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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 02/16/2021 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 CITY CENTER 5:00 – 6:25 PM, HERITAGE ROOMS 6:30 – 7:00 PM, COUNCIL CHAMBER CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Ron Case, Council Members Kathy Nelson, Mark Freiberg, PG Narayanan, and Lisa Toomey CITY STAFF: City Manager Rick Getschow, Police Chief Greg Weber, Fire Chief Scott Gerber, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Administrative Services/HR Director Alecia Rose, Communications Manager Joyce Lorenz, City Attorney Maggie Neuville, and Recorder Katie O’Connor Workshop - Heritage Rooms I and II (5:30) I. SOUTHWEST TRANSIT UPDATE Len Simich (5:00-5:30) Case stated residents have expressed many times their appreciation for Southwest Transit’s services. Len Simich, chief executive officer (CEO) of Southwest Transit, stated this will be an update to Council on the organization, operations over the last year, and what the future looks like. Recent discussions have been about a potential merge with Minnesota Valley Transit (MVT). Matt Fyten, chief operating officer (COO) of Southwest Transit, is taking over for Dave Jacobson. Fyten stated 2020 was far from normal. Ridership and farebox revenue was down 78 percent. They took early action and lowered services by 60 percent and reduced staff by 50 percent. They received $2.5 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, (CARES) Act funding. Early action allowed the agency the opportunity to balance 2020 and 2021 budgets and build operations back once the pandemic is controlled. Case inquired if there will be a difficult time getting bus drivers back. Fyten stated many drivers have been moved to other properties within First Transit and some were furloughed. They are confident they will have drivers ready. Simich added they are a little heavy on having substitute drivers. The drivers are cleaning vehicles and stations in the meantime. The union has allow this reassignment. Fyten presented the highlights and impacts of 2020. They were able to address immediate social distancing, driver barriers, and passenger barriers. They’ve had positive feedback from customers about the steps they have taken. They are the first in transit to install ion air purification system on all their fleet. To their knowledge, there has been no spread of COVID-19 on their buses. Their road call per mile was over one per 50,000 miles, consistently better than the national average. 100 percent of all scheduled trips operated, and chargeable accidents were below one per 100,000 miles. The fund balance stayed above the City Council Workshop Minutes February 16, 2020 Page 2 25 percent floor set by the Metropolitan Council. For the twelfth year, they received the GFOA award for Financial Excellence. Fyten stated they completed several major projects in 2020. They updated their strategic plan. They updated their asset management plan, completed their 20 year facility assessment, and updated their emergency preparedness plan. They coordinated with Metro Transit to complete a vehicle annunciator project. They expanded their prime service to include Prime MD to book a ride to and from medical facilities. Their garage and office expansion was completed. Throughout 2020 they developed and implemented their COVID response. Simich noted the asset management and emergency preparedness are federal mandates, but they have had these in place for years and many other transit agencies have looked to their model. The vehicle annunciator project should help with the federal requirement to clearly hear each transit stop. Lastly, the garage expansion was done without any bonding or state dollars. A video message was played. Case inquired who the promotional video audience is. Simich responded the video is meant for the public and it is available on their website. The video explains what they have done over the course of the last year. Fyten reviewed what is in store for 2021. They do not expect a flood of people going back to work all at once. They anticipate exploring new markets to service such as suburb-to-suburb services. They will continue to add resources as needed. The last year has provided the opportunity to build back their services smarter. This includes creating more efficient and attractive service schedules, and micro transit capabilities for the first and last mile. Special event services will resume when events take place such as the State Fair, sporting events, and concerts. They will continue to be an innovator of technology such as mobility as a service, looking into electric vehicles, and autonomous vehicles. They are looking to be a leader in autonomous technologies. Simich stated they do not have a big ask this year for legislative priorities. They are trying to draw attention to some of the inequities for resources. What is in place today does not work. The suburban providers are at an unfair disadvantage for funds in comparison to Metro Transit. Suburban providers received about 17 percent of the motor vehicle sales tax (MVST) transit funding allocation. After 2008 there was an increase in funding and suburban providers only received five percent more of the funding. He stated the board welcomes a change. In regards to a potential merge, this would potentially provide more clout. There are a few options in a merge: to fold into another transit company, create an entirely new entity, or share administrative services but retain local control funding and branding. A downside would be likely making some sacrifices. These discussions are on hold until after the legislative session. He asked for the opinions of the Council. Case stated he does not know enough to weigh in on the conversation. He would like to know more about the possible downsides to a merge. Freiberg inquired about the slide regarding funding received and percentages. Simich explained the first chart shows the initial funds distributed by MVST. When additional funds were dispersed, the percentage of funds divided were 95 percent to Metro Transit and five percent to suburban providers. Case inquired how it would be best dispersed. Simich replied City Council Workshop Minutes February 16, 2020 Page 3 the percentage would stay similar to the initial disbursement. Another problem is two of the suburban providers have large reserves and this has been used as a reason to not provide more funding to all suburban providers. Narayanan expressed his thanks for the opportunity to serve on the board. He inquired how many rides they would have in a typical year without COVID-19. Simich responded 1.2 million rides in a year. Toomey inquired when the merger would take place. Simich replied they are not at a place to know a date. The benefit of merging would be the survivability. Case stated he has heard some of the disadvantages but would like to see the benefit and downsides written out. Ideally it would be best to take into consideration which option would give Southwest Transit the longevity to continue to provide services in Eden Prairie. Nelson stated she would like to keep the Southwest Transit leadership, because it is the most innovative and she does not want to lose those benefits. II. CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES (5:30-6:30) Case stated if each Council Member could share at least three priorities, he would like to share those during the Council Member report at the meeting upstairs. Nelson stated she would like to begin implementing recommendations from the Housing Task Force (HTF) report. Another big issue is energy efficiency. She would like to install solar and more electric vehicle charging stations at the Community Center as well as other locations like parks. She would like to focus on purchasing more electric vehicles as well. The third priority is to seriously consider implementing the recommendations from the diversity, equity, and inclusion report. The fourth priority is to consider how the City can help support small businesses to keep them open, especially the restaurant industry. The fifth priority would be to consider adding more online opportunities and classes for seniors to stay engaged in the next few months. Case noted these priorities and ideas were helpful and, as anticipated, not necessarily demands for staff. Freiberg stated he would like to continue working on affordable housing and to implement recommendations from the HTF. Another large topic he continues to hear about is hunger in Eden Prairie. This may take efforts coordinating with religious communities and nonprofits. Lastly, he would like to see the City help the business community getting back to a new normal in order to keep businesses healthy. Case stated it would be good to group the like ideas together in a typed document, and to take a deep dive on specific topics and strategies to achieve those goals. Narayanan stated one of his first priorities is to maintain the level of City services we are currently providing. His list is similar to what has been mentioned. His priorities are to implement the HTF recommendations, implement the findings from the race and equity City Council Workshop Minutes February 16, 2020 Page 4 report, and light rail transit (LRT) safety. The LRT priority could be addressed with more public relations efforts. Also, he would like the City to provide assistance to businesses if possible. Toomey stated her top priority is to continue listening and learning. The next priority would be to work with and have regular contact with nonprofits on COVID-19 issues, specifically rental assistance, basic needs, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and business assistance. Sustainability and increasing public awareness of sustainability initiatives is another important priority. As others have mentioned, another top priority is affordable housing and implementing the HTF recommendations. If the City were to set up an affordable housing trust fund, she would like to consider the housing task force members. Also, continued efforts with diversity and inclusion such as Peoplefest!, the Hometown Celebration, and supporting outreach programs. Encouraging participation from diverse populations in Citizens Academy and the City Government Academy. As others have mentioned, reviewing the race and equity report. The police department has worked with other cities on LRT safety and training. Since the LRT timeline has been delayed, potential issues may not need to be addressed unless they become an issue. Case stated it is good to hear priorities from each member. Some of the priorities near to him are the climate initiatives. He would like to continue working towards an electric fleet by 2030. These initiatives are based on the budget, but he would be interested in ways to enhance these initiatives or speed them up. Another priority is to encourage businesses to consider utilizing solar on their flat roofs and if there is a way to help incentive private businesses. Another priority is to implement recommendations on affordable housing. The rental protection piece may be problematic, but there are other pieces that can begin being implemented almost immediately. Hunger, housing, and transportation are all correlated. If there are ways to work with nonprofits to help, he would support it. Another priority is to continue discussing the various sustainability initiatives such as the ban of plastic bags and plastic straws. He is interested in reviewing the findings of the race and equity report and seriously considering the implementation of the recommendations. This may include reviewing hiring practices to represent the community being served. He also agrees with being proactive about LRT safety. The only issue he has begun seeing and hearing about is the sense that Eden Prairie is changing, and a big contributor is LRT. There are large bridges being built to change the appearance of City, and there are seemingly more pan handlers. The City could be more proactive about marketing truth, because sometimes residents may correlate incidents with LRT. Providing statistics to residents in the form of a monthly communique may be helpful. Another priority along the lines of safety is body cameras for police. He continues to receive questions about defunding the police. He would like to continue talking about the needs of the department and whether they could benefit from additional staff, specifically staff who specialize in connecting and following up with residents after an incident. Lastly, he agrees with the need to work with nonprofits on food, housing, and transportation. Narayanan stated in regards to crime alerts, it may be good to also push out positive information about crime statistics. It may be beneficial to provide these positive communications monthly. Getschow noted Staff and Council will receive a snapshot of services, including resident’s sense of safety, in April when we receive the Quality of Life City Council Workshop Minutes February 16, 2020 Page 5 Survey responses. Although the police put positive stories on their blog, they do not catch as much interest as the high interest crime alerts. Staff could do more positive messages. Case added people may know services are great, but it would be beneficial to reinforce these topics and issues with social media blasts and statistics. Narayanan added although the positive stories are on the police department’s blog, it may be helpful to also put those on Facebook or in an email blast. He also agrees with the priorities other Council Members mentioned about sustainability efforts and connecting with nonprofits. He has not heard much about the topic of hunger other than through People Reaching Out to People (PROP), but he would like to learn more about it. Nelson stated residents have stated a safe City is important to them, so it would be good to communicate more of the positive stories and facts on a regular basis. We do have a safe City and good, careful, and compassionate police. Toomey stated when LRT gets closer, it may be beneficial to create a video about safety measures and target seniors for the audience. Also, once COVID-19 subsides, she would like to focus on engagement and outreach with the police department. Case added in previous years they conducted Council meetings at different locations. Maybe they could hold an informal meeting at a different location. Toomey mentioned the idea of coffee with the Council on a Saturday morning at the Community Center. Getschow added it could be more of a town hall type meeting rather than a regular Council meeting. Case likes the idea of coffee with the Council on a Saturday morning. Narayanan inquired if this has been done with the businesses. Case replied this was previously done and organized by the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce with many businesses. Getschow stated Staff are already working on a few of the priorities mentioned by Council. There are upcoming workshops on Sustainability, race and equity, and the Housing Task Force recommendations. There are a few new topics the Council can vet through a workshop such as assisting businesses and working with non-profits. There is some messaging the City can do around LRT, but a lot of it is going to be closer to a year within it beginning to operate. Staff can plan ahead for this type of messaging. Additionally, there is a program, property assessed clean energy, the City has not used in some time for a commercial property to be assessed over a long period of time with little to no interest for installing solar. Staff can start looking into some of these ideas. There will also be a demand for more engagement after COVID-19 has subsided. Case stated since there are overlapping priorities, he could summarize the priorities as a whole. Anyone who has additional remarks can add their comments. Open Podium - Council Chamber (6:30) II. OPEN PODIUM III. ADJOURNMENT