By Clark Natalie

Monday night, at the last Harris City Council meeting for 2007, a lot of time was spent closing out items before the end of the year. One of those was the salary for officers of the fire department. Fire Chief Will Lacina came to the council to have them set the salaries for the 2008 year. In the past, the fire chief was paid $600 for the entire year, paid out in increments.

Comparisons were made to other cities, nearby and of similar size.

Councilman John Pelant suggested that an amount to be spent on officers salaries be set by the council, and the fire department have the option to decide what amount of the total would be allocated to each officer. It was decided that since the fire chief was appointed by the council and the balance of the officers nominated by the chief and approved by the council, the chief's salary should be set by the council. When asked, Lacina had no opinion as to what his salary should be and deferred the decision to the council. The council agreed that the amount set aside for fire department officers' salaries would be $1,800 of which $800 would go to the chief. The balance would be used to pay the officers down to the rank of captain.

City Treasurer Marlys Balfany confirmed that this would be for the 2008 year. Since no salary had been approved by the council for 2007, she asked what should be allocated for the last remaining amount to go to the officers for this year. Since the department is in the process of purchasing equipment, and any remaining funds in the fire department budget in 2007 would be used for that purpose, the officers in attendance grudgingly agreed to accept only $100 each. The balance of any salary they had coming would be donated to the department for the purchase of the equipment.

The other issue Lacina brought before the Council was the ordinance that had been passed restricting membership to the fire department being dependent on answering emergency calls. Lacina pointed out that 63 percent of the calls were between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. This restricted the ability of some of the members who work out of town during regular working hours, Monday through Friday, from responding to the calls. Lacina pointed out that when positions on the fire department were advertised, there was no mention of being able to respond during specific hours. No mention was made of being on call during certain hours and on specific weekends. At the present time, training is ongoinag and although the membership roll is increasing, some of the members are still going through training. It was decided to revisit the attendance requirements in 2008 and decide a better way to monitor those who should not be on the department because of absenteeism. Until the ordinance is changed, enforcement of the present ordinance will be suspended.

The council also set a public hearing on adopting the State and International Fire Codes, standard codes that have been adopted by many local communities. City Attorney Peter Grundhoefer said that the State Code is for 2007 and the International Fire Code had been set in 2006. The council and fire department needs to discuss which appendixes the city will adopt as there are four options. Grundhoefer said the public hearing is necessary because of some of the enforcement options allowed under the code. The public hearing will be Jan. 14, at 6:45 p.m. Before the hearing, the fire department will get a copy of the code to the council for review. Lacina said the code is about six inches thick.

In other business:

• City Clerk Jennifer Wolthe sought approval of a contract to accept a grant from the Secretary of State of Minnesota. The city has received a $2,944 grant under the Federal Election Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities to have access to the City Hall improved for voting purposes. The concrete steps will be removed and a ramp that will make the entrance to the polls accessible for handicap individuals.

• The council approved the final 2008 property tax levy at $322.400. This amount had been set at the Truth in Taxation hearing. Also the delinquent utility bills were also certified to the tax rolls. There were 23 different accounts, ranging from under $400 to just over $1,800. The total amount from all the accounts was $17,738.16. To not have the delinquent bills added to the tax rolls, the property owners only had to contact City Hall to make a payment or at least set up a payment schedule.

• The city had the option of purchasing property in the city of Harris that had gone back to the county for back taxes. From the description of the property, the council had a difficult time trying to calculate how much land was in the parcel and whether it was contiguous to city property. It was decided to table action on the parcel, as they have 90 days to act, until further questions could be answered.

• During the staff reports, Councilman Pelant questioned the amount of expenditures on the sewer system, compared to the income generated. Pelant pointed out that the expenditures through November totaled about $160,000, but the income on the same report showed only $110,000. Pelant asked where the difference came from. Was it from the general fund? Mayor Rick Smisson said that some of the costs of the sewer system, such as maintenance salaries were billed directly from the general fund, but the work was done on the sewer system. Other expenses, such as utilities were also paid from the general fund. Pelant pointed out that these items were suppose to be paid from the sewer and water funds, as the funds are to be self supporting. Smisson indicated that the funds are on the way to reaching that status.