League of Women Voters

Kiffi Summa , LWV Observer

All councilors were present, and there were no agenda changes.

A Presentation featured the recycling efforts of two schools, Greenvale and  St. Dominic's. Through Waste Management's Green Team cardboard/paper recycling program  these two school teams managed the containers which collected approximately 80 tons of  product, earning the schools  a total of $1200.00.

There was no Public Comment on the Consent Agenda (items 1-4), which was approved; and no general public comment at Open Mic.

The Regular Agenda  consisted of  seven items:

5.  Safety Center Project Update

6.  Approve Budget Amendment

7.  Update City Council on Stormwater Ordinance

8.  Authorize staff to prepare an agreement for use of right-of-way in front of the Historic Society

9.  Consider voluntary City Council pay adjustments

10. Consider reestablishing the position of Welcome Center  Coordinator

11. Administrator Transition Options

*** NOTE:  Although this agenda looked fairly innocuous, it was packed with content, and it is simply a matter of practicality to briefly summarize on some of these agenda items.

5. Safety Center Project Update - Although this began as a simple report from Mike Clark  of KKE architects, mostly referencing the preference for the Jasnoch site for the Police facility, it quickly became  possibly  the most important item on the agenda. City Administrator Joel Walinski announced that the schedule the city had been operating on, which would have let them know about the availability of the Woodley  MNDOT owned site for the new fire station, was no longer operable.  MDOT had  offered in a May 13 letter that they would  probably be able to advise the city on that site's availability by early August; however, MNDOT's interior schedule  is slowed by several months.

This means that without the knowledge of  that site being available, the Council is unable to move forward on their strict schedule, to the anticipated November referendum on new safety facility projects.

After that announcement of his notice from MNDOT, Mr. Walinski  reported on his meetings with the city's 'partners'  who might be  contributing to the projects, i.e., the  Colleges and the Rural  Fire Department. The partners want a final site and design ( and therefore costs) before "coming on board"... so Mr. Walinski's recommendation was to postpone the referendum.

Mayor Rossing  said this should move the Council to some action, and proposed 1. reaffirm Woodley as the preferred site. 2. yes/no vote  on postponing referendum, 3. affirm design and move forward  for the  Police project on the Jasnoch site.

There was a lot of disparate discussion.

Mayor's action #1 , to affirm Woodley as the preferred site, was voted on:  All Aye except for C. Jon Denison.

Mayor's action #2, to postpone the referendum to a yet-to-be-specified date was voted on:  All Aye.

Mayor's action #3, to move ahead with the Jasnoch site for police was moved and seconded. A long and far ranging discussion of various options ensued going all the way back to previously discarded possibilities for a combined facility. When the vote was taken it failed, 5-2, with the Mayor and C. Vohs  voting Aye to continue  with development on that site.

Administrator Walinski then asked the Council for direction on how to proceed.

KKE  architects were instructed to embark on trying to work out a design for a combined  police/fire facility on the Woodley site, IF it became available, and bring that information back to the council for some decision at the August 3  Council meeting.

6. Approve Budget Amendment - City Finance Director Kathleen McBride presented this amendment which primarily addresses the state aid reductions made by the 2010 Legislature, as well as a few  'housekeeping'  matters.

The net reduction to expenditures for the General Fund  is $149, 448.

7. Update  City Council on Stormwater Ordinance -  this appears to have been a very thorough process which involved several other private and jurisdictional partners. The proposed ordinance  language would put Northfield in a favorable position as to environmental standards with its 'peer' group cities,  and meets or  exceeds state standards .

Proceeding on schedule would mean the new ordinance would be operable in October.

8. ... Right-of-Way/ Historic  Society -   The NF Historic Society has had a successful capital campaign and has received significant grant monies, allowing it to make major improvements to their building. One of those improvements is the addition of an elevator at the west end of their  building, and that requires an adjustment to the sidewalk approach. It will be necessary to remove two trees in front  of the building to maintain ADA  sidewalk throughway, and that made C.  Pokorney vote No when the vote was taken; otherwise all Aye.

9.  Consider Voluntary City  Council  pay adjustments -  C. Pownell has been advocating that the Council should take a pay cut equal to the mandated three day staff furlough  cut, and asked for this item to be placed on the agenda. City Attorney Chris Hood informed the Council that  since their  pay is set by ordinance, they would have to change the ordinance to do this as a mandate, but they could voluntarily contribute back  a portion of their pay to the city.  After C.  Pokorney's joke about a charitable tax deduction (the  returned pay), and the Mayor noting that some silence night have indicated a lack of consensus,  the matter was left as a voluntary option.

10.  Consider re-establishing the position of Welcome Center Coordinator  -  C. Zweifel had asked for this to be put on the Agenda for reconsideration as it has been a controversial issue since the person  holding this position had also functioned as an interpreter  for the city and its residents. C. Zweifel then said she had been asked by  C. Pownell to table the reconsideration as C. Pownell has scheduled and held meetings with the Hispanic community, hoping to gain more relevant information.

Attny. Hood again entered the conversation noting that the  council would have to instruct the City Administrator to re-establish the  position in question, since the position had been cut, and then direct him to fill the position.

There were some process questions regarding the meetings held by Ms. Pownell,((the  Mayor and C. Pokorney also attended; other councilors were not notified)  and C. Pownell offered sincere response  of  having no intention of doing anything  inappropriate, but  only trying to gain more information to resolve a quandary.

The Mayor felt no need to table as she felt there was no more information to be gained, but the motion to table passed on a 4-3 vote.

11. Administrator  Transition Options - With Administrator  Walinski having announced his resignation, Mayor Rossing felt the council must act quickly to replace him with either an interim or permanent hire.   The Mayor laid out a very aggressive time schedule for beginning with an interim; a list of candidates provided by the MN League of cities was included in the Packet, and the Mayor  presented a council subcommittee process to align  with her schedule.   It was decided that although  there would be a subcommittee of the Council, ALL of the Councilors could rate the submitted resumes, if they chose to do so.

The Mayor's schedule imagined interviews with  candidates as early as August 9.  If there was a council approved candidate who was free to begin immediately, the schedule would allow that interim person to overlap  for a couple weeks with Mr. Walinski's end of term.