Board of Mayor and Aldermen
Thursday November 16th, 2023
Before the planning meeting on Tuesday, there was a board reception for board members that have served anywhere from 5-15 years. Citizens that serve on city boards do so on a volunteer basis. They give of their own time to the community.
The board members recognized for five years of service were Kellye White of the beer board, Ken Duley of the industrial development board, and Katy Hornbeck of the library board. James Varellie of the leisure services board has given 10 years to the city. Dolly Peay was recognized for 15 years of service. She has sat on the board of zoning appeals and is now on the planning commission.
The meeting was started. All members were present. After visitors were welcomed, the mayor presented a proclamation to the CCS girls’ volleyball team. The girls were runner up in Tennessee State Independent Athletic Association Division I State Tournament. There only loss of the season was at the state championship game. The city recognized the girls’ achievement with a proclamation.
9. Public Comment- No one spoke.
10. Public Hearings
a. Ordinance 23-17: An ordinance amending the fiscal budget for the period ending June 30, 2024.
b. Ordinance 23-18: An ordinance amending the Municipal Code Title 16, Chapter 2 Street, Sidewalk and Drainage Design Standards Section 16-220. No one spoke.
11. Communication from Mayor, Aldermen, City Attorney, and City Administrator Alderman Matthews thanked White House High School for a wonderful Veteran’s Day ceremony. He stated that it was excellent. City Administrator had several updates. Phase three of the mainline is complete. Industrial drive is repaved. The line from Grace Park to the plant is open, and phase four is almost ready to bid. The city is getting ready for its annual audit. They met with the auditors on Thursday. The city has asked for a 30 day extension. The finance department has had some staff turn over. One of the assistants took a new job with Metro, and another was terminated. They have moved two employees up internally. They may need more time to get up to speed. The city meeting was also moved up a week due to the holiday. The audit will still be ready for the January study session. On a very positive note, the city has received The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. When Herman came on in 2012, this was one of the goals he set for the city. It took a change in leadership to accomplish this. Finance director Barnes and his team have had clean audits, and this goal has been achieved.
Reports were acknowledged. Human resources spoke to all three resolutions.
a. Resolution 23-12: A resolution approving certain amendments and revisions to the Personnel Manual. The first change to the employee handbook has to do with the organization chart for the finance department. Currently the accounts payable was not under the finance department. They are requesting the move on the organization chart. Juneteenth is now a federal holiday and the HR department is looking to add Juneteenth to the list of paid holidays for city employees. The other change is to vacation time accrual.
Changing the accrual rates to 15 minute increments will make mistakes easier to catch for payroll. When questioned about this, HR stated that right now people are using 6 minutes of vacation time if they clock in 6 minutes late. Rounding up will make it easier for payroll to deal with.
The other change is to retirement credits and sick time. There are employees that aren’t always able to take their vacation time. (fire and police) The change would allow that vacation time to roll into sick leave. Sick leave is NOT paid out if an employees terminated employment, but will be added to retirement. The request for that needs to be submitted in writing by June 30th or December 31st. There is a request to change “personal days” to “personal time.” Police and firefighters aren’t always able to take full days, so they are cleaning up the language in the handbook. Inclement weather days are also being changed to 15 minute increments in the request. Employees are paid for days where the office is closed due to weather. If police or fire are on duty and required to come in to work, they have 3 months to request the time and it has to be in 15 minute increments. The final change is something that has been done at the state level.
HR is requesting that bullying rules be added to the handbook. All of this will begin immediately upon passing. Alderman Silver asked if the change to 15 increments will add to the budget. HR assured her it would not since there is no pay out for sick leave if someone leaves the employment of the city. Approved.
b. Resolution 23-13: A resolution to discontinue a period of temporary employment for employees of a political subdivision participating in the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) in accordance with Title 8 Section 34 through 37 of the Tennessee Code Annotated. This request is to do away with the six month probationary period. This will make it easier for the accountants. Employment starts on day one and the employee will not have to buy back the time in six months. More employees are staying past the 90 period due to better hiring protocols. Approved.
c. Resolution 23-14: A resolution authorizing participation in the James L. Richardson "Driver Safety" matching grant program. The city has participated in this grant program for 15 years. This grant gives money for training. The training includes such items as driver safety and domestic violence in the workplace. This grant is worth about $4k. Approved.
14. Consideration of the Following Ordinances: a. Ordinance 23-17: An ordinance amending the fiscal budget for the period ending June 30, 2024. Second Reading. This being the second reading, was discussed at length in October. These are the budget amendments that allow the city to fix the traffic pole damaged in an accident. It also allows the city to pull the extra funds for the soccer complex project. Matthews asked if we are pulling funds from another project. Herman answered that the money is coming from the reserves fund balance. That includes park impact fees. It will probably carry into the next fiscal year. Matthews asked how the funds will be after the withdrawal. Barnes stated that it will not be below the goals. They can stop using these funds at any time if necessary. Also, pulling from these funds does not take from anything that requires paying staff or a utility bill. Approved with roll call vote
b. Ordinance 23-18: An ordinance amending the Municipal Code Title 16, Chapter 2 Street, Sidewalk and Drainage Design Standards Section 16-220. Second Reading. This was also discussed last month. This amends the codes to make density testing optional not mandatory. Approved with roll call vote
c. Ordinance 23-19: An ordinance deleting the Municipal Code Title 2, Chapter 3 Cemetery Board of Trustees. First Reading. This is to delete the cemetery board. They only meet twice a year at this point and only one funeral home is still involved. Kevin Whitaker of the parks department states that the parks dept can handle this from here on out. Approved
15. Purchasing: a. To approve or reject the bid from Rogers Group, Inc. in the amount of $2,939,750 and allow City Administrator Gerald Herman to enter into a construction agreement for the Soccer Complex parking lot expansion project. The Parks and Recreation Director recommends approval. This has been discussed at length over the last few months. The project came in over budget. The original amount was $1.3 million. The bid came in at $3 million. This is for a large parking lot with 500 spaces, a large pavilion, ADA access, and sidewalks. They use the space for the Americana Festival each year. This should be a 9 month project. Matthews agreed that this needs to be done, but has been looking at the budget. It looks like the orginal estimate was done in 2019 but the scope was different. From what Matthews discovered, the amount in 2018 looked to be $2.1 million. In 2020 the scope of the project changed when it was submitted to the state. A pavilion was added. Herman said that the scope changed because the city was able to add another field in the years since the project began. Matthews wanted to know why the project wasn’t re-estimated after the project changed from the 2018 original design. Herman explained the process that the city went through with the soccer complex. Initially they received a $500k matching grant from the state. In 2020 when prices went up, the state said they would go up to $650k in the matching grant. When the bid came in at $3 million, the state could have stopped the project if they thought something was wrong. Whitaker added that there was nothing the city could do to change these costs. Maybe they should have seen it coming, but there were no signs of it in 2019. Matthews stated that they should have had a detailed engineering plan and that this should not be 226% over budget. Mayor Corbitt added that he works for Kroger. It used to cost $25 million to build a Kroger. It’s now $50 million. Herman added that he had a bid that was $6 million. Whitaker also added that 2 years ago he had two sections of the greenway repaved and it was $90k. Today he needs to repave four sections, and each section will be $76k. Matthews said that he is looking for ways to get the cost down. The 1800 square foot pavilion is quoted at $285k and the dumpster enclosure is $30k. Those seem high. Corbitt added that things are just high. With all of the building going on in the area there is a lack of contractors. Herman said they could wait until the economy tanks. However, the city has determined it is a need and are willing to delay other park projects. This has been on the books for at least 10 years. Alderman Spicer add that this has been in the 10 year plan for 15-20 years. Matthews said that he is not opposed to the project he just thinks that they should be able to get the cost down. The city can reject this bid and act as contractor. Herman replied that they cannot do that when the project is over $25k. Corbitt added that the staff at the city does really well to manage costs and the issue here is just timing. Covid and inflation are the issues here not an indicator of the city’s staff. Approved with Matthews as only Nay.
16. Other Business: a. To approve or reject appointing Mr. Gary Faust to the Beer Board Former Mayor Bibb stepped down from the beer board. Mr. Gary Faust has applied for the position. Approved.
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