Council approves pool plan, vows to clarify spending policies

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

The Nevada City Council voted 5-0 during a special council meeting Tuesday night to approve an amendment to the sale agreement between the city and Cypress Grove Apartments, with Mayor Bill Edmonds voting for the issue with the provision that the authority of the city manager to act as the city's purchasing agent be clarified. The sales agreement contains a section approving paying Abba Electric about $36,000 for work they had performed at the Ozark Building without the normal bid process. The city's charter has two sections dealing with the city manager's ability to spend money. According to William McCaffree, city attorney, one section gives the city manager broad spending authority as the city's purchasing manager and the other section limits the amount the city manager may spend without prior council approval to $2,000. "There is a question as to how to interpret the code," McCaffree told the council. "I don't think the city manager did anything wrong ... I just wanted to be sure we did this properly," Bill Edmonds, told the council. "The dilemma now is the work is done and Abba is entitled to be paid," Edmonds said, adding that afterwards they can come up with a clearer policy. City Manager Craig Hubler told the council that in the past there have been situations where a pump at one of the city's wells failed or a major water line at the water treatment plant broke and needed to be repaired before council approval could be received or bids taken. Hubler said he had followed past practice. Using his authority as purchasing manager for the city, he had had the work done, then presented the bills for the work to the city council at the next opportunity. McCaffree told the council that the city code needs to be clarified so that in the future the council and the administration interpret the code the same way. There is no provision in the city code for emergency expenditures, McCaffree told the council. "As your city manager, I follow the code very closely," Hubler told the council. Hubler told the council that in this case, a temporary electric service was needed to remove water from the basement of the Ozark Building to prevent mold build-up in the building. Since the pending litigation had stopped progress on the sale of the building, Hubler said that he was assisting the developer by hiring Abba Electric on their behalf to install the needed electric service. Without the lawsuit, Legacy could have paid for this work and would already be working on renovating the building, Hubler told the council. "I do take exception to the charges from Joe Kraft that anything unethical has taken place," Hubler said. "I think that it's an effort to feed into the litigation and muddy the waters," he said. Hubler told the council that there is no doubt that the litigation is for no other purpose than delaying the project until it is too late for the developer to continue. McCaffree told the council that the litigation is proceeding well and that he hopes the city will get a summary judgment. In other business the council: *Approved the proposal by the Nevada Park Board to request bids for the renovations at Walton Pool. *Gave final approval to vacating the easement between lots 18 and 19 of the Shearer Ferry Addition so Richard Carpenter can construct in the middle of the two lots. *Marie Wessley told the council that a news report on a local radio station indicated that the city was a part of the county's jail project. "As I understand it we have not agreed or even implied that we want to be a part of this project," Wessley said.

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