Weaver and Kocal Sworn In; Council Debates Crumbling Sidewalks, City Employees, And Administrative Foot Dragging

By Mick Parsons For The Prairie Advocate News

LANARK – Although Ken Weaver, Tom Kocal, and Ed Fehlhafer all won their reelection bids on April 5th, only Kocal and Weaver were there to be sworn in, and Weaver was late. In spite of this, the meeting ran nearly as well as might be expected, even though the most organized parts of the meeting was when Norm Brinkmeier of the Cemetery Board made his yearly presentation and when Tony Malone made a brief presentation to the council regarding the Lift Station, storm water infrastructure improvement plan the council plodded it’s way through in order to get the $100,000 in grant money from the state that has already been awarded. Somewhere between the Pledge of Allegiance and Adjourning two hours later, pretty much all the issues that drive – in some cases, hinder – the council were played out, from criticisms of the mayor’s administrative abilities to complaints about Public Works, and an instance of a former employee drawing unemployment in spite of not working for the city for the legally required minimum of 30 days.

Malone’s presentation to the council about the plan they asked him to design, then made him do over because the mayor was concerned about the obligations it would place on the city; the original plan, which passed committee and again passing the council, went unsigned by the mayor until his concerns were answered. This, however, is nothing new; later in the meeting, Alderman Ron Strohecker blasted the mayor for his inability to develop a plan to repair the city streets and sidewalks, and then stick to it. Strohecker said that while some sidewalks were done last year, some of the worst ones were not, and the ones that were done were done “out of turn.” He added “We need to better utilize our personnel.”

When the mayor asked him to develop a prioritized list of sidewalks in town that need to be repaired, Strohecker was skeptical of the mayor’s ability to even follow it and was not inclined to make the list – saying that he had done so before and it wasn’t followed – but relented in the end.

Strohecker went on the offensive again regarding a complaint to Ken Weaver by City Maintenance Supervisor Les Guenzler that he didn’t receive a pay increase in the new fiscal year. The main reason – as reiterated last week by Personnel and Police Committee Chair Anne Lindsay, is that the amount of overtime Guenzler gets every week. What became quickly apparent, however, is that some members of that committee – specifically Strohecker – are critical of the way Guenzler does his job and allocates the city’s pool of public works employees.

“Why does everybody have to go down to the sand pile?” he asked, referring to the cleaning and adding new sand at the sand filters at the city’s sanitary sewer plant. This question echoes back to repeated criticisms by Strohecker of not only the way the Public Works Department does things, but the manner in which the mayor tends to delay action by simply not following either the expressed will of the council or by taking the expressed concerns of the alderman seriously.

Guenzler is one on a short list of city employees who did not receive raises, and the only one who has worked for the city more than five years. Both Police Chief Magill and Officer Randy Craft received raises; Magill’s 3.5% raise amounts to an additional $1400 a year and Craft’s 3% raise comes to $1080 a year. Lindsay added that both Magill and Craft “seemed to be pleased” with the way things were going, and acknowledged that Craft – who has spearheaded the Triad Program which focuses on Elder Abuse – deserves particular distinction. These raises, which were voted on and approved by the council,will go into effect starting the next pay period.

City Clerk Jackie Hawbecker mentioned one former employee of the city’s Public Works Pool who was drawing unemployment after only being on the city’s payroll for 28 days. According to Hawbecker, state law requires 30 business days of employment in order to qualify for unemployment benefits. The former employee in question – who also happens to be the mayor’s son – has claimed one payment so far, amounting to a little over $300. The general consensus of the council was that Stern isn’t entitled to the payments, based on the law; it wasn’t known or discussed, however, whether, as a member of the city’s worker pool, he worked on days other than what are typically considered regular business days. There was more hemming and hawing amongst the aldermen, complaints about unemployment benefits in general and the negative impact that unemployment claims can have on a city’s credit rating.

It was then pointed out, again by Strohecker, that one of the reasons the city went with a pool of part-time workers as opposed to hiring a full time crew was to avoid expenditures like this one. But somehow, the general trend of criticism fell back on Guenzler and the pool of public workers rather than council itself, which agreed to the pool approach in the first place.

After some other discussion, Kocal volunteered to look into challenging the unemployment payments. “If you can prove he didn’t work 30 days,” Kocal said, “there’s no reason he should get unemployment.”

There was one bright spot. the city decided to keep its current employee insurance plan. While most area communities, the county, and most employers are dealing with inevitable rate increases, Lanark’s rates actually decreased 28.43%, making the decision something of a no-brainer. The reasons for the decrease became evident however, after city attorney Ed Mitchell asked whether a rate decrease was “too good to be true.” Mayor Ed Stern admitted the reason for the rate drop. “We were paying too much,” he said.

The mayor also brought up the possibility of adding a Storm Water Fee to the city’s water bill. Kocal again pointed out that a CIP Fee could be used for the storm water project; but Stern, who has been dragging his feet on the issue of the CIP, said that a Storm Water Fee might be better because then the money would be specially allocated for a specific use. The Water, Sewage, Garbage bill issue – whether and how much to increase it, and what that money could be used for – has been one of more contentious issues among contentious issues on the city council. In the recent past, three different ordinance proposals – only one of which was actually passed on to the full council by committee, the other two were drafts by the mayor in response to the ordinance he didn’t agree with – were rejected by the full council for a variety of reasons.

One project that the council has been more or less unanimous about is the Municipal Building Project downtown. Even though the $123,000 Live and Learn grant has been award, the city is waiting to hear on a $311,000 CDAP (Community Development Assistance Program) grant. The CDAP grant is a significant portion of the funds necessary to complete the project, which will transform the old Don Hart Automotive Center into a downtown Municipal Building housing the Lanark Public Library, City Hall, and eventually, the Police Station. Hawbecker asked the council what the city would do in the event that the CDAP grant didn’t come through; and while Kocal and Macomber both said there is no point in worrying about it unless the grant doesn’t come through, Strohecker put his two cents in and said that if the grant doesn’t come through then “someone will have to sit down and study and see if this council thinks it can afford to do it.”

The Municipal Building Project is one on a long list of projects that the city has to look forward to in the upcoming fiscal year; or, maybe it’s more appropriate to say it’s one of many that would be on a prioritized list if a current one actually existed. Although the mayor still has the list of priorities he had from last January, the general mood of the board was that there needs to be a new list, a new plan, and the will to get it done. And yes, money must needs be part of that discussion; but the availability of money was of less concern than the simple will to get things accomplished.

In other city business, Norm Brinkmeier of the Cemetery Board was present and gave his yearly report. He explained the Prepaid Burial Fee, which is one of the new requirements all cemeteries will have to follow; he also said that Lanark’s Cemetery is probably one of the few around that is up to date on all the new regulations. Brinkmeier then added that the new $1.75 fee might end up being done away with. The Cemetery Board received high praise all around by the city council, not only for replacing stones that are either broken, neglected, or both, but for the way it keeps its books and organizes its records. Brinkmeier said he keeps a folder for each burial, including a copy of the report he is required to input to the state’s website and a copy of the obituary if one is available.

 

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