Board of Aldermen Meeting

CITY OF WILLARD BOARD OF ALDERMEN JUNE 25TH, 2007 7:00 P.M. Board present: Mayor Jamie Schoolcraft; Aldermen Charles Whitehead; Aldermen Bill Caplinger; Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn; and Aldermen Louie Amodeo. Also in attendance: City Administrator, Fred Gress; City Clerk, Kathy Blakemore; 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 Emergency Management, Donna Gordon; City Prosecutor, Krisoffer Barefield; Planning & Zoning Executive Secretary, Lucille Murray; City Engineer, Mike Zimmerman. Guest present: Evans Ross, Richard & Valorie Simpson, Jennifer Chainey, Mark Gordon, Jacki Gamble, Jim Vaughn, Lola Hallman Hosna, Laurie Ryan, Shane Richardson, Chandra Richardson, Amanda, Jerry Hawkins, Jamie Buckley, Rebecca Buckley, Mark Gordon, Joe & Barbara Cosby, Trish Moore, Melissa Smith and daughter. Mayor led the Pledge of Allegiance. Special Recognition (Awards, Certificates, and Honors None City Attorney Doug Harpool opened the PUBLIC HEARING TO CONSIDER INCREASE IN SEWER RATES. City Administrator Fred Gress: The need for this proposed rate increase is simply a pass along from the City of Springfield. As you all are aware of we pump all of our wastewater to Springfield for treatment. They have set in place by council action a rate increase of 3.5 percent for the next four years. We cannot absorb that rate increase internally so were asking permission to adjust our rate accordingly to match that exact same rate increase. Rate increases are not a favorite thing to do. I know you all know that but at this point we have no choice. If we’re going to keep our own funds solvent so we can move forward with what we need to do we need to simply pass this along. City Attorney Doug Harpool: For public comments please come forward. You will need to state your name…… Jamie Buckley: Jamie Buckley. Is there a dollar amount on the increase? Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 1 of 9 June 25th, 2007 City Administrator Fred Gress: I can give you examples. Residential connection currently is $8.14. That will go to $8.43 the first year. By the end of the four years it will be up to $9.36. Over all it’s a 14.75 percent increase. Jamie Buckley: Kay, I guess I need it explained differently. Like right now I pay what thirty five a month, what’s that going to be a month to charge? I mean are we looking, are we going to go up from thirty five to fifty? I mean what’s the….. City Administrator Fred Gress: Well it’s 3.5 percent. If you’re paying thirty five dollars at one percent it would be thirty five cents so three of that would be a dollar, a dollar something a month for the first year and then it will go up another 3.5 the following year. Jamie Buckley: Up to how many years? City Administrator Fred Gress: Four years. Jamie Buckley: So four years we’re looking at another what? City Administrator Fred Gress: Four years you’re looking at….let’s just use fifteen percent for easier math. Ten percent on thirty five would be, that get’s you to thirty eight fifty. Five percent, you’re going to be at forty dollars. Jamie Buckley: O.k. and you’re having to do this because Springfield raised theirs? City Administrator Fred Gress: Yes sir. Jamie Buckley: Alright. Well we had…I mean just from a citizens standpoint, we had no control over that, we wasn’t invited to any meetings to talk about that, you know, I mean, so, I don’t guess I understand why you know we’re having to pay now when we never had no choice, I mean, basically we don’t have a choice, right? City Administrator Fred Gress: I guess if we’d like to turn our pumps off I guess…… Jamie Buckley: I’m just asking. We don’t have a choice. City Administrator Fred Gress: You’ll see later on tonight that we’re going to hopefully proceed with the Master Sewer Plan for the city and we are going to explore options to start treating waste ourselves. Right now we’re under a contract with the City of Springfield to take our waste. They maintain the force main that is involved. We take it over in July of 2008. And we’re already responsible for the lift stations. The force main is the next step. Jamie Buckley: So basically we don’t, I mean it’s, we don’t have a choice. I mean there is no choice in the matter, no matter what it’s going to go up again. I mean we are already paying outrageous. I mean it’s crazy since…..I bought a house ten years ago it was thirty five dollars and now where up to over seventy five a month. I mean…… Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 2 of 9 June 25th, 2007 City Administrator Fred Gress: Now that is your combined water and sewer? Jamie Buckley: That is combined. Right, right, but……. City Administrator Fred Gress: Basic rate for sewer is $13.89. And that will go up 3 ½ percent so…. Jamie Buckley: So the plan is, the plan is to pay this and eventually you’ll have you’re, Willard will have their own treatment and is it going to go back down then? I mean what’s…… City Administrator Fred Gress: There is a lot, there is a lot to study between now and having our own plant and it may not, quite frankly, prove financially feasibly to have our own plant. It’s not inexpensive to build sewer plants. It’s not inexpensive to pay Springfield. Last year we spent right at $200,000 to Springfield. Just to be able to pump our wastewater to them. There’s lots of things to talk about as you’ll see later tonight and it’s just starting to scratch the surface. So, when you talk about sewer plans you get into the millions of dollars quickly. And that’s a scary thought. Jamie Buckley: But the increase you’re talking about now, happening now, we, pretty well there is no, there is no choice about it we have, you have to do it? No choice about it? City Administrator Fred Gress: They don’t have to approve, they don’t have to approve it. But if they don’t we’re going to eat into our ability to finance future projects and also to…… Jamie Buckley: So even if you had ever person in Willard here tonight saying don’t do it, it’s pretty well….. City Administrator Fred Gress: That’s these gentlemen’s decisions. Jamie Buckley: Nothing that can be done about it? It’s got to go up? Nothing can be done about it? That’s all I want to know. I mean if it has to be done, I mean if it’s no choice about it, so be it. But if there is anything else that can be done lets do it, I mean you know a lot of people here don’t have a lot of money, you know, five dollars a month is you know….anyway I’m done. City Attorney Doug Harpool: Additional comments. Lola Hallman Hosna: My name is Lola Hallman Hosna. I’ve lived out here since 1991. I’ve got several issues not necessarily with specifically the sewer increase suggestion. But it is specifically dealing with the water problems that the city seems to have. Everything from been connected to another business when I opened up a business out here. The money was never rolled over to the business I was connected to nor was it ever taken and charged back to my account. That has happened not once, but twice. I had a Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 3 of 9 June 25th, 2007 main line break into my business the day before Memorial Day this year and called 911 which was what I was told to do by the plumber who was hired by the person who owns the shopping center at this point and time. And he could not come to assist the situation because he was 2 ½ hours away. I asked him what did I need to take and do and he said contact the city there will be somebody on call and it’s going to be a roll down, you know maybe this weekend you have it this weekend you have it or whatever. But somebody’s going to come turn out on that call for you. So I called 911 waited an hour and a half nobody still had shown up. What I asked the city to do was to come out and turn off the meter behind the building. Was told by not one but two plumbers that if the water was allowed to continue to saturate my rental space that by Tuesday when it was being repaired inside the building by the plumber hired by the landlord that there would have been one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, approximately eight businesses that would have been completely flooded. You know you guys send out the bills. You guys want the bills paid. You want them paid on time. You charge an increase or a little penalty if there not paid on time, and yet somebody cannot even take and answer a 911 call to take and go out behind the building into the alley and turn off the water main which is what was requested to do. For instance my home water bill this last month was sixty eight dollars. I’ll agree with gentlemen back here that come up here and spoke. It normally takes and runs about forty eight dollars. My daughter come up here and asked them. You know what she was told? She was told, “I don’t know why it’s double or half again or whatever because the meter didn’t get read”. So then I’m thinking o.k. well that means it will be a very low water bill the next month. We just got this months water bill and what happens low and behold, supposable we went from five thousand to ten thousand gallons of water used last month do not where it came from. I don’t have a water leak I had that checked out. And now we’ve been billed for an additional five thousand gallons of water again for this month. To me that means there is five thousand gallons of water missing somewhere from my home. You know plus an increase in my water bill. And this is not the first time that this has happened. And it’s continually on a regular basic that this has happened once or twice a year and I’m going what you guys do just set up here and flip a quarter in there and go oh what would that be. Yeah we’re going to come up with five thousand gallons of extra water this month instead of you know three thousand gallons of extra water this month. Or maybe, next month we’ll make it fifteen thousand gallons of extra water that just disappeared. Thank you that would be my comment on this issue. City Attorney Doug Harpool: Any other comments on the sewer increase? No one spoke. City Attorney Doug Harpool closed the Public Hearing. Mayor Jamie Schoolcraft called the meeting to order. Roll Call City Clerk, Kathy Blakemore called roll call. Aldermen Charles Whitehead-present. Aldermen Bill Caplinger-present. Mayor Jamie Schoolcraft-present. Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn-present. Aldermen Louie Amodeo-present. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 4 of 9 June 25th, 2007 Agenda Amendments/Approval of agenda City Administrator Fred Gress stated that he had one (1) amendment to agenda regarding purchasing equipment and a request to get bids on the hammer attachment. Mayor stated that would be added after item number six (6). Motion made by Charles Whitehead with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the agenda with the amendment listed above. All votes yes. Motion carried. Minutes Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the amended draft of the minutes of the regular meeting on May 14th, 2007. Charles Whitehead-yes. Bill Caplinger-yes. Gordon O’Quinn-yes. Louie Amodeo-yes. All votes yes. Motion carried. Motion made by Charles Whitehead with second by Louie Amodeo to approve the minutes of the Special Meeting on June 18th, 2007. All votes yes. Motion carried. Citizen Input Joe Cosby spoke in regards to the allegations by the City Administrator against the Mayor at the Board of Aldermen Meeting on June 11th, 2007. Joe stated that this was the most unethical, vicious, discretional thing that ever happened in the City of Willard since 1949 when Willard became a city. Lola Hallman Hosna discussed issue that took place at the last Board of Aldermen Meeting. Also, she spoke in regards to what a City Administrator’s duties were. Lola stated that they work as the Mayor’s assistant, and do not take part in political disputes. Also she stated that the way the City Administrator spoke to the Mayor was extremely disrespectful as well as disturbing from the aspect of being a Willard resident and a business woman here in Willard. Richard Simpson stated that the new City Attorney Doug Harpool was not properly introduced at the last meeting. (Richard introduced Doug) Also Richard stated that the actions of the City Administrator at the last meeting embarrassed him and it should have been handled in closed session. Richard also stated that if the aldermen were serious about never closing the roads by the quarry, they should put it in an ordinance and put the issue to bed. Financial Report Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Louie Amodeo to approve the May financial statements. All votes yes. Motion carried. Karen discussed uniform policies. Mayor Schoolcraft asked Karen if she could get the figures on what the city pays for the pants, boots, and coveralls on an average year. Karen stated that she would do a spreadsheet for the next meeting. Aldermen Amodeo stated that he needed a little more time to review this issue. Also Karen stated that she researched some other cities on what their on call policies were. Mayor asked if we could call some cities that have close to the same amount of employees as we do. Karen said she would try and contact some other cities. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 5 of 9 June 25th, 2007 Bids for Codification of Ordinances City Administrator Fred Gress discussed the codification of the ordinances. The city has received two bids-Sullivan Publishing Company in the amount of $12,000.00; and Municipal Code Corporation in the amount of $10,800.00. Fred and City Attorney recommended Sullivan Publishing Company due to the fact that this is a local company. Motion made by Louie Amodeo with second by Gordon O’Quinn to execute a contract for codification with Sullivan Publishing Company. All votes yes. Motion carried. Equipment City Administrator Fred Gress requested approval to purchase a ditch blade between $1300 and $1500. Also, Fred requested approval to get bids for a hammer attachment. Motion made by Louie Amodeo with second by Bill Caplinger to approve purchase of a ditch blade not to exceed $1500. All votes yes. Motion carried. Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Charles Whitehead to get quotes and specifications for a hammer attachment. All votes yes. Motion carried. Wastewater System Improvements City Administrator Fred Gress introduced Mike Zimmerman with Archer Engineering. Archer is currently under contract for the water improvements. The city has submitted a five year self supervised water plan which includes the improvements for the Meadows Area to DNR. Fred and Mike discussed Master Sewer Plan. Fred had three (3) requests. The first request was to get approval from the board for the Mayor to sign Addendum #2 (Wastewater facility plan). The second request was to seek RFQ’s and NRFP’s for a company that can run a camera and an investigation of the truck line that runs from north 160 southwest to regional. The third request was to purchase a flow meter. Motion made by Louie Amodeo with second by Gordon O’Quinn to give approval to the Mayor to sign the Addendum #2 in preparation for the Master Sewer Plan. All votes yes. Motion carried. Motion made by Louie Amodeo with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the City Administrator to get RFQ’s from companies to do camera work on the truck lines. All votes yes. Motion carried. Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Louie Amodeo to approve the purchase of a flow meter. All votes yes. Motion carried. Amendment to LDR’s definition for a tavern BILL NO. 07-19 ORDINANCE NO. 070611 AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING AMENDMENTS TO THE LAND DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS AND DESIGN STANDARDS FOR THE CITY OF WILLARD, MISSOURI; REPEALING OR AMENDING INCONSISTENT ORDINANCES AND PROVIDING FOR PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION HEREOF. Second reading by City Clerk, Kathy Blakemore. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 6 of 9 June 25th, 2007 Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Gordon O’Quinn to approve the second reading. Charles Whitehead-yes. Bill Caplinger-yes. Gordon O’Quinn-yes. Louie Amodeo-yes. All votes yes. Motion carried. Annexation of ROW located in the Meadows Service Area on Fr. 101, 103, & 106 BILL NO. 07-20 ORDINANCE NO. 070611A AN ORDINANCE TO ANNEX RIGHT-OF-WAY PROPERTY CONTIGUOUS, COMPACT AND ADJACENT TO THE EXISTING CITY LIMITS OF THE CITY OF WILLARD, GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI. Second reading by City Clerk, Kathy Blakemore. Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Bill Caplinger to approve the second reading. Charles Whitehead-yes. Bill Caplinger-yes. Gordon O’Quinn-yes. Louie Amodeo-yes. All votes yes. Motion carried. Sewer Rates City Clerk Kathy Blakemore, and CFO Karen Robson stated that a few changes needed to be made on the sewer rate ordinance as follows: Delete the following-Under Section 1, Section 7-5 (a), There shall be assessed to each residential User of the POTW a basic customer charge and volume charge as is reflected on the attached Exhibit A, which is incorporated herein by reference. Under Section 1, Section 7-5, 2 (c) would read as follows: For the services rendered to the City or other Public Authority, by the City of Springfield for wastewater treatment shall be subject to the charges herein provided in Exhibit A. Aldermen Bill Caplinger stated that he would prefer that the changes be made and the ordinance be posted with the changes and then present at the next Board of Aldermen Meeting on July 9th, 2007. On July 9th, 2007 the first and second reading would be done due to the City of Springfield increase starting on July 1st, 2007. Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Louie Amodeo to table the sewer rate ordinance until the correct revisions are put in and posted for required notice. All votes yes. Motion carried. Appointments, hirings, firings, demotions, and discipline of employees Ordinance This ordinance was drafted by our former City Attorney, Ken Reynolds. Our current City Attorney, Doug Harpool stated that he had several problems with this ordinance. The attempt to limit the powers which state law gives to the Mayor is illegal. Also this ordinance would have an impact on the personnel policy of the city. Passage of this ordinance will significantly increase the likelihood that the city would face litigation that will be decided adversely to the city. No motion was made. This issue dies for lack of motion. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 7 of 9 June 25th, 2007 Request Public Hearing to Establish a Codes Enforcement Officer, establish fees for building permits, and adopt ICC Codes City Administrator Fred Gress stated that staff would be asking Planning & Zoning Commission to set a Public Hearing on July 24th, 2007 to establish a Codes Enforcement Officer. There are sections in the Land Development Regulations that will need to be changed to reflect this new position. City Hall remodeling City Administrator Fred Gress stated that we now have nine (9) members on the Planning and Zoning board at this time. There is not enough room for all members to have seats at the current podium. Also we need more storage room for records. Fred requested approval to get bids for remodeling of City Hall. Motion made by Gordon O’Quinn with second by Louie Amodeo to approve staff to get bids for remodeling of City Hall. All votes yes. Motion carried. Old Business Mayor introduced our new City Prosecutor Kris Barefield and Doug Harpool. Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn asked if the sidewalks in Augusta Heights had been fixed. City Administrator Fred Gress stated that they have been repaired. Fred stated that the house at 101 Southview, the owner have moved equipment on site to demolish the structure. The owner is in process with a demolition permit. Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn asked about the emergency approval for the employee health insurance. Gordon asked if the insurance was about $320.00 per person. Karen Robson CFO stated that it was $303.84 per employee. Aldermen Bill Caplinger asked if the board agreed to set a cap on the insurance per employee. City Administrator Fred Gress stated that it was discussed but not approved to put a cap on the insurance. Aldermen Gordon O’Quinn stated that he thought that the emergency approval for the health insurance was just for one month. Fred said we would look at the minutes to see what was discussed at that time. Aldermen Louie Amodeo stated that at the last board meeting Aldermen Caplinger and Aldermen O’Quinn stated that they were against the closing of New Melville Road or Farm Road 105 at anytime in the future. Louie asked the attorney what steps the board could take to make sure that the roads do not close. City Attorney Doug Harpool stated that you could adopt an ordinance but that is subject to change when the board changes from year to year. Mayor Schoolcraft stated that the city does have an ordinance that states no closing of New Melville Road but as the attorney said it is subject to change with the changing of board members from year to year. Attorney stated that you could transfer ownership of road to someone else but that would be very unusual for a city to do that. Aldermen O’Quinn didn’t understand why the issue was brought up again about the roads. He thought this issue had been put to rest. Aldermen Louie Amodeo stated that he was not present at the last meeting. Louie stated that he was with the Mayor when they were touring the quarry with Rob Baird, Chris Upp, and Jackie Gamble. Rob Baird spoke in length about his interest in closing those roads. Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 8 of 9 June 25th, 2007 Mayor Jamie Schoolcraft stated that the board would be going into closed session to discuss Chapter 610.021 # 3 personnel. Motion made by Bill Caplinger with second by Gordon O’Quinn to close the open session. All votes yes. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. __________________________ Kathy Blakemore, City Clerk Board of Aldermen Minutes Page 9 of 9 June 25th, 2007