During the open opportunity to address council on September 18 Melinda Hansen addressed the council regarding an occurrence at Dollar General Store requiring police intervention. She described the event as she knew it and expressed dismay at the lengthy response time and in what seemed to be delay bringing the identified suspect into the justice system.
Glenda Heithus, a candidate for City Council spoke next about the gravel and tarring of the streets. She commented that most of the new surfaces are “very nice” but many did not get the potholes filled before the new surface was applied and those potholes are now showing up again. She asked, “What are you going to do about it?” Kelly Top, Superintendent of Utilities responded that they hired the company to seal the surface. Heithus replied that it didn’t seal the potholes, to which Top said, “It all takes money.” After some discussion Top said, “A lot of these streets need everything taken out and redone, but, we don’t have the money to do that.”
An unidentified attendee spoke about the possibility of cleanup to specific locations around downtown to support “Wonderland Theater’s” grand reopening. She went on to suggest perhaps staking parking for snow removal to help prevent property damage.
All claims were approved except one claim submitted for August payment but separated and ignored. The separated claim was from Marcus News, Inc. Questions about the unpaid invoice were made to the city office at the beginning of September, resulting in council deciding to pay half of the invoice at their September 5 meeting. A legal notice was caused to be published in two separate newspapers by City administration. Notice to publish and again notice to stop publication in “O’Brien County’s Bell-Times-Courier” was not made timely, resulting in a duplication of services. On September 18, the council’s September 5 decision to pay half the claim was mischaracterized as a “compromise.” According to “dictionary.com” a compromise is “a settlement of differences by mutual concessions; an agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims, principles, etc., by reciprocal modification of demands.”
There was no conversation. There was no agreement. There was no compromise.
Council voted to pay the claim in full to avoid further collection activity.
Justin Jacobsma of Williams and Company has done the financial examination for many years. He provided council with his findings for the 2022-23 fiscal year ending June 30, 2022. Jacobsma explained their examinations look at specific procedures set by the State of Iowa. He noted that council minutes had not been signed by the City Clerk. Additional findings included concerns for the library’s system of accounting outside of the city’s systems. He stated that the library’s financials should be integrated into the city’s financial information. This is not a new finding. Internal control processes were addressed and is a very common finding for small communities. He also noted an unbalanced finding in January of 2022. Later, he responded to a question from Councilperson Jean Unrau that the imbalance was probably timing because the $945—ish difference did not carry over from month to month after January.
The annual financial report submitted to the state did not have the manual adjustments for the library, a procedure that had been done for years prior. There were also imbalances in the city’s utility fund at yearend. He explained that it could be adjusted in the 2023 annual financial report due December 1, 2023. Not all transfers between funds were accompanied by a city council resolution. Funds from the General Fund to the capital project funds for the park lights was the specific transfer referred to in Jacobsma’s report. Payroll testing showed a disagreement between one persons pay and their time sheet for one pay period. He said the hours were calculated incorrectly. The employee was overpaid.
The selection of a firm to do the fiscal year 2023 examination was made. Due to familiarity Williams and Company was selected to continue with annual examinations.
Council agreed to sign an updated contract with Northwest Iowa Landfill. The updates were to reflect the services offered by the landfill and to whom.
O’Brien County Conservation approached Top about hooking Mill Creek to the city’s sanitary sewer system. Councilperson Lexy Murphy expressed concern, noting “we already have enough problems with the sewers.” Carol Honkomp joined the sentiment. Conservation would need to have their own lift station. A pipe was installed under Mill Creek when AgriVision was built. According to Top, “The lagoon is overbuilt for what we have.” No decision was made.
A public forum to consider options for dealing with narrow streets was set.