Committee Meetings June 22, 2009

Alderman Ebersohl and Hejna were not in attendance at this meeting.

Municipal Building, Property and Capital Improvements

• Senior services Relocation update

After reviewing four locations not including the YMCA part of the Traube Tent building is under consideration for the location of this program. Other locations did not meet certain requirements such as handicapped bathrooms and other improvements needing to be done before they could occupy the building.

The council then discussed if they negotiate a lease for the building and then the program asks the city for additional money as they have in the past on top of the monthly rent the city provides them with. It was decided Pat who runs this senior program will need to talk with the council. A motion was passed to allow Paul Ellis to begin negotiating a lease agreement for the council’s approval.

Mayor Hutchinson noted he has spoken with Representative Reitz regarding money for such a program.


• Shoemaker Schoolhouse update

A punch list has been made to restore the building completely. Paul Ellis is looking for grants to complete the work in the neighborhood of $50-60K. The city will need to consider the long term costs of staffing the facility if it will be a tourist information type of facility.


• Oak Street building

Paul Ellis presented a 5-year plan for the building to get more of it tenant ready, replace the parking lot, and expand some of the current tenant base to raise the revenue created by this building. Most if not all of the revenue generated by the tenants will be invested back into the building to attract more tenants and provide a better facility to the current tenants.

• Police Department roof

The roof is scheduled to be replaced by Lakeside roofing as soon as the can get it on their schedule, which looks to be mid to late July. The work will cost roughly $34K and consist of a new sloped roof with 1/8” of slope per a foot, gutters, and downspouts. Currently the roof is flat and has no gutters and downspouts.



Committee of the Whole

• Legal RFQ Submissions

This meeting was scratched as the council would like more time to review the RFQ’s that have been submitted.


Parks, Playgrounds and Recreation

Alderman Row left sometime during this meeting.
-Write-up in progress


License, Insurance Claims, CEMA, and Contracts

-Write-up in progress


Personnel

-Write-up in progress

June 15, 2009 Programmatic Agreement Discussion at the Regular Session City Council Meeting

June 1, 2009 Programmatic Agreement Discussion at the Regular Session City Council Meeting

The Programmatic Agreement

This is the copy of The Programmatic Agreement that I could get. Just posting so people know what all the talk is about.

I too had the questions of why Columbia Crossing was mentioned specifically in the document but after the discussion in the following videos and rereading the document a few times it is clearer now.

Land Owners - Proggrammatic Agreement

A representative of the landowners in the bottoms gives their reasoning of why the city should pass/approve the Programmatic Agreement.

Topix

It came to my attention that someone or maybe even multiple people have begun posting on the topix.com forums under my name. "Levi"

I have not posted to topix since May when I let everyone know I updated the blog until yesterday when I explained recent posts were not mine. From now on I will only post on topix as "Levi Ottwell", anything else is simply not me.

My feelings on the subject vary. I wonder who would be so childish to post under an actual persons name, as I dont believe I have provided anything but rather unbiased information about what is going on up at city hall on Mondays. I was also a little miffed that someone would do it, my name is rather unique and thus many people would assume exactly who "Levi" is on a Columbia, IL specific site.

It also crossed my mind that someone thought me relavant enough to use my name. I people are reading my site. I wish more people would step out from behind an alias and share their opinions.

Updates

I apologize for not keeping as up to date as I would like to but work was busy for a couple weeks there and hopefully I can catch up here and stay current for a while.

Videos should be added this weekend regarding the Programmatic Agreement disscussion that have taken place at the past two council meetings.

I will be moving my video hosting services over to youtube as I have found the vimeo.com service to be causing an issue for a few users. Videos will now be broken down into less than 10 minutes a piece to meet youtubes requirements but I can make the files larger in actual file size.

Vimeo lets videos be as long in time as you wamt but they limit you to 500mb a week in uploads. I liked that the videos could be longer but I cannot stay under this upload limit each week. Youtube only lets videos be 10 minutes in length but the file size can be 1gb each. Shorter videos but better quality and no weekly limit on file sizes.

Just thought I would let everyone know the reason behind the switch but in reality it wont matter as I will still embed the videos into the blog as before.

Committee Meetings June 8, 2009

Alderman Row and Oberkfell were not in attendance at this meeting.

Parks, Playgrounds, & Recreation

• Update on walking trail issues

It seems work will begin again on the walking trail between Loucust and Cherry streets once a few more details are ironed out with the concrete plant and Turner Hall. The Turners have agreed to grant a 20’ wide ingress/egress easement to Metter Park from the walking trail.


• Park Rules Discussion

Discussion started on how the city may want to pass an ordinance to allow fines to be assessed to people who break the posted rules in the city parks. Questions then fired up regarding the amount the fines would be. Tom Adams stated the amounts by state standards are $75-$750. The mayor added that the city has many ordinances where the fine is as little as $25.

When an alderman asked what or who determines the fine the questioning went over to Chief Edwards. He explained that 99% of the time when they are called for an ordinance violation they simply talk to the individual about what they are doing and give them a warning. The second time they are called they issue a fine, the third time they have to talk to the individual regarding the same issue they double the fine, it would triple for the fourth instance and so on.

Alderman Stumpf then asked if the city comes out ahead when issuing fines. In short the answer was no, after lawyer fees, court costs, and police time spent there is not really a monetary gain for the city in this situation unless the fines grow large enough.

No action was taken on an ordinance to assess fines to those who break the rules at the city parks, it was decided that Alderman Niemetz will look into the situation a little further.

One last tidbit of info from the meeting that may prove useful to those who use the parks is that the only area on any city property that dogs are not allowed is the walking trail at Bolm-Schuhkraft park by Parkview elementary. This is not so much an issue of people not cleaning up after their pets (which from what I have seen does not always get taken care of) but rather that dogs on leashes while people are rollerblading, jogging, and biking is not an ideal situation as explained by the council.

Personnel

• Executive Session
- EEOC Complaint
- Update on collective bargaining and employees salaries

End of Meeting

I have no issue on asking Chief Edwards if the fines provide revenue or not. Although I think it is important however for the council to continue to remember that not all services provided by the city can support themselves. We pay taxes to the city to provide us as citizens certain services. I appreciate the fact that the city and its police force can fine people who are not abiding by the law or city ordinances.

The mere fact they can fine people keeps most people from doing wrong in the first place and thus keeps a certain amount of order to things. Its costs money to enforce laws, it's not a for-profit endeavor. I hope our police department can never support their own operating costs by assessing fines, writing tickets or the seizure of drug related property. If they can then our city has become something none of us would want to be a part of.

Agenda for June 1, 2009

There are a couple of items that should cause some interest for Columbia residents on the agenda for tonight, I would encourage people to come and get involved.

-Bottoms Land Owners Programmatic Agreement/Fish Lake Interchange Programmatic Agreement

I would have to assume this Columbia Crossing related issue will be the most interesting topic of the night. There are many points of view on the subject and variables to take into account.

-Motion for aldermanic committees recommendations

This is located under the report of standing committees. I would have to say this will be a very heated subject as well, given how the topic was accepted at the committee meetings last week Tuesday. I see this motion either failing or going to the mayor to break the tie, in which case it passes.

-I know its not on the agenda but I would assume that there would/could be some update to the Meyer/1700 Ghent Road issue.

Committee Meetings May 26, 2009

First of all, I would like to apologize for not videotaping these meetings and I would encourage more citizens to come to the meetings to see what is going on. By the time the last “public” meeting was completed my wife (who came with me on a whim) and I were the only two people in the audience other than Ron Williams.

Transparency in government is lost if no one is watching.


Committee of the Whole
Discussion in this meeting pertained to a list of items Al Holden has that he would be putting up for auction. Items such as old computer equipment, old city vehicles and some bicycles would be included. In the past, the city has used Action Auctions. He indicated that he would like permission to use this service again. The conversation then switched to possibly using an online site that the state uses to auction items, as an alternative to the live auction service. Action Auctions charges the city 10%. The online source is 4.5% for the service, with the state taking an additional 1%, in addition to a nominal listing fee. Discussion also included the amount of people participating in an online auction versus a live auction. There was discussion as to the feasibility of shipping some of the items in the online auction, or having customers come to Columbia to retrieve these items. A possible consequence of using this service would be out of town winners taking more time than the city would like to pick up the item, or the inconvenience and the cost of shipping some of the larger items to a winning out of town bidder.

The council ruled to use Action Auction in this instance and, in the future, listing a few smaller items as they become available using the online auction service, before listing a large number of items at once. The city could then see more clearly the effectiveness of the online auction. Al said the Auction is tentatively scheduled for July 11, 2009.


Ordinance, Planning, & Zoning
Jim Agne set forth some information regarding the 1700 Ghent Road land sale issue.

He then allowed Mr. Meyer five minutes to state his case again. The city attorney then stated that the resolution to have a topographical survey done and submit a minor subdivision plat as previously required. The survey needs to be done with 5’ contour lines and a USGS topographical survey only has 10’ contours. This would need to be verified before it was accepted. The bottom line is, if you are going to pay someone to verify a USGS survey, you should just pay them to do a survey with the 5’ contours.

Dianne Smith was then given 5 minutes to state her case. I was unsure of why all this background on her part was needed. So far, the city has given Mr. Meyer no exceptions and has not accepted anything less than what she was required to do previously, and chose not to. It then became apparent why some were so eager to have her speak at the regular session council meeting. Diane said when she owned the land she had an offer from Brad Oberkfell to buy a piece of the property and that Kevin Hutchinson had offered her money for another piece of the property and told her that he could make it happen (i.e. get the land subdivided) She was then not allowed to and when she sold it she missed out on the possibility of making $100,000 if she had been allowed to subdivide it. She also wanted Mr. Meyer to explain to her why he should be treated differently than her.

The conversation changed quickly from the topic of the property to the allegations of Ms. Smith concerning Kevin, who she earlier alleged had made promises to people and “under the table deals”. Comments were also made that the Meyer’s were contributors to the Mayor’s campaign fund. It became clear as to the reason Jay Unnerstall had been sitting in the back of the room with a video camera, waiting quietly. He videotaped only sections of this committee meeting, and then when it was over, he left, after stopping in the hall to talk with some alderman. When the Meyer’s were leaving they stated out loud that they don’t remember giving to the mayor’s campaign fund, though by now the camera was off.

A couple of points I would like to make regarding this committee meeting:
• When I videotape any meetings at city hall, I am required to provide a copy to the city which I do free of charge. I would hope the same requirements were made for Jay to have his recording time. It would be much easier for me to not have to make these copies for the city, but is a reasonable rule for recording the meetings, which the State of Illinois allows the person running the meeting to make per the FOIA.
• Who contacted the Smith party? Were they really concerned that someone may get to do something with the land she had been prevented form doing? Has she always been aware of dealings with the property since selling?
• The city has not budged so far on the issue of the requirements to split the property up and they shouldn’t. Really, nothing has changed and the Meyers have not been treated differently than the Smith party, as far as I can tell. They may have pushed the issue more than the Smith’s and done more leg work to find a loophole or exemption, but nothing less has been asked for by the city that I can see.
• I know some people dislike the mayor. I disagree with him on some issues, but having a person who no longer lives in Columbia come back to a meeting to make statements like this is meaningless. For all I know, she could have said it out of anger at the whole situation. Regardless, I need another objective person to verify it other than Ms. Smith or the mayor before I am buying it. If he did say it, he obviously didn’t deliver, as she didn’t get what she needed done. Currently, neither are the Meyer’s.



Ambulance, Radio Communication, & Dispatch
The committee decided, after checking sale prices on similar used ambulances, that the offer on the table was sufficient and that the old ambulance will be sold for I believe $4000.

Ambulance collections will now be handled by a collection agency they had discussed in a previous meeting. With the cities $90,000+ in outstanding ambulance fees, recovery of any of this money will be beneficial to the ambulance service the city provides.

There was talk of possibly having a reduced fare for the father of the boy who died in a car accident over the Memorial Day weekend. The father has severe burns on his body and will need an ambulance service to transport him to Red Bud for his son’s funeral. After discussion, the decision was made to have them call and request transport like any other patient and be billed and worry about payment later. The possibility of negative legal aspects of the city donating personnel time, resources, and giving reduces fees to anyone ahead of time out-weighed the heart-felt reaction to help this man get to his son’s funeral. The situation required much more information and no motion was made.


Municipal Building, Property, & Capitol Improvements
Repairs need to be made to the police station roof as soon as possible. It was damaged and the insurer on the roof has made their settlement offer. The city will work with two roofing contractors who have given pricing to the city. The city needs to meet the specifications set forth by the insurance company.


Executive and Rules.
Since Mr. Unnerstall has been replaced with current alderman Roessler, there are openings that must be filled on committees. Apparently in 2007, when committees were formed, the council had a discussion and everyone apparently got to pick and choose which committees they would like to serve and chair. It was at that time, according to some alderman, that a precedent was set to permit sitting committee chairs hold their chair if they desired. I was not around at those meetings, so I do not know what exactly took place then. However, some alderman stated that certain ways of doing things had been swept aside by the council at that time.

In the city code, there is a provision for the chair of the executive and rules committee to recommend from time to time aldermen to both chair and serve on committees of the executive committee’s choosing. The chair of this committee is alderman Ebersohl, and the members are Row, Agne, & Niemietz.

The main point of contention was alderman Hejna was removed from chair of the finance committee and alderman Roessler was slated to take her place. Roessler is a CPA, so he is more than qualified to chair this committee. Hejna was slated to chair the Refuse committee. It was mentioned that certain chairmen, in the past, have apparently used their committees to “umbrella” items for action by their own committees. Occasionally, these were items that had no business being under their committees.

The committee passed the recommended list of who should serve on what committee. Row voted no.

During the discussion phase of this meeting, Hejna asked Roessler if he knew ahead of time that he was going to get to be chair of her old committee. Roessler, in a bold act that I believe is the reason he was elected, stated by her asking that, she was trying to place him into a group. He also said she put him on a “side” and that he was on no side. He indicated he was offended by such an assumption. Hejna stated that it was not fair that she was removed from being chair of the finance committee. Niemietz stated that things could have been fair over the last two years, but certain people prevented that from happening. The real showdown will be Monday at the council meeting when this comes to the table.

Hejna left right after this meeting. My wife and I left also as the last committee meeting was for the personnel committee and was an executive session meeting, so we could not stay. Earlier I had stated that Alderman Oberkfell had left at this time that was an incorrect statement, he stayed for the duration of the Personnel Committee Meeting


Personnel Committee
Executive session to discuss labor negotiations.

As always if any alderman feel I have mis-represented what I have written here then they are more than welcome to email me or add a comment to this post and I will supplement this entry with your viewpoint, if requests are reasonable.

Fundraising for memorial by two local boys.

The following was forwarded to me by Robert Repasz last night.

EVERYONE is invited to our home on Saturday 5-30-09 from 7:00 am until 2:00 pm!!
618 Pines Way, Columbia, IL 62236

Some of you may already know this but would you PLEASE pass this on to everyone on your email list?

Our sons Robbie (age 11) and Jeff (age 9) were friends with the Coleman boys who were murdered on May 5th. They played football and baseball with them and Jeff went to school with both of them. He played with them everyday at school.

Money is being raised to build a memorial in Columbia, IL for Sheri, Garett, and Gavin Coleman.

Robbie and Jeff have been trying to find a way to raise money to donate to the memorial fund for their friends Gavin and Garett and their mom Mrs. Sheri. It just so happens that our subdivision THE PINES (off D Road) is having our subdivision wide garage/yard sale this Saturday, May 30th. The boys had an idea and they presented it to Rob and I. We said YES! They want to sell their clothes that don't fit anymore, some toys, lemonade, water and baked goods (that they will be preparing) in order to raise money to donate to the fund to build a memorial in Columbia, IL honoring Sheri, Garett and Gavin Coleman.

They will also take donations!! Rob and I will be here but they are doing all of the work. PLEASE come help them to meet their goal. They have set their goal high at $500.00. I know they can do it.

Thank you in advance for spreading the word!

Sincerely,
Rob & Rhonda Repasz

Poor Road Discussion May 19, 2009

May 19 City Council Meeting Excerpt - Poor road conditions near McDonalds from Levi Ottwell on Vimeo.

Excerpt from the May 19 Regular Session City Council Meeting in Columbia, IL.

I think everyone in the city will be happy when this road is repaired. The patching that was done was nothing more than a waste of money. It did not fix the issue in the long run and it in no way made it easier to drive on. It will be interesting to see who is ultimately held responsible for the repairs.

1700 Ghent Road Discussion May 19, 2009

May 19 City Council Meeting Excerpt - 1700 Ghent Road Issue from Levi Ottwell on Vimeo.

Excerpt from the May 19 Regular Session City Council Meeting in Columbia, IL.

With the level of interest the Smith party has in what happened here and her willingness to speak freely about suing the city if they allow the current landowner to do something she was prevented from I feel the city must make the current owner follow every requirement set forward.

They should be given no easy way through this issue and I do feel for them as they are trying to sell their property but if the city is caught doing favors for a owner and they did nothing to help a past owner then they will be in a tough spot. (ie, a full topographical map should be required) There are a couple of variables, maybe the code has changed, maybe the current owner is subdividing for a different reason, maybe the past landowner did not investigate the issue as much as the current owner has and he has a case.

The issue still seems to be an issue ultimately for the county to resolve as the keep the records in question. It does seem that the Smith party is not involved at all in the current situation and should stay out of it. If the city is caught doing favors over one citizen then she may have a legal issue she can bring up at the proper time.

The real issue is that the city must do the right thing and treat all citizens equally and fairly.

New Videos

I will be adding some new video this weekend from this last weeks council meeting. It had a few interesting topics pop up that people will want to follow closely.

Videos

If you have trouble viewing the videos embedded on the blog you can also go to vimeo and view them there.

The link to my channel is as follows

http://vimeo.com/channels/40831

Committee Meetings May 11, 2009

Finance, Claims, Bonds, & Interest

Sam's Club memberships were the topic of the night. Aldeman Hejna asked what others thought of the city's Sam's Club memberships. Mr. Hudzik explained that currently the police department has three memberships, the ambulance department has two, while the fire department has six. City Hall currently holds one membership. He further explained that the police buy snacks and water in bulk for awards functions and paper to make award certificates. The ambulance department buys cleaning supplies and the fire department buys things for fundraisers. In all the city has twelve memberships which cost $35 each annually.

Hejna then said we shouldn't be going to Sam's as Columbia said they supported "Think Monroe County First". She also said the city should not go to Sam's and pay Missouri tax. She also noted that all departments could maybe pool their office supply needs and order together from Quill or Corporate Express.

Few alderman showed any real interest in the issue and a motion was made by Brad to limit each department to two memberships. No one seconded the motion. As Hejna is the chair she could not second the motion and Jay was not in attendance. This left only Fred to second the motion. Fred then made his own motion that the city simply keep the same memberships as last year. No one seconded. A little conversation took place and Fred then agreed to second Brads motion and it passed, it will now be brought up next week Tuesday at the council meeting.

My view on the topic is this. If we're going to think "Monroe County First" then taking away the memberships and ordering online at Quill, Corporate Express, or Staples is pointless.

It was said the departments spend maybe $2,000 - $3,0000 altogether at Sam's. Say you save 20% (which I think would be a high rate of savings) by shopping at Sam's. At $3,000 that's $600. We had twelve memberships at $35 which is $420. So we're paying for convenience in bulk. We're not really saving any money if we're paying people millage to drive to Sam's. With fewer memberships the city will come out ahead. Well a little more ahead but we don't know the millage expenditures.

The real issue is if the city supports "Think Monroe County First" then it should buy what it can here regardless of price. In the grand scheme of things $3,000 is not much to the city, spend it in Columbia especially if its cleaning supplies, snacks, and paper. Save the out of town purchases for things we cannot buy here.

Personnel Committee
Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining and employee salaries.

April 20th, 2009 Public Hearing & Council Meeting

Here is my first attempt at sharing council meetings with everyone online. I know this will offer a better resource for everyone to have rather than meeting minutes or my own account of what happened. I must be honest my equipment could not record the entire meeting of April 20th. It was simply to long for my recording equipment. I think we left around 11pm.

Click on the play button and let the video begin to buffer. It may take a few moments to load but it will play.



City of Columbia, IL Public Budget Hearing & Council Meeting April 20, 2009 from Levi Ottwell on Vimeo.

Sorry for the degraded quality. This was a longer meeting and quality had to be sacrificed to get it online to share.

I promise to deliver better quality as meetings go on. I will learn a few tricks along the way I am sure.

Videotaping Council Meetings

I started Monday on a new endeavor. Videotaping the city council meetings.

I cannot take notes fast enough to catch everything I want to and the minutes are not enough for my records. I am searching for a place to share the videos online. Youtube allows video 10 minutes at a time. That a lot of work splitting the video of your average 2 hour long council meeting. My recording media didn't last long enough for Mondays marathon.

A copy will be presented to the city for their records on or before the next council meeting.

If anyone has any ideas on where to upload this content to feel free to email me.

Fiscal Year 2010: The Budget

Sorry for taking so long to get around to things this week. It’s been a little busy around the house and I have been thinking about what happened on Monday night. I wanted to let it soak in and really think about it before I shared with you. I have been looking at the city budget for a few weeks and thinking about things that could be cut or should be cut, thinking about things that should stay and things that must stay.

It’s been a struggle for some families making ends meet the past year or two. Some families have had to only cut back on going out to eat or not taking a vacation while some have had to make much more difficult decisions. Maybe they have an adjustable rate mortgage that they did not entirely understand and now they are facing a foreclosure. Some families have lost one income that they depended on and are now facing very difficult choices. Our city is facing many of these same challenges.

It is no secret that Columbia is losing income. Income based on sales tax makes up a large portion of the city’s revenue for the general fund. Columbia made some cut backs last year in an effort to keep their revenues greater than expenditures. The council then covered the shortfall of revenue with transfers of funds from the capital development fund.

Going into Monday meeting the council again planned to dip into the capital development fund to cover shortfalls in revenue. Former mayor Les Schnider spoke before the council meeting asking the council to stop using these funds to cover shortfalls in revenue. His main point being that if the pattern continues then Columbia is not fixing their problem, they are only spending down reserves and savings while seemingly ignoring the main issue. Columbia is spending more money than they are taking in.

The council began to talk over the budget and it became clear that the majority of the council felt some cuts should be made. No one wanted to be the person who said what should be cut. The game that was played by the council in passing the buck around the table for what must have been an hour was ridiculous. Alderman Row made the first real proposal for cuts that were of substance. He seemed to be the first that took the step from saying “this item seems excessive to me what does everyone else think” to “here is what I think we should cut anyone disagree?” No political figure wants to say things that may seem bad to voters. Cutting projects and upgrades is not a popular idea.

The discussion went on and cuts were made. A budget voted “no” on by Mary Ellen, Gene, and the Mayor was passed on Monday.

I do not want to come across like I cannot see the point of view supported by the “no” votes. Just because the item is budgeted for does not mean they would have to buy every item throughout the year. Maybe revenue will be greater than the numbers we have projected. I believe that sure if months from now when Ron Williams came to a meeting and asked to purchase a new truck that was in his budget that if money was tight the council could say no. I also believe that every department head will work to keep their spending in under budget and maybe making hard choices without the council stepping in. I know all of this to be true.

The reasoning that the budget is a worst case scenario did not make it ok. If that worst case became a reality then we as a city would be in a bad situation mid year, I understand people will be monitoring things throughout the year but if you leave yourself some breathing room up front things are much simpler down the line, things like pay raises and emergencies we have not projected for in the budget.

I would love to have some feedback on this topic as I know I do not fully understand all issues facing our city. Hopefully in the next year things get back on track and our city can experience some growth and not be faced with these situations in the future.

Again if you were at the meeting and feel I have mis-stated the facts then by all means comment here or email me and I’ll post your comment for others to read.

Columbia Quarterly - Spring