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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWK - April 26, 2011C I T Y O F © ND®VE 1685 CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD N.W. • ANDOVER, MINNESOTA 55304 • (763) 755 -5100 FAX (763) 755 -8923 • WWW.CI.AN DOVER. MN.US City Council Workshop Tuesday, April 26, 2011 Conference Rooms A & B 1. Call to Order— 6:00 p.m. 2. Joint Meeting with Planning & Zoning Commission 3. 2011 -2012 Council Goal Discussion - Administration 4. 2011 Budget Implementation Progress & March 2011 Investment Report -Administration 5. 2012 -2016 CIP Development Discussion -Administration © 6. 2012 Budget Development Discussion - Administration 7. Other Topics 8. Adjournment am—M I ANDOVER CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING —APRIL 26, 2011 MINUTES The Workshop Meeting of the Andover City Council was called to order by Mayor Mike Gamache, April 26, 2011, 6:06 p.m., at the Andover City Hall, 1685 Crosstown Boulevard NW, Andover, Minnesota. Councihnembers present: Sheri Bukkila, Don Jacobson, Mike Knight, Julie Trude Councilmember absent: None Also present: City Administrator, Jim Dickinson City Planner, Courtney Bednarz Planning & Zoning Commission Members JOINT MEETING WITH PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION Planning, & Zoning Chairman, Daninger presented an overview and update on the Planning & Zoning Commission. He asked what the Council wanted to see from the Planning & Zoning In Commission. Councilmember Jacobson recommended the Planning & Zoning Commission look at the issue independently rather than looking at the Council minutes and trying to do what the Council might or might not want. Councilmember Knight stated he liked the fact that it was wide open opinions coming from the Planning, & Zoning Commission. Councilmember Trude stated she wanted to have a mixed group of people who represent different views of the community. Chairman Daninger stated right now the Commission is meeting once a month, down from twice a month and some recent meetings have been cancelled. Councilmember Bukkila stated she believed everyone is best served when the Planning & Zoning Commission takes the issues to heart and are honest with their opinions. Councilmember Knight stated he saw the role of the Planning & Zoning Commission as a filter. Councilmember Trude stated depending on what happened with the variance language, the Planning © & Zoning Commission has the opportunity to give more input on the variances. Councilmember Trude stated she recommended the Planning & Zoning Commission review the City's Vision Statement. © Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes April 26, 2011 Page 2 Councilmember Jacobson stated the job of the Planning & Zoning Commission is to plan and just not deal with zoning issues. He recommended the Planning & Zoning Commission get more involved in the planning. Commissioner Kirchoff stated the Commission could discuss plans, but right now with the economy there is not much planning going on. Councilmember Jacobson stated the Planning & Zoning Commission could look at future areas where commercial development could occur in the City. Councilraember Knight recommended the Planning & Zoning Commission look at the 2011 -2012 Council Goal Discussion document. Mr. Dickinson stated it might be a good idea for the Planning & Zoning Commission to look at some of the issues the EDA looks at. Chairman Daninger stated he believed the Commission's role in the past has been reactive and not proactive. He liked the suggestion that the Planning & Zoning Commission be proactive and discuss issues at the end of their regular meeting. He stated he believed what impeded the Commission was themselves. He stated it helped the Commission to get the Council's opinions. He recommended more open ended questions from the Council. Councilmember Jacobson stated he would like the Planning & Zoning Commission to not only look at the ordinance in black and white, but to look at the proposal as a whole and if it would work with the surrounding area. He recommended the Commission look at the bigger picture. Chairman Daninger asked if the Commission voted a certain way, but said "let the minutes reflect" would that be helpful to the Council. The Council affirmed this was helpful. Chairman Daninger asked if the Commissioners are comfortable with him asking each Commissioner what their opinion is on an issue. The Commissioners agreed that most of the time they did not mind giving their opinion. Commissioner Holthus indicated that at times she is not ready to give an opinion without more information. Councilmember Bukkila stated it was helpful if a Commissioner was indecisive, to say they were indecisive. The Planning & Zoning Commission thought it would be helpful to have joint meetings with the other City Commissions. The Council recessed at 7:00 p.m. The Council reconvened at 7:05 p.m. 2011— 202 COUNCIL GOAL DISCUSSION © Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes April 26, 2011 Page 3 Mr. Dickinson asked the Council to review the 2011 -2012 Council Goals and determine what they would like to adopt at the May 3, 2011 Council meeting. He reviewed each submitted goal. Councilmember Trude stated with respect to goal number 1 related to reviewing TIF Districts under fiscal goals, she believed it is the same goal as number 7 under commercial/residential development/ redevelopment goals section, only one is needed. The Council agreed goal numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 under fiscal goals should be identified as values not goals. Councilmember Bukkila recommended under goal 6 fiscal goals, the Council is given a presentation in the future on how salaries are determined and the employee review process. Councilmember Jacobson stated it was the Council's duty to direct staff and for the staff to implement the policies. He stated the Council needed to be at the planning level and not at the implementation level. He believed the Council gets too involved in the implementation. © Under commercial /residential development/redevelopment goals reword goals 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7. Remove goal 5 as it had already been completed. Under goal 4, Mr. Dickinson stated he would provide further information to the EDA regarding these types of business loan programs. Under goal 11, it was determined to not be a goal, but rather a task. Council recommended condensing some of the goals. Under collaboration goals Councilmember Jacobson asked if the City could contract out certain services such as mowing of parks to save money. Mr. Dickinson responded he would send out RFP's for such services so the City could review and determine if this is cost - effective. Councilmember Jacobson stated the Council had thought about at one time single sourcing for garbage in the City. He asked if that concept should be looked at again to see if the service could be provided at a cost savings. Mr. Dickinson stated he would put this in under collaboration and indicated. the last time this was brought up the haulers were very vocal. Under service delivery goals Councilmember Bukkila asked staff to look at what the City of Ramsey did in order to eliminate liability for the residents to mow the parks. Mr. Dickinson responded he would look into this, but he cautioned that there would be risk exposure. Council stated they wanted any changes to the parks be brought forward to the Park and Recreation Commission for their input, before final decisions are made by the Council. Councilmember Jacobson asked staff to look at what could be delivered to the Council as an electronic copy, instead of paper. © Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes April 26, 2011 Page 4 Council discussed goal 5 under service delivery goals related to an administrative fine process and decided to have staff bring this goal to a future workshop. Councilrnember Trude recommended goal 1 under Livability /Image goals be reworded. Under livability /image goals Councilmember Jacobson requested right -of -ways /center median be looked at again with the County for landscaping. Mr. Dickinson responded he would talk to the County again. Councilmember Jacobson requested staff look at the possibility of shared fire truck services with other cities. Councilrnember Bukkila stated she is not interested in goal number 5 related to joining livable communities under livability /image goals. Councilmember Jacobson suggested the Council discuss the Livable Communities Act at a future workshop meeting. Councilmember Bukkila stated she is not interested in expanding Metro Transit in the City as she believed it would be too expensive for the City. 2011 BUDGETIMPLEMENTATIONPROGRESS & MARCH2011 INVESTMENTREPORT Mr. Dickinson presented the 2011 budget progress and the March 2011 Investment Report. 2012 — 2016 CIP DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION Mr. Dickinson presented the 2012 -2016 Capital Improvement Plan. Councilmember Jacobson requested staff to research how many times the ladder truck was used during a year. 2012 BUDGET DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION Mr. Dickinson presented the 2012 budget development calendar. He asked for the Council's input. Council discussed staffing and the possible replacement of the retired Community Development Director. Councilmember Trude expressed concern that the City had lost many of its Department Heads who © had not been replaced and there is too much workload on Mr. Dickinson. Mr. Dickinson noted the auditors have had concerns regarding separation of duties, but we have controls in place to compensate for limited staff. Mr. Dickinson stated Standards & Poors had indicated this is a concern Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes April 26, 2011 Page 5 because of a lack of succession planning. He indicated staff was evaluating what were the best options and would be bringing this back to Council with ideas in the near future. Councilrnember Trude stated she did not want to wait six months to find a replacement for the Community Development Director position. Mayor Gamache stated he trusted staff s decisions regarding the timing of hiring a Community Development Director replacement. Mr. Dickinson stated he wanted to test current staff's skills to see what the direction should be. Mr. Dickinson stated he would like to take the Crime Watch Program's coordinator position to 100 percent City of Andover. Councihnember Bukkila asked if staff is looking into the investigator costs to ensure the City was receiving its fair share. Mr. Dickinson stated the way resources were allocated was that the City received a certain portion of the County wide personnel and had the opportunity to have back fill if necessary. He indicated he would check to see if he could obtain some basic statistics regarding this issue. © Councihnember Trude recommended League of Minnesota Cities be moved to risk management as this is the City's insurance and not really a contribution or membership. Councilinember Trude believed there are some missing links in the trails that should be finished. Mr. Dickinson stated staff would look at this and see if some funding could be allocated from the road and bridge levy. OTHER: TOPICS Mr. Dickinson updated the Council on the Coon Creek Watershed Board replacements. Mr. Dickinson reminded the Council that there is a joint meeting with the City of Ramsey on Monday, May 2 " at 6:30 p.m. at Ramsey City Hall. He stated he would send a reminder email to the Council. Mr. Dickinson updated the Council on possible areas to acquire property as part of the tax increment plan modification process. He indicated this would be looked at in detail by the EDA. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Trude, Seconded by Bukkila, to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m. Respect:Fully submitted, Kathleen Altman, Recording Secretary ® Andover City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes April 26, 2011 Page 6 L