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Gold Hill council elects Malia Beachhide as council president and adopts five resolutions
Summary
At its Jan. 7 organizational meeting, the Gold Hill City Council elected Malia Beachhide as council president and unanimously adopted five routine resolutions addressing holidays, banking signatories, volunteer workers' compensation, and employee handbook corrections; the council also formed a task force to update meeting rules.
The Gold Hill City Council on Jan. 7 elected Councilor Malia Beachhide as council president and adopted five resolutions that set administrative policies and housekeeping items for the new charter year.
City staff administered the oath to newly elected Mayor Ronald Palmer and to councilors Jerry Frazier and Malia Beachhide before the council moved into organizational business. "I, Ronald Palmer, do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution and laws of The United States Of America," the oath copied by the mayor at the start of the meeting, was read aloud by staff and repeated by the official being sworn in.
Why it matters: The council’s membership and internal roles determine who fills routine leadership duties and who steps in when the mayor is absent; adopting the resolutions also updates personnel and financial procedures the city uses day to day.
The council named Malia Beachhide council president as required by the city charter. After nominations and a roll-call vote, the mayor announced: "Motion carries." The council then considered four other resolutions and approved them by roll call:
- Resolution 25-r-02: Declared the city’s legal holidays for the year, trading Columbus Day for Christmas Eve so employees may have the evening off; the motion passed on roll call.
- Resolution 25-r-03: Authorized signatures for city banking services and rescinded a prior signature resolution; staff recommended adding the city clerk as an alternate signer and moving toward electronic bill payments to speed vendor payments and reduce clerical errors.
- Resolution 25-r-04: Extended workers’ compensation coverage to designated, documented volunteers (through the volunteer hub) at an estimated cost of about $300 annually; councilors approved the extension.
- Resolution 25-r-05: Made a technical correction to the employee handbook’s paid-time-off language so staff must retain at least 80 hours of PTO but may sell back excess hours; the council approved the correction as amended to reference the correct handbook page.
Councilors also approved forming a task force to revisit and update council rules adopted in 2012 now that the new city charter is effective. The task force will consist of three council members and three citizens; the council will advertise for citizen applicants and appoint members at a future meeting.
Quotes and context: Lily (city staff) summarized the banking change as an operational improvement: "Our goal is that we have this handled electronically... that the whole batch is sent as one," she said, describing a recent test payment and arguing electronic processing would get vendor payments out sooner and reduce errors. Carol Holm, speaking during public comment about community events, thanked staff and volunteers for support of Light Up Gold Hill: "It shows what people can accomplish when they work together." Laurie Hetman presented a centennial banner design to the council and was told staff would coordinate banner placement.
What’s next: The council scheduled further outreach and a short workshop to gather input on updating council rules and to set council goals before the next budget cycle. The public and prospective task-force applicants will be able to apply via the city website for appointments.
