August 6 City Council Highlights

The City Council meeting of August 6 was conducted efficiently and quickly with all agenda items prior to the Executive Session passing unanimously. Council member Tiny Lange was not present for the meeting and readers keeping score may note this is the fourth consecutive meeting that Lange has missed.


Consent items were passed quickly and without discussion. La Tonya Wright was appointed to the Parks board to replace a resigning member. The Parks Board was authorized to pursue grant funding for the Frisbee golf course in Cottonwood Valley Preserve. Consideration of a developer agreement with the City and FR-CAL Wilmer LLC was postponed until the August 20 meeting at the request of the developer. Mayor Steele was authorized to draft a letter to Commissioner John Wiley Price requesting reallocation of certain county project funds to create a parking facility at Cottonwood Valley Preserve.

Within twelve minutes of starting the session, the council recessed into Executive Session for the next 48 minutes.

Upon reconvening the open session meeting at 8:30PM, Victor Kemp was confirmed as the new Chief of Police (Congratulations Chief Kemp). No action was taken on any settlement agreement with former police dispatcher Teri Cohen.

The City Attorney was authorized to prepare a new school zone ordinance prior to the opening of the new Wilmer Academy by the next (Aug. 20) council meeting.

The final item, purchase of body armor cooling for the police department was approved along with tinting of the patrol vehicle windows (at Chief Kemp's request) to be implemented prior to March 2010.

Meeting adjourned fifteen minutes after reconvening at 8:45PM.

For our sports fan readers, here's a breakdown of the motions, seconds and votes by agenda topic:

Consent Items (A & B) moved by Vandygriff, second by Leal, unanimous approval.
Park Board appointment (C) moved by Dyess, second by Vandygriff, unanimous approval.
Frisbee Golf Grant (D), moved by Vandygriff, second by Dyess, unanimous approval.
Table Developer Agreement until August 20 (E), moved by Dyess, second by Leal, unanimous approval.
Letter to County on fund reallocation (F), moved by Vandygriff, second by Leal, unanimous approval.
Ratify Chief Kemp appointment (H), moved by Dyess, second by Leal, unanimous approval.
Draft School zone ordinance (I), moved by Leal, second by Dyess, unanimous approval.
Police armor cooling & tint for patrol cars (J), moved by Vandygriff, second by Leal, unanimous approval.