Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011 [11] Nov 03 November 3, 2011 Page 1 of 4 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, the City Council for the City of St. Joseph met in regular session on Thursday, November 3, 2011 in the St. Joseph City Hall, opening the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Members Present: Mayor Rick Schultz, Councilors Dale Wick, Renee Symanietz, Steve Frank, Bob Loso and City Administrator Judy Weyrens City Representatives Present: City Finance Director Lori Bartlett, Public Works Director Terry Thene, Police Chief Pete Jansky Others Present: Linda Brown Approve Agenda: Wick made a motion to approve the agenda. The motion was seconded by Symanietz and passed unanimously. PUBLIC COMMENTS — No one present wished to speak Consent Agenda: Loso made a motion to approve the consent agenda as follows: a. Minutes — Approve the minutes of October 6, 2011. b. Bills Payable — Approve the check numbers 044655- 044694 and EFT # 000569 - 000573 (payroll). c. Gambling Report — Accept the 3` Quarter Gambling Report. d. Donations — Accept the donations and stated purposes. The motion was seconded by Frank with the removal of 4(e), Final Plat. The motion passed unanimously. Final Plat/Development Agreement St. Joseph Professional Plat: Frank questioned the status of the planned use, fast food, that is anticipated to purchase one of the lots in the Professional Plat. Weyrens stated that the development plan is a separate process from the platting and it is anticipated that the plat will be developed in two phases with the first phase being located closest to CR 133. Frank expressed concern that the City has not looked at creative ways to develop the site as far as signage and rain gardens. Weyrens stated that there still is an opportunity as the site plan for any development requires a separate review and Ordinance compliance check. Those items will be considered at the time of development. With regard to the plat, the only improvements that will be constructed with the first phase is enough of the road section and utilities to serve the development plan being proposed and the reconstruction along CR 133 to include the "pork chop" design to manage right in and right out traffic. The ponds illustrated on the plat will be private and remain in perpetuity as private and the City will require construction of the six (6) foot sidewalk along CR 133. Symanietz made a motion authorizing the Mayor and Administrator to execute the Final Plat and Development Agreement entitled St. Joseph Professional Plat. The motion was seconded by Wick and passed unanimously. FIRE BOARD MATTERS Fire Truck bids. Weyrens stated that the City accepted bids for a replacement pumper truck and only one bid was received and that was from Rosenbauer, General Fire Safety. The notice of bids was mailed to the three truck builders along with the specifications. Fire Chief Jeff reported that the truck committee and Fire Board has reviewed the bid and is recommending the City award the project to Rosenbauer, II General Fire Safety. The original budget for the truck purchase was set at $ 538,000 and the bid received was in the amount of $ 479,591. November 3, 2011 Page 2 of 4 Loso made a motion to authorize execution of the bid of the new pumper truck from Rosenbauer at the bid price of $ 479,591. The motion was seconded by Wick and passed unanimously, Purchase Agreement for 1995 Pumper Truck: Weyrens stated that previously the City Council declared the current fire truck as pending surplus property to allow the City to solicit bids for sale of the truck. The bid specifications required a minimum bid of $ 60,000 with 5% down and delivery to be within 30 days of the City receiving the new truck. The terms of purchase were outlined in a purchase agreement prepared by the City Attorney. Frank made a motion authorizing execution of a Purchase Agreement between the City of St. Joseph and the City of El Rosa for the purchase of the 1995 Freightliner Truck for a sale price of $ 60,000. The motion was seconded by Symanietz and passed unanimously. Pager Replacement: Taufen reported at the Fire Board meeting that the Department will be required to switch radio frequencies to narrow band. Originally the Fire Department was of the understanding that the switch would not occur until 2013 planning began for the conversion and funds were being designated for the switch. However, Stearns County recently announced that the pagers must be updated by December 31, 2011 as the County has already converted. The department has 18 pagers that are capable of being re- programmed and 12 pagers that will not work. To continue Fire Services after December 31, 2011 the Department will need to update 18 pagers and replace 12. The total cost for implementation is $ 8,201.03. Weyrens stated that the Fire Board has designated funds for the replacement and the Fire Chief is recommending using unspent budget funds for the expenditure. Frank made a motion to approve the purchase and update of the pagers contingent upon shifting the unused budget funds and equipment reserves as needed. Motion Failed for lack of a second. Loso stated that the Fire Fund has sufficient funds in the equipment fund for the purchase and does not support using unused budget funds for a purchase when monies have been set aside for the same purpose. Wick made a motion to approve the purchase and update of the pagers at an anticipated cost of $ 8,201.03, utilizing the equipment reserve for funding. The motion was seconded by Loso. Ayes: Schultz, Wick, Loso, Symanietz Nays: Frank Motion Carried 4:1:0 2012 Preliminary Budget: Weyrens stated that the City has received the property tax impact for the proposed budget and due to legislative changes in the tax credit program the impact to individual property owners is greater than originally planned. The Council has until December 28, 2011 to finalize a budget and levy with the budget hearing scheduled for December 1, 2011. At this time the Council should provide direction to staff as to how to proceed with the budget in preparation for the public improvement hearing. Frank stated he is unsure of the goals of the council as he does not recall setting budget goals. However, if he were asked for his budget goals it would be to provide basic obligations for police, fire and roads. Mayor Schultz questioned the memberships that the City subscribes to such as the APO and League of MN Cities and if the budget includes memberships currently not subscribed to such as the Coalition for Greater MN Cities and the Greater St. Cloud Crop. Bartlett stated that the draft budget does not include new memberships. Schultz stated that the City may want to consider the benefits of these two organizations and what they can offer the City in exchange for membership. Schultz also stated that he would like to start the process for request for proposals (RFP) for EDA services. When questioned if the staff has prepared a revised budget, Weyrens stated the staff has not done more with the budget because they think it is down to personnel cost. Mayor Schultz questioned if any modeling has been done with loss of personnel yet. Weyrens stated they have not. Loso stated he believes cutting more projects may not be acceptable versus some layoffs. November 3, 2011 Page 3 of 4 Wick questioned what the fiscal effect is of employee layoff. Bartlett stated in the one year it is not a 1:1 effect because of unemployment and other miscellaneous factors. Loso stated he believes the budget goal should be a $250,000 reduction. Symanietz questions how much would need to be reduced in order to be at the level it was in 2011. Bartlett stated she estimates approximately $ 200,000 more than the proposed budget. Wick questioned how much of the 8% increase would be market value credit. Bartlett stated about 4% with the balance a result of the legislative actions eliminating the homestead credit/exclusion. Loso expressed frustration that the majority of the City budget is personal related expenses so the City does not have funding for projects. Frank stated that the city is a service organization and as such the majority of costs will be personnel related. This is not unique to St. Joseph, all governmental agencies provide services. He also stated that the Council has set some goals as to contracts and that may help alleviate some of the budget problem. Frank stated the Council has to look at their goals. He stated one to two things need to be put into the budget to target. Frank stated that he believes each of the departments need to look at their areas and consider what the goal, target and basic needs are in staffing to accomplish them. Also what would the possible implications be if the department lost one person? Mayor Schultz stated that since the Council opted not to construct the needed improvements in Park Terrace, staff will be faced with additional maintenance costs and those costs need to be included in the budget. Wick stated that he would like to see the financial impact of reducing staff by one or two. He would like to see the tax impact minimized. Loso questioned what the enterprise funds debt may look like for rates for the next year or two as part of the budget as well. The Council agreed to schedule a special meeting for the sole purpose of working on the 2012 Budget and Tax Levy. ADMINISTRATOR REPORTS Surplus Property: Weyrens stated that the staff is working on preparing a list of surplus property that can be disposed. Typically the City has sold surplus property in conjunction with Stearns County, but the administrative cost charged versus the type of property the City of St. Joseph has to dispose, is not worth the joint venture. Staff will be compiling a list of items to declare surplus along with a plan for disposal. MAYOR REPORTS Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee: Mayor Schultz stated the next Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting will be December 2, 2011. Discussion will be about the diamond interchange by Highwayl5 and county road 120, complete streets and the Mississippi Trail. CSB Joint Planning Administrative Council: Mayor Schultz stated he was requested to attend the Joint Planning Council to provide an update on the Transportation Plan. COUNCIL REPORTS FRANK Co Rd 2 Woebegone Trail Crossing: Frank reported that he has received a concern regarding the safety of crossing CR 2 by the Wobegon Trailhead. He questioned whether or not additional signage could be considered. Frank stated that he recognizes this area is in the Township as well. Joint Planning District: Mississippi Urban River Task Force was made a permanent subcommittee. Sustainability committee is developing a webpage with a floating logo. The cost is $100 and we made an informal commitment. St Cloud is doing the legwork. Rockville, St Cloud and the three counties have already committed along with the farm to market. The idea is to have a toolbox to be able see what is going on in other communities. November 3, 2011 Page 4 of 4 LOSO County Road 2: Loso stated that he noticed that the survey work has started for the realignment of CR 2 and questioned the status. Weyrens stated that she contact the City Engineer for an update at the next meeting. Recreation Association: Loso stated that at the last Recreation Association meeting they discussed a pump that failed for the watering system for the fields. The Recreation Association is questioning whether or not the City will reimburse the Association this cost. The cost of the pump was approximately $ 3,770. Thene stated that he was not made aware of the problem until after the pump was purchased and installed. Originally he had been told that the pump also supplied water to the campground, but upon investigation, the pump only waters the fields. Thene spoke to the president of the Recreation Association to help with some guidelines on what they need to come to the city for approval before making improvements on City property. APO: Loso stated that he recently attended the APO Full Board and had an opportunity to discuss trail funding through APO programming. The City does have some trails that would quality and requested that staff pursue funding opportunities. Frank stated that he too was aware of APO funding through the Legacy funding and questioned if St. Joseph could participate. Weyrens stated that this funding is what was originally requested of the Council for the CR 2 re- alignment, but she will forward the request to the City Engineer. WICK EDA: Wick reported that the EDA met with Katie Foley the new manager of the Main Street Market. The EDA is trying to connect producers and users and the Market is looking for help in new customers. Wick stated that they are also looking into grant opportunities through DEED for the various EDA projects. SYMAN I ETZ Stearns Electric Open House: Symanietz reported that she attended the open house for Stearns Electric and encouraged others to take the time to visit the facility. Closed Meeting: Schultz made a motion to close the City Council meeting at 8:50 PM pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.03 subd 1,2 to discuss labor negotiation strategy. The motion was seconded by Wick and passed unanimously. " J udy eyrens d • istrator