MINUTES
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Thursday, March 13, 2008
City
Hall, Room 604
6:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Council President Chad Fradette, Council
Vice-President Chris Wery, Ald. Tom Weber, Ald. Celestine Jeffreys, Ald. Jerry
Wiezbiskie
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Ald. John Vanderleest
OTHERS PRESENT: Chris
Pirlot, DPW Operations Director, Jay Selissen, Members of the Public, Members
of the Media
1. Call to order.
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
by Chairman Fradette. Roll call was
taken with Chairman Fradette stating that Ald. Wery is just leaving work and is
on his way and Ald. Vanderleest may not be able to attend, due to another
meeting.
As an informational item, Chairman Fradette
informed the Committee that a Motion to Dismiss Suit has been filed on behalf
of the City, regarding the Nativity Scene lawsuit, from the Freedom from
Religion Foundation. Copies will be available to Council members who are
interested.
2. Approval of the agenda.
Motion made by Ald. Jeffreys, second by Ald.
Wiezbiskie to approve the agenda.
Motion carried.
3. Approval of the minutes of the December 11, 2007
Advisory Committee meeting.
Motion made by Ald. Weber, second by Ald.
Wiezbiskie to approve the minutes of the December 11, 2007 meeting of the
Advisory Committee as submitted. Motion
carried.
4. Request by Ald. Wiezbiskie, on behalf of a
constituent, to review and eliminate the ordinance that prevents use of head
phones while on bicycles. (note: the ordinance is being changed and will go through
the third reading at the March 18th meeting).
Ald. Fradette stated that
this item went through Protection & Welfare Committee and had its first
reading at Council and will have it’s last reading at the March 18th
Council meeting. Motion made by Ald.
Wiezbiskie, second by Ald. Jeffreys to receive and place on file. Motion carried.
7. Request by Ald. Zima that the City adopt a policy
whereby all additions or deletions to the City Table of Organization be
approved by the Common Council prior to the presentation of the Annual City
Budget by the Mayor to the Common Council.
Items 5 and 6 will be held
until Ald. Wery and Chris Pirlot arrive.
Ald. Jeffreys stated that
it’s difficult to talk about organizational issues at budget time and feels
it’s a good idea to talk about at Council as a separate item from the budget.
Ald. Weber stated that the Joint Personnel & Finance Committees take up
these items, and suggested having changes to the Table of Organization
addressed as a separate item at this meeting.
After brief discussion, a motion was made by Ald. Jeffreys, second by
Ald. Weber to handle all additions and deletions to the Table of Organization
through the joint Personnel & Finance Committee which is held before the
Council Budget meeting, and that these items be clearly separated for
discussion at the meeting. Motion
carried.
6. Request by Ald. Weber for discussion and possible
action on road conditions and snow plowing in the city.
Ald. Weber stated that it
was a rough winter and said the aldermen received an inordinate amount of phone
calls. He said he spoke with Tom
Steffel, Supervisor for DPW and received a response email from Tom. He said he
brought this item forward to see if there is something we aren’t doing right,
or anything we could have done differently relative to plowing and clearing
city streets. He stated that he is looking for a fact finding discussion and
not asking for any action, adding that I&S would be the committee to take
action.
Chris Pirlot, Director for
Operations for the Dept. of Public Works responded that DPW has been asking
themselves that same question this year. He stated that the budget is double
and triple from last year in some areas like fuel consumption, which is up 200%
over last year at this time. Ald. Weber
said he saw the same problem in Howard, Allouez and East DePere when he was out
with clients. Mr. Pirlot said they are
a service business and DPW also received many phone calls, adding that they
follow up on all complaints and ask how they can improve on their customer
service and public relations skills. He
stated that to date they have done 14 snowplow operations and 48 ice and snow
operations. He reviewed the snow
plowing policy stating that they do not do full snow plowing operations on all
500 miles of city streets unless there is over 2” of snow, and only plow
primary streets when there is less than 2”.
Mr. Pirlot said the difficulty this winter has been the warm and cold
spells and said they do plow if we get 1½” two days in a row, and it’s not
packed, which they did once or twice this winter. He referred to the stratification of the snow this year where it
accumulated and then condensed and said when you have packed snow with some
ice, only the graders are going to be useful in scraping. He stated that the
City owns 6 graders and rent 4. He said
his department is always out doing maintenance, scraping, opening up corners,
making sure it’s pushed back to allow room for additional snow.
Discussion ensued regarding
budget and overtime, with Mr. Pirlot stating that according to the Labor
Agreement, they cannot ask union employees who have worked late into the
evening, to come in later the following morning. Ald. Weber expressed concern about managing resources by not
plowing where there is a light snowfall early in the season and saving those
manpower resources for later in the winter.
Mr. Pirlot said their biggest expense has been for scraping on days like
today when the conditions aren’t warm enough until noon, and they want to keep
working until 5 or 6 p.m. because the conditions are right; this costs
overtime. He stated that a full snow plowing operation can cost $15,000 an
hour. Ald. Wiezbiskie said there are
many Christmas trees needing to be picked up which were buried in the snow. He
complimented DPW on the good job they have done this year, and said he received
favorable comments from constituents.
He inquired about money in the general fund, and asked if that money
could be added to and saved to use in rough years like this? Mr. Pirlot said DPW
has not been holding back on anything they have done in past winters, because
of the budget and said the Finance Dept. said there are additional monies
available if they need.
In response to Ald.
Jeffrey’s question what have we learned from this year and what are we going to
be able to do differently next year if we receive 60” of snow? Mr. Pirlot responded that hindsight is
always 20/20 and again said the big problem this year was the freeze/thaw
cycles. He said they discussed if they had done a number of additional snow
plow operations when there was less than 2” of snow, and with the freeze/thaw
cycles there wouldn’t be the crusty buildup but said that would incur a
substantial amount of overtime budget. Added to that, he stated that we had a
number of gray, cloudy days without the radiant sunshine to help out. He stated
that DPW does have a weather consultant service and said it’s still difficult
to predict ahead and again said it’s not how much snow rather than the thawing
and freezing that creates the problem.
He added that they are always scraping, but when the ruts are frozen
solid, they would incur more damage to the graders than improvement on the
streets.
Discussion began regarding
the use of salt with Mr. Pirlot stating that sand is used on residential
streets with 5% salt added. He said
salt is effective at temperatures of 15 degrees or higher and mentioned the
sugar beet byproduct which has the same effect at zero degrees that salt has at
15 degrees, is better for the environment and stays on the road longer. He said they are using this product mixed
with rock salt and are pleased with the result. Mr. Pirlot said even if it would be more of a cost savings to contract
more of the plowing to outside contractors, the language in the Labor Agreement
prohibits them from doing that. In
summary, Mr. Pirlot said they are always learning, adding that it’s an art as
much as a science. He said if they had
a crystal ball, and knew what the weather was going to be, they could have
plowed more often, with less than 2” snow and could have avoided the frozen
ruts. He stated that they are having
strategy sessions with neighboring municipalities to see what they can do to
improve things. Ald. Weber stated that
DPW employees must be understanding and compassionate to citizens calling in
with complaints and should not simply say to call their alderman. Mr. Pirlot said they are always stressing
good customer service.
Motion made by Ald. Weber,
second by Ald. Wery to receive and place on file Ald. Weber’s request for
discussion and possible action on road conditions and snow plowing in the city
and to thank the Department of Public Works for the job that they have done in
this record breaking year. Motion
carried. Mr. Pirlot said he is proud of everything that everyone is doing and
had pens printed which stated “Winter of 2007/08 Survivor” and distributed a
pen to members of the committee.
11. Request by Ald. Fradette to review and approve the agreement with Brown County regarding Renard Island.
Chairman Fradette
reviewed the Memorandum of Understanding and Statement of Intent, drafted by
the County for Transfer of Ownership and Human Use of Renard Island. He said
this is not exactly what we hoped to get, but is a start. He gave a brief
synopsis of how we got here, stating that the Park Committee took up the Renard
Island issue four years ago and said that committee didn’t want to deal with it
and tossed it aside. Ald. Fradette
stated that he, Ald. Wery, Ald. Weber and Ald. Wiezbiskie fought to give this a
chance on the Council floor and thus a Renard Island End Use Committee was
formed. The result of that committee was yes, we want to use it for public use,
it has to be capped appropriately; a cap that protects the public and we wanted
a causeway. Ald. Fradette said County
Executive Hinz helped them along with the Mayor and Ald. Wiezbiskie and they
met with the Harbor Commission and the County and said the County wanted the
city’s support on the Closure Plan. He stated that members of the public along
with himself and Ald. Wiezbiskie and the Mayor testified against the Closure
Plan and the plan was partially rejected by the Wis. DNR.
Chairman Fradette stated
that they told the county if they would start working with the city on an
agreement to cap it appropriately and build a causeway, then the city would
support their closure plan. He said the initial meeting with the County did not
go well, but subsequent meetings with the assistance of the City’s DPW
Engineers provided this agreement for discussion. He stated that the Harbor Commission is on board with this plan
and he believes the County Executive and he’s not certain if Dean Haen is on
board with this plan to close the island properly. Ald. Fradette said if the Committee adopts this MOU, then we
would need to support the County’s Closure Plan.
Ald. Wiezbiskie said he
saw minutes of the meetings with the County being sent to higher offices, even
to the Governor’s office. He indicated that he was pleased to hear talk of a
clay cap at the last meetings, which he stated is the only safe way to cap the
island; the only “responsible closure for human use”. He stated that Ald. Fradette has done tests and has found a
source for the clay, adding that we are talking about 55 acres of valuable
waterfront property to be annexed to Bay Beach. Ald. Wiezbiskie stated that he
was very pleased to see in the last paragraph of the MOU that the Army Corps of
Engineers was involved also. He said to keep in mind that the closure process
will take up to three to ten years.
Ald. Fradette reviewed
each section of the MOU, stating that relative to the 3-10 year time period for
closing, he stated that the County got an earmark from Cong. Kagen through a
grant, to quickly close the island by taking sediment to the Bayport facility,
dewatering it and then trucking it over to the island. He said this allowed
talk of a causeway quicker (3 yrs) rather than the longer time frame. He stated that Ald. Zima does not want the
city to take ownership of the island, adding that the County will take
ownership, not the City.
Public comment was
received from the following residents:
Ø
Rebecca Katers, 2484
Manitowoc Road
Ø
Jim Russ, 302 E.
Allouez Ave
Ø
Tom Sydow, Little
Suamico
Ø
Cathy LeFebvre, 1731
E. Shore Circle
Ø
Bill Acker, 3217
Nicolet Drive
Ø
Christine
Fossen-Rades, 2554 Bittersweet
Ø
Jay Selissen, 1014
Ridge Road
Concerns/comments
expressed by the above citizens included:
Ø
What is the liability
on the part of the city when there will be cutting through contaminated
material for the causeway; this should be part of the Fox River Cleanup, which
will have the final signoff this year, could be in the next month or two and we
have no money in this document from the people responsible for the
contaminating
Ø
Agreement does not
include any money for those who polluted, future cost to the city if swimming
area is created and contaminants are found and need to be removed, asking City
to move quickly
Ø
Ask Attorney to review
closure plan to be certain the City is not liable in the future for repairs to
the dike
Ø
Causeway being
considered for truck traffic?
Ø
By placing the island
150 yards from Bay Beach seriously implies that the original intent is to give
us a walkable island; for human use. Believes this is a federal project and
they should put on a responsible cap
Ø
Rodents, rain, tree
roots, etc. digging/getting through the 2 feet of clay into the contaminated
material below; clay cap loses integrity over time, not safe for humans, spell
out in this agreement that the County will be responsible
Ø
Public Enemy #1 is the
Corps of Engineers who are trying to get rid of the island and have legal
clout, the City, County, DNR need to be careful with the wording
Ø
Change wording from
“material on island surface” to top soil and clay cap and remove word additional
to not allow the County to go to higher elevation, stockpiling allowed?
Ø
Long-term monitoring
included with maintenance? Monitoring everything, cap, walls, etc., include
specific wording here; monitoring is necessary
Ø
County wants city
support for their closure plan; what is the city giving up?
Ø
This MOU will get the
ball rolling and will go back to the county for changes a few times
Ø
Material blowing on
us; code was different when Renard Island was built. DNR has no means to push a
clay cap, grandfathered in unless city pushes for a clay cap
Ald. Fradette,
Wiezbiskie, Weber and Jeffreys responded to concerns/comments from citizens as
follows: The material between the island and shore is still lakebed and the
city has no liability for it, this will be discussed further in the future. Keep other items separate for now and stick
to the agenda item of the MOU, which includes discussing an agreement for
getting a clay cap and causeway. The City is responsible for maintaining two
feet of clay on top of the cap that the county is putting on, the County is
responsible for everything below the cap, including maintaining long-term care
of the dikes and cap and any contaminants that might be brought to the top of
the surface. Some language may need to be added to clarify this. The County
owns the island and are responsible for maintenance of it. The City engineers
are already working on many of the issues discussed. The ultimate use of the causeway will be for pedestrian access
and maintenance vehicles, the County did not have to agree to a permanent
causeway, but did. Donating compost for a roach control plan will be covered in
the closure plan. A VPLE, Voluntary Party Liability Exemption Agreement will be
added to the agreement, in which the County, City and the DNR will work
together to spell out what’s contaminated when we start and if anything
happens, it goes back to the County because the city will be exempt from any
contaminant issues. The outer harbor
material has been approved by the DNR; Ald. Fradette has concern not with liability,
but with contaminants. The County will
be allowed to add 2½ feet of height, which they negotiated with the city. Stockpiling will not be allowed; maintenance
and monitoring will be included in the closure plan.
In summary, Ald.
Fradette and Wiezbiskie stated that it took a long time to get to this point
and many of the issues brought up will be discussed at a later date. Ald. Wery assured the members of the public
that this item will be addressed by the City Council in the next few
months. Ald. Wiezbiskie will put in a
communication to discuss the closure plan, which will be reviewed
carefully. The final draft of the MOU
will be reviewed by city staff.
Motion made by Ald. Wery,
second by Ald. Wiezbiskie to approve the Memorandum of Understanding with the
following amendments:
Ø
In the fourth paragraph
of page 1, line 4, to add the words human use after human health…and the
environment
Ø
In the third paragraph of
page 2, line 2, to delete the words “island surface” and to add the words top
soil and two feet of clay cover material
Ø
In the third paragraph
of page 2, line 3, following the words “long-term cares of the perimeter
dikes”…to add the words and the island in general.
Ø
In the forth paragraph
of page 2, line 2, following the words “place up to an additional two feet”.to
add the words of clay material….
Ø
In the fifth paragraph
of page 2, line 2, following the words “stockpile the additional cover
material”.. to add the word clay before cover material.
Ø
To add a paragraph at
the end of page 2, to read:
WHEREAS,
with respect to all the above items in this Memorandum of Understanding, a
Voluntary Party Liability Exemption Agreement will be executed.
Motion carried.
8. Request by Ald. Weber to consider appropriate
language for a “Good Samaritan” policy for City employees.
Ald. Weber stated that he
received an email from someone who was stuck in the snow and said DPW employees
had assisted two females. He said the person
who called to thank the employees was told that the employees can’t do this
because of liability issues. Ald. Weber
said we’re losing touch. Mr. Selissen related two incidents where two off duty
firefighters pushed two women out of the snow and Steve Peggs changed a flat
tire for a citizen. Ald. Weber said if
employees use good common sense, they should be allowed to do what they would
do on any given day and be good Samaritans.
Chris Pirlot stated that there is no written policy in Public Works and
relayed an incident from a couple of years ago where he and a snow plow
operator stopped to push a car in a driveway that was stuck on the street in
the snow.
After brief discussion, a
motion was made by Ald. Weber, second by Ald. Wery to direct the Mayor’s Office
to communicate to department heads that city employees be allowed to use their
“own discretion” with respect to aiding citizens who may need some help. Motion carried.
9. Request by Ald. Wery to implement a salvage operation
plan for the Washington Commons property should it be demolished.
Ald. Wery said he referred
this item because On Broadway did a great job with the scrapping items from the
Larsen property and realizing revenue from the building. He read an email from Rob Strong which stated
that he will be scheduling a meeting with Purchasing Agent, Linda Dupuis to
begin preparation of a salvage plan (for the demolition of Washington Commons).
Dan Roarty and Greg Larsen agreed to meet with them to share their experience
and help us move forward. DPW staff
will be involved as well.
Motion made by Ald.
Jeffreys, second by Ald. Wiezbiskie to reaffirm that the city, under direction
of the RDA, implement a salvage plan for the demolition of Washington
Commons. Motion carried.
5. Request by Ald. Wiezbiskie that any referral to the
Advisory Committee be through City Council referral only.
Ald. Wiezbiskie stated it
was customary that referrals to the Advisory Committee come out of Council not
through committee meetings. He gave an
example of an item from the Plan Commission where the item is not going the way
that the Alderman wants, they directly refer the item to the Advisory
Committee. Discussion ensued regarding
forum shopping and if an item fails at Committee, that should be reflected in
what they get at Council. Ald. Fradette
said he didn’t understand exactly what Ald. Wiezbiskie was referring to. Ald. Weber said he believes that Ald.
Wiezbiski was asking that one committee not refer directly to another. The On Broadway BID item and Imperial Lane
were brought up as examples. Ald.
Fradette stated that Council unanimously passed Ald. Fradette putting items on
the Advisory Committee agenda without going through Council referral. He said
the Nativity scene is one example and added that Advisory is composed of the
Chairs of the standing committees. He
stated that he never tried to slip anything by the committee chairs. Ald. Weber
stated that anybody can put a communication into the Clerks Office and it can
be put on a committee agenda.
After further brief
discussion, a motion was made by Ald. Wiezbiskie, second by Ald. Jeffreys to
receive and place on file. Motion
carried.
10. Request by Ald. VanderLeest that his previous communication
regarding the creation of an advisory commission on government efficiency be
referred to the Advisory Committee rather than the Mayor’s Office.
Ald. Vanderleest was not
present, and Ald. Fradette spoke on his behalf stating that Ald. Vanderleest
wanted to have an advisory commission on government efficiency created to look
at government efficiency and to find ways to save money in the budget. He would like to have citizens, union
members, and departments heads included in the makeup of this commission. Ald. Weber stated that the Advisory
Committee does not have the authority to establish committees or
commissions. Ald. Fradette said the
Council has the authority to create a commission. Jay Selissen said a Budget
Task Force was formed in the past and met in separate rooms to share ideas
regarding efficiency and budget savings in the various departments. Further discussion surrounded people from
various walks of life who should be included in this commission.
After brief discussion,
motion made by Ald. Jeffreys, second by Ald. Wery to create an advisory
commission on government efficiency comprised of 1 alderman and 5-7 citizens
from the private sector and organized labor, which will be appointed by the
Mayor and will report to the Personnel Committee. Motion carried.
There being no further
business, Vice-Chair Wery and Ald. Weber thanked Chairman Fradette for his good
leadership as Chair of the Advisory Committee.
Ald. Weber concurred and thanked Ald. Fradette. Motion made by Ald. Jeffreys, second by Ald.
Wiezbiskie to adjourn. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Haupt
Recording Secretary