Notes of August 6, 2013 City Council meeting  --  this is a record of the meeting as recorded by me.  It may not be all inclusive -- I can only write so fast!   My personal commentary, if any, are in [brackets].   The minutes prepared by the City Clerk's are a brief summary of the meeting, intended to be a record of votes and actions taken.   The meeting is tape recorded by Harriette Nitzel and the records are public and should be available to anyone who wants to listen to the recordings.

[I wasn’t present at this meeting until 8:00 p.m.] 

Present were Mayor Clay Loosen, City Councilpersons: Edna Justice, Brent Wilkinson, Gary Olsen, Brenda Curry, Doyle Province,  Bobby Spencer, and Richard Hightower; Kendra Baker was absent. Also present were Harriette Nitzel, Debbie from Dan Webber’s office; Doreen Flaming, Terry Crawford, Robert Daugherty, Marvin Schweigert,  Warren Rice, Verlin Bills, Noelle Denucci,  Neisha Newsom, Bobby Stitt, Robbie Pearson,  Linda Barrett,  Andy Barrett,  J.T. Walker and Tracy Walker,  and Jennifer Rogers from OMPA.

Items on the Agenda were:

1.       Approval of minutes of the last regular City Council and monthly claims.

2.       Consideration, discussion and action to open and award bid for Street Overlay Projects on Prouty St. to Norwood Street west, Laing Street west on 7^th St., and Laing Street east on A street.

3.       Consideration, discussion and action with regards to the Library Committee’s recommendation for the Circulation Desk for the library.  The Library committee met on Aug. 31 to review and discuss the bid received for the project, as it did not seem to be complete.

4.       Consideration, discussion and action with regard to a fee schedule for Residential and Commercial Permits as recommended by the committee, for Building Permit, Electric Permit, Plumbing Permit, Gas Inspection Permit, Mechanical Permit, and Lawn Sprinkler permit.  This committee met last week.

5.       Consideration, discussion and action per Committee recommendation to appoint and set a fee for someone to fill in as building inspector when Mark Huff, building inspector, is unable to complete the inspection. 

6.       Consideration, discussion and action to reappoint Mike Aylward as Local Agent Representative for OMAG.  The city obtains its liability and property insurance through OMAG.

7.        Consideration, discussion and action to allow Marvin Schweigert to purchase a Sanitation truck in the amount of $150,756.00.  There is money in the Sales Tax account for this.

8.       Consideration, discussion and action to declare property at 510 N. Weigle a public nuisance.  Robert said there has been no response to letters sent.   The owner is in a nursing home, but the property is rented.  Bobby asked “who is the rent going to?” This item passed after some discussion.   WHAT IS NEXT STEP?   

9.       OLD BUSINESS.  Clay Loosen presented an update on building a swimming pool in Watonga.  He has a schematic of the area where a proposed pool could be built, near the splash pad.   He said Blaine Reed did a study and he talked to several other communities with pools.  His recommendation was for an “amateur competition pool” with 8 lanes, 25 yards in length, depth of 4’ to 6’.  Including restrooms, changing rooms, mechanical, storage, fencing, decking, lighting, sewer, and water lines, the cost was estimated to be $994,068.00.  After checking with other communities with pools, Clay reported  that annual maintenance and upkeep expenses (insurance, staff, chemicals, electricity, etc.) would be estimated at $113,000.00.  There was no further discussion.

 Clay addressed rumors he’s heard that the City is going to spend $50,000.00 on the armory to put in some living spaces for  ambulance staff.  He definitively said “NO”, the cost of the proposed project is not $50,000.00, the City is NOT going to spend $50,000 on the armory.  Arlen Newman is working on getting specs to Clay. 

 10.   Council Comments: 

Bobby  Spencer noted that Ernie Earnest, the airport manager, had lost his fight with cancer and passed away today.  Condolences were expressed.

 Richard Hightower addressed the issue of Code Enforcement.  Complimenting  the efforts of Robert Daugherty, Mr. Hightower said it’s “not working”.   He commented that he himself has driven north from Main St. to 11^th and observed at lease 109 code violations, some properties having more than one code violation [not only weeds and grass, but also cars in the yards, dilapidated buildings, unsafe buildings caving in, etc.] Wikoff is the worst street, in his opinion, where he saw three houses in a row that are so overgrown one cannot see the houses, and the houses themselves are falling down and not secure.  There is no way Robert Daugherty can keep up.  The job is too big for a part-time code enforcer, and especially one who has a full-time job (assistant fire chief) on top of the Code enforcer duties.  He expressed the opinion that the City needs to have a full-time code enforcer, or possibly even a second part-time code enforcer, at least until we get somewhat caught up on the problem.  The yard violations are on-going, and the Code Enforcer and City staff deal with those types of violations before they deal with dilapidated buildings and safety issues, so the dilapidated buildings don’t get addressed as they should.   Robert said that he should be able to address the code violations other than grass and weeds in about 3-4 months, after the summer “rush”. Mr. Hightower said he would speak at every Council meeting until something is done.  He acknowledged that we have adequate ordinances, but those ordinances need to be enforced.  Action needs to be taken, not excuses made.  Edna asked “have we issued any fines?”  and Robert replied “No”.  He hasn’t done anything other than send out letters, and if the letter is returned unclaimed, he doesn’t know how to let give the property owner notice.   Linda Barrett commented that  "a Notice can be posted on the door of the house" per City Code.  Doyle Province suggested posting the notice on a stake on the corner of the property.  There was discussion of the City police chief helping by giving citations.  Doyle Province, as in the last meeting, again suggested that the city send a couple of  employees to get Code Inspector certification through Oklahoma Municipal League.  He thought the September class was full, but there is another class in February. 

 

Doyle asked Verlin if he has done anything as primary safety officer.  Verlin replied that he isn’t certified as a Code Enforcer.  He can do safety inspections but not code enforcement, in his opinion.   Brent Wilkinson mentioned that there was an article in the recent Kingfisher newspaper about their Code Enforcement. They have hired a new code enforcer, and the Council members nodded in agreement to the comment that the new Kingfisher code enforcer could be a good resource for Robert Daugherty, that Robert could find out what process the Kingfisher Code Enforcer goes by.  Bobby Spencer commented that he saw a report that Oklahoma City had 24000 complaints last year.   All cities and town have properties with Code violations, but they are also doing something about it.  He asked Robert  Daugherty “how many years would it take for us to catch up”, even with a full-time person.   Dr. Spencer also said that he wasn’t criticizing Robert Daugherty, but that we have to realize that the job is just too big for a part-time person to keep up.  We might want to consider a full-time code enforcer until we get the situation under control, then go to a part-time person.   Bobby Spencer commented, and there were several people who agreed, that the situation will probably improve once fines are issued and “we hit them in their pocket books.”  

Can we bid out the jobs of removing property?  Marvin Schweigert said he is not in favor of that.  He said it would cost between $1,000 and $5,000 and there would be a problem with the contractor not leaving the property in a condition that could be mowed by the city after demolition.  [That could be resolved by a provision in any contract, providing that the contractor doesn’t get paid unless the property is left in a condition that can be mowed.] 

Doyle said the code enforcement efforts  need to be” taken  up a notch”. 

The question was asked whether or not a civilian could get certified and act as a code enforcer, or does it have to be an employee of the City.  Doyle suggested that a civilian can get certified and the City can enter into a contract with that person if that person is not an employee of the City.   Edna asked “who does health inspections”, and Verlin replied that “Fred [Teply] does them.”  There was discussion that the City contract with someone from another community, like Geary, who is already a certified code enforcer.  Everyone seemed to be in agreement with that as a solution.  Dr. Spencer said he would contact Gene Pflughoft at CORD to see if Geary might be interested  in sharing a code enforcer.   No decision or action was taken about Code enforcement because it was not an action item on the agenda. 

 On the Public Works Authority agenda was a representative from OMPA, from whom the City gets electrical power, with an update on utilities.   A report of her presentation with some interesting information for residents, along with the discussion of Hospital repairs, will be in my next Post.