CHAMOIS —Chamois Aldermen approved eight different policies and procedures at their meeting on Wednesday, March 20.  All policies and procedures went into effect immediately.

“We need to have policies and procedures set up for city employees,” Mayor Marie Slusser said. Policy No. 2024-01 states “The Chamois City Council which includes the mayor and aldermen have decided that any employee, alderman or mayor must receive either check or direct deposit for payment of their services.”

This new policy prevents employees, aldermen, and the mayor from applying their wages for their position to be put towards their water bill.  Everyone must take the payment for their wages in either a check or to be directly deposited and pay their water bill to the city in the same manner as the city residents.

Policy N. 2024-02 states that all items that are submitted for reimbursement must be approved prior to purchase. The policy also states that the request for reimbursements must be accompanied by a receipt and submitted to the Board of Aldermen for approval at the monthly meeting the month after it is purchased. The city will pay all reimbursements by check. Reimbursements are restricted from being paid by direct deposit.

Policy No. 2024-03 states that no city employees, aldermen or the mayor can purchase snacks, drinks, or ice to be put on any city accounts.

Policy No. 2024-04 states that trainings need to be approved by the Board of Aldermen prior to registering for the event. Training courses less than 100 miles from Chamois will not include the cost of hotel rooms unless the training goes past 5 p.m.

When overnight stays are required, the City Clerk will reserve the room and the cost of the rooms will be reviewed and approved by the Board of Aldermen before the rooms are reserved.

If a training provides meals, the city will not reimburse training participants for meals. Training participants should request permission to have meals reimbursed and reimbursement requests should be submitted at the next monthly meeting following the training. The Board of Aldermen will set a maximum amount for meal reimbursements. All reimbursements are at the discretion of the Board of Aldermen.

Policy No. 2024-05 restricts all monthly spending for the Mayor, City Treasurer, City Clerk, and Utilities Supervisor to $200 per month. The limit prior to this policy was $500 in monthly spending for each employee and the mayor. Anything over $200 per month needs approval from the mayor and everything over $500 per month needs approval by the Board of Aldermen.

Purchases not approved by the Mayor or Board of Aldermen may not be reimbursed by the city. This monthly budget does not include gas which can be charged to the city’s account at Jerry’s Stop and Go.

In the case that someone needs to use their private vehicle for Chamois City business, the use of the private vehicle must be approved by the mayor and reimbursement for mileage submitted the following month at the Board of Aldermen meeting.

The original policy stated that when employees were using personal vehicles, they would be reimbursed for gas only.

Unterrified Democrat Reporter Theresa Brandt asked if the aldermen felt that paying gas money was fair to the city employees.

Utilities Supervisor Mark Mehmert agreed.

“Mileage is a lot better way to do it,” Mehmert said. “I don’t like the idea of putting fuel in personal vehicles.”

The aldermen agreed that reimbursing just for fuel did not seem fair and will reimburse employees using the state mileage formula if use of a private vehicle has been approved.

Mehmert raised concerns about his monthly spending limit being reduced from $500 to $200.

“That’s going to be pretty hard for me to do,” Mehmert said. “I’m going to have to purchase things.”

Slusser agreed noting that he would have to send her an email for approval if he went over his $200 limit.

“We can still get things taken care of, but we need to keep track of everything, and the amount of money being spent,” Slusser explained.

“But you are tracking it,” Mehmert said. “I understand you need a receipt. It’s the amount that is the problem.”

“We’ve noticed that the spending is a little out of control from last year,” Slusser said. “We have to cut back on our spending as much as we can. At the last Board of Aldermen meeting, we had to add $60,000 to our budget.”

City Treasurer Theresa Walter weighed in explaining that what they were seeing is that there was a lot of spending that was right at the $500 limit.

“We were spending $2,000 per month without any questions being asked,” Walter said. “It’s not like we’re going to take away you’re spending you will just have to call the mayor. A lot of what we’re doing is to try to protect the city from overspending.”

Walter went on to explain that she believes getting the aldermen more involved with the financial decisions and spending for the city will help the overall finances.

Mehmert argued that there was plenty of money in the water and sewer accounts and plenty of money coming into the accounts.

“I don’t think $500 per month to run those operations is too much,” Mehmert said. “I buy things that we might need. $200 is not going to catch it.”

“This protects the city,” Walter said. “It protects the taxpayer and it makes it easier for me to track.”

“I don’t understand the reason for tracking the amounts,” Mehmert argued. “I’m bringing you a receipt.”

Walter said that she had no receipts from Mehmert for March.

Mehmert admitted he hadn’t submitted any yet and was behind.

“If you hold onto them, I don’t know where the money is,” Walter said.

Mehmert asked how often Walter would like him to submit receipts and she said at least once per week.

Mehmert continued to argue and was asked again what the big deal was about asking permission for items over $200.

“Because it gives me more ability to make judgment calls,” Mehmert said. Mehmert went onto say he had asked the Mayor to approve a dipper for $100 to take wastewater samples and she had denied the request when it would save a lot of time while he was taking samples.

“While we were going through that, you didn’t explain why you need it,” Slusser said. “I thought you just wanted a new one because you didn’t like the one you had.”

“I didn’t give a justification because I didn’t have to give one before,” Mehmert said. “The bottom line is with the amount of money the operation brings in there is plenty of money in the accounts. $200 per month seems paltry compared to the revenue.”

“We are trying to tighten our belts until we get the audit done,” Slusser said. “If you need something you are going to have to reach out.”

“What I see is an increase in administration time,” Mehmert said. “It will just make everything take more time.”

Slusser said that her phone is always on, and she takes calls and texts all day and answers her email frequently.

“I will get back to you immediately,” Slusser said. “Give us 30 days to work through this and if we need to adjust the amount we will.”

“I think you are going to get more than you bargained for,” Mehmert said.

“I don’t want to be the middleman,” Slusser said. “I don’t want to have to say no but what I want to do is watch the spending of tax payer money because as we’re going through the receipts and what was brought to my attention there was spending that shouldn’t have been happening. So, until we get that under control and know where we stand, we need to watch where our money is going.”

Policy No. 2024-6 prevents the Board of Aldermen from using a consent agenda.

Policy No. 2024-07 requires that all employees request time off if they are not going to be at work. Emergencies, and for sickness, the employees should notify the mayor as soon as possible for scheduled time off, the city needs  24 hour notice. The city will try and post a notice if City Hall is going to be closed.

Aldermen approved a work authorization for $10,407 for Mid-State Pipeline Maintenance, LLC, who is the contractor who is working on the water project, to contract with B & H Well Drilling to put a camera down the existing Well No. 2 to see if it is possible to repair the well instead of drilling a new one. The city is required to have two wells and has been struggling to find a property to drill a second well on since all of the city’s properties have been deemed unsuitable.

This is the second time Well No. 2 will be assessed. The first time it was deemed not suitable for repairs. Slusser is requesting the second opinion hoping it would be cheaper to fix the well than drill a new one.

If Well No,  2 isn’t able to be repaired, it may be possible to drill a new well on the same site.

Brandt asked if B & H well Drilling had given any indication that the well was repairable.

“It’s an if,” Slusser said. “Everything is an if. If we can’t fix the well. If we can use the property. I would like to take a 50/50 shot on this.”

Slusser said that the money will come out of grant money that is for the water project.

The aldermen also approved extending the completion date for the water project to May 31 despite the protests of Mayor Slusser.

Alderman Cheyanna Wolfe, who has taken over the water project from Alderman Sara Mengwasser, reported that the following items are remaining to complete Well No. 1: installation of fence around the new well, installation of generator transfer switch, HVAC equipment and chemical feed equipment, delivery and installation of metal roofing, delivery and installation of well pump control panel.

“One of the companies we are working with had people quit and they are running behind again,” Wolfe said. “We need to extend the time frame for completion to May 31,”

“I told them we are not going to set the completion date that far ahead,” Slusser said. “I don’t want to extend it. We are way past the deadline. I’m going to see if we need to find someone else. People quitting and they don’t have help, that’s not my problem.”

Aldermen also approved an engagement letter with Decker and DeGood Certified Public Accountants for the 2023 audit. Walters noted that the cost should be the same as it has been for the other audits, around $6,500.

Walters noted that the 2023 audit should be completed and turned into the accountants by the April meeting.

Aldermen approved spending $650 to fix the storm drain. The original quote from Newt’s Welding Service and Metal Repair was for $350 if the metal of the existing grate could be used. After further inspection it was determined that the storm drain would need to be made from new metal and the cost increased.

“I’d like to get that storm drain fixed before someone falls in,” Slusser said.

Aldermen approved $325 for a load of 2-inch base rock from Stiefferman Excavation for the RV parking area at the City Park.

Mehmert reported that while one load was helpful it still needed more rock to make a solid base. Mehmert would also like to get the six loads of rock that were previously approved to be put at the lagoons.

“When it rains it gets squirrelly on the levy and I don’t want to go in the lagoon with the truck,” Mehmert said.

The aldermen were presented with the current water payment plan and water ordinance that were tabled last month.

“We need to change the payment plan that we have and I would like to make it so they are paid in full in 12 months,” Slusser said. “We have too many people who are not paying their bills or they are only paying $100 per month. Everyone needs to pay their bills.”

Walter explained the way she would like to see the payment plans set up is to divide the past due amount by 12 months and the current charges to be paid in full each month. Walter also thought it was important for the Board of Aldermen to be responsible for setting up the payment plan instead of the current policy which allows the payment plans to be set up by the City Clerk.

Brandt asked if this would affect the payment plans that are currently in place.

“They really need to override the current payment plans,” Walter said.

City Clerk Megan Birmingham noted that a new policy could only affect delinquent accounts and that the payment plans already set up would continue unless they were in default.

“As a board, I would approach them and speak to them because their payment is not covering the current bill so their balances are going to continue to rise,” Walter said. “I would approach them and ask them to sign a new payment plan.”

“There are rumors that there are people with balances in the thousands of dollars,” Alderman Cole Schaben said. “If we divide that by twelve, they won’t be able to afford that. I know people who wouldn’t be able to afford that.”

“The way the old contract is set up people aren’t covering their monthly payments,” Walter said. “I know that’s going to be rough on people, but we have to start somewhere.”

“I see where Cole is coming from and I understand we weren’t the ones that put the payment plan in place and in essence the city set these people up for failure,” Wolfe said.

Birmingham noted that there were only a handful of customers that had balances in the thousands, but they made their payments religiously.

The aldermen tabled the issue for a future meeting.

Alderman Jim Wright proposed that the city should consider annexing in properties to the city limits to get them cleaned up.

“We need to go out in all directions,” Wright said. “We’ve got junk everywhere on the outskirts of town and it needs to be brought into the city limits so we can control it. I think it’s time. We haven’t grown in a long time.”

Mehmert thanked Schaben for filling in for him when he was gone.

He also noted that the snowplow needs a new cutting edge, and the cost will run about $210. Wright said that he would talk to the Special Road District, and they may cover the cost for the city.

The truck windshield has not been replaced but Mehmert plans to reschedule the appointment.

Mehmert said that some of the houses are missing their house numbers, and it is sometimes hard to find the correct house. He proposed the city putting it out on social media that all houses need to have a house number for reading meters and emergency situations.

Mehmert said that he was going to need to order some new water meters but he wasn’t sure what the cost would be.

“It doesn’t matter how much they cost, we need them,” Mehmert said.

Slusser asked Mehmert to get a quote on water meters and if needed she would call a special meeting to approve the purchase.

Mehmert also suggested that the city contact the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and see if they could use the same contractor who is resurfacing Highway 100 to resurface several of the city streets.

Wright explained that if the city wanted to resurface the streets the job would have to be bid out.

Mehmert explained that the mobilization charge for a small community like Chamois was prohibitive and if they could work with the same company, they could get the streets resurfaced for a more reasonable cost.

Slusser said that they were hoping to use a grant to repair the city streets once the water project was completed.

Mehmert asked what grants were available for resurfacing city streets noting that he wasn’t aware of any such grants.

Birmingham will check with Meramec Regional Planning committee (MRPC) regarding funding for streets.

Walter noted that the city is paying late fees on several bills because of when the city meeting falls in the month.

Walters said that the options were to overpay some of the bills or change the meeting date.

For now, the aldermen agreed to double up on some of the payments so that there would not be late fees. Wright asked Walters to look into paying some of the bills online or as a direct payment to avoid the late fees.

The aldermen approved $14,524.14 in outstanding bills.

The city of Chamois had the following ending balances in their accounts: cemetery fund ($10,437.77), general fund ($63,513.93), water fund ($208,596.94), sewer fund ($94,730.07), city Community Block Development Grant (CBDG) in and out ($1,250), city park ($4,680.59), American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) ($77,213.68), sewer bond reserve ($26,767.34), city cemetery ($20,523.06), meter deposits ($11,574.05), online bill pay ($3,143.02), and water repair ($29,050.99).

The city holds five certificates of deposit totaling $12,200.10.

The city of Chamois had a water loss of 40% for February. The city pumped 963,132 gallons and billed for 577,400 gallons. The city has 240 water connections and 17 vacant properties.

The next meeting is tonight (April 17) at 7:30 p.m..