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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-23-11 WSMinutes Lakeville City Council Work Session May 23, 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 Michael Meyer, Fire Chief Keith Nelson, City Engineer Brenda Visnovec, Liquor Operations Director Chris Petree, Operations and Maintenance Director Judi Hawkins, Deputy City Clerk At the request of Mayor Bellows, the meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Acting Mayor Rieb. ITEM #1 — Election Equipment Report. City Clerk Char Friedges distributed information to the Council regarding the possible redrawing of precinct boundaries and the purchase of new election equipment prior to the 2012 election. Since 2002 when the current 14 precincts were drawn there has been an increase of 7,000 registered voters. Several precincts accommodate significantly more voters than the standards recommended by the Secretary of State's office, which makes the precincts difficult to manage. Staff is proposing to use the 2010 census data and future redistricting to divide the city into 17 voting precincts to better accommodate voters. This will require purchase of three additional AccuVote tabulators to use in 2012. Staff feels three additional precincts will serve the City's voting needs for many years. The Dakota County Board of Commissioners has approved a cost -share concept with the cities to replace the current AccuVote tabulators which are becoming obsolete and need frequent maintenance and repair. The County will no longer provide maintenance on the current tabulators after new equipment is purchased in 2013. The City's share of funds for the purchase of new equipment is partially available through grants from the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). These grant funds will reduce the City's cost for tabulators from $4,000 to approximately $2,000 each. New equipment would then be in place for the 2014 election. If the three proposed precincts are added prior to the agreement with the County, they will also be eligible and included in the cost share agreement for new equipment for 2014. As a result of redistricting by the legislature, changes to the precinct boundaries will likely be required in spring of 2012. City Council Work Session Minutes May 23, 2011 Page -2- Council directed staff to prepare a resolution for a future Council agenda to consider redrawing precinct boundaries in order to add three precincts, purchase the necessary equipment for the 2012 election, and enter into an agreement with Dakota County for the cooperative purchase of election equipment for 17 precincts for the 2014 election. ITEM #2 — Fire Code Enforcement Ordinance Fire Chief Mike Meyer is proposing that in order to streamline the process of dealing with fire code violations the Fire Chief and Fire Marshal be authorized to issue citations for violations which have not been resolved through other efforts. Meyer provided examples of neighboring cities' fire zoning ordinances showing that this is a common practice in other cities. It is being proposed that the Police Department relinquish sole responsibility in issuing fire code citations since the fire officials generally work more closely with fire codes and violations. This would eliminate the need for police officers to spend time at court appearances. Fire Marshal Brian Carstenson stated that the Fire Dept.'s main focus is public education relative to fire dangers and prevention, and that will continue. Fire code citations would only be issued when other means of fire code compliance have been exhausted. Council directed staff to prepare an ordinance amendment for Council consideration that would authorize the Fire Chief and Fire Marshal to issue citations for fire code violations. ITEM #3 — Board and Commission Terms and Application Forms City Administrator Steve Mielke presented Council with a draft resolution which would change the terms of office for all Boards and Commission members to begin on April 1 51 and expire on March 31'. This was proposed by Council in order to advertise vacancies to the public at a time which does not conflict with the holidays, thus providing an improved transition and appointment process. Council members had suggested creating applications focused on the individual committees instead of using a generic application for all boards. Council received draft application forms with board - specific questions to which some revisions were proposed. Council Member LaBeau feels that committee members should not be automatically reappointed when their terms expire and that term limits should be considered. She said that citizens have spoken to her about not having an opportunity to be appointed to a board because of limited vacancies. Council members decided to add this to a work session agenda later this year for further discussion. Council members directed staff to prepare the resolution adjusting term dates for consideration at an upcoming Council meeting. City Council Work Session Minutes May 23, 2011 ITEM #4 — Liquor Study Page -3- Liquor Operations Director Brenda Visnovec stated that following Council's direction at the March 28" work session, staff forwarded requests for proposal to five companies to conduct a comprehensive study and analysis of Lakeville's municipal liquor operations. One of the companies declined to bid and the highest bid of the remaining four proposals was rejected. Staff interviewed representatives from the remaining three companies. Of those three, staff felt that Shenehon Company had not only submitted the lowest bid but also provided a different approach for looking at the liquor stores as a long -term business. Shenehon was also willing to work with staff on completing the study in phases which would be advantageous in budgeting for this study. The outcome of Phase One would be a recommendation to Council whether the city should continue in the liquor business. The direction of Phase Two would be based on the outcome of Phase One. Council Member Little suggested that Phase One be done by staff in -house since the information is already available, thus saving approximately $25,000. Mr. Mielke stated that some of the information is available such as sales and financial history however other areas such as the economic impacts and appraisals should be delegated to a company with the proper expertise. He feels an unbiased third party has different perspectives and adds a level of credibility if staff conducted the study. He believes the acceptance of an objective, unbiased evaluation is a valuable part of the project. Council Member LaBeau stated that there are still questions remaining as to what the legislature will do regarding certain liquor issues. Brenda Visnovec stated that the Wine in Grocery Stores issue was resolved by the legislature with an agreement to allow grocers to sell wine if they have a separate entrance for liquor sales, with the exception of cities with municipal liquor. A Sunday off -sale liquor bill was also defeated at the legislature this year due to lack of support. Council Member Swecker asked if the liquor evaluation could wait a couple of years due to the budget constraints at this time. Mayor Bellows stated that the evaluation should be accomplished prior to the proposed $2.8 million being spent next year for acquisition. Mr. Mielke stated that it would be advisable to complete the evaluation and move forward in whatever direction they determine is best based on the results, thereby bringing a resolution to this issue. Council directed staff to prepare the agreement with Shenehon Company to conduct the liquor study and to place it on the next Council agenda for consideration. City Council Work Session Minutes May 23, 2011 Page -4- ITEM #5 — 2012 — 2016 Capital Improvement Plan Council was provided with a draft of the 2012 -2016 Capital Improvement Plan from the Finance Department. Finance Director Dennis Feller gave an overview of the salient projects. Steve Mielke added that Dakota County has not yet adopted their CIP and that could impact the project prioritizations. At this time Dakota County places a higher priority on the CR50 /CR60 intersection since federal funding is available to offset some of that project's costs; however staff believes the Dodd Blvd. /183r St. —Hayes is a higher priority. Although there have not been a lot of severe accidents in that area, it gets the most complaints for traffic congestion and time waiting to clear the intersection. The police indicate they also need to take an alternate route in order to avoid getting tied up in traffic. Council agreed that they would prioritize Dodd /Highview improvements over CR50 /CR60 as long as federal funding is not negatively impacted. Director of Operations and Maintenance Chris Petree discussed significant changes to planned street reconstruction projects. It is the goal to maintain an acceptable Overall Condition Index (OCI) because the streets are deteriorating more rapidly than anticipated. Mr. Petree is proposing an accelerated reconstruction program to maintain an acceptable OCI. The acceleration of the program would put the approved five -year program on a four -year track for completion. Velocity patching is being done on some larger potholes; however this does not produce the desired surface. Even though the price of petroleum products is high, lower labor costs are helping to balance the bottom line. Staff would like to get as much accomplished as possible while prices are at the current level. Staff feels that dollars are better spent on long -term repair rather than constant patching. An additional $1M is needed in the road repair budget. Under Utilities Infrastructure, discussions included construction of Well #20, repair and repainting of water towers, and sanitary sewer trunk extensions. Water tower inspections are done every five years and the reconditioning will last 20 to 30 years. Projects under Parks and Recreation included paving of Quigley -Sime parking lot and completion of the North Lake Marion Loop at Lake Marion. Several grants have been acquired for this project if the property becomes available for acquisition. Under General Government Facilities projects highlighted included ABLE fire training, senior center proposal, liquor land acquisition, re -roof of the Water Treatment Facility, and continued exploration of a police department gun range. Replacement of playground equipment at 14 different parks is also on the schedule. Policy issues include financing for new road improvements, local street reconstruction and pavement management, debt management, liquor appropriations, and options for financing equipment purchases. City Council Work Session Minutes May 23, 2011 ITEM #6 — Other Page -5- Council will interview three new candidates for the reconstituted Cable TV Board prior to their June 6` Council meeting. Council Member Rieb distributed information and asked for feedback on a suggested speaker for a Council team - building workshop. Due to scheduling conflicts Council Member Swecker has had difficulty attending Fire Relief meetings. Council Member LaBeau agreed to represent the Council at those meetings in the future. Inter - agency Committee /Board Reports: • ALF — The Board approved their budget at a recent meeting. • DCC — Their budget was also approved. Lakeville's share has been reduced due to a lower number of CAD events. • Lakeville Arenas — Rental rates are frozen for this year and next, but clients have been informed that in two years the rates will increase by $10.00. ITEM #7. — Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Judi H wkins Deputy Clerk A � Mark Bellows Mayor