Iola City Council members gathered Tuesday, figuring they’d take an in-depth look at Iola’s financial stability, economic development and infrastructure. And they did.
But first, they held a brief but spirited discussion on whether the eight-member council should be downsized.
The council size issue kick-started Tuesday’s strategic planning session. Four Council members — Aaron Franklin, Jon Wells, Nancy Ford and Don Becker — attended the planning session. Council members Bob Shaughnessy, Sandy Zornes and Beverly Franklin were absent, as was Mayor Joel Wicoff.
Having so many members missing was not lost on Aaron Franklin, who said chronic absenteeism at other meetings provided further evidence an eight-member city council was too big for a town Iola’s size.
Wells suggested getting the public involved in council size discussions.
It was the public that voted twice, in 2009 and 2010, to reject charter ordinances that set up three- and five-member city commissions, respectively.
Eradicating those charter ordinances left Iola with a default eight-member council, which was seated in 2011.
Aaron Franklin said he had heard from several in the community who said it’s time to rethink the council size.
And while the residents who have spoken with Franklin have favored keeping representatives from each of Iola’s four voting wards, he favored all at-large members.
City Administrator Sid Fleming said he would put council size on the agenda for a future meeting — perhaps in May — to further examine the issue.
The rest of Tuesday’s get-together — the second of a two-night planning session — focused on the aforementioned financial stability, economic development and infrastructure.
AMONG the highlights:
l Councilman Don Becker and Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock suggested the city draft a master plan focused solely on infrastructure (water, electric, natural gas, sewer and roads.)
The city historically has maintained a master plan on all capital improvement projects, Becker noted, but infrastructure repairs or replacement projects are done “piecemeal,” where funds are budgeted individually for streets, sewer, etc.
The biggest hurdle, quite obviously, would be to allocate funding for an overarching infrastructure plan on an annual basis, Schinstock said. To address needed repairs and replacement to antiquated water lines, for example, would stress an already tight budget.
l Wells and Ford looked at economic development, saying the city should continue working in league with Thrive Allen County and places like the Small Business Development Council. They also touched on setting up a microloan system in which prospective businesses could get funding as they get established, then repay those funds as the business grows.
l Aaron Franklin and City Clerk Roxanne Hutton explored financial stability. They noted that the Council is powerless to control several factors, such as utility sales or property values.
However, the Council would be responsible for determining whether the city’s 1-cent sales tax — which has been used in the past for capital improvement projects, street repair and assisting with the opening of Allen County Regional Hospital — should be extended past 2019.
A sales tax extension would be subject to a public vote, Franklin and Hutton noted.
Thus, it would be up to the Council to fully educate voters on what losing the sales tax revenues would mean for Iola.
The city brings in around $1.2 to $1.5 million annually in sales tax revenues.
CARLA NEMECEK, Southwind agent for K-State Research and Extension, moderated the sessions, saying they were designed to set up a “roadmap of where we’d like to be.”
Sid Fleming, city administrator, ended the meeting by thanking the Council members for their participation.
“I’m excited about getting some of these plans worked up, to get us going,” he said.
