City Council Meeting 01/22/06

The Overland City Council met at the Community Center at 7PM, Monday (Jan. 22nd). There were only 3 resident’s comments at this meeting. No major issues arose to speak of. The first speaker read off a list of problems that have occurred since the Mayor’s election, another spoke on the reasons a recall is valid, and the last spoke in support of the Mayor.

Of course it wouldn’t be a meeting of the Overland City Council these days if there wasn't an argument about how many votes are needed to pass this or that. This time it started early with Councilman Owensby objecting a portion of the minutes from the December 11th Council meeting. He questioned how a motion with a 4-3 vote passed, claiming it requires 5 votes to do so. Councilman Corcoran correctly pointed out that this was a motion, not an ordinance, the Mayor agreed and the issue was dropped.

Mayor Purzner appointed Councilman Schneider to replace Councilman Sellers on the Board of Adjustment. No other appointments were made or attempted despite the fact that Ward 3 is still short one councilperson.

Though there was some issue over whether or not it should have been on the agenda, Resolution 2007-01 was read and voted on by the Council. It was approved with a vote of 4-3. This resolution was to add the recall of Mayor Ann Purzner to the ballot in April (though we thought that was voted on and passed back in December as well). The Mayor threatened to veto this resolution should it pass. Once again the argument as to whether this requires an Ordinance, and thus 5 votes came up (we will be working on answers to this in the coming days). There was also Bill 02-2007 for an Ordinance to add the recall to the ballot which received a vote of 4-3 but failed being that it was for an ordinance which requires 5 votes to pass.

Arguments continued with Bill 03-2007 which was to create an Ordinance to place a measure on the April ballot to allow the residents of Overland to vote on the issue of trash pick up. The vote failed 3-4. However, even if the vote had passed unanimously I don't believe it would have been able to be added to the ballot as the cutoff date for adding ballot measures and/or candidates was January 16th as can clearly be seen here, under "April 3, 2007 General Municipal Election" on the Board of Election's web site.

When faced with an argument about the trash measure being too vague to be meaningful, Councilman Knode of Ward 1 stated that it "just gives people the right to vote". Perhaps, if Councilman Knode, Councilman Sellers and others had shown up for the January 8th Regularly Scheduled Council Meeting, we would at least have had the opportunity to beat the Election Board deadline. As it was, because they didn’t show there was no quorum so no business could be conducted that day. I’d also like to know why Councilman Knode doesn’t seem to feel that the recall is something that "just gives people the right to vote" as well.

A recent Audit of the City's finances was presented at the meeting. The Auditor said we were on good financial footing overall, though we should have some investment and financial policies firmly in writing, and of course we need to pass a budget. Interestingly, neither the Mayor nor Councilman Knode (Chairman of the Budget Committee) called for a vote on the Budget at this meeting.

During the Public Works Department report Roland Lettner pointed out that residents with branches needing to be disposed of from the last ice storm must call Public Works by Friday (Jan. 26th) to ensure that they are on the list for pickup. Public works is going around picking up branches, but they need to know where to go (and you need to have them at the curb). You can reach public works at (314) 428-4677. When you call, make sure you thank them for their efforts. Public Works is providing a great service to residents by picking up those branches so let’s make sure they know we appreciate it.

During the Chief of Police’s report we learned that the backup generator, or more accurately the generator's distribution circuitry, failed when the power went out at the station in the last storm. It was determined that a part of a switch was broken and needs to be replaced. Replacement is proving difficult as the switch (as well as the generator) was manufactured back in 1966/67. The Chief assured us that there was a "plan B" in place to allow for manual switching if needed before they could get the part.

The meeting ended with the Council going to executive session (which was thankfully scheduled at the end of the meeting as was the norm until recently). The Lawyer representing the City's insurance company at the Sunshine Law case was there, but interestingly, while the Council was in Executive session the Mayor remained outside chatting with a few residents. That seems to suggest that the meeting may have been about the Judge's ruling against the Mayor in the Sunshine Law case. The results of which are the City has to pay the $16,000.00 or so in legal fees of the residents who filed to suit seeking to have Council meetings held at the community center where all interested residents could attend without restriction.

We will be covering the larger issues that came up during this meeting in greater detail as information is developed. We will also be adding video clips as they are put together. However, comments are open, so if you want to add something please feel free.