MINUTES

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

GLADSTONE, MISSOURI

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010

REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING

7:30 PM

PRESENT: Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith

Councilman Mark Revenaugh

Councilmember Carol Suter

Councilman Barry McCullough

City Manager Kirk Davis

Assistant City Manager Scott Wingerson

City Counselor David Ramsay

City Clerk Cathy Swenson

ABSENT: Mayor Carol Rudi

Item 2. on the Agenda. ROLL CALL

Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith opened the Regular January 11, 2010, City Council Meeting at 7:30 PM in the Gladstone City Council Chambers, and noted that Mayor Carol Rudi was absent as she was vacationing in Hawaii.

Item 3. on the Agenda. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.

Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith led the Pledge of Allegiance, in which all joined.

Item 4. on the Agenda. APPROVAL OF THE REGULAR DECEMBER 14, 2009, CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES.

Councilmember Carol Suter moved to approve the Regular December 14, 2009, City Council Meeting Minutes as presented. Councilman Mark Revenaugh seconded. The vote: All “aye” – Councilman Barry McCullough, Councilmember Carol Suter, Councilman Mark Revenaugh, and Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith. (4-0)

Item 5. on the Agenda. SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Mayor Pro Tem Smith invited Public Works Director Chuck Williams to join him at the Council dais. Mayor Pro Tem Smith read and presented a Proclamation to Director Williams, recognizing his retirement following five years of service to the City of Gladstone.

Mayor Pro Tem Smith said he was joking with Mr. Williams this morning that he has been accused of being the President of the Chuck Williams’ fan club, and other times he wondered what the heck he was thinking! Mayor Pro Tem Smith said in the final analysis, Director Williams was hired to do a job; he did that job, and the greatest compliment he can give him is to say that he left the Department better than he found it.

Public Works Director Chuck Williams expressed his appreciation and said he appreciated the trust that City Manager Kirk Davis placed with him five years and eight days ago. Mr. Davis stepped out a little bit, and took a chance, and he appreciates it. Director Williams said the people of Gladstone are wonderful people, and that is coming from a native Kansan, and he cannot say enough about the Public Works staff. Director Williams said he is very pleased with the dedication the Public Works staff has shown. With the snowstorms recently, they have really stepped up, and they have been stepping up for several years. During the 2008 tornado, they stepped up, and when there was a major waterline break on Memorial Day this year, they stepped up. Director Williams said the Public Works staff is stepping up during our current winter season, and he could not be more proud of the job they have done in serving the citizens of Gladstone.

REGULAR AGENDA

Item 6. on the Agenda. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE.

Larry Newport, 2002 NE 69 Terrace, offered the Public Works Department his thanks for giving up their time on Christmas Day, and said our city is lucky to have such a good staff.

Item 7. on the Agenda. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE CITY COUNCIL.

Councilman Barry McCullough stated he believes Director Williams and the Public Works crew has done an amazing job with all the work they have had to do with snow removal in the last couple of weeks, and he thanked them for a good job.

Councilmember Carol Suter agreed with Councilman McCullough, and said that not everyone who serves our citizens has done as well as our Public Works Department, and asked if the City has had communication with trash haulers, in particular Platte Valley, whose trash has been out since last Tuesday. They have apparently not picked up the trash, and lots of people in her neighborhood use them, and she has noticed this in other neighborhoods around town. The trash has been snowed on; it is frozen solid; and it has been plowed in, as the plows have gone down the street. Councilmember Suter said she did not know if people had been notified by the trash hauler as to what happened to their pick-up schedule, but her trash has been picked up twice since the time her neighbors’ trash has been sitting on the curb.

City Manager Kirk Davis replied he does use Platte Valley Sanitation as his trash service, and they have not sent any letters, and they have picked up the trash in his neighborhood the last two Wednesdays, and kept to their schedule. City Manager Davis said staff would contact Platte Valley Sanitation to inquire into this matter.

Councilmember Suter said Wednesdays are also her neighborhood’s scheduled trash pick up day for Platte Valley Sanitation, and nothing has been picked up, and it has become problematic.

Councilman Mark Revenaugh said there is a recording on Platte Valley Sanitation’s answering machine; he called them because he left his trash out on Friday, and it was not picked up. They canceled the Friday pick-up, as did several of the trash haulers, because it was so cold, they did not feel it was right having their folks in the cold weather. Councilman Revenaugh said the communication was not good, but the recording said they would pick up trash on Wednesday, and that they are running a week behind, but they would get to everyone, and the trash would be cleaned up by the end of this week, and they would be back on track.

Councilman Revenaugh said our City’s Public Works Department did a tremendous job in removing the snow. He said last year at a Northland Regional Chamber meeting that there are two types of Northlanders – those who live in Gladstone, and those who wished they lived in Gladstone. That could not have been more true than when we had this most recent snow storm, because the folks in Kansas City did not get their side streets plowed at all. Councilman Revenaugh said there was no special preference shown to the Council members, as he can attest, because he had to wait for the snow plows to come down his street so he could get out, but once he did get out on Christmas Day, one could see the pavement on North Oak Trafficway, heading north to 1-52 Highway, and as soon as he hit Kansas City’s line, it was white, and it was white all the way to 1-52 Highway, and then the road was treated by MoDot until one got back into Kansas City, by the Liberty triangle, and there again, it looked like it had never been plowed.

Councilman Revenaugh said The Star ran an article about the suburbs doing a better job than Kansas City in snow removal, and it was really obvious that the people who live around Gladstone certainly wished they lived in Gladstone instead of Kansas City when we had the latest snow event. Councilman Revenaugh offered “good job” to Director Williams, and asked him to pass that along to the Public Works staff. This is a safety and welfare issue for our citizens, and if our City does not get the roads plowed, people do not get to work. It was hard enough to get around the way it was, but certainly, when you were in Gladstone, you knew it, because you could get from Point A to Point B.

Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith stated he wished to make this unanimous, and said he gets a feel for what is going on in the City by what he hears in the grocery store, and he got four compliments and only one complaint. Our City did a really good job. Mayor Pro Tem Smith said he did have someone ask him why is it that Gladstone is so much better, and he believes it is because you have to make a commitment – you have to budget money and when you run out of money, you have to find more money, and it is just a matter of commitment by the City. In Director Williams’ five years here, he has had a couple of really tough ones, where we have not probably had enough of anything to go around, and we still managed to do a good job in snow removal. Mayor Pro Tem Smith said the entire Public Works Department – top to bottom or bottom to top – are committed to it, they are very proud of it, and they know it is one of the things that makes us a distinctive community, and he looks forward to that for the rest of the winter, because we are probably not finished with the snow.

Item 8. on the Agenda. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE CITY MANAGER.

City Manager Kirk Davis reported that City Hall would be closed Monday, January 18, for the Martin Luther King Holiday. City Manager Davis offered his congratulations to Director Williams, and said he came in and has done a really good job. He has opened our eyes to some operational issues in the Public Works Department, and he reorganized the Department and made it more efficient, and the professionalism of the Department has improved under his watch.

City Manager Davis offered kudos to Director Williams, and announced that Assistant Public Works Director Tim Nebergall would be the interim Director of Public Works. The City would be going through some processes to analyze how Director Williams’ position will be filled. City Manager Davis said in the mean time, Mr. Nebergall will be a very steadying and positive influence on that operation, and he looks forward to working with him now and for many years in the future, and he hopes Mr. Nebergall looks forward to the challenges as well, and he thinks he will do a good job and he looks forward to a seamless transition.

Mayor Pro Tem Smith said Director Williams has left our City with some great blocks to build upon, and he hopes we continue to build that way.

Item 9. on the Agenda. RESOLUTION R-10-01, authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Gladstone and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) Solid Waste Management District for the Regional Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program.

Councilman Mark Revenaugh moved to adopt RESOLUTION R-10-01, authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Gladstone and the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) Solid Waste Management District for the Regional Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program. Councilmember Carol Suter seconded. The vote: All “aye” – Councilman Barry McCullough, Councilmember Carol Suter, Councilman Mark Revenaugh, and Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith. (4-0)

Item 10. on the Agenda. APPROVAL OF A SEVEN DAY PACKAGE LIQUOR LICENSE, Walgreen Company dba Walgreens #1244. Managing Officer: Lorene Samson.

Councilmember Carol Suter moved to approve a SEVEN DAY PACKAGE LIQUOR LICENSE for Walgreen Company dba Walgreens #1244. Managing Officer: Lorene Samson. Councilman Barry McCullough seconded. The vote: All “aye” – Councilman Barry McCullough, Councilmember Carol Suter, Councilman Mark Revenaugh, and Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith. (4-0)

Item 11. on the Agenda. APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 2009, FINANCIAL REPORT.

Councilman Mark Revenaugh moved to approve the NOVEMBER 2009, FINANCIAL REPORT. Councilman Barry McCullough seconded. The vote: All “aye” – Councilman Barry McCullough, Councilmember Carol Suter, Councilman Mark Revenaugh, and Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith. (4-0)

Item 12. on the Agenda. OTHER BUSINESS.

Mayor Pro Tem Smith said he hoped everyone has had the opportunity to look at the first bulletin from the Missouri Municipal League, and some of the incredible pre-filed legislation that has come in from around the State from the House and the Senate. Mayor Pro Tem Smith said he wished we could take our Legislative packet and write across the front of it something that says, “Leave us alone”, and let us run our government the way the citizens of our communities elected their Councils to do, and operate in a manner that is in the citizens’ best interest, because they are continually wanting to meddle in things that work for us, and meddle in our funding possibilities and our revenue streams, and he believes he read one Bill that would abolish one tax in favor of another, and then initiate a petition that would allow the citizens to request the ballot issue to be abolished, and the Cities would have no tax revenues. Mayor Pro Tem Smith said he hopes our City will be soon bringing forward a Legislative packet, and getting it to Jefferson City, because it continues to get worse every year.

Item 13. on the Agenda. QUESTIONS FROM THE NEWS MEDIA.

There were no questions from the News Media.

Item 14. on the Agenda. ADJOURNMENT.

There being no further business to come before the January 11, 2010, Regular City Council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith adjourned the Regular meeting.

Respectfully submitted:

______________________________

Cathy Swenson, City Clerk

Approved as submitted: ___

Approved as corrected/amended: ___

______________________________

Mayor Pro Tem Les Smith