Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good. Call the work session to order. Any questions about tonight's agenda?

Not everybody at once. recording that meetings. Getting that meeting which will be over next week.

Not a lot. Really? Not a lot tonight. I think I think there's probably going to be more questions with the new program with our new uh business office. You know, the veterans park changes curious. I It's very small writing and I didn't I couldn't really see or maybe it's not in there to this.

Yeah. So, essentially with Veterans Park, the original design was proposing a huge change in landscaping. There was a lot of additional concrete work that didn't necessarily need to be done. Flushed concrete curbs along the asphalt. Really what they were looking for was replacing the existing pavers with concrete because obviously the pavers start to heaves. They have issues with people tripping. Uh there's also some lighting issues out there. So we've taken out a lot of the stuff that wasn't necessary left in the lighting, the concrete work because we're trying to bring it down. The original proposal came in at half a million dollars. The grant is only $125,000. So by the time you take design costs out of there, you're talking we're probably going to be left with about $112,000. So we've really tightened up the plans so that we're hoping the cost of construction comes down significantly

like as in it would fit within the 112 that's left sort of. That's what we're hoping. Yeah. Targeted. Yeah. Well, we also sat down with veterans. We had uh quite a few veterans in the office and now I think what they wanted was misinterpreted and there was ground what was it ground level curbing. There's so many different things that they don't want. What they want is a safe with a lot of veterans that are getting you know they're getting older and they're tripping over the blocks now the you know the pavers right now are getting on and they want stamp concrete. That was their biggest concern. Yep. And so we're going back, we really simplified the idea and hopefully we've simplified it enough to get it back within the budget that they have.

So essentially what I did was I took the original design plans. Everything highlighted in yellow is what's to remain. Everything with a red line through it is what we're removing and taking out of the design plans. Okay, that's No, there's a lot of stuff in there. You know, we sat down with the veterans that are uh Greg Lee. I don't know if any if you haven't met Greg Lee, take five minutes and meet him. He's an incred incredible human being. And uh anyways, he he they were great. They kept sat down. We had a great meeting with them and they went we went over every piece of the park. Where is the sorry where's the breakdown of what was taken out and what's going to uh there was a set of plans that was attached.

Oh, okay. With the uh Thank you. So essentially what I did was I took those set of plans, sent them to Barton and Lejudice and asked them for us uh a revised estimate on what it would cost to make those changes in the plans and specs so we could rebid the project. Is the 1500 that they're going to charge us a part of is that the general fund that does it come out of that would come out of the grant. Oh, we're going to take that. But I mean, you got to keep in mind the more money we're taking out of the grant, the less money we have for the construction portion of it. So, it's trying to narrow it down as little as we can. We've had that grant for long time.

Five years. I think we've been this project has been getting kicked around for both of five years. Yeah. So, it really be cool to get this. Yeah. The first honor flight this year, I think it's May 16th. I don't we're not that's not legitimate. We may be able to get it maybe hopefully for the second. They have first two flights and then they'll have the break in between for two months and then they go back. So hopefully

Yeah, I mean we only had one contractor that bid on this. I don't I don't know whether all that happened was this got posted on our website. So there's probably a lot of contractors out there that aren't signed up to get our notifications from our website. So when we bid this, I will be reaching out to a lot of the contractors that I know personally to see if we can get what a competitive bid. Is this this is this we're going home for um the plans that they submitted this last time? That was the first time, right? Plans had been been put out for this. That's what I thought. Yep.

It's been put out once. And that was right before I came into this role. It just got fat. No, I Andrew did a lot of work on that and we I think we have a little point hopefully to give. I think we have more pistol because it's not as complex, right? Be really cool to get it done. Yes, Billy Jo. It's one of Billy Jones's grant. He said, "We never spend his money. We never spend money." And we are trying to spend Billy's money. Should tell him tell him to tell dad not to make it so hard.

Yeah. Well, he should have quit. Then we could You could have given us more money complained about, right? Actually, um I was out and about in my ward yesterday and I had somebody ask me about the botchi ball club. Yes. Yes. And I told them it's this it is. It's It's right there. Uh same with the playground. They are they are both right there. I actually got an email the other day. They want a copy of our entire budget for the botchi ball court. So, we're getting that paperwork together and sending them a copy of our entire budget.

You know, it's nice that they give us these grants or they give us these this money, but it's like pulling teeth for false teeth to get it going. And it's a little redundant. out of a $100,000 grant, I probably got $20,000 worth of payroll sending them and it's crazy. Yep. Yeah. But it's what you got to do to get tomorrow. Yeah. And and and it's going to be worthwhile, too, because the Special Olympics and it Yes. It is built for Special Olympics, but it's for everybody to use, right? And actually, the woman that I spoke with yesterday, she and her friends get together and she was upset there was no chalk mark or anything last year, so it was a little rough on that.

Yeah. I mean, we can that's definitely something with the with the paint robot. We can go out there and we can paint them back again this year. So, um and actually we can paint them down a little bit further from where they're going to be constructing new ones so they can still play while that would be awesome. Yep. For sure. We got a lot of room out there. So, yeah. In all seriousness, it'll be almost be a half a million dollars of Billy Jones that he's got to the city that will get hopefully spent this year. You know, we'll have to think maybe for that. No, that agreed. It's just frustrating. So, yeah, they make it hard. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

Far as my liaison reports, I have been absolutely completely outstraight all week. I mean, crazy, insane. So, I wasn't able to reach out to these guys this week at all. Um, Chief Lawless said that um, he you have the email, you had some questions about the program he's going to implement for reports. So hopefully that he'll get or for the reports. That's Yes, that's what I asked. Chief, I thought we connected here. I thought we connected. We can do it. Oh, okay. Okay.

Okay. All right. I misunderstood him. Okay. Oh my god. I was in the same position because I'm as soon as you said leazison report, I was like, "Oh, right." Yeah. I just that meeting that I'd like to have the same boat. Um, to be fair though, I think we'll end up talking about a lot of the big issues like the the system you guys want to, you know, talk about at some point. I don't know if that's today to talk about that. I think Are you guys ready? You guys want to talk about it? I mean, I think now is no better time than the president. I was just gonna Any other questions for tonight's agenda? Because then we can go to this ERP. And

he's all loaded over here for Yeah, let's let's talk about the Yeah, I'm not loaded, but I How much does it show? Was it a dollar? The first year

but in fairness compared to what I deal with blame it on that that's Trump like that is right. Let's see. I heard he was wrong about which he was wrong about. Oh, you hear that? You were wrong about lacrosse at 10. It's a football. We looked it up. Oh, perfect. That's what I was going to ask you. Um, all right.

You never It never got in. Nice. Thank you.

Richard, do you have another one?

It's really just about making sure you get to the next email yesterday. Yeah, it went out today. Went up first thing this morning. Did everybody get the email? Yeah, everybody got it. It went out this morning. Yeah. And they got all the stuff. No. Yeah, they got all the copies of everything. We got this right here, too. Yeah. So, you know, Beth made the copies of everything that was, but I I barely looked at it. question.

Everybody's got that on their desk, too. No, we did. No, we're talking about the new things to get. Did you try to get out? interest. No, we're going. No, we're getting ready to start April. We don't have one of those.

Okay. All right. So, since last November, we've been looking at erd systems means enterprise system for the city to replace the mun system we have right now. And it's supposed to cover everything from soup to nuts that we have to work on. And I think we've looked at roughly a dozen different software packages and narrowed it down to the five that you see graded on that one set of documents uh where we had a demonstration here on Edmonds Govve and then we looked at acupun software solutions at the Edmonds presentation we had here we had just about every department show up and all department heads And there's a couple people saying things looked at it. Everybody said, "Hey, this looks really great because it's coordinated. It's everything we need to do in one system." And as it turned out, you know, we use that as the base to look at the rest of systems that we've got analyzed here. And you can see from the grading that even though Edmonds had everything pretty much in place that we needed, they got the lowest grade. Uh they weren't the best choice. So with the rest of the time that we put in on this and dealing with certain departments like Joe's partner directly because he uses everything in city governments and that kind of stuff. He worked directly with just about all these companies and his crews did take a look at what the system would do and they gave us the ratings. We talked to other departments about timekeeping and what's needed for data collection there scheduling and we looked at what we have to do for the financial systems and the HR pieces and what we've come up with is

we think open gov is the best choice and even though they seem to be one of the most expensive um we've got a list of information that Casey and Casey put together today of savings that would be replaced on an annual cost basis with this new software that starts out at 168,000 for the first full year if we get it in by January 1st 2027 by when I'm sorry January 1st of 2027 okay

that would be for all modules except for the utility billing would activate say April 1st we would run the current build utility billing system for the first three months of 27 and integrate those numbers within the open gov software um package for reporting purposes and then we switched a lot everything on go as a purpose it's a tight schedule and students start this April to get it all done by the end of this year for all the majority of the models and it's only done by next April They've discounted this offer to us from 266,000 a year down to 168,000 and they've committed resources at this point to start the project as soon as we say yes or no. Uh when it comes to the different modules, we know that the screens are integrated and we know that everything is accessible from one software package and it's an easy set of screens. Everybody that looked at the screens directly thought that they were very user friendly. They weren't complicated like Venus is right now. and we checked a lot of references and unfortunately Eileen and Casey Cotch did reference checking and they are not here tonight but Casey's got the background on that because he went through with it the last two weeks when I wasn't here.

So reference is really important for us to see how other municipalities um deal with their uh ERP systems. So we called um called municipalities that use these programs. So we found well this is exactly what we have with munis and that's not acceptable for us because I think since we've had mun has had 900 support cases and when you're on the phone with support it takes a lot of our time um and I think efficiency is very important for us and we just aren't efficient. You guys see the Nunis report. So if you guys I don't know dealt with but I know some managers have dealt with and it is very comfort.

Yeah.

Um so we talked with all the references open glowing remarks on their support. uh they listen to their customers and they really uh put a foot forward to trying their best for their customers. um we called uh the other ones like Spring Brook and um my software solutions and they would use parts of open gov and when we're talking about references on a spring they'd be like well open gov and we just had heard no bad things about them and I think that's somewhere where we're lacking is our ERP system that we currently have um I know the price might jump out at you for a lot, but when we started with uh Numis, it was $700,000 um

in two in the year 2000. Imagine what that would be today. Hey, I was going to say that, you know, that's up twice that today. And not to put Jim on the spot, but he's an IT guy and he knows how much goes into implementation. I mean, this is a lot of money to some people. It's peanuts. what we deal with at the seven hospitals. I mean really, you know, they're million million dollar, you know, 300

per year piece of it is the implementation and data conversion and uploading and setup of the system for the first nine months in this year. It's only 108,000 for the software. Now, we're going to capitalize those costs because it's the first year of the system. I said that's a capital project and we'll create a capital project for the 467,000. Is it? And on one of the handouts I gave you, it shows open go the additional in funding we just received. Pardon me. With the additional the uh the extra funding we just got, not the but the addition to the 900 900,000

900,000. Um but on this other handout when we look at the open allegation the very top of that is their original quote then their updated quote and what each module or segment of modules financing budgeting utility utility billing tax and revenue and so forth how much they represent of the total cost. Now in the next block right below it that's the allocation This is all from it's not all

that's the important part of this the city fund cost allocation for the general fund water fund sewer fund MLDD totals you can see there would be an implementation cost allocation of 22,000 to the general fund 52,000 to water 63,000 to sewer and 144 MLDD. Um, and MLDD segment would be, you know, everything that that everybody has GL and everything, but you have the inventory system, integrated work orders and also the utility billing system and all that meters and so forth. So, so it's got everything that we currently have in more. And so the cost of the 461476 the initial pay for this year without a data

now we can put that on a capital project which we're going to do because we're going to capitalize those costs we could bond resolution later for borrowing it just say we're going to charge it to funds based on this allocation I know you don't need to borrow money but this will happen 10 years

so you get 10 year findings measurement of revenue and the expenses of the period or not just charge that. So if this be a transfer against um transfer from each of the funds for that amount into their results and we'd have it operational by all of it operational by April 1st of 27

and there was more functionality with the permitting and building sectors. They have a rental registry which would make life so much easier down inspectors. They have a seamless uh permitting and uh building inspector um platform. That's kind of where they raised this whole ERP system from. So they've been doing it for 15 years. So they have permitting uh building inspectors pretty well. um first and they know exactly what they're talking about and how to implement what the city needs um for our system and to make our life more efficient. Right now our payroll I don't know uh if you guys know but we do it all by just manual time sheets and it is a pain on the clerks and it's a pain on Julie um where they are entering it they're giving it to her and then Julie's re-entering it. If we do if we go with this program, it it it encompasses uh a timekeeping system where it's all automatic where people are clocking in, clocking out, and there's not all that extra work.

Yeah. So, it mentioned payroll. Um there's a time management system, correct? Included under that schedule. It's time plus that they integrate and they pay for within a quote. They pay for everything. They put the equipment in for even the hardware. Yeah, I believe so. Right. Uh I will double check on that. So that's where he work for us today. And they have 48 words proximity.

So um they do have you can do the mobile app which uh they already have um and that has geoencing. So if people are clocking in um let's say we make a geoence around uh city hall. So, I can't when I'm home clock in like I'm at city hall. It only allows you to clock in if you're in that designated area. Unless you're working remotely maybe or are you allowed to work remotely? No, you don't. Nobody wants to. But we can also have blocks with biometrics or badge down.

The biometrics turned into turning into an issue and so that'll that'll get that'll get dropped. the biometrics turn into an issue. So that probably will be not used. I would imagine that some complaints about Yes. So not going to get into the middle of that one because I'm on the other end from a phone or a computer or Yes. or a fob. It makes life easier on everybody.

And it's electronic record that eliminates all the paper records that we have to put together in the outside departments. combine that information, you know, from the time sheets the gents fill out and the ladies fill out. Then you take their local system and send it to us so we can read it through it again. It gets rid of like three or $400,000 of opportunity wasting time on doing paperwork over and over again. Um, that's just one of the advantages of the electronic timekeeping. The approval process is much easier for the manager because they can see it all online on a screen line by who did what yesterday and they can say whether it's too we have people that

you make a mistake when you find the gross you take a day off and you don't understand so we end up docking them and you know it just makes a mess I mean we end up having to discipline somebody they made a mistake but they use time they didn't have so we have to you know so that's another time waste this this is an upto-ate this was a current way to real time took what you financial management review is very so this system will have a workflow where you guys can just look at themselves and it doesn't have to be right in this Thursday. You guys can look at them and decide sign on

online if you want to. So it's not it doesn't have to be paper. This is this is this the whole management overview the financial that's I like that it laid it all out and put a lot of time into this is Alex into figuring and we also chose the vendors that have AI features and the AI features that they have is going to save us the most time and provide most people Justin sends me an invoice says, "We don't have to do anything else but scan it. You scan it into the system. The system creates the payment." So, no data entry.

Wow. No such. Nice. You got to review it, right?

But you don't save the paper. So, you get rid of all the files that can be in the system. You get rid of the data entry from our accounts pay. And you also made rid of the voucher preparation or what's called the claim form which I've been trying to get rid of since 2007. You get rid of that extra piece of paper that everybody types out and attaches to the invoice. So you get two pieces of paper you're filing. So this gets rid of. Now of course on the invoice we would like to make sure the vendor has the PO and if there's a PO then we have the account and all taken care of and all the manager of the department has to do is just initial that they're approved

and it's all tracked by PO number right through the from beginning to end. Yep. Uh this program also has our budgeting so and transparency. So we'd be getting rid of clear guff and it has a similar process like clear guff but it's more efficient. Um so we would be getting rid of that cost and moving towards this that's on the other sheet that put together those would be brought out of the dark ages as seriously that is literally you're right. Yes. No, it's it's you know, everybody's saying Platburg's archaic. It's going to take time to put all this in place, but yes, eventually.

Answer to counselor Strax's question several weeks ago. So, I said, "What will you be getting rid of by putting this in?" And that's what this list is. 87,000 a month. And that doesn't mention any of the we can save efficiencies on for patron sake time. The time savings would be probably incredible, right? I mean, dealing with support, not on for two hours. Is it really 900 support calls? You said um as a matter of fact, here's here's the stats that Eileen pulled for us and it's pretty revealing. And this is just one person in finance. It's not the rest of us that have made calls either.

Uh since we went live with utility billing on February 3rd, 2015, so call it 11 years ago. Uh 825 closed mun support cases. So 825 cases. So that's that's 75 a year. Since when? Since 2014. Okay. 75 a year. Uhhuh. Now when Casey and Casey and Eileen were doing the reference calls, they were hearing about maybe one or two cases a year with open gut.

Now Mutus is notorious for this. They still have 21 of those 825 cases open and unresolved. Seven of the 21 open cases have been referred to development and we call that the black hole. Once development has it, you'll never see just and let's see with the oldest development case going back to 2021. So here's a case that's four years old that they haven't even bothered to fix. And this is the problem we've had with them forever. And their constant reply to us is, "Well, can't you figure a workaround?" And it's like, hey man, this is your software. Why can't you make it work? That's cleared up. No, you didn't work.

So, I'm not surprised. And nobody has ever thought that the system was efficient or easy to navigate through or easy to look at the screens. It's all I love. The mayor says, "I'm not even going to just the fact that this is is a huge bonus." And like Julie said, we're going to come out of a 25-y year old software package. It really hasn't been improved much. They've taken it from the desktop version and said, "We're web- based." So, oh, we're we're so much more functional. The desktop version we had had loans working in it and as soon as they launched lives, the web based version, the loans stopped working.

And we do use because we loan money at people. We track their loans. We also happen to do accelerations on them to to do payouts. They weren't working and development saying, "Well, that never really worked that way." It's like, "Come on, man. We can show you where it used to in the desktop version. You just make sure it migrates to the web based to work." So, it sounds like everybody got a chance to look at the Edmonds version of it. Has everybody looked at this? Because I'm curious to see how like the fire department has time different, you know, they do different shifts, different and maybe even the police department maybe. idual I mean everybody has different ways of using it. Is it adaptable so that every department can

Yeah. The software that the took lease and fire the importance say there's a schedule and this open window package with the time box plus uh add-on or connection to has a schedule as well and it has sorts of capabilities for signing in for so that can be used and of course it's going to be a migration from what they're using now to what they see if they can use that will they get a chance to look at it specifically and kind of play around with it and see if it works for them like they did with the admins one.

Uh they did we didn't really have like a hands-on demo where people were doing transactions. They just put it up on the screen and show us how it work and everybody said this is what we need and we like seeing the coordination of the screenings and we think evidence is great. So we went out and found four better ones and open has more than did. Should we get a demo? Sure. Yeah. Before we do it, we got a guy that's dying to come up here and do demo X or demo. Let's get serious about it. Let's do Yeah, we'll get it do fast. Because can he come up next week or Yes, he could.

So, let's plan. He would he would love to do that to present to you guys. Okay. Uh the only thing with the pricing and the coordination and the scheduling they put together the 63% discount that we have on the software it expires at the end of March unfortunately. So you possibly push them to go a little we have they have to go to their door. We have a we have a special meeting next Thursday. So can you is it possible to get the departments through by Thursday? Yeah. Yeah.

That's before we can do a zoom with some that we do have. We're going to have a special meeting next Thursday at 5:00. be something we can add on the agenda that you know the council. Yeah. I'm curious how the because I feel like you guys the MLDD and the city like you guys have such a different talking system, right? Like don't doesn't Kelly use her own different she does the public service division quot you have to and that's the same. Okay. I'm sure it'll integrate into this riches first in those two.

Yeah. But the timekeeping like our crews, they show up at Sharon Avenue, but through the day they're on three or four different sites. Will this time piece track that? Yes. All the employee or we can manage that and customize it to what you guys want. It could be right during the day. You know, they change jobs, they put in another code right there. It's still on electronic. Is that Oh, is that line? How many do we get? All those details. Those pieces.

Joel, you also asked me a question earlier. April said, "I show up to work at He shows up 7:35. He gets there. He punches in 7:35, goes in the office, makes his coffee, does gets ready for his day. He leaves at 3:00. I'm sure the system is able. We can He's not gonna pay him a half an hour over time, right? Oh, I see. Yeah. Not management. No, say it's a union person. They're scheduled. Say like Jo when he was the overtime. Yeah. But they shouldn't be It won't build overtime unless it's approved. Approved.

Okay. That's where the manager of the department calls up the records and he looks at everything person by person. And he can do it the day after yesterday. hears all the time that they can say yes or no over time. So that's an option here problem. Someone clocked in but never clocked out so they're going to get paid for 24 hours. There's a problem. Those kind of things, right? And the library also use this. Yep. Yep. So

it's going to be available to all the departments and the best part about it is it's one system that has everything in it and that's the point is to have it all coordinated and when you're in one screen you can access information from any of the other modules whereas in Munis if you're looking at u customer service for utilities and you want to see taxes get on the other screen and call that up. If you want to see something else get on the third screen to call it because you can't just recently saying just we just want to make sure everybody's good before we go. What was our next week that it's a long implementation process, right? It's not year, isn't it? Yeah. Okay.

Um I think that's right. There's a chart in your Okay. Some I Okay. The training on this is part of the Yes. So they're going to go to each department

or they'll have video as well. But yeah, people want to go looking at it kind of too cost. We are starting cost. How far are we going to go with time management? I mean, you know, I swipe or I use use a computer, right? So, we need a time system in this city. We do. This city's big enough it should have been implemented years ago. We do. This will implement that.

We do. And we'll have to have time to talk to all the unions. and use the time clock to drive the cost to where we want it to go and that kind of so that it eliminates all of the journal entries all the coding and everything and the managers and employees filling out a filling out a time sheet the implementation number is what number they're not going to so those are hours

based on estimated hours so if we go over that They have a professional service um agreement in there that uh we'll get it for free. We go under uh then I guess they'll talk about it if we Yes. It says not to exceed. Yes. I see. 352,000 and 8,000 for the first was the first nine months of the So it's not to exceed that. Now will they give a spread if they're under they might they might they might find it very easy for us to have implementation what's the

they do have accounts from a previous open gov transparency application we were using the city they still have account structure because we had to load the whole thing for them to have this transparency online we replace that with clearcut but now we're going back to open gov. It gets rid of clear gov and we have all the same features in open gov as we do in clear gov right now. The transparency will be the same and the budgeting will be the same and I think the yearly fees will be about the same because we're not going to be buying clear gov. We're going to just

so the it's a little bit Jim just I think that's what you were just asking him. I no what I wanted to know what's our what is the yearly right budget once we're over the implementation 168,000 and right now we're doing 130 something yeah right now we're doing 13 well we're doing all those yeah but if it covers all this this 187 yeah right it's going to be pretty we save a little bit so longterm it might even save money the efficiency alone efficiency alone yes to about 150

right Now, as far as the timekeeping and scheduling, you know, we can fill that in. You can work into that. The police and fire is just what they're using now. I like the utility utility bill. It'll make it easier on the customers, too. uh they will be able to kind of see um I think it has it has a portal and they'll be able to see the separation of their water their secret very easily laid out for them which I think will help with some of the phone calls that we get uh downstairs too. So would online payments be easier?

Uh yes, it'll be integrated. So we won't be going through a third party fees. No down credit cards and rate as a matter of fact. Yeah.

You can see at the top of this schedule where it says ERP system scoring analysis. You know once again the best is four working each one of the modules and they looked at every module. The worst is one. Zero wasn't available. The second thing that you see is can we keep our current credit card motion with Evans? No. With ID fund, yes. With Spring Brook, no. With Open Go, yes. And with software solutions, no. Everybody was bitching me about, hey, you've got to let us get to a new credit card, which means it's like, well, why? We're going to go up to $1.95 for an echo up to over 3% for a credit card discount. It's like, we're currently at 80 cents and two and a half with So recently we talked to a credit card merchant and they're now called global payments. They used to be MCR now and they said you know we haven't done a rate deal in a long time. We got to take a look at that. So it's like our rates are going to go up. They intend to but we have to make sure that we have it finalized with them. They intend to take our 80 cent eches down to 25 cents 16 reduction and take the 2 and 12% have to be another 2.35. So for our customers, they're going to get a benefit out of that because we pass those fees on as profits.

Does that make up the difference between like I know Clear Glob looks like they have a 4% increase every year in the cost whereas like the the my solutions has a 3%. Like I I'm curious has nothing to do with Okay. Okay. Because I noticed that the they're like they scored the same. they both got 70s um according to this this one that you guys did and it's way cheaper with software solutions but I'm curious like how how they what what you So with my software solutions we had to get a different permability building uh uh inspectors so that was adding cost that was $35,000 plus $12,000 limitations for that that's not in your like listed

it is on the second page and then uh we would also the Which one? Rubric. Yes, ma'am. Two pages. Okay. So, the bottom line is okay. I was thinking more like the annual cost once it's all done.

You have to add in which is the permanent rights time keeping and open for property taxes. They don't even have property taxes in their system. So they would have to you would have to get another system set with timekeeping and you would have to get another system separate for permitting that would uh integrate with it but it wouldn't be actually part of the system and with open gov is part of the system all those that right there alone the fact that it's just one in that shell we're not going to be fighting against

when physical checks come back here possibly. So people that write checks now be able to get processed here, right? Would that we process checks here, but people also have the ability and that's through our banking. Uh we have our lock box. So sometimes people send their checks away to our lock box. Yes. Um, but they do have the option of bringing it here and having it processed here, putting it in the mail and sending it here. Or they have auto pay. It's a direct debit. Yeah, that's what I I was going to say. Is there right now you guys have auto pay? I could figure out that autopay checks, credit cards.

I could figure that out all the options. So, it would be still available. Easier. Everything's still available. Pay by tax, pay by um There's gonna be some Yep. Now they have fantastic

online portal for our customers we currently have in but it's still going to be the same handoff that that we experience now once the customer gets through saying what they want to do it's a direct it's a a redirect to our credit card merchant to take the payment for our convenience. So we still don't touch anybody's account numbers. We don't touch anybody's credit card numbers. I leave that all transfer cash back. This is all SAS, right? This is all 12.5 million in credit cards and e checks right now. Annually annually

at 25 cents of people are going to jump all over that ech price. But we have to make sure we get that finalized and we believe it will be. Um what else have we got to share here? Oh yeah, on acupun the real low number that they're showing there is if we are in a multi-user environment and you can see at the top where some say it's a single server uh acupun did for that low price spring did for their price and so software solutions. Acupun said if we had a speed issue, we'd have to go to a single server. And that's the different numbers at the bottom on the second page. It shows their cost to 455,000. You go down and stuff just like they're just sitting there. the second page

doing reports and uh inputting. You know who posts them? Uh and we weren't told where it used to have a single site server with a desktop version. So they kind of put the screws to us and everything. So anyway, any questions? There's a lot of information here. I'm sorry there was so there's so many schedules.

Brad, did we I mean Brad, they're right, you know, they're right across the street. Um all the references we did here. Wow. Really? And they have glowing juice. Wow. Yeah. The supporter is uh supporter straight in Pennsylvania. They have no support calls personally. The person that we talked to. So it's the efficiency of it is just going to make our offices so much better

and all their departments use it too like fire every everybody is using it. Well, all of our departments currently use mun because it wasn't for just specific things like generation time any of your specific departments except for the building inspector everything and they don't like it either. So, it's going to be mandatory that all departments use this. We were hoping well if it works right like let's build that up. Yeah.

We bought this system back in 2000 for 750,000 bucks and pretty much it was about 60% developed. They just developed it for bushing and finance and so forth and paying bills and doing paper. Uh nobody really looked at all of this options that were in there. Uh, I don't know if we had done more with Munus, if we used more options and more features, maybe that would have helped us get a better software package out of them, but we hear a lot of people even and they just haven't. It's a system that's not going. So, you think we hit red up here next week?

Yeah. First of all, what we want to do first, we'll call tomorrow and say we want to put a demo together for anybody who wants to sit and watch it. And you can do it through Zoom. They'll put it right on the screens for everybody to look and see how the transaction. So, we're going to call and get that scheduled for you guys. Right. Kelly is back next week. Kelly is back. So, get her interested, but we know the she's back. You show up well right now. So I mean we got

I I I think the main thing that's in my mind is is I looked at trying to do some different things with time keeping small I mean they only have place but on a much smaller scale and I I can tell you there will be assistance to using software on a personal device. uh the geo fence saying that employees are going to interpret I know some people interpret this as they're being tracked or being geolo it's the same I think the fob ideas I just have you know I'm sure if it's not mandatory or if there are different ways to set it up you know I'm sure we can do something that will work just fine if the fob you think the fob would be a problem

what's that would the fob be a problem well I was thinking about like a case where So somebody's, you know, working the first part of the day at the library and then the last two hours or something they're doing outreach and then, you know, how do they clock back in or how do they clock out, right? Well, as a supervisor, you would be able to adjust those adjustments and that's and that's fine. Those are the types. I don't have any like, you know, oh my god, this is terrible. I think it's I think it's great to think about as much as possible or having that was my you [ __ ] [ __ ] I'm not. It's all paper. Yeah. Same with the county. I think you're gonna find it's easy.

Yeah. Well, and then the other question is, you know, I guess again it comes back to me approving editing needed, but if somebody comes in and they're, you know, the time is off by a minute or two and it's just like I'm already anticipate I'm going to be getting questions like and, you know, panicking about the system and we'll manage it and it's going to bring that up. But yeah, just thinking about things, but but generally I'm I'm in favor of a new system overall. I'm a little wary of being the the just because every department is going to have to have a time policy now. Yeah. Right. Time and attendance. We all have time policies now. Yeah.

Which is we don't have a punch in punch out. And that is such I mean we're doing filings. We're doing filings but but it's you know that's not it'll be right and they'll be punched out before time they take. So generally it's like seven minutes seven minutes before seven minutes after counts as as as your zero minute. Right. So I mean that's in the county it's 15. Will this make it easier for uh various departments to track things like overtime and stuff like they could just pull that out?

We should. It'll be interesting to see though because they can't plan over time necessarily if there was a fire or a problem trees or police incident. Um, but I'm sure it's all editable, right? Like they can as a manager to go in and it would be probably up to the manager or the the chief to to tweak everything, right? How do we do it now? Right. I don't know how we might take exactly

right based on supervisor. So shift comes in that their supervisor that oversees time and attendance and and that's the accountability and answer into the system then it goes up to supervisor system for for myself she oversees all and sends it to finance yesterday it's and I understand and agree with the uniformity but the complexity of how we manage our time and our resources is different than you so that's and emergency services are great but we are out there at weird times times

schedu to see how that works and to try it to see how it how we fit into it the thing is that you know we'll try you know obviously it's going to offer enough features or enough options to try and work in what you're doing now is it very customized great all Yeah, it would be easier if you can't do it sports kind of see. So yeah, the analytics at the back end of that there's strength about it very cumbersome. Does the demo

does the demo have options for them to actually like click a like a a fake or a dummy account so they can play around with it or is it just to sit at a screen and let them roll through it and ask questions? I'll go through transactions and they'll do a show you the the records from payments and sub records for they'll do they'll still do that.

One of our references actually said, "Hey, if you want to see this in a live environment and how we use it, I'd be happy to show you. It's that kind of like this program is so great. We want to show you." And that was another municipality that was that road trip. Uh Jet Chad Texas road trip. Yeah, we're going to Florida.

Not proud of them later on. They're working now with their utility. Would you be able to send me the Zoom link so that when they do their just I don't know if I'll be able to attend it, but I'd like to listen to this. pays to do payroll for the county. So, I'd definitely like to see this.

Have to ask Kevin Roland. He's our state auditor. Anybody has signed into a electronic timekeeping system. Last time he told me, he said everybody that he audits. Nobody has waiting for I think it's hard to get people to get off the time sheet since they're already on them. It's like that's what they're comfortable with and they don't want to go to a clock and it's like you're not going to have a fingerprint. I'm not going to clock in, clock out. You know, you've heard the stories too, but it's just going to be a matter of convenience I think at the end. It's not of course. Any questions? Go ahead. That price that time clock plus isn't included in the quote.

Yep. Uh let's say it's not worth want to go right now. it would come out of there. We do have an old license with them because we tried to use it a long time ago, but I think the talk has been, hey, that's kind of where we want to press and progress and kind of move towards maybe you can move some departments on slowly. Yeah, DPW wants it bad because they they have trouble tracking 50 guys that are all Yeah. adds to the one big thing is too we have to streamline some of these codes. Yep.

Like we we have so many codes they only use 17 codes and we have 30 of them, you know. So we get rid of we get we can take this opportunity to clean up some other stuff. Yes. And we want to make sure that the time keeping can be driven to work orders, right? Because we can use that. You have how many codes? And we paired them down to the active ones that the public service wants. tear them down. So, yeah, it's quite a few codes they have there, too. So, each each job is a different, you know, you got to build them off the way it's built. So, any questions?

All I think this is the way to go. And it'll introduce everyone to something called the time erection. So, everybody's going to hit the link. They put in a time correct. Hit a link. You can hit the link. Uh, how many times will it dub? Probably a couple times. Many times. So, maybe a couple weeks and then Oh, I know Jack is probably watching this right now. Wanted to be here today. Let me go. It's like the schedule. You know, there's there's 20 times number of employees right up here that you that use this 20 times. So, you know, 2500 of us. Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you. Any questions? Let us know.

All right. We'll call an end to the uh session.

Yes.

The pledge of allegiance. Oh, you shut it off. 5:30 to start. Oh, okay. We call the uh we call the meeting to order the March 19th 5:30 p.m. College Council meeting to order. Please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. You're going to give us one minute. Yeah. Um just you can do the role please. Mayor Hughes here. Councelor Bond here. Councelor Evans

here. Councelor Strat. Councelor T. Councelor Manette here. Councelor Colleen. Councelor Colleen and councelor Stra have inexcused. Resolve that the minutes of the regular meeting of the common council held March 5th, 2026 are approved and placed on file among the public records of the city clerk's office. Moved by councelor Adams. Second. Councelor Manette. Roll call. Councelor Bond, yes. Councelor Evans, yes. Councelor Talon, yes. Councelor Manette, yes. Car. Anyone here this evening for public comment?

On agenda items.

On agenda items only. Okay. With nobody here for public comment, we will move on. Council approve the payroll for the various tournaments of the 20th class for the weekending March 18, 2026 in the amount of 592,940.76. The council includes a billed by the common council for the weekending March 13 2026 in the amount of 1,198,743.85 and March 20th 2026 in the amount of1,159,28626. any um leaison reports this evening? I have nothing else. No, thank you.

Okay. Um so I'll start with uh Platsburg Public Library. Um the next meeting is going to be next Tuesday at 4:30 on the second floor. And um there's also some fun things going on on the Saturday the 21st. There's going to be a Dr. story question

with um the Susicle cast that's going to be performing at the Strand and Mr. Ben is going to be doing wonderful reading there. So that's the auditorium at 10:30 this Saturday. Also, um Saturday, April 4th, there's going to be a book swap from 11 to 2 upstairs in the auditorium at the library. So you can either bring a book or a few books um swap for some books. Um socialize with some other avid readers there. Um just have a great time at the library and um so that's the library. Now we have the climate smart task force. We just had our meeting yesterday. Um we were talking a lot about the Earth Day event which is going to be April 18th and um just we're excited about that. That's really starting to come together. So more information will be forthcoming. Um, Mr. Ben's also going to be doing a story time with that, too. So, yay. Thank you, Mr. Ben. And, uh, we're just very excited about the food scrap recycling program. Um, and we're going to like see what's going to happen with, um, the bins and I guess, um, see what's going to happen with um, the plan to get the nice wrapping the designs for the wrapping for the bins. So, we'll see what situation works out with that. So,

is working on it. Yeah. So, as of right now, we're not seeing text to do with their current. So, we had to come up with a plan B. They're trying to figure that out. If not, we have plan B is coming. I believe that high school may do the same thing. Okay. Or any of the school in the like or not not just the high school, but maybe the middle school or just whoever you know wants to give it a try. So, that's plan B. And then that's all I got for right now. Um, our next meeting is going to be um that would be April 15th at 5:15 at the library.

Item 7.61, authorized agreement for the sale of Niagara Project Wholesale Power and Energy with the New York Power Authority. I would like to table this Um, I'd like to Can I get a motion to table? Motion to table.

I uh councelor Evans, Councelor Bond. The reason we're going to table this is this is um uh came up really quick and we want to get information out to the public. That's why we're going to have the special meeting next Thursday, the 26th at 5:00 pm. And we're going to get information out to the public on why this our uh the uh NIPA has approved this increase. You know, uh Joel and I are going to get together tomorrow and we will uh get a lot of information out. I don't think it's fair to do this resolution without getting the information out to the public. So first and a second roll call. How are any discussion on the table?

Roll call, please. Councelor Vaughn. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. All in favor to take it. I item 7.62 amend April 2026 quarterly MLG board meeting date. Move by. Councelor Manette. Second. Councelor Bond. Any discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Item 7.63. Amend the time of the April 16th, 2012 session of the common council. Moved by councelor Vaughn. Second.

Yes. Manette. Any discussion? Jerry, you're jumping a gun. I know. Um yeah, I guess I was kind of confused. I kind of thought um we had talked about before having this one time. Just one time. This is just for the um this is just for the um um presentation. Okay. The one that you Yeah. Right. This this is only for that. Okay. This a one time. This isn't a permanent. Okay. It's uh who's coming to Labella is coming with an update. Sorry. Okay. Leavella is coming with an update on the zoning the zoning laws.

Any other questions? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Council Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Carries. Item 74 authorizes the mayor to sign a shared service agreement with the town of Champlne. Move by. Council Bette. Second. Councelor Tre, I mean, sorry. Uh, any discussion? I didn't hear the second. Allen. No, I mumbled it. Um, any discussion? Roll call. Councelor Bond. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes.

Item 7.65. Authorize the director of community development to execute supplemental agreement number one that's large for veterans park improvements. Moved by second councelor Evans. Any discussion? Roll call. Bon. Yes. Councelor Evans. Yes. Councelor Talon. Yes. Councelor Manette. Yes. Any new business this evening to come before this council?

Yes. I would like to give another shout out to Garrett Manz. Um they are having another food drive this Saturday at the library from 12:30 to 3:30. This one focuses a lot on breads and pastries that the area um restaurants and and bakeries and etc have donated. So they're encouraging people to they are in need of food to go to libraries.

Thank you. Any other new business come before the council this evening? I have no reason for an executive session. Um any public comment this evening on any other topics? No public comment this evening. I will entertain a motion to I got four. Look at all the hands go up. I got four and it was a tie. I was just gonna say I'll go with councelor Bond and councelor Evans because they're first and second down there. So, how's that? Roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. reading of the church.