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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08.18.03 Council Minutes COUNCIL MINUTES REGULAR August 18, 2003 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Ristow at 7:00 p.m. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Ristow led the audience and Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3. ROLL CALL Members Present: Members Absent: Also Present: Ristow, Cordes, Fitch, Soderberg Fogarty Joel Jamnik, City Attorney; Dan Siebenaler, Interim City AdministratorlPolice Chief; Robin Roland, Finance Director; Kevin Carroll, Community Development Director; Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director; Lee Mann, Director of Public Works/City Engineer; Lisa Shadick, Administrative Services Director; Brenda Wendlandt, Human Resources Director; Jim Atkinson, Assistant City Planner; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Peter Mogren, Jeff Krueger, Jeff Jones Audience: 4. APPROVE AGENDA Councilmember Fitch pulled item 7h) Capital Outlay - Public Works for discussion. Councilmember Fogarty had requested item 1 Of) Discuss Pre-Council Meetings be moved to the September 2, 2003 Council meeting. MOTION by Soderberg, second by Cordes to approve the Agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS a) Introduce New Solid Waste Operator Mr. Jeff Jones was introduced as the new Solid Waste Operator. 6. CITIZEN COMMENTS a) Mr. Jeff Krueger Councilmember Cordes read a written response to Mr. Krueger's comments at the August 4, 2003 Council Meeting as follows: "You have asked many questions of me in the past few months and I have always tried to answer them in a reasonable and timely fashion. However, at this time I am informing you that I will no longer answer any of your questions relating to our former City Administrator, e-mails or put up with any personal attacks from you. You as an individual do have the right to ask questions and I as an individual do have the right to answer these questions or not answer these questions. I am also asking you to no longer contact me at work. I do have an Council Minutes (Regular) August 18, 2003 Page 2 obligation to my employer and your phone calls are interruptions during my work hours. If you want to stand here every other Monday night for your 5 minutes of fame, that is your right. But I would certainly hope that in the future your questions and statements are of a relevant nature and you refrain from making personal attacks on individuals." Councilmember Fitch also read a written response to Mr. Krueger's comments at the August 4, 2003 Council meeting as follows: "Mr. Krueger, if you don't want to hear the answer please don't ask the question. I hope if you don't like the answer as you did when you called my place of business in June that you don't tell me to go to you know where. Because of your rude behavior on the phone, I no longer accept any calls from citizens in the city of Farmington at my place of work. Now to get to your question about secrecy of e-mails or the particular e-mail in question regarding Mr. Roberts. To put everything in perspective I was requesting an item to be put on an agenda approximately a month in the future because I knew I was going to be gone for the next meeting. An item going on the agenda would be public information when placed on the agenda and would have indicated the requestor to be me at that time. After I wrote a request to Mr. Shukle and copied the other members of the Council, I didn't want to be accused of keeping anyone in the dark. Mr. Shukle took it upon himselfto request the City Attorney review my request. Mr. Shukle called and said the Attorney would get back to us by Friday. The response I received from the Attorney via Mr. Shukle was contained in another e-mail which I am sure you have reviewed. If not, please request a copy and I'll get one for you. At that point I decided to withdraw my request because of the process involved. We had more important work to accomplish I felt. My personal opinion was this was an attempt by a Councilmember to use this for political reasons. The 4 days lost while the City Attorney reviewed the item, certainly would have allowed Mr. Roberts more than ample time to mount a response. As a Councilmember I feel I should be reasonably assured that a competent Attorney and/or City Administrator would certainly advise my colleagues or myself if we were in danger of violating open meeting laws. Did I feel then or today that e- mail needed to be disseminated at the particular point that it was? The answer is no. The second, was I afraid of it going public? The answer is no. I was requesting it to be put on a public agenda. Therefore, I wasn't afraid of the item to be going public. My beliefthen and now is that this has been much ado about nothing. The information contained in e-mails has always been there for the asking as any public document. That does not mean I would feel compelled to divulge information in an e-mail without someone requesting it. The information that you requested about scripted meetings, I don't know how you conduct your business as a member of the Water Board, if you script meetings or if you have pre-plans, I don't know if that is why you are so skeptical about the City Council maybe doing the same. All I can tell you is in all my time on the Council I have never been involved in a scripted meeting. And lastly your question about the motion and the voting, I guess all I would say is apparently most of us up here had Council Minutes (Regular) August 18,2003 Page 3 a pretty good idea of what was going on because we have two other Councilmembers that you did not question on this that also voted on that same measure. Your second request that you put in regarding an e-mail I wrote to city staff regarding Hardi-plank. Yes, I did write that about their lack of information on Hardi-plank. All the information that was passed out on the evening of the final vote was readily available on the Hardi website and prior to the April 30 meeting according to Mark, one ofthe Customer Service Agents at Hardi-plank. The Material Data Sheets, architectural standards, national evaluation report, the MSDS, (the Material Safety Data Sheets), were available as well as letters of acceptance from Pennsylvania State Architecture, from FEMA, and also HUD. Those were all available from the Hardi site which I went onto. Secondly, surrounding communities of Apple Valley, Burnsville, and Lakeville had all passed and approved Hardi-plank as part of their city code. They had already been through the same discussions we had. Did anyone check? No. I don't know exactly what information Mr. White was referring to that was not available, but I was able to get all this information for free without any more than 45 minutes spent looking and calling before writing the e-mail back in May. It was not my intent at that point to argue with Mr. White as the issue had come to a conclusion and felt no need to try to embarrass staff any further. However, now that you have made this issue resurface for whatever your motivation, I will say yes, I do expect staffto research information before presenting it to us or making decisions. Ifwe as taxpayers pay them $70 - 80 - 90K a year, I do expect a minimal effort to locate information. After my initial discussion with the Acting City Administrator I believe we certainly have very similar expectations of staff for presenting information to Council. If I can get information, why can't staff? It is your prerogative to have whatever expectation of staff you would like. Before making accusations of poor leadership and incompetence, you should probably take a minute to do some research instead of accepting what you read and hear as gospel. Again, in my opinion, because you have very little fact, you make wild accusations and personal attacks to cover for your lack of knowledge on a subject. Your accusation that I am not in full control of my emotions or incompetent or am shooting from the hip could not be further from the truth. I took the time to contact the surrounding cities, to go on the Hardi-plank website, and call the Hardi company again before I wrote the memo. If this is your definition of incompetence and out of control and shooting from the hip I would certainly be interested in your definition of incompetence at some point. When I write a memo as I did it is because I have taken the time to look up the facts. So will I give an apology as you requested, absolutely not. If I make a mistake will I own up to it? Definitely. In fact I am here tonight to apologize about telling you not to contact my home e-mail. I think that has been corrected as of today. Under City Council it was still myoId e-mail, under the e-mail list it was my new one. Finally your accusatory comment about not getting a response on your citizen comment from the August 4 meeting, again if you would care to check the facts you did not request a written response and as protocol a response will be provided to you at the next meeting." Council Minutes (Regular) August 18,2003 Page 4 7. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION by Cordes, second by Soderberg to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: a) Approved Council Minutes (8/4/03 Regular) b) Received Information Church of the Advent Reuse Study Final Report - Administration Adopted RESOLUTION R55-03 Approved Gambling Premises Permit Eagle's Club - Administration Adopted RESOLUTION R56-03 Accepting Donation - Parks and Recreation Adopted RESOLUTION R57-03 Safe and Sober Grant 2003 - Police Department Approved School and Conference - Fire Department Received Information Capital Outlay - Parks and Recreation Received Information 2003 Pond Restoration Project - Engineering Approved Trunk Hwy 3 Ditch Grading Contract - Engineering Approved Certificate of Plat Correction - Vermillion Grove - Community Development I) Approved Bills APIF, MOTION CARRIED. c) d) e) f) g) i) j) k) h) Capital Outlay - Public Works The 2003 Budget provides for the acquisition of a water truck. Councilmember Fitch recalled Council had recently approved a new tanker truck for the Fire Department for the same purpose. He was curious as to what they are doing with that tanker when the new one arrives. Finance Director Roland replied the Fleet Supervisor has examined the existing tanker truck from the Fire Department and determined the capacity of that tank and the pump that is attached to it is not useable. The piece of equipment would not fulfill the need of the Public Works department. Mayor Ristow stated the tanker will also be used by Parks and Recreation. Councilmember Soderberg noted staff saved $12,900. MOTION by Fitch, second by Soderberg to approve the purchase of the water truck and a truck with a crane. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS a) Approve On-Sale Liquor License La Margarita Restaurant - Administration An application has been received for an On-Sale Liquor License and an On-Sale Sunday Liquor License for Choice One Minnesota, Inc. dba La Margarita Restaurant located at 953 8th Street. The required fees and insurance have been received. MOTION by Cordes, second by Soderberg to close the Public Hearing. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. MOTION by Cordes, second by Fitch to approve an On-Sale Liquor License and an On-Sale Sunday Liquor License for Choice One Minnesota, Inc. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 9. AWARD OF CONTRACT Council Minutes (Regular) August 18, 2003 Page 5 10. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS a) July 2003 Financial Report - Finance On revenues the first half tax settlement has been received. Licenses and permits have exceeded 85% ofthe annual budgeted amount. Staffhas changed the budget line item dollar amount for intergovernmental revenue because of the state's reduction of LGA, staff removed the LGA portion. The amount reflects the city has received 50% ofthe intergovernmental that is expected in 2003 due to the change in state statute. The city is on track to meet budgeted revenues with the exception of LGA. Expenditures are slightly elevated due to additional personnel costs which were incurred during July and are reflected in the report. Expenditures are on track to meet budget. b) Distribute Draft 2004 Budget Document - Finance The Preliminary 2004 Budget was distributed to Council. There are significant constraints due to changes in state statute. More detail will be provided at the September 2, 2003 Council meeting where Council will be asked to adopt the preliminary budget and preliminary tax levy. Council cannot levy more than adopted at the preliminary stage. Council can levy less after the budget is examined. A Budget Workshop will be held October 1, 2003 at 6:00 p.m. c) Approve Proposal Janitorial Services - Parks and Recreation A proposal was presented for cleaning of City Hall, Maintenance Facility, Rambling River Center and Fire Station. Residential, Office and Commercial, a cleaning service, has issued the low bid in the amount of $42,000. The Police Station will continue with their current cleaning services. MOTION by Soderberg, second by Cordes to approve the proposal with ROC to clean City Hall, Central Maintenance Facility, Rambling River Center and the Fire Station. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. d) Set Public Hearing - Blaha Property Redevelopment Plan - Community Development The HRA and Council have discussed acquiring the Blaha property at the corner of Spruce and 2nd Street. Discussions have been held with Mr. Blaha, and he has informed staff that the tenant plans to vacate the property the end of September. The HRA requested staff set a public hearing to address the possible acquisition ofthe two Blaha parcels. There have been a couple ideas for the site but a final decision has not been made. The statute makes reference to preparing a redevelopment plan. If Council would like to hold a public hearing, a redevelopment plan would be prepared for the September 2, 2003 Council meeting. The statute also has a provision for the early acquisition of property. In that case, a redevelopment plan is not needed for a public hearing. The purpose of the public hearing would be to discuss the concept of acquiring the property. It would not obligate Council to make a decision at that time. It would not obligate the HRA or staff or Council to have a specific redevelopment project in mind. It would be a discussion of whether there is enough belief on Council's part that this Council Minutes (Regular) August 18,2003 Page 6 site has redevelopment potential to authorize staff to proceed with further discussions with Mr. Blaha about possibly acquiring the property. Mayor Ristow asked who would be notified. Staff replied it would be noticed in the paper. Residents could comment whether they think acquiring the property is a good or a bad idea, and Council would have that input to make a decision. MOTION by Fitch, second by Soderberg to set the public hearing on the proposed acquisition/redevelopment ofthe Blaha property for 7:00 p.m. on September 2,2003. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Mayor Ristow asked what the discussion was at the Planning Commission meeting. Community Development Director Carroll stated at some point if Council wants to redevelop that site, there are a couple things that would need to be done in addition to having a redevelopment plan. Staff would have to get a statement ofthe method proposed for financing the project and a written opinion of the planning agency. The Planning Commission would have to take a position on the redevelopment of the property. The Planning Commission was in favor of acquiring the property by the city or the HRA. Councilmember Soderberg stated the HRA had two ideas. One was the potential for City Hall to be built on that site. The other was that there has been interest in the entire ~ block rather than just the east half. It would be a more desirable parcel for development of the entire area. Should Council choose not to put City Hall there, the entire ~ block would be much easier to sell. e) Adopt Ordinance - Wetland Buffer - Community Development The current code allows residential lots to be platted within wetland buffers. This situation makes most of the backyard unusable, as nothing can be done with a wetland buffer. This has become a problem as builders grade the entire lot. Staff proposed to amend the ordinance to not allow residential lots be platted within wetland buffers. The wetland buffer would be on the outside ofthe property. The 10ft setback would still be within the lot. This allows for more usable land within the lot. Two developers have responded to the proposal and are in agreement with it. This ordinance will not apply to currently approved preliminary plats. Ifthe buffer area is disturbed during grading, the developer would be responsible for any repairs. Before any grading can begin, developers are required to put up silt fencing which should protect the wetland. MOTION by Soderberg, second by Cordes adopting ORDINANCE 003-497 approving an ordinance regarding wetland buffers. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. f) Discuss Pre-Council Meetings - Administration This item was tabled to the September 2, 2003 Council meeting. Council Minutes (Regular) August 18, 2003 Page 7 II. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a) Executive Search Firm Request for Proposals - Human Resources Proposals were received from 7 search firms and were distributed to Council prior to the Council meeting. Councilmember Cordes stated she found it hard to understand the cost associated with them. She will call the firms to have them explain their costs. Staff stated some firms take a percentage of annual salary and some have set costs for different items. Mayor Ristow noted some firms were from outstate. Mercer is the only outstate firm that stated they would pay themselves to come for an interview. Councilmember Soderberg noted Mercer was the only firm to have a reasonable fee structure at $12,500 plus out-of-pocket which comes to $19,000 which is about the same as the others. Councilmember Cordes was concerned with the amount of travel they would have to do. Mercer is located in Atlanta, Georgia. Councilmember Fitch stated even though he would like to see a large candidate pool, if we go outside the 3-state area, there would be a learning curve for Minnesota laws. If Council stayed with Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa they would have a contiguous type of candidate structure. Mayor Ristow mentioned they could consider North and South Dakota. Councilmember Fitch noted they are smaller cities and the base of candidates could be smaller. Council agreed to go with the 5-state area. Prior to the meeting, Councilmember Fogarty had indicated she was interested in going with a company with a local office. Otherwise, she had no specific company in mind. Councilmember Cordes suggested taking the four companies from Minnesota and set a date for interviews. If they want to expand after that, then look at the outstate companies. Councilmember Soderberg stated he would like to see Council draw from a larger pool. He understood the concern about going outstate, but the larger the pool the better the candidates. He is concerned about getting a candidate that will succeed. If Council decides to stay within 3-5 states that is fine, but he would like to see as broad a search as they can get. Staff suggested 'l'2 hour interviews depending on how many questions Council has. Council instructed staffto bring in the four local firms on Wednesday, September 6,2003, beginning at 6:00 p.m. for 'l'2 hour each. The firms are Personnel Decisions International, Sathe Executive Search Firm, Springsted & Associates, and Thompson & Associates. The entire Council will interview each company separately. The meeting will be open to the public. b) Ash Street Joint Powers Agreement - City Attorney City Attorney Jamnik presented the Ash Street Joint Powers Agreement with Castle Rock Township. The City Attorney and staff recommended approval. City Attorney Jamnik answered some questions Council had regarding the agreement. Councilmember Soderberg had a concern regarding unserved properties where the agreement says Farmington and Castle Rock agree not to annex properties unserved for sanitary sewer and water service by Farmington in the orderly annexation area absent a petiton by 100% of affected property owners, for those properties not addressed in Article 8.0 A or B. The properties not addressed would include the properties on the east and west sides ofHwy 3. He asked if this was expanding beyond those properties. He understood it to mean Council Minutes (Regular) August 18, 2003 Page 8 that the city has agreed not to annex anything east of the highway. Attorney Jamnik stated some ofthe areas east of the highway would not be in the orderly annexation area. Councilmember Soderberg asked if there was another property outside of the annexation area that wanted to annex into the city, what would happen. Attorney Jamnik stated it would tie our hands. We could not do it without a petition from the property owner. Mayor Ristow stated it would fall under the 60-acre rule. Attorney Jamnik stated this would be for properties that did not want the service, but wanted to come in. Interim City Administrator Siebenaler stated if the city annexes a number of properties and completely surrounds a single property that is unserved, under existing annexation rules the city would be allowed to annex that property that is 100% surrounded by the city. Under this agreement the city would only be allowed to annex that property if the owners unanimously agreed to the annexation. Councilmember Soderberg stated that seems to be an addition beyond what was agreed to at the last joint meeting with the Town Board. Staff and the City Attorney were comfortable with this clause as at some point all properties in this area will need sewer and water service, and therefore annexation. MOTION by Cordes, second by Fitch approving the proposed Joint Powers Agreement and authorizing the Mayor and Administrator to sign the agreement. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 12. NEWBUSINESS a) Adopt Resolution - 2004-2008 Dakota County CIP - Engineering Following are the projects the city would like in the County's 2004-2008 CIP: CR 74, Ash Street, RR Tracks to TH 3 - 2005 CR 64 (195th Street), from Autumn Glen to TH 3 - 2005/2006 CSAH 31, CSAH 50 to CSAH 74 - 2005? CSAH 50, Division Street to TH 3 - 2005 (preliminary engineering) Projects for future CIP's would be 20gth Street and 195th Street, Flagstaffto Cedar. Traffic signals along Pilot Knob Road should be included as warranted. MOTION by Soderberg, second by Fitch adopting RESOLUTION R58-03 requesting inclusion of construction projects in the Dakota County 2004-2008 CIP. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 13. COUNCIL ROUNDTABLE Councilmember Fitch: He thanked City Attorney Jamnik for his response from the last meeting. He then asked what the status is on the Karrmann daycare project. Staff replied the HRA has entered into a contract for private development with her similar to other developers. It has a date for submitting construction plans, has a tentative closing date, they have submitted preliminary plans which are being reviewed and should be completed in the next couple days, a preliminary site plan, grading plan, and a floor plan have been received. Construction plans should arrive within the next 1-2 weeks. Staff stated a lot was created to the west of the daycare lot and there have been several inquiries about that lot. Champion Coatings is one of the parties. Council Minutes (Regular) August 18, 2003 Page 9 Police Chief Siebenaler: Stated there are advantages and disadvantages to having a long association with the city. He has watched over the past 20 plus years as Councils and Town Boards have worked toward the agreement that was reached tonight (referring to the Ash Street project). He has had contact with residents in both the township and the city who urged completion of this agreement. He congratulated Council on completion of that agreement and in anticipation he congratulated Castle Rock township on completion of the agreement. On behalf of the residents, thank you for completion and congratulations. Mayor Ristow: Thanked those who participated in the Ramble and Amble. It was a good turnout. He thanked staff for organizing a city team. 14. EXECUTIVE SESSION - Collective Bargaining Negotiations Council adjourned into Executive Session at 8:30 p.m. IS. ADJOURN MOTION by Cordes, second by Soderberg to adjourn at 8:55 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, ll..~<~/7-?~ ~ Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant