Electric rates and animal shelter discussed at City Council

During the Monday July 17 City Council meeting the electric rates were once again the topic of discussion. According to City Manager Mark Gaugh the electric meter testing of thirty-three meters was completed and found to be accurate in measuring power. There was no costs to the customers for the testing. According to Gaugh, the electric rates were raised in April 2016 to reflect the percentage charged to the city by the wholesale electric provider.
Gaugh said city staff does not recommend the repeal of the electric rates at this time saying the city of Cameron has one of the lowest electric rates in the area and maintaining a good fund reserve has assisted in funding many capital improvements without borrowing money or paying  interest. 

Councilman Dennis Clark expressed his support of the city staff and the electric rates remain the same saying, “I am very much a believer, that you build up strong reserves,  anchor your existing revenue streams and you try to find new revenue streams.” 

Councilman L. Corey Sloan expressed his support of placing an ordinance on the agenda to repeal the electric rates based upon upcoming rate analysis study to be conducted in 2018 so that the city can evaluate where the electric rates may need to be and then if a rate increase is necessary, do it in increments so the residents of Cameron are not impacted by a large increase all at once. 

A vote to place a repeal ordinance on the next agenda was passed by a 3-2 vote with Mayor Darlene Breckenridge and Council members Sloan and Feighert voting for and Council members Clark and Jack voting against. 

Discussion of the animal shelter was brought back up first in the city manager report, where Gaugh reported to the Council updates to the animal shelter have been necessary to avoid possible fines, which the shelter has begun to work on. The changes will allow some time before a new shelter needs to be constructed, however some of the things cannot be modified and would only be corrected with a new shelter. According to Gaugh, the city did buy some time with the improvements but a new shelter will still be necessary. Councilman John Feighert III asked about what the costs the architect came back with for the costs of the animal shelter. Gaugh expressed the costs would be about $600,000-700,000. Gaugh stated the costs seemed consistent with the costs of other animal shelters in the area. He also said a cheaper building could be built, with cheaper materials, but the city would end up with a cheaper building. 

Councilman Sloan, being new to the Council, expressed his thoughts about the animal shelter was still in progress and asked where exactly the process was. Gaugh said the plans were drawn up and bid, but he was under the understanding the Council did not want to fund it at the costs presented. Councilman Sloan requested it be placed back on the agenda for discussion.
Mayor Breckenridge also expressed a desire to have the animal shelter placed back on the agenda to be discussed, so the Council can take their time to decide what is really needed and perhaps finding a way to manage lower costs. 

During the final public participation, Heidi Sloan stepped before the Council to address the electric reserve and asking why it cannot be used for the animal shelter, saying, “Why do we keep slapping bandaids on bandaids on bandaids when we can do something good for our community.” 

City Manager Gaugh said he could fund the animal shelter right now, but he is not the deciding person, it is up to Council. 

The animal shelter will be back on the Council agenda for the next meetings. 

During the public participation portion of the meeting, Shawn McGowan, Associate Manager of Carquest expressed his opinion about barriers not being accessible to be placed for the car show that occurred on July 1. According to McGowan, he had been assured by city staff that barriers would be out and ready to be picked up to be used to block off streets for the car show, as required by the city. McGowan expressed his opinion that a phone call had been made at the last minute and a decision had been made by someone on city staff to not have the barriers pulled out and ready to be picked up. City Manager Mark Gaugh said although he was aware the incident had happened, he could offer no explanation as to why it may have happened, other than oversight, expressing he did not believe anyone made a phone call to make sure the barriers were not accessible.
Larry Griffey also came before the Council to speak to the frustrations, break downs in communication and number of times he had thought all paperwork and information required by the city was in order, only to discover there was something else required. Griffey has also been requesting records of meetings and information in conjunction with the Sunshine Law from the city and asked that any future fees for such documents be waived.
The City Council responded to McGowan and Griffey expressing their apologies for the problems they encountered attempting to put on the car show and requested a sit down meeting with both parties, the Council and the City Staff to attempt to figure out what happened for this event and also to attempt to streamline the process for future events. 

Jamey McVicker came before the Council to speak to them about Crossroads Crush and requesting the Council support for of Crossroads Crush and providing them with the budget for the festival. The Council voted to give Crossroads Crush the $5,000 in funds requested from the Community Project fund. 

Other business on the Council agenda included a resolution approving the incentives to be offered to qualified businesses to facilitate economic growth and an ordinance authorizing an agreement between Alliance Water Resources for management and operations of the wastewater facility – both measures were passed unanimously. 

Two bills for rezoning of city owned land were on the agenda – one of the bills concerned rezoning land adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant, which the city acquired in 2015 from residential to commercial, the city has no plans for development of the land at this time. The second bill was for a change in zoning to the land purchased in 2016 near the hospital from agricultural to commercial, this is the land the city has been working to develop. Both bills were passed unanimously. 

An application for a temporary liquor license for Lucky’s Bar and Grill (formerly Kamler’s) was approved unanimously by the Council. The 90 day temporary license allows for the determination of food versus the sale of alcohol to be made. After the 90 day period, a permanent license can be applied for. 

Housing Authority re-appointments of Shirley Combs and Debbie Hahn were also approved unanimously. 

During the final public participation, Justin Snodgrass of Warrior Outdoors stepped before the Council to tell them about an upcoming project he is working on, Paddle for Patriots to raise money and awareness for Warrior Outdoors and PTSD. 

The next City Council meeting will be August 7 at 6 p.m.