Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

The April the Wednesday, April 16, 2025 meeting of the Gardener City Council Finance Committee will come to order. The assistant clerk will please call the role. Councelor Dalow, present. Councelor Heglin, present. Councelor Mack, present. Announcement of open meeting recordings. Any person may make a video or audio recording of an open session of a meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chair as to number placement and operation of equipment used as not interfere with the conduct of the meeting. Any person intending to make such a recording shall notify the chair forth with all documents and exhibits used or referenced at the meeting must be submitted in duplicate to the city clerk as become part of the meeting minutes. Is anyone other than staff recording? Hearing none, move on to the uh reading of and approval of meeting minutes uh the March 12th, 2025 meeting. I make a motion that we wave the reading of the minutes and accept them as presented. Seconded. Motion made by councelor Max, seconded by councelor Hegund to wave the reading of the uh meeting minutes and accept them as presented. Uh is there any further discussion? No. None. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Uh, first time on the agenda, item 11521, an order authorizing $282.36 of prior year salary expenditure from solid waste enterprise account to the transfer station monitor. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh, we've done these a couple times. This is a step change that just got missed. So, this is just to back pay the employee, make them whole. They've been paying paid at the right rate since I know this is just everything that was the difference. Thank you. Any questions, comments from anyone? None. I have I have none. This is a standard thing that happens once in a while. Small clarif clerical error that we're correcting. Motion. I'll maintain a motion to uh approve item 11521 for uh vote to the full council.

Second motion made by councelor Max, seconded by councelor Heglin to recommend passage of the order to the full council. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion carries. Uh item 11522, an order transferring $10,000 from community development uh for assistance salary and wages to community development professional services operating expenditures. Mr. Mayor, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh the retire uh the recent retiree from the position that's the uh administrative assistant in the community development planning department uh has agreed to come back and help train the new administrative assistant that we have in that department. Um this is very uh similar to stuff that we've done before with the city clerk, with the uh city treasurer, and with various other positions that we've had here uh where our um the personnel that we pay um to assist in um training when they come back aren't active employees, but more like a contract that's considered an expense rather than a salary expenditure. Uh it's an operating expense rather than a salary expenditure. So that does require a council vote to transfer the appropriation from a salary appropriation to an expense appropriation. So that's why this is before you today. Thank you. Questions? Um I have two. What's the time length for the training and what is the hourly rate rate in the contract? John, do you have not I can't recall off the top of my head right contract we want. I think it's $45 as a max at $5,000. Yeah, I want to say it was 45 up to $5,000. That does sound correct. So, the hourly rate is more than she received than when she was on staff here. Yes. I would say it's probably doubled.

I wouldn't say doubled. I'd probably say a little more. Yes, it is. Okay. Um, so you're it up to $5,000, but we're transferring 10. Yeah, just to be safe. We've done We've done it before where we've gone over that and had to come back to the council on extra occasions. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Anything not used falls to free cash? Yeah, that was my answer right there. Hey, was my next as well saying that anything not used to free cash. Um would it if a new contract had to get signed? Right now it was limited to $5,000 to go over. Would that come back before us? Would that be something you would authorize? Uh in terms of it goes over the 5,000 or goes to the 10,000. Go over the 5,000. The 5,000 that would have that would just be authorized through this through this. Correct. Okay. Right now we're only going to be the five but possibly maybe we need longer to train. Yeah. And giving us Okay. And um [Applause] it's up to Yeah, it says up to $5,000. Yep. Those numbers are correct. Yeah. $45 an hour up to $5,000. Okay. I have no further questions. I didn't entertain a motion. I would move to recommend to the full council that the order be adopted. Second. Made by councelor Heglin, seconded by councelor Mack to recommend adoption of the order to full counsel. Is that further discussion? Um I would just like if we go over the 5,000, I would just like a letter of communication to the finance committee from the mayor if we if it exceeds $5,000. Good idea. Yeah. Yeah, that works. Um, do you want me to amend mine then to include that? So, move to recommend to the full council be adopted with the

potential of a communication letter. Should we have to come back to it? Sure. Second. Okay. Uh, amendment to the motion made by councelor, seconded by Mac. Voting on the amended amended motion. Um, unless there's any further discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Item 11524, an order accepting donations for the gardener flower program. Sir. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, the general laws require that any donations made to the city be accepted by vote of the city council. Um, these are the donations we've received for the flower pot program. And I, uh, want to thank councelor Mack, Angelasser, and Katie Jablonsky for the work they've done in getting this program up and running for the year. questions, comments? Um, I just want to thank Katie. This is amazing. Um, the amount of work that she's done to get this many sponsors this time of the year. Um, I think it it really reflects how much hard work went into last year to improve our flower pot um, downtown. Um, and I just want to say that it's not too late for any city department um, city official um, individual family or business to till sponsor. We still have about 17 pots we're looking to sponsor. Um, but I just can't and I mean we're going to be planting on May 30th and I just hope that um you know people appreciate the amount of work that has gone into um you know really improving this project and um and I thank everybody involved because you know this is really a project of mine. Um and I appreciate I appreciate Katie's work. Thank you. Thank you. I'll just second that. No, thank you to you and and everyone involved. That is a lot of work, but it really does make the city look nicer and adds a little extra something. So, again, thank you to everyone. Um, I have nothing further. I'll entertain a motion. I like to

maintain a motion. Uh, we send 11524 to the city council for passage. Seconded. Uh, motion made by councelor Max, seconded by councelor Hegen to recommend adoption of the order of the full council. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Item 11525, an order accepting donations to the Gardener Animal Shelter. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Same exact reasoning for the last one that we are required to submit the donations are received to the city council for approval. These are the donations that have been received by the Garden Animal Shelter. If you notice, some of them are highlighted uh a different color. Those are the cash donations where those that are just in black are the uh goods and items donations that the shelter has received. Thank you. Any questions, comments? None from me. Just thank you to everyone who made the Yeah, there's a lengthy amount. Yeah, there's a lengthy list for the different donations, whether it be financially or uh material goods to help our shelter. I think it's it's great. Um and it also gets the message out that they're always still continuing looking for donations. Um so, thank you. Hearing no further discussion, we'll entertain a motion. Uh move to recommend to the full council the order be adopted. Second. Motion made by councelor Hegman, second by councelor Mack to recommend to full council to adopt the order. All is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Item 11526, a measure authorizing the city to enter a contract for up to 5 years for on call engineering services. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We just recently did this with a couple other contracts that we have. Uh our on call engineering services uh is expiring at the end of the fiscal year. This would be authorization to enter into contact contract for up to 5 years. We don't have to award the 5 years, but we can go up to that if we choose to. Um, in normal course of practice, it normally helps us get a better financial standing when a company has a longer term um, agreement with the city with that. So, that's why that's before you today. Mr.

Mayor, questions, comments for the mayor. I do have a few. Um, I'll give them to you in chunks. Let's go. Um, they're easy though. I think they're all just some of this being new to me obviously. Um, and obviously we don't have the answers today. You know, maybe more time is a little necessary. Um, so who do we currently use? How has that gone um so far or how often we need them or uh we currently have um and I I will say that the purchasing director who's here does have a lot more information than I may have too, but I'm going to try my best, but Josh, I'm going to need you on backup, too. Um we have Tyen Bond Engineering and Fussen O'Neal as well as that's that's it. All right. So uh just those two are there. Um Tyen Bond tends to specialize more in the traffic and infrastructure related engineering. Uh Fuss and O'Neal tends to focus more on the uh construction projects that we have. Um we have had some frustrations um that have been expressed in the economic development committee's meeting. Um those have been sent to uh Fuss and O'Neal um with regard to the remain street project and the Rome demolition building uh excuse me the Rome building demolition um if I can get the words in the right order. Uh but those have been expressed. Um this is an open bid process. So it's one of those they they may bid, they may not bid. Uh someone who we've had in a contract for years may continue. they may not continue. That's what happened with waste management when we went to Harvey. That the contractor that we had for the previous 20 years, the services they were providing weren't up to par. So, we went with a different contracting. Um because it's an RFP process, we look more at the technical proposal than we do at the price proposal. Um because of those issues and that we want to make sure that we're getting the services that we are looking for. Uh, additionally, the RFP um lists a series of different subtopics of engineering that um are things that

we're looking for, things that we may need, things that are just out of our area of expertise. Uh if there's a company that comes in that say can only do items number 4 8 12 7 and 22 they can bid on those items but it has to be put in their technical proposal that they really don't have the expertise and capabilities to do the other ones there too. And that's somewhat how we have with the uh the trades contracts that we have where we have an on call plumber and on call electrician but we also have our on call general contractor with it. Um, those are it's it's one of those things that it's an open bid process, so we can't say this company versus this company versus this company. It all depends on who puts in and the proposals that they put in with it to determine how that works. Uh, it was written in the past that unless you offered the full suite of everything that we're looking for, you weren't eligible to bid on it. Um, that is something that actually at the city engineers recommendation, we uh did put a little more flexibility into it this year. Um, but if I answered your question the correct way. Okay. No, thank you. That was great. The the only other thing I'd add, counselor, is that the RFP process is due the RFPs are due on May 9th. Um, part of the process will be just like I think most of you have been on the RFP process for real estate real property disposition. So, I assume that the mayor will probably set up a small subcommittee to review that. Um, in the past we've received uh in my tenure we've only done it once, but we receive anywhere between two and five. This process will also involve interviewing if the if there's a number of them that come in. And I will tell you now, I can see who registers for it and there's probably a couple dozen companies that have already registered, which is a lot more interest than we had the last time. That was in 2022 as well. So, it might just be a added need. um but we'll take into account um the interactions that our departments have had with those those people as part of the review. So um and I will say if you're not familiar with the process

when you register for the bid process, you get sent basically our application packet. Um and then just just because someone registers doesn't mean someone's going to be responding to the bid. So, we won't know until May 9th who submits for it, but to have a couple dozen register means that there's a couple dozen who have expressed interest in putting in for it. And then after they read through the application packet, we'll then decide if they put that in or not. Good point. How is that deadline set? Statute. Statute. Once it opens and closes, it's a Yeah, there's a minimum there's a minimum uh process that has to be done. This one is a 30-day process. We've extended it past the minimum to allow for more questions to be asked, more interactions, you know, so just minimum uh minimum dates are established by statute. We go a little bit longer on some projects. With this one, we did because it's a significant project. So, what's the current the May 9th to like is that the start date and there's another No, that's the due date. I I actually I put it out it was it went live last Wednesday, right? A week ago, so April 9th, so it's 30 days. Yeah. Um, so like our current contracts, have we used them often enough? What's the I guess the costs associated with the current contracts? The way it works is we set up an on call engineering firm. What we said we can do, we have two right now. So what'll happen is any of the departments that want to use one of those on call engineers will then ask they'll present this is what we have for project. We need a scope of work. They'll present a scope of work and often times they'll maybe look at both of them. Uh there are submit projects that are exempt. A lot of the public works projects are exempt so they'll use their own. Um though we'd love to have them under contract too. So yeah, the department will reach out to the engineering firm, request the scope of work, we'll get that scope, we'll we'll evaluate based on that cost and then it's the departments that generally will will deal with it. But uh there are a number of projects that are either being managed by Italian bond or fuss and O'Neal as part of this contract. Yeah, they're paid for. If we get a

grant for a project, the grant funds go towards the engineering. If there's a design project that we come to the city council and ask for in a free cash appropriation, say we need design funds in order to get the project to the construction phase, that's where it is there, too. They're only used if there's an appropriation behind it. It just makes it so that for each individual project, then we don't have to go out for bid for each in specific thing. If it's up uh under I think it's $150,000, correct? Depending on what depending on what it's construction. Yeah. Um, but it just makes us it's more of a operational contract than it is a financial contract because we only pay them if we use them and we only use them if we have the money to pay them at that point. Makes sense. There's no like retainer that's set forth. It's just you're on contract that we have a agreement with you that's set in place that we can do these things for the period of that contract. Yep. And there's no guarantee of work. So, you could award it to a company that doesn't receive any work. The other thing too is just to go back to the 5-year request and probably something I should have added to the letter. A lot of these projects aren't like a year project. They're a couple year projects. So a lot of them we're going to have to retain those people for the having a 5-year will allow us to have those projects from start to finish. So yeah, so there's a lot of flexibility in it, but it also allows for if we did change the contract, would the prior engineering firm handle that previous project to the what they did was paid for? Obviously. Yeah. So if they have a scope that's been approved, we would pay them through that scope. to that scope, but we can't keep moving on unless something causes us to terminate the contract. Okay. So, yeah, you did. Go ahead. Keep going. Um, so are there contingencies like if there were frustrations to be able to break something to go with someone else? And then, um, do we know really what like the cost between a three and a 5year tends to be? Do we save a lot more? for me. Is it really more bang for the buck? Um, in terms of the ability to that uh to cut the contract, that's all in the wording of the contract that's there. Um, most contracts and I think all of the ones that we have do have an out

clause in it that if something does happen, we can take care of that. Um, and I do want to say too that this authorization isn't saying that they're getting the 5-year contract. Uh we it says up to we could award a contract for a year after this depending on how the technical proposal goes and how the review committee looks at things and the interviews run. Um all of our contracts are three-year contracts with the ability to extend for an additional 2 years. Um so that um is really just allowing those extra potential extensions after that. But we don't have to go with the threeear just cuz it's normal practice either. I would say on the difference between three and five year, it's not going to be applicable to this one just because it's different scopes. Um, and they and actually that cost could change as the the contract goes. It's not no set cost. This is to establish who the it's based on like a a number today, but it could be a number tomorrow and it's on call, right? That's going to be flexible. Yeah, it's a little different. Yeah. Thank you. That's it for me. Um, just two things. So, director formula, you said that this is different than the DPW. So, the DPW has their own on call engineer. No, I what I meant is there's some projects, public works projects that are exempt from the designer selection. Okay. So, they could use Italian bar or fuss, but they can also they have the flexibility to use a different company if there's one that's more specific to their field to Okay. So, based on the individual project, so we wouldn't look to contract anything under the DVW. Correct. They could still use it. They could still use it. Okay. Um, and my other thing was just I was glad the mayor said that um, you know, if if the community development department has showed frustration that the important people are on the RFP process and that they're looking at it because I mean, you know, to learn from what's going on. Yeah. Just uh, two things. one um the past request had listed city of gardener department of

community devel development and planning as well as the GR and I removed the department specific language so now it just says city of gardener and GR um but we've always worked it through the community development so I have kept Jason in the loop the new director so that he can be a part of the discussion as well as part of the review because their department uses it quite quite a lot reach out and I haven't asked Dana uh the director of the city engineer behind me, but I'll probably ask them to have some input too. I think I've reached out to uh city engineer to have him look at it before. Um so yeah, so the people that are involved will have some say as we go through the process. Um I also want to say that just because we have two now, two is not the set number. We always try to have a couple on there. That way we're not overloading one person and then a project get backlogged on it. But we could have one, we could have four, we could have six, we could have two. It's really just dependent on how the proposals come back. That sounds like it makes sense too in case if someone couldn't get to a project and had a time or something, then we can call a backup. Yeah, we have two electricians, we have two plumbers, we have one GC. It's just one of those things. It's all in the proposals that we have. To be clear for everyone here, the item before us is just to allow you to, you know, 5 years instead of three years. The contract then later on does come before the council. Correct. No, it does not in this case. Okay. Thank you for correcting me on that. Again, it allows us to go up to 5 years, but we could hypothetically find a company that's newer or a little bit more specific to a to a to a concentration and we may say, "Okay, we're going to do this one for one year, see how it works." You know, we could we have flexibility, but this is just giving more flexibility. Yeah. 30 30 section 12 requires us to do it. If we're going to go longer than three years, three years. So, that's why we request it. Thank you. Thank you. I have nothing further. That was great information. Other questions?

Move to recommend to the full council that the measure be authorized. Second. Motion made by councelor Heglin, second by councelor Mack to recommend to the full council to authorize the measure. Is there any further discussion? None. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Um, item 11527, a communicate a communication from the mayor regarding the FY2024 single financial product report for federal grant funds. Sam, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just as always, thank you to Auditor Richard and the financial team that we have here with Treasurer Demick and purchasing agent Josh Cormier. Uh, we got a clean audit on our federal grant audit this year. Uh again, we talked about how in the past if you have so many years of a clean audit with no findings, you normally don't have to do them on an annual basis and can switch to a triannual basis unless you receive over uh greater than $750,000 in federal grant funds, which we did. Uh so that subjected us to this audit and uh the report is fully in front of you. Um, I have nothing further to say other than just thank you to John Richard for working with the auditors to get them through everything and our finance team for making sure things are done well throughout the year. Mayor, any questions? Uh, yes. Similarly, thank you to the departments. I know, you know, I'm on some other boards and we have to go through this process and it is a lot. It's um it's a routine task, but they're demanding and that's I think we see the lengthy report. It can be tiring. Um, I I do want I'm just curious again being someone new to things, you know, we've had some issues with other grants like the CDBG or Mackie Park things that have come up. Um, and so I don't know if there's answers for these at this moment, but sort of what does the audit look at? What's the process? And what does a clean report with no findings mean or cover? What's the criteria to earn that knowing we've had some of these issues? Did those not fall into this process? I just don't know how the two work, I guess. Uh, I know the methodology

section of it has some of it in there. So, for instance, they look at uh it actually breaks down the grants specifically that they looked at. There's a lot that were in the school department. Um, a couple other ones that were in there, too. I'd have to check to see if CDBG was on that list because I I uh don't have the audit itself in front of me at the moment. I can certainly look there. um they just want to make sure it meets the federal spending guidelines that are set by the uh office of management and budget in the executive office of the president and the office of the controller of the United States. Um so if it meets those general accept uh generally accepted accounting practices and meets those guidelines that are there that's the audit that it looks for there. uh the operationals audit like we had with the CDBG one that's more on the operations of how the money is spent not what what the money is spent on this is the financial audit not the operations audit and in fact when we asked them to do a operational audit of uh the ambulance a couple years ago you may remember um or some of the councils may remember because now I'm realizing how many years ago that was um uh CBIZ who was our um you know our contracted auditing firm said that they can't do operational audits because federal statute says operational audits have to be separately done than the financial management audits. That was really that makes two different processes, two different audits. Um, so that explains how those things are caught. Uh, so thank you. I really appreciate that. Um, and this might be a better question for the city auditor, but you know, I know it's just a communication. Um, and it's but it is a lot of information and it'd be nice just to know for the sake of information. um would it be possible maybe at a future meeting to have you walk us through some of the key points and pieces and takeaways and highlights um just so we know better? Um and I've done that process, same thing when I've been on boards usually and it's probably you had to go through the company walks you through the document and they talk about all the the highlights. Um and

just being the city council finance committee, it'd be great to know some of that and have some more time to look through the packet just for the sake of edification and yeah and knowing things. Sure. Like I said, my my door is always open. If you have any questions or anything, you can stop by. But if you want to set something up, I can come in and Yeah. I mean, this is communication as is the the next item as well. Um obviously there's not a a rush to to send it up to the the whole council for um to review. They can view it here obviously in the finance committee uh meeting. Um I don't I would think we'd like maybe keep keep this item. Um and that's possibly this next item if you're going to ask some of the questions on it um here for possible further discussions and whether we do it for the next meeting or the following meeting have some kind of further um explanation of the the how it works just for our our education. And what I can do I can do a little summary of which u grants they they did audit. They audited three to yeah three um grants. So I can, you know, and and give you details of, you know, what if I own anything? I can do that. Thank you so much. Yeah. Matt, any questions? Nope. So there's no objection. We're going to keep item 1527 on our on our calendar here. Thank you. Um item 11528, communication for the mayor regarding the FY2024 single financial audit report. Mr. Uh that should say full financial audit report, Mr. Chairman. Um that's the um the audit of the entire city's books that's have has to be done. Um it does say that in the actual item. Okay. Just making sure on the uh that's the annual audit of the city's books that we have by CBiz, our outside auditing firm, uh to do it. Same kind of explanation as with the federal grant audit, except this one we are required to do every year. uh the auditors review it to make sure we we're following the generally accepted accounting practices as well as the guidelines and regulations set forth

by the OM and the controller generally of the United States um and we have another clean audit this year uh with no findings um saying that the money's going where it's supposed to be going and handled the way it's supposed to be handled. Happy to see that on obviously both of them. So kudos to everyone who who worked on these and keeps track of the finances. Um I do have a so the the difference between the two. One is the federal money, one's the full of the full financial audit. Can you just I guess go into more detail of the exact the difference of what's looked at. Um I don't know if the auditor wants to come back up and discuss. Um the auditor probably can do that one better. This is if you look at the cover page of the audit itself, it's actually addressed to both the mayor and the city council. Um so this is something that um does fall under both of us. And basically, I mean, the uh SR one is strictly for federal grants, and this was just they go through your whole books, your processes and everything. And if they see anything that uh is concerning or anything like that, they bring it up. Um for the most part, um all our processes are in line to um that satisfy their uh needs. Um but if they did see anything, they always bring it up to me first. Hey, how do you do this? And uh and they say if they see any, I don't know, lack of anything, they'll they'll they'll ask me, you know, this is, you know, this might be better. I'm like, then I look at it and I say, yeah, that, you know, and I either change it or whatever. Um, the last 3 years basically, I didn't have any recommendations as far as that. Um but uh that's basically what they do is is look make sure that um your processes are in line uh meet meets their you know uh the laws and regulations and stuff like that. And the firm that the same firm did both of these. Yes. And it said in the letter they were assigned. Is it someone we hire or does the state assign it or does

the No, we we hire them. So they're they're assigned by us. We they're signed by us. Y thank you actually luckily that covered my questions. Um so I appreciate it but maybe I think similarly maybe it would be nice to have another just sort of briefing over we do that one meeting or something I can discuss with you um after later we whether it's next meeting the following meeting obviously the um results are great so we appreciate that but just for us to understand and be able to be more more thorough in what we're doing more information from you what we're reading would be great sounds good thank you so without any objection questions of group item 11528 on the calendar. Great. Thank you. Um down to in subcommittee item 11477 discussions in regard to internal working groups review of the salary study. Mr. Mayor, is there anything to add? Just what I said last week, Mr. Chairman, that the auditor and I are working on the budget and the salary proposal will come out when the budget's submitted. Thank you. Um further discussion? No, I think if the salary proposal is going to be part of the budget, I can't see us keeping this item on our agenda further. I think we have to just wait and see which each department budget brings um because that's going to trump whatever proposal was was drafted um and created and so um and a lot of time has taken place since since. But my my suggestion is that we remove it from our calendar and wait to see what the the individual department budgets are. I'm inclined to agree. I think just sort of maybe some summary questions. Um, sure. You when was it formed by who who was on it again? Um, what was the scope of their work? Um, just to kind of start off, I guess. Yeah. I mean, would uh when the uh salary survey that the council requested a couple years ago was completed, uh was was requested, we then applied for a grant from the community

compact program. Um the HR director at the time uh worked uh to get some quotes from individuals uh and companies to do the salary survey work. Um the low on the quotes was HRGV uh that was completed after working with um through my office uh information from the HR director's office. a couple other off the different offices that we had. Uh that um work was completed for the city side uh non-UN employees that was submitted. Um the department heads then uh took a look at it. Um came up with some suggestions on their own um with the uh budget proposals that that they were working on at the time. Um and it's one of those things that you know they were in contact with me the whole time just to talk about the um how they thought the um responses to the salary survey went um versus you know what the market was right now what we were seeing the MMA post a lot of uh municipal jobs right now how that track uh tracked with those uh and went uh and then came up with a proposal that they sent to me um and then just had a discussion on it. It's been just an really an just open discussion group on where uh our non-UN personnel should be going when they move forward uh as the city moves forward to you know try to work to keep people here try to work to uh see where the market is heading. Uh and then um now see what it is we can afford of that. Um and that those are the you know what can we afford conversations are conversations that the auditor and I have been having not uh the other department heads uh that were involved in the process. So there's just, you know, clarify, there's no formal proposal coming from them. They've done their work. It's going in the budget. Yeah. The proposal was sent to me and then I mean, just like any other time that we do salaries, that's all done with what we can do within our means. So that's why the um the auditor and I are

working on that now. We haven't seen the salary study, have we? We have not seen a complete complete salary study. That's the only thing I think. Yeah, I think we might have we have not seen it. I know there was wait for the uh school department people, but for what we paid, number one, I'm not impressed with what they've done so far, and we have not seen a completed survey. So, I think it's we had a uh issue hearing back from the company on the school department side of things, and the uh grant expired, so we cut the contract um last week with them on that. Um so, it's one of those that we uh are working on getting a school department study done. Um but that wouldn't be part from this company this this week. We do have a final report from them that we've now received. Um I do still want a school department study done and that was what the council requested a couple years ago. So it is still something that is on the docket to be done. It just this company was we were having response issues uh with it and in the report they gave I personally for what I saw so far I didn't find it to be extremely helpful for I think what everybody was looking for. Um I I do want to say that I and I said this at previous me at previous meeting I did see the you know proposed spreadsheet from the group that was working on you know the salary study and their proposal. Um you know first I want to say I'm not against raises. I'm for raises. I think a lot of them deserve raises. Um after I got the spreadsheet to really study on my own. I would never vote for the jump between steps especially one and two. It's too high. Um, it's and I also think that any additional positions proposed or changes in positions need to come from the mayor, not from a a salary proposal group. And I just think right now in this financial climate, it all comes down to dollars and cents. It's what we can afford. Um, and you know, I I but I do and I always have supported an

increase in salaries, but it has to it has to I think this has to come from the mayor, something the mayor supports, not from the council. Um, and that it's it's what we as a city garden can afford without cutting services in any department or services to the citizens. And that's just how I feel. I guess I think yeah I think for me I'll be curious to see how services look once we get the budget then obviously be a very long and thorough process but and then are we at all our staffing levels as best we can be and and are we short and where um but Noel said so is it possible to get a copy of that the report the salary study all that was done the full report the full report by the contractor yes but they were using it as yeah it was it was sent to the council I think the previous session so it's probably good to do an update anyway That would be awesome. Thank you. And there's so there was nothing since the last report. They didn't go back and No. No. And uh you know where it was sent? It was a appendix in the budget last year, but the budget book was also like 400 pages thick. So that um but yeah, well I I'll res submit that. Thank you. I have nothing for them. The item I'll make a motion that we remove the item from our calendar. Seconded. Motion made by councelor Max. Second, council headlin to remove the item from our calendar. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. The item is removed. Item 1142, discussions regarding the city's health insurance payments and trust fund. I know last time we were here just a week ago, um, you said the account was at 1.4, I believe, million. I don't know if that's still correct. Here we are. Health insurance. Oh, health insurance. I believe the last amount was 1.4. Um it was I believe 1.7 the previous month. So uh we had a lot of claims hit. So um 1.4 million. Is it

comfortable? Yeah. Um the insurance advisory commission was notified this morning of the rates for the upcoming new year. There's a 12% increase on medical insurance and a 3% increase on dental insurance uh for employees who are on our plans. um again in looking in every option that we had from the group insurance commission or the GIC as it's known blue cross fallon sigma and everyone else in between uh Maya the Massachusetts interlocal insurance agency um we received you know proposals back that ranged from around 10% to around 26%. Um so in looking at the projections that we had, we decided to uh make the decision to stay with Blue Cross at the 12% increase. Um the GIC rates when they came out recently were a lot higher than we expected. Uh and all of the other ones were a lot higher, too. So that's that's the plan for this current fiscal year. And then our open enrollment will be from May 1st through May 30th. Uh that way we have time to get everything in by one when the budget hits for the new fiscal year, but also enough time ahead of time uh for the school department balloon payment that's paid before the summer where we pay a lump sum uh to our teachers uh and school department staff before the summer starts. Um accounting in all of these new rates in that as well. The I caught the health insurance increase the dental increase was 3%. Okay. And that's going to be 12 and three for the next fiscal year. Correct. Beginning July 1 through June 30. And what was the school part again? It was fast. You said it could. Oh, we we do a balloon payment at the end of June. Y um so but so it's if we were to make the new rates effective July 1st, but pay people for July 1st through the start of the school year before that date, they'd have the old rates in it and then we'd be asking our school department staff to write us a check back. Um, so this makes it so we avoid that by having open enrollment before that happens so that we can plan ahead of time for that so that when that balloon payment is issued to the teachers for the summer, they have all the correct deductions taken out ahead of time rather than asking

them to then pay the city back. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I just want to say that I'm I I'm really glad they looked into other plans. GI in my history and I' I've done this looking at what other specifically in school departments GIC is not necessarily a better plan anyways. I mean um you know as I said when I first started I was on when we had Blue Cross Master Medical which was the Cadillac of insurance and that was 35 years ago. Um but things have changed changed drastically. I with that being said I think we have to keep in mind I mean you know we just we went up a substantial we're going up again 12%. Um you know when contract negotiations and salaries you know all come into effect. I mean, I think the insurance increase has to play a role in in compensating employees. Um, but on the other hand, too, I don't want our employees to lose sight of our insurance is a great benefit. There are very few towns or cities or municipalities that only require people to pay 25%. And I think that can't get lost in this process. Um, you know, I know it's contractual. Um, but if the city when the negotiations open up, you know, if we're really pushed into a corner, could always, you know, try to go 50/50, which they did with the retired teachers who live out of the state years ago, um, cuz they were the minority. But, um, it insurance is a huge benefit. It's going up across the country everywhere. Um, you know, healthc care is just not what it used to be and it's just in a, you know, to me it's a fiasco right now. Um, but I think that, you know, we have to consider it both on the employees compensation end. However, we also have to realize too that, and I'm speaking for myself as a retired city of Gardner employee, um, that paying 25% has always been to me a huge benefit of working for the city of Gardner. So, thank you. Thank you.

Uh, I don't I think you answered most of my questions. um kind of where we're at, what led to the decision to stay with Blue Cross Blue Shield. So, thank you for that. Uh so, I think that's it for me. I think the only thing I'd be interested in in when we get to that is sort of just bringing an update to the whole council. Again, it's been a while and they've heard from us. I think that makes a lot of sense. I like to keep it here still as well. Um but also give an update to the council of what we discussed, information received here. um is new. Um happy to forward you the memo that we sent out to the IC this morning, too. I would appreciate it. Um we can give an update. I'm sure Mary will be there as well to to fill in any questions that there from other counselors. Um but there's an update where we are where we are with the insurance payments and where we are health insurance in general. Um appreciate that as stated health insurance is increasing everywhere. It's unfortunate. Yeah. When we saw 26 come in on a proposal, it was like Yeah. Um it's something that it's not unique to us. Um so doing our city's doing the best they can to try and keep these costs down. As council Mac pointed out the benefit of you know having to pay 25% versus 50 or some places or even higher on a family plan where you're paying 75% on a family plan and only 50 if you're um single. Um so the 25% is a is a great benefit. So thank you for that. Um, so I guess I'd entertain a motion to keep the item on the calendar on our calendar. Keep the item on the calendar and uh with the addition of addition of an update to the full council. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'll move to recommend that we leave this item on our agenda and add an item to our council agenda to update the full council. Motion made by councelor he second by councelor Mack to leave this item on our calendar but also put an item up on the full council calendar if we have a an update of where things are. Any further

discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries. Item 11507 a report from the Ronald Coral Memorial Committee. We do have this information that's been for us. Um their recommendation was to not name the council changes uh for counselor Ron Cormier, but you have a plaque similar to the one for councelor and mayor Pette. Um Mr. Mayor, I don't think you have anything further to add on this item. Uh councelor Mack, I know this is um well I think we're still waiting for to get a quote on the costable plaque at this point. Um I mean we can I mean it's up to what the finance committee wants to do. I mean we're going to have to um revoke the resolution to name the chamber councils a council after um councelor cormier because that was passed by the full council. So I think it does have to be revoked through a vote of the of the full council. Um, but my thought was to wait and do it all at once when we were voting for the funds to um purchase the plaque. That was what I've been waiting for. Um, unless somebody feels strongly that we should do one first and before the other. I I think doing it all together made sense. I don't think there's a there's a rush to change that at all. Um, I agree. I don't know what the timetable looks like on getting quotes and where we are with that. if there's any update there or what the process even is the process of getting quotes and how that goes about for the plaque. Um is there the current status of that or just it's just calling and asking or seeing what's available online and seeing what the price ranges are. Okay. I remember at our last finance committee meeting, Director Cormier, did you have any luck with I'm still I'm still waiting for the historical commission to give me the specifics on the plaque. I spoke with Mr. Mr. and he was having that

information, but they're not ready to do this. So, so um I think hope, you know, hopefully um I would hope by maybe the end of May, we could, you know, final, you know, at the most we could finalize this and and bring it back to the full council. That makes sense to me. Um so, still waiting on the vote. So, once we get the information uh director is uh waiting on as well, um we'll be able to act on this. So, unless there's any objection, I'll keep the item on the calendar. Hearing none. Uh we'll keep the item on the on the calendar. U item 11516 proposed by President Tyros that the city council discussed the creation of a special committee for the Waterford Community Center project. Discussion from the committee members. Yeah, I'll jump in. I so I was thinking a lot after our last meeting. Um and and my general thoughts are going to be that we're going to want more time with this uh and maybe bring council president Tyrros to our next meeting just to see if he has any further thoughts or additions to this and to us he put forth. looking at the situation. Uh, you know, last year, President Kazinskis at the time, now councelor Kazinskus appointed then councelor Kyros to be a council leazison um on a on this project and I thought that was a good move at the time because I did think something had to be done to help move the project forward, keep the council more in the loop. Uh, now that leon's coming and telling us it needs to go to another level. Uh, and based on what President Tyler said at the last meeting, it sounds like we still have an issue with communication since we approved the recent bond surplus funds in February. We haven't had any progress updates on the state of the project. And I know George uh has been trying to get regular updates as the state of those capital improvement projects, including the ones for the community center, but it's been running into some difficulty getting some answers. So I think one of the things that needs to happen or a few of the things that need to happen either there should be some sort of regular update for the council and to be better coordination with the liaison who will keep the council informed or there needs

to be this committee uh there may be a need for this committee at some point anyway as we you know the Mr. Mr. Mayor pointed out too and I thought that was a really good point that we do this with other projects. This is a normal process. Um, and as George had said, you know, there's other policies and plans that'll need to be worked out as people move into it with shared space, maybe rental agreements. Um, and I'm assuming, but based on his submitting this, uh, and what he said at our last committee meeting, it doesn't sound like that's happened yet. We're at that point yet. So, my thought is there still needs to be some forward progress with this project. Um, and I think part of that is keeping the council in the loop. And I know too, I think just to to go with that, I know some of the leases say if there's a change to the lease, the city council has to be informed and approve it. So I think it would just be a nice way to streamline should something come up whether we have this committee or if the leaison is is better involved in the process. So my thought would be to keep this and study it further and review it more um based on that. Counc I know you weren't here for the meeting last meeting. Um I I just are there through the mayor are there any updates on the opening of the water? Yeah, I mean, um, the North Central Mass delegation had a view, uh, a walkthrough of the Growing Places facility. That's just about done. Uh, so that should be fully open and operational, I'm going to say, by summertime. Um, the CAC is continuing with their fit out right now. Uh, we do have the before and after pictures and I'm happy to share those with the council as well. Um, there was an Eagle Scout who did some work in the lobby that was there. Uh, there's some paint work that was done. There's some other work that's being done there, too, just to uh, make sure all of that's all set. So that should be the next one to open after that. Um and uh you know the bathrooms is the next step and getting that work done through the loan and reappropriation money that's there. Um so there's some progress that's being made. I'm happy to you know give an update just on the centers in general too. Is there any uh update on the timeline of when it should be open and when the senior center

should be open? I get asked that frequently. Uh yeah, there's some uh masonry work on the outside to fix the ramps that will probably have to be done first. Um I'd say by the end of the year, the senior center should be in there, but I'm again just cautiously optimistic just because there's some work that needs to be done first. Um and with the construction delays that we've seen recently with just the inflation trends, the supply chain issues and stuff like that, I don't want to be too firm on a timeline on that. Um, but that doesn't mean that we don't have a plan in place that if everything falls the right way and all the dominoes fall in the right order, we should have them moved sooner. I hope so. I I mean, you know, we keep pushing it off and I just I I feel bad. I mean, so I you know, because that I mean, I'm definitely not opposed to um President Tyrros's proposal. Um you know I think the creation of a special committee is something that exact forces recommending from the finance committee to be created. um what constitutes that committee, who's going to be on it, um what their their scope um is or is not um is something that needs to be ironed out a little further, I think. And to council's point, getting president Tyrros maybe back here as well um for some further thoughts possibly the when available available for the next meeting or not. Um so for now, this is any objection. I'd like to keep this item on our calendar. No objection. The item will stay on our calendar. Item 11517, a proposal by President Tyros with the city council to discuss the city's current sexual harassment policy. Um, Mr. Mayor, was there any further updates? Uh, we got this clearance from legal this morning. So, we got the clearance from the legal department on the new uh policy this morning. Uh, so that's done. Um, again, we we're working on some other policies now. So, if you'd like me to send this one up as it is now, I'm happy to do that for you next meeting. If you'd like to see a handful

of them together, it might be a meeting after that. Um, but I know you talked about wanting to see a couple other ones there too with it. So, it's whatever you prefer. Yeah, I think at least my thought would be to amend this to sexual harassment policy and other other policy updates. Possibly get the um director um Morrison here as well for update of what she's working on because our eventual goal is to just update the city handbook uh that we have here too. And so it's I mean you can't update the full book at once and just because of putting your attention in the right spot so you don't miss everything. So she is going policy by policy um with the goal of getting to the whole book at the end of it. Um I think that might be the plan if she's available till the next meeting. Um if not you know schedule this isn't a it's being worked on as an emergency gets in front of us but if she's available we'll do it next meeting. If not schedule best time for her um get her here um with the updates. But if for the next meeting that approved policy from the um city solicitor can be part of our packet as well. I think that'd be appreciated. Yeah. I don't know if there's anything else. I just any updates to date that you chief I think would be appropriate instead of leaving them all at once. Yeah. So um any objection I'm going to leave this item on the on the calendar. I'm going to add and you know other policy updates to the item as well just to get the full scope of what we're talking about. Um so hear no objection say on our calendar and item 11518 proposal by President Tyros that the city council discuss the current state of facilities management for all municipal buildings. I know last time we talked we uh talked about organizational charts building bridge down putting it together putting that together still okay continue to to wait on that. Um I don't know if any of the counselors have any questions comments about the item. No, no, no. I think you know obviously there's a lot going on. So, and there's no necessary rush on this. Um, so as soon as that's together, thank you.

Appreciate it. That information just when they report whatever is being worked on, I mean cuz I know they some money was received from the elementary school grant for some facilities projects. Um, I just like to see what's been done, you know, what what has been done, what has been done to update, not just where we need to go or what needs to be done, but what has been accomplished. So, just to clarify, too, this the last meeting we talked about getting a this is how our facilities staff was organized. Do you want one on projects as well too? This is I I I'm fine with doing that too. I just want to make sure I think it should include projects within I mean because we're talking about the people who are overseeing these projects so it tells shows us what they're doing and what is being done. No, it makes sense. I just want to make sure I'd like to see the whole the full circle and that's sort of my if unless anybody objects to that but I'd like to see what progress is being made because that's going to help us to also realize what we're the needs still are. Um, and uh, but no, I I I think who's doing who's doing it and who's doing what and what's been done is important. Okay. No objections. That sounds great. Okay. Cool. Thank you, M. Um, I have nothing in front of us. So, if there's uh no objection, again, we'll leave 11518 on the calendar. And that is the end of our our agenda. So, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, move. Second. Motion made by councelor Pegland, second by councelor Mack to adjurnn. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.