City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Second I turn We just want to talk through this a little bit because this financial policy that's included in the packet is the existing city policy that we have had for several years, okay?

Any of the changes that are proposed are highlighted there in yellow. And one of the main reasons this comes up is because of a state law change in regards to what the maximum amount of fund balance can be in general fund. Okay, so that maximum amount now is 35%. And then we would change our policy then to say there's a minimum fund balance of 25% maximum fund balance of 35% would tell you that and then if it's above 35% then we would expand that down to less than 35% in the upcoming fiscal year. Okay, we ended at 41% so financially soundly we would need to be less than 35% in the upcoming year.

Policy in regards to debt management. We instituted a policy about outstanding debt relative to the constitutional debt limits.

So the constitutional debt limit for the city is 5% of the total taxable value. That's how much total general obligation that the city is authorized to issue. But this would say by policy that we would never exceed 75% of what's allowable. leaves that that cushion there in case you truly do have an emergency and you know something that would require some some additional debt then we could have that cushion to take care of it so it sets us at 75 percent our debt limit our debt right now is right around 44 is where we are Okay, development agreements. They had long standing policy here that says development agreements must stand on their own merit. Okay, we did make an addition to that policy that excludes the downtown and East Lincoln Way projects. They can be pretty expensive projects and the amount of increased taxable evaluation makes the cash flow period on that a really, really extended time. So would you want to stand on their own merit, but again, the downtown and East Lincoln Way building improvements may not qualify. The general obligation debt about what our repayment period would be, policy had previously said we want to have repayment periods no more than 10 years. Fact of the matter is we turned around and issued a debt for 15 years here recently. So we would look to change that to 15 years, which is an unacceptable repayment length. So that would be for general obligation. If there happens to be a voter approved debt for something, that maximum is 20 years. Okay, for proposed TIF debts, first of all, we would try to do this through annual appropriations. And again, not have the repayment exceed 15 years. Two different policies in here about funds, like an equipment reserve fund. And we do have an equipment reserve fund, and we're good about trying to save funds for that. This policy says we take expenses directly out of the equipment reserve fund. And we have not done that. What we would do is say, if we're buying a police car, we'd transfer the money into the general fund, police budget. and buy that police car. What that does is it makes year to year police department budgets fluctuate up and down. So this would have us making that purchase directly out of the equivalent reserve fund. Supportive economic development, again, gets into issues pertaining to TIF and the preference to use a TIF rebate form of incentive with the term of the rebate not exceeding 15 years again. And the same thing then could apply if we would look at a housing project that would involve TIF. This would establish a maximum of 15 years. Other than that, the policy is the current policy that's been in place. This was taken a few months to get to this point from the finance committee. And comments from the finance committee?

No, I feel real good about it. I feel like this city is in a sound financial position and I think this just is an evolution to make sure that we stay in that position.

I obviously had some concerns with the recent legislation. I like to have a greater than. The amount that they specified. I'd love to have a greater than that slush fund around. But I understand that requires a significant amount of responsibility and discipline and one that the legislature felt that not every city has. So... it's a bummer that we had to adjust to match the legislation so appealing to the lowest common denominator and i'd like to think that the management leadership here is a little bit more discerning but i do i do think we adjusted these phrases in this policy to match best practice current practice so that way we're working within these strong confines to keep us

I move to approve it.

Second. High school trail.

Yeah, so this would be that trail from Central Avenue to the north and goes over to the high school building, but then also spurs off to the right where it would go over to the city animal shelter in the dog park area. Okay, so the really great news on this is that the city has been awarded a grant to finance the lion's share of this project. So it's a $250,000 grant to finance this. So we worked together between the city and the school about how there can be cost share on that. So, first of all, the city's portion of the project is to pay for engineering fees. And engineering is, we're under contract for $71,500. Total estimate of cost from the engineer for the construction cost is $320,000-ish. And the grant's for 250, so that's about $70,000 over that the school is responsible for that additional $70,000. Okay, then we get to the situation about, so we go out to bid this thing and it costs more than that 320. This agreement that the council will consider says two things. First of all, if the bid amount exceeds the engineer's amount, either party can just opt out. But then if we would choose to proceed, then the additional costs are split 50-50. The other thing within this agreement particularly deals with maintenance. With this grant, both entities need to commit 20 years worth of maintenance on that. So it would be maintenance, including snow removal, that each entity is responsible for that portion which is on their land. So the school, the vast majority of it is on school property and they would be responsible for maintenance including snow removal. But the city's responsible on our part. So this 2080 agreement comes to you for consideration and will be on the school board agenda tomorrow night.

Was there much discussion on that 50-50 ratio split for any unintended expenses? No, very little. My main concern is that three-quarters of this project does lie on school grounds. And I realize that there wasn't anything hard set more than a handshake agreement prior to this where the school would cover more of this project. Ideally, I'd like to see that closer to the amount of the project that lies and resides on school. That'd be my concern.

I think that's a valid concern because I I think the school should have done their sidewalk and everything else, but I just don't know why the city has to keep footing the bill for the school on these things. I hope it don't go over budget because I don't think it's fair that we're doing the engineer fees and doing it for them.

The city is the one that obtained the grant. The city will be the one to pay the contractor, correct? We will. So the ultimate selection of the contractor and the contracting price would come back to the council for approval. It does, true. Okay. So we'd have an opportunity to discuss that and, like you said, opt out. Right. Okay.

I can't disagree with some of that stuff. However, Grimmel is not the safest walking road. And now with, and this isn't our fault, but the school changing their bus routes and doing things with their bus routes. I think this is about safety there and that it does go to the animal shelter I think is a good thing too because there's not a good path to that, more so to the dog park than the animal shelter.

I think it would be more valid if the sidewalk laid along some of Grimmauld. But where this one cuts from the water tower up between the cemetery and the school property, it doesn't serve any pedestrian traffic along the Grimmauld route.

We could take some of it. Sure. It could take some of that traffic. And the other thing we've got to remember too, you know, this is about connectivity. Connectivity with the rest of the town for a pedestrian walkway and quite frankly that's why we built the sidewalk out on Central Avenue. And you need to keep in mind too, we've got New residents are going to be occupying 50 new apartments out there. I don't know how many of them are going to be kids, but man, that's an automatic route for them to walk or what's happening with some of the small electric scooters and the like. I would guess that that thing could get an awful lot of use that it might not otherwise would have from that kind of traffic. I think it's a good project, and I think it's one that will not just benefit the school, but will benefit the whole city. So I'm probably in favor of proceeding, and I think the split, yeah, I guess we could split heads on that. But I think it's a fair split and a fair compromise that we be involved to the extent that we're talking about. And I've identified the main responsibilities for snow removal and the like. And that's, over the years, that's a big deal, too.

Perhaps I'm fooling myself, too. I mean, teenagers, if they could drive 500 yards versus walk 100 yards, they're going to do that. So maybe there won't be so much students versus people, just regular people.

It connects our whole city. And it's where they get it. I mean, we talked from the very beginning when the casino was built. Gosh, we need, you know, we need some way to connect out there. And little by little, we're kind of getting there. And this project really is part of it, too.

And I think that handshake deal, the two entities that were involved in that aren't here anymore. And I think the city entity tried to sell the new superintendent on. Well, this would be a great way to get to the casino. And he was like...

I can see that but I think the main push behind our participation in this is mainly the traffic to the to the high school and secondary to the to the dog park I don't think once has the city discussion here brought up the integration with the

There was discussions years ago about how to get pedestrian traffic out to that end. And going down Highway 4, especially once you get north of Central, is difficult because there's not a lot of right-of-way on either side and stuff. So this was kind of an alternate location for that to get up to Doreen Wilmer and go across there. That was part of the discussion early on. Neither here nor there, because there would be a fair amount of expense to get something built up along Highway 4 going here. Does that make it?

No, it's not making it.

Jackson?

Aye. . Aye. Sloan? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

So for the Westwood side of the bike we had several properties where we were constructing up to the right of way with the sidewalk or having to go beyond the right of way with some of our grade adjustments for driveways and such given that we're trying to keep the The driveways that are coming in, if they're steeper than the 2% that we can maximize, we're trying to stretch them out so that we keep the driveways pretty similar in grades to what they were existing. So we had to go behind the database. So we requested temporary easements from from those property owners. Most of them are fairly small, you know, five, eight foot. There are a couple of bigger ones for a couple of driveways. There's one larger one for where we had to put in a pedestrian ramp in the middle of their property. So the grading is a little bit deeper there, but it's just for grading. It was not quite enough for a retaining wall. It was only going to be about a foot tall retaining wall, which is Kind of borderline trip hazard. So we've opted for the grading on that one. So we've been in that process here for a couple months now. We sent them out letters middle of July, received some and had some conversations with property owners, answered questions and such. And we have. 21 total temporary easements. We have received signed versions of 17 of them. We're missing two properties, well I should say, Two property owners on four properties. One of them is a couple of rental units that we're waiting on from them. I've been in contact with them last week. They were reviewing it. Let me get back to me. The other person has said that they will set up a time to come in after hours this week so that we can get that taken care of just because of their work schedule. So I think we're on track to get them all finished up here. But for tonight, we'll be approving the 17 that we do have completed. And then once they're all signed, we will send, the city will keep the signed copies. We will send copies of those to all the individual properties and Once the project is complete and finally accepted, these all go away. They're just temporary construction. So nothing that has to be, if I understand correctly, nothing that has to be recorded with the county or anything like that.

Yeah, I mean, if it goes on past, you know, when you think it might be done, then we might want to reconsider that. But for these, we'll just hold on to them. Yeah.

of those here.

No, I didn't have that until today, sorry. So I can get copies so that everybody has them, or do you want me to list off what they are?

Just that I have a... Do you mind if I take a look at that quick?

I have other copies too. Anybody else want to take a look at them?

Oh, thank you.

And so, and these are all the ones that I've already signed voluntarily. Yeah. Number one and number four have not. Okay. But otherwise all the rest of them have. So we're voting on all of these but number one and number four? Yes. I'll move to approve.

Second.

Just to follow up on Westwood, Cardenas Construction was there today getting set up, getting going. They weren't too anxious to get too much torn out or anything just because they knew the rain was coming. getting their equipment in, moved in and stuff. The removal subcontractor is supposed to be in Thursday and then they'll start from the Connecticut work west. He's hoping to get roughly a thousand feet of sidewalk prepped and ready to go and then pour that and then move down the line. So once once you get it going, hopefully it'll go fairly quickly. We still got to work through driveways and stuff. We put a limit of seven days on the driveway. I think as we get later in the season here, that's going to get a little tougher because concrete don't clear quite as fast. But we'll work around that and try and keep access as best we can. So that one's moving along. Tower inspection, the report's being finalized. We should see that here in the next week or so. Emergency response plan hopefully will be seen, but that, like I said before, is not due until December. So that's kind of a lower priority right now. Fuel farm I did not get a specific update on, so we haven't gotten everything closed out yet. So maybe at the next meeting we'll have that ready to go. And then with high school, the shared use path, we're getting that into the process. I think the majority will be through the DOT process and then we'll also set up the total survey for it. That's all.

The emergency response plan, what's the scope of that?

It's a plan that is required for the water department. Okay. And it just basically dictates who your contacts are, what other emergency contacts you have for like FEMA or hazardous waste or any of those types of things. And it's just making sure that's up to date and current with all the changes we've had in the lab. I think it's every five years it has to be up to date.

Just the scope of the water plant distribution?

Yeah, it's just the water plant and the distribution. Thank you. Roxanne?

No report.

No report. Scott? Just one addition to what Jenna talked about. We got together with Jim and Katie from Bolton last week out at the water plant. And the idea was just to take a look at the water plant and know where we're at on that, and looking for what those long term big projects might look like. And just what I thought was a really good meeting. And to just acknowledge John, who's not here, but let me tell you generally lots of stuff. And just feel really confident about that. And we got the opportunity to make some improvements that hopefully they can be little improvements over the years and extend that time until we're doing this very, very large project. So feel really good about that. A couple of things related to utility billing. First of all, Hannah, our utility billing clerk, has taken another job and she will be moving on. And we've been advertising for that position. Those applications are due on Friday. You saw that in the consent agenda, we had approved the hiring of Diane Kennedy, have Diane come back in and help out on a part-time basis. I think we are also going to get that same type of a setup in place with Sarah Moorman. And Sarah has actually contacted us about really wanting to be able to be available to to come help on a limited basis. So you'll see that, I think, come back before the council then too about hiring Sarah on a part-time basis. The other thing to tell you about utility bills is not necessarily a good thing, but we had reminded to a substantial billing error last month. And somewhere around 300 water bills were sent out with zero usage on them that normally would have significant usage. So there's some quirk in the system, whether it's the automated readings, whatever this might be, or the interface between the reader and the computer. But there's some glitch along the way that did not transfer all of these readings. And some folks who had used significant water were charged for zero. So what happened is that we had identified all of these zero readings. went out and re-read all of those meters then. So our water guys, thanks to them for doing that because they went out and individually punched in all those meters. And we got updated readings and sent out new bills then for all of these customers. And that was finished up then today. So if anybody brings that up to you about any quirks with the utility bills, that is what happened. But again, the new bills went out today and we should be back to status quo.

And this wasn't a known quirk or never popped up before? No. Do you have any idea what the root cause was?

No.

No, and we do not.

Okay, seeing Greg isn't here, we'll move on to departments. Mark, anything? No report. Chad? No report.

Harry, no report. Matt? No report, depending on Luke's report. No pressure. Chad.

No report. Luke. I will second what you said about our new water superintendent. I had an opportunity and I saw him coming in on a weekend to do his testing and I swung by and he showed me some of the projects he's working on. A very ambitious gentleman and I'm excited about the progress that there were huge gaps, but he saw opportunities that he could apply his experience to, and I'm excited to see what more he's gonna do for us.

Darren had no report, and neither do I.

Mayor, I was added to remind folks that Thursday evening, afternoon, evening, Willis-Lyndon State will be closed downtown for a family event, Cy-Hawk Tailgate, going on 5 to 7.30 that evening. So just a heads up. All the businesses are already ready, but just invite the community downtown.

Sounds great. Okay. Thank you. Thanks.