City Council

City Council Meeting Minutes ___________________________________________________________________________________________ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2024 – 6:00 PM COLUMBIA CITY, CITY HALL – 1840 SECOND STREET CITY OF COLUMBIA CITY, COLUMBIA COUNTY, OREGON AGENDA ITEM 1 CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: CONVENED: Mayor Katrina Claridge called the Regular Meeting to order at 6:00 pm. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Council President Rob Forman Councilor Gordon Thistle Councilor Connie Quick Councilor Lyle Bluhm COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: None ALSO PRESENT: Kim Karber, City Administrator/Recorder Jerry Bartolomucci, Chief of Police ATTORNEY PRESENT: None A quorum was present, and due notice had been published. AGENDA ITEM 2 CITIZEN INPUT: 2.1 Tyra Schroeder, 3225 Tahoma St, had questions on how the City writes citations. She knows that we right tickets for speeding and it goes to court, but there are no citations written for items like trespass. She wanted to know why that is and thinks it would be a way to bring in revenue to the City. Chief Bartolomucci explained that traffic citations are different in that they are cited into our Municipal Court and we do our own prosecution on those. If there are criminal cases, like reckless driving or DUI then they are cited to the District Attorney’s office. Tyra asked why the District Attorney gets involved if the State has statutes that say it is breaking the law and why wouldn’t the City want to keep the money for those citations. Chief Bartolomucci explained that Columbia City only has a municipal court, which is not a court of record, and it only hears violations regarding traffic violations, which would be recorded with the DMV if convicted, and city ordinances. He also explained that the money received for tickets written by us into our court is very minimal because portions of it go to the state and county. We do not receive money for tickets written by us into other courts. Also, depending on the situation, because there are different courts sometimes the District Attorney feels the cases are better to be handled by civil court instead of criminal court. Tyra thanked him for the information. 2.2 Alexander Reed, Mayor elect, introduced himself to the Council. AGENDA ITEM 3 COUNCIL REPORTS: 3.1 Audit Committee: Chair Forman reported the committee met on December 11, and talked about developing a model for estimating insurance costs since every year we underbudget. Looking at possibly doing a five-year rolling average on actual amounts or 2 Regular City Council Meeting December 19, 2024 applying a growth increase for year over year. They talked about standard operating procedures for how they would review checks in the future. Rob also discussed the committee, having looked over the three auditing proposals. 3.2 Hazard Committee: No report. 3.3 Parks Committee: No report. 3.4 Streets Committee: No report. 3.5 Water & Sewer Committee: No report. AGENDA ITEM 4 CONSENT AGENDA: 4.1 Bills paid with check numbers 35201 through 35213 during the month of October 2024. 4.2 Bills paid with check numbers 35214 through 35259 during the month of November 2024. 4.3 Expense vs Budget Report for the month ending November 2024. 4.4 Combined balance sheet for the month ending November 2024. 4.5 Minutes of the November 21, 2024, Regular City Council Meeting. 4.6 Activity Report from the Chief of Police for the month of November 2024. 4.7 Activity Report from the Public Works Superintendent for the month of November 2024. 4.8 Activity Report from the City Administrator for the month of November 2024. THE COUNCIL APPROVED THE CONSENT AGENDA BY UNANIMOUS ROLL CALL VOTE. AGENDA ITEM 5 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: None. AGENDA ITEM 6 NEW BUSINESS: 6.1 Engagement Letter and Contract between Umpqua Valley Financial and the City of Columbia City. MOVED (FORMAN), SECONDED (THISTLE), AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO ACCEPT THE CONTRACT BETWEEN UMPQUA VALLEY FINANCIAL AND THE CITY OF COLUMBIA CITY. AGENDA ITEM 7 OTHER BUSINESS: 7.1 Chief of Police, Jerry Bartolomucci, PTO carry-over request. MOVED (QUICK), SECONDED (BLUHM), AND CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE CHIEF BARTOLOMUCCI’S REQUEST OF AN ADDITIONAL 20 HOURS OF CARRY OVER PTO INTO THE 2025 CALENDAR YEAR. 7.2 Reserve Police Officers. Chief Bartolomucci reported that there are currently two reserve police officers scheduled to start at the reserve academy in January. Once they are done with the academy in June then they will start the training process with Columbia City. 7.3 South Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Kim reported that she talked with Jak after having issues with getting re-signed up as a Basic member. When talking with Jak she explained the different levels of membership and after hearing her explanation Kim went with the Non-Profit membership instead of the Basic because they will advertise our events in their newsletter, online, and in their office. 3 Regular City Council Meeting December 19, 2024 7.4 Election Results. Kim reported that the official results of the election were received from the Elections Office. Alexander Reed was elected as Mayor. Connie Quick and Lyle Bluhm were elected as Councilors. 7.5 Planning Commission item for Council. Kim reported that Helen had feedback from the Planning Commission that they would like Council to reconsider streaming meetings. Helen explained that it had already been discussed at Council and due to the lack of response from the survey in the newsletter and the expense entailed, no action was taken. After discussion Council said that we are back to the same conclusion, unless they have someone who is willing to volunteer to take on the job of attending all the meetings and running the streaming part of it. 7.6 City Hall and Community Hall. Kim reported that all the work that was scheduled to be done on City Hall and Community Hall has been completed. There were no issues found by C & M Renovations during their work. AGENDA ITEM 8 ADJOURNMENT: 8.1 There being no further business to come before the Council, the meeting adjourned at 6:27 pm. APPROVED: _______________________________________ Alex Reed Mayor ATTEST: ___________________________________ Kim Karber City Administrator/Recorder