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July 12, 2010
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
July 12, 2010
7:05 p.m.
The following councilmember’s were present with Mayor John McTaggart presiding:
Chuck
Adams
Mark
Bishop Craig
Crider
Doug
Danner John
Eickhoff
The following staff members were present:
Michael Webb, City Administrator
David Duckers, City Attorney
Phyllis Freeman, City Clerk
Mark Mathies, Police/ Fire Chief
APPROVE MINUTES OF JUNE 28, 2010
Councilmember Danner moved to approve the minutes. Councilmember Eickhoff seconded.
Mayor McTaggart requested a roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously.
STATEMENT OF BILLS - $70,569.12
Councilmember Adams moved to approve the statement of bills. Councilmember Crider seconded.
Mayor McTaggart requested a roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously.
REQUESTS OR COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC
Gary Carpenter, 11030 Riverview, stated that after listening to the budget meeting discussions; he doesn’t know what to say. He knows we are broke; and he knows we keep moving money from the street funds to cover everything; but it’s time we stop and think about what we are doing. All the roads in this city are bad; the brush is out hitting the cars; if we keep robbing Peter to pay Paul. If we would have started on these roads when he first started coming to the council meetings ten years ago we would have had all this brush taken care of. Now it’s probably going to cost ten times as much to cut this stuff and the longer we put off repairs to these roads and repairs to the brush and everything the bigger mess the city’s going to be in. All he’s hearing about is getting more people; more police chiefs, more cars, more this more that. The people out here deserve better roads and stuff; they deserve something out here instead of everything being right here in city hall. Everybody wants everything right here but it’s time we start mixing some of this stuff. He is still upset about the $9,500 spent for the study on job positions we should have never done that; if we are this broke; why did we do that; this is bad timing. He didn’t hear are we budgeting for Autumnfest again next year? If we are that broke there is another $6,000 we can use. That would have been 15,000 right there that can be used for the debt service and maybe do some road repair. He is tired of people trying to run him off the road and dodge the chuck holes.
Mr. Carpenter stated up on Riverview, since Bonner Springs is in charge of his road he was told by his city administrator that it was his, Mr. Carpenter’s, responsibility to call Bonner Springs about the dump trucks that tore up his road. There is nothing left of Riverview. By the time winter gets here it’s going to be falling apart, it’s going to be the worst street in the city. He had a problem with Mr. Webb and Jack Peters both telling him it was his responsibility to go to Bonner Springs City Council meeting and complain to them about it. All he wanted was a little help from him, Mr. Webb. Come to find out, he finally got a hold of their city administrator and it was an illegal operation up there. So he put the stop to it and had all the heavy truck traffic stopped and put up truck signs up there on that road. The damage is done if it would have been stopped when he started complaining about it; they had just patched the road and fixed it so they could get down it by John Eickhoff’s house without falling into the pot holes; now that heavy truck traffic tore it up. If he would have had a little bit of help that could have been avoided and would have saved everybody a lot of tax dollars. Now that whole road is a mess and will have to be redone.
Mr. Carpenter stated we need some help out here too, instead of everything going to the police, the fire department or the city administrator. Everybody wants something but we need something our here for our tax dollars.
Heinz Rodgers, 650 Edwardsville Drive, stated he had been to the same meetings and apparently he never heard anything about the city being broke. We are finally starting to crest on being in the black again. Nobody is talking about deleting any services. If anything what we want to do is to start increasing services. Those services include fire and public safety and those are the number one priority of most citizens in this city. Now is the time to start concentrating on some of the more fundamental ones besides public safety which is the roads. The small amount of increase that a mill levy increase in the city makes on his final tax bill is well worth it. Obviously we can’t control at this level in this room what the county does. Some of us have disagreed with how the county does things. That issue is taken up at the county level. As far as the city, he would like to
commend the city on the services it has been providing and looks forward to them continuing to provide those and looks forward to the enhanced services that we will receive in the future. Good job to the Governing Body, keep it up.
CONSIDER 2009 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
Wendling Noe Nelson and Johnson, LLC of Topeka presented the 2009 audit to the Governing Body. After review of the audit, Councilmember Adams moved to accept the 2009 financial audit as prepared by Wendling Noe Nelson and Johnson, LLC. Councilmember Danner seconded.
Mayor McTaggart requested a roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously.
CONSIDER AWARD OF BID FOR GENERAL STREET REPAIRS
TO HARBOUR CONSTRUCTION AND B & K PAVING
Administrator Webb reported the bid is designed to provide unit pricing for various pavement repair techniques and pavement markings using paint or thermoplastic. The bid tabulation, items #1 - #7, refers to pavement repair while items #8 - #20 reference pavement markings.
After further discussion, Councilmember Bishop moved to accept Harbour Construction for items #1 – #7 and B & K Paving for items #8 – #20. Councilmember Adams seconded.
Mayor McTaggart requested a roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously.
ADVISORY REPORTS
Administrator Webb reported:
Woodend Road improvements; the driveways going into the businesses on the south side have been completed. Rain has delayed the project; however, the contractor plans to be completing the improvements by the end of August.
110th & Riverview utility relocates should be completed soon. Some of the utilities are being placed under ground.
Councilmember Crider asked who is responsible for building a new approach into the corn field. Is it the cities responsibility since the utility company put a pole in the middle of where the farmer goes into the field?
Administrator Webb stated technically it was never a driveway and with the improvements it will have curb and gutter. It is a limited area with many challenges to get around. Our suggestion was to take out some of the trees. We are trying to work with the property owner to come up with a simple solution.
The bid process has started for the 110th Street improvements with the actual bid date of August 18, 2010. Completion of the construction is set for the end of this year. The down side on the project is road closure at the intersection of Riverview and 110th Street for concrete curing.
Bids have been submitted to the city for construction inspection for 110th Street. The applicants written submittals were reviewed by Councilmember Bishop, the Public Works director of Bonner Springs and Administrator Webb. Each proposal was given a score; the cumulative score selects the firm.
Volunteers have been working on the swing set at City Park.
Administrator Webb stated Councilmember Bishop had raised the question of a sales tax election at the last meeting. City Clerk Phyllis Freeman has followed up on that request.
City Clerk Freeman stated that basically the question is does the Governing Body wish to move forward with a sales tax election. Mrs. Freeman provided the City Council with a copy of the resolution that had been adopted in order to place the question of a special election for a half-cent sales tax increase on the ballot in November 2009. Last year the city spent $2,792.24 well below the estimated $8-9,000. The original estimate came from the election commissioners’ office so that was the only information staff could work with. After adopting the resolution it was published in the newspaper as required. The election was held November 3, 2009 with the outcome of not passing, there was a small majority not in favor so it did not pass.
Mrs. Freeman relayed that she did inquire if Edwardsville would place this on the ballot were there any other communities with issues that would also go on the same ballot for this year and was told no other communities had indicated they were and was told there are two state constitutional issues already placed on the ballot. The cost is based on the word placement on the ballot. With having the two from the state and one from Edwardsville the wording is the expense. If the city wants to move forward the deadline is September 3rd to be on the November ballot. The resolution must be adopted by the first part of August or no later than August 9th.
Councilmember Eickhoff asked if it should be placed on the agenda for the July 26th meeting.
Administrator Webb stated the question is do you want staff to move forward, prepare a draft resolution to indicate a half cent sales tax that would have a dedication; dedication to public safety-streets or all public safety. It can be placed on the next agenda for discussion.
Administrator Webb stated as an option cities do have the option to adopt a gross earnings tax on intangibles which is a tax on interest earnings. It’s collected by the county and remitted back to the cities. If you earn interest on savings or investments at your bank. After further discussion it was determined the council had no interest in that type of taxing.
Councilmember Eickhoff asked if an agreement was made with the county for ambulance service in Edwardsville.
Administrator Webb stated there is an agreement for 2011 for $75,000. This year it is $40,000. After further discussion it was determined to place the half-cent sales tax as an item of discussion on the next agenda.
CHIEFS (POLICE & FIRE)
Chief Mathies reported:
In the fire department, written exams will be taken the end of this week, followed by a physical ability exam for the firefighter-paramedic candidates. The next process is to go before an interview panel set for July 21st; the week after that the recommendations from the panel will then meet with the chief and city administrator. Candidates will then be selected for conditional hire; take the medical-physical; with the cost for those tests there will be three maybe four candidates from this pool; if none they will keep going until the necessary people are hired.
CITY ATTORNEY
Attorney David Duckers reported legal arguments concerning the Davidson case will be presented on August 5, 2010. Both sides have submitted their legal arguments trying to get the case dismissed. Judge Boal will make a decision; if he finds that there is a factual issue that is not covered; that needs to be covered in the trial; it is set for trial. Mr. Duckers will prepare a packet for the Governing Body. They may contact him directly if there are any questions or concerns.
COUNCIL AND MAYOR COMMENTS
Councilmember Danner thanked the staff and department heads for the hard work done on the 2011 budget.
Councilmember Eickhoff asked that tree trimming be addressed; it is a problem on most of the city streets. Also the house on 110th Street needs to be mowed.
ADJOURNMENT
Councilmember Eickhoff moved to adjourn at 8:05 p.m. Councilmember Danner seconded. Mayor McTaggart declared the motion carried.
Phyllis Freeman
City Clerk