---
date: "2015-02-10"
title: "Council Meeting Minutes 2015-02-10"
source: "2015-02-10-minutes-council-monthly.pdf"
---

City of Prairie City

                   Carole Garrison, Councilor
         Les Church, Councilor
         Georgia Patterson, Councilor

1.                   CITY COUNCIL MEETING
2.                                    February 11, 2015
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6. Attended:   Jim Hamsher, Mayor
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10.                   Viola Rose, Councilor
11.                   Dottie Miller, Councilor
12.                   Henry Goslin, Councilor
13.                   Taci Philbrook, City Recorder
14.                   Kathy Smith, Museum Director
15.                   Chris Camarena, PWD Director
16.                   Sandy Murray
17.                   Donna Becker
18.                   Bruce Kaufman
19.                   Michael Blount
20.                   Wanda Winegar
21.                   Kevin Dahlen
22.                   Farrell Clark
23.                   Ronald Waggoner
24.                   Mike Rose
25.                   Richard Gray, JD Police Chief
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27. The Mayor opened the regular meeting at 6:00 pm.
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29.The minutes of January 14, 2015 regular meeting were considered for approval.
30. MSP: To approve the minutes as written. Councilor Garrison / Councilor
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33. The Mayor introduced Bruce Kaufman, Master of the Strawberry Grange. Bruce
34. started with a brief history of the Grange noting it was established 1925. Due to
35. membership waning and the State Granges bylaws saying they had to, the Grange
36. closed its doors in 1971 and held meetings in their homes until 1976. At that time
37. the P.C. SR. Citizens acquired a 25 year contract to lease the building. In 1977,
38. the Grange underwent a revamping of the kitchen, restrooms, the front porch and
39. added an ADA compliant ramp. The Sr. Citizens have been serving hot meals

 Miller. All in favor.

40. every Wednesday since 1977. The Grange now finds itself unable to meet its
41. obligations again. There have been changes in the State Granges by-laws that will
42. now allow them to bypass the 7 year wait and to reorganize or consolidate with
43. another Grange now. The current grange membership has authorized Bruce to set
44. up the consolidation of our Grange with Mt. Vernon's Grange. They will be
45. voting on it March 11, 2015. If, both memberships agree than both of the Granges
46. will assess assets and the one that has the most will be the strongest grange
47. resulting in closing the other. He thinks Mt. Vernon may have the strongest
48. assets. If the vote fails, the membership will have no choice but to close it
49. again and sell the building and lot to the P.C. Sr. Citizens. Bruce is asking the
50. City to support either action. Bruce said he would keep the City updated after the
51. March 11th vote.
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53. The Mayor introduced Sandy Murray who started by reading a letter of
54. resignation to the Council (see attached). She is no longer willing to head the
55. maintaining of the Memorial Planters along Front St. Councilor Garrison asked
56. Sandy if any of her committee is willing to further the upkeep of any of the
57. memorial planters? To which Sandy explained no one is interested in
58. participating any longer. The Mayor asked Councilor Garrison if she is willing to
59. go to the businesses and see if they would be willing to maintain the memorial
60. planters in front of their shops and stores. Councilor Garrison agreed to and to
61. also create a map/list of the planters. Councilor Patterson suggested asking the
62. high school students and the FFA group. She remembers they have to do a
63. community project for their senior thesis. Sandy Murray asked that during
64. pruning time they make sure “they” know what they are doing so as not to
65. butcher the trees.
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67. The Mayor introduced Michael Blount. Michael asked for permission to use a
68. 25 x 10 section of the Texaco Bldg. parking lot to “test the economics”. The
69. Mayor responded first by explaining the Council cant allow a business to set up
70. on the city's private property for their own commercial needs, it would be
71. different if it was for a fund raiser or at a city wide activity(like the 4th of July or
72. the Kar Show). He suggested Mr. Blount ask the mini-mart about using the little
73. park in front of the store. Councilor Church encouraged Mr. Blount to talk to
74. Steve at the apartments next to/behind the mini-mart.
75.
76.The Mayor introduced Farrell Clark from Clark's Disposal. He began by stating
77. the landfill is going great. He next spoke about the recycling bins set up next to
78. the Texaco Bldg. They are now dumping them every Wednesday and Friday to
79. keep up with the demand but that there is always trash mixed in with the
80. recycling so he would like to see them better monitored. He suggested moving
81. them so that they can be “seen” better. The Mayor asked if behind the recycling

82. center would be a better location but Councilor Garrison and Councilor Patterson
83. both explained the ground is too soft there, and Chris thought they would be
84. harder to manage there. Kevin Dahlen asked the Council to consider putting the
85. recycling bins on the other side of the Mill property, to which Chris explained
86. they would really be out of sight then so that would not work. The Mayor
87.expressed his thoughts on the Texaco Bldg. parking lot, that it is for visitors and
88. he would like to see the recycling bins moved to make it more aesthetic and so as
89. to make the parking lot more accessible for visitors. Ferrell suggested the City
90. purchase another green bin ($500). He also suggested putting up more signs to
91. better inform recyclers about what to recycle and which bin it belongs in. Ferrell
92. also suggested moving the bins behind the Texaco Bldg., then recyclers could just
93. drive through and they would be more visible to the City workers. Councilor
94. Garrison suggested we put an informational flyer in the utility bills to better
95. inform the residents “how to” recycle.  The city Recorder asked Ferrell for a flyer
96. and he said he would get us one. The Mayor asked for more time to come
97. up with a better place for the bins. MSP: To authorize the purchase of another
98. green bin. Councilor Goslin / Councilor Patterson. All in Favor.
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Public Safety: Chief Gray reviewed report and discussed with the Council
a mistake that had been made in the billing. John Days computer system
was omitting a cell in the addition of hours thus leaving 100.99 hours not
billed or paid for. The hours are equates to $3837.62. Chief Gray
brought his log and showed the council members how his reports are
produced and how the error happened. The City Recorder reviewed the
funds received from the courts that represented our share of fines paid
to the court. Prairie City received $1181.00 for 2014, and $162.50 thus far
for 2015. Taci reported she discussed the erratic payments with Kathy
Stinnett who explained they had gotten behind in paperwork and that the
payments will be timely from hereon.

The Mayor asked for reports:
Museum: Kathy Smith gave her written report (see attached) After
reviewing the Museum Operations Supervisor position the Council and
Kathy agreed that the qualifications needed lessening. The Council asked
Taci to work with Kathy on the job description. The Council reviewed the
proposed ad for the BME and approved it as is.(see attached) MSP: To
place the ad in the BME  times to receive applications for the Museum
Operations Supervisor position. Councilor Garrison / Councilor Rose.
All in Favor.

Landfill: along with Chris's written report, he stated Kathy, a representative
from DEQ, did an on-site investigation and found lots of trash in the

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recycling, she discussed it with Clark's and told them they would not be
able to dump in PC's landfill if the problem persists. Chris noted the
landfill will be full 3 or 4 months from now. He reported Tom is already
grading and filing in. For the Council, Chris again reviewed the options for
 the landfill. If the City bought the land from BLM we would have to
 purchase very expensive monitoring devices, and we have no use for the
 land, so it would not be in the best interest of the city to purchase the land.

The Mayor brought up a complaint about speeders on S. Johnson. He
expressed how dangerous it is for kids to out there. The Mayor asked Chris
if we have any “caution children at play” signs to put along side the road
on S. Johnson. Chris thought we had a sign, and if not he would purchase
what we needed. MSP: To put out appropriate signs. Councilor Rose /
Councilor Goslin. A discussion about placing the speed trailer on the
same road started amongst the Council members, all members concurred.

Chris furthered his report on the Public Works. (see attached) Chris spoke
of the plans to paint so that all the cities outbuildings match, including the
PWD Bldg., this includes the bathroom at the cities playground. He stated
he will be starting the posts to hire a park host for Depot Park. The council
and Chris discussed the need for background checks because of the hosts
handling money and if they were a sexual predator it would come up in a
background check.  Chris has received one application for park host so
far. The Council asked Taci to look into the budget and see if there was
$400.00 a month available for the host. Taci agreed to review and revise the
application and job description with Chris.

Accounts Payable: While reviewing the bills Councilor Rose asked about
the Anderson  Perry & Associates bill for operating manuals ($4,399.94).
Councilor Garrison reminded the council this was already reviewed, voted
on, and approved at a previous council meeting. Councilor Church
expressed his concerns about our Attorney bills. He would like us to “rein
in” using the attorney so much as it has cost so much, the council as a
whole agreed.
MSP: Vote to pay the bills. Councilor Church / Councilor Patterson. All
in favor.

Resolutions/Ordinances: The Mayor introduced Resolution 2015-02. To
amend the Personnel Policy to add section 2.15.4 (see attached). The
Council discussed the reason behind the amended policy. Councilor
Patterson would like to see the section read the City will pay for two tests
and then the employee would pay for the third attempt and thereon. The

Mayor thinks it will be a great incentive to study harder. The Council as a
whole would like to see the word “may” changed to “will” (see attached).
The council also discussed waiving the retesting fees if the employee came
before the Council to plead their case and ask for an exception to the policy
be made, they discussed adding “unless approved by Council”. Chris
discussed with the Council, in the 2015-2016 budget he would like to see
a .25 cent raise in pay each time a certification is acquired by a Pubic
works employee (a merit raise). Chris started the discussion about how out-
dated the books are that they use for testing. Chris asked given permission
to update the city's workbooks. Chris stated it would help if the PWD
employees went to yearly classes instead of every other year like they do
now. MSP: To approve Resolution 2015-02 with the stipulation that
“will” is inserted where it reads “may” and to add unless otherwise
approved by the Council. Councilor Garrison / Councilor Miller. All in
Favor.

The Mayor asked Taci to advise the council of our current auditors the
Oster Professional Groups (OPG) information in the councilors packets (see
attached). Included in their packets was the Engagement letter, OGP's
External Peer Review report, and OGP's response to their auditors after
receiving a “Fail” by the Peer Review Committee. Included in their
information packet was OGP's response to the review. After a thorough
review the Council decided to put out RFP's for a new audit team. It is the
Councils hope to “stay local” but they do realize there are only so many
CPA firms local. It was suggested we sent a RFP to Ken Kendig's firm in
John Day and OGP. MSP: to seek out another audit firm. Councilor
Church / Councilor Goslin. All in Favor.

The Mayor asked if there was any further business and Councilor Goslin
asked where “we” are with the grievance that was filed by a City
employee. The Mayor explained to discuss that we would have to move to
an Executive Session and there is not only no time, but no notice for an
executive session was posted.

 The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 7:15 pm.

 Submitted by:

  ________________________________
  Taci Philbrook, City Recorder

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                                                         Approved by the City Council this_____
                                                         day of ______________, 2015 and
                                                         signed by the Mayor:

                                                        _________________________________
                                                       Jim Hamsher, Mayor