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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-11-1974 Council Memo �. ,,-_,. TO: City Council - FROM: James Cosby, City Administrat /!� r DATE: June 7, 1974 SUBJECT: Council Meeting of June 11, 1974 INFORMATION ITEMS The first item in your information packet is a letter from Ehlers & Associates explaining the proposed advance refunding of outstanding bonds. His explanation is attached and he will appear at the 6 : 30 P.M. session of the Council and answer any que�tions that you have as to what all is actually involved in the possible refunding and whether or not it is advisable to the City of Orono to do it at this time. I think that you will find this a very interesting proposal and generally speaking, it is usually in the favor of the City to do the refunding as is being proposed here. The second item in your iriformation packet is a letter from Mr. Abrahamson in which he is making a r.equest in regard to past public utility projects on his property. I really do not know at this time what the Council can do to get him relief without opening a door to granting relief to everyone in the City that may be under similar circumstances . I am including this letter in your packet for you to read and consider and perhaps you may want to take a closer look at the rezoning that is being proposed in his area. The third item in your information packet is a letter from the Chief of Police with attached supporting documentation concerning the establishment of what is known as a 911 system. This system is an attempt to establish one emergency numbe,r throughout the entire area and while I feel it a good proposal, I agree with Chief Ross ' s recommendation that we should reserve the right to reconsider any application until we know what the cost factors are and just exactly how we would fit into this system. The fourth item concerns some information that the Council requested from Orr-Schelen-Mayeron a while back regarding the flows in the sewer line of which there is the school and the property west of Willow Drive and north of the Burlington-Northern railroad. That information is enclosed. Just a final reminder that on Monday night June lOth, you are setup to interview an application for my job and another one for Mr. Marston ' s position. Copies of their resumes have been sent to you under separate cover. I have been receiving calls from other interested individuals in the metropolitan area and i feel that we will be in receipt of additional applications next week. You should also know this advertisement will come out in the City Manager' s Association newsletter on June 15th. Also another item of information for you is on the prelist of bills, I Council Agenda - June 11, 1974 Page 2 have put myself and Dexter down for payment of our unused accumulated vacation days and one-third of the accumulated sick days , which we currently have. It has been the policy of the City in the past to normally pay the vacation and one-third of the accumulated sick leave and I am just making the assumption that that policy will also apply to Mr. Marston and myself. AGENDA ITEMS 3-5. As you know, Dave Opheim is the newly elected chairman of the Park Commission and he will be coming before you on Tuesday night to give a series of reports on various aspects of the Park Commission projects and planning stages it is in. The agenda may not necessarily reflect all the items, though I think that I have gotten most of them listed. Dave may have additonal reports to give at the last minute. As far as number 3 is concerned, the Park Commission felt that that piece of property where the proposed Zeanchock and Roelofs restaurant was being requested would not be ideal property for park land. A letter to that affect is in your packet. Item number 4 is a report in which the Park Commission is requesting that the Council take a look at the purchase of a piece of property north of Stubbs Bay, which is known as the old creamery property and is actually in the northwest intersection of where the Luce Line Trail crosses Stubbs Bay Road. It appears that we may have an opportunity to purchase this property. Also Item number 5 , Dave has talked to me in regard to park facilities between Dunwoody and Casco Point and as I recall from memory, the opportunity of additional park facilities in there does not look to good other than the fact that Casco Circle itself may have some future potential in that area if the deed restrictions and concerns can be resolved. 16. You have in your packet a proposal being made to the City of Orono for the use of a motorcycle this summer by our Police Department for the primary purpose of patrol and being able to enter into areas which police cars have not been able to enter before. There is some concern among members of the police department that the Luce Line Trail is impossible to patrol with a car and that �here are from time to time motorcyclists and other violators on the trail and with that problem it is felt that a motorcycle on our own department may provide better coverage in these inaccessable areas. At the present time, the Orono Police Department only has one individual who is capable of driving a motorcycle and that is Gary Cheswick. If this vehicle would be used, it would be assigned to him and be used on his patrol. According to some members of the police department, they know where we can get at reasonable cost the accessory items needed for the motorcycle and the additional insurance coverage for a motorcycle would be a premium of $90 . 00. Both the Chief of Police and myself have some trepidation in regard to accepting a motorcycle on the force for there is a fear that if a hot pursuit takes place, we are simply exposing a man on a motorcycle to a greater danger of accident and severe personal injury. The key to a success of a motor- cycle on a police department will have to rest on a very strong set of guidelines and standards to the driver. The City must insure that the driver understands this is not a hot pursuit vehicle but it is, used simply for the purpose of patrolling as well as poking into the in- accessable �reas. This community as well as all the communities in the metropolitan area spend a lot of money on radios to put in police cars . , Council Agenda - June 11, 1974 Page 3 and one of the primary purposes of a radio is to be able to call ahead and get assistance from other police forces to cut off individuals who are fleeing from our pursuing officer. However, in view of all the factors to be considered, I do not think that it would be harmful to try it as an experiment this summer to see whether or not a motorcycle might very well play an enforcement role in this community. I think that we can establish some criteria by which to determine the success of the experiment but we will never know for sure whether a motorcycle can be of assistance to us until we try it. I would, therefore, recommend to the Council that we give it consideration for the summer but that we establish standards by which to evaluate its performance and based upon those results , determine whether or not we should continue in the future with its use. 17. A representative from Ehlers & Associates will be present at the 6: 30 P.M. meeting as well as at the Council meeting, �o discuss with you the refunding of the �onds that is being proposed. 18. Representatives from the firm of Orr-Schelen-Mayeron will be present at the Council meeting to ask the Council for a motion to order the projects approved by the Council previously in sewer project 73-1 to go to final bids. They will ask for a motion to advertise the bids. 19. & 20.� These items are rather self-explanatory. 21. In your packet is a spread sheet of employee salaries, with the exception of the police department, which is unionized. It lays out the cost to the City of Orono should it give a 5$ increase to all existing salaries at this time. As all of us are aware, the inflationary market is eating up the value of the dollars that we currently have. You also have attached to this sheet several articles that I have cut out of newspapers which show that the inflation rate is going between 11�-14�. In 1973, the Council and myself set down for salaries�l'�he final decision was to give a basic 6� raise across the board. All of us at that time had hoped that would be the only salary determination needed to be made for 197�. None of us wa�,_able to predict the flationary spiralling increase which is currently going pn�. I am therefore, asking the Council to consider salary increases for the employees of at least 5� , The salaries become effective July lst and the cost to the City of these funds is demonstrated for you on the spread sheet. Also attached to this report is a copy of the page of the budget of the contingency fund. You will notice in the contingency fund,that is divided into two parts, that $20 ,000 for the standard contingency fund and $20, 000 for the employees salary increases , which from last year being based on 6� increases, all of this figure has been used except for $2,036. If the increase is granted, then any increases being considered for the assessing department or the golf course, or the liquor store will be paid out of those funds direct and not out of the contingency fund. In other words, the enterprise funds will have to finance t ir own salary increases, and therefore, is not a cost to the general fund��herefore, to give the salary increases to the rest of the employees there is sufficient money left in the contingency fund. Now, it is true that this salary increase would come out of that part of the contingency fund that is normally set ! Council Agenda - June 11, 1974 Page 4 aside for operational contingencies. Whatever monies may be needed from the operational contingency fund to finance raises for the employees , can in some part be made up by Federal Revenue Sharing Funds in the event that we have an emergency situation occur or a major change in the operational status of one of the accounts in the general fund. I would ask that the Council take this matter under advisement for there is no question that the inflationary market is definitely hurting the financial position of many of the employees. I am sure that many of you in your own financial situations are having the same problem, but you must consider the fact that the general salary range of employees in Orono are considerably lower than a lot of the surrounding municipalities in our area. 22. You have in your packet a request for Federal Revenue Sharing Funds to be spent for additonal OSHA needs. The rollbar:� which are required under the law are a very good factor to add to the safety of any vehicle. I have always been concerned about the rollbars not being on equipment on our golf course, for as hilly as that operation is , I have been amazed that we have not had a vehicle turn over on us yet. I would also point out the fact that Officer Courtney, who suffered a severe accident in a police car that was rolled about three times, is alive today only because he had a rollbar in the car. 23. You have a copy ot the blank form which has to be submitted to Washington no later than' June 24th of this year. The purpose of this report is merely for the City to expr�ss what it plans to use its Federal Revenue Sharing allocation for during the period of July 1, 1974 through June 30 , 1975. The total amount of money that we receive during that period is $29, 220. It is recognized under the law that governs Federal Revenue Sharing that quite often these planned use reports come at a time that is awkard for government to make specific decisions due to the fact that as is our case, our budgting process does not have to be finalized until, October lOth and we are just now getting underway in that area. If the Council does not wish to make a specific committment, it would be my recommendation that we put the entire amount of money under Item #9 , listed multi-purpose and .gene�:a1 government,�his is a rather generalized catagory but it does give the City of Orono an opportunity to wait until budget time then for more specific allocation of the funds. You will also be receiving reports from the Federal Government that we have to fill out which explain exactly how the money is actually spent and quite often the actual expenditures differ from its planned use. On the other hand, I remind the Council of my report to you dated May 22 , 1973, in which I did lay out catagories for possible Federal Revenue Sharing Fund use. I realize that some of the newer members on the Counc l d� ot v � a copy of that report and I will make it available to you � T ��g,. Again, I would suggest that we designate the expenditure of our funds for more multi-purpose and general government use. . ' w Page 5 Louncil Agenda - June 11, I974 24. You have a report in your packet from the Chief of Police in regard to a meeting which he had in Spring Park concerning Lord Fletcher' s July Fourth activities. It appears that Srping Park appreciates the problem that we have and is sensitive to it, or at least its sensitive enough to it to begin thinking of how they can pay Orono for the use of its policemen and eguipment that does get used on that day due to the overflow of parking from Lord Fletchers. There is another meeting being conducted on this very issue next week and I hope that at the Council meeting I will have additional information for you. The problem we have is that regardless of what Spring Park may be willing to pay for the use of off-duty policemen and/or auxilary policepeople, we our- selves do not have a lot of manpower to spread around. There are some of us who would like to take the Fourth of July off as a holiday as well. Anyway, we are still trying to iron this problem out to see what can be done. 25. At the Council meeting last week, the Minutes of, the previous meeting were approved and the statement on the Di Con plat needs to be amended before the County will a�ccept it for filing. This is an error on my part for the motion read that the Council approved the Di Con plat. I need an amendment from the Council to say that the Council approved the final plat of the Di Con Addition. The County will only accept the file when a copy of the minutes which says Di Con Addition is recieved by them. 26. At the Council meeting last month, the Council made a motion to adopt the odd-year election system. In talking to Bruce Malkerson this week, he has stated that the law requires that to be done by ordinance. I have instructed the attorney to draw up the necessary ordinance and your Minutes will reflect that a motion made by the Council last week states that instructions were given to the attorney to draw up the proper ordinance. 28. The City Engineer will give a report on the status of the IDS property project. I am not exactly certain at this time what his report will consist of but I believe that he will report that IDS is moving along with its stormwater proposal and that the problem �iwt they are having now is contacting people at the FWBI 'to have a meeting in regard to an easement that is necessary on their property to be obtained in order for the storm water proposal to be completed. The engineer has informed me that an individual at the FWBI said �t he would get around to considering the easement when he had time and as a result ai.�, I feel that an undue delay has been caused in this project as a result of that attitude. If this delay continues into next week, I feel we should ask the Mayor to intervene and push this meeting along so � we can finalize IDS one way or the other.