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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-12-13 SpecialMinutes of Special Meeting of Board of Aldermen of City of Riverside, Missouri December 13, 2005 A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen of the City o f Riverside, Missouri was held in the Riverside City Hall of Riverside, Missouri on December 13, 2005 at 6:00 p.m. Those in attendance were Mayor Pro Tem Beazd, Aldermen Looker, Darata, Super Jones and Legaazd. Mayor Burch, Absent. Also present were David Blackburn, City Administrator, Louise Rusick, City Clerk, Chief Greg Mills, John Jackson, City Engineer, Brent Miles, Consultant for the City and John McClelland and Benn Prell, City Attorney's office. Motion for Closed Alderman Looker moved that the meeting go into closed session, pursuant to Session at 6:15 p.m. RSMO 610.021(1) for discussion of Legal Issues and RSMo 610.021(2) Real Estate with the City attorney, seconded by Alderman Super, the vote was: Aye: Alderman Beard, Dazata, Jones, Super, Looker and Legaazd. Motion Carries. Motion for Open Alderman Darata moved that the meeting go into open session, seconded by Session at 7:00 p.m. Alderman Super, and the vote was: Aye: Alderman Looker, Darata, Legaazd, Beazd, Jones and Super. Motion Carries. Matt Meyer, Matt Meyer, American Red Cross, Kansas City, Missouri thanked the boazd for American Red their support and said the last time he was in the chamber was May 2003 when Cross speaks to the Senator Bond was at the here to speak with Northlanders about the recovery board efforts after the tornado. Recently he has been in New Orleans after hurricane "Katrina" with other Red Cross volunteers and 199 other volunteers from the Kansas City azea that responded. Many of those came from the Northland, including Riverside and upon his return from New Orleans there were 15 fires in the metropolitan azea. The City of Riverside has been very supportive and just wanted to let the city know they're very appreciative of the support received from the city and a strong partnership and relationship and knows if Riverside needs them the city will call the American Red Cross. Bill No. 2005-143 Alderman Looker moved to place Bill No. 2005-143 on its first reading, said Author. the change of Bill authorizing the change of rank of Public Safety Reserve C.W. (Randy) of rank & hiring of Pace who resigned his position as Reserve Public Safety Officer to the position certain employees Auxiliary services with a salary of $10.00 per hour effective December 14, 2005, within P.S. and hire Eleanore Ann Starbuck to the Auxiliary position with a salary of $10.00 per hour and starting December 16, 2005, seconded by Alderman Super, the vote was: Aye: Aldermen Legaazd, Beazd, Looker, Jones, Super and Dazata. Motion carries. Ordinance No. 2005-143 Alderman Darata moved to place Bill No. 2005-143 on its second reading, Approved and upon passage of same become Ordinance No. 2005-143, seconded by Alderman Jones, the vote was: Aye: Aldermen Legaard, Looker, Jones, Datata, Super and Beazd. Motion carries. Aldermen's comments Alderman Super asked why is the city entering into an agreement with the Platte County KCI Convention and Tourism Bureau when we now have the Tourism Tax in place. David said there isn't a committee formed, as yet, but when it is, the city could be reimbursed the fee the Bureau is asking for. Alderman Looker said we don't know how many dollars has been collected, at this time. Bill No. 2005-144 Alderman Darata moved to place Bill No. 2005-144 on its first reading, Author. the city to said Bill authorizing the City of Riverside to enter into a services agreement enter into a services with and pay certain funds to the Platte County-KCI Convention and Tourism agreement with the Bureau and the city shall pay $11,200.00 for such services, seconded by Platte Cty KCI Con- Alderman Legaazd, the vote was: vention& Tourism Bureau Aye: Aldermen Darata, Jones, Super, Legaazd, Beard and Looker. Motion carries. Ordinance No. 2005-144 Alderman Looker moved to place Bill No. 2005-144 on its second reading, Approved and upon passage of same become Ordinance No. 2005-144, seconded by Alderman Jones, the vote was: Aye: Aldermen Legaazd, Looker, Jones, Darata, Super and Beazd. Motion carries. The City of Riverside Alderman Looker moved to approve the City of Riverside to serve as the to serve as the "Pass "Pass Through" entity for the Homeless Challenge Program making it possible Through Entity" for for United Services to receive funds and get services out to the community the Homeless Challenge and this contract runs from October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006, Program, Approved seconded by Alderman Dazata, the vote was: Aye: Aldermen Super, Darata, Jones, Legaazd, Beard and Looker. Motion carries. Fireworks Discussion The Mayor asked that a committee be formed to address fireworks problems and present their suggestions (topics) to the board. The board asked the staff to put together an analysis and it will now be presented to the public. Brent Miles summarized the Fireworks Staff Report: "Licensing Fee" stating the recommendation for cleanup would be a for the staff for administer and now suggests the city provide the cleanup problem. • "Application Period" the staff recommends to set the cut-off date for applications to be received at the city to be Mazch 1~` with all information in by Mazch 15th. • "Landowner License" the staff recommends the tent operator and landowners both be responsible parties and the permit to be revised so both signatures of both parties is required on the permit. • "Separate Licenses" staff recommends each retail spot have a separate license. • "Insurance" staff recommends $5,000,000 and the city named as an additional insured. • "Security Requirements" staff recommends security personnel, operators must hire qualified (licensed) Riverside Public Safety officers or off-duty Riverside officers or Platte County or private security that is licensed in our city. • `~azking" staff says 15 spaces is not enough and they recommend 20 spaces. • "Bottle Rockets" staff recommends no selling of bottle rockets. The infor- mation derived on bottle rockets came from two other states a total propellant charge of less than 4 grams, a casing of less than 5/8 of an inch for the outside diameter and less than 3 'h "in length and an overall length of less than 15". • "Security" the security hired has not been verified by the Riverside Depart- ment of Public Safety and staff believes this imposes a safety risk to the public and vendors. Staff recommends that each retailer have a security guazd present that meets requirements (1) Riverside Public Safety Officer or off-duty officer or Platte County Sheriff s Deputy or a private security guard licensed with the City of Riverside. Board comments Alderman Super asked if the clean up program was implemented "Would this make the vendors less or more responsible for what goes on?" Brent said this can best be answered by the vendors. Mayor Pro Tem Beazd said most the complaints have come from the citizens from the fireworks being shot in the neighborhoods and not being cleaned up. Brent said we have a duty to see the city is cleaned up. Fireworks vendors Joe Digiovanni, 6110 N. Kensington Ct. Kansas City, Mo 64119 comments addressed the term "Hazazd Insurance". Brent said this isn't the specific terminology. Joe said asking for $5,000,000 insurance coverage would raise the cost of his insurance to $20,000. a year. Joe said his company is one of the largest of 5 companies in the U.S. that specializes in fireworks. His insurance company questions the justification of this large increase since the City has such an excellent safety record for over 50 years. Joe said the only $5,000,000 policy required by the federal government is for 1.3 million is for commercial fireworks and that is only required when they aze interstate commerce. All of the cities in Missouri, including Kansas City, Mo requires $1,000,000 liability policies for 1.3 display permits and 1.3 commercial fireworks aze many times more hazazdous than 1.4 consumer fireworks. They require special training and handling. Joe said his business has always been heavily regulated by federal and state laws. He's asking for the city's help to survive and continue to give the people what they want on the 4th of July and other occasions. He asked, "What hours is security expected to be on the premises?" Chief Mills said all hours of operation. Joe said his security is the Platte County Sheriff's Department and uses them on July 2,3,4 depending on how the days go and also on July 1~`. To have security before that, there is not enough business. He believes there is no other business along Gateway that has this type of security, including two banks, restaurant and one of the busiest Quik Trips in the Kansas City area. Kurt Eckazd, 5100 High Drive said he had a landowner license question. He said he doesn't know of any business in the U.S that is forced to have a landowner on his license. Kurt said he sees an issue because the landowner could want half of the profit of sales. He thinks an attorney could take this to court and enforce this and the fireworks vendor would have to pay the landowner. He thinks the landowner may not want to be held responsible for his any issues he may have with the business. He says he already lets the city know who the landowner is and places them on the insurance as a n additional insured. As far as the security goes, Kurt said he doesn't hire security because the city's officers and Platte County decided several years ago they needed to pay them time and a half and double time and a half for the holiday and raised the rates from $12.or $15. an hour, whatever their wage was and raised the it to almost $30 per hour and that cost made him cut down security, at times to one or two people when he used to hire three or four. He said he cannot afford to pay an officer all the time the stand is open. At this rate he figures it would cost roughly, $10,000 for security and he can't afford the cost. He said the bottles rockets are already banned from shooting. He feels they would lose quite a bit of business on the sale of bottle rockets by banning them, when customers can go somewhere else and buy them. John Blogin, 8224 N. Bradford Ct. Kansas City, Mo said if he bought $5,000,000 of insurance it would cost him $12-$22,000. There wouldn't be enough officers with the city and Platte County together to hire security all the time the stands are open. He said he uses Platte Woods officers (4) at his busiest time. John said it would cost $8,000 for continuous hours of operation. As far as bottle rockets, fireworks have become safer each yeaz. The federal government spends $2 million a year on testing. Mike Manning, Polo, Mo said the increased request for insurance would eat up the profit. It was stated with the dimensions that are given for bottle rockets, it is believed this would eliminate bottle rockets thataze allowed in other states that do not allow bottle rockets and this would-take away most all rockets, but that's not how it is in most states. Lee Boggess, 1901Highway H, Liberty, Mo said he has sold fireworks here for several years and would like to see the bottle rockets stay and be sold by the gross as it has always been stated. The definition given of the bottle is wrong. It would take out most rockets, not the small bottle rockets. He is asking the boazd to consider April l-April 15'" for the licensing period. Lee said the $5,000,000 insurance request is neazly unobtainable because the price could run into excess of $15,000 per location. He did check and the standard insurance is $1,000,000. The security from June 20'~ through July 4'~ at $25.00 per hour or more, it is cost prohibitive, but does run security on the busiest days, the 2°d,3`~ and 4`~, sometimes using 4 officers. Lee asked the board to consider this. Mike Koska-2421 Vivion Road, mentioned the information (dimensions) of bottle rockets) coming from other states. Mike said most of the people have the highest standards of insurance. As faz as security, everyone can ca11911. He suggest looking further and in depth for security and said a voluntary basis works good. Mike distributed information on bottle rockets dimensions as '/," diameter, 2' long and total length 10 '/x" long. He said John Blogin and him have over 102 years safety experience on bottle rockets. Mike said to enforce the law, clarification needs to be made on the dimensions. He said he couldn't imagine why the board would want to prohibit bottle rockets when it's approved, both state and federal. To eliminate bottle rockets, twenty- five to thirty per cent of sales would be lost in the first yeaz. Mike said "Prohibition doesn't work". To comply with the request for all time security and higher insurance coverage, there would be no competition and this would put the pioneers out of business. He thinks a correct definition of bottle rockets needs to be made. Zeke Young, thanked the board for getting all the vendors together. He thinks the additional licensing fee is good for the clean up. He like the idea of April as the application period. Zeke says the $5,000,000 request for the insurance is excessive and he feels the fireworks know the amount of insurance they need. Zeke says there needs to be clarification on bottle rockets. and he would like to see them taken away. Parking for his area is fine as he is in a different situation. Zeke asked if police officers could be hired outside of Platte County. Chief Mills said they have no authority as the Platte County Sheriff would have to deputize and he doubts that Platte County would do this. It would cost him at least $36,000.00 to have security all the time and this is neazly impossible. He is requesting the boazd to trust the operators to know when they need security. Mayor Pro Tem Beard said the board will revisit the fireworks issues and bring back at a neaz future meeting. Brent said he would investigate, do reseazch and have a revised draft report for the meeting when decided upon the date. Recess A brief recess was called at 8:20 p.m. Reconvened All Aldermen and the Mayor responded to roll call and the meeting reconvened at 8:30 p.m. Motion for Closed Alderman Looker moved that the meeting go into closed session, pursuant to Session at 8:30 p.m. RSMo 610.021(1) legal issues and RSMo 610.021(2) real estate with the City Attorney, seconded by Alderman Legaard, and the vote was: Aldermen Beazd, Darata, Jones, Super, Looker and Legaard. Motion carries. Motion for Open Alderman Beazd moved that the meeting go into open session, seconded by Session at 9:30 p.m. Alderman Legaazd, and the vote was: Aye: Alderman Jones, Beard, Super, Darata, Looker and Legaazd. Motion carries. There will be a special meeting January 9~ at 7:00 p.m. to discuss fireworks. and a special meeting January 10`~ at 7:00 pm. Adjournment By unanimous decision, the meeting adjo at 9:3 p.m. ity Jerk