MEETING OF THE CITY
OF
CONNELL,
The special meeting, of the City
Council of the City of
PRESENT: Mayor Gary Walton, Mayor Pro-Tem Perry Skoglund, Councilmembers Andy Sawyer, Monica Pruett, and Roel Martinez.
ABSENT: Councilmember Ron Boyer
STAFF:
City Administrator
City Administrator Tackett
reported that staff had looked into the partial payment of benefits by employees
and that there was no uniform method being used.
Most cities paid for the employees but it ranged on how much they paid,
if any, for family members. The
cities contacted that were insured by AWC were on the higher plan, Plan A, while
we were on Plan B. City
Administrator Tackett also noted that other cities had more employees per
population ratio then the City of
Mayor Walton advised that he had also looked into benefits provided by other cities and noted that smaller cities had better benefits to retain their employees due to the expense of turnover. In some areas the cost increase for insurance was split between the employer and the employee.
HOTEL/MOTEL TAX REQUEST
City
Clerk-Treasurer
Council
discussed the Planning & Community Development funds and gave its consensus
to move the $500 designated for the Junior Miss Pageant, which had not been
expended, into the Float line item number to increase it to $3,300.
TREE MAINTENANCE REQUEST
City
Clerk-Treasurer
Public Works Director Munyan advised that he did not feel that there was a need for $3,000 and that $800 would be sufficient for the maintenance of those trees.
Council
consensus was to leave the budget at $800.
COMPUTER/SERVER MAINTENANCE PROPOSAL
City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman advised that she had contacted Tim Steel of Tim’s Computer Sales and Service in regards to submitting a proposal for the maintenance of the City’s computers. Mr. Steel would not be able to provide emergency service during normal working hours and would require access to the computers after normal work hours and during weekends.
Council discussed the need to be able to have someone provide emergency service when necessary.
Council
consensus was to encourage Mr. Steel to present another proposal next year.
BENEFITS UPGRADE OPTIONS – AWC
City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman indicated that there had been a question in regards to upgrading to Plan A if an employee paid the difference. According to AWC the entire City would need to move to Plan A as a group. Clerk-Treasurer Eckman indicated that the current plan, Plan B, was not the plan employees had previous and that there was a lot of extra out of pocket expenses.
SALARY/BENEFIT SHARE
City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman provided Council with several variations of COLA’s and benefit cost sharing and the impact of those to employees and to the City. The current Consumer Price Index for the COLA was at 2.8% but the City only projected a 2% COLA projected employees. The variations did not include retirement, taxes and other costs. At this point the Police Department was still under negotiations, but by law the budget had to be adopted before the new year. The insurance rates had gone up 10.5% for 2005.
Police Chief advised that there was a negotiations meeting December 21, and if negotiations went past January 1st, the officers would continue to get paid the same wages until the contract was settled and then they would receive retroactive pay.
Council discussed disability benefits. Currently the City did not pay into disability for employees.
City
Administrator Tackett advised that workshops needed to be held starting in
January due to the number of options that needed to be looked at carefully and
possibly implement the cost share into phases.
City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman reviewed the 2005 Payroll Projections and the Salary Matrix. The Budget would be presented for adoption at the December 13th meeting.
Council
consensus was to leave the benefits and salary as projected.
OTHER BUDGETARY
Mayor Walton inquired about the Police Reserve equipment.
Chief Rochleau advised that more vests may need to be purchased for the reserves as they were only guaranteed for five years. In the recent L & I audit they inquired about the vest program.
Mayor Walton commended City Clerk-Treasurer Eckman for a job well done on the budget.
Councilmember Skoglund inquired about the $2,000 for ball diamonds.
Mayor Walton inquired about funds for the replacement of the small pavilions.
Council
gave its consensus to add $4,500 to Parks & Recreation ($2,000 for Other
Improvements and $2,500 for Buildings & Structures) and have $4,500 taken
out of its ending balance.
Public Works
Director advised that he had met with someone in regards to the sidewalks on
City Administrator Tackett advised that he had been contacted by Bond Counsel and that the City would be looking at refinancing the Farm project.
There being no further business
to be heard before the City Council, Mayor Walton adjourned the meeting at