Council lays out new goals

By

News

January 30, 2012 - 12:00 AM

A four-hour planning session Saturday brought forth a handful of measures Iola City Council members want to tackle in the coming weeks and months, with a large chunk of the meeting discussing other philosophic issues.
Seven of the eight council members gathered Saturday morning for the session, which included an in-depth study of city spending in each of Iola’s departments over the past 10 years; preliminary discussions about which charter ordinances would need to change if the council decides to stagger future city elections; and specific goals and priorities among specific council members.
Among the highlights:

THE COUNCIL is expected to receive by its Feb. 27 meeting a purchasing policy to set forth how Iola does businesses with local vendors and service providers.
The city has had an effective procedure in place for years, City Administrator Carl Slaugh said, “but not a good policy.”
A council committee of councilmen Steve French, Ken Rowe, Jim Kilby and Beverly Franklin had met periodically to discuss the policies.
Their aim is to make sure goods and services the city purchases are at a fair price.
“But we don’t want to have it so stringent and so closed down that it’s incredibly burdensome for city staff, Rowe said.
The purchasing policy discussion led to another discussion in general about council 
committees.
The four-member committee meetings are considered public meetings, with advance notice required.
Having informal committee meetings may allow for more flexible scheduling, and more frank discussions.
“It’s not that I’m trying to hide anything from the public, but I find myself being careful with what I say” if outside spectators are present, Councilman Kendall Callahan said.
Mayor Bill Shirley said the idea of council committees was good in theory, but restrictive because of the formal procedures committee members had to follow.
Having a private meeting — with three or fewer councilman — could allow for more brainstorming and a more frank exchanging of ideas, Callahan opined.
Councilman Donald Becker disagreed.
“We do enough in secret,” Becker said, adding all city discussions should be in public to increase transparency.

THE CITY SHOULD have any changes in charter ordinances in place by summer in case the public wants to protest in November’s general election.
Councilmen are considering a number of charter ordinances, including one that would stagger elections so only half of the council is up for re-election with each election cycle. Doing so would increase council members’ service into four-year terms.
Shirley said he favored seeing the mayor’s post remain a two-year term.
Councilman Scott Stewart also said it was the council’s consensus to make the city treasurer’s position an appointed job, not an elected one.
The treasurer had been appointed by the former city commission for decades.
Slaugh also said the city should look at revamping its municipal codes. They last were rewritten in 1998 and are due for updating. Rewriting the entire municipal code could take up to two years. He also recommended going over once again Iola’s employee personnel handbook and its administrative policies.

SLAUGH SAID he will look at scheduling with Iola’s ambulance personnel and firefighters to find ways to curb overtime.
The city’s practice, to call in two off-duty ambulance personnel with each call, is necessary in order to have a four-man crew at the fire station in case of fire calls.
That leads to significant amounts of overtime, Slaugh said.

IN ORDER FOR Iola to maintain its natural gas reserves at its current levels, the city must increase its “non-gas” income to $2.20 per 1,000 cubic feet, up from its current level of $1.55 per MCF. Non-gas costs include money for salaries and infrastructure, as well as what the city transfers out of its gas reserves into the general fund to pay for other city operations.
Council members said they would look at the matter closer before deciding.

CLOSING IOLA’S municipal pool in mid-August each year — because most of the lifeguards have returned to school — is robbing pool users of at least two weeks worth of prime swimming opportunities, Councilman Beverly Franklin said.
Franklin urged the city to consider keeping the pool open until Labor Day each summer, or at least opening on weekends.
Opening on evenings would be difficult, because most of the lifeguards tend to be involved with high school athletics.
Franklin also suggested the city look at planting native grasses in vacant green space in south Iola, where houses destroyed in the 2007 flood were demolished.
Planting native grasses would decrease mowing costs, Franklin said.

COUNCIL MEMBERS were receptive to comments from Iolan David Toland about downtown enhancement.
Toland asked the city to develop a revolving loan fund, from which businesses could borrow. Repayments, plus interest, would keep the fund in place for others to use.
Toland also asked the council to take a closer look at a Vision Iola study completed in 2010 about accentuating sidewalks along buildings in Iola’s downtown square, or adding park benches for pedestrians.
“I’m not one of these people who thinks retail is dead on the square,” Toland said, citing Audacious Boutique’s growing popularity after that store opened in 2011.
He also urged the city to expand its sidewalk replacement program, a cost-share project in which landowners and the city split the costs to replace or repair sidewalks along their properties.
Callahan said he would like to see the city pursue many of Toland’s suggestions.
“A lot of these things can be done relatively cheaply,” Callahan said.

STEWART SAID he was encouraged by the tone of Saturday’s work session.
“I found these last four hours to be productive,” Stewart said, adding he was ready to attack many of the issues brought forth during the work session.
Council members agreed to future work sessions, perhaps on a quarterly basis.
Callahan said the council also should look back periodically to ensure the goals set forth in the sessions are being met.

Related