CITY OF LENOX

A regular meeting of the Lenox City Council was called to order by Mayor Douglas on November 10, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall with the following council members answering roll call: Peterson, Huffman, Tull and Cruz; Hodges was absent. Staff present was City Administrator, Allison Kitzman and City Clerk, Dawne Bowman. Visitors at the meeting were Colleen Larimer, Laramie Stoaks, Gabe Robles, Walter Cucul Rax, Delaney Funk, Anthony Hernandez, Lucey Zech, Valerie Pacheco and Ester Martinez.

Tull made a motion to approve the agenda, seconded by Peterson, all ayes, motion carried. Peterson made a motion to approve 10/25/25 regular meeting minutes, seconded by Cruz, all ayes, motion carried. Tull made a motion to approve payment of the bills, seconded by Peterson, all ayes, motion carried. Tull made a motion to approve October 2025 Clerk Treasurer Report, seconded by Cruz, all ayes, motion carried.

Peterson made a motion to approve Pay Application #1 for Walking Trail Project in the amount of $24,989.75, seconded by Tull, all ayes, motion carried.

Peterson made a motion to approve Annual Financial Report FY25, seconded by Cruz, all ayes, motion carried.

Kitzman discussed our ongoing City Code project with the Simmering Cory/Iowa Codification. This is a complete code update that was previously approved by the council. Kitzman explained that most changes will be brought in front of the council, broken up by certain chapters at each meeting. Chapters that were discussed at this meeting include: Chapter 3- Boundaries is no longer mandatory and will be removed, Chapter 24- Park and Pool Board (24.07) Employees are all decisions go through the council, this section will be removed. Chapter 26- Golf Board (26.01) removing the president of the Country Club, as they are not required to serve on the Golf Board, (26.05) Records and Reports are kept by the City, so this section will be removed, and (26.07) Employees will be removed. Chapter 27- City Administrator (27.03) Qualifications can be internal, not as Ordinances, this section will be removed. Chapter 28 Lenox Neighborhood Center (28.06) Records and Reports are done through the City so most of this section will be removed; however, they will still submit their budget annually by January 1. Also section 28.09, council approval of fees will be removed. Chapter 35- Fire Department (35.03) Approved by Council will be removed, as the council does not decide who is on the Fire Department. Kitzman stated that we will remove the entire Police Department chapter since we no longer have a police department. Chapter 55 Animal Control (55.15) Number of Animals will be removed, as this has not been an issue and could be handled through other codes if it becomes an issue. Chapter 56- Dangerous and Vicious Animals was discussed and specific breeds will be removed from the code; however, there was a lot of discussion on what classifies a "vicious" animal. Simmering Cory/Iowa Codification made the recommendation to remove specific breeds from our code and focus more on the temperament/behavior of an animal as opposed to the breed. They stated that most cities have moved away from this verbiage because it is very difficult to enforce, prove and more often than not, fails in court. Mayor Douglas would like citizens to be aware of this code and allow discussions or questions so this chapter will be on the next agenda as well to give people an opportunity to attend. This will be discussed again. The council also discussed chickens inside city limits and the council agreed to keep our current code of no chickens allowed in city limits without council approval. Chapter 74- Golf Carts (74.02) Inspections- these are no longer required as there is not a registration or fee for golf carts so this section will be removed.

Tull made a motion to approve Change Order #1 as a credit for the 2025 Street Improvement Project in the amount of $75,078.24, seconded by Huffman, all ayes, motion carried. This change order credit is due to the subgrade repair was not as extensive as anticipated in the original plans.

Peterson made a motion to approve Pay Application #2 for 2025 Street Improvement Project in the amount of $163,052.50, seconded by Cruz, all ayes, motion carried. Kitzman stated that 3% retainage was held until seeding was completed.

Mayor appointed Peterson for the Appointment of Emergency Commission Delegate.

Tull motioned to adjourn the meeting, Huffman seconded, all ayes, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 6:05 PM.