07-26-2004 CC - Laserfiche WebLink

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A D M I N I S T R A T O R ’S D I G E S T July 26, 2004 Vacation - I’ll be out of the office the week of July 26th–30th on a family vacation in South Dakota. Police Chief Mike Sommer (763-717-4071) will serve as acting City Administrator at the Council meeting in my absence. Des Crane and department heads have my itinerary and numbers where I can be reached if necessary. Fire Department Capital Equipment Planning – A joint Council meeting of Blaine, Mounds View and Spring Lake Park was held on Thursday, July 22, 2004 at Blaine City Hall. Springstead, Inc. financial consultants and staff presented options for financing the Fire Department’s capital plan. Each City will need to work projections into their 2005 budget discussions. Also, it was decided that the three cities, plus Coon Rapids and County and Chamber representatives, will appoint people to a group to come up with a process for renaming of CR10. Mounds View will take responsibility for getting this group together. Labor Negotiations – AFSCME contracts have been executed as approved by the council on July 12th. An additional meeting was held with the Public Works collective bargaining group to review and discuss their contract proposal. Additional discussions need to be held with Public Works and it is anticipated that this contract will be a topic of an executive session in August. Street and Sidewalk Projects – City Engineer Greg Lee reports that the 2003 street improvement project is well under way and work is proceeding fast so far. Also, the final work on H2 is almost completed. Bond Rating Upgrade – Hats off to Finance Director Hanson and our financial advisors for securing a higher bond rating (from A2 to A1) as part of the current bond issuance. The higher bond rating is a measure of the City’s improving financial strength and it means the City will pay less interest on its debt obligation. Harstad Ruling - We received Judge Bastian's ruling that re-affirmed his earlier position that the Harstads have the right to build the remaining 66 townhouse units at H2 and Long Lake Road. Another conference with the judge is scheduled for July 30, 2004 to discuss the remaining issues in the case. Those issues pertain to the conditions, particularly the "water" issues that were imposed as part of the city's previous approval of the project. In his order, Judge Bastian specifically says that he will not enter final judgment until all of the remaining issues are resolved to his satisfaction. That means that the City cannot appeal the ruling at this time. We will need to wait until final judgment is entered before making that decision.