Council Meeting 11-28-18

Ok everyone and hello again after a long hiatus...

First of all, I would like to thank the members of the community for coming out en masse to vote this November and for re-electing me for another 2 years for Grand Marais! There is a lot to learn every election and I learned this time that there is a good percentage of people in our community that would like to see something different from the Council than what we currently offer. I will be spending time this term investigating this and welcoming conversation/suggestions from people in the community about how I/we can serve you better. The first effort that I will be making is to begin (again) writing a brief summary of each Council meeting and I will make my best effort to write up other Council worksessions that are held so that there is a record of those meetings here as well. (For the record, all public meetings where a quorum of Councilors are present are either sound or video recorded, with a preference toward video).

A lot has transpired since I last wrote one of these summaries and I would love to take the time to explain it all, but would abbreviate that by directing you to the City of Grand Marais website where we have been placing most, if not all of the information about the Highway 61 Redesign Plan, the Stormwater Management Plan, the Sawtooth Bluff Master Plan, and a slough of other projects that the City has been working on.

Alright, on to the meeting tonight! If you want to watch it on video, check it out here.

The meeting was called to order right at 6:30pm with four (4) Councilors present (Moody, Kennedy, Swearingen, and myself) as well as Administrator Roth and Communications Director Patrick Knight behind the camera. Finance Director Dunsmoor was ill and we hope for her swift recovery!

For those that do not know, our City Attorney, Chris Hood of Flaherty & Hood was on the phone as he often is for our meetings.

There was no one present for the Open Forum, so it was opened... and then closed!

The Consent Agenda is a mechanism that a Council can use to quickly approve a number of items that are of general consent to the Council. The Consent Agenda for the Grand Marais City Council usually consists of three (3) items:
1. Approving the current meeting agenda (Which is necessary to run the meeting... We can add or remove items at this time).
2. Approving the Minutes for the previous meeting, which are included in the Council Packet.
3. Approving the payment of bills for the previous period, which is usually 2 weeks worth because there is usually 2 weeks between Council meetings.
*The Consent Agenda is where repeating permit applications sometime end up (think fireworks).
**The Consent Agenda items can be pulled for individual consideration if someone has an issue with one of the items. We have done this when there is an issue with the reporting in the Minutes or if someone wants to discuss a permit in more depth.

This time the Consent Agenda passed unanimously... and we moved on to our first item:

The results of the 2018 election re-elected me for mayor (thank you again), Councilor Swearingen, and Councilor Moody via a slim margin. In the special election Carl "Pete" Gresczyk defeated the incumbent, Jonathan Steckelberg, by 24 votes. Because this was a special election to fill the remainder of an existing term, the winner of that election became eligible to be sworn in and begin serving the day the election was certified. Although he was quite reassured by the City Attorney and acknowledged this factor in his resignation letter, Mr. Gresczyk chose to not serve the term for which he was elected, citing a personal concern over the appearance of a conflict of interest due to the fact that his company, G&G Septic, is one of only a few companies that can service contracts with the City to provide temporary bathroom facilities for summer activities and to haul waste from our wastewater treatment plant. This is truly disappointing as I hoped to have Mr. Gresczyk's perspective on the Council, as it would make us, I believe, a more representative body of our community. Despite the reassurances that the City would be able to accommodate any potential conflicts and that he could serve his term, the Council accepted Mr. Gresczyk's resignation and declared a vacancy on the Council via Resolution 2018-23.

The next step is for the Council to gather potential candidates for appointment to this vacated position. We have already received one from Craig Schulte, who ran in the election and was on the other side of that "slim margin" I mentioned previously. If you are interested in serving on the Council and would like to be considered, please contact cityhall@boreal.org or me and we will get your name added to the list for consideration. We will be accepting candidates until December 7th and will be hopefully choosing a candidate on December 12th. This candidate will be able to be sworn in at any public meeting after the appointment, which could be December 12th.

Following that bit, County Land Commissioner Lisa Kerr appeared before the Council to ask for the approval of the City for the Sawtooth Bluffs Master Plan. This plan is a concept plan of what the County/City/user groups would like to see developed as a part of a recreational facility on the 640ish acres of land owned by the County and City on the Bluff, largely where the old ski hill was and to its west. The Council had many questions pertaining to how the park would be funded from planning to development and operation. Ms. Kerr offered that the development of the plan was largely funded through a STAR Grant from the MN DNR where the necessary matching monies were split between the County and the City, with each paying $3750. To assuage many of the concerns about the potential future expenses of this park, the motion was made to approve the plan contingent on the development of an acceptable management plan between the County, the City, and potential user groups that would have a role in the maintenance of such a facility. This means that any application for funds for further planning or actual development of the park itself cannot happen until an acceptable management plan has be approved by all of those interested. It appears to me that this is a prudent way to move ahead as it makes sure that the cart doesn't get ahead of the horse so to speak and that the County and City have a plan in place that works before we start with any further development of the park.

The motion for this passed unanimously. This means that the Council did not approve the Sawtooth Bluffs Master Plan, it means that we will approve it if and only if an acceptable management plan is in place for said park.

Moving along, the next thing on the agenda was a resolution denying a height variance request in the Core Downtown Waterfront District. The Council had discussed this at length at the previous two meetings and had directed Administrator Roth to draft a resolution for the denial of the variance. For the record, this variance was for a 31.5' building in a district where the height limit is 30'.

As a brief explanation of the process:
Any variance or conditional use has to be weighed against certain criteria in order to be accepted or denied. In this particular situation, the Planning and Zoning Commission had written findings that the Council disagreed with (which happens pretty rarely) and drafted its own. These are the criteria and findings as per the Council:

Criteria 1: The variance is in harmony with the purpose and intent of the ordinance.
Finding 1: The additional building height would detract from other existing uses in the area.

Criteria 2: The variance is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
Finding 2: The additional height unnecessarily interferes with the public view corridors that the Comprehensive Plan recognizes as important in the DW zone due to its adjacency to the harbor and other important public places.

Criteria 3: The proposal seeks to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by the zoning ordinance.
Finding 3a: The additional height is not reasonable as other similar spaces have been viable while complying with the 30' height limit.
Finding 3b: A drawing provided to the Council by the applicant's architect portrayed a 30' structure with ceiling heights that were deemed reasonable by the Council and were consistent with heights described in the applicants initial submittal.

Criteria 4: The plight of the landowner is due to circumstances unique to the property and not created by the landowner.
Finding 4: Other properties have been successfully developed on 25' lots with closely adjacent neighboring buildings.

Criteria 5: The variance, if granted, will not alter the essential character of the locality.
Finding 5: The essential character is partially defined by the 30' height limit.

So there you have it. I would like to point out that these findings do imply a precedent for downtown building height being pretty firmly capped at 30'. If the community disagrees with this, it is important for the Council to hear this because the Council just claimed that part of the essential character of the downtown is having buildings 30' or shorter...

The motion was made and passed unanimously to accept the resolution denying the variance.

The final action item on the agenda was an approval of a "Business Associate Agreement" between the City and the A.T. Group, the group that we have arranged for the City employee health insurance program for 2019 through. This agreement is basically to bind the A.T. Group to the health coverages that we have agreed to and outline the expectations of both parties in the agreement. After a few questions about modifications that the City Attorney made to the agreement, it passed unanimously.

On to Council and Staff Reports!

Councilor Kennedy didn't have anything to report.

Councilor Moody reported that he has been receiving some vehicle/atv noise complaints and is wondering what we are to do about such complaints. The answer was that this is a hard one to police, but it is a violation of Section 70.2 of the City Code and is a petty misdemeanor and should be reported to the Sheriff. He also pointed out that we will be having vacancies on some of the City Commissions and was wondering what the plan was to advertise for those. The plan is that we are putting advertisements in the paper and on social media shortly.

Councilor Swearingen reported that she attended a YMCA Advisory Board meeting where they reviewed the contracts between the YMCA and ISD 166 as well as asked some questions about what needs to happen with the re-negotiation of all of the contracts it is in. The question was also asked as to whether or not the County Auditor provided the City with an estimate of what the levy situation would look like if the City bowed out of the YMCA contract with the County. This would mean that the City would not levy any of the YMCA funds and the County would levy all of it, spread out evenly throughout the County. These numbers have not yet come in and will be needed as a part of further negotiations... of which there will be many.
Councilor Swearingen also asked whether or not the City sent out letters to the properties in the city that are in violation of the trailer/camper ordinance. The letters have been sent and the process of enforcing the ordinance has begun.
She also asked whether or not the Council had a view on the employee review information that she provided following the last meeting with the aim to do a review of Administrator Roth, something that hasn't been formally done for some time. This dovetailed into a conversation regarding regular reviews for all employees, to be completed on a regular basis as a goal-setting exercise so the City can be sure our employees understand their expectations clearly and are equipped properly to achieve them.
I reported that the Library budget for 2019 was approved at the County on Tuesday and that the Library Board/Staff have set the calendar of events, schedule, and action plan for 2019. It promises to be another exciting year at the Library and I hope that you take some time to participate/enjoy the resources that are there.
I also reported that I attended a Grand Marais Business Coalition meeting where the Oh Ole Night planning was just finishing and Hygge planning heating up. We are very lucky to have such a motivated and involved community of businesspeople here. Thank you to all that they do and the services they provide!
The Creative Economy Collaborative (CEC) is drafting a response to the Hwy 61 Redesign amenity plan. Their role is to create or support the design of the amenities so that they are reflective of our unique culture and so that they meet the requirements of being in a MN DOT right of way. They have been doing a lot of work on this and I look forward to seeing their report.
Due to the new election of Councilors (and one appointment), I reminded the Council that there are trainings available that they can attend to help them understand the role more completely and be a more effective member of the Council.
I made a suggestion, and eventually a motion, that the Planning and Zoning Commission begin the process of looking into policy solutions that could help us address the affordable housing and rental issues that we have in Grand Marais. I am not sure what the solutions look like, but we need to gather a lot of information and dig into a lot of options to see what could work in the City. It's a first step, but I have high hopes that we can get some meaningful changes from this process that will make housing easier to develop and to own.
Lastly, I asked if we took any steps toward creating a Snow Emergency schedule for the winter. The answer was that we haven't, but that the County Engineer has been brought up to speed and we are waiting for her suggestions. The Council anticipated that action on this wouldn't be likely this year, but that it is a solution that we will need to do sooner or later. In the meantime, if it snows, please try to move your vehicles so that the plow/grader can get through and clear the snow effectively. Thank you!

Administrator Roth reported that he attended a SMMPA (Southern MN Municipal Power Agency) meeting yesterday where PUC Commission George Wilkes helped present to the SMMPA Board a proposal on the de-carbonization of our energy supply. Grand Marais buys all of its electricity from SMMPA and a majority of it comes from a coal-fire power plant. SMMPA did recently buy into a 100MW wind farm and build a 5MW solar farm, which makes it very possible that Grand Marais could potentially purchase 100% renewable energy from SMMPA, but that conversation has not yet begun. It would get us significantly closer to our climate action goals however...

Well, that's it! Whew. Thanks for hanging in there through it all.

As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. I am all ears.