Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout07.06.09 Council Minutes 7CL COUNCIL MINUTES REGULAR JUL Y 6, 2009 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, Fogarty, May, Wilson Donnelly . Joel Jamnik;City Attorney; PeterHerlofsky; City Administrator; Randy Distad, Parks and Recreation Director; Kevin Schorzman, City Engineer; Cynthia Muller, Executive Assistant Skip Moench 4. APPROVE A GENDA Councilmember May pulled item 7f) Approve Bills for discussion MOTION by Fogarty, second by Wilson to approve the Agenda. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS 6. CITIZEN COMMENTS Mr. Skip Moench, 19 Elm Street, spoke regarding his window that was broke during the Elm Street reconstruction project. He spoke with City Administrator Herlofsky regarding the $250 he felt the City owes him because he will not be receiving this because of this claim. He noted the City does not intend to pay him $250. Mr. Moench stated he cannot understand why he received a bill from a contractor breaking a window that the City hired and there is proof the window was okay before the project. He recalled Mayor Larson came out before he was Mayor and told him the City has insurance for something like this. Mayor Larson clarified he said the contractor has insurance for items like this. Mr. Moench asked why the contractor was not billed as he was the one that broke the window. He also spoke with Councilmember Fogarty who said she was glad he called because the bills were not taken care of. Mr. Moench asked why the City could not bill the contractor? That is what the Council is for to take care of it. He checked with other cities to find out their opinion and they were nothing like Farmington. He would never have seen the bill. Mayor Larson stated he was under the impression City Administrator Herlofsky and Mr. Moench's insurance company had negotiated a deal and it was done. Mr. Moench stated it should not have been his insurance in the first place. That is why he is missing $250. He never had a claim before and he always received $250 because of this. Now that his insurance was billed, he is out that amount. That is why the Council is sitting there. He felt the Council should say he has it coming. That is what they were 1-1 Council Minutes (Regular) July 6,2009 Page 2 voted in for. Residents wanted them to straighten out the town. That is why they are here instead of the other Council. We could just as well as left them in. Mayor Larson stated he was not aware of the $250 until the last meeting. Mr. Moench stated he received this every time because he did not have any claims. Mr. Moench stated City Administrator Herlofsky did not make any calls; he had to make the calls to get the estimate and then he had to call his insurance to call City Administrator Herlofsky. City Administrator Herlofsky stated the original request from Mr. Moench was for $4,000. After some discussion with his insurance company and the contractor, the entire cost of the window with the crack and three other windows were all covered for less than $1,000. The City paid the $500 deductible and the insurance company paid $490. There is no out of pocket expense by Mr. Moench. What he is concerned about is that he has received a rebate from his insurance company based on whatever policy he has and he is short that amount. The window is fixed, there has been no out of pocket expense by Mr. Moench and the report provided to Council outlined that entirely. Mr. Moench asked why his insurance had to pay it in the first place. Why was it not taken off the bill from the contractor that the City hired? Mayor Larson stated he agreed with Mr. Moench that it should have come out of the contractor's bond or insurance company. City Attorney Jamnik stated the normal process is for the resident to make a claim. It is sent to the insurance company, the insurance companies for the contractor and for the League of Minnesota Cities made a determination of declaration that they had not established the cause. Mr. Moench's perspective is that there were pictures beforehand and then after the project the window was cracked. There is no evidence that the day it was cracked that there was something going on or a connection. The insurance company denied coverage. City Administrator Herlofsky worked with them to broker a settlement. The matter was processed in accordance with normal claims that are filed against the City. None of the insurance companies could determine what caused the broken window so everyone paid a portion of it to make Mr. Moench whole. Mr. Moench noted as far as it not being the contractor, a house a block away had paint cans fall off the shelf. City Attorney Jamnik stated that is up to the insurance company to evaluate whether it was something else, such as a rock thrown by someone, a car did it, temperature changes, etc. Just because there is a work crew in the area does not mean the work crew caused it. That is what is evaluated by the insurance. The City does occasionally disagree with that and staff can work with the insurance company to review the issue. It is ultimately the insurance company's job to make sure that those claims are properly paid so someone does not come in asking for money and the City simply pays it. The normal claims management process was followed in this case, plus City Administrator Herlofsky went the extra mile to broker the deal which was accomplished. Councilmember Wilson interpreted Mr. Moench's comments to be that whenever a situation happens, regardless of where liability falls, there would be a pot of money sitting there for payout and that is never the case. It has to go through a homeowners insurance, contractor's insurance, and the City's insurance. The insurance would never be left out of the picture. City Attorney Jamnik agreed. It is a fault based system. It is 1-2 Council Minutes (Regular) July 6, 2009 Page 3 an insurance based evaluation of the claim and a determination is made whether to pay it or deny it. That is not done within City Hall; that is the insurance company that makes that determination. The danger is if you do not follow that procedure, you do not have a policy in place that guides the City on evaluation of those claims. The City does not have a pot of money where anytime anyone who is injured can access that. It is a fault based system through the insurance. Councilmember Wilson suggested Mr. Moench talk with his insurance company regarding the rebate. Mr. Moench stated he has always received $250 back until this happened. He cannot understand the City's insurance. He had nothing to do with it. His insurance is stuck with the bill. The City hired the contractor that broke the window. The contractor measured out from the house and Mr. Moench stated he just had to walk down the street a block and see where the vibration knocked the paint cans off the shelf. Mayor Larson stated two insurance companies, the contractor's and the League of Minnesota Cities, are saying there is no evidence that the construction broke the window. City Administrator Herlofsky helped to negotiate a deal. 7. CONSENT AGENDA MOTION by Fogarty, second by Wilson to approve the Consent Agenda as follows: a) Approved Council Minutes (6/15/09 Regular) b) Acknowledged Retirement Fire Department - Human Resources c) Adopted RESOLUTION R26-09 Accepting Donation 2009 Dew Run - Parks and Recreation Councilmember Wilson thanked Life Wellness Center, Bruegger's Bagels, Kwik Trip, and Runnner's Gate for their donations to the Dew Run. Mayor Larson commented that it was a great event and there were 450 people who participated. d) Approved School and Conference - Parks and Recreation e) Approved School and Conference - Parks and Recreation APIF, MOTION CARRIED. f) Approve Bills Councilmember May asked about a payment of $1 0,185 to Insight Public Sector for machinery and equipment. Staff will check on the item and advise Council. MOTION by Fogarty, second by Wilson to approve the bills. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS 9. AWARD OF CONTRACT 10. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS a) Approve Rambling River Center Construction Project Lighting Improvements and Installation of Additional Dura-Ceramic Flooring - Parks and Recreation Because the drop ceiling was not re-installed in the multi-purpose room, lighting needed to be installed. Staff also solicited quotes for energy efficient lighting 1-3 Council Minutes (Regular) July 6, 2009 Page 4 throughout the entire building. It would also be more efficient to have dura- ceramic flooring installed in the kitchen area rather than laminate. Helm Electric submitted the low quote for the lighting for $12,425.00. There will be a savings of 50% annually in electric costs with the new lighting. The City will also receive $1500 - $1700 in rebates. The additional dura-ceramic flooring would be $1,592.85. These costs were not shown in the original plan. Staff is asking to reallocate some of the money saved on the sprinkler and fire alarm system. With the lighting upgrade there will be $27,275 remaining from the fire and sprinkler alarms. The cost of the flooring will be applied to the $30,000 for the multi- purpose room leaving a balance of $28,400. This will be used for the rest of the flooring in the multi-purpose room. There was $264,385 budgeted. Currently based on these expenditures and previous quotes there is $117,391 remaining. Councilmember Wilson cautioned that it would be fine to have a balance left over. Councilmember Fogarty noted a 50% savings in energy is fantastic. She asked how long it will take to pay back the extra cost. Staff estimated it to be 3.5 years to cover the costs. Councilmember May stated she cannot support this. At the last meeting there were doors that were not part of the plan. She understood there were some lights that had to be installed, but was concerned about the upgrades. Fundraising letters were sent to residents to help us remodel and get the move completed and now we are talking about upgrades. She felt we should get in the building and then look at specific fundraising activities for upgrades. There really isn't a pool of money there. We are still trying to raise it. Whatever we can do to save money is fantastic. The savings for the lighting bill sounds nice, but felt we could look at that in a year. She felt we should stick to the budget and get moved in. MOTION by Fogarty, second by Wilson to approve the agreement with Helm Electric for completing the Rambling River Center Construction Project's lighting improvements and approve the installation of Dura-Ceramic flooring in the food warming area of the multipurpose room by Bierman's. Voting for: Larson, Fogarty, Wilson. Voting against: May. MOTION CARRIED. 11. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 12. NEW BUSINESS a) Authorize RFP Engineering Services Walnut Street Project - Engineering Staff requested to send requests for proposals to several engineering firms for quotes to do the feasibility report. The plan is to prepare the proposal and solicit from companies staff is familiar with to do the work, and bring it to Council based not solely on costs, but on their past performance in other cities on projects of this size and the references from other cities. The budget impact would be limited to the amount of staff time it takes to put the proposal together, the supplies and the staff time to evaluate the proposals. The budget impact of the feasibility report would be brought back to Council with staff s recommendation. The purpose of doing this now, is to put the project out to bid early next year. 1-4 Council Minutes (Regular) July 6, 2009 Page 5 Councilmember Wilson noted Walnut Street has a fair amount of church and school property. Only those directly impacted by the improvement would be assessed. He asked if those residents were also assessed in the last three to four years for the Elm Street or Ash Street projects. Staff noted some would have been affected by the Elm Street project and some by the Ash Street project. Councilmember Wilson noted there is a lot of work that needs to be done downtown, but the same people are being assessed every three to four years and he was not comfortable with that. He also asked about the $5,000 cost and what that is paying for. City Engineer Schorzman stated that covers stafftime it will take to do this, supplies for mailings, and the evaluation process. The $5,000 is not additional funds, it is the amount that will be allocated for this project. Councilmember Fogarty clarified some of the funds will come from assessments, .. but asked if the rest would come from sewer and water funds and not bonds. City Engineer Schorzman stated there is a possibility it could be paid for with bonds. Councilmember Fogarty stated this is exactly what Council asked staff to do and she supported doing this. Her concern was the shelf life of the report if they decide not to do the project next year because of budget concerns and not wanting to levy more dollars. Staff replied any updating to the report would be on the project budget cost estimate side. It will not significantly change over time. Councilmember May asked about the purpose of the feasibility report. City Engineer Schorzman explained it is an evaluation to determine if what they are proposing to do to the road is feasible from an engineering standpoint and it sets the framework for how the plans and specifications will be developed based on the needs identified in the report. You do not receive hard numbers from the report. MOTION by Fogarty, second by May to authorize staff to prepare an RFP and solicit proposals for the preparation of the feasibility report for the Walnut Street Reconstruction Project. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. 13. COUNCIL ROUNDTABLE a) Set Strategic Planning Dates - Council Council set July 22,2009 from 2:00 - 8:00 p.m. and the second session on August 5,2009 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. b) Mayor's Request for Twitter and Facebook - Mayor Larson Mayor Larson received information from the school district on twitter and facebook. If the school is using this form of communication he suggested the City should also look into this. Council agreed on looking into these options and staff will prepare a work plan for the next meeting. Councilmember May: Regarding Mr. Moench, she stated it is difficult when someone is not happy, but thanked City Administrator Herlofsky for his work on this issue. It is a process and unfortunately accidents happen and that is what insurance is for. 1-5 Council Minutes (Regular) July 6, 2009 Page 6 We do not always like the way it turns out. He was made whole with no money out of his pocket. She made it to one Dew Days event and asked if Council would be receiving an update on how the whole festival went. The City does spend a lot of time and money on it and it would be nice to have a recap. Mayor Larson noted there is a CEEF meeting on Wednesday to go over the numbers and once that is done, we would have more information. Councilmember Fogarty: Congratulated the winners from the Miss Farmington Pageant - Rachel Marzahn was crowned Miss Farmington, 1 st Princess is Anna Limbeck, 2nd Princess is Chelsea Kampa. Little Miss is Emma Smith, 1 st Princess is Kelsie Vincent, and 2nd Princess is Gabbie Hudson. She attended the Pageant and not only was it very well M.C.'d it was very much improved. She was impressed with the candidates and if they are any indication of the future of Farmington we are in good hands. They were extremely well spoken, very motivated, and very much out in the community doing good things. They were the best talents she had ever seen. City Administrator Herlofsky: The Farmer's Market will start this Thursday and will be held every Thursday through September 24, from 3 - 7 pm. There are 15 vendors signed up. Mayor Larson: Regarding Dew Days, he thanked Maribeth Vanderbeck and all the volunteers for putting that program together. The entertainment and the. programs were spectacular. One thing they could not control was the turnout and that was missing. She put in a lot of hard work and they did an incredible job of putting together a fantastic event. 14. ADJOURN MOTION by Fogarty, second by Wilson to adjourn at 7:47 p.m. APIF, MOTION CARRIED. Respectfully submitted, ~~_ /;r)~-</ V Cynthia Muller Executive Assistant 1-6