06/03/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 6/3/2008 doesn't feel it necessary to show up and gets legitimately excused, which can be done as the ordinance does not disallow it, Council may decide that person is not fulfilling their job responsibility and may under these type conditions withhold pay raises for that person when somebody else is exemplary is their position. Documentation is important. Mayor O'Grady disputed Mr. Lambert's comments that his comments hadn't reflected the city was interested in the opinion of citizens. He re-read from his statement: "tTseful comments from our citizens, however, also reflected great concern regarding the proposed partnership with the YMCA." His administration understands that good govenyunent is open government, and they are actively listening to our citizens and making decisions based upon that input. He does not believe the existing legislation allows for directors to be excused from meetings. The Law Director told him that there are no provisions for excusing the Service and Safety Director from the meetings. Each time they must miss a meeting, they are in violation of our law. Mr. Lambert suggested the directors be paid based on their attendance. Why are we only requiring the attendance of the Service and Safety Directors? Don't we intend to give raises to some of the other directors? He asked that Council see the many holes in legislation that exists and to support the administration and bring good government back. 2) Jerome Barrett, 24125 Lebern Drive, read an excerpt from a letter written to the Westlife by Mr. Ryan: "I have akeady received an inquiry from the administration as to removing the credit of 2% which residents receive if their income is earned outside the city." Part of the subject of the letter was the recreation proposal. In another issue of the newspaper, remarks attributed to Mayor O'Grady said that the city is not planning to try and do away with the 2% tax credit for citizens who work outside the city as part of this or any other proposal. There seems to be a conflict. Is the 2% credit or is not on the table as far as the now-dropped recreation proposal or is it part of a proposal generally due to the financial situation of the city? Councilman Ryan deferred to Finance Director Copfer as they had discussed the issue. Finance Director Copfer said she had discussed it with Mr. Ryan, and he was not apprised that Council, during budget hearings, asked her to get a calculation of what the reduction of the tax credit would be. He interpreted her giving that to Council as that was an inquiry. But it was just a discussion had during budget hearings. So it was no intent tied to the recreation plan. It was about the same time that the recreation plan was coming out, but they were totally, completely independent things. It was just an inquiry that she received from Council to calculate what a reduction in the tax credit would provide. Councilman Ryan commented that, due to medical problems, he had missed three meetings. His concern expressed to the Finance Director was there might be a shortage at the end of the year. There are different ways it can be addressed. A majority of Council, if they wanted to, could take away that credit without a vote of the citizens. He is sure all of Council considers that a very, very serious matter. His concern to Mrs. Copfer was that he wanted to be sure the city addressed everything financially and that these concerns did not pop up in November and December. Unfortunately, the two issues got tied 12