City Council - Regular Meeting

call to order for a Watertown City Council meeting for December 15th of 20125. Please rise while Hank Roso, the chaplain of Watertown Fire Rescue and Midwest Bible Camp, leads us in prayer. Thank you for joining me. Our heavenly father, we thank you that this time of year we can focus on a real reason for the season. I thank you Lord for this beautiful city of Watertown. It's decorated so nicely and there's so much good cheer and generosity going around. It's really great to be here. Lord, we thank you for the common bond of our love for our community that's here tonight. Lord, I ask that you give each one wisdom and understanding and love for their fellow men as we discuss your business. And God, we also pause to say um thank you for the first responders. And we ask in Jesus name for your hand of protection on each one and our police and fire, those paramedics and EMTs and Lord, those that keep our city streets safe as well in the clean up from the snow removal and the ice. Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag, one nation.

Finance officer Bob Zen, please call the role. Okay. Peters here. Shy here. Allan here. Poyer here. Helen here. Mormon here. Jirens here. Thank you. Quorum is established. Chair will uh first ask if there is any conflict of interest disclosures tonight. Councilman Hoyer, I'll just be abstaining from 12 alpha and bravo.

Right. We will note that. Any other? All right. I will go to a motion to approve the agenda, but I just wanted to point something out to council. So, uh, from what was published on Friday and on our website up until this morning, there was an item 8F on the consent agenda and that was taken off of the agenda for tonight simply because it's redundant. We actually have that basic. We have the same thing in our agenda. So, there's just one less item. I didn't know if any of you had noticed that or didn't notice it, but I just wanted to point it out that we removed it because we're dealing with it in the actual agenda. So, that's the only change that you might have noticed. But with that, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? Motion made by Councilman Peter, second by Councilman Mormon. Any discussion on that? Hearing none. The motion is to approve the agenda. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. We're on to open forum. Is there anyone who would like to address the council? I'll close open form. We will go straight into item 10A, which is an approval of the 2026 ASME collective bargaining agreement addendum. We'll go to our city manager, Alan Stagger.

Thank you, mayor and council. Um the item before you tonight is the second of three uh annual contract updates with the uh unions that that we have. Um you might recall we approved an agreement with the police officers association at the December 1st council meeting. You have before you is an agreement with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. This is a union that represents many of our solid waste, our wastewater and street uh department employees within the city. This agreement largely follows the same wage increase that we put in place uh for the police and what you will see when we get to the fire agreement. It it follows the same uh percentage which is a three and a half% increase for 2026. I'll also note that similar to uh the other two union agreements, there will not be an increase this year in the health insurance contributions that are our employees make and so they should realize the entire benefit of the 3 and a half% increase. Something that is different on this particular union agreement is uh there are seven individuals who have reached the end of the pay grid uh due to their long uh tenure with the city. The union has asked and we have evaluated um and agreed with uh a one-time bonus for those seven individuals in lie of not having a step increase on the grid. Um, we also uh agreed with the union to increase the city matching contribution on the supplemental retirement plan by an additional $25 per month. Uh, the same language that we implemented in uh the Watertown Police Officers Union around uh closure of city hall has been

added to this agreement as well. And as a reminder, that language uh essentially states that if for some reason I were to close city hall and not require city hall employees to cover the time off uh with either vacation time or unpaid leave that it in essence it would be an additional holiday that I would be granting to city hall employees and therefore all other city employees across the unions would also receive pay for an additional day. Um, I don't plan on shutting city hall down. So, that would be really an an ex extraordinary uh scenario where where that provision would kick in, but it is one of fairness for the union members and so we agreed with it. And then finally, this final bullet point on the agreement is a unique one for the ASME union. Um the union members have asked for some leniency in changing positions within the city. In the past um several years ago, there was actually a much longer period where an employee could trial another job and then the job would be would be maintained uh that they came from that if they didn't like the new job, they could go back. um that didn't work if we allowed it to happen for months at a time. But we did come to a good point where a trial period of 80 hours of employment in the new position works for both of us because it's rare within a two-eek period of time that we have have backfilled a replacement for someone who who has moved to another position. Um an employee is only allowed to make a change to another department. one time per year without my approval. And what

I'm trying to avoid there is is just excessive movement. Um, and it also helps me understand if there are any latent issues within the organization is often times somebody is running away from a manager and not to a new job. So this is a great opportunity to have a conversation. I will stand by for any questions on the ask me agreement. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the agreement? Motion made by Councilman Jurns, seconded by Councilman Shuddy. Council, any discussion? Councilman Mormon,

just a quick question on the thousand bonus for the employees that are off the step 15 wage matrix. Will there be a um will they pay into the state pension on that money also? Yes, they will.

Okay. And the only reason why I ask is just um because you know some of these people might be essentially within about five years of retirement and you know when you don't get the full three and a half% raise obviously that has an direct effect on what your lifetime benefit retirement is. So the fact that they do at least get a pay into the pension on the thousand bonus I appreciate that. Any other discussion? Councilman Peters,

I think I would just throw out that um hats off to the finance team for finding some money for employee raises because the state, if you followed that at all, is getting 0% raises across the board for employees. And so I would just nod that this 3.5% is a pretty big deal in some tough times in the state. So, thanks guys. Thank you. Last call for discussion. Hearing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of approving the agreement will say I oppose. Nay. Officer Bobsy. Okay. Peters I. Cheddy. I. Allan. I. Hawyer. I. Holene. I. Mormon. I. Jiren. I. All in favor.

Motion is unanimous. Motion passes. Item 10B is an approval of the 2026 IAFF collective bargaining agreement addendum. City manager ster.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, this agreement is very similar to the other two that I've spoken of. Uh the agreement is with the International Association of Firefighters. Um we have agreed to the same increase uh of 3 and a half% uh for 2026. We also amended the city's matching contribution on the supplemental retirement. We increased it in this case by $300 per year. Just by way of background for the council, uh retirement is handled a little bit differently on the firefighter side as those employees are not subject to uh the the social security and Medicare taxes under FICA. They have a different retirement program. And then also the city hall closure language has been extended to the firefighters union as well. Um before I turn it over to you for questions, I just publicly like to thank the representatives of all three unions. With this being my first uh negotiation cycle with all three of them, we had some really good discussions and uh um they're a great uh great group of representatives of our employees and looking forward to continuing to work with them as we go forward.

Thank you. May I get an motion to approve the agreement? Motion made by Shuy, seconded by Peters. Any discussion? Councel. Councilman Morman. Would there ever be an option for the fire department to enter back into paying into Social Security? I don't know the answer to that. the um the Fair Labor Standards Act as it applies to firefighters is rather complex and unique. Um we need to look into it. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Any other comments? All those in favor of the approval, we'll say I oppose. Nay. Officer Bobine. Okay. Peters. Hi. Chy. Hi. Alan. I Orman I J I. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 10 C is an approval of a bid award for the 2026 10th Avenue Northwest water main project project number 2531 to Austream Excavating sorry LLC in the amount of $86,600. Go to city engineer Justin Peterson.

All right. Uh thank you mayor uh it if I could ask you to share my screen please. Uh this project is a water main project on 10th Avenue Northwest and uh by highway 20 by Dollar General and our future street facility. Um this uh project is install water main to provide uh water service and fireflow for the new development in that area as well as the street facility. We had a lot of interest in this project. We had nine biders and uh the low bid was Austria escavating and we recommend approval. I'll stand by for questions. Can I get a motion to approve the bid award? Councilman Mormon makes the motion. Councilman Peters seconds the motion. Any discussion? Council Councilman Jours. Nine biders. That's kind of aggressive. Um, where's the uh contractor from that was awarded?

Austral is from Brookings, South Dakota. All right. Thank you, Justin. Any other questions, comments? Councilman Jours. Does this include a street light at that corner? No, it doesn't. Just water mean. All right. We we'll talk about it later. Any other comments, questions? All right. All those in favor of the bid award will say I oppose. Nay. Officer Bubsy. Okay. Peters. Hi. Shuty. I. Allen. Hoyer. Hi. Holene. Hi. Mormon. Hi. Jens. I.

All in favor? Motion carries. Item 12A is an application for a transfer of location of a retail onoff sale malt beverage in South Dakota farm license and video lottery license from four Amigos LLC doing or doing business at 3129th Avenue Southeast to four Amigos LLC cowboy number two Liquors at 9085th Street Southeast. Go to city finance officer Christian Bobsy.

Okay, thank you mayor. Um this one's a little unique. I will cover A and B because they are related. Um but essentially what is happening here is this license will be going from inactive to a second location to hold the video lottery. Um so there is requirements that only 10 machines per location. So this one has met the requirements. Um community development division did go out and make sure that the ingress egress is there. So this is taking that inactive license and putting it now into this location. um so they can have the 10 video lottery licenses. Um all fees have been paid, notices published, everything is in order. If there's questions, I can answer them.

Thank you, Officer Bobsine. And just to be clear, so that testimony is essentially the same for 12 A and 12B, right? Because the only difference for um 12B with the address is because the state would require two separate addresses for two different sales tax licenses. So that's why you're seeing an address change as part of B. All right. Thank you very much. I will open a public hearing on this item. Is there anyone who would like to testify?

I'll close the public hearing, open it up for council action. Can I get a motion to approve the transfer? Motion made by Peters, seconded by Councilman Mormon. Any discussion on this council? Councilman Jires. So, not specific to this location, but how it affects other locations in town. You talked about the ingress and egress. Um, is that is there just going to be one is is there just 10 total here or is this adding 10 lottery machines to the current location of for a total of 20. So there would now be 20 at that. They're technically that's why they have different addresses, separate locations, but yes, it is taking an inactive and now putting it into a another one that's right next to an existing one.

Yep. Thanks for that clarification. That leads to other maybe one other question. I notice you said our community development did the check. Yep. Um I'm on the understanding that the state has also checked a few locations. Correct. Yep. Is that a coordinated effort with the state or is that a lot of that done locally with the community development?

When we when we first started to see this happening, we made sure that we were we were interpreting the what was necessary with the state. And now that community development has been out and doing it um in other locations, we feel comfortable being able to to look at those locations and make sure that when if the state would ever come out that it would be meeting all the requirements that they that they need. All right. I'm sure you're aware there's discussion and there's been some discussion at least with me I don't know with other council or the uh or the city hall or city hall uh about that issue hasn't been I'm not aware of any

well there is discussion okay going on um and there are locations that have been out of compliance that when we go do it this is a benefit to them because this was an extra cost. This is extra manipulating the floor plan and most of them are up for that. But there are those out there that seem to have their heels in the ground and there's good ones that are abiding and and um I was just wondering if our city hall was a aware of that and who was looking at this because I hear the city or I hear the states involved in Sou Falls and they've moved this way a little but uh

okay it's news to me that the city is also helping with that enforcement not probably on the enforcement side, but working with the license holder to make sure that those requirements are met so that when the state would come out that everything would be fine. But we don't work with the state per se. It's just more our um community development division is making sure that those requirements are met. Thank you. Yep. Any other comments or questions? All right, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of approving the transfer will say I. Opposed name. Okay. Peters. Hi. Shuty.

I. Allan. Colleen. Hi. Or Mormon. I. Jirens. I. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 12B is an application for a transfer of address of a package liquor license from For Amigos LLC, Cowboy Country Store number two to For Amigos LLC, Cowboy Number Two Liquors at 908 Fth Street Southeast. Basically the same thing that we know. Anything to add? Nothing to add.

All right, I'll open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this? I'll close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve the transfer? Motion made by Councilman Peters, seconded by Councilman Shuddy. Any discussion, council. All right, we just go to a voice vote. All those in favor of approving the transfer, please say I. I. Any oppose, say nay.

Motion carries. Item 12 C is a second reading of ordinance 25-26 to supplement the 2025 budget for various departments and projects, state and federal grant appropriations and budget line item transfers. City Finance Officer Bob Zen. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Yes. In front of the council is the second reading of the ordinance to supplement the 2025 budget along with our grants and any line item transfers. There have been no changes since the first reading. Um, if there's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

Council, can I get a motion to approve the supplement? Motion made by Councilman Shetty. Seconded by Councilman Peters. Thank you. Council, questions or comments? Councilman Allen? Yeah, I I just need to um ask a couple of questions um sort of to make sure that I understand this. Uh I looked at a few of the areas. Uh one of which was insurance premiums and so we needed a supplement of approximately $92,600. And am I correct, Kristen, that this is mostly oh maybe an employee that uh was single and now has a family plan uh and so there's therefore an increase in insurance premiums that we're responsible for. Is that mostly what's going on or

uh No, that insurance premium line is actually related to our liability insurance that is not on the employee side of things. Um that was one area that during the 2025 budget was looked at a little bit differently and then upon I guess our insurance premiums coming in we do need to adjust it and sometimes it happens this is a little bit more significant than we've seen in the past. Sometimes we'll have it if a piece of equipment or we've acquired a new piece of property um to see your insurance premiums go up but this was a little bit of the 2025 budget process that had an impact. Okay, thanks for that. I was I didn't understand that.

Um and then also the same thing relative to supervision salaries. Um that was a supplement of $46,000. And can you help me understand that a little bit? Um was there a specific department or just kind of in general? That's the total of all the supervision salary bumps we're seeing. What we're seeing with that is we don't necessarily budget for when we have staff retire or leave. Um, so that is normally their payout of their vacation upon leave. So, okay. Anytime you see kind of a a larger adjustment to that, it's for a payout of an employee. Okay. Yep.

And then I I also had a question about electricity. Uh, we're doing a supplement. Again, this is for the total uh of $32,000. Um, and I I'm just curious as to it would seem like we'd be pretty good at projecting electric electrical electricity needs, but I'm guessing there are some surprises that exist, I think. So, and that's one I'm going to dig into. And as we now look at 2026 budget, too, I'll make sure that there wasn't anything that kind of got off during that budget process. Okay. Yep.

Um I I can actually address part of the electricity. So, I believe it's the ice arena uh being the first full year and and not having a good frame of reference on it. uh that 32,000 is compared to total electric bills or total utility bills of about 1.6 million. Yeah. Yeah. The the electricity that I saw was uh um the zoo and also uh the wellness center as well. Uh I think 10,000 and 22,000 something like that. So, um, and then finally, uh, the banking fees,

um, I just want to say, uh, that total was $269,000. Um, that's a lot of money. And it seems like uh as I looked back at previous years that those banking fees were jumping pretty much exponentially uh more than doubling yeartoyear from 23 to 24 to 25. Um and I understand we voted in October uh the council approved a move to a new credit card vendor which should improve that. But, um, it's a concern to me that it went as far as it didn't as long as it did, uh, at that kind of dollar amount because that's a lot. And I and I don't know whether there's any potential of clawing some of that back from the vendor. I guess those are questions that I have. Um, because it looked like it was exponentially jumping up and I'm not sure what Well, I don't think we got anything for that. So, just a concern. Thank you. Any other questions, council? Councilman Hoyer?

Um, not so much a question, just uh more so kind of echoing off that concern. Um, what I'd like to see from us going forward is maybe us looking at some of our SOPs and whether that's something we can do on the council side of how do we react more efficiently to anything that hits us like a hiccup like that. um you know if it pops up what's the amount of time that we give it to resolve first and then when does it get escalated to where we actually need to take a little more action on it is because I do also feel that a quarter of a million dollars worth of credit card fees is pretty wild um not to mention additional other processing fees. So just making sure that we have a strong SOP going forward as to how we receive that information and then how we react to it and then go forward with the plan sooner rather than dragging it out as long as it can. That's all I have.

Council, any other comments or questions? We'll go to a vote on the supplement. All those in favor of approving the supplement will say I oppose. Nay. Finance officer Bob Z. Okay. Peters. Hi. Hi. Allan. I Mormon. Hi. Jens. I. All in favor? Motion carries. Item 13A is an approval of a resolution contingency transfer of the general fund. Finance officer Bob Z.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, yes. So, this is doesn't happen too often, but we are at the end of the year. The budget supplement had already been to its second reading. Essentially, we did have a loader at the forestry department that has a significant maintenance issue. Um, it looks like it's the blower heater defrost panel. It's going to be about $4,500 to repair and they are in need of that piece of equipment. Um, so to facilitate getting it fixed and get it working, um, a contingency transfer will be necessary just because forestry does run a very tight budget. So, this will just make sure that if worst case scenario, they have enough budget authority. So, if there's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

Thank you. And I do see uh Director Rodic from Parks and Recreation and Forestry in the back. Uh I'm sure if you would like to say something now, you sure can. Otherwise, we'll have you stand by for any questions. All right. Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve the resolution contingency transfer? Motion made by Councilman Allen, second by Councilman Mormon. Council questions or comments? Councilman Hoyer? Nope. Okay. Ready to vote. All right. Um, if there's no questions, I feel okay going to a voice vote. All those in favor of approving the resolution of contingency transfer, please say I.

I. I. Post say nay. Motion carries. Item 13B is an approval of a resolution of the city council of the city of Watertown approving the South Dakota Local Infrastructure Improvement Program Grant application and designating named officers to execute documents and to act on its behalf. Manager Stagger.

Thank you, Mayor and Councel. Um this grant is related to the Kelvin Industrial Park lift station and sanitary uh wastewater uh project. Um this is a grant program that we applied for late in the process. As you might recall, you've already approved approximately a $3.7 million project with about um 2.8 million of that covered through a US economic development grant. this um this local infrastructure grant will reduce the amount of local contribution to the project. And as a reminder, the local contribution to the project is coming from four sources. The city of Watertown, the Watertown Municipal Utilities, Cottington County, and the Watertown Development Company. So, in essence, this grant will reduce the contribution by each of those parties by $125,000. I recommend approval.

Thank you. Council, can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Councilman Jirens makes the motion. Councilman Mormon seconds. Council, any comments, questions? Manager Stigger, I just want to clarify. Is that 125 total? 125 each. 125 each for a total of 500,000. Thank you. Any further comments? We'll go just to a voice vote. All those in favor of approving the resolution, please say I.

I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion carries. 13 A 13 C is an authorization for the finance officer to restrict the public auction proceeds of $30,000 from the sale of the bleachers seating at the m at the Mace Ice Arena. City Finance Officer Bob Zen.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, it has been a request of our parks director and along with my agreement that the $30,000 that was received for the bleachers be restricted. Um, I don't have the authority to do that. That is something that the the council does. Um, if this is approved, essentially that $30,000 would then sit in a restricted cash account until a project is identified and approved the for use. So, if there's any questions, I can answer them. Thank you.

Thank you. Can to get a motion from the council to restrict the proceeds? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Hoyer. Any questions or comments, council? Go to a voice vote. All those in favor of restricting those proceeds, please say I. I. Any oppose? Say nay.

Motion carries. We're on to city council member announcements and introduction of topics for future discussion. Does anyone have anything? Any city manager report? I have a couple of items that I can report on. Uh first of all, on Thursday of this week, uh we will be holding the final board of adjustment and planning commission meeting of the year. I'd like to just recognize two members who will be leaving that board after an extended period of service. Uh Blake Dolly and Bonnie Alletki will be uh exiting uh the planning commission and board of adjustment after their final meeting on Thursday. um that actually opens up two alternate positions on those two boards. Uh if anybody in the public is interested in serving on those boards, there's a link on the city website to uh submit an application. Um just an update on the Bramble Park Zoo and the accreditation process. As a a reminder, in January of this year, the council entered into uh an agreement to work with a third-party pathways group to regain accreditation. Uh there was a recent recent visit at the zoo where no new concerns were noted and there's a recognition by our our accreditation partners that it's going to take some time and capital funding uh to restore especially the exhibits to the standards required. So that's just for the public to to note that that process is going as planned. Um, and finally, um, just want to bring up, we've heard from the public at several times about the audio feed on the government TV channels. And just, uh, for information, we typically broadcast our meetings live through four different

means. We have the two franchise cable companies in the community, Blue Peak and Mid-Continent Communications. Additionally, we live stream on Facebook as well as a YouTube channel linked to the city's website. Three out of four of those have had excellent quality. Um, the Midcontinent channel has had some problems. We had their engineers in last week and uh hopefully you're hearing this loud and clear uh because we were told that it's finally been addressed. But if you're not uh please let us know. Thank you. Forgot to mention one thing. It's Christmas time. Please shop local. It's very important. So, we do have a reason to go into executive session, but we will not be taking any action when we get out. Can I get a motion to go into executive session? Motion made by Councilman Allen, seconded by Councilman Peters. Any discussion on that? All those in favor of going into executive session, please say I.

I. Any oppose, say nay. Motion carries. We'll take a motion to adjurnn after we're done with that. Good night and God bless you, Watertown.