City Council

Regular Council Meeting February 26, 2018 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the meeting to order at 7:30. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring, Roger Jensen, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present was City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, Police Chief Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Council member Amanda Milne was absent. 2. Minutes from the February 12 meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Dara to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 3. Visitors – none 4. Police Report: a) Chief Thomas let the Council know that Matt Hill had started today as the Police Clerk/Municipal Court Clerk and is scheduled for training in Wichita in March. b) Darrell will be traveling to New Mexico on March 1-2 for police business. c) Chief Thomas asked the Council to once again consider hiring a third police officer. Darrell shared some statistics with the Council and indicated that his shift is overwhelmed with calls making it difficult for him to keep up with administrative tasks that need to be done. On call time is going to become an issue if it is not addressed. Chief Thomas also indicated we will probably loose our second Police Officer if they don’t get some relief. Attorney Day requested Darrell provide more specifics showing the police department activity. The Police Department salary budget would be sufficient for a third officer as long as the overall overtime in the department is reduced as well. Clerk Whitmore let the Council know that Council member Milne had contacted her earlier and stated she felt the discussion regarding a third officer should take place with all council members present to provide input and that Amanda had some questions she would like to ask before a decision is made. Chief Thomas indicated he has had several people express interest in the position and one in particular who is very interested. The Council asked Darrell to schedule the candidate for an interview with the Council on March 12 at 7:00 pm, just prior to the next Council meeting. A special meeting will be called for the purpose of the interview. Further discussion regarding actually hiring an officer will take place during the regular council meeting. d) Darrell is in the process of removing decals and getting the 2007 Crown Vic useable as a general use city vehicle. e) Two bids were received for the wall/door/lock on the evidence room: Brentwood Renovations - $495, Travis Jensen - $1,050. Because of the large difference in the bids the Council asked Darrel to obtain clarification and specifics to ensure the bids are for comparable products. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Roger to accept and file the police report. Motion passed. 5. New Business: a. David Rose – presented his plans to run a firearms business out of his home located at 418 Parkway Drive. It will be mostly internet based dealer transfers. At this time he is requesting a zoning variance before moving forward with the FFL licensing and other requirements necessary for the business. The Council determined the neighbors who would be impacted by the business would be: Roger and Traci Neitzel – 408 Parkway; Bill Smith – 603 S. College; Larry and Terri Finley – 610 Parkway; Irene Hilt – 614 Parkway; Darrell and Irma Reed – 611 Parkway; Travis Howard – 419 Parkway; and Kole Moberly – 409 Parkway. The Council pre-approved granting the variance so that he can move forward with his plans. This approval is contingent upon Mr. Rose obtaining the necessary 80% signatures which will need to be confirmed by the City Clerk. This is not a zoning change and the re-designation from residential to commercial is for David Rose only. b. Art Krueger and Ken Quigley presented the Senior Center financial and operating report for 2017 and thanked the Council for their support. c. Alumni Association – Band Shell Rental Agreement – Clerk Whitmore indicated that the application had not yet been submitted. d. Michelle Wolff, St. Francis Library Director, presented the annual library report showing income and expenses for 2017. She talked about grants that the library had received and what the grant funds were used for. She also shared a report that showed library usage and activities/events held throughout 2017. e. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Dara to approve the Mobile Home Park Licenses for Tommie Peter at 502 S. Valley and Eldon Zimbelman at Second and Adams. Motion passed. 6. Old Business: a. Property Cleanup – There have been no new cases. The McCoy case and Richers cases are pending. There will be renewed focus on property cleanups with the approach of spring. b. Projects Pending – a) Roger indicated that he and Tom Rohr plan to visit City Hall on Tuesday to go over the plans for a security wall. b) JR is working on details that need to be included in a city purchasing policy. JR feels the general provisions of the County’s policy are acceptable for the City but there are some exceptions that will need to be added. JR will make recommendations and then Mike and Lila will create a policy for the Council to review. c) JR will meet with Mike to create the electrical upgrade policy. d) Clerk Whitmore met with Matt Grogan, Elevation Design to view the progress being made on the new city website. Mr. Grogan would like to share the design with the Council and obtain their feedback. The Council requested a special meeting be held on March 6 at 5:30 at the Library for this purpose. Lila will arrange the meeting. 7. Building Permits – none 8. Superintendent Report – a) JR talked about a section of curb and gutter along Spencer Street that had been damaged by someone other than the city doing snow removal during the last storm. Typically curb and gutter repairs are the responsibility of the homeowners. However, this section is a primary waterway and must be fixed. JR has contacted Brock McAtee construction for an estimate which he will bring back to the Council for a decision on how best to proceed. JR has contacted Brock McAtee construction to complete the work as soon as possible and will bring the cost of repairs back to the Council. There was considerable discussion regarding curb and gutters in town that need to be replaced. JR will get a price estimate from Brock McAtee for the Sunny Hill neighborhood as a starting point. The topic is on the projects pending list and will continue to be discussed at future meetings. b) JR updated the Council on the new hangers and access roads being proposed at the airport. The airport authority feels that it would be best to extend College Street. As long as utilities are not an issue and there is no cost to the city, JR did not have any concerns with the project but wanted the Council to be aware of it. The City may need to maintain the road as it will be inside the city limits. c) JR continues to work with Prairie Land on the next phase of the electrical infrastructure improvements. d) JR shared the updated 5 year plan with the Council and explained the changes that were made. Funds that were not utilized in 2017 were moved into 2018 for equipment purchases. The Council approved the plan. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Kale for JR to purchase a one ton pickup with a utility box from Yost Ford for $29,900. Motion passed with Larry abstaining. e) JR was informed that the State will no longer maintain the frontage road and the approaches that come off of the frontage road onto the highway other than snow removal. It may become the City’s responsibility and would be costly to maintain. JR will follow up with the KDOT area manager to find out if this is actually correct and if so ask for formal written notification of this change. f) The City crews have designated 5 known hot valves and continue to work on isolating more. g) JR plans to meet with McCormick excavation in the next couple of weeks to obtain pricing for removal and replacement of streets to use as a comparative to the cost of chip sealing. h) JR received a request from the museum to place a shipping container behind the building to be used for storage. City Code prohibits shipping containers in the city limits. The Council declined the request. i) The contractor will be here this week to repair the cooling tower leak at the power plant. j) JR requested 5 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel related to an employee’s full time status. It was moved by Larry and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 9. Attorney Report – Attorney Day reiterated the importance of adhering to KOMA restrictions with regards to executive sessions. 10. Clerk Report – a) A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Roger for the Clerk to renew First National Bank CD #25918. Motion passed. b) A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Larry to approve the renewal of the trash waiver for Doug Ross for the property at 519 E. Fourth which is used for storage only. Motion passed. c) The City received a donation from First National Bank for $77 to be used for the roadside park. d) Clerk Whitmore asked the Council if they want to consider the disaster recovery proposal from CIC. The Council requested the topic be put on the projects pending list. e) Lila updated the Council on FLSA requirements with regards to Comp time payout. Per the FLSA there is no requirement that comp time must be paid out if an employee requests it to be, only that an employee must be allowed to use their accrued comp time when requested unless it would pose a hardship to the employer. Our personnel policy does  state that comp time will be paid if not used in a year from when it was accrued so that would be the only time it would need to be paid out. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Roger to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 11. Council Comments: Kale – none, Roger – toured the power plant and noted how clean it was. He commended the city crew for their work on that. Dara – none, Larry – none 12. Mayor Comments – commented on the slow progress that Eagle communications is making on fiber installation. 13. At 9:47 a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale for the Council along with all others present to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception in order to discuss an employee’s full time status the open meeting to resume in the city council chambers at 9:52. Motion passed. At 9:52 a motion was made by Larry and seconded by Kale to come out of executive session. Motion passed. The Council made the decision to change an employee’s status from full time to part time based on hours worked being less than 40 hours a week. The Council authorized JR to address the issue with the employee. 14. Adjournment: A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk