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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 05.11.2009 CC-WMinutes of the Meeting of the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Monday, May 11, 2009 The City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Council Absent: Keith Brainard, Gabe Sansing, Dale Ross, Ben All Council present. Oliver, Pat Berryman, Bill Sattler, Patty Eason Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Patricia E. Carls, City Attorney; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jessica Hamilton, City Secretary; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service; Glenn Dishong, Water Services Manager; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager for Utility Operations; Eric Lashley, Library Services Director; Keith Hutchinson, Public Information Officer; Kimberly Garrett, Director of Parks and Recreation; Jill Kellum, Parks and Recreation Admin; Minutes Policy Development/Review Workshop - Call to order at 04:03 PM Council recessed to Executive Session -- 4:03 p.m. under Section 551.071 Council reopened and returned to Open Session -- 4:24 p.m. A Presentation regarding City of Georgetown's current efforts to establish and maintain a competitive position in its defined market. Review of current Pay System, performance management, and benefits -- Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service and Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager Brandenburg described the item and gave a brief introduction to the Citys personnel policy and benefits. He said this same presentation was given to the General Government and Finance Committee. Russell said he would like to speak with the Council about remaining competitive and added he would like to concentrate on non-public safety benefits and pay. He spoke about attracting and retaining employees and noted, in the past, the City has done compensation studies comparing Georgetown to surrounding Cities. He said, in the last couple of years, Georgetown has concentrated on comparing itself with Round Rock He said the City tries to make sure that non-public safety employees' pay scale is at 95% of Round Rock. He said the City tries to keep their pay scales as competitive as the benefits. He said, in the past, the City had a performance-based pay system and he described how this system worked. He said the City eventually got rid of the system and therefore did away with the process that would move employees through the pay scale. He showed Council a graph of the current compensation problem in Georgetown He said, if an employee is hired without a lot of experience, that person will start at the bottom quartile of the pay scale. He said, right now, in order to stay competitive, the City uses cost of living adjustments (COLA) which goes toward both the employee and the pay range. He showed Council an example of how this affects the pay range and noted, even though the salary increases with a COLA, the employee stays in the relative range in the pay scale. He noted a new employee with more experience could be hired in a higher quartile in the pay range than someone who has been with the City for years. He reviewed the types of pay the City offers to its employees including variable pay, pay for performance bonuses, and longevity. He said Round Rock and Cedar Park have a one year waiting period for longevity pay. Russell said the staff would like to develop a merit -based pay system so that employees City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009 Page 1 of 4 Pages will move through the pay range and receive credit for their experience. He explained the way an employee would move through the pay range with a merit -based pay system. He noted this system would recognize the value of the amount of experience of existing employees. He showed Council a graph of the proposed solution and explained the process. He said the City will move people through the pay range if they are exceeding or outstanding. He showed Council a graph that demonstrates the cost of this compensation solution to the City. He said staff would like for Council to approve a certain amount of money for staff to use to fund the merit -based pay system. He showed Council current pay for performance graphs in the City. He spoke about the next steps in the process including Council approval of the concept of a merit based pay system as well as changes to the City's longevity pay program. He said staff will probably bring forward policy and procedure changes to implement a waiting period for longevity pay. He gave Council other considerations including the recent move to a high deductible health plan base, the utilization of the medical expense ratio, future costs and plan changes. Brainard asked and Russell said, for the high deductible health plan last year, it was 95 co -pay plan/5% HDHP usage last year instead of 60/40 this year. Sansing said he believes giving people who earn it merit raises, but he is not sure if employees who only meet expectations deserve merit pay. He suggested changes to the percentages in the proposed merit -based pay system. Russell said the City is not tied to the statistics that were just given to Council. He said there are percentages in the first and second quartile because anyone at the midpoint of their range can go anywhere and command a salary. He said, if the City does not move employees through the pay scale, it becomes a training ground for other organizations. Sansing noted the City needs to do what they can to empower employees in order to get to the exceeds level. Ross asked and Russell said the organization overall is closer to a normal bell cure in terms of evaluation rankings. Ross asked and Russell said it would be possible to lower the percentage of the COLA and raise the merit pay percentage Russell said he has thought about this before, but it is really a Council directive. Sattler asked and Russell said, in real numbers, about 170 employees had exceeds evaluations last year. Brainard listed the components of the City's pay system and noted it would be helpful if the Council could get a picture of the employeds compensation with all of those components put into in one place. Brainard asked and Russell said it would be possible to get a distribution of all City employees based on their location on the pay scale. Brainard said it would be good to find creative ways to compensate City employees including rewarding good performance by employees more often and tying employee incentives not only an individual, but to a City department or unit as well as the City as a whole. He also mentioned matching the amount of compensation given to employees with how well the City is doing financially. Sansing asked and Russell said those programs are not difficult to implement, but noted the problems will come with making sure the City has the adequate financial controls in place Brandenburg said it is not difficult, but you just need to identify what parameters are there from the outset He mentioned the Save Us Monday (SUM) program that will be given to employees. Mayor asked and Russell explained the eighteen step pay schedule for both the police officers and firefighters. He said the way the system is set out is to base the police and fire's pay scale to Georgetown's competitor, Round Rock. Mayor asked if there could be a way to untie Georgetown from comparing itself to Round Rock Russell said that that is a Council discussion and noted the City needs to take into consideration the organizations to which they are losing their employees. Brandenburg said this has been changed in the past and noted eight or nine other comparables that were used. Ross asked and Russell said the pension plan is also part of the benefit program and added the City needs to look at this in a strategic way. He said there will not be money available over the next five years if the pension plan keeps growing like it is today. Russell said staff will be looking for opportunities and ways to discuss the current problems the City is having regarding employee compensation. He said it is important to make sure employees are being educated about the problem along with possible solutions. There was much discussion. B Presentation and discussion regarding an amendment to the Water Conservation Plan including updates to the Drought Contingency Plan and Water Rates schedule -- Glenn Dishong, Water Services Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer With a PowerPoint presentation, Dishong gave Council a water conservation plan update. He gave a brief overview and history of the water conservation issue. He said the last State legislature required the City to submit an update to its water conservation plan. He listed the water planning elements including the conservation plan, the drought contingency plan, the 2030 plan, regional planning and the system master plan. He said a lot of their planning is driven by the City's Comprehensive Plan. He said the City does regional planning and is in Region G, Brazos River Authority. He showed Council the water logistics equation showing supply, treatment, and demand. He explained this equation and how it works. He said it is difficult to tell what the peak customer demand is going to be each year because it all depends on the weather and other elements He spoke to Council about the current water supply broken up into the Edwards Aquifer and groundwater supply and said the City is using as much ground water as possible. He said Lake Georgetown makes up about 18% of the water supply. He said the City has 36,000 acres available and it needs 54,000 acre/feet to service City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009 Page 2 of 4 Pages the 2030 plan. He explained the future water supply needs. He said there is a shortfall between available water and what is needed. He spoke about how to make up for the shortfall including conservation efforts and the purchasing of more water. He spoke about the costs of purchasing water. He said the per capita water usage is about 200 gallons per day per person and the goal is 160 gallons per day. He said, once this goal is reached, the City will not have to go out and spend $150 million to get ground water to the area. He said the City could attack water loss, water theft, and inaccuracy in meters. He said the City's current water loss is at 15%, compared to 20% five years ago. He said staff is working on fixing leaks as quickly as possible to lower this percentage. He said the goal should be 10% water loss. Brainard asked and Dishong said the water usage would not be any different without golf courses because the City is using reclaimed water and untreated ground water for the courses. He said controlling irrigation use will affect the usage. He said the Water Conservation Plan is required by the Texas Water Code and it must be submitted to TCEQ and the Water Development Board. He said the plan must be adopted by resolution of Council. He mentioned and described the Drought Contingency Plan. Dishong spoke about the Sun City Conservation pilot and added the purpose was to study the feasibility of a twice per week watering schedule. He added it also studied the impact of feedback on water demand. He said the information gathered from the pilot will be used to update the Water Conservation Plan and Drought Contingency Plan and the conservation rate structure. He spoke about the weather conditions that were in affect during the Sun City pilot. He described the weather and usage trends during the pilot He showed Council a graph of the monthly demand pattern in 2008 and noted the months that were used for the Sun City pilot. He said this has been the City's typical pattern for the past number of years. He noted the increase has been due to the rising need for landscape irrigation. He showed Council the results from the pilot study. He added there was quite a bit of savings from educating the public. He spoke about the percentages of people in the pilot program who were over irrigating their yards. He said a follow up survey was done after the pilot was run and he gave Council the feedback from the survey. He noted three quarters of the people utilized the usage feedback given to them. He listed the many recommendations (in order of preference) from customers including implementing a customer usage feedback system, revising the rate structure so people pay more when they irrigate landscape, implementing watering restrictions, and lastly expanding treatment facilities. He noted these results match up closely with a normal managerial response. Dishong spoke about the conclusions drawn from the pilot program. He noted education and feedback all results in water conservation. He noted customers are more likely to conserve on a two day schedule, but conservation could also be achieved on a three day schedule. He noted a two day schedule is somewhat problematic because of the shallow soil depths in certain areas and added the current rate structure has limited influence on water conservation. Dishong said the recommendation from staff is to adopt the Water Conservation Plan with a goal of 160 gallons per capita, revise the Drought Contingency Plan, implement automated usage feedback, Implement a Water Conservation Specialist position, and revise the current water rate structure. He summarized each one of those recommendations for Council. He described the Drought Contingency Plan and said, as the drought increases, the implementation of the plan increases. Sattler asked and Dishong said there are water use averages that apply to the plan. He said the automated usage feedback will be sent to users via e-mail. He said the customer themselves will tell staff when they would like to be notified on their water usage He noted this will be brought to Council at the second meeting in May. He spoke about the full implementation of the automated feedback system and described the Water Conservation Specialist, or customer educator. He noted the current project coordinator position role will be expanded to provide water conservation services to customers in order to become the Conservation Specialist. He noted the services of the specialist would include irrigation system audits, billing analysis, and high use customer outreach. Sansing said there is a product that uses algorithms to determine when the City needs rain. He said, evidently, it has been very successful and noted this is something staff may want to look into further. He noted it would be nice for every person to have this in their homes so that it would automatically turn on their sprinklers when they need the rain. Dishong said the City will continue to look for ways the City could help the conservation effort Berryman said she would like to talk about water sources and added she thinks the City is spending more than what was anticipated on purchasing water. Briggs said he asked the consultant to take the City's water service territory and find out how much water the City needs in order to completely build out He said, if the City uses 160 gallons per capita, there is plenty of water to utilize without having to go out and purchase more. Briggs said the next acre foot of water is going to be extremely expensive and it is important to not have to do that Berryman asked and Briggs said every person who participated in the pilot wanted to achieve the goal of 160 gallons per acre. Berryman said and Briggs confirmed this is a realistic goal but it will require changes in people's habits and stewardship. Sattler asked and Dishong spoke about the differences between groups A, B, and C in the pilot. There was much discussion. Dishong gave Council the proposed water conversation rate block changes for residential users, small commercial users and commercial users. He said the 27% of customers who use less than 10,000 gallons will not see a rate change. He added the non -potable water rate will also need to change in order to cover the cost City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009 Page 3 of 4 Pages of operating the utility. He spoke about the water treatment plant expansion. He reviewed the next steps in this process and when the corresponding Ordinances will be coming to Council. Eason said she is glad the pilot study was done and added it seems to her that the key is educating the public on this issue Sattler asked and Dishong confirmed the new rates include the enterprise fee. Oliver said he likes what Dishong and staff are doing with this. Ross asked and Dishong said, under the current block rate, the people who live on a smaller amount of land will end up paying more relative to those who live on larger acreage Dishong gave examples for how this problem could be solved. Ross asked and Dishong said staff has looked at having two lines, one for potable and the other for non -potable water. Dishong added this adds complexity and it doubles the line cost for the developer. Sansing said conservation is very important but added, he thinks the City needs to be prepared for the future in regard to all water options. Briggs said the City will not be eliminating the ability for the City to be looking at other resources. Brainard said he thinks people want to do the right thing, but the problem is they do not receive the right amount of information. Mayor thanked staff. Council recessed to Executive Session -- 6:03 p.m. under Sections 551.071 and 551.074 Council reopened and returned to Open Session -- 7:33 p.m. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 07:33 PM. Approved : Mayor George Garver City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009 Page 4 of 4 Pages Attest: City Secretary Jessica Hamilton RESOLUTION NO. A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN THE ADVANCE FUNDING AGREEMENT WITH THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RELATED TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH AUSTIN BRIDGES PROJECT. WHEREAS, the Texas Transportation Commission passed Minute Order Number 114335, authorizing the State to undertake and complete a highway improvement generally described as reconstruct the North and South Austin Avenue bridges from 2nd Street to Morrow Street, Georgetown, Texas called the "Project"; and, WHEREAS, for the Project the term reconstruct includes replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, protection, and/or anti-icing/deicing for bridges and tunnels on a public road; and WHEREAS, as part of the administration of the Project, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, by resolution number 2014-11-4, awarded the City of Georgetown a total of $1,299,174 in Surface Transportation Program Metropolitan Mobility (STP -MM) for the Project; and WHEREAS, in order to determine which alternative best serves the interests of the citizens of Georgetown, the City supports a study of alternatives including the following (1) do nothing, (2) alternative alignment, (3) maintenance, (4) rehabilitation/preservation and/or (5) replacement through a public involvement process which is also a requirement of the National Environmentally Policy Act (NEPA); and WHEREAS, the STP -MM award by CAMPO, using the term reconstruct, may require the City of Georgetown to submit to CAMPO a Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) amendment in the Spring of 2017 based on the decision resulting from the range of alternatives undertaken by the City of Georgetown; and WHEREAS, TxDOT works with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and other federal agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and uses the TxDOT environmental compliance process for state and local projects, where TxDOT is the state approval authority; WHEREAS, the Advance Funding Agreement between TxDOT and the City allocate funds including a City contribution of $142,000 for the environmental review and is required for TxDOT approval. Resolution No. 0'5n 711 L.o - L Page 1 of 2 Date Approved 3 a NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN TEXAS. SECTION ONE. The facts and recitations contained in the preamble of this resolution are hereby found and declared to be true and correct, and are incorporated by reference herein and expressly made a part hereof, as if copied verbatim. SECTION TWO. The City Council of the City of Georgetown finds it to be in the best interest of the citizens of Georgetown to enter in the Advance Funding Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation related to the North and South Austin Avenue Bridges Project. SECTION THREE. The Mayor is hereby authorized to sign this Resolution and the Advance Funding Agreement and the City Secretary to attest thereto, on behalf of the City. SECTION FOUR. This Resolution shall become effective on the c1aday of nO 2016. PASSED AND APPROVED on the as day of (Y'W c),, , 2016. ATTEST: CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS 5 By: Shelley N lin City Secre Dale Ross, Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: Charlie McNabb, City Attorney Resolution No. O 3 1 o- L. Page 2 of 2 Date Approved 3�;�Alaottp