Gervais council updates bank signatories, approves $5,000 utility-assistance payment and hears police staffing concerns

The Gervais City Council on Feb. 6 approved two administrative resolutions to update the city's banking signatories and to grant account authority at Unquarrel Bank, authorized a $5,000 utility-assistance contract to continue a local program that helps residents with water bills, and spent an extended portion of the meeting pressing the police department on after-hours response times and staffing levels.

The meeting opened at 7 p.m. with the pledge of allegiance and roll call. The council first resolved a procedural matter by approving amended minutes for Jan. 27, 2025, removing a disputed paragraph from the draft minutes before adopting them. The council then moved to the business agenda and passed Resolution 25-001 to update the city's list of check signatories and Resolution 25-002 to authorize account access at Unquarrel Bank; staff noted typographical date errors in the drafts that were corrected before the votes.

"I make a motion to approve the resolution number 25-001, a resolution to update the list of signatories for the city of Gervais," a councilor said and a colleague seconded; the motion carried. On the second banking resolution the council likewise moved, revised obvious date typos, and approved the measure.

In the department reports the Jervis Police Department representative told the council the department recorded 175 arrests, 21 traffic offenses and 12 traffic warnings in the reporting period and described a new, written trespass form meant to improve documentation and provide copies to both businesses and the person warned. The police representative said the department will now maintain a multi-step call list with multiple phone numbers so on-call officers can be reached consistently.

Councilors pressed the department about a specific delayed response to a break-in at a Dollar General and the general pattern of overnight calls. One councilor said, "6 of 40 calls happened in the period between midnight and 6 a.m.," noting that accounted for nearly 20% of reported calls; police staff said the December data are being compiled and that the recent delay was the result of a dispatch call-out protocol breakdown. The department reported it is currently short one sworn officer and is pursuing recruitment and coverage options.

The acting city manager presented a $5,000, budgeted contract that funds a local utility-assistance program run by a presenter identified in the record as Rosetta. Councilors asked whether the full $5,000 covers direct resident assistance and program overhead; staff said the amount is budgeted for direct resident support and a nominal transaction/administrative fee, and said they would follow up with the precise overhead split. After those clarifications the council voted to approve payment so residents can receive assistance this fiscal year.

Councilors also discussed scheduling for upcoming work sessions to avoid conflicts with school board meetings, agreed to additional public-notice steps for committee recruitment and outreach, and were told the city's auditor will present audit findings at the March 6 meeting. The chair announced the council would move into an executive session later in the month to consider interim city manager applications.

Next steps: staff will provide the council with a cleaned-up check register that includes clearer vendor descriptions and will follow up with written details on the $5,000 program's overhead. The police department said it will provide incident-time data and continue recruiting to fill a vacancy in sworn coverage.