June 13th City Council Meeting Highlights

Here is the latest Ledger article about the June 13th, 2011, City Council Meeting: Polk City Council OKs Changes in Water, Sewer Charges

At last night's meeting, Councilman Don Kimsey and Interim City Attorney Tom Cloud were not present.  The present council members approved Ordinance 2011-1276 on the Polk City service area with a vote of 4-0.

Ordinance 2011-1277, dealing with revising the water and sewer rate schedule, met some opposition when county resident, Mr. Al Topolski, spoke about how he had consulted 9 different attorneys regarding the legality of the "Readiness to Serve Charges," previously referred to as WAC & SAC (water access charges and sewer access charges). Here is a copy of the document Mr. Topolski read at the meeting, with supporting email documentation:  Al Topolski's presentation to City Council challenging legality of Readiness to Serve Charges   Following this presentation and further in depth discussion between Council members, Gerald Hartman from GAI, Mr. Topolski, and Attorney, Mr. Tom Wilkes, standing in for Mr. Cloud, Council did vote to approve this ordinance, 4-0, striking sections 5 & 17 which included verbiage on Readiness to Serve Charges.  Here is a copy of the entire original ordinance from Polk City's web site: ORDINANCE NO. 2011- 1277  The attorney standing in for Mr. Cloud advised council that if those sections would be added later, a separate ordinance would have to be drafted and approved with the same public hearing first and second reading requirements.

The $9 million bond issue in Ordinance 2011-1278 was tabled until July 11th pending the bond being rated.  There was no discussion on this ordinance.  This is the 2nd time voting on this ordinance has been delayed due to a request by the lender to get this bond rated.  Numerous public records requests have not yet produced the name or contact information of this mysterious lender.  These excessive delays may well be in violation of the Sunshine Laws!  This public information has been requested over a month ago and still has not been granted.

Ordinance 2011-1279, regarding the new smaller commercial sign requirements, had minimal discussion about how this change would affect current businesses.  Current businesses would have their present signs grandfathered in, but in the event that their sign is damaged, by a storm, etc., the replacement sign would have to conform to the new smaller sign requirements at the expense of the business.  The ordinance was approved 4-0.

The city received 7 bids to perform the engineering services for the Small Cities Community Block Grant which will be bringing new larger water pipes and additional fire hydrants into the numbered streets section of the city.  After a brief recess for Council members to review the bids and score them in order of preference of their top 5 picks, GAI received the top score of 20.  In order to receive this score, all 4 present council members selected GAI as their top choice of the 7 bids submitted.

A petition to contract municipal boundaries for 327 Waterview Drive was rejected by council with a vote of 4-0.

City Manager, Matt Brock, informed the council that City Hall is currently undergoing some construction to address some mold problems. He will also be working on a budget schedule and some budget reports for the council.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Mr. Richard McNally, a member of the Board of Directors from Mount Olive Shores North, presented compelling evidence from the USDA stating that Ordinance 74-204, banning irrigation wells, may not be justified.   Interim City Attorney Tom Cloud has argued in the past that the bonds with the USDA are partially secured by banning well drilling to protect revenue sources to repay the bond.  In fact, this translation of this section of the bonds, according to a USDA representative, is not intended to ban non-potable private irrigation wells.  Here is a copy of his presentation with supporting documentation: Richard McNally presentation to City Council  Mr. McNally requested that ordinance 74-204 be revised to allow well drilling for non-potable water for irrigation purposes based on these findings.

The next regular city meeting is scheduled for July 11th, 2011, at 7:00 PM, but there was discussion of possible special meetings to be called regarding the Readiness to Serve Charges issue to speed up the process.