Tag: www.avoicefromthegallery.com

12/07/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

The December 7, 2020,  Alcester City Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Haeder with Councilman David Larsen, Councilman Marcus Ireland, and Councilwoman Linda Talbott in person, Councilwoman Melissa Kay (et al.) via telephone (no reason given why Councilwoman could not attend in person) and City Attorney Sam Nelson, absent Councilwoman Darla Reppe.  Questionable quorum.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited after which the mayor called for agenda approval.  Councilman Larsen moved with Councilwoman Kay telephonically seconding the motion to approve the agenda as written (0:02:38.7), discussion by Councilman Marcus regarding Executive Session to discuss an employee and, “will the Executive Session cover that?” (0:02:56.00) Mayor Haeder answer,  “U-h-m, y-e-e-s” (0:03:14:33)  For those of you interested in statement analysis, take special note of the U-h-m and the marked hesitation in Mayor Haeder’s answer.  Agenda was unanimously approved by 3 in person ayes and 1 telephonic aye.

Approval of the minutes of the November 2nd and November 16th council meetings as reported by the Finance Office. Unanimously approved without discussion.

Agenda Item #5 – Public Input – I responded with regard to the vote to place, at the taxpayer’s cost signs of slow children. 

Since there was still time before the 6:15 p.m. P&Z Commission meeting (the Alcester city council is also the Planning and Zoning Committee) and before the schedule Audit Review Presentation by Dwight Berglin the group moved down the agenda to Agenda Item #8 – Street Updates – signs have been put into place.  A request from the Street Department since the utility truck has been repaired ($1K cost) to a drive-able condition, the apportioned money ($15K) set aside in the budget for purchase of another truck be applied to the purchase of a crew cab truck capable of pulling a trailer.  So instead applying that money to actual street repair or rebuild, Mayor Haeder asks, “When does Lonnie want an answer?”  TBD?

6:16 p.m. has arrived with Agenda Item #6 – Planning & Zoning Committee meeting.  Now folks proper procedure for the city council/planning and zoning committee to go back and forth is to have the mayor announce the Planning & Zoning Committee is now in session at 6:15 p.m. so that all parties attending KNOW it is the Planning & Zoning Committee and not the Alcester City Council .  Patrick Andrews from SECOG (South Eastern Council of Governments was present to explain procedures and document for the change in zoning issues relating to the old school property. 

          So folks the city council acting as the Planning & Zoning Committee will absorb the information of zoning, rezoning, public input, and etc. of the old school property and make the decision to recommend the rezoning to itself as the Alcester City Council give the okie-dorkie to enact Ordinance 2020-18 which allows the zoning nomenclature Planned Development District replace the former classification as Residential District and to amend the Official Zoning Map of the City of Alcester.  The Alcester Planning & Zoning Committee moves to recommend the nomenclature and map changes to the Alcester City Council and with a unanimous yes vote and no discussion the Alcester Planning &Zoning Committee recommends the zoning change.

          Now it is here where the Alcester Planning & Zoning Committee should adjourn, state the time of adjournment for the P&Z Committee and re-open as the Alcester City Council so everyone present KNOWS it is now the Alcester City Council up-at-bat.  Nope that boat left the pier, Mayor Haeder and City Attorney Sam missed the boat and were left standing on the pier along with most of the gallery. (0:21:50:47)

Agenda Item #7 – 2019 Audit Report – Presented by Dwight Berglin via telephone.  It is difficult to hear because of the telephonic audio level.  The gist of the report seemed to be violations on the city and finance office parts.  Internal controls still are absent, there was at one point a negative balance arising out of not spending within the budget.  Mr. Berglin made reference to a 2012 case in Dickson, Illinois where Finance Officer Rita Crundwell stole $30M dollars of city moneys over a 6 year period.  Mr. Berglin’s concerns involved lack of clarification of duties, lack of routine internal audits, negative balances, bank record reconciliation, over-spending the second penny sales tax moneys (the 2nd penny sales tax was originally limited to a specific type of purchases ie. capital assets such as property, plant and equipment)   Councilwoman Melissa Kay moved to approve the audit, with the second coming from Councilman David Larsen, unanimous approval with no discussion.

Agenda Item #9 – Wastewater- Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens gave the report noting one grant application was denied, toxicology on our water was clean and the situation with pumps is indeterminate.

Agenda Item #10 – Police Department – Alcester Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens reported in the stead of Chief Christie who was absent.  Most of the subject matter was equipment and the availability of CARES money to help with the expense.

Agenda Item #11– Pleasant Hill Cemetery/Landfill report- Parker Dooley not present so once again Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens made the report.

Agenda Item #12 – Golf Course/Library – Councilman David Larsen gave a report on the Golf Course and the Library.  The gist of the Library portion report was related to the employment of a new librarian.  Not so much as the hiring but of the benefits to a part-time employee as it relates to South Dakota Retirement program.  I want to be very clear the candidate and subsequent new hire for librarian has involvement in the discussion only by being the subject.

          “If you are a permanent, full-time employee of an SDRS participating employer, you are required to participate and make contributions to the South Dakota Retirement System. Permanent, full-time employees are those working at least 20 hours per week and six months per year.” South Dakota Retirement Law, Chapter 3-12C. The Alcester City Council appears to be manipulating benefits and the twenty (20) hour per week issue.  (1:10:52.00) start of the discussion and fudge-factor.  Listen to the exchange as our city council talks around the rules.  (1:12:38.90) Councilwoman Melissa Kay asks, “do we want to designate 20 hours…so she can take…”  Mayor Haeder says, “…Can we get away with…”(1:13:47.20) 

Agenda Item #15 – Rezoning Public Hearing – 7:16 p.m. This is where the Alcester City Council hears from public on the rezoning proposal and votes upon Ordinance 2020-18.  Mayor fails to call for public input, Councilwoman Melissa Kay asks if there is anyone with public comment on the rezoning Ordinance.  No public input.  Council moves onto motions for approve of this Ordinance.  Ordinance is approved.

Agenda Item #13 – Credit Card charge limits – Council to authorize $1000.00 limits for Finance Officer Jurrens, Police Chief, Water Dept. Head and Street Dept. Head with $500.00 limits for Ass’t Finance Officer, Police Officer and Librarian.  Approved unanimously and without discussion.

Agenda Item #14 – Legal Updates – Punitive and Adverse Action going forward on the 204 Ofstad Property and the 307 Iowa Property.  No need for Executive Session.

Agenda Item #16 – Supplemental Appropriations Ordinance  Motions to approve year end fund transfers, what I call robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Approved unanimously.

Agenda Item #17 – Garbage License – Only one bidder, Loren Fischer contract for 2021 through 2023, and again unanimous vote.  The question was raised, “is the garbage can rental included in the cost?”  FO Pat says, “I don’t know”  Why not you were responsible for setting out the terms and conditions of the garbage bid?”  So FO Pat picked up her phone and did the digits. As we all sat waiting patiently for the meeting to continue FO Pat place a call to Loren Fischer, One ringy-dingy, two ringy dingy (1:44:47.03).  FO Pat announces she will try to message Loren Fischer, and once again a delay in the meeting.  Eventually Mr. Fischer texts back that no the garbage cans are not included.

Now folks there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing here between Agenda Item #17 and Agenda Item #18.  The captions in the video will help to put time frames on the to-ing and fro-ing.

Agenda Item #18 – Finance Officer Report – Spot check accounts, Updates, Resolution for proposed fees for 2021, CARES related spending, City WEBSITE is still not up-something about hosting and domain name.  These should not create any significant delay, so why?

          Approval of warrants- Since Councilwoman Reppe was absent, and Councilwoman Kay was not present their share of warrant inspection and approval did not happen.  So the task fell to those who were present.  As the three council members present struggled to catch up so they approve the warrants, the meeting was delayed.  H-m-m where have I heard, “delay of council meeting”  Oh yeah something from Council woman Kay.  One has to wonder, just how carefully those sums were added up and confirmed under the gun of time frame.  H-m-m!

          Finally the call for approve of current warrants, Councilwoman Melissa Kay abstained on the vote because she was not present and had not seen the warrants.  So we are left with a non-quorum of three to vote.  Ah I see a problem here, but when Councilman David Larsen asked Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson if we could get into trouble with the “vote” (1:58:07.73), Mr. Nelson’s response was, ” …probably not…”(1:58:11.13) So Mr. Legal Guy, does the city get a major fee discount on the Probably not Opinion as opposed to those yes or no opinions?

          Going on to the next vote on warrants.  This is the vote for year-end warrants and the question is posed by Mayor Haeder to Councilwoman Melissa Kay (you know the one who abstained ’cause she had not seen the warrants for the present meeting?) will she be able to vote on the warrants only the mayor will see and sign? (1:59:02.90) and NOW you answer yes.  What changed?  Can you see and confirm future warrants?  So now we have three in person votes of aye and one of site vote of aye.  Amazing!

Agenda Item #19 – Executive Session- for personnel  remember (0:03:14:33) the response?  Yeah folks I do not buy into the premise that a city employee was to be discussed.  The Executive Session at 7:58 p.m. and I exited out into the hallway.  As I stood waiting in the silence of the hallway while bookkeeper Patricia Jurrens remained in the room allegedly discussing an employee with which Mayor Haeder allegedly had spoken.  I noted the city camera was still standing in the room un-shuttered, I noted several city councilmember phones and at least one to two laptop computers still sitting in the room.  In addition there is NO proof that Councilwoman Melissa Kay is alone during this executive session and any of her electronic devices are shuttered. 

          As I waited I noted bookkeeper Jurrens who had been unmasked for the entirety of the meeting, violated social distancing as she went to her desk to retrieve documents, to seat herself at the council table and to stand over the top of City Attorney Nelson and Mayor Haeder in front of the phone with which the council was communicating with Councilwoman Kay. 

          At 8:37 p.m. the council was declared out of Executive session.  I moved back to my seat in the council room.  As I moved toward my seat, a discussion of COVID Guidelines was being discussed.  Folks COVID Guidelines was not on the agenda and when I asked if the conversation was a continuation of the Executive session I was told NO, this was not related. I responded since this was not properly on the agenda they could not be discussing this.  Their response?  Councilwoman Linda Talbott said we are just discussing not voting with other council members chiming in the same mantra.  (2:07:47.03)  What happened to proper rules?  You are wrong, if it is not on the approved agenda, Ya’ll cannot talk about it.  Certainly not for some ten minutes or so.

          At 8:47 p.m. a call for adjournment and approved by vote.

Contact City Council

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

11/16/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mayor Dan Haeder with Councilman David Larsen, Councilman Marcus Ireland, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilwoman Linda Talbott and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson present.  At-home-tele-conferencing the meeting was Councilwoman Melissa Kay.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and approval of the agenda was called.

Approval for the minutes of the now infamous meeting of October 7, 2020, was called with correction and approved with yet another version-in-error of what went down.

As you read through this specious concoction of fact, falsehood, quasi-legal opinion by a Bambee barrister with ambulance tailgating tendencies and whose only licensure at South Dakota Bar is her driver’s license indicating she is over 18, can drink but should not drive.  At no time was any evidence of wrong doing presented other than Councilwoman Vickie Larsen had an opinion, voiced it, voted on the prudent side for the people of Alcester and Councilwoman Vickie Larsen is not an ovis aries following FO Peep nor the rest of the ‘council gang’!  I know comes as a shock to the council, but ya’ll do not HAVE to vote unanimously.  There is no mandate, council members have to vote unanimously on routine city business unless it is a special circumstances situation. 

          “At 6:09 p.m. Councilwoman Melissa Kay made a motion to enter into      Executive Session pursuant to SDCL 1-25-2.1-Personnel; Councilwoman        Linda Talbott seconded it.  During discussion Councilwoman Vickie Larsen stated  if the Executive Session was related to her-she would request her        legal counsel. (one would think with both FO and Mini FO taking notes alleged to be minutes of the meeting could get it right but evidently not)      When discussion of the motion to go into Executive Session was called I     answered,

          Vickie, “Yes, if this is to discuss the discipline of a city council member and that person is me, I waive my right to executive session, I want it done in   open session and on camera.”

          Mayor Haeder , “How does anyone feel about that?”

          Councilman David Larsen, “We won’t know until we are in Executive         Session, will we?”

          City Attorney Sam Nelson, “No, uh forgive me for disagreeing to the extent the way you characterized it Vickie.  Executive session is not necessarily a personal right to you but is a privilege of the council with the exception of certain statutes and is the council’s decision as a whole to whether they want to enter Executive session for the purposes of discussing, uh, you.  I believe under statute an officer or elected officer qualifies as personnel so, uh, the discussion could be held in Executive session whether you wanted it to be or not.  However, any vote or any action would need to be, uh, taken in open session.”

          Vickie,  “No I was advised just (inaudible) I insist on open session and open discussion and you have in front of you a Bill of Particulars, Uhm, I want to know what the problem is, please fill those out so I may have those.”

          Mayor Haeder cuts in, ” So there is a motion on the floor, we are going to act on this motion right now.  So, uh, if there is no further discussion aside from what has already been discussed, I ask for how do you vote?”                    5 ayes—1 no

          Vickie, “I object I want this evidence on the camera, I want to video tape it!”

          Mayor Haeder , “and that means we are in Executive session at 6:09 P.M.”

          Vickie “I am going to refuse until I have legal counsel!”

          Councilman David Larsen, “that was a short meeting,”

          City Attorney Sam Nelson, “Do you have one (attorney) on stand-by?”

          Vickie,  “Not tonight”

          City Attorney Sam Nelson, “Excellent, Uhm, I don’t know that you are        entitled to legal counsel, Uh, per the statute…discussion is allowed under         SDCL 1-25-2.”

          Councilman David Larsen, “Should we even be talking of this in Executive session?”

The above is a transcript of the opening salvo of a discussion of the agenda item discipline of a city council member.  Too bad FO, Mini FO and Councilwoman Kay did not take the class where meeting minutes are to be fact and not opinion based.  Better work on this Councilwoman Kay for your bar exam, first draught versus bottle maybe?

Agenda Item #5 Public Input- So Alcester City Council ya’ll just approved the October 7, 2020, minutes in gross error and with what appears to be tortious interference and particular when the camera showed a couple of broad grins on council members when the Discipline of a Councilmember was called.  Councilwoman Kay you wanted me to name a complainant and I refused giving you a name.  Given the manner and nature in which ya’ll came after me, did you really think I was going to throw someone employed in Alcester and dared complain about the Vindictive squad to the wolves? 

Second on my list for Input, was an expression of gratitude for the 30 plus years of loyal service by former Alcester Finance Office Mike Kezar to the city and citizens of Alcester and the lack luster reception my suggestion elicited.

Third on my list.  Yeah, well you remember when I asked Mr. Nohava and the council about EVOC certification of the “volunteers”.  I had the occasion to watch in horror as a firefighter came screaming down first street enroute to a fire call.  As I watched this moron whip around two cars, all but running them off the road at the intersection of first and Iowa with little regard to safety.  This is not the first time I have seen this happen.  Perhaps a re-run of EVOC training would be a benefit.  Oh yeah, by the way running the four-way flashers when you run a four way stop in your private vehicle does not mean jack.  In addition, if you injure someone you personally become liable meaning actual expenses with punitive awards.

Agenda #8 street signs.  Has gone from one sign to two signs with the promise of scattering slow children signs like the seeds of dandelions.  I think we need a slow adult sign or better yet a dangerous FO alert sign.  FO on the loose, if you see them wandering please let the mayor know immediately.

Agenda # Finance Office –

Cares money, it appears only the mayor read the document outlining the purpose of the Cares money and he was bored.  It became apparent from body language the other council members either had not read the document or they lacked the comprehension app.   Not for entertainment computers for the dump guy.  Keep in mind that FO Pat can track where you are with these little ol’ devices.  Do you trust her?  Listen to the exchange if the we don’t get reimbursement for the 8 cutesy computers, the cost of $2400 plus cost will come out of the general fund.  There goes street/water improvements, we are just going to have suck it up buttercups and drink brown water.

Adjourned at 6:50 p.m.

Contact City Council

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

10/31/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

November 2, 2020, Alcester City Council Agenda

6:00 P.M.

Please note the agenda, you may want to be there. Specifically the cost of the street signs, the computers to be paid for by CARES and lest we forget an EMS Update (ought to be interesting.)

Let your council know what you think:

Mayor Dan Haeder                   605-934-2287

Councilman David Larsen        605-934-2434

Councilwoman Melissa Kay     712-557-0689

Councilwoman Darla Reppe    605-934-2602

Councilwoman Linda Talbot    605-934-1849

10/10/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Oh to be an octopus and to have eight arms with which to defend meself agin all comers.

You know I have witnessed many injustices perpetrated by city government since 2012, and their actions and inactions never fail to amaze me.

If you think they will have your back, well let’s just explore that one?

*09/23/2013(Mayor Rick Johnson, Council David Larsen, Mike Burke, Mark Dykstra, Patricia Jurrens, Steve Johannsen and Kama Johnson) “…In the workplace harassment issue the mayor did not hand off to the South Dakota DCI for proper investigation setting the city up for nonfeasance charges, the council did not take action because according to ‘scuttlebutt’ (apparently a councilman divulged executive session) the complaining party resigned so the council figured they did not have to take action, leaving the city open for nonfeasance charges and lawsuit. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, “nonfeasance is neglect of duty, the neglect or failure of a person to do some act which he ought to do” creating an actionable liability. In addition at the September 23rd, 2013, special meeting the council went into executive session to discuss personnel issues with Alcester police officer Lisa present around 5:45 p.m. at which time my name was heard in the closed session and I am not personnel, after 15 minutes officer Lisa left the room and executive session continued for approximately another 48 minutes. The council violated executive session which had been called for the sole purpose of discussing personnel not Vickie Larsen. Officer Lisa tendered her resignation in that session and in a later interview with me, she told me the council wanted her to arrest me if I made a fuss..”

*05/05/2014 (Mayor Rick Johnson, Council David Larsen, Mike Burke, Mark Dykstra, Pat Jurrens, Kama Johnson )  “…Executive session for personnel 10:10 p.m. Mike Kezar…)  Mayor does not re- appoint , council approves not to re-appoint Mike Kezar… notice for applicants to be published.

*06/02/2014 (Mayor Rick Johnson, Council David Larsen, Mike Burke, Mark Dykstra, Pat Jurrens, Kama Johnson) “…Go over Finance Officer Applications…”

*07/07/2014 (Mayor Rick Johnson, Council David Larsen, Mike Burke, Pat Jurrens, Kama Johnson, Mark Dykstra)  Pat Jurrens resigns to take the Finance Officer job in September.

*09/10/2014 (Mayor Rick Johnson, Council Kama Johnson, David Larsen, Lance Johnson, Wayne VanGelder, Mark Dykstra, Mike Burke)  Patricia Jurrens Of-fish-ally takes the Finance Office.

*11/08/2016 (Mayor Tom Glas, Councilman David Larsen, Audri Carlson, Dan Haeder, Lance Johnson, Kama Johnson and Mark Dykstra)  “…   Finance Office-after making Dwight Berglin cook his heels beyond his scheduled time, Mayor Glass finally called Audit Review. OMG Finance Officer**had to slide close to Mayor Glas to page through the Mayor’s copy of the review to get him on the correct page.  It would have been hysterically funny watching Mayor Glas lick his finer, press down and carefully rolling the page over with an utterly vacant look on this face if he wasn’t the sitting Mayor.   Again the lack of segregation of duties was the immediate concern of the audit as Mr. Berglin left the meeting, the question was asked, “…do we need to approve  this (meaning the audit review)?…Finance Officer Pat replied “No”.  Then Finance Officer Jurrens went on to discuss the bill for the audit cost of $9500.00 and she related because of anomalies in the QuickBooks program there was going to be an extra charge of $500.00 due to extra work accountant Berglin had to perform and Finance Officer Jurrens ** was not advised of the QuickBooks foible.  Really this is supposed to be in her scope of duties and alleged expertise!  So the city short paid our accounting bill ’cause Pat couldn’t figure QuickBooks out and Mr. Berglin was forced to aceept $500.00 less for his work?  Folks Alcester is getting a reputation and it is not a good one!…”

*02/19/2018 ( Mayor Tom Glas, Council David Larsen, Lance Johnson, Melissa Kay, Dan Haeder, Julia Sundstrom-Lyle, and Darla Reppe)  “… In the January 8, 2018, regular council meeting Councilman David Larsen moved to accept the City Attorney Retainer agreement of which all council members had a true and complete copy and Councilwoman Reppe seconded the motion. Councilwoman Melissa Kay asked a couple questions regarding the retainer agreement history and with no further discussion by council members, the question was called with a unanimous (times 6) approval of the retainer agreement between the City of Alcester and Charles Haugland of Gubbrud, Haugland and Gillespie

Now February 5, 2018, the Alcester City Council is terminating the Retainer Agreement with Alcester City Attorney Charles Haugland. During the February 5, 2018, meeting discussion and prior to Councilman Lance Johnson’s motion to terminate the retainer agreement with Gubbrud, Haugland and Gillespie, Finance Officer Pat Jurrens took the floor to comment, (video 02:51)”…after the January meeting (January 9, 2018) Mayor Tom and I (FO Jurrens) went down to the law office to… garbled and inaudible…to notify (Chuck) the council decided it was time for a change in city attorney…”, to which Chuck responded per Finance Officer Pat Jurren’s account, “…he (Chuck Haugland) was done with legal services as of December 31, 2017…” and which Mr. Haugland confirmed with a letter of resignation to the City of Alcester on January 16, 2018.

Folks check out who was sitting* on the council and who the Finance Officer was.  I was not on the council, so who was embarrassing the city?

“Standing up for something even if it means standing alone…” 

(author unknown)

10/06/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

SPECIAL ALCESTER CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA
OCTOBER 7, 2020
ALCESTER LIBRARY BUILDING (500 Dakota Street)
6:00 PM – MEETING

  1. Open Meeting
  2. Pledge of Allegiance
  3. Approve Agenda
    Motion by: _ Seconded by: _ All Yes: _ Yes No _
  4. Public Input: _____________________________________________________________
  5. Wastewater Equipment Purchase
    a. Review of EP Quote
    b. Motion to approve purchase of Two (2) FlyGT Dry Pit Submersible Pumps with Install Service, $28,580,
    Wastewater Fund
    Motion by: _ Seconded by: _ All Yes: _ Yes No _
  6. Executive Session – SDCL 1-25-2-1 Personnel
    a. Motion to enter into Executive Session pursuant to SDCL 1-25-2-1 – Personnel
    Motion by: _ Seconded by: _ All Yes: _ Yes No _ b. Discipline of a Council Member c. Motion to: ____________________________________________________________
    Motion by: _ Seconded by: _ All Yes: _ Yes No _
  7. Executive Session – SDCL 1-25-2- if needed
    a. Motion to enter into Executive Session pursuant to SDCL 1-25-2-
    Motion by: _ Seconded by: _ All Yes: _ Yes No _
  8. Adjourn
    a. Motion to adjourn Council
    Motion by: _ Seconded by: _ All Yes: _ Yes No _

06/01/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Mayor pro-tem David Larsen called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. with the following council members present: Councilwoman Melissa Kay, Councilwoman Linda Talbott, Councilman Dan Haeder, Councilman/Mayor pro-tem David Larsen, Councilwoman Darla Reppe and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson.

Agenda Item #2 – Pledge of Allegiance

Agenda Item #3– Approve agenda

Agenda Item #4 – Approve Minutes of May 4, 2020, and May 18, 2020.

Agenda Item #5 – Vacancy

Executive Session was called to interview candidates for mayor and for Ward II Council seat at 6:02 p.m.

Council came out of executive session at 6:35 p.m.   At 6:36 p.m. Ward III Councilman Dan Haeder resigned as Ward III council representative. It is uncertain why Councilman Haeder chose to resign because he could hold his seat as Ward III Councilman and perform duties as appointed mayor pro tem without resignation. Upon acceptance of what appeared to be his written resignation, the council appointed Mr. Haeder as Mayor until April 2021. Ward III was declared vacant and posting should appear in the official newspaper to fill the vacancy.

Next up was the appointment of Marcus Ireland as Ward II representative.

Both Haeder and Ireland were administered the Oath of Office by Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens. After five minutes of meeting and in which two (2) agenda items were dealt with, Mayor Pro Tem David Larsen realized Mayor Dan Haeder had not taken over the meeting and unfortunately our Parliamentarian Attorney Sam missed the failure to transfer of power. Mayor Haeder took over directing the meeting and re-did agenda items 6 and 7. A note here it came to my attention that FO Jurrens had not verified eligibility of Mr. Ireland prior to her administration of the Oath of Office to him. I asked FO Jurrens this morning (June 2, 2020) if Mr. Ireland was in fact eligible, registered voter in the city and her answer to me. “I do not know, I will contact Callie or Marcus”. This troubles me because the quasi-election official failed to verify eligibility before she administered the Oath of Office. After my conversation with Finance Office Jurrens, I verified with Union County that Mr. Ireland was indeed a registered voter and eligible to hold city council member seat.

Agenda Item #6 – Council office. Councilman David Larsen retains his position as President of the Council and Councilwoman Linda Talbott was elected as Vice-President of the Council second in line for mayor should something prevent Mayor Haeder from executing his duties as Mayor before April of 2020.

Agenda Item #7 – Signatures Council voted to place the following individuals as signatories for the bank accounts and access to safe deposit boxes in the name of Alcester City. Signers are listed as Mayor Dan Haeder, Council President David Larsen, Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens and Finance officer employee Wanda Halverson.

Agenda Item #8 – AMKO-Mark DeRaney Bond Issue

Mr. DeRaney has been working on the refinance of the water bond. A Resolution (2020-07)was needed to set this refinance in motion. In light of the recent changes in the economy it was determined that banks were no long as willing to finance bonds so Mr. DeRaney was working with underwriter D.A. Davidson, out of Des Moines, Iowa, and with Zions Bank Trust Corporation as payee which was required for the change-over process. The resolution needed to be amended to reflect the changes.

In addition to the publication of Resolution 2020-07, a special meeting was needed to complete the transaction. Special meeting was set up for June 19. 2020, at 1:00 p.m. in the Auditorium.

Agenda Item # 9 – ROCS transport -represented by Peter Smith. This agenda item was pushed back in the agenda line up due to the Planning and Zoning Hearing.

Agenda Item #12 – 7:00 p.m. -Planning and Zoning Hearing-(out of order) . It was determined an amendment was needed in Ordinance (2020-08) to create a planned development district which can write its own rules but cannot be an area smaller than a city block.   (Chapter 5)

Agenda Item #9- ROCS Transport continued. This is a transport service to provide rides to appoints and etc in town and out of town. It was mentioned the Care Center was no longer transporting residents to appointments.

Agenda Item #10 – Emergency Siren testing and repairs- Discussion and information was shared concerning our emergency siren system by Axel Ericson and Pat Kast. Discussion covered a weekly routine test at a specific time and day to keep batteries operational and find any problems before any emergency.

Agenda Item #11 – Input-

I shared input which dealt with inaccuracies in meeting minutes. Specifically the Finance Officer editorializing the minutes and not facts of the meeting. Specifically the reference to the issue/input regarding contract variance. She opined the conversation between Attorney Sam and myself did not have anything to do with Alcester. The contract variance dealt specifically with a seated councilman and the finance officer of Alcester which definitely deals with Alcester. I also advised the council that Hawarden pool is closed and Beresford pool will not be open until June 15, 2020, and then only to residents of Beresford and the Beresford School District. I also mentioned an issue with the cemetery and an employee of the city with regarding to a squirrel jumping from a Pine tree on the cemetery property and causing a power outage down Lincoln Drive. The employee was mowing with headphones on, failed to hear the explosion, failed to quit mowing when the Mid-American Tech was on scene discussing the situation with me even when he saw us standing next to the Utility Truck with a Boom.

A gentlemen who had just moved into town was questioning the zoning and asked how to get and who to get a building permit from. He also asked where he might find the building codes. It would have been nice to be able to tell him he could find all that information on our website, BUT we do not have a website—WHY?

Oh and lest we forget Mike Burkes, purchase Lots 5 and 6 in on Beck Drive (just behind to the north of Randy Heuer)in the Numsen Addition and their proposed S***House. This is a residential neighborhood and not business, storage or commercial. This edifice S***House was according to Mr. Burke too big for just one lot. Mr. Heuer those covenants which protected the value of your property are deemed null, care to argue that premise with those of us complaining the covenants are not void. You have more to lose than me.

Agenda Item #15 – Pool Updates- Yeah, there was a discussion concerning the interview of pool personnel. It came to light the pool committee was not notified of the interviews and were kept out of the interview by Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens. Once again she was interview employees without a bona-fide councilmember present. WOW talk about major over reach. FO Jurrens you are still not a councilmember, you are still not a city administrator, your are still just the city bookkeeper!

Agenda Item #16– Chief of Police- Discussion of hours, and over -time.

Agenda Item # 19-

Ordinance 2020-05 Clovid 19 derivative, amended by repeal of all but the mayor’s call to close down. Passed

Ordinance 2020-06 Two meetings per month-Passed 3 Ayes, 2 nays. Comment was made by Mayor Haeder about the length of meetings being the reason for the change to two regular meetings per month. I submit Mayor Haeder you set the agenda and you are in charge of what business comes before the council and how much time is spend on that business not Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens. Sir you control the length of the meeting, so in fact you do not need two regular meetings a month.

Agenda Item #20– Personnel Manual rewrite-Still in process. Department Heads, versus Committee versus Supervisors exercise in semantics. Additional discussion of Overtime for police Department which is exempt from Overtime versus Administrative Exempt from Overtime. Sam indicates that FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act is not applicable to Alcester. We better make it applicable or we will not be able to maintain a decent police department.

Agenda Item #21- Finance Office- Warrants dealt with. Notice the Finance Office was undergoing an Analytical Review. Rent for city offices at the old school will be in exchange for law care paid by city.

Agenda Item #26 – Adjourn at 9:32 p.m.

05/18/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

“THE SECRET OF FREEDOM LIES IN EDUCATING PEOPLE WHEREAS THE SECRET OF TYRANNY IS IN KEEPING THEM IGNORANT”.

Maximillien Robespierre

 President of the Alcester City Council (mayor pro tem) David Larsen called the Special Meeting of the Alcester City Council to order at 6:00 p.m. with the following council members present; Councilwoman Melissa Kay, Councilwoman Linda Talbott, Councilman David Larsen, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilman Dan Haeder and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson seated at the council table.

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited by the council and gallery.

Upon the completion of the pledge recitation and immediately prior to the call for approval of the agenda, I called ‘point of order’. I chose this method because Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens placed Input as Agenda Item #8 well behind any opportunity to point out errors in her agenda. I addressed the error of announcing in Agenda Item #4 Mayor and Ward II vacancy under subsection (a) was a motion to approve the appointment of Dan Haeder as mayor and I pointed out that this move had the effect of shutting out the voters of Alcester as well as the council who were unaware of proper procedure and were being ask to take Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens legal opinion on this. South Dakota Statute SDCL 9-9-8. Absence of sickness of mayor-Acting President-Acting mayor and SDCL 9-13-14.1, 9-13-14.2 and 9-12-14.3 deals with this issue as well as the 2014 Supplement 2.575 Vacancies in the SDML publication. In addition to the error of Agenda Item #4, Agenda Item #5 dealt with announcing the vacancy of Ward II and Ward III. At this point I asked Councilwoman Darla Reppe if she was vacating her seat on the council, she answered, “no she was not” which left Councilman Dan Haeder’s newly (shoot the shine was barely off the Ward III seat) appointed seat up for grabs. But according to statute, if the council appoints a sitting ‘brother’ councilman as mayor–he takes on all the duties of mayor pro tem until the next election and retains his vote as Ward III representative unless it creates a conflict and he must abstain. Kind of a complicated thing to grasp.

A spirited conversation ensued as you can witness in the video. Upon the conclusion of the discussion the motion was made to approve the agenda with agenda items #4 and #5 deleted from the agenda with 4 ayes and 1 nay. Agenda Items #4 and #5 were deleted.

Agenda Item #6– Signatures was called to allow Councilman David Larsen and Councilman Dan Haeder to power of signature with the bank.

Agenda Item #7-Credit Card Charge Limit to be raised and one additional card holder to be added for a grand total of $5,500.00.   Now folks it seems $5,500.00 is out-of-line for emergency purchases. In fact I have been advised that $5,500.00 is excessive for emergency purposes for a city credit card. I agree. If you ever get an opportunity (IF) to view warrants of finance office purchases, instead of going down Alice’s rabbit hole you will enter the cluttered closet of our recycler of discarded households.

Agenda Item #8-Public Input- Now folks in the interests of open meetings and the public right of input on any business before the council the agenda item of public input is usually at numeral placement of item 3 or 4 to keep the meeting open to the public and not force them to stay in meeting ’til 9:00 p.m. and then the input is rushed ’cause the council is ‘tired’ and want to go home.

I did ask who all had access to city credit cards at varying amounts–Answer to name a few- Finance Officer Pat, Ass’t Finance Officer Wanda, Dale, Lonnie, Chief Christie, with the most recent addition of the librarian.

Agenda Item #9 – Swimming pool- The discussion should we or shouldn’t we open the pool and how do we handle it. Do we have enough personnel and so forth? Who is going to do the cleaning and how often. Dudes have ya ever seen the wipe down frequency of a doctor’s office? I can assure you the nurse does not hand you a wet wipe and tell you to wipe the exam table down, much less have a lifeguard tell a ten year old that once he/she has wiped their derriere to pull out a wet wipe ‘n’ wipe the toilet seat down A-N-D then wash their hands?

From the sounds of the discussion the pool may or may not be open.  One caution, if one placards a known danger and yet opens the danger to the public, who gets sued jointly and severally?   Sioux Falls has closed their pools, hint, hint, hint!

Agenda Item #10 Golf Course Clubhouse Manager- Wait did we not just hire a clubhouse manager? Yup and now we are at it again. Oh but wait to you hear. We had a committee of three council members who over-see and keep track of the arm of the city which involves the golf course. Now the agenda item is described as motion to hire Michael Croy. First question was from Councilwoman Talbott and to the effect what happened to the most recent club house hire? Answer, that person is no longer there. Really? Okay but the problem is that Councilwoman Talbott was one of the committee. H-m-m Then comes the question, when is the interview,   Answer? Yup you guessed it. The interview already had happened WITHOUT Councilwoman Talbott. Next question from Councilwoman Talbott, why didn’t you let me know? No answer. W-O-W Last question who did the interview? Are ya ready?—–-why Councilman David Larsen and Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens! Really the town bookkeeper? Alcester Bookkeeper Jurrens has no authority and it appears she FAILED to notify at least one council member who did have the authority. Talk about getting run off the road and then bookkeeper Patricia drove her bus over the real councilwoman. Are we really going to put up with her over reach?

Agenda Item # 11 Legal Updates- Ordinance 2020-06 (amendment) First Reading

Agenda Item # 12 Planning and Zoning – Notice of amendment of district, Notice of hearing for public input schedule for 7:00 p.m.

No Executive sessions

Agenda Item #14-adjournment 7:11 p.m. Meeting adjourned

NOTE from the quote above and the secret of freedom, it seems a whole lot of tyranny is goin’ on.

*Update as of yesterday 05/18/2020 and my check in with SD DCI the election violation case is still alive.

 

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for citizenry.

Thomas Jefferson

05/13/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

As I understand it, after the May 4, 2020, city council meeting Mayor Tom Glas resigned as mayor.  By the way it is not official until the council VOTES to accept his resignation!

This left the newly elected president councilmember David Larsen of the council as mayor pro tem to perform the duties of mayor until a new mayor may be appointed or elected.

Folks the city has the option of appointing a mayor or having a special election. I urge the residents of Alcester to insist upon a special election to fill the positions of Ward II council position and Mayoral position with an emphasis let the people decide.

I CALL FOR A SPECIAL ELECTION!

NO APPOINTMENT!

A SPECIAL ELECTION!

 Unfortunately the council has not distinguished itself when considering variances, appointments and spending money. It has been argued that special election costs have not been included in the city budget-that the city cannot afford an election.  THE CITY CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO HAVE AN ELECTION. If Finance Officer Jurrens can scrape up money for a police building caused by Mayor Tom Glas and the council not having the foresight of no place for the Police Department before selling the PD Office out from under our police force and other non-budget items, I am confident money can be found for an election.

LET’S SEE PAST PERFORMANCE:

  • Councilwoman Patricia Jurrens/Finance Officer “wanted” Beck Drive, she found non-budget money for that.
  • Finance Officer Patricia “wanted” over-time for her appointive position as Finance Officer, she found non-budget money for that. Of course not the secret desk drawer, dollar diary, non-compliant, non-approved overtime $28K +/- for which she was hoping but $4880. +/-. The mayor/city council had to approve on paper any over-time or comp time, didn’t happen. I asked for FOIA and was told these approvals did not exist. Mayor Glas FAILED his duty, and the council voted (against city ordinance) to approve a non-approval of over-time rated payment demanded by Alcester City Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens while she actively worked against over-time/comp time request of police chief Chris Doty using the argument he was not eligible for over-time or comp time.
  • Mayor Glas allowed Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens to attend non-Finance Office functions on city time at tax payer expense. Glas allowed Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens to campaign during finance office hours at the Commercial Club/Chamber of Commerce meeting, Community Building meetings, hold birthday parties at the local club house of which it is my understanding she was not a paying member of the golf club, allowed Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens to circulate through Anderson Drive residents with the City Council Member Lance Johnson to obtain a Contract for Variance and attend a meeting (video admission) with Michael McGill to get an opinion on covenants in the Anderson Drive section of Numsen Addition at the suggestion of Mr. Tom Frieberg who had a conflict of interest.
  • Said Contract for Variance (contract for variance is illegal) had an objection by Vickie Larsen and which a named partner, Larry Nelson had argued against a variance in Hamerly v. city of Lennox which the Hamerly’s objected to the construction of a garage (non-conforming) building to be built in a residential neighborhood.
  • Then there are the election violations perpetrated by Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens and she was not furloughed/terminated by Glas or the Council.
  • Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens found money for FDR (Full Depth Reclamation) which was a predictable (according to a road construction business owner) miserable flop and cost the residents street repair money through street maintenance tax.

These are just a few instances where the Finance Officer over-reached her position and violated city law.

There are people who have witnessed the illegal antics of Patricia Jurrens, please come forward complain. Let me know (vickielarsen98@gmail.com). I have taken a public stand, I will continue to take a public stand but I need support since I have been repeatedly denied placement on the council.

There is a meeting Monday, May 18, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. in the city auditorium. Come see and hear for yourselves. Let your voices be heard.

The city is waffling on closing the pool due to the pandemic. It is your children, your parents and grandparents who are at risk. It is our life-guards and city employees who are at risk because some of the council think we need to keep the pool open. That we need to keep the kiddies occupied, do you really want to risk your children to be occupied (if they are lucky) with just plain breathing with a vent in a hospital?

PUSH BACK FROM APPOINTMENT OF MAYOR AND COUNCILPERSON BY THE EXISTING COUNCIL TO A FULL BLOWN ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE.*

 

 

*the Finance Office cannot be involved in going to the Care Center to ‘help’ fill out absentee applications or ballots—it is deemed a conflict by SDML

04//15/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Mayor Glas called the April 15, 2020, special meeting of the Alcester City Council to order at 6:00 p.m. with Councilwoman Linda Talbott, Councilwoman Melissa Kay, Councilman David Larsen, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, newly appointed Councilman Dan Haeder and Alcester City Attorney Sam Nelson present.

Upon recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, the council moved to approve the agenda for the evening. Motion, second, no discussion and unanimous Aye vote X5 approved the agenda as presented with no changes or amendments.

Agenda Item #4 – Public Input was called. Vickie Larsen (me) responded with suggestions for the Park play equipment location change for safety and isolation reasons. I remarked the play equipment located in the park should be located in one location for the safety of the children.   I noted that with the equipment scattered about the park the way it is now, children are vulnerable to attack or removal from the park by pass-through strangers and leaves no straight-line access or view from parents seated on park benches or in the shelter houses. This is a safety issue we had discussed many years ago in a SRTS meeting. I added with the pandemic we are currently experiencing, with the equipment scattered throughout the park makes it almost impossible to isolate the equipment for pandemic reasons.

Councilman David Larsen did ask the question, had the signs been posted concerning the social distancing as it relates to the park equipment and the shelters. The signs had not yet been placed in the park.

Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens noted that Loren Fischer had contacted the office wanted to make a permanent move to the garbage can placement on other peoples yards “…to save our city streets…by reducing the number of passes…” Loren Fischer Disposal STILL makes three passes down Lincoln Drive…tell me again how it save the streets? It appears that the Sooper Dooper Garbage truck cannot make the turn on Lincoln Circle. H-m-m I have a suggestion. To all the folks who have garbage on Lincoln Circle instead of moving your cans east, move them cross country just a bit south and a bit west to 410 Hyden Drive since Finance Officer Jurrens wants to save wear and tear. That street is concrete and the Sooper Dooper Garbage Truck can navigate the turn without ripping out the street. But from the vacant looks of things we are stuck truckin’ our cans all over the road.

One last notice in public input, the meeting of the HRC has been postponed indefinitely.

Agenda Item #5-Emergency Ordinance 2020-04 Second reading. Discussion continues noting the changes to Section 2 and Section 5 Amendments. Motion, second, discussion from Councilwoman Melissa Kay concerning local law enforcement actions once the Ordinance goes into effect. Effective date 04/15/2020 and unanimous Aye X5 vote.

Agenda Item#6-MidAmerican Gas line. Apparently in the rush to get Beck Drive on line by the Councilwoman Jurrens, something happened with the gas line. A conference call took place with a representative of Mid American Electric. I apologise I did not get the name, the acoustics sucked and Mayor Glas mumbles worse that Mr. Magoo.  Evidently MidAmerican is give the city 2 credits for the additional gas line. So we the tax payers of Alcester will only have to pay $4800.00 to lay gas line somewhere between Beck Drive and Lee Drive. Now folks most developers figure the cost of utilities into the cost of the lot but not here, nope not here. The rest of us get to pay the cost. No action taken, dumped into the May meeting. Wonderful!

Agenda Item #7-AMKO Bond Nothing happening. Apparently this is a bond to lower the interest rate so ‘we’ can save money on a bond payment. The AMKO Bond agent would like a meet with the local bank but the bank representative is on pandemic schedule so AMKO representative needs to reschedule the meeting.

Agenda Item #8-Executive Session-If I understood the mumbling correctly it is for Legal Counsel. LITIGATION? Motion, second, discussion none and unanimous vote Aye X5 at 6:20 p.m. Council out of Executive session at 6:49 p.m. NO discussion or action taken.

Agenda Item #9-Adjourn

Motion, second, discussion none and unanimously vote Aye X5.

Meeting adjourned at 6:49 p.m.

03/03/2020 A Voice From the Gallery

Mayor Glas said, “well I guess it is time…” and so the regular meeting of the Alcester City Council was half-glas’d into session with Councilman David Larsen, Councilman Dan Haeder, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilwoman Melissa Kay and Councilwoman Linda Talbott in attendance–who knows where Councilman Lance Johnson was, he sure wasn’t a sittin’ in his seat at the council meeting. Small wonder why the council hasn’t a clue of what is happening per comments made later in the meeting.

Pledge was called, Agenda Approved without change, Minutes approved without change and finally public input was called without all the enthusiasm of “oh, dang she is here”. I responded I had public input.

Agenda Item #5 Input- I announced I had, immediately prior to the meeting, delivered to the Mayor’s seat my formal appeal request of Councilman Lance Johnson’s variance and a FOIA (Freedom of Information Request-South Dakota Sunshine) and I also pointed to the 17 page, fine-print, terms and conditions of the BAMBEE contract as well as an article titled, “Making the Best Use of Your City Attorney”.

Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens said she didn’t have the copy of the appeal and the FOIA and I responded they had been placed at the Mayor’s seat. I commented on the fine print of BAMBEE pointing out the yellow highlighter on the document. Specifically mentioning item #3 where BAMBEE explains she cannot give a legal opinion, Oh deer! It was my impression that legal was the whole purpose of hiring BAMBEE. Now folks BAMBEE requires a $500 audit fee right off the bat, then requires a monthly fee, the combined totals account Mayor Glas’ stated was a grand total of $2500.00 to $3000.00 (01:17:55:63) annual fee for HR advice. HR advice which HAS to be run past our city attorney, who the city council previously insinuated is not trained in HR and is costing the city too much in legal fees! H-m-m the two gentlemen who currently hold retainers to represent the city, list their areas of expertise as Real Estate, Probate, Federal Income Tax, Family Law, Municipal Law, Civil litigation and Criminal Defense which seems to cover territory which has prominently figured in our HR problems recently and still has one doozy HR problem still in the hopper. Somehow I think our retained attorneys cannot ‘handle’ this situation without a conflict question.

I also pointed out the article on, “Making the Best Use of your City Attorney” might be a good read if it is true as Councilwoman Melissa Kay pointed out later in the meeting, (01:22:31:30) “…we only have one or two times a month where we are seated in Council, we do not get enough information and we do not know how to deal with it…”  ?

Agenda Item #6 – Executive Session-Contract- and request for Revolving Loan for a local businessman. Council went into Executive session at 6:05 p.m. and came out at 6:17 p.m. with no motion made.

Agenda Item #7 – Legal Updates-

  1. a) Shouse discussion – Now I had to ask what Shouse was, thinking it was a misprint. It was explained a Shouse was a metal house/shed which according to FOPat is just ‘the thing’. Yeah? IN TOWN? Is the illegal garage at 518A Anderson Street now morphing into a metal sh** house? Yet another effort on FOPat’s part to legalize a ‘favor’ for a dirty-handed councilman?
  2. b) Chip Seal – Now we have to amend the chip seal bid to delete the most wondrous, amazing street treatment ‘evah’ and a Fantastic Failure Done our Roads. Given the efficacy of FDR on our streets, we would have had more success papering our streets with laminated BFranklin paper. So now we must pay for City Attorney Tom to apply Anti-Monkey Butt lotion language to FOPat’s and Mayor Tom’s RASH bid contract to FIX our streets! (54:42:43)  Get the Red out of our Budget!  I warned the council in a past complaint the vandalism to the curb at 518B Anderson Street would create water damage to the street and I was told by Mayor Glas the water ran-off just fine.  Check out how he changes his tune (52:55:17)(54:42:43)(55:55.17) about street damage due to cracks in the curb and gutter.

Agenda Item #9 – Nuisance Update –  (13:08:07) Arlene’s Cafe sidewalk drainage solutions. The city sat, wasting council time on discussing this issue and its ‘fix’ solutions. This is private commercial property NOT belonging to the city of Alcester. While there is certainly an issue with water draining down-stream from the city owned bar and city responsibility for the property, the simplest solution is to routinely clear the space between the City owned building and the adjoining Arlene’s Café property of snow BEFORE it gets to the sidewalk. Messing with an apparently sound sidewalk on the east side of Iowa street is unnecessarily costly. The two entities can share the cost of removing the alley snow, leaving each entity responsible for the snow clearance of the sidewalk fronting each property as provided by ordinance.

Agenda Item 8 – At this point 6:30 p.m. the time for scheduled bid (17:41:90) opening for the auditorium property.  Mr. Scott Hansen representative of Alkota Cleaning Systems was present (26:40:00) for the opening. Mayor Glas opened the lone bid received, which offered $120, 000.00 for the building/and property and which was well below the appraised price on the auditorium of $260,000.00. And so the great debate/discussion began over a bid contract which the council failed to read and understand their own terms and conditions for bidding. When the council put our auditorium up for bid, they lacked the foresight to make alternate plans for holding city council meetings, they lacked the foresight what to do if the bid is substantially lower than appraisal, and what is the lowest bid we are willing to take for our building. Judging from the discussion,

“Our council Hindsight is 20/20 and our Council foresight is legally blind.” (Inspired by the quote of Benjamin Graham)

How many people would put their homes up for sale without a clue where they were going to live after promising an immediate possession sale?

Questions were asked of Tom Walsh who was also present (29:26:77) with regard to the Golf Course Community Building. The council opined they cannot possibly make a decision to accept the Alkota Bid until they KNOW IF AND WHEN the proposed Community Building Dream Gaffe project is consummated. Mr. Walsh gave an update from the architects of the golf course project.  In a past meeting when FOPat was ‘splaining’ the project to the council she commented that, “…the architects projected the cost of the community building high…” It appears that COOP Architects project costs missed the boat ’cause the reported bid info shared on March 2, 2020, meeting was “the bids came in SIGNIFICANTLY HIGH-something nearer to $1 Million+ over. FOPat commented they, “…just couldn’t figure out where the costs came from…” (00:00:00) Dear Sweet Auntie Em, this is our finance officer who cannot figure out expenses? Folks the items involved in this bid HAVE to be commercial grade not Sh**House grade or Residential grade. More discussion to take place at the March 16, 2020, special meeting set for 6:00 p.m.

Agenda Item #9 – Nuisance(continued) – Council touched on 204 Ofstad, 208 West Fourth, Dog License Compliance. City Attorney Tom Frieberg to clean up Dog Licensing ordinance language to compel our Police Department to act as dog catchers. Councilman Dan Haeder made an analogy concerning dogs-at-large, citing a tragic car/truck crash on I-29. The crash cause summary per news reports was a northbound tractor-trailer with a pup trailer abruptly braked to avoid two dogs crossing the interstate. A Mazda following the tractor-trailer rear-ending the pup trailer. The operator who was wearing seat belt was pronounced dead-on-scene with no injury to the tractor-trailer driver.

Councilman Haeder’s analogy (40:53:57) using the crash, inferred dog owners were culpable because the dogs were running-at-large. Errors in that analogy include such circumstances as:  1- Dogs could have been deer. 2- what exactly was the Mazda driver doing, what was the speed of the Mazda (posted limit 80 mph), how close was the Mazda following the tractor-trailer, were there contributing road conditions, 3- There is no ordinance dogs in Alcester must be caged, just that they are controlled, their vaccinations are current, they are spayed/neutered and have a city license which proves the appropriate documentations has been provided to the city, the only apparent concern for at-large-dogs relates to menacing behaviors, 4- As I understand motor vehicle liability relating to rear-end collisions, is the failure to have one’s vehicle under control is a cause for citation for failure to have control. Tragically it was the failure to have the vehicle under control which ultimately caused the death. There is no justification for licensing dogs in this analogy and no justification for attributing a tragic death to a pet owner.

Perhaps instead of licensing cats and dogs, owners of domestic pets voluntarily register their pets with the city without license or cost and we avoid the Mayor Glas’ and the city council’s castration of our city police department into dog catchers which distracts our police department from their very real job of enforcing the drug laws, domestic abuse laws, embezzlement laws, false 911 reporting and liquor violations. Anybody on meth or over-reaching political authority is far more menacing than Fluffy or Lassie any day of the week!

7:03 p.m. Alcester City Attorney Tom Frieberg left the meeting.

Agenda Item #15– Executive Session called at 7:03 p.m. for interview of two candidates for Utilities person. Out of Executive session at 7:52 p.m. with no decision voted upon or action taken.

Agenda Item #11 – Streets- Most important issue was the city asking for advice from Engineer McLaury. Now I personally have a problem with this because Mr. McLaury in all his engineering prowess during the SRTS issue caused the illegal vacation of alley behind to two residential properties from 4th street to 6th street, the earthen dam design caused AND CONTINUES TO CAUSE flooding of the property at 301-4th street along the east side of the alleyway, required a significant change order which ultimately cost the taxpayers of Alcester an project over-run of $20,000.00 ’cause he could not seem to figure out the ADA restrictions and requirements while maintaining his bid quote. Now FOPat wants to reward him with another shot at our tax coffers?

Agenda Item #18 – Finance Office

a) Warrants

b) HR Services – California BAMBEE (01:17:03) Ask to see the copy of the terms and conditions of BAMBEE I provided to the city.  The council has presented BAMBEE, yet none of the council seems to have read or investigated this subject adequately to make AN INFORMED DECISION.

*PLEASE NOTE Finance Officer Jurrens cannot seem to get a simple agenda done properly. She cannot seem to go from 18 (a) to 18 (b) to 18 (e) without screwing up and leaving out 18(c) and 18 (d). Now folks I make proofing errors, but I do not get paid $46K to get a simple agenda correct!

*e) District meeting – Vermillion March 19, 2020. Now you have heard about HR BAMBEE and how according to Councilwoman Melissa Kay, “…we just do not have the information, the experience or the know how about HR…” District meeting is where you can get this information, SDML to whom you pay a membership dues is another source of information, Alcester City Attorney to whom you pay a retainer for HR information and council-folks it is part of what you were elected/appointed to do.  Readers check out the video (01:39:58:63) and (01:41:23:00) see how many council members attend the district meeting. Oh do not FOPat it where you sign up and only show up for a hour.

You want to have information, demand your finance officer get it to you in time for you to read up on the subject matter BEFORE council meeting. IF your finance officer cannot get the job done or get the information to you in a timely manner-FIRE HER BUTT! In addition do not accept her ‘translation’ as accurate, it is YOUR responsibility to verify all information. I email information from time to time to the you, or lay it at your place at the council table. I put it in front of you so when I reference it,  you can pick it up and read it at brain level. I do not place this information on your chairs so you must absorb the information through your emergency exit!

Agenda Item #18 (?) Alleged payment for a Website- HOORAY Now payments made to the city, the golf course, the pool and etc. can be made to the city via the Official Website.

WE DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE THE CITY OFFICES AT THE GOLF COURSE COMMUNITY BUILDING ‘CAUSE ALL PAYMENTS CAN BE MADE THROUGH THE OFFICIAL ALCESTER WEBSITE PAYMENT PORTAL. WE CAN ACCESS AGENDAS, MINUTES, FORMS AND ALL OFFICIAL NOTIFICATIONS THROUGH OUR OFFICIAL WEBSITE     YAY!

Agenda Item #18 (f)   Updates and reminders-One item not under the updates and reminder is the 2019 Election Issue, according to my source the complaints have been investigated and the reports are sitting in line on the prosecutor’s desk for execution.

Agenda Item #23 Executive Session

8:50 p.m. In Executive Session for Personnel

9:23 p.m. Out Executive Session for Personnel

NO ACTION TAKEN

Agenda Item #6 (?)

9:25 p.m. In Executive Session for Contracts

9:35 p.m. Out Executive Session for Contracts

NO ACTION TAKEN

Agenda Item #24 -Adjourn

Adjourned at 9:35 p.m.