Loading...
2012 09 06 CC Minutes, SpecialMINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN September 06, 2012 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in a Special Meeting on Thursday, September 06, 2012, at 5:00 P.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Brandon Capetillo Robert Hoskins David McCartney Mercedes Renteria Terry Sain Scott Sheley Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Council Member Stephen H. DonCarlos Mayor Robert D. Leiper Ron Bottoms Kevin Troller Ignacio Ramirez Leticia Brysch Keith Dougherty City Manager Deputy City Manager Assistant City Manager City Attorney City Clerk Sergeant at Arms Mayor DonCarlos convened the September 06, 2012, City Council Special Meeting with a quorum present at 5:00 P.M., all members were present. 1. REPORTS a. Receive the Certificate of Unopposed Status for the Office of Mayor - City Clerk. City Manager Bob Leiper introduced the item and stated that this item allowed the Mayor and Council to receive the Certificate of Unopposed Status for the Office of Mayor from the City Clerk, Leticia Brysch. While City Clerk Brysch presented the certificate of unopposed status for the position of mayor for the City of Baytown, City Manager Leiper stated that, the City Council called a municipal election for November 06, 2012, in order to elect a person to the Office of Mayor for the City of Baytown. He further stated that the filing deadline for a place on ballot for such election was August 17, 2012 and that the filing deadline for a declaration of write -in candidacy was August 24, 2012. He stated that both dates had passed with Mr. Stephen H. DonCarlos being the only candidate to file for a place on the ballot. City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 2 of 8 Under state law the City Clerk is required to certify in writing that the candidate Mr. Stephen DonCarlos is unopposed to the position of Mayor for the City of Baytown. Mayor DonCarlos announced that the certification was considered received. 2. PROPOSED ORDINANCES a. Consider Declaring the Unopposed Mayoral Candidate Elected to Office and Canceling the Associated Municipal Election - City Clerk. City Manager Leiper presented the agenda item and stated that Ordinance No. 12,019, declares the unopposed candidate Stephen H. DonCarlos elected to the Office of Mayor of the City of Baytown and cancels the municipal election to be held on November 06, 2012. He further stated that City Clerk in the prior item had certified to the City Council the unopposed status of Mr. DonCarlos and delivered a certification to the City Council. Thus, in accordance with Section 2.053 of the Texas Election Code, the City Council, upon receipt of such a certification, may by ordinance declare the unopposed candidate elected to office. A certificate of election will be issued at the time at which the certification would have been issued if the candidate was elected an election held on November 6th. Even though the municipal election concerning the Office of Mayor will not be held, the Special Election concerning the 19 propositions regarding amendments to the City Charter will be held on November 06, 2012. The City's ballot after the propositions will include a heading entitled "Unopposed Candidates Declared Elected" under which the Office of Mayor and Stephen H. Don Carlos's name will appear. However, no votes will be cast for the Office of Mayor. Mayor DonCarlos stated that this was the first time in six years that he had run unopposed and thanked the citizens of Baytown for their continued support and confidence. A motion was made by Council Member David McCartney, and seconded by Council Member Mercedes Renteria III, approving Ordinance No. 12,019. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Council Member Brandon Capetillo, Council Member David McCartney, Council Member Mercedes Renteria III, Council Member Terry Sain, Council Member Scott Sheley, Council Member Robert C. Hoskins and Mayor Stephen DonCarlos Nays: None Other: None Approved City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 3 of 8 ORDINANCE NO. 12,019 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, DECLARING THE UNOPPOSED CANDIDATE STEPHEN H. DONCARLOS ELECTED TO THE OFFICE OF MAYOR OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN AND CANCELING THE ASSOCIATED MUNICIPAL ELECTION PREVIOUSLY ORDERED TO BE HELD ON THE 6TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2012, FOR THE PURPOSE OF ELECTING THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN; ORDERING THE CITY CLERK TO INCLUDE IN THE BALLOT FOR THE CITY'S SPECIAL ELECTION TO BE HELD ON THE 6TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2012, A HEADING ENTITLED "UNOPPOSED CANDIDATES DECLARED ELECTED" UNDER WHICH THE OFFICE OF MAYOR AND STEPHEN H. DONCARLOS'S NAME SHALL APPEAR; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. b. Consider Adopting City of Baytown Municipal Budget, Fiscal Year 2012- 2013 - Finance. City Manager Leiper presented the agenda item and stated that Ordinance No. 12,020 adopts the 2012 -2013 City of Baytown Municipal Budget totaling $143,143,195, which is a $5,495,929 increase or 4.45% over the 2011 -2012 budget. There are two technical adjustments attached to the item, which were added to the budget at Council's August 9, 2012 budget work session. The items are: 1. The deletion of iPads for Mayor and Council - ($6,000); and 2. The addition of EMS Transitional Costs to Fire Department including additional 4% Salary Increase with Benefits - $212,537. City Manager Leiper noted that the EMS Transitional Costs were changed from what the Fire/EMS Committee presented to Council because the preliminary estimates did not include the proposed 4% raise or benefit costs for the increased salaries of the EMS supervisors, and the amount was adjusted to accommodate those items. He also stated that the revenue estimates are remaining unchanged and the estimated General Fund ending fund balance will represent 79 days of expenditures. City Manager Leiper also stated that pursuant to the Charter, an affirmative vote of a majority of all members of the City Council is required for adoption of the budget. Additionally, Section 46 of the Charter states that the budget shall be finally adopted not later than the twenty- seventh day of the last month of the fiscal year. Should the Council take no final action on or prior to such day, the budget as submitted by the City Manager, shall be deemed to have been finally adopted by the Council. City Manager Leiper further stated that a copy of the proposed budget has been previously provided to the City Council with copies placed in the Sterling Municipal City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 4 of 8 Library, City Clerk's Office, and on the City's website. City Manager Leiper stated that staff recommended approval of the budget as submitted. There were two speakers signed up to speak on Item 2.b. Detective Aaron Crowell, 3200 North Main, Baytown, Texas 77520 stated that he is a detective with the Baytown Police Department and the President of the Baytown Municipal Police Association and has served on this Board for the last six years. He stated that the purpose of this comment period is to express the following information to the Council: • The City of Baytown has over the last couple of years grown due to a number of factors, • Compensation for city employees has been in a holding pattern for a number of years, • With the changing and growing economy, the City is at a place where it can begin to catch up as it relates to compensation, • Baytown Police Association is having ongoing negotiations in meet and confer meetings with the City of Baytown and have to date been unable to reach a mutually agreed upon settlement, Detective Crowell further stated that he asked that the following information be kept in mind when considering the budget as it relates to compensation for police officers: • To consider the definition of "market ", in the past it was agreed that the City would maintain its officers at market value or within 5% of market value, which has morphed into a plus or minus 5 %, and per a study conducted by the Police Associated they believe that they are now up to 14% under market value, • In 2006 compensation study agreed upon by both the City and the Police Association the police officers were about 8% below market value. • It is important to agree on an acceptable definition of market value in order to begin considering raises that will bring the police compensation up accordingly. • The Police Association sees market value as a starting point only, • As the City population grows and the needs of the community expand, it is important that the officers be compensation in a way that will retain the most experienced and quality officers within the police force. Detective Crowell asked that they be compensation appropriately for the commitment and services that the Baytown police officers deliver its citizens. Mr. Mike Beard, 207 Morrell Street, stated that he is both a resident and business owner of Baytown and wanted to specifically address the technical adjustment being added to the budget as it relates to the Fire/EMS merger. Mr. Beard stated that he had sat through public meetings, read the articles and reviewed the memo from the City Manager related to this item and these were the facts according to his opinion: City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 5 of 8 • The City will not spend $250,000, a year but $650,000 a year, and about $250,000 plus in order to maintain that fund for however long it lasts, that is with the assumption that there will be no additional salary adjustments, compensation or benefit changes. • There will be no additional ambulances or equipment added to the EMS Division, • There will be no additional staff added to the EMS Division; there will be some sub staffing done through the Fire Department. • The EMS staff will become civil service if moved to the Fire Department which will ultimately increase the costs to the City through collective bargaining. • By forcing future paramedic hires to be firefighters as well, the City is limiting the pool of applicants for EMS staffing because there will be paramedics that do not want to be firefighters. Mr. Beard further stated that he did not understand how, if the number of ambulances, equipment and staff were not being increased, how this was going to help with the response time issue. He further stated that he did not understand how the City could spend that amount of money and not have an improvement in the quality of service. Mr. Beard urged the Council not to approve the Fire/EMS technical adjustment and stated that by passing the technical adjustment, even if the money is not used for said merger, that there will be an assumption from the public that the Council approves of the merger whether the money is spent or not. Mr. Beard stated that he felt that this item required more attention, more public meetings and input, was needed before moving forward. Lastly, Mr. Beard felt that scheduling a special meeting at 5:00 p.m. was not appropriate since many people get off of work at 5:00 p.m. and do not have enough time to get to the meeting. He recommended giving the public more time by scheduling the meetings at its regular time of 6:30 p.m. Mayor DonCarlos stated that he wanted to comment on both items brought before the Council by the speakers. He stated that in regards to police compensation, he wanted them to know that he felt that Baytown had the best police department and wished the public could see the daily emails that Council receives as it relates to their job performance. It should be the intent and the goal of this City that our police department be the best trained, the best equipped and one of the best compensated departments in the state. However, this needed to be accomplished on a fair basis and with a good and accurate study that all can agree with. Mayor DonCarlos stated that it has been at least 5 years since the City last conducted a salary /market survey and further stated that the current budget includes the monies necessary to complete said study in the upcoming year. Mayor DonCarlos further stated that he felt that it was the intent of the Council to move forward after the study is completed to ensure that the police department is compensated appropriately. Mayor DonCarlos stated that a tentative agreement between the City of Baytown and the Baytown Police Association regarding the collapsing of the pay steps has been reached. This would collapse the steps for pay increases for the police officers that would cost the City more in the long run, but felt was a step in the right direction towards making the City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 6 of 8 officers' pay closer to market. Mayor DonCarlos stated that he wanted to make the Police Department whole as it relates to compensation but wanted to do so in a logical and fiscally responsible manner. Mayor DonCarlos stated in regards to the Fire/EMS merger and technical adjustment that it may ultimately be a good idea to move towards a fire based EMS as there are a number of efficiencies to be had and improvements to be made. He further stated that he does have two issues with the technical adjustment and they are: (1) we are proposing to adopt a deficit budget, which makes him a bit uneasy and (2) taking recurring expenses out of fund balance. Mayor DonCarlos also stated that he wanted to clarify a point in regards to City Manager Leiper's role in the Fire/EMS merger. Mayor DonCarlos stated that this technical adjustment was not in the City Manager's budget and he did not advocate doing this item in this year's budget. He .further stated that this initiative was pushed forward by Council and while he believes that majority of Council wants to move forward with this technical adjustment, he did not see the urgency of this adjustment and would not vote in favor of it. Council Member Hoskins asked if there was any other time within the year that this $250,000 adjustment could be added to the budget. City Manager Leiper said that once the budget is approved the adjustment could not be added to the budget, he said it could be added to the budget now as a contingency, which would earmark the monies without having to use them. City Manager Leiper stated that there are two definitive steps that need to happen before the City could move forward with the merger, the first is the amending the collective bargaining agreement with the Fire Department for an evergreen amendment and the second is for the Council to take action and permanently change the organization chart for the City to move the EMS Division to the Fire Department. City Manager Leiper further stated that the reason that the adjustment could not be added later on in the year was because under state law, monies could be moved within a department, but we cannot change the budget unless there is a calamity. City Manager Leiper stated that the last time the City changed its budget after adoption was after Hurricane Ike, which was a declared emergency. Council Member Hoskins asked if this technical adjustment had to happen this year, even if the Council decided to move forward with the Fire/EMS merger. City Manager Leiper stated that it did not have to happen this year, and that this was put in this year's budget at the request of the Council, so it was Council's decision when they want to add this money. Council Member Renteria stated that the Fire/EMS merger is something that Council has been working on this for a long time and that the adjustment was added to the proposed budget at Council's request. City Manager Leiper stated that this is something that has been talked about since the 1990's when the City contracted with a private EMS company and found itself without an ambulance service in the middle of the night. City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 7 of 8 Council Member Capetillo asked the City Manager if the amount of the budget adjustment was for the complete 12 months of the year. City Manager Leiper stated that the amount in the technical adjustment did encompass twelve months' worth of salaries. Council Member Capetillo stated that this number could be reduced, depending on when the merger actually took place. City Manager Leiper stated that staff did the best they could to estimate the cost of training for EMS staff, but that the numbers are very conservative. Council Member Capetillo asked if this number was vetted through EMS, Legal, Fire and all the related stakeholders. City Manager Leiper stated that last year, Council directed the staff to put a committee together with members from EMS, Fire, HR, City Management, Health, Finance, Firefighter Association and Paramedics Association to study the merger as well as the associated costs. City Manager Leiper asked to speak in regards to the Police Association's concerns regarding their compensation. He stated that he was in agreement with what was said this evening and that the City has had very productive meet and confer meetings with the Police Association. He further stated that they have been working on collapsing the step plan, which in years passed were 18 steps, and were turned into 13 a few years ago and under the tentative agreement would move to 10. City Manager Leiper also stated that the Police Association has asked for the 10 step plan for at least 10 years now, and while he did not know why it had not been changed, he had included in his current budget the monies necessary to implement the 10 step program, which he believes is a very sound compensation process that will get them closer to market. City Manager Leiper stated that it is his goal to get the police officers to market value; however, he could not put that into a contract now that will impact next year's budget because he does not know what the economy is going to do next year. He further stated for the record that his proposed budget includes a 4% across the board salary increase to advance all city employees towards market, and next year's budget will not have equal raises as different positions will be brought to market value depending on the study. Furthermore, City Manager Leiper felt that once all employees are brought up to market, then the Council can decide if that is where it wants to be or if it wants to do more by 5 %, 10 %, etc. with those positions that are hard to hire and/or retain. City Manager Leiper also stated that another thing that has been talked about is certification pay, he felt that if agreed through the meet and confer, and within this budget, we can get all of the police existing certifications to what is called the draft market to 4% to 10% over market. If through the meet and confer process, the cities can be agreed on, the pay will then be adjusted and brought to the Council in next year's budget. City Manager Leiper stated that this year's budget is a stretch and he knows that he did not make the Police Association happy when he would not budge from the 4% raise, but he felt he had scraped every penny together to do a 4% raise across the board and add 17 public safety positions. City Manager Leiper stated that this budget represents a great City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 06, 2012 Page 8 of 8 stride in compressing the police steps and allow for a good basic structure, which is a good starting point for next year. Council Member Capetillo stated that he felt the presented budget was very good and gave good support to the Police, Fire and EMS. He further stated that Council and staff were in support of getting everyone where they want to be as it relates to compensation and hoped that the lines of communication remained open and fair. A motion was made by Council Member Scott Sheley, and seconded by Council Member David McCartney approving Ordinance No. 12,020. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Council Member Brandon Capetillo, Council Member David McCartney, Council Member Mercedes Renteria III, Council Member Terry Sain, and Council Member Scott Sheley, Nays: Council Member Robert C. Hoskins and Mayor Stephen DonCarlos Other: None Approved ORDINANCE NO. 12,020 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, ADOPTING A BUDGET FOR THE ENSUING FISCAL YEAR, BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2012, AND ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2013, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CHARTER AND ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN; AND PROVIDING FOR THE PUBLICATION AND EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. 3. MANAGER'S REPORT City Manager Leiper stated that there will be an observance of the September 11`h victims on Monday, September 11`h, at 8:45 a.m. LINEF 171f111194 With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor DonCarlos adjourned the September 06, 2012, City Council Special Meeting at 5:36 P.M.