Riverside to interview city administrator applicants

RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council came one step closer to filling its city administrator/clerk position at its council Monday night. The council heard from Pat Callahan of Snyder and Associates. The council hired Snyder and Associates to whittle down a list of city administrator/clerk applicants to four people. Callahan told the council his company has done that and that the four applicants are ready to be interviewed.

The council will hold a special meeting Thursday to interview the four people. All four of them have requested to be interviewed in a closed session. Callahan spoke with the Washington County Sheriff?s Department, which will perform a criminal background check on the applicants and also check their driving records. He informed the council that it would need to record the interviews either with an audio recording device or a video recording device that contained audio. Callahan said the candidates? spouses have been invited but that they probably won?t attend.

Joe LeBlanc of Coralville addressed the council about a merry-go-round he is restoring for an Eagle Scout project and which he will give to the city of Riverside. The merry-go-round belongs to his grandmother, who recovered it from a one-room schoolhouse near Riverside. His grandmother wishes to donate the merry-go-round to Riverside.

The council spoke with LeBlanc last October and offered to house his merry-go-round in Railroad Park. LeBlanc gave an update on his progress Monday. He said he has straightened out the bent parts of the merry-go-round and that he has sandblasted, primed and powder coated it. He said the project must be done by January for him to earn a badge. His mother, Mary Jo LeBlanc, was in the audience and she said he should finish the merry-go-round in the next two weeks.

City Engineer Mike Hart addressed the council about the possibility of selling water to the town of Hills. Hart said the city has enough water in its reserves to sell water to Hills. He said the city built large storage facilities in anticipation of the Riverside Casino using massive amounts of water. He said the casino has used less water than expected.

The council considered a motion to sell water to Hills. City Attorney Les Lamping said the city should have had that as a specific agenda item if it wanted to vote on it. The council ultimately did not make any motion on the matter.

Barb Duder of American Legion Post 29 spoke to the council about a documentary called ?The Invisible War.? The documentary is about the incidence of rape in the U.S. military. Duder said that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta saw the film and that he has since changed the way the military prosecutes rape. Duder asked the council for a $1,000 donation to show the film for free at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City Friday night at 7:30. The council voted to donate $500 to the cost of showing the film, contingent on finding the appropriate fund in the budget from which to draw the money.

The council accepted the resignation of Roger Hicks from the Planning and Zoning Commission. Hicks wrote in a letter to the council that he was going to move and that he would no longer be eligible to serve on the commission according to the city?s guidelines. The council thanked Hicks for his time on the commission and talked about how to replace him. Councilor Christine Kirkwood said the council should appoint a rural member, one who lives outside the city limits but who lives within two miles of the city, since Hicks was one of the two rural members on the commission.

Riverside resident Lisa Schnoebelen sent a letter to the council in which she requested all e-mails to and from former clerk Missy Carter and to and from former deputy clerk Teresa Sladek from Jan. 1, 2012 until their last day of employment. She requested all e-mails on the city?s current hard drives including the e-mails from the one stored at the People?s Bank and Trust lock box.

Schnoebelen requested that the hard drive from the lock box be sealed in an evidence bag and that it be turned over to the county attorney after the mayor, council and Iowa Solutions representative inspect it. She requested a deputy transport the hard drive from Riverside to the attorney?s office.

Councilor Ralph Schnoebelen and Mayor Bill Poch said that fulfilling the request was going to be very difficult since the city is understaffed and has no full-time clerk. They asked Lisa is they could delay fulfilling the request until the city has adequate staff. Lisa agreed to that and said she would just like the e-mails before the end of the year.