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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-23-1996 Meeting I I I ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ROOM - September 23, 1996 3:00 P. M. PRESENT: Hons. Larry E. Sconyers, Mayor; Beard, Chairman; Bridges, Vice-Chairman; H. Brigham and Powell, members; George Patty, Housing & Neighborhood Development Interim Director; Keven Mack of the Housing & Neighborhood Development Department; Moses McCauley and Gayle Scott of the Human Resources Department; Jim Wall, Attorney; A. B. McKie, Interim Comptroller; Kip Plowman, Interim Internal Auditor; Charles Dillard, Interim Administrator for Operations; Linda Beazley, Interim Administrator for Administration; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission-Council and Nancy Morawski, Deputy Clerk of Commission-Council. Also Present: George Eskola of WJBF Television and Sylvia Cooper of the Augusta Chronicle. At this time Mr. Richard L. Colclough made a presentation to the Committee regarding a proposal to provide quality services to the homeless population of Augusta-Richmond County. Mr. Colclough: I'm here representing the task force for the homeless and we'd like to provide ~ome services for them in terms of a basic living skills program where we could provide a place for them to sleep and eat and also get some training and services. Many of these people suffer from mental illness and just wander the streets. We have found a project called the Pathways Project which is partially funded by the federal government. We could provide some type of psychotherapy and rehabilitation skills or job training. It is a time-limited program for 18 months to two years and hopefully they would receive some job skills where they could become productive citizens. These are both local and transient homeless people. Mr. Chairman: It sounds like a very good program and I think we would support you in any way possible. If we could work with the state, perhaps we could make some headway in this area. After further discussion, Mr. Chairman: I'm going to ask the Committee to receive this as information and that you work with Community Development, present a proposal to them and let them review it and see how much funding they might could come up with. Mr. Powell: I so move. Mr. Brigham: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. Communication from Keven Mack stating the Commission- Council approved the Economic Development Loan Fund Policies and Procedures Manual at its meeting on September 16, 1996. We appreciate the vote of confidence in the Policies and Procedures Manual and will work with every effort to ensure its adherence. Please be advised that within the policies under the Loan Administration Organization section, loan applications will be submitted as needed to a five person Loan Review Committee. Four are to be drawn from the banking community and one from the business community. Several bankers assisted us in the development of these policies and expressed a desire to serve on the review panel. They are as follows: James C. Hines, Gordon Earwood, Willis V. Lanier, Pat Blanchard and Dee Crawford. If you have no objections, I would ,like for the above names to be considered as the initial review panel. If you have a problem with any of the above, you may substitute, keeping in mind that the maximum number as specified in the policies is five, was read. Mr. Chairman: Would you like to make any substitutions? Mr. Brigham: I would ask that you consider the name of Mr. Charles Smith. Mr. Mack: We could delete a name on the list and add Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman: Could we just strike the last name of Mr. Blanchard and substitute Mr. Smith? Mr. Brigham: I move that we add Mr. Smith to the list. Mr. Bridges: Second. Motion adopted with Mr. Powell voting "Present". Communication from the Clerk of Commission-Council requesting authorization to fill the position of Secretary/ Clerk with a salary grade of 110 in the Clerk of Commission- Council's Office. This vacancy was created due to the transfer of Ms. Martha King to the Administrator's Office. This is an authorized position in the Clerk of Commission-Council's Office, was read. The Clerk: On September 9 I made a request of Ms. Beazley to advertise this position of Secretary/Clerk. That came about because of a memo I received from Mr. Etheridge about that particular position. I'm asking that I be allowed to fill that position with a working body to be given work assignments to do the job in the Clerk's Office. Mr. Chairman: So this is not a new position. It is filling a vacant position because of the transfer. The Clerk: Yes and because of Mr. Etheridge's ruling there. I I I I I I Mr. Bridges: So Mrs. Watson was transferred from where to the Mayor's Office? The Clerk: She was in the Administrator's Office and Mrs. King was part of the Clerk's Office and when the initial transfer took place, I was told it was just essentially going to be a lateral move, that there would be no changes in duties and responsibilities. It would be essentially a change of personnel. Mr. Bridges: That's not the case. The Clerk: I don't know what prompted Mr. Etheridge to send me that memo. It was totally unsolicitied from me but in light of that, I said that I needed a person to do the duties that Mrs. King was doing. Mr. Chairman: With the amount of work that you have, you are going to need some help so I think we need to do it. Mr. Todd: When we talked with Mr. Bill Carstarphen some time back, he let us know in the Mayor's Office that they were going to need some help as far as typing and clerical for the transition project manager. I could see where the Mayor would possibly need some additional help there too in working between the two. I think we have to realize that we put a tremendous amount of work load on the Commission-Council's Office as far as keeping up with itineraries and doing limited things for the ten Commissioners and if it is going to function and function the way that we would like for it to, I see that we need to do something about that slot or position. I know that Mrs. Beazley was already short in the Administrator's Office and that's the reason we just didn't do a transfer out of that office, that we transferred laterally two individuals, and Mrs. King is doing a good job down on the other end of the hall. I would hope there is somebody in County government that we could transfer in and certainly we should go ahead and authorize this person. Mr. Mayor: Mr. Carstarphen is in the process of reviewing the Clerk and deleting the Purchasing from the Clerk and has he talked to you about that? The Clerk: No. Mr. Mayor: Why don't we wait until he gets through with his evaluation of that and then see whether we can transfer somebody in to help Mrs. Bonner from within staff versus bringing somebody in from outside because we're all getting chastised right now about bringing extra hires on and we don't need to hire anybody if we can do it from within. The Clerk: With all due respect to you, Mr. Mayor, I understand that but that has really no bearing on this. I have a particular job that needs filling down there. I need the help; I need the work done. And I can't continually ask Mrs. Morawski to take work home. I stay in late in the afternoon, work on Saturday simply because a position, under whatever guise it was taken away from me, was done. That's the only thing I'm asking. We still have the Purchasing function from the urban side on this particular department. When we talked about the transfers, it was told to me it was lateral transfer with no duties or responsibilities to change. That's an authorized position in the Clerk's Office. I don't mind that it comes from within, I don't have a problem with that. I just want a person there that I can give work assignments to who will be accountable to me, when they come in, when they leave and when they do the work assignments. That's all I need. I Mr. Mayor: You said you're still doing Purchasing. I thought all of Purchasing - The Clerk: January 1. I'm tremendous work No, sir. I have been doing Purchasing from still doing Urban Purchasing along with a load from the County Commission. Mr. Powell: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that we authorize Mrs. Bonner to go ahead and hire some help and that we order the Project Manager to proceed on taking the Purchasing away from that department. Mr. Bridges: I'll second. I Motion adopted unanimously. Mrs. Beazley: May I make just one comment after the fact? Mr. Chairman: Yes. Mrs. Beazley: It will be an addition to the budget because all of those positions were filled. There is not - even though I know she feels that she doesn't have a slot there, it is not a slot anywhere because all of the slots are filled. The lady that went from the Administrator's Office is still on my budget; Martha King is still on their budget. There is not a vacant slot. Mr. Powell: Wasn't the Project Manager to be paid out of the transition funds and also his secretarial staff? The Clerk: Yes. Mr. Powell: Why hadn't that been done? The Clerk: Let me just say this. When the Transition Task Force Manager came on board, it was decided by the Transition Task Force, and Mr. Dillard could attest to this, that they did not want to hire a full-time person for the Transition Project Manager because they didn't feel like he I I I I needed a full-time person. Mr. Dillard asked me if it would be okay with me to allow Mrs. King, who was part of my staff at that time, to take on part of the responsibilities for the Project Manager. Is that not correct, Mr. Dillard? Mr. Dillard: That is correct. The Clerk: Thereby not having to hire an extra person. Mr. Powell: We definitely need the help, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman: Let's move on. We have an addendum? The Clerk: Yes, to discuss the Internal Auditor's position. Mr. Powell: I move we add this to the agenda. Mr. Bridges: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. Mr. Plowman: This is our request to extend our contract so we can really add some more staff and devote some more resources here. The contract ends at the end of the year. It would be the same contract as we had before. It just extends the time for three years with a cancellation that you can cancel each year in October. It has an escallation fee of 5% a year. Mr. Powell: I move that we receive this as information. Mr. Bridges: I'll second. Mr. Chairman: Could you add that the information be passed on to the Commission? Mr. Powell: I'll accept that as an amendment. Mr. Mayor: You may want to ask Mr. Etheridge to come up with information of what it cost us last year to have an internal audit department versus what we are paying now so we'll have something to compare it to and bring it back to the full meeting. Mr. Bridges: We said previously that we would use Kip and his firm until the end of the year and then advertise for the position for in-house. Motion adopted unanimously. ADJOURNMENT: was adjourned. There being no further business, the meeting Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission-Council NWM