Six, Two, and Even: Mount Carroll City Council Notes

By Mick Parsons For The Prairie Advocate News

MOUNT CARROLL – Even in one of the shortest city council meetings on record – slightly over 45 minutes – the night could simply not end without some of the usual back and forth that is so normal in local politics. But one thing is clear – the long past election swept in some positives that, while they offset the under current of personal vitriol and the backroom bull sessions, have done little to change the underlying sense of mistrust, agenda mongering, and clashing visions of the future.

If you’ve gotten your October water bill, you will have noticed one of the more useful changes, the Health and Welfare Fund. This fund, which is also being fed by individual donations, exists as the result of a serious reconsideration of the city’s Water Ordinance spearheaded by Alderman Tom Charles (Ward 3). As of the September 27th city council, the fund has a balance of $100. Anyone who pays a water bill in Mount Carroll can opt to add a dollar or two that will go towards the Fund, which exists in order to help residents who may be unable to pay their monthly water bill, and is managed by the Mount Carroll Ministerial Association.

This was a relatively easy sell to the city council. The rest of the Water Ordinance changes, which include a $100 deposit – which landlords can get back in a year but tenants who pay their own water bills cannot – as well as an additional turn on fee in the event that water service is shut off, and accruing interest on unpaid balances that are not in some way addressed – landlords paying a small percentage of interest – have been slightly more contentious. The primary issue, the thing that has brought out both complaints and praise, is how the city has dealt with delinquent accounts.

Critics blame Mayor Carl Bates or City Clerk Julie Cuckler – even though Cuckler has been re-elected for 30 years and Bates is on his second term. One issue, which has been harped on by current and past members of city council, was the way the City Clerk used her discretion in dealing with past due water bills. And even though the updated Water Ordinance, approved last month, more or less removes Cuckler’s ability to use discretion, Alderman Bob Sisler – who has been a part of the entire discussion and who had plenty of chances to include any ideas he might have had – still voted against the updated Ordinance.

Last week Charles, whose brief tenure on city council has been, thus far, nothing if not busy, reported that only 15% of the accounts on the list of delinquent accounts politicized and used by past and current aldermen to criticize the city’s administration will end up going to collection. The remaining 85%, said Charles, could probably qualify for the new program – including the Health and Welfare Fund, once it’s adequately funded, as well as a payment plan that will require residents with a past due balance of more than $10 to stay current and pay a percentage of the past due amount until it’s paid up.

Alderman Doris Bork – who has been a critic of the mayor since his days as an alderman and who has been openly critical of both the mayor’s administrative ability at least since he defeated (now) Alderman Bob Sisler in the last mayoral election – pointed out that some of the large delinquent accounts still live in the area. Charles conceded this, but pointed out that large delinquent accounts will still be sent to the collection agency.

Bork, whose file-keeping and paper-saving make her something near to a historian of local politics, also brought up the Galena Street Bridge. The project, which lost what little steam it had not long after the city finally wrangled out an agreement with Carroll County to help pay for the preliminary engineering work, has gone from an important piece of city history to an especially large piece of scrap metal that’s still technically safe to drive on. During the regular city council meeting on Tuesday – rather than the Street Department Meeting the previous night – Bork pointed to meeting minutes from 2009 indicating that Mount Carroll Street Superintendent Eric Dauphin was told to replace the metal plates that were removed because the bolts holding them down were shaking loose and getting lodged in tires.

The mayor said he recalled that Dauphin was later told not to replace the metal plates, and Clerk Cuckler said she remembered that as well. Bates went on to say that the engineers had told Dauphin that the plates weren’t necessary, and that the council then decided against purchasing the plates and bolts. In 2009, Dauphin said it would cost the city $800 to replace the plates.

Bates said that if the engineers didn’t think the plates were needed that he didn’t see the point; but he also said he could talk to Willett and Hoffman again and see if the plates are really needed. The mayor added, however, that since the price of metal has gone up, that it would end up costing the city more. “But if the council thinks we need them,” he said, “we’ll buy them.”

The Galena Street Bridge – which has gone from something of a political albatross to what will likely be a demolition project – has been pushed back to 2013. And while the precise future of the historical structure is as of yet unclear, Bates said, with a sense of finality, “I believe the bridge will be done in 2013.”

During the General Audience section of the meeting, Alderman Bob Sisler brought up another instance of what, on the surface, seemed yet another critique of city employees. He claimed to see the bucket truck running on Main Street with a worker in the bucket who was not strapped in for safety. “The bucket truck was driving along the street; not only with the driver, but with a man up in the bucket,” Sisler said. “I think that’s probably a serious OSHA violation.”

What Sisler did not say – either because he didn’t notice or because he chose not to characterize his statement in this way – was that the bucket truck was being used to take down the Timber Lake Playhouse 50th Anniversary banners that have been hanging up in the downtown district since mid-summer.

After talking to both the driver and the employee in the bucket, however, Mayor Bates found out that not only was the truck crawling slowly up the street, but that the worker in the bucket was in fact wearing a waist harness – which wouldn’t necessarily be visible from the street.

In other city council news, Clerk Cuckler discussed a new Governmental Accounting Standards Board rule, GASB 45, which has gone in effect. According to Jill VonRoekel of Winkel, Parker, and Foster CPA PC, the city’s auditing firm, this GASB audit needs to be done separately. Mr. Robert Hopson, a contact provided by WPF, provided a quote of $600.

The new rule relates to the city’s “post-employment obligations” other than pension, or health care. The city doesn’t typically have any issues with that, but Cuckler said it’s something the council needs to look into. Alderman Sisler, who has been nickle and diming the budget since being seated as an Alderman, asked if the new audit was really necessary and what would happen if it wasn’t done. Cuckler admitted that most likely nothing would happen – at least not immediately. But, she warned, at some point the Federal government would probably notice, so the city needs to be in compliance.

Earlier in the evening, during the regular Finance Committee meeting, Sisler brought up the $10,000 estimate by American Legal to update the city’s code books, which haven’t been updated since 2004. The estimate, which was not requested by the city, is still being considered because the council is waiting to get an estimate from the company it normally works with.

Sisler asked why the city should pay $10,000 for an outside company to do something that the city should do itself. And when Alderman Mike Risko (Ward 1) reminded Sisler that part of what American Legal would do is to put the city’s codes online so people could access them more easily – he said it was just “common sense” to do so – Sisler asked why Clerk Cuckler – who he has critisized time and again – couldn’t just scan the documents in and post them herself. Sisler also pointed out that there are some parts of some ordinances – this particular case, the Nuisance Ordinance – that can probably be deleted. He cited the city codes related to livestock within city limits.

Alderman Doug Bergren (Ward 1) pointed out, however, that those kinds of things are in the code for a reason and that, if they weren’t, might cause problems.

Risko also said that if the city went through the process itself – which is more about making sure city codes are current with state statutes – that the attorney fees alone might well exceed $10,000.

The council also voted to transfer $8,000 from the General Fund to the Recreation Fund and $1,200 from the General Fund to the Sewer Fund. The Recreation Fund – which is the line item that pays for the city pool – almost always needs an infusion of cash at the end of the summer; but because the pool is critical during the summer and is used heavily by area adults, teens, and children, the transfer was unanimously accepted.

The $1,200 transfer to the Sewer Fund was the one that Alderman Bergren pointed to as a long term problem. “It seems its always running in the hole,” he said. The mayor agreed, saying that was why the council needs to look at raising rates. The issue, though, is tied to the water bill – which even with the current changes to the Water Ordinance is still a tender political subject – and so the topic of raising rates is one that tends to be voiced, but never acted upon.

Sisler, who campaigned against inter-fund transfers and called them everything but stealing, said that no one should be concerned about two more transfers, since there were already 16 in the recent Budget Appropriations Ordinance passed by the council.