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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC MINUTES 02081983 Meeting Sheet 101946 y Box: 21 Folder:-CC'MINUTES AND AGENDAS 1983 Document: CC.MINUTES 02081983 . r ii r .4 CITY OF ST. ANTHONY COUNCIL MINUTES f February 8, 1983 Mayor Sundland opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance at 8 : 30 P.M. , following the meeting of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Present for roll call : Marks , Ranallo, Sundland, Letourneau, and Enrooth. Also present: David Childs , City Manager; William Soth, City Attorney; and Don Hickerson, Chief of Police. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Councilman Ranallo to approve as submitted the minutes of the special Council meeting held January 25, 1983. Motion carried unanimously. The following changes in the minutes of the regular Council meeting held January 25th were requested- by Councilman Ranallo: Page 2 , para. 7: The last two sentences were rewritten to read "Councilman Ranallo stated this was the same pro- cedure followed. in the. past. Councilman Enrooth indicated he believes he should have been advised as much before the interviews were conducted" . Page 2 , para. 8 : Insert "Councilman Ranallo asked what" before "The strategy.. . . " in the first line and substitute "was planned" for "was discussed" in the fourth line. Motion by Councilman Enrooth- and seconded by Councilman Letourneau to approve as. amended the minutes of the Council meeting held January, 25 , 1983. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Ranallo and seconded by Councilman marks to grant all licenses listed in the February 8 , 1983 Council agenda. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Councilman Ranallo to approve payment of all verified claims for December 31, 1982 and February 8, 1983, as listed in the February 8 , 1983 Council agenda. Motion carried unanimously. i Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Councilman Letourneau to ;• approve payment of $2 ,115 . 91 to Short-Elliott-Hendrickson, Inc. for �' construction services on the St. Anthony Boulevard Bridge project. -2- Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Enrooth and seconded. by Councilman Marks to approve payment of $205 . 54 to Short-Elliott-Hendrickson, Inc. for extra services for revisions to the. plan for the entrance closures at Sunset Memorial Cemetery with .the St. Anthony Boulevard Bridge pro- ject, for which the City would. be reimbursed by the . cemetery association. Motion carried unanimously. Mr. Childs pointed out that the costs for pulling Well f#3 pump ran less than estimated. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by .Councilman Ranallo to approve payment- of_ $825. to Bergerson-Caswell., Inc. for their services on Well #3. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor Sundland reported he had a response from Congressman Sabo to his request that the Congressman and Congressman Sikorski as well as Senators Durenberger and Boschwitz accompany:- City officials when they meet with HUD officials .-in Washington D.C.;, to lobby for the funding for the City ' s senior housing and the Congressman' s staff had agreed to coordinate the meeting with the City' s other congressmen and HUD off'icials.__duririg the time:the : City_--officials would be in Washington for the National Conference of Cities , March 4-9 , 1983. =� Councilman Ranallo reported he has attended or_ is- aware of several presentations of commendations for outstanding performance to police- men and firemen in other municipalities and would suggest a similar program of recognitionbe set up .in St. Anthony. He said the pre- sentation in Golden Valley had been subsidized by Paco and he believes some community organization might be interested in picking up the costs , which are minimal, in the City. Councilman Marks discussed his recent participation in the training sessions for newly elected municipal officials ,where he had conducted the seminars on land use and planning issues . He distributed some of the literature given out at these conferences which the Council might find helpful. Chief Hickerson reported his department 's Annual Report for 1982 as reflected in the summaries included in the Council agenda. Some type of crimes have gone down but others such as forgeries and fraud have increased, according to the Chief. He pointed out that there had been no forced entry involved in a large number of the residential home and garage burglaries which occurred in 1983 and his department is empha- sizing this point as well as the number of burglaries there have been in their own neighborhood to the residents who attend the meetings ,,- where the Crime Watch program is established. The Chief told the Council his department had been involved in several successful sting operations in other cities , but he added that the surveillance, which is necessary, is very costly . Traffic tags are down, but the Chief -3- "~\' assumed ' this was because residential patrolling has been increased. :• Problems the City has with juvenile offenders who are picked up from 16 to 20 times without being sentenced and the sentencing guidelines were explored and the Police Chief concluded his report by telling the high percentages of cases which are successfully cleared by the City force. The Mayor told him the Council. appreciates .the tough job he and his department have. The Finance Director 's February . investment report, the Public Works Director' s status report on Well #3, and the" February .lst staff notes were noted and ordered filed. Since up to three of the Council could be in Washington March 8th ' and there would .be less than a quorum present for the Council meet- ing scheduled that evening, it was agreed the meeting should be moved up a week. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Mayor Sundland to reschedule the March 8, 1983 Council meeting to 7 : 30 P.M. , March 1, 1983. Motion carried unanimously. No feasible alternative for providing animal control services had been found and Chief Hickerson had recommended MAPSI be retained for another year. Motion by Councilman Ranallo and seconded by Councilman Marks to " • adopt Resolution 83-018. RESOLUTION 83-018 A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR"AND CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE CONTRACT .WITH MAPSI , INC. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Councilman Enrooth to adopt Resolution 83-019 . RESOLUTION 83-019 A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE PROPOSAL FROM SHORT-ELLIOTT-HENDRICI:SON, INC. FOR ADMINISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE OF CITY'S 1983 MSA FU14DS Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Councilman Letourneau to adopt Resolution 83-020, ' as recommended by the Chief of Police. RESOLUTION 83-020 ' • A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING PARTICIPATION IN THE MINNESOTA POLICE RECRUITMENT SYSTEM Motion carried unanimously. -4- " \ The Manager and Police Chief discussed the problems with continuity in the prosecution area, which the Police Department experiences with the Dorsey Firm' s practice of using young attorneys for, the City pro- - � secutions to give them Court experience. Chief Hickerson confirmed that there had been instances where the attorneys handling the City 's prosecutions had failed to comply with the 36 hour rule for charging prisoners and those prisoners had been released and failed to reappear when the case was reinstated, which in turn, -.resulted-in the additional administrative costs to the -City of getting the offenders back to Court. Th Chief told Councilman Ranallo the complaint isnot that there .have. been so many cases lost, but rather it is the amount of time involved in administration which frustrates the City police. They have not, however, reported having too much trouble with plea bar- gaining, he said.. Two local legal firms had actively sought the opportunity to submit proposals for the City ' s prosecution work and one of these firms , Johnson & Doran, 4111 Central Avenue N.E. , was represented by Bernard Johnson and James Doran at the meeting. Council- man Marks commented. that, even though the fees to be charged by the Dorsey Firm and these firms would- be equal, he believes the Council should also taken into the 'account the extra costof administration with the existing system, when .a decision is made as to which firm would perform the prosecution duties for the City . Councilman Ranallo questioned why this matter had come before the Council "all of a sudden" , and why only two local firms had been requested to submit proposals when there are so many other law firms represented by City residents . He would like to have letters sent to /':• all such attorneys inviting them to. submit proposals and .the same selection procedure followed as the City uses in selecting a financial 'consultant. The Councilman indicated he did not perceive he had enough information to make a decision that evening. Mr. Childs responded that he had followed the procedure that staff has historically used in selecting names of engineering firms for Council consideration and said .that .if that policy should be. changed, some discussion is necessary to . clarify ,the Council ' s desires about the process . The Manager indicated he doesn't perceive a strong dis- approval of the Dorsey' s handling of the prosecution work, but rather a desire to obtain more consistent service for the same costs . Mayor Sundland indicated he believes trying to make a decision based only on pricing fees could be a "real headache" for the Council. Councilman Enrooth indicated he would not -favor 'expending so much money on the type of mailing which had been suggested since many attorneys would not be interested in the prosecution work anyway. He sees the Council trying to equate dollars with professional expertise and questioned why attorneys should be singled out from other professionals for special treatment. Mr. Soth agreed prosecution work is very specialized and that many attorneys don't care for it at all . He said the trainees in his firm like that work because it gives them court experience. ;;• The Mayor indicated he could see no harm in deferring the appointment to a later Council meeting and inthemeantime, to publicize in the . Bulletin that the City is selecting a firm to do the prosecution work ` -5- and will- be accepting proposalsfor that service.. Mr. Soth commented that the inquiries could be solicited but the Council could follow its practice of getting back to only those in whom the City would be interested. Chief Hickerson indicated many of .the cases involved DWI offenses which are now considered gross misdemeanors . Mr. Johnson explained the legislature had recently turned some of those cases which had been previously .prosecuted by the counties over to the city attorneys , excluding felonies. Selection of the City'.s Prosecuting Attorney was scheduled for a work session at 6 : 30 P.M. , March 1, 1983 , prior to the Council meeting to be held that evening. In his February 8th memorandum, Mr. .Childs had reported several cosmetic and grammatical changes recommended by the City Attorney had been made in the new Sign Ordinance, which was to be given its first reading that evening. He had also attached a listing of specific deletions, additions and changes in wording which Mr. Soth recommends for the ordinance. These were discussed and accepted by the Council and they set a fee of $25. 00 to defray administrative costs. to be charged for a sign ordinance variance. It was agreed that the. notice provisions for the;-.;new variance laws should be included in the. ordinance as recommended .by the City Attorney. Motion by Councilman Ranallo and seconded by Councilman Marks to approve the first reading of Ordinance 1983-001 with modifications recommended by the City Attorney. ORDINANCE 1983-001 AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO SIGNS; AMENDING SECTION 430 OF THE 1973 CODE" OF ORDINANCES Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Marks and seconded by Councilman Letourneau to approve the second reading of Ordinance 1983-002 . ORDINANCE 1983-002 AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO PLANNING COMMISSION MEMBERSHIP;. AMENDING SECTIONS 224 : 05 AND 225 : 10 OF THE 1973 CODE OF- ORDINANCES Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilman Enrooth and seconded by Councilman Letourneau to adjourn the meeting at 10 : 00 P.M. Motion carried unanimously. Res ectfully submitted, He n Crowe, Secretary ATTEST: City Clerk Mayo