City Council - Regular Meeting

It is 530.

I'm going to call this meeting to order. If you would like to participate, please rise for the invocation, which will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dear Heavenly Father, I do thank you so much for this country. God, we thank you that we got to celebrate just this past week 250 years of this country being in existence. And God, we want to acknowledge that it's because of your blessing. And God, I pray that we as a city, I pray for our city leaders, that they would continue to guide our city in a direction that would bring more of your blessing. And God, that we would have many, many, many more years in this country, certainly in this city. And God, I pray that you would give wisdom to our city council, to our leaders, to our mayor. God, that we would just have a great city. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

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

You may be seated.

Chris, take the roll, please. Council Member Hoffman. Council Member Dupre.

Here.

Council Member Kavanagh. Here. Council Member Reed. Here. Council Member Galloway. Here. Mayor Foote.

Here. First item would be the consent agenda part one. Do I have a motion to approve consent agenda part one?

Move to approve.

Second.

Is there any questions or comments? Chris, if you would take the roll, please.

Council Member Dupre. Yes. Council Member Cavanaugh? Yes. Council Member Reid? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes.

Next is consent agenda part two. Do I have a motion to approve?

Move to approve.

Second.

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

Council Member Dupre? Yes. Council Member Cavanaugh?

Yes.

Council Member Reid?

No.

Council Member Galloway? Yes.

With that, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved. Second.

Chris, take the roll, please.

Council Member Duprey? Yes. Council Member Kavanagh? Yes. Council Member Reed? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes.

Then I will turn it over to Administrator Rath for his report.

all right thank you honorable mayor um before i get to what is going to going to be a monthly report from now on and may tweak from time to time as uh get input from city council members or staff or or the public on what they like to hear or not hear um i was uh i was going through and i i think my kids would refer to it as doom scrolling um And it was on LinkedIn, and I just came across a post that I think I'm a little self-serving here for a moment, and just it reflected upon the role of the public administrator and public administration in general. But I think for any of us serving in a public role, it's just a good reminder of some of the things that we do. And so I'd just like to read that real quick, and then I'll go into the report. So I'm not taking credit for this. This is Dr. Brooks Williams is the individual that drafted this. And he said, public administration teaches you to read a community the way an engineer reads a crack in concrete. The crack is not the beginning of the problem. It is evidence that something underneath has failed. A flooded street is rarely just a flooded street. It may be years of postponed maintenance, weak development standards, poor inspection, political avoidance, optimistic budgeting, and a belief that tomorrow would be a better day to tell the truth. A staffing crisis is rarely just a staffing crisis. It may be years of tolerating mediocrity, under inventing in people, promoting technical skill without leadership, confusing loyalty with performance, and allowing the best employees to pay the price for what the organization refused to confront. A budget problem is rarely just a budget problem. It may be the result of calling wants priorities, delayed savings, depletion efficiency, and letting the public believe a level of service was possible at a price that was never honest. The visible failure exposes what was funded and what was wished for, what was maintained and what was admired from a distance, what was enforced and what was quietly excused, and what the organization was willing to face. Public service requires compassion, but compassion cannot become a hiding place from standards. It requires patience, but patience cannot become permission for neglect. It requires listening, but listening cannot mean surrendering judgment to whoever arrived angriest. Public administration does not let leaders separate one issue from another. Every choice touches another choice. Every yes spends something. Every no protects something. Every dollar has a shadow. Every delay becomes part of the infrastructure. And every tolerated behavior becomes part of the culture. The leaders who last are the ones who learn how to see beneath the surface without becoming bitter about what they find. Government can be human and still have standards. In fact, it cannot be excellent without both. Most communities are not weakened by one dramatic failure. They're weakened by small permissions, by the exception made because it was easier. The maintenance skipped because nothing broke yet. The conversation avoided because everyone was tired and the bad habit protected because the person attached to it was familiar. The same professional reveals decline gives leaders the tools to reverse it. A higher standard can change a department. A truthful budget can change a council conversation. A repaired process can restore dignity to a resident's experience. And a leader willing to address one hard thing can give an organization permission to stop pretending. Public administration is not the administration of process. It is the stewardship of consequence. Our highest purpose is to leave behind systems to serve people who may never know why they work. That just struck me and I just appreciate the indulgence there. And with that, I'll move on to the monthly administrative report for July of 26. And I'll start a couple of citywide highlights. First, management of Bridgeview Center. Venue Works has made an offer to fill the vacancy for the event manager. Tim Seberg is scheduled to begin work on July 12th. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Tim. And once again, thanks Scott Hallgren for his many years of dedication to Bridgeview Event Center. Mary Street opening. On a positive note, the construction on Mary Street has been completed. And with the completion of that work, the temporary stop sign at Findlay and Ferry was removed. I have been advised, we have started to receive messages requesting the reinstallation of the signage. I have been advised a new traffic study is going to be conducted to determine if the intersection warrants that stop sign following the resumption of normal traffic patterns. So it will be reviewed and evaluated and determined if it's necessary going forward. Tomo Airport notification was received that planned funding toward the future construction of additional hangar space will not be eligible for the project at this time. And with that funding currently revoked, the project has been placed on hold until such time as a new funding source is identified. Moving on, personnel activity. Just a quick couple employment statistics. The City of Ottumwa currently employs 253 individuals, and that calculates to about 203, just a little over, full-time equivalent employees when adjusting for part-time and seasonal numbers. New hires. The City welcomed two new employees last month, Roy Briggs in the sewer maintenance and David Taylor in the library departments. We do have a few vacancies, currently seven open positions, including two dispatchers and two law enforcement officers, along with the recent finance director position. However, we are hiring. We received a total of six applications for finance director. Three met the minimum qualifications and were requested to interview. Unfortunately, one did withdraw their name from consideration, hoping to have an offer of employment for consideration for a near meeting, maybe as early as the next meeting on July 21st. Speaking of the 21st, we hope to also have authorized civil service lists for the accounting specialist, police officer, and sergeant positions. Civil service will meet on the 15th. City Council biannual goals. So we had the first one was recruit two or three, and these are not necessarily in a particular order, but the first one on the list was recruit two or three large businesses. City staff in conjunction with Greater Tama Partners in Progress are reviewing potential site restrictions for placing businesses. Potential restrictions or barriers are being identified and specific recommendations to remediate will be presented for consideration. Recruitment efforts with retail strategies have produced a total of eight contacts for retail development. Those contacts had four active conversations in the last quarter, two expressing a level of interest in the automobile market. developing the airport master plan. Development of an airport master plan would coordinate with the goal of recruiting businesses. This was one of the projects included in the listing provided to the University of Iowa's Initiative for Sustainable Communities, a partnership approved previously by city council for the pending academic year. Of the 20 projects submitted to the IISC, airport planning was identified as one of interest and city staff anticipate further communication over the next couple of months. Constructing 20 new upper middle style homes. Infrastructure construction for Vogel Heights is moving along. Full build out will produce over 50 new market rate homes. Majority of the lots have been sold for development following the completion of the infrastructure improvements, which are scheduled for completion this fall. That would be the infrastructure completed in the fall. The homes hopefully starting to build, finished some in the spring and then over the next few years. Determining direction of EMS, Fire Chief Canto has been preparing a comprehensive review of the current state of emergency medical services, otherwise known as an ambulance, for the city of Ottumwa and Waplow County. Based upon his knowledge and experience working in the area of fire and EMS service, he has included a coordinated transition plan to assist the city, county, and hospital enhance a provision of service. Along with that then upcoming council policy decisions, the first one referring to ambulance service. Chief Canto is in the process of delivering documents to elected officials for review and future discussion. I believe it was suggested previously to have Canto present the information before the city council upon completion. Due to the volume of information that he'll be providing and the potential impact across multiple partners, a recommendation would be to have Chief Canto complete that at a designated work session in the future of city council. Conditional Catalyst Grant. City was notified of receipt of Conditional Catalyst Grant for the property at 131 East Main Street. At a future meeting, city council will be asked to consider the grant agreement from the state and potentially development agreement with the city related to that project. Pickleball Courts, Friends of Ottumwa Parks will be back to provide an update on their planned Pickleball Court project. City has provided verbal support of the project previously and will have an agreement to consider for completion of construction on the proposed site. I believe they are scheduled to come on the next meeting, the 21st. Sewer fee rate structure stormwater ordinance. City is anticipating a revised view of the impact of various fee structures, including the lower base fee or higher usage rate, maintaining zero stormwater fees or possible other options. Upon receipt of that information, a work session is suggested to provide direction by council toward a future rate structure and any necessary legislation that might include. Administration appreciates continued support of the City Council. Staff remain committed to providing high quality municipal services, maintaining fiscal responsibility, and advancing the strategic priorities established in November of 25. Please contact me with any questions regarding this report or items scheduled for future consideration by the City Council. And respectfully submitted by me.

Okay, thank you. I do want to invite anyone who would like to speak on any items on the agenda to fill out a form that is in that basket on the banister. That way that'll get up here to me. So with that, we will move on to the public hearing.

This is the time, place, and date set for a public hearing on the proposal to convey certain real property at 113 East Maple, Ottumwa, Iowa to Enrique Sanchez.

So with that, I would declare the public hearing open and hand it over to our Planning and Zoning Coordinator, Jake Rush.

Thanks, Mayor. Good evening, Council. This is a city-owned property that the city took through 657 action. We accepted bids on this property until May 7th at 2 p.m. We received one bid from Enrique Sanchez in the amount of $9,800, and the staff recommends accepting that bid. Any questions for Jake?

It's kind of unique just to get one bid, isn't it?

This property is pretty unique. It's a very big property. It's going to require a lot of work. So I think it kind of turns some people away from it. Yeah, it is unusual to get one bid, but it's understandable in this situation.

So if no other questions, I'd entertain a motion to close the public. Oh yeah, I do need to ask the public, sorry. Sorry, Keith. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on this matter? And with that, I'll ask if we received any correspondence in regards to this for or against? No, I haven't heard anything. Okay.

Nor have I.

Okay.

Now I can entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

So moved. Second.

Let's take the roll, please.

Council Member Dupre? Yes. Council Member Kavanagh?

Yes.

Council Member Reed? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes. Resolution number 155-2026, accepting the bid and approving the sale of 113 East Maple to Enrique Sanchez for the sum of $9,800. Recommendation pass and adopt resolution number 155-2026.

Is there a motion to approve? So is the recommendation. Second. Any further questions? Chris, take the roll, please.

Council Member Dupre? Yes. Council Member Cavaness? Yes. Council Member Reed? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes.

Thanks, Council.

Resolution number 158-2026, approving and authorizing signature of an MOU regarding starting pay for engineering technician one between the City of Ottumwa and Teamsters Local number 238. Recommendation passed and adopt resolution number 158-2026. Is there a motion to approve?

With a recommendation.

Human Resource Director Kojo.

Thank you. So this is very similar to what you all had passed last meeting with the equipment operators. This is just for our engineering technician. So the MOU is between the City of Ottumwa and our public works employees, and it establishes a consistent and equitable process for determining starting wages for the newly hired engineering tech one during our transition to the compensation handbook. Again, the purpose of this is to prevent new hires from beginning at wage rates higher than than our existing employees within the same classification. New hires will follow the same two-year step in wage progression used for current employees under the compensation handbook. And then in FY28 and beyond, starting wages will be recalculated after council approves the annual COLA. This has been discussed with the union and they have agreed to this. I just do not have the signed copy back yet. The union steward said he just hadn't had a chance to do it, but I do have email confirmation that they have approved this.

So any questions or comments from council?

When will his next raise be? Whose next raise? The new employee. We don't have anyone hired yet. We have to set the rate so that way we can advertise for it. And then we'll start creating that civil service list. The rate, if they are hired between July 1st and December 31st of this year, they will start at 2209 per hour. Okay.

So the door is open. We hope we can get somebody in the door.

Absolutely. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

Is this something that we can anticipate to see on other positions in the future as well?

if we have them within the public works contract, these are, we did not expect this position to come open. Otherwise we would have brought that at that same time. Ideally, I would like to be able to keep our employees and we wouldn't have to worry about this, but if we have anything else within the public works contract during this two year transition, we would have something similar come forward. Okay.

So if we hire, so we are only hiring one of the, You only need one tech, right?

Yes, we have one open position. Okay.

Then any questions to answer?

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

Council Member Dupre? Yes. Council Member Kavanagh? Yes. Council Member Reed? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes. Thank you.

Thank you.

Resolution number 159-2026, authorizing the mayor to execute a permanent sewer easement and a temporary easement agreement with Elliott Oil for construction of public improvements for the Blake's Branch Phase 8 Division 3 sewer separation project. Recommendation passed and adopted Resolution number 159-2026. A motion to approve.

Recommendation to approve. Second.

City Engineer Burgmeier.

Thank you, Mayor. So this is another one of the easements we need for Phase 8 Division 3. It has a temporary and permanent easement. We used it to connect sewer to the Blakes Branch project. It's for Elliott Oils building on the east side, their old office building on the east side of Jefferson. Blakes Blanche literally runs through their basement, so we needed to get onto their property to connect a couple new sewer lines.

So any questions from council?

Is this a project that's going to be done this fall?

I don't think so. I know they talked this spring about finishing this year and the owner of Portsland wanted to finish this year, but the workers here, I just don't think it's possible. They can't keep that many streets closed at the same time. So I think next spring is more realistic to have this finished.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? Chris, if you would take the roll, please.

Council Member Duprey? Yes. Council Member Cavanagh? Yes. Council Member Reed? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes.

Thank you.

With that, we move to the public forum, and I would open it up to anybody in the audience that would like to come forward and speak on non-agenda item. If not, I will hand it over to City Council for any closing comments.

Yeah, I have a few things. It won't take too long. So I have been contacted by multiple people regarding e-bikes and motorized bikes. And I think that it would be important to look at scheduling a work session. I know we just talked about, I'm sorry, Chris, but I think there's a lot of questions out there, a lot of comments. And I think the public is very invested in that right now. And I think it's something that we need to review. Sure. Also, I think Administrator Rath discussed it too, but a work session for Chief Canto and the information he's gonna be handing out tonight too. And then my last thing, because I've gotten some comments also, Mayor, can you help us understand the process of appointment for boards and commissions? I know that we have a new mayor, and so that process may look different than it has in the past. And can you just walk us through that so the public understands? So do they submit an application? Do they go to the board members? What does that look like?

Sure. So anyone wanting to... Yeah, wanting to be on one of the boards or commissions of the city. First, you need to fill out an application. There's three ways to do that. One, you can get an application here, fill it out and turn it in. You can download it on our website and fill it out and turn it in. Or you can fill it out on the website. Once those are filled out, those then go to myself and a city clerk. And at that point, then I would review and I would review the openings in whatever board or commission that they're applying to. And then I would begin the process of determining when an opening would be there. I look at reapplications. So if there's someone on the board or commission that could reapply, I look, they need to apply as well. And then at that point, I typically speak to each individual that is there, whether in person or on the phone, I make sure to talk to them before appointing. And if there's multiple people like human rights commission, we had several openings and way more people that applied, which is an amazing problem to have. And so, yeah, I made sure to talk to every one of the applicants. Not all those positions are filled yet, but they will be. And then that's how I go through and make the determination of who I feel is gonna best fit just for the board and commission and for them as well. So.

And they can apply for multiple boards on that application. They can. And then also just to clarify, it looks like if you're reapplying for a board, you do a different application.

Okay.

Yes, I would. On the application, you can also click if you're wanting to be considered for more than one board, you can do that. And then I'll end up having a conversation with you and saying, where would you like to be? What are some of the things that you feel you're good at? And we'll go from there. So I definitely don't want to put someone on a board that they're not going to be be feeling like they're giving to the board. Yeah, if they're not willing to participate, then there's no sense appointing them. So, but yeah, that's the way the form looks. Thank you, Travis. Anything else from council members?

I'd just like to say I appreciated the patriotism and the people involved with different of the 4th of July activities and things around the city and people taking part in the things that were being offered and just seemed like a really good weekend to me. I enjoyed it.

Anything else? I would echo that. Mr. Reid, with it being the first year we dubbed it Patriot Week, and we were really trying to highlight things throughout the week that were happening, not just in Ottumwa, but in Wapello County. I think that, yeah, we had good turnout on all the different events, and now we have ideas on how to make it better next year. And so I'm looking forward to next year and what we can do there. So with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Second.

Chris, take the roll, please.

Council Member Dupre? Yes. Council Member Kavanagh? Yes. Council Member Reid? Yes. Council Member Galloway? Yes.