HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/25/1997 COW minutes MINUTES '
" '~ " ~OMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
~ ~ '~' ~' FEBRUARY25, 1997
CALL'TO ORDER ~ ~ ·
Ma,,or Farley called the meeting t0~order at 7:32 p.m. Present at the meeting were:
Trustees George 'Clow(~s, T!mothy Corco~'an,~ Paul, Hoefert and Irvana Wilks.
AbSent from 'the meeting were Trustees Richard Hendricks and Arlene'Juracek.
Staff pre~ent ~included' Village Manager~ Michael Janonis and Assistant Village
Manager David Strahl. ' ~ ~ .... ~ ~
, MiNU?ES~ ,
'Approval Of Minutes ofJanu'ary 28;1997. Motioh made by Trustee ~Hoefert and
Seconded by TrusteeCo~c0ran to approve the minutes. Minutes were approved.
CITIZENS TO BE HEARD ~' " '
Emie Lasse, 805 South Elm, spoke. He~ stated that he had ~eviewed the Minutes
from the Village Board meeting of February 18 and wanted to point out a reference
made by Trustee Wilks ~relgting to'pending Litigatic)'n.' He wanted to clarify the
Village Board policy regai'ding the discussion of Pending Litigation. He stated that
since Tr%tee Wilks mentioned the status of some pending Litigation;' he assumes
that all pending.Litigati0n will I:;e moved from Closed Session to open session and
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hesu o suchachange.
Tfuste6 wilks ~tated that as Chairman of the Electoral Board,' she announced a
.pending Hearing date'and it is not considered as part of Litigation because the
Village of Mount P~ospect isnot a party in the Litigation. She also stated the details
of the case were already in the press and she revealed no information which could
fall under the Open Meetings definition o~f Litigation. She stated there has been no
~change in Village Board policy'regarding discussion of pending Litigation.
Trustee Hoefert stated the annou~ce'ment {rom ~ruStee Wilks did not signal a
change in Villagb Board poii(~y concerning the discuSsion of pending Litigation.
IV. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS {MIS) UPDATE
Village Manager Janonis provided a general background of the Management
Information Systems (MIS) activities over the past year and summarized the
activities of the Technical Committee. He stated that while much has been
accomplished, there is a need to devote a staff person to MIS functions as the
primary responsibility of their job duties and move away from the current program
of assigning ,the duties when time permits. He stated that while he would prefer to
fill the Communications Administrator Position in its previous foi'm and add the MIS
Coordinator position to staff, ,he rec_.0g~ni.zes tha{ the given .bu, dgeta~ c0nsiraints do
, not make that possible. Therefore, he is recommending.a shiftin, g of responsibilities
within the organization to address th'e MIS needs. ..
Assistant Village Manager Dave Strahl provided a general introduction and
overview of the MIS function within the Village. He stated that Finance h~aS typically
led the Vdlage in terms of technology uses because of the u~nique needs of financial
i,, operations. However, there is a pending'Financial's°ftware` change6ver~fo,r this
fiscal year and since much of the work which has been undertaken to date involves
the same personnel from Finance that would be involved,in the changeover, it is
anticipated that the availability of these employees' would not be'such to continue
, the progress of technology !mplementatioq., ,. ~ · .
'A Technology Committee was 6onvened, r~a'de u~"of,employees Who have more
.c~)mPuter' knowledge th~n typical personnel. This committee was assigned the task
of_developing'policies for technology bse' thrdugh0ut the Village and to create a
. common technolo'gy foundation Which wodld benefit all. Departments equally.
'Among the policies discuSsed an'd drafted b~, the Tebhnol0gy,Committe~ ,were a
Training Policy, Disaster Recovery Policy, a Data-base Standardization Policy, a
.MaintenanceNendor Standardization Policy, a Hardware/Software.Standardization
Policy, , and a'Documenf~Storage PolicyI By pooling available'knowledge and
resources for the' common benefit of all Departments, ~avings Would bb"realized
gh'the' e ,o
throu use of Single purchas s t 'update the entire network.
General comments by; the Village Boar~l members in~ludecl ti~' '~ ' ·
~ ~. ~,~ e'. following~ items:
There was a. discussion. con ,cerning the Macintosh use within the Fire, Department.
...There was also a 'general recommendation''t0 Oversize PC,c8nfigurations, if
possible, and to'standardize on to a singte vendor for PC purchases. -There was
also discussion concerning the training which has been undertaken among the staff
and the next logical step in expanding the training at the Village including a
possibil~ty of a train the trainer program. Trustees recommended manuals be made
available for ready-reference of users and to focus training efforts in such a way to
minimize interruptions.
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A discussion!also took'place: regarding th~,discb?erability °f~ E-Mail information
through Aa Freedom of Information request.~ Trustees alsd'~discussed a need to
standardize the data-base format and what the standardizatioh impact might be on
current address information and the inter-relationship with Northwest Central
.Dispatch. ~ '.. ~ , ~ ,
Assistant~ Village Manager David Strahl responded t0 a number of the concerns
voiced by the Trustees. He stated the Committee had reviewed, the training dollars
available and felt that it would most likely:be best to provide manuals on a
Departmental basis instead of individual-user basis. However, dePending on the
needs'or demands of the users,~'the availability of the manuals could be altered to
address the needs ~of; the user. Mr. Strahl also stated that'the re~son the
committee'i'ecommended three vendors was the concern of coming to the Board
with a recommendation to purchase numerous computers at one time through one
vendor.' But, if the Village BOard was comfortable with standardizing to a single
brand, ' this could be achieved prOvided ~11Cthe' necessary configurations and
components were consistent. -~,'
Discussion 'of the MIS Coordinator Position. '
Village Manager Janonis is recommending the conversion of the Communications
Administrator position to a MIS Coordinator position. He h'as reviewed the pric~rities
of the organization and feels that, at this time, there is a need to provide a full-time
person to address the technology needs of the Village. Although he recognizes the
fact that issues with TCl will continue and will need to be addressed, he feels that
many of the duties which were handled by the Communications Administrator could
be divided up and adequately handled by personnel already on staff. He stated
that under ideal circumstances, he would like toincrease the number of staff to
accommodate the MIS position, but he is sensitive to the current budgetary
constraints. ~ ..' ~ .
General discussion of the Village Board members included the following items:
"There is a recommendation to combine telephone operations and responsibility of
' computer tasks under the MiS'position.-* Board members also acknowledged the
fact that the ~Village Manager is responsible for determining organizational needs
within defined constraints.
Trustee Wilks voiced concern about conversionOf this position while the Village
, is facing a critical negotiation period with TCl. She also felt that the Village must
continue to be an active watchdog of TCl's performance.'
Village Manager Janonis responded to some of the comments. He stated it is his
intention to come back to the Board for:discussion concerning'a consultant to
provide negotiation services for a new Franchise Agreement. He stated that many
other towns also utihze an Assistant V~llage Manager or Assistant to the Village
Manager for communications and cable duties among other things.
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Trustee Wilks stated that she felt it was important to have someone on staff who
is fam'ilia~ with the T~lecommL~hications law and the Communications issues need
to be addre s
"~'~Corisensus of the Village Board was I~o ;convert the. PositiOn of
Communications Administrator to a MIS Coordinator. This conversion Would
not result in any additional employees.
,Employee Computer Reimbursement Proqram
Village Manager Jan°niB provided a general overview of the Program as it existed
in ,1994. -The Program allows,foE employees to purch~ase computers to enhance
theirs, computer knowledge at,home and utilize,.that kn, owledge in the work
environment. He stated the priority of the Program this time ,would be to get
,,computers into hands of persons who did not pbrchase computers under the
previous P.r, ogram. ,, He stated the Program,was,extremely,successful and well
received by the employees.
Consensus of the Village Board was to approve the Employee Computer
Reimbursement Program a~ recommended by staff.
Discussion of the Villaqe Home Pa.qe ,-
Mayor Farley requested that the photo of the Chicago skyline be removed from the
,Home Page material and be replaced with a photo more representative of the
Village of Mount Prospect. ,~-,
General discussion by the Village Board included the following items:
There was general support to move forward with the draft as presented. There was
also discussion regarding additional information and bibgraphy information on
elected officials and Bond sale information,prospectus. There was also a request
,to'include the TAP-Mount Prospect information as part of the Home Page
' information., Village Board members acknowledged the effort of Dan Ungerleider
who put together this draft on his own time and congratulated him on his efforts.
Village Manager Janonis responded to a number of the items from the Village
Board. 'He stated this would require updating periodically and would look for the
MIS Coordinator to be responsible for adding the additional relevant information.
He also stated there might be a need to out source some of the tasks to get
the information on line if necessary.
,Consensus of the Village Board was to load the proposed Mount Prospect
Home Page on to the service provider computer for Internet use when staff
.... has ,completed the recommended revisions.
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~ V. DISCUSSION OF THE VILLAGE NEWSLETTER
Assistant Village Manager David Strahl provided a general overview of the
materials included in the packet for the Board.
Mayor Farley stated that this was an inte~'esting exercise in terms of reviewing what
other communities use to communicate with their citizens in a Newsletter format.
He stated that he is happy with the Current format and wants to make sure that
regardless of the~changes that may occur, the same amount and quality of
information is preserved. ..
General discussion by the Village Board members included the following items:
There was general discussion relating to the need to improve the readability of the
Newsletter and to present it in such a way that it makes it easy for citizens to read.
There was also a suggestion that much of the information be compartmentalized
and to focus on informational pieces showing what government is doing. There was
also discussion as to whether the Newsletter should be a monthly publication.
There was also discussion as to the need to balahce white space with the need to
highlight articles and to try to keep articles on to a single page if necessary. There
was a suggestion to review the cost of producing the Newsletter, the cost of writing
the Newsletter and a possible cost to draft a new layout of the Newsletter. Board
members also suggested the additional use of charts and photographs to enhance
the appearance and readability..
General consensus of the Village Board was to alter the current format to a
booklet style where the pages were at least 8~ x 11, Board members also
recommended that the necessary RFPs be drafted for the various components
of the Newsletter and to analyze the costs of changing the Newsletter and
bring it back for future review once additional information is available,
VI, MANAGER'S REPORT
None.
VII. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Trustee Hoefert highlighted the fact that two snowstorms in January cost
approximately $30,000 each and he stated that this highlights the need to have
reserves available in an emergency. He stated that he is concerned about
depleting Reserves for other purposes.
Trustee Clowes highlighted the fact that there is a Consumer Expo on March 1 and
2 at Randhurst.
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III. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 10:01 p.m.
~' ~' ' Respectfully submitted,
, DAVID STRAHL
' Viii ger'
Assistant age Mana
DS/rcc
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