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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-09-2003 Meeting FINANCE & APPRQPRlA TrONS AGENDA COMMITTEE ROOM - June 9, 2003 2:00 P. M. 1. Consider a request for an appropriation from Commission Promotional Account to purchase fifty Augusta Books (Augusta - A Pictorial Journey) from Book House Group, Inc. in the total amount of$1,072.50. 2. Consider a request for abatement of penalty and interest for property at 1101 Greene Street. 3. Consider a request for temporary employees for the Tag Office. 4. Motion to approve LPA Group, Inc. Work Authorization No.6, 2003 Terminal Area Improvements. 5. Motion to approve amendment to Augusta-Richmond County Code Section 2-2- 32 (e) and (f) so as to provide for the distribution of a portion of the Hotel and Motel Tax to the Greater Augusta Sports Council, Inc. and the Augusta Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc. 6. Consider abatement of tax penalty to Dana Folsom for condominium located on property at Port Royal. (Referred from June 2 Commission meeting) 7. Discussion of the city's purchasing of one (1) Ford Explorer Truck for the Augusta Regional Airport Director. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) 8. Motion to approve expenditure from General Fund Contingency in the amount of $59,500 to expedite coming into compliance with Federal Regulations the Public Works Department Traffic Striping Program. 9. Consider supplemental funding request in the amount of$150,000 from CSRA Regional Development Center and recommendation from the Senior Citizens Nutrition Program Sub-Committee regarding the Senior Citizens Nutrition Program. (After consideration of Items 1 through 8, the Committee will recess and reconvene in the Commission Chamber to consider Item 9) 1 FINANCE & APPROPRIA nONS COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ROOM - June 9, 2003 2:00 P. M. PRESENT: Hons. Shepard, Chairman; Hankerson, Co-Chairman; Bridges and Williams, members; Jim Wall, Attorney; George Kolb, Administrator; Sparticus Heyward, Staff Attorney; David Persaud, Finance Director; Tom Beck, Recreation Dept. Director; North Williamson, Tax Commissioner's Office; Roger Tomlin, Manager, Tag Office; Ron Crowden, Fleet Manager; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. ABSENT: Hon. Bob Young, Mayor. Also Present: George Eskola ofWJBF Television, Shawn Norris of The Augusta Focus, Stacey Eidson of The Metropolitan Spirit, Judy Harding, WRDW Television and Hons. Colclough and Mays, Commissioners. 1. Consider a request for an appropriation from Commission Promotional Account to purchase fIfty Augusta Books (Augusta - A Pictorial Journey) from Book House Group, Inc. in the total amount of $1,072.50. Mr. Bridges: So move. Mr. Williams: Second. I Motion adopted unanimously. 2. Consider a request for abatement of penalty and interest for property at 1101 Greene Street. Mr. Williamson: This is a case where the wrong person was billed on this property originally. The first notice that this person got of the amount due on his property was in May and we would recommend some consideration on the penalty and interest. Mr. Chairman: Would that be both penalty and interest abatement in this case? Mr. Williamson: I would be inclined to do that. Mr. Williams: So move. Mr. Chairman: I'll second the motion. Mr. Bridges: I make a substitute motion that we be consistent with our practice in the past to abate the penalty only. . I Mr. Chairman: I'll second that motion. (Vote on substitute motion) Motion carries with Mr. Williams voting No. I 3. Consider a request for temporary employees for the Tag Office. Mr. Chairman: Could this be split over the budget years? Mr. Tomlin: Yes, sir. Mr. Hankerson: I move approval of proration. Mr. Williams: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 4. Motion to approve LP A Group, Inc. Work Authorization No.6, 2003 Terminal Area Improvements. Mr. Williams: I need some more information on this. Could we hold this until the next committee meeting? Mr. Kolb: I don't think that would be a problem. Mr. Williams: I so move. I Mr. Chairman: I second it. Motion adopted unanimously. 5. Motion to approve amendment to Augusta-Richmond County Code Section 2-2-32 (e) and (t) so as to provide for the distribution of a portion of the Hotel and Motel Tax to the Greater Augusta Sports Council, Inc. and the Augusta Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc. At this time the committee heard a presentation from representatives of the Sports Council and the Convention & Visitors Bureau regarding the above item. The proposal involves the distribution of $450,000 with 55% to the Sports Council and 45% to the Convention & Visitors Bureau. Mr. Kolb: I would recommend that 25% of those funds be allocated to the Sports Council. After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Hankerson: 1'd like to put it in the form of a motion that we delay this until the next committee meeting and give us time to look at it. Mr. Williams: Second. I '"l "- I Motion adopted unanimously. 6. Consider abatement of tax penalty to Dana Folsom for condominium located on property at Port Royal. (Referred from June 2 Commission meeting) Mr. Williamson: This is basically the same situation as the other one. The bill went to the wrong place. Mr. Williams: I so move that we abate the penalty. Mr. Bridges: Second. Motion adopted unanimously with the Chairman out. 7. Discussion of the city's purchasing of one (1) Ford Explorer Truck for the Augusta Regional Airport Director. (Requested by Commissioner Williams) Mr. Hankerson: We approved the purchase of this car and I believe that the Airport Director deserves it after the work I have seen him do when we were in Washington. I Mr. Williams: I think that this was too much money to be spent on an automobile. Ron, what was the procedure used to buy this car? Mr. Crowden: The department will come to us with a need and in some cases will specify what they want. We try to determine what they want to do in order to select the right vehicle. In this case Mr. Kraemer wanted an executive type vehicle such as a Ford XLT and we identified what type of bells and whistles he wanted. Normally we bid out an SUV but in this particular case because of the standards that he had wanted specifically, it really came down to a Ford product and we sent that out to the 24 vendors. Up to this point we have not to my knowledge violated any process or procedures within the government as far as the bid process. We formulated the bid and it was sent to Purchasing and they sent it out to the 24 bidders. They received the bids back and provided us with a tabulation sheet. We checked the prices against the bid specs to be sure everything was correct. Mr. Shepard: I think this was based on a marketing idea that he would be shuttling around various people from the air services and other companies and it was approved by the Commission. I make the motion to receive your review of this as information and to confirm the previous action of the committee. Mr. Bridges: Second. I Mr. Williams: I think. there should be some guidelines in the future for expenditures such as this. Mr. Johnson indicated that the purchase of this item was budgeted. 3 Mr. Williams requested that the Clerk place on the Commission agenda the matter of the previous decaling of city cars. I Mr. Mays: What was the price of the car and what was the amount budgeted for the car? Mr. Kolb: The amount of the bid was $31,147 and I'm not sure how much had been put aside for the car. Mr. Johnson: $30,000. It was one line item. Mr. Crowden: We check to make sure the money is available in the account. We knew the vehicle came in at $31,147 and there was $30,000 in that object code. We contacted Mr. Kraemer about that and he transferred $1,147 from another object code to cover the remainder of the cost of the car. I don't know where that came from but their finance person called us back and said the money had been transferred. We then proceeded with the paperwork process. Motion adopted with Mr. Williams voting Present. 8. Motion to approve expenditure from General Fund Contingency in the amount of $59,500 to expedite coming into compliance with Federal Regulations the Public Works Department Traffic Striping Program. Mr. Bridges: I so move. I Mr. Chairman: I'll second the motion for purposes of discussion. Motion adopted unanimously with Mr. Hankerson out. 9. Consider supplemental funding request in the amount of $150,000 from CSRA Regional Development Center and recommendation from the Senior Citizens Nutrition Program Sub-Committee regarding the Senior Citizens Nutrition Program. (After consideration of Items 1 through 8, the Committee will recess and reconvene in the Commission Chamber to consider Item 9) Mr. Hankerson: We met with the Senior Citizens Council and the RDC and we came up with the recommendation that we not decrease any present funding and review any funding sources and amounts in the budget process 2004. They had asked for about $450,000 in 2004 and we will review that in the budget process. The third recommendation was we would not consider any increase in funding until we see some real concrete beneficial financial and operational changes in the Council where we noted that the physical monitoring said there was a problem with the management of the funds and the accountability there and that needed to be addressed. When RDC did the physical monitoring, there was not a corrective plan presented at that time and they did I 4 I not require one. They did say, however, that ifthere were no improvements in the next year that they would cut about 25% of their funding. I would ask that we consider all available options for continuation of the senior recreation program. Mr. Beck: We have put together some proposals for you to look at. Mr. Bridges: They could still meet for recreational purposes with the proper funding. Mr. Beck: Yes, that's correct. Mr. Bridges: I'm going to make it in the form ofa motion that instead of paying monthly the $171,765 as we currently do to the Senior Citizens Center that we advance the full future payments for the remaining six or seven months to them now. Mr. Chairman: I'll second it for purposes of discussion. I Mr. Bridges: This would allow them time to address their financial funding concerns with the RDC and time and money to continue their programs past June 30. It would also give our government the assurance that this is a going concern because that issue was addressed in the audit. It also gives us the time necessary to consider all the options to continue the senior recreational programs as our resources allow. We could also use the 2004 budget process to judge the financial and management changes at the Senior Council in regard to continuing funding. After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Schoeffler: This would allow us to continue the program for about two and a half more months. After additional discussion, Mr. Hankerson: I want to make a substitute motion that we consider these options and select one of them to resolve their problem and provide them with enough funding to hold them until we select one of the options. Motion dies for lack of a second. Mr. Williams: I make a substitute motion that we fund the Senior Citizens with what we can and we've got some money in the recaptured UDAG. We use what part of that money is necessary to carry them through the end of the year to give us an opportunity to make some defInitive arguments as to where we're going from there. Mr. Hankerson: Second. Mr. Chairman: I don't think that we have that money in hand yet. I (Vote on substitute motion) Motion fails with the Chairman and Mr. Bridges voting No. 5 (Vote on original motion) Motion fails with Mr. Williams and Mr. Hankerson voting No. ADJOlJR1'J~NT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. I Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission nWID I I 6