Commission Minutes: August 24, 2017 Members Present: President Joe Krapohl, Vice President Washington, Secretary Mike Lynch Commissioners: Gloria Nealy, David Martin, Bryant Nolden, Mike Keeler, Bryant Nolden Members Absent: , Cloyce Dickerson, Joe Madore Jeff Wright Staff Present: Amy McMillan, Director; Barry June, Deputy Director; Matt Armentrout, Facilities Director; Kevin Shanlian, Chief Park Ranger; Leisa Gagne, Finance Officer; Nancy Edwards, Recreation Program and Grants; Deborah Wilkes, Administrative Secretary; Janet Van De Winkle, Project Sustainability Director; Danielle Fulcher, Marketing Specialist Others Present: Tom Kehoe, 4305 E. Stanley Road, Genesee
1) Call to Order. President Krapohl presided and called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.
2) Opportunity for members of the public to address the commission. Anyone wishing to address the commission must state their name and address and they have three minutes to speak. The following opinions regarding park maintenance were expressed during public comment. Photo retention when presented during a meeting, tree stump off edge of road
Photos of the following were provided: Dam, East pavilion at Bluebell, Life ring at Bluebell Beach
3) Consent Agenda. President Krapohl asked commissioners if there are any items they wish to remove from the consent agenda for discussion. No items were removed from the consent agenda.
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for approval of consent agenda items A through D, as listed.
Roll Call Ayes: Washington, Keeler, Krapohl, Lynch, Martin, Nealy, Nolden Nays: None Absent: Dickerson, Madore and Wright
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
President Krapohl informed commissioners that under the Director’s Report, Item A will be removed as Mr. Wright is unable to join us today.
President Krapohl also informed commissioners that the order of the agenda will be changed due to a commissioner that must leave for a meeting by 10:30 a.m.
August 24, 2017 Page 1 of 7 4) Director’s Report A. 2017-18 Budget The Director presented and explained the budget for the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Since the parks budget sub-committee meeting there have been extensive conversations with the controller’s office regarding the fees and charges allocated to the Parks Commission for services from the general fund departments and insurance. The controller has proposed a significant increase in those costs and charges to the Parks. We have been unsuccessful in coming to a conclusion; causing a delay to preparing the budget, that is why there have not been previous drafts available for the parks commissioners.
After presentation of the budget today, and questions and answers, we will request two actions: approve the budgets by fund and make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners to adopt the budget; secondly to ask the parks commission support in requesting that the Board of Commissioners meet with the Parks Commission to address how such fees and charges are calculated and which fees and charges will ultimately be assigned to the Parks Commission budget.
This discussion is being had by several other non-general fund departments, including the Planning Commission, and other millage funded departments - Animal Control, Senior Services. The Board is informed that these concerns exist, we’ve had some preliminary discussions, but the Board will want to hear formally from the Parks Commission as well as the Parks Director.
The budget is presented to you by fund number, and is similar to the budget as last year. Highlights of the changes are included in the cover memo provided with the budget. The director and president asked if there are any questions regarding the budget. Seeing none, the following resolutions were presented:
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Supported by Commissioner Lynch
Motion and support for Resolution 025-17 approving Fund 208 (General Operating) with 2017-18 revenues of $7,105,868.00 and expenditures of 6,472,673.00 and forward budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption.
Roll Call Yeas: Washington, Nolden, Keeler, Martin, Nealy, Lynch, Krapohl Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Washington Supported by Commissioner Nolden August 24, 2017 Page 2 of 7 Motion and support for Resolution 026-17 approving Fund 211 (Crossroads Village) with 2017-18 revenues of $1,864 ,350.00 and expenditures of $1,433,900.00 and forward budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption.
Roll Call Yeas: Martin, Nolden, Washington, Keeler, Krapohl, Lynch, Nealy Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Supported by Commissioner Lynch
Motion and support for Resolution 027-17 approving Fund 508 (Railroad/Boat) with 2017-18 revenues of $295,000.00 and expenditures of $892,645.00 and forward budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption.
Roll Call Yeas: Lynch, Keeler, Nolden, Martin, Nealy, Washington, Krapohl Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for Resolution 028-17 approving Fund 666 (Equipment) with 2017-18 revenues of $44,000.00 and expenditures of $510,000.00 and forward budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption.
Roll Call Yeas: Krapohl, Nolden, Lynch, Keeler, Nealy, Washington, Martin Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
August 24, 2017 Page 3 of 7 Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for Resolution 029-17 approving Fund 209 (Special Projects) with 2017-18 expenditures of $280,000.00 and forward budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption.
Roll Call Yeas: Martin, Nolden, Keeler, Lynch, Nealy, Washington, Krapohl Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Support by Commissioner Lynch
Motion and Support to request that Genesee County Board of Commissioners adopt the budget as presented and to work with the Parks Commission to come to a resolution by the end of this calendar year as relates to insurance and CSA charges.
Roll Call Yeas: Krapohl, Keeler, Lynch, Martin, Nealy, Nolden, Washington Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
B. Payroll Accounting Error. Parks staff was made aware of an accounting error in the payroll department that affected six of our seasonal employees, three of which were overpaid by $1.00 per hour. We ask that the employees who were overpaid do not have to pay back the overpayment and the employees who were not paid the additional $1.00 receive that compensation. The correction will result in approximately $1,500 more or less. We think this is consistent with our policy of treating all employees fairly and equitably. These are not bargaining unit positions and there are no contract issues to contend with, however our goal is to make everyone whole at the end of the day. The hourly rates have been corrected in the payroll system and all employees are now being paid the correct hourly rate.
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Keeler Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for to approve the request to the Board of Commissioners to authorize payment to three employees that were paid $1.00 hour less for the amount of time affected and to reverse any corrections from the three
August 24, 2017 Page 4 of 7 employees that were overpaid.
Roll Call Yeas: Washington, Martin, Nolden, Krapohl, Keeler, Lynch, Nealy Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
C. Flushing County Park Bridge Encumber. Earlier in the year this board approved a partnership with the City of Flushing as they were applying for a grant to re-deck the footbridge in Flushing County Park. If awarded that grant the DNR would be required to encumber the project area. Flushing County Park is already encumbered as part of a previous grant but the bridge was constructed with TEA-21 grant funds which did not require the bridge project to be encumbered. Staff requests that you agree to allow the bridge project to be encumbered and request that the Board of Commissioners concur with that action. This action must be taken before October 1 in order for the grant application to remain eligible.
Keeler: Is this taking out old wood and putting back wood or the resin stuff?
McMillan: She believes it is a composite material. The current decking is 17 years old.
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Nolden Supported by Commissioner Washington
Motion and support for Resolution 024-17 City of Flushing Partnership agreement.
Roll Call Yeas: Nealy, Krapohl, Lynch, Washington, Martin, Nolden, Keeler Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
D. Barrier Free Beach Access to Bluebell Beach. A couple years ago we applied for, and received, a recreation passport grant from the DNR to create a barrier free access mat across the beach and into the water. We put that out to bid and the bids came back tremendously higher than our budget, due in part that contractors are already busy and committed. We heard from several contractors that they couldn’t even bid it this year because they were so busy. We ask that you reject the bids and allow the project to be re-bid at a later date toward the end of construction season.
Action Taken: Motion by Commissioner Keeler Supported by Commissioner Martin
August 24, 2017 Page 5 of 7 Motion and support to reject all bids for the Bluebell Beach Barrier Free Beach Access Project and re-bid it later in the fall.
Yeas: All ayes Nays: None Absent: Wright, Dickerson and Madore
MOTION CARRIED 7-0
E. Response to Public Comment Whenever a factual question has been asked, that requires a factual answer rather than a response to an opinion, those have been answered in good faith. We also addressed the issue of when people state their opinions in good faith; we appreciate that, but understand them to be opinions, not facts.
F. Volunteer Dinner. Your invitation is provided today, please get back with Debbie about whether you can attend.
5) New Business There is no new business.
6) Opportunity for the public to address the commission Opinions regarding the following were expressed during public comment: Tree roots growing under the dam; dam valve maintenance; leachate test at the horse arena; manner in which comments are recording in minutes; railroad crossing responsibility; Lapeer County representation; pavilion demolition records and possible lead paint testing; trees and bushes growing around dam; safety devices at beach; wood sales
7) Opportunity for Commissioners to address the Commission. Keeler: Still on target to remove Hamilton Dam by the winter?
McMillan: If Consumers is on target with their timeline, we are on target. Consumers believes they are on target.
Lynch: Have they recovered anything interesting?
McMillan: They recovered two vehicles yesterday.
Martin: He had the opportunity to welcome many, many people at the E A Cummings Center at the Genesee County Fair. It was packed at the demolition derby and the weather was perfect. Looks like a good event for the entire county.
Nolden: To state a fact, ‘by me being a Genesee County resident and a Genesee County Board of Commissioner, I will never vote for a person from another county to sit on the Genesee County Park board because they are not a resident of Genesee County’.
Krapohl: It is also a fact that no resident has a legal claim to a position on this commission and no Lapeer County resident can obtain a seat on this commission.
Nealy: She attended the Free Library event in the Parks. Hopefully people in the community and neighborhoods will use those if they can’t make it to their library.
Krapohl: To clarify, the open meetings act requires us to technically record only actions taken by the commission in the minutes. August 24, 2017 Page 6 of 7 Also, if a member of the public wishes to have something in the public record and presents it to a board, then those documents must be retained by the Board, or the Commission in this case, in order to be made available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. That is why anything presented to the commission, we retain for our records. If it is not in our possession then there is no obligation for us to include it in any of our minutes or records. We comply with the law by maintaining anything that is presented to us when possible.
Keeler: Not only the Open Meetings Act but the latest versions of Roberts Rules of Order state that as well.
Krapohl: We have to follow the Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act. In Roberts Rules it is a suggestion as to how to run a meeting, but those (OMA and FOIA) are the legal restrictions on us by law.
8) Adjournment. Hearing no objections to adjournment, the meeting was adjourned at 10:30 a.m.
Recorded and transcribed by D. Wilkes p:commission/2017/Agenda and minutes/8-24-17
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