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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-13-24-WS Ai �EN HILLS Approved: May 28, 2024 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MAY 13, 2024 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 Tom Fabel, Brenda Holden, Tena Monson and Emily Rousseau Absent: None Also present: City Administrator Dave Perrault; Public Works Director/City Engineer David Swearingen; Finance Director Joua Yang; Community Development Director Jessica Jagoe; and Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Julie Hanson 1. PUBLIC INQUIRIES/INFORMATIONAL None. 2. RESPONSE TO PUBLIC INQUIRIES None. 3. AGENDA ITEMS A. Compensation and Class Study Update Dr. Tessia Melvin, DDA, introduced herself to the Council and described the work completed by DDA. She provided the Council with a presentation on the ongoing compensation study. She provided the Council with project scope information along with preliminary market analysis data. She reviewed the benchmarks that were selected by the Council, along with the benchmark communities. Factors that were influencing the market were discussed and it was noted there was still a labor shortage. Councilmember Rousseau asked if the classification requirements were impacted by State legislation recently. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 2 Dr. Melvin commented FLSA was impacted, but she was not aware of any other classification requirements that were impacted. Councilmember Monson suggested she ensure that all job descriptions updated as part of this study align with new State laws. City Administrator Perrault indicated he could work with Dr. Melvin on this. Councilmember Fabel asked if the City's positions were pretty consistent compared to neighboring communities. Dr. Melvin reported this was generally the case for cities of this size with similar service levels. Councilmember Holden inquired if benefits would also be reviewed as part of this study. Dr. Melvin indicated she was only reviewing wages at this time. Councilmember Monson asked what the City's options were to address the employees who have reached the salary cap. Dr. Melvin stated this would involve amending job descriptions or adding another step to the pay scale. She explained this would make the City's pay scale more competitive in the long run. Councilmember Holden requested additional information on the number of years working for the City for the employees that were topped out on the pay scale. Dr. Melvin indicated she could provide the Council with this information. She asked that the Council consider where they want to sit in comparison to the market. Councilmember Holden questioned how much it would cost to bring the pink positions up to 100%. Dr. Melvin explained she would be looking at the job descriptions and costing for these positions. Councilmember Holden indicated Arden Hills was a small community and had a hard time competing with large cities. Councilmember Monson stated she anticipated Arden Hills would always struggle because it was a smaller City. She indicated she would like to hold and retain market plus 1. Councilmember Holden questioned how long people typically stay at a job before jumping for higher pay. Dr. Melvin commented this used to be seven years but has really changed because people are switching positions and careers more frequently. Councilmember Rousseau supported City staff being paid at market rate as well. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 3 Councilmember Fabel discussed how City employees would have to be paid well in order to be able to afford to live in the Arden Hills community. Dr. Melvin thanked the Council for their feedback. Mayor Grant thanked Dr. Melvin for her efforts on this project and stated he looked forward to reviewing this study again at a future meeting. B. Capital Funding Follow-Up Finance Director Yang stated at the August 21, 2023 worksession, the City Council discussed the use of franchise fees to help support capital projects for the City. Ehler's, the City's financial advisor, provided an analysis on electric and gas fee structures, in addition to information on other local municipalities who assess a franchise fee onto their residents and business owners. At the September 18, 2023 worksession, the City Council discussed the topic at length and decided that April 2024 would be a good time to have an Open House in order to gauge residents' opinions on capital funding mechanism including franchise fees. Finance Director Yang explained staff held a Capital Funding Update Open House on Saturday, April 20th at City Hall. Staff shared that there is an anticipated future gap in funding for the City (approximately $455,000 annually), largely due to increased costs for the Lake Johanna Fire Department Station project ($4.1M), the Old Hwy 10 Trail/Lake Valentine to Highway 96 and Lake Johanna trail projects ($3.6M), and a recently revised equipment needs schedule. Provided are two projected fund balance charts, one that includes the two trail projects and one that excludes them, as the City has not yet secured outside funding sources for the two trail projects. With the exclusion of the two trail projects, Staff anticipates the City will have the largest needs in the Equipment, Building, & Replacement Fund and the Public Safety Fund. If the two trail projects are included, the City would have an additional need in the PIR Fund. Finance Director Yang reviewed a one-page recap of the information provided at the Open House, which was shared on the City's website, along with a survey that was released, thereafter, for City residents and businesses to provide additional input through Monday, May 6th at Sam. There were 73 residential survey responses, with approximately 54% choosing a franchise fee option (22% - electric only; 32% - gas and electric), approximately 30% choosing a property tax levy option, and approximately 17% choosing the combination of property tax levy and franchise fee option. For those respondents who chose any combination of a franchise fee option, approximately 64% indicated the City should consider dedicating the fees for a specific purpose. Finance Director Yang reported some common themes included bike lanes, park and trail improvements; structures and road maintenance; storm water system maintenance and utility infrastructure; fire station. Respondents also provided their concerns and additional comments for Council consideration. Some common concerns shared is that an increase to property taxes would burden taxpayers and would remain in effect indefinitely. Additionally, some respondents shared that non-profits should be assessed a fee in lieu of taxes, which would mean assessing a levy increase on residents and imposing a franchise fee on nonresidential and non-profit organizations. Finance Director Yang stated in July, Council will review a proposed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Council may want to direct Staff on how it wants to see funding allocated for the proposal, or Council may want to see the updated draft plan and then decide how to allocate funding. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 4 Council may also want to discuss what, if any, additional public engagement is needed. A separate public hearing for franchise fees is not required, the City can choose to approve ordinances and a franchise agreement with Xcel Energy. If Council decides to move forward with a franchise fee, Staff recommends having it in place no later than October 1 for implementation in 2025. If Council decides to move forward with a levy increase, it would need to be done in- conjunction with the preliminary 2025 levy at the end of September. It was noted staff will need direction in July on how to proceed forward. Mayor Grant stated one of the comments from the public was that they did not want the franchise fee to go on indefinitely. He explained franchise fees run on a contract and a Council in the future would have to vote to stop or extend the franchise fees. Councilmember Rousseau indicated she appreciated the thoughtful comments from the public. She stated the public may not have understood the fees collected would be used for a new fire station. She explained she was in favor of a franchise fee, solely for the fire department. Councilmember Fabel questioned what percentage of Arden Hills was exempt from paying property taxes. Finance Director Yang stated 31% of the property in Arden Hills was exempt from paying property taxes. Councilmember Holden supported the franchise fee moving forward solely for the fire station and recommended a sunset date be included for this fee. Mayor Grant agreed, noting the fire station was the pressing need for the City. Councilmember Rousseau recommended that if the franchise fee moves forward that the purpose of the fee be clearly defined for the public and that the franchise fee be discussed at future Truth in Taxation meetings. Councilmember Fabel questioned if the City understood the income level of the people who participated in the survey. Finance Director Yang explained the City did not have this information. Councilmember Monson commented the outcome of a franchise fee was the right choice for the City. She indicated the cost of a bond was just shy of $600,000 and to her this was harder to support. She explained the methodology of a franchise fee is not perfect given that it would be a flat fee passed along to all utility users. She noted State Law does not have the same requirements for a franchise fee as it does for a levy, but she supported building a culture of making it clear to the citizens as to why we are doing a franchise fee and adding it to our notes and processes. She stated a franchise fee may not be perfect, but it would get the desired outcome for the City for the new fire station. She indicated she would be willing to work with Xcel on a marketing partnership in order to reach out to the City's manufactured homes on payment assistance programs. Mayor Grant reported he spoke with Xcel also regarding the PIE (Partners in Energy) program. He understood the PIE program offered additional insulation for manufactured homes that ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 5 qualify. He supported the City further investigating this program and how it may benefit Arden Hills' residents. Councilmember Holden indicated the Council may be over generalizing, noting there were seniors in the community that were living on fixed incomes. Mayor Grant commented that a recent study he reviewed found that 65% of Americans were now living paycheck to paycheck. Councilmember Rousseau stated she supported Councilmember Monson speak with Xcel Energy. Mayor Grant indicated he would be willing to continue his discussions with Xcel as well. Councilmember Monson suggested she and the Mayor speak with Xcel Energy together. Councilmember Fabel stated as a matter of principle he was against the use of franchise fees. He anticipated the vast majority of residents would not understand they were paying a regressive City tax through the franchise fee. Mayor Grant explained he could support a franchise fee for the fire station expense only. He questioned how the franchise fee should be split between gas and electric. Councilmember Monson questioned if the franchise fee would be applied to residents who have both gas and electric utility bills. City Administrator Perrault stated it was his understanding the franchise fee would apply to everyone. He explained all properties had'eiectric bills, but not all properties had a gas bill. Councilmember Holden recommended the franchise fee only be applied to electric bills. Council consensus was to direct staff to further investigate an electric-only franchise fee to cover the fire station expenses. C. Rain Garden Discussion PTRC Member Liz Johnson stated the PTRC has identified a need to focus on land management and restoration. She discussed how rain gardens work to filter runoff, get rid of pollutants, and to take the burden off the storm sewer system when operating properly. She commented on how the rain gardens in her neighborhood were not working properly and were in need of maintenance. She anticipated that this concern was widespread throughout the community. She was interested in identifying the City's rain gardens and coming up with a process for maintaining them long-term. PTRC Member Nancy Jacobson estimated there were 200 rain gardens in Arden Hills. She indicated a City-wide inventory would be needed in order to create a plan going forward and the owners would have to be identified before a budget for this project could be created. She requested support from the Council to keep this project moving forward. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 6 Mayor Grant asked what was meant by the rain gardens were not working properly. Ms. Jacobson stated some rain gardens were not draining properly, while others were being inundated with too much water. Mayor Grant questioned how long a rain garden should be full of water. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen reported rain gardens were designed to fill up and be dry within 48 hours. Councilmember Holden asked if rain gardens had to have plants. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen indicated rain gardens do not have to have plants to properly function. He stated plants assist with creating root systems that help to capture pollutants. Councilmember Rousseau questioned if an educational component should be included in this campaign in order to make residents aware of the location of rain gardens throughout the community. Ms. Johnson reported she would like to share the rain garden inventory with the community through the City newsletter along with information on how to improve the health of the rain gardens. Councilmember Holden stated she had a problem with identifying the property owners that have rain gardens because ultimately the rain gardens were the City's responsibility. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen indicated the rain gardens were within the City's easement, but there were intended (residential and commercial) maintenance owners for the rain gardens. He stated residential property owners agreed to have the rain garden installed on their property. Councilmember Holden clarified that the agreement that was signed by the homeowners was not enforceable. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen stated this was correct. Councilmember Monson asked who would be doing the rain garden inventory. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen indicated he has a map that was outdated that needs to be updated and put into GIS. Councilmember Monson explained she could support the City taking an inventory of the rain gardens and deciding how to manage it. However, she did not understand how much work this would be for staff. She suggested staff look into funding that may be available for rain garden maintenance. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen reported once every six years he does a full inspection of a particular portion of the City. He stated after six years he would have a full ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 7 inventory. He commented he was in the middle of year two at this time. He indicated the Rice Creek Watershed District has funding available for rain garden maintenance. Mayor Grant asked what it means to have the rain gardens maintained going forward. Ms. Johnson stated this has been inconsistent and she would like the City to create a definition. She indicated the City has to consider its goal, whether to have grass or plants. Councilmember Fabel questioned when the City began creating rain gardens. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen reported the rain-gardens were part of the City's MS4 permit which requires cities to treat water before it enters lakes, and the City began installing rain gardens in 2004. Council consensus was to direct staff to continue mapping and identifying the rain gardens in the city. It was noted the Council would further consider how to maintain rain gardens in the future. The Council recessed the worksession meeting at 6:50 p.m. The Council reconvened the worksession meeting at 8:35 p.m. D. Strategic Planning Discussion Follow Up City Administrator Perrault stated at the last worksession, the City Council discussed its strategic goals, Council directed Staff to compile those goals based on categories for future discussion. Council should direct staff on how it wants to move further discussion along on this topic. Mayor Grant suggested the Council begin this discussion by finding commonality within the strategic goals. Councilmember Rousseau stated that she would prefer the City Council look at hiring a consultant to assist the Council with this process. Councilmember Holden indicated she could support the hiring of a consultant, but she would like to know what the focus should be first. Councilmember Monson suggested a meeting be scheduled with a consultant in a month or so and that the Council work through the list in the coming meetings. Councilmember Rousseau questioned when the Council would begin holding budget discussions. Finance Director Yang reported these discussions would begin at the end of June. Councilmember Rousseau stated it would be ideal to have the strategic goals in place prior to holding the budget discussions. Councilmember Fabel questioned what the Council was driving towards. He commented on how specifics would have to be identified or created for each goal in order to lead to Council action. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13 2024 8 Councilmember Holden stated she thought the Council would be working to identify each goal tonight. She thought this would be valuable information for the consultant to have before they are brought in. Mayor Grant questioned if staff had a consultant in mind that could be brought in to assist with a strategic planning session. City Administrator Perrault explained he could bring in the consultant that will be speaking to the fire department. He discussed how a contract should be approved with the consultant prior to bringing them in. Councilmember Monson questioned if the Council would be willing to break into groups of two in order to better define the listed goals. She stated this may be a better use of the Council's time. Councilmember Holden suggested the Council address the easy goals. She questioned what was meant by sustainability. She asked if this was all policies. She stated organized collection was pretty self-explanatory. Councilmember Monson indicated she had questions regarding the timeline for organized collection. She anticipated discussions could be held with Mounds View in 2024. Councilmember Holden stated she wanted to understand the timeline, but also who this task would be assigned to and if staff had capacity. Councilmember Rousseau suggested discussions begin around organized collection. Councilmember Holden supported the City looking into organized collection. Mayor Grant agreed, noting organized collection would address the noise, pollution and the wear and tear on the roads. He believed it made sense to pursue organized collection for a number of perspectives. He asked if the Council supported moving forward with this. Councilmember Monson indicated she would like to better understand the economics in the City. She understood that some neighborhoods were trying to negotiate their own collection services. Councilmember Fabel stated he would like to hear more from the trash collectors to see what benefit they could bring to the City for trash and recycling. Councilmember Rousseau commented she was in favor of moving forward with this discussion. City Administrator Perrault stated if the Council was interested, he had tentatively arranged a meeting with the Mounds View City for June 17. The Council directed staff to pursue a meeting for this date. Councilmember Holden requested further comment on what was meant by sustainability. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 9 Councilmember Monson stated she wanted to understand what the City has done today, what was being proposed for the future, should an energy audit be completed and deciding if a program should be pursued by the City. Councilmember Holden indicated she would like the Council to greater define what was meant by sustainability because to her this had a lot to do with water conservation. Councilmember Monson explained in her mind sustainability focuses mostly on energy and electrical use, how much electricity is the City using, or can the City improve its transportation costs by switching to EV's. Councilmember Holden asked if sustainability would be focused on just what the City can do or what the community can do as a whole. Councilmember Monson stated this topic would be twofold. She anticipated the focus at first would be what the City can do and then how the community can contribute. Councilmember Fabel indicated the public works department could pursue EV's and this would double the City's budget. Councilmember Monson commented she would like the City to do an analysis on the cost for changing vehicles over time. Councilmember Rousseau recommended water conservation be placed under the natural resources category and that sustainability focus on energy (solar or electric). Councilmember Holden stated she believed water conservation should be placed under sustainability because the City will have to begin setting policies on how much water should be used within its parks, etc. Mayor Grant suggested water conversation be placed under both categories. He asked if the water conservation goals would be for the overall community or just for the City. Councilmember Monson anticipated these goals would have to begin with the City. Councilmember Rousseau supported this being a City initiative. She noted Great River Greening would be attending a future worksession. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen reported Great River Greening was planning to attend the June 24 worksession. Further discussion ensued regarding the City's natural resources. Councilmember Holden asked how much park land the City owned. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen estimated the City had 110 acres in park land. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 10 Mayor Grant summarized the natural resources priorities as being tree canopy, invasive species, pollinator promotion, water quality, along with protecting plants and animals unique to Arden Hills. Councilmember Holden asked staff what else could be added to this list. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen suggested he speak with the PTRC to see what else should be included on the natural resource list. Mayor Grant discussed his three main priorities for TCAAP which were to complete the master development agreement, develop/construct and grow. Councilmember Rousseau stated she would like to promote community and encourage businesses within TCAAP as well. Councilmember Holden believed the most important priority for TCAAP was getting the agreement in place. She questioned what the City's next priority should be. She was interested in learning what would happen with the stormwater pond because this was not part of the development agreement. She was also interested in further discussing a civic space. Councilmember Monson indicated having a discussion around the public space and civic space would be beneficial, but she believed the project was just not there yet. She was of the opinion this discussion would come after the horizontal infrastructure funding was determined. She suggested the second bullet point read to have City Council alignment on civic and public space. Councilmember Holden asked if staff had any recommendations for this language. City Administrator Perrault commented the skeleton of the development agreement was from 2018 and a lot of the language would be copied, pasted and updated for today. He indicated the natural resources corridor has yet to be discussed. Councilmember Holden stated perhaps the best way forward would be to have only one bullet point under TCAAP with that being to complete the development agreement. E. Twin Cities Gateway Funding Discussion Mayor Grant noted the City has $18,390 available to the City this year from the Twin Cities Gateway Visitors Bureau. Councilmember Holden stated she supported a portion of this funding be donated to Beyond the Yellow Ribbon to assist with supporting the events they host in the community. Councilmember Rousseau supported this recommendation. She suggested funding be provided to the school district as well, given the number of events they host in the community. Mayor Grant commented on the State Statute requirements on how the funding can be used. Councilmember Fabel suggested funding be set aside for the rib fest. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 11 Councilmember Holden questioned if funding could be used to assist with offsetting expenses for the robotics club. City Administrator Perrault summarized comments from the Council noting there was support to provide funding for Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, Rib Fest and the Mounds View High School. Mayor Grant suggested funding be offered to Bethel University again, along with the Red Bulls March. Councilmember Monson indicated she would like to see this list honed down to three or four. She suggested the Red Bulls Ironman be removed from the list. Councilmember Rousseau supported this recommendation. City Administrator Perrault explained he could reach out to these four organizations and ask for a proposal on how they could utilize the potential funding. The Council supported staff moving forward in this direction. F. Rice Creek Commons/TCAAP Discussion This item would be discussed at a future meeting. G. Agenda Planning City Administrator Perrault provided the below proposed agendas for upcoming meetings per the Council's adopted policy on agenda setting. Council did not have any changes to the proposed items. May 28th Worksession • TH Highway 10 and Highway 96 Landscaping(time sensitive) • Encroachment Discussion Update (not time sensitive) • Council Code of Conduct (time sensitive) • RCC/TCAAP Discussion (not time sensitive) • Agenda Planning (time sensitive) June IOth Worksession • Old Highway 10 Trail Design(not time sensitive) • Tobacco Moratorium (time sensitive) • RCC/TCAAP Discussion(not time sensitive) • Agenda Planning(time sensitive) 4. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND STAFF UPDATES None. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MAY 13, 2024 12 ADJOURN Mayor Grant adjourned the City Council Work Session meeting at 9:47 p.m. (�JJJJ-,IJMAA441-�� Ju Hanson fiavidGrant Ci Clerk Mayor