Mtn. View City Council now to meet on Tuesdays

The Board of Aldermen of the City of Mountain View met in special session on May 17 and 24. During the May 17 meeting, the aldermen amended an ordinance to change the regular meeting time of the administration to the second Tuesday of the month, instead of Monday. Mayor John Krasuski said moving the meetings to Tuesdays would be a benefit to the aldermen and to the staff at City Hall, giving both groups an extra day to prepare for meetings, records the draft minutes of the meeting. 

In other action, the aldermen passed two additional ordinances on May 17. Ordinance 1711 was amended to clear up confusion about utility disconnection. The new ordinance now reads, “All users shall be billed monthly. Payments are due when billings are made. Any payment not received by the 15th of the month shall be delinquent. Any delinquent bill shall be subject to a late payment fee of $10. If any bill continues to go unpaid after 4:30 p.m. the business day before the shut off date listed on the utility bills, the service to that account will be subject to disconnection. A $40.00 reconnection fee shall be assessed after all disconnections.”

Newly passed ordinance 1712 has made it legal to consume alcohol at the Mountain View Municipal Golf Course. 

Finally, the Board of Alderman discussed a resolution to honor an agreement made by the previous municipal administration to pave access points at the Anchor Convenience store and County Road 3500. The Board unanimously passed the resolution authorizing Mayor Krasuski to execute a contract with Levi Reeves Construction to provide paving services for a concrete approach. 

Following both special sessions, the Board of Aldermen adjourned into a closed session citing subsection 3 of RSMo 610.021 for “hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees…when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded.”

As recorded by the minutes of the meetings, the closed session on May 17 lasted from 8:01 p.m. to 10:05 p.m. On May 24, the closed session lasted from 6:33 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Closed sessions have had similar durations for weeks on end. 

According to Mayor Krasuski, the Board has been using the closed sessions to discuss transferring, promoting, or firing individual employees to finalize the municipal budget. A top-to-bottom overhaul of the budget was one of his top priorities when he became mayor. 

“I knew it would take three to six months,” he told Howell County News on May 27. Krasuski also expressed gratitude and approbation for the Board of Aldermen for putting in the time in weekly meetings to work out the budget. 

In other action: 

*The Board passed a resolution on May 17 adopting Rosenberg’s Rules of Order as the official code of conduct and order for the City of Mountain View.

*On May 17, the Board heard an update on water Tower 2, which has been recently assessed and found to have several issues that need to be addressed soon. 

*The Board has continued to hear from municipal department heads on their budget needs. On May 17, they heard from the golf and police department and discussed the sewer, water, and electric budgets. The aldermen briefly took up the budget again in the May 24 open session with no action.

*On May 24, members of the police department gave an update on their grant seeking activities that will allow them to update budget projections.