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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Minutes 09.21.1982was at ?:02 p.m., on September 21, 1982. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Lonnie Kellogg Marvin Carter Duane Behm COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Donald Meyers Minutes of the City Council of Laurel September 21~ 1982 A regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, held in the Council Chambers and called to order by Mayor Albert Ehrlick Susan Carter Rob Harris Bob Gauthier Bill Brennan INVOCATION: Invocation given by Reverend Dallas Decker. MINUTES: Motion by Alderman Behm to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 7, 1982, as presented, seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Carried. CORRESPONDENCE: Received a thank you from the Ready family for the plant that the City sent for Stuart Ready's funeral. Received a letter from Colberg, Fasching, Mrachek and Tiensvold advising the City that the audit will be delayed from four to eight weeks while they wait for the work papers from the prior auditor. They have contacted the State for assistance. Received a letter from the Building Committee, Laurel Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses regarding the property located next to the Kingdom Hall as to the possibility of purchasing all or part of the remaining block from 2nd Street to 3rd Street on the west side of 8th Avenue, which has been designated as property for public use. After discussing the possibility that this land was for a park, the letter was referred to the Park Committee. Received a letter from Ja~es L. Kraft, Yellowstone County Floodplain Administrator, advising the City of Laurel that the Board of County Commissioners has authorized Mr. Kraft to administer Laurel's floodplain program for an annual fee of $360 {$30/mo.). Discussion. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to table any action on this matter until October 5, 1982, seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Carried. Received the activity report for August from Yellowstone County Air Pollution Control. CITY CLERK'S AND CITY TREASURER'S FINANCIAL STATEMENTS: The City Clerk's and City Treasurer's financial statements for the month of August were presented for review and approval. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to approve the financial statements as presented, seconded by Alderman Gauthier. Carried. DICK METZGER - TREES: There are some trees down at the Sewage Disposal Plant that need to be removed before construction starts. Larry Herman told me that I could have them. Since then I went and cut the ones in the back of the house, but the ones up front were left because they knew construction wouldn't get started this summer; and now I would like to get them out this fall if I could. Don Hackmann and I want to get them out, and we would like to know if we could have that same privilege. pag 2 MinUtes of the City Council of Laurel Motion by Alderman Behm to allow Dick Metzger and Don Hackmann to remove those trees, seconded by Alderwoman Sue Carter. Carried. BOB GAUTHIER - UNION CONTRACT: Mr. Gauthier presented a final draft of the Union contract. There is one change Since we originally adopted it that was not approved, that we would like tO implement at this time. That would be to allow the police officers a lump sum payment for their uniform allowance. We would have to change the wording from fund to account and delete the application. Otherwise basically the contract is the same that we tenta- tively approved back in June. Discussion including consolidation. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to table any action on this until after November 2, 1982, seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Division of the house: Alderman Gauthier - no Alderman Harris - no Alderwoman Sue Carter - no Alderm~n Marvin Carter - yes Alderman Kellogg - yes Alderman Behm - no Motion failed 4--2. Motion by Alderman Behm to amend the Union contract as Alderman Gauthier has suggested, and pay the officers their lump sum payment, seconded by Alderman Gauthier. Division of the house: Alderman Gauthier - yes Alderman Harris - yes Alderwoman Sue Carter - no Alderman Marvin Carter - no Alderman Kellogg - no Alderman Behm - yes The Mayor broke the 3--3 tie with a "Yes" vote. Motion carried. MIKE BLOOM - UNIFORM CODE: I would like to also request that the last portion of this requirement of the request made on August 17, 1982, be approved (A-O was approved 8/3/82) which indicates the show-down inspection, uniforms to be maintained and presentable, officers who do not meet the requirements will be suspended without pay until the uniform code is met, and the part about the new officer that may be employed during the probation period of one year, that officer when he is issued the $275.00 for his clothing allow- ance and fails to complete that year's probationary period, those items that are purchased be returned to the City of Laurel. Discussion. Motion by Alderman Gauthier to accept and approve the requirements as stated by Mike Bloom and also in the correspondence dated July 28 and August 17, 1982, seconded by Alderman Behm. Motion carried. ORDINANCE NO. 693-A was presented to amend Ordinance No. 693 regarding the appointment of an engineer for SIDs. The original ordinance did not speci- fically name the City Engineer, although the intent was there, so the auditors have recommended that the ordinance be amended. ORDINANCE NO. 693-A (first reading) AMENDING SECTION 11.80.010, LAUREL MUNICIPAL CODE, AND SECTION 11.80.010 OF ORDINANCE NO. 693 IN ORDER TO PROVIDE FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF THE CITY ENGINEER TO BE ENGINEER FOR SPECIAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS AT THE OPTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL. page 3 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel Motion by Alderman Gauthier that Ordinance No. 693-A be passed and adopted, seconded by Alderman Harris. Upon taking a rolI call vote, all members present voted, "Yes." Motion carried on first reading. DEL TEETERS - CITY LICENSES: I would like to apologize for losing my "cool" last week. Most of you are aware of what the issue is and I guess the reason that I came "unglued" is when I see such complete disregard of City ordinances and principles of decency which I experienced that afternoon. I am just unable to cope with it in much of a manner different that what I did. What I found is that on Wednesday, September 15th at 4:BO p.m., which is I believe business hours of all City employees, is a vendor and his vehicle sitting in front of City Hall. Inside City Hall he was soliciting business from City employees on City time. It is my personal belief that anyone who solicits business within the City or competes with anybody in the City who is licensed, those people also should be licensed. There was a recent instance where a person from Omaha, Nebraska, paid a $50.00 fine for doing business without a City license. It is my belief that the City is being totally ineonsistant. This fellow soliciting in City Hall has been operating in the City for over two years without a license. If the ordinance is illegal or unconstitutional, it should be abolished. If it is not, it should be enforced by whatever means it takes. I know of a number of businesses throughout the area that operate in the same manner that this man does and they have licenses. Pepsi Cola Bottling Co. of Billings, Coca Cola I am sure does and also most of your beer distri- butors except that I have never caught them at City Hall on City time soliciting from City employees. It's is my feeling that if City employees have time to do their shopping on City time, we've got too many City employees. I think there are a lot of City employees who forget who is paying their salary. We, as taxpayers and businesses, pay their salary and I feel we are entitled to much more considera- tion than this episode. With that I present my case and I ask action regarding it. I have been told second hand there were some steps taken by the Mayor in reference to this, I certainly hob they're true. I also asked that this isn't shoved off in a corner somewhere and forgotten about. I would like to see this resolved before a new licensing period comes. Ke~ Harris representing the Laurel Chamber of Commerce, supported Mr. Teeters' comments with regards to the ordinance, which is the only issue that we are familiar with. It appears that there is an ordinance on the books that would specifically require this vendor to have a license and I guess our recommendation also would be if it's enforceable, we would like to see it enforced; if not, we would like to see it changed. The Mayor referred this to the License Committee. Marvin Carter in regards to that, I think on July 6th we had an irate license person up here who was upset over something that happened on July 4th, and it's a similar case; and we asked the City Attorney to instruct the person that page Minutes of the City Council of Laurel until he gets his license, to please keep himself out of the City of Laurel, and I so move that this be enacted again at this time. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to instruct the City Attorney to inform this vendor (Schwan's) to keep himself out of the City of Laurel until he gets his business license, seconded by Alderwoman Sue Carter. Discussion. Joe Bradley I would like a chance to look at this. I don't know anything about this guy. The first I heard about it was this week. I would like to see just what kind of business he runs. Apparently some letters were sent back and forth from the City to them (Schwan's) four or five years ago, according to Peg. I don't know what happened then, and before you direct me to tell him to keep his stuff out of here, I would like to have a change to track those letters down. Motion by Alderman Kellogg to table this until the next regular Council meeting, seconded by Alderman Behm. Alderman Gauthier, Kellogg, Harris, and Behm voted, "Yes," and Alderwoman Sue Carter and Alderman Marvin Carter voted, "No." Motion carried ~--2. Dave Gauslow reported that the License Committee previous to this year were not meeting on a regular basis. Since this year we have been meeting a day or two before the Council meeting; and this matter has come up for discussion without much resolved, but we have been working on this situation and others similar to it. Discussion Rob Harris resolved, if he including the Schwan man parking illegally on the City streets. asked Joe Bradley if there was a stipulation until this is can or can not do business in town here? Joe Bradley He doesn't have a license, but like I said I would just like to see why this wasn't foliowed up before. He apparently has some argument why he doesn't have to buy a license. In reference to the ordinance Mr. Teeters asked us to enforce, sometimes Federal law will supercede our ordinances; and we can't enforce them against certain people. Apparently that is one of his arguments in that he is in interstate commerce and he doesn't have to live by our ordinances. And if that is the case we could never have an ordinance against him, but we can for in town merchants. So I would like to see what happened back then before we direct him to stay out of here, because we could get ourselves into trouble. Dave Powers I have about five different licenses in my station, two from the City and three from the State. It would be nice not to have to buy any of them next year but I don't think I could get by with it. And I think pressure should be put on this gentleman and make him go to court. If he wins in court, fine. I would certainly hate to see this tabled and not pursued. I am in favor of pursuing it. Mr. Teeters reported that he too has several licenses. Mike Bloom We are very selective in enforcing these licensing laws at this ~oint because of the constitutional aspect of it. We're not really sure, for example the Schwan man, if we should be arresting him or not until we know for sure so that we can be fair and impartial. The reason some get arrested and some don't, is that the ones that get arrested we know for sure and have the backing of the court. page 5 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel In being fair and impartial, there are lots ef laws, from having rabbits to spitting on the sidewalk. The parking statutes, we also in certain areas are select~ve. It would be ~mprcper for the Police Department to arrest the Schwan man for illegally parking wh~le un!oading his wares and not under the same circumstances make an arrest for the Budweiser beer truck, Coast to Coast truck, for all those trucks on Main Street and other streets in town, that we also cut slack for while they are loading and unloading their wares. We are back to the very stringent rule in law enforcement and that is fair and impartial. If you wish that we bust the Schwan man, we will. And we wii1 bust every- body else also and they can cart their goods to a~l the businesses from where they can legally park. That's the position we have to take. Because we have to give the arrest information to Mr. Bradley, from there Mr. Bradley is the one who takes the evidence and goes into court to prosecute these cases. Discussion. Mike Sankovich read Section 5.08.010 of the Laurel Municipal Code regarding transient merchants. He mentioned that he {Schwan man) is using our streets and is not being taxed one bit. JOE BRADLEY - POLICE RESERVE AND AUXILIARY ORDINANCE AND RESOLUTION: These are at the request of the Chief and Reserve and Auxiliary forces. The Council approved the last time {Resolution No. 1683, dated June 20, 1978) setting up a Reserve force but our ordinanc~ don't provide for it. It only mentions Auxiliary and they are distinguished in the statutes. So we just amended three code sections to say that there can be Reserve and Auxiliary forces, and the resolution is to establish the maximum number of people in each one with a total of 25. I guess it is their intention to make them all Reserve officers. But it will require Council approval. ORDINANCE NO. 718 (first reading) AMENDING SECTION 2.20 OF THE LAUREL MUNICIPAL CODES, RESERVE POLICE FORCE AND AUXILIARY POLICE FORCE. Motion by Aiderman Gauthier that Ordinance No. 718 be passed and adopted, seconded by Alderman Marvin Carter. Upon taking a roll cai1 vote all Council members present voted, "Yes." Motion carried on first reading. The resolution will be considered after the second reading on October 5, 1982. The City Clerk, Don Hackmann, reported on the 51st Annual Convention of the Montana League of Cltles and Towns, held on September 8th--llth at West Yellowstone. COMMITTEE REPORTS: Duane Behm - Budget/Finance Committee presented and reviewed the minutes of September 20, 1982, regarding the meeting with our auditors in which the exceptions from the 1981-82 audit were reviewed. Motlon by Alderman Behm to accept and approve the Budget Committee minutes of September 20, 1982, seconded by Alderman Harrls. Carried. Marvin Carter - Garbage Committee At the last Council meeting the bids for a packer and compactor were referred to the Garbage Committee for review and a recommendation. The committee recommends that we accept the low bid from page6 Minutes of the City CoUncil of Laurel Johnson Distributing for a truck and two Pakmor packers as follQws: New truck and packer $20,500 packer 23~975 1983 Ford FS00 B,500 Detroit 8o2L diesel 2,B5B RH drive 300 front pump effects 1,177 front mount pump 1,O00 freight to Laurel $52,805 Reoutfit our GMC garbage truck in Billings: $2B,498 shorten GMC chassis $76,303 TOTAL Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to award the bid to Johnson Distribu- ting of Billings for a truck and two packers in the amount of $76,303.00 on a three-year Lease/Purchase, seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Carried. Delivery will take from 60--90 days. ~ .~.~F~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~.~ ~] It was suggested that the local banks be contacted to s~e if they would be interested in the three-year financing and possibly obtain a lower rate~ thereby keeping the money in town. It was suggested that Peg Kamerzel contaot the banks to check out the local financing. Compactor Bid The committee recommends that we accept the low bid from Western Equipment Co. for a used Bomag model K~01, with a three-year warranty at the bid price of $83~912.00 on a three-year Lease/Purchase. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to award the bid to Western Equipment Co., Billings, for a used Bomag model K401 in the amount of $83,912.00 on a three-year Lease/Purchase, seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Carried. Discussion regarding in-house training on the use of this machine and possible delivery date of October ~, 1982. Mike Bloom commended Marvin Carter and the Garbage Committee in the efforts they have made in solving some of the garbage problems. Marvin Carter - Garbage Cans Mr~ Carter reported that we have put out for bid for some new garbage containers and they ranged in price from $137.00 to $235.00 until Mr. John Linton of Pakmor mentioned that he knows of a city that has got out of that type of refus~ system, and they have som~ used containers they wo~ld like to sell at $85.00 each. The Garbage Committee recommended to Larry Peterson that we purchase 100 of these containers. We need some replace- ments and also for the Village S~bdivision. City License - Herman Hauck dba Team Corporation Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to remove from the table the discussion and motion of September 7, 1982, regarding the issuanoe of a Business License to Herman Hauck, seconded by Alderman Kellogg. Carried. Discussion. Motion was made on September 7~ 1982, by Alderman Brennan and seconded by Alderman Marvin Carter to approve a Business License for Herman Hauck dba Team Corporation. A vote was taken and the motion carried. page 7 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel MAYOR'S COMMENTS: Appointments - Police Reserve Gerald Lee Lawyer John Timothy Elsenpeter Nickolas Robert Kisch Kenneth Michael Hoiness Richard Dean Musson Motion by Alderwoman Sue Carter to confirm the appointments to the Police Reserve, seconded by Alderman Behm. Carried. Red Lodge Garbage Last week the Mayor from Red Lodge called and wanted to know if they could bring their garbage to the Laurel Landfill. Mr. Carter commented that we shouId wait until we see the action of our compactor. We might be able to take under advisement and allow some dumping. Maybe you could ask them to postpone this until sfter the 15th of October. Mrs. Jim Morrison - Ordinance Prohibiting Trunk Lining of Sewers (Municipal Code 13.08.090) Lonnie Kellogg What the Morrison's have in mind is that they have started a garage and it has come up that they have installed plumbing in there. They want to put in a dark room, a floor drain and a sink. If they built their garage directly behind their house over the line they could tap onto it according to City ordinances. Their garage is to the side of the house, and they want to come out and tap into the main line to their house and the City ordinance prohibits that. They would like a variance to the ordinance or some way for them to tap on, as Larry Peterson has put a stop order and they can go no further with it. Larry Peterson Let me read you the first sentence of the ordinance (13.08.090 Sewer Connections). A separate and independent building, sewer shall be provided for every building, except where one building is directly behind the other or on an interior lot not serviced by a public sewer through the adjoin- ing street, alley, courtyard or driveway. This garage structure does not meet any of those criteria. It is directly adjacent to a sewer line in the alley, it is not directly behind the house and was not even applied for as a plumbed building. It was applied for as a detached garage. We later got a call to do a plumbing inspection on it. I went up there and it was stubbed out to be pigtailed onto the house connection. I would not approve the plumbing and told them they had to hook into the main line in the alley and pay a sewer surcharge connect±oh fee. Since this time they have submitted drawings to us showing provisions for a cleanout, possible use of it to dump a motor home, a dark room, two floor drains and a toilet, which is a lot to be dumping onto an existing house service. Mrs. Morrison commented that we could add onto our house and put five bathrooms in there. Discussion. Joe Bradley We've got an ordinance that was designed to solve a problem. I am not aware of any way that we nan just waive the ordinance. It seems that we have two options. One is to amend it to specifically include this kind of thing if the Council wants, or the second is to work with them and try to adjust their plans so that it will comply with the ordinance. You can appeal or amend the ordinance, you can't just waive it. page 8 Minutes of the City Council of Laurel Discussion. Larry Peterson's recommendation is to have a separate hookup. Discussion. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to table this for further study. Motion died for lack of a second. Discussion. Motion by Alderman Kellogg to follow Larry Peterson's recommendation, seconded by Alderman Harris. Discussion. Motion by Alderman Marvin Carter to amend the motion to read that in lieu of the fact that' this is not a building for residence, that we waive the $300.00 sewer hookup fee. The motion died for lack of a second. A vote was taken on the original motion~ to follow Larry ~eterson's re¢ommendation~ which passed 4~-2~w±th Alderman Marvin Carter and Alderman Behm voting, "No." Comp Time A resolution was presented regarding comp time for certain city officers. Discussion. RESOLUTION NO. 1939 ESTABLISHING RULES FOR THE ACCRUAL, ACCUMULATION AND USE OF COMPENSATORY TIME OFF WORK BY CERTAIN CITY OFFICERS. Motion by Alderman Kellogg that Resolution No. 1939 be passed and adopted, seconded by Alderman Behm. Discussion. The meeting recessed and the City Council went into an Executive Session for approximately fifteen minutes. When the Council meeting resumed, a vote was taken on the motion to pass and adopt Resolution No. 1939, and ali aldermen present voted, "No." Motion was defeated 6--0. The resolution will be re-written. Discussion regarding comp time. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m~ /~ ~ ~ ~_ 'Dona L. Hackmann~ C-~-~ C~ Approved by the Mayor and passed by the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, this 5th day of October, 1982. ATTEST~ Dona~a~~ Albert Ehrlick, Mayor