08/16/2016 A Voice From the Gallery

The August 10, 2016, Alcester city council meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Mayor Tom Glas with council members Lance Johnson, Audri Carlson, Kama Johnson, Mark Dykstra and David Larsen present. Conspicuously absent was councilman Mike Burke. Anybody keeping track?

During public input I asked the question why does Alcester not have a city website, why is Mayor Glas so intent on spending some $10K on cosmetics for the south bar wall which faces the alley and why does Mayor Glas’ obdurately persist in parking on state right-of-way impeding clear vision for drivers turning off First street onto South Dakota Highway 11? No answer.        .

Union County Attorney Jerry Miller contacted the city about the annexation resolution of FCS Lot D relating to the mapping/platting. Mr. Haugland informed the council an affidavit was sent to the Union County Register of Deeds attaching a map to the certified Resolution of April 2016 and should be recorded on August 11, 2016.

Upon a complaint from Councilman Lance Johnson about fireworks clean-up, an ordinance update was discussed. City Attorney Haugland felt the existing ordinances against littering in a public place was sufficient without enacting a superfluous ordinance.

City Attorney Chuck Haugland was dismissed at 7:36 p.m. by Mayor Glas. Evidently Mayor Glas didn’t feel the need for legal oversight. Imagine that!

The Alcester Bar ‘wailing’ wall came up, once again. Several bids came in with one at $8400.00 and two at $10K+. Discussion took place repeating the brick in question were just cosmetic facing brick and were not structural. Mayor Glas  commented on the 2007 insurance audit, the structural engineer, a 100K+ price which (according to Mayor Glas) was why the city didn’t fix the wall and that $10K+ was a bargain (Mayor Glas’ words). Gotta wonder what Glas was smokin’ because the engineer found the brick were cosmetic, his report was submitted to the city’s insurance company, the insurance company accepted the report and insured the building with no further action needed by the council. It was mentioned Jesse Duncan had been consulted and he affirmed the brick were cosmetic. Once more the brick wall was tabled. Dang—the ‘Wall’ is started to weigh heavy on that there ole table. Mayor Glas sure does want to waste tax dollars on an alley view!

Ward II needs  a councilman and the council is entertaining volunteers. Mike Burke decided that being a councilman was not working with his job schedule.

Councilman Mark Dykstra resigned from the Union County Fairboard and according to Councilman Dykstra, “he just could not in good conscience put up with dumping grain on city ground”. He finally ‘got it’ that Mayor Pete Larsen was acting responsibly by forcing the Union County Commissioners to get city permission to sublet the city ground and bar any grain dumping on city property. After Mayor Larsen’s visit with the commissioners, they did run the city ‘fairground’ land sub-leases past the city council. But alas when Mayor Rick Johnson and Mayor Tom Glas took office it appears the commissioners no longer felt the need to get Alcester city approval anymore and with no one to hold their collective feet to the fire the commissioners got away without city approval.

Gotta wonder about good ole Beck Drive. It seems the first interest payment is due sometime in the near future and it doesn’t appear any lots have been sold to make the payment. So how much of the HRC fund is remaining to cover regular wear and tear maintenance of the four-plex AND Beck Drive construction cost. Whose hobby-horse was Beck Drive?—Mayor Glas and Councilwoman/finance officer Pat Jurrens and where is Councilman Mark Dykstra in all this. He certainly should have had some input given he sits in the ‘council seat’, he works with loan figures and just who is holding the bank bag if Beck Drive/HRC loan goes south?

Vickie A. Larsen

 

 

 

Mayor Tom Glas called the July 6, 2016, Alcester City council meeting to order at 7:00 pm with Councilwoman Audri Carlson, Councilwoman Kama Johnson and Councilmen David Larsen and  Councilman Mark Dykstra present. Absent were Councilmen Lance Johnson (according to comments he’s baling hay?) and Councilman Mike Burke (according to council comments he should have been off work by 7:00 pm in response to the information, ‘he had to work’)?

The agenda was approved as printed and the minutes for council meetings of June 1, 2016, special meeting and June 6, 2016, regular meeting were approved as presented.

 

NOTE: November 5, 2015, Mayor Tom Glas phizzed and moaned about my formal complaint on Theresa Deem and her violations of code costing the city over $1K.

The June 1, 2016, meeting was to interview police applicants. Really? Mayor Glas allegedly           appointed committees for 2016-2017. Glas appointed Councilwoman Kama Johnson as Chair of the Public Safety Committee with Councilmen Lance Johnson and Mike Burke as committee members. So these three councilpersons could meet with Chief Doty at their convenience to review officer applicants without the cost of a special full council meeting just five days before  a regularly scheduled council meeting. Folks do you care how Mayor Glas is spending your tax dollar? Do you care Councilman Lance Johnson and Mike Burke could not find the time to be present for the June 1, 2016 meeting just after being seated for new terms? Councilman Mike Burke just made the last 28 minutes of the June 6, 2016, meeting? What part of their sworn oath of office don’t they get?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Alcester Union-Hudsonite, June 16,2016, page 9)

Next item up was public input. Alcester Bar was on the agenda again! I presented a document from the 2007 insurance audit which recommended a structural engineer be contacted for inspection and review of the south wall of the Bar building. A structural engineer from Sioux Falls was contacted at the time, the wall was inspected and drilled at several points and concluded the brick were just a façade not structural. The engineer provided a written report to the city which was placed on file and forwarded to the city’s insurance provider. Members of the 2007-2008 Liquor store committee were chair-Tom Kribel and members Jesse Duncan and Pete Larsen. So the only thing at issue is to remove the ‘bricks’. The brick wall faces an alley, so why on earth does the Mayor want to spend $10-$15K unbudgeted tax dollars on cosmetics for the back side of a building that is only worth $25K-$35K at best? Really? Here Glas was phizzing and moaning about my legitimate complaint putting him on notice which he ignored, now he is Hades-bent polishing the back-end of a donkey to make the back wall of the bar look ‘purdy’ for the alley night crawlers. Really?

           Alcester City employee and water systems specialist Dale Pearson received recognitions and award for excellence in his duties but I do not see a photo of Mayor Glas handing Mr. Pearson his award.   I see Mayor Glas and office staff featured front and center in newspaper photos, so where are the photos of our city street, water and wastewater employees when they received awards, where is their public recognition.  I do not mean the behind council doors atta-boys with the Mayor shoving an unframed paper certificate at them, but a full photo-op in the newspaper showing the job well done and the city  appreciates you and your accomplishments!

             202 Broad Street raised its head again. According to a previous statement Mayor Glas must still have wish (?) list plans for a new city offices encased in a Morton style steel building plunked down in a residential neighborhood. One interesting comment made by Mayor Glas was when he referenced the Councilwomen as ‘the girls’. At least I presume he was referencing the councilwomen as ‘the girls’ and not some anatomy part.

            Ward Boundaries have “officially’ and finally been dealt with so the map matches the 2014 Alcester Municipal Ordinances. When one is charged with reviewing a legal document, reasonable care must be taken to prevent the doctrine of unintended consequences from kicking in. In other words, one must anticipate all consequences of semantics and phrasing so one does not castrate the dog when one means to offer it up to stud!

Still no update from Councilman Dykstra on his little chat with the Union County Fair Board and the Union County commissioners about the city land leased to Union County and on which the Union County Commissioners sub-lease to elevator operators/owners to dump corn and soybeans on  and allowing the grain to rot.  Fair time is getting close, Mr. Dykstra and it doesn’t look good for the fairgrounds!  It seems to me, that was a reason Mark Dykstra wanted on the council so he could protect his agri-buddies from mean-ole Mayor Larsen who was trying to protect an Alcester City asset.  Say Councilman Dykstra you mentioned in your March 31, 2016, statement in the Alcester Union-Hudsonite,

“I have work yet to do.  I came on with an agenda and I am not finished doing it. “

Mark Dykstra

Yo Mr. Dykstra, what exactly is the work you have yet to do?   What exactly was the rest of your agenda, I mean besides prop up Madam Woolworth? Economics Czar you are Councilman Dysktra, I have trouble with your apparent economic agenda of continuing to prop up a money pit with no redeeming value throwing good tax dollars after bad.  Why do you refuse to cut losses and sell the building.  Explain what sound business and commercial economic doctrine supports that part of your agenda, Mr. Dykstra?

One last item of interest. Mayor Glas and members of the council are taking another field trip to visit community buildings. Seems to me these trips AFTER architects have presented ideas and costs are silly and wasteful. How much money, time and effort has the new community building committee spent without reviewing and understanding the findings of the old community building committee. Seems like a re-run of “Ground-Hog Day“! By the way, has the VFW and Legion been consulted for their ideas on this remodel delusion?

Vickie A. Larsen

 

 

 

There is a tired old saw quoted by Mayor Tom Glas last night during the council meeting,

“if you cannot say something good about somebody, then don’t say anything at all.”

Well folks, we have signs on the road warning of danger, we have signs on medicine vials warning of danger, we have signs on electrical devices warning of danger and we have signs on water warning of danger, so we most assuredly, absolutely need to be warned of those two-legged millstones whose mediocre job performance grinds taxpayer wallets to a fine powder which fluffs and stuffs their own consequence.

Mayor Tom Glas opened the Alcester City Council meeting at 6:00 pm with four council members present. Absent were council members Mike Burke and Kama Johnson. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Note: Mayor Glas is responsible for setting the agenda.

Council member Lance Johnson moved the June 6, 2016, meeting agenda be approved as printed, a second from councilwoman Audri Carlson and discussion concerning the Ward Map Update began. In the May 2, 2016, meeting Councilman David Larsen moved to update the Alcester Ward Boundary Map to agree with the 2014 Revised Alcester Municipal Ordinances with a second from Councilman Lance Johnson. Alcester City Attorney Chuck Haugland began the discussion by indicating the need for a resolution to update the Ward Boundary Map to agree with the 2014 Revised Alcester Municipal Ordinances. Acting on this advice, the council agreed unanimously (Dykstra, Larsen, L. Johnson, K. Johnson and Carlson) to table the question until the next regular meeting to allow the city attorney time to draft the resolution document. This tabled old business did not appear on the June 6, 2016, agenda nor was it discussed in the motion to accept the June 6, 2016, agenda. The motion to accept the June 6, 2016, agenda initiated by Councilman Lance Johnson and seconded by Councilwoman Audri Carlson made no mention of the exclusion of the agenda item of the updated ward boundary map until discussion began. I do believe the amendment motion which is a secondary motion must be dealt with 1) a motion to amend, 2) a second, 3) discussion on the amendment and 4) a majority vote on the amendment and then the amended primary motion is made, seconded, discussed and voted on. This did not happen on the motion to approve the June 6, 2016, agenda. Also missing from the June 6, 2016, agenda was a report on the discussion with FCS and Union County disposition of the May 2, 2016, agenda item involving the Fairgrounds property cleanup and grass re-seed of this City of Alcester asset. Mayor Glas?

Technically there is no approved agenda and a tabled resolution is missing from the proposed June 6, 2016, agenda.

The next bootleg agenda item is the Approval of the minutes of the May 2, 2016, city council meeting. Councilman David Larsen moved to approve the minutes with a second coming from Councilman Mark Dykstra. On discussion, an error was discovered in the May 2, 2016, minutes that involved the reporting of $16.00 per hour wage for Landon Nygaard instead of the $16,000 salary for his position at the Alcester Golf Course. Once again there was no secondary motion to amend, second, discussion and vote to amend the record and then the primary motion. In addition, there was no correction to the published record which inaccurately reported the postponement of the Ward Boundary Map Resolution to the next regular Alcester city council meeting. It is important to note apparently the council had not received packet of information prior to the council meeting. At 5:40 PM when I sat down in the gallery, I watched the collating of pages for the council to ‘peruse’ before they voted on those issues.

Next bootleg agenda item was Alcester Fire Chief Pat Kast advising Mayor Glas and the Council of dispatch problems sending Alcester Fire and Ambulance crews to wrong locations. Fire Chief Kast frustrated with the lack of response from Union county in curing this defect asked for assistance. I called point of information to share my experience of bringing 911 addressing errors to the county’s attention early on the 911 addressing process. Mayor Glas got smarmy about the information I shared culminating in a sharp discussion of Robert’s Rules of Order and my receipt once again of the proverbial, “pat on the head and rap on the knuckles” ideology.

Loren Fischer was present to discuss providing 95 gallon garbage containers at a cost of $1.25 per month to each resident in Alcester. In retrospect it ‘appears’ Mr. Fischer was there in response to a request from the city administration? Wanda Halverson offered up an opinion and amazingly Mayor Glas had no problem with her interaction. It was suggested the question be opened to those residents present seeking their opinions on the issue. Opinions received dealt with storing the larger size container, smaller households do not generate that much garbage per week and pick-up procedure. Mr. Fischer expressed a down-the-road plan to use automated pick up to collect the 95 gallon containers but it would require two passes on each street. Then a suggestion was made, residents could tote those ol’ 95 gallon containers to one side of the street. Folks, I would not tolerate having 95 gallon containers lined up on my property like a legion of 95 gallon garbage troops. Glory! The weed picking, grass measuring property maintenance dictators apparently are OK with picket lines of 95 gallon plastic garbage containers.

 

 

 

Bootleg agenda item Knutson Masonry Bid on the south ‘wall’ of what-else? the Alcester Bar. Mayor Glas’ ‘opinion’ go for option #1 which is parging south wall of liquor store and replacing loose and bad brick. Minimum of 1 control joint to be cut in to prevent cracking in the future and WOW colored mud of owner’s choice.

According to past insurance-prompted engineering opinion, these are facing brick on a concrete block wall and not structural. Since this is an exterior wall tucked away in an alley, aesthetics is not worth the $10K+ price tag. Parging is a process best compared to trying to cover age wrinkles with a highly expensive and largely ineffective cream. Comforting to the eye only. Parging is multiple applications of mortar or sand mix depending on function by trowel, but over large areas such as the south exterior bar wall even coats cannot be achieved without attaching sheets of galvanized mesh to the wall to help hold the mortar in place. (www.ehow.com/way_5900975_way-parge-brick-walls_.html) Since there was only one bid, the council is going to secure a second bid. Let Mayor Glas and the Council know how you feel about this. Best remedy, sell the bar, get it back on the tax rolls, get the brick monkey off the taxpayers backs and stop throwing good tax dollars after bad. Oh by-the-bye, this $10K plus is NOT in the budget!  Councilman Mike Burke presented himself at 7:34 pm for council duty.

Oh yes one last item on the agenda worth mentioning. Mayor Glas’ comments! Glory, venting of his spleen no less! Seems I touched a nerve. Ranting on about falsehoods and half-truths, really? I was right about the Ward Boundary Map and pointed this error out not once but twice to the council and proved it. Mayor Glas got caught with his Union suit unbuttoned with the flap down around his ankles.

Folks when liberties are taken with procedure, not only can the city be legally exposed, each and every action can be referred and council members can be held accountable jointly and severally if the error was previously identified and they ignored it.