Acting on professional advice from eight-year West Liberty City Clerk Lee Geertz, the Atalissa City Council had to remove a motion to reinstate Samantha Parry as the city clerk Monday night before a packed house at the Atalissa City Hall.
City council member Evan Smock opened the meeting with making a motion to reinstate Parry, who has been the city clerk for several years but resigned her position in late February after discussion at the February meeting of the council as to whether her contract with the city was renewed in January of 2020.
Geertz, who is volunteering her time to help Atalissa get a new city clerk, said reinstating the former clerk at the meeting would mean shutting down the meeting because Parry was not one of the 30 or so people who attended the meeting Monday.
“You have to have an official city clerk or you can’t run the meeting,” Geertz said. The city was about to appoint West Liberty Deputy Clerk Chari Hoeffert as the interim city clerk for Atalissa before the discussion. She was later voted to the position by a majority vote of the council.
The opening on the agenda wasn’t the only issue under fire Monday night, a throng of citizens making comments that were registered as part of the agenda – in particularly focusing on the leadership of Mayor Bob Schmidt.
He was questioned about everything from plowing snow on days it didn’t snow to spending money toward city park improvements the city needed for other improvements.
“When I took this job I said I wanted to bring the community together,” Schmidt, a second-year mayor said after the meeting. “We’re sure getting community involvement.”
The mayor says the feedback is good, but he wishes it was more positive. “I hope we can build off of that,” he said. “We want people to be active.”
He said that was likely the most people to attend a council meeting in years, noting there were residents on both sides of the fence and he was anxious to hear what people had to say. “I’m always going to listen to what people have to say,” he said.
The mayor said there is a lot of “misinformation” spreading throughout the community and he hopes to get a handle on things, be as “honest as possible” about city business and do what’s best for Atalissa.
The mayor caught fire for an February article in the West Liberty Index concerning many of his hopes for the community, residents pointing out he had not discussed with members of the council about some of those dreams, many of which would require major funding through new sources other than the city budget that is just over $400,000 annually.
The mayor said he was surprised by some of the attacks, calling them “unexpected” and pointing out there are residents in the community that don’t seem to have all the facts, but he’s trying to reach out to clear up some of the descrepencies.
Clerk position in question
Schmidt said there are already rumors the city is spending more than their budget on the clerk position. He pointed out Hoeffert is the only paid clerk on the payroll, noting Geertz is working with the city as a volunteer to help them through the transition knowing Hoeffert doesn’t have a lot of experience at the position. The mayor said his motto moving forward is “Community over competition.”
Schmidt said Geertz will help the city advertise for a new clerk, but says he feels comfortable having the West Liberty clerks helping, learning the city computer system and taking care of city business. He said Parry is welcome to reapply for the position as well.
The city clerk duties would includetaking care of payroll, handling utility billing receipts, utility billing processing, reviewing the financial system to access fund balance, payroll and utility billing programs, check phone messages, review e-mail correspondence, establish Wednesday office hours from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. to be open for the public, set the fiscal year budget review and prepare for state filing, set up a social media page for the city, update e-mail account, set the hiring process for the city clerk/treasurer, provide a city code review and a strategic planning review.
Before the comments, city attorney Julie Sprague of Wilton set guidelines for speakers at the meeting, limiting talks to two minutes, not allowing personal attacks of character, and allowing any member of the board to respond to questions or concerns from citizens.
Car show set
Atalissa Fire chief Mike Smock opened the public portion of the session with a request from the department to host a car show fundraiser on Sunday, May 9 to be held at the fire station and surrounding grounds to begin at approximately 2 p.m.
The board approved of the fundraiser, with profits going toward the heating/cooling station project the first responders are putting together to help local families from throughout the area in emergency situations.
Resident questions city
Resident Karen Fedderson opened the public comment section with a number of questions, starting with snow plowing of city streets on a particular day when it had not snowed.
Schmidt responded by pointing out there were drifts on some streets in the community that needed to be plowed that day. There were also comments from others in the audience pointing out snow plowing of city streets was as good or better than ever this winter.
Fedderson also questioned paying Police Chief Matt Shook for his time while taking a number of Atalissa youths to Muscatine as part of the “Shop with the Cop” holiday shopping program to help under privileged children, noting she thought it was a “charity event” and said other community police volunteer their time for similar programs.
She also said there should have been guidelines laid out to give families an opportunity to participate.
Schmidt said a $500 donation toward youth programs in the community recently received by the city would help cover those costs. He said the program was put together quickly and said the city got an education on the program. “I definitely learned from it,” he said, planning to improve upon the program later this year.
Fedderson also criticized Shook and the city’s decision to have the chief operate the snow plow as well as have a bicycle for patrolling in the community. She said having the chief plow snow was not recommended when she talked to the Iowa Police Association about the situation and was concerned about the chief getting to his squad car to answer other calls should an emergency arise.
Shook said Atalissa doesn’t have a lot of miles to cover like other communities, noting he should be able to get situated for any emergency within minutes, getting from one end of town to the other if necessary. The mayor said he would look into that change the city has made. Fedderson stressed that “time does make a difference, even if it’s five seconds.”
Mayor criticized for comments
The mayor was also criticized for comments he made in the Index concerning the future of Atalissa, some residents having concerns the city may spend money on new projects while forgetting about infrastructure like water, sewer and street concerns.
Fedderson asked the mayor to consult with city council members to make sure they’re on board with future plans as well.
Schmidt said some of the things talked about in the story were in the “very, very early planning” stages and he had talked with some members of the council about those projects.
The city park also came under discussion, former mayor and council member Angie Dickey questioning the city funding more than $22,000 toward improvements, noting she was instrumental in getting the park to its present state years ago. Dickey said it took a lot of volunteers and hours to create the park, built in the late 1990’s.
The mayor said those figures were decided to give the city an opportunity to apply for specific matching grants, noting he’s just beginning to investigate needs, grant funding and set up a donation campaign to aid the project. “I want to look at all the avenues,” he said, noting even the surface is under examination.
Street improvements also came under fire, council member Tim Devore pointing out there was no street work done last year in the community. It was pointed out by council member Randy Windus that the city is on flat ground and will always have water drainage problem with heavy rains.
The city also discussed have the state do a special audit for the city. It was pointed out by the city attorney that can be an expensive process, depending on the type of audit that would be done. Mayor Schmidt said it had been an estimated eight years since an audit by the state had been done. The attorney said the city is not required to do an audit, but Schmidt said he would feel more comfortable having an audit as a new city leader. The issue was tabled for later discussion.
The city council will meet again on Monday, April 12, beginning at 7 p.m. at the city hall.