City Council July 11, 2011 Business Meeting: Agenda Summary

Announcements:

Recognition-Lawrenceville Youth Baseball--- recognized this youth team of 11 and 12 year-old and their coaches, as they prepare to compete in the State Tournament. Traveling to Troup County to participate in this tournament, the team will first play on Friday, July 15, at 6:00 p.m., on the Mike Daniel Recreation Center’s field.

The new Water Treatment Plant ribbon cutting will be held on Friday, July 15, at 11:00 a.m.; the plant is located off Old Norcross on Winer Industrial Way.

An Open House will be held from 2:00-4:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 17, at located on Highway 129.

Financial Report---City Clerk Bob Baroni gave the city’s Third Quarter, FY (Fiscal Year) 2010-2011 Financial Report. Baroni said the numbers are on track and that the city is in “pretty stable” financial situation. And the numbers are projecting out to get the city where it needs to be for the year’s end.  Mayor Johnson said copies of the Third Quarter Financial Report are available in the City Clerk’s office.

Pooled Cash Summary

THIRD QUARTER (FY 2010-2011)

Total pooled cash in all funds

$37,733,068.71

Less liabilities in all funds

$14,020,591.74

*Total Reserve

$23,712,476.97

*Equals three months of reserve in the city’s operating budget.

REVENUES & EXPENDITURES

DEPARTMENT FUNDS

BUDGETED REVENUES

YEAR TO DATE

BUDGETED EXPENDITURES

YEAR TO DATE

GENERAL

$10,128,404.00

$6,008,995.02

$19,670,279.00

$13,374,236.47

CONFISCATED ASSETS

$500,000.00

$4,753,405.20

$500,000.00

$783,762.76

HOTEL/MOTEL TAX

$242,700.00

$184,117.02

$242,700.00

$160,815.38

RENTAL MOTOR VEHICLE EXCISE TAX

$119,520.00

$104,396.31

$119,520.00

$0.00

WATER

$8,921,002.00

$4,235,784.09

$9,615,183.00

$2,858,291.72

ELECTRIC

$26,832,076.00

$20,103,638.37

$24,550,736.00

$18,588,732.40

GAS

$42,084,766.00

$35,512,398.34

$33,444,771.00

$27,095,188.00

SOLID WASTE

$1,087,482.00

$782,724.71

$1,772,761.00

$1,179,361.78

STROMWATER UTILITY

$689,678.00

$520,553.13

$689,678.00

$40,203,56

TOTAL

$90,605,628.00

$72,206,012.19

$90,605,628.00

$64,080,592.07

2005 SPLOST (Special Proposed Local Option Sales Tax) FUNDS

DEPARTMENT

TOTAL

AMENDMENTS

TO BUDGET

AMENDED TOTALS

ADDITIONAL

AMOUNT EXPENDED

INTEREST

BALANCE

TRANSPORTATION

$5,104,353.00

$0.00

$5,104,353.00

$348,118.27

$3,974,894.45

$13,076.20

$1,490,653.02

PUBLIC SAFETY

$3,540,000.00

$0.00

$3,540,000.00

$241,419.48

$3,781,419.48

$0.00

RECREATION

$7,153,550.00

$0.00

$7,153,550.00

$488,227.80

$7,922,671.02

$280,894.02

$0.00

2009 SPLOST (Special Proposed Local Option Sales Tax) FUNDS

DEPARTMENT

TOTAL

AMENDMENTS

TO BUDGET

AMENDED TOTALS

ADDITIONAL

AMOUNT EXPENDED

INTEREST

BALANCE

TRANSPORTATION

$11,334,450.00

$0.00

$11,334,450.00

$0.00

$968,166.80

$10,366,283.20

WATER

$2,408,353.00

$0.00

$2,408,353.00

$0.00

$9,000.00

$2,399,353.00

PUBLIC SAFETY

$6,900,000.00

$0.00

$6,900,000.00

$0.00

$5,653,594.97

$1,246,405.03

RECREATION

$4,400,000.00

$0.00

$4,400,000.00

$0.00

$0.00

$4,400,000.00

NEW BUSINESS

Item 1: Set Millage Rate---City Clerk Baroni asked the council to adopt a resolution to set the 2011 tax rate at 2.16 mils, a reduction in taxes by “about” nine percent. This reduction equals nearly $207,000. 

Councilman Tony Powell asked if this was the final vote on the millage rate and what is the deadline to set the rate. Clerk Baroni said July 18 is the deadline. (The deadline is imposed so that millage rate can be factored into the county’s property tax bills.)

Powell said he was a “little curious about setting the millage rate, coming up with a number before we do the budget." He said while the reduction in property taxes (change in taxes digest) is good news, property values, as appraised by the county have gone down. Powell said that reduction in dollars from 2009 one billion two sixty nine to a billion one eighteen. He said this significant reduction in property taxes is driven by the recession. The millage rate then gets rolled back to the equivalent of that same taxing amount, so taxpayer do not get an increase or decrease assessed due to change in property value, he said.

Councilman Powell asked if the millage rate could be decreased more in the city’s budgeting process. He asked if the budget and millage rate could be debated, discussed in the July 20, Work Session. 

Councilman Peter Martin asked for public comments. During this session, Bob Clark addressed the council to suggest that the city establish a calendar that shows how much money is projected by the end of the year; staff needs “to keep things standard”, plus improvement objectives. This (planning), Clark said, would give consideration to raises for the next year, as well as how much millage rates would need to be increased or decreased. He said by showing and combining, in time frames, the processes of establishing a budget, setting millage rate and projecting year end amount just makes sense for a city with a budget of this size.

Mayor Johnson said Clerk Baroni and department chairs have been in her office working on the budget for the past two to three months.

Councilman Powell said that the city in hiring accountants will have people dedicated to putting things on the calendar and focusing specifically on the budget.

Upon the advice of City Attorney Lee Thompson, Jr. the original motion was amended to include the mayor contacting the tax commissioner to ascertain if the city can miss the July 18 deadline (without hindering the county’s ability to send out property tax bills); to allow millage rate and budget discussion to possibly determine a lower millage rate in the council’s July 20, Work Session.

The amendment carried 4-0. And the motion to adopt the 2.16 millage rate also passed 4-0.

OLD BUSINESS

Item 2: Change order for Winer Industrial Way Drainage Project---City Engineer Paul Austin asked the council for a change order in the amount of $26,674.82. The reason for the request, said Austin, is because during the drilling a large rock formation was discovered. To resolve this problem the design of the project had to be changed, different materials must be used, changing from plastic pipes to concrete pipes, which according to Austin is more expensive.  

The mayor said the city ran into “a small Stone Mountain”. 

Councilwoman Katie Hart Smith asked Austin for confirmation that change order funds will come out of Stormwater funds; he responded “yes”.

Motion to approve the change order passed 4-0.

Item 3: Approval to Bid Ezzard Road Drainage Project---City Engineer Paul Austin asked the council to authorize putting this project, which is an attachment to an existing project, out for bids. Councilman Martin asked for the total cost of this project, Austin said it would be $250,000.  City Attorney Thompson is reviewing the contract documents before they are issued for bids.

Mayor Johnson said this project is off Papermill Road and is in conjunction with the Heritage Trail project with Hayes and James (construction). Austin said this project has been approved by the Stormwater Utility Board.

Councilman Martin said that it makes sense for the city to do these projects together, because in doing the drainage work on Papermill which sets above Ezzard, drainage work on Ezzard to allow runoff into creek basin should prevent downstream flooding.

Motion was made to approve putting the project out for bids, it carried 4-0.   

Item 4: Approval of Low Bid of Western Heights Gas Project--- Gas Department Associate Superintendent Mickey Watts said that this project bided out in June.  Steele & Associates submitted the lowest bid at $94,242.25. This project is part of the city’s efforts replace all steel pipes with plastic. Watts asked the council to award this contract to Steel & Associates.

Councilwoman Smith made a motion to approve the awarding of this bid to Steele & Associates.

Councilman Powell said that he is “still not comfortable with” the awarding to this contractor. He said the problem that he has is with Hodge Enterprises, listed on the bid tabulation page.  He said Hodge Enterprises has been a sole source supplier to the city’s Gas Department for 20 years. It looks like, Powell said, it has been exclusively getting all of the bids. And this causes some concern to the point of asking the auditors to take a look at some of these expenditures.

Powell said that the auditors’ findings are not in. He said two years ago Hodges could not qualify as a bidder anymore, so Steele showed up as “a front” for Hodge. In looking over the contracts there is a non-collusion disclosure requirement in the agreement, said Powell.  In the bid documents there is a non-collusion certification from Hodge, meaning they are the subcontractor.

Commending Watts for saving the city, Powell said that possible reasons for Hodge not bidding directly is because they don’t have a contractor’s license or they might not be certified for gas installations, therefore they are relying on Steele’s certifications or they might not have bonding capacity. He said either one of those issues causes him grave concern. One indicates financial issues and the other would indicate why the city is getting low bids, because lower bidder is not qualified to do the work. He said a lot of this will get resolved when permits and bonding are in place; and when the audit results are back. The wide variation in bid numbers, Powell said, causes him concern and he cannot support it.

Councilwoman Smith said that in relying on Watts’ expert opinion what is his recommendation. Watts said Hodge picked up the bid package but did not submit a bid; this he said could be due to a bonding issue. Watts confirmed that Steele has been using Hodge as a subcontractor he guessed “for quite a while”.  As for Hodge doing the work, Watts said he sees no problem.

Smith asked City Attorney Thompson if there was a way to stipulate in the contract that the bidder awarded the contract cannot subcontract to a specific company and is expected to do the work. Attorney Thompson said yes the city can put in the contract that work not be subcontracted out or if it is the city must approve the subcontractor. Thompson advised not putting these stipulations in the bid documents.

Councilwoman Marie Beiser said the bid numbers ranged from $94,000 to $150,000 to $212,000 and she said that labor could make the difference, because all of the materials could be the same. Watts said that the city supplies materials and that Hodge is local therefore low bids could be because he doesn’t incur cost for transporting workers or equipment.

The motion to award the bid to Steele & Associates failed by a 3-2 vote; with Mayor Johnson casting the deciding vote against.

Councilman Powell made a motion to rebid this project and put specification in that the contractor, that bids, has to do the work.

Watts gave an example of the city rebidding a project on Pike Street and not getting one bid, he said he was afraid that this would happen with this project. The mayor said “we are counting that it won’t” (happen, again).

Motion to rebid with the stipulation carried 4-0; with Councilwoman Beiser noting that delays due to rebidding causes delays “in neighborhoods that need to be taken care of”.

At the end of Neighborhood Updates, the council moved into Executive Session.