2011-01-19 City Council Worksession minutesJanuary 19, 2011
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CITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS
DAKOTA COUNTY
STATE OF MINNESOTA
Minutes of the 2011 Goal Setting Work Session
Held Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the 2011 goal setting work session of the City Council, City of
Mendota Heights, Mimiesota was held at 5:00 p.m. at City Hall, 1101 Victoria Curve, Mendota
Heights, Minnesota.
CALL TO ORDER Mayor Krebsbach called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
The following members were present: Councilmernbers
Duggan, Petschel, Vitelli and Povolny.
SWEARING IN OF NEW City Administrator McKnight administered the oath of
COUNCILMEMBER office to new councilmember Mike Povolny, who was
appointed to fill the city council seat vacancy for the
remainder of previous councilmember Krebsbach's term.
GOAL SETTING WORKSHOP Mayor Krebsbach reviewed the purpose of the annual goal
setting workshop and stated that it is a key meeting and has
had a great impact on the goals and vision for the city.
REVIEW OF 2010 GOALS City Administrator McKnight stated the 2010 goal setting
workshop was held last February and the following goals
were established. Mr. McKnight reviewed the 2010 goals
and their status.
1) Successfill completion of the 2011 city budget process.
Accomplished
2) Develop a budget pool analysis and approach for
council consideration.
Ongoing
3) Track and participate in the Dakota County Regional
Visioning Transportation Study.
Accomplished
4) Continue quarterly information sharing with the city
council on the budget, fund balance and financial
issues.
Ongoing
5) Go out for RFP for planning services.
Ongoing (half way through process expected resolution
in mid- February)
6) Update the city website
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Accomplished
7) Monitor legislative discussion on fire districts.
Ongoing
8) Update the city code commission term limits section.
Accomplished
9) Maintain housing quality with staff and resident
oversight.
Ongoing
10) Develop training and position descriptions for city
commissions.
Accomplished and ongoing
11) Review MSA fiends and designations.
Accomplished
12) Develop a policy on project overruns
In progress
13) Amend zoning ordinance front entry way issue from a
variance to a conditional use permit.
Accomplished
City Administrator McKnight explained these were large
goals and we have worked hard and accomplished a lot. In
addition, Mr. McKnight acknowledged we have more work
to do.
OPEN MEETING LAW REVIEW City Administrator McKnight reviewed the open meeting
law for the five councilmembers. Mr. McKnight explained
the council must abide by the open meeting law when it
comes to business performed for the city. He provided the
members of council with an article surmnarizing the law
and its requirements. Staff has reviewed the law with the
commissions this past year and will continue to do so. Mr.
McKnight answered questions with regard to serial
meetings and reviewed the need to be aware of the law and
not share opinions via email or phone on city topics.
CITY COUNCIL ITEMS City Administrator McKnight explained he previously
surveyed the councilmembers to obtain their top priorities
for 2011. A summary of the topics council brought
forward and discussion of each are listed below.
RENTAL HOUSING ISSUES Discussion and review of the city's rental licensing
practices and their effectiveness included research by
Assistant to the City Administrator Sedlacek and included
an extensive survey of other cities policies and practices.
Mr. Sedlacek expressed some satisfaction with the present
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system explaining rental housing licenses in 2010 resulted
in less than 40 licenses in the city with only a handful of
them being problematic. Councilmembers expressed
varied concerns and some brought forth concerns from
residents living near rental units. Further thoughts from
council included ideas on how we may be more proactive
then reactive and steer away from a complaint -based
system in the future while remaining fair with regard to
rental housing versus owner occupied housing. Discussion
brought the following action items to look into over the
next two years:
1) Licensing and standards
2) Property maintenance of rental units and /or all property,
residential and commercial
3) Abandoned properties
4) Mandatory rental licensing
5) Consequence or penalty for non- compliance
6) Publicizing rental license requirements
CRITICAL AREA Discussion on the critical area which all agree has created
value for the city resulted in an action item:
1) Send letters to legislative representatives with regard to
Minnesota River Corridor Critical Area in support of the
lulemaking process, not the repeal, being clear that we are
not in favor of watering down the regulations.
PLAZA HOUSING Discussion on plaza housing with regard to a proposed
four -story senior assisted living facility of 100 units
resulted in the following actions items after council
expressed concerns regarding the project:
1) Directed the city administrator to send a letter to
property owner clarifying that the city did not intend to pay
for any costs associated with the potential move of the
sewer line
2) Review the PUD /Agreement to see what type of
business was discussed
3) Review what the city wants in aesthetics and use
COMMERCIAL /INDUSTRIAL Discussion on the development of commercial/industrial
PROPERTY MAINTENANCE property maintenance standards and the process for
ordinance development resulted in the following action
items:
1) Review existing relative ordinances
2) Review residential property maintenance code to see if it
can be applied to commercial properties
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Thoughts and questions were raised with regard to what we
would like to see in the way of commercial property
standards and if they would include consequences for non-
compliance.
FUND BALANCE RESERVE LEVELS Discussion and review of the fiend balance reserve levels
were extremely favorable and 2010 fund balances remained
at very strong levels and clearly exceeded the
recommendations for year -end set by the Office of the State
Auditor with the exception of the Engineering Fund, which
was detennined as an action item for further review by City
Administrator McKnight and Public Works Director
Mazzitello.
PONDS Discussion and review of the ponds and a proposal for an
establishment of a storm water pond maintenance plan for
the city's ponds resulted in the following action items:
1) Start small and establish a pilot program assessing three
to ten ponds in the area
2) Estimate costs and propose a limited budget for the work
3) Propose a city and residential agreement and split cost
for funding the project
4) Review aeration versus remedial work
5) Provide education about the subject
LAKE DRIVE TRAFFIC Discussion and review of the Lake Drive traffic issue
resulted in an action item to review in the spring of 2011
(in the form of a traffic study) to determine if the
roundabout had any impact on traffic in the Rogers Lake
neighborhood.
2012 BUDGET Discussion on the 2012 budget raised questions on how the
tremendous amount of snow has affected our winter budget
and it was acknowledged snowplowing costs have
exceeded budgeted amounts but the city's conservative
approach with finances have provided well for such
occurrences. The fact that the city is 78 percent funded by
levies and receives very little state aid cushions for the
concern of any current or possible reductions in state aid.
As council expressed concerns for inflation and the state of
the economy, City Administrator McKnight stated he has
received the message from the city council that a very
conservative approach should be taken with the 2012
budget.
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60 DNL /AIRPORT NOISE Discussion of the 60DNL /airport noise and the new airport
noise footprint that will potentially put many currently un-
insulated homes in the city in the 60 -64DNL range, resulted
in the following action items:
1) Work with the Airport Relations Commission to develop
a resolution establishing 60DNL as the airport noise
threshold for the city
CITY STAFF ITEMS City Administrator McKnight brought to council the
following city staff items for discussion and review.
CITY OWNED RIGHT OF WAY Discussion and review of the city owned right of way
began with council studying the current city owned right of
way and the proposal by Public Works Director Mazzitello
for a maintenance and disposition of undeveloped city
owned right of way and to consider the vacation of city
owned right of way on a case by case basis as proposed.
The council expressed concern if the property was vacated
that they would never have access to the property for any
fluture purpose. Council proposed the following action
items:
1) Develop a pilot program with five to ten city owned
right of ways and costs involved in vacating.
2) Prepare a spreadsheet for council review on which
properties Public Works is currently spending time and
money to maintain and actual figures in hours and dollars
that apply to their maintenance
VACATION ACCRUAL Discussion and review of the vacation accrual issue and
proposal by City Administrator McKnight was supported.
This will result in the city spending approximately
$115,000 to pay down a number of employee vacation
banks down to 200 hours. Council commended Mr.
McKnight on the discovery and expressed regret that it had
gone on for so long resulting in this resolution, but agreed
with his course of action. Council expressed concern for
the employees to be educated and understand their
responsibility to adherence to the policy.
AJOURN There being no further business to come before the council,
Councilmember Vitelli moved to adjourn the meeting.
Ayes: 5 Councilmember Duggan seconded the motion.
Nays: 0
Time of Adjournment 8:00 p.m.
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Mayor
Sandie Thone
City Clerk