City Commission reorganizes for the 2020 year

The reorganization of the Stockton City Commission for the 2020 year was held at the regular meeting on Tuesday, January 21st. Sandi Rogers was elected to serve as mayor. Reesa Brown will serve as vice mayor and Bob Becker will be the finance chairman for the Commission.

Since there were no Public Comments, and no items listed under Old Business, the newly-organized Commission moved to matters under New Business. The first item was the approval of Ordinance 1663, which permits city entities to set the swearing-in of new commissioners any time after the November election so they will be able to begin to serve their term at the first meeting in January.

It was noted that for accounts payable clerk Kayla Hilbrink to receive schooling for the City, she must have the title of assistant city clerk. She will still perform the same duties as she has been, but needs the formal title. The commissioners voted to approve the job description and title for Hilbrink as presented. Hilbrink was also appointed the clerk of the municipal court for the City of Stockton.

During her City Manager’s Report, Courtney Flower stated she would have the 2019 year-end status reports ready for the commissioners by the next meeting. Flower noted that the City’s annual Topeka trip would be on February 18th and 19th. The commissioners who would like to attend need to contact her as soon as possible so plans can be finalized. The City has applied for the KDHE Waste Tire Grant for the park’s playground material. The City will also be applying for a Dane G. Hansen grant to help fund the project. Noah Dixon has been hired for the trash truck position. There are 29 residents at the Solomon Valley Manor at this time. There was a water main break on North Third Street a few weeks ago, which has been repaired. The yearly report has been submitted to KDHE, which shows the City’s usage was down six million gallons of water for last year. The water wells are showing above average levels. Flower will have a list of the city employees and their job descriptions for the commissioners at the next regular meeting. The tree stump removal on Main Street will begin once the weather warms up. The City will transplant the remaining trees down at the City Park. Clayton Taylor has been contacted by the city attorney about the cleanup progress on his property. The attorney will also send out letters with POD information and zoning ordinances to landowners who have these types of structures on their property. Solomon Valley Manor Administrator Amanda Atkisson is gathering information/costs about a possible expansion to the facility, as well as information for a kitchen update so the commissioners can begin preliminary talks about what direction they want to go on this matter.

At the start of the meeting, the Consent Agenda was approved by the commissioners. The agenda included the Solomon Valley Manor gross payroll in the amount of $51,782.38, the Solomon Valley Manor warrants in the amount of $39,482.05, the City of Stockton end-of-the-year warrants in the amount of $51,625.23, the City of Stockton January warrants in the amount of $127,453.47 and the January 7th regular meeting minutes.

The meeting adjourned at 5:38 p.m. with commissioners Reesa Brown, Sandi Rogers, Don McLaughlin, Bob Becker, and city manager Courtney Flower in attendance. Commissioner Nathan Glendening was absent from the meeting.