Board of Trustees Minutes

President Craig called the Meeting to Order at 7:30 P.M.

PRESENT: Trustees Lori Kaiser, Robert Packham, Wesley Eby, William Manton, and President Rodney Craig

ABSENT: Trustees Joseph Nicolosi and Toni Carter

ALSO PRESENT: Village Manager Marc Hummel, Assistant Village Manager Mark Masciola, Jim Binninger, Joan Rock, Tom Dahl, Patrick Grill, Sandra Vincent Richard, Ron Moser, Howard Killian, Craig Haigh, Ken Zaccard, and George Dimidik

AYES: Kaiser, Packham, Eby, Manton NAYS: None

ABSENT: Nicolosi, Carter

PRESENT: Trustees Lori Kaiser, Robert Packham, Wesley Eby, William Manton, Toni Carter, and President Rodney Craig

ABSENT: Trustees Joseph Nicolosi

Mr. Hummel began with Community Development noting it was comprised of the Economic Development division and the Inspectional division. He stated $25,000 was budgeted for Economic Development contractual services, the same amount as in prior years. He also recommended continuing to attend the International Conference of Shopping Centers for two staff members and an elected official as in the past. He recommended the reclassification of the Planner to Chief Planner with a salary adjustment to help with the reorganization of the department separating the building components from the zoning components. It was noted since there were staff cuts a promotion seemed untimely.

Mr. Hummel continued there were international codes to be adopted. He noted the capital projects included $130,000 for a consultant study to update the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance. He stated this was traditionally done every 10 years. Mr. Hummel concluded the Community Development portion and he sought Board concurrence on this department.

Further comment on the Community Development was there were issues that needed further review and no increase should be done at this time. It was further questioned if the economic development contractual services were the same consultants we have worked with in the past few years and answered it was not yet decided but the allocation was the same. He noted that contract expired April 30, 2008 with a 60-day cancellation clause at any time. It was also noted that 2 staff members and an elected official would attend the ICSC (international). It was suggested that an elected official also attend the regional as it had not been done in the last couple of years.

The Board was polled for Concurrence to Promote and Provide Additional Salary for the Senior Planner position: Roll call:

AYES: Kaiser, Packham, Eby, Manton NAYS: Carter, President Craig

There were no questions on the committee portion of the budget. President Craig questioned the corresponding fund raising opportunities of the Sister Cities independent non-profit component. He stated it had not been very active and Linda McCance Packham addressed the Board. She stated the Friends of Cape Coast did contribute funds and for every $1,000 given, the group contributed approximately $4,000. She stated that included many out-of-pocket expenses such as travel, phone, international mailing, and gifts.

President Craig stated there were many elements that could lend itself to more than one city, noting our community had diversity with close to 60 different languages spoken in the homes and he was looking for a way to reach out to them and suggested some Village-wide fundraising. Ms. Packham stated they had been sensitive to fundraising and solicitation in the Village. President Craig noted their non-profit status was advantageous and provided that opportunity. She commented that more than one sister city had been previously discussed and they were still on the international list. She also stated she was also grateful for the support from the Village. President Craig stated he would like to see more done to establish more sister cities to represent all the cultures in the community.

It was also noted that the new entity for the cultural diversity committee would address this issue.

Mr. Hummel continued the next topic was the Human Resources Department and a $9,000 increase was recommended for advertising costs. He stated this would expand our recruitment efforts to obtain qualified and diverse candidates. He also noted that contracts were up for both IAFF and MAP labor negotiations and additional allocation for labor counsel was included.

He noted in Public Information, the consultant that provided layout for the Hanover Highlighter was eliminated as this could be done in-house. He noted fees for photo scans and better picture quality would be seen as well as a savings of $12,000. He stated in the Special Events budget allocated for a one-time expenditure was a total of $287,000 of which $147,000 included off-setting revenues. He noted it was then a total of $120,000 would be the expenditure for the 50^th anniversary which included the 4-day fest with name entertainment. He noted other monies included the Village awards night, and the tree lighting events planned throughout the year.

There were no questions on the HR, public information, or special events but one comment made was regarding the negotiations for the in-house union contracts. It was suggested that we sit down and find out how far apart we were prior to bringing in outside counsel, utilizing staff on both sides.

Mr. Hummel commented he was pleased that our new Chief Information Officer, George Dimidik, was present and noted the expanded data storage and network equipment was on the upcoming agenda for approval. He stated there were additional capital acquisitions for our system in the current year. President Craig asked for Mr. Dimidik to address the Board. Mr. Dimidik stated the Village was in a very good position and the biggest asset was the staff. He noted the Village had many good initiatives but they were disjointed, as brought out in the Strategic Plan. He stated he had been working with staff to put finer details into the Strategic Plan. He stated the network was at its limit and needed reorganization with the addition of some new components for expansion. He stated he looked forward to working with staff and had a very positive outlook for the future. Mr. Hummel stated Mr. Dimidik did an excellent job of delineating needed areas and one topic for 2009 was to evaluate our financial software to replace the current system.

He noted there were consultant dollars in the budget. It was questioned if the HTE system ran its course and Mr. Dimidik stated he was not sure yet which direction they were headed, as it was too premature to call. Mr. Hummel stated another topic for next year was a review of the e-mail system and the website and money had been allocated.

Mr. Hummel stated in 2010 budgets was the acquisition of a system in the IT department with the goal of setting it up like the fleet system. He noted the capital projects "fund 31" the general corporate fund included computer software and upgrades and the acquisition of 31 zebra printers, a grant that funded 100% provided the officers with the capability of printing paperwork while in the vehicles. He stated another thing to keep in mind was we had to allocate the expenditure and then offset it with the revenue to fund it.

There were no questions on the acquisitions or the IT department. One comment made was the need to get additional funding for IT possibly through an IT tax on bills and tickets, whatever the percentage. Another suggestion was to place a tax on computer equipment and Mr. Hummel stated he was not aware of a way to separately tax specific items, nor did we have the legislative authority to do so. He also stated we needed to identify recurring costs, a 3-year or 4-year capital plan, or life-cycle depreciation to have a program similar to fleet where it was an ongoing operating expenditure. He noted technological equipment was a part of doing the job and was just like a vehicle.

Mr. Hummel continued with the Finance Department noting this document did not include the reduction in the Collection division. He stated it would be incorporated into the final document. He stated other projects identified were compliance with Accounting Standards #45 and #51, and additional customer service options with the E-pay system and statement billing. He stated proposals would also be solicited for auditing services this year.

It was questioned if the on-line payments could be made without the additional fee. It was answered to not use the State, as the State of Illinois did all the processing. Mr. Dimidik noted we could look at using an outside merchant to collect the fees, and we would have to make initial investment costs, such as a web payment site, but it was minimal and a small charge per transaction that would be less than what the State was charging, and we could possibly absorb that amount, noting it would probably be less than the credit card charge. It was also noted that Charter One, Bank of America and Chase Bank were in the top 10 processing merchant banks for Visa and Master Card and perhaps we could work out something with them.

Mr. Hummel noted this concluded the General Fund and he requested direction on the manager recommended budget which included 2 additional police officers, 2 code enforcement officers, and the revenues. Trustee Manton stated he was unhappy with 2 police officers noting he preferred 3 and would vote no. Trustee Packham stated we should move forward. There was a call for Concurrence with the manager recommended budget. Roll call:

AYES: Kaiser, Packham, Eby, Manton NAYS: Carter, President Craig

ABSENT: Nicolosi

Mr. Hummel stated the second operating fund was the Water & Sewer Fund.

He noted that FY’09 showed a $410,000 deficit, but he stated with the increases to the water and sewer rates, it was projected that by the end of the four-year cycle there would be a balanced budget. He stated it would take a while for those increases, particularly with the reduction in the minimum consumption from 14,000 gallons to 12,000. He noted these increases took into account the extraordinary increases from the City of Chicago increases of 15%-15%-14% effective 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. He stated the largest cost in the water and sewer fund was the Joint Action Water Agency (JAWA), noting the operating and fixed costs components of the budget. He stated JAWA did refund $31 million worth of bonds which allowed us implement a rate stabilization program.

He continued with highlights of expenditures included exploration of statement billing and additional postage costs associated with that have been allocated. He expressed kudos to Mr. Masciola for achieving a 12% reduction to our energy costs and noted we were dealing with competitive electrical contract bids for the next 12 months.

He stated sludge hauling was another cost annually incurred and noted a 14% increase in that due to hauling sludge 4 times instead of 3 times. There was discussion on the sludge and noted we were continually looking for better ways to work with it without changing our EPA permit.

It was questioned if we were looked into e-mailing the water bills and answered we were unable with the present system but were looking into new financial software. Mr. Hummel stated another major cost component in the Water & Sewer budget was the engineering fee for MPDES, the permit to operate the Wastewater Treatment Plant. He stated the IEPA imposed additional requirements for the elimination of zinc with an allocation of $110,000 working with the environmental firm of CTE. He continued the second issue related to MPDES was the dissolved oxygen related to the effluent discharged into the West Branch of the DuPage River with $60,000 allocated for engineering and $400,000 allocated for construction. He stated these two items were environmental mandates.

He stated also identified was a Scada radio upgrade which was the control system that operated the water and wastewater system. He noted by having the radio signal, it eliminated costs of telephone lines, approximately $18-$20,000 costs savings. It was questioned if this system was hacker-proof and noted that firewalls and other security measure would be in place.

Mr. Hummel stated other key assets that needed to be maintained or monitored were the Kingsbury lift station and the leachate treatment. There was a discussion noting that approximately 650 trucks were off the road due to leachate treatment. He noted other capital projects included twice as many water main replacements in prior years due to multiple breaks in both Cook and DuPage Counties, with $500,000 estimated for construction, and $40,000 for engineering. He also noted 900 linear feet of sewer relining was allocated due to the deterioration of pipes, which included Huntington Circle and other smaller projects.

Mr. Hummel stated the second enterprise fund the Village operated was the Commuter Parking Lot Fund. He noted it was basically maintenance and fee collection and stated the fees were competitive with other locations. He identified two major capital projects where $20,000 was allocated to replace landscaping around station and commuter parking lot due to salting and replacement of fencing along platform. He noted there were adequate reserves to proceed with those projects.

He continued with the Special Service Areas (SSA’s). He stated we had several SSA’s and highlighted SSA #3, Astor Avenue. He stated the 10-year note for the reconstruction of parking lot would be paid off in 2009 resulting in a lower property tax cost for those owners. He noted we continued to provide scavenger and snow removal services. It was questioned if that area had been looked at to be redone and stated it had not. It was suggested this SSA be looked at in the future so it did not get to that deteriorated state as it had been in the past.

Mr. Hummel stated SSA #5, the Tanglewood area, included scavenger service and private street reconstruction and this upcoming year they were doing a larger program. He noted this was because the tax levy was based on projected cost and that cost resulted in lower costs, generating more money and adding more streets to it due to availability of reserves.

Clerk Craig stated she was working with Hanover Square because they were also interested in establishing a Special Service Area for their association because they were having problems with fires causing high insurance costs.

Mr. Hummel stated the final fund highlighted was the municipal building fund. He stated allocated were substantial dollars in 2009 for architectural services. He noted he utilized $800,000 that was transferred from the prior year to that fund.

Mr. Hummel summarized that budgeting was a dynamic process and things that were right on cusp of the fiscal year that could have an allocation to the plus side was notification that NuCare had signed a construction contract. He noted assuming that moved forward a key component was that the facility was to purchase Village owned property at slightly over $1 million. He stated his recommendation was if those monies were received, it would mean a modified budget incorporating it with a budget amendment. He also stated he would recommend that money be allocated to the building fund. He stated there was $1 million allocated to acquire property and this would be funded utilizing that money but he did not want to budget it until it came to fruition. Also, he noted the both the Lakewood project and Suburban Tire project had land implications with TIF #3 allocations and it was unclear if these would be done in FY’08 or FY’09 and these were not included in this budget document. He also noted the Menards project in TIF #4. He stated these identified projects may need budget amendments.

It was strongly noted that staff should have the Police Department architectural services into high gear as we would not find a less expensive time than now to build a commercial building. It was noted in the last week that two precast companies and steel fabrication erection firms went out of business. It was stated optimistically that if we broke ground in Spring 2009, we could be in by Fall of 2010. It was noted we estimated this building at $25 million and questioned how much we had in the bank and answered $1 million. It was questioned how much the Streamwood Police Station cost and our costs were clarified, stating land acquisition was included plus the salt dome relocation, and renovation of the current building. He stated the building itself was $9-12 million, but when land, furniture, and relocation of other facilities was added that increased our costs.

Mr. Hummel also noted we would technically be looking at a $10 million bond in Phase I and a follow-up with another General Obligation Debt. He noted we were going out with RFQ’s for engineering services estimated at $1 million.

President Craig stated that once we received the architectural package there would be ways to break down the $25 million.

Sherry L. Craig