The Coldest Council Meeting of the Year? 1-30-19

The Council braved the cold weather to meet for the second meeting of the year, which was a few weeks after the Council's first meeting, since meetings occur on the 2nd and LAST Wednesdays of each month.

There was a strong showing at the meeting despite the cold, with only Councilor Kennedy absent due to being on vacation someplace warm. Lucky him!

Due to a lack of public (everyone was home and warm!), the public forum was opened and then closed.

The next thing on the agenda was the Consent Agenda, which is a way for the Council to consider and vote on a number of items together for efficiency's sake in the case that the items are not controversial or require further discussion. This Consent Agenda had the typical 3 items (Approval of the agenda, approval of the previous meeting minutes, and approval of bills), but also had 4 other items on it. Those items were: approval of the Legion Club's Bingo Permit, approval of the Lion's Club raffle permit (for Fisherman's Picnic), approval of city tobacco license renewals, and approval of Le Grand Du Nord's (a bike race that happens over Memorial day weekend) request to use City streets for the event.

Councilor Moody pulled the tobacco license renewal item from the Consent Agenda for further discussion, but there was a motion made to approve the Consent Agenda minus that one item. It carried unanimously.

The Council then discussed the age change for tobacco sales that just happened in Duluth and whether or not this is an action that the City of Grand Marais should consider. There was some conversation about what the purpose of changing the age would be and whether changing the law was the effective choice versus working to promote a healthy lifestyle without smoking. Considering that this conversation has been brought to the Council before by high school students at ISD 166, the consideration of this seems to be prescient. The Council's discussion moved in the direction of the importance of promoting a healthy lifestyle instead of limiting choice within the City. Following this discussion the Council approved the 4 tobacco sales licenses for the City.

Moving right along, the Council next addressed an issue that was brought to the table by the appointment of Councilor Schulte to the Council. As many are aware, Councilor Schulte is also the co-owner of the SuperAmerica store here in Grand Marais. The City had, many years ago, negotiated a price for the City's fleet fuel from the establishment and has stuck with that agreement since. This falls into the category of a contractual conflict of interest for Councilor Schulte, so there will be some additional checks and balances put in place to protect the City and Mr. Schulte from any allegations of wrongdoing or manipulating prices in this contract.
Through a resolution the Council formalized the agreement that the City has with Mr. Schulte's business and allowed the City to continue in a business arrangement with his business as long as the agreement was respected. Every time that the City pays a fuel bill to SuperAmerica, it will be separated from the rest of the bills and will be voted on with Councilor Schulte abstaining and with him signing an affidavit stating that this transaction was in line with the resolution.
*I would like to point out that this is not terribly rare in small town government. The possibility that the people who run for government seats also own businesses is pretty high and these legal solutions are very well understood and established.
The resolution passed unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was an update on the progress concerning the Hwy 61 Redesign Project that is slated for 2020. Well, was slated for 2020. It seems that the MN DOT is running into complicating factors with the assessments for leases and right of way purchases as well as a few other details, so MN DOT is discussing bumping the project back to 2021 in the City and 2020 for the mill and overlay at the edges of town.
*It is important to explain that the City is not certain what their reasoning is and is still gathering information on the situation. In some ways it seems that delaying a year will give the community another year's worth of time to plan for and accommodate the challenges that the construction will bring and also give the City another year to lobby for the best possible schedule for local businesses. In other ways delaying a year will complicate plans being put in place and other projects that the City has scheduled with other organizations (such as the boat launch in the Rec. Park, set for 2020 as well).
The Council will gather more information and have that prepared for the next Council meeting.

That was all for the listed items on the agenda... it seems that the cold has limited the agenda as well!

But the meeting wasn't over yet! We still had our Staff and Council reports:

Councilor Schulte reported that he has gotten orientation materials for the Park Board and will be attending his first Park Board meeting in early February.

Councilor Moody brought a question up regarding a scheduled Joint Powers meeting, which will be planned by the School administration. This meeting was planned for the 28th of February and will have representation from the majority of the elected boards in the county.

Councilor Swearingen reported that she has passed along the minutes of the YMCA Advisory Council to be included in the record for the City.
*Councilor Moody interjected with the question about where the negotiations are at between the City and the County. The answer to that question is that the Council needs to do its strategic planning retreat to figure out what priorities are and what are all of the contracts and agreements that the City wants to discuss with the County. At that point the City will bring up those things at a meeting with the County.

I mentioned meetings that I had with the Grand Marais Area Tourism Association where the group began its annual budgeting process and worked through how much will be invested in particular events. I also attended the Library Board meeting where the Library has been investigating doing some construction in the cataloguing area behind the counter to create another office and to streamline the operation in that area. This project will be funded from the Library's designated fund account. I also mentioned that because of the cold, there are concerns for the wellbeing of some members of our community and I can encourage you all to check on your neighbors or older/vulnerable citizens in our area to make sure that they are able to care for themselves in this weather. A huge kudos to Cook County Emergency Management and Cook County Public Health and Human Services for all of their help... Please be safe out there!

Administrator Roth reported that the decisions to close city offices or departments lies with the department heads and they will consider their employees' needs and the community's needs before making a decision.
He also reported that the time and date for the Council's strategic planning retreat will happen on Feb. 19th from 12-4pm. The goal is to prioritize the Council's goals for the next year or two and to educate the Council about past planning that has been done.

*There were a few comments that I would like to take a second to explain a few things that were referred to in the meeting so everyone knows what's going on...
Councilors Moody and Swearingen both made a reference to whether there was any update on the golf course. What they were referring to is the golf course superintendent, a position that the City has been advertising for very thoroughly. The City received 8 applications and has been completing interviews to try and find the best candidate to continue/improve operations at the Gunflint Hills Golf Course. There will be more information to report as it develops.

**Councilor Schulte asked if the City was running its generator. He was speaking about the City's backup generator at the top of the hill, which has been running almost all day to help meet the additional need for electricity due to the extreme cold. The last thing that the community needs is a brown out of some kind because the current on the main line isn't up to the demand, so all of the power plants in the area are running to make sure that electricity remains stable.

I think that just about covers it. As always, please let me know if you have any questions!

First Council Meeting of 2019! 1-9-19

The City Council met at its full attendance for the first meeting of the year on the 9th of January. This meeting is largely logistics, but this meeting was characterized by a lively discussion of the Highway 61 Redesign Project, which the Council, the Creative Economy Collaborative, and the Highway 61 Steering Committee has just finished a review meeting for. More on that later...

If you would like to watch the video, you can find it HERE.

The meeting started with a public forum with no public speakers, so we closed the public forum and moved along.

The Consent Agenda was populated with the usual three items (Approve the Meeting Agenda, Approve the previous meeting minutes, and payment of bills). With the addition of a discussion of the Highway 61 Redesign Project to the end of the Agenda, the Consent Agenda was approved unanimously.

On to the logistics!

The Council started by taking a look at openings on the public boards and commissions that the City has. These groups are very important to the functioning of the City government as they provide valuable oversight of different areas of City business and give members of the community a direct voice to be a part of the decision making process. Tonight the Council considered:

One candidate for the Economic Development Authority Board-- Bev Green, who will be serving her second 6 year term.

One candidate for the Library Board-- Judie Johnson, who will serve her second 3 year term.

One candidate for the Park Board-- Jennifer Stoltz, who will serve her second three year term.

One candidate for the Public Utilities Commission-- Melissa Brown, who will serve her first three year term.

A motion was made to approve all of these appointments and it passed unanimously.

**Please make a note that we are still looking for a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission. If you are interested, please let me know or go to City Hall for an application. The P&Z deals with some very interesting subject matter; things that directly impact the use of property in our City.

Following that discussion we looked at the Council appointments, of which there were some vacancies that needed to be filled due to changes in the Council roster.
The following list shows the current list of Councilors and their assignments:

EDA Board--Anton Moody
Library Board-- Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux
ARDC Board-- Anton Moody
North Shore Management Board-- Kelly Swearingen
Park Board-- Craig Schulte
Personnel Committee-- Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux, Kelly Swearingen
Planning Commission-- Tim Kennedy
Public Utilities Commission-- Tim Kennedy
Public Utilities Board-- Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux, Anton Moody, Craig Schulte (This board meets to discuss disputes and complaints to the City Public Utilities)
Safety Committee-- Anton Moody (This group meets with employee reps and safety experts to assess safety and ensure OSHA requirements are met)

There are also some groups that the City has liaisons for. Those groups and their liaisons are:

Arrowhead Animal Rescue-- Anton Moody
North House Folk School-- Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux
Cook County Local Energy Project-- Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux
Active Living/Safe Routes to School-- Tim Kennedy
Northwoods Food Project-- Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux
YMCA-- Kelly Swearingen
Cook County Parks and Trails-- Tim Kennedy

There was a motion made to approve this slate of appointments and it passed unanimously!

More logistics!

The Council has the option each year of designating an official newspaper for City announcements and advertisements. This is to make sure that there is an official publication that someone could find if they wanted official information in regards to City goings-on, such as meeting minutes or announcements. There was a brief conversation about what it means to qualify as an "official" newspaper, but a motion was made to designate the Cook County News Herald as the City's official newspaper. There was also discussion about misgivings in the accuracy of the reporting from the News Herald and whether or not that reflects well on the City endorsing the paper in light of the tone of some of the reporting therein. Nevertheless, the News Herald was identified as still being an important conduit to many in the community and was approved as the official newspaper.

In order to disclose where the City deposits public funds to, well, the public, the Council needs to identify the official City depositories for the year. This designation is done every year. The Council approved the following depositories for City funds:

Grand Marais State Bank
North Shore Federal Credit Union
Security State Bank
LMC/4m Fund
RBC

Another piece of accounting that the City needs to do each year is to officially designate the mileage reimbursement for City employees and expensable travel. The IRS set that amount for 2019 at $0.58/mile, up 3.5 cents from 2018. The Council decided to go with the IRS's suggestion and set mileage reimbursement at that level.

The next item on the agenda was not a typical item, but something that came across as pretty timely though. It seems that the FCC changed its rules for the deployment of "small wireless facilities" or cellular boosting antennae in rights of way to limit the actions that cities can take against companies that want to erect poles with these cellular modules on them. At present, cities can request directly to the companies that the community would like them to have the "cellular facility" or antenna or module look a particular way to blend in or meet some aesthetic. This rule change says that after January 14th if a city doesn't have an approved policy on the books requiring certain aesthetic considerations, a city cannot ask the company to do so and cannot deny requests based on an aesthetic complaint. Sure, there are lots of other ways that a city can deny a right of way facility, but there are other rules in the FCC that make such an action harder to do than you'd think. With this consideration and considering all of the work that the community has put into designing and being very intentional with the Highway 61 corridor, the Council saw that it was important to take this action. There were a number of questions asked directly to the City Attorney, who gladly answered them, and the Council decided to adopt a template policy for "Small Wireless Facility Design Guidelines" that could be amended and revised in the future as technologies and applications of those technologies require. This one will be a slightly moving target though and the City Attorney will keep the Council up to date on any developments.

The final thing on the agenda was a lively discussion of the Highway 61 Redesign Project. As I mentioned above, the Council had spent a few hours this afternoon going over design considerations for the project and looking at proposals for the design of the amenities for the project. The project planning is nearing completion and the MN DOT is preparing to work on their engineering designs, so time is of the essence if there are any changes that need to be made. Councilor Kennedy reported that he was impressed with the process and thought that the Council should take some action to approve the design so the City could stay on top of the planning and also send the message to MN DOT that we are staying engaged in the process and won't broadside them with any changes at the last minute. I shared my perspective as well, which was that the Council, community, and stakeholders have come a very long way from the initial plan and I believe that the plan captures nearly all of the desires of the community. Any further modifications to the plan would not be an effective use of time as what the community told the City they wanted is almost all in this plan. At this point Councilor Swearingen added her perspective that she really likes a lot of the plan, but she believes there are a lot of things in the plan that aren't necessary and that the City doesn't need to do. She identified a few locations throughout the corridor where she was nonplussed with the design or the need for the items built there. She identified the 3rd Ave E and 3rd St "landing," which was created because there was a large space made available by the closing of 3rd St to Highway 61. This space called for a potential public art location, a wayfinding/bulletin board kiosk, a bike rack, and a number of different seating options. When asked, Councilor Schulte looked up the amount that was designated for that installation and it was estimated at +- $64,000. Seeing that this was not a completely necessary part of the corridor and that picnic benches on a green space would also be very nice, she made a motion to remove this installation and leave it as grassy space. In the discussion of this motion points were made that, a.) if this is removed now it is gone from these plans, but could be taken up at a later time, b.) there should still be conduit run for a light installation if it is deemed necessary to have a light at that space, c.) the stub of 3rd St will still be included in the plan to allow for a few parking places for area businesses. This motion drew a significant amount of discussion, but in the end passed, saving the project that estimated $64,000 at the expense of the 3rd and 3rd landing. Following Councilor Swearingen, Councilor Schulte spoke about his experience with the process thus far and reported that many business owners on the corridor are very nervous and unhappy about how the process has played out. He reported that many he spoke to feel that there is very poor communication (little to no communication) coming from MN DOT pertaining to property leases for construction, property purchases for right of way, or significant impacts on their properties, including parking, sign location, and entries. He spoke at length of his experience working with MN DOT and the Council saw that it will be necessary to reach out again to these property owners and then advocate their concerns directly to the project manager with MN DOT so the property owners can get an update on where items are and when they can expect to hear about the developments pertaining to the project. The conversation was very thorough and covered many bases, so, to get the full picture of what was discussed, you can watch the meeting video, starting at 56:30.

Following that discussion we had exhausted our topics and moved on to Council and Staff Reports:

Councilor Moody reported that there has been some snowfall this winter and that the Council and County Highway Department should be working on Snow Emergency parking. Administrator Roth reported that the County Highway Department will be attending a future meeting of the Council to bring a draft ordinance for this, which will have some mechanics that the Council and County will have to work out. He also mentioned that the letters concerning the ordinance enforcement for parked RVs have drawn questions and desires some clarification on this. He updated the Council on the sale of another EDA lot to the vet clinic for expansion. The Superior National golf course met its round goal despite a bad October. The EDA housing that has been built has been sold and the second batch of houses are on the market. The Lutsen apartment project is in process with three of the four buildings in place with finishing ongoing with one of the buildings becoming available in each of the next three months. He finished up reporting that the EDA brought in around $1.3 million in grant funding to benefit

Councilor Schulte did not have any reports other than bringing up the conversations with business owners concerning the Hwy 61 Project.

Councilor Kennedy reaffirmed the desire to have a snow emergency parking ordinance.

Councilor Swearingen has a YMCA finance meeting next week. The Golf Course Task Force met and had good conversations about potential actions to improve the course. There are 6 candidates for the superintendent position and interviews will happen in January. She stressed the importance of City strategic planning and its results (i.e. ordinance revision etc). She also mentioned concerns for digging out the fire hydrants around town and ask that if you have one in your area, any help you can give us with this would be much appreciated. The City staff are working on it, but have been pretty busy...

I reported on an interview I did with the City Pages in regards to the award that Cook County received saying that it is the best place to live in the state. I didn't take the steam out of the conversation, but I did say it pretty clearly that there are many challenges to living up here as well. Other than that I reported that the CEC (Creative Economy Collaborative) met to formalize its bylaws and will be bring that information to the Council for considerations in the upcoming months.

Administrator Roth is looking for dates for strategic planning, preferably in February. The Council will be brainstorming for dates and topics.