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Council Minutes 01/16/2003 CITY OF AMMON January 16, 2003 Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Mayor and City Council: The meeting was called to order by Mayor C. Bruce Ard at 7:30 p.m. in the City Building, 2135 South Ammon Road, Ammon, Idaho, with the following City Officials present: Mayor C. Bruce Ard Council member Karen Y. Anderson Councilmember W. Lee Bean Council member Leslie Folsom Councilmember Randy G. Waite Attorney Scott Hall Engineer Bill Manwill City Administrator Bruce Rose Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Tom Hunsaker City Clerk Aleen C. Jensen Council member Waite led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and Councilmember Bean offered a prayer. Consent AQenda - Licenses: The first item of business was the Consent Agenda, which included applications for licenses for 2003 as follows: (1) Renewal of General Business License and Retail Sale of Wine and Beer for consumption on the premises: Don Thach, Yen Ching Restaurant, 2647 South 25th East (2) Home Occupation Permit: Von D. Crofts, dba Digital Transcription Services LLC, 4310 Mason Street. The City Council approved Von Crofts' application for a home occupation permit at City Council meeting on September 5, 2002. (3) New Home Occupation Permit for Karen Anderson, dba Karen Y. Anderson CPA, 755 Tiebreaker Drive (4) Renewal of General Business Licenses: (a) Dollar Cuts, 1819 South 25th East; (b) Eastgate Drug, 3250 East 17thStreet; (c) Big 5 Sporting Goods, 1851 South 25th East; (d) Key Bank, Ammon Branch, 2655 East 1 yth Street; (e) City Storage-Ammon (Main office is located at 1445 North Woodruff Avenue, Idaho Falls) Councilmember Folsom moved to approve the licenses as listed on the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Waite seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Bean - Yes; Anderson - Abstained because her application for a home occupation permit was included on the Consent Agenda. The motion carried. City Council Meeting, January 16, 2002 - Page 2 Applications for new and renewal home occupation permits will be included on a Consent Agenda unless they are controversial. If there are questions about compliance with the home occupation permit requirements specified in City Code 10-7 -8, the application will be considered as a separate agenda item. Independent Auditors' Report: Judy Brower of Galusha, Higgins, and Galusha presented the auditors' report of the financial statements of the City of Ammon for the fiscal period October 1, 2002, through September 30, 2002. Copies of the audit were distributed to the City Officials and each page was reviewed. Questions of the City Council were answered. The financial statements belong to the City and the auditors have the responsibility to report whether or not they are fairly presented. It was the auditor's opinion that the general purpose financial statements "present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the City of Ammon as of September 30, 2002, and the results of its operations and the cash flows of its proprietary fund types for the year then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America." The Special Revenue Funds include the street funds, the street reserve funds, and the Fire Department reserve funds. The component unit is a summary of the balance sheet of the Ammon Urban Renewal Agency. The Proprietary Funds include the water funds, the water improvement funds, the sewer funds, the sewer improvement funds, the sanitation funds, and the sanitation reserve funds. Over all, the funds are in solid financial shape except for the component unit. East Hills is a dedicated fund, which was set aside for special improvements to a few lots developed on the north side of East Sunnyside Road in the vicinity of Dal Avenue. East Hills is included in General Funds. In Special Revenue Funds there is a noticeable item. Because of the Sunnyside Road project planned for next year, a transfer is shown from street reserve to the street fund. These funds, which the City has been accumulating, have been budgeted as expenditure for the project during the 2003 fiscal year. The management letter notes certain areas where city and financial matters should be considered, procedures improved and administrative controls strengthened. Judy Brower reviewed the management letter earlier with the City Administrator and the City Clerk. The City Office has made plans to consider and implement the suggestions. The City Council discussed the information in the management letter. Regarding authorization of purchases, the purchase order suggestion has already been implemented. When the procedure was initiated, purchase orders City Council Meeting, January 16, 2003 - Page 3 were required for all purchases over $25. As of this date the procedure has been revised. Any expenditure over $50 requires a purchase order and prior approval by the City Administrator. The Fire Department officers are authorized to approve the purchases of that Department with supervision from their City Council representative. Councilmember Bean asked if there was an upper limit on a purchase when it needs to go to the City Council for approval before the purchase order is issued. Any purchase over $25,000 needs to be bid. It was tentatively agreed that purchases of $5000 or more should have prior Council approval unless the purchase has been approved in the budget process. Rather than go to the full Council for approval, the City Administrator can go to the Council member over the department involved. Separation of duties was discussed in regard to cash receipts and disbursement of City funds. It is important that the Mayor and City Administrator continue to be closely involved with the financial matters of the City. The procedure to have two people sign on the checks has been beneficial, and it was recommended to continue requiring two signatures. Another recommendation was to review the bank reconciliation. Regarding GASB 34, the City of Ammon falls in the category of a small city. This means that Ammon will not have to go back to deal with old infrastructure. As we go forward, it may be somewhat difficult to track new infrastructure because the City does not always pay for it. The developers are responsible for infrastructure and, when it is acceptable, it is turned over to the City. As building permits are issued and through other means, the City may put some procedures in place to obtain the infrastructure information. Councilmember Bean asked Judy Brower to submit an audit proposal for next year. Councilmember Anderson moved to approve and accept the audit for fiscal year 2002 as it has been presented. Councilmember Folsom seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Anderson - Yes; Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Bean - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Amendment to Personnel Policv reQardina "Vacation Leave": The existing Personnel Policy requires an employee to be employed a year prior to receiving any vacation. It was proposed to change the policy to have vacation leave begin to accrue immediately upon employment and to allow the employee to begin using the accrued vacation after 90 days of satisfactory employment. The Council members asked about carrying over unused leave. The present policy does not address "use it or lose it." There are several areas in the Personnel Policy which need to be reviewed and amended. The vacation leave is only one phase and the amendment was proposed as a benefit for new employees. It is City Council Meeting, January 16, 2003 - Page 4 not a good policy to put an employee in a forced vacation position. Vacation leave can be allowed to accrue with a cap on the amount to be accrued. A discussion followed regarding a vacation policy and the amount of vacation to be carried over. The City has unofficially followed a "use it or lose it" policy for vacation leave. There has been no limit on the amount of sick leave that can be carried over. When an employee leaves, vacation leave is paid for, but sick leave is forfeited. Attorney Scott Hall advised that, if the City Council does limit the amount of leave an employee can carryover, it protects the City against a claim by an employee, upon leaving employment or retiring, that he has a large amount of leave time he was not allowed to take. Council member Bean recommended establishing a policy to allow an employee to carryover a maximum of five days per calendar year. Also, at the discretion of the Mayor upon hiring new employees, past work experience is credited towards computing leave. This is important if the City hires an employee away from other employment. The recommendation was restated in a motion. Council member Bean moved to approve accruing vacation leave as proposed with the addition of the language that, at the discretion of the Mayor upon hiring new employees, past work experience may be credited towards years of employment for the purpose of computing vacation leave. Additionally the motion is to include that we cap the number of vacation leave days that can be carried over to five days per calendar year. Councilmember Folsom seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bean - Yes; Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Anderson - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. It was verified that the carryover is per calendar year. There was a discussion on how the new policy affects the old employees. The policy was not meant to take anything away from employees hired prior to January 2002. It was meant to benefit the three employees hired since January 1, 2002. There was a difference of opinions regarding accrual of vacation leave. City Administration Rose recommended that the Council undo the action taken. Councilmember Bean moved to rescind the motion just passed to approve amendments to the vacation leave policy. Councilmember Folsom seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bean - Yes; Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Anderson - Yes. The motion carried unanimously. Mayor Ard and City Administrator Rose agreed to work together on a vacation policy. Storm DrainaQe AQreement for the Sunnyside Road Proiect: Attorney Scott Hall reported that he had received a call from Kevin Eckersell of Bonneville County to indicate the need to proceed with the Storm Drainage Agreement with the School District. The drainage pond will be located at Hillcrest High School and is part of the Sunnyside roadway improvement that will be funded by the City of Ammon, City of Idaho Falls, and Bonneville County. The pond design is sized City Council Meeting, January 16, 2003 - Page 5 to accommodate both the School District and Sunnyside Road storm water. The agreement was reviewed by Attorney Hall and by Attorney Doug Nelson. A couple of changes were made. Neither attorney was part of the negotiations of the agreement and did not have an understanding of the plans. They reviewed the agreement from a legal standpoint. There was concern about Section 3, "Operation of Storm Drainage Facilities and Playing Field." This section may need some language revisions. The School District may have some changes to the agreement. Attorney Hall advised the City to give their recommendations to Engineer Manwill and let him touch up negotiations with the School District. The agreement needs to be in Ammon's name because it will up to Ammon to maintain the storm drainage. The agreement is similar to an easement because the property is owned by the School District and Ammon has a drainage easement. No action was taken on the Storm Drainage Agreement. Summary of Ordinance No. 320: Ordinance No. 320, An Ordinance providing for the revocation of Section 23, Chapter 5, Title 10 of the 1998 Codified Ordinances of the City of Ammon and providing for a new Section 23, Chapter 5, Title 10, was passed by the City Council and approved by the Mayor on January 2, 2003. It is more cost effective to publish a summary of the ordinance. In order to do so, the Council needed to pass a resolution to authorize that the ordinance be published in summary form. Council member Folsom moved to approve a Summary of Ordinance No 320 for publication. Council member Waite seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Anderson - Abstain; Bean - Yes. The motion carried. Summary of Ordinance No. 320 will also be known as Resolution No. 2003-04. Quail RidQe Well Site: George McDaniel brought a copy of an Application of Waiver of the Protective Covenants for the well site. He had talked to the residents and the owners of the lots in Bit 0' Heaven. He has not heard any negative comments, but he does not have any signatures. They want more discussion with each other. Two of the owners want some assurance for deepening their wells if their wells run dry. One other owner would like to be able to hook on to City services and have connection fees waived if he hooks on. The waiver allows for a fire station, the well site and everything contained therein, or everything that can be contained within the current well house. It does not provide for any additional tanks above ground or below ground. It requires the City to maintain the lot and landscaping. George believes he can get the waiver signed with these conditions. There would be another location for the storage tank. The waiver allows the change of covenants so the City can have a well lot, water system, and fire station on the Bit 0' Heaven lot. The other issue for discussion regarded the reimbursement on the well. The water system or the water main lines were not addressed in the development agreement. The only thing addressed was the sewer main line. George said the City Council Meeting, January 16, 2003 - Page 6 developers knew they had to build the well and to upfront it. However, when it impacted an area much greater than Quail Ridge, it was understood there would need to be cost sharing or a way to recoup some of the costs. Mayor Ard and Engineer Manwill explained that the City wanted the well bigger than was needed just to serve Quail Ridge. There was a discussion on the different understandings about what the developer expected and what the City expected. George McDaniel stated they are trying to look at something that will be fair for all parties and promote a good long-term relationship. The City paid the developer for the oversize on the water and sewer lines. Councilmembers remembered discussions to pay for oversize of the lines, but they did not remember discussions to pay for the original well. The City needs to have some accurate figures to identify the cost of the oversize. Attorney Hall had prepared a Memorandum of Understanding and Satisfaction of Obligation but it needs a correct dollar amount. The discussion cleared up the understanding of the issue. Mountain River requested joint payment on part of any reimbursement to George McDaniel/Hillpoint Properties for money due them so they do not need to lien the property. The joint payment was agreeable with George McDaniel. Other Business: Larry Schuldt explained that a number of years ago he had a contract with the City for plan checking building permits and building inspections. The contract was terminated, and at the time of termination Mr. Schuldt presented the City with a bill for his last three months of service. He has never been paid. The outstanding principal balance is $12,708.09 plus interest which brings it up to $30,137.74. He has talked with his legal counsel who suggested that Mr. Schuldt come to try one last time to resolve the issue with the Mayor and City Council before proceeding with legal action. The bill was due in May 1998. He was paid for the January 31, 1998, billing. He continued two more months of inspections for the City. There was an enormous amount of plans presented for plan checks during February and March and he has not been paid for any of those. The last paper billing to the City was April 1998. The last contact he had with anyone from the City about the bill was about 18 months ago. There has been some circumstances that has held up Mr. Schuldt from pursuing collection, but he is now ready to have it resolved. Attorney Scott Hall asked for a review of what billing period Mr. Schuldt was talking about and when the last work was done. He stated he has not been paid from January 31, 1998, through April I, 1998. The last bill presented near the end of April was for work done in February and March 1998. As part of the billing there was $5800 for finish up of inspection work for permits granted prior to February 1. Attorney Hall needs copies of the billings and copies of the inspections done for documentation. Mr. Schuldt was asked to provide whatever documentation he has. The City needs some time to research the records. Time is of the essence because of statue of limitations. Mr. Schuldt said he turned in all reports through January 31. From January 31 to April I, he brought in inspection slips daily. The records, which were submitted, included inspection slips and certificates of occupancy. Mr. City Council Meeting, January 16, 2003 - Page 7 Schuldt can be reached during the day at 522-2546. The City will try to complete the research and have a recommendation for Mr.Schuldt by the next City Council meeting on February 6, 2003. Minutes: Councilmember Bean moved to approve the minutes of the City Council Meeting held January 2, 2003. Councilmember Folsom seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Bean - Yes; Folsom - Yes; Waite - Yes; Anderson - Abstained because she was not in attendance at the meeting. The motion carried. City of Ammon Water Fee Policv: Council member Anderson introduced a Water Fee Policy as an idea for the City Council to consider. It recognizes the fact that as soon as property is annexed into the city limits of Ammon it increases in value because at that point the property would no longer require a well or septic system. At the time of annexation the City becomes responsible to make sure of the water supply. At times the annexation may require a new well and at times we may already have the capacity. When annexation is approved, the City accepts the responsibility. This policy recognizes that the City is not trying to pay for the water supply with just connection fees. The connection fees would pay for part of well costs and the other part of well costs would be covered at annexation time. The developer who wants to annex comes up with a cost towards an existing well or a cost for a future well. We are trying to have the developer help the City pay the costs. Council member Anderson described it as a cost benefit. It was recommended that developers interested in annexation should be alerted to the fact that the City is considering such a fee. The City needs some guidelines so such a fee does not fall into the category of an impact fee. It was suggested that the City Council consider development of an annexation fee policy to incorporate all costs in terms of annexation. Chairman Tom Hunsaker recommended that the City Council obtain a copy of the State Code regarding an impact fee. The fee policy has merits and needs further discussion at a work session. In the meantime, any developer who is considering annexation should understand we are working toward a fee policy. Council member Anderson moved to adjourn the meeting to an Executive Session to discuss personnel matters. Councilmember Folsom seconded the motion. Voting was unanimous in favor. The Regular Meeting was adjourned at 9:30 P.M. Mayor Attest: City Clerk