The March 7th meeting of the Eagle Grove city council started off with the Pledge of Allegiance, spoken with conviction by all present, in this time of international conflict. Then, Pastor Jason Cooper of the Eagle Grove Evangelical Lutheran Church led the faithful in attendance in a prayer. Then Mayor McGrath called the meeting to order, and opened the public forum.
Local resident Denise Baker started out by asking City Attorney Brett Legvold where the city was with corrections to the planned Rotary subdivision, and whether the plots would be resurveyed soon. “Working on it,” Legvold replied, “one of many things I’m working on.” Legvold then gave more detail, “the engineers gave me an affidavit that is gonna correct their issues with it, and then I’ll file the normal paperwork,” legvold explained, and then jokingly added, “and you can tell me if you don’t like it.” Getting a laugh from Baker and others.
Then another local resident, Steven Asche, took to the podium to ask several pointed questions about the Rec Center plans. “I’m not against it, don’t get me wrong,” Asche began, pointing out that he was part of the feasibility study in the 1980’s, when the local government also tried to bring a rec center to town, unsuccessfully. Asche then proceeded to needle the council with several specific questions in rapid fire. The gist of Asche’s questions went to the details of process, which Asche stated was what he was in opposition to, rather than the Rec Center project itself.
With multiple questions on the table in a matter of minutes, Mayor McGrath attempted to speak to the heart of the matter, pointing out that the Rec Center planning began a few years before, and would be operated by a non-profit created for that purpose, much like the daycare center Eagle’s Wings operates. Asche didn’t seem to accept that answer, and threw out a few more questions. “It’s like any other project,” the Mayor replied, using the analogy of building a house with grant funds. “If I give you grant dollars to build a house at 10, 20% up to $40,000, it’s no longer in my hands, it’s in yours.”
“The city’s obligation in this project is to provide an economic development grant to support a non-profit owned and operated recreation center,” The parks board, city council, city staff, can have an opinion, but ultimately are not in charge of the day to day decision making. In the long term the city and the non-profit will likely enter into a services agreement together.”
On several occasions Asche raised the specter of conflicts of interest, asking if there were conflicts of interest among members of the council, employees of the city, or members of the Parks and Recreation board. Mayor McGrath pointed out that for a conflict of interest to exist, under the legal definition, there would have to be a personal gain, which the mayor pointed out wasn’t the case. Asche expressed a broader definition, to include if people served in multiple capacities, or lived outside of town. “Well you have city employees on the park board,” Asche asked. “No,” the mayor replied.
Asche then pressed the issue of people who lived out of town serving on city boards as a “conflict of interest”. “I can’t go to Thor and vote on things,” Asche pointed out. “It would be like if there was a business owner that owned a business uptown, and lived out in the country,” McGrath explained. “And we allocated the money for that property. It’s pretty… I honestly don’t see, I don’t know about you, I don’t see any legal issue or conflict of interest. As long as no one is making any monetary gain –”
“No, they’re not being paid,” Asche interrupted, switching the focus from out of towners “but if they were a city employee, they could be swayed. That’s a conflict of interest.”
“Employees, potentially, yes,” McGrath responded.
His concerns about possible conflicts of interest apparently assuaged, Asche moved on to several other questions. Ultimately, City Administrator Bryce Davis offered to answer the rest of Asche’s questions through correspondence, as the number of questions was greater than could really be addressed in the time allotted. Which Asche agreed to.
The meeting then proceeded into the consent agenda which passed without a hitch, approving the minutes from the February 21st meeting, payment claims due, building permits and liquor licenses.
The council then reviewed a proclamation supporting Iowa Honey Bee Day. See the related story in this edition of the Eagle.
The council then reviewed and took suggestions on the 2022 Flowing Well Redevelopment Project. With project engineer Becky Schwab of the Short Elliot Hendrickson company showing artist’s renderings of three different variations of potential design, seeking input from the community.
Then the council reviewed and discussed the Restrictive Covenants for Lots one through twelve of the planned Rotary addition. Uncovering several questions to consider further, the council tabled the agenda item to take action on the resolution approving the covenants.
The council then heard from Police Chief Ray Beltran, who spoke about the department’s plans to raise awareness. in partnership with school administrators, of the growing problems of vaping and marijuana edibles being used by younger and younger kids. But ended on a brighter note, pointing out that the volume of police calls in the prior month had been lowered along with the temperature.
City Administrator Davis then pointed out that the City Hall would be closed for the coming three days for renetworking, to improve the availability, quality, storage, and speed of City Hall’s internet access.
Before Adjourning, Mayor McGrath noted how lucky Eagle Grove had been to avoid the tornadic weather that tragically struck towns not that far to the south. “It’s really unfortunate, and it blows my mind that in February, March, and well, in December we did too, have such wind events and tornadoes. Let’s keep those communities in mind.” McGrath said, noting that while Eagle Grove has had a taste of severe weather of its own, what happened to nearby communities in the previous days was “devastating”, urging people to “keep ’em in your prayers.”
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