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2023-07-18 CC Minutes - work sessionCITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS DAKOTA COUNTY STATE OF MINNESOTA Minutes of the City Council Work Session Tuesday, July 18, 2023 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Levine called the work session to order at 4:15 p.m. Councilmembers Lorberbaum, Mazzitello, Paper, and Miller were present. Staff in attendance included City Administrator Cheryl Jacobson, Assistant City Administrator Kelly Torkelson, Public Works Director Ryan Ruzek, Park and Recreation Manager Meredith Lawrence, Public Works Superintendent John Boland, Recycling Coordinator Courtney Selstad, Finance Director Kristen Schabacker, and City Clerk Christine Lusian. ORGANICS COLLECTION Coordinator Selstad provided an update to the city council on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) plans regarding organics collections. The state has a goal to reduce solid waste by 75% by 2030 and organics collection is a part of the strategy that they are going to use to try to meet that goal. Staff have met with representatives from Dakota County and the MPCA to identify upcoming requirements and resources available to Mendota Heights to meet those requirements. The MPCA has recently published a draft policy plan which outlines their strategy to achieve their waste reduction goals. Council is invited to submit comments on that plan through September. The plan will be finalized by the end of the year. Once the plan is finalized, counties have until Q3/Q4 of 2024 to develop their own plan for how they will respond. Dakota County is anticipating that there will be some kind of organics collection requirement by 2026 based on the timelines of the State. The MPCA hosted listening sessions last week at which the waste haulers expressed concerns about labor shortages, licensing issues, and limited capacity at the existing organics facilities. There is a new organics facility that just broke ground in Scott County. Staff would like guidance from the City Council as to how they would like staff to approach these upcoming requirements. Some options that the city council could consider would include finding a hauler who is willing to do curbside organics collection within Mendota Heights, investigate the feasibility of instituting organized organics collection in Mendota Heights, or expand organics education and activities to increase the participation in the city's organics drop off program. Parks and Recreation Manager clarified for the city council that if there was interest in doing curbside organics collection that the city council would need to institute organized trash collection as well. This is a hot topic that generates a significant amount of public feedback. If the city were to move in this direction then staff would recommend working with a vendor to support the initiative. Councilor Paper asked staff about the feasibility of developing an ouse organics collection program. Councilor Mazzitello stated that the development of such a program would require significant administration on the back end. Council Paper recommended that the development of a program like this be funded by taxes rather than by additional fees and asked about the feasibility of using existing city property to manage organics collections. Public Works Director Ruzek clarified that there were significant requirements by the MPCA regarding organics management sites that the city would not be able to meet. Mayor Levine shared that the city shouldn't try to recreate the wheel, but that we can learn from other cities who have done this. Parks and Recreation Manager shared that Dakota County has offered to pay for a study for Mendota Heights to figure out the feasibility of an organics collection program. Councilor Lorberbaum shared that she was interested in the staff looking into the possibilities of organics collection. Councilor Mazzitello asked if it would be possible to pull a report together before the comment period expired with the MPCA. Staff said that timeline would be challenging to meet, however, other cities are further along in this process than we are and can speak to some of the questions and issues that this data will illuminate for Mendota Heights. Councilor Mazzitello shared that he supported a study funded by the County. Councilor Miller asked what the county would want from the city as a part of the initiative. Parks and Recreation Manager Lawrence clarified that the County would be looking for clear direction and commitment by the council regarding interest in moving forward on the initiative. Councilor Lorberbaum requested that staff connect with staff from the City of Edina as they implemented an organics program prior to the requirements by Hennepin County. Staff confirmed that they have been and will continue to be in contact with staff at the City of Edina and other cities that have experience implementing these programs. Councilor Mazzitello clarified that he was not interested in government run waste collection. SNOW EQUIPMENT Superintendent Boland introduced the department's request for snow removal equipment that is not currently in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The equipment requested has the ability to be used year round, however, its main utility will support the city's efforts in snow removal specifically in cul-de-sacs. The new equipment is safer to use as it has increased visibility and it will be able to use different attachments that we have in our existing equipment. The new machine will speed the response of public works for how long it takes to clear snow and it will reduce the amount of snow that gets packed onto roads. Councilor Lorberbaum said that the residents think that public works does a great job and wanted to know why staff needed this when they were already doing such a great job. Superintendent Boland clarified that this year's snowfall included a lot of challenges for staff and reinforced that the equipment would improve safety during snow events. Councilor Mazzitello asked about the feasibility of using existing equipment for trade in value to fund this request. Public Works Director clarified that the equipment that Councilor Mazzitello was referring to is currently used as a back up for snow removal at the industrial park and that the city should not get rid of that equipment until the replacement has arrived. Councilor Miller asked if the equipment would be able to be used outside of snow events. Superintendent Boland confirmed that yes staff would be able to use it year round, but the primary benefit it would add to the city would be during snow events. Councilor Paper asked staff to look into the feasibility and costs of using other vendors. COMPENSATION STUDY Kelly Torkelson introduced the compensation study to the city council. She reviewed the city council's strategic priorities which include recruiting and retaining staff. Torkelson reviewed that the hiring market is getting increasingly challenging and projections for recruitment efforts in the future. Tessia Melvin reviewed the benchmarks that the employees have proposed. Benchmarks includes cities that have a variety of characteristics that reflect the range of the market for employees. Some of the cities are bigger, but some of them are smaller. Some cities have a larger tax base, some are smaller. Mayor Levine said that it doesn't make sense to compare us to cities that are much larger because going to a larger city is a promotion. We shouldn't be comparing our city to cities that are so much bigger than us. Assistant City Administrator Torkelson stated that the goal of this conversation is not to say that we should be paying the same as some of these larger cities, but it is important to outline the context for the market, these are the cities that we are competing with. While some jobs have more differences between Mendota Heights and Apple Valley, there are other jobs which are very similar, and having the cities in the benchmarks will make sure that we are including those as well. Councilor Mazzitello said that in reviewing these cities, there is a pretty good split of cities that are larger and cities that are smaller than we are. Dr. Melvin shared that out of 24 cities, 11 of the benchmarks are larger, 14 are smaller than Mendota Heights. Councilor Mazzitello shared that at Ramsey County, the county board of commission has a philosophy to pay 65 percentile of the market. Currently pay is significantly below that and the impact is that they cannot keep people employed. Assistant City Administrator Torkelson said that Dr. Melvin has pulled together some data that can show where we fit in the existing benchmark environment, what we would be looking for from the council if there are any specific changes to the list of benchmarks and where the city council would like staff to aim their analysis towards from a pay philosophy perspective. That will help the city to ensure that we are meeting the expectations of the council with the recommendations that we make in the report. Mayor Levine wanted to aim to be right in the middle of the benchmarks but also to be competitive with cities that we provide better service than. Councilor Mazzitello said that Mendota Heights is a great place to work, that the city has relatively low turnover in staff. There are some of the intangibles which can make up the difference in competitiveness that are left over from having average pay. Assistant City Administrator Torkelson said that while these intangibles can be powerful motivators, they are not necessarily sufficient to keep staff when the market has higher pay as well as their own intangibles attracting staff. Sometimes people like where they work and they still end up leaving because they need to pay bills. That is a reality of the situation, these other cities are also a very nice place to work. If the city finds that we are paying below the average, they are going to consider that as a recognition that they are under paid. Mayor Levine said that the city has a lot of costs that are coming up, if we are committing to a 30% pay increase to staff that might not be something that we should be doing right now. Dr. Melvin clarified that the study would not show that type of necessary adjustment. Mayor Levine confirmed that she was comfortable with the proposed benchmarks. Councilor Miller shared that he would like the city to be competitive with the market and that the middle of the market should be the least that the city do. Councilor Mazzitello added that one of the main reasons people stay or leave an organization is because of the leadership. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Levine adjourned the meeting at 5:41 p.m. ATTE Stephanie B. Levine, Mayor C e , City Clerk