City Council

Regular Council Meeting January 8, 2018 1. Council President Roger Jensen called the meeting to order at 7:30. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring and Bruce Swihart. Also present was City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, Police Chief Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Mayor Scott Schultz and Council Members Carla Lampe and Amanda Milne were absent. 2. Minutes from the December 26th meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Bruce and seconded by Kale to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 3. Consent Agenda – It was moved by Bruce and seconded by Kale to approve the following items on the Consent Agenda: Permission for Clerk to pay insurance at time of billing; Permission for Clerk to pay utilities at time of billing; Permission for Clerk to pay utility incentives before the 25th of the month; Permission for Clerk to pay theater bills when due; Permission for Clerk to pay Payment Service Network bills when due; Permission for Clerk pay 2018 League of Kansas Municipalities dues of $948.78; Permission for Clerk to pay KRWA Membership Dues of $812. Motion passed. 4. All bills on Ordinance #1010 were reviewed. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Bruce to approve the bills in the amount of $143,039.81. Motion passed. Attorney Day had questions regarding tracking inmate related expenses for the police department. Clerk Whitmore indicated there are line items for various expenses including jail fees, inmate expenses, and court appointed attorney fees and a report can be run to show these. 5. Council President Roger Jensen presented outgoing Council Member Bruce Swihart with a plaque and thanked him for his 8 years of service and commitment as a Council member. Outgoing Council Member Carla Lampe was not present but thanks were expressed for her service as well. 6. Newly elected Council members Dara Carmichael and Larry Finley, and re-elected incumbent Kale Dankenbring took the Oath of Office and were sworn in by City Clerk Lila Whitmore. 7. Visitors: Dallas Staples was present to express his dissatisfaction with an article that appeared in the St. Francis Herald following the last Council meeting and regarding the issue with his liability insurance, which has now been renewed. Attorney Day extended an apology to Mr. Staples for the misunderstanding but it was also made clear to him that had he followed the procedure which he had agreed to with the Council the misunderstanding would not have occurred. Clerk Whitmore will contact the Herald and ensure they are aware that Mr. Staples has renewed his insurance and tree trim license with the city. 8. Police Report: a) Chief Thomas shared the December statistics. b) The sheriff’s department purchased an MP9 rifle for the police department. c) Chief Thomas will be looking into the cost to install a wall with a doorway at the end of the hallway at the back of the building leading to what will be the new evidence room. d) Darrell discussed the need to have a way to issue drug paraphernalia charges, which is a misdemeanor. Currently these are handled by District Court but Chief Thomas feels it would make more sense to have them handled at the municipal level. Attorney Day will visit with the League of Kansas Municipalities on a possible ordinance and will make recommendations to the Council at a later meeting. d) Darrell expressed concern about the trees in front of City Hall and the mess that they leave on the sidewalks. He would like to see the trees removed. Roger suggested trying a spray first that will reduce the fruit that is produced. JR will look into that. e) There was further discussion about City Hall security. Roger indicated that Tom Rohr with Dependable Glass would be providing a design plan for the security wall and door. They will not be the ones who would do the work, however. f) Chief Thomas is still looking for a Police/Court Clerk. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Larry to accept and file the police report. Motion passed. 9. New Business: a. Kale made a motion, which was seconded by Dara, to nominate Council Member Roger Jensen to serve as Council President. Motion passed. b. On behalf of Mayor Scott Schultz, Council President Jensen presented the Mayor Appointments. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Kale to approve the following appointments: Theater Board – Council member Amanda Milne, Robert Grace, Justin Lohr, Brent Rueb,Margyre Antholz, Bridgette Antholz; Roadside Park Board – Council member Roger Jensen, City Superintendent JR Landenberger, Mike Meyer, Carla Lampe, Kary Zweygardt; Pool Board – Council member Larry Finley, City Superintendent JR Landenberger, Margaret Poling, Bruce Swihart, Jenny Busse, Kevin Lampe;  Housing Authority – Richard Grace, Carol Rogers, Lynette Nolan, Eric Fiala, Carol Larson; Airport Commission – Dave Yost, Kody Krien; Public Building Commission – Council Members Roger Jensen, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley, St. Francis Rec Commission members Holly Hingst and Susan Dinkel, Members at large Kelly Frewen and Penny Gienger; CCDC Board – Lila Whitmore; 911 Board – Council member Amanda Milne; Cheyenne County Kansas Community Foundation – Council member Dara Carmichael; Internet Committee – City Superintendent JR Landenberger; Standing Committees: Streets & Alleys – Roger Jensen, Scott Schultz; Utility – Kale Dankenbring, Scott Schultz; Parks, Recreation and Refuse – Dara Carmichael, Amanda Milne, Kale Dankenbring; Safety – JR Landenberger, Dan Blair, Amanda Milne, Lila Whitmore. Motion passed. c. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to approve the 2018 tree trim license for Dallas Staples. Motion passed. 10. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – The pending nuisance complaints against Ted McCoy are scheduled to be heard at the next court date of January 17. A cleanup notice will be served to the property owners at 419 E. Washington. Kale expressed concern about the property located at 308 W. Washington. JR will look into it. b. Projects Pending – a) The materials and transformers have been ordered for the electrical hookups at the Roadside Park and Heartland should begin work soon. b) Larry asked about the Keller Pond Trail project. The benches are out there but still need to be installed. Once McAtee Construction finishes that, this phase of the Keller Pond Trail project will be completed. There are more phases of the project yet to be done. The trail project is primarily financed with grants. c) JR brought the new Council members up to date on the electrical infrastructure improvements and explained the two phases that have been completed, which were the well lines that are critical to the city’s water supply, and the next phase that is planned, which includes intown improvements. The Council also discussed other infrastructure improvements that are planned for the future, including water and streets, and JR and Roger explained what some of the other topics were on the projects pending list. d) The pump house building at the old pool will be removed. Brock McAtee has expressed an interest in salvaging some of the equipment, such as the boiler. Kale has talked to Carol Sloper regarding grant money that might be available for improvements to the old pool area. Kale will continue to work on this. 11. Building Permits – none 12. Superintendent Report – a) The pool checkups are complete and the winterization process was successful. b) The radiator at the power plant froze up. The heater that had been ordered to prevent this from happening has not yet arrived. Clerk Whitmore will follow up with the company from which it was ordered. The city crew was able to work around the problem and the radiator is back in operation. c) There was a water main break on Saturday along the frontage road. d) The city crews continue to test the valves and are compiling a list of known valve locations. e) JR was approached by the Cheyenne Cruisers regarding adding additional 30 amp plugs/pedestals at the courthouse parks for vendors to use during the car show. JR will get estimates on the cost. f) JR will be seeking out a price for a trailer to haul the mini excavator. g) The airport is looking at doing road improvements. Devin Conley with Silver Springs Spraying wants to put up a building on the County’s property just outside city limits. This is in the planning stages at this time, but the County is proposing to do the road work and would be wanting to extend Lorraine Street south. Attorney Day suggested that a legal description be obtained. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Superintendent Report. Motion passed. 13. Attorney Report – none 14. Clerk Report – a) A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to waive the fee and approve a peddler’s license for the Girl Scouts cookie sales. Motion passed. b) Clerk Whitmore let the Council know that at a recent training it was recommended that Council Members have a city email account separate from their personal emails. Interested Council members can contact Lila to get one set up. c) A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to remove Carla Lampe from the list of Authorized Signers on all accounts at First National Bank and Bankwest and to approve Council member Dara Carmichael as an authorized signer along with the current authorized signers of Mayor Scott Schultz, Council President Roger Jensen, City Clerk Lila Whitmore, City Treasurer Jennifer Blair, and JR Landenberger is an additional authorized signer on the First  National Bank Debit Card account. Motion passed. d) Clerk Whitmore requested 5 minutes of executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss employee Holiday time. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 15. Council Comments: Kale – talked about the need to have the court clerk/police records clerk position filled as soon as possible. There have been 3 applications received. There was discussion about the salary for the position. Clerk Whitmore will check on the clerk link for what other municipalities pay. Dara – none, Larry – none 16. Council President Comments – none 17. At 9:02 a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale for the Council, along with City Superintendent Landenberger, City Clerk Whitmore, City Attorney Day, and Police Chief Thomas, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception in order to discuss employee holiday time and personnel policy, the open meeting to resume in the city council chamber at 9:07. Motion passed. 18. At 9:07 a motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to come out of executive session. Motion passed. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to modify the Personnel Policy Section 11 Holidays to extend the dates from December 22 to January 5 for employees to take 8 hours of holiday time in addition to the 8 hours on Christmas Day, and to allow for payout of the holiday hours in straight time in the event an employee is unable to take the time off. Motion passed. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to allow Matt Grogan to use 8 hours of holiday time on December 22, to allow Blaine Werner to take holiday time on January 3 for hours he was not able to take during December, and to pay Darrell Thomas 8 hours of holiday time for holiday hours he was not able to use during December. Motion passed. 19. Adjournment: A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Kale to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk