Council Meeting 8-31-16

The Council met on the last day of August to attend to the business of the City. Here goes!


The meeting was called to order at 6:30pm with all Councilors attending except for Councilor Moody, who was out of town.

First things first, I opened the Public Forum for comment and no one spoke... so I closed the Public Forum!

The Consent Agenda was composed of the usual three items (Approve Previous Meeting Minutes, Approve Present Meeting Agenda, and Pay Bills) and a renewal request for the MMUA (MN Municipal Utilities Association) Safety Program, which costs us $14,500/year, but saves us the expense of having to train and pay a safety agent through the City. Overall it is seen as a saving of several 10's of thousands of dollars over doing it in-house.

The Consent Agenda was approved unanimously.

The next item was a request from the community to get acknowledgement of the International Day of Peace, which will take place on Wednesday, September 21st. There will be a gathering on the 21st at the pavilion in the Rec. Park at 7pm on the 21st if you are interested in joining them for a showing of solidarity. I will also be writing a proclamation acknowledging the importance of seeking peace in our community because that can make a huge impact in our world!


The next line item had to do with the Public Works Facility. It appears that there is some movement in the interest in the cabins on the property as we received a request to remove two of the cabins for $1 each. These are the log cabins in the back and they will be moved 90 days from this meeting. I hope they find a happy new home!

Also included in the Public Works Facility update was a proposed Request for Proposals that was drafted for the City to send out. There were a few changes provided in the lengthy legal sounding document including a stipulation that gives the Council the final say in approving all contracts that are proposed and including the Council's interest in including renewable energy concepts into the building. These changes will be made and it will be before the Council for the next meeting.

The Personnel Committee brought to the Council the final classification and proposed wage for the Assistant Library Director position at the Library.
All City positions are rated based on the tasks and responsibilities they are expected to assume. The rating system is very regimented and is meant to make sure that there is equal pay for equal work across genders and races. The rating system for this position came back with a rating that was one point below the cut-off for a department director, which we believe is accurate for the position's expectations. This was brought to the Council with the proposed (nothing is finalized yet) probationary wage of $19.91 and starting wage of $22.12. The Council had some conversation on the merits of the rating system and a few comments on the need for the position itself, but approved the rating and starting wage, which means that the position can be posted pending the final approval by the Union. It will be a very good thing to have this position filled and will benefit our library immensely.

The Council ended the night with a conversation regarding the preliminary annual budget. After meeting with the department heads yesterday (Tuesday the 30th), the Council felt comfortable approving the preliminary budget of a 5.49% increase or roughly $43,593 over last year's levy. This is because of increased expenses for insurances and the new library position amongst other increases in expenses. The Council waited on approving this number based on the request to see if it wouldn't be a good idea in the long run to levy a little more now when the economy is strong so that we can save up more money to be able to continue doing projects when it isn't. Administrator Roth said that he would provide additional information at the next meeting so the Council could make an educated decision regarding if that would be a good idea or not. At present though, the proposed levy increase is 5.49%. This means that once the preliminary levy is set the Council cannot raise it at all, but can lower it.

As one final addendum, Administrator Roth and I have been invited to attend the American Planning Association annual meeting in St. Cloud this year and intend to do so. That will be September 28-30, so both of us will be missing the Council meeting on the 28th. We hope to get some very timely information to assist us in getting through the Comprehensive Planning Process smoothly and with great involvement from the community!

For Council Updates Councilor Kennedy only had to share that he would be missing the next Council meeting on September 14th because he will be at an active living conference in Vancouver. Safe travels and come back with good information!

Councilor Benson reported that there will be a housing meeting put on by the EDA and the MN Housing Finance Agency on September 19th and it will be something that all of the Councilors should be at, so it will be posted as a public meeting.
She also commented that our public utility workers and service receives all kinds of awards and we should celebrate that more often! We will be looking into ways that we can do that, which may include putting up more information about awards and acknowledgements that the City receives on the website.

My report got a little long:
North House is doing well this year and is getting ready for the 20th Anniversary celebration next year. They are also waiting to hear back from the Cargill Foundation in the Twin Cities to see if they will be receiving a large grant which would allow them to expand some of their programs dramatically.
The Library hosted a PokemonGO event, which was attended by about 20 live participants, but many, many more who viewed the youtube video of the event, which was live-streamed!
The Library Friends' book sale was a huge success with a record breaking sum collected from the sale of books! Almost as exciting, 30 children who were a part of the Library's young reader's program turned in their gift certificates and got to claim 8 books for themselves. Very good stuff!
The Library solved a long-standing problem with the building as gutters were installed over the employee entrance so that the workers won't get showered on as they try to come to work. We hope it will also help keep snow off of that area as well.
I received an email from the parent of a child who was thrown off of his bike by hitting a hole in the pavement on the Gitchi Gammi Trail up on the top of the hill. I made the request that the hole be filled and it has been.
I have also received a large number of noise complaints regarding music and loud vehicles. I have passed these complaints on to the Sheriff and encouraged the people telling me about this to call the Sheriff when it is happening so they can take some action on it.
Administrator Roth and I met with Linda Kratt of Visit Cook County regarding a problem with their sewer backing up along with the Dairy Queen's and offered to replace the section of septic main that is exposed when they dig up their sewer lines and replace them.
We had our first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Comprehensive Planning Process! All 9 people that we asked agreed to serve and we spent the first meeting going over the basics and making sure that everyone understood what the purpose of the Committee was and how we would work with Community Design Group to make it all happen. We will be meeting again on September 15th to continue putting together the process and figuring out the best way to get it out there!

Whew. That was it for that meeting. Thank you for sticking in there with me.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments.