City Council - Regular Meeting

for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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.

All right. Thank you and welcome everybody. kind of a short short agenda today, but let's uh we'll get through it and and let's start we'll start this evening with the uh public comment and I believe we have one that has asked to Mr. Schmidt, please state your name and and then

My name is David Schmidt. I grew up in Hampton, Iowa. I graduated from here. My wife and I, we and we still have four farms here uh that we've maintained. So, uh my qualifications are speaking as a veterinarian. I was in private practice for 26 years and then I went to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and I retired as state veterinarian. So my I've seen we still get the Hampton Chronicle newspaper which is great of the four papers that we get but uh it was the concern was about backyard poultry and the concern with high path aven influenza going on and I and I still get I retired when I turned 70. Sorry. Uh my wife made me uh but I'm still involved with uh what's going on as far as diseases and concerns there. Here it was an idea if the council would approve backyard poultry in Hampton. And if you do make rules, my one suggestion is to add a premises identification number as a requirement for the form. It's free and individuals now will uh the individual who had that program was Dclawson. I talked today to the department and it's a Blake Eller uh who has the

is doing the program now for registering premises but it is I think key having that contact information the first event primarily and we've had cases of high path avian influenza in Iowa in the past was in 2015. We went through and there was a lot of flocks, commercial flocks of layers and turkeys. Um, I know we're only probably about seventh or ninth nationally as far as in turkeys, but for the commercial poultry layer operations, it's it's a significant problem when we have wild water fowl that migrate back and forth. And those with backyard poultry, I understand they're they're wanting to have those animals at their place, but I am personally opposed to that premise. Um, I do believe we have plenty in supply of commercial eggs available and the impact on many people that don't realize what aven influenza looks like and the death results. Uh having a premises ID number requires that we have uh a number assigned along with the address and the telephone number. It's free of charge. Um I can give you the number Ron if you want that individual's

name who to contact. Now uh Blake is is a nice gal. Uh but it after retirement I have to keep busy. So I also have bees and be there's a bee check website out there too. It's free and if you look at the mapping for that it's very very good. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has a state apiarist. I don't know how familiar you are with that, but certainly my concerns are with when you have backyard poultry, if there's a registration fee, it's okay. Uh because you'll have to have people to monitor and that's not at a free cost. Um you have burial requirements. Iowa law requires that if you're digging a hole in the backyard to bury, um, you have to call 811 and you have to by law give them 48 hours. So, there's disposal issues. There's many other issues, but if you have any questions, please let me know. I'll be glad to answer.

All right. Thank you.

That's good information. Thank you. All right. Is there any other public comment? Come on up. Hi everyone. Um, good to see you again after all this time. Um, again, my name is Sarah Cobb. I am one of the property owners that are requesting to have poultry at our um, acreage on the edge of town. And I just have to say to um the gentleman's comment prior is that I can't speak on behalf of my neighbors. Um I will say that I don't think that we would have any issue with registering our chickens with the state of Iowa if we have to to do a property identification number and that type of thing. I I recognize the importance of having that information on hand because of diseases that can spread between wild and captive birds. Um that being said, you know, I I you know, I too was in the venerary field. I came here from California. I have 12 years of experience in emergency and critical care and all the other specialties that I won't list. It's not really relevant. And then I used to teach veterary medicine as well. So I am very familiar with the transfer of both you know diseases that can be spread to um you know between flocks between species zunotic diseases that can pass between humans and I just have to say that I sincerely

hope that fear because of something that is beyond everyone's control could dictate further and drag this out further. I don't want to do that. You guys don't want to do that. I think the city of Hampton is sick and tired of hearing about chickens. So, while I do totally agree that, you know, restrictions need to be put in place for the safety of, you know, the chickens, the city, the property owners, the commercial guys, the wildlife. I totally understand that. But I just again, you know, I just want to make sure that we don't lead from a place of fear of having chickens. If we want to start talking about diseases that can spread, we can talk about we can be here all day talking about diseases and then we'd be locking down all sorts of animals and then no one would ever own a pet in the city of Hampton ever again. So, I just, you know, I just want to come up here. I want to address this gentleman's comments as a former veterary personnel myself who was taught this information over and over who has seen the most horrific zunotic and transferable diseases I have ever seen and um I don't disagree with what the gentleman says about placing a you know if we need to register further beyond the city of Hampton with the state of Iowa. I more or less just want to say that I have no problem with that. I think that's perfectly fine. Um I just hope that tonight we can come to a solid resolution and and get this done and over with. So thank you.

All right. Thank you. Anybody else public comment this evening?

I agree with her. One of the owners I agree with her. Okay, thank you. All right, let's move on to our next item, chicken and livestock ordinance to discussion. We're going to I think uh I think Doug has some information on the we talked a little bit about sheep kind of bled into our discussion last time which was been a while back, but I think he's got some information. So, we get the sheep out of the way and then we can we can get through the ordinance and and hopefully get it nailed down.

Okay. Mayor, the question I think Jim had was who does the uh uh when people make the request at the Jim Meyers property, um does it go with the property or does it go with the people? And it uh Megan Rosenberg, city attorney advises that it goes with the people. So if someone else moves in there, they would have to make a request at this point. So that's kind of how that goes. It goes with whoever's living at the property that make the request. That's all I got.

Okay. All right. So back to the chickens real quick. We got the uh we went we went over our ordinance at our last meeting which was like I said sometime some time ago. Uh we had okay three three items I believe um with the with four with the sheep but uh with our order chicken ordinance I think we had we talked about striking the uh part under 55.05 05 livestock uh taking out the accept by ex written ex consent of the council. The other part we had was getting rid of the uh selling eggs. You know, give them to your neighbors or your family or or whatever. We're we're okay with that. And I think the other thing that came up was the uh the chicken run. Uh how does you know there has to be so big we talked about does it have to have chicken wire chicken wire on top and I believe you know it were I end with ended with that that I don't think we need chicken word on water wire on top of the run. Um, probably need to designate a height, maybe 4 feet, whatever. I don't know how how spry chickens are or they how they can get up. Um, so maybe put a put a a height on that and that's what we need to nail out tonight. So any questions com or

comments discussion Mr. Miss Fay I think the um the whether it needed to include wire on the roof a wire roof or not um is not so much to keep the chicken in but to keep predators out. So, do we need a a height on that or not? What What's everybody's feelings on that?

I don't remember ever reading anything about a height when I did all my research. Right. Right. I mean, we may not we may not need one. you know, we're going to put a put a place where they can run around and and stay in the yard and maybe we're fine. It's, you know, it's your your your ordinance. So, I just want to make sure you guys want got it where we want it so that we can start voting on it. I just I'm sorry. I just have a question. Will there be any issue?

If she talks, she's got to come to the podium. And we want to limit, you know, some of the input input because we're going to get this done today. So,

yeah, I just just I just had a really quick question and maybe some food for thought. Um, I know that you guys are not experienced with chickens at all. I will say that chickens do fly. They do like to roost. So, having something with a little bit of height would probably be a good idea to ensure that the chickens do have a healthy environment that they can spread their wings and move. They don't take flight like other birds, but they do get up high. Um, I know that we are planning on as soon as the ground thaws out more to put in um our enclosed run and we are looking at probably about a 6ft height. I just want to make sure that there won't be any um city codes that we're going to be violating if we're going to be going over a certain height.

I don't think so. Not on the not on the chickens. Okay, that's all I wanted to clarify. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, where we at? May I want a height or not? I just wanted a chicken run. What are your thoughts, Mr. Tar? The maximum height of a Doug,

people on YouTube can't hear if you don't come to the podium. Thank you. Maximum height on a privacy fence I believe is six foot. So I think uh if you're worried about keeping them in put fence on the top and then uh six foot probably be the maximum height I would I would look for. I mean because that'd be consistent with other codes. That's the only purpose is consistency. Yep. Okay. So, do we want a height? Again, I'm ask the question. Should we just put maximum heights?

Max, max maximum 50 feet. We can add that to our to that requirement. Anybody okay with that? Mhm. Okay. Okay. With selling eggs? Yep.

Which brings us to our last one. taken the taken this uh except by written contest consent of the council. Um as as Ryan Ron had uh alluded to in his email, you know that if we if we strike that you're essentially eliminating 99% of any further requests for cows, sheep or horses or any other livestock and the city staff is in support of that decision. So, what we need to do, do are we going to strike that from our draft ordinance or are we going to keep it in?

I'm in favor of striking it. Okay. Anybody else strike? You did say the staff was in favor of striking. Is that what you said? Yeah, I'm in. Yeah. Mayor, are you all right?

Yeah, that's fine. You're good. Okay, that's right. So, we'll strike that out of our ordinance. We're going to maximum maximum check fix 6 feet 6 feet and we're allowing them to eggs. I have sell eggs. Anything anything else? I am interested in the premises ID number. Is that to um be able to track

if there is a a a flu that breaks out or

it is it is a number that is all states have um access to that. We It's a USDA, United States Department of Agriculture. Yeah. Database. So, all states have that. It's a voluntary program in Iowa. But for those that are within an urban area, I would highly suggest that you have that premises ID number and established because if there's a concern in an area uh say like there water foul at beats lake that from migratory waterfall and high path is isolated, then USDA can make notifications about enhanced uh biocurity for people that are raising poultry. Uh when I grew up on our farm, we had a breeding flock of chickens. We sold hatching eggs and we had pigs, feral finish, and we milk cows. Okay. So, the premises identification number doesn't cost anything. It's a matter of having that and knowing who it's associated with. So if somebody from the city needed to get that information from the city government, they could contact the the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship or they could contact the federal office. But when an incident occurs in a county,

it is only listed to the county level. So the privacy concerns are kept. Does that answer? Yeah. Yeah, it does. Definitely. And thank you for bringing that up too, Jerry. Um I think that we could add that as an a requirement at the end of our requirements and without any without any uh undo struggles. Everybody okay with that? Good

there. Okay. Okay. And with that, I think we've got our ordinance put together and we're ready to vote on it. So, we'll we will get it get it finalized and get it in on the agenda and move forward. My favorite thing, moving forward. All right, moving on. Last thing uh tonight is the discussion of police officer reserve pay. Chief Morrison. Yeah, I'm coming to you guys for probably an overdue raise for our part-time reserve officers who are currently making $15 an hour. Our suggestion would be to move it up to 30. Our current uh starting wage for certified with no experience is $30.13, something close to that, but we're looking at straight $30. Um we are trying to encourage the ones that we already have to work more hours and we're trying to get um attract certified officers from other surrounding communities that could come here and kind of fill some holes while we're down officers right now. So, we have a need and so hoping to try to fill it. Hoping to try to do it quickly. So, that's my ask tonight. It's 30 bucks.

Maybe discussions, any thoughts?

How many hours are we talking about? Um, well, we would hope to tr Well, right now we're down two officers, so 40 80 hours a week is what we're down, but um, we would we normally utilize them on weekend shifts. So, uh, it'd be two shifts a week typically if we were full staffed because a lot of the part-time people like your reserve officers have other full-time jobs so they don't can't work during the week. If you get some certified officers from other communities, sometimes they have a day off in the middle of the week and they can work. And if they're certified, they could even sneak into a daytime shift for us if possible, but kind of it's all over the place. Okay. Anybody else? I think we're okay. I mean, we need we have a need and we have to fill that. And I just and the other thing is even if we have to hire two non-certified officers, we're looking at usable officers one year from today. So,

right, that's kind of the concern to try to get some people in here that can just cover some shifts while we're doing that process. Y So, would we be competitive then with other communities like in uh that are using reserve officers? I'm assuming. Yeah, we're we would be the sheriff's office right now is 29 and change. They're on the wage scale. Oh, they are? Yeah. What is it currently? It depends on the year that how many years of service they have. Yeah. What about starting out? New hire at that would be 22.91 for a new hire certified. Yeah. Reserve.

Yes. They're on the same scale uh as a dispatcher. I think it I think it helps to to attract someone maybe from a different community or a different county or our county there fill a shift if if we make the pay, you know, up there enough it's going to be worth their time. And I there are I've done a little bit of research and there are a lot of communities that are paying what they would consider an overtime rate of a normal shift. Like say they do the $45 an hour just to try to pull people, but It all depends on how great your need is. Yeah.

Well, I definitely think $15 an hour is pretty sad. Yeah. Yeah. That's less than an non-certified sheriff reserve, right? By like $4. Yeah, I'm fine with that. If that's your recommendation, I would agree with that. My opinion. Everybody okay with that? I agree as well. Okay, think we're okay. Then we can put it on the agenda. Put on the agenda for Thursday and we'll get that taken care of. Barry, I can see. I just wondered if it was something that we should go into close session and talk about.

Do that with wages. Uh well, we aren't talking about anybody in specifics. We're just talking about general wage of a reserve that is not a part not even a part-time employee, right? I guess our philosophy is it's uh something for recruiting um and providing an incentive to get more interest for people to work cover shifts that are qualified. Yep. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. The other thing we got is to adjourn. Thank you all for coming and I appreciate the input and we're out of here. No, I I hear what you're saying.