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02122009CouncilMinutes-WS CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL – WORK SESSION MINUTES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2009 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AMENDED AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2009 – 4:00 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Park Budget Reduction Considerations (Ken) 2.Parks Mission Statement (Ken) 3.Building Dept. Fee Changes (Charlie) Water Meter Charges (Lance) 4. 5.Misc. MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Bruce Ard Councilmember Lee Bean Councilmember Brian Powell Councilmember Randy Waite Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember D. Ray Ellis City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Engineer Lance Bates City Officials Absent: Councilmember Dana Kirkham City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Planning Director Ron Folsom DISCUSSION ITEMS: Mayor Ard opened the meeting at 4:25 pm at the City Office Building located at 2135 South Ammon Road. 1. Park Budget Reduction Considerations (Ken): Ken passed out the parks department reduction sheet to the Council. Ken has cut his budget by $12,000. This included $6400 in salaries by not hiring a new Parks Superintendant. If you add another 20% to that, it’s another $1200 for employee benefits that doesn’t show. Ken explained he has cut his office supply budget by $200, travel and meetings by 50% for a total of $1500, membership dues by $50, $500 from training and certification, department supplies by $850, $1000 from weed control, $1500 from building repair and maintenance. All the figures add up to approximately a 24% reduction. 2. Parks Mission Statement (Ken): Ken asked the Council permission to accept a parks mission statement that reads “Our goal is to create recreation and open space for all ages and abilities, provide a sense of community, self structured learning, and wellness benefits through our park and recreation facilities”. Ken also showed the Council a drawing of the entry signs for the parks. Council was ok with both the mission statement and entry signs. 3. Building Dept. Fee Changes (Charlie): Charlie said we have R38 bats in the City Building ceiling and no insulation to the perimeter. Charlie said for $850 New Age Insulation would insulate to a R50. Leslie will accept the bid and Charlie will have it done. Charlie explained electrical, mechanical and HVACs fees and wants to propose a fee increase to $130 which is the same as the State fee. A person building a 1200 sq. ft. house pays the same as a person building a 5000 sq. ft. home. Charlie stated he would like to propose the increase, so the fees would be more even across the board. As the home gets bigger, we are under the state fee. As you get bigger there is more to inspect, more piping and duct work. Councilmember Bean asked if the fees included drive time. Charlie said yes, the fees are based off of $40 per hour. Councilmember Thompson asked if the State fee was an average or is it what the State would charge if they did an inspection. Charlie said it’s what the State would charge and that’s what they do in the County. We are actually less than the County. Mayor Ard Council Minutes 2-12-09 Page 1 of 3 asked if we have to go through a whole publication for this. Charlie said yes because it would be more than 5%. Councilmember Thompson asked if Charlie had numbers to backup his figures. Charlie said yes. Charlie said it is uncomfortable for his inspectors when they are counting up each little item and the constituents feel the City is trying to take advantage of them. Councilmember Ellis said he can take a 2000 sq. ft. house and build it for $200,000 or $400,000. The City is providing a service and we need to cover that cost of service. Councilmember Ellis stated he would like to take an average house and see what it costs to provide the inspection service for that house. Councilmember Ellis said he would like to know how the $40 breaks out which portion is office, administrative, benefits, etc. Charlie said that would be quite an undertaking to break out the fees. Councilmember Bean said this year the rate should be $70 per hour to cover our expenses. Mayor Ard said he feels Charlie is trying to stay competitive within the State and our area. Councilmember Ellis asked is there a figure based on an average number of permits. Councilmember Bean said he would sit with Charlie to come up with a cost analysis. Councilmember Ellis said take your total year’s cost and divide it by 2000 hours per man year to convert it into an hourly cost. You need to spread Gay’s time across all the inspectors. Councilmember Bean said you take the total cost of the department divided by the total number of man hours worked and that will give your total cost per hour. Councilmember Bean said this will make the budget slim. Councilmember Ellis said we need to put in an ex-factor for reserve, so that you have something to float you through the times that are slim. Councilmember Bean asked Charlie how many employees he had. Charlie said 5 including himself. Charlie said when they were doing 500 permits a year and 20,000 inspections a year, we were very efficient. Councilmember Ellis said if we are going to only make 10 electrical inspections this year, it doesn’t make sense to pay an employee and benefits to make 10 electrical inspections, it’s not efficient use of their time, when we could contract with the State for an outside individual. Charlie said State inspectors can take weeks for an inspection, which is not up to the City’s level of service. Councilmember Bean stated if we take your total budget of $424,057 and divides it by your total man hours; it is $40.77 an hour. Leslie stated that Alan has been used a lot by Lance. Councilmember Bean said if we were able to add a $50,000 contingency for reserves, it would put that at $45.58 an hour so he could come in at $45 an hour and justify the cost. Councilmember Powell asked right now you are only charging $120 for a 4500 sq. ft. home and up? Charlie said yes, it’s off the way it is now and it is going to raise the fee, but we do incur more expense when we go out and look at these bigger homes. Councilmember Ellis asked as a percentage overall, how much of an increase is this? Charlie said it’s hard to pin it down because of the size of each house. Councilmember Ellis said but you are doing this as a projection to increase revenue. Charlie said he wasn’t doing it for revenue. Councilmember Thompson said we don’t know because we don’t know how many houses we are going to have. Councilmember Powell said why couldn’t you go back to the beginning of the budget year and see how many permits you have issued since then and see how much would the increase be. Charlie said it’s going to be an increase, but it was based off of the fact that we felt like we were putting more money into the larger homes. He thought that it was fair across the board, if somebody pays by the square foot and it wasn’t necessarily for revenues. Councilmember Bean said what he hears Charlie saying is regardless of the economic circumstances we are in; he would probably request an increase to be able to bring these more in line with what the realistic cost is to us on the residential building permits. Charlie wants to get his valuations in line so when they go into the State, we are compared to other Cities and Counties and we are truly giving our true valuations in the amount of work that is being done. Councilmember Bean asked if that will help us on our assessed values too. Charlie replied no, they have their own system and they don’t look at ours. Charlie said they do their own assessment on their own program. They take the square footage, or actually send out their assessors to take measurements. Charlie would like to get our valuations correct and lower the multiplier fee to come up with a 5 or 10% increase. Charlie stated the fees have not been raised since 2004 and would like to see us do at least a 5% increase. Idaho Falls is also considering their fees and correcting their valuations. Charlie just wanted the Council to look at his thoughts and advise him to where they want to go. In the past, George took the commercial and changed the residential to meet the budget. Charlie would like to propose keeping the commercial as is and changing the residential fees. Councilmember Ellis said under the old system the house would be valued at $50,000 but with the proposed fees it is $100,000 which is truer to the real cost. Councilmember Ellis said Rockwell is selling a 1000 sq. ft. townhome for $89,000. Charlie said his research shows $96.38 per sq. ft. for residential. Councilmember Bean is not opposed to this but doesn’t feel now is the time. Mayor Ard said it’s not fair to only pay $42 per sq. ft. when you can’t even build it for that, then they go to the County and beat them up because we are lower. Charlie said he feels sq. footage is the best way. Mayor Ard said that a 1300 sq. ft. house would be valued at $117,000. The Mayor said he feels this is reasonable. Mayor Ard said it needs to be based on walls not how fancy it is inside. The Council requested Charlie to give them a comparison of figures. Charlie said it would up the fees but lower the plan review fee. Councilmember Bean wants Charlie to be proactive and talk to the construction people rather than Councilmember Ellis and get their input. Councilmember Bean has no problem changing the formula but let’s not increase the percentage. Councilmember Ellis stated Brett Skidmore is the new president of the Home Builders Association. Council Minutes 2-12-09 Page 2 of 3 4. Water Meter Charges (Lance): Lance asked the Council for clarification on the meter charges. The City has just sold four building permits in Hawks Landing. His intent was that the City would still collect the money for the meter and the City will install it. This will give us control over the meters, supply, when the customer receives their water, etc. Gay was wondering whether to charge for the meter or not and Lance has told her to keep charging and we will install. Councilmember Bean said let’s charge for the meter but not do the installation due to the liability standpoint. Councilmember Ellis said Falls Water installs theirs. Lance says it takes 10 minutes. Councilmember Powell asked why the plumbing inspector doesn’t do the installation. Lance said that it isn’t his responsibility. Lance said the meters are running $350. Councilmember Bean said it will take two guys for a minimum of 1 to 1 1/2 hours manpower. Councilmember Ellis said the excavator is licensed to hook up the meter. Councilmember Bean asked what a plumber would charge to install the meter. Lance said $65 an hour. Councilmember Bean said we need to increase the rates so we collect for the cost of the meter and $65.00 for the labor to install it. Councilmember Ellis said it will be more cost effective for the plumber to put it in, when they are testing the rough in plumbing. Lance is ok with that. Lance stated the storage of the meters will be at public works. Councilmember Ellis wants the wholesaler to store the meters. Lance would only have ten meters on hand. Mayor Ard said to have the supplier keep a minimum amount of the meters in stock. Councilmember Bean asked how long it takes to order them. Lance said two weeks. Councilmember Powell said you will know how many meters you need when they pull the building permit. Councilmember Bean asked if we have a computer program to track when we install the meters. Leslie said Caselle does that. 5. Misc.: Wes Cook, 155 Rosewood Drive, Rexburg, with Forsgren Associates stated he would like the Council to check the spelling of the names on the plaque. Leslie advised him that she will send the correct spelling to him. Wes stated the contractor is on time and the budget is right on. There have been some cost changes and some adders but they are right on with the budget. Lance said if you go on Forsgren’ website you can look at the cam. Councilmember Powell stated he will have Bruce Patterson put it on the website. Mayor Ard said Merrill has signed his easement. Mayor Ard advised the Council that Hal Smith is going to retire at the fireman’s ball and the Council is invited. Councilmember Ellis asked Lance for an update on the Sunnyside Sewer Project. Lance said they are supposed to have the plans ready by Friday, but they have made a couple more changes and asked to extend it until Tuesday. They still hope to submit all the plans to the DEQ, County, Lance and everyone else on Tuesday. Councilmember Waite asked about the dog citations. He has a neighborhood dog that is causing a lot of problems. Shawna has told Councilmember Waite she has been citing them. Councilmember Powell stated he will talk to Shawna. Councilmember Bean has talked to people about the garbage trucks and they are saying they haven’t heard about the automated system. Councilmember Bean wants Leslie and Lance to write a press release, as soon as possible. Councilmember Ellis said they have been working on a garbage can policy and would like to get it finalized for approval next week and then post it on the garbage can. Councilmember Powell said last month he had to deal with the State of Nevada, Clark County and the City of Henderson regarding his business license. Their business license is based on total sales. The fees are substantial and his business license will be around $1500. Leslie suggested possibly basing them on sq footage. Councilmember Bean asked if you can apportion the cost of the license for police protection. No-one knew for sure. Councilmember Powell stated he will get the breakdown from Henderson for the Council’s review. Leslie suggested possibly basing the fees on the calls for police services and charge so much for every occurrence. The meeting adjourned at 6:00 pm. ________________________________________ C. Bruce Ard, Mayor __________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk Council Minutes 2-12-09 Page 3 of 3