Falls City council members spent most of their time hearing from upset citizens during their re-scheduled regular meeting August 22.

They first heard from local resident Janice Mutz who said she has a problem with how she’s being treated by city employees and county Animal Control Officer Karen Hale.

"I don’t appreciate being stalked — terrorized like I was," Mutz said.

She went on to claim that city employees drive by her house constantly trying to spy on her and she referred to an incident where Hale came onto her property to address Mutz about the nine dogs chained up in her yard.

She said that Hale threatened her with a $600 citation on an ordinance that hadn’t yet been adopted by Falls City, and that city Code Compliance Officer Kevin Moehrig has a vendetta against her.

Council member Gery Jendrusch offered an alternative explanation for the passing city vehicles.

"We have a sewer plant down there and they’re going to drive by several times a day," he said.

Mayor Brent Houdmann told Mutz nine dogs was far too many and that city officials plan to pass an ordinance soon limiting the allowable number to three.

"It’s going to be adopted next month," he told her.

Another woman also had a complaint about Moehrig. She claimed her vehicle got stuck when she visited the city dump a few weeks ago and that Moehrig was loud and rude to her because of it.

Local resident Chuck Balser was next and he voiced unhappiness over a government project that built a home incorrectly, resulting in part of it mistakenly being located on his land.

He blamed Falls City officials for not having enough oversight over the project, but Jendrusch said the city isn’t responsible seeing as they didn’t build the home.

He advised Balser to file a civil suit to take care of the matter.

Balser also got into a brief shouting match with Jendrusch over city street repairs on West Maverick Street. The complaint wasn’t about a bumpy road, though.

Balser said he didn’t want the street fixed because it will cause a drainage problem on his property.

Jendrusch said the street can be built to where drainage isn’t a problem, but Balser claimed he also didn’t want ditches on the side of the street, either.

Jendrusch told Balser there were lots of residents other than him along that street that needed considering, and the two had a brief shouting battle before Houdmann broke it up.

Later in the meeting, council members decided to hold off appointing Ann Franke as the city’s tax assessor.

Houdmann said the hospital district didn’t appoint Franke because of a subcontracting issue and stated he wanted to find out why before proceeding.

(The hospital board actually had appointed Franke, but the subcontracting issue was discussed at the meeting prior to the vote.)

"In the past she’s done a wonderful job. There may be no problem, we just want to look into it," Houdmann said.