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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GGAF_03.06.2015 Minutes of the Meeting of the GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE ADVISORY BOARD (GGAF) City of Georgetown, Texas March 6, 2015 These minutes were approved at the March 25, 2015 GGAF Meeting. The General Government and Finance Advisory Board met at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, 2015 in the Georgetown Public Library Classroom, located at 402 West 8thth Street, Georgetown, Texas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Keith Brainard, Chair, Jerry Hammerlun, Ralph Mason, Thomas Bonham MEMBERS ABSENT: Tommy Gonzalez STAFF/OTHERS PRESENT: Micki Rundell, Jim Briggs, Laurie Brewer, Trina Bickford, Lisa Haines, Leticia Zavala, Mike Peters, Chris Bryce, Wayne Nero, Clay Shell, James Davis, Kevin Sanford (Weaver and Tidwell, LLP) A copy of these minutes, containing detailed information on the items listed below will be available in the Finance and Administration Office, located at 113 East 8th Street, Georgetown, TX and can be found online at http://agendas.georgetown.org/ Executive Session In compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551, Government Code, Vernon’s Texas Codes, Annotated, the items listed below will be discussed in closed session and are subject to action in the regular session that follows. Regular Session – Called to order at 3:00 p.m. The GGAF Board may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to convene an Executive Session at the request of the Chair of the GGAF Committee for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551.) Public Wishing to Address Council On a subject that is posted on this agenda: Please fill out a speaker registration form. Clearly print your name and the letter of the item on which you wish to speak and present it to the Chair or Board Liaison, preferably prior to the start of the meeting. You will be called forward to speak when the Board considers that item. On a subject not posted on the agenda: Persons may add an item to a future Board agenda by contacting the Liaison prior to the creation of the agenda for the following meeting, with the subject matter of the topic they would like to address and their name. The Board Liaison can be reached at 512-930-3676 or by email at danella.elliott@georgetown.org Statutory Consent Agenda The Statutory Consent Agenda includes non-controversial and routine items that Board may act on with one single vote. A board member may pull any item from the Consent Agenda in order that the Board discuss and act upon it individually as part of the Regular Agenda. Council advised on August 26th to not have a Consent Agenda at Boards and Commission meetings; previously posted items were moved and discussed on the Legislative Regular Agenda. Legislative Regular Agenda The Board will individually consider and possibly take action on any or all of the following items: Keith Brainard, Chair, called to meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. A. Review minutes from the January 28, 2015 GGAF meeting - Danella Elliott, Executive Assistant Unanimously approved. B. Recognition of Board Members – Keith Brainard, GGAF Chair Mr. Brainard recognized Joe Pondrom, outgoing GGAF Citizen-at-Large member and presented him with a plaque for his years of service and outstanding contribution to the GGAF Board. He also introduced new member, Thomas Bonham, and welcomed him to the Board. C. Discussion and possible recommendation to authorize payment to Tyler Technologies for online web account management and payment processing fees in the amount of $87,000 - Leticia Zavala, Customer Care Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer Leticia explained that Insite is the City’s online account management and payment processing application. Benefits to the customers include the ability to: • Manage utility and municipal court accounts online via the website • Access real time account data & accurate billings & account information. • Pay their bill online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Benefits to the City/Utility include: • Increased collection rates • Improved productivity, allowing representatives to focus on higher return interactions • Increased efficiency since it automatically integrates with existing Customer Information (Billing) system (INCODE) Customer Care handles approximately 37,100 total payments per month including transactions for customers in the Western District, formerly Chisholm Trail Special Utility District. Web payments for the combined transactions accounted for 13% of the total payments processed. We received approximately 4,400 payments per month through the website in 2014. With the inclusion of the Western District the number is expected to increase by 600 per month based on their payment history. A basis of 5,000 payments per month was used to determine the estimated contract amount. Costs include web publishing fees, customer inquiry fees, and transaction fees, and are separated by area below. The Web Publishing fees and the Customer Inquiry fees are a fixed annual cost. The transaction fees are $1.25 each and are paid based on the number of payments taken through the website. The total estimated cost for this service is $87,000, which equates to 0.6% of the total online utility revenue collected through the website in 2014. Unanimously approved. D. Discussion and possible recommendation to renew a contract for utility bill printing and mailing services with Dataprose and to approve funding at an annual cost of $232,560 - Leticia Zavala, Customer Care Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer Leticia reminded the Board that the City uses an inter-local agreement with the City of Plano to award the utility bill printing and mailing service contract. She explained that the City benefits from the extended volume pricing and allows us to meet our procurement requirements through the Plano Request for Proposal (RFP) process. The City has had much success with Plano’s vendor, Dataprose, and looks to continue utilizing their services. Plano secured a lower contract price through their RFP process in 2014. The City of Georgetown processes and mails approximately 38,000 utility bills per month. These include late notices along with the additional bills processed for the Western District (formerly Chisholm Trail Special Utility District) customers. We are continuing to provide and market an email option for customer bill presentment which eliminates our postage costs for those customers. This option was introduced in June 2012 and has grown to include 5,800 participants or 15% of our total customer base. The overall pricing averages $0.51 per bill which is on par with pricing paid last year. The printing and insertion costs average $0.10 and the postage costs average $0.41. Eighty percent (80%) of the estimated annual contract cost of $232,560 is related to postage and equates to $186,048. The total cost for bill printing and insertion is $46,512. The GGAF Board recommended that staff strongly encourage people to start receiving their bills electronically versus paper. Educating the public and getting the word out is very important. Leticia said that this was high on her list and she hopes that in the near future, this will be the way most citizens receive their information. Unanimously approved. E. Purchase of Library Audio-Video System from Ford Audio-Video for $56,638.84 – Mike Peters, Information Technology Director and Keith Hutchinson, Public Communications Manager Mike explained that this is a request for approval to purchase an integrated audio-video system for the Friends and Hewlett rooms of the Georgetown Library, which will make the room more suitable for large presentations and also allow for additional expansion into meeting broadcasts from these rooms. Key components include video projection capabilities and wired/wireless audio. The City will also separately contract with SwagIt, LLC to reinstall video broadcast equipment into these rooms, which is already owned by the City. Ford Audio/Video is providing these products and services under TIPS contract 1121914. This purchase qualifies for, and will be paid by, the City’s Public, Educational and Government (PEG) fee funding, which was established following transfer to the state franchise agreement in 2013. Costs will be recorded in the PEG fee fund. Jerry asked if there were local vendors available, and Mike said that it was good to have all AV equipment with the same vendor. Unanimously approved. F. Purchase of Cellular Digital Antenna System (DAS) for the Public Safety Operations and Training Center (PSOTC) from Brycomm for $138,381.00 - Wayne Nero, Police Chief, Codi Newsom, Project Manager and Mike Peters, Information Technology Director Chief Nero said that this item is requesting approval to purchase a cellular Digital Antenna System (DAS) for the Public Safety Operations and Training Center (PSOTC) in order to provide adequate cell service inside of the building. Cellular service inside of the building is currently marginal to poor throughout the building because of the construction materials used, and the location/siting of the building. The DAS will re-broadcast signals from four major cell phone carriers within the building at levels which will provide reliable and scalable service. Brycomm is providing these products and services under DIR contract DIR-SDD-1901, and can be absorbed within the PSOTC Total Project Cost. There is currently $40k being held for the system and just over $100k in recognized savings from IT equipment. Chief noted that we are comfortable this can be done with the TPC with savings remaining. Thomas asked if FS #5 and the PSOTC could both be added. Mike will check into this possibility. He said that the timeline for completion could be 3-4 months, but the rebroadcast agreements with each carrier would need to be re-signed, which could take additional time. Unanimously approved. G. Consideration and possible action to approve the purchase of firefighting equipment and personnel protective clothing from CASCO Industries using the Buy Board Contract at a price not to exceed $90,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2014-2015 – John Sullivan, Fire Chief Asst Chief Clay Shell explained that the Georgetown Fire Department (GFD) periodically purchases new and replacement equipment and personal protective clothing and equipment (PPE) on an as needed basis through the year, and anticipates expenditures for the remainder of 2014-2015 will total approximately $90,000. Staff has determined that the best value for the City is to procure the required gear from Casco Industries using their competitively bid Buy Board Contract #432-13. Use of a competitively bid cooperative contract provides more favorable pricing as the cooperative solicits for statewide usage volumes as opposed to that of the City only. Currently, GFD anticipates procuring the following items immediately: • 16 sets of structural PPE - $40,734.00 • 16 sets of wildland PPE - $14,016.00 (estimated cost) • Ladder Safety Belts - $10,000.00 • Replacement PPE as needed • Firefighting hand tools, equipment, and fire hose for new apparatus as needed Unanimously approved. H. Consideration and possible action to approve the purchase of emergency medical supplies from Bound Tree Medical through a purchasing cooperative inter-local agreement between the City of Georgetown and Williamson County at a price not to exceed $60,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2014-2015 – John Sullivan, Fire Chief Asst. Chief Shell informed the GGAF Board that the GFD will stock their new TRVs during the coming months, and periodically restock the vehicles as needed through the remainder of the fiscal year. Staff has determined the best value to the City is to procure the required medical supplies under the purchasing cooperative inter-local agreement between the City of Georgetown, Texas and Williamson County, Texas. Bound Tree Medical, a Sarnova business based in Dublin, Ohio, is a distributor of emergency medical equipment, supplies, pharmaceuticals and product expertise for fire departments, military, government institutions and other emergency medical services (EMS) organizations that provide pre-hospital, emergency care. Other cooperative contracts were considered and determined less advantageous. The cost for emergency medical supplies required to initially equip the TRVs is $16,220.60. The Fire Department will procure additional emergency medical supplies on an as needed basis to ensure the TRVs are properly stocked at all times. Unanimously approved. I. Consideration and possible action to approve the purchase of emergency medical supplies from Life Assist, Inc. through a purchasing cooperative inter-local agreement between the City of Georgetown and Williamson County at a price not to exceed $90,000 for the remainder of fiscal year 2014-2015 – John Sullivan, Fire Chief Asst. Chief Shell again said that the GFD stock their new TRVs during the coming months, and periodically restock the vehicles as needed through the remainder of the fiscal year. Staff has determined the best value to the City is to procure the required medical supplies under the purchasing cooperative inter-local agreement between the City of Georgetown, Texas and Williamson County, Texas. Life-Assist is one of the nation's largest distributors of emergency medical supplies and equipment. Since 1977, they have specialized in customer service, with customer satisfaction as their ultimate goal. Other cooperative contracts were considered and determined less advantageous. The cost for emergency medical supplies required to initially equip the TRVs is $53,077.60. The Fire Department will procure additional emergency medical supplies on an as needed basis to ensure the TRVs are properly stocked at all times. Unanimously approved. J. Discuss dates/times for future GGAF Meetings – Keith Brainard, GGAF Chair Keith asked the GGAF Board to be thinking of the best day/time to hold future GGAF Meetings. He said that the current time slot is not the best time for him, but wants to discuss this at a later meeting when everyone is present and has had time to think of their preferences and prior commitments. Ralph said that he is retired, thus very flexible. This item will be on the next GGAF Agenda for March 25th.