City Council - Special Meeting

All right, it is 5.30. I'm going to call this meeting over and we will start by standing and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

You may be seated. I am taking the role. Our city clerk is gone this evening, so I will take the role. So, Council Member Kavaniss?

Here.

Council Member Reed? Here. Council Member Galloway?

Here.

Council Member Hoffman? Here. Council Member Dupre?

Here.

And Mayor Foote is here. I'm going to start, before we do approval of agenda, I will mention this is public discussion. public forum, and so if you would like to speak on any of the agenda items tonight, I would ask that you fill out a slip of paper. They're in that basket on the banister. That way they can get that up here and we can make sure to plug you in in the right place. So with that, I would entertain a motion for approval of agenda.

Move to approve. Second.

Any other questions? Council Member Kavanagh?

Yes.

Council Member Reid? Yes. Council Member Galloway?

Yes.

Council Member Hoffman?

Yes.

Council Member Dupre?

Yes.

So resolution number 134-2026, resolution supporting workforce housing development in the Vogel Heights Platte and acknowledging eligibility for tax credits. Recommendation pass and adopt resolution 134-2026. With that, I'll turn it over. Oh, I'll entertain a motion to approve.

Move the recommendation. Second. Second.

I'll turn it over to Community Development Director Amal.

Good evening, everyone. PNM is a local contractor. They're interested in developing 10 townhomes within the Vogel Heights subdivision. They're estimating their investment is going to be a little over $1.6 million. And they're interested in applying for workforce housing with the state and part of that application. requires showing community support. So the resolution in front of council is to show support for the project and also confirm their eligibility to receive a 10-year tax payment schedule. This is a tax abatement program. It's available for all developments within the community. As you can see here in the picture, this is a rendering for how the townhomes would look like. And we have recently taken action in support of the overall project through infrastructure, investing in infrastructure, and also in support for the overall development. It's a complex development that includes single family and multifamily, and this is going to be part of the multifamily development. I'll take any question if you guys have any.

I don't have any questions, but I drove by there the other day, and they're moving a lot of dirt. They've got a lot of equipment on board, and they've built a big pile so they can drive their equipment on and off. Two weeks ago, all I saw was where you folks just put a little spoonful of dirt and called it good. But yesterday, it was pretty big.

I'm excited about the project as well, and I think we all are, but I wonder, PNM, I'm not real familiar with them. They have experience in new construction, I assume?

They do, and you might be familiar with the name Matt Rhodes. I saw it in the writing. Properties, yes.

Any other questions or comments?

The pictures on the screen are what we are looking like hopefully to build. May I be correct?

Yes. Those are coming from their architect. And I also wanted to share the news that the project that council took action in support of for the 9% tax credit was awarded close to 1.2 million. This is for the Agassiz, Lofts and Tamwa. That's great news. This is the third round for them. Yes, it is exciting.

Yeah, that's good.

If no other questions, then I'll take the roll. So council member Cavanaugh?

Yes.

Council member Reed?

Yes.

Council member Galloway?

Yes.

Council member Hoffman?

Yes.

Council member Dupre?

Yes.

Item two is canvasser and solicitor application permit for STARS and STRIDES 5K event scheduled for July 4th, 2026. Recommendation approves the canvasser solicitor application.

Do I have a motion?

Is there a second?

Second.

Normally this would be on a consent agenda, but with our meeting tonight, we decided to just put it on here this week. That way the... person applying can go ahead and get to work, because this sounds like an exciting time for July 4th, which is right around the corner. And with that, I would entertain any questions that you have on this.

I don't have a question, but I think it's great to have something like that. And I'd like to see us have something every July 4th or whenever. It doesn't have to be on the 4th, but it seemed like we haven't had a 5K for a while.

Yeah.

Not that I'm looking to get in one necessarily, but I still think it's exciting to see them.

Yeah.

Right.

I will gladly cheer them on on the sideline myself.

Is this on the city website so it's advertised well?

I don't know if this would be on the city website, but I know that there's flyers that will be put up around town. And Mrs. Decker, if you'd like to speak on this, you can.

So we've had a really good reception from local businesses. They're pretty excited about it and joining in on the fun. I've asked some if they want to run. They said we'll donate a little bit instead. But we wanted the mayor to come and be able to say the pledge with us and City Councilman Dan Reed to sing for us. And just be a fun time. We're going to have what's called the sparklers race to kick it off. And it'll be a hundred yard dash for 10 and under. So that'll be really cute. And I've had a lot of people say, I'll bring my grandkids. So I'll bring mine. And I hope. Maybe some of you will also, and if you can't run, you can walk. But we've had a lot of good response from the community, and I think everyone, so it's going for the veterans of Wapello County, and everybody's willing to participate in it. So it's been a real good reception toward it.

Awesome.

Thank you for stepping up and doing that.

Excuse me. Go ahead. I just wanted to thank you for stepping up and doing that for us.

It's the least I can do. They've done a whole lot more for me than what I've been doing this week. Thank you. I love the name. Yes, and Mr. Rathje was able to get me what I needed to be able to get there. I appreciate that. So everybody's really just been pulling and different people helping in different ways, and I really appreciate that because it was kind of a new thing. Next year I will know.

The sparklers.

Yes, the kids will all get sparklers at the end of the race. And Thumbs Up is donating a couple little trophies for them. So the five and under will get a trophy, the winner, and then six and ten will get a trophy. A lot of the prizes are not going to be trophies and ribbons. I don't know about you. I run 5K races. My trophies go to the kids and they play with it. So we're giving away gift cards that we get as donations. And I think people really like it. It'll be interesting for everyone to see what has been donated. It's been fun. So even like Baumgars gave us a lawn chair. It's got stars and stripes on it. So really neat. And gift cards for pizza places and ice cream shops. So all of the town, I think, is just going to really like it. And if anybody can put it on their Facebook page, that'll be great. I have someone right now, some of you know Isabel, and she's working on a good flyer with everything I need on there. So we're working on getting the T-shirts made with logos and names and sponsors on the back, and it's all in the works.

I would be happy to make a contribution to provide a trophy if you like. You can check with me later about it.

Okay. Okay. The thumbs up didn't have time to make all the trophies anyway, so that was part of the thing that we're giving out consumables.

Thank you. So with that, I'll take the roll. Council Member Kavanagh. Yes. Council Member Reed.

Yes.

Council Member Galloway. Yes. Council Member Hoffman?

Yes.

Council Member Dupre?

Yes.

Next item is review of city administrators progress on goals established during last evaluation and providing discussion for newer appointed officials so they understand expectations of the evaluation process. Really no action item here, just simply discussion. Before we start into that, I would like to state that this discussion is simply focused on the evaluation that was given to the administrator in December, and just simply looking at the goals that were stated in there and the progress up to this point. Anyone making comments to this, I want to caution you to stick with us. We want to stay away from anything that would go against anyone's character, be defaming of anyone, or place any liability on them or the city. So I just wanted to state that ahead of time. And with that, I would open it up for discussion. I don't know who's going to start.

I guess I don't remember what the goals were.

There were not identified goals.

If we look at the performance evaluation, we did not have set out identified goals to move forward with from my reading of this.

How about you, Phil? Do you remember things that you were challenged with?

There were not and I sent out a message to council yesterday and I just read that real quick. Mayor and council members, thank you for allowing or allocating time on the meeting agenda to discuss my professional evaluation from six months ago. As a city administrator serving Ottumwa since 2020, I welcome this conversation in an open session as I believe public transparency is vital for strong city governance. This weekend, I spent time reviewing the December evaluation again and noticed some opposing viewpoints in the responses, not only between staff and city council members, but also among some responses from city council members. An area of particular interest was in regard to our operational structure. One comment noted the need for Conversely, a staff comment suggests city council intervention makes this administrator to lead effectively. When lines of authority blur, it strains staff morale and city efficiency. I've heard comments recently from staff, including some in leadership positions that identified this very concern. To address this, I suggest we use this meeting to firmly establish the following operational rules. First, maintain a clear chain of command. Per the structural format of our city government, city council sets policy and the city administrator manages personnel. I ask that any and all concerns received by city council regarding staff behavior or performance be routed to my attention so I can handle them officially. Additionally, I would request continued city council support for recommendations related to personnel actions I believe are necessary for the efficient operation of the city. Second, structured reporting. To give the City Council full visibility of city operations without micromanagement, I will introduce a monthly administrative report starting this month, or in July here. Objective performance goals. My previous annual report did not include specific targets. I asked the City Council to collaborate with me tonight to establish two to three SMART operational goals for the next six months. To begin the conversation, I included a few suggestions. The first, as I'd mentioned, was priority-based budget. Work with staff to complete a prioritized list of services within the general fund. This list will be formatted and provided to City Council for consideration by the July 21st City Council meeting. Second, quarterly newsletter. Develop a quarterly newsletter for electronic distribution to staff and interested public by October 15 of 26. That would coordinate with the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. Third, succession planning. By December 1st, create a draft policy regarding succession planning for director level positions within the city of Ottumwa. I am proud of the steady progress we've made in the city of Ottumwa since 2020. In the past few years, we've completed a variety of projects which have been in limbo for a decade plus. And recently we have broken ground on a site to add 58 new housing units. The future is bright. I look forward to working closely with the mayor and city council members to keep Ottumwa moving forward. Respectfully submitted.

I want to kind of go back and clarify. I should say that we discussed things that needed to be worked on. And then in the past, the mayor had then brought those ideas together to formalize, but I didn't see a formal. There was not. Right.

Yeah. I know there had been in the past, but I wasn't sure if we really reiterated those, but you've set some things there that we can work on.

And so am I hearing that I needed to step up and put those goal lists together?

Cause I'm not saying you, I'm saying in the past that it happened prior to you. So what I'm saying is that's kind of, I think where, what the transition there, we as a council and as a past council dropped the ball there, I would say, but we did talk about when I say that there were no goals discussed, there wasn't formally put in, but we did talk about things that needed to be worked on or that we would like to see. Would you agree with that administrator? But not formally.

Not formally, and I do not recall what anything specific was at that time.

Okay. Yeah, but in the, and I understand, I don't, I mean, we need, he's right, we need to assess some clear stuff, but in the e-ballot itself, there were goals set under each section. This is what, I mean, I'm not calling out the opportunities because there were good things too. There were, you know, he's doing this good and these were opportunities. So it is kind of formal things to work on that we can be updated on. But the year before, When we were at Bridgeview, that's a year before, right? We did give him an abnormal, like 150 million things. You know, it was kind of unfair. So the next year, I think that's why we did it that way is so we didn't like, I mean, made it fair, executable and attainable.

Well, I know as I was going through and reviewing everything, and yeah, there isn't formal goals, but there was different things brought up to work on. In fact, the succession plan, I think, was one that was talked about. So I'm glad that you have that. You've already set that as an example, as a goal. I think that's one of the things I had written down as a question. So that one's answered. I think one of the other things you brought up in your Your letter to the council was just a follow through with council as far as with council's direction and policy. I think that comes with better communication and having better communication with council. So those are two of the questions I had. I kind of went through each evaluation topic and just, if there was something I thought maybe is something that could establish a goal, I wrote those down, but not everyone had, not every category had those things. So that's where I had those two questions.

I know the third item.

Those were direction for and I know we're talking about the right direction as well. The fourth one is that communication. Relations with council. Relations with council, okay. That makes sense because I said how is the continued meeting with council and mayor. Is there a reaching out or is it more? Yeah, how's that been going? That was a question I was going to ask. 6 is communication 6 is and then I had letter because that was that came up. You just mentioned that.

I think one goal is going to the individual departments a little more often too, I think. And I'm not calling them out. I'm just saying I think that was one of the goals we talked about. Right.

And then there was some things as far as accessibility to public and just getting out in the public a little bit more seemed to be some of the things on 8 and 9. And so those are some of the questions that I had. Again, I just putting them out here for an opportunity to discuss as counsel with the administrator as how things are going and if we need to set the goals from here for those things or any other ideas that council has.

Phil, I would like to comment that I think I've encouraged Mr. Burgermeier to work on our streets as often as he can, but I don't, I feel like he is not taking my encouragement serious because I don't see enough repair done on any of our streets

and we need to be filling in chuck holes and smoothing things out a little.

I realize he's working on the big projects, but we also need to work on the smaller projects, which is every time I go across the street, steering wheel jumps out of my hand. I know there was something under me that should have been filled in and wasn't. So I would encourage you to encourage Mr. Bergmeier.

if he can't do a little more than what he's doing.

And at the same time, I mean, On the south side, there's quite a bit going on. And I've had some comments, you know, people mentioning, hey, glad to see those streets getting done and things like that. So, you know, sometimes, yeah, big projects probably consume most of their energies at times. But I have heard some good comments lately about some streets being taken care of. You know, there's been a lot of, you know, mill and fill, you know, getting some streets re-black topped and making them look good on the south side of the city. Yeah.

I got a call. Oh, I didn't get a call. My wife got a call from someone on Lake Road. They just wanted to thank us for all the efforts we put out there on Lake Road and indicated that they thought the personnel was very courteous and tried to work with them as much as they could and still get their job done. So that's a plus.

Well, I think there are a lot of pluses out there. And I'm just going to say it, so Facebook people, warm your keyboards up. But, you know, there's a lot of good stuff going on in the city, and I think that gets – not looked at it's it's little things that that we throw out on but there is there are a lot of positive things and you know they're they're you know there's a lot of project we've dropped the ball on a lot of projects that's helping the city turn a corner i mean um But I would challenge anybody who lives in any city not to, it's not inclusive to us. We all have a lot of the same problems. It's how you deal with it and move forward. So, I mean, I'm glad Dan or Councilman Reed pointed out, Councilman Kavanagh's point out that there is good positive things. There's still a lot of things we need to work on, but there are some good positive things going on.

Yeah, the project over on Mary, I was just talking to a couple of people that live on that street and asked them how it was going. And that's a really long project. I mean, they went through the winter without the street being open. And he says, oh, it's great. We work out with the rural water. We go through their road, their driveway, and down their back. in the morning before they get there. And then we make sure we wait until they come up and get out. And I'm like, okay. And the neighbors are all, you know, pull through my yard park here, but they're excited that it's almost done. The other thing that I wanted to mention is I like your idea of giving a report to us. I was going to suggest that because in my past work experience, we had to do that and report. And it was a matter of giving current and new work tasks and, and continued work projects where we were progressing and how that was going and a list of any of the high importance meetings that we may be attending or when we were gonna be out of the office with then a short synopsis at the bottom that just said how overall it had gone. And that worked really well for communication between us and management. And when I moved up in management, I used it with my own employees and it worked really well. I knew what people were doing. and where they were at. So I do appreciate you putting that into thought.

I know that a newsletter has been on the list before. I think before it was going to be a monthly newsletter and I'm thinking, oh man, that's a lot of work. Yeah. But, but, you know, at least, you know, the idea of quarterly, I think that's a nice little step, you know, that's maybe doable, you know, but yeah, it can be a time consuming thing. I'm sure you think, oh man, didn't I just do this and you could do another one, but yeah, Barb puts them out with her things that she does. So yeah.

Yeah, that's true.

So I think it is helpful, keeps people informed, and it's worth the effort.

And if there's a template out there already, that might be easy to just kind of follow.

All right. You know, and there's one big problem we all got to talk about, and that is kind of the communicative process, the communication process. Now, am I talking about Phil communicating with us? No, I think he actually communicates with us pretty well. The climate's bad with a few leaders. And what is being said on one side and what is being said on the other side is being muddied up in the middle. Now, is it them? Is it them? No blame game. Nothing like that. There's trouble on both sides. But number one, and I'm not going to talk about, of course, private emails, but there's been problems. And I just want to urge everybody, every department head sitting here, how many of you we walked to the door in the last two years? No, we've all welcome to talk to you. We talked to the staff. We, we, we have to be able to talk to people as counseling. We have to be able to talk to the staff, um, without fear or repercussion. What we do now, we don't want you guys to have fear either, but when they come to us, we, we, we have to be able to speak now, Phil, uh, is a good liaison, but you know, we'd be doing a disservice to the citizens. We didn't say there was a little bit of trouble lately on both sides, but we're moving through it. You know, we were going ahead and we're going through it. Um, but we, it's nothing against city leaders. We value our staff. We value our city leaders. And we have changed a few policies. And some of this, I'll just address a little bit of it. And Phil did kind of help in the middle on this is, Some policies we changed. Just because we wanted to have a hand in department heads that got hired or fired doesn't make us evil. It makes us a responsible council. Just because we wanted you to live here, we give you $120,000, $130,000, $140,000, $150,000, that doesn't make us bad because all you sitting out there, that's your money. And I don't think it's wrong to want people to live here. And as you see, we did work with those people. We did work with everybody. So some of the backlash we get, I would like to see better communication on that because we did work with people. We absolutely did. We didn't tell anybody to get out. We haven't told the department had to leave. We haven't told them they're fired. We haven't told them that they can't do this or can't do that. There's going to be problems and there's going to be a miscommunication, but we got to get to a point where that communication is better. Now, Phil plays a key role in that. And I'm not saying he's not doing his job because he does, but sometimes Phil and you'll even, it's probably like beating your head against a brick wall with both sides. Cause Phil's in a unique position where he's got us and then he's got all of you guys. And it's too varied. I do appreciate the Phil. everybody on the same page, but he gets angry. And once in a while, just as natural, just people do. I mean, you know, to go to work and say, Hey, I'm never going to get mad. And it's a lie. You're going to get mad. You're going to have personal feelings. We have to get to a point where we're communicating better that way. Um, I haven't talked to one member of the council up here that says, uh, I want somebody gone. I want somebody gone. I We wouldn't be doing our job if we weren't looking at positions every budget time. Do we need this one? Do we need this one? Do we need this one? Do we need this one? Can we combine this? Can we combine this? That's just responsible talk with taxpayer money. And as you know, everybody's still sitting here. So I wanted to appreciate Phil for being the liaison because I know And, you know, I like Phil. And even though him and I have butted heads, I can understand why he gets frustrated because he does get it from both sides. And we have to call that out. I mean, you get it from both sides. So he does handle that pretty good. I would just like to see some improvements in the way I just talked about, kind of rounded it out. You know what I mean? Yeah. to build a better relationship with, with staff, um, without miscommunication or getting muddied up in the middle, like department heads talk to us or, you know, um, it's, if you're a department head and you're afraid to talk to us, maybe we did say something, but it's not all our fault is we didn't, you know, we've never not encouraged anybody to come to us or staff or anybody else. Um, you're always going to get the answer you want to hear. I'm not always going to get the answer I want to hear. I mean, if you line up everybody in the city, it's the department heads and the staff that's important. The people you could do without are us. The city would still run because we still got a talented staff of people. We got people, snowplow drivers, construction workers and parks and everybody else. The city would still be beautiful. But we still have to come to a point where we fix this thing.

Administrator Rath, how would you say your communication with the department heads and the departments themselves? I know you were gonna meet with department heads throughout the year, make sure you meet at least with each one and then departments, how has that gone for you?

We typically have staff meetings weekly. We've put a hold on that the past month, four or five weeks, I think. We haven't, I mean, sometimes people not being around or conflicts. And so I took that opportunity to kind of pull back, reevaluate the effectiveness of some of those meetings. And then we'll roll those back out in the very near future here. And hopefully have making sure that they are effective because you're talking, you know, a lot of dollars sitting in that room for an hour a week. You want to make sure that they're effective and efficient in what we're doing.

So do you meet with department heads one-on-one at some point? Is there one-on-one?

Kind of what I was looking for. As needed. And some, I mean, like with the public works director, that's pretty much a weekly basis just because of all the different projects going on. If there's any updates, the parks director meet with on a weekly basis as well. People that are in this building, I mean, it could be a daily basis, but they're very short and frequent type meetings. Like police chief, as needed, he'll stop by, meet with community development director on a weekly basis. So, you know, airport director stops by when needed or if I'm at the meeting, you know, if we have a monthly meetings out there, so. You know, individually, it's more on an as-needed basis, some a little more frequently, though.

Is there a way to make it, and I know the schedule, is there any way to make it, like, even monthly for a half hour, maybe just with each one, like we do? Like, this is your time, this is your time, this is your time, this is your time.

Yeah, I mean, if there's something there to meet about, I mean, schedule it and just have it.

I would say even if there's nothing to meet about, go ahead and meet anyway because that way you get to know each other a little better anyway.

Yeah, well, with having the weekly group meetings, team meetings, I feel I know people pretty well. You get to know personalities and things. But if there's anything, at least building that rapport, so if there is anything more important that needs individual attention, we do meet on that basis then, too.

I don't know. I just feel like a department head. In a group, it's hard. People might not say what they wanted to say.

Correct. But I do make myself available. And I don't know if anyone has felt they couldn't come to meet with me. I would hope not at the department head level. Did that answer your question?

You know, I just, I think that the one-on-one time is an important time because that's where you really kind of get to know a person better. You know, meetings are meetings and, you know, and then somebody has a thought, but then they forget about it. But if they were going to have an individual meeting with you, they'd be making a list. Okay, what are the things I wanted to talk to them about? And they bring that in. And so I just feel like it's important, if you can, to have that conversation. one-on-one you know maybe even on a regular schedule but on occasion say hey you know i really don't have anything to talk about you know do we need that or not you could skip it you know on occasion but try to have something kind of set up so that people have an opportunity to express and just make some more your heart and you get to know theirs when it's their time when they feel like it's their time you know like it's theirs

So what I'm hearing is that maybe a goal would be that there are monthly meetings with department heads. I think I heard a minimum of 30 minutes if needed, or like.

Try to shoot for 30 minutes, yeah. I suppose that muddies up the schedule a little bit. It makes more rigid things in there all of a sudden, but I think it's important. I guess I haven't heard from a department head to say that, but I just know how important it is for council members to be able to meet with you on a regular basis. And so I would think it would help them.

That's what I mean. That's like my time. So that's what I mean. That's how I feel like it. That's my, you know.

Respectfully, I would state that. try to turn my body-worn camera off, leaned into the table there. Respectfully, I'd say Phil and I used to do that. We kind of turned it into an as-needed basis outside of the Thursday meetings. Phil has been available to me before work, after work, on the weekends, during the day. And I would say that on any monthly given time, I meet with him way more than once a month. So he's always made himself available.

And I would agree with that, that the staff, I mean, sometimes you come into the building, people are gone or they're in a meeting or whatever, but most of the time they're there and they're welcome in and you can chat with whatever you need to for a few minutes and be on your way, you know? So, yeah.

Bill, are there any particular departments that you're having issues with? I know that Bridgeview is a big deal because they're looking for another manager. And the beach is a big deal because we have lots of people that go there in the summertime. It takes a lot of life-saving people and people that do maintenance, that type of stuff. So is that an issue or any of those issues at this time?

I think the purpose of this is to look at the evaluation and setting goals. I don't know if this is the proper format to get into any of those concerns or issues.

Yeah. I'm just looking for yes or no, and we can always talk about anything later.

Yeah, I mean, there's going to be concerns in any given area throughout any city. So, I mean, simple answer would be yes, but I don't, if we want to discuss any particular issues, it's probably best to put that on so that people that are interested in those same things for or against would be able to speak. So I don't know if that's germane to this topic.

Okay, thank you. The one thing that, Being new, I wasn't in on your review, and so I was just reading through it. And we have received letters from some staff members regarding the morale. And quite honestly, I was kind of happy to see that morale was low in your review in December, so it really wasn't all my fault. So having said that, since morale was bad last year and the feelings were kind of reflected the same as the letters that we've received over the past few months, is there a direction that you're working on to correct that?

Well, I would say I believe morale was correcting and was becoming more positive. That's one of the things I was hearing up until about the last couple of months. Now, the past review was looked back at the prior 12 months. So now we're talking the last five months is a different time period. From what I'm hearing, the issues with morale at this time are not anything that are direct reflection of anything that I'm doing or not doing. But that's all subject to perception.

Okay.

Well, it is subject, because there is staff that has approached us, and I just want to caution us not to get into the finger pointing, because there is a morale problem, and it's not one person's fault. It's not one group's fault. Like I said, I think... You know, there's been a few times where some things got shared, you know, and I don't even want to go on that one, but that should be a goal. We should talk about that later. But some of the department heads, when you go into training and stuff with them, they're, you know, some of the emails we're receiving is, I think what's frustrating as a council member is some of the department heads that, or some of the information you give us, they don't responsibility. Like there's a few that every conversation I ever have, it's me or the council or it's somebody else. You know what would have changed that? is one just one time saying oh yeah you know you're right i probably do need to work on that it's never been that it's your fault it's not your role you don't do this you don't do that and then we end up getting a 17 page email telling us how stupid we are that's that's not the case i mean do we are we perfect no by no means But neither is everybody else. That's part of the communication. And the thing I'm talking about, too, is we got to we got to come to a point. I mean, we talk about morale on one side, but we don't talk about morale on the other side. I don't discount that you're get, you know, a goal should be that you look into that. But you're getting morale from one group. We're getting it from another group. somehow there needs to be a plan or a goal to bring all that together, whether that's council meeting with staff once a month or once a quarter or whatever, or whether that's Phil meeting with them and then meeting with us or, or somehow, but the, When you're doing your training, and I know you do, I know you work with them, and I do, because you've addressed some things that I've asked you to address, but that has to be part of it, is if you're asked by a council member, it's not, you know, like, oh, hey, I do need to work on that, or, you know, I do need to work on my approach, or you're right, I could use this. But I'm telling you, 100% of the time, it's never been like that. It's always been, it's your fault. You're not your role. You don't do this. You don't do that. And I don't want to think that of you. In fact, I think you and I have talked a lot about that. We agree on a lot of things. So I'm not attacking anybody. I'm just trying to come up with ideas and goals to make it better. And maybe we make goals for ourself as well. I agree with that.

I think that we need to take that and work on it ourselves too.

Well, I think one of the difficult things that, at least that I've learned coming in to this role for council and myself, talking like this has to be done in a meeting, in an open meeting. You know, we can't just get together and powwow about how to make morale better. We have to do an advertisement. And so that can get frustrating. I know that. So how do we work through that process better?

So we have to execute it. So Phil? you sat here and listened to us and it would only be fair. What do you want from us for morale? And we're not going to use this against Phil, whatever he says, any complaint or anything he has to say, he's allowed to say. So even if it kind of hurts our feelings a little bit, we need to know because our goal is to help you. So what would you see for us helping to make morale better? I'm not putting you on the spot. Nothing's going to be held against you. Nothing's going to be nothing like that.

Yeah, I think it might help to have a moment to reflect on that and maybe put something together. I know I have shared before, and it wasn't meant to, if it came across the way, I apologize, meant to be a dissertation, just some observations that, you know, You know, as well as any of you sitting up here, the people sitting around that table and staff across the city are in a very difficult position. You know, when they're out working on a street, fill in a pothole or whatever. at a traffic stop or doing a code enforcement activity or even the internal operations within City Hall, all that stuff is done in the public eye and anybody, whether they know what's going on or not, has an ability to post comments or do things through social media. And even when you get the people doing the best potential job they can with the limited resources they have, they're scrutinized for it. And there are... You know, jobs throughout the city, not city jobs, where that's not necessarily the case. Other than your small circle, if you go to a restaurant and they screw up your food order, yeah, you might post about it, but most people don't really care about that because it doesn't affect them, whereas city services is a little different. So I would say, you know... Having support through, if you have platforms where you're posting things or you're talking to people in the public, helping to support and making sure that, not that there aren't things to critique, But doing so, critiquing privately and praising publicly, I think most people in management have always heard that as a best way or best practice. So when you're getting critique from, whether it's myself or any of the elected officials, it kind of hits that much harder. And so that does have an impact on morale in general. We're faced with impossible tasks at times, including council. We're going to put together a list of priorities for budgeting. We still have a $600,000 shortfall that we're facing, and it's only going to grow year on year on year. So there's going to be some discussions that'll have to be decisions that'll have to be made. So I think that'd be one thing if I just, just sitting here right now is just making sure that we're conscious of those. Yeah.

I mean, and I'm not, this isn't a requirement. I want your suggestions. So yeah, put some together.

Okay.

So I don't, but, but what you say right now, I totally understand. In fact, I'll give one quick incident. I drove by the park and there was a, two or three park people in this, uh, uh, somebody was throwing a fit about them sitting around. They don't realize what they were taking break at their workplace. That's, you know, most people have a break room. Most people have, uh, uh, somewhere they were taking a 15 minute break because it, it was hot outside. I don't think a lot of people realize that. Um, So, you know, what he does make sense, and there are a lot of challenges out there. There's a lot of challenges that people don't see.

Yeah, an employee going from site to site, stopping at a gas station to grab a quick sandwich or a soda, but they're en route to the next thing. They're in a city vehicle, obviously, and that gets criticized. Yeah.

Right. It's so important to look for the positive things, you know, emphasize positive, try to talk about positive things. It's so easy to complain. You know, anybody can complain. It takes no brain power to do that. But to compliment and to be recognizing the positive things, we need to strive for that. And that would lift morale all the way across the board.

Administrator Rath, to that question too, I think at the beginning that you also identified a couple of things that you did need from us, clarification of chain of command, city council support structure. Oh no, that was yours. There are a couple more in that. Those are some of the things you would like to figure out tonight too, correct? Or are you over time?

I mean, it can be done over time, but I'm just saying is it's going to help everything else moving forward, in my opinion.

And those clear understandings may also help with some of the responses we've gotten regarding morale and not change the problem or fix it, but may help change the direction.

Yeah, I mean, I think I would hope that most staff understand there's limited resources and we're sharing those resources across. So when we're talking about some of these challenging things, having the honest conversation, it's also explaining that why. And so if there are policy changes, if there are cuts to resources, that that why is also helped explain. So that is another piece that I would say would go a long way.

So am I hearing that we have a set of goals that we've come up with now? I've been writing down some notes and so I had the idea of a 30 minute, regular 30 minute monthly meeting with department heads as an idea. Finish up the priority based budgeting. I think that that, yeah.

Just to specify that, I was suggesting at this point in general fund where the issue is in the future, expanding beyond that. But for right now, focusing on general fund to get that timeline. Sure.

Yep. And the idea of the quarterly newsletter. I know the newsletter was on a couple of years evaluations as Council Member Reed said, monthly. But quarterly, I think, is really good.

You know, for the newsletter, though, we could... we could probably help with that. So he isn't right. The whole thing, maybe he has a newsletter and then we have a little column in it ourself that we put in quarterly. Um, cause I mean, that way people get a chance, you know, they're hearing from all of us at the same time and it doesn't always have to be like completely, you know, just like a newsletter, um, Are we allowed to do that? Good and happy things in it. Okay.

I mean, we have multiple departments that are doing great things that we could add a little blurb. Okay.

I see what you're saying.

Okay.

Yep.

So we'll say with counsel. I know you brought up the succession planning. I think that that's critical. I think that that's real important. So if council agrees, I think that'd be a good one.

Yeah, the structured reporting.

Yep.

That's fine.

Yeah.

My question is the 30 minute meetings. I know we talked about it, but then we also heard from someone from chief that,

they did do that but then it went to as needed because it wasn't needed so do we want that to be a goal or want to offer to department heads that would like that structured time um regardless what they say and i don't want to put more on display but i'm really stuck on the 30 minute time frame because i think people who have their time and i think even if you didn't have anything to talk about it would give you get to know them a little bit and they would feel a little bit more free to say things they wouldn't in a group not that you wouldn't want them to share in a group but i believe even for a morale builder be nice to have 30 minutes city administrator time that's just protected and just theirs but there's four other of you too so i think there's one there's that my time meeting that's a good thing

I realize there's going to be holidays, there's going to be things pop up, and it's not going to happen, but for the most part, if it could be a set time, it would be good.

I guess I would say if it's a goal, and a good set of goals is one that you don't necessarily hit all of them because you haven't really challenged yourself. I think if it's set as a goal, and that's what he's striving towards, I think that's good, but yes, as Mr. Reid said, if it doesn't happen some of the times, I don't see a problem with that. I don't think it's a hard line. Sure, yeah, but I do like the idea of each department head saying, I know that this is my time with the administrator.

Would department heads be able to opt out of that?

My situation is, is like, I'll bring in cash or checks or something like that throughout the week and bills. And if I have something that needs handled, it's a whole lot better to take care of it as they come up than to hold off on that until it's time for a 30 minute meeting. And then by the time that scheduled meeting comes around, we've done discussed everything that week, you know, that we need to discuss so I can get back seven miles North of town again.

Yeah.

Well, that really wasn't my idea for the meetings. My idea was just to get to, you know, just your time. I mean, that kind of business gets taken care of anyway.

Yeah, but most of us here, minus a few of us, have worked here for years. I mean, we've been with Phil since the day he came on, even when I was a maintenance worker at the airport. I mean, Phil and I would have conversations before those, before I became a director at the airport. Phil Phil's done really good about going around like on his annual meetings. There's guys, my line guys that put fuel out there. They never thought they'd have a conversation with the city administrator. And they're like, you know, that was, that was a good meeting to have. So I had one of my retiree guys I seen last night and that's what he asked me about this council meeting tonight. And he said, Oh, Phil was always a good guy. When he'd come to the airport, he goes, never got to know a guy. And this guy's 77 years old and he's pretty hard to impress, but he did impress him.

All right, they're telling us they don't want it. So scratch it.

Well, I still offer it. Yeah, department head can opt out.

Yeah, I mean, it's still on the table. Anyone that wants to have those is eligible to.

Phil, do you still do those annual meetings?

Yeah, I mean, we went out with the survey for the health insurance and then any other topics were open as well for discussion. Now with it being summer and not having to worry about kids, I plan to get around to the departments over the next couple months as well and just myself and anyone that wants to have anything to say.

So what I'm hearing is that 30 minutes, you'll offer that to department heads so they know that they could have that structured time. But then, did I hear this correctly, that department heads can opt out of it if they don't feel they need that structured time?

I've already kind of opted out. I'm not sure that needs to be a goal.

Okay.

Well, JD did.

Well, I don't see that.

When you see Americans on a case somewhere, he's not going to tell that guy, hey, hang on a minute, I'll be right back.

Take him with you. Relationally. I really think that's what I expected was to say, I'm going, hey, hold on.

I mean, people in city hall is pretty easy to meet with Phil. And I mean, us that travel to get here from other buildings. I mean, I feel I take care of my needs when I'm in.

We scrapped it.

So we have those as opposed to that person.

Yeah, so like maybe four.

Yeah, it says four. So should we what that what smart goals we usually put a date with we don't usually we put dates with them. So I know you had some dates. Can you go over those dates again?

Yeah, so it's the structured reporting starting with the July meeting. We've got one more meeting, regular meeting in June, and that is going to have a couple of presentations as well as the BBC Inc. check presentation. So it's like... I was thinking starting with the July meetings, having that structure report. Give me time to develop that too to find a format that will work.

So you'll give it a, so it'll be a written report and a verbal report? Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah, I'll put it in writing, but I'll read it during the meeting.

Perfect.

Yeah. Okay. Then it'll be in the packets too for the public to be able to see it. Okay. Uh, let's see the parties budgeting I had for the general fund, July 21 by that July 21 meeting, uh, according to the newsletter I had October 15th. So get that first quarter and then succession planning, having a draft policy by December one.

And that should lead into, what's that? Which month? December 1. December 1, okay.

Yeah, so hopefully during the month of December, one of those meetings would be able to enact the policy, unless there's issues or questions or anything, but it'll be drafted to work from. And then ideally, all of those will have been met, and in December, we'll be talking about the official evaluation for the past five months and the next six.

Mm-hmm. Any other questions from council?

Mayor Foote? Yes. Sorry I was late, but I was dealing with my house that had a lot of work done from the hail storm and trying to put it back together. But I was wondering if there was an opportunity for any of the directors to speak.

Well, right now I am about ready to open it to public forum, which would be any public comment for things not on the agenda.

Well, it's related to this.

Okay. Um, yeah. Yeah. Try to keep it brief. Good. Yeah.

So like I said, I'm sorry, but my house is torn apart, but this last couple of days I've been having work done to it, uh, from the hail storm. But, um, I will actually just say to my counterparts that are sitting here, it actually kind of frustrates me that other people don't want to discuss some of the things that go on and why, in my opinion, from being an outsider and only being here for two years, some of the issues that I have seen that have occurred with morale. I know at times when we present to you, I will say it feels like things are being argumentative. And when I come to city council, I come to council prepared to give discussions. It hasn't happened to me, but that discussion ends up happening with other employees, that employees come to us about those discussions. And my response is, it's your job to ask questions. At times, I believe there are internally the strife that's being created and people are afraid to come forward and have discussions because it could be at a director level or at a manager's level. They feel threatened and they're not feeling like they can come and actually talk to you. I know that is a concern. I hear the concerns as you walk around the hallways. The other day I walked in here and I said, good morning, just talking to an employee. And he said, is it five o'clock yet? Cause I'm ready to leave. That's not a good way for things to be happening. It is a, and I know Mr. Hoffman said, it's definitely a two way street between administration and city council. But the things that are occurring right now, I know everybody sitting here is feeling it at some level. And I don't know, I believe, and as you said, Mayor Foote, we have to have those discussions. I don't know why those discussions don't come out. I'm not afraid to have those discussions because as a leader, that's the only way you make things better. And I'm one of the individuals that emailed you because I think those things have to be known, that we have to talk about it because there are a lot of things that are on our plate. And if we don't deal with them and talk about them, how do things then get better? So thank you.

All right, thank you. So with that, this is a public forum. I would open it up to anybody from the public that would like to speak on a non-agenda item. Okay, hearing none, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second. Council Member Cavanaugh.

Yes, are we not going to go through this? I think we just finished it up. Don't you have someone to appoint to the department?

No.

Okay.

My answer is yes. Okay. Council Member Reed.

Yes.

Council Member Galloway. Council Member Hoffman.

Yeah.

Council Member Dupre.

Yes. Okay. You're adjourned.