HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004 12-14 PreMeridian City Pre -Council Meeting December 14k 20
The Meridian City Pre -Council meeting was called to order at 5:30 P.M. on
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Shaun Wardle and
Charlie Rountree.
Staff Present: Bill Nary and Will Berg.
Item 1. Roll -call Attendance:
X Shaun Wardle X Christine Donnell
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
_X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda:
Bird: We need a motion to adopt the agenda if it's an approval.
Donnell: So moved.
Rountree: Second.
Bird: Okay, it's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. All those in
favor say aye.
ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED.
Item & Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(b) and (f):
Bird: I would entertain a motion.
Donnell: So moved.
Rountree: Second.
Bird: Its been moved and seconded. Mr. Clerk, roll call.
Berg: Thank you Mr. President. Roll call: Donnell, aye; Rountree, aye; Wardle,
aye; Bind, aye; All ayes.
Bird: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Rountree: So moved.
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December 14, 2004
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Wardle: Second.
Bird: Okay, its been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.
ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED.
Bird: Let it be noted that no decisions were made.
Item 4. Discussion and Review of Draft Inspection Services Contracts:
Freckleton: Thank you Madam Mayor, members of the Council. I bring before
you for some discussion tonight the contracts for inspection services for
mechanical, plumbing, electrical and building. Basically I have put together some
talking points; you should have those in front of you on some items that these
contractors have brought back to me. I transmitted to them the same time I
transmitted over to City Hall draft copies of the contracts, so we could just step
through these if you would like and have a little discussion. The first item is Item
9-F and this is a general that you will find on all of the contracts. This is in
regards to if a determination is made by some governmental agency that our
contractors are city employees instead of contractors, the provision in the
contract stipulates that the contractor would agree to reimburse the city for all
employment costs that results from that determination and examples of those
would be things such as employee share of PERSI and employee share of health
insurance, things like that. In my discussions with them they asked that if that is
the case then would that mean that the city would be reimbursing them for costs
that they have incurred, such as their vehicle insurance and health insurance and
those sort of things. Their basic recommendation was couldn't this just be struck
from the contracts and so that's the one item for discussion and I know Mr. Nary
in our discussions this afternoon, he had some thoughts on that and maybe he
can help us out here.
Nary: Mr. President, members of the Council I think what the concern that they
are talking about here, I mean it's probably a good discussion point, but the
circumstances that the contract was contemplating was that if for some reason at
some point in the future was the (inaudible) that these folks were employees and
not independent (inaudible) through the city. The city would be on the hook for
past wages and in certain circumstances even triple damages and wages for not
paying them properly. I think the intent of that provision, it was an existing
provision, this wasn't written by Mr. Watson or myself, this was already in the
existing contracts we have had in the past. I am assuming the intent was to put
them on notice that if that were to occur, there may be some other expenses that
were employee related that they would also be responsible for. The law is going
to dictate what the city has to pay. So, I don't — I understand where the
contractors are coming from and the concern of making sure the city would be
paying their fair share, they would be. The Department of Labor would make
sure that the city would be paying their wages and all of that. Would they be
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December 14, 2004
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paying the other ancillary things as their insurance and those types of things?
Probably not. Not by the Department of Labor standards anyway, but they may
certainly be other issues there. Do you want to make this a mutual provision? I
think that's your call. I think the intent was simply to put them on notice that if a
decision of that magnitude or that type was made that they have responsibilities
to employees then for the same time period.
Freckleton: If you'd like I can go on to the next item or we can have some
discussion.
Bird: That would be fine.
Freckleton: Okay. Second talking point is Item No. 11, which is general in all
contracts. That is in regards to transition. Just kind of in summary in the even
the contract is terminated or not renewed, the contractors agreed that they would
basically stay on for a period — the way the contract is currently written is 90 days
to aid in the transition and I know Gary Smith prior to his retirement had had
some discussions with Harold Hudson regarding that 90 day period and the
appropriateness of it and he agreed that it was more appropriate that it should be
like 30 -day period and that's something that Brad and I have talked about and we
agree that 30 days is probably adequate and appropriate. Item No. 3. This was
a question on the RIMI, that's the plumbing contractors or excuse me the
mechanical contractors' contract and it's in regard to the — in the percentage
section on the fee structure — the way it currently reads is that notwithstanding
the foregoing, whenever the contractor's percentage of a permit fee has a value
of $1,000 or more the inspection fee shall be negotiated between the city and the
contractor. Mr. Medley has told me that historically that that's not how the
contract has been administered. The contract has been administered — basically
that any fee over the $1,000 or more has been paid at that percentages, which
gets him to the 40 percent annual number quicker. So, I didn't really have a
problem with that. He has recommended that the provision for negotiation of
those larger permit fees be struck The fourth talking point is on Item 12b of our
electrical contractors contracts and it is in regard to automobile liability insurance.
In summary, the contract currently reads that the contractor shall obtain and
maintain collision an comprehensive insurance coverage on all vehicles owned
or leased by the contractor. Harold maintains that full collision and
comprehensive insurance should not be required or should only be required if the
vehicle that he is using is under contracts, such as being financed. Whenever it's
being financed, the bank or the financer will require full comprehensive. This is
something; I guess as far as a recommendation that we would recommend that
we just get our insurance camel's opinion on this. Harold's proposal is to just
carry liability only per the law. Maybe Bill has more he can —
Nary: Mr. President, Madam Mayor, and members of Council I think the
contractors at least raise a valid concern. It's his own vehicle. He is
independent. Its already paid for, so carving full coverage we are concerned
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December 14, 2004
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about the liability. Maybe the issue that would probably be best and wouldn't be
very onerous for him either was simply to provide the city with a certificate of
insurance — that the city is an additional insurer so that if in the course of him
doing business for the city, he were to get into an accident, it was clear that his
insurance was supposed to cover the city as well. That might be the easiest
thing to do and I don't know that that would be significant for any of the contracts
to be able to do that.
Freckleton: Okay and there is just one final item that I did not get in my talking
points, but its in all the contracts and that is on the Exhibit A, Item No. 11 under
reporting the contracts state that the contractor shall provide on a monthly basis
certain reports and we have city staff that maintains those records and we
maintain our own databases, so we never have had the contractor submit those
reports, we have always been able to do them ourselves, so I would propose we
just strike that section out of the exhibit. That is basically it.
Bird: Thank you very much, Bruce. Council any questions for Bruce or the
attorney on any of these?
Rountree: Mr. President
Bird: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I have a question on the item under 12b. Is the half a million dollars
liability coverage sufficient? Should we be looking at something more?
Nary: Mr. President, members of the Council, Councilman Rountree under the
items tort claims act, the city's limitation on most circumstances for liability is
going to be at the half a million dollar range, so I think we should be fine.
Rountree: Okay, thank you.
Bird: Any more questions? Okay, Council we need to get these going so we
have got a good red line copy of each one of them. Read them over. If you see
anything that disturbs you, let the Mayor know and if not let's let the Mayor get on
with it and get it before us and get this taken care of. Thank you Bruce. We
appreciate your work.
Freckleton: Mr. President we were anticipating or hoping that we could get the
final draft in front of you next Tuesday. If we can do that.
Item 5, Discussion of Prosecution Contract;
Nary: Mr. President, members of the Council this will be very brief. I had a
conversation last week with the Boise City Attorney. As all of you know, the City
of Boise handles all of our misdemeanor prosecution for the City of Meridian. We
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December 14, 2004
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have had a contract with them in the past for the last two years, two budget
years. We forgot to have a contract for this budget year. They forgot as well, so
they were equally apologetic that we did give them the numbers or they did give
us the numbers from the City of Boise so that we have them in the budget. They
have been getting paid, so it's all been good. We just don't actually have a
current contract. Mr. Coliani, the Boise City Attorney did raise a couple of
concerns that he would like us to look at. He was going to transmit those to me.
He had an issue about the indemnification clause, but he wasn't very specific.
So, I called over there today and talked to one of their chief deputies and he was
going to get the specifics and get those to me and so what their concerns were
we have had a couple of instances in the past with other contracts that there was
an issue about what level of indemnification we are seeking from another party in
prosecution. It may not be as critical. The other was that there are no
cancellation provisions; we can cancel the contracts on one days' notice. Their
concern was that they have two employees that are being paid out of the
proceeds of the contract and one day's notice probably wouldn't be very
adequate for them from a management standpoint. They would like at least 30
days notice, I don't see that as a significant problem either. We certainly would
provide more notice than that. So, I think we should be able to work those out,
so I should have a contract back in front of you, probably not next week because
they haven't told me what the provisions are that they want to change, but
probably within the next couple of meetings we should have that back. Again,
nothing has happened. We have been paying them. Mr. President, Item 6, 1 can
go into that if you want.
Bird: Yeah, sure.
Item 6. Discussion of Amendment to the Police Building:
Nary: The last item is the amendment to the police building and lease
agreement. We should have all the documentation in front of you next Tuesday
that our bond Council has prepared for us to amend our lease agreement. We
did have an agreement from the bank and from the bond company to amend the
lease agreement. The intent is to amend it to a similar situation as the Boise
Airport was upheld as a non -taxed building that won't affect the current tax year.
So, if you were thinking we were going to get a break on the 2004, that's not
likely. The intent is to have it before you so that it can be at the end of this fiscal
year or at the end of this calendar year to be on the tax rolls. We will then file an
exemption in January for the year 2005 and we are hopeful that the county will
agree since it should be the exact same provisions that the City of Boise
prevailed on. So, it isn't for the past tax year, so if you are wondering about that
one, we are still going to have to pay that one. We are hoping going forward that
we won't have to continue paying the taxes on that building. That's all I have.
Bird: Council any questions for Mr. Nary?
Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting
December 14, 2004
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Rountree: No, thank you.
Bird: With that, we end our agenda for the Pre -Council meeting of December 14,
2004. 1 would entertain a motion to adjournment.
Rountree: So moved.
Wardle: Second.
Bird: Its been moved and seconded. All those in favor? Opposed?
ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:53 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
APPROVED:
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TAMMY DkWFkRD. MAYOR DATE APPROVED
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WILLIAM G. BER , JR., CI _ R
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