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Productivity Committee Minutes 03/16/2005 COLLIER COUNTY GOVERNMENT PRODUCTIVITY COMMITTEE Minutes—March 16, 2005; 2 p.m. Members Present: Syd Blum, Stan Farnham, Steve Harrison, Matt Hudson, Helen Philbin, Joe Swaja and Janet Vasey. Guests Present: John Barlow Members Absent (Excused): Dex Groose Members Absent (Unexcused): Al Kozel Liaison: Commissioner Halas was present. Staff Present: Len Price, Administrator, Administrative Services Division; Amy Patterson, Impact Fee Manager, Community Development; Denny Baker, Director, Financial Administration&Housing, Community Development; Chrystal Kinzel, Director of Internal Audit, Clerk of Courts; Scott Salley, Chief of Corrections, Sheriffs Office; Greg Smith, Chief of Administration, Sheriff's Office and Carol Golightly, Finance Director, Sheriff's Office; Debbie Wight, Assistant to the County Manager; and Barbetta Hutchinson, Office of Management and Budget. I. Introduction: A. Opening Remarks—There being a quorum, Joe Swaja, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 2 p.m. Discussion was made regarding Commissioner Halas' trip to Washington, D.C. regarding monies for Interstate 75. B. Approval of Minutes—There being no changes to the February 16, 2005 meeting minutes, Janet Vasey made a motion to approve; Matt Hudson seconded, and the committee unanimously approved. C. Introductions were made by all present. II. Old Business: A. Correctional Facilities Impact Fee Study Subcommittee—Janet Vasey informed the group of a meeting of the subcommittee a few weeks ago. Four issues were discussed: Jail population—The study said there were 1,200 inmates in 2004. The number seemed high and after investigation, the number will be adjusted to 991, the average daily population for 2004. That's a good thing because the populations of the general county and the jail are similarly rising. Rate of residential housing—The consultant wanted to change it to square footage from the previously stated flat fee. Square footage was agreed to. Land cost—The consultant included a land cost. The subcommittee felt this was wrong because the jail was built on land already on campus. The jail was designed to be built up three more Page 1 of 5 floors if necessary. For the next expansion, the jail maybe built up or built on some land already secured in Immokalee. A decision was not made on this issue. Inclusion of bond interest - The most significant issue was the inclusion of bond interest in the total cost. This has not been included in any previous studies, however, as the impact fee methodology has been evolving, the interest has been recently included. The consultant has included the present value of the bonding in the calculation. The subcommittee is waiting to talk to Dr. Nicolas, who is out of the country. We need to decide on this because this will be the format of all impact studies in the future. The meeting of the subcommittee was canceled today because the information needed was unavailable. Amy needs an answer by the next meeting so there is still time. Steve Harrison asked for clarification, stating, "On some impact fees where we have collected enough, we don't have to go to the bond market- we've excluded and on others where we haven't collected enough -we have to include." Janet affirmed that he was correct. Steve stated that he feels it should be kept a separate issue. Janet said that is why they were waiting until they talk to Dr. Nicolas to make their decision. B. Impact Fee Status—Amy Patterson passed out an updated milestones sheet. The information was reviewed and discussed. Correctional Facilities is in schedule. Law Enforcement has been caught up in contractual issues, but she should have it by the March 28th. Educational Facilities RFQ is out and due back by March 28. A kick-off meeting will be held March 31. This meeting will be publicly noticed. Joe asked if the impact fees were considered in the fiscal year budgets? Janet said they were. The Emergency Medical Services quote is due this Friday. Parks and Recreation has all the data in and is waiting for the independent appraiser. Transportation includes a very large update and Amy is co-managing with transportation. The only problem is the Law Enforcement area that has been caught up in contract issues. Amy also passed out a presentation on Government Buildings indexing. The implementation has been done in three phases—75%, 85% and 100%. The building cost index is done on a 10-year average with a 2.5% increase (national average). The land value goes on a 12.5% increase. There probably will be an increase as the years go on. Janet asked why a 10-year time period was adopted, as it appears too long. Amy explained that Tindale-Oliver felt that this was the most effective way to prevent spikes. Commissioner Halas asked why the index is being challenged by the Collier Building Industry Association (CBIA). Amy explained that although the fee is very conservative, they are challenging the concept of the impact fee in general as well as the methodology. Commissioner Halas asked if there was any substance to the lawsuit. Denny said that the county has been very thorough in preparation and is ready for the challenge. Amy reviewed the executive summary that will be presented to the Board on March 22. Amy would like to add the approval of the Productivity Committee into the Novus system. Janet made a motion to approve, Syd Blum seconded and the committee unanimously approved. Steve and Commissioner Halas visited with the school superintendent regarding the Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness Study. Amy received an invitation to attend their April 21 Impact Fee Workshop. Commissioner Halas is putting together a list of three names for inclusion in the groups. Debbie LeBeau would like to be the overseer. The Commissioner also stated that Abe Skinner wasn't very receptive to the idea of the study as he feels he only has a few people on his staff and he is running as efficiently as possible. Page 2 of 5 At the request of the committee, Amy worked up a dollar amount relating to the lack of impact fee updates by the schools since 1992. Student enrollment increased 101% over the past 10 years. Land cost increased dramatically. Construction costs increased 41%between 1992 and 2002. She made logical assumptions and explained that if there had been updates as there should have been on the five-year update cycle, we would have collected an additional $22,844,773. In addition, there were proposals that were not acted upon, from 1998 until 2003. In total, the school board has lost $39 million in impact fee collection. Janet added that this has unfortunately been paid for through property taxes. Amy said the $39 million as a conservative estimate. Proposed legislation by Senator Donna Clark and Representative Bennett(House Bill 1173 and Senate Bill 2302)—These bills are trying to provide a state standard for collection of impact fees. Their passage would change the requirements for implementation of the impact fees six months after the formal adoption hearings. Indexing would not be compiled as it is now because the county would always be behind in collection. The payment of the impact fees would be moved from the issuance of the building permit to the first real estate closing after CO. Janet said she e-mailed David Rivera who co-sponsored the bill and asked him to withdraw it. He said he co-sponsored it because he wanted to be in on the debate and only the sponsor of the bill can withdraw it. Steve shared a copy of a Florida Legislative newsletter that explained the bills. Stan Farnham made a motion to write a letter, Janet seconded and the group approved. -+Joe Swaja will write a memo to Commissioner Coyle in support of the Board's opposition to the implementation of these laws. -*Debbie will make sure it gets sent today. C. Work Plan Topics and Proposed Budget FY06—Joe reviewed the letter he wrote to County Manager Jim Mudd regarding the proposed budget for FY06 and the items for the work plan for FY05, however, the letter did not get out before March 8 as requested because it required full Productivity Committee discussion and approval. Commissioner Halas clarified the letter from the Sheriff regarding the Sheriff's Office allocation for the FY06 budget. The proposed changes for the FY06 budget were reviewed and agreed to. Janet asked Joe to add the 80/20 division of health care benefits issue to the letter. Syd asked if we agreed to making the percentage lower and Commissioner Halas suggested that we need to make sure all of the Constitutionals are on board with the 80/20 before we go further. The group had discussion regarding overall efficiency of the agency in general. Joe suggested that there might be room for improvement in looking at the millage rate. Commissioner Halas said if we keep going in the direction we are going, these issues will all be solved. Steve motioned to send the letter and Matt seconded. All unanimously agreed. -*Debbie will have Joe sign the letter and send it Jim Mudd with corrections as stated. Greg Smith addressed some issues from the Sheriff and his concern with how to spend his share of the budget pie. The Sheriff feels that this defeats the budget process because there isn't much sense in having workshops if you already know the number. Greg also asked what happed to monies that were not used by others—would the monies be put back into the pie? The new jail opening will create the need of additional staffing. There will be additional monies needed as people come off grant funding. Having deputies at the new schools was mentioned and Commissioner Halas made the suggestion to charge the schools for the deputies in order to reduce costs in the Sheriff's Office. The deputies that live at the schools do not work there. The school system has given them free lot rent in order for the schools to have a physical presence. Following discussion, the decision was made to form a separate subcommittee to address the Sheriff's budget. Matt Hudson volunteered to chair- Janet, Joe and Syd will assist. Matt asked Greg if they could meet one on one for better understanding of the operations of the Sheriff's Office. A meeting of the newly formed subcommittee will be held at 1 pm on March 30. Page 3 of 5 D. Update from Budget Subcommittee on Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness Study — Chairman Steve Harrison told the group how the progress was going with the three groups that have been set up. Commissioner Halas and Steve will meet with the Clerk on Friday morning to enlist his cooperation. The groups so far include: Finance Team: HR Team: IT Team: PC Rep - Steve Harrison PC Rep— Syd Blum PC Rep—Al Kozel BCC Rep—Mike BCC Rep—Jean Merritt BCC Rep—Barry Axelrod Smykowski Sheriff Rep—Carol Golden Gate Fire Rep - School Rep - ?? Golightly Chief 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—Gail Fire/Marco Rep - ?? Addison Syd had a first meeting with the HR Team. The next meeting will be March 23 at 2 pm in the legislative conference room. He feels they cannot combine HR in most cases because they are too diverse in their operations. A lot of areas overlap where productivities can be developed. For example, things that the firefighters do, and don't have the support for, could benefit from the efficiencies of the HR Department in the Sheriff's Office. Steve will be gathering data in the next two weeks on the IT side and by May they should be able to fix some dates for review of all compiled information. Someone with authority needs to attend so that when decisions are made, they will be acted upon. It would be ill-advised not to implement suggestions after so much work has been done. Commissioner Halas said they should involve the County Manager when the results are in. E. Benefits Subcommittee update - Helen Philbin told the group that the subcommittee met on February 28 and that it was decided that health benefits would be on one report and pensions, leave, etc., on another. Recommendations include reducing the amount of the county portion of the benefit breakdown, however they feel that other Constitutionals would have to come on board with that proposal before they would be willing to adopt an increase in the County Manager's portion. There is another meeting scheduled for April 5 at 2:15 pm. Hopefully there will be a complete set of recommendations following that meeting. F. Sheriff's Budget Review - Janet drafted a memo regarding information that was needed for the Sheriff's budget review. A letter was sent to the Sheriff in November, but the committee is still waiting for answers. A variety of questions were asked, including fund detail to expenditure, historical staffing, an organization flowchart, low-risk and high-risk retirement increases, 80/20 vs. 90/10 insurance coverage, and the actual jail opening date. Janet asked Joe to send out the memo today. The Sheriff's representatives said they were extremely short staffed, but the organization charts and unit-by-unit head count would be in the budget books. They agreed to get them to Matt for his review. He will then contact Sheriff's Office personnel to schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss his findings. It was unanimously decided to send out Janet's memo. -+Debbie will send out the memo from Janet to the Sheriff. Page 4 of 5 III. New Business: A. Applications for Membership—Having reviewed their resumes, the group decided not to interview the 10 candidates. Steve called out the names and members voted yes or no. Having only two vacancies, the group decided to unanimously recommend John Barlow (seven votes) and James Van Fleet (six for, one against) for appointment. The committee does not recommend the other eight candidates for appointment at this time. -+Debbie will write a memo to Sue Filson regarding their decisions. B. Nominations for Outstanding Advisory Committee Member—Last year the committee nominated Janet Vasey for this award and she was voted to be the recipient. It was a very nice ceremony. If you have anyone that you would like to nominate,please fill out the form attached to the packet and return it to Debbie. At 4:30 pm Joe Swaja adjourned the meeting. Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Productivity Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, April 20, 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