The Taylor Mill city commission will now host caucus meetings following a recent vote.
Caucus meetings allow local governments to meet to discuss items of importance or for consideration without taking legislative action.
It also allows a quorum of elected officials to gather without violating the open meetings law.
Commissioner Mark Kreimborg, who said that he would not vote against the idea, expressed his discomfort.
He said that when he was mayor in the 1990s, the city hosted caucus meetings, but he believed that it often repeated information since the caucus and regular commission meetings were often scheduled close together.
He also has issues with a consent agenda, when multiple legislative items are lumped together and then voted on as one. Kreimborg said that if caucus meetings result in a consent agenda, it limits the information being presented during the meeting to those who attend only the legislative meetings.
While the commission voted to add caucus meetings to their calendar, they agreed not to include a consent agenda.
City Attorney Jack Gatlin will draw up the ordinance for caucus meetings, which will be read at the regular meeting in January.
The caucus meeting will be scheduled for the fourth Wednesday of the month with an hour to be set later.
In other business, the city commission voted unanimously to shutter the bathrooms at Pride Park for the winter season, with a reopening planned for the spring.
Mayor Dan Bell said that vandals destroyed parts of the bathroom previously.
The commission declined to approve a $20,000 contract for CT Consultants to create plans for an amphitheater at Pride Park. The city expects to be able to use federal funds distributed through coronavirus relief legislation to improve the park. The city commission expressed discomfort in committing that amount of money without knowing for sure that the city would be reimbursed.
The issue may be revisited in February.
The commission, however, approved a $25,000 expenditure for CT Consultants to begin preliminary work on a new firehouse, if the city decides to build one rather than to renovate the existing one.
Commissioners also voted to raise the pay for the police lieutenant position, from $31.02 to $34.62 per hour. The move is to meet the expectations that often the lieutenant role fills in as assistant chief.
Commissioners voted to pass a municipal order which authorizes a salt spreader to be declared surplus property so that it can be sold on Govdeals.com.
Another municipal order passed which hired Logan Crigler as a full time firefighter for the Fire department. Crigler took the oath of office and was given his helmet while his family looked on.
-Patricia A. Scheyer, RCN contributor
The city wanted to know how much it would be for CT Consultants to do a preliminary work up on a new firehouse versus renovating the older firehouse. The amount would be $25,000, but it would be very preliminary, and it wouldn’t include drawings. Commissioners voted for it, because they thought it had to start somewhere in their decision on the firehouse.
They did not vote, however, for a CT Consultants study on creating an amphitheater in Pride Park using funds the city will probably receive from the AARPA funds, money created out of the Covid crisis to help people continue to have recreational events despite the pandemic.
Mayor Bell said that many cities have already committed to funds for their parks even though the criteria for spending the AARPA funds have not been fully determined yet. Many of the cities are building or improving amphitheaters, such as Independence, but the consultant fee for Taylor Mill would be almost $20,000, and commissioners were leery of spending that amount without a definite promise of reimbursing funds.Commissioners voted to table the issue for two months, and revisit it in February, to see if the guidelines for the money have been more determined.