 Mayor talks about the state capital planAt the city's
committee of the whole on Tuesday evening, Lincoln Mayor Keith
Snyder announced that the new state capital plan does include
funding for projects in Lincoln. The state's two-stage law was
signed on Monday by Gov. Pat Quinn.
Snyder said that there is a total of $1 million going toward the
Fifth Street Road project. He credited Rep. Bill Mitchell for
requesting that those funds be added to the plan.
Broken down, the $1 million figure includes $603,000 for curb and
gutter work, $250,000 for land acquisition, $47,000 for utility
adjustment and $100,000 for engineering.
The plan also includes a total of $296,000 for other projects.
Snyder said that these funds were the result of requests made by
Sen. Larry Bomke on behalf of the city. Of this amount, $156,000 is
for roof repair and replacement on the fire station and City Hall.
The mayor said that the roof project is ongoing. It was unknown
if the money would arrive in time to actually use it for payment on
that project. However, this had also come up in the appropriations
meeting held earlier, and Alderwoman Melody Anderson had said that
the money could be used for other necessary work that needed to be
done at City Hall.
There is $40,000 earmarked as "general repair work in the
downtown area." Snyder said that it had been written into the plan
in this manner to allow the city some leeway on how to spend it.
He noted as an example that it could be used to do the work on
the fire station exhaust upgrades if the grants that Chief Kent
Hulett is applying for do not come through.
The balance of the funds, $100,000, is to be used for resurfacing
downtown parking lots.
Security grant will be expended
In March, Alderwoman Joni Tibbs announced that she had heard from
U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, 18th District congressman, that the city had
won an award of $25,000 in the form of a grant for the purpose of
increasing security at City Hall.
Tibbs said that she has been working on this issue since then and
has come up with what she considers the best use of the money.
Tibbs asked that the city clerk, Denise Martinek, discuss
upgrades to the software in the clerk's office.
Martinek explained that the software currently used in the
clerk's office is outdated. She said that upgrades are needed in the
areas of accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll.
She noted that currently many entries are being made by hand when
they don't need to be. She said that bringing the software up to
date would make the accounting methods of the city more secure in
general.
In addition, she discussed a need for new software for processing
parking tickets. Martinek said that the current system is from the
'80s and still in the old DOS format.
Also on the list of upgrades is the Laserfiche system, currently
used for the storage of birth and death certificates, plus minutes
of the council meetings and city ordinances. The system is about 10
to 15 years old and in serious need of upgrading.
Martinek said that these upgrades would come to about $17,000.
Anderson asked about setting up debit payments for the sewerage
department, and Martinek said that the estimate does not include
anything for sewer billing, but that has been discussed for upgrade
in the future.
The second stage of using the grant was outlined by city engineer
Mark Mathon.
Mathon has heard from George Alarm Co. in Springfield about the
installation of digital cameras and panic buttons in specific
offices of City Hall.
He said that he has received an initial contract for the
services, which would include leasing equipment and an alarm
monitoring system.
Tibbs said that per recommendations from Dan Fulscher in
emergency management, purchasing equipment is not advisable, as the
city would then be responsible for upgrades. Going with the contract
holds George Alarm responsible for such upgrades.
The contract is for five years, with automatic annual renewals
each year thereafter at a cost to the city of $285 per month.
Tibbs wants to accept the George contract without going out for
bid.
City attorney Bill Bates said that he had reviewed the contract,
compared it with city ordinances regarding going out for bid on
items, and found that the city can enter into equipment lease
agreements of five years or less without going out for bid.
He said that to approve the contract, it will have to be changed
to eliminate that automatic renewal.
Tibbs will contact George Alarm and refer them to Bates to work
out the details.
Appropriations discussed
Prior to the meeting, the finance committee met to go through the
appropriation ordinance drafted for fiscal 2009-10.
In Illinois, municipalities are required by law to pass an
appropriations ordinance annually.
When the city of Lincoln passed its annual budget in late April,
it was a detailed analysis of the money that would be spent during
the course of the year, based on the incoming revenues available.
The budget is the official document that city must go by in its
spending for the year.
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The city appropriation, on the other hand, is a document that
outlines what the city treasurer, Les Plotner, refers to as the
city's "wish list."
Basically if the city would come into a large sum of money
unexpectedly, such as a massive grant for Fifth Street Road or a
grant to build a fire station for the city, those expenditures would
have to be listed in appropriations so that the city could use the
grants.
Another benefit of the appropriations ordinance would be that if
an emergency need occurred that exceeded the budgeted amount for a
city department, money could still be expended for that need if it
is covered in the appropriations document.
Consequently, the appropriations ordinance for the city is a
highly inflated dollar figure designed to cover every contingency
that city officials can think of.
For the 2009-10 year, the annual budget passed totaled
$14,984,420, while the appropriations ordinance totals $28,709,640.
The significant increases between budget and appropriations
include $4,000,000 for a new fire station, $7,000,000 for Fifth
Street Road, an increase in the commerce park package from $25,000
to $100,000, $155,000 for the City Hall roof project, in addition to
the $200,000 loan liability for that same project and other lesser
increases in budget lines to cover possible emergency or unforeseen
expenses.
The $155,000 added for the roof project is the direct result of
the governor's capital plan that passed on Monday.
Heritage Days fund spurs debate
Snyder said that he had talked with Martinek, and they felt it
was time to close the Heritage Days account.
They had originally hoped that the account could be closed by the
end of July, but learned from Tibbs, a member of both the Heritage
Days committee and the council, that it would not be possible to
wrap things up that quickly. Therefore the mayor said he wanted the
committee to have the account ready to close no later than Aug. 31.
In discussing what would happen to the excess funds in the
account, Anderson said that the Heritage Days account is city money
and that excess funds should come back to the city coffers. She
added that Heritage Days is not an entity all its own.
She said that if the committee has money left and has
recommendations as to how that money should be spent, they could
appear before the council with their recommendation, knowing that it
would be a council decision and not their own.
Tibbs didn't agree completely with Anderson's summation. She said
that the former mayor had asked for money from the city as a startup
but that the money was never used. The money in the account is from
taxpayers through sponsorships.
She said that former Mayor Beth Davis-Kavelman had wanted the
excess cash to be divided among community projects, with donations
to those projects being listed as in the name of the citizens of
Lincoln.
She said that the committee had three projects they wanted to
support: restoration of the Civil War soldier statue, the kiosk
installed by Main Street Lincoln and another project Tibbs left
unnamed.
Bates questioned this, saying that what Tibbs and the Heritage
Days committee was doing was spending city money at the direction of
someone other than the city.
Anderson summarized the situation by saying that money would be
paid out for services rendered, but in the end there would be a pot
of money left over, and what Tibbs was saying is that the committee
wants to tell the council how to spend it. "In other words, they are
saying that it is theirs, but in reality it is a city account,
operated by the city, under our tax-free status."
Anderson added, "The city has provided services to this program
every year at no cost." She noted the time and effort by the street
and alleys department over the years, with several hours spent
putting up and taking down barricades and other duties with no
reimbursement from the committee for those hours.
Tracy Jackson, street and alley superintendent, who is also on
the committee, said that what the committee wants to do is make a
recommendation to the council of where they would like to have those
funds go.
He agreed that it is city money, and the council will be the ones
to decide how it is used.
Tibbs closed the conversation by asking if anyone had a problem
with what she has proposed.
Alderman Jeff Hoinacki said that the council should wait for the
Heritage Days committee to come in with their recommendations, and
Busby interjected that the council could vote on it then.
The final result of the discussion is that the committee has
until the end of August to wrap up their business and make these
recommendations to the council.
[By NILA SMITH]
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