MANAGER’S  REPORT
For Council Meeting
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 

TO:  The Honorable Mayor Walter Ash Jr.
         and Members of Belfast City Council
FROM: Joseph J. Slocum, City Manager
DATE:  Friday, May 30, 2008 

Non-Agenda Item: 

I hope everyone will accept my sincere thanks for all of their special effort, cooperation, time, patience, consideration, respectful disagreement and thoughtfulness over the preparation, and review of the 2008-2009 FY budget. This thanks extends to the department heads and their staffs, our commissions, boards and committees and our citizens themselves who actively made suggestions and provided perspective. Everyone suffered some loss of my time and attention on other important City matters during this process and I do regret that. I personally have learned a great deal from this experience and all of that knowledge and perspective will serve me well in the days ahead.  

I particularly want to thank the Council for its scrutiny, its questions and suggestions on how the City might better be served in the years ahead. The budget somewhat defines us. It highlights our diversity and brings each of us closer to common ground.  Not everyone agreed on every issue and that is just what we should all expect. What Belfast should be proud of was that the debate was respectful, well thought out and that significant consideration was extended for small issues as well as the bigger ones. I firmly believe that the clarity generated through this open and straight forward discussion has produced an environment for compromise, given voice to broadly represented constituencies and provided the good overall policies, and directions which enable each of us to do better for this great City. 

The budget process is not over yet. We turn now to public hearing and hope the community itself supports this proposal. It is a unified statement that represents a collection of conclusions on hundreds of issues.   

Next year I will push to do preliminary budget work in January and February so that I can focus more time on construction and spring clean up and repair in April and May. Final budget work will still occur in May but it will be mostly fine tuning what we concluded in January and February.

Agenda 

11.B  Discussion and Action on Committee Appointments: Harbor Advisory, Library Board of Trustees and Pedestrian, Biking and Hiking Committee.  Candidate statements are before you for consideration. We applaud their willingness to participate and to serve. 

11.C  Discussion and Action on Recommendation from the Parks Commission to accept a metal sculpture and place it at the entrance to the Footbridge. The Parks Commission, at the Councils recommendation, drafted standards for consideration of acceptances of gifts to be displayed on public property.  The Council adopted that process and the Commission has met and reviewed this gift against those standards and is now recommending that the Council accept this gift and locate this sculpture with a plaque at the Footbridge. I believe Commission representatives will be at the meeting to answer your questions and the City Clerk has made copies of photos of this sculpture for your consideration.  (Green) 

11.D  Request from Farmers Market to relocate their sign to City Property and to place a portable toilet at their expense at the Front Street Parking Lot.  I am concerned about the maintenance and management of this portable toilet and I will be anxious to hear how the Farmers’ Market people at the meeting will do this.   (White) 

11.E  Acceptance of a CDBG Housing Improvement Grant in the amount of $150,000.  City Planner and Development Director Wayne Marshall will provide comment and guidance on this matter, which supports Group Home Foundations effort to construct new housing for a needy part of our community.  (Goldenrod) 

11.F  Consideration of a new MDOT grant application to support construction of the Coastal Walkway.  City Planner and Development Director Wayne Marshall will address this grant application with you. This is a new and separate opportunity to pursue grants funds to help the City pay for the Coastal Walkway.  (Salmon) 

11.G  Consideration of Ambulance Department request to authorize spending fro the Ambulance Capital Reserve account in the amount of $44,527.04 to pay for two Life Pak Heart Defibrillators for our ambulances. Chief James Richards has a request to replace our two, 12-year old defibrillators. We should absolutely do this, as the equipment is outdated. We want the same equipment that the hospital has so that the data can easily transfer and be available to help the sick. There is only one real seller for this equipment and we did make an effort to secure comparable quotes. I recommend we draw down the Capital Reserve set aside for expensive equipment replacement like this.  (Pink) 

11.H  Discussion and Action on Modifications to Capital Reserve and Capital Project Accounts.  I am making a request to clean up our Capital Reserve and Capital Project Accounts. I hope to achieve three things in doing so. First, close out projects that are no longer active or needed. Secondly, create a new Sidewalk Replacement Capital Project and transfer some money into it from some of the unneeded or over funded existing Capital Reserves and Capital Projects. This fund will pay to replace sidewalks all around the City but there will be a concentration on our heaviest pedestrian ways in the downtown area. I hope to set up an initial reserve of up to $200,000 from these existing Capital Reserves and Capital Projects. It would be my plan to have the type of walkways decided by the end of October, go out to bid in December or early January, construction to start on April 1st and finish before Memorial Day. The third and final goal here is to move project money that is inactive over to Capital Reserve money where the Council can retain more control over it for the future. Please note that Capital Projects are projects that have been approved and the money can be immediately spent subject to the City’s purchasing requirements. (purchases over $4,000 must go out to bid but lower values can be spent without prior Council approval) Capital Reserves on the other hand can’t be spent without specific Council approval as we saw in the defibrillator replacement request earlier in this agenda.  

Last night I provided each member of Council with a copy of a comprehensive spreadsheet, which identifies all of our Trust Funds, Capital Reserves and Capital Projects. I will attach an extra copy to this report to help you see and understand my recommendations.  (Lilac) 

Here are my proposed changes to our existing Capital Reserve and Capital Project accounts. 

1. Police - move $3,254 from radio equipment and add to Police “General Equipment”. 

Reason: The radio account set up back when Belfast Police did their own dispatch. We no longer have the function so the money can be shifted into a General Equipment Reserve account for the Police Department. 

2. Take $40,660.27 from Parks General Capital Projects account and add it to the existing $56,979.39 presently in the Parks General Maintenance Capital Reserve account. 

Reason:  Parks does not have an active project for this money at this time. Better to put it in the Parks Capital Reserve, which can only be spent upon Council approval for Parks General

Construction, Maintenance, Repair or Replacements. Please note that Capital Projects are projects that have been approved and the money can be immediately spent subject to the City’s purchasing requirements. Matters over $4,000 must go out to bid but lower values can be spent without prior Council approval. 

3. Move $7,195.47 from Cemetery Capital Reserve for Land to the General Cemetery Capital Reserve for Maintenance, which presently has a balance of $22,499.99. 

Reason: The Cemetery has absolutely no plans to acquire any more land. We don’t need a reserve for this. It is better a general reserve for the department that is only spendable upon prior approval from the Council. 

4. Shift $17,930.74 from the Planning Department Capital Project reserve to a Planning Department Capital Reserve Account under expenses. 

Reason- The Planning Department does not have an active application for a Septic Replacement. This money should be held in a reserve and only be released by Council approval when needed.  

5. Shift the $20,000 Capital Project for land acquisition in the Planning Department to a Planning Department Capital Reserve for land expense. 

Reason; There is presently no active plan to buy property for additional Parking downtown or for property anywhere. Better to keep this money in a Capital Reserve where it can’t be used without prior Council approval.    

6. Move $106,743 from the existing Capital Project for Landfill Engineering fees- in the present amount of $156,743- and put that money into a new Capital Project for Sidewalk Replacement through out the City. This is really two steps. First I ask that you create a Sidewalk Replacement Capital Project account. Secondly I ask that you transfer $106,743 from the existing Capital Project for Landfill Engineering into this new account.  

Reason: The City neither has nor plans to hire engineers for the landfill. If we needed some engineering advice this is not anticipated to cost the remaining balance of $50,000. 

7.  Move $40,000 from the remaining Landfill Engineering Capital Project Account and put it in a Capital Reserve for Landfill Engineering.  

Reason: We will not need this kind of money for engineers for some time. Better to make sure it is not spent and placed where only Council can release it. Also something should no longer be classified as a project as it implies that it is ongoing or in imminent commencement. This is not the case here. The remaining $10,000 can stay in this Project Account and we can see whether it is needed over the next several years.  

8. Move $51,348.28 from the existing Landfill Closing Capital Project account and add that to the newly created Sidewalk Replacement. 

Reason: The Landfill Closure project is complete. Presently all we do is monitor and we do not need this amount of money to do that monitoring. 

9. Close out the $15,000 Northport Avenue Bike Lane Capital project and move the money into the new Sidewalk Replacement Capital Project Account. 

Reason: This money was not used when Northport Avenue was redone and the bike lane is in. We do need the money for sidewalks. 

10. Close out the Downtown Capital Reserve Account in the present amount of $27,668.46 and move all of that money into the new Sidewalk Capital Project account. This should bring that Sidewalk Replacement account to $200,757.74 (Please note that I have also proposed to add another $25,000 from the Capital Project Plan in the Proposed 2008-2009 budget which would bring this account to total $225,757.74) 

11. Move the $19,500 for In-Town Storm Water Study from the Capital Project Account and transfer it to a Capital Reserve Service account. 

Reason: We have no present study planned for but we likely will in the future. We should keep this money in a Capital Reserve under the Council’s control until we do. 

12. Move $10,000 from the $545,030 Sewer Capital reserve Maintenance Account to fund a Sewer Project that is updating our CSO obligations to the State, which will ask for an ability to retire some of our sewer debt before we are required to expend significant new sums to update our sewer lines.  

Reason: These updated studies and report are required to be done every five to seven years and Council will be fully apprised of our findings, arguments to the State and the outcome of the State’s decision on whether we can defer additional reconstruction for a while and avoid unwanted rate increases to fund this work. We operate under state supervision and requirements. Much of the expensive sewer work that was done over the last seven years was not optional. We hope to convince the State to give the City a breather before we pile on more debt based upon our commendable enhancements in recent years and reconsideration of some of the more stringent State interpretations on how to measure peak volumes that can create overflows.  

We can discuss these in further detail at the meeting. 

11.I  Discussion and Action of City Manager’s Recommendation to merge the Parks Department into the Public Works Department.  This is a multi step process that must first start with a policy decision on whether the Council agrees with my recommendation. If so we can then pursue amendments to Charter, Job Descriptions etc. 

My reasons have not changed since I outlined them for you in my budget message. I repeat them for your convenience here: 

“I am recommending the immediate consolidation of the Public Works and Parks and Recreation Department”.  If you agree then we will merge these budgets. This will also involve a recommended change to the City Code, which, after we hired a Parks Director five years ago, should have been amended to transfer the “Superintendence” of the Parks back to City departments. There is no question that this will both save the city money and strengthen our ability to deliver quality parks facilities and quality recreational programs. While I do propose to change the Parks Department Director’s title and job description to reflect that he would now be reporting to the Public Works Director, I do not propose any impact on his salary or in his general daily routine between March 15^th and October 15th. He would continue in all respects to be the lead contact with the Parks Commission, the Friends of the Parks, YMCA, and Little League, etc. He will also continue to manage the maintenance of lawn mowing and care of park facilities and act as the Supervisor of the grounds maintenance crew who will all be employees of the Public Works Department. 

Why? 

a.       To provide immediate, year round back up to support the Parks and their programs, should for any reason the lone Park Department employee is unavailable- complete back up that we do not have today.

b.      To remove department barriers and mission barriers so that we can do unified planning and scheduling of the combined resource, which will only help the Parks and their programs by committing large targeted resources to the joint mission– 1 mission-- no tugging in different directions. 

c.       To offer the Public Works Department some additional support during the busiest season of winter from the Parks Director during the Parks programs least busy season. This may also involve providing some assistance to other departments during the 5-6 month non-summer season. 

d.      Sharing equipment, eliminating unnecessary equipment, sharing mechanical services and storage facilities. 

e.       To enhance communication and coordination. 

f.        To maximize the use of existing resources (staff and equipment) for the City. 

g.       To save money. About 90% of our current $45,000 park maintenance account is for outside expensive labor. It will take years worth of experience to quantify the exact savings – and we will track it and report it back to you.” 

Since that time I have met with the Parks Commission and had numerous conversations with both Jim Bell and Bob Richards. I have assured everyone that there will be no mixing of funds or loss of program strength. This will only work if the Council of the City of Belfast supports it. If you don’t give it strong support then you are going to make it harder to accomplish. I understand that some Parks Commission Members still have concerns and only time and experience will help verify them one way or the other. If the Council is on board then we should all be on board. I firmly believe that I can effectively manage our employees who are responsible for our Park Facilities and Programs and that this is the best way to do that. The Commission and all of its zeal, effort and ideas will not be shut out. They will continue to be an integral part of our recreational strategy much the same way as our Harbor, Airport, Energy and Climate, Pedestrian Hiking and Biking groups enhance and support those respective City efforts.  

 That’s all I have at this time. 

Thanks and have a great weekend.