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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07.11.22 Work Session Minutes City of Farmington City Council Work Session Minutes July 11, 2022 1. Call to Order Mayor Hoyt called the work session to order at 5:00 p.m. Present: Hoyt, Bernhjelm, Lien, Porter, Wilson Also Present: Lynn Gorski,City Administrator;Julie Flaten,Assistant City Administrator/HR Director; Chris Regis, Finance Director; Gary Rutherford, Police Chief;Jim Constantineau, Deputy Police Chief;Justin Elvestad, Fire Chief;Samantha DiMaggio, Community Development Director; Kellee Cmlid, Parks and Recreation Director; Peter Gilbertson, IT Director; Matt Blazer, Bolten& Menk; Cynthia Muller, Administrative Assistant Mike Slavik, Dakota County Commissioner; Erin Laberee and Jake Rezac, Dakota County Transportation;Jason Berg and Kyle Christensen, ISD 192 2. Approve Agenda MOTION by Bernhjelm, second by Wilson to approve the agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 3. Discussion Items a. Discuss Flagstaff and Highway 50 Intersection Dakota County gave an update on proposed changes to the Hwy 50 and Flagstaff Avenue intersection. The old design showed a median on Hwy 50 at the intersection. There has been a concern for drivers going south on Flagstaff to access Hwy 50 or for drivers wanting to go north on Flagstaff from Hwy 50. Residents want a roundabout or a traffic signal. The new design includes construction of an offset right turn lane and a median on the north leg of Flagstaff Avenue to require a right turn at the intersection. Upon completion, traffic on the north leg heading south or east will need to make a right turn, followed by a U-turn at an adjacent median opening further west on Hwy 50. This will allow through movement going south on Flagstaff and allows traffic to go north on Flagstaff. The county proposed an open house for this plan on August 3. They will need to obtain right-of-way acquisition from one parcel which could take some time depending on agreement by the landowner. The worst-case scenario the construction would occur in late 2023. The county felt a roundabout would slow traffic too much on Hwy 50. There are 3500 vehicles/day on Flagstaff. Traffic study and growth will determine what happens on Hwy 50 in the future. Focus should be on the north side of Hwy 50 when determining what needs to be done in the future as development on the south side is many years out. The bigger issue with a roundabout is relocating the utility poles. The county prefers to keep this design. City Council Work Session July 11,2022 Page 2 Council noted we are doing this proactively for the residents. There is nothing that would stop progress within the timeframe. The goal is to do the work in the summer months when school is out. The only delay would be if there is an unwilling seller. This design would not allow the school buses to go east on Hwy 50 as they are not allowed to make U-turns. There are seven to nine buses that go south on Flagstaff and then east on Hwy 50. The school district will need to change the routes. Councilmember Wilson recalled in the 2009 study, any non-bus traffic was to be directed north from the high school, but that has changed. The cost of the project is $350,000 and is 100%funded by the county and they are considering it a safety project. The county planned to have it's first open public meeting on August 3, 2022. Council asked the county to notify as many families as possible. The school district can help with that. Commissioner Slavik stated this is a cost effective way to keep people safe for 10 to 15 years until a signal or roundabout is warranted. Mayor Hoyt agreed as doing nothing is not an option. Council asked that any open house plans be communicated to the city council and school district. The county met with the school district in February to go over options. The county did not engage with property owners prior to that and put the brakes on to review the design. A discussion was held about where to hold the open house and when as there are several conflicts in August with other events. It was determined to have the open house possibly in late August/early September. The pinpoint process on the website would take place around the time of the open house. In the meantime, the county will update their website with this new design and send a link to the city for our website. Matt Blazer, Bolten & Menk, presented the possibility of two studies; one for just the intersection of Hwy 50 and Flagstaff and a second study for all of Flagstaff. The first study would determine when warrants and trips trigger a traffic signal. The second study would include that information and builds on it with right-of-way requirements, three vs four lanes, higher level of cost and look at grants, access management, and finally an implementation plan to know when this needs to happen. A traffic model is a living model to accommodate changes during the years. The smaller study can be done before school starts. The corridor study would be done after school starts. Director DiMaggio would prefer to wait until community development does an AUAR, which includes water and sewer. Mr. Blazer noted his study is more for traffic and water and sewer would be more with a comp plan. Director DiMaggio felt it is important to have land uses in place before the traffic study. Mayor Hoyt stated the study that gives us the broadest view and highest City Council Work Session July 11,2022 Page 3 amount of certainty is what we should do. Let's not spend money on something that doesn't have enough detail. Mr. Blazer noted after the study for Flagstaff the next step is doing a feasibility study. The implementation plan will provide that information. Community Development has some zoning for commercial that doesn't have access points yet. They will be sending out an RFP for a comp plan update on Friday. Councilmember Bernhjelm stated it sounds like staff needs to discuss this further and come back to council with a recommendation as to what study to do. Administrator Gorski stated they heard from council that time is of the essence. A comp plan update could take nine months. Staff confirmed there is enough land in ag preserve to drive density to cover road improvements. Mayor Hoyt stated Council leans on staff to tell us what we need. What level of a plan allows us to make decisions regarding a water tower and infrastructure? Councilmember Bernhjelm stated we don't need that information to make a decision on the intersection. Maybe we don't need a Flagstaff intersection study with what the county presented. Mayor Hoyt added based on the county's update, they have what they need for public input. b) 2023 Draft Budget Discussion When working on the 2023 budget, staff followed council's goals. There were three positions added in 2022. The current draft 2023 budget contains no new positions, other than the three already added mid-year 2022, the debt service levy increased $86,380 with the 2022A bonds, there is a $150,000 transfer from solid waste fund to the general fund, the general fund transfers out increased $20,000, the fuel budget increased across all funds, the vehicle replacement plan has a 33%funding increase, the liquor fund transfer to the park improvement fund increased to $100,000. The net tax levy increase is 6.16%. There is a 7.26% increase in proposed revenues and a 5.98% increase in proposed expenditures. The 6.16%tax levy increase amounts to an increase of$86.97/year or$7.25/month in the city property tax portion with an estimated 21.70% increase in market value. This is based on a market value of $341,525. In order to stay flat we would need to take out 2-3%or$300,000. Positions requested for 2023 that are not yet included in the budget are: - Public Safety—two patrol officers - Fire—two full time firefighters - Administration —One communications specialist and one grant writer - Community Development—one community development specialist - Fleet operations—one mechanic This is 100%of the staff requested. If we don't get these positions in 2023, we should keep them for 2024. Each department presented their needs. Community Development—They would like to add one staff person for Planning. We keep adding duties to current staff. Code enforcement is done out of house. If City Council Work Session July 11,2022 Page 4 we add a staff person to Planning we can bring code enforcement back inhouse. One person in community development does all GIS citywide since the second GIS person in engineering left. There is new software that could accommodate our needs to speed up plan review and would cost about$100,000 to switch. Council asked which staff would be more helpful. The GIS staff would be the most helpful. We currently don't have a public works director and that position would be hired in 2022. That is not a new position, but is to backfill a vacant position already in the budget. Fire— It is expected that 30%of staff will show up at calls. Fire Chief Elvestad reviewed response times and call volumes. He would like to hire two full time firefighters to add to the duty crew to work Monday—Friday, 8 am to 4 pm. They are seeing a shortage in paramedics and slow ambulance response times, so responding to calls falls on the firefighters. The duty crew has responded to 370 calls this year. The Fire Chief provided a list of what two additional firefighters would do when not on calls. Councilmember Wilson noted 94%of the paid on-call firefighters are not able to respond during work hours. Staff is contemplating what they can mandate to improve that. Some fire departments are going to full time staff. As calls and demand increase, we don't have staff to cover that. The cost for each position would be at least$100,000 with benefits. Police—For 2023, Police Chief Rutherford requested $20,000 police tuition reimbursement for training. They have fewer staff now than in 2010. Adding two patrol officers would bring them from 25 to 27 officers. He reviewed situations that are a strain on staff. They always have two patrol officers working 24/7. With longevity comes more hours of vacation time. We also need to hire in 2023 for 2024 departures. There are not enough students in the police academy to cover open positions. Administrator Gorski asked if council was comfortable with 6% or with adding staff. Councilmember Wilson noted if all the positions were $125,000/person that would be $1 million. Councilmember Bernhjelm reminded council of her comments at a previous work session. There are positions on this list she would have prioritized over the three positions we did hire this year. She was not comfortable going over 6%. Either stay flat or cut a lot in areas to add positions. Parks and Rec—Director Omlid did not have any requests for any new positions in 2023, but there wasn't time for her to present other needs for parks and recreation. Administration—the one communication specialist can wait and we can contract out or use resources within the city to help out. We could hire a grant writer or consult with a lobbyist to get infrastructure funding. We can contract for a grant writer and pay them a portion of the grant amount rather than hire. Public works would like to hire one mechanic. City Administrator Gorski recommends waiting on this position City Council Work Session July 11,2022 Page 5 to see how the leasing program works out. By leasing vehicles it should cut down on mechanic work due to warranty work. Councilmember Lien asked if staff could rank the positions. Administrator Gorski wanted to discuss the positions with all department heads and prioritize them as a team. Councilmember Bernhjelm felt the most dire need is in the police department. Councilmember Wilson agreed with the need for patrol officers and for positions in community development. Administrator Gorski explained we currently have GIS under engineering and will need to decide if we shift it to community development. We want to wait for the new public works director before making changes. We will not have a public works director in time for budget decisions, but it would be a matter of shifting dollars. Mayor Hoyt asked if the patrol officer for $159,000 is in the 5-year summary. Finance Director Regis confirmed it is in the 5- year plan, but not included in the tax levy calculation. Mayor Hoyt asked about the backage road for Holiday. We will slide that out to 2026. Mayor Hoyt asked if the 6% includes that$1.1 million expenditure. It does not as we have not issued debt for it yet. That levy will not happen until 2024. Mayor Hoyt stated nothing happens without staff. We need the right amount of people and adequately staff across all departments. Look at a 5-year organizational plan. If we need to make concessions in other areas, do so. He asked fire to figure out their two positions. Community development and police are not a point of conversation; we need those positions. Keep the levy increase at 6%and make concessions elsewhere and hire staff. Councilmember Wilson was not committed to a number. Councilmember Bernhjelm was not committed to a number either, but worried about the burden on residents. There is also the school district levy. Mayor Hoyt noted the county raised property values. Administrator Gorski confirmed council wanted staff to do a 5-year plan and look at processes. Councilmember Bernhjelm asked if the budget is on track this year. We are just below 50% at the end of June for expenses. 4. Adjourn MOTION by Wilson, second by Bernhjelm to adjourn at 7:57 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia NuCCer Cynthia Muller Administrative Assistant