The City Council held meeting # 1530 on Monday, November 18, 2019, in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Mayor Brent Teske.
Present were Mrs. Williams, Mr. Zimmerman, Ms. Smith, Mr. Beach, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Dufficy, City Administrator Jim Hammons, and City Clerk Audray McCollum. City Attorney Dean Chisolm was absent.
Mr. Zimmerman MADE A MOTION to approve the minutes from Meeting 1527, held on October 7, 2019.
Mr. Beach, SECOND.
Mrs. Williams stated on Page 3 that owning and planning should be operations and maintenance. The city clerk will go back and listen to the tape. Ms. Smith said asbestosis on page 3 should be asbestos; the clerk will make the corrections.
Williams, Zimmerman, Smith, Beach, and Dufficy voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
Announcements: None
Committee Reports:
City Administrators Report: Mr. Hammons reported Carson Brothers Heating and Cooling finished with the city shop and the water treatment plant. The leaf pickup went well this year, if anyone has leaves left, please let Mr. Hammons know. The new projector screens are installed in the Ponderosa room and Council Chambers. The Wayfinding signs arrived today, weather permitting the street crews will be installing them as they can.
Cemetery/Parks: None.
Fire: There were a total of 7 calls for the month of October,4 in the city, and 3 rural. A total of 79 calls for 2019.
Police: None.
Resolution/Ordinances: Smith said the committee met on November 7 and discussed possible changes to the business license ordinance. The next meeting will be November 19 to continue discussions.
Lights/Streets/Sidewalks: Mr. Beach will be calling a meeting soon to discuss lighting on Commerce Way. Mr. Hammons will contact Flathead Electric to get prices for the light poles.
Building: None.
Water/Sewer: Recommendation on the agenda.
KRDC: None.
Finance: None.
City-County Board of Health: None.
Park District Manager: Tony Petrusha, Park District Manager, reported the purposed swimming pool is moving forward, there are 2 more days of the public comment period to choose a design option.
Petrusha brought forward the elements of Rd 128. The Forest Service and the City have an easement between the two. The City has a letter to the Forest Service, asking for the authority to improve. There will be a document between the Forest Service and the City; this will be a maintenance agreement. The third document will state a recurrent and deferred maintenance plan.
There is also a maintenance agreement plan being developed between the City and Lincoln County.
The County will undertake the portion of the work done on the Flower Creek Rd FS 128 based on this agreement. In return, the City of Libby will plow county roads contiguous to city streets; this will all be documented.
When the County performs the purposed construction work on this road, (There are 13 culverts with plans to add 2 more, remove 4 drive through dips and move the road to the uphill side). It will all be on good solid ground. By taking care of the drainage, the County is confident the maintenance will be nonexistence, according to Petrusha.
Smith asked, “How confident are you that RAC will fund the project?”
Petrusha said, “Highly confident it would fund the improvement.” Petrusha said he resubmitted the plan to RAC into two parts. One for the road improvement and two for the future road pavement/asphalt.
Public Comment on Non- Agenda Items: None.
New Business:
APPROVE FLOWER CREEK ROAD (FS128) IMPROVEMENT REQUEST LETTER TO USFS.
Mayor Teske read the letter to the council.
Smith MADE A MOTION to approve the Flower Creek request letter to the USFS.
Dufficy SECOND.
Taylor requested to TABLE THE MOTION until the council has a maintenance agreement and the memorandum between the City and County for the duration of how long maintenance on the road will be.
Teske stated these are separate issues. One is between the City and County, the other between the Libby Outdoor Recreation Association. The urgency is, the RAC meeting is on November 20, to consider the request to finance these improvements. If they don’t get the RAC, the City is not bound to make these improvements.
Kenny Rayome,1314 Dakota, Water Treatment Operator, expressed concerns with excess traffic on FS 128 and moving the Forest Service gate, and not being able to protect the City’s water source.
Mayor Teske read a letter from the City of Libby Water Treatment Operators expressing their concerns with the activity going on above the Flower Creek Dam, which might harm the Libby water source. They gave recommendations to the City of Libby to update the Source Water Delineation Report.
Council Discussion Followed.
Mayor Teske requested the Source Water Delineation Report be updated.
Smith asked who decides to close the gate on Flower Creek?
Teske said the Forest Service.
Zimmerman, Smith, Beach, and Dufficy FOR.
Williams and Taylor AGAINST.
MOTION PASSED.
ACCEPT THE WATER AND SEWER COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATION TO INCREASE CITY SEWER RATES.
Mayor Teske read the recommendation.
Zimmerman MADE THE MOTION to approve this.
Smith SECOND.
Smith thanked the committee for taking the time to work through this and come forward with a reasonable recommendation; “It is vastly improved over the current system.”
Zimmerman said, “It has been in the works for the last couple of years, watching as we redid the water rates eliminating the 9.40 credit, to see if there was some discrepancy with the sewer, this did not come out with the audits. The sewer will be in a deficit this year, we looked back in the minutes, and there was supposed to be an increase that was advised in 2011, that was not done. The committee has tried to come up with the easiest and least hit solution for all the customers.”
Public Comment:
DC Orr,1117 Nevada, said there had been a lot of committee meetings; he cannot find a record of the committee minutes. “Were can I find those?”
Teske asked Zimmerman if he had submitted minutes?
Zimmerman said he had not.
Teske asked Zimmerman to summit those minutes.
Orr said, “The public can not follow what the committees are doing if the committees don’t turn in their minutes. The committees are required by law to turn in the minutes. You are requiring the people of Libby to be at your committee meetings, to know what’s going on. You are requiring your own members to be at your committee meetings. That is not how transparent government works. Committees are supposed to be transparent. I would recommend that you postponed this until you get some minutes published; you need to be legal to do government work. A government that doesn’t obey the law is not a government.”
Mayor Teske said there would be several public postings and a public hearing before this will be passed. MCA 69-7-111 is very specific. There will be other times for the public to speak on this before the final vote. Tonight, we are just accepting the recommendation to move forward.
Council Discussion Followed.
Williams, Zimmerman, Smith, Beach, and Dufficy FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
Mrs. Williams said the public hearing would be January 6th, 2020, at 6 pm, and the publications will be December 17, 24, and 31. Letter to all sewer users sent on December 20th.
APPROVE ALL BUSINESS LICENSES RECEIVED TO DATE.
Mountain Rose Contracting Corp.
Chore Gals.
Ms. Smith MADE A MOTION to approve all business licenses received to date.
Mr. Beach, SECOND.
Williams, Zimmerman, Beach, Smith, Taylor, and Dufficy voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
City of Libby Wildlife Management Plan.
Mr. Taylor announced there would be a meeting on Wednesday at 6 pm in Council Chambers to review other city wildlife management plans.
IP Negotiations.
Mayor Teske sent council the letter from Mr. Payne and asked the council if they had any questions.
Public comment.
DC Orr, 1117 Nevada, stated he had not received any information concerning Mr. Payne. Orr said the council has not voted to retain Mr. Payne; he knows he is still under contract. Mr. Orr cannot get any clarification regarding his contract.
Zimmerman said Mr. Chisholm gave Mr. Orr that information. Mr. Orr said that information was given to him verbally and not in writing.
Zimmerman said it is on record. Orr said it is on record.
Orr said the council needs to be asking questions.
Zoning recommendations from the Planning Board for the purposed Downtown Business District and Highway Commercial District.
Mayor Teske said Mr. Chisholm came across a 1997 Attorney Generals’ opinion on zoning. Council will need to make some changes and restructure the Planning Board.
Mayor Teske presented a purposed Plan A and Plan B to establish a zoning commission.
Mayor Teske has discussed these options with City Attorney Chisholm, and Ms. Smith has spoken with Kelly Lynch from League of Cities.
Council discussed each option.
Smith said she has spoken with all members of the Planning Board except one, and they are willing to still be on the board. Smith said, “It is very important that advisory boards from the community be part of the government process; they provide the citizen advisory role. Plan A looks long and cumbersome, but this is just housekeeping; we have already done the work.”
Council discussion followed.
Public Comment:
DC Orr, 1117 Nevada, questioned Jenifer Jennifer Nelsons’ original appointment, he would like to see some new people on the board. Stated the current board does not care about the law.
Smith MADE A RECOMMENDATION TO PURSUE the mayor’s proposed plan A.
Zimmerman SECOND.
Smith, Williams, Zimmerman, Beach, Taylor, and Dufficy voted FOR.
Smith asked the council for clarification on the clean copies for the Highway Commercial District, and The Downtown Business District was correct.
All council members agreed.
General Comments from Council:
Smith wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
Taylor met with the Building Inspector Ron Higgins. Higgins is trying to get in writing, from the owner of the Central School Building, on what his intent is for the building. Action will continue from there.
Beach attended a meeting on the selenium issue coming out of Canada. The community needs to get involved; the build-up is approaching the threshold for EPA standards. The US standards are higher than the Canadian standards.
ADJOURNMENT:
Mrs. Williams MADE A MOTION to Adjourn.
Mr. Dufficy, SECOND.
Smith, Williams, Zimmerman, Beach, Taylor, and Dufficy voted FOR.
MOTION PASSED.
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.
__________________ Attest; ______________________
Mayor Brent Teske Audray J. McCollum, City Clerk/Treasurer