Council - Regular Meeting

Nice. Yeah. Oh well.

That's a record for the number of

meetings. That's what we Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to the East City Council meeting. It is Monday, April 27th. I ask that you please please turn your cell phones off during the meeting. Please be quiet during discussions. Uh before we get going, I just want to apologize for the late start. We did have a zoning board of appeals meeting ahead of this. So, uh we'll get started. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

26-0430 Call to order. Bergmeer here. Dagenheart here. Flur here. Meer here. Roby Taylor. Mayor Digman here. Attorney Hess here.

Moving on. New business. 26-0431. Discussion and possible action to approve reszoning application for Chad Ellis construction at 2011 Hill Street in the city of East Debuke. So this is uh um taking a property that is currently zone business but is completely surrounded by residential uh with the exception of the Mary the Captain Mary property which is arguably residential because it's uh bed and breakfast. Um, and so I will be reszoning that um in the hope that we'll be bringing back a plan to um bring in residential construction. Um I recommend this. I passed the zoning board unanimously and um I recommend this um for several reasons. One um we badly need affordable housing in East Debuke. We need the kind of u smaller lot smaller homes that that families can afford to get into. We also need the kind of housing that se keeps seniors in East Debuke and allows them to um move out of their larger homes and open those up for families. Um and um we also need it's also a major opportunity I think developing this property to increase the taxable value of the city which um is really the only way to spread that spreads the tax burden um that's on current taxpayers and so eases the tax burden on them. Um we can strengthen our schools by attracting more young families and keeping more young families. um as I say um so I think um for all those reasons but this isn't about the development itself at this point it's just about the zoning of that uh parcel

and that's the parcel up on the up on the board um and as I say u by our code this you can make a much better argument for this being residential than you can for this being a business owned business um you'd have a hard time finding other places that are completely surrounded by um dozens really I think of residential uh properties and our zone business. So um that's the question I think tonight is is whether the appropriate thing is residential or business um for this location.

Any questions or discussion? If not, we need a motion to approve the resoning application for Chad Alice Construction from business to residential general residential. I'll make that motion. Second it. Roll call. Bergmmyer. I Dagenheart. Hi. Flur. I Meer. Hi. Roby. Taylor. 26-0432. discussion and possible action to appoint Delbert Belin and Mike Hoffman to the zoning board of appeals in the city of East Debuke. So move mayor

second. Roll call. Dagenheart I. Flur I. Meer I. Bergmire I didn't even get to give my speech for for Delbert. Both good men. Absolutely. be sworn in at the next meeting.

26-0433 discussion and possible action to approve an ordinance for the fiscal year 2027 budget.

Thank you, mayor. the uh so we've um at the last meeting last week we tred up uh the current year budget and that allows us to have better projections for next year's budget and I think at that meeting we went over a lot of the key points. Um so go over the major uh points for the 2627 uh fiscal year budget. So um in this budget both the general fund and the sewer are in the uh fund are in the black. These are two major funds. The only reason that the general fund uh wasn't in the black before this year was that we paid off the uh city hall mortgage early and we paid cash um for our last firet truck. We paid cash for our last police cruiser and we paid cash for the new dump truck for the public works department. So in the past all those things would have generally been borrowed money. Um by paying cash we save ourselves money uh going forward and save a lot of interest. So um so even at that um this budget takes us into the black in those funds. The water fund remains in the black. Um it also we've cut property taxes the property tax levy for the second year in a row. Um our property tax levy started uh two years ago I think at about $400,000 went down to 378. Now we'll drop it another $20,000. Uh and um I'm not aware of anybody else in the county that's cut property taxes uh two years in a row that um I don't know everything about each of them, but uh we are heading toward one of the lower um city or village property tax rates in the county when you consider both the property tax and the fire district because we include both of them

in our budget here today. Um so in addition to cutting property taxes two years in a row, uh we also have no fee increases in this budget. Uh we committed three years ago when we had such uh the deficits in water and sewer and um huge expenses coming that we had to raise rates at that point rate rates at that point hadn't been raised and I think four or five years prior to that. Um and um we committed at that time that we would go for 3 years without raising water and sewer rates. Um and we have kept that commitment in this budget. We will get through the next budget without um a fee increase for water and sewer and that'll be the third year in a row. Um we also are spending um $326,000 on early retirement of market rate loans. Uh, so we will pay off the vac truck, the sweeper truck. Let's go to the next. The vac truck, the sweeper truck, and um the three-year loan we had on the fire truck early. I'm sorry, that's $435,000. My mistake. Um, so we'll spend um $435,000 paying off those loans uh early, which will save us um significant interest amounts, but it will also free up um $267,000 that we're currently paying every year on payments on those loans. So those payments that 267,000 if you view that in terms of the only market rate debt that we have added and that would be the bond for the emergency services building that payment will be 90,000 in the first year and 140,000 in the second year. So we are by paying off

our um market rate loans early and by paying cash for two for the firetruck essentially two firet trucks almost and um the plow and the the um cruiser. We have um freed up more than enough money to be able to make our bond payments um from existing revenue uh for the emergency services building. Um, the other things we've done, uh, we set aside $80,000 for future purchase of vehicles. Um, I should have left it there. Um, here we go. And, uh, so I put aside $40,000 for uh, police vehicles in the future. Um the reason that one is higher than the others is um we are hopeful to be able to get the K9 program up and running as soon as possible and um that was a commitment we made um when we were forced to stop the K9 program. Um I still don't know if we'll be able to do that in this coming budget, but by setting the money aside for the police cruiser for that um we've at least got the financial ability in place to be able to do that. Um then uh fire, we didn't set any aside this year, um because we're focused on reducing debt, um and we bought two fire trucks in the last couple of years. Um but EMS, we're making the final payment on the current uh ambulance. We invested um around $30,000 in upgrading and that bringing that ambulance up to speed. Um that won't buy us another 20 or 30 years, but it'll buy us something. And um so we put some money aside for the next ambulance and we put money aside for the next public works vehicles. I think this is really a a sea change for

the city. Um the idea that we're going to hold money and and add to it and be able to invest it to be able to pay cash for vehicles means that the money that we're holding we're able to make interest on generate revenue uh for the city with that. But we're also able to pay cash instead of continually adding to the city's debt, which um has been an issue in the past. Um and the other so the other issue would be the uh TIF um the TIFF fund is fully funded. Um and I think we're seeing the results of uh our TIF expenditures on the facades on the main street. Um we've put more money in for those. We've also set aside or budget in here for funds for um future um development. Um as we talked about with the uh potential um subdivision we're talking about tonight, um those kind of increases in property value benefit everybody and benefit the city's future. So, we're really excited about the ability to do things with the TIF in the future. Um, we also set aside funds for the opening of the emergency services building in this budget so that we're prepared for that um going forward. And um we've got one proposal for an amendment to make tonight and then we'll open up for any other amendments people would like to make.

Sure. I would like to propose uh propose an amendment to the community relations line from $1,000 to $10,000. So, the purpose of this um we've been having some meetings and um there's a there's a lot of concern u particularly in our business community that with a bridge closure coming up this summer that it's really going to put a strain on our our businesses of all types. Um you know, most obviously our um you know, taverns and and things like that, but also our retail sales. um you know and even the um really really pretty much all of our businesses that draw people and require people to be drawn to to East Debuke. So, um, we're looking at an opportunity to work with the business community and the businesses to be able to, um, really promote the changes we've made in East Debuke, the the growth in this downtown and the really beautifification of the city, and um, to be able to draw people here to take the extra, it's a five to seven minute drive to take the other bridge and come to town, and that shouldn't be a big deal, But um when you're talking about going someplace for a hamburger um I could see where that would be an issue. So um the mayor and I have been talking with um some business leaders and we think we don't have a plan together but we would like to set aside some funds to be able to assist the business community in in basically an advertising campaign um reintroducing people really to to East Debuke. Any questions or discussion on that amendment?

If not, we need a motion to approve the amendment. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Roll call. Blur. I. Meer. I. Bergmmyer. I. Dangert. I. All right. With that, we will need a motion to approve an ordinance for the fiscal year 2027 budget. You want any questions or anybody? Should open it up for discussion or I mean was there any discussion on the I know we talked about it last about the a lot of the main items last week. Um I can go through it in any detail people want. I have no questions. I have none.

All right. Before we get to to that, I just want to I want to say thanks to city manager sites, the department heads, the city treasurer and city staff for all their efforts creating uh the 2027 budget. Three years ago, we inherited a mess. Today, we stand on solid ground. The reason for these results are because our budgets are created with substance. We are very transparent with our quarterly updates and pivot as necessary. This budget is an honest budget for the city t and the and its taxpayers. I recommend we approve it.

I just like to add that I would like to thank the um managers um police chief, fire chief, public works director um and our treasurer um Pam. I know we didn't mention her at the last meeting about it, but um every time I need to find a document or a expenditure we made in the past or whatever or have an idea, um she has really grown into that uh treasurer's job, I think, and has brought forward a lot of ideas that um really make things run more efficiently and and save us money. and our uh managers of our departments have really taken hold of their um responsibility to manage their budgets to propose ideas and to uh watch every dime and I think um they watch the expenditures in their areas like it's their own. I think there's even a little bit of health healthy competition among them um to see who can um come up with the best ideas to save money for the taxpayers. and I can't watch everything and I don't know everything about each of these areas. So I count on them um to bounce ideas off to receive their ideas and to um have their expertise really really dictate this. This is a product that could not have been created four years ago because there wasn't the involvement from the managers at that point and there wasn't even the knowledge of how the budget operated um and these folks prepare the budget, bring those budgets to me, we discuss them and we go through it and that's the kind of joint operation that I think um is really serving the citizens well. Any further discussion?

No. I'll make a motion. I'll second. Roll call. Meer I. Berg. Meery. I. Jart. Hi. Moore. I.

26-0434. discussion and possible action to approve a resolution authorizing execution for the sale of surplus property in the city of East Debuke. So, this is a lawn tractor. Um, and um we'd like to put it up uh for sale. We've got the opportunity to trade it in, but we'd like to see if we can do better um selling it outright. Anything you want to add about your your vehicle? No. This is an opportunity to advertise. It's a What are the specs on it? It's a John Deere X758 four-wheel drive.

John Deere X758 four-wheel drive with how many hours? 500 plus. Somewhere over 500 hours. Um, it's been wellmaintained. Um, it's in good shape. Um, it's just for the rigors of everything we do here, it's time to rotate those. That's a diesel, right, Tony? Yeah. Yeah, it is a diesel. So, if anybody's looking for a diesel John Deere lawn tractor, four-wheel drive, um, contact Pam. What do we want for it? How much are we asking? You got a bit throw an estimate in there. Yep. You know what they cost new? Are there a lot?

$15,600 for just a gas and the diesel $3,000 more. All right. Duly noted. All right. Any questions or discussion? Otherwise, we need a motion. So move. Second. Roll call. Bergmmyer. I. Jagenheart. Hi. Lur. I. Meer. I. 26-0435. Executive session for personnel matters. Need a motion to go into executive session. I'll make the motion. Second. Roll call. Digenheart. Hi. Flor. Hi. Meer. Hi.

And Bergmire. Hi. Slide by this one too.

Done raining. 26-0436 discussion and possible action on matters discussed in executive session. I need a motion to approve the payment of budgeted amount of bonus to the city manager as discussed in executive session. Again, these are budgeted funds that were budgeted in the 2026 fiscal budget and approved.

Second. Roll call. Meyer. I. Bergm. I. Jenheart. Hi. Flur. Hi. All right. 25- 26. 26. I've just got this one. 26-0437. Motion to adjurnn. So move second. Roll call. Bergmmyer. Hi. Jagenheart. Hi. Flur. Hi. Meer. We are adjourned. All righty.

You got a haircut.