The Carl Junction City Council met in regular session on Tuesday January 15, 2008 at 7:00 PM at City Hall. Mayor Mike Moss called the meeting to order with the following present: Richard Zaccardelli, Barbara Evans, Carl Skaggs, Mark Powers, Dee Lynn Davey, Walter Hayes and Wayne Smith. Alderman Pat Smith was absent. Also present was City Clerk Maribeth Matney and City Attorney Mike Talley.

AGENDA

Carl Skaggs motioned to approve the agenda as presented. Barbara Evans seconded. All in favor. No opposed. Carl Skaggs motioned to approve the consent agenda as presented. Barbara Evans seconded. All in favor. No opposed.

PUBLIC FORUM

There was no one for public forum.

J L COLLINS CONSULTING

Jim Collins addressed the council about a permanent part time City Administrator. He is currently the Mayor of Republic which has a population of 13,500. He said that there are many cities that have a need for an administrator but not full time. They need someone to run the day to day operations for the City. He talked to MML and they said that back in the 1980’s someone did something like this until he took a full time City Administrator’s position. They said it went well for him. He has found that Economic Development is the largest need in cities. He is offering his services on a flexible basis. He would anticipate that Carl Junction would need him 3 days a week since we have a lot going on. After talking to Mayor Moss he said that our Mayor has a lot of vision for the City. He also understands bedroom communities and how they work. The Mayor can’t do it all. The City Administrator would relive some stress and stream line things. He thinks that Carl Junction would only need his services 25-30 hours a week on a regular basis. He would work directly for the Mayor and Board. His direct supervisor would be the Mayor. His #1 goal would be to provide the best service we can. #2 would be overseeing the staff on a daily basis and following the ordinances and budget. #3 would be Economic Development. He would encourage small business growth since they are more stable. He also discussed the incubator process. He has several ideas and he is also big on ad hoc committees. His committees would meet once a month and he would work in conjunction with the Chamber. He would work on a contract basis with no hidden charges. His charge to the city would be $32/hour for a total of $960/week. The city would not have to provide any benefits. If he doesn’t work he doesn’t get paid. His preference would be to work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. He would only be paid for time he is here not what he does at home. It would be an at-will contract; he only requests that we give him 3-4 weeks notice. There was more discussion of goals for the City. If he would need to step out of this position he would have someone fill his place that fits with the City. Mayor Moss felt that the council needed to hear his proposal for consideration.

DOUG CORNER – COMMUNITY CENTER

Steve Lawver informed the council that Doug Corner broke his hip so he will be helping Doug with the presentation. This plan is our preliminary drawing and it can be changed. Richard Zaccardelli asked if we could reduce the size and Doug said yes. It was also requested that we e-mail it to the council. We need to get with our residents and citizens to get input. The Center will be in it. Mark Powers said he would like to get permission to put it up at the Country Club for display. Steve said that there are a lot of people willing to help with this project. Steve is taking the drawing Thursday to the Senior Center. We are also applying for a grant for a storm shelter and a generator. This will also provide meeting places for groups in our community. It includes a media room but does not include an elevator. The only thing elevated is the running track and there is a walking track on ground level for senior citizens or for people who do not want to use the stairs. There are rooms that can be rented out for banquets and receptions. It is approximately 32000 square feet. City Hall is about 7000 square feet and the Senior Citizens area is about 9000 square feet. The rest is for fitness center, gym and activity rooms. There will also be a kitchenette for banquets and receptions since they can not use the Center’s kitchen.

WAYNE WILMES-INSURANCENTER-HEALTH INSURANCE

Wayne Wilmes then presented the council with our insurance renewal rates and quotes he received from other companies. Our renewal came in at 30%. He put together some options for the council to consider if they do not want to renew what they currently carry. He did get quotes for PPO plans along with HMO’s. He did mention that if we decide to go with the PPO we will go back to deductibles. That is the trend right now. Our renewal date is 3/1/07. If we want to submit applications to another company they are ready to assist us. Anthem would like an answer by 2/15/08 so that they can start the renewal process. Wayne then went over the different options he put together. The cheapest plan is Cox which is a PPO plan with a $500 deductible. He did get some quotes for St. John’s carriers also. He reminded the council that the other companies’ quotes are not firm until we submit health applications on our employee’s. After they review those then they will give us a firm quote. There was some discussion about ratings. Wayne pointed out that Cox is not rated due to the PPO not being out long enough to be rated. The HMO side had a C rating. He also has a letter from Cox Hospital backing the insurance company 100%. Wayne explained that we do not have a lot of options left. We are already at a 70% plan. The only change we could make on our current plan would be change the out of pocket amount. Wayne had other quotes but they all came in higher then our renewal rate from Anthem. United Health Care is not as good as what we currently have and came in higher. Dee Lynn said she would prefer to stay with Freeman and not have to make the employee’s change doctors. Ed Reeves asked why we didn’t put it out for bid ourselves. Wayne explained that the agency rep is paid by the insurance company and it averages about 3%. He also said that most insurance companies will only deal with agencies. There was a lot of discussion

about the plans presented and prescription cards. There was also discussion about the employee’s paying more of the insurance premium. The council said that they want this information handed out to the employee’s and to get some feed back from them. There was also discussion about Health Savings Plans. Mayor Moss asked Walter to put together a meeting for the employee’s and report back to the council.

DISCUSSION OF CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S POSITION

Mayor Moss then opened up the discussion of the City Administrator’s position. He stated we heard the proposal from Mr. Collins and then read Pat Smith’s comments regarding the position. She feels that we do not need a City Administrator and that we should change the position from City Administrator to City Planner. Wayne Smith said that the City Administrator’s job description may be OK but that we may need to look at the individual and not so much on credentials. We need one with a heart for the City. We may just not have found the right individual. Our department heads are good but they might need someone to talk to if they need a resolution to a problem. Walter said that we wanted City Administrator to move the City forward. Walter thought Mr. Collins had some interesting ideas that might be good for us. He also said that Mr. Collins had experience in a lot of areas that we have talked about doing something in. It could be something that we consider while we are deciding. Dee Lynn said that she looked at the code and the duties spelled out and they all need to be done. If we decide we need a City Administrator it needs to be a good fit for the community. The other option is to use the talent of our current employee’s and divide up the duties. Those key employees’s then would be led by the Mayor. She pointed out that the budget is supposed to be done by the City Administrator but she does not think he has ever done it. We have good people and they can handle all the duties if they are divided up. It is a big job for one person. Mayor Moss said that the staff might be missing something. The City Administrator is to stay on top of issues. The staff does the day to day operations but the City Administrator is to follow through. Mike Talley said that in the mid 1980’s Joplin had something similar happen. For about 1-2 years they had a small group handle the position and they just got by. He said that they all had other jobs and things did get missed. The City Administrator has the responsibility to see that all things are done. We may not notice the things being missed right away. Mark Powers said he looked at the code. He thought the problem is that we had one that took it to the extreme. We may have trouble finding one to fit our needs. Carl Skaggs believes in the City Administrator’s position. When you hire someone you can’t tell their personality. He suggested we wait 5-6 months to see how it goes. We do need a central control to put out all the little fires. Mark Powers pointed out that if our Mayor has a different schedule we could be in trouble as far as him being able to come into the office. Barbara Evans said she felt we needed one, if nothing else part time to start out with. We do need someone to be here. Richard Zaccardelli quoted Section 115.460 about generally supervising department when needed. He said we need to look at what we want. He suggested we wait and then get input from our department heads. Richard said it is in the managing style and we do not need a micro-manager. We have good department heads. Ed Reeves stated he does not think we need one. John Ukena does not see the need either. Ron Daniels feels like Dee Lynn and that we should divide up the duties and try it for 6 months. Steve said he looked at the job duties also. He started to rewrite them 4 times and gave up. They follow the state statutes but our department heads already are handling those job duties. He couldn’t figure out what a City Administrator would do. Steve said that he liked not having to go through another person to get information to the council. He can go to them directly. It has made his job simpler. Delmar Haase said that just because we haven’t found the right person, you don’t give up on the concept. We have gone through several Police Chief’s but we didn’t give up on that position. There was a lot of discussion amongst the council regarding this issue. It was stated that we need someone to look out for our well being at the state and county level. It was stated that some good things have happened due to the City Administrator. LaDonna Allen said that she thought the problem was personality not the position. We need someone to look at the long term growth of the City and to plan for the growth. Mayor Moss said that we need a professional person to represent the City at certain levels. Walter Hayes suggested that the Human Resource Committee put together a job description of what we want. Walter also suggested that if we try to hire another City Administrator they take a personality test. Wayne Smith agreed with that idea. There are several on the market and they have been proven. Richard Zaccardelli said that his committee will start to look at the language. He said that long term we probably still want a City Administrator. There was discussion of MML, IMCA and not to cut our looking time to short so that we can advertise better. Dee Lynn also said that MSSU is a great resource. Mark Powers suggested we keep going on like we are short term and then motioned that the Human Resource Committee look at the job description and report back to the council the second meeting in March for what they think is best for the City. Dee Lynn Davey seconded. All in favor. No opposed.

ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS

Next the council reviewed the ordinance approving the settlement agreement with AT&T. It was pointed out that our 5% MML contribution is over $7000. After a lot of discussion it was decided to decrease our contribution to $1000. Dee Lynn Davey motioned to amend the ordinance to change the City’s contribution to MML to a flat $1000. Carl Skaggs seconded. All in favor. No opposed. Dee Lynn Davey motioned to put “AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT WITH AT&T MOBILITY AND ASSIGNING A PERCENTAGE OF THE SETTLEMENT PROCEEDS TO THE MISSOURI MUNICIPAL LEAGUE” on 1^st reading by title only. Carl Skaggs seconded. All in favor. No opposed. Carl Skaggs motioned to put it on second reading by title only with a roll call vote. Dee Lynn Davey seconded. Zaccardelli-y, Evans-y, Skaggs-y, Powers-y, P Smith-absent, Davey-y, Hayes-y, W Smith-y. Motion on Ordinance #08-04 was approved by roll call vote, signed by the Mayor, attested by the City Clerk and made a part of the permanent records of the City of Carl Junction.

REPORTS

The City Clerk went over the Administration report with the council. City Clerk asked if anyone was going to the MML Legislative Conference on 2/20 & 2/21. Wayne Smith, Mayor Moss, Walter Hayes and Richard Zaccardelli all stated that they would like to go.

Chief Haase reported that he is taking applications to replace his police officer.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

The Nuisance Committee had nothing to report.

The Public Facilities Committee had nothing to report.

The Park/Pool has scheduled a meeting for 2/19/08 at 6:00 PM.

The Code Review has scheduled a meeting for 2/5/08 at 6:00 PM.

The Budget/Finance Committee had nothing to report.

Human Resource Committee had nothing to report.

The Citizen’s for Better Life Committee had nothing to report. They will be looking at the drawings Thursday.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Mark Powers said that there are other cable lines that have limbs hanging on them that are south of the line he previously reported.

Mike Talley reported that he has contacted Chuck Brown about our proposed contract with the Area Agency for Aging. It was put together after reviewing Neosho’s contract with them. The agreement is dated for 3/1/08 and Chuck will be looking at it. Mike Talley would like to get input from the Senior Citizen Committee also. This would allow for the transfer of property and Mike Talley suggested we use a title company to close. He would recommend we use Barrister Title to protect ourselves and purchase title insurance. We will need a resolution eventually and also contact our insurance company to add it to our inventory list. Mike Talley also reported that the Building Board of Appeals met last week and that he will get the final orders written up.

Delmar Haase asked about the guttering on the police station. We need to know legally what we can do to get them to finish it. Mike Talley asked for a copy of the file for his review.

NEW BUSINESS

Mayor Moss asked Mike Talley to check into the City Collector’s position since the City Administrator’s position is vacant. The City Administrator and the City Collector were combined when Joe Barfield was City Administrator.

Chief Haase reported he will be out of town Thursday for a meeting.

Steve Lawver said he will be testifying before the Senate for the storm water utility fee.

ADJOURNMENT

Carl Skaggs motioned to adjourn the meeting. Barbara Evans seconded. All in favor. No opposed. Meeting adjourned at 9:45 PM.

CITY CLERK                                                    MAYOR