City Council - Regular Meeting

and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This is a time for any resident of Jefferson to speak to the council on any item that's not on the agenda with a limit of 3 minutes. Larry, my name is Larry Joy. I live at 504 East Washington. Um here again once again to see if there's any updates on our drainage on east side of town. We're working on the report.

Yes. Okay. So, um I have one other question. May I ask how many projects is uh Bolton and Minkx even working on for the city right now? For the city. Uh I'm just wondering is

is this is this hindering progress on a on a on my tile line? you know, is what I'm trying to ask. My my sump pump is still running. There's no reason it should be running at this time of year. We ain't had enough rain for it. So, I I I just wonder, are they focusing more on other projects than what I'm here representing my side of town? All I can tell you is I'm not working on directly. So, but we are working on that report. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Is there a projected time frame for when that might be completed?

I think our original schedule was to have it done in June, I think, but I'd have to look up again to see what that was. June. On to the consent items. I'll move to approve. Second Holtz. I Jackson. I Sloan. Hi. Wait. Hi.

Wkelman. All right. Under new business, item A is a resolution approving bond purchase agreement providing for the issuance of general obligation corporate purpose bonds series 2026 and providing for the levy of taxes to pay the same. So, we uh sold the bonds today. Um and um I think you have in front of you the interest rates and information. Um the average interest rate came in just a hair under 4%. And um when you include uh professional fees like uh rating cost and legal cost, the average interest rate um is 4.28%. So when somebody asks you what it cost you to borrow, $2 million, today it was 4.28 is probably the correct correct answer. Um I would like to uh acknowledge um all three local banks did participate um purchased uh I don't know the final numbers but the original numbers I saw earlier in the day they they were purchasing around a million one or so of the issue. So the balance of the issue was sold to other uh investors who also happen to be banks but not local. U so I'm happy about that. Not often do we I get to come to a city council meeting and say every every bank in town participated. We're we like that when it happens. Um Scott asked me to address one issue and so I thought I would address that. Before I do, can I do you have any questions? So okay, so I'll address this one issue. Maybe there'll be questions. Um we uh we

decided that it made sense to purchase an insurance policy from a company called uh uh AGM insurance. Um there are two firms in our industry that guarantee the payment of debts. Um AGM and BAM neither are household names. Um and u the the what you get from that insurance policy is you get their double A rating. Um, your rating was affirmed at the A2 rating. So, uh, the double A rating allows us to step up into the next rating category, a little higher rating. Um, and essentially what the insurance company's doing is selling you access to their rating for a fee. And in this case, the fee was um, it's about $9,000 when you include the uh, premium and the um, uh, the additional rating cost. So, the question is, why do we recommend you do that? Um, and and in fairness, I didn't call Scott and tell him, "Hey, here's what I'm up to." We just did it um in a hurry on Friday. And um so the calculation is this. Sometimes people buy insurance because it will save them money over time net of the cost of the insurance. Sometimes people buy insurance because it helps out with market access. Um, in your case, they lowered the interest rates by roughly 5100s of a percent. But the insurers fee is, hey, guess what? 5100s of a percent. It was you're in the second decimal place to say that it saved you any money. And so from my perspective, this wasn't really a money-saving discussion. This was more about making sure that uh we had market access on the most favorable possible terms that we could.

If you'll remember um until month and a week or so ago, we had a fairly positive uh u market economy and then uh we started some actions in a foreign country and interest rates have kind of fluctuated a lot. There's a lot of question in the market. um uh as a result of of that. And so um our feeling is that one of the things I didn't want to come today and say is, hey, we couldn't sell all the bonds, so let's take whatever steps we need to in order to make sure we could sell the bonds. Um and the insurers proposal didn't save you any money, but didn't cost you any money. And so it but it did get you a higher rating, which makes the sale much more likely to succeed. And as we saw this morning, um, we got all the bonds sold by by before noon. So, uh, we were we were happy with that. Let me pause. Do you have any questions or comments, please?

This being insurance and outside of uh, opening up secondary markets that allow us to obtain a better potentially a better rate, what other advantages are there to this insurance? Those are the those are it. Yeah. Yeah. It's mark in your case it's market access. Okay. The the insurance that we buy it's guaranteed that they pay principal and interest. Mhm. Okay. Yes.

Correct. Except that what the insurer then let's say in the let's take an extraordinary example and you are unable to pay right the insurer steps in pay. They then come and seek remedies with the city to make sure that they get their money back. So, it's not like they're covering a liability for you like you might buy a property and casualty insurance. Um, you know, they're they're going to they're going to expect to get paid back for whatever advances they make on their policy. It's like, okay. Yeah. We have no intention of defaulting. Correct. Sure. And that's and their fee reflects that, I should say. Did I answer your question?

You did. Thank you. Any other questions? Otherwise, we're thrilled that you keep inviting us back. Good. Thank you. Very good. Thanks, Jim. Thank you, Jim.

Closing date on this is April 9, right? Yes. motion then I move to approve the bond purchase agreement. I'll second Wen. Hi. Wait. Hi. Sloan. Hi. Jackson. Iron Holmes. Hi. Item B is property and liability assurance renewal.

Good evening. So to start the conversation this year for the policy year that ended in 2025, a dividend was received by the city in January and or December, but the premium that the the dividend this year was $35,539. And that constituted almost 13 1.5 or a little more than 13 1.5% of that year's premium and the largest dividend that we've had quite a few years. It was a great year. Weather was very favorable. Um can't promise anything like that again for next year, but thus far everything looks favorable. We should still be getting a dividend. premium for this year. Uh our renewal premium is going to be $295,650. Uh that is up from the current renewing or expiring policy of 276785. Uh the probably the only one line of coverage that really shows a a substantial percentage increase is the linebacker policy. Uh the city's had some claims with that and EMC's also had quite a few claims with it. So it's kind of a one-two punch penalty from our own participation in claims plus the product line has been getting a lot of claims. A year and two years ago, we've se we saw quite a few changes in deductibles. Uh they've not gotten any worse. So my outline of coverage is showing what the deductibles were a year ago and they have not changed for this upcoming

renewal year. And uh the one thing to point out is our linebacker policy uh the deductible on it also applies to loss expenses and that is the only coverage that we have that the deductible works that way. Do you want to do Can you elaborate on what the linebacker policy covers?

The linebacker coverage is directors and officers coverage and then it picks up other coverage. Uh kind of an errors and emissions type thing. Uh we've had uh some really different claims that have come in. It it's not black and white like you know we we hit hit a car with a truck type thing. these and these are very different type claims and uh we have one going right now alleging that we didn't put a storm sewer system in correctly 35 years ago or maybe more whenever it was done and so this is giving us defense on it and it and and again it's it's it's a pretty broad new type coverage

okay over the past 2 three years that section of the insurance how How much has that increased premium payment? So, I would say if you would go back 5 years ago, the linebacker had a $1,000 deductible, which is now 10,000. And I would guess 5 years ago, we would have been paying somewhere around 3 to 4,000 premium for that. And we're now at 15,000. So again, significant. We're not the gold star here. this the the activity activity that Jefferson sees sadly it's it's happening statewide. It's

okay. Thank you.

Um workers compensation for the city continues to kind of be the shining star in this um in this renewal. again um changes that were made 5 years ago with the garbage have drastically reduced uh claims over history. So the renewal is based off of your claims history um going off the three full prior years not including this most recent term. Um so with that lower the claims the lower the mod rating you receive. So if you look at a even playing field of 1.0 is your average right now the city of Jefferson is currently at a.71 uh for the renewal and the 2025 year was a.70. So again the city continues to do great with the workers compensation insurance and the safety procedures that have been put in place over the last 5 years. with that garbage change that you're referring to 5 years ago. That's the uh

automated system employees being injured by manually picking up garbage versus now the automated garbage pickup. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep. Yep.

Um otherwise the only other change that the policy has seen over the last couple years was the default on the comprehensive and collision deductibles for the vehicles. So, based off the original cost new of vehicles, uh, vehicles under $100,000 at purchase price default with $1,000 deductible. Uh, $2,000 deductibles for any vehicles $100,000 to $250,000 in cost new, and then $5,000 deductibles default for any new purchases exceeding $250,000. So, any additional questions or concerns regarding the renewal for the upcoming year?

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. And we need a motion. Motion to approve the renewal. A motion. Second. Second. Jackson. I. Sloan I Waitri. Hi Wkelman. Hi Karen Holtz. Hi. Item C is acceptance of the physical 2024 to 2025 financial audit.

Yeah. So everybody was provided a copy written copy of this audit at the at the previous council meeting and then digital copies were sent out with the uh with the council packet. again this time really all I wanted to to go through was uh the schedule of of the findings and what our responses were. So you just taking a look at uh at the financial side of of the audit there's no irregularities that were noted as far as anything um financially um just so what the notes were then internal control deficiencies were were noted again and as a small office we would always uh do get that note on on segregation of duties. So we uh want to do what we can again to uh try to have better uh in internal controls. It's a struggle when when we have uh small staff. Next one dealt with reconciliation of utility billing collections and delinquent accounts. And this is making sure that that uh our staff is is doing that daily uh reconciliation of the utility billing accounts. Just confirming with with staff, you know, that is that is being done. and then we get some additional uh provisions in place mainly pertaining to adjustments and how adjustments are authorized afterwards. So um we will uh comply with with the requirements there. Another note was on uh uh certified budgets exceeding the uh dispersements have exceeded the certified budget in four different areas I think. Yeah. ulture and and recreation, community and economic development, general government, and then debt service exceeded by a few hundred dollars. In in this case, that is that uh the the ending uh expenses ended up being higher than what the approved budget amount was. Okay. So, it's very common that at the at as we come up toward the end of the fiscal year, we would have a budget amendment that it is essentially a catch-up amendment that if there's been

some special projects or something like that that can be accounted for then through that amendment process that was done. It just uh still didn't amend it to be uh high enough for what was uh what the final numbers ended up being. Questionable dispersements. No, no questionable dispersements were noted. No travel expenses. Um they're looking at travel expenses of spouses. There are no travel expenses for spouses. Um any business transactions with uh with uh employees or city officials. And we do have um business transaction with Storm Plumbing. So, but uh in this case there's it's twofold. one one of them was below the the limit for reporting, but we did did have an air conditioner project that was above the limit, but the project was bid, so everything was was fine in that regards then, too.

Um, God, uh, in the past, not this past year, prior to my being seated as a councilman, I have done business with the city through my personal business. Uh but do we anticipate disclosing uh any relationship of that in the future? If there's if there's been expenses paid to if there's been expenses paid to any city official or city employee, those those are all um provided to the auditors. Okay. They may not even be noted if they were very small dollars, but

thank you. Uh they check bond coverage. everything's in place for bond coverage now that we went through through the renewal and they had had noted that that we do have at we actually have a insurance policy that ends up acting as our bond and it's a blanket insurance policy that covers all employees against any financial implements. No transactions were were found that uh should that were found not to be there which should have been. Everything was fine there and deposits and investments were fine. The revenue bonds all all were compliant with our uh with the re resolutions and the the syncing fund needs. Okay. There was a note on financial condition and this dealt with some funds that had deficit balance. One of them is the sanitation fund and that fund has had a negative balance ever since the duratio had rolled through several years ago and over the years it keeps working its way out and then as of now it's for this current year it would no longer be a deficit balance there. The other one that was noted is the airport improvement fund and that is just a matter of timing largely with the federal grants and how those are reimbursed. talk about the annual urban re uh renewal report and the annual temp report. Those things were properly filed. Okay, this does raise an interesting issue about property tax on cityowned property, city- owned farmland in in particular. And what this references is the farmland adjacent to the airport and that we rent that rent out that farmland. It becomes income producing. Our auditor would suggest that we are to be paying property taxes on that. I don't know that we've ever paid property taxes on that. It's always been considered part of the functioning airport and uh and we will uh have that continued discussion with her about

that. The last instance that that is noted here deals with utility rates and testing our utility rates and as the auditor had tested some some utility accounts and noted that there was incorrect utility rate that was applied. So particularly when we have any utility rate changes, we now have policy about having at least two people check the how the rates are input so that we know that things are proper. Those were the uh the notes that were um that were noted from the auditor for those checks and balances that the independent auditor recommended that we take. We expect to get some suggestions from the state auditor once they've completed their report. When do we anticipate implementing these independent auditor suggestions? I'm assuming they'll go through the finance committee.

They as as as best as feasible, they've already been implemented. Okay. We would just implement them through staff. All right. And then we can add to or maybe some of the suggestions from the state auditor will have already been implemented. True. And it's uh um just in that regards as far as the the state auditor goes um the the official response in regards to the state auditor is that it it is in process and things are are still proceeding and we have heard from them recently and they're still working on the on the issues. I'd move to accept the 20 2425 financial audit. Second

Aaron Holtz. Hi Jackson. Hi Sloan. Hi Watrick. Hi Winkman. Hi. Item D is resolution approving the wing of plat survey. Received a plat survey from Dan Winger to split a a parcel off of his rear property to sell to the neighbor Nick Foster. Um the Foster and Winger property. I think the property line is like less than 10 ft away from his house and he wanted to purchase some of that just to have the control over the property right beside his house. I would recommend approving the plat survey if anybody has any questions. I move to approve. I'll second.

Jackson I W. Sloan Iron Holtz. All right. Item B is resolution approving a 2080 agreement with Green County.

So this deals with with recycling then. So this would be the agreement with Green County. Um we would have also other agreements then with the other smaller communities for which we we uh collect recyclables. They would be based upon this same concept of the of the agreement that we would have with the county. So what the what this will do is changes the way that uh that the uh recycling billing occurs and and goes to a cost per dump uh type of a model. So every time that one of the recycling bins are dumped, the the fee is $250. And then um this uh this agreement then pertains to the to the uh dumpsters which are in which are in Jefferson. So we know that they they would be responsible for 70% of the dumps that come out of Jefferson cuz some of the stuff still comes out of here is is Jefferson residents and then they're also responsible for about 25% of the cardboard because it's not just the cardboard's from the dump sites that includes all of our businesses then too. So uh in total $250 per dump and it's build every quarter then about how many dumps we would have still on a routine collection schedule. So, as far as operations, I you really would not see any significant change in what the operations would be. So, the uh board of supervisors reviewed the draft of this yesterday as a discussion item and agreed in principle to what the uh to what the uh the new agreement would look like. Okay. Telling them that that the city would take action on this agreement then tonight. The board of supervisors takes official action on it then next Monday. So, it would be ready for consideration.

What's the What's the difference in what we're charging? Yeah, between between all of the between the county and all of the other communities, we figured total it' be 58,000 which had been 72 before. There is a reduction in revenue. And for the other smaller communities, we're still on a we're picking things up on a regular basis or as their things get full. It's on a regular basis. We run we run a schedule largely for for our staffing needs then too. So everybody maintains a proper just the same schedule on Did any of the towns drop out?

Sure. Dan had had dropped out with us last year and and we will you certainly is the hope that they would come back because what is happening then with the other communities is as a matter of equity then that the county feels strongly about that that they want to have equity amongst all of their smaller communities. So like Scran and Grand Junction had opted out of using Jefferson years ago. So they use private hauler. So they have agreements in place with those two communities that says the county will reimburse them 50% of the cost that they have associated with their recyclable program. Okay? They will have the same type of agreement then with the smaller communities that Jefferson would serve. So the the county would would offer 50% reimbursement to them. So we do need to get our our 280s agreements in place with the smaller communities. And uh there's a mayoral meeting that's coming up here next week and and would get uh presented. Then

the last agreement 2080 that we had with the county regarding the recycling there was an overlap in terms of payment and was that cancellation date? Yep. Has that been rectified with us? It does because the extension then that went to the end of March that was the overlap period. So we're we're all square then as of the end of March. Are we still going to meet our expenses with this decrease in revenue? It's it is right in and to where uh revenues and expenses are roughly the same.

Yeah. And this was an important piece. I mean it was it's good to get this thing done. uh it was an important important increment to to the overall program. The other thing I guess I would tell you thanks Harry and forgot to uh mention this is that the agreements for 3 years. I'd move to approve. Second I hated Iron Holmes. Hi Wman.

Hi and reports. Jim, uh, Airport Fuel Farm, uh, we had the, uh, pre-construction meeting today. Uh, that work should be starting here in the next few days to a week. Um, getting a couple things in order, but then they're going to start going on that. Uh, I think it's, uh, 70 calendar days to complete, so shouldn't be a very long project. Um, Westwood sidewalk. We continue working on the design for sidewalk on the areas. Uh, designer was out last week on vacation, so he should be back into it this week and hopefully get the rest of it. We have about 50% of it laid out last before he left. Uh, Doc Stadium, uh, that's the same designer. So, as Westwood progresses, he'll get into Doc Stadium and get that one done. uh risk resilience assessment and emergency response plans for the water plant. Uh we're just getting started on those. Uh we'll have some coordination with the city on information and things like that as we progress. Uh water tower inspection. Hopefully we'll be able to schedule that soon. I think one of these weeks we'll get into weather where it's stays warm all the time. Um but that's kind of the big one on that one is making sure there's no ice uh for when they're doing those inspections. So that's what we have for now.

Roxan, no report. David, no report. Scott,

there is a couple of special council meetings that are that are coming up. So a week from tonight on the 31st is when we would have that property tax hearing. So um regular time 5:30 then for that property tax hearing then on the 31st. Then there's also a joint meeting between the city council and the library board of trustees and that's on April 13th and that's when the uh um the libraries architect will will present their uh their proposed design for what the the uh library project may look like. A couple things on uh yeah, we got some we got a grant from the Green County Endowment Foundation and that was for some for three AEDs. So, um thanks to them for that. We'd have the AEDs that will be placed here at city hall, one out at the golf course, and then one at the city maintenance shed then also. So, that uh uh we've received the funds and those will be ordered here just right quick. Yeah, we we can hope that Chad would would talk about this, but I'll talk about it on his behalf anyway. That that Chad has Chad has as of by the end of last week, we now have a certified building inspector through the International Residential Code and Chad has passed his exam on that and uh uh very happy about that. And congratulations to Chad on getting that uh that taken care of. AND THEN MY UH THEN I I WILL BE out of the office here for the remainder of the week. It's Municipal Management Institute over at Iowa City then Wednesday through Friday. So that's it. Thank you. Uh seeing Greg's not here, let's go on to the departments. Mark

Chad

Roxan get upset if I didn't report on something. So board of adjustment met recently. Uh they'd received a request for a special exception from the Abundant Life Church to um form a private accredited school. Um, so they met and reviewed the information received and they did so in a single family zone district a private private accredited school is a permitted use with a special exception from the board of adjustment and they reviewed the information and granted them that special exception so they can have a private accredited elementary school. Um they have the capacity for 30 kids there and they will use their existing facilities.

Chad, could you do a high level on I mean there's been a lot of activity uh in the building area too and and quite a bit that's going to be coming up. Uh

yeah. Um as Yeah. So we, you know, we have received a building permit application and payment uh for a building permit from McDonald's. They have not closed on the property yet. We haven't issued that permit and they've said tenative construction would be in was in April and they due to contractor scheduling push that back to June. And then um I've been talking to KCG again and they have resubmitted an updated building permit application for the construction of that 50 unit 7 building apartment complex. We just had um a lot of uh potential projects and coming up and

yeah there's quite a list of them. I mean, a couple of major uh renovations of homes and uh yeah, just I don't know from from my vantage point really exciting time really. Yeah. Know, we got mean a lot of construction going on in the city here potentially this this year and some major construction. Yeah. With the KCG, are they still planning on using the same contractor to build that structure? No, they um they originally had their kind of their contractor from Indianapolis, but they went rebid it and they have a contractor from De Moine who's looking at that be their contractor for that project. So, actually saved him some money. Good. Yeah.

Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Harry. Uh no report. Matt,

just the Bell Tower Community Foundation board met last night. It's a very thorough meeting, shall we say. Um, a lot of passionate folks about supporting the bell tower and promoting it and bringing people to Jefferson and to utilize that asset. So, uh, they're getting very creative on how to to market it and and brand that and do outreach and all the things. So, um, look for an exciting season from them, uh, opening first, uh, weekend of May and then come Memorial Day, open through the end of October. So, uh, look for good stuff there. And there'll be some new rooftop art coming in April. So, it'll be even more reason to get back up the bell tower. So, they're appreciative of the city and the county support and uh, put that to good use. So, that's it.

Jay, no report. Luke

uh police committee met yesterday uh going over some uh citizen complaints, seeing if there's any uh ordinance adjustments that we need to do there. Also going over uh police department finances if there's any improvements that we can work on there. It's a it's a definitely a good, you know, something that we want to spend a lot of time and effort making sure we get right. um finance if finance committee met again yesterday and I went over that uh under the consent items the review of the the roof for the fire department project fire department it's already been patched not too long ago and we want to make sure that that's taken care of before the solar panels come in so um it was really good to make sure we go ahead on that project Main Street Matters Board met on the 18th now Matt uh I lost my notes that I had from that Would you mind to help me out with there's a lot of things going on with the mainstream matters?

Uh um let's see. One thing I all city council will be invited to go to the main street Iowa development awards coming up May 7th. Um we will be recognizing one of our key volunteers that'll be there and um we may or may not win any awards this year. We'll see. Yeah. Now we've had some pretty good success in the past. So there's a pretty hopefully a good chance we uh take home something this time too. May May 7th is de mo put it on your calendars. Everyone's invited. Yes.

Arts and recck met last night. Some of the just growing things with this uh rec center and parks and recck thing. Um they're one of the youth leagues for soccer has 60 participants that are going to be there. uh and participating. They're having to move from six fields to eight fields just to and that's just one of the youth group um groups. The spin class, the bicycle spin class is so full they're going to be purchasing two new spin bikes. The lion share of what was discussed though was about um building on to the rec center. And I would just emphasize this isn't just to be done just because. This is because like we've said with buildings and the towns growing and more things, there are so many youth tournaments and if you've been to one, you know that when your kids not playing, there's really no place to go and no place for the kids to go and whatever. And having this added gym is going to be just something that continues to help. And if you've driven down, I live on Harrison Street. If you've driven down when there is a youth tournament going,

you'd think they were giving away free money or something because down there. Um I I think it's just important, you know, these are going to be two major things that are going to be coming up. The expansion of the library and the expansion expansion of the rec center. And I just want all of us here as citizens of Jefferson to think about, you know, what the future of this town is going to be and what the legacy of this town is going to be. I guess that's my little soap box. Those those tournaments do bring a lot of people to town. Yes. So the more you're able to offer, the more those things and the more outside people come. So

and and just greater services and more classes and opportunities for residents as well. So, and if you know a young person that would like to be a lifeguard that you need some of those, too. And we'll pay for the training, right? Absolutely. And maybe moving up to $11 an hour. Thank you. Yes. I have no report, so we're done.