Wednesday, February 27, 2019

City Council Meeting 2/27/19

Tonight the Grand Marais City Council met for the final Council meeting of February.

It was a very full agenda with many items that required a great deal of consideration, so without any further ado, I will get to the summary. If you would like to see the video of the meeting, it can be seem HERE.

The meeting was called to order at 6:30pm with all members of the Council present.

The Open Forum was opened and community members present were invited to address the Council if they wished. One person, Michael McHugh introduced himself to the Council as an applicant to the opening of the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The Open Forum was then closed and the Council began with the Agenda.

The first item on the agenda, as usual, was the approval of the Consent Agenda, which had the typical three items on it (Approval of the Minutes, Approval of the previous meeting minutes, and Payment of bills). The motion was made to approve the Consent Agenda and it passed unanimously.

At this time the Council took up the business of appointing members to the City Boards and Commissions. There were two openings at the beginning of the meeting and the hope was to end the meeting with less than that, which is what happened.

The first opening was on the Planning and Zoning Commission, for which there were two applicants, Michael McHugh, a teacher at the school and area resident for 14 years, and Philip Oswald, a 5 year property owner and resident of the City with a background in planning and consulting. Both candidates presented themselves as fully worthy candidates, which put the Council in a tricky position, as only one could be chosen. After some discussion and question asking, a motion was made to appoint Michael McHugh to the Commission, which passed unanimously. Thank you both Michael and Philip for your willingness to participate! There will be some exciting work being done in the Planning and Zoning Commission in the coming years, so it is great to have a strong group of people working on it.

There is currently one opening on the Park Board as well! There is some exciting work to be done there as well! If you are interested, please come by City Hall and pick up an application!

Next Fire Chief Ben Silence and Assistant Chief Aaron Mielke came before the Council to present and seek approval of the culmination of several years of their work to write down and formalize the Standard Operating Procedures for the Fire Department. The result is a 50+ page document that outlines all of the necessary information for members of the Fire Department to reference so they can understand best practices and how the Department needs to be run and how they need to be a part of that. It is very well done and it was the Council's hope that this would make the operation of the Fire Department more streamlined and clear. A major driver for putting this SOP manual together was to achieve what was mentioned above, but also to lower the Fire Department's ISO (Insurance Services Office) score. This score is a risk score that rates the emergency response ability of the area around where people live. A high ISO score is bad and will result in higher home insurance rates because there is more risk that if a fire or calamity occurs, the Fire Department wouldn't be able to respond quickly or effectively. The Grand Marais Fire Department saw its ISO score go down (from an already respectable score) after the last rescoring, and it is assumed that having this manual and better record keeping will lower the score even more. That translates to lower home insurance prices for the community.

Discussion with Ben and Aaron diverged to a few other items after the plan was approved. Councilors asked what the Fire Department's plan was for testing fire hydrants and flushing them, to which Chief Silence stated that it is his hope to work with Tom Nelson at the Water Plant to do that work in the spring, thus replacing unusable hydrants in the early summer, or as possible.

It was also discovered that the Fire Department has only 18 people on it and the more, the merrier was the sentiment. Becoming a member of the Fire Department is very easy and the commitment is worth every minute of work you have to put in. There is also compensation for your years of service.

All you need is to live within a 10 minute response time of the Fire Hall. If you are interested in becoming a member, please stop by City Hall or stop by and talk with Ben Silence at his shop.

One last thing on the Fire Department: Grand Marais relies on these people a great deal and get an incredible service from them. One piece of equipment that the Department is seeking to replace is a support truck to go out on calls with. If you have a newer truck or SUV that is in good working order that you would be interested in donating to the Fire Department, please let me know and we can make that happen!

Moving along...
Next on the Agenda was a summary of the results of the Council's Prioritization Workshop held on February 19th where the Council and the Department Heads all got together and puzzled out what the priorities of the City should be for the next few years.

The process that was used was:
1. The Department Heads provided a "State of the City" report according to their department.
2. The Council and Department Heads brainstormed, from that information and other information discussed in Council meetings, a thorough list of priorities that could be addressed in the coming years. The list that I made had 54 items on it. The list made by the Council/Department Heads had 37, after consolidating.
3. All present people voted for their top 6 priorities and those votes were tallied, giving the Council its list.

*That list had to be weighed against the Community Values that were identified in the City Comprehensive Plan. Those values are:
1. Support and Enhance Local Business
2. Encourage Expansion of Sustainable Energy Uses
3. Develop Access to Housing that All People Can Afford Throughout Their Lives
4. Expand Education for the Mind, Body, and Soul
5. Invest in Safe, People-Friendly Infrastructure that Supports Active Living
6. Enhance the Community's Deep Connection to the Outdoors, and Active Engagement of the Environment.

The Six Priorities that rose to the top were:
1. City Code Update and Enforcement-Review, update, create enforcement strategy
2. Update City/County Agreements-Start conversations to renegotiate and update agreements
3. Redevelop City Hall/Liquor Store Site-Explore all options of development, including private development, considering cost and ongoing impact to the community
4. Highway 61-Advocate for community needs before and during construction. Work with MnDot to establish maintenance agreements
5. Housing-Evaluate City programs/regulations and potential changes to address housing. Identify a strategy to invest in housing
6. Capital Improvement Plan-Continue to maintain a capital improvement plan to fund upcoming, scheduled projects and to begin planning for upcoming projects that are not yet scheduled.

There were some comments from the Council regarding the wording of these priorities, but it was clear that the Council felt that these were very important to the vitality and health of the community and these priorities were adopted by the Council.

Each of these priorities will require community involvement to be effective, so please stay tuned and the City will be reaching out for engagement on each of these.

After that, and riding on the heals of priority #3 was a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) to be sent out to potential developers of the City Hall/Liquor Store site. There were comments regarding the implications that this would have for the location of the Liquor Store, and a concern about potential parking loss, but it became very clear that the Council can't answer any of those questions/concerns until more information has been gathered. The RFP, then, becomes a very useful tool for the City to be informed of what could be possible in the City Hall space, and how that would benefit the community.

Written into the RFP were requirements that went beyond designing a cool building.
It requests:
-A summary of proposed uses for the site and market potential for those uses
-Potential unit sale/rent prices and values
-Purchase price, terms, and financing for the developer to be able to fund such a project
-Schedule and proof that the developer can achieve what is being proposed
-How the proposal will address the City's Proposal Considerations, which were drawn from the City's Comprehensive Plan and from a Council worksession that took place in 2018. They include items such as: Enhance neighborhood vitality, Create pedestrian oriented development, Provide retail and other space that compliment and enhance the balance of downtown uses, Create efficient/environmentally friendly design, and define the City's participation in the project. This was expanded to instruct any respondents to give scenarios with the City's participation (i.e. Liquor Store and/or City Hall) and without.
The RFP was approved and will be sent out. The Council will be expecting to see responses in April.

The next item on the Agenda was a very technical piece from the MnDot. MnDot wants to purchase permanent and temporary easements from the City to complete the Hwy 61 project, but there was quite a bit of confusion as to why and whose responsibility the infrastructure on these easements would be.
There are three parcels, two permanent easements and on temporary easement. Councilor Swearingen recommended that we go through them one at a time, so we started with a small strip of land in front of the Library where MnDot would like to purchase a temporary easement to complete construction on the behind the curb work for project. This one was approved with the caveat that the Council would continuously check in to make sure that the Memorial Rose Garden remained untouched by the construction. The next parcel was a temporary drainage easement on the culvert west of 8th Ave W, up by Lunds Cabins. This would not impact any private property as it is on the south side of the road and was not seen as too controversial, so it too was approved.

The final parcel was the sticky one though. This parcel defined two permanent drainage easements, one in the drainage pond west of the entrance to the Rec. Park, and one at the Community Connection spot between the Rec. Park and North House. In addition to these permanent easements, there was a temporary construction easement running along the south side of Hwy 61. Since these easements are permanent, and that may impact the City's ability to improve the stormwater drainage of those two drainages, the Council opted to table that parcel until more information could be gathered. It will likely be taken up at the next Council meeting.

If you would like to see any of these diagrams, they are in the Council packet, which can be downloaded HERE.

The final item on the Agenda was the 2nd reading of the re-zoning ordinance for the properties on the east side of 5th Ave W in Creechville. These had been zoned Recreational/Commercial via a charting inaccuracy and with the approval of the second hearing of the ordinance they were re-zoned Residential Single Family (R-1). The ordinance was adopted, so those properties are now R-1.

Council and Staff reports were surprisingly brief this meeting. The only updates were Councilor Swearingen who had a YMCA Finance meeting where they looked at ways to increase fundraising and to further balance the operational budget and I reported that Feb. 26th (his birthday) was Norman Deschampe Day in Grand Marais due to a proclamation that I made and I was thrilled to report that Governor Walz declared the 26th Norman Deschampe Day in the STATE as well. Norman would have been 66 years old and will be greatly missed.

The speech by Governor Walz is on Facebook, so if you want to watch it, you can watch it HERE.

That was it for the night. As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Council Meeting Feb. 13, 2019

The City Council met on a night that was about as different on a temperature basis than it could be...

-20F to +28F

Anyway, if you want to check out the recording of the meeting, here it is.

All Councilors and administrative staff were present for the meeting, no public were present, so the Open Forum was opened and closed and the Council moved on in the agenda!

The Consent Agenda had the typical three items on it (Approve agenda, approve previous meeting minutes, and approve bills) and apart from a correction from Councilor Kennedy that stated that since he wasn't at the previous meeting he couldn't vote in motions even though he was listed as having voted, the Consent Agenda was approved unanimously.

The next items were brought to the Council by the Planning and Zoning Commission (which is looking for a member if anyone is interested in participating!). They included an Ordinance to resolve a zoning issue that was discovered last year and a response to the Council's request for the Commission to look into how the City can remove barriers for additional housing development within the City.

-The first topic was a rezoning a chunk of land immediately to the east of Creechville Road that was initially zoned Recreational Commercial (RC) and not Residential Single Family (R-1). Most of the lots in this area are used for single family homes and one of those property owners sought a re-zoning last year so they would be able to better utilize their property, which called the entire piece to the attention of the Council. After asking the other affected property owners, the Planning Commission drafted the ordinance, which was passed by the Council. Since it is an ordinance it must have a second hearing though; that will happen at the next Council meeting. Councilor Moody brought up a question about the adjacent City-owned property to the west of Creechville Road. This property is also zoned RC, but was identified as a potential location for additional home development by the EDA's housing site suitability study (which was done to help identify potential locations for the Nordic Star housing development). Since there isn't any plan to develop this land right now, no action needed or could be taken to rezone this land R-1, although it could be done in the future.

-The second item was the Planning Commission's response to the Council's charge to look for City policy changes that could remove barriers from housing development within the City. The Planning Commission came forward with a plan with two parts:

Initial Data Collection 
1. Housing Inventory and Maps -Number, type, lot size, residential/non, vacation rental, seasonal, vacant building, vacant land, utilities, parking
2. Ordinance Review -identify regulations related to housing construction, improvement
3. Housing Solution Search -gather innovative housing projects or regulations in other communities

Workshop
1. Identify participants
2. Brainstorm possible housing solutions
3. Identify favored ideas and barriers to success
4. Select barriers to address

*It was identified that the first part of this plan is very important as the City needs to be able to speak intelligently about the realities of housing in the City before any decisions can be made. Gathering all of this information could take months to a year depending on how many resources are put toward it though. The discussion circled around possibly hiring someone to compile all of this information so that it could be done in a more timely manner, leaving the Workshop section to be organized and executed by current City staff. That was only one way that this could be done and further definition on how this will be taken forward will happen at the Council's Strategic Planning Retreat next week when the Council will sit down for a half day of assessing projects, strategies, and priorities for the upcoming year or two.

Councilor Swearingen added that there should be information gathered about home prices per square foot, land prices, and tax values to fill out the information. Administrator Roth noted these and will add them to the list.

Following that discussion, the Council took up two items from the Personnel Committee. (The Personnel Committee is comprised of the City Administration, myself, and Councilor Swearingen.)
The first item from the Personnel Committee was the final re-evaluation of City supervisor job descriptions. A little history: In 2017 the City was faced with some significant changes in employee responsibilities due to retirements and changes in workload. Due to this, there were requests to re-evaluate these job descriptions to make sure that they accurately reflected the work that each employee was doing and was asked to do. It then became clear that other supervisory positions had not been reassessed for quite some time, so it was set out to re-evaluate all of the remaining supervisor job descriptions. There was one done in 2018, but the remaining position (Property Maintenance Supervisor) was just recently completed. The City uses a system that was put in place in the '90s that isn't perfect, but works and is consistent across all employees, resulting in an equal rating situation based on responsibilities and workload. When the re-evaluation of the Property Maintenance Supervisor position was done it showed a modest increase in responsibility over how the previous assessment was done and put the position back in alignment with the other positions at the City with similar responsibilities. A motion was made to accept the revised scoring of this position and that passed unanimously. The next step is for the employee Union (AFSCME) to be notified of this change and then the Personnel Committee will enter into negotiations for how that rating change will impact this position's compensation.

The second item from the Personnel Committee was an update on the progress on identifying a new superintendent for the Gunflint Hills Golf Course. The City opened up the application period late last year and received eight applications for the position. Some were under-qualified candidates, some were partially qualified and intriguing, and a few were well qualified and exciting. The Personnel Committee is in the process of not only sifting through this information and attempting to find the right fit for the golf course that will both provide a positive experience to users and that will also promote the course in the upcoming seasons. The Personnel Committee is working to create a "Plan A" and "Plan B" so that it will be assured that there will be proper staffing at the course no matter what happens. More to come on this in upcoming meetings.

The next report was simply an update on continuing planning for the Sawtooth Bluff Regional Park (SBRP). You may remember that the City approved the SBRP master plan last year with a contingency that, in order to have the City's support, there must be an adequate and mutually agreed to management plan for the property. This would answer questions like, "Who owns what?" and "Who builds what?" and "Who maintains what?"
The update provided states that the City has Councilor Moody as the City rep on a committee that is being formed to put together this management plan, but the City gets another voice on the committee as well. A representative from the Park Board will also serve on the committee. There was a bit of confusion about which Park Board member it was, but any of the people we have serving on that board would be great.
There will be more updates coming as progress is made on this management plan. Until then, the City has no commitment to the SBRP other than working to put together the mutually agreeable management agreement.

Following that item there was an appointment that needed to be made! The City received an application from Ann Possis to serve on the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) since Karl Hansen completed his terms at the end of 2018. Thank you to Karl for all of your years of service and thank you to Ann for stepping up to fill this position. There will be quite a lot of work for the PUC to do in the future as I will mention shortly...

That left the time for the Council and Staff Reports!

Councilor Schulte reported on a full Park Board meeting where 2019 Golf Course rates and strategies were discussed in detail, coming up with some exciting ideas to help draw new golfers to the facility. He also gave a brief update on the DNR Boat Launch project happening in 2020, stating that the DNR should be finalizing the lease for the property relatively soon. Administrator Roth acknowledged that the DNR has been asking for information piecemeal to complete said lease. Still in the same meeting, he reported that there were a number of permits that were approved for festivals happening in the upcoming summer season, but that there were some questions about whether or not beer sales on City owned property needed to be confined to a "Beer Garden" type space. There is on-going research into this subject and more information will come in the future.

Councilor Moody reported on an equally busy EDA meeting where updates came in on the Lutsen apartments (the first renter has moved in and it is expected that the third building will be occupied by April 1, which is on schedule), sales of the Grand Marais Nordic Star homes (all of the first stage homes are sold and occupied, the first of the second stage homes recently sold!), and an update on the finances of Superior National Golf Course (which made its 2018 round budget of 12,000 rounds and has budgeted for 13,000 rounds for 2019).

Councilor Kennedy reported that the PUC was presented with a draft of the City's Climate Action Plan, which has been developed through grant funds from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, technical assistance from the Great Plains Institute, motivation from the Nordic Nature Group here in Grand Marais. The plan is very ambitious and lists numerous potential solutions that may not end up in the final draft. The reason that this was brought to the PUC was to make sure that the content/direction of the plan was something that the PUC could get behind and support going forward. The PUC voted to move the draft forward to receive public comment and made a few comments of their own. When the draft is ready to be brought forward I will share it here on the blog so that anyone who wants can access it and comment. It will also be on the City website and on social media. Kennedy then reported on a less glamorous duty of the PUC, which was approving the replacement of a septic lift station historically called the Gopher Lift Station, located at the Building Blocks development where Cty Rd 7 meets Hwy 61.

Councilor Swearingen did not have any meetings to report on, but sent her heartfelt condolences to the Grand Portage community as they mourn the loss of their Tribal Chair, Norman Deschampe.

I followed up on that by commenting that it was my privilege, in conjunction with Norman's family,  to issue a proclamation that February 26th will be Norman Deschampe day in Grand Marais to honor his life of service to not only his community, but to our community here in Grand Marais and the many other communities across the state he impacted. Giga-wabamin Menawah Norman.
I also updated the Council that the Cook County Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Response Plan is being updated this year and the City section needs to be proofed and commented on. I will be working with Administrator Roth to complete this.
Today I also met with a representative of Representative Pete Stauber and listed out our concerns that he as a federal representative needs to be aware of.
I attended a Creative Economy Collaborative meeting where there was ongoing organizational discussion and discussion of how the group can be most useful to the City.
Finally, there was an update concerning the Hwy 61 Redesign Project. There was a meeting yesterday of the Hwy 61 Steering Committee and the MN DOT representatives working on the project and there is some information that needs to be communicated.
#1. MN DOT admits that they have not communicated well through this process. This was refreshing that they acknowledged this. We have been pushing them to not only acknowledge, but improve this.
#2. MN DOT admits that there were errors in the initial survey work done in October that has resulted in a delay in the letting of the project, which is resulting in a delay of the project.
#3. That means that the Hwy 61 project will NOT be a 2019/2020 project, but will be a 2020/2021 project.
**This is definitely an unfortunate development on the surface, but it may turn out that this could work out better for the City. This means that the City and businesses will have another year to prepare and plan for the construction. It means that the construction in both of those years could start much earlier in the spring/summer than the initially planned July start date. We are definitely talking a May start date now and potentially earlier, which could complete the work on an earlier timeframe or at least insulate the busiest times of the summer from the worst construction. This means that the City has more time to advocate for this schedule to make sure that things turn out how it is planned this time.

MN DOT will be putting together another meeting in Grand Marais to update the public about the schedule changes. I will also post concerning this meeting when the date/time/place is set.

That was all. We adjourned at a few minutes before 8 and went home in the (relatively) warm winter air!

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Dedication to Norman Deschampe.

At times I have been stressed out by being involved in the work of the City. Sometimes I get really wound up and/or I struggle with what the right thing to do is. 

There are many techniques that I use to be able to address this stress; one of them is to think back to a meeting I attended very early in my service with Chairman Deschampe. The topic of the meeting is lost to me, but I remember Norman clearly in that meeting. He observed most of the meeting without speaking, quietly sitting and listening. When he was asked his thoughts near the end of the meeting he sat up and spoke calmly, succinctly, and with incredible candor. His words summarized the points that were made and reached out to those in attendance. His words answered questions that could be answered and made clear the questions that could not be answered. His words helped others start to shed their own stress about the subject, but provide practical ideas for moving forward.

That is just one experience with him, but it impacted me a great deal. I tend to talk too much and listen too little, but Norman's example helped me to work on that and realize the strength of the community around me. 

I, and many others, reach out to the family of Norman and the greater community of Grand Portage as they process and proceed with life without him. 

Because of the importance he held in our collective community, because of the relationships we foster in this county that he helped to build, and with the blessing of his family, I have issued this proclamation:

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, Norman Deschampe dedicated decades of his life to the leadership, betterment, and support of the Grand Portage community, and

WHEREAS, his leadership and influence was felt beyond the North Shore through his participation in the Minnesota Chippewa Tribal Executive Committee, representing the six (6) Minnesota Chippewa Tribal Reservations amongst the Tribes’, other local, state, and federal governments, and

WHEREAS, his dedication the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Kitchi-Onigaming) promoted the understanding of traditional practices, preservation of culture, and stewardship of natural resources, which, along with the work of many others, has made the collective community stronger, and

WHEREAS, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Kitchi-Onigaming) is an essential neighbor and partner to the City of Grand Marais, whose relationship is strong thanks to the life and example of Norman Deschampe and it is hoped that this relationship will continue to grow, and 

WHEREAS, there is no word for “Goodbye” in the Anishinaabe language; we show our gratefulness for the life of Norman Deschampe by wishing him “Minawaa giga-waabamin” or “I’ll see you again” and continuing offers of support to the Grand Portage community.

Therefore, let it be proclaimed that

FEBRUARY 26TH, 2019, his birthday

NORMAN DESCHAMPE DAY

in the City of Grand Marais.

SIGNED IN THE CITY OF GRAND MARAIS, MINNESOTA, THIS 11TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2019