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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/15/1993 Adjourned Meeting 1 303 CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON ADJOURNED MEETING JUNE 15, 1993 I/ The City Council met in session on this date at 7:00 am. in the City Manager's Conference Room at Yakima City Hall, Yakima, Washington. Council members present were Mayor Pat Berndt, presiding, Henry Beauchamp (present after 7:20 a.m.), Lynn Buchanan, ,Skip Semon (present after 7 :15 a.m.), and Bernard Sims. Council Members Clarence Barnett and Bill Brado absent and excused. Staff members present were City Manager Zais, Assistant City Manager Rice, Jerry Copeland, Director of Public Works, Dave Flaherty,. Parks and Recreation Manager, Nancy Gaudette, Refuse and Recycling Manager, Dave Hussell, Street and Traffic Operations Manager, John Haddix, Acting Transit Manager, Don Toney, Fleet Manager, and City Clerk Roberts. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT Jerry Copeland stated staff wanted to inform Council about its goals and current status on reaching those goals. We are continuing to find ways to provide service without adding new staff, primarily by computerization and equipment. Public Works is pretty much computerized now. (Council Member Semon present at 7:15 a.m.) We are trying to eliminate the clerical pool system to provide better division support. To increase effectiveness, staff is considering instituting a Total Quality Management (TQM) system in Public Works. Staff has been learning about that management concept and will have a presentation from Larry Rice this week. Mr. Rice is the Public Works Director from Deschutes County, which implemented this concept three years ago. (Council Member Beauchamp present at 7:20 a.m.) Refuse and Recvclina Division Nancy Gaudette reported that this division has been working with other divisions and organizations to try to be as efficient as possible. She named a few of the cooperative ventures the division participated in, including the Christmas tree recycling program, working with Pacific Power; Clean -Up Green -Up, working with Yakima County; helping the Street Division with the leaf pick -up program; working with the County on its hazardous waste turn -in program, and working with Rebound Plus with some of their clean -up projects. The crews have been advising staff about areas with litter problems so a letter can be -sent about abatement of the problem. There was discussion regarding the feasibility of utilizing the utility billing statement to give notice of City clean -up projects. The drawback to that communication method is the billing is on a two month cycle. Mrs. Gaudette referred to a 304 JUNE 15, 1993 ADJOURNED MEETING map of the current routes which have trucks working all over the city on any given day. She reported she devised a plan to divide the city so that the daily pick -ups are grouped together. The crew voiced concern that people would not like changing their pick -up day and the crews would not be familiar with the routes and the people on the routes. She stated she also tried to equalize the routes taking the number of accounts into consideration. (Council Member Brado present at 7:35 a.m.) The refuse drivers devised a plan which would allow a truck to stay in areas similar to their current routes. However, the size of the routes are not very even, plus they did not take annexations into consideration. We are still working on it and hope to have this route consolidation in place soon. Discussion ensued regarding route consolidation. Mr. Copeland stated that some of the routes are so overloaded it is affecting the service level, so they need to be better balanced. Transit Division • John Haddix reported there will be new summer uniforms for the Transit drivers. He updated Council on the status of the Transit Transfer Facility and Public Works Complex projects. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Transfer Facility will be held today. Tri -Ply Construction was awarded the contract which should come in under the budgeted amount. The targeted completion date is the second week in October. Referencing the Public Works Complex project, he reported a Local Improvement District for water was formed on North 21st Avenue. There were three bids opened for this project, of which, two were non - responsive by failing to sign the affirmative action compliance form. One of those contractors withdrew its bid; the other contractor filed a bid protest. The issue is now being reviewed by the attorneys. Moen Construction appears to be the low responsive bidder at $2.48 million compared to the architect's estimate of $2.6 million. City Manager Zais commented that the project may end up with change orders because of the complexity of the project. Mr. Haddix reported Transit has submitted an application for a $926,000 Section 9 operations grant. The People for People Dial - a -Ride contract seems to be going fairly smoothly. Council Member Beauchamp commented that it seems like the People For People vans are always dirty. Mr. Haddix stated he would contact them about it. Street /Traffic Division Mr. Copeland stated that Dave Hussell will inform Council about a Total Quality Management experimental project in his division. Council Member Beauchamp asked if all the Public Works management staff have been trained in TQM. He was advised that most of the managers have been exposed to it and have some knowledge about it. The seminar with Mr. Rice will give them more information. 2 JUNE: 15, 1993 3 0.5 ADJOURNED MEETING Mr. Hussell showed Council a slide of a crack filling machine which provides an elasticized kind of filling in the street cracks. The old method took ten people on a crew to seal the cracks. The new method uses six people and since the crack isn't - covered with sand, the crew doesn't have to go back to sweep up the excess sand. The material is more expensive, however, it lasts longer - usually 3 -5 years compared to one year under the former system. The equipment would cost $28,000 to purchase, however, it is being leased because it will probably only be used about one month a year. A second piece of equipment being used in the Traffic operations section is a computerized sign making machine. Staff has been able to make signs so much quicker, saving man - hours. This equipment is also a plotter for making maps. He showed a slide of a road grader recently purchased. Don Toney explained that about three years ago they started purchasing off -road equipment through a guaranteed buy -back program. For example, the last road grader was purchased three years ago for about $103,000, with a guarantee to buy it back in three years or 3,000 hours for $87,000. Since the old equipment had less than 3,000 hours, they bought it back for $91,000. This program keeps the City in new equipment for less money and less maintenance costs. Mr. Hussell stated this program will benefit the City as annexations occur in the West Valley area which has a lot of gravel roads. Mr. Hussell informed Council about a staffing change. A working foreman retirement was discussed with the Traffic Operations crew. They thought the position was not needed and talked about underfilling the position. They also discussed how scheduling decisions would be made and then implemented that strategy. The crew now makes many of the decisions that the supervisor was making. We are finding they are more efficient and the personality difficulties have been reduced. They work it out and make it happen. Parks Council Member Buchanan reported that at a recent ISTEA Enhancement meeting a question was asked about Yakima having the highest municipal population in the County and yet its projects are always listed at the bottom for funding. He asked why Yakima has to do the work for COG /RTPO Committee if Yakima is always at the bottom of the list. Dave Flaherty spoke briefly about the $36,000 grant Yakima received for design of the proposed Powerhouse Canal Pathway, commenting that a 20% match needs to be met. (Council member Buchanan absent after 8:35 a.m.) He distributed a list of agencies working with the Parks and Recreation Division to provide recreational services to the citizens. Referring to a slide showing a sign made for Tieton Park, he spoke about problems experienced at Tieton Park and how it was resolved in neighborhood meetings. He stated staff will soon be meeting with the Citizen CIP Committee and a tour is scheduled in July. 3 306 JUNE 15, 1993 ADJOURNED MEETING Equipment Rental Don Toney stated he looked at a computerized maintenance management system in Deschutes County, including purchasing and accounting functions. For the past 18 months he has been without the Mainstem management system since they closed their door on their batch operations. (Council Member Beauchamp absent after 8:45 a.m.) Those reports were extremely helpful in budgeting maintenance costs. He stated he will come back in about 60 -90 days with a recommendation for a software program, which is budgeted. City Manager Zais interjected that it is budgeted for one year because it includes more than the Equipment Rental Division. Mr. Toney reported the underground fuel tanks have been replaced and have been on line for about one month. The other city underground fuel tanks will be decommissioned. Hazardous waste is a problem for everybody. He spoke about the heating system in the shops area using waste fuel. City Manager Zais stated if Transit goes to PTBA, they will contract with the City for three years for transit maintenance. After. that, they can go private, contract with the City, or build their own facility. Mr. Toney stated that if Transit goes county -wide additional staff would have to be hired for maintenance because it would increase the fleet by 30 -40 vehicles. The meeting adjourned at 8:53 a. . Al A pa READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY: . " 6 � / 9 � COUN IL M;�1`' •ER DATE - AP" U ' L MEM ER / DATE ATTEST: CITY CLERK MAYOR I/ 4