HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 08.10.2010 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor
George Garver presiding.
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Micki
Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Kevin Russell, Director of Human
Resources and Civil Service; Mike Peters, Information Technology Director; Dave Hall, Director of
Inspections; Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director; Tamera Baird, Chief Plans Examiner,
Minutes
A Overview of proposed Temporary Sign Program for Open Houses and Model Homes -- Tamera Baird, Chief
Plans Examiner and Dave Hall, Director of Inspections
Baird reviewed the item and spoke about the action made in the past on this issue. She noted staff was tasked
by the Council to compile a report comparing Georgetown's sign policy regarding open house and builder model
directional signs to other cities in the area. She said staff surveyed thirteen cities on this issue with a series of
questions regarding off presence advertising signs in the rights of way, open house signs, violations and
consequences. She said they received varied responses, all of which were provided to the City Council. She
said most of the cities do not allow temporary off premise signage, but they do have a standard for open house
and model home signs. She noted all but two of the cities surveyed allow the open house signs in rights of way.
She noted most guidelines including timelines and size.
She said they found that most of the open house representatives and realtors really liked Round Rock's solution
to the problem. She noted Round Rock is one of the two cities in the area that allows signs in the rights of way.
She noted they have a license agreement with with they work. She noted staff has a draft copy of the license
agreement that they have sent to legal for review and are waiting to hear back from the department. She said
that would include limitations on location, limitations on dates and times those signs can be displayed and a
provision for the amount of signs. She noted there should be fees associated with this type of thing as well.
She said staff was also asked to look into builder kiosk signs. She noted, under the current agreement, they
would be able to use their logo on the signs. She said they talked about the possible addition of subdivision
names to facilitate finding both the builders and subdivisions within the City. She said the staff recommendation
would be to create a stand alone UDC language in reference to the open house and builder model home signs
and to allow the signs in public rights of way and off premise with a license to encroach type of agreement. She
noted this agreement is meant to address the number of signs allowed with an administrative fee, the timeline
for when the signs can be displayed and the area in which the signs can not be located. She said the
agreement is for City owned rights of ways only. She continued to describe the recommendations given to
Council on this issue.
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Mayor asked and Baird showed Council an example of the proposed builder kiosk sign. Brandenburg noted the
agenda cover sheet given to Council has further descriptions and recommendations. She spoke about the
subdivision signs as well. Sansing spoke about a trip he took to the northeast earlier in the summer. He said
the towns were drop dead gorgeous and noted he saw off premise signs directing people to open houses. He
noted they were "riders" and were smaller than what people are used to here. He added they were not ugly or
distracting at all. He said his company is building a church in Pflugerville right now and, if it wasn't for these type
of kiosk signs, he would have not known where to go to find the neighborhood he needed to get to. Berryman
asked and Baird said the proposal of open house hours of 12 p.m. -6 p.m. was determined when staff met with
the numerous realtors and were told that they like Round Rock's agreement. She said this proposal and those
times were based off of Round Rock's policy. Berryman asked and Brandenburg spoke about when the City will
start to acquire certain roads from the State. Berryman asked and Briggs said the City has not taken control of
those roads that the City will require once the population hits 50,000 and noted it will not happen until 2012.
There were many other questions regarding road acquisition.
Mayor asked and Baird reviewed again the direction that was given to staff and the questions that staff were
charged to answer. She said the specific recommendations that they have for the signs are to create a stand
alone Unified Development Code language division to include open house and builder model home signs. She
said staff was told to review and research solutions to enhance the builder wayfinding sign program.
Eason said she thinks this looks pretty good and noted she likes how staff has set up the requirements, process
and parameters for the signs. Brandenburg described the process and what will occur if Council supports the
issue. Mayor asked for a nodding of the heads from Council for staff to continue with what they are doing.
Sansing appreciated the work that has been done by staff. Berryman said she thinks staffs work is concise and
she applauded staff for working with the folks that are being effected by the downturned economy.
B Presentation, discussion and possible action regarding City of Georgetown's Compensation and Benefits
recommendations -- Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service and Paul E. Brandenburg,
City Manager
Russell described the item and, with a Powerpoint presentation, gave a review of the compensation and benefits
for next year. He spoke about compensation adjustments for fiscal year 2010/2011 including a 2.5% Cost of
Living Adjustment for non-public service employees. He spoke about the three different components of
compensation. He said merit based pay will be reviewed at mid year based on revenue and noted, if there is a
large enough increase, the City may look at including merit based pay in the budget at that time. He said
performance based pay is not in the budget.
He moved on to benefits. He spoke about benefit adjustments and the federally required plan changes that will
have to take place in 2011. He said one change is the removal of the pre-existing condition for children up to
age 19, coverage for married or unmarried children up to age 26, removal of the life time maximum limit and the
removal of preventative care annual maximums. He showed Council a chart of the City's current plans. He said
last year, to pay for the high claims, the deductibles were increased. He described the increases. He said the
annual out of pocket maximum is a total of $5,000. He said, once you've met your deductible, the plan kicks in
and pays 100%. He described both the Standard Plan and the Health Savings Account plan. He said staff
looked at survey information for healthcare plans in central Texas. He showed Council a chart of the deductible
PPO Plans in Texas. He said the deductible median amount is $500 and the City of Georgetown is at $1,500.
He spoke about the HSA plans and said the deductibles are pretty much in line with the rest of the country. He
spoke about the rate plans and said the rate for the standard plan for $313.04 per month for employees. He
said the HSA rate is the same at $313.04 per month. He showed the charts of the monthly premiums for both
the PPO and CDHP plans. He spoke about healthcare utilization within the City. He said, on the standard plan,
it is 44.68% and the high deductible plan is 79.52%. He said the plans are running on average less than the
pool. He noted Texas Municipal League administrative charges are about 15%. He said Texas Municipal
League will be making some changes this upcoming year to the insurance policy and he described those
changes. He noted TML goes out annually to select who will be providing the network for both healthcare and
pharmacy. He said they selected United Healthcare as the network and noted the prescription provider is
changing from CVS Caremark to Restat. He said, in terms of prescriptions, the $0 generic deal will be moved
from CVS to Walmart, Target, HEB and other locations. He said a good thing about the pharmacy move is that
there are not a lot of pharmacists that are currently involved in this deal. He noted, now that it has moved to
Restat, a lot of more pharmacists will be able to provide to employees.
Russell spoke about how TML reports to a Board of Directors of twenty two members that dictates to TML how it
handles its insurance. He spoke about how he was selected as the District 10 representative for the TML
Insurance Board of Directors. He said he looks at this as a good thing because he can promote Georgetown
and its needs. Sansing asked Russell whether or not he can represent the City in contract negotiations if he
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serves on the Board. Russell said the Board does not negotiate with the service providers. He noted the Board
deals with how TML administers the plan. He said they are only dealing with plan design and not necessarily
network. Meigs asked and Russell said the lifetime maximum is being removed after President Obama's
proposal. He spoke about next year's proposed rate increases for both the standard plan and high deductible
health plan for both the City and the employees. He said, as part of the budget, the City put into place 17% to
cover any insurance increases. He noted the City will be able to absorb the full increase of 7% and still have
monies leftover. Brandenburg said he and Russell spoke about putting that extra money into the health
insurance fun to balance increases over the coming years. Russell spoke about the rest of the benefits and
said there will be a 13% increase on the dental benefits. He said, right now, the City has TML for both health
and dental. He said, for vision, the City has a set rate for the next three years. He spoke about the other
insurance coverages as well.
Russell said he would like direction from Council as to whether or not it's okay for the City to absorb rate
increases. He said he would ultimately like to see the high deductible of the standard plan down from what it is
in the current year. Meigs asked Russell to consider if the Council has savings, that the City hold some back for
future increases. Gonzalez said, while a small 7% increase will be unlikely in the future, it may be good to have
a 10% increase to level it off and prevent a future and even larger increase. Russell said the City is able to set
up a health account that the City can use as a buffer. He spoke about how the intergovernmental pool works
and how it provides funding, equity and stabilization for the City. Gonzalez says it is important to build as much
flexibility as possible into the plan. Russell spoke about looking at the design of the plan and the importance of
it being a plan that any City employee can use. Brandenburg said staff needs to know whether or not to perform
a request for proposal, whether or not Council wants the City to absorb rate increases, or whether they want any
plan design changes, if possible.
Sansing spoke about the increase and what the bottom line out of pocket total would be for the City.
Brandenburg said the City does not have the dollar amount at this time but he can bring it to Council in the
future.. Russell said the ultimate question is whether or not Council wants to use the excess they have as a
relief to the employees. Russell also asked if the City wants to go through the process of putting out a RFP.
Gonzalez said he would be in favor of a RFP to see what the market bearings are. Meigs said he thinks the City
could avoid the RFP this year in good conscious since it is only a 7% increase. Gonzalez said he thinks it would
be the the City's due diligence to execute a RFP and see what other options there are. He said he knows 7% will
not be sustainable in the future and the current deductibles are high. Ross said he thinks the City should have a
fund that smooths out over time. Ross asked and Russell said doing a RFP can be done but it is a lot of work.
Russell said, if the City starts to do an RFP just to do one, vendors will stop submitting or taking the City
seriously. Meigs said he does not think the City can do much better for this year. Ross agreed and said he
would be in favor of having the City absorb the rate increases for employees. Gonzalez said, if Human
Resources feels like it is not going to be a benefit to do a RFP, then they should not do it. There was much
discussion.
Motion by Eason, second by Meigs that the City does not go through a RFP process, that the City absorb the
rate increases and that Council wait to hear back from Russell regarding the other issues he is going to check
into before Council decides on any changes to the plan. Approved 7-0
Brandenburg said the City wants to make its employees better consumers and making them pay
as they go has
supported that
concept. Sansing said, now
that Russell is on the Board of Directors for TML, it may
be good for
him to take the
initiative and investigate the
option of exploring a Williamson County
wide
of
health
Human
Resources
plan.
Civil
G Review
of the City's
participation in the
creation
of the Central Texas Deferred Compensation Plan -- Kevin
Russell,
Director
of
Human
Resources
and
Civil
Service
Russell reviewed the item and introduced Al DiCristofaro of TheRetirementStore, who summarized the 457(b)
Deferred Compensation Plan for the City. Russell said this is an opportunity to combine plans with Williamson
County, Round Rock and several other Central Texas cities in order to have a larger pool of assets. He said this
will allow for the City employees to have even better benefits.
DiCristofaro introduced himself and said deferred compensation is a supplemental retirement savings plan for
public sector employees. He said this is the equivalent of a 401(k) plan from the private sector. He said
Georgetown's current plan has been around since 1987 and has assets of about $2 million. He said,
comparatively speaking, that is not a lot of money for a plan like that. He said this is an exciting venture in which
to be involved. He said the key issues is there is no formal oversight issue in place for the City to act as a
prudent fiduciary. He said expenses tend to be a little more than what the City may be able to secure as part of
a larger coalition. He said there are a lot of laws that govern 457(b) plans. He spoke about those laws, including
Chapters 609 of the Government Code and Chapter 117 of the Property Code. He said he does not know a
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single entity in Texas that has combined plans to provide a better value for employees. He said this is breaking
new ground. He spoke about the objectives of the new plan and said it would be to establish a formal oversight
committee that would review the plan and make changes to it. He added the committee would develop an
investment policy statement and he described what type of things would be in that policy. He said the intent is
to improve the investment options for employees, improve the overall pricing structure, and provide better
employee values. He said the current members of the Central Texas Deferred Compensation Plan are those
that have expressed interest in the venture, including Georgetown, Williamson County, Round Rock, Hutto,
Taylor as well as other municipalities in the area. He said there have been several meetings for members to
explore possibilities and hammer out details of how this thing will work. He said the resulting document of those
meetings will be provided to Council shortly. He said the specific responsibilities of the plan oversight committee
would be to develop a request for proposal to take to the marketplace to gather products and services that
would benefit employees. He said the committee will also be responsible for oversight of those products and
services once implemented.
Meigs asked and DiCristofaro said the cost aspect of the program varies significantly from City to City because
there are different vendors involved. He noted Georgetown works with ICMA-RC, which has one of the lower
cost structures. He said, when you get inside of the current product itself, there are a lot of investment options
that are poor value and the City employees pay an administration charge that will probably end up going away
with the future product. Meigs asked and DiCristofaro confirmed the administration costs should be born by the
investment options in the plan. He said, by combining the plans, the external administration cost would
disappear. Meigs asked and DiCristafaro said Council would not be able to document the fee structure until the
plan went out to bid. Meigs said and DiCristofaro noted there are 65 investment options in the current plan,
which is 40 more than what people actually need. He said slimming that investment menu down is how he
recommends a committee approach this issue. Meigs asked and DiCristafaro said it will be up to the committee
to provide documentation and counseling to employees who would be interested in this investment.
Mayor spoke about the benefits of this type of program. DiCristafaro said it is very important to provide as many
investment options as possible for employees so they can make decisions that are appropriate to accomplish
their specific goals. DiCristafaro said the advantage to the employee is a reduction of the income tax level. He
said Judge Gattis made the comment that the one thing he is certain of is that the retirement benefit will change
dramatically in the next 15 or 20 years. He added this program allows people to save money to supplement
whatever that change will be. Mayor asked about the risk to the City with programs like this. DiCristafaro said it
is minimal if people effectively manage the program. He said the risk becomes significant if the City offers a plan
that, by law, may be illegal or provides poor value to the employees. Sokolow said the issues may get down to
control. He said, right now, the City has its own program and added, once you share with other Cities, the City
answers to a committee and will have less control. He said the other issue is the selection of the administrator
and who get to be the administrator of this huge group. Sansing said he is in favor of this program. Mayor
asked what would happen if a future Council did not want to be a part of this venture. DiCristafaro said there is
no clear definition as to what the liability is for the Council. DiCristofaro said you can not control the stock
market and noted it is a risk reward spectrum because there is a risk in everything you do. There was much
discussion.
Brandenburg said the employees will have the ability to be as conservative or as risky as they choose.
Gonzalez spoke about the employees having the ability to have a handbook and guide on their investments.
Russell said the current plan group comes to talk to the City employees once or twice a year and noted
employees who are using the current plan have the option to talk with a financial advisor for a fee. Russell said
the goal of this group, which would have greater assets, could negotiate for those types of services. Russell said
the oversight committee will be in charge of making sure they hire a good plan administrator and holding that
administrator accountable for providing services they promise to provide.
Gonzalez said, the more choice the employees have, the more dangerous they become. He noted it would be
good to give employees a handbook on these issues in order to shield the City from liability. Russell said, right
now, employees do not receive that extensive of paperwork on the current program, but added they are able to
get a plan advisor for a fee. He said this would be a voluntary program for the employees and the City would
like to provide them with as much as possible with as little cost as possible. Russell reviewed the council action,
which is to approve the Central Texas Deferred Compensation Plan (CTDCP) Charter and Bylaws and well as
approve the City of Georgetown CTDCP Oversight Committee Appointments.
Mayor asked and Russell confirmed this is just an overview of the program and the related items on the regular
Council meeting agenda will be pulled until a later date.
D Presentation and update on Information Technology projects for the current fiscal year, and overview of major
initiatives for next fiscal year -- Mike Peters, Information Technology Director and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial
Officer
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Rundell said, over the past year, the City of Georgetown has gone a long way within the Information Technology
department. She introduced Mike Peters, Information Technology Director. With a Powerpoint presentation,
Peters gave Council an overview of the current and future IT projects. He reviewed the recent success over the
past fiscal year as they relate to the network, servers/storage, phone system, date center, core software and
organizational changes. He spoke about some of the big projects that are going on right now including the
Computer Aided Dispatch- Records Management System, Automated Metering Infrastructure and Customer
Information System (CIS). He said one of the things that came out of the effort of CIS birds is the successful
bidders all use ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning Software) financial planning systems. He spoke about what
an ERP system is and the corresponding benefits. He said there are higher initial costs for this type of solution
but noted it saves money in the long run. He spoke about the CIS Selection Overview and the processes that
are being used to choose the most suitable system. He spoke about staff heading on a field trip to look at other
cities that use the CIS product. He showed Council a schedule for that trip.
Peters reviewed the major IT projects for fiscal year 2010-2011. He spoke about the server and desktop
virtualization projects and what those will provide for the City and its employees. He said these programs will
take the work load from hundreds of desktops to a smaller number of larger virtual desktop servers. He said, as
PCs fail, the City will be able to institute a cheaper type of machine throughout the City to replace them. He
noted staff will also be able to service those new devices remotely. He said, over the next couple of years, IT
will be spending a lot of time on process re-engineering. He said there will be a lot of large overlapping
implementations happening at once. He said for Council to think of this as moving to the next level. He said it
will be exciting and challenging at times, but noted it will benefit the City as well going forward. Mayor asked
and Peters showed the Council an example of the device that would be used to allow for the City employees to
talk to a smaller number of larger servers. He said the cost of that device is $300. Gonzalez asked and Peters
addressed how this change will affect the Council laptops. He said this will shift work and storage away from the
"C" Drive on the laptop device. He noted IT is not addressing, however, the public safety tough books. He
noted those still need to be able to operate locally.
Meeting went to closed session under Open Meetings Act sections 551.071, 551.072, 551.074 and 551.087 --
5:15 p.m.
Mayor George Garver
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Meeting return to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:00 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 06:00 PM.
ry Jessica Brettle