Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Graham Smith was in attendance at the Oct. 10 Mountain Brook City Council meeting. She will be sworn in to her new position on the council on Nov. 7.
Graham Smith sat quietly in the audience during the pre-council and council meetings at Mountain Brook City Hall on Oct. 10. The council member-elect’s days in the audience are drawing short as she will be sworn in at 8 a.m. on Nov. 7.
“By law, the new council takes office on the first Monday of November,” City Manager Sam Gaston said. “We'll swear in Graham Leigh Smith and Billy Pritchard again and Lloyd Shelton. Then usually they make a bunch of appointments, probably reappointing the city manager, the city clerk, the city attorney and the city judge. It's kind of setting the stage for the next two years.”
Shelton said that he had a conflict and cannot attend the meeting on Nov. 7. He will be sworn in at a later time.
In other business, the council:
Authorized service agreements with All In Mountain Brook, Birmingham Zoo, Birmingham Botanical Society and Prescott House.
Approved the cost-sharing of the Local Government Health Insurance Plan (LGHIP) medical/dental insurance premiums as established by the State Employees’ Insurance Board (SEIB). The premium goes up 6.4% effective in January.
Authorized the execution of an agreement between the city and Cahaba Solid Waste Disposal Authority with respect to garbage, trash and recycling services. It was passed subject to review and revision for updated rates and adjustments to the fuel surcharge.
Amended the Employee Handbook regarding take-home city vehicles.
“We've been implementing these take-home vehicles for our police officers for over three years,” Gaston said. “We're now allowing our three inspectors to take cars home so they can come in the mornings and actually go directly to an inspection site (instead of having) to come to City Hall, pick up their cars and go from there. It's supposed to give us several more extra inspections to be done every day based on doing that.”
Executed the statement of work with Ricoh with respect to DocuWare, an upgrade to the city’s purchasing system.
Accepted the proposal submitted by Sain Associates regarding surveying and engineering services for the sidewalk project on Brookwood Road.
“We're going to be extending sidewalks on Brookwood Road from Crosshill Road to about where the land starts getting real steep,” Gaston said. “We're going to contract that out with the hope maybe in two years to apply for a TAP (Transportation Alternatives Program) Grant to finish the rest of it so we can go all the way down to connect those sidewalks there in Jefferson County.”
Created one police officer position.
“We contracted out the dispatchers,” Gaston said. “We have like 11 positions and we were going to backfill it with up to six positions. We hired three desk sergeants and one extra patrol officer to work the phones and be the desk person. If we needed a sixth one, which we don't know for sure, we would add that next fiscal year,” the city manager said. “We're kind of gradually filling those positions.”
Received an update on drainage projects and studies from Mark Simpson of Schoel Engineering.
Heard an update from Councilman Billy Pritchard regarding Junior High drainage and recreational field improvements.
