City Council Announcements
February 15, 2000
A. Decisions, Feedback & Information needed by staff
1. LETTER FROM THE COUNCIL CHAIR:
a. Attached is a letter from the Chair to the Mayor formalizing the Council's request that was made February 3, that the Administration review and resubmit the five-year financial and operating plans by April 1, 2000. In addition, the letter requests that the resubmitted plans include budget detail, as requested by the Council, and that a revenue forecast be provided to the Council as a courtesy before the presentation of the Mayor's Recommended Budget in May. Does the Council approve of this letter?
A: The Council said the five year plan was not acceptable and wanted a 2 year plan submitted with the budget and a follow-up with a completed five year plan. The Council also wanted the Administration to continue rolling the plan over so it always showed five years out. Ms. Gust-Jenson said the letter would be re-drafted.
b. Attached is a letter is from the Council Chair to Purchasing requesting that Rick Giardina's contract be amended to include the annexation study that the Council approved last week. Does the Council approve of this letter?
A: OK
c. Attached is a letter/memo from Anne Gerber to those developers that attended the February 3 impact fee meeting to discuss the methodology for the survey of non-residential impact fees that the Council approved (I will also send the memo to those on the original mailing list who were not able to attend the meeting). Does the Council approve of this letter?
A: OK for Anne Gerber to send memo.
2. COUNCIL PHOTOS: The IMS Division is updating and re-designing the City's web site. One goal is to include more graphics and photos to make the site more interesting. IMS has asked permission to unobtrusively take some photos during Council meetings to include on the City's web site. Does the Council approve?
A: OK
B. Council Office Policies
1. ANNEXATIONS: Attached is a proposed new policy regarding the Land Use/ Annexation review process. This is a list from a previous staff report. The former Council expressed interest in standardizing the review process. Does the Council approve the policy? OK
C. For Your Information
1. DECEMBER 31, 1999 INTERIM FINANCIAL STATEMENTS: Attached is the Second Quarter Interim Financial Statement for Fiscal Year 1999-2000. Some revenues collected during the first six months of the fiscal year are less than expected and other revenues are greater than expected. The Administration projects that year-end total revenue will be approximately equal to or greater than budget. The Administration reports that the unfavorable variance in expenditures to budget for the Fire Department is due to timing of actual expenses versus year-to-date budget. Revenue in the Water Utility Fund is higher than expected due to greater water use as a result of warm weather in the fall. The loan from the General Fund to the Intermodal Hub Fund was increased from $4,006,708 as of June 30, 1999 to $6,405,048. Contact Gary Mumford or Anne Gerber if you have questions regarding the Interim Financial Statements.
2. UPDATE ON STATUS OF PARAMEDIC SPECIAL SERVICE DISTRICT: As was reported after the January COG meeting, the County Fire Chief had proposed that COG members consider establishing a special service district to consolidate paramedic services County-wide. Paramedic services would be removed from the County's General Fund, which would eliminate the double taxation issue that currently exists for those municipalities that provide paramedic services under their own licenses (Salt Lake City, Sandy and West Valley). Currently, for example, Salt Lake City residents pay property taxes to Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City for paramedic services, when only Salt Lake City actually provides the service.
Mayor Leavitt of the Town of Alta, who is the Chair of the Public Safety Committee of COG, held a Public Safety Committee meeting on February 3 to discuss the level of interest each municipality would have in such a special service district. It was clear from the meeting that no city is interested in consolidating and receiving paramedic services from the County. Cities expressed an interest in keeping their local control with respect to fire and paramedic services.
However each city also expressed an interest in participating in an alliance of County fire departments. Such an alliance would allow each city to keep its autonomy, while benefiting from economies of scale in purchasing equipment and supplies, providing training, and providing "backup" or mutual aid agreements to other fire departments. In addition, the alliance would be able to address issues that challenge County-wide fire departments such as wage differentials.
At COG's Executive Committee meeting later on February 3, it was decided that the individual fire departments within Salt Lake County would be encouraged to form an alliance as described above, and report back to the COG on its success.
While an alliance does not directly solve the double taxation issue related to paramedic services, it was mentioned that perhaps the County could distribute the tax funds allocated for paramedic services to each city within the County, and allow each city to either provide paramedic services on its own, or contract with the County or another city. This would resolve the double taxation issue without requiring County-wide consolidation.
3. SALT LAKE LANDFILL- REPORT OF 1999 YEAR-END ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND MAJOR GOALS AND PROGRAMS 2000: Attached is a report from the Salt Lake Valley Waste Management Facility (Landfill) detailing the Landfill's accomplishments for 1999, and Major Goals and Programs for 2000. Please let Anne know if you have any questions.
4. CITIZEN PLANNER WORKSHOPS: 2 Day Citizen Planner Seminars, co-sponsored by the center for Public Policy and Administration, the Utah Local Governments Trust, and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, are offered throughout the state.
Topics covered by qualified planning professionals include: The general plan; Zoning and subdivision regulation; Duties of the planning commission and board of adjustment; The proper conduct of public meetings; Legal authority and liability.
The schedule and locations for the 2000 Community Planner Seminars are:
Feb. 18/19- Midway; Apr. 7/8 – Provo; May 19/20- North Salt Lake.
Please let Veronica Wilson know if you would like to attend.
5. POLICE 4/10 WORK WEEK FOR PATROL OFFICERS: On January 30, 2000, the City Administration changed police patrol shifts back to 10-hour shifts. In July 1999, the Police Department implemented an 8-hour shift following an independent audit of the Police Department hired by the City Council. The audit suggested two options for helping to eliminate the call for service workload imbalance. One approach was to change to a 5/8-work schedule. The other approach was to modify the current 4/10-work schedule to provide better coverage. The Police Department implemented the 5/8 schedule, which was the auditor’s first choice. The Department implemented this schedule using the traditional three shifts per day that provides equal number of officers during any time of the day. According to the Police Department, in order to have more officers during certain times of the day with a 5/8 shift, officers would need to begin their shifts at many different times during the day. It would be very difficult to supervise and brief officers. Officer shifts would have to change during the week. For example, an officer may work day shift for four days and then work the afternoon shift on Friday.
The Police Department has now implemented the auditor’s other approach, which is an improved 4/10 schedule. Part of the reason that the 10-hour shift is more successful now than two years ago during the audit, is that officers can do reports on laptops in the field rather than coming into the office during the last hour or two of their shifts to enter reports on desktop computers. This allows officers to be on the streets for more hours, which provides for additional coverage during peak times of need.
Due to the fact that this change relates to a City Council operational audit, the Council requested additional information. Attached are two charts and several letters explaining the change in shift schedules. The first chart shows staffing by hour during a typical day. The second chart shows overtime hours for patrol officers under the 4/10 shift compared to the 5/8 schedule. The overtime hours are for “backlog” meaning that officers were on calls at the time their regular shifts ended.
6. CITY HOLIDAY (Reminder) : On Monday, February 21 the City Council Office will be closed in honor of Presidents’ Day.
D. Meetings
BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE
Tuesday, February 15
at 4 p.m.
North Historic Room
TRAFFIC SUBCOMMITTEE
Tuesday, February 15 at 4 p.m.
South Historic Room
ANNEXATION SUBCOMMITTEE
Tuesday, March 7 at 4 p.m.
North Historic Room
AIRPORT SUBCOMMITTEE
Thursday, March 9 at 4 p.m.
Historic Room