04/01/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 4/1/20(13 ~, Law Director Dubelko: 1) This year, he has spent a considerable amount of time dealing ~w with the comp time issue. Two weeks ago, he spent some time providing legal advice to the Finance Director on the subject of comp time. He then went on vacation for a week, but felt compelled to come off vacation for a Tuesday evening committee meeting where an ordinance regarding comp time was to be discussed. That weekend the Plain Dealer ran an article discussing how the federal government is now amending its rules on the Fair Labor Standards Act issues involving comp time. He has researched how a number of area communities administer comp time. There was no one certain answer-the communities seem to address this issue differently depending on the dynamics of the community. He continues to work on this issue and will be addressing questions posed to him by Council members. 2) He provided legal advice to directors and division heads on the subject of employee immunity in the event that our employees are called upon to respond to a disaster event connected with the war that is on-going. Finance Director Copfer: 1) The RITA collections through the month of March are back up above plan by 2.47%, even though individual amounts are down by $37,000 compared to last year atthis time. Withholding is up by $90,000, and net profits are up by $10,000, even with the approximate sixty thousand dollar refunds that we issued last month. We are holding our own. 2) Effective beginning in the month of May, RITA will be remitting collections two times a morrth rather than i5 days after the end of the month. The mid-month payment will be considered an advance, and then they will reconcile with the second payment of the month. 2) The subpoena program held in January caused 236 people to appear in person and 557 responded via mail. The cash collected thus far is $27,670, which includes penalty interest and fines. Some people committed to payment plans. Councilman Miller asked how many subpoenas were sent out, and Mrs. Copfer said there were 3,824 delinquent accounts. 3) The state has passed the gas tax increase. It's a lesser amount than what was originally put forth when they were discussing it, but it provides $120,000,000 for the local governments in total more than what is currently being received. Those funds are restricted to the maintenance of city streets. 4) There is a concern about the local government funds and about what the state proposes to do with it. She was alarmed when reading a newspaper article noting that the state is considering taking all of our local government funding in the next bi-annual budget, which is $1.3 million in this fiscal year for our city. The state representatives said, if local governments needed the money, the taxes could be levied locally. 5) PERS is trying to work with municipalities regarding phasing-in payments. Cities pay in arrears a quarter at a time, but they are looking for us to be paying at the end of the month. The phase-in program would require the city to pay 13 months this year and 13 months next year. We did budget for 14 months this year, so we will have a little leeway. 6) Ordinances 2003-52, 2003-53 and 2003-54 are the issuing of renewal notes coming due in June. Ordinance 2003-55 is the note to borrow funds for a new financial and accounting information system package. The amount in the note is a conservative estimate maximum amount. We had to go forward with this because these are new monies which will require three readings and 30 days before the funds are borrowed. The ordinance includes the "maximum aggregate principal" language so we can always 3