City Council

1 River Heights City Council 2 Minutes of the Meeting 3 February 11, 2014 4 5 6 Present were: Mayor James Brackner 7 Council members: Richard Okelberry 8 Dixie Wilson 9 Blake Wright 10 11 Recorder Sheila Lind 12 Public Works Director Clayten Nelson 13 Finance Director Clifford Grover 14 15 Excused Councilmembers Doug Clausen 16 Geoffrey Smith 17 18 Others Present: Gayle Brackner, Robert Scott 19 20 21 The following motions were made during the meeting: 22 23 Motion #1 24 Councilmember Wright moved to “adopt the minutes of the January 28, 2014 Council meeting 25 and the evening’s agenda.” Council member Wilson seconded the motion, which passed with 26 Okelberry, Wilson and Wright in favor. No one opposed. Clausen and Smith were absent. 27 28 Motion #2 29 Councilmember Okelberry moved to “pay the bills as listed.” Councilmember Wright 30 seconded the motion, which passed with Okelberry, Wilson and Wright in favor. No one opposed. 31 Clausen and Smith were absent. 32 33 34 35 Proceedings of the Meeting: 36 37 The River Heights City Council met at 6:30 p.m. in the Ervin R. Crosbie Council Chambers in 38 the River Heights City Building on Tuesday, February 11, 2014. Mayor Brackner informed that 39 Councilmember Clausen’s father passed away so he was excused. Also excused was Councilmember 40 Smith. 41 Opening Remarks and Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Brackner opened the meeting with a 42 prayer. Finance Director Grover led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. 43 Adoption of Previous Minutes and Agenda: Minutes of the January 28, 2014 Council meeting 44 were reviewed. River Heights City Council Meeting, 02/11/14 1 45 Councilmember Wright moved to “adopt the minutes of the January 28, 2014 Council 46 meeting and the evening’s agenda.” Council member Wilson seconded the motion, which passed 47 with Okelberry, Wilson and Wright in favor. No one opposed. Clausen and Smith were absent. 48 Pay Bills: The bills were presented and discussed. Councilmember Wilson questioned the bill 49 for the Unplugged Program coming out of parks. She might want it split between other budgets. 50 Councilmember Wright suggested transferring money into the parks budget to cover it, at the time the 51 budget adjustments are made. They’ll make a decision after they get more information about the 52 program. 53 Finance Director Grover stated it’s his goal to get the bills information out to them before the 54 meeting so they’ll know before they arrive, which bills they’ll need to sign off on. 55 Councilmember Okelberry moved to “pay the bills as listed.” Councilmember Wright 56 seconded the motion, which passed with Okelberry, Wilson and Wright in favor. No one 57 opposed. Clausen and Smith were absent. 58 Finance Director Report: Finance Director Grover handed out the Combined Cash Investment 59 Report. He discussed the fact that past finance director Mann was looking into opening another bank 60 savings account because the current accounts are approaching the $250,000 maximum amount that will 61 be insured by the FDIC. Mr. Grover feels the city should keep their money in secure institutions, 62 rather than have multiple banks, some of which may not be as secure. Mayor Brackner said he 63 understands the State feels Zions can handle larger amounts of money. Mr. Grover agreed and didn’t 64 feel he should check into opening another city account at Bank of Utah. The Council agreed. Mr. 65 Grover has no reason to doubt the financial strength of the three banks being used by the city at this 66 time. Mayor Brackner agreed. Mr. Grover took leave of the meeting. 67 Purchase Requisition Requests: There were none. 68 Public Works Report and Discussion: Public Works Director Nelson reported on the following: 69  His new computer came and is somewhat set up. He needs Intermountain Environmental to 70 make a few adjustments. He is starting on the GPS applications and will load them as he learns 71 how to use them. 72  He has installed the wifi upstairs so it should work better now. 73  Logan City has canceled the sewer cities meeting which was scheduled for Friday. If he hears 74 of anything else that gets set up, he’ll let Mayor Brackner know. 75  Councilmember Smith would like to start all over with the float this year, including getting rid 76 of the trailer (it doesn’t work very well). Mr. Nelson stated it’s hard to find a good used trailer, 77 but he’d like to continue looking. 78 Administrative Report: Recorder Lind asked if everyone’s city emails were working. She is 79 leery about using them, in case they’re not. She was told there are still some troubles. Councilmember 80 Okelberry explained what he has done, through IPower, to make his work. Councilmember Wilson 81 would like Ms. Lind to continue to use her personal email for a while. 82 Public Comment: Robert Scott stated his son has received 2 parking tickets. They were both 83 written around 1:00 am. He was informed that parking restrictions are from 4:00 a.m. until noon. He 84 should not have received tickets at 1:00 a.m. Mayor Brackner has the power to override a ticket if it’s 85 outside the city’s ordinance. Mr. Scott said the tickets have already been paid. Mayor Brackner will 86 contact the sheriff’s office to remind them of the winter parking restrictions. 87 Councilmember Wright stated the school has a problem because they don’t have enough off- 88 street parking. The school administration has recently informed their staff they can’t park on the road. 89 Mayor Brackner said he talked with the principal and told him the city’s policy and asked him to get 90 the word out. Mr. Wright wondered if an exception could be made. PWD Nelson said the street in River Heights City Council Meeting, 02/11/14 2  91 front of the school is the worst place to park during snow. They want to be able to plow the street from 92 curb to curb. Mr. Wright wondered if they could work something out with the school on the days it’s 93 not snowing. Mayor Brackner asked if the city can write tickets. It was decided they need to call the 94 sheriff when they need a car cited. Robert Scott suggested taking a photo of the car and license, which 95 would document the time. These photos can be turned in to the sheriff for citations. 96 Status Report on Meeting Recording Device: Councilmember Okelberry was thanked for 97 helping purchase the public works computer. Mr. Okelberry planned to plug the city’s Sony IC 98 Recorder into another city’s but couldn’t find anyone with the speakers he needed. He has listened to 99 some of the River Heights’ meetings that were previously recorded by downloading them on his 100 computer. He played a portion on a recorder to show it sounds pretty good. He also recommended 101 Boundary-Layer Conference Microphones to use with the Sony recorder. These can be daisy chained 102 together across the council desk. He feels they should give the Sony another try. Mayor Brackner 103 suggested he could ask the public to come up to the front to speak. They will wait on the microphones, 104 for now. Mr. Okelberry will pick up a power cord, in case the batteries run out. 105 Discuss City Building Rental: Mayor Brackner asked for discussion, based on the analysis he 106 presented (included with the minutes). Councilmember Wilson asked Recorder Lind if she can run a 107 debit card as credit. If so, she is fine with debit cards being allowed for deposits. Recorder Lind 108 wasn’t sure and will call Instant Payments to see if it can be set up this way. Ms. Wilson was told by 109 the bank that if the renters sign an agreement that says they will pay for additional damages, then the 110 city can go after them even if they didn’t use a credit card. Ms. Wilson was glad for the opportunity to 111 evaluate the rental system to determine if it’s working. She feels the building should be available to 112 residents of River Heights and would like to rent only to them. Ms. Lind informed that sometimes 113 non-residents will have a resident rent it for them in order to save $50. Councilmember Wright 114 suggested going to one fee for residents and non. PWD Nelson said when he unlocks the building, 115 sometimes he’ll see the renters leave right after him, leaving the building empty and unlocked. He 116 would like to know that someone from the group is there the whole time it’s open. Councilmember 117 Okelberry suggested Mr. Nelson could take them on a walk-through to evaluate the building condition 118 before and after the rental. PWD Nelson suggested 9:00 p.m. is plenty late for groups to be done using 119 the building. Council members Okelberry and Wright feel the city should continue to rent it. 120 Mayor Brackner reminded that Logan City charges non-residents quite a bit for use of their city 121 library. 122 Councilmember Wilson asked the group to think about renting only to residents. She suggested 123 renting for a block of time, rather than the option of the whole day. Councilmember Okelberry isn’t 124 concerned if the city loses money on it. He sees it as a community service. He asked to consider 125 having after hours cost more. Discussion was held on how to make sure the renters don’t leave the 126 unlocked building for a time. They discussed electronic locks, which would require a code. PWD 127 Nelson will check on the costs. Recorder Lind suggested charging by the hour. This would encourage 128 people to be there for the time they’re paying for. This topic will be brought up again at the next 129 meeting. 130 Mayor and Council Reports: Mayor Brackner asked all to sign a sympathy card for 131 Councilmember Clausen. 132 Councilmember Wright reported the Planning Commission is beginning to look at making 133 changes in the General Plan to include ADA verbiage. It is going slow. 134 Mayor Brackner reported that Engineer Rasmussen has suggested the city require developers to 135 re-seal their roads at a certain time after they are installed. PWD Nelson said they can require a 136 subdivider to reseal before the city takes ownership. Councilmember Wright said this needs to be in River Heights City Council Meeting, 02/11/14 3 137 the subdivision ordinance, if they want to require it. He also reminded this would need to be initiated 138 at the Planning Commission. He asked PWD Nelson to work with the city engineer to get some 139 verbiage to insert into the ordinance. 140 Councilmember Wright asked if the Nyman land transaction has gone through. Mayor 141 Brackner said they are waiting on the city attorney to negotiate with the title company. 142 Councilmember Wilson mentioned Engineer Rasmussen’s written comments from the last 143 meeting and asked if the city was paying him to attend. She was told he wasn’t getting paid. 144 Councilmember Okelberry reported he hasn’t had a chance to look into purchasing the other 145 office computer equipment. 146 The meeting adjourned 7:50 at p.m. 147 148 149 150 ______________________________ 151 Sheila Lind, Recorder 152 ________________________________ 153 James Brackner, Mayor River Heights City Council Meeting, 02/11/14 4