MINUTES OF THE ROLAND
CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR SESSION
MAY 28, 2007
Note: The following minutes were approved by the Roland
City Council at its June 11, 2007, council meeting.
The Roland City Council met in regular session on Monday, May
28, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., at City Hall with Mayor Samuel Juhl presiding. Council members present at roll call were
Roger Fritz, Bob Hanson, John Lee and Jeri Neely. Absent was council member Duane Canny. Also present were 10 visitors and members of
the community.
It was motioned by Lee, seconded by Hanson to approve the
consent agenda containing the following items:
agenda, minutes from the May 14, 2007 meeting, as written,
clerk/treasurer reports, claims as submitted and cigarette permit for Casey’s
General Store. All were in favor.
There was public input at this time from Rick DeWald and
Catherine Steward. Rick DeWald asked to
have the minutes from the last meeting corrected. He provided the council members with a sheet
of paper with the comments he made during the last meeting verbatim. CM Fritz asked what his point was. Rick stated he made public input and what was
printed was not accurate. If you put
into the minutes what was actually said, then the clerk doesn’t need to
interpret what was said. CM Fritz stated
that the minutes are an interpretation of what happened. CM Fritz also stated that he doesn’t know if
he agrees or disagrees with the changes he wants made to the minutes, since he
only had two minutes to look over the paper presented by him. CM Fritz stated that what he voted on was
close to what happened. Rick stated he
disagreed. Rick stated that other
citizens have come forward before on how minutes were interpreted and
presented. Mayor Juhl asked what he’d
like changed. Rick stated he’d at least
like to see what he has highlighted on the front of the sheet of paper he
presented to the council. He feels the
draft minutes painted a different picture of what was asked and what the clerk’s
response was. He asked what the policy
is on addressing draft minutes. CM Lee
stated he should have been on the agenda.
Rick stated that the minutes weren’t posted in a timely fashion that he
could review them and the agenda wasn’t posted until 5:00 p.m. on Friday. CM Fritz stated that the minutes were posted
on the website last Friday and published in the paper on Wednesday. Rick again asked if the City had a policy on
how to go about this. CM Fritz stated he
doesn’t believe so. He thinks what it
is, is that the clerk puts together the minutes, the council gets their council
packets, he reviews them and if he thinks they are reasonable to what happened
then he votes yes on it, that’s pretty much the policy. CM Neely stated to Rick that she (Deneen)
didn’t type what you said. Rick replied,
correct. CM Neely asked if they could
refer to the tape. Isn’t that why we
tape the meetings? City Clerk Frost
stated the meetings are taped to help her type the minutes. CM Neely asked if we keep the tapes. City Clerk Frost stated that she erases the
tapes after she gets done typing the minutes, but after the complaints from the
last meeting she still has the last council meeting on tape. City Clerk Frost states that she doesn’t
usually do minutes verbatim unless it is something that is really controversial,
she just tries to type an overview of what was going on. She stated that legally she doesn’t have to
type any discussion, only who had public input.
Maybe I should start typing minutes that way, then there is no
controversy. CM Hanson asked if we still
had the tape. City Clerk Frost stated
yes, but it will be erased after the minutes are approved. Rick stated that if the subcommittee asked to
have the tapes preserved and you continue to erase the tapes and there is
public input from this subcommittee member wouldn’t that rise to some sort of
controversy? Mayor Juhl stated that he’s
not trying to cause trouble, but if we are going to talk about this then the
Library Board minutes should be a little bit more detailed. Rick replied, OK. Mayor Juhl stated that there is no
controversy in motion by so and so and seconded by, but then you get into what
was said. Do we want detailed minutes or
what is legally necessary? Rick stated
he would like to see what actually occurred.
Such as on agenda item 11, there was no discussion on why a study wasn’t
done before the building was purchased.
There is no reason why. CM Hanson
stated he can answer that question. They
didn’t really think it needed it at that time.
They thought the building was sound and he still thinks it is a sound
building. CM Lee stated he still thinks
they should have this independent engineer do it and clear up everything. Catherine Steward stated that an independent
engineer did the study the first time.
Rick thanked the council for their consideration.
Catherine Steward stated she had a few questions on erasing
the tapes. She asked how long the tapes
are kept after the minutes are typed.
City Clerk Frost stated that she had a conversation with CM Fritz a
couple of months ago about keeping the tapes, so they started being erased
after that conversation. So for only the
past two months. CM Hanson stated so
they have always been saved. City Clerk
Frost said no, they’ve been taped over.
I had six tapes and when I’d get done with the sixth tape I’d start with
the first one again. The new recorder is
digital so they are saved to the computer.
So those were not erased over, but every two or three months I’d delete
them from the computer. CM Hanson asked
the reason for erasing them now. City
Clerk Frost stated it is due to legality issues. They can be used as evidence and
documentation in court. CM Fritz stated
that they don’t have to record the meetings if they don’t want to, but he knows
she uses them to put the minutes together.
The City is under no obligation to keep them. If a citizen wants to come in here and record
us, that is perfectly fine. Catherine
stated that the legality issue was mentioned again, is there a specific law
that pertains to that. City Clerk Frost
stated that there is no law in taping council meetings. It is the advice of the City Attorney. Catherine stated so there is no law that
states you have to erase the tapes.
Mayor Juhl stated that there is no law that says we have to have
them. We erase them so if there is some
legal issue, we don’t have to bring them to court as evidence. Catherine asked why the City wouldn’t want to
bring them to court for evidence. Mayor
Juhl stated for any number of reasons.
Catherine stated that since you make the comment that you don’t want to
bring it to court as evidence, you erase them so you don’t have them as
evidence. It kind of sounds like the
council is trying to hide something, and I don’t think that is the point you
are trying to get across to the public.
She’d like to ask the council to put on the next agenda an item to adopt
a policy to keep the minutes of the public meetings for a certain period of
time, six months maybe a year. Council
will look into it and also get the City Attorney’s input.
Department Head Reports were as
follows:
Street
Department - Street Superintendent Harold Hovick
reported he is still working with Alliant to get the poles fixed and
painted. He was asked about spraying for
mosquitoes. Harold stated he will spray
the first chance the weather permits. He
was asked about how often he sprays.
Harold stated he hopes to start a weekly regiment once the weather
permits. He was also asked about filling
the pot holes on
Water/Wastewater
Department – Water/Wastewater Superintendent Dean
Uitermark was not present. Council
members inquired as to why the pool is leaking.
The Pool Board has patched a couple of spots and will be filling the
pool with water to see if the patches hold.
Council members would like to see the pool filled in April next year.
City
Clerk - City Clerk Deneen Frost had nothing to report at this
time.
Craig
Anderson was present to let the council know he is willing to offer the new buyers
the same offer he was given when he purchased the grocery store 18 years
ago. He is willing to transfer the
building over to the City or RADC. They
would then be responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and taxes on the
property. The payments would be $600.00
per month for 10 years with a final payment of $6,000.00. The City or the RADC would be responsible for
making the payments to him. The City or
the RADC would be responsible for getting the funds from the new owner. Chris Huening, his wife and Mike Steenhagen
were also present. They are in the
process of purchasing the grocery store from Craig. Chris was asked to give a little background
on himself. Chris stated that he is a
student at ISU studying engineering. He
manages Pro Clean with Mike & Kathi Steenhagen, which is where he heard the
grocery store might be closing. He has
wanted to start an online grocery store, so this will give him the chance on a
smaller scale. Mike Steenhagen stated
that he has 14 years as being a manager in the food service industry. They want to keep the grocery open and Craig
has offered to let them job shadow him for a couple of months. Council members feel they need to meet with the
RADC.
City
Clerk Frost stated that she sent out a municipal infractions notice and this
was their opportunity to contest the infraction, but they are not present.
There
was discussion on the resurfacing of
It
was motioned by Fritz, seconded by Lee to authorize Mayor Juhl to sign the
Memorandum of Understanding with Story County Emergency Management. All were in favor.
It
was motioned by Hanson, seconded by Fritz to purchase two SW2024 trash
receptacles for
It
was motioned by Fritz, seconded by Lee to approve Resolution No. 07-07
entitled, A RESOLUTION TO APPROVE THE 2006 CONSUMER CONFIDENCE REPORT (CCR) AS
REQUIRED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES. The roll was called for and is as
follows: AYE: Fritz, Hanson, Lee, Neely; NAY: none.
Whereupon Mayor Juhl declared the resolution duly adopted and the same
placed on file.
It
was motioned by Lee, seconded by Hanson to approve the first reading of
Ordinance No. 53 entitled, AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE
CITY OF ROLAND, IOWA, 2003, BY AMENDING PROVISIONS PERTAINING TO ESTABLISHING A
FLOODPLAIN (OVERLAY) DISTRICT WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THE CITY OF ROLAND. The roll was called for and is as
follows: AYE: Fritz, Hanson, Lee, Neely; NAY: none.
Whereupon Mayor Juhl declared the first reading of Ordinance No. 53
passed.
It
was motioned by Fritz, seconded by Lee to waive the second and third readings
of Ordinance No. 53. All were in favor.
It
was motioned by Fritz, seconded by Lee to approve the final reading of
Ordinance No. 53. The roll was called
for and is as follows: AYE: Fritz, Hanson, Lee, Neely; NAY: none.
Whereupon Mayor Juhl declared the ordinance duly adopted and the same
placed on file.
There were no Council/Mayor comments at this time.
There was no public input at this time.
With no further business at this time, Hanson moved
adjournment of the meeting at 7:40 p.m., seconded by Lee. All were in favor. The next regular council meeting will be
Monday, June 11, 2007, at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.
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MAY CLAIMS |
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GENERAL FUND |
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|
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Fire Dept. |
|
|
|
ACS Firehouse Solutions |
annual software support fee |
$ 105.00 |
|
|
coats/flashlights |
$ 1,050.95 |
|
Sandry Fire Supply, LLC |
(4) yellow hoses |
$ 535.84 |
|
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Total Fire Dept. |
$ 1,691.79 |
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Library |
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|
Business Card (Platinum Plus) |
prog-off supplies/adult F/NF/dvd's/postage |
$ 470.60 |
|
Wal-Mart |
program supplies/dvd's |
$ 130.97 |
|
City Employees |
wages |
$ 2,525.39 |
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|
Total Library |
$ 3,126.96 |
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Park |
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City Employees |
wages |
$ 437.74 |
|
|
|
$ 437.74 |
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Swimming Pool |
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|
|
Hawkins |
chlorine/hydrochloric acid/stabilizer |
$ 1,949.28 |
|
Pool Tech |
hydrostatic relief valve |
$ 27.07 |
|
Quill |
index tabs/report covers |
$ 207.94 |
|
Schnurr, Renee |
reimb for Sam' memberships |
$ 105.00 |
|
|
Total Swimming Pool |
$ 2,289.29 |
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Policy & Administration |
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|
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Business Card |
postage |
$ 10.00 |
|
US Postal Service |
prestamped envelopes |
$ 78.86 |
|
Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield |
June 2007 premium |
$ 560.06 |
|
City Employees |
wages |
$ 2,087.25 |
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|
Total Policy & Admin. |
$ 2,736.17 |
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TOTAL GENERAL |
$ 10,281.95 |
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ROAD USE |
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IAMU |
training dues (June-Aug) |
$ 219.66 |
|
Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield |
June 2007 premium |
$ 560.06 |
|
City Employees |
wages |
$ 2,169.95 |
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TOTAL ROAD USE |
$ 2,949.67 |
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT |
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Field Foods EDSA repayment |
$ 3,750.00 |
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TOTAL ECON DEV |
$ 3,750.00 |
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METER DEPOSIT |
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|
meter deposit refund |
$ 100.00 |
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Marshall, Blake |
meter deposit refund |
$ 100.00 |
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TOTAL METER DEPOSIT |
$ 200.00 |
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DEBT SERVICE |
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Bond Holder |
1998 GO Bond - Principal & Interest - Due June 1 |
$ 20,965.00 |
|
Bond Holder |
2000 GO Bond - Principal & Interest - Due June 1 |
$ 22,800.00 |
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TOTAL DEBT SERVICE |
$ 43,765.00 |
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WATER |
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Hall Backhoe & Trenching |
backhoe/boring/labor-water main under creek |
$ 5,000.00 |
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Hawkins Water Treatment |
chlorine/phosphate |
$ 451.86 |