Tontitown City Council Meeting Minutes September 4, 2012

Transcription

1 Tontitown City Council Meeting Minutes September 4, 2012 The Tontitown City Council met in Regular Session on September 4, 2012 at the Tontitown City Hall. Mayor, Tommy Granata called the meeting to order. After the pledge of allegiance roll was called by the Mayor. Bobby Pianalto yes Joey Pianalto - yes Also Present: Mayor and Recorder/Treasurer, Kara Jo McKinley and City Attorney, J.R. Carroll Approval of Agenda: David Bolinger moved a few items around and added Item C. Annexation under New Business. Motion was made to approve the Agenda by Alderman David Bolinger and seconded by Alderman Joey Pianalto. David Bolinger yes Joe Pianalto - yes Motion to approve the minutes of August 7, 2012 meeting by Alderman David Bolinger and seconded by Alderman Mike Zulpo. Joey Pianalto - yes Comments by Citizens for Future Consideration: Suzanne Clark, Attorney for Alicia Collins. My purpose tonight is to ask for an apology from the city to Ms. Collins. Back in March, a writ of garnishment from Washington Regional Medical Center was sent to Ms. Collins and received at the City of Tontitown. City ordinance says the R/T is supposed to open all mail, but in this case it was opened by the Mayor s Assistant. It is a personal document containing private information and it was copied and ed to Alderman and the mayor s personal account. All of those s are subject to FOIA and is out there for the public to see. It was a willful and malicious act meant to hurt Ms. Collins and prevent her from receiving this job. I m not here to discuss the legal issues, but to ask for an apology to Ms. Collins from the City. *See audio for full comments. Rhonda Doudna, 462 Pozza Lane; about a month ago, it came to my attention that Mick Wagner owned a rental home on Dowell Road. I noticed that this home had renovations and lots of work being done and 20 foot dumpsters in the yard. I checked to make sure a permit was received in order to do this type of construction. There was no permit. I talked to the neighbors in the neighborhood and they basically said the house was gutted. I talked to the renters, drove on the property and took pictures of a brand new deck. I talked to Ken Bailey about the codes for this, etc. He told me that he spoke with Mick Wagner about this and Mick told him he didn t need a permit. I guess we can tell our code enforcer when we don t want to have a permit or don t want to pay for it.. I m not upset about permits that were pulled, I m upset about a permit that wasn t pulled. He is now our Planning Commission Chairman and apparently he s not willing to follow the laws that we have set. *see audio for full comments

2 Andy Penzo, 1957 N. Barrington Road; I was an alderman a few years ago and I sat under 5 or so mayors. I know what it s like sitting up there. I m here tonight to talk about only one thing. I received an a couple weeks ago from Henry Piazza. He was talking about Mick, of course. Everybody wants to talk about Mick. In this , it struck me that Henry states Mr. Wagner accused him of stealing asphalt. I remember that from years ago. There was a lot of asphalt down in Henry s driveway. I talked to him about it and commented on his pretty driveway. He told me it was leftover asphalt. I talked about it to Henry in a public meeting years ago about a receipt for the asphalt. Andy and Henry argue about the receipt from 8 years ago. *see audio for full comments Sunny Hinshaw, 2464 S. Barrington Road; Suzanne Clark who was here just a minute ago- I happen to think the same thing she just said. We need to apologize to her and we need a policy change. We just need to change the policy to black out private information. Also, I m sure many of you got my about the annexation and I m against it. I m not going into details why, just want you guys to know. Also, I ve heard a lot about the house on Dowell Road and personally, I don t care. I did some work similar to that on my own house, and I pulled a permit. I wouldn t be up here if Mr. Brandt were still on the Planning Commission, but Mr. Wagner is now the Chairman and his term is due to expire. We ve had some issues with this man and we are liable to have new lawsuits if he comes back as chairman. This is my concern. *see audio for full comments Financials: The business we had for Finance has been moved to Old Business. We can wait until that end to discuss the business with Mr. McCormick. Committees & Commissions Police: Sargeant McConnell; There were 103 calls last month. 32 reports taken, 25 of those have been closed. That s about it. TAFD Chief Report: Rusty stated there were 24 calls last month. We finally got some rain and the pancake breakfast will be September 15. That s all I ve got. Building: Ken Bailey; we ve got a total of 10 residential projects going. The same ones we ve had with one addition to a house on North Barrington. We have one more that s ready to be picked up and that will make 11. I ve been asking to do away with Chapter 113, 114, and 115. Those 3 chapters are all talked about and governed in Chapter 153. Motion was made by David Bolinger to suspend the rules and read the title of the ordinance. Seconded by Mike Zulpo. J.R. Carroll read the ordinance repealing chapters 113, 114, 115 and motion to approve as read by David Bolinger and seconded by Mike Zulpo Joey Pianalto - yes Planning: Mick Wagner; Planning Commission met at regular meeting last week. The Orscheln facility has finally got passed with 2 conditions; there is a new owner so all retention detention will be on their property and will

3 need easements from the owner of the land next to them for utility purposes. DNF parking lot was approved through an LSD. It was a problem from Ken s predecessor who allowed a grading permit to proceed and it turned into a parking lot. The upcoming agenda for next month has 6 different lot splits and one LSD- one being Casey s General Store. I suppose where the Walgreen s was going to be there will now be a convenience store. As it has already been said, there are 3 expiring terms on the PC. It is quite evident from the audio that I drew the short straw as Chairman and I did not extend my services. The 3 terms are myself, Lou Sharp, and Mike Franco. Lou has indicated that she wants to respectfully decline consideration for reappointment. We have Donnie Davis who was annexed in as I was. Donnie Davis; I think the word that describes me the most is stability. I have been married for 31 years, at JB Hunt for 26 years, and I ve owned my land in Tontitown for 22 years and we ve lived there for 18 years. I have the time to serve on the PC and I am interested in Tontitown and the planning that goes on within the town. Mick Wagner; at this time we need action by the council to reappoint the 2 existing members and the addition of Donnie Davis. Alderman David Bolinger pointed out the PC chairman is voted on by the members of the PC, the council only appoints the members who serve on the commission. With that, he made a motion to reappoint Mick Wagner and Mike Franco and accept the addition of Donnie Davis. Seconded by Alderman Mike Zulpo. Henry Piazza doesn t think they should vote for all 3 at one time. He wants to vote one by one. The mayor pointed out the motion has already been made and seconded for reappointment of all 3. Arthur Penzo - abstain Mick Wagner- Gentleman, one last thing. When a man has been accused of being a thief or doing something wrong, he most certainly has the right and the responsibility to defend himself. I have no problem when somebody disagrees with me or when they don t like me, but when they lie, I have a real problem with that. Mrs. Doo-da as she calls herself went up to my tenant to talk to them. My tenant has a son who is highly autistic. She went up to my tenant and disguised herself as a realtor. ** Mrs. Doudna speaks up and says that is a lie, she did not say that. There was commotion from the audience and Mr. Wagner. See audio for full comments** Museum: Heather Peachee; The 2008 to 2011 money has been taken care of. The new book has been released. They were sold out at the Grape Festival, but they got some more in and you can get them at the Shiloh Museum. We will have them at our Museum soon. The newsletter will be out in October, so be looking for that. The Polenta Smear is coming up in November, so we have been working on that. That s all I have. Mike Zulpo asks if the museum gets money from the second book, also. Heather says the publisher is going to put it on Amazon and Susan and Liz plan on paying for the cost of the book and then making a donation. Mike suggests everyone get a copy because it is a great book! Water & Sewer: Steve Gunderson: we met at regular meeting last Tuesday, it was all of 22 minutes. There is one thing we need you guys to act on. I ve met with J.R. on the ordinance and I ll let him explain more on that. JR- Basically, we have had a couple of water theft issues and we need to address that. It s pretty cheap to steal water by the gallon, and the prosecutor s office has said that they will only charge someone for the amount of water they steal. A couple thousand gallons only amount to $18 so that s not going to do much. If there s not some type of deterrence, somebody could tap into your water and really mess up your pipeline. There s no type of punishment in your code, so I ve drafted a code that charges $250 for the first time and $500 for the second time. Alderman David Bolinger made a motion to suspend the rules and read the title one time only. Seconded by Alderman Mike Zulpo. A citizen asks if they can establish an ordinance for tapping into a water line. JR states it is already illegal to tap into the water line, but there is no penalty for stealing the water. This just serves for the act itself of tapping into the water line.

4 This is an ordinance adding section of the code of ordinances for the City of Tontitown establishing a fine associated with theft of water from the City of Tontitown, Arkansas and/or Tontitown Water and Sewer Commission and declaring emergency. Alderman Bolinger makes a motion to accept ordinance as read. Seconded by Alderman Zulpo. Alderman Bolinger makes a motion to approve the emergency clause. Seconded by Alderman Zulpo. Street Issues: Terry Carpenter; Just wanted to give you an update on the projects we ve got going on. Bausinger, Fletcher, Sabatini, Wildcat have all been overlayed. We have a few things to finish before they are completed but the contractors are now working on Barrington to build up the shoulders. It s a little more treacherous work because of all the traffic. Now that we have all the right-of-ways on Kevin, he s going to move his crews over there as soon as Barrington is done and then on to Ardemagni. That s about it. I ll address any questions now. Mike Zulpo asks about all the driveways on Bausinger and the ones that were missed. They all need to be taken care of and also there were some things on Sabatini Road on the corner. Terry states he is aware of all those issues and they will all be taken care of. Arthur asks about Joe Piazza s driveway on Sabatini where it has washed out with all the rain. Terry said the rock gets out on the asphalt and it s a maintenance issue and he will take care of that, too. He also mentions Mrs. Brown s piece of land and the issue with her on Pianalto. Terry says the issue with the property line and it is dictated by the center line of the existing road. It doesn t matter about property lines. *see audio for full comments regarding South Pianalto. Terry needs a motion to bid the 3 new projects. Alderman Zulpo makes a motion for Terry to bid Kissinger Road, Liberty Bridge, and South Pianalto. Seconded by Alderman Bolinger. Arthur asks what will happen on Ardemagni toward Scott Road. Terry said he s talking to JR and the residents down that way about what we can do with the right of ways and the improvements to be made. *see audio for full comments.

5 ARCO Property Appraisal; The mayor says he has someone appraising the ARCO property but he won t have that bid until next week. We will put that on the COW agenda to discuss then. Annexation of the property north of Tontitown; JR says there are 3 options. You can choose not to annex anything, to annex a very small piece, and to annex a very large piece. Jeff Hawkins recommends not to annex the large piece. He says it could cause problems with Elm Springs and justifying annexing that much land. He and Mark both suggest annexing the small piece. Alderman Bolinger makes a motion to suspend the rules and read the title one time. Seconded by Alderman Zulpo. Arthur asks if this small piece includes Churchill Downs and JR says it does. An ordinance for the voters of Tontitown, Arkansas for the question of annexation to said territory and declaring emergency David Bolinger makes a motion to approve as read and seconded by Mike Zulpo. Alderman Bolinger makes a motion to approve emergency clause and approved by Alderman Zulpo. Old Business: Resolution to amend the 2012 Budget; Tommy says he worked on the proposed budget for rubber mulch, rewards, etc. with the R/T and Mr. McCormick. We need to do a little more bookwork on this, but we re close to having numbers for everyone. Joey Pianalto makes a motion to table it until the next meeting. It is seconded by Alderman Zulpo David Bolinger says to look at the spreadsheets presented on the screen about what has been changed to the budget that was passed on 4/3/12 and Daniel McCormick and Kara have been working very hard to get this up to speed, but we need to see and compare each line item that we ve spent YTD vs what is budgeted.

6 Daniel McCormick says he will have some budget material to review by the week of the COW meeting. David and Daniel discuss what the council would like to see presented and where Daniel will go from this point involving year to date actual, budget, and expenses for each line item and classes. Daniel; there are a few things that are inconsistent with the way the budget is handled and we have made progress and still have some areas to work out. I also want to address what we talked about when I was here last time. We talked about my office pretty much taking over the bookkeeping. That hasn t really been done because of a few different issues on both sides. Since Kara has taken over we have worked together along with Beverly, and the city has made some progress that we haven t seen in a long time. I m not throwing it back to you guys, but I haven t been doing exactly what I ve been hired to do and it s not necessarily a bad thing. Mike Zulpo; I voted for you to take over so the R/T job could be easier. I also want the council and public to be able to have the budget presented. I think going this route, working together, may take longer to get going than we had anticipated. Mike, Daniel, David, and Kara discuss the progress that has been made, the steps to be taken from here, and what needs to be done ASAP. *See audio for full comments. Padrissimo Court/Fines; JR; You all need to consider what y all want to do. We have tentatively agreed that they plead guilty to 24 of the 36 fines and be charged $500 each. We have also discussed that they be allowed to pay those fines at $1,000 over a one year period. Also take into consideration that Padrissimo will sign a waiver saying they will not come up with any civil charges against the city, and vice versa. Now, the judge can fine Padrissimo anywhere between $0 and $1,000 for each of the 36 charges and we can take them to court on each charge. We are highly confident that the judge will fine them only what he thinks they can pay and over an extended amount of time. I think this plea agreement is good for the city and is pretty penal of a charge. Also, I have talked to ABC and they had 30 days to appeal the loss of their alcohol license and they did not appeal, so they will no longer be allowed to have an alcohol license, under any circumstances. Alderman Bolinger makes a motion to approve the plea agreement presented by JR and seconded by Henry Piazza. Comments from City Council Members: Mike Zulpo: None Arthur Penzo: None Bobby Pianalto: None Joey Pianalto: None David Bolinger: I ve thought a whole lot about what I could or should say tonight. It s been interesting over the last 6 or 8 years. The last few years I ve been trying to get myself situated to where I can retire and enjoy myself. Part of that goal is setting my kids up with homes. I own a few residences within Washington and Benton Counties. I set my daughter up last year, and my step son will be moving into my current home, so I will be changing residences. With that said; I resign, effective immediately. I then suggest that the position be filled by Jack Beckford. He ran against me and I believe he is a fine gentleman. Henry Piazza: None David is thanked for his time served. He put a lot of effort into the politics of the City of Tontitown and has done a great job. Comments from City Attorney: None

7 Comments from Mayor: David, I hate to see you go. It s been a pleasure. Also, I will get an apology out to Mrs. Collins and I hate that we have caused her any problems from the City. I also want to bring up the fact that we will be forming our own police department very shortly. I look forward to at length discussions about that and spending time on the ideas, prospects sending applications, etc. Motion to Adjourn by Mayor and seconded by Alderman Henry Piazza.