League of Women Voters of Northfield

Kiffi Summa,   LWV Observer

The Special City Council Meeting began at  5 PM, and was for the purpose of interviewing applicants  to fill the vacated at-large seat of Noah Cashman in the interim before a special ballot at the November election, when the seat will be filled with an elected  representative. The seven applicants for the seat were assigned by lot to a time slot, scheduled every 15 minutes, from 5:00  to 6:30  PM, and were not present for each other’s interview with the council.

Also on the Special Meeting Agenda was a motion to approve the process and procedures for the selection and appointment of this interim council position. Two options were considered: option #1 which was used during the last vacancy appointment and came from the MN League of Cities, was refined by the City Attorney. This process allows for successive rounds of voting for one less candidate each round until there are two candidates remaining,  and then there is a final vote. Option #2  uses  a ranked order system similar to the process recently used to select an interim administrator.  The council chose to use a variant of the second system, ranking candidates for their preference, and identifying the top three, who will then be voted on at the August 18th council meeting.

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The Work session began at 7:15, and the first item on the Agenda was a presentation by Tim Penny, of the Southern Minnesota Initiative  Foundation.   SMIF covers the southeastern portion of MN, from Le Seuer and Mankato on the west, to the river towns of the eastern border, and from the southern border as far north as Northfield.  Their main focus is on emerging businesses and emerging workforces.  They also do some start-up business loans, micro loans and gap financing. Organizations, and cities, within the region contribute about  $400,000 annually, and that money which leverages “outside” dollars, returns to the region at approximately 12-13 times the original amount, i.e., a good return on investment. The SMIF also runs town meeting initiatives, providing facilitators, to enable communities to work through problems which confront them. Occasionally, they help communities create Community Investment Funds, or area foundations,  and can also help with the management of those funds. Mr. Penny stated that the issue he is probably most passionate about, currently, is assimilating immigrant populations into the general population.

The second item on the agenda was  a report on the Library feasibility study. Margit Johnson, Library Board Chair, did an excellent job of reviewing the feasibility study for the Council. As usual, the Library Board does an exceptionally thorough job of presenting their material, with clear facts, timelines, estimated costs, etc.  It was stressed that this feasibility study has proven that not only can the Library expand to the desired  size on the current site, but by moving to the South, can actually expand twice, i.e., if each expansion lasts for 20-30 years, it can expect to remain in the historic downtown, in its central location, for many years to come.  The Library Board, and Director Lynne Young asked the Council for clear direction on the next steps; the Mayor asked that a resolution be brought back for the Council’s vote.  Mayor and Council were promised that the Library Board would very soon be back  with a resolution to formalize the acceptance of their study.

The next item (3rd) on the agenda was a Budget Update , presented by the Finance Director, Kathleen McBride.  the purpose of this discussion was to (1.) Provide Council with an overview of the preliminary property tax levy, and tax base projection,  (2.) Provide Council with an initial overview of the Budget  Gap for the General Fund  operating budget for next year,  and (3.)  Seek Council direction on balancing the General Fund  budget and preliminary property tax levy  prior to its approval at the first meeting in September.
It should be noted that a second work session on the preliminary budget and tax levy is scheduled for  August 25th, at which time greater detail will be presented.
It is also important to note that the preliminary levy to be approved in September may only be lowered in December,  when the final levy is approved.
It was not an encouraging picture that Ms.  McBride had to paint  for the  Council; even if the full levy limit was applied, the city would still have  a  lack of approximately $78,000 to support the amount needed by the General Fund, and even minor increases in needs could push that number much higher.   Ms. McBride suggested to the Council that they need to take a “long hard look”  at staffing, operations, and programs/services to determine the most efficient use of  dollars.  The construction industry, the national general economy were all discussed as causes of  a lack of sufficient income, but the “bottom line” was that the revenue stream is just not adequate to balance with costs.
Hovering in the background of this discussion was  the possibility of extending infrastructure to the annexation area, i.e. C. Voh’s statement of the need to “spend money to make money”, but from the Finance Director’s presentation, the  observer feels the budget situation, at least at this point, looks dire.

The fourth and last item on the work session agenda had to do with municipal code enforcement  as regards the outdoor storage of  boats, trailers, motor homes on private property, as well as Blight.  For the last two years or so, the staff has  moved from enforcement on a complaint based approach to a more proactive enforcement.  This work session discussion came from the appearance last week, at the open mic, of a number of disgruntled citizens, all of whom felt disadvantaged by this new approach. Last week, Council had advised staff to hold off on most of the relevant issues regarding this outdoor storage, until it could be further discussed, leaving only the 25 foot recreational vehicle maximum length in active enforcement; but this week  they also put that 25 foot limit on hold as it was felt this is too short a maximum length for the size of todays vehicles.  It was recommended by Council to Staff, that the entire ordinance be cleaned up, made more clear, and no more citations be issued until the ordinance language is clarified.

Interim  Administrator Joel Walinski  then did an update on the Council’s Goals, and how they were progressing on fulfilling those goals, before the meeting adjourned at 9:53 PM.