The City of Atalissa’s struggle to find police protection and now a city clerk has been the topic of the past two meetings of the council, holding a special work session on Monday, Sept. 6, before their regular September meeting on Monday. Sept. 13, both at Atalissa City Hall.
Atalissa has been struggling for months to replace local police protection following the resignation of Chief Matt Shook. Shook had replaced Matt Bowers, who had been in the position for several years. After there were no applications for the position, the city looked into creating a 28E agreement with the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Department and new Sheriff Quinn Reese turning down the proposal. The council later looked into utilizing police forces in Wilton or West Liberty to fill the 24-hours-a-week of protection desired.
The latest update is that West Liberty may have interest in filling the city’s needs, but is working out details with attorneys and new Chief Eric Werling to provide more hours for his six officers. Werling said Wednesday he knew nothing about the proposal. Interim city clerk Shari Hoffert estimated it could cost the city as much as $25-26 an hour or more for such services, pointing out they were paying the previous chief $21 per hour.
Council members said they didn’t feel patrolling Route 6 traffic through the community was important, noting they’d rather control traffic more on Oak Street and Atalissa Road and felt it was important to be in the community in the afternoons when school students are coming off buses. They also emphasized getting involved in community events like the Halloween Trunk or Treat, Atalissa Days and Shop with a Cop.
Mayor Bob Schmidt liked the idea of working with West Liberty. “I’d be willing to work with them if they’d be willing to work with us,” he said.
City clerk job open
The city is now again struggling with the dismissal of city clerk Samantha Perry, who also left her position earlier this year, having it replaced with interim city clerk Shari Hoffert, an assistant clerk from West Liberty, working alongside West Liberty City Clerk Lee Geertz, who volunteered her time to help out the city in the early going. But on Monday, Hoffert said that would be her last meeting.
After the city again advertised for the position, city council members tried to hire a new city clerk at a special Sept. 6 meeting, including motions to appoint Perry as the clerk, but a second to the motion didn’t take place at the meeting. The council then made a motion to appoint Brandy Vidmar as the clerk, but it died for the lack of a second to the motion as well.
Those motions were followed by a third motion to move forward with a 28E agreement with the city of West Liberty concerning the position, but a tied 2-2 vote on the motion ending in the issue being tabled until the next meeting when all five city council members would be present. Tim DeVore was absent for that first meeting.
The decisions came following two closed sessions of the council, the first to “evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable harm to that individual’s reputation,” requesting a closed session.
The second session was set to “discuss strategy with council on matters that are presently in litigation or where litigation is imminent where the disclosure would likely prejudice or disadvantage the position of the governmental body in their ligitation.”
Hoffert said residents may have communication problems with the city because of the lack of a clerk, noting there is no one who will be able to respond to e-mails or phone calls regarding any concerns after the Sept. 13 meeting.
Council member Randy Windus complimented the interim clerk for stepping into the position “at a very difficult time. She did a fantastic job for us,” he said. Hoffert did not give reasons for her exit.
City officials talked about moving forward with a proposal to create a 28E agreement with the City of West Liberty regarding clerking services, but council members turned the tables, council member Evan Smock saying the issue has been “drug out long enough,” other council members agreeing and requesting a reposting of the position and denying the 28E proposal with West Liberty.
Hoffert said the city does have temporary options of getting the clerking work done through neighboring communities and mostly through Lee Geertz, who was also appointed to an interim position with the city, although volunteering her time. The city could also make a plea with the county for services. Hoffert said the city needed to come up with a proposal as to how many hours it would take to complete duties.
Mayor resigning?
The city also discussed, and eventually approved, the signing of paperwork with the Illinois Public Information Board regarding litigation in establishing a resolution to obtain public records by resident Karen Fedderson concerning city personnel and issues.
“What exactly does this mean?” questioned council member Dawn Huggins, finding out requests for public records from the city were not returned in the proper amount of time. Due to the fact the interim city clerk was on a short leave of absence due to health issues, not all of the records requested were returned to Fedderson, although she said some of those requests were handled by Geertz.
Mayor Bob Schmidt made a surprising plea deal with Fedderson at the meeting, noting he would “not rerun for mayor” if she dropped the requests for public records. Fedderson, surprised by the comment, did not respond one way or the other. The mayor reemphasized his statement later in the discussion, Fedderson responding with, “Perfect.”
Council member Tim Dewar said proper steps by the city “haven’t been followed for years,” in arguing the point.
Fedderson claims the Iowa Code was not followed by the city when they hired the former police chief Matt Shook, noting he was not qualified to take the position.
“I’m tired of this shady stuff,” Fedderson said after the meeting, noting the city passed a policy that didn’t follow Iowa code in May and she is simply watching out for her fellow citizens in the community.
City buys high-tech meters
At that first meeting, the city did decide to move forward with a proposal to use federal stimulus ‘Rescue America’ funding to update water meters in the city to high-tech models to be used through cellular towers.
As proposed by city water superintendent Matt Goodale, the meters, which are made in Boulder Colorado by MetronFarnier Smart Water Meters & Systems, would be installed at every property in the city. The total cost for the entire community to get new meters would be $43,276, a little more than the cost of the federal stimulus funding of $42,721, to be used by December 2024, considering switching over approximately 134 meters.
Goodale wanted to install 25 meters at a cost of $375 each and total cost of $11,895 to include top load measuring systems, as an “experiment” for the city to make sure the system will work.
City officials said the new meters would eliminate a lot of guesswork and hours put in reading meters by city personnel. The system would also flag the city if a property was using an excessive amount of water, catching leaks and flaws in private home and business water systems.
The city handled a pair of overuse instances for Tracy Madsen, a resident on Lynn Street, pointing out he was billed for 20,000 gallons of water last month after using only 1,300 gallons the previous month. The city said he would not be billed for the excess water and Goodale had plans to check out the property to see if he could find the leak.
Halloween event addition
In other business, the city approved a proposal by community volunteer Amy Windus, asking for permission to host games for children previous to the annual Trunk or Treat Night set at the Atalissa Fire Department on Saturday, Oct. 30.
The games would begin at 5 p.m., an hour before the Trunk or Treat event takes place from 5-8 p.m.
Windus said games would include musical chairs and other games similar to what she put together for a recent back-to-school event in the city.
The city council will meet again Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at Atalissa City Hall. Anyone is welcome to attend.