City Council - Regular Meeting

This 5.30, having this meeting to order, we will start with the invocation and the pledge. So those that would like to participate in the invocation, please stand.

I pledge allegiance 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.

Chris, if you would take the roll, please. Okay, I got to wait a minute. So Chris, if you would take the roll, please.

So it looks like we have a citizen that would like to.

So that would be an E or at the end, correct?

Mayor, this should be done at E or at the end.

So what I'm going to do right now, I'm going to invite us into a 30 second time of silence. Time of silence.

No, we are at the consent agenda. I'm sorry, but it's time to move forward. The invocation happened.

As mayor of the city of Tumwan, the one rolling this, running the meeting, I'm going to ask right now that we do a moment of silence to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time. And then we will move to the consent agenda. So with that, we'll go into a moment of silence. Okay, thank you. With that, we'll move to consent agenda part one. Do I have a motion for consent agenda part one? So moved.

Any questions? Chris, take the roll, please.

With that, we move to consent agenda part two. Do I have a motion for consent agenda part two?

No. That I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. I'll second that. Chris, take the roll.

Yes. And with that, I'll turn it over to Administrator Rath for his report.

And those watching at home, I think there's still a couple tickets left for the ballet tonight.

With that, I would encourage anybody here that would like to speak on any of the agenda items to fill out a little slip of paper. Those are found in the basket up there on the front banister. And with that, we would move to the public hearing.

So with that, I would declare this public hearing open, and I would turn it over to our Community Development Director, Amal.

Okay, so this is the little triangle that we talked about in a previous meeting, right? Okay. Is there any questions from council? Hearing none, this is a public hearing. Is there anyone from the audience that would like to speak on this matter? Okay, and I know we received one document. So are you going to read that to us?

There are certain levels that I'm sure there are certain levels they have to meet before they discharge what they're treating, correct? Correct.

I would just also state that it does identify that this is to accommodate a planned expansion. So that information was identified and posted for the public to see too. And we've talked about it for the last three weeks. This is our fourth week talking about this, I think.

Okay. If no other questions, I'd entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

Second. Is there any other questions or comments from council? Okay, Chris, take the roll, please.

With that, I would declare the public hearing open and turn it over to our planning and zoning coordinator, Mr. Rush.

Any questions from council? Okay, this is a public hearing, so is there anyone out in the audience that would like to speak on this matter? Okay, seeing none, did we receive any phone calls or email letters, correspondence?

Okay. With that, I'd entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

Any other questions? Chris, take the roll, please.

So with that, I would declare this public hearing open and turn it over to our Community Development Director again.

So this is just a formality for us to say that we have no objection.

And we provide no services to this area because it's considered county, right?

Okay. Any other questions from council? I do have two individuals that wanted to speak on this matter. So first I'll ask Inez Hill to come forward. Inez, if you could speak your name and address, that would be great.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. And then with that, I would call John. I'm hoping I'm saying your last name. Cordray, is that right? Cordy. Cordy? Okay. Yeah, if you could speak your name and address, that would be great.

If not, I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

One thing I say is that I think that all of us believe in private property and people being able to do what they want to with their property, as long as it's within reason, as was previously mentioned a few things. If the city did ever annex that area, it would need to be residential for houses and so on. And so I just think the idea of private property carries the day on this idea.

Sure. And I would remind us that this is county. And so all we're doing is not giving objection for them to move into the process of them subdividing it. They would be the ones that ultimately make that decision. There's nothing else. Chris, take the roll, please.

With that, I will turn it over to our city clerk.

Do you have any idea how many of the parking lot spaces would be taken?

Because I did have a constituent reach out. little upset that parking was hard enough downtown without the parking lot being giving up more spaces and then because they aren't going to be paying full we're not going to be taking in as much revenue correct

So that's- The other comment was that they felt that we were giving the parking spaces away to businesses that weren't going to be using them for customers.

park in that area but maybe they do i don't know yeah there are some dumpsters in the green street parking lot um that take up spots and that's kind of okay you want the businesses to be able to have the ability to get rid of their trash in a nice way but at the same time we'd love to have the parking stalls so that more people could go and frequent the business so it's kind of a catch-22 in some ways um But I think that's where, of course, we're not talking fee tonight, but that's something to consider when we do talk about the fee and what compensation is.

The other thing, if you're going to be doing this, I know that we have talked in solid waste about how our commercial doesn't recycle. Are we going to maybe put something about recycling dispenser dumpsters in downtown area as well?

That could be something that we could add to it later as well.

Well, it's just we're trying to keep it from going to the landfill. And the commercial has a lot of boxes that probably could go to recycle versus the landfill. Just saying.

And I would comment that one of the things in the ordinance talks about someone who's putting a private dumpster on public property shall be subject to a civil penalty. That's something else we probably need to talk about is, okay, if someone's placing a private dumpster on city property and they're not getting a permit, what's the fine? What is that? Yeah, what does that look like as well? And again, I think that's something we can cover when we determine for sure what the fee needs to be.

Yeah, that's been another, yeah. That's been tossed back and forth, honestly.

Yeah, we were talking with the SMID group as to whether they should be enforcing it or if we should be enforcing it.

Well, why don't we just I mean, whomever before placing, could we have an agreement with the the trash receptacle people that they have to contact the city if it's going on public property before laying it because otherwise they'll get the fee. I think that would have them contact us rather quickly.

Yeah, I agree. And if we have the ability to put a padlock on it, if it's not there legally, that should get a phone call pretty quick too.

I mean, I think if we talk, if we say like, Hey, if you place it without confirmation from the city, then you, the company get the fee and the business owner or whomever gets the fee.

So yeah, my understanding, the reason for the ordinance now is to set a framework in place because we really haven't had one. I think there was an attempt at one and then it kind of got lost in the mix. And so we're revisiting it to make sure we have a framework that works and that we can build off of.

Well, I think picking up the trash and making it look more pleasing is a good idea. I just don't want to be...

Well, I think it definitely needs to be something that they pay for and people that have an interest in it need to put some money towards it. I'm kind of disheartened by the idea that there was a permit or a fee that was mentioned, but people weren't paying it. It sounds like that's not good. But 300 seems kind of steep, but at the same time is taken. a parking spot that would be producing some revenue so there needs to be a proper fee and and when you think of it in that regard the 100 even seems a little on the low side to me sure and sometimes it's multiple businesses using the same enclosu

Any other questions or comments from council? I didn't have anybody from the public wanting to speak on this, so.

Okay, Chris, if you'd take the roll, please.

So with that, I would entertain a motion to approve. Motion to approve. And I'll turn it over to Mr. Burgmeier.

And that's the fleet committee's recommendation. Well, yeah.

Okay. Any other questions from council? Okay, Chris, take the roll, please.

And with this item, no action is to be taken tonight. So this is just simply meant for discussion. So the only motion would be as if we were going to table this or hold off and do it at another time. So if that's the case, I'd entertain that motion. Otherwise I'll turn it over to Administrator Rath.

So is your motion to not have the discussion?

Yeah, I think that I understand that we want to have a discussion and look at bringing a policy next week. But Administrator Rapp did send an email today that maybe not everyone got to review.

um got to review and i don't i guess i don't understand why we're rushing this forward when we want to make sure if we are bringing a policy we're doing it right and even if we were to bring a policy next week um in hopes of voting on it i think that then we would still need to review and write on or probably make some changes so i don't know i believe that we should uh postpone it to next week where we can get truly read this email and um i think there's some other questions that may come forward too um that and give us time to process and think um i think that this conversation tonight shoul

Galloway study from 2023. And that just brought up even more questions and there's more things to watch after that. And I would rather... Table it or postpone it until, yeah.

And I would also say, I understand starting the conversation tonight too, but I don't think that that's giving our staff proper time to maybe prepare for some of those questions too, where we can just put it at all instead of, hey, I'll get back to you on that and that kind of stuff too, because I want to make sure we're using good use of our time and the people in the audience's time too.

Most of us on council weren't around when all this started, and unless you've done your research, it's really quite confusing.

Would it be beneficial to hear what Mr. Rath was going to speak to, and then we don't necessarily need to go to discussion, or do we want to wait for the whole thing until next week?

I'll leave that up to the administrator, right?

Well, you know, and again, respectfully, we have represented and nonrepresented associates or staff, and I don't believe anybody up here wants to do them an injustice, but it really did take a lot for them to come to us with this. And, you know, we made some, you know, we made promises and we want to listen. So I want to know, and I mean this respectfully, how far down the road are we going to push this? I mean, and the discussion, and I'm not saying that it doesn't merit discussion. It does. So if anybody down there is going to yell at me and say, well, we have to discuss it. We have to have

So I'm asking to postpone it to the next meeting. And then we have a council meeting until the end of November every Tuesday. So, I mean, I think we could get it on the agenda pretty quickly after we talk, review the policy and ensure it's appropriate for all our staff that, and that we're happy with it. So I think.

i mean we have a council meeting i agree i want to make sure it's appropriate for our staff too that's why i don't want to keep kicking it down the road i don't want to postpone it forever i just i want to completely understand it so that we are serving not only our constituents, but our employees with what they deserve and what they've been promised and what their interpretation is. And when I read it, I'm confused.

And we need to understand the financial aspect of it too. We have in here, as Mr. Rath pointed out, a 36.5.

And if you look at what Mr. Lee gave us last week, It's not looking good for next year either. So we have to make some really wise decisions. We're already in a shortfall. I 100% agree with that.

The original intent. for tonight was to have discussion so that we would be able to write a policy to bring to council the following meeting. So right now we have a motion and I believe a second to postpone the discussion until next week. And then the intent would be that we would have an actionable item the following week as council member Galloway mentioned to take action on. So we'd be postponing it one week. In that week, I would encourage you to, if that's the direction council decides to go, to get a hold of Administrator Rath, myself with questions, with HR Director Kojo as well. I know

And I would also recommend too, like I know I have some questions and council person to pray to, if we can, if we send it to our department heads, could you respond to all of us so we have all that information too? That would be great also.

With that, there is a motion to postpone. And so we do have to take action on that, right?

I'll turn it over to our finance officer, Mr. Lee. Good evening.

I know it's a standard thing that has to be done and you've got your numbers here and you can even, so I appreciate that. It's just something that obviously needs to be taken care of.

If no other questions, Chris, if you'd take the roll.

Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. Mr. Lee.

I just want to add one thing on the last section in this one. I just want to appreciate how you paint a picture. It's very understandable. It's not, so thank you for the way you organize and put this.

Any other questions or comments? Chris, take the roll, please.

Mr. Lee, can I stop you for a second on membership? Is there a length of term, so like length that a person would serve and a length that the person would be appointed chair and secretary? I don't see it in here. I don't know if that's needed.

I have another question. So I talked with you and Administrator Rath about this earlier. So on that fleet expansion and equipment upgrades, right here it said any equipment or vehicle additions shall require the authorization from the committee. But then when you look at the process, it's kind of later in after it goes to city council. So can you kind of walk us through that?

My understanding that's current practice as well. Yes.

So this was fleet committee was started in 91. So there really was never a policy.

Is there a motion to approve? I'll move. Second. I'm going to turn it over to our city engineer, Mr. Bergmeier.

What was that last part? Just our cost for what?

Yeah. Any questions from council? What's the timeline on this?

And that's going to be a tough intersection to be closed for a long time. And so how long does the work expected to take any ideas on that?

Will that affect the Bridge City Sanitation Company?

Summit Street is really a rough street up and over there.

Because they have both their commercial and their residential trucks both on that other side, don't they?

So that's going to affect. Yeah. Yeah. We want to look at that. I don't want garbage for 18 months.

Yeah, that's better. Okay. Any other questions? Chris, take the roll, please.

Any other questions from council? Okay, Chris, take the roll, please.

Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Okay, I'll turn it over to our library director, Ms. Furrow.

Okay, does council have any questions or comments?

And it's so broken up. It does look like broken asphalt or gravel-ish.

So where is the money coming from? Is this coming from streets or where's the money come?

When is the anticipated timeline for this project? Oh, good. Okay, thank you. Any other questions from Council?

TK Concrete has a lot of projects in our town, and they'll be done by December 1st.

Okay. Chris, if you would take the roll.

Yes. At this time, we are at the section of public forum, so if there is anyone from the audience that would like to come forward and speak on any non-agenda items, you may do so. Okay, seeing none, I am going to call for a five-minute recess.

Oh yeah, I skipped right over that, guys, sorry. Okay, before we go to five-minute recess, Yeah, is there anything that council would like to communicate to the public?

Yes. Just a little report on the parks. Oktoberfest went well despite the weather. The first two days were pretty rainy, but I hear that it was a success. The parks is beginning to winterize all the parks, so water is going to be shut off. at all the parks. And there's an open house out at the cemetery on Friday from two to four with a ribbon cutting. They're gonna grand opening. So everyone's welcome. There's maybe cookies, but not much food. I have something I'd like to say.

So I just want to comment on what happened tonight. So opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own. And responding to someone's invocation is a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on the taxpayers and allowing for others to object or respond. And this is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it. And I think I even specifically referenced that having someone from the Church of Satan or a prayer about Satan, when we talked about that, that this could happen and we would need to allow it. So I just want t

Anything else? Okay, with that, I will call for a five minute recess in which we will convene downstairs in conference room 128. So we're in recess.