City Council - Regular Meeting

I broke it. Uh oh. Here. Do you want to look at my phone? No. 6 o'clock. It is 6:00 and we're going to bring our city council meeting to order uh for May 11th, 2026. And we will begin with roll call. Sir Chad here. Savage here. D'vorak here. Hill here. Otis here. Uh item number three is approval of agenda. A motion and a second. So move. Second. And roll call. Otis. Yes. Sir Chad, yes. Savage, yes. D'vorak, yes. Hill, yes.

Item number four, public comments. This is the time and place for comments for any item other than those that are a public hearing. Um, Susan, did anyone fill out a card for us tonight? No, sir.

And do we have anybody in the audience who wishes to speak? Does not look like it. So, we'll move on to item number five, consent items. I need a motion and a second to approve the consent items. So, moved. Second. Roll call. Real quick question. Um, E. So, the water enterprise fund rate and revenue sufficiency study. Um, I know we had the presentation from PFM last week. So, is this part of a greater CIWW study or is this our own? and who's doing it. Um, can we have Andrew Skinner come up and give a overview of that topic? Sure.

Um, so it is our utility fund, so our water fund. Um, it is done by PFM who presented last council meeting. Um, they just kind of do a deep dive into our fund. um look at whether we need to change our rate structure, whether it's a different availability or a tiered structure and uh kind of evaluate our CIP moving forward and future and all of that stuff. Okay, I could have gone one more page down. Sorry, I apologize. There is a is it in the packet that there's a scope if you look at exhibit A that's u all that's included in there. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, we have a motion in the second on consent items, right? Susan, yes. Roll call, please. Hill, yes.

Otis, yes. Sir Chad, yes. Savage, yes. D'vorak, yes. Item number six is business items. We have several here tonight. Uh, a second reading of ordinance 2026-700 amending chapter 90 water service systems section 90.20 water usage restrictions. Um, anybody have any questions about that? If not, I'll ask for a motion and a second to approve. So moved. Second. And roll call. D'vorak. Yes. Hill. Yes. Otus. Yes. Sir, yes. Savage. Yes.

Item B, second reading ordinance 2026-800 amending chapter 92 water rate section 92.02 rates for service. Any questions about that? Hearing none. Motion. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. Did we get the PFM study uh attached to the website yet? I do not know. So, okay. I can I can verify right now. Give me one second. Clamoring to go through a multi-page document, but I just want to make sure it's out there. We've done our part. It's the It is out there. Myth behind the madness, if you will. Right.

Okay. Thank you. Yep. Both the water and sewer are online. Okay. I ask for a motion and a second. So move. Second and roll call. Savage. Yes. D'vorak. Yes. Hill. Yes. Otis. Yes. Sirette. Yes. Item C, second reading ordinance 2026-900 amending chapter 99 sewer service charges section 99.01 sewer service. Any questions? Hearing none. Motion and a second to approve, please. So moved. Second. And roll call. Chad. Yes. Savage. Yes. D'vorak. Yes. Hill. Yes. Otis. Yes.

Item B, second reading of order is 2026-1000 amending chapter 103 storm management utility section 103.03 basic rate. Any questions? Motion and second then. So move second and roll call.

No no no questions but I will just add commentary. So whereas there's an analytical B or what I would deem an analytical basis for both the rate increases on the sewer and the water side. There's not that data on uh the storm water. Um and and not as opposed to a discretionary increase. I get that. I just I I don't see uh enough of the usage on the sewer um service ch or excuse me storm water um utility fee and I know we've done some projects with it but um just a no for me.

Okay, Susan, we have a motion in the second. Correct. Do and roll call then. Dorak, yes. Hill, yes. Otis, yes. Shat, no. Savage. Yes.

Item E, resolution to approve city of Pulk City and Greater De Moine partnership pilot program agreement. Chelsea has a presentation on that. Um, if the council recalls, back at the April 13th city council meeting, we had a presentation from the Greater De Moines Partnership on a proposed pilot program between the city of Poke City and the partnership for the city council to consider tonight is a resolution to sign an agreement related to that pilot program. Um, the pilot program is specific to aiding the city of Poke City and to accelerate commercial growth and to capture more residential and visitor spending to support Poke City and its residents. The plan would be for the partnership to hire an employee, which would be a full-time employee for the partnership to provide 15 hours of dedicated economic development support per week to the city of Pulk City. The 15 hours uh per week would be a combination of on-site and remote work to focus on establishing relationships, target economic development opportunities, create a commercial growth strategy for Poke City, and assist in providing developer and site readiness support. I did verify um and one of the first things that the partnership would do for us is to create a commercial growth strategy. That would be one of the first things that they do as part of the pilot program. Um, I know one of you asked me that question earlier. Um, so I don't have a contract finalized yet. However, the terms have been established, presented to the city council. Um, their presentation is part of the packet this evening as well. Um, I suggest that if the city council wishes to proceed with the arrangement that you authorize the mayor to sign the agreement once we have it finalized in the coming weeks. Um my recommendation uh and the financial considerations for

the pilot program are a total of $52,500. The city needs to purchase an investor membership for $2,500 and we may do that now. Um and then in addition to the membership, we would pay $50,000 for one year, which would begin July 1, 2026 with the new fiscal year. Um, I would be happy to take any questions that the city council may have. I did have a conversation with the partnership about the city putting a moratorum on tax incentives and they did assure me that they can continue to do economic development work without offering tax incentives. Um, so I did want to vet that out and make certain that they were okay knowing that information ahead of time. Um, does anybody have any questions on this topic?

I don't know if it's a question. I I do have So, I I think this is a a good plan forward. Um, and I applaud I think it was if I'm missing somebody, let me know. But Chelsea and the mayor for proactively seeking alternates to um where we were kind of left, so to speak, with the change with Go Poke City. Um but I also think and and what what uh the greater partnership does they do very well candidly it doesn't always trickle down to communities of our size but again engaging them with them um they are uh very well equipped and and um and experienced to work a lot of this so I think that changes things than uh than we had previously. I will say um if we're going to start this July 1, that's you know about a month and a half away from now. And if a commercial development plan is one of the first things they do if we could get some pre-work um some or homework, however you want to phrase it for us in the meantime because while we've had some highlevel economic development discussions, we've not had uh in-depth ones because quite honest we haven't needed to. Um which changes in my opinion July 1st. So, if we can get out ahead of that and and identify um where there's alignment and maybe where there's not, hopefully we can get that much more out of um this. What's the what's the title of the position?

I don't know that I don't know that they have that sorted out yet.

Um this position um when they start uh as quickly after July 1st as possible. So, I know I knew I should have probably jumped in front of Rob before he started talking, but I I want to applaud Yeah, I wanted to applaud uh Chelsea and the mayor, too, for their work that they did. Um, this is something that I'm personally excited for. Um, we're actually being proactive in going out and working with um someone on a formal strategy for economic development. So, we're we're taking our destiny into our own hands, working with them. I know there's a lot of unknowns this being a pilot program, but you don't know what you don't know until you take a swing at it. And um I'm really excited for this. So, thank you again for your work that both of you did um to get this to happen.

I I think it's um there's there's a huge opportunity because it's a pilot. I think it's they have all the incentive to be successful as as any pilot program would be. And uh I think that uh we've we've spent a lot is this this is pretty much a wash if you will based on what we've said spent in the past. Is that a fair statement with the chamber and everything? Yeah. I do want to I I do want to point out though it's not it's not dollar for dollar because you know you were paying

the chamber for their services but they were also hosting Four Seasons Festival. So we we actually will be spending more money um with this method and taking on those activities. Totally this year. Okay. Is that right? This year. Yes. Anything down here? No. I'm excited about this. Okay. So, let's go ahead with our item E resolution to approve city of Poke City and Greater De Mo partnership pilot program agreement. We'll ask for a motion and a second to approve. Motion to approve. Second. and roll call. Savage, yes. D'vorak, yes. Hill, yes. Otis, yes. Sir Chad, yes.

Uh, moving on to item F, resolution to authorize requests for proposals, RFP, and authorizing the taking of bids for property located at 510 South 3rd Street. Chelsea has a presentation. Well, not Yeah,

I will give a report. Thank you, mayor. um for the council to review and consider tonight is a request for proposal for development for city-owned property located at 510 South Thirdrd Street, also known as Third and Davis Street property. Um the city council had indicated at the previous council meeting that they would uh consider accepting proposals for the property after we had a developer reach out to us interested in developing the property. Um, based off of the information I was given, I've put together an RFP um, mostly uh, rework the RFP from two years ago for the same property. Uh, we would send this out. We would target developers that may be interested in submitting proposals to us. The deadline is Wednesday, June 3rd. The city council would then consider proposals at the June 8th city council meeting. A committee appointed by the mayor will review the proposals. Um the committee will consist of a combination of elected officials and city staff and the committee can interview interested developers and request that presentations be made for their proposal. Um the city will need to somehow determine fair market value of the property. And as um was brought up at the previous council meeting, the the easiest way to do that is to have an appraisal completed. Um I have added language to the RFP which gives an estimate for what the property would be valued at based off of comparable sales in Poke City. Um that kind of aligned with the 510 South Third Street property. I'm estimating the propertyy's valued at $451,000 or $153,000 per acre. Um, you kind of saw in my memo how I determined that estimated value. The

city council would still more than likely need to send out or request an appraisal be done of the property. If we receive a number of proposals and we can establish the fair market value that way. That is another way um to get around the appraisal process. But I just wanted to point that out tonight. Um, so I would be happy to answer any questions on this topic that the council may have. Any questions of Chelsea?

Um, hearing none, then I need a motion and a second to approve item F, resolution to authorize request for proposals RFP and authorizing the taking of bids for property located at 510 South 3rd Street. Motion. So moved. Second. and vocal. Mr. D'vorak, yes. Hill, yes. Otis, yes. Sad, yes. Savage, yes.

Moving on to item G then. Resolution to approve construction management agent CMA contract with DCI Group for Pulk City Regional Park phase one project. Jason is there ready to give a uh report. And then um I see that Chad is here too in case anybody has any questions of him. So Jason,

yeah, for council's consideration tonight is entering into an agreement for construction management agent services for phase one of the Pulk City Regional Park. Um, as as many of you have have know by this point, we've been discussing this for a little over a month. Um, a CMA is a contracted party that acts on the um um as our agent. Um, they're on site helping with scheduling, budgeting, and coordination of the construction project. kind of an expert on site all the time um when construction crews are. Um a little bit of background um as how we got to here. On uh April 13th, the council rejected all bids uh received for the regional park phase 1 project. Um council brought up the idea of CMA as a alternative option for this and directed staff to take a peek and come back with a report. Two weeks later on the 27th uh staff, myself and city manager Houston came back with additional information and proposals received. Um council had discussion. After that discussion, council agreed moving forward with CMA may be the best option. After that on May 4th, a mayor appointed committee um interviewed potential CMA firms. The committee consisted of Mayor Steve Caren, council member Sarettin Hill, uh, city manager Houston, and myself. Um, the committee's recommendation um is that we move forward with DCI Group, one of the two firms interviewed that evening. Um, I do have, um, a representative from DCI Group here this evening, Chad Halupnik. Um, and I'd invite him to come up here and answer any questions the council may have of him. Um, but note that the recommendation tonight is um from the mayor's committee is that we move forward with awarding the contract to DCI Group. Um, I'd be happy to try to answer any questions or I'll let the

expert come up too uh if you have any more technical questions for him. Welcome. Will you just say who you are and your address just for the record, please? Yeah. Uh, Chad Leman, president DCI Group. Uh my address is 1400 Marina Cove Drive, Pulk City. Um excited to be here tonight and excited to be part of the project. Uh I just want to thank you for the opportunity and um any questions you might have. How soon can we start?

Uh we're on it. Uh we got to get uh bid packages put together to get on the street. Uh we're looking uh probably a mid uh uh June bid, be back here uh right now. We're scheduled the 22nd, we think, to get uh bids approved by council early July start. Chad, no problem with uh resources from your your side to take on if there's I'm just asking that the hypothetical if you have enough resources, seasoned resources we know that will be covered on our side. Um should have as far as subcontractors where you're talking uh or overseer. Oh yeah, from our RC standpoint. Yeah, we we've we've got the team set in place and uh ready to roll.

Okay, that's Yeah, I know the subs will they do. Yeah, on midday. Got it. Thank you. Uh Chad, for the benefit of the entire council, Yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about explain what you explained to us about um approaching this as quadrants? Yeah. Um I think the biggest thing uh to get this thing going is is seating. We're going to get the seating window. We're starting starting a little bit late in the season just to get uh there's a lot of work to be done to get that seed in um to be able to seed this fall, get growth in the spring and the goal is to plant them next fall. So, um it's getting that that um that our grading contractor out there and really sequencing this in kind of pods of three uh two to three fields at a time so we can get move through and and uh get the the grain done, the top soil, um irrigation and seating done. So, so we get uh growth on those. So, that's that's where we'll be our focus will be. Um cuz that's that's really a priority to get the kids out there playing.

Thank you. All right.

So, I I'll just add I I I do uh appreciate and and confident in the direction that we're going. Um two really good biders here or I shouldn't say biders, two interested parties. So, uh I do want to state that for the record. felt very comfortable um with with both the firms and and good plan. I I will also say you know the construction manager agent model uh is new to us. It it does add cost and significant cost but to the sentiment that Jeff sort of tongue and cheek expressed that it probably the right thing to do for this project. So very much looking for forward to the added expertise that that DCI will provide helping us. You know, weather is weather, right? There are things that we aren't able to control, but as many of the controllables as we can um is just a much better situation with um with DCI on site. So um hopefully the bids, weather, everything cooperates here on out and we can uh accommodate uh things just like Chad outlined. Thank you. Thank you, Jason. Uh we will move on then to um uh motion and a second to approve resolution to approve construction management agent CMA contract with DCI Group for Poke City Regional Park phase one project. Motion second.

So moved. Second. Roll call. Tvorak. Yes. Hill. Yes. Otis. Yes. Sir Chad. Yes. Savage. Yes. U moving on to item number seven, reports and particulars. Let's begin with staff. Anything from staff? Okay. Um anything from you, Chelsea? Uh just a reminder that um Memorial Day is Monday, May 25th. So the city council will move their meeting to Tuesday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

Anything from council? Nothing further from council. Um the only thing that I would say is um that was nice uh of council members to uh thank uh Chelsea and me for that work on with the pilot program. Uh and thanks to everybody who supported that tonight. Uh I I think that we really felt when we talked to that to that group that this was really going to be in the best interests of both Oak City and the De Mo partnership. So I think it's a win-win and and I hope we have some real success um with that. Just one other thing about item G, the construction management agent. Um thanks to uh Rob and uh James for sitting in on that and but also thanks to Blanket. Thank you to everybody from staff to council who um provides input and helps move all these projects along because there are many of them in our city. So that's very much appreciated um by all here. So with that said, item number eight is adjournment and I'll ask for a motion and a second to adjurnn.

So moved. Second. All in favor say I. Any oppose? Same sign. We are adjourned. Thank you everybody.