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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/12/2012 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, March 12, 2012 at 5:30 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Pishioneri, VanGordon, Wylie, and Moore. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Mary Bridget. Smith, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members. of the staff. Councilors Ralston and Woodrow were absent (excused). 1. Annual Joint Work Session with Springfield Museum Board and Director. Mayor Lundberg welcomed the Museum Board to the meeting and introduced Debra Gruell, Director of the Springfield Museum. Ms. Gruell distributed information about upcoming events, including the Wine Fest Event. Ms. Gruell thanked the Mayor and Council for being so supportive of the Springfield Museum. She said the current Museum Board members were very active. She asked the Museum Board members present to introduce themselves. Carol Vedder joined the Museum Board last fall. She said she was originally from California, but had lived in Lane County since 1988. In the past, she had worked in advertising and was now a property manager in Eugene. Judith Bushnell, Museum Board Treasurer, had been on the Board for about a year and a half. She was born in Portland, raised in McMinnville and had lived in several other states. She thought the Springfield Museum was a great museum and Ms. Gruell was a wonderful director. Kim Gonzales was a graduate student at the University of Oregon. She had joined the Board in the fall and was serving as part of a class requirement on board governance. She was excited about the possibilities for the museum to grow and move forward. David Floyd managed two Goodyear stores, one in Springfield and one in Eugene. He had served on the Board for about one year. He appreciated what the Museum did. He was a native Oregonian and loved small towns. He was also Chair of the Board for the Salvation Army of Lane County, and was involved with the Springfield Kiwanis. He appreciated the City Council and their support of the museum. They had big plans to expand membership. The Board was very up and coming and a wonderful group of .people. Patty Edwards worked with Staffing Partners, a business that was formerly located in Springfield, but had recently moved to Eugene. She had served on the Board for about a year and found it to be a lot of fun. She enjoyed the monthly events, including being part of the Second Friday Art Walk. She had City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 2 gotten a lot of her family to come to Springfield for that event. She was very happy with the Museum and felt it was a great place to bring family and friends. Chris Stole, Museum Board Vice President, was new to the Board as of September 2011. She enjoyed Museums and Libraries. The Board was planning to do a lot of fun things. Ms. Gruell referred to a subcommittee of the Museum Board that was putting together new bylaws. The bylaws were very old so needed updated to fit how the Board operated today. A lot of work had gone into this process. She distributed copies of the proposed bylaws. The final version would be submitted to the Council for formal approval at a later date. Ms. Gruell thanked the City and the Council for their support of the Museum. They had been very generous with their funds. The Museum was actively working to bring in additional funds and had been fundraising for the past four to five years. The year before last the Garden Tour brought in over $6000 and they were planning another Garden Tour this year. The Museum had also received a couple of small grants to assist with programming. She noted that during the current economy, the Museum faced the same challenges as everyone else. She felt the Museum deserved as much attention as everyone else, and they were out there fighting for funds. It was difficult to fundraise because of the many other organizations also trying to find funds. Ms. Gruell distributed a newspaper article that highlighted many of the events and exhibits from 2011. Under their contract with the City, the Museum was committed to holding seven or eight exhibits each year; they had been hosting eleven'to twelve. She noted that during the 2nd Friday Art Walk last week it was so crowded in the gallery that there was standing room only. The current display was their 8d' Annual Student Art Exhibit with art from students from A3 Academy, Gateway.High School, Springfield High School and Thurston High School. Twenty -five awards were presented. This exhibit and the involvement of the schools showed that kids and the community were still involved in the arts. Ms. Gruell noted that part of the funding problem was that they had a large number of people attend events, but little revenue coming in. The fee. had been set at $2 per person for a number of years, and students were free. While held in the Museum parking lot, the Farmers Market had helped with memberships and bringing in people. That venue had now moved so was no longer a draw for the Museum. The Museum was working very hard, but could use ideas on how to get new members and funding. Membership was down, as it was for other organizations. One of their goals was to get . , families and younger people interested in becoming members of the Museum. One way they tried to encourage that was to bring in Sluggo and the Ems baseball team to meet people and sign autographs. They had also brought in the Eugene Ballet with costumes and they would be returning in July with both ballet and opera costumes. Ms. Gruel] rioted some of the other events at the Museum held in 2011 including the VIP Reception, artists and the Wine Fest fundraiser. This year's Wine Fest was scheduled for April 14 from 6:00 - 9:00pm in the City Hall lobby. The event included wonderful music, a silent auction, a wine expert and wonderful food. This year Devour would be at the event serving the food. Last year, the Museum cleared over $6500.00 with 100 tickets sold. This year they were trying to sell 125 tickets and also trying to increase the net profits through donations and other cost cutting measures. Tickets were $50 each. Last year CNN Newsmakers came to film at the Museum and suggested the Museum may be haunted, which generated many phone calls. Ms. Gruell said membership forms would be provided and put in the Council boxes. Tickets were also available for the Wine Fest. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 3 -Councilor Moore asked for the overall total donations received in 2011. She said knowing that would be helpful. She asked if 2010 was the first year for the Garden Tour. Ms. Gruell said she had information on total donations at the Museum and could provide it to Councilor Moore. She said they tried to hold the Garden Tour every two years. Councilor Wylie said the Rotary chose a project each year that they raised funds for then gave the money to that project. She suggested that the Museum. Board come up with a project that they could present to Rotary for consideration. She also noted that the Antiques Roadshow was a popular event when they came to the Lane County Fairgrounds. She had heard of other groups getting experts that could offer appraisals, charging people to attend, then providing an evaluation. She suggested the Museum do something similar. Ms. Gruell said they had held two Trash and Treasure Shows in the past. The last time it was held in the City Hall Lobby because of the large amount of interest. They did not charge, but asked for a $3 donation. During the last show, they were able to get about 15 experts to help and provide a "Certificate of Best Guess ". Councilor, Wylie said her husband had some things he would like an expert to look at and felt that $5 was a reasonable charge. They could then schedule an exhibit with some of the more interesting items. Mayor Lundberg agreed and said she had` a lot of antiques that she would like to get appraised. She felt another show like that would help publicize the Museum. She noted that the recent youth exhibit brought in a lot of families and the art was spectacular. Other events involving the youth would bring in many Springfield families to the Museum. Councilor VanGordon encouraged the Museum to look at what other museums were doing with technology such as YouTube videos and broadcasting that generated interest and could increase memberships. There . were some graduate students doing work like that in other places. One example was using a digital medium to tell a story, with information on how to become a member. He also , suggested the Museum partner with the Historic Commission to hold a .scavenger hunt or other event downtown. He had seen people using `dense codes' with items imbedded in them. Those `dense codes' were then hidden around downtown where people would find them and hear a story about the item. There were ways to generate interest. The .Museum was an exciting place. Ms. Gruell said getting help at the Museum was still a challenge. She had been fortunate to have been involved with a program called "Experience Works" for the past three and a half years. This program provided and paid for people 55 and older who were looking for work to help at the Museum. Other than the people from this program and volunteers,'Ms. Gruell was the only paid position at the Museum. The Museum relied heavily on docents and volunteers. This year she had been fortunate to get two interns from Northwest Christian College (NCU) and last year she had an intern from the University of Oregon (UO). The idea about a scavenger hunt was fantastic and she would look for someone to partner with the Museum for this type of event. 2. Fire Merger. Fire Chief Randall Groves presented the staff report on this. item. Springfield Fire & Life Safety (SFLS) continued to operate as a functionally consolidated department with Eugene Fire & EMS City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 4 under direction of joint city managers. This Work Session item was to discuss a proposed governance model for a merged fire organization and to seek City Council guidance regarding next steps. Mr. Groves referred to Attachment 1 in the agenda packet which outlined the proposed governance model for the fire merger. In 2007, the Third Battalion system was put into place. Since July 1, 2010, Springfield and Eugene Fire Departments had been operating under an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the two cities to share the services of certain key administrative positions in both departments. They were now working to become more streamlined and operating as one unit. The primary benefit of a functional consolidation was that it permitted both cities to share savings resulting from eliminating redundant resources, taking advantage of existing vacancies of key personnel. Meanwhile, service levels were being maintained or improved as a result of joint efficiencies. In FYI 1, savings of $606,999 were realized due to the functional consolidation, with Springfield's share estimated at $286,952. Projected personnel savings for the City of Springfield for FYI is $413,608, with a combined savings of $876,239, for the two cities. Looking forward for proposed savings for FY 13 was approximately $1.1 M. Some of those savings tied directly to a merger and some were tied to budget reductions. It was difficult to delineate in some areas. They had been able to mitigate some of the budget reductions by sharing of resources. He referred to Table 4 located on page 3 of Attachment 1 of the agenda packet. This table showed the combined savings by each City over the last three years, taking into account FYI 3. Springfield's share of the savings was $1,274,258. Chief Groves noted that a lot of time was spent on cost savings, which was sometimes overshadowed with the focus on cost reductions and efficiencies. The service effectiveness improvements the departments had made, and operating with a larger resource base had proven to be a good operating model. Staff had continued to improve operating procedures, and had been working on standardizing equipment and apparatus specifications. He noted the recent success with the $400,000 grant for extrication equipment. Chief Groves said Table 5 on page 4 of Attachment 1 of the agenda packet showed costs it would take to restore both departments back to two separate departments. This was not a complete restoration of what had been eliminated over the three -year period, but showed the minimal needed to restore both departments. This table showed costs adjusted for inflation. The total cost to Springfield would be about $475,773. Chief Groves spoke regarding the cost differential between the two departments' IAFF contracts. During the analysis, staff found that the overall costs were not much different, but had some different aspects to the contracts. There was a concern that if the two departments merged it could dramatically change the labor market and drive up costs. In their analysis, staff identified the larger cities that would be considered and found that Eugene was already in that market. With that, Eugene and Springfield numbers remained very close. Eugene was the second largest city in the state, and Portland was excluded from the market by State Statute. There was also concern that merging would put the combined department in the same market as Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue District (TVFR). TVFR was currently in the same market as Eugene. He also noted past arbitration decisions that put smaller cities in the same market as TVFR because TVFR served smaller municipalities. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 5 Chief Groves said the next steps would be to bring forth the new form of governance which would still have Chief Groves reporting directly to the two City Managers and two City Councils. The goal was to get the organization from high level down to operate as one with a common set of integrated policies. For now, the employee groups would remain separate, but would work forward to try to make the system one organization as much as possible. If they went forward with this next step, they would then work with the two IAFF bargaining units to negotiate an integrated contract, or one that was identical and tied together. In order for this to be most effective and work in the long - term, the department needed to be able to move firefighters back and forth between the two cities, cutting down-on overtime. Discussions would also be implemented with AFSCME and SEW, the two unions that represented the services workers.. Chief Groves referred to Attachment A and B of the agenda packet. These tables provided detailed costings for aligning the two contracts. Attachment A applied Eugene's firefighter contract to Springfield's IAFF #1395 employees, but left the Springfield firefighters under the current Springfield health plan. The difference in the contracts was 3.25 %, not taking into account that the Springfield firefighters were currently negotiating the FYI 2 contract. That would bring the costs closer. Attachment B applied Eugene's firefighter contract to Springfield's IAFF # 1395_ employees and included moving them to Eugene's health plan. Springfield was insured and Eugene was self - insured. The cost difference could mean a savings between $270,000 and $511,746. There were still some unknowns and things needed to be done. Eugene started bargaining today, and Springfield was ready to negotiate for their next contract starting July 1, 2012. Mr. Grimaldi said staff was looking for direction to move forward with negotiations with the City of Eugene under an intergovernmental agreement, and to begin labor negotiations with the assumption we would be one organization. Mayor Lundberg said there were two councilors missing from tonight's meeting. She would like to meet again before providing direction. 'It was important for everyone to be at the table to make that decision. Tonight she was looking for feedback and questions. Councilor Wylie said she had worked on the Ambulance Task Force so had been involved in discussions regarding the merger since they began. The cities had proceeded slowly so they could get more information as they went along, to see how things were working,what the cost savings were, and how the unions felt about a merger. She felt if they moved forward in this direction, Council would continue to be kept informed closely through negotiations. Given hard economic times and our budget, she felt the City needed to be creative and challenging and work hard to find ways and solutions to be efficient. Thanks to former Chief Murphy and current Chief Groves, this had been laid out with class and done in a thorough manner. We were doing a good job of meeting the challenge to do more with less. She was interested in proceeding cautiously as they had been. So far, it looked better than expected and the savings continued. It would be important to see how the culture of the two departments meshed. Chief Groves said they currently had training that was more integrated which helped. Some of the exempt employees had been swapped between the cities and they were currently on their third or fourth rotation. Having staff from each department go to the other department had caused them to challenge their assumptions and had been a benefit. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 6 Councilor Moore asked where they would house the administrative staff if they placed them in a single location. Chief Groves said that hadn't been fully worked out, but his preference would be the 2nd and Chambers facility. Eugene's Fire administrative shared that facility with Eugene Policy and the 911 Center. Wherever they located, they would like to have as much of the administrative staff under one roof as possible. It would help make things more efficient. Councilor Moore asked if Springfield Fire had their administration in Springfield City Hall. Yes. If they moved them to the 2nd and Chambers location, that could free up some space in City Hall. Chief Groves said that could be possible, although they would still need a satellite office for the Fire Marshal and also for the Chief to have an office in each City. He would still be working with both cities' Executive Teams and Councils. Councilor Moore said so much of what was done was by technology, location didn't play as much importance. This was another step along the way. She asked if there were many more steps to a merger. Mr. Grimaldi said there would be an important decision point out in the future. The most important decision now would be authorizing the intergovernmental agreement for governance. These were not steps to take if there was not an interest in the merger as it involved a lot of work. Chief Groves said this next juncture involved other departments, such as procurement, payroll, and rostering. He would like to see this move as swiftly as possible due to the amount of energy managers were exerting as they were trying to manage two departments. Councilor VanGordon asked about allocation of leadership and,the budget under the governance model. Chief Groves said the allocation would be similar to what it was today. They would continue to monitor that and maintain a balance between the two cities. Councilor VanGordon said it seemed like the system being used offered some flexibility. Chief Groves said his ideal would be for funds to go into one pot to deliver the service. If that could not occur, getting things as close to one department as possible would be helpful. Mr. Grimaldi said the goal would be to keep it as clean as possible. Both organizations would like to avoid paying indirects and overhead to each other. Councilor VanGordon asked to hear more about the difference in the health plans. Chief Groves said an actuarial study was underway by both cities, and there was the potential for Springfield to go with a self - insured plan exclusive to Springfield. They were looking at whether or not it could provide some cost savings. Human Resources Director Greta Utecht said when staff went through the contract, they found that the Springfield health plan was more expensive per employee than the Eugene health plan. Much of that City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 7 expense was because Springfield was fully insured. The experience rate of the two cities in terms of claims processed was not much different. When they first started looking at how to put the two contracts together in a meaningful and cost effective way, they talked about doing a metro trust that would provide health, workers' compensation and liability insurance. When exploring the possibility of a metro trust, they also looked at whether or not Springfield could become self - insured with a plan that mirrored Eugene's plan. The review was meant to look at different ways of thinking about our internal system, so they were doing the actuarial study to look at the metro trust and also an actuarial study for the City of Springfield. Ms. Utecht noted that the information on Tables 4 and 5 was as close as they had currently. Chief Groves said the whole process had raised a lot of healthy questions on both sides. Councilor Moore .asked if the metro trust would be advantageous to both cities. - Ms. Utecht said they needed a huge pool of insured individuals in order to impact the rate. Rates were based on experience as an insured entity. Firefighters as a group were generally younger and healthier, so their experience ratings were good. When looking at an insured trust.for all employees, there would be a broader actuary. There was potential for savings. Mayor Lundberg said the big decision was whether or not we would move forward. Once it was set in motion, other big decisions and studies needed to be done. This decision was critical. Councilor Pishioneri said he would like to have all of the Council present before moving forward. He still had some concerns he would like to see addressed if possible. He referred to Attachment B and asked if this table was indicating that it could cost the City $308,628 or more, or save the City up to $203,118. Chief Groves said the figure of $308,628 didn't take into account the current negotiations with Springfield firefighters. Eugene's contract was good through June 30, 2012. That figure would be reduced once that was final. Councilor Pishioneri said it sounded like the change in comparables with a larger department would not be much of an issue. Chief Groves said there would not be a new group for comparables for Eugene. The population was used to determine comparables. Councilor Pishioneri asked if increasing the size of the agency would affect the non - represented employees, or if fair market value would be used, including out of State. He asked if that could be a financial risk. Mr. Utecht said it was dependent on the position and the labor pool drawn for that position. Hiring a new fire chief or police chief tended to be internally oriented and part of a promotional track. Having a large organization shouldn't impact the compensation. Currently, the compensation levels between the two agencies were very similar. Chief Groves said he had not looked at his position as a position for two organizations. Most comparable positions were in the same range if the cost of living was similar. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 8 Councilor Pishioneri said it didn't appear any concessions had been made by labor groups regarding the merger. He noted that Eugene's contract would remain the same and Springfield's would increase. Mr. Grimaldi said assumptions had been made for discussion purposes. There would be negotiations with the unions. At this time, the unions had told the cities they were not looking for the best of both contracts in one contract. Chief Groves said both unions would like to find ways to make this work. They had come forward with ways to shave costs and had been good partners. They were meeting this week to discuss proposals to take back to the budget team to help with reductions while maintaining unit hours. He was very encouraged. Negotiations would be done separately, but they had built a good partnership with the labor force. Councilor Pishioneri said during the last budget cycle, overtime was a significant issue and he had asked what types of ideas could be implemented to reduce those costs. He asked what type of ideas could be implemented and if the could show quantifiable reductions of overtime costs. Chief Groves said part of the proposals they were considering looked at controlling overtime costs. Springfield had been down on base level staffing. When looking at personnel costs, shifts were either filled by full time employees or making up the difference in overtime. As the base level of staff dropped, overtime increased. Springfield was now ready with a recruit class. There would be a number of people retiring who were currently paid at the highest step with the highest vacation accrual, and the new hires would come in at the lowest step at the lowest vacation accrual. That type of changeover was cyclical. The union was aware that overtime costs were an issue. Councilor Pishioneri said he appreciated the work staff had put into this. The more he learned and the more information and response he got from Chief Groves, the 'better it looked. He also thanked the union for working on the overtime issue. He still wanted to hear from the other councilors before making a decision. Councilor Moore asked if they were looking at a union merger in the future. Chief Groves said that would be his best outcome, but it would be between the two bargaining units. That was their decision. Councilor Moore asked if that would strengthen their position. Ms. Utecht said if the budget authority remained with each individual agency that would be the driver. If they could get the contracts in alignment, that would make a big difference in terms of workload and .ease of administration. Councilor Moore said she saw this as a positive step forward and it seemed to make sense. Mayor. Lundberg asked staff to bring this back to the Council as soon. as possible. She understood they wanted to go forward as soon as possible. Mr. Grimaldi said it would probably be three to four weeks out, depending on the other councilors' schedule. During that time, some work could be continued. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 9 Mayor Lundberg said in the bigger broader sense she liked the idea. It made sense, but there were still a lot of details that were unknown. There were still a lot of questions, but she was very intrigued with the merger and the potential savings. She was interested in how the wording would be set up for the name of the department. Springfield and Eugene were still two different communities. She commended them for their work. It was exciting to see cost savings and better response times, serving the communities better. Chief Groves said with steps already taken, they were currently serving two communities better now than before. Mayor Lundberg said it was encouraging to hear some of the firefighters were assisting in this process. Chief Groves said it seemed to be the majority of personnel who were supportive. The labor unions continued to work with staff. Councilor Pishioneri said anytime better service could be provided for less cost, he was supportive. He noted Councilor Moore's comment about the union being stronger if they merged and asked what would happen if the City of Eugene was approached by their union with a large increase that Springfield couldn't accommodate. Mr. Grimaldi said there were two different models for negotiations in the two cities. In Springfield, the City Council was engaged in negotiations and proposals. In the City of Eugene, the City Manager made any decisions. Ms. Utecht said if there was one contract, but under separate budgets, there would be only one bargaining with Eugene and Springfield together with the union. There would not be a situation where one city made a unilateral decision about what happened with the other city. Mr. Grimaldi said the tricky part of this relationship would be labor negotiations. Eventually, the two cities would need to agree. Councilor Pishioneri said that concerned him because of situations he had seen with the Metro Plan. Mr. Grimaldi said he didn't believe that would be an issue in this circumstance. They could look at historic information with both cities in terms of labor agreements. They would likely be fairly similar over a period of time. Chief Groves said the cost spread between the two cities was very close. There were many differences between the two cities, but both wanted to control costs. Mr. Grimaldi said unlike other bargaining units, this unit had access to binding arbitration and had to follow the same rules and guidelines. Ms. Utecht said historically, the two cities had been about three percent apart. Collective bargaining laws would govern more than anything else. Mayor Lundberg said she was very optimistic they could work through this. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 12, 2012 Page 10 Mr. Grimaldi said council schedules would be monitored to find a date for the next meeting. He encouraged Council to let staff know if they had other questions that could be addressed at the next meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m. Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa t ist�re—- trx�berg Joe Pishioneri Mayvr Council President Attest: Amy SoNO City Rec rder