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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWeekly Newsletter Date: March 11, 2011 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: BUDGET REPAIR BILL UPDATE 1.: As the Council may be aware by now, the State Senate separated the collective bargaining reform legislation from the main Budget Repair Bill on Wednesday evening. The result of this is that the proposal to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees for all items except for wages was passed by the Senate, and is expected to move onto the Assembly rather quickly. With this development occurring so fast, I am forwarding an e-mail to all city employees to provide some perspective on this situation. I will forward this to Council Members as well so that you are aware of what I am communicating with our employees. One of my motivations for corresponding with employees is a video that is making its rounds on YouTube. Apparently, State Senator Vukmir made a statement at a recent town hall meeting in the Milwaukee area in which she stated that the City of Oshkosh is proclaiming a $4 million savings from the Budget Repair Bill due to the collective bargaining reforms. As the Council is fully aware, Finance Director Steeno and I have estimated that the savings that the city will achieve is approximately $1,085,000. I can only conclude that Senator Vukmir has confused her information with a headline from Sunday's Northwestern in which the School District made some estimate of savings in the $4 million range. I cannot speak for the School District's estimates, but $4 million is nowhere near what my staff has estimated. I wanted Council to be aware that this misinformation was out there in case you are asked by the public or our employees. Finally, with the discussion of public safety employees being exempted from the collective bargaining reform bill, I've been asked about public safety personnel expenditures compared to all of our personnel expenditures, and how those relate to other municipalities. I was able to locate a survey of public safety expenditures, which shows that the public safety expenditures as a percentage of total expenditures averages 42.5% for the largest cities in the state. For Oshkosh, our public safety costs represent approximately 43.7% of total expenditures, and that includes the fact that our Fire Department provides ambulance services, which many municipalities do not. As you can see, our public safety expenditures compare favorably with other municipalities of our size. The purpose of providing you with this information is to demonstrate that public safety represents a significant portion of our budget, similar to other municipalities in the state. With public safety exempt from these reforms, the savings we achieve on the personnel side due to the collective bargaining reform really only amount to about half of our personnel budget. If you have any questions regarding this information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Weekly Newsletter March 11, 2011 Page 2 CITY CENTER PARKING RAMP CONDITION ASSESSMENT 2.: When the City Center Hotel was sold in 2009, it was the city's intention that the hotel owner would take ownership of the parking ramp as well. However, two years later, the city retains ownership of the ramp. While the city has handled routine preventative maintenance, we are concerned about protecting the ramp from deterioration that might significantly increase any repair costs. Consequently, the city has entered into an agreement with Carl Walker, Inc., of Chicago, to perform an assessment of the condition and maintenance/repair needs of the ramp. Their analysis, expected to be done within a couple of months, will help us obtain a good estimate of the cost of completing needed repairs. This professional services agreement will cost $5,400, which will be paid for out of the $96,000 that the Common Council approved for the 2009 CIP's Park Plaza Parking Ramp Repairs Project. It is the city's intention to utilize the rest of this money to perform the repairs that may be necessary. If you have any questions, please contact me. ASSISTANCE ON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 3.: Please find enclosed a letter from East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in which they've informed us that they will be able to provide the city with technical assistance in 2011. Specifically, East Central has agreed to provide assistance to our Planning staff in our efforts to update the economic development element to our Comprehensive Plan. You may recall that a few years ago, former Community Development Director Kinney had established a group to update the economic development element of the Comprehensive Plan. After Mr. Kinney left, this committee went on hiatus and has not met since then, primarily due to lack of staff available to support the committee. With East Central's assistance, we will be able to provide better support to this committee and enable it to focus its efforts on recommending policy, rather than conducting research. If you have any questions regarding this project and East Central's role in it, please contact Community Development Director Allen Davis. POOL SAFETY ENFORCEMENT 4.: For a number of years, Health Department staff has been in the process of inspecting and enforcing the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, which was made law in December, 2007, and requires all public pool drain covers to meet certain performance requirements. Specifically, the pools must meet requirements for compliant drain covers for suction outlets. Health Department staff has been in the process of enforcing this law at pools throughout the city. There is a deadline for businesses to have proof of a design professional having been hired and a schedule to have these drain covers installed and operational by July. If businesses do not have proof that they are on their way to getting these changes made, the Health Department staff is directed by federal law to shut down these pools. At this time, we expect that there are only a couple of pools that are in non-compliance and do not have plans in st place to have the covers installed by July 1. I wanted to make Council aware of this in the event you hear complaints from any businesses that we have not given them proper notice. We have been working on enforcing this rule for over three years, and have given adequate direction to businesses to comply. By the way, the City of Oshkosh's own Pollock Pool is in the design phase and will have these covers installed and operational prior to the pool opening this spring. COMPREHENSIVE OUTDOOR RECREATION PLAN UPDATE 5.: The city's Parks Department received several proposals from park planning consultants to assist with the update to the City of Oshkosh Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. After reviewing the proposals and interviewing firms, we have entered into an agreement with Rettler Corporation of Stevens Point. Weekly Newsletter March 10, 2011 Page 3 The process to update the plan will begin immediately, with a number of public input and stakeholder meetings planned for the future. Staff will be working with the Advisory Park Board throughout the process, with final approval and adoption of the updated plan by the Plan Commission and City Council expected to be late summer or early fall. If you have any questions about this issue, please feel free to contact Parks Director Ray Maurer. th BRIDGE CLOSURES 6.: On Tuesday, March 15, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is proposing to close the Congress Avenue Bridge from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., to install strobe lights on the signal arms. On that same day, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., they plan to close the Oregon Street Bridge to do repairs on the limit switches. I am enclosing a press release that was sent out by the DOT, announcing the performance of this work. If you have any questions about this bridge work, please contact Public Works Director David Patek. OSHKOSH TO STAY SEPARATE FROM APPLETON IN 2010 CENSUS 7.: At your November 9, 2010 Council Meeting, the Council adopted a resolution expressing concern over a proposed U. S. Census Bureau rule that potentially would have combined Oshkosh and Appleton into a single metropolitan area. This statistical issue could ultimately have jeopardized the ability of the Oshkosh Transit System to received federal operating assistance. As you can see from the attached copy of a letter sent to Representative Tom Petri's office from the U. S. Census Bureau, it appears that any "agglomeration" of the Oshkosh and Appleton metropolitan areas will not occur in the 2010 census data. This is good news for Oshkosh as federal operating assistance comprises about one-third of the Transit System's budget. If you have any questions, please contact Transportation Director Chris Strong. DEPARTMENT REPORTS & UPDATES 8.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include two FOCUS newsletters, put out by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, both of which deal with state budget issues. I am also enclosing a copy of Museum Director Brad Larson's weekly letter to the Museum Board, updating them on the Museum's recent activities. Insofar as minutes st are concerned, I'm enclosing the minutes of the March 1 Plan Commission meeting; the minutes thth of the February 15 Downtown BID Board meeting; and the minutes of the February 14 Advisory Park Board meeting. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 9.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of March 14 include the following: On Monday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending a meeting of the Chamber's Governmental Affairs Committee. At 1:00 p.m. that day, I will be attending a meeting to discuss storm water permitting at Wittman Regional Airport. On Monday, at 5:00 p.m., I will be attending th the neighborhood meeting regarding a proposed CVS Pharmacy on 9 Avenue. On Tuesday, at 12:00 noon, I will be attending a meeting of the Winnebago Conflict Resolution Center Board of Directors. On Thursday, at 7:30 a.m., I will be participating in the Fox Valley Workforce th Development Board Career Fair at Tipler Middle School. On Friday, March 18, at 9:00 a.m., I will be attending the Winnebago County Interagency meeting, which consists of representatives of various governmental entities throughout Winnebago County, particularly, the institutions in our community. On Friday, at 2:30 p.m., I will be meeting with UW-Oshkosh Vice Chancellor Tom Sonnleitner and Athletic Director Darryl Sims. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc