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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 07/14/2015 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2015 CITY CENTER 5:00— 6:25 PM, HERITAGE ROOMS 6:30— 7:00 PM, COUNCIL CHAMBER CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, Council Members Brad Aho, Sherry Butcher Wickstrom, and Ron Case CITY STAFF: City Manager Rick Getschow, Police Chief Rob Reynolds, Fire Chief George Esbensen, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Finance Manager Sue Kotchevar, Communications Manager Joyce Lorenz, City Attorney Ric Rosow, and Recorder Jan Curielli Workshop -Heritage Room H I. 2016-2017 BUDGET (5:30-6:00 P.M.) Getschow reviewed the timeline, the goals, and the revenue and expenditure highlights for the two year budget for 2016-2017. He said tonight's presentation is a preliminary review. The budget will be reviewed again in August, and the 2016 preliminary tax levy and budget will be approved by the Council in September. There will be further discussions in October and November that will include a review of the enterprise and utility operations. The Council will adopt the final budget and tax levy at a public meeting in December. The budget process starts with the departments' work plans and incorporates additional information during the process. He noted there is supplemental information from the Police Department tonight. Lotthammer reviewed the budget plans for the Community Center which includes the addition of a Fitness and Operations position. The expansion of the Community Center has caused increased activity. Over 300 part time staff are employed at the Community Center which operates seven days a week, 365 days a year. He said the increased levels of activity has made it impossible for one person to manage both aquatics and fitness. Nelson asked if there is a Community Center Manager. Lotthammer said there is. Aho asked if the pool expansion might cause increased scheduling time. Lotthammer said we have an aquatics expert now, but will need someone on the fitness side. He noted the health care reimbursement process has become quite time consuming. Getschow reviewed the handout from the Police Department that presented the results of the resource allocation study. He noted there are increased demands on the schedule because of the greater number of calls, more time spent per call, and the increased complexity of the calls. Investigations have become more complex. They have changed shifts and redefined positions in response to the increased demands, but there may be a need to add another position at the end of 2016 and another at the end of 2017. City Council Workshop Minutes July 14, 2015 Page 2 Getschow reviewed the proposed total budget and tax levy. He noted there are several unknowns involved in the process such as the impact of property taxes and fiscal disparities. A comparison of Eden Prairie with other metropolitan cities shows Eden Prairie in the bottom third or fourth and the proposed budget would not affect that comparison very much. He said staff would like to prepare a series of short videos themed around each department to provide information to residents about all of our services and the cost of those services. Tyra-Lukens said it is important to maintain our status in the lower third of the comparison and to maintain our services. Nelson asked if we would relook at adding a second Police Officer if we are doing well after the addition of the first one in 2016 and whether adding the two officers would mitigate over-time costs. Police Chief Reynolds said it would have a positive impact on overtime but would not eliminate it. They would evaluate the situation after the first officer has been added. Getschow noted we will discuss the 2017 budget next year, and in the past we have always had some type of change for the second year of the budget. He noted that in the 2016 budget, we would have a net gain of 0.5 FTE as we are proposing to add 2.0 FTE and subtract 1.5 FTE due to not implementing the point of sale project. IL SWLRT UPDATE (6:00-6:30 P.M.) Ellis said the Counties Transit Improvement Board(CTIB)is the largest funding partner for the SWLRT, and they have decided to limit their contribution to $496,000. The Advisory Committees and the Met Council performed a cost reduction exercise to delete, defer or possibly do joint funding of some items for the project. As a result of that exercise, the SWLRT project was changed to end at Southwest Station, defer the Town Center station, and other changes were made to reflect the potential for the highest ridership and the best shared sacrifice. The changes resulted in $250 million in reductions, but there remained $91 million of unfunded costs. The Met Council supported the recommendations, but the funding gap must be closed. A New Starts application which will lock in the project scope and budget is due on August 3. Ellis reviewed the changes to the project scope and noted commitments from cities, Hennepin County, the Met Council and the Park District have brought the funding gap down to $9.5 million. Individual cities have been asked to look at ways to eliminate the funding gap. The suggestions for Eden Prairie included donating the land at the City West Station, exploring leveraging of the Locally Requested Capital Investments (LRCI) as in-kind contributions, and making some modifications to the Eden Road design. There appears not to be a lot of desire to defer the City West Station, although that is a possibility. He noted the Council is not being asked to make a decision tonight, but the understanding is that the partners are to come together to close the funding gap. Ellis noted there is some precedence for City contributions for local transportation projects. Aho asked if the City contributed $5.8 million for the Shady Oak Road improvements. Ellis said the City did contribute $5.8 million for those items we could not require UHG City Council Workshop Minutes July 14, 2015 Page 3 to fund. Butcher Wickstrom asked about the possibility of UHG coming back to the table for this project. Ellis said they funded a lot of the Shady Oak construction, and they believed the station would open with no cost to them. Tyra-Lukens noted this is a new game, and we all have to cut costs. Nelson commented that deferring the City West Station takes away a lot of businesses for the project in terms of potential ridership. Ellis replied if a station is deferred, the assumption is it will go in at some point, and so the ridership figures are counted. Nelson said she didn't see more funding being available for the SWLRT for a long time, and she saw the City West Station as a way to bring a lot of people into the City without blocking the freeways. She thought the Major Center Area station deferment makes sense, but she had a hard time with deferring City West. Aho asked why the Mitchell Road station was deleted rather than deferred. Ellis said if it were deferred, it would have to be included in the project costs. Tyra-Lukens introduced Peter McLaughlin, member of the SWLRT Executive Change Control Board. She asked him if a station could be deferred after the August 3 date and why at first we were the only city going through the municipal consent process again but now all are going through it. Mr. McLaughlin said there have been local contributions on the other LRT projects that arose out of budgetary constraints. We often have to make the project work with tradeoffs regarding the scope of the project. The August 3rd deadline is driven by the annual submittal to the Federal Highway Administration. That submittal gets a project into consideration in the President's budget. He said the more money that is lined up for the non-Federal share of the project, the better. He said having 80% of the funds committed would keep the momentum going with the goal to get the percentages up by August 3. He noted they were able to keep the Southwest Station in play, and it would not take a large amount to put back the Town Center station. We need to put the cash together and tie up the project. Getschow said the timing piece is important. Some of the cost-cutting items mentioned are projects for which we have planned and budgeted and that do revolve around the SWLRT. We were hoping there would be some credit given for those items, and we do need that question answered. Aho asked if the money for those improvements are part of the project dollars and, if not, how we would get credit for them. Ellis said that is the tricky part. They were going to be done before the SWLRT, but we have asked the project office if they could be considered as in-kind contributions. Aho asked how that would reduce the gap that we are trying to close. Ellis said the Federal Transportation Administration would give one-half of the cost for those projects. If we gave 100% of the cost, then their half should be included as a contribution. We need to get a solid answer to that question. Getschow said the Eden Road item would be a much smaller project. Butcher Wickstrom asked if the parking is adequate to support the station. Getschow said the parking estimates were for the option that landed at Redstone, so we don't have to worry about that. Mr. McLaughlin noted that station was moved further south on Technology Drive. City Council Workshop Minutes July 14, 2015 Page 4 Aho asked about the parking at Southwest Station. Ellis replied we plan 450 parking stalls in addition to the current parking at Southwest Transit, which is half the original amount planned. Mr. McLaughlin noted parking was cut all along the line. Aho said he sits on the Southwest Transit Board, and there is a concern about what will happen to parking at Southwest Station if we add only half the parking needed for SWLRT. Southwest Station is currently at overflow status. Ellis said municipal consent makes sure it is possible to expand beyond the opening day. Tyra-Lukens asked why all cities now have to give municipal consent. Mr. McLaughlin said they originally thought that only Eden Prairie and Hennepin County would have to give municipal consent because of substantive changes; however, the lawyers looked at the statute and determined the elimination of the bicycle trail in Minneapolis constituted a change in the scope of the line and that triggered municipal consent. Aho asked if there are hidden costs because of the environmental studies. Mr. McLaughlin said there is a healthy contingency built into the budget--$400 million, or 27%. There is some room to deal with contingencies, and the further along we get in the design the more certainty there is. Open Podium- Council Chamber II. OPEN PODIUM III. ADJOURNMENT