Alta City Council addresses concerns circulated by write-in candidate

The Alta City Council Monday discussed in length the recent write-in candidate letter that was drawn up and distributed to all homes in the community by Richard "Curly" Morris, who was named as mayor following the canvas of votes by the Buena Vista County Supervisors.

The council members went through the document which listed "16 reasons why we need a new mayor."

The letter indicated that there have been "secret meetings before and after the regular council meeting and email meetings" and stated that "Alta's City Council business is to ne discussed by city council members in the council chambers only unless the meetings are previously made public as to where and when these meetings are to take place."

The council took offense at the statement.

"Secret meetings? That is flat out not the truth," said council member Brian Walsh. "I don't know where that information came from."

And as for the email meetings, at least two of the council members indicated they didn't even know how to perform that function on their computers.

"That is the wrong information to be getting out to the public," said council member Mike Holton. "Anyone can come to the city council meetings."

The second issue indicated that there is wasteful spending with community dollars. "So far just a few people from Alta have benefited from the south addition," the letter said.

In one year, five lots have been sold at the addition.

Walsh said, "People thought it was crazy to build the community center and the baseball fields. This addition will benefit the community. See what it looks like in 10 years."

Holton added that a survey was sent out to the community members some time ago and there was a great response that people wanted to see the development of more residential areas.

"We need to look to the future a little bit. We need to do things to get new families into the community."

Morris pointed out that Addie Petersen and Storm Lake's Kenny Hansen had approached the council long before the development project began indicating they may be interested in being a part of development projects. The council responded by saying it was a "cost" issue that brought them to the south addition.

The letter indicated that street repair needs to be completed "in a faster time frame from start to finish."

The council responded that they agree but that more city workers would be needed. Walsh commended the street department for doing a good job.

Storm sewers were addressed.

"We make repairs every year," the council said stating replacement of grates is about $1,500 each and there are 40 of them so it would be a huge expense if they were all done at once.

The letter indicated "we need a mayor to push for more underground electrical services." The council responded saying that is a trustee decision. "The council or mayor have nothing to do with that."

The letter also indicated that there was concern that there were lead pipes in homes and asked for grants be secured to remove those. Again, the council said, that is something the utilities take care of.

"All of Alta's City Council" business should be published in the proper publication after each and every public meeting" was another concern. The council said it is the law that minutes from all meetings, special meetings and regular monthly meetings, written up by the city clerk, go in to the newspaper and they have always abided.

Morris was also concerned that the "mayor's job is to stimulate the council member to act on their own and make decisions concerning Alta's future. He only votes to break a tie vote."

The council and mayor pointed out that the mayor is not allowed to vote on any issue; not even in a tie.

The last issue of concern was the need to lower taxes. "Some property taxes almost doubled recently," the letter stated.

The council agreed, "We would all like to have lower taxes" and indicated that Alta has some of the lowest city taxes around. Cost increases were in part due to the county reassessing property and houses, it was added.