Audit and Finance Committee Meeting Transcript – 03/25/2015 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 3/25/2015 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/25/2015 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [9:02:54 AM] >> Tovo: Good morning. I'm mayor pro tem tovo and I'm ready to call this meeting of the audit and finance committee to order. A quorum being present we'll go ahead and get started. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes from the audit and finance committee meeting minutes of March 7th and March 9th. If you could take a minute to look over those. While our committee members are looking over the minutes I'll ask if anyone is here for citizens communication? I didn't see anyone signed up, but anyone here to address this body is certainly welcome to. Okay. If you don't more time we'll take it up later in the agenda. Councilmember Renteria moves acceptance. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? And the motion passes on a vote of 3-1 -- 3-0 with councilmember pool off the dais. I'll say we have quite a bit to cover today and that will be the case really pretty much from here on out. We have lots of audit presentations and various other things that our staff have been waiting to present to us. [9:04:55 AM] We're going to have to be really efficient with our meeting. Our first order of business is item 3, authorize the use of a construction manager at risk method. This was an item referred to committee from our full city council. Welcome, Ms. Truelove. And why don't we start with I think you've prepared some brief information for us and then we'll take questions. >> Sure. I did prepare a presentation and I can certainly go through it. I can also in the interest of time if you would prefer that we just jump to questions, I can do that as well. It's really at the committee's pleasure. >> I would love to see the presentation. >> Great. So we're here today to talk about authorization of the use of a construction manager at risk contracting method for the construction of the new parking garage and administrative offices building out at austin-bergstrom international airport. So to give you some general context, we have several different methodologies that are available to all municipalities. You have the standard competitive sealed bidding, which is authorized in local government code chapter 252 and then you have what we consider the alternative delivery methods, there authorized by government code 2269. Those alternative delivery methods are competitive sealed proposal, design-build, design build civil works, job order contracting and construction manager at risk. And these are available for use by all municipalities in Texas. Okay. I'm not pointing this in the right spot. Okay. Okay. Thanks. The work session when we had questions on this I talked about the fact that these are not the -- the alternative delivery methoddeds are not things we do all the time. I wanted to give you some [9:06:55 AM] context with that so you could see. This is strictly looking at the Numbers for the last four complete fiscal years. So you can see in fiscal year 11 we did 85 low bid contracts and we did four competitive sealed proposals with no design build and no construction manager at risk contracts that were solicited. Looking at the next fiscal year, 67 with one design build contract: In fiscal year year 13 we had 14 low bid contracts. And in fiscal year 14 we had two competitive sealed proposals and one design build and one construction manager at risk. But when you look at that and compare it to the Numbers on the next slide, you can see that those projects even though they may be small in number, can be significant in value compared to the rest of the contracting that we do. I would particularly call your attention to fiscal year 14 where we had the construction manager at risk contract that we did solicit and contract for was actually an aviation contract and it was the terminal construction project and that's estimated at 200 million. That's one solicitation estimated at 200 million, which is about twice what we did in our standard low bid contracting for that same fiscal year, that same time period. So when you look at our standard low bid contracting I'm not going to look at all the methodologies, but I wanted to set the stage with the competitive sealed bidding because that is by far what we do the most and it is the standard process that we use for construction services. The construction documents, the things that people actually bid on, are prepared by an architect or an engineer that's hired separately from the construction firm. And when we actually go to solicit, they're basing their bid on 100% complete design documents. That's different when you go into our methodologies, but [9:08:56 AM] for competitive bidding we've prepared a complete set of full design documents and the general contractors will bid on that. For M.B.E., W.B.E., those are done by meeting the goals or demonstrating good faith efforts and there's an mwbe component to everon of with you solicitations, but here when we bring a contract to you you will see a compliance plan that should be representative of the full body of the work that they're doing. Or what they know at the time of the bid. And still compliance must be achieved. So they submit -- yes, ma'am. >> Tovo: Excuse me. Vice-chair troxclair has a question for you. >> Troxclair: You said with the competitive sealed bids the design documents are complete before the bids. So they're -- so who -- the city staff completes the design documents? Who completes the design document? >> It can be done by city staff. We have design teams in house. Public works has a design team that often will do the full design for some of our solicitations and some of our capital projects. More often you will see us engaging with a professional engineer or architect. And that's going to happen either through a scope specific solicitation where we hire someone specifically to design a certain thing -- maybe the central library. We hired a architectural firm to do the design of the central library. Or it could be somebody that is brought in off of one of our rotation lists and we use our rotation list program -- I know that was another item referred to committee and I'm sure it will come up in the future. We use our rotation list program to bring in engineers and architects under contract so that we could in advance of knowing the exact scopes of works so we could have them available and a be able to cut time out of the capital delivery process, the capital delivery process. >> So you mentioned the central library. That was a construction manager at risk, not -- >> Yes. It was done construction [9:10:57 AM] manager at risk. And we did hire an architectural firm to do the full design. And should we move forward with construction manager at risk for this aviation process we will do the same thing. >> Troxclair: So in both competitive sealed byes and construction manager at risk, most of the time we're contracting with an outside engineer to put together design plans. >> Actually. In all of the solicitation times except for design build you will have a separate firm, a separate architect or engineer that will be doing your solicitation documents or your full design. >> Troxclair: Okay. So so far they're both -- >> They're both the same. And they're going to rapidly diverge here in about a minute. [Laughter]. So the next point is the submittal and this is where we're going to rapidly diverge. So in a low bid they present a bid and it's a competitive sealed by. It's just like you would imagine. Four hours later they turn the plan in and we get in a room and get a fancy opener and we open it and it's very exciting. It is like the oscars only it's in contracting! But typically it's a -- typically it's a low bid situation. Generally speaking the lowest bid is who gets awarded the contract. We do have certain things that we go through to make sure they're compliant, responsive. Did they turn in all the things they needed to do? Did they dot all their I's, cross their T's, do we have an wmbe compliance plan that meets the goals or is demonstrating good faith efforts? There are certain technical components that have to be met. A lot of times in our low bid contracts we have experience requirements. So we'll have to make sure that they've met the experience requirements that we've set forth. But when we talk about experience requirements in a low bid situation you have to be here and if the low bid is here, then they're successful. The second low bid is up here and they're much more experienced, we still go [9:12:57 AM] with the low bid. So it's basically making sure that they can clear that hurdle. Then you will see the contract award based -- that we will bring forward to the city council and that's based on the lowest response signed responsible bidder. Any questions on low bid. Now we're moving into the fabulous world of alternative delivery. So this is authorized by 2269. The state statute actually gives a pretty detailed prescriptive process for each solicitation tape that you're going to go through. It tells you what you can do, what you can't do, how you need to structure the solicitation and what you can consider as part of your evaluation process. So everything that we do is neatly tied to what we're allowed to do in state statute. For use in any of these delivery methods we have to come to the governing body in advance before we do the solicitation and ask for permission to is ask for that solicitation and that's the item we have on the agenda today. There's no contractor, there's no solicitation that's been issued. We're asking for permission to move forward with a construction manager at risk solicitation process. You will see the contract award and all the subsequent actions further down the road. So award of the contract is strictly based on best value. We have weighted evaluation criteria that look at their price, their experience, their reputation, their safety record, key personnel, their financial capability and other relevant factors. Again, all tied into state statute. And all of our alternative delivery solicitations are reviewed by an evaluation panel that's comprised of city staff. We formulate that panel to be diverse, to be composed of technical experts. We try to get a cross-section across the city to make sure we're getting a diverse sense of perspective coming from that direction. And we of course make sure that there's no supervisor-subordinate [9:14:58 AM] relationships that might unduly impact someone's ability to score. And everybody that is going to score or evaluate or participate in an evaluation process has to go through an ethics class. So that's consistent across all of our methodologies. So moving into construction -- I went too far. Moving into construction manager at risk, construction manager at risk is a methodology where we hire a construction manager early in the design process to work with the design team collaboratively with the owner and doesn't team during -- on the preconstruction phase to achieve the best design possible. They're going to perform constructability reviews. They'll review for alternative materials and systems, cost estimating, they'll help with quality and availability of equipment and materials and they'll help with phasing to make sure that we're designing something that is going to be effectively able to be put in the ground. Construction manager at risk is best for large or complex construction projects when the preconstruction phase services are needed and beneficial to the city. So while we do end up with those 100 percent complete design documents we actually bring the construction manager in early when we don't really have a full design. We hire them through that qualifications based process so they can work with us to help get a better design before we actually move into a construction scenario. So why do we use it? Well, construction manager at risk stands in contrast to our other methodologies in that we have a tremendous sense of collaboration. Where you have the own, the designer and the general contractor are all working together to achieve the best result possible where in standard construction -- in a standard project delivery method, the construction manager isn't able to help with the design phase. They're not able to give us that -- that construction perspective during the design phase. We often end up with perhaps [9:16:59 AM] more change orders, more constructability issues, more problems in the field that we can avoid through a construction manager at risk scenario. The solicitation is done through a qualifications based process so we can select based on best value, not just price, which is always a benefit. And again, bringing that construction manager in early allows for all of those benefits that we get from preconstruction that really make a better product for us. This particular project I know that aviation has mentioned that we're going to be hoping to utilize some building information modeling technology that will really be of substantial value to the department. And finally with a guaranteed maximum price, which is what we ultimately get to through the construction manager at risk process, it becomes a firm fixed price that outlines the provisions of risk. And that's of tremendous value and benefit to the city. We'll talk more about that. So how do we get here? Making a decision to go with a construction manager at risk method is not something that we make in a vacuum. It's a collaborative process between my department, between aviation and the project delivery department or public works who will be managing the project. We talk about it, we always get a good understanding of what the issues are with each particular project, what the pros are, what the cons are, what kind of value we're going to get? We wouldn't recommend a construction manager at risk model if we didn't think it was going to be the best available option for us at the city of Austin. As we talked about before, the architect or engineer is selected independently of the design -- of the construction manager and so they work together, but they are independent and they can't be the same individual. So construction, one of the benefits that we have with construction manager at risk is that you can have construction start before -- before design is 100% complete in that when you have a project of this kind of nature, a large project, [9:19:00 AM] it can be designed in ways that you can have early work, perhaps some site work that can start and be fully designed and bid out and can start while you're finishing some of the other design work. So you do have the ability with construction manager at risk to get things moving and have things happen faster and have more control of the phasing on the project. Solicitation process is two step. First is request for qualifications. Step two is a request for proposals and interviews. So we'll put out a request for qualifications. We'll get a number of firms that will respond. We will short list and ask them to then respond to the second phase, which will include the pricing information. It will have their price for construction phase services and they're fee for construction management on the project and that's the competitive price component that we evaluate during the solicitation. So the initial solicitation, just to talk about mwbe on a construction manager at risk contract for just a moment, the initial solicitation, which is predominantly for preconstruction phase services-- do you want to ask a question? >> I do. >> So the two step solicitation process, the first step was the request for qualification, what was the second? >> Request for proposals. >> Which was the price. >> Yes. And interviews and any clarifications that we may need on that initial submittal. >> Thank you. >> Sure. So since the first work that we contract for under construction manager at risk contract is preconstruction phase services, that work is what we evaluate for M and WBE goals and you will see those goals assigned and assessed based on the preconstruction phase and that's what we would be bringing for the initial contract award for the construction manager. You would see the construction manager and then any subcontractors that they're going to be using during the preconstruction phase. Before we would move into construction on a construction manager at risk contract, each of those construction packages that would ultimately turn into a guaranteed maximum price, each of the construction packages before they are bid [9:21:01 AM] by the construction manager are evaluated by S and B goals and are I assessed on those. It's definitely a collaborative effort there. And we work in kind of phases to bring in the -- to assess the scopes of work for wmbe goals and bringing in subcontractors in compliance with the program. So the contract award is based on -- so we will bring to the council a request to negotiate and execute an agreement with the highest ranked firm for preconstruction only. Typically we try to time this so that they're on early to coincide with the design firm. Typically you would see the -- for council's action you would see the award of the design contract and then some short time later you would see the award of the construction manager. We're just coming for the request for the methodology first because we need to make sure that we get that done in accordance with the requirements for state statute. So I wanted to talk a little bit about two terms that are impactful for understanding how these contracts work. The first is construction cost limitation and then we'll talk about guaranteed maximum price. So the construction cost limitation is a contractual term that we clue in all of our car projects. It's the dollar amount we estimate the project will cost. We base this on internal estimations and it shared with the contractors in the contract. It eventually becomes a term of the contract and can be the bays for an authorization of funds from the city council to staff to authorize amendments to the contractor to execute those guaranteed maximum price packages. Some -- we have done this in two different ways in the past. In the past we have either asked for the entire construction cost limitation, once we know what that is, which isn't usually at the time of award of preconstruction phase. It is some time in the future. But we could come to you with a request to authorize [9:23:01 AM] a construction cost limitation knowing that this is what we anticipate the design -- that the construction is going to be. And that would allow staff to negotiate and execute the construction work underneath that overall authorization by council. Or we can take -- we've done this in the past as well. We can bring each construction work package or guaranteed maximum price package to council for authorization individually. It just changes the dynamic. One is authorizing staff to basically complete the full contracting for the project underneath that authorization or looking at it on a -- on a piece by piece basis. And we have not made a determination on what our recommendation would be for this particular project yet. That hasn't been determined. >> Renteria: When you do it in total or piece by piece, do you really look at what's going to be the -- what might be the total cost of the whole project? >> Uh-huh. >> Renteria: In the past experience have -- what has been the lowest cost, the lowest bids that come in? When you add it all up, I mean, to a project. >> Yeah. So the way -- with construction manager at risk, the construction manager takes on the bidding of the individual construction packages. So they work with the design team, they break out the different pieces of work. They'll group it into what they think are reasonable packages. And they'll give us a procurement plan. It's one of the submittals that is required. In that procurement plan it lays out, okay, we think this is going to be the first work package and it's going to include this and this and this. And then we'll have a second work package and it will include this and this and this. And until we get to the very final piece. [9:25:02 AM] And sometimes it's one or two. Sometimes it's five or six. It just depends on the nature of the project. We won't know about this particular project until we get further in the process. So when they're developing those work packages and when we're preparing to give us the guaranteed maximum price they actually bid that work out. They do what we would normally do for a low bid contract. They come to us and they get a compliance plan, mwbe goals for those particular packages. They get a list of subcontractors. They have to advertise it in the same way we would be advertising it. We will help in advertising if if we can and work with them. So they get that same bid scenario. They open the same bid and use the bid information from the contractors that have expressed an interest to work with that construction manager and put together basically their -- we call it -- that's what we call the guaranteed maximum price. Their proposal for that. And give it to the city. Now, when we get that we have the ability to go into as much detail with that as we could possibly ask for. We can see who bid. We can see how much hart construction bid versus stokes construction. We can see who the subcontractors are going to be. If we -- if truelove construction is someone they've put on there and we happen to want to say, you know, truelove construction may not be the best fit, let's go with Renteria construction. Then we can ask that they do that. We would have to pay the costs associated with it, but it's very much an open book. And we can get into as much detail as we want to on staff side. And we do. We go to the bid openings. We participate in that. We attend the construction managers prebid meetings. We work hand in hand with them. It's a staff intensive [9:27:02 AM] position. We spend a lot of time working with them. But it's to our benefit ultimately. Does that make sense? >> If I could add one statement to that. One of the statements that Ms. Truelove said early on is you bring the construction manager in early in design. When you have a target price you want to get to you can engage with the construction manager to revise the design to make some changes to bring the estimated cost of that project back down to within the available funds as opposed to bidding something out and then realizing oh my goodness, I don't have enough money to pay for this. That's been the case and experience we've had on the cars we've used in the last several years. >> One minute before we start -- >> Tovo: Councilmember troxclair, did you have something? >> Troxclair: I feel like this piece of the process is kind of the construction of where my questions come from. So I don't know if this is the appropriate time or if you want to finish the presentation. >> We have a couple of different slides to help show how we're honing in on that guaranteed maximum price. >> Tovo: I think in the interest of time why don't you move through your presentation and then we'll take questions. >> Great. Thank you. So the last thing I want to do is just on this I wanted to just talk about that guaranteed maximum price. It is -- it's the amount stipulated in a construction contract as the maximum sum payable by the public owner to the construction manager for the work specified. So it very much becomes through the process that we go through that we just talked about. It becomes a firm fixed price and that's what we're going to pay for that particular work. I'm trying to hit the button, but it hates me. This shows how the contracts with work together. [9:29:02 AM] Where you can see that the first row -- the first swim lane is the construction manager at list. The second is the architect or engineer. You can see how the construction manager at risk is brought on at the same time as the design phase is going on and then they can break up the work so you can see how construction can actually start before the design is fully complete. And even though we talk about each of these things as guaranteed maximum prices, they're really more like partial. Those individual Orange things that become the purple blocks on that first swim lane are considered partial gnp's with until we get that final one done and then we're under a guaranteed maximum price for the entire project. When you look at my little bull's eye, I was talking to Elaine about this yesterday and this is kind of how I think about how we move from what we think is the estimate on the project -- this would be true for any of our -- excuse me. For any of our construction projects that we have. When we start a project we have an estimate. And typically that's going to be somewhere in that blue zone. And as we get further along in the design process, then we get closer to the center because it starts to get -- to be more known and less unknown. There's always going to be unknowns in construction. But the more we get those unknowns taken care of, right, the closer we get to that final price. So for construction manager at risk I would say our initial estimate would be in the blue. When we work with the construction manager they help us get into the yellow through their constructability reviews, through their cost estimating work. Looking at the equipment and materials. Once we get to about 80% design is typically when we start seeing the work get bid out and we start moving into what we could consider more of the red, which is when we get that particular work under a fixed price contract, which would be [9:31:03 AM] that partial gmp. Any questions on that? This is really kind of the crux of it. I want to make sure that we're getting your questions addressed on how the pricing works, councilmember troxclair. This is -- construction manager at risk is very much industry standard. I was talking with Shane earlier. Shane is the assistant director at aviation. And if you look at downtown and you see all of those cranes, I would bet you a lot of money that all of those contracts are being done under construction manager at risk method because it makes for projects of this scale, it makes the most sense to bring them in to help with the constructability, to do the work in preconstruction and then to draw it into a firm, fixed price contract and they know what they're getting into and they assume the risk for what's going on. Tovo councilmember pool. >> Pool: Miss truelove, would you say the way the operates is Tim to, for example, how a private contractor or developer would -- they buy the land and then they work on the design phase for a year or so and then they start letting the construction contracts? Or like with a road project? We handle these similar to how like txdot would handle a big road project. Maybe the scale isn't the billions, but it's the same sort of approach when they use a construction manager at risk. Are there parallels either in the private sector or the public sector? >> Councilmember, there's a lot of questions in what you just said. Txdot is tending to move more towards design build and how they're doing their road expansions and big projects. And their benefit there is they have a team that's worked together for a long period of time and they're comfortable with. My private sector experience working on these kind of projects is that it really provides an opportunity as a contractor to cover some of your risk, but also to work [9:33:04 AM] with the owner to ensure the differences and expectations between end quality and cost are fleshed out early on in the process. And then as the construction entity and construction manager, you can provide a lot of expertise to the designer because sometimes designers don't have the up to date experience of how things fit together. But once -- as Rosie said, once you get to point where that design is at a point where you can offer a guaranteed maximum price, it really frees up the private contractor to go about business in a way that gets the job done in the cost and gives the contract an opportunity to maximize its profit. There are a lot of constraints that public contracting carry with it that make it a little tighter for the private entity, particularly a lot of guaranteed max price contracts on the private side, we would bring contractors and subs that we were comfortable with that we had a long-standing working relationship with. And while we have some of that ability in the city to look at qualifications, it's still a much more open process and so there's an opportunity for more firms to bid. Those kind of relationships that construction manager contractor has you can't always bring to the table. But generally when you have a project that has a lot of moving parts, that has a lot of complexity and design, you save yourself the end change orders by addressing those upfront. And the problem with negotiating change overs from an owner's perspective, done in a non-competitive environment, so you may not get the best pricing at that point. From the city's perspective it helps mitigate risk on both sides and that translates I think to government contracting as well. >> Pool: Would you say that the payout on a government contract tends to be more deliberate or slower based on if similar work were being done in the private sector? Are they able because [9:35:06 AM] they're procedures are different than in the public sector where we operate more in the open and in meetings like this? Is there any timing that's different when you take on a government contract? >> There's certainly more to a government contract. There's more elements that because we're talking about public dollars and we have the programs that we have in place, what we hear is that it's certainly a complex situation to contract with the city of Austin. But as far as timing and how we physically pay folks, I would imagine that we are competitive. We have a 30-day payment clause in our contracts and we meet that or beat that. >> We used to have a net 45-day payment period so that was generally monthly invoices plus 15 days processing time, which is, as Rosie just said, pretty much the same thing we do in the city. >> Pool: So the city has looked to adapt best practices in contracting both from the best that's done in the public sector as well as combining with what you see in the private sector? Kind of an amalgamation maybe? >> The process, where the difference is, is that discussions about changes and costs that are -- from a government are done in a public forum and it's fully visible. When you have a private owner, it's obviously not a public process. But both sides, whether it's government or private, all have additional goals that they try and achieve through the process of contracting. Changes probably can be processed maybe a little bit faster on the private side, but I think what we do under construction manager at risk is very much a similar model to what you see on the private side. >> Pool: Thanks. >> Tovo: Other questions? Do you still have some more slides? >> I can go into specifics about this project. I have included in the packet you can see the next slide is a complete history of the projects that we've done, the alternative delivery at the airport. [9:37:06 AM] They have a robust history of this. Actually one of our first design build contracts that we did was for the baggage handling system and that was one of the first contracts that I think that the -- we had done that an aviation facility had done for alternative delivery. It has been a successful model. Because we're able to select based on qualifications it's very beneficial in an environment such as the airports because there are so many complicating factors with how we've had to qualify people to be able to be on site and the different restrictions that go into security. Being able to look at their experience and making sure that they have the qualifications in that arena is helpful to the department. I wanted to give background on the next slide to talk about the abia expansion program and Shane can cover this better than I can, but we have a master plan for the airport and that was adopted or accepted by the city council in 2003 and that included the requirements or it governs the expansion plans based on capacity triggers. We're currently at 11 million passengers a year and we anticipate being at 15 million by 2025. So because of where we're at that's where we've started seeing the triggers for the expansion projects and the multitude of work that the projects that are happening out at the airport. In 2013 aviation presented their 25-year parking plan with multiple parking products to the city council and it was accepted. And it included this facility. The new garage is in the approved 2015 capital budget and it's going to be funded by airport revenue system bonds that are going to be issued in 2016. The next slide shows kind of the general location for the parking garage so you can get a sense for where it's going to be physically housed. The west side of surface lot a. Because of this project and because -- move on to the next slide please. [9:39:07 AM] Because it's work at an ongoing, very active site, there are a number of risks that are associated with this project which lends to our reasoning for a recommending construction manager at risk. The new construction is a large piece of infrastructure and it's a complex project that will impact the airport's land site operations. We have to make sure that we're maintaining the safety of vehicle circulation through the active parking lots and the project requires integration of the airport's existing roadway infrastructure with the new garage and the vehicle circulation. There are major utility improvements required to support the new parking garage. And the project requires close coordination with the existing parking operations to minimize impacts to the airport's customer service and to minimize impacts to parking revenue, which I think is of critical importance to aviation. Because it's of the complexity of the project, it requires a lot of close coordination to ensure that it's phased in the right way and to take into account all of the risks and all of the potential impacts to the city. And that's again one of the benefits of construction manager at risk is we're able to really have those in-depth conversations with how it's going to be phased and how they're going to be delivering the work so that we can make sure that we're -- that everybody is on board with the impact and how this is going to hit the airport. Just to recap, again with the benefits of the construction manager at risk. I've said this a lot. I'll go quickly. We benefit from the collaboration. We benefit from having them on early in the process from the work that they're going to do in the preconstruction phase, it helps get a better product on the ground. It's the best value selection so we can take into account all of those factors other than price, which are of critical importance. We have the benefits of the preconstruction work that they're going to do. And to have some impact on how it's being scheduled in phase so that we can have a voice in that and work on that to the benefit of the people that are using the airport. [9:41:07 AM] Again, this one specifically we're going to be working with that building information modeling technology, which is going to be I think a pretty exciting thing on that firm fixed price that's going to come as we go through the contracting process. So that's the end of my presentation. >> Thank you very much, Ms. Truelove and all of you being here and the information. So committee, we have before us -- this is on tomorrow's agenda and so we've been asked to make a recommendation to review it to make a recommendation. I know that I have a few questions here that councilmember Gallo had issued for the work session that I'd like to get to as well. But we -- we'll need today to either forward it with a recommendation or forward it without a recommendation or in some way take action so that the council can have that information available tomorrow. I think I'll begin by just asking a couple of questions that councilmember Gallo had forwarded. One was has a firm or company already been selected as a finalist? >> No. >> Tovo: And this is just about approving the methodology. We're steps away from -- >> Yes, ma'am, correct. >> Tovo: From that. There was a -- she also forwarded a question about whether or not this was related to two separate items that were on our agenda that were postponed and those deal with the tracts that are across the street from the airport and on the -- a little further along and those were being -- those were zoning changes. So perhaps somebody could explain whether there's a connection between this project and those other two cases. >> Shane heartman with the aviation department. The zoning cases is for a surface lot, covered surface lot and a pet hotel, another service for the airport customers, but it's not related to the actual parking garage infrastructure. The garage is going to be a new product adjacent to the [9:43:08 AM] terminal. And of the zoning case is to allow the development of a surface covered parking lot, pet hotel, and it would be a busing type service. The garage is not. So it's two parking products, but they're not related together. >> Well, my assumption is whether they were related in a larger conceptual way. Do we need all of that parking? >> Absolutely. It's part of our overall parking plan. We're trying to bowled to the year 2025 and the garage will be open probably by 2019, early 2019. And the surface parking should be open probably in -- with the zoning changes could be open in as little as a year today. When we take out that garage or we take out the existing parking where the garage we built, we'll be losing about a thousand spaces. In some ways it's integrated and together to provide relief while we take out some parking spaces. >> Thank you for that. So they are related in that they are all serving the same aim and they're not going on as parallel projects where we'll end up with too much parking because these are duplicative. >> That's correct. >> Pool: I have a question related to that. >> Tovo: Councilmember pool. >> Tovo: Could you send this committee a list. And also, councilmember Gallo, of the people who you sent the rfp for that project to? I'd like to see the distribution on who all was included. >> We can do that. >> Pool: Thank you. >> Renteria: Can you send that to all? >> We'll send it to council. >> Tovo: Troxclair, it looked like you had a question. >> Troxclair: The parking garage that is I think currently under construction, next to this new parking garage, what is the building right to the left in [9:45:09 AM] this slide? >> Right to the left of there is the consolidated rent a car facility. It's a large structure. It is a garage, but it's more than just a garage. It's -- it includes the wash bays, turning bays. It's a quick turn facility so the vehicles don't have to -- >> Troxclair: Okay. And that was a city project? >> That was delivered by the car rental companies. The car rental companies are building it, will operate it. It's their facility. >> Troxclair: So we didn't go through this process for that structure? >> No. >> Troxclair: You said we were losing -- there's a thousand spaces in the parking lot that we're building in the garage. Do you know how many parking spaces we're gaining with the garage? >> We hope to determine the design, but we're hoping to be about 4500 spaces so it would be a net of 3500 spaces. >> Troxclair: Okay. Great. So I was curious how many responses we receive typically or we received in this case to the request for qualification. >> So we haven't issued a request for qualifications yet. Typically on a project of this nature, we would see four or five, maybe six. Because this is a parking facility we might see more. We might see a little bit different, but you don't see a tremendous number when you do a construction manager at risk. For just the size of the project, probably more than the methodology. >> Troxclair: So this particular project, remind me how it's being funded? >> We'll call for bonds and they'll be funded by airport revenue bonds, so basically backed by parking. We charge daily fees for parking and that will be a pledge for the bonds that we will be issuing and hopefully in mid 2016. [9:47:09 AM] >> Troxclair: So those bonds have already been approved? >> No. We have to come to you sometime in 2016 regarding this project. >> Troxclair: Okay. Come to council, but not to the public? >> It would be coming to council for approval for bonds. R. Issuing. >> They don't need to be approved. >> Tovo: These are not general obligation bonds. >> No. They're airport revenue backed bonds. >> Troxclair: Okay. So I - - this was a really good presentation, it was really clear and helped me to understand the process and I definitely understand the benefits, especially in light of our conversation the other day about the change orders and how that can add a lot of cost on the back end. And with projects like this we want to make sure that we're assessing all our risks and budgeting correctly on the front end. But I guess I still am concerned that there is just -- that we're beginning the process with absolutely no budget constraints or no idea of the range of what the project would cost. It seems like we should have -- I understand why. I understand that we need to hire the construction manager at risk first so that we can design the project and then they go out for bids. I mean, I understand the process, but it seems like we should have a general idea of how much a parking garage should cost. >> And I think we do. And I think that's the figure that was put in the rca when we initially brought it forward and that's the estimation that we have based on our knowledge of the industry, based on the technical expertise of the staff that we have. And I would say that for where we're at in the project, that's probably not different than where we would be at in other projects. When we are initially starting, because we don't have a design firm on board, we don't know -- that design team, when we go -- when [9:49:10 AM] we hire an architect or an engineer to help us, we have a general idea of what it is we want to do and we have a general idea of the cost of the ultimate facility or road or bridge or whatever it is. But that design team is what -- they help us get to that. We may know -- we may have five million dollars to spend on this project and they help us design something that will fit into that five-million-dollar figure or within reason or whatever it is that we make changes to. But that's the -- that is what happens in doesn't process. And that is what happens in the preconstruction phase. >> Elaine hart, cfo. If I could give a little more background. Even the preliminary work before we take general obligation bonds to the electorate, we're in the same place that they are on this project. We have a five-year capital program that is a forecast, which is based on staff estimates, and that work and the list of those projects for the G.O., the general obligation bonds, is what the bond advisory committee will look at. They're just estimates. We're not in design build phase yet. We contingent vicinity gotten the bonds -- we haven't gotten the bonds approved. This is very similar to that. We have standard processes that are best practice processes for capital planning which includes that five-year plan and five-year forecast of your capital needs. And then each year the next year comes to council to approve that one appropriation. But that five-year plan on the capital side is integrated with our operating side. So that you get a full scope forecast and a full scope financial impact. And I think when we present in mid April our financial forecast and we have some capital [9:51:11 AM] program slides in there, I think you will get a better sense of how it's all integrated. And I know that the airport has a master plan. They've got -- they do all of our large enterprise funds do the five-year forecasting, both on the operating and the capital side. They've got consultants that look at those forecasts before we issue bonds to make sure that they all fit and that they can support -- have the revenue, future revenue to support the bonds. So I think if that helps, all of our work initially is based on some estimate that staff has prepared. >> Early estimates -- early estimates are typically based upon square foot costs and previous experience at similar facilities. The challenge is when you have unique facilities applying those. And there's a reason why 7-11's and McDonald's and chain stores all look the same because they have a standard instead of drawings, they know what it costs and they're able to do that upfront. When you talk about bigger facilities, you start with an estimate that could be plus or minus 50% and through the design process you narrow it down. The art in that is knowing when to program the dollars to you can begin the actual process of design and that's part of what I think Elaine was talking about in how we put together the five-year plan. >> Tovo: Councilmember Renteria has a question. >> Renteria: My question is do the art money, art in public places, is that two million dollars coming out of the bond election? I mean, when you sell the revenue bonds? >> The revenue bonds, the two%? Two percent? >> It has in the past. >> That's how it's occurred in the past. >> Renteria: But didn't y'all just bid out the two-million-dollar art project? Or you do that -- do you do the same thing when you get that -- I know that it's going to be two million dollars and you bid out the art project. Does it also -- do you also work it in that [9:53:12 AM] same way where you have two million dollars and you come back and show us what you're going to give us? >> So the art in public places process is going to be separate from the construction manager process. So there will be funds set aside in the project budget for art in public places as is the practice for all of our capital projects. But the construction manager will not be -- that won't be part of their scope of work or their contract. That will be brought forward through the economic development department, through that standard way that they do things. >> But do y'all pay the artists also the way that -- as when you sell your bonds? >> Yeah. We would -- that would be included in the bond sale would be arts in public places costs. And then they would that would be economic development -- and the economic development department would manage those funds. >> Tovo: Committee, is anyone prepared to make a motion? >> Troxclair: I'm sorry, I just have a couple shorter questions. So the-- that was a really good question. We just approved -- didn't we approve the art in -- was the art in public places item that we just approved, was it tied to this project? >> I'm not sure what that item is, but it wouldn't be tied to this project. We wouldn't do that. >> It's tied to the terminal gate expansion project. >> Troxclair: Okay. And -- okay. I think y'all answered most of my questions. Looking as you put in your presentation these projects in -- the last project cost more than double all of our low bid contracts -- combined, so I think it's natural for us to have this construction and I think it's incumbent upon the have city council to make sure with the amount of money spent on these single projects that we're managing them well and I appreciate y'all's due diligence in making sure that we get the best product at the best price. [9:55:12 AM] So thank you for being responsive to all of our questions. And this is more of a process question. I want to make sure that going -- I think that this was a unique item in that I'm pretty sure that maybe in the last council meeting or when we originally discussed this we did set a specific date for this item to come back, but I want to -- I hope that in the future we're not put in the position -- I think the point of the committee system is so that we can talk about things and have time to digest and asks questions and make changes if necessary and make sure that the policy recommendations that we're making to full council are well thought out. So I hope that in the future we're not being put in the position where we're discussing something in committee and then voting on it the very next day. >> Tovo: Agreed. I know Ms. Truelove in our work session you indicated it would be the staff's intent to try to get things before the committee earlier. >> Absolutely, yeah. >> Troxclair: Other than that I'm happy to move recommendation of approximate passage to council. >> Tovo: Thank you. Vice-chair troxclair approves recommendation to council for approval? >> Renteria: I'll second that. >> Tovo: Councilmember Renteria seconds that. All in favor signal by saying aye? All opposed? Any abstentions. It's unanimous, four-zero recommendation to council for approval. Thank you all for being here. Committee, we have the next item is also one that was referred to council at our last meeting -- at our first and last meeting. We spent a couple of hours talking about this issue. And it is before us again today. In the interest of trying to pull together the comments that were made last time, I did prepare a handout. I think councilmember Zimmerman described it as kind of a [9:57:13 AM] brainstorming session. And it certainly appears that way when I look through the notes of that meeting. But I think we covered some good ground and it did seem as if there were some recommendations coming forward about which there was agreement. So what I've tried to do here, and we do have some copies for staff as well. Vice-chair troxclair if you would pass those on. In working through my notes and talking with vice-chair troxclair about her sense of the discussion, we have of course the proposal that the mayor presented along with three other sponsors. In the course of our discussion last time it generated some other proposals. And I would say the one here that appears first seemed to have support across both the members of our committee as well as the couple, councilmember Zimmerman and councilmember Garza who attended. This is a challenging issue because there are lots of different questions. I think one of our council colleagues summarized it by saying there were very different visions expressed for these staff positions and so this is an attempt to figure out whether there was a way to match all of them. The proposal that seemed to generate a lot of support is again the first one. And that was to add new fte positions to all of the council offices and to the mayor's office. I believe the proposal that was floated by or proposed by councilmember troxclair and then others filled in pieces of it actually specified one position. I've underlined it because in asking vice-chair troxclair she indicated an interest in changing that and actually proposing that that be two for the [9:59:18 AM] mayor's office. Vice-chair troxclair, would you like to chime in on? >> Troxclair: Sure. I know that all of us are in the pro position that we could use some help in not only the day-to-day activities of our offices, but also pursuing the bigger picture items and our bigger visions for the future. And that was really just a recognition that the mayor's office does have a much larger constituency than we do. And it might be appropriate to have a conversation. I know a lot of the discussion in my original discussion of this proposal centered on the issue of the 10-1 council and adding a significant number of staff to one office, does it change the vision of 10-1 and having geographic representation and having policy driven by kind of more of a grassroots? And so I think that number -- I don't know what the right answer is to that number. But that was just a recognition that the mayor -- he was elected due in part to his vision that he has for the future of Austin. As were the rest of us. And that he may need more help than the other offices in accomplishing those goals. Those goals. Thank you, that's why you will see that underlined because it wasn't strictly the proposal that came forward last time. The first proposal in essence, let me start by saying that the objectives that seem to have resonance with everyone to come up with a proposal that would enhance the council's policy initiatives that would aid individual offices in reaching their constituents that would preserve the balances of power that exist in the charter and I think [10:01:18 AM] there were differences of opinion about which proposals did that best. So I'll just acknowledge that as a value that I believe everyone expressed though, you know, had different implications. The last was to ensure whatever proposal moves forward, if a proposal moves forward, that we are in complete compliance with the Texas open meetings act. So the first proposal would add that staff to all of the offices, again, as I looked through the notes and reflected on the discussion and compared my reflections, with others, that seem to be the -- that seem to be the proposal about which we've spent the most time talking and about which there was the most agreement. You'll see the costs noted here, benefits is underlined because I don't think there was a specific proposal, any of the proposals or amendments that were made did not specifically indicate that benefits would be part of the position if they are temporary, if it's under six months, it's my understanding they would not be required to provide benefits. However, I know it has been a goal of the city to be a model employer and to include benefits for full-time employees, so that's included, but underlined because it was not an explicit part of the proposals. The second one would list it on this sheet would add them within the office of the auditor, I believe there was some discussion about the office of the city clerk. That didn't seem to have a lot of support last time. But, you know, of course, that's why we're having this discussion, if my memory and characterization of that was incorrect, this is -- this is why we're reviewing that. And then on the second page, you will see the original proposal, which was the mayor's proposal to add the ftes to the mayor's office. There are some differences in the wording of whether -- [10:03:20 AM] of how those temporary positions would be considered in the full-time and so that's why that piece is underlined and then there were -- there was the option suggested to consider this -- to table this discussion in a temporary, on the temporary basis, but to consider it as part of the fuller budget process and within the context of the budget process allowing -- allowing those financial decisions to be made within -- with an understanding of what some of the tradeoffs are. I will say of the two proposals on the first page, they seem to be addressed to different needs. In the course of the discussion, all of the discussions really, there were -- there were some councilmembers who talked about those additional staff aiding all of the council offices collectively. And then there were -- there were councilmembers who talked about needing that additional capacity in their office. And I believe those are two different -- different sets of needs. And the proposal addresses those needs differently. The proposals that have been discussed in each of these settings. So that's -- I'll just mark that as a difference. And again just say that in looking over the discussion, there seemed to be expressions of a need for capacity within each of the individual offices and then different ideas about how to achieve it. So I throw that open for discussion, thought, comments, as -- as with the first item, we have various options ahead of us. We can -- we can recommend to the full council any one of these proposals, we can make no recommendation, we could recommend the council [10:05:20 AM] consider a few of these, we can express a need for more discussion, for more information, you know, we have lots of options ahead of us, but I do think it would be helpful if we can provide some sense of where our discussions have been and what are some of the considers, I think that might inform our council discussion. Vice chair troxclair? >> Troxclair: I think you've done a really good job of outlining the different proposals as well as, you know, the benefits of each. I want to underscore what you just said. I think there is a -- we have clarified through our discussions what the difference is about the approach of having staff members within an office versus staff members in the auditor's office and I mean I think the clear benefit to the first proposal, which is having staff in each council office and two in the mayor's office, allows each member to utilize that -- that staff member to meet the needs of their specific office, whether it's additional help in the -- in their committee, whether it's additional constituent services or whether it's, you know, working on special projects. So -- so then the clear benefit, I think, to the second proposal and -- within the auditor's office is that those staff members would be able to work with all councilmembers at the same time on city-wide projects. So I -- to me that is kind of the -- the crux of the two proposals and in my opinion, I have a -- I have a preference for the first -- for the first option after considering everything over the past few weeks, just because I feel like that would be in more keeping with -- with the [10:07:21 AM] original objective of allowing us to pursue -- giving us a staff capacity to pursue broader goals and it allows us a little bit more flexibility in how to utilize those staff members. But in -- and in my opinion I have -- I feel like it is incumbent upon us to send some kind of recommendation to the full council so that we can keep in our commitment to the mayor and keep moving this process forward regardless of what the decision is going to be. And I think the first two proposals are more representative, I think our - - are representative of the conversations that we've had and that potential -- potential compromises that take into account everybody's concerns and then the full council can -- can make the decision as to which of the two is a Bert option. So I think that I would make a motion to forward the first two proposals to council as our recommendations. >> Tovo: Vice chair troxclair makes a motion to recommend to council consideration of the first two, is there a second for that? >> Pool: Would you be interested in -- I like the first proposal, frankly. And I would like to have some input at some point from the mayor to find out if two staff would be a number that he would -- he could use. It may be that there's a different number that he has in mind. I spoke pretty clearly at our last meeting that putting the staff in, any other office, other than either ours at the council level was a non-starter for me. Which is the only reason I [10:09:23 AM] wouldn't second your motion because I think that laying out these proposals does appropriately capture the conversation that we had and I lean toward proposal no. 1 with the input, with the caveat of the input from the mayor on what number is he comfortable with two or is there a different number that he would like to propose? >> Tovo: Councilmember Renteria? >> Renteria: I have some concern because with -- with especially adding the 12 new people, I would like to hear what the total cost would be if we counted for 2016, it looks like it's going to be way over a million dollars on this one. >> Tovo: Uh-huh. >> Yeah. I think the -- red is on, green is off. [Laughter]. Okay. Yeah, assuming a lot of discussion has been around having these individuals salaries be capped at the existing highest salary of any council staff member, which is currently just a tad over $70,000, so the Numbers in councilmember tovo's are correct. You multiply that by 12, you have roughly 1 tonight $2 million on an an -- $1.2 million on an annualized basis. I think in year two is being the recommendation of approving this for just the remainder of this fiscal year and so if you would look at just the remainder of this fiscal year, including benefits, you would be at about $465,000 for the remainder of this year. Then I would, you know, roughly put in about $90,000 for -- for furniture and -- and computer equipment. [10:11:25 AM] That's about $7,500 per staff person for a desk, computer equipment, other details they would need to staff. Office space is still a dilemma, I don't know if we would be leasing office space or trying to squeeze them in. >> Tovo: Squeeze. >> Assuming they are going to fit in your existing council spaces, I think $90,000 for that equipment would be about on target, so a total of about $555,000 for the remainder of this year. If those employees were to receive benefits. If you took the benefits out, you know, it would be, you would have to redo the math real quick, but it would be less than that. >> I have a question. >> Does that number for the supplies, computers and furniture, consider the desks, the extra desks that are already in each of the new council offices? >> It does not. That would be new -- is that I mean they are already there. >> For an additional person? It assumes all of the equipment, furniture and things that you have in your office is currently being used, this would be new -- new shelving, new equipment. >> And I think we may be able to -- to get a better estimate with a look at each of the councilmember offices, the -- the mayor may be a different situation, but I have I think all of our offices included two additional desks. Plus the offices for -- for the existing three staff that we have. So there are -- there probably is some space, we may be able to -- to get a better fix on that number. By looking at what the current configurations are. >> On each of these proposals, there -- there are bullets indicating what information would be needed one would be total costs including benefits and equipment taking into consideration some of the factors that -- that councilmember Poole mentioned. The other of course would be potential sources of funding which you may or may not want to address here today. Then the impact of reallocating those funds. If the funds are targeted [10:13:26 AM] toward any one of these proposals with the exception of the fourth, what would be the impact on -- on program services, fund balance, things of that sort. >> Tovo: I will say with all of these, I have inputted the Numbers that have been discussed. Five the mayor's office proposal, one and two for the spreading across, three to five ftes within the city auditor, I had made an amendment for-- for up to five. Someone else made an amendment for -- so I would say all of these proposals are scalable. So the Numbers could -- could increase or go to half or I think what we're -- what might be helpful, if there is a -- if there is a consensus about approach is to -- is to consider what the approach -- what the purchasing is comfortable recommending, if any, note there may not be a comfort level with the exact Numbers. [Approach]. And I will say the information needed is sort of just what we had expressed. In the meeting. My guess is there may be other information needed for other of our councilmembers. You know, this is a -- this is as we saw last time the discussion was kind of all over the place, because we're considering it as an immediate need, as we also are tasked with thinking about it in a longer term way, they are different visions of what those needs would be that they would address, of how to fund it, of, you know, so trying to -- trying to put some order on it is -- is complicated. Councilmember Renteria you asked a question about cost. Did you want to follow up on that? All of these have been expressed as a temporary, temporary. Several of the proposals would need an active council to -- to reup that funding and reup that -- those [10:15:29 AM] positions. >> Renteria: Well, I'm leaning toward supporting adding, the 12 fte's, because -- because if we go where we just give three to five to the mayor and he's going to be working with us, that -- that there's going to be a conflict with the open meeting act. And -- and, you know, I -- I have a -- I have a problem with that. That part of it, but if -- you know, if -- I would like to see if -- if they're going to be giving us a new person, that I know where I would be designating my -- my extra aide would be to help me with my housing committee which I think is a big priority here in Austin. But so that's the way that I would see it, but I have a lot of problem with -- with -- with the other proposal where -- where they're going to be working just -- just according to the -- reporting to the mayor and then, you know, where -- we're always going to be facing that challenge, you know,-- where we are violating the quorum. So that's -- that's the -- I don't know -- where I'm -- where we're fixing to be, by a violation of the open meetings act. So I would -- I'm leaning toward more the first proposal where you -- adding 12 new -- that's my feeling there. >> Tovo: I would say in looking through the notes, I know councilmember Renteria you had expressed concerns about those positions being -- being with -- I think you did, within the [10:17:31 AM] auditor's office as well as councilmember pool. As someone who supported that concept. Seems to me if we are considering if the intent of those positions is to add capacity for the council as a whole, that that might be one way to do it. And then those -- those staff members would act through the council resolutions as does our city manager, you know, our city manager implements programs and priorities based on the council resolution as a will of the majority. My will, all things being equal, I would favor doing this during the budget process. And really thinking about it within the context of our other pressing needs at a point where we made a decision whether or not to stick with the council structure, which is under a six-month pilot. So hiring, making a decision to hire additional staff to support the council committees at this point and -- and there's just a lot in flux. However, there's clearly a lot of interest among the council in providing for additional capacity in the immediate short-term. And so -- so, you know, I would support either forwarding both of these recommendations on the first page, the option for the auditor, and the option four across, but if the interest in the group is just recommending that first one, I could support that, too, with the caveat that -- I'm going to really need to have some information before supporting it on a final vote, I would have to have some information about where that -- where that money is coming from and what the -- what the impact would be. In the short term, I understand we'll have time to talk about it in the long term. >> Vice chair troxclair? >> I just wanted to -- to respond to a few things that [10:19:33 AM] I heard and get them off my chest. The furniture and office space, I would -- if we do move forward with these proposals, we do have extra desks currently in our offices. I would -- I would strongly favor utilizing the equipment that we currently have. I mean, we're making -- if we move forward with this, we are making a big decision to -- to see -- that carries fiscal implications, I think whatever we can do to make sure those fiscal implications are minimized would be great. I would be more than happy to utilize the vacant desk currently in my office. I understand -- I don't think that I have a computer or phone for that desk. So those -- that equipment I think would be important for an extra staff person. But I would not support additional office space or additional money spent on furniture. And I -- I wanted to -- to have a little bit of a conversation about the budget implications. I know that the -- that the staff has indicated -- of course the first proposal that we're looking at, we are recommending that -- that we require an affirmative vote of the council to -- to either permanently transferor create new -- transfer or create new fte's come next budget cycle. The staff has indicated that we have -- that we have -- the ability and to not have a budget impact through the end of this fiscal year. Can you expand on that a little bit? >> Well, we had -- we had done that work in regards to a proposal from the mayor initially for five positions, we would want to go back and make sure we can stick to that commitment. We're now talking about 12 positions. Particularly if you are looking at it from a temporary standpoint that we want to get this started as soon as possible and just [10:21:34 AM] get us their the end of this fiscal year, and we're not dealing with -- with furniture or equipment at this point in time, so about $465,000. You know, there's really a matter of looking at our existing departmental appropriations, that council has approved, for fiscal year 2015 and seeing if we can stay within that appropriation limit while paying for these additional costs. That would be option 1, in which case there would be no budget amendment necessary and there would be no budgetary impact, although we would obviously be spending additional money. There would be less savings at the end of the year, so to speak, in that fund. That would be option 1. Option 2 would be we would come back to council and say you know we need a little bit more appropriation authority in order to cover this additional expense. I certainly think with five fte's, we are comfortable saying we could address council's desires without a budget amendment. I think it's likely we could still get there with 12. We would just want to do that work and check with our departments about what their current expenditure estimates are for this year. We are doing that work right now as part of our financial forecast process. On a longer term basis I think it makes sense to have a discussion about the permitnence of about this as part of the overall budget process, one of those issues, one of the things that staff is working on right now is looking at potential service reductions. That could be made in order to offset the costs of a homestead exemption. That was a resolution council passed and said we wanted you to look at ways we might be able to funds a general homestead exemption. Obviously one of the ways we could fund that general homestead exemption would be to make budgetary cuts. Staff is doing that work right now as well. That will be coming forward as part of our financial forecast process. So I think in the context of that, you're going to see a whole bunch of options about how staff or how council can [10:23:34 AM] potentially make some cuts, some, you know, likely certainly would have service reductions. But that could also be used for this task. So -- so that's what I would have to say about the -- about the funding opportunities, you know, if you are looking to do this in a cost-neutral way, those offsetting cost savings would be coming forward as part of our budget process. >> I think the mayor's original proposal also included $25,000 for a part-time person in each council office. So really the original proposal was -- was I know that that didn't include benefits, but more or less equal to 10 full-time positions. Five for the mayor's office and then 10 part-time for all of the council staff. So in my mind I am looking at from the original proposal, I am looking at benefits for those part-time people that have now turned into full-time people plus two fte's. I understood -- my understanding was that this could be done in a -- in a budget neutral way and I -- the proposal says to permanently transferor create new fte's. I just want to go on record saying this being done in a budget neutral way was a very important part of me supporting this proposal. And I know that we will have to have another conversation come the new budget cycle, but it's not my intention that we're -- that we're transferring positions just to get us through the end of this year and then we're going to add, you know, $1.2 million or replace those positions. I would really come budget time I will want to make sure that we're not just saying that it's budget neutral now. But intending on adding $1.2 million worth of staff because my understanding was that -- was that we could have this done through utilizing vacant ftes in other departments. [10:25:36 AM] >> This may be the point that you are -- [multiple voices] >> I think the commitment originally with the mayor was that it could be done this year without impacting the budget and using vacant positions, but he did indicate if they were to remain permanently, that he would like to restore those positions to the departments because of the types of -- service impacts to the programs that they were -- but certainly we could do that on -- on current year basis. But I think the manager indicated that he would want to restore those positions in the budget to the departments that -- but we can certainly look at -- as it says we're a long way before balancing the budget and there are lots of moving parts at this point. So -- so -- >> Tovo: It's my understanding. I understand the use of the term budget neutral, but -- but as I understand it, if those -- if the money to do any one of these proposals comes out in support services fund, that's money that would have otherwise reduced those obligations next year. So -- so in my conversations with you, you said that was the most likely source of the vacant ftes and/or funding, and so that fund is -- is predicted to end with a balance this year, that balancings toward reducing the amount that departments like our enterprise funds like Austin energy and others pay -- are responsible for next year and so -- so it does -- I mean, it does have an impact. I would hope that we would to the end of that third bullet before there's a council decision it would be important to me to have a full discussion about what that impact looks like, because there is an impact down the road. >> That impacts the general fund as well, because they get an allocation just like the general services funds just like support services. [10:27:50 AM] >> Tovo: I'm happy for the purposes of the discussion which we've been go, I should have had a second to second that motion because there are two different visions about how best to meet this need, just for the sake of crossing the lines and dotting the T's, I will second that motion since we should have done so. It does sound like the will of the group -- that the group is not necessarily interested in forwarding those two but perhaps forwarding this for consideration, the first one. So I would just point that out to the marry of the motion -- the maker of the motion and suggest we might alter that in some ways. Let me say I also feel if we think this needs more discussion and reflection, we can say that obviously to the council as well. Councilmember Renteria, do you want to comment on that first? >> Yes, looking at the original resolution, I could support this one if we used the mayor full time equivalent employees from five to three, you know? That way, you know, he can have his people focus on the big picture and not having to, you know, come and help us intermittently whenever we need to ask him for advice. But I kind of have trouble when we're -- when we're going to increase it to five full-time employees. 25,000 out of it, you know. That's just an equivalent of -- of part time employee that we're going to end up getting -- I could support that. But -- [indiscernible] -- that's just my -- view of [10:29:52 AM] it. >> Tovo: Vice chair troxclair. >> Troxclair: With that original proposal, like you said it only includes $25,000 or the equivalent of a part-time person for each of the council offices. 7 do you feel like that $25,000 or a part-time person would -- would allow you the additional capacity to complete the -- the committee work that you described earlier? >> Renteria: I feel like I could because I still have some [indiscernible] Funds that I didn't spend. >> We can't hear you, Pio. >> Renteria: I'm sorry. I feel like I could do it because I still have additional funds for interns that I could hire. So I believe I could. But -- >> Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: If we're talking about our specific offices and additional funds, in my office we have one staffer going on leave for a time. And so have brought in a part-time intern to backfill for this staff when she is away. I don't have the luxury that you would. Maybe what I would suggest is that we move forward with the -- with the proposal that vice chair troxclair originally put on the table with the amendment that the mayor pro tem was offering, which is to focus on the first one and then put it on a council meeting agenda so that we could have the additional discussion that we need and get the input, for example, from the mayor on what his need would be to -- to round this route. We would by then have more specific information from Mr. Van eener on the specific costs. [10:31:53 AM] I believe we should scope it -- down to about four months, am I right? Not even looking at six months. April, may, June, July, August, maybe five months? Okay. So -- so every passing week the amount gets smaller, although the money is -- is of revenue neutral number that we are looking Athena this point. That we are looking at at this point. Which I also support the revenue neutral and would like to have the more global conversation about this when we go to the budget deliberations, but I would urge us to move forward on this now. It has been pending since January. >> Councilmember Renteria? >> Renteria: So would that be, if we allow the 12 additional for this fiscal year, that would be budget neutral -- I mean, we don't have to -- to come up with any kind of a budget amendment? >> We understand that's the desire of council and it's about $465,000, assuming that you get these people on board by may 1st. You are looking at about $465,000. So we would just want to go back. Again, we had done that work and looked into that relative to five positions, 12 is obviously more than five. But we are also further down the road for those cost shifts. We just want to be comfortable saying if we tell you we think we can get to the end of the year without a budget amendment, covering these costs in a budget neutral way. We want to make sure we can do that. So we could certainly be ready to respond to council whenever this is posted at council meetings about that or sends you a memorandum beforehand letting you know what we come up with. >> Tovo: Let me also point out that the original number was -- you know, we've had a lot of discussions about salary, there was an interest in capping the salary and having it be in one proposal, no more than the highest paid councilmember, in another proposal no more than the [10:33:54 AM] highest paid mayoral staff member. There's no, you know, one thing that we might want to -- if there's a [indiscernible] Forward on this proposal for consideration, we might consider saying no more than the highest paid or coming one a lower number. That's another way to cap that cost. Right now it's set at $70,000, which would mean that if we hired additional staff, that staff person would be more than the highest paid staff member in almost anybody's office. So, you know, one reason why I said all of these proposals are scalably, just the Numbers we've been talking about. So ... We probably need to conclude our discussion one way or another. I would suggest if there's some coalescence around this, we consider that, we consider wiping out some of the exact Numbers or saying no more than. We might also forward on the note that another option would be to consider haling it, half time positions in the council's office or mayor's office, those are all options that I think could be considered. I would suggest that we make this our response to our charge to evaluate the mayor's proposal rather than bringing it forward as an additional item of consideration. I think this is -- I think this is our response to the council of our evaluation of that. I say that because, you know, again personally my -- my preferred favorite would be to table it for now. Number 4. But also I think they're just, you know, we want to fulfill our charge. >> Also, if you could come back also and, you know, we cap it at 70, but what if we lowered the price down to 60. You know? Because if -- can you give us the [indiscernible] That we can go forward with the 12 additional for the -- for this fiscal period without, you know, having to increase the budget or giving a [10:35:54 AM] budget amendment. >> I think it helps us if we have something a little bit more tangible. One thing that we could do is look all of your council aides and figure out the average. Budget the average wage instead of the highest. >> Tovo: Councilmember Renteria does that, an average sound like a better measure? >> Renteria: Yes. >> Troxclair: That's exactly what I was going to propose. I think changing the highest paid council staff member to the average salary of council staff member would be appropriate to fulfill the duties of what we've been talking about. And help us better manage our potential budget implications. I have -- I just I think at our last hearing we had requested more information about the vacant ftes. And I do hope that we can have that information or have a little bit further discussion about that. Before we vote on this issue. I know that we have what about 900 vacant positions at one time or another, we're talking about 12 here. I think at the last meeting we had requested the number of have I can't positions that -- vacant positions. A lot of times there's trouble hiring someone, but there's other situations that would happen, but that would certainly help us to better understand what we're facing going forward if we are going to continue this in the next budget cycle. I know other members have indicated at previous hearings that they would not support this unless it was a true transfer of positions, not simply a future replacement. I have to say that I'm -- I tend to agree with them. [10:37:54 AM] I just want to be really clear that my support for this proposal going forward in the next budget cycle will depend on whether or not we can continue this without a budget increase. And average staff -- I guess, do you want me to amend my original motion? >> Tovo: If that's your interest -- >> Troxclair: I guess that I will make a motion to forward the first proposal for 12 new ftes, one not -- >> Tovo: I know that the staff also wanted to consider -- let me ask that as a question. There were different options, I thought, for coming up with the funding. One would be to transfer those ftes on a temperature basis. The -- temporary basis. The other would be to use the fund balance and [10:39:56 AM] transfer that money. Is that accurate? >> It is. There are a number of options of how we can identify the funding. It could come from actual transfer of the position, it could come from a budget amendment to create new fte's at zero cost and the cost savings would cover those staff for the rest of the year. It could come from a budget amendment out of the ending balance using those monies that are currently available. Obviously you've mentioned there would be an impact on the allocation -- there would be no discount on the allocations for the 16 budget, which we used the ending balance for. But there are a number of options that we can look at for funding. >> Tovo: So we would be in essence -- that's part of why this says funding or positions. It's expressed rather broadly so that that could be -- this is the will of the full council and then you would have an option of -- you would come back and provide more information about exact costs, funding options, other implications. >> We would figure out how to fund what the council has directed us to provide for them. >> Tovo: Thank you. Vice-chair troxclair. >> Troxclair: Well, now that I'm reading this again, I know this will have to be a whole new conversation during our budget process, but I would feel a lot more comfortable if we struck the create new fte's, permanently transfer or fund in the fy15-16 budget budget because I don't at this time support creating new ftes. >> Tovo: Would you be open to replacing it with something like absent a vote of the-- an affirmative vote of the council to continue [10:41:59 AM] funding? >> Sure. >> Tovo: Is that good? >> Mayor pro tem? >> Tovo: I think we can certainly convey some of these complexities in our discussion. >> I think I may offer in doing this in a budget neutral way. We don't want to increase the budget. We hear that loud and clear. The only way to do that is not by transferring positions from another department. That may be ultimately what staff recommends or what council chooses to do, but departments also do have budgets for contractual services or other things that aren't staff related. They have budget for temporary employees. One way to do this in a budget neutral way would be to potentially add 12 new positions to the council offices and say we're going to offset the cost of that by reducing temporary budgets or reducing contractual budget R. Budgets in some of these departments. So the wording you're currently leaning towards would seem to preclue the opportunity to do that. Preclude the opportunity to do that. >> Tovo: Could you suggest some wording? How about absent an affirmative vote of the council to maintain those positions or something along those lines? >> Can you read the whole thing. >> Tovo: Do you not have a copy of this? >> I have a copy, but what is the specific -- >> Tovo: I think the concern that vice-chair troxclair has is in that language, to permanently transfer or create new fte's. I think what that sentence is really trying to say is that when the budget comes forward it usually has a line item of additions and deletions. So its intent is to make sure the funding or those positions won't get rolled over into the next budget cycle. There will need to be an affirmative vote of council. There will have to be a consideration of that line item before those are incorporated into the budget. [10:44:01 AM] Those will be singled out for a specific council discussion and deliberation. So however we can achieve that I think is probably the intent. >> Okay. In the 16 budget it will show that I guess if we transfer the positions in 15 there has to be a budget amendment if we actually move them. If that were the case, then those positions will automatically show up in the 16 budget. If we just use the positions and don't transfer them in '15, then the council's budget will show an addition of the 12-14 new positions in the budget because you have to have the authority for those in your 16 budget. However as ed mentioned there is this list that we're producing for the homestead exemption of potential reductions, offsetting reductions to afford the exemption. I guess what I'm saying is in the 16 budget if we don't transfer the positions this year, they have to be added, which means when we prepare that budgets we have to identify what's been cut to provide for that. Somehow we have got to show that in our document. And you may want to add to it. >> I think the current language actually addresses exactly what you're talking about because anything related to this and any other issue for the 16 budget will require an affirmative action of the council. So come July 31st the city manager is going to make a recommendation to this council and you all will need to take affirmative action [10:46:02 AM] and/or amend it in any way, shape or fashion that you deem necessary. So I believe the language that you currently is on this paper worked and I was just recommending to not reduce -- remove the ability to create new ftes. You may want to try to get language in there about the strong desire of this board to accomplish this in a budget neutral fashion. I don't know that that's captured in here. I didn't want you to remove the option of maybe adding new positions in a budget neutral fashion. >> Troxclair: If we can add something about this being bun in a budget neutral fashion or I think what the share was suggesting was maybe to strike permanently transfer or create new fte's and replace it with something more general, like continue -- affirmative vote of the council will be necessary to continue these positions in fiscal year 15-16. I'm okay with either of those options. I'm okay with supporting language that specifically supports creating new fte's. >> Tovo: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: I think that the language that we have where we change the three words or just change to create new fte's to simply say to continue funding fte's in a fiscal 16 budget would adequately wrap that up. I know we'll be talking about that. And it doesn't create any. It continues funding for existing ones. Would that work, do you think? I think that's what mayor pro tem had suggested. Create any. >> Tovo: Though I actually am inclined to withdraw my suggestion, having made it, because I think it does, in some ways it makes it really clear what would -- what the options are. They are either going to have to be permanently created or they're going to [10:48:02 AM] have to be transferred. In some sense this makes everybody a little bit more aware of what's going to have to happen for those positions to continue. I understand what you are saying, we affirmatively act on the budget, but there's a lot of we don't discuss within the budget. This language is trying to say, this will not just get ruled in without an absent discussion about how those positions, the circumstances under which those positions could continue. So -- >> So where are we with the motion? >> Tovo: We have a motion and we have a second. It's been amended in some ways, now we're working on this language, so councilmember troxclair, it was -- there's been a strong desire of this committee to accomplish this proposal in a budget neutral fashion. Are you comfortable with the language of that sort? >> Yes. >> Tovo: Okay. We will add that. How would you like to resolve -- you and your second like to resolve that language? You had a suggestion, a variety of suggestions? I think changing the language to continue funding these positions as councilmember pool suggested, along with the addition of the language for budget neutral would be my preference. >> Tovo: Okay. So that's your motion, that's your amendment. Councilmember Renteria you seconded the motion. Are you comfortable with those amendments to change the language to say absent an affirmative vote of the council to continue funding of these positions and add in a sentence the committee expressed a strong desire ... Or something like that. [10:50:03 AM] To accomplish ... This additional funding ... Or to fund these positions in a budget neutral -- >> Renteria: For the year 2016? >> Tovo: For fyf 15. >> Renteria: I have no problem with that. >> Tovo: Okay. Any other discussions, amendments, questions? Okay. And all in favor signal by saying aye. >> Aye. >> Tovo: Aye. Everyone is unanimous. Thank you. So that's the recommendation that we will provide to council. Okay. Next -- >> We have -- >> Tovo: Let's see. We have four more items. Three of them meaty and time consuming and we have a hard stop at noon. Let's hear from our human resources staff. Thank you for being here. Committee, we will try to spend about 30 minutes on it. This is very time sensitive, we need to act on it soon, the information that we are about to hear is really critical, I hope that we can move on to the orientation by about 11:00, goodness, I'm going to have to recalculate. In any case, we will probably have to cut short some of our orientation, but I certainly want to allocate enough time to this. We will take about 30 to 45 minutes on this. >> Thank you, chair and councilmembers, mark Washington, human resources director. With me I have staff for my office, as well as a city clerk's office today, to provide an update on the process for fill upcoming vacantpositions. [10:52:04 AM] This commission oversees for non-sworn, non-uniform employees, appears on employee disciplinary and promotional and hiring matters, what you will hear today is the process that -- that we are proposing which replicates similar process in which we use in the inception of the commission. With that, what I would like to do is ask the acting assistant director, Rebecca Britain Kennedy to -- to present at this time. >> Good morning. So today as mark stated, we're going over -- I'm having issues with your clicker as well. >> In 2012 the charter established the civil service, a city commission came forward through ordinance. There are five members of this commission. They initially were serving staggered terms, which were reaching some of the expiration of those terms, so we have two commissioners that are -- their terms are set to expire in may of 2015. So we still have the holdover provision, which would allow them to stay on the commission for 60 days should this process maybe extend a little past that timeline. >> Next slide. >> Next slide, please. >> So here are the current members. Die want to bring to -- I do want to bring to your attention that our chair, Kimberly Kovac is one of the members her term is expiring, both her and commissioner Russell have indicated they are not seeking a reappointment, which is why we are here today to discuss what the next steps would be. Slide, please. So our commissioner's role is to hear appeals and make [10:54:04 AM] final binding decisions in the case of discharges, denials of promotion and then certainly disciplinary actions. So they will hear things regarding demotion, disciplinary probation and disciplinary suspensions, currently we have two regular meetings a month. They are the second and fourth Mondays of the month, they tend to last for the entire day. And we are able to call special called meetings as necessary. Pending the caseload that is before the commission. The commission also will review the municipal civil service rules and then can propose and approve amendments as those come forward. Slide, please. And so -- so that brings us to our appointment process where -- where Myrna Rios with the clerk's office will take over. >> Good morning. Excuse me. So the -- our office will recruit the -- the commissioner candidates. In front of you we have -- we already have eight applications on file. We have prepared a spreadsheet with some information regarding the district they are in, what experience they offer, the process will continue as we do the board and commission appointments or application process. We will then forward you or provide you with that information as we have today, I also provided the application so you can review all of their information. Together, with the human resources department, we will assist in that process. I guess next slide, please. So we are currently working with the public information office. Yesterday, I also included a copy of the press release. [10:56:06 AM] The advertising began and it will be a 30 day solicitation and ending on April 22nd, so that we can come before -- or the audit and finance on April 30th. And you can review all of those applications and -- and make a decision. The resident -- the requirements for each applicant require that they are a resident of the city and are a registered voter. Their preferences are to obtain or have some experience with employment, human resources and labor relations. Again, on that spreadsheet, it will show you a brief overview of -- of their experience. Next slide, please. We -- as mentioned -- will follow the application -- the boards and commissions application process. The applications will be accepted online and in hard copy. Attached to some of the online applications are the resumes and any additional relevant information. They are also -- we are also accepting hard copies of the applications and we will provide that information to you as received. We will monitor and ensure that they -- meet the minimum qualifications identified in the charter. Their background and provide you with all of the applications. So that council offices -- that in addition to the committees, all of the other council offices will receive the information. Next slide, please. The committee will review the applications received by our office and appoint -- well, actually in the past years, we have provided you the information, you have made a recommendation, and the council as a whole will [10:58:10 AM] select the commissioner or I'm sorry the chair. So the appointments are subject to approval by the majority vote of the council. Then the council as a wholly designate the -- as a whole will designate the commissioner chair and that is done annually at the time new commissioners are appointed. Next slide. So here's a timeline, as mentioned. The press release went out yesterday, March 24th. We will have 30 days to advertise and accept applications. We will screen them for the minimum qualifications. We are also working with the human resources department to advertise to other organizations. Then we look to have everything prepared for the April 30th audit and finance committee. And possible appointments on may or may 21st. And next slide. Okay. Do you all have any questions? >> Tovo: Questions. Vice chair troxclair? >> >> Troxclair: Where can we find the job posting? >> Through the boards and commission management system that all of your offices have access to. >> Tovo: Through the regular process -- >> Troxclair: Through the regular process? >> Correct. >> Tovo: Councilmember pool? >> Pool: I was looking at the list of people that you provided who have already applied and I know that preferred experience in human resources or employment law is on there and we have one person who has that background according to her application. Do you think it would be helpful if we were to send the notice about the municipal civil service commission openings to -- to some other -- if we would [11:00:12 AM] send it out publicly, other than simply letting folks find it? On their own? >> Right. And we are -- that is in the process. We are working with the human resources department to come up with additional organizations to advertise it. >> So what we did last time was, I think we came up with a group of like some of the hr professional associations that are here. I think we also sent it out to like some of the different labor unions. Any association that we could find that we could market it to. >> The bar association. >> Yeah the bar association. >> Pool: Sure. And maybe to, I don't know, to the institutions of higher education? Do you think maybe -- I see one of the -- one gentleman is a professor at A.C.C. So there -- you know, there might be some good qualified folks, you know, at Huston Tillotson or concordia, southwestern. >> Okay. >> We'll cast a broad net and in addition to the boards and commissions system, do -- as if we are recruiting for any other job and use local media, as well as professional jobsites and associations and take your suggestion and getting higher education involved as well. >> Pool: Just a thought. I know these are really important, really, really important that we have the right balance of understanding of the management in employment law and the tensions between managers and line employees and that sort of a thing. So we need to bring people who have some background in being able to manage those kinds of issues and we're not overly, heavily weighted on one side or the other. That would be my preference. Did you -- can you reiterate what kind of timeline you're working with? >> We are -- we began the marketing process yesterday, [11:02:12 AM] and we have through April 22nd. >> Pool: And then as far as filling them, you want to have people on board. Is this the June deadline that we are looking at on these or is it sooner? >> What we have is their terms expire in may of this year: And then we have a 60-day holdover clause for the two that are leaving. So -- [multiple voices] -- we are hoping to get them done in may. >> Pool: Okay. Are the two people who are leaving, are they agreeable to staying on until we do have a replacement? I worry about a quorum and being able to act. >> The commission met earlier this week and we did discuss potential need for holdover provision. They would like us to have replacements prior to then, but I think they may be open to continue to serve as needed. >> Pool: Thanks. >> Tovo: Thanks for those good suggestions about recruiting. And it would be my intent to try to get us there in time so that we don't have to do -- exercise the holdover provision. I'm glad that one exists. Are there other questions? So as I recall, last time the applications were distributed to all but -- all of the audit and finance members. We independently ranked them. And then brought them to a personnel executive session where we shared our rankings and made some quick determinations, it was a very short meeting, but we shared our rankings, made some quick determinations about the top candidates, five to seven, I have forgotten how many. >> That's correct. >> And then we spent -- had back to back interviews of those candidates on a particular day. It looks like April 30th, would be the day that we would want to have our back to back interviews. Colleagues, we are scheduled that day to have a meeting of the audit and finance committee from about -- we are scheduled now from 9:00 to 12:00. I would think depending on how many candidates we plan [11:04:12 AM] to meet with and what length of time, we might need to extend that meeting a little bit. I believe we would want to accomplish our interviews on April 30th, which would mean we have a pretty quick turn around time from April 22nd when you receive the final applications until the 30th. But that's about what we had last time. It wasn't easy. We all had to do some nighttime reading. But -- >> There may -- councilmember, there may be an interim step in there. If we're going to -- to get consensus on the top candidates to bring in, we may have to have to step before the 30th or a step after the 30th. And it -- >> Tovo: Right. >> It may be in executive session just to review the preferences of the committee and then staff will then notice the top candidates of -- of a date in which they could come in for the back to back interviews. >> Tovo: Thank you for reminding me of that step. So that would mean we would need at least a few days to review the applications. Thank you for providing those that you have received. Maybe that's the way to do it to make sure we get them as we come in or get them once a week or something like that, so we can be on top of the applications that we have. Perhaps we could meet on, say, the 24th or early that next week and identify our candidates. It will be challenging. We've got a policy work session as well. But in any case, it sounds like pretty quickly we need to look the a the councilmember schedules in light of the timeline and see if we can identify those two dates, one short meeting so that we can compare our rankings, identify our top candidates, and then schedule those, make sure that the candidates are aware of what day they need to keep free for those interviews. Mr. Mr. Washington, you look like you had a comment? >> We can have the candidates to be identified of the need to be available should at the be selected. >> Tovo: Before you notify them let's look at everybody's calendars that that won't be the [11:06:13 AM] premeeting. That's the likeliest day we would suggest. Since we blacked out three hours we're close to what we need for the interviews. That's the likeliest day for the interviews, but let's spend some time looking at that. >> Even if it's two weeks or something additional, I would opt for just a little extra time to make sure we got the right people rather than trying to-- so he yeah. >> Tovo: The deadline -- it has already been noticed. They've already indicated the 22nd. >> Pool: I'm talking about for our assessment. I'm comfortable with the April 22nd deadline. It's us being able to act and make a decision within a week of that, including staff's ability to turn around that quickly. It would be great if we could. I can't guarantee at this point making this decision that I would be able to do it that fast. I just wanted to lay that out there. >> Tovo: Thank you. >> I was just going to add that we do have a couple of other time sensitive items on that April audit and finance committee agenda, so just to keep that in mind. Whether it's April 30th or whether there's a different date in April or early may that the committee meets. >> Tovo: Thank you for reminding me of that. >> Troxclair: I'm sorry if you said this and I missed it, do we have a set number of people we bring in for interviews? >> There is no minimum requirement for the number of people you can interview. >> Troxclair: And are the interviews -- they're done in the committee meeting? In a public forum? >> We call it a special personnel executive session for it. And there's no requirement that you have to interview. That was a preference of the last committee last time. >> >> Tovo: Am I right in remembering, is it accurate that the candidate can request that that interview be in public? >> I think if there's -- I may need the attorneys to help me with this. If there is a discussion about a personnel matter [11:08:14 AM] it's the prerogative of the individual whether or not they want to have it in closed or public session. >> Tovo: Thank you. So can you remind me how many candidates we interviewed last time? Of course we were filling the whole board, so there was a need to interview -- >> We scheduled eight. I'm assuming all eight showed for -- eight candidates. >> Tovo: And that was for five positions. >> We did it from 1:45 to 4:45, so it took about three hours and at about 25 minutes or so. >> You had 20 or 25 minutes for each and you had a set two or three questions that you asked all of them. And I was sitting in there with a timer to keep you on track. I remember that. >> Tovo: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: The questions that were asked last time, did you all provide those to us in advance? I would like some assistance in the direction on the questions -- you wouldn't want to make them precisely the same as previously obviously, but along the same lines. I would appreciate that help. >> We worked with the committee in developing the structured interview questions and there was a series of five questions that were asked of every candidate. >> Pool: And maybe you could send those to us soon and then we can look through them and see if there's anything we would like to adjust about them or it will give us an idea of the drift for the questions. Thanks. >> Tovo: Other questions? >> I had one. Last year when the audit and finance committee recommended the chair, they requested that the commission make a recommendation to the audit and finance committee of the chair. Is that the want again this year for the commission to discuss who they would like to appoint as their chair and they can make the recommendation to this body? Or not? >> Tovo: Colleagues? [11:10:16 AM] Any interest? I think the rationale behind that are individuals who have been working together and they might be in the best position to know who they wanted to lead that group. So as I recall that was the rationale for asking the committee itself to make that recommendation. Anyone have an interest either way? >> Pool: I generally ask for -- for instance on boards and commissions when I'm making appointments if people are not staying I ask for their recommendations on who they think would be good to continue or just to bring a name forward. So I generally tend to see that information as helpful. Wouldn't be opposed to it at all. >> Any differing opinions? I would say then that stands. We can certainly take that into consideration and either use the recommendation or not. Thank you very much. That was a very concise, very helpful presentation. Next we will have our orientation. So we've sort of done this backwards. We launched right into some of our first issues before actually having our orientation. >> That means I can skip the part about municipal civil service commissioner appointments. >> Tovo: Thank you, Ms. Hart and Ms. Stokes for your willingness to provide this orientation. As all of us have realized by now, the duties and responsibilities of audit finance committees members are diverse. Thank you for the information you're about to provide. >> All right. I'll start us off. So the audit and finance committee is a long-standing committee. Great. It's a long-standing committee. It actually first met in 1981 and then was formally created -- I'm trying to move to the next slide here. [11:12:17 AM] But was formally created by ordinance in 1985 and had various oversight responsibility. In particular hearing the city's annual financial audit, approving financial policies, looking at the city's internal controls. Efficiency and effectiveness of city programs. And oversight of the internal audit function, which at that time was a function of auditors that reported to the city manager. A few years later in 1991 there was a charter amendment that created the city auditor reporting to council through the audit committee of the council, and that really at that point most of the provisions that are in the current city code, they've been revised over time, but most of those were added at that time when that independent auditor position was created. Then -- and back and forth the committee went from being the audit committee to being the audit and finance committee to the audit committee and currently the audit and finance committee. The policies for city code have always applied to both audit and finance items. So the responsibilities in city code, there's a section, section 239 of city code speaks specifically to the council audit and finance committee, but as you saw with the municipal civil service commission appointments and other items that come to this committee, the section on the audit committee is not the only place where the audit committee is mentioned. Other responsibilities are within that section. You have responsibilities related to looking at financial and performance reporting practices, whether or not internal controls are effective. Whether or not the city is complying with laws and regulations and also the ethical conduct of the city. Those are all laid out in section 23 of the city code. There are also some of the other things as I mentioned. Approval of the auditor's annual plan is required. It's a recommendation to the full council by the audit and finance committee. The committee is responsible for hearing our audit results and any follow-up activities related to audits. Our peer review report [11:14:17 AM] and just there's -- who audits the auditor's request in order to ensure we're in compliance with standards. We have a group of auditors from other local governments basically come in and say whether -- evaluate whether or not we're complying with the standards that we're required to follow by charter. And that report will come to this council. It's an every three year report and happens to fall this year to help with the crowdedness of the audit and finance committee schedule. So there's also the city's financial reports. Those are quarterly financial reports on the city's financial status reported to this committee and the city's financial policies which ultimately become part of the budget document, all of the approved city financial policies. And this is one of the items that I mentioned. This is one of the time sensitive or is the release of the external auditor's financial audit that the audit by an external firm and they report on whether or not our financial report accurately reflects the financial position of the city. And then you've got the city boards. In addition to the municipal civil service commission you have the other commissions. In section 21 of the city code that's the code addressing the boards. The audit finance committee is given the responsibility for reviewing any request for bylaws, amendments from those boards and commissions. And those at this point I believe that would be a review and recommend to the full council for approval. So there's a lot of work on this committee. And then just talking a little bit about the city auditor, the city auditor reports to this committee or to the council through this committee in the charter language and I think as we've discussed on and off in the past we do audits -- we conduct our performance audits. We also do special requests for the council and we do investigations and other integrity related projects. The -- in code the kinds of things that we'll bring to you as we've mentioned our annual [11:16:19 AM] audit plan, our audit reports and that external peer review report. Our annual audit plan identifies the audits we're going to conduct each year. We have another item on that in a second, but you do have in your backup, you have the status of our current projects as well as a list of all the projects that we've done in the last three years by department. We've done 63 audits in the last three years covering over 25 departments. And then all of our audits and special requests are available on our website that you can access. They're on there chronologically and they're since 2002 we've had those on there, or I would say we have the reports since 2002 on our website. So there are a lot of auditors in the city, not just us. With us you get performance audits. There's the city's external auditor. They do the city's financial audit. They also do something called the single audit that basically determines whether or not we're complying or whether or not we're adequately managing our grant funds from the federal and state levels. And you'll get -- there are other specific reports that they do at the request of the city so there's something that they do at the airport where they'll come in and say they do what's called an agreed upon procedures and those reports will come to you as well. Then we have internal auditors throughout the city. These are things that the 8 and finance committee may not see. We have internal auditors in our electric utility at Austin energy, at Austin water, at the airport, and then within some of the other departments, health and human services, for example, have auditors doing work. Those could be -- they could be looking at doing internal control audits. They could be oughting their contracts or contract monitoring, various types of audits are done no those departments. Those aren't things that come through the committee, but they are an audit to be aware of. When we use the term audit in the city there are several different things it could mean. There are also -- recently there was a discussion of audit at the convention center. [11:18:19 AM] There's an auditor who audits the concession contracts. Also at the airport. We hire external auditors. We, meaning the city of Austin, hires external auditors to look at various aspects of our pension programs. So then -- then we also will have auditors from other entities, over sight auditors from the federal government or from the state government, whether that's the Texas commission on environmental quality or what that's the U.S. Department of housing and urban development. All of those entities that give us any kind of funding or regulate us in some way have the authority to come in and do an audit within the city. So this term audit, what y'all will primarily see will come from the top two here, the city auditor and the city's external auditor, but there are a lot of other oversight and audit activities going on on in the city. With that I will turn it over to Elaine. >> Yes, I'm early estimates lane heart -- I'm Elaine hart, the chief financial officer of the city. I no longer use the acronym cfo so people know who I am. During orientation we covered some of this material. I'll go through it fairly fast. I am responsible for administering all the financial affairs of the city, all of the city's financial business, with the exception of the tax assessment process, which is handled by the Travis county appraisal district, and the collection process, which is handled by Travis county. They're outsourced and we pay a fee to them for providing that service to the city. I report directly to the city manager and I oversee the financial services department. The next slide will give you an overview of the functions that the department provides. I have two deputy chief financial officers and I'm not clear if you've met all of them. Greg canally is one of the deputies and he is in the housing meeting this afternoon. And I think he's [11:20:23 AM] covering some of the -- well, he's probably over there too. So we divide and conquer in my department. And ed van eenoo is the second department. He also serves as our budget officer. And then I have several units. You met Rosie truelove this morning who is overseeing the contract management, which is our construction contracting. And I know you've seen James Scarborough, a number of times. He is our newest member of the team, our purchasing officer. Diana Thomas you will meet next month. She is a cpa, certified public accountant. She works with the external auditor. And art Alvaro is our treasurer and oversees the treasury function. Treasury manages all of the cash and investing of the city as well as handles the debt and the debt payments. And so you will see them on all of the bond sales. They're the team behind the scenes doing all of that work. So you really probably haven't seen much of the treasury stuff yet or the controller's staff, but they are kind of our back office folks who stay plenty busy. Some of the committee's responsibilities with respect to financial services are by resolution or by state law. There was a council resolution passed in 2009 that requires financial services to provide quarterly financial updates for the three largest funds in the city's budget, Austin energy, Austin water utility and the general fund. We can add other funds as requested by the committee. And so the council has delegated that to the committee. In addition, Austin energy generally will provide a quarterly financial update to the committee, the council committee on Austin energy. The state government [11:22:25 AM] code public funds investment act also requires that the council adopt -- the city adopt a written investment policy that's generally brought here to this committee and you make a recommendation to the full council. The council actually takes action to review the policy and the investment strategies, and it has to be done not less than annually. Typically that's done in the August to October time frame. There is no deadline on that work, but it does have to be done no less than annually. Some of the other guidance on work that comes to this committee comes from our financial policies. And I'm highlighting two in particular here. We will be back tentatively on the April agenda to meet the first policy, which requires that the city's independent certified public accounting firm present the audit results to the audit and finance committee no later than 60 days after issuance of that annual report. The annual report is called a C after, a comprehensive annual financial report. And it's about 200 pages. I signed the representation letter yesterday and I expect we can release it and post it on the web hopefully today. That is our deadline, which by our official deadline is March 30th. So we're a week in advance. We're all excited about that. It's a big effort. Just to give you a little perspective, the auditor typically comes in around the first of January and they have audit staff on hand for three months. So it is a major effort for the controller's effort. And they're doing the grants audit, the single audit as well as the external audit at the same time. In addition there's a policy that requires -- [11:24:26 AM] that says the city auditor is responsible for conducting the financial audits and performance audits that Cori has talked about. And that their annual plan be submitted to this committee for approval. So you see there's some code provisions and financial policies and they call cross over each other. I think part of that is because originally we had some policies and then the code got changed to add some things. We've not G.O.P. Back to eliminate the financial policies. They're our best practices so stayed in there. The financial policy also states that the manager, the city manager, is responsible for for developing a process for following up on resolution or implementation of the auditor's recommendation and the controller has been designated that responsibility. She will -- I believe we have a tentative agenda for a may presentation for this committee. We do a six-month follow-up on all the outstanding recommendations that have not been implemented yet. We typically do written reports, but this first one we'll do a presentation to this committee and then let you decide if you want just written reports or presentations in the future. But she'lling here doing that. She'll be here doing that. Some of the sources of agenda items for this committee. Again, it's a standing committee. They can come from referrals from councilmembers, committee members certainly can create agenda items. The city auditor's office will identify audits and plans. And things that they need to bring forward. I'll bring forward financial audits, reports, the policies, financial status reports, those kinds of things. City clerk will bring boards and commissions and obviously departments like the human resources department will bring forth reports. It's a fairly busy committee, as corrie said, and she and I work [11:26:26 AM] pretty close on this and we will try and not get mixed up on any of our agenda items who they're coming from. The next two slides I will not go over in detail. They're for your information. The next three months are really busy with a lot of deadline-specific types of work. Beyond that it's a little more flexible. Corrie's staff usually will bring two to three audit reports a month. I'll bring quarterly reports. Financial reports is required. I'll bring quarterly pension updates. And then external audit reports, grant reports, that kind of thing, we kind of fit in around the agenda so that there's room enough for the audits and then towards the end of the year we're very busy with budget. And so I just kind of say take it away, corrie, it's all yours. So you won't see near as much financial activity probably in the september- october, November time frame because we're busy with budget. We're closing the city's books for the year and that sort of thing. But with that, I think that ends our conversation unless corrie wants to add to it. We do have a couple of websites where you can find information about our specific functions. We'll be glad to take questions. >> Tovo: Are there any questions? Well, thank you very much for that very thorough overview and we'll look forward to tackling those issues as Ms. Hart and Ms. Stokes mentioned. We have some time specific things we need to accomplish this spring. So we're going to try to stick to our once a month -- our once a month schedule, but it may be that in this early phase we need to schedule an additional meeting or two. Councilmember Renteria? >> Renteria: I just had some questions when we get to item 7. >> Tovo: I believe that is next on our [11:28:27 AM] list, presentation of the city auditor's interim audit plan. Ms. Stokes? >> Excellent. Once again I'll talk fast because that's what I do. So as mention understand our office, we do performance audits, we do special requests, we do investigations and other integraty related projects. All of those in an effort to achieve our mission, which is assisting the city council in transparency and improvement in city government. That's why we exist and that's what we're trying to do. So we develop an audit plan every year. This year we've developed two actually. We did an interim audit plan for the beginning of the year so we're now coming back with an interim. Thank you -- an interim plan for the second half of the year. But basically we follow a similar process, whether or not it's an interim plan or full year's plan. The idea is we really want to look at what are the risks facing the city, what are the risks facing other entities similar to the city and are they applicable here in Austin. So we go through a process that we call an environmental scan to identify our audit areas. And then prioritize those and come up with a list of projects. And we really have three lists, what we call the annual plan, then we have a priority replacement list and then we have horizon list which we maintain internally. That's the list of potential future topics that didn't for some reason usually resources make either the annual plan or the priority replacement list. So just a little more detail on that environmental scan, the kinds of information that we include. We get input from councilmembers. As you may recall, we met with you and each of the other councilmembers. Even prior to the audit committee being formed. Or being assigned. And we collect input on risks and other issues, areas of interest from an audit perspective. And in that we also, we're looking at news resources, we're following council meetings and work sessions to gain an understanding of the council and the kinds of [11:30:28 AM] issues >> Having more information about. And then in terms of we also talk to city management when we say city risk managers that's really managers within the departments, that's managers at the assistance city manager level, department directors, pretty much anybody. And then we look at the city's documents such as the budget, strategic plan, and get input from other auditors so as I mentioned in the orientation there are many other auditors in the city, try to talk to them about what they've been seeing or ated and covered and input from our own staff out in the field doing use the airport and have ideas of things that maybe we couldn't look at within the scope of a current audit but that should be looked at. Then we look externally too, we review -- do detailed analysis of the citizens survey done by the city. We also look, again, the new sources provide us information about what sirens interested, but we also get direct input from citizens aware of our office and contact us. We talk to other auditors around the country, what they've been seeing, and we look at current events nationally, but really nationally, how they might apply here in Austin and whether or not it's a risk that the city might face. With all of that we take that information, try to prioritize the audit areas so we also look at what have we audited recently and try to get somewhat even coverage so we don't want to spend a year where we're only doing use the airport in one audits in one department, really want to have coverage across the city. For the interim plan as I mentioned we had a plan that covered through the end of March. We're now proposing a plan that would run from April through the end of the fiscal year. But within that most of the projects are carrier-over projects, projects we've already started as part of the first part of the plan, proposing six new projects listed here. [11:32:28 AM] Then as I mentioned, you know, the majority of the projects are carry-over projects, projects that we've already started and are currently working on. And these are all ones that I would expect to complete between now and the end of the fiscal year, so between now and the end of September. We also just to mention in addition to our audit projects, which are -- I would say our planned projects, where we can identify a topic and they may change. We have a preliminary objective ask it may change with somewhat as we get in and learn more information in the audit area but more the most part we have a topic and that's what we're going to look at. We also have hours on our plan for unplanned projects so we have a dedication for council special requests, you'll see 600 hours on this year's -- on the second half plan for council special request projects. We have our integrity unit activities, really based primarily on calls that we get through -- calls or, you know, people submitting a form online but we get through citizen employee allegations of fraud waste and abuse so not something we plan for but we have a certain number of resources set aside each year. You'll see on the plan I think it's around 300 hours for closeout activities, not projects we're putting on the plan because we consider them substantially complete but haven't been presented to the committee so there still may be additional activities to wrap them up. These are the four audits that we expect to be coming to the committee in most likely in April or as soon as we can present them, April or may. With that, I'm open to any questions. I guess next steps, we want to receive comments from you guys as the audit and finance committee, as I mentioned per code this plan comes to you for recommendation to the full council and we'll be looking for that recommendation whether today or at a future meeting related to the audit plan and have that same discussion or have that item heard by the full council. [11:34:28 AM] >> Tovo: Thank you. The next step would be for our committee to review it, to take action, either today or at a future meeting to recommend this plan to the full council and then the council would vote on it. >> Correct. >> Tovo: Okay. Councilmember Renteria I know had some questions. >> Renteria: Yes. You know, I see a lot of these special requests, but there's one that kind of just jumped out on me and it's a special request on foundation community use of funds. Now, what does that -- does that mean? >> That is a question -- as I mentioned with the special requests the way we've handled those historically is that if any councilmember can ask for a special request project, what we'll do is if we believe we can do the work in 200 hours we propose, kind of lay out our methodology, here's the work we're going to do. And what that -- we do clarify that's just information provisions, answer questions asked of us. Typically that's been how our are peer cities handling, oversight structure for a particular program. In this case it's a question about whether or not city funds were used by a nonprofit to contribute to the affordable housing bond proposition in the last -- actually in two prior elections in 2013 and 2012 election. Very specific question we've been asked by a councilmember to answer and we're doing that within the 200 hour threshold. >> Renteria: Is that a very common request, that we can just ask for how we fund different nonprofits and what they do with their money? >> I wouldn't say it's a common request, but I think the requests come from -- a request can kind of be anything. So we do get a variety of requests coming through the special request process. I would say this one is unique [11:36:30 AM] in that I don't know that we've had a special request previously that was about a specific business -- or specific company that the city does business with. >> I have a question. Do you want to think for a minute? >> Tovo: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: The results are provided to all of the council offices; is that correct? >> That's correct so with when we complete this work would you get a copy of the report along with the requesting councilmember. We've actually added a step where we notify that -- we send a notice to the full council and when we accept a request we send a notice just so that everybody knows what we're working on, that we've accepted this special request and here's the topic. Provide that. Then when we complete the work we also provide the report to everybody. That's posted on our website as well. >> Pool: So is what you need from us today, then, to make a motion to move this report to council for action? >> That is. >> Tovo: Vice chair troxclair. >> Troxclair: Can you command on the time line a little more? I would -- if possible, I would love to take this up at our next meeting so that we have a little bit more time to review it because I know we talked yesterday but there's a long list. We do have a lot of flexibility in what audits we recommend and subject areas. So I would personally like a little bit more time to review it before we pass it but I want to understand any time line implications that you're facing. >> Sure. I think I would say it's really up to the committee and we'd be fine with discussing it again or bringing it back in April. For us, we're operating, you know -- you know, our plan lasts through March 31 but our mark doesn't stop then. As I mentioned we have 11 [11:38:32 AM] carry-over projects so we have work we'll continue to be working on. I think we got into may or June without a plan I'd start getting nervous about down time because we do have people working on multiple projects to get all our things out efficiently. There's a point, not yet, in late may or early June where we'd definitely need to have a plan in place to keep working on on. >> Cory I would note I think June 16 is the last meeting before the break so you need to think about backing up interest that date. So you only have probably April and may audit committee to make the recommendation to the full council. >> Pool: Could you real quick give us kind of an overview on how this process worked for previous councils? And the reason for my question is you have gone through some fairly rigorous selection process to put these different projects on this list, aside from simply receiving and listing items from each council office. You don't vet those, except for how much time they would take? >> Right, the special requests, correct. >> Pool: And I would like to have enough information to understand how previous councils have approved this because I don't want to put -- I don't want to replace your careful professional assessment of what items deserve or require an audit with my estimation of how you should prioritize your work. I don't want to replace your professional assessment of this with just my opinion on that. >> Got it. I would say that your opinion and the opinion of the other councilmembers and the mayor is [11:40:32 AM] actually key. It's a key part of our risk identification process, is this something that's of Dr. The reason that things are of interest to you are the same things they might be an area we want to audit so I can point out like the special events fee management audit that's an audit where we had an audit on the plan a couple years ago related to special events management. We actually tabled that because there was a study that the city manager was conducting or task force doing work related to that issuing a resort we wanted to wait to do that project until that work was complete so we've put it back on. It's a topic that's come up over and over again. And y'all have created a task force related to it. Sos did it's an issue I think of interest to council but maybe the task force replaces that. What we're looking for from you is that insight into what is the highest priority because we have these six projects and really at this point, you know, we have room for six projects on our plan but these are the six we thought based on our analysis were the most appropriate if you look at the priority replacement lists those are other projects that could be equally important and need to be done sooner rather than later. >> Pool: It's really more a matter of us helping rank them as opposed to vetoing any of them? >> I think if a veto comes it can be appropriate. In the past, perhaps mayor pro tem has more insight into this because they actually served on the committees that did that but for the most part the plans stayed similar but we did take off projects or replace projects or an idea would come up and we'd propose maybe we can take these three projects on and put these two new projects in their place. So there could be a whole new project that moves something to the priority replacement list or it could just be a kind of shuffling around of what the priorities are. >> Pool: Great. Thank you. >> Tovo: I'll say sometimes I don't remember that happening terribly often as a full council but occasionally there were issues that arose among the full [11:42:34 AM] council, one would be the water treatment plant, for example, where there was a council resolution to look at the costs and look at the costs of -- that could -- look at the savings that could accrue from pausing the project. So that was something that came through the full council and then it was a direction to the city auditor to compile and oversee, and that required shuffling of the strategic plan certainly. Sometimes things will happen outside of this group, and I think there was a contract that was a little bit like that as well. We paused consideration at the full council of the contract and asked for the auditor to get involved. So sometimes things will go -- come from that direction as well and shape the plan. >> I would add to that, I think those -- the plan is flexible. So this is our best estimate of what's going to come up, but we've certainly, I would say, probably every year for the last six years, we've had something come up midyear that required a shuffle. Most recently the request on council committee's council meeting management, that was a larger -- it was a request by the full council so it didn't necessarily fall in our 200 hour request threshold but it was a resolution passed by the council so it really pushed the amount of things that carry over onto this second half of the plan. But the a rate proposal we have work related to that. I think every year something comes up that requires us to reprioritize that plan but that's something we would bring back to the audit committee. >> Pool: The last thing I'm gathering from what you're saying, this is flexible? If something happens after, say, we say go ahead with these six things and five months from now we realize we need to swap out something, this is always kind of a flexible -- >> Absolutely. >> Pool: Okay. >> Sometimes it's affected by things maybe outside of all of our control, like a vacancies, I think two years ago we had such a high vacancy rate, we did the same projects but it delayed us [11:44:34 AM] delivering them because we didn't have the staff to work on them, basically. And so there are other things that could impact the plan, but this is our general -- you know, it's a plan, subject to change. But it is what we use as kind of our marching orders for our work. >> Tovo: Councilmember re Renteria. >> Renteria: So when do you provide, like, the fiscal year April to September audit plan? You're here for our approval -- in here for our approval to continue doing this investigation or research into these audits into these projects. So you'll just come back to us next meeting? >> Tovo: Next month. >> Renteria: Okay. >> For this one, we would come back in April. Generally we are -- we do this, present you a draft plan sometime in August. We ask for final approval no later than the end of September. And that's our typical project, for a full year. But with 10-1 with the whole new council coming in we only did that half year plan. So that's why we're back now. >> Renteria: Okay. >> Kind of midyear. >> Tovo: Councilmember troxclair, did you have a question? >> Troxclair: When is our next meeting? >> April 30. >> Troxclair: So full month. I mean, if there is the ability for us to make changes in the future, this isn't a concrete plan, I'm okay with moving forward. >> Tovo: Would you like to make that as a motion? Would you prefer someone else. >> Pool: I'd be happy to defer to the vice chair. >> Troxclair: Okay, sure. It was on our agenda today for approval? >> Tovo: Right, for discussion and possible action -- as I understand it we can table it another month if the committee would prefer the extra time to review it or we could pass it on [11:46:37 AM] to the full council. >> Troxclair: Okay. My preference would still be to review it as long as there are no interruptions in your work or, you know, implications. But -- so I'm curious to hear from the rest of the committee. >> Pool: It sounds like we could approve this going forward and retain the ability to shift items in and out of priority based on how the work proceeds, which may accommodate the need for looking at it a little bit more. But I do feel -- I would like not to delay. >> Tovo: Councilmember Renteria, do you have a thought? >> Renteria: I agree with councilperson pool. We should just go ahead and approve it and we can always discuss it later on, but I don't see any reason why we should delay it. >> Tovo: Any motions? >> Troxclair: I would love to hear what the chair's take on it is. >> Tovo: Well, let me go ahead and -- >> Pool: I was deferring, I was just going to let you make the motion to move forward if you were so inclined, but I will for the sake of discussion I'll go ahead and move that we approve this, always retaining the ability to make adjustments and changes and request additional information and discuss further, as issues warrant. >> Renteria: Second it. >> Tovo: I'll say, you know, I can -- I would be comfortable proceeding either way. I do not want to get into a position where the city auditor feels concerned that they're [11:48:37 AM] getting to the end of their workload. It sounds like we've got a little bit of time there, but I guess it would be my preference to move this forward to the full council. But with the caveat that we didn't have a very long discussion about it, we really didn't have a chance to review many of the different kinds of priorities and programs, but that will be a priority for us in the next -- you know, this gets us through this gap period, and we'll be looking really closely at that priority list in the months ahead. >> Troxclair: Okay. I'm okay with that. I think my only -- I mean, obviously, we're talking about the fact that we have flexibility going forward. My -- really my only thought with delaying it is sometimes when you approve a plan and then even though you have the flexibility to change it, practically, when you come back and change it, if you're adding something it means you're taking away something else and that sometimes leads to a conversation you don't think the item you're delaying is important so sometimes it gets into more of a political conversation. It's easier to start with a plan that we're confident about. But as long as we're having this conversation now, we're all agreeing that we haven't had a whole lot of time to review this and that we will have an open conversation without some of that political baggage going forward if it does come up. That's fine with me. >> Tovo: Yeah, I think that's really essential. I would say, you know, things -- I would have to really think back, but it feels like it was a pretty fluid -- everyone regarded it as a somewhat fluid plan. It was a plan that was the marching orders but there were, as you said, substitutions and other kinds of changes. And so we can certainly make sure that it's actually on the agenda to review in the months ahead to provide any feedback. >> One thing in the past this [11:50:37 AM] did not go to the full council for approval so it was approved by the audit and finance committee, also a quorum of the council, differences in the way it operated. With this going to the full council -- or as a recommendation to the full council I think there's an opportunity there if y'all wanted to we so solicit feedback in advance of that council date, summarize input from all council offices. We could do some kind of prework between now and when it came up on a council agenda, should any changes be suggested or warranted. >> Troxclair: Sounds good. >> Tovo: Great idea. Thank you for suggesting it. Committee, I made a mistake earlier in our agenda and though I called for communications in the beginning of the meeting, I negligented to see that we had a citizen who signed up during the course of the meeting and he was kind enough to notify me and then to come back and so with your permission I would like to -- did we -- I'm sorry we didn't take a vote. Now I've had two glitches. >> Somehow I didn't notice. >> Tovo: Compounded one glitch with another. We have a motion and second on the floor. I'm going to call for a vote. All in favor. And it's unanimous. So back to the first glitch. So with your permission I would like to call Mr. King up, apologies, Mr. King about I promise we'll do better in the future. And I believe you wanted to discuss an issue that we've already made a recommendation about, but we certainly still have an opportunity within the course of this meeting to change that recommendation if -- >> Thank you very much, mayor pro tem and chair. And vice chair and committee members here, I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you so much. I was at the meeting of mobility committee meeting across the hall here participating if that meeting and I ran over here and signed up and I realized you had a different -- little different procedure here. So thank you very much. I really appreciate the work y'all are doing on the committees here to allow more public input and vetting of these issues before they combo [11:52:38 AM] to the full council. Thank you, again, for allowing me to come speak. I wanted to speak on item 4 regarding additional staff members for the council. And my main point is that I hope that we can maintain a balanced perspective on this so that we honor the intent of 10-1 so that we have good representation, balanced representation, from all the districts. And to allow -- so I would, you know, propose that the mayor have two additional staff and every other district have one additional staff to help keep that balance. And let the districts decide where they need to use that particular staff member. Not try to share it or, you know, parse out their time for your particular districts. And, you know, we're going to be spending $1.2 million for this, I really love the questions coming out now about these are the costs, what are the benefits? So I really think we need to look at the defendants side because I'm expecting as a citizen that if we get these additional staff that when we e-mail or we ask for -- provide input on issues or something that we would get responsiveness from that. I realize you're still drinking from a fire hose even with these additional staff members, I understand that but there are going to be expectations from the public if we're going to invest $1.2 million in this strategy. I would suggest that -- I know that we're using funds that are not being used right now for vacant positions, but those positions have been justified by departments for a reason, to meet important needs that the council has said that this city needs to provide. And so I understand that you need to find some money for this right now, but I would suggest that we go ahead and get those positions filled so those services can be delivered to our citizens, that the council intends to be delivered. But -- then I would suggest that you find funding for this in other ways. For example, stop giving money to opportunity Austin and chamber of commerce and use that instead, million dollars a year, use that money to fund these positions. [11:54:38 AM] And just a suggestion about future agenda items for the meeting, previous item on use the airport audits. I would suggest a fee in lieu of the sidewalks parkland dedication fees. There have been concerns that those fees are supposed to be invested back in the neighborhoods. In my neighborhood we have questions about whether that's happening. I think that deserves an audit, see if it's effective and how is it working on? How much fees have been invested, where collected, and have they be invested back into the neighborhoods? Important for us to have that information. Require the fee in lieu versus quartering them -- I've heard that the fee in lieu is woefully inadequate, doesn't cover the actual cost to actually provide those sidewalks. When the city comes do build the sidewalk that wasn't provided the cost is actually higher so that gets transferred to the terms. The other audit I suggest is transportation fees for development project. The Garza project illuminated how really the fee is so minuscule we'll never get those enhancements to those intersections that are impacted by that project. I think that deserves a look as well O to see is that program effective and how many -- and how many -- how much infrastructure has actually been upgraded based on those fees. So thank you for your time and consideration. >> Tovo: Again my apologies. I appreciate you coming back. >> No worries, thank you. >> Tovo: Sharing your thoughts and feedback. >> No worries. Thank you. >> Pool: Mr. King I just wanted to give you an update you may be cheered to learn that we are forwarding the proposal that does exactly what you had requested, two additional staff in the mayor's office, one additional staff at the direction of each council office. The amount is actually half or little bit less of the amount [11:56:39 AM] because five months left in the year, also looking at using existing furniture, trying to reduce how much we will spend on it. And so I thank you for persisting and coming back. And your ideas on the audits are good ones too. >> Thank you very much. >> Tovo: I agree. With regard to the transportation fees I think that's an excellent point of inquiry and I did ask questions related to that for the Garza tract I believe the answers were ready at the time of the council hearing but I'll follow up on that and it's certainly possible based on the responses it's an appropriate subject for an audit. I appreciate you reminding me of the importance of that issue. Thanks. >> Thank you very much. >> Renteria: Before you leave, we also -- it's already on our request for a fee in lieu so we're having an audit done already. So -- >> Thank you very much. >> Tovo: Okay. We have one last agenda item and that is discussion of future agenda items. We've had some consideration of that already. Are there any other items that councilmembers would like to add to that list? >> Pool: Not at this time. >> Tovo: One thing that would be useful is feedback if you have it on how we might structure our agendas to make sure that if citizens want to talk not in the beginning of the meeting but elsewhere the kinds of items that we should provide public feedback for, we probably should make a space for that in the agenda so I'll do thinking about that. Again, if committee members have idea please forward them. With that we stand adjourned at 11:57 thank you all so very much. Committee members and staff, we covered a lot of ground. I appreciate all your work. [Meeting adjourned]