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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-29-13 WSCITY OF LAKEVILLE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MINUTES January 29, 2013 Mayor Little called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. in the Marion Conference Room at City Hall. Members Present: Council Members Swecker, Anderson, LaBeau, and Mayor Little Staff Present: Steve Mielke, City Administrator; Allyn Kuennen, Assistant to the City Administrator; Judi Hawkins, Deputy City Clerk 2. Citizen Comments There were no citizen comments. 3. City Council Position Application Review. Mr. Mielke presented the list of applicants for the vacant City Council position. One of the applicants has chosen to withdraw from consideration because an appointment to the City Council would require him to resign from his current position as a Lakeville firefighter. Council had previously agreed on several dates and times for interviewing applicants. Mielke suggested that interview questions be established in advance, if possible, and that questions be consistent from candidate to candidate. Council members requested a list of questions that were used in previous Council interviews. Mayor Little expressed the importance of focusing on each candidate's strengths and the positive aspects they could bring to the position if they were selected. Council Member Anderson added that this is a terrific group of candidates, many of whom are already involved in the City in an advisory capacity and others who wish to be involved. With a general consensus that five to seven applicants would be chosen for interviews, Council members proceeded to identify their preferences and any applicant who was chosen by more than one Council member would be interviewed. Following discussions, the following applicants were chosen for interviews: Bob Boerschel, Bart Davis, Judy Jordan, Scott Kelly, Donald Kurta, Craig Manson, and Karen Wentworth. Staff will schedule interviews with the selected candidates the evenings of February 4 and 5, with February 12 as an alternate date. It is Council's intent to officially appoint the selected candidate at the February 19 meeting, with the swearing in to take place on March 4. Interviews and subsequent discussions will be open to the public. City Council Work Session Minutes, January 29, 2013 Page 2 4. Vision Task Force Member Selection Council received a list of potential candidates for the Vision Task Force. The list was compiled from names suggested by Council. The candidates were nominated based on a variety of predetermined categories, in an effort to secure broad perspectives from a cross section of the community. The consultant feels a goal of 12 -15 members would be the most manageable -sized task force. Additional representatives are needed from the health care field; the best represented areas are education and business. The national survey needs to be sent out next week in order to have the results by the April task force meeting. The internal "Then and Now" will be completed with staff beginning in the next several days. This is intended to provide perspective to the task force and encourage thinking about how different the City might look in the future, compared to today. Dates are currently being identified for town forums and speakers. Task force members' job will be to take all of the public input which is gathered through various channels and produce a set of recommendations, goals, aspirations, and guiding principles for future decision making. Council member LaBeau stated that compared to the other school districts the representation from ISD 196 seems like it could be stronger. Others mentioned that not everyone who is asked will be able to take part, so there could be some exchanges from the alternate list. After much discussion it was decided that the objective should be two task force members from each of the eight categories, for a total of 16. There will also be some overlap of members which could be representative of more than one category, but overall the task force should stay at no more than 16 or 17. It was agreed by Council members that it is important for them to personally contact potential task force members, explain the visioning process to them, and ask them to be part of the group. Council members each chose five potential candidates to contact to request participation. Five meetings of two to three hours each will be held; the introductory meeting will be February 21. 5. Legislative Priorities Associate Planner Allyn Kuennen gave a brief overview of the Legislative Priorities. Each year the City expresses to the legislators what issues and position they would like the legislators to promote and advocate at the upcoming legislative session. This year's priorities are very similar to last year's with some updated and clarified verbiage. The purpose of the document is to let both the legislators and the public know the Council's position on a variety of issues. Council believes that there are several issues that should be more aggressively pursued not only with local legislators, but with state and federal representatives as well. These include the railroad line right of way and 35W traffic. Council members were asked to consider other possible items which might be proposed for advocacy by the legislature. The vision process will be of some assistance in focusing on priorities. City Council Work Session Minutes, January 29, 2013 Page 3 Council directed staff to place the City of Lakeville Legislative Priorities on a regular Council agenda for formal adoption and to look for ways to become more aggressive in raising the awareness of the legislators to the City's priorities. 6. Council Committee and Inter - Agency Appointments Council members discussed continued representation on various boards and committees until a full council is in place. There is some concern that the DCC needs a Lakeville representative since they will be beginning their budget process and discussing purchase of new software. Council Member Swecker has acted as the alternate and is interested in continuing in that role until official appointments are made. Council will discuss all Inter - agency appointments at the February 25 work session when all members are present. 7. Board and Commission Appointment Process Review Advisory committee and commission members whose terms expire in 2013 have indicated whether or not they wish to be reappointed. There is one Parks and Recreation Committee member and one Finance Committee member who are not seeing reappointment. In addition, a vacancy exists on the Finance Committee due to the election of Doug Anderson to the City Council. Council Member LaBeau stated that members who are seeking reappointment should not automatically be reappointed, but Council should consider interviewing them and considering new applicants. Council Member Anderson also believes it would be beneficial to get more people involved in the city by rotating in new committee members. Council Member Swecker believes that there is a benefit in the historical perspective of committee members who are serving and the natural turnover brings new members. Steve Mielke suggested that an article be published in Messages inviting residents to apply for all committees. Performance evaluations could be requested from directors and chairs to assist Council in making reappointment decisions. Anderson stated that individual committee members' attendance should be taken into consideration for reappointment and that attendance rules should be consistently enforced. Anderson also believed that it is important for residents to know that opportunities to become involved do exist and that committee members are not automatically reappointed. Swecker agrees that there are many civic minded people in the community who wish to serve, but at the same time she believes it is important to be respectful of current committee members. Term limits might need to be discussed at another time. Mielke suggested that all appointments and reappointments be made at the same time. Council Member Anderson will not be available for the February 25 meeting and asked if the technology is available for him to teleconference into the meeting. Staff will check with the IT staff and also the City Attorney regarding open meeting regulations. City Council Work Session Minutes, January 29, 2013 Page 4 8. Meeting Protocol Review Meeting protocol was discussed to determine if any changes are required in Council meeting procedures. It was suggested that questions for staff be routed through Steve Mielke so information can be readily available. Council members preferred to continue with roll call votes for motions vs. group voting to allow for any nay votes explanations. The adopted Rules of Procedure document is available in the Mayor /Council office for anyone to review. The Mayor will provide a synopsis of the meeting in his introduction. 9. Electronic Packets Council members unanimously agreed to discontinue paper packets and begin receiving all packets, including work session materials, electronically. All Council meeting and work session packets will be available to the public through the City of Lakeville website. Sign -in sheets will be available at Council meetings to assist with recording names and addresses of those people who speak during Citizen Comments and public hearings. 10. Other None 11. Adjourn Mayor Little adjourned the meeting at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, l� J d' Hawkins, Deputy Clerk Ma Little, Ma r