Riverside appoints alderman to fill empty board seat

In a quick meeting that only lasted 33 minutes, the Riverside Board of Alderman passed six resolutions on Tuesday, July 5 at Riverside City Hall.

The meeting began with a newly appointed official – Steve Palma, Alderman Ward 1 – being sworn in. Palma spoke to the board and audience at the end of the meeting to express his gratitude and excitement on the new position.

Before getting to the regular agenda, the board went over and passed one resolution from the June 21 meeting that was previously put on hold. The ordinance was for authorizing the city of Riverside to approve the funds of $3,000 for the construction of a YMCA of Greater Kansas City.

On the regular agenda, the first resolution that was addressed and passed was for the approval of the replat of two lots in the Montebella subdivision.

The passed ordinance was originally submitted for an approval request by Patrick Moore and was considered by the Planning Commission on June 23 before it was referred to the board. There was approval of the final plat, acceptance of dedication, repeal of ordinance in conflict, severability clause and an effective date that the board passed.

The next two passed resolutions were employee compensation related, starting with the approval of the salary for city administrator Brian Koral. That was followed by the adaptation of an increased compensation plan for a cost of living (COLA) adjustment with the ranges of the current pay plan structures due to inflationary increases.

There is a two-year time frame for the next bill that was passed, which was the accepted proposal of omni employment management to provide human resource services. There was time at the end of the meeting with department reports with other noteworthy discussions about the area.

In between June 30 and July 4, there were 16 fire related incident calls to the Riverside fire department. Most of the calls were noise complaints, in addition to two calls about dumpsters catching fire, but nobody was harmed.

There was also an update on the Wayfinding project as they are currently $1,000 under the budget and have condensed down to three signs from the original eight. One of the last things announced in the meeting was that the Park Hill South football team reached out to the board about doing a volunteer day in the community and it has yet to be determined what that will be at this time.