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Minutes from the Finance Committee meeting on February 16, 2006.
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Finance & Administration Committee Minutes
Thursday, February 16, 2006
4:00 p.m.
Members Present were: Alec Farmer, Darrel Dover, John Street, Jim Hargis, Harold Perrin, and Ann Williams.
MINUTES
Councilwoman Williams moved, seconded by Councilman Dover for the approval of the minutes for the January 19, 2006, regular meeting and the January 23, 2006, special meeting. All voted aye. Copies were provided to all those in attendance.
ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS
PENDING Electronic Plat Submission: Mr. Alan Young stated he has not talked with the City Planner yet.
Banc of America Master Lease and Option Agreement, Appropriate funds for a tax-exempt lease finance proposal: Discussion was held regarding what the money would be used to purchase and what the total cost would be. A Bank of America representative stated the total cost is approximately $4.2 million over 5 years. It was questioned whether the items being purchased had a useful life of longer than five years. Mr. Brian Wadley noted the 3.49% rate is locked in through February 22, 2006. Councilman Farmer motioned, seconded by Councilman Street, to recommend the ordinances to place the items on the agenda for the February 21st Council meeting. All voted aye.
Appropriate funds for Industrial Development through the NEAIDC: Mr. Wadley explained the NEAIDC needs additional funds to help attract a new prospect. He further stated the amount is $150,000. Councilman Dover motioned, seconded by Councilman Street, to release the funds for the NEAIDC. All voted aye. It was added that an ordinance is not needed since the money is already in the budget.
Parcel development ordinance: Mr. Young stated an additional $51,675 is needed for the contract with Fisher and Arnold for the parcel development. The original contract started in November, 2005. Mr. Young further explained they were expecting City Water and Light to pay for part of the project. But due to the large contribution CWL recently made to the Fire Department, Mayor Formon decided not to ask CWL for a contribution for the parcel development project. Questions were raised concerning if anyone was keeping up with the amount of work being done versus the money the City is spending on the work. It was asked for Mr. Wadley to bring an update to the next Finance meeting regarding how much work has been done compared to the money being paid by the City for the different contracts the City has. Discussion was held regarding what would be displayed on the City’s web site once the parcel development is done. Councilman Dover motioned, seconded by Councilwoman Williams, to place the ordinance on the agenda for the Council meeting on February 21st. All voted aye.
ADMINISTRATION
PENDING Status of deed identification by Mr. Vic Young for City real property: Mr. Wadley indicated they’re hoping by the year’s end the deeds should be taken care of.
HUMAN RESOURCES
PENDING Firefighter pay: Mr. Wadley stated the information has been sent to Dr. Condrey and they’re waiting on a response.
PENDING Elected officials survey: Mr. Wadley explained the survey is almost complete.
PENDING Pension multiplier: Chairman Perrin stated he’s working on gathering information and he’s hoping by the end of the month he’ll have the cost figures from all the studies.
PENDING Secretary for Planning Department: It was decided to hold the discussion on the secretary position until the next Finance meeting.
Transit salaries: Mr. Wadley informed the committee that the salaries went down for the Transit Department because Mr. Joel Gardner found the salaries were too high.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
PENDING Financial software update: Mr. Young stated he had no news concerning the financial software.
PENDING Fleet software: Mr. Young stated Fleet and the Code Enforcement software is expected to be done by the end of February.
FINANCE & AUDIT
PENDING Request from A&P Commission for an audit of 2004 tax remittances: Mr. Larry Flowers stated the audit of the taxes is currently being worked on.
PENDING Firefighter’s pension funds: Mr. Flowers explained he has a letter prepared to send to LOPFI to perform an actuarial study regarding the pension funds.
Change to quarterly Council financial updates in accordance with A.C.A. 14-43-507: Mr. Flowers stated he would like to start making PowerPoint presentations concerning the financial updates. City Clerk Donna Jackson noted the rules and procedures for the Council meetings would need to be amended to allow for the change. Councilman Street motioned, seconded by Councilwoman Williams, to refer the change to the Nominating and Rules Committee. All voted aye.
PENDING Privilege license update: Mr. Flowers noted the update is currently being worked on.
CITY CLERK’S OFFICE
Codification of Jonesboro Code of Ordinances: Councilwoman Williams motioned, seconded by Councilman Street, to recommend the ordinance regarding codification of the Code of Ordinances to the full city council. All voted aye.
OTHER
Referral from Public Services Committee concerning the cost of transformer for Joe Mack Campbell Park Baseball Addition (Parks Department): Mr. Jason Wilkie discussed the problem with the transformer, which would cost $18,188. He added the Public Services committee recommended the City pay for the cost of the transformer, not the contractor. Discussion was held concerning where the money for the funding of the project came from. Questions were also raised regarding how the cost of the transformer was overlooked. Mr. Flowers recommended taking the money out of the Parks Grounds and Maintenance account. Councilman Farmer motioned, seconded by Councilman Dover, to pay for the transformer. All voted aye.
Councilwoman Williams asked that during the year, the Finance committee keep addressing the projects they’ve already agreed to discuss and look into. Discussion was held regarding the different projects.
Discussion was held regarding the resumes received for the Internal Auditor position. Chairman Perrin noted that the City Council as a whole may want to meet to discuss the position because the position will be reporting to the Council.
PENDING Presentation regarding insurance: Chairman Perrin stated he would like someone to make a presentation to the committee concerning insurance. He noted the person would not bid if the City decided to go to self-insured, but the person is knowledgeable about the subject and would present the committee with the pros and cons of self-insurance. It was agreed the person could be at the next meeting to present more information to the committee.
An ordinance moving five part-time Street workers and six part-time Sanitation workers to full-time status was presented. Councilman Street motioned, seconded by Councilman Dover, to place the item on the agenda for the Council’s February 21st meeting. All voted aye.
The committee was also asked to accept the bid from Barloworld for two knuckle-boom trucks. Councilman Dover motioned, seconded by Councilman Street, to place the resolution on the agenda for the February 21st Council meeting. All voted aye.
Chairman Perrin discussed items being presented ahead of time to the committee so they would have time to review the items before voting on them.
Discussion was also held regarding whether certain items need to be presented to the Council or not. It was suggested that bids and contracts should be approved by resolution and multi-year payments should be approved by the full Council.
ADJOURNMENT
With no further business, Councilman Street motioned, seconded by Councilman Dover, to adjourn. All voted aye.