Belle Plaine, Iowa
June 25, 2025
The Belle Plaine City Council met on June 25, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Belle Plaine City Hall with Mayor Lyle Morrow presiding. Present were Councilpersons Garrett Landuyt, Judy Schlesselman, Mitch Malcolm, Dillion McGrane, and Charmaine Wickwire. Also present were City Administrator Steve Beck and City Clerk Sandy Walton. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Motion by Malcolm, seconded by Wickwire to approve the agenda and bills received. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried 5-0.
Motion by Wickwire, seconded by McGrane to approve Resolution #25-06-05; a resolution approving the transfer of funds. On roll call vote, all voted aye, motion carried 5-0.
Council members discussed the City’s current unpaid leave policy and whether to leave it as recently updated, modify it to include specific reasons allowed for unpaid leave, or whether to implement a complete FMLA policy. After much discussion it was determined to leave it as recently updated to avoid Federal bureaucracy knowing that they can always revisit this decision if needed in the future.
Several other topics were reviewed to discuss them more in depth and to prioritize them on future agendas. A summary of each is below.
FMLA/Unpaid Leave Policy – decision has been made (see above). No further discussion is needed at this time.
Streaming Council Meetings – Mitch Malcolm has obtained equipment and software. He will be implementing soon.
Building Permit Fee Changes – Decisions made at last council meeting. A resolution with the proposed changes will be presented at the July 2 meeting. The required Ordinance revisions will be on July 2 & July 16 meetings.
The Airport contract, filling the Airport Commission vacancy, and a job description for an airport manager were discussed. They feel the airport commission should take the lead on these matters. Some comments were: no automatic renewal of future contracts & the commission needs to recommend a commission member to the council for approval. The council would like to receive monthly updates from the commission with all the recent changes.
We will investigate a possible modification of Chapter 27.02 on Airport Commission Appointment and Term which would require an item being on the next election ballot. We will review with our attorney and bring information back to a future council meeting.
There was some discussion regarding council liaisons to the various boards. No official determination was made.
Council would like to change how we provide funding to the three organizations the city donates money toward. The City Clerk will reach out to those organizations and discuss new requirements for this coming year.
We discussed the various city-owned properties that we have for sale and how the council would like to proceed with each.
Vacant Building Codes/Dilapidated downtown buildings – we will see if there are some established ordinances from other locations to bring to council for their consideration. Kate from BDG had mentioned some time ago that she had access to several.
Zoning/building code changes – our code needs updated with recent P&Z suggested updates. Steve will work on this and see if there are more changes coming soon or if we should implement what we have.
The current ordinance involving parking of campers in the front yard and all-weather surfaces will be given to the council at the July 16 meeting. Possible revisions will be discussed at the August 6th council meeting.
House numbers – per chapter 150 of the City Code, each house is to have a house number on it. We will send out some mass communication reminding residents of this law. The ordinance has instructions on how to proceed with those who fail to comply.
Jay has received some street signs and more will be ordered in July. He expects missing and damaged street signs to be replaced by the end of August.
The City Administrator City Code and job description will be reviewed at the September 3 meeting to eliminate any conflicting information.
The City Clerk and Administrator will collaborate on writing a resolution documenting procedures for final inspection costs after rehab of a nuisance property.
Timeclocks – the city will not pursue installing timeclocks at this time.
The city will work on getting cameras installed at the wells, sewer plant, pool, parks, etc. Some are already in progress and others will roll out as funds are available.
Due to some differences between our current City Ordinance and Iowa Code, we will make some revisions to our Dangerous and Vicious Animal Ordinance. We will start the revision process at the July 2nd council meeting.
The city council is looking at making a few changes to the existing Urban Chicken ordinance. This will be on the July 2nd agenda for more discussion.
Compensation for our mayor and council members will be reviewed over the next few months.
Motion by Landuyt, seconded by McGrane to adjourn the meeting. All voted aye, motion carried 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at 8:47 p.m.
Lyle Morrow, Mayor
Attest: Sandra Walton, City Clerk
Transcribed by the City Clerk subject to Council approval.
Jim Magdefrau 