Board of Mayor & Commissioners

MINUTES OF THE REGULAR SESSION OF THE PIPERTON BOARD OF MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS February 20, 2024, 6:00 P.M. The Piperton Board of Mayor and Commissioners met in a regular session on February 20, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, with Board members: Mayor Henry Coats, Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley, Commissioner David Crislip, and Commissioner Bret Morris. Commissioner Russ Fletcher was absent. City Manager Steve Steinbach, Police Chief Jonathan Roney, Fire Chief Reed Bullock, Public Works Richard Mills, Finance Director Maria George, City Engineer Harvey Matheny, and City Recorder Beverly Holloway were present. Linda Coffman (Linda’s Accounting Firm), Elizabeth McCommon, Charlotte Johnson, Vicki Hancock, David Bartlett, Trey Sowell (Piper Hollow), and et al were present in the audience. Building Official Elizabeth Reed and City Planner Brett Morgan were absent. Agenda item 1. Call to order, establish quorum Action taken: Mayor Henry Coats called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m., and established that a quorum was present. Agenda item 2. Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag Action taken: Public Works Director Richard Mills led in the opening Prayer and Mayor Coats led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. Agenda item 3. Any changes to Agenda; Motion to adopt Agenda Action taken: There was a change to the agenda with the movement of item 8 up to new item 5, Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley moved to adopt with the one change, seconded by Commissioner David Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 4. Review/approval of Financial Reports, Building Inspector’s Report, Public Works Report, Fireman’s Report, Police Report and Development Activity City Manager Steve Steinbach stated finances are great and balance sheets are good. The financial reports indicate an increase in property tax collections and sales tax. Regarding the special census, as of today we have a total of 2,539 and need about 140 more households to participate. March 1st is the deadline. Fire Chief Reed Bullock (filling in for Building Official Elizabeth Reed) stated the month of January, there was 17 total permits issued with 1 single family permit, 82 total inspections and 10 code compliance contacts. Public Works Richard Mills stated construction on the Piper House is still moving forward. In the front office, the floor had to be replaced due to termites and rot. The rest of the front of the house is in real good shape and there were no active termites found. There will be termite treatment. TDEC/ARPA projects-we received an email stating that our “non-collaborative application has been accepted. We will have a meeting with Ms. Mattie Cushman on Friday. Crews have patched 40 potholes with more pending. During the ice and snow event, the traffic cross walk signal was hit and the replacement cost is $4,371.15 which is covered by the driver’s insurance. Next month, I will be bringing a request to surplus Ridgewood and Greenbrier drip fields and stations. They are no longer in use and there is no need for the on-site material. The sewer flow going to Rossville for January was 2,234,000 gallons for 12/27/23 to 01/29/24 (33 days). That is an average of 67,969.97 gallons per day (84.62% of the allotted 80,000 gallons per day). There were 58 Tennessee 811 line locates. There were 114 total work orders with 4 still pending. There were 13 after hours call-outs. Fire Chief Reed Bullock stated during the month of January, we responded to 35 total calls (32 in the city) with 12 calls being medical. There were 5 vehicle crashes. 1  Police Chief Jonathan Roney stated in the month of January, there were 46 dispatched calls, 3 incident reports, 1 arrest report and 9 motor vehicle crashes. We should receive the new Explorer this Thursday and the equipment has been ordered. I spoke with Browning Construction regarding the land clearing and we are hoping to begin on Monday. I have submitted the paperwork for Watson to TBI. City Engineer Harvey Mathey (filling in for City Planner Brett Morris) stated last week the Planning Commission gave preliminary approval for a C-store and retail building on Hwy 196 and Hwy 57 and preliminary approval for the MCR building expansion on Hwy 72. Action taken: Commissioner Bret Morris moved to approve all reports, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 5. Consideration of Development Contract Amendment – Piper Hollow Phase 1 for final surface asphalt installation Mr. Matheny stated the Piper Hollow Developer is requesting to put down the final surface asphalt of Phase 1 because of the upcoming Vesta Home Show in early April. Our standard contract states before final asphalt the subdivision should reach 60% of the homes completed or 4 years from the date of plat recording. Right now, they are roughly at 50% of the homes completed in Phase 1 so they are close to that threshold and the plat was recorded about 2 ½ years ago. So, this is a request to pave early because of the Vesta Home Show and it is much more efficient to pave all of the phase at one time. Trey Sowell stated about 2 ½ years ago we recorded the first phase as 35 lots and we have 14 house that are complete with 8 currently under construction so that is 63% under construction or finished. That paving would be a nice front door for the show and appreciates your consideration. Mr. Steinbach stated this is a contractual matter with a binding contract with the Developer and the City. I have spoken with the City Attorney regarding this. I have also asked Harvey to put a graphic together that shows what is being proposed to be paved. Richard has inspected, and staff wants to make sure what is being paved is in good stead. There will not be a formal amendment executed, the Board’s action will serve as the record along with the graphic that shows the extent of that. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Mike Binkley moved to approve Piper Hollow Phase 1 for final surface asphalt, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 6. Presentation of FY 2023 Audit – Linda Coffman (Linda’s Accounting Firm) Linda Coffman, Linda’s Accounting Firm, gave an overview of the 2023 audit report, stating all financial statements and all materials are presented fairly according to the general accepted accounting principles. There were no significant deficiencies or material weakness found for this year. Consideration of Professional Services Agreement/Proposal - FY 2024 Audit (Linda’s Accounting Firm) Mr. Steinback requested the Board to consider the professional services agreement for Linda’s Accounting Firm for the FY 2024 Audit due to the State not recognizing the contract for FY 2024. Last year the Board had previously approved two fiscal years. The State only allowed Ms. Linda to upload one service contract. Action taken: Commissioner Crislip moved to approve Linda’s Accounting Firm for the FY 2024 audit, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. The Motion received all affirmative votes. 2 Agenda item 7. Recommendation and selection of IT Professional Services Vendor Chief Bullock stated for many years he and one vendor has been doing all the IT work needed for the city. We did solicit bids proposals for the IT services and we narrowed it down to a select few. Staff recommends Horizon Services as our IT service provider. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve Horizon Services, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 8. Consideration and approval of change orders for Piper House renovations Mr. Mills stated on June 30, 2023, Piperton signed a contract with Warren Construction to renovate the Piper House from a residential to an office space. At that time, we had a bid of $1.673 million dollars. This is an old house and things were uncovered and there were change orders that followed. To date the change orders total $49,705.60, which is an increase to the original bid of 2.97%. Since those changes orders we now have an additional change order for Board approval in the amount of $56,994.77. The total changes orders to date would be $106,925 which would be a 6.3% increase from the original bid cost. An additional cost of $12,800 for sheet rock, $4,950 for electrical cost, $8,995 for the porch built on the west side of the house, HVAC repairs of $6,325.00, handling fees of $7,784 and a bond adjustment of $1,390.12. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve the change orders for the Piper House renovations, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Mr. Mills stated there will be smaller change orders coming up and I would like to get permission from the Board to handle this is a different way and not have to wait once a month to get approval. Mr. Steinbach stated the policy does permit the Board to modify the current change order policy which is the lesser of 50,000 or 10% of the contract price. Since we are clearly under the 10% threshold for the size of this project which given the circumstances in everything that has occurred is a tolerable metric in my estimation. So, when Richard discussed this matter with me, if it is amenable with the Board. You will be given opportunity to weigh in but in the interim while he is dealing with nominal minor change order matters. My proposal would be to inform the Board in advance of giving authorization and then at the subsequent board meeting bring to you that cumulative total to the extent we do not exceed the 10% threshold without the Board’s express approval to do so in advance. So, what I am suggesting to you is; change orders of a nominal amount to keep it moving would by approved by the City Manager, Board would be informed and cumulative amounts brought to you at your subsequent board meetings and under no circumstances would money be appropriated for change orders that exceed that 10% threshold. Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to authorize the City Manager to approve changes orders not to exceed 10% of the bid prices, seconded by Vice-Mayor Binkley. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 9. Recess – hold Public Hearing concerning Ordinance No. 387-24, amending Ordinance No. 310-19 (2018 International Residential Code) with amendments set out therein Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to recess to hold public hearing, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Mr. Steinbach stated the State has enacted a Public Chapter 312 which imposes restriction on local government to enact regulations whether it be with land use and/or building requirements that forbid or restrict the local government to have regulations that exceed that of the State. The City has had in effect the 2018 International Building Codes for sometime now. So, this was new legislation that was adopted last year and the cities were informed by official 3 correspondence that our regulation exceed the State. This is to amend our Building Code to comply with the new State code. There were no questions for the audience. Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to reconvene the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 10. Second reading, Ordinance No. 387-24, amending Ordinance No. 310-19 (2018 International Residential Code) with amendments set out therein Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley moved to approve Ordinance No. 387-24 on second reading, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 11. First reading, Ordinance No. 388-24, amending the budget for FY 2023-2024, (Second Amendment) for the City of Piperton Mr. Steinbach stated the budget amendment consists of three exhibits. The proposal is to amend the General Fund (Exhibit A), Water Fund (Exhibit B) and the Sewer Fund (Exhibit C). In the General Fund, items of note were increase to insurance deductibles, the police vehicle amount is returned to the budget for the Explorer after the purchase of trucks and the balance of the items in the General Fund are fixed costs that were underestimated such as telephones, uniforms and several stipends in Police and Fire for advanced degrees. In the Water and Sewer Funds, vehicle maintenance/repairs that were distributed over the three funds. There was a vehicle lift budgeted, there was a calculation error and we are correcting that. There will be a detailed explanation during the Public Hearing. Staff recommends approval. Action taken: Commissioner Morris moved to approve Ordinance No. 388-24 on first reading, seconded by Commissioner Crislip. The Motion received all affirmative votes. Agenda item 12. Any other unfinished/new business, questions or matters from the audience Chief Bullock stated the City app is on its way. I have signed the new updated Apple Development agreement today and last week I had to update the Google Development. So, it is on track. Mayor Coats inquired on the eta. Chief Bullock stated it should still be March. Agenda item 13. Adjournment Action taken: Vice-Mayor Binkley made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Morris. The Motion received all affirmative votes and the meeting was adjourned at 6:58 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Beverly Holloway, City Recorder Approved: _________________________________date: ______________________ 4