A Clean Audit
Presenting the audit results was Jeff Carter, CPA of Taylor, Polson, & Company CPAs PSC. Photo | PJ Martin
By PJ Martin
Editor, The Herald-News
The Edmonton City Council met for November on Monday, November 2nd. Those in attendance were Mayor Doug Smith, Council members, Stacy Beard, Teresa Hamlett, Curt Estes, Cathy Nunn, Faye Word, and Tommy England, Public Works Moe Hensley, Police Chief David Robertson, City Attorney Brian Pack, City Clerk/Administrator Dawn Devore, ABC Administrator Fred Ray, Parks & Recreation Director Brian Garrett, and PJ Martin from The Herald-News.
The mayor opened the meeting, stating there was a quorum present and asked for the approval of the minutes from the October 1st and October 20th special called meetings.
The motion to approve was made by Beard and Hamlett.
The FY 2024-2025 Audit was presented by Jeff Carter, CPA of Taylor, Polson & Company CPAs PSC, who stated the audit was a “clean opinion on all financial statements”.
After the lengthy summary of the audit by Carter, the motion to accept the audit was made by Hamlett and seconded by Estes, then approved.
Next, the first reading of Ordinance #2026-27-04 Codification Ordinance was heard. The motion to approve the first reading was made by Estes, seconded by Nunn, and approved. Devore read the ordinance and explained, “This is where we codified that and put it in the book. American Legal Publishing did that codification for us, put it all in summary in a book so it’s easier to access, read, and know what the city’s laws are.”
The Water, Sewer, and Gas report was presented by Hensley, “We’ve done eight water taps, sewer tap, gas tap, fixed five water leaks, replaced four boxes, routine day-to-day stuff, finished our yard work, installed some more snow guards on the city hall, got a meter installed on Highway 90 east for leak protection, got our dump truck and leaf vacuum ready, and today was the first day of pickup. We received our pipe for the Nunley Road project… Our PRP has been ordered for the Highway 90 pressure zone. And I’m pretty tickled to say that we have three employees that passed the Distribution 2 license and one employee that passed the Wastewater 1 license.”
Resolution #2026-27-04 KIA Authorizing Agreement of the Sewer Plant authorizes the mayor to sign any necessary grant assistance, agreements, budget amendments, etc. in connection with the Sewer Plant Program. The motion was made and approved with no discussion.
Next, Police Chief Robertson presented the October activity report with 6 arrests, 11 non-injury accidents, 2 injury accidents, 1 alarm, 3 animal complaints, 11 domestic disputes, 3 investigations opened, 5 motorist assists, 3 medical assists, 1 drug complaint, 24 traffic stops, 1 trash complaint, 1 warrant served, 4 funeral escorts, 59 complaints, and 7 citations written. They patrolled 3,673 miles.
Director Jordan Crump presented the 911 report for October. Dispatch received a total of 410 calls, with 45.11% for the city and 53.3% for the county. There was 1.6% in the other category. Crump stated, “We do have some for post and school’s department here and there.”
“Installation of our new recorder system is going in Friday…We have a new CAD system going in at the end of November, so we have a lot of training and a lot of new technology going.”
Crump also asked if the council would consider hiring one more full-time employee. She also advised that the next upgrade step would be to have a CJIS terminal, so they could run NCIC information for the officers. The state requires all dispatchers in a CJIS facility to be certified, and although it might cost up front, it would be worth it in employee retention.
Next was ABC Administrator Fred Ray, who reported, “All the regulatory fees are in for the last quarter. Everything’s running smooth.”
Parks and Recreation Director Brian Garrett said, “Both concession stands were inspected by the health department. Both passed.” He also reported the last game of the fall league was that night.
There was no fire department report.
City Attorney Brian Pack explained an update to the Personnel Policy section on Background and Reference checks. “Our current policy, this involves background checks for employees, and volunteers. You know, we have people coach youth, that kind of stuff, and leads that we sponsor… There has been a change in the law…”
The new policy allows more flexibility when a background check pulls a criminal charge from 20 or 30 years ago; it allows the ability to look at the situation, make a call, considering the seriousness of the charge and the age of the charge. We can weigh certain factors before we say that’s a disqualifying event. It allows more common sense.
The motion was made to accept the changes, seconded and approved.
With no other business, the meeting adjourned.
