Holiday Island City Council’s April 19 meeting covered continued negotiation with Carroll County Solid Waste to be contracted to handle the city’s solid waste disposal, and Ord. 2022-004 which regulates solid waste disposal.
The first reading of the ordinance had been postponed after much public comment at the city’s last meeting and after some grammatical corrections it was read by title only. Mayor Dan Kees than opened it to the public to comment.
Robert Kennedy was the first to comment saying that there is an issue of some citizens would be unable to afford rates with CCSW, and he voiced concern of a conflict of interest with Kees being a member of the board.
Kees attempted to assuage that, saying that a council member was handling contract negotiations with CCSW and that he would recuse himself when CCSW board decides whether or not to accept Holiday Island.
Continuing to speak after the allotted three-minute time, Kennedy implied he would not enforce fines from the ordinance. When asked if elected as sheriff if he would enforce Holiday Island city ordinances Kennedy replied he would not enforce “tyrannical ordinances.”
Nathaneal Mann, owner of Osage Trash Service, voiced opposition to a contract with CCSW saying it would put him out of work. He continued that citizens living on Social Security or disability would not be able to afford large property cleanup through CCSW. He asked council to explain how the contract would help and spoke his belief that the contract was being made for personal gain of council members.
Kees explained that meetings and workshops had been dedicated to discussing the issue and some talk between council members passed back and forth on when exactly those had happened. When it was mentioned that Mann had been present and spoke at the last meeting council member Ken Mills asked “So what are you crying about?”
This started an argument between Mills and Mann with Mann asking why Mills had insulted him. Kees had to bang the gavel several times to regain order. Kees then explained the reason for the ordinance and contract was so that Holiday Island could take control of environmental regulations. The city is financially on the hook for any illegal dumping done in city limit and the ordinance allows them to process fines for those who do so. Kees iterated that there was “No [financial] benefit whatsoever to the city or any representative here for doing this.”
Another public comment rose concern over how yard waste would be handled with CCSW not taking yard waste. Kees said that the ordinance excludes yard waste as CCSW does not take it and multiple council members noted that solutions were needed to handle such waste. A final public comment spoke that other cities in the county had negotiated prices with low-income residents in mind and that Holiday Island could do the same.
The ordinance passed unanimously with an emergency clause invoked to make it immediate. Compliance with the ordinance must be met by Sept. 1.
Mills updated council on negotiations with CCSW saying that prices in other cities of the county were comparable to what was offered to Holiday Island. He highlighted that CCSW intends to offer a low-income rate to those who set out a low-volume load each week of a 15-gallon bag at $9.71 a month. That rate includes recycling as well. He also noted that for inactive users the cost would be $6 a month.
Zoning Ordinance gets the boot for new one later
In talking Ord. 2022-005 which establishes a Zoning Ordinance failed its second reading. In a Planning Commission meeting, commissioners submitted a new ordinance that corrected formatting on the Zoning Ordinance from being structured like City Code. The new ordinance was still being reviewed by the city attorney, so the original Ordinance was still on the agenda.
Council members all voted No to approval of the second reading, expecting the new and correctly formatted Ord. 2022-006 to be at council’s table by the next meeting.
Other Items
- 2022-008 that accepts the dedication of portions of Stateline and Hawk Drives from Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District passed unanimously with emergency clause. This allows the city to perform repairs to those streets.
- 2022-007 handling Nuisance abatement was tabled until the next meeting.
- Kees brought the subject of candidate selection process for the code enforcement officer. Due to the job not being a high level administrative position, interviews involving more than a single council member would need to be in a public forum. Kees said he was not comfortable interviewing candidates through a public Zoom meeting and suggested that council have one member be a representative. The mayor was selected and Kees will interview the two candidates and bring it to council to vote.