MINUTES
CITY COUNCIL
MEETING
GLADSTONE,
MISSOURI
REGULAR
MEETING
MONDAY,
FEBRUARY 25, 2002
PRESENT: Mayor Anita Newsom
Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross
Councilman Dan Bishop
Councilman Shirley Smith
Councilman Les Smith
City Manager
Kirk Davis
Assistant City
Manager Laura Gay
City Counselor
David Ramsay
City Clerk
Marilyn Ahnefeld
Mayor Anita Newsom opened the Regular February 25,
2002 City Council Meeting at 7:30 PM in the Gladstone City Council Chambers.
Item
3. on the Agenda. PLEDGE
OF ALLEGIANCE
Mayor Anita Newsom led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag in which all joined.
Item 4. on the Agenda. APPROVAL OF REGULAR FEBRUARY 11, 2002 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
Councilman Bill Cross moved to approve the Regular February 11, 2002 City Council
Meeting Minutes as written.
Councilman Les Smith seconded
the motion. The vote: All “aye” - Councilman Les Smith, Councilman
Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita
Newsom. (5-0)
Item 5. on the Agenda. CONSENT AGENDA
Following the Clerk’s reading, Councilman Les Smith moved to approve the Consent Agenda as read; Councilman Bill Cross seconded. The vote:
All “aye” - Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman
Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
CONSENT AGENDA
DETAIL
Councilman Les Smith moved to adopt RESOLUTION NO. R-02-21, affirming and
ratifying the actions of the City Manager in executing a contract with Phillips
& Jordan, Inc. for removal and disposal of ice storm debris. Councilman
Bill Cross seconded. The vote: All “aye” - Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan
Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
Councilman Les Smith moved to adopt RESOLUTION NO. R-02-22, authorizing acceptance of work under contract
with Wornall Secure Business Solutions for the Water Treatment Plant Video
Security project and authorizing final
payment in the amount of $34,829.56 from the Combined Water & Sanitary
Sewer Fund. (Project #0291) Councilman Bill Cross seconded. The
vote: All “aye” - Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan
Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
Councilman Les Smith moved to adopt RESOLUTION NO. R-02-23, authorizing execution of a contract with
Shaughnessy Fickel & Scott Architects for engineering services in
connection with construction of new
Fire Station #1 in an amount not to exceed $121,140. and renovation of Public
Safety headquarters in an amount not to exceed $79,160 from the Fire Protection
Sales Tax Fund. Councilman Bill Cross seconded. The vote: All “aye” - Councilman Les Smith, Councilman
Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita
Newsom. (5-0)
Councilman Les Smith moved for APPROVAL OF FINANCIAL
REPORTS for the month of January,
2002. Councilman Bill Cross seconded.
The vote: All “aye” - Councilman Les
Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill
Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
Item 6. on the Agenda. Communications
from the Audience.
None.
Item 7. on the Agenda. Communications
from the City Council.
Councilman Les
Smith noted that the snow
fencing/barricade material used around
the falling 70th & N Baltimore wall (Robertson property) has
collapsed and a resident asked him if it could be shored-up. Mr. Smith requested an update on that
situation by the next City Council Meeting.
Councilman Smith
said there has been a lot of discussion recently about economic
development and he notes in the Missouri
Municipal League Newsletter that
sales tax collections are up across the state yet we continue to have an
8% deficit in our budget. He is not
convinced that we can continue to state that our decreased revenues are due to a slow economy, there must be
other reasons. Business must be down
and he hopes we will really get aggressive in pursuit of some sales tax
generating businesses for our commercial areas. Mr. Smith said we have
spoken lately about the fact that
because of our financial condition there is a hiring freeze. He asked City Manager Davis what
effect a hiring freeze might have on
the progress on the Council’s goals and objectives for this year.
City Manager Davis said he does not feel that any of
the positions that were frozen, in fact we are trying to fill those positions
now, should have any impact on
Council’s goals. He would not
anticipate any of them having any impact on Council goals with the exception of
a Construction Coordinator which would obviously impact the infrastructure
construction, although that position was frozen over the winter which has
traditionally been a slower time in terms of construction but that will start
gearing up.
Councilman Smith said goals and objectives basically
mean “work for staff” from all that he has ever seen. You throw that on top of
the Sister Cities Commission and the 50th Anniversary, even
though those are volunteer driven, he has to believe there is quite a bit of staff time involved. Then you talk about policy governance
models, citizen based strategic plan, changing our fiscal year, which would be fairly time consuming. Then,
with Director Buschor leaving he is sure that an adequate replacement is high on the City Manager’s list because of construction management issues
Councilman
Shirley Smith said
she was interested in the audience questions at a recent forum for Council
candidates and naturally they coincided with
what we already know to be major issues for us. We are coming to the end of a year with this
Council and we need to keep in mind that nothing is ever totally finished
because it carries over. Beautification of N Oak was brought up which they think of in terms of beautification, and we think in terms of economic development. The
protection of our tax base, keeping up our neighborhoods, citizens
involvement, trash collection, and the
ever popular community center were the other issues raised. So we will hopefully continue on with these
projects and the fire station project which I see we have moved forward with by
letting the engineering contract tonight.
All these things just take time and we need to remember that these are
the issues the people are worried about.
Councilman Dan
Bishop said he would piggy-back
somewhat on Councilman Les Smith’s remarks or question relative to the effect
of these certain vacant positions on progress relative to the Council Goals set
in October. Mr. Bishop said he recalls
we met in October for Goal Setting, so it has been over four months. So we are a third of the way through this
year if you go from Goal Setting to Goal Setting. He knows that we have had some extraordinary things occur in
the City. We have had a catastrophic
water main break, we have had a natural
disaster in the ice storm, and we have had to come to terms with some recessionary conditions in the
city. Having said that, I sit here now
at the last Council Meeting in the month
of February and I really have no knowledge of where we are relative to some of the important
goals that we talked about in October.
He thinks Councilman Les Smith hit
the ones on the head that would come to his thoughts. One
is the Policy Governance Model and we as a Council agreed that we would
like to have decided on the best Policy
Governance Model for the City by the year end.
He understands that two of the Councilmembers that sit at this table
tonight are going to be gone within the next five weeks and there could be some
thought that well, we ought to wait and
see who the new Councilmembers are and where they are relative to this issue. But no matter what, you are still going to
have three Councilmembers here who bought into this at goal setting and he for
one would like to have some sense it is moving forward before he leaves here
the first meeting in April. Presumably
something is happening with it, but he does not know.
Councilman Bishop said just to go on, we talked
about neighborhood organizations and organizing neighborhoods and being more
actively involved in nurturing and
working with our neighborhoods which is a drum he has beaten for the least
three years and he doesn’t know where we are with that. He doesn’t know where we are with Citizen
Based Strategic Planning which he thinks is really big and was in fact brought to the table by
Staff two years ago with a desire to do that.
It was postponed for a year
which he thinks was the right thing to
do because we had a lot of things to wrap up.
The other one which is big and
he knows it has a lot of ramifications
but still thinks it is the right thing
to do if at all feasible, is moving the
fiscal year to start in October.
Those are things that come to mind without looking at any notes but
he was reminded of them by Councilman
Les Smith’s comments.
Mr. Bishop said personally he would like to know where we are relative to our goals by the next Council Meeting and he thinks it is appropriate to have updates of these at least given the fact that we are a third of the way through this year between goal setting.
City Manager Davis said the thing you have to remember though is the time of your goal setting, because remember you talk about a 12 - 18 month period and a lot of the things that you establish in your goal setting session in October are impacted by the budget and therefore don’t come forward generally until the following April. Last year we gave an update to the Council in April on how the goals affected the budget and he would be happy to give an update on where we are with the goals from last October. Mr. Davis said he does caution that generally we begin planning our budget for next year right now, and we take into consideration those Council goals from that October time period and carry it forward. Mr. Davis said the fact that you haven’t seen anything is not particularly unusual but he certainly would be happy to provide some information to the Council. On the Carver School of Governance issue, we talked about bringing that forward in January but there are some costs relative to that and he held off until after we had gone through the mid-year budget to see exactly where were, but it was our intent to bring someone forward from that institution. There is a fee to bring them forward but I think they are the best people to really define for us the policy issues behind their thought process.
Councilman Bishop told the City Manager he thinks he hears him saying that it has been the practice of staff to bring forward implementation strategies in conjunction with the annual budget. Well, that is very unsatisfactory for him because he is going to be gone when that budget packet is sent out to the next Council. City Manager Davis said he also just mentioned that he would be happy to bring forward information to the Council. Mr. Bishop said he understands that, and would appreciate that. He was thinking in terms of a January time frame on the Policy Governance Model because he thought that had been talked about. This was the first he had heard on why there had been a deviation from that here tonight, but thank you for the explanation and I would appreciate knowing by the next Council Meeting.
Councilman
Bill Cross had
no communications at this time.
Mayor Anita
Newsom noted
that the City Clerk had advised that March 6th is the last day to
register to vote for the April election.
Persons may register to vote at
City Hall and at all Library branches.
Item 8. on
the Agenda. Communications from the City Manager.
City Manager
Kirk Davis had
no communications at this time.
Item
9. on the Agenda. FIRST READING BILL
02-7, approving the Replat of Lots 67 & 68, Stonebrooke 2nd Plat, Replat (4106 NE 72nd Street) and
directing the appropriate officials to affix their signature to the plat for
recording. (File #1173)
Councilman Les Smith moved to place Bill 02-07 on
First Reading; Councilman Bill Cross
seconded. The vote: All “aye” - Councilman Les Smith, Councilman
Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita
Newsom. (5-0) The Clerk read the Bill.
Councilman Les Smith moved to accept the First Reading of Bill 02-7, Waive the Rule and Place the Bill on Second and Final Reading; Councilman Bill Cross seconded. The vote: All “aye” – Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0) The Clerk read the Bill.
Councilman Les Smith moved to accept the Second and Final Reading of Bill 02-7 and enact the Bill as Ordinance 3.825; Councilman Bill Cross seconded.
Roll Call Vote:
All “aye” – Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman
Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
Item 10. On
the Agenda. FIRST
READING BILL 02-8, repealing
Ordinance No. 2.846 and enacting a new
ordinance establishing a “Code Board Of
Appeals” for the City of Gladstone to hear and decide appeals of orders, and
decisions of determinations made by the Building Official relative to the
application and interpretation of Chapter 34 of the City Code, being the
Building and Construction Ordinance.
Councilman Les Smith moved to place Bill 02-8 on
First Reading;. Councilman Dan Bishop
seconded.
Discussion.
Mayor Newsom said she understands that this
legislation increases the membership of
the Code Board of Appeals to five members rather than the three members at present, and there will be a need to appoint the additional members to this Board. Mr. Wingerson said that correct. The vote:
All “aye” - Councilman Les
Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill
Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0) The Clerk read the Bill.
Councilman Les Smith moved to accept the First Reading of Bill 02-8, Waive the Rule and Place the Bill on Second and Final Reading; Councilman Dan Bishop seconded. The vote: All “aye” – Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0) The Clerk read the Bill.
Councilman Les Smith moved to accept the Second and Final Reading of Bill 02-8 and enact the Bill as Ordinance 3.826; Councilman Dan Bishop seconded.
Roll Call Vote:
All “aye” – Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman
Dan Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
Item 11. on
the Agenda. RESOLUTION R-02-24 adopting the 2002 State Legislative Program
for the City of Gladstone.
Councilman Dan Bishop moved
to adopt Resolution 02-24; Councilman Shirley Smith seconded.
Discussion.
Councilman Dan Bishop commented that as he mentioned
in the study session earlier this evening,
he certainly appreciates City
Counselor Dave Ramsay’s efforts on this matter. It is obvious that he spent a great deal of time reviewing bills
that were filed at the State Capitol and selected those that really are most
applicable in their ramifications to the City of Gladstone. He thinks that this is a better way of
crafting a Legislative Program than adopting the MML Program in to
to. He is especially interested
in the Bill filed by Representative Relford and is struck by the amount of
money that Gladstone could realize.
Even if there were an equal distribution of 50% of that
casino boat boarding fee among the municipalities in the State of
Missouri, the figure of $52,000 for
Gladstone is substantial. He thinks
that if we avail ourselves of the appropriate application process for grant
money there is potential for even more than that and he thinks this is an
opportunity to bring greater fairness to the current situation in the state. He would only mention relative to the issue of certain sales
tax exemptions that he is not
necessarily opposed to that in principle but he would like to see, as City Counselor Ramsay discussed, that if
we are subjected to having certain
items exempt from sales tax that the
State make up the shortfall for Gladstone.
He again thanked Counselor Ramsay and said he will be voting in favor of
this resolution.
Councilman Shirley Smith said she too would like to
thank City Counselor Ramsay, the
material provided bring to us more pointedly tell us what is going on in Jefferson City that affects us and she
thoroughly approves of the way we are doing it now.
The vote on adoption of the Resolution. All
“aye” – Councilman Les Smith, Councilman Shirley Smith, Councilman Dan
Bishop, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Cross, Mayor Anita Newsom. (5-0)
* * * * *
There being no further business to come before the February 25, 2002 Gladstone City Council Meeting, Mayor Anita Newsom adjourned the Regular Meeting.
Respectfully submitted:
__________________________
Marilyn F. Ahnefeld,
City Clerk
__________________________
Anita
Newsom, Mayor