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COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - MINUTES - 9/30/1999 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - CITY OF MUSKEGO Approved MINUTES OF MEETING HELD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1999 The meeting was called to order at 7:14 P.M. by Aldermen Slocomb. Present were Aldermen Patterson, Le Doux, Pionek, Salentine, Chiaverotti, Sanders, and Finance Director Dawn Gunderson. Mayor De Angelis was absent. STATEMENT OF PUBLIC NOTICE Aldermen Slocomb reported that the meeting was noticed in accordance with the Open Meeting law. REVIEW MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING OF 9/16/99 and 9/23/99 The Minutes of the 9/16/99 meeting were distributed and action was deferred until 9/30/99. The minutes of the 9/23/99 meeting were not available. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Muskego Volunteer Fire Company Those in attendance: Fire Chief John Ludwig, Mike Kersky and Kevin Sievert The Muskego Volunteer Fire Company was asked to return to the meeting to close discussion on issues on their operating. They presented information to be reviewed comparing their operating costs with the Tess Corner’s Fire Department’s costs. Muskego identified items that should be removed from their operating budget when making a comparison because Tess Corner’s includes such items in their Capital Budget. A higher operating budget for Muskego was still present. It was suggested that a portion of the Building and Equipment overhead costs for Tess Corner’s was subsidized by the Rescue service that they provide. Ald. Slocomb expressed his appreciation for the effort that the Muskego Volunteer Fire Company took to make some comparison between the departments. Ald. Patterson suggested that the fire departments work with the Finance Director to design a form that everyone is comfortable with to be used next year by both departments for their operating budget requests. Using an account structure where the same types of costs are identified in the same line item will make the review of the operating budgets simpler. The fire departments agreed. Ald. Patterson asked about sharing a smoke house with other municipalities since it will only be used approximately 10 times per year. Ald. Slocomb recommended that we continue discussion of the operating budget, specifically the incentive call pay, since the smoke house was moved to the Capital Budget for consideration. Kevin Sievert explained that he was proud to serve the City for the last 15 years on the fire department and looked forward to the next 15 years. He encourages the City to take the action necessary to continue level of service that has been provided by the Muskego Volunteer Fire Company. Mike Kersky presented the committee with a spreadsheet detailing historical information for the period January 1, 1999 through June 30, 1999 of what would have been paid for on-call if their proposed system was in place. A base rate, depending upon what position was held, would be paid quarterly if firefighter attends certain amount of training. In addition $20 per call will be paid to all firefighters who respond to a call. A firefighter will not be eligible for the $20 per call pay if the minimum required training is not met. It was pointed out that the minimum training required is a 160 hour course over an 18 week period. Also, there is an average time of 230 hours responding to calls or fire related training - this does not include administrative work, meetings with the City, educational programs or festivals. Committee Of The whole - Page 2 September 30, 1999 Ald. Slocomb expressed his concern that their request was going from a zero economic incentive to approximately $100,000 per year. That taking it on all at once was a little too aggressive and that he would be receptive to a pay-per-response, and in the future look at pay-for-training if a problem exits. The Fire Department expressed their concerns that the types of employment have changed, making it more difficult for firefighters to leave their jobs during the day to respond, and the number of calls have increased over the years. Ald. Pionek agreed that instead of the whole thing, they should start on a smaller scale. Ald. Sanders expressed his agreement that there should be some type of pay for calls, but he feels that this is a Cadillac System. He wouldn’t have a problem with coming back in the future years and asking to increase if there is a problem. Ald. Chiaverotti expressed that she felt that the members of Muskego Volunteer Fire Company were worth it, but that the request was a bit high and would like to make things equal between the two fire departments. Considering a pay-per-call even at the $20 rate would be roughly $60,000 compared to the $100,000. Ald. Patterson agreed that the City should do something and he has tried to be equal between departments. He felt that if we had a problem with getting volunteers maybe it would be different. In an effort to treat both departments equally, he suggested maybe $5.00 to $7.50 per call. In response, the Fire Department shared their concern that maybe it would be too late when the problem was realized. Ald. Salentine totally agreed stating that she followed the papers and was aware of other community’s volunteer problems. She would also like to do the same for both departments and would like to start by figuring out what is right for both departments. She proposed looking at other communities, and at the City as a whole and do it right the first time. Asking the question, “What is enough and what is not enough?”. Her hope is to prolong a City Fire Department from taking place. Ald. Slocomb agreed that the best thing is to compare. Ald. Patterson also feels that we should pay uniform. He expressed his concern that the City may be throwing dollars at a potential problem that we may or we may not have. Ald. Le Doux said that everything should be equal and that the City has two services which split the City. Ald. Slocomb advised the committee that City has a right to review the budgets for the fire departments, that Chapter 213 related to fire departments provides for this since the Fire Companies exist exclusively to serve the City. The Committee recessed for a fifteen minute break and reconvened at 9:35 p.m. Ald. Slocomb advised the committee that we had two scenarios; 1) The program is 100% and, with that, the committee is concerned that it not be handled all at once. 2) The committee has strong feelings that the departments be treated uniformly, that more talking is necessary with the involvement of the other fire department. A program that all can accept. Ald. Pionek stated that the budget needs to get done and that the committee needs to agree on something. Ald. Slocomb expressed that it was premature to make a decision tonight and the he didn’t think we needed to. The fire department was invited to be available at the next meeting to continue this discussion. Finance Director Gunderson distributed the Capital Budget and the Special Revenue budgets explaining that they should be reviewed for discussion at the meeting scheduled for Thursday, October 7, 1999. She explained that there may be some changes with the Special Revenue Funds after she and the Mayor reviewed them and that the Capital Budget included administrative recommendations for financing but as printed did not include money for the Safety house for the Muskego Volunteer Fire Company. Committee Of The whole - Page 3 September 30, 1999 The committee continued discussion on the Operating budget with Ald. Salentine asking about information relating to the amount paid to the Little Muskego Lake District. The Finance Director reported that based upon information received from the Assessor’s office, the City owns 17 on-lake lots and 8 off-lake lots in the Little Lake District. Using the rate of $155 for on-lake properties and $31 for off-lake properties, the City would pay $2,883 instead of $23,100 which is 15% of the Proposed Little Muskego Lake District Budget. The Committee had concerns about this being a fair way to tax. The Committee would like to see this calculation of payment changed this year and requested that a letter be sent to the Lake District indicating that the Committee Of The Whole’s recommendation to Council would be that the City pay based upon a uniform on-lake and off-lake assessment just like all the other property owners around the lake. Ald. Slocomb will contact the City Attorney about the legality and fairness of this type of taxing system prior to the letter being sent. The Committee had a brief discussion regarding the Building Department and Engineering budgets. Ald. Slocomb requested that the Committee Of The Whole agenda for October 7, 1999 include an item for discussion about the Engineer/Building Director position. Ald. Slocomb also requested that the Clerk Treasurer and the Information Systems Director be invited back to the October 7, 1999 meeting to discuss the requests for part-time positions in their departments along with the Finance Department. Having thought more about the recommendation for a half-time Clerk Treasurer half-time Finance Department position, Ald. Slocomb felt that we may have created a problem in the separation in lines of accountability between the two departments by combining this position. He wants to consider going back to the original request of a half-time Information Systems and half-time Finance Department position. This would also give the Mayor back the hours he needs from the Floater. Perhaps the position would be more 60%/40%. Ald. Pionek moved to adjourn at 10:22 P.M. Ald. Le Doux seconded, carried by all. Respectfully submitted, Dawn R. Gunderson Finance Director