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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-28-11 WSMinutes Lakeville City Council Work Session Monday, March 28, 2011 In attendance: Mayor Mark Bellows Council Member Laurie Rieb Council Member Kerrin Swecker Council Member Matt Little Council Member Colleen LaBeau Staff: Steve Mielke, City Administrator Dennis Feller, Finance Director Char Friedges, City Clerk Brenda Visnovec, Liquor Operations Director Judi Hawkins, Deputy City Clerk The meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm. ITEM #1 — Liquor Ordinance Amendment City Clerk Char Friedges provided an overview of outdated language in the current City Code regarding liquor licensing and suggested language that would streamline the administrative process. Modified language will also provide consistency with Minnesota Statutes and improved customer service to the establishments. The City Clerk and the City Attorney are also recommending that public hearings no longer be required on renewal applications, and that residency requirements be removed for license holders. Council Member Swecker feels in order to continue to make an informed decision on license renewals it is important that Council be provided with an update on each liquor establishment regarding failed compliance checks and other violations throughout the year. The City Clerk will provide an annual report with this information. Council directed staff to place the item on the April 4, 2011 agenda for consideration. ITEM #2 — Comprehensive Liquor Store Analysis The Liquor Committee met recently and discussed the possibility of conducting an analysis of the City's off -sale liquor operations. The cost of an analysis is unknown and will not be actually determined until proposals have been received. Council Member LaBeau asked that wages for City liquor employees be compared with similar jobs in the private sector. Steve Mielke referred to Section 2 where that information will be covered. LaBeau also requested the results include utilizing the liquor store assets to pay down the City's debt and how many years of debt that might cover. City Council Work Session Minutes March 28, 2011 Page -2- Council Member Swecker asked how the field of consultants had been narrowed down to these five companies. Brenda Visnovec stated that the five professional consulting companies which are being considered for interviews all have experience and background in the liquor industry. Council Member Little pointed to the challenges the consultant would face in predicting the impact of future legislation on liquor operations. He stated that without municipal liquor additional time and cost for enforcement by the police should also be assumed. Mr. Mielke concurred that there are several unknown factors. Council members were in agreement with the proposed anticipated timeline for the project. City Council directed staff to proceed with sending the Request for Proposals to the five consulting firms listed in the memo for the purpose of soliciting professional services for completing a comprehensive analysis of the City's municipal liquor operations. ITEM #3 — Development Process Forum In order to continually strive for improvement in serving the development community, City staff is proposing to obtain feedback regarding the current system. The process would include mailing a survey to a wide range of customers who have applied for a building permit or processed a planning application in the past two to three years including: commercial, industrial, and residential developers; business owners; contractors; builders; engineers; architects; and realtors and real estate brokers. The survey would ask about experiences in conducting business with the City and ask for suggestions for improvement. Bellows felt it was important to do a comparison and analysis of development fees in other cities, especially growth cities. He added that some fees are structured differently from city to city and so they are somewhat difficult to compare and evaluate. Survey respondents would have the option of identifying themselves or remaining anonymous. Council members requested that the survey ask specific questions as to their experiences and how Lakeville compares in both positive and negative ways to other cities. Results of the survey would lay the groundwork for a forum event which would be led by a moderator who is knowledgeable in development. The purpose of the forum would be to foster constructive discussions about Lakeville's development procedures. Staff and advisory committees would review the information for possible policy recommendations to Council. Developer Joe Miller was in attendance and addressed the Council. He feels the City is not user friendly when it comes to who pays for new streets in a development. He believes the streets are not just for the neighborhood but for the whole community and the cost should be shared. He wants to make sure that the survey is given to the right people. Mayor Bellows feels a forum would make a positive statement to the development community that the City of Lakeville wishes to be as helpful and user friendly as possible. City Council Work Session Minutes March 28, 2011 Page -3- ITEM #4 — Merchant Services — on -line credit card payments Finance Director Dennis Feller had provided the Council with a comprehensive outline regarding the City accepting credit cards for utility bills and other payments, and issues to be considered in setting this policy. Mr. Feller stated that if the option was available, it is estimated that up to 20% of residents would pay their utility charges with a credit card. Council is being asked to consider if they wish to offer this service for residents, and, if so, should the City or the customer pay the fees. For VISA card transactions the City would be allowed to charge a flat rate convenience fee to the customers for any non face -to -face transactions. Staff is recommending the fee be set at $3.75 per on -line transaction. The City does not currently charge a convenience fee for other on -line financial transactions such as inspections permits and park programs. Council is also being asked if they wish to apply a convenience fee to those transactions. Council Member LaBeau believes the added charges for building permits would be detrimental. Mr. Feller stated that the fee would not be imposed for permits where the application and a set of plans needs to be dropped off at the counter, since a check would accompany the application, but only for the minor permits such as roofing, plumbing, anc electrical permits that can be applied for on -line. Council directed staff to add this item to the April 4, 2011 agenda for Council to consider implementing credit card services for utility billing with a $3.75 convenience fee; to add a $2.50 convenience fee for on -line inspection permit credit card payments, and to allow credit card payments with no convenience fees for parks, recreation, and arts center programs. ITEM #5 — Finance Task Force Council is being asked to provide direction to staff on a proposed Finance Task Force. Council Member Swecker has researched cities and school districts in Minnesota and other states which have similar organized groups and has determined that groups generally take one of two forms. In one form groups are project -based and are charged with specific tasks which might include advising Council on such things as spending priorities, quarterly budget reviews, and a budget document. In this scenario the task force would be advisory only, with decision - making ability staying with the Council. The other form is a decision - making group which actually prepares the budget. A discussion was held regarding membership and an appointment process. Council members indicated that it was not necessary to have a Council member on the task force, however they felt it would be valuable to keep minutes of the meetings. Mr. Mielke suggested formatting an outline of the types of experience, skills, and other preferred appointment criteria. LaBeau distributed materials she received via email from an EDC member. City Council Work Session Minutes March 28, 2011 Page -4- Mayor Bellows stated that the Lakeville Chamber of Commerce finance policy committee formed in 2009 has been successful. He believes it is important for the City finance task force to also feel they are being heard. Bellows agrees that a narrow focus of projects would be desirable. Swecker stated that it is essential to engage the community as a whole. Council Member Rieb asked other Council members to confirm that they are in agreement on the creation of this Financial Task Force. She feels the task force should be advisory, not decision making, with an application process open to everyone, and that the group should start with a one -year trial and evolve from there. Council Member Little feels it is important to continue to keep the residents involved and included. He stated that residents and business owners have many avenues to access Council and staff on an ongoing basis with questions and comments. He stated that community members have expertise in a variety of specific skills or areas and it might be advantageous to have a pool of possible task force members to choose from when various issues arise. Steve Mielke stated that the public has recently focused most of their attention on spending and revenue policies. Spending decisions are generally policy -level decisions, which is different from analysis of options for financing that spending. Marc Bourdeax, 20116 Homefire Way, doesn't understand why the task force's ideas should be the same as the elected officials. He believes that each Council member and department director looks out for their own special interests and not what's best for the city. Sheila Longie, 20709 Hampshire Circle, is an EDC member and on the Chamber executive board and had understood this would be a collaboration with the EDC and the Chamber budget advisory committee. Council Member Little sees the mission of the group would be to go beyond what the citizens are already doing on their own. The task force should improve and enhance what is already being done. Council members are elected on their values and priorities and need to make decisions based on how they were elected. The task force should be narrowly defined with the objectives of research and fact finding. The group could be useful in reviewing the audit and budget document format coming up. Lynn Theraldson, 20028 Kenwood Trail, believes people are frustrated with the economy and with not feeling like they are heard. Little stated that the purpose of the task force will be to make recommendations to Council and to take some of the burden off of staff to work on other projects. Swecker agrees that the Council needs to listen to everyone. Steve Mielke stressed the importance of giving the task force clear directions and goals on advising the Council. Council Member Rieb reiterated that the decision making will continue to lie with the Council. Council Member LaBeau wants residents to know that the Council wishes to continue to hear from residents directly. City Council Work Session Minutes March 28, 2011 Page -5- Council directed staff to summarize results of this meeting and prepare a task force framework for further discussion at the next work session. ITEM #6 — Food Shelf Donation Policy Throughout the year several thousand pounds of non - perishable food items are collected at various city- sponsored events for the benefit of the local food shelf. There are currently two official food shelf operations in Lakeville and staff is looking for Council direction on where to donate food items that are collected at city programs and activities. By definition, a food shelf must be a 501 c3 non - profit organization, which qualifies both 360 Communities and the Lakeville Resource Center to receive the donations. Council Member Little stated that between the two organizations, there is five -day per week food service in the community for those in need. Council directed staff to distribute food collections as equally as possible to the Lakeville Resource Center and 360 Communities. ITEM #7 — Other A. City Website: Email Communications with Council Staff is requesting direction from the Council on whether to continue with a group email system on the website or to add individual email addresses for each Council member as has been suggested by a Council member. Currently, Council's contact information on the website is provided as a group, with those messages being routed through the administration department. Council Member Swecker is concerned that if email is sent to her exclusively she would be unable to respond promptly and people would not know if their message was received; she prefers to have the sender receive some assurance. Mr. Mielke has done some research of neighboring communities and found that some cities have individual contact information while other have group contact like Lakeville. Mayor Bellows would be in favor of having his personal email listed on the website. Mr. Mielke is concerned that when there is a request for information that is only directed to council members through an email, a response will not be timely. In order to eliminate multiple responses, Mayor Bellows will respond to the email or forward it to a staff member for resolution. B. State of the City Address The Chamber of Commerce will host the State of the City Address on Wednesday, April 27th at Crystal Lake Golf Club. Mayor Bellows stated that the mayors of other cities often deliver the annual address and he believes it sends a positive message of unity to the public. Council members were supportive of the Mayor presenting the State of the City Address. City Council Work Session Minutes March 28, 2011 Page -6- C. Cable Board Update Staff is proposing the Telecommunications Commission be restructured as a Cable Board for the purpose of providing advice to the Council in three areas: franchise renewal, customer complaints, and right of way issues. The proposed restructured board would consist of five members and would meet at least quarterly. Three of the former Telecommunications Commission members have expressed an interest in continuing on the new board. Staff will prepare a resolution reestablishing the Cable Board for Council consideration. D. Rules of Procedure Council Member LaBeau asked if the council could be briefed on the Rules of Procedure so everyone understands the protocol of the meetings. Mr. Mielke will set a time with the City Attorney to review this document with the Council. E. Police Station Discussion: Council Member LaBeau asked about the phone survey that the senior citizens are planning to do, and how long they will have to conduct their fundraising following that survey. She believes if the senior citizens conduct fundraising activities, it gives the appearance that the proposed plan is already approved. Council Member Swecker said she has had a change of heart about the former police station building and believes that there needs to be a timeline of June 1st for the information - gathering on options and then re- consider putting the building on the market. Mr. Mielke stated that Council has instructed staff to work with the seniors and the Historical Society to produce more information that will help to determine the costs and potential for the facility. The seniors have not been instructed to raise funds since there are still issues that need to be resolved. The operation and ownership of the building remains with the City until Council decides otherwise. LaBeau asked if it was made clear to the seniors that there was no guarantee of them using the building, even if they paid for the appraisal. She asked if they had discussed a timeline to raise funds to do the work in the building. Mielke added that the seniors have been told that this is still in the exploratory phase and they have not been given any assurances that they would be able to use the building. Council Member Little stated that the fundraising is part of the process, but not the core issue. The most important thing is to determine what the best use of the building is and guarantee it's done right. He does not wish to put it on the market at this time but would like to see staff focus their resources on this project and bring the issue to a conclusion. Swecker said she would not be opposed to testing the market for selling the building. LaBeau stated that her original intent in making the motion was to get some dialog started and let people know that something was being done. F. City Administrator Review This will be taken care of at the Personnel Committee level, along with related topics. City Council Work Session Minutes March 28, 2011 Page -7- G. Council Committee and Inter - agency Reports • HiPP —The Steering Committee has agreed on the top six priorities; a report is being prepared which will be distributed in the next couple of weeks. The list includes a firearms range, a fire training facility, sharing of technical expertise, and administrative court options. • Cedar Corridor Improvement Group — Construction will begin April 4` in Lakeville on the Cedar Avenue BRT. Unfinished business: Regarding the Police Records Tech position, Council Member LaBeau asked if there was software available to assist with these duties. She would also like to review the electrical inspector position. This would send a message to the community that Council is continuing to search for additional budget cuts. Council Member Rieb feels that time would be better spent working on the 2012 budget. Mielke stated that, at the direction of council, research is already being done so these issues can be discussed for the 2012 budget. Council would have the option of implementing any changes they feel are necessary when the analysis is complete. The timeline for the 2012 budget and CIP will be on the April work session agenda. Little suggested the Council move forward rather than continuing discussions about what has already been decided. Staff time is currently stretched working on several major items and issues. Little stated that the council has already approved the Police Records Tech position for the last half of the 2011 budget. On the next agenda Council will consider accepting a donation of a portion of a council member's salary with the intent that it goes toward the position. ITEM #8 — Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, l no �ucly Hawkins puty Clerk Mark Bellows Mayor