January Council Meeting 2024
This year, our agenda and regular meetings are both held in the 2nd floor Chambers of City Hall. They are also both live streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
This post covers both agenda prep and what was covered in full meeting.
See the full agenda items here:
Personnel Committee
Paul Gray (chairman), Seth Bradley, Michele Barraza, and Emily Young
The personnel committee submitted an ordinance that would amend the City Personnel Policy and Procedure Handbook.
Adding a provision to the Vacancies and Promotions to allow the mayor to appoint an interim Department Head if necessary due to a vacancy of the position.
Removing a paragraph dealing with the limit on leave contributions an employee can donate in the catastrophic leave bank.
Changing the timeframe for an employee to submit reimbursable expenses from 90 days to 60 days.
Finance Committee
Eric Westcott (chairman), Nathan George, Justin Keller, and Chris Olson.
Item 1: Uses $68,971.49 of the 2022 carry-over balance to provide funding for a key card entry system for the City Hall Building.
Item 2: Allows the Mayor and City Clerk-Treasurer to go ahead and sign an Agreement for calendar year 2024, along with any other papers needed, to partner with the Russellville and Boys & Girls Club by providing $100,000 in funding for programs.
Item 3: Uses $109,920 from the RSVL EMS Service Fund to pay for EMS ambulance assignment pay ($39,420), special assignment pay ($13,000), and EMS part-time pay ($57,500).
Item 4: Uses $30,115 from the Criminal Justice Ord 1014 Fund to purchase a new Toyota Camry to be used for transporting to and from the Academy after the previous vehicle was totaled in a wreck.
Item 5: Uses $314,183.88 from the COPS Hiring Grant to pay for hiring five police officers.
Item 6: Allows the City to provide a 10% discount to all self-pay patients without insurance if their bill is paid in full within 30 days of service.
Item 7: Allows reimbursement of $26,919.74 to the Boys and Girls Club for the 4th quarter of 2023. (This was tabled until the February agenda prep meeting because the council had not received the receipts that this reimbursement is for)
Unfinished Old Business
Item 1: Vacates a twenty-foot alley behind lot 3 on the 1000 block of N Greenwich Ave.
Item 2: Consolidates the various ordinances involving public safety, declares any violation of these consolidated codes to be a misdemeanor, and corrects any grammatical or other clerical errors in the process of the update.
Item 3: Consolidates the various ordinances involving traffic and parking offenses, declares any violation of these to be a civil violation, and corrects any grammatical or other clerical errors in the process of the update.
Item 4: Consolidates the various ordinances involving city franchise fees with utilities for the use of the city's right of ways,
Item 5: Amending the Russellville Oakland Cemetery Commission Code to have quarterly commission meetings instead of monthly.
Item 6: Adopting the updated text in the city code for the following:
Data Centers
Noise limits
Short Term Rentals
Item 7: Rezoning an R-2 to M-1 at 725 South Macon Ave, directly south of the wrecker service.
Item 8: Updating the city administration code by adding Article IV: City Initiative and Referendum Petition Filing Time Periods.
New Business
Item 1: Adding the Storm Water Management and Drainage to the Board of Adjustment instead of a separate committee, as they haven't really met in years.
Item 2: Extending a sewage line outside of city limits but within the city's planning boundary for a new RV campground at an existing church facility at Transformation Life Church.
Item 3: Rezoning property along Macon Ave from C2 (highway commercial)/R2 (multifamily residential) to M1(light industrial). This would fix spot zoning issues that have been in place for over 20 years and align that area with existing property types.
Item 4: Discussion with Waste Management. Short version: Jamie Vernon, the Public Sector Manager for Arkansas, gave an update to the council on what has changed and what improvements they've implemented: more trash trucks and personnel, bringing in a new route manager, better communications with customers via City Corp alert system when trash service will be impacted. Multiple council members voiced ongoing concerns about customers being missed, having cans damaged, and having no recourse for unsatisfactory service. The council decided to form a committee to talk about whether the Waste Management contract should be terminated or not. * I am working on a retrospective of the city's agreement with Waste Management and what options would be best for the community moving forward. I hope to post that by next council meeting.
Video of agenda prep meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLzwj9msLGM
Video of full council meeting: