[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Good evening.
[0:04] September 18th. It's 5.05 PM. This is a budget hearing.
[0:08] This is December. This evening, we'll be going over the budgets for the executive office,
[0:13] the elected body, IT, the assessor's office, the tax collector, and finance.
[0:20] And first on the docket this evening, is the executive office.
[0:29] everything.
[0:33] So moving right along on 1230, there's my own salary there. I budgeted
[0:40] next year for a potential raise of $10,000, which was, we'll be discussed further
[0:47] towards the end of the year during an evaluation, but I just wanted the potential
[0:51] for it to be budgeted appropriately.
[0:53] So that speaks of that increase.
[0:56] The new request below that is for a deputy city manager,
[1:01] and that would be a great in step 7-1.
[1:06] And this is something that I think
[1:08] would be very beneficial to the city for many different reasons
[1:13] that would allow for the city to continue to move forward
[1:16] to get a stronger grasp on some of the oversight that is needed from the executive office
[1:22] with the remaining departments and prove to be cost efficient.
[1:28] Okay, so can we interject or...
[1:31] My own means.
[1:32] Or should we go through the whole thing and then, how do you want to do it?
[1:35] How are you, however you prefer?
[1:38] Okay, so on the Deputy City Manager, because I understand that when Harry Ford was here,
[1:46] that he had one. So I'm just curious about the job description for this person, especially
[1:54] as we consider in some of the other departments how we're putting staff members in place.
[2:02] Hopefully we'll have the human resources person in there soon. And what I really wanted to do
[2:08] for transparency, sake, is I wanted to compare the deputy city manager with the public safety
[2:16] commissioner, which I noticed wasn't listed anywhere, to see how those roles differentiate.
[2:25] And, you know, so when we're thinking about our dollars, we're who best spend them.
[2:30] Right, yeah, I concur with Councilman Grace's sentiments,
[2:37] I don't have a position or I don't disagree with a deputy city manager, but I think a job description of roles and responsibilities, so we can compare and contrast the deputy city manager, jobs or job or role and responsibilities to the city manager.
[2:58] And then I too had requested a public safety commissioner for oversight and to particularly deal with some of the concerns, budgetary concerns, and our public safety department regarding overtime,
[3:23] so that definitely should be on the table as a request.
[3:33] Yeah, no, you know, overall, I think now that we're getting more into the different departments
[3:40] that have asked for sort of senior staffing, it would be helpful if along with, you know,
[3:46] the information that's been requested so far. We had a sort of list of breakdown of the additional
[3:51] cost, because these are all new positions. So the cost of the new positions that got added versus
[3:57] and the cost savings from last year with the vacant ones.
[4:02] So I think that that would help me.
[4:05] I rent my own numbers, but I want to make sure
[4:07] that they're, you know, I play with numbers,
[4:10] but we have a professional.
[4:11] Yeah, by all means, I'll have a contract.
[4:13] The contract was offered to be certain to get
[4:16] to work with civil service commission,
[4:18] to get those overall figures.
[4:20] I mean, generally speaking, it's 23 or 24 positions added.
[4:29] Yeah, it's 2.3 million in personnel, um, new personnel request.
[4:35] How much is it?
[4:37] 2.3 million in personnel request.
[4:39] In additional.
[4:40] That includes benefits and everything, salary benefits and everything.
[4:45] Obviously we're not going to be able to come to you.
[4:47] No, but so, but it's project to those 2.3, it's added new to our budget from last year.
[4:53] if we're compared, you know, as we compare 2019 to 2020, and so where would be the additional
[4:59] 2.3 million that would come in, potentially fund those staff?
[5:04] So for the Department request phase, we're just presenting the Department request, so that you
[5:09] have a chance to see everything that the Department wants. By the time we get to the managers
[5:13] propose, I will present a balanced budget. Either Department request phase is not meant to be
[5:19] balance against revenues. It just gives you an opportunity to see everything that's been requested so that once you see the managers proposed and
[5:27] Several items will not make it into that. You can then determine hey, where was that item?
[5:31] I saw in the department request. Why wasn't an added or hey, these items are in here and I'm glad to see them. Yeah, in my in my
[5:39] comments
[5:40] Yeah, my comments to the council in some of our one-on-one
[5:44] discussions
[5:45] This is a wish list
[5:47] I think that's a very accurate way of describing it, and I apologize if there was any confusion
[5:54] here by all means.
[5:55] I mean these are literally the requests of the departments.
[5:59] By no means is this the, even a draft of the city manager's budget, so to speak to
[6:09] some of the other concerns about some other positions that I know were referenced by council
[6:13] and the mayor, I mean, being that this is a department request, should there be a position
[6:25] for anything related to public safety, the city does not have a department of public safety.
[6:29] So, so the time for that request would be later in this process, not necessarily from a specific department that we have.
[6:36] Great.
[6:36] Yeah, and they may be some overlay, Mr. Donut, in terms of that request for public safety commissioner versus a deputy, so they may be different in titles, but we may be able to achieve the same thing with the deputy city manager, just a different title from what we requested.
[7:01] And that's exactly why I was
[7:04] acting for the job description,
[7:06] because I do understand that there's a wish list.
[7:10] Mayor Harvey and I had a discussion last night
[7:12] about how my youngest son wants a very expensive gift.
[7:16] And so that means that sometimes you have to make
[7:19] sacrifices in other areas.
[7:22] So I do understand that this is a wish list,
[7:24] but as we are deciding that wish list,
[7:28] I think it's just very appropriate
[7:30] that we have job descriptions so that we know how they fit where they fit, especially when
[7:38] it's additional staff at 2.0 something million and when you consider the taxpayers wanting
[7:47] for us to at least not go above the tax cap and the possibly lower their tax rate when you
[7:54] consider other things that we're trying to do while moving this city forward. I just want to be
[7:59] very, very careful about how we're hiring, who we're hiring, where when, what, who, what,
[8:06] when, where, how why, you know, the W's.
[8:10] Just now the, I might be a clerical thing, on that page, the HR director doesn't show a
[8:15] cost for 2020.
[8:18] Was that?
[8:19] Yes.
[8:20] So, so, in previous years, the part-time position of HR was within the executive office.
[8:28] this year, we in the process of respecting the position of the full time, we moved it.
[8:36] I can't tell if it's obvious.
[8:38] So we'll be hearing more about the full time position with finances budget later on this evening.
[8:45] Excuse me, I have a question.
[8:47] I'm sorry, I just walked in.
[8:50] So again, Joe, just so I understand the HR position is a full time position, correct?
[8:56] That is correct, yes.
[8:57] And is this correct?
[9:00] This is not the cell or is it correct?
[9:02] No, it's on page five.
[9:03] All right.
[9:05] All right.
[9:09] I know, I already know the answer, but I just want to be clear.
[9:13] So the HR person full time would report to the controller.
[9:21] Yes.
[9:22] The position will report.
[9:24] Can you talk a little bit about the rationale for that?
[9:27] Sure.
[9:27] There are a few staff already within the control of the office at Handel personnel issues,
[9:34] so we were looking to give both staff some supervision as well, too.
[9:42] And the logical area for payroll and benefits and some other personnel related matters
[9:47] would be to have a human resource of supervisor.
[9:52] And, Joe, is that typically how it's set up in a municipality, because that's not typically
[9:58] in a...
[9:59] It varies.
[10:01] It varies.
[10:02] Some municipalities do have human resources within its finance, or, or, or, control their
[10:08] office, in our case, and others do not.
[10:10] I know, for example, the city of Peckipsy does have a human resources sort of division,
[10:16] I guess, if you will, within its finance office.
[10:20] Yeah, and I've seen it in organizational structures with different municipalities and even for institutions of higher learning, as well, where the human resource person is a subdivision of the finance department.
[10:36] It's it's it's it's correct. I mean ultimately the the if you look at the chain of command
[10:46] Because the Comptroller reports to the city manager in the you know, so that human resource person indirectly does as well or wood
[10:55] If you put it in the finance department or if that person was in the executive staff, they're still a part of that
[11:01] And the human resources administrator would more or less be acting as a department head as well too.
[11:09] So it's a little murky so far as as an org chart is concerned, but I mean this this more or less is a department and what we would be doing would be sort of fortifying that department with additional staff members by moving it to finance.
[11:25] So, just a quick, for geographical purposes, where would this person, here she be, where would that person's office be?
[11:41] There's space, there's space within the, the controllers office, there's also space within the executive office as well, too.
[11:48] because the reason why I'm asking is being
[11:51] familiar with other organizations and HR things.
[11:55] I know that certain things require a certain amount
[11:57] of privacy, with dealing with, you know,
[12:00] so our entire office is confidential, the finance department.
[12:13] It was there, sorry.
[12:14] Just any recommendation, I'm just trying to find out, right?
[12:20] Because it's a different model, and then what
[12:22] normally used to seeing for a director, right, an HR director to be under the law.
[12:28] So it's not an HR director, position is an HR administrator position.
[12:35] So I'm looking human resource director.
[12:38] What pages is that on a file that was taken to have partying?
[12:42] That's that's the position that existed previously.
[12:46] I'm looking at that file.
[12:47] I'm looking at the file.
[12:47] I'm looking at the file.
[12:48] I'm looking at the file.
[12:52] So, that's where my questions are coming from.
[12:56] So, so that's a minor error that should read full-time HR administrator.
[13:00] Okay.
[13:04] All right.
[13:04] Now, I'm going to digest the administrator portion, right?
[13:07] Because I'm, was digesting based on what you did.
[13:09] We have both titles, and we went with the administrator.
[13:14] Okay.
[13:15] All right.
[13:15] And that makes my question about civil service mood.
[13:19] Okay.
[13:23] And can you share that job description just because I don't, it's not an awesome
[13:30] and you'll correct this right for
[13:32] All of the corrections are actually updated right here on the master for the next book, not on the screen, but here
[13:39] So from every meeting we just make the updates right into the
[13:45] Okay.
[13:46] Okay.
[13:50] Yeah, and I'm just kind of wondering where the cognitive dissonance is, whether if there's an issue with HR
[13:59] our administrator reporting to the Comptroller directly or in and which would mean indirectly
[14:06] to the city manager because the Comptroller reports to the city manager.
[14:11] So I'm just trying to figure out where the dissonance is with some of my colleagues.
[14:16] No, it's just clarity about, I mean there's a difference between administrative and director.
[14:21] Just an organizational language and based on duties.
[14:25] Okay, that's what that issue was.
[14:26] Okay.
[14:26] And in the typo that we have on page five, I'm sure added to the confusion as well, so I promise for that.
[14:34] No, no problem.
[14:34] Well, I mean, other people have different information, and I do them.
[14:37] That's different, right?
[14:38] But, you know, I can only go base on what is in front of me.
[14:40] You're right.
[14:42] So...
[14:42] Point to you.
[14:44] And I notice here that you're requesting a new account.
[14:48] A new account?
[14:49] Well, sorry, that's all it's about.
[14:51] Oh, you should...
[14:52] Yeah, if you wouldn't...
[14:54] If you wouldn't mind, let's just continue with the executive portion
[14:58] then we could go to the elected move.
[15:00] Move forward with the hearing. Before we go on, Councilwoman Monteverdi wants to revisit the rationale for the deputy, deputy of the city manager.
[15:14] I just, you know, and the salary amount, I mean, I just don't understand that.
[15:23] Okay.
[15:24] I can't justify.
[15:26] Understood.
[15:29] There have been some discussions and I apologize, whether or not you were involved this
[15:34] time or not about perhaps bringing this position back, it did exist a number of years ago
[15:39] within the city.
[15:41] It's role and the job description will gladly be shared with the council.
[15:45] It would be providing additional oversight and assistance to the manager's office.
[15:52] I don't
[15:55] mind being supporting that.
[15:57] Right, no, and then I was brought to everyone's attention
[16:01] that this is just proposals.
[16:04] This is pretty much a wish list if there was an in a perfect world.
[16:10] And then Mr. Vinnie mentioned there are two point three million
[16:14] dollars of additional requests or personnel request.
[16:19] So not that that's what's going to make it to the final
[16:24] city manager's proposed budget, but these are just a wish list.
[16:31] Todd, did you miss the venue?
[16:33] Did you mention your statement at the end of this time?
[16:37] I did not.
[16:37] I didn't see that I had a mic in front of me.
[16:39] I was looking for the wireless mics.
[16:42] What statement was the record again?
[16:44] Yeah.
[16:45] I always like it.
[16:46] So I just want to remind everyone that the budget is a living document.
[16:49] It's intended to be reviewed throughout the year.
[16:53] Obviously this is a department request phase.
[16:55] is the wish list phase. We'll then go back and prepare a balanced budget based on the revenue
[17:01] estimates for 2020 for the managers proposed and then after that point we'll take the input
[17:07] of the council and the city staff to create the council adopted budget which is a part of
[17:12] the authority and responsibilities vested in the council with OSC. Ultimately, OSC is looking
[17:19] at this as the council's budget and obviously the council relies on the city manager and city
[17:23] staff to get there. Once the budget is done, we'll be working with the Council in fiscal
[17:28] year 2020 to make any modifications or amendments.
[17:32] And what are the time frames? This is my first rodeo. So what happens with when it's managed
[17:37] as proposed by the committee? I can forward you the budget timeline, but the budget is adopted
[17:44] in November. I think November 2020. The manager is an October and the proposed proposed in
[17:53] October voted in the last week in November before the holiday break.
[17:58] We have to vote.
[17:59] The other thing that Mr. Vanne didn't mention, but he's mentioned it in other
[18:05] Canon 101 conversations is that any municipality, no matter how wealthy they are,
[18:13] their departments put in a wish list, but they don't necessarily get all of that wish list.
[18:17] So, I don't want to carve out a wealthy place, but if they want the gold, the gold backpack
[18:25] airblower, they might not get that, the gold plate it, they might get it.
[18:29] That's why this is proposed, right?
[18:33] Absolutely.
[18:36] And we like to hear what people in each department want to enhance or advance the city.
[18:46] So,
[18:52] very good, move forward with the executive line, the executive assistant, as you can see we'll have a step increase in some longevity pay next year, which is accounted for.
[19:04] And then the new administrative assistant, we'll have a step increase as well.
[19:19] The benefits and contractual information and capital more or less are the same, we're not requesting additional funds.
[19:31] There are some agreements that have been set in place with some of our consultants that are funded through this line.
[19:38] Those will continue next year.
[19:40] As is the case with some equipment that's being released as well, so we have, in order to stay up to up to date with a number of activities unfolding within D.P.W. Police and Fire, the manager's office has least radios, which is an agreement that we have with NICOM, NICOM CO.
[20:06] The same as the police fire in D.P.W. Lisa radios as well too, and this year has just been taken out of the actual executive office there.
[20:17] Can you talk a little bit about consulting services, the facilities master plan?
[20:25] Sure.
[20:27] And why it's that under the city manager?
[20:32] Why, why it is under the city manager or is not?
[20:35] What's greater, right, 146, is this face to you?
[20:38] Yes, correct.
[20:39] So this is face to which we budget for, you know, and if approved, paid for next year.
[20:44] We thought that it's my belief that city manager's office would be the best, best area
[20:49] to not only pay for this, but also oversee it because it involves a number of different departments
[20:55] that would likely need some direction from the manager's office.
[20:59] Okay.
[21:02] If you can just go over quickly phase two, what's covered in phase two?
[21:08] Sure. So phase two, phase one is the information gathering phase phase two would be the reporting
[21:15] and going over potential options as well too after the information is gathered from the various
[21:21] facilities that the plane covers.
[21:39] Any further questions within the executive line?
[21:42] Nope, okay.