Bonners Ferry City Council minutes
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November 7, 2012 |
Mayor David Anderson called the regularly
scheduled council meeting of October 16, 2012,
to order at 7:00 p.m. Present for the meeting
were Mayor Anderson, Council President Mike
Klaus, Council Members Rick Alonzo, Connie
Wells, and Tom Mayo, Clerk Kris Larson, City
Administrator Stephen Boorman, Fire Chief Pat
Warkentin, Economic Development Coordinator
David Sims, and Attorney Will Herrington. Also
present were Bill Leach, Mike Sloan, Dean
Satchwell, Jerry Higgs, Dale Simpson, Ruth
Sutton, Jessica Tingley, Adam Arthur, Bob
Spalding, Loretta Hunsaker, Marcia Cossette,
Marcia Morman, Carolyn Testa, Doug Ladely, Sr.,
Robert Karlac, John Youngwirth, and Kevin
Cossairt.
Loretta Hunsaker spoke about the fiscal year
2011 city budget and said she understood the
citybudget was $79,000 in the red in 2011. Mayor
Anderson said the city does not run in the red
and cannot do so. Kris told her that the city
has budgeted revenue and expenditures and
sometimes the revenues are short of the
projections made at budget time. She also told
her that the city has contingency funds in all
funds in case this happens. Kris told her that
when we budgeted for fiscal year 2013 that we
had roughly $459,000 in the general fund
balance. Kris will look at the 2011 revenues and
get back to her with the specifics. Loretta said
that was not necessary but her point is about
this time last year when she asked why
annexation was taking place of the 77 parcels,
if it was for the additional revenue, she was
assured by Stephen Boorman and David Sims that
it was not due to the revenues that would be
generated. Loretta thinks this is contradiction
of what she was told and what actually happened.
Loretta also questioned fiscal year 2013 budget
and asked if we would be short. Kris told her
that we were $35,000 to $37,000 short in revenue
projections over expenditures and that was taken
from the contingency to balance the
budget. Expenditures are generally not as great
as what is budgeted. Mayor Anderson said if we
continue to eat away at the contingency then
services would have to be cut.
Loretta asked if we had to borrow from the
contingency in 2012. Mayor Anderson said he did
not think so. He also said income is not always
predictable and spoke of the Legislature’s
proposal to take away personal property taxes.
Cities look at the services they provide and we
are not long on our services. Loretta said yet
the city wants to annex 77 more parcels. Mayor
Anderson said that is the direction of the
annexation.
Jerry Higgs spoke to council about his comments
at the last council meeting and said he found
out that his comments at the last meeting were
not correct. His property is not under
surveillance. He had a discussion with his
neighbor and that issue has been resolved.
Marcia Morman spoke to council about breast
cancer awareness and said one in eight women get
breast cancer. She said the hospital has a
campaign going for breast cancer awareness and
the goal is to get as many women in for
mammograms as possible. The hospital is offering
25 percent off of mammograms for those scheduled
prior to November 16. She also said the Mayor
made a proclamation for October 26, 2012 to be
Breast Cancer Early Awareness Day. She is
selling tee shirts to promote this effort.
Stephen welcomed Marcia to the hospital. Marcia
said there are vouchers available at Women’s
Health Clinic and Panhandle Health District for
women who qualify for free mammograms. Marcia
left the meeting at 7:13 p.m.
Fire Chief Pat Warkentin gave the fire report.
There were two carbon monoxide calls that
actually turned out to not be carbon monoxide.
There was a brush fire above Tom Turpin’s place
on Tannenbaum about ten o’clock at night that
was a slash brush pile that had been set off.
Pat said all of the recent fire calls were
people who called a fireman rather than calling
the dispatch at the Sheriff’s Office. He is
thinking of writing a letter to the paper to get
the public to know it is okay to call the fire
department. Stephen Boorman said the interviews
will be for the open position later this week.
David Sims said at this point Bonners Ferry will
not be included in the fiber project.
Blackfoot’s commitment to Bonners Ferry was not
as strong as we thought it was. The project will
only include Sandpoint and Ponderay. If the
project is successful Bonners Ferry may be
included in phase two. He said there were areas
of risk so not being included may be a good
thing. David said Mike Sloan worked on this
project for four years so it is disappointing.
David said there are more providers and better
service in our area than what we had three years
ago and there is DSL available at Three Mile and
Moyie. David said Don Davis from Idaho
Transportation Department is working on the
Highway 95 planning study and he will have
tentative meeting dates soon.
Connie Wells moved to approve the consent
agenda. Tom Mayo seconded the motion. The motion
passed – Mike Klaus “yes”, Rick Alonzo “yes”,
Connie Wells “yes”, Tom Mayo “yes”.
The consent agenda contained the following: roll
call; approval of accounts payable and payroll;
approval of September 26, 2012 special council
meeting minutes; and approval of October 2, 2012
council meeting minutes.
Mike Klaus moved to reclassify Steve Neumeyer’s
job description to include metering and
apparatus technician. Stephen clarified that it
is station wireman/meterman. Rick Alonzo
seconded the motion. The motion passed – Mike
Klaus “yes”, Rick “yes”, Connie “yes”, Tom
“abstained”.
Tom Mayo moved to approve the catering permit
for Ralph Lotspeich- Mirror Lake Golf Course for
the Boundary County Republican Central Committee
Social Networking Event at the Fairgrounds on
October 27, 2012. Connie Wells seconded the
motion. The motion passed, all in favor.
Mike Klaus moved to approve the beverage license
application for Kathleen Associates, LLC doing
business as Bonners Ferry Conoco. Rick Alonzo
seconded the motion. The motion passed, all in
favor.
Stephen said there was a failure of the North
Bench Substation breaker due to an animal. He
said the breakers at the Moyie Substation are
from 1972 so he is requesting that we purchase
three breakers. Kootenai Electric Cooperative
loaned us their spare breaker to get the North
Bench Substation back in service so we will
replace the one from them as well as have two
others for the Moyie Substation. The lead time
for a breaker is 20 weeks and the cost of a
Siemens breaker is $15,319. Rick Alonzo moved to
approve the purchase of the substation breakers.
Mike Klaus seconded the motion. The motion
passed – Mike Klaus “yes”, Rick Alonzo “yes”,
Connie Wells “yes”, Tom Mayo “yes”.
There was no action taken for the ICRMP
representative.
The group discussed an employee assistance
program for the employees at the city. It is a
rider on our Blue Cross policy that is for
counseling services and will cost an additional
$2.50 per month per employee. There are four
counseling sessions allowed per event per year
for the employees. The city did not know this
was not in the current policy coverage until it
was needed by an employee. Mike Klaus moved to
add an employee assistance program to the city’s
current Blue Cross coverage. Tom Mayo seconded
the motion. The motion passed – Mike Klaus
“yes”, Rick Alonzo “yes”, Connie Wells “yes”,
Tom Mayo “yes”.
Rick Alonzo said since the city has not given
employees a raise for the past four years that
he proposed giving the employees an extra day
off per holidays like the county has been doing.
He wants to give employees the day after
Thanksgiving off and since Christmas and New
Years are on Tuesdays, he wants to give the
Monday before those holidays off and the day
after the 4th of July off as it is on a Friday.
Connie said she thinks this is too much as it
would be fourteen days off. Rick disagreed with
Connie’s math. He said the days after Christmas
and New Years are one of the ten holiday days.
Connie also said the city has not made up their
minds concerning raises yet. Tom asked John
Youngwirth what he thought. John said sometimes
if he does not have a full crew that it is
difficult to operate the department. Mayor
Anderson asked Rick to come to the next
department head meeting to explain it to all. He
said he would rather come up with a cost of
living adjustment. Rick moved to table his
proposal at this time.
Connie Wells moved to go into executive session
per Idaho Code 67-2345 (1) (f) at 7:32 p.m. Tom
Mayo seconded the motion. The motion passed –
Mike Klaus “yes”, Rick Alonzo “yes”, Connie
Wells “yes”, Tom Mayo “yes”. Executive session
ended at 8:04 p.m. No action was taken.
The meeting adjourned at 8:04 p.m.
/s/
David K. Anderson, Mayor
Attest:
/s/
Kris Larson, City Clerk
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