Sheldon alderman scrutinizes budget items, procedural rules in Thursday meeting

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

By Steve Moyer

Herald-Tribune

The regular meeting of the Sheldon Board of Aldermen was brought to a standstill over a bill to set the time and polling place of the 2008 election. Mayor Rob Sewell was absent leaving the four members present split two to two over a proposed amended motion by Alderman Robert Moran.

President of the Board of Aldermen Jerod Lamb, who was chairing the meeting in the mayor's absence, said, "With no one to break the tie we are stuck and can't go forward with any other city business until this is resolved."

A motion to table the issue failed because a date could not be found in the five days remaining to the city before the deadline imposed by the state for setting the elections.

Moran stated that city clerk Becky Morgan had recently received a letter from a lawyer in Farmington that stirred his concern. He said the letter seemed to be seeking information that could be used for a frivolous lawsuit using the Sunshine Law as a tool to extract money from cities for minor violations which made Moran want to be sure the city crossed every T and dotted every I to prevent such an occurrence.

A citizen from the audience rhetorically asked what a lawyer from Farmington had to do with Sheldon city business, anyway.

After several minutes of discussion, the impasse was broken when Lamb made several suggestions to resolve the situation and the board went on to approve the bill to set the date of the election of three aldermen at large, one for a one-year term and two for two-year terms, for April 8, 2008. Filing for the seats is open from Dec. 18, 2007 until Jan. 22, 2008 in the city clerk's office at city hall.

The city budget also came under scrutiny by Moran, who said that 14 of 22 categories were over budget and that a child would fail with that grade.

"If you had a child in school who scored that badly they would fail," Moran said. "We are doing poorly in figuring the budget and we need to adjust the budget to reflect what we're actually spending."

Lamb responded that although specific items weren't in balance the budget as a whole was. He also said expenses were much higher than anticipated because energy prices went up so dramatically.

"I know last year the fuel to run the equipment at the dump was $2.37 a gallon and now it's over $3," Lamb said. "We may not have budgeted enough for some things but we're still going to end up with $3,000 to $5,000 at the end of the year."

The aldermen voted to have the city crew pick up limbs and debris from the recent ice storm. Limbs more than six inches in diameter must be cut to four foot lengths to better fit in the truck used to haul the debris. There was a short debate over whether to use the city's dump truck or trash truck for the pick-up but it was decided to let the crew use whichever one was most appropriate in their estimation.

Moran's questions about fire department details led to a heated discussion as well. Asked if the fire department equipment was in good shape, volunteer fire chief Joe Brzuchowski had responded, "Yeah, I guess so," but Moran said, "That's simply not an adequate response."

Brzuchowski countered, "I may not speak as well as some of you, that's just my way of speaking, but that equipment's in good shape. I keep that equipment up myself. It doesn't cost the city anything."

Another sticking point was Moran's questioning whether the list of firefighters phone numbers was up-to-date.

"That list is up-to-date," Brzuchowski said. "But there is no need for the city to call the numbers on that list. If there is a fire the thing to do is call the 2424 number or call the county. We all have pagers and whoever answers that number will call the county anyway. We don't call each firefighter individually. We wear the pagers and we don't have to stick close to the phone. We can be out in the yard and when a call comes in the county will tone out the firefighters. No one will call them all separately."

Moran insisted that it was important to have the list posted so people would know who to call in case of a fire.

Brzuchowski said the proper number to call was the 2424 number or the county sheriff's office, which handles dispatching for the county's fire departments and that calling a firefighter individually would only delay a response.

Brzuchowski said that since it had come up, the information about calling the sheriff or the local phone number should be placed on the water bills so citizens would know what to do.

The discussion became so heated that Brzuchowski threatened to quit; but Lamb defused the situation by saying the city just wanted to know what was happening so that if the fire department needed anything the city could see what they could do to help.

In other business, the board voted to vacate Barton Street on the property of George Wilson. The street had been closed years before but never officially vacated -- or if it had been the information had never been filed with the county. Wilson said he wanted to sell the property and needed the city to act before he could sell it.

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