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HomeMy Public PortalAbout10/07/97 CCM201 MEDINA CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF OCTOBER 7, 1997 The City Council of Medina, Minnesota met in regular session on October 7, 1997 at 8:00 p.m. in the City Hall Chambers. Mayor John Ferris presided. Members present: Ferris, Hamilton, Johnson, Zietlow, and Thies. Members absent: None. Also present: Interim Police Chief Ed Belland, Attorney Ron Batty, Public Works Director Jim Dillman, City Engineer Shawn Gustafson, Zoning Administrator Loren Kohnen, West Hennepin Recycling Commission Coordinator Amelia Kroeger, Park Commission Chairperson Tom Gregor, and City Clerk -Treasurer Paul Robinson. 1. Approval.of the Agenda Additions to the Agenda: 1. Resignation of Mary Ann Huseth from the Pioneer/Sarah Creek Watershed Management Commission. 2. Police Garage Addition. 3. Minnehaha Creek Watershed District Update. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Approval of the Minutes from September 16 1997, City Council Meeting On page 2, item number 6, fifth paragraph, last sentence, add "of soil and" after "board". Page 5, paragraph 9, and add "than" after "hire". Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by John Hamilton, to approve the minutes of the September 16, city council meeting as amended. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Consent Agenda Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by Ann Thies to approve the consent agenda. A. Resolution 97-47 Granting a Permit to Minnegasco for Gas Main Installation at 3478 Elm Creek Drive. B. Resolution 97-48 Granting a Permit to Minnegasco for Gas Main Installation along US Highway 12 and Town Line Road. C. Resolution 97-49 Approving the Renewal of a Premises Permit to the Loretto Fire Relief Association to Conduct Lawful Gambling. D. Approval of a Gambling License for a raffle at the Church of St. Anne. Motion passed unanimously. 4. Comments from Citizens on Items Not on the Agenda Loren Kohnen asked the city council if they would be willing to extend filing of the final plat for Baker and Associates. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to extend the final plat filing for Baker and Associates. Motion passed unanimously. 5. Park Commission Comments Tom Gregor handed out an update on the fundraising efforts of the park commission for Hamel Legion Park. He said that to date they have received $189,836 in designated donations and $28,258 in undesignated donations. Gregor said there was $217,150 in pledges designated Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 202 for 1998 and that donations raised to date did not include the amount of in -kind contributions, for projects such as, grading of the ball fields or the construction of the sledding hill. Gregor said that 90% of the rough grading had been completed at the park. Gregor said the Park Commission needed some clarification from the city council on whether or not specific projects can be named after the donor or serve as a memorial. Gregor said, for example, Dorothy Anderson was planning to contribute around $138,000 to finish the four ballfields and would like named after of Tom Anderson. John Ferris said that in principle the city council seems to agrees with this. Phil Zietlow said that maybe we need a policy. He said that parts of the park could have a hundred different names without some type of policy. Tom Gregor said the commission talked about using a plaque that would state who donated money for each project at the beginning of the park. For example, volleyball courts were donated by Thorpe, etc. so that there would be just one sign listing all the donors for each project. John Ferris said if somebody was paying for a significant project such as the ballfields, that would constitute a fairly meaningful donation that could include a name designation. He said the city council was supportive of this idea but would like the park commission to bring back a recommendation on how what type of policy the city council should use to name different parts of the park. Tom Gregor said the snowmobile club would like to keep the snowmobile trail in the same location around the park as last year. Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the snowmobile trail for one year on the same route with the signs and fencing as was required last year. Motion passed unanimously. 6. Planning Commission Comments John Ferris said that Anne Heideman, the planning commission chair, could not be here tonight. She was recovering from surgery. Loren Kohnen said that if she were here tonight, she would have mentioned that the planning commission would like to work on the tree policy and would like Phil Zietlow to come to the next planning commission to talk about what has been done on that policy to date. Jim Johnson asked Loren Kohnen what happened at the McDonald's site in regards to the additional footage required by the county and the increased elevation of the site. There was some discussion on some of the changes required at the McDonald's site. 7. Larson Architect Invoice Paul Robinson said at the last city council meeting, the city council directed staff to put together information on the contracts with Larson Associates and a review of the minutes and invoices. Robinson said that he put together a memo with what he believed the city council Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 203 owed Larson Architects to date. Robinson said that according to the agreement with Larson Associates the city council agreed to pay 80% of the estimated cost at completion of documents for bidding and that the city would pay the remaining 20% upon completion of the construction. Since the work was not completed, the city would only owe 80% of the project cost. This would amount to an additional $747.50. Robinson said that the agreement also included payment for copies of the blueprints and specification manuals. Copy costs of for these documents amounted to $1,075 for the blueprinting costs and $543.00 for the specification manuals. Robinson said that in addition to the copy costs there was $338.80 for advertising costs. Robinson said reimbursement of these costs were not specified in the contract. Robinson thought the city should pay Larson Architects for this amount. Robinson said that he spoke with the city attorney, Ron Batty and that Ron said there could be alternate ways of interpreting the agreements. Since there were two agreements the city could argue that it would not have to pay for copies from the first set specifications and plans. Robinson said that Ron Batty also mentioned that if the city council were to agree on dollar amount tonight, the council should make sure to direct staff to have something in writing from Larson Associates accepting this amount as final and full payment. There was some discussion by the city council. Phil Zietlow said basically they did not want to pay this amount and did not like having to pay, but the council needed to pay what they agreed to or what they were required to pay. Ron Batty said that the city clerk treasurers interpretation of the contract was reasonable but was the most generous way possible to look at the agreement with Larson Architects. Batty said that since Mr. Larson's proposal did not include advertising costs, and he paid for them, in this particular situation, Batty said he would not reimburse that amount. There was some additional discussion about whether or not to pay the costs for the preliminary plans. In the end the city council agreed to include the advertising costs as a part of the settlement amount. Robinson said he believed the city council directed the architect to draw the plans twice, the first time was without an addition, and the second time was with an addition. Robinson said that these were two separate designs and two separate sets of plans. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Jim Johnson to authorize staff to negotiate a final payment of $2, 704.78 with Larson Associates. Motion passed unanimously. 8. Police Garage Addition Phil Zietlow said he received bids for the security system ranging from $13,000 to $5,763 from K'N'R' Electronics in Hamel. Zietlow recommended that the city council approve the K'N'R' bid. He said that Ed Belland had visited the Southdale court systems which also used K'N'R' for Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 204 their security system and believed that it was a quality system that would meet their requirements. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by Ann Thies to approve the K'N'R' bid for $5, 763.00 for the police security system. Motion passed unanimously. 9. Police Chief Position Phil Zietlow said that a few months ago he recommend that the city council designate Ed Belland as interim police chief. He said at that time he stated that he would like to have Ed Belland in the interim chief position for three to four months and see how it works out. Zietlow said that during the past three months it's has been a pleasure to work with Ed. Zietlow said that Ed Belland has shown leadership and follow-through in his tenure as interim chief. Zietlow said that there has been a lot going on in the police department and that there is still a lot going on right now. He said that a new officer is about to be hired and the garage addition construction is just beginning. He would like to see Ed Belland be hired as the police chief and enable the police department to move forward. Moved by Phil Zietlow, seconded by John Hamilton, to hire Ed Belland as the new Medina Police Chief. John Hamilton said that he would like to discuss the salary needs or at least set up a committee to address that. There was some discussion about this. John Ferris asked Ed Belland if he wanted the job. Ed Belland said that he enjoyed being the interim chief, and would like the opportunity to continue building a team and would welcome the opportunity. Jim Johnson said that he wasn't comfortable with the quickness of this decision. He said he did not know if Ed Belland was doing a good job or not. He believed that Ed was doing a good job, but three months was too short of time for him to determine whether or not Ed would be a good chief. He felt that the notification to the other council members about this issue was too short and did not give him adequate time in order to make a decision this evening. He would rather wait up to six months before having to make this decision. He also said that just because there may be two potential police candidates in the current round of officer candidates it did not mean he would want to hire a chief now in order to hire two police officers. Johnson said that he would rather wait and have another interview round for a second officer when the time comes. Ann Thies said she believed both positions were reasonable and was not pulled one way or the other on a decision right now. She said she was not sure if the council will have much more information in December than they do now. She said she was okay with making a decision this evening. Jim Johnson said that time flies and recommended the city council wait three more months. Johnson said he had nothing against Ed Belland but would rather wait to make a decision. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 205 John Hamilton said that he had worked with Ed Belland for the last seven years and found Belland to be a very professional officer and that hiring him as chief tonight would bring closure to the department rather than waiting three months. He said he was very comfortable with making this decision tonight. Jim Johnson said that he would rather to wait to some time in the future. He wanted to make sure that the city council reviewed the job description and discuss the salary and other particulars of the job before hiring a chief. There was some discussion. The consensus was to wait until the first meeting in November before making a decision on whether or not to hire Ed Belland. In the mean time, the city council would set up a committee to work on the job description, compensation, and other issues. The motion was withdrawn by Phil Zietlow and by John Hamilton. 10. Reconsider the Recycling Contract Paul Robinson said at the previous meeting the city council approved Randy's Sanitation and Superior Sanitation for both garbage and recycling services. In the mean time, E-Z-Recycling had contacted with the city and met with representatives of city staff and council to discuss their proposal for recycling service. Their recycling proposal was significantly cheaper than the two garbage haulers. Jim Dillman contacted the haulers. Both were both willing to not provide recycling as a part of their contract. Robinson said if the city council would like to proceed, they would have to rescind their previous motion awarding both recycling and garbage hauling to Randy's and Superior and then make a motion to authorize Randy's and Superior for garbage hauling only. Moved by John Ferris, seconded by Ann Thies to rescind the previous motion awarding both recycling and garbage service to Randy's Sanitation and Superior Sanitation. Motion passed unanimously. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by John Ferris, to award the garbage bids to Randy's Sanitation and Superior Sanitation and authorize staff to prepare licenses for city council approval. Motion passed unanimously. 11. Issue of Withdrawing from West Hennepin Recycling Commission(WHRC) Paul Robinson said the city council could accept E-Z-Recycling's bid as a part of the West Hennepin Recycling Commission, or independent of the commission. Robinson said that his memo outlined the differences between those options and the costs involved in administering the recycling program. Robinson said that E-Z-Recycling had agreed to take out the down side cost sharing portion of the contract and reduce the revenue sharing threshold of newsprint to $25 a ton from $50 a ton. Amelia Kroeger, coordinator of the West Hennepin Recycling Commission said she hoped that in the future, cities will be providing for their own recycling needs, but currently it still makes sense for the West Hennepin Recycling Commission to provide the coordination and promotion of recycling. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 206 Ann Thies said that E-Z would recycle office paper and junk mail where the other two haulers would not have. Jim Johnson asked if the original bid was through the WHRC. Paul Robinson said is was. Amelia Kroeger said that Minnesota has done a good job in marketing their recyclable materials. She believed that the city should not take out the down side sharing portion of the contract. She said that the commission had previously had a vendor that ended up going bankrupt. This left no service available for the residents and was very disruptive. She believed that the recycling commission, the cities, and the haulers should establish a relationship that was not to the determent of the vendor. She encouraged the city council to keep that provision in the contract. Moved by John Ferris, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to approve the contract with E-Z-Recycling, remaining in the West Hennepin Recycling Commission, and modifying the contract to include a $25 per ton revenue sharing threshold instead of $50 per ton for newsprint. Motion passed unanimously. 12. Discussion on Designation of Commission Fund Balance There was some discussion about designating a portion of the WHRC's fund balance as an environmental educational endowment in the name of Mary Leintz. The city council asked Amelia Kroger to bring this issue back to the city council with more details. The city council was not opposed to the idea, but they did not understand the details and asked the WHRC to explore those details before asking the city council to make a decision. 13. Beechnut Street Vacation John Hamilton thanked city staff for the research they had done. He said he had spoken to a number of residents in the area over the past two weeks, and a majority of the residents would like the city to retain the property. He said the city should make a good faith effort at trying to prevent the erosion on that property and work with the Whiteheads on maintaining the property such as removing the fallen tree limbs, etc. Anne Theis, of 4651 Walnut Street, said this issue was near and dear to her heart. She said that development of this property had been addressed before. She said direct lake access here would be difficult since the bank to the lake is fairly steep which would make it difficult to provide handicap accessibility. However, a large portion of the parcel is very flat and accessible and could be used for picnic tables or some other type of public activity. She said that there were 38 to 40 homes in that area that did not have lakeshore access, and this area provides a place where they could enjoy lake view, have a picnic, sit down and enjoy the lake in some way. She said that this is a reoccurring issue that the Whiteheads have had. She wanted to know if the Whiteheads had stated that they would like to use this property to increase or add on to the size of their house. Phil Zietlow said that in the information given to them from 1989, the Whiteheads had expressed interest in adding a 15 by 20-foot addition to their house. Anne Theis felt this was the issue driving them to ask the city to vacate this property. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 207 There was some discussion about maintaining the property. Jim Dillman was directed by the city council to maintain the property and to take care of the fallen tree. Ron Batty said that this issue was brought to the attention of the city council by petition, and that the city council needed to decide whether or not to go forward with a hearing. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by John Ferris, to decline setting a hearing on the issue of vacating Beechnut Street. Motion passed unanimously. 14. Community Development Block Grant(CDBG) Grant Paul Robinson said at the previous city council meeting the city council did not award the CDBG bids because the specifications did not include an acceptable sidewalk grade. This project was re -bid and the low bidder was Ebert, Inc at $ 16,498. Robinson passed out a resolution which included the project specifications and awarded the bid to Ebert, Inc. Robinson said the only addition was a performance and payment bond. This added $250 to the total amount awarded. Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Phil Zietlow to approve the Resolution # 97-50 awarding the CDBG project bid to Ebert, Inc. for $ 16, 748. Motion passed unanimously. 15. Conditional Use Permit Application for an Antique Store, Office and Storage in the Existing Building at 32 Hamel Road Loren Kohnen said that Jody Chanin purchased the building at 32 Hamel Road. Kohnen said that she plans to operate an antique store in a major portion of the building and lease a portion of the building to the original owner for storage of business related products. Kohnen said this was a permitted use in the urban commercial zoning district. Kohnen referenced the site plan and letter from the applicant. He also said that the building was non -conforming and that it did not meet the 60/40 hardcover setbacks nor the parking requirements. Kohnen said that three parking spaces are shown at the front of the building, with other customer parking provided on the street. Kohnen said that his conditions had been reworked by the planning commission and he sited the conditions as recommended by the planning commission. There was some discussion about the conditions with the applicant. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to direct the city attorney to draft a resolution approving the conditional use permit subject to the planning commission's conditions. Motion passed unanimously. 16. Hamel Legion Park This issue was covered under park commission comments. 17. Farmers State Bank Parking Lot Issue Jim Johnson said Shorty Dorweiler of Farmers State Bank would still like the city to cover the bank's parking lot under the city's liability coverage. Johnson suggested the city put up a sign that thanked the bank for use of their parking lot. Paul Robinson recommended that the city council have a meeting with representatives of the city council, the insurance agencies, Farmers State Bank, and the Hamel Athletic Club. He said this meeting could at least have the two insurance agents come to a better understanding of what was being requested and of each parties limitations. Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 208 Ron Batty said he didn't believe the city had insurable interest in the parking lot. Because of this it may not be possible for the city to insure the parking lot. Paul Robinson said that he did talk to the insurance agent about this and the city's agent said that the underwriter would be willing to add the bank as additionally insured, but only for negligent acts of the city in the bank's parking lot. Robinson said this would, more than likely, not provide the type of coverage that the bank was looking for. The consensus of the council was that the city did not have an insurable interest in the bank parking lot. However, they directed the city clerk to set up a meeting with interested parties to see if they could come with some type of solution. 18. 201-409 Budgets John Ferris asked the council members if they had read the memo. The council members said they had. The city council moved on to the next issue. 19. Setup Equipment Fund #411 Robinson said at one of the earlier budget discussions, staff had asked the city council if year end surpluses could be set aside for future equipment replacement. Robinson said staff was asking the city council to set up an equipment fund 411 and approval of a transfer of from the general fund to the equipment fund. Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Phil Zietlow, to transfer $116,000 from the general fund to the equipment fund and to designate revenues from the sale of the two police squads to the equipment fund. Motion passed unanimously. 20. On -Call Policy Jim Dillman asked the city council if they wanted to make any changes to the current on -call policy. There was some discussion. The consensus of the city council was not to change the policy. Phil Zietlow said it should be reviewed every year, 20. Set Time and Date for Department Head Evaluations Moved by John Ferris seconded by Ann Thies to set a special meeting for department head evaluations for Wednesday, November 19, at 7:00 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. 21. Resignation by Mary Ann Huseth from the Pioneer/Sarah Creek Water Management Organization Moved by John Ferris, seconded by Ann Thies, to accept the resignation, and direct staff to send a letter of thanks. Motion passed unanimously. 22. Bills Moved by Jim Johnson, seconded by John Ferris to approve the bills. Motion passed unanimously. 23. Minnehaha Creek Watershed District(MCWD) Phil Zietlow said that the MCWD has received a lot of press lately and that council members have probably read about it in the paper or heard about it on the radio. He said the watershed district is definitely under fire. He gave an update of some of the other activities of the committee and what the county was doing. He said that there will be are three appointments Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 209 coming up on the MCWD this year, two for Hennepin County, one for Carver County. He asked council members if they knew of people who would be interested in serving on the commission. He said if they do to tell him or Hennepin County. This way the cities in this area can get a better representation on the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. 24. Executive Session Moved by John Hamilton, seconded by Jim Johnson to go into executive session on litigation matters. Motion passed unanimously. Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to close the executive session. Motion passed unanimously. 25. Adjournment Moved by Ann Thies, seconded by Jim Johnson, to adjourn the meeting at 10:48 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. John B. Ferris, Mayor Attest: Paul Robinson, Clerk -Treasurer Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 210 ( THIS PAGE LEFT BLANK INTENTIONALLY ) Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 211 ORDER CHECKS — OCTOBER 711997 17592 Air Touch Cellular $ 21.84 17593 A.W. W.A. 105.75 17594 Banyon Data Systems 202.36 17595 Bonestroo, Rosene, Anderlik 4,512.48 17596 Bryan Rock Products 33,535.35 17597 Budget Printing 257.34 17598 Buffalo Bituminous. 1,935.11 17599 Classic Cleaning 191.70 17600 Delano Sportsman's Club 120.00 17601 Delta Dental 837.50 17602 Des Lauriers & Sons 9,691.00 17603 James Dillman. 75.00 17604 Robert Dressel 75.00 17605 E-Z-Recycling 2,132.58 17606 Emery's Tree Service 639.00 17607 Rolf Erickson Ent., Inc 2,617.36 17608 ESS Bros. & Sons, Inc. 351.45 17609 Feed Rite Controls 1,517.27 17610 Firstar Bank 193.00 17611 G & H Distributing 58.00 17612 G.L. Contracting 15.00 17613 Glenwood Inglewood 53.40 17614 City of Golden Valley 10.00 17615 Gopher State One Call 52.50 17616 Great West Life 550.00 17617 Hamel Building Center 188.89 17618 Hamel Fire Dept 16,838.00 17619 Highway 55 Rental 199.43 17620 J-Craft, Inc. 160.64 17621 Kennedy & Graven 1,603.00 17622 Kustom Signals 77.44 17623 L & r Grading 865.31 17624 Long Lake Fire Dept. 3,010.88 17625 Long Lake Power Equipment 366.84 17626 Lucent Technologies 13.30 17627 Matrix Laser Care 61.77 17628 Medica Choice 2,454.25 17629 Medina Police Dept. — Petty Cash 67.13 17630 Metro West Inspection 14,239.80 17631 Metropolitan Council 2,821.50 17632 Midwest Automotive 762.46 17633 Minnegasco 33.91 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 212 ORDER CHECKS — OCTOBER 7, 1997 (CONT'D) 17634 Minnesota Dept. of Revenue 1,000.00 17635 Minnesota Mutual 230.00 17636 Minnesota Rural Water 111.83 17637 Minnesota State Treasurer 1,664.57 17638 Minnesota State Retirement System 155.00 17639 Northern States Power 2,897.60 17640 P.E. R.A. 3,736.15 17641 Public Safety Equipment 377.75 17642 Randy's Sanitation 154.73 17643 Paul Robinson 7.00 17644 Steve Scherer 75.00 17645 Streicher's 53.20 17646 Suburban Propane 18.64 17647 Tallen & Baertschi 3,037.23 17648 Uniforms Unlimited 346.95 17649 Unum 48.20 17650 Westside Wholesale Tire 24.00 17651 Wright -Hennepin Electric 1,032.02 17652 Wright -Hennepin Security Services 76.14 $118, 560.55 PAYROLL CHECKS — OCTOBER 7, 1997 15372 Paul A. Robinson 960.71 15373 Steven T. Scherer 987.60 15374 Michael J. Rouillard 1,098.19 15375 Scott W.. Kroeger 825.37 15376 James D. Dillman 1,188.24 15377 Robert P. Dressel 992.51 15378 Edgar J. Belland 1,532.53 15379 Martha C. Lundell 293.35 15380 Cecilia M. Vieau 784.10 15381 Laura L. Sulander 890.73 15382 Sandra L. Larson 844.24 15383 Jon D. Priem 944.06 15384 Jeffrey J. Weiler 265.60 15385 John A. Hamilton 138.52 15386 Ann C. Thies 138.52 15387 John B. Ferris 207.79 15388 Philip K. Zietlow 138.52 15389 James R. Johnson 138.52 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 213 PAYROLL CHECKS — OCTOBER 7, 1997(CONT'D) 15390 Paul A. Robinson 704.71 15391 Steven T. Scherer 449.85 15392 Michael J. Rouillard 1,025.46 15393 Scott W. Kroeger 810.61 15394 James D. Dillman 1,183.14 15395 Robert P. Dressel 497.49 15396 Edgar J. Belland 1,277.89 15397 Martha C. Lundell 158.42 15398 Cecilia M. Vieau 295.66 15399 Laura L. Sulander 470.49 15400 Sandra L. Larson 338.77 15401 Jon D. Priem 892.36 $20,473.95 Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997 214 ( THIS PAGE LEFT BLANK INTENTIONALLY ) Medina City Council Meeting Minutes October 7, 1997