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01/18/90 SP City Council Minutes207 A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE KALISPELL CITY COUNCIL WAS HELD AT 5:00 P.M. THURSDAY JANUARY 18, 1990 IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS AT CITY HALL. MAYOR HOPKINS' PRESIDED. COUNCILMAN SCHINDLER WAS ABSENT, ALL OTHER COUNCILMEMBERS WERE PRESENT. Mayor Hopkins called the meeting to order led the Pledge of Allegiance. ADDRESSING THE COUNCIL -No one addressed the council. SET SALARY SCHEDULE FOR NEW MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBERS Mayor Hopkins stated that at the Transition Advisory Committee meeting it was a question_ as to the urgency of the salaries being set. Hopkins called Diane Murer at the county and asked what would happen if someone wanted to file, without the salaries being set. Murer said that anyone who files has two basic forms to sign. One is a C-1 A. which is a declaration of intent to run for office. She would advise the person at the time that in order for their name to appear on the ballot, they would need to sign a declaration of domination. When that is done is when the fees must be paid, which is within sixty days. Hopkins said the urgency for a decision at this meeting may not be as critical as initially indicated. However, if the decision can be made here and now, all the better. He referred to the TAC report -recommendation. The Mayor's salary to be set at $500 per month and the council at $250 per month. The motion passed on a 5-4 vote. There was some discussion whether that salary should include benefits. The motion did not specifically address benefits. Hopkins also referred to the salary comparisons from other cities around the state that also have the Manager/Council form of government. He said acting Clerk/Treasurer Robertson has prepared a sample administrative transfer formula and the actual administrative transfer formula that is being used this year, to illustrate possible ways of funding the City Manager and the Mayor/Council as well as all the other department heads and departmental operations at City Hall. Councilman Gunnerson moved the recommendation made by the Transition Committee be approved by the council as presented. Councilman Atkinson seconded the motion. Virginia Sloan, Transition Advisory Committee Chairman. stated she had been elected chairman of this committee. She reported the figures on the left on the report, the 1989 figures do not jive with the figures they were just given. The figures they were given is what the committee tried to work with to come up with the manager, mayor and council's salaries. The committee was thinking in terms of about $45,000 for the city manager. This formula was as clean as we felt, disallowing the benefits but having the mayor's salary at $500 per month and the council's at $250 per month. It was a 5-4 vote and there was lots of discussion and philosophical differences in arriving at that. We hope the councilmembers and mayor will not be spending the amount of time as are presently. She said any of the members would be happy to answer any questions. Susan Moyer, committee member, said she was one of the individuals out getting signatures for this to get on the ballot. She answered questions as honestly as she understood the situation. At no time did anything ever appear in the press saying this form of government would be soley funded by the existing dollars. Some people were adverse to vote for it because it would cost considerably more. Part of the rationale in explaining, was that yes there would be a change in the funding to the current government as it stands, but also the City Manager would pay his own way, and would find alot of money saving methods as he got established into his job. She said she was one of the four people who voted against this proposal. Her personal philosophy is that our council people have a big job to do and while they will be greatly relieved oftime, they will still have clot of involvement. She said to get good council people and to get a diversification of council people, so that they come from all walks of life, not just the business entity. who may have the benefits, or who may have an adequate salary. I think they need to be compensated for what we ask of them. As a City employee she said, she knows what it is like to deal with council people who don't have the time to come or might not have as much interest as another one. A true dedicated person does come out of the voting public but sometimes they need an inducement, just like a city employee does, to a little extra in the job. I She said based on what she saw from Great Falls, Billings and Helena. the emphasis on the difference between the Mayor, who will become a voting member of the council and of the council people is too great a spread. She doesn't think the council should have to basically be cut this much. She feels the council deserves compensation and can be done through a cutback and other savings within the City. Councilman Furlong spoke against the motion. He said at the meeting, most of the discussion was medical costs. He said he supports a manager form of government. During the process it was said that the Mayor and council salaries would probably be cut in half. Nothing was said about the insurance. There was also discussion about realignment of staff. savings through efficiency. cooperation and coordination that would be brought about by a single professional manager overseeing the flock. There was some concern, that it might create some anxiety among staff who for fear that this meant they were being targeted for dismissal or elimination. He thought a continuous effort was made, not to discuss that. He said when speaking to groups, and asked what the managers salary would be. he told them it could be up to $60,000. He told people a manager doing his job could effect that kind of savings. He would more than save his salary in a years time by greater efficiency, organization, cooperation among staff and the council. He said it seems we are trying to finance the city manager on the back of the current elected officials of the City of Kalispell. There would be a 80-90% funding on a new kind of government on the current elected officials. He said he felt the council is being cheapened in order to bring about a manager. He did not feel that is the way it should be done. He said at the meeting he made a counter proposal. It was that the Mayor's salary be fixed at $900 per month, which would be $10,800 per year and the council's salary be fixed at $1500 per year, which would be half of what it is right now. The Mayor and council would receive a single person coverage with insurance, with the option to pay extra for family. When he ran for the job three years ago, he did not know what the salary was or know anything about insurance coverage until the night he was sworn in. He said three persons on the council are retired and that kind of person is going to run for this job. And I think this is a small price to pay to get people willing to serve in the public. He referred to the other citie's comparisons. The cities that provide health insurance, the salary is considerably lower than the cities that do not. He said if he had a choice whether to give up the salary or give the insurance, he would give up the salary. He spends a good portion of his salary on gas and meals for the city. but not the entire amount. He urged the council to defeat the motion. Councilman Gunnerson stated at the last council meeting it was voted to appoint certain persons on the Transition Advisory Committee to develop and establish a salary schedule. which they have done. We need to support or disband the committee. We were to hear their recommendation. Now Councilman Furlong is suggesting another proposal other than what the committee recommended. He thought this was a slap in the face to the committee. Councilman Furlong said the committee was asked to make recommendations. That recommendation is before us now. The vote on that committee was 5-4. a tie vote was broke by the chairman. He did not think the function of the committee has been violated or offended. They were asked to make a recommendation and they have. This council legally has to act upon that recommendation. Councilman Atkinson asked Furlong if with his counter proposal if he had figured what the savings would be? Furlong said it was approximately $6,000 per year. Virginia Sloan said speaking for herself, the committee was to come up with salaries for the council, mayor and manager. She did not feel it was their place to go into the personnel budget of the employees as they did not have the expertise. She felt they need to.come as close as possible to the $72.000, now allocated for the salaries. The $250 figure could cover insurance if need be. - Councilman Larson said he approached the savings from the current mayor's salary, the council's health insurance package and the council's salary. He calculated the Committee's recommendation. If their proposal is subtracted from the present cost of the mayor and council operation, $45,512 would be saved. With Furlong's proposal, 39.860. 0 1 Chief Clark said he wanted to share an important observation with the council. He said what if a year from now, this council isn't here and we have a different council, because we can not attract the quality of people we need. It is a concern of his. He said a good city manager could lessen the micro --management problem and handle alot and lessen those chores that the councilmen have taken care of. They are still going to be needed to provide a base of leadership. He said when you are talking about the leadership that is going to set and establish policy, guide, direct, plan, organize, develop and give direction to that manager, it's a false economy to think that we don't need quality people and don't need to retain quality people. He said he thinks we need to attract and maintain a quality of leadership. He said as a department head, he knows how important it is to have quality people on committees and would like to maintain that quality of leadership. He said maybe rather than a win/loose we could have a win/win if we could possibly give the committee some more money from another source to work with. Councilman Granmo said he did not think people decide to run for council due to the pay. He said he noticed at looking at the salary comparisons, what is being recommended is higher than those cities with much higher budgets. He said Anaconda/Deer Lodge had the salary for the mayor and council set at the same. He did not see why the goal should be to save $45.000 when we could save $60,000 and do some needed street work or something else with the money. He felt the proposal was too high. Councilman Nystul said the approach to the consideration of the amount of time and effort that is going to be involved. He agreed with Furlong in the fact we are not compensated for our time but we ought not suffer any loss. We are not going to make anything. As Barbara Moses said, she looses some earnings to come here. He said he felt the reduction in what we have is a reasonable effort to look at the lessening of the amount of time we have to spend. Whether we get $100 or $125 per month, there is no big difference. So either one is reasonable. He said the insurance issue should be looked at a little bit. He said the suggestion of a single person coverage with option to pay for family could also be argued from the standpoint of if health insurance becomes such a key factor, we may only have persons on the council who have health problems and cannot be insured elsewhere. As far as the mayor. it should be considered as the responsibilities and duties to be expected. With the nature of the Flathead Valley, we have high emphasis on tourism and with tourism comes conventions and with conventions and other events, comes the potential for the Mayor to represent the City. It is the mayor not the manager to represent the City. He feels that for that reason there should be a fair difference in the salaries. Councilman Granmo added he felt the mayor should have a very generous expense account to cover representation of the City. Councilwoman Moses said when she was considering running for council, she did not know there was a salary or insurance. She was concerned that this is being balanced on one group. It has been said that the manager will save the city his salary in the first year. She felt it is too early to tell how much time will be required by the council. There will be alot of transition. She said when you run for a four year term, that is a long committment. She has found out how much is required, and knowing there are some benefits, makes her feel more committed, in getting the job done. Councilman Larson said he supported Moses. He said he addressed those same concerns at the Transition committee meeting, of which he is also a member. He said he realized there needs to be adjustments to the salaries because the voters were promised that. He said right now we have a dedicated, qualified, willing to work council and mayor. The balance of that council is made up of business people, professional people, retired and working people. He said if very drastic changes are made to the salary structure, that could do nothing but make the council position less desirable. In the future we could have less qualified individuals who will be less willing to work, run for the council. He said maybe that balance will be destroyed also. He said he would rather see a more reasonable downward adjustment now, than to try come back up later. He referred to Furlong's statement at the meeting yesterday, of the complete financing of the council, manager and mayor was to come from the present city government. He said in all of his saved newspaper articles, he did not find one that stated the funding would come completely from reduction in council and mayor's salary. He said he felt the mayor should get more than the council, because the time demands would be greater. His expenses will be considerably more. He said he agreed with Furlong's proposal. A certain portion could be designated to health insurance and a certain portion to salary. He said some people may be slided by that with a certain amount being designated to insurance premium. For example, Councilman Gunnerson is not availing himself to the health coverage, then he should receive whatever that premium is, in the form of salary. It could be written into the ordinance that way. He spoke against the motion as presented, because he feels the mayor should receive more salary. He stated the proposal by the committee as far as the council's salary is adequate. Mayor Hopkins stated due to the lack of immediacy by the election department's willingness to work with the city, the council may want to table the motion until a later meeting. Councilman Furlong stated he felt this should be resolved tonight. He also wanted to know just what the function of this manager is? He has heard he is going to run and manage the government. The council is by law the legislative body. Hiring a manager doesn't lessen responsibility of the legislative body. He said it would probably be at least a year before the rough spots will be ironed out after hiring. The council job will not be less, in many instances it will be more. The manager will have to be given direction in the form of the legislative will of the elected people. He stated if the mayor is paid $900 per month, what will be expected of him? Will that be full or parttime? If the mayor is conscientious, and part time is not enough, he will be three quarter or full time, what ever it takes. The manager will be busy managing the city and won't have time to be the official representative of the city. He said he firmly supports his position. Mayor Hopkins stated we have not given the public the opportunity to respond tc the Advisory committee's recommendation. He urged this be table to the next meeting. He said maybe there is some public input that is important that we have not heard yet. Councilman Nystul asked if Hopkins had talked with the Mayors of Helena and Bozeman? He said that would be very helpful. Councilman Furlong said in support of the Mayor's request, he moved to table this until the next council meeting. Councilman Nystul seconded the motion. Upon vote, the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m. ATTEST: ) RogAr W. F o ins, Mayor Amy Rob d'rtson, Acting City Clerk —Treasurer Debbie Liverman, Recording Secretary Approved as corrected February 5, 1990 1 1