City of Northville CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES August 5, 2013

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1 City of Northville CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES August 5, 2013 Mayor Johnson called the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:30 p.m. in the City of Northville Municipal Building, City Council Chambers, 215 W. Main Street, Northville, Michigan, ROLL CALL Present: Absent: Also Present:. Mayor Christopher Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem James Allen, Councilmembers Nancy Darga, Michele Fecht, and Ryan McKindles None City Manager Patrick Sullivan, City Clerk Dianne Massa, Director of Public Works James Gallogly, Finance Director/Treasurer Sandi Wiktorowski, Assistant Parks Superintendent Jason Nezich, reporter from Northville Record, and six citizens PRESENTATIONS A. Citizens Comments None New Business 9B Wayfinding Project DDA was removed from the agenda. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND CONSENT AGENDA Motion Allen, seconded by Darga to approve the agenda and consent agenda as amended. Approve City Council Minutes of: - Regular Meeting of July 1, Regular Meeting of July 15, 2013 Receive Bills List: Checks #84252 to #84362, EFT #500140, #500141, Checks #84363 to #84464, Checks #84465 to #84548 Receive Board and Commission Minutes: None Receive Departmental Reports: None Board and Commission Appointments: Beautification Commission: Appoint Linda Lestock to fill a vacancy with a term expiration of 6/30/16 Special Event Request / Fright Night Festival / October 26, 2013 Request to Dispose of Assets / Network Equipment and Network Switches Resolution to Relocate Polling Location / Precinct 1 (Wayne County) Motion carried unanimously.

2 City Council Regular Meeting August 5, Page 2 NEW BUSINESS A. Extension of Lease with New Hope Grief Center / 315 Griswold Street Since 2009, the New Hope Center for Grief Support has leased the City-owned building at 315 Griswold from the Northville Historical Society. Both the Historical Society and New Hope wish to extend that lease arrangement for another two years, subject to the restrictions of the City Charter. Under the terms of the modified lease, the monthly rent would increase to $425 per month, and the tenant would be responsible for all utilities. The City Attorney has reviewed the proposed lease agreement and, in his opinion, the extension complies with the City Charter lease restrictions. Motion McKindles, seconded by Allen to approve the attached lease agreement between the Northville Historical Society and New Hope Center for Grief Support and authorize the City Manager to sign the lease on behalf of the City. Motion carried unanimously. B. Downtown Development Authority Wayfinding Project Removed from the agenda. C. Professional Services Contract / Hutton Street Sanitary Sewer Relocation Project On July 17, 2013 the City received proposals for professional services to perform an engineering investigation, final design, and construction engineering/management on the Hutton Street Sanitary Sewer Relocation Project. The project will remove an obstruction in an existing sanitary sewer line, repair or relocate the sewer, and replace Hutton Street roadway between E. Dunlap and Rayson Street. Six proposals from interested engineering firms were received as follows: Vitins Engineering $21, 650 Jones and Henry Engineering, Inc. $23,395 Hennessey Engineering, Inc. $45,000 Wade Trim Associates, Inc. $60,000 Spicer Group $64,268 Rowe Professional Services Company $78,800 The City has good experience with several of these firms including Vitins Engineering, which submitted the low proposal. Vitins Engineering is a small engineering firm which has been in existence for many years. Sub-consultants will be used for geotechnical and materials testing work, and for surveying, with Mr. Vitins doing the engineering analysis, design, and construction engineering/management. This firm has designed numerous projects in the Detroit Metro area including three for the City of Northville (Marquis Parking Lot, Northville Square Parking Lot, and Center Street Resurfacing project). City Staff believes that Vitins Engineering is capable of undertaking this project for the City. The City Attorney and Michigan Municipal Risk Management have reviewed and approved the professional services agreement for this project and approved it for use by the City. The FY 2014 budget includes a budget of $320,000 for this project. The proposal submitted by Vitins Engineering for professional services is approximately 6% of this total budget.

3 City Council Regular Meeting August 5, Page 3 City Council Comment and Discussion: A comment from City Council voiced concern that the project scope, including the minimal planned soil borings, would not address slope failure on Hutton Street, near Ford Field. It was believed that the slop failure impacts the road and the problem should be addressed during this project. Staff responded that the road is more than 25 years old and the slope issues are considered to be minor compared to the age of the road. However, the engineer will look closer at this during the design phase. Motion Allen, seconded by McKindles to approve and award an Agreement for Professional Services to Vitins Engineering in the not-to-exceed amount of $21,650 for preliminary design, final design, and construction engineering on the Hutton Street Sanitary Sewer Relocation Project. Further, the Public Works Director is authorized to sign the agreement on behalf of the City of Northville. Motion carried unanimously. D. Change of Payroll Services Provider Since 2001, the City of Northville has utilized the services of the same provider for payroll services. Within the last year, that provider has had some staffing changes, which has resulted in a decrease in satisfaction with the provider s services. Therefore, the decision was made to issue a request for proposals for this service. On June 21, 2013, eight proposals were received for payroll services. The current service provider did not submit a proposal. Two vendors were selected for onsite demonstrations of their software with staff. One of those vendors, Payroll 1, was selected unanimously by Finance Department staff for the following reasons. Specializes in the small to mid-size entity Excellent local references (City of Novi, Northville District Library, Northville Chamber of Commerce) Michigan-based headquarters (Birmingham, Michigan) User-friendly software Tax filings completed by Payroll 1, not a third-party Software includes ability to track Human Resource data Custom reporting options Multiple data centers in case of disaster recovery Better tracking of leave balances One payroll specialist assigned to Northville s account Increased timeliness of reporting (30 minutes after submission vs. next day) Payroll 1 has 7,000 clients nationwide with 2,000 of them in Michigan. They have been in business for 27 years. The City Attorney has reviewed the service agreement and is satisfied with the language. Annually, it is expected that Payroll 1 will cost an additional $500 to $1,000 over the current vendor. However, City Staff believes the more robust software, along with the above listed benefits, outweighs the additional cost. Motion Darga, seconded by Fecht to authorize City Staff to contract with Payroll 1 as the City s payroll service provider and to execute the service agreement. Motion carried unanimously.

4 City Council Regular Meeting August 5, Page 4 E. Parks and Recreation Vending Services Previously, the Department of Parks and Recreation had vending machines located in both the Recreation Center at Hillside and the Northville Community Center. These machines were regularly serviced by Coca-Cola. The machines were under no contractual agreement from Coca-Cola and, therefore, were removed from the facilities. The Parks and Recreation Department solicited a Request for Proposal from local companies through the Michigan Inter-Governmental Trade Network. On July 10, 2013, four proposals were received. The vendor is required to pay Parks and Recreation a percentage of the monthly sales. The percentage of monthly sales, combined with past references, were deciding factors in selecting the most appropriate vendor. Each center (Hillside and the Community Center) will receive one beverage and one snack machine. The agreement is the previously approved professional services agreement and would be valid for two years. The Northville Parks and Recreation Department will receive 18% of monthly net sales on each of the two provided beverage machines and 21% of monthly net sales on each of the two snack machines. City Council Comment and Discussion: A comment from City Council requested that, whenever possible, the vendor provide Michigan-made products. Motion Darga, seconded by Fecht to approve the agreement with Northern Vending Company for vending services at the Recreation Center at Hillside and Northville Community Center and authorize the Parks and Recreation Director to sign this agreement. Motion carried unanimously. F. Contract Extension / Michigan Association of Public Employees The last negotiated contract between the City and the clerical employees (Michigan Association of Public Employees) was set to expire on June 30, Due to the City s challenged financial position in 2010, all four collective bargaining units in the City, including MAPE, agreed to forego a wage increase, which was scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2010, and extend the contracts with a wage freeze until June 30, Other concessions were also granted by the unions at that time. In order to meet the challenges of rising health care and legacy costs, the City and MAPE have been meeting in order to reach an agreement that would provide a modest wage increase, and significant healthcare savings. The new agreement accomplishes that by incorporating many of the provision negotiated with AFSCME in the contract extension which Council ratified in March. The new MAPE contract would accomplish the following: Extend a wage freeze, which has been in place since 2010, until January 1, Phase in higher employee contributions for healthcare which would increase to 20% of costs for the Blue Care Network Plan (HMO) Plan, and 35% for the Community Blue (PPO) Plan, by Implement a high deductible/health Savings Account (HSA) Plan with the employees sharing the cost of both premiums and HSA contributions. Allow the City to switch insurance carriers if substantially equal coverage can be provided for the same out-of- pocket cost to the employees. Provide a modest wage increase (2%,1%,1%) over the next three calendar years which is offset by significant healthcare savings. Reduce payments to employees who opt-out of health insurance and caps the monthly payment at a fixed amount. Provides a contract re-opener on 7/1/16 to bargain the subject of retiree contributions toward healthcare.

5 City Council Regular Meeting August 5, Page 5 Extends the agreement 3 ½ years to 12/31/2016. The December expiration will then coincide with the City s annual health insurance contract renewal. Incorporates language required by the new Right to Work laws. If the City were to implement the same insurance plan, and wage increases with the other union and nonunion employee groups, the net cost for the next three calendar years is projected to be $325,000 less than keeping the existing healthcare plan with no wage increase. Motion Darga, seconded by Fecht to approve the amendments to the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Northville and MAPE until December 31, Motion carried unanimously. G. Request by Amerman School to Use City Property for Educational Purposes The City received a request from Amerman Elementary School fifth grade teacher Dave Babich to use open space property owned by the City of Northville as a natural laboratory for his fifth grade students. Mr. Babich envisions taking his class to this parcel of land four to six times throughout the school year to do research and study plant and animal life in this undeveloped area of the City. The City of Northville owns a large tract of land behind single family homes between Grace Street on the west, Novi Street on the east, Maplewood Street on the north, and Hill Street on the south. This is within walking distance of Amerman Elementary School and is accessed by way of undeveloped rights-of-way for Carpenter Avenue and Horton Avenue. A totally undeveloped parcel of land, residents of this area of the City routinely walk through this public space observing the wonders of nature. With appropriate adult supervision, as promised by Mr. Babich, City Staff has no objection to this request. Motion Fecht, seconded by Darga to approve a request made by Dave Babich, fifth grade teacher at Amerman Elementary School to use City property east of Grace Street and south of Maplewood Street for fifth grade class research and educational purposes. Motion carried unanimously. H. Appointment of Election Commissioner for the November 5, 2013 Election The Election Commission consists of the City Clerk, City Attorney, and a member of the Council who shall not be a candidate for elective office at the election for which he is appointed. The Clerk serves as the chairperson and two members of the Election Commission shall be a quorum. An Election Commissioner is needed for the November 5, 2013 City Election. The Election Commission meetings are scheduled for the following dates: August 19, 2013 at 8:00 a.m. at City Hall September 10, 2013 at 8:00 a.m. at City Hall An additional meeting may be needed to appoint the Board of Election Inspectors. Council Member Fecht was willing to serve, although she might be absent for the August 19, 2013 meeting. Motion Allen, seconded by Darga to appoint Council Member Fecht to serve as the Election Commissioner for the November 5, 2013 City Election. Motion carried unanimously.

6 City Council Regular Meeting August 5, Page 6 MAYOR AND COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS A. Mayor and Council Communications None B. Staff Communications None Being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Adjournment: 7:52 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dianne Massa, CMC City Clerk Approved as submitted: 9/3/13 Christopher J. Johnson Mayor