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10/01/84 City Council Minutes243. THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE KALISP=, CITY COUNCIL WAS ,HELD AT 7:30 P.M. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1984, IN THE COUNCIL, CHAMBERS AT CITY HALL., COUNCIL PRESIDENT RUIZ PRESIDED. ALL COUNCILMEN WERE PRESENT. APPROVE MINUTES Councilman Schindler asked that the minutes of September 17, 1984 be corrected to read "School District #5" rather than "Flathead Industries for the Handicapped" in his report on signs for Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Councilman Saverud stated that under City Development, a recommendation on IRB should read "City Development Com- mittee" rather than "Safety Committee". Councilman Saverud moved that the minutes be approved as corrected. Seconded by Councilman Palmer. Motion carried. PUBLIC HEARING - Monk Annexation Acting Mayor Ruiz asked three times for proponents. No one responded. Acting Mayor Ruiz asked three times for opponents. No one responded. Public Hearing declared closed. ADDRESSING THE COUNCIL Acting Mayor Ruiz made three calls for anyone wishing to address the Council. No one appeared. COMMITTEE REPORTS STREET & ALLEY Councilman Palmer reported that about 8 years ago, the owners of Lot "A", Porta Villa Subdivision -,No. 2, dedicated the lot to the City for the purpose of making a roadway as -:-,part of Yellowstohe Street. Since then, nothing has been done with the lot. For a few years the owners paid the taxes. For the past three years the taxes have not been paid and it is:now scheduled to be sold by Flathead County for delinquent taxes. The Street & Alley Committee is recommending that the City pay the owners, Manuel V. Bauska and Dorothea F. Bauska; James B. Knight and Doreen L. McKnight; Garmen Meadows and F. Louise Meadows; and James L. Scharen and Bonnie C: Scharen, the.sum of $1,000.00. In return, the owners will give the City a quitclaim deed, which will specify that if the City does not construct the street after substantial development of the area, the premises shall revert to the grantors. Delinquent taxes in the amount of $170.00 to be paid by the grantors. Councilman Palmer moved to accept the recommendation; pay the owners $1,000.00; owners will pay back taxes and keep the difference. Seconded by Councilman Nystul. Motion carried. Councilman Springer noted that the City has finally assumed the responsibility they should have in the first place. Councilman Palmer reported a request from the Cup-ofSun store to allow a horse- drawn carriage on citq streets during October rest, October 15th through the 20th. Councilman Palmer recommended to allow the request and the Council agreed. Councilman Nystul asked that the Street & A31ey Committee inspect an! exoavabianmade by the telephone`'company;at 3rd Avenue E. N. The Street & Alley Committee will meet at 4:00 P. M. October 4th. SAFETY Councilman Schindler reported that his committee is working with Chief Stefanic on a handicap parking policy and will soon be ready with a presentation. The Highway Department has completed a study on Highway #93 South in the Rosauer vicinity and this will be preented to the Council very soon. Councilman Schindler stated that his committee members get a lot of loading zone re- quests;:.some of which are just for parking a personal car in front ofla business and he asked thht`._the Street & Alley adopt a policy on loading zones. PARKS Councilman Springer reported that a policy on tree maintenance will be discussed at the next meeting. There have been several complaints about the Council's"unwillingness to fund a rest - room for the Conrad Mansion. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Councilman Saverud reported that -Montana Economic Development has received two more requests for Industrial Revenue Bonds. Delores Young requests $175,000.00 for con- struction of an additional 15,000 square feet which ii� leased to Flathead Beverage 244. Beverage Company and M.O.F. Properties, nominee` of Kalispell. Electric, Inc., is requesting $320,000.00 for construction of a 14,800 squafe foot building to be leased to Amfac, wholesale distributors of electric and plumbing supplies. As was decided at the -:last meetiLg, Councilman Saverud moved to direct that the State hold the public hearings rather, than the City. Seconded by Councilman Schindler. Motion carried. EMPLOYMENT Councilman Grainger thanked Councilman Springer for taking his time to negotiate with the three unions. Councilman Grainger moved to accept all three contracts. Seconded. by Councilman Springer. Motion carried. FINANCE Councilman Grainger moved that all September claims found to be in order be paid. Seconded by Councilman Springer. Motion carried. RESOLUTION 43548 Councilman Grainger moved to adopt Resolution #3548 a resolution to approve a transfer among appropriations of expenditures as adopted by the City of Kalispell budget for 1982-1983 fiscal year. Seconded by Councilman Springer. Roll,.aall. vote. All voted aye. SEWER & WATER Councilman Nystul reported that the water tower painting contract will be done next spring because of present weather conditions. The Wastewater Treatment Plant construction is substantially complete. The Sewer & Water Committee will meet at 4:00 P. M. October 2nd. ANNEXATION Councilman Manning reported that Donald Earringer, Developer of Buffalo Head 092 has re- quested final approval of the resubdivision of three lots in the subdivision. One lot has a boundary problem and will be subject to further review, but, -Lots 22 and 23 have been-:reviewed_;bq,FRDO, DPW Hammer, Building Official Peterson, City Attorney Neier and other department heads and all conditions in the preliminary p1:at_'.-have been complied with as stated,.' Mr. Barringer stated that he had thought that everything was in order and had been done until. -,he was ready to close a deal and found it had not. He asked the Council to expedite the approval for him and not ask that he start tiirough the regular channels with FRDO. City Attorney Neier stated that about a year ago by resolution the preliminary plat of the Resubdivision of Buffalo Head #92 was adopted. The area consists of 92 lots and it was understood that development would not'take place all at once, but be sold one at a time. Lots 22 and 23 are being subdivided into 4 units each. This is a situation where the building permit must be issued and the townhouses built before zoning. A letter from the Building Official became part of the resolution and explained how it would be zoned. All this � done - the bprmit issued, the buildings built and the zoning complied with, as required. The public streets are constructed, the city sur- veyor has numbers for each unit and the title report is satisfactory. These two lots will have to be known as Buffalo Head Townhouses 42 and other lots numbered subsequeritly. Councilman Manning mauvdd'.to-.aceept::the?.Xinal. plat .)of`;BtffAlo ".dead `Cowhhouses'i#2. Seconded by Councilman Nystul. Motion carried. MISCELLANEOUS Councilman Palmer, Chairman of the Street & Alley Committee, proudly presented the following letter: 245: L � .city, Kalispell City Hall - attn. Drawer 1997 THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 301 WEST WYOMING Phone 755-7343 KALISPELL, MONTANA 59901 September 21, 1984 Road Department Bill Clements Kalispell, MT. 59901 .Dear Mr. Clements: 1p D n m t ti} Rev., Joseph W. Lutz We of the First Baptist Church of Kalispell would like to express thanks for the improvements done to and the resurfacing of West Wyoming Street. The crews of both McElroy and Wilken and the City Road Department did their jobs well. The workers were both courteous and helpful. We are especially grateful for the efforts which your department made to make our church and parking lot accessible while.construction was taking place. We wish you well as you work to improve and make more safe the streets of our city. S'ncerely, Rev. ose h W. Lutz Pastor p ua a Zbope�r,Chair. Board of Tru tee Mrs, J nit Trustees cc. City Road. Department McElroy and Wilken The Daily Interlake Editorial page Councilmen Manning and Palmer attended a Water Quality Seminar in Spokane. A 17 page speech by Loren L. Bahls, Supervisor of Water Quality Management Section of the Montana Department of Health & Environmental Sciences, addressed problems with Flat- head Lake, Ashley Creek, Flathead River and Whitefish River.. Both Councilmen thought the speech worthy :of 'review .by.. the., Sewer & Water: Committee;. : Councilman Palmer referred to a copy of a letter which all the Councilmen received today, addressed to Mayor McDowell from The Daily -Inter Lake accusing the Council of viol.ating�the open -meeting law. Palmer asked that it be discussed. Councilman Springer also asked that it be discussed publicly, as he had some comments. Acting Mayor Ruiz read the following letter: 246. 727 E. Idahv P.O. Box 8 f l Kalispell, MT 59901. September 28, 1984. Mayor Leroy McDowell City Hall Kalispell:,. MT 59901 Dear Mayor McDowell: The Daily Inter Lake is very'disturbed by -a' Monday September 24 meeting of the council that was termed an executive session.. In our view, the meeting was unlawfully cl'ased, .Mantana's,Open Meetings law is not all that difficult to understand. Itsintent is.clear: public business mustbe conducted in public. No doubt you are familiar with the statute: It does allow meetings to be closed for certain specific and very limited'reasons. By no stretch of the imagination do those reasons include setting employee salaries. Bargaining strategy was not the topic at Monday's meetings, there was no collective bargaining - indeed, no bargaining at all, since the employees themselves..were barred from the meeting. This -was no discussion related.to a matter 'of individual privacy. You may have.. discussed merit in connection with one or two of the raises, for which you may have preferred the comfort of a closed session.. But it's not .the law. Deciding how much public money is .to be paid to public employees is public.business, and that was the topic of Monday's meeting. Decisions were made at that meeting. Pay increases were.granted to employees not covered by the city's.collective bar'gai.ning agreements. No one can argue that the actions were informal,because tho.se.increase's were included in paycherks distributed Thursday. Those were in fact formal decisions made during a closed meeting, contrary to Montana law. The law is also.clear as to the remedy for such a violation. Any deciM on made at an illegally closed meeting may be voided in court. ;Anyone -- a newspaper; an employee, a taxpayer may go to court` to.vo,id'those salary. increases. -If the suit is success- ful, the court may aiso award costs and'attorney fees. Obviously, the Inter Lake has hothing to gain from having the pay raises voided. But some:eonmay. dust as someone else may have reason :to void any decision made at any meeting like this one.that is.not properly advertised and not properly opened to the public. What the Inter Lake does want is for: -the city to'abi-de by the Open Meetings1aw, without frequent reminders from use. The city attorney is well-acquainted with the statute and is on the payroll. Do seek his advice, We have.no wish to disrupt city huszness; wehave.no desire to go to court. But it is.our belief that you violated both'the spirit and the letter of the Open Meetings law. We'd LIKE something. better than your assurance that it won't happen again. Once mores though, we will ACCEPT you assurance. We would like this letter and this subject to be i.ncl.uded on an agenda for public discussion by the full council. Your city attorney may also advise you to take action on .the. salary increases. at a public meetin'g.. Sincerely, Dan Black Managing Editor.. cc: City Council members 247. Councilman Ruiz stated that "the meeting was called at 4:00 P. M. Monday, September 24th and was called by me as Finance Chairman to set and discuss the remaining salaries that we had with the employees of the City that were not covered under the union agree- ments. It was not an,executive session, as he implies, it was a negotiating session. I respect Dan Black's opinion and respect his integrity, but at the same time, I do not necessarily agree that he is as much of a lawyer as any of us, in terms of determining what is an open meeting and what is not. It has been my experience in the past five years that it is perfectly legal to close the meeting to set salaries. There is no way you can bargain if you are going to let the public in during the pre -negotiation session, when you discuss the offers that are going to be made,etc. That has always been a reason to close it. He mentions that bargaining strategy was not the topic at Monday's meeting, that there was no collective bargaining, indeed, no bargaining at all. I disagree with that completely. We did discuss whether we would bargain with the employees which we specifically gave the raises to. At that session, we decided what we would offer them, and we left there just like we left any other bargaining session which we had. We set the salaries and if they would not accept them, they .were perfectly free to come in to discuss the results of that meeting with the Mayor and we left that with the Mayor when we adjourned that day". "The increases were granted to the employees because we did not want to treat the in- dividuals involved any differently than any other of.the employees of the City and if we delayed making those payroll adjustments,they would have hadto wait another 30 days for their checks. If there were any corrections to be made after that, they could be made and we still can make them". "The employees were not barred from the meeting. We had one employee who came ih-and wished to talk toius and we received him and got input from him. There were no em- ployees barred from the meeting". "We feel that we have abided by the open -meeting law. The salaries that we have paid - tonight we have just ratified the union contracts -we still have our salary ordinance_ to pass, which will address all the employees that Dan mentions here and that will be done at a public meeting when our salary ordinance is ready. As far as I know, the Mayor, when we adjobrned last Monday, we gave instructions to the Mayor and Payroll Clerk as to what we thought was an equitable salary increase for those not covered. We also left it with the Mayor that if anyone wanted to talk to him about the raises that were given, that they were perfectly free to do so and the Council would be re- ceptive to any discussion on that% Councilman Springer stated that he found this letter insulting to the Council, and the Managing Editor rather presumptions. "I do not want this to jeopardize what I have. found to be a good working relationship with.The Daily Inter Lake, but -this is not the first time that Mr. Black has taken this Council to task and the last one, I remember, was back in February. It was something rather personal with my appointments I took issue at that time, as did the Council and Mayor. I believe that time that the Manag- ing Editor was incorrect with his determinations and as a matter of fact, as little as I have a right to make a legal determination on behalf of the City of Kalispell, I think legally that he is absolutely wrong and I personally take offense. -,at the manner in which he is once again lecturing this Council. I have known Dan for a long time and have worked with Dan and nobody bothered to call me and ask me anything and I was the negotiator and there was no intention to violate the law, nor was there a violation. I refer to the scholarly reasoning of. Senator Stephen Brown of Helena,if Mr. Black wishes to question my interpretation of the law. I take very strong exception to almost every paragraph, as anybody can see from my red penciling. I am not here to make news, nor do I think the Managing editor should make news at the expense of the City. If The Daily Inter Lake wishes to go to court, then do so, but thb only people that are going to be hurt are the employees of the City. I am going to defend the negotiating sessions and the results which we achieved. I will be happy to meet face to face with Mr. Black to explain my feelings". - Councilman Nystul asked if it would be appropriate for the City Attorney to respond to us. Councilman Springer replied that he would rather have him respond to The Daily Inter Lake. Councilman Palmer asked for the City Attorney's opinion on the letter. Neier stated that there was no notice of the meeting. Councilman Saverud stated that the meeting was noticed at the last Council meeting. This was a continuation of the meeting scheduled after the ldst Council meeting. 248. City Attorney Neier stated that he was not in attendance at the last meeting, but if the meeting was announced and was an open meeting, then the law was not violated. Councilman Ruiz sai:d.it was a closed `meeting.. Councilman Palmer stated it was for the purpose of negotiations, individuals were discussed - pay increases were discussed - the possibility of using a merit system - you cannot discuss these things at an open meeting. Councilman Grainger quoted from the September 17th meeting, page 242, "FINANCE - Councilman -,Ruiz announced a meeting of the Council of the whole immediately after adjourning to discuss elected and appointed employees and employees not covered b+y/ any bargaininglunit". This meeting was held.and reconvened at 4:00 P. M. on the 24th. Neier stated that this sounded like proper notice was given, and if -you say this was for the purpose of negotiations, then it can be properly closed. Councilman Springer moved that City Attorney Neier be directed to respond to this letter as succinctly and directly as possible. Seconded by Councilman Nystul. Motion carried. Letter to be reviewed by the Council before sending. Councilman Springer stated, "We do not want a running feud with The Daily Inter Lake". Councilman Schindler stated that Councilmen Ruiz and Springer, Mayor McDowell and he attended a seminar On this very thing and the question was asked if salary negotia- tions could be a closed meeting and the answer was point blank "yes". Councilman Palmer stated that there was one more thing before we put it to sleep and that is the question of where Dan got his information and why did he not extend us the courtesy of asking before writing. Councilman Grainger asked if any Councilman was contacted. Councilman Ruiz stated that there was more information in the letter than we know and even things that did not go on. He asked who gave out the information. No one replied. Councilman Schindler moved to adjourn. Moved as corrected October 15, 1984. Louis B. Ruiz, Jr. Actin ayor ATTEST: Marjort Giermann, City Clerk -Treasurer f..