January 16, 2019
Regularly scheduled City Council Meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Mayor Dan Noss.
Mayor Dan Noss introduced all new and re-elected council members. Re-elected were Mayor Dan Noss and council member Gerald Adamski, newly elected was Jeff Wright, they took the Oath of Office for new term effective January 1, 2019. Also present was council members Jim Chyba and Rick Turner.
Council accepted the minutes of the December 19, 2018 meeting as presented.
Motion by Chyba and seconded by Adamski to approve the payment of the bills as presented. Carried
Guest(s): None at this time.
Public Comment and Concern: None at this time.
Donations: None at this time.
Old Business:
Personnel Manual – As mentioned in the December meeting the City of Randall’s personnel manual is outdated. The City of Motley had just recently modified their personnel manual. Both Matt and Mayor Noss have reviewed it and used it as a model to revise the City of Randall’s existing Personnel Manual. If any council members would like a copy of the draft manual to review before Matt submits it to the City’s attorney for legal purposes, please let Matt know.
New Business:
2019 Electric Rates – The Utility Board met last month to review the current electric rate. The average cost the city purchased electricity for 2018 was $0.08 KW. The average City of Randall household uses about 750 KWs a month, there are also many large electric customers that consistently use much more than that. The City could put a demand charge on their meters or adjust the rate the large consumers are paying as their usage has a direct effect on the price we pay for electricity. The purposed electric rates for 2019 are as follows:
Base Rate = $23.00
Usage 0 to 2,000 KW = $0.09
Usage 2,000 and over = $0.095
These changes would increase the cost of 1000 KW’s $3.20, and a 30,000 KW customer would see an increase of $288.20
Motion by Turner and seconded by Wright to accept the proposed 2019 Electric Rates as presented. Carried
Late Fees – The Utility Board also discussed the current late fee policy and came back with the recommendation that it is time to change the policy to include all utility accounts except for customers that have a budget billing agreement or a cold weather rule agreement. Any budget billing customer that does not pay their bill on time would be subject to late fees as well.
Motion by Chyba and seconded by Turner to approve the late fee policy to include all utility accounts with the exception of customers that are on a utility budget billing agreement and any that have the cold weather rule agreement. Carried
The City is in the process of renewing the city insurance policy for the next year and must decide if they want to waive the tort liability limits or not waive the Tort Liability limits.
Motion by Adamski and seconded by Turner to approve not waiving Tort Liability for 2019. Carried
Mayor Noss reviewed the City of Randall Appointments prior to city council meeting. The main changes to the 2019 committees were putting new council member Jeff Wright in place of Charley Andres.
Motion by Adamski and seconded by Wright to approve 2019 Appointments as presented. Carried
Planning & Zoning permits:
None at this time
Committee Reports:
City Manager/Liquor Store – Matt: Matt wanted to make council aware there is a Truth and Taxation training course available online that needs to be completed before February 1st for Mayor Noss, council members Turner and Wright. At least three of the five council members are required to be present for the Board of Equalization in April 2019. Council members Chyba and Adamski are certified, so only one needs to be certified to meet the requirement.
Schlenner Wenner & Co. will be at Randall City Hall January 28 & 29 to conduct the in-house portion of the City audit.
Matt will be preparing another newsletter to go with the January 2019 utility billing. If any council member would like to add anything to the newsletter, please get it to Matt by next week.
Matt left a message with Steve Backowski, Public Works Director for Morrison County to confirm the meeting to discuss the three intersections on hi-way 10. The meeting would be to improve safety at each of the crossings. Mayor Noss, councilmen Turner and Chyba volunteered to be a part of the discussions, once a date and time are set Matt will inform them and 2 of them may attend.
Maintenance Supervisor Report – Patrick: Pat just finished 2 days of on-site training with a representative from MMUA. They reviewed the electric system in Randall and are going to map out some changes to the system to add more fuses system wide which will reduce the number of affected residents when an electric outage occurs.
Water and Sewer – Mike: The city’s wastewater treatment will be getting a VFD installed in March 2019 to help reduce the energy use of the blowers at the plant. Mike will also be attending two conferences this year to help prepare for his class B wastewater test in December 2019.
Council Member’s concerns:
Jeff – None at this time. Jim – None at this time. Jerry – None at this time
Rick – The City needs to look at getting a Sand Truck.
Dan – Neighborhood Letter; There are letters circulating throughout Randall that are addressed to Neighborhoods asking residents to sign up for a neighborhood watch program. Is this a scam?
Next meeting: Next scheduled city council meeting will be February 20, 2019 at 7:00pm at Randall Fire Hall meeting room.
Adjourned 7:46 p.m.