City Council - Regular Meeting

members and accessible to members of the public. At this [clears throat] time, we're going to take a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of 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. Roll call, please. Granquist here. Arns here. Webb here. McCarthy here. Beckman here. Jensen here. Langy here. Hilderbrand here. Mayor here. At this time, we'd like to welcome the public for public comment opportun uh opportunity this evening. So, we'll start that now. Um again, we'll be using a fivem minute comment period per individual. So, anybody has anything to say, please come up.

[clears throat]

Jim McKenzie Thomas Jefferson said, "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property." Let that sink in for a minute. Government service is a public trust. It's impossible to govern effectively without that trust. When you announced at your October 6th city council meeting that you stopped recording your closed dooror subcommittee meetings for the first time in 45 years, you researched other first class cities. Your own research of four other cities in Nebraska showed that three of them did not even hold subcommittee meetings. The only one that the only other one that did, Columbus, held their meetings open to the public and recorded them. Norolk is the only city of the five that you checked with, including Norfolk, that holds subcommittee meetings in secret and now doesn't even record them. This is an extreme breach of public trust. Recently, there was an agenda item for engineering services for a new ball field and roads in Tazuka Park. When I asked about current field utilization, I thought it was a fair question because when we spend very limited tax resources, we should ensure that there's an adequate need and understand the tradeoffs. When you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars on one item, there's always something else you give up. It could be soccer fields, a soccer complex, neighborhood parks, park upkeep and improvements, additional trails, and other items. There's always a swap of one amenity for other amenities. And yet, I met resistance and was challenged by a council person for even asking the question. There were no utilization facts presented, and I assume this policy

decision and the reasoning behind it was formulated behind closed doors. Also, at the last city council meeting, there was an ordinance to define specific ATVs as UTVs. I don't have an issue with the ordinance, but it's another example of a policy that was formulated in a closed subcommittee meeting. One council person said, and I quote, "I wish we could revise this, but this is what the subcommittee brought forward." I want to reread to you the first sentence of the Nebraska Open Meetings Act, Chapter 84, Section [clears throat] 1408. It is hereby declared to be the policy of this state that the formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret. The ATV ordinance is public policy and was without a doubt formulated in secret. Norfolk is facing many significant challenges. Budgetary, infrastructure, taxes, utility rates, rising debt, and more. We cannot solve these problems by hiding behind closed doors and telling our citizens they have no right to know how we make our decisions. We cannot solve these problems by telling our citizens their input is not wanted. I ask you, what are you afraid of? I implore you to turn over a new leaf in 2026 and let open, transparent government be your primary driving force. Allow our citizens to be aware of and knowledgeable of our deliberations and policymaking process. Let's welcome citizen input and understanding. Trust is very easily lost and very difficult to regain.

The foundation of trust is based upon transparency and honesty. To close, Thomas Jefferson also said, "Whenever you do a thing, act as if the world were watching. Let's open up city government and let our citizens not only watch, but have input." Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? going once. Okay, we'll close public comment period and move on to recommended actions. I need approval of the consent agenda, please.

So, oh, wait. Uh, do we have anything being pulled of consent? Yes. Number 17. At the request of a council member. Okay. So, let me ask that over again. Need approval of the consent agenda with item number 17 being pulled and moved to the regular agenda. Second. A motion to second. [clears throat] Any discussion? All right. Please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. With that, let's uh need approval of the full agenda with 17 being added. So move second. All right. We have a motion second. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

All right. Uh that brings us to the public hearing and related action. Um item number 22. Uh, we need to open a hear public hearing to comply with provision of NRS18-1755 to acquire property located at 2306 South Fifth Street. Open that hearing and Lyall is going to um lead us here. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council and staff. Um, it's my great honor and pleasure to bring forth to you this purchase agreement in this property located at 2306 South Fifth Street. Um, I've never done this before, but I know a lot of people like to do these big puzzles. Imagine for me this feels like one of those 900 1,000 piece puzzles and you got 990 of them together. 999. You got that last one, that piece that falls into the slot. I'm going to go over a little bit of the history about how this came to pass. Um, as you can see on the on your hopefully your screens there, Val has graciously pulled up a picture from Google Earth. Actually, at the top there's a a time scan option. And she scrolled it back to 1993. And that's the Tahazuka Park area that we're talking about. From there, you can see there's perhaps hundreds of cars that are there and there debris stuff loaded up all over the place that's in there. That's also part of the flood plane area. You can see off to the right side as she scrolls through in a second. Don't do it yet, but you'll be able to see where the flood backed up from 2010 back in that time frame. and mayor was did an exceptional job when we were preparing for this staff meeting in last last week to talk about how things like this don't just come to pass. They take

years in this case decades to unfold. And around that mid90s time frame, the folks that were here before a lot of us, that includes folks like Mike Nolan and Sheila Shukai, Dennis Smith, Pat Mny, Clint Shukai, some that remain, Randy and Scott and Shane Widner started pursuing the option to uh get grant funding to clean that area up. [clears throat] that process started and then over the course of the time as we go through here you're going to see that area transform starting around 2004 if you scroll forward there that's 1999 be when those funds were becoming available 2004 notice the areas down in the bottom right corner what was um loaded with cars is getting cleaned out the drainage ditch is getting more cleaned out 2006 six time frame the river trail is going in along paralleling the river 2014 as you scan forward uh actually pausing that 2011 just for the historical perspective of where is that the one with the flooding area 2010 2010 you can see where the black backwater was built up in in these areas to so the flood mitigation was was working flood flood cleanout. 2014 is another big year. You can notice the zoom out one click if you would please. The [clears throat] pedestrian bridge is going in. The trails going in. The area that was loaded up with a bunch of cars and debris in this area, which we collectively refer to as a hot property, is cleaned up. Go to the Google Streets view as well of that property. As she does that, Google is an incredible tool. That's what that area looked like today, 2000.

This is 2024. If she goes back and toggles to 2012, this is what it looked like in the process of getting cleaned up. And if you'd span scan, so we can see right and left, that's where all of that work, of course, all of this is gone now. It's all pasture and getting ready for project construction. But that's a a a glimpse of what it looked like at the time. And if you were in the neighborhood, if you lived here, you you probably remember that. Um from there the city if you can go back to Google Earth please the the hut property h merny property right where Val's cursor is the city brought own uh purchased that property in 2015 which led to another conversation around 2017 at the intersection of Fifth Street and McKinley the northwest corner that property there came to pass that the city took the city ended up purchasing which then led to this purchase agreement which and I'm going to skip over this for a second because there's another element and I want to go a little deeper into this but there's another element that comes along with this purchase agreement while this was unfolding in September of 25 the shilling property right there very good city bought that property and so the only outlier that was left was this this one right here that Val's pointing at. Throughout 2019 and into 2020 after the purchase of the the Bethard property, this property owner approached the city and said, "Are you interested?" We came back to the the body said, "Yes, let's explore this further." We lots of negotiation for months or a year and a half or so in into [clears throat] the process. December of 2020 is when the

this purchase agreement, this original purchase agreement for this parcel came to pass. Can you zoom in on that please, Val? It included two elements. [clears throat] The first was the purchase of a rental house that sits right here that sat right here. The same property owner owned both of them. This property that is being considered tonight and this rental property here. city took possession, purchased that, demoed the house. Um, in that purchase agreement, there was consideration that the purch the the seller, they wanted to retain ownership. They wanted to stay in their place not to exceed 10 years, which is the other six acres that's being considered here, this area that Val is circling. They signed the agreement predetermined amount which remains the same today as it was in 2019 or right after COVID was wrapping up and we waited those those sellers had the opportunity between when that purchase agreement was signed and 2019 excuse me in in 2020 for nine years to come to the city and say okay I'm ready to sell for the predetermined amount let's go forward at the at the end of the ninth year going into the 10th year the city had the option but not necessarily the obligation to pull the trigger on that property as well. Well, that's the history starting now or la last few months few months ago. Stephen and Nate were talking about a project in that area that included some of the western portion of the property that's being discussed. Went back to the seller seller at this circumstance um Mr. Sheffller, rest his soul, is no longer with us, but the Mrs. Sheffller. His wife was is wrote her a letter actually and she called me and long story short, she was okay with the city working on the western portion. Actually, what come

is coming to pass is the city buying the whole parcel. The city and it's depicted in the purchase agreement as well installing a fence line just on the west side of the shed. She has uh responsibility for responsibility for everything on the east side. A lease hold that goes along with it not to exceed 2030 which meets its spirit of what the original purchase agreement was in the first place. City has control and dominion over everything on the west side of the fence line so that those projects can continue on and go forth. Um this is depicted in the CIP for 2025 2026 to the tune of $234,000. It's been there for a few years. I would like to say one other two other things actually. Mr. and Mrs. Sheffller, the pro the sellers were exceptionally exceptionally good people, salt of the earth folks to work with. I wish every negotiation and every discussion could be like it was with those folks. It was wonderful. They're very understanding. They're very good communicators. And Mrs. Shuffler was exactly the same this time around. And this scan back out if you would. This whole culmination from 1993 or 99 whatever it was you scan back to to what you see now is a result of strategic planning council retreats that take long time to come together. So much so that very few people that were here at that time are are still here now. With that being [clears throat] said, I'll do my best to answer whatever questions that you may have or the citizens may have.

Well, is this uh you know, you're talking about 30 years of time we're going by here since it started. Is this the last bit of property that we're looking the city be interested from those original talks till now? That's correct. Okay. So it was it was very much parcled out uh from the 80s or so and over the course of that time little pieces have been purchased through arms length transactions and this is the last little bit that uh is would be city-owned and to the best of my knowledge has any intent to buy. Okay, other questions. And then also the um the the monies that are set aside to buy this property, how long have you had those set aside? the CI the

so it would be um these discussions started in this purchase agreement would have been December of 2019 I want to say December of 2020 we probably had that correct me if I'm wrong Andy if you remember this but acquisition of real estate in general 2019 2018 perhaps and then as we got closer and got it more whittleled down to where this original purchase agreement was in We changed it to the the seller's name and the CIP. It's been sitting in there for since 2020. Um, and actually there's 234,000 that's listed there, but you have to keep in mind that there's cleanup that's going to be associated with it. And when when she does, she has the option to step away to leave whenever she wants. Um, she requested they requested that the payment come in the form over the course of a couple years, four years actually, which is fine with us. That's that's that's completely fine. The way we have it, it's budgeted. It can sit in the city's coffers and get paid out as best for everybody. Um, but once she separates, she understands that we don't have any intention of keeping the house. Actually, hopefully the police and fire public safety can go in there and train on that on those houses like they do on other ones. We get some value from that as well. Then we go into the demolition mode and try and keep it as low as we can. But as of now, it is 100% accounted for in the budget. Unless there is some major unforeseen circumstance, it's all all depicted in the budget and in the CIA.

You've had it set aside since 2020. What's that? You've had it set aside since 2020 or started setting aside in 2020. Yeah, haven't. We're on We're on year six. You got a four-year payout. So, you're looking about a 10-year deal before it's totally done. Actually, we I think we've been bumping it back a little bit every year because But initially when when when was your projected date to buy or actually from it was really hard to say because they had a 9-year window of opportunity to come and say yeah whether you know it was a a medical issue or maybe a fire or something. they had the opportunity to come and say okay here here's in accordance with the purchase agreement we want to buy this year one or year or we want to sell this year one year three year eight and a half

okay so there was some fluidity which is good when it comes to the CIP because we have to have that flexibility at times okay other questions what are the plans for this property well um I think the the master plan I don't want to get step on Nate's toes or Steven's toes or anything but form of softball field or baseball field in that area, some sort of ball field. They're pretty fluent though right now. I don't think we have a real set of plan. We have a suggestion, but I don't think anything set in stone as far what's my task was to get this accomplished. Right. That's exactly what I thought. So, yeah, I think there'll be a lot more

discussion and thought process with everyone involved before anything happens. So allow there's $34,000 left then to buy that little piece of house. Actually, when you factor in a little interest on that, it's going to be $50,000 a year for four years. That gets us to 2030. So hopefully a little interest on that whenever that comes to pass. Um maybe we can get that demolition cost where it's lower. So there could be some money left in the pocket. That's what I'm hoping anyway. Right. But our our our [clears throat] cost that we have left if we do this is $34,000. Right. Okay. Yep. Exactly right. Other questions or comments?

Okay. Yep. Anybody else have an opportunity public have any want to present or ask any questions while we're on while we're in the uh public hearing portion? All right. Seeing none, we're going to close the public hearing and u move on to item number 23. Uh a motion to consider of approval of a real estate purchase agreement and a lease agreement between the city and Joyce Sheffller providing the city's purchase of the property located at 2306 South Fifth Street for the price of 200,000. So move your honor.

Second. All right. We have a motion to second. Any other discussion? Any discussion from the public? All right. Seeing none, short title, please. Oh, I'm sorry. Never mind. I'm jumping ahead. Uh, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries.

Right. That brings us to brings us to the regular agenda. Item number 17, consideration approval of change order number 2F with DN Tanks LLC, DBA, DN Tanks of Nebraska LLC for the um treatment of the water storage project result in net decrease of $11,850. And um I'll [clears throat] make a motion for consideration approval. Second. Have a motion to second. Chad's going to lead discussion here.

Uh good, mayor, councel. Um this change order right here for $11,85 was a result of city staff uh working with the DNN tanks. Um this covered the disinfection of the tank. Uh DNN tank was already off the job site. City staff went ahead and dis provided the disinfection on the tank and we also did the sampling. And then we're also going to be doing the uh the seating of the area around the tank. Um they had $12,000 roughly in there for seating. We went ahead and took that out and we're going to have city staff go ahead and provide the the hydro seating next year. That gives us time to go ahead and put the sprinkler systems in. So that's what the cost savings here that we're uh have in front of you here. And again, that brings that total to cost of that tank down there to $3,722,181, which is another one that we uh saved overall. So, any questions on that?

I don't have any questions. I just have a comment that I think that's um really nice to see your department accept that challenge, see an opportunity to save some money uh that didn't have to go to an outside source that you recognize that and 11,000 here and there. Um it all adds up. So yeah, good job. Yep. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Thank you. Thank you, John. Any other question? public. All right. Seeing none, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Motion carries. All right. We're on to the item number 24. Consideration of ordinance number 5966 amending section 24291 of the official city code to reflect the correct name of Northeast Community College. I'll make a motion for consideration of approval. Second.

All right. Discussion here. Kylie. So earlier this year, I received an email from a staff member at Northeast Community College who noted that the college was incorrectly referenced as Nebraska Technical Community College in section 24-291 of the city code. So, this ordinance corrects the reference to reflect the college's proper name and is just intended as a housekeeping ordinance. It's a hot topic. I'm sure we're going to go on discussion [laughter] here. How long ago was it? Did they change what does any know when they changed the name to from from the tech college? Do you know what's that? Would you know when they changed the name from the tech college to the northeast community college?

No. 73 maybe 74. Really? Well, from junior college to Okay. From Northeast to Northeast. I have no idea. I just know we when I was growing up here we call tech. Yeah. So I didn't know when that officially changed. Somebody can probably Google it quick, but anyway. Anyway, um, any other discussion from anybody else? Seeing none, short title, please.

An ordinance of the city of Norfor, Nebraska to amend section 24-291 of the official city code to reflect the current name of Northeast Community College, to provide when this ordinance shall be in full force in effect, and to provide for the publication of this ordinance in pamphlet form. All council members voting in the affirmative. Ordinance number 5966 carries on first reading. I'll make them I'll make [clears throat] a motion to suspend the rules and and wave the second and third readings. Second. [snorts]

All right, we have a motion to second. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. All council members voting in the affirmative. Ordinance number 5966 carries on second and third. All right. Then brings us on to consider item number 25. Consideration of resolution 2026-2 approving the mayor's appointment of Melissa Figera as city attorney effective January 16, 2026. I'll make a motion for consideration of resolution 2026-2. Second,

I would imagine we'll go in your direction if you want to. Yeah. Great. It's not written on my sheet this time. So, [laughter] well, um I state your name for the record. Yeah, there you go. Figuroa. Oh, I said Figera. Sorry. If you feel any better, there is a judge in this county who also struggled a little bit with my last name. So,

um, well, I guess I would like to thank you, mayor, and city council, as well as Scott and city staff. Um, the last couple of months have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I have appreciated that you all have allowed me the opportunity to work in this capacity and to serve as the community of Norfor in this capacity. Um, I have enjoyed it. It has been a nice transition back into what I feel are my roots which is law and combining that with my love of government. So that has been that has been great. Thank you. Thank you. [laughter] And thank you all for you know Yeah.

hopefully allowing me to continue to serve in this capacity. Thank you. ANY [applause] other discussion? All right, please vote.

All council members voting in the affirmative. Resolution 2026-2 is adopted. Well, thank you and we welcome you and I look forward to working with you again as you've been on basically doing this job for a while now. So, we do appreciate all your hard work and we welcome you on board and um figurora I'll say right this time. Uh I have a family member I have a family member who pronounced it [laughter] I have a family member who pronounced it the other way so yeah so it's a little bit different. Thank you mayor. Anyway, thank you. Anybody else comment? All right, with that we are adjourned.