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CITY COUNCIL OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF NEW CASTLE Present: Council President William Blest Others Present: Mayor Klingmeyer, Janet Carlin, City Treasurer, Marian Delaney, Cathryn Thomas, Greg Sarnecki, Chip Patterson, George Freebery and Bob Appleby The purpose of this meeting was a Joint Workshop with Municipal Services Commissioners to discuss the notice from MSC that Council would be receiving only $400,000.00 for FY 2006/2007 instead of $500,000.00. Mr. Appleby stated that MSC and Council used to meet approximately every 3 months and asked why that procedure was stopped. It was stated that with the high cost of electricity, MSC would only break even if they gave Council $400,00.00. MSC requested that council scale back on their requests to that eventually, MSC would not be giving the City any money and, by doing so, would enable MSC to lower residents’ electric bills. Mr. Patterson stated that when MSC agreed to give the City $500,000.00 a year, electric was only costing MSC 5.5¢ per kilowatt. MSC is currently paying 11.5¢ per kilowatt. If MSC did not contribute to the City at all they could reduce electric bills approximately 8% to 10%. It was questioned why the commercial rate and residential rate charged by MSC was approximately 60/40 respectively. Councilman DiMondi stated that he would like to do away with MSC and asked that a valuation of the company be performed. Councilman Reese stated that while he understood MSC’s position, he was disappointed that they were reducing their contribution to the City. Mr. Appleby stated that MSC is looking into building a substation on the south side of town and upgrading the water system at a cost of approximately $6,000,000.00. A substation is needed because Delmarva Power cannot back up the City anymore if the existing substation goes down and that MSC needs a properly working and upgraded back up system. Council President Blest thank the Commissioner for meeting with Council and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:35 p.m.
Budget Meeting Marian Delaney presented the changes to the Budget from the last budget meeting. Specifically, $30,000.00 was removed from the budget for the Archives, the impact fees for the Riverbend project was taken out ($250,000.00) and a revision was made to the salary of the Director of Public Services since the position would not be filled until sometime in 2007 and would not require a full year salary. A new line item was created in the budget for unreserved fund balance in order to apply the surplus funds to the budget. Marian also touched on other line items in the budget that she felt Council should take note of including an update on the City’s computer software. Cathryn Thomas stated that she has researched the cost, etc. for a City newsletter. The cost would be approximately $5,000.00 per year. The position of Code Enforcement Officer was discussed and it was suggested that Ms. Thomas meet with John Lloyd and possibly the Mayor to discuss the job duties. Councilman DiMondi spoke of the City’s need to have a payroll company process the City’s payroll. After a brief discussion, Council President Blest suggested that this item be made an agenda item for a future Council meeting. A discussion was held regarding the payment of $5,000.00 from Daystar Sills for fees. Councilman DiMondi felt that Daystar Sills should pay a fine since they proceeded to work without a permit. After a discussion regarding this matter, Councilman DiMondi left the meeting and the remainder of Council adjourned to Executive Session. The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 p.m. Respectfully submitted,
Jill F. DiAngelo,
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