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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCM-08-19-91CARMEL CIT Y COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES AUGUST 19, 1991 7:00 P.M. ONE CIVIC SQUARE/COUNCIL CHAMBERS The meeting was called to order by Mayor Dorothy J. Hancock. Council members in attendance were Frank Fleming, Tom Irvin, David Adams, Annabelle Ogle and Lee Lonzo. Absent were Councilors Alan Potasnik and Minnie Doane. City Attorney Steve Andrews and Clerk- Treasurer Susan W. Jones were also in attendance. Councilor Ogle asked the Clerk- MINUTES OF AUGUST 5, 1991: Treasurer to obtain a copy of the video and review the section on page 9 of the written minutes where the audio tape broke to include additional comments between the Council, Councilor Lonzo and Tom Kendall. Councilor Lonzo moved to table the minutes in order to allow the clerk the opportunity to review the video and amend the text of the minutes. The motion was seconded by Councilor Fleming. All members voted aye. Motion carried. TRANSFER COUNCIL BUDGET/GENERAL FUND/RESOLUTION 8-19-91-1: Lonzo made a motion to approve a transfer in the amount of $892.64 from Office Equipment #640 to Travel #250 within the Council budget. The motion was seconded by Councilor Adams. All members voted aye. Motion carried. ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS/PUBLIC HEARINGS/LOCAL ROADS AND STREETS FUND AND CUMULATIVE CAPITAL SEWER FUND: Councilor Irvin moved to introduced Ordinance D-721 and dispense with the reading of the same. The motion was seconded by Lonzo. Mayor Hancock stated the additional appropriations were for the City's share of traffic signal costs in the amount of $3,336.51, the City's share of engineering costs for 96th Street in the amount of $123,744.50 and for phase II of the downtown storm sewer project in the amount of $403,000.00 from the Cumulative Capital Sewer Fund. The mayor then opened the hearing to the public calling for comments, questions and/or objections. Hearing none the mayor closed the hearing to the public and opened it to the Council for the same. There were no questions and/or objections from the Council. Irvin moved to suspend the rules and act on D-721 tonight. The motion was seconded by Fleming. All members voted aye. Motion carried. Mayor Hancock called for the question. All members voted aye. Ordinance D-731 passed unanimously. The clerk-treasurer attested to the fact that the advertisements were done correctly and in the proper amount of time. ORDINANCE C-l59/ANNEXATION/PUBLIC HEARING/4306 EAST 136TH STREET: The clerk-treasurer stated this annexation was published correctly and in the proper amount of time. Councilor Adams moved to introduce Ordinance C-159 and dispense with the reading. The motion was seconded by Lonzo. The mayor opened the hearing to the public calling for comments, questions and/or ob;ections. Hearing none the mayor closed the hearing to the public and opened it to the Council for the same. The mayor stated this property is surrounded by city property and these homeowners are wanting city utilities. Adams moved to suspend the rules and act on C-159 tonight. The motion was seconded by Lonzo. All members voted aye. Motion carried. Mayor Hancock called for the question. All members voted aye. Ordinance C-159 passed unanimously. CIVIC SQUARE FINANCING/REPORT FROM BOND COUNSEL AND FISCAL CONSULTANTS: Mayor Hancock stated the City Attorney had been working with both bond counsel and the fiscal consultant but were unable to bring them all together this evening. The mayor stated she is calling a special session of the Council on August 26, 1991 at 5:45 P.M. for this purpose. The mayor directed the clerk- treasurer to notify the press about this special session. CIVIC SQUARE CENTRE NEXT STEP PROPOSAL/DR. TIM STORY: Lonzo stated he was the Councilor that asked that Dr. Story be put on the agenda and basically stated that from now on he would like to know if it i6 the Council, the mayor or the clerk-treasurer that sponsors items on the agenda. Lonzo stated that according to the home rule ordinance that no one from the public can be placed directly on the agenda but must be sponsored by either the Council, the mayor or the clerk-treasurer. He stated in the past items have appeared on the agenda without asking who sponsored them and he said from this point on he would like to have that stated for the record. At this point Dr. Tim Story, Republican candidate for City Council- at-large addressed the Council with what he considered to be the next step in purchasing or not purchasing the Civic Centre building. (Written text attached to the minutes.) Lonzo said he endorsed everything Dr. Story mentioned this evening L and complimented him for stating it for the record. Lonzo said while he may disagree this is a good sound investment that decision should be made on fact and hard numbers. Lonzo said he hoped he didn't let the Council down because he thought this type of data and costs on the building fell outside of the building use committee's agenda. Lonzo said the use committee has some of those numbers which he will be glad to pass on to the Redevelopment Commission. Lonzo stated he thought the concept should be approved prior to number crunching. Lonzo thought this was now the appropriate time to begin this process and thought Story's proposition on using the Redevelopment Commission was the right vehicle to do that. Councilor Fleming also thanked Dr. Story and stated the Council needs to really get a handle on what it is going to cost to finish this project. Fleming referred to the Communications Center and how it started out at $400,000 and it is already up to $500,000. Fleming said things can cost so much more than what is originally planned for in a project like this. ADDITION TO AGENDA: Adams moved to add Resolution 8-19-91-2 to the agenda. The motion was seconded by Lonzo. All members voted aye. Motion carried. COMMUNICATIONS CENTER CLAIMS Fleming made a motion to approve the following claims for the Communications Center. Markey's Audio Visual $2,344.25 Best Locking Systems $ 155.40 The motion was seconded by Ogle. All members voted aye. Motion carried. ORDINANCE A-64/AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE A-64 l991 BUDGETING EXPENDITURE FOR THE OPERATING AND DEPRECIATION FUNDS FOR THE WATER UTILITY: Ogle made a motion to introduce Ordinance A-64 and dispensed with the reading of the same. The motion was seconded by Lonzo. The mayor explained that with utilities the process of an additional appropriation used in dealing with tax money was not the same with utilities. The mayor explained the additional monies needed in the Depreciation accounts for the Water Fund. An additional $3,475.00 was needed in account #343.1 Tools and an additional amount of $1,350.00 was needed in account #343.2. The mayor asked the Council if they had any questions. Hearing none, Irvin moved to suspend the rules and act on Ordinance A-64 this evening. The motion was seconded by Adams. All members voted aye. Motion carried. Mayor Hancock called for the question. All members voted aye. Ordinance A-64 passed unanimously. The clerk-treasurer read the following PUBLIC HEARING/1992 BUDGETS: ordinance numbers, funds and amounts. Ordinance D-710 General Fund $10,403,583 Ordinance D-711 MVH Fund 1,405,725 Ordinance D-712 Police Pension 142,280 Ordinance D-713 Cum Cap Sewer 20,000 Ordinance D-714 Cum Cap Dev. -0- Ordinance D-715 Law Enforcement 6,000 Ordinance D-716 Fire Pension 58,187 Ordinance D-717 Lease/Rental 1,304,000 Ordinance D-718 Debt Service 144,582 Ordinance D-719 Enforcement Aid 243,150 Total $13,727,507 Lonzo moved for the introduction of the budget ordinances D-710 through D-719 and to dispense from reading of the ordinances. The motion was seconded by Adams. Mayor Hancock opened the meeting to the public for questions, comments and/or objections. Rick McKinney, 50 Wilson Drive questioned the decision on giving Judge Hughes, an unopposed candidate for City Judge, a raise from $23,000 to $45,000 and to allow him to go from a part-time city court to a full-time city court without the approval of the Council. McKinney asked the Council to consider cutting the Judge's raise back to a 5% increase so it would be in line with the 5% increase allocated for all other elected officials for next year. McKinney also asked about the revenue for the Court. The mayor asked the clerk-treasurer to elaborate on the revenue of the court. The clerk-treasurer stated she did not bring the figures with her but that she thought she sent out approximately 1/3 of all the revenue received by the court back to the State and to the County. The clerk stated she couldn't remember off hand of the total amount of revenue generated to the General Fund by the court. Irvin responded to McKinney by saying that he served as Council's liaison on budget matters to the court. He said he investigated revenues, salaries, the hours spent by the Judge and the need for the court to go full-time and felt all requests by the Judge were necessary. Irvin stated it was the decision of the Council to allow the court to go full-time, 5 days a week. McKinney asked if the Judge will retain his law practice. Lonzo stated he didn't know but the Council had no jurisdiction over his keeping a law practice. Adams also stated that the Judge had tracked his hours over the past year and it was calculated out that he was making somewhere around $13.00 per hour and to have a lawyer sitting on the bench at that cost was not in line with what a practicing attorney would normally make. The clerk-treasurer stated that only the money had been appropriated and the salary had yet to be set by ordinance. The council had until December 31st to pass a salary ordinance for elected officials. Dr. Tim Story, Mohawk Crossing, stated that the tentative increase in the budget is 10%, almost 11% this year over last year and that adds up to over a million dollars. Story suggested that there are economic factors at work which may make that rate of increase both undesirable and impossible to sustain. Story felt many people in the community have on-going fears of revenue shortfalls with respect to COIT money and some things like that. Story said taxpayers in the community are having tremendous concerns over,not only the city, both other taxing units within the community that make up the total tax rate. Story cautioned those departments that came through with large increases that this will not be an automatic amount of increase that will be sustained. Story hoped there would be some members of the current Council that would not disagree with that. Irvin said he was glad the clerk-treasurer brought up that point and also said he wasn't too happy with the fact that after the Council met at a budget committee meeting and proposed a 5.5% increase in salaries to see in the paper the next day where the Council had passed on the salaries. Irvin cautioned that the State Tax Commissioners have yet to approve the budget and there maybe some cuts made later on this year. Irvin said the 5.5% increase is only a proposal. Adams also stated that the Tax Commissioners won't be meeting until November 25th to approve the budgets 80 no one will know what the real numbers are until later on this year. Irvin agreed and cautioned the next Council to be aware that the interest on COIT that is being distributed this year is only a one time windfall and don't over spend next year because that windfall won't be there in 1993. Lonzo then made the observation that only 15 people were in attendance for the budget hearing on a $13,000,000 budget and that of those 15, all but one person fell with the categories of press, Council candidates and families of Council candidates. The mayor stated that was a good observation. The clerk-treasurer attested to the fact that the budget was L advertised correctly and in time. The mayor stated that final action on the budget will take place on August 26, 1991, 7:00 p.m. RESOLUTION 8-19-90-2/A RESOLUTION PETITIONING THE TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE TO RELINQUISH AUTHORITY OVER CITY OF CARMEL FOR SPECIAL BENEFIT TAXES FOR PARKS AND RECREATION: Adams moved for the introduction of Resolution 8-19-91-2. The motion was seconded by councilor Irvin. The clerk-treasurer read the resolution. Fleming moved to suspend the rules and act on Resolution 8-19-91-2 tonight. The motion was seconded by Ogle. All members voted aye. Motion carried. NEXT CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS: The next City Council meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 3, 1991 at 7:00 P.M. Andrews stated the next building corporation meeting will be held on August 29, 1991 at 6:00 P.M. There being no further business before the Council the meeting was duly adjourned. Respectfully submitted, Approved, ATTEST: