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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Workshop Minutes 03.08.2011 MINUTES COUNCIL WORKSHOP MARCH 8, 2011 6:30 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS A Council Workshop was held in the Council Chambers and called to order by Mayor Ken Olson at 6:30 p.m. on March 8, 2011. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Emelie Eaton _x_ Doug Poehls _x_ Kate Hart _x_ Mark Mace _x Chuck Rodgers _x_ Chuck Dickerson _x Tom Nelson x Norm Stamper OTHERS PRESENT: Sam Painter Heidi Jensen Kurt Markegard Rick Musson Shirley Ewan Girl Scout Troop 2226 Public Input (three - minute limit): Citizens may address the Council regarding any item of City business not on the agenda. The duration for an individual speaking under Public Input is limited to three minutes. While all comments are welcome, the Council will not take action on any item not on the agenda. Mayor Olson asked Girl Scout Troop 2226 to introduce themselves. Sky Didyoung, Lynalee Olsen, and Katy Sue Knaub introduced themselves and stated that they are Girl Scout Troop 2226. Katy Sue stated that it was an honor to be at the meeting. Mayor Olson welcomed the Girl Scout Troop and stated that he hoped they would see how the council works. There was no further public input. General items: • Appointments: o City Planner — Heidi Jensen o CTEP Administrator — Heidi Jensen o Floodplain Administrator — Heidi Jensen Mayor Olson introduced Heidi Jensen as the new city planner. He will appoint Heidi as the city planner, the CTEP Administrator, and the Floodplain Administrator at the council meeting on March 1 5 `x . Heidi thanked the Mayor and Council for the appointment. She stated that she has seen a few challenges in the first two weeks, and she is looking forward to serving Laurel and helping the city grow. Council Workshop Minutes of March 8, 2011 Public Works Department: • Frozen culvert issues at Graff and West Schools Kurt Markegard spoke regarding the frozen culverts at Graff and some issues at West School. At Graff School, the school buses drive over the ends of the culvert and the water goes in the culvert and freezes over in the winter. If the culvert were replaced with something that would not collapse, it would still have very slow flow. All of the east/west culverts in town have a tendency to freeze up and not flow, which creates a puddle at the intersection and children in the community have to jump over the water. Public works is working with Graff School staff to keep the culverts thawed. In the near future, he would like to address the issue with a replacement culvert or a valley gutter. With the valley gutter, the streets would have to be taken back enough so the buses could actually come through there. Mayor Olson and Kurt met with the Department of Transportation to discuss the issues regarding the sidewalks and crosswalks at West School. Kurt expects to hear back from the DOT in the near future. Mayor Olson thanked Girl Scout Troop 2226 for attending the meeting. He stated that the issues at the elementary schools will continue to be addressed. Kurt mentioned that the City of Laurel recently purchased a new one -ton flatbed pickup with a sanding unit and a snowplow. It will be used around the bulb -outs in downtown and at the schools instead of the big trucks. The one -ton pickup is more maneuverable to get in and around the crosswalks. • Resolution — Agreement with St. Vincent's Healthcare Occupational Health Services Kurt stated that the agreement with St. Vincent's Healthcare is the annual agreement that deals with the drug screening services they provide for the police officers, shop CDL drivers, and the bus transit services. At this time, one of the Girl Scout leaders thanked Mayor Olson and the council for considering their concerns and for inviting them to the council workshop. Mayor welcomed them back at any time. • Discussion — Private Access Easement Mayor Olson stated that the private access easement is for discussion. The city reviewed some items that became apparent with the first attempt at a contract with Mr. Roma, and some other items need to be carefully considered. When the agreement is completed, it will change the landscape at this location for many years to come, so he thinks it is in the city's best interest to make sure that all issues have been addressed. Mayor Olson set up a meeting with Mr. Roma for further discussion regarding the issues. He will keep the council informed. Clerk/Treasurer: • Resolution — Budget amendment for library and fire department Shirley Ewan stated that both budget amendment resolutions require a public hearing because the budget will be changed. The first resolution is for the library and the fire department. The fire department purchased turnouts in last fiscal year, paid for the equipment in June 2010, but did not receive the equipment until July 2010. When the auditors saw that the equipment was 2 Council Workshop Minutes of March 8, 2011 received in a different fiscal year, they put it in as a prepaid. In order to get rid of the prepaid in July, Shirley had to reverse that and debit the expense account. Because it was received in July, it was not paid for in the last fiscal year and it came out of the current fiscal year. That left the fire department $17,959 short on the clothing allowance, and nine new firemen need to be geared up with turnouts. The budget amendment for the library is for an increase in appropriations. The library has a BTOP Grant that will buy one carousel workstation for new computers. The library will receive five new computers, and the library director wants to put a carousel of computers in the middle of the room, which means she needs two more carousels. BTOP will purchase one carousel and all of the computers. Another expense is the $3,000 cost to put wiring through the ceiling and down through a pipe to go out to each unit. The money will come out of the library donations, but it was not budgeted so cash reserves will be used. The amendments will be retroactive to July 1, 2010. • Resolution — Budget amendment for FAP building Shirley explained the budget amendment resolution for the FAP building. The resolution will also be retroactive to July 1, 2010. The resolution title will read "intent to approve budget amendment resolution amending appropriation distribution" because reserves will not be used for this budget amendment. The resolution will move the monies allocated towards the FAP addition into one fund in order to track it better. Exhibit A explains who is giving up their budget authority to put it into the FAP building. Emergency Services Committee • Fireworks ordinance Doug Poehls stated that a proposed draft fireworks ordinance was distributed tonight. The draft ordinance was taken from the fireworks ordinance in Great Falls. Doug asked for further discussion regarding the proposed fireworks ordinance at the council workshop on March 29 There was discussion regarding the amount of the fines for first, second, third and higher offenses, the differences between misdemeanors and civil infractions, and state statute regarding the fines. Sam will do further research. • Animal control ordinance Doug stated that there are two issues regarding the animal ordinance. One was the request from a constituent to allow chickens in the city. The recommendation of the Emergency Services Committee was not to change the ordinance to include chickens. The second issue is the hold time for animals taken by the police department. LMC has a five -day hold time and Yellowstone County and the City of Billings have a three -day hold time. Doug will present the issue when it is ready for council consideration. Chuck Dickerson commended the Emergency Services Committee for coming up with a solution to the ongoing battle regarding fireworks. It will not please everybody, but it does show that the committee worked on making it equitable for everyone. Executive Review: • Ordinance — Change composition of the Tree Board Mayor Olson stated that the Tree Board proposed a change in the composition of its membership from four members to five members. Currently, the Tree Board needs three out of four members for a quorum. If there was a five - member board, the quorum requirement would still be three members, 3 Council Workshop Minutes of March 8, 2011 but there would be one more person to make the quorum. The first reading of the ordinance will be on the March 15 council agenda. • Ordinance — Change LMC 5.44.040 — License fee. Mayor Olson asked if there was any public input before the council discussion. Joanne Flynn, Executive Secretary for the Laurel Chamber of Commerce, spoke for the Chamber and all non -profit organizations. Because the non - profits do fundraising, and as this ordinance was written, each time they bring in vendors, the organization makes money. As per the ordinance, each of those vendors needed to get a city license. So they decided it was time to get that changed. Chuck Dickerson asked if she wanted the outside vendors to not have to buy a city license. He questioned if it would be fair to a businessperson to have the competition come in and sell food that would take away from their business without having to purchase a license. Joanne stated that the Chamber compiled a list of signatures from local retailers that supported the change to not require business licenses for the vendors. Kate stated that she has participated in many similar events and has never been charged a city business license. These types of events are good for the overall city, as well as the fast food restaurants because it brings people in. She thinks any type of large event is good for merchants of the city. Chuck Dickerson stated that he did not mean to imply that he was against this, but he wanted to find out if there is an issue before the council votes on it. Joanne stated that the events include the Farmers' Market, 4th of July, Christmas to Remember, Heritage Days, and the Rock the Blocks. Non - profits attend all of the events. The ordinance applies to one or two -day events only, so a non -profit could not set up a downtown store. There was further discussion regarding the verbiage of the draft ordinance, especially section 5.44.044 License fee. Mayor Olson stated that the ordinance process includes a first reading, public hearing, and second reading. The public hearing is an opportunity for everybody who has a vested interest to present evidence for discussion. The entire question is yet to be determined. Mayor Olson encouraged the Chamber Board or committee members to bring forward any additional input. • CAO position process Mayor Olson stated that the advertisement for the CAO position will be in the Billings Gazette on March 13 and March 27 and in the Laurel Outlook on March 16 23` and 30 The ad will be posted on the city's website, on the ICMA website, with Job Service and in the Laurel City Voice. Applications close on April 8 Interviews will be scheduled in April. He anticipates that a final candidate would be selected by the week of May 9 -13 so the final candidate would have six weeks to report to work on July 1 Mayor Olson has asked Doug and Mark if they could sit on the interview committee, if possible. He will report on the status of the interview committee again soon. Other items 4 Council Workshop Minutes of March 8, 2011 There were none. Review of draft council agenda for March 15, 2011 • Public Hearing: o Ordinance No. 011 -03: An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Laurel, Montana, adopting a technical amendment to Ordinance No. 011 -01 to resolve a typographical error in the previously adopted ordinance. (1 reading — 03/01/2011; PH — 03/15/2011) The fireworks ordinance will be removed from the agenda for further discussion. Attendance at the March 15, 2011 council meeting All council members present will attend. Announcements Chuck Dickerson asked that the status of the Bus Transit program be added to the next council workshop agenda. As per the council's instructions at the council retreat, Mayor Olson contacted Jerry Grebenc at the Department of Commerce regarding different issues about water districting. Mr. Grebenc is available to present information to the council for a couple hours on Saturday, March 19 or Saturday, March 26 . Since March 19 does not work for some council members, council members will check to see if they could attend on March 26 Norm suggested having Mr. Grebenc come on March 26 While Mayor Olson attends the Mayor's Conference in Helena this week, he will talk to Mr. Grebenc about the date. Council members should inform Mayor Olson via e-mail regarding the possibility of March 26 Mayor Olson gave an update on the Department of Transportation Bus Transit System. The city is working to go forward with the bus transit system. Shirley is working diligently to get the last two reports up -to -date and filed with the State. Mayor Olson and the city planner will meet with representatives at the Department of Transportation on Friday at 1:00 p.m. He will give a detailed report to the council after the meeting with the DOT. The council workshop adjourned at 7:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cindy Allen Council Secretary NOTE: This meeting is open to the public. This meeting is for information and discussion of the Council for the listed workshop agenda items. 5