Great River Regional Waste Authority Regular Commission Meeting April 30, 2004 Minutes A meeting of the Great River Regional Waste Authority Commission was
held Wednesday, May 26, 2004, at the Administration Building, 2092 303rd
Avenue, Fort Madison, Iowa. The following Commission Members were present: Chairman Marc Lindeen, Henry County Vice Chairman, John Emmett, Iowa State Penitentiary; and Commissioner Susan Dunek, City of Keokuk; Commissioner Steve Ireland, City of Fort Madison; and The following were also present at the meeting: Mr. Tim Yoder, Director; Mr. Tim Beulow
Barker Lemar; Mr. Bob Watson; Jeff Tweedy; Carla Smith; Mike Johnson; Travis
Rudd; and Gerry Baksys from the media. I.
Meeting
Called to Order Chairman Lindeen called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m. II.
Approval
of the Agenda Chairman Lindeen called for additions, deletions, or corrections to
the agenda. Director Yoder added Resolution 04-44. Commissioner Emmett
moved to approve the agenda as amended seconded by Commissioner Dunek. No discussion. Motion adopted by unanimous voice vote. III.
Approval
of March 31, 2004, April 30, 2004 and May 12, 2004 Meeting Minutes Motion was made by Commissioner Dunek to approve all of the meeting
minutes seconded by Commissioner Ireland. No discussion. Motion adopted by unanimous voice vote.
IV.
Public Comments None V. Barker Lemar
Update Mr. Tim Buelow reported to the Commission that
the Organics Survey Data is being collected.
Phase I Leachate Header Design is on hold. They are waiting for a response from IDNR for the request of
the vertical C&D waste on the Phase I landfill before proceeding. The ground wood data process writing should
be finalized next week. The Airspace
Survey of the Phase 2 Region 1 will be completed for the June meeting. VI.
Directors
Report The Keokuk Transfer Station (KTS) received approximately
1686 tons of municipal solid waste and 20.11 tons of curbside recyclables
from the City of Keokuk during the month of April. The landfill received approximately 4829 tons of
municipal solid waste (including waste transferred from Keokuk) and 692 tons
of construction and demolition waste during the month of April. The Bomag was
again down for a day this month due to problems with the hydraulic
pumps. Road Machinery was called in
and they were able to repair the equipment.
Many of the hydraulic lines are beginning to show wear and are being
replaced. The south entrance to the landfill has been widened. There is one culvert that needs to be
extended, which will be completed with dryer weather. The pad for the scrap metal pile has been
completed and a base rock has been put down.
This area is now large enough to pile the scrap metal and allow for
the scrap metal company to set up their equipment for crushing. Litter is being controlled with the use of
the new litter cages and the additional tarp. The staff and inmate crew are picking litter up daily around
the landfill site. The Compost department received 972 tons of organic
material in April. The material was
processed and used in the construction of windrows. The gear box on the mixer went out. A new gear box has been ordered at an estimated cost of
$5700. The gear box will then have to
be replaces. Helmuth Repair, where
the mixer was purchased, will complete the repair service when the gearbox
arrives. This mixer, in the short
life that GRRWA has owned it, is beginning to show extensive wear. A new
mixer has been budgeted for next year.
Staff is considering a mixer that is double the capacity which will be
needed for the additional organic material that staff is anticipating coming
to the compost facility. Alliant
Energy has begun setting utility line poles to supply service to the compost
building and sludge storage tank building.
The wet weather has set back the anticipated completion date. In March, 317 tons of recyclables were taken in. Approximately 155 ton of recyclables were
sold. The sold material included News
Print and Cardboard. Cardboard and
Newsprint were at a selling price of $100 and $95 per ton respectively. The forklift lost the #2 engine cylinder
last week. Staff is using this
machine sparingly. This piece of
equipment is budgeted to be replaced in Fiscal Year 2005. Staff has prepared a Tarp and/or Secure Load Policy, see Resolution
04-43. This Policy has come from meetings that were facilitated through
the Fort Madison Chamber with local residents and business leaders in Fort
Madison. GRRWA Staff is more than
helpful to do our part in controlling litter that leads to the GRRWA
facilities. Director has completed
research on Flexible Spending Accounts for employees. TASC or Total Administrative Services
Corporation was recommended by Tom Holtkamp and Glen Graf of TD&T
Financial Services. TD&T
currently prepares GRRWA payroll and this would be a good fit. TASC would handle all of the
administrative functions of the Flex Spending Accounts, The Administration Fee is $600 per
year. There is a one time $25 per
eligible employee fee. This company
also has a debit card available for the medical reimbursements that other
companies do not have. Staff has been
notified by IPERS that a compliance review will be completed on GRRWA 2003
calendar year payroll. Staff has
prepared gross wage reports for the four quarters of 2003 for IPERS. The Director will be attending an IDNR
Kaizen event from June 1 through June 4.
The event will be held in Des Moines at the IDNR office building. The purpose of the Kaizen event is for MSW
Landfill Permitting. The objective is
to streamline and improve the existing landfill permitting process. The entire permitting process will be
examined and changes will be made if necessary. Mr. Yoder will be representing all large landfills in the State
of Iowa. The Kaizen Team is made up
of two landfill representatives, one member from the IDNR Wildlife Bureau,
one member from the IDNR Field Offices, and the staff from the IDNR Planning,
Permitting and Engineering department. Caterpillar, Inc. was on site in May
to take pictures and develop a story that will be run in their quarterly
Governmental publication. Staff has
also been asked to speak at their Governmental Days Seminars that are held in
Peoria. This event is a four day event
and will be held some time in August.
All four of the candidates that sat for the Landfill Certification
Exam have passed in flying colors.
ISU Extension is hosting a Compost Workshop in Ames, June 8-10. This workshop is recognized by the IDNR to
Certify staff members that are responsible for the compost operation be
certified. Three staff members are
planning on attending the workshop.
Staff has begun preparing documents for the City of Fort Madison City
Manager Bill Kelly. Staff intends to
have the documents prepared and ready for his review by June 10th. VII.
Earthly
Goods Report Mr. Watson reported to the Commission that he has
received an order of 100,000 bags of dyed wood mulch for next year. VIII.
Legal Counsel Report Mr. Napier had a fair amount to report to the
Commission. He attended the City of
Fort Madison City Council Meeting Last week.
By word of a newspaper we were made aware that the City of Fort
Madison had on their meeting agenda a Resolution to drop the Waste Management
Fee. Not only was it a surprise to
the Administration but the entire Commission was not made aware that there
was an attempt by the City of Fort Madison to change the amount of what is
collected by the City. Attending the
meeting was contrary to what was thought as to why he attended the
meeting. It was not to press a
lawsuit on the City but to prevent a lawsuit. The Resolution was tabled.
It is important for the Commission to understand that the Waste
Management Fee item that is being used by Mr. Bill Kelly in this process was
approved by this Agency and was voted on after months after looking at it by
a citizen task force. The 28E
Agreement which everyone at the table is a party to, specifically reserves
the authority of the Commission to charge the various members and users the
waste management fee. One of the
questions that were upheld that was added is Can We Charge Such a Waste
Management Fee? Around the country it
is called different things, user fees, benefit fees, waste management fees;
bottom line is it can be done. The
Code of Iowa allows this Agency to assess such fees. It has worked well and is a bitter pill
but is a necessary evil. It has
served the Community, residents and businesses well. It is unfortunate that this has been
called back in for question when we are about three and half years away from
paying off the debt and Waste Management Fee be reevaluated. It is unfair that this Commission has not
been given the opportunity to discuss an evaluation of the Waste Management
Fee and we have a City Manager basically interloping in the affairs of this
Commission. This is a policy
consideration and is a consideration that this Commission needs to address.
He has explained this all to the city council. It is unfortunate that Mr. Kelly is not in
attendance at the meeting this morning.
He has certainly been invited to these meetings. It is unfortunate that he has never been
up here and even more unfortunate that Mr. Kelly has not talked to the
Administrator of this organization to gather information to ask questions as
to what now has become more of a turf battle. I think he would like to manage Great River and it appears that
he is trying to do this from a distance.
His last letter indicated that he is uncomfortable coming up here and
I would assume that is the reason that he is not here today. It was explained to the city council that
even if Mr. Kelly has questions about the records up here, the record keeping
and even the expenditures and his opinions of them, does not give the City
any authority to tinker with the Waste Management Fee. It was further solidified in the agreement
with the City through the Sewer Extension Agreement which was a project that
benefited Great River that gave the right away and even conditions that
provided the City $200,000 plus from Great River for the sewer extension in
exchange for the extension and right of way the agreement made was for the
City of Fort Madison to continue to collect the Waste Management Fee and pay
us on a monthly basis. The City was
allowed to adjust their payment for the amount that was collected off of
their water bills. They are
contractually bound to bill those amounts and contractually bound to collect
and pay those amounts. That was the
reason that he attended the city meeting and he had to refresh City Attorney
Rodger Johnson memory on the agreement.
The City did agree to table the Ordinance. You were all aware that Bill Kelly has issued his laundry list
of requested documents. He did offer
to the City Council under the opens
records statute that we are only obligated to make documents available and if
they want copies that they can obtain the copies. He offered that to the City Council because of the enormous
amount of documents and staff time that is being involved in the request and
thought it would be much cheaper for the city’s budget and more cost
effective for our agency as well.
Evidently the City Council felt that it was a worthwhile
expenditure. I received a letter from
Rodger Johnson that no they wanted the copies of the documents. Tim did not get his letter until Monday as
I received a copy of the letter late in the workday Friday. The letter said that they wanted all of
the copies by today but that is not practicable or realistic. They requested that they are to be
delivered to the City Hall. It would
be nice that Mr. Kelly make the trip at least once for the documents so that
he knows the way here and in the future if he has questions he can find his
way here to ask them. There is a
letter that I just saw this morning asking for additional information on top
of what has already been asked and I see that Mr. Kelly has added all of the
media to his copy list he is making it clear that he intends to make all of
these discussions in the newspaper based on allegations and accusations and
not on information of the facts as most people would start out. But there has been some articles regarding
the auditor’s report and Kim Hunsaker who has done the audit here and all saw
her audit report and expressed her opinions in the Burlington Hawkeye that
everything that has occurred up here is basically as can be expected. Her job is to find irregularities and did
not express any alarm and she said that most of the irregularities are fixed
and there is no real problem here.
You did see in her audit report how extensive it was and the
Commission should keeping mind that the Auditor’s report is based on a two to
three week examination on sight here at Great River. This was not a cursory review and was
simply not done by someone sitting in there office. The report is what she found and was able to come up with a
clean bill of health. I am confident
that after all of the dust settles and Mr. Kelly’s curiosity is satisfied
that this Commission’s integrity will be preserved and certainly you as
Commissioner’s who have done your job well will be advised to respond to the
City Manager’s request and express your level of confidence in what has taken
place here in the last several years going back to 1998. Because Mr. Kelly’s questions may seem
noble on the stand point that this agency’s records are open to public review
no one objects to or disagrees with but more of the tone that he has taken
and manner that he has made his inquiries that has really ruffled feather’s
in that he has not asked questions in a fair minded way and has been very
accusative. I don’t know if they
teach diplomacy in public administration but he must have missed that
class. In addition not only has this
Commission supervised the expenditures and reviewed the financial records
over the years, but employees have been drawn into this unfortunately and has
affected operations and we have had an independent auditor look at this and
has given us an okay and her report has been sent to the State Auditors
Office and they have admitted that another audit would be unnecessary. He would advise from his standpoint as his
job with this Commission that staff comply with the request and provide
copies of the documents to Mr. Kelly.
He believes that there are a couple of requested documents that are
inappropriate under the open records laws and have to get permission from the
effected parties before we turn those records over. What else might be worthwhile to do as you look over this list
of requests on items that were spent on the comparative purposes it might be
worthwhile to get records from the City of Fort Madison so that we can see if
Great River is out of line comparative to other public agencies. Since Mr. Kelley has set himself up on
fiscal responsibility, it may be that his records may give a possibility for
this agency to improve upon. I know
that Mr. Kelly has much experience in this area and has certainly exercised
his ability where he came from in Bisbee, AZ before coming to Fort Madison
which was to his own demise that he involved himself in the same type of
tactics down there and hope that it would have a more positive outcome here
and for Fort Madison. If you have any
questions for me please feel free to contact me. He included an Executive Session on the agenda, but was not
sure whether it would be needed or not.
It is eminent if the City would chose to arbitrarily lower the Waste
Management Fee to the citizens of Fort Madison. Fort Madison is acting as a collector of those amounts. He explained to the City Council that the
invoice amount will remain the same and if they wanted to shift the burden
off to the residents and the residents and the general fund it is there
choice. It must be understood that
our expectation is that we receive the full amount that has been billed each
month. If the City does not see it
that way and decides to pass the Resolution, they must understand that the
only relief that we must seek is judicial injunctive relief and have them
determine if they have the authority that they are claiming to have and veto
the decisions that have been made by this Commission unilaterally. I hope that we can avoid having to have a
judge answer that and that we can answer the questions and get back to
business as usual. IX.
Action Items Resolution GRRWA 04-40: Resolution Approving Expenditures of the
Authority. Motion by Commissioner
Emmett seconded by Commissioner Dunek to adopt Resolution GRRWA 04-40. No further discussion.
Motion adopted by unanimous voice vote. Resolution GRRWA 04-41: Resolution Authorizing
the Authority Director to Enter into a Hauling Agreement for Waste From the
Keokuk Transfer Station for Fiscal Year 2005. Motion by Commissioner Emmett seconded
by Commissioner Dunek to adopt Resolution GRRWA 04-41. No further
discussion. Motion adopted by
unanimous voice vote. Resolution GRRWA 04-42: Resolution Approving the Budget for Fiscal
Year 2005. Motion to table Resolution
04-42 until the next Regular Meetings was made by Commissioner Ireland
seconded by Commissioner Emmett. Motion
adopted by unanimous voice vote. Resolution GRRWA 04-43: Resolution Approving Tarp/Secure Load
Policy. Motion by Commissioner
Ireland seconded by Commissioner Dunek to adopt Resolution GRRWA 04-43. Motion was adopted by unanimous voice
vote. Resolution GRRWA 04-44: Resolution Approving the Purchase of
Equipment. Motion by Commissioner
Emmett seconded by Commissioner Dunek to adopt Resolution GRRWA 04-44. The purchase of the equipment is subject
to the inspection of the equipment by staff.
Motion adopted by unanimous voice vote. X.
Executive Session:
Possible Pending Litigation Forgone XI.
Other Business None None XIII.
Adjourn With no further
business before the Commission, Commissioner Ireland made a motion to
adjourn, seconded by Commissioner Dunek.
Motion adopted by unanimous voice vote. Approved as to form and content as adopted at the
June 23, 2004 GRRWA Commission meeting.
Wednesday - November 19, 2008 - 03:54 pm CST
SERVICES & INFORMATION
GRRWA
ADMINISTRATION
MINUTES
XII.
Board Member Comments
Lee County has attempted to insure accurate information is posted to this site. However, Lee County does not warrant nor guarantee the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of information on this site or information referenced or linked by this site.