New Council Moving Forward
The April 23rd Overland City Council Meeting went very well. It was nice to see that our Council could hold a meeting without an excess of yelling and posturing. Hopefully this example of good conduct will filter down to those in attendance as well. There were 2 resident comments at the meeting and both were friendly and about the future, not the past which is much appreciated.
Our new Council Members were sworn in and we would like to once again congratulate Councilpersons Cuminale, Conlon, Keller, and Jones. We would also like to thank Councilpersons Knode, Sellers, and Corcoran for their service to the community. Though we may have frequently disagreed on policy issues, we greatly respect them for stepping up to serve the Community. Being a Councilperson is far more work than most people realize and they are certainly not paid enough to truly compensate for it. Regardless of political leanings and the like we appreciate all the people willing to step up and do this work for our City.
There was a public hearing at this meeting on the 8601 Page development that includes Beechnut's office. There were a few issues raised on this issue but I am going to go into detail on that in a later posting after I find the time to fully review the development plan. On the surface this looks like a great opportunity for Overland. Unlike the previous development deal this one has real details on what will be constructed and how.
The developer explained that they were working with Alberici to design this development to meet green building standards in an effort to achieve a Gold, LEED certification. Alberici got this ball rolling for Overland and if this development takes off we might be seeing the beginning of a trend. It would be great if we could effectively create a "green belt around the inner belt". More and more businesses are seeing the benefits not only to the environment but to their own public image and bottom lines by building green. Overland has an opportunity here to grow long into the future by attracting more like minded businesses.
The City issued a proclamation naming May 5th and 6th "Poppy Days". The Red Poppy is a flower and a symbol of the sacrifice of lives in all wars, as well as the American Legion Auxiliary. Every year volunteers of the Auxiliary distribute Poppy emblems in exchange for donations that they use to fund various veteran's programs. There is a bit more information on this at their national web site. If you see these folks out and about, please give a small donation, wear your Poppy proudly and remember to thank them for their efforts and hard work.
The Council also unanimously passed to the ordinance to hold the Mayoral election in August (Aug 7th, 2007). There have been some questions about this lately due to the announcements appearing on the City website, in the Post Dispatch, the Suburban Journal and the Localite. Rest assured nothing improper was done here. The City simply placed the ads to ensure that notice was properly given to people interested in running to know when to file. They would have had a bit of egg on their face had the Council chosen not to approve the ordinance, but the public notices did not require an ordinance, only the election did. They City acted in good faith to ensure that all interested parties had proper notice should the election ordinance pass. Had they not, I am sure there would have been issues raised.
A few other odds and ends were taken care of at that meeting. It was nice to have someone there from Public Works for a change. Chuck Boone asked for input from the Council members on which streets to focus repairs and maintenance on. The Chief informed us that the local American Red Cross had inspected the Community Center and agreed to operate a shelter there for the City in the event of an emergency in the future. Though the City's efforts to do this in the past were greatly appreciated, it is always better to have people who are properly trained and background checked to run these things. Also the City approved the Lion's club liquor license for the Lions Fair (to be held August 23rd - 26th). The Council also announced they would be having a Council Workshop meeting on the overdue budget as well as a few other odds and ends on Tuesday April 24th.
Though there were a few moments of contention and the like I am happy to say that the Workshop meeting on the 24th also went well, and the Council voted 7 to 1 to move forward with the budget they amended at that meeting. For the most part, since the 2006/2007 budget period is all but over the budget proposal was changed to reflect actual money spent in that time.
The Council voted to remove the trash service from this budget which made sense since even the supporters of a return to City paid trash service had to admit there was no way this could be implemented in the less than 3 months remaining in that budget period. The Council agreed to reconsider this issue in the near future and to seek competitive bids to determine if this is something the City can afford to do. They will need to go out for competitive bids on this service anyway as the contract will Allied Waste ends January 2008.
Another change was in how to address the employees pay. Many of the employees of our City have a step raise system in place which provides a 2 1/2% pay increase each year for 12 years (unless they started higher than step one which happens occasionally). Since this step raise system is an ordinance the employees should have gotten it starting in July 2006 (depending on
their anniversary dates), but without a budget, this could not be done.
The Council considered not giving this raise and instead doubling the step in next year's budget, however the employees had their raises frozen in the previous budget (2005/2006) for one year that due to the budget issues of late has turned into nearly 2 budget years without an increase. Also, since the step raises are an Overland Ordinance, failure to pay them, without passing an Ordinance to freeze them could result in lawsuits by employees that the City would not be able to successfully defend in my opinion.
Several approaches were considered. There is an issue with retroactively instituting those raises. How do you handle the various tax withholdings? How would the employees need to address the income taxes they already filed for 2006? How would the finance department possibly be able to get this done with everything else they now have to do at once (as we discuss further down)? As a result, the Council decided to institute a $1000.00 bonus to every full time employee to replace that step raise for that budget year.
To keep it simple I will be using round numbers to explain why this is reasonable. Basically at full manning the City has about 100 employees between all the departments with a total payroll of about 4 million dollars. That means the average salary is $40,000.00 a year. Remember, many of the hardest working employees make less than that but we are trying to keep this simple. 2 1/2% of $40,000.00 is $1000.00. So the City is making a effort to be fair as well as to avoid all the various issues that could be created with other approaches. There will be some employees who's step raise would have been somewhat less than that, however they are the lowest paid employees at the City and could surely use it. There will also be some employees who's raise would be a bit more than they would have gotten. This one time bonus will cost the City about $100,000.00 Interestingly, if the City did nothing and was sued there is a good possibility that the legal defense would cost about that much. These are not hard and fast numbers (other than the $1000.00 bonus). I just used rounded numbers to help illustrate the point, nothing more.
Something to consider is how the employee's likely felt prior to this meeting. They took their jobs with the step raise ordinance in place. The starting pay was likely lower than they might have wanted and was certainly lower than the same job would be worth in the private sector. However, knowing the step raises were there likely helped some decide to come work their tails off for us. Two budgets ago the city instituted a step freeze to help balance the budget. Since most of the employee's who were here then are still here now you can see that they were willing to "take one for the team". That freeze was for one year only (as the ordinance enacted to create it stated). Yet when the next budget period was supposed to start, and those next years steps would begin to kick in, our City government had become horribly dysfunctional resulting in the budget not being passed on time, so they never went into effect. Still the majority of employees understood the issue and stuck it out. They have taken it on the chin for us for almost 2 years, it is time for us to take care of them. This bonus is not a perfect solution, but it is a far better sign of good faith from the Council than "trust us". The people who keep our city running deserve this, and they deserve our thanks as well.
The Council also agreed to include starting to issue the Utility tax rebates once the Budget ordinance is approved. There was some discussion about possibly just doubling the next year's rebate but in the end the Council voted to include the rebates in the budget. Normally, Seniors start bringing in their utility tax receipts to City Hall in January and they would be processed and checks would be sent out on a first come, first served basis. This process generally ran from January to June every year. As a result, when they open up the process late for this rebate there is no way all the rebates will be processed before the end of this budget period in June. However, that does NOT mean people will lose out. The rebates will continue, the money allocated for them will simply be moved from this budget to the next year's to keep it in line with when it is actually spent. If all goes well, they'll all be completed in time to start the next refund process in January 2008.
This budget will not go into effect until the ordinance for it is created and is voted on at the next Council meeting, but this is real progress!
We've talked before about how hard the folks in the City Finance department have had to work with all the budget talks, changes, etc in this past year. However, that was a vacation for those poor people compared to what is coming now. With little to no time to do it they have to:
Our new Council Members were sworn in and we would like to once again congratulate Councilpersons Cuminale, Conlon, Keller, and Jones. We would also like to thank Councilpersons Knode, Sellers, and Corcoran for their service to the community. Though we may have frequently disagreed on policy issues, we greatly respect them for stepping up to serve the Community. Being a Councilperson is far more work than most people realize and they are certainly not paid enough to truly compensate for it. Regardless of political leanings and the like we appreciate all the people willing to step up and do this work for our City.
There was a public hearing at this meeting on the 8601 Page development that includes Beechnut's office. There were a few issues raised on this issue but I am going to go into detail on that in a later posting after I find the time to fully review the development plan. On the surface this looks like a great opportunity for Overland. Unlike the previous development deal this one has real details on what will be constructed and how.
The developer explained that they were working with Alberici to design this development to meet green building standards in an effort to achieve a Gold, LEED certification. Alberici got this ball rolling for Overland and if this development takes off we might be seeing the beginning of a trend. It would be great if we could effectively create a "green belt around the inner belt". More and more businesses are seeing the benefits not only to the environment but to their own public image and bottom lines by building green. Overland has an opportunity here to grow long into the future by attracting more like minded businesses.
The City issued a proclamation naming May 5th and 6th "Poppy Days". The Red Poppy is a flower and a symbol of the sacrifice of lives in all wars, as well as the American Legion Auxiliary. Every year volunteers of the Auxiliary distribute Poppy emblems in exchange for donations that they use to fund various veteran's programs. There is a bit more information on this at their national web site. If you see these folks out and about, please give a small donation, wear your Poppy proudly and remember to thank them for their efforts and hard work.
The Council also unanimously passed to the ordinance to hold the Mayoral election in August (Aug 7th, 2007). There have been some questions about this lately due to the announcements appearing on the City website, in the Post Dispatch, the Suburban Journal and the Localite. Rest assured nothing improper was done here. The City simply placed the ads to ensure that notice was properly given to people interested in running to know when to file. They would have had a bit of egg on their face had the Council chosen not to approve the ordinance, but the public notices did not require an ordinance, only the election did. They City acted in good faith to ensure that all interested parties had proper notice should the election ordinance pass. Had they not, I am sure there would have been issues raised.
A few other odds and ends were taken care of at that meeting. It was nice to have someone there from Public Works for a change. Chuck Boone asked for input from the Council members on which streets to focus repairs and maintenance on. The Chief informed us that the local American Red Cross had inspected the Community Center and agreed to operate a shelter there for the City in the event of an emergency in the future. Though the City's efforts to do this in the past were greatly appreciated, it is always better to have people who are properly trained and background checked to run these things. Also the City approved the Lion's club liquor license for the Lions Fair (to be held August 23rd - 26th). The Council also announced they would be having a Council Workshop meeting on the overdue budget as well as a few other odds and ends on Tuesday April 24th.
Though there were a few moments of contention and the like I am happy to say that the Workshop meeting on the 24th also went well, and the Council voted 7 to 1 to move forward with the budget they amended at that meeting. For the most part, since the 2006/2007 budget period is all but over the budget proposal was changed to reflect actual money spent in that time.
The Council voted to remove the trash service from this budget which made sense since even the supporters of a return to City paid trash service had to admit there was no way this could be implemented in the less than 3 months remaining in that budget period. The Council agreed to reconsider this issue in the near future and to seek competitive bids to determine if this is something the City can afford to do. They will need to go out for competitive bids on this service anyway as the contract will Allied Waste ends January 2008.
Another change was in how to address the employees pay. Many of the employees of our City have a step raise system in place which provides a 2 1/2% pay increase each year for 12 years (unless they started higher than step one which happens occasionally). Since this step raise system is an ordinance the employees should have gotten it starting in July 2006 (depending on
their anniversary dates), but without a budget, this could not be done.
The Council considered not giving this raise and instead doubling the step in next year's budget, however the employees had their raises frozen in the previous budget (2005/2006) for one year that due to the budget issues of late has turned into nearly 2 budget years without an increase. Also, since the step raises are an Overland Ordinance, failure to pay them, without passing an Ordinance to freeze them could result in lawsuits by employees that the City would not be able to successfully defend in my opinion.
Several approaches were considered. There is an issue with retroactively instituting those raises. How do you handle the various tax withholdings? How would the employees need to address the income taxes they already filed for 2006? How would the finance department possibly be able to get this done with everything else they now have to do at once (as we discuss further down)? As a result, the Council decided to institute a $1000.00 bonus to every full time employee to replace that step raise for that budget year.
To keep it simple I will be using round numbers to explain why this is reasonable. Basically at full manning the City has about 100 employees between all the departments with a total payroll of about 4 million dollars. That means the average salary is $40,000.00 a year. Remember, many of the hardest working employees make less than that but we are trying to keep this simple. 2 1/2% of $40,000.00 is $1000.00. So the City is making a effort to be fair as well as to avoid all the various issues that could be created with other approaches. There will be some employees who's step raise would have been somewhat less than that, however they are the lowest paid employees at the City and could surely use it. There will also be some employees who's raise would be a bit more than they would have gotten. This one time bonus will cost the City about $100,000.00 Interestingly, if the City did nothing and was sued there is a good possibility that the legal defense would cost about that much. These are not hard and fast numbers (other than the $1000.00 bonus). I just used rounded numbers to help illustrate the point, nothing more.
Something to consider is how the employee's likely felt prior to this meeting. They took their jobs with the step raise ordinance in place. The starting pay was likely lower than they might have wanted and was certainly lower than the same job would be worth in the private sector. However, knowing the step raises were there likely helped some decide to come work their tails off for us. Two budgets ago the city instituted a step freeze to help balance the budget. Since most of the employee's who were here then are still here now you can see that they were willing to "take one for the team". That freeze was for one year only (as the ordinance enacted to create it stated). Yet when the next budget period was supposed to start, and those next years steps would begin to kick in, our City government had become horribly dysfunctional resulting in the budget not being passed on time, so they never went into effect. Still the majority of employees understood the issue and stuck it out. They have taken it on the chin for us for almost 2 years, it is time for us to take care of them. This bonus is not a perfect solution, but it is a far better sign of good faith from the Council than "trust us". The people who keep our city running deserve this, and they deserve our thanks as well.
The Council also agreed to include starting to issue the Utility tax rebates once the Budget ordinance is approved. There was some discussion about possibly just doubling the next year's rebate but in the end the Council voted to include the rebates in the budget. Normally, Seniors start bringing in their utility tax receipts to City Hall in January and they would be processed and checks would be sent out on a first come, first served basis. This process generally ran from January to June every year. As a result, when they open up the process late for this rebate there is no way all the rebates will be processed before the end of this budget period in June. However, that does NOT mean people will lose out. The rebates will continue, the money allocated for them will simply be moved from this budget to the next year's to keep it in line with when it is actually spent. If all goes well, they'll all be completed in time to start the next refund process in January 2008.
This budget will not go into effect until the ordinance for it is created and is voted on at the next Council meeting, but this is real progress!
We've talked before about how hard the folks in the City Finance department have had to work with all the budget talks, changes, etc in this past year. However, that was a vacation for those poor people compared to what is coming now. With little to no time to do it they have to:
- Complete the Overdue budget and all the associated documentation, data entry, etc.
- Get the 2007/2008 budget work ready as that period starts this June.
- Handle the utility tax refunds
- Handle the employee bonus checks
- And do it all while doing their normal day to day work load and preparing for the next annual City audit.
And I am sure I probably left a bunch of things out.
These folks are going to have to work like crazed ferrets on intravenous triple espressos to get this all done. We have given them an impossible task, and due to the limited numbers of computers with the City's financial software on it we can't even bring in temps to help them out. I feel terrible for them and I wish there was something I could do to help them get it done, however all I would be is in the way.
They absolutely deserve your thanks and appreciation! Please, in the coming weeks swing by, call, or send them a note to say thanks. Send flowers, donuts, coffee, name you children after them, etc. These folks are going to need all the support we can give and they deserve every bit of it and more.
Don't forget the rest of the admin people at City Hall, Public Works, and the Police Department. All of these folks work tirelessly to keep everything working. Since it is Administrative Professionals Week this is the perfect time to pop in and say thank you. They all deserve it.
Overall these last two meetings are a great sign. Overland has begun the process of moving forward. You might need your sunglasses because the future of our community is looking brighter.
These folks are going to have to work like crazed ferrets on intravenous triple espressos to get this all done. We have given them an impossible task, and due to the limited numbers of computers with the City's financial software on it we can't even bring in temps to help them out. I feel terrible for them and I wish there was something I could do to help them get it done, however all I would be is in the way.
They absolutely deserve your thanks and appreciation! Please, in the coming weeks swing by, call, or send them a note to say thanks. Send flowers, donuts, coffee, name you children after them, etc. These folks are going to need all the support we can give and they deserve every bit of it and more.
Don't forget the rest of the admin people at City Hall, Public Works, and the Police Department. All of these folks work tirelessly to keep everything working. Since it is Administrative Professionals Week this is the perfect time to pop in and say thank you. They all deserve it.
Overall these last two meetings are a great sign. Overland has begun the process of moving forward. You might need your sunglasses because the future of our community is looking brighter.
posted by Overland Sailor @ 10:07 AM 
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Thanks for the information on both meetings.
I would like to see Overland become the place for "Green" businesses. Or, to use your great turn of a phrase: "green belt around the innerbelt" :)
Thanks for the info & the notices of all the upcoming events.
The list of events got pretty long this time. However, I imagine I have still missed a few.
If anyone has any information about other events in Overland please feel free to let me know and I will gladly get them added to the list. :-)
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Excellent information for those of us who were unable to attend! But that's nothing new Overland Sailor, you always do an excellent job!
( Now don't let that go to your head, I hear that it makes it hard to get through doors;)
Are you going to put your coverage of the meeting on your site??
((Please))
Nah, even if I let all the positive comments go to my head, all the negative ones balance it all out. :-)
People have asked across 3 websites if I was going to put the meeting coverage online because Charter's camera went down. I have not committed to that yet because I did not shoot the video for airing the entire meeting. I did get it all but I cut it in clips as I recorded. Merging them all together is my project for today with the goal being to get the video online this evening.
I did contact Charter and offer to provide my video for them to air. Unfortunately there are a host of reasons why they can't use it. The funniest reason was that Charter, home of my digital cable TV and high speed internet access does not have the ability to broadcast digital content on channel 18. :-)
If that was the only issue I could have gotten it on a video tape, but they require that the video be shot from a static position, with no zooming in and the like to avoid the appearance that someone is being favored over another. Since I generally only offer clips online, I tend to focus in on the people discussing things I might want to use. As a result, I didn't shoot in a way they could use.
Anyway, I am working on it. That meeting is in 14 different files on the camera (mainly because I manually clipped the "swearing in's" to send to the each of our new Council people. I don't know what the final product is going to look like, but I am on it. :-)
This post has been removed by the author.
I would like to find out more about your web poll this week. I was one of the "absolutly" answers. So I guess my question would be, who is going to be in charge of this operation and when do we start?
:-)
CardsFan you give me way too much credit. Our polls typically get between 20 to 40 responses. What I was interested in was how many of those people were willing to put their time where their mouth (or typing fingers) were. There was not much more too it than that.
However, When the poll was done, I was considering posting an article about it and asking those who answered that they were interested to email me with real contact information, an idea of their interests, and the OK to share that info with the City Council.
From there based on people's interests I could suggest some existing local groups they could get involved with, but when it comes to working with the City that ultimately would come down to what the Council decides to do by way of Citizen Committees and the like.
OK, so maybe I did have some ideas that went beyond the poll but this a seat of the pants operation at best at the moment. :-)
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