FINANCE-FIRE-RECREATION-ADMINISTRATION
COMMITTEE MINUTES
TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2005
The meeting of the Evendale Council Committee for Finance, Fire, Recreation and Administration was called to order at 6:00pm. Councilmembers Albrinck (Chairman), and Smiley-Robertson were present. George Snyder, Village CFO and Assistant to the Mayor, Jack Cameron, were also present. Councilmember Vonderhaar was excused absent.
Fire No meeting this month.
Recreation Chairman Dave Nichols was also in attendance. Mr. Nichols informed the Committee that the Rec Commission is re-evaluating fees and that a sub-committee has been formed to address these issues. Early this year, the tennis team increased their fees due to increased cost of operation of that program and the swim team has increased participation fees from $12.00 to $20.00 for 2005. Despite the increase, swim team fees are still heavily subsidized by the Village with participants paying only about 15% of the actual cost.
CFO George Snyder joined us for the second item on the Recreation agenda to address part-time salary schedule. This was on the Finance Committee agenda as well. Mr. Snyder has submitted a proposal whereby all part-time positions would be categorized and positions would be filled based on specific levels within that category. This should eliminate the need to do separate ordinances for each part-time hire and alleviate any questions as to pay scale favoritism as the part-time salaries would be set. All Committee Members agreed and directed Mr. Snyder to contact Solicitor Tim Burke for drafting of an appropriate ordinance.
At this time, Mr. Nichols was excused.
Finance Also in attendance for the Finance Committee Meeting were Ted Sumner
from Fifth Third, Village Treasurer Patricia Wilkins, and resident Lynn Watts. Mr. Sumner was requested to attend this meeting to give us an update on our investments. Currently we have approximately $10,950,000.00 invested with Mr. Sumner in their Municipal Bond Department. Our average yield is approximately 3.1% or about .5% higher than has been maintained in the money market account. The current ladder structure seems to be working well as we have bonds maturing on regular intervals. Mr. Sumner indicated that he had hoped that the bonds would level off at about 4% as the economy had picked up, and at that time we could look to maximizing our returns by doing longer term bonds up to the authorized five year term. As the market weakens, we will evaluate our position and perhaps start doing shorter term
with guidance from Mr. Sumner.
Mr. Snyder then raised the issue of doing short term investing, perhaps in commercial paper for the remaining $2,000,000.00 plus or minus that he has in the cash reserve. This would allow us to maximize that which we could not invest long term but does not require cash on hand at all times.
Mr. Sumner will put something together and submit it to Mr. Snyder for evaluation.
In the middle of Mr. Sumner’s update, Lynn Watts excused herself from the meeting. At the end of the investment update, Mr. Sumner was excused.
Audit Update. The Village was recently audited by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. The audit found only one minor violation and that was that the Magistrate, despite being a sub-contractor, must be covered under our Workers’ Compensation policy. Corrections to the policy have been made.
The Village financial audit is going fine with only a minor problem in the Mayor’s Court and bank reconciliations. George has corrected this to the satisfaction of the auditor. It was also noted that although current record keeping is in compliance with State law and the requirements of Betty Montgomery, the auditor noted that it is does not meet American Institute of Certified Public Accountant standards. Mr. Snyder is getting a statement indicating that we are in compliance with the State law.
Mr. Snyder submitted to us a telephone use policy draft which goes with the use of cellular phones and pagers. The need for such a policy was acknowledged and was endorsed by the Committee. Mr. Snyder was directed to contact Solicitor Tim Burke to draft appropriate ordinance to adopt this policy.
Mr. Snyder also submitted a fixed asset policy draft. The idea of having a fixed asset policy came up when Mr. Snyder attended a recent seminar. The purpose behind such a policy would allow us to track, at any given time, all fixed assets owned by the Village and track usage and ultimate disposal. This draft was also approved to be submitted to Mr. Burke for draft of a formal ordinance for adopting.
Administration Mayor Apking joined us at the beginning of the Administration meeting to address two issues. The first issue was Council’s concern over a lack of notice on newsworthy events. It was suggested that a plan for disseminating newsworthy information to all Councilmembers needs to be implemented and the Mayor will discuss the logistics with Mr. Cameron. The importance of communication on newsworthy issues was of a significant concern to both Mrs. Smiley-Robertson and Mr. Albrinck and the Mayor assured all that a plan will be implemented.
Ms. Smiley-Robertson had raised the issue with Mayor Apking regarding an Evendale Government Day. This will probably be introduced first with Princeton High School and will be made available for other schools. Ms. Smiley-Robertson raised the issue as a way of giving government classes first hand experience and interaction with local governments.
Jack Cameron gave a website update. He indicated that the Village’s new website is making progress; however, it is still in developmental stages. He asked that each Councilmember go to the website and look at formatting. He did acknowledge that the content was still lacking and not complete.
Having no further items for discussion and on motion by Carolyn Smiley-Robertson, seconded by Mr. Albrinck, the meeting adjourned.
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J Jeffrey Albrinck, Chairman
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