Productivity Committee Minutes 02/20/2002 COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE
Minutes
February 20, 2002
3:00 P.M.
Members Present: James Gibson, William Adams, Donald Campbell, Edward Ferguson, Dexter
Groose, James Horner, and Janet Vasey
Members Absent: Thomas Casale and Jean Ross-Franklin, with two vacancies
BCC Liaison Present: Commissioner Henning
Guests: Robin Doyle, Gene Schmidt, Monty Lazarus and Dennis Vasey, Airport Authority Board
Members; John Drury, Airport Authority Executive Director; and Bob Krasowski, Citizen
Staff: Winona Stone
Introduction: Jim Gibson, Chairman called the meeting to order at 3:00 P.M. Jim welcomed new
member Dexter Groose and members of the Airport Authority.
Minutes: The minutes of the January 16, 2002 meeting were unanimously approved.
Old Business:
A. Joint Discussion with Members of the Airport Authority to Provide Clarification on Observations
and Recommendations Included in the Committee's Report to the Board of County
Commissioners on the Review of the Airport Authority:
Robin Doyle, Airport Authority Vice Chairman, on behalf of Steve Price, Airport Authority Chairman,
thanked the Productivity Committee for their extensive review of the Airport Authority. Mr. Doyle
introduced the members of the Airport Authority and the Authority's Executive Director and expressed
their appreciation for allowing them to attend the meeting to gain clarification on some items in the
Committee's report.
The following topics were discussed:
• Grant Incentive Program --- The Committee supports the concept of a grant incentive program;
however, they do not support the current program, which has several flaws. The Productivity
Committee's concerns with the current program and the procedures of the proposed incentive
program were explained in detail.
• Fuel Incentive Program --- While the Committee is not opposed to a fuel incentive program, the
current program does not appear justified in that it is open ended in nature, with no maximum
established, and does not necessarily tie the actual incentives received to specific employee job
performance. Additionally, since the Authority is not self sufficient, the profits used to pay the
incentives could alternatively be used to reduce transfers from the taxpayer funded General Fund.
The County's merit pay system should be used. The Authority's Executive Director's comparison
of two other airports fuel incentive programs is contestable in that neither of the airports are
comparable because they are totally commercial operations and not supported by tax payer money.
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Also the Hillsborough program has a maximum cap and regularly makes adjustments to constrain
windfalls.
• Organizational Structure --- The recommendation to establish an independent committee to review
how other airports and airport authorities operate was further clarified to be a committee created
by the Authority composed of Authority members.
• Economic Development--- The Airport Authority is important to the local community and has a
role to play, but should not be the single agent in economic development. The Board of County
Commissioners should address the economic development issues and tell the Authority what the
Board of County Commissioners wants as far as strategic initiatives.
• Loan Repayment --- The general consensus of the Committee is that profitability should not be the
major factor in the Authority's Business Plan. Loan repayment was established to ensure that if
the Airport Authority does eventually become profitable, a mechanism would exist to allow
repayment of prior loans from the County.
Mr. Doyle thanked the Committee for the clarifications and noted that most of their recommendations
have been or are in the process of being implemented,particularly the communications and financial
reporting recommendations.
B. Report of the Membership Applications Review Subcommittee and Selection of Applicants for
Recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners:
Don Campbell reported that the subcommittee had reviewed the one application received for the two
current vacancies. The subcommittee determined the candidate to be fully qualified professionally.
However, there is a concern about a possible conflict in that the applicant is a member of the County
Republican Executive Committee, as are 2 of the current 8 Productivity Committee members. The
ordinance creating the Productivity Committee mandates that the membership of the Productivity
Committee "shall be balanced in representing views of the community". The Committee unanimously
supported the subcommittee's suggestion to forward the application to the Board of County
Commissioners for their consideration without a specific recommendation. Winona Stone will forward the
application with the Committee's comments to the Board's Executive Manager.
C. Discussion of the Board of County Commissioners Actions Regarding the Productivity
Committee's Involvement in FY 03 Budget Prioritization
Commissioner Henning noted that trying to prioritize the whole budget is a huge undertaking and
suggested that the Committee might want to focus on specific areas of the budget such as justification of
added (expanded) services or capital improvements.
Jim Gibson noted the following aspects for discussion:
• Policy parameters for developing the budget
• Process ad procedures
• Actual budget constraints, i.e. millage based and equity issues for non-millage based services and
agencies
• Revenue sources, structure and reserves
Some members would like for the Budget Director to present a workshop on the budget so that they could
better understand the process and timelines.
Commissioner Henning stated that the Productivity Committee should be provided with a copy of the
Budget Director's FY 02 Budget Reduction Summary memo. He further noted that the Board's budget
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priority is transportation funding and that the Board has instructed the County Manager to explore all
avenues for funding transportation.
The Committee felt that the Board of County Commissioners should set a target budget amount for the
organization to work with.
Janet Vasey distributed the following handouts:
• Collier County Budget Process Reform, Final Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Budget Process
Reform, dated December 31, 1996
• Proposed 2003 Budget Format Schedules, Ad Valorem Revenue Increase, and Funding
Prioritization Process
Janet discussed the handouts and noted that the 5%reduction of lowest priority current workload listed in
the budget format schedule is a hypothetical percentage; the Board would ultimately need to determine
the percentage amount of current budget that staff would have to re justify.
Jim Gibson noted that carryforward is 20% of the entire budget and needs to be examined.
Jim and Janet will meet with the Budget Director to discuss logistical issues and then with the
Commissioners to encourage them to consider the 3 main areas of focus in Janet's report, 5%reduction,
expanded new programs, and the need for a coherent look at the efficiencies of the current organizational
structure.
Jim requested that staff provide him with a draft of the budget policy document prior to the March 12th
Board meeting and the finalized format of the decision making tool (budget form I document).
New Business:
A. Election of Chair and Vice Chair:
Jim Gibson opened the floor for nominations. A motion was made by Jim Horner, seconded by Ed
Ferguson, and passed unanimously to re-elect Mr. Gibson as Chairman and Ms. Vasey as Vice Chair.
Comments/Suggestions:
The meeting adjourned at 5:40 P.M.
Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Productivity Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20,
2002, 3:00 P.M. in the County Manager's Conference Room, 2nd Floor of the W. Harmon Turner Building
(Building F, Administration Building).
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