Council considers requiring advance comment submission

McCOOK, Neb — The McCook City Council wants to try a new method to respond to citizen comments at meetings.

Over the past few months, several people have presented their concerns to the council during “Citizens Comment” at the beginning of meetings. By law, the council and city staff cannot comment on issues brought up by the public unless the issue relates to an item on the agenda for the meeting. The council feels that by not responding, this has led to misunderstandings between them and the public.

So for the second time on Monday night, the council discussed ways to rectify that. They first discussed it at the March 15 meeting, when McCook City Manager Nate Schneider told them how city councils in other cities are handling public comments. In Kearney and Grand Island, citizens submit their concerns beforehand to the city office and if possible, city personnel will resolve the items without council involvement. If council attention is required, the request is placed on the agenda for the next council meeting, so the citizen can attend that meeting and speak to the council about it.

The council appeared in favor of that method and asked staff to bring back more information. On Monday night, the council took a look at “future agenda item” request sheets from Kearney, Columbus and Grand Island.

Ninety-five percent of concerns can be resolved without city council involvement, Mayor Mike Gonzales said and Schneider agreed. “We have a pretty good feel what is an important item and needs council attention,” he said.

Councilman Jared Muehlenkamp liked that requests can be made by the public online as well as in-person at the city office and that citizen requests not routed to the council will be documented as well, by follow-up reports in city council packets. He cited the Columbus agenda item request form that included the date the request was received, action taken by the city and follow-up action, if needed.

Gonzales asked that city staff bring back an action item so the council can vote on this at a future meeting.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council unanimously approved the authorization of re-financing of 2016 bonds, originally issued to pay improvement costs at the water and sewer departments in 2016, and to issue new bonds in the amount not to exceed $6.6 million. The council unanimously approved suspending the three-reading rule and approved the resolution on its first reading.

The refinancing of these bonds will come back for city council approval as an ordinance by 90 days. If for some reason interest rates suddenly climb too high, the council at that time has the option to not approve the re-financing.

By refinancing the bonds, city staff estimates that the city could save $544,931.69 over the next 15 years, with the average annual savings at $36,258.60. Average payments would be $448.424

The city first issued its Combined Utilities Revenue Refunding bonds in November 2016 in the amount of $8,825,000. Currently, $7,100,000 in principal remains outstanding. City staff has reviewed cost savings for an early redemption of those bonds and issuing new bonds, Series 2021, with the amount not to exceed $6,600,000. The current rate on the 2016 bonds is 2.625% and by refinancing, the interest would drop to 1.5850%.

The council also has the option to pursue a shortened amortization schedule by slightly increasing its yearly principal payments on the Series 2021 bonds. True interest costs would drop to an estimated 1.496%. Under the shortened schedule, the 15th year of payment would be eliminated. The shortened schedule would result in a savings of $650,299.78 for the city, the majority of which would be recognized at the end of the repayment period.