approval of agenda - city of winlock - winlock city … · web viewit will go all the way up north...

City of WinlockRegular Council MeetingNovember 14, 2016

CITY OF WINLOCKCITY COUNCIL

Regular Council Meeting – 6:30 p.m.November 14, 2016

1. CALL TO ORDER

Mayor Dowell called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.

Council Members present: Sarah Gifford, Jerry Rader, Tim White and Holly Orbino

Councilor Dennis Korpi was absent and excused.

Employees present: Tedi Curry, Clerk Treasurer and John Brockmueler, Chief of Police

2. DETERMINATION OF QUORUM

There was a quorum present.

3. FLAG SALUTE

Mayor Dowell led the flag salute.

4. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Councilor Orbino asked, “Can we add police discussion to that Agenda? Add the PD contract discussion to the Agenda please?”

Mayor Dowell asked, “To Agenda Item six?”

Councilor Orbino stated, “Works for me.”

Councilor Gifford made a motion to approve the Agenda as amended, Councilor Rader second, motion carried.

5. RECESS REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

Mayor Dowell recessed the regular Council Meeting at 6:33 p.m. for fifteen minutes.

6. EXECUTIVE SESSION – Potential Litigation


Ms. Curry announced at 6:48 p.m. that the Council would need an additional fifteen minutes.

Ms. Curry announced at 7:03 p.m. that the Council would need five more minutes.

7. CLOSED SESSION – Collective Bargaining Agreement

Ms. Curry announced at 7:08 p.m. that the Council started the Closed Session regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement for twelve minutes.

Ms. Curry announced at 7:23 p.m. that the Council needed five additional minutes.

8. RESUME REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING

The Council returned to the Council Chambers at 7:20 p.m. Mayor Dowell resumed the Regular Council Meeting.

9. OLD BUSINESS – Bridges

Mayor Dowell stated, “We are still waiting on one party to sign and then we will be able to move forward with that.”

Councilor Rader asked, “So the land thing has been approved? The surveyor thing?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “All of the documentation has been updated to have the property owners agree. One of the property owners has agreed and so they are done. We are waiting for the other property owner to sign. As soon as they sign then we can continue moving forward.”

10. MAYOR COUNCIL COMMENTS

There were no Council comments.

11. LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE

Chief Brockmueler stated, “I have a little something different. This is a new form. This is for the month of October kind of an activity report. I thought this would be better for you folks to give you kind of a more broader view of what is going on in both cities if that matters to both of you. I will be giving you this every month rather than the every two weeks thing.”


Councilor Orbino asked, “So the other meeting you just won’t be here?”

Councilor Gifford asked, “We won’t get to see your face? How fair is that?”

Councilor White stated, “It should be mandatory that you show up I guess.”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “If you guys want me here I will come.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “That is all right. Whatever.

Chief Brockmueler stated, “This is actually…I know there have been some questions out in the field about differences between patrolling now and patrol before Toledo showed up. I thought this might be easier for everybody to see it in this form rather than me explaining it to ten times to different people. Kind of show you what the differences are between the patrol coverage now versus then. You guys can take a look at that if you have any questions on that. I think it is self-explanatory but there are questions…

Councilor Gifford asked, “What is up with Thursdays? Is that like our busy day?”

Councilor Orbino stated, “That is where they double up.”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “Thursdays is the days that the shifts meet together. It actually works out great because that is the court day here so we have a couple of us here for transports and all that stuff.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “Thank you for this.”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “Kind of give you a rough idea to what was then and what is now.”

Councilor Orbino asked, “Plus you have reserve hours, right?”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “I didn’t even put that in there.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “This doesn’t even include all of the reserves out there.”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “We have backup up out there which I call Randy.”

Councilor White stated, “So this is just all active duty.”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “This is just the four full time guys.”


Councilor Orbino stated, “Thank you for that.”

Chief Brockmueler stated, “Randy puts in probably twenty five or thirty hours a week maybe at times. You get the benefit of that too. Everything else is going fine. We are just trucking along doing our thing. Any questions?”

Mayor Dowell asked, “Do you guys still want to see the thing…the paperwork that he gave us every two weeks?”

All of the Councilor Members were speaking at the same time. It could not be translated.

Chief Brockmueler stated, “This is probably more informative than that.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Yeah but it is a month late. This is October and this is November now. I was just not sure if they wanted to see the…

Chief Brockmueler stated, “The end of the month I will give you this one.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Okay.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “I am okay with that.”

Councilor Rader stated, “We aren’t going to change it anyway.”

12. PUBLIC COMMENT NON-AGENDA ITEMS

There were no public comments on non-agenda items.

13. AGENDA ITEMS

1. Kimberly Hartman – Disabled Discount

Ms. Hartman did not appear.

2. Cheri Mitchell – Winlock Improvement Network, Lighting the Town for Christmas

Ms. Mitchell stated, “We are excited about that. The whole town, everybody just wanting to help, wanting to donate, wanting to just get it done. They are very excited about the lights. I am Cheri Mitchell with Winlock Improvement Network. I am here tonight to get permission to do certain things that we are going to need to do in order to put those lights up. I have spoken with quite a few of the building owners, the tenants that are in those buildings and so have several of our other members. We are


getting permission that we need from them in order to run a white strand of twenty five hundred or so feet of LED white lights across the tops of all the buildings in town. They are going to…as you enter town on Walnut, 505, they will start at Jim Taylors building, wrap around the corner, go around Sibbit’s building, the yellow one and then go over to Dr. Wong’s building. Then it is going to on the right side it will go all the way to the end near the railroad track and then across the street to the antique building it is going to go towards the railroad tracks and stop there. It will go all the way up North East First on both sides of the Street all the way to Glen’s buildings. It is going to cover all of the downtown area. That means a lot of expense and a lot of work. We are all willing to do it and we have gotten some fantastic donations from WIN members, from Winlock Improvement Networks itself, from the Firemen’s Association and from the Lions Club. We are also going to be having a raffle. Fred Terry has donated a cord of wood to be raffled off. That way the community can get in the raffle and also help buy the lights. We are here to ask permission to do several things. One of those things is to run white lights on the tops of all the city buildings. That would be the Library, the Museum, Volunteer Park and City Hall. That is the first thing. We are going to be plugging into some of the businesses that have given us permission to plug into to get our electricity from. We will start and run one continuous strand of lights all the way down the streets. You will see a city line there. The second thing that we need to do is another person who had donated, a business that has donated is Alpine Trees and Shrubs. They have donated twenty dwarf Alberta Spruce trees that are about this tall this year. They are going to be growing. We want to place those on the street. I went to the Lions Club and I am a member of the Lions. They voted to let us use the wine barrels that are already there. We will pick those wine barrels up to make sure that they are at least on three bricks apiece. We will remove the dirt, put the potted trees…they are actually a root ball tree…into those wine barrels. Then what we will do at the end of the season before spring, we will pull those out, put them in planters that Winlock Improvement Network will make and then we will put fresh soil into the barrels ready for the Lions Club to replant those barrels. We need to make sure that it is okay to put trees. They are going to be located about where the barrels are now sitting. They are not going to be on the edge of the road to obstruct traffic, or view, or anything like that. They will be pretty much right where they are now. Another thing that we….

Councilor Orbino asked, “Are you putting lights on those trees too?”

Ms. Mitchell stated, “The children from the schools are going to be decorating those in a contest. It will be a lot of fun for them. We are also going to put hanging baskets where the petunias normally hang. They are going to be with fir, that type of cedar, evergreen in that. We are going to


be getting some balls and different things to hang on that as well. I am not sure if we have to have permission from the City Council in order to do the baskets there but I assumed we probably had to do it about the trees since it is a little bit bigger than just flowers and regarding the lights on the City building. That is what I am requesting permission to do.”

Councilor White stated, “I believe…I spoke to Sally Vogel and she had indicated that if WIN needed power that there is an outlet in Volunteer Park and that the Park Board would, if WIN wasn’t going to, cover the power bill.”

Ms. Hillier stated, “I need to alert you that if you are gifting public power source you are going to have to be careful about that. That is for the City a gifting issue potentially if it is the power source for…but I can look at that if you need me to.”

Councilor Rader asked, “Still it is an improvement for the whole town isn’t it?”

Ms. Hillier stated, “That is just something for you to know about with that particular plug. I can double check it.”

Ms. Mitchell stated, “What Tim brought up is what he is talking about plugging into the City. We do have private businesses that are allowing us to plug in. We have such a long run that if you start down here and you end up at the end of the street, they might get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. What we are trying to do is take the load off of one power supply and distribute it throughout. Another thing too is that usually cities they decorate their streets for Christmas. We are not asking anything of the City. We are wanting to do this as an organization to promote our City and to bring people down to town. As you noticed, it is working because our town is growing and we have activity here. We really all are super excited about that. We are not asking any money from the City for decorations or even to help to do anything because I know you don’t have employees to help hang lights or anything. We will do all of that ourselves. All we do is we would just like your permission to be able to do those things that we asked you.

Councilor Gifford made a motion to approve the request, Councilor Rader second, motion carried.

Councilor White abstained.

3. Winlock Park Board


Ms. Sally Vogel Park Board Chairperson stated, “I have a request from the Washington Acoustical Music Association to put a DSL phone line in at Winolequa Park. They would like…

Councilor Rader stated, “We already did that.”

Councilor White stated, “We already approved that.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “I think that we authorized them to look into what it would cost I believe.”

Ms. Vogel stated, “They are going to take the whole….

Councilor White stated, “They were going to take on the expense.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Right but they were going to look into what the cost was and you guys did authorize them to move forward with that.”

Ms. Vogel stated, “They just called me the other day and said we showed up and nobody was here and I said that I would take it tonight so that is good.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “I think that was the same day that the check was presented from WIN to the Park Board for the playground equipment that Denise accepted.”

Ms. Vogel asked, “So I can tell them that they can go ahead with their plans?”

Council Gifford stated, “If it hasn’t been approve I will move to approve.”

Councilor Gifford made a motion to approve a DSL connection out at Winolequa Park, Councilor Rader second, motion carried.

Ms. Vogel stated, “The second thing and maybe you have already taken care of as well. I have been working with the Miller Trust Fund and they are donating funds to us for improvements to the Winolequa Park restrooms, for two sets of aluminum bleachers, for three hundred twenty feet of fence guard, for a portable fence to bring the outfield in, for two new dugouts for field two and then some equipment to work on the fields. They want to give this to the Park Board with the clear promise that the donation will go for these specific items. I just need your acceptance of this donation. I have been out of town a lot. I don’t know for sure what the amount was decided upon. It was either twenty two thousand dollars or thirty two thousand dollars depending on…


Mayor Dowell stated, “Thirty two thousand six hundred twenty six.”

Councilor White made a motion to approve the acceptance of the donation based on the conditions, Councilor Gifford second, motion carried.

The Council Members thanked Ms. Vogel.

Councilor White asked, “Are we going to deal with the police contract beings the deadline is tomorrow. Are we going to deal with that at all?

Mayor Dowell stated, “We are discussing that on number six tonight.”

Councilor White stated, “I am sorry. I was past number six.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “We are only on number four.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “We added that to number six at the beginning of the meeting.”

4. Public Works – Fence Estimates for Skate Park

Mayor Dowell asked, “Is this one revised?”

Ms. Curry stated, “No it isn’t.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “This is the one I wanted to get preauthorization for back a month ago when it came in.”

Councilor Orbino asked, “Why did it need to be revised, change of plan?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “I guess he doesn’t need to dig the hole bigger. The retaining pond was catching all of the water coming off of the bus garage and it was filling up faster than it was draining out so he was having to manually pump it so he wasn’t sure if he was going to need to revise something with the fence, digging the hole bigger or not. That is why he didn’t want it to come to Council the last time.

Councilor Orbino stated, “So I have a question on this. Is all of the fence that is currently there still going to be used? This is just an estimate for additional fence?”

Councilor White stated, “It should be able to be re-stretched and then added to.”


Councilor Orbino asked, “This picture is all the new fence that is being asked for and this is the skate park? Is that what is in the diagram? Down here it says tear out and stack on site and haul away disposable…it just says barbed wire so I am assuming that all of the chain link is still being used?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “That is what I thought is the old chain link is being used. The old barbed wire was not. I can get clarification on that.”

Ms. Vogel stated, “Again, I have been out of town a lot but the last I talked with Gregg, they were going to keep the existing fence. The barbed wire was on the fence between the public works and the skate park along the top. I think that was taken off. I think he is doing a chain link fence between the skate park cement and the bus garage because that is where all the digging went and that is where the pond is. I think he is separating that hillside from the skate park.”

Councilor White asked, “So what exactly…

Councilor Gifford stated, “There is a fence there already.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Right, he wants to move the gate…

Ms. Vogel stated, “There is not a fence. It just goes…there is a cement pad and then there is a steep incline and the bus garage. He is going to put a fence the length of the cement pad.”

Councilor White stated, “The back of the building acts as a barrier and then it comes off the awning and then turns into fence.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “Okay.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “He had to take part of the fence down closest to the bus garage area where the dog pound is so that he could drive the backhoe in there to make all of the repairs for the drainage issue and everything. That is all done. The conversations that I had with him is that he was going to replace the existing fence, move the gate that is going to be big enough to drive through and bring that down closer to the dog pound. That way he would still be able to drive the lawnmower in there to mow the park and everything. If we needed to get back in there for some other type of digging or drainage issues there would still be a gate big enough that you would be able to access it to do stuff.”

Councilor White stated, “So what you are saying is he is going to replace the existing fence and not reuse the old fence. That is what it sounds like.


There is one hundred seventy three feet of fence here at six foot high. Why isn’t he if that is the case using the existing fence he took down? Was it damaged taking it down or what?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “I don’t know what is wrong with the existing fence that is already removed. There is nothing wrong with the existing fence that is still standing or the gate that is there that is big enough to drive a truck through. I thought that he was going to use all of the same materials and it was going to be new barbed wire is the only difference is to move the entrance down closer to where the dog pound is.”

Councilor Gifford asked, “Can we find out?”

Councilor White stated, “I would like to table…

Councilor Orbino asked, “Can we table this for more information?”

Councilor White stated, “I want clarification until we find out what exactly what he is using. Is this the total amount if he does use the existing fence that he has there? Will it reduce this cost? Right?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “If this is the cost for new materials then using what we have already should be less than this.”

Councilor White stated, “Yes, exactly, and we want to clarify all of that.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “So you want to know what existing fence is being used…

Councilor White stated, “And if so, why not.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “If not.”

Councilor White stated, “And what the dollar savings is going to be if he is using the existing fence also.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “I believe that he has changed his mind from just a gate big enough to drive the lawnmower through to just using the big gate that is already there that you can drive a truck through or the backhoe if you need to make additional repairs.”

Councilor White stated, “So he needs to clarify what his work is.”

5. Temporary Transfer from Capital Improvement Fund to Street Fund for FEMA Match and Retainage


Ms. Curry stated, “It is mainly for the retainage. We are not going to get the retainage until 2017 on all of the equipment that we bought. They hold back ten percent. We basically got one hundred eighty eight thousand dollars worth of equipment for, once we get the retainage for ten thousand eight hundred dollars. I just need to borrow from that fund to keep the fund alive until we get the retainage and then pay back the Capital Improvement Fund once the retainage is released.”

Councilor White asked, “So you need to borrow fourteen thousand two hundred eight dollars and sixty three cents?”

Ms. Curry stated, “Rounded off to fourteen thousand two hundred. It will go right back into the Capital Improvement once the retainage is released from FEMA.”

Councilor White asked, “And how long are you expecting that to be?”

Ms. Curry stated, “You never know with the Federal Government. It could be here in January or it could be here in June.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “This is from 2007 so you never know.”

Ms. Curry stated, “We don’t want the Street Fund to go into the red.”

Councilor White asked, “So you are saying we really don’t have a choice?”

Ms. Curry stated, “Yes.”

Councilor Orbino asked, “So we have already been waiting for ten years for the fourteen thousand dollars? Is that what you just said that it was from 2007?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “The 2007 flood is what caused all of the damage. With us getting the grant for the replacing of the bridge, we have been able to mitigate out the three hundred thousand or three hundred fifty thousand that was supposed to be used to fix the scour problem on the Fir Street Bridge. Since that replacement of the bridge is covering the scour problem as well, we were able to mitigate that money out so we were able to purchase one hundred eight thousand dollars worth of equipment. In purchasing the one hundred eighty thousand dollars worth of equipment, they kept a ten percent retainer…

Councilor Orbino stated, “It put us in the red. That is why the Street Fund is over spending?”


Ms. Curry stated, “We are waiting for the retainage. They hold back ten percent.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Right, and we haven’t surplused the vehicles yet that were supposed to be surplused.”

Councilor Orbino asked, “So this fourteen thousand two hundred dollars will definitely go back into the Capital Improvement Fund in 2017 for sure?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Whenever we get reimbursed from FEMA. I don’t know if FEMA is going to give it back to us in 2017. I can’t answer that.”

Ms. Curry stated, “It should be in 2017 but I do not know when. I can’t speak for FEMA.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “It is that should be that makes me…makes it weird but….So we are hoping it will be in 2017.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Yes.”

Ms. Curry stated, “All of the paperwork is done. It has all been submitted. We are just waiting for them to do whatever they do to close out the FEMA claim.”

Councilor White made a motion to approve the short-term loan from the Capital Improvement Fund to the Street Fund in the amount of fourteen thousand two hundred dollars, Councilor Rader second, motion carried.

There was whispering amongst the Council Members. It could not be clearly heard and could not be translated.

6. Toledo Police Department Contract

Mayor Dowell stated, “I did not include anything in the packet because…

Councilor Gifford stated, “Because we weren’t going to have it in the packet and it is due tomorrow.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “Because it wasn’t on the Agenda.”

Mayor Dowell continued…my conversations with Toledo two weeks ago, their Mayor was going on a hunt and was out of town and was unavailable


after our last Council Meeting. We are also waiting on the Auditor whether or not it is legal for us to pay into a fund for their vehicle replacement and whether or not it is legal for us to pay into their fund and not retain any assets for our money that goes into that fund.”

Councilor Orbino asked, “If that was illegal wouldn’t we know that already? We have been in contract with them for fifteen months ago you signed it. If it was not allowed, wouldn’t we already know that?”

Ms. Hillier asked, “The question just arose didn’t it?”

Ms. Curry stated, “Yes.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “We just got their budget this last time because they were requesting an increase. That was when we noticed that they have a fund that they put money into every year to purchase new vehicles.”

Councilor Orbino asked, “So we have been paying into it since we started paying?”

Mayor Dowell stated, “Yes in 2015. Starting in August 2015, we have been paying into that. We don’t know if there is an issue with it or not.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “I don’t see that is a reason to hold up right now. If we have been paying into it and if it is wrong it has been wrong and if it is not it is not and we are good to go.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “I was just trying to get the information so that I could give you guys to find out whether it was right or not. The Auditor that is here doing our current audit said that she would take that information back and try to get us the answer. So far, we don’t have the answer yet. That was Wednesday or Thursday last week when we had the meeting.”

Councilor White stated, “I personally think that they are doing a phenomenal job. I would like to make a motion that we approve the budget.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “I would like to make a motion before you say that if we approve the budget with the amendments that need to be fixed. Approving it and not getting things fixed is just going to be a big screw up.”

Councilor White stated, “I will second your motion.”


Councilor Gifford stated, “Our lawyer has some things that she is going to put together for us. Am I correct that was withheld from the last contract and was not completed?”

Ms. Hillier stated, “The items that you guys wanted revised or modified in the contract. I will put it together so that you can present that to Toledo along with those conditions and the approval for the full amount if that is what you doing.”

Mayor Dowell asked, “So is that for the full amount or is that for a potential reduced amount?”

Councilor Orbino stated, “I feel like they showed their budget and they showed us what they are spending it on. I don’t see anything…unless you are saying by chance one of those things is illegal but I don’t see any issue with the increased amount. Of course I do not like it but I mean I think they showed what they are spending the money on.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “And I honestly think if they are willing to work with us and fix what is wrong in that contract why we wouldn’t….

Councilor White stated, “Show good faith?”

Councilor Gifford stated, “I think they are doing an awesome job. They are doing phenomenal and our citizens are speaking up if you read. Our citizens like it. Our citizens are yelling at us right now are you kidding me. Why are you even discussing this? We finally getting citizens on the good side and not against us and now we are going to be like uh.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “I am totally comfortable going with the increase as long as Erin is comfortable with the contract.”

Ms. Hillier stated, “You guys need to be comfortable with the contract.”

Councilor Orbino stated, “The things you want to add to it I think those are important because you said it.”

Ms. Hillier stated, “The advice that I previously gave to the City when you guys first entered the contract, you guys are revisiting now and think that those do need to be changed based on my advice and Mark Scheibmeir’s advice. It is still up for negotiation but I will make those amendments as we had advised and how you guys want that then your Mayor can present it to Toledo saying that you would approve a certain amount with those changes.”


Councilor White stated, “Listening to when they were here they were not objective to some changes that we were talking about. I don’t think there is an issue.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “We hope there is not. It is in Toledo’s court now. The ball went to their side. We scratched their back.”

Councilor White stated, “It is time for you guys to score now.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “I just wanted to throw that arrow back there real quick.”

Mayor Dowell asked, “So what is your motion? Tim said something about a budget which you are approving a contract.”

Councilor White stated, “You are approving the budget in the contract is what you are approving.”

Ms. Hillier stated, “You are not approving a budget amendment, you are approving a contract amount and then if the budget has to be amended for that you will be approving a budget amendment through an ordinance.”

Ms. Curry stated, “We have not actually finalized the budget. It is just a matter of making adjustments.”

Councilor White asked, “So you made the motion with all the corrections in it so if you want to repair it I will second it.”

Councilor Gifford asked, “Why would we even make a motion at this point? We have to wait for that stuff don’t we?”

Councilor White stated, “Why we are proving the contract as long as she makes the changes.”

Mayor Dowell stated, “You are approving the contract with the amendments.”

Councilor Gifford stated, “Let me rephrase what Tim tried to spew.”

Councilor Gifford made a motion to approve the police contract with Toledo with the stipulations that our lawyer will draft that were left out of the contract prior to signing fifteen months ago, Councilor White second, motion carried.


14. CONSENT AGENDA

1. Payment of Vouchers -$71,175.392. Approval of Minutes – October 24, 2016 Regular Council Meeting

Councilor Gifford made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda, Councilor Orbino second, motion carried.

15. CORRESPONDENCE

Mayor Dowell stated, “The correspondence was from the entrance audit and what to expect and all that stuff. If you guys have any questions let us know.

Ms. Curry stated, “It is going very well.”

16. ADJOURNMENT

Councilor Gifford made a motion to adjourn, Councilor White second, motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 7:56 p.m.

_____________________________ Lonnie Dowell, Mayor

ATTEST:

____________________________Theda Curry, Clerk/Treasurer

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