July 17
CITY OF HIAWATHA
CITY COMMISSION MINUTES
MONDAY, JULY 17, 2006
5:35 P.M.
HIAWATHA CITY HALL
723 OREGON ST.
1. Pledge of Allegiance/ Call to Order
The Hiawatha City Commission met in regular session Monday, July 17, 2006 at 5:35 p.m. at City Hall with Commissioner Gamble, Commissioner Schmitt, Commissioner Collins, and Commissioner Shamburg present. Mayor Gernon was absent. Commissioner Collins led the meeting as Acting-Mayor.
2. Approval of minutes of the July 10, 2006 City Commission meeting.
Commissioner Gamble made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Collins, to approve the minutes of the July 10, 2006 city commission meeting. Motion carried, 2 ayes. Commissioner Shamburg and Commissioner Schmitt abstained.
3. Presentation of petitions, public comments, memorials.
City Administrator Lynne Ladner reminded the commissioners that the Benner memorial was scheduled for Monday, July 24, at 2:00 p.m. and invited the commissioners to attend.
Old Business
4. Approval of Ordinance No. 964 Amending Court Costs for the Municipal Court
City Administrator Ladner explained that the new ordinance would give the commissioners the option of approving an increase in court costs without having to amend the ordinance every time the state raised their cost.
Leon Trant said that the city would be better served if a specific dollar amount was designated every time it needed to be changed. He felt that by publishing an ordinance each time made it viewable by the public. Trant argued that it should not be done as a general open amount.
Commissioner Schmitt said that any change in the courts costs did need to come before the commission and be approved before the cost could be changed. It would also be published in the paper and on the radio when the city news was broadcast.
Commissioner Gamble explained that the new ordinance would repeal any ordinance already in effect.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to approve Ordinance No. 964. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
5. Approval of Mower Bid
Commissioner Collins asked Dave Grimm, Wastewater Superintendent, if the old mower was repairable, and why we needed to replace the mower.
Grimm said that it was going to require some more extensive repairs this year and some welding on the frame. It would cost the city about $1500 to replace the frame, plus whatever other repairs would need to be made. A lot of repairs had already been made last year.
Commissioner Gamble asked Grimm if the money was budgeted for this year. Grimm said that it was.
Commissioner Collins asked who did the repairs on the mower. Grimm said that Sky view Equipment did the repairs.
Commissioner Collins asked how many mowers we have all together. Grimm said that he had one, and thought that the street department had three operating mowers.
Commissioner Schmitt asked if this[the mower the bid was based on] was the same size mower that we had before. Grimm said that it was.
Commissioner Gamble asked how much had been budgeted for the purchase of the mower. Grimm said $8000 had been budgeted because he hadn’t figured a trade-in amount. This was verified by City Administrator Ladner.
Commissioner Gamble made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to accept the bid from Sky View Equipment for a Gravely 260Z mid-deck mower at the price of $3100, including the trade-in of the old mower. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
New Business.
6. Lead Based Paint Testing on Post Lantern Poles.
City Administrator explained that based on the age of the post lantern poles and bases, there is concern of lead based paint having been used on those. Brian Kingsley with BG Consultants has said that they need to sample test fifteen poles across the city to check for lead based paint to see if there will be an additional cost for prepping the poles. Environmental remediation may be necessary if lead based paint is found.
Commissioner Gamble said that he had contacted Brian Kingsley to see if on the previous project they had any requirement for testing for lead based paint, but Kingsley said they had not. However, because of a project of this size, OSHA required the testing. Commissioner Gamble said that he had asked Kingsley if they could test only five poles instead of fifteen, and Kingsley agreed that would be permissible if the commissioners approved testing only five poles.
Rance Hixson asked what exposure the city employees may have in removing the lead joints in removing the posts from the bases.
City Administrator Ladner explained that the sand-blasting of the poles would make the lead more easily inhaled than the larger chunks in the lead joints.
Commissioner Schmitt asked if this company would come out here to do less than fifteen poles.
City Administrator Ladner said that the company was going to charge $400 just to come out here and that they probably didn’t care how many they did while they were here.
Commissioner Schmitt said that she didn’t know if a sampling of only five would be enough.
Commissioner Gamble argued that Kingsley had said that it was up to the commissioners to decide how many they wanted tested, and that he thought five would do it.
Commissioner Gamble made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg to accept the bid from Associated Insulation, Inc. for lead based paint testing and sampling in the amount of $550 for five poles. After further discussion the motion was then withdrawn by Commissioner Gamble.
Leon Trant suggested that they just go ahead and proceed as if all poles had lead based paint to save the money for the testing.
Rance Hixson felt that they should go ahead and test more than five poles, or take Leon’s suggestion and assume there is lead based paint on the poles.
Commissioner Shamburg said that it would take finding only one pole with lead based paint [to change the processing of the sand blasting.]
Commissioner Schmitt reiterated that no special precautions were taken in the first group that had been done.
Commissioner Gamble said that he was pretty confident that the poles did have lead based paint and the cost of sand blasting would be higher.
Commissioner Shamburg asked Rance Hixson if he had any numbers as to how much more it would cost for the lead abatement. Hixson said that he did not.
City Administrator Lynne Ladner said that she did not think they would have any numbers on lead abatement until they received the bids on the project. She said that the commissioners just need to direct the bid to include lead abatement so that all companies would be bidding to include that and make the assumption that there is lead based paint.
Commissioner Collins concurred.
Commissioner Gamble suggested that they include in the contract to have them tested and make the amount of the bid separate for the lead abatement in case there wasn’t any.
City Administrator Ladner said that they could require a sampling of the bases in the bids, and have a line item in there for lead abatement if necessary so that all the bids are based on identical criteria, so that the lead abatement could be pulled out if necessary.
No action was necessary.
7. Approval of Payment to City Administrator Lynne Ladner for Moving Expenses.
Commissioner Gamble made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to approve the sum of $2000 as payment to City Administrator Lynne Ladner for moving expenses as indicated in her contract. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
8. Approval of Disbursement to HFED for First Three Quarters of 2006.
Dean Tollefson asked where the money for the HFED payment was allocated in the budget and what the money was used for.
City Administrator Lynne Ladner said that the money was in the budget in Fund 22 for industrial development, in the line item named Contractual Services.
Commissioner Shamburg said that the money was used for postage, phone cards, other office supplies, and advertising, among other things that HFED does to procure business interest in Hiawatha.
Leon Trant asked City Clerk Vivian Constable if Marian Tubach, Community Development Director, didn’t turn in receipts to the city for payment. She replied that Marian did not, that HFED had their own checking account and paid for their own bills, other than an occasional office supply which was charged to the city and expensed to Fund 22. They also pay their own liability insurance.
Rance Hixson, HFED Treasurer, said that HFED had not had any allocations in the past 15 years. When the sales tax issue was discussed that after payment of the property taxes, every attempt was going to be made for the funding of travel expenses, and meeting with potential employers outside the community. He said that the board would be happy to report to the commission as to how the money is spent, or even get pre-approval if required. He reminded the commission that there were a lot of volunteer hours being provided by that board.
Commissioner Collins asked if that could be worked into the quarter per cent sales tax revenue and not actually come out of the city funding.
City Administrator Ladner said that she could look into the sales tax issue to see if the city could do a transfer into that fund.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble, to approve disbursement to HFED in the amount of $3750 for the first three quarters funding for the 2006 year. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
9. CONSENT AGENDA
a. Appropriation Ordinance #1097 in the amount of $19,676.73.
b. Approval of (1) Plumbing License and (1) Construction Contractor’s License.
c. Approval of June 2006 Municipal Judge Report.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to approve the consent agenda as presented. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
10. Lynne Ladner, City Administrator.
City Administrator Ladner said that the city had received an offer from a local resident to purchase not more than 300 bricks at 55 cents a piece. The resident had said that he would pick them up himself. She said we need a motion and approval to approve the sale.
Rance Hixson asked if the bricks would be needed on the streetscape project.
Commissioner Gamble said that 300 bricks would not go very far in this project.
Commissioner Collins explained that the city has dumped a lot of brick in the last few years and felt that this was a viable bid.
Commissioner Schmitt made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Shamburg, to accept the offer for the purchase of bricks in the amount of 55 cents per brick for up to 300 bricks. Motion carried, 3 ayes. Commissioner Gamble voted nay.
The Waste Water Treatment Department has a good candidate for their job opening and would like to increase the starting wage from $8.50 to $9.15. City Administrator Ladner listed the many good qualities of the candidate and recommended that they give the increase because it is hard to find a quality candidate for this job.
Commissioner Schmitt asked what the next step was on the pay scale for this position.
Dave Grimm, Waste Water Superintendent, said that after one year of service the employee would be eligible for the 10% increase. Other than that, cost of living raises are the only increases given.
City Administrator Ladner said a recent salary survey done by the Kansas League of Municipalities indicated that for three municipalities for a trainee, the starting pay scale was $10.27 per hour. Thirteen municipalities responded that for an entry level waste water plant operator, the starting wage was $13.49 per hour. Therefore, she felt that $9.15 was not an extraordinary sum.
Commissioner Collins asked if he held any waste water certificate. Grimm said that he did not.
City Administrator Ladner explained that the position is a hazardous position. To get a quality candidate, we need to raise the starting wage. The last person who was offered the position never even responded.
Commissioner Gamble admitted that even though they had increased the wage offered to the former candidate, it was below the wage he was expecting. He said that the position had been advertised for quite a while, so he would not object to the increase to $9.15.
Commissioner Gamble made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Schmitt, to raise the starting wage for the entry level position in the waste water department to $9.15 per hour. Motion carried, 3 ayes. Commissioner Collins voted nay.
City Administrator Ladner told commissioners they need to set a date for a budget work session. The state deadline for the approved budget requires getting the budget to the newspaper by August 2 for publication in the August 4th issue, with an August 14th budget hearing.
She said she did not expect any major issues with the budget.
The commission agreed to set a work session next Monday, July 24.
City Administrator Lynne Ladner said that an information item on Koch & Co. had been included in the packet by former Interim Administrator Tom Armour. His intent was to make sure the commission was aware that an annual payment in lieu in taxes could be asked from the benefactor of an IRB.
She said that an e-mail from Mayor Gernon indicated he was not in favor of enacting a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) on the IRB for Koch & Co.
Commissioner Schmitt said she would be if favor of negotiating an annual payment in lieu of taxes. She said that there would be costs involved with them coming to town, i.e. law enforcement, streets, schools, etc.
Leon Trant mentioned that in the Crosswinds project, the city had put into effect a policy regarding tax abatements. He said that in that document you will find a paragraph dedicated to PILOT that you might want to review. That tax abatement schedule is different from that discussed by Koch & Co.
City Administrator Ladner said that no action was required this evening, that the former Interim Administrator just wanted the commission to be aware of the opportunity.
11. Mayor Gernon.
12. Com. William Collins.
13. Com. Curtis Gamble.
14. Com. Marianne Schmitt.
15. Com. Steffen Shamburg.
16. Work Session – Preliminary Audit Report for 2005
City Administrator said that this is not an action item, therefore it can be moved until after adjournment
17. Adjourn.
18. Commissioner Shamburg made a motion, seconded by Commissioner Gamble, to adjourn. Motion carried, 4 ayes.
Meeting adjourned at 6:37 p.m.
Work session
Received audit last week. Note in report, opt out of GASBY this year.
Couple of things to note. Page 30
Statutory Treasurer’s Report not published, due to wrong report being published. No significant
Funds in the negative – debt service.
Sales tax – looking over this year’s sales tax, significant discrepancy in what we are paying into the state.
Recommendations for improving the internal controls.
Adjourned at 6:50 p.m.