04-07-2014 Council Work Session Minutes

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CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 7, 2014 APPROVED 136 purpose since they've been rebuked in the past for not using their funds for "frame and 137 amend ". City Administrator Karlson added that the purpose proposed by the 138 Commission would fall under the frame and amend authority in his view. The mayor 139 said he would be in favor of the council taking action to fund an additional $600 if and 140 after the Commission runs through their existing budget. Chair Sutherland replied that 141 the Commission would like to have the additional funding available for their attorney 142 needs without fear that it will be ruled not appropriate use; and they would prefer to have 143 the budget amended accordingly. Charter Commissioner Turcotte disagreed with Chair 144 Sutherland on the amount requested by the Commission. 145 146 The council concurred that the city will make an additional $600 available to the 147 Commission in 2014 if they need it, and to clarify that it will be used for attorney review 148 of the two proposed charter amendments and that the work would fall under their frame 149 and amend authority. 150 151 5. Tart Lake Road Traffic Study — City Engineer Wedel reported that residents in 152 this area have concerns about speeding. There was a speed study done in 2009 resulting 153 in increased enforcement. Complaints have risen again and a staff traffic safety 154 committee has been formed. The council is receiving a report on the process that will be 155 used to review complaints. A study is also planned. Council Member Rafferty said it 156 seems that the street parking may be a part of safety concerns. Engineer Wedel noted 157 that the street is wide enough to accommodate parking and sometimes parking does calm 158 traffic speeds. Engineer Wedel then noted that staff did another traffic study last summer 159 and he reviewed those results. The volume of cars and speeds have stayed very much the 160 same. The speeding comes down to about ten percent of the traffic. He is 161 recommending additional enforcement and signage such as driver feedback units. The 162 signs are $2,000 each (hardwired) or $3,200 (solar powered). The council directed staff 163 to go forward with one solar powered sign on the park side and look at an additional if 164 that is effective. 165 166 6. Community Room Conference Call/Audio Streaming- City Clerk Bartell 167 reviewed options for either providing conferencing and/or streaming for council sessions 168 held in the Community Room. The council has already seen the option of a conference 169 station, a table unit that provides optimum use of conference calls — something that could 170 be used to bring in absent council members. Recently the council had the opportunity to 171 have a conference call utilizing the telephone in the Community Room and that seemed to 172 work well. Ms. Bartell indicated that she has also investigated the possibility of audio 173 streaming, a process that would bring live audio from meetings to the city's Website. The 174 Mayor noted that a Webcam isn't too expensive and would bring video into the picture 175 also. The City Clerk added that there is discussion underway at North Metro 176 Telecommunications about improving the video presentation of council meetings and 177 staff is interested in improving technology overall for the council's meeting rooms, so an 178 option would be to engage in that process and make the community room a part of an 179 overall discussion of audio /video technology at city hall. The Mayor suggested that it 180 would make sense to see what is happening in the larger picture of North Metro and 4