Rock Island Today

City of East Moline Committee of the Whole met Aug. 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

ROLL CALL

Mayor Freeman called the meeting to order and directed Acting City Clerk Arletta D. Holmes to call the roll. The following Aldermen were present: Larry Toppert, Gary Almblade, Jayne O’Brien, Rhea Oakes and Maria Tapia. Absent: Nancy Mulcahey and Jose Rico. 7:00 p.m.

ADDITIONS/CORRECTIONS TO AGENDA

None.

WATER & SEWER RATE STUDY PRESENTATION (Mr. Kammler – Director of Engineering)

Representatives from HOR will be in attendance for a presentation and discussion regarding the current water & sewer rate study. Preliminary discussion only - no action will be requested at this meeting.

Shawn Koorn, HDR, Inc provided a 40-minute presentation regarding the water and sewer rate study.

RECOMMENDATION:

Presentation and discussion only.

ACTUARIAL VALUATION REPORTS - POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS' PENSION FUNDS (Ms. Annaka Whiting –Director of Finance) Lauterbach & Amen, LLP prepared the funding actuarial valuation reports for both the Police and Firefighters' Pension Funds. The purpose of these reports is to provide a recommendation for the City's employer contributions to each fund for the upcoming fiscal year.

Based on the reports, the recommended minimum contribution for Police Pension is $1,871,437 and $1,840,528 for Firefighters' Pension fund.

James Ritchie, Lauterbach & Amen will present the reports and answer any questions.

RECOMMENDATION:

Accept the actuarial valuations reports submitted by Lauterbach & Amen, LLP.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Recommendation for the City's contribution for the Police and Firefighters' Pension Funds for the upcoming 2022 fiscal year will be discussed during FY22 Budget Review.

A motion was made by Alderman seconded by Alderman O’Brien to concur with the recommendation as presented. Upon roll call the following voted in favor: Almblade, Mulcahey, O’Brien, Oakes, Tapia, Rico and Toppert. Motion carried.

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT AND CODE COMPLIANCE (Mr. Maxeiner – City Administrator)

Alderman Mulcahey requested that the addition of thisitem to theCOW agenda and the Mayor has agreed to add it to the agenda. Attached is the email outlining the request.

Currently, property standards and code compliance is addressed by two departments. The Community Service Officers in the Police Department handles junk cars and illegalstorage (and animal control).

The Inspections Department has been addressing building code violations and tall grass/weed violations as time permits. Most of these enforcement efforts are typically complaint driven.

FINANCIAL:

This is not a budgeted item.

POLICE OFFICER NEW HIRE (Chief Ramsey - EMPD)

The East Moline Police Department has two slots reserved for the Police Training Institute in Champaign, IL that begins Sept. 12, 2021. One of the slots is being filled with an officer replacement due to an officer resignation that took place and became effective on August 13th, 2021. I am requesting to fill the second slot with an addition of a new officer hire due to several circumstances. We currently have two officers out on injury with one that could be out for a long period of time. This compounded with the two officer positions we did not fill this year and the officer who recently resigned, puts us down a total of 5 officers currently. One of my concerns of being this short is that if any other illnesses, injuries, or retirements occur we will be in a situation where overtime may become excessive, and officers will be overworked due to mandatory overtime. The other concern is there are currently large waiting lists at the Police Academies in the state moving forward. The average officer takes 7-8 months to complete all training before they are on their own to count for manpower. We currently are on waiting lists for the next available police academies until the fall of 2022, this means we may not be guaranteed an academy spot for almost a year and this could set us back significantly.

The cost of the replacement officer to fill the spot that has been vacated due to a resignation is $14,163.39 which is cost savings of $4,913.10 for this budgeted position due to salary differences.

The cost of the new officer addition is also $14,163.39 which was not budgeted for this year. The actual overage forsalaries related to this would be $9,250.29 for this budget year due to the $4,913.10 savings on the replacement hire.

FINANCIAL:

This is not a budgeted item.

Line Item # 007-4200-110.1 Title: Salaries – Police Protection

Amount Budgeted: $0

Actual Cost: $14,163.39

Under/(Over): $9,250.29

Funding Sources: Salaries – Police Protection

Departments: Police Department

This is not a CIP.

RECOMMENDATION:

Approve the addition of one new police officer hire.

A motion was made by Alderman O’Brien, seconded by Alderman Toppert to to concur with the recommendation as presented. Upon roll call the following voted in favor: Mulcahey, O’Brien, Oakes, Tapia, Rico and Toppert. Opposed: Almblade. Motion carried. 6-1

ADJOURMENT:

A motion was made by Alderman Rico, seconded by Alderman Almblade to adjourn the Committee-of-the-Whole meeting. Upon roll call the following voted in favor: Almblade, Mulcahey, O’Brien, Oakes, Tapia, Rico and Toppert. Motion carried. Motion carried. 8:22 p.m.

https://www.eastmoline.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_08162021-742