Summary of City Council Meeting 1-14-2015

Well, it's official!  As the second piece of business of the night on January 14th, I was sworn in as the mayor of Grand Marais.  It has been a wild ride and things are just starting to get going with this new Council.  Speaking of the new Council, the third item of business was to swear in Mr. Dave Mills and Mr. Anton Moody.

You may be wondering what the first item of business was...  It is easiest if I describe the scene:
*Since Mayor Carlson, Councilor Spry, and Councilor Lenz's terms technically expired December 31st, 2014 and Councilor Sivertson is now Commissioner Sivertson, at the beginning of the meeting there was one (1) standing Council member, Mr. Tim Kennedy.

I was not just a little nervous that this honor would go to his head as he sat down at the middle of the meeting table and called the meeting to order alone.  Following calling the meeting to order he said a word of thanks to the previous Councilors and Mayor, a very fitting way to start out the new year of meetings.

I echo Mr. Kennedy's words and thank Mr. Carlson, Mr. Spry, Mr. Lenz, and Ms. Sivertson for their time and commitment to the City of Grand Marais.  Myself and the new Council hope to build on the foundation that they have laid to serve our community's needs in the unique way that Grand Marais demands.

After these important actions were completed was the public comment period.  I was very glad to see a resident of the City bringing questions to the new Council concerning the district heating project.  At present there are still many questions pertaining to that project and in order to answer your questions, we need to know them!
*I encourage any and all of you to come and ask questions at the public comment period or contribute your thoughts.  That is what that time is there for!

Then it was time for the formalities.  At the first meeting of each year the City has to designate the acting mayor (who fills the mayor's duties in the mayor's absence), official newspaper (the periodical that will public City announcements), the City's depositories (the banks that the City uses), and official signatories (who can sign official City business).  All of these things progressed quickly with the Councilors moving, seconding, and voting on the motions to accept the proposals for each.

One last, but very important formality is how to proceed with the Council vacancy left by now-Commissioner Sivertson.  Technically the Council could have appointed someone at this meeting, but the Council, recognizing the importance of that last seat, decided to solicit for candidates from the community and make that decision with more information and interested parties.

*So, if YOU or anyone you can think of are interested in helping make Grand Marais a better place by helping add perspective and insight to the Council, I very much encourage you to send me or City Hall a letter or email explaining who you are, what your connection to the City is, and what your qualifications for the position of Council are... Now, to keep things in context, qualifications for the position of Councilor can be just about anything!

Whew!  All of that done and we were just getting started!  The Council took well over half an hour to discuss and assign the committee and board assignments.  The Council also accepted the request from the Northwoods Food Project (a group working on local food production amongst other things!) to have Council representation on their board.  Below is the list and assignments as per the end of this meeting.  *It is important to add that when the 5th Councilor is selected in the future, these assignments will definitely change.

Starting with City Boards and Commissions:

Public Utilities Board (the board that oversees conflicts between the City and PUC customers)
Mr. Mills, Mr. Arrowsmith DeCoux, Mr. Moody

Public Utilities Commission (the policy making and managing body for the City's Public Utilities)
Mr. Kennedy (incumbent)

Safety Committee (the committee that makes sure OSHA practices happen at the City)
Mr. Moody

Planning Commission (the body that governs city planning and zoning within the City)
Mr. Kennedy (incumbent)

Personnel Committee (the group that oversees hiring, discipline, and firing for City employees)
Mr. Arrowsmith DeCoux, Mr. Mills

Park Board (the policy making body that governs the Rec. Park and other City park lands)
Mr. Mills

North Shore Management Board (a regional group that makes and enacts policies pertaining to preserving and managing our valuable shoreline and Lake Superior water quality)
Mr. Arrowsmith DeCoux

Arrowhead Regional Development Commission (a regional economic development commission that supports the development of businesses and infrastructure)
Mr. Moody

Library Board (the policy making body that governs the library)
Mr. Arrowsmith DeCoux

Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (a group that implements programs and projects to support economic development in our communities)
Mr. Moody

Cook County YMCA
Mr. Mills

Moving on to the community organizations with City Liaisons:

Animal Advocates
Mr. Moody

North House Folk School
Mr. Arrowsmith DeCoux

Cook County Local Energy Project
Mr. Moody

Active Living/Safe Routes to School
Mr. Kennedy

Northwoods Food Project
Mr. Mills

*If you have any concerns pertaining to any of these groups, your City Councilors would be glad to hear your comments or questions.

You still with me?  It was definitely a busy meeting, but we are not even half way through yet!
The Council then voted on and appointed the City citizen representatives to the City boards and commissions.  Thank you very much for all of the interest from the community!  We were pleased to have so many well qualified candidates.  If you showed interest and were not selected, please stay involved!  We need continued participation throughout the City!  Pending the acceptance of their appointments, the newly appointed citizen representatives are:

Helen Muth for the Library Board

Hal Greenwood (inclumbent) for the Economic Development Authority

George Wilkes for the Public Utilities Commission

Sally Berg and Kaye Tavernier for the Park Board

Hal Greenwood (incumbent) and Michael Garry for the Planning Commission


With all of that work done we settled into the next few items on the agenda, deciding whether the City should accept grant monies that would fund the final steps of the district heating project, seeking customer contracts, bidding out expenses, and seeking financing through state bonding.
There was a lively conversation on the matter, fueled by concerns from the community that this project is going to be an economic drag on the City as well as other logistical concerns.  The Councilors discussed all of these points and finally got to the conclusion that it would be imprudent to not accept the grant monies considering that the previous City Council voted to spend $3000 of city money to pursue the grants... which were awarded as per that plan.  If the previous Council put money into this project, it wouldn't make much sense for the new Council to rewrite the purpose of that investment by not accepting the grants.

The other part of the conversation, which went long and very in depth as well, was the signing of the contract with FVB Energy, the firm that has been designing the project.  If the Council voted to accept the grant money, then the City would also have to enter into a contract with FVB Energy to pursue customer contracts, seek bids, and seek bonding... all in partnership with the City.

The conversation was very interesting, but basically came down to the fact that the City was ready to make that commitment based on all of the votes of previous Councils to support this project.  There are many conditions though.  The contract that the City will be signing is written very much in favor of the City with the City being able to suspend or terminate the contract with proper notice with no penalty.  The Councilors also stated that if the City takes on responsibility for this project, there will need to be regular updates provided to the Council at upcoming meetings, a public forum to ask and answer questions, and the consideration that the standing District Heating Committee become a City committee until this process is complete.  There are many pieces of information that need to be found during this project, some of which will dictate whether or not the project will continue to move forward.  The City has no commitment to complete the project if these factors are not satisfactorily resolved.  However, this project has been viewed as a project of regional significance by many people, including our legislators, Dave Dill and Tom Bakk, who are very interested in this project succeeding.  If you have any questions about this process or the project itself, please let me know and I will do my best to connect you to the information you need!

Almost done.  Just a few more things!

The Council moved to accept maintenance responsibility for any infrastructure built as a result of the TAP (Transportation Alternatives Program) grant money that the City is applying for as a part of the Hwy 61 Redesign project.  The grant money would fund part of any bike or pedestrian path built as a part of the redesign.  This project is not slated to begin at least until 2019, so there are a lot of uncertainties in this conversation, but in order to apply for the monies from TAP the City needed to take responsibility for the infrastructure it funded.

As a final piece of business the Council accepted a bid from CR-BPS (Building Performance Specialists) to perform an energy and asset assessment on the City Hall building.  This assessment will compliment the work being done to see how we can improve the Municipal Liquor Store as well as provide life cycle information and energy efficiency information for the City Hall building.  The resulting report will show many ways that the City can improve the performance of City Hall in order to better serve our needs, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.  This survey will be done in the upcoming months and will require additional action in the future to enact any changes suggested in the report.

OK, that's it.  We adjourned at 7:07pm relieved and very satisfied with a great working session.  In closing I encourage you all to come to meetings to participate in the public forum and see the process taking place.

As always, please contact me if you have any comments or questions about what happened at this meeting!