Short meeting, few agenda items, privatizing ambulance billing and water meters were discussed and a capital budget briefing.
They start off with roll call, mayor does the roll since there is no clerk. Verveer, Solomon, Bidar-Sielaff and Palm present.
Everything passes as is, unless noted below.
Elevator Maintenance
– Mayor wants to know if this is for just city buildings, or if it involves elevator 4 at the city-county building.
– Someone answers that it is not for the city county building
– Mayor asks if anyone has ridden on elevator 4 to the garage lately.
– He smiles, don’t know if anyone responded in any way.
Central Park Skate Park
Passes with one abstention. Don’t know who, or why? (I’d guess Clausius if he were there)
Ambulance Billing Study, Privatizing Billing
– Verveer asks a last minute question while mayor is about to call for the vote. Gives his a little grief for asking a question at the last minute – tells him he’s a little slow for a guy with that much experience. Mayor seems a little squirrely today. Verveer asks about the staffing and how employees are impacted and the need for services elsewhere.
– Schmeidicke says that there are 4.5 positions now, one is unfunded and not filled after retirement, so that is 2.5 positions, another person went to another agency, so they are down to one. The vacated position they are looking for someone who is more general. He says that we would still need a position or half a position to transition. And, they would need 1 more position to help with payroll. The section chief has a lot of overtime, comp time now. They need back up there. The head of the payroll section may also be retiring soon. The Finance Department has been helping out with the billing and using document services staff to help support it.
– Verveer is concerned that there will be enough work for all the employees that will be shifted – in the long run.
– They say yes.
– They are all local 60 positions, asks Verveer?
– Yes says Schmeidicke.
– Verveer asks about the third party system and the waiver policies for low-income individuals.
– Schmeidicke says there should be no problem, that will be in the contract as well as quality assurance efforts. They have gotten positive feedback on the quality of service, they have a higher level of expertise, more efficient and effective with medicare and medicaid and that complexity with HIPPA.
– Verveer says that the Mayor had an initiative to bring in house services currently contracted out, this is a reversal, why are we doing this. (Mayor not in the room)
– Schmiedicke says that we already have antiquated software platforms and would have to do significant upgrades to keep up with the fire department software upgrades and the industry. The billing has become more complex, we would have to add professional level staff to keep track of what is going on in the field, they need to deal with legal issues. Plus, the economies of scale for the third party billers, we will become more effective on reimbursements than we are now. So, its the complexity and the software so this is logical because they have the expertise in an highly complex field. Finally, we are concerned about the financial risk because of HIPPA and the federal government is doing more auditing and levying fines for those who aren’t doing it correctly.
– Verveer appreciates that and says they are all good rationale. Mayor is back. Verveer says that many of them are in agreement with the effort to bring more services back in house and this is a reversal of that.
– Mayor says I asked the same questions, but in terms of scaling and liability, there is no way we can do this in house under the new regulations and he reluctantly came to the conclusion that this is the best decision.
– Shiva Bidar-Sielaff says that they talked about it and one of the issues is that they are better at dealing with insurance companies and the government – right?
– Schmeidicke says yes.
– Also we would get a vendor that is sympathetic to our low-income residents who can’t afford it, which is what we have done at the city.
– Yes, that will be a core element of the criteria.
– So we will have some reporting.
– Yes, that is fundamental, we need the performance measures to meet the needs.
– Palm says there are two others in Dane County that are still in house, are they going to a third party?
– Schmeidicke says they didn’t ask that.
– Palm asks why Brooklyn can deal with the liability, why can’t we?
– Mayor says that they might not have looked at it carefully.
– Palm says that Middleton might be a better example.
– Mayor says don’t get me started.
– Schmeidicke says that the federal government will look at the larger communities first for auditing.
Passes
Water Utility Meter System
– Satya Rhodes-Conway says she is supportive of the new system, but they all got an email about some concerns from Anita Weier and she said she didn’t get answers.
– The project manager for the project says that they are working on a response about the issues with the radio frequency, they have been in discussion with the Public Service Commission. They are ironing out the details.
– Rhodes-Conway hopes they can understand that these answers are important and that there is concerns about the project moving forward withiout those answers since how they feel about the issues is contingent on the answers. They are missing opportunities to weigh in, but it would be great if they can answer before the council.
– Robin says that it will go to the council on June 12 and they will have the answers before that.
– Palms asks to review what the questions were.
– Rhodes-Conway says that there were 20 questions, but they are about the meters radio frequency transmitters and the towers involved and there are concerned about the health impacts of that. Around the country there have been questions about that. She says that she might not agree, but they are constituents and they deserve and answer and the ability to come and speak to that.
– Mayor says 2 months ago channel 3 did a news feature on it, and the critic they interviewed was a resident of Baraboo.
– Rhodes-Conway says that the constituents deserve answers.
– Robin says he will look into it, he doesn’t remember an email with 20 questions.
– Rhodes-Conway will send it to him.
– Palm says that one issue is where the repeaters will be located.
– Robin says they determined 91 locations where they will be. The contractor visited all the sites to figure otu what kind of interference there will be. There will also be 10 collectors in the system.
– Palm says if hadn’t made the decisions, those would be hard questions to answer.
– Robin says they just nailed down the last few locations last week.
– Verveer asks if MG&E is not charging us, only Alliant.
– Robin says that they have not had pole attachments in the past, they are working on a contract, not sure if there is a charge for their poles. There will be power usage charges. He doesn’t think there will be charges like WP&L has. We are looking at an alternative, we have been looking at poles, and they might be city poles at this point, so we might not have to have an agreement with WP&L at this point.
– Verveer asks if they would need the resolution at all at that point.
– Yes, they will for MG&E and might need this in the future for WP&L.
– Motion to adopt passes.
They did a presentation on the budget next . . . might have that tomorrow. But I gotta go to Steven’s Point tomorrow, and be there by 7:30, so that might not work out!
