City Council Regular Meeting

Star City Council Meeting Minutes October 19, 2010 The regular meeting of the Star City Council was held on October 19, 2010 at 7:00 pm. Mayor Nathan Mitchell called the meeting to order and all stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll Call: Council persons Tammy McDaniel, Gary Smith, Tom Erlebach and Chad Bell are all present. Approval of the Agenda: Smith amended the agenda adding 6C – Parks & Recreation position posting, McDaniel seconded the motion. Smith and McDaniel amended their motions to remove Item 5B Chamber donation request. All aye: motion carried. Consent Agenda: Bell moved to approve the Consent Agenda consisting of Regular Meeting Minutes of September 21, 2010 and Claims Against the City for September 2010, McDaniel seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Presentations/Public Input: Star Police Report – Chief Ken Ramage stated that he had two months of presentations to make, both months are comparable. Calls for service are within three calls of each other; arrests were close to the same and traffic stops were up. Property crime in August was up due to kids being out of school. Traffic stops for August were 168 and 200 for September. Committee Reports – Parks & Recreation – Kim Ingraham stated that the numbers for participants was great and the coaches have been great. The school has been locked in and will be available for more programs. Ingraham thanked everyone for their help and support. Erlebach asked if P&R will be participating in the Chamber activities. Ingraham stated that they have been approached. Smith asked if Ingraham had talked to BSU for volunteers. Ingraham stated that she had, but not received any response. There are about 450 participants in the programs now, including adults. Public Input: Richard Tinsley, 10459 Achillea, Star, Idaho, stated that he thinks the City needs to be commended for what we have done with Parks & Rec. He believes the City is on the right track and Ingraham and Ron Westin are doing a great job. Public Announcement – The Mayor stated that Star Outreach is having its annual fundraiser and asked all too please attend. Christina Flores stated that Star Outreach is providing 30 families with food. Outreach supplied our school with supplies and also 1 gave them $1,000 for assembly scholarships. There are also scholarships for students to participate in P&R. The group is also working with the Star Seniors. Old/New Business: Valley Regional Transit Agreement - The 2010 agreement is for $1,970 in dues and the highway subsidy for the bus is $5,062. Bell moved to approve the VRT Agreement in the amount not to exceed $7,032, McDaniel seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. Resolution 2010-03 Ada County Sheriff/Prosecuting Attorney Contract – The Mayor stated that the total costs have gone down $32,000 for this contract. McDaniel moved to approve Resolution 2010-03, a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Star, Idaho approving an agreement between the Ada County Sheriff’s office, the Ada County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and the City of Star for law enforcement duties, services, and functions as well as prosecution services within its boundaries; and providing for an effective date, Smith seconded the motion. Roll Call: McDaniel, Smith, Erlebach and Bell - all aye: motion carried. Parks & Recreation Position Posting – The Mayor stated that Council had discussed the funding of the position to a full time position prior to the budget hearing and we budgeted for the full time position. The Mayor stated that he sent out an email to Council as we did not have a first meeting of the month to announce that we were moving the position to a full time position. Councilman Smith expressed his concerns and has asked to discuss the move from part time to full time. Smith has asked what the city policies were as far as hiring. The City does not have a policy. Smith’s concerns were, don’t we need to post the position. If we are looking at federal regulations for grants, they could look at us and say no. Smith stated that this had nothing to do with Ingraham. If the citizens are going to pay tax payers dollars, he feels we should advertise the open positions. Smith stated that most cities in the valley have job openings posted on their web site. Smith stated that he believes that if we do open positions, we do need to post it. Smith believes the public will have a problem with Council if we don’t post the positions. He feels we need the transparency. Bell stated that we already had this discussion. Bell stated that we took a part time employee and made her a full time position and does not believe that is a new employee. Bell stated that as an employer – if he has an employee that is doing a great job and does not hire them as full time that would be a slap in their face. Bell stated that it doesn’t make any kind of sense at all. Bell believes it would be counterproductive to re-open the position. We all agreed that this position would go full time. Smith stated that the City does not have a policy and no job descriptions. Smith stated that this had nothing to do with Ingraham. The Mayor stated that we are different from other cities. Other cities have other employees to govern them, Star does not. 2 Smith stated that we need that in place for disciplinary actions. The Mayor stated that we are an at-will employer and employees can be fired at will. McDaniel stated that having been on City Council and learning her job, she believes there will be growth and she understands the line that Smith wants us to go down. At one point we may need to do that, but our City is small and does not require it now. The Mayor stated that there was only one person that came to him and talked about the possibilities and asked about Parks & Recreation and that person was Ingraham – and she was hired. Erlebach asked the City Attorney, Cliff Brown if we are legal. Brown stated that there is no statutory requirement for any posting of any open job positions; yes, the City is legal. Bell stated that as an employer, he has put an ad out for an employee and will get 50 people applying for a position they are not qualified for. Even the City has had problems with advertising positions. In the past we’ve advertised for planner positions and those are the ones that are let go. Reports: Staff – Ward stated that we are starting to get some land use applications in. Council – McDaniel stated that she wanted to apologize as she didn’t get to participate in some City affairs due to a health issue. Smith stated that he attended a SW Idaho Chamber meeting. The Highway 16/44 corridor came up and they are looking at it as the Economic Gate Way. Most of the funding is in place. Smith met with ITD regarding the Garvey Funding having to do with a road in Star. ITD is looking at realigning a road down by the EMS Station. The GOP bus was here and we had one of the best showings. The next ESTech meeting will be October 29th and it will be a candidate forum. Erlebach stated that we have an Eagle Scout project for finishing the fence at the River Walk. Erlebach encouraged everyone to go to the river walk as it is beautiful right now. Bell asked to have the beds at Pavilion Commons sprayed as the grass is starting to come back in. McDaniel thanked Ingraham for getting the Parks and Rec. program going. McDaniel had a lot of fun and believes it is great for our City. Mayor - The Mayor stated the land purchase is still under contract at Hunter’s Creek. We are working on the irrigation agreement and will get the property closed. 3 The Mayor stated that there was some preliminary space planning done on that property; there will be an initial drawing, along with adjustments. We are wrapping up the last few weeded lots in town and if Council sees anymore to let us know. We will need to look at more mowers with the bigger park in the future. Election Day is approaching. The Mayor encouraged Council to look at the constitutional amendments; one will be doing away with voting rights on some bonds. Adjournment: Bell moved to adjourn the meeting, Smith seconded the motion. All aye: motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 pm. Respectfully submitted: Approved: ______________________ ________________________ Cathy Ward, City Clerk Nathan Mitchell, Mayor 4