{"id":2820,"date":"2012-10-23T12:35:43","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T16:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2012-10-26T10:57:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T14:57:45","slug":"city-council-focusing-on-coatesvilles-red-ink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=2820","title":{"rendered":"City Council focusing on Coatesville’s red ink"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ways to cut costs dominated Monday night’s meeting<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Council members Joseph Hamrick (from left), Jeff LoPrinzi and Jarrell Brazzle listen to explanations for some of the city’s recent expenditures.<\/p><\/div>\n

Money – specifically a scarcity of it – dominated Coatesville City Council\u2019s Monday night meeting.<\/p>\n

The council voted to re-approve the authorization to withdraw $2.25 million from the city\u2019s trust fund, an action that was needed because an earlier vote constituted a month-long emergency measure. Finance director John Marcarelli has said he wanted to be able to withdraw funds as needed to pay bills through 2012 rather than make a single withdrawal.<\/p>\n

Other payments that received unanimous approval included a tax anticipation note (TAN) of $947,000 plus nearly $21,000 in interest and $1,500 to prepare a grant related to storm-water runoff mandates. A vote to solicit proposals for a 2013 TAN of up to \u00a0$1.4 million generated questions about whether it would be more cost-effective to borrow the money from the trust fund.<\/p>\n

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Ja’Nya Jackson (left), 8, and \u00a0CheyAnne Costello, 3, received plaques for their assistance in tree-planting along the Brandywine Creek.<\/p><\/div>\n

Marcarelli said the cash-strapped city would earn more interest from the trust fund than it would pay on the TAN. Council voted 5-1 to solicit bids. Jeff LoPrinzi dissented, saying later that he wanted more information. Councilman Ed Simpson did not attend the meeting.<\/p>\n

The Council was united 6-0 in votes to begin the search to replace Siana, Bellwoar and McAndrew, the city\u2019s labor counsel, an effort to curb skyrocketing legal fees; set up a budget review committee that includes council members and two citizens; authorize ads for public meetings and workshops related to the 2013 budget; and approve amendments to the city\u2019s Civil Service regulations.<\/p>\n

The latter would lengthen the time of service needed for promotion in the Police Department. Under the current system, an officer who passed the Civil Service test could be promoted to corporal after one year; the change would require four. Although the amendments would only affect new hires, Councilman Jarrell Brazzle said more reforms are needed, echoing the meeting\u2019s primary theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need to look at ways of cutting costs,\u201d said Brazzle. \u201cThey have a golden contract with diamonds and platinum on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Manager Kirby Hudson said numerous fees on the books have been ignored, and he said he has instructed his staff\u00a0 to start making a list of \u201canything and everything we can charge for.\u201d He said the directive will likely make people unhappy but it is necessary. “These fees are there for a reason; they\u2019re part of the lifeblood of what comes into the city,” he added.<\/p>\n

However, Hudson balked when council members pointed out that a date needs to be set to begin withholding health insurance contributions from some employees. They said the measure was approved by City Council more than a year and never enforced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to do things differently; it\u2019s not the intention to overburden the staff,\u201d said Council President David C. Collins, addressing Hudson\u2019s reluctance to reduce some workers\u2019 net pay. \u201cWe need to renegotiate all the contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council members requested more research on a proposal to incorporate the city\u2019s Solid Waste bill into the real-estate tax bill. The change would increase efficiency and generate income earlier in the year, according to Marcarelli .<\/p>\n

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City Manager Kirby Hudson (left) whispers an explanation to Councilwoman C. Arvilla Hunt regarding a $400 bill for a police consultant to help officers “get along,” an expenditure that was questioned.<\/p><\/div>\n

The approval of bills, once a perfunctory exercise, prompted numerous inquiries. \u201cMine\u2019s going to be long-winded,\u201d said Brazzle. He suggested that if he went first, other council members\u2019 concerns might get addressed.<\/p>\n

Among the expenditures Brazzle questioned was a cellphone bill for $180 from AT&T, which is not the city\u2019s carrier. Hudson explained that the city pays his bill, which was high that month because \u201ceverybody kept calling me when I was in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

A $732 charge for a police officer\u2019s YMCA membership\u00a0 prompted a comment from Councilwoman C. Arvilla Hunt: \u201cWe have a full gym downstairs.\u201d Brazzle countered that the gym fee is included in the police contract. \u00a0A $400 fee for Human Management Services raised numerous eyebrows when Hudson explained it involved teaching police officers \u201chow to get along.\u201d\u00a0 He said he could not discuss it further and then whispered an explanation to Hunt.<\/p>\n

Brazzle asked whether anyone had determined whether purchasing gas from a company owned by Joseph \u201cZeke\u201d Disciullo,\u00a0 who chairs the Revelopment Authority, represented a conflict of interest. Solicitor John Carnes said the contract, which \u201cgoes back to time immemorial,\u201d was not improper because Disciullo \u201cdid not vote on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other, non-financial action, City Council heard accolades from Wes Horner, a senior advisor for water resources at the Brandywine Conservancy, about the efforts of two girls to help plant trees a week ago during cold, rainy weather. Community Policing Officer Rodger Ollis presented CheyAnne Costello and Ja\u2019Nya Jackson with plaques for their service.<\/p>\n

Later in the meeting, Interim Police Chief James Bell gave Ollis an award from the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County, which had cited him and the department at a recent recognition ceremony. \u201cThe people who really deserve\u201d praise are the victims, said Ollis. pointing out that he was simply doing his job.<\/p>\n

Hunt, whose son is the quarterback for the Coatesville Area Senior High football team, ended the meeting by urging residents to vote online for CASH, which is competing against Downingtown West for a spirit award from Channel 6.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ways to cut costs dominated Monday night’s meeting By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times Money – specifically a scarcity of it – dominated Coatesville City Council\u2019s Monday night meeting. The council voted to re-approve the authorization to withdraw $2.25 million from the city\u2019s trust fund, an action that was needed because an earlier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1016,792,1018,839,1017,815,838,790,901,1019],"class_list":["post-2820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-bellwoar-and-mcandrew","tag-city-manager-kirby-hudson","tag-community-policing-officer-rodger-ollis","tag-council-president-david-c-collins","tag-councilman-jarrell-brazzle","tag-councilwoman-c-arvilla-hunt","tag-finance-director-john-marcarelli","tag-interim-police-chief-james-bell","tag-siana","tag-solicitor-john-carnes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}