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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Minutes 12-10-1997 SpecialAdopted Minutes Special Council Meeting December 10, 1997 A special meeting of the Plymouth City Council was called to order by Mayor Tierney at 7:00 PM, in the Public Safety Training Room, 3400 Plymouth Blvd., on December 10, 1997. COUNCIL PRESENT: Mayor Tierney; Councilmembers Wold, Johnson, Preus, and Spigner. Councilmember Bildsoe arrived at 7:05 PM; Councilmember Black arrived at 7:30 PM. ABSENT: None. STAFF PRESENT: City Manager Johnson, Assistant City Manager Lueckert, Human Resources Manager Sobania, Public Works Director Moore, Civil Engineer Nummer, Community Development Director Hurlburt, Park Director Blank, Public Safety Director Gerdes, Finance Director Hahn, Financial Analyst Kohn, City Attorney Knutson, and Deputy City Clerk Hoffman. Motion was made by Councilmember Wold, seconded by Councilmember Preus to address Agenda Items 2 and 3 in reverse order, in order to accommodate members of the public at the meeting. Motion carried, four ayes. Item 1 Street Assessment Policies Public Works Director Moore explained the three methods of how street assessments were calculated based on land use. He said that staff has adapted the formulas used in single family and industrial developments, and is now recommending application of similar formulas to multiple family housing, creating a per unit assessment rate. Public Works Director Moore said that on a per unit basis there was slightly less traffic at multifamily property. He said staff could not come to any firm conclusions using federal statistics on traffic in multifamily housing. Staff looked at overall traffic factors, in an effort to compare street usage to that for single family housing. Public Works Director Moore said a public hearing had not yet been held to obtain public comment on the impact of the assessment policy. He introduced Mark Milberger and Mitch Rotenberg, citizen members of the City's street assessment subcommittee. Mark Milberger said he was concerned that the proposed revisions don't fully address what the subcommittee was established to do. He said some elements of Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 2 the street assessment policy have not been addressed accurately and said he was concerned that the Council may approve the revised street assessment policy when not all the details are resolved. Councilmember Preus said the Council should act on the recommendation for multifamily housing assessment and then consider the bigger issues brought up for study by the subcommittee. Motion was made by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Councilmember Spigner, to direct staff to prepare a resolution amending the special assessment policy as it pertains to multifamily parcels. Councilmember Johnson said staff had done a great job in addressing issues of assessing multifamily housing. She asked Mitch Rotenberg how the costs of a larger assessment would be passed down to multifamily housing residents. He responded that rents are set based on costs and expenses to the property, and divided and put forth to renters. He said that without further study he could not say whether a large assessment would raise rent. Motion carried, six ayes (Black absent). Councilmembers discussed devoting a study session to the comprehensive study of the City's assessment policy. Councilmember Preus supported a study session dedicated to gaining an explanation of the policy and how it works and a discussion of whether there should be improvements to it. Councilmember Wold said while he appreciated the concern that brought it to the full council, it did not do the issue justice to put it on an agenda with other items. He said the Council must decide between longer meetings to discuss issues or more study sessions to focus on an issue. Mark Milberger said that given the complexity of the issues around the policy, it was not realistic to tackle in a short session. He said there was a need for citizen participation in the study, if participants can demonstrate impartiality in any specific projects. Councilmember Bildsoe stated he was comfortable with the way assessments were calculated today. He said if the Council studies the issue further, it should be in terms of plans for roads over the next ten years. He supported fine tuning the formula to deal with multifamily housing issues, but not to rework the entire Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 3 policy. He believed the issue should be addressed by the entire council, rather than a subcommittee. Councilmember Johnson suggested that Councilmembers contact staff for clarifications instead of spending a full session on debating discussed by subcommittees. Mark Milberger said he believed Councilmembers would not be able to adequately grasp the complexities of the policy to enact what's necessary to do it justice. He said residents complain about the policy every year. He thought part of the reason for establishing a subcommittee was to study the policy so the Council would not have to constantly revisit it. Councilmember Preus said there are three options: to proceed and revisit the policy as needed; to have a study session and analyze whether changes may be needed; or to form a subcommittee to analyze the policy and advise the Council. Councilmember Black arrived at 7:30 PM. Motion was made by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Councilmember Spigner to dedicate a study session before June solely to reviewing the street assessment policy, and further to invite citizen members of the street assessment subcommittee to attend to provide pertinent information. Motion carried, six ayes; Councilmember Black abstained. Item 3 Status of Labor Negotiations Manager Johnson reported he had a discussion with the City Attorney on this topic earlier in the day. He said the City Attorney recommended caution in the discussion, and that the Council and staff should not have a negotiating session outside the bargaining team. Kurt Errickson, representative for the Plymouth Maintenance Workers, AFSCME Local 3445 said union members are concerned about the use of Sentence to Serve workers and ICWC workers, two work release programs, and that they have been unable to reach a meeting of minds with the City labor management team on this issue. He said the union had concerns that the work release people should not be assigned where children are playing, such as the Plymouth Ice Arena, hockey rinks and parks. He said union members are also concerned that some of the work that has been done is taking away overtime work opportunities for union workers. He said the failure to come to a resolution regarding the issue is creating a breakdown in communications between negotiation teams and a breakdown in the trust and respect between the teams. Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 4 Mark Milberger asked to address the Council. Mayor Tierney ruled that Mr. Milberger could make a brief comment, following which no further comments would be recognized. Councilmember Spigner asked about the rules of order in allowing public comment on the issue. She said if the members of the public are permitted to ask questions and participate in the discussion, some sort of procedure must be followed. She said she has a number of issues to discuss, but questioned whether this was the appropriate forum to discuss them. Motion was made by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Councilmember Wold, to appeal the ruling of the chair that would allow public comment. Motion carried, Councilmembers Spigner, Bildsoe, Wold, and Johnson aye; Councilmembers Black, Preus, and Mayor Tierney nay. Mark Milberger again asked to speak. He stated his objection to the Council's action on the motion. Councilmember Spigner expressed concern about further discussion of the issues because negotiations are underway. Mayor Tierney asked Human Resources Manager Sobania if there is a time when the union members could come before the council for discussion. Manager Sobania responded that the appropriateness of discussion would depend on the issue. Mayor Tierney suggested that the City Attorney should advise on an appropriate time for discussion. Motion was made by Councilmember Wold, seconded by Councilmember Johnson to suspend the rules and move to Agenda Item 2. Motion carried, seven ayes. Item 2 "All -Way" Stop Sign Policy Public Works Director Moore reviewed the moratorium on carrying out the all -way" stop sign policy. He said staff has created a proposed grading system for residential stop sign requests based on a point system from the City of Lakeville. Plymouth staff applied the proposed system to six different intersections. He recognized Robert Hall in the audience. Director Moore said the proposed policy would not apply to Gleason Lake Drive, a major collector street, which was an intersection that concerned Mr. Hall. Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 5 Public Works Director Moore outlined how the Plymouth intersections scored under the proposed system. He explained the changes that Plymouth staff recommended on how grading was done, or to adopt a little different break due to sight distances. He said of the six intersections analyzed in Plymouth, two would be recommended for no change with a review in one year, and four would be justified for placement of "all -way" stop signs. Councilmembers asked about scoring points for petitioners who live within 500 to 700 feet of the intersection. Public Works Director Moore said this would be incorporated into the policy by scoring the percentage of residents affected. He stated that other scoring factors were sight distance determinations, and speed factors on the intersecting streets. He said these were all scoring considerations, and would only contribute to the totals on the scoring system, and would not act as deciding factors. Public Works Director Moore said exact language in the policy was not needed at this meeting, simply direction from the Council for staff to proceed to develop a policy. Motion by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Councilmember Black to direct staff to prepare an "all -way" stop sign policy for the city, based on the Lakeville City stop sign policy as modified with further consideration given to the influence of corner residents, pedestrian generated intersection traffic, and telescoped speed breaks. Councilmember Bildsoe thanked Councilmember Johnson for getting the information regarding the Lakeville stop sign policy, and he thanked Public Works Director Moore for listening to Councilmembers and following their direction. Motion carried, seven ayes. Return to Item 3 Labor Negotiations Update Motion was made by Councilmember Wold, seconded by Councilmember Johnson, to close the meeting to the public at 8:25 PM. Motion carried, seven ayes. Mayor Tierney reopened the meeting to the public at 9:28 PM. Item 4 Status of City Reserve Funds Finance Director Hahn presented Finance Department analysis tracking five of the city's reserve funds over the next 25 years. He said the City does not have the cash reserves it had a few years ago, and officials need to pay attention to future Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 6 equipment repairs, replacement of equipment and demand services and facilities made by growth in the city. Item 5 Council Training & Conference Budget Councilmember Johnson presented a table of 1997 travel conference and workshop expenditures she said she had asked Finance Director Hahn to prepare. She asked Councilmembers for a discussion about which 1998 activities they might be interested in attending and budgeting for those activities. Motion was made by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Mayor Tierney to take $2,500 out of contingency funds to add to the Council travel and conference budget, creating a line item for 1998 Council travel and conference spending in the amount of $5,000. Councilmember Johnson said that $5,000 would be an ample amount for Councilmembers to take advantage of expenses at conferences and workshops. She said that if any unused money would go back into unused surplus contingency accounts. Mayor Tierney said she strongly encouraged Councilmembers to attend some of the local and national conferences available to them not only for educational purposes, but also for the opportunity to lobby state and national legislative members regarding issues that affect local city operations. Councilmember Wold stated he thought Councilmembers would examine other options such as the City payment for meals at functions such as TwinWest Chamber of Commerce gatherings, as a gesture to groups like TwinWest. He said 2,500 sounds arbitrary, and expressed discomfort with it. He said the Council should develop in advance plans for what Councilmembers would attend and participate in. Councilmember Johnson stated that she was in favor of polling Councilmembers about what activities they would like to attend ahead of time. She said she did not get a clear response. Councilmember Bildsoe said he felt the focus had changed from how much would be spent on conference attendance and travel to which programs might be important to the Council. Councilmember Wold said it was important to get a handle on it before setting a budget number. Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 7 Councilmember Black said she knew which conferences she intended to attend. The qualifying factor for her was the availability of making the time to attend. Mayor Tierney said she would like Councilmembers reimbursed for expenses in attending functions such as TwinWest and Municipal Legislative Commission activities. Manager Johnson said the proposed policy would allow greater consideration for what is reimbursable for Councilmembers, as it is already for other City employees. Finance Director Hahn said reimbursement for some expenses may need clarification from the City Attorney's office. He said it may be considered additional compensation and be taxed as income. Councilmember Preus said the problem again is not looking ahead to see what would benefit the City. He said he would like the Council to go back to study the travel and conference attendance as a policy issue. He said the staff memo lists conference and meeting items but had no correlation to budgeted amount. Manager Johnson said attendance at a local conference or meeting would need to have a clear public benefit. He said if an event came up, Councilmembers would not need prior Council approval, but could submit for reimbursement after attending, if they stayed within the one third spending guidelines. Councilmember Bildsoe said he would like to have a list of what is available for Council to attend, what the events cost, and allow Councilmembers to state what programs they are interested in attending, in order to get a better idea of what will be spent. Mayor Tierney said that there are so many opportunities all over metro area that it would be difficult to list in advance. She recommended Councilmembers make plans to attend a conference or workshop, and then submit requests for reimbursement of the registration expenses. Councilmember Black said that she would not submit claims to reimburse her costs for meeting luncheons and breakfasts, but that she considered conference registration a different matter. Motion was made by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Mayor Tierney to amend the motion to include in the policy a list of various specific conferences the Council may consider to attend, and to follow the policy guidelines set for other city employees. Adopted City Council Minutes December 10, 1997 Page 8 Amendment passed, Mayor Tierney, Councilmembers Johnson and Bildsoe aye; Councilmember Preus and Wold nay; Councilmembers Spigner and Black abstained. Councilmember Spigner said she would vote against the resolution only because she wanted a further study of what conferences or workshops might merit attending. Motion was made by Councilmember Preus, seconded by Councilmember Wold to call the question. Motion carried, Councilmembers Black, Preus, Spigner, and Wold aye; Mayor Tierney, Councilmembers Bildsoe and Johnson, nay. Main Motion failed, Mayor Tierney, Councilmember Johnson aye; Councilmembers Bildsoe, Black, Preus, Spigner, and Wold nay. Motion was made by Councilmember Johnson, seconded by Mayor Tierney to set the Council conference and travel budget at $4,500. Motion failed: Mayor Tierney and Councilmember Johnson ayes; Councilmembers Bildsoe, Black, Preus, Spigner, and Wold nays. Motion was made by Councilmember Wold, seconded by Councilmember Preus, to adjourn the meeting at 10:25 PM. Motion carried, six ayes, Councilmember Johnson nay. Kurt Hoff Deputy City Clerk