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2011-02-15 City Council minutesi February 15, 2011 Page 1 CITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS DAKOTA COUNTY STATE OF MINNESOTA Minutes of the Regular Meeting Held Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the regular meeting of the City Council, City of Mendota Heights, Minnesota was held at 7:00 p.m. at City Hail, 1101 Victoria Curve, Mendota Heights, Mimnesota. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Krebsbach called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and noted this would be the first meeting of 2011 with all councilmembers present and expressed she looked forward to working with all of them. The following members were present: Councilmembers Duggan, Povolny, Petschel and Vitelli. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Council, the audience and staff recited the Pledge of Allegiance. AGENDA ADOPTION Mayor Krebsbach presented the agenda for adoption as presented. Councilmember Duggan raised concerns regarding item b. in Unfinished and New Business: No Parking Zone on Delaware Avenue and questioned whether the roads Delaware and Dodd intersected. Public Works Director Mazzitello explained near the northern boundary of the city Dodd and Delaware do intersect. Councilmember Vitelli moved adoption of the agenda as presented. Ayes: 5 Councilmember Povolny seconded the motion. Nays: 0 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Councilmember Petschel moved approval of the minutes of the regular meeting held on February 1, 2011. Ayes: 3 Councilmember Duggan seconded the motion. Nays: 0 Abstained: Vitelli, Duggan CONSENT CALENDAR Mayor Krebsbach presented the consent calendar and explained the procedure for discussion and approval. Councilmember Duggan moved approval of the consent calendar as presented and authorization for execution of any necessary doctuments contained therein, pulling Items h. Acceptance of Resignation of Fire Marshal Paul Kaiser Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 February 15, 2011 Page 2 and Authorize Replacement, j. Approval of Accounting Clerk Position, k. Approval of "AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5, CHAPTER 3 OF THE CITY CODE PERTAINING TO DOG LICENSING" and 1. Approval of "RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE OUTDOOR WARNING SIREN SYSTEM NARROW BANDING PLAN for further discussion. a. Acknowledgement of the NDC4 Meeting Minutes and Agenda b. Approval of the January 2011 Monthly Fire Report c. Approval of Engineering Intern Position d. Approval of 2011 Fire Department Instructors Conference e. Approval of Renewal of JPA for Traffic Markings, Street Sweeping, Cracksealing, Screening and Sealcoating f. Approval of Sign Permit for 788 Highway 110 (Saint Croix Cleaners) g. Approval of Tobacco License for Walgreens h. Acceptance of Resignation of Fire Marshal Paul Kaiser and Authorize Replacement i. Approval to Begin the Re -hire and Recruitment Process for Spring /Summer 2011 Parks and Recreational and Public Works Part-Time Seasonal Employees j. Approval of Accounting Clerk Position k. Approval of "AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5, CHAPTER 3 OF THE CITY CODE PERTAINING TO DOG LICENSING" 1. Approval of "RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE OUTDOOR WARNING SIREN SYSTEM NARROW BANDING PLAN" in. Approval of the Contractors List n. Approval of the Claims List dated February 15, 2011 totaling $154,808.45 Cowicilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. ACCEPTANCE OF RESIGNATION Mayor Krebsbach stated it is with regret we accept OF FIRE MARSHAL PAUL KAISER the resignation of Fire Marshal Paul Kaiser who has served AND AUTHORIZE REPLACEMENT the city as a consultant since 1985 and has done an outstanding job. February 15, 2011 Page 3 City Administrator McKnight added he met with the Fire Chief and the Public Works Director to discuss whether they would replace Mr. Kaiser as an independent contractor or as an employee to which no decision has been made to date. Councilmember Duggan moved approval to Accept Resignation of Fire Marshal Paul Kaiser and Authorize Replacement as presented. Ayes: 5 Councilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. Nays: 0 APPROVAL OF ACCOUNTING Finance Director Schabacker stated due to the promotion CLERK POSITION of Sandie Thone to City Cleric the Accoumting Clerk position became available. Ms. Schabacker stated they received over 50 applicants for the position, interviewing eight candidates initially and bringing back three for a second interview. Staff recommends hiring Charlotte Stockstead for the position of Accounting Clerk. Ms. Schabacker continued Ms. Stockstead is a graduate of The University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management and comes highly recommended by her supervisor at the City of Falcon Heights, where she is currently an intern in the finance department. Councilmember Duggan moved approval of Accounting Clerk Position as presented. Ayes: 5 Councilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. Nays: 0 APPROVAL OF AN ORDINANCE City Clerk Thone stated two minor changes had been AMENDING TITLE 5, CHAPTER 3 made to the Dog Licensing requirements and noted the OF THE CITY CODE PERTAINING one year licensing period proposed of January 1 through TO DOG LICENSING December 31 would replace the existing period of June 1 through May 31. Ms. Thone continued all current dog licenses would be valid until December 31, 2011 at which time they would be up for renewal for the updated licensing period. City Cleric Thone stated the second proposed change to the licensing process relates to the change in ownership. Ms. Thone explained the code language currently states a transfer fee is required with regard to a change in ownership and the practice was outdated and not a true Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE OUTDOOR WARNING SIREN SYSTEM NARROW BANDING PLAN Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 PUBLIC COMMENTS UNFINISHED AND NEW BUSINESS February 15, 2011 Page 4 reflection of current processes therefore the language was updated to reflect the current process. Councilmember Duggan moved approval of "AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 5, CHAPTER 3 OF THE CITY CODE PERTAINING TO DOG LICENSING" as presented. Councilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. Chief Aschenbrener stated the resolution's purpose is to upgrade the radios inside the outdoor warning sirens in the city for FCC compliance before the compliance deadline in 2013. Mr. Aschenbrener explained three of the city's sirens are extremely old and will be replaced and two will be upgraded before storm season this spring and that all will be narrow band compliant. By passing the resolution we may accept grant money available in efforts to upgrade all sirens to narrow band compliance in Dakota County. Councilmember Duggan inquired with regard to the sirens we proposed replacing if we would be getting the latest type of siren. Mr. Aschenbrener explained the goal is to replace the existing sirens with the current state of the art technology two way comrnunication.process which creates a detailed running log of the health of the siren. Councilmember Duggan complimented Chief Aschenbrener on his work in this process and recornnended a minor change to the second whereas in the resolution to reflect adding the word of after support. Councilmember Duggan moved approval of RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE OUTDOOR WARNING SIREN SYSTEM NARROW BANDING PLAN" with one minor change. Councilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. There were none. WATERS DRIVE IDENTIFICATION Director of Public Works Mazzitello stated business SIGNS FOR HIGHWAY 55 owners from the Waters Drive business park are requesting the two directional signs belonging to the Department of Transportation on Highway 55 be changed from reading February 15, 2011 Page 5 Frontage Road to read Waters Drive. Mr. Mazzitello explained the original request came in 2009 and was heard by the Traffic Safety Committee and the committee concurred with the request and asked Minnesota Department of Transportation to change the signs and the request was denied. Recently the request was again attempted and the Department of Transportation agreed to the change and stated they would fabricate and place the new signs if the city paid for the cost of the signs of $2,232. Mr. Mazzitello stated there is money in the streets budget designated for signs but if the city were to fund the complete cost of the signs it would equal one half of the yearly budgeted amount for street signs. Councilmember Povolny inquired if the signs were required to be a specific size. Mr. Mazzitello stated the standard size of the signs are eight and a half feet wide by four feet high. Mayor Krebsbach invited the business owners from Waters Drive to address the council. Business Owner William Cottrell came before council, he stated he owns a law firm in the Waters Drive business park and stated the only road in the Waters Drive business park is the Frontage Road and he feels it is confiising for people looking for the more than 20 businesses now located in the business park. Mr. Cottrell stated people are looking for the sign to Waters Drive and drive at all speeds and sometimes brake quickly and the signs would add to the safety of the area while more appropriately directing people to the business park. Mr. Cottrell concurred with the consensus of the business owners in requesting the signs be changed to read Waters Drive instead of Frontage Road. Councilmember Duggan inquired whether Mr. Cottrell had contacted all of the businesses in the park with regard to this request to which Mr. Cottrell responded he had been in contact with about half of the businesses. Councilmember Duggan expressed his support of the proposal and the Mendota Heights businesses and understood that locating the park could be difficult but was not comfortable with the city paying the total cost and asked Mr. Cottrell if he had financial support from the local businesses in paying for the signs. In addition, Councilmember Duggan asked of staff to look into the possibility of a local sign company performing the work to the Department of Transportation's specifications for less money. Public Works Director February 15, 2011 Page 6 Mazzitello explained the Department of Transportation stated they preferred to make their own signs. Councilmember Vitelli explained he and Mr. Mazzitello had discussed the possibility of enlarging the current Waters Drive street signs but the signs have specific requirements per the Department of Transportation. Councilmember Vitelli expressed his support of the proposal but concurred with Councilmember Duggan that he did not feel the sole financial responsibility should fall to the city and proposed sharing the cost in which the city would pay half and the local businesses pay half. Councilmember Vitelli proposed to further reduce the costs we should look into either the city or a local business performing the work. Councilmember Petschel concurred with Councilmember Vitelli in support of the proposal, splitting the cost and looking into less expensive alternatives in manufacturing and installing the signs. Councilmember Povolny agreed with council and stated in his experience there are many options to obtain contractors who already perform similar work with the state for considerably less cost and as long as we meet the specifications of the Department of Transportation, he would also recommend this course of action. Councilmember Duggan proposed adding Frontage Road in smaller font underneath Waters Drive on the signs. Mayor Krebsbach concurred the addition of the Frontage Road to the Waters Drive signs would be helpful and gave her support for the proposal, our appreciation of local businesses and stated these relationships were important to the city. Mayor Krebsbach proposed in sharing the costs with the business owners and offered an amount of $1000 the city would pay towards the project. Councilmember Vitelli asked Mr. Cottrell to give his thoughts with regard to sharing the cost of the signs with the city to which Mr. Cottrell responded he felt that was fair and would bring it back to the businesses to come up with their portion of the funds. Business owner Terry Fletcher of PKF Advisors Group introduced himself to council and stated this was a very important proposal from a safety standpoint and from a business standpoint he would be happy to share in the cost. Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 APPROVAL OF AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 6, CHAPTER 3, SECTION 3 OF THE CITY CODE PERTAINING TO NO PARKING Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 February 15, 2011 Page 7 Business owner Duane Tvenge of Jayandee Services, a jewelry manufacturing company concurred with support of the proposal and was in agreement of sharing the costs of the signs. Business owner Terry Raddatz owns a computer lab business in the park and concurred with the proposal and Couuncilmember Vitelli's three points and explained his concern was the safety of people trying to locate the area. Councilmember Duggan moved to approve the Waters Drive Identification Signs for Highway 55 with the city paying up to $1000 (or half the cost whichever is least) according to the specifications and approval of Minnesota Department of Transportation for the signs to be bid by private companies and to read Waters Drive /Frontage Road. Couuncilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. Public Works Director Mazzitello stated as the design for the Delaware Avenue reconstruction project is moving through Dakota County, the Department of Transportation in order to provide funding for the project requires that the cities of West St. Paul and Mendota Heights pass ordinances for the no parking zones in the construction project area. Mr. Mazzitello explained that although the area of Delaware Avenue fiom Interstate 494 to Dodd Road is already marked as a no parking zone the language does not appear in the ordinance, therefore needs to be amended. Mr. Mazzitello stated in the firture they would like the area north to Emerson Avenue included in the no parking ordinance as the condition of the road allows for no parking and asked council to approve notification to the residents of the area for the future amendment. Councilmember Duggan moved to approve An Ordinance Amending Title 6, Chapter 3, Section 3 of the City Code and approve notification to residents for future no parking amendment. Councilmember Povolny seconded the motion. RESOLUTION ADOPTING City Clerk Thone stated the Conflict of Interest Disclosure CONFLICT OF INTEREST Policy relates to two sections of the City's Purchasing DISCLOSURE POLICY Policy with regard to employee and official's adherence to refrain from engaging in a purchasing decision where they have a personal or financial interest. Ms. Thone explained February 15, 2011 Page 8 the policy's intent is to allow a process to raise awareness and disclose potential conflicts of interest and possibly resolving them although the colncil may determine the relationship to be in the best interest of the city. Mayor Krebsbach inquired if the policy was different from the Conflict of Interest Disclosures made by the council. Ms. Thone explained the policy was different in that the policy would allow for council to become aware of a potential conflict of interest disclosure and play an active role in the decision making process to resolve or allow the conflict of interest to exist. Mayor Krebsbach stated this policy was indicative of the types of policies becoming standard practice in city and county govermment and was a policy that we need to have in place. Councilmember Duggan noted one minor change to the resolution from the word have to has. In addition he noted some minor grammatical changes to the policy, which consensus of the council found the changes proposed were not substantive in nature and would be addressed at a later time. City Attorney Diem stated she had discussed the policy with City Administrator McKnight and City Clerk Thone and agreed it was a good policy to put in place and Couuncilmember, Duggan's changes seem appropriate. City Administrator McKnight acknowledged the support for the policy but recommended if Councilmember Duggan had many changes we bring it back at a later date with the changes made. Councilmember Duggan stated the only change required in order to approve the policy was the change from have to has in the resolution. Councilmember Vitelli expressed he was comfortable relying on the staff and recommended approval of the policy as the minor grammatical changes would not change the intent of the policy. Mayor Krebsbach inquired with council to ensure all had read the policy and was comfortable with approval to which council responded positively. February 15, 2011 Page 9 Councilmember Petschel moved to approve a Resolution Adopting Conflict of Interest Disclosure Policy with one minor change. Ayes: 5 Councilmember Duggan seconded the motion. Nays: 0 RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM/ City Clerk Thone stated the records management system SCANNING PROJECT PROPOSAL proposal will provide for a process and a system to effectively and efficiently deal with the city's management and accessibility to inactive records, active records, future records and records protection. Ms. Thone continued although we have made strides per the records retention schedule after an extensive review of the current records system, it has been determined that clean -up, organization, management and updating is in need. Ms. Thone continued that conservative calculations on time and money saved the city by implementing the proposed system are promising. City Clerk Thone requested council consider approval of the go -ahead to continue pursuing the records management system by developing the process and looking at the various options and obtaining quotes with regard to scanning the city's records. Ms. Thone added a current records management system is required by state statute and staff s belief is this is the best practice going forward and would like to implement the process for the back log of records now retained at the city in addition to all future records. Ms. Thone referred to photographs of current records filed at city hall and explained the lengthy process it often takes to fill a single data request and the cost in time and money to the city. Mayor Krebsbach inquired as to whether in the future there would be a cost involved with the proposal. City Clerk Thone explained there would be additional costs incurred in the purchase of equipment and stated money in the amount of $20,000 was available in the 2011 budget. Councilmember Vitelli gave his full support for the proposal and stated it is just something that should be done. Councilmember Vitelli added he supports the continued examination and analysis of the process, getting questions answered on indexing and evaluating costs and obtaining quotes associated with the project. February 15, 2011 Page 10 Couuncilmember Vitelli questioned whether the records were available to the public to which City Clerk Thone responded the majority of our records are public data and there are very few that we do not have to make available upon request. Councilmember Vitelli commented that a few years ago he suggested to call Town Center TV and recommended to Rick Hansen that with today's technology we could eliminate the cost of minutes, recording the minutes and discussing the minutes by changing the state law to allow us to maintain a record of this meeting in a video fornat. City Clerk Thone stated that we do retain a video recording of all regular council meetings and staff and council concurred with Councilmember Vitelli that we still review minutes because as Mayor Krebsbach and Councilmember Duggan stated the written record, after approved by cou icil, remains the official record of the meetings. Mayor Krebsbach continued that right now we want to get the records organized. Councilmember Vitelli stated the true record can be heard through Granicus and is what counts. Councilmember Duggan concurred with Councilmember Vitelli and agreed it would be an absolute tremendous savings to cut out the written minutes but if you go to the various language of the recent supreme court they would not have been able to get anywhere if they did not have a written record. Councilmember Duggan gave his support of the Records Management System Proposal and inquired whether it required any new equipment and asked specifically about the equipment capacity for the scanning of large maps and large land records such as those kept in tubes shown in the photographs supplied. City Clerk Thone responded that the larger documents would require additional equipment, that the capacity of the proposed scanner for administration would have capabilities to scan up to 11x17 documents but the engineering department has plans for a proposal to purchase a printer and scanner for their larger documents many that are required to be retained permanently. Councilmember Duggan continued to give his support estimating the project could prove to be a significant savings for the city and stated he calculated if you have February 15, 2011 Page 11 people coming into City Hall on a regular basis for data requests the potential for savings could be as great as $16,000 in savings per year and he surmised that must be at least the cost of one machine. Councilmember Petschel stated that anyone who has been in the records storage in the basement knows that this needs to be done and she questioned whether the records would be hand scanned and if we had inquired with other cities who have gone to this mode of storing records what the timeframe was expected to be. City Clerk Thone responded we did not have an answer for how long it would take to complete the process and stated it is a good question. Mayor Krebsbach stated we are discussing and approving tonight to begin the process and in the future will most likely see a request for a scanner and costs involved with the system but going forward with the project was not considered optional because of the limited storage space for records at City Hall, the significant problem with retrieval of records and the need to keeping the records intact. Councilmember Vitelli added he would like to make slue we examine contracting this out because services can offer indexing approaches and they have much experience to offer and with things such as turn -over in staff, we would not have to train new people with the scanner, we would not have to buy a scanner and expressed he would lean towards contracting the scanning project out. Councilmember Vitelli stated these companies come in, they have their equipment, they go through it and we pay them and it is not disruptive to staff and would recommend we consider this approach. Mayor Krebsbach stated staff now has direction from council in support that we want this done, efficiently and cost effectively. Councilmember Duggan concurred with Councilmember Vitelli's suggestion to send it out for bids to companies who are contracted to provide this service and see how it compares to the estimated /anticipated cost by staff for this project, but expressed if the amount was to a substantial sum of money council would like to be advised before committing to it and recommended if it is expected to be over $20,000 they should be informed to which City February 15, 2011 Page 12 Administrator McKnight stated staff will bring whatever they potentially spend back to council. Councilmember Duggan moved to approve Records Management System/Scanning Project Proposal Ayes: 5 Councilmember Povolny seconded the motion. Nays: 0 REVIEW UPDATE Councilmemmbet Povolny stated eleven RFP proposals were reviewed and at the Monday morning meeting they agreed upon four final candidates. Assistant to the City Administrator Sedlacek stated they were happy to have eleven planning films return proposals and that the proposals were reviewed by the review committee made up of Councilmember Povvolny, Acting Planning Commission Chair Steve Norton, Public Works Director John Mazzitello, City Administrator David McKnight and himself. Assistant to City Administrator Sedlacek stated they were very pleased with the quality of all of the applicants but found the following four stood out from the crowd and the committee would like to recommend the following applicants for further consideration: Northwest Associated Consultants, Inc. (our current planner), Landform, WSB and Associates and MSA Professional Services. Mr. Sedlacek expressed we would also like to thank and publicly recognize the following applicants: Bonestroo, Loucks Associates, TKDA, Yaggy Colby Associates, Solution Blue Inc, Sanders Wacker Bergly Inc. and MR-FA. Assistant to City Administrator Sedlacek recommended moving ahead with the RFP process, conduct interviews of the top four firms, make a decision on who would conduct the interviews making note that the committee expressed an interest to remain involved in the process but noted that. originally it was proposed council would make the final selections. Mayor Krebsbach stated the council has historically made decisions with respect to planning consultants and legal counsel and she proposed council to interview the four remaining applicants, taking notes from Acting Planning > Ayes:5 Nays: 0 COUNCIL COMMENTS February 15, 2011 Page 13 Commission Chair Norton and comments from the conumittee and staff involved thus far. Councilmember Duggan concurred with Mayor Krebsbach in the council interviewing the four remaining applicants. Councilmember Vitelli expressed an interest in having Acting Plamling Commission Chair Norton involved in the interview process. Mayor Kiebsbach stated it has only been the council involved in the interviews in the past. Assistant to the City Administrator Sedlacek explained council should make a motion to receive the four planning finalists and establish a date for interviews in the future. Councilmember Duggan gave support for Acting Planning Commission Chair Norton to be involved in the interview process. Mayor Krebsbach suggested they look to see what had been past practices. Councilmember Povolny gave support for Acting Planning Commission Chair Norton to be added to the interview committee. A motion was made by Councilmember Duggan to approve the four finalists for the interview process, to establish a date in the near future for interviews and to add Acting Plamling Commission Chair Norton to the interview committee. Councilmember Vitelli seconded the motion. Councilmember Vitelli comimented he received his Heights Highlights in the snail earlier in the day and was very impressed not only with the layout but the content as well. Councilmember Vitelli expressed the newsletter not only had a friendly new appearance but the articles seemed more informative than in the past and noted the content of the city tax dollar article and stated it was all very well done. Councilmember Vitelli inquired about the key people involved in creating the newsletter. City Administrator McKnight stated he had nothing to do with the newsletter and that Jake Sedlacek and Sandie Thone were responsible for the work, which he concurred he was very impressed with and expressed he applauded their work on the newsletter. Councilmember Povolny stated he had not had time to read the newsletter but noticed it did look good. February 15, 2011 Page 14 Co-uncilmember Duggan chose to share a sentiment sent to him this day after Valentine's Day: happiness keeps you sweet, trials keep you strong, sorrows keep you human, failures keep you humble, success keeps you growing and only friends keep you going... and he expressed that as we move forward may this body and city work towards being friends. CLOSED SESSION The council went into closed session at 8:01 p.m. to discuss potential litigation. Present at the meeting were all five council members, the city administrator, assistant to the city administrator, the city engineer and the city attorney. ATTEST: Sandie Thone City Clerk Mayor K rebsbach adjourned the closed session at 9:40 p.m. iv.Layul