02/05/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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~~ Council Minutes of 2/5/2008 ,;s,; 4) Recently provided legal advice to the administration on the bidding of vacuum filter systems for the outside pool. If Council or the administration wants to change the process in the future, there's always the possibility of going back to the Charter Review Commission for a Charter change to provide for aaole-source provider exception. He had recommended that to the Charter Review Commission in 2005. He understands the reasons why the Charter Review Commission did not go forward with it because it is something that some people have legitimate concerns over potential abuse-that everything can become aaole-source provider. This is something for the city to wrestle with because there are going to be times we have to bid things that there truly may be only one provider out there. There is going to be some waste of time and some waste of dollars advertising. On the other hand, if you put it into the Charter, even with specific language, there still is the potential for abuse. It's a policy consideration for the administration and Council to continue to think about. 5) Update on Suburban-we have a renewal of discussions with the attorney for Suburban. His client wants to do some significant improvements to the ventilation system on the interior and has asked for input and assistance from our experts and formulation of a process that would lead to a final determination on the permanency of the conditional use permit. Sitting down across the table from people and trying to work out things is better than ending up in court, so he is willing to sit down and continue to talk with them and see what they have to say and work with our expert and Suburban's expert to try to find a solution. This isn't just a problem for residents; it is a potential problem for the people who are working for Suburban in that facility. He is motivated by a lot of concerns to get this issue resolved once and for all. 6) On January 29, the Board of Control, acting on recommendations of the Law Dept., awarded the final two outside counsel contracts for the years 2008 and 2009. Workers' comp practice to Rademaker Matty McClelland & Greve; area of labor/employment law to Millisor & Nobil. This does not affect the city's relationship with the Johnson law firm which was retained about two years ago to serve as the city's labor negotiator. That is a separate contract and separate RFP 7) Carole Heyward has been working on putting together information regarding fair housing rights for our citizens which will be posted on the Law Department's website when that law page reappears, hopefully in the spring. 8) AT&T provided notice to the Mayor's office on January 31 that it is going forward with U-verse services in the city. The Law Dept. provided advice to the Mayor's office on how to respond. A local ordinance passed last year provides that the city receives fees on all the revenues including their advertising revenues. Finance Director Copfer: 1) The RITA subpoena program for local people who have not filed is February 13-15. This has been a very successful program for a number of years. 2) Auditors will begin field work on February 11. 3) Year-end reports were in Council's mailboxes and the detail will be e-mailed tomorrow. The fund balances went up in most of the funds that had wages and benefits. There were no wage increases as we were in labor negotiations for most of the employees of the city. It is estimated the General Fund retro to be over $550,000. She has completed the estimated resources and will soon schedule a "Finance 101" meeting. 3