Slayton City Council met on Monday, February 7th. The agenda with additions was approved and the meeting minutes from Jan. 18, 2022, were also approved. The claims were reviewed and approved for payment. Eric Pauli was present to give the Council an update on Xcel Energy.
The first item of discussion was a request for funds from the City to help pay for the replacement of new flags for Broadway Avenue. Brad Pagel, Legion Commander, explained to the Council that they will be replacing 50 flags and ask the City to help cover half the cost. The Council approved this request.
They next discussed the labor negotiations strategy for the vacation topic that is currently being discussed within the City Departments. Eric Austin with AFSCME, representing the Union, spoke on behalf of the employees. The request from the Labor Union is to come to a compromise and to have 400 hours put into a fund for the employee to use within the next 4 years with an option to have unused funds put into a VEBA account. The topic was discussed, and the Council will continue to discuss this in a closed session. Mayor Carney stated that he’s not indifferent to the issue and recognizes the need to consider retention needs for the future. Councilmember Chris Jacobson stated that past practice has been to start everyone at the beginning vacation rate step and the Council agrees that’s something that needs to be rectified. The topic was tabled for the time being until they have a full council.
The next item of business was a request from the Works Department to purchase a new sewer camera and utility locator. Weston Mahon, city works director, took the necessary training, and the cost will be covered in part by a MN OSHA Safety Grant. This is a budgeted item and was approved.
The Council approved the assessor contract with Erik Skogquist, SAMA for 2022. They next discussed the small cities development grant administration. The only proposal was from Development Services Inc. and there is a local match requirement of $20,000. DSI will administer the grant and review applications once the application is approved. The proposal from DSI was approved.
The next item was for the Council to approve the task order for airport driveway reconstruction design. This project is 95% paid for by the state. This was approved.
They discussed Spring Trash Day. In the past, City Employees have helped Schaap Sanitation in picking up the items on Trash Day which is a very time consuming and strenuous task. There would be an increased cost to have Schaap do it all, which every other city does. Slayton is the only City that still helps. The Council needs to decide what they want to do for the future and if there is a change how do they want to pay for the increased cost. One option would be to add a fee on the monthly water bill. This fee would only be on residential accounts. The Council decided to approve the change with a surcharge fee added to the monthly water bills. This will go into effect July 1, 2022.
The Council approved for Chris LeTendre and Terry Giesen to attend Fire Training. They also approved for Kari Carlson to attend the International Conference for MCFOA Conference (IIMC) in Little Rock, AR.
The meeting was adjourned.
