During the old business portion of the Frankfort City Council meeting Monday, March 9, 2020, Councilman Michael Brite raised the topic of the independent contractor agreement between the City of Frankfort and Travis Sheets.
“I know there is some concern with this Travis Sheets’ contract,” said Councilman Brite. “And, I think it needs to be addressed. There is an awful lot of public comment going on about it. I don’t want to put it off to the next meeting. I am going to give you my personal opinion on it if this is the right time.”
“We hired a gentleman (new Parks Superintendent Bart Kraning) and are paying him good money to make these kind of decisions. My personal thought on this, nobody forced Travis to leave. We hired someone to do this job and I think he is capable of doing the job. To pay Travis the amount of money we are paying him, I don’t think it is in the best interest of the citizens of Frankfort to be doing this.”
Councilman Brite then asked the Council for their thoughts on this matter.
Councilman Joe Palmer spoke first.
“It would be a big loss to this city if we lose him (Travis Sheets),” said Councilman Palmer. “I can tell you right now if he is gone here in the next couple of weeks we (the City) are going to spend $250,000 landscaping that park over there (Prairie Creek Park).”
Councilman Palmer then directed a question to Parks Superintendent Bart Kraning who was sitting in the audience.
“Bart, how familiar are you with a lot of plants?”
“If the job fell on me to plant them, I could get them done,” said Superintendent Kraning. “And, I am extremely confident I could get that done.”
Councilman Megan Sheets, who is also a member of the Board of Works, commented:
“I think we have a responsibility to meet with Travis because he does have a planned visit back here to the community in March. I would like for those of us, that need to, to sit down and discuss with Travis and reveal some expectations even if it is a short term arrangement, maybe not the full 18-month arrangement as the current contract is drawn up for.”
“So, rather making a quick decision and flipping the switch off, I would like for us to have some further conversations with Bart and Travis before we do that and deciding with the ending date should be.”
Councilman Steve Beardsley then directed a question to City Attorney Les Bergum as to whether this matter is legislative (Council) or executive (Mayor) decision.
“It’s an executive matter, the board of works,” said Bergum. “But that’s certainly not to say the council shouldn’t have some input.”
Councilman Palmer added:
“I am not defending Travis, I am defending his knowledge.”
“He has all of the plans. He knows the “ins and outs”. So, I hate to see that amount of information wasted. Yea, it’s costing us. But it would also cost us a lot more if we had to go outside the loop to do this.”
Both Councilman Palmer and Clarence Warthan commented they did not know if the duration of the contract needed to be 18-months long.
Mayor Judy Sheets then added, “Myself and the Board of Works have met and discussed this and we are going to put a plan in place. We intend to speak with Travis when he gets here in March and determine exactly what direction we want to go with this.”
Councilman Palmer spoke to Travis Sheets’ travel to Frankfort.
“He flies in on the 20th of this month and I think he starts on the 23rd.”
After the close of the City Council meeting, Councilman Brite spoke with Clinton County Today.
“I am not against Travis. My concern is two-fold. Number one, the public does not know what is going on. The council says this will save us money in the long run. I don’t have a problem with that, but we need to explain to the public how it’s going to save us money. And, we need to explain to them why we are not intrusting our new Parks Superintendent for this job.”
“To me, he is able to do it. I am all for with what Megan (Sheets) has stated with the council sitting down with Travis and the new Parks Superintendent and see what we can work out. I just want to make sure that as council members, we are responsible for those that put us in here and we are responsible to make sure they understand what is going on.”
“My other concern is though with all of the negative comments that I have been reading and hearing. Not one person showed up to this meeting to complain. So you can’t sit back and complain about something and then not show up to voice your concern here and let us know how you are feeling because that shows very little concern on those that have a problem with it.”
The next City Council meeting is Monday, March 23, 2020, at 7 p.m. The next Board of Works meeting is immediately prior to at 5 p.m. Both meetings are held in the City Council Chamber at Old Stoney.
