04/01/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 4/1/2008 5) Non-bargaining employees are now enrolled in our 80-20 health care plan effective today. Police and Fire have already been enrolled. 6) Annual drug free workplace training is scheduled to begin Thursday. Training is required by the Bureau of Workers Compensation to allow us to qualify fora 10% premium credit. 7) During the budget process, he emphasized the value of organizations such as the National League of Cities and United States Conference of Mayors in protecting programs that are important to municipalities. Specifically he mentioned Community Development Block Grants, which is the most direct way for federal dollars to get to municipalities. This week the city was awarded a CDBG for $100,000 for reconstruction of Kennedy Ridge Road. Thanks to Planning Director Kim Wenger for stewarding that process. 8) The administration will present the proposal for improvements to the city's park and recreation facilities to Council at a Recreation Committee meeting next week on Thursday, April 10, in Council Chambers at 7 p.m. The administration looks forward to a stimulating discussion with Council. 9) Training has begun for our real property maintenance initiative with two new property maintenance inspectors who were recently transferred from Engineering. 10) The west side of Stearns should start to be uncovered for completion of the Crocker/Steams roadway. 11) I-480 sound walls will begin going up again as soon as weather permits. The administration is also active in seeking construction of new sound walls where needed along 480. That's been an on-going initiative with the help of Councilwoman Dailey Jones. 12) Concrete street repairs have begun, tree lawn stump grinding has started, and the Fleet Dept. is getting all the vehicles ready, especially Springvale vehicles, for another season. As soon as the asphalt plants begin producing hot patch, pernianent repairs to asphalt streets will be done. Councilman Ryan has received communication from residents about the condition of Dover Center Road. He asked about plans for Dover Center Road since the grant for repair did not come through. Mayor O'Grady agreed the street is not in good condition. We continue to try for assistance through the county and NOACA. Once the hot patch becomes available, the crews will be out. Law Director Dubelko: 1) He recently prepared and circulated an update to the city's contracting procedures manual and provided a copy to Council. 2) Litigation report: • Regarding pending motions filed by the city to vacate in the several fire fighter arbitration awards, two of those cases were disposed of by Judge Sutula. Attempts to bring actions to vacate an arbitrator's award are difficult-the standards are very severe. The motions were filed in 2005, and we just received a ruling from Judge Sutula this past week confirming the arbitrator's award. The judgment is being reviewed. Since that time, we have been through a complete collective bargaining cycle with our fire fighters and the issues perhaps overlap with what was at stake. We have already filed a motion for at least partial relief from judgment with respect to the two awards, particularly the one involving call-backs, because we believe it would be inequitable for that portion of the award to have perspective effect in light of this recent collective bargaining cycle. We will see how the other side responds to that motion, what the court does with it, and we will also be looking at potentially filing an appeal from the substance of the award itself. The third motion to vacate is pending with Judge Villanueva. It was not consolidated with the two from 3udge Sutula. The union has filed a notice of 2 ~~