[0:05] good evening I'm 29th Amery City Council
meeting to order the rolls between
[0:23] floors yes yes Tim is rushing back in
Wisconsin Dells so he will appear
[0:33] shortly and I'm assuming right to Chris
Vickers is for all thank you Chris first
[0:59] item is the public hearing portion of
the 2018 budget so I'm going to speak to
[1:08] that notice stated that there are
copyist budgets available at City Hall
[1:35] of speakers like to
[1:50] so ladies and gentlemen members of the
public after a lot of hard work by city
[1:55] staff department heads and City Council
members we have a proposed 2018 city
[2:01] budget for your consideration tonight
[Music]
[2:06] the way the numbers have worked out I
think the community will be appreciative
[2:14] of our 2018 proposed tax levy is
decreased from last year the dollar
[2:22] amount we're looking at is one million
eight hundred and twenty nine thousand
[2:28] and four hundred and eighty seven
dollars like I stated that is a decrease
[2:33] from 2017 of 0.14 percent however the
city's assessed value did drop last year
[2:42] by five hundred and thirty six thousand
four hundred dollars so the mill rate
[2:48] will increase the city's portion of the
mill rate and of course just as a
[2:53] disclaimer all the numbers and
everything I'm talking about are only
[2:57] the city only the city portion city's
specific I'm not commenting on any of
[3:02] the other taxing entities so but because
of the drop in the value last year which
[3:09] was in the manufacturing category of our
assessed property and this was due to
[3:15] the Cardinal glass appeal of their
manufacturing assessment because of that
[3:19] decrease even though we have dropped our
levy our mill rate will be slightly up
[3:24] by 0.14 percent what this would
translate is about a dollar on your tax
[3:31] bill if your home is valued at $100,000
this would be about a dollar in
[3:36] additional taxes what our projection is
also something to mention is that
[3:42] everything I'm talking about is before
the tax incremental levy is
[3:48] Dinn we don't know what that levy is and
we don't know what those numbers are
[3:52] until the Department of Revenue tells us
what they are I'll be filing online all
[3:59] of the levy information from the various
taxing entities and they will tell me
[4:03] what we actually collect after the tip
tax increment is calculated so there's a
[4:10] few changes to the budget document this
year one of those changes is that the
[4:18] way we allocate employee benefits and
wages to fund some labour accounts we've
[4:26] changed a little bit the way employees
are accounting for their time and their
[4:31] time cards that gives us some more
authentic view of where their time is
[4:35] actually spent it's more accurate rather
than estimating we have real numbers to
[4:40] work with so that will change the look
of that a little bit last year's budget
[4:47] document had the community investment
plan or that capital improvement plan
[4:52] it's part of the budget document we
didn't do that this year because it is
[4:56] time for us to review that and update it
that's a living document that is
[5:03] periodically needs council review so
with that you can also see off from what
[5:10] we had in the paper we have a balanced
budget our expenditures are down 0.8 to
[5:17] 6% our revenues are down 0.8 to 6%
giving us a balanced budget as I
[5:24] mentioned our tax levy is down 1.3 7 %
with that if anybody has any questions
[5:31] that they want to ask me the City
Council was very active in attending the
[5:37] various committee meetings where we're
working on the budget so they have a
[5:42] very good idea and overview of how the
budget projects work this year and what
[5:48] projects the city will be doing and
looking at and how the money is being
[5:52] spent and we're very active in that
[5:57] do you have any questions for friend
nope okay if there aren't any questions
[6:06] then I will take a seat thank you oh of
course
[6:16] oh okay certainly yes and we are maybe
perhaps slightly less organized due to
[6:24] some time constraints and staffing
constraints we've struggled with this
[6:27] files but yep certainly will have a copy
that you can have you happy to do it and
[6:32] then after the budgets adopted then
it'll get out online us yeah okay no
[6:45] worries whatever alright moving on from
the public hearing about resolution 0-5
[6:55] - 2 1 - 0 1 7 2 adopt the budget there
any other questions or comments
[7:08] I move to adopt the budget as to minute
now second motion made and seconded to
[7:16] adopt the 2018 budget the other
discussion all in favor all right
[7:26] we need a roll call your friend okay yes
Vickers yes Paulson yes in remaining yes
[7:35] thank you okay item five another public
hearing on the matter of state and
[7:45] federal aid and preliminary
environmental assessment for the
[7:49] improvements at the Emory Municipal
Airport this agenda item is to follow up
[7:59] with J Craig's appearance at our
November first meeting where J went in
[8:04] depth and gave us a detailed analysis of
the items that are in the airport
[8:09] petition and project plan and then as
part of being able to qualify for the
[8:14] federal funding for the airport we need
to formally hold a public hearing and we
[8:21] need to formally adopt the resolution to
petition for those okay and J apologizes
[8:29] he can't be here tonight because having
a name replaced okay oh you've got two
[8:33] people from the Airport Commission
either one of you guys want to say
[8:36] anything about this okay all right then
I will entertain a motion for resolution
[8:48] 0 6 - 2 1 2 0 1 7 petitioning for the
Secretary of Transportation for the
[8:54] airport improvement aid so move a second
motion made in a second do we need a
[9:02] roll call on this one friend okay motion
made and seconded to approve the
[9:08] transportation aid all in favor aye
opposed carried appointment of the poll
[9:17] workers for 2018 2019
[9:22] under state statutes we are required
every two years to point poll workers
[9:27] for term of service we are looking at
having a pretty vague election year in
[9:34] 2018 will be having a minimum of five
elections and potentially seven
[9:38] elections we have a primary coming up in
December of this year because that's
[9:45] with in 2017 those poll workers
appointments still stand but we do need
[9:50] to reappoint our poll workers going into
for the 18 2018-19
[9:55] term so anytime I get a chance to give a
shout out to the poll workers electric
[10:02] workers here in the city of Emery I want
to do that they do a great job we're
[10:06] happy to have them they're very
conscientious and civic and community
[10:10] minded so I just want to throw that out
there as well as you can see they are
[10:16] people who have served as pull workers
in the past and then we make sure also
[10:20] that they're adequately trained
according to statute as well so okay so
[10:27] there's no action we need to take just
to approve that the list as it was
[10:33] submitted what is the list should be in
your draft okay I can read the names if
[10:45] you would like if you're having trouble
announcing that
[10:51] I just got into some yes okay
it is Wendy Bachmann Jerry Banias Mary
[10:58] bolter Karen Kristofferson Cathy Hagen
Louis Kressel Diane Lucas Kathy Maxim
[11:07] dick pelt Julie Raymond Schneider
Dolores Schultz dick Schultz and Cathy
[11:14] cereal
[11:17] make a motion to prove the list of you
as presented here in our packet and just
[11:22] write out the second okay Martin maiden
same to approve the poll workers in you
[11:30] more discussion on favor by post carried
operator's license yes we had one
[11:40] applicant for an operator's license for
MS Walter who's working at Countryside
[11:46] that chief replaced did the background
check that she passed and she's met the
[11:52] educational requirements so I would
recommend that I'll make that motion to
[12:01] approve the operator license for
Stephanie Walter how'd you say circular
[12:07] motion maiden state to approve the
operator's license Paul in favor
[12:11] hi hi opposed carried okay questions
from the public regarding me any a ton
[12:20] two items so far okay Kim and I decided
that we probably don't need to go into
[12:30] closed session so we are going to okay
all right so we're going to go on with
[12:39] the let's see 2018 employee benefits in
retirement
[12:45] what was that
[12:49] the pikia good evening mayor and members
of the council members of the audience
[12:57] when I first started we talked about the
possibility of doing pto which is pay
[13:03] time off and basically for the
information of the audience and people
[13:08] watching tonight's council meeting pay
time off is really a combination of
[13:14] leave benefits and those leave benefits
would be sick and vacation often times
[13:20] people use their vacation and the sick
time stacks up because it's
[13:25] traditionally just been cold when you're
sick and so they have many more hours in
[13:31] their sick bank than they did vacation
bank and though several years ago about
[13:36] ten years ago there was a movement to
combine those into a PTO or paid time
[13:40] off and it still is something that's
occurring in most municipalities and
[13:46] county governments and perhaps the state
I'm not sure but a lot of cities are
[13:50] still working towards developing a PTO
so that's the combination of paid and
[13:54] vacations so that people the the theory
behind it is that people who are working
[14:01] in governor in at a job are usually
adults and can manage their own leave
[14:07] benefits and so a lot of times people
will say they have if they need a sick
[14:13] day they're not feeling well but if they
really need extra time off for vacation
[14:16] or something come up and they need at
the time so this is a way for employees
[14:22] to manage their own Linc benefits and
once they've exhausted all their leave
[14:26] benefits that they've accrued during a
year there is no more allocation of any
[14:31] kind of pay time off
once they've hit the max and they've
[14:34] used all that they have they have to
wait until they start accruing them
[14:38] again
and so there's a way that that accrual
[14:42] is taken care of and I contacted the
cities of Baldwin River Falls and the
[14:48] city I worked at previously when I first
started working with PTO in Minnesota
[14:53] and all three do heavily PTO leave
benefits programs and the one that I
[14:59] worked with in the village of st.
Anthony
[15:03] still using their PTO and I think I did
it about 15 years ago so and the staff
[15:09] still apparently appreciates the fact
that they get to manage their own time
[15:13] so that being said and I think the city
of Baldwin in addition to using vacation
[15:23] and sick time as PTO they also roll in
there floating holidays and any holiday
[15:30] time into the PTO I didn't do that I
have never heard of that before we can
[15:36] certainly do that if the council is
willing but I just I feel that PTO is a
[15:41] leave benefit that's earned and vacation
and floating vacations aren't
[15:45] necessarily time earned it's time
granted to be with your family and
[15:50] strictly to be used during the holidays
that they were established for but again
[15:55] that's something that the council could
consider doing as well so I believe we
[16:02] put a lot of this information in the
drop box for the council so that is
[16:06] there to look at and last week I met
with staff and we went over some of we
[16:13] went over the the proposed draft PTO and
and talked about some of the issues in a
[16:19] staff meeting and this was a PowerPoint
presentation that David and I worked on
[16:27] together to put this together for the
the staff and basically the last page
[16:32] before the question section shows how
PTO will be accumulated or accrued by
[16:38] staff and so there is a little bit of a
formula and so for the first for the
[16:47] first year after accruing you get 19
days of crude and that's vacation and
[16:51] sick time combined and so you would so
what I did is I multiplied 19 days by 8
[16:57] hours and got 152 hours of their leave
time that's when it translates to and
[17:04] hours and and then at that point I
divided it by 250 point five days which
[17:12] is 300
50 days in a year - weekends and -
[17:16] holidays and so that's that was / and
those 152 hours of which it equals 19
[17:25] days was divided by the two hundred and
fifty to fifty point five and then give
[17:30] me a point six zero six seven and then
you multiply that by ten days in a pay
[17:36] period ten working days in a pay period
and so you get six point zero six seven
[17:42] hours accrued each pay period for this
leave time and then as the SI years as a
[17:51] person's years of service increases so
do those hours and so obviously we'll
[17:56] the accrued pay time and so we also
discussed it a a work session to limit
[18:03] those hours because after twenty-one
years an employee could earn one
[18:10] thousand two hundred and forty hours of
leave time and so we talked about
[18:18] limiting it to 720 hours that can be
carried over to the next year and that's
[18:24] essentially 90 days and there was some
discussion that the 90 days would be a
[18:30] nice safety net it's a short-term
disability if you will so if somebody is
[18:34] is hurt that 720 days would go towards
their recuperation and kind of a
[18:42] short-term disability provided in hours
for employees and so another part of the
[18:52] discussion needs to be is if when we
transition to PTO we have staff that
[18:59] have many more hours than one thousand
two hundred and forty hours and so what
[19:05] do we do with that and it's a huge
financial liability to any government
[19:10] entity and so there are a number of
things you can do you can pay them
[19:16] outright and give them a time a year or
a specific time to use as much as as
[19:22] possible or if and then whatever's left
over that
[19:25] can be forfeited or you can agree to pay
out at a retirement if there's some
[19:33] employee willing to retire then that
could be paid out before the end of the
[19:37] year under retirement I mean there's any
way you can structure that so we can get
[19:45] this everybody on the same page with the
paid time off program any questions and
[19:52] you say you've met with all the
employees this and and explained this
[19:57] whole program to them so they're very
well aware of it how do they feel about
[20:02] it
are they I think for the most part they
[20:07] were favorable towards it there's a lot
of concern of course for the hours
[20:12] they've already earned and what's going
to happen to those hours I'm sorry
[20:17] no go ahead there one of the concerns
that I had heard throughout our
[20:21] organization and throughout some of the
other city employees is there that this
[20:25] benefit first segment have been
developed years ago there and it was
[20:30] supposed to be a benefit for the
employees and and for the city to retain
[20:35] the employees or things like that there
and I think that we all understand the
[20:39] liability of that and to put an end to
that you know I think I understand that
[20:45] but the concern is about the accumulated
six hours there that have been accrued
[20:54] over the years and stuff like that I
think in my police department alone
[20:59] there's almost forty six hundred hours
of sick time that's on the books right
[21:03] now and some staff you know can there
were how we did it in st. Anthony to is
[21:12] either they took retirement there was an
end date a year from when it was
[21:15] implemented and you would take and use
all of the old sick and vacation hours
[21:21] prior to starting to use your newly
accrued PTO hours
[21:28] some folks took retirement if they
decided that that wasn't good enough
[21:33] there's any way that you know there are
a number of ways that it can be
[21:37] organized so there needs to be a little
bit more work done on this yeah yeah and
[21:45] that's the only piece that I need you
know some feedback on and other cities
[21:51] have just this is it you're done other
cities have paid it out right this is it
[21:57] you're done maybe a combination of both
maybe during you get a year's grace to
[22:04] use up all of the accrued sick and
vacation time you can roll it into PTO
[22:10] again there are some limits that you
know I can understand with you know like
[22:17] France position before and the police
department when they're when she
[22:21] couldn't take time off in the transition
in there's times at the police
[22:26] department minimum you know have to have
staff in they can't so I think there's
[22:29] somewhere we need to work out with
something that's earned a benefit to be
[22:33] fair if we move forward we are you
something with that because there's some
[22:36] times that again manpower the vacation
could be denied and it wouldn't be right
[22:42] if they can't take it to lose something
right there should put that into a
[23:02] special account there it didn't increase
at any point or whatever like I so what
[23:07] you had in that account state of that
account there yeah analysts anticipate
[23:11] out similar to what the city of Avery
has on the books here right now and then
[23:16] any other sick time was any PTO that you
would accumulate they're they're similar
[23:22] to what Kim had come up with there but
to pay on that is significantly less II
[23:27] if you separate stuff like that
and I think that it met with some
[23:33] resistance there but I think even the
union's eventually bought out of that
[23:39] and certainly that's a consideration as
well there because that'll be something
[23:42] that'll have to be negotiated with her
okay it's not subject to negotiation
[23:48] right now unions can only fire his wages
they can't bargain paid time off for
[23:55] vacation or ensure health insurance or
any of those things anymore aft can
[23:59] remove that they can just bargain their
wage so I'm sure though that they would
[24:05] appreciate any consideration exactly I'm
sure that they would preeminent you know
[24:12] maybe I don't know if they Kim for
people that have the time that aren't
[24:16] even ready to retire is there anything
that maybe can be worked out for like
[24:20] our health savings accounts or something
like that that and that was a call that
[24:25] I was going to make to Mike I know
there's a limit but maybe if you know
[24:29] rather than they have to pay their
portion possibly that'd be in lieu and
[24:33] that go towards whatever you know I know
there's limits on it but I'm just saying
[24:41] I know there's a portion of wheat city
pays and that the employee has to but
[24:44] maybe that would be you know they could
whatever or maybe even flex time if
[24:53] somebody has a surgery of one sort or
another that they've been considering
[24:57] it's kind of elective and and they could
use that money towards doing that as
[25:01] well the issue is as much as any as that
a you mentioned 4600 hours of sick time
[25:09] accrued in your department obviously you
don't need that much sick time if you
[25:14] can with five employees or six employees
that cue a crew almost 5000 hours of
[25:21] sick time
besides the liability issue then we need
[25:26] to do something and I think the PTO will
do that in an allows employees to take
[25:32] time off without a reason you don't have
to I mean if you want a day off you call
[25:38] the boss up and say hey I need tomorrow
off why I want to sleep in doesn't
[25:44] yeah Alan you know - I mean we do still
have in her personnel manual that the
[25:49] thymeoff still has to be approved by
their capture they start to put in for I
[25:53] didn't give notice so but that that that
in in reality is very rarely ever and I
[26:02] denied I mean and if somebody needs a
day off they need the day off it's not
[26:07] right and the major problem with the
traditional accrual of earn time is the
[26:13] sick time that you couldn't take it for
any reason but way back and you know
[26:18] you'll be able to yeah if you need a
mental health day you can take it okay
[26:23] the other thing that was brought up to
is it if you can accrue 90 days which is
[26:30] 720 hours basically that for any illness
or any reason that the city's long term
[26:40] disability kicks in I mean we also
provide that long-term disability so
[26:45] there is no gap coverage like you
Medicare or something like that you're
[26:50] you're pretty much protected for a long
time and so on sole but it is nice to
[26:56] have that for the show absolutely if you
do break a leg or you're seriously
[27:01] injured yep okay so this is an ongoing
discussion and project brand goof well I
[27:13] guess it was my understanding was the
council's intention before and they had
[27:17] this has been talked about it committee
meetings and then the council I believe
[27:21] last month wanted to implement this by
the first of Inger if these things
[27:26] aren't resolved obviously we're not
going to be able to do that so just so
[27:30] there's a plan B in place of depending
upon how you want to implement it but
[27:36] you know I bring you that up because the
staff kind of you know our our payroll
[27:42] HR department we kind of needs to know
where they're at and I'm not rushing
[27:46] anything because anything that is done
can be made retroactive certainly a
[27:49] addressed at that time
so the main issue is figuring what to do
[27:56] with people that are over the time
that's to me that I've talked to do
[28:03] amongst the staff that appears to be the
main concern is what's going to happen
[28:08] to the time that I have on the books and
if I have more than 720 hours on the
[28:13] books right now what happens to that
time and how many employees are we
[28:18] talking about with more than 720 hours I
believe three or four yeah so maybe six
[28:32] yeah over 20 years but not they don't
have 700 over $700 a sick time yeah
[28:38] there's three of them that tree of them
and we don't want learn to since we're
[28:43] not in closed session we probably don't
want to talk about individual right no I
[28:49] for sure but otherwise or less about a
session on the agenda and those white
[28:54] would be suitable if you did want to
talk about it in closed session because
[28:58] it's a subject that yeah very closely
intertwined with individual people but
[29:04] otherwise for the most part other than
the idea of PTO seemed to be from
[29:09] everybody like that gonna get user time
all you want basically just I wanna know
[29:14] they're gonna structure that's the old
time accrual that's January meeting day
[29:27] we should be able to handle it by then I
would think okay thanks basic yeah cuz a
[29:32] basic the meeting if we know we like the
structure that is just what options that
[29:37] employees gonna have some options
someone wants to retire the retire
[29:41] somebody wants that doesn't you know if
they can use for health reviews for
[29:44] something else it's this structure
something that an option of what yeah
[29:49] and and I will look at all all of them
that you know keep them as whole as
[29:54] possible I have never liked the idea
once somebody's earned something taking
[29:58] it away right yeah
so do we do we need to vote on the item
[30:06] twelve conversion to pay time off in
general and then you work off the
[30:11] details are you asking for council
approval on that item well it sounds
[30:18] like you're not ready to have done it
yet so it's on the agenda to act on if
[30:23] you wish to act on it you don't have to
act on it or you can you know act on it
[30:30] that you know the intent is to implement
it as the first of the year once some
[30:35] things are finalized that's totally up
to you you can table it and tell January
[30:41] if you want to when it's ready to be
finalized that's up to you
[30:47] that sounds like a lot of the details
you're between Kim and you or have to
[30:52] work out with the employees so I so I
couldn't we adopt it contingent upon
[30:56] those items being a comfort resolution
if you will yeah something like that
[31:03] yeah we are going we like the idea so I
think it's basically that yes this is
[31:12] the plan moving forward the only thing
in the detail is with the options for
[31:17] the employees that at what time they've
earned there's something that there
[31:21] there's a bucket or some way of some way
to analyze that and this is that we
[31:26] don't really different options again
look at the possibilities or whatever
[31:29] what they are for the employees that are
affected and then you know but then the
[31:34] fact that PTL seems to be that seems
good we just got to make sure that the
[31:37] people don't
their main compensated for what they've
[31:40] earned in some fashion we just gotta
figure what the options will be would be
[31:49] are you went in there if you make
this evening to do that are you leaving
[31:56] that discretion on what ultimately to do
to the city administrator or on the
[32:03] third is the council gonna let her read
vote what might options I think we'll
[32:07] what will want to revote on the option
right I I mean I don't I'm comfortable
[32:12] leaving it with the city administrator
but she shouldn't have to take all the
[32:16] heat for doing this this is you know
what I mean it's a council decision that
[32:22] was so is it is there that the
availability do the motion and switching
[32:27] the PTO have meeting prior to then our
third then while the options of a chance
[32:32] to take back to the employees then on
that meeting will say now everybody
[32:35] who's over they have these options may
be your department heads or whatever and
[32:40] then that will take care of the time
there that are you thinking of all one
[32:45] thing on the third
I'd like to don't we meet nervously
[32:49] personally all huh this is way too sweet
we could end up having a having finance
[32:57] and having the whole council there
upsets and I you know like the idea and
[33:05] I think you know that gives the the
discussion has been really good and it
[33:09] gives the staff an impression that the
council is agreeable we just need to
[33:14] finish that final pieces you know on how
we're going to treat what they've
[33:19] already earned huh so that they there's
they remain along so we can
[33:30] so what was your comfort Reservation
mister banjo just to stay safe state
[33:36] that the so that the council is in favor
of the proceeding with the PTO time as
[33:45] previously discussed with both Council
and the employees and we will be
[33:52] available for a final decision on the
4th of January then then we get time to
[34:04] talk to the any folks that are involved
and come up with the and I you know
[34:11] during that time - I can call another
staff meeting or - whatever we need and
[34:15] and and talk with staff about how you
know what they see as fair and most of
[34:22] them but it would be just the four or
whatever employees are over the 720
[34:28] hours right and then maybe they can give
some options and you can see if it's a
[34:31] feasible thing that we can write right
the ones that have and then they can
[34:35] estimate say let's see you know some of
them may say can they use more vacation
[34:39] or more time the rest of the year use it
that way or whatever to get it rid of
[34:43] you know yeah because things are slow
right now because of the holidays coming
[34:47] up so that might be a good idea as well
yeah you know you don't leave the
[34:51] department stranded but we can certainly
talk about that I can talk with the
[34:57] department heads and see what their
thoughts are on that
[35:01] okay I'll second the motion that Rick me
[35:08] so basically we're really not voting on
this until January 3rd or whatever
[35:14] ending our that's the support the plan
forward and then so employees can feel
[35:21] some comfort to not wondering what we're
doing until January 3rd you know that
[35:25] this is a plan and we're gonna work with
trying to get something out of itself
[35:29] yeah right so they don't understand okay
all of those in support of ERISA
[35:34] Comfort motion signify by saying aye
opposed Carrie
[35:41] I think there is nothing else on the
agenda we do not have a meeting in
[35:47] December so we will be meeting back here
on January 3rd and I would like to
[35:54] publicly announce yes I am running for
mayor thank you
[35:59] move to adjourn so move second all in
favor aye
[36:04] we are adjourned thank you