VILLAGE OF CONSTANTINE
Regular Meeting, January 5, 2009
Council Room, 7:30 PM

President Weiss called the Regular January 5, 2009 Meeting of the Constantine Village Council to order at 7:30PM at the Village Hall.

ROLL CALL
Present at Roll Call: Trustees Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer, Mathers, Moore and President Weiss. Also present: Manager Honeysett, Treasurer Strawser, Rental Inspector Lammott and Clerk Strawser. The pledge of allegiance followed Roll Call.

INVOCATION
Upon President Weiss’ invitation, Rev. Dennis Smith of Messiah Lutheran Church led the Council in prayer.

AGENDA
Clerk Strawser asked under which Closed Session requirement they planned to add a Closed Session to discuss the Manager’s Contract since contract negotiation applied only to collective bargaining agreements, Manager Honeysett changed the request to “employee evaluation”.Motion by Brown, Seconded by Harder, to adopt the agenda as amended. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Amendments: under New Business – add Email, and move Manager’s Contract to last item and add – Closed Session for the purpose of Manager Evaluation.

MINUTES
Motion by Mathers, Seconded by Moore , to accept the Regular December 15, 2008 Meeting minutes as corrected. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0. Correction: Page 1, Paragraph 11: add – Motion carried by affirmation. Page 1, Paragraph 13: add – After much discussion, the Motion failed by Roll Call vote 5 – 2. YES votes: Moore and Weiss. NO votes: Brewer, Brown, Harder, LaFluer and Mathers. Page 2, Paragraph 2: add Motion carried by affirmation. Page 2, Paragraph 3: add Motion carried by affirmation. Page 2, Paragraph 3: add – …appointment of Greg Hoover from State Farm Insurance to the DDA.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Ryan Brimmer, 320 Station Street , expressed his disappointment at the Council failure to approve placement of a 9-1-1 antenna tower on the Village water tower, asking that the Council reconsider, stating safety concerns for police and fire fighters, citing communication failure due to poor radio signals in whole areas of the Village. President Weiss asked Trustee Harder to respond. Trustee Harder expressed the Council concerns at the lack of substantiation accompanying by Mr. Goldberger’s request, saying the Council is currently researching alternatives to both protect the Village water system and personnel safety. Trustee Harder said that he has since learned that radio problems have existed for approximately fifteen years. President Weiss said that this Council hopes to resolve the problem and that Mr. Goldberger has been asked to return with alternate solutions.

Treasurer Strawser asked about the status of the sewer system. Manager Honeysett said that the sewer was fine as far as he knew, though he learned that a part either needs to be re-built or replaced. When asked if the standby sewer parts approved for purchase in November had been ordered, Manager Honeysett said he hoped to do so tomorrow. When asked why the Village has not received a sewer bill from Three Rivers for two months, Manager Honeysett said delays were caused by the retirement of TR WWTP Director Rozeboom, but that he hoped things would be less chaotic in the near future, Mr. Rozeboom being re-hired by TR as the WTTP consultant. When asked about the final reports on the Village Property Sale and Harvest Festival, Manager Honeysett promised them for the next regular meeting.

CHRISTMAS IN CONSTANTINE
Manager Honeysett said they estimated 150 children visited with Santa. He urged council members to attend an upcoming “Christmas in Constantine ” brainstorming session with invited downtown merchants to be led by Diana Lammott. Asked why this was not a function of the DDA, Manager Honeysett explained that the current DDA is not a hands-on organization, rather they are there to write checks for the incubator and to bounce ideas off of.

CHRISTMAS LUMINIARIES
Manager Honeysett praised the participants of this year’s luminary efforts, despite the failure caused by bad weather. Trustee Brown said that he and Trustee Harder had concerns that they hoped would be discussed as to how to best implement this program, mainly citing the amount of work necessary versus the number of volunteers. Manager Honeysett said he has approached the Cool Cities Committee to take over this program, none being available to participate this year.

EMAIL
Clerk Strawser, repeating her concerns that the legal requirements for official email were not being met by all Village officials, distributed an informational handout for a free online course designed for elected officials through the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries, and invited anyone with a dialup connection or other difficulty accessing it, to use the Township Library’s high-speed computers.

WIRELESS AGENDA AND PACKET DISTRIBUTION
The Council, citing efficacy and rules of Procedure concerns, rejected Manager Honeysett’s request to change to email distribution of agenda and meeting packets.

CLOSED SESSION
Motion by Brewer, Seconded by Harder, to go into Closed Session for the purpose of contract review and job evaluation. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0.

Recessed meeting at 8:05PM.

Reconvened meeting at 8:48PM.

MANAGER’S CONTRACT
Motion by Brewer, Seconded by Mathers, to table the Manager’s contract to the next regular meeting. Motion passed by Roll Call 7 – 0.

President Weiss declared the meeting adjourned at 8:53PM.

Ruth Strawser
Village Clerk