Wednesday, April 20, 2022

4.19.22 Meeting Summary

Last night the Council discussed a couple significant items:

We introduced an ordinance regarding Military Equipment Use.  Due to new legislation we are required to adopt such a ordinance prior to requesting, seeking funding, acquiring, or collaborating with other jurisdictions about the deployment or use of such equipment.  Clayton has a limited amount of equipment that would qualify under this ordinance, and often this equipment qualifies only because it is specifically designated as such.  Less lethal bean bang and sponge rounds fall under this policy, along with the standard issue rifles that are nearly ubiquitous among law enforcement.  We introduced this ordinance and it will go into effect shortly after the 2nd reading at the next meeting.  The vote was 5-0.

We discussed the city's treatment of the Concerts in the Park that occur each summer.  It was not clear who the actual sponsor of the events were - the information indicated the city, however the actual activity of the concerts including the inflows and outflows of cash were not readily apparent.  We determined that the activity was actually being recorded on the books of the city, but in a way that it would not be visible unless specifically reporting on it.  The activity of the concerts were not visible in any of the budget documents, the inflows were never recorded as revenues, and the outflows were never recorded as expenses.

We did establish a few things, and gave direction on a few items going forward:

- The concerts are a city event
- The way activity has been recorded for the concerts and other city events has not been appropriate and will be changed to be recorded properly.
- We need more information on the types of funds and their benefits and restrictions to determine what type of fund should properly capture city events.
- We need to appropriately allocate the full load of the costs incurred as a result of these events so the activity can be properly recorded.
- We need to establish and formalize succession planning around the administration of the events so that they can continue going forward.