CLAYTON — At its April 18 meeting Clayton city council adopted an ordinance under emergency status to amend the grass cutting fee assessed to property owners to address increased personnel costs.

“Staff is presenting this as an emergency so we can have this in place prior to going out to place signs in yards (stating the yard needs to be cut) so we are not having one set of residents who get violations with the lesser fee, so it will be the same across the board,” said City Manager Amanda Zimmerlin.

The sign placed in a yard states that the failure to comply with the order will result in the city removing the grass, weeds and/or vegetation and the property owner will be charged $204 per acre or part thereof plus a 10 percent administration fee; a statement that if the fee is not paid when due, a lien will be placed on the property for the amount due.

A statement of cost will be sent by certified mail with a return receipt requested to the property owner, operator, responsible party and/or occupant of such land.

If the certified mail is returned to the city undelivered, then the statement of cost will be sent by regular U.S. Mail delivery or hand delivery.

The ordinance shall be effective as an exception to any ordinance, resolution, or other legislation of the city of Clayton, inconsistent with this ordinance or which imposes additional requirements for effectiveness or validity.

Pursuant to Charter Section 4.033(A) this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, and welfare of the city and shall therefore be in full force and effect from and immediately upon affirmative vote of at least five (5) of the members of council.

Council adopted the ordinance by a 6-1 vote.

In other business, council voted to amend its summer schedule by eliminating the need for a meeting on the first Thursday of the months of June, July, and August. If an item of business needs to be addressed, council will arrange to have a meeting on the first Thursday. The second meeting of the month, held on the third Thursday, would be held as usual.

Council voted 6-1 to cancel the first meeting of those months with Gerg Merkle voting no.

Zimmerlin requested council hold a work session on May 16 to discuss with staff the options the city has for potential placement of a levy on the November ballot.

During the levy campaign, the city told residents that hard billing for Emergency Medical Services was a potential to the levy not passing.

“Currently the city writes off about $100,000 a year that we don’t bill for,” Zimmerlin explained. “Medicount does our medical billing. They bill for 120 days. We typically take what the insurance pays and after the 120 days the city just writes everything else off.

“The attorney general’s office is willing to do billing for us just like they do for our delinquent taxes,” Zimmerlin added. “If we do that, I can have legislation at the next meeting for a memorandum of understanding with them to handle that process. I want to figure out how council feels about that and if that is something you want to move forward with.”

Mayor Mike Stephens commented that, “This is an issue that would likely be contested either way that we would go. It’s a lot of money left on the table.”

He asked for further discussion regarding hard billing for Emergency Medical Services.

Councilmember Tina Kelly asked how other neighboring jurisdictions like Englewood handle the issue.

“They do hard billing,” Kelly stated.

“Englewood and Union both do hard billing, but they do not hard bill if they transport someone from Clayton because we don’t hard bill,” Zimmerlin said. “If we do this, then all three jurisdictions would hard bill no matter who is transporting a patient.”

Costs vary depending on services rendered when a medic unit is dispatched to a home and costs vary depending on which hospital a patient is taken to.

“Is this a deterrent for calling EMS Amanda? I don’t want people not calling us because they are afraid of paying $300 or whatever the amount is,” said Vice Mayor Tim Gorman.

Zimmerlin said that was something that council needed to take into consideration.

“I don’t think it has deterred anyone in the city of Englewood or Union from calling for a medic,” Zimmerlin replied.

“Otherwise, they would be calling the coroner but we don’t want that to happen,” Gorman said.

“No, we don’t want that to happen. Englewood and Union both hard bill and I don’t think it has deterred their run volumes because we are all about the same for EMS,” Zimmerlin said. “I can present legislation at the next meeting and I can have Chief Garver here and I can have a staff report for you and council can make the decision then.”

Zimmerlin also discussed American Rescue Plan Act funds that the city received just like all other area jurisdictions.

“We have about $200,000 left of those funds,” she noted. “A lot of the projects that we did came in under budget and we planned for contingencies on all of those. We have to have the money encumbered by December of 2024 and spent by December of 2026, so I am making the recommendation that in the 5-year Capital Improvement Plan we have new radios for the police department that we needed for next year.

“I am making the recommendation that we go ahead and use ARPA funds to purchase those radios. One of the items that we could use it for was for infrastructure and services for residents, and I think that this would qualify,” Zimmerlin said.

The other item those funds could be used for is server storage space, which the city is running out of.

“We need to upgrade our servers and we can do that for $21,000 and I also think that would an applicable expense for the ARPA funds,” she stated. “With council’s consent I will get with Chief Hamlin tomorrow and tell him we can go ahead and get those items ordered, that way it takes the burden off our CIP for next year for both of those items.”

The city would still be left with a little over $100,000 in ARPA funds, which could be put towards paying for LifePak monitors, which the city has budgeted $70,000 to obtain. The city also has the cost of upgrading tornado warning sirens to deal with.

“I would like to see where those two projects come in before we start thinking about what we want to do with remaining $100,000 but I think these two projects would be worthwhile,” Zimmerlin added.

Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].