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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-22-2002 CITY OF AUBURN FINANCE COMMITTEE January 22, 2002 MINUTES I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Fred Poe called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM in the Council Work Area located in the Mayor's Office. Members present included: Chair Poe, Vice Chair Trish Borden, and Member Gene Cerino. Others present during the meeting included: Finance Director Shelley Coleman, Police Chief Jim Kelly, Commander Bob Lee, IS Administrator Lorrie Rempher, Public Works Director Christine Engler, and Deputy City Clerk Cathy Richardson. Guests present during the meeting included: Bill Peloza. The meeting was tape recorded. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Minutes of the January 7, 2002 Finance Committee meetin.q Vice Chair Borden moved and Member Cerino seconded to approve the January 7, 2002 minutes. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3-0. II1. CONSENT ITEMS A. Vouchers 1. Claims F4.9.5 Claims check numbers 307289 through 307546 in the amount of $1,928,654.64 and dated January 22, 2002, Claims check numbers 307547 through 307735 and dated January 22, 2002, and wire transfers in the amount of $139,700.01. Finance CommiEee Minutes forJanua~ 22,2002 Page 2 B. Surplus Property F4.6.1 1. Police Department City Council to authorize the surplus and disposal of the following described property: Schwinn Mesa Runner bicycle, Serial #GV896616 Schwinn Mesa Runner bicycle, Serial #GV896562 Polaroid MP4 Land Camera, Serial #J94142 2. Public Works City Council to authorize the surplus and disposal of the following described property: Canon Copier NP4040, Serial #NC J03747 3. Finance Department City Council to authorize the surplus and disposal of items on the following described property to Washington Women's Employment and Education (WWEE), a non-profit organization. Those items that are unusable by WWEE, City Council to authorize their disposal at the next City auction. I UPS BattePj 12 DTK PC's 6 Generic PC's 7 Graffica PC's 3 Media Readers I 14" Monitor 19 Touch PC's 1 Sharp Facsimile Machine (unrepairable) and table Committee Members briefly discussed surplus property items. Vice Chair Borden moved and Member Cerino seconded to approve the Consent Items. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 3-0. Finance CommiEee Minutes forJanuary 22,2002 Page 3 IV. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Claims Voucher Number 306974 City Council to consider Claims Voucher Number 306974 dated January 8, 2002, to DLR Group in the amount of $19,519.35. Director Coleman explained that Claims Voucher No. 306974 was for payment of two invoices, one for work performed with regard to a prototypical fire station and one for work performed with regard to a public safety building. Director Coleman recommended voiding Claims Voucher No. 306974 and reissuing a claims voucher for payment of the invoice regarding work performed for the prototypical fire station. Payment of the invoice for work performed with regard to a public safety building will be made at a later date. COMMI'I-rEE MEMBERS CONCURRED. ¥. ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS There were no Ordinance or Resolutions for Committee review. VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS ^. Investment Overview Director Coleman distributed handouts and reviewed allowable investments for municipal governments, which include U.S. Treasuries, U.S. Securities, or any general obligation or revenue bonds of the State of Washington or other municipalities within the state. Other investments allowed by law include bank re- purchasing agreements, certificates of deposits, and money market or savings accounts. The City's current investment policy has a maximum maturity of two years and calls for performance at the market yield. Director Coleman reviewed current state and federal fund rates. Director Coleman suggested that the Committee take the investment policy on maximum maturities under consideration. The current term is two years. The Committee might consider changing the term to three to five years to take advantage of the yield curve. Finance Committee Minutes for January 22, 2002 Page 4 Policy currently allows longer terms for the Fire Relief and Pension fund and the Cemetery Endowed Care fund. Director Coleman reviewed year 2001 investment balances as of December 31, 2001 and the 2001 and 2002 investment inventory. Chair Poe requested additional information with regard to the State Investments pool. Director Coleman expressed her desire to research current City investments being made through brokerage houses. Director Coleman suggested obtaining proposals from various firms for Committee review in order to maximize returns. B. MS Nextel Phone Service for Police Department Director Coleman explained that IS Administrator Lorrie Rempher has been working with Police Chief Kelly with regard to a single phone that includes phone capability, paging capability, and radio service capability. Ms. Rempher reported that the IS and Police Departments have worked for some time to provide improved communications devices for the Police Department. The Police Department currently uses Verizon telephones and Arch Paging. The Police Department has experienced problems with Verizon with regard to services and service response has been poor. Arch Paging is currently in bankruptcy and provides poor service levels as well. Ms. Rempher stated that public agencies such as Pierce and King counties, and many local municipal governments are currently using Nextel services, which provides paging service, secure radio service, and cell phone service in one unit. The IS Department proposes purchasing approximately eighty-seven of the Nextel devices and providing them to all commissioned officers. This would eliminate fifty cell phones and fifty pagers currently in use. The Nextel units would provide improved communications. The Fire Department and Police Department Special Investigations Unit currently use Nextel services and are pleased with the level of service. Finance Committee Minutes forJanua~ 22,2002 Page 5 Chief Kelly stated that the Police Department has experienced communication problems with the 800 Radio System currently in use. Testing of the Nextel direct connect service revealed that the communications devices worked flawlessly. The direct connect service uses airtime and would provide a net pool of shared minutes. In response to questions from Member Cerino, Chief Kelly explained that the Nextel services would be redundant to and would not replace the 800 Radio System. Due to volume, the 800 Radio System failed for approximately twenty minutes during the last major earthquake experienced in this area. The Fire Department Nextel devices, as well as the City's PDHF system, worked during that time. The Nextel devices would serve as back up to the 800 Radio System. C. 2002 Federal and State Legislative Agendas Committee Members reviewed the 2002 Federal and State Legislative agendas Director Coleman referred Members to the State Legislative agenda, Item 2, LEOFF I Retirement System and pointed out that it is substantially over-funded. The City currently pays approximately $500,000 from the general fund for LEOFF I costs. Legislation under Item 2 would relieve cities of their obligation to finance LEOFF medical and long term care. Discussion followed regarding the imposition of equitable sales and use taxes on remote sales, gambling taxes, human and health services funding, tax increment financing, ergonomics regulations, state funding with regard to the Growth Management Act, and energy rates. In response to questions from Chair Poe regarding the State Legislative agenda, Transportation, Item No. 6, Public Works Director Engler responded that the imposition of toll roads could aggravate local arterial traffic volumes as drivers may reroute to local arterials to avoid paying tolls. Chair Poe noted that specific purpose tolls were imposed on the Hood Canal and Narrows bridges, State Highway 520, and Finance CommiEee Minutes forJanua~ 22.2002 Page 6 Interstate 90 to help finance the projects. These projects were paid off sooner than expected due to the large volume of usage. Vice Chair Borden stated that the imposition of toll roads might alleviate some of the current traffic problems existing on corridors. Director Engler stated that cut-backs in state and federal funding for local and regional transportation projects will necessitate local jurisdictions to find other sources of revenue to finance large projects, such as the imposition of additional gas or sales taxes, or tolls. Director Engler reported that the imposition of tolls might push traffic from the corridors to local arterials. Member Cerino stated that he is in favor of the concept of imposing tolls to pay for bridges in addition to roadways, as the projects are then paid for by the users. Vice Chair Borden recommended revising the language of the State Legislative agenda, Transportation, Item No. 6, second sentence, by changing the word "since" to "if". Vice Chair Borden referred to the 2002 State Legislative Agenda, Provision of Affordable Housing, Item No. 3, and expressed support of revising the zoning ordinance with regard to condominium issues and for items listed under Gambling, Liquor Control and Adult Entertainment. Member Cerino expressed support of Gambling, Liquor Control and Adult Entertainment, agenda Item No. 3. Director Engler reported on federal transportation projects funding and the designation of centers in local and King County comprehensive plans. Director Engler explained that funding criteria has been adopted wholly as recommended. The City of Auburn is not designated as a center and therefore would not be eligible to enter the regional County competition for federal transportation funds for 2004 and 2005. Criteria are solely based on centers and connecting centers. The City of Auburn Comprehensive Plan does not use the term centers or designate centers within Auburn's jurisdiction, which also prevents Finance Committee Minutes for January 22, 2002 Page 7 consideration in a county-wide competition for federal funds as well. Director Engler stated that, in the past, the City of Auburn typically did well in the county-wide competition and more recently in the regional competition due to large, regionally important projects. Director Engler urged Committee and Council members to consider amending the Comprehensive Plan with regard to obtaining the local definition of a center designation for Auburn, or a portion of Auburn. If the City was designated as a center it would be eligible to enter the county-wide competition and could possibly obtain approximately $500,000 to $600,000 in funding. VI. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Finance Committee, the meeting adjourned at 7:25 PM. APPROVED THIS i~'~ DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2002. Fred Poe, Chair f Cathy Ric~rdson, Deputy City Clerk f:\clerk\finance\fca~.OO2fcaO 1-22