CITY COUNCIL REGULAR SESSION
April 13, 2015
203 Broadway Ave N
Tom McCauley Mayor
Kyle Hauser Council President
Pam McClain Council Member
Michael Higbee Council Member
Sue Gabardi Council Member
Karen Drown Asst. Clerk/Treasurer
Regie Finney Public Works Director
Nathan Fawcett Asst. Fire Chief
PUBLIC HEARING opened at 7:00 PM.
CONFIRMATION OF QUORUM:
Elizabeth Barker confirmed a quorum.
Mayor McCauley asked Karen Drown to explain as the applicant the reason for the public
hearing. She explained that council had reviewed the beer and wine license fee rates and had
proposed resolutions to raise the beer fee for consumption on premises from $75.00 to $100.00
and consumption off premises from $18.75 to $25.00 and to raise the wine fee for consumption
on and off premises from $48.00 each to $100.00 each.
Mayor McCauley asked if there was testimony in support. There was none. He then asked if
there was testimony against. Mimi Ford, Buhl, Idaho, gave testimony against. Also Rick
Cantrell, Buhl, Idaho, gave testimony against the rate increase.
Mayor McCauley gave Karen time to rebut and answer questions that had been asked in the
There was no neutral testimony.
Mayor McCauley closed the public hearing.
REGULAR SESSION called to order at 7:22 PM.
CONFIRMATION OF QUORUM:
Elizabeth Barker confirmed a quorum.
Pam McClain moved to amend the agenda and add the ICDBG bid approval item. Kyle seconded
the motion. She stated that it was an oversight that it wasn’t on the agenda and needed to be
approved to start the project. There was a roll call vote which was unanimous. Mayor McCauley
stated that item would be added to the end of New Business.
Minutes of March 23, 2015: Kyle Hauser moved to approve the minutes; Pam McClain
seconded the motion. There was no discussion and the motion passed.
Monthly Claims for Payment: Pam McClain moved to approve the monthly claims for
payment; Michael Higbee seconded the motion. There was no discussion and the motion
Monthly Reports: Pam McClain moved to approve the monthly department head reports;
Kyle Hauser seconded the motion. There was no discussion and the motion passed.
Clerk/Treasurer Report: Kyle Hauser moved to approve the clerk/treasurer report; Sue
Gabardi seconded the motion. There was no discussion and the motion passed.
Monthly Report: Scott informed council that Regie and his crew is beginning the project
for 11th Ave S. and Burke Street. They will be adding curb and gutter, water and sewer
lines and when complete the two streets will be paved.
Scott also informed council that work had begun on setting up the GIS system. He stated
city employees had meet with Elecdata out of Jerome and are compiling the information
that each department would like to have in the system. He explained the ESRI software is
the leading experts; which is the software that will be used. He also explained that Randy
has already got information from Twin Falls County that will be used. He stated Randy
has done a great job to get it where it is already. He stated that there is a small budget to
start and that will get the software to start entering data. The hardware is able to be used
by current staff instead of experts with expensive equipment.
Appointment of Buhl Housing Authority Board Member: Kyle moved to approve Bonnie
Haviland to the Buhl Housing Authority Board. Michael seconded the motion. There was no
discussion and the motion passed.
Library Survey: Cynthia handed out the completed survey and explained that this is a yearly
process. She detailed the information that was included in the survey which is everything from
patron information to employee information. Michael commented that it was interesting that 1/5
of the visitors were on computers. Kyle questioned if there was enough terminals for the need.
Cynthia stated that since smartphones and tablets are more readily used the demand is not as
great. But the library is the only option for those who cannot afford a computer.
Approve Urban Renewal Agency Annual Report: Michael moved to accept the Urban Renewal
Annual Report. Kyle seconded the motion. Michael asked if there was anything that council
needed to look at particularly. Pam explained the report is required by state code to state what the
agency has done the previous year. Tom commented that it was for informational purposes only.
There was no further discussion and the motion passed.
Consideration of Beer & Wine License for Juanita’s Tacos & More: Kyle moved to approve
Juanita’s Tacos & More beer and wine license. Pam seconded the motion. There was no
discussion and the motion passed.
Consideration of Resolutions to increase Beer & Wine license fees: Kyle Hauser recused himself
from the discussion. Pam moved to approve Resolution No. 376 to increase beer for consumption
on premises from $75.00 to $100.00 and increase beer for consumption off premises from $18.75
to $25.00. Michael seconded the motion. There was discussion with the licenses holders in the
audience about the rate increase and the questions that had come up in the public hearing.
Michael explained it was a council decision to look at a rate increase. Mayor McCauley added
comments that the administration had been requested by council to gather data concerning other
cities rates to compare to the current Buhl rates. There was discussion about where the increase
in fees would be used and the difference that would be generated. Michael commented that there
have been issues that have occurred around license holders businesses that have come up in the
past so some of the fees go to offset the monitoring of those issues. There was no further
discussion and the motion to adopt Resolution No. 376 passed.
Pam moved to approve Resolution No. 377 to increase wine for consumption on premises from
$48.00 to $100.00 and increase wine for consumption off premises from $48.00 to $100.00. Sue
seconded the motion. There was discussion about the large amount of the fee increase and the
affect that would have on the small businesses in town. There was further discussion about other
options. Sue commented that there is no history on when these rates were raised last and don’t
know when they will be discussed again. The motion failed. Michael moved to adopt Resolution
No. 377 and increase both on and off premises to $60.00 each. Pam seconded the motion. There
was no discussion and the motion passed.
City Property List: Karen explained the images that were sent of the parcels of city owned
property was pulled from the GIS system that Scott had discussed earlier. Michael asked if any
“gems” had been found. The one area that Karen questioned was the parcel that contained the old
Gun Club. Bill and Regie commented that there was a lease between the city and the snooker
players. Pam expressed appreciation for the listing.
Discussion of Cell Tower Lease: Karen explained the proposed lease that was included in the
council packets was 3 years in the making. She explained the current lease is for the land under
the cell tower and the control room. It is currently for $1.00 per year. In August of 2013 she sent
AT&T an invoice for 9 years of power which should have been paid based on the current lease.
As of last week a check in the amount of $20,920.48 was received to pay for the power usage.
Since August 2013 Karen has been billing them monthly for the power usage which is paid
within the month. Karen explained the proposed lease was for $1500.00 per month with a 3%
increase each year. The amount for the lease had been achieved by guidance from SIRCOMM.
Michael questioned if we risk losing them at that price. Karen stated AT&T made no counter
offer and as of that afternoon had confirmation that AT&T had signed the lease and mailed it to
the city to complete the signatures. Kyle moved to authorize the mayor to sign the lease when
received. Pam seconded the motion. There was no further discussion and the motion passed.
Discussion regarding City’s portion of excess Joint Fire Protection Funds: Elizabeth explained
the discussion about the excess funds that are currently split between the Buhl Rural Fire
Protection District and the City of Buhl at the end of the fiscal year. Currently the city portion
goes back into the general fund. She stated she had discussed it with the auditors and there would
just need to be a motion by council to earmark those funds to a savings account. Michael stated
the Joint Management Agreement states it is strongly encouraged to save those funds. Kyle
questioned if all departments excess go back into the general fund. Elizabeth explained that yes
the other departments excess does go back for those that are budgeted out of the general fund.
Michael stated the city is different from the district because of the other departments that pull
from the general fund. There was discussion about years that were short on funds and the good
years where money could possibly be saved. There was also discussion about the future
purchases that the department will need and items that would make the building more viable for
the future. Elizabeth stated the motion would need to be made every year. There was discussion
of the timing and whether to look at the current year or address it in the next budget year. Mayor
McCauley stated a concern about the potential future manipulation of future budgets years to
increase that savings balance. Michael stated Mark had brought by information about the cost of
the ventilation system and the current quote would be $53,574.00. There was discussion about
the fact that if the money is needed in a certain department that it could be used there if the
council thought the need was over any other department. Consensus was this would be a future
A recess was taken from 9:00 PM to 9:05 PM.
Set Budget Hearing Date: Elizabeth stated she needed to inform the county of the budget date by
April 30th. She added that health insurance renewal information will not be available until July
15th or so. After some general discussion about budget timeframe Kyle moved to set the budget
hearing for August 10, 2015, at 7:00 PM. Pam seconded the motion. There was no discussion
Association of Idaho Cities Spring Workshop & Annual Conference: It was discussed that no
one would be attending the Spring Workshop. The Annual Conference in June was confirmed for
June 10-12. Attendees would be Mayor McCauley, Sue and Regie.
Administration Surplus Items for Disposal: After explanation from Mayor McCauley about the
upgrade to the phone system and the current pile of old phones in city hall the request was to sell
or throw the excess away. Michael moved to try and donate or throw away the items. Pam
seconded the motion. There was no discussion and the motion passed.
ICDBG Project Bid Approval: Scott Bybee explained that this is phase 3 of sewer line
replacement project. He explained there were two bidders; the component of pipe bursting limits
the number of contractors that can do the job. Scott explained the bid sheet he had handed out to
council members and that Walton Construction was the low bidder and Cascade came in about
$10,000.00 over Walton’s bid. Scott explained they would be happy with either company. He did
explain that Walton’s equipment isn’t as new as Cascade but they are more that capable of doing
the job. Council was also informed the Urban Renewal Agency had approved the bids since a
portion of the matching funds were their funds. Scott explained the work would begin the first
part of May and take 90 days and be complete around the first of August. Scott recommended
awarding the bid to Walton Construction. Michael moved to approve the URA/ICDBG bid
package. Kyle seconded the motion. There was no discussion and the motion passed.
COUNCIL CONCERNS – Michael pointed out that the second meeting in May is Memorial
Day and asked at looking at cancelling the meeting. Consensus was the second meeting in
Michael stated he would not be at the May 11th meeting.
Pam stated she would not be at the June 8th meeting.
Tom stated he would not be at the July 27th meeting.
CITIZENS CONCERNS – None
MEETING ADJOURNED – Kyle moved that the meeting be adjourned; Pam seconded the
motion and all were in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 PM.
Minutes prepared by Karen Drown, Assistant City Clerk-Treasurer
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