CITY OF JEFFERSON

Council Worksession & Public Hearing

March 12, 2015

6:30pm

COUNCILORS PRESENT: Mayor Pickett, Walt Perry, Judi Day, Michael Myers, Patrick McKenzie

COUNCILORS ABSENT: Dave Beyerl, Dave Jones

STAFF PRESENT: Sarah Cook, City Recorder

I.  COUNCIL MEETING CALL TO ORDER/FLAG SALUTE – Mayor Pickett called the meeting to order at 6:30pm and led in the flag salute.

II.  VISITORS

2.1  ServeINC Presentation & Project Proposal from Shelly Henderson

Shelly Henderson explained the name of the organization, with the INC standing for “in the name of Christ”, as well as their purpose and past community projects. The group was made up from local faith based communities, where over 200 people came together to do projects that benefit the community. For the last 4 years their projects were all geared toward the schools in Jefferson and consisted of painting and landscaping. They always looked for a painting and landscaping job and this year decided they would be painting the inside of the bays for the Fire Department and the outside of the Community Center. For the landscaping portion of their project, she requested permission from the City Council to focus their attention on the Conser House. She explained it was a one day event where some 200 people would come together with all the supplies and materials they needed, wearing matching shirts and carrying their own insurance, and providing their own lunch. The date for the project would be Saturday, July 11th and she requested a point of contact to discuss details as the project got closer. Council nominated Dave Beyerl and staff would get them in contact with each other to make necessary plans.

III.  WORKSESSION TOPICS

A.  Public Hearing – Ordinance #685, Establishing a Temporary Moratorium on Medical Marijuana Facilities in the City of Jefferson

Mayor Pickett opened the public hearing at 6:43pm and provided background & summary information as well as read the staff memo aloud. There was no written or public testimony received.

Council Comments: Mayor Pickett commented when several of them were at City Capital Day, they were working really hard on trying to dial in on how they were going to implement the commercial marijuana, noting they did not have a good handle on it yet. Councilor Myers confirmed the purpose of the additional time was to put regulations in place. With no further questions or comments, the hearing closed at 6:50pm.

Moving on to the adoption process, Mayor Pickett read the rules and regulations to adopt an ordinance. There were no abstentions. Mayor Pickett read Ordinance #685 by title only for the first reading. Walt Perry moved that Ordinance #685 be adopted and passed to the second reading by title only. Councilor Myers seconded. All in favor: Ayes 4, Opposed – 0. APPROVED.

Mayor Pickett moved forward with the second reading of Ordinance #685 by title only. Councilor Perry moved that the Ordinance #685 pass, and that the title of the Ordinance become the Ordinance. Michael Myers seconded. All in favor, roll call Vote: Walt Perry - yes, Mike Myers - yes, Patrick McKenzie - yes, Judi Day - yes. APPROVED.

B.  Declare Engineer of Record

Mayor Pickett read the memo provided in the packets and outlined the scores of the two applications received. Councilor McKenzie moved to declare Westech as the engineer of record for the City of Jefferson. Councilor Perry seconded. All in favor: Ayes – 4, Opposed – 0. APPROVED.

IV.  Approval of Accts Payable – Councilor Myers moved to approve as presented. Walt Perry seconded. All in favor: Ayes – 4, Opposed – 0. APPROVED.

V.  COUNCIL COMMENTS

Walt Perry provided an update on the ACT meeting he attended where many things were discussed, including bike lanes, bike parks and bike trails, as well as where the funding would come from to support them. He noted an upcoming meeting with several of the key players to discuss the possibility of incorporating Jefferson into their plans to connect the two cities on either side.

Councilor Myers noted that with all the changes in marijuana laws, he wanted to verify that the City’s policy was to remain a drug free workplace and that it said as such in the personnel policy. Staff would verify. Moving on, he asked about the lawn care of the city. There was open discussion amongst staff and the Council on the expectation of Marion County work crew, the hiring of a public works Utility Maintenance Worker, and recent bids that were obtained for professional care, which was quite costly. Councilor McKenzie, on a similar note, questioned why the 4th person had not been hired for the public works department and felt a committee needed to be formed to create a succession plan to prepare for the Director of Pubic Works’ retirement. Councilor Perry thought a liaison was sufficient, rather than a committee, to which Councilor McKenzie disagreed, and further explained the purpose of the committee, which would be to work directly with Steve Human on specific plans to get things moving in a forward motion, such as plans for his retirement, hiring 4th person, certifying existing employees, etc. He explained his reasoning for a committee was because there were several topics that needed to be addressed and more people had different opinions and heard different things and had different ideas than just having one individual talk to Mr. Human. He understood change was going to be difficult, and he wanted to help make the transition as smooth as possible. Patrick McKenzie recommended Councilor Myers be on the committee because of his history and knowledge of the public works dept and staff. Mayor Pickett suggested Councilor Perry be the second person and noted his authority as Mayor to appoint Councilors to committees; therefore, he appointed Walt Perry and Michael Myers to a Public Works Committee, with Patrick McKenzie as backup. Councilor McKenzie moved to approve Mayor Pickett’s establishment of a Public Works Committee and the appointments of Mike Myers and Walt Perry. Councilor Perry seconded. All in favor: Ayes - 4, Opposed - 0. APPROVED.

Councilor McKenzie announced the Mint Festival was back! It would be a one-day event, on July 18th, at the Middle School. Festivities would include a car show, parade, frog jump, swimming pool, horse shoes and vendors. The Mint Festival committee was scheduled to meet the following Tuesday at 6:30pm.

Mayor Pickett showed everybody the new City of Jefferson magnets for the Director of Public Works vehicle, noting the other two trucks had the logo painted on. Councilor Perry added that they were working on their orange shirts and hoodies as well.

VI.  ADJOURNMENT - Councilor Myers moved to adjourn. Patrick McKenzie seconded. All were in favor and the meeting closed at 7:25pm.

MINUTES APPROVED this 23rd day of April, 2015.

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Ben Pickett, Mayor

ATTEST:

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Sarah Cook, City Recorder

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