11 - Clerk's August Monthly Report

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SAFETY The City is moving forward with its Safety Program. We have organized a joint safety training program with surrounding cities. We meet on a monthly basis and offer safety training to all employees of all of the Cities involved. The training offered is OSHA required training. The City's safety committee meets on a monthly basis. This committee has been working at putting together safety programs such as right-to-know, lockout- tagout, etc. Each program that is completed will go to Council for formal adoption. The committee also reviews all city accidents and makes recommendations for future prevention of similar accidents. We are in the process of submitted a grant to acquire safety equipment. This is a joint effort among all city departments. Jeanyne Alderson has been the Safety Secretary and takes all safety meeting minutes and organizes the safety filing. ELECTION The election process is in full swing. I have been busy training,working with election judges and getting ready for council filing which opened on August 29. I am confident that the election process will run smoothly. COUNCIL MEETINGS There were three Council meetings in August. Although the Council meetings are necessary, they do add an extra work load on the Clerk's Office. All meetings require research before the meetings, Council packets to be compiled, minutes to be taken and transcribed of the meeting and any action items by the Council to be taken care of. CITY CODE The Council budgeted $6,000 in 2006 and was going to budget another 6-7,000 in 2007 to codify the City Code. In an effort to save some money, I am attempting to do this in- house. It will take some time,but will be worth the effort. I am about 1/3 done with the project. I will have the process reviewed by our City Attorney when complete. WATER BILLING FOR SUMMER MONTHS The city has received many complaints of high water bills due to the dry weather. Watering the grass and gardens actually increases the sewer bill as sewer bills are based on water useage. Staff has done some research to try to come up with a solution to solve this issue. The Council will hear a proposal that will more accurately reflect sewer usage by eliminating outside water usage that is not contributing to the wastewater collection system. The City will use a quarterly water usage average from the months of November through January. This average will then be applied to the summer months of June through August.