Those pesky tree ordinances!  Look what I have to carry around now.  Shoot, next you know I’ll have to actually trim trees.

 

 

12/28/2016 A Voice from the Gallery

PART THREE

“When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat…”

attributed to Ronald Reagan

“I was appalled at the treatment handed out to Alcester City Attorney Chuck Haugland in the December 28, 2016, meeting by Mayor Glas and Finance Officer Pat Jurrens in the public forum…”.

Mayor Glas is in charge of all meetings in which he is present and he is responsible for the agenda. Key word here is ‘present’. Remember that History of Events in Part One? Let me refresh:

• May 2014- Councilwoman Pat Jurrens votes to dismiss Finance Officer Mike Kezar and is present when Mayor Rick Johnson requests the position of Finance Officer be advertised.

 I have to wonder who wrote those advertisements because the description of duties are more in line with City Administrator not a Finance Officer.

• June 2014- Mayor Johnson asks for executive session to discuss Finance Officer position. Council votes to hire Pat Jurrens as Finance Officer with a training salary of $40K ayes-K. Johnson, M. Dykstra, D. Larsen no-M. Burke.

(Note: Councilwoman Pat Jurrens is not included in the executive session)

• July 2014-Jurrens resigns. Jurrens starts training at $40K under Finance Officer Mike Kezar making $38K+/-.
• September 2014-Jurrens assumes duties of Finance Officer.

• November 2014-FO Jurrens requests permission to attend an Election Class workshop as well as Ass’t FO Halverson also be allowed to attend the Election Class workshop. Council voted unanimously in favor of the Election Class workshop.

(Note: Ass’t Finance Officer Wanda Halverson was hired to assist Finance Officer Mike Kezar and to be in the Finance Office when the Finance Officer was away so Alcester residents and taxpayers would have complete access to the city office without closing the office.)

 

• November 7, 2016-Executive session SDCL 1-25-2-4

   SDCL 1-25-2-4: Preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representatives;(Note SDCL: 1-25-2-1 “…The term ’employee’ does not include  any independent contractor…)

• December 5, 2016- Executive session SDCL 1-25-2-4

           SDCL 1-25-2-4: Preparing for contract negotiations or negotiation with employees or  employee representatives;(Note SDCL: 1-25-2-1 “…The term ’employee’ does not include  any independent contractor…)

• Let’s get back to FO Jurrens deleterious list:
• In my experience, generally City Attorneys act as parliamentarians for the City mayor and council.

City Attorney failed to provide oaths for the Election workers. 

          Mr. Haugland’s Answer-He did provide the oaths for the election workers and  according to the public conversation, you at some point altered legal documents supplied by Attorney Haugland.

Vickie’s observation-FO Jurrens in December 2014 YOU attended an Election Class Workshop accompanied by Ass’t FO Halverson and paid by the city. FO Jurrens nowhere in the duties of a Finance Officer are you allowed to play kibitzer to the city                      attorney!  

City Attorney not up-to-speed.

        Mr. Haugland’s Answer-45 minutes before council meeting is not sufficient time to render an opinion sound enough to vote on.   Emergency issues are covered in the retainer document.

Vickie’s observation-FO Jurrens, as finance officer it is your duty to provide information and back stories on all warrants, bonds, and  other forms of indebtedness or projected indebtedness in advance  of the meeting so council members can research and familiarize  themselves before the expectation of voting on the issues.  To date and to my personal observation, council members are  seeing agenda issues for the first time as they seat themselves at the council table on meeting night.

          City Attorney unaware of off-sale liquor license

      Mr. Haugland’s Answer-For the past months, Mr.Haugland has been advised he is not needed at the meeting.

Vickie’s observation– The agenda has shown legal line items, yet Mr. Haugland has been apparently, deliberately excluded from the meeting to ‘save money’. According to their public discourse Mayor Glas and FO Jurrens, feel City Attorney has been over-billing the city when he revised an oath and made a necessary change in language in a contract (evidently the ones that FO Jurrens had not adjusted on her own, which has the effect of voiding them cause she is not licensed at the SD Bar not to be confused with the Alcester Bar.) Again drawing contracts is not within the scope of FO Jurrens’ municipal bookkeeping duties.

          City Attorney Haugland did not advise FO Jurrens how to get recycling on the ballot.

      Mr. Haugland’s Answer–He was in his office and save Councilman Mark Dykstra’s appearance in his office on December 27, 2016, neither FO Jurrens or Mayor Glas has stopped in to talk to him with regards to city business.

Vickie’s observation-FO Jurrens and Ass’t FO Halverson attended Election Class Workshop in 2014, did they not take notes or bring  the syllabus home with them. Did they not attend the Election Class Workshops held in 2015 and 2016?  Hey, they could have  asked me, I know how to get an Initiated Measure or referral on the ballot. Shoot, I know the process to recall a bad mayor! 

Now that should make ya’ll hearts go pitty-Pat!                   

I had to tutor the Mayor and FO Jurrens about adopted Ordinance language and how it affects Election Wards and unfortunately FO Jurrens failed to understand the ballots must be PUT BACK INTO THE BALLOT BOX AFTER THE COUNTING PROCESS AND LOCKED if they are left over-night.  Kinda messed up any recount opportunity on the recycling vote outcome, Right?  Not an over-sight, just a municipal Finance Officer failing to know her job!

VICKIE’S LIST

Since FO Jurrens felt it was necessary to present her ‘list’ in open meeting painting the kettle black. Let me paint the PAT!

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties as Finance Officer is to supervise the accounting system.  Yup and according to what I hear, she’s a real Wiz on the computer and programs. So when she short paid our local accountant Dwight by the $500 up-charge for the extra time it took him to audit the city’s books because she failed to correct the Quick Books anomaly with the excuse Dwight didn’t notify her of the anomaly. It is her responsibility to KNOW the program and be aware of the updates. Dwight’s only duty was to make sure accounting procedures and SD laws were followed, NOT to take a $500 hit. Shame on the council for allowing her to get away with stiffing Dwight!      

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties as Finance Officer is to keep accurate records of all moneys received by the municipality or owed to the municipality (this especially includes special assessments and utilities. This would include operating under Banking 101 rules as to NSF checks and not acting on gut-feeling a water bill check might be NSF. Like Schrödingers Cat, the check is not bad until you open the box by depositing it. According to banking rules a teller or any other banking official can only release funds information on an account at the specific time of the telephone call. Certainly not justification for shutting a resident’s water off! Again part of your duty to know!

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties as Finance Officer is the chief officer of all local elections (including handling all petitions for nomination, initiative, or referendum).  That means when the council globally adopts a book load of ordinances, the same book you had former Mayor Peter Larsen order for you, ya’ll should sit down, read it and understand all consequences of adoption into the city  ordinances and not just cherry-pick those you want to inflict on residents. I guarantee, if you don’t it will come back and bite you. Just like the Ward III boundary issue three days before a city election when the Union County Attorney and the Union County Auditor schooled you in elections and semantics after I had already told you and Mayor Glas two monthly council meetings before the election. Also when a candidate asks how many signatures they need for their petition for Ward III council position, the response you gave me, “if you have 10 or 12 you should be okay”-just doesn’t  cut it!

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties as Finance Officer do not include being a seventh council member and participation in executive session UNLESS the executive session involves indebtedness of the city and only to report moneys received.

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties as Finance Officer do not allow her to sit in executive session and interrogate council candidates and police officer candidates or make recommendations of their fitness of holding office.

Especially when FO Jurrens as Councilwoman Jurrens voted to dismiss former Finance Officer Mike Kezar and then applying for his job.  It is not proper for FO Jurrens or Ass’t FO Halverson to present a, list of people we would like to see on the council…people we work with on other committees…” as candidates for Ward I City Council member, especially when one of those ‘preferred people’ is a BFF of Ass’t FO’s daughter.

It is not proper for FO Jurrens to make comments as to the male-female make-up of the council.

It is not proper for FO Jurrens or Ass’t Halvorson to present a list of people, “we would like to see on the council…people we work with on other committees…” as candidates for
Ward I City Council member, especially when one of those ‘preferred’ people is a BFF of Ass’t FO’s daughter.

It is not proper for a biased FO Jurrens to sit in Executive session during the questioning of Ward I candidate Mike Kezar, a man she voted to dismiss from his Finance Officer job with the city and then applied for his replacement. Nor is it appropriate for FO Jurrens to remain in executive session to discuss the fitness of Mr. Kezar, a several decades veteran of city employment versus the neophyte young woman with no experience but a BFF of Ass’t FO.  FO Jurrens who spoke for at least 10 minutes of the twenty minute executive session advocating her pick.

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties as Finance Officer do not include input on concrete repair (outside of her scope of duties and expertise) nor to solicit advice from Kevin Pies of Pies Construction without advising the council of conflict of interests  because Mr. Pies is Ass’t FO’s so-in-law. NEPOTISM?

Ø It is not among FO Jurrens duties as Finance Officer to contact Beresford City           Attorney Tom Frieberg to participate in a legal conversation with Mr. Frieberg               about contempt charges or the divorce details of Loren Fischer,  contractor for Alcester garbage pick-up. She is not an attorney, she is not the Alcester city attorney, she is not the Mayor nor is she a city administrator and as Alcester Finance Officer, FO Jurrens has no standing in such a conversation as she spoke of in open session of the December 28, 2016, Alcester City Council Meeting.

Ø FO Jurrens’ duties do not include advising sitting Councilwoman Julia Sundstrom she should make the motion to adjourn!

Ø It should be FO Jurrens’ duties to establish a city website where all ordinances are on-line available for review, meeting agendas are published, minutes of meetings are published and city notices published. After all, FO Jurrens is a  Wiz at computers.

The December 5, 2016, meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. with Mayor Glas, Finance Officer Pat Jurrens and all council members present. Notable was the absence of City Attorney evidently ‘once again’ he was not invited to the ‘party’. Given the agenda item number 8, Executive session SDCL -1-25-2-4:

Preparing for contract negotiations or negotiating with employees or employee representatives;

One would think it would be advantageous to have an attorney present when our governing body none of whom to my knowledge have passed the bar and I don’t mean walking past the Alcester Bar or Hillbillies intend to call Executive session for negotiation with employees. H-m-m!

Agenda Item #7  I presented photographs of the classy job on Madam’s brick wall. Please note photos below. Initially Mayor Glas was willing to spend $8K to $10K to ‘parging’ or ‘back plaster’ to make Madam’s brick wall purty! Want to see the result of his ideer of ‘boo-ti-fi-cashun’? Look below! Now The Mayor wants BACK on the HRC WHY, is it because he knows so much about parging? Look below. A couple cans of foam polyurethane and gosh only know what the ‘grey matter’ finger painted on the wall is. FIY polyurethane foam has a drawback, it is not UV stable. Yup that old round thing in the sky that shines down on us and that brick wall will cause the Polyurethane piped in between the bricks to change to an cell block 10 orange color and break down causing it to fall out and litter the alley. Looking at the quasi-parge, it appears a pre-school class had a field trip to the alley behind the bar to practice their finger painting!

Agenda Item #9, B, ii; Sewer rate resolution. It has been determined it has been a spell since the sewer rates were raised. Imagine that discovery, just when the North 40 Industrial Park has broken ground. Amazing. Now folks what this means to those of us paying property taxes and sewer charges. Ol’ North 40 Industrial is going to need water and waste water utilities and wouldn’t you know that waste water needs to be ‘lifted up’ to go downhill to the sewer plant. All those Ward I folks who have paid, and paid again with the hope the infrastructure that serves their homes will be updated apparently have to wait and pay again. Let’s see, a street with no homes on it in Ward III budged in line and now it appears the North 40 Industrial Park is budging in line. Seems to me we are gonna have blue porta-potties a sittin’ along the curb in Ward I, next to those spiffy new garbage cans. I can see it now… some poor soul is a sittin’ in his blue thinkin’ cube when ol’ Loren Fischer comes by to pick up garbage and by mistake Ol’ Loren’s brand new magic garbage arm gloms onto the blue porta-potty by mistake and there goes poor Mr. Jones up in the air while he’s a takin’ care of pre-dawn business. The Alcester City Council read this resolution for the first time and I do mean for the very first time. It appears their information is handed out in packets and are waiting for them to arrive at 5:30 p.m. the night of the meeting they’re are to make decisions. Excellent timing Mayor Glas.

        Agenda Item #9, C, ii; Tim Peet Loan Agreement. Some time ago we had a young police officer named Tim Peet who took training at the police academy in Pierre. and a combination of poaching by Sheriff Limoges and allure of much higher wages Officer Peet left the city’s employ, March 16, 2015. At the time of Officer Peet’s resignation, Mayor Tom Glas, Alcester City Councilmen Lance Johnson and Mark Dykstra had a pre-council hissy fit and openly discussing their ideas of punishment, retribution cum get-even-plan for an Alcester City Employee with me sitting and taking notes of their discussion. So much for discretion in dealing with employee matters. December 5, 2016, in open session and once AGAIN Mayor Glas and Alcester City Councilman Lance Johnson did a re-run of their hissy fit of March 16, 2015, there had been a realistic monetary reimbursement agreement between Officer Peet and the Alcester City Council back in 2015.

Now keep in mind certain members of this council handed out a CDBG loan to Madam to cover her (very liquid asset) liquor inventory which I believe she is still paying on. Mayor Glas and Councilman Mark Dykstra brag Madam is ahead on payments. Really? How much of that original liquor inventory is still on the shelf? Inventory has been served, flushed, gone, and she is still paying on the loan. But golly dang, Mayor Glas boasts she is ahead on her payments. GEE whatever happened to Business Loan 101?

So now apparently there is a problem with the payback plan the city had with Officer Peet. Yup! I know this because Mayor Glas and Councilman Lance Johnson were discussing this in open session and in front of me. They talked of sending the Chief of Police after young Mr. Peet. There was a saying back in the day, LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS! Boys, your ship is in danger and ya’ll don’t have a life raft or a paddle. Although I could prolly round up a manufacturing second for ya’ll in the paddle department, it just might be yer ‘deliverance’!

Now on to the second part of the story. The Updating of the Volunteer Roster. Mayor Glas’ name was put on the list, I guess to protect the city for ‘oh, who knows’? So do the liability insurance people know what has been happening in the gym? HAZING? So if an employee is asked to do something by his supervisor or his City Council employer which is dangerous does he risk termination by saying NO? Who gets to pay the liability bill if a Tazing-Hazing goes wrong on Alcester City Property while he appears to be restrained? Is it still considered consensual when it is his employer is making the request and he doesn’t feel he can say no? Maybe you ol’ boys better consult the city attorney before pulling this stunt again. If the academy does it, it is their liability not the city of Alcester.  What do you think Councilman Dykstra?  H-m-m?

Facebook photo 07/28/2014

 

 

 

Mayor Glas called the meeting to order at 6:06 p.m. in the Alcester City-School Library with Council members David Larsen, Audri Carlson, Dan Haeder, Mark Dykstra and Mayor Tom Glas in attendance. Absent were Council members Kama Johnson, Lance Johnson and City Attorney Chuck Haugland.

Mayor Glas called for agenda approval with Councilman David Larsen making the motion to approve the agenda, Councilwoman Audri Carlson seconded the motion with a unanimous vote of quorum of four to approve the agenda.

Mayor Glas called for approval of the minutes of the council meetings held on September 13th and September 26th. Councilman Mark Dykstra moved to approve the minutes as presented with the second coming from Councilman David Larsen with a unanimous approval vote of the quorum of four.

Alcester City-School Librarian Dee Cole welcomed the city council and gallery pointing out the AWE computers purchased for children, mentioning a push for “maker spaces” which is a hands on program, make the library a community center and programming to move the community back into the library.

Public input. Originally I intended to speak on the municipal yield sign placed onto the pole of the railroad cross buck and the matter of the council education on executive session procedure. But as I saw the ‘amended’ agenda, I decided to pre-empt the two items of Total Stop Parking and Farmers Coop Society since I introduced the subject matter in earlier meetings.

Mayor Glas’, I drew your attention and that of the council to the fact that the parking spot under the Cenex sign violated public safety as well as encroached on state right-of-way and city right of way. Right of way being described a 33 feet from the center line of SD Hwy 11. Mayor Glas, you justify your willful violation saying, “that ‘parking spot’ has been there for 30 years…”. That park spot did not appear until after 2000 or 2001 according to a former employee of Cenex. In our after-meeting discussion of your misfeasance when I asked if you had a copy of the encroachment photo (see below) from the DOT, Mayor Peter Larsen did not receive any complaints nor was he aware of the public safety issue until he recently had a close call and he personally contacted you. You received concerns on public safety, one from former Mayor Peter Larsen with two follow ups from me. You ignored our concerns because the issue put you at odds with your employer and apparently you cherry-pick the ordinances you enforce. Mayor Glas, you and the council have been notified of the public safety issue and because you have been notified you have an obligation to correct the deficiency. If you fail to take corrective action, you and the council risk a lawsuit, doubly so if someone is injured or killed because of your misfeasance. When the city globally adopted ordinances, I warned about unintended consequences. Y-all ignored me.

It was reported I said someone stole dirt from the city owned fairground parking area, NO I didn’t. Mayor Glas you opined you could see no damage to which I responded that over the years of Union County sub-leasing to various elevator operators who dumped grain on the ground, failed to clean up it up allowing the grain to rot with subsequent scraping the rotten grain away with top soil, the city owned property was devalued. Imagine how Councilman Lance Johnson would react if he leased his farm land and his renter stored grain on prime ground, allowing it to rot and then scraped away prime top soil. Y’all think ole Lance would take that situation lying down? Mayor you were told the Union County Commissioners needed city approval to sub-lease as Councilman Mark Dykstra was well aware.

Next I explained I had almost been broadsided by a semi tractor trailer coming off east Clark Street. I told the council I filed an incident report on the safety issue. Instead of placing a stop sign for west bound traffic on east Clark, Councilman Mark Dykstra opined that a yield sign would do. The city placed the yield sign on the railroad cross buck, (which I believe is illegal) and obscured by evergreen trees. I handed out placement diagrams for yield signs to the council so they could see the proper placement.

I addressed the council’s habit of frequent executive sessions and the abuse of executive session, handing out statute explaining proper procedure for executive session including what council members can and cannot talk about in closed session.

Approval of warrants dealt with a duplicate bill/warrant for sprinkler parts. Why didn’t the Alcester Finance Officer catch the duplicate invoice? Apparently this particular invoice had already been paid in full but the Finance Officer presented the invoice again without catching the error? Luckily Councilman Larsen caught the mistake or the ‘oversight’ as the finance officer characterizes mistakes.

Finally Finance Officer Jurrens announced Councilwoman Kama Johnson discussed leaving the Alcester City Council due to personal obligations. The Council discussed advertising the Ward I vacancy, a bit premature because Councilwoman Johnson did not tender her resignation to the Council. In response to advertising a possible Ward I vacancy, Alcester Finance Officer Pat Jurrens announced she and Wanda,

“have a list of people we would like for the council position…people we work with on other committees…”

Madame Finance Officer Jurrens, you are not a seventh City Councilmember nor does your list fit into the job description of your duties which deal with financial activities, presentation and implementation of the city budget (on time), advise Mayor and council on fiscal policy, debt financing, sales tax and revenue bonds, communicates city financial and administrative decisions to the public, attend all official meetings of the city council, serving as recording officer and oversee city elections without ballots being voided.

Vickie A. Larsen

 

 In the November 5, 2015, regular Alcester City Council meeting Mayor Tom Glas had a ‘response’ to a complaint I had presented the council in which I used the metaphor of,

“…insulting pat on my head…”.

Mayor Glas responded that I lied saying he gave me a tap on the head, that he did not pat my head. As usual Mayor Glas failed to follow the conversation which was in the mid-western dialect of the English language.

 

Today, September 29, 2016, I discovered, once again Mayor Glas failed to follow the conversation which again was in the mid-western dialect of the English language. I addressed the Alcester City Council on September 13, 2016, during public input, questioning why Alcester City Councilman/Union County Fairboard member Mark Dykstra wanted to allow Farmers Coop Society installment payments of the $5000.00 fine levied against FCS (Farmers Cooper Society) for violating the terms and conditions of Union County’s sub-lease with them by failing to remove FCS (Farmers Coop Society) stored grain in a timely manner, per lease terms and conditions which allowed the grain to spoil on the sub-leased land owned by the city of Alcester. Mayor Glas opined that,

“…he couldn’t see any damage to the (Alcester owned) fairground parking area…”

to which I responded,

“every time grain was stored on the fairground parking area, removed and the spoiled grain dozed up, a considerable layer of soil was removed…”

Further stating that over the years of various elevators dumping grain, top soil was lost, grass was not re-seeded leaving a muddy scar on the area which was fast becoming a slimy mud hole.  Mayor Peter Larsen stepped up and stopped the practice of despoiling Alcester owned ground by insisting the Union County Commissioners get the city’s approval on any sub-leases of Alcester owned ground.  Unfortunately former Mayor Rick Johnson and present Mayor Tom Glas fell down on the job of enforcement of city approval on leases of city owned ground, failed to follow through and allowing the flagrant abuse of city property.

 

Unfortunately and laughably (YES, I did laugh) Alcester Police Chief Doty was dragged into the murky mess when he was informed I accused someone of stealing dirt off the fairground parking area owned by the city of Alcester. OMG!

 

At the risk of being accused of advising Mayor Glas to self-lobotomize, Mayor Glas “clean the beans out-of-your ears!” and be dang sure ya’ll don’t dump them on the fairground parking lot! Be careful though ’cause you cannot afford to lose anymore topsoil, either!

 

Vickie A. Larsen

(Part one)

          Finally, the September Alcester City Council meeting happened after a false start with the scheduled September 7th meeting and explained away as an ‘oversight’. The September 7th meeting was cancelled at the proverbial last minute with some council members being notified the afternoon of the 7th. I went to pick up an agenda on the 7th around 1:00 p.m. and was informed by city office personnel, ” that due to an oversight, the meeting was cancelled and that I would be notified when it was rescheduled…” Scheduled appearances for the September 7th meeting included: Jennifer Fischer, Meagen Fischer, Alcester Ward II Candidate Dan Haeder, Alcester Ward II Candidate Trudy Hedden, Alcester Ward II Candidate Ron Manning, Dennis Jones(Townhouse Apartments) as well as four city council members who all had to reschedule their time commitments to accommodate the ‘oversight’. I was advised of the time and date of the rescheduled meeting and provided with an agenda via email on September 9th. So what did Mayor Glas fail to remember?

Under public input,

            I raised questions on the contract Union County has with the city of Alcester leasing Alcester city land for 99 years for the sum of $1.00 for Union County Fair use. At some point the Union County commissioners began to lease county-owned fair property during the off fair season to fund the fair. The city of Alcester did not give permission nor did the good citizens of Alcester receive any of the moneys derived from these sub-lets. These leases allowed the elevator to dump grain on Alcester property described as ‘fairground parking area.’ The grain was not removed in a timely manner degrading the property, causing significant loss of top soil when the rotten grain was scraped up, peeled back and hauled away leaving a weedy, muddy mess. Mayor Peter Larsen moved to protect this asset by insisting the Union County Commissioners get approval from the city to sub-lease the Alcester land asset around 2011, ruffling feathers of certain agri-businessmen who based upon second-hand gossip accused Mayor Larsen of picking on their Elevator! One of the ruffled roosters? Yup ole Mark Dysktra, who asked to be appointed to Ward III council position to which he admitted in the September 13th city council meeting during my input.

The Union County Commissioners on September 9, 2015, “auctioned off the fairground parking area to Tom Olson, Farmers Coop Society for $1250,” under the terms and conditions of lease specifically but not limited Special Considerations similar to the December 7, 2010, Lease with AGA,

“…should the Lessee’s use of the property cause any damage to or impede the growth of grass growing on the rental property or any other area of the Union County Fairgrounds, then Lessee agrees to re-seed the grass area damaged. The re-seeding will occur at the sole expense of the Lessee including: watering associated with the re-seed and re-growth of the grass area. Re-seeding will be completed with enough time to allow for re-growth prior to the end of the lease term.

Lessee agrees to use the rental property in a reasonable manner for the purpose of Open Storage of Grain on the Ground, and not allow the rental property to be misused and agrees to abandon the rental property upon the conclusion of this Agreement in a condition as good as the property was in upon the beginning of this Agreement with normal wear and tear excepted…”

During the August 10, 2016, Alcester City Council Meeting Councilman Mark Dykstra resigned from the Union County Fairboard stating,

 “…I cannot in good conscience put up with dumping grain on city ground…”

• On August 2, 2016, during the Union County Commission meeting, the commissioners discussed current lease agreements and decided to follow the contract for penalties in the lease agreement as written.
• On August 16, 2016, during the Union County Commission meeting, Ken Ehrp of Farmers Coop Society (elevator) met with the commissioners and following a discussion of the lease and the condition of the fairground property the commissioners voted (3 yea, 1 nay and 1 abstention) to follow the lease agreement to the full extent exacting a $5000 fine.
• On August 30, 2016, during the Union County Commission Meeting, Mayor Tom Glas, Councilman Mark Dykstra and Councilman David Larsen met with the commissioners to discuss the $5000 penalty fine levied against Farmers Coop Society for damaging and not restoring the fairground parking area belonging to the city of Alcester. Councilman Mark Dykstra requested,

“that the county commissioners levy a partial fine now and defer the remainder of the balance until 2017…questioning where the $5000 would be placed as the city of Alcester owns the property…Chairman asked Dykstra if he would be the city council representative on the fairboard as he (Dykstra) resigned from the fair board recently…He (Dykstra) indicated he would be willing”*

(*per unapproved minutes of the August 30, 2016, Union County Commission Meeting published on line under the Union County Website)

So Councilman Dykstra what happened to your conscience? It appears it went to the dark side. First you resign, then you whine about a penalty fine of $5000 levied on Farmers Coop Society (they  cannot afford $5000.00 penalty fine?) and you want to negotiate the fine down to some-sort-of installment plan arguing my question with a non-answer, “the Farmers Coop Society will bring in large property taxes”.

• Yo! Councilman Mark, were you not an author of an incentive for a four to five year moratorium on property taxes for ‘new’ businesses in Alcester?
• How many thousands of dollars of property tax would be generated on a couple of million dollar grain bins over four years?
• During a out-of-meeting-discussion regarding possible annexation a couple of years ago, Councilman Mark you mentioned something about a possible retail storefront with sales tax coming to the city. According to an early Iowa SOS filing Farmers Coop Society only sold to members, however an update breaks sales down to:

2013 business done with or for members                  55%

2013 Business done with or for non members           45%

• Councilman Mark it appears you, “take back your resignation from the fair board”. Apparently your seasons pass to FCS World has been renewed?
• You stated in the newspaper, “if I got 10 or so folks to sign a paper (nomination petition) you would step down from the council”.

So much for your word!

• So Councilman Mark, one could fairly (no pun intended) ask how does your city loyalty score compare to your loyalty score to your VP loan activities?

 

Then Mayor Glass waded into the murky pool!

Mayor Glas commented that,

“we should appreciate the elevator allowed us to use their scales to weigh the tractors for the tractor pull”

and

“…he did not see any damage to the city owned fairgrounds parking area…”

            Keep up Mayor Glas! The City of Alcester did not enter tractors in the tractor pull, it was the Union County Fair Board or an entity within the Union County Fair Board NOT the City of Alcester operating the tractor pull.

You did not see any damage? Mayor Glas I suggest you get a refund on your glasses! You stare at documents passed to you by Finance Office Jurrens as though you were a psychic peering into his crystal ball after having the palms of ten grade school children cupped around the ball and who had been given handfuls of hard candy while they waited to have their futures read! A couple of feet of top soil has been lost to the years of scraping spoiled grain off the land, failure to re-seed the grass, use of city paid water without (?) reimbursement and abysmal failure of the lessee NOT to despoil a City asset!

However, Mayor Glas sure can see Madam Deem’s pesky bricks! Although Madam Deem’s rent is budgeted to go up from $1200 per month per year to $1300 per month per year and Councilman Mark said, “it is about time!”  So what happened to bidding out the Bar?

By the way, I got NO answer to my question!

                                                                                                                                         Vickie Larsen