HomeMy Public PortalAboutCM Department Report - Oct 2019Memo /
To: City Council
From: Anette Spickard, City Manager
Date: October 31, 2019
Re: Monthly Department Report – October 2019
ICMA (International City/County Manager Association) Conference
I attended the annual City Manager conference 10/19-10/23 and came away feeling very proud of our City Council, our City’s accomplishments, and the quality of our employees. McCall
is moving forward on a number of policy issues such as housing, infrastructure upgrades, and broadband access that cities across the country are also trying to address. In our case,
we are putting our policies into action and starting to see results where other places are still debating the issues and what to do. We are very fortunate to have the tools that the
legislature has provided to us, such as the Local Option Tax authority, as well as a supportive citizenry that has voted to implement our plans and provided us the resources to do so.
I have attached my notes from the conference if you are interested in reading more about the sessions.
Monthly Payette Lakes Recreational Water and Sewer District check in
Dale Caza, General Manager of PLRWSD, and I agreed we would meet the second Wednesday of every month to ensure good communication between our agencies and to resolve issues at the earliest
point possible. October 9 was our first meeting. We discussed coordination of efforts on current construction and engineering projects as well as the need for higher level coordination
of our master plans and CIP plans once the district has completed their new Wastewater Master Plan. We also discussed communication of building permit data for the proper set up of
new wastewater accounts as the district charges customers on a square footage basis, not a usage basis. Our next meeting will be November 13.
Open Meetings Law training sponsored by Idaho Attorney General
I attended this training at Idaho First Bank with a number of city employees and councilors. I thought it was very informative and helpful, especially the clarification of the requirements
for reporting on executive sessions. I’m happy to say that our City Clerk is very well informed on these laws and has done an excellent job ensuring we comply.
Parks Relocation to Museum Site
I continued to work with our Parks & Recreation Director and our consultant Dennis Humphries evaluating the museum site for the future home of the Parks division, identifying the relocation
costs, and laying out a timeframe for approvals by the State Historic Preservation Office and State Land Board. Staff has met with the Museum Board to keep them apprised of the City’s
intention. This will be a future work
session topic for Council. Council previously identified the Museum site as your preferred location for Parks after evaluating several options and directed staff to develop a plan to
move Parks to that site.
Human Resources Update:
At the October 10 Council meeting, Council expressed interest in learning more about where McCall stands in respect to Public Safety position salaries given recent changes to pay scales
at the Valley County Sheriff’s office. The Police Chief and HR Manager are compiling data and analysis to bring forward to Council for future discussion. Filling vacant patrol officer
positions continues to be a challenge and we are faced with new challenges as other agencies attempt to hire our officers away from us. The budget that began October 1, 2019 included
a 2% market adjustment to all city salaries including patrol officers. The budget also includes a potential for a 3% merit increase for employees, based on performance, in February
2020.