Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-22-12 - TSPN's Tommy Fox talks with Sutter Creek City Councilman Jim Swift about his first term on the City Council.

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-22-12

• Ione City Council heard that its General Fund revenue could end the year very close to projections

• Sutter Creek City Council reaffirmed its vote to keep a city Gateway Park sign but wants to look at alternatives

• Jackson heard a budget update for fiscal year 2012-13

• Ione offered its City Manager position to an applicant; and may address the closed session issue Monday

• The Jackson Band of Miwuks neared finish of its Volcano Restoration, and plans to take a break to address much-needed work on the Rancheria  

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-22-12

• Ione City Council heard that its General Fund revenue could end the year very close to projections

• Sutter Creek City Council reaffirmed its vote to keep a city Gateway Park sign but wants to look at alternatives

• Jackson heard a budget update for fiscal year 2012-13

• Ione offered its City Manager position to an applicant; and may address the closed session issue Monday

• The Jackson Band of Miwuks neared finish of its Volcano Restoration, and plans to take a break to address much-needed work on the Rancheria  

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-22-12 - TSPN's Tommy Fox talks with Sutter Creek City Councilman Jim Swift about his first term on the City Council.

Amador County – Ione City Council on Tuesday heard that its General Fund revenue could end very close to projections for the year.

Interim City Manager Jeff Butzlaff said a report showed $142,000 in revenue at the end of May, and the general fund was $64,000 under budget, with June income still to come. He said June revenue last year in tax and fees alone totaled $54,000 and the city is really close on overall general fund forecast for the end of the year.

Butzlaff said: “I think at this point things are looking pretty good.” We’ve got a handle on the situation and the “variances are very modest if anything.”

Quarterly payments, such as police communications will draw down the budget, he said, but it is much more favorable than the $330,000 budget deficit that adopted last December. It is now in balance, he said, and it “was a challenge during his tenure to deal with the financial collapse as best we could.”

Butzlaff said the city is far from the sudden revelations of last year, when it was found the General Fund was $500,000 off or $1.5 million off. “Those days are behind us,” he said. “We’ve stabilized” and established a new understanding and data that is accurate to a reasonable degree.

City Financial Manager Jane Wright went over years of data in roughly 30 different city funds, to clarify where borrowing occurred and see where it was owed. City liabilities and assets in the data show what funds owe other funds, he said, and Wright’s work “brought the entire budget into focus for the first time since I have been here.”

She unraveled and reconstructed the funds and found some funds where money was taken out and no offsetting replenishment or repayment was made. Butzlaff said those are now brought into clear focus and can be restored.

Butzlaff said impact fees are part of developer fees, making up $375,000 in the general fund when they are ultimately collected, and will become a positive impact on the General Fund as “accounts receivable.” They also have about $180,000 in impact fees related to fire station development that were borrowed from police impact fees, and will be paid back.

Ione enters a transition year, he said, going from the old level of operations to reduce to a level that is more consistent in keeping with current realities of revenue limitations. This year ends as a bridge year, building back the general fund reserve, and beginning to pay back some of the funds that were represented as being part of the General Fund reserve when they were not.

By January, when they get a midyear report, Butzlaff said, they will establish a system to get monthly reports on a regular basis and will be able to substantiate that more reliably.

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Amador County – Sutter Creek City Council on Monday reaffirmed a May vote to keep the city welcome sign at its Highway 49 gateway park, but asked staff to work on a signage Master Plan for the Sutter Hill area, and alternatives for two similar signs there.

City Manager Sean Rabe said the issue was brought back because Mayor Linda Rianda received complaints of a Brown Act violation when the Council voted May 21 to keep the sign where it is. Rabe said City Attorney Derek Cole advised that the Council had not violated the open records act.

Rianda wanted to revisit the issue because she had heard from some who want to keep the sign and some who want it moved. Rianda said Lisa Klosowski of the Sutter Creek Business & Professional Association sent her results of a survey of Association members. Rianda sad 68 voted to not move the brick wall sign, one vote said move the sign, and two people said keep the sign but remove the letters, which spell Sutter Creek. Two respondents were “not sure.”

Marie Hobbs, a member of the Association, urged the council to adopt a “master plan” for signs requiring a uniform look. Councilman Tim Murphy said they could leave the sign where it is and come up with some sort of plan for off-site signage. He wanted to avoid sign pollution, such as having three banners on a building all saying the same thing.

Councilman Jim Swift agreed there is a problem with sign pollution, and suggested removing the letters from the brick wall and placing the other sign on that wall. He said both signs at the welcome park at 49 and Old 49 say “Sutter Creek.” He wondered if they needed Cal-Trans permission to make changes.

Councilwoman Sandy Anderson said the Promotions Committee has spent years working on branding Sutter Creek, and though some people may not like John Sutter, the biggest reason people come to Sutter Creek is for history. She supported removing the letters from the wall and placing the sign on it, but they should make sure the letters fit the city’s branding.

Swift said the item was to affirm the vote to not move the sign, and they cannot motion to move the sign. Swift suggested considering gateway signage in a master plan. Rabe asked that they vote on the affirmation issue first, which was approved 4-0 with Councilman Gary Wooten absent.

Rabe said the Council gave staff direction to look at whether “it was possible to remove the letters from the rock wall and move the new sign to that location. The Council also directed me to look at creating an overall master plan for signage in the Sutter Hill area.”

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Amador County – Jackson City Manager Mike Daly last week gave the Jackson City Council an overview for the city’s coming fiscal year budget.

Daly said it was a quick synopsis and he plans to present the draft budget for consideration at the next council meeting.

Daly said the council expected to see a budget that comes in at a balanced level, and this year will probably go over just a little bit because of fuel cost impacts and other costs. The fiscal year is pretty close to targeted numbers.

The new city budget “will be folding in the costs” of operating with full time employees at the Jackson Fire Department, including the training, testing of equipment and the “things you begin to work with when you have full-time folks that are in tune with the National Fire Protection Authority.” NFPA establishes what fire departments do in terms of testing, training, and staffing.

Some of the increases will be in Measure M funding and quite a bit in the volunteer side. Daly said the city uses Measure M for salaries and benefits for full time firefighters, and pays for some volunteer support and incentives. Daly said Ione used its Measure M funds the first year to pay volunteers a stipend, and now has full-timers. Daly said most of Jackson’s money is focused on full-time pay and benefits.

Last week, the Jackson City Council also swore in a new full-time fire engineer, Jesse Digirlomo, a long-time volunteer for the department. Daly said he is the fifth full-time employee at the fire department.

Daly also went over capital improvement projects planned for the coming year, including bridge replacements at South Avenue, French Bar Road. The one-lane bridges are going to be replaced, and will go through environmental processing and pre-design this year. The Cal-Trans Pitt Street Bridge project will include initial survey work, and is about a year behind other two.

Another capital improvement is the expansion of the intersection of Court STreet and Highway 88. Bids were opened and should be awarded at the next meeting. Daly said the project should start in July, and the Federal Highway Safety Improvement program is awarded through Cal-Trans and provides 90% of the funding, with the other 10% coming from the Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee Program, run by Amador County Transportation Commission.

The project will realign the exit from Highway 88 to Court Street, and cut back the slope so the medical plaza people have better access. Daly said Court Street will be widened to allow both right and left turns off Court Street onto 88. It will also repave New York Ranch Road to the highway.

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Amador County – Ione City Council made an offer to one of its finalists for the City Manager position recently, and is awaiting a response.

The council had a closed session meeting Wednesday to discuss the issue, and Interim City Manager Jeff Butzlaff said Thursday that the council had made an offer, and awaits response. The council had narrowed the finalists and conducted interviews to replace Butzlaff, who said he “becomes extinct” at the end of the month.

He said the council may schedule a special meeting Monday to field the response and go on from there. The issue is still confidential personnel dealings. Butzlaff said hopefully there is an overlap between his tenure and the new manager so they can work together.

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Amador County – Adam Dalton gave his weekly report on the Amador County Parks and Fields Restoration Project, saying work Volcano is reaching an end. ¶ Dalton said he and his crew from the Jackson Band of Miwuk Indians likely will be finished with their efforts this week and will be taking a few weeks off from the restoration project to attend to some much needed work back home on the Rancheria.

Dalton said: “I’d like to thank the good people of Volcano for being such wonderful hosts. You’ve made the work crew and I feel welcome throughout the entire time spent transforming this wonderful town.”

He appreciated the residents’ kindness in offering assistance and with the many food donations they supplied to volunteers on the crew. Dalton said: “I couldn’t help but get a little choked up today as walked through town in realization of just how much I’m going to miss working in Volcano.”

He said he would also like to “thank Amador County for the respect and support that you’ve given to me and my family.”

He said to continue checking the local newspaper and look for updates on TSPN for announcements regarding the next project destination with the Amador County Park Restoration team.

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Amador County – The Amador Fire Protection District board of directors on Tuesday directed staff to work on expanding paid training to District fire fighting and engineer employees.

Amador County Supervisors, who make up the AFPD board, voted unanimously to direct staff to develop policy to have reimbursement for employees that meets the level of reimbursement that volunteers get. The direction also asked staff to create a list of classes that qualify for reimbursement.

Supervisors modified a resolution on the “education allowance training program.” Volunteers currently get reimbursed up to 50 percent of costs for training related to the work. Supervisors discussed potential impacts from improved skills through training on making personnel more attractive to other agencies.

Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano said if we provide training, then they leave, he saw it as an issue. AFPD Battalion Chief Dave Bellerive said current engineer positions need certification and new fire fighters need it too, including volunteers and full-time staff.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said if they add college level education, it can make fire fighters better candidates for jobs or better qualified. He said they had the same problem with the Sheriff’s department. They get trained, stay through a 6-month probationary period, then leave.

Bellerive said it makes a better fire fighter to have them get EMT training.

Plasse asked about a budget line item of $6,000 in training costs, and noted that Measure M budget detail increased from $1,500 to $16,000 a year. He said Fire District employees attend classes with no compensation, but volunteers do get that.

Bellerive said volunteers pay 100% to get trained, then AFPD would pay up to 50% of the cost, for fire-related classes.

Forster said asked if it would be better to require that employee must have the class pre-approved for reimbursement, and asked about fire science classes.

Bellerive said the want them to take the classes if they want to, and with deadlines to sign up, the district office may be closed, hindering sign-ups. He said they have to take the class and pass it to get reimbursed.

Bellerive said fire science in some way or fashion relates to fire fighting or AFPD. He said trainees will not be doing investigating at the scene, but anyone who goes to the scene should observe where fire has been, where going, where it has been, and other characteristic, to help preserve the scene.

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