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HomeMy Public PortalAbout07-05-2012THE BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS AND SAFETY OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND, INDIANA, JULY 5, 2012 The Board of Public Works and Safety of the City of Richmond, Indiana, met at 5:00 P.M., Thursday, July 5, 2012, in the Council Chambers at the Municipal Building, 50 North 5th Street, Richmond, Indiana. In attendance were Board Members Vicki Robinson, Dian Lawson and Tony Foster. Also attending were Assistant City Attorney Kim Vessels, Community Development Specialist Sharon Palmer and Director of Information Technology Doug Goss. The following business was conducted: CALL TO ORDER Ms. Robinson called the meeting to order and noted for the minutes that all board members and legal counsel were present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ms. Robinson made a request to the board to approve the minutes for the July 28, 2012 meeting. Ms. Lawson moved to approve with a second by Ms. Robinson. The motion was unanimously passed. CLAIMS FOR PAYMENT Ms. Robinson made a request to the board to approve the revised claims for payment for June 29, 2012 that included a check that was issued on June 29, 2012 to Eastside Commercial Park in the amount of $200,000.00 for the construction of a commercial site on East Main Street. Mr. Foster moved to approve with a second by Ms. Lawson. The motion was unanimously passed. Ms. Robinson made a request to the board to approve the claims for payment for July 6, 2012 in the amount of $62,952.71. Ms. Lawson moved to approve with a second by Mr. Foster. The motion was unanimously passed. APPOINTMENT A. Mr. Foster moved to table the request to appoint David Spradling to Probationary Officer of the Richmond Police Department until more information could be obtained from the Richmond Police Department with a second by Ms. Lawson. The motion was unanimously passed. Board of Works Minutes July 15, 2012 Page 2 of 5 RESOLUTION A. Resolution No 12 -2012 is approving the addendum to Contract No. 160 -2012 that is the Substance Abuse Policy for the Rose View Transit with Dr. Steven Moffitt working out of Midwest Toxicology Services to perform drug testing for Rose View Transit. Ms. Vessels explained to the board that the addendum that was submitted was a revised fee schedule showing that the drug testing went up by $2.00 and the Supervising Training notebook went down by $10.00. Ms. Lawson moved to approve with a second by Mr. Foster. The motion was unanimously passed. CHANGE ORDERS A. Change Order No. 6 to Contract No. 174 -2011 with Trademark Construction LLC reduces the contract by $20,091.62. Ms. Palmer explained to the board that Trademark Construction has done a great job in shopping for the best prices to save money. The monies that are saved will be put towards other NSP properties that still need to be done. Mr. Foster moved to approve with a second by Ms. Lawson. The motion was unanimously passed. B. Change Order No. 7 to Contract No. 174 -2011 with Trademark Construction LLC. This change order movies monies around into different line items for the NSP property at 626 South 8t11 Street. The amount of the contract is not changed it just provides a paper trail showing the expenditures for the property. Ms. Lawson moved to approve with a second by Mr. Foster. The motion was unanimously passed. ADDENDUM A. Addendum No. 1 to Contract No. 184 -2010 with AECOM for Environmental Remediation Services for the former Gas building. Mr. Foster explained that this project was being funded by State & Federal Grants, private contributions and $15,000.00 of local money. Ms. Lawson moved to approve with a second by Mr. Foster. The motion was unanimously passed. CONTRACTS A. Contract No. 77 -2012 between the City of Richmond, Unified Group Services and Wolf & Associates, P.C. for the subrogation claims. Mr. Foster moved to approve with a second by Ms. Lawson. The motion was unanimously passed. B. Contract no. 83 -2012 with Trademark Construction LLC for the rehabilitation of 215 South 10th Street as part of the NSP 3 Project not to exceed $161,041.00. It was noted for the minutes that this is all 100% NSP 3 federal funds. Ms. Lawson moved to approve with a second by Mr. Foster. The motion was unanimously passed. C. Contract No. 85 -2012 with Beard Masonry, Inc for the North 8th and "D" Street Parking Lot Retaining Wall Project not to exceed $44,742.00. Ms Lawson moved to approve with a second by Mr. Foster. The motion was unanimously passed. Board of Works Minutes July 15, 2012 Page 3 of 5 D. Contract No. 86 -2012 with Active Network for the development of the New City Website in the amount of $46,176.00. Mr. Goss asked that this be included in the minutes: I want to take this opportunity to briefly elaborate some on the City Website. As Director of Information Technology I am responsible for the City website. As I have said before, our current website is a great disappointment and does not reflect well upon the city. When I started with the city just a little over four years ago the current website was brand new. It was supposed to be updated on a regular basis by each individual department, not just the IT department. But do to a non user friendly interface to accomplish this it became rare that this occurred. Even the IT department had issues with figuring out where to go within the interface to update something. I also learned that there had been several failed attempts at creating an acceptable website prior to my arrival. The situation became worse when the current city website was hacked. Not once but twice. We tried to work with the vendor who created the site as well as the hosting company with no success. What many people don't realize is all government websites, including the City of Richmond Indiana, are under constant attack. Approximately, 1 -112 years ago I started the process of replacing the current website. Since there were several failed attempts at a successful website I wanted to make sure that this one will be a success. I started to come up with a plan and started to implement that plan. I created a website committee and after talking with a local website development firm, we decided to hire them to give us recommendations for the redevelopment of the website. They conducted several interviews with various groups internal and external. They conducted surveys of City Employees, Elected Officials, and the general public. From these surveys we learned what information people would like to see on the City website. We then asked that firm to do the development of the site. They refused. This set us back almost to square one. I then wrote a Request For Proposal and sent it out to several possible website development vendors. Several local and several national companies. We received only 3 responses; I local 2 national. We asked the local company and I of the national companies to give a presentation to the committee. The company we chose gave a fabulous 6 hour presentation. The Active Network was able to demonstrate every item we requested in the Request For Proposal plus some. They have experience doing many of local government websites as well as other organizations. Some of these organizations include State of Board of Works Minutes July 15, 2012 Page 4 of 5 New York, San Francisco, Notre Dame, New York City, IBM, Star Bucks, Iron Man and the State of Georgia. The bid for the website was awarded back in January. Since then we have been in negotiation with them over language in the contract. We also had to do a great amount of due diligence in regarded to accepting credit cards. State law required approval of the fiscal governing body as well as that the way the city accepts credit cards be done in a uniform manner. Initially, the contract would not have been uniform with the way the city has and is accepting credit cards now. A great amount of research was completed by the law department, myself and the controllers office to determine the best way to meet the uniform requirement. Our new website will be rolled out in phases. ONE of the things our surveys indicate is people want to know what there is to do in the City of Richmond. Active Networks is very strong in event management or Parks and Recreation. The new website will eventually allow users to register for Park programs, rent shelters and get a tee time for golf. It will also replace and integrate with our park point of sale system. It will also have a Citizen Request Management System. This will be were citizens can basically put in work orders for things like pot holes, weed issues, graffiti etc. The list of features could go on and on. We have seen the user interface and feel that it is user friendly. We also have a plan to help hold those assigned to update the website accountable. There will also be a lot of training. I'm sorry that this process has been so drawn out. It has been frustrating to me. I have lost sleep over the issue. Especially, when it has become apolitical kick ball. At any time I would have gladly spoke with anyone regarding the issue. Very few ever spoke to me. I would like to request that the board approve contract # 86 -2012 for the amount not to exceed $46,176 for website development by The Active Network. Ms. Lawson asked if there was any way around the City having to pay the fees associated with taking the credit cards. She felt that maybe the Council was short sited when they passed the ordinance allowing the City to take credit cards saying the City would pay the fees and maybe they shouldn't have passed the ordinance allowing the City to take credit cards. Mr. Goss reminded her that the ordinance had passed and there was a lot of research done and if the City had been with Active Network last year the City would have saved money. He said that the problem with going with a fee paid by the consumer would make a $1.00 hotdog become a $2.00 hotdog making the low end sales greatly suffer. He went on to explain that it would be hard to explain to someone why they had to pay more for a hotdog then they did the year before. Board of Works Minutes July 15, 2012 Page 5 of 5 Ms. Lawson asked how this company will save the City money on credit cards and was told by Mr. Goss that there are many different variables to determine how the fees are implemented. When she asked the question again he told her that if you look at what the City paid in fees last year and if they would have been with Active Network at that time they would have saved the City money. Ms. Vessels told Ms. Lawson that the Controller's Office would be monitoring the fees to make sure that it would be saving the City money. Mr. Goss said that he would be more than willing to bring up a spread sheet on the computer and share the cost savings with anyone. Mr. Foster then asked what would be the timeline to get this all implemented and Mr. Goss said he wasn't sure but was hoping to have it up and running by the end of the year if not sooner. Mr. Foster then moved to approve with a second by Ms. Lawson. The motion was unanimously passed. ANNOUNCEMENT Ms Robinson announced that there was a final meeting previously scheduled for tonight after regular Board of Works items concerning Firefighter Grievance 27 -2012. Due to miscommunication that Final Meeting will be rescheduled at a later date to be determined. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, on a motion duly made, seconded and passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned. S/S Vicki Robinson Vicki Robinson, President ATTEST: S/S Monica Burns Monica Burns, Deputy Clerk A recording of this meeting is on file in the Office of the City Clerk.