City Council workshop focuses on finances
Lift station project tops list of key items at session Thursday
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Friday, April 4, 2008 11:22 AM PDT
Ontario — The Ontario City Council had a double helping of financial issues on its plate for its workshop meeting Thursday.
One of those issues was the Ontario Public Works Department’s $60,000 request for more funds in order to pay for wastewater system improvements.
The request for extra funding is for work on the Malheur Lift Station. The city was set to abandon the Malheur Lift Station but tasked La Grande engineering firm Anderson Perry and Associates to investigate whether the station could be salvaged.
Anderson and Perry reported back to the city the lift station could be rehabilitated but at a cost.
The city then directed the La Grande firm to complete the rehabilitation project.
“We replaced the Malheur Lift Station,” Public Works operations assistant Bret Turner said. “Malheur was going to be abandoned, and we were just going to have one regional lift station.”
Turner also said the rehabilitation project will save the city more money in the long run. However, the price of the project is now $90,800.
Through a loan from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department, some of the $90,800 — $31,000 — is covered.
However, the city still needs to pay $60,000 on the project.
The $60,000 would be loaned from the public works fund budget to the capital projects fund. However, the loan will be repaid with revenue from public works.
Turner said that even with the increase, the total was still a good buy.
“Engineering fees are normally 15 percent of cost,” he said. “Anderson Perry is around 9 percent--8.1 percent. So we’re still getting a good deal.”
Interim City Manager Mike Kee thanked Turner for his work on finding the discrepancy.
“I’d like to commend Bret for finding this,” he said. “You hear occasionally about things falling through the cracks. It has been glaringly evident that public works needs someone to track these projects.”
The resolution for the loan will be discussed further at the City Council’s meeting Monday night.
The council also discussed increasing the salary of Ontario facility manager Yorick de Tassigny by $416 a month.
Kee said that de Tassigny’s income is 74.5 percent of the average high salary range. Using a formula determined by previous councils, the facility manager’s income should be $4,192 a month at the lowest and $4,710 at the highest.
de Tassigny currently makes $3,509 a month. The $416 increase would bring his salary up to $3,925, which is under the range, but is closer than he was previously.
In February 2003, Ontario hired de Tassigny as a facilities maintenance supervisor. Kee said the focus of the position was mainly supervising maintenance activities and facility services, with some budget responsibility.
However, in 2006, de Tassigny was given a new title with more responsibilities, including managing building assets and developing energy conservation, but maintained much of the same paycheck.
“Did I move up?” he asked. “No. The title was changed to reflect what I was doing. I took duties on because the position necessitated it. I could have just ignored them.”
Kee supported de Tassigny.
“He has taken it upon himself to go to hundreds of hours of training, and the city isn’t treating him real well,” Kee said.
Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said that giving the facility manager a raise now could potentially cause more problems for the city’s finances.
“The time issue is not good,” he said. “It opens up the flood gates. What I’m trying to say is who’s going to come to you next?”
Kee said he didn’t have a good answer to that question. Dominick said the raise would be a better idea if it had a new source of funding behind it, possibly coming from the as-yet-to-be-formed revenue committee, which is slated to be officially formed on Monday.
However, Kee said he felt the city could abide by the formula and give de Tassigny a raise and do it within the budget.
“Where was this last year?” Dominick asked. “The timing isn’t too good right now.”
Ontario City Councilman Jim Mosier also was displeased by issue.
“I’m beating myself up that we allowed ourselves to get in this spot,” he said. “We let this happen.”
The potential raise will be discussed further at the next city council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.
Stan wrote on Apr 11, 2008 7:21 AM: