March 3, 2009 Council Meeting

The last meeting took about 20 min, without any real hard issues. I quickly followed that up with the meat raffle at Billy's. Here goes.

The Buhl Fire Chief (Mike L) told us about a possible grant from the MN Board of Fire Fighters to help supplement the training of our fire fighters. He will let us know if we get any money from that grant.

The Sheriff report included praise for Buhl's Deputy Brock K. for his time spent at the Buhl skating rink during the recent winter fling. There was also a report on the Buhl squad car, and that it had to be repaired twice last month. Both times were electrical problems.

The first agenda issue as a handout that shows the cuts for LGA that Buhl will be facing in 2009 and 2010. For 2009 the cut will be @$40,000. In 2010 we expect a $90,000 cut. We will have to make some changes to the budget due to those cuts. The handout was for the council to look over and form some ideas.

Next we talked about changing the council meetings to just one day a month for June, July and August. We decided that we will do that if we can, and we will wait until May or so to make that decision.

We approved the Local Board of Appeal and Equalization meeting for May 5, 2009 at City Hall from 10-11 am.

We tabled an invoice from RLK for the Frantz Street improvement project. There was not enough information to determine what the invoice included.

That was it. Let me know what you think.

February 3, 2009 Council Meeting

Gene P. spoke for Public Works, and told us that the City is still working with MP&L on the electric service for a home in Buhl. The home owner has found that the power is typically low by about 13 or 14 volts.

The Recreation Board asked for $750 for a winter party called the Winter Frolic. The Council approved this.

The Sheriff told us that the Buhl Squad car is deteriorating, and we will need to purchase a new vehicle soon, most likely before next winter. The cost should be around $27,000. The current vehicle is a 2005 and has nearly 96,000 miles on it.

The Mayor informed everyone that Northland Village is open and taking new residents. Northland Village is an assisted living center located on the south side of Buhl near Hwy 169.

The agenda started with Shari informing the council that she spoke to the Police Chief for Chisholm concerning police protection. Shari had a few discussions with the Police Chief concerning service with their department and what the cost would be. The Chief told Shari that the total cost per year would be about $90,000, although he would need to know exactly what the Sheriff contract consisted of before he could give a specific bid. The Chisholm Chief of Police attended the meeting, but before he came to our meeting, he asked permission from the Chisholm City Council to attend and to come up with a bid package if the City of Buhl requested one.

This was the only real discussion of the meeting, and it ended with a vote to keep the Sheriff Department as the sole provider of Police protection for Buhl. The vote was 3-2 to keep the Sheriff and not accept a bid from Chisholm. Voting for Sheriff only protection was the mayor, Colin G. and Jesse W. Voting against was Shari S. and myself.

My issue was.... lets get as many bids as we can and take the lowest/best bid. In my opinion, nothing could be lost by asking Chisholm to bid on police protection. The Chisholm Chief said that it would be 24/7 service for $90,000/year. We currently pay the Sheriff Department $85,000/year for 40 hours of service. Additionally, we purchase a $25,000 vehicle every 4 years for the Sheriff, and the City of Buhl provides computer and other expensive ancillary equipment for the Sheriff that we would not have to provide to the Chisholm Police.

My point is this.... it is always in the best interest of the public to investigate competitive bids. We should not always accept the lowest bid, be we should always accept the best bid. The Mayor and other two council members decided that Buhl should not accept other bids.

As to the reasons for the vote. Colin G. did state his reasons for his vote, I disagreed with him, but that's ok. At least he told the public his reason for not wanting another bid. Jesse W. had a conflict over what he wanted to say, and what he wanted to state in public. He explained his vote to me in private after the meeting. I still think that we should have accepted a bid, however Jesse's reasons are valid and would have seriously influenced my decision to accept Chisholm as our police provider. The mayor though gave no reason for his vote.

I have been a Union Representative for 15 years. In that time, I have learned that you should never enter negotiations with a position on the subject. You should only have issues that need to be resolved. Our mayor always has a position, but rarely is open to discuss the issues. I'll continue to work on him.

Next we reviewed the 2008 budget and found that there was $12,404 left over at the end of 2008. Thanks to Mary, Mike and the whole City of Buhl crew, we once again ended the year with some money left over. If you see any of the crew, thank them for not over spending taxpayer money.

We briefly talked about the 2009 budget, and I have no reason to think that we will over spend in 2009.

We next talked about SWOP, the Summer Work Outreach Project. In the past, Buhl has given SWOP $500/year to do work around Buhl. For 2009, due to the current budget issues, we voted against giving money to SWOP.

Next we voted against giving money to the Chisholm, Buhl, Balken Summer Recreation program. Previously, we gave $1200/year to this program. A few years ago 8 or more Buhl children would attend this program. But last year only two attended daily. We decided that the money would be better spent on Buhl's summer rec program, if it is spent at all.

We did get some comments on the police issue from a concerned citizen, but the comments were after the vote, so there was no impact to the vote from this citizen.

Let me know what you think.

Buhl Personnel Policy and Salary Structure

I am currently working on the Buhl Personnel Policy and Salary Structure. Three years ago the Council decided that Buhl needed a written personnel policy, and Shari and I volunteered to work on it. The draft of that policy, along with a new salary structure and pay plan has been given to the City Council. It is available to anyone that wants to see it at Buhl City Hall, or email me and I'll send you a soft copy of the current draft versions.

The personnel policy is needed to protect the employees and their benefits, along with protecting the City from potential litigation. After working on the policy for some time, we found that we couldn't complete it without incorporating a more formal structured pay policy. This structure will allow the City to place a new employee within a salary area, and will allow the employee the chance to move to a higher pay area after the employee meets certain conditions. This salary structure/pay plan will give the City a greater degree of flexibility when dealing with employee's salary.

Please give me any comments that you may have.

January 20, 2009 Council Meeting

John Markas started the meeting with a list of five requests. First was a change in the sewer rates from $.0158/cubic foot over 100 cubic feet to $.0250/cubic foot over 100 cubic feet. The sewer fund lost money last year, so a rate increase was needed. The City of Buhl needs to keep the sewer fund making some money so that we can continue to maintain the sewer treatment plant. The Council approved this request.

The next thing John asked for was a new lawn mower to replace the 2003 mower Buhl owns now. The expected cost is $9000 with the trade in of the old mower worth about $4500 for a total of $4500 to the City. The Council approved this request.

John’s third request was for to put out a bid for rebuilding 7 blocks of power lines in Buhl. He expects the cost to be @$200,000. This money will come from the electric fund that currently has a balance of @$800,000. The Council approved the bidding process.

The forth request was for a sewer line jetter, with an estimated cost of $10,000. The Council approved this request.

Finally, John wanted to spend $2400 for auto dialers for the three sewer lift stations in Buhl. If a station fails, the auto dialer will call a pre-programmed number to let the City know that the station is broken. Last year, the lift station on East Monroe St failed due to a lightning storm, and some flooding occurred. These auto dialers should prevent another flooding from happening. The Council approved this purchase.

Buhl Fire Chief Mike L asked that the City join the North East Co-op for emergency equipment (I made up the emergency equipment part, Mike couldn't remember the entire Co-op name) for $75/year. This allows the Fire Department to purchase emergency gear for a reduced price. The Council approved this request.

The Sheriff asked for @$300 for a back lit keyboard for the Buhl squad car. This will keep the deputy from having to turn on the interior light to find the correct keys on the laptop in the squad. The Council approved this request.

The City Attorney Al gave a brief update on a couple of issues. The Waste Management contract was completed. The Kinney/Buhl ambulance service meeting is scheduled for Jan 29 at 4:30pm at the Buhl City Hall. Al reminded the Council about the proposed agreement/meeting with the boy scouts concerning Lake Leander. We need to schedule a meeting for that issue.

First on the agenda, Buhl’s fire chief Mike L asked for money for a new defibulator. The City of Buhl will initially pay $12,239.25 for the defibulator, and will be reimbursed for all but $612. So the total cost will be $612, and Buhl will receive a small portable defibulator to go along with the normal one. The Council approved this request.

Next was a discussion of an ambulance training policy. After some confusion (on my part) concerning the title of the policy “Ambulance Training Reimbursement Policy”, I made the motion to approve the policy, but to leave out the Reimbursement part in the title. Basically, the policy allows the ambulance employee that goes to the training to receive the cost of the training as payment. The policy calls for the payment to be treated as payroll by the City. For instance, if the cost of the training is $450, then the City pays for the training, is reimbursed by Minnesota’s Emergency Medical Services Board, then passes that $450 on to the employee as pay for their time. The cost for this comes out of the ambulance fund.

Next up was the City of Buhl Personnel Policy. When Contract negotiations took place last, the Council appointed Shari and myself to be the personnel committee for those negotiations. The Council also tasked the personnel committee to come up with a Personnel Policy for all City of Buhl employees. Not an easy task. Shari and I have worked with the City Attorney and the City Clerk to come up with the Personnel Policy and also a Pay Plan for City employees. These two documents were presented to the Council at the meeting.

Jesse White wants a more formal structure to what the personnel committee does. For instance, how long does the committee serve, how many council members are on the committee? So he and I will sit down and try to come up with a more structured plan for the committee. In the past, the committee was appointed by the Mayor to negotiate the City Contract with the Union. A new committee was appointed each time the contract negotiations took place.

The Council approved the new Waste Management contract, which provides garbage pickup for Buhl until Dec 14, 2014.

The Council agreed to an easement with Ziegler on the haul road near Whiteside. Ziegler will pay Buhl $4000 for 10 years of easement. This is a significant increase over the $100 for 10 years we received last time. The City Clerk and Mayor did a good job getting a large increase in this contract.

The Council approved the contracting of RLK as Buhl’s contract engineering company for 2009. The terms are the same as they were in 2008.

St Louis county asked Buhl if we wanted a voting machine to own for future elections. After I teased the City Clerk about the last election (all in fun), the Council approved the voting machine. The annual maintenance charge for the voting machine will be $40-50.

The Council transferred some money from a City capital fund for payment of the East Monroe Drive sewer improvements. The total transfer was $1926.07.

Finally, the Council approved a Knights of Columbus Bingo request for two dates in 2009.

Lots of typing, but the meeting was only 1 hour. Try to catch it on TV and let me know what you think.

January 6, 2009 Council Meeting

Well, not much happened at the last meeting. Jessie White wrote it up at his blog here http://buhlcouncilorjessewhite.blogspot.com/2009/01/jan-6-2009-city-council-meeting.html

The thing at the meeting that was not just bills and housekeeping was the snowblower for the rec department. Early in the meeting Gene P. spoke about the current snowblower that the rec department has for the hockey rinks. That snowblower was broken (not the first time), and Gene told us that the sewer plant had an extra one that the rec department could use while the regular snowblower was fixed. In the end , we voted to buy a new snowblower from Sears, a 33 inch Craftsman Professional for $1799.99. A lot of money spent at a time when we are trying to cut back.

Initially, I was not going to vote for a new blower. The more that I thought about it, and the more Jill from the rec department talked about the old blower, the more I changed my mind. My thought on this was the old "right tool for the right job". The old blower did not get the job done, and it takes a lot of man power to shovel out all that snow. Extra man power means extra people working at $7.00-$8.00/ hour. Two or three extra people 7-8 times a year and that turns into real money. Plus, the old snowblower just isn't made for cleaning that much snow. That was my thought process during the discussion. More staffing = more money in wages.

Besides the snowblower, the only other thing that I am really looking for input on is the Buhl Economic Development Agency (BEDA) that Jesse, Tom H. and myself were named to. I have been on BEDA for 4 years now, and I find it a difficult board to be on. Really, every person on the board tries hard, but we are all amateurs at economic development. The question is.... what is the best way to get some new businesses into Buhl? We have some land to sell, we have the South Industrial Park to fill up and the Whiteside Industrial Park too. We also have some commercial property in the City, but finding businesses to come to Buhl is not easy.

I thought that BEDA could offer financial incentives to people to find businesses that would come (and stay) in Buhl, sort of a "finder's fee". Say you were to find a business that would move to Buhl, that business came to BEDA and we were able to find them a building or building site, and the business stayed in Buhl for 1 year. Maybe BEDA could pay a finder's fee to the person that brought the business to BEDA. What, maybe $1000.00? It couldn't be a home business, and it would have to stay open in Buhl for some specified amount of time (no finder's fees to members of the City Council).

I could use some ideas here. What do you think?

December 29, 2008 Council Meeting

We had a short council meeting on Monday that had two issues on the agenda. The first issue was approval of end of year bills. The second issue was approval of the contract with the Humane Society for 2009. Buhl’s attorney wanted to clear up a few items in the contract with the Humane Society from the Dec 16 meeting. The Humane Society agreed to the changes, so we approved the contract for 2009.

One thing that I did talk to Buhl’s Clerk about was the Local Government Aid (LGA) that we received from the State of MN on December 26. Buhl’s total aid was not decreased in 2008 like some other cities were. We did not receive a decrease because we are considered a small city (under 1000 people), and the State did not reduce small city’s aid for 2008. Most likely, our aid for 2009 will be reduced.

How will we reduce our spending in 2009, based on the reduction of LGA we receive? It is hard to say at this point, because we don’t know what the reduced amount will be. We now receive $346,139 a year from the State in LGA. That amount will most likely decrease next year, and we will need to find some things to cut, or raise the local levy, or both.

A few people have made suggestions on possible ways to balance the City budget for 2009. The suggestions were…. Cut the law enforcement…..close the library……cut one employee from the City Crew…..cut the recreation department out. These were suggestions made to me (interesting that no one said “raise the local levy”). Let me know what your suggestions are on possible ways to balance the City budget for next year.

December 16, 2008 Council Meeting

Dec 16 2008 meeting took about 40 minutes from start to finish. These are my comments on the meeting.

Gene spoke for Public works, and briefly talked about snow plowing. They have done a good job this year. I mentioned to Gene that a home owner on Seville told me that his power was low in his house. Normal is about 120 volts, and the home owner has been measuring as low as 102 volts. Gene said that they are aware of the problem and are working on it with the home owner.

Shari spoke for the Library Board, and said that the “Finest of Times” is out. There is a Christmas Oragami class December 17 at 4pm, the 28th annual Christmas Party is at the library December 20 at 2:15pm, and the library is showing movies at 2pm December 29, 30 and 31. All movies are rated PG. Also, the library has a new online book club that had over 500 visits last month.

The first order of business was a resolution in support of the Polymet Mining project. The resolution was approved 3-0, with Shari and myself abstaining. I own some stock in Polymet (apparently so does Shari), and I thought that it would be unethical to ask the State Legislature to support the project when I could get some (very small) financial gain.

Next was a resolution approving the results of the City of Buhl recount. The resolution passed 4-0, with an abstain vote from me. Since the recount was due to a very close vote involving me, I did not think it was right for me to vote on the resolution.

We had a brief discussion of the Sheriff’s contract for Buhl. The Mayor and City Clerk gave our issues to the representatives of the Sheriff, and he hasn’t gotten back to us yet.

Next we talked about future bonding projects for the City. The City Clerk (Mike) thought that it would be best to not go forward with any bonding projects right now. Mike told us that it is possible that the State of MN could cut our 2008 Local Government Aid (LGA) by $8000-50,000. Next year will be (most likely) a lot bigger cut. So, Mike thought that it would be best to hold off on any new bonding/spending until we get a good idea of how much money we will get in LGA. The council agreed.

We transferred $24,933.59 from the sewer savings account to the general checking account sewer fund to pay some sewer bills.

We reviewed the new Waste Management contract, and Buhl’s Attorney (Al) asked us to hold off on agreeing to the new contract. Al wants clarification of some of the language in the new contract. The council agreed to hold off on approving the contract.

We reviewed the new Mesabi Humane Society contract. Al again asked that we hold off approving the contract due to some issues that were unclear. The biggest issue Al has is with a “Release of Liability” statement in the contract that he believes would release Mesabi Humane Society from liability in their work and put their liability on the City of Buhl. Al will get this issued cleared up, and the council tabled it for now.

We paid a bill of $1154 to Gobel Excavating for work at the assisted living facility.

We paid $416.01 to RLK for services on the Buhl Stubler Pit Project.

We paid $632.32 to RLK for services on the State Street Area Utility Improvements.

We paid $168.75 to RLK for services on the Damiens Addition Drainage Improvements.

We paid $4705 to RLK for services on the East Monroe Street.

We then set up a special council meeting for December 29, 2008 at 5:30pm so that we can pay 2008 bills before 2009 gets here.

We agreed to send Gene P. to the MRWA Water/Wastewater Technical Conference in St Cloud. Gene needs this training to keep his license up to date.

We agreed to spend $34,897 from Mining Effects money for the Damian Addition Drainage Project. We had agreed to do this earlier in the year, but had not made the motion yet.

We agreed to spend the remaining 2008 Mining Effects money on the Water/Sewer Project that the City did in 2008. That remaining amount of money was $2709.

We agreed to have Sterle & Co. do the 2008 audit for the City of Buhl at a cost of $7150. Last year the cost was $6950.

After the meeting I spoke with Al (City Attorney) about the ambulance aid agreement with the City of Kinney. He is waiting (like the rest of us) for the City of Kinney to let our City Clerk know when we can have a meeting on this issue. The meeting should have every interested party involved so that we can finally hammer out the agreement.

That’s it for December 16, 2009.