City council 5/28/13: agenda

PRELIMINARY MATTERS:

1. Call to order
2. Roll call
3. Pledge of allegiance to the flag
4. Agenda approval
5. Proclamations/presentations/recognitions/announcements

PUBLIC COMMENTS: Agenda items (5 minutes allowed per person)
Non-agenda items (2 minutes allowed per person)

CONSENT AGENDA: The following items will be adopted on a single motion without discussion unless a councilmember requests separate consideration.

1. May 14, 2013 Regular Council Meeting Minutes

NEW BUSINESS: Ordinance introductions and resolutions for initial consideration

2. Fund warrant list and payroll.

3. Resolution 2013-108 Posting the position of City Manager. Placed on the agenda by Councilman Zwolak.

4. Resolution 2013-109 AUTHORIZING THE SALE AND PURCHASE OF A GERMAN SHEPHERD K-9 DOG, EQUIPMENT, AND TRAINING NECESSARY TO ESTABLISH THE NEW HAMTRAMCK K-9 TEAM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SETTLED FOP CONTRACT AND THE CITIES WISHES. FISCAL NOTE ATTACHED. Placed on agenda by Police Chief Garbarino.
Continue reading

Budget meeting 5/07/13

Tertzag said there was no feasible way to balance the budget with our contractual obligations. Property taxes are expected to drop because values fell 10.5%. We expect $15.6 million revenue with $17 million in expenses, which is better than this year, but not balanced as the revenue act requires. Last year’s budget was balanced on a $3 million loan we didn’t get. We will be short around $2.2 million this year, and $736,000 short the year before. We are $3.4 million short
altogether with this budget.

Johnson said the state allows deficits, but in no more than 5 years, we have to balance the operating budget and eliminate the accumulated deficit. We can’t address the cumulative deficit when there are still annual shortfalls. We had a full year of public safety grant revenues, but that is offset by the loss in property taxes. Overall expenditures have dropped $800,000. The debt service has dropped off and employee benefits have been changed. We have to cut $1.4 million according to page 10 of the proposed budget. The state will not allow the deficit to continue to escalate. Revenue is based on detailed projections. We are limited in what we can cut.
Continue reading

Review team report published

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/treasury/Hamtramck_Review_Team_Report_5-23-13_422292_7.pdf

Highlights: (emphasis added)

City officials had adopted budgets, or budget amendments, or both, that do not comply with Public Act 2 of 1968, the Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act. For example, for the 2012 fiscal year, City officials adopted a General Fund budget that had a net negative $1.7 million change in fund balance due primarily to a $1 million over estimation of property tax revenues and expenditures exceeding budgeted revenues for fire services by $427,360 and for public works by $457,828. This same budget resulted in an actual unrestricted General Fund deficit of $753,733. Similarly, City officials amended the 2013 fiscal year budget in November of 2012, without addressing an operating deficit of $2.7 million. In short, City officials made little effort to address a revenue shortfall by reducing expenditures as required by Public Act 2 of 1968.

Subsequently, officials submitted a deficit elimination plan that was deemed unacceptable by the Department of Treasury. For the 2013 fiscal year, the deficit elimination plan included significant revenue enhancements, amounting to $781,231, and $241,500 in expenditure reductions. Yet, City officials provided no evidence that the revenue enhancements were realistic or that the expenditure reductions could be made. However, even if the revenue enhancements and expenditure reductions were fully realized, City officials projected expenditures to exceed revenues by over $1.7 million. In other words, the deficit elimination plan failed to provide any reasonable assurance that the City is adequately addressing its structural deficit. Furthermore, while the request for a preliminary review by City officials noted an inability to achieve concessions from employee unions, the deficit elimination plan included $2.5 million in labor concessions for the 2015 fiscal year when existing labor contracts expire at the end of the 2014 fiscal year. However, the deficit elimination plan provided no detail concerning the probability of attaining the concessions or how the City anticipates achieving them.

City officials utilized assets from other City funds to increase cash flow in the General Fund. Among the more significant transactions were $110,206 from the Water and Sewer Fund and $500,000 from the Local Streets Fund. Borrowing from other funds is indicative of cash flow issues. As indicated in Table 1 on the next page, for the City’s 2009 fiscal year, General Fund revenues exceeded General Fund expenditures by more than $1.3 million. However, in the 2010 fiscal year, the opposite occurred, with expenditures exceeding revenues by almost $1.2 million. The 2011 fiscal year realized an increase in property taxes because of a one-time payment from the City of Detroit and an increase in fund balance because of a $2 million transfer from the City’s Budget Stabilization Fund. However, the overall trend of the City’s financial condition reflected a decline in revenues during this period. Had the City paid attention to the decline in property tax revenue, and made the necessary cuts in fiscal year 2011, it could have potentially avoided a General Fund deficit while preserving the one-time payment and Budget Stabilization Fund transfer. However, failing to make reductions in expenditures created overall fund deficits.

City officials had delayed making approximately $2.2 million in required pension contributions in order to manage cash flow. At the time of the preliminary review, it was anticipated that the City could deplete its cash by April 2013, unless City officials continued to forego required pension contributions, thus increasing the $2.2 million arrearage by an estimated $295,000 for each additional month of delayed payments. It was anticipated that City officials also would need to delay repayment of $500,000 to the Local Streets Fund and other accounts payable.

According to the City’s 2012 fiscal year financial audit, the ending balance in the General Fund decreased from $2,721,020 as of June 30, 2011 to a negative $582,365 as of June 30, 2012. This one-year negative net change in fund balance of $3,303,385 resulted from an operating deficit (i.e., expenditures in excess of revenues) of the same amount.

The Review Team found it noteworthy that there was essentially unanimous acknowledgement from every City and union official with whom the Review Team met that a financial emergency exists within the City of Hamtramck. Likewise, there was essentially unanimous acknowledgement that the economic conditions which contributed to the financial emergency were neither precipitous nor unforeseen. In other words, it appears that the City’s worsening financial condition was obvious to City officials, but that they were either unwilling or incapable of taking resolute action to address the matter.

During the course of our discussions with various individuals, two key themes emerged as contributing factors to the inability of City officials to address the City’s decaying financial condition: frequent turnover in the City Manager position and significant dysfunction within the City Council. Neither of these deficiencies is, in itself financial in nature, but each appears to have contributed to the City’s financial emergency.

First, we address the City Manager position. Since the City was released from emergency financial management in November 2007, it has had six different individuals serve in the City Manager position, in either a permanent or acting capacity. In fact, five of those individuals have served within approximately the last 12 months. Many City officials interviewed by the Review Team indicated that the frequent turnover in this key managerial and administrative position resulted in an ever-changing strategic direction within the City which, in turn, had a profound impact upon day-to-day City operations.

It also was noted by several City officials that the frequent turnover in the City Manager position posed a considerable challenge to City staff seeking to adapt to changes in management styles and resulted in ineffective communication. For example, City and union officials expressed considerable differences of opinions regarding the amount of labor concession that had been requested and the amount of such concession that had been offered in response.

Second, we address the dysfunction within the City Council. While several City Councilmembers we interviewed seemed individually knowledgeable regarding the City’s financial condition, the members of that body seemed unable to function collectively in a coherent manner. City Councilmembers themselves indicated that financial leadership by that body has been demonstrated only in the breach. With that assessment, we concur. Furthermore, we include the Mayor in our assessment. While the Mayor is separately elected, the office is so inextricably linked to the City Council as to be part of the local governing body. For example, the Mayor attends City Council meetings and is responsible for presiding at them.

The Review Team was informed that City Council meetings are chaotic, protracted, and produce little in the way of tangible results. In such an environment, rational financial management is not likely to be forthcoming. Illustrative of this point is the fact that when Review Team members inquired of City Councilmembers regarding a proposed plan to address the City’s financial condition, the response from most City Councilmembers was that they intended to request an emergency manager. Indeed, the prevailing attitude among several City Councilmembers was that an emergency manager would quickly remedy the City’s financial condition (by which they meant that an emergency manager would relieve them of the financial burdens of collective bargaining agreements into which they now believe they improvidently entered) and that just as quickly State officials would remove the City from receivership and return it to local control. Certainly, some of the collective bargaining agreements would benefit from an independent review.(see note 4 – HC)

However, even if the City’s financial condition is successfully resolved, there will remain the matter of its operational and managerial dysfunction. Therefore, if a financial emergency is determined to exist within the City, if that determination subsequently is confirmed, and if City officials then select the statutory option of an emergency manager, before the City is removed from receivership, serious consideration should be given to appointing a Receivership Transition Advisory Board pursuant to Section 23 of the Act, as well as imposing the conditions authorized by Section 22(4) of the Act.

Note 4: Several of those collective bargaining agreements provide for comparatively generous compensation given the City’s geographic area and population. The City of Hamtramck consists of 2.09 square miles and has a population of 22,423 (based on the 2010 decennial census), while the City of Flint, for example, consists of 34.06 square miles and has a population of 102,436. Nevertheless, the maximum salary for a police lieutenant in the City of Hamtramck is $77,705 compared to $63,447 in the City of Flint, while the maximum salary for a police sergeant in the City of Hamtramck is $70,641 compared to $56,309 in the City of Flint.

Similarly, the existing collective bargaining agreement with the Hamtramck Firefighters Association, which expires on June 30, 2014, provides for a 16 percent increase in wages over the term of the agreement. Under the agreement, firefighters received a four percent increase on July 1, 2009; a three percent increase on July 1, 2010; a three percent increase on July 1, 2011; a three percent increase on July 1, 2012; and are scheduled to receive a three percent increase on July 1, 2013.

Finally, the collective bargaining agreements with both the Hamtramck Ranking Police Officers Association and the Hamtramck Fraternal Order of Police allow for up to 32 hours of overtime per pay period for police personnel to write traffic tickets for purposes of a traffic safety program. It might be argued that writing traffic tickets, when appropriate, is a routine part of daily police work that should be performed during a regular shift as opposed to on an overtime basis. Given the City’s perilous financial condition, the justification for collective bargaining agreement provisions that reward or incentivize overtime is not readily apparent.

Public meeting of the Review Team: 5/02/13

All members of the review team were present, along with Terry Stanton, the Public Information Officer for the Treasury.

The board chose not to televise the meeting.

Headen thanked us for attending and introduced the members of the board.

Headen explained that the public meeting is a new feature under the new EM law and would be adjourned at 5 p.m.. The purpose of the meeting was to get the views of the public. The city council passed a resolution asking for a preliminary review last October, which was done in February and published in mid-March. The governor determined there is a serious financial issue. The review team was appointed April 17. They have 60 days to conduct their review, though they expect to finish within 33 days and submit their report by Monday, May 20. Statute requires them to find one of two conditions, that there is an emergency or not. The governor will reach his own conclusion 10 days after their report. The city and council could challenge the decision. If the governor confirms that there is a financial issue, the council will be allowed to choose an EM, a consent agreement, neutral evaluation, or Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Among the conditions causing the team to be appointed, over the last 3 years, the city has been running a deficit in the general fund, expenditures exceeding revenues by $1.2 million 2010, $341,000 in 2011, $2.3 million in 2012, and $2.7 million this year ending June 30. The cumulative deficit will be well over $3 million. The rainy day fund was exhausted during this time, and there is no immediate end in sight. They have been in the city two days and interviewed the mayor, 6 members of council, the acting city manager, assistant city manager, department heads, and union officials. Everyone was cooperative and helpful and provided useful information, which they appreciate. This meeting will further assist them to assess whether there is a financial emergency.
Continue reading

City council 4/23/13:

Tertzag asked to add #12 to new business regarding the sidewalk repair program, #13 for the purchase of tablet computers for inspectors, #14 to authorize matching funds for the S-2 sewer project, and #15 to authorize funds to combine the clerk and treasurer’s office. He also asked for a closed session regarding pending litigation.

Majewski asked about a resolution regarding the DIA’s Inside Out program. Tertzag agreed that needed to be added as #16. Majewski also asked to add a resolution regarding Algazali’s absences. The amended agenda was approved unanimously.

Zwolak wished Majewski a happy birthday and said she was missed at the meeting two weeks ago. Miah thanked everyone who came to the Clean Sweep and thanked Iris Peters, Susan Dunn, Kathy Angerer, Steve Shaya, Arif Huskic, Rev Buttry, People’s Community Services, Little Caesers, Amiccis, Club Aces, Whiskey in the Jar, New Dodge Lounge, All Time parking, and The Review for donations. The weather was a bit cold and they hope for a better turnout next year.
Continue reading

2013 candidates for city offices

This list is not absolutely final as candidates have until Friday to withdraw. Candidates are listed in the order of petitions pulled.

EDIT: Candidates who withdrew are crossed out.

NAME ADDRESS PICKED UP RETURN # OF SIGNATURES

Mayor
John Ulaj 9560 Charest 3/18/2013 3/21/2013 Paid $100
Abdul Algazali 2434 Goodson 3/26/2013 4/29/2013 38
Cathie Gordon 2758 Norwalk 4/2/2013 5/14/2013 31
Karen Majewski 2627 Pulaski 4/5/2013 5/13/2013 Paid $100

Council 4-yr
Titus R. Walters 2946 Trowbridge 3/12/2013 4/9/2013 32
Richard Fabiszak 11680 Nagel 3/18/2013 4/9/2013 89
Mohammed Hassan 2425 Neibel 3/19/2013 5/13/2013 Paid $100
Jewel Mohammed 3880 Trowbridge 3/19/2013 5/14/2013 45
Rashad Almasmari 3826 Evaline 3/22/2013 5/13/2013 51
Armani Asad 12050 Sobieski 3/26/2013 5/14/2013 Paid $100
Susan Dunn-Rahdar 2257 Hewitt 4/2/2013 5/14/2013 34
*Abu A Musa 11651 Moran 4/12/2013 5/13/2013 35
Andrea Karpinski 2348 Evaline 5/3/2013 5/13/2013 30
Showkat Choudhury 12040 J Campau 5/7/2013 5/7/2013 Paid $100
Anthony J. Liggett 12000 Mitchell 5/13/2013 5/13/2013 Paid $100

Council 2-yr
Abu A Musa 11651 Moran 4/12/2013 5/13/2013 Paid $100
Beverly Tran 12057 Lumpkin 4/25/2013 4/30/2013 42
Darla Swint 5201 Yemans 4/29/2013 5/14/2013 50
Ian Perrotta 5092 Yemans 5/2/2013 5/14/2013 37
Darren T. Grow 2012 Belmont #1 5/10/2013 5/13/2013 40
Hedy Shulgon 2622 Belmont Paid $100

* – This person has until Friday to decide which seat he will run for.

City council 5/14/13: agenda

PUBLIC HEARING: (SECOND READING)

RESOLUTION 2013-XXX Amending Section 150.999 (Penalty) of the Hamtramck Code of Ordinances.

RESOLUTION 2013-XXX Adding Section 150.176 (Defective Conditions) to the Hamtramck Code of Ordinances.

RESOLUTION 2013-XXX Adding Sections 150.180 through 150.195 (Non-Owner Occupied Residential property registration and Inspection) to the Hamtramck Code of Ordinances.

RESOLUTION 2013-XXX Adding Sections 97.001 Through 97.009 (Re-Occupancy Of Vacant, Abandoned, Foreclosed Property) to the Hamtramck Code of Ordinances.

RESOLUTION 2013-XXX Adding Section 97.999 (Penalty – Re-Occupancy of Vacant, Abandoned, Foreclosed Property) to the Hamtramck Code of Ordinances.

CONSENT AGENDA: The following items will be adopted on a single motion without discussion unless a councilmember requests separate consideration.

1. Regular Council Meeting Minutes – April 23,2013.

NEW BUSINESS: Ordinances introductions and resolutions for initial consideration

1. Fund warrant list and payroll.

2. Resolution 2013-100 Authorizing expenditure of funds for the purpose of elevator maintenance. ACM Tertzag.

3. Resolution 2013-101 Authorizing the use of Veterans Park for construction of a Cricket Field and other park improvements. ACM Tertzag

4. Resolution 2013-102 Allowing the Human Relations Commission to restore and maintain city flagpoles and install flags and plaques to represent the international character of the City of Hamtramck. ACM Tertzag

5. Resolution 2013-103 Posting the position of City Manager. Councilman Zwolak

6. Resolution 2013-104 Waiving Property Disposition Policy for settlement to Rush familty. Councilman Zwolak.

7. Resolution 2013-105 Authorizing the Acting City Manager to begin work with Zachary & Associates to develop a strategy for redevelopment and disposition of vacant City owned residential City property. CED Director Friedmann

8. Resolution 2013-106 Approving a cite plan for an addition to the Hamtramck Medical Center located at 9740 Conant Ave. CED Director Friedmann

9. Resoltuion 2013-107 Approving the amendment to the contract with Rizzo services. ACM Tertzag

INFORMATION:

OTHER ITEMS:

1. Mayor’s Report
2. Mayor Pro Tem’s Report
3. City Manager’s Report
4. Public comments
5. Non-agenda items and other business

ADJOURNMENT

May 11

In addition to the candle party at Public Pool, the usual gallery openings at the HATCH building and on Edwin, and a 2 p.m. show at Lo and Behold, work days are being held for several worthwhile projects.

Hamtown Farms: Volunteer work day, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..

Veteran’s Park Clean-up: Your Hamtramck Firefighters will be holding another park clean-up day starting at the Grandstands at Veteran’s Memorial Park. Starting at 9 a.m..

Banglatown Neighborhood Clean Up: including Ride it Sculpture Park!! Meet at the Power House, 12644 Moran St, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m..

City council 4/09/13: waste and bus credits

Hassan and Majewski were absent. Algazali chaired the meeting.

Tertzag asked to add a resolution giving permission to St Florian to hold their Strawberry Festival, and a closed session regarding pending litigation. The agenda was approved.

Miah said there was a Clean Sweep meeting Wednesday at 6 pm in council chambers. Team sponsors and team captains would be finalized then.

Zwolak thanked the courts and income tax department for coming up with money for payroll. Gordon said they should thank the police for writing tickets as well.
Continue reading