Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOW 2004-04-12 Item 4I - Council - City Council Travel Guidelines and PolicyGCOUNCILAGEN,, ASYNOPSIS,,EMNo' Meeting Date Prepared by Mayor's review l Cou..ncil ~e~view t-FEM TNFORMA-FION CAS Number: 04-024 I Original Agenda Date: 2/23/04 Agenda Ttem Title: City Council Travel Policy Original Sponsor: Council x Admin. Timeline: Sponsor's Summary: A proposed new travel policy has been recommended to the Council by the Finance and Safety Committee. Recommendations: Sponsor: Discuss policy Committee: Finance and Safety recommended policy for adoption Administration: Same as sponsor Cost Impact (if None knownS: Fund Source (if known) RECORD OF COUNCIL ACTION Meeting Date Action 2/23/04 COW 4/12/04 APPENDICES Meeting Date , Attachments 4/12/04 Memo from Lauterbach dated :~/12/04 Proposed Travel Policy Attachment C Current Attachment C Travel Policy Finance and Safety minutes 4/5/04, 3/15/04, 3/1/04 and 2/17/04 To: City Council From: Lucy Lauterbach Date: March 12, 2004 Subject: .City Council Travel Policy Most of you have heard rumors or reports of this policy as it has made its way through several meetings of the Finance and Safety Committee over the past two months. The policy, if. adopted, would be in effect for 2005, though consideration of the new provisions might result in some new budget considerations during this fall's budget preparations. The main point of the proposed new policy would be to allot to each Council member some portion of the travel funds to use for whatever travel they choose to make during the year. If a Council member had $1,000 in his or her allotment, he/she could choose to go to an AWC Conference, and one national NLC conference. Those two things could use up $1,000 easily. Mileage reimbursements for local meetings, meals at Suburban Cities, and parking would be covered outside of the personal allotments, and the Council retreat and any Tukwila meals are also separate. The policy is self explanatory, and the Finance and Safety Committee tried to cover all the relevant points. Travel to Ikawa may be planned for 2005, and if any Council were interested in going to that, it would come from the personal allotments. An important provision in the policy is that if a Council member does not plan to use his or her allotment, it can be returned to a central shared account. Others can then apply to use these shared funds when their allotment runs out. You can discuss the proposed Policy, and decide to forward it for adoption, or revise it. Committee members are quite familiar with the Policy's provisions, and they or I should be able to answer your questions. ATTACHMENT C Proposed Council Travel Guidelines I. Statement of Policy The Tukwila City Council encourages Council members to be actively involved in city, county, state, regional, and national organizations that affect Tukwila, its residents, and its businesses. II. Decisions About Travel It is the responsibility of the entire Council to approve the travel budget. It is the responsibility of individual Council members to decide upon their own travel with their travel allotment. III. Purposes for Travel A. Education B. Lobbying C. Professional responsibility, e.g., policy boards, offices, and committees D. Public relations, i.e., representing the City E. Fostering better relations with local, state, federal and sister city officials IV. Travel Budgets A. Budgets for Council travel will be set in the fall prior to the year the travel is to occur. B. Estimates of who shall travel in the next year will be made at budget time the preceding year in order to set an adequate budget, which shall serve as a guide in allocating travel for the following year. C. The Council will consider the City's financial situation in setting their annual travel budget. V. Council Travel Decisions A. Beginning each year, after funds for local meetings, the Council retreat, and meals are subtracted, each Council member will be allotted an equal share of the remaining Council travel budget for State, National and Sister City travel. That share shall be available to that Council member for use in travel expenses throughout the year. B. Each Council member will prepare a travel plan at the beginning of the budget year showing planned travel and expected associated costs. Dates and locations of known state and national conferences will be supplied as soon as they are known. 4/8/04 C. Any Council member's funds that ara not used for travel in that year will be raturned to the shared travel fund Which can then be used by other Council members. 1. Council members desiring to use sharad travel funds will prapara a Request for Travel Form highlighting the benefits to the City. 2. The Council Prasident will prioritize the raquests to the Council. The City Council will make the final decision on use of the funds. 3. After all Request for Travel forms ara raceived by the Council Prasident and no sharad funds ramain, travel requests will be denied unless additional funds ara budgeted. 4. If an opportunity for a conference or training arises mid year after travel funds ara expended or planned for, the City Council will decide if the benefit to the City is high enough to warrant the additional travel expense. D. Upon returning from a class or conferance, Council members will prapara a written report to be distributed to the Council. If mora than one Council member attends, a consolidated raport may be prasented. E. Sister City Travel 1. Sister City travel will not be budgeted separately and will be part of each Council member's travel allocation. 2. Funding for travel to a sister city will be planned in the budget for the year in which the travel will take place. 3. Travel to a sister city will not praclude travel to a national conferance if costs ara taken from the Council member's travel budget or central sharad funds. 4. The City will pay for basic travel on a sister city trip, including the transportation, lodging, and meals included in the basic price for the trip. All other expenses will be borne by the City Council member. VI. Travel Expenses A. The City will pay for airfare, ragistration, hotel, and meals when a Council member is on official travel. B. When a spouse or non-City person accompanies the Council member on travel, his/her expenses will be separately paid in full by that person, and the City will not assume any extra costs for that companion. The difference between the cost of a single and double room incurrad when a spouse accompanies the Council member is the rasponsibility of the Council member, and will be paid at the time of the hotel stay. 4/8/04 C. A record of expenses foi: lodging, meals, transportation, and incidental expenses should be kept on a daily basis, with receipts attached to the record. An itemized bill should be kept for meals, especially when several persons' costs are included. D. A detailed bill or other itemization of the cost should accompany a city credit card receipt. The credit card should not be used for any non-city expenses, such as spouse meals or lodging. VII. Travel Arrangements A. City CounCil travel should be processed through the Legislative Analyst, who will coordinate with the entire Council. The Legislative Analyst can make arrangements for travel, if desired, and copies given to the member who will travel. B. Efforts wilt be made to secure the best cost for airline travel and lodgings in the designated travel city by planning ahead, and by taking advantage of any discounts available. C. Council members can get travel advancements by completing the required forms in a timely manner. VIII. Miscellaneous A. When a City vehicle is available, it should be used for intra-state travel. B. If a Council member uses his or her personal vehicle, mileage will be reimbursed according to Internal Revenue Service rules. 4/8/04 Reqi~est for Shared Funds Date: Council Member Name Conference/Training/Workshop Information: Title: Date: Estimated Expenses: Registration: Lodging:. Meals: Travel: Other: Total Request for Funding Describe the scope~ content, and benefit to the City this event would bring. Include any projects currently planned that could benefit directly. ATTACHMENT C Council Travel Guidelines I. Statement of Policy The Tukwila City CoUncil encourages Council members to be actively involved in city, county, state, regional, and national organizations that affect Tukwila, its residents, and its businesses. II. Decisions About Travel It is the responsibility of the entire Council to approve travel by its members. II1. Purposes for Travel A. Education B. Lobbying C. Professional responsibility, e.g., policy boards, offices; and committees D. Public relations, i.e., representing the City E. Fostering better relations with local, state, federal and sister city officials IV. Travel Budgets A. Budgets for Council travel will be set in the fall prior to the year the travel is to occur. B. Estimates of who shall travel in the next year will be made at budget time the preceding year in order to set an adequate budget, which shall serve as a guide in allocating travel for the following year. C. The Council will consider the City's financial situation in setting their annual travel budget. V. Out of State Travel A. National 1. Costs for travel to national conferences shall generally follow the budget plans made for that year's budget. 2. In order to gain the most benefit from a conference, the goal shall be to send ' two council members to each NLC Conference. This number does not include any member who is attending an NLC Steering or Policy committee meeting. If more than two members wish to attend a national conference, the City Council can approve additional travel by a motion at a Regular Council Meeting. 1,,loo 3. Travel for a Council member on a national board or committee that requires that Council member's attendance will be budgeted separately and will not count in the number of counci~ members traveling to a conference. 4. When more than two council members are interested in attending an NLC conference, priority is given to the member(s) who has not attended a national conference for the longest period. 5. After returning from a national conference, attendees will issue a report to share the information and perspectives with the entire Council. If more than one Council member attends, a consolidated report may be given. B, Sister City Travel 1. Travel to a sister city will be planned in the budget for the year in which the travel will take place. 2. Travel to a sister city will not preclude travel to a national conference. 3. The City will pay for basic travel on a sister city trip, including the transportation, lodging, and meals included in the basic price for the trip. All other expenses will be borne by the City Council member. VI, In-State Travel A. City Council travel to state conferences will generally be allowed for all Council members. B. In the event the travel budget does not allow as many to travel as would like to go, those who have not attended conferences recently shall have first preference. C. Travel to state conferences will not affect opportunities for a Council member to travel to national conferences. VII, Travel Expenses The City will pay for airfare, registration, hotel, and meals when a Council member is On official travel. B. When a spouse or non-City person accompanies the Council member on travel, his/her expenses will be separately paid in full by that person, and the City will not assume any extra costs for that companion. C. A record of expenses for lodging, meals, transportation, and incidental expenses should be kept on a daily basis, with receipts attached to the record. An itemized bill should be kePt for meals, especially when several persons' .costs are included. D. ^ detailed bill or other itemization of the cost should accompany a city credit card receipt for costs. The credit card should not be used for any non-city expenses, such as spouse meals or lodging. VIII. Travel Arrangements A. City Council travel should be processed through the Legislative Analyst, who will coordinate with the entire Council; The Legislative Analyst can make arrangements for travel, if desired, and copies will be given to the member who will travel. a. Efforts will be made to secure the best cost for airline travel and lodgings in the designated travel city by planning ahead, and by taking advantage of any discounts available. C. Council members can get travel advancements by completing the required · . forms in a timely manner. IX. Miscellaneous A. When a City vehicle is available, it should be used for intra-state travel. B. If a Council member uses his or her personal vehicle, mileage will be reimbursed according to Internal Revenue Service rules. Fina.qce and Safety Committee 4/5/04 6. Council Travel Policy After considerable time has been spent recently reviewing a policy, the Committee made some editing changes and recommended the policy to the Council. Recommend issue to COW and Re.qular Meetin.q. 7. Financial Plannin,q Model The Committee worked to understand the Planning Model and the City's budget related to it. Alan pointed out there is no money in the Planning Model for connectivity, TUC, TOD, TVS, or the Mall/Klickitat. Even without those projects and even if Eyeman's latest initiatives don't pass the City will run out of funds by 2008. They will run out sooner if revenues go down or expenses increase for any reason. Some additional things that could lead to budget increases include employee health care costs, and the PERS and LEOFF payments, which have gone from 2% to 7% by 2007. The City has had cost cutting for several years now, so that ' departmental budgets are stripped down. When an issue like TVS staffing comes up, the money must come from the ending fund balance. Looking at the 6 year capital plan Alan noted that even the Public Works Artedal Street fund includes within it $1.2 million per year on street ovedays and maintenance. By 2007, only maintenance will be allowed with the budget unless there is a substantial increase in revenues by then. There will be no "like to do" projects in the budget after 2006. Dennis suggested including the previous year in the Attachment A, and showing the $1.2 million maintenance cost separate from Artedal streets. He also wanted to see Tukwila Village's revenues and expenditures included. Information. 8. Requests for Casinos Both DCD and the Mayo~s office have gotten calls from people asking generally about adding casinos in the City. One obvious site is at the old Chips (formerly Pete's Flying Aces) on TIB. Other sites have been mentioned, but not proposed formally, The City Attorney has recommended putting a moratorium on new gambling establishments to prevent new casinos going in everywhere in the City without careful planning. Recommend ordinance to COW and Special Meetinq 4/'12104. ~ Committee Chair approval /~. Finance and Safety Committee March 15, 2004 Present: Dave Fenton, Chair; Joan Hernandez, Dennis Robertson Alan Doerschel, Lucy Lauterbach 1. Council Travel Policy A new draft travel policy was in the packet, and the Committee members suggested several changes to improve it. The policy still sets up a system of allocating each Council member some portion of the travel budget, and it will be up to each member to allocate their money to specific trips. $oan asked about trips that come up after the first of the year after everyone has planned trips already. The policy says in that case the whole Council has to decide if the trip is important enough to increase thc travel budget. Sister City travel is another issue that will need to be accounted for in budgeting. The policy now says it must come out of each member's share, but that could mean no one goes if they all have planned for other national travel that year. The three members all supported thc new draft with its improved language. The 2003 travel budget will be close to being over spent this year. Reschedule. 2. Rainy Day and Contingency Funds The City has "contingency" funds in two places in the budget. One is on Page 134 of the budget in the General Fund, and is named the Rainy Day fund. That amount is currently $1,I00,000. On page 143 of the budget is a 105 Fund Contingency budget. Neither of the two budgets is counted in the 6 year Financial Plan. The Contingency Fund grows very slowly, with its interest added to it each year. The rainy day fund is contained in the larger ending fund balance. Alan said Rainy Day had been established ten years ago, and its name is not very accurate. Because it is in the General Fund, it is much easier to get at than the Contingency Fund, which has some restrictions on its spending. Alan said the ending fund balance used to be much larger, but now we are using it to pay for the city's spending each year, and it is decreasing at such a rate as to be at zero by 2007. The City's ending fund balance now is getting low enough that we use more than half of it each year to fund the first few months of the year before any new revenues come in. Alan needs $4-5 million each year for paying the first bills of the new year. When cities don't have enough funds to cover those expenses they do tax increment financing to tide them over. Some smaller cities like Normandy Park already have to do this; we'll need to do it in two or three years. Alan said increasing the Rainy Day fund by paying it interest each year would take money from the ending fund balance so the 6 year Financial Plan could run out of money earlier than 2007. The Committee was concerned about these figures. They agreed to study Attachment A of the 6 year Financial Plan at their next meeting. Resehedule. 3. Proieet Prioritization Dennis had talked to Terry Moore who has led groups through processes such as the Council will go through in prioritizing large projects for the next few years. Alan said it will be hard to get numbers for projects like the TVS, and the Committee knew some projects would have hard numbers and others very soft estimates. Still, they are looking for a rough guide that will enable them to judge all the projects together. Dennis was convinced spending some money to hire Terry Moors would benefit the Council and be money well spent in the long term. Schedule Moore at Committee. 4. Utility Tax Rebates Alan reported he will be drafting an ordinance to give low income people and seniors a rebate on their utility taxes. He will advertise it in the next Hazelnut, and figure out how much everyone~'~as Paid who needs a rebate. Information. f~,~. Committee Chmr approval / Finance and Safety Committee March I, 2004 Present: Dave Fenton, Chair; Joan Hernandez, Dennis Robertson Viki Sessop, Alan Doerschel, Rhonda Ben'y, Shelley Kcrslake, Lucy Lauterbach I. Economic Development Position Classification and Wage Viki passed out a new page summarizing the mission and responsibilities of the proposed position Economic Development Administrator. Included in the packet were a Classification Description, Essential Duties, Position Title and minimum qualifications, all of which elicited comments from the Committee. Dennis questioned the task that had the person representing the city in negotiations, but was satisfied with the explanation that could be in relation to buying property. Joan questioned the goal that the person establishes goals and objectives for the Department: Viki said that would be removed. Under minimum qualifications Dennis questit~ned how low the requirements seemed, and added under either the Knowledge or Skills section "contract development and negotiation of real property transactions". In the end, the Committee approved the position. The memo Viki just passed out will go to Council, and some of the classification information might not be included, as it had a little more information than needed. Recommend position to COW. 2. Training Options for Teaching Ethics Shelley explained the types of classes she has done to teach public officials and others about ethics. Topics that would be most relevant to Council and Planning Commission (with DCD and PW directors and the City Clerk's office also being present) include the Open Public Meetings Act, Appearance of Fairness Doctrine, and Conflicts of Interest. That could be a two-hour session. Other topics such as Basic Powers, Duties, Liabilities, and Immunities of the City, would be relevant only for Council and the Clerk's office in another two hours. Derails suggested drawing up an ethics policy. Viki and Rhonda noted there is already an ethics policy that covers employees. Dave said he thought the Council could develop a separate policy that was relevant to their decisions and work. Shelley's material will be both written and in a power point presentation. Plan a May training session. 3. Council Travel Policy The COmmittee members spent some time going through the policy fi:om the beginning. Getting into the section previously called Out of State Travel, they discussed again the policy of giving each Council member a travel allotment that could be used for any local, state or national travel. Once they established that, they turned to making sense of the policy, as that decision does away with several sections of the current policy. They talked about the issue of what happens to the shared travel funds that result when a Council member chooses not to travel, and retums his/her allotment to the central shared travel fund. Turning next to Sister City travel, Dennis said he did not think the City should fund Council travel to lkawa. Joan thought that Ikawa travel could benefit the City. The Committee decided each Council member could use his or her individual travel allotment toward a trip to Ikawa if that Council member wanted to go. They then talked about the section that addressed travel to national conferences, and allowing those on national committees not to count in the number of people who go. Dave said he recognizes the benefit of city representation on national committees. Dennis said that he agrees, but that the City finances do not allow'all the travel that's been done in the past. Because representatives' terms of three years on a national committee can be extended beyond one term, and travel several times a year can be expected for each term, those national committees could potentially e~{haust the Council travel budget, After discussing ways to set aside money for this travel before individual allotments are made, they decided there was not enough money to do so. In the end, the Committee agreed that again, each Council member would get their equal share of the travel budget funds. People would need to know at the beginning of the year What conferences they would like to go to. Ifa member decided not to travel, his/her money could go into the central shared fund. Returning to th~ topic of the shared central fund, they decided that for additional travel beyond their allotment, a Council member could submit a Request for Travel listing the travel benefit to the City. The Council President would prioritize the requests received, and the Council would make the final decision about who could use the central travel funds. Joan raised the issue of one criterion being someone who had not traveled for a long time. The others thought that due to our current budget restrictions there should be no list of criteria. The Committee agreed it is very awkward and difficult for the Council to deny travel request from their peers. Every effort will be made to accommodate individual travel requests. The Committee will consider a revised Council travel policy at their next meeting. In a separate but related vein, they talked about how they would be able to fund all the travel that's anticipated for this year. Alan again said that any department heads that travel pay their own travel except the City pays registration. They decided to ask every Council member to submit their expected travel for 2004, and they would discuss it at their next meeting. Resehedule. ~hlir approval Finance and Safety Committee · February 17, 2004 Present: Dave Fenton, Chair; Joan Hernandez, Dennis Robertson Jim Morrow, Frank Iriarte, Viki Jessop, Rhonda Berry, Alan Doerschel, Lucy Lauterbach 1. Council Chamber Uogrades This issue had been to the COW with a request to pare down the costs, which the engineer's estimate had pegged at $664,000 initially. There was some confusion about what a basic package would cost, and the item was referred back to committee. There were sketches of how some new equipment would be placed in the room. The new cost of ail improvements would be $503,000. The Committee talked about implementing only parts of the plan, Or the whole plan. Dennis argued fog putting in the bare necessities of the sound system, which staff omphasized as necessary for various upcoming hearings and cases that will need to be transcribed if the system is not improved. Joan said she also wanted to upgrade the audience seating and carpet, and to improve the look of the whole room, Which she said gives a poor impression to visitors. To improve the ability to plug in power point computers would move the project more toward doing everything, since once electronics work is started, everything must be tom out and it makes sense to replace things then. Labor and materials costs are mixed together in part of the proposal, and there is a 25% increase for ailthe labor since it must be done outside of normai work hours. There was aiso discussion about biting the bullet and upgrading the Chamber once and for all, as no major upgrades have be.en done since it was built thirty years ago. Putting band-aid replacements in as things fail apart could save money now only to cost more later. Both sides of doing little now or doing everything now were touched on, with no fmai consensus from the Committee. Refer, issue to COW. 2. City Administrator Position, Viki had drafted an ordinance covering the issue of the city administrator needing to live in the city. A provision was added for the Mayor and Council to be able to waive this condition if they agreed to do so. The Committee supported the ordinance. Recommend ordinance to COW.. 3. SWKC Chamber Contract Alan said the 2004 contract was similar to last year's contract, with the same service levels. Ioan ensured that Chamber representation on Equity and Diversity was spelled out. The Committee questioned Service B, which had wording about the Chamber having information about "City projects, facility, issues and services". Alan will check with the Chamber on that, and instead will perhaps reference the Government Affairs Committee of the Chamber. Recommend Contract to COW. .: 44. Council'i/raVelPolicy Withthe Couneil's travel budget having been cut i_n 20. O4,~the. ~ Committe? cousider, ed ways to deai with it. They agreed there sh°uld be justincatt°n mr mt travel, which explains the proposed benefit the Council member will receive from travel. Joan proposed what some other cities have done, which is to divide the travel budget among ail the Council members. If each member got a Certain amount of money, she/he could plan to use that funding for a trip. If no more money were available, it could be donated from another member's 'pot of money ~f one person did not intend to use it. However, this system would T cil member to travel if he/she wanted to do so. Refer to COW_. rmttee chair approval . ·