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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-26-2004 - MinutesMEDINA CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION MINUTES April 26, 2004 Medina City Hall 7:00 PM 501 Evergreen Point Road Mayor Odermat called the Council Study Session to order at 7:03 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Council members Miles Adam, Drew Blazey, Katie Phelps, Bob Rudolph, Pete Vail-Spinosa, Deputy Mayor Todd Nunn and Mayor Mary Odermat Staff Present: City Manager (CM) Doug Schulze, City Attorney Ki-k Wines, Director of Public Works (DPW) Shel Jahn, Planning Director (PD) Joseph Gellings, Finance Officer Jan Burdue and Recording Secretary Caroll Wedlund ANNOUNCEMENTS Mayor Odermat relayed the following: • Both Council member Phelps and Mayor Odermat attended Chaplain Mike Ryan's information session. The next one will take place on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 from 7:00 to 9:OO.at city hall. • There will be an informal briefing on the SR-520 project at City Hall on April 27, 2004 at City Hall, with no questions from the audience. A more formal presentation is available for the Council at a later date, as well as an open house with the community. City Manager Schulze interjected the Council would be discussing this item at their May 10, 2004 meeting. Council member Vall-Spinosa requested that an article be inserted in the Medina Newsletter prior to the May Council meeting. • A Port of Seattle meeting will be held at Pier 69 on Thursday, April 29 at 12:00 noon. At the May 10 Council meeting, Mayor Odermat will appoint another member to the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC). She had received the PRC's first and second choices, as well as the resumes of the three applicants, but would meet with any of them who wished to be part of the interview process. • Mayor Odermat attended the Women Mayors' meeting today. People in surrounding jurisdictions knew Medina Park functioned as a dog park. DPW Jahn planned to forward an ordinance proposal regarding dog control in Medina Park for consideration. This issue will be discussed at the end of the May Study Session. CM Schulze referred to Paul Demitriades' request regarding concerns, about the Magnuson Park lighting plan. This item had been included for Council information and to decide whether they wished to add it to the May 10 agenda. Mayor Odermat added the Seattle Council was expected to act on this in June. Mr. Demitriades wanted the Council to approve a resolution forcing the Seattle Council to hold I-earings on the eastside prior to making a decision. She polled the Council regarding pursuing the Magnuson Park lighting issue. Following discussion, the Council decided not to take any action at this time. CM Schulze stated Council Retreat Facilitator Michael Pendleton would meet with the remaining Council members tomorrow, after which an agenda would be assembled. CM Schulze would know more about the agenda tomorrow. City Attorney Wines announced the T-Mobile court hearing will be held on June 9, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. in the Court of Appeals at One Union Square. He will be present to represent the city. DISCUSSION Compensation Study Report -Jim Meith, of Meith Human Resources Consulting, relayed he had conducted a classification and compensation study for the city over 11he past four months. He explained the process utilized for the Classification and Salary Study, noting eacn employee had completed a 24-page position description questionnaire. Class descriptions for vacant classifications were written based upon an understanding of the duties, required knowledge and skills. Five classifications were recommended for new titles —Patrol Officer to Police Officer, Records Manager to Police Records Information Specialist, Administrative Specialist to Administrative Assistant, Maintenance Worker to Maintenance Worker I & ll, and Planning Director to Community Development Director. He conducted salary comparisons with 13 cities. Comparison factors took into account the classification structure and internal considerations, the organizational structure and staffing patterns, as well as delivery of services. Mr. Meith noted there was an expectation of a pretty high level of service delivery in Medina, which may not be found in other cities. Another comparison factor was employee recruitment and retention. Salaries must be competitive in order to attract and retain good employees. Mr. Meith recommended a salary range of 20 percent from minimum to maximum for all classifications. The data was compiled using the median of all the maximum ranges for the comparable cities. He had used that standard to provide more consistent data, for better representation, and to neutralize both extreme lows and highs. City Council Study Session Minutes April 26, 2004 Page 2 Mr. Meith continued the recommended salary range was computed using the survey data to establish the midpoint of the salary range. The maximum was then established 10 percent above and the minimum 10 percent below the median of the highs. Using the midpoint as the city's benchmark point with its comparables would lend itself to the implementation of a merit pay plan. Those who reached the maximum of their pay range could merit an increase above the maximum of their range if they were rated 'exemplary". However, this increase must be re -earned every 12 months, with continued "exemplary" performance. Otherwise, the employee's salary would revert to the maximum of the pay range. In all except four cases, the existing salary fell within the recommended range. The four exceptions were Administrative Assistant, City Manager, Community Development Director and Information Systems Coordinator. In the first instance, the employee's current salary was above the proposed maximum. In the latter three, the salaries were below the minimum proposed salary. The next step was implementation through the Council's acceptance. depending upon whether the city wanted to use the full recommendation or not. The city could phase it in if the cost of implementation was too high. It was pointed out six of the 13 comparison cities were much larger than Medina and therefore, paid higher salaries. Mr. Meith indicated the other cities used for comparison were part of the labor market with which Medina competed for employee recruitment and retention. Also in smaller jurisdictions, employees were expected to multi -task. Mr. Meith stated employee turnover was expensive, since a replacement average cost 1.5 times the salary of a departing employee. Replacement costs were calculated from the time a staff member left until a new one was trained to the level of the former employee, including training, productivity, and a learning curve. For a small jurisdiction, the hit for losing an employee was even harder. A Council member stated the salary information Clyde Hill's City Administrator had not been included. The Council recessed at 8:17 p.m. to give Mr. Meith time to obtain the needed information, and the meeting reconvened at 8:24 p.m. Mr. Meith stated he would recalculate the data, including the Clyde Hill City Administrator's salary and send it to CM Schulze. For consideration of additional options, the Council requested recalculation of the salary figures to include the median midpoint at 75 percent of the range and the median midpoint of the range. Health Insurance Costs —CM Schulze referred to the health Insurance Costs report, which was for discussion only. He had also received a report form the Employee Health Benefits Committee, who had reviewed reducing employee health care costs for the city. The committee had found the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) rates to be the most competitive for the available carriers. All Plan A cities surveyed provided 100 percent of the employee premium, and the cities which required the employee to contribute toward their dependent coverage overall provided a higher contribution toward employee benefits than did Medina. The committee had determined that Medina was one of only four cities that did not provide AWC Plan A, which was more comprehensive than Plan B, or a Preferred Provider Plan. They also discovered that most cities currently offered a more expensive plan with a higher level of coverage. Another finding was that cities which did not fully fund dependent coverage typically provided an additional benefit not provided by Medina, such as matching deferred compensation. Effective in 2004, Medina provided a match of different compensations for employees covered under labor agreements. This information was provided for the Council to absorb and to use as the city moved into negotiations and the budget process. He suggested prior to entering the next round of collective bargaining, the Council might reach consensus on policy regarding compensation and benefits. CM Schulze added the committee had suggested it would be appropriate to reevaluate area health care benefit coverage trends in January 2005. The Council decided to discuss health insurance costs at the end of this year, and CM Schulze offered to provide them with a position paper. The Council will furnish direction during the first quarter of 2005. 2005 — 2010 CIP/TIP—DPW Jahn stated in 2003, the CIP had been adjusted to stretch the city's capital improvement needs so the program would not exceed S600,000 in any year. However, any project below 520,000 was included in the budget process, rather than being part of the CIP. Categories I through IV constituted the city's Transportation Improvement Program, which must be annually submitted to the state. Category I: Street Improvement Projects Category III: Sidewalk and Path Improvement Projects Category II: Storm Drainage Projects Category IV: Miscellaneous Street Projects City Council Study Session Minutes April 26, 2004 Pape 3 DPW Jahn continued most of the CIP funding came from the General Fund because the city's primary sources of revenue resulted from property taxes and sales taxes. City Manager Schulze suggested the Council discuss the 2005-2010 CIP/TIP during the Council Retreat. The North EGPR Overlay, Drainage Improvement and sidewalk project was not on last year's CIP DPW Jahn explained the reason this project was planned for 2007 was because Bellevue Utilities planned to replace the entire asphalt concrete water line running under EGPR from the SR-520 overpass to the northern end of the road. Puget Sound Energy may install a gas line as well. When Bellevue does this work, they will have to tear up and then patch the old concrete slabs which currently provide the travel way surface. The proposal is to overlay this surface with asphalt concrete once Bellevue has completed replacement of the water line, slightly widen the road, and take advantage of this opportunity to make some much -needed improvements to the city's storm drain system along this road segment. To improve pedestrian safety, a sidewalk along the western side is also included in the project. It was noted residents had planted in the right-of-way in that area, and they also liked their ditches. DPW stated a ditch line helped to increase the quality of the water by providing a cleansing surface before it drained into the lake. The ditches were continually recharging the ground water table. Any infiltration into the city's water tables would create stability problems and hillside slides. CM Schulze added one of the reasons for a CIP/TIP was to avoid having to compress design and construction of a project into a short time frame. Not only could project compression lead to being over budget, but also residents become upset if they feel they have not been allowed to participate in the process. DPW Jahn wanted to get the neighborhood involved. DPW Jahn relayed sidewalk construction on the north side of NE 81h Street from 80`i' Avenue to Evergreen Point Road (EGPR) was likely to be controversial, given feedback recently received from residents who lived there. This project was programmed to coincide with construction of Medina Elementary during the 2005 — 2006 school year. The north side was selected to complement the proposed vehicular and pedestrian traffic circulation associated with the new school. He promised to work with each resident to make the sidewalk aesthetically pleasing and to meet their needs. DPW Jahn stressed that much of the preliminary work for the following year's projects took place during the current year. Therefore, if the Council endorsed the CIP, especially the 2005 program, it was important that they also provide the funding in the 2005 budget to accomplish the approved CIP work. By consensus, the Council decided to consider the CIP/TIP in a public hearing on June 14, 2004. Discussion of New Parks and Recreation Commission Ordinance Proposal —DPW Jahn stated the PRC had suggested some modifications to the new Parks and Recreation Commission Ordinance that was approved by the Council on March 8, 2004. The PRC was requesting that their revised ordinance language be put on the consent agenda for adoption. Deputy Mayor Nunn suggested it be included in the May Study Session agenda. Discussion of Dog Control in Medina Park Ordinance Proposal —DPW Jahn relayed the PRC wanted the Council to consider a proposed change in the Code language governing dog control in Medina Park. They were recommending splitting Medina Park in half at the stream line bridge. The western portion would be an on -leash, on path area for dogs, and the larger, eastern portion would be an off -leash, under voice control area. By consensus, the Council agreed to discuss the issue of dog control in Medina Park at a future meeting. Agenda Calendar —The Council wished to consider the Medina Elementary School Special Use Permit as a separate meeting. CM Schulze will electronically submit some suggested dates for Council consideration, but the best date was June 7, 2004. They also agreed to discuss intersection sight distance on May 10, 2004. ADJOURNMENT Deputy Mayor Nunn moved, seconded by Council member Adam, to adjourn at 9:39 p.m., and the motion carried unanimously. y �) a Attest: Mayor Mary Odermat Caroll P. Wedlund, Recording Secretary