HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/12/1996 COW minutes Revised
1f/13/96
MINUTES
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
NOVEMBER 12, 1996
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Farley called the meebng to order at 6 19 p m Present at the meebng were
Trustees George CIowes, T~mothy Corcoran, Paul Hoefert, Arlene Juracek and
Irvana W~lks Trustee Hendr~cks arrived at 8 20 p m Staff present included
V~llage Manager M~chael Janon~s, Assistant V~llage Manager Dawd Strahl, F~re
Chief Edward Cavello, Deputy F~re Chief M~chael F~golah, Fire Prevenbon
Coordinator Paul Valenbne, F~nance D~rector Brian Caputo, Assistant Finance
D~rector Carol W~dmer, Community Development D~rector W~ll~am Cooney, Pohce
Chief Ronald Pavlock, Deputy Chiefs of Police Thomas Daley and Ronald
R~chardson
II MINUTES
~ Approval of M~nutes of October 22, 1996 Mobon made by Trustee Corcoran and
Seconded by Trustee W~lks to accept the M~nutes Minutes were approved
~ III CITIZENS TO BE HEARD
Ernie Lasse, 805 South Elm, spoke He stated that he was concerned about a
memo that had been circulated throughout the V~llage from Trustee W~lks
responding to a number of quesbons which had appeared in the material for the
group that was promobng the division into Wards He asked about the d~scuss~on
concerning Busse Road widening and pointed out that recent newspaper articles
appeared to be contrary to informabon presented by Trustee W~lks
Trustee Wilks responded by stabng that the V~llage has pledged to ~nvolve Busse
Road residents tn a d~scuss~on relating to any ~mprovements along that road The
d~scuss~on concem~ng Busse Road ~s an effort to become much more proacbve due
to the experience m deahng w~th the State of IIl~no~s when the Route 83 w~den~ng
proposal was presented to the V~llage Board She also stated that even though one
of the Trustees stated that the d~scusslon would center on the fact that
improvements would have to be made, there was no concurrence of the V~llage
Board to that comment
Trustee Hoefert stated that many of Mr Lasse's quotes were taken out of context
and s~lence does not necessitate V~llage Board concurrence He stated the V~llage
Board w~ll work with c~bzens to determine the best response concerning Busse
Road
IV. 1997 BUDGET DISCUSSION
Mayor Farley stated that th~s is the second of three Committee of the Whole
meetings to d~scuss the 1997 proposed Budget
Village Manager Janonis again stated that this Budget is approximately $52 mllhon
and represents an approximate increase of 86% He stated the Budget, as
presented, ~s balanced He stated that staff had put together a summary of
expenditures which were reimbursed by other enbbes These reimbursements
amounted to $1 7 m~lhon The fact that the Village Budget may include may pass-
through monies, such expenditures st~ll count toward each mdlwdual Department's
' Budget and is not considered d~scret~onary He suggested that pass-throughs may
need to be segregated from the total ~ncrease of each Department so that the
increase ~s not ~ncorrectly ~nflated
Trustee Clowes stated that the mon~es the V~llage receives for such pass-throughs
not be Mount residents, these mon~es are sbll pa~d
may
paid
directly
by
Prospect
through taxes The taxes mayjust be pa~d to a d~fferent taxing body
Fire Department Presentation
Fire Chief Edward Cavello prowded a general overview of the accomphshments
for 1996 The accomphshments ~ncluded the upgrading and the complebon of new
weather s~rens throughout the Wllage He also stated that the F~re Depadment ~s
~n the process of replacing telemetry radios and has purchased used equipment m
order to save money and sbll prowde the necessary service of these radios He
also stated that Phase I of the traffic s~gnal pre-emption program has been
completed w~th Phase II slated for next Budget year Phase II w~ll ~nclude
approximately 35 intersections He also stated that recent ~mprovements m
outfitbng various fire apparatus has allowed each apparatus to carry enough
medical equipment to assist ambulance calls ~f necessary He stated the Budget
amounts to $6 2 m~lhon and represents a 4 1% increase He prowded a general
overview of the seven program areas w~th~n the Budget
The first program h~ghhghted ~s the F~re Administration He stated that the changes
~n the Budget ~nclude a cost sawngs for med,cel examinations of employees and the
sh~ff~ng of computer programming costs to the Computer Reimbursement Account
He also stated that due to the expiration of two ehg~b~hty hsts, there w~ll be a need
for tesbng during 1997 to estabhsh ehg~b~hty hsts for both F~refighters and
L~eutenants
2
Deputy Fire Chief Michael Figolah provided a general overview of the Operabons
area and stated that Operations account for approximately 70% of the Budget He
stated they are currently involved m a program to replace ten sets of turn-out gear
per year
Fire Prevention Coordinator Paul Valentine hlghhghted the F~re Prevention
Budget and stated 97% of the costs attributed to the F~re Prevenbon Bureau is for
Personnel costs
Fire Chief Edward Cavello provided an overview of the commun~cabons
equipment area w~thm the F~re Department budget These monies are used to
purchase or replace radios He also h~ghhghted the use of the Paid-On-Call
program ~n relationship to how activated alarms are handled in order to reduce
costs of responding to such alarms since the majority of these alarms tend to be
false alarms
Deputy Chief Figolah provided an overview of the equipment maintenance account
and h~ghhghted the upcoming replacement of an ambulance and Inspector vehicle
The Department also expects to replace an ambulance box to extend the hfe of the
ambulance He also stated the Department has made extensive use of vehicles
from other Departments in order to create speclahzed vehicles for F~re Department
needs He also h~ghhghted the capital ~tems requested ~n the Fire Department
Among the ~tems included ts the Phase II of the s~gnal pre-emption and the
replacement of a Quad Meter m order to prowde a meter at each Stabon tn order
to better detect carbon monoxide alarms He also stated that the Budget includes
a breathing apparatus tester Such a tester ~s required under Federal law and
would tmprove documentation s~gn~flcantly for tesbng of the a~r packs
General comments by the V~llage Board ~ncluded the following ~tems
Comments were made regarding the call h~story relabng to carbon monoxide
detector alarms There was also some d~scuss~on concerning the capital
expenditure structure and how ttems are determined to be put under the Capital
Improvement area D~scuss~on also focused on the computer lease payments
which are included w~th~n each Department's budget and the bas~s for these
payments
Fire Chief Edward Cavello responded to a number of quesbons He stated that
Northern Ilhno~s Gas ts now refernng calls concerning carbon monoxide alarms to
the F~re Departments due to their cutbacks ~n personnel Such acbon will definitely
~ncrease the number of calls made to the Rre Department He feels that the poorly
engineered carbon monoxide detectors w~ll beg~n to be phased out ~n the near
future and carbon monoxide alarms should not create a burden upon the F~re
Department ~n terms of false alarms ~n the future
3
Police Department Bud.qet Overview
Police Chief Ronald Pavlock provided a general overview of the funcbons of the
Pohce Department The Pohce Department is d~wded into two Diws~ons, the
Operations D~wslon which ~s further subd~wded ~nto patrol, invesbgatlons and crime
prevention and the Adm~n~strabon D~wslon which is d~wded into records and Court
activities He provided a general overview of the accomplishments for 1996
Among those actlwt~es was the successful implementation of the Problem Solwng
Officer Program and a Department reorganizabon He also is very excited about
the pending start-up of the Peer Jury which should be under way m December of
1998 He stated that there w~ll be a need for a Pohce testing process in order to
estabhsh a Sergeant promotional list due to the pending exp~rabon date of the
ehg~blhty hst 1997 objecbves ~nclude the following ~tems
Extend Problem Solving Officer training to V~llage staff and conbnue to evaluate
Grant opportunlbes to assist in funding of operebons He stated the Pohce
Department Budget is approximately $8 1 m~lhon and includes approximately 80
sworn Officers This Budget ~ncludes a request for a new Community Service
Officer This position is a c~whan Officer The need for the additional CSO ~s due
to the fact that the Department has grown from 64 sworn Officers m 1987 to 80
sworn Officers ~n 1996 While the growth in sworn Officer ranks has occurred, the
clwhan ranks has remained at 20 Dunng the same time period, arrests have
~ncreased from 1,708 to an estimated 3,900 for calendar year 1996 Therefore, the
sheer volume of acbwty necessitates the need for add~bonal CSOs to handle the
paper work required for Court act~wbes and related needs The Capital budget
~ncludes the staggered replacement of the mobile data terminals in the squad cars
and the purchase of d~gltal mug shot system which ~s comparable to what ~s being
used by many law enforcement agencies The budget also ~ncludes a smart tra~ler
which d~splays the speed of vehicles to drivers and ~s portable to illustrate how fast
drivers may be going on various Village streets He also stated there still appears
to be some confusion in terms of vendors to supply squad cars to Pohce
Department agencies Of the vehicle types currently offered by the vendors, only
one vehicle type appears to meet the needs of the Department at this bme
General comments of the V~llage Board included the following items
There was d~scuss~on ccncern~ng the vehicle lease payments and whether they
reflect the ~ncreased cost due to the change ~n squad car vendors There was also
d~scuss~on concerning traffic enforcement and whether there ~s a need to target an
Officer for truck weight enforcement There was also d~scuss~on concerning the
Cops Ahead Grant and its pending exp~rabon There was d~scuss~on concerning
the ~nteracbon of the Pohce Department w~th other Departments concerning
property maintenance and zoning code wolabons The Village Board members
were also generally supportive of the Problem Solving Officer concept and
encouraged the use of technology whenever possible A d~scuss~on took place
whereby m~nor Code wolat~ons could be ~nvest~gated or written up by Patrol Officers
when code enforcement personnel are unavailable
Chief Pavlock stated that the Budget as presented to the Village Board does not
include a Truck Enforcement Officer but the Department currently has three Officers
trained to do enforcement if necessary
Village Manager Janonis stated that the Department had to pnor~bze its needs ~n
terms of staff add,bens and the Department only got to choose one add~bonal staff
person ~nstead of meeting all their needs For example, the CSO need is due to the
~ncreased volume generated by the add~bonal Officers that the Village has added
over the last five years There ~s also a need for a supervisory Sergeant due to the
sheer volume of Officers on the street and such a number of Officers creates a
command/control problem which the Department has ~denbfled The Truck Officer
~s also warranted, however, the need for specialty enforcement takes away from the
general traffic enforcement that is also a continuing need
General consensus of the Village Board was to support the purchase of the
Smart Trailer as presented and investigate whether it is feasible for the photo
ticket system to be purchased and put into use by the Village.
Community Development Department Overview
Community Development Director William Cooney provided a general overview
of the Community Development activities and the economic development activities
He stated the Department ~s d~v~ded into three D~ws~ons, the Building,
Enwronmental Health and Planning D~ws~ons The Department ~s working on
putbng into place a permanent tracking system which would allow better response
brae and record keeping of Permits
General d~scuss~on by the Village Board members included the following ~tems
Some concern was raised as to times which Inspectors are expected to show up on
the job s~te for vanous acbwt~es w~thout affecting the progress of the project There
was also d~scuss~on of economic development act~wbes of Mount Prospect and
what other opportumbes are available Among the suggestions made was the
~nvesbgabon of a web s~te for use by potenbal businesses There was also
d~scusslon concerning the need for the Board to make a statement concerning the
d~rect~on of the downtown redevelopment There was also d~scuss~on concerning
the success of the U S Robotics fast-track program through the Wllage permit
process Board members were supportive of the economic development efforts of
the Department A d~scuss~on took place deta~hng the use of code enforcement
personnel dunng evenings and weekends to target specific Code wolabons which
may be difficult to confirm during regular business hours
5
. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Trustee Hendricks prowded the V~llage Board members a follow-up article
concerning the Glenwew s~tuaflon which he was ~nvolved with He also stated that
he was never adwsed by staff about the call from Glenwew regarding the
allegabons He also stated that he would propose an Ordinance change which
would eliminate the need for the Village Board to prowde adwce and consent
approval for the V~llage Clerk appointment He stated the V~llage Clerk ~s the only
pos~bon which the V~llage Manager does not have full authority over according to
V~llage Ordinance
Trustee Wilks suggested a legal rewew of State law to determine whether the
Clerk's pos~t~on should be treated d~fferently
VI. ADJOURNMENT
There being no further bus~ness, the meebng was adJourned at 10 17 p m
Respectfully submitted,
DAVID STRAHL
D$/rcc Assistant V~llage Manager