Parker council votes to post ad for police officer, hire law firm

Jeff Deane and Lindsey Kolisch are two of a three-member team from Lauber Muniipal Law that will be serving as city attorneys for Parker. The law firm will replace former city attorney Geri Hartley who resigned the post in February. Deane was also recently hired to be city attorney for La Cygne. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com

PARKER - The Parker City Council voted on Thursday, April 10, to place an ad seeking a part-time police officer or police chief without determining the amount of hours that person would work per month or how much that person would be paid. The vote was unanimous after the council rejected in a 2-to-3 vote a motion to hire that officer or chief for 30 hours a month at $22 an hour.

Councilmember Kari Brandt made the original motion, but councilmembers Gary Earley, Kandice Higgins and Joe Godfrey balked at approving both the salary and number of hours worked without further discussion. Brandt and Councilmember Meranda Ellison voted for the motion.

In a work session on March 24, the council seemed to come to a consensus that the city would hire a part-time officer for 30 hours per month with a salary of $22 hourly. But because it was not an official council meeting, the consensus wasn’t binding.

At Thursday’s meeting, Earley said he wanted more time in a work session to discuss the council’s options. That would include the title of the officer.

“I don’t know why we need to call it a chief,” Earley said.

The council voted to dissolve the police department during a special meeting on Feb. 15 after Earley and Higgins pushed back on the growth of spending by the police department. The council forced the resignation of Police Chief Cody Kiser, and following that vote the other three members of the department resigned.

After the council seemed to reach a stalemate, Jeff Deane with Lauber Municipal Law, suggested the council could advertise for the position and then seek input from the best qualified candidate to iron out the details of how the city’s police department would work.

At the beginning of Thursday’s meeting, council went into a closed-door session to interview Jeff Deane and Lindsey Kolisch, attorneys with Lauber Municipal Law. The council has been seeking to replace former city attorney Geri Hartley after she resigned in February.

Shortly after moving the meeting back into open session, the council voted unanimously to hire the representatives of Lauber Municipal Law as the city attorneys. Deane said the coverage of the Parker council would be a team effort with Kolisch and attorney Madison Touchstone alternating in attending the meetings.

With a compromise on hiring a police officer and including him in the discussions of how to organize the department, the council took the same track in seeking a codes enforcement officer. The council voted unanimously to place a help wanted ad for that part-time position as well.

With that approach in mind, the council unanimously approved a measure to advertise for a codes officer with the salary to be negotiated later.

The council next addressed the need to handle stormwater runoff. Tied to that was discussion on replacing some pipes on the west side of the city.

Earley suggested the city set aside $4,000 to seek a bid from someone to clean out ditches and culverts on a block-by-block basis as far as that amount would last. He said he wanted to hold off on replacing the water lines in hopes that the city could get a grant to replace them.

The water lines in question are old asbestos cement pipes and part of their composition includes asbestos fiber. Asbestos fiber is a known carcinogen, but it is only considered dangerous if it is dry and damaged so that particles can be inhaled. So while they don’t pose a health risk, the are old and need to be replaced according to city water and sewer contractor Chad Page.

Earley made the motion to advertise for bids to fix the ditches and culverts, and it passed on a 4-1 with Brandt voting against the measure. In a separate interview, Brandt said she believed replacing the water lines should be the first priority.

Upon learning that Wholesale Water System District No. 13 had already raised the price of water to the city, the council voted unanimously to add a flat $10 per month to the water and sewer service fee to the city’s water customers. The increase will be effective May 1.

City Clerk Lisa Leach told the council that the water bill from the wholesale district increased by nearly $900 for March.

The council also discussed purchasing a tornado shelter. Mayor Jason Webber said he had priced an 8’x16’ above ground shelter that could hold 16 people for about $14,000. Weber said that when the city had access to Parker Elementary School as a community shelter, there were sometimes one person and sometimes several people.

Webber asked Page to look at the cost of purchasing a 12’ x 40’ concrete shelter through his company.

Leach told the council that the valuation of city-owned property was up as much as 290% in 2025 compared to 2024. The steepest increase came from vacant lots east of Heritage Park that had been donated to the city for overflow parking for events.

The value of three lots on Short Street increase from about $12,000 in 2024 to more than $35,000 for 2025. Another set of three lots for parking on East Woodward increased from just over $2,900 to more than $7,500, a 158% increase.

Increasing the size of the city’s fenced-in compactor site was also discussed. Leach said that when she was filling in for compactor operator Albert Kerr over the past few days, a tremendous amount of cardboard was thrown away. 

Webber said the county would install a container to collect cardboard if the size of the secured area was increased.

The council also:

• Heard a presentation on making and installing two new benches at the city lake by Boy Scout Easton Hurlock. He said he wanted to do the project in the future to earn his Eagle badge. The council approved the project.

• Approved purchasing mosquito spray for about $1,800.

• Learned that the citywide cleanup would be on Saturday, April 26. She said that FFA students would help as would the family of Marvin Stahl.

• Learned that the pet clinic would be on Saturday, May 3, from 9 a.m. to noon.