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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/01/93COUNCIL WORK SESSION March 1, 1993 5:00 p.m. Large Conference Room Roll Call: Mayor Manning, Lemke, Angel, Fox, Dell Wright, Budak and Buck. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Building Plan Review. Lou Cutwright, Building Official, explained the plan and how it will be implemented in the Building Department. Many meetings were held with members of the construction industry to discuss and review the plan review. Business people were concerned that increased revenue from the plan review would be used to balance the city budget. They were assured that revenue generated from the plan would be used to support the Plan Review. A Permit Writing Policy was approved by the City Council in 1991 as a guideline for items to be submitted and reviewed before a permit could be issued for any project related to the Planning, Zoning, Engineering and Building. Said policy was updated and incorporated as part of Building Plan Review. Buck now present at 5:10 p.m. There will be a separate fee schedule for commercial and residential construction. The permit fee will increase 35 percent for commercial projects above $2,500 valuation and residential permit fees will increase by 10 percent. It is estimated that Plan Review will generate $65,625 during FY 94 and will be used to have an International Conference of Building Official (ICBO) Specialist on staff, and costs for education to certify inspection staff as an ICBO Inspector. Any carry over will be used to fund the next year. Waterloo had a record building season in FY 92 and permits are above the record this year. With more buildings, the Building Department must make more inspections. Plan review will address problems in the planning stages and inspectors will have fewer problems in the field. Plan Review will be used on all commercial projects and residential projects (new dwellings and additions only) submitted to the Building Department. Areas that will be reviewed include: structural, architectural, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical. The Plan Review will be submitted to the City Council on March 15 for formal approval. No official action was taken at the meeting. With no further business before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 5:25 p.m. Larry P. Burger City Clerk/Auditor COUNCIL WORK SESSION March 1, 1993 5:30 p.m. Large Conference Room Roll Call: Mayor Manning, Buck, Lemke, Angel, Fox, Dell Wright, Budak. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Governor's Task Force on Local Government Mandates. The Task Force was formed by Governor Branstad to examine state mandates placed on city and county governments and recommend reforms. Discussion was heard on the following mandates that place additional financial strain on government. Code Citation 364.20: City vehicles shall not operate on gasoline other than gasoline blended with at least 10% ethanol. A brightly visible sticker shall be affixed to the vehicle. This places a financial burden on cities due to the cost and extra manpower needed to put stickers on all vehicles. Also, it poses a security problem for police and others involved in public safety who are at risk if identified through the sticker as being with government/law enforcement. Code Citation 455B.310: Cities and counties are required to pay the Department of Natural Resources a tonnage fee for each ton of solid waste received and disposed of at a sanitary landfill. The problem with this mandate is that only a percent of the tonnage fee is returned to cities and counties and the Department of Natural Resources determines how these returned dollars can be spent. Code Citation 411.15: Cities shall provide hospital, nursing, and medical attention for members of the Police and Fire Departments when injured while in the performance of their duties. Although cities have insurance to insure against the costs of this requirement, coverage extends to those allowed under Workers' Compensation and does not include occupational diseases of heart and lung. Cities incur additional costs to cover these medical expenses. Code Citation 321.252: Local governments must synchronize their traffic signals. The City of Waterloo has been able to synchronize its traffic signals using Interstate Substitution funds. Not all cities are as fortunate and would have to expend dollars for equipment, etc. Code Citation 309.93: Local governments must submit to the Department of Transportation an annual budget for secondary road operations. The DOT may refuse approval of the budget, although that rarely happens and local governments may override the denial. The DOT uses the information when allocating secondary roads funds. Code Citation 20.22: Under this mandate, the terms of arbitration are defined. When resolving collective bargaining issues between public employees and local governments, an arbitrator can only choose one of the proposals and cannot choose a compromise. Governments need more flexibility in trying to work out issues in collective bargaining agreements. Code Citation 24.17: This mandate requests that local budgets be certified to the State by March 15 of each year. Since the Legislature is still in session, many times governments are not able to adjust their budgets to include new mandates. Changing the date to April 15 of each year would allow governments to add or delete changes as necessary before budget certification. Code Citation 349.3, 349.16, 349.18: These mandates define how counties must select newspapers to publish proceedings, reports, minutes, etc. The cost of publication is very expensive and it is questionable how many citizens really read the publications. It would be cheaper to have on file copies of said documents. Council Work Session March 1, 1993 Page 2 Code Citation 425.1, et al: Credits are established in the Code, such as ag land credit, family farm credit, elderly and disabled credit, extra -ordinary property tax credit and military service tax exemption. Under many of these programs, counties are required to give the taxpayer more credit than they receive in reimbursement from the State as a result of caps established in legislative appropriations, resulting in the counties receiving less property tax revenue than budgeted. Others items discussed included mandates on police and fire pension funds, sidewalk repair program, and tax exempt properties. All of these issues place additional financial burdens on government. It was suggested that we need to combine efforts with the county and school system to make our Legislators aware of the impact their mandates have on local municipalities. Council Members discussed setting a meeting date with area Legislators along with the county and school to discuss these issues and the impact on budgets. Council Members were informed of a Legislative Forum to be held on Saturday, March 6, at 9:30 a.m. at AEA 7 in Cedar Falls. Since there is not enough time to plan a session on March 6, it was suggested that a meeting be scheduled with area Legislators for March 27. No official action was taken at the meeting. With no further business before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 6:14 p.m. Larry P. Burger City Clerk/Auditor