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Home My WebLink About11/16/2004 Adjourned Meeting 4 0 7 CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 16, 2004 - 8:30 A.M. - NOON j! COUNCIL CHAMBERS - CITY HALL 1. Roll Call Present: Council: Mayor Paul George, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Dave Edler, Neil McClure, Mary Place, Bernard Sims, and Susan Whitman Staff: Dick Zais, City Manager; Rita Anson, Director of Finance and Budget; and City Clerk Roberts 2. Police Department Sam Granato, Police Chief, introduced staff members Captain Rod Light and Terri Greer, Police Administrative Assistant. Investigation (Budget Page F -1) Preventive Patrol (Budget Page F -4) Police Support Services (Budget Page F8) Detention Services (Budget Page F -10) Administration (Budget Page F -12) Parking Facilities (Budget Page F -14) Insurance (Budget Page F -16) Police Pension (Budget Page F -17) Law and Justice Capital (Budget Page F -18) City Manager Zais noted that the .3% law & justice sales tax ballot measure for Yakima County was passed by the voters. That revenue and corresponding expenditures were not included in the budget, but will be added for the wrap -up document. There will be a time lag in receipt of the money and the hiring of positions. Council Member Place expressed concern that an interstate compact regarding the exchange of prisoners with other states will cause more work at the local level and possibly impact our funds. Chief Granato briefly described the Police' Department budget review with the Budget Strategy Team. They were concerned about overtime and finding alternatives to using police officers for certain functions. .4 : =:'8 NOVEMBER 16, 2004 — ADJOURNED MEETING — BUDGET REVIEW Discussion on the Police Department activities brought out the following information: • Prisoner costs are impacted by medical expenses; therefore, home monitoring, where we have no responsibility for medical expenses, can be a huge savings. • Verified Response Policy: Six -month report will be forthcoming; statistics indicate reduced number in response by Police Officers; and although some alarm monitoring companies have adapted quite well to the new policy, a few are still struggling. • Each detective is assigned 1100 cases; a lot of those cases have no leads • Division will not pursue forgers or hot check writers unless there is evidence such as photo imaging or thumbprint; identity theft is increasing. • Recommended population to Police ratio is at 1.8 per thousand; we have 1.43 per thousand. • 33 -38% of calls are handled by clerks taking reports, rather than sending an officer to take the report. • The Department is seeking better compliance, not revenue, through traffic enforcement; the City gets $10 from every ticket and the State gets the rest. • We are working through an issue on the video cameras concerning a conflict with the onboard mobile client — the printed data we get from recording, which shuts down the computer in the vehicle. • Budget Forecast indicates we rank number one in cities for criminal expenditure per capita and our per capita for payroll is in the bottom 20 %. 3. Fire Department (Budget Page G -1; Policy Issue Page PI -43) Auxiliary (Budget Page G -4) Operations — Fire Suppression (Budget Page G -5) Fire Investigation (Budget Page G -8) Training (Budget Page G -10) Administration (Budget Page G -12) Emergency Services (Budget Page G -14) Fire Capital (Budget Page G -22; Policy Issue Page PI -48) Firemen's Relief and Pension (Budget Page G -25) Fire Chief Dennis Mayo introduced Steve Scott and Brian Schaeffer, Deputy Chiefs. Policy Issue: Restructure Fire Department Administration The Policy Issue would restructure the Fire Department Administration with the phase out of the three Battalion Chief positions; upgrade one Lieutenant position to Captain, and add one Deputy Chief position, for a net savings of $200,000 in 2006. 2 409 NOVEMBER 16, 2004 — ADJOURNED MEETING — BUDGET REVIEW Comments and facts about this policy issue: • Fire Department was charged with looking for a $200,000 budget reduction I' ! • Fire Department is already lean • Budget Strategy Team also looked at this issue • Compared to closing Rescue Two, the Battalion Chief reduction would equate to the same reduction, while still maintaining the same level of service. • Under this structure, the new Deputy Chief would be in charge of the shift instead of the Battalion Chief, and would have to respond from home to the fire scene during his off -duty shifts to direct the fire fighters. • The Captain, as first responder, would be the commander until the Deputy Chief arrived on scene. • We would not see any savings until 2006 because it would take time to put this into effect • This policy issue might be deferred since the Department and the Bargaining Group have said they would like time to look at other alternatives. Policy Issue: Renovation and Addition to Fire Station #92, 7707 Tieton Dr. The Policy Issue, if approved, would allow for the renovation and addition to the fire station in West Valley to allow for the co- habitation of the City's 24 -hour staff and the District's volunteer firefighters. • We anticipate that the station would become City property upon completion of the asset transfer negotiations due to annexations in that service. • The estimated cost of the remodel is $610,000. In light of insufficient Fire Capital funds, a line of credit to be repaid over a period,of time would be used. • Another policy issue in this budget is to bring the City's public safety data communications to this station, as well as to the Harman Center since the route to the fire station will pass by the Center. Following the discussion concerning the policy issues, Council reviewed the Division's budget related to overtime, EMS, training, and the Fire Capital Fund. 4. Fire /Police Departments Fire /Police Public Safety Committee Fund (Budget Page G -17; Policy Issue Pages I PI- 50/52) Wayne Wantland, Public Safety Communications Manager, was present for this budget presentation. 3 410 NOVEMBER 16, 2004 — ADJOURNED MEETING — BUDGET REVIEW Policy Issue: Microwave Replacement Mr. Wantland explained that the current microwave link to the Look Out Point radio site was installed in 1987 and we want to replace it with a system that will address voice and data communications. Policy Issue: Replace Computer Disk Array Mr. Wantland explained that the current CAD system was purchased with 911 funds, this expense will be funded through that account. It was included in this budget because we provide that service through a contract. Policy Issue: Radio Systems Upgrade Mr. Wantland advised the Council that he is not asking for any funding at this time. He wanted to present the concept and ask permission to move forward to look at radio systems. We may get a consultant to do this countywide since other departments are looking at doing the same thing. We have Homeland Security funding available as we move forward with this. Following the discussion of the policy issues, Mr. Wantland spoke about the status of the consolidation of dispatch programs discussion. He believes we can reduce the number of personnel from 90 to about 40; however the difficulty is in the savings. In the smaller cities, the dispatcher is assigned to perform other tasks, which still need to be done by somebody, therefore the savings may not be as great for them. 5. Finance and Budget Department (Budget Page D -1) Rita Anson introduced Cindy Epperson, Tim Jensen, and Edna Pettyjohn, Finance Department personnel. Ms. Anson reviewed the accomplishments of the divisions, including the implementation of the Budget Strategy Team, GASB 34 requirements, issuance of three bond issues this year, and the WEB Award for GIS. • State Examiner (Budget Page D -5) Financial Services (Budget Page D -6) SunDome (Budget Page D -27) District Court (Budget Page D -28) Transfers (Budget Page D -29) Public Facilities District (Budget Page D -30) Contingency (Budget Page D -31) Capitol Theatre Reserve (Budget Page D -33) LID Guaranty (Budget Page D -34) Risk Management (Budget Page D -35) Cemetery Trust Bonded Debt (Budget Page D -38) 4 411 NOVEMBER 16, 2004 — ADJOURNED MEETING — BUDGET REVIEW Council discussed the Nueva Primavera situation. Due to the higher than anticipated vacancy rate and lower rents, the Housing Authority may ask for the City's assistance to make the payments on the loan that the City co- signed. Council Member Sims suggested that the Council's appointment committee could meet with the Housing Authority Board to discuss where they are going. Council reviewed the budget prior to reviewing the Information System's policy issues. Information Systems (Budget Page D -12; Policy Issue Pages PI- 15/17) Policy Issue: Digital agenda /document management system Rick Pettyjohn explained this policy issue, which has an emphasis on document management. Once a document is scanned to become an electronic image we could store it and use word searches to locate documents, as well as provide council packets on disk. Another benefit would be the ability to archive e-mail. Policy Issue: Extend data communications fiber network to Fire Station #92 (West Valley) This policy issue was discussed during the Fire Department budget review. Utility Services (Budget Page D -23) Policy Issue: New Utility Customer Service System • Staff wrote the current utility billing service over 20 years ago. • The current system does billing, however, it does not do a lot of things that could be done with a newer system. • A consultant studied the system and developed a three -year, $1.5 million system. We would break this into a series of systems, which could take 3- 5 years for the entire project. Pete Hobbs, Customer Services Manager, reviewed the budget for Utility Services. He explained the new procedure for creating a work order if a meter is not read for two consecutive times. We have about 25,000 accounts we are billing and track over 90,000 billing codes. 5