By Pauline Masson –
The mayor and board of aldermen (BOA) touched on the status of a series of city issues at the Sept. 16, BOA meeting.
City Administrator search. Mayor Heather Filley reported the search firm had presented 30 candidates to the city and they (aldermen and mayor) had conducted interviews and are now going through the selection process.
“We had the last one (interview) last week and we’re moving through the process,” she said.
Aldermen must agree on a candidate to nominate to the mayor, who must approve the choice. Then the city will work on a contract with the proposed administrator.
The 2026 budget that was passed with a shortage was questioned by the mayor She asked what aldermen were going to do about. the shortage.
In a June 30 special board of aldermen (BOA) meeting, aldermen approved a 2026 City budget with anticipated revenue of $14,564,313 and anticipated expenditures of $18,713,747 leaving a $4,149,434 shortfall. When Mayor Heather Filley called for a motion to approve the 2026 budget, approval ran into a snag when Scott Lesh, acting president of the board, said he opposed the inclusion of contingency funds to operate the parks. He said he was willing to compromise by eliminating the $125,000 the city adds to the contingency balance each year, along with interest from the fund itself, to determine the amount of contingency fund dollars to transfer to the 2026 budget. He noted that five yes votes are required to take funds from the contingency fund, and stated his opinion that contingency fund monies should only be used for emergencies.
The board voted to approve the budget but did not approve the needed resolution to transfer funds from the contingency fund to the parks. Without the contingency funds in the expenditures column, the approved budget was not balanced, which is required by state statute. On Sept. 16, the mayor again brought up the unbalanced budget.
“I believe it’s something that we should deal with outside of the administrative committee,” she said.”Because we’ve already done the whole thing. It’s just a matter of figuring out what’s going to happen with the revenue side.”
Michelle Bruns ______________________
Ward One vacancy was again questioned by resident Michelle Bruns, who signed a speaker card for the fourth time to ask for an update on the empty seat. She said she believed her ward deserved the same number of votes on issues as the other wards.
Mayor Heather Filley announced Alderman Rafael Madrigal resignation from his Ward One seat at the Aug. 5 board of aldermen (BOA) meeting and said she would look to appoint a replacement in an upcoming meeting to serve the remainder of Mr. Madrigal’s term, which ends in April 2026.
Michelle Bruns addressed the mayor on, saying she would like to be considered to serve the remainder of Alderman Madrigal’s term. She was back the following meeting to remind officials of her interest in the seat. On August 16, she again addressed the question of the vacancy, saying she believed Ward One residents were not being adequately served with only one vote.
“I am just wondering if there has been any development with replacing someone in Ward One,” she said. “I do believe that Ward One needs the equal amount of votes due to all the wards. So, I was wanting to ask you, the mayor, have you made a decision?”
Mayor Filley said no decision had been made on the vacant seat.
“I have not (made a decision) yet,” she said. “I have had a couple folks that have reached out to me and I have spoken to some of them. I have not gotten a chance to speak with them all. So, I’m still in the process of deciding.”
“Well, it’s going on four months,” Ms. Bruns said. And that’s four months that Ward One has only had one vote and I’m just wanting to get our representation done.”
Park Board vacancy was addressed by Alderman James Cleeve, park board liaison, who said the city is in need of volunteers to serve on the Park Board. That often does not have enough members show up for meetings to have a quorum
“The Park Board has not met,” Mr. Cleeve said. “They are down to three members and haven’t heard from anyone. I’m kind of hoping that someone volunteers to join the Park Board” he said.
The board of aldermen has been reluctant to approve some citizens who seek to serve on committees, publicly rejecting their appointment to serve on boards and commissions, which might dissuade some citizens from volunteering to serve. But, the parks are probably the most used amenity in the city, after streets. Citizen friendly operation of the parks is among the city’s primary duties,
“Parks, where families gather for picnics, children chase each other on playgrounds, and outdoors-lovers find peace amid nature, parks play a crucial role in boosting quality of life for the community’s residents,” according to Open Gov. “Well-maintained parks boost the local economy by attracting tourists and supporting environmental sustainability.”
The next meeting would be October 13, at 7 p.m.
Emergency Exit, Westlake Subdivision. ________________________________________________________
Proposed emergency exit at Westlake Subdivision was stalled when aldermen voted down a $7,500 contract with Cochran Engineering to prepare the easement documents for the proposed emergency exit between Westlake Subdivision and the industrial park.
Mayor Heather Filley said if the emergency exit was approved, the city would put a gate up and could put signs up, saying one way only, no trucks, to keep trucks from trying to go through the subdivision and make it clear that it’s one way only, to get people out and then residents back in. but no truck traffic.
“it was just an emergency exit so people could get in and out of the subdivision if anything happened at the entrance or something like that,” she said.
The Jeffrey White Skate Park final plan may need a few twitches, which the BOA can address when they see the plan at the December meeting, the mayor said.
The BOA will have to approve the design. So that way it could be then go out to RFP for construction.
“December was when I believe the board hopes to approve the construction and the awarding of the construction contract,” Mayor Filley said.
Red Cedar Inn, Pacific Museum and Visitor Center. ____________________________________________________________________
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Red Cedar – An AI plan to help promote the city museum and visitor center will be before aldermen at the next meeting.
Officials expect to see a proposed $16,000 contract with Placer AI – an artificial intelligence provider headquartered in Covina, California – at the next board meeting, November 4.
Mayor Filley asked aldermen to table the proposed contract while the city attorney reviewed it.
“Attorney Carr has worked on a resolution and a new contract and so we just need to get that finalized and to bring up for the next meeting” she said,
Under the proposed contract, AI would be used to review the number of visitors to the Red Cedar, their point of origin and possible impressions of the museum.
From my research Placer AI artificial intelligence is not very smart. Gathers cell phone data
and reports it as a hodgepodge of facts to it’s clients. In actuality it is mostly made up b.s. .
Mainly it is a nothing but a ‘tell e’m want they want to hear’ report
Also they have been known to sell your data to other clients for more profit , a very questionable and unethical practice.
Several years ago the rodeo committee used a similar group a received a lot of useless data in their report.
Basically it is $16,000 more wasted and shoveled in to the money pit.
I agree. Plus there is already a budget shortfall.