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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 08/03/1999 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP TUESDAY AUGUST 3, 1999 5:00-6:55 PM, CITY CENTER HERITAGE ROOM II CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Jean Harris, Councilmembers Sherry Butcher-Younghans,Ronald Case,Ross Thorfinnson, Jr., and Nancy Tyra-Lukens CITY STAFF: City Manager Chris Enger,Public Safety Services Director Jim Clark,Parks&Recreation Services Director Bob Lambert,Public Works Services Director Eugene Dietz,Community Development and Financial Services Director Don Uram, Management Services Director Natalie Swaggert, and Council Recorder Peggy Rasmussen I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER-MAYOR JEAN HARRIS Mayor Harris called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Councilmember Tyra-Lukens was absent. H. APPROVAL OF AGENDA III. UPDATE ON BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS RESTRUCTURE Mayor Harris introduced the subject by saying the City has seen the devolution of responsibilities from Federal and State down to the local government level. The City is concerned with unfunded mandates,how to efficiently maximize the funds available. In the past the City was primarily the provider of services and citizens were the consumers of those services. Now that has changed and the City's goal should be to tap into the resources available through citizen participation in governing the City. The broad health of the community is best achieved with such partnerships. Mayor Harris compared the traditional roles of the city with the healthy city. She has seen all of these roles during her 13 years on the Council. The internal structure of the City has been reorganized;now the final part of this activity is structuring its boards and commissions so they will be useful and efficient in helping the City to make good decisions. Butcher-Younghans reviewed the goals of realignment of the boards and commissions. Among these were to: define the role of Citizen Groups in supporting the City's strategic initiatives and strategic plan; align these groups to reflect service areas and support five critical focus areas; meet statutory requirements; clearly define roles and relationships between Citizen Groups, Staff liaisons and City Council;create a flexible structure that will adapt to changing needs; and create opportunities for involvement at multiple levels. The transition goal is to utilize and respect the importance of current Commissioners in implementing a new structure. COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES August 3, 1999 Page 2 The definition of Citizen Group is: Boards, Commissions, Citizen Advisory Commissions, Task Forces, and Friends of Groups created at the direction of the City Council. To be successful, they should have the following design characteristics: comprehensive, sustainable, supportive, flexible, efficient,responsive and understandable. Swaggert reviewed the current Board and Commission organization chart. She explained that some inconsistencies had been found in the current chart. Thorfinnson described the proposed organization chart, as divided into three groups: Intergovernmental, Statutory and Program Support. He said they tried to divide it in accordance with the goals of realignment set forth above. The Intergovernmental group includes Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission, Suburban Rate Authority, Sherpa/Familink, SW Metro Transit Commission,I-494 Corridor Commission, SW Corridor Commission and SW Cable. There is a Council person or Staff person represented on each commission under the Intergovernmental group,which is made up of representatives from many places and are not all appointed by the City. The proposed Statutory group includes Community Planning Board, Board of Appeals, Boards of Review and Heritage Preservation Commission. Thorfi mson said the first three report directly to the City Council. Some programming responsibilities of the Heritage Preservation Commission have been moved to the Arts/Culture and Parks and Recreation groups under the proposed realignment. The proposed Program Support group includes Leisure and Communication Board,Human Rights and Diversity Citizen Advisory Commission, Environmental Education Citizen Advisory Commission,Art/Culture Citizen Advisory Commission and Parks and Recreation Citizen Advisory Commission. Also included are "Friends of', which would include volunteer organizations like the Historical Society that supports the work of the City's Boards and Commissions. Thorfinnson said some of these mission statements have been changed and reformatted into educational program support,input with regard to programs, etc. that Staff may be working on. They removed some responsibilities in the areas of Environmental Education and Parks and Recreation, and have put those under the Community Planning Board. All development proposals will flow through the Community Planning Board and run parallel with the Community Development Committee at the Staff level. Thorfinnson said the plan is flexible. The people the City already has in the Citizen Group system should be included in the reorganization. A much stronger role for Task Forces has been created,which could involve private business people, Council people, etc. We want to limit the amount of time Staff would be asked to commit. Enger listed task characteristics of the City Council, Staff, Boards, Citizen Advisory Commissions, Task Forces and Friends of Groups. The Council leads,directs, sets policy, approves and champions. The Staff manages, executes, implements, develops,researches, analyzes, produces and communicates. Boards review, recommend, coordinate, COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES August 3, 1999 Page 3 communicate,report and educate. Citizen Advisory Commissions support,provide input, review, advise and promote. Task Forces study,research,analyze and recommend. Friends of Groups assist,help and work. Enger reviewed the purpose statements of the Boards and Commissions. Thorfinnson gave a summary of changes proposed for the Citizen Groups. This includes establishing a new Community Planning Board, which would combine the statutory responsibilities of the current Parks & Recreation and Planning commissions, and establishing a new Leisure and Communications Board to advise on and coordinate efforts of citizen advisory commissions. Modifications in purpose, roles and responsibilities are proposed for the following commissions: Human Rights &Diversity,Arts,Environmental and Waste Management, and Parks &Recreation commissions. Modified responsibilities and operating structure are recommended for the Heritage Preservation Commission. No changes are proposed for the Flying Cloud Advisory Commission, Board of Review or Board of Appeals. It is proposed that the HTSSB be discontinued, and that the Hope Program and human services funding decisions be transferred to City Staff. Other responsibilities would be transferred to the Community Planning Board, Leisure & Communications Board and Familink. Swaggert went through the Transition Timeline for the Project. August 10 Presentation to Commission Chairs August 18 Letters to all Commission members Sept. 8-30 Advertise/Recruit for Community Planning Board Commission members Sept. 30 Commission Appreciation Banquet October Candidate Interviews for Community Planning Board Oct.-Dec. Current Commissions finalize projects/wrap up Nov. 2 Appoint Community Planning Board members Nov.-Dec. Training and Orientation of Community Planning Board Dec. 20 Final Parks &Recreation Commission meeting Dec. 27 Final Planning Commission meeting January '00 Implement new Community Planning Board Swaggert said there might be some people who are current members of the Parks & Recreation Board who will serve on the Community Planning Board. Notices will be sent out at the end of February that this board would be beginning its work in April. Mayor Harris reviewed desirable characteristics of advisory group members: Commitment to doing a good job for the Council, a propensity to think in terms of systems and context (Big Picture), ability to deal with Council and community values, ability to participate in deliberation, willingness to allow others to participate in decisions, representative of the diversity in the community, and commitment to support group decisions. COUNCIVSTAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES August 3, 1999 Page 4 Harris said with this new structure there is the question as to whether the Council may desire to appoint chairs of the boards rather than having them appoint their own chairs. Another option is for the Council to appoint both the chair and the vice-chair,or appoint the vice chair in consultation with the chair. One consideration is that the Council needs people who have the skills to execute the Council's plans. After discussion, the consensus was to have the Council to appoint the chairs of the boards and then appoint the vice-chair in consultation with the chair. With regard to the chairs of commissions,the Staff recommended letting them appoint their own chairs. Council agreed to letting the Heritage Preservation Commission(HPC), and all of the citizen advisory commissions, appoint their own chairs. Case said he believed the HPC should be put under the Leisure and Communication Board because, for example, the HPC has three historic houses that require restoration and preservation but not enough funding to do what is needed. Case said he would suggest putting HPC with the Art/Culture Commission, making it Art/Historical/Culture Commission. Butcher-Younghans said the HPC has talked about having a"Friends of society to work with them and she recommended giving them such a group. Thorfinnson said he and the others who worked on the reorganization had a lot of discussion about where to put HPC. They could clearly see the statutory side of their responsibilities. He said Council should be careful not to confuse statutory groups with program support groups. He wants it to be clear where HPC stands. Butcher-Younghans said HPC would get different kinds of commissioners who are interested in both sides of the work done by that group. Commissioners who understand the statutory requirements would be needed. Pauly pointed out the terms of some members of the Planning Commission would continue beyond the dates that commissions and boards will be terminated. He has been concerned about the Planning Commission,because people who are on that commission are responsible for reviewing proposals and making statutory recommendations to the Council. The statute that authorizes formation of a planning commission states it can be terminated on a two- thirds vote of the Council. He asked if the old Planning Commission is being terminated or just expanded, and if those people would continue serving out their terns. Thorfinnson said to go back to the goals,which are to utilize and respect the commissioners. There are nine commissioners whose terms expire in 2001. Two of them are on the Planning Commission and the other seven should be placed on other commissions. The two remaining commissioners are important to give continuity to the Planning Commission. Mayor Harris said this is a policy decision that should be made in a Council meeting. IV. OTHER BUSINESS COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES August 3, 1999 Page 5 A. UPDATE ON CITY CENTER REMODELING Enger showed the plan for the remodeling of the City Center. He said the Consent Calendar for the Council meeting would ask for approval to award the bid package. The City budgeted$200,000 for the remodeling project to accomplish the following: consolidate functions to reflect the new service area; increase flow between Engineering and Community Development; enhance circulation,provide flexibility to meet changing needs;provide a main level Public Safety Service, and maximize the strengths of the existing City Center. All the walls on the main level will be taken out and the existing service counters will be moved toward the atrium. This way shared resources can be grouped together. The remodeling is expected to begin the week of August 9, and is scheduled for completion by October 1. V. COUNCIL FORUM A. WALLY ANDERSON,COMPLAINT AGAINST BEARPATH GOLF COURSE Wally Anderson lives at 9014 Lake Riley Road. He said he attended all the Council meetings when Bearpath was in the planning stage and raised his concerns at Council meetings. His complaint against the Bearpath Golf Course is that his property is inundated with golf balls aimed at the 16'hole. They have hit his house and cars numerous times. In the past an accommodation was worked out with Bearpath and they have paid for the damage. Now Bearpath has new management and have taken the position that he should use his homeowner's insurance to pay the damages, and they would pay the difference between his deductible and the cost. Anderson told them this is unacceptable and he would proceed with a lawsuit. He gave them a time limit, and they have requested another meeting on Friday, July 9. He currently has three damage complaints to be settled. Mr.Anderson said he was assured five years ago his property would not be harmed by the Bearpath project. He was told the City would work out any problems. Mr. Anderson offered possible solutions to the problem. Bearpath management could move the tee back, they can shorten the fairway by putting the tee half-way down from where it is now, or they can put up a mesh screen 75-feet high. Mayor Harris agreed that Mr. Anderson has a problem but doesn't know what the City's options are. She referred him to Chris Enger,who would give him the name of a contact on the Staff to assist him. Pauly said there might be some benefit for Staff to be in contact with Bearpath personnel. Bearpath management has an obligation to remedy the situation. COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES August 3, 1999 Page 6 VI. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Harris adjourned the meeting at 6:55 p.m.