Finance and Personnel Committee s2

Finance and Personnel Committee of the Lee’s Summit City Council Minutes Wednesday, May 7, 2003 3:00 p.m. Modular Executive Conference Room

Councilmembers: Councilmember Jim Hallam – Present Councilmember Ron Williams – Present (entered 3:17 p.m.) Councilmember Joe Spallo – Present Councilmember Tess Hurley – Absent

Staff: Conrad Lamb – Finance Director Darlene Pickett – Assistant Finance Director Ellen Buhr – Budget Officer Shelley Kneuvean – Acting City Administrator Bob McKay – Director, Planning and Development Mark Schaufler – Codes Robert Handley – City Attorney Thomas Solberg – Fire Chief Ken Conlee – Police Chief Maj. Bruce Trammell – Police

Chairman James Hallam opened the meeting at 3:13 p.m. Attendance was taken, with only Chairman Hallam and Councilmember Spallo present. Mr. Handley advised that as the current meeting was discussion and informational only and no votes would be taken, it could proceed as an informational session. Councilmember Williams arrived at 3:17 p.m., and the Committee had a quorum for a meeting.

Regarding the amended Summary Budget Expense Report for Police, Ms. Buhr explained that the numbers were all correct except next year’s budget in the first two categories.

Item 1 – Review of the Fiscal Year 2003-04 Budget a) Fire: Starting with Personal Services, Chief Solberg explained that last year the City had funded nine full-time firefighters. This year’s requested budget included three firefighters and one Fire Prevention Captain position. The new positions were staffing for Station 7 for a total of 12, added incrementally over multiple years. The firefighters would be primarily on ladder trucks in the meantime. The

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 1 Fire Prevention Captain was for the increased inspections of buildings and their systems, as well as hydrostatic testing and direct work with the contractor. (Councilmember Williams joined the meeting.) Councilmember Spallo asked if Fire had enough personnel and equipment at individual stations, considering all of Lee’s Summit’s new subdivisions and the population increase. Chief Solberg explained that Lee’s Summit’s Fire Department was unique in that it did EMS transports. The added staff and ambulance last year had helped with both firefighting capability and the EMS transports. The staff was three per truck, though NFPA standards and recommendations represented a balance between funds spent and the protection level the community was willing to pay for. He felt confident that the Department could meet the need for several years; but the City would need to keep assessing needs in the future. Chief Solberg added that four stations had two vehicles; but if one was on transport, that left just one vehicle with a minimum of three people. The new stations were expected to have more than these two companies; some older stations only had room to handle on truck. Councilmember Spallo remarked that he knew that stations often had to pick up service areas for each other. He wondered if some stations did need two companies to accommodate growth and increased demand, especially around M-291. Chief Solberg agreed that the new stations did need more capacity. The station on Blackwell did have a pumper and ambulance but garage space was limited. Chairman Hallam asked if a setup with the north, south and central areas each having an extra company would provide the extra coverage and Chief Solberg agreed that it would; adding that Downtown headquarters was a good example. It had the space for another company and was the busiest. He added that a pumper could perform the initial functions for EMS when needed. Keeping response times down by re-deploying and moving personnel around was as pretty much a 24-hour job so dual companies would certainly help. The newer stations, particularly Station 7, would be designed to accommodate two companies; in contrast to the older stations at Colbern and Pryor that could accommodate only one vehicle. Chief Solberg confirmed with Councilmember Williams that they were adequate for this year, with the requested new positions. Councilmember Spallo emphasized that the Council needed to hear what Fire’s requirements were. Councilmember Hallam and Ms. Kneuvean agreed that the City needed to hear what was the best way to accomplish low response times. Chief Solberg added that the widening of 150 Highway had been an ongoing issue. MoDOT had assured Fire that the station would not be moved; and knew that a new station would have to be functional before closing the old one down. Chief Solberg continued that Commodities, Contractual Services, Maintenance/Repair Utilities and Fuel had little change. The large increase in Capital Outlay was due to four or five items. Eight if the AED’s, automatic external defibrillators for emergency treatment that were on all the units, were twelve years old and had to be replaced at $87,500.00. The emergency generator at Headquarters was close to 30 years old and had required multiple repairs last year. It was in the basement and tapped into diesel tanks

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 2 and would be replaced, at cost of $44,500.00, and relocated to the outside. The seven thermal imaging cameras Fire currently had were seven years old and were the single most important piece of equipment acquired in recent years. These needed replacing, at a cost of $90,000.00. They had given firefighters “eyes” where they had not had them before and had contributed to both safety and property conservation. The largest item was the proposed $750,000.00 remodeling of Headquarters, which was 30 years old. It was structurally in good shape; but an exterior facelift with brick as well as interior remodeling would result in a building more appropriate for Downtown. Ms. Kneuvean explained that the idea was essentially to cover up the concrete slab walls rather than tear out and replace them; and that these were projects that would use the one-time money. Chief Solberg concluded that another $34,000.00 would replace the base radio station in Headquarters. They had replaced one frequency last year, and this would be a followup. Finally, an item not reflected was the proposal to buy back a used Rescue. The VERP fund had a $14,000.00 transfer to buy back and have two reserve Rescues. Councilmember Spallo asked when Fire would have its analysis of the station needs and Chief Solberg answered that it would have to be within the next fiscal year. Once the process started for Station 7, other components would have to be filled in. That should include addressing the two oldest stations, Pryor Road and Colbern, which had only one truck each and little to no extra land to expand. (Councilmember Spallo left the table, from 3:41 to 3:43 p.m.) b) Police: Chief Conlee began that the budget this year was fairly static compared with some other years. The Summary Budget Expense Report had been amended with subtotal for commissioned officers vs. civilian personnel and corrections as where some FTE’s were. Personal Services was most of the budget, which included the addition of three officers. A secretary in Animal Control was increasing from part time to full time. Chief Conlee emphasized that everything in the budget was tied to people, including increases or decreases in training expense, capital equipment and everything else. This year, capital equipment had gone down slightly as Police had previously bought items they were still using. Fuel and Lubricants represented 70 miles per car per shift and increases in fuel prices. Utilities increased because of water expenses; and others were marginally adjusted for specific needs. Ms. Kneuvean added that after Councilmember Spallo had brought up fuel expenses, they had taken a closer look and discovered that the original estimates were low compared to what Police was actually paying. The Fleet budget included a request to add a pump in back of the police station. Under Capital Improvements, Police was requesting certain items from the one-time money. They included expanding the program for M-25 Tasers. Recently, hand-held types of Tasers had been developed with a range of 22 feet; the distance at which someone could be shot with a handgun and still kill a police officer. The Tasers could immediately disable someone wanting to hurt themselves or others; would help avoid the

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 3 use of lethal force more often. One per car, as well as some in the jail and available for detectives, was proposed for a total cost of $25,723.00 including ongoing expenses. An another requested item was two Draeger self-contained breathing apparatuses. Chief Conlee acknowledged that police use of these had been marginal in the past, except when methamphetamine labs were involved. Generally, other people had been responsible for long-term on-site cleaning. These requested items was for use with other biological or chemical hazardous materials; and Chief Conlee noted that police were the first exposed to these. They were not the same supplier, as police needed a different design mask to use with shoulder-mounted weapons. The third request was an Animal Control vehicle. For several years, Police had managed with two Animal Control trucks; but it was becoming more necessary to double staff to share them which was not an efficient use of resources. Not all three would always be in service at once; but it would considerably expand service in this area. Councilmember Spallo asked who was responsible for the road kills along M-291 and Chief Conlee explained that it was MoDOT, which was responsible for all State and Federal rights-of- way. They would not assume responsibility for City crews who went out for cleanups. Other debris ended up on M-291, with the same policy; and the City did what it could but could not take on MoDOT missions. Chief Conlee continued that the ongoing expansion requests that Management Team had approved included upgrading the Animal Control secretary from part-time to full-time. The manager was having to assume secretarial duties when the secretary was off, which was not a very efficient use of time; and there was a proposal to move Animal Control dispatch from the Police Department to Animal Control. This represented an expansion of Animal Control’s duties. Chief Conlee then brought up the three additional police officers at annual cost of $166,769.00. He explained to Councilmember Williams that these were entry level officers. Currently, shifts were somewhat balanced but the workload was not; with the evening shift having the most officers and calls. Police wanted to develop an additional shift on the evening watch, with two of the three new officers going to this shift. It also represented an effort to be proactive about citizens’ traffic complaint calls, developing a system of scoring various times and roadways to anticipate needs. This related to some of the staffing and time issues and a change in the way the Police Department did business. Accident reports had expanded over the past six years from one to five or six pages, now taking over an hour instead of 15 or 20 minutes. This gave the traffic unit a big focus. In short, utilizing the new people would not be arbitrary but designed to accomplish specific goals, both long- and short-term. Police had not added to the general patrol; though Chief Conlee believed the need was there. He explained that as it would take a year for new officers to give fundamental good service, he had to look a year forward with service needs. Before then, they were not necessarily providing but functioning. Police had four officers currently deployed in the military, three for the second time since September of 2001; making it necessary to

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 4 manipulate the Department’s resources to provide the same level of service. In addition, the job was more complicated and time-consuming now than even three or four years ago. They were trying to address that with multi-computing and other technological aids but it was still a people business with service needs that technology could not address. Chief Conlee concluded with a request for three police officers; adding that it would likely not be the last time he would be in with that kind of request. Councilmember Spallo remarked that he could see a greater need being there, as the city had added about 25 percent more roads, subdivisions and people since 1996 in addition to annexation. He felt it was critical to look at what the current and future level of needs would be. Chief Solberg responded that he hoped they could have some meaningful analysis and discussion of this situation in the next fiscal year, including looking at various alternatives. Large new developments did not essentially mean anything to the Police Department until they were up and running, which did give opportunities to anticipate the impact. Chief Conlee continued that staffing a police department was more than art than a science. It could not be just calculating response times in areas based on the locations of stations. Whether someone responded in three minutes or ten depended on where they were responding from. Police had five patrol districts in 1996, and every edge came to the core of town. Lakewood had very few calls for service but opening up Woods Chapel meant that patrols would not just be driving around subdivisions. Looking at other expansions including to the southwest, it was evident that there was no longer a ‘collapse’ in the center part of town. Total calls for service are around 70,000 and would go up, though they were not at present. In short, staffing was dependent on what human beings did as managers in terms of how they deployed people and where, as well as scheduling. In terms of an officer-population ratio, Midwest suburban communities averaged 1.7 per 1,000 population. Lee’s Summit was currently at less than 1.3; but he felt they could get to the standard in a positive cost-benefit way. Part of that was looking at what departments like Planning were bringing in and figuring how that changed the situation. Chief Conlee added that he appreciated the Council’s willingness to discuss, as he would have to present some subjective opinions and the Council would need to also exercise some judgment. If the military deployed staff returned soon, staffing would be good within a year but that was not certain of happening. Additionally, this request did not include positions that he would come to the Administrator and Council for, with other funding sources. He was discussing with Parks the possibility of a Parks equivalent of an SRO, hopefully grant funded. All of this could affect the five-year financial plan, as he would need contractual agreements and the same would probably be true of Parks. Councilmember Spallo remarked that he could see how many subdivisions had gone up, and how it would not be possible to patrol the same way as before with the same number of officers. Councilmember Hallam asked how many housing permits the City had and Mr. McKay answered that it had been 800 or 900 a year. Chief Conlee remarked that crime had decreased in that time; although this was bottoming out. On the positive side,

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 5 the single-family kinds of housing that had been coming in were not big call generators. He added that patrol was a different thing from response to calls; and agreed with Councilmember Spallo’s observation that regular patrols served as crime prevention. Police service would lose these ‘touches’ as time went on; and he would continue to advocate staff expansions when quality became the major issue. Councilmember Spallo remarked that the Chief’s part was to figure out what they needed and the Council’s was to figure out paying for it. They did have to know there was a need. Councilmember Williams recalled that last year, he had asked if they had the technical tools they needed. Chief Conlee responded that they expected to utilize the new data application system in mid to late summer. It would exponentially increase the amount of data he would be able to get but then it would be a matter of interpreting it. He did not believe there were exact models that could answer the exact questions for the community. He did believe the Department had adequate technology to evaluate issues. Council- member Williams had wondered about supervisory staffing for entry level additions; and Chief Conlee explained that they had already increased their first-line supervisory staff and now had a fairly good balance in supervisory and managerial staff. This had been done via promotion rather than new hires. As it took five police officers to staff one position 24/7, it would take three sets of five or 15 officers before additional supervision would be an issue. Councilmember Williams asked if Police had technical personnel such as forensic positions or if this was a prospect in the future. Chief Conlee answered that it could be as Lee’s Summit grew. The kind of police technology television often showed was quite expensive. At present, the detective staff did more conventional and basic work such as fingerprinting. Hiring specialists would eventually be in the picture. He explained that the current facility was designed to expand to the back so could meet some expanded future needs. Chairman Hallam agreed that seeing some kind of projection of staffing needs was desirable. He asked why the request was for three positions, in view of it taking five officers to cover one 24/7 shift. Chief Conlee explained that they had dedicated specific assignments and so three positions would accomplish that, especially if he could get the military personnel back. Chairman Hallam remarked on the decline of police ‘swarming’ during the 1990s and asked if this was a matter of being a little overstaffed then and a little understaffed now. Chief Conlee responded that this was partly because of having a young police staff with many in training and accompanying other officers. At present, there was no one in training. He added that the objective of any police contact was to make the initial contact safely and ‘swarming’ did accomplish that. c) Codes: Mr. Schaufler related that Codes was proposing the addition of a building inspector position and City architect, as well as some enhancement to neighborhood services. Since 1995, the number of inspections for the six building inspectors increased from 17,000 to 26,500 a year. During that same time, the inspectors also got the responsibility to increase enforcement and involvement in

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 6 issues such as erosion control. The size and complexity of buildings going up in Lee’s Summit was another change. The ISO classification, which was evaluated every three years, would be another benefit of adding in inspector. Their standard was one inspector per ten inspections and the current level for Codes was one inspector per 16 to 30 inspections. Bringing that number down would increase the quality of inspection services. Additionally, the addition of hand-held units for use in the field had been very successful and well received in the community. It allowed for both faster collecting and more effective managing of information and improved communication between field personnel and office; as well as being a tracking mechanism. Regarding the City architect, Mr. Schaufler explained that Codes had anticipated that need since looking at it in 1998. Currently, the City had a project manager who was a licensed professional architect, and who would become a full time FTE within the Codes department. He could continue acting as project manager for projects such as City Hall and the animal control facility; and he was currently working with Legacy Park. He assumed there would be benefit to other departments who had projects come up needing this kind of expertise. The position would not only provide a resource to inspectors but also be a liaison to other design professionals in complex design issues. Mr. Schaufler added that he would see that this employee did research and analysis work as well. The position had been posted at $65,000.00; and the person was currently in contract for $50.00 per hour, equating to about $104,000.00 per year. Ms. Kneuvean added that this position would be charged back to the department so would not impact the General Fund. It was an approach to retain the contract employee Codes currently had that was more economical. The employee would be retained through the years of the City Hall, Animal Control and other projects involving City buildings that had aged. Bringing this contract professional in as an employee not only saved money but gave the employee a commitment to the projects. Chairman Hallam asked about five years out; and Ms. Kneuvean stated that ultimately, the Department would have a need for an architect on staff; and in the short term they already knew what the market would be. The City had over 23 facilities that it would continue to maintain and some would have ongoing capital replacement projects. Councilmember Williams had no problem with this concept; but was concerned about the City losing in another arena of working day-to-day with contractors and checking out the specs to make sure it was being done right. Mr. Schaufler could see that as being a concern. Codes regarded the main priority as remaining the same, which was to deal with the City Hall and the other major projects. The new employee had the highest priority of continuing as project manager for these facilities. Ms. Kneuvean emphasized that the City wanted to keep him focused on overseeing the construction for the community building as well as being day-to-day on site person with the City Hall project. Mr. Schaufler added that the benefits of having this employee would be long-term and especially useful when they got into more complex plan review and research on code modification requests for alternative methods and materials. In the short term, the

Finance and Personnel Committee May 7, 2003 7 contractor on the design firm would do the submittal to the City. The project manager had an interest in getting benefits; and in considering the hiring they were balancing both sides’ needs against the longer-term value of the position. Once the big building projects were done, there would still be a number of capital projects that would need the expertise as well as buildings that had aged. Having the expertise in particular would help with insurance ratings. Mr. Schaufler added that it would help with ISO ratings as well. d) Planning and Development: Mr. McKay noted that the requested amount was a little less than what was requested. The major reason was that this year, the M- 150/M-291 study was on the way. The City Council did want Planning to look at some of the economic impacts of the Comprehensive Plan; and there was some money for Historic Preservation as well. Historic Preservation was seeking a grant, whose application had to be in by the end of August. Mr. McKay explained that a problem with grants was the if they were granted, the department would spend some of its own money and the grant would put money back into the General Fund. The increase in Commodities was mostly for furniture and fixtures including the rotary file. Professional fees had a reduction; and the other items had a slight increase. Mr. McKay expressed appreciation for Planning getting the customer service planner, who this year had streamlined that process. Councilmember Spallo asked Mr. McKay if he believed Planning and Development had the planners it needed. Mr. McKay replied that he felt that Planning had what it needed at present and would for awhile. The approach was to look at projects on a team basis, and have a review every Monday. The staff was busy but sufficient at present.

Roundtable

Councilmember Spallo brought up the Council’s discretionary fund analysis. He noted that the only time the Council ever came close to using the amount was in hiring the lobbyist. Chairman Hallam agreed that it was not being used. He suggested that it be discussed in detail at the full Council, as most of the Councilmembers were not present. Chairman Hallam asked Mr. Lamb about the next meeting; and Mr. Lamb announced that the next meeting would be Wednesday, May 14th, with Streets, Stormwater, Public Works and the Airport reporting. Councilmember Williams confirmed that the Community Development Committee would meet the next morning at 7:00 a.m. Ms. Kneuvean asked Committee members to respond to the request in Councilmember Williams’ memo.

Chairman Hallam asked for further discussion. As there was none, he adjourned the meeting at 4:44 p.m.

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