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. MINUTES
OF THE DUNES
Commissioner Sathe complimented the Minutes completed by Fred
Hilden at the June 15, 2009 Road Commission meeting and requested that
in the future, in the absence of Maria McConnell, Road Secretary, that
Mr. Hilden be asked to take the Minutes. Commissioner Smith noted a
spelling error on page 3, 2nd paragraph "these permits
through PUD making it a mute point" the correct word should be
"moot." Action
Commissioner Owen made a motion to approve the June 15, 2009 Dunes City Road Minutes with the correction noted, Commissioner Sathe seconded the motion. The motion was carried by 6 ayes, 0 nays and the Minutes were unanimously approved. E. Citizen Input None F. Unfinished/Old Business
(1) Director of Roads Job Description Chairman Quandt referenced the job description for the Director of Roads he had composed. He stated that this job position is required under DCC 32.41.A and that he used a combination of the job description of the duties required of the previous Director of Roads as well as additional requirements he wants to add to the position. He asked the members of the Road Commission to submit their ideas of what they would like to see added or deleted from his suggestions in order for him to put together a contract for this position. He stated also that the job description spells out the requirements and the reasoning for the necessity of this position. Chairman Quandt also stressed the point that the ultimate goal of this job description is for it to be as specific as possible to insure that the policies set by this Road Commission continue even as the political situation changes in the future and new members of the road commission are appointed. Chairman Quandt stated that the setting of job priorities will be at his discretion and he reviewed a list of 14 job duties he had compiled. The Road Commission approved items #1 and #2. Commissioner Smith questioned item #3 and asked what kind of bids are being referred to? He stated that #3 says "assist" and #4 says "review" and felt they were redundant. Commissioner Curran agreed and suggested that #3 be removed. Chairman Quandt agreed and #3 was stricken from the list and #4 was re-worded to state "Assist in preparing and review." Commissioner Smith questioned the wording in I. Introduction. He recommended that the sentence read "This position is that of the administrative head of the Dunes City Roads Department. The goal is to provide, etc." Chairman Quant agreed to the word change in the introduction to add "administrative" and "The goal is to provide." Chairman Quandt stated Item #5 is language that was carried over from the original job description. Items #6 and #7 were reviewed with no changes recommended by the Road Commission. Commissioner Smith recommended that #8, second sentence the word "good" be changed to "welfare." Chairman Quandt agreed. Commissioner Sathe stated that item #9 could take up the majority of this employee's time. He suggested that perhaps a public meeting could be held periodically with the Dunes City residents to discuss their concerns. Commissioner Persons recommended "establish and coordinate a good relationship with the citizens. Commissioner Smith recommended "establish and maintain a good working relationship with the citizens." Chairman Quandt approved the wording "establish and maintain." Chairman Smith questioned item #10 "If work is not acceptable" and asked by who's code would the work be determined to be "acceptable." Commissioner Sathe questioned item #11 and asked if it would be necessary for the person to attend City Council meetings. Chairman Quandt stated that he wanted any problems that were reported to go straight to the City Council. Commissioner Sathe stated he felt that would take up too much of the allotted time of this position and felt attendance at the Road Commission meeting should be the only one required. Commissioner Curran recommended that the Director of Roads should only be required to attend one hour of the Road Commission meeting, enough time to present their report and discuss the issues if necessary. Commissioner Sathe felt it would be unfair to request an employee to attend an evening meeting for one hour. Commissioner Smith stated that would only apply to a salaried employee and this employee would be a non-voting member of this committee. He recommended that item #11 require a monthly status report be submitted to the Road Secretary by the 2nd Monday of each month so that it can be reviewed by the Road Commission prior to the monthly meeting. Discussion ensued regarding the contents of the report and the editing or adding of additional content to the report. Commissioner Persons stated that if the Director of Road's report is so authoritative, then the input of the Road Commission is really not necessary. David Bellemore stated you cannot change the Director of Road's report, you can critique it and even if it is incorrect, it is still that person's report. Chairman Quandt stated that the Road Commission could add its comments to the report and items brought up in the report can be inspected by members of the Road Commission before the report goes to the City Council. Commissioner Smith asked to take out "review" on #11. Chairman Quandt stated he would re-word #11 and take into account the suggestions made by the road commission. Commissioner Smith questioned #12 wording "ex-officio" and asked if it was necessary to include this wording. Chairman Quandt stated he was just transferring the same language as it is written in the Dunes City Code. Commissioner Sathe asked that the word "regular" be removed as there are emergency Road Commission meetings that will require attendance. He also stated that #13 was redundant as it repeats other items already listed. Chairman Quandt agreed to remove "regular" from #12 and delete #13 and #14 was approved as written. Commissioner Persons asked that for the record, he complimented Chairman Quandt on his very well done masterpiece and thanked him for his work on the job description for the Director of Roads. Chairman Quandt advised the Commissioners that a contract agreement needed to be created for this job description and asked for their input. He stated it won't be a salaried position but a contract position that would be for one year to see how it works out. He reviewed the compensation at $7,000 for duties necessary for the Roads Department and $5,000 for grant writing. He stated that the amount of grant money that could be generated would more than offset the $5,000 compensation. He stated in view of the loss of the timber payments, grant money will become essential to the continuing function of the Road Department. Discussion ensued amongst the Commissioners regarding job compensation, hours to be worked per year and attendance at Road Commission meetings. Commissioner Smith stated that the grant writing requirement would set a precedent and that the next Director of Roads may not want to fulfill this requirement. Chairman Quandt stated that being Commissioner Smith is his "go to" person as he is a specialist in HR matters, he will be relying on him for advice in composing the contract for this position. Commissioner Curran questioned how the employee's hours would be broken down between parts #1 and #2 and if more time is spent on grant writing, how will the person be compensated. Chairman Quandt stated that he will make the determination as to how much time will be spent on each part. He stated the time will be flexible and monitored by time sheets completed by the employee. He stated that part #3 of the contract would be additional services which would cover any extra duties. Commissioner Sathe stated he would like to add an amendment that the Road Commission could increase the amount of hours the employee works if he is successful in bringing in money from grants. Chairman Quandt stated that extra hours would be covered under part #3, additional services as needed. Commissioner Persons suggested that two contracts be drawn up, one for Road Director and another for Grant Writer. David Bellemore stated that grant money includes compensation for administrative services for the time taken to write the grant. Commissioner Smith suggested a bonus be paid for grant money secured and felt that would be a great motivator to research and apply for as many grants as possible. He stated that when he worked in sales it was his 10% commission that benefited him the most in earning a living. Commissioner Owen asked if it is legal to pay someone a bonus for securing grant money. She also asked if the Director of Roads would be "running the roads" on a regular basis. Chairman Quandt stated that he will be relying on the Road Commissioners to run the roads and report any problems they come across. He stated the roads will be reviewed quarterly by the Director of Roads. Commissioner Smith stated that $7,000 translates into 15 hours a week for grant writing and if he received a 1% commission on each grant he secured that would pay for his extra time. David Bellemore stated that government agencies are usually the ones giving out grants and the use of the words "bonus" or "commission" could send up a red flag. It would be better to refer to any extra compensation as "administrative costs." Chairman Quandt asked the Commissioners if they would like to submit their suggestions in writing or email and he will re-write the job description and bring it back to the next Road Commission meeting. Commissioner Sathe recommended compensation at $20.00 an hour and additional compensation from grant writing administrative costs. He also recommended that the annual salary be set at $20,000 to enable the employee to spend more hours on the job. Chairman Quandt stated they would not be able to get a person with the job skills they are looking for at $20.00 an hour and the position is only budgeted for $12,00 a year and an increase would not be possible at this time. Commissioner Smith recommended that Chairman Quandt seek legal advice in the writing of the contract for this job. Chairman Quandt stated he will re-write the job description and asked Commissioner Smith to help him put together a contract. He stated if they are going to get the attorney involved they had to hand them something to work with in order for them to put together a contract. Commissioner Sathe asked that #12 be deleted. Commissioner Smith stated you can't do that unless you want to change the Dunes City Charter. Commissioner Smith agreed to assist Chairman Quandt with the writing of the job description. Commissioner Persons stated he felt the Commission was being overwhelmed by the pursuing grants in the job description and he could foresee the employee spending a lot of time just working on grants. Commissioner Smith recommended a 3 part contract - #1 Road Maintenance. #2 Performance based grant writing. #3 A per diem rate for extra job duties. The employee would submit his administrative costs when he submits a grant. Chairman Quandt stated there are other items on the agenda we need to cover and he would work with Commissioner Smith on this item. Action Commissioner Curran made the motion to table this issue and delegate the authority to re-write it to Chairman Quandt, motion seconded by Commissioner Persons. Further discussion ensued. Chairman Quandt stated there are road's projects coming up and he would like to have this person on board when this work starts. There will be less fees paid to the engineering firm if this person is in place. He expressed the time crunch to resolve this issues and stated he needs to get the ads in the paper by next week and he still needs City Council approval of the job description and contract. Chairman Quandt stated that he felt there is a consensus on the main items but the filling of this job comes down to a time line and he might have to make the final approval in order to complete this item. Commissioner Smith stated he understands the time line crunch that Chairman Quandt is under but didn't want the Road Commission to take the liability to the city to draw up a contract and recommended that an attorney be contacted. Chairman Quandt stated he would have the City Attorney review the contract and take into account the comments made by the Commissioners. Action Chairman Quandt stated there is a motion and a second on the floor. Commissioner Curran withdrew his motion and Commissioner Persons withdrew his second of the motion. Commissioner Sathe made the motion that Chairman Quandt create a contract to give to the City Attorney to approve and include the comments that were brought up by the Road Commission at tonight's meeting, the motion was seconded by Commissioner Curran and approved by 6 ayes and 0 nays. The motion was unanimously approved. (2) Review of Contract Documents from Dyer Partnership regarding 2009 road maintenance projects. Chairman Quandt reviewed the contract documents that were distributed to the Road Commissioners. He explained that the items clipped together are the front-end documents and there is also a list of estimated costs for the various components of the project and copies of emails between he and Dyer Partnership regarding the scheduling and dates that the work will be taking place. He stated that there is a lot of material to absorb and it won't be possible at tonight's meeting to cover all of them and he suggested deferring to the engineer's expertise regarding any questions. He stated the Dyer Partnership is waiting for approval on these front end documents so they can go to the bidding process. He stated he has spot checked some of the roads, repairs and the various types of maintenance that is currently being done. Chairman Quandt stated he has an issue with the striping of the roads and the engineering costs for a center line stripe at $4,800 and he discussed this item with them. There was some discussion about the length of roads in Dunes City determining how much money the City could get from ODOT. Commissioner Owen stated that this was a common held belief in the past that both sides of the road could be measured by mileage in order to get more State funding and it was found to be incorrect. Chairman Quandt stated that State money is allocated by population and the road mileage is irrelevant. Commissioner Curran stated that Huckleberry is only 12 ft. wide. Commissioner Sathe stated he would check on the density of population on Huckleberry. Chairman Quandt stated he was going to delete the $4,800 cost and that the only striping that needed to be done is the parking lot in front of City Hall. Chairman Quandt referenced the 2009 Road Maintenance Projects document and noted there is not a Cedar Lane project. He stated that he has checked some of the road work that is being done and that he is very impressed. Commissioner Smith stated that on page 8 of 16, Seventh Heaven is not correct and it should be connecting to Collins Loop. Chairman Quandt noted the error and will advise Dyer Partnership. Chairman Quandt referred to the email he had received today regarding scheduling. He stated he would call Dyer Partnership to let them know their front end projects look good. He stated the last day for an addendum to any of these projects is August 6, 2009 and asked the Commissioner to keep track of this schedule. He stated these dates will be put on a calendar for easy review and advised the Commissioners if they had any changes to the document to submit them and we can add them as an addendum. Commissioner Sathe asked if next year the Road Commission could have more than one month to review all of this material. Chairman Quandt stated that he agreed it is a lot of material to review but this is the first year we are using this application and we are trying to pull off an ambitious plan. In 2010 we will be better prepared ahead of time to get adequate input from the Road Commission and to review the projects. Commissioner Sathe asked if there is a newsletter. Chairman Quandt stated that is the next item on the agenda. Chairman Quandt stated there is no need for a motion on this item as it is a review at this time. (3) Road project's communication campaign. Chairman Quandt stated that now that we have the project plans and double checked the maintenance and have a list of the streets effected, how do we tell the citizens what is happening and when. He stated that Fred Hilden has created a Dunes City Road Maintenance Projects Communication Plan July - September 2009 and a copy has been distributed to the Commissioners. He stated this schedule lays out a blue print to tell the public what is going on and when and this will become a priority assignment. He stated he will be at the Festival of the Lakes on August 8th to answer any Road Commission questions and he will also be working with Commissioner Curran on this schedule. He asked the Commissioners to look over the schedule and to give him any input at a later date. Commissioner Sathe stated he thought the Commissioners were going to hand out the information to the property owners but now it looks like they will be advised by direct mail. He stated that several people he has discussed this with wanted to get involved and also wanted to talk to the slurry people about getting their private driveways done at the same time. Chairman Quandt stated we need to move ahead as quickly as possible on this schedule. He advised that this is the basic plan so you can review it and call me or email me if you have any input. If I don't hear from you, I will assume that it is okay. Chairman Quandt referred to the slurry seal documents and advised he will have extra copies of this document in color to hand out so the citizens can know what it looks like. Chairman Quandt stated he would like a lot of help on this project and was hoping to have a Director of Roads assist him on it. G. Unscheduled Items Not Listed on Agenda Commissioner Sathe stated that he has heard from several residents that they were very happy with the work we did during the work party and he would like to organize another one including a return to the street Norman Martin lives on to do further work. Chairman Quandt stated there are other streets to cover and we will get back to Norman's street at a later date. Commissioner Sathe asked if the Commission needs to get the grass cutting done on our projects. Chairman Quandt stated that will have to be discussed at another time. Commissioner Curran stated he wanted to delay the grass cutting. Chairman Quandt stated that if he has time to assist with any Commissioners assignments, for them to call him as it is always better to have two members working together. K. Adjournment Action Commissioner Sathe made the motion to adjourn the Road Commission meeting at 8:40 PM, motion seconded by Jerry Curran. Motion approved by 6 ayes and 0 nays. ___________________________ ______________________________ ROBERT QUANDT MARIA MCCONNELL CHAIR ROAD SECRETARY
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