City Of Albion

Goal Setting Study Session

February 24, 2015

CALL TO ORDER

Mayor Joseph Domingo opened the regular session at 6:00 p.m.

II. ROLL CALL

Maurice Barnes (1), Lenn Reid (2), Cheryl Krause (5), Andrew French (6) and Mayor Joseph Domingo. Garrett Brown (3) arrived at 6:03 p.m. and William Wheaton (4) was absent.

Staff Present:

Sheryl Mitchell, City Manager, Jill Domingo, City Clerk; Chief of Public Safety; Tom Mead, Finance Director; John Tracy, Code Enforcement Officer; Jim Lenardson, Director of Public Works and Cullen Harkness, City Attorney.

III.	ITEMS FOR INDIVIDUAL DISCUSSION

A. Opening Remarks-City Manager Mitchell

City Manager gave a brief opening of the goal setting session.

B. Albion Department of Public Safety

Public Safety Chief Kipp stated 2014 brought some major changes to the

department. Three veteran officers retired with over 75 years of experience. In

June of 2014 we took possession of the new fire truck which marked a major change

in the departments firefighting operations abilities. The city’s ISO rating dropped

from a 6 to a 5 based on the new truck.

In January of 2014, PSO Noppe and PSO Timmins completed field training and

were assigned to patrol. In addition, PSO Wygant and Noppe graduated from the

Fire Academy in March and were certified as Firefighter I & II in the State of

Michigan. In June of 2014 we hired two more officers and promoted PSO Kern to

Detective Sergeant. This will allow Detective Sergeant Kern to make decisions and

supervise all investigations.

In August the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer brought to the forefront

police community relation. This incident resulted in a community meeting to discuss

the issues of race and policing. The results of the meeting was positive and helped

to open dialogue and ideas of how public safety can improve how they serve all our

citizens. They have plans to have additional meetings along with goals for 2015 to

hopefully address many of the concerns and issues raised.

2015 Goals:

Build Trust within the Community.

Communication

Technology

Training and Education

Comments were received from Council Members Brown, French and Krause,

Finance Director Mead and Mayor Domingo.

C. Code Enforcement

John Tracy, Code Enforcement Officer stated in 2014 we had the following general

ordinance violations

Noxious Vegetation	171

Refuse	108

Open Structures	18

Public Sidewalk Obstruction 116

(Snow & Ice)

Property Maintenance Violations (Health & Safety)

Structural

(building, electrical, mechanical & plumbing)

Exterior Premises 89

Living Conditions

Zoning Permits

(building, fences and signs)	90

Abatements

Noxious Vegetation	65

Refuse	18

Secure Premises	12

Snow Removal	3

Residential Permits

Building	161

Electrical	31

Mechanical	65

Plumbing	32

Commercial Permits

Building	146

Electrical	40

Mechanical	31

Plumbing	10

Per the Calhoun County Land Bank there are thirty two (32) structures in the

environmental comment period which ends March 6, 2015. Following this period the

county will ask HUD to release funds for demolition.

2015 Goals:

Rental Registration/Rental Certification

GIS System

Elimination of excess city property

Continue to develop community

Comments were received from Council Members Krause, Barnes, French and Reid;

Finance Director Mead and Chief Kipp.

D. Public Services

Jim Lenardson, Director of Public Services highlighted the

accomplishments for the Public Services Department:

Successful contract negotiations occurred with the City and the AFSCME union

Operating budget was completed and adopted by council

All trucks and equipment were kept operational

Streets were kept clear of snow and ice despite having to reassign manpower and equipment to assist the water unit with water main breaks and frozen water services

A street project was completed on Wilson, Darrow and Brockway St which consisted of new curb and gutter along with some sidewalk replacement. Hannah St. was redesigned with a boulevard with new curb and gutter and sidewalk replacement where needed. N. Huron St. was partially recompleted and a portion of S. Mingo St. was resurfaced through a concerted effort between the City and Albion College

Parks were maintained in a satisfactory condition given the aging condition of parks maintenance equipment and the amount of mowing, weed eating, snowplowing and miscellaneous work to be completed by a workforce of two employees. Assistance was provided at times by other unit’s personnel to complete assigned tasks.

Continual work at the cemetery especially around Memorial and Veteran’s Day. Assistance was provided at times by other unit’s personnel to complete assigned tasks.

The water unit had approximately 23 water main breaks and 40 plus frozen service complaints. All were resolved in a professional manner although some were time consuming. In the spring all lawn areas were restored with topsoil and seeding.

Training was provided to all water and sewer personnel as well as some members of other units on safe trenching and excavation practices and all are now certified.

The sewer unit works hand in hand with the water unit on excavations, water shut-offs and delivery of various notices. They are also assigned other duties at various sites in the city to complete various tasks.

A concerted effort by the staff at the wastewater facility to work with Tetratech Engineering representative to troubleshoot the existing Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) system. The BNR system which has been in service for some time was not performing as designed. After intense additional analytical work and research, they believe they have been successful at jump starting the system and are continuing efforts to fine tune it. They have reduced their chemical usage at year end and it appears they may be able to reduce costs further within our land application program of biosolids.

2015 Goals:

Identify scope of work for water distribution equipment and infrastructure and assist in the attainment of funding

Secure Michigan Department of Public Health grant for fluoride equipment replacement

Investigate funding for and replacement of high ranger truck and other vehicle updates

Identify/Clarify duties of the Deputy Director

A. Job Description

B. Daily duties and responsibilities

C. Familiarize the Deputy Director with Utility operations and personnel

Professional development of departmental personnel

A. Training

Promote and refine the General Foreman positions

A. Job descriptions

B. Training

Define and implement current street repair/replacement

Move forward with the sidewalk replacement program

Assist in the implementation of the SAW grant program

A. Asset Management Program WWTP

B. GIS System implementation/design

C. Collection system mapping

Enhance communications with city residents via the city’s website/facebook page and district meetings

2016 Goals

Replace aging vehicles and equipment

Continue street replacement/maintenance program

Water tower restoration

Increase/stabilize solid waste budget.

Comments were received from Council Members Brown, French, Reid and Barnes,

Code Enforcement Officer Tracy, Finance Director Mead and Mayor Domingo.

E. Finance Departments

Finance Director Mead highlighting the following accomplishments:

Completed major software and hardware conversion

Continued to get relatively new staff members trained and accustomed to duties and responsibilities throughout the department

Major strides at catching things up from mass vacancies in positions from the current and prior year

2015 Goals:

Restructure department to accommodate union concerns regarding shifts in responsibilities in the past

Set up to accept online payment and credit cards

Cross training staff to alleviate concerns arising when during time times of staff vacancies, including vacations and sick days

Continue to train staff so more day to day and other routine duties can be shifted to them as described in their job descriptions

Continue the endeavor to get the department caught up.

2016 Goals:

Continue with cross training of staff

Get current so we can be proactive instead of reactive

Able to look at long range projections and forecasts

Ongoing reporting to council

Comments were received from Council Members Krause and Brown.

F. Questions/Discussion

City Manager Mitchell asked Council for consensus on Honeywell Project. The

consensus of the council is to put off for due diligence before doing anything with

this project.

Comments were received from Council Members French and Krause.

IV.	PUBLIC COMMENT

No comments were received.

V.	ADJOURNMENT

Brown moved, Barnes supported, CARRIED, to Adjourn the Study Session. (6-0,

vv)

Mayor Domingo adjourned Regular Session at 8:04 p.m.

____________	_________________________

Date	Jill Domingo

City Clerk