02-10-25-R - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – JANUARY 13, 2025 13 Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said he will send it to Council. Councilmember Monson said we’ll get it when we have to authorize recruitment. Mayor Grant wants to make sure we incorporate into the job description, what this Council wants that position to do. So the applicant knows what they’re being hired for and what’s expected. He asked Staff to incorporate the changes discussed, send it to Council and then get it to DDA for final review. C. Private Property I/I Equity Discussion Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said this discussion surrounds private property owners to utilize funds through Met Council to take care of inflow and infiltration issues with their sewer services. Last year was the pilot year for Met Council and Arden Hills participated in it. We received $45,000. This year we requested a larger amount but were awarded less. We received $41,000 for this year. He explained that part of their process is to ask Cities to implement an equity component. Last year, only 5 of the 20 cities implemented one. He has provided the equity components those cities implemented, as examples. He added information about the staff-time used. There was lot of back-and-forth communication with properties. There were 20-30 applicants. Only ten were approved. He is bringing this forward to discuss if Council would like to implement an equity component. Councilmember Rousseau asked about the ten that were approved. She said Roseville have 80% up to $8,000 or 50% up to $5,000. She asked what the metrics were in Arden Hills. Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said we didn’t have an equity component. It was a 50% match, up to $5,000. Most, if not all of them met that maximum amount. Councilmember Rousseau asked if we knew the value of the houses? Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said that information was not tracked or requested. Councilmember Holden said the neighborhoods where the approvals were, were older homes in older neighborhoods. She said the equity piece doesn’t add anything. Making sure the INI isn’t leaking into the ground is just as important as not being able to give the money away. We had 20- 30 applications with ten being approved and still used up all the money. Barely, but we used it. There was one person hanging on. They put the application in and then they don’t get you the information that is requested. It’s a game that can be played by people. For us, it’s best to get the INI done. If you can see on a TV screen that the pipe is broken, we want it fixed. There are a lot of people that can’t afford the minimum cost of over $10,000. She doesn’t think it’s right that we have income tax forms. We’re asking for trouble for having private personal information. Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said the consequence of having an equity component is that allows a single property to consume a large portion of that allotment. We don’t have a lot, relative to other cities.