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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-17-2008 MinutesCharter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 1 DATE TIME STARTED TIME ENDED MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS EXCUSED MEMBERS UNEXCUSED STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT APPROVED CITY OF LINO LAKES CHARTER COMMISSION : April 17, 2008 . 6:30 P.M. . 9:32 P.M. : Dahl, Trehus, Vacha, Duffy, R. Williams, Storberg, Zastrow, Stockman Maher, Drennen, Lyden, Minar, Gunderson, Bretoi, and Carlson : Aldentaler : None : City Clerk, Julianne Bartell (part) CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Duffy called the regular meeting of the Lino Lakes Charter Commission to order at 6:30 p.m. on April 10, 2008. The City Clerk swore in new members Bretoi and Gunderson. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chair Duffy added item in which the two new members would introduce themselves during the open mike portion of the meeting. Commissioner Trehus added an item to discuss the possible charter amendment due to City wide growth under the new business portion of the meeting. MOTION by Commissioner Dahl, seconded by Commissioner Lyden, to approve theApril 17, 2008, Charter Commission meeting agenda as corrected above. Motion carried unanimously. OPEN MIKE Commissioner Gunderson advised that she had lived in Lino Lakes for the past eight years with her husband, 16 year old stepson and 2-1/2 year old twins. She stated that in 2001 she ran for City Council on a few issues that she felt strongly about, but did not win. She stated that she has a passion for local government and politics in general. She was thrilled to have the opportunity to get back into local government and thought that the Charter Commission would be a great way to do that and to meet new people. 1 Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 2 APPROVED 45 Commissioner Bretoi advised that he had been a property owner in Lino Lakes since 1986 and 46 has lived in the City for the past 11 years. He thought it was interesting to see all the changes 47 that have taken place since that time. He advised that he decided to get involved because he had 48 been following the discussions on street improvement and some other City Council issues. He 49 thought the only way that he could actually have a say in those matters would be to join the 50 Charter Commission. 51 52 Commissioner Storberg questioned if the Commissioner positions had now been fulfilled. 53 54 Chair Duffy replied that their Commission is now full in members. 55 56 APPROVAL OF MINUTES — JANUARY 17 AND FEBRUARY 28, 2008 57 58 January 17, 2008 59 60 Commissioner Dahl stated that row 281, the second on the motion should be Commissioner 61 Trehus and not Commissioner Dahl. 62 63 Chair Duffy advised that the minutes show Commissioner Williams as unexcused but he was 64 present and should be shown in the members present section. 65 /'1 66 MOTION by Commissioner Stockman Maher, seconded by Commissioner Dahl, to approve the 67 January 17, 2008, Charter Commission meeting minutes as corrected above. Abstain: 68 Commissioners Bretoi and Gunderson. Motion carried. 69 70 February 28, 2008 71 72 MOTION by Commissioner Zastrow, seconded by Commissioner Lyden, to approve the 73 February 28, 2008, Charter Commission meeting minutes as presented. Abstain: 74 Commissioners Bretoi and Gunderson. Motion carried. 75 76 OLD BUSINESS 77 78 Quarterly Finance report 2008, Budget Update and all Charter Related Updates by City 79 Administrator, Gordon Heitke 80 81 Commissioner Dahl stated that she would appreciate an easy to read edition of the quarterly 82 update, as she found the format hard to read. 83 84 Chair Duffy advised that she and Commissioner Dahl are looking into a situation. She reported 85 that the attorney for the Charter Commission was unpaid for her December and January services 86 and finally reached them to advise them of this in February. She advised that they had checked 87 into it and did not know what happened. She thought that they held the payments for the Charter 88 Commission, with the exception of Timesavers, and by that time did not have enough funds to n 89 pay the attorney. She advised that the attorney had now been paid up to date, but was upset that Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 3 APPROVED 90 they were not notified about this situation until the attorney notified her in the begining of 91 February. 92 93 Commissioner Dahl advised that she does forward the bills directly to City Hall. She thought 94 that if they were over budget by $500 they should have sent a smaller payment with an 95 explanation instead of not paying at all. She thought that the situation was handled poorly and 96 advised that she documented everything that occured in chronological order. 97 98 Chair Duffy advised that she went to City Hall and was only given half of the information that 99 she requested and stated that this is more of a housekeeping issue for the Commission. 100 101 Commissioner Lyden thought that they should be more proactive and also believed that the 102 Charter Commission should receive more money. He did not believe that the Charter 103 Commission should be caught in an embarrassing situation like that. 104 105 Commissioner Gunderson questioned if late charges acrued and also what the budget was for 106 2007. 107 108 Chair Duffy advised that the budget was $1,500 for 2007, but they had asked for an additional 109 $5,560. She advised that they also asked for an additional $5,000 in 2008 which would bring 110 that budget to $7,500. She stated that there were not any late charges for the attorney. 111 112 Commissioner Dahl advised that the $7,500 was not concrete. She stated that the Council did 113 approve the additional funds in September but the current budget is showing $5,700 not $6,500. 114 115 Commissioner Lyden questioned if they should have the attorney present at all the meetings until 116 they get through some of the bigger issues. He advised that the City Council has their legal 117 counsel present at their meetings and thought that the Charter Commission could benefit from 118 that as well. 119 120 Commissioner Dahl thought that it would be nice to have the attorney available for questions and 121 did not believe that her charges were outrageous. 122 123 Commissioner Zastrow thought that it would also be a good idea. He stated that the Commission 124 has a lot of big issues coming up and thought that it would be best to have the attorney present so 125 that they would know the answers immediately and would be able to take action during the 126 meeting. 127 128 Commissioner Vacha thought it would be more productive to compile questions for the attorney 129 and then submit them and come back with the answers at the next meeting. He stated that the 130 meetings could drag on with 15 people and thought it would be better to have the attorney 131 present at meetings towards the end of the issues. 132 3 Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 4 APPROVED 133 Commissioner Lyden thought that the hard part is once a question is answered you sometimes 134 have two more questions and thought it would be better if the attorney was present at the 135 meetings. 136 137 Commissioner Vacha advised that they are already walking the fence and thought it would be 138 better to not give the Council any more ammunition to get rid of the Charter Commission. 139 140 Commissioner Carlson agreed with both points and thought that they should hold off on a motion 141 regarding having the attorney present at meetings until they discuss the issues further tonight. 142 He thought that they should know in which direction they are going to go before commiting to 143 having her present at all meetings. 144 145 A. Election of Officers 146 147 Chair Duffy advised that they had already held an election in which Commission Dahl was 148 elected as Vice -Chair, although she had been Secretary for a long time. She questioned which 149 position Commissioner Dahl would like to hold as they can only have one person for each 150 position. 151 152 Commissioner Dahl responded that she would like to try the Vice -Chair position. 153 154 Chair Duffy advised that they would then need a Secretary and called for nominations. 155 156 Commissioner Storberg nominated Commisioner Gunderson for the position of Secretary. 157 158 Commissioner Vacha seconded that nomination. 159 160 Commissioner Gunderson questioned what the duties of the position would entale and was 161 directed to section four, article two. 162 163 Commissioner Carlson felt that it was important to have three officers for the Charter 164 Commission. 165 166 Commissioner Gunderson advised that she did have some reservations about taking the position 167 because of her committment to her children during the day. 168 169 Commissioner Lyden thought that Commissioner Dahl could possibly help out to transition the 170 new Secretary into her position. He advised that she may need some help in the next month as 171 she had never held the position before. 172 173 Commissioner Gunderson advised that she had been Secretary of other Boards that she had 174 presided on and thought that with the freindlyness of the Commissioners she would be able to 175 get assistance when needed. She accepted the position. 176 ' 177 Chair Duffy called for further nominations. Hearing none, she called for a motion. Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 5 APPROVED 178 179 MOTION by Commissioner Vacha, seconded by Commissioner Storberg, to elect Commissioner 180 Gunderson to the position of Charter Commission Secretary for 2008. Motion carried 181 unanimously. 182 183 Commissioner Minar nominated Commissioner Lyden for position of Assistant Secretary. 184 185 Chair Duffy called for further nominations. Hearing none, she called for a motion. 186 187 MOTION by Commissioner Minar, seconded by Commissioner Bretoi, to elect Commissioner 188 Lyden to the position of Charter Commission Assistant Secretary for 2008. Motion carried 189 unanimously. 190 191 B. Street Maintenance Update 192 193 Commissioner Lyden advised that he did not have enough time to get through all of the 194 information. He stated that he had been appointed to find information and advised that he 195 contacted City Hall but the information was not easy to obtain. He advised that it did 196 take a while to get all of the information and that he would have everything prepared for 197 the next meeting. He stated that in 1997 the street budget was $514,000 and that in 2006 198 that amount increased to $639,000. He advised that although it may seem adequate the 199 overall budget increase from 4.8 million dollars in 1997 to 8 million dollars in 2007. He 200 explained that although the overall budget doubled the street maintenance budget was 201 only slightly increased. 202 203 Commissioner Trehus clarified that the street maintenance budget only increased by 204 $100,000 in ten years. He advised that while one budget doubled, the other increased by 205 only five percent. 206 207 Commissioner Minar questioned where the money was going since the overall budget 208 doubled and the other barely increased. 209 210 Commissioner Vacha thought that it might be a good idea to include those numbers in a 211 newspaper article. 212 213 Chair Duffy advised that with the pavement management plan did increase in 2007 but 214 did nothing for the ten to 15 years previous to that. 215 216 C. Under Charter's Review 217 a. Staff's amended amendment approved by City Council 218 i. Charter Commission review of amended City amendment 219 220 Chair Duffy advised that everyone should have received information in their packet which 221 included background information on the ordinance for the amended amendment and also A^ 222 included the new ordinance 05-08. She advised that the City Council had decided to amend the Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 6 APPROVED 223 Task Force amendment, which was brought in as an ordinance the prior year but was no longer 224 valid as it did not have a second reading. 225 226 Commissioner Carlson advised that they had deleted subdivision five, section three from the 227 amendment that the Charter Commission had approved which he thought was a significant 228 paragraph. 229 230 Chair Duffy advised that the Council had eliminated the one year moratorium for improvement 231 projects that are not approved by the citizens. She advised that under the new timeline, the 232 Commission has until May 24th to make their decision and submit it back to the City Council. 233 She advised that the Council is ademant about getting this completed before September 1 lth 234 which is the date that they would have to have their proposed language submitted to Anoka 235 County, so that it could appear on the November ballot. 236 237 Chair Duffy advised that the Council had requested a grid to easliy compare the tax excempt 238 bond status information. She advised that existing Charter Commission bonds are taxable but 239 the Task Force bonds would be tax excempt. 240 241 Commissioner Trehus advised that the premis is that those Charter excempt zones are causing 242 problems with the rate and attractiveness for lending in Lino Lakes. He advised that when they 243 had previously asked questions regarding this issue they had been told that it had been taken care 244 of and to drop the issue. He stated that they did not care previously but now are coming back to 245 this and stating that it is an issue. He stated that he would like to have them come in front of the 246 Charter Commission to explain it again and answer questions. 247 248 Chair Duffy thought that if they asked them to come and explain the issue again they would be 249 denied access. 250 251 Commissioner Trehus advised that the Commission had been denied access to staff in the past 252 but did not think it was a good policy to try to impeed the questions of a govenerment agency. 253 He advised that they had asked for the Community Development Director and the City Engineer 254 to be present at their meeting in the past and the Council denied the request with the rational that 255 they were going to form a Task Force to review the Charter proposal. 256 257 Commissioner Gunderson did not think that their request would be denied as all parties had 258 made their recomendations for the amendment at this point. 259 260 Commissioner Trehus thought that it might be worth it to hear the rational for the need to change 261 the Charter exempt zones. 262 263 Chair Duffy advised that it may be an option to ask staff to come and explain and stated that 264 another option would be to propose some questions and send them to staff to see what kind of 265 response they get first. 266 6 Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 7 APPROVED 267 Commissioner Storberg thought that they should put forth the options and take a vote to see it 268 the Commission wants to accept the changes to the amendment to deny them. 269 270 Commissioner Bretoi questioned what the likeyhood of the Commission submitting their own 271 proposal on the charter on the ballot. 272 273 Commissioner Zastrow advised that they do not want to accept the changes that the Council has 274 proposed and stated that they could either submit their own changes or leave the existing charter 275 as is. 276 277 Chair Duffy advised that they have until May 24th to approve the City Council amendment. She 278 advised that they could then either look at continuing with the amendment that the Commission 279 submitted last December or they could withdraw that and start new to submit their own 280 amendment again. 281 282 Commissioner Zastrow thought that their previous amendment was the best that they would get 283 it. He suggested rejecting the Council amendement and letting them put it on the ballot. He 284 advised that they could then advertise against it and thought that they could knock the 285 amendment down with advertising. 286 287 Commissioner Gunderson stated that she had been following this in the papers and was just as 288 confused as most other citizens in the city. She did not believe that the Commission could spend 289 public funds to advertise either way on a ballot amendment. 290 291 Commissioner Storberg advised that the City Council could advertise in the newsletter. 292 293 Commissioner Trehus advised that the Council did already spend public funds to advertise on the 294 referendum. He stated that the Council could argue that they did not spend $25,000 to tell the 295 citizens that the charter costs the citizens millions of dollars. 296 297 Commisioner Carlson advised that from the information they received from their attorney they 298 could educate the public and believed that things would get stretched out of proportion. 299 300 Chair Duffy advised that it might be helpful to get information on multiple ballot questions. She 301 questioned how confusing the Commission wanted to make this issue. She advised that the 302 either proposal would need 51 percent of the vote to pass. 303 304 Commissioner Lyden advised that the game was going to be played whether the Commissioner 305 played or not and thought that it would be better to have a good defense rather than offense. He 306 stated that if they could stop the amendment from the City Council it would be more important 307 than getting the changes that the Commission would like to see approved. He thought that if 308 they could stop the amendment from the City Council they could then propose their own 309 amendment then next year to make the changes they see necessary. 310 7 Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 8 APPROVED 311 Commissioner Storberg advised that the biggest issue in the last 25 years was that the charter 312 was ridged and prevented them from getting the roads fixed. She advised that if the 313 Commission's amendment was approved it would get the roads fixed. She advised that it is 314 going to be confusing either way. 315 316 Commissioner Drennen thought that the biggest difference between the two amendments was the 317 issue of referendum. He advised that the amendment proposed by the Commission allows the 318 citizens to hold a referendum within 60 days of a proposed assessment. He advised that it comes 319 down to whether the citizens would like a say or not. 320 321 Commissioner Vacha advised that the charter does not prevent the City from maintaining the 322 roads. 323 324 Commissioner Lyden advised that it comes down to an issue of budget priority and stated that 325 roads have not been the priority for quite a while. 326 327 Commissioner Vacha advised that the Commission should not have spent the time and money if 328 they were not going to present their own amendment. 329 330 Commissioner Drennen advised that they need to move forward. He stated that the time and 331 money that they spent is gone and they should not proceed with something just because of that. 332 333 Commissioner Storberg advised that they could either put out their amendment, let the Council 334 put their amendment out or leave the charter as is. 335 336 Commissioner Trehus questioned if it might be better for the Commission to conduct their own 337 survery. He thought it would be logical to have a professional company conduct the survey to 338 get unbiased results. He suggested forming a subcommittee to ask for funding and also develop 339 questions for the survey. 340 341 Commissioner Zastrow advised that the Council spent about $30,000 on their survey. 342 343 Chair Duffy advised that it was a longer survery and stated that they could keep their survey 344 under ten questions. She advised that ballot language has to be worded clearly so that a simple 345 mark of yes or no would show. She advised that the complete amendment must by published 346 once a week for two weeks in the City prior to adding the question to the ballot. She stated that 347 she had spoken with someone from Anoka County election office and was advised that the City 348 would have to approve finalized ballott language. She advised that she is also going to check 349 with the Leauge of Minnesota Citieson ballot question language. She advised that the City 350 cannot more forward with anything on this matter until they Charter Commission makes their 351 decision or exhausts their timeframes. 352 353 Commissioner Trehus advised that their attorney has offered to draft the ballot language for their 354 amendment and thought their might be a small chance that the City would approve the language 355 once submitted. Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 9 APPROVED 356 357 Commissioner Lyden thought that it might be easier to defeat the amendment from the Council 358 by not submitting anything. 359 360 Commissioner Drennen thought the best idea would be to put out their own amendment to take 361 votes away from the Council's. He advised that it neither amendment received enough votes, the 362 charter would remain the same. 363 364 Commissioner Gunderson advised that she spoke with a member of the Mounds View Charter 365 Commission who recently passed an amendment change. She thought it might be helpful to 366 research other cities that had recenly passed an amendment. She advised that it could show them 367 the format and language that had been used. 368 369 Commissioner Trehus advised that the League of Minnesota Cities might be the place to get that 370 information and then request copies of the ballots for the next meeting. 371 372 Commissioner Bretoi thought it would be interesting to find multiple options and how things 373 were put on the ballot including the rules and tactics. 374 375 Commissioner Trehus thought that the Commission should be clear that this was not going to 376 backfire. He did not think that they had enough information tonight to determine that. He 377 thought that the idea of researching the ballots was a good idea. 378 379 Commissioner Bretoi questioned if it would not be a better idea to hold off on approving or 380 denying the amendment from the Council until they get their information. He advised that 381 obviously they do not like the amendment proposed from the Council and questioned what the 382 best strategy would be for the Commission at this point. 383 384 Commissioner Trehus advised that might be a good idea to investigate and not make the decision 385 tonight. 386 387 Commissioner Storberg advised that if they reject the amendment from the Council they are still 388 going to put it on the ballot and advised that their only option then would be to add their own 389 question or leave it. 390 391 Chair Duffy advised that if they reject the amendment tonight it would stop their clock. 392 393 Commissioner Trehus advised that they do not have to let the Council know their intentions right 394 now. 395 396 397 MOTION by Commissioner Storberg, seconded by Commissioner Minar, to reject the City 398 Council's revised amendment. Split Vote, 3-9. Voting in Favor Storberg, Drennen and Minar. 399 Abstain: Williams. 400 Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 10 APPROVED 401 Commissioner Carlson thought that they should take the full 90 days to make sure they have all 402 of their information. 403 404 Commissioner Minar advised that all conversations year after year are the same with this matter 405 and was getting frustrated with only speaking about this issue. 406 407 Commissioner Carlson explained that they would only have the one 90 day extension. 408 409 Commissioner Gunderson questioned if they should also be looking at the cost for the survey. 410 She explained that while she loved the idea she did not think it would be feasible with their 411 budget. 412 413 Commissioner Trehus advised that the Commission would need to determine if the funds for the 414 survey would come from the budget or if they would ask for additional funding. 415 416 Commissioner Gunderson advised that with the current calander the Commission would not 417 meet again until July and suggested that they meet again in 30 days. 418 419 420 MOTION by Commissioner Gunderson, seconded by Commissioner Trehus, to hold the next 421 meeting for the Charter Commission at 6:30, on May 22, 2008. Abstain: Vacha. Motion carried, 422 unanimously. 423 424 D. Attorney's Opinion 425 426 Chair Duffy advised that they had already discussed this during the meeting tonight. 427 428 E. Communication Plan 429 430 MOTION by Chair Duffy, seconded by Commissioner Bretoi, to table this issue until the next 431 meeting of the Charter Commission. Motion carried unanimously. 432 433 MOTION by Commissioner Trehus, seconded by Commissioner Lyden, to research the options 434 and cost of a citizen survey and bring back the information to the next Charter Commission 435 meeting. Opposed: Carlson and Minar. Motion carried. 436 437 Commissioners Drennen, Lyden, Trehus and Dahl volunteered to serve on the subcommittee. 438 439 NEW BUSINESS 440 441 A. Review Charter Commission Amendment 442 443 Chair Duffy advised that they had already discussed this item during the meeting. 444 445 B. July meeting date, July 10, 2008 10 Charter Commission April 17, 2008 Page 11 APPROVED 446 447 Commissioner Dahl advised that this meeting would be held on the second Thursday in July. 448 449 Chair Duffy stated that she would be in Alaska at that time. 450 451 The consensus of the Commission was to move that meeting date to July 17, 2008. 452 453 C. City Growth Amendment 454 455 Commissioner Trehus advised that he read in the Quad that Centerville had their timeline set to 456 have their comprehensive plan completed by the end of this year. He questioned if they should 457 have an amendment in the charter that would not allow the City to change their rate of growth 458 without the approval of the voters. He was concerned that the new comprehensive plan would 459 abliterate the language that everyone had worked so hard to get included. 460 461 Commissioner Zastrow did not think that the Commission should be involved with that issue. 462 He did not think that it was in their duties to dictate policy. 463 464 The consensus of the Commission was not to support the idea of a city growth amendment. 465 466 ADJOURN 467 468 MOTION by Commissioner Minar, seconded by Commissioner Zastrow, to adjourn the meeting 469 at 9:32 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. 470 471 472 Respectfully submitted, 473 474 Amanda Staple 475 TimeSaver Off Site Secretarial, Inc. 476 11