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Village |
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Special Council Meeting, June 2, 2010 TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2010 SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 6:00 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Robin Border called the City of Hilshire Village Special Council Meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. at 8301 Westview, Houston, Texas 77055. Invocation was given by Council Member Whiting. 1.2 Present: were Mayor Robin Border, Mayor Pro Tem Connie Castro and Council Members Shannon Whiting, Stephanie Post and Bill Bristow. Council Member Davis was absent. 2. CITIZENS COMMENTS: NONE 3. ACTION ITEMS: 3.1 Council Member Whiting made a motion to approve the City’s participation in the engagement of McGrath & Associates to provide personnel for an operational audit and performance review of VFD management, seconded by Council Member Post. Mayor Border explained to Council that after their decision not to participate in an audit the cities of Bunker Hill, Hedwig and Hunters Creek engaged with McGrath to do a minimal study. They did not share the findings of the audit with the cities that did not participate. Bunker Hill, Hedwig and Hunters Creek have now decided that they are going to hire McGrath & Associates to do an audit. The Mayor of Bunker Hill met with Mayor Border and Mayor Mike Andrews of Spring Valley to give them the opportunity to participate in the audit. Mayor Border said the main reason for the audit is there has been a 70% increase in the Fire Department’s budget in the last few years and he did not feel any of the cities could afford this trend. Mayor Border stated last year when the cities told the Chief they wanted an assessment no greater than the previous year they were presented with a negative capital budget to offset the increase in the operations budget to give a zero (0) increase budget. Mayor Border suggested Hilshire Village commit up to $5,000 for the audit. He said the following items were to be addressed: 1) Operations, administration and management of the Fire Department. 2) Layers of Management. 3) Figure out a way to change the manpower usage. 4) Check the training levels. 5) 2010/2011 budgets. 5) Current Personnel Manuals. 6) Review the automatic response contract with the City of Houston. 7) Compare procedures to other compatible fire departments, 8) Equipment status. Council Member Post asked if McGrath and Associates was qualified to do the audit. Mayor Border said they had a team of experts with Ph.D.’s and all have been fire chiefs and that is what they do for a living. He stated they would bring one (1) guy to Houston for 90 – 120 days in coordination with the search for the fire chief. The results of the 2 Special Council Meeting, June 2, 2010 audit should show items that should be changed immediately and changes that the new fire chief should implement. Mayor Border stated he did not know if the City of Piney Point was going to participate in the audit. Council Member Whiting confirmed that if the City does not participate they will not have any say to changes that need to be made. Mayor Pro Tem Castro stated she felt that this would be an investment that would save the cities in the long run by lowering the budget for the Fire Department. She stated there are other cities that have half the budget with larger populations. Mayor Pro Tem Castro stated it was her view that this was a worthwhile investment. Mayor Border stated the VFD was the only Fire Department with an automatic aid agreement with the City of Houston. He said that a ladder truck is required to have this type of agreement. The ladder truck is expensive to maintain and the number of personnel that goes with it is excessive. Council Member Bristow asked questions regarding the operations of the fire department. He stated that he wants to know what is going on with the operations before he can vote on spending the City’s money. Council Member Bristow wanted to know about every meeting and wanted the minutes for each meeting. He was told the minutes are put on the fire departments website and the agenda for every public meeting is sent to Council and posted on the door at City Hall and the fire station. Council Member Whiting amended her motion to read to approve the City’s participation and not to exceed $5,000in the engagement of McGrath & Associates to provide personnel for an operational audit and performance review of VFD management, seconded by Council Member Post. A vote was taken to approve the motion approving the City’s participation and not to exceed $5,000 in the engagement of McGrath & Associates to provide personnel for an operational audit and performance review of VFD management. The vote passed unanimously. 4. ADJOURNMENT: Mayor Pro Tem Castro moved to adjourn, seconded by Council Member Post. The meeting was adjourned at 6:56 PM. ____________________ Mayor Robin Border ATTEST: __________________________ Susan Blevins, City Secretary |