Board Meeting - April 13, 2017
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS
A regular meeting of the Board of Public Works was held at the Hastings Utilities Board Room on Thursday, April 13, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. This meeting was preceded by notice duly published in the Hastings Tribune on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 and by notices duly posted in the lobby of Hastings Utilities, 1228 North Denver Avenue, and the City Hall, 220 N. Hastings Avenue, and was therefore open to the public.
Present: Hunt, Dewalt, Baack, Shoemaker
Absent: Kully
Also Present: Meyer, Cogley, Vrooman, Leonhardt, Hartman, Hernandez, Cox, Barfknecht, Ptak, Mayor Stutte, Odom, Eley, Crecelius and and Tony Hermann (Hastings Tribune)
Chairman Shoemaker stated that the Board of Public Works is subject to the Open Meetings Laws and acknowledged that the Open Meetings Law poster has been posted in the room. He also declared a quorum of members present.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
There were no public comments.
Al Meyer reminded the Board of the retirement party for Ron Anderson at WEC Unit 2 Conference Room on Friday, April 14th from 1-3 p.m.
Meyer reported that the WEC-1 outage is nearly complete and the unit will be restarting on Friday, April 14th. The WEC-2 maintenance outage has been moved to Tuesday evening, April 18th. The outage was moved up a few days because of soft market conditions.
Lori Hartman reported on the following personnel activities:
An offer for the Secretary III position at the WEC will be made at the end of this week.
Committee Reports
a. Comparability – nothing to report
b. Update on Hiring of Manager of Utilities – nothing to report
c. Chamber Retail Committee – nothing to report
d. Deposit Policy Committee – The committee asked Carol Crecelius to set up a meeting.
e. IT Strategy Committee – Mayor Stutte reported that Kevin Schawang and Lindsey Stone are taking feedback from the committee and currently tracking down potential vendors for us to do high level demos.
Moved by Dewalt, seconded by Hunt, that the following items on the Consent Agenda be approved:
a. Review, correction or approval of minutes of March 30, 2017
b. Review of payroll for period ending April 1, 2017
c. Review and approval of checks issued April 7, 2017, check no. 33827 to SID#1 of Clay County, Nebraska
Roll Call: Ayes; Dewalt, Hunt, Baack, Shoemaker. Nays; None. Motion carried.
Moved by Hunt, seconded by Dewalt, to approve check no. 33827 to SID#1 of Clay County, Nebraska. Roll Call: Ayes; Hunt, Dewalt, Baack. Nays; None. Shoemaker abstained. Motion carried.
Moved by Hunt, seconded by Dewalt, that upon the recommendation from staff to award a contract for Water Improvement Project (HU 2017-03 IC-09) to Myers Construction, Broken Bow, Nebraska, for a total of $519,669.50, and to approve associated work order WA-337 for an estimated cost of $1,045,713. Roll Call: Ayes; Hunt, Dewalt, Shoemaker, Baack. Nays; None. Motion carried.
Moved by Baack, seconded by Dewalt, to approve the following work order:
WA-340 Replacement of Fire Hydrants in the system. Estimated Cost: $42,541
Roll Call: Ayes; Baack, Dewalt, Hunt, Shoemaker. Nays; None. Motion carried.
Al Meyer presented the December 2016 Monthly Report, which is a first quarter of Fiscal Year 2016-17. A presentation was given and discussed. A topic of significant discussion was the efficiencies of LED street lighting. A report will be given on the project when the conversion is fully completed.
Discussion on the City Council Meeting of April 10, 2017 action regarding Ordinance No. 4473 took place. Chairman Shoemaker stated that he is on record as being opposed to the ordinance the City Council is considering. He feels it is not well thought through or well discussed and in the long run is going to result in responses the community is not going to like and result in responses the City Council is not going to like.
Shoemaker said that he feels the Council is taking an action they will regret. The Board of Public Works has worked for 80 years with contributions by people in our community that have resulted in a utility operation that is second to none. Shoemaker stated our favorable rate comparisons as one example. He also shared his disappointment in the lack of discussion in the public arena. He said there has been almost no opportunity for the public to be involved. And when the Council engages in the opportunity, there are limits that make it difficult for full and fair discussion and then there is no response from the Council when folks express their concerns.
Shoemaker said that AGP, our largest customer, invested $100M in their business a couple of years ago and the Board of Public Works worked with them on relief of a coal contract to make it happen for our community. AGP has asked the Council to slow this process down and carefully consider their actions and the Council did not even respond to them.
Shoemaker said that efficiency is a whole separate issue and there is no reason why the Board of Public Works cannot continue in place and still have discussions on combining functions.
He asked what they were going to do about hiring a Manager of Utilities? He feels you need to figure out a salary range for that position. The Novak Study addressed the significant discrepancy with salaries at City Hall compared to Hastings Utilities. Shoemaker said that the Council has not said anything to the public or Board of Public Works about how they plan to address those salary discrepancies as alluded to in the report. He said the employees are anxious to know how these salaries will be addressed. Shoemaker said that if the City Council is planning a salary range for the Manager that is significantly different than the current range, the public deserves to know this and the employees will want to know how the comparability study is handled and it should be addressed publicly.
Council Liaison Eley asked Shoemaker why he thinks it will change. Shoemaker said he does not know because it is a whole different operation in charge of making those decisions. Shoemaker said that the Novak Report was very clear in highlighting salary differentials between the City and Hastings Utilities.
Mayor Stutte said that the Board will still remain in place and still be recommending rates as always and that comparability is state law and the comparability studies will determine their rate of pay. When asked, Stutte said he has no problem with the City Administrator being paid less than the Utility Manager because comparability will drive that. Stutte said that he has visited with employees at the Whelan Energy Center, the HU Engineering Department, and the HU Finance Department. He stated that he has two more meetings with employees scheduled in a week.
Stutte said that the Utility Manager is going to be empowered to run the Utilities. They will have operational responsibility to make decisions. To address the issue of reliability, Stutte said he feels that reliability will not be affected by who the Manager reports to because the highly qualified employees and the Board’s leadership will determine that so it will not be affected. The systems will still be in place.
Mayor Stutte said that he and Dave Ptak have sat down and visited with AGP and had a very productive meeting. He has also met with other manufacturers to answer their questions and concerns. Stutte said that he feels that not all are going to agree with these changes no matter how long they are discussed. Stutte said that he believes the implementation of the changes could take the rest of his term. The Board will be briefed along with the City Council of the changes being implemented. Stutte added that he believes in our professional staff.
Board Member Hunt stressed the importance of having elected officials making the decisions and he is in favor of the changes.
A discussion took place on how other city and their utilities’ function. Stutte said that the City of Hastings is the only municipal that is running their utility the way we have. Shoemaker reminded him that the City of Lincoln has an appointed LES Board. Stutte said that he was comparing like size communities. He feels the one item of contention is who does the Utility Manager report to and a decision needs to be made on that soon.
Council Liaison Odom reminded all that he knows the City Council has always been in charge of the Board of Public Works. The Council gave the authority to the Board to run the utility and they’ve done a great job. He said he has personally had to vote consistently negative on something that he feels that 90% is a great idea. His only concern is that they are changing the way this Board operates. This Board has been more willing to work with the Council. Odom said that he wants everyone to understand that the City Council approves 100% of everything this Board does. This ordinance will transfer it from one set of either appointed positions and professional staff to another appointed person, the City Administrator. He said we are not changing anything when you talk about elected officials. The Board has operated the utility because of some expertise but it was mainly operated by professional staff and none of that will change. He said that this Board will be needed to look at things that may be changing immensely in the next few years, ie.. we may be fighting for public power.
Odom said he still thinks we need to keep the Board in it’s operational ability. He feels the efficiency term is being way over used for this process. He does favor all departments being located at one location.
Council Liaison Eley said that he disagrees with the current system whereas the Board can disapprove of an item on their agenda but it does not go before a vote of the City Council, like the Planning Department. Shoemaker stated that is one of the differences with an operational board and an advisory board.
Hunt explained how the current Planning Commission was changed to separate City and County. Shoemaker stated that was a prime example of politics rearing it’s ugly head and got in the middle when one Board became two Boards and that’s exactly why he is concerned about the direction the City Council is going.
Board Member Dewalt stated that when the Novak Study first came out, the key word “effectiveness” was used a lot. She was on a sub-committee along with Board Member Kully. Mayor Powers put the committee together. She felt the committee made great strides moving forward and could see needed changes in different areas. She said that a more effective way to handle paperwork throughout the departments was needed and she can see a lot of effective changes between the City and Utilities on the finance side, IT side and others with these specific areas. Dewalt agrees some of the stuff being done is from the 1970’s and need updated. She said that when the ordinance came out and they looked at a change where the Manager reports, that is where she agrees with Phil. Dewalt voiced her disappointment at the Council meeting on Monday night when many of our large users/ratepayers were voicing their concerns and being limited to two minutes in a public forum, that maybe we’re moving a little too quickly. She said that she hopes the Mayor and members of the Council will continue to meet with the private groups but would like more of an open public discussion that there could be interaction between citizens and ratepayers and the Mayor and Council members at a public forum rather than one on one.
Board Member Baack said that being the newest member to the Board, he is not any more qualified to serve on the Board than anyone else, but the other four on the Board bring a wealth of knowledge and his intent was to get there someday. He said it is a steep learning curve and he has been investing a great deal of time in learning. Baack said he has served on a great number of Boards and likes to control the direction of the Boards. He doesn’t feel they will have a lot of that as an advisory board going forward. Baack said that time is a limited resource that we have. He said that he’s always going to give back to the community but wonders if his time is better spent elsewhere if he can’t control the direction by being in an advisory position. He said that as a Board, we’re going to have to decide if being on an Advisory Board, we can actually make a difference or if our time is better spent elsewhere.
During Board Member comments, Hunt thanked staff members for their time in retrieving requested documents.
During Miscellaneous and Future Agenda Items, Shoemaker mentioned that the items that were slated for April 27th should be postponed until a determination is made at the Council meeting regarding the Board of Public Works status.
Moved by Hunt, seconded by Dewalt, that this Board go into Closed Session, which Closed Session is clearly necessary for the protection of the public interest in that said Closed Session will consist of a strategy session relative to negotiations. Roll Call: Ayes; Hunt, Dewalt, Shoemaker, Baack. Nays; None. Motion carried.
The meeting closed to the public at 10:30 a.m. The executive session consisted of Board Members, Mayor Stutte, Council Liaisons, Ptak, Meyer, Barfknecht and Cox.
Moved by Baack, seconded by Dewalt, that the meeting be reopened to the public at 10:52 a.m, and that no decisions were made nor official actions taken during said Closed Session. Roll Call: Ayes; Baack, Dewalt, Shoemaker, Hunt. Nays; None. Motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at 10:52 a.m.