HomeMy WebLinkAboutSP May 8, 1980
~ 01 ANDOVER
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MAY 8, 1980
MINUTES
A Special Meeting of the Andover City Council was called to order by Mayor Jerry
Windschitl on May 8, 1980, 7:30 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown
Boulevard NW for the purpose of interviewing applicants for appointment as City
~ngineer/Pub1ic Works Director, plus discussing other old business.
Councilmen present: Jacobson, Lachinski, Ortte1, Peach
Councilmen absent: None
Also present: City Clerk, P. K. Lindquist
DISCUSSION ON CABLE TELEVISION
Discussion was on the request that the City of Andover be included in the cable
service territory which is already proposed to include the Cities of Ramsey, Anoka,
Champlin, and others; that there is a meeting for comments On Friday morning;
questioning whether being included in this firm's territory would lock the City into
this franchise; agreeing to authorize Ms. Lindquist to attend that meeting, to ask
questions, and to formally ask that the City of Andover be included in that territory
if the City can also take proposals from other cable companies as well.
MOTION by Jacobson, Seconded by Ortte1, that we apply for this under conditions that
it 1S not binding but just allows us to have the ability to study firms and companies;
and authorize Pat (Lindquist) to go down and make that known to the Minnesota Cable.
Motion carried unanimously.
INTERVIEW WITH APPLICANTS
The following applicants were interviewed by the Council:
Dennis Brown
Larry Winner
Bruce Bu 11 ert
Doug Goriesky, who had submitted an application to the City, did not appear for the
scheduled interview.
Each applicant gave a brief background of his education and experiences; afterward
Counci1members asked various questions of the applicants including what portions of
a project he could do for the City; his experience with public hearings, assessment
rolls, surveying, supervision, inspection, etc.; if he would be willing to move to
the City of Andover if hired; salary range; if there is anything that would put him
in conflict with the City of Andover; and others.
DENNIS BROWN
* He reviewed his education and experience as noted on his resume; working for
Rosevi11e; the State Department of Health for ~ years working in water pollution
control; then became a Registered PE; employed by Carley & Associates for 8 years;
then TKDA for 2 years working on improvements at Pigs Eye Metropolitan Wastewater
Treatment Plant; employed by Brooklyn Center for 2 years as Assistant City Engineer;
left to join Kirkham, Michael & Associates where he was laid off after 2 months due
to insufficient workload in the company. In the last year he has been doing consulting
work on his own; likes municipal work.
* He was not up to date on the City's sanitary sewer facilities, etc. He has
worked with platting quite a bit, especially in Roseville and in the consultant firms
for municipalities. He felt one of the most important things he could do for the City
would be coordinating the different work being done -- maintenance work with the planning,
coordinating projects between consultants, seeing that specs are met, etc. He was
Special City Council Meeting
May 8, 1980 - Minutes
Page 2
(Dennis Brown Interview, Continued)
responsible for determining the bond amount to be escrowed on projects in Rosevi11e.
Mr. Brown has also worked on assessment rolls, met with the public, etc.
Mr. Brown has been involved in all phases of public 429 hearings, but not all for
the same job; has done a lot of presentations to the public; has done a lot of work
On assessment rolls; and has also appeared in court as witness on assessments and as
an expert witness in some other cases.
* He is familiar with surveying techniques but is not a registered surveyor;
could do staking and preliminary work for design.
* Mr. Brown stated he could do an entire project from the beginning feasibility
study, public hearings, plans and specs, bidding, inspecting, assessment hearing,
etc., subject to the amount of time he could devote to the project. He wou 1d be
able to do resident inspections.
* He has not been responsible for a public works department in the past and one
of his weakpoints would be his experience with public works. But he has worked with
people who were good superintendents of public works, and he knew enough people in
that area that he was confident he would be able to get answers to any questions or
problems he would encounter in that area. He also felt he would be able to balance
everybody's arguments about what to do.
* In the last year he has done work for Brooklyn Center on a contractura1
basis, writing reports for federal grants, reviewing plats; plus he has worked for a
developer in Chaska helping to layout a plat for an industrial area.
* He likes to think he is a "detail man" and was comfortable with that. He
felt his biggest job would be coordination of time and arranging priorities.
* As consulting engineer, about three-fourths of the jobs he worked on had some
federal funding involvement.
* He felt with his 20 years experience in varied engineering jobs and variety
of responsibilities that he would be able to coordinate and be able to relate to the
persons doing the small jobs and to do a good job administering.
* Mr. Brown felt $25,000 would be a good beginning salary, going to $30,000 as
responsibilities increase. He felt he would be worth more than that to the City.
* He is not very familiar with the community but didn't think it would be a
problem moving to Andover.
* He did not have a problem with, and expected, one or two meetings a week.
* It would be fine if the City had a car available at City Hall.
* He did not have anything in his background that would be a conflict of interest
with the City.
* Discussed various questions about the City with the Council relative to projects
being done, sanitary sewer, etc.
WATER - SOUTHWEST AREA IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT
Mayor Windschit1 reported that Good Value Homes and Rademacher have met with TKDA
relative to water improvement in the proposed project, and apparently they have reached
an agreement on its construction and proposed cost that Rademacher and Good Value
Homes are providing a 100-percent petition to waive the 429 procedure for water.
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Special City Council Meeting
May 8, 1980 - Minutes
Page 3
(Water - Southwest Area Improvements Project, Continued)
Discussion was on water for the proposed Woodland Terrace development, with the Clerk
stating that it is the Attorney's opinion that the City ordinances require water in
multiple zones. Council discussed the differences in costs between private wells
versus city water for multiple dwellings; the problems created with one private well
serving fourp1exes; feeling if it is at all comparable in cost to a private system,
that the City should require central water in the multiples. Mayor Windschitl stated
he would be talking with Mr. Carlson to inform him of the change in the City's
assessment policy and to explain the City's ordinance, possibly having him discuss
figures with TKDA or Good Value. The Mayor suggested the Council give formal
direction to TKDA to proceed with the water project on the meeting on Monday, May 12.
(Interviews Continued)
LARRY L. WINNER
* Mr. Winner reviewed his education and experiences as noted on his resume; is
a former resident of Andover; became a Registered Professional Civil Engineer in
Minnesota in 1977; had 2 years land surveying experience; had 7~ years of municipal
engineering experience; was employed as civil engineer for TKDA for 2~ years inspecting
municipal construction projects; worked for Brooklyn Center for 2~ years preparing
plans and specifications for municipal projects and was Acting Assistant City Engineer
his last 9 months there; became Assistant City Engineer at Blaine for over a year; was
employed by the City of Port Orange, Florida, as the city's first full-time city
engineer, organized the engineering department, noting various responsibilities in
that position; presently working for the City of Deerfie1d Beach, Florida, for the past
half year as civil engineer.
I * He felt his strong point is that he was a resident of Grow Township for 15
years before its incorporation and did work in Andover with TKDA in charge of a crew
obtaining field information and working on the design of some trunk sanitary sewer lines.
I * While at Blaine, he was a member of the City Engineer's Association of
Minnesota, the American Public Works Association, and the Minnesota Society of
Professional Engineers, through which he made contacts with other city engineers and
technical people with whom he could consult to obtain advice on specific problems.
l * He is familiar with the use of Municipal State Aid Funds in Minnesota and
it projects.
I * Being City Engineer at Port Orange, FL, he is already familiar with problems
that would be very simi1iar to those problems he would encounter in this position.
Helfelt his main strength is that he has a strong municipal engineering background,
a strong background in subdivision review, and also experience coordinating those
approvals of Planning Boards and City Councils.
I * After moving to Florida, he has decided to come back "home" to live, which is
his reason for coming back to Minnesota. He came back for the interview.
I * He was employed at Port Orange for 7 months. It was a politically unstable
city with the posi~jgg §pened up with only half the council in support of it. After
seeing they still/ e consulting firm, some didn't feel they needed a city
engineer, so the position was abandoned. Because of that, he went to work for the City
of Deerfie1d.
* The amount of work a single person in this position could do depends on how
the subdivision review is handled; the city receives a better quality of construction
installed when a city engineer inspects it rather than a consultant.
Special City Council Meeting
May 8, 1980 - Minutes
Page 4
(Larry Winner Interview, Continued)
* He has had a lot of public meetings and working with citizens on projects, and
has presented feasibility reports at council meetings at Blaine.
* He has not had any direct involvement with public works in any of his
positions but felt he could recognize if a grader operator is doing a good or bad
job. He has watched enough construction and grading to know how a road should be
graded and to give direction if it is needed.
* Mr. Winner has done a lot of drafting and designing of street construction and
improvements. He felt he would be able to complete a project from start to finish
but would need one or two people to help get the field information.
* He was laid off at TKDA in 1975 during a slow period.
* He has not had any recent experience surveying, but has done a lot of it in
the past; he is not registered as a surveyor.
* He would consider moving into the City of Andover depending on the interest
rates. He had thought about Vadnais Heights where Good Value Homes has special
financing. He would like to move to the City if he could find a house he could afford.
* As a city engineer, he felt he could take over all subdivision reviews and,
depending on the workload, small engineering studies of projects, rural street surfacing
projects, etc.
* He did not object to doing a lot of the work himself -- field work, surveying,
etc., as he enjoys getting out in the field.
* He felt the biggest part of the job would be subdivision review.
* He hasn't written up grant applications, but has done follow-up work on some.
* Mr. Winner didn't feel there was a lot he could do on major projects, as the
consultant would do the design and inspecting, but he could handle complaints from
citizens during the project.
* He has worked with some assessment rolls in Blaine and Brooklyn Center.
* He stated he would have no problem handling inspections on projects within
the City.
* He felt comfortable with being able to direct people and assign tasks and
making sure the jobs get done; has worked with public works people, even driving snow-
plow himself; has worked with public works directors and observed how the scheduling
was handled, etc.; felt he could organize the public works and assign what needs to
be done; but has never had to fire anyone.
* He would need another two years' field experience to become a registered
surveyor.
* He would like approximately $26,000 starting salary, but that is negotiable.
Requesting the City to pay his moving expenses from Florida would depend on the salary
negotiated. He would be willing to accept a lower salary if the City would pay for
moving expenses.
* He has worked on and handled MSAH accounts and projects and felt he could
handle identifying logical places to put MSAH streets.
* In 5 years he would expect to be in this type of position; he would like to
settle down in this area, find a job, and stay with it.
* His father is no longer doing surveying in Andover, and he knew of nothing
that would put him in conflict with the City.
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Special City Council Meeting
May 8, 1980 - Minutes
Page 5
(Larry Winner Interview, Continued)
* Preparing feasibility reports and carrying out a project such as a street
improvement of the City's dirt roads would be no problem for him.
* Mr. Winner would have no problem working with another city if Andover were to
contract with another city for a "shared engineer".
* He estimated it would cost between $500 to $1,000 to set up an office for an
engineer to function efficiently.
* He had no problem attending one or two meetings a week, attending the
Planning Board and the City Council meetings. His suggested salary included Council
and Planning Board meetings, plus other meetings that are necessary.
* Council discussed several questions Mr. Winner had about the City.
* Mr. Winner stated he would be able to start work three to four weeks after
he accepted the position. I
BRUCE R. BULLERT
* Mr. Bul1ert reviewed his education and experience as noted On his resume; working
for CED handling a number of different communities, including Champlin, doing mainly
design work and as Acting City Engineer from 1974 until terminating employment in I
1978; then accepted the position of Assistant City Engineer in 1978 with the City of
Maple Grove with duties involving planning items, presentation to Planning Commis~ion,
involved with all development work, etc. He felt he is now at a point in his career
where he would like to be a city engineer. I
* He felt he wanted around $30,000 as City Engineer for Andover, based on his
experience, but that would be based on other benefits as well. I
* He would consider moving to Andover if hired -- it is a definite possibility.
* He has done plat reviews. I
* Last year the City of Maple Grove had approximately $13 million of projects
and development in which he had been involved. ~
* He has been both a design engineer and a project manager of numerous proje ts,
including sanitary sewer, watermain, storrn sewer, streets and felt he is very capa 1e
of working On a project from start to finish. He has also done a lot of assessmen
rolls.
* He has done some surveying and staking, but a lot of the work was done by
crews which he was overseeing. He would discuss with the Council hiring out crews to
do the field work, as it is very difficult to do with only one person.
* He would have no problem doing the variety of work that would be required n
the city.
* He has had public hearings experience, has done assessment rolls, and wou1
have no problem with field inspections.
* Mr. Bu11ert felt starting up and organizing an engineering department in t e
city would involve a considerable amount of time and organization, but that over a
period of time he could definitely organize the position.
* He wanted to come to work for Andover as there is an opportunity here, fee ing
at this point it is a growing community, and feeling he could contribute a lot for the
city as well as expand his own career.
* In Maple Grove, private developments are constructed by the developers. T e
city bonds for the improvements, and his staff does periodic inspections. He reviewed
I
Special City Council Meet1ng
May 8, 1980 - Minutes
Page 6
(Bruce R. Bu11ert Interview, Continued)
the plans and specifications, made recommendations and corrections, then reviewed
the corrections. From that point he helps his technicians and answers questions
on the project itself.
* Mr. Bul1ert stated it is difficult to get money for programs. He was involved
in the application for funds for Milaca where funds were received, but rural cities
are more likely to get funds than urban cities.
* His salary figure was based upon 40 hours a week, but he is involved in 50
to 60 hours a week work. It is what he felt was compensation for all the time involved
in the job and had no problem attending one or two meetings a week. He felt very
strongly that he should attend both the Planning Commission and Council meetings.
* He felt he could recognize whether a grader operator is doing a good or bad
job to a certain extent; felt it was somewhat difficult at times to program a public
works department; but with a schedule and time frame of what should be done and
supervision, he felt he could improve the pUblic works department.
* Discussion with Mr. Bu11ert was on the salary requested. Mr. Bu11ert felt
he would need some additional compensation over what he is presently making to accept
the position. The position provides some benefit in that it is a city engineer position,
and he would consider the position with some additional compensation over what he
presently makes. He felt he could reach an agreement with the City, as he is looking
for a compensation for what he felt he could provide for the City; and he felt he could
advise the City as to the number of different areas where mOney for his salary could
be taken from for services rendered.
* He received his PE Registration in 1975.
* If there was a problem on a project done by a consulting firm but being
inspected by him, he would initially confront the consulting firm and, depending upon
the complexity of the problem, would make a judgement as to whether or not the project
should be shut down. He felt strongly that the City and the citizens are paying good
money for a good project, and if there is a problem, the city engineer should take a
hand in it. If he can't reach an agreement with the consulting firm, he would have
to come back to the City Council.
* He was not aware of anything in his background that would put him in conflict
with the City of Andover.
* Mr. Bu11ert wanted to give at least 30 days' notice to Maple Grove prior to
coming to work for the City.
* Council discussed various questions Mr. Bu11ert had about the City, its
projects, benefits, etc. Mr. Bu11ert indicated that the City could contact any of
those listed as references on his resume.
COUNCIL DISCUSSION FOR APPOINTMENT OF CITY ENGINEER/PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
By process of elimination, the Council narrowed the applicants to Larry Winner and
Bruce Bu11ert; discussed the qualificiations and weaknesses of each, the qualifications
the City is looking for in a city engineer, and the salary for the position. Council
then generally agreed that Mr. Winner would be first choice; however, Councilman
Jacobson preferred to check references in the City of Port Orange, Florida. After
further discussion on a salary offer, the following motion was made:
Special City Council Meeting
May 8, 1980 - Minutes
Page 7
(Discussion for appointment of City Engineer/Public Works Director, Continued)
MOTION by Orttel, Seconded by Lachinski, that the Council authorize the Mayor and
Clerk to present an offer of a salary of $25,000 a year plus a $2,000 relocation
expense or $26,000 a year without relocation expense to Mr. Larry Winner as the
position of City Engineer/Public Works Director with the understanding that Mr.
Winner would live within the City of Andover within 12 months of the date of his
employment. DISCUSSION: It is intended that there be some tolerance in the
requirement of moving in the City in that if there are some extenuating circumstances
that he could not move into the City within that time period it is subject to some
flexibility; that there is some room for negotiation in this offer; and that it is
the Council's desire that Mr. Winner take the position as of June 1, 1980. Motion
carried unanimously.
MOTION by Peach, Seconded by Lachinski, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 10:58 p.m.
~R"~~
~a A. Peach
Recor 1ng Secretary