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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Minutes 03.02.1982 Minutes of the Council of Laurel March 2, regular meeting of the City Couneil of the City of Laurel, Montana, was held in the Council Chambers and called to order by Mayor Albert Ehrlick at 7:00 p.m., on March 2, 1982. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Lonnie Kellogg Bill Brennan Marvin Carter Susan Carter Donald Meyers Bob Gauthier COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Duane Behm MINUTES: Motion by Alderman Brennan to accept the minutes of the regular meeting of February 16, 1982, as presented~ seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Carried. CORRESPONDENCE: Received a letter of resignation from Terry Fink, as Alderman of the First Ward. Motion by Alderman K~ilogg to accept Terry Fink's resignation, seeonded by Alderman Meyers. Carried. Received a letter from the State of Montana~ Department of Natural Resources and Conservation regarding grant funding through the Renewable Energy Grant and Loan Program. They informed the City of Laurel that its proposal was not selected to be funded. Received the minutes of the meeting of the Interlocal Cooperation Commission of February 10, 1982. Received a letter from G. A. Pfaff, D.C., regarding broken windows on 1st Street during construction in December of 1979. Joe Bradley - We did turn this over to the insurance company when it first hap- pened. They denied the claim and said it was the contractor's fault. This is a fight between insurance companies. So then the city went after the contractor's insurance ¢ompany~and they denied the claim for exact opposite reasons as the city's insurance carrier. The city's insurance carrier said that they did not fulfill the contract, the contractor's insurance carrier said they did fulfill the contract. So what I have done is prepare a letter regarding this dispute between insurance carriers and mail it to the insurance commissioner in Helena. I think action by the council can wait but what Dr. Pfaff wants is that if the insurance commissioner can't help him is that the city approve his claim, even though it has been denied by the insurance company. Discussion. It was suggested an answer is received this claim. that Joe Bradley handle this and that the council wait until from the insurance commissioner before taking any action on Received a letter from Larry D. Herman regarding Joan Sorg - water line break on February 3, 1982. The letter mentioned that it took over three hours to shut the water off and Dick Metzger said that they received the call from Joan Sorg at 10:53 a.m. and that the last valve was shut off at 12:05 p.m. You have to take into consideration that the water line goes uphill for quite a ways, so you are going to have all that back flow coming back down which is going to run until it gets down. This letter was referred to the city's insurance carrier. Received a status report from the Yellowstone County Air Pollution Control Board dated February, 1982. This report is on file in the clerk's office. CLAIMS: A copy of the "Statement of Items Released for Payment" for the February claims was presented to the council for review and approval. page 2 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel Motion .by Alderman Gauthier to approve the February claims as presented, seconded by Alderwoman Carter. Carried. OLIVIA LEE - WILLIAMS INSURANCE AGENCY: I want to make ali of you aware of the procedure to present a claim to the insurance company, and some of the other liable reasons for not telling a claimant that their claim is covered. If you are told of loss, please notify my office immediately; and we will contact our company. Don't make any statements to the olaimant concerning pay- ment. Doing so could compromise your insurance and it migh~ even be a breach of contract. There is a condition in insurance policies that a company reserves all rights to assume or deny liability. Liability claims are paid on the basis of negligence. The city must be legally liable before a payment will be made. Also, if the city pays a claim that is not covered under the city's insurance, you are setting a dangerous precedent. Everyone who has a claim that is denied will ex- pect the same thing and you will be obligated to pay or be prepared for a suit. This would hinder the price 'and possibly even the availability of insurance in the future. We really have to take a tong range legal look at this. You have to think what this is going to do to in the future if any claims are paid which the insurance company denies. Joe Bradley pointed out that everything she said also applies to Dr. Pfaff's claim. Discussion. KEN KOSOVICH - NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.: Mr. Don James and I met with the Department Heads on February 22nd with an idea about a request for city employees to establish an IRA account through payroll deduction. They explained that the proper channel would be to come before the City Council. Our request would be that if we could get three (3) individuals that did want to start an IRA with our company, would there be a way to handle it? Discussion. Alderman Kellogg wanted to make a motion not to allow the IRA deduction plan, but he was informed that you can not make a negative motion. A positive motion has to be made, then it can be voted down. Motion by Alderman Gauthier to allow a payroll deduction plan for IRA's, seconded by Alderman Marvin Carter. Motion failed 7--0. ORDINANCE NO. 702 (second reading) BEING AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 13.04.090 IN ORDER TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY CLERK TO BILL CITY WATER CUSTOMERS ACCORDING TO THE RATES AS ESTABLISHED BY THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION. ~otion by Alderman Meyers that Ordinance No. 702 be passed and adopted, seconded by Alderman Brennan. Upon a roll call vote, all members present voted "Yes." MAYOH'S COMMENTS: Mayor Ehrlick presented the Personnel Committee minutes of February 22, 1982. Motion by Alderwoman Sue Carter to accept and approve the committee's recommendation and to enter the Personnel Committee minutes of February 22, 1982, into the record, seconded by Alderman Meyers. Carrie~. page Minutes of the City Council of Laurel Request by the'City Clerk to leave the state March ll--14. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to aliow the City Clerk, Don Hackmann, to leave the state March 11--14, seconded by Alderman Brennan. Carried. Request by the City Treasurer to leave the state March 15--19. Motion by A~derman Meyers to allow the City Treasurer, Peg Kamerzel, to leave the state March 15--19, seconded by Alderwoman Sue Carter. Carried. Mayor Ehrlick said that he got a phone call from Elsie Johnston indicating that she would like April 26th to be "Beautification Day" in Laurel, to clean up the alleys, yards and have a regular community clean-up. Motion by Alderwoman Sue Carter that April 26th be proclaimed "Beautifica- tion Day" in the City of Laurel, seconded by Alderman Meyers. Discussion. Motion .by Alderman Marvin Carter to amend the original motion to read "week of April 26--30" instead of ~pril 26th~ seconded by Alderman Brennan. Carried. Discussion. The question was called for on the original motion as amended, which now reads: That the week of April 26--30 be proclaimed "Beautification week" in the City of Laurel. Motion carried. Mayor Ehrlick stated that our annual audit for last year was due January 22, 1982; and since we have not received it yet, he requested that Joe Bradley check into this matter. BUDGeT/FINANCE COMMITTEE: Alderman Gauthier presented the minutes of February 2, 1982, which were presented and discussed at a previous council meeting but were never entered into the record. Motion by Alderman Gauthier to enter into the record, the Budget/Finance Committee minutes of February 2, 1982~ seconded by Alderman Brennan. Carried. Alderman Kellogg - When we adopted the minutes of the Personnel Committee, I do not feel that we did this right. It is too late now, but I think in the future, I see Mr. Lenhardt is here and maybe ~e would have something to say to the council as a whole, that would effect these minutes. I feel that Mr. Lenhardt was here for a reason, and he wasn't even asked to speak to the council. Alder- man Meyers indicated t~at he was contacted by Mr. Lenhardt and I talked to the City Attorney. He wanted a roll call vote on it. The City Attorney felt it wasn't necessary. Joe Bradley said that it isn't required, but it could be done by a request of someone from the council. ALDERMAN KELLOGG - REPLACEMENT FOR TERRY FINK: Since Mr. Fink did not nominate anothe.r council person to take over his place, it is customary that the alderman from the same ward places a name in nomination. I would like to place in nomina- tion Bob Weatherford as Terry Fin~'s replacement. Discussion. The matter regarding Terry Fink's replacement was tabled until the next regular council meeting. ALDERMAN KELLOGG - WATER BILL AT WEICHERT APARTMENTS (Paul Fischer): Paul Fischer who owns the Weichert Apartments complained about his water bill, and is asking that the City Council reduce it. His bill in January was for 288 units of water Minutes of the City Council of Laurel and his average is tS. It came back down to ~l in February. He is asking for a rate adjustment. In talking with Dick Metzger, he explained that sometimes there is water left on, and in this case a tennant was gone for awhile and left the water on or something, which could cause a high bill. Alderman Meyers indicated that it wasn't the city's problem. Once it goes through the meter it is the customer's responsibility. It was mentioned by Dick Metzger that there is only one chance in 99.9% that the meter would be incorrect. He also stated that when there is a high water bill, the people will say that they don't have any leaks~ but 9 times out of 10 you listen to the toilet tank and there is where you will find the leak. It won't leak all of the time. But what happens is the rubber flapper in the bottom of the tank will get weak and will not seal properly every time. So the water will just seep away and after the water gets down so far the valve will kick on and fill up the tank. More discussion. Motion by Alderman M~yers to adjust the water bill presented for the month of January, 1982, seconded by Alderman Brennan. Motion failed 7--0. ALDERMAN MARVIN CARTER - CARS PARKED ON SIDEWALKS: At the basketball tournament the other night a constituent of the city was asking what the ordinance is regard- ing cars and vehicles parked over the sidewalk~ I said that I thought they had to leave that sidewalk clear. And he was in complaint of a vehicle in his neighborhood that never moves. It's always parked over the sidewalk. He was also complaining of ears being parked in the street and yards giving a junkyard effect. I think we should talk to our chief in getting that cieared up. Mayor Ehrlick indicated that he would talk to M~ke Bloom. DICK METZGER - GARBAGE CONTAINERS: Dick reported on the damage and destruction of 31 garbage containers plus 18 lids to garbage containers that were knocked over. I called Marvin to find out about getting more to replace these because we only got five on hand. In orde~ to have a few containers on hand, I figure we should get at least 41. The cost of these plus 18 more lids would be $7,150.40. Discussion. Dick Metzger would like to order these containers but the container budget is depleted and a budget revision is necessary to transfer $8,000 from the garbage truck--capital outlay to the garbage container--capital outlay budget. RESOLUTION NO. 1898 RESOLUTION NO. 1898, BEING A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A BUDGET TRANSFER WITHIN THE GARBAGE FUND Motion by Alderman Kellogg that Resolution No. 1898 be passed and adopted, seconded by Alderwoman Sue Carter. Carried. Alderman Marvin Carter - There is a heavy truck parked up on 4th Avenue and 5th Street loaded with steel wire. I noticed them sitting there all day. I think our ordinance has some restrictions of this. I don't think the streetside can withstand that type of pressure from those heavy trucks being parked there. page 5 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel Discussion. Mayor Ehrlick said he would stop at the police station tonight and talk to them about it. Alderman Marvin Carter also asked the mayor if he would ask the Ch'ief of Police to give us a breakdown of the things that's been going on since January 1. Alderman Marvin Carter - The Chief of Police is not here, so Z don't know how he wants to handle it, but at our Garbage Committee meeting the other night we wanted some instruction to give the people of Laurel what information is needed by him or his office to catch these illegal garbage throwers in the garbage containers. Discussion. Sgt. Lenhardt reported that the person seeing this being done has to sign a complaint and be able to identify the offender. Just a license number alone is not sufficient. A police officer that does not see it, cannot file a complaint. Alderman Marvin_Carter announced that there will be a Garbage Committee meeting on Monday, March 8th at 4:30, to start reviewing the garbage rates in the commercial district. JOE BRADLEY - AIRPORT CONTRACT: Keith Fitchett came into my office with a com- plaint. He had signed a contr'act with the city to lease space and the city has granted him a franchise to run the service station, and he is also running a flying school. In that contract it says that the city will not sign a similar lease with anyone else to do those services unless they also require that person to put in the same amount of capital investment. He said that somebody up there is running a flying school just out of a private plane. Joe asked Bill Brennan if he would look into this. Curt McKenzie asked about the hiring of a new City Eng£neer. Discussion. Alderman Meyers said that we should draw up a job description and have that before we hire anyone, so they know exactly what they are getting in to. Discussion. Motion by Alderman Kellogg to have a councii meeting as a committee of the whole at 5:00 p.m., March 3, 1982, to discuss the City Engineer position and job description, seconded by Alderman Meyers. Carried. More discussion. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to advertise for a City Engineer and have Curt McKenzie put it in trade papers or whatever needs to be done. The Outlook, Billings Gazette, Montana trade papers, seconded by Alderman Meyers. Carried. Motion by Alderwoman Sue Carter that we set up some type of policy that when we hire new people, we follow the same policy throughout. I don't care if the Personnel Committee does it or the Council as a Whole, but we should set up some type of policy that the public and also ourselves will know how it will be done, seconded by Alderman Marvin Carter. Carried. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 8:23 p.m.~ ~~ Donald L. Hackmann, City Clerk Approved by the Mayor and passed by the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, this 16th day of March, 1982. ona d L Hackmann, City Clerk