Regular Council Meeting
August 1, 2016
The City Council of the City of Fayette, Iowa, met Monday, August 1, 2016, at 7:30 pm in the Fayette City Hall pursuant to law and rules of said council, Mayor Wenthe presiding.
Roll call: Present - Council members Kragnes, Larson, McGrane, Nefzger, Wulfekuhle.
Moved Kragnes,seconded Nefzger, to approve the consent agenda consisting of the regular meeting minutes of 07/18/16 and Claims List of 07/19/16 – 08/01/16. On roll call, all ayes, carried.
Moved Wulfekuhle, seconded Kragnes, to approve the agenda as presented. All ayes, carried.
Mayor Wenthe noted that the hiring committee for the City Administrator/Clerk position (Nefzger, Kragnes, Dennis and himself) met in city hall on July 21st and narrowed down the 32 applicants to seven. The mayor added that three applicants are not local so he called them to explain the size of Fayette and the salary range and one is still interested. Interviews will take place the week of August 8th.
Administrator/Clerk Dennis reported that the annual worker’s compensation review with the loss control representative took place on July 20th with Rich, Jerry and her. ~ On July 26th the annual payroll audit for IMWCA was performed by an auditor from Information Providers, Inc., as in previous years. ~ Dennis said she has e-mailed numerous documents to our regular auditor in Oelwein for the full city financial audit for FY2016. The auditors will do the in-house auditing in city hall the week of August 15th.
Police Chief Pisanti reported there was a break-in and burglary at a home in town last week and the people were in the house. He said he is investigating the incident.
Regarding the subject of a “Proposal for the Delivery of Law Enforcement Services to Upper Iowa University by the Fayette Police Department”, Mayor Wenthe said UIU showed interest in the Fayette Police Department taking over their campus security, so he asked Chief Pisanti to put together a proposal. Chief Pisanti said he looked back through the history of the department and found that in 1988 Mayor Dohrmann had proposed the Fayette Police Department handle the security for UIU for $15,000 per year, although it didn’t end up happening. He added that the Fayette PD has had to direct a great deal of effort and resources to calls and crime investigations at UIU or resulted in connection with the university. He said he feels there is a way to better allocate future resources and manpower to equally provide the best police services to our citizens and the university. Pisanti is proposing to hire two more certified police officers for Fayette with one officer being paid for by the university and the other officer being paid for half by UIU and half by the city. The cost to UIU to the City for this would be $93,300. The university would also have to purchase a police vehicle and equipment that would be dedicated to UIU at a cost of approximately $35,000. A 2% increase per year would go into effect the second year of the agreement. Admin/Clerk Dennis asked where the money was going to come from for the added costs for liability insurance, worker’s compensation insurance and other unexpected expenses? Mayor Wenthe said the allocation for the Local Option Sales Tax could be changed between Police and Streets, and there will be some extra funds from lower wages when people retire. Dennis handed out a sheet with questions and concerns she had about the proposal. Moved Kragnes, seconded Nefzger, to explore the proposal further for the delivery of law enforcement to Upper Iowa University by the Fayette Police Department. Four voted aye, Larson voted nay, carried.
Moved Wulfekuhle, seconded Nefzger, to take off the table the revised first reading of Ordinance 484 – Rental Housing Code for discussion. Three voted aye, Kragnes and Larson voted nay, motion carried to discuss. There were still questions about the billing by Upper Explorerland and several other items to clarify, so Dennis said she would contact Lori Brockway for those answers. Moved Kragnes, seconded Nefzger, to table until they have more clarification.
There being no further business, moved Nefzger, unanimous, to adjourn at 8:30 pm.
