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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Workshop Minutes 09.11.2018MINUTES COUNCIL i ,' i A Council Workshop was held in the Council Chambers and called to order by Mayor Tom Nelson at 6:30 p.m. on September 11, 2018. _x Emelie Eaton _x Heidi Sparks Bruce McGee _x_ Richard Herr _ Scot Stokes _x_ Iry Wilke Richard Klose x Bill Mountsier OTHERS PRESENT. Officer Stanly J. Langve Officer Baumgartner Matthew R. Lurker, Chief Administrative Officer Public Input There were none. General Items • Appoint Officer Stanley J. Langve as Police Captain/Assistant Chief. Officer Langve spoke regarding his qualification and desire to be Police Captain. His qualifications include 19 years of service as a Police Officer, evidence technician, reserve coordinator, School Resource Officer, Multi -Jurisdictional Task Force, as well as over 700 hours of P.O.S.T. Academy professional education. He stated he is looking forward to this opportunity. Mayor Nelson clarified that Officer Langve had spent the past six months shadowing the former Captain. The previous Captain gave strong praise of Officer Langve during his exit interview. Executive Review • Resolution - A resolution of the City Council authorizing the Mayor to issue a formal written request to the Montana Department of Transportation requesting use of Urban Funds for the identified priority project located within the City of Laurel and Yellowstone County. This resolution is the first step in this process. The resolution will be sent to the County Commissioner and then onto the State so the funds can be identified. Council was excited to see movement on this project. • Resolution— A resolution of the City Council to repeal resolution R18-63, and to request the distribution of Bridge and Road Safety and Accountability Program Funds Council passed Resolution No. R18-63 at last weeks meeting. This resolution is to repeal resolution R18-63, which asked for the funds to be reserved and replace with this resolution, which asks for the funds to be dispersed. Upon submitting the passed resolution the Clerk/Treasurer was contacted by Kelly Lynch with Montana Leagues of Cities and Towns asking if the City had the matching funds available. The Clerk/Treasure responded that the City did indeed have the matching funds. It was Council Workshop Minutes of September 11, 2018 clarified that the City could only reserve the funds in the event they are not able to come up with the matching funds. The City already had a project in mind in which these funds can be used, East 6th Street. The Clerk/Treasurer was grateful for the call asking if the City had the matching funds, so the City would not lose out on this funding source. The Clerk/Treasurer also noted that this is the first year the City can apply for these funds. This is a new process, and the instructions were not very clear. She does not expect this issue in the future. m Resolution — A resolution of the City Council resetting its September 25`x' Council meeting to September 241 Due to multiple Council Members and Staff attending the Montana Leagues of Cities and Towns, the Council Workshop will need to be moved from September 25th to September 24th. ® Council Issues: o Presentation from School Board At the previous "Meet with a Council Person" at High Plains Brewery, a School Board member was in attendance and spoke regarding how schools are funded. In particular, what happens when CHS protests their taxes. The School Board member was unable to attend this evening but had the School Superintendent, Linda Filpula, and Business Manager Laurel Public Schools, Donnie McVee, attend tonight's meeting to discuss this issue. Any entity has the right to protest their taxes. They are still required to pay those taxes and do so under protest. Those funds are placed into a special fund until the matter is resolved. The School District does have the ability to use those funds to meet their operational needs with the caveat they may owe money back to the entity that protested their taxes. In this case, CHS protested their taxes, the resolution in this matter requires the School District to pay back approximately 1 million dollars. The School District will do this with a permissive levy. This is a one-year levy and will cost the taxpayers approximately $33.00 on a $100,000 tax assessed home value. The refinery makes up over 50% of the tax value for the school district. The taxes they pay equals approximately 25% of the revenue the school receives. It was questioned how this issue would be addressed in the future if the permissive levy is only for a year. It was stated that the School District expects the refinery to continue protesting their taxes as their issue is in how the refinery is assessed. This will not be resolved until there are legislative changes. The School District is good for tax year 18 but expects issues to arise in tax year 19. It was further clarified that the State sets the schools budget. The analogy of a pie was given. When the refinery protests their taxes, the pie does not shrink, how the pie is divided does. That cost is shifted from the refinery to other funding sources. It was questioned how often the taxpayers could see the need for a permissive levy. That CHS just resolved a five-year tax protest. Will taxpayers see this once every five years? 2 Council Workshop Minutes of September 11, 2018 It was clarified that the School District does not know when the protest will be resolved. The longer the protest goes on, the higher the financial liability becomes. The School District cannot do any recourse for collection until there is a settlement. It was clarified that 83% of the School Districts budget is salaries and benefits which are negotiated. It was further clarified that the School District is growing. With more students means more teachers and the need for more space. The example of the new Middle School was given. The capacity of the school is 600 students, last year they had 700 students enrolled. This year the High School grew by 50 students. The State sets the minimum and maximum budgets; the taxpayers control the remainder. It was further clarified that approximately 20 years ago there was a lawsuit in regards to equitable sharing. Smaller School Districts that were poorer in natural resources received fewer funds from the State, while those communities that were rich in natural resources received more funding from the State. The settlement required each School District to be on equal ground. It was questioned about the various taxes that were claimed to go towards school funding. It was clarified that the School District has a hard time finding reliable funding sources. o 2017 Intake Update There is no update at this time. The intake is operational at this time. o SED Basin Update The ground -breaking ceremony for the SED Basin project will be tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. The Chief Administrative Officer had the opportunity to tour the site this morning. The SED Basin's are empty at this time and construction ready to begin. The CAO was able to see the condition of the SED Basins and their need for replacement. The SED Basin's have been in use since 1932. o Planner Update There is no update at this time. o Drainage Issue (Constituent Complaint) At the last Meet with a Council Person, a constituent made a complaint regarding drainage issues near High Plains Brewery. The road had deuterated due to high truck volume. High Plains Brewery filled in the area with gravel to make it more aesthetically appealing. This, however, caused issues with water drainage. The constituent noted upon his return home this evening that the area was grated out. Mayor Nelson stated that there were crews in the area working on pavement maintenance and had them focus on a temporary fix for the time being. LURA is working on a street project over this next year. These streets have been identified as needing to be replaced. The constituent, Jason Balzer, 13 Washington Avenue, asked if parking would be addressed as people are parking in the alley and on the sidewalk. The Mayor stated he would bring those concerns to the group working on this project. However, parking is a Civil matter, and the Police Department would need to address those issues. Council Workshop Minutes of September 11, 2018 The constituent stated he had called on at least two occasions, but that he felt our Police Department had larger issues to focus on other than parking. It was questioned if the land across the street could be a possible solution. It was clarified that the business would need to look into that as an option. Other Items There were none. Review of Draft Council Agenda for September 18, 2018 There were none. Attendance at the September 18, 2018, Council Meeting All in attendance will be present at next weeks meeting. Announcements The airport's runway dedication will take place Saturday, September 15th at 8 a.m. Doc Smith will also be retiring from the Laurel Airport Authority on this day. Public Works Committee will meet on September 17th at 6:00 p.m. It was questioned if Emergency Services will be canceling their meeting for September as it conflicts with moving the Workshop meeting to the 24th. Mayor Nelson stated he would follow up with the chair. Recognition of Employees Mayor Nelson recognized the following employees. • Mike Furman Jr. 9 years on September 17th Library • Jeremiah Johnson 7 years on September 21' Police • Sam Painter 6 years on September 4th Attorney • Corey Nicholson 2 years on September 12th WWTP • Chase Rasmussen 1 year on September 6th Police The council workshop adjourned at 7:43 p.m. Respectfully su tted, Brittney Moorman Administrative Assistant NOTE: This meeting is open to the public. This meeting is for information and discussion of the Council for the listed workshop agenda items. 0