Yes. I feel I'm not making I think it was him standing here at 7:15 when I left. This doesn't pick up until he stayed there with order. Jennifer, I think it was I think it was
him. Anyways, if not, whoever it was soaked umbrella or not, it's all right. We're gonna go ahead and call order. Start with the pledge of allegiance.
Pledge United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Here, would you do the roll call? Mr. Steinberg here. Mrs. Rooric here. Mr.
White here. Mr. Lewis here. Mayor Whittington here. Look for a motion to approve the agenda. So move. Second. All in favor? I opposed. All right. Jennifer.
Great. Good morning. Um, mayor, city, and city council. Um our first item here, um we are seeking a city council approval to hire a public works seasonal employee um that would be charged with helping um the public works part with mowing and weed trimming in public
spaces um including our parks. The position would be scheduled on an as needed u basis with hours varying depending on weather conditions um and how how much rain we get and how fast the the grass grows. Um the hourly
wage for this position would be $14.73. Uh we did complete an interview of um an applicant uh with the public works director, public works supervisor, and myself. Uh following that interview, we recommend the hire of Taylor Richards for this position. And this
recommendation is contingent upon the successful completion of all pre-employment requirements. Uh, with that, a motion is needed to approve the hire of Taylor Richards as a seasonal public works employee at a rate of 1473 per hour.
Motion to approve the hiring of Taylor Richards. And a second. We have a first and second. So, all in favor? I opposed. All right. We'll look for a engagement letter. All right. Uh, mayor and city council. I
noticed the microphones weren't turned on, so hopefully um this works better here. Um, so the next item, engagement of ID Bailey for bank reconciliation project. Um, so in the packet um I have a proposal from ID Bailey. Um the
purpose is to um engage them for consulting services related to the city's bank reconciliations. Um the total not to exceed amount right now is 14,800. Uh the reason uh this is being
sought is um we need to have accurate and timely bank reconciliations um to ensure the integrity of the city's financial records. Um during our recent audit uh there uh was notice in an accounting accounting error um that
requires correction and um we need to obtain a clean unmodified audit opinion and right now the auditors are saying until we get this issue resolved they can't give us that. Um, so city staff has been working hard with the auditors to try to get to
the bottom of of the accounting error and um, city staff thinks they've identified what the issue is. Uh, but at this point the auditors want to move forward with um, doing the um, the additional work just to, you know, make sure we get this issue addressed moving
forward. And, um, I'm optimistic it's not going to be anywhere near that $14,800. Um, I think that's just, you know, kind of worst case scenario. So, um, at this point, I think it's important that, uh, we move ahead and get this done because, um, with bond
rating and so forth, we want to make sure we have a clean audit opinion. Um, and, um, so basically the scope will include they're going to go through 2024, prepare 12 months of bank reconciliations, identify areas of concern, and then
recommend improvements to internal processes and reconciliation procedures. Um, since we did plan for this expenditure, we'll uh pay for this using uh funds in the professional services line item of our general fund budget.
Um, does anybody have any questions? Um, if not, I would just ask for a motion to accept the engagement letter from ID Bailey for this work. Have a couple questions. So, it's a time of materials, so we're just going to use the number of hours that we use. Yes,
exactly. just for 2024. Yes. How do we get back on track for 2025 being that we're in the fifth month already? We'll be in the sixth month before this is so I think once this issue because it was there's kind of one month that we've identified where there's an issue and I think once that
gets corrected then everything else should be should be fine. This this typically happens um not by this much but it does happen. Um, and then usually at the end of the audit, uh, there's a, you know, they get the number and then
everything kind of is balances out from there. So, um, no, I think that's good. I just, you know, I know that we struggle with some things. So, just being able to get back on track and then get down to the monthly reconciliation that we should be doing, right? And I
kind of feel like at this point, if we don't get this addressed completely, it's just going to keep building and getting worse. So, I agree. And I think it's going to be if we don't, it'll become more than a finding. Yep. In the future on the audit.
Any more questions? I'd look for a motion to approve the engagement. So moved. Second. Second. Any more questions, discussions? All in favor? I
opposed. All right, that passed. Next one, Jennifer. Pedestrian connectivity project. Okay, this is a this is an interesting one. I don't know if you guys recall, but at the last council meeting, I mentioned that um sometimes the federal CRP program is interesting
because it's new and nobody really understands kind of the process. So, we're all kind of learning together. Um, so I had um, uh, well, let me just kind of go through I'll give you some background, then we can we can dive into a little bit deeper. So, um, but I put together this
memo to give you an update um, on the grant funds through the carbon reduction program, also called CRP, um, that would help support our Eagle Lake pedestrian connectivity project. So, we were recently informed of CRP grant funds that have been allocated to help offset
engineering costs. Um these pro funds are comprised of federal dollars and because of that there's definitely a much more rigorous um application and project administration process. Um we already secured a transportation alternatives uh program grant for this
project a couple years back. Um so that's going to get the lion share of the project. Um and we've uh submitted our second um application to the DNR to try to get some local funds to offset uh the local funding share between the city
and the county. Um so the CRP basically is just another opportunity to help um cover some of our local costs that we'd be paying for engineering. I had a meeting with um somebody from Mindot with a county engineer and um we
talked about um you know whether this was an appropriate um fit for Eagle Lake and how much work is involved and initially I was kind of told you know unless you're you have expertise and you're an engineer you're you're going to have a hard time getting the RFQ put
together um because it's so technical and we can't use our city engineer to put that together because if our city engineer puts it together then they can't bid on the project. So, so then I was kind of thinking well do we just hire another engineer to write an RFQ for us knowing that they can't bid you
know that there a little cost to that but after having a couple different meetings talked about it at our Maple meeting um just to kind of get other people's thoughts on the process um and then re regroup with the county engineer we decide you know what I think with
their help I'm going to try to do it. So, what do we have to lose? We if we don't get the money, we don't get the money. But right now, we've been awarded um I think it was like $180 some thousand dollars um for this CRP. 164,000 we've been
awarded that could help offset our engineering expenses. So, I'm going to give it a try, try to get it done. Um and uh hope we can get it. And honestly, I I kind of even forgot I applied for this grant
because um I hadn't heard back until um midappril. Um so, like I said, it's it's a newer it's a new grant program. It's with a um some of those one-time funding measures that happened after
COVID. So, um, at this point, I I know I initially had told you I think we should we should maybe turn back this money, but I after talking to different resources around the area, I think I'm going to try to submit something and see if it works and and um try to get those monies. So, just want to give you guys
an update on that and um, you know, let you know I have to get that submitted to Mindot by June 1st and we'll go from there. But just an example that sometimes um you know I've heard different comments from people about how come the city doesn't do this this grant or that grant and it's a lot of work. I
mean I've spent a lot of time um on a lot of the behind the-scenes paperwork that is required with some of the these federal dollars. But I'll definitely give it a try. I just want to give you guys an update because I know I'd sent out a an email telling you I thought that we'd probably turn back the funds. But I think after doing a little bit
more research um and then getting some um local resources on board to help we can get it done. So no action needed with that. Just wanted to give you guys an update so you know what's going on. And overall just to give you kind of the for I know we have um council Lewis
is new on the council so he's probably not aware but with that pedestrian connectivity project um you know the total project cost was close to a million dollars. We have almost a $500,000 grant uh federal funds and then um we had to come up with the other
share about 400 and um close to 400 over $400,000 that'd be split between the city and the county. So this 180,000 and then if we can get a DNR grant that'd be you know really helpful for us so we don't have as much coming um you know out of our funds. So, so
kind of a long rambling explanation, but if you have any questions, let me know. The short answer is the short of it is that we are going to move ahead and try to get these funds. And that's all I have. Thank you. Perfect. Does anybody else have some
things since we're already gathered? Uh well, if with the rain, if I could just add, um I think as you guys all came in, you've heard about the the leaking in the roof um in the police office and also now in my office. So, Kara did email me back. They are coming out this morning. Um so, I have
authority up to $5,000. I have no idea at this point what it's going to cost, but we just need to get these repairs on before we cause further damage. So, I'll keep you guys posted on where we're at. Um, and I'm also trying to get I've been working for a while um Andrew and I have
been to get a meeting set up with some from KRI to do a kind of a walk through on the um city hall roof and then also public works roof and find out what we need to do to get these roofs get the the repairs that are needed because we really have not had any issues up until
probably I'd say the last year and a half maybe. Um and they've been out here a number of times. This is by far the worst worst that we've had. So, and just to put it in like perspective, um Jeremy Brennan was in here and he's
like our roof was put on at the Justice Center in 2008 and they're completely replacing it. So, that might be our best option to look at sooner than later. Do we need to do anything if fixes I
mean just going in the sheriff's office you know where the base or where their cars it's a faucet coming down if there if if repairs are over 5,000 do we need to do something here so we don't have to call another special meeting later or how do you want to proceed on that part? Yeah, if we could just give if you could
give us um excuse me, I'll turn on my microphone. Just give us the authority or me the authority to just move ahead with whatever we need to do right now to just, you know, get it so that we do not have water continuing to come in here. I don't think it's going to be 5,000, but just wanted to give you a heads up and,
you know, if you could give me authority just to do what needs to get done here. I think it's a great idea because I I do think it's going to be over 5,000. Um um so yeah, I'd look to um do we want to put a cap or just do what you need to do
to I'd make a motion to give Jennifer Brolman the authority to do what's needed to fix the roof leaks and then schedule a follow-up meeting to see what other repairs need to be done. Perfect. We have a a motion and a first. Do we have a second? Second. We got a first
and a second. Any other discussions? All right. All in favor? I. All opposed. All right, perfect. I think we're done. If nothing else, I'd look for a motion to adjurnn.
All right, we're adjourned.