By Steven Martens
The start of a special city council meeting in Clinton was delayed Friday morning by an effort to comply with Iowa’s open meetings, or “sunshine” law.
After Mayor Rodger Holm called the 11 a.m. meeting to order, council member Mike Kearney, 2nd Ward, spoke up and said the notice of the special meeting had not been e-mailed to council members and the public until 11:11 a.m. on Thursday. Iowa’s open meetings law requires that the public be notified of council meetings at least 24 hours in advance.
So Holm adjourned the meeting, and everyone in the council chambers sat and waited for about five more minutes until 11:11 a.m., when the meeting was opened a second time, including a second recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
I don’t know when Mike Kearney received his notice, but the e-mail notification about the meeting I received, which was sent as part of a group e-mail sent to council members, city department heads and other members of the news media, was received in my inbox at 10:12 a.m. on Thursday.
Kurt Allemeier
From tune-ups to using outdoor LED lights to turning down the thermostat two degrees in the winter, the Scott County Board of Supervisors heard several ways to go even greener.
Earlier this year, the county, that has a “green team” to consider implementing environmental practices, purchased the first two hybrids to its vehicle fleet.
During a recent committee of the whole meeting, Dave Donovan, director of facility and support services, ran down a checklist of environmental practices provided as part of the Bi-State Regional Commission’s Clean Air Partnership.
Donovan told the board the county is within the acceptable air quality standards, but only barely, so that every little bit helps.
Many of the practices were already in place, Donovan said, adding that others weren’t practical. Here are the practices the board is considering implementing:
- Tune up vehicles every 5,000-10,000 miles, adjust brakes and check tire pressure regularly.
- Practice “right size vehicle” policy of the proper vehicle for the task for which it’s needed.
- Avoid quick starts, excessive idling and maintain a constant speed over the course of a trip.
- Implement anti-idling policy.
- Offer telecommuting and teleconferencing, especially for out-of-county meetings.
- Encourage carpooling with preferential parking spaces. Donovan said this will be implemented at the new consolidated dispatching center and could be added at the county’s downtown campus.
- Encourage biking and walking to work by providing showers and secure bike racks. Donovan told the board bike racks are available and that showers could be made available to employees.
- Offer employee education on smart driving techniques.
- Use LED outdoor lighting.
- Use Energy Star and energy efficient equipment.
- Set thermostat two degrees warmer in the summer and two degrees cooler in the winter. Use timers to turn down heat/air conditioning in the evenings and on weekends. This practice spurred the most discussion from board members who said it is hard to please everyone by doing adusting the thermostat.
- Use low energy mode or shut off electronics when not in use.
- Invest in alternative energy or implement building-level alternative energy. The new dispatching center will have a geothermal heating/air conditioning system.
- Implement a recycling program that incorporates paper, plastic, cardboard, glass and metal. The county already recycles some of these items.
- Reduce mowing times by using native landscaping.
- Purchase non-toxic and water-based office supplies.
- Buy recycled products and choose products with recycled/recyclable packaging.
- Buy products from environmentally responsible companies.
- Use and advocate alternative transportation.
How many of these are you doing at home?
The ad hoc committee formed in August to find an operator for the Clinton marina restaurant will present information about a potential candidate during Tuesday’s Committee-of-the-Whole meeting. The meeting will immediately follow the City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
The identity of the potential candidate has not been revealed, but the committee will ask council members to place the issue on the agenda for a regular Council meeting to begin negotiating a lease agreement.
The restaurant, which has room to seat 200 people inside and another 100 people on a deck that overlooks the new Clinton marina and the Mississippi River, remained unopened all summer as city officials worked to find an operator for the restaurant. The interior of the restaurant is not finished because city officials wanted to let the restaurant operator make decisions about the interior design.
Jim Golinvaux, who has 45 years of restaurant experience and served as an advisor to the committee, told council members in August it would take nine to 11 months to get the restaurant opened once an operator had been chosen.
Kurt Allemeier
The low bid for a geothermal system may not make the agenda of Thursday’s Scott Emergency Communication Center board when the board is expected to approve the $7.28 million construction project.
The bids were fairly broad, ranging from the low bid of $298,555 to $444,550, said Dave Donovan, Scott County director of facility and support services. One contractor expressed concerns on the specifications. The project is budgeted at $400,000.
A meeting with the contractor is scheduled for Thursday, potentially knocking it off the agenda for the SECC board meeting at 5 p.m. He also plans to talk to the project engineer to see if a delay would cause any problems in construction.
“We may pull it just to do due dilligence on this,” Donovan said.
The low bid was submitted by Barker Lemar, of West Des Moines. No local companies submitted bids.
Kurt Allemeier
The Scott County Board of Supervisors offered words of praise at its Tuesday morning meeting about a pair of awards that seem to arrive like clockwork at this time of year.
The county received Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada. This is the 22ndstraight year the county has received the award, and Scott County six counties in Scott County to receive the certificate.
The award also shows the continuing quality the county has in its accounting and management since half the team that gained praise from the board, Auditor Roxana Moritz and Treasurer Bill Fennelly have been in the job for about a year.
Along with Craig Hufford, financial management supervisor for the Treasurer, and Wes Rostenbach, accounting and tax manager for the Auditor, county administrator Dee Bruemmer and budget manager Sarah Kautz, who joined the county with the retirement of administrator Ray Wierson, were singled out.
Also, this is the fifth year in a row the county has won a Digital Counties award from the National Association of Counties, recognizing innovation and hard work. The county received third place for its population size. Illinois’ Peoria County finished just below Scott County in fourth place.
Kurt Allemeier
Davenport residents spoke at Davenport’s council meeting Wednesday asking the council to change the language on an ordinance for maintaining boulevards and private property. The changes would set new requirements for drainage areas, like creeks and retention ponds.
In response, several aldermen had stories to tell about drainage problems in their wards, whether it was water backing up near shopping centers or washing out part of a creek bank.
In the end, the council voted to approve the second consideration of the ordinance but asked city staff to adjust and tighten the language to ease residents concerns before the vote on the third and final consideration of the ordinance.
Kurt Allemeier
Scott County Administrator Dee Bruemmer vowed to find ways to save $1 million before the start of the fiscal year 2010-2011 budget. She is more than half of the way to her goal. The “wall of savings” outside her office has $572,303 in savings posted through various cost-saving measures.
The “wall of savings” is part of lean process reviews being done department by department throughout the county. Bruemmer said 1-2 percent can usually be found in savings when you start looking closely.
“It is a process of asking ‘why are we doing this?,’” Bruemmer said this week.
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Ed Tibbetts
People who know Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba know that his political heros were Humbert Humphrey and Edward Kennedy. Listen to Gluba long enough and he’ll end up quoting Humphrey. He also ran Kennedy’s Scott County presidential campaign in 1980.
So strong did Gluba feel about the two that he’s tried to pay his respects at both their funerals, Humphrey’s in 1978 and Kennedy’s this weekend.
It’s not like an Iowa mayor earns invitations to such events, so it requires some mettle. And some luck.
Gluba may have both working for him.
On Friday, he took an early flight to Boston and had the fortune of running into Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, who was on a connecting flight to Boston for the services himself. Gluba is hoping that will give him an entree to pay his respects at Friday’s private service.
Culver’s father, former Sen. John Culver of Iowa was a good friend and a former roommate of Kennedy’s. He’s in Boston, too, Gluba says.
If it happens, it will be somewhat of a repeat of Humphrey’s service, when the mayor says he got in then through the auspices of then-U.S. Sen. Dick Clark, an Iowa Democrat. Gluba says he ran into Clark on a connecting flight to Minnesota on the way to the Humphrey service, and the late senator was good enough to temporarily make him (or at least call him) a member of his staff.
Gluba says he sat next to Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.
The mayor says he’ll let us know what happens in Boston.
The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Thursday marking the 30th anniversary of being professionally managed by a county administrator. The position was created in 1979.
Only four people have held the position. Edward Gallagher was the first, but served for only about 18 months. F. Glen Erickson held the position for 20 years, retiring in 2001. Ray Wierson, guided the county from 2001 to 2008. Dee Bruemmer is the current administrator.
The administrator has the primary duty of preparing the annual budget and responsible for the development of public policy alternatives and recommendation for consideration by the Board.
Though many Iowa cities have administrators or managers, Scott County is the only one in Iowa with a professional administrator.
David Heitz
The city of Bettendorf has made Money magazine’s recent list of the top 100 small towns in the nation for families to live.
Bettendorf, Pop. 32,400, finished 80th on the list among towns with populations of 8,500 to 50,000. Among the city’s assets, the magazine listed the Isle Casino and Hotel, Family Museum and Splash Landing. Above all, the magazine noted that Bettendorf is one of the few cities in the nation to have a fiber optic network available to all of its businesses.
Congratulations, Bettendorf.
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