06/15/1999 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of June 15, 1999 Mayor Musial added to his report: 1) The State Senate passed AM. S. B. 3 dealing with utility deregulation that provides for an opt-in provision. The bill has now been passed on to the House and, hopefully, it will result in a change to an opt-out provision. The opt-in provision would require communities to have very expensive merchandising campaigns in order to get people to sign up. This has been tried in other parts of the country, California for example, and it does not work. Our Resolution 99-76, which will be passed on suspension of the rule, expresses the city's opposition to AM. S. B. 3 which calls for the opt-in provision. Mr. O'Grady, chairperson of the Finance Committee: 1) The Finance Committee met on June 10. Present were committee members O'Grady and Kasler; Council members Gareau, Miller, Nashar and McKay; Mayor Musial; Finance Director Copfer and Human Resources Director Copeland. Agenda items were as follows: • Ordinance 99-44, which creates new Section 135.021 of the Administrative Code entitled "Department of Finance" for the purpose of creating the new position of Assistant Director of Finance. Following some brief discussion restating the intent of Council regarding this position, it was agreed to reword the ordinance stipulating that a four-year degree be in either the disciplines of finance or accounting and that, in the temporary absence of the Director of Finance, the Assistant Director of Finance shall perform the duties of the Director of Finance. The committee unanimously recommended approval of Ordinance 99-44. • Ordinance 99-45, which amends Section 3 of Ordinance 98-32 entitled "An Ordinance Establishing Rates of Compensation for Various Administrative and Legislative Personnel" in order to establish the salary for the newly created position of Assistant Director of Finance. Two residents in attendance spoke on the legislation: 1) Paul Barker commented that, as a businessman and based upon his wife's first-hand experience as a member of one of the big-five accounting firms, the proposed salary for this position was very low. He fears that the city will not be able to attract the quality that is needed for the job and that we will have to settle for someone who is very inexperienced. 2) Arlene McKay commented that, in her opinion, the salary i s a good one for someone starting in business and the salary next year of $41,200 is also very good. (Mr. O'Grady noted, for clarification, the $41,200 is the higher end of the pay range for next year and not necessarily the salary.) Committee member Kasler moved to recommend approval to Council. The motion was seconded, and Mrs. Kasler voted yes and chairperson O'Grady voted no. Therefore, Ordinance 99-45 is returned to Council for a vote without recommendation from the committee. 2) The committee met again on June 15 to discuss the issue of hospitalization. Present were committee members O'Grady, Limpert and Kasler; Council members Miller, Gareau, Nashar and Saringer; Mayor Musial; Personnel Director Popa and Finance Director Copfer. Also present were Bill Martin and Rebecca Ducat, representatives of Medical Mutual. Discussion followed with regard to the components, funding methods, the type of contracts and claims costs incurred by the city with regard to the issue of hospitalization for the employees of the city who take part in that program. Discussion 3