still $500,000 short to fund the sewer. He explained that is more than half our funds to do this. Councilmember Bean inquired as to why we can’t use DEQ funding. He feels we need to find out where the DEQ money is by giving a call to Ted. Councilmember Bean stated we should move this out of our reserves to DEQ funding. Council discussed the costs of the lines and the size of the interceptor. Councilmember Bean feels like telling them we don’t have the money to put this in. He explained we are not upsizing. He stated we would require a 30” interceptor. It was discussed this is what the line requires, it is not an oversize. Councilmember Bean asked if we need to budget anything for it at all. It was discussed not to budget for it. Councilmember Bean asked the Mayor to tell Ted we cannot do anything without the DEQ money. He spoke about what he has budgeted for sanitation. Councilmember Bean explained we have about $695,000 in our reserve fund, and if we use $440,000 of that over the next two years we will spend virtually our entire reserve fund. He stated he forgot to show that transfer on paper. He explained we will have to raise our fees. He figures we would have to raise our sanitation rates by about $6. Leslie stated we would need to raise the apartment rates also. Councilmember Bean spoke about the pay rates for sanitation personnel and sanitation rates in different cities. He feels $12-15 is a fair figure. Mayor Ard commented they will have the can furnished. It was discussed whether we will furnish the can for the new hookups. Bruce stated he spoke to the others and they figure the cost of the can into their rates. Councilmember Bean inquired how they figure those in. Leslie suggested putting the cost onto the developers by writing it into the development agreement. It was discussed we could talk about that later when they look at raising the rates. Bruce Rose inquired if we will be able to adopt the preliminary budget for next week, so we can publish it for the public hearing for the first of August. He commented we can only go down on the number after we publish. It was discussed to delay the public hearing so we can feel more comfortable with the budget. He explained that th Wednesday, September 5 is the last day for budget hearing. He will verify delaying it tomorrow. We have to publish two hearings for the budget and any increased fees. 3. Rockwell Development / Woodland Hills Park Donation: City Administrator Bruce Rose stated he spoke with Jay from Rockwell Development and they would like to give us $20,000 for playground equipment. Council discussed they do not want it until after October for budget purposes. 4. Centennial Gazebo: City Administrator Bruce Rose explained Ken isn’t present yet. Councilmember Bean felt Ken needs to be here. Councilmember Bean stated he indicated he could design a cheaper gazebo. Council decided to finish when Ken arrives. st Ken stated in terms of the gazebo we need to make a decision before July 31. If we don’t have a response letter formed, the grant will be null and void. He stated he talked to Councilmember Bean about designing their own gazebo. He explained it would cost us about $33-34,000 to have the power lines buried. He explained the downside of doing it ourselves and not burying the power lines is we will not get grants from Idaho Land and Water until we comply with that. We would not get any more grants for McCowin or Peterson Parks. If we bury the power lines, we will still be able to get the grants. He explained the poles are about 40 years old and he does not know what the life expectancy is on them. He figures we will have to replace them in the next five years anyway. He explained if we piggy back with this plan where they will pay for 50% to help bury the lines, there is still is good chance to get some of that money in the next 2-3 years. The walking path grants all come from that same department. It was discussed we still have more to put in. They will shut us off completely from grants until we comply. Ken explained he can go either way with this. Councilmember Bean stated he would look through the budget and then make the decision. 5. Water Conservation Program Update: Rick discussed the pressures for Founder’s Point, he stated for a 3 day period the high was 51 and the low was 10 with an average of 36. Councilmember Bean inquired if these were the fire department readings or ours. It was discussed they were ours. Councilmember Bean stated he would like to know where we are at in different parts of our city. Rick stated the average is 34-35 PSI. Mayor Ard said these would vary due to the new homes in the area. Councilmember Bean asked if the SCADA system is able to print out at any given time during the day the PSI’s on the wells. Rick said yes. Councilmember Bean asked if he has any reports he can present. Rick stated he can get them. Councilmember Bean stated he would like get information by Special Work Session Council Minutes 07/12/2007 -- 3 the hour and what by day for PSI. He would be interested to know what our PSI is on Sunday. He would like to know when people are watering. Stacy stated on the hill is where we are in trouble with pressure. He indicated one C/O in Founder’s Point, estimated at 3000 sq feet, is at 20 PSI off that hydrant to service that. If you go up one more road, you drop to 6 PSI on Boulder Creek. It was discussed in the valley we are fine. He stated the Cottages, Fox Hollow and Quailridge, Woodland Hills are all okay. Stacy explained water flow depends on the size of the square footage of the home. Bruce Rose stated the owner in Founder’s Point called concerning the water pressure. Bruce let him know where we are at and the gentleman agreed not to put a sprinkler system in yet. He is planning to plant a minimal amount of grass this year and wait till next year to do more. Jason presented the findings for Well #9. The booster pump was designed as an emergency pump to get the water up the hill. Councilmember Bean inquired about how the booster works and whether another line could come out of that tank. It was discussed the entire system is pumping 6200 per minute, at this moment, with a capacity of 11-12,000. Councilmember Kirkham asked if we have heard from a lot of people. Bruce Rose stated we have not, as compared to other years. It was discussed people need to be educated on how to water as well as the brown spots on lawns. They are not due to lack of watering, rather they are due to grubs and a lot of people may not understand that. It was also discussed that it could be heat stress. Councilmember Bean inquired to Stacy if they had a fire on the hill would they be okay. Stacy responded they would be okay up to Quail Ridge. It was inquired how to boost up from Quail to Founder’s Point. Mayor Ard commented we need to supply another pump on Well #9. He explained we need to get plumbing redone. It was discussed it needs to be shut down to do that, and we can’t do that. It was discussed the benefits from going from voluntary to mandatory watering conservation schedule. Council felt most people are complying right now. Councilmember Kirkham stated her concern, for mandatory, is the enforcement issue. She stated we need to put notifications on doors on those homes that are in violation. Councilmember Kirkham stated Ty, Rick or Jason, as well as, the fire department can help get these notices out. Councilmember Bean stated he would also. Councilmember Kirkham stated to do a reminder notice, put it in bright pink and make it look like a fine. Rick stated last Saturday night, at midnight; it was 7200 gal/min. On Sunday night it was 5100 gal/min. On Monday night it was back to 7100 gal/min. Bruce Rose commented in January the average consumption was 1000 gal/min as a comparison. Councilmember Bean asked Rick to have that information, as to the peak levels in the middle of the night in graph form, in their packet for next Wednesday to see if they need to go further with this plan. 6. Cottages French Drain Project Update: Jason showed the plan to the Council. He stated when they started Bungalow, and started digging it called for 4 ft. Bill told him to dig till they found gravel, so they ended up going to 7-8 feet. He discussed putting two holes in Bungalow and abandoning the curve section of road. They discussed this is different than the original plan. Councilmember Kirkham stated she is not convinced we don’t need a French drain. Jason explained the holes they dug are 2.5 times deeper than what was required. Councilmember Kirkham stated she is willing to concede with this with the understanding if it does not work; we go back to the French drains on the original plans. It was discussed the augers were 30” wide. Jason stated he has had trouble getting rock. He explained they have hauled out 600 cubic yards of rock th out of Baldwin Pit on 49 North. The gate was locked and the key was missing. He called the superintendent of the road crews and asked him to open it up. The superintendent asked how much he is going to haul out of there and Jason informed him he has only touched about 1/8 to 1/4 of what is needed. He asked how many loads and Jason told him about 90 loads and he about fell out of his chair. He was not expecting us to use that much. He explained they would have to bring his pressure and separator from somewhere else to get more rock. They only have so much stockpiled. It was discussed HK has supplies. Jason explained what we are being charged is $15.00 a truckload or $3.00 per square load. He explained HK’s prices are about $10-12 for a cubic yard. He explained he has already used 383 cubic yards to do Bungalow and half of what they have on Brennan. Bruce Rose explained when Bill brokered this bill with us from the County; they did not know it would need that much. He explained we will have to have another supply at another price that is higher. Jason explained he has enough stockpiled to do a little more. He does not have enough to do Fieldstone Drive and or anything up on Tildy. Councilmember Kirkham commented that we need someone to contact the homeowner’s and let them know what is going on. Councilmember Kirkham stated she would talk to the homeowners. Councilmember Kirkham stated Fieldstone Drive is one of the worst for flooding, but she understands we cannot get the rock to get it done. She would like an update sent to Steve regarding the issue. Councilmember Kirkham asked when they can be completed. Jason stated it is a matter of setting it up with the County; he will try to do it within the next month or six weeks. It was discussed Brennan Bend would be done first, then Bungalow. Bruce Rose stated he would invite Steve to come in and talk to us. Councilmember Kirkham would be glad to be there. Jason inquired when they put in the French drain how far they go to put it back. It was discussed to put it back to sod. Jason explained there were two on Bungalow, and one guy took out his sprinkler and then they put it Special Work Session Council Minutes 07/12/2007 -- 4 back in. He explained on the other one they rebuilt the system they had and some people put there sod back themselves. He wants to know what they want him to do to take it back to where it was previously. Councilmember Kirkham stated to take it back to like condition. She explained on Fieldstream for sure, to put it back to like condition. It was inquired how much the sod costs and how much it will take it to put back in. Councilmember Kirkham asked if we put the sprinkler system in then they can seed. Jason asked if you want him to rebuild the whole swale. Councilmember Kirkham stated she would talk to the homeowners and see what their thoughts are. Jason stated he has 148 man hours on Brennan Bend and 1/3 of that is overtime. Councilmember Kirkham asked what he guessed the total will be with materials. Jason stated he would try to figure it out. It was discussed we had free labor with the work detail and they did a very good job. th Bruce Rose stated the June 30 deadline came and went and two properties are not in compliance. He explained they are the Montgomery and McCommer property. He explained the Montgomery’s would like a 2-3 month extension. He would suggest we say no because we would have to give McCommers an extension also. He also explained a couple of weeks ago, there are three properties where we had to go in and do them. This week a certified letter was sent out with the bill with 30 days to pay. If they don’t pay, he will come before Council to request a lien of their properties. Bruce Rose also spoke about missing sidewalks. Councilmember Kirkham suggested sending a letter first letting them know we will be moving forward with this. Councilmember Bean asked where we are getting the money for this. Bruce Rose stated it is coming from Streets Operation and Maintenance budget. Councilmember Bean stated if it is not budgeted, you will have to take it out of a project you have now. Bruce Rose stated that is a good point. Councilmember Bean would like everyone to be aware of the budget. They will not be replenishing the street budget every year. Councilmember Kirkham stated we had people who complied, and now we can’t let the others get away with not doing it. Mayor Ard suggested we need to check with the County as to how to attach it to taxes. Bruce Rose stated he had Scott review the letter for the properties we may have to lien. Councilmember Bean stated we send a letter to Greenfield stating that we want the landscaping in. It was the agreement and the council wants it done immediately. 7. Misc.: Leslie Folsom commented regarding the bartender for Steven Sloan. It was declined because he had a DUI pending. She stated she talked to Scott Hall about it since it came back that it was reduced to a misdemeanor. She stated Scott is not comfortable with denying it for this gentleman this year because of the date the ordinance was th st passed. He was convicted on June 7and our ordinance went into effect on June 21. She stated she will notify him he will not be able to renew. Councilmember Kirkham asked that it be in writing. Leslie stated she planned on writing him a letter as well as notifying his employer. Council discussed possible Eagle projects. It was discussed whether or not we should suggest possible projects or if the Eagle Scouts are to come up with them on their own. Ken feels they should come up with their own ideas and he will support them. Mayor Ard would like him to advise them as to what the city needs. Councilmember Bean motioned to adjourn to executive session regarding salaries. All in favor, the motion passed. The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. ___________________________________________ C. Bruce Ard, Mayor ______________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk Special Work Session Council Minutes 07/12/2007 -- 5