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2024-04-09 CC Meeting MinutesMOUND CITY COUNCIL MINUTES April 9, 2024 The City Council of the City of Mound, Hennepin County, Minnesota, met in regular session on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers in the Centennial Building. Members present: Mayor Jason Holt, Council Members, Sherrie Pugh, Paula Larson, Kathy McEnaney and Kevin Castellano. Members absent: None Others present: City Manager Jesse Dickson, City Attorney Scott Landsman, Deputy City Manager Maggie Reisdorf, City Engineer Matt Bauman, Sergeant Colin Hennessy. Consent agenda: All items listed under the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine in nature by the Council. There will be no separate discussion on these items unless a Councilmember or citizen so requests, in which event it will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in normal sequence. 1. Open meeting Mayor Holt called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Approve agenda Mayor Holt provided an update on the technical language amendment needed on the previously allocated bonding bill funds for the City's Water Treatment Plant stating that the corrected language was passed by the Minnesota House recently and will be going next to the Minnesota Senate. Once passed, Holt expressed hope to be able to start using the 10.3 million for Water Treatment Plant planning and design. MOTION by CM Pugh, seconded by CM Castellano, to approve the agenda. All voted in favor. Motion carried. 4. Consent agenda CM McEnaney asked that item C. under the consent agenda be pulled for discussion. MOTION by Castellano, seconded by Pugh, to approve the consent agenda as amended. Upon roll call vote, all voted in favor. Motion carried. A. Approve payment of claims. B. Approve minutes: March 26, 2024 Regular City Council Meeting CM McEnaney asked why the Programmatic Maintenance Agreement was drafted. Baumann stated that as part of some upcoming land development activity, that triggered the requirement of the city entering into an agreement with the Minnehaha Watershed District. Baumann informed that the agreement establishes guidelines and obligations related to ongoing storm water maintenance and management of facilities established as part of the projects. Mound City Council Minutes MOTION by Castellano, seconded by McEnaney, to approve the consent agenda item C. All voted in favor. Motion carried. RESOLUTION 24-27: Resolution Approving Programmatic Maintenance Agreement with Minnehaha Creek Watershed District for Storm water Management and Wetland Protection. 5. Comments and suggestions from citizens present on any item not on the agenda. No one came forward. 6. Orono Police Department Activity Report for March 2024 Sergeant Colin Hennessy, presented the March Activity Report and acknowledged that the report did not include redactions this time. Hennessy said there has been lower calls in general for this time of year compared to last year. Hennessy said there has been more thefts and mental health calls. It stated that is normal for this time of year. Hennessy reminded the the community to keep valuables in vehicles out of site and to lock doors. CM Castellano asked if the Orono Police Department was fully staffed at this time. Hennessy stated that the department is currently fully staffed and is looking for a "plus 1 ". He explained that the have received a grant recently as well to add a canine to the department. He said retention has been good and that generally employees have been happy working there. 7. 2024 Lift Station Improvements — Bid Review & Approval Baumann presented this item to the City Council. He Informed that bids were solicited for the 2024 Lift Station Improvements Project and that bids were due by and opened on April 2, 2024. Baumann informed that the city received nine bids for the project ranging from $635,991.47 at the highest and $399,681.23 at the lowest. He informed that the low bidder was from Widmer Construction. He said that they are a responsible contractor and recommended approval of their bid. Baumann explained that overall the low bid came in $160,000 less than the engineer's estimate. He recommended approval of the resolution in the packet that would award to contract to Widmer Construction. CM Castellano asked how many Lift Station projects were left after this one. Baumann stated that tere are three full reconstructions and one rehabilitation left. MOTION by Castellano, seconded by McEnaney, to approve the following resolution. All voted in favor. Motion carried. RESOLUTION 24-28: Resolution Accepting Bid for 2024 Lift Station Improvements: City Project No. PW-24-3. 8. Statutory City Plan A/Plan B Memorandum & Discussion Dickson introduced this item to the City Council. He stated that at the March 26th City Council meeting, that the City Council directed staff to finalize and notice an ordinance that would create a licensing Mound City Council Minutes system for motorized watercraft rentals within the City of Mound. He stated that staff was directed to bring back a resolution with a fee for the annual license as well. Dickson informed that the only change that he made to the draft ordinance document presented at the March 26th meeting was to the definition of "vehicle", stating that it now included that the vehicle had to be registered with the State of Minnesota to operate within the public right-of-way. Dickson stated that included resolution includes the addition of the licensing fee of $200. Dickson recommended approval of both the ordinance and resolution. Dickson stated that after approval, the ordinance would get published in the paper and the city would then send out letters to businesses informing them of the new license requirement. CM McEnaney expressed concern about the current businesses operating within the city and business locations in the city, with city approved conditional use permits (CUP), paying the $200 fee. She informed that these businesses already pay taxes within the city and therefore would like to discuss exempting fees for these businesses. Landsman stated that it is possible, but that it would take some researching and thought into how it would be structured and implemented. Dickson stated that there are three businesses that would fit this category as a local business operating with this license. He recommended being careful about accidentally creating a loophole that outside businesses could use, therefore defeating the purpose. CM McEnaney informed that she goes back and forth and just wanted to open it up for discussion. CM Castellano stated that he thought having a fee at $200 for everyone was fine. Landsman informed again that waiving the fee could be an option, but that it would time some time and consideration to think through what that would look. He said that at previous meetings, the City Council's goal was to at least cover staff administration fees with the $200. Landsman stated that within the ordinance he had made some changes, since the draft version, related to the "basis for denial" section. MOTION by Castellano, seconded by McEnaney, to approve the following Ordinance. All voted in favor. Motion carried. ORDINANCE 04-2024: An Ordinance Amending Chapter 38: Licenses, Permits, and Miscellaneous Business Regulations. MOTION by Castellano, seconded by McEnaney, to approve the following Resolution. All voted in favor. Motion carried. RESOLUTION 24-29: Resolution Amending Fee Schedule for 2024 Dickson referenced a letter within the packet from the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District (LMCD) about their ongoing efforts with regards to watercraft licensing on Lake Minnetonka. He stated that LMCD would appreciate feedback and comments and that eventually will be looking for a letter from the City of Mound by the end of April on the topic. Mound City Council Minutes 9. Storm Sewer Rate Study Reisdorf presented this item to the City Council. She stated that since the middle of 2023, the City has been working with a financial advisor, Ehlers, on a Long Range Financial Plan and a Water and Sewer Rate Study. She informed that within the packet, there is a timeline of the discussions related to those documents. Reisdorf informed that over the past several months, staff has been working with Ehlers on gathering, prepping and reviewing data for both documents and that they are highly interconnected. She stated that staff has been working on financial items such as capital project planning, debt review, operation costs and getting all funds in a healthy place. Reisdorf stated that the goal is to have drafts of these documents to the City Council at a workshop session at the beginning of May. Reisdorf explained that she wanted to bring some items to the City Council's attention before that meeting as there may need to be some discussion and decision making with regards to those documents before the initial review. Reisdorf informed the City Council that within the draft Long Range Financial Plan, the document is reflecting about a 1-2% general levy for storm water capital projects. She stated that best practice, long term, is for enterprise funds to support themselves through user fees and not tax levy. She recognized that there were decisions made by past City Councils to structure it this way, but recommended taking steps to remove this from the general levy. Reisdorf went into detail about deficits within the water and storm water funds. She informed that the more and more staff work through the data for these documents, that there is more understanding on future financial planning and needs. Reisdorf informed that as part of getting the storm water capital costs off the general levy, she recommended that the City Council consider again whether doing the storm water rate study would be helpful. She said that she was respectful of the decision made last year to not move forward with this part of the rate study, but wanted to bring it up one more time as she didn't realize that the storm water was being supported by the general levy. Reisdorf informed that the City Council could decide to keep the capital costs on the general levy if the wanted to. She explained that no matter what, storm water fees would have to change. She said that staff could do an internal analysis to get the $1.775 million storm water fund deficit healthy again, but that a storm water rate study would provide a more comprehensive look into rates and provide an outcome of rates that are more equitable. The City Council discussed the option of having staff do an internal review and draft of what a storm water fee structure could be. Reisdorf stated that it is possible for staff to draft rates for the storm water fund, but that it wouldn't include a deeper analysis on property types and sizes. She informed that the rates would be based mostly on getting the fund out of the negative instead of an equitable approach based on what properties produce as far as storm water runoff. The City Council agreed that it is hard to make a decision without seeing how things are looking currently for both the Long Range Financial Plan and the Utility Rate Study. Reisdorf agreed that it made sense to bring the current draft versions of the documents to the City Council for review and discussion and then continue the discussion on whether a storm water rates study makes sense. Reisdorf stated that she would work with the Financial Advisor to get something scheduled for the end of April or early May. Mound City Council Minutes 10. Comments/ Reports from Council member Council Member Pugh — Informed that the Gillespie Center is running under their new leadership and that things are going well. She informed that two nearby grocery stores are now donating bread and some meat five days a week to the Gillespie Center's bread shelf. CM Pugh recommended that the City Council contact the County Commissioners on getting temporary library locations established while the new library is under construction. She said many people use the computers and maintaining that access is important. Council Member Larson — Nothing. Council Member McEnaney — Informed that the Gillespie Center has been putting great effort into more fundraisers and that there are several coming up. Informed that the Planning Commission is going to wait to consider changing their meeting to 6 pm until they see how it goes for the City Council. Council Member Castellano — Nothing. Mayor Holt — Informed that he would like to have a workshop to talk about the City owned Centennial Building to determine whether it makes sense for the City to consider selling the property. The City Council agreed to do a workshop on this item. The City Council agreed to discuss city properties in general. CM Pugh stated that caution needs to be taken when talking about selling City property and that there needs to be standards in place at to decide how and when property should be sold. She stated that the city cannot just sell everything. Mayor Holt informed that reviewed the status of the City Council 2024 goals. He stated that he was happy to see progress made on many of the goals already at the beginning of the year. Mayor Holt informed that he has a recent meeting with the Boys and Girls Club and was informed on their current initiatives in the area to get programs going for the summer. 13. Information/Miscellaneous A. Comments/reports from staff/City Manager: Dickson informed that at the April 23 City Council Workshop, the Fire Chief will being doing a presentation on the future needs and structure of the Mound Fire Department. He said this will include things like staff retainage, support, etc. Dickson informed that Hennepin County Commissioner Anderson would be attending the April 23, 2024 City Council meeting. Dickson provided a quick review of the proposed signage at Surfside Park related to the watercraft licensing and operations that will go into effect. B. Reports: Liquor Store Report. C. Minutes: D. Correspondence: Met Council Commissioner Carter: March 2023 Update 14. Adjourn MOTION by CM Castellano, seconded by CM McEnaney, to adjourn at 8:24 p.m. All voted in favor. Motion carried. 1 Attes . evin Kelly, rk Mayor Jason R. Holt