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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5-9-06 Clerical Committee Minutes CLERICAL COMMITTEE MEETING th 50 North 4 Avenue, Canton, Illinois Tuesday May 9, 2006 – 6:30 p.m. Aldermen in attendance: Joe Berardi, Jim Hartford, Craig West, Kevin Meade, Les Carl, Eric Schenck, Rick Reed. Absent – None. Others in attendance: Mayor Rodney Heinze, City Clerk Nancy Whites, City Treasurer Kathleen Luker, City Attorney Chrissie Peterson, Public Works Director Clif O’Brien, Fire Chief John Stanko, Interim Police Chief William Doster, Wastewater Treatment Supt. Joe Carruthers, Water Treatment Supt. Greg Pollitt, Zoning Officer Clark Wilson, Street Supt. George Spahn, System Maintenance Supt. Bill Terry, SRPED President Mark Rothert, Video Services by Joe Ginger. News media of Daily Ledger - John Froehling, Journal Star - Brenda Bowen. Finance Alderman Les Carl, Chairman Bills. Motion and second by Aldermen West/Sarff, all bills properly approved be sent to council for their approval for payment. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. Treasurer’s Report. City Treasurer Kathleen Luker went over the report for the month of April. The Revenue’s for Y-T-D of the General Fund $7,148,454.00 and expenditures Y-T-D- $5,826,522.00. Budgeted for 2005-2006 for the General Fund was $6,091,052.00 and revenues/expenditures totaled for the year to date $7,148.454.00. Alderman Carl ask Kathy Luker to check on the fence cost around IH for Second Avenue Motion and if we can borrow from the 4-B funds to pay for the fencing? and second by Aldermen Meade/Sarff to refer the Treasurer’s Report to Council. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. Budget Report. City Treasurer Kathleen Luker reported on the General Fund Budget of $6,091,052 for last fiscal year. Kathy then gave a recap of the percentage of the funds the City receives. Sales Tax 33% Income Tax 16% Property Tax 13% Utility Tax 10% Others 28% 100% 1 Clerical Committee 5-9-06 Alderman Meade asked about when the Cable Companies agreement comes do? City Clerk Nancy Whites answered that she would review the ordinance. Alderman Sarff commented that he thought that this might be the time to review the ordinance of Telecommunication Tax within the next year as we may want to lower the fee charged for pagers, cell phones and telephones. Motion and second by Aldermen Sarff/West, to send the Budget Report on to council for their consideration. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. Fire Truck Pay Off. City Treasurer Kathy Luker gave a report on the history of the fire truck. The Rescue/Fire Engine was purchased for $338,900.00 in June 2002. The Rescue/Fire Truck was purchased as a lease payment of $338,000 from The National Bank with annual payments of $92,000 beginning July 2002 for four (4) years at 4.150%. The original payoff would have been June 2006. The interest expense on this lease was $29,490.91. In June 2003 the City of Canton refinanced the fire truck with Wells Fargo Bank as a lease agreement on $261,927.65, with annual payments of $43,000, beginning July 2003 at 4.020% and continuing for seven (7) years with a payoff date of June 2010. To date, we have paid in interest expense on these two-lease agreements a total of $36,205.58, which is more than $6,714.67 interest expense over the original lease agreement. We now have the opportunity, the funds and have budgeted to payoff the lease with a payoff amount of $167,774.85, which includes the regular payment due on May 20, 2006 of $3,582.65, and a pre-payment fee that is required by law of $2,542.55 and the principal balance of $161,649.65. With this payoff of the Rescue/Fire Engine, we would be paying off the balance at approximately the same date the original payoff would have taken place. Kathy recommended as the Budget Officer for the City of Canton, the May 2006 payoff of this lease agreement. It will be an immediate cost savings to the City of Canton of $14,454.00 in interest expense, and a future interest income investment of over $2,700.00, and a savings of over four (4) years of future payments. Also, it would be a huge asset to the Fire Department to have this debt reduction retired on their books. Motion and second by Aldermen Meade/Sarff, the approval to payoff the Fire/Rescue Engine early of an amount $167,774.58, and refer to council for their consideration. Discussion. Aldermen Berardi ask how do we seek the best interest rate, and who determines the investments? City Treasurer Kathleen Luker answered that she does the investing for the city and try’s to keep it fair with all banking institutions. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. GABBY Days. Public Works Director Clif O’Brien talked about not doing it on June 16 – 17 as that is the Cruise-In and you don’t want the items set out on the terrace during 2 Clerical Committee 5-9-06 th that time. He recommended June 24 – 25 with pick-up of items left starting then on th Motion June 26. and second by Aldermen Sarff/Meade, the dates for the GABBY thth Day is June 24 and 25, refer to council for their consideration. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. Application & Pay Request #1 from Enviromark for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Sludge Removal & Disposal. Public Works Director Clif O’Brien reported that Enviromark has preformed a find job performance, and the pay request is in the amount Motion of $7,881.37. and second by Aldermen Sarff/Meade, to approve of the pay request #1 in the amount of $7,881.37 from Enviromark, and refer to council for their consideration. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. The Finance Committee adjourned at 6:52 p.m. Legal & Ordinance Alderman Craig West, Chairman Animal Shelter Double Water Rates. Alderman Sarff mentioned that the current ordinance on water fees for outside the city users could be amended. City Attorney Chrissie Peterson mentioned that with the ordinance already in place you can draft a resolution to take care of this issue. She also mentioned that she does not know how the ordinance stipulates the liability insurance and financial responsibility of the animal Motion shelter. and second by Aldermen Meade/Sarff, the ordinance allows a resolution to be drafted for not paying double rates being outside the city for the animal shelter, and refer to council for their consideration. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. City Attorney Chrissie Peterson gave an update on the Ordinance Amending the City of Canton Municipal Code Pertaining to Strip Mining that was presented to Council for passage on May 2, 2006. The vote was a tie of four (4) AYES, and four (4) NAYS, and Mayor Heinze voted AYE to break the tie. Last week at the council meeting the vote was to be checked on. Chrissie gave her opinion on the vote. She reported that the vote carried, and the ordinance is repealed. She also entered into a conference call with Attorney John McCarthy, former City Attorney Jim Elson and attorney from the Illinois Municipal League. Generally what is passed takes a simple 3 Clerical Committee 5-9-06 majority. Alderman Berardi then mentioned that the mining company does not need the city’s blessing. Chrissie said the watershed is outside the city limits, and the county is not involved either as it all comes under the Department of Natural Resources and the IEPA. Public Works Director Clif O’Brien mentioned that the current water system of Canton Lake will be used as a back up source when the water line to the Illinois River is completed. City Attorney Chrissie Peterson gave an update of City Court that took place last Friday. She said there was 65 cases with some of the cases being the Park District. Nine (9) cases pled or never showed up. Six (6) paid in full for ordinance violations. Payment orders will continue in June, with three (3) bench trials set for June also. The Legal & Ordinance Committee adjourned at 7:03 p.m. Community & Industrial Development Alderman Kevin Meade, Chairman Comprehensive Plan. Motion and second by Aldermen Sarff/West, to approve of SRPED working on getting proposals for drafting a Comprehensive Plan. Discussion. Alderman Meade mentioned that Senator George Shadid helped the city receive a grant for $20,000 for this. Alderman Schenck has already received a proposal. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. West Spruce Street. Alderman Meade mentioned that Habitat for Humanity is wanting to acquire this property from the City. Alderman Meade said the City will have to seek bid proposals of this property. This helps us in what is the best use of the land in does it meet codes, what will Motion the property be used for? This then allows the city some control. and second by Aldermen Sarff/West, to be allowed to seek bids for the West Spruce Street property, and refer to council for their consideration. Voice vote, motion carried unanimously. 4 Clerical Committee Meeting 5-9-06 SRPED Update. Mark Rothert the President of SRPED gave an update. They worked last week on establishing a budget, and they are still in the organizational process. We’re doing some research to find firms that can do some marketing of Canton. Will come back to you for some Hotel/Motel Tax Funds to use for marketing purposes. Also have a request for use of Hotel/Motel Tax Funds already. The City, SRPED and Chamber are working with GCI Communication as they are selling Banners to the Businesses and they are being placed on utility poles around town. On the bottom of the banners will be a logo, the top will highlight Canton, and also city canton.com will be on there. This is at no cost to the city. They have some 100 Banners to sell. The Jones Park Beautification will take place the first week of June. th The Cruise In will be June 16 and 17. Working on new gateway signs for the City. Had recently worked with Maurer –Stutz Inc. locating boundary lines. Will be working on obtaining the easements. Chamber/SRPED will be sponsoring early in June a seminar for local business owners to develop a handbook and employee manual. This will be th held sometime around June 6 or 8, with very low cost to the businesses. Development wise Ameren announced they hired a company to upgrade their coal processing that is a $40 million dollar project. That is a lot of money being invested in this area. Mark said he does not have the exact figures yet. Petersen Company received their bids to build the Assisted Living facilities th on April 28, they will be awarding the bids within two (2) weeks. Petersen Company Dairy Queen will open sometime this month. Alderman Schenck asked about the banner program, and if any advertisement went out from the Chamber on this? Mark Rothert said that a letter was signed by the Mayor endorsing the program, and also the Chamber 5 Clerical Committee 5-9-06 of Commerce signed a letter endorsing it as well, and no other information went out. Alderman Schenck said he heard they were asking for $450 for each banner. If people knew about the support they could sell more banners. Negotiations, Grievance & Personnel Alderman Larry Sarff, Chairman Alderman Sarff asked for the Mayor to see if Bruce Beal the city’s th negotiating attorney could attend the Council meeting of May 16? Mayor Heinze introduced the Interim Police Chief William Doster. He worked for the State Police some twenty years and retired as Lt. Colonel. Then he worked for the City of Kankakee for six years as Police Chief, where he retired from there also. William said he would identify the strengths and weaknesses of the police department. Will interview all policemen and also all aldermen about where they see the department. The Police Chief’s Association has sent out the advertisement for a Police Chief as of today. The Negotiations, Grievance & Personnel Committee adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Recording Secretary, Nancy Whites, City Clerk 6