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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-13-23-SWS'It -texQEN HILLS Request for Special City Council Work Session A special meeting may be called by the Mayor or by any two Councilmembers. Reason for meeting: 1. Public Inquiries/Informational 2. Response to Public Inquiries 3. Agenda Items A. 2024 Budget Discussion B. Perry Park Roof Replacement Discussion C. Public Approaching Dais Policy Discussion D. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion 4. Optional Items A. Food Trucks Discussion B. Council Tracker 5. Council/Staff Comments Adjourn Requested Date: 11/13/2023 Requested time: 5:30 pm Open meeting X Signature of person(s) making request: A44;1,&t1f Mayor or Council Member Council Member Closed meeting 11/9/2023 Date Date -This section to be completed by City staff - Date received: 11/9/2023 Date meeting to be held: 11/13/2023 Time of meeting: 5:30 pm Location: Citv Hall All necessary posting and notices have been completed. Signature of City Clerk 11/9/2023 Date City of Arden Hills • 1245 West Highway 96 • Arden Hills Minnesota 55112 Phone 651.792.7800 • Fax 651.634.5137 • www.cityofardenhills.org 'It ,-741�EN HILLS Approved: December 11, 2023 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION NOVEMBER 13, 2023 5:30 P.M. - ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Grant called to order the City Council Work Session at 5:30 p.m. Present: Mayor David Grant; Councilmembers Brenda Holden, Emily Rousseau, Tena Monson and Tom Fabel Absent: None Also present: City Administrator Dave Perrault, Public Works Director/City Engineer David Swearingen, Community Development Director Jessica Jagoe and Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Julie Hanson 1. PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL Donna Wiemann, 1406 Arden View Drive, said she wanted to draw their attention to a chart on page five of the 2024 proposed CIP that shows the different taxes for the cities in Ramsey County. She wanted to point out that most of St. Anthony Village is actually in Hennepin County so unless that is reflected somewhere that isn't an apples to apples comparison. Linda Swanson, 1124 Ingerson Road, stated that since she wasn't given the opportunity to respond to Councilmember Monson's criticism of her at the October 23 meeting, she sent an email to the Council and wanted to read it. She read the following: "At issue with Tena was that I left an item on the Council bench in front of Councilmember Tom. The item was a consumer reusable black bag with the slogan "Treat people like people, it's that easy". After the October 23 Council meeting, Tena and I discussed the matter. Tena acknowledged that I wasn't the first and only person to bring items to the Council bench and that she knew that residents had left items on the bench for at least she and Emily. She also acknowledged that I did throw the bag down or in any way put the bag down in a disrespectful manner. At the end of our discussion it was apparent that Tena was against anyone putting items on the Council bench, not just me. As to Tom's remarks that it was a bribe, how dare you once again insult me and malign my integrity. I have never offered a bribe to anyone and I can tell you that Tom would not be the person I would do that to. Just another example of how poorly Tom treats the residents that don't agree with him. This is coming from a council person that is supposed to have the resident's best interest in mind, meaning mine. Shame on you, Tom for making such a statement." ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 13, 2023 2 2. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRIES None. 3. AGENDA ITEMS A. 2024 Budget Discussion City Administrator Perrault noted that the City Wide Budget Summary for 2024 includes the General Fund, Utility Fund and Special Revenue Funds. Council had seen the CIP previously in July, the Operating Budget in August, the General Fund Preliminary Levy was approved in September. There is $15.5 million in revenue coming into the City, and expenditures of $19.8 million. The large discrepancy is generally from CIP projects. City Administrator Perrault explained pie charts that showed the City Wide Summary by type. He reviewed Wages and Benefits for 2024, with total personnel costs increasing by $253,490 from 2023 to 2024. In the General Fund Revenues property taxes were increasing by 13.7%. He explained the other types of revenue included in the General Fund. City Administrator Perrault described the General Fund Expenditures, and the 2024-2028 CIP. He explained the dollars set aside for Economic Development in 2025 and 2027 were for gateway signs. He showed a chart of the 2024 Capital Projects, and noted that in the Utility Funds water would not increase, sewer will increase by 3% and surface water will increase by 5%. Based on a household of 9,000 gallons used there will be an increase from $221 to $225. City Administrator Perrault reviewed the Tax Impact of the 12.55% levy over 2023, the Tax Levy history, compared Arden Hills with 2023 Tax Rates for other cities in Ramsey County, and the Proposed Tax Levy for 2024. He explained the other funds that rely on Tax Levy dollars; EDA Fund, Public Safety Capital Fund, Equipment/Building Replacement Fund and the PIR Fund. City Administrator Perrault stated the current wage and benefit assumptions include a 3% COLA, insurance benefits are increasing by 10% for health and 4% for dental. Changes being made within the Lake Johanna Fire Department will require future additional levy increases. He wondered what levy the Council would like to consider for the Truth in Taxation meeting in December which is currently at 12.55%. The amount cannot be raised but can be lowered. Councilmember Holden said in the statewide budget summary for 2023 there was a negative $900,000 but yet at an earlier meeting it was said there would be about $200,000 carry over. Was that still true? City Administrator Perrault said they will come in under budget on the expenditure side, mostly due to salary savings. However, on the revenue side they are down on building permit revenue as there haven't been any large construction projects this year. Conservatively $200,000 is what he would predict. Councilmember Monson stated they had a shortfall in revenue, but staff vacancies that allowed cushion on expenditures. She asked if this was a common pattern? ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 13, 2023 3 City Administrator Perrault replied that in the past number of years they've done better on the expenditure side mostly due to staff vacancies. He thought they had always done better on the revenue side but they are around $120,000 short of budgeted permit revenue. In past years they have been more like $200,000+ to the good of that. Mayor Grant asked where TCAAP revenue fits into this. City Administrator Perrault said there was no TCAAP revenue built into the projections. Mayor Grant stated the County is actively selling Outlot A, he thought they would close or at least have a developer agreement at the end of this year or beginning of next. City Administrator Perrault said it is expected the County will sell the property, a purchase agreement should come within the next couple of months, but the actual due diligence time for that construction project is 12-18 months. We would expect revenue to start coming in from that property in the next 3-5 years. Mayor Grant stated the City should expect to be reimbursed for about $100,000 in Planning costs. City Administrator Perrault explained they have a Planning Area Charge but he didn't know how that would equate to Outlot A. That wasn't built into the current budget. He felt they would get those funds at the time a building permit was pulled and it wouldn't be tied to the transaction. Councilmember Monson said in JDA discussions they anticipate a build out in 2025 or 2026. City Administrator Perrault stated they aren't privy to the purchase agreement and/or proceeds from it, but the current fee schedule has a Planning Area Charge built in which was intended to take $1,000,000 from across the TCAAP project. Councilmember Fabel said when he looks at the City Wide Budget Summary there is about a $4.3 million dollar deficit. Are they actually budgeting that? City Administrator Perrault responded that it is accurate, and the main driver of that is the Capital outlay projects, for example the $3 million PIR project coming up. He further explained the CIP. Councilmember Fabel asked why there was a $2.5 million spread between the charges for services in the Enterprise Fund versus the expenditures. City Administrator Perrault said it was mostly due to the capital outlay. There are projects and utilities coming up like the PIR sewer lining project that make up the balance but they set the rates so they cover themselves over the course of time. For example, the Water Funds rates should be healthy enough to cover the Water Fund for the 5-10 year period they are looking at. Councilmember Monson thought it was interesting that they are only looking at one year. She asked if the Council in the past ever considered looking 2 or 3 years out for budgeting purposes to avoid any large jumps or help fund certain projects or services without taking a big hit in a year? ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 13, 2023 4 She wanted to understand how they look at that to be sure they're funding for this year and future years. Councilmember Holden said they do plan ahead for big PMP projects because that's where they get the big holes. They've had 10 year forecasts, which could change. The roller coaster is the PMP projects. Councilmember Monson felt if they could plan further out than one year they could spread things out, and to know when they need to hire more staff. Councilmember Holden explained they have done that by putting building in the basic maintenance; they have a maintenance schedule for the roads so they can plan ahead, they have it for the parks and trails, park equipment, parking lots. They've been collecting money from the stormwater ponds for 15 years because they knew they were going to have to start cleaning them. Councilmember Monson wondered if there are other things they want to think about spending money on and how to build that into the budget. She assumed that would be something they could talk about at a retreat; what each Councilmember's priorities are, and how much do they cost, how do they agree to set priorities. She felt it was a different way to think about the operating side of the budget. Councilmember Holden said she hadn't received an email about scheduling the League of Minnesota Cities. She wondered if that had come out. City Administrator Perrault stated he needed to confirm with LMCIT whether or not she felt one of the staff attorneys would substitute in a good capacity for her. The one date that worked for the Council wasn't available for her and she offered the suggestion of another LMCIT staff attorney helping out but he needed to know if a different person would offer the same collaboration/mediation services that she does. If not they will need to find an alternate date. Councilmember Monson stated she would like ADA port -a -potties at each playground and she didn't see that in the budget. She talked to PTRC but they didn't have a quorum so she didn't know how it comes up the chain. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said PTRC needs to make a recommendation to Council that is what they want to see in the parks, and it would come to a work session as a separate item. Councilmember Rousseau thought there were a lot of little projects that PTRC or other committees would want to work on and they could go to staff to see if they would need more staff or funds. Councilmember Holden asked how much money was left from maintaining roads. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen replied that he wasn't sure but they didn't go over budget. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 13, 2023 5 Councilmember Monson stated she would like to have staff start an EV analysis and would like to see electric option looked at first when replacing vehicles, while making sure there is an economic understanding of that versus a gas vehicle. Fleet vehicles like a Ford Escape would be a perfect case for having an EV. Mayor Grant said they would have a more detailed discussion at the first meeting in December when they set the final levy. B. Perry Park Roof Replacement Discussion Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen explained that the Perry Park pavilion roof needs replacing. They received quotes for roofing from four contractors. Shingles would cost just under $15,000 and steel would be roughly $34,000. Did Council want to consider steel roofing versus shingles? Steel has twice the lifetime of shingles, but it will go over the budgeted amount. Color choice could be done by them or he would bring it to PTRC and they could suggest a color with the final approval coming from Council when they would award the contract. Councilmember Holden asked if the pavilion would last 40-60 years, and how much vandalism had they had lately. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen said yes, it was a brick and mortar building. He said vandalism comes and goes depending on the age group of kids in the neighborhood. Councilmember Holden felt the should do steel. Councilmember Rousseau thought steel was a good idea and she'd like PTRC to make a decision on the color. Councilmember Fabel agreed that steel was a wise long-term investment. He didn't care what the color was. Mayor Grant directed staff to go with steel. C. Public Approaching Dais Policy Discussion City Administrator Perrault said this item was brought forward by a Councilmember to discuss if the public can approach the dais or ask permission. A draft policy was attached to the memo. Councilmember Monson said a member of the public came to speak and read an email, overall her characterization of their conversation was correct. She and Councilmember Rousseau don't remember ever receiving an item, but they have received paper at the dais. She thought it was very rare to allow the public to approach elected officials due to impartiality and safety. She was proposing to allow paper handouts be provided to the City Clerk and no objects. She added language around the Mayor providing a warning that the policy has been set. She didn't necessarily feel safe if they continued to allow people to come up and give councilmembers an object. She felt it was key to have the Mayor on board as he is responsible for the safety of the people in the audience, elected officials and staff. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 13, 2023 6 Mayor Grant felt paper handouts could be provided during the meeting as long as they were approaching the City Clerk and each councilmember could get a copy. He thought what would be considered offensive was a judgement call. Regarding no objects other then paper, he said they've had all kinds of building materials presented to them and handed down the dais. He didn't think they needed to specify that it could only be paper. He agreed that printed handouts shouldn't be in an envelope. Councilmeber Holden expressed her thoughts on handouts being in an envelope; they would accept something in the mail in an envelope, but not at a meeting? Did they expect the City Clerk to take things out of an envelope? Councilmember Monson said the problem is when people approach the dais to give an object to a councilmember, particularly one they don't agree with. Something like building materials could be given to the City Clerk and she could distribute, and that would be OK. She felt the needed to provide some type of protection around receiving things from the public and approaching a councilmember. Mayor Grant felt if something was in an envelope it was OK. He felt providing a warning wasn't necessary. Councilmember Monson said she was fine with rewording the document to make it more friendly. Councilmember Holden wanted to take law enforcement out. If they can't run a meeting without law enforcement you don't deserve to be at the bench; the Mayor can ask them to leave or sit down. Mayor Grant agreed they didn't need that. He can declare a recess if needed. There was a meeting once where a Councilmember was concerned for her physical safety. But he didn't see the need to be escorted by law enforcement. Councilmember Monson thought they could strike the last two bullets. Councilmember Fabel said the overriding concern is one of safety. He felt it was a legitimate concern. He recommended that Councilmember Monson meet with the City Attorney to work on language and bring it back to Council. Mayor Grant stated that if they want people to act in a particular way they need to inform people of that specific way and that should come from him, rather than some policy in a book that nobody will see or read. He noted the dais itself is fully bulletproof. Councilmember Holden asked wasn't the policy just to bring your items to the City Clerk? Councilmember Monson said if that was how it happened and they started making people bring things to the Clerk that would be sufficient for her. The key is that it's either run that way or it's enforced that way. Mayor Grant said he would work with the City Attorney to bring something back. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION — NOVEMBER 13, 2023 7 D. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion Councilmember Rousseau mentioned that she along with Councilmember Holden would like homes in Arden Hills and Rice Creek Commons not be short term rentals and would like a greater discussion around that issue. Councilmember Holden said some cities only allow ten percent rentals in certain areas. Mayor Grant stated that in terms of the cost recovery formula there may be a fee or surcharge attached to a building permit or other approval issued by the City for a development site. 4. OPTIONAL ITEMS A. Food Trucks Discussion Not discussed. B. Council Tracker Not discussed. 5. COUNCIL/STAFF COMMENTS City Administrator Perrault mentioned that the Finance Director interview would be Thursday.. ADJOURN Mayor Grant adjourned the Special City Council Work Session at 6:40 p.m. -p- ;�"— o ne Traub Deputy City Jerk