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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCMin_04Mar10 CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS COUNCIL MINUTES March 10, 2004 Third Annual Neal Kwong Youth Citizenship Award Presentation for 2003 Mayor Gehrz thanked everyone for attending the Neal Kwong Youth Citizenship Award presentation. She introduced the Kwong family--Gary, Chris, Alan and Laura. Alan and Laura spoke briefly, with Laura introducing Michael Barany, the winner of the 2003 award. Michael serves on the City’s Solid Waste Commission and was nominated for the award by Barbara Leary, Chair of that Commission. Michael gave a very eloquent, thank you speech to the meeting attendees and viewing audience. Mayor Gehrz called the regular Council meeting to order. PRESENT: Mayor Sue Gehrz, Council members Laura Kuettel, Robert Lamb, Peter Lindstrom and Richard Talbot Also present: City Administrator Heather Worthington and Deputy Clerk Mary Shea Kodluboy COMMUNITY FORUM: There was no commentary from the audience. PRESENTATION: Jennifer Bergman, Housing Resource Center/Shoreview Ms. Jennifer Bergman, Program Director for the Housing Resource Center (HRC), North Metro Office in Shoreview, said that the purpose of her organization is to provide comprehensive free housing services to all residents of participating communities while also improving the community and its housing stock. The HRC objectives are: Assist homeowners with flexible financing tools to complete home improvement projects Assist owners through the complex construction process when renovating their homes Assist individuals and families to become new homeowners Reduce the number of substandard housing units Keep the community’s housing stock usable for future generations The City of Falcon Heights has become a partnering community in the HRC and the following information resources are available to residents at no cost: Home maintenance and safety topics Home improvement financing First time homebuyer classes Limited rental information Mortgage assistance programs FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -2- March 10, 2004 Jennifer Bergman, Housing Resource Center/Shoreview (continued) Purchase and rehabilitation mortgages Construction management services Information on construction, building codes and permits Site visits with homeowners regarding home improvements A written scope of work or a list of work for contractors to bid from Assistance in reviewing contractor bids, proposals and estimates Assisting homeowners during the construction process Council member Lindstrom asked how the HRC markets its programs to a community. Ms. Bergman said they work with City staff, publish articles in local papers, the City’s newsletter and web site, through inserts in utility bills, and via brochures that are made available at each participating City Hall. Council member Talbot said that he is very familiar with the programs HRC offers and he spoke very highly of their staff and the assistance they provide. Council member Lamb said he thinks that HRC is a great program. With the City’s housing stock 40-60 years old, the HRC rehabilitation program will be most beneficial. The City is paying a subscription fee of $5,000/year so it is important that residents make use of their services. He understands there will be a tracking process. All of these services are only as good as the number of times they are used. Contact City Hall at 651-644-5050 or go to the City web site at www.ci.falcon-heights.mn.us for more information. Residents can also call the Housing Resource Center/Shoreview at 651-486-7401, or go to their web site at www.housingresourcecenter.org. Mayor Gehrz asked Ms. Bergman asked how small a project can be and still qualify for advice and consultation. Ms. Bergman said that nothing is too small. It depends upon the individual. Mayor Gehrz asked how people can get on the list of eligible families for one of the homes and Ms. Bergman said they should call the HRC office. The first thing to do is to see that they receive first time home buyer training, which is a nine hour program broken into three classes, each class three hours in length. Council member Lamb said that when most of us purchase a house we don’t have anything objective to refer to. It is good to have a neutral party with programs available to everyone. Residents need to use these services so they can get value from them. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The Council minutes dated February 25, 2004 were unanimously approved as presented. PUBLIC HEARINGS: None Scheduled FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -3 March 10, 2004 CONSENT AGENDA: Kuettel moved approval of the Consent Agenda, as outlined below. The motion was unanimously approved. General Disbursements through March 5, 2004: $ 12,326.34 Payroll (02/15/04-02/29/04): $ 13,104.49 Amend the General Fund budget expense line item for seal coating and cancel the operating transfer from the General Fund to the Infrastructure Fund 3. Dedication of permanent ponding easement and resolution – Curtiss Field 4. Easement agreement for repair, installation and maintenance of a storm sewer pipe 5. Ethics Policy revision POLICY AGENDA: Tax and Expenditure Limitations (TEL) Resolution Administrator Worthington said the League of Minnesota Cities has requested that cities adopt a resolution regarding the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. TABOR would impose tax and expenditure (TEL) at the state, and potentially local levels of government, that could only be overridden by a vote of the people. The LMC’s legislative policy for TELs states: Minnesota cities oppose TELs, including the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR). TELs/TABOR are unnecessary and would tie the hands of lawmakers and city officials. TELs/TABOR would circumvent thoughtful consideration of policy decisions. If applied to cities, TELs/TABOR would translate into direct and very severe impacts on city services. If applied to the State, TELs/TABOR will encourage more state aid cuts and unfunded mandates. Minnesota cities need more, not less, tools to serve residents and deal with challenges—TELs/TABOR in any form would tie the hands of local leaders. TELs/TABOR are a solution in search of a problem. Further, the League’s research shows that contrary to proponents of TELs/TABOR, government spending is actually going down—in 2003, spending was 15.1 percent of personal income, down from 17.5 percent in 1996. Council member Lamb said that the law the State is considering is very similar to the ones passed in California and Colorado. California has received a lot of publicity because of its budget problems and Colorado is in the same shape. FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -4- March 10, 2004 Tax and Expenditure Limitations (TEL) Resolution (continued) Council member Lamb said the State is usurping local government’s responsibility to run local municipalities. Most City governments have acted responsibly, and over the last few years they have been more responsible than the State. He spoke briefly about unfunded mandate, a requirement to perform an action but with no money allocated, i.e. the Federal government issued a mandate to the State about surface water cleanup, but provided no money to accomplish that goal. The State passed through the responsibility for surface water cleanup to municipalities but also allocated no money. Initially, it appeared this would cost Falcon Heights about $50,000, but it came in at less than that. If it had, the City would have had to cut City services such as police, fire and streets. What’s local government for? All municipalities do is figure out ways to provide police, fire and roads. Take away local government’s ability to spend money for services and local government is crippled. Mayor Gehrz said the City Council has sent letters to its legislative representatives and has discussed this with them in person. They know where the City Council stands as the Council has held a number of workshop discussions about this. The City Council is doing more than just sending in a resolution. RESOLUTION 2004-05 Lamb moved adoption of Resolution 2004-05, outlined below, opposing tax and expenditure limitation proposals (TABOR and Similar Proposals). The motion was unanimously approved. (The underlined paragraphs were added by the City Council.) WHEREAS, the Taxpayers League and others are endorsing proposals to amend the State Constitution to institute tax and expenditure limitations at the state, and potentially local, levels of government that could only be overridden by a vote of the people – an example of these proposals is the “Taxpayers Bill of Rights”; WHEREAS, such proposals would tie the hands of state and local leaders in times of crisis and other unpredictable circumstances, putting state and local governments on “auto pilot” and circumventing thoughtful consideration of policy decisions; WHEREAS, such proposals would prevent state and local officials from making the tough decisions they were elected to make, passing the responsibility for learning all aspects of often complex issues to citizens who have other jobs and responsibilities; WHEREAS, amending the constitution is a virtually irrevocable action and should only be undertaken when legislative remedies have proven inadequate; WHEREAS, such proposals are unnecessary – a “solution in search of a problem” – as demonstrated by lawmakers at both state and local levels of government taking action to deal with one of the worst budget crises to hit the State of Minnesota and, by result, Minnesota’s cities; WHEREAS, this is further demonstrated by the fact that state and local spending as a percentage of personal income has actually declined in recent years, even before the 2003 deficit; FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -5- March 10, 2004 Tax and Expenditure Limitations (TEL) Resolution (continued) WHEREAS, regardless of whether TABOR/TELs are applied just to the State or to local governments as well, these proposals would bring great harm to local communities through continued reductions in state funding, increases in unfunded State mandates, and, potentially, direct tax and expenditure limitations at the local level, which would severely erode decision-making at the local level and the ability to provide the basic services residents and businesses expect and deserve; WHEREAS, such proposals would force the State, and potentially cities, to spend valuable time and money asking for permission from the same people who elected them before any action can be taken on important issues, and would also force taxpayers to pay twice for governance – once for elections of their State and local officials, and again for elections to make the decisions those officials should have made. WHEREAS, such proposals contradict the fundamental principles upon which our constitution and system of government are based – that representative, not direct, democracy is the most effective form of government as it is most likely to result in good public policy; WHEREAS, those states that have instituted proposals similar to the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, such as Colorado, now face severe problems in meeting the basic needs of their citizenry; WHEREAS, the prevalence of unfunded mandates from the state to cities has imperiled the fiscal health of local government; WHEREAS, the state has made known its displeasure at the notion of unfunded mandates handed down from the federal government to the state government, and the imposition of unfunded mandates from state to local government is similarly hypocritical on the part of the state; WHEREAS, local government representatives are elected to govern at the local level, it is deeply inappropriate for state government representatives to usurp the power of local government representatives through mandate and constitutional amendment; WHEREAS, any restriction of taxing authority to elected representatives at the local level is an implicit abolishment of local government control. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the city of Falcon Heights that this Council believes that state and local elected officials are elected to do a job – that job is to represent the interests of their constituents, to deal with difficult decisions, to thoughtfully debate and determine the best course of action for the state or the community they serve. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Council opposes limits on state and/or local taxes and expenditures, whether through constitutional amendment or other means, and supports the principle of representative democracy as the best route to sound public policy. ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF FALCON HEIGHTS ON MARCH 10, 2004. Election year discussion and consideration Mayor Gehrz said this item was on the Council agenda at the request of Council member Lindstrom. FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -6- March 10, 2004 Election year discussion and consideration (continued) Council member Lindstrom said that he would like to table this item indefinitely. Roseville has decided to move from odd to even year local elections. He understands the School District will be examining this issue over the next year and a half to determine whether they will move to even year elections or remain with odd year elections. Council member Talbot said the City Council has held four workshops on this. Regardless of what the School District does, his opinion on the subject will remain the same. Have a motion to vote this up or vote it down. Council member Kuettel said that she agrees with Council member Talbot. She is not interested in spending more workshop time on this. Council member Lamb said that if a vote is taken this evening and this item is defeated, only someone from the prevailing side can bring the matter up again. What is the legal timeframe for reintroduction of this item to an agenda? Is it a few months, one year? Administrator Worthington said she would have to consult the City Attorney for an answer to his question. Council member Talbot said that he wants to be done with this. There are good reasons for staying with odd year elections. Odd year elections get the focus of the informed voters. An informed electorate is the backbone of democracy. Even year elections mean getting lost in the pack, little press coverage, and being eenie, meanie, mo’ed into office. A brief discussion followed. The general consensus of the Council was to remove this item from this evening’s agenda. REPORTS FROM COUNCIL MEMBERS: None INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Council member Talbot said the North Suburban Communications Commission will be accepting applications for their annual scholarship awards. Scholarship funds are provided by Comcast Cable Company. Applicants must be residents of CTV’s member cities and must have completed at least one year of college or vocational training, with a primary field of study in mass communication, journalism, television production, video engineering or similar course of study. Applications can be picked up at the CTV offices, by calling CTV at 651-792-7515, or via their web site at www.ctv15.org. To be considered, the completed application must be returned no later than 4:00 PM, Friday, April 16. Students selected for a scholarship award will be notified in May and will be invited to receive their awards at the NSCC meeting in June. FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -7- March 10, 2004 INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: (continued) Council member Lamb reminded the viewing audience that the City-wide food drive will be held on March 22-27, with the Lions providing pickup services from the drop sites to Keystone Community Services. Another City flyer with details about this will be distributed on Tuesday, March 23. He encouraged everyone to be very, very generous. There will be a public hearing before the Council at 7:00 PM on March 24 to consider a resolution of intent to study the concept of single hauler refuse collection for the City. Council members and City Hall have received a number of e-mails and calls about this. Come to the meeting and make your feelings known. It is very important that people come and listen to the discussion, to the pros and cons. Should this study process continue? Mayor Gehrz said the May Council meeting dates will be changed to the first and third Wednesday evenings, May 5 and May 19, because the City Administrator has obligations that month. She said that every year the City Council does a performance review of the City Administrator whereby input is received from the City Council and department heads. This year the City Administrator is going for credentialing through the ICMA and the process results can also be used by the City. Administrator Worthington said that bus bench locations throughout the City have been identified by staff, particularly the ones that have advertising on them, which is prohibited by City code. The companies that installed the benches with advertising will be given the option of leaving the benches but removing the advertising. Council member Lindstrom encouraged the City to keep tabs as to what it would cost for the City to buy the benches that are in place. Administrator Worthington gave a brief description of the ICMA credentialing program. The MCMA would like its members to be credentialed through the ICMA program. The program measures skills and knowledge and presents a comprehensive picture of what a City Administrator does. The regular City Council meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM. Respectfully, Mary Shea Kodluboy Deputy Clerk