City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, it's 5:30. I want to welcome everybody to the Waterl City Council meeting, uh, January 5th, 2026. Roll call, please. Mr. Schmidt, here. Miss Greatton Smith, here. Miss Barry, here. Mr. Salamanca, here. Mr. Martin, here. And Mr. Simon, here. At this point point in time, can we have a a time for a moment of silence or reflection?

Thank you. Tonight, the pledge of allegiance will will be by Steve Schmidt, Ward One. Council member, please join me in the pledge to our flag. 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. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Miss Graten Smith.

Yes. I move that um that we um approve the agenda as amended um by moving the public comments uh to the front of the meeting today to discuss it. And the one right below it, please. and the and the approval of the minutes for December 15, 2025 as proposed. That's motion on the floor. Do we have a second? A second. Motion and a second. All in favor? Do we have a Mr. Mayor? Do we have a removing one item from the agenda? And I thought we talked about that. No, go ahead, Steve.

Um, like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the addition. No, no. Okay. Right. So, we do have item number four on the resolutions. Yeah, is being removed uh for a later date. Thank you, Mr. Smith. And just to clarify, so do you want to move it location, the public comments location on the agenda or do you want to have a discussion about that just by itself or? Yes, I'd like to move it to the front of the meeting and then and to have a discussion about it.

Okay. So, the motion will need to be both. So we can have the resolution removed and um you know what it might be better if we take those two things separately. So let's have a motion to approve the agenda as amended for the resolution because we do need to take care of that. Um and then if you would like to make um a motion to amend that and we can deal with we can talk about uh moving public comment. Okay. Does that make sense? Sounds perfect.

So, we do have a motion on the floor for the uh agenda as proposed and the approval of the minutes of the December December 15th, 2025 regular council session as proposed or amended with the with the removal of item number four of the resolutions. Would you like to add the That's on the consent agenda, right? Not yet. Okay. Very good. Okay. All in favor? I All opposed. Miss Grad Smith, you have Go ahead. Who had the motion and second? Me. Okay. So, you have motion. And who had the second? Okay. Apologize. Oh, it's okay. We're all new at this. I guess so.

Okay. So, that was approved. You have you have a motion to make, ma'am? Yes. Yes, sir. Um, I'd like to move that we amend the agenda and move public comments to the front of the meeting for tonight and to discuss its location in the future. Second motion on the floor and a second discussion. City council.

Mr. Mayor, it's great. I'm [clears throat] my concern is that we have a number of people who come with varying uh abilities and challenges maybe to physical abilities as well as some um health issues that would make it difficult for them to wait uh to the end of the meeting to share their comments. Um, I do understand that having public comments available uh is something that we as a city graciously offer our our community because we want to hear um what they have to say and and we are we desire transparency. Um Mr. Mayor shared that he is concerned about the level of transparency. We want to ensure that the public knows and sees that we're being transparent. The other thing, Mr. Mr. Mayor that I'm concerned about is that it will not give those who really uh want to share uh maybe some successes they've had. Um we have Miss uh Miss Potter from uh the grout. I saw her here somewhere. But anyway, oh there she is. I can't see she's behind the podium. Anyway, she regularly shares updates um that the public really needs to hear and I'm I don't I'm concerned about her having to wait as well as uh Reverend uh Stummy who comes as and would have to wait. He and his wife and Mr. uh doc reverend Dr. black wall and others in in the audience who would share and I'm just concerned that they would not have that opportunity to share um and that we would not then be reflecting the trans level of transparency that we so desire especially being a democratic body of uh that serves our constituents. So those are my uh primary concerns.

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Salamanca.

Although I understand that sentiment, I can speak directly to the fact that the incident that we had at the previous council meeting is something that should never happen. That individual should not be and nor any other individual should be allowed to monopolize that time. Because of that and because of the monopolization of time as well as the blatant disregard for decorum, it makes sense to move it in the name of safety and security towards the end. Now when it comes to transparency, this does not take away the opportunity for an individual to speak. Rather, it is now moving to the back. Whether or not this is a popular opinion or a popular state, I can tell you that I did not wrestle with this lightly. I am a big proponent of civic engagement, but at the same time, as the only individual from this crowd to stand up and confront this individual along with the chief of police, I can tell you it is much safer and much better to move it towards the end and invite our community partners, invite our developers to get their business out of the way and then have community members speak if they so desire. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Mayor, Miss Okay, Mr. Martin, unlike Mr. uh Salamanco, I I disagree with that because of the simple fact that we have to put our people first, our community, our advocacies. I mean, the business part is always going to be there. But as far as it becomes the people, the people are the people who elected us to be up here. So, putting them behind everything else doesn't put transparency in my view. It's it's not it's not where we need to place that. They need to be placed in the front so they can get their things out of the way and then we can handle the business of the city. That's how I feel about the situation. Mr. Mayor, go ahead. Thank you.

I took it upon myself today to make calls to many of my constituents because I wanted to again be transparent and I wanted to really hear from the people and leave me out of it because I realize we are the governing body of the city. But when it comes to these kind of situations, I think it is important that we we talk to our constituency and we hear from them and see what they would like. And overwhelmingly people said to me that a couple people said, "Well, you know what? Front, back, it's okay." For the most part, many said, "I need to I for my health's sake and for the fact that I am older or whatever, I need I'd prefer it to be early so that I can um take care of some other things if I need to, but I want to um just be able to have that that feeling or that um ability to talk to you about anything that's on my mind." And I know some people feel that um you know people might get angrier and angrier because what's on the agenda. Well, you know these agendas come out early and people can go over those agendas and over the agenda and if they have a problem address it. But for me I just feel that it it is it will to to not get the public's opinion or view of things uh of this particular important issue topic. I I think we're doing a disservice to them.

Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Mayor, Mr. Silent,

so um I agree with moving it to the back and and I I have a question for whoever may answer it. Um is it at the the the mayor's discretion on when he has the public comments? Is that a a council vote or is that at the discretion of the the agenda? Our city code outlines a general order that the um agenda should flow by. It's it's the wording is structured as may. So we have the ability to adjust how the agenda reads. Um, in this scenario, you know, sometimes we'll have a resolution on the agenda and maybe a member of the business community is not able to stay or there's some other pressing issue or maybe we ordered the agenda poorly. Um, so we could move we have the flexibility to move sections of the agenda around. Once the agenda is set, um that has to be voted on by the council based on what the agenda looks like to move the order of business around. Um in this instance, especially considering the safety factors that we're dealing with um with some of our council meetings, um the decision to move the order of the agenda was discussed with the mayor. Um so that's definitely an order that he can make that decision. Um again once the agenda is set then it becomes um in possession of the legislative body. So that then becomes your visa's decision on how you want to um handle the order and the flow of the of the meeting.

So to continue with my question if I may then so will this go to a vote? We will have to have it on it's on the floor. we will have to to vote if it passes to change the order of the agenda of the public comments. Correct. Is that correct? Okay. So, so just to mention

um my my reason for believing that putting it in the in the back of the council would make more sense and that's from somebody that's you know seen the questions and answers for the last two years. A lot of times the questions that the public asked are addressed in the meeting and they they would no fur no longer have further questions if they followed along in the meeting and got to see the answers to some of them. Now obviously it's for things that are not on the consent agenda and I get that. Um, but as far and it it also um you know I like I said it's a safety concern and uh I I I see no reason to not keep it where it is. It's already been uh publicated. Um was it not put on a a press release?

Correct. So it's it's been on a press release and the and the public has known about it. So So I'm in favor of keeping it at the end.

Mr. May sorry Mr. Uh, Mr. Mayor, so it's been a while since I was on the council, but I know when I was on the council previously, the public comments used to be at the end and they got moved. And I know, um, you know, kind of tagging along with what Mr. Simon was talking about um when we have developers and we have business folks and other people that travel to Waterlue to address the council. Um one of the reasons I think that we talked about moving it to u the back at the time was so that those folks could get in take care of business and then you know get on about their things. But going along with what Mr. Simon said, "I also noticed during my 12 years that many times the things that the folks that want to make comments about are addressed during the meeting. So then they no longer really have uh what it was they wanted to talk about. The one other thing I would just ask is and I know it's been publicized and and all that, but I guess I'd like to have somebody maybe from the public safety department talk a little bit about the rationale behind moving it because I think that warrants u pretty serious consideration too that this is to some degree a public safety issue and I just think everybody needs to be aware of that. We have people out in the hall now we didn't have prior to tonight. And uh I you know I think a lot of people sitting at home probably don't even know what we're talking about. So uh I think it'd be good if we could have that.

I I do too. I I will uh make note of that in the meeting when we discussed moving the public comments. Uh it was our city clerk, our city attorney, the police chief and the assistant police chief and myself. And there was a lot of discussion on what what we should be doing, the direction we should be going and also the screening process that we have outside today. So, uh it wasn't a decision made lightly and I I appreciate that. But we can have Chief Duncan get up if he's got any comments uh on this on why we we are doing some of the things we're doing today.

Yeah, Rob Duncan, chief of police. Uh the screening uh you go to the courthouse, there's screening there. Uh your guys' safety is paramount. Unfortunately, we live in a world where uh people act irrationally. Um and this was uh a result of Yeah. last last council meeting, we had an issue with a gentleman in here caused all of you to the council at the time to um step back and allow us to deal with that person. Um and it also was a grandstanding position for that gentleman as well. Um, so what we have seen is is these folks, they like to grandstand, get up in front of everybody, uh, and say whatever it is they want to say. Typically, they're not from around here. Um, completely up to your guys's decision, but the mayor and I met with uh, Assistant Chief Mlullen and Kelly and thought that this might be better served to keep your safety safety up here and the safety out in the public as well. Thank you, sir. Mr. Mayor, I have a question,

please. Please.

Um, Chief, so so what I'm hearing you say is that um the the risk of someone doing something violent um would be um less of an issue at the end of the meeting. Um because in my um usual experience, people get angrier as time goes on. And so I if they're going to be angry, do it at the beginning and leave. Um that individual and folks that are associated with that individual have called my city phone and made all kind of comments and threats. I think if anyone should be afraid, it's me, but I'm I'm not afraid. Um, and for those of you who had to go through the whole thing in the hallway, I I appreciate your patience and going through that because um, you know, there were ugly things said on the voicemail to me from individuals who were angry um that I didn't take a stand as a veteran and etc. So, um, you know, I I'm okay with it. I'm asking that it be at the beginning. Uh, and I'm not I don't feel threatened by anyone. uh and I feel that it would be more dangerous to let that time go on and kind of fuel that that anger in addition to individuals don't have a predictable time in which to share their comments. At least they know at 5:30 they can do it and then leave otherwise they're going to wait [clears throat] and wait or leave too early or etc. This makes it more accessible to everyone and I really want us to be open and accessible and equitable uh towards everyone.

Yeah. I mean, you're probably tougher than most. So, um, but, uh, it, you know, it's, if you could predict things, I I would, I wouldn't, uh, have to make these judgment calls or say what I, my opinion is, it's not predictable. U,, this is some of the stuff that we've looked at. Other cities, De Mo does something very similar. Um, and, uh, we thought it was the best interest for you guys. Mr. Mayor,

Mr. Uh, one last thing I I forgot to mention my first time is um, as somebody who was new to the city council and many people that are watching at home or um, more than likely not watching at home, uh, the city government, what we do up here is very interesting for people that do not pay attention to city government. City government is very important to everyone. It's it's more important in some ways than state and federal um government because it directly affects the people. Um I find it, you know, almost important, very important that more people in the city of Wateroo pay attention to what the city council does up here because it allows you to see the people that are are representing you and how they vote. And a lot of people don't know what we do up here on a regular basis. If if moving the public comments to the back allows more people to watch the proceedings, I think that gets them more involved with the city government as well and makes them more informed. It's just something that I think would be beneficial to to many people and I wish more people in the city of Wateroo paid attention to what the city council does. Obviously, the people that are in the crowd pay more attention than than the average person does in the city, but um if this would facilitate more people paying attention to city government and what's important to you know their their livelihoods, I think it would be important. So,

thank you. Anyone else want to second time? Go ahead, Miss Mary. Do we not have rules? Um Chief Duncan, I suppose um well, I guess the council for public comments during the meetings, we have rules, right? At the discretion of the presiding officer, individuals may speak a maximum of three minutes when the council discusses agenda items. And what we find with that gentleman that week that was not an agenda item. Your public comments are for non-aggenda items.

Yeah. Okay. That that's true. My I'm sorry about that. And so um but to target a member I don't know about anyone else and I wasn't even setting up here then but I was very uncomfortable that day and I would even go chief as far as saying have we even thought about detectors for weapons because you know we can carry weapons as people enter the building but I was definitely uncomfortable just sitting as these [clears throat] we actually implemented that today. So that's outside in the hallway right now. Yeah, I didn't see any Well, I might have gotten here too early to We let you in. Oh, okay. You let me in. Okay. Well, that's good to hear. Council let in.

All right. Well, as as I'm saying though, for me, um I I I'm on I air on the side of a transparency too and I feel that um and the people I talked to are very they were leaning more toward beginning, you know, holding the um discussion comments at the beginning because of some of the reasons that were already said. Did I ask how many people you talked to? I probably talked to in my district oh about 30 people. Okay.

And I doesn't make up the whole district, but when you call during the day, people are at work and things like that. And um I even called outside of my district a couple people. And so um people are concerned, you know. I appreciate it. Appreciate your comments. Anyone else want to talk a second or third time?

Okay. I I had I had No. Is this in public comment yet? I had a u um I typed up, you know, a brief statement and and I was going to say it before Miss Kraton Smith made this motion. Uh but just so in transparency, I have wanted to see public comments moved to the end for the six years I've been on city council. And as Mr. Schmid has said, it used to be at the at the end of it. Uh public comments can last 15 minutes. It can run over an hour. and and we want to have our developers and our people that have council business to be able to get their items addressed, especially if they're they have a narrow time frame that they they've got some of these people are come from out of town and have to leave. Um, and then they can leave the council meeting after it's addressed. Nothing has changed in your right to address items or express your right of free speech, just the order in which appears on the agenda. And I welcomed your comments and concerns at every council meeting. And people noticed and and and I then I I heard I heard people noticing um that the additional screening before the before entering the council chambers and we're not going to be allowing weapons into the into the council chambers and Iowa code 724.28 allows us to enforce this. The screening is for your protection as well as the people sitting on this dis and we've has had incidents in the past where our officers have removed people from this council chambers and they were armed. Now, if there was an issue out front here and and that person resisted arrest or resisted leaving and that gun came out, everyone's lives are in danger. And if that Mullenhoff curtain is is closed, the only exits right here, you know, and then that exit's blocked with what's going on with with our police presence. So, the screening is for your protection. Um, if and if you're found to have a weapon, all you're doing is all we're asking you is to take it and secure it in your vehicle prior to re-entry. if it bothers you that the screeners want to look inside your bag, you know, uh you can secure your bag in in your vehicle. Also, and last but not least, and I'm I'm really excited to start this new year with a new faces and

veteran council people, and we're going to have a great 2026, but we have a motion and a second on the floor. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Schmidt, no. Miss Kraton Smith, yes. Miss Barry, yes. Mr. Salamanca, no. Mr. Martin, yes. And Mr. Simon, no. Motion has failed. Three to three. A tie is a failed motion without award to council person present. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and and everyone's concerns. Mr. Simon.

Yes. Um, I'd like to mo make a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended uh with the addition of bills payment from December 22nd in the amount of 3,180,478.71 as well as just January 5th's um 3,639,251.98. And then do I mention the the removal of number four? Did that. We already did that. Very good. Um so just need a second. Just need a second. Motion on a second on the floor. Why do I point this out now or later?

Okay. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Smith. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Mr. Barry or sorry, sorry, Miss Barry. Yes. I'm going to struggle with this new roll call. [laughter] I apologize. Uh Mr. Salamanca. Yes. Mr. Martin. Yes. And Mr. Simon. Yes.

Excellent. And also um we have uh an appointment for uh from the civil service list to equipment operator 2 of Jack Ma Moss. Is he in the in the audience? If not, if you're watching on TV, we thank you for your service. And we also have a board and commission appointment for culture and arts. A new a new appointment of Derek Kimell. Is Derek Kimell here tonight? Not seeing him here. Uh I want to thank them for their for their willingness to uh participate on boards and commissions and to to uh uh improve themselves within the city. Thank you. Getting right at it. Public hearings. Who would like to take number one? Mr. Smith. Mr. Schmidt.

Uh item number one is a ground lease agreement with Waterlue Development Corporation for property located next to 250 Westfield Avenue. I'd make a motion to receive and file proof of publication. move the public hearing. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. All opposed. Hearing is now open. Anybody from the audience want to speak to a ground lease agreement on the airport property? No. No. I'm sorry. I had a ground lease agreement 2050 Westfield Avenue that pertains to the Hardcourt facility.

Mr. May I make a motion to close the hearing and receive and file any oral and written comments? Second. We have a motion, a second uh to close the hearing. All in favor? I I oppose. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to adopt a resolution approving a 99-year ground lease agreement with Waterlue Development Corporation for property located next to 250 Westfield Avenue related to the hardcourts development and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said document. Second. Motion a second. Public, did anybody from the public have a comment about this council? Anyone have any issues with this ground lease agreement for the hardcore facility at uh at 2050 Westfield Avenue?

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Salamanca, do we know what the what's going to be in place if there's anything residual found at the hard courts? You mean ground contamination? Ground contamination. Yes, sir. Maybe Mr. Anderson can address that for us please.

Noel Anderson, community planning development director. Um, so we do have a extensive amount of research and uh planning on the uh the environmentals there um both from when deer owned the property and uh the tech works took it and to when the city took it. So, we're continuing to work with the EPA. We do have some EPA grants um if we need to go in there and do some more uh work if something is discovered that's unknown. Um, as you may recall, the city of Waterlue did about uh $3.2 million worth of uh groundwork for the Hardcourts project to be able to go on there or any project to go on there um to kind of prepare the site already. So, we I don't want to say we feel that it's it's good to go because then we'll hit something tomorrow, but uh um you know, it's it's been going well out there for construction and we've done a lot of research to try and avoid anything popping up, but you just never know till you dig.

Thank you. Any other questions? No, Mr. Mayor, I I would just like to make a comment. I did see in the paperwork that that was uh mentioned as an ongoing process for this particular project. Is that correct? Correct. I mean, we know we know that we know that there's been some environmental contamination on the site in the past. That's why we use the grants to to clean that up. Um and and some other funds. So, uh again, it's you you only know what you what in the documents for what's there and until they continue to dig, we'll we'll see if we find anything else. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we have a motion and a second on the floor for a resolution approving a 99-year ground lease agreement with Waterl Development Corporation. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Schmidt, yes. Miss Kraton Smith, yes. Miss Barry, yes. Mr. Salamanca, yes. Mr. Martin,

yes. And Mr. Simon, yes. All right, moving on to resolutions that would someone take one, two, and three, please. Mr. Mayor, Miss [clears throat] Katrton Smith,

I move that we adopt resolution of the number one resolution of the city of Water, Iowa, authorizing official banking signatures. Um, a resolution number two approving a snapshot audit agreement with Spy Glass Group LLC for analysis of telecommunication service accounts to seek cost recovery service elimination and cost reduction recommendations and authorizing the mayor to execute SID document. And number three, resolution approving the request by the city of Waterlue to dedicate a sanitary sewer easement over the north 1,872 square ft of parcel H in government lot 8 located to the east of 2123 Commercial Street. Did you say three or four? Just three.

That's three. You're fine. Do I have a second? Second. A motion on and a second on the floor. Does anyone from the public have any comments about resolutions one, two, and three? [snorts] Seeing no one come up. Does anybody from the council have any questions about these resolutions? Mr. Mayor, can we have a little overview on item number two?

Sure. Um, Miss Wood, Bridget Wood, finance director. So, the snapshot audit agreement with Spyglass go they'll go through our last two months of bills for any uh telecommunications. Um and there be like our cell phone companies, uh landlines, um internet service providers, all of those to make sure that we um aren't being charged extra fees. Um and then they go through um and we we can pick out which ones we want to um what do you want to call it? The we can eliminate some services if they're no longer needed. We might have extra lines that we didn't know about. We did complete this about three years ago. Um, and they found roughly actually I should say we accepted around $10,800 in savings. Um, and that required us to pay them that savings amount, but then after that first year we were then saving that money for the next three years or next years after that.

Yeah, please. So the uh the fee is based on the actual savings for one year. Yep. So if they were for example not find any savings there would not be a fee. Is that correct? Yeah. So what it is is when once they get through their analysis they provide us with um the options that we can select. We can choose to select none of them and just have the analysis. Um but if in that first year we do decide to go to the vendor and take on that ourselves, we would then still owe them for that cost. Otherwise, if we do it through them, they do all of that back work for us and then we just see the savings on our bill. Okay. Thank you. [clears throat]

And it should be noted as as as Bridget said that that uh they could give us 10 items and we could act on three and we only owe on the three items. Correct. So, and then at the end of a year then then that savings is continuous for us. Yes. Thank you. Any other questions, Mr. Mayor? Yes, Mr. Simon. So, so do I understand this that if they make a recommendation and we decide not to go with that recommendation there there is no we don't pay them anything. That's correct. Okay. That's what I thought you said. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Council roll call vote on items one, two, and three. Uh Mr. Schmidt, yes. Miss Kraton Smith, yes. Miss Barry, yes. Mr. Salamanca, yes. Mr. Martin, yes. And Mr. Simon, yes.

Thank you. Who would like to take resolutions 5 through seven? Mr. Mayor, Mr. Simon, I'd

like to make a motion to approve the following resolution approving a development agreement with Crossroads Realy LLC with a minimum assessment agreement of 430,000 for the construction of 3600 square foot building located in to the southeast of 221 West 11 Street and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said document. Number six is a resolution accepting and approving an acquisition contract and approving a deed to convey real property to the city of Wateroo for the partial rightaway acquisition contract in the amount of $2,728 and a temporary easement agreement in the amount of $1,523 for a total compensation amount of $4,251 with Pebble Hill LLC for the property located at 714 Leaport Road in conjunction with the Leaport Road phase 2 reconstruction. construction prog project and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to set execute said documents. And number seven, resolution approving an Iowa Department of Transportation federal aid agreement for the transportation alternatives program um TAP uh project funds in conjunction with fiscal year 2026 Sergeant Road Trail Repairs contract number 1091 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute said documents.

Second. Got a motion and a second. Is anybody from the public would like to address any of these three items? Seeing none, council, any questions? Very good. Roll call a vote, please. Mr. Schmidt, yes. Miss Katon Smith, yes. Miss Barry, yes. Mr. Salamanca, yes. Mr. Martin, yes. And Mr. Simon, yes. Excellent. Our last two resolution items, eight and nine. Who would like to take those, please? Mr. Mayor Mr. Kraton Smith

move that we adopt resolution number eight approving an agreement and with Strand Associates Inc. of Madison Wisconsin in the amount not to exceed 19,000 to provide design services bidding related services and construction related services for the 2025 wastewater treatment plan raw wastewater pumping building rehabilitation project and authorizing the mayor to execute said documents. And number nine, resolution approving a long-term ground lease agreement with Grand Husk Solar of approximately 789 acres of airport owned property in the amount of $50 per acre upon signing. $50 per acre per year through the development term, 350 per acre per year through the construction term, and $1,400 per acre per year through the production term and authorizing the mayor and city clerk to execute said documents.

Second. Okay. Prior to and uh you read 789 acres and it was actually 759 acres for the right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, we have a motion in a second. Anyone from the audience like to speak to either one of these two items? I imagine on the Grand Husk Solar, do we have people here from that? If anybody from the council would like to like that them to come up here and just to explain what's going on, that would be really good. Yes. And I have a question, too, Mr. Mayor. Good. State your name and address for the record, please. Yes. My name is Olivia Rodriguez. I am the developer for Ranger Power in Grand Husk Solar. Um address is 320 North Sangaman Street, Chicago, Illinois 60620.

Thank you. Does anyone in the council have any questions about this project? It's a it's a it's a very big project. It's going to really benefit the airport in the long run. So, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Yes.

Smith, I I noticed that after is it like 40 years? I believe you may extend it. Um however um it looks like then it is returned the the the the property must be removed and um the solar panels are no longer uh available. I just wanted to understand why that happens. Why is there the return of the not it's not a return of the land but that you would no longer use the land and those solar panels would be removed after that time period.

Yeah. So, the length of the term lengths of our lease agreements are based off of Iowa law where we cannot um consecutively lease the same property for more than 40 years. Um once we decommission the project, remove the panels from the ground, we can uh either recycle those materials or they are they will be have barely degraded and they can be then recycled for um residential use as well. And we have our airport director if you have any questions for him too. I would also add that the FAA require we're not allowed to also do long-term leases beyond actually 50 years. So that's what the term length is this. The total cannot be above 50 years.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, I was concerned because I know that it will be a benefit to the community especially to have solar power uh and was wondering why uh it would be removed and we would not have access to that benefit after a certain period of time. So that was why I asked. Thank you both. And solar panels do degrade over a period of time. Yes. Questions, Mr. Smith. Well, and and you mentioned at the beginning, could we maybe have just a kind of a high level overview for the folks that have not read the Courier article or seen the news? Just kind of talk to the folks at home about what this project actually is and what it's going to amount to for the city. Want me to

I can I can do it. Yeah. So, uh, Ranger Power develops solar projects, utility scale solar projects. Um, it will be, uh, large enough to power tens of thousands, uh, of homes. It will bring in, uh, lots of revenue via property taxes and will also be a form of energy that, uh, won't pollute air, water, or land, and will be available for the city and airport to use. um with the money generated. Any questions, sir? Um and talk a little bit about what it means to the city as far as budget numbers.

Uh yep, Stephen Mira, director of aviation. This is a big project for the airport. It'll generate approximately a million dollars a year in revenue to begin with uh with escalation clause of about 2% every year. Uh at the end of the 40 years, you're looking at approximately $2.5 million just in revenue to the airport's budget. uh which is a major boon to the airport of not having to charge additional funds and things along those lines. So that million dollars a year goes into the airport budget. Yes. Great. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mr. Salamaka, can you talk about why this is more beneficial versus the farmland that's currently being leased?

Yep. Our our current farmland lease is for $228 an acre. Once we're in production, it's going to be going with the solar farm will be $1,400 an acre. Uh it's a we'll still actually be able to farm some of the area. Uh this isn't taking all of the property. It's still leaving much on the south side open. Uh but it's the revenue revenue is just significantly higher. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. What is the timeline between production to these panels being up?

Yeah. So, we have up to seven years to permit the project. Uh and it does take a couple of years to get to production phase which we um think of as when panels are actually producing electricity and going onto the grid. Um it takes that long because the longest step in the process is actually getting approval from uh MYSO. It's the mid intercon mid intercontinental system operator. That is a mouthful but essentially it's the organization that regulates high voltage transmission lines. um their process in itself only their queue only opens up once a year. Uh next one is September which we're hoping to be able to file in. But after that we will actually have to permit through multiple jurisdictions including you guys, Blackhawk County, city of Cedar Falls um and the state as well. And just to get through all of that, it takes a couple of years.

Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. What mechanisms are in place to ensure that this project gets completed on time? Yeah, so a ranger power is a small but efficient company. We're 50 people um wide and big uh including developers such as myself and accounting uh legal. So um you know if we we have pretty hard deadlines such as the interconnection queue in September, we have to make those um and once we are making those deadlines then we can start permitting um with the council and uh other jurisdictions as well.

Additionally for this development phase they're not toing anything to the ground. This is we are still able to farm it out. I say that the project is then able to move forward. The pro the agreement would be terminated after the five or seven years and we are not out anything. There is no disruption to the land. There's nothing that changes. It's just this development phase is But the only thing that changes is that we get $50 an acre. Yes. While we're farming that land also. Any other questions? Mr. I'm sorry if I missed it. I apologize, but can you talk a little bit about your company and its history and its experiences and that type of thing?

Yes. Uh so Ranger Power has distinguished themselves as one of the most uh efficient and successful solar development c um companies across the Midwest. Uh currently we have over 6,600 megawws of energy projects in uh production right now across states such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan. Uh we also have another 1,200 megawatts uh in construction and a large handful in development such as this one right now. Um we you know we focus on community engagement and you know really look forward to working with you guys and other jurisdictions to make sure that we're developing a project that is cohesive with the community.

Mr. Mayor, is it you spoke? Does anybody else that hasn't spoke want to speak yet? Mr. Mr. Mayor, I have a couple questions if I may. Mr. Simon, um I like the idea of everything. I I just have one question or a couple questions. If there's a catastrophic datio or wind event or a problem, do you guys carry the insurance to to clean up the mess that would result from that to keep, you know, to clean the get the airport up and running or is that a city requirement?

Correct. We do carry insurance uh to cover uh natural disaster events and you guys um per the lease are already an additional insured. Uh plus on top of that we do post a restoration bond that should help clean um be able to clean up the project in an event that something happens. Okay. So that's in the that's in the document that you guys carry the insurance on there. Correct. Okay. And then my other question is at the end of this lease, if it's 40 years, whatever it is, do you return the land to its previous condition or do you you don't just up and leave the materials there? Correct. Per the lease, we are required by law to decommission the project and restore the land. Okay. Yes.

Mr. Salamaka, do you have something? Yes. So I understand you're doing are you doing business as Grand Husk Solar instead of Ranger Power or is that can you explain that? Yeah, absolutely. So Ranger Power is the development company and then we name each of our projects uh different entity names. So this project um that falls under the city's jurisdiction will be named Grand Husk Solar, but it's uh owned and operated by Ranger Power. And Mr. Mayor, last one I promise, please. Uh, so he's taking after me.

So, if let's say for argument's sake, the solvency of Grand House Solar or Granger Power it folds or whatnot, what happens to the contract and what happens to the maintenance of these solar panels?

Yeah, thank you. So, one is that we do have the restoration bond posted and so that would be the net cost of what it would take to decommission the project available for you guys to use in case something happens to us. Additionally, um, in the lease as well, Ranger Power is backed by, um, a financial institution that will step into our shoes and also take on the, uh, responsibility of cleaning up the project as well. Thank you. Any other comments?

One final one, I promise. Yeah. So, I'm not sure how many people in the room remember a company called, and I'm running out of memory, but I think it was Elkrun Power, but for those that remember, that was going to be a huge coal fired power plant that was going to be built on the east side of Wateroo Tannery.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it was it was a great idea for some people. It never came to fruition because in the change of technology and coal fired plants and that type of thing. Um, and and this is I'm not looking to get into a conversation about uh green energy, but it seems like especially with uh wind power uh seeming to start to fall out of favor to some degree as uh government subsidies uh maybe are starting to wayne. Do you see anything like that happening with solar? And kind of going back to the question that was just asked and I I think you answered it, but I just want to make sure that in the event we start down this road two, three, five years into it, all of a sudden technology has changed is solar is no longer the thing to do or a different solar is better or whatever. What What is our liability? What is your liability if we kind of change uh boats in the middle of the stream?

Yeah. Um thank you. Um so we are very confident that solar will be um you know maintain its forefront in the energy industry today because of one it is the cheapest form of energy once it's already built. Uh all we have to do is pay for our leases and also pay to maintain the area which makes it which means that we can sell the power at a lower rate um which you know helps the community as well. For liability you know um per the lease you know we have um obligations to restore the land if we develop if we don't even get to development again we would be doing minimal impact. What we're doing right now is studying the land. So getting wetlands, flood plane surveys, uh ensuring that we can actually develop on the property uh before we even put any panels into ground.

Anybody else? Yes, Mr. Mayor. I have a question and maybe it may not be for Steve, might for Randy. Will the city be responsible for mowing around this area, keeping that mowed properly? We will not be responsible for that. Okay. Yeah. the solar company will be responsible for that.

And I I would personally like to thank our city attorney and working with your attorneys. When I was on the council and this this has come forward a couple of times or been discussed, I had a number of questions and and uh everything has been worked out. At least everything all the questions that I had about the restoration, about the bond, about the lease, every everything is to my satisfaction has been worked out, but it's still up to the council. That being said, roll call vote on eight and nine. Mr. Schmidt, yes. Miss Kraton Smith, yes. Miss Barry, yes. Mr. Salamanca, yes. Mr. Martin, yes. And Mr. Simon, yes.

All right, that [clears throat] would conclude our general council business. It's now time for oral comments. Um, please come up to the podium, state your name and your address, and you have three minutes. I'm Mary Potter and I am a trustee at the grout, but I have asked Deb if she'd please hand out the forms that I gave to you for of an upcoming event. In the meantime, I also want to hand out a paper that I prepared when I learned that this uh three minute thing was going to be changed and I don't would you be willing to hand these? I think we are missing the boat if we keep thinking well for safety only. I think there are things that we can do to have this threeinut time worthy of being a threeinut beginning. For instance, if somebody and I'll take myself into account also if I speak for the grout and I do not present something new. Thank you.

Then I don't think that you should have me come back. If I can present a new program each time, yes, I do not think a person who speaks only for personal matters should be allowed to speak at anything at the beginning of the meeting. I do not think that anybody that is angry at a councilman or at a policeman or at me or whatever should express any kind of that feeling during the council meeting. I think that if you have said something once, maybe that is the time to quit. The other thing I think is that if someone is speaking about a personal matter rather than a city matter, a neighborhood matter, a council matter, then I think that person should be asked not to talk. I don't see any reason that you should be promoting one person's idea about the same thing week after week after week after week. So I think before you make a decision on what should really be taking place as to whether the comments are at the beginning or at the end, we need to do some more consideration. I put this paper together after I read what was going to be brought up tonight because I thought this needs to be addressed a little more than just well, and I respect this, we have a safety problem. Well, maybe we can't do this because somebody won't like it. Well, maybe somebody drives from a distance. I think those things are all valid, but I think there needs to be more thought than just those things. And I am sorry if you feel that I'm um being a little outspoken on this, but I have been here many many times as you all know and there is a need for safety. I truly believe what's in the hallway is good. Now, not not everybody will agree, but I think it's good. I also think there needs to be some kind of a preparation that says if there is an unruly person, we're going to handle it right now. And what is unruly? It says they're not respecting the council. They're not respecting the public. They're not re showing any respect whatever. They're on their own bend. They can If Steve Schmidt's doing

something they don't like, then talk to Steve Schmidz. Don't bring it before the world and the whole council and the whole city. I think it needs to be with a little bit of brain power. And I think I would like you to read those things at your leisure and then be able to work on it from that point. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Potter. And I would like to add that anyone that comes up for public comment will not be allowed to uh personally attack or name a council member in in this that their their comments need to be directed to the chair

and directed to me only and and I'll deal with those comments and issues at that time. Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Aaron Stacy Roberts 411 Arman and I come down here on a regular and some might think that I'm speaking about the same thing over and over. Uh so I would fall in the category of her trying to rob me of my freedom of speech and that wouldn't be a good thing because what I'm here on is a public safety issue every time I talk. And when I'm speaking about a sexual assault that happened to my daughter and there are policemen involved and Waterlue police involved, if I say the name Hessie, it's because it's a reason. If I say Jodie Van Belle and he was officer who was my landlord who was intimidating my whole family to where I haven't talked to my daughter this being the 13th year. what I came about today uh as we speak on public safety and and one thing about public safety you've got to understand as far as the city council meeting I haven't seen on CNN or anywhere else where anyone has done anything but got over boisterous you didn't want to hear what he had to say and I'm not talking about you I'm talking about the last incident but looking throughout the United States what is more y'all need to be worried about public safety is if they want to come to your house and get everybody in there so that's where your safety needs to be focused not so much on where we're going to speak, who's going to speak, and what you're going to say. Because my what I'm here today on is that I'm having to file a petition to resend and vacate the sale of some farmland that I didn't get due process in. And this is how much due process I didn't get. My attorney at the time, Valerie Kramer, contacted Waterlue Detective Weber and brought it to her

attention that there was a dispar between the amount of the amount was $17,196.665. I took it to her and my lawyer took it to her to try to get this investigated as a crime because what it is is the administrator, my aunt, cheated every person, every one of her children and or excuse me, nieces, nephews, brothers, sister, it didn't matter. Every one of us got cheated out of money. And when I took this to the police, they still have not looked at it. Now, if it was one of these businesses that we're talking about wanting to put them in front to make sure they're heard or developers, that would have been investigated. So, when I say public safety, if you're not following the law and there's a criminal organization that has a grip on the police and the judicial system, you need to want somebody to come down here and express that rather than to decide to take it out in the streets. Uh, what I've seen the crimes happen is not in public settings. The last couple of them have been people walking down the street. So your safety, you need your safety is not just in here.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate your comments. Thank you. Does anyone else have any comments that want to address the council on non-aggenda related items?

My name is Beverly Cosby. I live at 315 Window Court. And my comment is and my concern is I've been coming to some of these council meetings longer than some of you have been on the council. And in the last 10 years, I have heard people address our former mayor calling him everything but a child of God. And at no time did anybody feel that there was a security issue. The young the the young the man that was here at the last meeting has been here three times and done exactly what he did when he was here the last time. At that time again there was no cons all of a sudden a new mayor all of a sudden security is is is top priority. There was no security when we had a mayor for 10 years and we didn't feel that he had to be protected. So I mean we got these double standards here and and I I'm I'm not about that because a lot of this didn't come out because the election was horrible and the induendos and the name calling was uncalled for and that's what precipitate precipitated a lot of this. If we're going to try to work together, we need to work together and be fair. And like I said, I've been coming to some of these council meetings long before some of you were even on the council. And like I said, I've seen some things in this council meeting. I've seen people get ejected, but at no time did you did did the council or anybody feel that all this security had to be in place. Yes. I was I was offended when I came and and had

to have that because again, like I said, I've been coming to these council meetings for years and I've seen and heard things that I would have thought I've seen the the chief of police eject people and at no time did all of a sudden security was a big issue. So, we need to be if we're going to go what we're going to do, we need to be fair with everything and everybody, but we weren't. And so now we want to pick up the pieces and say, "Okay, well, I'm afraid of this and I'm afraid of that." It, like I said, if you were going to do it, you should have did it five or six years ago and protected him, and now we want to protect this this this section over here. It's not fair.

Thank you, ma'am. And

uh yeah, you can respond, Mr. Simon. Just a minute. Just just to be fair, I've had conversations with previous council members and and the mayor, this this conversation has not just come up for the first time now with this administration. It's been talked about before. The safety the safety of the council people and the mayor has always been a priority um for this governing body to be safe and there's been protections put in place at at the behest of the previous mayor. So, it's not like it's something new. Um, it's different, but it's not new. That the that the protection is being talked about. I just wanted to let you know that that this is

Ma'am, it's not a debate that it was never before. Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, it's you. It could be. I'm just saying it. I just wanted to make it clear that it has been up for discussion before several times.

And and I just want to make a note on the on the added security. It's not the council. It's not me. I'm not asking for head of security. It's also for the people sitting out there. When you got a man that's being ejected from this council chambers that's armed and there the potential of something happening in that process of moving him out, it's more for your protection because if I said before, if those Mullenhoff curtains are closed, you have one exit out of here and that exit's going to be blocked by what's going on with the police presence here. So, it's not my my safety as much or the safety of this council. It's your safety sitting out there, too. That's why it was decided to do what we did and started tonight. It had nothing to do with the new administration. It had nothing to do with the council. It had to do with issues that we're having, issues that are going on nationwide. And it's more for your protection than it [cough and laughter] is for me. Thank you, ma'am. Name and address. And and

yeah, my name is Joyce um Hunter. Uh 6 I stay at 615 Lynn Street here in Waterloo. Um I also was offended. Uh I raised a cop. My son is a sergeant police officer at MPD. Um I don't have anything against my officers. I thank you for your service, but we will also like to be treated fairly. What the part that I didn't particularly care for here is when they said uh we keep repeating the same thing and that person shouldn't be allowed to uh speak. We have freedom of speech so far first as I know that they you haven't taken away from us yet. And I feel that I should be able to speak on behalf of whatever is going on in my city, you know, and it should not be dismissed. A lot of issues I feel we have been dismissed on and this is why it keeps being brought up again because it's not being addressed. So that was uh my issue and a big concern is why I'm stating that. So, uh, like, uh, Miss Beverly Cosby says, uh, if we're going to work together, then we all need to be on the same page. And a lot of you I have never seen before until it was voting time. And I really get upset about that. I Why you not come in our area and let us know who you are, what you're doing? Uh, mayor, I didn't know. I had never seen you before and still until you start talking. Aren't you? I said, "Well, how come I never saw him before?" And he wants to be mayor. I like what you said, but at the same time, you know, you didn't start earlier enough to address the people so that we get to know who you are, what you're about, and what you're going to do for the people. So, that's kind of where I'm at with that.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for your comments. Uh next, [clears throat] Daryl Harda 158 Lech Road. I'm W three resident. I ran for council. I think this is probably the most proactive step I've seen the council and the mayor and the police chief do. I think if we're going to keep comments at the front of the meeting, move the podium back. Time and distance. And I'm sure the chief understands that time and distance means everything. If you got somebody coming at any of you from me to you, it's less than a second. You need to get security. I love what you did in the hallway. Thank you very much. I'm sure everybody in this room, if they admit it, feels safer because of what's going on out there and what happened at the last council meeting. Nobody realizes how quickly that could have turned very bad. I congratulate you on being proactive on this and like I said, if you want to leave it at the front of the meeting, move the podium back. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, sir. Does anybody else have any comments they'd like to address the council?

To the mayor and to the council. My name is Doris Dedric, 20009 City View Street, Waterlue, Iowa 50707. Ma'am, can I I'm sorry I didn't hit your name. She just gave it to the the train whistle caught me. Thank you. You got my address?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. This is about moving public comments to the end. Moving public comments to the end hinders participation, especially for residents who can't stay late, like my mother who is 88 years old, who sits here for a very long time. It also asks, especially for residents who can't stay late, and ask for it to be returned to the start. That's what I'm asking for. Late placement of comments reduces public input and transparency. Moving public comments to the end discourages participation from working families and residents who can't stay late. We urge you to return public comments to the beginning of the meeting to ensure genuine community input on all agenda items. This change reduces transparency and accountability by limiting citizen involvement. So I ask that you please adopt a rule to keep public comment earlier in the agenda for better governance.

Thank you ma'am. Renee Carson, 11:08 Vine Street, Wateroo, and we're talking about safety. us up here giving out our addresses that makes us unsafe because you never know what nut gonna show up at the door because you said something at the council meeting that they didn't like. Think about changing that. You know, I have no problem with the security and all that, but I think we need one like we got when you come to the courthouse with whatever it is over there. run the thing through the scanner because you know those little wands and stuff you can rent them at Blackhawk Rental.

That's correct. So that ain't really keeping us safe up in here because if somebody want to cut a food they going to do it anyway. Don't matter if it's at the beginning or at the end because at the end if you got more people it's more people that's in jeopardy. But, you know, I just want to say to the new council people here, um, looking forward to doing business with you. I'm looking forward to seeing y'all out here in this community. And I'm looking forward for y'all to do what people elected you to do. That's right.

And it's for the people. And um, I just want you guys to just keep your head up. I know Steve. I've worked with Steve and I know some of the rest of you. But I just want to tell y'all, keep your grass cut so you can wash the snakes when they raise their heads.

So, I'm encouraging keep up, keep doing the city work, working for the people. Cuz if you ain't, we going to be on you like white on rice. So we going to continue to step and speak. And I'm talking to the citizens now. It doesn't matter if it's at the end. Don't let your voice be silent. Y'all come in here and y'all speak, okay? Because that's your right. Your voice is your power. So don't let anybody silence your voice. There you go. Thank you. Thank you for your kind and colorful words. Mr. Stummy. [clears throat]

My name is uh Reverend Lawrence Stummy. I live at 10008 Lowest Lane here in Waterlue. I want to congratulate uh all of you on the council for your last election. This is your first meeting. It's an important meeting. uh is it's going to be important year because 2029 20 26 is going to be a very challenging year for everyone. I just want to say a little bit about this speaking beforehand uh back in May 15 of 24 uh Dr. Uh Michael Blackwell and I started coming to the council meetings on on the first and the third Sunday when we first and third Wednesday when we were able uh healthwise to come to talk to you and immediately after leaving at your 5:30 meeting we went over to Cedar Falls and met and their council meeting and and so the way we're doing it now and the purpose was to to have the same message that we had with you with them. By the way, we got five minutes over there to talk and uh you give three minutes. But but I want to congratulate I think you've heard me say this before and I'm really serious about it. The main purpose of government, if not the most, not the number one priority, is to care for the vulnerable, to care for the weak. The rich are going to take care of themselves. I'm not worried about the rich. I'm not worried about the powerful. But we've got a lot of people in this community and it's been identified clearly that Waterlue has some great needs in this community. There are a lot of poor people. There are a lot of people that are oppressed. There are a lot of black people that are being discriminated against. There are a lot of men uh migrants that are here that are are fearful of of stepping

outside or sending their children to school. and your job as city fathers and mothers is to care of the vulnerable. And uh we proud prouded on that every day. We spoke to you and some things were done. You got rid of the the uh St. Mary's school. You after two years you finally got rid of the the house that was burned down. [clears throat] Uh, but we're going to be still talking to you, but I wish you would let us talk at the beginning so we could go and talk to Cedar Falls, too, because it's important. Uh, you've already been told that Waterlue is the worst place in n in 2019, it was the worst place for blacks to live. And and instead of seeing that as a challenge of a of a curse, you should have said, "Well, we're going to make it the best place for blacks to live. We're going to improve the housing. We're going to improve the health care. We're going to improve the schools. And it hasn't happened. So, you've got the challenge. So, I hope that you live up to it. It's really important in the coming years. Waterlue has the highest rate of of cancer rates of cancer and mostly among the black people. And you have the authority, you have hopefully the desire to do something about that. what's happening in this community if you're about done.

We're going to be in trouble. I'm through. I know. Thank you. Thank you for your time and your time. You ask me. Appreciate it. Okay.

Lata Graves and I'm with Renee the address thing cuz a couple years ago she came knocking at my door. But anyway, 607 East Donald Street, Waterl, Iowa. I'm just here to invite you all to the 47th annual Martin Luther King Jr. banquet. Reverend Abraham Fanchez is the speaker. You have until Wednesday, but I will extend it to RSVP. So, I would love to see you all there. And again, you can call me 3192143434. I'll repeat it. 3192143434. The 47th annual Martin Luther King Jr. banquet. Reverend Abraham Fanches is the speaker. It will be at the Waterlue Convention Center at 5:30 Sunday, January 18th.

That was my question. Love to see you all there. Sunday, January 18th. 3192143434. You know how I do. 3192143434 and I will also need a proclamation. Thank you. Thank you.

Mayor and Council, congratulations on representing the folks of Wateroo. I hope all of you can work for all of the citizens in Waterlue, not just one board or one side of town. It is very very important as far as the public speaking when I started coming here over 30 years ago. It was at the end the mayor made it at that time made a choice to move it to the front. We all got used to it. We could get used to it this way. I highly appreciate the police department making us safe as we come in the door. They do it at the courthouse. A lot of our churches have armed people inside of them be because of fear of these people going ballistic. I thank you for what you do, what you're going to do, and I look forward to the new administration. All of you. Thank you.

Mr. Divoo, could you just give us your name and address for the record? Forest Dillu, 1725 Huntington Road. Thank you, sir. Very proud of it. I know it by heart, but I didn't know if the rest of us did. Most of them do. Okay. Thank you, sir. Does anybody else would uh like to address the council, please? Please come forward. State your name and address for the record.

Pastor Brianale, uh St. Mark Baptist Church, 2024 Clear View Street. Just really quickly, first lady who got up and was talking about uh the grout lady about who should be able to say what. Um I don't know if she understands this, but free speech is sacred to our constitution. It is sacred to our country. So what you're talking about audit and speech is absurd. Just wanted to say that. Um further, I just wanted to also bring forward that I understand what you're saying about security. Maybe having people out there is a great thing, but if you were super serious about security, you would have cops out there and not $15 an hour security guards. Here's why I say that. Uh my unit when I was in the Marine Corps, we guarded you and peacekeepers. And Mr. Mayor, I just sent you some images from there as well of me, just so you can uh know that I'm telling you the truth. And I still bear the scars of that duty. And I'm saying that because the the thing with bringing weapons in here and having guards out here versus uh putting comments at the front or back of the meeting, that's just not mentioned. Your argument is uncompelling because I don't there where's the data to say that moving it back or moving it forward is a good thing either way. We have to have data and basically it just seems to me like it was a flex and that's fine if that's what you want to do. But associating moving comments to the front or back of the meeting or switching it has nothing to do with security. Security is not about uh necessarily doing one thing or another. Security isn't something you do, it's something you achieve, right? It's lifestyle. It's culture. And whatever the event that precipitated it, it's great what you're doing. But the comment thing that just doesn't pass muster. It just doesn't. They should have remained in my view. But here's what I came here to say. We Dave, I want to make sure, man, that

um that you take the city in a new direction. You were elected. God sets up and tears down leaders. I don't have a problem with the results of the election. Um yeah, I wish our dear brother in Christ would still be there, but God's in control. What I want to make sure is that political payback is not on the table. Because a lot of times we when people get us in, they fund us. We have to answer to then the people that backed us. I get that. And what I've seen over 10 years, the people that hate our dear brother in Christ, Mayor Hart, uh it has been vicious. It has been ugly. And I want to make sure this city moves forward and not look back. And your your comment at the last meeting uh necessarily about seeing the audit from Metroink, for example, that's a fudiciary responsibility of everybody. Got it. But at whose behest is that? I'm hoping it's not media. I'm just asking the questions here so our dear brother isn't dragged or abused any more than he has been. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, pastor.

Hi, Megan Butler, 818 Cloud Street. Um, for me tonight, it was kind of nice to have comments at the end. Oops, that's my kids calling. [laughter]

I got to stay at home and eat dinner with my kids and still made it down here for public comment because there's so many great people out here speaking tonight. Um, but I just wanted to reiterate what um, Mrs. Kraton Smith and Deb Barry uh, spoke about at the beginning in regards to they actually went out and talked to their constituents and asked what we wanted. Um, and it works out better for me honestly to have them at the end, but I know there's a lot of people that aren't as privileged as me. um that don't have the time and the flexibility, that don't have transportation, might not be able to take a bus home after a meeting runs late. Um and and I want those people to have a voice at our city council meetings as well. Um I'm in W one, so Steve Schmidt is my my council person. And one comment at the beginning that I heard was um something along the lines of, you know, business people come from out of town to give us their speeches and tell us about what they're going to do here in our community, but our community is what we're here for, right? We're supposed to be here for the people. Our tax dollars are what we're giving to those people to come here. They're getting paid to come here. So, um I really think it's important that we make sure we take care of our people and listen to our people because that's that's who matters. Um the businesses are great and we do need tax dollars from them, but we've got to take care of our people first, just like I don't know, somebody was talking on my way here about making sure we're taking care of the vulnerable. I think it was a pastor. I'm not sure who it was, but um taking care of our people that need taken care of and their voices deserve to be heard as well.

Thank you, Miss Butler. Would anybody else like to address the council on non-aggenda related items? [clears throat] State your name and and address for the record, please.

Uh John Hayes, 110 Sunset Road in Wateroo. And um I just I know um I only got to see the beginning of the meeting, but I um just wanted to say regarding the comments, I'm with Hector um and what he said earlier in the meeting. Um I've worked in bars my whole adult life and I've never been in law enforcement or anything like that. Um but the point I would like to make is it when things like that that happened at the last meeting um happen, you need the fastest response time possible. And I wasn't at that meeting. I watched it live. But um even watching it live um from my bar uh was as I was working was uh it was intense and uh I had fear for everybody in here. Hector was the first person I seen at the podium and uh um it was just a crowd of people and then Agnes cut. So the the fact that I always said an analogies are the way we can get things through to people. Um, everybody is making good points here behind me and um, some of them I even agree with, but um, analogy I always said is think about putting a flood light in a problematic dark parking lot. I mean, the people that are going to cause these problems aren't going to cause problems underneath the flood light or where it's lit up. um if you wait until the end of the meeting, these people that are wanting to cause problems or create issues or anything along those lines aren't going to stick it out through the whole meeting because those are the types of people that we don't usually see around here talking about stuff like this. So, that's all I got to say.

Congratulations to you new guys. Appreciate your comments. Mr. Dryer, I'm thinking about putting a name on a chair right where Mary Potter sitting so that you don't have to walk up so far each time. Yeah, [laughter] I'm a back row boy. Okay, go ahead, sir. David, 3145 West 4 Street. Uh, I guess having the comments before or after is not really a big deal for me. What is the big deal is getting an answer.

Most of the time we don't get answers. Somebody's supposed to call us back. You don't get called back. Um that's the biggest concern to me. I don't think that it makes any difference whether you're before or after. The other thing is that that uh this keeps more people here having the comments after so that they learn more about what you guys do, whether it's good or bad for us. and maybe they'll start coming more often. Uh like to I'm glad to see all the people that are here tonight. I'd like to see them here every time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dryer. And I will I'd like to point out that if you or anyone else out there in the audience or on on TV and YouTube and that are not getting answers when you when you email city council people, when you email department heads, please forward that email or CC me in those emails. so that I can make sure that you do get to your appropriate answers, sir. Thank you. Anyone else [snorts] 26 uh 13 Idaho. Um just to tap on what Mr. Dryer just said uh I've I've had the dubious opportunity to see him in the in the library researching a lot of the things that he brings to the city council. So he participates and he gets involved whether people agree to what he talks about. You know that's your that's your prerogative, but we we do need more people in in involved in in our city council. Um, I I'm normally coming up here as a developer, but today I'm coming up here as an individual, and I just want to address the body as a whole. Congratulation on all our new city council people. Looking forward to working with you all. Um, and uh, I want to address the uh, uh, chief police officer for doing a well good job on handling that situation that we had. Now, I'm not a big fan of having this move to the back, but I am concerned about my security. I mean, while you guys are worried about what's going on with the guy, I'm worried about my my safety more than you guys. So, I'm watching, dude. Okay. And so, but there's that was a whole different little situation. I think we could have handled that differently because we knew he was coming and and we know we knew he was coming because we had a whole task

force out there waiting on him and we don't have task force at our city council meeting. So, so we could have not allowed him to come, but public freedom of speech is is is is what it's about. So, they allowed that and I I I I commend you for allowing that to happen. But they were ready. They were, you know, and uh I'm cons I was concerned because I'm sitting watching everybody just like, "Oh my god, he's up there." But I'm concerned about cuz we in a different world now. Things are different. And uh people out there going into churches blowing people's heads off. They going into schools killing children. And I'm sitting up here thinking we got we had Mrs. Wright sitting up here. I believe this elderly civil rights leader we have in in Wateroo and he's standing right here and he could have been carrying a weapon because we have no I think he might have been actually carrying a weapon but you know don't quote me on that. But the thing is is that we didn't have any protection and I'm saying to people we need to get out of here because we don't know what this guy is having holding. So I'm down with the security. I really am. I'm not with that kind of security. We need to just have a real detector thing. We going to walk through, we going to fill it, and we going to shake them down or whatever because I want to be able to come in here and have a good conversation and we can trade ideas and and conduct business for Wateroo. So, I'm I'm down with the security thing. So, that that protects us all. A lot of folks may not agree with me with that, but it protects you and it protects me because I want to be protected. What I'm not agreeing with is having the meeting moved to the back because seas just said, has nothing to do with us being able to discuss our business. We got a lot of things going on and a lot of people coming up and have things to say and I think they should have that ability to say that these meetings can get drawn out just like right now. Okay, it's drawn out and um I uh somebody need to yield their time.

No, we don't we don't have a yield, sir. I guess we can't do that. 10 10 more seconds. Okay, just give you a couple more seconds and I'll be done. But again, I I I you know, good luck with with everything. I appreciate you guys and I appreciate the security. But consider reconsider that motion that um um Dr. Belinda Craig uh put on there and we give us an opportunity to speak more about and go out to your constituents in the in in the community and ask what they want because you guys represent them and find out what they want and bring it to the table. Thank you. And I would like to note that we don't really didn't have a task force standing by. Their office is just right here and they just happened to be in their office that night and just just came in to to help the chief out.

We appreciate that. So yeah, we that that that's our our VCAT group and and they're they're the real deal. They're they're they're good good officers. Thank you. Have you already spoke? You can't speak twice, ma'am. But you can come back next week and speak or or two weeks from now from speak. All right. Does anybody else have anything to say to address the council? If not, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'd like to make a motion to end public comments and adjourn. Second. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carried. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you for coming. Thank you for sharing our first meeting.