10-22-08 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 22, 2008 2009 The City Administrator reviewed his report dated October 17, 2008 STREETS relative to 2009 Street/Public Improvement Projects. The Administrator PROGRAM noted that given the current state of the economy, bid prices for projects are coming in about 30% lower than normal. The Administrator indicated that he confirmed this with Frattalone Excavating. Based on this climate, the Administrator suggested it would be in the taxpayers best interests to get a number of improvement projects completed in 2009. Typically, the City does $1 to $2 million in projects each year. Based on the list of potential projects put together by the City Engineer, there are just over $2.7 million in projects that could be undertaken in 2009. The Administrator reviewed assessment cap rates over the last view years and suggested an inflationary adjusted rate of $59.71 for 2009. The Administrator also discussed the potential for reduction in the assessment rate given the overall savings the City would expect to achieve. There are equity issues to consider in this approval. Another alternative may be to provide a credit for street that have failed prematurely. It was the consensus of the Council that staff should proceed with neighborhood meetings based on the improvement project list put together by the City Engineer. Keis noted the need to be sensitive and not push forward with improvement projects for those neighborhoods with strong opposition. Montour asked how mill and overlay work is assessed. The City Administrator replied that the cost of mill and overlay is assessed on a 50% basis with the City picking up the other 50%. Again, the consensus was to move forward through the neighborhood meeting process. MAYOR AND The City Administrator reviewed the proposed ordinance which would COUNCIL increase the Mayor's and Council's salaries effective January 1, 2008. SALARIES The proposed salary increase is based on the average Mayor and Council salaries being paid in cities with populations plus/minus 4,300 from the Little Canada population. This is a component used for basing City employee salaries. Blesener noted that the proposed salaries are still below what most of the neighboring cities of similar size are paying their Mayors and Council Members. Montour noted that the Mayor and Council Members do not work for the money, but as a service to the citizens of Little Canada. Montour felt, however, that there should be a fair compensation to the 16