APPROVED: Meeting No. 27-04
ATTEST:
MAYOR AND COUNCIL
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND
Meeting No. 16-04
March 8, 2004
The Mayor and Council of Rockville met in General Session on Monday, March 8, 2004, in the
Mayor and Council Chambers, Rockville City Hall, 111 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland at 7:05 p.m.
PRESENT
Mayor Larry Giammo
Councilmember Robert E. Dorsey Councilmember Susan R. Hoffmann
Counciclmember John F. Hall, Jr. Councilmember Anne M. Robbins
In attendance: Acting City Manager Catherine Tuck Parrish, City Attorney Paul Glasgow, and City Clerk Claire F. Funkhouser
Re: Agenda Review
City Clerk Claire Funkhouser said that there were no changes to the agenda this evening.
Re: City Manager’s Report
Acting City Manager Catherine Tuck Parrish reported on current and upcoming events in the City of Rockville.
Re: Town Center Update
Director of Community Planning and Development Art Chambers reported that:
- The documents needed to close on the properties for the Town Square project are in the process of being finalized.
- Development approvals for the public improvements have been approved and the development approvals for the private improvements are coming before the Planning Commission and the Mayor and Council on March 11
- Montgomery County has applied for the building permit for the new Library. Work will begin this summer.
Re: Annual presentation of Girl Scout cookies to the Mayor and Council in recognition of March as Girl Scout Month
Mayor Giammo welcomed the scouts to the meeting. Cookies were served to the Mayor and Council by the following representatives of Girl Scout Service Unit Number 2: Brigid Creamer from Brownie Troop Number 1890; Erin Griffin from Junior Troop Number 368; Laura Weiss from Cadette Troop Number 760: and Karen Frentrup from Senior Troop Number 2419. The girls were accompanied by their Service Unit Manager, Jim Bates. Karen Frentrup spoke briefly about her experiences with the scouting program.
Re: Appointments
Human Services Advisory Commission
Upon motion by Councilmember Robbins, duly seconded by Councilmember Hall, and unanimously passed by the Mayor and Council, Ann Reiss was appointed as Chair until March 1, 2005 and Tim Stranges was appointed as a member to fill an unexpired term until January 1, 2006.
Re: Citizens Forum
CITIZEN | ISSUE |
Reverend Jane Wood, Jerusalem, Mt. Pleasant Church | Support for demolition of Cordelia House; concerns about Historic District Commission meeting |
Linda Bonnzanetti, Twinbrook Elementary School PTA | Appreciation for support for playground equipment at the school |
Erica Latham, Holland and Knight | East Rockville Neighborhood Plan |
Bridget Newton, President, West End Citizens Assoc. | Support for demolition of Cordelia House; concerns about Historic District Commission meeting |
Reverend Kay Barger, Rockville United Methodist Church | Support for demolition of Cordelia House; concerns about Historic District Commission meeting |
Kathy Furillo | Concerns about development in Rockville; possible changes in the zoning ordinance |
Phyllis Marcuccio | Rockville Science Day |
Ruth Hanessian | Dumpster at Archstone Apartments; need for street sign; Kiwanis support for Science Day |
H. W. Thomas, Jr. | Trash removal; concerns about number of people living in one residence; Twinbrook Commons |
Patricia DuBroof | East Rockville Neighborhood Plan; civic involvement with development of the plan |
Lih Young | Concerns with government |
Re: Mayor and Council Remarks regarding Citizens’ Forum
The Mayor and Council commented on the following issues mentioned at Citizens’ Forum:
- Possible demolition of Cordelia House
- Possible changes to the zoning ordinance
- Twinbrook Commons Project
Re: Consent Agenda
Upon motion by Councilmember Hall, duly seconded by Councilmember Hoffmann, and unanimously passed by the Mayor and Council, the following items on the Consent Agenda, Items A through C, were approved:
(A) Adoption of Minutes
Meeting No. 3-04 (Worksession/Public Hearing, January 20, 2004)
(B) Award IFB No. 45-04
To: Environmental Quality Resources, LLC
Of: Gaithersburg, Maryland
In the Amount of: Not to exceed $200,000.00
For: Maintenance and Repair of Storm Water Management Facilities of Various Types
(C) Introduction of Ordinance – Zoning Text Amendment TXT2003-00205, Mayor and Council, Applicants. The proposed text amendment would modify the parking standards for size and number of spaces under the optional method in the Town Center Performance District
Re: Adoption of Minutes
The minutes appear on the regular agenda due to the absence of Councilmember Dorsey.
Upon motion by Councilmember Hoffmann, duly seconded by Councilmember Hall, and unanimously passed, the minutes from Meeting No. 1-04 (Worksession, January 8, 2004) and Meeting No. 2-04 (General Session, January 12, 2004) were approved
Re: Adoption of a resolution to authorize the City to participate with Montgomery County, Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the Housing Opportunities Housing Commission, and the District of Columbia, referred to collectively as the Aggregated Group, to undertake an aggregated, cooperative, competitive, procurement of electric supply.
Resolution No. 8-04
Upon motion by Councilmember Hall, duly seconded by Councilmember Hoffmann, and unanimously passed by the Mayor and Council, Resolution No. 8-04, authorizing the City to participate with Montgomery County, Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the Housing Opportunities Housing Commission, and the District of Columbia, referred to collectively as the Aggregated Group, to undertake an aggregated, cooperative, competitive, procurement of electric supply, was adopted.
Re: Adoption of Ordinance to adopt the East Rockville Neighborhood Plan as an amendment to the adopted Master Plan for Rockville.
Ordinance No. 6-04
Chief of Long-term Planning Jim Wasilak said he was pleased to present the East Rockville Neighborhood Plan to the Mayor and Council for adoption this evening. Mr. Wasilak thanked all of the people who had participated in the creation of the plan. Mr. Wasilak cited the work of artist Houston Hancock, whose renderings of the potential development of Stonestreet Avenue had captured the vision of so many.
The Mayor and Council praised Mr. Wasilak for his leadership with the development of the plan and expressed eagerness to get started with the implementation phase. Councilmember Hoffmann noted the addition of the live/work units to the plan. Mayor Giammo outlined next steps in the process including the approval of the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Plan and the implementation of the East Rockville Neighborhood Plan.
Upon motion by Councilmember Hall, duly seconded by Councilmember Dorsey, and unanimously passed, the Mayor and Council approved the adoption of Ordinance No. 6-04, adopting the East Rockville Neighborhood Plan as an amendment to the adopted Master Plan for Rockville.
Re: FYI/Correspondence
Both Councilmember Robbins and Councilmember Dorsey spoke about their experiences at the National League of Cities’ Winter Conference in Washington, D.C. last weekend.
Councilmember Dorsey also mentioned a new budgetary request from the Housing Trust Fund of the Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG). All COG members are being assessed a new contribution which Councilmember Dorsey wanted to see added to the City’s budget for FY 2005. Acting City Manger Catherine Tuck Parrish reported the request had already been received and incorporated into the draft of the budget.
Upgrade to City’s Financial and Payroll/Personnel Systems
Acting City Manager Catherine Tuck Parrish asked Director of Finance Donna Boxer and Mike Cannon, the Director of Information Technology to review the proposed upgrade to the City’s financial and payroll/personnel system. Mr. Cannon said the City’s financial and payroll/personnel systems are being dropped from support by the vendor, American Management Systems (AMS) on July 1, 2005. The IBM computing platform that these systems operate on is also no longer supported. Both the software and the computing platform have reached the end of a reasonable life cycle, having been in production at the City for more than 17 years. The business functions performed by this software/hardware combination include accounting, general ledger, accounts payable, purchasing, inventory, budget, state and federal reporting, payroll, position control, and personnel. Money is budgeted in the CIP for this.
Staff has pursued alternatives but has decided that an upgrade to the current system which has been customized to the City’s needs over the years is the most cost productive. It is expected that the upgrade will serve the City for approximately 7-10 more years.
Bucket Truck
Director of Public Works Hal Cranor described the bucket truck which will be brought to the Mayor and Council for approval on March 22. The Mayor and Council were supportive of buying the truck.
Re: Adjournment to Worksession - Review of Refuse Fund Operations and Cash Flows
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m. After a short break to reconfigure the room, Acting City Manager Catherine Tuck Parrish said that staff wanted to come to the Mayor and Council prior to the introduction of the budget to alert them about some problems with the cash flows and operations in the Refuse Fund.
There are four areas of concern:
1) Over the last several years, the City has added 1,289 new refuse households at King Farm and 650 new water, sewer, and refuse households at Fallsgrove. A staff review indicates that 233 of the King Farm households and ten of the Fallsgrove households were not added to the billing list at the time that their refuse collection began. Five households in other areas of the City were also not fully billed. Staff have been working to identify all of the properties that might be affected and to coordinate efforts so that properties are not missed when new homes are completed and someone begins to live there.
2) In addition to the problem with the failure to capture the households in question, another problem with personnel has affected the cashflows. Issues with the use of sick leave, especially family sick leave, by employees in the refuse division, has resulted in the need to use workers who are temporary, or for workers to be paid for overtime hours. As a result, expenses for personnel have been much larger than expected.
3) Different projections of scenarios of the cash flow based on the County’s tipping fee may also have an effect on the rates that the City will need to charge.
4) Staff is suggesting a thorough analysis of the refuse fund to determine potential avenues of making the service more productive and cost efficient.
The Mayor and Council had extensive questions about the issue of the missing accounts. The Mayor and Council all wanted to know what mechanisms had been used in the past to determine that a home was occupied and when service needed to begin. Staff explained that there is no one sure way to determine when homeowners should be billed. However, staff have analyzed the problem to determine the factors that need to be considered which can range from observation to and to communicate more effectively between Public Works and Finance so that accounts can be established promptly and service can begin.
The Mayor and Council expressed deep disappointment with this situation, saying that, even with the assurances that staff had identified the problem areas, their confidence had been undermined. The Mayor and Council asked questions about the triggers that are in place so that service and billing can begin at the appropriate time.
Discussion ensued about the possibility of the increase in the tipping fee and its ramifications for citizens. The County tipping fee for refuse accepted at the transfer station increased in FY 2004 from $44 per ton to $48 per ton. The County is proposing an additional increase to $56 per ton that could be imposed prior to the beginning of FY 2005. City households pay the tipping fee through the City refuse rate, while County households pay this fee on their tax bill. The county’s intention in raising the fee is to encourage the haulers of commercial and multi-family refuse to use other disposal sites: the increase for single family homeowners is intended to be neutralized through a decrease in the base systems benefit charge, which is included on the tax bill for both City and County residents. Staff have been exploring the possibility of having City residents pay these tipping fees and decreases to the systems benefit charge would be more understandable. The addition of a tipping fee charge on the tax bill would be matched by a decrease in the City refuse rate.
After some questions from the Mayor and Council about the fees and the billing mechanisms, staff said they would get back with more specifics about the amount of the charge.
The last topic to be discussed was the possibility of doing an in-depth analysis of the refuse fund. Mr. Cranor said that once a contractor is selected to do the work, the analysis should take four to five months to complete.
In conclusion, the Mayor and Council again mentioned their concern with the communication about budgetary problems of this nature and the effect that something like this had on their overall confidence in the City ‘s financial checks and balances.
Re: Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m.
