02-13-2012 Council Special Work Session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION February 13, 2012 APPROVED 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE : February 13, 2012 5 TIME STARTED : 7:45 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED : 9:40 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT : Council Member Stoesz, O'Donnell, 8 Rafferty,Roeser and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 10 11 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; City Engineer Jason Wedel; 12 Community Development Director Michael Grochala; City Clerk Julie Bartell 13 14 1. Possible Charter Amendment—Chapter 8—Community Development Director 15 Grochala noted that the question of continuing the process that was started on an 16 ordinance in 2008 has been researched. The law firm of Kennedy and Graven has 17 recommended that the city proceed according to a new schedule, citing reasons such as 18 change in membership and the council since 2008. 19 20 Mr. Grochala then reviewed the cover page of his staff report, a schedule for 21 consideration of a council proposed charter amendment in 2012. The schedule includes 22 work session and council consideration in March with referral of the ordinance to the 23 Charter Commission by March 14. The schedule would then allow for a 60 plus 90 day 24 period for charter consideration and then two weeks for final council consideration of 25 sending the question to the ballot. The schedule somewhat assumes that the council goes 26 forward with the ordinance originally proposed by the citizens task force with the change 27 to remove the exempt zone language. He recalled the process the council followed in 28 2007 and 2008 in reviewing the original task force amendment, a proposal by former 29 charter commissioner Bob Bening, and the charter commission substitute proposal. He 30 also explained the tax exempt bond implications of continuing to have the exempt zones 31 within the charter language. He noted that the process of review of the amended 32 ordinance was ended basically with the submission of a citizen petition to put enactment 33 of Chapter 426 process on the ballot. Under state law, the council didn't have any 34 recourse other than to put that on the ballot so the decision was made to not have any 35 other amendments on the ballot because it would be too confusing. The citizen petition 36 question did not pass and that brings us to the current. 37 38 The mayor suggested that staff go through the entire process of road improvements, 39 comparing what would have to occur with the current charter language compared to what 40 would happen with the proposed charter language. The council received a chart prepared 41 by Attorney Steve Bubul comparing elements of all the charter proposals and Chapter 42 429. He noted that Chapter 429 was basically what the citizen petition proposal brought 43 forward. Mr. Grochala also reviewed a pavement management policy table that set forth 44 a standard for financing road improvements. The policy established a maximum 45 assessment rate and costs to be paid by general property tax levy. It generally resulted in 1