By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
PLEASANTON – The Pleasanton City Council gave the go-ahead on Tuesday, Jan. 22, to allow Mayor Mathew Young to wire the council chambers for live streaming council meetings. Council meetings are expected to be live online by the end of February.
The council voted unanimously to allow Young to spend up to $1,500 for microphones, two cameras and necessary wiring. The video feeds will include a view of the council and a view of the audience, according to the mayor.
Young said he was pushing the issue because city residents said they couldn’t come to the meetings in person yet wanted to view the proceedings. He also said residents indicated there were times when they want to go back to earlier meetings to check on information.
Council Member Aaron Portman, noting that the recorded files would be large, asked what the cost would be to archive the sessions.
Young said they would be live-streamed and archived indefinitely on YouTube and that there would be no cost to do that.
The mayor indicated that he would likely purchase the equipment at Micro Center in Overland Park, however, there would be no need to purchase a computer for the project since there were a couple of them at City Hall that weren’t being used.
Before the unanimous vote approving Young’s request, council members wanted to know when the new system would be in operation. The mayor allayed their concerns by giving himself until Feb. 28 to complete the installation, but he expects the work will be done before that.
“I don’t want this to be put on the back burner,” Council Member Rochelle Schreckhise told Young. He assure her that it wouldn’t be delayed.
The council also reached a consensus that City Attorney Jacklyn Paletta draft an ordinance to rescind the annexation of property owned by Brandon McGinnis on the north edge of city limits on Tucker Street.
In researching a request by McGinnis to de-annex the property, county officials found that while the city council had approved an ordinance annexing the parcel into city limits, Linn County never followed through with the paperwork making the annexation legal.
Council Member Kimberly Herring noted that since McGinnis’ lot did not have either water or waste water utilities run to it, the city should void the annexation ordinance that was passed several years ago.
Portman said he was concerned that McGinnis’ de-annexation request would spark a flood of similar requests by other property owners.
The mayor said he had talked to other property owners, and all of them did not want to have their property de-annexed. He noted that the rest of the lots in question had water utilities run on the lots although some did not have waste water service.
In other business, the council:
Approved a request by Police Chief Tristan Snyder to purchase two laptop computers for the police department at a cost not to exceed $7,500. The computers will be installed in patrol cars.
Heard a report via Zoom with City Attorney Jacklyn Paletta about her negotiations with the county over the trash compactor contract.
Discussed looking at purchasing a used trailer for hauling the city’s recently purchased mini-excavator. The council decided that prices for new trailers were too high.
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