Moving forward, Great Bend City Council meetings will have a few changes, thanks to action taken Monday and the prerogative of the new Mayor, Alan Moeder.
The next Great Bend City Council meeting, on Feb. 2, will start one hour earlier. The council voted Monday to have its regular meetings start at 5:30 p.m.
The council also adopted an ordinance that establishes a code of procedure governing its meetings. While this is similar to what the council was already doing, it creates a written policy. One change allows council members to add items to the agenda ahead of the meeting. The policy for public comments hasn’t changed.
Council member reports
A regular agenda item is “Councilmember Reports,” and states, “Councilmembers will report on the boards and commissions that they serve on.” Moeder said that isn’t an open forum for councilmembers, although that was allowed by former Mayor Cody Schmidt.
Councilmember reports should be limited to reports on the board and commissions that they serve on. For example, Moeder said, Rickee Maddox serves on the Barton County Historical Society Board and is welcome to report on that.
“But if it’s not a board that members of the city council can be on, there will be no more comments on that. Does anybody have any concerns or anything about that?”
Councilmember Gary Parr frequently speaks during this segment of the meeting, bringing up concerns and questions he’s heard from constituents.
“So we can’t speak freely, if there is an issue that we’re wanting to address for the people?” Parr asked.
“Nope,” Moeder said. “If it’s on the agenda, you can speak. If it’s not on the agenda, you’re not going to speak. If you disagree with me, (City Attorney Allen Glendenning) will explain how you can overrule me.”
Councilman Davis Jimenez also had questions about the rules. “So we just have to make sure and contact beforehand, to get it on the agenda, if we want to speak about a certain item? Do we have to be on a board to speak for the people?”
“You have to get it on the agenda, and you’ve got to have facts, so the rest of the commission knows what you’re talking about,” Moeder said. “They’re not jumped and surprised.”
“I don’t think that’s right,” Parr said. “I think we ought to be able to speak freely; if the citizens and the taxpayers have an issue that they want one of us – their representative – to bring forward, we ought to be able to freely bring that.”
“Okay, Gary, I’m going to run this meeting, okay?” Moeder said. “If you want to override me, Allen will tell you how to do it. Otherwise we’re going to go on with the agenda.”
Jimenez asked the mayor to clarify how something is added to the agenda.
“You can bring it to (City Administrator Logan Burns) or me. It has to be here the Tuesday before the meeting, but you’ve got to have information with that, so the rest of the council can look at that, so they don’t come in here and get blindsided,” Moeder said.
Councilmember Maddox added, “If someone has come to you with something ... the thing to do is just share it with Logan or try to share or find answers. When you bring it to the council, I assume that you’ve already tried your best to find the answer. That’s what I’ve done in the past; if I’ve been confronted with something during the week, then I try to get an answer. I don’t necessarily need to bring it to the entire council.”
“I appreciate that,” Parr said. “But, I bring the questions here to get answers from us to the people.”
Moeder said that if people care enough about an issue, they can come to a city council meeting. “There’s plenty of time for people to voice their opinion.”
Parr asked if this was part of the new bylaws but Moeder said that is always how “councilmember reports” have appeared on the agenda. Mayor Schmidt allowed the extended comments but he will not.
“Oh, okay, I didn’t know that,” Parr said. “Just explain that. I didn’t know.”
Facebook comments
Council meetings can be viewed on the City Council’s Facebook page. Recently, public comments during the livestreaming had been shut off. City Administration Burns said comments are again allowed, “for now.”
Action items
Here is the summary of other action taken Monday.
• The council approved a tree trimmer’s license for Gray Tree Trimming (Aaron Gray) out of Russell.
• Jay Luerman was elected council president.
• An ordinance was approved that establishes clear responsibility for intentional damage to city-owned water meters. Utilities Director Darren Doonan said some people intentionally fill the meter holes or damage the equipment to avoid having their water shut off for non-payment. He is tracking 10 accounts where this is “quite common.” Now, costs for intentional damage will be assessed to the owner as a lump sum on the next water bill.
• Approved the Master Fee Schedule for 2026. The main changes were fees for damage to water meters, a 3% water service increase and a 3.5% sewer increase.
• Year-end transfers of $605,000 were approved to the capital outlay fund.
• An operator agreement was approved with M & P Project. Jon-Paul Powell and Ricky McMillan will reestablish motocross racing at the Expo Complex.
The meeting was followed by a report on the draft of a water study. This report is 95% complete and Michael Schultes, P.E., walked council members through possible needs to maintain the water system into the future.
