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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC MINUTES 12171985 Meeting Sheet IIIIIIVIIIVIIIVIIIVIIIVIIIIIIIIIII 101786 BOX: II Folder: CC MINUTES AND AGENDAS 1985 Document: CC MINUTES 12171985 CITY OF ST. ANTHONY • COUNCIL MINUTES December 17, 1985 _. The meeting was opened at 7:30 P.M. with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mayor Sundland. Present for roll call : Marks, Ranallo, Sundland, Enrooth, and Makowske. Also present: David Childs, City Manager; and Carol Johnson, Finance Director. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to approve the minutes of the Council meeting held November 26, 1985 with the following changes: Page 1 , para. 6: Insert "Grand Knight" before "Tony Martin",' in line 1 . Page 12, para. 3: Delete "already" in line 4. Page 14, para. 1 : Substitude "pleading" for "pleasing" in line 3. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Makowske and seconded -by Councilmember Marks to approve the minutes of the Council meeting held December 3, 1985, with the following changes: • Page '3, para. 1 : Move "demographic" in front of "information" in line 2. Page 5, para. 2 Substitute "4004" for "4000" in line 6. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Ranallo and seconded by Councilmember Marks to grant the following licenses as listed in the December 17, 1985 Council agenda packet: Heating Northland Mechanical Contractors B. Gusk Heating & Air Conditioning BSC Mechanical Contractor Viereck Fireplace, Inc._, Shakopee. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to approve payment of all verified claims listed for October 30 and December 3, 1985 in the December 17, 1985 Council agenda packet and for December 17, 1985, as presented during the December 17th meeting. �- Motion carried unanimously. -2- Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by, Councilmember Enrooth to approve payment of $26,813.15, to the Metropolitan Waste Control Commission. • Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to approve payment of $1 ,825 to the Edward J. Hance firm for prosecuting services from November 7 through-December 4, 1985. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks- and seconded by Councilmember Enrooth to approve payment of $529..85 to Dorsey & Whitney for legal services during October, 1985. Motion carried unanimously. The Manager explained it had been necessary to retain a building code consultant to do the plan check and review the plans for the Kenzington and Walker on Kenzie because the City does not have personnel with the expertise to review plans and specifications for buildings that size. Mr. Childs said the City would be reim- bursed by the developers for the fees. Motion by Councilmember Ranallo and seconded by Councilmember Marks to approve payment of $1 ,765 to Duane C. Grace & Associates for building code inspections in the Kenzie Terrace Redevelopment Project during November, 1985. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Enrooth to approve payments of $950 and $1 ,150 to Adrian Helgeson and Company for the 1984 City audits. Motion carried unanimously. Bob Gove, Northern Division Manager for the Suburban Hennepin County Regional Park District CHennepin Parks) told the Councilmembers he was present that evening as part of the "outreach" and public awareness effort to keep the suburban municipalities more aware of what' s happening as far as park activities are concerned in the county and their own park districts. The Park Manager give the historical back- ground of the Hennepin County parks district from 1957 to the present, during which time Minneapolis had first been included. in the district and, in 1985, excluded from the district and the taxing base for the district budget. He said, with the departure of that city and their 1 .9 million dol-lars in revenues from the county park system, the district was permitted by legislative action to levy for its operating budget with the County Board only reviewing that budget which they had set in the past. Mr. Gove estimated an average Hennepin County resident with a $75,000 home would probably have $17 added to his 1985 Homestead Tax to support the park district, which would be $6 more than paid the previous year. Slides showing park activities were shown by the Park Manager who had also distri- buted brochures regarding those same activities, including the outdoors skills studio being developed in the former headquarters building; creative playground • areas, some with water elements added; and downhill and cross country skiing, -3- hiking and biking areas. Mr. Gove indicated some of these activities had been developed to generate more revenues to offset the tax levy for the 1986 budget of 8.1 million dollars, which represented an increase of 11%. Two hundred dollars of that increase would be necessary to offset the anticipated raise in liability insurance rates, the Park Manager said, if the district is even able to get that coverage at all . Mayor Sundland told Mr. Gove the City had been faced with the prospect of paying the same type of increase in liability rates this year but the Council perceived they had avoided about $40.,000 by retaining a risk management firm to shop around for a better deal . The park representative said he would recommend the park district investigate doing the same. After he had completed the slide presentation during which he had indicated that, in addition to, developing new park areas, the Hennepin Parks would be setting up a fund for rehabilitating the existing park areas, for which there is no outside funding available at this time, Mr. Gove thanked the Mayor and Council for the opportunity to speak to them that evening . He said the district did want to be more responsive and accountable to the communities they serve. Mayor Sundland responded by saying the personalized report on where the park funds are spent was certainly appreciated, especially now that thelevying power provided a better visual picture of the effect the park district has on the homestead taxes . The Mayor added that he and the Council had the importance of their own metropolitan park system brought home to them at every national conference they attend where other elected officials from all around the country express their amazement at the amount of land set aside for recreational purposes in this area. • Mr. Childs had distributed copies of the December 13th invitation to Mayor Sundland to testify regarding the reauthorization of the Superfund program at a Congressional hearing to be held in the State Capitol Building, December 20th. The Mayor indi- cated the St. Anthony and New Brighton City Managers would be giving a joint presentation on their cities' water contamination problems and he indicated he .would expect Mr. Childs would be reporting back to the Council on the hearing during their first meeting in January. Mayor Sundland concluded his report by extending his own and his wife, Ardelle' s, "Best wishes for a happy holiday season and prosperous New Year" to the other Councilmembers, staff, their families, and all the residents of St. Anthony. Councilmember Marks thanked the Mayor for his greeting before giving his own report which included his participation in another Planning and Zoning Institute training session on the St. Paul Campus the previous Friday. The Councilmember also commented that, while the Mayor and Councilmembers Ranallo and Makowske were attending the League of Cities Conference in Seattle the previous week, he had attended another type of meeting on the opposite side of the country. Councilmember Ranallo reported he had put in two days of intense work at the Conference related to the preparation of 22 resolutions from the League Human Relations Committee on which he serves, and he indicated he had found one workshop on "Manag.ing an Aging City", especially pertinent to the City's situation where between 450 and 500 new residents over 55, are expected to be added to the City's population. From what he heard during that workshop, the Councilmember said he perceived it might be beneficial to have staff establish sometime in the middle of 1986 an advisory board similar to the Planning Commission, which could keep the • Council apprised of special needs this group might have. Mayor Sundland agreed, saying he perceived the existing senior council could be expanded to look into further sources of services like legal counseling which might be available for seniors. -4- Councilmember Makowske reiterated that the Ramsey County League of Local Government holiday banquet was scheduled for the following evening and she added, that there had been a very good advance registration for the affair. The Councilmember indi- cated she was preparing a written report on her own attendance at the Seattle conference for distribution sometime early in January. Her report, Councilmember Makowske indicated, would differ somewhat from the Mayor's and Councilmember Ranallo's because it would include her thoughts on the Women in Government workshop she had attended. Another very popular conference the Councilmember said she had attended had been the session on small cities which had an attendance beyond the capacity-of the room in which it was held.. Councilmember Makowske told the other conferees she perceived the fact that all the resolutions submitted by committees had passed at the Wednesday general meeting must have been indicative of the good job their committees had done. Councilmember Ranallo reported that he had already told the LMM he would not be attending the NLC conference in Washington, D.C. this March and had made arrange- ments to have any Human Development workshops taped for him. The Councilmember urged those who planned to attend that conference to make their reservations immediately if they wanted to be housed anywhere in the vicinity of the. Hilton where the conference is to be held. Before the November Fire Department report was ordered filed, the Manager explained that the four fire calls to the Apache Get-It-For-Less store had resulted from false alarms caused by water flow problems during one weekend and said the problems had since been corrected. In his December 17th memorandum, Mr. Hamer had advised that, because of its rapidly • deteriorating condition, the watermain running along Macalaster Drive from 37th Avenue N.E. to the railroad tracks, would have to be replaced next summer at an estimated cost of $9,730, which had not been budgeted for in 1986. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Enrooth to indicate to the Public Works Director that the Council recognizes the necessity for replacing the watermain identified in his December 17th memorandum in 1986. Motion carried unanimously. The two reports from the Hance firm related to matters they had conducted in the Hennepin County Municipal Court in November and December were ordered filed following a short discussion of the fines and sentences imposed in cases the law firm was prosecuting. The November liquor operations sales summary was also ordered filed. Al Kaeding, 3909 Shamrock Drive, who represents the City's interests on the North Suburban Cable Communications Commission, gave an update on cable service being provided St. Anthony by Group W. He said his own group 's responsibilities had changed to a great degree in the five years he has served on the Commission and one of the major moves made recently had been to establish the North Suburban Public Access Corporation, a non-profit organization to oversee the granting of funds to encourage the growth and use of public access channels as a community resource for the ten northern suburbs. Mr. Kaeding pointed out how the membership on the subcommittee had been structured to further distribute responsibility for the use of cable access. • The St. Anthony representative told the Council cable penetration for the City had been far less than originally forecast, with only 705 current subscribers, including the senior citizen universal service as well as his own cable access. This -5- represented only 23% of possible subscribers and, Mr. Kaeding indicated, that number had at one time been as h.igh as 27%, with 4% attrition since cable was first • sold in the community. The Cable Commissioner explored reasons he perceived the cable company was not making money in addition to a half-hearted membership drive. He said, because staff is not being paid well enough, it had. been hard to retain good people in management. Plant maintenance had become a problem, Mr. Kaeding. indicated, with weather and general- failure of sophisticated pieces of equipment. However, with the hiring of a new manager with some innovative ideas, the Commissioner indicated the cable company now hoped to undertake a more successful marketing effort; which had not happened yet, since only 13 new City subscribers had come on line since the new marketing effort was begun. Although Group W is for sale, Mr. Kaeding indicated he would not anticipate a sale very soon. He also said, since the local control of cable services had been preempted by the federal government, in spite of a concerted effort by the cities, the ten northern suburbs really had no choice except to passively permit the rate increase which many believed was unwarranted because of Group W's performance. Without a strong rate control , the Commissioner told the Council , he would anticipate the rates would continue to rise while penetration falls because he said he perceived it would be,:mueh less- expensive for the cable company to service a smaller, more lucrative subscriber base, than a larger .group of subscribers who are only adding two or three access lines to their outlets. The end result Mr.. Kaeding indicated he would expect, would be that "cable would become a toy of the affluent because of the shortsightedness of federal regulation changes" and public access. would also become that much harder to get for communities. • Mayor Sundland indicated he agreed with Mr. Kaeding 's assessment that as the rates increased, the average subscriber would drop off, leaving cable only for those people who can afford to have it in their. homes without justifying their purchase if they don't watch it all the time. Councilmember Ranallo referred to copies of letters he had gotten from residents, which had also been sent to the cable company, complaining about the weather channel and protesting Group W's unwillingness to include the Eternal Word Television Net- work in St. Anthony programming, even though they do provide that network for Columbia Heights subscribers. Mr. Kaeding said the Commissioners had been unable to get any satisfactory answer about the discrepancy from the cable representative but suspected the reason was that because there is no revenue raising potential in religious programming, the cable company is currently only interested in airing programs which would permit them to share in advertising revenues . And, he added, once a channel is provided, it is very difficult to eliminate later. The Com- missioner agreed the weather channel was not what it had been initially, but said the commissioners had been unwilling to permit the cable company to use one of the public access channels for this program, perceiving Group W had plenty of its own channels on which to provide the service demanded by the market. The cable company would really like to get rid of the universal service, which few realize is still available, according to Mr. Kaeding, who indicated the scenario he expected to be followed would be a continuation of higher rates for fewer sub- scribers to the point where Group W could reduce its overhead costs and collect revenues large enough to maintain business if the system is not sold. However,:'he • added, he would no longer anticipate the type of community service and general-access people were hoping would be provided, would be possible under such a system. -6- The cable commissioner said some cable companies are turning over the money dedicated towards the management of the public access channels to public access corporations and many are seeking legal solution under which they would not have to provide public access at all . This, according to Mr, Kaeding, would result in the loss of a valuable tool for the community, especially when it came to access for the fast growing older sector who in some communities have become the most active public access participants. The Mayor said he understood how profit had to be the bottom line for Group W but as a communications worker himself, he speculated some of the reasons for not having service put into a home could be the poor installations provided by the cable company. Mr. Kaeding told him one of the few benefits he had derived from his five years of service on the cable commission had been that at least he had an excellent installation on his own home. He was thanked for keeping the Council informed regarding the latest cable developments. In reference to the comment in the December 9th staff notes that "plowing went well during the recent snowfall ", Commissioner Ranallo indicated he had received more complaints about such service after this snowfall than he had in the last eight years. Councilmember Makowske said she had also received a number of calls indica- ting "the level of plowing was just not up to what we have come to expect" . Mr. Childs said he perceived the staff notes comment should have included the phrase "all things considered", because the crews had experienced equipment failure on two of the plows and since two of the most skilled Public Works employees had retired last year and their replacements were training on the job. • Councilmember Ranallo speculated that, as Councilmember Makowske had observed, "the community is so accustomed to such high quality service from the Public Works Department, that when there is even the slightest deviation, it is noticed right away" . Councilmember Makowske said the plows had obviously been out all night because when her husband took -his children to get their papers for delivering, he had been able to get right through, and the crews must have been working all Sunday night, because, as Mr. Childs had indicated, the roads filled in as fast as they were plowed that night. Councilmember Marks indicated the complaints he had received had related to the need to sand icy hills in his area. Stuart Bonniwell , CPA, - 3025 East 50th Street, Minneapolis, .who .had previously been associated with the Adrian Helgeson Company, was present to discuss his bid to do the City's audit now that he had gone on his own. In his December 13th memorandum, the Manager had indicated the quotes from the Helgeson firm and Mr. Bonniwell had been similar, but staff was recommending Mr. Bonniwell 's be accepted because he had promised to complete the audit in April , much sooner than the Helgeson firm had been doing, which had caused problems for the City in the past. Mr. Childs had also informed the Council that the Helgeson firm would not be opposing the transfer of the City's audit since Mr. Bonniwell had brought the account with him when he had moved from the George Hansen firm. The .Finance_Director:and J.Mr.-. Bonn: well answered questions pErta ning to_ tne change;. The CPA said he had been the primary auditor on the City's account with Helgeson and would be operating by himself in the new firm at first. As an addition to his _quote, Mr. Bonniwell said he would prepare the legal compliance letter now required • by the State Auditor for the 1985 audit. -7- When Councilmember Enrooth asked him whether he would be bonded, the applicant • indicated he carried professional liability insurance and said he knew of no other type of fidelity bond available to an auditing firm. Mr. Childs indicated the cities he had been associated with in the past had both firms and individuals doing their audits which he perceived had no effect on either their bond ratings or acceptability to the State Auditor. Mr. Bonniwell indicated he believed he had more experience doing municipal audits than the other bidder would have without him. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to appoint, Stuart Bonniwell , CPA, to do the 1985 City and H.R.A. audits for St. Anthony. Motion carried unanimously. Mrs. Johnson had- submitted a listing of the City's current investments as a reference for Council direction to staff regarding investment policy as applied to future bond proceeds., etc. Mr. Bonniwell provided input to that discussion. The general consensus was that the Finance Director should continue to follow a more careful , conservative approach to investing, because, as Mayor Sundland observed, "The City had neither the capacity or right to gamble with residents ' money". However, Councilmember Ranallo suggested, the funds could be moved around from one financial establishment to another whenever a higher rate was possible with no risk involved. Copies of Police Chief Don Hickerson' s December 16th recommendations related to the type of vehicles which his department should purchase were distributed and accepted • by the Mayor and Councilmembers in the following: Motion by Councilmember -Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to authorize the purchase through the Hennepin County Purchasing Consortium of two Celebrity Chevrolet vehicles at a cost of $11 ,276.64 per unit, to be used by the Police Department as marked squad cars. Motion carried unanimously. The Chief's December 16th recommendations to modify the City alarm ordinance to comply with mandated State licensing of alarm companies were also followed. Motion by Councilmember Ranallo and seconded by Councilmember Enrooth to approve the first reading of Ordinance 1985-004. ORDINANCE 1985-004 AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO ALARMS; AMENDING SECTION 540:25 b, REPEALING SECTIONS 450:25 d.l , 450:30 AND 450:35 a; AND AMENDING SECTION 450:35 b Motion carried unanimously. Copies of the Fire Department Medical .Director's November 19th and Firefighter Don Drusch' s November 17th memoranda recommending the purchase of the cardiac defibrillator equipment from Cardiac Resuscitator Corporation had been included • in the Council agenda packet. -8- Motion by- Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Ranallo to accept the • recommendations of staff to apply the $5,900 raised by the Fire Department towards the purchase of a Model 97 defibrillator/pacemaker Heart Aid from Cardiac Resus- citator and to use budgeted funds for the rest of the costs. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Makowske to adopt the resolution which accepts the proposal from Short-Elliott-Hendrickson, Inc. to maintain the 1985 MSA Fund account for 1986 at a cost not to exceed $2,000. RESOLUTION 85-055 A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE PROPOSAL FROM SHORT-ELLIOTT-HENDRICKSON, INC. FOR ADMINISTRATION AND MAINTENANCE OF CITY'S 1986 MSA FUNDS Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Councilmember Marks and seconded by Councilmember Enrooth to schedule a short Council meeting for 5:30 P.M. , December 23, 1985 to consider a final resolution relating to the issuance of housing revenue bonds for the Kenzie Terrace senior rental apartment project. Motion carried unanimously. • Motion by Councilmember Enrooth and seconded by Mayor Sundland to adjourn.the meeting at 9:25 P.M. for the Housing and Redevelopment Authority meeting which followed immediately. Motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted, Helen Crowe, Secretary ayo ATTEST: City Clerk