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Productivity Committee Minutes 01/19/2005 • COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE Minutes—January 19, 2005; 2 p.m. Members Present: Syd Blum, Stan Farnham, Dex Groose, Steve Harrison, Helen Philbin, Joe Swaja and Janet Vasey. Members Absent (Excused): Matt Hudson, Al Kozel and Rob Dowling were excused. Liaison: Commissioner Halas had a conflict and was not able to attend. Staff Present: Len Price, Administrator, Administrative Services; Murdo Smith, Interim Director, and Mary Ellen Donner, Recreation Supervisor, Parks and Recreation Department; Winona Stone, County Manager's Office; and Barbetta Hutchinson, Office of Management &Budget. I. Introduction: A. Opening Remarks—There being a quorum, Joe Swaja, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 2 p.m. Winona Stone told the group that Rob Dowling's term expires in February and he opted not to re-apply. B. Approval of Minutes—There being no changes to the December 15, 2004 meeting minutes, Janet Vasey made a motion to approve; Stan Farnham seconded, and the committee unanimously approved. II. Old Business: A. North Naples Regional Park Progress Report - Murdo Smith started his presentation by showing the group aerial photographs showing the progress in the clearing of the park property that Kraft had undertaken beginning with December 21st through the present. The project is progressing nicely with 95% of the clearing finished, 98% of the exotic removal completed and 40% of the fill process completed. The water line is being installed, starting at the north entrance going toward the pool building and the main building. Permits should all be approved this week. There are approximately 675 trucks delivering fill dirt each day. The project is on schedule to open May 6th, 2006,just as anticipated. Steve Harrison asked who was the one person accountable for the completion of the entire project. Murdo said that would be the Administrator of the Public Services Division of Collier County and Kraft Construction would be the contractor at risk. In addition, there are consultants who come once a month, a full-time project engineer and a project manager in the office. Steve also asked about who would be responsible if the project came in over budget. Murdo replied there is a guaranteed maximum price on the contract, with Kraft's portion being around $49 million. -+He will forward the exact figure to the committee. Steve Harrison brought up value engineering. Len Price stated that any leftover money would be put back in the fund it came from. There was some discussion on the extent of the contract with Kraft. Office furniture, sports equipment, computers and items with a cost of$2,500 or less will be picked up on another line of the project and will not be the responsibility of Kraft. Janet Vasey asked about whether there has been a decision on the fees and Mary Ellen responded that they still had the two sets of numbers that they were working with. Discussion was made Page 1 of 5 regarding the amount of the fee to be charged. It was decided that somewhere between $8 and$10 was the right number. Janet asked Mary Ellen how strongly they felt about the 600 visitors per day projection. Mary Ellen feels the estimate is pretty close, not knowing what the area will draw. The first year will be proof. The North Naples Regional Park will be open 211 days per year, which is less than similar water parks in other counties. Steve asked why the park was not going to be open more. Mary Ellen said the cost is prohibitive. Joe asked about who would be responsible for marketing the park. Mary Ellen said a specific new position was being looked into just for the purpose of bringing in state and national events. Murdo added that national softball and soccer tournaments were currently being set up with the possible tie-in use of the water park. Winona asked Murdo and Mary Ellen if they had talked to Jack Wert regarding marketing. They responded that he was working on the tournaments and he knew about the project, but they had not gone to him specifically about marketing this project. Winona said the county is trying to get more attractions for the summer and it would be a perfect tie-in. They said they would investigate this issue further. Murdo said that there would be a muscle car show at Sugden Regional Park on March 5th -+Murdo and Mary Ellen left the meeting with a plan to contact Winona or Debbie to get on the committee's meeting schedule when they knew any more details about the project. After their departure the group discussed how nice it was to work with such cooperative and forthcoming staff. B. Collier County Sheriff's Office Response Letter–The group decided not to respond to the Sheriff's letter. They will contact the Sheriff's representatives as stated in the letter for the information that the committee needs. There was some discussion regarding cameras for traffic violations. It is a big revenue generator,plus it greatly reduces the number of accidents. Len Price said that many companies put the cameras in for no cost and take a percentage of the revenues. Len said that she has not looked into Florida laws, but it has to be legal with the state before tickets can be given without a physical witness. The violation must be made into a civil offense instead of a criminal offense in order to be legal. [1-25-05 Subsequent note from Winona: This issue has been presented during Florida legislative sessions,but has never passed. It will be proposed again during the next session.] Discussion about Parks and Recreations Impact Fees Meeting of January 12th- Syd Blum passed out a recap from the meeting were he met with Amy Patterson, Impact Fee Manager; Susan Usher, Budget Office; Ray Carter, Parks Operations Manager; Amanda Townsend, Parks Operations; and Clancey Mullen, Duncan Associates. Clancey informed the group what his agency needed to perform the impact fee study. The problem as Syd sees it is two-fold. First, there needs to be a fund set up in order for the county to buy land. It is hard to budget because the price keeps rising as time goes on. Secondly, the Commissioners said that they would not add beach access parking unless there were bathroom facilities. This changes everything–the amount of land we need and the buildings we have to put on it. There really isn't a good answer. $135M is the number they are discussing for land acquisition. Some grants will be forthcoming. Janet said that once programs were in place and impact fees were approved and started to be collected, then the county could bond. The projects the county wants to undertake are spread over the next 20 years. When these projects begin the debt service would be paid with impact fees. Joe interjected that he would like -Amy to revise her form to include an original projected completion date, an updated completion date and an actual completion date for all projects. This would be a better way to judge if the projects were on schedule. Page 2 of 5 Steve asked about the property around the airport and Winona got the county map and showed the group that the property was owned by the City of Naples. Dex Groose asked when the District School Board of Collier County would have an updated impact fee. Janet Vasey said the latest milestone list that was provided by Amy showed a draft report would be provided in March,but more likely June, as this was under the consulting firm of Henderson Young. Syd also said that the county does not know what the land they own is worth. Winona clarified this point by saying that because the county is not accessed taxes, the Property Appraiser comes into play. The Everglades Airport for example, is zoned aviation commercial, and it is worth approximately$750,000, but if it were zoned residential, it would probably be worth$10M. Syd stated that the land that is currently on the books hasn't been appraised in many years and thinks that it needs to be done soon. Len Price said that the buildings are evaluated on an annual basis because of insurance purposes. Janet Vasey motioned that the Productivity Committee draft a memo to the Board of County Commissioners supporting staff's recommendation to terminate contracts and change consulting firms. Stan Farham seconded. -* Joe Swaja will compose a letter to the Board of County Commissioners recommending the change of consultants on both the school impact and EMS projects. C. Update from Benefits Subcommittee —Helen Philbin stated that the meeting of the Benefits Subcommittee was not held. The next Benefits subcommittee meeting will be held on February 2nd at 2:15. D. Update from Budget Subcommittee—Joe said that if he were running things, the budget proposal would be given out with the stipulation that each department comes in with last year's budget and a case with 5% less, 10% and 20%. Janet said that the Productivity Committee in FY03 started just like that. Stan Farnham said that in business, a company should always have a plan that takes into consideration the revenues coming in at 5% less. This way, you can be prepared in advance for less revenue in case it happens. After discussion the committee decided not to pursue this idea further due to the significance and time consuming activities of the Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness Study. III. New Business: A. Status Report on Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness Study- Syd Blum and Len Price gave the group an update on the latest meeting of the Budget Subcommittee. Syd informed the group that Len would be the leader of the program and that they have come up with a three-team concept. A five to six month time period has been estimated for completion of the entire study. Commissioner Coyle sent out letters to officials and districts asking their cooperation. —*Syd asked Winona to have the new Senior Operations and Management Consultant, Kimberley Grant, attend the next Productivity Committee meeting on February 16th and be involved with the three teams. The three teams have been set-up as follows: Page 3 of 5 Finance Team: HR Team: IT Team: PC Rep - Steve Harrison PC Rep - Syd Blum PC Rep—Al Kozel BCC Rep - Mike Smykowski BCC Rep—Jean Merritt BCC Rep—Barry Axelrod Sheriff Rep—Chrystal Kinzel Golden Gate Fire Rep - Chief School Rep - ?? Peterson School Rep - ?? School Rep - ?? EMS —Dan Summers Abe Skinner's Rep -?? Judge Rep—Charles Rice Elections Rep—Gary Beauchamp Fire/N. Naples - ?? Sheriff Rep - ?? Fire/Marco Rep - ?? B. Discussion about Productivity Committee Applicants for Membership - The members reviewed the applicants for the Productivity Committee. Two of the applicants, Mr. William Varian and Mr. Al Zichella are ineligible at this time for membership because of their membership on the executive Board of Directors of the Collier Building Industry Association,which currently has an active lawsuit against the county. Discussion then began about applicants Syd Blum, Al Kozel and Matt Hudson who are up for reappointment. Winona briefed the group regarding past experience regarding the Productivity Committee's recommendations to the Board for members. The Board may accept the recommendations or not. The committee is not under any requirement to select any specific area of expertise to make up the committee. She also stated that the Productivity Committee use to interview applicants and that they may want to reinstate this policy. There are two attendance rules that automatically dismiss a member from the committee. One is that if you have two unexcused absences in a row and the second is if you miss six meetings in a calendar year. There is also a certain percentage of time that you must be present at a meeting in order to be counted as present. The committee approved Syd Blum and Al Kozel and does not recommend reappointment of Matt Hudson. Steve made the motion to approve Al and Syd, Dex seconded. Five members approved, Syd abstained, and Janet opposed. -+Debbie Wight will write a memo to Sue Filson in this regard. Joe spoke to the group about recruiting members of the community to fill the open positions. Winona added that a potential applicant could sit in a meeting or two just to get the feel of what would be required if they joined. They need to find members who would fit into the group, be productive and be willing to spend the required time and actively participate. C. Election of Productivity Chair and Vice Chair for 2005 - Syd Blum made a motion to retain Joe Swaja as Chair and Dex Groose as Vice Chair. The motion was seconded by Stan Farnham. The vote was unanimous. Joe and Dex accepted the appointments. IV. Comments/Suggestions— Bidding Process— Syd and Dex have a problem with the way that the bidding process takes place. The process seems to have some flaws. The value engineering process ended at the budget number for the high school project—that seemed wrong. [Note: Prior statement has to do with actions by the Collier County School Board - not the BCC staff] Syd said the part of the process that is overlooked is that we paid Kraft $160,000 for their overview on how to complete the pool project at North Naples regional Park. The county paid them for the schedule of values to do the job. He feels if we paid them $160,000 Page 4 of 5 to do the job, then the study is ours. We should then be able to send out a competitive bid to other companies for comparison bids. Dex asked if there is anything we can do about it. Joe said that we should talk to Len about it and see where we should go from here. FY06 Budget Policy - Steve suggested that we invite County Manager Mudd to have an informal meeting with the committee as a pre-meeting of the budget process for next year. - Winona will invite Jim Mudd to the next meeting of the committee to discuss these issues. -*Joe asked that each member to write down their thoughts for the next meeting. -+Debbie will re-distribute a memo Steve wrote about six months ago after he sends it to her. Janet also had some questions and wrote something on the subject of workload measurement and measuring performance against set goals. Winona is working on a project with cities and counties in Florida that are coming up with benchmarking performance measures. This will be a great opportunity to share ideas and find similarities. -+Winona will inform Len regarding the decisions of the committee so that she may be able to come up with some templates that are already in existence. Helen told the group that she would not be at the next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m. Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Productivity Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, February 16, 2005, 2 p.m. in the County Manager's Office front conference room, 2nd floor of the W. Harmon Turner building (Administration Building). Page 5 of 5