Sunday, August 2, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Special Meeting of July 27, 2009
Today’s meeting was called to interview candidates for Zoning Board of Appeal and Firefighters Pension Board. The candidates were Natalle Cappetta for ZBA and Asif Yusuf (who applied for several boards including both ZBA & Fire Pension. A third candidate, Dr. Forutan, had withdrawn his application for Fire Pension Board. It was noted that the acting Finance Director of the village, Sharon Dangles, could fill the vacancy on the Pension Board.
Natalle Cappetta was first. She noted she was raised in Oak Brook and lived here for most of her life. She is a lawyer and after attending several meetings of the ZBA she thought that her legal background would help her contribute to the ZBA. Chairman Davis noted that he was also a lawyer and agreed it was helpful. It was noted that her firm had appeared before the committee in the Callahan/Brittwood Creek zoning matter. She replied that was the only case the firm had involving Oak Brook and that she would disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Trustee Aktipis affirmed her good character and strongly supported her.
Asif Yusuf was the second candidate. As a former Trustee, everyone knew him. He had applied for several boards because he wanted to continue to contribute to the Village. He didn’t own any property in the Village except for his house and had no business dealings in the Village. When asked what changes he recommended, he suggested allowing PVC for waste pipe in commercial construction. Trustee Aktipis agreed with this idea. Trustee Aktipis asked how he felt about home height limits recently made and about residential density. Mr. Yusuf said height increases were needed to remain competitive with our neighbors, but needed to be applied on a case-by-case basis. He wanted density to remain consistent with neighbors and history.
Champ Davis then reviewed the ZBA member whose term is up and who would like to be reappointed. Glenn Krietsch had great attendance, was very detail minded, and had done a very good job on the ZBA. Chairman Davis supported his reappointment. The committee agreed that all three candidates were qualified and forwarded their names to the President.
The committee then discussed plans for the next meeting. Trustee Aktipis asked the committee to consider candidates for the Library Commission. That commission doesn’t have a quorum now and needs two new members. There are five candidates.
The Doings article on this meeting is at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/oakbrook/news/1689808,oak-brook-appointments-073009-s1.article/ or http://bit.ly/19eCK9/
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of July 20, 2009
The Doings article on this is at http://bit.ly/OzwE5/
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of July 20, 2009
The Doings article on this is at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/oakbrook/news/1678448,oak-brook-fired-072109-s1.article/
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AGENDA ITEM
Special Board Meeting
of
July 20, 2009
SUBJECT: Budget Update
FROM: David Niemeyer, Village Manager
BUDGET SOURCE/BUDGET IMPACT:
RECOMMENDED MOTION: To approve the Manager’s recommended reductions for
the 2009 budget and to approve the staffing reduction plan as recommended by the Village
Manager.
Background/History:
The board directed staff to develop $1.5 million in recurring, long term cuts at the June 15
meeting. In closed session on July 14th, staff presented a number of personnel cuts with various
dates when these positions would be eliminated. This includes making some positions currently
vacant into long term cuts. No additional cuts are assumed for the library until the consultant
complete their report. Also, we have developed additional cuts for the 2009 budget in addition to
the $1.3 million in budget reductions developed in March.
I have attached a revised worksheet showing the total savings from personnel reductions as a
result of recommendations. Included in this worksheet are 2 items that were given to the board
last week that were not eligible to be discussed in closed session. First, is requiring all 35 and
37.5 hours clerical positions to work 40 hours per week, effectively eliminating the straight time
overtime that they currently earn. This will save approximately $25,000 per year. Second, fire
department inspections will now be done on shift rather than special details, which will save
about $60,000 per year.
Below are the personnel reductions as recommended by the manager.
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Library:
At this point, while we have asked our consultant to find $300,000 in permanent cuts to the
library, we have not yet received a report from the Board, so this cut is not included in the total.
Administration/Clerk/Finance Department:
Deputy Village Clerk: Eliminate effective August 1st. Annual Savings: $84,848.
Records Management Clerk: Eliminate effective October 1. Annual Savings: $70,839.
Receptionist: Effective August 1st.Annual savings: $51,305.
Finance Director – Position left open until January 1st, need to refill at that point.
2009 Savings: $80,000.
Water Billing Clerk-Eliminate effective November 1, transfer clerk from Sports Core to do work.
Savings is in Sports Core, not general fund.
Add 3 part time employees, minute taker. Annual cost: $49,485.
Information Technology
IT Tech II: Position eliminated effective June 30th
Annual savings: $108,088.
Add outsource or part time IT person. Annual savings: $50,000.
Police:
Eliminate 2 full time dispatchers. Effective October 1st.Annual savings: $131,052.
Eliminate 2 full time records position. Effective August 1. Annual savings: $118,566.
Make Community Service Officer vacancy long term cut. Annual Savings: $33,910.
Make other full time dispatcher vacancy long-term cut. Annual savings: $63,289.
Make other part time dispatcher vacancy long-term cut. Annual savings: $35,319.
Add part time records clerk. Annual cost: $29,460.
Add 2 part time dispatchers: $70,000.
Fire:
Make Deputy Chief vacancy long term cut. Annual savings: $160,136.
Make vacant 2 firefighters/paramedic positions long term cut. Annual savings: $178,000.
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Do fire inspections on shift. Annual savings: $60,000.
Temporarily keep open 3rd Firefighter position for 3 months. 2009 Savings: $25,786.
Public Works/Engineering : (Infrastructure fund).
Eliminate Village Engineer position, combine public works/engineering department. Effective
October 1st. Also working with Community Development on combining permit process with
Community Development and Fire Dept. Annual Savings: $161,185.
(Water fund) Eliminate 1 public works employee effective February 1. Annual savings: $66,058.
Sports Core:
As shown on the attached worksheet, outsourcing of the B and T to Calihan Catering will save
the village $398,457 in personnel costs on an annual basis. Also one employee is being
transferred to the finance department. Also not shown on the sheet is the additional savings in
food supplies and other costs related to the operation of the clubhouse. However, this is also
offset by the fact that the village will still have approximately $100,000 in building, outside
maintenance related costs and debt service until 2012. Also, we will not receive 100% of the
revenue from B and T events but 10% of the food and beverage revenues plus a rental fee.
Our expectation at this point is that in the first year the Calihan contract will provide us with a
net increase in revenues compared to expenses of $50,000 compared to continuing to operate the
Clubhouse with village staff.
Changing all clerical hours to 40 hour work weeks. Annual estimated savings: $25,000.
In summary, I am recommending $1,778,954 in long term personnel related budget cuts to the
Village Board. However this is offset by additional costs for adding part timers and outsourcing
in IT and administration, which reduces the savings to $1,612,118. Also, to get the actual annual
budget savings, we must only include the projected increase in profit by outsourcing the
clubhouse, which is $50,000, rather than the total personnel cost savings related to outsourcing,
which is $321,405. Therefore, the actual annual budget savings from all of these cuts is
$1,275,702.
If the Board adopts my recommendation, we will be eliminating the full time equivalent (FTE) of
14.75 positions. (This does not include FTE reductions from the library study). We also
eliminated 6.5 positions beginning last August for a total of 21.25 positions in an 18 month
period. In July 2008 our total FTE’s were 180.75; in January 2010 the total would be 159.50
FTE’s under this proposal (excluding the Library).
Additional 2009 Budget Cuts
Attached is a worksheet with proposed cuts to reduce the 2009 budget. This includes $241,094 in
total training, capital and miscellaneous cuts and work force changes for 2009. However, this
includes several positions that were frozen in March, so the actual additional savings after
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miscellaneous expenditure reductions and personnel reductions in 2009 is $220,325, as is shown
on the attached sheet.
I would like to thank Sharon, Blaine, Eileen, and all the Department Directors for all of their
extra effort on this plan.
Recommendation:
Motion to approve staffing reduction plan as recommended by the Village Manager as well as
$1,275,702 in additional reductions to the 2009 budget (excluding the Library).
CC: Blaine Wing, Sharon Dangles
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of July 14, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Citizen’s Finance Advisory Committee July 8, 2009
This was the first meeting of this new committee, consisting of Don Adler, George Klein, Norma Lauder, Todd Rusteberg, and Randall Teteak. The first order of business was to elect Don Adler Chairman. Chairman Adler reviewed the committee’s charge and assigned tasks to each member. All members will review actual income and expenses vs. budget. Adler and Klein will review employee compensation and benefits and the requirements of state law and union contracts. Adler and Lauder will review all sources of revenues. Rusteberg and Teteak will review information technology and garage operations. The committee will also review contracted services and non-governmental operation, e.g. Sports Core. Adler plans to report to the Village Board monthly. Next agenda item was resident comment. Connie Xinos of Briarwood provided copies of all village employees’ salaries and benefits, which he had obtained thru FOIA. He advocated a 15% staff reduction. He asked if this committee was willing to make hard decisions and recommendations to the Village Board. George Klein assured Mr. Xinos that the committee would be making difficult decisions and he personally was willing to close both the library and the B&T. Resident Mario Vescovi of Fullersburg advocated a 20% reduction of village payroll. Resident Al Knuth noted he had advocated canceling employee raises. Adler asked Village Manager Niemeyer to provide salary history for police and fire as well as non-union employees. Niemeyer noted that the Village had been in negotiations with both unions for over a year. The Village may face a significant payment for back pay since the end of the last contract if the new contract includes retroactive payment since the end of the old contract. Village Trustee Aktipis arrived late and asked committee members to serve at least through the end of this year, although their appointments are for two years. They set their next meeting for July 22 at 7PM. They asked Niemeyer to explain fund accounting, review the month by month budget vs actual income and expenses, and discuss garage operations and which employees were assigned Village cars for personal use. Niemeyer asked the committee to help look at big picture budget items and consider which Village services to reduce and by how much.
The Doings covered this meeting in the article at
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/oakbrook/news/1659497,oak-brook-layoffs-070909-s1.article
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of June 15, 2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/. All Trustees were present. The first item on the agenda was public comment. Three people, Roberta Petz, Lois Miller, and Marian Sharli, commented on consultants for saving money at the Library. They all opposed any cuts at the library. Lois Miller suggested that this meeting had inadequate notice and library supporters had not had enough time to organize and mobilize library supporters. Clerk Pruss noted that any resident could request they be emailed agendas for Village meetings. Trustee Wolin noted that the village needed to cut costs for every function of the village. Over the last 10 years the sales tax revenue had been flat while expenses kept growing. The library would need to share in the cost reductions all departments would have to bear. The next agenda item was review of employee health insurance plan for renewal. The proposal was to increase the employee share to the premium from 10% to 12.5%, increase the deductibles and co-pays and to eliminate the standard PPO option for new employees and replace it with a very high deductible $1500 singles, $4500 family) including a medical savings account. Trustee Wolin supported the proposal while suggesting that the employee share of the premium increase to 15% instead of 12.5%. In the discussion that followed Trustee Zannis proposed increasing this to 20%. Trustee Aktipis suggested 20% might be two much, so Trustee Wolin suggested a 17.5% compromise, which Trustee Zannis accepted. This passed with a request to staff to further investigate other options. The next item was the budget review, presented by Trustee Aktipis. Sales tax continues to fall short of the budget but now the village’s share of income tax from the state is also falling behind budget. The total deficit for the year is projected to be $1,860,000. The newly elected board members have been meeting with the village manager and don’t believe revenues will improve in the foreseeable future. Many of the expense reductions proposed by the village manager are postponements of expenses or temporary cuts and not structural cuts in ongoing expenses. In Trustee Aktipis’ evaluation, even with the proposed reductions in expenses the budget will be $879,000 in the red. He thought that the village should make budgets cut of one and one half to two million dollars. Trustee Zannis asked if the average village employee cost $100,000. Manager Neimeyer said he could not say for certain. He proposed making projections for the 2010 budget and developing proposals for several levels of further cuts. He suggested the board have a special meeting the week of July 6 to focus on the budget. Next Trustee Wolin presented the Library Associates contract. For $4800 they would interview the library staff and make recommendations on how much the library budget could be reduced while still providing good service to library patrons. Their report would be done in 30 days. The meeting was adjourned without closed session.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of June 9, 2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/. All Trustees were present. President Craig issued a proclamation supporting the census. Public comment began by noting several residents would comment on the Salt Creek dam later. Frank Trombetta of the Park District Board requested an additional stop sign near the Park District exit. Kathy Manofsky reported the Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce was having another drive around for meeting planners and asked the Village to supply coupons for something related to the Sports Core for the gift bags. Minutes for May 12 were approved. The consent agenda included $13,464 for Seyfarth, Shaw LLP, $16,000 for Croydon sewer project, and a request to seek bids for 35th St. water main replacement. A referral to planning for a Medical office building at 1802 & 1806 York was postponed at the request of the requestor. The consent agenda was adopted. The next item on Administrative Adjudication Hearings was removed. The next item was the Intergovernmental Agreement with the tollway. This passed. The next item was the DRSCW Review report. This was the recommendation to breach Salt Creek dam. Trustee Wolin presented the issue and moved to have the Village oppose any change to the dam. A lengthy period of prepared presentation from residents who live near the dam followed. Trustee Aktipis proposed amending the motion to include having the village contact all our political representatives and get our lobbyists to help us oppose any modification of the dam. After this passed, Trustee Zannis read from a letter from the Forest Preserve District which owns the dam. This letter indicated that while the District had not yet taken any position on the dam, they were already starting to remove several other dams and it would be several years before they would get to the Salt Creek dam. The next item was Trustee Liaison Assignments and Trustee Carson had one correction. The next item was the Police Pension Fund Board and President Craig recommended Hitesh Patel (recently elected Butler 53 school board member) for a two-year term. The board concurred. Next came an ordinance (which passed) reducing the authorized number of liquor licenses by one because President Craig acting as the Liquor Board revoked a license for violations. Then Trustee Wolin presented a proposal for an engineering design for water main replacement in Timber Trails for $137,720. This passed. Then Trustee Aktipis presented a proposal to create a Citizens’ Financial Advisory Board. This would be an ad hoc 5-member committee composed of residents with expertise in finance who would review the village budget and make recommendations on financial issues. This passed. Then Assistant Manager Wing presented the administration’s recommendation for health, dental & life insurance renewal. The recommendation included increasing employees’ share of the PPO premium from 10% to 12.5% for non-union employees as well as increasing deductibles and co pays. The HMO premium would also increase. A new, high deductible plan, would be offered with the village contributing to employee’s health savings accounts. The expectation would be that the village total insurance cost would be slightly lower than the present year. After extensive discussion, the board agreed to meet on June 15 to continue the insurance discussion. Trustee Carson then presented the agreement authorizing the Highland Games, which passed. Next was a request from staff for authorization to seek improved public entity liability insurance coverage as a change from IRMA that passed. During Trustee comment period, Trustee Carson mentioned that he had had discussions with Tray and DeLeos about DeLeos offering food and beverage service to the soccer fields. Because of the weather, almost no one was coming to the B&T, but hundreds were coming to play soccer. The other trustees agreed this was a great idea and urged an immediate start. The meeting was then adjourned to closed session.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of 5/26/2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/ All present except for Trustee Zannis. She arrived at 7:05. The meeting began with a presentation on the possible removal/breach of Salt Creek dam. The DRSCW Review of Results Relating to the Graue Mill/ Salt Creek presented the work of this group indicating that the Graue Mill dam caused a problem with very low dissolved oxygen in the water just upstream of the dam. There is a federal mandate from the EPA through the Clean Waters Act to improve streams to swimmable and fishable. Although Salt Creek has been greatly improved during the last 30 years, its greatest remaining problem is this dip in dissolved oxygen. Since the first proposal to totally remove the Graue Mill dam over five years ago, in response to community input, the proposal now is to only remove a piece of the dam at one side. This will drain the small pond just upstream of the dam and maintain steady flowing water. An effort would be made to somewhat retain the appearance of the dam and retain enough flowing water to turn the mill wheel. This committee will vote on their report to the IEPA at their June 24th meeting. The Village has until then to provide further input and instruct their representative how to vote. At the end of this presentation, members of the community were allowed to comment. Thomas Doyle, and Richard Allison of Robinhood Ranch and Joseph H. Rush, 3721 Spring Road, all opposed any changes to the dam. Mr. Allison complained they didn't get enough notice to fill the room as they had back in March. He noted that as head of Fullersburg Woods, he represented 2000 residents who supported keeping the dam intact. After the formal presentation and the three opposing residents, President Craig continued the regular agenda giving Trustees no opportunity to respond. The next item on the agenda was the proposal to extend the Butler National lease of the polo fields to include the days previously reserved for polo, since polo has been canceled for this summer. Trustee Carson presented this proposed contract and moved to accept it. Trustee Zannis seconded this proposal and President Craig called for a roll call vote. Trustee Wolin asked for an opportunity to respond to the Graue Mill dam issue before all the residents left. President Craig noted that almost everyone interested in that issue had already left, but allowed Trustee Wolin to comment. Trustee Wolin asked when the board was going to address the issue of the DRSCW recommendation to the IEPA. Village Manager Niemeyer noted that the final draft of the recommendation would be available at the end of May and the board could consider and discuss it at their first meeting in June. Trustee Zannis commented that the breaching of the dam would cause a loss in property value of the nearby homes if the dam were changed. She also noted that any change to the dam would need permits from the Village. She suggested that the pictures provided by the committee showing what the area would look like after the dam modifications were wrong and demanding that the Photoshop image of what the creek might look like if the dam is breached include a view of the mill and show a much narrower creek. She also wanted to hear from the Forest Preserve, since the dam belongs to the Forest Preserve. Trustee Saiyed noted that he would miss the next board meeting, but that he was against breaching the dam. President Craig then managed to return to the Polo Field contract, which passed. The board approved the fireworks on the 4th. Business Licenses were then discussed. Dave Niemeyer noted that this had been considered two years ago and dropped because of cost and effort for the village. Trustee Saiyed noted it as a source of revenue, but Trustee Moy said this was a bad time to raise fees and paperwork requirements on business. It was mentioned several times that the Chamber had some data, but Trustee Zannis wanted our own database. Trustees Carson and Aktipis supported a nominal fee to cover village costs. Manager Niemeyer agreed to bring a proposal back to the board at the second meeting in June. The board then approved outsourcing the B&T grill to DiLeo's. Clerk Pruss reminded everyone of the Wednesday buffets beginning at the golf course club house and wished everyone in the armed forces her best for Memorial Day. President Craig echoed her Memorial Day sentiments and moved to go into closed session.
Oak Brook Board of Trustees Meeting of 5/19/2009
The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM. The video podcast of the entire meeting is available at http://www.oakbrooktv.org/ All present except for Trustee Zannis. She arrived at 7:05. The meeting began with a presentation on the possible removal/breach of Salt Creek dam. The DRSCW Review of Results Relating to the Graue Mill/ Salt Creek presented the work of this group indicating that the Graue Mill dam caused a problem with very low dissolved oxygen in the water just upstream of the dam. There is a federal mandate from the EPA through the Clean Waters Act to improve streams to swimmable and fishable. Although Salt Creek has been greatly improved during the last 30 years, its greatest remaining problem is this dip in dissolved oxygen. Since the first proposal to totally remove the Graue Mill dam over five years ago, in response to community input, the proposal now is to only remove a piece of the dam at one side. This will drain the small pond just upstream of the dam and maintain steady flowing water. An effort would be made to somewhat retain the appearance of the dam and retain enough flowing water to turn the mill wheel. This committee will vote on their report to the IEPA at their June 24th meeting. The Village has until then to provide further input and instruct their representative how to vote. At the end of this presentation, members of the community were allowed to comment. Thomas Doyle, and Richard Allison of Robinhood Ranch and Joseph H. Rush, 3721 Spring Road, all opposed any changes to the dam. Mr. Allison complained they didn't get enough notice to fill the room as they had back in March. He noted that as head of Fullersburg Woods, he represented 2000 residents who supported keeping the dam intact. After the formal presentation and the three opposing residents, President Craig continued the regular agenda giving Trustees no opportunity to respond. The next item on the agenda was the proposal to extend the Butler National lease of the polo fields to include the days previously reserved for polo, since polo has been canceled for this summer. Trustee Carson presented this proposed contract and moved to accept it. Trustee Zannis seconded this proposal and President Craig called for a roll call vote. Trustee Wolin asked for an opportunity to respond to the Graue Mill dam issue before all the residents left. President Craig noted that almost everyone interested in that issue had already left, but allowed Trustee Wolin to comment. Trustee Wolin asked when the board was going to address the issue of the DRSCW recommendation to the IEPA. Village Manager Niemeyer noted that the final draft of the recommendation would be available at the end of May and the board could consider and discuss it at their first meeting in June. Trustee Zannis commented that the breaching of the dam would cause a loss in property value of the nearby homes if the dam were changed. She also noted that any change to the dam would need permits from the Village. She suggested that the pictures provided by the committee showing what the area would look like after the dam modifications were wrong and demanding that the Photoshop image of what the creek might look like if the dam is breached include a view of the mill and show a much narrower creek. She also wanted to hear from the Forest Preserve, since the dam belongs to the Forest Preserve. Trustee Saiyed noted that he would miss the next board meeting, but that he was against breaching the dam. President Craig then managed to return to the Polo Field contract, which passed. The board approved the fireworks on the 4th. Business Licenses were then discussed. Dave Niemeyer noted that this had been considered two years ago and dropped because of cost and effort for the village. Trustee Saiyed noted it as a source of revenue, but Trustee Moy said this was a bad time to raise fees and paperwork requirements on business. It was mentioned several times that the Chamber had some data, but Trustee Zannis wanted our own database. Trustees Carson and Aktipis supported a nominal fee to cover village costs. Manager Niemeyer agreed to bring a proposal back to the board at the second meeting in June. The board then approved outsourcing the B&T grill to DiLeo's. Clerk Pruss reminded everyone of the Wednesday buffets beginning at the golf course club house and wished everyone in the armed forces her best for Memorial Day. President Craig echoed her Memorial Day sentiments and moved to go into closed session.
