Meeting of 2004-5-13 SPECIAL MEETING

1. Consider approving a settlement offer in the amount of $7,500.00 from Howard and Sharon Smith as satisfaction in full for costs incurred by the City of Lawton in demolishing the structures at 1403 & 1405 NW Dearborn, authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the necessary settlement documents, and authorize the City Clerk to release the applicable liens.

Vincent said this was briefed to Council in executive session with instructions for the City Attorney to negotiate settlement for recovery of our demolition costs. We have negotiated and Tim Wilson can elaborate, with a $7,500 settlement which is in the range discussed in the Council meeting and staff recommends approval.

Wilson said this is property at 1403 & 1405 NW Dearborn the City declared dilapidated in April 2001. We demolished the structures on those lots in June or July 2001, with a total demolition cost of $17,139.38. He said staff is recommending a settlement of $7,500. The rationale behind that recommendation is the assessed values of those vacant lots for 1403 NW Dearborn is $5,005, and 1405 NW Dearborn is $6,365 and when you add that up and take 2/3 of the appraised value, the price with foreclosure would be $7,505. If we took them to court and went through the whole process, basically what we could expect to get would be $7,500. Wilson said he spoke with the Smith's and their attorney earlier in the week and they moved up from $4,000 to $7,500. They have a buyer for the property so if we can get it done, they are willing to settle for that amount. It is staff's recommendation we accept the $7,500 settlement.

MOTION by Devine, SECOND by Patton, to accept a settlement offer in the amount of $7,500.00 from Howard and Sharon Smith as satisfaction in full for costs incurred by the City of Lawton in demolishing the structures at 1403 & 1405 NW Dearborn, authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to execute the necessary settlement documents, and authorize the City Clerk to release the applicable liens.

Wilson said ideally it's always a good idea to try to recoup the full amount if you can. There's some legal reasons that give him some concerns that we may not get the full $17,000 if we were to go to court. At the time we declared it dilapidated, it was owned by a different party and that party subsequently sold to the Smiths one of the lots. The Smiths got one of the lots before we tore it down and they got the other lot after we tore it down. It would be a little bit hairy if we actually went to court.

Mitchell said before we get started, he has handed out a memo from Rick Endicott to him and the Assistant City Manager in reference to the Budget Workshop items requested on the May 6 ^th meeting. The first sheet is a list of all the professional and technical services included in account #231. There was a question about $5 million in that line item in our budget summary that Patton asked about. This is a listing of all those contracts shown up in the professional/technical services account. The second page is a list of cell phones provided to staff by department and we spend about $2,500-$3,000 per month for services for those phones. There are a total of 120 cell phones out to various departments. He said he hasn't gone through and evaluated each cell phone and who uses it, we are just listing them by department, but there are a lot of those he thinks are necessary.

Mitchell said part of the reason those cell phones are useful is that we have some of our departments in other buildings and a lot of those employees have to move between departments and have to be out of their office quite a bit, so that is another benefit of having that cell phone.

Ihler began by answering a couple questions that were asked at the last Council meeting regarding the lake levels. He said the one question Councilman Bass had was about Lake Lawtonka. At one time we lowered the level 1.7 feet in order to meet the Oklahoma Water Resources Board requirement that we have to pass 75% of the probable maximum flood and in doing so, how much water does that equate to? He said basically that equated to about 1.24 million gallons of water. To put that in perspective, in the last 2-3 years, that's about 20 million gallons a day. That's about a 62 day water supply.

Devine asked how come we don't have some kind of way of adjusting that to having people coming in here and taking revenue away from us and taking it to another city. That's a prime example, because we lost approximately $1 million off of that when that company came in and bought out Kan Haul. Ihler said he thinks it was about a half a million. Devine said yes, but it was figured over a period of time. It's a considerable amount of money we lost. How come we don't have something in there, basically like a franchise fee for people to come in here and take money out of our community. We should have some kind of permit or whatever, to offset that to discourage people from doing that.

Mitchell said he didn't think you could set your permit high enough to offset that half a million dollars in cost. If you could charge for a permit for them to register with the City, maybe $500-$1,000, but you certainly couldn't charge them half a million dollars. Devine said he understands that but he just thought there should be some way. Mitchell said the other way that might be possible is looking at a large volume user, but it might be a possibility of structuring a contract with IESI or whoever is picking up these commercial accounts, and looking at a volume discount, similar to what you do with your industrial contracts for Lawton. Devine said that would really work better. We need to get some kind of an initiative to get people to use our facilities, so we can get some kind of revenue out of it. Mitchell said if Council is interested in doing that, he would be more than happy to do it. Devine said he would and hoped that everyone else would consider that.

Mitchell said the trick is to figure out what that volume would be and what the discount would be. Obviously if you get the volume and discount too low, you will have other commercial customers in the community wanting the same contract and you would end up loosing revenue that you are already collecting.

Ihler said the last question he recalls was dealing with the lease-purchase of a compactor. The cost of the compactor is $351,000 and we paid a little over $12,000 in interest. The interest rate was about 3.4%, making three payments spread out over three years. Something to consider is on a CAT D8 Dozer, if we were to purchase that outright, that's over half a million dollars and he said he thinks the Fire Department has a ladder truck or something like that, was $700,000, and if you just bought those two pieces of equipment that would be over $1 million.

Purcell said the truck Ihler was talking about, is in the budget now, was three years at $80,000 a year. He said that was the question, if it made sense to pay $80,000 a year and that's $240,000, so we are saving $8-9,000 maybe in interest.

Ihler said next Tuesday from 2:00 to 4:00 at the Public Works Admin. Office, a retirement party will be held for Mike Shaw, who has been with the City for a little over 20 years. He said he was worked with him for over 8 years and he has been a great asset to the City.

Ihler gave his Public Works presentation at this time. He referred to page two, the organizational chart for the Public Works Department, which is broken up into four main areas. The Engineering group, handles all designs for structures, construction inspections, surveys, and all CIP Projects. The Water-Waste Water is made up of the Water and Waste Water Plants, and Water Distribution. On the operation side is Solid Waste Collection, Drainage, Streets, Disposal, Landfill, Equipment Maintenance, and Animal Welfare, and one area added this year is the Electronic Maintenance and the fourth area is Sewer Rehab. He said there is a total of 283 personnel in his department.

Ihler next referred to page three of his presentation which is Personnel Authorization. He explained the difference from last year's budget to this year's. He said the General Funded positions have been with Public Works for many years, which have the typical functions of running the water, repairs, and picking up trash, however, over the last 5-10 years, there have been four divisions that have been established for a specific task or service. A couple of those have been EPA mandated; the Sewer Technical Systems and the Sewer Construction group, which are funded from the 95 CIP and also through the loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. That loan is paid back by a sewer surcharge of $2.35 per month on the citizen's utility bill. He said Drainage Maintenance is funded by a $1 per month assessment on the City utility bill, and Waste Water Maintenance is partially funded by a charge in the utility bill based on water consumption in excess of 8,000 gallons and less than 12,000 gallons. He said Animal Welfare's capital outlay is funded 100% from animal licenses.

Ihler said the next page is a breakdown of the total preliminary budget in comparison to last year and this year for the Public Works Department. He said the General Funded Divisions have a total overall increase of $875,000 or 5.6%. In the Special Funded there is an additional $54,000 for a total of $928,000. He said this is almost a $1 million increase in Public Works over last year. He said the areas of significant change was in the Waste Water Treatment Plant with an increase of $220,000, which is an increase for repair and maintenance of equipment. A second area of increase is in Electronic Maintenance, which this increase is basically due to capital outlay. Last year it was zero and this year it's $65,000. He said the Sanitary Sewer Technical Design Group has an increase of 13%. He said the Waste Water Maintenance has a large decrease of $95,000 because of capital outlay. Overall they have a 4.78% increase in the total department budget and 50% of that increase is capital outlay. He said there is an increase of $413,694 in capital outlay.

Ihler referred to page five showing public works broken into five main areas. He said there is almost $4 million in Solid Waste Collections, Disposal, and Landfill which is 19.3% of the Public Works Department; the water area such as the Water Plant and Water Distribution which is $4.2 million which is 20.90% part of PW; the Waste Water is $5.8 million or 28.70% and this also includes Sewer Rehab, which is about $2.7 million; then Streets and Drainage is about $3.3 million which is 16% of their budget; and other areas are about $3 million or 14% which is Administration, Engineering, Animal Welfare, and Equipment Maintenance. He said the next area is Personnel Services which makes up about 59% and materials and supplies are about 25% and other services and charges are 8.3% and their capital outlay is 7.6%.

Devine asked about personnel and said he would like to have a list of supervisors and how many employees each one has under them. Ihler asked what level he would like that, the superintendent level up, or the foreman level up, or how far down do you want to go in the organization. Devine said he would like to have it all. Ihler said he could get that for him.

Purcell asked if he just wanted the numbers or the number of people. Devine said just the numbers and his reason is because there has always been a myth in this City that we have approximately 850 employees and over 400 of them are supervisors. Mitchell said that is not true. Devine said it may not be, but he wants to clarify it and he is tired of this myth floating around. Mitchell said they will put together a Public Works list for what he wants. On the organizational chart it shows 15 to 16 Divisions and asked Devine if he wanted each one of those divisions broken down. Devine said yes and also throughout, such as the Fire Department, Police Department, the City Manager's Office, so on and so on. He said he would like to get this straightened out and he is tired of people coming to him and asking him about this.

Purcell suggested getting together and putting the same standard chart for every department rather than one department doing it one way and another department doing it another way. Devine said he would like to have that before finalizing the budget. Mitchell said he would have that for him in a week.

Ihler next went over the 100 accounts for Public Works. In the General Funded Divisions there is a total increase of $241,000 or 2.5% and for the Special Funded there is an increase of $284,000 or 2.43%. He said in Administration they are down 5.35% because of down-grading a Senior Administrative Secretary position to a Senior Clerical Assistant position. In Solid Waste Disposal there is a decrease in personnel services because they reduced the overtime at the Landfill by $29,000. In Animal Welfare there is a 6.8% increase because, as part of this budget, they are adding a part time veterinarian who will do neutering.

Warren said he would support the redemption part also. He said the big problem we get is from breeders who don't want us to neuter their animal. He said he doesn't care because their animal is loose and running around causing problems just like anyone else's dog. If you are not responsible enough to keep your prize animal pinned up, we need to take care of it for you.

Purcell said he agrees a little bit but it needs discussed a little more because what happens if someone is doing a good job and for whatever reason, it gets out, the adoption is more important. If someone's animal does get out on the redemption and is not spayed or neutered and nobody picks it up and it's adopted, then it will be spayed or neutered. But let's say your animal gets out and you go down to redeem it, let's charge them whatever, but if you spay or neuter that particular registered animal, he doesn't know how you would get around that.

Ihler explained what the current policy for redemption is. He said if they come in and pick up their animal the first time, it's a $30 charge, and they come back a 2 ^nd time, it's a $70 (or something like that) charge, and if they come back a third time, it's something like $100 and a mandatory spay or neuter.

Ihler continued with his report on the 100 accounts. He has an increase in Sewer Design because they transferred the Grease Trap Inspector to the Waste Water Treatment Plant from the Sewer Rehab department. They had a decrease in the area of Drainage Maintenance of 6.23% by reducing contract labor by $16,255 and reduced worker's compensation by $23,000. He said in Waste Water Maintenance there is a reduction also.

Ihler then reported on the 200 accounts in the Public Works Department. He said they have an overall department increase of 3.52% or $230,000. The area of Streets has a 25% increase and the next area of increase is in the Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Ihler then went over the 300 accounts, capital outlay. He said they prioritize their capital outlay needs as a department and not individual divisions. Each division prioritizes theirs and submits them to the Deputy Assistant or himself and they prioritize the whole department.

Ihler then reported on the General Fund Budget and some adjustments made that totaled less than $3,000. He said in the Sewer Rehab area he is asking for additional funds. He said to put together the Sewer Rehab Program they had to identify specific lines and some other lines that are high maintenance problem areas that need work. He said to be able to do that they will need to increase their contract labor costs by $50,000 and increase overtime by $27,710. He said they have identified five areas not on the Sewer Rehab and they are major problems for us right now. We need to take care of these.

Purcell asked Ihler if he was saying he will be able to do all the extras that we were going to do sometime in the future, do all that this year by just using an additional $78,000 out of the Sewer Rehab Program. Ihler said that is correct. Purcell asked if there were any objections from Council to giving Public Works an additional $78,000 out of Sewer Rehab and no objections were voiced.

Ihler went over all the additional work the Public Works Department has picked up over the past 20 years, to include an additional 100 miles in streets to repair and keep up. He said the area they need the most for is in streets. He said they have a backlog of four to five months.

Devine said he was in Temple, Texas last week and saw one of these automated trucks and followed it. He said from the time the truck turned the corner into a cul de sac to the time he came out was nine minutes. He never dismounted the truck. There was no trash left anywhere. He spoke with him and their system was if your trash was not in their container, they did not pick it up.

Warren said bring it on, not a problem, but one time he would like to do a budget and not have to talk about this. In order for this to work, it has to be once a week and it has to be only what's in that bucket, there can't be anything else and if the citizens go for it, great. He said from experience, they are not going to go for it. He said he fears we are going to spend $100,000 on a pilot program the people don't want and once we've spent that, we don't have a way to recoup that money. He said he would like the news media to make it apparent if we go forward with this pilot program, it's spending $100,000 and if it doesn't work, we've wasted that money and if it does work, it will be city wide within 5 to 6 years and would be single day pickup per week, only what fits in the can. He said he doesn't think it's going to happen.

Devine said we have got to come to a point, sometime in our term as Council people, who have been appointed for their area to make a decision. We need to stand on our own feet and make those decisions. He said yes you are going to have trouble, and you are going to have a certain select amount of people who will come down here and complain about everything we do. He said there is not a thing in the world you could do within this city that there won't be somebody come down here and complain about it.

Warren said he doesn't have a problem doing it, but it's not going to be two or three people, it's going to be a room full of people and the problem is, you are not going to save any money. You won't save money for probably six to eight years because every one of those years you are going to be buying trucks, and containers. To say you are going to save money. You might, in a ten year span. The people are not going to go for it.

Warren said if it hadn't been before the people of Lawton at least five times, he could understand it. Five times it has been tried and five times they have shown up in mass and protested it. If Council wants to do it, ok, he's just fearful we are going to look like we spent $100,000 just to have fun.

Givens said they had the similar conversations about trash being picked up at the house vs. the curb, when he was previously on the Council. For years and years they kept saying no, the little old ladies can't take their trash out to the curb, we cannot have curb pickup, and they won't allow it and somewhere along the line it went from the house to the curb.

Bass asked if on the pilot program a person would be allowed to buy their own container so they could pick up two or three containers, etc. Ihler said they could request another container. Warren asked if there would need to be an adjustment in the monthly fee. Ihler said yes there would have to be.

Purcell said somehow this Council has to bite the bullet. He remembers when they moved the trash cans from the side of the house to the curb and the world didn't come to an end. It's going to be up to the people on this Council. If we are going to do this as a pilot program, we might not save any money, but as more and more money gets used for salaries, then we will need to find ways to save money. Even if we don't save money the first ten years, fifteen years from now we will be saving money if everything is automated. To make the pilot program work, it has to be one day a week pick up. If not, we are not seeing how it really works.

Mitchell said the intent was to start off twice a week and as we got the experience and people using the containers, then after about four or five months, go to a once a week and do some comparison on that pilot. The purpose of the pilot was to see what works and what type of container works. He said there is a meeting to discuss the pilot program on June 9 ^th.

Purcell reminded Council of the next meeting on Tuesday night at the same time and same place. He also announced that Ewing-Holmstrom couldn't be here and asked him to announce MacArthur is in the State Soccer Finals and plays Yukon on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. in Yukon. He said he received a call from Larry Patton saying he had got a lot of calls that the budget meetings were not on TV. He said they called this morning and are in the process of getting them broadcast.