City Council - Regular Meeting

Roll call, Miss Curtis. Mayor Salshow.

Here.

Council Member Kozad. Council Member Erdiales.

Here.

Council Member Kaeper.

Here.

Council Member Garcia.

Here.

Council Member Boyette.

Here.

Council Member Parks.

Here.

All righty. Next on the agenda is public comment, audience participation. For items not on the agenda, public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. Speaker must sign in on the sheet next to the podium and address the council from the podium. The council will not take action at the meeting in response to any public comment. Anybody want to get up and tell us how well we're doing? Okay. None? Oh, come on up.

I don't know what I expect this this council to do I just wanted to set one thing straight any rumors that are going around that The Cargill situation, Cargill locked those employees out long before their vote was no. I don't want anybody to think the vote was no and so the employees caused this. That company shut process down long before the vote was taken. Without the support of the Teamsters and the union right now, this town, this community would really really be hurt. The 1700 people are staying afloat with paychecks from the union. Without that, all the businesses in the community would would really be hurting. Um, like I said, I don't know what I expect this council. I know you can't put cargo on the headlock. I just want you to know during this time that the teamsters, the community has the support of the teamsters 100%. We really are hoping for the support of the community, and we want the community to support the Teamsters and support this time that we're going through. I do believe 100% we will go back to work. What's going on out there, I cannot speak for Cargill, but I do believe this will end, and I understand the problem that the council is going through with the budget cuts. It's going to be tough. Just wanted to set all rumors straight. Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. Do we have anybody else? Okay. Moving on to number four. All right. Presentation of popular action by resolution on a request for in-kind services and fee waivers for the break to silence. Ms. Drake.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. How is everyone today?

Good.

So the first one I have up in front of you guys tonight is for the Break the Silence. This is their 10th year, I believe is what she told me. They're looking at doing a little bit of an expansion on their programming. But with that being said, they've been a great partner to work with in the past and we'd like to continue working with them again this year if we could.

I would recommend that you have two in-kind waivers in front of you tonight. I would recommend that we go ahead and move forward with these like we normally do. I was asked earlier today if we were considering making these part of our budget cutbacks for 2026. I would highly recommend not to. We've got money in the budget to do these things. And so since these are kind of the last two major events that we haven't had the waivers in front of us, I would like us to be consistent for the season and move forward with waiving the fees on both of them. And then if we want to have discussions about what we do in 2027, we will do that in 2027. Okay.

Okay.

Entertain a resolution on this? I believe we need to separate them, though, for a motion. Correct. Yep. I'll make a resolution to approve the in-kind services and waivers for break to silence. Second.

All right. I have a motion by John Caper, a second by Jim Parks. Roll call, please.

That resolution carries unanimously.

All right. The next one on the agenda tonight is presentation of possible action on a request for in-kind service waivers and allow for a beer garden on public property for the Fort Morgan Area Chamber Hispanic Heritage Festival. Mr. Waite.

Yes, sir. So, again, this one that's in front of you is... One that we've started, we've had a great working relationship with this group, not only through the chamber, but with everything that we've got going on, they've been absolutely outstanding to work with. So we'd like to continue on working with that, with the number that's in front of you in your packets for this year.

All right, any questions? All right, entertain a resolution.

Your Honor, I'd like to make a resolution for the in-kind services for the Hispanic Heritage Festival scheduled for September 26th.

Second. Make sure you include the beer garden on that because this one has a beer garden unlike Break the Silo. And the beer garden. Thank you. Now second.

All right. I have a resolution by Jim Parks, a second by Lauren Boyette. Roll call, please.

That resolution carries unanimously.

All right. Thank you, Mr. White. Thank you, guys. You bet. Next on the agenda is a presentation of public action on bids for the wastewater treatment plant expansion. Mr. Linton.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. I brought a 1,111-page plan set tonight to discuss the bid for this project.

I love you.

Just kidding. been working on this uh project for quite some time and we've finally come to the bidding process uh merrick engineering did all the design work for us so we can meet regulation 85 and the future 31 through cdphe so there's numerous upgrades there's numerous additions uh to this project i i won't go through them all um We issued a bid on the May 19th, open bids July 9th. We had two bidders, Glacier Construction, and I'm not sure if I'm getting this name right, but Phelance. It could be Phelanque, I don't know. But anyway, Phelanque bid come in at $49,885,785, and Glacier come in at $44,393,785. million of course, and then there's a system integrator that was included in this bid, but bid separately, and that bid was Timberline, and they come in at $2,888,926. The contractors both have worked with this system integrator, so they're comfortable with the way we did the bid this year, or this time. So, Victor and I are requesting Council approval to award the construction contract glacier for 47 million 570 820 for improvements to the wastewater treatment facility Any questions I Brought Victor for those You're ready for questions.

I'm Victor. I got none does anybody I

Yeah, this is just the culmination of a lot of effort on everybody's part to get us to this. And so this way we can get Glacier under contract, get moving forward with it. It'll also allow us to sit down and figure out the schedule for expending the bond proceeds that we've been sitting on here for a few weeks. And so it'll be good to get that money going out the door like it's supposed to.

How long start to finish?

Well, let's see. We're going to hopefully start August, September with construction, depending on the contracts that we get set. And then probably in the 2027, I think the end of 27, I'm hoping to be done.

Oh, good. Okay.

So anyway, we'll see. I'm not good with schedules. Yeah. Railroad in Maine? You've seen that? Yep. I've seen that down on Main Street. I've done my best. I didn't bring that up. Okay. But I also want to thank Brent, Matt, and Casey. When I was down on Main Street, I would only make an appearance to make sure that the bonds people knew that I was actually a human, that they could see my face. Okay. The three of them did a lot of work to do the bonding. So thanks to them guys as well.

Awesome. All right, entertain a resolution.

Yeah, and I'll make a resolution to grant the contract to Glacier Construction Company in the amount of $47,570,820.80 for improvements to the wastewater treatment facility.

Second. I have a resolution by Jim Parks, a second by Brian, your endowments. Roll call, please.

That resolution carries unanimously.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. All right. Presentation of possible action on the resolution accepting and adopting of the final 2025 financial audit. Ms. Edson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. With me, I have our representatives from Klinger-Hangerman. Randy Watkins and Melissa are here to present the audit and the financial statements. You guys got a copy of the draft financial statements two weeks ago. I'm sure you've read every page. It was riveting. There were a couple of edits that I sent you guys in memo on just small things that were changed since then. We also just recently found a couple of other small edits that are just really cosmetic in nature. So I will be making a couple more edits. So we were looking to just do an approval of it in substantive nature. And then we're going to make some couple of cosmetic changes. All right. Randy's going to take you through the slides.

Thank you, Casey. Good evening, mayor and council members. I had the opportunity to do this several years ago, serving as your auditor when I was with another firm, ACM. And so I'm glad to be back. Back then, I didn't have to wear these to see what I'm looking at. But first off, I want to start by thanking Casey and her team for what they do. But going through an audit is never an easy task. They have already got full-time jobs. We understand they're going through a bond process. And then bringing in new auditors makes it complicate things even more. There's a learning process. Even though I have been involved with the city before, there's still a learning process to get up to speed. And so I appreciate the efforts that they put in. So I'm going to go through this audit wrap document. As Casey mentioned, you have had the financial statements. If there are any questions, I'm happy to answer them, but we'll go through the audit wrap document. This is just our required communication to you describing the, you know, how the audit went and things that we found as part of the audit. This is just a, Welcome letter, so we'll skip to the next page. So the result of our audit, we have completed the audit. We are just working through, as Casey mentioned, some minor edits to the financial statements. It's just our internal quality control review. Again, mostly cosmetic, just nothing substantive is being changed. The audit was performed in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. And then also, because you are subject to a single audit, meaning you expend more than a million dollars of federal funding during the year, so we have to do some additional procedures over the federal funding and then also do some incremental auditing procedures under the governmental auditing standards. I don't believe that you weren't subject to that last year, and you probably won't be again. There was a fairly large grant that passed through the organization during the year that triggered that, but we did do the audit in accordance with GAS and the uniform guidance. The objective of the audit was to obtain reasonable, not absolute assurance. All that means is we test samples of transactions. We don't test every single transaction that happened during the year. Based on that test work, we draw conclusions, and we're able to issue an opinion on the financial statements. The scope, there was an earlier communication that shared with you kind of our planned audit approach. Nothing changed as a result of the audit procedures that we did. And we do intend to issue unmodified opinions on the financial statements. That's sometimes referred to as a clean opinion. That's what you're looking for. There is an emphasis of a matter paragraph in the audit opinion. Footnote number 12 described an error that was identified actually by Casey during the year that originated in 2022 there was a note receivable from a developer that wasn't properly recorded then um and so those the there were expenditures that recorded over time that should have been should have been set up as a receivable and so there was an adjustment to the beginning net position and fund balance in the government or the general fund um that that is described in our opinion so you can advance okay um There's a couple other sections. So there's the financial statements in the footnotes, and then there's other sections within the financial statements or the annual report that we are also somewhat responsible for. So there's the required supplementary information, which is the management's discussion analysis, and then the budgetary comparison information for the general fund, the pension and OPEB disclosures. We read all that information. We don't issue an opinion on that, but we do make sure that it's materially consistent with the financial statements. Then there's other stuff in the financial statements, other supplementary information, like the other combining and budgetary comparison information. We do reconcile that to the financial statements and issue an in relation to opinion on those. You can skip. This is just a regurgitation of that. There were no significant changes in the accounting policies and practices. Footnote number one describes all of the city's accounting practices and policies. Nothing really changed from last year to this year. No new accounting standards outside of GASB 100, which really just affects how you account for errors and corrections. There were no transactions entered during the year that were that lacked authoritative guidance or consensus, so nothing unusual that happened during the year. As I mentioned, there was a significant disclosure for the correction of the error, footnote number 12. Another one that's in there that does describe the situation with cargo, there is a requirement for you to describe any concentrations of either revenues or credit risk, basically. because that is such a significant concentration with respect to the utility funds. That is a new disclosure this year that was also added because of the nature of that relationship. Significant estimates. So there are certain disclosures or financial statement accounting issues that are subject to judgment and complicated accounting or estimates. And so these are the areas that we identified leases because of the actuarial nature of the calculation of the liability, subscription-based technology arrangements. Net pension liabilities and then other post-employment benefits. Those are all somewhat complex calculations that we apply additional procedures to as part of the audit. We did not have any disagreements with management. At the end of the audit, we get a representation letter from Casey and her team that just puts into writing a lot of the representations that are made to us throughout the audit. We're not aware of any consultations with other accountants. There were some corrected and uncorrected misstatements that resulted from the audit. Corrected meaning that we identified an error. It was significant enough. Management decided to record the correction. Unrecorded or uncorrected misstatements are misstatements that we identified that weren't significant. Management concluded they weren't necessary to record. We agreed. And so those didn't get booked. No other findings or issues that we identified as part of the audit. As part of the audit, we do obtain an understanding of the control environment at the city. for the purpose of designing our audit approach, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion. But as we do that, we do look for opportunities to make recommendations or suggest improvements in the financial statements or in the control environment. If we identify a control deficiency, we do categorize it into one of these three categories. The lowest level is a control deficiency, meaning there should be a control there and there isn't. Material weakness is one where the control deficiency is significant enough that we think a material misstatement could potentially happen. And then anything in between that we think warrants your attention is a significant deficiency. As a part of the audit, we did identify two material weaknesses because of the error that was missed a few years ago relating to that note receivable. Anytime there's an error, it's kind of a one-for-one relationship. If there's a material error, there has to have been a material control deficiency. Casey did find it. So fortunately, I think the control environment has improved. So all of these, I think, have been fairly well remedied. Another one that we identified, the program that was the federal program that resulted in the single audit wasn't on the scheduled expenditures of federal awards. There was confusion about whether or not that was federal funding or state funding. And so just getting clarification around that, we did give that as a material weakness. And then there were a handful of other adjustments that we identified as part of the audit that weren't material, but they were just errors that we identified. And so we've got some kind of a financial reporting discipline finding there. We called that a significant deficiency. Single audit, we're issuing an unmodified opinion on the single audit. No material weaknesses or significant deficiencies there. No material compliance issues were identified. So again, you'll get a clean opinion on that. This just describes the restricted nature of this. So there's a handful of slides. I won't go through these unless you want me to. There's a handful of slides in the back that we've added. We've got what we call Clear Horizons. We're called Klinger-Hagerman CH, so Clear Horizons CH. But really, it's just intended to give you some further insight into the financial statements. MD&A does a lot of that as well. But really, we're just trying to take it beyond just regurgitating financial information to you guys. If there's any interest in any more of that in the future, we're happy to do that, but wanted to include them in the slides this time for you guys. So any questions? And I know I go through things very fast, so I'm sorry about that.

You guys have any questions? Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah, we need a resolution.

Yeah. Yeah, we need you to formally adopt the audit.

All right, I need an entertainer resolution on accepting the adoption of the final 2025 audit.

Yeah, I'd make a resolution to accept the adoption of the final 2025 financial audit.

All right, I have a resolution by Jim Parks, another one by John Caper, or a second by John Caper. Roll call, please.

That resolution carries unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda is a presentation of possible action on a resolution authorized in the police department to apply for a peace officer's behavioral health support.

Lauren? Thank you, Your Honor. As we've spoken over the last few years several times, we've talked about the – work that we've been trying to do to improve the mental health and physical health of our staff and our officers. And we've applied for grants in the past. We're asking to apply for another grant. This year, there would be $24,500. It's from DOLA. It's for Peace Officers Behavioral Health Support and Community Partnerships. This would allow us to do our wellness checks with the psychologist, also help pay for our peer support program with the psychologist. And on top of that, would provide something called the Guide App. which is another program that officers could access through their phone that helps them with financial wellness, all those things that create mental health. And it's 100% paid for by the grant, so the city would have no financial obligation on it. In order to apply for that, we have to have the council pass a resolution saying that you would accept that money and that we could expend that money for that purpose. So that's what we're asking you tonight.

Awesome. Any questions for Chief Sharpe? All right, entertain a resolution.

Your Honor, I'd like to make a resolution authorizing the police department to apply for police officers' behavior, health, support, and community partnership grant.

I have a resolution by Jim Parks, a second by Brian Urendales. Roll call, please.

The resolution carries unanimously.

Thank you. Awesome.

All right. Next on the agenda is presentation and possible action on approving approval of the amended 2027 budget calendar. Mr. Nation.

Okay. Yeah. I mentioned two weeks ago that we really needed to amend the budget calendar. Typically we bring this to you in March and we stick to that. But with everything that's happened, I felt that we needed to readdress this and run you through what we're going to do. So what you have in front of you is the amended budget calendar. We're holding two of the general fund presentations that will be on August 4th, August 18th, and September 1st. And then we will move back into the utility funds on September 15th. we'll go over the electric gas and sanitation funds followed by on october 6th the water and sewer funds and then on october 20th we will go through self insurance schedule fees the capital improvement fund and the conservation trust and then that will put our formal presentations on november 3rd and second and final reading on november 17th any question on those changes

All right. No questions? All right. Entertain a resolution?

Your Honor, I'd like to make a resolution on approval of the amendment to amend the 2027 budget calendar.

I have a resolution by Jim Parks and a second by Brian Urdell. Roll call, please.

That resolution carries unanimously.

All right. Next on the agenda is the consent agenda. Ms. Curtis.

Hold on and keep going away. I'm not going to stop here.

So number 10, the consent agenda 10A and 10B is the approval of the disbursements and payroll for June, and B is the approval of the minutes of the July 7, 2026 City Council regular meeting. All matters listed under item 10 consent agenda are considered routine business by the council and will be enacted with a single motion and a single vote by roll call. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is deemed necessary, the item should be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately.

Already, this is an I like it or I don't like it, right? Yep. All right. All in favor? No, you still have to do a resolution. Yeah, you still have to do a resolution. Sorry. You caught me off guard with the question. Yes, we need a resolution. All right. Entertain a resolution?

Your Honor, I'd like to make a resolution for the consent agenda A and B. I have a resolution by Jim Parks, a second by Lauren Boyette.

All in favor?

You mean roll call?

Roll call. Roll call. There we go.

That resolution passes unanimously.

See what you did to me? Sorry. All right. Reports. Mr. Nation.

Okay. A couple things. Just real quickly, we'll go over the August 4th agenda. That one, we just have approval of minutes, business of the month, and then we've got a local landmark. designation that we're going to do. This is the old Fort Morgan Times building that'll be coming in front of you. And then we're going to get into the budget calendar. And like I just mentioned, that'll get into a bunch of the general fund items. We will also have, it's not listed on your management agenda yet, but we will be bringing an executive session We have a potential sale of property out in Centerpoint, and so we'll come to you with discussions with that potential sale and what type of agreement that they want to see in place. So that's the management agenda. And then just a couple of things that I have for you. I know some of you probably noticed on social media we've been pushing out our participation in the Light the Navajo project. This is something that Doug has had near and dear to his heart. I don't think most people realize, but there's still over 10,000 residents on the Navajo Indian Reservation that live without electricity. They have no way to run a pump to get water. They have no way to keep anything refrigerated and everything. And years ago, the American Public Power Association kind of took it as a challenge to help light the reservation up down there. And so they run this program that we participated in, and we sent two of our apprentices and one of our linemen down there. And they help actually... bring electricity to some of these homes that don't have power and everything. The reason that we do it and participate in it is that it allows our apprentices to earn hours towards their apprenticeship and working towards alignment. It's grueling work. They work out in the middle of the desert in the heat and have to climb poles the old-fashioned way. Even though they got bucket trucks there, they still have to use the old system to climb up the poles and and do all the work and everything. And so they spent a week down there and got their training hours in on it and everything, and very humbling to listen and talk to the three that went down there and participated in this. And so we found out that after this program that we're the first municipality in Colorado that actually sent crews to participate in this program. The REAs and some of the other bigger co-ops and stuff have sent people, but not a municipal electric. like we are. And so I think that was, says a lot about our program. And so very proud of our guys to have done that. So they got back and, and we've been pushing a lot of stuff out on Facebook about it and everything. So kind of a neat program to help help with. And then I just wanted to give an update on where we are with the storm project as we now see the light at the end of the tunnel. We do have all of the 60-inch pipe in the project. That part of the project is done. They are still today and tomorrow we'll be tying in some of the secondary storm lines that need to be tied into the big line now in that intersection. So hopefully another day or two and they'll have all that work buttoned up. They're starting the prep work for the water lines that we're replacing. So that was a CDOT came back to us and said, well, you've got everything tore up. You told us you wanted to do water lines next year. You guys are doing the water lines this year. So we're making that work two days to install the water lines down in that area. And then that'll be done. And then hopefully next week we will go back into prepping everything and getting it all paved and patched and ready to completely reopen. So we're down into the final couple of weeks of this project. And I think everybody associated with it, especially Doug. is grateful to see that we're just about done with that. And we continue to move forward on all the other paving projects. We're just working through schedules and trying to get the ones nearest the schools done, and then we'll continue on with the ones that aren't near the schools. Their contract runs until later this year, but the one on Main Street, we're doing everything we can to get that one reopened as quickly as possible.

Awesome. That's all I got for you. Any questions? Chief Sharpe?

I just want to highlight a couple things coming up for us. This Friday at 4.30 we're doing our first, I think it's called Battle of the Badges. It's a softball game with the fire department. It's all volunteer. Some of our officers and some of the fire department officers are going to be there to play a game against each other. It's not a city sponsored event. They're not paid, anything like that. But they are there before the Morgan County Wranglers game and all proceeds from the ticket sales of that will go back to our choice of non-profits. So I'd like to invite everybody there. It's a good opportunity to come watch Morgan County Wranglers but also support our community through some of the non-profits and of course watch the police department beat the fire department which is the goal. And then lastly, August 6th, the last Thursday night live event will be our Barbecue at the Blue. It's coming up next Thursday, coming up very quickly. Again, everybody's invited to that. We feed a little over 2,000 people the last few years for free, along with all kinds of kids games and carnival-type games and that type of stuff that's all 100% free. So I'd like to invite everybody to be out there for that, to interact with our officers and develop some relationships. That's all I have.

What time is that game, Lauren?

That game, I believe, starts at 4.30.

No workman's comp claims, right?

There will be no workman's comp claims. We may have people that are injured. No guarantees.

All right. Anything for Lauren? All right. Bids, meetings, announcements. Ms. Curtis.

Thank you. July 23rd at 4 p.m. is the Museum Heritage Foundation meeting at the Library and Museum Community Room. July 27th is a Planning Commission board meeting at 4.30 here at City Hall. And July 28th at 8.30 in the morning is the Main Street Advisory Board meeting here at City Hall. And August 4th, we'll be back here at 6 p.m. for our regular meeting.

All righty. No more?

I can... You want me to... We appreciate people when they turn out to our meetings and everything. And a lot of you came in late. Our meetings do start at 6 o'clock promptly. And the open forum for...

discussion with council. So if you wanted to come in and say something tonight is almost always the first item on the agenda. And so one gentleman did speak to Cargill and Teamsters. I see a lot of Teamsters shirts out there. So I would assume it's kind of a common theme. So if you wish to speak in front of council, you missed your opportunity tonight. And so if you would like to come back, we have a meeting in two weeks and but promptly at six. Otherwise, you missed that open forum to communicate with the council.

Okay. All righty. Meeting's adjourned.