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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole Minutes 02.20.2001 MINUTES CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FEBRUARY 20, 2001 6:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Chuck Rodgers Lauren Van Roekel Ken Olson Gay Easton Bill Staudinger Gary Temple Mark Mace Daniel Dart (6:25 p.m.) Bud Johnson OTHERS PRESENT: Matt Erekson Larry McCann Mary Embleton Nathan Tubergen Rick Musson (6:10 p.m.) Jim Stevens (6:30 p.m.) Jan Fanght (6:30 p.m. Cal Cumin (6:30 p.m.) Nathan Tubergen presented a contract for financial services for the City of Laurel. Nathan was the Director of Finance and Administrative Services for the City of Billings for thirteen years. A health situation forced him into semi-retirement last year, but he is doing fine at this time. In June 2000, Nathan met with the Mayor and City Council regarding the procedures and possibility of hiring him to establish criteria and procedures for creating special improvement districts and working through the sale of bonds to meet the construction costs. Nathan had a previous working relationship with the individual that became president of Springsted Incorporated. Springsted was the financial advisor for the City of Billings while Nathan was employed there. Nathan would be the agent for Springsted and would do the on-hands work for the City of Laurel. Mr. Tubergen presented a two-fold contract to the council: scope of services and debt obligation. The scope of service would include the consulting services. Nathan would work with the city staff to compile the start to finish procedures required to create a special improvement district: (S1D) through the end of settling the bonds, whether with brokerage firms or with a private sale. The time frame expected for this process, beginning with the approval of the first resolution until the last resolution, would be approximately four to five months. The bid process for the construction can be done simultaneously with the sale of the bonds so that both would come in at the sa.me time. This would prevent the cost and the sale figures from being different. Debt obligation involves the sale of bonds and would require advertising. The $130,000 to $135,000 involved in the present project would probably not be a high enough figure to interest brokerage firms, so private placement would be necessary. Mr. Tubergen estimated that forty hours of consulting at $100 per hour and twenty-four hours of travel time at $50 per hour would be required to establish a special improvement process. No money was included in the contract for the sale of the bonds. Nathan would assist in compiling a small Official Statement for the sale of the bonds, but the bonds would be backed by the revolving fund. A list of the tax history for the properties within the district Cil:y Council comnUttee of the Whole Minutes of February 20, 2001 would be compiled and considered for sale of bonds. Bond counsel would be necessary for this and would cost approximately $2,000 to $2,500. Resolutions would need to be adopted soon. One of the resolutions would approve all of the expenditures as of the resolution date to be part of the bond issue. Nathan's expenses, engineering expenses, and various other expenses should be included in that resolution. Nathan gave Mary Embleton a copy of the contract. Mary made and distributed copies of the contract for the council to review. Bud asked Mary for her view on this program. Mary stated that it is something that the City has to do in order to get improvements done in the City. We want to do it right, and this will be an excellent learning process for her. Once the procedures are established, they could be applied to the next project. The learning process will take time, but that would be shortened for each successive project. Mayor Rodgers thanked Nathan Tubergen for his presentation. Larry McCann informed the committee about the intake situation. The city applied for the 50/50 Section 22 Grant from the Corps of Engineers. The grant came back as a study, which presented three proposals for the intake: spur dikes in the river, bend way weirs, and building a new intake. The regulators dismissed the spur dike proposal immediately. Because of the cost, bend way weirs were the primary recommendation of the Corp of Engineers, and we did submit an application for bend way weirs. All the environmental agencies in the United States and all of the regulators in the State of Montana protested it. We became aware of the WRDA Grant, Water Resources Development Act.: The Corp of Engineers runs that grant and the Secretary of the Army issues the grant. We are now waiting to hear if the $1.5 million, grant was approved to put in a new intake in the river. The estimate was based on the engineering from Morrison-Maierle. The $450,000 balance remaining from the loan is available for repairs to the Water Plant. The other $270,000 that has been spent in the river could be used as matching funds for the grant. Conrad Bums, Max Baucus, and Dennis Rehberg are all aware of the problems facing the City of Laurel regarding the intake. Cenex Refinery has agreed to loan us their professional lobbyist in the legislature. The goal is to have a permanent fix in the river this year. It would cost approximately $18,000 to build a berm across the river to the intake. The city has also applied for a $1.5 FEMA Grant. Jim Stevens reported that the company was in the process of interviewing eight applicants for the three open positions in the Fire Department. On March 24-25, the LVFD will be hosting the National Fire Academy managing company officers tactics in Laurel. The instructor is a National Fire Academy instructor. The state has some grant money, and the cost is $15.00 per student. Twelve firemen are signed up for this event. Matt Erekson reviewed the Springsted contract. The governing law under 6.4 in the contract referred to the State of Minnesota and should be negotiated to the State of Montana. Matt stated that this contract is between the City of Laurel and Springsted and did not necessarily provide that Nathan would be the advisor. Matt reviewed Nathan's agreement with Springsted and has received assurances from Nathan that he would be handling the project. Even though the contract does not specifically allow for that, Nathan's contract does. There was further discussion regarding the contracts and Mr. Tubergen's expertise in this area. City Council Committee oft.he Whole Minutes of February 20, 2001 Gay stated that the agencies in Montana are aware of the problems that the City of Laurel has faced with the intake, and all of them are on our side except one. Ken Olson asked the council to discuss the legislative information received from the Montana League of Cities and Towns during the council meeting. Gary questioned the tower that is proposed at Fichtner Chevrolet. Cai commented that cellular towers are a problem to manage from a city-planning standpoint because technology changes so quickly. Cal has not seen the proposal and application. Under our zoning ordinances, communication towers are allowed in highway commercial and commercial zones and height regulations are included in the ordinance. Cai would like to see a requirement for the cell towers to post a bond. A public hearing will be scheduled after the application is received. The meeting adjourned at 6:46 p.m. Respectfully submitted, City Council Secretary