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Alderwoman Melody Anderson had spent the two weeks between the March
12 and 26 meetings attempting to determine which requests from
department heads could be granted and which could not.
In the case of whether or not to hire a city administrator, the
bottom-line question may not have been "Can we afford to do this?"
but rather "Can we afford not to?"
Miscellaneous department administration
Anderson said this line in the expenses is for the city clerk's
office, aldermen and city treasurer.
In that department the bottom line will be less in the new fiscal
year, Anderson said, primarily because a full-time position with
benefits was eliminated in the city clerk's office this year.
At the first budget workshop, Denise Martinek had asked that her
office add one full-time staff member and do away with part-time
positions.
Anderson said unless the council felt strongly otherwise about
it, she was not going to include a new full-time position but would
continue with $25,000 budgeted for the two part-time employees.
The biggest change in this budget is in the line for schools and
training expenses.
Anderson said this is the expense that funds not only training
for the clerk's staff, but also pays for aldermen to attend the
Illinois Municipal League Conference in Chicago each year.
Last year the conference had been cut out of the budget, but some
aldermen were allowed to go anyway. In doing so, the city busted the
budget on that expense.
Anderson said she was adding $10,000 to the expense line, with
$2,500 going to schools and trainings for the clerk's staff and
$7,500 going to conference attendance.
She indicated the amount would be used first to pay for
registration fees to the conference, with the remainder being
equally divided among the attendees for their expenses.
Citywide cleanup
Anderson said there is $20,000 in the administrative contingent
line in the budget for a citywide cleanup, but she still has a
question mark beside that number.
The cleanup is something the city used to do on a regular basis
and something that Mayor Keith Snyder would like to see brought
back.
"I know the mayor feels strongly about this," she said, "but we
can't keep adding. We have to pick where we want to add, what is
going to be the priority, and there is a big priority coming up."
Alderman David Armbrust said he wasn't sure that $20,000 would do
all that much good. He asked Tracy Jackson, city street and alley
superintendent, if he could remember the cost of the last cleanup
the city held.
Jackson said the last one they did was perhaps $26,000, but
Armbrust said it was higher in his mind. Jackson then confirmed that
after that last cleanup the bids for the service increased quite a
bit.
It was concluded that for the city to do the curb pickup-style
cleanup, the final cost would come closer to $38,000.
However, Snyder said he had talked to the area provider and had
been told that they could come up with a program that would
accommodate the dollars the city has available, but it probably
would not be a door-to-door service.
Alderwoman Stacy Bacon commented: "I like the idea of a citywide
cleanup. But I think John Lebegue (building & safety officer) is
doing a wonderful job cleaning up our city. It is a slow process,
but I think he's done fantastic.
"I do like the mayor's idea, but budgetwise I just don't know
where we sit," she concluded.
Alderman David Wilmert spoke up, saying he remembered that when
Snyder was running for office, the citywide cleanup was one issue he
discussed often. Wilmert said he understood the mayor wanting to
follow through with his promises and was inclined to try to help him
do that.
"I don't know where we'd get the money, but maybe we could start
saving up for this," Wilmert suggested.
To save up for a more expensive event, the city would need to
budget the amount, then not spend it, roll it over into the next
budget year and add to the amount.
Alderman Buzz Busby also suggested the $20,000 could go in the
budget and then double that amount in the appropriations ordinance.
Doing this, if the city received some kind of financial windfall,
the cleanup then could be done properly.
Anderson then asked: "Leave the cleanup in then?" The consensus
was yes.
Even though the amount is in the new budget at this time, it
wasn't clear if the cleanup will take place in the coming year or if
the money will be held over.
City administrator
At the March 12 budget workshop Snyder introduced a tentative
budget for hiring a city administrator.
During the discussion Anderson and several other aldermen
supported the idea.
At Saturday's meeting Anderson said the amount proposed was still
not in the official budget document, but having heard no negative
feedback from the council, she's ready to add it.
She also warned that once this was done, aldermen can expect that
there will be opposition from some of their constituents.
"I anticipate there will be negative feedback. I'm not going to
kid anybody here," she said. "But if you've been around for more
than six months, I think you've probably gotten the drift that we
need a full-time administrator, someone who is here on a regular
basis to steer this organization.
"I'm going to say it now, and it will be my standard response
when I get harassed. I want you to name me one $13,000,000
corporation that is run by part-time people with no training and no
education in city business."
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The plan is to fill the position by the first of November for the
last six months of the fiscal year.
Alderwoman Marty Neitzel asked about the chain of command --
Would the administrator answer to the council? -- and Anderson said
yes. Neitzel then asked if the city would still have a city clerk,
and again Anderson said yes.
Anderson said one of the advantages to having a city
administrator is that it is a hired position, not an elected
position.
"Fortunately or unfortunately, with elected, you get whoever gets
elected, whether they are qualified or not," Anderson said.
"With the city administrator, we're going to have parameters of
what this person is expected to do: manage department heads, budget,
all of that. If they don't do their job, we can let them go.
"They are not a union member, they are not an elected official,
and they are an employee, so if they don't work out, they can come
out of the budget a lot easier than they went in."
Treasurer Chuck Conzo then asked about a contract for the
position.
Anderson said that a contract was a probability, but that would
have to be discussed and developed as the city creates the position
and job description.
Conzo said in that case, getting rid of someone once they are
hired might not be so easy.
Anderson said there should be measurable standards in the
contract, so that if they didn't perform, they could be released.
"I will add some additional lines of thought to this," she said.
"Here again, I don't think you have to be around very long to know
that some of the issues we deal with as a council, or that the mayor
has to deal with, are issues that have been ongoing for a long time.
"They should have been dealt with a long time ago, but because of
the lack of having a full-time person monitoring and following up,
we're dealing with issues now in a bigger way and at more cost to
the city.
"From the aspect of a councilman," she continued, "the job that
we are doing right now, most of us are not trained to do, and the
hours (we spend) are enormous. We're doing a job that should have a
professional handling it. We're supposed to be guiding, not doing."
Bacon spoke: "I feel it is much needed and has been needed for a
long time. Even before I became a council member, (I could see) as a
non-council member the city has needed this for many years. It is
crazy that when the city did have the revenue for this, it was never
a position that was created."
Bacon concluded: "I'm all for it, and I'll take the guff from my
constituents who call me."
Neitzel agreed, saying that when she gets the calls, she plans to
ask the caller if they want to try to do what the aldermen are
doing, with no training.
During the course of talking about revenues earlier in the day,
discussions had touched on the loss of grant funding for the new
year.
In this current year, grants were obtained that assisted with
specific events, such as funding for the fire department's exhaust
system at the station.
Currently there are no new grants for the coming year, even
though opportunities may be out there.
One reason is that there is no one person who is specifically
dedicating time to searching out grant funding that might be
applicable for the city of Lincoln.
Alderman Tom O'Donohue spoke on this: "In every community I have
talked to about this, in savings and in grant writing alone in the
first year, they (city administrators) pay for themselves."
Anderson brought the discussion to a close by saying: "I think
some of us have given this a lot of thought over several years, but
now is the time to say, are you for it or against it?"
No one spoke out against the idea of hiring a city administrator.
Anderson is going to incorporate the expense into this year's
budget, and the city hopes to move forward and have someone hired by
November.
The process involved, though, will not be quick or easy. Snyder
indicated at the first workshop that a job description needs to be
written that will be all-inclusive of what is expected of the
employee.
In addition, the city plans to conduct a search similar to that
done when they hired Lebegue.
[By NILA SMITH]
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