July 23, 2024 Council Meeting

Agenda (click to open)

View the meeting (click to open)

Current Events

  • Election Updates: There are 5 council candidates and 2 mayor candidates. Primary election is Aug 13. General election is Nov 5th. Click here for list of local candidates.
  • If you or people in your area want to meet and discuss current/future topics related to the city, reach out to me to set up a time to visit. (email, phone call, or in person)
  • As you're driving on the river road by Stephens' park, you'll notice construction on the south side of the road. That's the new central water system treatment facility in progress.
  • Many of you are familiar with the phrase "rural look and feel" or "rural character." Dayton residents have said this is important to them and I agree. It's even in our mission statement. We've had a couple work sessions on the topic and I believe it'll result in a list of ideas we will be prioritizing for the future. If you have ideas, please let me know.

Budget 

This was a continuation of 2025 budget talks. The intent was to clarify expenses. The preliminary vote will be in September. 

The county has indicated that we have an additional 16% of value (capacity) in the city consisting of 14% new properties and 2% increased values on current properties. This means if we increase our tax levy by 16% the tax rate will stay the same (tax rate = tax levy / capacity). If we do this, the current properties will pay more (on average). If we limit spending to 14%, all the current properties should end up paying the same amount as last year (on average). 

Previous discussions have indicated staff wants an 18% increase in the tax levy, council members Salonek, Fashant, and myself have indicated we’re at 10%. The other two have indicated (as they did last year) staff should spend what they want. 

One of my questions was around the fire department’s 2 full time hires. There are quite a few elements buried in this item that I wanted more clarification on. 

Today the fire fighters can count on a lump sum pension once they are vested. The fire department has decided to change that so there is no pension, and instead offer a more significant hourly pay as compensation. From what I understand so far, I think it’s a good idea. It’ll help with retention and provide an incentive to make calls. The reason this was in the mix is, those 2 full time employees will reduce the number of hours that the part time employees will use. There are also some minor financial benefits with how social security works. 

One of the issues the fire department is trying to solve is to get a more consistent number of firemen to respond to each call. I’ve never understood why we don’t have a true on call system. When I’m on call for my employer, if something comes up, I go in. The way it works here is, everyone is on call and they’re only expected to make 25% of calls per month. That means for any given event, it’s conceivable that nobody shows up. In addition to that, it’s unfair to those that will sacrifice anything to get to an event. The chief has a mechanism to implement a schedule but he has it tied to the full-time employees. I’m still not sure why it needs to be only tied to the full-time employees. 

When all is said and done, the cost for the additional employees would be about $145,000. 

There were also questions about some capital equipment: how it’s funded (all will be taxes) and if it’s really needed next year. 

 Large Assembly Permit 

For some reason staff decided to redo the large assembly permit that was passed a few years back. This version seems to have grown significantly from that, not only in size but in its intrusiveness. I wasn’t a fan of the original, but with the minimum size needed at 200 I was willing to go with it. This version has it at 50 and I’m not impressed. 

The intent of the permit is... in case of a natural disaster or fire, the city is aware of an event there. This would also give the city the right to NOT allow the event to happen. So someone having an event which doesn’t involve the city would still have to not only “get permission” from the city to do it, but also pay for the privilege of having to request permission. Then there’s the question of if it’s private or public. If it’s a private event, then the permit isn’t needed (regardless of the size). Another question was... when does a business need to decide if they need this permit? Especially if their business IS having events (i.e. event center). The answer staff came up with for that was to a look at a NEW form that doesn’t require a fee and is smaller. Yay. 

I suggested it be tabled to the next meeting to get some bugs worked out and so that the full council could look at it. That motion was passed 4-0. 

Park Commissioner 

Our commission members have a 3-year term. When that expires an opening exists and anybody can apply for the position. In this case there were 2 applicants for the Park Commission, Doug Baines and Kaia Chambers. Doug has held that seat for 24 years and all of the council felt it was time for new blood and that Kaia was a pretty good fit. Doug is also our Watershed District representative and will remain in that position.

As always feel very free to contact me!