EPD seeks city’s support for grant

The El Dorado City Council will resume its regular meeting schedule at 5:30 p.m. today in the Council Chamber of City Hall.

Those who plan to attend the meeting will be asked to enter City Hall through the sallyport, where they will be buzzed into the building and undergo a temperature screening before moving into the Council Chamber.

Visitors are also asked to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

Council members will tend to business that was to have been taken up at a specially-called meeting last week.

The council will consider resolutions to revise bank accounts for City Hall and the El Dorado Water Utilities.

Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer had called for a special meeting but several council members said they would not be able to attend so the item was added to the council’s agenda for today.

Smith-Creer had said the matter needed immediate attention because of several recent personnel changes in City Hall and the EWU office.

City Clerk Heather McVay said two resolutions will be on the agenda, one for each municipal body, to add new names to and change titles on bank signature cards, which list city officials and employees who are authorized to take certain actions, such as signing and endorsing checks, on the respective bank accounts for the city.

McVay said four names are required for the signature cards.

Within the past several months, a new city treasurer, Trena Dean, has been appointed and Pierce Moore, formerly the administrative assistant in Smith-Creer’s office, has been named the city’s new human resources director, a position that encompasses the EWU.

At the EWU, the names of two former employees need to be removed from signature cards and two new names added, McVay said.

John Peppers, former EWU treatment superintendent, is now general operations manager and former administrative assistant Laurie Tissue has been recently named business manager for the EWU.

Tissue also previously served as administrative assistant in the mayor’s office. She was succeeded by Moore last January.

The mayor and city clerk are also included on the signature cards.

The council is also expected to hear a request from Police Chief Kenny Hickman for the council’s support of an effort by the EPD to apply for a grant.

The meeting will be the first of two regular council meetings for August.

Because of COVID, the council had been convening once a month for regularly scheduled meetings since March.

During the last regular council meeting July 23, council members agreed to return to their bimonthly meeting schedule of the first Thursday after the first Monday of the month and two weeks later.