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12082011CouncilMinutes-WS CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011 – 4:30 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Year End Reports from Departments A.Building Department (Charlie) B.Parks & Recreation Department (Ken) C.I.T. & Broadband Department (Bruce) D.Fire Department (Stacy) E.Engineering Department (Lance) F.Public Works Department (Ray) G.Planning Department (Ron) H.General Government (Rachael & Jennifer) 2. Investment Discussion (Russell & Jenn) EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1. Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2. Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3. Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman (Arrived at 4:38 p.m.) Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Sean Coletti Councilmember Russell Slack City Administrator/Clerk Ron Folsom Deputy City Clerk Rachael Brown City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Engineer Lance Bates Public Works Director Ray Ellis Building Official Charlie Allen Parks Director Ken Knoch I.T./Broadband Director Bruce Patterson Fire Chief Stacy Hyde Fire Marshal Keith Banda Training Officer Scot McGuire City Officials Absent: Councilmember Bean DISCUSSION ITEMS: Councilmember Kirkham opened the meeting at 4:30 p.m. at 2135 South Ammon Road in the Mayors absence. 1. Year End Reports from Departments: A. Building Department (Charlie): Charlie handed out the Building Department year- end report to the Council and said in the last two months the Building Department has seen an increase in revenues. Charlie discussed some of the new Commercial Businesses that have come into the City and his Department revenues are up 7% since last year. Councilmember Powell asked how he would explain the increase. Charlie said it was from the Energy Code Grant the Building Department received. Charlie said, even without the grant, in the last two months his Department is up 37% in revenues. Councilmember Kirkham asked if this was from Commercial Building. Charlie said a little commercial, but there have been some new residential homes. Discussion ensued about new 14 Council Minutes 12-8-11 Page of residential construction and the locations. Charlie said the Building Department has adopted the 2009 building codes. Charlie serves as the president of IDABO (Idaho Association of Building Officials). Charlie said he received an Energy Code Certification from a meeting he attended in Boise with the Mayor. Councilmember Kirkham said this is a much better report than the Council has seen in awhile and thanked him for his work. Mayor Fuhriman thanked Charlie for taking him to the “Green Meeting” in Boise. B. Parks & Recreation Department (Ken): Ken directed the Council to a document on SharePoint noting all of the Parks Department accomplishments over the last year.Councilmember Kirkham said there have been a lot of changes and the only negative thing she had heard was regarding the scheduling of the pool. Councilmember Slack asked Ken if he got approval for the diving board. Ken said yes. Ken explained all of the upgrades and construction at each of the City parks. Ken said the Parks Department has done very well this year. Councilmember Thompson asked if Tiebreaker Park was on Ken’s radar for anything. Ken said yes, he has redesigned the park if the City ever wanted to redevelop it. Councilmember Thompson said the park has been designed for an ice skating park. Discussion ensued regarding an ice rink and the possibility of grants. Ken will check into grants for an ice skating rink. C. I.T. & Broadband Department (Bruce): Bruce directed the Council to a PowerPoint slide show and talked about the new Broadband Department that was created. Bruce said there was a new Systems Administrator hired which meant there was some training going on. Bruce said his Department is changing the domain and migrating to cityofammon.us and making some changes to his department. Councilmember Kirkham said that is really good. Councilmember Powell said he would have a DVD available for the new website. Bruce discussed the fiber build status. Bruce and the Council discussed a letter they received from a customer regarding the broadband fiber tube outside of her home. Councilmember Kirkham and Councilmember Powell are going to go look at the location on Monday. D. Fire Department (Stacy): Stacy read the Fire Department Mission Statement to the Council. Stacy said in addition to fires and emergency responses the Fire Department conducted 182 fire hydrant inspections and simple maintenance on those hydrants, and wild land and structural controlled burns. Stacy noted some of the organizations his Department is involved with are Upper Snake Interagency Wild Fire Group, and Eastern Idaho Fire Chiefs, just to name a few. Stacy explained some of the new equipment purchased included (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) SCBA’s. Stacy explained how the calls are separated and what types of calls come to his Department. Stacy said the Fire Department maintains a very active Fire Prevention Bureau. Councilmember Coletti said the Police Department was very happy with the Fire Departments involvement with a suspicious package. Stacy explained to the Council what the mysterious package was. Fire Marshal, Keith Banda explained the day to day operations of the Fire Prevention Division. Keith explained they had participated in over 500 hours of public relations events such as, Fire House tours, safety fair events at Kmart, Walgreens and local churches, and passing out candy at the local Fire Station. Keith said his Department participates in Fire Prevention messages that include a visit from Sparky the Fire Prevention Dog. Keith said the Fire Department raised $23,300 over 3 days in the Fill the Boot Campaign. Keith said over 100 fire hydrants have been cleared of vegetation and have been repainted by church groups and scouts for eagle projects. The Fire Department has instituted a Color Guard for special events including, various ceremonies, memorial services, and awards declarations, Keith said in the past year the department has become more involved in local and regional coalitions for fire prevention and investigation including the Bonneville County Fire Prevention Co-op, the Bonneville County Arson Task Force, Idaho Fire Chiefs Association Fire Prevention Division, and the Idaho Chapter for the International Association of Arson Investigators. Training Officer Scott McGuire spoke about the Fire Department Training Division and what they have done over the last year. Scott explained the amount of hours the fire fighters have put into training and the types of instruction given. Scott said the Fire Department obtained a house on Ammon Road for training and have completed multiple scenarios utilizing different props to modify the floor layout so that it is different each time they go into the structure. Scott said the Fire Department has worked with the Life Care Center and completed a large scale drill in September simulating a structure fire in the rear of the building and they try to do this each year. Scott said they are continuing the CPR program and it is going well. Councilmember Kirkham thanked the Fire Department for their interaction with the community. E. Engineering Department (Lance): Lance said the (Iona Bonneville Sewer District) IBSD Midway/Eagle Interceptor Line was designed, bid, awarded, and is almost done with construction for 2011. Lance said the SCADA Building construction was completed and the City had the open house. Lance said on the water project, in the original scope, the City did not have a water model associated with it. Lance said through redoing what was happening, the City did get a water model and atlas. Lance said he received the as builds for the water system project upgrade. Lance said he is ready to wrap up the water project, and the bond should come in at 14.3 million dollars. Lance said the sewer jet truck was purchased and delivered. Lance explained which sections of the sewer project are completed. 24 Council Minutes 12-8-11 Page of F. Public Works Department (Ray): Ray spoke about snow removal and said his Department worked hard last year and made some adjustments to how they would approach it this year. Ray said they plan on removing snow from the three miles on th Sunnyside Road, Ammon Road and 17 Street. Councilmember Kirkham asked how much was spent on all the markers the City purchased for snow removal. Ray said approximately $1,600. Ray said Molen Street was reconstructed for $80,000 for 4/10 of a mile, and feels the road will last. Ray said they have software for street inventory in place, and can use it to plan for the next few years of street improvement. Ray said the streets are looking really good. Ray said regarding the sanitation department they have focused on customer service. Ray said they have trimmed about 200 miles off of the Commercial Sanitation route. Councilmember Kirkham said that was excellent. Ray explained how they are responding to sanitation complaints. They are evaluating equipment they would like to purchase. Councilmember Kirkham and Councilmember Powell spoke about having the additional trash pickup at Christmas time and also a designated tree drop. Ray spoke about the meter radio reading and said he hoped to see meter readings on the January billing statement. Ray talked about two homes that had issues with poor water pressure. Ray said he appreciated working with Bruce and getting the SCADA Building up and running. Ray said he is proud of what his Department has accomplished. G. Planning Department (Ron): Ron said last year Planning only approved two commercial site plans at Planning and Zoning Commission meetings. Ron said there were no plats until last night for almost two years. Ron said the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the Villas division 3, and explained what would be seen on the plat. The majority of the year the Commission spent talking about the comprehensive plan and title 10 changes that would result from changes to the comprehensive plan. Ron said they have three members of the Planning and Zoning Commission whose terms will expire, but they would all like to serve again. Councilmember Kirkham asked how many terms they can serve. Ron said they can serve as many as the Council approves. Ron said Grow Idaho Falls came in and discussed a business location between Mrs. Powell’s & The Prepared Pantry. The business is for health and weight loss. Ron said there is a hearing in February and hopes to have an approval from the Council for the Comprehensive Plan. Ron spoke about the cross training in the main City Office. Ron explained that Jennifer is the direct supervisor for April, and Rachael is Shari’s direct supervisor. Ron said since he has moved his office upstairs he feels that the Office has been able to handle a lot of issues that previously have been sent to the Council. H. General Government (Rachael & Jennifer): Rachael reported that the (Equivalent Residential Unit) ERU implementation for the utility system is complete. When new businesses come to the City, a system has been put into place where when they apply for new service, they are given the ERU survey, and Lance evaluates how many ERU’s need to be issued. Rachael said the election went smoothly, and it was a nice change having the County Clerk run the elections. Rachael also reported she, Ron, and Ray attended the Minert & Associates Supervisors Drug Awareness Seminar, and all three will receive a certification. The Supervisor Workplace Drug & Alcohol Awareness certification will help to insure the drug free workplace credit will continue with the State Insurance Fund. Jennifer said staff has been using Laserfiche to scan accounts payable and, all accounts payable for 2010 has been scanned into the system. Jennifer said having the accounts payable scanned made it simple for the auditors to view items and saved time that staff would have had to pull invoices.Jennifer said the Quail Ridge water rights project is completed. Jennifer said the Lighting District is set up in Clarity and has its own accounting software. Jennifer wanted to thank Rex for his hard work on the HRA for the health reimbursement account for dental and vision. Jennifer said the City did a wage study and has a pay grade scale. Jennifer wanted to thank Councilmember’s Slack and Bean for their assistance with the Investment Policy. Jennifer also thanked everyone for their assistance with Ammon Day’s and its success. 2. Investment Discussion (Russell & Jenn): Councilmember Slack spoke to the Council about the Investment Policy and explained the column amounts for the corresponding Departments. Discussion ensued regarding committed & restrictive funds. Councilmember Slack said he wanted to document the procedure they used to come up with the Investment Policy for future Councils. Councilmember Slack said both he and Councilmember Bean work in financial institutions that have investment arms, but neither Councilmember are employed by or receive any benefits from those departments. Councilmember Slack spoke about the most recent RFP that went out, the methodology behind it, and the banks he had narrowed it down to. Councilmember Slack discussed the proposals that were returned to the City of Ammon. Councilmember Kirkham asked Ron to discuss the vacation accrual. Ron said he and Jennifer talked about it and felt three . weeks is ok. Councilmember Kirkham said she thought three weeks is what was decided by compromiseCouncilmember Kirkham said she thought if an employee accrued six weeks that the entire time could not be taken off consecutively. The employee could only take two weeks consecutively. Discussion ensued regarding vacation accrual and it was felt that the amount accrued over one year in addition to the current year is the maximum. 34 Council Minutes 12-8-11 Page of Councilmember Slack said Ken informed him that in the process of remodeling it was discovered there has never been asbestos testing. Councilmember Slack said the cost is $1,000 to test if there is a need for asbestos abatement. Ron explained the abatement process. Councilmember Kirkham said Scott Bishop called her today and said he had spoken to both Target and Albertsons and they would like to participate in a light and asked if the City would contribute. Councilmember Kirkham said Scott had spoken to Ball Ventures and they would offer both pieces of land for the same price. Lance explained the traffic study involving the possible Costco location. EXECUTIVE SESSION: 1. Personnel Evaluations - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-b) 2. Real Property Acquisitions - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-c) 3. Pending Litigation - Idaho Code 67-2345 (1-f) Councilmember Kirkham moved to adjourn. Councilmember Powell seconded. The meeting adjourned at 7:02 p.m. ___________________________________________ Steve Fuhriman, Mayor ____________________________________________ Ron Folsom, City Clerk 44 Council Minutes 12-8-11 Page of