City Council

Public Forum and Regular Council Meeting July 22, 2019 1. Mayor Scott Schultz called the Public Forum to order at 7:00. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, Roger Jensen, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. Approximately 30 citizens were in attendance. The City Council, Superintendent, Attorney and Clerk answered questions asked about Resolution 2019-4, the 1% sales tax initiative that will be voted on in October, Resolution 2019-5 regarding the street improvements, and 2019-6 regarding the issuance of bonds for the street improvements. The public forum ended at 7:50. 2. Mayor Scott Schultz called the Regular Council meeting to order at 7:55. Present were Council members Kale Dankenbring, Amanda Milne, Roger Jensen, Dara Carmichael, and Larry Finley. Also present were City Superintendent JR Landenberger, City Attorney Mike Day, Chief of Police Darrell Thomas and City Clerk Lila Whitmore. 3. New Business - Neal Daney, KMEA Projects and Asset Management Director, and Gerry Bieker, KMEA Member Services Manager, shared information with the Council regarding the benefits to the City of joining the Energy Management Project 2. It is estimated that the City would see an annual savings in energy costs of approximately $260,000. The contract would become effective January 1, 2022, but the prices could be locked in now if the City chooses to sign the agreement. The Council agreed that it would make sense for the City to move forward with the KMEA project. Mr. Daney will be in contact with JR. Once the agreement and contract are received from Mr. Daney they will be reviewed by Attorney Day and will then be presented to the Council for final approval. 4. Minutes from the July 8 meeting were distributed and read. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the minutes as written. Motion passed. 5. Minutes from the July 15 Budget Workshop were distributed and read. There was one correction. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Larry to approve the minutes as corrected. Motion passed. 6. Visitors – Grace Larkin, Kary Meyer, Betty Peterson, Pam Bolin, Jen Blair 7. Police Report – a) Chief Thomas reported that the windshield on the 2014 Charger needs to be replaced at a cost of $302 as well as the brakes on the 2015 Charger at a cost of $338.61. Both vehicles need new tires which will cost $555.76 per set. b) There have been a few thefts in town. Repeated vandalism in the form of graffiti has been reported at the Roadside Park. c) Matt Hill will be attending additional firearms training and will be an NRA Certified Instructor once training is complete. It was moved by Kale and seconded by Amanda to accept and file the police report. Motion passed. 8. New Business (Continued): a. Lila updated the Council on two minor changes that needed to be made to the 2020 budget that was previously reviewed at the budget workshop. The amount for the neighborhood revitalization needed to be increased from $8,009 to $9,028 and the amount in the property cleanup was reduced from $19,006 to $17,987. With those changes the auditors indicated the budget looked good. A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Amanda to approve the budget as amended. Dankenbring – yes; Milne – yes; Jensen – yes; Carmichael – yes; Finley – yes. Motion passed. The budget hearing will be at 7:15 prior to the next Council meeting on August 12. The notice will be published in this week’s St. Francis Herald. Lila pointed out that if the sales tax initiative passes the 2020 budget will need to be amended. b. A motion was made by Larry and seconded by Amanda to approve Ordinance No. 616: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING PUBLIC OFFENSES WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS; INCORPORATING BY REFERENCE THE “UNIFORM PUBLIC OFFENSE CODE FOR KANSAS CITIES,” EDITION OF 2019, AMENDING SECTION 101 OF ARTICLE 11 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS AND REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 613. Dankenbring – yes; Milne-yes; Jensen-yes; Carmichael – yes; Finley- yes. Motion passed. c. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger to approve Ordinance No. 617: AN ORDINANCE REGULATING TRAFFIC WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS; INCORPORATING BY REFERENCE THE “STANDARD TRAFFIC ORDINANCE FOR KANSAS CITITES,” EDITION OF 2019, AMENDING SECTION 101 OF ARTICLE 14 OF THE 2015 CODE OF THE CITY OF ST. FRANCIS, KANSAS AND REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 614. Dankenbring – yes; Milne-yes; Jensen-yes; Carmichael – yes; Finley- yes. Motion passed. 9. Old Business: a. Street Project – The Council further discussed the street project. Clerk Whitmore requested the Council consider sending out letters to all of the property owners directly affected by the street improvements in phase 1 so that they are informed of their costs for the curb and gutter, if any, and if there are any trees on their properties that may need to be removed. She shared a sample letter which the Council reviewed. After some discussion Kale made a motion for Lila to send out the letter along with protest instructions to all of the property owners. There was no second. There was more discussion. The Council agreed that the City should pay for the tree removal. The Council also discussed the curb and gutter repairs, the interest rate to be charged and the number of years the cost can be assessed to property taxes. After much discussion, a motion was made by Roger and seconded by Larry to send out letters to property owners to include information that if they have trees that are affected the City will contract it out and pay for the costs of removal, the determination of which trees to be removed being based on those that are affecting the curb & gutter and streets for this project only, as determined by the City, and that the curb and gutter costs can be assessed to property taxes for up to 7 years at the rate of 4%. Motion passed. b. Clay Zimbelman Variance Request – Lila reported that Clay had submitted most of the signatures required for the variance request for the property at 305 W. Second and 311 W. Second but was needing a spouse signature on one of the forms. He had obtained additional signatures above those previously designated by the Council to include neighbors that could potentially be affected if he were to turn the third existing trailer lot at 503 S. Adams into an RV lot. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Dara to approve the variance request subject to Mr. Zimbleman obtaining the one needed signature. Motion passed. The property is owned by Eldon Zimbelman and managed by Clay Zimbelman/Zimbelman Rental Company. This is not a zoning change and the re-designation from residential to commercial is for Eldon Zimbelman and Clay Zimbelman only. c. Property Cleanup – no updates d. Projects Pending – no updates 10. Keller Pond Committee – Larry reported that due to irrigation the pond is very low at about 4’. It was moved by Roger and seconded by Dara to accept and file the Keller Pond Committee report. Motion passed. 11. Pool Report – Larry reported there are no serious issues at this time. The pool is expected to close at the end of the 2nd week of August. It will also be closed in the evenings during the Fair. It was moved by Dara and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Pool report. Motion passed. 12. Building Permits - A motion was made by Roger and seconded by Larry to approve the following building permits: Darrell Reed – 501 S. River, fence; Kale Dankenbring – 314 W. Washington, concrete wall; Matt and Lacey Grogan - 121 E. Spencer, dog run; Milen Malcolm - 409 E. Emerson, fence; Sherri VanHorn - 515 S. Denison, carport; Victor and Jannell Martinez - 304 W. First, redo driveway, pour cement patio, fence; Robert Grace - 420 E. Spencer, remove and replace curb and gutter; Michael McGinnis - 405 W. Webster, carport. Motion passed. 13. Superintendent Report – a) Hill Trash Service has reported having issues again with loose trash. A notice will be put in the paper. Gary Hill is also planning to start using an automatic arm lift for the trash trucks. The current blue dumpsters will work for this but placement of the cans may be an issue. The City's contract with Hill Trash Service includes an annual rate increase of 2.5%. To account for this the current trash rates will need to be reviewed. b) As a courtesy JR has contacted Prairie Land to let them know that the City is considering the KMEA contract. c) Core sampling for the street project needs to be done. There were three bids received for this work: Penco Engineering - $9,500, ISG & Associates - $4,455, SGS Testing - $2,350. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to accept the low bid with SGS. Motion passed. d) JR has contacted RVW Engineering and requested the bid process for the electrical infrastructure improvements be modified to request separate bids for feeder 3, the primary, and feeder 1, secondary. The current engineers estimate for feeder 3 is $385,000 and $140,000 for feeder 1, and JR reminded the Council that the engineering estimates are typically higher than the actual bids will likely be. e) JR requested 3 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel to discuss an offer of employment. A motion was made by Dara and seconded by Larry to accept and file the Superintendent report. Motion passed. 14. Attorney Report – none 15. Clerk Report – a) The Council approved giving City employees the afternoon of August 2 off as a Holiday to enjoy the fair. b) Clerk Whitmore updated the Council on the Keller Pond trail project. Brock McAtee has completed the work on the ADA parking. The Cheyenne County Kansas Community Foundation had previously allocated $23,145 for this project. The actual cost was $21,105 and those funds were received today. A motion was made by Kale and seconded by Amanda to pay Brock McAtee construction this amount. Motion passed. Lila also let the Council know  that while the ADA parking was being put in Tom Keller authorized Brock to pour a cement slab for the Van Allen shade structure. The original cost for this was $6,024. The Community Foundation has agreed to pay for $2,040 with the remaining funds that had previously been allocated for the ADA parking. This leaves a balance of $3,984. Mr. Keller has indicated that grant funds are available for this from the Greater Northwest Kansas Community Foundation Hansen pass-through funds if the City submits a grant application. The Council approved having Clerk Whitmore apply for a grant. c) Based on recommendations from the auditors, Lila requested permission from the Council to purchase payroll software from Computer Information Concepts, our current software vendor. This software will interface directly with our payroll software and will not only increase the accuracy of time reporting but will also eliminate the need for manual calculations of timecards, which will be a big timesaver. There should not be a need for any additional hardware as the timeclock software can be accessed using the tablets that are currently used at the Theater and the Pool, and PC’s that are already in place at the Power Plant, City Hall, and the Police Department. Using phones for clocking in is an option that the Council can also consider. Equipment Reserve funds can be used for the computer software purchase, which is $5,555. The annual support agreement is $1,090. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Dara to approve the purchase of the Timecard software from CIC. Motion passed. d) Lila requested 2 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel for a payroll issue. It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Kale to accept and file the Clerk report. Motion passed. 16. Council Comments: Kale – asked if business owners who live outside of the city limits had any voting rights on the sales tax issue and if not is it possible to change it so that all business owners can vote on the issue. He also asked about non-resident business owners being able to run for Council and vote on other issues. Attorney Day will look into this. Amanda will also find the answer to a question posed during the forum regarding the number of businesses in town that are owned by non-residents. Amanda – none Roger – requested 10 minutes of executive session for non-elected personnel for employment. Dara – expressed thanks to Lila, Jr and Mike for their work on the street project Larry – none 17. Mayor Comments – Scott thanked the County Commissioners and Dave Flemming for the work that the County has done on the roads at the Roadside Park and in front of the EMS building. 18. Darrell left the meeting. At 9:42 a motion was made by Roger and seconded by Larry for the Council along with all those present to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss employment, the open meeting to resume at 9:56. Motion passed. At 9:57 the open meeting resumed. No action was taken. Attorney Day left the meeting. 19. At 9:57 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Larry for the Council, along with all those present, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss an offer of employment, the open meeting to resume at 9:59. At 9:59 the open meeting resumed. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger to hire Billy Sporing for a full time position at the wage recommended by Superintendent Landenberger. Motion passed. 20. At 10:00 a motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger for the Council, along with all those present, to recess into executive session for the non-elected personnel exception to discuss a payroll issue, the open meeting to resume at 10:05. At 10:05 the open meeting resumed. A motion was made by Amanda and seconded by Roger for Clerk Whitmore to establish a payroll timecard submission deadline and to pay employees on the following pay date if timecards are not submitted on time. Motion passed. 21. Adjournment: It was moved by Amanda and seconded by Larry to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. ___________________________________________ City Clerk