Kiffi Summa, LWV Observer
All Councilors were present except for Erica Zweifel.
Minutes of the August 3rd meeting were approved.
Consent Agenda - There were eight items on the Consent Agenda; the eighth (Resolution 2010-063) being the approval of Tim Madigan (who was in the audience, note-taking) as Interim City Administrator.
Councilor Betsey Buckheit requested that Consent Item #4 (Second reading of Ordinance #910 - Rezoning the property at 1821 North Avenue/proposed radiation oncology facility / Mayo Clinics ) be removed from Consent to the Regular Agenda as it required a super majority vote for approval of rezoning while the Consent items do not require that majority for approval.
After Item #4 was removed from Consent, and placed on the Regular Agenda as item #8b, the Vote on the Consent Agenda was All Aye.
Regular Agenda - Item #8b (see above) was voted All Aye.
Item #9. - First reading of Ordinance # 911 - Adding Chapter 22, Article6, divisions 2&3 to the Northfield City Code Regarding Stormwater Management
As reported before , the development of this stormwater management ordinance has been a lengthy, and very detailed process which has included several partners. The leadership has been under the City's Engineer, Katy Gehler, who has worked with specialist consultants along with input from St. Olaf, Cannon River Watershed Partnership, Bridgewater Twp, etc.
The rules/guidelines of Northfield's ordinance will either meet or exceed the general requirements of the State, and the DNR, and are more strict with reference to Rice Creek, a portion of which is within the proposed Prawer-Gill annexation area in Bridgewater Township.
Vote: All Aye.
Item #10. - Authorize Staff to proceed with 2011 Street Reclamation Project (Motion)
This project would consider three sections of streets: Linden between Greenvale and St. Olaf, Plum between Greenvale and St. Olaf, and 2nd Street from Lincoln west to the dead end. These street sections rose to the top of the prioritized list because of poor condition of all infrastructure systems. As usual this street reconstruction project would be funded through a variety of sources: GO Bonds (General Obligation), assessments, and enterprise funds (sewer, water, etc). The total project costs are estimated to be approximately 2.5 million dollars, with Bonding required for about $700,000, or a little less than a third of the total cost.
After an explanation by Engineer Gehler about the processing for determining priorities for street reconstruction, it was noted that putting street projects 'on hold' in the 2000 construction season had left the City playing 'catch up' since resuming the schedule.
Mayor Rossing expressed a concern about further indebting the City ($700K) while facing other "big issues" , i.e. putting the Safety Center project , a project she expressed as holding a higher priority in her mind, on hold; she stated she would be voting NO.
***NOTE: Remember that the Council voted 5-2 to put the Safety Center project on hold until after November, when they expect to hear from MNDOT about the availability of their preferred site at Woodley and Hwy.3.
Vote: All Aye , except Mayor Rossing: No
Item #11. - Approve Early Voluntary Retirement (Motion)
Human resources Director, Elizabeth Wheeler, began by explaining that as a cost savings measure, early retirement had been offered to city employees; three had responded with interest, and an agreement had been reached with Brian O'Connell, Community Development Director.
Mr. O'Connell will terminate his full time employment with the City as of 9/01/ 2010. He will be hired back as a consultant (Community Development Transition Consultant) as of 9/7/ 2010. This will be considered to be a half-time position , averaging 20 hours of work a week, (No more than 40 hours any one week) with a wage capped at
$43, 313. for 880 hours of work, to be ended by July 12, 2011, unless a different date is mutually agreed to by both parties. One of the major responsibilities of this consulting position will be the continuing oversight of the completion of the Land Development Code on which the Planning Commission members have been working diligently for many months.
A lump sum insurance payment equivalent to $119, 647.50 will be deposited to Mr. O'Connell's Post Employment Health Plan.
The packet states: "The Council is being asked to consider the 'win-win' benefits of this voluntary early retirement and authorize the execution of the agreement to ensure cost savings to the City for at least the next four years."
After little discussion, some public comment, and City Attorney Chris Hood's reminder that Mr. O'Connell remains an "at-will employee", the vote was taken.
Vote All Aye.
Item #12. - 2011 Budget Discussion (Discussion only)
At 7:50 the Council took up yet another budget discussion with the Mayor noting that it was earlier in the evening than last time, and they were all ''fresher'.
Before the discussion began, City Administrator Joel Walinski suggested that as there was no more action to be taken this evening , Attorney Hood might leave. In the future, legal matters requiring Mr. Hood's presence will be attempted to be scheduled on the 1st legislative and work session of each month, hoping for a cost efficiency in the use of the City Attorney's time.
After public comments on this item, the Council began to go over a document they had requested at the August 3rd meeting, which would give them details of the cuts in each of the City's departments. Mr. Walinski walked/talked them through this 4 page document, provided two handouts (General Fund Revenues, and GF Expenditures) and also showed several slides with charts of corresponding information.
***NOTE: The two General Fund sheets were available as handouts to the Public, but the visual slides and charts were neither available in print format for the public, nor in any of the Public packets.
The usual procedure for the preliminary budget submitted to the state in September, is to put the tax levy as high as legally allowed, and then back it down to the desired level by the time the final budget is submitted in December. This is a practical procedure because the preliminary tax levy may be reduced, but not increased, in the final iteration in December.
Mr. Walinski at one point asked the Councilors to consider "how long residents will put up with reduced service levels."; reminding them also that they will immediately in 2011 need to begin to consider cuts for 2012.
Further discussion centered on what might be the 'help' realized by the now appointed Financial Advisory Group (tonight's consent agenda item #6), and possible cautious use of the City's Revenue Stabilization Fund (containing between 800K and 1 million $$), to help with further budget concerns as it became apparent that some Councilors did not wish to see ANY increase in property taxes... or indeed even setting the levy increase at the highest allowable percentage in September. Following more discussion along this path, Mayor Rossing suggested that she was "inclined to be aggressive" and if the levy was raised, and the money not needed to offset other intergovernmental losses (the state may decline the reimbursement to cities of the homestead credit), it might be "strategic" to apply those dollars to a "new project".
After more theoretic discussion, the Council briefly discussed the Public Budget Hearing Meeting (8.23., 7 PM., at City Hall) with the Mayor emphasizing the need for a broad public perspective/input on budget matters, once again feeling the need for a formal citizen survey process.
*** NOTE: The observer spoke as a citizen, NOT representing the LWV, noting the inadequacy of the 4 page budget document provided for this discussion. She felt it was a specious document which would not stand the test of true analysis; that overall it had a scarcity of dollar numbers, disproportionately skewed percentages, and an overabundance of non-specific narrative summaries.
After the Administrator's update, and Council reports, the meeting adjourned at 9:32 PM.
