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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06.06.11 Council Minutes 7 Q.., COUNCIL MINUTES REGULAR June 6, 2011 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Larson at 7:00 p.m. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Larson led the audience and Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members Present: Members Absent: Also Present: Audience: Larson, Bartholomay, Donnelly, Fogarty, May None Joel Jamnik, City Attorney; Kevin Schorzman, Interim City Administrator; Teresa Walters, Finance Director; Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director; Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Terry Krei, Beve Preece, Shawna Kendal~ Jon Einess 4. APPROVE AGENDA Councilmember Bartholomay pulled item 7n) Approve Mowing Contract. The contractor was unable to provide the insurance certificate. This is tabled until all documents are received. MOTION by Fogarty, second by May to approve the Agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS 6. CITIZEN COMMENTS Ms. Beve Preece, spoke about the Dew Days Art Show. This will be held on Saturday, June 18. An entry form is also being sent to the high school. The DV AC will be doing face painting at the Farmers' Market, at the Farmington Business Association Block Party in July, and at an event at Tamarack Center. Letters have been sent to nine students from the all student art show. This artwork will be placed in the art park. Also, in the art park, the DV AC will place a legacy wall for artwork from past artists. Ms. Terry Kre~ 18876 Elite Court, and Ms. Shawna Kendall, 6313 Upper 179th Street. Ms. Krei stated the Farmington High School opened in the fall 2009. She takes her son there everyday. There are pedestrians, roller bladers, and bikers on Flagstaff Avenue. There are also students walking in the ditch in the winter. There are sports at the high school and participants need to ride their bikes to the school. Ms. Krei asked for support to construct connectinE trails to the existing trails for safe access to Farmington High School. Students in 9 and 10th grade cannot yet drive. In addition to the high volume of traffic before and after school, the majority of the drivers are young and have less 4 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 2 experience. She proposed the trails run along Flagstaff Avenue connecting to 179th Street on the north end down to Hwy 50 on the south end. A second connection is needed along 195th Street from Meadowview Elementary to Flagstaff Avenue. Realizing funding is limited she identified two possible grant funding sources for bicycle pedestrian trails. The first is offered by the MN DNR and is specifically for local trail connections. The other is a federal program on the Met Council website and is a transit enhancement grant. These grants do require local matching funds so would have to be considered for future budgets. Ms. Krei requested the Council take concrete action to move this trail connection project forward. Whether that be to direct the Planning staff to pursue funding or initiate design process. She realized it is time consuming and will not happen overnight. If there were an accident there today and someone was hurt or killed, the project would become instant top priority. Farmington High School is not going anywhere. It is time we address the needed trail connects and asked for Council support. Ms. Kendall stated her father was killed riding his bike in a small town in Oklahoma. That is an example of what can happen if people want to work together. The town rallied and found grants and did what was necessary to build 4.5 miles of walking trails. She lives on the comer of 179th Street and Flagstaff Avenue. Her son will be doing training at the high school, she works and cannot get him there. She is totally dependent on car pools because she will not let him ride his bike on that road. She asked Council to strongly do what needs to be done and she and Ms. Krei would be willing to help. 7. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION by Fogarty, second by May to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: a) Approved Council Minutes (5/16/11 Regular) (5/11/11, 5/18/11 & 5/25/11 Workshop) b) Approved Rotary Club of Farmington's Request to Waive Showmobile Rental Fee for Rocktoberfest - Parks and Recreation c) Adopted RESOLUTION R28-11 Accepting Donations Rambling River Center Project - Parks and Recreation d) Adopted RESOLUTION R29-11 Accepting Memorial Bench Donation - Parks and Recreation e) Adopted RESOLUTION R30-11 Accepting Donations Arbor Day Celebration- Parks and Recreation f) Approved Development Contract Release 18818 Dylan Drive - Engineering g) Accepted Resignation Water Board - Administration h) Adopted RESOLUTION R31-11 Fairhill AUAR Update - Planning i) Approved ALF 2012 Budget - Human Resources j) Approved Appointment Recommendation Parks & Recreation - Human Resources k) Approved Appointment Recommendation Parks & Recreation - Human Resources 1) Approved Appointment Recommendation Parks & Recreation - Human Resources m) Accepted Fiber Repair Quote - Human Resources 0) Approved City Administrator Severance Agreement - City Attorney 5 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 3 p) Approved Bills APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 7n) Approve Mowing Contract - Engineering MOTION by Fogarty, second by Bartholomay to table until the appropriate documents are received. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS 9. AWARD OF CONTRACT 10. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS a) April 2011 Financial Report - Finance At 29.15% the general fund expenditures are in line with where they should be at this time as we are at 33% of the year. Revenues are a little lower compared to last year due to having higher permit revenue last year. Staff anticipates the permit revenue will come in later in the year. Regarding special revenue funds, the EDA, Rambling River Center, and the Ice Arena all have revenues that exceeded expenditures this month. However, there are still deficit fund balances. In the enterprise funds, liquor revenues exceeded expenditures by $29,000. Storm water and solid waste were consistent with last year. The water and sewer funds are showing reductions in revenue due to the reduced SAC and WAC charges. Street light revenue is higher, but so are the electric charges so we are not seeing the impact we wanted in reducing the deficit. Staff is hoping to break even with the street light fund at the end of the year. Councilmember Donnelly asked when the first halftaxes are received. Staff requests an early payment, so 70% is received in June and 30% in July. Councilmember May asked about the Senior Center revenues exceeding expenditures. That is with the transfer. Without the transfer, the Senior Center cannot support itself. Councilmember May noted the revenue trend is lower and asked if it is less programming or what is the reason. It went from $8500 in January to just under $2000 in April. Parks and Recreation Director Distad explained the membership is down from last year. Now we are at 390 and last year we had 440 memberships. This affects overall revenue. Councilmember May asked about the interest income and felt we need to have discussions soon on a contingency plan. She did not feel we will come anywhere near the budgeted $200,000. We are at 15% now and we should be close to 30%. Staff will provide information. Councilmember Fogarty asked about fmes being ahead of where we were last year and asked if it was a percentage or dollar amount. Staff replied it is both. That number was reduced from last year. Councilmember May felt that number also will not be attained and could be $150,000 short. 6 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 4 b) Approve Lease Agreement Pilot Knob Liquor Store - Parks and Recreation For the past seven years the City has leased space in the Farmington Gateway Shopping Center from Schwiness LLC for the liquor store. The current lease expires on December 1, 2011. Staff has negotiated a lease amendment that proposes extending the lease for five additional years. This will be for the same location, but will reduce the space size of 6,820 sq. ft. to 4,758 sq. ft. This is due to the elimination ofthe Wine Cellar. The proposed lease also reduced the annual per square foot price from $I9/sq. ft. to $I6/sq. ft. for the entire five years. Staff reached this agreement with the landlord after many months of negotiations. The directions from Council at a workshop were to negotiate a lease with a shorter term than seven years, negotiate a lease that reduces the annual per square foot price, and negotiate a lease that reduces the amount of square footage leased. The proposed lease meets these objectives and provides for stable operations of the Pilot Knob Liquor Store while issues related to the downtown liquor store are addressed. The lease for the downtown store comes due on December 1,2012. Staff did contact an independent broker regarding the amount of the lease and felt the amount was appropriate for the market. Councilmember May appreciated the work that went into this, but felt this was backwards. The fact we have two leases that expire at different times can create some challenges. She would like to be able to negotiate something for one year to allow a year to determine the direction we want to go and perhaps that includes whether we want to stay in this business. We have a neighboring City that does better than any other municipality and they are conducting a study to determine whether they should remain in this business. She felt we do not have a clear plan and our business has struggled for many reasons. She would like to spend the next year deciding what direction we want to go. To sign a five year lease and then talk: about a plan and figure out what to do with the downtown store makes us look like we don't know what we are doing and we are shooting from the hip. We need to look at the type of lease or whether we want to own and where we want the stores to be located and if we want to remain in this business. She will vote no on the agreement. Mayor Larson agreed we have struggled with the liquor business, but he still sees it as an asset and wants to remain in the business. We do have a plan and it will be discussed at an upcoming workshop. Ifwe got out of the liquor business and two or three private businesses came in, they would generate between $3,500 - $5,000/year each in property taxes. We will not see three or four big box stores selling liquor in Farmington. The taxes they would generate would not make up for future profits. Parks and Recreation Director Distad noted the liquor store managers have done a tremendous job in the last few months to reduce costs. They have scheduled staff so during light times we do not have extra staff on hand. The fact we have a new lease that reduces the annual amount will help the bottom line by $72,OOO/year. In Apri~ sales turned around and as the weather warms sales will increase. There is a cost with carrying a certain amount of 7 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 5 inventory and the managers have worked very hard in keeping the inventory under control so we do not have a lot of product sitting there. Councilmember Bartholomay asked ifwe get out of the liquor business can we get back in. City Attorney Jamnik replied the City can re-establish, but it would be difficult with having to discontinue private licenses. Councilmember Bartholomay stated it would be nice to have the two leases coincide and it would be good to do our own study. As a City we are not supposed to be in the business of making money. He would like to look at it year by year. Councilmember Donnelly was aware of the study by the neighboring City and predicted they would stay in business because they are very profItable and they are doing due diligence. The liquor stores make money and contribute to the general fund. We are taking steps to increase the profItability of the liquor stores. Liquor will be sold in Farmington and right now the City is benefIting from it. He was in favor of continuing as we are. Ifwe got out of the liquor business we would have to come up with $180,000. Staff stated over the past three years the liquor stores have transferred $111,000, $139,000, and $139,900 to either the general fund or the swimming pool. If you want to continue operating those areas in the same manner without reducing something, then you would need to come up with that income. To have the leases coincide, staffwould have the opportunity to have a four year lease on the downtown store to coincide with this lease. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated with the reduced lease rate along with the reduction in CAM, it amounts to a savings of$72,OOO. We will carry almost the same amount of inventory. Councilmember Fogarty stated there are services that City's opt in or out of. As far as the neighboring City, there are some new Councilmembers and might have philosophical issues with them being in the liquor business. She has seen a lot of numbers over the years for liquor and garbage to show her we are getting the best value out of both these operations. Both are great benefIts to the community and she has no intention of changing them. Councilmember May stated we are talking about putting a lease in place, then talking about the plan, then talking about what we will do with the downtown store and that is backwards. She wanted to have a conversation fIrst about the plan for both locations and go through a process that makes sense. The argument about how the liquor stores contribute, as long as they make money and the trend has not been that favorable. The only reason we are not panicking is because there is a positive fund balance which is a good thing. That is why we should have the conversation now while there is money in that fund. We are talking about putting something in place and then have the plan fIt into this fIve year lease. She asked ifthere was a way to negotiate a one year lease and then talk about the plan. This would give the residents and Council more time to talk about the direction we want to go. Mayor Larson felt we would not get a one year lease and there is no land available on the north side to build. 8 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 6 Councilmember Bartholomay asked ifwe can use our website to get feedback from the residents and do a survey. Councilmember Fogarty noted they are not accurate. Councilmember Bartholomay noted there are controlled surveys with a unique identifying number with the utility bill. He asked if there was a positive fund balance. Finance Director Walters stated there is a positive fund balance and the majority is tied up in inventory. Interim City Administrator Schorzman stated before transfers the 2010 fund balance was $51,750. Councilmember Fogarty understood we look at the liquor business as a whole, but they are two separate businesses. She did not have any desire to change the Pilot Knob store. It is a fantastic location and this is a great lease agreement. The downtown issue is much different than the northern store. The northern store has done very well and she would like to secure that location because she would like the City to remain in the liquor business. MOTION by Fogarty, second by Donnelly to approve amendment number two to the original lease agreement that extends the current lease for an additional five years with Schwiness, LLC at the current Pilot Knob Liquor Store site. Voting for: Larson, Donnelly, Fogarty. Voting against: Bartholomay, May. MOTION CARRIED. 11. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a) Remediation of 431 Third Street - Economic Development Staff has looked at options for remediation work for the old Senior Center building and recommended not doing any of the options and to sell the building as is. According to the realtor the costs of remediation work would not be recouped and all professionals recommended fmding the source before remediation work is done. Any buyer would do major renovation work to fit their needs. Councilmember May chose Steam Brothers option 3. If it doesn't sell, the problem will get worse. We need to clean up the building and move on. Councilmember Bartholomay stated there is no guarantee the mold will not return. He suggested waiting a year and if nothing happens, perhaps we need to look at demolishing the building. Councilmember Fogarty asked if the realtor thinks it will sell quicker if remediation work is done. Staff did not get a concrete answer about selling it, but the building would show better. Councilmember Fogarty understood the mold has been less of an issue than the fact it is a very large space. The realtor has commented we need to fmd a buyer for a location of that size. She doesn't want to clean it up now and then demolish it in a year. Councilmember Donnelly felt we should sell the building and it is a great location. A buyer will redo the interior. Unless we take measures to control the humidity the mold will come back. This is the no investment option in the building. He agreed with staff's recommendation. MOTION by Bartholomay, second by Fogarty to accept staff's recommendation to do nothing and revisit in one year. Voting for: Bartholomay, Donnelly, Fogarty. Voting against: Larson, May. MOTION CARRIED. 9 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 7 b) Approve Updated License Center Application - Human Resources With the resignation of the City Administrator, the City needs to appoint a new Deputy Registrar to open the License Center. Staff recommended appointing Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director as Deputy Registrar, and Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director as Operations Manager. Human Resources Director Wendlandt asked for Council authorization to resubmit the application to Driver and Vehicle Services. Mayor Larson asked about the status of the bill in the legislature. Staff has not heard from the legislators and was waiting for approval ofthe bill before bringing this forward. With the status of the State government, staff does not know what will happen. Councilmember May would rather not act on this until the new City Administrator is in place. It will not hurt our chances for a License Center ifwe do not appoint a Deputy Registrar now. We should have this discussion with the new City Administrator. Interim City Administrator Schorzman explained the idea is to get to the point where we can sell the items we are allowed to through the original bill and should the new bill go through, we can add on to that. Councilmember May felt once the bill passes, we could appoint a Deputy Registrar. Mayor Larson stated we are allowed to sell everything except renew driver's licenses. When the bill passes, that would be added. Councilmember May understood we would not move forward until the bill passes. She felt she does not have all the information and clarified we want to appoint a Deputy Registrar to move forward with part of the business. Human Resources Director Wendlandt explained the other issue has been with Quick-Serv and they wanted to make sure the City was fully aware of the responsibility of running and managing the office. Submitting a new application verifies that. Councilmember May felt the new City Administrator should make this decision. The previous City Administrator held this position, so if the bill passes, the new City Administrator would hold this position. Staff explained ifwe want to open the License Center we have to have a Deputy Registrar. We can change it later with a new City Administrator. Once the application is submitted the DVS needs to approve it, an inspection needs to be done of the area, and obtain equipment. City Attorney Jamnik stated we cannot open until we receive approval from DVS. The question is whether DVS will approve this application. He has not had any conversations with them. The protocol is to file an application with DVS for a Deputy Registrar. If they approve it, we don't know what the turn around time will be with the status ofthe State. If they were to act before the end of June, parts of the operation could be open. Interim City Administrator Schorzman explained the point of doing this now, is we were waiting during the normal legislative session for two bills; one in the House and one in the Senate that would allow us to offer full service. To not get in the way of the legislation the City chose not to apply until after the legislation was resolved. However, it is still sitting in committee and the legislature will go into special session. Staffwas trying to get at the core services we could provide 10 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 8 with the original legislation while the driver's license piece is sorted out. To do that we need to appoint a Deputy Registrar because the former City Administrator was on the application. This was also to demonstrate the City's understanding that we are responsible for this operation. We are doing this now because the regular legislative session is over, we have not been able to communicate with our representatives, and we may have this legislation until next year. Councilmember May stated what if it is denied; do we want to run half a business? What Council approved was a full service office. It sounds like we would open to do a few things and that is not what was agreed. She does not want to move forward until we have approval. Mayor Larson noted the original legislation says a full service office. City Attorney Jamnik stated the driver's license portion was denied based on the existing mileage limitation. Mayor Larson spoke with the DVS and the mileage issue is no longer an issue. The biggest concern was the DVS did not like the structure and wanted more City involvement. Councilmember May asked ifwe are going to wait until it is approved before moving forward with any type of operation. She felt we should wait because that is the mistake we made last time. Mayor Larson stated they could sell everything except driver's licenses. Councilmember Fogarty clarified the Mayor feels we have met all their concerns and even if the legislation does not go through we may be able to operate as a full License Center. Mayor Larson replied no, not unless the legislation goes through. Councilmember Fogarty stated if the mileage is not an issue anymore, and the structure is not an issue, what is the issue? Mayor Larson stated as far as the City, there were no issues the frrst time. Councilmember May asked the City Attorney, we approved Quick- Serv coming in so can we now tell them we don't want them to move forward until we have full approval from the legislature? They don't seem to be able to perform the functions that were approved before. She has no desire for an office that can only do a few things. Councilmember Donnelly asked why do we have to re-apply? Because we changed the Deputy Registrar? Do we have to re-apply every time we change the Deputy Registrar? Why do we think it will work this time? He doesn't want to repeat what happened last time. What assurances do we have that will not happen again? Human Resources Director Wendlandt stated we do not have any assurances. The purpose for reapplying was the State thought our application was not clear as far as us recognizing our responsibility for operating and managing the office because of our contract with Quick-Serv. We do need a City employee to be the Deputy Registrar, but that would be the sole reason for re-submitting the application. Councilmember Donnelly stated we had the City Administrator before. Staff clarified we had Quick-Serve managing the office; that is the difference. Councilmember Donnelly stated it still will not be a full service office. Mayor Larson stated if it does get approved within the next couple months and then we re-apply are we looking at two months before the State gets back to us? Staff had no idea. Mayor Larson asked what Quick-Serv wants to do. They would like to open and provide service for license plates, tabs, registrations, and 11 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 9 titles. Councilmember May was not willing to approve this and wanted to wait for the new City Administrator if we are talking about assigning staff to different functions. Councilmember Donnelly asked if the legislation passes, do we have to re-submit the application again? Staff did not believe we need to re-submit. We would wait for the equipment and the camera for the driver's licenses. DVS does not have any cameras available at this time. Even if the legislation was approved, we would wait for the camera. MOTION by May, second by Donnelly to table this until the new City Administrator is hired unless we need to address it sooner. Voting for: Larson, Donnelly, May. Voting against: Bartholomay, Fogarty. MOTION CARRIED. c) City Administrator Process Update - Human Resources Human Resources Director Wendlandt suggested Council set a Special Meeting to make a decision on who to bring in for interviews. Not everyone had the same top five candidates. There were three names in everyone's top five, but they were not everyone's top three. A number will be assigned to each of the candidates and the list will be sent to Council. As it is not public data, candidates will be referred to by number to make the selections. Then they will be invited for an interview and once they accept the interview the names will become public. Council set a Special Meeting for June 8, 2011, at 5:00 p.m. Tonight's meeting will be recessed. 12. NEW BUSINESS a) Boulevard Landscaping Maintenance - Engineering Several areas have been brought to the City's attention that are not looking as nice as they used to. City Engineer Schorzman asked Council if staff should again start to maintain these areas with the understanding there will be a cost for improvements and an ongoing maintenance cost or if Council would like other maintenance free options. Areas are along Elm Street containing five planters along the road where the plants have been killed due to road salt. The other area is Spruce Street west of Denmark. There are also areas on 187th Street and on Cascade Drive. Staff provided a total cost for improvements of all areas for $14,316 and an annual maintenance cost of$5,208. Councilmember Fogarty would like to do this because it adds to the community, however we do not have $14,000 for this. She wanted to discuss this with the budget and work it into next year's budget. Councilmember Donnelly agreed and it is too bad there was not a plan in place to take care of it. He would like to see a plan for the future and look at the other maintenance free options. Councilmember May noted in one area there are only ten bushes. We are all one big family and it is a matter of figuring out who can fit it into their schedule. As far as the plants, perhaps local organizations can adopt the areas. City Engineer Schorzman stated what has happened over time is that it is a small area and we can work it in. Now the small areas are not working in. Councilmember Bartholomay would like to see the maintenance free option for fewer staff hours and budget savings. Mayor Larson suggested looking at this with the budget for a permanent solution, but for this year contact organizations for a project. 12 Council Minutes (Regular) June 6, 2011 Page 10 13. COUNCIL ROUNDTABLE Councilmember Fogarty: The School District, in their search for a new Superintendent, has put together an advisory committee. The committee would interview all the candidates Council has selected. She would like to have the City bring in two management team, two staff, three at large members, one School Board, one Farmington Business Association, one from the Chamber. The school's advisor had said to not ask for volunteers. It is better to have the Council submit recommendations for the panel to the Mayor. This would be in addition to the meet and greet which is open to the public. She suggested Council forward names to the Mayor this week. There would be 8 or 9 on the panel. Human Resources Director Wendlandt noted at a previous meeting it was discussed to have a staff interview panel. Councilmember Fogarty stated this would be in place of that and put those people on the panel. Councilmember Fogarty thanked those who attended the Red Carpet Fashion Show fundraiser for Dew Days. Dew Days will be June 15 -19. She thanked staff for placing the City on Facebook. Councilmember Bartholomay: Applications for two ex-officio seats on the EDA are due by June 17. He will be attending the LMC Annual Conference next week and will accept the City's GreenStep Award. He thanked the residents for coming forward this evening with their ideas on the trail along Flagstaff. City Engineer Schorzman: On the consent agenda, Council accepted the resignation of one of the Water Board members. This position will also be available. Human Resources Director Wendlandt: Recognized Danielle Cahlander, Communications Specialist, who put in a lot of work to get the City on Facebook. She asked for a clarification for the advisory panel and if the names for staff should go to the Mayor? Mayor Larson stated they will work together on it. Mayor Larson: The City is on Facebook. He encouraged everyone to shop local. Residents should support Farmington liquor stores because the profits do stay in town and help to reduce taxes. The Farmers' Market starts Thursday, June 16, from 3:00- 6:00 p.m. in front of City Hall. There will be 16 vendors and ready-to-eat food. 14. RECESS MOTION by Fogarty, second by Bartholomay to recess until June 8, at 4:30 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant 13