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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL STUDY - 2010-01-04 CITY OF LIVONIA— CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD JANUARY 4, 2010 Meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. Present: Joe Laura, Laura Toy, Maureen Miller Brosnan, John Pastor, Brian Meakin, Terry Godfroid-Marecki and James McCann. Absent: None. Elected and appointed officials present: Mayor Jack Kirksey; Don Knapp, City Attorney; Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Jim Inglis, Housing Director; Dennis Wright, City Treasurer; Sharon Dolmetsch, Deputy Treasurer; Robert Biga, Human Resources Director; Paul St. Henry, Superintendent or Public Service Operations; Mark Taormina, City Planner; and Linda Grimsby, City Clerk. President McCann announced a Public Hearing to be held in the Auditorium of Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, MI for the following items: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Petition 2009-10-02-15 submitted by 6 Mile Properties, L.L.C. requesting waiver use approval to utilize an SDM license (sale of packaged beer and wine) and an SDD license (sale of packaged spirits over 21% alcohol) in connection with a retail facility located on the northeast corner of Farmington and Six Mile Roads (17108 Farmington Road), in the Southwest '/4 of Section 10. Petition 2009-11-02-17 submitted by The Kroger Company requesting waiver use approval to utilize an SDD license (sale of packaged spirits over 21% alcohol) in connection with a retail facility located on the south side of Five Mile Road, between Merriman Road and Henry Ruff Road (30935 Five Mile Road), in the Northwest '/4 of Section 23. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. NEW BUSINESS: 1. COLLECTION OF THE WAYNE COUNTY REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICE AGENCY (RESA) TAXES FOR THE YEAR 2010: Office of the City Clerk, re: forwarding a communication from the Associate Superintendent, Administrative & Financial Services, requesting that the City continue to collect 100% of their intermediate school property taxes in our summer tax collection. McCann offered the resolution to receive and file this item on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: RECEIVE AND FILE CONSENT 2 2. REQUEST TO APPROVE LOCATION AND SCHEDULE OF DATES AND TIMES FOR THE 2010 BOARD OF REVIEW MEETINGS, AS WELL AS COMPENSATION RATES FOR MEMBERS: Department of Assessment, re: per the requirements of State statute, M.S.A. 7.30 and Act 149 of 1984. Toy offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3. REQUEST TO APPROVE PAYMENT AND EXTEND CONTRACT WITH BS & A SOFTWARE: Office of the Treasurer, re: to approve payment in the amount of $17,000.00 for yearly service and support fee for the period November 1, 2009 through October 31, 2010, for providing Equalizer Internet Tax/Assessment System and to approve extension of contract for an additional year (November 1, 2010 through October 31, 2011) at the same fee. Dennis Wright, City Treasurer, stated that basically this would lock our price in with lack of cost increase for the next two (2) years. Meakin offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. CREATION OF CLASSIFICATION OF PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR IN THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE: Civil Service Department, re: with the same salary rate as the Director of Finance and the Director of Public Works, as approved by the Civil Service Commission at its November 18, 2009 meeting, until the position of Economic Development Director is filled on a permanent basis. Robert Biga, Human Resources Director, stated the Civil Service Commission at the request of the Mayor approved an adjustment for the Planning Director; this was to be a consolidated classification of Economic Development as well as Planning and rather than have a stipend they decided to create a new classification so that if one Mayor wanted to have a combined classification they could have a combined classification or they could separate the classification or they could have two (2) different classifications — Economic Development and Planning Director. He said this action would create a new classification and the pay rate would be the same as the Finance Director and the Department of Public Services Director. Brosnan stated she read Mr. Biga's letter and asked him to elaborate why a stipend wouldn't be a useful tool. Biga replied, after discussing the matter with the Mayor they decided the classification was a better way to go; as far as why one over another he said the City doesn't have stipends that would just compensate someone for doing a particular job, it would be a break from what is 3 practiced throughout the City. The classification would be normal and doing a stipend would be abnormal. Brosnan recalled some years ago a stipend was put in place for the Treasurer to manage the Elections; there was a difference in pay. She said it no longer exists but at one time it did. She wondered why that was effective then and yet, when they're looking at something temporary, why that wouldn't work now. Biga asked Brosnan if she meant the City Clerk and the Elections, she replied yes. Biga said that was years ago. He said the history of that was the rate for the City Clerk was in the Charter and by having the Elections as a separate entity the City Clerk received a supplemental adjustment for running the Elections. Biga said back in those days he said he believed the stipend for running the Elections was more than the amount for the City Clerk. He said back in around 1984 those two (2) were consolidated and there was just one pay rate for the City Clerk. Biga corrected himself and said it wasn't around 1984, he said it was the late 1970's. He said that was set up because the rate of pay for the City Clerk was in the Charter and subsequently the Local Officer's Compensation Commission sets the rates for Elected Officials. He said State Law has changed and it is quite a bit different. He said this position is in the classified Civil Service and not in the unclassified as the Elected Officials would be. Laura asked what would happen if a Director of Economic Development were hired, if the pay rate would revert back to where it was and how would that work. Biga said the position would not be filled on a permanent basis, it would be filled on a temporary assignment; when the position of Economic Development Director is filled the temporary assignment would be terminated and the pay rate would roll back to that for the Planning Director. Laura asked how that would happen, if it would require an action of Council to terminate the temporary assignment. Biga said it would be handled administratively in the City, he said they handle temporary adjustments all the time. They adjust based upon assigned duties, so when someone has a change in assigned duties their classification is changed. Laura said if that is handled administratively then one would think it's continual for the actions. He asked Biga why the front up action required Council approval. Biga replied that the classification has to be created in the first place in order to have something for the person to move into, so the classification has to be established. Laura asked how long the pay increase would be, if it would be spread out over a year. Biga replied the differential would be spread out over 26 pay periods, so it would be spread out over a year. Biga said as far as mechanically or administratively this done by processing paperwork, a transfer certificate; that action would be the responsibility of the Mayor to process the paperwork and that gets approved pursuant to Civil Service Commission compensation plan approvals. Godfroid-Marecki asked Biga how many positions have been reduced in Planning over the last few years. He responded he has been back for five (5) years and prior to his return there has been at least two (2) positions that have been eliminated, since he's been back there has been another position 4 eliminated, the Economic Development Director, and with the pending retirement of another staff member there would be a fourth position eliminated. Godfroid- Marecki asked for confirmation that the Economic Development Director was receiving about $119,000 annually when he left. Biga stated that he was receiving a salary of around $85,000 annually, $119,000 annually with benefits. She asked how much more time the Planning Director is spending on Economic Development, how many more hours or what percentage more is he spending on that Economic Development job. Biga said he would have to defer that question to Mr. Taormina. Mayor Kirksey responded by stating that in this situation Mr. Taormina, as Council can see with the request before them, it has been approved by Civil Service and with the approval of Council will have officially assumed the duties of not only Planning Director but also the Economic Development Director. Mayor Kirksey said when Jeff Bryant was the Economic Development Director his salary and benefits were around $119,000 annually; when Jeff left to go onto the County it was a great promotion for him, they hated to see him go but it was good for him. However, it did create a void in a very essential position for the City. He said Economic Development is the engine that drives much of what happens to us in terms of our creation of revenue and jobs; it's a very critical position. In working with Mr. Taormina they reached an agreement where he indicated he would take over those duties in addition to the duties he performs as Planning Director. The Mayor said he greatly appreciated that from two (2) standpoints. First of all, it was a tremendous opportunity for the City to save potentially almost all of the $119,000 by a very talented member of our leadership team stepping forward and agreeing to do this. The Mayor said Mr. Taormina does spend a great deal of time in Economic Development. The Mayor and Taormina met today, as they do on almost a daily basis, and talked about prospects for the City; companies that are interested in coming to the City, companies that the City is recruiting, companies the City is spending time with on a daily basis to retain them in our City. The Mayor said he and Mr. Taormina have been working on a cadre of individuals who will be volunteers that will serve to go into businesses that are currently in Livonia to find out how they're doing and what further the City can do to support them in their business activities in the City and to have some ongoing dialogue. He said that is the piece that had fallen between the cracks when Jeff Bryant was here; Jeff was able to do some of those activities with the smaller businesses. The major activities though are the ones that City has to spend its total priorities on. In answer to Councilperson Godfroid-Marecki's question, there is an appreciable amount of time done on a daily basis to fill this task. The request to create the consolidation so the City can reimburse or show some recognition of the fact that Mr. Taormina was taking over, in essence, an entire Department single-handedly. There is no support staff for the Economic Development beyond Mr. Taormina. The Mayor said it was his own idea to try to find some way to say this is somebody that is doing well beyond what is expected from a member of the leadership team or any employee status. The Mayor said he wanted to find some way to recognize that by creating a change in his salary reimbursement of about $6,000; it did not come from Mr. Taormina, it came from the Mayor and he said he thinks it's a very minimal 5 amount. He said in terms of the fact for it to be interpreted as a raise, he thinks that is an entirely possible way to look at it. The Mayor said that Council may remember, because they all participated, all the Elected Officials and all of the Department Heads agreed to give back five percent (5%) of their gross salary last year; that began in about May. Mr. Taormina and a number of others have pledged to do the same this year. At the end of this year, Mr. Taormina will have given back $8,000 of money that was coming to him on a strictly voluntary basis. The Mayor said that if anyone is looking at this and maybe thinking that at a time like this when the City is cutting back that no one should be reimbursed for their contributions to the City, this actually in terms of what the Mayor thinks is a great gesture and that is what it was meant to be and it also created real money to save jobs, Mr. Taormina still, financially, is not even going to break even with Council approval on this request. The Mayor said he thinks Council realizes that on almost a monthly basis, not a daily basis, raises are approved as people reach various step levels within their salary structure. He said recently there was an approval for the Legislative Director of Council for a four percent (4%) increase; the Chief of Police and Fire Chief have had a number of increases that occurred in their step categories and the Mayor said he recalled signing for their increases within the last two (2) months. He said seldom does a month go by that salaries aren't increased. The Mayor said he thinks in this particular instance to have an individual that has a talent to do this, this replaces a full-time position. Mr. Taormina did not request any additional reimbursement for doing that and the level that he will have awarded to him, with what the Mayor hopes and recommends will be Council action, will not exceed the salary of individuals with the exception of the Chief of Police and the Fire Chief. He said Mr. Taormina's new salary rate would be equal to that of the Finance Director and Director of Public Services. The Mayor said he thinks Mr. Taormina is doing a great job, he's deserving of it, and he does spend a distinct amount of time each working week on Economic Development in addition to being able to maintain an excellent Planning Department. The Mayor said for those who know people outside of the City's own governmental venue that know of Mr. Taormina know that he comes as someone recognized as being a leader in his specialty. The Mayor said that is a little bit of background in response to Godfroid-Marecki's question and he said he would be happy to answer any other questions. Toy said her concern would be on the Economic Development Department, since there was no staffing; her concern was what kind of support would be available to him. She was wondering if the City was merging part of the Planning Department, whatever is left of that Department, she was unsure of what kind of numbers (of employees) remain in that Department, but is there going to be some reshifting of those, because as others have said, this is one of our most important kind of venues in our community as the City faces different challenges here and this environment, she said her question was will there be some support staff there as well. The Mayor said the support staff given to the Economic Development portion of it, the Planning portion was responded to earlier by Mr. Biga's explanation of the way that has been staffed; the support that Mr. 6 Taormina gets comes from the Mayor himself. The Mayor said what the City is attempting to do is to send a message out to not only the public but all of the employees that are part of the City family of employees is that very often in public and private sectors one may see the ranks of the employees in the field being reduced and they're having to do more with less people but the staffing and executive positions remain untouched; what they're trying to show is that cuts are being made at all levels within the City and everybody is pitching in and trying harder than ever to get the job done. The Mayor said he would be bringing another matter before them sometime in the near future; there are some details to finalize. In the Assessor's office, the City Assessor Sherron Schultz retired and the City had to reorganize that Department. The Deputy Assessor has taken over the role of the Assessor. If the City were to hire a level four (4) Assessor that would cost the City around $120,000 to $130,000 with benefits, instead the City will be asking for around $6,500 for the recognition that she, Dawn Borregard, is now and has been for some months functioning as the Director of that Department. The City will also ask for an adjustment for an individual in the Department who has provided the services of a level four (4) Assessor who can certify tax rolls and this sort of thing. This is recognition that there has been a very significant change in their positions. He said that was all he planned to bring before Council but he thinks they parallel, at least the philosophy behind it is parallel, and he wanted to let Council know that is something in the offing as well. Toy said her concern was if the City was going to go door to door to different businesses will Mr. Taormina have some help on that. The Mayor said he and Mr. Taormina had their first meeting with the Michigan Economic Development representative and Jeff Bryant from the County. He said there are two (2) individuals who will be going out with Jeff Bryant and with Jeff Sands of Economic Development Corporation, they will become an unpaid cadre of people that will be offering Mr. Taormina the support he needs to get to that element of Economic Development that he cannot physically do. Meakin said that realistically what the City is doing is taking two (2) Department Head positions with full salary and full benefits and combining them into one (1) Department Head position with full salary and full benefits. The Mayor responded that was correct, he added, the change in salary reimbursement is just a fraction of what it would be had the City gone out and recruited new people for those two (2) losses. Meakin asked the Mayor if that savings would be realized in our reduction of payroll expenses this year. The Mayor replied that was correct, and added that for the Economic Development position it was for most of last year and for the Assessor a portion of last year that savings occurred. Meakin replied that he thought this was a creative way to reduce the City's payroll expense which is necessary in today's economic times. Meakin offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Laura asked President McCann for that to be on the Regular Agenda. Laura said to the Mayor, the City lost over one hundred employees according to what the 7 Mayor had previously said, Laura asked the Mayor if the City had done what it is trying to do any other place before tonight, increasing compensation. Laura said he assumed most of the services have been continued. The Mayor replied by saying they have been continued and sometimes it's part of a team, he said for an example a DPW team that may have had gone out with eight (8) people and now only has six (6) people, the change in terms of the challenge they have to complete their individual mission is appreciated, everyone is pulling harder on the oars to make it work; but there's not just one person that has replaced all six (6) people and so the City tries to recognize that one person with some type of stipend. The Mayor said they are looking at a reorganization of the Equipment Garage because their supervisor was lost about a year and a half ago. Gary Garrison and others have assumed those duties and it is in essence a Deputy Department position, so they'll be bringing something through Civil Service and Council to recognize a couple of people; two people have assumed all of the duties of the previous employee. He said they can easily be identified and the difference in their workload can be measured. He said they've only done it with the Department Heads because it's a recent phenomenon and they wanted to save the dollars that Councilman Meakin talks about, eight-five percent (85%) of our budget is in salaries and these savings are very significant. He said, as Council knows, they just finished working through the budget twice and when revenue sharing was cut they had to do it all over again. So when the City can save over $120,000 and do it twice and a single individual assumes all the responsibilities, all the workload, and all the associated things that go with it they think it's appropriate to do. He said if its part of a team that has lost a team member it's difficult to go back and make the same kind of strategy work there. Laura asked the Mayor on the current manning chart, if this were to pass is there the Director of Economic Development, the Director of Planning, and the Director of Economic Development and Planning; would there be three (3) positions or still two (2) positions. The Mayor replied, with this in practice there would be one (1) position. Laura asked again, specifically with regard to the manning chart. The Mayor replied on the manning chart that could be amended to reflect that currently there are two (2) positions, one of them vacant and with this consolidation to formalize the organizational chart there would be one (1) position with the title Director of Planning and Economic Development. Laura asked the Mayor to confirm in the manning chart there would no longer be a Director of Planning, the Mayor replied that would be correct. Godfroid-Marecki said she has been the head of the Economic Development Committee for the last several years and worked closely with Mr. Bryant before he left. She said they recently met for an Economic Development Committee meeting and he had asked Mr. Taormina to come in and give a synopsis of what has happened during the past year and like the Mayor had noted they are working together to fulfill this Department, she said Council was very impressed with the report they received. She noted there has been a lot of activity here in the City, especially during this economic downturn. There have been some big companies coming into the City that other places have not been able to attract. 8 She said they were very impressed with that report and she agrees with Meakin, not only does it save money in the long run — eliminating that other position, but she thinks Mr. Taormina deserves it because he is putting in a lot of hours to do these jobs. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 5. REQUEST TO EXTEND CONTRACT WITH VANGUARD UTILITY SERVICE, INC.: Water and Sewer Board, re: to test, repair and calibrate large commercial water meters for the period through December 31, 2010 at the unit prices submitted in February of 2007, with an additional amount of $8,000.00 for the purchase of repair parts. (CR 589-07) Paul St. Henry, Superintendent of Public Service, said this was presented to the Water and Sewer Board. This is an extension of an existing contract with the company that comes in and tests and calibrates the larger meters the City uses. He said the benefit is considerable water loss reduction by having these meters calibrated regularly and in addition there are naturally going to be some worn parts that need to be maintained. The $8,000 will be utilized for the repair parts. The Water and Sewer Board gave their approval and he is seeking approval from Council. Toy offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 6. REQUEST TO EXTEND CONTRACT WITH D'ANGELO BROTHERS, INC. FOR WATER SERVICE CONNECTIONS: Water and Sewer Board, re: to perform water main taps and service connections %" to 2", at various locations throughout the City, at the unit prices bid in their proposal, dated February 11, 2005, for the period December 1, 2009 through November 30, 2010. (CR 525-07) Paul St. Henry, Superintendent of Public Service, said this was presented to the Water and Sewer Board. The relationship with D'Angelo Brothers has been excellent. They have consistently agreed to maintain the prices they have quoted us in 2005. He believes the City would be hard pressed to beat those prices if it were to go out to bid. He said the quantity of water taps is not nearly what it used to be, so there is some advantage in the fact that D'Angelo Brothers have an idea of what kind of workload they'll have with this type of a contract. He said, in addition, on occasion they have used them when they've had emergency situations to address and did not have the in-house staffing and equipment needed to handle the situation and have had absolutely no problems with them. He said it is the recommendation of the Water and Sewer Board that this be approved. 9 Brosnan asked St. Henry if the City had attempted to extend the contracts for this item and the previous item for two (2) years instead of just one (1) year, since the prices are good now then they would be good next year and if the vendor is willing to do that it would help create a more solid budget. St. Henry replied that is certainly something the City can look into in the future. He said because there is occasionally some reluctance on the part of the Council to extend contracts, or from our Administration or our Department Heads, they tend to just go with the one (1) year extension but that is certainly an option they can look into in the future. Brosnan said these two (2) contracts in particular lead one to believe that it would be a good deal because they have been in place for so long at a constant rate and if it were possible to get one (1) more year out of the vendor at that rate it would serve the City well. St. Henry agreed that if the vendor would give us a two (2) year extension that would be better. Brosnan offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 7. REQUEST TO AUTHORIZE PURCHASES FROM SOLE SUPPLIER FOR STORMWATER, WATER MAIN AND SANITARY MANHOLE RELATED ITEMS NOT TO EXCEED $60,000.00 ANNUALLY: Water and Sewer Board, re: to be purchased from East Jordan Iron Works. (CR 94-04) Paul St. Henry, Superintendent of Public Service, he said they do not intend to utilize all of that $60,000.00 but what this is for is to take care of what they refer to as frames and structures and manhole covers that either are outdated when they get ready to repair them or have suffered some type of damage or fracture and need to be replaced. He said there are some occasions where they have also utilized our bid price which is typically lower than what they would be charged by a contractor to supplement some of the structures that might be replaced in the road repair program. Once again, in this particular situation, East Jordan has kind of a corner on the market but their prices are competitive and they did compare them with other municipalities before they come before Council. Meakin asked St. Henry if it would be possible, since Livonia is a larger City, to purchase a higher volume and then have other Communities purchase them from us, kind of a sharing of services. St. Henry said that is certainly something the City could explore; he said they hadn't thought of that before but it is definitely something they can look into in the future. Godfroid-Marecki asked St. Henry when they compared the prices with other municipalities, if the other municipalities are also being supplied by East Jordan. He replied, yes, that is correct and added that East Jordan supplies most all of the surrounding communities and he was making certain the pricing was consistent with the other communities if not better. 10 Brosnan offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 8. REQUEST TO APPROVE NEWBURGH VILLAGE RENTAL ADJUSTMENT: Housing Commission, re: to become effective June 1, 2010, to aid with preventative maintenance and capital improvements. Jim Inglis, Director of Housing, said Council has before them a rental adjustment for their Newburgh Village housing community. He said Newburgh Village was opened in 1991 and on an annual basis the Housing Commission analyzes operating costs and looks at future capital improvements of the properties. The proposed rental adjustment effective June 1, 2010 is $5.00; they did not have a rental adjustment in 2009. The Housing Commission has met with the residents of Newburgh Village and discussed the rental adjustment along with other policy matters within Newburgh Village and there were no objections offered by the residents nor have they received any written comments. Therefore, they are requesting Council approval for a $5.00 rental adjustment effective June 1, 2010. Meakin asked Inglis if the residents preferred a $5.00 annual increase as opposed to a $10.00 or $15.00 increase every two (2) or three (3) years. Inglis replied, yes that was correct. The residents prefer the gradual $5.00 increases. Meakin offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. Toy asked for it to be on the Regular Agenda. Brosnan commented that the report provided to Council on this subject provided by Inglis was very thorough and every question she had was easily answered in his report and for that she wanted to thank him. Godfroid-Marecki asked Inglis if when the housing units started out, if it was ever the plan or the intention to never raise the rents on these. He responded, absolutely not. He said it's just like maintaining a home; they have to continually have upgrades to the hot water tanks and the roofs and furnaces. There are 120 residents there and they expect them to provide good quality housing for them. He said from the onset it was anticipated that they would have moderate adjustments over the years to keep up the property in good condition. Godfroid- Marecki said after reviewing his report she sees that he has checked out different cities and comparable apartments and the rents here are still under many of the facilities. Inglis replied that was a very good point and said that was one of the things that they came to Council many years ago back in 1990 when they decided to build another Village and they said to the Council that whatever they did they didn't want to compete with the private sector so their rents are well below market and secondly, whatever rents they do set they have to support the 11 operations and not have any General Fund dollars go into supporting the operations. He said it is self-supporting, the rents pay for the principal and interest on the bonds and all of the operational costs and there are no General Fund dollars in the operation at all. Toy asked Inglis to confirm if these housing units were established with Federal dollars. He replied, no, that was not correct. He said the City's Municipal Building Authority was the financing entity. Toy asked what they were bought with, if it was bonds. He replied, yes, with bonds issued by the City's Municipal Building Authority. President McCann said he would like it noted that it's not just rental units at Silver Village or Newburgh Village that Housing does, there are a lot of services the Housing Commission provides to these residents for a very fair and favorable price. He said the residents he talks to enjoy the ability to live in these units and they want them maintained and they understand they have to be self-funding but they appreciate all the other services Housing provides. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 9. REQUEST TO APPROVE SILVER VILLAGE RENTAL ADJUSTMENT: Housing Commission, re: to become effective June 1, 2010, to aid with preventative maintenance and capital improvements. Meakin said the information on this item was pretty much the same as the last item and offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 10. REQUEST TO APPROVE RENTAL ADJUSTMENTS FOR CITY-OWNED SCATTERED SITE PROPERTIES: Housing Commission, re: to become effective March 1, 2010, to cover modernization, insurance, taxes and general operating costs. McCann said the information on this item was similar to the previous two (2) items with the exception that it is not for apartments but it is for City-owned homes. Pastor offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 11. AWARD OF BID: Public Service Division, re: for a five-year Elevator Maintenance Program with funding to come from the Building Maintenance budget. 12 Paul St. Henry, Superintendent for Public Services, said this was a new angle for the City championed by the Finance Director, Mr. Slater, and they are extremely pleased with the cost savings that they will be realizing based on going with a single vendor to handle all of the maintenance activities and service requirements for all of the different elevators the City has throughout the City. He said in the past the elevator contracts tend to just rollover with them having different starting and ending dates for their individual contracts. He said they took the opportunity to try and get out of the contracts that they could. He said there might be one (1) or two (2) that the City will still have to maintain for another year. He said the cost savings to the City is about $90,000 a year using this new method compared to the method utilized in the past. He said they originally decided to go out for one-year, three-year, and five-year contract bids and determined that the five-year contract had the best bang for the buck and after checking references on the low bidder they're very comfortable that the five-year contract is the way to go. Toy offered the approving resolution on the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT Pastor stepped down from the podium at 8:50 p.m. to avoid any perceived conflict of interest with respect to the next agenda item. 12. REQUEST FOR RELEASE OF LANDSCAPE/ENTRANCE MARKER BOND: Engineering Division, re: for the completion of public improvements at River Pines Site Condominiums, located on the south side of Seven Mile Road, between Gary Lane and Aspen Drive, in the Northwest '/4 of Section 9. (CR 838-00) Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, said this was more of a housekeeping item. He said everything has been put back properly and the public improvements have been completed and installed according to their standards and they are asking for the bond to be released in the amount of$16,500.00 of which $10,000.00 was for the general improvement bond for the pavement, $5,000.00 was for the sidewalk, and $1,500.00 was for the landscape entrance markers. They are asking for Council approval to release the bonds. Laura offered the approving resolution on the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR Pastor returned to the podium at 8:51 p.m. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. 13 Brosnan wished Livonia Happy Birthday; she said January 1St marked Livonia's 175th Birthday. She said this is a big year for us here in the City. She stated that she lives in Old Rosedale Gardens and said they are currently being considered for designation on the National Historic Registry which is pretty big news for Livonia. She said the exciting part about that was the community of Old Rosedale Gardens has been seeking this designation for quite some time and the most exciting part was that once they secure the designation it doesn't put any specific limitation on homes. She said they received a letter from the State of Michigan outlining what they get for being on the State Registry and basically it would be recognition, which in large part is what Livonia has been looking to do for a lot of our community and this should help. Next, she said she wanted to thank Councilman Tom Robinson who was kind enough to leave her his desk and she said it was in incredible shape and said he left her a very nice note, she said she knows he is watching and she wanted to thank him. President McCann added it is also Livonia's 60th Birthday as a City this year. Toy announced that the Bentley Bricks are still for sale. She said they come in three (3) different sizes and they are very reasonable for families, businesses, and others. She said there are flyers available; they can be obtained from Councilwoman Godfroid-Marecki or Councilwoman Toy (herself). She said they will be handing out flyers and posters in businesses in our community and they hope to break ground on that at the Community Recreation Center some time in June 2010. President McCann said prior to Christmas he became ill and he went to St. Mary's Hospital for a procedure and had some issues. He said he spent a lot of time in the Emergency Room for a couple of days and he wanted to thank the staff at St. Mary's Hospital; the nurses, the staff, the administration, and the doctors at St. Mary Mercy Hospital. He said the care was excellent and they treated him wonderfully and he is very proud to have such a responsive, friendly, caring hospital in our community. He also thanked Livonia and hoped for a wonderful 2010 and he hoped for better economic times. As there were no further questions or comments, Council President McCann adjourned the Study Session at 8:55 p.m. on Monday, January 4, 2010. DATED: January 12, 2010 LINDA GRIMSBY, CITY CLERK