2010-06-07 Regular City Council session

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she has also noticed the trash truck banging up curbs, damaging walls and the subdivision usually ends up fixing them. Ms. Leach-Heimos felt this was not thought through in regards to the hazards the City could incur. Wilma Kennell, 1332 Purdue Ms. Kennell mention about the articles recently on free cars provided for City workers. She noted the Fire Chief takes his car home and lives in St. Charles not University City as the City Charter states. Ms. Kennell wanted to know about the demolition of properties on Olive. She noted that one of the stores was the Bargain House and now the City is losing sales tax from there. Ms. Watson said they are being demolished to sell a larger area to a developer. She said the policy is to look at corner properties first. Mayor Pro-Tem Sharpe said the City is looking for developers that the residents have asked for and the City wants. Ms. Watson also said the economy is still in a downturn but the City will be ready when it starts to turn around. Willie and Nazaree Burns, 1150 Wilson Ms. Burns asked if the one million dollars for the Wilson buyout is in the General Fund, where the deficit is. Ms. Watson noted that was correct. Ms. Burns wanted to make sure that the money was there when FEMA’s approval came through. Ms. Watson told her it was, as it would be taken from the reserves. Gregory Pace, 7171 Westmoreland Mr. Pace noted that Julie Feier’s contract stated that if she was terminated for cause, she would receive no money and if she was terminated without cause she received a payout, therefore Council terminated her without cause. Mr. Pace asked Ms. Watson that if you total revenue it should come out to be 39 million not 41 million, as the fleet fund is really being double-counted. Ms. Watson agreed. Mr. Pace did an analysis on property tax, comparing eight cites, Clayton, Olivette, Richmond Heights, Maplewood, Brentwood, Webster Groves, Hazelwood and Shrewsbury, as all have Municipal Fire Department. He took the total cost which includes property tax for real and personal, refuse fee, sewer lateral, sales tax and gross receipts which would give the total cost of a U City resident. He placed his house in each of the listed communities and University City was the highest. Mr. Pace said a reason for the high tax is that only eleven percent of the City assessed evaluation is commercial, which is very low. Realistically it should be noted that we can’t be like the other cities because the City does not have the same tax base. He said the City cannot keep raising taxes as the people will move to another municipality. He stated the last two tax increases proposed by the City failed with Ward three having the highest percentage of no’s sixty-nine percent on Prop S and fifty percent voted no on Prop P. Mr. Pace says ways of reducing cost would not be to lay off personnel but freeze/reduce should be on the table. He said the second way would be to outsource some services. He noted the responsibility of the Council is to the citizens not necessarily the employees. Mr. Pace wants quality services for the lowest buck. He said the City could save $250,000 by joining East Central Dispatch. Mr. Pace said Ms. Ricci had asked the City Manager for Mr. Pace and herself to get together to discuss this and he said he has not heard from the City. Ms. Watson said the East Central could not accept U City because of their high call volume. Mr. Pace said his information was that they didn’t have enough seats, he was told that they could use the City’s virtual seats and that their software would allow this. Mr. Pace also felt the City could save up to one-half million dollars a year by outsourcing Emergency Medical Ambulance service and the possibility of outsourcing waste management. The City has never put together an RFP/RFQ to be sent out for outsourcing. He said for an RFP/RFQ does not mean you have to accept one as you are just going out for information and the City has the responsibility to do this on a regular basis but it has not been done. Mr. Pace 5