[0:02] all right
i'll call the special city council
[0:05] meeting today's friday april 30th 2021
at 6 30 p.m
[0:10] i'm gonna call to order we'll start with
the pledge of allegiance
[0:19] in the united states of america and to
the republic
[0:22] for which it stands one nation under god
indivisible with liberty and justice
[0:35] all right we'll start with the roll call
alderman johnson
[0:40] alderman here
[0:46] [Music]
[0:57] here
[1:01] i'm here
[Music]
[1:04] so i'll open up the meeting with um
[Music]
[1:08] just housekeeping i'm employing montana
welsh as the city attorney as a
[1:12] temporary appointment until
ratification at our next regular meeting
[1:18] for housekeeping purposes i know some
aldermen have already deposited their
[1:22] oaths of office
with the clerk's office the remaining
[1:26] elected officials have also
taken their oaths of office the
[1:30] city-wide officers
have procured and executed the necessary
[1:35] bonds
i'm going to provide them to the clerk
[1:38] right now
all right thank you
[1:43] thank you is there any public comment
i recognize i see dexter johnson
[1:48] alderman dexter johnson is right
any public comment
[1:56] [Music]
all right hearing none we'll move on to
[1:59] the action items first we have an
approval of payroll for april 16
[2:03] 2021 for the amount of
five dollars and 393 six cents is there
[2:08] a motion
motions made by alderman rita seconded
[2:13] by alderman fehrenwald
on the question clerk please do a roll
[2:18] call
alderman johnson no aldrin montoya
[2:23] yes ultimate renault yes
alderman fahrenwalk i alderman mcgee
[2:31] yes alderman carr hi
[2:37] [Music]
[2:42] next we have item b approval of accounts
payable for april 28
[2:45] 2021 in the amount of 409
61 582.61 is there a motion
[2:52] i'll make a motion alderman car seconded
by alderman role
[2:56] on the question uh i have a couple
questions and
[3:00] a question fair and well it's my first
opportunity
[3:04] to address you as new mayor of public
congratulations and
[3:07] welcome to the diocese thank you you're
welcome um
[3:10] i just wanted to check on the payables
that we have here uh
[3:13] when we talk tonight i believe that you
said that some of these had already been
[3:17] approved for payment
uh can you tell me what those were one
[3:20] but we
since we had the meeting i don't think
[3:22] it was actually issued was a contractual
payroll clerk
[3:25] she's under the accounts payable because
she's not an employee
[3:28] okay i see all right so why is she you
know why she's not under the payroll we
[3:32] discussed this before and it's one of
those issues where
[3:34] we walked into a lot of vacancies today
and we need to address that all right
[3:37] all right
um okay any other questions uh
[3:42] i mean i have questions and concerns but
um again
[3:46] i i know that services have been
rendered and they need to get paid so
[3:51] i will stay okay thank you any other
question
[3:55] if not clerk please do a roll call
alderman johnson
[3:59] no alderman montoya
yes alderman rita
[4:06] aye alderman fearing law aye
alderman mcgee hi
[4:13] i'll join a car you can call me
mccarr i alderman roll
[4:20] all right
[4:25] all right motion carries we have item c
adoption of resolution 2021-10
[4:31] a resolution approving and authorizing a
contract with gotham insurance company
[4:35] and a service agreement for
administration of claims with scheduled
[4:37] claims management services incorporated
for general liability insurance and
[4:41] claims administration
with respect to the metro parking lots
[4:44] liability
i see attorney orbath the
[4:48] actual agreement should be the actual
resolution should be the one with
[4:53] scottsdale insurance company got them
withdrew its uh
[5:00] his willingness to contract with the
city
[5:03] so i sent you all a revised resolution
yesterday evening all right i'll amend
[5:09] my reading to the scottsdale
is there a motion
[5:15] motion by alderman fahrenwell seconded
by alderman johnson on the question
[5:19] hi hey um alderman mcgee
yes um i i think that i mean
[5:26] we should technically have multiple bids
uh but i know that we are currently
[5:33] uninsured
so and this is imperative that we have
[5:38] this insurance so um
yeah i uh but for the future for the
[5:43] next contract if
if we can come together on this a little
[5:46] bit sooner that would be great
um that's my comment thank you alderman
[5:50] farrell yeah so mr mayor i do have a
concern about how this is played out
[5:53] um you know we were scheduled to have
met with the last city council being
[5:57] last tuesday
and no members of your faction showed up
[6:00] so we didn't weren't able to have a
meeting
[6:02] uh as a result of that uh this policy
now has
[6:06] gone up and cost about a little over
three thousand dollars
[6:10] also we've had to pay a change
endorsement of 950 bucks and i'm sure
[6:13] there were additional legal fees so
this is now costing the city an extra
[6:18] five thousand dollars which if we had
just filed normal procedure
[6:20] it would not have uh so it's a
disappointment
[6:23] uh i wish that you had all been here on
tuesday so we wouldn't have to do this
[6:27] tonight
um i do agree with uh alderman
[6:32] with gate that uh we do need to proceed
uh and go with the scottsdale insurance
[6:38] uh
i would hope that this you know just
[6:40] would not be something that would happen
again
[6:41] i think we share the belief that
hopefully this doesn't happen again and
[6:44] i think we both can agree that
we've been dealt these cards multiple
[6:47] times in our joint administration as
aldermen
[6:50] and hopefully i agree go out to bid and
we have plenty of time to renew it
[6:54] before it expires
well and i had my reasons from the other
[6:56] night and i think
we're approving it now and hopefully
[7:00] water under the bridge well i don't
agree that not showing up for city
[7:03] council meeting is acceptable
i think we need to get past that we're
[7:06] all blue islanders now we're all in the
same party
[7:09] i still stand by my objection to i
appreciate it thank you
[7:13] alderman rita um i just wanted to say
that nobody uh
[7:16] the communication wasn't there from the
mayor
[7:20] the past mayor or from any department
heads nobody communicated that
[7:26] the importance of this i had no idea
that
[7:29] this insurance was going to lapse the
other thing is
[7:33] i do know with my personal like my
homeowner's insurance
[7:36] i get a notice months in advance that
it's coming to the end so i don't
[7:41] understand
how it got to this point where it just
[7:45] expired
i'm wondering if it was sitting on
[7:48] somebody's desk or something you know
what i mean
[7:51] they let us know
[7:55] we negotiated things of that nature but
then it came back
[7:59] the reason why they didn't want to renew
it because this is the second round
[8:03] and this wrote i did read this you know
[8:08] but they were but they were both april
dates that's why i was
[8:12] yeah i think uh if you address the chair
you mentioned your concerns and
[8:19] taking your consideration i think we all
can agree this shouldn't happen again
[8:23] so thank you any other comments i'd ask
the clerk for roll call
[8:28] ottoman johnson yes
alderman montoya yes alderman rita
[8:35] aye alderman farenwell aye
[8:50] aldermanic announcements any automatic
announcements i'll give a little update
[8:55] of my day today but i'll let the
alderman speak first
[9:00] alvin rita uh i would just like to
congratulate um
[9:04] all the new aldermen and the um
remaining alderman and um you mayer and
[9:11] uh clerk contello and uh
treasurer frasto so thank you and uh
[9:18] it's nice to be
be up here with the new board thank you
[9:23] okay so um i was able to kind of tour
today
[9:27] i visited the police station and i
visited
[9:31] uh public works as well uh city hall
um you know i i'm starting to get a
[9:37] grasp on on you know what can be
bettered in in the city
[9:44] i i know that some
equipment can can be upgraded and then
[9:50] we have some
standing equipment that that needs to be
[9:53] uh disposed of so
i uh at least i had the
[10:00] the privilege of kind of getting a first
glimpse at things
[10:04] but i encour i encourage uh
the of the other new um
[10:10] aldermen to uh go and uh you know
check out public works check out um the
[10:16] police department and and you know
uh get uh get a handle on on what what
[10:20] the the city needs
because um you know it does i mean we we
[10:25] we
we're working with the best that we can
[10:28] you know but i think that we can
we can do better the violet can do much
[10:31] better so and we we need to
uh support our staff that supports us
[10:38] so thank you any other aldermen
i've got a couple of comments holmen
[10:43] farewell um so
again i am appreciative of the fact that
[10:47] we have a new
administration and an opportunity to
[10:50] move ahead uh
and that's that's a good thing and i
[10:53] look forward to working cooperatively
as we can and uh mr mayor i appreciate
[10:57] your sending out the
early advanced copy of the proposed
[11:01] ordinance about
staffing and so forth i didn't get a
[11:04] chance to look at any detail
and uh many of the structural things i i
[11:07] think are you know things that that are
workable i am uh
[11:10] frankly very concerned about how the
staffing is going to be
[11:14] placed and that i don't think is going
to be a slam dunk frankly
[11:18] we i want to work as cooperatively as i
can with you i have some pretty strong
[11:22] feelings about it
and you know i just hope we can deal
[11:25] openly and
objectively about those issues i think
[11:29] we like we mentioned
we discussed we need to work out through
[11:33] a lot of things
and there's a level of trust has to be
[11:35] built and i openly mean what i said to
the ones i had a privilege meeting with
[11:39] so far
i want us to compromise with almost
[11:42] everything we do as much as possible
um there's some things that i see the
[11:45] vision for the city that i i don't want
to budge on we might see different
[11:48] avenues of getting there
but i think we all want to go to the
[11:51] same place so i look forward to working
with everybody i'll give an update of
[11:54] what happened today also with audrey
mcgee we kind of had the same tour for
[11:57] most part
um i'm familiar with some of the
[11:59] department heads um
we all know there's been a lot of
[12:02] deferred maintenance it's been very
apparent
[12:05] uh just in the mayor's office alone
first of all i walked in there was no
[12:09] staff the hr director i was informed
today resigned last week
[12:12] the mayor secretary resigned last week
or was fired no she was terminated last
[12:16] week
not to mention all the other openings
[12:19] that we already knew existed
we didn't have any real central
[12:22] administration for since
one of the directors uh resigned six
[12:26] months ago or so
the city clerk has stepped up take a lot
[12:29] of roles my father city treasurer has
taken up a lot of roles
[12:32] so we've been definitely a lack of
administration and leadership at city
[12:35] hall to run the day-to-day
that's very apparent i think to
[12:38] everybody and so i showed up and and i
brought tom logan with me
[12:42] and attorney was on call and uh
treasurer frausto and we came to an
[12:47] office that was was absent of anybody
nobody nobody'd give me keys nobody to
[12:53] introduce me to anybody else but i
already knew most of the people anyway
[12:56] tony the the maintenance guy was very
friendly to what we needed
[12:59] but it was um no easy transition
and there's buckets in almost every
[13:04] office of collecting
rainwater the air conditioning at the
[13:07] police station i was notified the other
day is completely
[13:10] gone at a 65 000 replacement fee so i
had to run and get a contractor to see
[13:14] if we can get up and running temporarily
right now until we address that
[13:17] there's buckets in every office there's
carpeting held together by duct tape in
[13:20] most offices
there's a room full to about halfway
[13:23] point not
exaggerating of garbage bags full of
[13:26] blueprints there's cassette tapes from
the 70s
[13:29] probably 25 percent of that room there's
more stuff that's on the walls from the
[13:32] previous administration meaning
the local prairie administration that
[13:36] was never removed most places haven't
been painted in 20 years
[13:39] and it's just multiple maintenance
issues
[13:42] and there's good parts too we have a lot
of dedicated staff that are here
[13:47] we have um employees that have been here
for a long time and some that haven't
[13:51] but they're they're here and they were
very welcoming
[13:54] but we have a lot of vacancies and we'll
get past that and we're going to have to
[13:58] rebuild the city
so may i just make one additional
[14:01] comment mr mayor yes thank you
i do i certainly appreciate the concerns
[14:05] you have about the current condition of
things and i understand
[14:08] that they're tired but i do also see a
maybe a bright side to that in that we
[14:13] do have the opportunity to kind of build
a new city administration
[14:16] and i guess my uh overriding concern and
the thing that i will press
[14:21] on with this is that we need to find the
best people we can
[14:25] for every single position and that
doesn't mean
[14:28] hiring the people we know necessarily it
means going out
[14:31] getting together the resumes
interviewing the candidates
[14:34] developing job descriptions and hiring
the
[14:37] best person and i i'm not opposed to
anyone
[14:40] and i'm not in favor of anyone but i
took some of your suggestions
[14:44] if you notice and your reviews that
there's job descriptions already being
[14:46] built and what i sent you
which we never had before so um please
[14:50] take a look at all the aldermen and
please let me know
[14:53] of suggestions but that's really really
it on my end it was just a
[14:57] hit the ground running and i've already
met with multiple community members i've
[15:01] reached out to some community members
that were planning on pulling their
[15:03] businesses out of town
to see if there's anything we could do
[15:06] and as we meet and get along i'll
let the council know where we're at but
[15:10] it's just a lot of people are anxious to
meet with the executive office because
[15:14] no one's been responding for so long and
it's been
[15:16] very apparent today especially when
people found out the word got out that i
[15:20] was
in so it's gonna be a lot of work i
[15:24] expect it to be a lot of work everything
i've ever done in my life i've worked
[15:26] very hard on
and i want to work with the city council
[15:28] like i've been telling you guys so
i appreciate the comments any other
[15:31] ultimate concerns or i'll treasure do
you have anything
[15:35] no comments at this time here alderman
johnson
[15:38] yes um affordable housing um
said they tried to get in contact with
[15:44] some people and they wanted to
i guess reach out with the uh first
[15:49] aid giving up the olive branch
for the ladies building uh that's on
[15:54] western
and wanted to try to make it a taxable
[15:58] income uh by trying to send out having
to sit down with you
[16:02] and uh maybe attorney quarterback or uh
[16:15] as we discuss aldermen very interested
in also meeting with them
[16:19] thank you is it
i think there's a lot of fires but i
[16:25] think it could be very well done within
the month of may
[16:30] so who are we going with as far as
i mentioned at the beginning the meeting
[16:36] i've appointed montana welsh as
temporary city attorney
[16:39] pending final approval at the next
regular board
[17:04] thank you any alderman comments if not
treasure do you have anything
[17:09] no comments mayor city attorney no city
clerk
[17:14] all right so we need a motion for a
german making motion we did public time
[17:18] at the beginning
make a motion alderman rita is there a
[17:21] second alderman roll
all in favor aye aye any opposed nay
[17:30] the city clerk wants to talk to all the
aldermen and elected officials on the
[17:33] way out we have a gift
and we look forward to swearing in on
[17:36] may 10th which will still happen at 6 30
i will get invitations to you very soon
[17:40] and we want to make it a good affair a
good swearing in