Denver City’s City Council met, DCPD Units getting upgrades

The Denver City City Council met in regular session on Monday, March 4, where they addressed their regular agenda.

After the invocation was led by Joan Breith the Council moved on to the announcements. Councilman Clinton Bowman brought the Council up to date on sporting events at the high school. He complimented both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams on another successful season and noted the spring sports are in full swing with baseball, softball, tennis, track, and golf underway.

A motion to approve the notes from the previous meeting was unanimously approved.

City Manager Stan David informed the Council that Judy Vallie has volunteered to serve as the Alternate Election Judge for the early voting and the election day for a position on the City Council. She will be helping Beverly Moreno who is the Election Judge.

The school board election was canceled when no one filed to run against incumbents Brad Woosley and Russell Dial. However, there will be a City Council election for three positions on the Council. Incumbents Joan Breith, Ronald Weir, and Robert Hanneman all filed for another term. Also filing was former Chief of Police Jack Miller. The three receiving the highest number of votes will take a seat on the Council.

The Mayor’s position currently held by Mayor Tommy Hicks was also canceled after Hicks was the only one to file for that position. Early voting will be from April 22 through April 30. Election day is set for May 4.

Moving on in the agenda, Chief of Police David Hennigan was in attendance requesting approval of a resolution in reference to a grant application. Hennigan had prepared and submitted a grant for laptop computers to be placed in each officer’s patrol unit. The total grant funds requested was $28,887.49. These funds will be used to purchase seven laptops for each unit, one laptop for the Chief’s unit, and the software to go with it. The total cost for the laptops is $25,240.45 and the software will be $3,647.04. After some discussion the Council unanimously approved his request.

In the next item the Council unanimously approved a change in the basic and advanced life support service rates and fees. City Manager David went over each change and explained how the city had the lowest rates and the ambulance services were losing money. The areas affected included basic non-emergency transport, basic emergency transport, advanced non-emergency transport, advanced emergency transport, advanced cardiac transport, specialty care transport, mileage charge, and extra attendant (if needed).

David also noted the city lost out on $68,245 in 2018 with the lower fees. In 2018 there were 469 patients transported to the hospital and of this total 75 had no insurance. The total bill for these patients should have been $50,396. A total of $3,825 was actually collected. The new rates went into effect on March 1.

The Council then went into Executive Session to consult with City Attorney Warren New concerning an ongoing issue.

Following the Executive Session, a motion was made and unanimously approved to pay city bills that totaled $277,140.18.

Those Councilmembers in attendance were Joan Breith, Ronald Weir, Robert Hanneman, Clinton Bowman, Mark Sherman, and Keith Mensch along with Mayor Tommy Hicks. The next meeting will be on March 18 at 7pm in the City Hall chambers.