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LAUDERDALE CITY COUNCIII MEETING MINUTES I Lauderdale City Hall 1891 Walnut Street Lauderdale, MN 55113 Page 2 of 4 August 12, 2014 Discussion Items: Awarding of the Larpenteur Avenue Improvement Project Darren Amundsen, the City Engineer, addressed the Council. The City received three bids on the project with Concrete Ideas, Inc., submitting the lowest bid. Councilor Grove asked Amundsen how the Concrete Idea, Inc. bid came in so much lower than the others. Amundsen explained that Concrete Ideas only does sidewalk projects while the other two bidders are more multi -faceted site contractors who do not specialize in sidewalk projects. The project will begin in early to mid-September and should be completed in October. Butkowski explained the decorative lighting and bus shelters may not be finished this year. The lighting is contingent on the availability of lamps through the City of St. Paul and the bus shelters are contingent on availability through the Metropolitan Council. Councilor Gaasch moved to accept the bids and award the Larpenteur Avenue Improvement Project to Concrete Idea, Inc. with Alternatives 1, 2, and 4. Councilor Grove seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Resolution 081214C — Preliminary Approvalfor the Issuance of Conduit Debt Mayor Dains stated the City recently adopted a policy allowing the City to extend use of its bank qualified debt (BQ debt) outside of the City's corporate limits. Annually, each City, regardless of its size, is allowed to issue up to ten million dollars in bank qualified debt. Bank qualified debt means banks can buy the debt and not pay income tax on the interest they earn from holding the debt. Since Lauderdale rarely uses its annual BQ debt allotment for municipal projects, it can extend its rights to issue BQ debt to others, generally non-profit organizations. This creates a win-win situation for the banks and the non-profit organizations. The banks offer a lower interest rate to the non -profits as the banks do not pay taxes on the interest they earn. Julie Eddington, of Kennedy and Graven, addressed the Council. Eddington stated the City is being asked by Eldercare (a non-profit organization) for use of its 2014 allotment of bank qualified debt for a new transitional care facility in Northeast Minneapolis. Eddington stated the City needs to hold a public hearing on the proposed issuance of bonds which would take place in September. The closing of the deal is scheduled for October. At that time, the City would receive $90,,000 in fees for providing Eldercare with its allotment of BQ debt for the year. Eddington reminded the Council that the issuance of BQ debt for the transitional care facility doesn't put the City at financial liability to pay back the debt and the City is not putting any City funds into the deal.