VILLAGE OF ARMADA
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2010
7:00PM
President Stork called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. All rose for Pledge of Allegiance. Present at roll call: Stork, Stirrett, Coenen, Cooper, Sutherland, Wolak, and Clark. Also present: Clerk Poulos, Treasurer Adair, Lyle Ballard, Patti LeMieux, Ed Serwatowski, David Stork, Terry Rooney, Ben Delecke, Steve Baxter, and David Wagner.
AGENDA, APPROVAL OF
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Coenen, to approve agenda as amended.
Moved Transfer of Charges for Brush Removal to Agenda Item A.
Moved Building Department Inspection Fees to Agenda Item I.
Added Portable Generator as Agenda Item O.
Removed Police Overtime with Contracts until the next RCM.
All Ayes CARRIED
CITIZEN COMMENT
None Received.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
Treasurer Adair submitted the monthly Treasurer’s Report in this agenda packet (on file). The United Water, Building and Fire Department reports were removed until the next RCM.
GENERAL BUSINESS
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Clark, to approve the consent agenda as amended.
All Ayes CARRIED
Approval of RCM Minutes of 3/8/10 removed, added as Agenda Item O.
Payment of Bills removed, added as Agenda Item J.
List of Depositories approved to accept the 2010/11 Village of Armada List of Depositories and to place on file.
Investment Policy to accept the Village President’s submittal of the Treasurer’s annual Investment Policy.
2010/2011 Wage Allocations to establish the compensation for the Clerk of the Village of Armada in the amount of $22,216.62 annually effective April 1, 2010. To establish the compensation for the Treasurer of the Village of Armada in the amount of $31,888.26 annually effective April 1, 2010.
Approval of SCM Minutes of 3/15/10 to approve minutes of March 15, 2010 special meeting of the Village Council, as presented.
Removed Employee Negotiation Committee Report from Executive Session.
No Old Business was presented at this meeting.
A. TRANSFER OF CHARGES FOR BRUSH REMOVAL
This item was heavily discussed and voted on in the previous budget workshop and continued to be discussed in this meeting to transfer the $20,000.00 budgeted for brush removal from the General Fund to the Municipal Street Fund. This was presented as an option due to the approximate $56,000.00 deficit in revenues to expenditures for the 2010/2011 General Fund budget and transferring this charge to the Municipal Street Fund brings the deficit of the General Fund to approximately $36,000.00. President Stork presented her opposition to this stating that the burden to the Street Fund would not allow for major street repairs to happen before 2016, although repairs to local streets (Simon and Barrows) would still be on task. A lengthy discussion followed.
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Wolak, to transfer charges for brush removal from the General Fund to the Street Fund effective with the 2010/2011 budget and for all future years until Council deems necessary to change.
Ayes: Cooper, Wolak, Stirrett, Coenen
Nays: Sutherland, Clark, Stork CARRIED
B. SET PROPOSED ADMINISTRATION FEES FOR VILLAGE ACCOUNTS
The Treasurer and President recommended the following Administrative Fees for Village Accounts:
MOTION by Stirrett, seconded by Cooper, to set the Administration Fees for the Village accounts as follows:
Local Street Fund $ 1,500.00
Major Street Fund $ 1,500.00
Water Fund $10,500.00
Sewer System Fund $10,500.00
Building Department $ 500.00
All Ayes CARRIED
C. CAPITAL CHARGES
The Clerk presented Council with the annual proposed water and sewer rate resolutions (on file) reflecting the Detroit Area CPI increase of 3.0%, as given by the Auditor, on the water and sewer commodity charges and the water DWRF bond cost has been raised 3% as required by the bond.
MOTION by Sutherland, seconded by Coenen, to adopt the attached resolution approving the new water rates.
Ayes: Sutherland, Stork, Clark, Cooper, Coenen
Nays: Stirrett, Wolak CARRIED
MOTION by Stirrett, seconded by Cooper, to adopt the attached resolution approving the new sewer rates.
Ayes: Stirrett, Sutherland, Stork, Clark, Cooper, Coenen
Nays: Wolak CARRIED
D. SET PROPOSED MILLAGE RATES
Treasurer Adair explained that the Council needs to set the proposed millage rates for fiscal year 2010/2011. The millage will not be set until we receive the Headlee Rollback amount from the County.
MOTION by Coenen, seconded by Clark, to accept the recommendations by Treasurer Adair to propose the 2010 Tax Millage rate at the maximum allowable levy as permanently reduced by MCL211.34d and authorized under Truth in Taxation, MCL.21124e, with full understanding that these requested tax levy rates will be reduced, if necessary, to comply with the state constitutional (Article 9 Section 31) MXL Sections 211.34 and 211.24e. The following rates shall be proposed:
General Fund 9.4424 mills
Municipal Streets Fund 3.7768 mills
Total Proposed Millage Rate 13.2192 mills
Ayes: Stirrett, Wolak, Coenen, Stork, Cooper, Clark, Sutherland
Nays: None CARRIED
E. BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Treasurer Adair submitted three budget amendments for the current (2009/10) budget.
MOTION by Sutherland, seconded by Clark, to reduce revenues of account #000-650, line item Intergovernmental Hydrant fee to the Water fund by $4,760.00, bringing the total adjusted prior year funds from $101,860.50 to $97,100.50 and to increase expenditures of account #999-999, line item Transfer to Other Funds to the Water Department by $20,000.00, bringing the total adjusted prior year funds from $97,100.50 to $77,100.50 and to increase expenditures of account #999-999, line item Transfer to Other Funds to the Sewer Department by $8,000.00, bringing the total adjusted prior year funds from $92,237.08 to $84,237.08.
Ayes: Sutherland, Clark, Coenen, Wolak, Cooper, Stirrett, Stork
Nays: None CARRIED
F. PUBLIC HEARING TO ADOPT FISCAL YEAR 2010/2011 BUDGET
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Clark, to enter into Public Hearing for the F/Y 2010/2011 Budget at 7:41 pm.
All Ayes CARRIED
The Village of Armada's fiscal year 2010/2011 begins April 1, 2010. The Village is required to adopt budgets for its various funds prior to this date. After several workshops conducted by the Village Council, a budget was prepared and submitted for this public hearing and Council vote. President Stork reiterated her opposition to taking money out of roads and placing into the General Fund, she feels deeper cuts could have been made in the General Fund and is not in favor of taking cuts in roads. Stork also requested that each fund have a separate motion. No public comments were received.
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Clark, to exit Public Hearing at 7:44 pm.
All Ayes CARRIED
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Coenen, to approve the resolution to adopt the fiscal year 2010/2011 budgets for the General Fund as presented.
Ayes: Cooper, Coenen, Stirrett, Clark, Wolak
Nays: Stork, Sutherland CARRIED
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Coenen, to approve the resolution to adopt the fiscal year 2010/2011 budgets for the Municipal, Major and Local Street Funds as presented.
Ayes: Cooper, Coenen, Stirrett, Wolak
Nays: Stork, Clark, Sutherland CARRIED
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Coenen, to approve the resolution to adopt the fiscal year 2010/2011 budgets for the Water and Sewer Funds as presented.
Ayes: Cooper, Coenen, Stirrett, Wolak, Stork, Clark, Sutherland
Nays: None CARRIED
G. MACOMB COUNTY WORK FOR AMERICANS RESOLUTION
President Stork was contacted by Paul Gieleghem, Chairman of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners, who asked for Armada’s support of a resolution urging Federal Legislators to create a comprehensive jobs program (on file). She explained that the Macomb County Board of Commissioner met to discuss the 796,000 unemployed Americans and created a resolution to be signed by all communities and sent to the Federal Government urging them to create a comprehensive jobs program that will employ laid off individuals for at least one year. President Stork stated that she spoke to County Commissioner Keith Rengert, who was the only nay vote and does not support this resolution as there is no formula as to how this should work.
MOTION by Coenen, seconded by Wolak, to approve the Macomb County Board of Commissioners resolution urging Federal legislators to create a comprehensive jobs program.
Ayes: Coenen, Wolak
Nays: Stork, Stirrett, Cooper, Clark, Sutherland FAILED
H. MDOT CONTRACT APPROVAL/AUTHORIZE SIGNORS
MDOT prepared contract documents for Council’s approval for the North Fulton Street Project. President Stork stated that the documents were reviewed by the Attorney, who suggested waiting to sign until the bids for the project were submitted. Stork stated that the bids are in and a bid has been chosen. She continued by stating that the project for MDOT is in the area of $631,000.00 and the contract need to be signed and sent back.
Trustee Cooper inquired whether the contract states that the money for this project will be paid for from stimulus money and not the Village. Stork replied that is written in the contract. Trustee Stirrett inquired about any cost overruns and if the Street Administrator anticipates any overages. Street Administrator Clark stated there are none at this time, but the project hasn’t started and anything could happen. Treasurer Adair asked who would be responsible for any overruns. Stork stated that would be the Village’s responsibility. Stirrett gave the scenario that MDOT missed something in their bid proposal and inquired whether the Village would be responsible to pay that overage. Clark stated that would be the Village’s burden. Stork stated that although the stimulus was for $750,000.00, the accepted bid was $631,000.00 and that is the guaranteed amount. She explained that three engineering firms, MDOT and Ed Serwatowski (Project Manager for this project) have all reviewed this project. Serwatowski stated that this project has been reviewed several time and if anything was missed, it would be surprising. He stated that the only possibility he can see is a problem underground, which cannot be foreseen. Stork stated that MDOT is having a construction meeting at the Village Office on March 31, 2010 and the anticipated start date is the end of April and anticipated end date is 9-16-10. The end date raised concerns with Council and traffic from the Fair. Stork stated the contract could be held for signing pending the ending date revision to be before the Fair.
MOTION by Clark, seconded by Sutherland, to approve the ARRA contract between the Village of Armada and the Michigan Department of Transportation and to allow the Clerk/President to sign on the Village’s behalf, pending final date verification.
Ayes: Clark, Sutherland, Stork, Cooper, Coenen, Wolak
Nays: Stirrett CARRIED
I. BUILDING DEPARTMENT INSPECTION FEES
President Stork explained to Council that the Village’s Electrical, Mechanical and Plumbing Inspector’s are currently paid 75% of permit fees and the Building Inspector is currently paid 50% of inspection fees. She asked Council to consider paying the Building Inspector 75% of inspection fees, which will not increase the cost to anyone pulling permits as the Building Department is a self funded account and, according to Curtis and Glen McBride, this account is not to make a profit.
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Clark, to set the Building Inspector’s Inspection fee at 75% of the inspection fee effective 4-1-10.
Ayes: Cooper, Clark, Stork, Stirrett, Wolak, Coenen, Sutherland
Nays: None CARRIED
J. PAYMENT OF BILLS
Trustee Cooper stated that there were a couple of Police bills that the Treasurer would like the accounting staff to verify. Trustee Stirrett also found a mathematical error in the sewer department total amount. The payment of bills as submitted was increased to reflect the high end of these inquiries.
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Stirrett, to approve the payment of bills as amended:
General Fund $ 3,935.68
Water Fund $ 80,595.58
Sewer Plant Fund $ 16,674.04
Sewer System Fund $ 566.69
Major Street Fund $ 388.74
Municipal Street Fund $ 251.23
Local Street Fund $ 89.56
Total $102,501.52
K. ANNUAL WEBSITE MAINTENANCE
This item was discussed at length. President Stork presented Council with a proposal for the website from a company that does website maintenance for her employer and that she deals with on a regular basis. She stated several reasons for bringing this to Council for consideration, the main reason is to save money. She stated that there has been discussion about the website and saving money by having the clerical staff update the site. She explained that she had spoken to the current webmaster (Steve Baxter of AWDS) who stated that it would be rather difficult to train the staff to update the current site because is written in html and other computer language and if the staff is not familiar with this, it is a very lengthy process, which Trustee Cooper agreed with as she has taken classes towards her degree in computer language. Stork explained that the proposal is $1,100.00 for the first year including hosting the account, changing the account so it is a wordpress.org/contact management system which allows the Village to update the site in house, and training. The cost for additional years is $300.00 which includes hosting and support. She explained that this is a $700.00/year savings as the current maintenance agreement is $1,100.00/year. She also stated that no software would need to be purchased, that this company has looked into the current website and wordpress.org is compatible and would not require a completely new website. She explained that wordpress.org is a word based system so items could be cut and pasted into the site for updates and that both of the clerical personnel have expressed interest in learning this.
The Clerk inquired about many things regarding this as she was unaware that this was being considered or that the clerical staff had been informed of this. She asked about wordpress.org as the proposal insinuates that this would be an entirely new website. The Clerk stated that the Village currently owns the website and does not feel that this proposal is comparable to the current agreement. She also stated it would not be prudent to accept this proposal as the Village has not sought competitive bids for this service. She is not in favor of this as she has been very pleased with the service of AWDS, the service provided costs $90.00/month, the Village has never been charged above the maintenance agreement, AWDS is an Armada business, and the website is too new to even consider changing as there has not been one complaint. She stated that she has spoken to several municipalities and the maintenance agreement cost is in line, even less costly than most. Several municipalities maintain their own sites but they also created their own sites. She also stated that the proposal does not save $700.00/year as the clerical staff’s salaries had not been figured into that cost savings. Treasurer Adair stated that AWDS gave the Village a considerable discount when creating the website and although she appreciates the President’s attempt to save money, Steve has never charged anything over the maintenance contract.
Steve Baxter of AWDS was present and offered his opinion of the proposal. He explained that this proposal is a complete replacement of the current website, that the current system and wordpress.org are completely different systems. Wordpress.org can copy content and words but cannot take the current website and transfer to a content management system. He has worked with several content managements systems and the current website is its own content management system. He stated that that he could train the office staff to update the current website but there are several different languages used in the maintenance of the website and there would be costs involved in this training. He stated that wordpress.org would involve learning the navigation, language and is not all cut and paste.
This item will be brought back when the maintenance contract with AWDS expires in June.
L. PERMISSION TO ALLOW THE DPW SUPERVISOR TO SEEK BIDS FOR POCKET PARK
President Stork asked Council to allow the DPW Supervisor to solicit bids for the Village Pocket Park. Trustee Stirrett stated that the Council still has the ability to reallocate this money to pay for Planning Commission items such as the Zoning and Enabling Act, the Sign Ordinance, the Master Plan and training. President Stork stated that this project was approved under the CDBG distribution and this motion allows for the DPW Supervisor to prepare the RFP and to solicit bids so the project can begin.
MOTION by Clark, seconded by Sutherland, to allow the DPW Supervisor to seek bids for the construction of the Village Pocket Park.
Ayes: Clark, Sutherland, Stork, Coenen, Cooper
Nays: Stirrett, Wolak CARRIED
M. RESIGNATION FROM ZBA
President Stork informed Council that she has received a verbal resignation from the ZBA from Richard Weinand.
MOTION by Coenen, seconded by Sutherland, to accept the verbal resignation of Richard Weinand from the Zoning Board of Appeals with regret.
All Ayes CARRIED
N. EMPLOYEE SICK/PERSONAL TIME PAY OUT
Employees David Wagner and Edward Serwatowski have both requested to have sick/personal days paid to them as allowed for under Article IV of the employee agreements.
MOTION by Wolak, seconded by Cooper, to grant the request made by employee David Wagner pursuant to Article IV of the employee agreement for payment of personal /sick time in the amount of $908.80 and to grant the request made by employee Edward Serwatowski pursuant to Article IV of the employee agreement for payment of personal/sick time in the amount of $1,152.40.
Ayes: Wolak, Cooper, Stirrett, Coenen, Stork, Clark, Sutherland
Nays: None CARRIED
O. APPROVAL OF 3/8/10 MINUTES
Change to page 3, under Downtown Development Grant, first line reads “President Stork explained to Council that John Paul Rae, Macomb County Planner, informed her of a possible grant ….” Changed to read “President Stork explained to Council that she met with John Paul Rae, Macomb County Planner, about a possible grant…”.
MOTION by Clark, seconded by Sutherland, to approve the RCM Minutes of March 8, 2010, as amended.
Ayes: Stork, Sutherland, Clark, Coenen, Cooper
Nays: Stirrett
Abstain: Wolak CARRIED
P. PORTABLE GENERATOR
DPW Supervisor Ed Serwatowski explained to Council the urgent need for a generator. He explained that the current generator at the lift station is over 60 years old and when power was lost today, the generator took 3 ½ hours to start. He stated that it appears to be electrical, but there are no manuals for the generator. He explained the need for a reliable system to avoid flooding of hundreds of homes. He will bring the costs to the next meeting. Ben Delecke offered the Village the use of his generators for the lift station if needed.
MOTION by Stirrett, seconded by Cooper, to allow the DPW Supervisor to solicit bids for a portable generator.
All Ayes CARRIED
CITIZENS COMMENTS
None Received.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Sewer Commissioner Stirrett informed Council that the pump was installed at the Sewer Plant today and is up and running. United Water will have an update at the next meeting. President Stork stated there were some incorrect statements in the Armada Times this week regarding the budget. She corrected the statement that the Police Department requested to purchase a Ford F150 truck to sometimes be used for plowing streets. This is not true and was never stated. It was also stated that the overtime figure reported in the paper was for one department, not for combined departments. Treasurer Adair also stated that the fund balances reported were incorrect.
No further business.
MOTION by Cooper, seconded by Coenen, to adjourn the meeting at 9:16 pm.
All Ayes CARRIED
Minutes submitted by:
Michelle Poulos
Armada Village Clerk