The Ellettsville, Indiana, Town Council met in special session at 8:00 PM, Wednesday, August 14, 2002 at the Town Hall. David Sorokoty called the meeting to order.
Members present were David Sorokoty, President; David Drake, Vice-President; Mike Cornman and Geraldine McIntyre. Also present was Sandra Hash, Clerk-Treasurer, and Deborah Hudson, Administrative Assistant.
Ellettsville
Doctor
David Sorokoty opened the meeting with the announcement that both Dr. Wagner and the Bloomington Hospital have offered low cost medical service for Town employees and possibly opening a clinic. He feels the first priority for this service should go to the hospital since they have committed to the Town with the medical facility. This could offset some cost to the Town employees.
Old Elementary
School
David also brought to the attention of the Council the need to reconsider the old elementary school building and grounds. Time is growing short and they have another offer on the property. It is zoned C-3, which is general commercial. If something else goes in we will loose the gym. For historical purposes, it would be nice to preserve at least the gym. It is 10 acres inside the Town limits and would be a great asset. He encouraged the other members to email or call him with their comments and ideas.
David Drake commented that the number one question from citizens since he took office is, why is the Town not buying the old elementary school site? It would be extremely hard to turn down 10 acres of prime property for $1.00. If someone doesn’t think we should do that he would like to have some hard figures on why we shouldn’t. For example, if it will cost a quarter of a million dollars to tear down the unneeded buildings, or the asbestos problem is too serious for us to deal with. If we bought it, we would have more control over what could go in there, if we can’t use it ourselves. He would like hard figures on what it would cost to demolish, remove the asbestos or remodel.
Mike Cornman said all we need to do is take the report that was done for the school system on why they needed a new school and change the name to Town of Ellettsville and see why we do not want to utilize the school. The land would be a good purchase. He feels all the structures should be removed unless the Town plans to preserve it as a park. Then the gym should be maintained to fit into recreational activities. If not then Highway 46 is designated to be all commercial and we should stay inline with that. Deborah added we do have a copy of a study done by the school corporation.
Geraldine McIntyre agreed that if purchased, the building should be demolished, because the Town cannot afford to maintain the current structures.
David Sorokoty closed the discussion by adding Mike Farmer, Utility Supervisor, said he has the equipment and will have the time after the Highway 46 project to demolish the building. The study made for the school was made with the interest of moving the children to new schools verses can we save the building. He feels it would be best to have our own study done. It is his understanding the asbestos is only in three short pipes, which are encased in PVC pipe. He offered to arrange a tour of the facility, but the other members felt they were familiar with the facility and a tour was not needed. It was suggested Bynum, Fanyo Environmental could present a proposal for the cost to demolish all or some of the structures.
Minutes on the
Ellettsville web site
It was agreed to seek a proposal, to set up the computers in the Clerk’s office enabling the downloading of the Council minutes onto the Town’s web site.
Decorative
Street Lights
Geraldine McIntyre met with Matt from Cassidy Electric concerning light fixtures for the Town. He is willing to set up a model for the Council to view. It is green and has an arm
and is ten feet tall. The plan calls for 58 lights. David Sorokoty added Hanover Lantern would also like to submit a proposal.
Duties of the
Executive Assistant
David Sorokoty expressed the need to revise the job description for the Executive Assistant and have it put in ordinance form. He explained all the request from the Council and other committees of the Town have increased the workload beyond the 30 hours per week she is scheduled to work. Deborah’s personal business is down to one client. He also wants to establish regular office hours. He suggested two eight hour days and one four hour day, this would allow the additional ten hours to work at home or attend meetings. For the Town and for the public, it would be nice for her to have some set office hours. He suggested removing the complaints portion of her job, and handling as it was in the past with the Clerk’s office receiving the complaints and forwarding them to the Health Officer. He would like to see more important tasks like the personnel policy, hiring procedures and items like that being done instead of making Deborah a catch all to everything. She has done a good job on the Skate Park Policy, the Main Street Committee, as well as research she has done for us.
David Drake said there are a lot of things that go on in this town that either need attention or could use attention. We would be better served to have Deborah do things other people can’t do or don’t have the time to do, such as the personnel policy and more major types of projects, as opposed to just being here answering complaints. We currently have people who can handle those day-to-day things and we shouldn’t tie a third person into that.
They reviewed the original job description for the Executive Assistant and read a letter from Jeana Kapczynski expressing how important it is for the Executive Assistant be a liaison between various groups and attend the different meetings.
Mike Cornman commented specific times or meetings should not be placed into an ordinance. The descriptive on letter (f) on the job description states “shall carry out any duties that the Town Council otherwise prescribe”. There is a lack of vision on the part of the Council members in coordinating the efforts of where Deborah should be headed. They need another work session such as this to make sure they know where they are heading instead of rewriting the job description. The overall goal was to set things up for a town manager at some point in time. They should be very careful about deviating too much from the job description. David Drake agreed nothing is wrong with the job description as it stands. They have the right to decide what the priority should be at any certain time.
Mike would like for Deborah to prepare the packets for the Council meetings. She would still have to coordinate with Sandy on the financial information. They each contributed on reviewing the agendas before Council meetings.
The Council discussed set office hours and working out of the home. Both Mike and David Sorokoty stated they enjoyed working at home where it is quiet, but neither were paid for work at home. David asked Deborah how she felt about working at home. She replied the original schedule was Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Then supervisors meetings started on Wednesdays and things started coming up on Fridays. She became really involved with the skate park issues. The growing involvement raised the issue of the job becoming full-time. She doesn’t mind working the extra time but it reduces the availability to her personal accounts. Therefore, it prompted her to ask direction on where the Town wanted to go. Deborah added if she is specifically going to do project work, the human resource part of her says yes she has done this before, she has a library in her home, if she has an issue she can look it up in her books. When she works in the office she has to access the internet to collect information using additional time. The town can’t have it both ways; she can’t be running back and forth. It is really up to the Council to decide what they need for this town. This job as presented cannot be done in thirty hours.
David Sorokoty responded that is why we need to narrow down the focus for her.
David Drake added, as we all know after finishing the budget process we do not have the money to make it a full-time position in the next year. Our only choice for this year and the coming year is to make sure she doesn’t have so much to do that she is spending more time on it than she is being paid for. She shouldn’t be doing any work she is not being paid for. If that means it takes longer to get it done, or some of the extra projects do not get done, it is up to the Council to give the direction and focus on the priorities to allow them to be fitted into the time available.
Deborah replied that the Council should get organized too. They started off with a list of things to get accomplished. There were two work sessions. She passed out a lot of information and nothing came back. So she was turned another direction.
David Sorokoty said he felt Deborah should write the policy, have the attorney review it, then have the final review with the Council. As her job is, so is theirs, there are several different directions that they could take. They need to stay focused on items or they could get lost in the swamp.
Geraldine said a retreat had been planned to work on the personnel policy and a date could not be pinned down.
Deborah reiterated she had passed out packets containing the action plans for the personnel policy. There has been no response to the request for information. David Sorokoty asked if it was essential for them to have input on the personnel policy. Deborah answered most certainly it is your document. She gave them an outline of the topics by section that she suggests including in the manual. This manual has been drafted since April. It is a basic foundation nowhere near completion. She doesn’t know if they want to change their overtime calculation, change the benefits or sick days.
David Sorokoty was under the impression that she would do research and comparisons to other municipalities and come up with at least a choice of answers. The Council is expediting the Towns business and depending on her research to help judge what would be best for this community. Deborah replied, if they want all that expertise from her then they should be talking about a sub-contract at a different pay rate. Her expertise does not come for $16.03 per hour in that regard. David answered, that opens up a whole new can of worms. This week she has written up the strategic objectives for the Town Council to review.
The job description Deborah received did not say she was going to do the personnel policy by herself. If she puts all this together and recommendations such as abolishing sick leave, replacing it with short term and long term disability paid for by the Town is not agreeable with the Council then she has done a lot of work for nothing. That is why she needs their input.
David Drake added he did not want any radical changes made to the employee benefits or overtime calculations unless we are doing it wrong. He wanted things that are legally sensitive, such as sexual harassment and sexual discrimination updated, to protect the town and make sure we are in compliance with state law. He went on to say one of the major problems with town government is its inefficiency. We have five little part-time mayors that all have their own ideas and things they want to get done. It can get chaotic at times. Maybe we need to decide that we are not each going to come up with certain things that need to be done. We won’t do anything unless we all get together and decide it needs to be done.
Geraldine McIntyre said words such as may and shall need to be corrected in the personnel policy. The Board needs to sit down with Deborah and look at the first draft and see what is going on. They asked if the first draft was ready for them to look at. She replied there are basic concepts, definitions of what an employee is, and different status of employees.
They discussed the steps needed to proceed with the personnel policy. The first step is for the Council to return the requested information to Deborah. They looked over the information she had put it their mailboxes that day. David Drake said he had reviewed
the information. He commented that he did not like the term ‘associate’ in place of employee.
After a lengthy discussion it was decided Deborah would continue to attend Council, Plan Commission, Main Street, Chamber and Ellettsville Area Economic Development meetings. She would have set office hours of Tuesday and Thursday leaving fourteen hours for meetings. If she doesn’t have meetings it will allow her more time to work on special projects.
Deborah explained to the Council some of the time she has spent gathering information for the Main Street Committee and the Zoning Ordinance Committee. They responded she was to attend the meetings but not be their secretary. Her first responsibility is to the Council and informing them on the proceedings of the committees. Secondary is to work on those committees.
Deborah will serve as a liaison between the different boards, committees and the Town Council. She will also continue to serve on the committee for redoing the zoning ordinance. The personnel policy should be the main focus until it is completed.
Ellettsville
Doctor
David Drake expanded his feelings on having a clinic for employees. He feels people should have a choice of doctors. If we would proceed with this idea a majority of the employees should agreed.
David Sorokoty uses the Cook Clinic and it is a big cost savings.
Insurance Renewal
Sandra handed out information on the insurance renewal. They discussed the cost of insurance.
Codification
Sandra handed out a response from American Legal Publishing for Council consideration.
I-69
David Sorokoty encouraged everyone to attend the upcoming Indiana Department of Transportation meeting at Bloomington North High School concerning I-69.
Adjournment
David
Sorokoty asked for a motion to adjourn.
Geraldine McIntyre moved for adjournment. Mike Cornman seconded.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p. m.
_____________________________ __________________________
David Sorokoty, President David Drake, Vice President
_____________________________ __________________________
Mike Cornman Geraldine McIntyre
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Sandra C. Hash, Clerk-Treasurer