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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-03-2017 Council Work Session MinutesCITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 3, 2017 APPROVED 1 CITY OF LINO LAKES 2 MINUTES 3 4 DATE :April 3, 2017 5 TIME STARTED 6:00 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED 8:35 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT Council Member Rafferty, 8 Maher, Manthey and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT Council Member Kusterman 10 11 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; Public Safety Director John 12 Swenson; Community Development Director Michael Grochala; Finance Director Sarah 13 Cotton; Public Services Director Rick DeGardner; City Planner Katie Larsen; City 14 Engineer Diane Hankee; City Clerk Julie Bartell, 15 1. Review Proposed 2017 Blue Heron Days Events Schedule —Director 16 DeGardner introduced Recreation Supervisors Brian Hronski and Ali Luken to review 17 plans for this year's city festival, Blue Heron Days. (See PowerPoint Presentation for 18 outline of Friday, Saturday and Sunday activities) 19 20 The council asked that the event be presented on the city's cable channel as well as the 21 planned advertisements. 24 3. LED Retrofit Proposal -Legacy at Woods Edge Street Lights, Civic Complex 25 Parking Lot Lights, and Civic Complex Exterior Building Lights - Director 26 DeGardener introduced the proposed contractor for the project, Jeff Rutz of Meridian 27 Energy Products (who completed a lighting upgrade project recently at the city hall 28 complex). Mr. DeGardner noted that staff is recommending a project to retrofit exterior 29 lighting with a goal to reduce energy costs. He noted the proposed project cost and a 30 payback period of approximately four years. Mr. DeGardner explained how the 31 opportunity has come forward to have an exterior project. 32 33 Council Member Rafferty recalled that he had previously brought forward the idea of 34 upgrading this lighting and at that time the concept was based on a ten year payback; this 35 is better. Also he's curious about how the change actually occurs — would this involve 36 new fixtures? 37 38 Mr. Rutz explained that with the custom lights present in the project area, there was 39 previously only one vendor who could retrofit the lights. Now there is more opportunity, 40 creating more ease and less cost through a retrofit (no fixture replacement). 41 42 Council Member Maher asked about the warranty and Mr. Rutz said it would be 100,000 43 hours. She noted that there shouldn't then be any difference in longevity or warrantee 1 CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 3, 2017 APPROVED 44 with the different bulb. Mr. Rutz added that the product would be industry standard. 45 46 Council Member Rafferty complimented Director DeGardner on bringing the 47 improvement forward. 48 4. Public Safety Department Police Division Vehicle Replacement Policy - 49 Public Safety Director Swenson reviewed the history of council consideration and 50 changes to this proposed policy. At one point the council received a presentation on 51 vehicle leasing. 52 53 Mayor Reinert recalled that the equipment replacement plan is a budget item and 54 therefore was moved to that process. That is now out of this policy. 55 56 Director Swenson explained that the draft policy calls for replaement at five years or 57 90,000 miles. (Mayor Reinert said he thought the figure was 100,000 miles.) Director 58 Swenson reviewed the policy, indicating that the council has the final consideration of 59 retiring a vehicle. The council discussed how to achieve replacement at "a minimum of 60 100,000 or five years". 61 62 Council Member Rafferty remarked that a typical user of a vehicle (not in a fleet) may 63 take it to 200,000 and he thinks the police vehicles are actually built better. It doesn't 64 seem unlikely that a police vehicle could reach 150,000. He thinks the policy can be 65 tweaked and improved still. 66 67 Mayor Reinert asked what would happen if you reached 100,000 at three years? 68 69 Council Member Rafferty suggested that the council should perhaps be making the 70 replacement decision. He noted that the department here isn't getting those kind of 71 numbers at any rate. 72 73 Council Member Maher suggested it isn't unreasonable to expect 100,000 miles on a 74 vehicle but there could be units where it doesn't make sense to bring them that far. 75 76 The mayor added the suggested language "with a goal of having vehicles last five years". 77 78 Council Member Manthey recalled that the Enterprise professionals who gave a leasing 79 presentation to the council had suggested that they wouldn't run cars too long because the 80 value decreases. Council Member Rafferty explained that his research indicates that the 81 value is not an issue — it's very low after fleet use and doesn't change very much between 82 60,000 and 100,000. 83 84 Director Swenson referenced in sections 5 and 6 in the policy. To clarify, he hears the 85 council requesting the language "at least five years and a minimum of 100,000 miles". 86 He added that he would anticipate bringing the question of replacement to the council the 87 year previous to the year replacement cars are actually budgeted and purchased. 2 CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 3, 2017 APPROVED 88 89 Council Member Rafferty reviewed language in the policy regarding purchase 90 authorization (through the administrator). He heard that the concept is that it hasn't been 91 used in the past but it could have been; Administrator Karlson explained that staff is 92 planning to increase the amount of information available to the council for the budget for 93 each vehicle (a higher level of detail). 94 95 Council Member Rafferty noted procedures — some of those seem to be repetitive as far 96 as what's already been stated. Overall, he feels the policy here should indicate in some 97 way that this will be respectful of use of the taxpayers funds and, to be clear, it is all 98 vehicles, not just the police fleet. He recommends striking the language "based on 99 commonly used standards of police vehicles". Karlson suggested also striking "A" from 100 that section. 101 102 Public Safety Director Swenson indicated that he would be adding consideration of 103 approving the policy to the next regular council agenda. 104 105 4a, Discussion Regarding Number of Vehicles - Council Member Rafferty 106 explained that he's looked at like size cities, and he distributed and reviewed information 107 on his findings. The figures indicated in his research document are police vehicles (not 108 exclusively patrol cars). Council Member Rafferty suggested that the numbers indicate 109 that the City's ratio is high. He wonders if the City really has the right number of 110 vehicles. That may be why we don't get to 100,000 miles, because we have a high ratio 111 of cars to personnel. Council Member Manthey suggested that he'd like to see the 112 information broken down further — how many squad cars. 113 5. Charter Commission Request for Additional Funding -Administrator Karlson 114 noted the written staff report and request for additional funding. He understands that the 115 commission is fairly close to having their amendment ready for submission, having 116 received the comments of the city attorney. 117 118 Mayor Reinert remarked that funding isn't generally granted by this council without any 119 quotes for a defined service. That would be the same treatment for any group or staff. 120 It's a matter of the council understanding what is being requested and the cost. 121 122 Council Member Maher remarked that the Commission has worked on a small annual 123 budget which equates to about three hours of attorney time — not much in the scope of 124 that type of work. She expects that the Commission is getting an amendment together so 125 they may have timing to consider but she'd also like to see a quote. 126 127 Council Member Manthey suggested that he believes the Commission wants its autonomy 128 and he respects that. He's not sure where he falls on increasing the budget. 129 130 Council Member Maher said she understands that legal fees can be very expensive and if 131 it's a year when the Commission wants to send forward an amendment, a request for 3 CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 3, 2017 APPROVED 132 additional funding is understandable; she would like the additional information though. 133 134 The council concurred that the Commission should come forward with a specific quote in 135 order for the council to consider additional funding. 136 6. 2017 Street Overlay, Under -Seal Process -City Engineer Hankee noted that the 137 City has received bids for this project and they came in favorable to the project estimate. 138 There is additional information included in the staff report on the under -seal process. 139 Since accepting the bid results is an action included for the April loth council meeting, 140 she suggests looking at the under seal element. She explained that the process is being 141 used by some northern communities - it is an application of a chip seal under the 142 pavement to reduce water and reduce reflective cracking. There is more information in 143 the staff report indicating MnDOT's favorable experience with the process. She suggests 144 that it would be a good test case to utilize the process within this overlay project. Ms. 145 Hankee noted that the option to include this recommended process will be part of what 146 comes forward to the council at the next meeting. 147 148 Engineer Hankee also reviewed the recommendation to accept the low bid of North 149 Valley for the 2017 Overlay Project. With the favorable bids, the alternate should also be 150 possible. 151 7. Comprehensive Plan -Community Development Director Grochala noted that 152 the comp plan information provided informs the council on the requirement for a plan 153 update, the history (the City started this process in 1974), the Metropolitan Council role, 154 conformance requirements, the elements included in the plan, and the intent of staging 155 (how the city will grow, when where and why). Staff utilizes the city's comp plan often. 156 He noted that the staff report contains City Planner Larsen's report of the previous year 157 that includes more detailed information on what will be included in the update. The 158 internal team is working on the process already. The council can expect to see a joint 159 meeting with the advisory boards in May. 160 8. Council Updates on Boards/Commissions -Council Member Maher remarked 161 that there have been no meetings (they've been cancelled) but she's received a discovery 162 request related to North Metro TV. 163 9. Monthly Progress Report -Administrator Karlson reviewed the written report 164 and specifically updated the council on the scanning project and the council chambers 165 upgrade project. 166 10. Compensatory Time for Exempt Employees -Council Member Rafferty 167 recalled a previous discussion with the Administrator where this system came up and he 168 has called for additional review. What he didn't understand with the information 169 provided is how the union contract impacts this situation. Also he wonders about the 170 individuals who are included but don't regularly attend meetings. 4 CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 3, 2017 APPROVED 171 172 Administrator Karlson reviewed the history of the benefit (included in a handout). 173 Historically the benefit was granted through mediation. Non -union employees also 174 received the benefit to be fair. 175 176 Council Member Rafferty remarked that, putting aside the union employees, he doesn't 177 see it's appropriate to grant this to directors. That level of employee is getting paid at a 178 higher salary and it's tied to getting their job done. 179 180 Administrator Karlson suggested that he fears that type of change would send a message 181 of unfairness to some employees. 182 183 Council Member Manthey suggested that the matter be discussed as policy and not 184 opinion. Without the factual information, it's hard for him to consider the subject matter. 185 186 Mayor Reinert noted that he seconded having the discussion on the agenda. He doesn't 187 feel that having a discussion when there are questions is a bad idea. He wanted more 188 information because he didn't recall hearing of this practice for the employees. 189 190 Council Member Maher suggested it isn't an unusual practice. 191 192 The council concurred that the matter should be discussed, and questioned openly, but 193 with the information they need to properly review it. Administrator Karlson asked what 194 additional information the council would need. 195 196 Council Member Manthey asked if there is a policy on now the comp time can be used. 197 Administrator Karlson replied that there is not a restriction; where he worked previously 198 there was a restriction of eight hours per pay period. It was clarified that there is not a 199 payment attached to the comp time and it disappears if not used within the year it's 200 earned. 201 11. Review Regular Agenda 202 203 EDA Meeting — Community Development Director Grochala explained that the EDA 204 will be asked to transfer the land that is being considered for sale to the American Legion. 205 The land title would be transferred to the city since the EDA actually holds the property. 206 The action would move the title to the city for three lots. The council could then take 207 action later on the agenda to approve second reading of the ordinance providing for the 208 actual land sale. 209 210 Item 4A, Police Division Staffing Study — Director Swenson explained that he had 211 requested funding for a professional staffing study but that was not included in the 212 approved city budget. He therefore looked at the use of forfeiture monies as a funding 213 source and he has verified that is a legal use of those funds. He proposes to hire 214 Springsted for a study, as outlined in the staff report. Mayor Reinert asked for more CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION April 39 2017 APPROVED 215 details and Director Swenson explained the steps of the process, including council input, 216 and recommendations coming forward at the end. The mayor said he would not support 217 the study and he noted the cost of $17,000. Council Member Manthey suggested that a 218 review of the staffing, especially since the council has been discussing police needs, 219 seems appropriate to him; it could also be helpful with upcoming strategic planning for 220 the future. Council Member Rafferty remarked that the population of the city hasn't 221 increased greatly and that raises a question for him about the need for more police 222 officers. Mayor Reinert suggested that the management team should understand staffing 223 needs for their respective departments. 224 225 The council concurred that the request for authorization of a study should not go forward. 226 They invited staff to come forward and discuss staffing at a future meeting. 227 Item 6A —Consider Resolution No. 17-26, Approving Change Orders No. 1 & 2 and 228 the Final Payment No. 8 for the Construction of Well No. 6 - City Engineer Hankee 229 reviewed the written staff report. With the two change orders, the project is still within 230 the budget. She briefly reviewed the content of the change orders. The mayor confirmed 231 that these change orders wouldn't have an impact on the results of the original bid 232 process. 233 234 Item 6C - Consider Resolution No. 17-29 Denying Conditional Use Permit for Home 235 Occupation Permit Level C at 180 Pine Street — City Planner Larsen reviewed the 236 request for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a home occupation and staffs 237 recommendation to deny the request based on the basic inability of the street/area to 238 handle additional use and traffic. The existing homes are very close and although this lot 239 is large, the neighbors are close. The Planning and Zoning Board recommended denial of 240 the request. 241 242 12. Adjourn Al The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. 244 245 These minutes were considered, corrected and approved at the regular Council meeting held on 246 April 24, 2017. 247 248 249 251 Jul1 e Bartell, Ci Cler `—' 252