City of West Frankfort City Council met May 9.
Here are the minutes provided by the council:
1. Commissioner Howard Called The Meeting To Order At 6:00 P.M. Requesting A Roll Call. All Commissioners, And Deputy City Clerk Were In Attendance. The City Clerk And City Attorney Were Not In Attendance.
2. The Next Item Was Swearing In Of Commissioners. Judge Tom Tedeschi Was Invited To Swear In Jerry Harkins, Keith Howard, Roger Stanley, And Linda Warren Who Were All Re- Elected Commissioners.
3. The Next Item Was Swearing In Of The New Mayor Tim Arview.
Judge Tom Tedeschi Also Swore In The Newly Elected Mayor Tim Arview.
4. The Next Item Was Approval Of The Minutes From The April 25, 2023 Regular Council Meeting. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
5. Mayor Arview Stated It Is State Law That We Have To Assign The Commissioners. Pursuant To 65 ILCS 5/4-5-3 Which States That The Council At The First Regular Meeting After An Election Of A Member Or Members Shall Designate By A Majority Vote One Commissioner To Be Commissioner Of Accounts And Finances, One To Be Commissioner Of Public Health And Safety, One To Be Commissioner Of Streets And Public Improvements, And One To Be Commissioner Of Public Property. The Council Will Now Take Those Votes. I Hereby Make A Recommendation To The Council That The Current Assignments Remain As They Are. So That Is Jerry Harkins Remain The Commissioner Of Public Health And Safety, Keith Howard Remain The Commissioner Of Accounts And Finances, Roger Stanley Remain Commissioner Of Streets And Public Improvements, And That Linda Warren Remain The Commissioner Of Public Property. And I Would Entertain A Motion To That Effect. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
6. The Next Item Was Mayoral Appointments. The Mayor Stated This Is Another Thing We Have To Do After Every Election. So Pursuant To 65 ILCS 5/3.1-30-5a Which States The Mayor With The Advice Of The City Council May Appoint And It Names A Number Of Them. A Treasurer, Collector Who According To Our Ordinances Is The City Clerk. A Comptroller, An Attorney And Or Corporate Council And Other Officers Necessary To Carry Into Effect The Powers Conferred Upon Municipalities. So, I Will Now Make My Appointments To The Council For Approval.
A. For City Attorney The Mayor Stated He Hereby Appoints Mr. David Garavalia. And He Would Make A Motion That The Council Would Approve It And Stated He Needs A Second On That. Commissioner Harkins Stated He Would Make A Motion That We Approve That. The Mayor Stated He Made The Motion So Did You Want To Second That? Commissioner Harkins Stated Yes, I Will Second That. The Mayor Asked If There Were And Discussions Or Questions On That. Commissioner Warren Stated Can He (Mayor) Make The Motion? The Mayor Is Supposed To Recommend, Right? The Mayor Stated That He Can Make The Motion Also, But Yes, Typically The Mayor Would Not Make The Motion With Those Things But, It Is Allowed Other Cities Have Done It. Commissioner Stanley Asked Who Is This Guy You Have Picked? The Mayor Stated He Is An Attorney At Benton, And Asked Mr. Garavalia To Speak. Mr. Garavalia Stated He Is A Lawyer From Benton Who Has Been A Lawyer For Forty-Three Years. I Have Represented McLeansboro For About 6-7 Years, Currently Represent The Village Of Hanaford, And Several Other Townships Roads. He Stated He Does Not Know Any Of The Folks On The Council. The Mayor Stated He Met Dave A While Back We Have Talked A Lot And I Feel Like His Wife Is On The Council In Benton, They Are Good People, Good Christian People, So That's Why I Recommend Him. Mr. Garavalia Stated He Did Work With The City Of Benton A While Back For Five (5) Years Or More. He Was The Zoning Guy, Tif Guy, I Was The Enterprise Zone Guy, And The Real Estate Guy. And He Did Some City Attorney Work Too So He Is Not A Stranger To What Goes On In Cities Or Municipalities.
The Mayor Stated So We Do Have A Motion And A Second, Any Other Discussion Or Questions About Anything? If Not Call Roll. Mayor Arview, Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Howard Stated He Is Not Sure We Are Doing This Right, And Both Commissioner Stanley And Warren Agreed They Didn't Think It Was Being Done Right. Commissioner Stanley Asked Can We Table This? Mayor Arview Stated Yes, We Can Table This And Commissioner Stanley Stated He Would Like To Have A Discussion About This. Just So They Can Know A Little Bit More About These People Instead Of Just Going Forward With Everything. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Table, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Commissioner Warren Asked If There Is A Motion On The Floor Can You Table It Without Voting? Commissioner Howard Stated He Did Not Know That Either. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Agreed To Table. Motion Failed.
The Mayor Stated He Will Come Up With Something Or We Do Not Have To Do The Appointments Tonight. Commissioner Stanley Stated He Would Like To Hold Off On The Appointments Until We Can Sit Down And Talk About Stuff. Commissioner Warren Stated She Wished Someone Could Tell Them If They Could Run A Meeting Without A Lawyer. Someone In The Audience Stated I Think You Can.
B. City Clerk -As Some Of You May Know Our Previous Clerk Retired As Of May 1st, 2023. And So Then That Falls To Me To Make An Appointment For A Clerk. And After A Lot Of Prayer And Talking With A Lot Of Good People I Would Like To Recommend Janet Melvin To The Roll Of City Clerk. She Has Been The City Clerk Before; She Has Worked With The City Before. So, I Would Entertain A Motion To That Effect. No Motion. Alright. Commissioner Warren Asked Can We Make A Motion? I Don't Know All The Rules To Appoint Someone? The Mayor Stated No.
C. City Treasurer-As Some Of You May Also Know Our Previous Clerk Wore Two Hats. She Was Also Our Treasurer. That Placed An Undo Burden On Her Which I Contribute To Some Of The Issues We Had With Our Financial Reports. To Alleviate This Burden And To Fill This Vacancy I Would Like To Recommend Cate Dinn To The Roll Of Treasurer. And Would Entertain A Motion To That Effect. Commissioner Howard Asked If She Was Retired? Mayor Arview Stated She Is But She Could Come Back. Commissioner Howard Stated She Can Only Work So Many Hours. A Gentleman In The Audience Stated She Can Work 999 Hours We Checked With IMRF Keith. Mayor Arview Stated Point Of Order, Point Of Order. We Can't Really Have Discussion Until We Have A Motion And A Second. If We Are Going To Discuss It, We Need A Motion And A Second. No Motion Was Made.
D. City Codes Officer
I Recommend Thad Snell To Continue In His Roll. And Would Entertain A Motion For That. He Stated I Would Think That Would Be Something You Would Want. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By All. Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
E. Consulting Engineer - The Mayor Stated I Hereby Re-Appoint Brown & Roberts Who Have Done Our Engineering For The Past Few Years. They Have Several Projects Going, There Is No Point In Changing Horses Midstream. We Are Doing A Good Job With Them So I Would Entertain A Motion To Keep Brown & Roberts As Our City Engineers. Commissioner Stanley Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Howard. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
F. Fire Chief-Pursuant To 65 ILCS 5/10-2.1-4 In Which The Ordinances Of The City Of West Frankfort The Fire Chief And Chief Of Police Shall Be Appointed By The Mayor With Approval Of The City Council And Shall Serve At The Pleasure Of The Mayor All Other Officers Regardless Of Rank On The Fire And Police Departments Shall By Appointed By The Board Of Fire And Police Commissioners. So, To That Effect, I Hereby Re-Appoint Derek Sailliez To The Position Of Fire Chief And Would Entertain A Motion To Approve. Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Harkins. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
G. Chief Of Police- The Mayor Stated To That Same Effect Pursuant To 65 ILCS 5/10-2.1-4 I Hereby Re- Appoint John Prudent As Chief Of Police. Commissioner Harkins Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Stanley. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
7. The Next Item Was The Consent Agenda. The Mayor Explained This Is New To Our City. Normally This Would Be A Separate Kind Of Meeting Where You Would Have An Organizational Meeting. Separate From A Regular City Council Meeting But We Have Them Together. For The Sake Of Or In The Interest Of Brevity Or Efficiency I Put These Together Under What We Call A Consent Agenda. And The Way That Works Is If There Is An Item On Here That We Feel Like We Need To Talk About Separately We Can Do That, But Otherwise These Are Things That Generally Are Not Going To Be Controversial, Like The Mayoral Appointments Were. Things We Don't Necessarily Have To Have Discussion On, We Can Just Approve Them All Together.
A. Approval To Pay The Bills In The Amount Of $167,334.
B. Discussion, With Possible Action, Regarding A License To Sell Alcoholic Liquors. The Mayor Stated He Would Like To Talk About This One A Second. This Is For Liquor Barrell, They Are Wanting To Change From A “B License” To An "A License" Which Would Then Allow Them To Have Gaming. Now I Do Want To Go On Record To Say That Generally Speaking I Am Against That Sort Of Thing Personally. My Beliefs Are Against That. But I Do Not Want To Put Them In A Hardship Position. So, I’m Ok With Having This On Here To Approve. But I Feel Like We Have Reached Our Limit On Those Kind Of Licenses. And I Don't Think We Need To Have Any More Of Them. So, We Will Go Ahead And Approve This One But Here Going Forward I Feel Like The Answer Should Be No To Those Sorts Of Things.
C. Approval Of A Resolution Authorizing The Hiring Of An Employee For The West Frankfort Water Department. This Was To Fill A Vacancy In The Water Department, This Position Will Be Filled By William Bryan.
D. Approval Of A Resolution Appointing Paid On Call Volunteer Firefighters To The West Frankfort Fire Department. The Mayor Stated That This Is Just To Fill Vacancies That Need Filled. Appointing Paid On Call Firefighters Shannon Schloss And Ryan Darnell To The West Frankfort Fire Department.
E. Approval Of A Resolution Appointing Board Members To The West Frankfort Library Board. This Is To Re-Appoint John Dimmick, Leah Hughes And Judy Little To A Three (3) Year Term Expiring In 2026.
F. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Beussink, Hickam & Kochel, P.C. In The Amount Of $14,000.00 Regarding The4/30/22 Financial Statement Audit.
G. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Brit Global Specialty USA In The Amount Of $5,000.00 Representing Payment Of The Deductible For A Liability Claim.
H. Approval To Advertise For Bids For Demolition. We Will Be Advertising For Bids For Demolition At The Following Addresses. 717 North Horn, 819 W Worden, 411 N. Horn, 407 N. Horn, 401 N. Horn.
I. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Target Solutions In The Amount Of $2,458.60 For Training At The West Frankfort Fire Department.
J. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Diamond Equipment In The Amount Of $2,089.75 For Repairs To Equipment At The Street Department.
K. Approval To Pay An Invoice From Sidener Environmental Services In The Amount Of $2,074.75 Annual Maintenance At The Sewer Plant. The Mayor Stated You Can Go Through All Of Them, So You Guys And The Commissioners Its On The Agenda Or For Anyone In The Audience To Read What These Items Are. But As Far As Just Voting On Them, Getting Them Cleared Out I Would Recommend That We Approve The Consent Agenda Items As A Whole. First Before We Do That I Would Ask If Anyone On The Council If There Is Any One Item That You Would Want Separated From This To Talk About Separately? So, I Would Make A Motion To Entertain The Approval Of The Consent Agenda As Printed.
Commissioner Howard Made A Motion To Approve, Seconded By Commissioner Warren. Roll Call Vote: All Commissioners And Mayor Arview Voted To Approve. Motion Carried.
8. The Next Item Was The City Of West Frankfort - Sewage Treatment Plant Stormwater Lagoon Cleanout Update. Matt Tosh Of Brown And Roberts Stated This Is More Of Just An Update There Is No Action Needed By The Council. The City Has An Ongoing Project For Cleaning Out The Sewage Treatment Plant Stormwater Lagoon. There Was An Application Submitted To Tammy Duckworth's Office For Congressional Direct Spending (Cds) Program And You've Received And Email That It Has Been Submitted To This Senator Appropriations Subcommittees To Advance. So, It Has Passed One Hurdle And It Is The Recommended Amount Of $160,000.00 For Proposed Design And Permitting Paperwork. This Is Not A Guarantee On Funding It Goes To The Senate Appropriations Committee And Then They Will Come Out With Their Recommendation If They Do Award The Project. Commissioner Warren Stated No Vote Is Needed This Was Just Informational.
9. Audience Comments:
The Mayor Stated I Know This Is Probably Going To Get A Little Hairy But We Have To Allow It. Public Comments If You Have Something You Would Like To Address To The Council; I Would Ask You To Keep It Brief Because We Have A Lot Of People Here And If Every Single Person Says Something We Are Going To Be Here All Night. We Have Some Cupcakes And Punch Over There, So I Do Not Want To Be Here All Night. Commissioner Stanley Stated Please Have Them Come Forward So We Can Get Comments On The Recorder And So We Can Hear You.
A Gentleman In The Audience Stated He Needed Some Clarification. According To State Law Whenever You Said He Is Streets And Improvement And Linda Is Public Property. Mayor Arview Stated Correct. The Gentleman Stated Public Property Means Buildings. So, If You're Wanting Her To Be Water And Sewer Also That Needs To Be Changed And Voted On. Otherwise, Streets And Improvements Covers The Utilities. Is He (Commissioner Stanley) Street, Water, And Sewer? Mayor Arview Stated Actually It Is In Our Ordinances And I Believe Its Even In The State Law. The Gentlemen Stated No State Law Is. The Mayor Stated But It Is In Our Ordinances I Know That. The Water Works Falls Under The Commissioner For Public Property. The Gentleman Stated I Know So Did The City Of Benton And I Had Them Change It And Go By State Law So If They Wanted To Go With Water And Sewer In A Different Department Then It Needs To Be Voted On So She Got That. Its Legal To Do It But You Need To Vote On It To Put It Over There Otherwise He (Commissioner Stanley) Will End Up With All Three. Commissioner Warren Asked So You Mean I Would Be Over Public Property? The Gentlemen Stated You Need To Vote
To Clarify That You Are Removing The Water And Sewer To Public Property. Mayor Arview Stated It Already Is. The Gentleman Stated The Ordinance Does Not Superseed State Law. It's A Simple Issue If You Want Her (Commissioner Warren) To Be Over It You Just Need To Vote Over. Mayor Arview Stated He Would Look Into That. The Gentleman Stated He Was Just Going By The Current Vote. Commissioner Howard Asked The Gentleman So What Do We Need To Do In Your Opinion? The Gentleman Stated Just Make A Motion That Public Property Also Contains Water And Sewer Within Its Authority And Your Done, Vote It In. Commissioner Warren Stated She Thinks That It Was Just A Mistake On The Wording. The Gentleman Stated But Whenever It States Streets And Improvements It Includes Water And Sewer. He Stated Your Public Property And Improvements. Mayor Arview Stated I Don't Know That Its Appropriate To Deal With It Right At The Moment. The Gentleman Stated Well Actually It Is Because You Made The Appointments. Mayor Arview Stated We Need Further Council On It. I Respect Your Input And If We Need To Do That, We Will Do That. I Don't See Any Issue With Voting On It, Just The Idea At This Point In The Meeting We Are Pass The Point Of Making Resolutions And Things Like That. We Do Have In Our Ordinance That If You Have A Petition For The Council, It Has To Be Reduced To Paper Work. Since We Right Now Don't Have A City Attorney, We Are Kind Of In A Limbo State. The Gentleman Stated Well Until The Clarification Is Made Commissioner Stanley Needs To Be Bringing Up The New Water Department Employee. That's Why I Brought This Up Now. Mayor Arview Stated I Get That, We Just Kind Of Put That Under The Consent Agenda And Anyways I Was The One Who Really Kind Of Brought It Up, I Guess. The Gentleman Stated Well I’m Nit Picky And Mayor Arview Stated We Want To Do Things The Way We Are Supposed To. Commissioner Warren Stated The New Employee Went Through His Probationary Period. The Mayor Stated Even If We Need To Call A Special Meeting To Do That, We Will Do That.
Ed Hammonds Stated He Just Has A Simple Question For Mr. Harkins. During The Elections Before This Was Finished A Gentleman And I Were Talking And He Said If You Were There (Mr. Hammonds) For 7-8 Years You Know The Commissioners He Said Especially Mr. Harkins. He Said Mr. Harkins Has Been Here Longer Than Anyone Else. You Have Served For More Mayors Than Anyone Else. He Was Asking Me He Said I Don't Know Him That Well But If You Would Just Kinda Help Me. I Want To Know If You Can Tell Me Over The Mr. Harkins Service To The City Can You Tell Me Three Or Four Things That He Has Himself Challenged And Taken Care Of That He Has Done That Improves Or Helps The Quality Of Our City? Mr. Hammonds Stated He Did Not Know How To Answer Him. So, I Was Wondering Could You Kind Of Give Me Some Light So I Can Go Back To Him And Say Mr. Harkins Was Successful In? Commissioner Harkins Stated Well I Was The Codes Officer You Know For A While, As You Know And Then I Become The Commissioner Of Police And Fire. Mr. Hammonds Stated And During Codes What Did You Or Was There Anything That Stands Out Other Than Just Having People Mow Their Grass And Get Rid Of Junk? Commissioner Harkins Stated We Had Several Houses Torn Down During That Time. But Not Near As Many As Mr. Snell Has. Mr. Hammonds Stated That's Exactly Right Mr. Snell Has Done An Outstanding Job. So, You Were City Codes Officer But What Did You Do? Was His Question That Could Stand Out That Mr. Harkins Was Responsible For This? Commissioner Harkins Stated Of Course I Always Took My Job Serious. Mr. Hammonds Stated That's Not The Question. Commissioner Harkins Stated But The Thing Of It Is, Is That I Then Become The Police And Fire Commissioner. I Really Think A Lot Of And Respect Those Guys. Mr. Hammonds Stated I Think A Lot Of People Can Say The Same Thing. But This Is Not Something That You Yourself Was Responsible For. That's Kind Of My Question. When I Was Asked, I Could Not Respond And In All Due Respect I Didn't Want To Disrespect You By Saying Something That Wasn't Correct. So, Thank You I Appreciate It, Maybe We Can Talk About It Again Some Other Time.
Next Was Dennis Uhls Who Stated Good Evening, Everybody, I Just Have Some Questions For The Commissioners. First Commissioner Howard I Know The Audits Were Behind Are They Caught Up Now? Commissioner Howard Stated Yes Sir. Mr. Uhls Asked How Did They Get Two Audits Done In A Few Months They Must Be Whiz Bangs. Finance Treasurer Chris Veteto Asked If He Could Answer That? Mr. Veteto Stated I Was Brought In And This Issue Actually Started Two Years Ago And I Was Brought In To Help Fix This Issue And Its Taken That Long. When I Got Here The General Fund Was Out Of Reconciling By 8 1⁄2 Million Dollars On Cate's Watch I Might Add. So, I Was Brought In And So Was Andrea Brought In To Shadow And To Learn Those Positions And To Help Kind Of Correct The Issues. Through This Two Years And This Process That Is What We Have Been Working On. Mr. Uhls
Asked What Is Your Name Sir? Mr. Veteto Responded Chris Veteto. Dennis Uhls Nice To Meet You. Mr. Veteto Stated So That Is What We Have Been Doing Over The Past Two Years Is Trying To Get Everything Put Back Together And To Move Forward. We Have Worked Diligently, Hours Upon Hours. Mr. Uhls Stated So Everything And The Accounting Is All Caught Up Now? Mr. Veteto Said Absolutely, And To Kind Of Speak To Some Hear Say Stuff There Was Not Anything Questionable Going On, Anything Shady, It Was All On The Up And Up It Was Just Behind. It Just Had Not Been Done Like It Was Supposed To Be Done. Mr. Uhls Stated I Did The Audit For 17 Years For The City And One Thing I Would Have A Problem With And The City Would Not Get A Good Audit If I Was Still Doing It Because The Treasurer And The City Clerk Were The Same Person. I Would Not Have Approved Anything In Those Audits. Mr. Veteto Stated That Was Before My Time So I Can't Say Anything About That. I Know That When I Was Brought In, I Was Going To Be In Finance Help With The New Program And Help Get The Books Straightened Out. Then Beyond That Move Into The Treasurer Roll And Then Andrea Was Shadowing Angie To Take Over Her Position Because She Knew She Was Going To Retire At Some Point. So That Was Our Positions To Separate That Roll. Mr. Uhls Asked What’s Your Roll Now Sir? Mr. Veteto Stated I'm The Deputy Treasurer. Mr. Uhls Asked Well Who Is The Treasurer? Mr. Veteto Stated The Anticipated Thing Was Me And She (Andrea) Would Be Named The New City Clerk. Mr. Uhls Stated Well That's The Mayor's Appointment, But Thanks For The Information I Appreciate It.
Mr. Uhls Stated He Has One Other Question For The Commissioners I Understand That Fedex Is Moving To Marion. How Did That Happen? Why Is Fedex Moving To Marion Can Any Of You Commissioners Answer That? Commissioner Stanley Replied We Did Not Have The Property That They Needed To Build Their New Place. Mr. Uhls Stated That The Community Council Owns Hundreds Of Acres. Mr. Veteto Asked Can I Respond To That I Have Some Insight Into That As Well. We Actually Offered To Give Them That Land To Build On It And Then What Happened Was The Real Estate Broker That Was Involved Went Down To Marion And Because They Were Paying For That Lot The Realtor Got A Cut So That Is Why That Changed. Mr. Uhls Stated He Talked To G. David Green And The Community Council Has Hundreds Of Acres They Would Give A Business
Like That. Mr. Veteto Stated I Understand But Real Estate Brokers Don't Work For Free So If He Has An Opportunity To Make Money In Marion, He Is Going To Take It. Mr. Uhls Asked Well Why Do You Need A Real Estate Broker? Mr. Veteto Stated That Is Fed Ex We Don't Hire A Real Estate Broker They Have Someone That Goes Out And Looks For Property. I Think A Lot Of Stuff Has Been Happening And Said And Its Misinterpreted Based On Things Less Than Facts. Just Like That Question I Had Enough Information That I Knew A Little Bit About It. I Guess With All Due Respect Mayor It Seems That Maybe A New Leader Would Come In And Kinda Get To Know Everyone And Find Out The Facts Prior To Making Some Of The Appointments. There Are A Lot Of People Here Who Work Really Hard And Do The Right Thing And Want To Continue To Do The Right Thing Moving Forward. Mr. Uhls Stated Cate Dinn Has Over Twenty (20) Years Experience As Comptroller. Mr. Veteto Stated You Realize That I Took Over Cates Position? Then Mr. Uhls Stated I’m Not Done Speaking. He Stated Janet Melvin Has Over Forty (40) Years With The City. Dave Garavalia Has Over Thirty (30) Years Experience As A Lawyer. They Aren't Good Enough For The City Of West Frankfort? Mr. Veteto Stated Your Telling Me To Make A Judgement Call When I Don't Know These People. So That's Irresponsible. Mr. Uhls Stated Well You Will Get To Know Them. Mr. Veteto Stated You Have To Realize All That Happened On Cate's Watch. Do You Understand That He Asked? Mr. Uhls Stated What? Mr. Veteto Stated Non-Reconciled Accounts And She Was Here For Some Time After. Mr. Uhls Asked Ms. Dinn Would You Like To Speak About That? Ms. Dinn Stated Before I Left, I Reconciled Everything In Quickbooks The Actual Bank Statements Nancy Did, But I Reconciled Quickbooks. The Mayor Stated Alright So Let's Move On. If Anyone Wants To Speak, They Need To Come Forward Anyway. Let Me Address Something That You Said Because I Think This Is Part Of The Issue Is That In The Past It Has Been Where There Maybe Rumors About Stuff Going On Because People Haven't Been Told What Is Going On. And So, They Don't Know. Mr. Veteto Stated We Have Had A Change Of Leadership But Everybody Other Than That Is Working Their Tails Off. So That Is Something I Don't Understand The Change Without A Discussion. The Mayor Stated And As Far As Things Go, We Can Have A Discussion. Mr. Veteto Stated And I Appreciate That. And Again, There Are Some Things That Are Being Said Especially In The Most Recent Conversation That Just Aren't True. The Mayor Stated We Need To, Moving Forward.
My Goal Is To Make Sure Those Things Are Communicated Clearly To The People Of West Frankfort So The People Of West Frankfort Have Information And Then If They Speak Ignorantly About It And Don't Know Its Not Our Responsibility Anymore Because We Have Made The Effort To Communicate That. That's Going To Be On Me. Public Relations That's On Me To Communicate That. I’m Pledging To The People Of West Frankfort That's What I'm Going To Be Doing From Now On Is If There Are Any Rumors Or Questions About Anything Bring Them To Me And I Will Find Out And I Will Get You The Information. Don't Just Spread Something If You Don't Know Because That Can Cause More Harm Than Good.
The Mayor Stated That May Be A Rough One To End On But, Mr. Hammonds Stated I Have One Question Real Quick. He Said No I’m Not Going To Pick On You Jerry. Mr. Harkins Stated Thanks. Honorable Mayor And Deputy Treasurer My Question Is It Concerns The Financial Report. How Often Can We As The Public See A Financial Report? As It's Been Done In The Past Maybe Once A Year At The Most. Is It Possible To Get A Financial Report During The Monthly Meeting? Mr. Veteto Stated When I Came In, I Started The Process Of Having Regular Monthly Reporting, Budgets, Comparisons, We Go Over Them Even Though We Are Not Required To Do Them We Do Quarterly, Semi- Annually We Meet With Department Heads And Go Through Their Budgets. So Those Are Available By The 15th Once I Close Out The Books By The 15th Of The Next Month, They Are Available. Typically, That Would Include The First Meeting So They Are Usually Available By That Date. Mr. Hammonds Asked Where Do We Get Those Through You? Mr. Veteto Stated He Gives Copies To The Commissioners And The Department Heads As Well. But If You Want Information As Far As That Is Concerned, Its Public Information You Would Be Able To Get That. Mr. Hammonds Stated A Lot Of People Just Read This The Agenda It Would Be Very Beneficial To A Lot Of People I’m Sure If The Financial Report Was Available. If That's Something That's Available I Would Appreciate That. Mr. Veteto Stated If That's Something That Needs To Become Protocol Let Me Know Because We Do That Now. Mr. Hammonds Stated Yes That Would Be Great, Thank You. The Mayor Asked Finance Commissioner Howard Would There Be Any Issue With Us Doing This And Making It Available? Commissioner Howard Stated No There Is No Issue With Making These Available.
The Last Person To Speak Was William Adams Of West Frankfort. This Is To The Commissioners I Know Its Hard Because Your Dealing With A New Mayor Compared To The Last Twelve Years Had Been The Same Thing Again And Again. Regarding The Appointment Of People, He Has Looked Into His Heart And It Is His Appointment In Regards To That And Just Because It Wasn't Your Recommendation Does Not Necessarily Mean You Have To Shut Him Down And Allow These People To Come To Do The Job That He Believes They Are Qualified For. The People Of The City Of West Frankfort Elected Him To That Position To Be Able To Do This. So, I Just Ask That You Guys Look Into Your Hearts And Do What You Need To Do To Work Together As A Commissioner, Mayor And City Council To Make Things Go Smoothly For This City. Commissioner Stanley Stated We Want To Work With Him Too, But We Want To Know What Is Going On Before We Get Up Here. Not Just Nominate Someone And Not Know Who They Are. Mr. Adams Stated By Ordinance He Had No Choice But To Do That. Commissioner Stanley Stated We Will Work On It.
10. With No Further Business To Be Discussed, The Meeting Was Adjourned On A Motion By Commissioner Harkins At 7:05 P.M.
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