City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. Welcome to the March 9th council meeting. Roll call please. Brewster here. Walters here. Rarden here. He here. Closier here. Parton here. Myers. Thompson here. All right. Our invocation tonight be given by Eric Williams, St. Mark Presbyterian Church. Welcome.

Thank you for the signing privilege. Dealing with city issues is a daunting task. And you all have a lot ahead of you, but right now we're praying for God's guidance that he will provide you wisdom and focus for what you have to do for the quality of service for the citizens of Hayesville. It is not easy. Often times you're even criticized for the decisions that you've made. But in this prayer, I would encourage you to stay strong. continue to focus on what is right and in the end all of it will work together for the good in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Please join me alsible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Next, we have a special order of business. A the BFW post 6957 officer of the year presentation. So, it's good uh to see so many of you here uh today to look over a road tonight.

Good evening. My name is Aaron Grund. I'm with the Kever Wire Post 6957 Veterans of Foreign Wars here in Hazesville. Tonight, we're here to issue a certificate of appreciation to Officer Noah Childers. Before I present the certificate, I'm going to read the citation that uh Chief Whitfield had uh written for him uh nominating him for this program. This year, we submit the name of Police Officer Noah Childers for your consideration. Officer Childers began working with the Hazesville Police Department in May of 2024. He came to Hazesville after working with the Witchaw Police Department as a patrol officer. Through his previous experience as a police officer, his knowledge of the legal system and having good communication skills have most certainly helped him become a valuable part of our department. Despite his relatively short time in Hazville, he has learned quickly and established himself as a leader on his shift. He feels that his job is more than just enforcing the law, but also building trust, showing compassion, and being a positive influence while keeping the community safe. He leads by example and treats everyone with dignity and respect. I believe Officer Childers stands out in law enforcement community as a leader with an undeniable commitment to duty. Officer Childers certainly understands what it means to make a career serving the public and his local community, demonstrated by his deep desire to help people and make them feel safe. He works hard every day and undeniably makes a positive impact not only on his co-workers, but everyone he comes in contact with. I very much believe great things will come from officers of this caliber, and I believe he has the motivation and desire to deliver high quality policing to our community. So, thank you, Chief Whitfield, for writing that. So, we'll be presenting you tonight as a certificate of appreciation from the Veterans of Foreign Wars to Officer Noah Childrisers and grateful appreciation and recognition for unyielding adherence to the highest ideals of law enforcement, maintaining and preserving and protecting the lawful rights of our citizens as signed by Evelyn Cook, our post commander, and Eric Herlock, our post a congratulations and thank you for your service.

Thank you. smile.

Just uh say a few words. Congratulations. I don't have anything besides uh I appreciate them very much and thank you guys all for uh your service to the community as well. Thank you guys. Thank you.

It's great that we have uh such great police officers in the city and thank the BFW again for for recognizing our police officers. So, thank you All right. Next, we have the presentation and approval of minutes. Minutes of February 9th, 2026. Pardon? I make a motion we accept the the minutes as presented. Second. Second. We have a motion and second to accept the minutes from February 9th, 2026 as presented. Any discussion? Question, please. Yes. Walters. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, Thompson. Yes.

All right. Next, we have item one, public comment today. Tanya Buckingham, register of deeds and Kenley Zering, uh, chief deputy, Cedric County register of deeds regarding sales. So, welcome. It's uh, great to see you again and uh, thank you for being here.

Thank you. Good evening everyone, mayor and council members and everyone. I'm Tanya Buckingham, the registered deeds, and thank you for giving us a few minutes to share some really exciting news. We are going to be opening up a full service satellite location here in this building in the lower level, starting next Monday, March 16th, and we're very excited about it. I especially want to thank uh the mayor and the city of Hazesville for being so incredibly accommodating and helpful in making uh sure that all of these things happen so we could have that service here. Uh our office is always looking for ways to make services easier for residents to access and this location we think would make it much more convenient for folks here in the southern part of Cedric County to take care of their registered deeds business closer to home. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kimley Zering, our chief deputy, and she's going to give a few details on what's going to be happening here at your location. Thanks, Tanya. Um, at the Hazesville location, uh, residents will be able to do anything that they do at our downtown location. That includes recording real estate documents, filing their DD214 discharge papers, and offering our veteran and military discount program. In addition, the passport services at the Hazville location will be by appointment only. We are looking at the times from 9 to 3:30 uh Monday through Thursday and then on Friday from 9 to uh 10:30, but the office itself will be open during normal business hours and they'll be able to do any of those other services that we offer. Uh we're very excited to bring these closer to Hazesville. um it'll make it easier than going downtown, but um we appreciate everybody's um teamwork and partnership

that helped make this possible. Thank you. Thank you. That also includes uh passports as well, right? Yes. Yes. Which would be very helpful for the people in this this region. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. I appreciate you coming.

All right. Any other members of the com of the any other members would like to uh speak? All right, I see no other public comment speakers. So, we will move on to item two, approval of licenses and bonds. We have none. Item three, introduction of ordinances and resolutions. A resolution approving the transfer of certain real estate to the land bank. questions or would like to make a motion. So, this is the old property. Council, I'll make a motion that we transfer the property at 7106 South Broadway to the land bank.

Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the resolution approving the transfer of certain real estate to the land bank as presented. Any discussion? Question, please. Rooster, yes. Walters, yes. Roden, yes. Yes. Closer. Yes. Hard. Yes. Yes. All right. Next we have item four, notices and communications. A governing body announcements. Any members of the governing body have any announcements? Council Brewster.

Yeah. The uh Hazel Library. Uh March 12th um 10:30 parents as teachers. March 13th um proxy pi day will be observed. March 14th is Pi Day. Uh March 16th, 2:30 p.m. The Milkman, a special program at the Friends of the Library. March 17th, uh St. Patrick's Day is celebrated. March 18th at 4 p.m. is a Lego club. March 26, 10:30 a.m. Parents teacher story time. March also March 26 is the Friends of Library board meeting. And then at 700 p.m. is the library um board meeting. And then also the library is also having um friends of the library um spring um fundraiser has already started. Um they get to choose a toy and a bookmark and then pick out a book or a backpack all for $7. It runs through until April 30th and all the money raised will go to new children's books at the library.

Thank you. Any other council members have any other announcements? Thought I got a got a couple. So for the senior center announcements, some upcoming events, there's a Wesley Trauma Services presentation on March 9th. Passageways outreach center presentation also March 9th. Game night extravaganza March 12th. Monthly dinner will be on March 27th. And on March 31st will be the Oklahoma Aquarium Day Trip. And there's still a few spots left. If uh if you are a member of the senior center, I'd like to go on this trip. Should be a great trip. They'll be uh reading a renting a a large bus to go down there. So, also some reoccurring events, coffee and conversation, games, crafts, bingo, exercise classes, Alzheimer support group, and line dancing. Some other announcements. Uh you just heard uh Tanya Beckingham uh mentioned about the uh register DS and also the passport office opening up here. So uh they will be announcing that at the county commission meeting on uh Wednesday. So I'll be there at that meeting and uh they asked me if I say a few words about about opening up here in Hazesville. Also, uh, next week I'll be going to Washington DC as a vice president of the League of Kansas Municipalities. I'll be going down there with the, uh, National League of Cities, uh, Congressional City Conference. Uh, so it should be good. So, going there representing, uh, you know, Kansas cities.

Um, also coming up in May on May 7th, uh, National Day of Prayer. It's uh first Thursday of the month is the uh it'll be the the next mayor's prayer breakfast. It'll be the fifth annual uh prayer breakfast. Uh that'll be at the hack. Uh price will be $12 each. Well, I'll mention it again next month. I just wanted to mention it now to get on your calendars. Uh if you would like to attend and tell your friends. All right, that's all I have there. All right, next we have item B. Sed County Fire Department Station 34 monthly report. It's in your packet along with the email from Cox Communications. Item five, old business. We have none. Item six, other business. A, consider uh consideration of insurance renewal. Welcome.

Hello. Uh, I figured I probably need to talk about that since there's nobody else sitting back there. So, um, anyways, uh, thank you for having me. Uh, my name is Jeff Engel. If uh I haven't uh met met some of you before, I'm from ICI insurance. Um and once again, just want to thank the city for allowing us to be your insurance advisor. Um I did prepare the a letter that I think you all got in advance, but um overall, we're starting to see a little bit of stabilization of the market uh compared to previous years. Um you know in previous years we were looking at increases of well over 10% sometimes 15% and that was including reducing our deductibles. Uh we didn't have to do that. Uh this year the reduct deductibles remained stable. Um but the market has not stabilized enough that where we we have three carriers we use for cities and and uh m municipalities and things like that. And the while the market has stabilized a little bit, it hasn't stabilized enough to where the others are getting aggressive for new business. So, one example is Midwest Public Risk. We've got, you know, we have a contract with them and business with them. We sought a proposal from them last year. It it was very very close to the to the city's proposal, but they offered no dividend structure and they didn't have their uh carrier health rating wasn't quite as high because it was a a small pool. So that we look reached out to them. They said they basically had no major changes in how they were doing business and structuring things this year. So uh we opted not to um go there. And then the next one is travelers which for a very long time had a great program that was very popular in the state of Kansas. U but three years ago they raised their deductibles to 3%. And um what that means as just as some

examples, for instance, uh city hall, this building, if it if it got hit by a hail stom or a tornado or something like that, the deductible for just this building and the and the includes the police uh next door would be $240,000 with travelers. And uh I looked up the rec center, it would be a $210,000 deductible. And then like the library is another uh larger building, it'd be 150,000. So, and that's each one if the city got hit by a hail stom on that other program. So, it's it'd be a significant deductible. Whereas right now on your EMC program, if all of those get hit, it's a flat $50,000. So, it's the like I wouldn't be surprised if travelers came in and they had a proposal that was 10 $15,000 less, but they don't have a dividend program, which EMC's been paying a dividend pretty religiously. I think the average is $23,000 a year right now. And the deductible structure is unless you've got uh money to burn, I don't necessarily recommend it uh in the long term. So, um, we stay in touch with them, but that was kind of the the strategy this year. Um, if we would have seen a 15 to 20% increase, we probably would have, uh, done a little more research, but it really, um, based on how it shook out, we reached out on a couple of lines, the law enforcement liability and the general liability, uh, due to those increases. and they gave us some reasoning and and uh both on the account individually and then as a national market. So, um the overall increase was 9.7% in premium. Uh that includes five more vehicles, $2.4 million in property. Um so, just open it up for any questions for any from anyone.

Any council members have any questions for Would anybody like to make a motion to approve to approve the insurance renewal? Council person pardon. I make a motion we approve the uh insurance renewal. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the insurance renewal as presented. Any discussion? Question, please. Brewster, yes. Walter, yes. Martin, yes. Yes. Clier, yes. Martin, yes. Thompson. Yes. Thank you, Jeff. All right. Thank you very much. You all have a good evening. Thank you.

All right. Next, we have item B, personnel manual revisions. Angie,

okay, we only have three recommended changes this year to the personnel manual. The first one is the open door chain of command. We did revise this to be in conformance with the Kansas Municipal Whistleblower Act. So, we did find some conflicts with that and revise that. Also, under the sick leave, this way employees could choose to have a combination of vacation and sick leave payout if they wanted to choose that. And the FMLA would require everybody to use their unpaid leave before going to the unpaid leave. So, um if you have any questions, this is just presented for review today and then action for the next council meeting. Um, you're welcome to take action if you would like if you don't need additional time, but we typically for the personnel meeting will give you guys some time to review it.

Thank you. Anybody have any questions? All right, Council Walters, I make a motion we approve uh changes to the personnel manuals uh listed. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the personnel manual revisions as presented. Any discussion? Question, please. Brewster, yes. Walters, yes. Yes. Yes. Closier. Yes. Partner, yes. Thompson, yes. All right. Thanks. Next, we have item seven, department reports. A, administrative services. Georgie, I don't have anything. city clerk

just wanted to remind you that during the months of January, February and March, we do um average those usage for the sewer rates. We are in March now. So, just please continue to conserve your water if you want to reduce your water bill or sewer bill. Um and those new rates will go out in June.

Thank you, Angie. Next, we have uh police chief Good evening, Mayor Council. Just wanted to introduce our visiting officer this evening. Uh MPO Hime Romero is out there. Um he's currently working our night shift. So say hi to him as you go by out there. And also on the 26th of March, uh since we had some bumpy weather last week and it's springtime, so we're in Kansas, that's going to happen. Um on the 26th of March, we'll have our uh annual severe weather class next door that's presented by Cedric County Emergency Management. So uh come on out to there. It's open to the public. You can bring as many family members or friends as you want to. You can have a a watch party that night and come out and do that. Um, we'll hope for no bad weather, then just show us videos of bad weather. Um, so come on out and that way everybody's prepared. Hopefully everybody's done their fire drill or tornado drills and that kind of stuff. Make sure you have a plan with your family. But definitely feel free to come out there. It's always a lot of good information. I think they've changed it up a bit this year. So, uh, starts at 6:30 in the courtroom next door. So, come on out. Thank you.

Thanks, Steve. Yeah, I know it's a good class. I've taken my uh Cub Scouts out there a few times. I think Crew has been there. Yep. Pardon? Maybe. Yeah, I've been there several times. I know. Julie will be putting it on. Oh, she Okay, good. All right. Yeah. So, I would recommend that uh be have the opportunity to vote today. Uh next we have item D, public works. Tony, I have nothing.

And E, recreation. Rob. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I have a couple things. Uh we have our Shamrock Shuffle 5K this Saturday on the 14th. You still register for that. On the 21st, we will have our trivia night at the exhibit center. On the 21st as well in the morning, we'll have our adult putt putt tournament. Um on the 28th of March, we'll have our all ages silent disco. Then this year, we're offering three different Easter egg hunts. On Friday the 27th, we'll have our adult only uh Easter egg hunt. On Sunday the 29th, we'll have our youth Easter egg hunt that starts directly at 3 p.m. Uh if you are there at 3:02, you all the eggs will be gone, so please show up early. Uh and then at 3:30 that day, we will having our doggy Easter egg hunt over in the dog park. Uh summer elements registration will begin on April 1st at 6:00 a.m. beating stuff to do for your kids this summer. And then pool sales will begin on April 6th. Thank you.

Thank you, Rob. Next we have item eight, appointments. We have none. Item nine, executive session. We have none. Item 10, review of expenditures. A summary of February expenditures. Council person, I move to receive and file the March February. Oh, February. I'm sorry. That's right. That's right. Second. I'm still on. So, we have a motion, a second to receive and file the February expenditure. Any discussion? Question, please. Brewster? Yes. Walters? Yes. Martin? Yes. Eert? Yes. Closier? Yes. Harton? Yes. Thompson? Yes.

Next, we have item 11, the consent agenda. We have several items on the consent agenda tonight. Council person, I'll move to approve the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Is there any discussion? Question, please. Brewster, yes. Walters, yes. Harden, yes. Yes. Closer. Yes. Hardens. Yes. Thompson. Yes.

All right. Next, we have item 12, council items. A, council concerns. There any concerns? Council. All right. Moving along, we have item B, council action and request updates. There are none. Good to see. Item 13, adjournment. Mr. Mayor, make a motion we second. We have a motion and a second to adjourn tonight's meeting. Any discussion? Question, please. Brewster, yes. Walters, yes. Martin, yes. Eert. Yes. Cloier, yes. Parton, yes. Yes. We don't