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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDepartment Head Meetings Minutes 07.10.2007 MINUTES DEPARTMENT I~AD MEETING JULY 10, 2007 3:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Ken Olson Peggy Arnold Mark Guy Mary Emblcton Jan Faught Scott Wilm Gay Easton Steve Klotz Sam Painter Governor Schweitzer will present a check for TSEP Grant of $750,000 to the City of Laurel for the project at the wastewater treatment plant on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. The project is estimated to cost $4.6 million. The presentation will be made at Firefighters' Memorial Park. Mayor Olson asked if a fire engine and the new ambulance could be parked in front of the sheds during the presentation. Council Workshop Agenda - July l0t 2007 p~min~ · Annexation request Brit Romain - 2005 E. Main St. - Old Rapid Mart. · Zone Change Request for 2845 Laurel South Road fi`om Agricultural Open to Suburban Residential (or Residential Suburban- LMC Code book references both) Both issues are on "hold" by the Planning Board, which also requested that the council put a moratorium on planning issues until a city planner is hired. The Planning Board requested the refund of application fees for two applicants. Executive review: · Discussion regarding System Development Fees - Elena Subdivision Sam will write a letter to Dave Bequette. Mr. Bequette did not submit the application at the time of the SIA. · Discussion regarding the Form of Government Dratts of the proposed form of government and an alternate form of government will be prepared and made available to the public. Dr. Ken Weaver will be in Laurel on Friday at 3:00 p.m. for discussion with the department heads. There will be a council retreat on Saturday morning for further council discussion. Mary has a copy of Lewistown's charter. Mayor Olson distributed draft copies of the form of government with a strong mayor with self-governing powers. Sam explained self-governing powers versus general powers. General powers only allows the city to operate by state statutes. Self-governing powers can adopt ordinances that do not conflict with the state constitution or statutes. Mayor Olson told about Troy, Montana, and the generation plant abilities to sell to the grid. The city needed self-governing powers to do so rather than to get approval from the state. With self-governing powers, the city would have the ability to ask citizens to be allowed to operate as it pleased, which is a basic tenant of government. Section 3.10 of the draft was reviewed and discussed. The chief administrative officer is not specified in general powers (administrative assistant) and MCA does not allow transfer of supervisory authority from the mayor to the administrative assistant. The last Local Government Review Commission did not recommend any change. There are some exceptions, such as taxing authority, which is still regulated and controlled by the State of Montanm · Airport Authority issues (Council Member Poehls) The Airport Authority does not have by-laws, but they do have Rules and Regulations. Sam cautioned the staff not to get drug into the middle of this battle. The city does not have control over the Airport Departmeat Head Meeting Minutes of July 10, 2007 Authority except to appoint its members and levy a few mills. There was discussion regarding whether the city is required to levy mills. Steve commented that the City of Laurel citizens are paying for something that is not in the city limits. There was discussion regarding annexation. Other city properties have not been annexed. Sam suggested undoing the Airport Authority. There was discussion regarding having an Airport Authority presentation by their attorney versus the city attorney investigating. · Discussion regarding variance request at 1103 East Main Street (Council Member Eaton) The item will be dropped from the agenda. Sam asked about distn'buting the maps. · Discussion regarding resolutions and ordinances (Council Member Eaton) Sam prepared a memo for the council. A resolution authorizing the mayor to sign the TSEP contract will be presented to the council for the July 17th council agenda. Review ofdratt council agenda for July 17, 2007 · Public Hearings: o City of Laurel Water Facility Plan o Ordinance No. 007-08: Ordinance amending the form of Municipal Government in the City of Lanrel. De artment Re orts: Ambulance Service · New ambulance update Jan stated that an appointment needs to be made for Industrial to install the radio in the new ambulance. Auto Trim Design will do some minor repairs on the ambulance. The temporary tags on thc new ambulance have expired. Steve Kops, Main Street EFX, will take photos of the new ambulance tonight. Jan will be excused from attending the council workshop. Jan stated that the ambulance office is still a mess and no cost estimates have been received. Mayor Olson suggested pulling out the cabinets to see how much needs to be replaced. ~ President There was discussion regarding the 4th of July. Mayor Olson stated that there was excessive noise with the fireworks displays in town. It might be worse during the 100-year celebration next year. City Court There was no discussion. Clerk/Treasurer · Budget process update Mary stated that the preliminary budget will be discussed on July 11t~. Mary stated that there are still two holdouts for meter replacement and direction is needed. Fire D~l~artment 2 I)eparmlimt Head Meeting Minutes of July 10, 2007 · Fire truck update The fire department has been busy. The new fire truck should be reedy in late winter or early spring. Library · Website progress Mayor Olson read Peggy's memo last week. She is still waiting for the flow chart from Jim Huertas. They will meet in the next couple weeks. Peg is still limited on what can be updated. Steve will bring the flow chart to the next depathuent heed meeting. · Parking lot progress Steve has not contacted the City of Billings for spec sheets. He hopes to get the bids out by the end of July. There was discussion regarding storm drainage issues. Steve recommends tying into the existing storm system. The pmjeet should be under $$0,000, which is under the bidding requirements. Poli~ De~artraent · SRO enntraet Mark Guy stated that the department is on track for the SRO contracts. · Alive Aider Five block party update The bid for police staffing of the event is alreedy done. Public Utilities There was no discussion. Public Works · Report on progress with South Laurel business SID and Main Street, 3rd to 8th Steve and Mayor Oison will meet with Chad Hanson (Great West Engineering) next week regarding the South Laurel Business SID. Steve stated that the title "Alive After Five" should not be used to refer to the block party event. Steve stated that the State was doiog a review of the Main Street project today. Steve stated that Cheryll has two applications for home occupations for the Planning Board. There was discussion regarding the approval process for home occupations. The LMC needs to be reviewed. Steve stated that the code is different than the process Cai set up, and he asked for direction regarding these two applications. One application meets the requirement and one does not. Since the code states that the city planner will review the applications and present them to the Planning Board, Sam advised that the city quit processing applications until a planner has been hired. Applications could be received, but the applicants must be informed that they would not be processed until a planner is hired. Mayor Oison stated that the interview committee will meet on Tuesday, July 17th, to review the applications for the city planner position. Interviews will be scheduled and a planner should be hired by the end of August or beginning of September. Steve mentioned that the police department recently referred a vehicle complaint to Gary that should have been eddressed by the police department. He asked that the dispatchers be informed of the correct process. 3 Departmea~t Head Meeting Minutes of July 10, 2007 Mary recently received a call regarding a liquor p~mdt for an activity at a public park. Misinformation was given to the caller regarding the process. Mayor Olson will change the contact person for Great West Engineering from Larry McCann to Steve Klotz. City Attorney · Truck mute issue Sam and Steve will discuss the truck mute issue. · Cable Montana Sam is working on it. Mayor Olson · Safety program update Mayor Olson will allocate money for the program out of the mayor's budget. · Report on Planning Department This was discussed earlier in the meeting. · Cemetery contract Mayor Olson attended a Steering Committee meeting on Monday. Three applications were received for the cemetery master plan: EDU; CTA; and Peaks to Plains/Interstate Engineering. The consensus of the committee was to go with Peaks to Plains/Interstate Engineering. Commissioner Kennedy will meet with them on Wednesday to discuss the terms. The City of Laurel will meet with the successful applicant regarding services for Laurel's master plan. The city needs to address the purchase of the property and the maintenance agreement for the cemetery. The committee plans to break ground for the Veterans' Cemetery next Memorial Day. There was discussion regarding the easement, how the city wants the street t~mdnated, and the water issues. · Discussion of canopy height ordinance Sam has not done this yet. Mayor Olson has the muting slip for the temporary use permit and will talk to Sam about it today. · Airport Authority The fire agreements with the Airport Authority and the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch have been received. Verbiage regarding the percentage for the CIP needs to be added to the next agreements. The meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cindy Allen Council Secretary 4