Chamois aldermen have reached a tentative agreement with area landowners on the city water ordinance but took no action. It was a contentious start to last Wednesday’s meeting, at which residents with property to rent were at odds with the board’s stance on the revised water ordinance.

“Let’s start with the issue of putting the bills in the landowner’s names,” Mayor Elise Brochu said. “I think that is what everyone is most concerned about.”

“We don’t want you to make us responsible for someone else’s bill,” property owner Steve White said. “Ameren doesn’t do that.”

“Does that mean you will follow the old ordinance?” Alderman Marty Gerloff asked. “If a renter runs out on you, the water will not be turned on until that bill is paid.”

“There shouldn’t be a bill because that’s what a deposit is for,” White countered.

“You choose to own rental property,” Gerloff said. “It’s not the city’s job to babysit.”

“You choose to be on the board,” property owner Jim Light shot back. “You choose to be in charge of it.”

“The board came to me,” Gerloff said. “I’ve lived here all of my life and I’m on this board because I care about the town. That’s why I’m on the board. Don’t question why I’m on the board. Do you want to follow the old ordinance, or do you want us to change that one too?”

“Are you going to shut the water off after 30 days?” Light asked.

“We shut everyone off at 60 days right now,” Brochu said. “It was supposed to be that way forever, but it has been that way for three to five months.”

“Then how can we have a $5,000 water bill?” White asked.

“Because they weren’t being shut off when they were supposed to be,” Brochu said. “We were told they were being shut off.”

“That should never happen,” White said. “You should do your job.”

“The current ordinance says we will shut people off in 60 days,” Brochu said. “If the deposit doesn’t cover it, the landlords become responsible for the bill. That’s the current ordinance. It shouldn’t go much over the deposit amount, even if they go to 60 days without paying.”

“Can we make it so it is shut off after 15 days?” Light asked.

“I think 15 days is too close,” Brochu said. “People have hard times and things happen. I’m more comfortable with 60 days. I don’t want to have to shut someone off because their car broke down and they have to get it fixed.”

“So, we’re basically leaving it the same as it was,” Light said.

“My understanding of where we left this is, we will keep shutting people off at 60 days and leave it in the tenants name and let it go for a while and readdress this if we need to,” Brochu said.

“Will the $200 deposit cover 60 days?” Gerloff asked.

“The average water bill is $80 per month so it should,” Brochu said. “But we can’t guarantee it covers.”

Aldermen tentatively agreed to leave the water ordinance as is with a few changes, including raising the deposit for tenants to $200 and adding a $1,000 fine for residents that tamper with the water meter.

The board voted to table the vote on the water ordinance until the next meeting so that anyone with other issues or concerns could voice them. They will plan on voting on the ordinance at the March meeting.

Brochu addressed concerns from the property owners that things in the past had not been done the correct way.

“Michelle (Stanley) and I have spent, I can’t even tell you how much time down here over the past six months getting everything straightened out,” Brochu said. “Michelle has been great.”

“You’re devoting the hours to do what needs to be done,” White said. “That’s how it should be. That’s your job.”

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Brochu said. “The mayor makes $150 per month. I don’t think anyone had the time and inclination to spend 20 to 30 hours a week straightening it out and that is what it has taken. It was a huge effort for me and Michelle to straighten this up.”

“That’s sad that you have to clean up someone else’s trash,” White said.

“It is but I don’t want to point the finger where it seems like it should be pointed because it was never set up correctly,” Brochu said. “You get someone in here who’s already dealing with something that’s bad and they don’t know exactly what to do or how to fix it and they are on their own. It gets worse instead of better.”

“What is the total amount of outstanding bills still owed?” property owner Grayson White asked.

“We know exactly what the total amount of outstanding bills is, but we don’t know exactly which bills we will be able to collect on,” Brochu said. “We’ve got a lot of them to collect from people who died, skipped town or whatever. We are also discussing the fact that in some cases we didn’t shut someone’s water off and they ran up a bill. It is not fair for us to go to those landlords and say they owe a $500 bill when we didn’t keep up our end of things.”

“Would you say you have 80% better grip on it than two years ago?” Grayson White asked.

“I would say a 97% better grasp on it,” Brochu said. “The bottom line is things were not done consistently and the board was not told that things were not being done consistently. I’m not going to go back and complain about things that happened in the past. We’re trying to get things right so we can move forward.”

“We can’t go back,” Light agreed. “We have to move forward.”

In other business, aldermen continued to take a tough stance on dealing with the water accounts. Recently a resident wrote out a check for $825 that bounced.

“We added the return check fee to the account,” Brochu explained. “The customers did come in and pay it. But bouncing a check over $500 is a felony.”

“I was told we should turn it over to the prosecuting attorney to show that we’re not going to put up with this sort of thing,” City Clerk Michelle Stanley said.

“I’m glad I get to leave this one up to you,” Brochu said to the board. “I don’t know if you want to let one slide and let it be on the record that we won’t put up with this. What do you guys want to do about it?”

“I think we have to follow the letter of the law,” Alderman Debbie Huff said.

“If we don’t follow through then that comes back on us,” said Alderman Kenny Rost Jr.

The board agreed to hand the matter over to the prosecuting attorney.

In a separate matter related to water collections, a property owner is requesting that the minimum fee that they were charged for a rental property be refunded since the account was only in the landlord’s name for a week.

“Technically the minimum has been paid on that property three times,” Brochu explained. “But it was in three different people’s names which would be consistent with the ordinance.”

“This is another time when we go by the rules,” Huff said.

Her colleagues agreed, and there will not be an adjustment made on this account.

Aldermen received a new report at the meeting this month. Stanley will be presenting an Adjustment Report at each meeting to make sure that the board is aware of any adjustments that are made to accounts.

“There were things that were written off in the past that I would assume were not approved by the board,” Brochu said. “We need to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future.”

* Aldermen were presented with a profit and loss statement for 2017/18 for the water project.

“This is what Michelle and I have spent about 100 hours apiece on,” Brochu said. “The good news is it looks like we make about $25,000 to $30,000 more than we thought we did. We are definitely in the black.

“We couldn’t get the water project done until we get the 2017/18 audit done,” Brochu continued. “We are on the expedited track for funding. We will be capping both existing wells and then we will drill two new ones. We would like to do some repairs to the water tower, and if we can get enough funding, we would replace all the water meters and move them to the curb. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

The board granted Stanley an additional 60 hours to work on getting the bills straightened out.

* Trash prices for the city of Chamois will be going up as of the March bill. Trash prices have increased, and aldermen agreed to pass the cost increase along to customers.

Trash prices will increase $1 across the board. Single family homes who currently pay $6.50 per month will pay $7.50. Regular family homes are currently paying $13, will increase to $14. And two-tote customers who are currently paying $19.75 will now pay $20.75.

* Nuisance Ordinance Enforcer Victoria Hickman, appointed last month on a trial basis, presented the board with a list of 15 city properties that are in violation of the nuisance ordinance.

“We will be posting the warning letter on the door of the property,” Hickman said. “The owners who don’t live here in town are getting the notices mailed to them.”

The board agreed to give Hickman another 30-day trial period.

* The Missouri Department of Revenue has released the city of Chamois from the lien waiver they received as a result of not filing pay role withholding reports.

“They took forever to process it, but it is done,” Brochu said. “Michelle has been diligent in filing these reports.”

* Stanley has recently had special training from Liz Grove from the Missouri Rural Water Association.

“She was awesome,” Stanley said. “She showed me a lot of easier ways to enter things in Quick Books. Once we get a few things fixed she’s going to show me more advanced way to use Quick books.”

* The deadline to file for the April election has closed and currently there is no one running for Mayor.

“I probably should have filed to run again,” Brochu said. “But the day I was supposed to turn stuff in to the county there was a particularly bad comment made on Facebook. I had already been here (at the city office) for 30 hours that week and I decided I’m not doing it anymore.”

“What happens if nobody runs for mayor?” Gerloff asked.

“Unless someone is sworn in as mayor, I’m stuck with it,” Brochu said. “The write-in will carry it if they can hold office in the city.”

Matt Shockley is running again for his seat and Huff will be retiring.

”I’ve been on here for four years,” Huff said. “I have enjoyed it. But I’ve got some goals that Leroy and I are trying to accomplish. We’re trying to sell some property and my parents are getting older, and I may need to be on call to take some trips to Georgia to take care of them. I just have to have the freedom to do that.”

* Outstanding bills were approved in the amount of $15,176.07.

* The city has the following ending balances in their accounts: General Fund ($75,019.49), Water Fund ($88,140.64), Sewer Fund ($20,651.31), Park Fund ($288.34), Water Deposits ($17,834.08), Cemetery Fund ($9,143.17). Sewer Repair ($17,078.39), City Cemetery ($19,526.34), Water Repair ($32,811.17), two-year accounts (combined balance of $6,593.41) and Sewer Bond Reserve ($26,501.10).

* The next meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 19.