By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — Questions about a property tax and bids for sewer work, accusations and counter-accusations among council members, and yet another failed motion to fire the city manager dominated the Neosho City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The council did not take up the financial plan proposed Friday by City Manager Jan Blase, who is recommending an additional $300,000 in spending cuts and borrowing an additional $1.2 million this year. He also suggested a discussion about whether to reinstate a property tax.

Cheryl Mosby, former city finance director, on Tuesday night said that if the city decided to pursue a property tax, it should be put to a vote of the public.

“I would advise you very strongly not to implement that tax without a vote of the people,” she said.

Blase’s financial plan included a Dec. 28 memo from City Attorney Steve Hays, who wrote that there is “conflicting opinion” about whether a ballot issue would be required to reinstate a city property tax. The council had repealed that levy more than a decade ago in exchange for an increase in the city’s sales tax rate.

Lawyer’s memo

Hays wrote that Howard Wright, a former Springfield city attorney and “authority” on municipal law, believes no vote would be necessary because of “existing constitutional authority.”

The Missouri Municipal League, on the other hand, advised putting the question to a vote of the people because a previous council promised to repeal the tax.

“Based on my research, I agree with Mr. Wright since the past city council actually had no authority to repeal a constitutional provision,” Hays wrote. He also wrote that he thought the issue should be “completely researched” before the council considered a ballot issue.

Asked on Tuesday night about his current opinion, Hays told the Globe that the memo represented his “first impression” of the law.

“I don’t have a (legal) opinion” yet, he said.

Blase had told the Globe that voters would not see a property tax issue on the April ballot. He said it is an issue that the city will have to visit at some point.

Sewer work

Also on Tuesday, the City Council awarded several contracts for planned sewer work. The projects are part of an $8.5 million bond issue approved by voters in August 2008.

Not all of the three bids approved Tuesday night were the lowest ones submitted, although in those cases the engineering firm hired by the city, HDR/Archer, said the lowest bids did not meet certain specifications in the bid requirements.

Mike Zimmerman, with HDR/Archer, told the council that the sewer projects had to meet certain guidelines and have certain documentation because the city is to receive $3 million in federal stimulus money toward its sewer system work.

In one case, the city awarded a contract of nearly $2.95 million to Neosho-based Branco Enterprises Inc., despite a bid of $2.45 million from Sprouls Construction Inc. for the work.

Dwight Sprouls, president of Sprouls Construction, attended the council meeting and asked about the criteria used to separate the two bidders. Zimmerman told the council that Sprouls did not meet contract requirements when it came to providing evidence of, for example, experience in sewer projects exceeding $1 million.

The report noted that Sprouls had good references, but those were for transportation projects and for projects at smaller sewage treatment plants.

Sprouls on Wednesday told the Globe that he had questions because HDR/Archer had previously told him that his company was eligible for the contract. Consequently, Sprouls said, his company had purposely not submitted bids for other projects in case it landed the Neosho contract, only to discover later that it apparently could not have been in the running for the Neosho work.

Zimmerman was out of his office Wednesday. Efforts to reach him on his cell phone were unsuccessful.

Sprouls told the Globe on Tuesday that his company might consider litigation. After being supplied with HDR/Archer’s report, he told the Globe on Wednesday that he had decided not to sue.

“It’s a closed issue,” he said. “I don’t have any further dispute. It is what it is.”

Accusations

The awarding of the sewer contracts did not go without questioning from Councilwoman Heather Bowers, who also accused city officials of “official misconduct” on a host of issues, centering on Mayor Jeff Werneke and Councilman Warren Langland.

Both men are up for election in April.

Bowers denied that her accusations — which Langland said were either flatly untrue or used statements taken out of context — were politically motivated.

She had criticized Werneke for meeting weekly with Blase, alleging that he was receiving information other council members were not.

Werneke said he has never made it a secret that he meets with Blase once a week. He had publicly announced that he would do so after being chosen as mayor in April 2009.

Part of the reason, he told the Globe on Wednesday, is that as mayor, he helps set the council’s meeting agenda and run its meetings, and he needs to know about the workings of the city. The mayor also has written columns in the past to keep residents abreast of city business.

“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” he said of the meetings. “I’m proud of it. I want to understand the workings of the city.”

Bowers had accused Langland of meeting behind the council’s back on the pending transportation development district. She alleged that Langland was seen meeting with Hays, the city attorney, while looking over a map of the proposed district.

Langland said that charge was flatly untrue and among a string of unsubstantiated accusations Bowers had made.

He said he once visited City Hall to meet with Blase, and that while waiting, he spoke with Hays in a room where the TDD map happened to be. Langland told the Globe that he was only chatting with Hays as he waited for Blase. He said he could not recall what they talked about, but that it had nothing to do with the transportation district and “nothing to do with city stuff.”

Bowers later made a motion to fire Blase for, among other reasons, failing to answer questions she has posed to him on a number of issues. She has made similar motions before. Those motions, too, died for a lack of a second.