Finance Committee — 01/19/2022 Page 2
house wise on Wednesdays, Thursdays and possibly Fridays. So I’m not really for that. | could probably maybe advance
to 6:30 but it could be tight at some times. | cannot go at 6 o'clock.
Mayor Donchess
Allright. So you’re saying because of your House duties 7:00 is really better.
Alderman Klee
Yes.
Mayor Donchess
Well maybe we'll take it up again then once the session is over. | don’t want to inconvenience anybody.
Alderman Comeau
| just wanted to say also initially my thought was that | had no real preference but in looking at my schedule, my son plays
a lot of high school sports that get out around 6 — 6:30 and | like to attend as many of them as possible. So 7 is less of a
conflict with that when he’s still in sports. When there’s no sports, then I’m a lot more flexible.
Mayor Donchess
That’s fine. The tradition has been 7 for many years. With two objections, why don’t we just leave it at 7.
Number two, this is an item that we haven’t really raised before. You see tonight’s a pretty short agenda — four items. We
typically and | suspect tonight, although, I’m not sure, we usually have someone come in on each of these items to give
you more explanation than is in the Memo. Many of the memos are self-explanatory. Now in the years before | was
Mayor, | was on the Board of Aldermen and on the Finance Committee. The position of the Mayor at that time was that
staff members should not be inconvenienced and would not come to the Finance Committee at all. In my years on the
Finance Committee, only once that | recall that any member of the staff ever came in and that had to do with the
committee’s refusal to approve a purchase unless it was equipment and the equipment manager came in. It was kind of a
standoff for about a month but finally that person came in, offered the explanation, and we approved the purchase.
So my policy was the reverse — have someone come in on every contract but | have heard some comments from some of
the Directors that there are a lot of night meetings tends to burn people out coming in once, twice, three times a week and
even if it’s by Zoom. We have Camille of Transit here personally at 7 o’clock. So | wanted — and | don't really have
anything specific other than to ask the open question is if we have items where someone has a question, fine we bring
someone in. If there are items where it seems no one really has an issue, no one really has anything additional to ask
beyond what’s in the memo, would it be possible to forego the Division Director or Department Director coming in to
explain the item?
Now Kelly Parkinson is on, right? Kelly are you here.
Kelly Parkinson, Purchasing Manager
Yes, I’m here.
Mayor Donchess
So Ms. Parkinson is the Purchasing Manager so she’s here no matter what on all items and has a basic explanation about
everything because she’s prepared all this paperwork or has helped prepare it and understands each item. She would
always be here. It’s just like an additional person like in the case of Transit - Camille who is the Transit Director. Her
name is Camille Correa. We always have an additional person come in from the department. My question is what is your
reaction to this dilemma or this issue should we continue to bring people in or can we forego that time and again.
Alderman Klee
We do have three new people on this and obviously Alderman Jette is new to Finance as well. The truth is there are a lot
of questions that get asked at the meeting. | personally think that it’s something we could do on our own homework wise.
| had mentioned to prior to the meeting that if there’s something that you learn, it might be something you want to ask and
