The Minonk City Council mulled over the various approaches in filling the vacant City Administrator position. Mayor Koos said the choice boils down to whether the city uses the media to advertise for a new city administrator or use a recruiting firm. Alderman Sean Cunningham said that his research indicated that the City should avoid using an internet placement web site such as monster.com as it costs $1500 per month to post and right now there is only four city administrator jobs posted which indicates that this is not a good resource.
Cunningham said that it would cost $3000 a month to advertise the job opening in the news media. He added that there is a range between $10,000 to $25,000 for using head hunters. He said, "With the head hunters, they would take over the whole gamut of running the ads, consulting with us, doing all the correspondence, lining up the interviews, and making the final selection. They would take a lot of the time burden off us for doing that job."
Cunningham said that budget wise the $10,000 fits in, but he said that doesn't mean that he wants to spend that much. He added that the City has never used a search firm and have always done the hiring on its own.
Alderman Corey Ruestman said that he would rather spend the money for a head hunter if it could be done for $10,000 versus spending $3000 for ads on the internet and have no results out of them after one month.
Alderman Cunningham said that the lower price head hunter is based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and has a $6000 fee and an estimated $4000 in travel expenses which includes bringing in the applicants and so forth. He added they also offer a guarantee where if the City was to dismiss the person within one year for cause of if the person were to leave within the first year, they would go through the process again for no charge.
Alderman Cunningham said that he was in agreement with Alderman Ruestman and that is the way he is leaning at this point.
The Council was in agreement to table a decision until the next meeting.
Impact of Pontiac Prison Closure
Mayor Koos said he wants to draw people’s attention to the impact of the closure of the Pontiac Prison on Minonk. The Mayor reported the following:
• Minimum of 20 jobs for Minonk residents could be affected.
• 1.1 to 1.3 million dollars in yearly income comes from these jobs.
• Workers own their homes in Minonk.
• Economic impact on Minonk could be very sizable with the closure.
• Impact on local housing market.
• Impact of the school system.
• Difficulty in replacing these jobs with the closure.
Koos said these are good paying jobs and many of these employees have many years invested towards their retirement and they will have major decisions to make if they do close the prison.
Koos said that the Minonk community needs to make the governor aware that this impact of closing the prison is going to be far reaching making it difficult for small communities to make up these lost jobs. He said as the date comes closer, there is going to be a hearing process and it will be beneficial if Minonk would be able to pass a resolution supporting the continuation of the Pontiac Prison. The Mayor said, "We will mail the resolution in and would like Minonk to become part of the hearing process where we would be invited to actually go and testify at the hearing. This will enhance our chances of having our voice heard at the hearing process."
Auditing Firm Proposal
The City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2007/08 audit proposal from Striegel, Knobloch and Company, L.L.C. of Bloomington, Illinois at a gross fee not to exceed $9,500 based on anticipated cooperation for our personnel and the assumption that unexpected circumstances will not be encountered during the audit.
Datatron Proposal for New City Web Site
Dave Uphoff of Datatron, Inc. presented the Council with a proposal for a new City web site. Uphoff said that basically now the City does not have its own website but is buried in the MinonkTalk web site. He said one of the problems with that is that the Minonk Talk website has some controversy associated with it and the City gets sucked into the controversy. He said the City really needs to have its own website that is apart from the news media that Minonk Talk represents. Uphoff added, "This is something that should be separated and a new City website that stands on its own. It would have its own domain name and own style. This week Minonk Talk will get its millionth hit in its website and now would be a good time to sit back and see where we want to go with the web site."
Uphoff reported some of the following new features that could be added to the new City web site:
• Web page showing the Council meeting agendas, minutes, and public announcements
• Web page for citizens to submit questions and comments to the City that could be reviewed by the appropriate City personnel on a web page not to be available to the public and reviewed and replied to by City personnel.
• Web pages for each Council member and the Mayor.
• Video web page that would show videos of various aspects of Minonk to promote and show what it has to offer.
• Web page could be designed for the fire department similar to the police department.
Uphoff said that the main thing is that a City website would put the City in a positive and forward manner and you would not have the complaints and arguments that are now shown on Minonk Talk. He added, "When people want to do research on Minonk on the City website they will see it in a positive light and will not see the controversial stuff shown on MinonkTalk. Once it is set up the City will need to apply for a new domain name to establish its own web site. The cost for this is usually $100 for the initial application and you will need an internet service provider as Minonk Talk has which currently costs $275 per year." Uphoff said that it is vital that the web site be owned by the City and maintained by its personnel.
Uphoff presented the following cost proposals:
• Redesign of web site with dynamic updating capabilities to allow city personnel to make changes----$5,000
• Create video web page with videos of Minonk----$1,000
• Maintenance of web site----$2,000 annually. (Includes reporting of City Council meetings and technical support & corrections to problems or bugs)
Uphoff said that he has been doing Minonk Talk website for 7 ½ years free of charge and would now like to be compensated for his work. He added that he has been paying $275 a year plus 10 to 15 hours of his time each week to maintain the web site.
Uphoff said the website receives 4000 to 5000 hits per week and that people from all over the country look at the site, not just Minonk people.
Alderman Cunningham said the website has been successful because it does have a degree of controversy and is a very active site and his fear with the City side is, "do we need a site. Yes probably, but our site will be a static and boring site."
Uphoff responded that most city websites are static by their very nature as things are not happening all the time. He said a link could be established between the City web site and the MinonkTalk web site so you could jump back and forth. He said, "If you wanted excitement it will still be there."
Alderman Petersen said that he liked the proposal for a City website, but did not think we have enough of the logistics and we need to figure out how we go about this before he wanted to spend this amount of money.
Uphoff said that if you want to leave it as is he still wanted to have a yearly maintenance fee which would cover the work he has been doing for the City. He added that the website is a positive thing for the City and that if he has to keep doing it for nothing that he would probably drop it. He added that the City will get their money out of it by keeping the site going.
The City approved by a 4-3 vote a motion by Alderman Cunningham that the City Council starting June 1, 2008 pay one annual installment of $2,000 for maintenance to Dave Uphoff (Datatron) with Aldermen Peterson, Fortner and Ruestman voting no.
labor's Local 996 - Annual Dollars Against Diabetes
The Council approved the request from Laborers’ Local 966 for permission to solicit donations on Saturday June 14, 2008 for the benefit of the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine at the four-way stop in the center of Chestnut Street.
Garbage Contract
Mayor Koos read a statement concerning the garbage contract with Tomlinson Disposal. “We are continuing to address the matter with the garbage company. Until then we must comply with the wording of the contract. The wording of the contract is four (4) 35 gallon cans or eight (8) garbage bags. Both have 40 pound limits; 160 pounds total in the four (4) 35 gallon cans or 320 pounds in the eight (8) garbage bags. There is no size limitation on the garbage bags, only a weight limit of 40 pounds per bag.”
Public Comments
Sherry Willis (403 Washington Street) asked if there was still a limit on the garbage can size as she has a problem with it as she has lived here for 9 ½ years and has been using the same cans and they have always accepted then in the past.
Mayor Koos said that we are continuing to address your concerns with the garbage company and until then we must comply with the wording of the contract which is four (4) 35 galloon cans or eight (8) bags and both have 40 pound weight limits.
Sherry Willis said that she heard the presentation of the new web site for the City and felt that it could be done for less money and should go out for bids and the web site should be controlled by a City employee.
City Council Comments
Alderman Petersen said that he concurred with comments made by Sherry Willis concerning the City’s web site.
Mayor's Comments
• Reiterated that the closing of Pontiac Prison will have an impact on this community if it does happen.
• Announced that the Woodford County Board will be addressing the wind farms issue at their meeting tomorrow night May 20, 2008 and that he would be in attendance.