The Plainfield Town Council met on Monday, November 22, 2004. In
attendance were Mr. Kirchoff, Mr. Fivecoat, Mr. Gaddie, Mr. McPhail and Mr. Brandgard.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mr. Brandgard said we have a bid opening tonight for the
Plainfield Recreation Center Janitorial Services. If there is anyone
who needs to turn in a bid, now is the last opportunity. Being no one
coming forward we will go on with our Consent Agenda.
CONSENT AGENDA
Approval of the Town Council minutes of the regularly
scheduled meeting of November 8, 2004.
Approval to make an offer to purchase a portion of the
Calvary Wesleyan Baptist Church property fronting Buchanan
Street and St. Luke’s Drive per the Town Engineer’s Report
dated November 21, 2004.
Approval of Change Order No. 1 for Calumet Asphalt Paving
for additional paving in the amount of $11,062.51 for the
Stanley Road project per the Town Engineer’s Report dated
November 21, 2004.
Approval of Change Order No. 1 to the contract for the
Buchanan Street pipelining project with American Water
Services, Inc. in the form of a credit in the amount of
$400.00 per the Town Engineer’s Report dated November 21,
2004.
Approval of the Transportation Director’s Report dated
November 19, 2004.
Approval to disburse $1,800.00 from the Plainfield Fire
Department Beneficent Fund for the annual Plainfield Fire
Department Christmas Dinner per Chief Byron Anderson’s
Report dated November 18, 2004.
Mr. Kirchoff said I have a question on item 5, the Human
Resources Director’s Report. I don’t have a copy in front of me but
there were a couple of issues that had to do with personnel policies.
Is that what we are approving in this?
Mr. Brandgard said yes.
Mr. Kirchoff said I had a question on the first recommendation. I
don’t know if we discuss it here or later.
Mr. Brandgard said we can discuss it here or pull it off and
discuss it later, whichever you would like.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, would you be willing to do that?
Mr. Brandgard said yes.
Mr. Kirchoff said other than that I would move to approve the
Consent Agenda with the exclusion of the Human Resources Director’s
Report. Second by Mr. McPhail. Motion carried.
BID OPENING: Plainfield Recreation Center Janitorial Services
Mr. Brandgard said I will go to the bid opening. Do we have
proof of publication?
Mr. Daniel said yes we do.
Mr. Brandgard said the first bid is from Allied Building
Services, Indianapolis.
Mr. Daniel said the Allied Building Services bid is in proper
form.
Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by
Allied Building Services is $174,502.10. The second bid is submitted
by Jani King.
Mr. Daniel said the Jani King is in proper form.
Mr. Brandgard said the total amount of the bid submitted by Jani
King is $96,270.72. Since these were the only bids received I would
like to thank those who submitted a bid and ask that a review of the
bids be made by Town Manager, Mr. Carlucci; Mr. Prince and Mr. Gaddie
and come back to the next meeting with a recommendation. It is quite a spread between the bids so make sure they understood what we were
asking them to bid on.
BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR
None.
TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT
None.
REPORTS
Chief Brinker said on December 7 at 7:00 p.m. the Indiana Law
Enforcement Academy will be having their annual project Blue Light
Ceremony. This will be honoring the eight Indiana law officers that
died in 2004. Instead of using a cannon for this year we will be
providing fireworks that will be shot off from the Hummel Park area.
This still is going to create a little bit of a surprise for this time of the year. The media is going to be contacted through Lt. Younce out at the academy. So, we are trying to make sure that everyone knows ahead of time what is going on. In fact, you are cordially invited by the academy to attend that evening.
Mr. Prince said I just wanted to report to you about the
operations at the recreation center so far. We have been opened for
two weeks and I had full intentions of getting you some data today and one thing led to another and I couldn’t get to my computer. We have been experiencing about 250 visitors a day. What has really been a great success that we are going to have to deal with is I think we have become the official hangout for the middle school. They were out of school early today and we have had a pretty good crowd of middle school kids out there. That is a great problem to have. We are ready to approach that. Things are going really well out there. We are already starting to think about some programming to come up later on in 2005. One of those is some supervised time for some kids so that their parents can use the fitness areas of the recreational center. We are already working on a program to help our parents with some older kids. We have trouble getting into the childcare end where we have to take care of very young children. So, things are going well out there. By the next meeting we will have some numbers for you so that you can see what it is like there at this point and time. I wanted to make myself available for any questions that you might have as well. If there is none, that is all that I have tonight.
Mr. Jason Castetter said I just wanted to let you know that we
are going to be receiving quotes tomorrow on the exterior ground
maintenance program and hopefully we will have a recommendation at the next Council meeting.
Mr. Lydick said as Mr. Kirchoff mentioned, I do have two
different policies that I wanted to present to the Town Council. I
don’t know if you want me to go through them and explain them or just
answer questions.
Mr. Kirchoff said the second of the two I understand. That was
the one if you are hired in November or December, you don’t get a
floating holiday. I understand that but help me understand your logic
and reasoning and perhaps why you maybe had some problems on with the
first one.
Mr. Lydick said on the exit pay the federal law says that if you
don’t have a policy stating otherwise, you need to pay accrued vacation time. I guess it is basically just accrued vacation time because we don’t pay any sick leave. We have been having some situations where employees will give a two-week notice and then for that two weeks they take vacation time or they take sick time. So, we really don’t get any advantage of them giving us a two-week notice. By giving us a two-week notice, especially in this time of year, if an employee gave us a two week notice today, we would get the pleasure of paying them a two-day holiday time. And then the 20th of December you would get to pay three days worth of holiday pay if they gave a two-week notice and not even work any of those days in the two weeks. So, the purpose was to say if you want to give a two-week notice, we expect you to work that two weeks. There are some situations, some departments in the Town, that really prefer that an employee not work beyond the time that they say they want to terminate their employment. In other words, they do not want them around another two weeks so we put in the policy that at the option of the Town they could waive that two-week notice. For example, let’s say on November 22 you give a two-week notice. We say we thank you for your two-week notice but we don’t need your services anymore. So, their termination would be today and because we were waiving it they would still get all of the benefits that they are entitled to. It’s just there are some people in sensitive positions and they could cause the Town more problems by staying around two weeks than just letting them go at the time.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, if somebody calls in sick, do we require any
kind of verification that they were sick? Earlier on you said they
could use either their vacation time or their unpaid sick time.
Mr. Lydick said our particular policy only states that after
three days of absence are you required to have a doctor’s statement. I have always encouraged the department heads that they can use that as a disciplinary thing.
Mr. Kirchoff said but we have no written policy.
Mr. Lydick said no.
Mr. Kirchoff said I didn’t know what other people’s experience
was in the industry but this is not consistent with what I have seen in the industry. But I also know that we are in a different world. I just wanted a chance for us, as a group, to make sure we understand what Mr. Lydick was recommending to us. My history has been if an employee gives a two-week notice and they have two weeks vacation left, I pay them the two weeks.
Mr. Lydick said we will pay them the two weeks but they don’t
work anymore.
Mr. Kirchoff said but you saying that we are not going to do
that.
Mr. Lydick said say that again.
Mr. Kirchoff said if I give you my notice today and I have two
weeks of vacation left, you are telling me that is the last day I have to work is what I read the policy to say.
Mr. Lydick said we will go ahead and pay you your two weeks
vacation. In other words, if you don’t want to work the next two
weeks, we will still pay for that two weeks of vacation.
Mr. Kirchoff said that’s not the way that I read it. What the
policy said to me was the last day I work is my last day here.
Mr. Lydick said right but you will always still get your unused
and your accrued vacation leave. There are really two different things here. Let me give an example. Let’s say a person’s date of employment is November 15, 2002. They want to turn in their resignation today. They have just received their new allotment for vacation on November 15. Let’s say they have 96 hours. Even though we would consider that termination today we would pay them for that 96 hours plus we would accrue their vacation from November 15 through November 22 of 2004 and pay them for that also.
Mr. Kirchoff said I just didn’t read the policy right because
that is not the way that I read that policy at all.
Mr. Lydick said it says, “all earned but unused vacation leave,
comp time, stored hours, including holiday leave hours already earned
will be paid.” Leave time is accrued and paid from the last anniversary day, in other words, from November 15 to November 22. And then longevity pay is prorated.
Mr. Kirchoff said read me your wording about the last day I have
to work.
Mr. Lydick said, “employee’s date of termination is the last
shift actually worked. An employee may not turn in a two-week notice
and take leave time for the two weeks. No leave time will be granted
after an employee submits his resignation. If leave time is taken
after the resignation is submitted, the last shift worked before the
leave day will be considered the employee’s last day of employment.”
So, what this does let’s say the two weeks takes you up to December 4, we would not accrue vacation from November 15 through December 4. We would accrue vacation just from November 15 to November 22. But the unused vacation, whatever it is, would still be paid assuming that they were willing to give us that two-week notice or with our option that we waived it.
Mr. Kirchoff said I like what I’m hearing but it’s not what I
read in the policy. It is not the way that I interpreted the policy.
Mr. Lydick said Mr. Daniel’s firm has looked at this. In fact,
the wording I sent in, he changed a few words in it. If you want to
delay this and get it reworded, we can do that.
Mr. Kirchoff said I like what you are saying. It is just what I
heard you saying and what I read in the policy is different.
Mr. Lydick said if you are miss-interpreting it, maybe a lot of
other people will too.
Mr. Brandgard said if Mr. Kirchoff miss-interpreted what he read
to what you just explained, maybe we need to go back and look at that
and bring it back the next time. Where you end up with problems is
when people interpret something different.
Mr. Kirchoff said I very much agree with what you are telling us
tonight and I like what I hear but that’s not the way that I
interpreted it and I apologize for that. I don’t know if anybody else
was confused with that or not.
Mr. Fivecoat said yes I’m confused with it. Like when I retired
from the department here, I had 23 years and I gave my notice in
January. I had five weeks vacation. They let me take my five weeks
vacation even though I was retiring. I didn’t take my clothing
allowance. They did give me my longevity pay and sick time but I got
to have five weeks vacation.
Mr. Lydick said this policy will permit you to have the five
weeks vacation pay. It’s just that we are not going to extend your
employment out for five weeks.
Mr. Fivecoat said that’s what I did. I extended my employment
out five weeks because I told them when I put in my letter, I told them my effective date after five weeks vacation would be February 1.
Mr. Lydick asked, what is the advantage to the Town by having you
do that?
Mr. Fivecoat said that is what was given to me then. That’s what
I’m trying to explain.
Mr. Brandgard said I think this is where Mr. Kirchoff was a
little confused and when I read through it, it made me think too. I
kind of understood so I wasn’t that concerned but on the other hand I
think in the industry it is pretty common, at least where I am,
especially after the first of the year when somebody accrues the
current year’s vacation, they will say they are going to retire. And if they have five weeks vacation, they are saying this is my last day and I will retire here. So, your last five weeks of work are really
vacation.
Mr. Lydick said this increases the Town’s pension liability. This
increases the Town’s insurance liability and over $1,000.00 a month I
don’t know how long you are willing to extend that liability.
Mr. Kirchoff said again I like what you said tonight and I’m
comfortable with that but I’m not sure that is what we have in black
and white.
Mr. Brandgard said I’m in agreement with where you are going with
this. I just want to make sure the policy is easily understood by
everybody so we don’t have somebody challenging it.
Mr. Lydick said we talked about it at the department head meeting
and I think the consensus of the jest of the policy is okay but they
really didn’t concern themselves with the wording of it too much.
Mr. McPhail said you were explaining it to them and we had to
read it.
Mr. Lydick said I do ask that you act on the rest of the report
and we will leave out the section called “exit pay.”
Mr. McPhail made a motion to accept the Human Resources
Director’s Report dated November 19, 2004 with the exception of the
resignation and exit pay policy unit next month.
Mr. Lydick said the resignation is separate.
Mr. McPhail re-clarified the motion to exempt the “exit pay”
policy only from his report. Second by Mr. Kirchoff. Motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
Mr. Fivecoat said I want to ask the chief and communications if
they came up with anything on the radio that they had the demonstration
on?
Chief Brinker said I think most everyone knows that we had an
opportunity to view an emergency warning system through radio
communication. We have taken a look at a couple of different funding
options that we might have to look at. We are not quite ready to make
a presentation on that because of deciding which one might be the best direction for us to go. We will probably be a little better informed as the beginning of the year begins. I think something that I handed to you tonight might be one thing that we might want to take a look at as a potential funding source and making use of it as a large community-wide type project too. There are lots of options and lots of good things and I still think this is a project that the Town will be very much interested in.
Mr. Kirchoff said at the planning meeting that Mr. Higbee hosted
when we talked about the streetscape a couple of weeks ago I had to
leave early because I had been invited to attend a joint meeting of the two homeowner associations at Crystal Bay. There were some people
upset about our road closing so the two homeowner ssociations/umbrella association met jointly and reaffirmed the support of their previous decision to have it remained closed. As far as I’m concerned, it is a dead issue. If somebody calls you, route them back there because they are unanimous in their understanding that this was the right thing to do.
The other thing when I was reading the minutes of the last
meeting, we were talking about acquisition property at Maxwell and we
had talked sometime earlier about adjacent property, is it Brock?
Mr. Brandgard said yes.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, have we done anything in that area?
Mr. Daniel asked, has that been appraised Mr. Carlucci?
Mr. Carlucci said the answer is no. I don’t have the information
on the Brock property. I don’t have a legal description. I need some
information because we never passed a resolution to approve that
appraisal.
Mr. Brandgard said I had a call from a resident of the Meadowlark
Subdivision asking when are they going to get annexed?
Mr. Carlucci said about a week and a half ago I attended another
annexation seminar so that when we do it, we do it right. There are
still things that I have to do that I was not counting on from what I
learned there, which is good because we don’t want to do this the wrong way. But I have been working on that.
Mr. Brandgard said I would like to see the priority of this rise
because I was asked about it some six months ago and it’s pretty bad
when given an answer when we are going to do and I passed that on and
it doesn’t happen and it doesn’t happen. So, we need to get this done. I would certainly appreciate it. Thank you.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Fivecoat said at our meeting we had with the streetscape
people we were talking about streetlights for Saratoga Parkway. Do we
have any information on lighting?
Mr. Carlucci said Mr. Higbee and I met with Steve Smith about a
week and a half ago to provide me the information. He called me late
Friday to tell me that he had something to put together but I wasn’t
able to get together with him. I picked it up his message off my
voicemail but at the point there was nothing that I could do. I had
planned to have something in here tonight but I haven’t been able to
get back with him as yet.
Mr. Daniel said a couple of weeks ago or a couple of meetings ago
there was some information on the Richard Breeding property, we had it appraised. I have been talking with the Breeding’s and I think we have something worked out if the Town is ready to go forward with that.
Mr. Belcher said if you remember this piece of property, it is at
what would be the north end of Shady Lane. Shady Lane terminates at
the abandoned railroad right-of-way that we already own on the east
side of Plainfield just west of Smith Road. That also abuts other
property that the Town obtained through some trades with a developer
out there who wanted to get rid of some property where the duplexes
are. So, this property owner came to us and was interested in selling
and that is how this progressed. We think we have several potential
uses for that property, one being the road on CR300S will be widened.
We need road right-of-way right in front of this parcel. We would like to extend Shady Lane to the north some day and connect and possibly create another roadway to the north/south connector to U.S. 40. Then we have the issues of the trailhead and possibly some other uses for this property that would be very nice, we think, for all three of those potential uses. So, that is what I explained before and I think is why the Council agreed to go forward with trying to purchase this.
Mr. Daniel said the average of the two appraisals is $133,750.00
and I have talked to the Breeding’s two or three times and the
willingness and consideration in giving them some lead time to move and that sort of thing and move and go forward if the Town is ready to make an offer. If you are, I have a purchase agreement that I would allow the Town to approve and we would see if they would sign it.
Mr. Kirchoff asked, Mr. Carlucci do we have funding to cover
that?
Mr. Carlucci said I think we would take it out of the CCI 15-cent
levy and take it out of there.
Mr. McPhail made a motion to authorize our Town attorney to move
forward to make an offer to purchase the Breeding property. And
authorize Mr. Brandgard to sign the purchase agreement. Second by Mr.
Kirchoff. Motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
None.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
Mr. Brandgard said with no other business to come before the
Council this evening I wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving and all of
the citizens of the community and have a safe holiday.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Kirchoff made a motion to sign the necessary documents and
adjourn. Second by Mr. Fivecoat. Motion carried.
