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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01.17.12 Council Minutes COUNCIL MINUTES REGULAR January 17, 2012 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Larson at 7:00 p.m. 2. PLEDGE OFALLEGIANCE Mayor Larson led the audience and Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members Present: Larson,Bartholomay,Donnelly, Fogarty,May Members Absent: None Also Present: Soren Mattick, City Attorney;Kevin Schorzman, City Engineer; Teresa Walters,Finance Director;Randy Distad,Parks and Recreation Director;Brenda Wendlandt,Human Resources Director; Cynthia Muller,Executive Assistant Audience: Tim Thompson,Dave&Sue Gerardy, Colin Garvey,Doug Bonar, Dave Quehl 4. APPROVE AGENDA Councilmember Bartholomay pulled item 7j)Bills for comment. Councilmember May pulled item 7d)Legal Newspaper for comment. MOTION by Fogarty, second by May to approve the Agenda. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS 6. CITIZEN COMMENTS 7. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION by Fogarty, second by May to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: a) Approved Council Minutes(1/3/12 Regular)(1/9/12 Special)(1/9/12 Workshop) b) Accepted Resignation Parks and Recreation Commission-Administration c) Approved Appointments to Boards and Commissions-Administration d) Approved Farmington Independent as Legal Newspaper-Administration e) Received Information 2011 4th Quarter Building Permit Report—Building Inspections f) Approved School and Conference—Finance and Administration g) Approved School and Conference—Municipal Services h) Received 2011 Annual Report—Fire Department i) Approved VEBA Welfare Benefit Plans Trust Agreement—Human Resources j) Approved Bills APIF,MOTION CARRIED. 4 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 2 7d) Approve Legal Newspaper-Administration Councilmember May commented this has been brought up the last couple years to make sure we are fairly publicizing the ability for both papers that serve our area to bid for legal notices. She thanked ThisWeek newspaper for providing a bid. She would like the Farmington Independent to continue as the legal newspaper, but both papers do serve the community quite well. It was good to see both having the opportunity for the business this year. 7j) Approve Bills Councilmember Bartholomay commented on mileage and asked that staff use City vehicles whenever possible. He also asked about the subscription to the Farmington Independent. Staff explained those are for various City facilities. Councilmember Bartholomay asked about the bill for T-mobile as he recalled we were using Sprint. Staff explained it is for a GPS card for surveying equipment as the Sprint card did not work. Councilmember Bartholomay asked about the bill pertaining to the Seed property. Staff explained that is for an independent appraisal that was done for a future Council discussion and it will be reimbursed by the developer. Councilmember Bartholomay asked about the bill for Metro Dining Cards. Staff explained they are sold by the Rambling River Center has a fundraiser for the renovation project. Councilmember Bartholomay asked about various Visa charges which staff explained. 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS 9. AWARD OF CONTRACT 10. PETITIONS,REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS a) Receive Public Comment on Acquisition of 420 Elm Street for Downtown Liquor Store—Parks and Recreation Mayor Larson stated this will not be a discussion on the philosophy of whether we should or should not be in the liquor business. We want to hear comments on purchasing this site for a future downtown liquor store. The decision about being in the liquor business has been made. We want public comment from the neighbors. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated a letter was sent to property owners within 350 ft.of 420 Elm Street notifying them of possible acquisition of this property for a downtown liquor store. The letter was to provide property owners an opportunity to provide comment on this proposal. Some comments were received prior to the meeting. Staff provided drawings of what the property would look like with renovations. Mr. Tim Thompson, 816 7th Street,thanked Councilmember May for responding to his e-mail. As for the rest of Council, he had no idea why they couldn't respond to a simple question,but apparently it is not feasibly done around here. Council has made up their mind to stay in the liquor business and trying to move 5 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 3 somewhere they believe would be more profitable for the City. But in turn,you are removing a taxable business from the City tax rolls. So what is the plan to pick up the difference on that taxable property? It is about$2800/year in taxes to the City and fiscal disparities amounts to $3700- $3800. So where will you pick up the difference? Why not use a facility we already have? Have you looked at that? Yes, it is on a higher traffic road,but why are we spending money we do not have when he sat through every budget meeting and Council argued for six months about whether you had bonding money to do it and you continue to move ahead without any money. When will the difference be picked up for the taxes we are losing by taking this property off the tax rolls? Mayor Larson replied that information will come out,but right now it is not public. This is just an option. That is why we are getting public comment. Mr.Thompson noted Mayor Larson said we are staying in the liquor business before anyone said anything. So apparently you already have your mind made up this is where you will go. Mayor Larson replied no. Mr.Thompson asked why did he not receive a response to his e-mail? Why did no one respond except for Councilmember May and City Administrator McKnight? Are you afraid of citizen comments? Are you afraid of public input? Councilmember Fogarty stated she is the one who asked for public input. Mr.Thompson said there is no response sent when someone provides input. You take the input from the people you want to. He was trying to afford living in the town he wants to raise his children. If that takes battling to keep taxes in the forefront,he will do it. Whether it is every other week,he will do it. You need to learn to take the input rather than blowing people off. If this is your option,then I would like to see other options. Mayor Larson stated this is the first one and we want to get public comment on this first. Mr.Thompson stated if this is your first option,then where is the plan for people to study to find out where you will pick up the tax difference. Mayor Larson stated that information will come. Mr.Thompson asked before or after you decide you want to put it there? Mayor Larson replied before;we are not voting on this tonight,we are taking public comment. Mr.Thompson stated it has to be done so people have the time to do the research. Councilmember Bartholomay noted he forwarded Mr. Thompson's e-mail to City Administrator McKnight and appreciated the information Mr. Thompson sent. Mr.Thompson stated if you all have individual e-mails why forward it to the City Administrator? Why can't you respond? You are an elected official by the people of this town. Why can't you respond? Councilmember Bartholomay stated he did not respond because he wanted to obtain more information. Mr.Thompson agreed,but if we are asking questions and you don't have information,how are you going to get input from the people if the people don't have the proper information? This is an option,but if you have no information to go along with your option, your option is worthless. If you are giving an option without any benefits, you will be in trouble. Mr.Thompson would like to know when those options will be available. Mayor Larson asked when more information will be released. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated tonight we are gathering questions and comments and we will compile them. If we can answer the questions we will. At the same time there has been no decision made. When it comes back to the Council for further discussion and 6 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 4 possibly a decision is when that information will be available to the public. Mr. Thompson assumed that would have to be prior to the lease expiration of the existing liquor store. Staff stated the existing lease expires August 1,2012. Mr. Thompson noted so you will give people a real amount of time to provide input rather than having executive sessions behind closed doors that no one can come to. Mayor Larson realized Mr. Thompson is frustrated,but Council is taking direction from legal counsel on what we can and cannot say and when. Councilmember Fogarty stated it is not meant to be deceptive. When information comes out that you are dealing with a public entity, quite often the price increases. That is why things are done in closed session to make sure that does not happen. Mr. Thompson understood,but the value is the value. If the value will increase then it is a fictious value. He sat through a budget workshop where staff said how to take the actual value of their home. If you are over that,you are overpaying. So why would that information be out of line? Councilmember Fogarty stated we are not being deceptive. That is why we asked for public comment. We are not hiding anything and we want input. Mr.Thompson stated it sure seems like it and then when you don't get a response to questions you ask, it seems more deceptive. You wonder why people get frustrated when you don't give answers. He hoped Council gives all the information to the people. Councilmember Bartholomay apologized for not getting back to Mr.Thompson. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated this would be a revenue bond and not paid back through property taxes. It would be paid back through liquor store profits. Mr.Thompson asked about the length of the bond. Staff stated that has not been decided yet. It would not be on the taxpayers to pay the bond back. Liquor store profits would be used to pay the bond. It would not be on the property taxes. Mr.Thompson stated if you are short in the liquor department,that goes back to the property owners as it comes out of the general fund which is paid by the property tax owners. Staff agreed. Mr.Thompson stated apparently it is not profitable now and that is why you are looking at a second option. Mayor Larson stated we are talking about the building now. Councilmember May commented she is not opening the debate about whether we should be in the liquor business, but how can we make a comment that whether we stay in the liquor business is not part of the equation,when we are talking about a$1 million bond, is very short sighted. It certainly does have to be part of the discussions we have and the public should be open to hearing all of the input we have. If we are talking about increased sales,we have not seen any data to support why a move will make a difference. She felt Council owes it to the public to make sure we are keeping an open mind, collecting all the data, and they hear all the data and if the public wants to give us input on a location and/or whether we should be in the business,they should be able to do so. Councilmember Fogarty stated that is not how this was advertised. Councilmember May stated it has to be part of the discussion;maybe not tonight,but it has to be part of the discussion at some point before a decision is made. 7 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 5 Councilmember Donnelly wanted to explain the revenue part. The bond is not paid by the taxpayers. Right now we have to pay a lease and the payments on this building would be less than the lease we are paying now. If we don't make enough money to pay the lease,the same is true. This is a way to lower that payment and eventually get rid of it after owning the building for a certain number of years. We have discussed the philosophy before and we will discuss it again. Ms. Sue Gerardy, 501 Oak Street,stated it is a very residential area for a liquor store. We have a lot of small children in the neighborhood. She did not believe it would be a good spot for a liquor store. She looked at the agenda packet and noticed Council is considering another site at Vermillion River Crossing. As far as the cost,$500,000 is a lot of money,but to buy a 40-year old building and renovate it and only spend$500,000-$700,000 more to build a brand new building does not make sense. It is a very residential area and we have a lot of children. We all know what happens at liquor stores on occasion. You get the issues and the drunks and we don't want our children exposed to that. They lived there when Tom Thumb was in that location and it was dangerous. The traffic was terrible. Mr. Colin Garvey,22098 Canton Court, stated if you don't want to take a philosophical point of view, let's take a factual view. About 20 years ago staff moved the grocery store from one TIF district to another TIF district. Then we jumped from point A to point B and at one point we had 13 properties that were off the tax rolls for 20+years. This site alone,there are five businesses. At 195th Street we built a new Maintenance Facility. He went to a meeting and asked why do we have to put a Police Station on the corner? Why can't we move it over and sell that corner? You would have thought I shot the Pope for that comment. We have a lot next to the Police Station for sale. The building on First Street was to be sold to pay down the bond debt on the Maintenance Facility; it did not happen. When City Hall was built,the old City Hall was to be sold to pay down the debt; it did not happen. He is glad it is used for a senior center because they deserve it. It beats a park. Everything he brought up was not given to the public to vote on. HRA funds were used, and he believes illegally. Now the citizens are on the backside paying off all this debt that has been created. He has been to a lot of meetings the last 25 years. In the last 5-6 years it has gotten really challenging. In the 90's he talked to the Mayor about taking away commercial property and you take away our tax base and our fiscal disparities. You get more fiscal disparities back,but it is harder on the businesses that are here. The quicker you realize that,the quicker you can start making better decisions. We had a liquor store downtown. We didn't decide to move it. Staff and the City moved it. That is not our fault. You had visibility. The building was paid for. You have got to stop taking taxable property off the tax roll. We can't afford it. You have sat at how many budget meetings? You can't even come up with half the money, $145,000 for seal coating. You can't even assess for it. That tells him all the slush funds are bankrupt. You can't come up with half that money otherwise you 8 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 6 can't do seal coating. How can you possibly think of taking another piece of property off the tax rolls? It doesn't make any sense. There is not economical sense to this. Our Spruce Street corridor was to be designed years ago and opened up. That was put on the back burner. When this building was built, one of the biggest pushes for this site was because the Vermillion River Crossing and Spruce Street corridor would be opened. If you have to be in the liquor business,you have a spot on the corner. Save the taxpayers money,put it there, get Spruce Street opened up, and stay with what you vote on. Let's be consistent. We are jumping around with the taxpayers' money and it hasn't worked. Can anyone argue with my facts? Are they inaccurate? Mayor Larson stated we are not going to argue tonight. You make a lot of sense. Mr.Garvey stated everything he brought up is factual, so why do we keep doing it? You have to go to your taxpayers for votes. Everything he brought up,the residents were not allowed to vote on. Council is supposed to be a government of the people and for the people. The quicker you realize that,the better off the City of Farmington will be,the State of Minnesota will be and this whole county, because it is going broke. Mr. Dave Quehl, 500 Elm Street,asked that Council speak up. First of all,he did not think the City should be in the liquor business. Secondly, his family has been in their house for 34 years and it will really be affected by a liquor store. He took two windows out of the west side of his house because cars would come out of Tom Thumb and would light up his kitchen. The same thing will happen with a liquor store. It is a residential area. You have seven homes in that block. It is not a place for a liquor store. It is residential. You will not keep it a residential area with a liquor store. You can use another location where a restaurant moved out. Why not put it there? He doesn't follow City politics,but he hears,why can't we get businesses in Vermillion River Crossing? Why not put it out there? Mayor Larson stated that is one of the options. Mr. Quehl asked where the idea came from to put a liquor store there? Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated they did a search of properties and there was some criteria that had to be met including willing sellers versus the eminent domain process. This property was up for sale. Mr. Quehl did not think this was a smart move. Mr. Quehl then asked why he has to show his driver's license to buy a six pack of beer. Staff replied it is store policy. That way we do not discriminate against anyone. We treat everyone the same. Mr. Quehl stated when he goes to the liquor store in Rosemount they don't ask for his driver's license and that is where he has been going. He did not understand why they have to ask him for a driver's license. Mr. Doug Bonar,20506 Eastview Curve,understood the challenges of property acquisition. It appears the Council is planning on purchasing a building or constructing one. The questions are basic. In doing so, is there a plan? Is there a business plan? Obviously we are speaking about property. Personnel and product are the other two p's that with all three done well, result in profit. What we have experienced with a municipal liquor store is poor at best. It doesn't rank well with our peers; it doesn't rank well within the state of Minnesota. We have some keen challenges ahead. While the laws changed in the `30's after prohibition and 9 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 7 the policies of temperance were put in place,the actualities of the municipal liquor store as a matter of creating a revenue stream to underwrite enterprise funds came into place. There are several enterprise funds that are in great need. Does this Council and this administration have a plan,whether it means the purchase of this property, or the construction of another,that will result in a dramatic change in an increased profit for municipal liquor operations? If not, are there other options that will be considered? Councilmember May agreed. Ms. Julie May, 505 Oak Street,spoke on behalf of a homeowner that received one of the letters. She and her husband purchased this property and will be living there soon. One of the reasons they like it is because it is on the historic Oak Street,which is not conducive to a liquor store being half a block away. She concurred with other comments as a homeowner that this is not the right location for a liquor store. Mayor Larson stated this item will be brought back to the February 6, 2012 Council meeting. He thanked residents for their comments. Mr.Thompson stated Mayor Larson needed to clarify what he is talking about. He needs to clarify to the people you are talking liquor store again on February 6, 2012;are you talking about another location, or other options? Tell people what you are going to discuss so people can decide whether it is worth their time or not. Not just we are going to discuss liquor stores on February 6,2012. Mayor Larson asked staff what will be on the agenda for February 6, 2012. Parks and Recreation Director Distad stated they will take the public comments received tonight,review them, and come back on February 6,2012,to discuss whether this property is a location Council wants to pursue or are there other options you want to talk about. Mayor Larson stated he and City Administrator McKnight met with Mr. Waltman,the owner of the current liquor store site, and he did extend some options including reducing the space,purchasing the building, and extending the lease for as long as necessary while we decide what to do. Councilmember Bartholomay felt they should talk about philosophy before talking about purchasing to get it out there. If the philosophy is not there, it is pointless to keep going. Councilmember May understood that after this public comment,there would be a workshop before any other discussion came to a Council meeting. The Mayor has met with the current landlord and Council needs a chance to have a good workshop about not only this option, but other options that have been discussed where other Councilmembers have not heard all the details. She felt there needs to be another workshop for this topic prior to anything coming to Council for a vote. That was her understanding from City Administrator McKnight. City Engineer Schorzman suggested breaking the topics into two portions. He suggested having a philosophy discussion first before a philosophy and what to do discussion. Councilmember May felt they go hand in hand. Revenues and spending go hand in hand so what is the plan? That is the philosophy;the plan. All she has heard of the plan is that moving to Elm Street will increase sales. Staff's understanding of the philosophy discussion was 10 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 8 should the City be in the liquor business or not. Staff will discuss a workshop for January 23 or January 30,2012 and inform Council of a date. 11. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 12. NEW BUSINESS 13. COUNCIL ROUNDTABLE Councilmember Donnelly: He appreciated everyone's comments. He was glad to hear the opinions and Council will continue to listen. This is not a done deal. Council does not ask for public input on everything. He was not aware of the items Mr. Garvey was talking about from the past. He thanked everyone for their comments and nothing has been decided. Councilmember Fogarty: For anyone that is frustrated because they think they don't get through to Council,the budget was a perfect example of Council listening and responding to what we heard. She did not know how anyone could accuse anyone on this Council of not being open minded and listening;we absolutely do. That is why we asked for public comment on something where it was not required,but we wanted to hear from the residents who live in that neighborhood and how it would impact their lives and homes. She thanked the residents for coming and for sending e-mails. There are many venues for people to contact Council so we can receive lots of information. The Community Expo will be held Saturday,January 28,2012, at the Farmington High School. Residents can find out about businesses and community organizations. Councilmember Bartholomay: Thanked the residents for expressing their opinion and concerns. He apologized again to Mr. Thompson for not responding to his e-mail, but he took it as a question for the City overall. In his opinion he did not think the City could recoup the tax dollars and did not think it was a good idea to take a taxable property off the market. He will respond to Mr.Thompson's e-mail. Councilmember May: Thanked the residents for sharing their comments. She thanked the Fire Department for the Annual Fire Department meeting. We have a very young Fire Department and she was amazed with these young people taking the time to learn the skills to protect us. She thanked them for their service to the community. City Engineer Schorzman: The FEMA information is on the website. Staff is continuing to receive phone calls regarding the flood plain and we are successful in helping residents get the information they need for their lenders. The letter they need is on the website. Mayor Larson: Thanked the Fire Department for the invitation to their Annual Meeting. He congratulated Jeff Albee for being Firefighter of the Year. The Community Expo is January 28, 2012 at the Farmington High School. There is lots of good information and fun activities. He encouraged residents to come out to see what 11 Council Minutes(Regular) January 17,2012 Page 9 Farmington has to offer. January 23,2012,there will be a ribbon cutting at the car wash for a new automatic touch free bay. 14. ADJOURN MOTION by Fogarty, second by Bartholomay to adjourn at 7:49 p.m. APIF,MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant 12