Council canvasses election votes, wrong dates for plat tracts causing tabling, new city alderman appt on hold, former city administrator’s severance package finalized, and more.

By Gary Dickson, Editor – Siouxland Observer

It was late in the afternoon on Monday, April 15 – Tax Day, but also the day the North Sioux City City Council would meet later, first as the Canvassing Board to count votes from the recent city election and then have their regular meeting. But it was far too early to worry about that.

I had been relaxing in my recliner catching up on some reading. I had just finished The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan’s excellent story about the Dust Bowl during the 1930s and shifted to the classic detective novel, Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler for a change of pace. It must have been 5:30 or so and my wife wouldn’t be home from work with our one car for another 45 minutes. All the reading was taking a toll on me, though, and I was getting a bit drowsy. Before I knew it I had drifted off to sleep.

And I started to dream. A man’s voice – I think it sounded like Eddie Dunn from KWIT’s Saturday Night Jazz – told me I was walking up a long, steep, curving dirt road that led up a cliff far above McCook Lake. “It was a dark and rainy night,” Eddie said. “And the storm is getting worse my friend!”

Sure enough, in my dream lightning was flashing all around me. Large bolts of lightning were breaking over my head and thunder was crashing while rain started coming down in torrents. I glanced out on the lake and saw waves eight feet tall rolling across the surface. About halfway across the roiling body of water was a small fishing boat. It was trying to make its way to the lone public boat loading dock on the southeast side. But it was at the mercy of the waves! They grew larger as the storm grew stronger. Pretty soon the boat disappeared from sight only to appear on the other side of the wave. I was panicked, I didn’t know what to do!

All of a sudden, Eddie’s voice said, “Look! A house! Or is it a castle?”

I slogged up the winding road as the lightning bolts broke above the home and the thunder cascaded down the cliffs. The sounds of the waves hitting the boulders on the lakeshore mixed with the thunder from the sky made for a terrifying cacophonous chaos of nature. I held my hands over my ears and ran for the large house in the pelting rain.

I didn’t bother knocking and instead threw open the large wooden door. It was dry, but a cold breeze swept over me. I shivered. In the emptiness of the house, I heard a woman scream. It must have been the housekeeper. Then a shot rang out. Then I heard another woman’s voice screaming, “He’s gone. He’s gone, gone, gone . . .”

And her voice kept screaming “Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone . . . ” Then it became ” Beep, beep, beep, please scan your item, please scan your item, beep, please scan . . .” And I was saying “Shut up! I already did. Shut up! Shut up you mouthy machine!”

And then I heard Nancy saying, “Gary, who are you talking to? Aren’t you going to the city council meeting? You must have been sleeping and having a dream.”

I told her I was having a dream. At the end it was about the damned self-check-out cash register at Fareway that always talks back to me. Nonetheless, I realized I needed to hightail it up the Interstate to North Sioux City. That was where the North Sioux City Hall was. A double dose of local government was on tap and it had my little heart racing!

I kissed my missus goodbye, patted our kitty, Willie on the head, obtained two granola bars from the pantry and a cheese stick, and a bottle of water from the fridge, slung my camera bag over my shoulder and trotted off to the garage where my car awaited. I wound my way through the streets of The Dunes, past evening walkers and two golf carts full of teenagers. I was unable to take the Streeter Drive shortcut because it’s torn up due to the North Sioux water treatment plant expansion project. Instead, it was out on I-29 via the entrance ramp from Exit 1 and up the right-hand lane to Exit 2, aka North Sioux City. In all honesty, the Interstate is probably quicker than Streeter, but not nearly as scenic in my opinion.

I zipped off the Interstate onto River Drive — a main as a main drag as North Sioux has. I headed east going past McDonald’s, convenience stores, a casino, Casey’s gas station, a church, and vacant lots for sale which are said to be owned by Ted Waitt (but I’m told he won’t sell them for some reason), a house with anti-abortion signs in front, a security company, a strip mall, the public library, one or two other buildings and then the driveway to City Hall and the police station. Further down the street, there are more casinos, an optometrist, a dentist, another strip mall, a liquor store, a house or two and eventually, the Big Sioux River.

But I turned right way before I got to the river I’ll have you know, and went into the City Hall parking lot. The parking lot was fairly empty when I got there, so I glanced at the time on my car’s dashboard. It said 6:35 p.m. Holy Chronometer, Batman! I’m five minutes late for the meeting already. The vote canvassing had already started! So I grabbed my camera and notebook and beat a path toward the front door of City Hall.

Walking by one of the iconic stone relief sculptures that stood on either side of the building’s doorway, I noticed the family on there appeared to be telling me to quickly get my carcass inside because I might be missing something important.

I thought to myself, “How exciting could a bunch of city councilors sitting in their chairs counting ballots and verifying vote tallies actually be?”

Fairly exciting, and important as it turned out.

I pushed through the large metal-framed glass doors in front of the building into the entryway with the colorful restored historical marker of North Sioux City from the 1950s. Then I strolled into the main hallway and turned toward the council chambers, expecting to find North Sioux City Police Chief/Union County Commissioner/Republican candidate for Union County Sheriff, Rich Headid greeting people in the doorway. But Headid wasn’t there. Instead, North Sioux City Police Officer Levi Saunders was there in his place.

Officer Saunders presents a somewhat imposing, yet approachable presence. He’s tall, maybe 6 foot, 4 inches or so I’d guess. He’s slender, but muscular, too. He sports a trimmed dark mustache and has a nice smile. He’s friendly but wary in a police officer’s sort of way. Very professional. I asked Officer Saunders where Headid was. (Actually, I wondered to myself if Headid had taken an unpaid leave of absence to run for county sheriff. At least I think that’s what he should do because to hold down the police chief position, not to mention the county commissioner position, while running for sheriff seems to have the appearance of a conflict of interest. But I guess he was still on the city payroll.)

“He’s out in Rapid City,” Saunders said. “He’s at a convention with a bunch of police chiefs from around the state.”

I thought to myself, “I wonder if they have a workshop on new ways of keeping information from the press?” But I kept it to myself instead of asking Officer Saunders.

I could hear mumbling coming from the city councilors seated at their desks and there seemed to be a lot of papers being shuffled. I noticed that City Finance Officer Amy Lilly was standing in front of a couple of the councilors’ looking down at what were probably papers on their desks. It was then that I observed newly elected city councilor Bob Davis standing at the small table or lectern in the middle of the room in front of the council. He was looking down at a sheet of paper near his right hand.

“What’s going on?” I asked Saunders.

He shrugged his shoulders and said he wasn’t sure, but he thought there was a question about absentee votes.

Indeed there was a question. The council was proceeding to count the votes first in Wards 3 and 4 and then in 1 and 2. When it came to counting absentee votes, Bob Davis stepped up to the podium and informed the councilors that Edgar Rose, who lives in Ward 1 was on the list for having voted absentee, but he didn’t vote. Davis stated he had talked to Rose who informed him he never voted.

“Also, Richard Ford didn’t vote,” Davis said.

Mayor Patti Teel responded that Richard Ford’s name wasn’t on the list of those voting absentee.

One of the councilors – it wasn’t clear which one – wondered if Davis was going to protest the vote or election.

“Oh, I will protest, you can bet on that,” Davis responded.

“You won, why are you protesting?” asked Councilor Dan Parks.

“I know, but if he [Rose] didn’t vote, and he’s on the list, then something’s not right,” Davis said. “Sioux City just went through the whole thing similar to this, but to a greater extent.”

Discussion continued between Davis and the council about why he wanted to protest the election count in Ward 1 which is the election he won. Davis was adamant about continuing his protest about Rose’s vote being counted as an absentee vote when he said he didn’t vote.

“I started shaking the bushes [to get voters to the polls],” Davis said. “I called Ed Rose and he said there was no way he could get back in time to vote. Ed Rose didn’t vote because he wasn’t in town.”

Davis said he would give Rose a call right then and have him verify that he wasn’t in town to vote or that he didn’t vote absentee. “But he might come out with some language you don’t want to hear.”

But Davis had another irregularity he wanted to tell the councilors about.

“You know what was really strange, ’cause I was standing right next to Ardell (an election worker) when she pulled the ballots out of the box,” Davis said. “She’s got a stack for Teena and a stack for me. And it went down, Teena, Bob, Bob, Teena, Bob, Bob, pretty much that way until we got to a certain point. Then it was Teena, Teena, Teena, Teena, a minimum of six, probably eight or more. That is above strange!”

“No, it’s not”, said Teel.

“How can that be strange, if her people came at lunch and voted all for her?” asked Parks.

“It can happen,” said Davis.

“You can’t argue that,” Parks said incredulously.

Then Davis changed the subject back to the missing voter.

Someone from the audience said if one signature is wrong, then you have to look at them all. But the council as a canvassing board rejected taking any action this evening. Instead, they decided to move ahead saying that if any further action needed to happen, it could happen after the canvas.

“I’m challenging what went on,” Davis said. “If there is one bad apple, you might look for more.”

The councilors and mayor then approved all the votes for the elections in all four wards with Meyer, Parks and Benson abstaining in their respective races. The Canvassing Board portion of the meeting adjourned.

There was a short break so people could stretch and run to the john. I observed Councilor-elect Davis out in the hallway just outside the door to the council chambers. He was bending the ear of City Finance Director Lilly calmly explaining to her again the details of his objection to the April 9 city election. Inside the chambers, I visited with several people who had witnessed the canvassing meeting and who were just arriving.

One person, a city public works department employee, harrumphed and said, “I don’t think they should allow absentee voting in any elections. If you’re not there on the day you’re supposed to vote, you shouldn’t get to vote.”

Allrightee, then. I could tell the mayor and councilors were ready to get back at it.

That’s mighty fine water you have in North Sioux

With the vote canvassing out of the way, the North Sioux City City Council was ready to dive into the regular portion of their meeting Monday night. All the councilors were present, except for Lonnie Green and Teena Carpenter. But there was enough for a quorum.

Of course, once again, the so-called “Official Newspaper” of the City of North Sioux City wasn’t present. That would be the North Sioux City Times. It’s a shame. Instead, they write their stories from a recording of the North Sioux City Council meeting. It’s not the same as being there. They don’t seem to understand that a government meeting isn’t truly an open meeting unless a reporter is there in person to cover it. Oh, well. Moving on . . .

Order was established. The roll was called with everyone still here despite the rigor of the vote canvass. Mayor Teel had everyone stand for the second round of the loyalty pledge. Personally, I thought this time we should sing the Pledge to the tune of Yankee-Doodle Dandy or My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean. But I kept my thoughts to myself.

The evening’s agenda was okee-dokee with everyone there and the minutes from the April 2 meeting were given a thumbs up.

Mayor Teel then announced it was time for community input. The city councilors looked at the audience members expectantly. The audience members looked at each other. No one stood up and walked to the podium in front. There was to be no inputting from the community tonight.

When it came time for department heads to give reports, Mayor Teel read a letter from the SD Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It congratulates Public Works Superintendent Rusty Montagne and the City of North Sioux City, “. . . for 15 consecutive years the City of North Sioux public water system has met the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act in South Dakota’s regulations. It is our pleasure to present the Secretary’s Award for Drinking Water Excellence which recognizes your system and operations specialists who have demonstrated excellence in water system management and maintenance.”

It was now time to get down to the agenda items. First off was a resolution with four Whereases that was first approved on March 4. It was resolved that the the city would first commit to support the creation of a regional safety action plan managed by the South Eastern Council of Governments or SECOG. Next, the city committed to providing $2,500 in local cash match for the project plus 10.5 hours of in-kind or cash match all in the name of safe streets and roads. Of course, North Sioux City will provide such additional information as may be provided for this grant application, dontcha know. The resolution was given unanimous approval.

Next, a water treatment plant pay request for the Streeter Drive Water Treatment Plant Expansion project for $154,128.62 to Christiansen Construction Company was approved. The payment was for a portion of the plant and backwash storage.

The council also approved pay request #5 to RP Constructors, LLC for the Southwest Lift Station and Force Main project for $602,581.83.

Welcome to the Dating Game, or let’s frustrate the planning and zoning guy

The city’s Planning and Zoning Director, Chad Huwe asked the council to give its approval to Preliminary Plat of Tracts 1, 2 and 3 of the Union Crossing Addition. Huwe likely knew he was wading into dangerous waters simply because of the fact that “Union Crossing Addition” was part of the title. He may be forgiven for being overconfident because the previous agenda item, the plat of Tract 4 and R-13 also involved the Union Crossing Addition sailed through the council without much problem. Still, Huwe appeared not to be very well prepared when it came to the matter of this item. I’m not sure if he thought the councilors would care if the dates on the documents were dated after the hearing or if other details were missing. He also tried to backpedal and also to shift the blame to the former city manager – neither of which was a good strategy. City Councilor Greg Meyer, a professional engineer picked up on the details of inaccurate dates and the sloppy following of procedures.

Yes, we have no new city alderman or city administrator

There had been some hope that during this meeting the city council would be able to appoint a new city alderman for Ward 3 to fill the position left vacant by the untimely death of Doug Berg. It had been recommended by the administration that the council appoint Jim Christenson to the position. Christenson is the assistant North Sioux City fire chief as well as an alternate on the planning and zoning commission.

Discussion ensued about the best way to fill the position. It was noted that a position vacancy had not been advertised, but that Christenson had been the only person who had expressed interest. It was discussed that the fairest way would be to advertise the position targeted to Ward 3 residents and see if any more people would apply. Councilors also agreed that it would also be best if the new council which would include the newly elected members would be the ones who actually voted on the appointment of a new alderman.

The mayor had questions about whether or not the council could legally vote to even advertise for the position this evening since the only thing on the agenda was to consider the appointment of Christenson. So the council voted to table the action to approve Christenson’s appointment until an undesignated later date.

The topic of filling the spot of city administrator was discussed. A search committee was considered as well as contracting with a professional search organization. Councilor Meyer suggested any search committee formation wait until the new city councilors are seated. He also floated the idea of hiring a professional engineer who could serve a dual role as both city administrator and city engineer. Meyer cited the cities of Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, and Casper, Wyo. as two places that had hired engineers for dual roles as administrator and engineer. The councilors will look at the city’s current recruiting materials as well as review city policy for what the position of city administrator job entails.

But wait, there’s more!

In other business last Monday night:

• The council considered the plat of tract 4 and R-13 of the Union Crossing Development for the transfer of ownership and not for construction. The Planning Commission recommended approval during their January 24, 2024 meeting and a public hearing was held at the February 20, 2024 city council meeting. Recently, it was determined the required public hearing was not held at the planning commission meeting. Consequently, this item was brought back to the planning commission on April 10. The public hearing was held, and the Planning Commission voted 5-0 to recommend approval. The city council voted to approve the transfer of ownership and not for construction at tonight’s meeting.
• The mayor presented the 2023 annual report for informational purposes. She also announced that ELO CPAs will begin their audit of city finances on May 29th.
• The council decided to renew the City Parks and Rec Board’s designation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization on June 15, 2024. It requires the naming of three board members before that date. The council heard from councilor-elect Lynn Hoffman who has shown interest in the board’s work. Hoffman said she has talked to several people in the community who may be interested in serving on the board. She also said she has heard from community members who are concerned about the status of the splash pad. Mayor Teel received verbal commitments from existing city councilors to serve on the Parks and Rec Board if no one else volunteers.
• Councilors approved retail fireworks licenses to Lantis Fireworks, Zorts Power Source Fireworks and American Fireworks. Each business paid $1,250 for a license and permit.
• For its final order of business last Tuesday, the councilors and city attorney went into executive session. When they emerged from their session, Councilor Codi Benson made a motion to approve “$13,566 in vacation pay to former city administrator Eric Christenson, an amount to which he is entitled, and $13,566 in severance pay, an amount to which he is entitled to.” This was in exchange for a signed severance agreement.

The city pays their bills, too

The council did vote to pay all the bills that were presented to them on April 15th. That’s a good thing. They should serve as a good example to all of us – especially you younger North Sioux Citians. It’s important to take care of your financial responsibilities. But you’re not going to find all of the bills they paid listed below – just a few representative ones. I always think it’s interesting to see some of these, anyway. They’re not in any particular order, so don’t read anything into it.

• ABSOLUTE SCREEN ART, INC $1,632.00 For 96 Public Works T-Shirts
• CERTIFIED TESTING SERVICES, INC. $523.00 Manhole repair – Watier and Military
• CINTAS CORPORATION $411.14 Medicine cabinet supplies
• CRARY, HUFF, RINGGENBERG $2,948.50 March 2024 Legal Fees
• EAKES OFFICE SOLUTIONS $897.40 Trash bags, paper towels, lib paper
• GILL HAULING, INC. $16,004.24 March residential waste
• H2O 4 U $77.25 Drinking water delivery
• CITY OF SIOUX CITY IOWA $52,124.38 March sewer charges
• HERITAGE FLAG & BANNER, INC. $2,061.00 Flags
• KCAU – NEXSTAR BROADCASTING $250.00 Boys Dakota Valley Salute
• LEADER-COURIER $54.59 Notice to bidders – Water interconnect
• LEGACY PUBLISHING (North Sioux City Times) $605.54 Legal & commercial advertising
• QUALITY FLOW SYSTEMS, INC. $3,991.19 Lakeshore LS Repair
• UTILITY EQUIPMENT COMPANY $11,814.84 Shop – Manhole repair
• SIOUXLANDPROUD.COM $100.00 Dakota Valley basketball salute
• MIDAMERICAN ENERGY $15,358.97 March utility charges

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