Special Meeting
July 22, 2008
The
Mayor and Council of the City of Fairbury met in special session in the
Council Chambers located at 612 D Street, Fairbury, Nebraska, on the 22nd
day of July, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. Mayor LaVeda L. Fry called the meeting to
order.
Pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 17-106 and Fairbury Municipal Code § 33.04,
Mayor Fry called the special meeting; the object of the meeting was
submitted to the Council in writing upon submission of the final agenda for
the meeting; and the call, object, and disposition of the special meeting
have been entered upon the journal by the City Clerk. The City Clerk
notified the Mayor and Council of the special meeting. Notice of meeting was
given in advance thereof by posting in three public places; the city office,
the courthouse, and the message board downtown, the designated method of
giving notice, as shown by affidavit of publication. The Open Meetings Act
was posted in the meeting room as required by law.
Roll call found the following Council Members present: Brown, Friesen,
Byrd, Bender, and Polson. Absent: Trimm.
Mayor Fry called for the submittal of forms to request future agenda items.
No forms were submitted during the meeting.
Byrd made a motion to approve the appointment of Chad Sprunk as Police
Officer. Motion seconded by Polson. On roll call, Brown, Friesen, Byrd,
Bender, and Polson voted “yes.” Trimm absent. Motion carried. Sprunk was
sworn into office by City Attorney David Bargen, who administered the Oath
of Office to Sprunk.
Bender stated she thought the purpose of this meeting was for the
appointment of swearing in of an officer and for Ward IV and now this has
all changed and nothing was posted on the signs except Special Meeting.
Bender wanted to now if City Code 33.04 Special Meetings has any precedence
that this has to be in writing. City Attorney David Bargen stated that the
Mayor or 3 Councilmembers can call a Special Meeting. Bargen stated that the
object of the meeting shall be transmitted to the council in writing. When
the final agenda was produced and transmitted to the council, the object of
the meeting was transmitted to the council. In the future if the Council
would want to adopt a more strict requirement of the number of hours or days
prior that the object of the meeting has to be set and can’t be changed they
could do so. State law and municipal ordinances allow changes to an agenda
up to 24 hours prior to a meeting. Bargen stated the call and notice of the
meeting were done in compliance with the law. Bender stated that she could
see doing this if it was for an emergency situation but where we don’t have
a paper or anything for the public to see it ahead of time she didn’t think
it was necessary. She thinks the public should be informed and the way it
was done it looks underhanded even if it wasn’t. Mayor Fry stated that City
Administrator Jim Ferneau will explain why this was put on for tonight
because it is an emergency situation. Bargen stated for emergency purposes
the agenda can be amended the night of the meeting if needed or inside the
usual 24 hour deadline. Bender wanted to know if the next two items on the
agenda could be discussed – if they are an emergency. Bargen stated just
the agenda can not be changed within the 24 hours unless it is of an
emergency nature.
Discussion was held regarding working with Olsson Associates for the storm
sewer reconstruction. Ferneau presented a slide show showing the storm
sewer breaks; one is located at 917 G Street which was caused from the July
5, 2008 storm and the other is on the ten hundred block of F Street which
was caused by the July 17, 2008 storm. These are both on one line. Ferneau
stated we need to have Olsson’s involved to help get funding from NEMA. The
federal disaster paper work has to be done within thirty days. The
recommendations from both NEMA and Olsson’s are to look at the entire trunk
line so we don’t just have stop gap repairs. Last year, the sink hole at
917 G Street, was just a small depression in the ground. Citizen Dan
Stanton stated that in the past there have been studies done on this
section. Ferneau stated that Olsson’s have the studies that were done back
in 2000 but they will have to look at again to see the current conditions.
Stanton also said that the storm sewer at 917 G Street is right underneath
the house; Ferneau stated that is why we just purchased the property. Byrd
made a motion to approve working with Olsson Associates for the storm sewer
reconstruction. Motion seconded by Friesen. On roll call, Brown, Friesen,
Byrd, Bender, and Polson voted “yes.” Trimm absent. Motion carried.
Discussion was held regarding the approval of the contract with Joseph
Parker as City Administrator.
Bender wanted to know who was on the committee to do the interviews. Fry
stated it was Doug Brown, President of the Council; Shirley Howell, Chairman
of the Board of Public Works (BOPW); Eugene Mueller, past Mayor; and
herself. Fry mentioned the reason she put it on tonight’s agenda was
because Ferneau will be leaving August 17; if it wasn’t on the agenda until
the next council meeting, which is August 5, that would not leave Parker
much time to move as he would start
August 11 so he could be here with Ferneau for a week. Bender wanted to
know why he wasn’t here to meet everyone and also questioned why no
probationary period was in the contract. Fry mentioned that department
heads and committee members were very impressed with Mr. Parker. Fry stated
the contract was based on Ferneau’s; Bender said he had a probationary
period of one year. Bender thinks the City would want the protection of a
probationary period in case it doesn’t work out. Bargen stated they have
reviewed the contract and they have four or five items that they would like
to address for further protection of the City. Bargen said the council
could approve the contract in concept pending further review and adjustment
of four or five items in the contract by the City Attorney, and to bring
back to the council a final version of the contract later for final
approval. Citizen Ron Southwick stated it looks like this is a rush deal;
he had been with the City for 28 years and they operated without department
heads up to a year basically to save money. We have department heads at
this time so the reason to hurry and hire a City Administrator seems
lacking, no one understands why. He stated when Jim leaves the budgets will
be done; we operated over 100 years without an administrator so why the rush
now. Southwick can’t imagine anyone too sharp wanting to come here with the
situation we have. He also stated the way the primary election went, it
shows we may have a new governing body this fall; he feels this should wait
until then so they can make the decisions of who they hire if they so
desire. Southwick said there are ways to run this City and to run it above
board; that running a fast contract that our attorney hasn’t even had a
chance to look at and to put it on the agenda to hire a man is not above
board. Bargen clarified that they have looked at it; that they just want a
little more time for review and have a few items they want to add to it.
Southwick said it was still too quick – the reason for special meetings are
for an emergency situation and does not see that this town is in an
emergency that they need a city administrator right now. He said we should
have the election and let them decide how to run this. Fry stated she
firmly believes that the reason we are in the black, for the second year, is
because of the city administrator and it is very helpful to have an
administrator. Citizen Pam Schroeder wanted to know why someone from the
business community or the public was not on the interview committee and part
of the hiring process. The administrator will have to work with other
people not just the City. She also thought we should wait until after the
election; if we have changes they may want to make different changes.
Councilman Friesen stated he feels it is vital to have a city administrator
to get the info to everyone. He said years ago they didn’t have as many
things to keep track of as we do now. We have several things facing our
City right now that department heads don’t have time to take care of
everything and also having to take the duty of the administrator over.
Friesen doesn’t think we can wait long and keep heading in the direction
that we have and to deal with the things we have to right now. Bender says
we could wait until the August 5 council meeting so the public can have more
input and so Mr. Parker could be here and meet everyone and we also need to
think about a probationary period. Bargen noted that by state statute, the
Mayor has the authority to appoint these positions without any input from
anyone; without public input or committees of any kind. It is well within
the Mayor’s right to do this, and such appointments are subject only to the
city council’s approval. To the extent committees, direct public input,
etc. are utilized; it is a policy issue for the Mayor subject to the Mayor’s
discretion. Brown made a motion to approve the contract with Joseph Parker
in concept pending modifications by the City Attorney to protect the City.
Motion seconded by Byrd. On roll call, Brown, Friesen, Byrd, and Polson
voted “yes.” Bender voted “no”. Trimm absent. Motion carried.
Bender made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Byrd. On
roll call, Brown, Friesen, Byrd, Bender, and Polson voted “yes.” Trimm
absent. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 6:35 p.m.
LaVeda L. Fry, Mayor
ATTEST:
Sharyl Preston, City Clerk
