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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWeekly Newsletter Date: August 6, 2010 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: AMBULANCE BILLING 1.As you know the city contracts with Southwest General Services : , (SGS) of Dallas, Texas to handle all of the amb ulance billing for the city. We became aware of a lawsuit that has been filed against SGS and the City of Dallas related to alleged inappropriate billing practices. The suit alleges that SGS and the City of Dallas followed a practice of billing all of their ambulance calls at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) level, which is the highest level of care, and results in the highest charges for reimbursement from Medicare, regardless of whether the patient's condition required that level of service. Upon learning of this, the Fire Chief, Finance Director and City Attorney reviewed the matter and have confirmed that the City of Oshkosh does not follow this alleged practice. The city has always directed SGS to bill based upon the level of service provided by Medi care definition, from Basic Life Suport non-emergency through the highest level Advanced Life Support emergency. We do know they are following this direction based upon monthly reporting and random audits of individual bills. A review of the lawsuit indicates no wrongdoing is alleged with any other city than the City of Dallas. If you have any questions or concerns related to this matter, please contact either Chief Franz or City Attorney Lorenson. LONG RANGE FINANCE COMMITTEE CONVENES FIRST MEETING 2.: On Wednesday, Finance Director Steeno, City Attorney Lorenson, and I attended the inaugural meeting of the Long Range Finance Committee. The meeting consisted of an orientation of procedures and rules by City Attorney Lorenson, a discussion of the charge o f the committee by me, and a list of potential topics for the committee to address, presented by Ms. Steeno. The list of topics that were discussed is attached for your review. It was pointed out from the list that the city's fees project was a directive from the Council. As a result, the committee felt that this topic should be a primary focus for the committee at this time. It was explained that this would be a long range project, and therefore, other topics may also be appropriate to discuss. As a result, the committee asked for an overview of the city's budget process and the various funds. These two items will be discussed at the committee's next meeting. The committee ultimately decided to meet the first Wednesday of every month through the end of this year, followed by meeting the first Wednesday of every other month thereafter, depending upon the demands of the committee. Finally, former Council Member Harold Buchholz was selected as Chair of the committee, and Jeff Thoms was selected as Vice Chair. If you have any questions regarding the Long Range Finance Committee, please contact Finance Director Steeno. Weekly Newsletter August 6, 2010 Page 2 CITY & UW-O REACH TENTATIVE AGREEMENT ON DELTOX PROPERTY 3.: As we have previously reported t o Council, the city has been in discussions with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for some time on the University's interest in acquiring the Deltox property immediately north of Steiger Park, west of Wisconsin Street. This property was identified in the city's Comprehensive Plan as eventually coming under UW-O's jurisdiction, due to their limited campus size and continued need to grow and better meet the needs of the University community. The city and UW-O conducted a joint appraisal for the property, with an appraised value of $600,000. In addition, the University indicated a desire to vacate Osceola Street, of which a portion of that right-of-way would normally revert to the Deltox property. As a result, we are assigning a value for this excess right-of-way that will also be attached to the $600,000 appraised value to arrive at the final price. After the sale is complete, the city will go through the process to vacate Osceola Street, after which all of the right-of-way will be allocated to the surr ounding properties, as provided for in statutes. As I understand it, the University will be using this property to build a welcome/alumni center type of facility. Although such a property will not increase the city's tax base, it will provide a high qual ity, high profile development along the riverfront, which will upgrade the look of the riverfront and provide stability for the long term. I believe it will eventually have spill-over impacts for private development, which will ultimately improve the value of surrounding areas, including the Marion Road project area. At this point, this approval process will begin with the Plan Commission and eventually come to the Council at a later date. If you have any questions regarding this potential sale, please contact me. MARION ROAD RIVERWALK 4.: As the Council may recall, the city was awarded several grants from the DNR and EPA this past year for environmental clean-up associated with development of the riverwalk along Marion Road. Additionally, our agreement with the Dumke Group to develop the Rivers Senior Housing Project required us to construct the riverwalk so that it was completed at about the same time that the Rivers Project was completed. As was previously reported, the Rivers development is scheduled for completion next spring. Therefore, it is appropriate for the city to move forward with the development of the riverwalk at this time. Furthermore, the grants awarded by the DNR and EPA have a timeline for us to get this work completed as well. As a result, it appears as though we will need to initiate construction this year so that we can qualify for these grants and save us tax increment dollars. While there are no specific funds budgeted in the 2010 CIP for the Marion Road Riverwalk Project (th is was anticipated to be done in 2011), because of the contractual necessities to get this project done, staff is identifying funding sources so that this project may be completed this year. I expect that staff will be providing bid information and financin g options for the Council at an upcoming Council Meeting. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding this project, please contact Community Development Director Allen Davis. POSSIBLE AFFILIATION WITH NEIGHBORWORKS RACINE 5.: On Wednesday, staff and representatives from the Community Foundation, along with City Council Members Poeschl and Cummings, met with representatives of Neighborworks Racine to discuss possible affiliation of a neighborhood-based Oshkosh organization with Neighborworks Racine. Weekly Newsletter August 6, 2010 Page 3 If you recall, the Neighborworks Green Bay Board of Directors felt that their organization would be over-extended by affiliating with us, and decided not to proceed with the affiliation. In this case, however, the Executive Di rector of Neighborworks Racine brought their Board Chairman with him so that a representative of their Board was also aware of these discussions and possible benefits of affiliating with the City of Oshkosh. While nothing formal was decided, we had a very good discussion regarding the keys to success of Neighborworks Racine and how such initiatives can be applied to our situation in Oshkosh. The Neighborworks Racine representatives were receptive to a possible affiliation, and they will report back to their Board of Directors to see if we may have additional discussions on possible affiliation. We certainly were impressed with Neighborworks Racine's professionalism and ideas that they had successfully used to initiate programs in Racine. They indicated a willingness to help us form a neighborhood-based agency, regardless of any potential relationship with their organization. Once we hear back from Neighborworks Racine, we will keep the Council updated accordingly. At this point, I rem ain cautiously optimistic that we may be able to work out something in the future. We will keep you posted. In the meantime, please contact Community Development Director Davis if you have any questions. NIXLE SERVICE SEEKS SUBSCRIBERS 6.: I had previously reported to Council that the city had initiated a service through Nix le.com, a service which allows the city to send community information instantly to subscribers via e-mail and/or text messages on their cell phones. With the service being new, we had discussed potential uses of Nix le as primarily being emergency in nature. However, as we have observed other communities and how they have used Nix le, we believe that we can expand this to provide general community information. Subscribers can decide how much or how little information they wish to receive from us. At this point, we only have 61 subscribers to Nixle, and we will continue our promotional campaign to encourage people to subscribe to the service. The link for Nixle is available on the city's website, and we will look for other vehicles to promote it as well. In the final analysis, this service will likely be promoted as much by word of mouth as anything, so we are hoping that as people sign up for the service and we provide them with inform ation, they will see the value of it and get the word out that this service is available. If you have any questions on the Nix le service, please contact Communications Coordinator Dean Leisgang, or Information Technology Director Tony Newman. TH th LAURIE STANG RESIDENCE ON WEST 8 AVENUE 7.: Ms. Stang, of 641 West 8 Avenue, requested that Mayor Esslinger and I meet with her to discuss the concerns she has regarding the flooding that continues to occur in her basement. Ms. Stang has received no cooperation from the person who built and sold her this house, and she remains unsure about the causes of her continued flooding problems. Ms. Stang has concerns that the city may have done something to be responsible for her problems, but there is no evidence to that effect. Having said that, I am certainly willing to cooperate with Ms. Stang because of her continuing flooding problems. Ms. Stang has asked me if the city would consider partnering with her on a study that may help to determine the causes of her flooding. I indicated a willingness to work with her, and I have asked staff to evaluate potential liabilities with her situation. Weekly Newsletter August 6, 2010 Page 4 At this point, I am not even sure what type of study or analysis could be done to determine the cause of flooding on her property, but I indicated a willingness to identify what potential work could get done to analyze her situation. After I meet with staff on this issue, I will inform Ms. Stang about what, if anything, we can do to work with her on investigating the problem she is experiencing. I will keep Council up-to-date on what progress occurs through this process. In the meantime, please contact me if you have any questions. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 8.: Other items I'm enclo sing with today's Newsletter include two memos from Assistant City Manager/Director of Administrative Services John Fitzpatrick regarding the labor agreements that appear on the Agenda for next Tuesday evening's Council Meeting. I am also enclosing a letter from the U.S. Postal Service, informing the city that they intend to conduct an Area Mail Processing (AMP) study of mail processing at the Oshkosh Processing and Distribution Facility for possible consolidation of operations into the Green Bay Processin g and Distribution Center. I will be working with the Chamber in coordinating a local response. The next item I'm enclosing is the FOCUS Newsletter, put out by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, featuring an article on legislative discontent. I am also enclosing the August Newsletter from the Oshkosh Auxiliary Police, which lists the events they have scheduled for the months of August and September. I am also enclosing an invitation to a meeting next Tuesday, at 4:00 p.m., concerning a community discussi on on the creation of a warming shelter in Oshkosh. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I'm enclosing the following: The th th minutes of the July 20 Plan Commission meeting; the minutes of the July 12 Sustainability th Advisory Board meeting; the minutes of the July 8 Museum Board meeting; the minutes of the th th July 14 Landmarks Commission meeting; the minutes of the June 28 Housing Authority st meeting; the minutes of the June 1 Police & Fire Commission meeting; the minutes of the July th 28 Board of Appeals meeting; the meeting notice, agenda and background material for the th August 10 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting; and the meeting notice, agenda and th background material for the August 11 Parking Utility Commission meeting. The last item I'm enclosing is the latest issue of The Wisconsin Taxpayer, which features an article on challenges facing state voters in 2010. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 9.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of August 9 include the following: On Monday, at 8:00 a.m., I will be meeting with city staff and representatives of the BID to discuss the BID's proposal for streetscape amenities along Main Street that will be discussed at Tuesday's Council Meeting. On Tuesday, at 1:00 p.m., I will be meeting with the steering committee that has been working on the branding project for the community. Please th make note that on Thursday, August 19, we will be doing an unveiling of the new Oshkosh Brand. I encourage all Council Members to attend this meeting if at all possible. On Thursday morning, I will be participating in an emergency simulation at UW-Oshkosh. Our Police and Fire Departments, along with other support staff in the city, will also be participating in this simulation. If you have any questions regarding my meeting schedule, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc