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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWK September 25, 2007 0 1685 CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD N.W. . ANDOVER, MINNESOTA 55304 . (763) 755-5100 FAX (763) 755-8923 . WWW.CI.ANDOVER.MN.US City Council Workshop Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Conference Rooms A & B 1. Call to Order - 6:00 p.m. 2. 2008 Community Center Budget Presentation 3. 2008-2012 CIP Progress Report & DiscussionlUtility Flow Cash Fund Analysis 4. 2008 Operating Budget Progress Report & Discussion 0 5. . 2008 Special Revenue, Debt Service, Capital Project & Proprietary Funds Budgets 6. 2007-2008 Council Goals Discussion, Continued 7. Discuss Potential Prevailing Wage Ordinance for Construction Projects 8. Discuss Research Related to Environmental Boards of Adjacent Cities - Engineering 9. Review Comprehensive Plan Update (Transportation & Land Use Sections) 10. Discuss Freedom to Breathe Act & Outdoor Patios 11. Other Business 12. Adjournment 0 ~-\:::;..Q......:I.. l0l1 H-fh I<J-Ib-D? 0 ANDOVER CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP-SEPTEMBER 25, 2007 MINUTES A Workshop of the Andover City Council was called to order by Mayor Mike Gamache, September 25,2007, 6:01p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota. Councilmembers present: Ken Orttel, Julie Trude Councilmember absent: Don Jacobson, Mike Knight Also present: City Administrator Jim Dickinson Director of Public Works/City Engineer Dave Berkowitz Erick Sutherland, Recreational Facility Manager Others 2008 COMMUNITY CENTER BUDGET PRESENTATION 0 Mr. Erick Sutherland, Recreational Facility Manager for the Community Center gave a 2008 Community Center Budget presentation to the City Council. Councilmember Trude wondered if they were better off self-insuring and putting the money in the bank or are they saving money by having outside maintenance come in. Mr. Sutherland stated his understanding is this is a Citywide way of doing maintenance. He stated they are also servicing units at Public Works and City Hall. Mr. Dickinson stated it is an effective way for them to manage it and the other thing is to hire someone with that expertise and they would be taking on the liability with the boiler certification being in their name. He stated they are able to move some of the risk off onto others. They would be stretching to hire someone in that type of position. Councilmember Orttel wondered if the hourly rental rate for ice and the field house is still competitive. Mr. Sutherland stated on the ice they are very competitive but on the field house there is nothing to compare it to. Councilmember Orttel wondered how many ice hours the Andover Youth Hockey Association is still looking for. Mr. Sutherland noted Andover Youth Hockey Association indicates they are short 450 hours and are getting the ice from Anoka and the Super Rink. They could fill half of another rink right now. Councilmember Trude wondered if the high school is getting the number of hours they want. Mr. Sutherland indicated they could use more. 0 Councilmember Trude asked if they looked at building another sheet would it be a huge black hole financially. Mr. Sutherland stated they would have to do a lot of programming themselves. Councilmember Trude thought the big issue would be the capital to start off with. Mr. Dickinson stated when they look at a second sheet of ice, would they need a mirror of the current ice sheet 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 2 or just a practice sheet of ice. He stated they could build a second sheet of ice for possibly $3.3 million if it is just practice ice. Mr. Sutherland stated a lot of things would need to change if they add a second rink such as public works, recycling and parking issues. Mr. Sutherland stated the YMCA lease payment will begin in 2008. Mr. Dickinson indicated they project the deficit fund balance to equalize by 2011 which is what they planned for. Councilmember Trude wondered if it made sense to discuss expanding the building at that time. Mr. Dickinson indicated that would be an appropriate time. Mr. Sutherland stated they have started kicking off an advertising campaign and hope to increase the number of advertisers in the facility. Mayor Gamache wondered if the concession costs include what they do at Sunshine Park. Mr. Sutherland stated they do not and they are kept separate. Mayor Gamache wondered if they had any problems with the flooring for the Home and Garden Show. Mr. Sutherland indicated they did not and it is set for Spring 2008. 0 Mr. Dickinson stated the pavilion building in Andover Station North is near completion and the question about the concessions will come up. He did not think there would be a lot of resistance from the Baseball Association for the city to come in and run the concessions. He thought they would be looking for the City to finish the concession area. Mr. Sutherland thought the cost to improve the concession area would be around $20,000. Councilmember Trude thought it might make sense for the city to run it because they would only have to train people once and they could share concessions, etc. and she thought the utilities would cost the residents money once the keys are turned over. Mayor Gamache thought they should move forward and see what they can do. Councilmember Orttel wondered if they are going to heat the building year round. Mr. Dickinson indicated they would heat it to the minimum to maintain the pipes. Councilmember Orttel thought they could drain and blowout the pipes and not heat it in the winter. Mr. Berkowitz stated they could look at this to see if they could do it. Mr. Sutherland reviewed the programming at the Community Center with the Council. Councilmember Trude stated she really appreciates the work ethics the staffhas there. . 2008 - 2012 CIP PROGRESS REPORT & DISCUSSION/UTILITY FLOW CASH FUND 0 ANALYSIS City Administrator Dickinson stated staff continues working on the 2008-2012 CIP. Work on cash flows for the utility funds and other infrastructure is on-going and will continue until the CIP is complete. 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 3 Mr. Dickinson reviewed the CIP with the Council. Mr. Dickinson stated on the sewer fund they are looking at four percent increases and if they do not actually need them, they are looking to lower the percentage rate. Mr. Dickinson stated they project the water fund out further than the 2012 shown and the area he starts to get concerned with is when looking at the working cash flow balances and fund balances that they should be carrying half or close to half of the operational costs of the facility and sometimes they are closer to the thirty percent area. In those areas they are supposed to run them like a business so they need to be contentious about that. The water fund is the area where the improvements are more expensive. One improvement they do not show in the current cash flow is another water treatment plant listed which is forecasted down the road. Mr. Berkowitz explained they have been working with SEH on their water system improvements and what they need to project in the next five to ten years. He stated the real critical ones are the rehab of the tower at City Hall in 2008. He stated in 2008 they would also like to drill two test wells. They would like to eventually get rid of wells 2 and 3. 0 Councilmember Trude wondered if this will be funded by a bond or will they have a cash fund for this. Mr. Dickinson stated they will fund everything in 2008, close to $100,000 through operations and the trunk fund will pay $516,000 of those improvements. Councilmember Orttel wondered if they could wait another year on the water tower rehab. Mr. Berkowitz stated they have already put that off for a number of years and it is recommended they do the rehab in 2008 before they run into problems. Mr. Berkowitz stated another project for 2008 is the reclaim tank. They can expand the reclaim tank and make the underground tank at the same time and use the same contractor which will save money. Mr. Berkowitz reviewed 2011 and 2012 projects with the Council. Councilmember Trude thought if development slows down the need for more wells and treatment plants will decrease. Mr. Berkowitz indicated that is correct. Mr. Berkowitz further discussed the future water treatment projects with the Council. Councilmember Trude wondered what they actually charge per thousand gallons. Mr. Dickinson 0 stated the use rate averages $1.44 per thousand gallons. The Council reviewed some of the proposed 2008 projects with staff. 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 4 2008 OPERATING BUDGET PROGRESS REPORT & DISCUSSION City Administrator Dickinson explained the Council has had a number of reviews of the 2008 Proposed Budget that will be supported by the 2008 Tax Levy. Councilmember Trude wondered how much the total assessable value would increase. Mr. Dickinson indicated it is around five percent. The Council discussed the Youth First proposal. Mr. Dickinson thought the City could meet the $15,000 request from Youth First. Councilmember Trude thought it would be a good idea to try to have a program closer to the areas of trouble within the community that may reduce petty crime in the area. Mayor Gamache wondered what they are doing with the $16,000 from the Anoka County Partners. Mr. Dickinson indicated this is part of the EDA budget and they would reduce that budget. 0 Mr. Dickinson indicated that Youth First is requesting $7,500 along with the $15,000 additional program funding for 2008. Councilmember Trude thought they may be able cut some expenses they are proposing but she thought they should try to do what they can. Mr. Dickinson stated they are working with the group to try to get donation space in the area. Mr. Dickinson stated Laura Landes felt this was the right way to go. Mayor Gamache thought if they could find the funding that would be the right way to go. Councilmember Trude thought Mr. Dickinson should check with Councilmember Knight to see what he thought because this is an important subject to him. 2008 SPECIAL REVENUE, DEBT SERVICE, CAPITAL PROJECT & PROPRIETARY FUNDS BUDGET Mr. Dickinson reviewed the funds budget with the Council. Councilmember Orttel wondered what they are using the Risk Management Fund for. Mr. Dickinson explained some of the items including insurance, wellness programs and a way to lower their insurance rates. Mr. Dickinson explained how they figured the Risk Management Fund and indicated each 0 department has a line that is an allocation from the Risk Management Fund. 2007 - 2008 COUNCIL GOALS DISCUSSION, CONTINUED City Administrator Dickinson noted at the August 21 st Regular City Council meeting the Council 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 5 adopted the table displaying a listing of goals and the tabulated scoring from the individual Council Members. Mr. Dickinson reviewed the potential goals with the Council. Councilmember Orttel thought on goal #2 they need to back down on some things until the housing rates go back up. Councilmember Trude agreed. She wants more information on these things. Mayor Gamache wondered if there are any policies they need to look at if there is no growth. Mr. Dickinson wondered on goal #9 if they want a housing analysis study done in the City. Councilmember Orttel stated they currently do not have a procedure for dilapidated homes in the City and he thought they may want to look at this. Councilmember Trude thought they could get information from older cities on how they maintain their housing stock and utilize information from them for the City. 0 Mr. Berkowitz stated on goal #11 the regional trails are now being built with a beginning and ending where they used to be built through the developments. Councilmember Orttel did not think they could do all of them at once but he thought they were doing a good job of connecting what they can. Councilmember Trude thought they may end up using some of the general levy funds because the people who want the trails have lived in the City for a long time. Councilmember Orttel stated they need to connect older neighborhoods where they do not have trails. He thought they had a good plan that showed regional trails in the City. Councilmember Trude thought a street that is lacking in safety is Crosstown but she did not know what they could do about it. Councilmember Trude thought goal # 13 was more general than that. She stated her point was to avoid finding ways to run sewer lines around properties. Mr. Dickinson explained on goal # 18 they try to get the department heads in front of the Council at workshop meetings and Council meetings and he wondered if they want more. Councilmember Trude thought it would be helpful to meet the department heads and find out what they do. Mayor Gamache stated he did not have an issue with this. Councilmember Trude thought the Public Works meeting handles 90 percent of this. 0 Mr. Dickinson wondered if goal # 19 is a topic all its own. Mayor Gamache stated he keeps hearing communities around them are doing this. As they run into the homes being foreclosed on they will start being rented and he wondered if they would become a problem in the City. Mr. Dickinson stated the hard part they see is how the City will track this. Councilmember Orttel did not know what they could do to enforce problems. He thought they may need a better ordinance for enforcement. 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 6 Mr. Dickinson wondered on goal #33 what the Council would want. Councilmember Trude thought this was a housekeeping item. She made suggestions as to how memos and reports could be presented to them. DISCUSS POTENTIAL PREVAILING WAGE ORDINANCE FOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS City Administrator Dickinson stated pursuant to direction at the April 3, 2007 Council meeting, staffhas assembled data on prevailing wages for Council review at the July 24,2007 Council Workshop. Also at the meeting the Council received presentations from some local Union representatives. Mr. Dickinson reviewed the information with the Council. Mr. Dickinson stated anything less than $25,000 is excluded from bidding and if an emergency is 0 declared they do not have to abide by the lowest bid regulation. Ken Francis and Victor Ruzinski, Union Representatives were at the meeting to answer questions. Councilmember Trude wondered on equipment it they need to take the lowest price. Mr. Dickinson stated that is not included in the prevailing wage ordinance because it is equipment and not labor. Councilmember Orttel wondered if they might get to a stage where in-house would compete with prevailing wage. Mr. Dickinson stated they do still have to go outside of their personnel for some items. Councilmember Orttel suggested they go along with it but thought they need to have a full compliment of Council members to discuss and decide on it. Mayor Gamache stated he would like to have a list of what projects would fall within the prevailing wage to discuss at another meeting. Mr. Francis stated the highest threshold in Minnesota is in the City of St. Cloud, which is $200,000, which is a triggering measure. 0 Councilmember Trude indicated she is worried about smaller projects and what the downfalls would be as proposed with $1,000,000 as a threshold for these projects then the smaller maintenance projects would be excluded.. Mayor Gamache asked if staff could put the different projects in dollar categories to present to 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 7 the Council for discussion. The Council and staff discussed possible projects along with past projects where prevailing wage was used. Mr. Francis stated there is really one variable in the construction industry and that is the labor costs. Materials by and large are the same so when looking at the contractors, they want to see how well they can manage a project. Labor costs should not be the variable on who gets projects. Mr. Berkowitz suggested they go back to 2007 to give a better sense of what was built. Mayor Gamache thought that would be helpful. DISCUSS RESEARCH RELATED TO ENVIRONMENTAL BOARDS OF ADJACENT CITIES Director of Public Works/City Engineer Berkowitz explained at the August 21,2007 City 0 Council meeting, an Andover resident discussed interest in the formation of an Environmental Board/Commission in the City of Andover, as there are many environmental issues that cities like Andover are facing. The City Council directed staff to contact other neighboring cities to see whether or not they have groups like this in place and their intent. Mr. Shaun Rogers was at the meeting. Mayor Gamache thought their Open Space Commission was formed to purchase open space along with discussing environmental issues in the future. Councilmember Trude thought eventually this Commission will be communicating to the public on these items. Councilmember Trude suggested Mr. Rogers attend these meetings and possibly be an alternate to the Commission along with helping with newsletter articles. Mr. Berkowitz stated right now the Open Space Commission has their hands full establishing their goals and after that they may be able to get into more environmental issues. Mayor Gamache thought after the first of the year, the Council could have a joint meeting with them to go over ideas and information. Mr. Rogers indicated he would be willing to be an alternate on the Open Space Commission if needed. Mr. Berkowitz stated he would check and see if they have an alternate. 0 Mr. Rogers stated he could get further information on what other cities have and bring it back to the Council. Councilmember Trude thought that would be a good idea and she thought if Mr. Rogers wanted to talk to Mr. Kytonen about this he could. 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 8 The Council recessed at 9:00 p.m. The Council reconvened at 9:05 p.m. DISCUSS FREEDOM TO BREATHE ACT & OUTDOOR PATIOS Mr. Dickinson updated the Council on the Freedom to Breathe Act & Outdoor Patios. Mr. Dickinson indicated the City has a lot of latitude on outdoor patios. Ray Warmuth stated at Tanner's theywill have a wall on the north and west sides to shield the people from the wind. Mr. Dickinson showed the Council Tanner's plans for the outdoor patio being proposed. Mayor Gamache stated what they are looking at passing is the liquor license for outside. Mr. 0 Dickinson stated that is correct. Mayor Gamache indicated Tanner's can continue to work on their plans and it should be approved by the Council at the next regular City Council meeting. Mayor Gamache indicated all the bars will have to come in for a liquor license amendment to serve alcohol outdoors. Councilmember Trude thought they should include fencing and screening in the license along with measurements. Councilmember Trude wondered if they would have a gate to the patio or would people access the patio from the building. Mr. Warmuth indicated the building department wants them to have a gate but he would prefer not to have one. REVIEW COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE (TRANSPORTATION & LAND USE SECTIONS) Mr. Berkowitz updated the Council on what their intent is to update the plan to meet what they are currently doing. He noted a lot of the items have been completed since 2003 and they continue to move forward. Councilmember Trude asked if staff could get pages 10-15 of the report for them. She noted they 0 are missing from the report. Mr. Dickinson stated on page 8 on the objectives, striking this out concerns him because by pulling that out is as they go forward they are losing a little bit of leverage with the Met CounciL The Met Council could come back and tell them they are not even addressing affordable housing. 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 9 Mr. Berkowitz reviewed the transportation section of the Compo Plan Update with the Council. Councilmember Trude thought they may want to have a discussion on the hot spots. She thought since they are doing the five year update they should keep Crosstown and Nightingale on the list and she wondered if Crosstown Boulevard and Crosstown Drive should be a hot spot. Mr. Berkowitz indicated it is circled and he would clarify it. Councilmember Trude thought they might want to look at Hanson & 161 st. Mr. Berkowitz believes the County has some funding to look at a signal in there. Councilmember Trude thought Andover & Prairie Road could be removed from the list. Mr. Berkowitz stated as more development comes into that area they are going to look at improving the intersection with turn lanes. Councilmember Trude thought Nightingale and 161 st should be added because traffic is so fast on 161st. Councilmember Trude wondered if they should add Hanson & 133rd to the list. Mr. Berkowitz stated they have it in the CIP to help fInance a signal there. 0 Councilmember Trude thought it was reasonable to have one railroad crossing improvement in the plan at this time. She also wondered if they got a commuter train going through Andover, where would they have a depot. Councilmember Orttel thought Bunker would be a better place for it because they want the building to straddle the rails and he did not think Andover Boulevard would work because the land on one side drops off and there is a pipeline on that side also. Councilmember Trude thought the information on park and rides was good. Councilmember Trude stated she has a question on page nine at the beginning about the railroad not having any major accidents in the last five years and she wondered if they could add a couple of years to that. Mr. Berkowitz stated he would check on this item. Mr. Berkowitz stated they have included in the update the regional trail system map. Councilmember Trude thought they should talk about bus service at a meeting. She wondered if they have a park and ride lot will they need to pay the fees. Councilmember Trude stated on page 16, transportation issues, they are taking out a lot of them and she wondered if they should keep some of them in there. Mr. Berkowitz indicated the first one was taken care of. He stated there is really nothing they can do about the train switching so 0 they took that out. The Council and staff reviewed transportation issues. Councilmember Trude wondered if there was some comment they wanted to add regarding funding for roads. She stated they are using property tax money for road improvements. She 0 Regular Andover City Council Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2007 Page 10 wondered if there is an area they have discussion about funding. Mr. Berkowitz stated starting on page 87 they have information regarding funding. OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Berkowitz stated they have a home that was built along Crosstown Boulevard and they are going to have to bring it forward to the Council as a city initiated assessment and tie it to the property. Motion by Orttel, Seconded by Gamache, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 10:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Osbeck, Recording Secretary 0 0