Palouse City Council
Public Hearing for 2017 Revenue Sources
Followed by
Regular Council Meeting
June 28, 2016
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Echanove called the Council Meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
ROLL CALL: Council members present: Doreen Hanson; Bill Slinkard; Mike Hicks; Senja Estes; Rick Wekenman; Mark Wilcomb. Councilmember Hicks MOVED to excuse councilmember Christopher Langsett’s absence. Councilmember Hanson seconded and the motion carried. Staff present: Public Works Superintendent Dwayne Griffin; Police Officer Joe Merry; City Attorney Eric Hanson; Clerk-Treasurer Mike Bagott; & Deputy Clerk Ann Thompson.
PUBLIC HEARING: 2017 Revenue Sources– Mayor opened the public hearing at 7:02 pm. Mayor read aloud, at Nicole Wood’s request, her written question for the public hearing regarding expenditures for the Taylor Engineering mapping project. Expenditures have not even been developed yet and are not reviewed during revenue source public hearing. There were no other comments. CT Bagott explained that in the aggregate our taxation across the board is an increase of only a few hundred dollars. There is hope with the new development going in that we will reclaim some of the valuation that has been lost in the last few years. On the general levy, the state law allows us to take a 1% increase every year without a vote by the citizens but the valuation has to rise enough to allow that to happen. Sales tax revenue, city assistance from the state, etc. have increased in 2016.
On the pool side of things, the pool levy doesn’t pay for the major pool repairs, such as sandblasting and repainting, which are long overdue. CT Bagott suggested that one option would be to increase the pool levy for one year to cover this expense. He estimated that a one year increase of $6,000 would cost the owner of $175,000 house about $20. There is value to our community in maintaining the pool. Mayor closed the public hearing at 7:24 pm.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Councilmember Hicks MOVED to adopt the minutes of the Special Council Meeting of June 14, 2016, as written. Councilmember Wilcomb seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.
PUBLIC WORKS REPORT: Supt. Griffin submitted a written report.
The city received two bids for road oiling: Lyman bid is $.05 cents per sq foot, $8,624.00 with tax; BST Surfacing bid $.049 cents per sq foot, $8,451.52 total. We’ve used BST in the past and have been happy with them. Road oiling takes 20% of our street levy right there. Councilmember Wekenman MOVED to accept the low bid from BST for street oiling. Councilmember Hanson seconded. This is standard maintenance that is done every year. The motion carried unanimously.
POLICE REPORT:
Officer Merry reported that Chief Neumann got some of the new cameras installed today near the PD. The rest will be installed soon.
JFB REPORT:
On the financial end, everything is normal.
3 fire calls for May, 12 fire calls YTD. They had a recent training with the 10 new wildland fire shelters.
9 EMS calls in May. EMS is on pace for 104 total calls this year if this rate continues. 5 of the 9 calls in May occurred within a 16 hour period. All 5 new EMS students passed training. There is a new storage container arriving soon on site to make more room within the station. The hole has been dug for a new emergency radio tower at the station. The Kamiak Butte fire on 6/26/16 was almost certainly caused by an illegal campfire on the butte. There were about 9 different fire agencies assisting on that call. No one was hurt.
CLERK-TREASURER REPORT:
Reps from Apollo and DES came today for a meeting for the solar project now that everything has been awarded. They’re in the design/engineering phase right now. The end of October is their estimated completion date for construction.
DOE notified us that we received the loan funding for the development of the Wastewater Treatment Plan. Funds currently being collected for wastewater reserve should be adequate to cover the loan payments.
COMMITTEE REPORTS/REQUESTS:
Personnel & Pool, Chair Hanson- Committee met to review the applications received thus far. Committee will be interviewing candidates for Clerk-Treasurer position next week. Upon completion of the interviews, the committee will submit their recommendations to the Mayor. The city will continue to accept applications until someone is hired.
Streets & Sidewalks, Chair Hicks- Councilmember Hicks wants to send out another letter to the people who got the sidewalk letter. It is councilmember Hicks’ hope that this letter will give people the opportunity to go over their questions and concerns with him, and to alleviate their frustrations and help them better understand the situation. Along with that letter will be included a mandatory resolution from our attorney outlining the specifics of the needed repairs and the deadline.
MAYOR’S REPORT:
Last Thursday (6/23), CT Bagott and DC Thompson spent 13 combined hours completing approximately 35 in-depth PRR’s with multiple attachments. More have been received since. Additionally, the city received another complaint from Jim Farr against CT Bagott and Mayor Echanove. He is being answered in public tonight at this meeting. Mayor read his complaint aloud regarding the city’s lack of giving him water service on his land with a 2” water meter. Mayor reviewed for council the history of this issue and some of our past responses. For further clarification, his opinion that he can proceed without engineered plans nor DOH approval was spelled out in a May 11, 2016, letter from the DOH to Nicole Wood in which DOH told them they were wrong. Our WSP states through ordinance passed by the city council that ¾” meter is our standard. Jim Farr and Nicole Wood have been told countless times that a ¾” meter is what is available and we will not be installing a 2” meter. In 2014 public works (Dwayne Griffin and Don Myott) began putting in service to his property and Jim Farr got into it with them and they left his property. WSP chapter 6.2 clearly states that PW Supt Griffin is licensed by the state to be the authority on the city’s water system. PMC 13.08.070 has nothing to do with a $250 hookup fee. Approximately five years ago the city paid $2,500 just to have plans engineered on how to get water to his property and Jim Farr still did nothing. He has wasted too much of the city’s time. He is not interested in a resolution to this; he told CT Bagott in February of last year that he was willing to drag this out five more years if he doesn’t get a 2” water meter.
ALLOW PAYMENT OF BILLS: Councilmember Estes MOVED that the bills against the city be allowed. Councilmember Wilcomb seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.
The following checks are approved for payment:
Claims Paid 6/28/16 Ck. #7524-7537 & EFT $5,988.64
ADJOURN: Councilmember Hicks MOVED to adjourn. Councilmember Estes seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. The council meeting adjourned at 8:23 PM.
APPROVED: ________________________________ ATTEST: ________________________________