APPROVED
The City Council held meeting # 1506 on Monday, November 7, 2018, in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Mayor Teske.
Present were Ms. Smith, Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. Beach, Mr. Dufficy, Mr. Taylor, and City Clerk Audray McCollum. City Attorney Dean Chisolm, Council Person Mrs. Williams, and City Administrator Jim Hammons were absent.
Ted Werner offered prayer.
Mr. Zimmerman Made a Motion to approve the minutes -Mayor appointment of planning board member held on Nov 5, 2018.
Ms. Smith Second.
Smith, Zimmerman, Beach, Dufficy, Taylor voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
Mr. Dufficy Made a Motion to approve the minutes from meeting #1505 held on Nov 5, 2018.
Mr. Beach Second.
Smith, Zimmerman, Beach, Dufficy, Taylor voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
Announcements: Mayor Teske stated the City of Libby received a letter from the Treasure State Endowment Program, (TSEP Grant), stating the city was number one in the state and would receive $750,000.00 grant towards our drinking water project.
City hall will be closed Thursday, November 22 and 23 for Thanksgiving.
Committee Reports:
City Administrator: None
Fire: None.
Police: None.
Resolutions/Ordinances: The ordinance committee met last Tuesday and recommended some changes to the zoning ordinance. The committee will meet in January.
Lights/Streets/Sidewalks: There will be a meeting next week to discuss abandoned alleys.
Building: None
Water/Sewer: None
Cemetery/Parks: None.
Finance: Thursday, November 29th Denning and Downey will be on site to do FY 18-year-end.
KRDC: Discussion was on the trails and wayfinding signs . The Lincoln County Veterans Memorial Foundation will start work on the World War I statue on Lincoln Boulevard and Mineral Ave. The cost will be between 8 to 10 thousand dollars, donations are being accepted.
City-County Board of Health: Environmental Health reported there were many slash piles burned and the air quality was not impacted.
Public Comment on Non- Agenda Items:
DC Orr,1117 Nevada, asked the council to be aware of the decision between the county and the EPA because it could affect the city financially. He asked the city attorney to investigate it. Mr. Orr said he would help the city out because he was involved with the council when it went down and he does not want the taxpayers to be financially responsible.
New Business:
Council Approval to send the proposed business districts recommendation back to the City Planning Board for further review to address public comment and any revisions.
Mayor Teske stated this was on the agenda as an introduction and was not an action item to move forward for a vote. Teske felt it was premature to be placed in the ordinance committee as did others. “There were too many things that needed to be done to the draft prior to it going to the ordinance committee.”
Teske wanted to put this on the agenda to have a public discussion to determine whether to leave it in the ordinance committee or move it back to the planning board.
Mr.Taylor MADE A MOTION to move it back to the Planning Board.
Mr. Dufficy SECOND.
Council discussion followed:
Zimmerman said, “in the beginning, it would have been best to go back to the Planning Board , it has now gone to the ordinance committee and been through several meetings. The committee is at the point of 40 to 50 % done and would counterproductive to send it back.”
Beach concurred with Zimmerman and said information might be lost between the two entities.
Taylor said, “the role of the Planning Board is not zoning that is the role of the zoning commision.” Taylor said “the city could grant the planning board authority to work as a zoning commision,” but believes this has not been done here.
Dufficy said he had asked business around town if they had been contacted by the zoning board and there answer was no.Dufficy said this lacks transparency and needs to be sent back to the planning board.
Smith said, “it would be awkward to go back at this time; there has been great attendance at the ordinance meetings.” Smith said “she has personally invited everyone who has wanted to participate in the meetings and has kept everyone updated on the progress. The ordinance committee has already suggested several changes.” Smith said, “it would be disrespectful to Mrs. Williams to take a vote since she was on the ordinance committee.”
Taylor said, “we need to do this the right way.”
Dufficy said, “the businesses want to be informed, and there was no transparency.”
Zimmerman said” businesses need to take ownership and stay informed” and disagreed with Dufficy by stating the “Planning board was transparent.”
Smith said Dufficy was incorrect in stating “that this was going to cost current business owners a lot of money. Businesses that are existing today are grandfathered in . Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything.”
Mayor Teske said, “there had been some misconception out there about this, and I want everyone to be clear on this.”
Dufficy said, “all I did was give business the information and ask that they attended the meetings,ask questions to be informed.”
Council discussion followed:
Public Comment:
DC Orr,1117 Nevada, “stated the city never had a planning board ,there was a city-county planning board. This has been illegitimate from the beginning and needs to be restructured.” Orr then gave council direction on how to do this. Orr said this would be challenged in court .
Teske said the city separated from the county in 2005.
Larry King ,American Legion, Commander Post 57,said only a majority of people look on the city’s website. King said the city needs to promote business and not discourage new ones.
Jennifer Nelson,1026 Washington Ave, member of the planning board. Said, “some of the contentions could have been avoided by having working meetings to answer some of the questions.” Nelson said “they were given direction from the previous council to revise the 1987 business district ordinance. This took several years and was then presented to the public in July 2018. All meetings were posted 3 days prior to the meeting and open to the public. Public participation has been minimal;” Nelson urged all to attend in the future. This is a volunteer citizens group to assist with the council. Nelson said, “she has a lot of time invested and would like to see this move forward and have the board and council work more closely together.”
Ryan Andreessen,Timberline, disagreed with councilman Zimmerman,” the effort was not made to notified everybody. A simple article in the paper, I don’t have time to read that. Obviously, these people didn’t either. If you have an issue that directly affects people, business owners, residents, a simple phone call, a letter in the mail, an email, that’s all you have to do. This could have been a much more efficient process.”
Teske said the city is compiling an email list if you would like to receive all agendas, please let the city clerk know.
Ardell Filler, Libby Sports Center,said the ordinance is a fiasco.
Ted Werner,41 Sugar Loaf Lane, asked:” is there the least possibility that any entity could come back on the city for any reparations at any time?”
Teske said he could not answer , at this time.
Mr. Werner said, “until that answer can be answered for certainty all actions must be stopped.”
Dufficy asked how many on the planning board were business owners?
Smith said herself and the newest appointee.
Kimberly Moody, 221 W 9th ,asked that all businesses be added to the email list.
DC Orr gave background on the forming of the planning board and said the planning board does not have zoning authority.
Ted Montgomery,491 Cabinet Heights, said the board needs to step back and make sure everything is legitimate before moving forward.
Ms. Smith then explained some of the purposed planning board codes to Mr. Montgomery.
Mr. Montgomery said,” how can I entrust in you to adopt more ordinances ,when we already have them in place, and they’re not being upheld unless we as citizens call in and complain.”
Teske said “I agree with you, we are enforcing these more often. The police are not out actively hunting for these, they do come from citizens complaints, and I do encourage folks to do that. Because the longer we let these things slide it does cause contention and distrust.”
Rod Beall, Libby VFW,said: “the council needs to send this back to the planning board.” Then expressed concerns with the unknown cost of remodeling under the purposed zoning codes.
Teske said that is one of the things that need to be hashed out on the nonconformance clause.
Jackie Gamble,301 mineral Ave, said there had been a lot of misinformation,it should go back to the planning board and get more of the business owners involved.
Councilperson Beach said, “the item should be tabled until the ordinance committee finishes the current draft, so no information is lost and to give the council time to give validity to the planning board and the zoning aspect of it.”
Smith concurred with tabling it, stating the council may have to name a zoning commision.
Mr. Taylor TABLED HIS MOTION.
Council Approval of City Attorney Dean Chisholms recommendations that record does not appear to provide a strong evidence basis for pursuing that $500,000.00-$700,00.00 payment from the Cabinet View Golf Club in 2018
Ms.Smith MADE A MOTION to accept Dean Chisholm’s recommendation.
Mr. Zimmerman SECOND.
Smith, Zimmerman, Beach, Dufficy, Taylor voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
Council Approval of resolution 1931- A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT WITH UTILITY SERVICES PARTNERS PRIVATE LABEL, INC. D/B/A SERVICE LINE WARRANTIES OF AMERICA (USP) TO OFFER RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SERVICE LINE WARRANTY PLANS.
Mr. Zimmerman MADE A MOTION to adopt resolition 1931.
Mr. Beach SECOND.
Public Comment:
DC Orr,1117 Nevada, said it was unfair and unconstitutional that a property owner was liable for a water main to the middle of the road.
Smith, Zimmerman, Beach, Dufficy, Taylor voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
Libby Web Site Re-Design:
Ms. Smith said the City is in need of some high-resolution photos for the website.
Council Rules and Procedure:
None
General Comments from the Council:
Ms. McCollum stated the planning boards minutes were posted to the city’s web page. Mr. Duffcy asked why the stop sign on Main street was removed?
Adjournment:
Mr. Dufficy MADE a MOTION to adjourn the meeting.
Mr. Beach SECOND.
Smith, Zimmerman, Beach, Taylor, Dufficy voted FOR:
MOTION PASSED.
The meeting ADJOURNED at 8:40 pm.
__________________ Attest; ______________________
Mayor
Brent Teske Audray J. McCollum, City Clerk/Treasurer