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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-07-2005 Meeting ;.-.-; . I t _r - - ~~. ......--...,-. ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AGENDA COMMITTEE ROOM - March 7, 2005 I:OOP.M. 1. Adopt Resolution to observe March 28 - April I, 2005 as National Community Development Week. 2. . Discuss educational requirements for Mail Clerk I and allow the Mail Clerk IT to be considered for promotion to Mail Clerk 1. 3. Discuss City of Augusta Reduction in Force Policy. (Referred from March] Commission meeting) 4. Discuss City of Augusta Career Ladder Implementation. (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) 5. Discuss status of Augusta's Comprehensive Personnel Policy Manual. (Referred from March I Commission meeting) 6. Discuss early retirement request of Ms. Maxine Powell under the 1977 Pension Plan. (Referred from March I Commission meeting) 7. Receive revised list from staff for Land Bank Authority properties. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) 8. Discuss the audit of the Laney Walker Development Corporation. (Referred from March I Commission meeting) 9. Authorize Public Works and Engineering to enter into an agreement with The Mercer Group, Inc. to assist in the filling of engineering vacancies in the Public works Department at a cost not to exceed $90,000. 10. Discuss developing a process for the drafting of proposed Ordinances. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) I I I ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ROOM - March 7, 2005 I:OOP.M. PRESENT: Hons. Bob Young, Mayor; Hankerson, Chairman; Grantham, Co- Chairman; Cheek and Mays, members; Fred Russell, Administrator; Warren Smith, HED Department; Brenda Byrd-Pelaez, Human Resources Director; Harry James, Staff Attorney; Teresa Smith, Public Works Director; Max Hicks, Utilities Dept. Director; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. Also Present: Hons. Williams; Beard and Boyles, Commissioners. ADDENDUM AGENDA: ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: 1. Motion to approve contract disbursement for the East Augusta Development Corporation subject to no violations of existing guidelines and in the event that violations are found the Augusta Department of Housing and Economic Development be held responsible. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Receive from AHED an itemized list of accountability of the $500,000 predevelopment grant monies to include where it was spent and who received the grant funding. (Approved in Work Session March 3,2005) Motion to place a freeze on the disbursement of any monies to any new programs; task the Administrator and the Mayor to develop a method to make sure that the CHDOs are not penalized through the holding of funds that are there; that an audit be commissioned for the AHED and that AHED not be allowed to bring any new programs forward until that process is complete. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Motion to deny authorization to revise program design for HOME Program, the establishment of the Augusta Redevelopment Corporation and direct that the most recent revised document(s) be forwarded to the Citizen Advisory Committee for their review and recommendation. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Motion to deny the reprogramming of $60,000.00 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the Economic Development Loan Fund Program to the Business Education Training Program. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Approve Final Version of Year 2005-2009 Consolidated Plan and Year 2005 Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG), HOME Investment Partnerships and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPW A) funds. Adopt Resolution authorizing submission ofyeaf 2005-2009 Consolidated Plan and Year 2005 Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG), HOME Investment Partnerships and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS funds. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. I . :.' 8. Discuss the city's emergency notification policy. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) Presentation from Ms. Virginia Todman regarding the rehabilitation project relative to Lyman and Dover Streets. I 9. Mr. Cheek: I move we add Addendum Item I through 9. Mr. Grantham: Second. Motion adopted unanimously with Mr. Mays out. 8. Discuss the audit of the Laney Walker Development Corporation. (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) Mr. Ken Fields with Cherry, Bekaert & Holland appeared before the committee . regarding the above item. Mr. Fields: The year we are talking about is 2003 concerning the audit. We did not see any sign of fraud in this year or in the previous years of2002 and 2001. The problems they ran into with operations was that the sale of houses on the property they owned would fund the administrative costs of the organization and during 2003 the housing market for those houses just kind of dried up. Because there wasn't money coming in from the sale of houses, there wasn't funding to pay the administrative costs. There were a couple of items regarding grant agreements that they are working to resolve and some of them going back several years have to do with verbal contracts. There were some grant violations that were procedural violations, not violations. of how the money was spent. I Mr. Chairman: Let's just lay this on the table until Mr. Smith gets here. 6. Discuss early retirement request of Ms. Maxine Powell under the 1977 Pension Plan. (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) Mr. Russell: Ms. Powell is not here today. She is under the 1977 Pension Plan and has requested early retirernent. Due to some erroneous information she received several years ago in relation to the amount of years worked, she is not currently eligible for retirement because she does not have a sufficient amount of time in the plan at this point in time. She had asked that we look at this in reference to some type of waiver and it would be my recommendation that we do not waive the requirements. Mr. Chaimlan: I think we should forward this on to legal so that all of the commissioners can look at it and get a clear understanding of what is going on. Mr. Grantham: I make a motion we forward it to legal. I Mr. Cheek: Second. 2 ..,.--.. I Motion adopted unanimously. 10. Discuss developing a process for the drafting of proposed Ordinances. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) Mr. Williams: In our Monday moming meeting that Mr. Russell, the attomey and I have we had discussed the fact that many department heads are calling the attorney and asking him to write ordinances. Our attorney fees are getting out of proportion and I mentioned to the Mayor and Administrator that these issues should be brought to the committee and then we give direction to the attorney to draw up an ordinance rather than everybody calling him to do things. I'm asking that a process be developed that we bring it to the committee rather than any department or agency asking him to draw up an ordinance. We can then direct it to the attomey or one of our staff attorneys to take care of it. Mr. Grantham: Why don't we forward it in the form of a motion that any' request for any ordinances come to the identified committee for approval prior to notifying attomeys to start the process? It would come to the respective committee for approval and then pass through the commission and then be directed to the attorney or our in house attomeys to write the ordinances. I'll put that in the form of a motion. I Mr. Cheek: I'll second it. Mr. Mays: The outside agencies need to bring this through the Administrator's office for any cases they may have. Motion adopted unanimously. (Discussion continues on Item 8) Mr. Grantham: Are they using funding from the plan to pay their administrative costs? Mr. Fields: They had originally planned that for each house they sold, they would retain 25% of the sales proceeds that would fund their administrative costs. By the time they got to 2003 there were only two or three houses that sold during the year and that provided minimal funding for the administrative costs. They had a significant amount of money tied up in the cost of the land and cost of the houses being held for resale and that's over $500,000. Mr. Grantham: Could they use that as collateral? I Mr. Fields: No, they could not. They need some expertise from someone on how the houses can be marketed. " ~ _.- . . tit'. > . Mr. Williams: Would you say that this was a clean audit? I Mr. Fields: There were no indications of fraud. Sometimes there are contingencies out there that can be so substantial that they need to be resolved before we can give an opinion. In this case there were two items. Number one, you have these grant agreements which verbal amendments have been made to by nobody in this room years ago. That issue needs to be resolved. The second thing is when we give a clean opinion, we're talking about an organization being able to continue operating in the fashion that it's been operating. Obviously with Laney Walker Development Corporation having run out of money to fund the administrative expenses, their ability to be able to operate in the fashion they have in the past has to be resolved also. But we didn't see any money being spent incorrectly. One of the errors with the grant funds was that by the end of 2003 when they did not have money to fund their administrative expenses, they did get a line of credit from the bank that funded those costs and which they used to pay salaries. The collateral for that was the federal money that was in the bank and sometime in 2004 that money had to be paid back and that was about $30,000. I think it is reasonable that HND would like to see a 2004 audit before they really get down to resolving this. Mr. Williams: I think in the last meeting they said they had $14,000 and the audit would cost $25,000. Something has got to be done to keep them going. What would the audit cost? Mr. Fields: Our fee for the 2003 audit was $15,500 and that reflects a fairly deep discount. I can't imagine it would cost more than that for 2004. I Mr. Smith: I've had some discussions with HUD over the past several days and they are willing to be flexible. We need to come up with a plan for Laney Walker and I would like to get with them to work on it. Mr. Cheek: Do we have a timetable to do this? Mr. Smith: We will get with them this week and hopefully over the next two or three weeks we will be able to get something accomplished. Mr. Cheek: What were the administrative costs for the year? Mr. Fields: From 2000 through 2003 for those four years the average was about $180,000. Mr. Cheek: The total disbursement is how much? Mr. Fields: About $180,000. Mr. Cheek: How many staff people are we carrying? I 4 -- I Mr. Walter Homsby: There were three initially. Staff has been reduced, but we've been able to keep the doors open. Mr. Cheek: What percentage annually does that represent against the total amount drawn from RED? Mr. Fields: For the last two years of 2002 and 2003 their receipts were roughly a million dollars a year. Mr. Cheek: So we're down to around ten to twelve percent. That's fine. After further discussion, Mr. Smith: We can start the planning for 2005 and 2006 and we can take care of the costs for the audit for 2004. Mr. Chairman: How are you planning to work on getting the houses sold? Rev. Bennings: That will he a part of the discussion with Mr. Smith to develop a marketing strategy. Mr. Chairman: You also need to address the administrative costs as well. I would ask that you forward to us your request for funding for that for a certain amount of time. I Mr. Mayor: Perhaps you could do a financial review instead of a full audit to help save some money. Mr. Mays: Is there eligible funding there to do what they need to do or do we need to look for funding elsewhere? Mr. Smith: We need to develop an administrative plan to work that out, and we will need to research it to determine where the funding will come from. Mr. Mays: I move that we ask Laney Walker to submit a plan to the Commission for approval on Tuesday to move forward with the housing projects and identify appropriate funding. Mr. Cheek: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 1. Adopt Resolution to observe March 28 - April 1, 2005 as National Community Development Week. I Mr. Cheek: I move to approve. Mr. Grantham: Second. 5 ~-~. ~~~~~:.::_... .... ,.: 2. Discuss educational requirements for Mail Clerk I and allow the Mail Clerk II to be considered for promotion to Mail Clerk I. I Motion adopted unanimously. Ms. Pelaez: We are asking if you would waive the educational requirement for the Mail Clerk I position and allow the person to be considered for this position. Mr. Cheek: I'm going to make a motion to approve this in this case. Mr. Chairman: I'm in agreement and I'd like to see some kind oflanguage in here to give the person two or three years to get the GED if they are already working on it. We would also encourage others to improve themselves in their education which would in turn benefit us. Human Resources could also identify some sites where employees can go to in order to improve themselves. Mr. Cheek: So amended. Mr. Grantham: I think some service time should also be involved in this before the advancement is considered. Mr. Chairman: That's good also. I Mr. Grantham: I'll second that. Motion adopted unanimously. 3. Discuss City of Augusta Reduction in Force Policy. (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) Ms. Pelaez outlined some aspects of this policy that are currently in place or are proposed. Mr. Cheek: I move that we receive this as information. Mr. Chairman: I second that. Motion adopted unanimously. 4. Discuss City of Augusta Career Ladder Implementation. (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) Ms. Pelaez: This is tabled due to the budget restraints that we are currently under. Mr. Cheek: Do we have the policies and procedures in place for this? I 6 I I I .' Ms. Pelaez: Yes, they are part of comprehensive salary plan but the funding is not in place. Mr. Cheek: I move we receive this as information. Mr. Mays: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 5. Discuss status of Augusta's Comprehensive Personnel Policy Manual. (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) Ms. Pelaez stated that work has been done on this and Human Resources is continuing to do additional work on it. She noted that an outside law firm had reviewed the manual and made comments on it. She additionally stated that the manual would be completed by early April for review by the committee. Mr. Cheek: I move to receive as information. Mr. Mays: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 7. Receive revised list from staff for Land Bank Authority properties. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) (Referred from March 1 Commission meeting) Mr. Williams: Staff gave me a list of the properties that the Land Bank had and I'm interested in how we are moving those properties so we can put them back on the tax books. Mr. James: Several ofthe CHDOs have received properties as well as contractors and other entities. Some of the CHDOs also have interest in other properties but are not yet ready to move ahead with acquiring them. Mr. Chairman: There may be a need for a committee to look at this and to look at the structure of the Land Bank so that these goals can be accomplished. I would like to appoint a committee to investigate it and I'll ask Commissioner Cheek to chair it along with Mr. Williams and Mr. Grantham and bring a report back to this committee. Mr. Cheek: I move that we receive this as information. Mr. Chairman: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 7 :7'~.o~:'.':'" ,._-__ .' ~ - 9. Authorize Public Works and Engineering to enter into an agreement with The Mercer Group, Inc. to assist in the filling of engineering vacancies in the Public Works Department at a cost not to exceed $90,000. I Mr. Cheek: I move to approve. Mr. Mays: Second to get it on the floor. After a discussion of the matter, Mr. Cheek: I would like to withdraw mymotion. (No objections to the withdrawal of the motion) Mr. Cheek: I would like to move that we allow the Administrator and department head to negotiate up to 20% above the midpoint, if necessary, and other benefits as necessary to hire these folks. Mr. Grantham: What kind of numbers are you speaking about on the midpoint? Ms. Pelaez: The midpoint for the County Engineer is $72,528, the Solid Waste Manager, $65,457, the Preconstruction Engineer, $72,528, the Project Manager, $59,075, the Traffic Engineer, $72,528, and the Asst. Director of Engineering, $89,046. Mr. Mayor: What was the feedback from the companies you've talked with? I Ms. Pelaez: They have said that our salaries are very low. After further discussion, Mr. Cheek: You have my motion and also to enter into contracts for professional services for twelve months as needed and to authorize direct authority to hire nonprofessionals to temporarily fill vacant positions such as truck drivers and other things. Mr. Mays: I'll second it. Mr. Chairman: I like your motion but I'm not in favor of creating inequities with mid-range plus 20%. Motion fails with Mr. Grantham and the Chairman voting No. Mr. Mays: I would like to make a motion that the Administrator and the Public Works Director could bring something back to this committee and the Engineering Services Committee concerning the path forward that would do both of these things regarding hires from within or a partnership with an outside firm. Mr. Cheek: I'll second. I 8 I I I "". Mr. Russell: I would ask that you would give us the authority to use up to $7,000 of the $90,000 in funds to continue our advertising for these positions. Mr. Mays: I'll amend my motion to include that. Motion adopted unanimously. Addendum Item 4. Motion to deny authorization to revise program design for HOME Program, the establishment of the Augusta Redevelopment Corporation and direct that the most recent revised document(s) be forwarded to the Citizen Advisory Committee for their review and recommendation. (Approved in'Work Session March 3, 2005) Addendum Item 5. Motion to deny the reprogramming of $60,000.00 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the Economic Development Loan Fund Program to the Business Education Training Program. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Mr. Chairman: Could I get a consent on Items 4 and 5? Mr. Cheek: I so move to consent 4 and 5. Mr. Mays: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. Addendum Item 1. Motion to approve contract disbursement for the East Augusta Development Corporation subject to no violations of existing guidelines and in the event that violations are found the Augusta Department of Housing and Economic Development he held responsible. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Mr. Grantham: I so move. Mr. Cheek: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. Addendum Item 2. Receive from AHED an itemized list of accountability of the $500,000 predevelopment grant monies to include where it was spent and who received the grant funding. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Mr. Smith distributed and discussed a list of the breakdown of the funds. After a lengthy discussion of the matter, Mr. Grantham: I was looking for clarification of exactly who these funds were given to. 9 ~..,;.:,,;~ ~"-_. Mr. Chairman: Apparently what we're asking for is not here for today. We need an itemized list in more detail and I would ask that you bring that back to the next Administrative Services meeting. I Mr. Smith: All right. Mr. Chairman: We also need to know when the CHDOs are going to receive their money and we'd like to have that for the Friday after next week's commission meeting. Mr. Grantham: I move that we receive this as information. Mr. Cheek: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. Addendum Item 3. Motion to place a freeze on the disbursement of any monies to any new programs; task the Administrator and the Mayor to develop a method to make sure that the CHDOs are not penalized through the holding of funds that are there; that an audit be commissioned for the AHED and that AHED not be allowed to bring any new programs forward until that process is complete. (Approved in Work Session March 3, 2005) Mr. Grantham: I move the motion to approve this. I Mr. Cheek: Second. Mr. Smith: In Item 3 you had approved an AmeriCorps Vista project in 2004. We've been approved for that with a slight change in the amount of money. This program provides volunteers to do different kinds of projects and we have 14 slots. Three of them have been assigned to other non-profits and the other ten will be under my department to do things like grant writing, outreach to the community and other things. One of the things I'd like to see us do is have a volunteer help support the Land Bank to help market the properties in that. We would have to bring it back before you if you so desire with an amendment to the amount of money that the federal government will be providing for us. Mr. Chairman: Can you cut the Vista workers to fit in with the amount of money that you have? Mr. Smith: No. We have $40,000 for a support and training grant. Ijust wanted to present that to you since you have already previously approved the project. Mr. Chairman: We'll consider that when you bring it back. Motion adopted unanimously. I 10 I I I Addendum Item 6. Approve Final Version of Year 2005-2009 Consolidated Plan and Year 2005 Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG), HOME Investment Partnerships and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) funds. Addendum Item 7. Adopt Resolution authorizing submission of year 2005-2009 Consolidated Plan and Year 2005 Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG), HOME Investment Partnerships and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS funds. Mr. Chairman: I think you'll have to do some revision on this document by Tuesday to rnake what we've denied to fit in. Mr. Smith: We'll go back and make any deletions that are necessary. Mr. Chairman: In the workshop I asked the CHDOs to submit to me anything that they had questions about. Mr. Cheek: Does the Economic Ombudsman initiative fall inside or outside the plan to be funded? Mr. Smith: It's not in anything right now. We had a demonstration and $50,000 came out of an initiative grant and that would be something the commission might want to consider. Mr. Cheek: I would like to see us fund that in the future if everybody is agreeable. Mr. Smith: Would you like for me to try to carve this out of this initiative? Mr. Cheek: Yes. Mr. Chairman: Could we get a motion for him to bring this back and finalize it, include everything in the plan and bring it back for approval on Tuesday? Mr. Grantham: I make the motion. Mr. Cheek: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 8. Discuss the city's emergency notification policy. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) Mr. Williams: We had an incident on Friday where over 200 residents of Gilbert Manor had not had water from 8:30 or 9:00 until 12:00 in the aftemoon. They were II .. notified that some work was going to happen, but I've received some calls about the water being out all day and all night. There was nobody we could contact and we need to find a way to notify people when something happens that work is going to take longer than expected. I Mr. Hicks: This arose out of the change out of some old meters. The firm doing the work had planned on having the water out from about 9:00 in the morning until around 3:00 in the afternoon. It turns out that they were delayed and they didn't turn the water off until about I :30, but then they ran into a problem and didn't notifY anybody. I had a real problem with that and the fact that they didn't notifY us. I told them on Friday night to just get the water back on and we fixed the remainder of the problem this moming. It has been and will be discussed with them. We regret that it happened and that they just didn't follow the process that was in place. Mr. Grantham: Can we just receive this as information? Mr. Mays: I so move. Mr. Cheek: Second. Motion adopted unanimously with the Chairman out. 9. Presentation from Ms. Virginia Todman regarding the rehabilitation project relative to Lyman and Dover Streets. - I Mr. Chairman: Ms. Todman is not here so we will notifY her and defer it to the next meeting. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission nwm I 12