Board of Aldermen Meeting

CITY OF WILLARD BOARD OF ALDERMEN SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2006 7:00 P.M. Board Present: Mayor Thomas J. Keltner, Aldermen Charles Whitehead, Aldermen Bill Caplinger, Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn, and Aldermen Richard Simpson. Also in attendance: City Administrator, Fred Gress; City Clerk, Kathy Snyder; Municipal Court Clerk/Deputy City Clerk, Linda Murray; CFO, Karen Robson; Director of Development, Randy Brown; Director of Public Works, Charlie Jones; Chief of Police, Tom McClain; Director of Parks and Recreations, Jill Simmons; Emergency Management Director, Donna Gordon; Planning and Zoning Executive Secretary, Lucille Murray; Planning and Zoning Member, Bradley Dalton; and City Attorney, Ken Reynolds. Guest Present: Lisa Officer, Kim Haase, Evans Ross, Barbara O’Quinn, John Music, Melissa and Tony Smith and daughters, Brenda Hyde, Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, and Daniel Richardson. Mayor Thomas J. Keltner led the Pledge of Allegiance. 2006 Audit Lisa Officer, with McCullough, Officer & Company, L.L.C., presented the 2005 audit report. Lisa stated that she was going to skip over the management discussion and analysis that is the section prepared by the city, to the Statement of assets and liabilities including all the property and equipment and dept of the city. The governmental activities, that’s the General Fund and the Park Fund. They had increased their net assets by 78,000 this year over last year. The business type activities, that’s the water and sewer fund. It had increased 40,000 this year over last year. Lisa discussed the assets without the liabilities for the General and Park Fund. Our cash and investments accounts went up 37,000 dollars over the prior year in the General Fund. The Park Fund went up about 6,000 dollars over the prior year. Recap of the Revenues and Expenses in the General and Park Fund are as follows. Tax Revenues went up 4% this year over last year. License and Permits doubled went from $35,000 to $72,000. Fines went up 7%. Charge for services, parks fees and recreation fees went up 10%. Under other revenue those went down from the prior year because we had less engineering fees this year over the prior year. Expenditures, the administrator department went up 20%, due to adding the Planning and Development Department. Public Safety went up 9% were we have double the insurance expense because we paid for the 06 premium in the end of 05. Street went up 6%, recreation only 1%. A loss of almost $51,000 in General Fund, and a profit in the Park Fund of $54,000. Detailed recap of the water and sewer fund as follows. Cash and cash equivalents went down $34,000 this year over the prior year. Under restricted assets you see about a Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 1 of 6 September 11th, 2006 $300,000 increase and that is mainly from your revenue bond issue where we were still holding the construction funds we hadn’t spent. Recap of the Revenues and Expenses for the Water and Sewer Fund are as follows. Our revenues went up 19%. The city had water and sewer increase in October 2005. Also had increases in the expenses. Personnel cost went up 35% in the water department and in the sewer department went up 27% that was about a $35,000 increase on waters, personnel costs, and a $27,000 increase in sewers. Net assets show a profit of $40,481. Also had developer fees of $93,000, without this we would have had a loss for the year. Lisa stated that last year she had put down in the footnotes in the management letter that we weren’t in compliance with our revenue bonds because we hadn’t had enough revenues to come in to offset the formulas that are required, where this year we met that requirement because we had $92,000 in developer fees. Budget Comparison as follows. Lisa stated that the actual figures were close in line with the budgeted. We had a big change in from our original budget to our amended budget were revenues had gone up. We amended our budget from $972.000 to $1,121,000. Expenses went up also, we increased our original budget by $1,080.000 to $1,275,000, and that’s for the General Fund. Park Fund as follows. We went down from our original budget to our amended budget. We decreased the fees collected for Park and Recreation. We were also able to drop our budget on the expenses for the Park Fund. On the management letter Lisa stated that they have commented ever year that they have done the audit that we don’t have enough employees to separate all the duties so that our assets are not safe guarded as much as they would like to see. Revenues bond ordinances require money to be transferred into reserve accounts and depreciation and replacement accounts and a lot of money was spent out of the depreciation and replacement account for 2005 and the transfers weren’t put back in so she didn’t have to write us up for not having enough revenue but she did have to comment that we didn’t make the transfers to cover the money that had been spent. Interfund Loans have been paid back after the end of the year to even up borrowing between the funds. Court Bond Checking transactions need to be recorded on the books and reconciled with the bank reconciliation. On Documentation for Purchases found instances where no invoice existed or the invoice did not have any description. Lisa suggested requiring that all disbursements have an appropriate invoice prior to payment. A lot of the invoices were the Charity Boxing. Lisa stated that since that money from Charity Boxing does not benefit the city it shouldn’t be going through the city books. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked how we handle Charity Boxing from now on. Karen suggested that we check with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and see if we can run all of the funds through them. Aldermen Richard Simpson asked about the same person who performs the accounts payables functions as well as co-signs the checks. Lisa suggested hiring someone or re- delegate certain functions. Fred Gress City Administrator discussed with the board about different options to try and take care of the matter. At this time Fred stated that we could not hire a full time person to take care of this matter. Also Fred suggested that we might do a larger percent on Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 2 of 6 September 11th, 2006 auditing. Mayor Thomas J. Keltner told Fred to check into the Community Foundation of the Ozarks to see if they would collect the funds for the Charity Boxing event. Minutes 08/14/06 & 08/23/06 Aldermen Richard Simpson stated that there needed to be a correction on the August 14th, 2006 Citizens Input section. Louie Amodeo discussed two letters. The first letter was from Conco Quarries inviting them to participate in an information exchange. The second letter is the response from the Concerned Citizens Group stating they were interested in meeting with them. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Bill Caplinger to approve the minutes with the correction, of the Regular Meeting on August 14th, 2006. All votes yes. Motion carried. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the minutes of the Special Meeting on August 23rd, 2006. All votes yes. Motion carried. Linda Richardson-Dog leash law Mrs. Richardson presented the board with a packet regarding an incident with her neighbors dog, “Bandit”. On August 31st, 2006 her neighbors dog was attacked by something and had to be put down. Mrs. Richardson suggested that the board review the procedure for dogs at large, and require pets owners to pay a licensing fee to the city. She stated that she and other citizens have seen a lot of dogs running at large. Angelica Griffin-Water & Deposit Not present. Citizen Input Melissa Smith stated that she just wanted to do a follow-up from the last Board of Aldermen meeting when Louie Amodeo read a letter from the Concerned Citizens Group to Conco Quarries to meet with the neighbor group. Nancy Wescott received a phone call from Mr. Baird and as a follow-up to that phone call the Concerned Citizens Group sent another letter to Mr. Baird. (see attached letter) Melissa read an editorial from the Springfield News Leader September 28th, 03 as follows: City officials had been working for sometime on a development dealing with Conco Quarries. It would of involved a business and recreational area with donated land for a high school. But word of this proposal did not go to the community until a few days before the P&Z Commission was scheduled to vote. Community members were blind sighted. Not surprisingly they did not come to the Planning Commission’s meeting with an open mind to way the pro’s and con’s of the proposal. They came to the meeting distrustful. They came opposed. The Planning Commission wisely tabled the plan. Now city leaders must figure out how to pick up the pieces and bring the public into the planning. It is much harder now then it would have been a month ago. May other Ozark towns take note. Melissa stated that the neighborhood would like to meet with Conco and take with the city. At this time nothing has been planned or discussed. Financial Report Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 3 of 6 September 11th, 2006 Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Charles Whitehead to approve the July financial statements. All votes yes. Motion carried. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve to pay August outstanding bills. All votes yes. Motion carried. The city received the following three (3) bids for old Police car. Carl Geer-$600.00; Daniel Richardson-$850.00; and Rick Hughes-$667.00. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Bill Caplinger to approve the bid for the Police car from Daniel Richardson in the amount of $850.00. All votes yes. Motion carried. The city advertised for the infill for the Police Station. The city did not receive any bids for the drywall. The city staff recommended to the board that we refuse all bids and will re-bid in the January, February time frame. Fred Gress City Administrator stated that we would like to have the Public Works put up the metal studs. Then we would get electrical bids at that time and the heating and air conditioning at that time. Then we would try and get bids for drywall. Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Charles Whitehead to reject all bids for the Police Department infill. All votes yes. Motion carried. We need to advertise for the tree bids. No action was taken at this time. Karen asked the board to schedule a Special Budget Study Meeting for September 18th, 2006. Aldermen Richard Simpson said he would not be available for that date. The meeting was set for September 25th, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. Karen stated that Jill Simmons Director of Parks and Recreations talked to five (5) different companies for fireworks display. Four (4) of the five (5) would not bid on a job this small. A&M Pyrotechnics bid for 2007, 2008, and 2009. Bid for 2007 is $4,960.00. Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Charles Whitehead to approve the bid from A&M Pyrotechnics for the fireworks display for the year 2007, in the amount of $4,960.00. All votes yes. Motion carried. Questions for Department Heads Aldermen Richard Simpson asked about picking up dogs on the weekends. City Administrator Fred Gress stated that the city has a rotating schedule for on call on the weekends. Fred also stated that sometimes the cell phone does not work in certain areas. The city is looking for other options. Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn suggested putting a notice in the city newsletter. Aldermen Richard Simpson asked Director of Public Works, Charlie Jones when is MVNR going to help us out on the survey so we can get our master plan on the water system. Charlie stated that we were still waiting on their engineers. Fred Gress City Administrator stated that it might take another two weeks before the city gets the plan. Then the city will present a five year plan to the board for review. Mayor Thomas J. Keltner stated that if anyone would like copies of the Department Head reports they could get copies from the City Clerk. Request for Streetlights Eight (8) streetlights requested for Stone Ridge Subdivision, two (2) streetlights on Excalibur Court. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 4 of 6 September 11th, 2006 Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve eight (8) streetlights for Stone Ridge Subdivision, and two (2) streetlights on Excalibur Court. All votes yes. Motion carried. Amendment to LDR’s/Signs/Billboards (Public Hearing was held May 8th, 2006) John Music with Music Outdoor requested to be grandfathered in if the board chose to amend square footage from 250 to 200 square feet for billboards. City Attorney Ken Reynolds suggested that that be an administrative decision at a later date. BILL NO. 06-25 ORDINANCE NO. 060911 AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING AN AMENDMENT TO THE LAND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS AND DESIGN STANDARDS FOR THE CITY OF WILLARD, MISSOURI; REPEALING OR AMENDING INCONSISITENT ORDINANCES AND PROVIDING FOR PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION HEREOF. First reading by City Clerk Kathy Snyder. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the first reading. Gordon O’Quinn-yes. Richard Simpson-yes. Bill Caplinger-no. Charles Whitehead-abstained. Motion carried. Second reading by City Clerk Kathy Snyder. Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Richard Simpson to approve the second reading. Gordon O’Quinn-yes. Richard Simpson-yes. Bill Caplinger-no. Charles Whitehead-abstained. Motion carried. Police Department Grants Tom McClain Chief of Police stated that Harley Davidson has increased the annual lease from $500 to $800. Chief feels it is still a great package for a police motorcycle. Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the lease agreement with Harley Davidson. All votes yes. Motion carried. Chief stated that there are two (2) grants that are on going that the city has benefited from for the past several years. One is the Hazardous Moving Violation Grant. The city has been approved for a $7000 grant if the city wishes to receive it. Chief also stated that the city has been doing the Underage Drinking Grant for several years as well. This grant is administrated through the Greene County Prosecutors Office. This grant is in the amount of $2000. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the Hazardous Moving Violation Grant, and the Underage Drinking Grant. All votes yes. Motion carried. Chief requested approval to apply for a grant for a Baker Digital Voice Stress Analysis (DVSA) System. This technology is designed to detect stress and or deception in a subject being interviewed. Board discussed how often this would be used and the accuracy of the system. No action was taken. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 5 of 6 September 11th, 2006 Wellhead Protection Program City Administrator, Fred Gress discussed the Wellhead Protection Program. Fred suggested forming a committee. Possible committee members would be Jerome Rader, Dennis Gold, Valorie Simpson, Tim Smith, representatives from Conco Quarries. Aldermen Richard Simpson suggested Dave Coonrod, and Tom Finley. Fred requested permission to move forward with the Wellhead Protection Program. Motion made by Richard Simpson with second by Bill Caplinger to move forward with the Wellhead Protection Program. All votes yes. Motion carried. Old Business None Mayor Thomas J. Keltner stated that the board would be going into closed session to discuss legal and personnel matters. Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Richard Simpson to adjourn meeting to executive session. All votes yes. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. _______________________ Kathy Snyder, City Clerk Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 6 of 6 September 11th, 2006