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11-12-2013 CCMMINUTES REGULAR MEETING — HUTCHINSON CITY COUNCIL TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013 1. C_ Ai I TO ORDFR — .5.30 P.M. Mayor Steve Cook called the meeting to order. Members present were Mary Christensen, Bill Arndt, Gary Forcier and Chad Czmowski. Others present were Jeremy Carter, City Administrator, Kent Exner, City Engineer and Marc Sebora, City Attorney. 2. INVOCATION — Rev. Todd Harris, Oak Heights Covenant Church, delivered the invocation. 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 4. RECOGNITION OF GIFTS. DONATIONS AND COMMUNITY SERVICE TO THE CITY Council Member Arndt recognized the annual Farm -City Days held at the Fairgrounds last week, which is promoted by KARP /KDUZ radio. Council Member Arndt also recognized the work done by Dave Blake, Dave Skoog, the Parks Department and all of those involved for the installation of the Huey helicopter in Veterans Memorial Park. Mayor Cook also recognized the high school athletic teams and their successes this Fall. 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS David Allen, 12252 200th Street — Hale Township, presented before the Council. Mr. Allen explained that he has reasons and specific examples as to why he has concerns with the Comprehensive Plan and concerns that adoption of the plan should not move forward at this time. Mr. Allen began to explain that in 1997 a piece of land was purchased south of the Otter Lake Road on South Grade Road by some City officials that had inside contacts and now is a very nice large housing development. The Comp Plan fails to address unethical issues and behaviors by city officials in the past and in the current. Mr. Allen raised concerns with individuals who have long- standing personal connections with the City who purchase land and then flip it to private developers. Mr. Allen is requesting that the Council consider that the Comp Plan includes and is influenced by opportunities for people with connections to expand the values of their properties. Mr. Allen feels that a code of ethics and conflict of interest policy are lacking. He feels that Council Members should be required to submit affidavits annually on their business interests. He also feels that there is not a diverse range of persons on boards and commissions. Council Member Arndt explained that in 1997 he served on the Lynn Township Board when the development was put in place and it followed a very specific process. Jim Lauer, Lynn Township, Chair of Joint Planning Board, presented before the Council. Mr. Lauer explained that there is confusion in the public on the role of the Joint Planning Board. Mr. Lauer explained that in 1997 the Joint Planning ordinance and Joint Planning Board was created, with the approval of the City, the County and the four surrounding townships. Mr. Lauer explained that one of the main drivers of the creation of the Joint Planning Board was to streamline processes for developers and property owners to address their land use needs. The joint planning area includes the two -mile radius of the City of Hutchinson in the unorganized areas of the county. All recommendations of the CITY COUNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 Joint Planning Board go to the McLeod County Board, whom then makes all final decisions. Mr. Lauer explained that 2.5 years ago, the City informed the Joint Planning Board that the process was going to begin to update the Comprehensive Plan. Throughout the entire process, joint planning board members and township officials were invited to several meetings and workshops. Public hearings were also held before the Joint Planning Board. Craig Bishop, 221 Freemont Avenue, presented before the Council. Mr. Bishop asked if the Council Members had any feedback on the comments he submitted to the Council at the last meeting on the comprehensive plan. Mayor Cook noted that these comments will be discussed later in the meeting when the Council reviews the comp plan comments. Mr. Bishop expressed that he feels it is a good idea for Council Members to sign an ethics policy, similar to what state legislators do. Jim Bobier, Acoma Township, presented before the Council. Mr. Bobier raised a concern over the area which he lives in, which is in the joint planning area. Mr. Bobier also has concerns over taxation and issues related to the public arts commission projects. 6. MINUTES (a) REGULAR MEETING OF OCTOBER 22, 2013 Motion by Czmowski, second by Forcier, to approve the minutes as presented. Motion carried unanimously. 7. CONSENT AGENDA (Pznpose: only for items requiring Council approval by external entities that would other -vise have been delegated to the City Administrator. Traditionally, items are not discussed.) (a) RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES (b) CONSIDERATION FOR APPROVAL OF IMPROVEMENT PROJECT CHANGE ORDERS - CHANGE ORDER NO. 1 —LETTING NO. 1, PROJECT NO. 13 -01 (JEFFERSON STREET SE RECONSTRUCTION PHASE 1) - SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT NO. 1 — LETTING NO. 1, PROJECT NO. 13 -01 (JEFFERSON STREET SE RECONSTRUCTION PHASE 1) - SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT NO. 2 — LETTING NO. 1, PROJECT NO. 13 -01 (JEFFERSON STREET SE RECONSTRUCTION PHASE 1) (c) CONSIDERATION FOR APPROVAL OF ITEMS FOR LYNN ROAD SW IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT — LETTING NO. 2, PROJECT NO. 14 -02 (d) CONSIDERATION FOR APPROVAL OF ISSUING SHORT -TERM GAMBLING LICENSES - HUTCHINSON EAGLES 44441 ON MAY 17, 2014 - UPPER MIDWEST ALLIS CHALMERS CLUB ON JULY 27, 2014 (e) CONSIDERATION FOR APPROVAL OF CITY CENTER CARPET REPLACEMENT (f) CLAIMS, APPROPRIATIONS AND CONTRACT PAYMENTS — REGISTER A 2 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 (g) CLAIMS, APPROPRIATIONS AND CONTRACT PAYMENTS — REGISTER B Items 7(e) and 7(g) were pulled. Motion by Czmowski, second by Christensen, to approve the consent agenda with the exception of the items noted above. Motion carried unanimously. Item 7(e) had further discussion. Council Member Christensen asked if carpet tiles would be installed or if it would be laid carpet. Dan Jochum, Planning Director, clarified it will be carpet tiles. Motion by Christensen, second by Arndt, to approve Item 7(e). Motion carried unanimously. Item 7(g) had further discussion. Council Member Forcier noted he will be abstaining from voting on this item. Motion by Czmowski, second by Arndt, with Forcier abstaining, to approve Item 7(g). Motion carried unanimously. 8. PUBLIC HEARINGS — 6:00 P.M. (a) CONSIDERATION OF CHARTER AMENDMENTS AS RECOMMENDED BY HUTCHINSON CHARTER COMMISSION Marc Sebora, City Attorney, presented before the Council. Mr. Sebora explained that earlier this year, the Council had considered these same amendments that had been recommended by the Charter Commission. One recommendation was to reduce the percentage requirements of signatures for petitions and the other was to amend language pertaining to surety bonds for certain city officials. The Council had considered these amendments, however the amendments must be voted on unanimously by all Council Members. Since all council members were not present at the last meeting these items were considered, the item is before the Council again with all council members present. Craig Bishop asked for clarification on the amendments being recommended in Section 5.02. City Attorney Sebora explained that the current Charter language requires 20% of those who voted for mayor in the last election for a petition to be accepted. The amendment is to reduce the percentage to 10% of those who voted in the last regular election. Mayor Cook noted that when other cities were reviewed, 10% was a rather common percentage. Motion by Arndt, second by Christensen, to close public hearing. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Czmowski, second by Forcier, to waive first reading and set second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 13 -715 for December 10, 2013. Motion carried unanimously. 9. COMMTJNICATIONS. REOT JESTS AND PETITIONS (Puipose: to provide Council with information necessrny to craft wise policy. Always looking toward the fixture, not monitoring past) 10. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 3 CITY CO UNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 (a) COMMENTS AND UPDATE ON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Mayor Cook thanked those who came to the public hearings before the Planning Commission and Joint Planning Boards. The Council has accepted and reviewed comments submitted by Craig Bishop. Mayor Cook stressed that the comprehensive plan is not about annexing property, but rather to redevelop and develop property within the city. Mayor Cook reminded residents that the City has no jurisdiction outside of City limits, but rather the Joint Planning Board has jurisdiction on the 2 -mile radius surrounding the City of Hutchinson. The comprehensive plan is a City plan. Mayor Cook noted that there were some questions about letters of intent that had been signed back in the 1990s by the surrounding townships. These letters of intent mentioned community -based planning. Attorney Sebora explained that the Resolutions creating the Joint Planning Board do not address community -based planning and that is not a process used. There was also discussion of a moratorium that could have been put in place while the comprehensive plan was being developed, however that is permissive and not mandatory of a city when updating a comprehensive plan. Dan Jochum, Planning Director, presented before the Council. Mr. Jochum noted that several comments had been included by staff and other interested persons. Mr. Jochum stated that the Council had reviewed the comments from the other interested persons and considered them when putting together their own comments. Mr. Jochum reviewed the staff review of City Council comments on the draft comprehensive plan. In addition, Mr. Jochum reviewed recommended staff edits. All of these comments are on file with staff and included in the Council packet. In addition, typographical and formatting errors will be corrected as well as a recommendation by the Planning Commission to change an area from low density residential as a medium density residential area. This area is along School Road/McDonald Drive. Mayor Cook suggested directing staff to incorporate changes and then bring back a clean copy for final approval. All Council Members agreed. Motion by Forcier, second by Christensen, to direct staff to incorporate changes as noted, as well as typographical errors, and the land use designation, and bring forth a clean copy for final approval at a future Council meeting. Motion carried unanimously. The updated plan will be on the City's web site when the changes are incorporated. Jim Bobier asked if there was anything from the townships' comments that were incorporated into the amendments that will be made to the plan. Mayor Cook noted that reference to annexations was not removed as was suggested. Mayor Cook expressed that he did not feel it fair for the plan to be boxed in by not referencing annexation in any way. Craig Bishop asked if there were any comments Council Members wanted to share. Council Arndt noted that the City has done a tremendous job in saving money and watching costs. Craig Bishop raised concerns about things in the comp plan and the costs associated with some projects. 11 CITY CO UNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 David Allen raised concerns with economic development and the need for good, high paying jobs. Mr. Allen raised a concern with the comprehensive plan in that he feels it is a bit misguided in prioritizing resources being spent on quality of life issues at the expense of not putting enough emphasis on economic development and recruiting employers. The other concern is that there is a problem with people using planning opportunities for their own personal agendas. Jim Bobier asked if other board/commission meetings are open to the public. He also asked about Public Arts Commission minutes being posted on the web site. Mayor Cook noted that it was suggested that a meeting be held between the City Council and the townships to review the comprehensive plan. Mayor Cook commented that several public hearings have been held and this item has been discussed at two Council meetings, therefore he asked if the Council felt there was a need for a meeting. The Council did not feel a need for another meeting. 11. NEW BUSINESS (a) CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION NO. 14203 AUTHORIZING THE PERA PHASED RETIREMENT OPTION FOR THE CITY OF HUTCHINSON AND DESIGNATING THE CITY ADMINISTRATOR AS THE COORDINATOR OF THE PROGRAM Jeremy Carter, City Administrator, presented before the Council. Mr. Carter explained that a phased retirement option program was put in place in 2009 that is available to members of PERA. The program allows cities to offer a phased retirement option to members age 62 or older. Members in this program can begin collecting their PERA retirement benefits without a formal termination of employment. This program allows for knowledge to be transferred to staff, retain key employees until replacements can be identified and reduce employee work hours resulting in budgetary savings. There is currently one employee eligible for this program and that is the Motor Vehicle Deputy Registrar, Marilyn Hed. If approved, this program is proposed for a maximum of one year or calendar year 2014. Ms. Hed's hours will be reduced from the current full time to no more than 1044 hours for calendar year 2014 or fewer hours. Motion by Czmowski, second by Forcier, to approve Resolution No. 14203 authorizing the PERA phased retirement option for the City of Hutchinson and designating the City Administrator as the coordinator of the program. Motion carried unanimously. (b) POLICE MEMORIAL UPDATE AND CONSIDERATION FOR APPROVAL OF MOVING FORWARD Dan Hatten, Chief of Police, presented before the Council. Chief Hatten showed a video on the concept of the park and the plans for it, as well as the donation information. The timeline is to begin construction in Spring 2014 with completion in late 2014. The project estimation costs are $90,000 and the police department has raised $92,000 to date. However, donations are still being accepted for enhancements to the park. The donation web site will be up indefinitely. Chief Hatten asked for authorization to move ahead with construction of the park. 5 CITY CO UNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 Council Member Forcier asked if the police department could put together a rendition of the park with enhancements that will be used with the excess donations. Chief Hatten noted that that will be done, along with an orderly plan for the enhancements. Jeremy Carter, City Administrator, noted that several action items need to be considered: 1.) the area needs to be designated as parkland with easements to the former Cenex property site; 2.) authorization to move forward with construction of the park and 3.) to have the City initially cash flow all or part of the project until all the funds have been reimbursed and earmarking any future private donations for future park/memorial improvements in the Park Land Dedication Fund. Motion by Arndt, second by Forcier, to authorize the action items as outlined above by Mr. Carter. Motion carried unanimously. (c) AUTOMATIC METER READING SYSTEM AND METER REPLACEMENT DISCUSSION Kent Exner, City Engineer, Administrator, presented before the Council. Mr. Exner provided an overview of the potential water meter replacements and implementation of an automatic meter reading system. Mr. Exner explained that an estimated 82% of the City's existing meter inventory was installed in 2000 or later. The industry standard for optimum meter lifecycle is 15 years. In 2009 the Hutchinson Utilities Commission installed an automatic metering infrastructure for its electric meters. HUC spent $194,000 in infrastructure costs for the automatic meter read system that can be utilized for other meter reading services. In 2010, HUC and the City entered into a telecommunications agreement that allowed the water department to utilize their installed infrastructure with a set $58,200 contribution. This allows the City to ultimately install an automatic meter reading system at a more competitive cost. The water department has been reviewing for several years the potential of upgrading the existing meter reading operations to an automatic system. Staff believes that replacing the existing meters at the time of upgrading to an automatic reading system would be the most cost - effective. In addition, compiled data supports the assumption that the City is not currently accounting for all of the water being produced, distributed and consumed via the current system and that replacement of the meters would be justifiable and economically beneficial. Mr. Exner reviewed the benefits of a meter replacement and automatic meter reading system project. Mr. Exner also reviewed feedback received from other cities, such as North St. Paul, Melrose and Faribault, on their recently installed automatic meter reading systems. The funding of this type of project could be addressed through a variety of funding sources, such as: water /wastewater funds budgeted capital outlay amounts; water /wastewater funds cash reserves; increases to the water /wastewater monthly base charge amounts and implementation of a water meter replacement fee over a determined timeframe. Andy Reid, Controller, presented before the Council. Mr. Reid provided a financial analysis on the automatic meter reading project and meter change -outs. AMR only estimated at $650,910; meter change -outs estimated at $774,176; both projects independently $1,425,086 and both projects simultaneously estimated at $1,384,493. Mr. Reid estimated a $40,000 annual cash savings on AMR only due to personnel and vehicle savings. Mr. Reid estimated a conservative savings of 2% In additional water billing, which would estimate at $50,000. Paybacks would be approximately 15- 0 CITY CO UNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 16 years, instead the benefits of the program should be considered. The project would be proposed to be implemented over a two -year timeframe. This project could be bonded for on a 10 -year term. The earliest implementation would be 2015. Council expressed that staff should continue moving forward with this project. 12. GOVERNANCE (Puipose: to assesspast organizationalpeiformance, developpolicy thatguides the organization and Council and manage the logistics of the Council. May include monitoring reports, policy development and governance process items. (a) EDA BOARD MEETING MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 (b) AIRPORT COMMISSION MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 26, 2013 (c) RESOURCE ALLOCATION COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES FROM OCTOBER 1, 2013 (d) FIRE DEPARTMENT MONTHLY REPORT FOR OCTOBER 2013 (e) PARKS, RECREATION, COMMUNITY EDUCATION BOARD MEETING MINUTES FROM OCTOBER 7, 2013 (f) PLANNING, ZONING, BUILDING DEPARTMENT MONTHLY REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2013 (g) HUTCHINSON UTILITIES COMMISSION MINUTES FROM SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 13. MISCELLANEOUS Motion by Arndt, second by Christensen, to set public meeting for Dunham's grand opening at 8:30 a.m. on November 15, 2013. Motion carried unanimously. Jeremy Carter — Mr. Carter explained that the City's financial statements have not been on Council agendas due to the City's new financial system and proper reconciling. Kent Exner — Mr. Exner noted that the Jefferson Street project is completed. The Lynn Road project open house will be held on December 2, 2013. The 2017 Capital Improvement Plan includes School Road for an enhancement program — a grant deadline is this Friday that goes along with the federal transportation bill (scenic byways, safe route to school, enchancements, etc.) Staff will be submitting a letter of intent in order to apply for grant dollars for improvements from the School Road bridge to Roberts Road (narrowing roadway and trail feature among other things). The letter of intent would be to capture federal project dollars. The estimated project cost is $300,000. Mayor Cook — Mayor Cook noted that the State bonding committee for the House was on tour and stopped near Hutchinson last Friday. Officials met on the Luce Line Trail project. 14. ADJOURN Motion by Arndt, second by Cook, to adjourn at 8:10 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. 7 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 12, 2013 Steven W. Cook Mayor ATTEST: Jeremy J. Carter City Administrator