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12092010CouncilMinutes-WS CITY OF AMMON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010 AGENDA: CITY OF AMMON 2135 SOUTH AMMON ROAD CITY COUNCIL AGENDA – WORK SESSION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010 – 4:30 P.M. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1.Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office City Report (Kirkham) 2.Sports Complex – City Participation (Bean) 3.Daycare/Bartender/Massage Fees (Bean Council Session 11-18-10)* 4.Joint Power Agreement for Health Insurance (Leslie/Jenn)* 5.Proposed City Code Changes (Ron)* 6.EIRWWA ICRMP Insurance for $38,900 (Bean) 7.Water Bond Discussion from Boise Meeting (Mayor) 8.Misc. MINUTES City Officials Present: Mayor Steve Fuhriman Councilmember Dana Kirkham Councilmember Lee Bean (left at 6:00 p.m.) Councilmember Rex Thompson Councilmember Russell Slack Councilmember Sean Coletti City Clerk Leslie Folsom City Planner Ron Folsom City Engineer Lance Bates City Treasurer Jennifer Belfield City Officials Absent: Councilmember Brian Powell Mayor Fuhriman opened the meeting at the Ammon City Hall located at 2135 South Ammon Road. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office City Report (Kirkham): Kevin Casper, Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office – Ammon Division, presented the Council with the City’s crime report for the year. The sheriff and Captain Hulse were unavailable for this meeting, but hoped to meet again in February. The report covers 12/2009 through 12/2010. Total burglaries 158 with 130 vehicle burglary and the remainder were business and residential. Total thefts for a 3 month period were 360. The retail theft is high for a City our size, which he feels is due to our thoroughness of catching the criminals and the amount of retail shopping we draw from the area. Councilmember Kirkham asked if part of this high number could be contributed to the retail security offered by the larger retail stores. Officer Casper confirmed that this was the case. The Sheriff’s office meets with the stores every month to help manage the crime. The vandalism crimes were all under $1000, with 151 crimes being perpetrated by the same individuals. Most vandalism crimes were of a mischievous nature. There were 101 general welfare checks, which included 67 suicide attempts. The department spends a fair amount of time in the mental health realm. The police Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 1 of 7 department is the only responder to a suicide attempt call. Officer Casper gave a detailed report on a special division that deals with crimes against children. There is cooperation between the County, the FBI, Homeland Security, and other law enforcement agencies. There were 450 traffic accidents. This is high for a City our size, but not considering the main corridors that pass through the City. There were 100 domestic disturbances. Council Kirkham asked if there seemed to be areas that were higher in domestic disturbances, than others. Officer Casper stated that domestic disturbances are higher in the apartment complexes, rather than homes. Several 4 plex apartment units on Eagle Drive, behind the Ameritel, have been converted to group homes and the Sheriff’s department has met with the managers to have better communication between the department in the hope to deal more effectively with domestic disturbance calls in that area. There were 2657 traffic stops. There were 58 driving without privileges. The County is aggressive with DUI’s. Anyone stopped for DUI with probable cause will be arrested and taken to jail, but these crimes are difficult to get a conviction on. The officers are encouraged to continue stopping and arresting for DUI’s, regardless of the conviction rate. Kevin said there is better coordination between the prosecuting attorney, police and judges now for criminal prosecution. In the past, there were communication issues between the departments and Kevin feels these have been corrected. Councilmember Kirkham asked Kevin if they will enforce City ordinances. Kevin said yes, we will. The County handles approx. 300 issues a year for animal control, outside of those that Shawna handles, and this can be discussed with next year’s budget. He commended Shawna’s job efficiency with the County. There have been 48 drug arrests. The sheriff’s office and the City of Idaho Falls are planning to join together in a united drug task force. One of the advantages of this is that Idaho Falls may be having undercover operations in different public areas of the City and using informants, which may require activities to take place in areas outside the Idaho Falls City limits and having a blended operation between Cities and the County would reinforce these operations. This united task force will improve communications and drug operations between different law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. Chief Roos and the Sheriff are dedicated to working closely together to fight crime to benefit public safety. Average response time is 3 minutes on an emergency call and 10 minutes or less on a non-emergency call. He has been trying to get a homeless/vagrancy/aggressive panhandling ordinance in place, but they are running into some legal battles. He is going to be piggybacking onto the SLC ordinance that has already been through the legal battles. Council thanked Kevin for the good job the County is doing. 2. Sports Complex – City Participation (Bean): Councilmember Bean asked the Council if they can, should or want to participate in this. Councilmember Slack said he thinks they were more concerned with the road issue, not the City participating in the project. Ron said the City could do a LID on the undeveloped properties. This can be done without majority approval, but it would be best to try and get the property owners blessings. Councilmember Slack said he lived in Cedar City and they had the State of Utah summer games there and they had dozens of soccer games and other events and the revenue that came in to the retail establishments was a huge economic benefit for the community. Councilmember Slack believes this type of indoor complex would be a good thing for the community, but he wasn’t sure if the City wanted to participate in the construction beyond an LID to improve the roads to accommodate the facility. Lance said the Council needs to decide what areas they want the LID to be done in. Councilmember Slack asked about the term for payback on an LID and Lance stated that it was generally a 20 year payback period. Councilmember Bean suggested that they did not want to approve the development without approving the road improvements. Ron suggested that due to the economy, the possibility of the road being developed without an LID would be slim. Councilmember Bean said if the road is committed to be put through it should be based on if it’s good for the City, not for development. Leslie said it would help take the th pressure off 17 and Hitt. Mayor Fuhriman asked what needed to be done to proceed with the process. Ron said he and Lance will look into some possibilities. 3. Daycare/Bartender/Massage Fees (Bean Council Session 11-18-10)*: Ron stated that a bartender and a masseuse pay a license fee of $100 per year, plus the background check of $50. Daycare has a $50 background check and the license is included in this fee. Ron checked into what it was costing the City for the background check and discovered the FBI fee was $30.00 and a couple of hours of labor to process the paperwork. It was determined that massage was costing the City $68 and daycare and bartender were costing $78.00. Scott was adamant that there Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 2 of 7 are a significant amount of licenses that require his review. Massage, for instance, requires a significant amount of background and screening before they get to the City licensing. Scott suggested City license and processing fees are as follows: Massage $86 and childcare and bartenders $100. Ron did some checking and found that only 7 of the 51 states do not license Massage therapists, which is why Ammon and Idaho Falls license them, since the State doesn’t. Councilmember Slack asked if a renewal would require the same amount of time and processing fees as a first time license. Leslie verified that it requires the same processing time and fees, whether it’s a renewal or a new license. With renewals there is actually more time involved, since she has to check and see if there have been any complaints or issues from the preceding year. Councilmember Bean suggested that rather than licensing them to use a permitting fee, which would be sufficient. Councilmember Bean suggested $85 massage and $100 bartender and childcare. Ron said Scott has also recommended $100 across the board. You will be lowering bartender/massage, but raising daycare. Ron said the City doesn’t re-license every other year, because of child safety. He said the FBI representative he spoke to said every year a person can commit a crime and then go somewhere else and it would take two years to catch up with them. Ron said we either charge the massage/bartender or we subsidize the daycare. Ron said we don’t require continuing education on the bartender/massage. Leslie said we could partially subsidize the childcare, via the community training of the children. Councilmember Thompson said he doesn’t want to change the daycare, since the daycare employee’s change constantly. Councilmember Coletti is fine making them equal, Councilmember Kirkham is fine, and Councilmember Slack is ok with equal across the board and doesn’t feel the City should subsidize the fee. The general discussion was that the City is not responsible to subsidize a license. It is the responsibility of the business owner to pay the necessary expense to obtain their license. Councilmember Kirkham suggested it would be best to show the actual costs of processing a license, rather than just pulling a number out of the air. The discussion suggested taking into account the cost of the FBI background checks, the cost of the office staff to process, the cost of the City Attorney, as well as, the cost of utilities. Leslie said after the hearing we can publish high and the Council can go lower, if they decide. Ron will bring in a resolution to lower the massage/bartender and publish a public hearing for the childcare increase. Ron suggested allowing the free use of our facility for training classes to offset some of the cost to daycare for their continuing education. Jennifer suggested the fire department could instruct CPR classes for free. 4. Joint Power Agreement for Health Insurance (Leslie/Jenn)*: Leslie stated that she and Jennifer had attended a meeting in Pocatello where a group of Cities were attempting to pool together to create a buying group for Health Insurance purposes. For the time being, each City could keep its own policy, but in the future they are hoping to be able to self insure. Gary, who started the group, was called in to participate in this discussion. Leslie and Jennifer were very enthused by this meeting and they have discussed it with the City Attorney. The City Attorney did not identify any legal issues, with the proposal, at this time. Leslie did see one risk to the proposal and that was a minimal monthly fee would have to be paid into the plan. She thought that fee was around $5.00 per person. She did believe that eventually over time that investment would come back to the City tenfold. Also, the City would have to commit to the plan for three years, but if for some reason there was a change to the original proposal where the City would be allowed to pull out of that contract. The City attorney feels that this situation is very similar to how ICRMP, which insures Cities, got started. The administrator for the Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority (MMIA) said they created a pool in Montana because health insurance costs were getting so high they felt there had to be a better way and they have been very successful with their pool so far. She showed charts that indicated the costs and how much money has been saved and how successful the plan has been. They have been working to implement a similar plan in Idaho, because Gary is now the city administrator for the City of Ketchum. They currently have 5 cities participating, but it is looking to expand and grow and they would like to have a good foundation before it gets a lot larger. They are hoping to get a larger foundation of participants together and then take the proposal to AIC for all Cities to participate. Councilmember Thompson asked who would administer the program. Leslie stated that there would be 10 cities, 5 of the larger groups and 5 of the smaller groups. Councilmember Thompson asked if they would have to hire someone to administer the plan. Leslie stated that there was someone out of California who was hired to administer the plan. Jennifer stated the group is called Legacy Enterprises Benefits Consulting, they oversee the plan, but each City is able to retain their current insurance broker and their plan benefits at their current levels. Being part of this group gives each City better negotiating power for benefits and premiums. By being part of this group, we are able to present to the insurer that there is a Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 3 of 7 very large number of participants available that would go with the best plan offered by the insurer. In Montana part of the benefit of being in this group is that each City can offer three varying plans to their employees and the employees can choose the degree of coverage they want or need and the premiums they want to pay. Councilmember Kirkham asked when this was all going to take place. Leslie and Jennifer stated that there would be an initial meeting Feb 9, 2011 for the first membership and board meeting and then they will look at the feasibility of self-insuring and they are not sure which direction it will go. Councilmember Kirkham asked if this would be in place by our June renewal date. Jennifer and Leslie said that it would be. There are Cities who want to join who are already self-insuring, which gives the group the experience rating. Council President Kirkham asked what the rates would be on this new plan. Leslie and Jennifer stated that there would be no change in rates or insurance coverage, at this time. The City would keep their current plan benefit, until they decided to change it. Brokers will still be needed to provide services, since this organization will have no staff. This is a partnership of Cities. Small Cities have no negotiating power and have to accept all increases in rates. They are trying to get 1000’s of employees for purchasing power. Councilmember Kirkham said they understand the concept, but they are concerned about the $5 per month, with no guarantee that this will really work. What does the City get from this amount? Councilmember Slack stated that he was concerned about $1000’s of dollars listed as legal costs. Leslie indicated that those costs were included in the $5.00/month/employee fee. At this point Jennifer and Leslie suggested that Gary, the City Administrator for the City of Ketchum be included in the discussion by telephone conference. Councilmember Kirkham agreed. Gary indicated that he was bringing information from Montana, where he was formerly a City Administrator. The Montana program now has 76 city participants with current bank reserves for insurance of 9.2 million dollars. This is 9.2 million that would have gone to insurance companies without the pool of Cities, but was instead now available to the Cities for self insuring purposes. The program that they are trying to build in Idaho for the last six months is one that would be similar to the one in Montana. The one in Montana was started in 2004, when cities had experienced double digit increases for health care premiums. The plan is built on a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA), which was presented to the Council. They are trying to get as many cities as possible to approve the JPA by the first board meeting scheduled for February 9, 2011. Once the board is established, they will look at the feasibility of self insuring or becoming a leverage buyer for insurance for the first few years. Currently, there are already Cities participating who are self insured which would greatly advance the group’s ability to become self insured. The joint group of cities now is called the Idaho Intergovernmental Insurance Authority which has five cities, Ketchum, Fruitland, Council, Lava Hot Springs, and American Falls. Also, the Cities of Hailey, Burley, Weiser, Blackfoot and Chubbuck are all very interested in joining, as well as, Ammon. Gary stated that Idaho does not require insurers to provide loss data information to employers with less than 100 employees. Since rate increases are based partially on loss data information, the employers do not have this information available to them to see if premium increases are truly justified. By being part of the larger group, this information would be made available by the insurer. Councilmember Kirkham expressed concern about the $1800 per year that the City would be risking and what and when would they see benefits from it. When Gary put this amount into annual increases – it represents approx. ½% increase on your premium. He knows City’s want to offset this. The trend in Montana for Blue Cross/Blue Shield was an 11% annual increase in premiums. In his experience, after the pool was formed, the renewal rate was an average of 4%, so it is less than the trend by 7%. This trend shows that the ½% investment returned many times over in the first year. He calculated the cost savings for the City of Whitefish, Montana at about $350,000.00 savings in premiums. Councilmember Kirkham asked what the $5.00/employee fee was used for. Most of this money goes toward contracting a consultant to help build the pool. These consultants have been building municipal pools for 38 years. It also covers legal costs, if needed, and an annual audit, if the pool is self insured. It is possible for the cities to share contracted legal counsels. Councilmember Slack asked how many members there might be in the pool. There are currently 130 employees and if the others come in, it will be approx. 600-700. The fee may drop as more employees come in. The Board of Directors comes from the City’s in the pool, which will be 11 members. The first 5 come from the biggest employers, then 5 from the elected membership, with an eleventh member from the general membership being appointed by the 10 elected members of the board. The budget will be controlled by the Board of Directors based on the membership. Councilmember Kirkham thanked Gary for his time and the telephone conference was ended. A discussion was then held amongst the Councilmembers. Councilmember Thompson thought it was a good idea to administer the program for less than the 30% that we are now paying to insurance companies. It is better that the 30% go to a self insurance plan, rather than Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 4 of 7 to an insurance company. Councilmember Thompson said we are risking $900 and we will know in 6 months. Council agreed to put the agreement to accept the Joint Powers Agreement on the next agenda. 5. Proposed City Code Changes (Ron)*: Councilmember Kirkham asked about the animal cruelty definitions. Ron said they are the standard in the industry. The current City Code actually reads that anyone in the city limits who owns a dog must have a kennel license. Councilmember Slack asked about animal cruelty statements concerning the intentional killing of an animal. He felt that the statement that any intentional killing of an animal by shooting them was animal cruelty and doesn’t feel this is incorrect. He felt that euthanizing an animal that was critically ill or injured was not always the humane thing to do. Ron said State Statute states that this is against the law. Councilmember Slack was concerned that being able to shoot an injured animal would be against the law. Ron pointed out the real purpose and intent of this law was to prevent someone intentionally running over an animal or inflicting pain on an animal such as someone lighting a cat on fire. Ron seriously doubted that anyone would be cited for personally euthanizing an animal that was in pain. Councilmember Thompson asked about size of kennels. Ron said these numbers come out of veterinary numbers and those in ordinances throughout the country. Ron indicated that an enclosed back yard would be considered an enclosure. Discussion ensued concerning the size of kennel and it was decided eliminating should be changed to defecate and they agreed with the size. Ron will take out all of the new dog definitions and they will be discussed at the next meeting. Ron also changed the wording to include that at 4 or more dogs you must have a noncommercial kennel license. Councilmember Slack asked about allowing chickens. Councilmember Coletti said some of the definitions are nit picking and they need to be discussed separately. A new section covering burglar alarm fees was requested by Shawna. Some changes were made to what the County had adopted, so that elderly people who accidently tripped their burglar alarms would not be charged with a misdemeanor. It was changed to an infraction and they would be given 4 chances to correct the problem before a misdemeanor would be charged. The following are the fees proposed by the enforcement officer. Councilmember Slack questioned why people would need a permit for a burglar alarm. Mayor Fuhriman responded that the City needs to know where they are. Councilmember Kirkham stated that the people with these alarms are paying for a service and the service notifies law enforcement of an alarm. The City does not respond to alarm calls. Burglar alarm fees should not apply to residential properties. For commercial properties, if there are more than 4 false alarms the business would be fined for the false alarms calls. There was a discussion held on whether burglar alarm permit fees should be charged to residential properties. Ron said they would work on the residential aspect. Ron asked who would have authority to place Meters. It was decided Lance and Ray will have the authority for implementing the meters. Once a meter is installed, it becomes the property of the City and must be maintained and repaired by the City. Language was also added that anytime a property was renovated or updated, such that it requires a building permit, that a meter would have to be installed. Ray asked about increasing the size of the cover, if it’s in a driveway. Lance indicated that he had some language changes that would make sure the meter location and access can be located visually and the access is large enough. Ron said changes are needed so a person cannot put in a private well within the City of Ammon. Councilmember Coletti asked Lance what would be considered an appropriate and acceptable use of a private well in the City limits. Lance stated that he could not think of one. Leslie explained that the City had issues with residents, after the last rate increase. A couple of residents wanted to dig their own well and it was discovered the City was limited in its powers to prevent this. Right now the IWR would allow an individual to drill a well in the City of Ammon. This new language has been added to prevent individuals from drilling private wells within the City Limits. Private Wells could still be added, but the City Council would have to approve it. Language was added that it would be unlawful for any person or business to operate and use City services without first registering and entering into a contract with the City for said services. In the event someone begins using said services prior to entering into said contract, the City shall immediately notify the property owner that services will be discontinued at five working days after notice, unless all previous billings, fines, fees, and deposits have been paid. Previous billings shall include billings to the person or business back dated to the closest determined date of occupancy. Fines or fees shall be those from any department of the City with jurisdiction. Ron read further language describing the actual fees that could be included. Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 5 of 7 6. EIRWWA ICRMP Insurance for $38,900 (Bean): Councilmember Bean asked Jennifer if she had any explanation for the high cost of this insurance. Jennifer suggested that it may be because insurance is based on an entity’s rating, such as the City based on its previous experience. Since this is a new entity and there is no previous experience to rate it on, the initial premiums could be higher. Councilmember Bean asked if the City had to go through ICRMP for that insurance or if it could be put out to bid. Ray said they are in an extreme situation with environmental damage, which is costly and this might be pushing the cost. Councilmember Bean wanted the Council to know that this is an expense coming up and they would be working to get the lowest price possible. A further discussion was held concerning shared used commercial buildings, indicating that all tenants and owners would be notified, if services would be shut off and given a time in which to correct the issue before services are discontinued. 7. Water Bond Discussion from Boise DEQ Meeting (Mayor): Mayor Fuhriman asked the Council if there were any solutions to DEQ’s request to extend the water bond to 30 years. Councilmember Kirkham said it is only available by talking to the legislators and having them change the State Statute, because right now what they are requesting is in violation of the State Statutes. Councilmember Coletti said Scott said we might have an issue with making the change in the middle of the bond, because the people voted for a 20 year note. Councilmember Kirkham asked if someone had been assigned to talk to the bond attorney about the legality of changing the terms of the water bond. It was determined that Scott Hall, the City attorney should contact the bond attorney for clarification of the possibility of the change in terms. 8. Misc.: Lance asked Leslie for information concerning the disconnect/reconnect fee for sewer and water. Leslie stated that the disconnect/reconnect affects two groups, the snowbirds and the delinquent group. The City sends out about 300 delinquent notices a month. There are about 80 to 90 door hangers, with about 13 – 15 per month that is actually shut off. Out of the 13 – 15 shut off’s there are about 3 - 4 that do not come in within 48 hours and pay the fees to get reconnected. Of those that do not reconnect, there is 1 or 2 that illegally reconnect on their own. Ray gave the different figures of the hourly cost to disconnect/reconnect. It takes two employees, due to safety issues, and costs the City about $130 each time. Out of the snowbirds, 10 are annual. Out of the group more than half will come back and reconnect on their own and the City must catch them to add them back on to the system. Councilmember Slack suggested a $500 fine for any property owner that reconnects their own water or sewer without notifying the City. Councilmember Slack asked why it takes two men to reconnect water. Ray Ellis stated it was necessary to verify that the City did not cause any property damage. Leslie advised that the City had a claim that the City didn’t properly turn off/on service to a property and it cost the City approx. $30,000, because we only had one man’s proof. Leslie stated that even though some people have their water and or sewer turned off temporarily, such as the snowbirds, there are still fixed fees associated with having an active sewer or water line in place, even if it is temporarily not being used. Sewer and water bond amounts and line maintenance costs are about $67.25 per month. The snowbirds are being charged $150 to have their water turned off/on when they leave. Leslie said we charge the fee upfront for turn off/on, since we had several issues with the person wanting the service turned on and said I didn’t turn it off. This has been solved by charging the fee up front. The Mayor asked Leslie if we could stop the garbage service. Leslie said there were issues when we went with the City’s new garbage service with people saying they didn’t need the service and so we stopped the charge. Then they would go down the street and take the neighbors can and the amount of issues within three months was out of control, so the City went back to mandatory garbage service, which solved the problem. The snowbirds are getting a service by being able to disconnect and not pay the monthly fixed fees that the City is responsible for. Councilmember Slack suggested another solution would be to install a meter and they would only pay for water used. Leslie said you are talking about 10 people. If they were not there, the water costs would go down. Ron said many of the snowbirds choose to turn their water off to prevent freezing of water lines. Leslie said the City could turn their water off for free, but continue to charge the monthly fee. Councilmember Kirkham and Councilmember Slack both suggested a large fine for property owners reconnecting their own services without notifying the City. The Council had asked for justification of the $150 disconnect/reconnect fee for City services and after hearing Leslie’s report the Council felt those fees were justified. Ron said he will look into adding a fine for illegal hookups. Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 6 of 7 Ron shared information he had received concerning the census. Ron stated that 82% of citizens of Ammon participated. The State had participation of 76%. Nationwide participation was 74%. Councilmember Slack motioned to adjourn. Councilmember Coletti seconded. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Slack – Yes, Councilmember Coletti – Yes, Councilmember Thompson – Yes, and Councilmember Kirkham – Yes. The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. _____________________________________ Steve Fuhriman, Mayor __________________________________ Leslie Folsom, City Clerk Council Minutes 12-9-10 Page 7 of 7