03-04-2013 Council Work Session Minutes

Home Search

CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION March 4, 2013 APPROVED 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE : March 4, 2013 5 TIME STARTED : 5:30 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED : 9:10 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT : Council Member Stoesz, O'Donnell, 8 Rafferty, Roeser and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 10 11 12 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Community Development 13 Director Michael Grochala, Public Safety Director John Swenson; Public Services 14 Director Rick DeGardner; Finance Director Al Rolek; City Engineer Jason Wedel; 15 Utilities Supervisor Tim Hillesheim; City Clerk Julie Bartell 16 17 1. Bret Weiss, President, WSB & Associates, Inc. —Mr. Weiss gave a PowerPoint 18 presentation on WSB activities in 2013. He highlighted a number of new and traditional 19 services offered by the organization including: municipal resources, speaker services, 20 planning, economic development, leadership, social media, IT, landscape architecture, 21 water resources, structural services, environmental planning, transportation, pavement 22 management and inflow and infiltration services. Mr. Weiss stated that his organization 23 is proud to provide engineering services to the City and he hopes the city will be open to 24 contacting them on any questions that arise. The mayor thanked Mr. Weiss for the 25 information, indicated that he is happy with the services that have been provided to the 26 city and recognized city engineer Jason Wedel. Council Member Roeser said he likes the 27 idea of WSB assisting the city in seeking grants, such as state Legacy funding. WSB 28 representative Brian Bourassa noted the "lunch and learn" series that WSB has produced, 29 including one on grant funding. 30 31 2. Utility Rate Discussion (continued from February 4 work session) - Public 32 Services Director DeGardner noted that the council previously received a utility rate 33 report and asked staff to come back with additional information to assist with their 34 discussion of rates. He reviewed his report that includes a follow up report from 35 Springsted with comparison information, a spreadsheet directly comparing the cities of 36 Blaine and Lino Lakes, and funding analyses for chemicals, utilities, and water /sewer 37 operations. 38 39 Utilities Supervisor Hillesheim reviewed the funding analysis information. In the water 40 fund, the highest expenditure is for chemicals (the water supply is fairly hard). 41 Polyphosphate (C -5) is by far the biggest expense. Some of the use of chemicals is 42 driven by customer complaint (look of water). He noted that the city of Blaine (at the 43 lowest position in comparisons) has three treatment facilities and that lowers the need for 44 chemicals. Mr. DeGardner pointed out that each city has a different situation for such 45 things as resources and needs. 1