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MANAGER’S REPORT TO: MAYOR &
HONORABLE MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL Agenda items: 11.B First Reading of proposed amendments to the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 80, In-Town Commercial Design Review, which would result in some building improvements in a limited section of the Downtown Area being subject to mandatory compliance with determinations of the Design Review Committee. Presently the role of the Design Review Committee in Belfast is limited to providing “recommendations” to a property owner who seeks to make significant improvements to their building in certain limited sections of the City. This proposed amendment to the Zoning Ordinance would change that role from “recommendations” to one of required mandatory compliance with the determinations of the Design Review Committee for a limited area of the Down Town. Wayne Marshall is drafting the language that would accomplish these changes for everyone’s consideration. Wee have been busy- very bust and he needs additional time to have the language ready for first reading. He has a note to you on this which is attached. (Cherry) 11.C First Reading of proposed amendments to the City Code of Ordinances, Chapter 98 (Zoning), Technical Standards amendments mostly address proposed revisions to the current parking requirements. Presently there is no flexibility afforded to the Planning Board on parking requirements. This amendment provides the Planning Board with the flexibility to consider less drastic parking requirements where they would seem excessive and onerous depending on the circumstances of the proposed development. City Planner Wayne Marshall has an attachment for your consideration. (Lilac). We will need additional time to draft these as well so there will not be a need for first reading but we will have some discussion on the issue nonetheless. 11.D First reading on proposed amendments to the Code of Ordinances, Chapter 30 Marine Activities. These are amendments proposed by the Harbor Committee and the Harbor Master. The text is attached. (Blue) 11.E Discussion and possible action on filling vacancies in the Police and the Public Works Department. The present budget was adopted last summer and it continues to fund positions in each of these departments, which have become vacant since Christmas. Even though I have full authority to fill these vacancies, I am asking for your support in doing so. I certainly do not want to fill these vacancies if there is a likelihood that these positions would not be filled in the next budget year, which starts July 1, 2008. I want to fill them now because we need them now and I anticipate that we will need these positions indefinitely. The Council has expressed a sincere interest in greater clarity of the budget process itself as well as an increased understanding of the City’s financial standing and needs. I went back and looked at City staffing levels for all departments since July 1, 1997- more than 10 years ago and I attach a report on our staffing levels for your consideration. Essentially- City wide- there is 8 more positions today than there were on July 1, 1997. (Buff) Those new ones are as follows: Library- 2.5
positions added between 2000 and 2002 Total: 11 positionsWe also eliminated some positions: Assistant City
Manager – 1- 2003 Total: 3 positionsNet gain in positions over last 10 years is 8 positions. Why fill the vacant Police Position?
-we have had 12 police officers providing 7 day 24 hour coverage for Belfast
since 1990. Why fill the two vacant positions in Public Works? - One has been steadily filled with a temporary person all winter to keep up with the demand - The other is a recent vacancy and we are working more overtime to get the snow removal done right now as well as having the Department Head and the Foreman driving trucks. If we continue with this we may have to pay those salaried positions with overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. (Federal Wage Law) - As great as our crew has done this year there has been no shortage for calls for additional clean up and removal coverage - Remember that we do over 70 miles of roads, parking lots, the airport and its runways, all municipal facilities, sidewalks and storm drains by both machine and by hand, snow hauling and removal from the Downtown area I am also attaching to this Staffing Level Summary a functional summary from each Department for your further consideration. This is intended to give you an idea of the general things these positions actually address. What will it mean if we do not fill these positions? With the Police we will have to decide when during the week we will not have the capacity for two police officers to respond to a serious emergency situation. With Public Works we will stop trying to clean up around parked cars and in special areas Downtown during a storm and the removal of snow from the Downtown Area will be impacted in both efficiency and effectiveness. Next winter we would have to stop cleaning City sidewalks all together. All of the annual seasonal work outlined in the attachments will take longer and likely lead to some of it not getting done all together. For example: Spring clean ups and fall leaf clean ups – which take weeks-are only critical to our storm drainage. It would be a policy decision if we want to shift that work back to our property owners. As I read this over I see that some of it sounds like “government speak” or “political yap”. I can’t write everything I have learned or convey every impression I have received on expectations. I don’t think we can eliminate these positions without realistically expecting cut backs in services. Services do cost money- the real question is whether our citizens are willing to reduce their expectations? At this point on these issues with these positions I don’t see that they are. If you would like more information please let me know. The Police Chief and the Public Works Director will be at the meeting. Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful consideration. 11. F Discussion and possible consideration of Grounds Keeping and Maintenance Bid Opening. Last summer’s experience told us that it was unlikely that this summer would be the same. We had an outside mowing contractor who also cleaned our bathrooms at City Park and at the Waterfront. We had concerns on the quality of the service but not the price. We knew that if we wanted improved quality, that it would very likely cost us more. We prepared bid specifications, met with potential bidders and we have received quotes. I spoke with Jim Bell, Parks and Recreation Director and he felt that the bids were high. Last year we spent about $22,500 having our lawns mowed and our bathrooms cleaned. I am attaching the bids we received on Thursday, March 13th. We broke the lawn mowing down to two service areas- the first included the major areas such as City Park, Steamboat Landing and Belfast Common. The other service area is a list of smaller areas all over the City. The bids show that if we want the same work done as last year on the lawns and in the bathrooms with improved quality- then the price ranges from $63,100 to $142,828. Given this large proposed increase I am not prepared to recommend an award and I want to look at other options. I ask that you accept the bids but refrain from making any award at this time. (Green) 11.G Discussion and action on the formal creation of the following committees. We have discussed the creation of two committees to address somewhat related pedestrian and bicycling enhancements for the City. I ask that we now formally create the following committee’s: Safe Routes Committee: 5 Members Responsibility and Duties. To work in an advisory capacity with the City Manager and the City Council to identify and implement safety improvements for key safe school routes through out the City. I note that we fully anticipated that this committee would work with the City to specifically implement a State Grant Award to improve the pedestrian safety at the intersection of Route One and Lincolnville Avenue. Pedestrian, Biking and Hiking Committee: 5 Members Responsibilities and Duties; to research, propose, recommend and advise the City on the preservation and enhancement of walking, bicycling and hiking opportunities through out Belfast. It is specifically anticipated that this committee will look for ways to connect these pedestrian and non-motorized opportunities through out the City and will include, but not be limited to, making recommendations on the development of a long term sidewalk improvement plan for the City. I may offer some minor changes to these descriptions at the meeting and would certainly welcome your suggestions as well. 11.H Discussion and action on a boundary line agreement with Mathews Brothers regarding the city parking lot on Cross Street. Approval a boundary line agreement is simply a record of an agreement as to the exact location of the boundary line. It helps each property owner to clearly understand what they control and what they do not. Years ago the City received a portion of land from Mathews Brothers for our parking lot but it was not surveyed. Today it is and both myself and the City Assessor have inspected the boundary line and we are comfortable signing the attached agreement. Mathews Brothers bore the entire cost of the survey, the stakes and the drafting of this agreement and I thank them for helping us maintain good records on City property. I recommend your approval of this boundary line agreement. (Gray) 11.I Discussion and action on hiring a part-time temporary position to assist with updating assessing records and valuations. You may recall that the City had a revaluation done about four years ago. The City Assessor and staff did this work themselves even though it is a common practice to hire outside consultants to do the work largely due to the volume of the work involved. It is a time consuming laborious task. There are no casual percentage adjustments made. Various sections of the City are independently reviewed for market sale histories, which help define underlying area lot values, which are then adjusted for size, type and quality of construction. Every property in the City is independently reviewed and valued. While that is a somewhat oversimplified explanation it is indeed a ton of work. When a City takes on that much work in a limited period of time- normal updates to our records along with the valuations adjustments that may go with them fall behind. With the same level of staff for years it is difficult to catch up. What this means is that there may be valuation that should be captured out there and added to the valuation but it is backlogged a bit and I would really recommend that we get it caught up. An outside revaluation would cost well into six figures. Presently I would like to hire a temporary person to assist us in getting all of our valuations current for this next fiscal cycle. We attach additional information explaining this proposal. (Salmon) Have a nice weekend. |
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