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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Workshop Minutes 10.09.2007 MINUTES COUNCIL WORKSHOP OCTOBER 9, 2007 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 October 9, 2007. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Emelie Eaton _x_ Kate Hart _x_ Gay Easton _x_ Alex Wilkins _x_ Doug Poehls x Mark Mace _x._ Chuck Dickerson _x_ Norm Stamper OTHERS PRESENT: Sam Painter Mary Embleton Kurt Markegard James Caniglia Rick Musson Jan Faught Steve Zeier, BSEDA Public InDut (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. There was no public input. Executive review: · Draft resolution of intent establishing the TIF District Mayor Oison asked Steve Zeier and James Caniglia to present the TIF District. Steve stated that the drat~ resolution of intent declares that there are incidences of blight within the City of Laurel. The legal description provides the area for the proposed Tax Increment Finance District in conjunction with an Urban Renewal Plan. The resolution sets a preliminary date for the public hearing on November 20th. The resolution determines some of the main incidences of blight, which include flooding, lack of green space, street improvements and public safety provisions for this particular area. Listing the reasons for the determination of blight does not limit the set of action items for the district. If a TIF District is established, the funds do not have to be spent addressing those particular issues. The description of the boundaries of the TIF District will be set with approval of the final resolution establishing the district. The boundaries included in the resolution of intent correspond to the map that was proposed and distributed at the council meeting on October 2"a. There was discussion regarding the timeframe for the creation of the entity that oversees the distnl0ution of the funds. Steve stated that the entity already exists in the city council. The city council could appoint an Urban Renewal Agency and delegate its urban renewal powers to that body. Normally, the council would be the ultimate authority for the distribution of the funds. Administration of the funds is a separate issue that the city council can choose to keep in staff or Council Workshop Minutes of October 9, 2007 contract out. The city council would have jurisdiction and could change who is on that. The administrative function can be finalized after the creation of the TIFD. There wes further discussion regarding a Capital Improvements Plan for the TIF District and the need to set priorities for projects within the district. Mayor Olson stated that, regardless of whether the TIFD goes forward or not, the city will enter into a CIP process with an outside resource within the next ninety days. Steve stated that it is as simple es having an established CIP program and using the TIFD revenues for CIP projects within the district. There was discussion regarding the timeline for funding. Steve stated that there is the possibility of setting up a revolving loan fund with the remaining dollars at the end of the district. If the district sunsets and there are remaining funds in the account, the funds would be releesed to the taxing judsdictious. Mayor Oison stated the possibility that the City of Laurel could be obligated by statute to proceed with the creation ora paid fire depathnent after the upcoming census. If Laurel's population exceeds 7,500, the city would be required to have a paid fire department. The council must be aware of some of the future obligations that will be incurred es the city continues to grow. Staffwill provide answers to the questions soon. The requirements for a paid fire department will be presented to the council soon. There wes discussion regarding the use of TIFD funds for personnel. Steve stated that there is no cese law pertaining to the funding of personnel with increment dollars. Statute does not lend itself to the funding ofpersounel due to the ambiguity ofpersounel es a whole. With the creation ofa TIFD and a CIP plan for the area, funds will be fi'eed up for use in other arees. Mayor Olson stated that it is important to consider the fact that the city will free up monies, but the monies may not be General Fund monies. They might be Enterprise Fund monies. The council needs to have an understanding of the issues, and he has esked staff.to give a presentation. Mary stated that one of the things learned at the presentation on TIFD at the conference is that urban renewal has been on the state law books for the last thirty years. Urban renewal was typically funded by federal grants and loans and private investors. As the federal grants have dried up, the need for tax increment financing has occurred. The city is focusing on urban renewal of property, and the whole process is focused around property and values and bringing the value up in order to create more tax base. As the financial adviser for the city, she will determine the burden of shifting the taxing authority or value if the city does not take the normal course as done in the past. The city can only levy so many dollars. Usually when a growing community and the taxable value increases, a city has to levy fewer mills because it can only levy so many dollars. If the taxable value deereeses, more mills are levied to raise the same amount of money. Mary will do some number crunching to find out if fleezing the value over the next twelve years would have a diverse impact on the city's overall taxing authority, which is partly the General Fund, or if the increment would be beneficial to improving the area and be a better payoff. That will be the council's decision, but the influence of the tax increment has to be cconsidered. The city is limited by time now because this is the only time to capture this big increment. The ability to capture it will enable the city to bond and finance the improvements that need to he done. 2 Com~cil Workshop Minutes of October 9, 2007 There are approximately eleven active Tax Increment Finance Districts in Montana. There was further discussion regarding percentages and tax bases. James stated that the city will likely implement impact fees to fund new infrastructure. He mentioned that every TIFD created in Montana has been successful, according to the presentation at the League meeting. Mayor Olson stated that that he looks forward to the presentation on how the city will be able to address a mandate for the creation of a fire department. Laurel is currently a Class 3 city and would become a Class 2 city flits population goes over 7,500. · Resolution - Agreement end Small Services Contract for Engineering and/or Surveying Services with Engineering, Inc. for reconstruction of the parking lot at the library Mayor Oison stated that the engineering needs to be done so the parking lot at the library can be repaired. The small services contract with Engineering, Inc. was attached to the resolution. The resolution will be on the October 16th council agenda. · Resolution- Laurel Airport Road Easement Mayor Olson stated that Bob Moats, the engineer for Yellowstone County Road Service, requested an easement on the property that Laurel purchased for the cemetery. The county would like to extend Airport Road straight through to connect with Buffalo Jump Road, eliminating the sharp mm that is currently there. Construction would begin this fall and the hard surfacing would be done next spring. Part of the easement would be from Laurel and part would be from the State land to the north of the property. Review continues regarding use of the road that currently goes in front of the cemetery. The resolution will be on the October 16~' council agenda. *, Resolution - Laurel Cemetery Regulations Mayor Olson stated that the document indicated the proposed changes to the cemetery regulations. Norm stated that the staff recommendations were reviewed by the Cemetery Commission, which recommends approval by the council. Other items Mayor Oison explained an additional item for the October 16th council agenda. A resolution and small service contract from Jim Huertas Consulting was distr~uted. The proposal from the consulting service is to update the city's website, with a total of eighty hours committed. The $3,600 cost was discounted to $2,400 for the city, and he guaranteed that he will not go over more than ten percent. Mayor Oison stated that this is an excellent opportunity for the city to improve its website. Jim will contact all department heads regarding concerns about the website and for suggestions of how to better serve the citizens of Laurel. The website will be updated, and there is thought of making it interactive with the public. The consulting service offered to provide ongoing maintenance of the website for $22.50 an hour. Mayor Oison recommends that also, as it would be difficult for staffto take on that added responsibility. The resolution will be on the October 16th council agenda. Chuck Dickerson asked who is responsible for maintenance of the walkway by the bridge on Valley Drive. Mayor Olson will get an answer to the question. Mayor Olson stated that the information regarding acronyms, as well as some additional information, will be distn~outed in a council notebook soon. Council Workshop Minutes of October 9, 2007 The City of Laurel will host the next joint city/county meeting at the Owl Junction Diner on Thursday, October 25', at 5:30 p.rm Agenda items should be submitted to the ceuncil secretary. Mayor Olson has asked Big Sky EDA to make a presentation on TIF Distriets at the joint meeting. Mayor Oison asked the staff and council members to report on the League of Cities and Towns Conference last week. Mary Embleton, James Caniglia, Mark Mace, Emelie Eaton, and Alex Wilkins attended the coni~rence. Mary thanked the council for allowing her to attend this year's conference. During the Clerk, Treasurers and Finance Officers Association semi-annual meeting, she was re-elected to another two- year term as the president. The association also appointed Mary as the secretary/treasurer for the League of Cities and Towns Executive Board. Mary attended a workshop on searching the interact and learned a couple new search engines. The education director for the International Institute of Municipal Clerks spoke, and they are requiring an additional twenty hours of instruction over a three- year period to meet their minimum education requirements to become a certified municipal clerk. The association is trying to figure out how to meet those additional requirements. The TIF District presentation was informative. Mary also serves on the Budget Dues and Finance Subcommittee for the League of Cities, and the committee met to review the League's finances. The League of Cities will have a joint meeting with MMIA in November to discuss some issues. An announcement was made that Bob Worthington will be retiring as chief executive officer of MMIA, so a search will need to be conducted. The Clerks' Association also received an announcement that Jane Jelinski, director of the Local Government Center in Bozeman, will retire soon. James attended the presentation on the TIF District. He stated that it was very informative and good to hear the concerns and successes expressed by the planning director in Butte and the city manager in Billings regarding TIF Districts. James attended a presentation on zoning, and form based cedes and performance based codes were discussed. These are different than Euclidian zoning, which is the zoning that has been used since the 1920's. Form based codes and performance based codes are generally used in more commercialized areas and are more specific about what can be done as far as development as opposed to what cannot be done. Developers tend to like it because it is very clear on what can be done, and it is good for the city because it is very straight forward. This type of zoning is becoming more popular throughout the country, and James was not aware that it had made its way into Montana. Emergency zoning was also discussed during the presentation. James thanked the Mayor and council for letting him attend the conference. Mary stated that another highlight was the city's inclusion in the presentation of the performance contracting issue on Friday morning, A couple dozen people attended the presentation, including quite a few people from Billings who were interested in Laurel's performance contracting experience. A lady t~om DEQ was very interested in this. Mary thanked the council for allowing her to participate in the presentation. Mark requested that performance contracting and TIFD be on the joint city/county agenda on October 25*. He encouraged the council members to attend next year's conference in Missoula. Alex stated that the conference was very informative, especially only being seven days into city council° Mayor Olson stated that he was unable to attend the conference due to work commitments. 4 Council Workshop Minutes of October 9, 2007 Review of draft council agenda for October 16, 2007 · Public Hearing: Ordinance No. O07-10: Ordinance mending certain sections of the "Laurel Zoning Ordinance" located at Chapter 17 of the Laurel Municipal Code. (First reading- 09/18/2007) The public hearing for the temporary use permit ordinance will be on the October 16th council agenda. Attendance at the October 16t~ council meetin~ Doug might be unable to attend. Announcements The Laurel Fire Department will host an open house on Wednesday evening. The council workshop adjourned at 7:27 p.rr~ 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 ilems.