Minutes; Finance: August 2008

City of Evansville
Finance & Labor Relations Committee

Regular Meeting
Thursday, August 7, 2008, 5:30 pm
City Hall, 31 S. Madison Street, Evansville, Wisconsin

MINUTES

I. Call to Order. The meeting was called to order at 5:30 pm by Chair Tom Cothard.

II. Roll Call. Present: Alderpersons Tom Cothard, Mason Braunschweig and Diane Roberts. Also present: Mayor Sandy Decker, Finance Director Lisa Novinska, Administrator Dan Wietecha, Auditor Kevin Krysinski and members of the public.

III. Approve Agenda. Roberts made a motion, seconded by Braunschweig, to approve the agenda as presented. Motion approved unanimously.

IV. Minutes of July 3, 2008, Meeting. Roberts made a motion, seconded by Braunschweig, to waive the reading of and to approve the minutes as presented. Motion approved unanimously.

V. Citizen Appearances.
a. Lake Leota Dredging. Gib Wiedenhoeft, on behalf of the SOLE organization, urge the Committee to keep funding for the dredging project in the 2009 budget. The Committee read an email from Park Board Chair Janis Ringhand who also encouraged keeping the funding in the budget.

b. Municipal Court Staffing. Dick Woulfe of the Evansville Observer said that he receives court results from other municipal courts much faster than Evansville. He asked that additional staffing for the court be considered during the budget process.

VI. Water and Light Bills. Cothard made a motion, seconded by Braunschweig, to approve the Water and Light bills in the amount of $632,444.65 and authorize their payment. Motion approved unanimously on a roll call vote.

VII. City Bills. Cothard made a motion, seconded by Braunschweig, to approve the City bills in the amount of $1,010,479.76 and authorize their payment. Motion approved unanimously on a roll call vote.

VIII. Unfinished Business. None.

IX. New Business:
a. 2007 Audit. Krysinski presented the audit and the accompanying management letter. He noted that conducting the audit had posed some difficulties since the city was transitioning between finance directors but the books were in good shape. Having several capital projects allocated over multiple funds was also challenging; he suggested handling such projects in a single capital projects fund in the future. He also noted the single audit that was performed as a matter of compliance for federal funding that the city had received.

b. 2009 Budget. Wietecha said that the various committee and department budget requests are due by the end of next week. He also pointed out that several items new to the 2009 budget were outlined in a memo.

c. 2008 Stormwater Utility Budget. Novinska presented the proposed budget for the remainder of the year based on expenses and projects that had been identified during the discussion about creating the utility. She noted that Public Works Superintendent had recommended increasing the line item for the Southgate Pond project to $75,000. Braunschweig made a motion, seconded by Roberts, to recommend to Common Council approval of the 2008 Stormwater Utility Budget with the increase. Motion approved unanimously on a roll call vote.

d. Lineman Job Descriptions. Wietecha indicated that he is discussing with the Teamsters a tiered job description since the lineman has a four year training program and there should be some recognition of the differences between the apprentice and journeyman levels. He said that being short-staffed at the journeyman level is resulting in a couple linemen being over-worked; he is also discussing with the Teamsters ways to alleviate the on-call rotation.

e. Contract Professional Staff. Braunschweig made a motion, seconded by Roberts, to meet in closed session per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(c) to evaluate performance of contract professional staff and to not reconvene in open session. Motion approved unanimously at 6:15 pm.

X. Adjournment. Cothard made a motion, seconded by Roberts, to adjourn. Motion approved unanimously at 6:30 pm.