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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL STUDY - 2010-09-13 CITY OF LIVONIA— CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD SEPTEMBER 13, 2010 Meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. Present: John Pastor, Brian Meakin, Joe Laura, Laura Toy, Maureen Miller Brosnan, Conrad Schwartz and James McCann. Absent: None. Elected and appointed officials present: Mayor Jack Kirksey; Don Knapp, City Attorney; Mark Taormina, City Planner; Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; and Terry Marecki, City Clerk. President McCann announced a Public Hearing for the following item will be held on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, MI, on the following: Petition 2010-07-01-02 submitted by Joe's Produce requesting to rezone property located on the north side of Seven Mile Road, between Shadyside Avenue and Mayfield Avenue (33152 Seven Mile Road), in the Southwest '/4 of Section 3 from C-1 and R-3 to C-2 (Local Business and One Family Residential — 80' x 120' Lots to General Business). Mayor Kirksey thanked everyone that participated in the 5K Walk/Run at St. Mary's Hospital on Sunday, September 12, 2010; there were over 600 participants. He announced today was the opening of A123, located in the 7 Mile and Haggerty area. It is the highest producing battery factory of its type in the country. He said Governor Granholm and Councilman Laura were in attendance. Admiral Blair was the speaker at the luncheon. It was a great day in Livonia. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. NEW BUSINESS 1. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION TO SELL CITY-OWNED PROPERTY PURCHASED FROM FANNIE MAE FORECLOSED PROPERTIES: Livonia Housing Commission, re: located at 28614 Seven Mile Road for a total sale price of$51,000.00. (CR 405-09) Jim Inglis, Executive Director of Housing, said the City purchased this property with Neighborhood Stabilization Funds on October 7, 2009 for $30,690.00. Hazardous materials were removed from the home and it was rehabilitated. An appraisal was done and the home was appraised for $51,000.00. According to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program regulations the City can sell the home for the acquisition cost plus rehabilitation costs or the appraised value, which ever is the lesser. This is a small 2 bedroom home on Seven Mile Road with no basement. The home is on a good size lot but is a modest home. The City did receive a purchase agreement from Tammy and James Sekutowski. They are 2 income eligible and have been through the required homeownership training program. Toy offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 2. REQUEST TO AWARD CONTRACT TO SOLE SOURCE; REQUEST TO AUTHORIZE INFORMATION SYSTEMS DIRECTOR TO SOLICIT SEALED BIDS: AND REQUEST TO APPROVE APPROPRIATIONS AND EXPENDITURES: Inspection Department, re: to purchase upgraded software licensing for the Inspection and Sanitation Departments, to purchase various required computer hardware, and to authorize funding from Capital Outlay accounts. Alex Bishop, Director of Inspection, presented the request to Council. He said this upgrade will dramatically change the way the Inspection and Sanitation Departments operate; improving their recordkeeping system and efficiency. Allowing them to provide better and faster service and they expect saving money on overtime, printing and mailing costs. They initially purchased the BS&A system in 2002 when they implemented computers in processing their paperwork. It was a striking change at that time in terms of how they kept records and how they were able to retrieve records. BS&A has worked continually with them on upgrading the program. They previously looked at having the inspectors use the tablets but found them to be too cumbersome and too slow for downloading. BS&A has solved those problems and has just released Building Inspection.net and Field Inspection.net. He said two of their department staff members attended an introduction to these systems and brought back the information on these new programs which have led him here before Council with this request. BS&A will correct some issues with the current program and they will have improved auditing abilities, better paperwork, and improved control with the tablets. The inspectors will have the ability to upload their computers every evening and save a step in transferring data. Instead of going from the inspector to the clerk to the computer it will go from the inspector to the computer. Additional features that they may use including invoicing. They will also be able to e-mail permits and correction notices to their customers. They will save on printing costs and will save 400-500 sheets of paper every day. The system is composed of several parts and they are all required to make the system work. It requires the system itself from BS&A, the training from BS&A so staff has the knowledge to properly operate the system, the new tablets and upgraded computers for clerical staff and supervision and a new server to replace the current server. They are recommending BS&A as a sole source provider for the system and training. They are asking that Council authorize the City to enter into a contract with BS&A Software, Inc. 14965 Abbey Lane, Bath, MI 48808 for the software 3 licensing and training in an amount not to exceed $27,790. Additionally they are asking Council to authorize the Information System Director to solicit sealed bids for the purchase of the computer hardware, including a server, 12 tablet notebooks and 10 desktop personal computers. These bids will be brought back to Council for acceptance. They are also asking Council to authorize an expenditure of budgeted funds in the amount of $40,285 from the Sanitation- Minor Capital Outlay Fund and $18,300 from Inspection-Minor Capital Outlay Fund. Further, it is requested that Council approve an additional appropriation and expenditure of $14,005 from the unexpended fund balance of the Capital Projects Fund. Meakin offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. Brosnan asked Bishop if a new server is required in order for this new software and hardware to operate. Bishop replied that is correct and said this system can operate with the current outdated server. Bishop indicated this server has been scheduled for replacement for years but said Mr. Putman; Director of Information Systems has not been able to find the money in his budget for the replacement. He said the City has three servers and this is the oldest one. She asked Bishop how the system integrates with other departments in City Hall, like the Assessing Department. He replied it is able to integrate with the Assessing Department now and will also in the future. She asked him to provide confirmation from Mr. Putman that the system would integrate with the Assessing Department and also if it would integrate with any other Departments. Bishop said he had already spoke with Putman and said it shouldn't be a problem providing that to Council before the next meeting. Toy asked Bishop if Inspection has done its own billing all these years. Bishop asked Toy if she was referring to the billing for the Annual Inspections, she replied yes. He said right now, finance does the billing for the Annual Inspections. She asked Bishop if he does any other billing besides the Annual Inspections. He replied no and said everything that they do is at their counter. Toy asked if this would help the counter help. He replied absolutely yes. He said it can also do the billing for the Annual Inspections should they decide to implement that in the future and take that burden off of the Finance Department. Toy said her concern is the necessity of the upgrade. She said she is all for technology and integrated systems because she thinks later in the near future, as previously stated, some of these systems are obsolete after four and five years. She asked if this expenditure is extremely necessary at this time. She asked him how much money is it estimated to save the Department. Bishop responded stating part of what they looked at was the server has needed replacing for years and is at risk of breaking down at any time. Their computers are at an age where they need to be replaced. The tablets are new, they didn't want them previously because they could not get the efficiencies out of them that they wanted. They have had the initial system for eight (8) years. He said they believe this system will save the Department a great deal of money. She asked him if they have done a time 4 study. He replied no. She said when spending this amount of money, she feels a cost analysis should have been done. He said their hope is to save the department some overtime costs, in the amount of approximately half of a clerk's salary or $20,000.00. Toy asked him to provide Council some kind of cost analysis. She said appreciated his forward thinking on the matter but said she would like to see some type of comparison of what the City would be saving versus what the City would be spending. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 3. REQUEST TO EXTEND AUTHORIZATION TO PURCHASE PULSAR BRIQUETTES FROM SOLE SUPPLIER: Department of Parks and Recreation, re: for the period through November 30, 2011, from B & B Pools and Spas at 2009 pricing. (CR 400-09) Karen Kapchonick, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, presented the request to Council to purchase the Pulsar Briquettes from B & B Pools and Spas. She said they are the sole supplier for this specific brand. She said the contractor has offered to keep the cost at their 2009 pricing which is $105 per 50 pound bucket, she said they go through approximately 300 buckets per year. She said funds for this expenditure have been budgeted. Toy offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. REQUEST FOR CHANGE IN FIELD RENTAL PROCEDURES: Department of Parks & Recreation, re: to eliminate the Daily and Seasonal Permits and go with an Hourly Permit only, effective December 1, 2010. Karen Kapchonick, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, said after evaluating the field rental procedures the Parks and Recreation Commission recommends to Council that they only use one type of permit. By eliminating the Daily and Seasonal Permits and going with an Hourly Permit they can simplify this procedure. They acknowledge that five (5) organizations will be effected by this change. These organizations currently reserve multiple hours of use and pay an average of$2.00 up to $7.50 per hour. This is far less than average hourly rate of $15.00 per hour. Their staff has been in discussion with these groups and recently notified the permit holders of their proposal. As part of this change, if they have status as a 501(c) 3 organization they will be given a 40% discount based on the Livonia fee and waiver grid. These increases would take effect December 1, 2010. She said there is a representative with her from the Livonia Family YMCA, Laura Perlowski, who has some concerns about their proposal. Brosnan asked Kapchonick if the purpose for the change was to streamline how fees are collected or to generate more revenue. Kapchonick replied both 5 reasons. Brosnan said in terms of convenience for the City of Livonia, she asked if that convenience also translated to those who are using the fields. She asked if they would rather pay just an increased fee for the field rather than have budgets fluctuate because they are paying hourly rates. She asked Kapchonick if she had talked to the patrons regarding the increased fee schedule vs. current fee schedule. Kapchonick replied no they have not. She said in terms of what they are paying, it would be an hourly rate. She said when they come in and ask for multiple hours, staff has to sit down and figure out what would be appropriate for them, so it was either to give them the seasonal rate or daily rate based on their needs. She said when they looked at the seasonal rate which only utilized by these five (5) organizations, we found that they were asking for a substantial amount of hours and only paying $275.00 for the whole season. When they looked at their costs associated with that they weren't absorbing all of their costs. They also recognized that it is an inconvenience for them and with the fact that the City has the grid; they would apply that grid to them so they would receive the 40% discount. Brosnan asked if they negotiated with them how many hours they'll be using the fields for so at the beginning of their year they know how much they'll owe the City. Kapchonick said that is correct, they do meet with them and these groups usually have second priority (first priority is for City programs). After they make they choose their times then the general public can choose times for the fields. Laura asked Kapchonick if the school fields were separate. She replied they are separate and they no longer maintain any of the school fields. She said about eight to ten years ago they got out of that. He asked if the schools lease their own fields and have their own arrangements. She replied yes. Meakin asked Kapchonick if she had done a study of diminishing returns. He said at some point they're not going to be able to afford to use the fields and then the fields will sit empty and the City will lose money rather than gain money as they are proposing. He asked her if she looked to see at what point that is. She said no they have not. She indicated they also use the fields for practices at no cost. Meakin said he realizes that these are difficult economic times for the City as well as most everyone else but he thinks these increases are substantial and is concerned that the groups that use the fields will cut their programs and won't be using the fields at all. Laura Perlowski, 14255 Stark, said she would like to acknowledge, although she understands the reasoning behind the request for eliminating the seasonal permits and moving to hourly rates, she would like Council to consider this increase will result in a direct negative impact on YMCA programs. She said the YMCA has been a vital part of the Livonia community since the 1960's and they do provide a valuable service to kids and families in Livonia. Increasing their field rental rates will mean that they will have to pass that cost directly onto their participants. In the past few years they have been very careful with all of their program prices. They have not added on annual cost of living increases and in a 6 few cases they have even lowered their prices to allow families to continue to participate in their programs. She said she believes that the customers will not be able to sustain the increased prices. They probably will not continue to register and this will threaten their outdoor sports programs and in that case they will not be able to rent the fields which will result in both the YMCA and the City of Livonia losing out. President McCann asked Kapchonick if she was aware if any other community even comes close to the proposed $9.00 per hour (after applying the 40% discount). She said Garden City does not charge for the use of their fields but said they are very limited in what they have to offer. In the last couple of years Canton hasn't been charging that much for their fields but they are starting to charge a base amount given to an organization and then for every type of work that is performed they will deduct the amount that it costs them. For example, they would have say $10,000 on account for a group, they would charge them for the cutting of the fields, the lining of the fields, anything else that is associated with that particular field that they want. Then if they exhaust that $10,000 they would have to pay back to the community. All the different communities are looking at ways to deal with budget concerns and still try to work with the various groups. President McCann asked Kapchonick if they looked at a more gradual increase over a period of time so that it is not such a large increase to these groups, such as an increase to $3.00 per hour this year and then an increase to $5.00 per hour the following year, etc. She said no, they did not. They looked at the benefit of having the grid and applying the grid for them. Brosnan asked if this recommendation comes from the Parks and Recreation Department as well as the Parks and Recreation Commission. Kapchonick said that is correct. Brosnan asked if there were any other models, kind of along the same line as President McCann, not just in terms of easing this grid in but did they look at any models, such as the Canton one, to see if they would work. She said they did not. She said this is something they just heard about from Canton. She said she knows in the last couple of weeks a few of the communities have inquired what the other communities are doing next year. Everyone is sharing ideas at this time. This is the first unique style that they've heard of from Canton. She said now currently with the Livonia Junior Athletic League (LJAL) because they are a Department sponsored program, they provide them with a designated number of hours of field time and a certain dollar value for officials. If they use more than those designated hours or certain dollar value they are billed for anything above and beyond those amounts. So they are doing something similar to Canton with the UAL because they are sponsored by their Department. Brosnan said because there is still some time, she would like the Council to take a shot along with the Department at trying to craft something. She said maybe it turns out to be the proposed increase in the end but she thinks its best to bring the community groups in and go through the exercise of trying to find a model that works for the community, understanding fully that the City needs to make 7 ends meet but understanding that is what a lot of the community's non-profit organizations are also trying to accomplish. Brosnan offered the resolution referring the subject to the Public Safety, Education & Recreation Committee for their report and recommendation for the Consent Agenda. Laura asked Kapchonick what her time line is on this, if it matters. She said it does in a sense of giving these organizations time to plan for next year's budget. She said that is why she brought this Council early. DIRECTION: REFER TO PUBLIC SAFETY CONSENT EDUCATION AND RECREATION COMMITTEE 5. REQUEST TO EXTEND CONTRACT FOR STREET SWEEPING SERVICES IN CONNECTION WITH THE CITY'S 2010 LEAF PICKUP PROGRAM: Public Service Division, re: with B & J Parking Lot Maintenance, Inc. through 2010, at the unit prices accepted in August of 2009. (CR 355-09) Paul St. Henry, Superintendent of Public Service, said they are seeking Council approval to extend a contract with B & J Parking Lot Maintenance to handle the street sweeping that primarily occurs after the final leaf pick-up within the residential areas within the City. In addition, they would like to take advantage of the pricing for some auxiliary sweeping that might be necessary in some of the other locations. B & J has continued to hold their low prices and was the low bidder for the past two times the City went out for bid. Toy offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 6. REQUEST TO ADVISE THE WAYNE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICES (PERMIT SECTION) THAT THE CITY HAS APPROVED THE STORM SEWER PLANS AND WILL ACCEPT JURISDICTION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE STORM SEWER WITHIN THE PROPERTY LOCATED AT 37401 PLYMOUTH ROAD; AND REQUEST TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY ENGINEER TO EXECUTE A WAYNE COUNTY PERMIT ON BEHALF OF THE CITY: Engineering Division, re: the property located on the south side of Plymouth Road, west of Newburgh Road (37401 Plymouth Road), in the S.E. '/4 of Section 30, with Community Alliance Credit Union to reimburse the City for any such maintenance that may become necessary. Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, said this is just a housekeeping matter in which they have an agreement with Wayne County. 8 Meakin offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 7. REQUEST TO AMEND COUNCIL RESOLUTION 144-10: Engineering Division, re: in connection with the 2010 Pavement Crack and Joint Sealing Program, Contract 10-D, to expand the program to include Bicentennial Drive and the adjacent parking lots at Bicentennial Park from budgeted funds. Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, said they are asking for an amendment to his request due to recent developments. He said they are asking for an increase of the contract amount by $5,000 instead of the original $10,000 increase they requested. He said the reason is because due to recent developments the Bicentennial Parking lot permits have been put on hold. Based on the revised submittal, some of the older parking lots are older than 25 years old and said due to budget constraints they are looking to hopefully improve those next year. Schwartz offered the approving resolution with an amended increase of $5,000 for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING - $5,000 INCREASE CONSENT 8. SITE PLAN PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2008-10-08-12 submitted by St. Mary Mercy Hospital in connection with a proposal to construct an addition to the hospital on property located on the southwest corner of Five Mile Road and Levan Road (36475 Five Mile Road), in the Northwest 1/4 of Section 20. (CR 362-09) Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development, said the last time Council reviewed this matter was in August of 2009 when the Council approved the rezoning of a portion of the property at the south end of the hospital campus and at the same time not only approved plans to expand the parking to that additional area that was rezoned but also to reconstruct the existing parking lot that is located just south of the Marian Building. The hospital is now moving forward with what is referred to as their Momentum 2012 Project and some of the highlights of that project would include the construction of 154,000 square foot three story addition to the south end of the hospital. They would relocate the emergency center to that first floor of that new addition and provide a total of 80 private rooms and the second and third floors of the addition. There are several other improvements scheduled which renovate the emergency center as an Outpatient Surgery Center (OSC). They would renovate the existing inpatient rooms located in the hospital from shared rooms to private rooms. A number of other renovations are scheduled including the OSC support staff area and surgical-radiological sections. The Planning Commission review these plans and also reviewed issues regarding the landscaping at the main north entrance and around the new building additions and parking lots, the relocated helipad, 9 improved pedestrian circulation. The Engineer on this project has been working with the City's Engineering Division on improvements to the stormwater management plan. He said they have representatives here tonight, Sara Gilbert, Director of Strategic Projects for the hospital, as well as representatives for the architects Hobbs & Black and their design engineers Tucker Young. Meakin asked Taormina if this is the same plan Council saw in 2008. Taormina said virtually the same plan with minor adjustments relative to some of the parking in other areas. Meakin asked Taormina if landscaping and signs are included. Taormina said the signage is something they'll review at a later date. Sara Gilbert, 36475 Five Mile, was present on behalf of St. Mary Mercy Hospital. She said back in 2008 they had to put the project on a little bit of hold because of the economic changes. They are now able to proceed with the project and are hopeful they can begin construction next spring and complete this addition within a couple of years. She said they have worked really hard on trying to take care of some of the water retention issues and some of the landscaping issues, while trying to make sure they meet the needs of the community. Not only through healthcare but by the building they are presenting. She said once the building is complete they will be going back into their 90 semi-private rooms and converting them to private rooms as well. When that is complete St. Mary's will be able to offer 100% private medical-surgical rooms to our community. This is a huge benefit. Toy asked if their case load has gone up in recent times. Gilbert their emergency care volume is beginning to pick back up. She said they did suffer from the slump as well. People are not seeking out healthcare like they were before but the volume is starting to pick back up. Toy asked if they were still providing emergency care and asked if that was done by the doctors there in their hospital. Gilbert responded yes. Toy asked if they planned to outsource that at all. Gilbert said she is not aware of any plans to outsource emergency care. Toy offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. Meakin asked Gilbert if they would be increasing their number of employees here in Livonia. She said the employee count is not going to be increasing significantly because they are not adding beds. She said they are licensed to operate 304 beds. They will continue to operate 304 beds and will not be increasing their number of employees of any significant amount. Meakin added he lives in the area adjacent to the property and said many of the neighbors are grateful that they will be moving the helipad to a location that will be less disturbing to the neighbors. Brosnan said for the sake of full disclosure, she stated she serves on the St. Joseph Mercy Health System Board of Directors. She said it is not a financially compensated position and pointed out that the Ethics Ordinance does not 10 preclude her from voting on this matter and so she does intend to be present for the vote that evening. She said she also wanted to let everyone know from the health systems perspective this is extremely exciting news. She said by making these renovations and improvements it will continue to keep St. Mary Mercy Hospital moving ahead of the curve of most healthcare providers. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. As there were no further questions or comments, Council President McCann adjourned the Study Session at 8:54 p.m. on Monday, September 13, 2010. DATED: September 21, 2010 TERRY A. MARECKI CITY CLERK