HomeMy Public PortalAbout2021.06.25 Special Meeting Minutes t
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MINUTES
McCall City Council
Special Meeting
McCall City Hall-- Legion Hall s
VIA TEAMS Virtual
June 25, 2021
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Call to Order and Roll Call
Presentation
a Public Comment
Work Session
Adjournment
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CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
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Mayor Giles called the special meeting of the McCall City Council to order at 9:00 a.m.
Mayor Giles, Council Member Callan, Council Member Holmes, Council Member
Maciaszek, and Council Member Nielsen all answered roll call.
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City staff members present were Anette Spickard, City Manager; Shay Tyler, Deputy Clerk; Erin
Greaves, Communications Manager; Linda Stokes, City Treasurer; Michelle Groenevelt,
Community Development Director; Rick Stein, Airport Manager; Eric McCormick, Golf Course
Superintendent; Chris Curtin, Information Systems Manager; Traci Malvich, Human Resources
Manager; Nathan Stewart, Public Works Director; Vlatko, Network Administrator; Amanda
Payne, Local Option Tax Administrator
Also, in attendance were Mike Eck, David Carey, Kristi Thomasson, Chet Wood, Robert Looper,
and Nicole Musgrove
Mayor Giles led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.
PRESENTATION
Ponderosa Center Update
The Ponderosa Center Board Mike Eck, President; Chet Wood; Bob Looper, Vice President; Walt
Sinclair, Co-Chair Capital Campaign; Kristi Thomason, Finance Comm & Treasurer; David
Carey; and Nicole Musgrove, Development Director presented an update regarding the Ponderosa fi
Center. The Center has a fundraising goal of$20M. The Center will have 400 person capacity and
will be a 2 story building. Currently the Board members have raised $1.2M in the silent phase of {
fundraising. The Board is about to kick off a public capital campaign. Their goal is to have a 5
year sustainability financial plan and have the building built by 2025. A community survey was
conducted to inform the needs and uses of the center. The Board have conducted virtual Ponderosa
Presents events to over 200 viewers This summer there are free community concerts planned for
Tuesdays 6pm-8pm at the Ludwig Terrace. Opera Idaho will kick it off next week. There will be
a Gallery 55 Art Show this summer and Rotary Mtn BrewFest in August, all sponsored by McCall
Music Society. k`
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Mayor Giles asked about operational costs and looking forward to 2026 what will be the cost to
maintain the building after it is built? The Board responded that they have a five year plan for
funding to ramp up after construction until they get to full utilization. They hope to have
memberships, like Idaho Shakespeare festival, to pay for ongoing costs and are planning to lease
office space to the Chamber for revenue. They will have membership levels from $25 per year up
to $1000 per year. They plan to avoid asking for taxpayer funding.
Council Member Holmes stated that she is interested in parking issues and traffic flow data in that
area. David Carey stated that is to be determined but feels it will be a different type of parking
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management issue than normal visitor traffic and that they can absorb it and manage it t
appropriately with shuttles etc. He reiterated that event traffic is different.
The Board would like a letter of support from City Council about the project to help with
fundraising. City Manager Spickard will check with the City Attorney to see if the Council is able .
to issue a letter of support considering the land use approval role of the Council.
Mayor Giles expressed Council is positive about the concept and looking forward to it.
Council Member Maciaszek stated that they may end up asking for Local Option Tax funds in the
future, like Ponderosa Center, Manchester Ice stated that they would not ask for tax dollars and i
now they apply and receive LOT funds. He feels that everyone needs to be working together to t
make it happen.
Council Member Nielsen stated that he thinks it's in the wrong location but likes the concept. He
feels it will be at taxpayer expense to deal with the transportation element and their impacts. He
opined that the City does not have the infrastructure to accommodate The Center now, and that the
City and community needs to work on it all together to figure out these solutions. He stated that
it's a systemic problem as well as the housing needs. He has been "beating his head against the
wall" on housing and transportation and feels that the City needs to solve these foundational
problems first before building more facilities. He did not want them to stop working on it, he just
sees a lot of challenges with the project that need to be overcome for it to be successful. David
Carey stated that more asphalt is not the solution to parking/traffic. They are looking at shuttles,
ride sharing, etc. and feels building at a location outside of town away from services would create
more of a traffic problem. Mr. Carey stated that the best use of that piece of land by Legacy Park
is public/private. He does not want to just plunk down more hotel rooms or condos there. He feels
strongly that we need to keep activity downtown, and not allow so much urban sprawl, create
critical mass. He stated that this location should prevent traffic problems in the end.
Council Member Callan expressed concern about parking and transportation and feels it's the
City's issue to figure out not the Ponderosa Center's. If this project does not go in, something else
will and there will still be a parking/traffic problem.
The Council recessed for a short break and reconvened at 10:15 a.m.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Mayor Giles called for public comment at 10:15 a.m.
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No verbal or written comments were received during this part of the meeting.
Hearing no comments, Mayor Giles closed the comment period.
BUDGET WORK SESSION
Request Approval of FY22 Local Option Tax Funding and Distributions
Local Option Tax Administrator Amanda Payne presented. She stated that the K9 grant
applications had been rescinded, therefor there is approximately $6k to reallocate.
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Council Member Callan introduced a concept stating that she would like to re-allocate the $50k
allocated to Payette Land Trust(PLT)for river access and then put$25k into the Housing Initiative
line item 3 for more incentives, $1 Ok for one of the Chamber's requests for Fireworks, $I Ok to the
Housing Professional (WCMEDC). That would leave $1 lk ($5k of PLT money plus the $6k of
cancelled K9 grants) to allocate for other items. PLT has already received money from LOT in
FY21 and she had concerns that the top priority of the LOT Commission was for land outside of
the city and not housing.
There was some discussion regarding the Payette Land Trust and whether LOT funds were
appropriate for land purchase and a conservation easement. Staff will work with legal to find out
if there is additional contract info needed to execute that type of request.
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Council Member Maciaszek did not think that the Council should change what the LOT
Commission worked hard to present for funding. Some minor changes such as the$6000 that needs
to be allocated due to the withdrawal of an application is different than completely changing what
the Commission had recommended. While Council Member Callan agreed, she just had an issue
with the Payette Land Trusts' application as it was for land outside of the City limits and there are f
projects that did not get funding such as the housing professional or the Chamber's fireworks. She
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felt that these should be a higher priority.
Council Member Holmes would like more money going to housing projects and the housing
position as well. There was a lengthy discussion on the merits of a housing professional that would
not be totally accountable to the City. An idea was brought up that maybe that professional should
be a City staff member.
After some discussion the Council consensus was to direct staff to allocate $3k towards the
Chamber fireworks and $3k towards the Zamboni repair.
Council asked the City Manager to schedule the Local Option Tax Commission Chair to explain v
why the commissioners made PLT the #1 priority at the July 8, 2021, Regular Meeting and
schedule any changes to LOT funding recommendations for July 22nd.
Community and Economic Development Director, Michelle Groenevelt updated the Council that
the Housing Advisory Committee will be bringing forward some recommended strategies for the
Council's consideration. The recommendation is for an RFQ to hire a consultant to create a
Housing Action Plan. The idea is to lay out a very specific plan for program development, that }
started with six different initiatives. She stated that there are developers taking advantage of the
incentives for more community housing.
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Property Tax—Implication of HB389—Discussion Only
City Treasurer Linda Stokes explained that with HB389 the Maximum Allowable increase is 8%
equaling$505,682. She stated that the increase is derived from a 3%property tax increase, and/or
90% of new construction & annexation, and/or 80% of the urban renewal increment. She stated
that the terminating urban renewal increment is included in 8% allowable cap. There was a brief
discussion as to how these numbers were determined based on HB389.
Draft Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)
City Treasurer Linda Stokes conducted the review and discussion of the draft CIP. She stated that
there were $1 lmillion worth of projects in total for FY22 in just the governmental funds which is
general fund, streets fund, library fund, recreation fund, and airport fund. Also included in the
streets budget are the Streets LOT funds. She stated that the CIP is not currently fully funded. Staff
will be looking at funding sources. She stated that there are 39 current projects in FY21 that will
roll forward into FY22. There were 21 new projects added to the list.
Council Member Nielsen asked about the project for the roundabout at HWY 55 and Boydstun.
Public Works Director Nathan Stewart responded stating that staff is working with ITD and an
industrial developer to pin down costs associated with the project including land purchase. He
stated that staff hopes to earmark some funds for future use on this project. Director Stewart stated
that improvements to the intersection at HWY 55 and Deinhard Lane are also needed. At this time
funds are limited to reconstructing Deinhard Lane from HWY 55 to Samson Trail. He also stated
that he has met with ITD several times and ITD plans to commit design funding for the intersection.
The goal is to have the design completed by the end of September 2021. With the preliminary
design it will assist in estimating the actual construction costs. The hope is that ITD will provide
significant construction funding to improve the intersection at HWY 55 and Deinhard Lane with
the goal to construct it in 2022. If it turns out there is insufficient funding, then staff will request
to construct it in 2023.
Council Member Nielsen asked about a timeline on the goal of swapping Third and Lake with
Deinhard and Boydstun for HWY55 reroute. Director Stewart stated that there are still many
discussions to be had on the benefits and liabilities of such a swap. He reiterated that the first step
is to improve both those major intersections. He stated that the design and construction would only
be for the southeast corner of that intersection. He also clarified that the$2million of City funding
in the CIP is to cover the cost of reconstructing Deinhard Lane, not the intersection. Director
Stewart also stated that once the preliminary design is complete for the southeast corner of the
intersection in September then they will move right into final design from September to December.
It was acknowledged that there is a lot of work to be done concerning the amount of traffic in the
downtown.
City Council Deliberation
City Treasurer Linda Stokes introduced the draft FY22 Operation & Maintenance budget
worksheet, stating that very little had changed since the Council last saw it. She stated the most
significant change was the property tax revenue total of$505,000 had been entered into the budget.
Human Resources Manager Traci Malvich gave a brief update to the benefit costs stating that the
increase for employee benefits is 9.5%. She stated that the budget packet had been updated with
that change as well as all the employee changes.
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City Treasurer Linda Stokes called out the changes reflected in the current budget compared to the
first draft. She then asked for questions or direction from Council. Overall Council felt that they
had made their questions and comments as they went along. Council wanted to know specifically
what monies would be going towards housing besides LOT Funds. There will be a
recommendation coming from the Housing Advisory Committee involving how much the City
should start investing and there is also the reserve fund that is being set aside for housing. Staff
stated they would pull together a summary that shows how much money is being budgeted for
housing.
Council Member Nielsen also asked if the City is considering moving in the direction of using
electric vehicles. Staff has not had real dialogue on what it would take to set up the infrastructure
for charging and what a transition plan to electric vehicles would look like. In the long term, staff
will be looking at that possibility. Also, regarding charging stations for the public, there is the
question of who is going to pay for the electricity.
Council Member Nielsen then brought up the location of the Public Works facility again stating
that the location would be prime for an apartment complex. He stated that there are a half million
dollars slated for the next four years for improvements to the facility, and he then tried to make
the argument that Parks is relocating and it would be the optimum time to combine the facilities
for Public Works and Parks at a different location. It was pointed out that this discussion had been f;
had and Council's direction was to move Parks Department to the Historic Museum Site so that is
the direction staff is going. City Manager Spickard stated that the takeaway from the Public Works
facility work session was that the City needed to address the immediate health and safety issues in ='
the mechanics shop with diesel exhaust and such. The other amounts on the CIP are based on the
Public Works Master Plan adopted by Council. Costs were discussed regarding moving the Public
Works Facility to another location would be at least $9million and Council would have to make
that decision and then the decision on where the money would come from.
FY22 Budget Next Steps
City Treasurer Linda Stokes then stated that the Council will need to have a balanced tentative
budget set on July 29 for the budget public hearing scheduled for August 12. There will also be a
Public Hearing on August 12 for the FY22 Foregone amount along with Budget Adoption.
= ADJOURNMENT
Without further business, Mayor Giles adjourned the meeting at 12:08 p.m.
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ATTEST: W�: i �bert S. files, Mayor
BessieJo Wag er, City Cl
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