REGULAR MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NOVI

SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 2000 AT 12:00 NOON

COUNCIL CHAMBERS-NOVI CIVIC CENTER-45175 W. TEN MILE ROAD

Mayor Clark called the meeting to order at 12:06 PM.

ROLL CALL: Mayor Clark, Mayor ProTem Lorenzo, Council Members Bononi, Crawford, Csordas, DeRoche-absent/excused and Kramer.

ALSO PRESENT: Richard Helwig, City Manager

Craig Klaver, Assistant City Manager

Kathy Smith-Roy-Finance Director

Kelly LaLonde, Budget Analyst

Mr. Klaver said Monday the 24^th was suggested to allow the Finance Department to have a chance to turn the budget around in lieu of the 27^th. He said in prior years the Council always felt it was important to have the Public Hearing and presentation at a Regular meeting.

Mayor Clark suggested having a meeting the 24^th as opposed to the 27^th. Mr. Klaver said if Council could wrap it up that night it could come back May 1^st for the Public Hearing and presentation and avoid the meeting on May 8^th. It could be adopted as the original schedule called for on the 15^th.

Member Crawford suggested May 8^th be left as scheduled to do some final wrap up if needed.

Member Bononi stated she could not make the 24^th and did not want to miss that meeting. She did not have the flexibility to change dates and times. She is available the 27^th as scheduled and could be available the 26^th.

Mayor Clark appreciated the comments of Member Bononi that if the budget is going to be passed the entire Council should have full input into the budget process. He said he would adjust his schedule for Wednesday the 26^th at 7:00 PM.

Member Crawford asked if the 8^th was still scheduled at 8:00 PM and was advised it was.

Member Csordas wanted to know how much additional revenue, if any, the City would have available this year. Ms. Smith-Roy said she would get it for him. He said he is on

the C.I.P. Committee and felt that the majority of City Managers do not take it serious and it is not part of the budget process. A report was done by Ms. Hannan and Ms. Brock for the Capital Improvement Plan Committee and the items that came forward in the budget did not reflect the recommendations of the C.I. P. Committee and he wanted to know why. He proposed they scrap the C.I.P. Committee because they are wasting their time. However, Ms. Smith-Roy said the C.I.P. is one of the requirements of eligibility for getting awards for our financial statements. Member Csordas said if that was the only reason then he would not volunteer again. He said a copy of the top sixteen priorities was in the packets and Council could see the contrast between it and what actually came forward.

Mayor Clark said they appreciated his service and did not want to eliminate it. He suggested it was something that should be paid more attention to. He would be willing to meet with the committee because it is inexorably intertwined with development and growth and those issues have to be dealt with.

Member Bononi echoed what Member Csordas said. She wanted to see presentations made clearly and in a sentence or two hear what the priority is. She was concerned and disappointed that the Council, as a whole did not have financial goals or plans in regard to Capital spending. It was difficult for her to sift through these budgets without knowing the goals and plans regarding capital spending.

Mayor Clark suggested after the budget is finished a meeting be scheduled to deal with setting some goals. There has been so much going on lately but he felt they would be able to give some time to a goal setting session soon.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo said it appeared that every dollar available is being spent other than money in Fund Balance or Contingency. She said City services and quality of life items such as additional police and fire personnel, and maintenance and development of parks are not even included in this budget. Perhaps there are a lot of luxuries in this budget and belts need to be tightened in order to come up with funds that the tax payers and citizens can actually see in terms of their daily lives.

Member Crawford concurred with Member Csordas and said he had also been frustrated. He still found it hard to find out the amount of available money there was to work with. There are some things that are fixed costs but aside from that he needed the number of dollars that were available from all sources such as taxes, grants, revenue sharing, etc. He had not seen anything that looked like a luxury and felt everything had been pretty well substantiated. He felt additional taxes would have to be levied one of these days, a tenth or two, because even though there is tremendous growth and development it did not support the services needed. For example Parks and Recreation, which by City Charter is a half a mil, less than 4/10ths of a mil is levied because of rollbacks and it was not brought up to date in the past and now it can not be done. If a full half mil had been levied in Parks and Recreation for instance, and had been over the last several years there might be enough money from the past and now to do some park improvements, etc.

Mayor Clark thought Member Crawford’s comments were right on the money. The City operates on about 4.3 mils or 16 cents on the dollar after everyone else has taken their share. A very small portion of the tax bill actually goes to the City to fund the services and activities

that the City has to perform. It is a real issue and will have to be dealt with in the very near future.

Member Kramer agreed with Members Csordas and Crawford. There is about $500,000 of accumulation of less than $25,000 each, either equipment or minor capital items. Beyond that he would look very carefully for opportunities to scrape a pot together to be able to move the needle on some of these items.

Mr. Helwig said Council was obviously wrestling with short term and long term issues for the community and it was probably the most important policy document that Council produced. He said Council was setting goals outside of a goal setting process. They are setting goals for the staff to pursue in terms of identifying key issues and initiatives and continuing to serve the existing City while expanding and building a newer City. Member Csordas mentioned before the meeting he was going to bring up the C.I.P. He said he had been in communities that did the C.I.P. separately before doing the operating budget because it is that important. When talking Capital Improvement program dollars we are talking Capital Outlay and fairly minor amounts of Capital initiatives compared to everything being done in terms of major infrastructure. He would fully plan to take the C.I.P. extremely seriously and to produce a document that would highlight the key issues and give the key dollars. This is some of the most precious policy direction that a community has. He is saddened to think that we won’t

be able to get the most from Council because you are having to hunt and toil unnecessarily to glean the essential from the not essential and the discretionary from the mandated. He said they would be truly committed to producing a program strategies document in the future that would help Council provide the policy direction that is so important to fast paced community growth.

Mr. Klaver said they were aware of the shortcomings of the C.I.P. and on the budget message it was one of the highlights. He said during the first few years of its existence it was seen inappropriately both by staff and Council as a separate and unattached planning tool. Regarding the question of what made it in this year the Charter said they were to present a balanced budget and have a self imposed presentation of the budget assuming no increases in revenue.

Ms. Smith-Roy advised Council of the yellow document to identify the non-capital items that have been discussed during the budget sessions as items Council wanted to consider for review. She asked that Council keep her appraised of what they want included or excluded. The first page is items picked up from the last budget session, the second two pages are the capital and they would reproduce the document and add to it each budget session.

Member Kramer asked for dates on the sheet and Mayor Clark asked for the pages to be numbered. Ms. Smith-Roy said it would be done.

Ms. Smith-Roy said what they tried to provide in the document was whether the dollar amounts were included or excluded and the total dollars. Then they would use it to determine the effect on the budget as Council voted to include them or exclude them.

Behind the yellow document were additional handouts they would go over during this revenue presentation and behind that is the Library Budget Sheet and they would be here at 4:00 PM to do their presentation.

She said H.C.D. was listed in the Capital section. The reason it was included in the Capital area was because those funds could be used for park development, sidewalks, etc. The appropriation of those funds was not done until November so they did not know whether it was going to be used for capital or non-capital. They have traditionally included it in the Capital and then toward the end of the fiscal year they reclassify it appropriately as a Non-Capital or Capital type expenditure. She said the Housing and Community Development or Community Development Block Grant monies are Federal pass through funds from the County.

Ms. Smith-Roy said Council was looking at a Summary of Revenue for all funds and the bulk of the revenue came from property taxes. The second highest item in the revenue category is State Shared Revenues.

General Fund – The General Fund had quite a few other types of revenue in it. Taxes represented 43%, State Revenue Sharing represented 21% and the primary funding source for Transfers was from the Police and Fire Special. They accounted for the Public Safety staff in the General Fund for ease of accounting and they would do a transfer for the allocated amounts from the Police and Fire Funds as those expenditures were used.

General Fund Revenue Summary – This had more detail and the differences were identified in terms of dollars and percentages from this year to last year. Basically, the property tax revenue was up $509,000 or 6%. The Building Department’s fees were anticipated to be down a little as was the Grant Revenue primarily because our share of the Community that Cares had gone up for this year.

This should go down a little because of alarm fees and there should be a reduction in administrative reimbursement, which was related to the Building Department fees.

There was only $270,000 coming from this and obviously the efforts that went into this were not revenue driven. It was important to know that this was all the City got out of the fines and fees and the rest went to the State and the court. The $270,000 represented revenue received from the 39 patrol officers, 3 ordinance officers and 1 weigh master.

There was a slight decrease here primarily relating to refunds received on the prior year’s dividends. That number had been decreasing.

Ms. Smith-Roy said the Municipal Services Charges were down and they had eliminated the Parks and Recreation and Library Municipal Charge Fee, which she would cover when discussing the State Shared Revenue.

Ms. Smith-Roy explained the overview of the last three years. The General Fund Property Taxes Summary reflected this year was 7 ½% over the prior year. The change estimated from the current year to last year was an increase in Property Tax Revenue of $509,000 or 6.23%.

The Property Tax Revenue estimate was based on information from the Assessor. Mr. Lemmon believed the loss, which she had as a $20 Million reduction might go as high as $35 Million and he would discuss that with Council. She approached the budget in a different way and used the $20 million and then reduced the amount of General Fund by $50,000 to help offset that potential difference. She did not want to be too conservative and as Mr. Lemmon received better numbers she would revise this, hopefully, before the budget process was over. She pointed out the Estimated Revenue column and said the remaining capacity represented the amount that could potentially be increased this year and the last column was the actual amount included in the budget document.

She pointed out that if she had used the $35,000 loss figure, the difference was demonstrated below, there was a potential for a $45,000 loss in this category and additionally she would need another $25,000 to $30,000 for the Debt Service Funds that would come from the General Fund. The bottom line was we have a potential of a $20,000 loss that she might have not included in the budget if there was a $35 Million loss in taxable value. She thought this could be covered through the State Shared Revenue estimates.

Ms. Smith-Roy explained the schedule of what a homeowner would pay, the difference between having a taxable value last year of $100,000 with the CPI increase of 1.9% and the difference would be from $1,054 to $1,074 or $19.00. The bottom line represented the total tax including what was paid to the school and the county. The same number is used with only the increase in the CPI because she did not have all of the numbers yet from the school and the county in terms of their millage rate for next year.

The difference in dollars from one year to the next was a $270,000 increase in State Shared Revenue or 6.99%. The State Shared Revenue is an item that has been adjusted with the new proposal. Recently the inventory portion of the State Shared Revenue had been eliminated and since then it had been eliminated from the other funds and from the budget and the Municipal Charge was reduced for the Library and Parks and Recreation. For example, the Library was receiving $8,000 in State Revenue Sharing when the inventory check was being received and they were giving the City back $2,400 to cover the administrative cost of processing payroll, etc.

The calculation used in the State Shared Revenue was 6% of the current year because this was the State’s most recent estimate of what our State Shared Revenue would be. The problem was it was to be determined for June and August. It was based on the new formulas and while projecting $4.4 Million if she subtracted what they thought they were going to get that assumed we were going to get $2 Million in the last two months. She recommended not planning on having those funds available to spend during the next fiscal year so they decreased it to the number that the auditors projected and that was

6% of the current year. They were being a little conservative because it would be very late in the fiscal year before they received the last two payments.

Member Kramer said there are funds coming to us in June and August but they are not being counted at this point?

Ms. Smith-Roy said yes, but instead of using 4.4 because so much of it is falling at the end of the year they had decided instead to use the 6% because it was a better estimate of how the cash flow would be.

Member Kramer asked if there was an increment of funding on an optimistic side that would become available for the budget? Ms. Smith-Roy said yes, for next year’s budget. Member Kramer said he would like to come back when the funding was available and decide where that money should go.

Ms. Smith-Roy recommended that Council address this potential $300,000 difference. She said instead of discussing it now she would recommend Council wait and use it as part of their budget discussion next year because by that time in January and February while going through next years budget they would have the actual numbers. Not only that they would have the basis for the formula for the years following that since Census numbers were the big numbers that would cause this formula to change.

Member Kramer asked if the money would come in June and August? Ms. Smith-Roy said of 2001. She said it was for the 1999-2000 budget but it would not be received until 2001.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked what was being proposed for the Contingency Fund?

Ms. Smith-Roy said included in the Contingency is $88,000 for IT upgrades and replacements and that there was a schedule attached. They were concerned that some of the PC’s would not be able to handle some of the software. Instead of including it in each department’s budget they would continue with the philosophy to replace as needed and then amend the department’s budget as they received the equipment.

The next several items related to the settlement of various contracts. It was indicated in the Contingency how many years out these contracts were. Included in the budget now was the current year’s salary and wage figures including any step upgrades as a result of the union contracts but it was based on this year’s rates. So, there were no increases based on the personnel service categories of the budget instead they were represented in the Contingency. What was left over was $94,000 and she recommended that Council leave this reserve as a Contingency for emergencies that might come up.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo said less than $100,000 in Contingency was not a lot of money. She stated that literally every dollar was being spent other than the $94,000 in the Contingency for unexpected emergencies. Ms. Smith-Roy said yes. Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo said that is troubling.

Mayor Clark assumed that number might go up slightly because these were projections relative to reserves for personnel services in light of a pending contract negotiation. Ms. Smith-Roy said correct. Mayor Clark said depending what those come in at it might push that number a little higher. She said correct.

Ms. Smith-Roy said the number would change based on the yellow sheets on what is added or deleted from the budget process. That would determine what funds were available and where they are positioned in the budget.

Member Kramer said there was $94,000 actual Contingency and the Fund Balance Account.

Ms. Smith-Roy said in the computation of the budget they set aside the standard that had been used for years and that was 10% of expenditures had been included in the Fund Balance. Obviously, it would be needed for cash flows and other reasons but the 10% is maintained and not included as part of the Contingency.

Mayor Clark asked what the projection of 10% was? Ms. Smith-Roy said it was $1.7 million.

Member Bononi asked if there was any financial planning concerning the settlement of the lawsuit and contingency reserve that would be put forward monthly? Ms. Smith-Roy said that issue had not been addressed in this budget at all.

Member Kramer asked if it was the intent of the Consultant Review Committee to promote that discussion at the table? Would they want to and if so how?

Ms. Smith-Roy said in December the State of Michigan passed Public Act 245. It was always required in the building code that the revenue collected from fees not exceed the expenditures. They had formalized that in Public Act 245 and the Michigan Department of Treasury just this month had concluded that their interpretation of that act was to report the Building and Ordinance Departments under a special revenue fund. They had historically done a number of reviews or analysis on these departments. The analysis for last year showed that our expenditures exceeded revenue by almost $300,000. We are not in a position to have excess fees and will propose to Treasury that they reconsider this accounting classification. For purposes of the budget the Treasury’s concerns would not be addressed. However, before the whole process was over it might be necessary. The State organization was going to approach the Michigan Department of Treasury with some real life cases and hopefully resolve this issue fairly quickly.

Mr. Lemmon said he was not asking for any personnel changes or huge increases. He said his personnel services made up about 80%-82% of the budget and the remaining 19% was for

supplies and other services. There was no Capital outlay needed.

Mr. Klaver asked Mr. Lemmon to address the revenue implications of the personal property changes that Ms. Smith-Roy alluded to in her presentation.

Mr. Lemmon said when an appeal was filed with the Michigan Tax Tribunal their initial pleading was taken and where we are at and the difference between that was considered to be our

exposure. A lot of cases had been put into abeyance because of the new multipliers for all kinds of personal property. They have been in abeyance since 1997 and he believed in 2000 they would also be in abeyance. In the past possible exposure was estimated at $20 Million and he assumed that during the 2000-2001 budget year these cases would be heard or settled in some fashion. He said this was his reason for his estimation of the $35 Million.

Member Kramer said this is a roll back in assessments based on a change in State Law in 1997.

Mr. Lemmon said with personal property, statements are sent asking what their assets are. Based on what their assets were and the year they were acquired a multiplier was used against those. The multiplier included appreciation and depreciation for their assets. The old tables were put into place in the early 1960’s. The State Tax Commission due to personal property taxpayer complaints decided to initiate another study for these multipliers to determine if they had enough depreciation built in. The State Tax Commission agreed that everybody with personal property would put their cases in abeyance to be held until the multiplier study was finished. He thought it would be finished this year.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked with regard to losses of Tax Tribunal Case Appeals of commercial and industrial property, how much was lost through appeals and mediation this year?

Mr. Lemmon said he would have to get back to her

Mayor Clark indicated that he had asked for a Special Executive Session dealing with all pending litigation against the City and specifically indicated he wanted to know the number of cases pending before the Michigan Tax Tribunal. He said a long hard look could be taken on when the appeals were filed, what was generating them and how they are being handled. This knowledge might help to avoid some of these in the future. He asked if he had included what was going on in Lansing in terms of the Public Utilities Commission in his figures? Mr. Lemmon said he did and there were communities and assessing groups that felt that the old multipliers represented the numbers better than the new ones that the State Tax Commission adopted. His conversations with Ms. Cassis and the Chairman of the State Tax Commission indicated that if he would have used the new multipliers for the year 2000 and the old multipliers were upheld in court. We would never be able to be up where we were with the old multipliers. We would have lost that value so he continued to use the old multipliers for the year 2000 figuring if the court upholds the new multipliers he can back down and settle that along with the 1997-1999 cases. He did not want to anticipate that the new multipliers would be upheld in court and risk the possibility of losing tax base.

Mayor Clark stated he appreciated his efforts in this regard.

Mr. Klaver said there was a reduction shown from $47,000 estimated for this year down to $33,000. Some of that was office supplies and the majority of it was data processing. A workstation was set up in the back conference room and it was the cost that represented.

Member Kramer asked that Mr. Klaver assess the use of the workstation and if it was not being used perhaps that money could be targeted for other requests for equipment in the City. He asked if compensation for Council was included in this figure? Mr. Klaver said it was. Member Kramer asked if all these extra meetings had been included in that and if not would they look at that? Mr. Klaver said no they had not and they would take another look at that.

Member Kramer wanted to recognize that there was a decent Goals and Objectives page. It was done by Administration on our behalf, and he felt it reflected a lot of the discussion at the table.

Mayor Clark said he agreed and a couple residents had been concerned about why they had not done this yet. He asked for community patience because of the unique challenges recently. They would be addressing Goals and Objectives very soon and would be looking for community input too.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo thought Council could do a better job tightening their belts regarding conferences and workshops. She felt these funds could be decreased and allocated elsewhere.

Mayor Clark said a new grant writer was on board and additional funds might be generated through grants. Fiscal responsibility was important but taking advantage of good educational opportunities whether for staff, commissions or Council would keep them current and up to date.

Member Crawford supported the Mayor’s comments and would vigorously object to cutting any conference or workshops out of Council’s budget or any other department in this City. It is very important to network and get new ideas and attend the proper study sessions, seminars and conferences. $7,400 was used by the end of February; it was not likely that anywhere near our $22,000 budgeted would be spent. He thought what was gained from conferences and seminar was worth much more than what was spent on it.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo said if it was cut to $10,000 and $12,000 was saved there would be enough to pay for the Smart Trailer that was $9,000. That money could be applied to other things that the community would see.

Mayor Clark said in documents received from the Department of Justice there seemed to be a number of grants that would allow some of those hardware items to be bought that would be beneficial to the community. Every department would like to update their equipment but if it is not that old and could be used for another year or two then it should be kept.

Member Kramer said there was one opportunity that was not discussed under Revenue, the Grant Writer and the fruits of his labors for the year. He felt Council should set up a policy with regard to General Fund dollars. If grants were received it would free up committed funds for items desired and needed and have to be fulfilled. Grant money should come back for reattachment to items that were not approved in the first budget approval.

Member Bononi did not think there were any sacred cows in the budget and that there was a lot that could be cut out of it. She thought the Council absolutely had the appropriate ability to designate, after looking at the numbers in their finality, to look at across the board percentages that could be cut. Then those people could decide what it was that they needed to do their job effectively and what could wait until next year. She felt that the Contingency Fund was totally inadequate. She was looking for contingency planning at a minimum of $400,000 a month with regard to potential lawsuit damages. If that does not come about then they would be that much ahead.

Member Csordas questioned the $12,400.00 Capital Outlay for data processing and asked if it was spent? Ms. Smith-Roy said it was not and she did not know what the intent of those funds was. Member Kramer thought it might have been for a laptop program.

Mr. Klaver asked Ms. Smith-Roy if the increases were attributable to the former City Manager’s retirement. She said they were. Mr. Klaver said the budget was down to $358,000 as opposed to the $399,000 and the difference was attributable to Mr. Kriewall’s retirement for the most part. It was primarily the benefits and salaries of the personnel in that department and there was a vehicle in there that was no longer necessary due to the arrangements with the new Manager.

Mayor Clark said there were permanent fixed labor costs in every department and this was a good example of it. Permanent salaries, social security, insurance, pensions, retiree health care benefits and workers comp was all fixed and they had no control over these. These are controlled by contractual obligations or outside forces.

Member Csordas asked for the definition of permanent salaries versus supervisory salaries. Ms. Smith-Roy said that would be the Administrative Assistants.

Member Kramer believed it was the intention of the City Manager to make some adjustments in the City Manager organization, which would require a budget adjustment as well. Mr. Klaver said that proposal was included under General Administration.

Mr. Helwig did not want to purport that he had done a comprehensive review of the organization. However, one of the first things he gleaned was that they are seriously backlogged in a number of Human Resource issues. Everything from employee contract agreements to filling positions, that were very serious matters when it came to having the tools to fulfill the expectations of City Council and the Community. It was clear that there were key

issues that needed to be addressed that require proactive thought about a number of issues be it legal judgements, organizational accountability and performance appraisals that had not been done.

If Council was going to hold him accountable for the things they should and need to hold him accountable for he needed to have the tools to deliver. Good government should have good business practices and good focus on the present as well as the future. An Assistant City Manager would be the Chief Operating Officer and would help integrate and streamline the work of the various departments to insure that efforts were not being duplicated and there was constantly an eye for streamlining and making the delivery of services both effective and efficient. That required a day to day effort. The Police Department should not be on its own in a separate building but needed to be woven into the general fabric of what we do. All of us are in this together and a lot was at stake. These economic times are not a guaranteed blessing for years and years to come and diversifying our tax base was a clear goal expressed numerous times, dealing with the road congestion, etc. He needed a Human Resource Director, full time, but also someone full time as the person that he worked with in tandem to corral all these issues and give Council the very best pros and cons analysis that they possibly could. He said the size and complexity of the City justified this. He would never aspire to be all things to all people but would do his very best for Council. This was something that had proven itself time and time again for him since the 80’s and its proven itself in private industry. He requested a C.O. O. sincerely understanding fully that Council’s call was to streamline things and that was also his full intent. This was not a luxury it was an essential to him in every sense of the word. This was an essential to provide the caliber of organization and the leadership and responsiveness Council was required.

Mayor Clark asked what they were talking about in terms of a budget item for such a position?

Mr. Helwig said the Assistant City Manager position was on the Table of Organization and normally that salary range was 80% to 85% of the City Manager’s salary. He did not think it would be much of an adjustment, as he understood our scheme of salaries to be. In terms of the Director of Human Resources he did not know what that would be but it would be an executive level position.

He was asked if he had any pre-judgements and he had none whatsoever. However, he does have a natural built in bias whenever possible to promote from within, to develop the organization in such a way that people could grow. It always amazed him how people could respond to the call for higher performance taking on additional responsibility if they were given the chance. However, there would be times when fresh blood was needed and the organization just did not have the capacity in its current people to do the job and what needed to be done.

In both instances where he had a Chief Operating Officer he had called upon a person who had great knowledge and experience of the community and they had risen to the challenge of doing the job as he felt it needed to be done.

He could not have asked for Mr. Klaver to extend himself any more fully then he had. We have spent numerous hours talking about issues and priorities and he had expressed an interest in the position. When they first met Mr. Klaver said 80% of his work was Human Resource work and he was not sure if that was what he wanted to continue. Mr. Helwig felt Mr. Klaver was

feeling him out. He said Mr. Klaver wanted to know if he was a robot or a real person with some management vision and skill. He said he wanted to be honest and candid with Council

particularly when it meant investing in a Human Resource Director position instead of another police officer.

Mr. Helwig knew fully well and his bias time and time again would be to add to the front line people that provide those dividends to the community. There were dividends in what he was suggesting that he wished he could qualify for Council and someday he would be able to do that in terms of what it would mean for the community. Performance is less than the level it should be when key positions are vacant for long periods of time. The organization declines the longer employee contracts go unresolved and he planned to take a whole new look at something that had been the subject of adversity and adversarial relations. He felt this was the spirit of all this and to him it is like breathing. It just seemed common sense that he needed to do this and he did not view this as self-serving but as something that Council needed to insure success.

Member Kramer thought that the position had been recognized and was rolled up in the current budget submission.

Mr. Klaver said it was and the salary used, $75,000, was simply a product of surveying surrounding communities for other Human Resources positions and obviously was subject to additional discussion.

Member Kramer said he would support Mr. Helwig as he set himself a new course in the City and he supported it from our policy and philosophy of requiring Mr. Helwig to bring a renewed sense of professional management. The City staff organization is very broad and the span of control too big for one person to manage in a profession manner. He thought this area had been overloaded and wanted to start with improvement at the top. He would support it.

Mayor Clark said there are 233 employees, which is a large number to expect one person to have daily hands on control over.

Member Bononi said she would support City Manager Helwig’s ability to appoint his own team with regard to being able to deliver the program that he needed to deliver. If that was a C.O.O. it was his call and she supported his ability and right to do that. However, she would be looking for an analysis of the structure of the organization. She would also expect him to make an appropriate compensatory cut with regard to existing positions that might overlap or existing positions that he felt were not totally necessary by the amount required for the position he created.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo supports the comments of Members Kramer and Bononi.

Member Crawford concurred with most of the previous comments and specifically Mr. Helwig’s and Mr. Kramer's. He thought it was long overdue for that type of position particularly when the Assistant City Manager was acting 80% in a Human Resources capacity. He was looking for Mr. Helwig to bring fresh ideas and outlooks to the organization and was not looking for an offset in personnel and salaries to make up for the $75,000 in salary for this new position. If in review of the total organization Mr. Helwig saw duplications or deficiencies he was sure Mr. Helwig would address them. He hoped it would not be a directive of Council to offset like that.

Member Csordas stated he supported the recommendation and could also make a recommendation/request that Mr. Helwig bid out the City health coverage. He was sure a lot of money would be found in that line item budget. He asked that Mr. Helwig look at what the City paid for health coverage and the level of benefits provided. Member Csordas had looked at the rates paid and felt the rates could be better.

Member Kramer said that the Risk Manager’s function included looking at health insurance.

Mayor Clark stated he also supported Mr. Helwig and his request.

Mr. Klaver summarized the personnel with the inclusion of the Human Resource Director in the budget. Those positions are Purchasing Director, Human Resource Specialist, Grant Administrator, receptionist, account clerk that supports purchasing, two clerk typist who support the public information function, purchasing function and the general receptionist.

He said the personnel services and supplies are non-discretionary predominately salary and the new supervisory salary was on page 16 in the Traditional Budget. He stood corrected instead of $75,000 it was $73,000 for the Human Resources Director. Other than that those numbers were the same as they were previously with the exception of the health care.

Mr. Klaver responded to the health care situation. The Consultant Review wanted to move that process forward. A meeting was scheduled for Thursday morning to do that. The current Risk Management was coming in to talk to them about their services.

Mr. Klaver moved on and said the Y-2K compliance, data processing, engineering consulting was a retainer for JCK, the Woodlands Permit expenses were generally City wide activities included under the General Administration account. Memberships and Dues had a separate breakdown, M.M. L. on behalf of the entire City and National League of Cities was also included. The Planning Consultant falls in this category and General Consulting, which he wanted to make a correction to. Council recently approved a contract with AON for Loss Control Risk Management Services and unbeknownst to him that contract was based on a pay up front that they would bill against so the entire $25,000 for those services would come out of the current budget.

He passed out a revised list that showed what was done with the consultants and a couple of these were new categories. Also, included was an Administrative wage study and there was $5,000 that he thought would be prudent to set aside for additional Risk Management from AON that might not be incorporated in their retainer. Then there was $10,000 identified as appraisals for property purposes and the actuary studies, which for the most part was MERS.

The balance was a program Ms. Smith-Roy recommended to pre-fund the retiree health care instead of pay as you go that Council adopted approximately eight years ago.

Mr. Klaver said the Traffic Consultant also fell under here. Community Promotion is the various activities and promotional materials such as the racecar pins, etc. Most of that was offset with revenues.

Historical Commission had a history of requesting maybe two or three times more than had been spent in other years. The big-ticket item was $15,000 for building

improvements on the Old Township Hall. They would like to repaint the exterior and they had been challenged because the two floors do not connect. They have studied a variety of different ways of building a staircase or having some kind of path allowing those two floors to be connected.

Beautification Committee requested an increase from $4,600 to $7,000 because they have a very ambitious program this year.

Fifties Festival - This money had been set aside for the festival for in kind support services such as D.P.W., traffic control and we supplement the public safety presence there as well.

Member Bononi asked if this was in kind or cash disbursement? Mr. Klaver said it was in kind and to fund the activities of City employees, supplies, set up of utilities, etc.

Appreciation Dinner – An annual event for all the various boards, committees, and ad hoc committee volunteers that the City had throughout the years.

Youth Assistance - This is basically the cost of providing their offices here and we continue the support of that function to the extent that the City jointly fund with the school district the clerical person that is assigned to that. The caseworker’s salary and support is provided through the courts. This is a very popular and successful program and everyone involved felt it was quite effective.

Printing and Publishing – This was for City departments’ regarding a lot of the office supplies, advertisements, and general central functions come out of this account.

Insurance – This was one of the activities assigned to AON and they were currently preparing to bid out for insurance. However, they thought it was prudent to assume an increase this year so $25,000 was added. He cautioned that this was not all premium; with our general liability we are responsible for our self-retained limits on each liability case. They have been anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000. He said there was always at least one case per year that would go beyond that and the City would be separately billed beyond the premium for that self-insured retention limit.

Street Lighting - Mr. Klaver said the City funds four particular streetlights.

Office Equipment Maintenance – Quite a bit of the equipment is leased including the major copiers and has been found to be more cost-effective.

Tuition Reimbursement – Personnel is surveyed each year and in this instance Ms. Gronlund-Fox indicated she hoped to go back and take some additional college classes this year. Mr. Klaver felt this was an excellent program and a lot of the City’s better employees are individuals that take advantage of this program. He felt the City directly benefited from this and encouraged Council’s support of this.

Capital Outlay – At present there was nothing at all in this category this year.

Member Crawford asked if bike trails and sidewalks were funded somewhere else?

Ms. Smith-Roy said that category was now under the D.P.W. and also the roads and showed the outlay of prior years.

Chief Lenaghan said in dealing with the Fire Department they would really like to use the words Public Fire Protection because it is a much broader term and a better description of what they do. As indicated in the annual report and the budget presentation they cover a number of areas such as fire suppression, EMS, hazardous materials, public education, CPR training, etc. He said in dealing with Fire Protection they have a unique way of serving the community in providing 24-hour coverage through four different programs. Full time employees work Monday through Friday, 6 AM to 6 PM. Also, the paid on call employees, available if they are local during the day, at night and they have a sleep in program that assisted with response times and their First Responder Program. This was two people out of Station #1 covered evenings and weekends and an auxiliary program that worked with the daytime staff and were part time people.

Chief Lenaghan said Novi tried to build their Fire Department to deal with the services required by the City and to meet mutual aid commitments to other communities in the surrounding area.

Chief Lenaghan reviewed the recommendations for three additional full time employees for the day shift operation. They started out initially covering Station #1 with four people 10 or 12 years ago but now the City is approaching 50,000 people. Sometimes it was difficult especially during the day to recruit paid on call people for night operation. During the daytime there are no paid on call people so our total fire protection systems Monday through Friday relies on staff during the day. He said they used part time people, the auxiliary program, to support the full time employees. However, it was intended to cover sick time, vacation time and assist the program not replace it. They have tried to staff the vehicles and apparatus that they currently have. They operate four engines, four rescue trucks and a tanker. However, unique to Novi, the City is not totally hydranted so they operate in certain sections of the City by an urban operation with fire hydrants and a rural operation with water shuttles, etc. In addition, they do a height limitation of six stories and things like 12 Oaks Mall where they deal with sprinkler systems or an interior command type operation. Therefore, there has been a lot of emphasis on training and fire prevention.

He felt they were going in the right direction. As the population has increased there has been a decline in building fires. Chief Lenaghan explained their Fire Protection Officer Program.

Chief Lenaghan said they tried to eliminate the one-person divisions and move training, fire protection and vehicle maintenance under Support Services. The actual Code Enforcement is done in the Stations. The primary reason for this was firefighter safety. This meant, in somewhat traditional departments, the Fire Inspector went out, made the inspection and brought back the information and a violation was issued. Then someone had to go there at 2 AM and this way as the people rotate through the four different stations they get into every building in the City at some time. They should be more familiar with the building should they have to go there during an emergency. He said they have their standby time, they do the vehicle and hydrant maintenance but in addition to that they do a very comprehensive code enforcement program. They write the violations and do the re-inspection and if there was no compliance by the second re-inspection the Fire Marshall steps in, the violation would be issued and it went to court. The number of court appearances in the last few years has been substantially cut.

Chief Lenaghan said this was what the full time people do and in doing this they were limited on staff and any program like this costs additional funds. The objective was to staff their present vehicles with two people during the day shift.

Chief Lenaghan said they moved Station #4 so there would be no more than 3 miles from the Fire Stations to any place in the City. Secondly, they did not have a lot of extra equipment and they operate one engine and one rescue unit at each fire station. The fire protection throughout the City is the same. Station #1 was different because they have the only engine with an aerial ladder in the City. The heavy rescue is at Station #1. They operate the tanker out of Station #1 for all the non-hydrant areas and during the day they operate their shift supervisor out of there and at night the sleep in program out of there because of the central location of it.

In terms of staffing they have tried to have two people on each piece of apparatus. He said the only change would be when they get the new Quint truck and look to staff four people because of the ladders it carries.

He said during the day there was no way to cover the tanker. They either take the Rescue 1 squad out of service or have people jumping trucks and he did not think it was a good idea. They currently have 20 people. They have asked for three people this year, which would bring Station #4 up to five and the additional people the following year.

Chief Lenaghan asked for reclassification of their current secretary who was now an account clerk. He said the job description was not adequate for the position. The position involved administrative work and she was expected to deal with personnel matters, negotiations, etc. He recommended the classification be changed to Principle Clerk because it would cover confidential matters.

Mr. Klaver stated they had reviewed the classification and do support the Chief’s proposal and felt that it would be a more appropriate classification. He advised Council that even though there are negotiations in progress it would be appropriate to make a change to the budget process at this time.

Chief Lenaghan said they made an adjustment in the paid on call costs just to reflect the fact that there had been a nine- percent increase in their runs last year. They requested an increase to hire two more auxiliary personnel.

Member Kramer asked if fire staff was added last year? Chief Lenaghan said the staff at Station #2 was increased

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo recapped the presentation by the Chief regarding fire protection officers. She asked if only one or two additional FPO’s were approved how would that effect the situation?

Chief Lenaghan said they would probably be assigned to Station #1 to get their training.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked how many staff it took to go into a fire? Chief Lenaghan explained the procedure and said there should be ten people and to achieve this now two Stations had to be sent.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked if two additional FPO’s were approved this year for Station #4 then there would be two teams to respond? Chief Lenaghan said for all but one day out of the week.

She asked if the paid on call staffed from 6 PM to 6 AM? He said yes, but if available they could come at any time. She said then there is the sleep over program from 6 to 6. Chief Lenaghan said they start at 8 PM because they all work and they stay until 6 AM but not all of them participate in the program. It is a voluntary program and about half of the paid on call people work with this program.

She asked if he was still having trouble getting the paid on calls to respond? Chief Lenaghan said Station #2 was probably the biggest problem and were down to nine paid on call people now. Recruiting is very difficult and the same training applied to the paid on call people and it takes a lot of their time. Plus, there was competition with Wixom, Walled Lake, Commerce and Farmington Hills for paid on call people.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo said last year a small increase was given and asked if the Chief had something for Council to consider this year? He said he did not and Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo requested he bring a monetary request forward.

She asked how medical emergencies are handled in the evenings or on weekends and which station responded?

Chief Lenaghan said fire operations time is 20 minutes, medical are 6 minutes because they might not be breathing. It depended how quickly 911 turned the call over and got it out to dispatch with a simultaneous call to EMS for advanced life support. Station #1 would respond right away from anywhere in the City. Other personnel respond to their pagers and get to the Station, pick up the rescue unit, respond to the scene and communities also are responding for advanced life support.

She asked if they had automatic defibrillators? Chief Lenaghan said they had 5 of them and Providence Hospital bought them for the Fire Department. They have all the equipment, all the vehicles are licensed by the State to transport as well and they find themselves in a situation sometimes where they have to wait for the nearest ambulance coming from Beech Rd. and Five Mile.

Chief Lenaghan said they had been in this program for 10 or 11 years and Member Crawford was one of the initiators of this program. He said this is a good program and the service versus the cost can not be beat.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked, regarding Capital, what critical components he needed?

Chief Lenaghan started with building improvements and expressed a need for a vent to take the fumes out of the apparatus room when the trucks are started up. Driveway and roof repairs at a couple of the Stations and also the 25-year-old generator at Station #3 needed to be changed.

He said under fire equipment, the confined space rescue equipment, were things like the ammonia detectors which are used when they go to the ice arena and Husky Industries on Twelve Mile that had a large ammonia installation. Also, hard hats that could be used for any number of things.

He pointed out they had been faced with one trench rescue and two confined space rescues in the last couple of years. They did have some of the necessary equipment and wanted to upgrade what they currently have.

Thermal Imager’s was a program started two years ago at the direction of Council. They bought two of the Imagers, they have one on order and one in place. This would be the last two and they would put one in each station.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked what they did? Chief Lenaghan said it was an infrared sensor and allowed firefighters to see through smoke to find bodies and pick up hot spots in walls.

Chief Lenaghan said the Fire Com Headsets were to be worn in the trucks so they could hear the radios better and it improved communications.

He said rather than trying to train all their paid on call people for example on water rescues they assign water rescue to Station #2. Station #3 handled the confined space equipment and training. Station #4 would pick up the extrication and rescue.

He said the last thing is the Opticom System but the Fire Department was probably not the place to put it because it could not be implemented without the approval of the Oakland County Road Commission. They do not like this program at all. The City of Troy uses it and found it very effective; it changes the traffic signals as the emergency vehicles move through it. If they had it they would start with it at Novi Rd. and Grand

River which was a blind intersection for them going west. It is $4,000 to $6,000 per intersection.

They need battery backup for their communication equipment. Under miscellaneous equipment there was visual, EMS and digital camera equipment. He said they were doing some of the EMT equipment because it was required by the State. The audiovisual equipment’s new; it’s an enhanced program that can not be used with a digital camera. He said miscellaneous was more medical equipment used in the EMT training.

Chief Lenaghan said the vehicles have been left in and was for an inflatable boat, motors and replacement for his 7-year-old vehicle on its second transmission. Their aluminum boat had been in the Fire Department longer than he had. They do have an inflatable boat but need a bigger one for water and ice rescue.

The laptop computers had been taken out of the budget. Chief Lenaghan said it was really a maintenance budget other than the need for personnel.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked if there was consensus of Council to ask the Chief to come forward with paid on call information?

Mayor Clark said there was consensus.

Chief Lenaghan commended retired Captain Roddewig of Station #3, a paid on call member. He came here shortly after Chief Lenaghan and was a lot of help making transitions in the Fire Department over the last twenty some years. He was always there, did a great job and he wanted to acknowledge a job well done.

Mayor Clark asked that he be brought before Council for proper recognition.

Mr. Klaver said the FPO’s work a 48-hour week and this had been a very effective program; however, they work four shifts a week. So when he showed there was one officer off on Monday, Tuesday, etc. there would never be more than four and that does not count days off. One officer everyday of the week was not scheduled so there was never more than four and it was still a 48 hour work week.

In the area of equipment he wanted to remind Council that the major equipment for the Fire Department was purchased out of the dedicated Police and Fire, which is a revolving fund.

Member Bononi said she was totally amazed Chief Lenaghan could do what he did with those resources and the way he did it. She thought that managerially he should be commended. She had never lived or worked in a City of this size that did not have a full time professional staff and the fact that he is able to do that is very impressive.

Member Csordas said the Chief ran a great operation and he had the chance to tour it and his professionalism and dedication to the City was appreciated. He referred them to Personal Services under line item insurance and said that he saw they were forecasting a 22% increase and asked what it was for?

Ms. Smith-Roy said it was the medical, life and dental insurance. The City had overall experienced higher rates this year and secondly there were four staff members that were part time during the year but would be full time next year.

Member Csordas asked if the 7% increase under Workers Compensation was because of a premium increase. Ms. Smith-Roy said it was based on last year’s rates but again it was because the personnel were part time and it was based on a percentage of wages.

Mr. Klaver said we are in a pool for Workers Compensation through the MML. However, AON would be evaluating and re-bidding it this year.

Mayor Clark had known the Chief for a number of years and when at various meetings

around the State of Michigan the comment he always got was that he did not know how

lucky Novi was to have Art Lenaghan as Chief of the Fire Department. He is extremely

knowledgeable, dedicated and has given not only to this community but others

when he is called on to do that. He said his efforts were recognized and appreciated.

Mr. Brunett, President of the Library Board, introduced John Chambers Vice President and Brenda Evans, Director. He said the Board adopted a budget by the major line items and Council now had it. He said this was brought to Council as a matter of information and it was not a part of the total City budget but it was a separate budget Council looked at each year. He said they moved from an estimated end point $18,038 to $8,015 to $2,029,033. The final figure included $130,000 for a new roof. He said removing that figure from the bottom line the overall increase was about 3.2%. He said this was an operating budget and they did have a Capital Improvement Program that they planned to bring to Council on May 1^st.

Ms. Evans said it was a budget that maintained the existing programs and did not show major increases in any area and they were hoping they would not have to transfer as much from their fund balance as they anticipated. She said the Library Board had set aside a fund for roof replacement and that $100,000 was a part of building reserve. They thought that with some of the additional services assigned to that project it might be closer to $130,000.

Mr. Brunett said at the left-hand bottom of the page it said "Recommended Balances" of 6/30/99 and should read 6/30/2000.

Ms. Smith-Roy said the Finance Department was not requesting any new programs for this year and they were maintaining their staffing levels and equipment, etc. The only item brought forth represented the staff and the Finance IT purchasing and Treasury. There was $20,000 in last year’s budget for the imaging equipment to continue on with that program. The Clerk’s Department and the Building Department were using it. They do not want to bring on another department until they felt comfortable with it. They hoped the Finance Department would use it

in the current year so the $20,000 item had been moved from the current year estimated column over to the new budget.

Member Kramer asked if the unexpended funds would catch up with it when it was rolled into the fund balance?

Ms. Smith-Roy said they had reduced the estimated column so it was not shown in both years.

Member Kramer said while it was a new fund request for 2000-2001 there were unexpended funds from 1999-2000 that through appropriated fund balance would catch up. Ms. Smith-Roy said yes.

Ms. Smith-Roy said this represented a change brought to Council a couple of months ago on how the department was being operated. She said they were real happy with the way it was proceeding. In the packets she included a copy of the City of Novi network infrastructure. She said they were still working on this and three servers have been added to the system since January. She said in 1992 there was one server and 70 PC’s so that department and the amount of responsibility had grown immensely. She said the new Network Coordinator and Information System Analysts are doing a really great job and she had seen a lot of progress in a very short time. Visacom is the consultant they are using and they are doing a good job also and she was happy with the way things were moving.

Ms. Smith-Roy said they had included in Contingency approximately $90,000 worth of funds that they believed might be necessary during the current year for replacement equipment.

Treasury

Ms. Smith-Roy said Assistant Treasurer Steve Babinchak had moved onto another position. He had automated many of the systems in that department and they are continuing along that road with the availability of the Autopay for the water and sewer billings, which should be starting within the next billing cycle.

The department consisted of the Assistant Treasurer, two account clerks, bond specialist and two part time clerks that were used full time during the tax collection period. This department did not have any new programs incorporated in it. They did show reduction in the bank services area and that was based on the bid that was just awarded to Old Kent during the current year. She anticipated savings in that area.

Ms. Smith-Roy said the Director position was vacant. The budget was put together by the former Director Lou Martin before he left. The budget remained similar to the prior year and the estimate for the switch for the cable room was approximately $20,000. The other item included in this budget was a $10,000 piece of equipment for an Editor. That piece of equipment actually belonged at S.W.O.C.C. and it would provide more quality service and be compatible with the other equipment that was being used at S.W.O.C.C. Additionally, there

had been a recommendation that the entire system be overhauled and estimates had been received from $100,000 to $150,000 so far.

Mr. Klaver said the Communications Committee had been working on this. The equipment’s 12 or 13 years old and definitely needed to be replaced. The problem was the funds were not there. He said the position Lisa Antuna holds had worked fabulously and they were very pleased.

Member Crawford asked for a round of applause for Ms. Antuna and said she had done an absolutely fantastic job since she came on board.

Member Kramer laid out for the Communications Committee a plan to improve the video and audio capabilities of the City. The switchers were due to go down soon and it needed to be funded which would take about $100,000 and included improving the acoustics in the room so that the microphones work and some other items. It did not appear that there would be much support from Time Warner for our local equipment upgrade. He suggested the full program be sent to the Council. He supported what was in the budget and would look for opportunity to do more.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo stated her disappointment in spending money in previous years on this and not being able to notice a quality difference. She has received information from residents watching that the quality was still horrible both from an audio and video perspective.

Ms. Antuna stated she was not involved in the past upgrades. She felt that being here to specifically address those technical situations would increase help. Unfortunately, Ms. Stewart and Mr. Martin were more Public Information people and they would solicit other people’s help. She said she brought more to the table than they did from a different arena. As far as the quality of the video the line that leaves this facility to Time Warner and feedback’s here is a poor feed, the modulator is old and out of date and it had been a constant battle to get it improved and seemed to get nowhere.

She said programs that we produce are done on playback VHS which is one of the lowest quality items to broadcast on. A new DV camera was just approved and it would increase the quality and the new editor would allow them to take that DV and edit in the highest quality possible.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo stated she asked Mr. Klaver for information regarding a $50,000 request for cable productions. She asked if it was ready?

Mr. Klaver said it would be in the next packet.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked if the $200,000 that paid for this department mostly came from S.W.O.C.C.?

Member Crawford said yes, it was generally allocated and therefore the positions were funded through the City.

Mr. Klaver said some of the improvements done last year were for the audience. They consisted of additional speakers, projector, etc.

Ms. Antuna said the podium, document camera, projector and a couple of upgrades of the Lob System were out of previous budgets and were quality items that had made improvements.

Member Csordas said the City was stiffed on two of the cameras because they were security cameras. He would like to go back and get recourse for those. He thought Ms. Antuna was doing a great job with what she had. He suggested the funds should be redirected back to where the source comes from and reinvested.

Mayor Clark said it was time to get into the next century.

Member Csordas felt Ms. Antuna, because of her expertise, should spec out the work and decide what was needed.

Member Bononi said this had been addressed on a piece meal basis prior to Ms. Antuna’s arrival. She was very glad that she was moving forward on this and appreciated this would be a comprehensive view and if she needed more resources to come to that end she would support that.

Member Kramer said Ms. Antuna worked up a comprehensive plan and she could continue to work and evolve it but it costs more than the City could afford right now.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked if that was the $100,000 figure? She said she would not rule that out because they have not finished trimming the budget yet.

Ms. Antuna stated they had come to the conclusion that the problem was the layout of the room. It was perfect if standing at the podium speaking to anyone in the room but add a microphone and it became a nightmare. One of the problems was the dome because the audio signals come into the room and bounce around and get into any open mikes and it amplifies every time it comes through. That was where the echo and feedback comes from. One recommendation was a decorative, suspending, sound absorbing material, which would cut back on the hissing, etc. The top of the walls could also be lined with carpet to absorb some of the sound instead of sending it back into the microphones. She stated she was trying to build a video infrastructure.

Member Crawford said the control room was very small and asked if one of the corners in the Council Chambers could be used as a control room? Ms. Antuna said they have already considered that and it would be very feasible and a better environment to work. Member Crawford said if Council had given direction on the up grade program he thought that needed to be part of it if there was consensus of Council.

Ms. Antuna said if a complete overhaul were done it would lessen the chances of coming back piece meal. It was difficult for her crew to work under such troubleshooting conditions and she said they have done a tremendous job keeping up with everything.

Member Crawford said there was consensus of Council to support her unanimously and it would be up to them to find the funds to do it.

Ms. Smith-Roy said the Revenue item was shown as a separate line item on page 1 of the yellow traditional budget. Cable was under the heading of Other Services and Charges and was titled Cable Television Fee. She said a check is received from Time Warner four times a year.

One additional item had been included for the Web Site and that was the $5,000 additional for the G.I.S. Interactive. There was also another $5,000 in this budget in the police fund because they would like to have their own Web Site. She was recommending that they not have their own site but have their own page within our site.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked if they had a page within our site would that save some of that $5,000 that they are projecting? Ms. Smith-Roy said that was the savings; otherwise it would be $15,000.

Mr. Klaver said the Consultant Review Committee was currently soliciting proposals. He said it was $300,000 and that was what was requested for this year. Other legal fees incorporate any professional fees that have to be hired from the outside for legal cases. Keller-Thoma was a fairly big piece of that and he would provide a breakdown for the next meeting. They are not on a retainer and are on an hourly rate. He said the RFQ’s were due back the 25^th of this month. There had been inquires from four different firms.

Mayor Pro Tem Lorenzo asked if it was anticipated that there would not be many more expenditures for the Appeals Counsel?

Mr. Klaver said correct and approximately 95% of that work was completed at this time. Council would be updated on the appeal and there should be a settlement conference within the next four to six weeks.

Member Kramer asked if line item coverage was needed for their continued support?

Ms. Smith-Roy did not think so and felt there was enough in the budget to cover it.

Mayor Clark said 90%-95% of the research and the writing is done and would now wait for the conference process. If that did not bear fruit then it would go into the hands of the appeals panel and then the appellate attorneys would have to give oral argument.

There being no further business before Council, the meeting was adjourned at 4:36 PM.

_____________________________ _______________________________

Richard J. Clark, Mayor Nancy Reutter, Deputy City Clerk

Transcribed by: _________________________

Charlene Mc Lean

Date approved: May 15, 2000