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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMAY 14,1996 -'-"3~~~~ e>S N'16 Cf' CITY COUNen.. PROCEEDINGS ARE TAPE RECORDED AND ON FIl.E IN 11IE omCE OF 11IE CITY CLERK I " MINUTES CITY COUNen. OF 11IE CITY OF ARCADIA ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING MAY 14,1996 The An:adia City Council met in an Adjourned Regular'MeeIing on Tuesday, May 14, 1996, at 5:30 p,m. in the Administrative CoofeteDCe Room at An:adia City Hall 1. ROLL CALL 2, I06tJ . S'u /oJo:>t> I 3, 4, () 1(';)" -/.1>= I PRESENT: Councilmcmbers Chang. HartJic:ht. Lojcski, Young. and Kuhn ABSENT: None SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION FROM STAFF REGARDING AGENDA ITEMii '. The City Attorney advised Council of the outcome of a recent Federal Court jury trial: I two An:adia Police officers, Swearinger and Towner, were found DOt guilty of violating' . a citizen's civil riglUs by use of excessive fon:e. The verdict, was just received a hsIf . " hour ago, The City Attorney will provide additional information to Council DCXI week. TIME RESERVED FOR TIlOSE IN11IE AUDIENCE WHO WISH TO ADDRESS 11IE CITY COUNCn.. ' " ~'1 None. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF GOAL-SE'ITING, TEAM-Bun.oING AND CITY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES...; "'""-: ,~_.;. I, \ The City Manager Slated tIJat the Council started Ieam bui1cIiq a few yeaB ago. Lewis Partners O\U. the.yeaB bas co""n"'M a series of 1eam.J.o,;ld;ng 'sessions with the Council; The C~ Manager DOted tIJat be bas kept track of a list of "action items" agreed to by (''''''''';1 at the last Ieam-builtlillg session in !lPpt-'- 1995. and most of the items baw been completed. The City Manager, Mayor Kubn, and ('''n....;I......._ Young recent1y o..-.lM a City Council-City Manager cxccutive Rtreat at Cal Poly. wbic:h belpcd claritY the roles of 'city <QI1n(iI, and city 11UI"'lV"l in 1eadersbip and tcluInWrk. ~o"'lv-m styles were d;~ at the Rtreat. The City Manager reviewed CounciI's various styles. He DOted tIJat what is mOre importanl than the styIc of 1eadersbip is' what is accomplished. It is importanl for IlIlIff to know each Counci1mcmber's style in terms of their colDlD1lni",ring with the Counci1. and with regard to the Council's Ieam-building it is -"'/ to know wbat'wodcs and wbat doesn't wolk for each person. The City Manager collUDCllted tIJat public participation in the process of government bas inaeasecl Howl:wr. the majority of the community is not involved, and care must be taken tIJat city councils do DOt focus their time and efforts only on ibe voca1 minority, 1 5/14/96 OIlQ-7'ri 5, ~ ~\:i.O i(J 38:0151 With regard to the City's Fiscal Year 1995-96 Work Program, in partil:Ular, the mimQn statement and goal-setting objectives, the City Manager 1isted seven specific goals which were established last year: Fiscal responsibility, public safety, economic development, high~ity City government, quality of life. uansponation, and public infrastructure, Each department under those categories broke down their department into specific objectives with due dates, A drsft bas been generated for next year's mission SIaIeIDent of goals and objectives. The mission statement and goals stay the same; the objectives have been modified. Some of this year's objectives which did not get done will roll over to next year. Council was given a copy of the drsft 1996-98 Work Program for review and their decision as to what they would like to keep, add, or eliminate, keeping in mind that some of these programs will involve the expenditure of money, This is the second year of the program; approximately 90 pen:ent of the fitst-year objectives have been dealt with-some were moved, some deleted, and some didn't get done because priorities changed, The City Manager explained that although it is not possible to add to the objectives list everything that the Council or a citizen may desire. if thRe CouncilmembelS agree, a project c:ouId be added if it is not too big an undertaking. ,If the project is large, something on the list must be dropped The list I:llJl be used at each Council meeting to keep priorities on track. The City Manager suggested that, similar to the executive team, the Council may want to meet evay thRe to six months to review what they have accomplished, and, if the team is DOt working together effectively, where they went off track and did not communicate. REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION TO ESTABLISH POSmON CLASSIFICATIONS IN 1lIE MAINTENANCE SERVICES DEPARTMENT The Maintenance Services Department, an approximately one-year-Gld department. is a reorganization of the Public Works Department and redistribution of the divisions. This reorganization was adopted in an effort to _mliftt'! the operation of the department, improve the communication process, and encourage a "oneness" sttitude of sharing equipment and working together, There are currently two divisions under the direction of the Maintenance Services Director: Water and Maintenance Services, It is proposed to create two new divisions. the Genera1 Services Division and the Field Services Division. All ml\;nt~ functions-streets, parkll, water, ell:eII:Ia-will be p1aced under one division. with a separate administrativl: support division for the other issues. One person will be in charge of all of the field functions. The end result of the proposed restructuring will be the saving of some money for the Genera1 FulId and more money for the Water FWKl This reorgl'ni....tioo went throngh a good deal of analysis and ref1ects an attempt to try to modify the direction of the department, give it a clearer vision of what the functions are, save money. and make it mme eflil;ient The Human Rcsonrces Commission bas endolSed the modification. Mayor Pro tem H81bicht asked the question, "When are we going to stop reol'8"ni7ing'l" He noted that reol'8"ni7illg began over a year ago and still c:ontinues. Perhaps the City neeckld to settle down after the trying period of the abrupt .Ii...,;..... of a Iong-timc City Manager and the hiring and firing of another City Manager. Mayor Pro tem Harbicht stated that all of this reorganization seems to have created a vezy 1IJIS'!ltled Otgl'ni....tion, which does not make for good persoll11Cl tdations since no one knows what's c:oming next or where they will be next. He is DOt against this partil:Ular reol'8"ni....tilJll, but would like to know how much longer t1iese reorll"ni....tiQns will go on and how Council feels about it ' 2 5/14/96 . .,~ - -. "'1-- '.t.~ I " ~ g .. ., 1- 1 38:0152 I Councilmcmber Young stated that when the cum:nt City Manager was hired it was agreed that some organizational changes were needed. and Council went along with the plan presented, She does not know how much longer the reorganization will continue. but it is part of a plan which was discussed a year and a half ago, There was the intention to reorganize, and it has been ongoing because it could not have been done all at once, The present City Manager was hired in August of 1994 and the plan was presented four or five months later, Councilmember Chang stated in part. that reorganizing seems to reshuftle responsibility here and there rather than create it; however, he goes along with it if it will save money, This particular reorganization will result in one less managerial position. saving the City approximately $90,000. Councilmember Chang is concerned that during the past twO years, several people in key positions, such as Water Manager and Development Services Director, have left. He wonders if that indicates that something is wrong- whether it would affect the morale of the employees, and whether it is related to the reorganization. Stability is important to an organization; to keep changing the organizational slnIcture would definitely create some instability in the minds of the employees, ' I Mayor Kuhn stated that restructuring creates change, and change is going to create morale problems, She agrees it has been going on too long; the faster the change is made, the easier and smoother it will go. Employee morale is vety high on her list of issues which need to be addressed, because there has been a morale problem ever since she took office twO years ago, Although there will always be changes in various depaitments, she would like to know that the restructuring is coming to an end. It is important for the employees to know that also, The general plan approved a year ago had a sound reasoning behind it for the changes, but perhaps the process has taken too long and the employees were not adequately considered. Discussion continued with regard to the reorg,mi7J1lional changes, Mayor Pro !em Harbicht agreed that morale is the lowest it's been in many years, CounciImember Young suggested part of the reason may be due to money, Mayor Kuhn suggested that, when possible, promotions be made from within. Mayor Pro !em Harbicht stated that if that is not being done, then perhaps it is because employees are not being prepared properly to move into such positions, especia1ly since he has noticed that not one major position has been filled from within. After funher discussion. the City Manager clarified that the restructuring which was proposed had several phases, with priorities and a time line, and what is being presented tonight is the last' change in the time line, The restructuring was predicated upon getting the best level of service to the citizens, Another goal was to improve the function of the internal City system There is now one person. the Administrative Services Director, responsible for evety internal system in the City-for purchasing, pelliOnnel. information services, Development Services Department and Maintenance Services Department were merged and restrUCtured. No one has lost a job due to restructuring, although some people were moved within the departments, The strUCture was supposed to be more cost effective. more understandable, and provide a better service system to the public, The changes have taken this long to put into place so as not to have so much change that there is fear and chaos, because any change will cause fear and concern, I Mayor Pro tem Harbicht pointed out that there were other major changes begun about two and a half years ago, So as far as the employees are concerned, for twO and a half years there has been constant upheaval and reorganization. and the effect of this should 3 ' 5/14/96 6. 7, 38:0153 be considered by Council Mayor Kuhn suggested that the employee morale problem must be addressed. The City Manager noted that some of the City goals and objectives I deal with issues such as team development and staff involvement The depanmenlS are going into team building lillle by lillle when time is available, It is especially important when there is crisis or fiscal problem. The City Manager stated that ever since he was appointed. every year there has been a budget crisis, This has caused a significant morale problem. Hopefully, with the reorganizations being completed and team- building and teamwork starting. this will help improve matters, The dismissal of IWO City Managers has also added to the problem of low employee morale, especially in combination with the budget crisis, Mayor Pro tern Harbicht suggested that the issue of morale be discussed at another point on the agenda. It was MOVED by Councilmember Lojeski, seconded by CounciImember Young. and CARRIED on roll call vote as follows to ESTABLISH the management classifications of General Services Manager, Field Services Manager, Utilities Superintendent, and Sueet Superintendent AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Councilmembers Chang, Harbicht, Lojeski. Young. and Kuhn None None REPORT AND DISCUSSION OF REVENUE ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMS FOR LONG-TERM FISCAL STRENGTII See page 6, I REPORT AND DISCUSSION OF CITY COUNCn. ADMINISTRATIVE MA TIERS LEGISLATIVE The City Manager brought up a matter requiring Council direction. In the past. when ANALYSIS & the City decided to take a position on a legislative matter, a letter was sent to POSITION Sacramento signed by the Mayor after discussion with staff. This procedure has been LETTERS very effective and timely, However, there is the possibility that: (I) the majority of the Council may not agree upon taking a position or which position to take; (2) the City q ( ) does not take a position on all legislation, however, the Council may wish to look at all legislation; (3) members of the Council may not be of the same opinion with regard to the legislation; (4) if the Mayor sends a letter and a Councilmember sends another letter, are we diffusing ow: focus in the process? 10 r; t) 11),/' A lengthy discussion ensued, With 'regard to the siruation whereby the Mayor sends a letter to Sacramento and one or more Councilmembers send letters taking an opposite stand, tile City Manager stated that this is a possibility and it could cause confusion in Sacramento, His job is to make Council aware of what each of them is doing. CounciImember Chang said he would like to be notified of the Mayor's position on an issue when a letter is going to Sacramento, And, he felt that if the Mayor does not take a position, then an individual Councilmember who. feels strongly about certain issues should be entitled to write a letter stating so' Mayor Pro tern Harbicht agreed, He does not think it is statJ's responsibility to coordinate who is taking what position. The City Attorney stated that, legally, it is acceptable for individual Councilmembers to take a position as long as they clarilY whose position it is-their own or the City's, I 4 5/14/96 I I I BOARD & COMSN. RELATIONSHIPS or.;;o.. AJt,r' '1'1 i 'l: l"- r'l.: 38:0l54 The City Attorney requested c1arification from Council regarding requests for the City to sign "Friend of the Court" briefs for major cases involving cities, Council agreed that the City Attorney may sign such briefs after bringing them to Council's attention. If time does not allow the Attorney to bring the matter before Council, he may sign after conferring with the City Manager and departments involved The City Manager reported that he and Mayor Kuhn made an annual visit with City boards and commissions during the past three weeks. The City Manager noticed that the boards and commissions which have not had strong staff-Council relationships may be getting a little "olf center" periodically, A case in point is the Sister City CommissioDlFriendship Club. The Sister City Commission bas a plan to raise money to send youth to Australia. However, several other boards and commissions are also reaching out to the community for contributions, giving the impression the City does not know what its priorities are, In addition. staff is looking into the history of the Friendship Club and how it is that they have their own bank accounts, The City Manager asked if the Council would like to meet with each board and commission next year so that members may ask questions of Council, talk about policy direction. and so forth. Discussion continued with regsrd to boards and commissions, It was decided that more staff involvement and support would help some boards and commissions in conducting business and abiding by the rules of the Brown Act As far as the Friendship Club is concerned it must be determined whether or not it is a City or81'ni7"hOn, and what the purpose of its formation was-to exchange visits with Arcadia's sister cities or simply to be a travel club, The City Attorney commented that if a City board or commission is operating outside of the scope of its duties as prescribed by City ordinance or resolution, there is the possibility of litigation unless such operations are approved by the Council. Mayor Pro tem HaIbicht suggested that each commission liaison be given a copy of the ordinance or Charter provision establishing that commission, and review with the members the purpose and duties of each commission. CITY PUBLIC The City Manager reported on the City's public relations program. which was an issue RELATIONS PROG. which Council addressed a year ago with Bill Lewis, We do not have a local newspaper, and it is difficult to communicate with the citizens of Arcadia. The City Newsletter Ofrl) _, 'i ,) comes out quarterly, and cable television does not cover the entile City, The question is, N ( , . does Council want to do more in the way of communicating with the citizens...are we doing too much? Councilmember Lojeski stated there is probably nothing more that can be done, He noted that everyone who receives a water bill also receives City infonnation along with it, so if they are not informed about City events, perhaps they are not looking at the infonnation provided. Perhaps communicating by means of cable television can be improved. The, City Manager stated that the efforts of the Community Relations Officer are being expanded to get more outreach. Mayor Pro tern HaIbicht said it was probably not necessary to spend more time, effort, and money in trying to do more. Councilmember Lojeski felt it was important to expend more money and effort when there is an important matter to present to the public. such as the remodeling or rebuilding of a City facility, The matter of a citizen financial advisory committee was presented. The City Manager reported that staff completed reseaJCh of citizens financiaIlbudget committees established in three other cities. and presented stalf's report The cities contacted had varying rates of success. with clear pros and cons, It was found that the important thing is to be carefu1 to set clear goals for the committee, with definition of boundaries, The level of staff support and expenses can be very high if the committee's pwposc is not clearly defined, 5 5/14/96 - 38:0l55 CITY COUNCIL Another matter for Council's consideration is whether or not businesses within the City I POUCIES & should be given priority over other businesses with regard to awards of City contracts for RELATED services. A legal opinion will be presented by the City Attorney. At the present time, MA TIERS no preference is given to Arcadia businesses. Some cities have a poliey wbereby a city business will be awarded a contract if their bid is within a certain percent of an outside f) I' f) , city service. It was the consensus of Council that they are in favor of purchasing locally IV ' when legally possible. With reference to team-building efforts, Council was asked in what manner they desired to work together. Councilmember Young thought it would be helpful to have work sessions on some items, such as the topic of boards and commissions on tonight's agenda, so that such items may be more thoroughly discussed. It was Mayor Pro tem Halbicht's opinion that work sessions can be valuable in the exploratory phase of an issue, for brainstorming and tossing out ideas, but be has no problem with lengthy discussion and debate in Council meetings. He suggested having meetings on some speciJic topics at 6 p.m. on a Council meeting night when Council may wish to brainstorm an issue. Councilmember Chang thought that. with few exceptions. most items should be discussed openly in Council meetings; it is part of the good public relations mentioned earlier. In reference to team building, Councilmember Chang also felt that Councilmembers should strive to show each other more courtesy and respect. The City Manager explained that if Council desires, team building can be accomplished by the formal means of hiring an outside consultant. as has been done, or by Council's discussion among themselves of projects and processes. After further discussion, it was Council's consensus that no formal team-building activities are necessary at this time. 8. CLOSED SESSION () 110- <10 1'/;1" 6. Os ci(;) 0 5:u "'SP Closed Session pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6 for conference with labor negotiators Gary Rogers and/or Dan Cassidy regarding Teamsters LocaI 91 I, AFSCME, Management and non-represented employees. At 8:00 p.rn. the City Council entered the CLOSED SESSION, ADJOURNED, and RECONVENED the Adjourned Regular Meeting at 8:55 p.rn. to continue with the agenda. I REPORT AND DISCUSSION OF REVENUE ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMS FOR LONG-TERM FISCAL STRENGTH The City Manager explained that revenue enhancement programs deal with how to permanently close the budget deficit-through new revenue or service cuts. There are the previously proposed ideas of lighting assessments, library a~ts, raising utility taxes, transfer. paramedic things, etcetera. One of the citizen financial advisory committees which was studied was able, in a year's time, to convince its citizens to impose a utility tax of 5 1/2 pen:ent. and in return they would receive a library and a police department. for example. Mayor Pro tem Halbicht stated that be is not inclined to raise taxes; however, it is acceptable if taxes are self-imposed by citizens approving a lighting district or landsc>>pe maintenance district. The City as a government must learn to live with lower revenues and take a look at reducing services over the short term. He believes that with the combination of the economy turning around and a revenue- generating project at Santa Anita Race Track, the City will become financially sound again. Council discussed several ways of increasing revenue. Perhaps a fee can be imposed upon non-residents who have a City library card. The City Treasurer staled that as part of a consortium, city libraries may not charge consortium member non-residents a library card fee but may charge County residents. The City Manager stated that an audit I 6 5/14/96 I I 9. ADJOURN- MENT ATTEST: I "", ,< 11 _; :; ~ ,. .~' '.- .~, \ r 38:0156 of City services done by the Treasurer has shown that the COSl which the Library is charging for use of one of their meeting rooms is one-tenth that of what is charged for a meeting room at the Community Center. Also, the fee for a planning permit barely covers the cost of advertising, noticing, and mailing; an increase in the fee would bring new revenue. The City is saving money by sharing services and costs with the School District by coordinating projects such as printing, the purchase of equipment and fuel, and landscape maintenance. Asking the School District for moncy or personnel to help with the Library expansion expenses was also suggested, especially in light of the fact that the Library is such a boon to the School District. Discussion continued with regard to ways of saving money. Mayor Pro tem Harbicht gave the example of cutting back on services such as street sweeping or police patrols; or, the City Manager added, we could keep patrol high and cut the police records retention reporting system. Mayor Pro tem Harbicht stated he would like to have staff look into and report back to Council on the possibilities, implications, and savings of different methods of cutting expenses. Another example might be to have volunteers take over the jobs of part-time employees at the Library. Council member Chang stated that he would like to review the list of revenue enhancements and ways of cutting expenses staff provided last year. Mayor Pro tem Harbicht asked staff of Council's chances of going back to the bargaining table with the police and fire associations? Staff noted that Council could do this but the City is contractually obligated and the associations could hold the Council to that The City Manager concluded that Council's message to the employees is, its goal is fairness and equality, but that the goal is also that the budget must be trimmed. The Fire Chief recalled that in 1991 when the City had the funds and there were inequities, Council was more than fair to try and correct the problem and salary raises were approved. If there are the funds to do so, Council wiU try to be fair, if there are not adequate funds, employees should understand that also. Mayor Pro tem Halbicht noted that Council negotiated with Police, Fire, and AFSCME, keeping in mind that other employees would be treated the same way. He felt that it is not fair that some employees have received raises, and others have not received raises since December of 1993. The Human Resources Manager noted that Council should be thinking about how Council would like to address the labor units in this context. At 9:17 p.rn. the Adjourned Regular Meeting ADJOURNED to Tuesday, May 21, 1996, at 6:30 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers for a Regular Meeting to conduct the business of the City. Council and the Arcadia Redevelopment Agency, and any Closed Session necessary to discuss personnel, litigation matters or evaluation of properties. d Barbara D, Kuhn, Mayor of the ~'r~.J,{~ {j#::x D. Alford, ty C}erk 7 5/14/96