Resignation commentary

The Story City Herald asked me for some commentary on my resignation from the mayor job. Here is something I put together more as a typed interview. It is not the best written, and maybe a little more conversational. But if you don't get the Herald, it was in there word for word, so just including it here.

I didn't run for the position of mayor last fall, and no one else did either. So the Roland Mayor ballot was to be filled by write-in vote. I asked people not to vote for me either, but it turns out I still ended up with the most votes. If I declined the position, it would go to the 2nd place finisher. I talked to the 2nd place finisher, Dave Donohue, and he didn't want the position either. So the election law states, if the top 2 decline, the city council could appoint someone to the position. So since the council was going to have to appoint someone in any case, I decided to accept the results of the election, and serve as Mayor through the budget process, which is in the first quarter of the year, and then resign. Then the council would be tasked with appointing someone then.

So, we got through the budget process, things have slowed down a bit, and I am ready to resign. Jerry Balmer is my Mayor ProTem (basically what that means is Vice-Mayor), and he will serve as Mayor until a new Mayor is appointed. The council could appoint one of the council members if they want, but it is my understanding that none of them want to be Mayor right now. So I would expect the new Mayor will come from the general public.

While Roland usually has pretty good luck filling its council spots, finding someone to run for Mayor has been problematic over the years. I think part of the problem is that our system of government is that the Mayor is in a weak position when it comes to policy. The Mayor cannot vote on items and cannot even break ties. The only thing a Mayor can do is veto ordinances. The Mayor has no hire/fire power over any city staff.

But the Mayor is an important position. He/She is a representative for Roland on many county boards. It is important for the Mayor to run efficient council meetings so the council can get things accomplished. The Mayor also has to find citizens willing to work on the various boards and commissions for the city. In a small town, that can be a difficult task.

But being the Mayor still has the bully pulpit that comes with the position. Also it can be very rewarding serving as "the CEO" of the city, and seeing good things happen and help facilitate people working together to improve the city.

After 8 years on the City Council and 4.25 as Mayor, I'm ready to take a break. I'm open to the possibility of serving in one of the positions in the future, but I just want to step away for awhile. We have a good city council right now and they are making good choices to help Roland be safe and prosperous for years to come.

If you are interested in being Mayor, contact one of the council members to get on the consideration list. While it is a paid position, it really is more of a position for someone who cares about the city and wants to put in some time helping out. It's not really for someone honked off about one issue. But if you have a vision of how things should be, you have an opportunity to help lead people to how you see Roland in the future.

April 2 Council Meeting

Had everybody there, which is nice. Meeting went relatively quickly too, which also is nice.

In staff reports, we heard that US Cellular is interested in leasing more space on our water tower to support LTE upgrade. The council directed Nathan Hovick to work with US Cellular on the needed lease changes. We will have the street sweeper in town soon to get the curbs cleaned up. A letter went out those that requested a credit on their water/sewer bills for running water when frozen pipes were a concern. 8 citizens have requested so far, with 5 getting a credit. (the other 3 actually had smaller water bills).

We also had a discussion that the industrial park property owned by RADC does not have service level electric or gas in the development. RADC was made aware of that about 2-3 years ago. This is going to be problematic because the school wants to build a bus barn on one of the lots, and RADC may not have the money to put the utilities in.

The final ordinance allowing ATVs to be driven on city streets for the purpose of snow plowing passed. And the 3rd reading of clarifying the responsibility of ownership to the property owner of water service lines passed. The council also approved Denman & Co for being our city auditor for the next 3 years. It costs about $5,000 to conduct that audit, FYI.

The council also approved a library request to use city property behind the library for a small garden plot, as a library patron project. That is the lot across from the car wash that used to have the city water tower on it (for those of you that may have moved here since 2000 or so, when it was torn down.)

Finally, in Mayor comments, I announced my resignation as Mayor. That will be effective at 5PM on April 16. I'll have more on that in a future post.

March 19 City Council meeting

Well, I wasn't there. I had full intention of being there, but got called out to work for my real job, so I missed it. I knew we were going to have 2 council members missing as well, so we still had a quorum with 3 council members there. So CMs Hill, Sargent, and Balmer did the meeting, with CM Balmer the Mayor Pro Tem, so he ran the meeting.

As I do this post, the minutes are not on the city website, but as a reminder, you can always find them HERE.

This was to be my last council meeting. But I did not want to miss a meeting and resign, so gonna hang in there through the next meeting. So barring anything unforeseen, I'll be in the Mayor chair for the April 2 meeting.

Spring Training 5K Fun Run/Walk on Saturday, March 29

The Britson Park Committee will be hosting another 5K Fun/Run Walk on Saturday, March 29 at 9AM, starting at the Roland Middle School. And as in the past, the Roland Kiwanis will be serving a pancake breakfast. Free to entrants, or guests can pay at the door.

We had an absolutely beautiful day last year, and about 200 runners/walkers. It is also a great way to help support the construction of the utility building at Britson Park, and get some exercise. Here is the link to the entry form. Get it in now to ensure a T-Shirt.

County meetings

Part of the mayor gig is being on countywide boards. And just like here in Roland, budgets need to be done, and have public hearings. And just like for Roland, as noted in previous posts, where the public hearing is basically a formality, because the legal publishing requirements mean you have to approve the budget right after the meeting, the same deal applies for county boards.

So tonite, I was part of two meetings to approve budgets. First I went to the justice center, and as mayor of Roland, I am a member of the 911 board. That board has the sheriff, all municipalities, ISU, and some fire districts. Anyway, that budget meeting took 10 minutes, and we were done.

Then went over to the courthouse for the assessors budget approval. That board includes the county supervisors, the mayors, and the school boards in the county. That meeting took a blazing 2.5 minutes.

Again, all the work had been done prior, so the budgets weren't discussed in those short time frames. Just a formal BS thing we need to do, to officially approve the budgets. We barely had quorums in both meetings, but we did, so fortunately we got that stuff knocked out. Those meetings are lightly attended, because there really isn't anything to discuss. So just enough people show up out of the goodness of their hearts to knock these things out. At least I was home eating my roast and potatoes by 7PM.

March 5 Council meeting

Had all council members there, so that is always nice. We opened the meeting with a public hearing on the budget. That is more of a formality, because the budget is set, and to meet our legal requirements, we pretty much had to approve it then. The budget didn't turn out as I thought. And I am going to throw the council under the bus on this one.

The tax levy was raised 2 cents from $10.07 to $10.09. In the grand scheme of things, that is not going to affect property owners that much. On a $150,000 house, that raises your property tax, about $1.50 a year. But I don't have a vote, so I guess it doesn't matter. But here is what I wanted. We budgeted a surplus for the 2014/15 year. And we would have had a surplus had we lowered our levy. And we still would have had a surplus had we made the levy $9.97, which I thought is what was initially agreed to.

Again, for the median house in Roland, we are talking about a $5 a year difference. So I'm not saying this is a huge deal. But, from a marketing standpoint, I think the decision is a giant fail. One, we could tell our constituents that we cut the tax levy. That's always a nice thing to let people keep more of their own money, even if it is just a couple bucks. Number two, it looks better to be under $10. Target doesn't sell stuff for $10.09. But they do for $9.97 or $9.99. Getting under $10, whether you are selling a widget, or having your town compared to others is a good deal. We already have one of the lowest tax rates in the county. That's good. But to tout our town, and when people want to move here, we and realtors and whoever, can say, "Roland's tax levy is under $10.00".

I could have been a dick about it, and not signed the budget, and drug everybody in for more meetings. But I didn't. But I do find the move shortsighted, especially when we would have had a surplus either way. In the end, we are still in good shape, and the council, employees, and boards do a good job for having a lot of perks in Roland for the low tax levy that we have. But from a marketing point of view, I think we could have done better.

In other stuff, we had a report from the president of the Library Board, as to what is going on at the Roland Library, and what they are trying to accomplish going forward. No real earthshaking news from our department heads. We are doing fine for salt and sand and just general snow removal.

We passed the 2nd reading of the ordinance allowing ATVs to be used on streets if they are being used for the purpose of going between snow removal jobs. We passed the first reading of the ordinance clarifying the homeowner's responsibility of the water service line from the main to a home.

Next we had a discussion regarding reimbursement of water/sewer bills for all customers in Roland since we have asked everyone to keep one faucet trickling until spring hits. As a reminder, the City has officially announced and asked everyone in the city to keep one faucet at a small stream flowing to prevent service lines from freezing in this exceptionally cold year. That is a small insurance price to avoid a frozen pipe underground. Anyway, at this meeting, the council agreed to credit up to $20 of extra water/sewer bill, over the last 3 months average, if the reimbursement is requested via writing or email. So for the citizens, if you want reimbursement, #1 you need to ask in writing or email, #2 your bill here in March has to be more than the previous 3 month average, #3, the city will credit up to $20 (so if you bill was only up $10 over average, you will get a $10 credit.) A more public notice that this blog will come later. Watch the city's Facebook page or website for details.

Lastly, we had a brief discussion regarding police protection. We were approached with the idea of forming a McCallsburg/Zearing/Roland police department (much like Ellsworth/Jewell/Stanhope). There is various amounts of discontent with the police protection provided for the amount we are paying. Some discussion may begin as the year goes on, but nothing is really happening with that. To me, the idea has some merit, but I'm not a huge fan of the idea. We have also had a conversation with Story City about having them cover our police protection. Cambridge currently does so with Huxley, in a similar set up. I know Story City just needed to do a tax hike, basically to pay for a 6th police officer. We currently are paying around $65,000 to Story County for our police protection. If we can pay the same amount, and get more hours of coverage, I see this idea as having even more merit. Of course, Story City would have to agree, and obviously a higher workload would be of concern to them. Nothing really happening with this idea now, but it is be bandied about by all parties. So maybe more to come of all that, or maybe nothing to come. Let your council members know if you have a preference for as is, or either of those two options.

Here's your chance

As noted a few months ago after the election, I am going to be stepping down as Mayor around the end of March. So I didn't run, nobody else did, and I decided to hang around for a little bit. But the time is drawing nigh. I've talked to some people about their interest in being mayor, and heard rumors of others.

So here is your chance. I don't have a vote, I'll be gone. But if you want to be mayor, show up at the next meeting. Show some interest in the position. Watch how a meeting rolls. Know what the issues are.

Nobody was there tonite. So March 19 is likely to be my last city council meeting. Somebody could be appointed at the April 2 meeting. Show the council, who will be appointing the next mayor, that you have some interest.

Feb 19 Council meeting

Had everybody at the meeting--eventually, with one late arriver. No Roland citizens in the gallery for this meeting.

The council authorized me to sign the contract with the Sheriff's Dept, for our city's police protection. The council passed the first reading of the ordinance change allowing ATVs to be driven on city streets if being used for snow removal.

We had a discussion and tabled for one meeting, a change in the ordinance putting responsibility of a property owner's water line from the current location of at the shutoff, and instead to the curbstop. This will match many other cities rules, and match our current ordinance regarding of ownership of sewer pipes. It appears the council is in favor of it, but wanted to wait until the end of this year's freeze issues are over. Since it takes 3 readings to approve an ordinance, if we start at the next scheduled council meeting, it will be into late April before the ordinance would go into effect.

Finally Veenstra and Kimm engineers were present to discuss the latest on the sewer project, soil borings, and where the line will go. More details are in my previous post. Everything looks to be a go.

We are having a special council meeting on Monday morning to approve a resolution. We needed to have a resolution to indicate our interest in using the state revolving fund monies. It needs to be approved by March 3, which is before our next council meeting. So we are just having a quickie meeting on Monday morning at 8. That should be a 2 minute meeting. Just an administrative thing we need to do.

Boring!

Not attention span, but horizontal boring for sewer lines and soil borings. I learned all about it at the last council meeting. Our sewer project continues to move forward. We got the report for the soil borings along the route for the new sewer line. Not a geologist, but still minorly interesting. Here is what it typically looks like under our feet, or at least along the proposed route:

0-5 feet, fill. 5-12 feet, Wisconsinan Glacial Till, 13-17 feet Glacial Outwash, and beyond 17 feed, Bedrock. I actually consulted Wikipedia to see that the heck that was. Another boring also had Pre-Illinoian Glacial Till. Reading about it made my head hurt, but still sorta interesting about how the glaciers dropped all this stuff.

So anyway, the engineers need to know what they will encounter while putting in the new sewer line, which will be about 20 feet deep. And actually, we will not need to dig the whole street up. It is going to be horizontal boring. Vermeer in Pella has a machine that can do that kind of work--up to around 300 feet. And the bedrock is a good place to do it, because it is a bit more solid, and not like trying to bore in sand. Apparently that bedrock stuff is the grey flaky stuff. You've probably seen it if you've seen a basement dug.

Anyway, a hole will need to be dug at Cottonwood and Maple, then bore 300 feet, dig another hole, bore another 300 feet and dig another hole. Manholes will be installed where these holes are. So Cottonwood will have to be closed in spots where these holes are. Looking to start this sometime after Memorial Day. So it will just need like 1 block detours, so not much disruption.

I'm really excited about this plan (if you can be excited about a sewer project). It is going to more than double our sewer line capacity to the plant. And most of the east side of town will have a more direct path to the sewer plant, cutting down the chances of backups in the NE side of town, and the Samson neighborhood.

Stats from County Assessor

As a Mayor I am on the Story County Conference Board for the Assessor. As a reminder the Assessor doesn't set the taxes, he just sets the value on all properties in the county. I think he and his department do a pretty good job of setting valuations close to real world, and equal among properties.

Anyway, once a year he sends out the stats of sales in the county, and I find them to be interesting, so passing them along here. As a reminder, all numbers below are for Story County, not counting Ames, which has its own assessor.

Home sales were way up in 2013 402, from 287 in 2012. The big change is in the sub $150,000 range which went up from 143 to 232. There were 24 homes sold in 2013 from the $324,001 to $1,200,000 range.

Average sales price dipped, mainly because of the high number of properties in the sub $150k range. It went from $176,223 in 2012 to $166,332 in 2013.

The number of new homes constructed went up as well. 72 in 2012 to 115 in 2013. We had a few of those in Roland as well, as I would say 2013 has been the biggest building year in Roland in the past 10 years, by my guess.

Here are the sales in the county by quarter 61, 127, 133, 81.

New home sale price was $157.25 in 2013 vs. $158.84 in 2012. Average sale price of all houses was $108.76 in 2013 vs $113.78 in 2012.

HERE is the link to the county assessor webpage where you can search the valuation of any property in the county.

2014-15 Budget

Wanted to chime in a little more on our budget. First off, there is something that annoys me about the municipal budget process in Iowa. At the first meeting in March, we will have our official Public Hearing on the budget that we are required to have. The thing is, we pretty much have to have it nailed down at that meeting. And even if the citizens all show up with pitch forks protesting it, we have to approve it then, based on the publication rules.

So if you want your say (as the public), you need to do it at the prep meetings in January and February. So the budget is pretty much put together, we just need to dot some more "i"s and so on at the next meeting on the 19th.

As mentioned in a previous post, this was an easy budget session. With our projected revenue, we really didn't need to do any large whacking to get the budget to balance. All of our boards and departments that gave us numbers, gave us reasonable requests. So at the first go-around, we were already at a surplus.

Some of the things that we budgeted was for a 3% raise for city employees. Doesn't mean we give them that, but that is what we budgeted. We were able to fund many street projects, for asphalt upgrades that have been on the planning board. The Park Board is going to get some more money for capital upgrades, and the Pool Board will be able to take care of fixing up the tennis court a bit, as well as some expansion in the south deck area. Some stuff we have to pay the bill for what it is--like police protection. We also continued to put money aside in a capital fund for the fire department for a future fire truck. Another set aside is $50,000 towards our new city hall. This is the 3rd year we have set aside money for that project. I'm hoping we can get that knocked out in the 14-15 fiscal year. We are not on the fast track, as we are trying to get some grants, and that takes time.

There are 3 sections of the budget, where we run like a business. That is for water, sewer, and garbage. No tax money goes for those (right now). I say right now, because if we borrow for water or sewer upgrades, and choose to put the cost to property taxes, instead of user fees, then of course there is tax money to them. But anyway, typically the cost to run those departments comes strictly from user fees. And garbage is simply in/out. Everyone pays the city for garbage, and we contract it out to Stone Sanitation and pay them.

So we will have around a $1.4 million budget, and around $600,000 of it is from business operations. On other in/out money, we get around $125,000 on gas tax money from the state that has to go to road maintenance/construction.

So anyway, after all of that, it looks like we are going to be able to lower our tax levy this year. As a property owner in town, lower levies are a good thing. Not a lot, but we probably be able to get to a $9.97 per assessed thousand from the current year's $10.07. Again, don't forget, the city only takes about 1/3 of your property tax dollars, the school takes about half, and also assesses the income tax surcharge as well.

So anyway, even in our small town, we still will fund nice parks, library, pool, have reasonably decent roads, and still be able to lower our tax levy, and have about the 3rd or 4th lowest tax levy of the 14 communities in Story County. A lot of people have a hand in that, and that news is something I like to tout.

Are you ready to run, or at least walk?

The Britson Park Spring Training 5k Run/Walk is approaching. It will be on Saturday, March 29. It is a fundraiser for construction of the concession stand/restroom/storage building at Britson Park. We've had 3 or 4 different 5Ks before, and they have been a success for money raising, and for fun. The last one had around 200 entrants I think. You also get a breakfast courtesy of the Roland Kiwanis if you sign up.

HERE is the entry form.

February 5 council meeting

Had everybody there for the meeting, which was nice, since we were going thru the budget. Ended up being about a 2 hour meeting.

Nothing much new in the department heads reports. Does sound like a few parking tickets were issued for violators of the snow ordinance.

Two members of the Park Board were in attendance to discuss a proposal to lease the North Softball Diamond in Erickson Park to the school district. I was approached about this awhile back and I think it is a good idea. Here's the deal. The softball program would like to drop some more money for improvements on the varsity/north softball field. But the improvements are more money than the city has available to spend on that project. The school potentially is willing to do so, but they would like to limit access to the field if they are going to spend that kind of money.

That makes sense to me. Occasionally kids go riding bikes on the muddy fields and such. Or people practice on the field, but don't rake out the holes, which lead to a deteriorating surface.

So, since the city is unable to spend the money to really upgrade the field, and the school is able to, they should be able to have some control on the usage of the field. So I think the city wins, but cutting down on the money we spend on the field, which is primarily used by the school. But a varsity sport, with a great tradition, gets to remain in Roland. The school benefits by gaining greater control over a field that they need to conduct game operations.

So anyway, reps from the school met with the Park Board and went over the proposal a couple weeks ago. The Park Board recommended the plan, and passed it on to the city council. And at this meeting tonite, the city council agreed with the concept. So where it is now, is to let the school know that the Roland Park Board and City Council are good with the idea. I presume it will need to go to the school board as well.

As an aside, it will be a similar arrangement as the high school baseball field. That actually is city owned property in Story City. The school leases it for like a $1 a year or something like that. But the baseball program maintains the field and has fences around it to lock it up and prevent usage by the casual user.

Here's what won't happen in Roland tho. The controlled area will only be the north field. The city will retain ownership and maintenance of the concession stand/storage/restroom building as well as the south field. Friends and Service will continue to run concessions as they see fit. Youth softball can continue to use the south field, and the fields at Britson Park (and as an aside, the construction of Britson Park made this possible. Previously, youth softball really needed the north field due to field shortages, now that is not as much of an issue). Youth softball could still use the north field for tournaments and such, if arranged through the HS softball program.

While up to the school, it is my understanding what they would like to do is install new bleachers, install taller fences, add dirt to the infield, and level and improve the outfield and the grass. So anyway, not a done deal yet, but moving in that direction.

Next up for the council to discuss was an ordinance regarding ATVs and snow removal. The council reviewed a similar ordinance from Ely, Iowa. The council generally liked the idea, and directed the City Clerk to draft an ordinance regarding ATVs that permitted their use on city streets when working on snow removal duties, with an attached implement, with a orange flag mounted to the ATV much like mopeds, and that the ATV would require a license from the City of Roland.

The council next discussed a Facade Grant Program that was available thru the county. It would involve funds matched from the property owner, the city, and the county grant program. The council was not aware of any potential businesses, and mentioned that the RADC made some work on this in years past. But if a business owner was interested, they should contact City Hall for potential consideration.

Lastly was the budget discussion. This was an easy budget to review. Even before any changes, we were showing more revenue than proposed expenditures. Lots of times we have to doing some hacking to get a balanced budget. But thanks to the efforts of our department heads and our boards, and the reasonable proposals they put forth, it made it easy for the council. It looks like we will be able to keep our property tax levy the same as last year, or maybe a smidge less. So the council and I went thru all the budget lines and pondered any changes. Some departments/boards had slight proposed changes up or down. We had representation from the Park and Pool Boards to discuss their proposals. That was nice, it is always good talking to them about their plans and what capital improvements they have in mind.

So here's what's next. The council came to a consensus with all the various line items in the budget document. Our City Clerk will tighten it up with the various small tweaks we came with. At the next council meeting, we will give approval to the final numbers and vote to have our official budget hearing on March 5. And then on March 5 the 2014-2015 budget will be official.

I'll have some more commentary on the budget in a later post. But the highlights are that we have a budgeted surplus, and we will be able to maintain or slightly reduce our tax levy rate. (which is already one of the lowest in the county).

January 15 council meeting

Had everybody there but CM Ford. Also joined by new Council Member Andy Webb for his first meeting. He didn't run away crying, so apparently it went ok.

We had a lot of "paperwork" stuff to do. Part of that was based on our city audit, and recommendations on various stuff. To me, most of it was trivial "whatever" stuff. Other stuff is formalized stuff we have to do. So here are the things that went quickly with no discussion of note. Appointed the city clerk, city attorney, designated our city newspapers, designate the time and place of council meetings, appoint the fire chief (Jeff Larson), appoint the Mayor Pro Tem (Jerry Balmer), clarify that petty cash has $75 in it, add and remove people from signing privileges on the city checking account, and a partridge in a pear tree. The new signatures, and dropping off are for employees and council members that have been added, and employees and council members that have resigned.

We also approved a lien for collection of nuisance abatement (mowing).

A tad longer discussion surrounded 4 wheelers and cleaning snow off sidewalks with them. The sheriff's department wanted clarification if tickets should be issued for 4 wheelers on city streets, which is currently against the law. But a few snow removal companies use 4 wheelers with blades to clean sidewalks. The general consensus was the intent of the law is to avoid the potential nuisance of 4 wheelers on city streets in normal situations. So the clerk was directed to research other ordinances that allow 4 wheelers with blades to use city streets going to and from snow removal operations. That will be on the agenda to discussion Feb 5.

On another note, the council approved another annual membership in the Story City Chamber. The council thought, since we lacked a chamber of commerce in Roland, participating in the city with our greatest local ties would be good. We were a member in 2013 and the SC GCC has publicized events in Roland that we have sent in, via their emails, so that does get a wider audience. If you have any events in Roland, get them to me, I'll get them on the city Facebook page, and pass them on for other publicizing.

No posts in January

So it wasn't a New Year's resolution to not write any posts, but January went by without me writing any. Part of the deal is only one council meeting. And there is not much else going on in the winter, so not much to write about. I still could have done one on the last council meeting, so you will have a post here shortly.

A lot of basketball for me, so doing this moves down on the pecking order. Maybe I will get back in the zone here shortly. We will be starting budget stuff tomorrow night, so that brings up a lot more interesting stuff. Ok 2014, bring it.