Filing For Council Seats Coming Up in February
Watonga City Council had an audience of about 15 citizens when it met in regular session Tuesday evening.
That audience heard the outsourced contract for garbage collection between the city and Veterans’ Waste Solutions would actually lower most residents’ home garbage collection fees. The council agreed it would accept the base rate of $15.25 set by Veterans’ for one poly cart and add $2 to cover the city’s cost for administering the billing and handling the payments from the customer and to the company.
Resident Joe Bryan calculating quickly during the discussion, said his fee would be $17.25, less than the current $21 he pays monthly for similar service. There is still no across the board answer to residents who use dumpster pickup, which will be reserved for commercial use only, or for those whose dumpsters aren’t in good enough shape for Veterans’ to purchase and repurpose. And the solution to what happens to unused dumpsters isn’t clear, either. Council member Tina Willis said she has been approached by elderly residents who don’t know what they are going to do with the out of service containers or how they can get rid of them. The change to the city ordinance, necessary to change the collection rates, received emergency approval because it must be implemented inside the usual 60day window.
The city has four months after the change in its fiscal year and during that time the administration fee will be tracked against costs to see if it is too much, not enough or just right.
December financial statements were delivered by Dacia Phillips of RS Meacham. Those showed a city moving in the right direction, with increased revenue streams that exceeded expenditures for the month and for the first six months of the fiscal year. Two of those revenue producers, oil and gas and sales tax, were out of the ordinary at $35,000 and $58,000 over the year previous. The differences were enough that City Treasurer Rodney Jacks and Phillips were both going to go over the figures separately to ensure they were correct and represented monies the city could utilize without fear of having to repay the state.
John Morris, representing Bikes and BBQ, presented the city council with a certificate of appreciation for their support of the event last year and said the group was working to make it bigger and better this year.
Friends of the Ferguson Chapel asked the council if it would continue to subsidize the building’s utility bills. It was a long-standing agreement, but never a formal contract. The chapel is owned by the organization, not the city, and is supported by donations and small cleaning fees associated with the building’s use for weddings and funerals. The gazebo is also a favored site for senior class portraits.
City attorney Jared Harrison said the city could not bestow gifts on entities like the chapel, unless there was a formal agreement that showed how the city benefits from the partnership. That prohibition is laid out in the Oklahoma Constitution. “As it sits now, I would be very uncomfortable with it,” Harrison said. He pointed out the chapel was a good thing to have, but his duty was to prevent the council from breaking laws.
“We have to come up with a solution,” Willis said. “But if we put our heads together, we can find something. “
Resident Willis Bedard asked if it would be appropriate for the chapel to partner with a local business to cover the utilities. Mayor Bill Seitter said that would be between the two organizations involved and was beyond the city’s purview.
Another ordinance receiving a once over was the one dealing with the two one-percentage rate (1%) sales taxes collected on behalf of Mercy Hospital. The change in the ordinance was the sunset date, moving it out five years. This was necessary so that the collection could be placed on the April ballot.
Seitter pointed out that if the referendum passes, it will benefit only the hospital, not the clinic, and would support any health care organization that took on the management of the facility. Mercy is currently in the portion of its lease that allows for one-year renewals if desired by both parties to the contract. There are 13 renewals allowed on the contract.
Council also approved the setting of an election for open seats on the council. Those are three 4-year seats and one 2-year seat. Ward seats may only be sought and filled by residents who live in that ward, while the at-large seat is open to anyone who lives inside city limits. Ward designations are shown on the city web page and on maps in City Hall.