HomeMy Public PortalAbout05-03-1993 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF RICHMOND.INDIANA.SERVING AS A BOARD
IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATION OF THE RICHMOND POWER&LIGHT PLANT
MONDAY. MAY 3.1993
1 The Common Council of the City of Richmond, Indiana, serving as a Board in charge of the operations of the
2 Richmond Power& Light Plant met in regular session at 7 p.m. Monday,June 1, 1992 in the Municipal Building in
3 said City. Chairperson Brookbank presided with the following Councilmembers in attendance: Elstro, Lundy,
4 Donat, McBride,Parker, Allen, Dickman and Hutton. The following business was had to-wit:
5
6 ROLL CALL
7
8 APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF APRIL 19.1993
9
10 Councilmember McBride moved to approve the minutes of the previous meeting as prepared, seconded by
11 Councilmember Donat and on unanimous voice vote the motion was carried.
12
13 APPROVAL OF BILLS. INVESTMENTS AND TRANSFERS
14
15 Upon recommendation of the Finance Committee, Councilmember Allen moved to approve the following bills for
16 payment after reading the amounts,seconded by Councilmember McBride and on unanimous voice vote the
17 motion carried.
18
19 Bills Already Paid
20 Payroll and Deductions 213,263.54
21
22
23 Investments Purchased From:
24 Cash Operating Fund 2,500,000.00
25 Bond Sinking Fund
26 Utiity Bond Reserve Fund
27 28
Depreciation Reserve Fund 91,718.03
Insurance Reserve Fund
29 Consumer Deposit Fund
30 Cash Reserve Fund 138,584.93
31 Group Insurance Fund
32
33 Total Investments 2,730,302.96
34
35
36 Transfer to City in Lieu of Taxes:
37
38 Transfer from Cash Operating Fund to:
39 Payroll Deduction Fund
40
41
42 Transfers from Depreciation Reserve to: -
43 Cash Operating Fund
44
45 Transfers from Consumer Deposit to:
46 Cash Operating Fund
47
48 Transfers from Utility Bond Reserve Fund to;
49 Bond Sinking Fund
50
51 Transfers from Cash Operating :
52 Interest and Bond Principal
53 Bond Sinking Fund
54 Cash Reserve Fund
55 Utility Bond Sinking Fund
56 Depreciation Reserve Fund
57 Insurance Reserve Fund
58 Consumer Deposit Fund
59
60 Interest and Bond Principal
61
62 End of Month Petty Cash
63 Revenue Bonds
64 Interest Coupons Redeemed
65 Bond Coupons
Miscellaneous Bills Already Paid 1,748,563.46
Total prepaid invoices 4,692,129.96
Total Bills Not Paid 626,174.11
Grand Total 5,318,304.07
RP&L Minutes Cont'd
May 3, 1993
Page 2
1 REMARKS BY CHAIRPERSON
2
3 None were made
4
5 UNFINISHED BUSINESS
6
7 Directing her remarks to General Manager Irving Huffman, Chairperson Brookbank said as she was reading
8 through the agreement with the union there was some confusion on exactly how the terms in the contract were
9 determined. She asked him to walk through the negotiations,tell who the participants were and who signed off on
10 the contract dated Oct. 1, 1992.
11
12 Huffman said the agreement which went through last fall is the same one that has gone through in the years
13 before since there was a union contract in 1935. He said it has represented employees since 1972. Present at the
14 negotiations were those people elected by the employees to represent them, union representatives from
15 Indianapolis and RP & L department heads. Historically, Huffman said, the first drafting of the first contract was
16 done with Reid Sisson and at least 10 negotiations have been held this way. An agreement is arrived at that the
17 membership must approve as well as the Board of Directors. Huffman said he called each of the Board members
18 personally to get his or her vote as to whether or not it was acceptable and received all votes in the affirmative
19 which indicated the proceedings could move forward with RP & L accepting the negotiated offer, the employees
20 voting to accept it and the contracts signed.
21
22 Chairperson Brookbank noted that while going through the minutes of the RP & L Board meetings she found no
23 record of members voting on the contract.That, she said, brought up the question as to whether the contract was
24 null and void if the vote was not taken in a meeting.
25
26 Huffman responded that it was his feeling that the Board would not want to make null and void a contract that had
27 been represented to the employees as being acceptable. When Councilmember Allen said she had not been
28 called for a vote Huffman recalled that she had been out of town. Chairperson Brookbank said when she was
29 called she was told it was only a 3 percent wage increase, then when she read in the book containing the
30 agreement, she found that the 3 percent was for 1993 and an additional 3 percent in 1994. Huffman responded
31 that it was a two-year negotiated contract. Chairperson Brookbank said she didn't understand that. He
32 commented that every contract that has been negotiated has been a two-year contract.
33
34 Chairperson Brookbank said that in former times only five Board members had participated in an"exit conference
35 of a union agreement and she did not recall in the past four or six years that they had had a conference with
36 Sisson. Huffman responded that the primary thing accomplished at this union negotiation was wag and no change
37 had been made in the areas of fringe benefits. Councilmember McBride suggested that the issue be brought on
38 the floor in the future. Huffman said in the past he has tried to keep the Board informed and have a committee to
39 discuss the negotiations then at the end after the proposal is made bring it before the Board for a vote but not a
40 formal floor vote. He said historically, from the beginning, each Board member has been contacted individually
41 because wage negotiation is something that he feels shouldn't go through the newspaper.
42
43 Chairperson Brookbank said her concern is that this will possibly be the third year the city employees will be
44 receiving no pay increases and she had told Huffman that the budget was going to be a tight budget. Huffman
45 said he recalled that Brookbank told him to hold the line but negotiations across the country with utilities have
46 been 3 to 4 percent and when he asked the Board member he contacted if they thought that was fair they agreed
47 that it was. Councilmember Elstro commented that in past years the Board did not want to be in on the
48 negotiations themselves. Chairperson Brookbank said she thought the Board needed to get together and listen to
49 Sisson, the labor attorney. In answer to her question as to whether anything can be done about the issue now,
50 Milligan said it was too late, but suggested that in the future that the Board adopt the contract in a full Board
51 meeting, adding that it is probably the most significant contract the Board will have in a two-year period and the
52 amount of money involved certainly requires a full Board to meet and discuss it and adopt it in a formal manner.
53
54 STREET LIGHT COMMITTEE REPORT
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56 Councilmember McBride reported that he met with Robert Hankosky and the two of them had gone to Dana
57 Parkway and agreed that two lights should come down in the abandoned part of the street. The suggestion was
58 that the two on the south side should stay but the two on the north side should be removed. Huffman said he had
59 to receive an order from the Board of Works to do that. Councilmember McBride asked City Clerk Norma Carnes
60 if she would see that the Board of Works was advised of the situation.
61
62 MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS
63
64 None.
65
RP&L Minutes Cont'd
May 3, 1993
Page 3
1 REPORT BY GENERAL MANAGER
2
3 General Manager Iry ing Huffman announced that he had received bids for a cargo van which had been
4 advertised in the Palladium-Item on April 22 and April 29. Councilmember Hutton moved to accept the publisher's
5 affidavit he submitted,second by Councilmember Parker and the motion was carried by a unanimous voice vote.
6
7 Huffman opened the two bids received.The first,from Studebaker-Buick GMC Navistar Inc.was for$17,211 with
8 an estimated delivery date of from 8 to 12 weeks.The second,from Fred First Ford,was for$17,033.60 and an
9 alternate bid was for$16,416 with a delivery date from 30 to 90 days. Bids were referred to Huffman for
10 evaluation and recommendation through a motion by Councilmember Allen,second by Councilmember Dickman
11 and carried by a unanimous voice vote.
12
13 Huffman read a letter he had drafted and sent in response to the Citizens Finance Advisory Committee. (Letter in
14 RP& L file).Copies were sent to the Committee,the RP&L Board of Directors, Mayor Roger Cornett and City
15 Attorney Thomas Milligan.
16
17 At the conclusion of the reading of the letter, Councilmember Dickman said Councilmember Allen and he were
18 involved in the drafting of the findings of that committee and he didn't know the subject was on the agenda tonight
19 and time was running out. He said he felt a lot of things needed to be discussed and in some ways the General
20 Manager had made the same mistake he had accused the committee of making and that was in not checking
21 before he wrote such a report and made it public. He said he feels a discussion is needed at a later date.
22 Councilmember Allen added her comments,that the report was presented to the Mayor and no action was taken
23 and maybe mone would ever be. Included in the report,she said,were only suggestions made by the committee
24 for his consideration. Huffman said he was concerned that the report had been highly publicized and many of the
25 things cast a tremendous amount of discredit to RP& L,the management and the Board. He said he felt those
26 things should be addressed and it was his thought that the only way to do it properly was by reading it to this
27 Board in this meeting because he felt the news media would not carry it to the same extent and with the same
28 vehemency as they did in reporting the findings of the Citizens Advisory Committee.
29
30 Huffman said he had given all the Board members materials concerning the cable television project prepared by
31 the firm of Ice Miller Donadio& Ryan of Indianapolis. Included in the materials, he said, is the petition of taxpayers
32 regarding the project,the articles of incorporation,by laws for the holding corporation and a form of an ordinance.
33 He said the document is very complete,containing many different items that he feels the Board shoudl go over in
34 detail. (See these in the RP& L file).Huffman suggested either Downs or Emison from the law firm could meet
35 with the Board and answer any questions members have about the material. It was Huffman's suggestion that the
36- meeting take place at the meeting held normally on the fourth Monday of the month at RP&L.
37
38 Milligan stated that this Board would not be involved in those steps, adding that the Common Council is the only
39 body that can do those things.The Board members, Milligan said, will be meeting as a Common Council after
40 adopting the ordinance that is on the agenda of the meeting immediateldy following the RP&L Board meeting.
41
42 Councilmember Allen said she needed a clarification of the financial statement and received that from Herschel
43 Philpot, RP &L's treasurer.She also asked about the Black&Veach contract and Milligan said changes he had
44 recommended had been worked out with Black&Veach and had been submitted to him for review. It had been
45 approved and executed pursuant to the Board's authority.
46
47 ADJOURNMENT
48
49 There being no further business,on a motion duly made,seconded and passed the meeting was
50 adjourned.
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57
58 Jane Brookbank,Chairperson
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64
65 ATTEST:
Norma Carnes, City Clerk