Dayton City Council selects interim city planning option

DAYTON—The City Council meeting went into session at 6:07 p.m., February 9, 2022. Mayor Zac Weatherford, Council members Teeny McMunn, Dain Nysoe, Laura Aukerman, Misty Yost, and Tiger Dieu were in attendance.

The Columbia County Emergency Management Director Ashley Strickland reported that contracted maintenance on the communications systems should be complete by the next City Council meeting.

The Consent Agenda was approved with Laura Aukerman abstaining because she said she did not receive a copy of the claim vouchers to review.

Mayor Zac Weatherford offered two resolutions for contractor agreements to provide planning and land use services for the remainder of 2022. Resolution 1486 would authorize an agreement with AHBL, Inc. to perform these services. In January’s special meeting, Aukerman asked that Resolution 1486 be tabled to allow more time for study. Resolution 1486A was added for consideration and would authorize an agreement for MacKay-Sposito to act as City Planner for the remainder of the year.

Teeny McMunn wanted to know if the city would be billed in fifteen-minute increments, hourly, or some other way in the proposals. She said AHBL, Inc. had a history of reaching out to the city and attending council meetings in the past to explain their services. Neither company had a representative present to answer questions at this meeting.

McMunn said it appeared that AHBL was no more expensive than MacKay-Sposito and, in some areas, could be less costly. She said the decision was not just about price but service. She wanted a company that could handle a complex permit application and gets back to the city promptly.

She wished the council had been notified sooner that the contract with the County was expiring so companies interested in providing interim services could be vetted more thoroughly. Regardless, she thought AHBL would best serve the city.

The city still had no luck attracting a full-time city planner even though the Human Resource Committee has revised the job advertisement twice. So far, the County Planning Department has been helpful in processing permits, but the mayor said his ultimate goal was to get a full-time planner.

After some discussion, Aukerman made a motion to accept Resolution 1486, and Misty Yost seconded. Council passed the resolution unanimously and rejected Resolution 1486A.

Dena Martin, the Columbia County Planner, briefed the council on Resolution 1487, which would defer parts of the Dayton Comprehensive Plan relating to affordable housing to the 2023 Comprehensive Plan cycle. The process takes many months to complete, and one of the essential steps is a review by the planning commission. Presently, the Planning Commission only has two members, which does not constitute a quorum, so the City Attorney recommends deferring these changes to the Comprehensive Plan until next year’s cycle.

Aukerman moved to approve the deferral, with Tiger Dieu seconding, and Resolution 1487 was approved unanimously.

Martin also briefed the council on the need to authorize Ordinance No. 1989, which would amend the Dayton Municipal Code to adopt the 2018 International Building Codes (IBC). Last year the State and City updated their codes from the 2015 IBC to the 2018 IBC, but some sections of the city code had not been updated as required. According to Martin, this misalignment of codes between the city and the State has caused problems that Ordinance No. 1989 seeks to remedy.

Without the update, the city cannot enforce codes concerning unsafe buildings and needs the change to be able to identify problem buildings as unsafe to occupy. The change also helps homeowners in certain disputes with contractors.

Martin was asked if the city was required to adopt the codes. She answered that it was not required since the State had adopted them, however, not adopting them could make it harder to address potentially dangerous situations.

Aukerman said, she would like to read the code before she could vote on adopting something like that unless it’s something they are required to adopt.

Martin gave an example of the problem decribing a house that became unsafe and a fire hazard after water and power had been cut off. The tenants remained in the house without running water and burning wood for heat. Without the clarity of the proposed changes, there was nothing the city could do to remedy the problem.

Aukerman agreed that it was horrible but still did not want to vote without reading the code.

“Can we see the codes?” she asked.

Weatherford said, “Absolutely, you’re more than welcome to look them up.”

Aukerman said, “I’d like to make a motion to table this until we can have somebody give us the codes to know what we’re voting for.”

“You probably have a book there in the office,” suggested Martin.

Dieu seconded the motion to table the adoption of Ordinance No. 1989.

The mayor said he did not want anyone to vote on something they didn’t understand.

He continued, “I guess what’s frustrating to me is that we had a plan to have planning services with AHBL, and council decided to table that. OK, So I called a special meeting, council decided to table that again, wanting a second option. I got a second option, and the council finally decided to authorize that resolution, which is fantastic because now we have planning services.

“We send out the agenda as soon as we can. The agendas were sent out last week. I feel that it is the council’s responsibility to understand the agenda and what is in it. We did not include all the verbatim for these International Maintenance Codes and the International Abatement of Dangerous Buildings Code. But, I do feel like it is the council’s responsibility to take it upon themselves to look items like this up before the meeting, so when we come to these meetings they understand what they are voting on.”

Aukerman responded that she felt it was up to the mayor’s office to provide all the information with the agenda. She was frustrated that the agendas were not self-explanatory. If the code to be voted on is too big to include, then maybe a link could be added to help her find the information, so she understands what she is to vote on.

“I would never ask a Council Member to vote on something they don’t understand,” said Weatherford.

“The information’s not here to understand it. That’s all I’m saying. Give us the information, then I would understand it,” said Aukerman.

After further back and forth, Martin explained that if you put the title of the code into a Google search, it comes right up.

The mayor asked for a vote on the motion to table the resolution’s adoption. The vote was a tie, with Aukerman, Dieu, and Hovrud voting for; and McMunn, Nysoe, and Yost voting against the motion. The mayor was unsure whether he was authorized to break a tie vote in this situation, so he did not.

Next, the council interviewed applicants for the vacant City Council Position 6. Heather Hiebert, Karie Banks Wellsandt, and Kyle Anderson had submitted letters of interest for the position.

After a round of questions with the candidates, the council went into an executive session. After returning to the public session, Aukerman moved to appoint Kyle Anderson to the vacant position with Dieu seconding. The council voted to appoint him.