Total in attendance: 16
Council members in attendance: Bain, Tower, Mattox
Location: Oshkosh Senior Center
Next Fifth Tuesday Forum: October 31, 2006 at 6:00 p.m., location TBD (the date might be changed due to a council workshop on the 2007 budget)
Below is a list of topics and, if applicable, concerns/issues/questions raised within each topic. Responses are solicited from appropriate city staff and printed below. For more information about the forum or the items discussed, contact Oshkosh Common Councilor Bryan L. Bain at bbain@ci.oshkosh.wi.us or 651-9329.
TOPIC:
GARBAGE AND RECYCLING SERVICE AND TRUCKS
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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There was discussion regarding the service, the fee, different pick up options such as all trash on one side of the street to automated pick up, there was even a suggestion to pilot some of these potential changes on certain routes. |
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Is the garbage/recycling
fee referendum question that will appear on the November ballot just for
2007? |
Yes, the proposed
referendum only affects 2007. When the Council previously adopted the
ordinance which created the fee, the language requires the Council to set the
fee each year by resolution. |
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What trucks does
the city use as snow plows? Are they used only as plows? Can the
garbage/recycling trucks be fitted to serve as plows? What would that
involve and what would be the impact? Is this being considered as a
cost-savings effort? |
The City of Oshkosh
uses various dump trucks, endloaders, and graders to plow snow. The Street Division purchases equipment
that can be used at all times of the year. For example, dump
trucks plow snow in the winter season but they also haul snow at that time,
haul gravel or hotmix to repair roads or utilities in the spring/summer/fall
& haul leaves in the fall season.
Yes. This is done in the City of Milwaukee. The City of Oshkosh is currently reviewing
new garbage trucks for a change to automated collection. In
Milwaukee, garbage trucks stop picking garbage when they are assigned to
plow snow. The residents in Milwaukee have to wait for the next week
for their garbage to be collected. This is not being considered in
Oshkosh because this would be a decrease in solid waste collection services
to City of Oshkosh residents. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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Of the items city residents
drop off at the city's drop off site on Witzel Ave., how much/what of it goes
to the county dump? If this site were to be closed (and the service
ended), could residents use the county dump to drop off all of the items they
currently drop off at our site? |
The yard waste
material from the City of Oshkosh drop-off site located on Idaho Street is
given to the Winnebago County Landfill to use as daily cover. The
Winnbago County Landfill has requested that this material be given to
them. This saves the County money by not having to purchase dirt to use
to cover the solid waste that is deposited daily at the landfill. This
chipped material is also available to City residents to use at their homes
& gardens. Used motor oil is also accepted at the City of Oshkosh
drop-off site. This oil is then sold to companies that recycle the
oil. Yes. Commercial
contractors are not allowed to use the Idaho Street drop-off site but they
can pay to deposit yard waste & brush at the Winnebago County Landfill. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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Is it possible to itemize the city's tax bill we send to provide citizens an idea of what the city's portion of the tax bill is paying for, e.g., if we use the 2006 tax rate, of the $20.91 per thousand, how much is paying for police, fire, streets, etc.)? If it's possible, what would it take to implement and can we do it starting with the next tax bills we send? |
We could not use the tax bill to do this. The state is pretty specific about what is shown on the tax bill. Most of what we print on a tax bill is required information already. We could add an insert with the bill but would prefer not to because of the "stuffing" process and the potential to increase postage. We provide pie graphs currently in the budget and the annual report (calendar) that show a breakdown of revenues and expenditures. We could talk to our IT people about adding those to our website. |
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Does the city
"charge" the school district, county and FVTC to send out the tax
bills? If not, has this been considered (as a cost-savings effort)? |
I don't think we are allowed to
charge for this. I think that the assumption is that we earn interest on this
money until we are required to "settle" with the other entities
which should help offset the costs. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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There was discussion regarding suggested ways the city could/might be able to save money such as privatizing the sanitation department, centralizing all maintenance work into one department, contract out work such as maintenance and pooling administrative support staff together between offices. |
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N/A |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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Why are the union contracts three years long? Why not negotiate contracts for shorter time periods? |
The City of Oshkosh's current agreements which expire @ the end of 2006 were agreed upon for a three year duration (which I believe is the maximum single contract length allowed by law for municipalities). However, the City has negotiated agreements for one and two year timeframes in the past. It is an item that is "negotiable". Although there can be many reasons why labor or management may seek a one, two or three year agreement, one of the reasons the City and it's represented groups agreed upon a tree year contract this past cycle was to allow for changes to the agreement (such as greater employee cost sharing on items) to be phased in and more readily accepted by all concerned. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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How is the current water meter billing completed? Are there seven positions for this (as someone asked at the forum)? Is there a way to computerize this process, especially with the new system, and provide some cost-savings by a reduction in staffing levels? |
Edward Nokes, City Finance Director and David Patek, Public Works Director |
There are seven
finance department people in the water distribution building. One of their
responsibilities is to generate water bills. Water bills are computerized now
for the most part. The meter readers bring in the readings on handheld reading
devices which are uploaded to the billing system. The new metering system
would change how and when the information gets to the billing system, not how
we generate the bills. The only real impact on billing that I can think of
will be on final bills. Currently someone calls for a final bill because they
are moving and we have to send a serviceman out to take a reading and then
produce the final bill. With the new metering system, we will not have the
lag time of waiting for a reading because they will happen all the time
automatically. A final bill can be generated without coordinating with a
serviceman's schedule. One of the
responsibilities that our people have now is to review the meter readings to
watch for high or low consumption. This happens every three months now when
the readings are taken. With the new metering system, we can monitor readings
on an ongoing basis since the meter can be read daily or even several times a
day. This will be a great help for those people that have large leaks that go
undetected for three months under the current system. We will be able to
notice those leaks much earlier now and help them correct the problem before
their bill gets too large. The other
staff time is spent on things like updating our records for the hundreds of
changes each year from people moving, maintaining our workorder and inventory
system to keep track of all the maintenance done by the outside crew and
servicemen, and the work associated with sanitary sewer and storm water
records. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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Why can you only get permits during a limited time period (I believe two hours/day)? What would it take to sell permits more often during the day? |
This office maintains two predominant Permit Issuance Hours split between 7:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. These are the hours in which the inspectors are available to assist with permits requiring their review and/or consultation. Beyond these hours, we have one Code Consultation Inspector that is generally available from 8:30 a.m. - 12 noon and 12:30 p.m. – 3 p.m. for permit issuance. There are times where this Inspector may not be available due to Plan Review workload, meetings or time off. In addition we train our secretaries to issue permits that do not require Inspector review. Such permits are typically limited to 1&2 Family projects where technical expertise is not historically imperative. These permits include projects such as reroofing, siding and window replacements. Recognizing concerns over limited hours for Permits necessitating Inspector review; we have utilized the following procedures available for those who cannot utilize the standard office hours: 1. Allow customers to submit (by mail, e-mail, phone, fax or in person) the necessary information needed for review (as outlined in the many brochures we have prepared or as discussed with a customer) along with their name and a daytime phone number. Many times, simpler Permits (such as siding, reroofing, window replacement, and minor remodeling projects) are prepared over the phone. 2. The Inspector will review the submitted information. 3. If additional information or clarification is needed the Inspector will call the customer to make such inquiry. 4. Once the necessary information is deemed adequate/compliant, the Inspector will prepare the Permit for issuance. 5. The Inspector will call the customer to advise the Permit is ready for issuance. At this time the customer is advised they can obtain the permit in person between the hours of 7:30 am – 4:30 p.m. or the customer can mail in the necessary fees and the Permit will be issued and mailed to them. At this point, the inspector does not need to be available to issue the permit; anyone in the office (including secretaries) can issue the permit because it has been pre-approved by the inspector. 6. Customers also have the option to establish an appointment with an inspector. This must be arranged with the inspector (not through the secretary), as inspectors are responsible for maintaining their own schedules. Please note Permit issuance is just one aspect of the Inspector’s duties. In addition to Permit issuance, the inspectors must also provide consultation service, return phone calls, perform plan reviews and inspections. Many times our customers do not recognize that the inspectors spend the majority of their day in the field performing inspections and consultations. Standard office hours establish a structured schedule to strike a balance between office hours and fieldwork. Based on the question Mr. Bain received during his Forum, I envision a situation where a customer had a knowledge of our morning and afternoon office hours, but was unaware we have a Code Consultant available to handle most permit needs beyond these hours as well as Secretaries that can issue permits for limited categories of work. It could also be that this customer visited our office on a day when the Code Consultant was not available or the inquiry was of a nature the Code Consultant or Secretaries could not offer assistance. We have not publicly promoted the ability to handle various permits beyond Permit Issuance hours because this will (and has) resulted in customers filtering in all day with permit and consultation requests that cannot be handled by the Code Consultant or Secretaries. This steady flow of customers throughout the day also takes away from these individuals’ ability to get their other duties done in a timely manner. Having the Secretaries and Code Consultants issue permits outside of the standard hours was designed as a well intentioned service for homeowners who work during the standard permit hours. However, it has become problematic in that we have had to remind contractors that they need to focus on the standard permit issuance hours in order to obtain the best service. Presently, we experience contractors coming in for permits at all hours, when they know they are supposed to make these requests during the morning or afternoon session. Concerns with providing Full Service Permit Issuance all day: 1. Will require additional staff or scheduling existing staff for this purpose. The later would reduce our presence in the field resulting in inspections not being able to be performed in as timely manner; delaying progress for projects. Presently, contractors and owners understand when inspectors are available for inspections and this plays into their decision making when scheduling various aspects of their projects. If a contractor make arrangements to pour concrete for footings and the inspector is delayed in responding because of staffing the office; we will most certainly receive complaints about these delays. 2. Additionally, having just one inspector in the office at a time, beyond the standard morning and afternoon office hours, would not provide the same level of service as one would experience during standard office hours when all inspectors are available. During the morning and afternoon office hours, all inspectors are available (short of meetings, vacations, etc.,) providing the public access to all areas of expertise (building, HVAC, electric, plumbing, zoning, etc.) Having just one inspector in during the remainder of the day would not provide this full range of expertise. This could generate more complaints from customers that may have preconceived expectations on service because the Inspector assigned to staff the office may not have the knowledge/expertise to assist the customer’s inquiry. While we do receive occasional concerns about limited
office hours, most customers understand the need for the limited hours when
they recognize we also have obligations in the field. The amount of
complaints received regarding permit issuance hours has been minor compared
to the complaints we believe would be generated if we were unable to respond
to inspections in as timely manner as possible. It is believed the present method is the best approach without
adding staff or reducing our ability to respond to inspections in as timely
manner as possible. Every reasonable
effort is made to provide the best service and minimize the inconvenience to
our customers when they indicate they cannot observe our permit issuance
hours. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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What is being done (currently and/or in the works) about the weed issue in Miller's Bay? |
The "weed" issue has been building during the past 4 to 5 years, and this year, for some reason, the problem has exploded. I've been told by specialists with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that there are different possibilities for the problem. One possibility has to do with recent mild winter's - there hasn't been any kind of hard killing cold that is needed to set back the proliferation of aquatic plant, or "weed" growth. Along with that, there are the warmer summer temperatures. As should be known, heat and water definitely stimulate the growth of plant's. Another reason might have to do with the introduction of zebra mussels into the lake. As I'm sure people have heard, the mussels are known to clean up water bodies with their eating habits. The lake, and Miller's Bay, is noticeable cleaner. Because of the cleaner water, the sun is able to better penetrate down through the water to stimulate aquatic plant growth. And, there's the
idea that the water level of the lake has been kept lower than in the
past. With less water there's a better opportunity for the sun to get
to the aquatic plants in a more efficient manner. For two years now the Parks Department has contracted with a person that does aquatic plant harvesting. Last year the plant's in Miller's Bay were harvested in mid-July. This past year, because the plants were filling in quite early, plus we had complaints from the Miller's Bay folks, we had the harvester scheduled for the third week in June. Unfortunately, the plants grew back nine days after the harvesting work was completed. In 2002, the department started communicating with the DNR about chemically treating Miller's Bay for "weeds". The organization wasn't too fond of the idea because of the fishing environment found throughout the bay. Soon after communicating with the DNR, our department contracted with a group called Aquatic Biologists, Inc. to do an analysis of the aquatic plant's in the bay. We were curious to see what plants the DNR would support for elimination. As communicated from a previous Parks Operations Manager (employed with the department in 2002, and that dealt with the DNR at the time), the DNR was still not interested in any kind of chemical treatment of Miller's Bay. Because of the severity of the current "weed" problem, we're going to again pursue the elimination of "weeds" through a chemical application. The use of an aquatic plant harvester every year will be cost prohibitive, and the only resolve that our staff can think of is the use of chemicals. Whether the DNR will support the idea is yet to be seen. Parks Department staff realize that there is a serious problem with the "weeds" in Miller's Bay and that something has to be done. To find a solution is at the top of the priority list. The Miller's Bay problem was discussed extensively at the last Parks Board meeting. As a side note, two Park Board members, that have lived on the lake all of their lives, stated that they have never seen the "weeds" like they have this year. Also, our department has heard that the "weed" problem exists throughout the entire Lake Winnebago area - it is not unique to Miller's Bay. |
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There was some
discussion about the status of the proposed fishing pier, which a hearing
before a DNR “judge” is still pending. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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What is the policy/process regarding planting trees in the terrace? |
All trees planted by property owners on the terrace require a Tree Planting Permit issued by the City Forester and approved locations/species are contingent on the location of both over head and underground utilities as well as proximity to traffic signs/signals and are not to obstruct visibility. The property owner purchases the approved tree. The Forestry Division maintains a waiting list for homeowner requests for tree replacement or new plantings and accommodates those requests as budget permits. Memorial trees may be planted on the terrace through the Memorial Tree Program and is funded in whole by the individual donor. Most Memorial Trees go to the Parks. Neighborhood tree plantings are accomplished as budget permits and is done with the property owners sharing the cost of the trees. The Forestry Division makes every attempt to follow street replacement work with the installation of trees where sufficient terrace space exists, although it has been difficult to adequately stock these areas given a small "Land Improvements" budget line. A Municipal Nursery was started in 2006 through a DNR grant to maintain an inventory of plant material that may be used for stocking street trees. The nursery relies on Land Improvement funds to add trees to the nursery annually to keep the overall cost of tree replacements and plantings to a minimum. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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There was some discussion regarding some concerns with recent events or “issues” that have taken place such as the PMI contract, Nuisance Ordinance, garbage and recycling fee, Algoma Blvd. property disposal and Five Rivers/riverfront development. |
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There was also some discussion regarding who is in charge of the city. |
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Concerns/Issues/Questions |
Referred to, if applicable |
Follow up, as received, if applicable |
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There was some discussion regarding a new council rule that would require an additional citizen comment period on any amendments made to items on the council agenda. Currently, the council can allow additional comments on amendments, but it is not required. |
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to produce or maintain this document.