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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 03/03/2009 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CITY COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2009 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Council Chamber 8080 Mitchell Road CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Phil Young, Council Members Brad Aho, Ron Case, Jon Duckstad and Kathy Nelson CITY STAFF: City Manager Scott Neal, Parks & Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Public Works Director Eugene Dietz, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, City Attorney Ric Rosow and Council Recorder Jan Curielli I. ROLL CALL/CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER Mayor Young called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. All Council Members were present. II. COLOR GUARD/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Young thanked American Heritage Girls Troop 0408 for presenting the colors. III. COUNCIL FORUM INVITATION IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS Case added one item under Item XIV.A. Young added two items under Item XIV.A. MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. V. PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS A. EDEN PRAIRIE HIGH SCHOOL POM SQUAD RECOGNITION Young said the Eden Prairie High School Pom Squad took top honors in the Large Varsity Jazz category at the Universal Dance Association National Competition in Orlando, Florida, in February. The team also placed second in the Large Varsity Pom category. The 18-member team is coached by Ann Itman, a Pom Squad Alumni. He congratulated the team on their achievements. Ann Itman noted their team was the only team from Minnesota to attend the national competition. She said the team also participates in community service in Eden Prairie. B. CORNERSTONE Neal said we have developed a custom of bringing to Council meetings organizations we are a part of, and tonight's organization is Cornerstone. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 2 Sgt. Bob Olson said the Eden Prairie Domestic Abuse Response Team(DART) was created in 2005 in response to an increase in the incidents of family violence and domestic abuse. There are five officers, one investigator and one sergeant on the team. In addition to investigating domestic violence cases DART members also meet on a regular basis with the City Attorney's office and Cornerstone in an effort to keep a handle on the incidents in Eden Prairie. He said the team intervenes proactively in non-criminal cases, and they encourage family members to use the resources available to them such as Cornerstone. He reviewed the number of domestic calls for service from 2002 to 2008, noting those numbers have been reduced since the DART team was created. He also noted a significant reduction in arrests for domestic violence in 2008, a direct result of this cooperative effort between DART, the City Attorney's office and Cornerstone. Susan Neis, representing Cornerstone, said she has served as the Executive Director of the organization for 24 years. Cornerstone provides a state-wide crisis line by which calls are routed to the closest domestic violence program. She said they were one of the first programs to do transitional housing for battered women in 1989. Cornerstone is proud of their school-based violence prevention program. They also have a legal protection program working with City prosecutors and law enforcement. She thanked the City Council for their support of the programs. Mayor Young thanked Sgt. Olson and Ms Neis for their reports, noting it is very important the City Council be kept up to date on their efforts. VI. MINUTES A. COUNCIL WORKSHOP HELD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009 MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve the minutes of the Council Workshop held Tuesday, February 17, 2009, as published. Motion carried 5-0. B. CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009 MOTION: Nelson moved, seconded by Case, to approve the minutes of the City Council Meeting held Tuesday, February 17, 2009, as published. Motion carried 5-0. VII. REPORTS OF ADVISORY BOARDS & COMMISSIONS VIII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. CLERK'S LICENSE LIST B. AWARD CONTRACT FOR MILLER PARK PLAY AREA RENOVATION PHASE II TO ODESSA II CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 3 C. AWARD CONTRACT FOR 2009 STREET SWEEPING TO RELIAKOR SERVICES INC. D. ACCEPT PROPOSAL FROM CENTURYTEL ACQUISITION LLC TO RENEW VOICE AND DATA SERVICE AND AUTHORIZE EXECUTION OF A THREE-YEAR SERVICE AGREEMENT E. APPROVE CHANGE ORDERS FOR WEST 78TH STREET WATER MAIN REPLACEMENT PROJECT F. APPROVE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH WSB & ASSOCIATES FOR THETH212NALLEY VIEW ROAD INTERCHANGE STUDY, I.C. 09-5751 G. APPROVE COST SHARING AGREEMENT WITH HENNEPIN COUNTY REGIONAL RAILROAD AUTHORITY FOR THE 212/VALLEY VIEW ROAD INTERCHANGE STUDY, I.C. 09-5751 H. ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 2009-18 REQUESTING AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH A MUNICIPAL STREET IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT MOTION: Aho moved, seconded by Case, to approve Items A-H on the Consent Calendar. Motion carried 5-0. IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS /MEETINGS A. 2009 CDBG FUNDS ALLOCATION (Resolution No. 2009-19) Neal said official notice of this public hearing was published in the February 5, 2009, Eden Prairie News. He said the 2009 CDBG allocation has not yet been announced by the office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). However, the Human Services Review Committee used the conservative estimate of$250,000 in funding to make the funding recommendations as listed below. Once the actual amount is received, the funds will be modified on a percentage basis for each of the applicants. The Human Services Review Committee reviewed the 2009 CDBG proposals and recommended the following activities: # Human Services Activity Funding County % of Level Priority Allocation 1 PROP Housing Support Services $5,000 High 2% 2 YMCA(Child Care Subsidy) $10,000 High 4% 3 HOME (Household & Outside Maintenance for $8,000 High 3.2% the Elderly) 4 Homel-ine(Tenant's Advocacy Service) $5,000 High 1.95% 5 JVS Employment Assistance Services $5,500 High 2.2% 6 Emergency Vehicle Repair Fund $12,000 High 4.8% Subtotal $45,500 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 4 Housing Activities Funding County Level Priority 7 Housing Rehabilitation Deferred Loan Program $57,000 High 22.8% 8 Affordable Housing Initiative $100,000 High 40% 9 PROP Emergency Housing Assistance $20,000 High 8% 10 Fair HousingInitiative $2,500 High 1% 11 Program Administration $25,000 10% Grand Total $250.000 Jeremiah noted it seems odd to act on the CDBG allocation before we receive the actual amount from HUD,however our action plan with regard to distributing the dollars is due to Hennepin County next week. She said staff made a conservative estimate and are asking that we use the percentages to reallocate if the total allocation is different from the estimate. She noted this is not economic stimulus money, but rather is our regular annual allocation. She said we are expecting some economic stimulus money as well,but we do not have the rules on that yet. Case asked if we would just use the percent of allocation or add another group in the unlikely event we get more than the estimate. Jeremiah replied in the case of any increase or reduction in the figure, the allocation would be redone per the percentages shown here. If there were to be a change to that procedure, staff would come back to the Council to alter the action plan. Young said he would like to have any increase in the allocation presented to the City Council before the dollars are allocated and spent. Nelson asked if these amounts are approximately what the groups requested. Jeremiah replied they are lower than requested, and one agency was not funded because they weren't eligible per the HUD guidelines. Duckstad asked if this figure represents the same amount as last year. Jeremiah replied this is a little bit of a decrease compared to last year. Kitty Engle, representing the HOME program, said she appreciates the City's support over the years. She said they have been working in the City of Eden Prairie to help seniors since at least 1988, and they want to continue that service. They plan to do target marketing to seniors in the community this spring. Beth Kodluboy, representing Homeline, said every year they help 130-150 renters in the City who need help figuring out what their rights are. She noted some renters are experiencing problems with foreclosures. She said they also have a program teaching high school students about rights and responsibilities for leases. She thanked the Council for their support. Ann Harnack, Executive Director of PROP, thanked the Council for their support. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 5 Elena Wilsey, representing JVS Employment Assistance Services, said they help low income people work on job seeking skills, with a focus on resume writing and interview and networking skills. She thanked the Council for their support. Rob Kolar, representing the Southdale YMCA, thanked the Council for their support. They are the designated child care provider for the Eden Prairie School District. The program is offered to K-6 grades in the schools during the school year, with full-day child care provided in the summer for K-8. They have scholarships for families that participate in the program, and the CDBG funds go to help families participate in the program. MOTION: Case moved, seconded by Nelson, to close the Public Hearing and to adopt Resolution 2009-19 approving the use of 2009 CDBG funds as recommended by the Eden Prairie Human Services Committee. Motion carried 5-0. X. PAYMENT OF CLAIMS MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to approve the Payment of Claims as submitted. Motion was approved on a roll call vote, with Aho, Case, Duckstad, Nelson and Young voting "aye." XI. ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS XII. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATIONS XIII. APPOINTMENTS XIV. REPORTS A. REPORTS OF COUNCILMEMBERS 1. Mayor Young—Met Council Proposed Change to Airport Definition Young said the Met Council is one of the governmental bodies that has jurisdiction over airports, and they have provided us with a proposal to split the definition of a minor reliever airport into two subsets: Minor Reliever 1, less than 4500 feet; and Minor Reliever 2, 4500 feet or greater. He said he has not reason to believe the change would have an immediate impact at Flying Cloud Airport, but because of the importance of the airport as an issue in the City he did not think it would be in our best interest to have uncertainty in the definitions. Therefore, he suggested the Council communicate to the Met Council that we are not in favor of the proposed change to the definition. He said this issue will be discussed by the Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission at their March meeting,but he also knew the Met Council wants feedback quickly. Case said the original agreement to airport expansion in 2001 mentions the 5000 foot runway opportunity,but it also takes the issue out of our hands CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 6 and leaves it with the legislature. Therefore any time there is a hint of expansion beyond 5000 feet it is our duty to our residents to speak up. He thought we might need to have a motion on this before the Airport Commission meets. Young said the Met Council does not need to hear from us before our 2nd meeting in March, and he wanted to make sure the Airport Commission understands our discussion of this. Neal noted that was also his understanding in talking to staff and others. If we talk about it tonight and have the Airports Commission talk about it at their regular meeting, they could come back to the Council with a recommendation on March 17. Duckstad agreed with Mayor Young and concurred with the remarks he made. Aho asked if they gave any reason why they are looking at splitting the definition. Young said we can only speculate,but he thought some people want to lengthen the Anoka airport to 6000 feet. Aho said he agreed we do need to get out in front of this topic and give them a response. Nelson said she wanted the Airport Commission to know the City Council is very concerned about this and does not want anything that hints of expansion. Young said the tenor of the Council's discussion should be communicated to the Chair of the Airport Commission. 2. Mayor Young—Previous Comments Rmardins! Federal Stimulus Funds Young said he wanted to expand on his comments on this topic at the last meeting. The origin came from the U.S. Conference of Mayors' request that their member cities present wish lists that might be made for federal dollars. A lot of cities put together wish lists, and that list exists today,but it has absolutely nothing to do with the final legislation that President Obama signed. He did not think the money will flow directly to cities anyway. He said City Manager Neal and he talked about this at the end of January and concluded that, other than trying to help get federal dollars for the 494/169 interchange, we didn't think that it was right. A lot of things the other cities listed were really projects that are the obligation of local government. He said the majority of time a city like Eden Prairie will be a net loser on intergovernmental redistribution projects. Duckstad said he concurred with Mayor Young and also believes we should not get on the wish list. He thought it would be morally wrong and an abuse of federal taxpayers' money. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 7 Case commented that he thought this was a discussion that should have come back to the City Council. It seems like something as big as whether the City decides to take dollars that help to alleviate the tax struggles our residents feel should have had Council discussion. He didn't think we should make projects up,but if there are dollars out there that would fit, we should consider it. What was stated at the last meeting was that our city does things differently because we find a funding source before we put projects on a capital project list. He said these funding mechanisms aren't being funded the way we originally thought they would be, so this year we are moving some of our liquor funds to be used in the General Fund. If there are projects available such as Police Department funding, we ought to look at the stimulus funds as part of due diligence for our residents. Part of the stimulus package proposal was placed there to stimulate and create jobs. If we have opportunities to create jobs in the community and to help alleviate the tax struggle for our residents, we should look into it. He asked that staff study what possibilities are out there to see if some of them may fit. Young said if all we can for our residents is to lobby the Federal Highway Administration and MNDoT to achieve an allocation to improve the 494/169 interchange, that will have more of an impact than anything else. If staff wants to take a look at the federal legislation, that is their prerogative. He said he took serious issue with the criticism of his communication with the City Manager about the Mayors' Conference. That is a voluntary group that some mayors belong to, and the wish list was a made-up list of no legal effect. Every Council Member has been appointed by the Council to represent the City on various intergovernmental bodies, and we have been entrusted to speak on behalf of the City within those groups. He thought it was his right to make a decision on that list as the representative on the Mayors' Conference. Case said he would apologize because there is nothing that Mayor Young said or did on this to criticize. Rather his concern was with regard to a decision that we are not moving forward to determine if there are stimulus programs we could use. He agreed there is an ethical part to this issue. Neal said we have a copy of a document produced by the League of California Cities that shows where cities can fit into the economic stimulus program. We have not at all missed an opportunity to apply for funds. He noted the federal government is routing a lot of the money through traditional existing programs, so if we weren't eligible for those programs before, we probably won't be eligible now. Staff is checking on that and there are a couple of possibilities. One of the possibilities is an option for funding police and another for funding brown fields. Staff will review these for opportunities and then share them with Council Members. He said he get emails about why we aren't getting our fair share, so he thought there is a lot of confusion with the public about this list. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 8 Aho said he didn't have a problem with staff looking at the list,but in general he was against the City of Eden Prairie taking funds to create positions. Because the positions will be funded by temporary sources, the issue becomes what to do with those positions when the funding goes away. Nelson said she wanted to have staff take a look at this. The Capital Improvement Fund has had the Market Value Homestead Credit from the State but we are not going to get that now. She thought if there is a project that can be completed in a year that would be of benefit to the City and doesn't have tails for us, we should go after it. She thought we only want to look at one or two things because we do want the 494-169 project. 2. Council Member Duckstad—Budget Duckstad said about four weeks ago the City Manager presented the real possibility of revenue shortfalls for the general operating budget because of a decline in our developmental activity in the City. He wanted to urge the City Manager and the Council to look at the other unfortunate possibility that we may have revenue shortages that will befall our capital improvement projects. We should look at projects scheduled for this year to make sure we are going to fund these or if it is prudent to delay them. Neal said he thought we are ahead of this issue. Staff is looking at some ways to restructure our debt and our annual debt service. We have been talking with our financial advisor about how we might restructure our debt by pushing some projects out and pushing some debt out into other years. On the General Fund side, he said the challenge we have is our development-related revenues which were making up about 4% of the General Fund revenue. This year development-related revenue may be at 2- 2.5%, which is a difference of about$1,000,000. We adopted a budget that required a transfer in just to make it even up, so we don't have any latitude for a decrease in development revenue this year. Neal said 2008 was the worst year for development revenue in a decade, and we may be over$1,000,000 short. He has been talking with employees about this, and staff will bring a proposal to the Council that will cut about $500,000 from the General Fund operating expenses and another$500,000 of transfer from the Budget Stabilization Fund. The proposed $500,000 cut from the operating funds would be about$200,000 in non-personnel operating costs and $300,000 in personnel costs. We have implemented a hiring freeze and are putting together an early retirement incentive. We are talking to employees about reduced work schedules. If we can't achieve the savings we want to achieve with those tools, we will have to look at layoffs because he didn't see any other way we can get to that number. Getting to that number is important because that is what will drive the budget for 2010 and 2011. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 9 Young said he tended to agree that we do need to have a balanced approach for the 2009 budget, and also for the baseline for the 2010 and 2011 budget preparation. Nelson said Council Member Duckstad mentioned putting off projects, and she didn't think some projects can be put off. She urged staff to look at 5-10 year costs of what they are putting off as well as the one year cost. When we look at the $300,000, she urged them to consider asking employees to take some unpaid leave as a piece of that. She would like to see as few staff reductions as possible and would like us to be as creative as possible to keep our employees. Young said he was certain that the City Manager and other directors will look closely at all options. Young noted Council Member Duckstad was not proposing any specific change to the CIP, and he assumed the City Council would be informed of any such changes proposed. Neal said in that case we would be modifying a document that the Council approved, so staff would have to bring that back. 4. Council Member Case—NURP Ponds Case noted over the years there have been questions about National Urban River Protection (NURP)ponds and what happens to those down the road. He asked if we know the life span of a NURP pond and if any have been around long enough to test our technology. He also asked about the status of our oldest ponds in the City and of the known non-compliant NURP ponds. Dietz said the life span of NURP ponds is not known and depends on how much sediment goes into a system. He said when we design NURP ponds they are designed to be able to fill up to a certain level. He noted these ponds are one of the unfunded mandates we get through the State EPA. As part of the permit process, we must inspect 20% of the ponds each year for structural defects and compliance. We implemented a project to dredge three of our oldest ponds in the Hidden Ponds neighborhood. We have done some pond cleaning near the shopping center. We have a very rigorous program to maintain sump catch basins and manholes. We clean the sump basins and target new construction areas where most of the sediment goes. The issue we have going on in the southeast corner of town is the two locations that the MPCA has said are non-compliant. We will be sending them a proposal that will include a consultant design to repair the sites. One of the sites is not repairable because it is located where the river changed course. We have a plan to do some intermediate repairs to minimize erosion. He noted we have an aggressive program, and Leslie Stovring spends upwards of half her time in monitoring these issues. Young asked if we were aware of the condition of the ponds in the southeast quadrant before we received the non-compliant designation. Dietz said we were aware of the failure of the larger pond on private property that we had an easement on between Old Riverview Road and the Minnesota CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 10 River. There is currently no way to repair that one, and our best opportunity is that some Hustad property north of Old Riverview Road will come through the development process so we could enlarge the pond to allow repair. We will install a new sump basin in the area. Young said his preference would be that we not be the subject of a letter like that from the State EPA. Dietz said we have 800-900 of these ponds in the community, so there will be failures; however, we do try to be proactive. Case noted we have a funding mechanism to deal with this with the storm water drainage fund. B. REPORTS OF CITY MANAGER 1. 494-169 Update Neal said Mayor Young, Council Member Aho, and staff from Eden Prairie and other cities met here in our building with representatives of MNDoT and the Federal Highway Administration to talk about the 494-169 project. They are putting together a proposal for funding of this project and will forward that to the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB), which is the group that will decide how some of the stimulus dollars will be spent. He said the project has strong support from MNDoT,but this will require a regional preference on behalf of the TAB. One of the issues that may come back to the City Council is that part of the funding program is to ask the three cities involved to consider issuing some bonds, the proceeds of which would go to MNDoT to help fund the project. We will talk to their finance staff to see what that proposal entails and how the mechanism would work. Young said there are a lot of moving pieces on this, and our window is pretty short. He said if a piece of this happens to be that we issue such bonds for MNDoT, he would be in favor of that. This project really is hugely impactful on Eden Prairie residents and businesses, and he would give serious thought to the bonding mechanism. Neal said representatives from Scott County were also at the meeting. Most of the folks that are caught in traffic because of that interchange are going across the bridge to Scott County. The strategy MNDoT is dealing with is how to spread out funding for two very large projects in the metropolitan area and a number of small ones. They consider 494-169 to be the biggest traffic congestion location in the metropolitan area. Duckstad asked if we have a sense of how soon we might get an answer on this. Neal said he thought we would get an answer some time within the next 30 days. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES March 3, 2009 Page 11 2. City Center Landscape Management Neal said this item was the subject of email correspondence last year. We had an internal staff meeting to talk about the issue and discuss how we could replace some landscaping and change our watering practices. We are moving forward with developing a plan and will share that with the Council as we move forward. He noted if we make a change to the landscaping this year, we may still consume a lot of water to get it established. Young thought that was fine,but noted he thought the idea was to water less. He didn't want to spend $50,000 to change landscaping in order to save $50 in water. C. REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR D. REPORT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR E. REPORT OF PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR F. REPORT OF POLICE CHIEF G. REPORT OF FIRE CHIEF H. REPORT OF CITY ATTORNEY XV. OTHER BUSINESS XVI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Duckstad moved, seconded by Aho, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Mayor Young adjourned the meeting at 8:20 PM.