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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 06/14/2016 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM TUESDAY,JUNE 14, 2016 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, City Attorney Ric Rosow, and Recorder Jan Curielli Workshop - Heritage Room H I. 2017-2026 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN (CIP) Getschow said this will be the second time we have reviewed the ten year CIP as part of our plan to review it every two years. The 2017-2026 CIP is a work in progress and will be adopted with the 2017 budget in December. Finance Manager Sue Kotchevar gave a PowerPoint presentation of the proposed CIP. She stated a construction project or capital purchase which costs more than $25,000 and has a useful life of more than five years will be included in the CIP. She gave a summary by department of the total $275,469,588 proposed CIP projects and a summary of the proposed funding sources. Tyra-Lukens asked if the funding from sources outside of the City has been pledged. Kotchevar replied outside funding is the amount anticipated to be received, while the sources highlighted in grey are from the City's funding sources. Aho asked about the IT equipment included in the list of projects because many IT-related items would have a maximum useful life of five years. Kotchevar said there may be some items under$25,000 such as software projects. Getschow said a lot of our storage is on a five- year plan to be upgraded. He noted the upgrade to the fiber network was a big capital project. Aho asked how much the liquor operations profit will be impacted by increased competition and what our plan is to deal with that impact. Kotchevar replied we have been conservative in our projections for the liquor operations as well as for our SuperValu income. If the liquor sales were to drop substantially, we would review the list of projects. Getschow said we are showing declines in the liquor operations fund for the next couple of years, but we are still able to fund these projects. Tyra-Lukens commented the increased overhead that would be required for Sunday liquor sales would be a part of the reason not to promote Sunday sales of liquor. City Council Workshop Minutes June 14, 2016 Page 2 Kotchevar reviewed the list of significant projects for the ten-year period. Tyra-Lukens asked about the Staring Lake Park Amphitheatre Reconstruction project. Lotthammer said we anticipate the seating structure will need to be reconstructed by 2023. Case asked about the fire communication systems projects. Esbensen said in 2019 we plan to replace the actual power system, and we kept the old system for redundancy when we switched to the new one. Aho asked if the tower/microwave project is related to that. Esbensen replied it is for that and also for communications. Getschow noted that is the back-up system now we have the fiber system. Ellis reviewed the Pavement Management Condition Index for 2015 as compared to 2011 and 2013. He noted we grade the pavement condition every two years on a system of 0 to 100, and the citywide average index for 2015 is 81. He reviewed the Pavement Management Fund, and said we have decided there is a need to be a little more aggressive in the treatment of our roads due to heavier usage, so that will mean an increase in the cost. Aho asked if we have a stated goal for our road conditions. Ellis replied we want to maintain an average of Very Good citywide. Ellis reviewed the Franchise Fee rates and revenue. He noted we have been at the $2.50 rate since 2013;however, to maintain our city-wide goal we would need to increase the franchise fee to $3.50 by 2018. Aho asked if the $1.00 increase is per utility. Ellis said that was correct. Getschow said our original plan when the franchise fees were put in place was to re-evaluate after five years. Ellis added our goal was not to get into a situation where assessments were necessary. Getschow said five years ago we were one of the first to earmark franchise fees for transportation, and now many comparable cities in the metro area have put franchise fees in place. He said next year staff will include information about other cities that are doing this. Case noted it is important to put the franchise fees in place at the right time as we did,rather than waiting too long and needing to have assessments as well as the franchise fees. Tyra-Lukens asked how the maintenance of our unpaved roads gets factored in. Ellis replied we do maintain the unpaved roads, and, when the time is right, will pave those. Tyra-Lukens asked if we include those roads in the twenty-year plan. Ellis said those are planned as future assessments. Tyra-Lukens asked how many miles of unpaved roads we have. Ellis said it is primarily Dell Road and Valley Road, and is probably about a mile; however, paving those roads would be funded by assessments, not franchise fees. Kotchevar reviewed the Park Improvement Fund projects and noted the funding will come primarily from Cash Park fees. Case asked how we would get cash park fees since we are not getting much new development. Kotchevar said we still project quite a bit of development to come in. Lotthammer said we will have redevelopment and reinvestment revenue. Aho noted at some point that revenue stream will be cut off and asked how we would then deal with maintenance of the parks. Getschow said we have reached that point with Staring Lake and Round Lake Parks, and that funding is programmed in the budget as capital maintenance. He said the Council will receive an update on the budget at the next meeting. Kotchevar reviewed the Economic Development Fund and projects related to that fund. She said there are not a lot of revenue sources for this fund. Jeremiah said we have some lease revenue. City Council Workshop Minutes June 14, 2016 Page 3 Tyra-Lukens asked about the streetscape project for Presbyterian Homes and Prairie Center Drive. Jeremiah said Presbyterian Homes have said they could start that development this year. Tyra-Lukens asked if the day care was purchased with the idea that it might be redeveloped at some point. Jeremiah said it was a right-of-way purchase with an expectation of value. We thought it would be a good idea to hold that because there was potential for redevelopment or for an LRT station parking site. Tyra-Lukens commented it doesn't look like we will need it for LRT, and there may be concerns about owning random pieces of land. Jeremiah said the lease on that small property would end in 2020, and we could potentially sell it at that point. Aho said, from a policy perspective, he was not in favor of holding property. It made sense to buy it at the time, but we don't need it now. He did not think we would need to wait to the end of the lease to sell it. Case said he did not think we should go out and look for land to buy, although it is a different question if it is land that falls into our hands. Aho said it may make sense to hold on for a few more years,but if we get some active interest in the property he would like to have it brought to the City Council. Kotchevar said staff is still reviewing the IT Internal Service Fund which includes a storage upgrade project. She said our debt burden is at 8.7% this year, and that percentage will come down every year. She said our future debt levies will be very stable from 2017-2023,but there will be a big drop in 2026 and 2027. At that point we plan to purchase three or four fire vehicles and will need a significant remodel of the police department area. Open Podium - Council Chamber II. OPEN PODIUM A. SYDNEY ASHTON— TOBACCO SAMPLING ORDINANCE Sydney Ashton, 3920 Excelsior Blvd., St. Louis Park, said she is a friend and customer of Tom Madden. She found it difficult to quit smoking until she tried e cigarettes three years ago. E cigarettes enabled her to quit smoking, so she understands first-hand the benefits of using them for that purpose. She said Mr. Madden provides a safe place for people to get educated on the products, and he provides quality products. B. ROBERT DWYER— TOBACCO SAMPLING ORDINANCE Robert Dwyer, a customer of Tom Madden's, said he used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day,but vaping has changed his life. Nothing else worked for him to quit smoking until he tried vaping. He believed e cigarettes provide a safe alternative to tobacco. Tyra-Lukens asked what a container of vaping substance costs. Mr. Dwyer said it varies, but it is $17.99-$24.99 on average and depends on the brand and the quality. City Council Workshop Minutes June 14, 2016 Page 4 Case thanked Ms Ashton and Mr. Dwyer for sharing their stories. He said in 2001 and 2002 the Eden Prairie City Council led the campaign to ban smoking in public places. He believed there is a place for vaping as a medicinal treatment to break a cigarette habit. He was concerned vaping provides an entry point for high school kids to get into smoking regular cigarettes. He was not in favor of opening up the City for vaping, except for medicinal purposes to break a tobacco habit. C. TOM MADDEN— TOBACCO SAMPLING ORDINANCE Tom Madden, 19260 Lake Avenue, Deephaven, said a study done in England and published by the Royal College of Physicians found that e cigarettes were not a gateway to tobacco smoking. Tyra-Lukens said she did not believe a majority of the Council would support changing the tobacco sampling ordinance. III. ADJOURNMENT