On the cold, winter night of January 11th, the Winlock City Council met for their biweekly meeting. With full attendance and determination of the quorum, the meeting could begin. Following the Approval of the Agenda the Council turned their attention to the Mayor and Council Reports.
In Mayor Lonnie Dowell's Report, he stated he would hold his comments because an item in the agenda was a part of his comment. Moving into the Council Comments, Councilman Sam Patrick notified the Council and Audience that he would be resigning from his position that night. Following this comment, he stood from his seat and left for the audience. When there were no further comments the attention was given to Police Chief John Brockmueler.
Chief Brockmueler notified the council of the "37 calls of service in the past two weeks." He stated that 33 of these calls had happened in the past 11 days. "These are the things that happen." Brockmueler told the Council Members as he concluded his update.
Under Public Comment, a citizen came forward to address the matter of some "Kirby salesmen going door to door offering to clean houses." It was brought to light that these representatives weren't even a part of Kirby. The citizen notified the Council of the uproar online and asked if anything could be done about this. With nothing further, the Council moved into the matters of the Agenda.
First on the Agenda was the matter of the "Mayoral Appointments." Once a few of the positions were given, Councilwoman Gifford suggested that they wait until there was a full Council. After this agreement, it came time for the Council to elect a Mayor Pro Tem. At this time, Councilman Dennis Korpi and Councilwoman Sarah Gifford nominated Councilwoman Holly Orbino. With all members in agreement and no others nominated, Councilwoman Orbino was given the position of Mayor Pro Tem.
For the second item on the agenda, the Council took this time to look into the "Fire Marshall Agreement." The background was discussed amongst the Council and as the discussion grew on the history, the Council thought it best that this agreement was no longer needed. Following this agreement, Councilman Korpi made the motion to terminate the contract. With no opposition, the motion carried.
The third item on the agenda was the "Authorization for Mayor to Sign Gray & Osbourne Contract for Sewer Project." Councilman Jerry Rader moved to approve Mayor to sign. After Councilman Korpi seconded the motion, the Council voted and the motion carried with no opposition.
For the fourth topic, the Council looked to the matters of "Ordinance No. 1040 - Revised Parking Ordinance." This change was made from Griffith to Hemlock and to remove 15 minute parking in front of the old liquor store. Police Chief Brockmueler asked if this was to be informed and enforced. The council agreed to table this and would give the draft to him to read.
Moving to the next topic, the Council looked to the topic of "Officer Dawes - Parking Enforcement." During the discussion, it was concluded that it would be continued until it was no longer needed.
Next on the agenda was the topic of "Resolution 2016-01 - Administrative Settlement Policy." This matter was to set a limit on what the mayor could spend without presenting to the Council. Councilwoman Gifford made the motion to approve and with Councilman Rader's second, the motion was set to a vote. During the vote, all approved but Councilman Korpi voted against.
For the seventh agenda item, the Council looked to the topic of "Resolution 2016-02 - Adopting the 2016 Lewis County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan." The Council talked about the criteria and other issues before coming to a conclusion of scheduling a workshop to hear the presentation.
The last item of the night was the topic of "Public Officials Liability Training Opportunity." Following several minutes of discussion about the topic, the council came to an agreement of trying to schedule a 90 minute work shop.
As there were no more agenda items and the Consent Agenda was approved, the Council agreed to go adjourn as the Council members entered a time of the Executive Session.