Council committees advance fire levy placement, approve mailbox reimbursement and move personnel and vacation items to next agenda

Seven Hills City Council committees met beginning at 6:00 p.m. and moved several items for immediate or near-term action, including placing a fire-levy renewal on the May 2026 ballot as an emergency measure, approving a $270.33 reimbursement for a damaged mailbox and sending proposed personnel-pay adjustments and a vacation-accrual ordinance to the next meeting as emergency agenda items.

The finance and police-and-fire committees met sequentially. On the fire levy, a council member identified the levy as a renewal to be placed on the May ballot and asked staff which legislation applied. According to 'Aaron,' the item was advanced as an emergency because of the board of elections’ filing deadline: "the reason that this is being passed on emergency tonight is this is due to the board of elections on February 4." Council moved and seconded the motion to place the renewal on the agenda with emergency status; the transcript records roll-call responses of "Costanza, yes" and "Kelly, yes" (recorded twice in the transcript). The committee proceeded without adding new provisions to the renewal.

During the police-and-fire committee, staff and chiefs also provided operational updates. A chief described ongoing station repairs, saying work is "moving forward" after a holiday lull and that conditions at the station were "very loud and very uncomfortable at the station right now." Council noted three new hires sworn in earlier in the evening.

In finance, committee members considered a recommended "moral claim" to reimburse a homeowner $270.33 for mailbox damage at 120 Panama Panorama Drive. A resident who identified herself as Kim told the committee the mailbox was damaged while the street was repaved and that there is no video of the event; she said the observable evidence led to a recommendation for reimbursement but "we can't say that an actual individual did it." The committee recorded roll-call assent from members present and approved the recommended reimbursement.

Later in the finance session, the committee recessed to executive session for discussions described in the transcript as relating to "employee compensation and console organization." After reconvening, a council member presented proposed salary adjustments for several law-related and court positions and said the positions would be annually adjusted according to the Consumer Price Index; the committee voted to place those proposed adjustments on the next meeting agenda as an emergency item.

The finance committee also moved an amended ordinance (vendor number 151O2) to the next meeting as an emergency. The amendment, as described in the transcript, would change vacation eligibility by revising the length-of-service requirement so that employees with less than five years of service would receive two weeks of prorated vacation; it would also give the mayor authority to approve up to two weeks of vacation at hire based on relevant prior work experience. The transcript records an effective date of 01/01/2026 for the amendment.

The meeting record shows multiple routine adjournments of the committees with recorded roll calls. No ordinances were adopted on the spot; the committees primarily advanced items to future agendas and approved the small property reimbursement.

What happens next: the fire-levy renewal was placed on the agenda with emergency status to meet the board of elections’ filing deadline; the personnel pay and vacation items were placed on the next meeting agenda as emergency items and will return to council for formal consideration. The mailbox reimbursement was approved at committee and will be handled per finance procedures.