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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC MINUTES 060820212 rd 6 7 CITY OF ST. ANTHONY CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING MINUTES JUNE 8, 2021 CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Stille called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 9 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 10 11 Mayor Stille invited the Council and audience to join him in the Pledge of Allegiance. 12 13 ROLL CALL. 14 15 Present: 16 Absent: 17 Also Present: 18 19 20 21 CONSIDERATION, DISCUSSION, AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON ALL OF THE FOLLOWING 22 ITEMS. 23 24 I. 25 26 27 28 29 Mayor Stille, Councilmembers Jenson, Randle, Walker and Webster. None City Manager Charlie Yunker, Kiwanis President Linda Foster and District Engagement Coordinator Bonnie Brever. 30 II. 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 APPROVAL OF JUNE 8, 2021 CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA. Motion by Councilmember Randle, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve the City Council Meeting Agenda of June 8, 2021 as presented. Motion carried 5-0. PROCLAMATIONS AND RECOGNITIONS. A. Welcome Initiative Presentation Ms. Bonnie Brever, District Engagement Coordinator, St. Anthony -New Brighton School District and Ms. Linda Foster appeared before the City Council. Ms. Brever stated this is the latest initiative in cooperation with the Kiwanis to welcome new residents to the City. A task force was formed and meetings were held. She showed a bag that was available from Community Services. The flip book provides important information to people moving into the City. This includes a calendar of events that are schedule specific. Ms. Foster spoke about the protect DNA information to be included in the bag. The Police Department or Kiwanis have additional copies of the DNA information. Seventy-five bags have already been distributed. Thirty more bags will be delivered shortly along with some additional information next week. The names used are coming from the City water utility. They are wondering how to reach apartment residents and one suggestion is to contact the apartment management. VillageFest will host a new resident mixer on August 7 from 4:00 — 5:00 p.m. They invited new members to join the Kiwanis. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 8, 2021 Page 2 Councilmember Randle commended Bonnie and Linda on a great job. He does not know if apartment managers would be willing to give out the names of new residents but they could assist with the distribution of information. Mayor Stille suggested individual house rentals could be contacted by using the rental permits issued by the City. Mayor Stille asked how often the distribution is done. Ms. Brever stated the 30 that will be distributed next week will cover January — March. Ms. Brever stated they try to distribute the information each quarter. 10 Councilmember Webster thanked Ms. Brever and Ms. Foster for their efforts on this and for 11 leading the Kiwanis organization. 12 13 I11. CONSENT AGENDA. 14 15 A. Approve May 25, 2021, Council meeting minutes. 16 B. Licenses and permits. 17 C. Claims. 18 19 Motion by Councilmember Webster, seconded by Councilmember Jenson, to approve the 20 Consent Agenda items. 21 22 Councilmember Walker stated at the last meeting, he and the Mayor made comments about 23 COVID and the low infection rate that is seen now. He wanted to clarify the comments he made 24 about the various vaccines and issues of infection about COVID. He strongly recommends that 25 St. Anthony Villagers get the vaccines that are available as they are very effective. The current 26 infection rate is lower than it was in March 2020. Clearly the numbers speak for themselves and 27 this is a result of the vaccine. His comments did not reflect the comments he made about 28 infection for fully vaccinated people. At the last meeting, Councilmembers made the comment 29 that what the CDC reports, the approved vaccines Moderna, Pfizer and J&J prevent sickness and 30 destroy and shorten the viability of the Corona viral particles that may exist and harbor in fully 31 vaccinated people. Fully vaccinated people can still carry the virus, and thus potentially infect 32 others but the chances of this happening is very low as the viral particles do not last very long in 33 fully vaccinated people. The possibility is there particularly for non -vaccinated people who are 34 immune compromised. Those that are fully vaccinated should not be cavalier about the vaccine, 35 while the possibility of infection is low, the virus can be transferred to others for brief periods of 36 time depending on the duration of the exposure, the immune system and how much the virus is 37 within a given community. He stated we do well to respect the virus given the CDC guidelines 38 and this is a clarification of what was said at the last meeting. The minutes do not need to be 39 revised as this is just a clarification of what Councilmember Walker wanted to say. 40 41 Motion carried 5-0. 42 43 IV. PUBLIC HEARING - NONE. 44 45 V. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION AND STAFF — NONE. 46 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 8, 2021 Page 3 1 VI. GENERAL BUSINESS OF COUNCIL. 2 3 A. Resolution 21-053, a Resolution Approving the Professional Services Agreement with 4 WSB for Engineering Services. 6 City Manager Yunker reviewed WSB has served the City of Saint Anthony for many years 7 fulfilling the engineering needs for the City. They are a third -party contractor, and they work 8 closely with and along -side City staff representing the City and serving all residents of Saint 9 Anthony Village. Through discussions with WSB on current and upcoming needs of the City and 10 the Public Works Department, WSB recommended moving to a Retainer Services Contract 11 arrangement. This would allow for the City Engineer to dedicate set hours to the City each week 12 (in this case a proposed 8 hours) and be physically on-site to assist more in areas such as 13 department operations, long-term planning and addressing resident needs. 14 15 The City has learned through its other collaborative relationships that time on-site with partners 16 greatly improves the delivery of services and relationship building among the team. Thus, our 17 experience has shown that this arrangement will lead to an even stronger department and City in 18 this area. 19 20 The Retainer Services Contract will increase the number of hours that Mr. Messner is working 21 for the City, while also reducing the hourly rate the City is charged for Mr. Messner's time. As a 22 result, the City should not see a change in the engineering costs, and depending on workload, 23 may see a slight reduction in costs. 24 25 This contract arrangement can be reviewed annually, and the number of hours contracted can be 26 adjusted based on the City's needs. Staff recommends approval of the Retainer Services 27 Contract with WSB Engineering and make the contract effective July 1, 2021. The WSB 28 Proposal Letter and Retainer Contract were provided for Council review. The expense to the City 29 should be about the same as previous years. 30 31 Councilmember Jenson stated the approach to having someone dedicated on-site would be a 32 good idea for planning meetings and given the flexibility for re-evaluating the number of hours, 33 would benefit the City. 34 35 Councilmember Webster stated she agrees with Councilmember Jenson and this would be a win - 36 win for the City. Mr. Messner has provided his engineering knowledge to the City and dedication 37 and is involved in goal setting. This is a budget neutral position and would benefit from him 38 being present at the City. She supports this proposal. 39 40 Councilmember Randle stated he supports the proposal. 41 42 Mayor Stille asked about the agreement and the fee structure shown on page 26. What happens if 43 more than 8 hours a week are spent. Mr. Messner stated the rate is $125/hour within the contract. 44 Mayor Stille stated this makes sense, and let the engineer do engineering. He commended Mr. 45 Yunker for putting this together. 46 4 G9 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 8, 2021 Page 4 Motion by Councilmember Walker, seconded by Councilmember Webster, to adopt Resolution 21-053 a Resolution Approving the Professional Services Agreement with WSB for Engineering Services. Motion carried 5-0. VII. REPORTS FROM CITY MANAGER AND COUNCIL MEMBERS. City Manager Yunker stated he had no report. Councilmember Randle stated on May 26, he and Mayor Stille met with the faith leadership of St. Anthony Village. There was fruitful conversation that came from that meeting. We all have a role to play within the community. It was a learning experience. Councilmember Walker stated on June 7, he met with Comcast representatives regarding communication lift zones within communities. This would be a three-year agreement. The lift zones in St. Anthony could be in a church or community center. The City would be a conduit to get these set up in St. Anthony. The representative will get back to the City. Mr. Yunker stated schools are not eligible but the community services would. Councilmember Webster stated as the liaison to the VillageFest Committee, they continue to meeting getting prepared for the August 7, 2021 weekend. She commended the work of the Kiwanis. Chad Gillard is the Villager of the Year and The Legacy of St. Anthony is the Business of the Year. May 15 she and Councilmember Jenson attended Coffee with the Council. On May 19-20-21, she attended the GARE Annual Meeting virtually. There were over 1000 attendees from across the United States. There were a number of helpful sessions. On May 24, she needed some medical assistance and thanked Jon Schlingman, Mattie Jaros, and Chris Fuller of the St. Anthony Police and Fire Departments. Today she attended a webinar titled Public Health Pathways for Preventing Violence. Next week she is scheduled to attend a webinar sponsored by the US Census Bureau. Councilmember Jenson stated on May 27, there was a COVID vaccination event at the Community Center, the Kiwanis helped welcome and guide residents through the process and he was one of those that worked. Last Friday, he attended the Ramsey County Local Governments Executive Committee meeting. There will be a Safety presentation at this Friday's meeting. Mayor Stille stated on May 26, he attended the meeting with the faith leaders. He has wanted to do this for some time. He mentioned the churches that were invited. They discussed goals, aspirations, and responsibilities. It is a benefit to knowing who the faith leaders are in the community. They met for an hour and got to know each other. Councilmember Walker asked if the meeting was recorded and stated it sounds very interesting. Councilmember Randle stated without it being televised they could have a frank discussion and this was the best way to handle the discussion. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 8, 2021 Page 5 VIII. COMMUNITY FORUM. Mayor Stille invited residents to come forward at this time and address the Council on items that are not on the regular agenda. IX. INFORMATION AND ANNOUNCEMENTS — NONE. X. ADJOURNMENT. Mayor Stille adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Wolfe TimeSaver Off Site Secretarial, Inc. ATTEST: v ' City Cfflerk