Lake County Gazette

Village of Winthrop Harbor Committee of the Whole met April 10.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

The meeting was called to order by Mayor Bruno at 6:00 pm.

The following Elected Officials were present:

Mayor: Dr. Michael Bruno

Trustees: Buddy Hargett, John Levin, Robert Marabella, Dana McCarthy, Richard Robards,

Hartmut “Fritz” Weiss

Also present:

Lisa Shaw, Finance Director

Julie Rittenhouse, Village Clerk

Pat DiPersio, Community Development Director

Tim Neargarder, Public Works Director

Joel Brumlik, Police Chief

Scott Fuller, Recreation Director

Michael Sheedy, IT

The meeting was called to discuss the following items.

2018-19 Budget and Wage Policy

Operating Budget FY 18/19 - Finance Director, Lisa Shaw, said that she thinks is should be passed as is because the Department Heads have brought their operating requests forward and have only asked for what they need. She didn’t think it was necessary to go through each department, line by line. Right now our projected cash stands $28,000 to the good. It would be a balanced budget with all of the requests in. Trustee Weiss said after we pass this budget, we better get on track looking for funding. It’s our job (the boards) to look for extra revenues. Mayor Bruno said in the future, if a department needs something and it’s going to cause them to go over their budget, they need to come before the board for approval first. Trustee Hargett asked if we were able to collect on the boat slip tax for this past year. Lisa told him that we did invoice them but late because of miscommunication. Hopefully they will get it to us before the end of our fiscal year. He also wanted to know about the redesigning of the web-site. Will we be able to fit it into the budget? Mike Bitton is getting quotes. Trustee Hargett then talked about the TIF and said that we need to be prepared for some backlash from the public. We also need to up hold the building permit standards and not give variances if we want to move forward with the TIF. Trustee Robards said that the PZB Board needs to work together with the Board and not allow these variances along the TIF District.

FMLA - Attorney Robert Long asked Lisa to share the information about FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act). Public Works has a clause in their contract that states they have to use all of their benefit time before FMLA starts. For all other employees (non-Public Work employees) FMLA will start immediately. He put this in Ordinance form for the board to approve at the next Village Board Meeting and then put in Wage Policy.

Attorney Longs increase of legal fees. He’s been with the Village for 12 years with no increase. He’s on retainer. Trustee Marabella said that Bob lives in Winthrop Harbor and serves on several committees and works hard for the Village. He’s been very valuable to the Village. Mayor Bruno suggested to increase his fees from $100,000 a year to $110,000. Trustee Hargett would like to know what the comparable legal fees are for municipalities. If we go from $100,000 to $110,000 that would be a 10% raise. The board wanted to know what Attorney Long thought would be fair. Mayor Bruno said he would talk to Bob.

Salary increases for Department Heads - Pat’s and Joel’s are already figured in the budget. It would leave four Department Heads – Lisa, Julie, Scott and Tim. Trustee Robards said, if we do give a raise, he would like to not see a percentage because that means the ones that make more money will get more and he didn’t know if that would be fair. Trustee Marabella was questioning where the money was going to come from. He made the statement that the Village doesn’t have the funds. Trustee Weiss reiterated the fact that the trustees need to find the funds. He also said that as trustees, they also have to work on Wage Policy and instead of the Department Heads being hourly they should be salary with steps to obtain raises. We need to come up with a better system. He feels like we need to give them a CPI increase of 3%. Trustee McCarthy thinks the 3% is ok. Some will get more but that’s the way it is in most industries. Trustee Weiss said that we have great Department Heads and we need to give them CPI raises. Trustee Hargett said that he thinks we need to add some standing items to the agenda under unfinished business to revisit so they stay on the radar and are not forgotten. The Board agreed to 3% for the remaining Department Heads.

Greg Jackson, Consultant – his salary was being taken out of the Capital Fund and it needs to be taken out of the Operating Fund. What line item do you want it taken from? $5,000 a month, $60,000 a year. Trustee Robards asked exactly what our return on our investment was and how much time are we going to give him? We need to nail down how long we are going to pay this money. Trustee Hargett said he understands because residents have asked what he’s doing for us. Trustee Robards asked, are we getting the value for our dollars? There are other things in the Village that we could have spent the money on. Are we going to keep him for a year, two years? How much time? Mayor Bruno said another year. It takes time. He’s been very valuable resource to our staff. Trustee Hargett suggested a more thorough update since we are approaching a year. Mayor Bruno said he will ask Greg to provide what he has accomplished and what he intends to accomplish. Trustee McCarthy said that if there is a possibility of keeping Greg on, we need to decide what line item we will be paying him out of.

Scott asked if we could add a concession worker to Wage Policy and Lisa told him yes.

Adjournment:

1 - A motion was made by Trustee Weiss and seconded by Trustee Robards to adjourn the meeting. Mayor Bruno declared the meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m. on the following roll call vote:

Ayes: (6) Hargett, Levin, Marabella, McCarthy, Robards, Weiss

Nays: (0)

Absent: (0)

Passed: (0)

https://www.egovlink.com/public_documents300/winthropharbor/published_documents/Administration/Agenda%20and%20Minutes%20-%20Board%20of%20Trustees/2018%20Minutes/04-10-18_COW_Meeting.pdf