Council - Regular Meeting

Yeah.

Do you tailgate there? What's the cost if you don't mind me asking?

Cheaper than a hotel room. Yeah.

Hi, how are you? Good. It's good.

It's fun. Was it hot? No. I went on the downside of it. Thank God. Yeah.

He's 76 years old. But he bites all the time. I mean, all the time. So why didn't you give him the electric bikes just to move him up?

I would have.

Yeah, it's always hot. That's what I told him. He knows that. But this was a little bit hotter than normal.

Yeah. I got on in Marshalltown and Marshalltown to Independence and then Independence to Dyersville. And then I got off in Dyersville because I didn't want to ride any of those. Yeah. What was it, an auction?

Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to the East Dubuque City Council meeting. It is Monday, August 3rd. I ask that you please turn your cell phones off during the meeting and please be quiet during discussions. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

for which it is unified in the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

26-0801, call to order.

Bergmeier?

Here.

Dagenhart? Here. Floor.

Here.

Meyer. Here. Roby. Here. Taylor.

Here.

Mayor Digman.

Here.

Attorney Hess. Here.

26-0802, staff reports, city manager report.

Thank you, Mayor. So a lot of interest in when the bridge is going to open, and I can announce that I don't know. Okay. There are some, I met with DOT on their briefing call on Thursday. They hope to have a date this Thursday, but I know there's other dates that are starting to move around. Yeah, I think online it's the 12th was what was being talked about. I'm not saying the 12th because I didn't get that from DOT, but that is what folks are talking about out there. And the Indian Hills project, we had hoped to be done by the end of July. They ran into some rock. The main line is all laid, but the laterals, they've got six or seven laterals to go. And then it's landscaping and patching and that type of work to finish up. We'll probably end up having to do another extension this month for Luke to finish that one. And I know we've got some questions coming on the emergency services building, so we can talk about that later.

All right. I don't have anything this evening. Move on. Alderperson report.

Berkmeyer. I just want to bring up that I've gotten several calls about properties, you know, not looking very good. And I think we need to figure out what we can do to correct this. One of them is mostly debris on location. Other ones is weeds. But the one with debris, that's one I seem to get a call on about every week. So if there's anything that we can do or discuss at some time.

Is that the 410 Greenwood?

Yeah, yes.

So I just would say too that, and I know we've talked about it, but I understand the frustration that people have. Often those properties or those vehicles are in the process of being ticketed and we're following the code. There's only so much that the code allows in some of those cases. So some of them are news. It's good to receive those complaints, because then we can go take a closer look at them. But it's also true that in many of the cases, we do have multiple actions against the homeowner or the vehicle owner that we're pursuing.

I have a question. So if our code doesn't cover it, or if it does cover it, and they're just coming down and paying their tickets all the time, is there anything in our code that says we can go further than that?

So the process generally is... The DACRA, the court meets once a month, so it's the better part of a month on average before the ticket is adjudicated. So in most cases, if it's something like junk or whatever, the judge doesn't want us to go and stack up a bunch of tickets that all come to one case the judge wants to adjudicate. So what we're doing, we've implemented a policy which is new to us. In the past, people would, there'd be a complaint, somebody would write a ticket. A few months later, somebody would write another ticket. Now we are scheduling, so when the first ticket's written, the appropriate date is put in the calendar to go back and review and, if necessary, write another ticket. In terms of the actions we have available, if places are abandoned, for instance, the place of Menominee we've had in the past, the Boeschel property in the past, We have gone in and, for instance, mowed the lawn and charged the person for it. And that's kind of a more extreme version of what we can do. If they pay the ticket, we've got a couple where they have paid the tickets, and that makes it hard to continue to pursue. But most of the ones that are a big problem also don't pay their ticket. And so the tickets get added charges when they're not paid, and it rolls. And when it reaches $1,000, I think, basically $1,000. Then we can put a lien against their home, and then they're unable to sell their home without satisfying a lien or do financing or anything. So we have gotten more active on that, and we are... doing a more standard form to be able to place liens on these places. So that's been a new thing. I don't think that the liens, the placement of liens is in our code, but that hadn't been used in the past extensively, at least. And even some of the ones that have very large amounts, like the Moschelle house, it didn't have liens against them. So we are regularly ticketing we are moving on to the next step of putting a lien and in extreme cases if public works has to go in and do something mobile clean up garbage whatever we've done that those are kind of the tools we have so if we write it if we write a ticket and they go to to

worn or they pay the fine, and then the next month they have another ticket, is it still at the lower price or does it get kicked up a level?

That's a good question. The tickets accelerate. Luke, you want to come up?

Yeah, he probably knows a little bit about that.

What is the progression on the tickets?

The judge doesn't know, unless it's a habitual offender, what it is right off the get-go. The minimum fine is like $150, and then there's a court charge on top of that. I think it goes to $175 for the court fees. And if I write another citation, DACR already auto-populates the fine amount. It would be up to the judge to add or subtract the amount, but they can go up to $750. I have the ability to change the amount for when I write a citation. So if it gets to be habitual offense or an offender, then I would take over that property and see that it gets the appropriate fine because it's just easier to pay the $165 than it is to pay somebody to come in and take the scrap out, cut your yard and maintain it. Unfortunately, that's how some of it is happening. It's just easier to come write the check for $160 or $165, and then next month they've got a whole other month to wait. Maybe you get it clean, maybe not. So I can, with discretion, I mean, I'm not going to write a ticket for $750 on the second offense. I'd bump that up to $250, then $350, then $500 until it really starts hitting me in the pocketbook to say, hey, now it's worth cleaning my property up because I'm going to start getting these citations at such a high level of fine money.

In addition to that, there are late fees on the tickets, correct? Yes. So they're getting the fine, the late fee, and then the accelerating fine. So we've found some success, I think, in the regular application of the ticket. and the regular acceleration of the ticket. I think if we went from 150 to 750, I don't think it would be as effective as it is moving up. It does take a little bit of patience, but that's the way the code works. But you can accelerate the fine. To your question, you can accelerate the fine even if they've paid the fine.

So if our employees go in and clean up a property, what do we charge for that? We charge them just hourly wage, or how do we do that?

It comes... It's pretty... I don't remember what the, we haven't done it since Foshel, I think, and the Menominee's properties. And frankly, by the time we do that, it's not a property we're likely to get the money for. What it does is it gets us to the lien process, and then if the house, like the Menominee one, it gives us standing in any action regarding that.

Okay.

All right, we'll move forward. Degenhardt. Thanks. Thank you.

Bluer. Nothing.

Thank you.

Meyer? I had a couple people ask me on an update for the emergency services building. I said I thought it was going to be completed sometime in September. Maybe I'm wrong, but they were also asking about sidewalks being done, cleaning that up, and garage doors and that putting in. Are we being put on the back burner by the contractor, or have they been in touch with us when they think... that stuff's going to be completed, is what the question was.

Okay, so it's kind of funny because when the work was being done on the outside, everybody said, wow, this project's really rolling along fast, and now the drywall's being done on the inside, and it's being painted and all that, and they don't see it, and so they wonder what's happening, which is interesting that way, but What's going on is, and Jean just went through today, there's a lot of work going on on the inside. So to those specific issues, the completion date, has not been moved. I would say the last week of September to the first week of October is where it would roll if there's nothing else that comes up that causes a problem. The delays... As you recall with the arch, the arch was in what they call the critical path. So the arch had to be done to complete the drywall. The drywall had to be done to complete the painting. The painting had to be done. And so that's the path. And we got the arch done. And so that critical path is open. The main issues that are out there, there's an issue with the elevator installation, which doesn't have anything to do with our contractor. It has to do with people installing the elevator. And then the other one, frankly, we are having a heck of a time with NICOR. we have been trying to get NICOR out to hook up the building for almost four months. I stood out there in April, after a couple months of trying to get them out there, for them to mark the spot through the doorways and somebody might break a window. They don't paint until they're done moving stuff through and things like that. So the sidewalk, I think, would come under that sort of a category of if you want your building to be beautiful when it's completed, you probably don't want skid loaders driving on it any more than you have to. The garage door, I have no idea.

That's fine. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Roby?

Yeah, I just had a phone call before I came down about, I think it's Sherwood Hill. The yellow paint is peeling off the thing. I drove down it today, and it's bad. And I do know I had a picture sent to me last week from someone. with an actual car parked in front of one of the houses right there on the right-hand side of the street, which is kind of dangerous because all the parking's on the other side. Can we get that painted? Tony, can we get that painted?

Sure.

Okay, thank you. That's all I have. Okay, thank you.

Taylor? Nothing to add. Thank you. To Attorney Hess?

consumption. People outside the city limits and most of them are mostly business. So I'm recommending this. I wanna be, we should be clear what our role is in this because we are not approving each of the events that they have. We are approving their ability to have outdoor consumption within a confined space with insurance, et cetera. They can't have people under 21 without a parent and those kind of things. We have walked through with them And I think they've been very reasonable in how they've gone about their end of the business. I think they were in their first movie night, there was an inappropriate... a movie inappropriate for children, we thought. We contacted them. They changed the movie at our request when we reminded them that they had the commitment that they had made. And so they've kept to their commitment. I think it helps the business up there and it fits with our code, so.

Any questions or discussion? If not, we need a motion to approve. Second. Roll call.

Dagenhart. Aye. Fleur.

Aye.

Meyer.

Aye.

Roby. Aye. Taylor. Aye. Bergmeyer.

Aye. 26-0806, discussion of possible action to approve IEPA 17-5984 payment in the amount of $28,541 for CFPS and origin design grant request number five.

So this is Origins oversight for the project in Indian Hills, and then the grant administration from CFPS. All this is covered by the grant for the unsewered communities. And as we talked about earlier, the project, the main line is laid, the final laterals are going in, and then it's landscaping, concrete and asphalt patching and those kind of things, and then the project will be complete.

How many laterals are we putting in?

I want to say it's pushing 30, between 20 and 30, maybe 23, something like that. 23 is the number that pops into my head.

Is that at city cost or their cost?

Their cost. No, it's at the grant cost. So it's free to the individual, covered by the grant. But then when they take the lateral, then they become our customers for the sewer.

So the lateral's covered under the grant?

Yes, yes. Yeah, we don't have any cost except the phone calls that we have to take from people who don't.

So the only thing we'll have left to pay after this is laterals?

I'm sure there'll be another charge for the lateral. I don't know where we are with temporaries. Billing. So that goes from temporary to origin, gets checked off, prevailing wage and all those kind of things, and then comes to us. So I don't know where we are in the process, but it's on budget, and the grant is sufficient to cover the entire cost.

Can you find out where we're at just out of my curiosity and let me know? Sure.

Sure.

All right, with that, we need a motion to approve.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second. Roll call.

Fleur.

Aye.

Meyer.

Aye.

Roby. Aye. Taylor.

Aye.

Bergmeyer.

Aye.

Dagenhart.

Aye. 26-0807, discussion of possible action to approve advertising for a public works position in the city of East Dubuque.

So we're going to have two retirements before the end of the year, and we'd like to get going on the recruitment process. There's basically time to get somebody on board. The reason I'm bringing it is if we're just filling a position that's already vacant, then we would just go ahead and fill it. If we're going to have a period of time where we have more positions then you've authorized then I bring it to the council so the overlap here is not going to be very significant and the I have not I can't not sure exactly how it'll work in the The budget is for more expensive employees than these will be. So it's not going to be a very significant difference. But the position we're in right now, we've got two people who are set to retire in November. And we've got one person who is in a workers' comp situation. And so if you're looking for able-bodied employees in public works come November, there he is. So I would like to make sure that Come November, we have not broken Tony. And so that's why I would ask to start this process now and bring somebody on, at least bring one on, and then we're kind of moving through the game.

So are we just approving for one position or both positions? Or does it not matter under this?

Well, we're thinking one position. If we do two, we'll bring it back and say, hey, we've got great people, and what do you want to do? So we are approving one.

We just approved both. We know we're going to have two retirements.

You can do that. Would you like to amend it? No. We need two. The Public Works Department is down two from when I got here. And like I say, with one person not able to, on severe restrictions, yeah, it would be very reasonable to go to two, to recruit for two.

Can we amend this, or can we just say for two?

You can say it. Because it doesn't give a number in the... Yeah, that's why... Yeah, it doesn't give a number in it.

Okay. I would make the motion for two people to be hopefully hired to replace the retirees. I'll second that. Roll call.

Meyer.

Aye.

Roby. Aye. Taylor.

Aye.

Bergmeyer.

Aye.

Dagenhart.

Aye. Fleur. Aye. All right. 26-0808, executive session. For litigation, personnel matters, collective negotiating matters, the City of East Dubuque. Need a motion to go into executive session?

Second.

Roll call.

Roby. Aye. Taylor.

Aye.

Bergmaier.

Aye.

Dagenhart. Aye. Fleur.

Aye.

Meyer. Aye.

Thank you.

All right, there is no action coming out of executive session, so we'll move forward. 26-0810, we need a motion to adjourn. So moved. I'll second. Roll call.

Bergmeier.

Aye.

Dagenhart. Aye. Fleur.

Aye.

Meyer.

Aye.

Robby. Aye. Taylor.

Aye. We are adjourned.