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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-13-09-WS m EN HILLS Approved: May 11, 2009 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MEETING APRIL 13, 2009 5:30 P.M. -ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Stan Harpstead called to order the City Council Work Session meeting at 5:31 p.m. Present: Mayor Stan Harpstead; Council Members David Grant, Brenda Holden, Fran Holmes, and Dave McClung. Absent: None. Also present: City Administrator Ron Moorse; Public Works Director Gregory Hoag; Community Development Director James Lehnhoff; Acting Lead Worker Public Works Joe Mooney and Steve Bubel. 1. AGENDA ITEMS C. Lift Station #7 Update Public Works Director Hoag presented the City Council with information and history regarding the ongoing issues with Lift Station #7. He explained this lift station was on the Presbyterian Homes property and has been having issues for some time. Public Works Director Hoag indicated Bolton & Menk has been contacted to provide suggestions on how to solve this dilemma. Public Works Director Hoag explained he was looking for guidance from the Council on how to resolve this issue. Councilmember Holden questioned what pumps were being used at this time. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION-APRIL 13,2009 2 Public Works Director Hoag indicated that currently there was one 10 horsepower chopper pump and one 5 horsepower pump in there at this time as a back up. He stated the lift station was currently working on one 10 horsepower chopper pump. Councilmember Holden stated she would like to see a solution to resolve this issue long term and not continually cause additional issues for the City. Public Works Director Hoag stated the recommended pumps would not be Chopper Pumps; they would be 10 horsepower submersible pumps. Councilmember Holden asked if Presbyterian Homes could be made responsible for the items they are disposing of through their pipes. She questioned if Presbyterian Homes had educated their employees on the use of the system. Public Works Director Hoag indicated it was his understanding the concerns were not with the employees but the residents. Councilmember Holmes questioned if Presbyterian Homes could be held responsible for the damage to the system based on their abuse of the system and asked if Staff had been in contact with the City attorney. Public Works Director Hoag explained that questionable and objectionable material placed in the sanitary sewer system was the responsibility of the property owner. He indicated the City could hold Presbyterian Homes responsible for the expenses related to such discharge as this is written within City Ordinance. Public Works Director Hoag stated that he has been in contact with the city Attorney but that the Ordinance does not clearly explain how to assess these expenses. Mayor Harpstead indicated it was staff s recommendation at this time to upgrade Lift Station #7 with two 10 horsepower non-chopper pumps. Public Works Director Hoag indicated this was the recommendation. Mayor Harpstead asked if Presbyterian Homes could be billed for this expense. Councilmember Holmes stated that within the Ordinance this expense should be - passed along to Presbyterian Homes for the wear and tear they placed on the sanitary sewer system. 6 ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCII,WORK SESSION-APRII. 13,2009 3 Public Works Director Hoag explained there was some gray area in the Ordinance as there was some question as to whether the original 5 horsepower pumps were adequate. He indicated the system may not have been rebuilt properly with the right size pumps in 2004 Councilmember Grant questioned if the problem with the rebuild in 2004 was with the pumps or the size of the lift station. Public Works Director Hoag stated everything he has researched to date was leading to undersized pumps. He explained the differences between a chopper pump versus a non-chopper pump and how it affects the volume of service it can = provide. Discussion ensued regarding the work completed on the lift station in 2004 along with the solution at this time. Mayor Harpstead indicated he would like to proceed with a Council motion to approve the two new pumps with the expense being passed along to Presbyterian Homes. Councilmember Holmes explained that the City's position was for Presbyterian Homes to address this issue with a separate structure, which they would maintain. She suggested they be forced to install this system to avoid any future concerns with the Lift Station #7. Public Works Director Hoag indicated even if Presbyterian Homes were to build a separate structure the current chopper pumps need to be replaced. Councilmember Holden asked if it would be reasonable for the City to request that this structure be built by Presbyterian Homes before they proceed with any future building additions. Community Development Director Lehnhoff indicated that sounded like a reasonable connection between a building expansion and requiring an infrastructure upgrade. Mayor Harpstead questioned who redesigned the new lift station in 2004. He also asked who recommended the chopper pumps. MR-DEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION-APRIL 13,2009 4 Public Works Director Hoag stated the Lift station rebuild was designed by the City Engineer at the time. He indicated the chopper pumps were agreed upon by both parties in 2005 with the expense incurred by the Presbyterrian Homes. Mayor Harpstead asked if the inline grinder was an option. Public Works Director Hoag staffed this would be an option for the City but indicated the 14 horsepower non-chopping pumps may be sufficient to solve the problem. He explained that the City could again address with Presbyterian Homes the types of material they are putting into the system. Public Works Director Hoag indicated a back up at this station would affect the lake. - Councilmember Holmes stated she would like the previous contract from 2004 reviewed before further equipment was purchased for this site. She felt that Presbyterian Homes was in violation of the Ordinance and that they should be fined accordingly. Mayor Harpstead indicated the current pumps do need to be replaced. He explained that this would come to Council for authorization but that the Council would like to charge back the pumps to Presbyterian Homes based on their misuse of the system. Mayor Harpstead added that Council would like to direct staff to meet with the City Attorney to get a specific performance for Presbyterian Homes installing an intercept mechanism on their property, at their expense to avoid future concerns. Councilmember Holden stated she would like to see this pursued as one issue and not leave a portion of the solution to be done some time in the future. Mayor Harpstead explained that his only concern was if the pumps were to go out, but agreed that Presbyterian Homes did need to perform. Councilmember Grant stated he was surprised this issue has come to the Council at this point. He explained this lift station has a great number of issues each year and needs to be fixed. Councilmember McClung suggested the City Attorney be contacted and that this be revisited in a timely manner. It was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to bring a recommendation to the Council for purchase of twos submersible 10 horsepower pumps, along with ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION-APRIL 13,2409 5 the possibility for assessing Presbyterian Homes for the premature loss of the chopper pumps, to the next Council meeting. Mayor Harpstead suggested any information gained in the next week be brought back to Council at the April 20, 2009 work session meeting with the item on the Council agenda on April 27, 2009. A. Confirmation Letter Requested by RRLD for US Bank Regarding the Earnest Monev Mayor Harpstead asked for comments or questions from the Council. Councilmember Grant questioned if this negated anything for the City or if the purpose at this time was for RRLD. Steve Bubul explained that they are essentially expanding a line of credit, which RRLD has had for many years creating more security due to the state of the economy. Councilmember Holden questioned if this line of credit was to be used for anything that RRLD chooses. Steve Bubel indicated this was the case. Councilmember McClung asked if this line of credit would tie the City's hands in any way. Steve Bubul stated if the City would receive the earnest money back from the Army it would be forwarded to US Bank rather than to RRLD. Councilmember McClung requested a paper copy of Ryan Companies request for this documentation. Staff agreed to provide this information to create a paper trail for this request. Mayor Harpstead agreed. Steve questioned if the Council was comfortable with the request if Staff could proceed in signing this or if it should be brought to Council for signatures. It was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to have City Administrator Moorse sign off on this item. B. Update to Compliance Policy ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION-APRIL 13,2009 6 Community Development Director Lehnhoff explained that. as part of the 1W community enhancement program the City would now be addressing abatement issues, rental registrations along with code changes. He indicated the proposal before the Council tonight was revamping the compliance policy. Community Development Director Lehnhoff stated staff does have a standard process for dealing with compliance issues as being three notices with 10-14 days between each notice. He indicated. this policy would direct staff with a clear process supported by Council and providing more detail for both staff and residents while working to obtain compliance. This is not meant to be a path to increasing the issuance of citations. Community Development Director Lehnhoff further reviewed the code compliance changes along with the reoccurrence codes with the Council. He explained that the City Attorney has reviewed this language and did not have any concerns at this time. Community Development Director Lehnhoff stated that after review and comments by Council he would like to finalize the language and bring it back to Council for adoption as a City policy. Councilmember McClung questioned if this would be used in conjunction with the Administrative Fine Program. Community Development Director Lehnhoff stated this was the case and that this document would fit in with the final nonce of an administrative fine program. Councilmember McClung asked what the communications plan was to pass this information along to the residents. He wondered if this would be written into a billing notice or newsletter. Community Development Director Lehnhoff stated this information could be written into a City newsletter and that a separate page for code enforcement was being created for the website. Councilmember Holden asked what information would be collected from residents making complaints. Mayor Harpstead suggested the name, address and contact information be gathered to allow staff an opportunity to follow up. e, ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCII.WORK SESSION—APRIL 13,2009 7 Councilmember Holden questioned how this information would be kept confidential and if staff had to follow up with the residents or if this could be done upon request to reduce the time staff spends on resolving these issues. Community Development Director Lehnhoff explained that only certain people would be allowed access to this information. He indicated that he would follow up on an as needed basis with residents when necessary. Councilmember Holden questioned if each complaint was inspected by the City and if a re-inspection was necessary. Community Development Director Lehnhoff stated that staff did do a quick drive by on all complaints at this time. He appreciated the Council's concern on reducing the amount of time invested in resolving these issues. Mayor Harpstead recommended that if a complaint was not verified, staff would not have to proceed to revisit it. He indicated it would greatly benefit the City and its staff if residents were able to resolve these issues without staff stepping in. It was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to revise Compliance Policy and bring it to the next Council meeting for approval. D. Sump Pump Inspection Work Plan Public Works Director Hoag reviewed a sump pump inspection work plan with the Council and how this would be implemented. He asked Council for comments and questions. Public Works Director Hoag indicated he would then revise the work plan with hopes of implementing it in early June. Councilmember Holden indicated she felt this was more of a guideline than a work plan. She recommended that the record keeping/data collection be worked out in May to allow staff to be trained in June on the inspection process. This way, staff would know what information to gather for each inspection. Public Works Director Hoag explained the long term record keeping for this project would be done by an administrative support staff person. He indicated the ID training for the field inspectors was a separate issue with each inspection being completed by filling out a form. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCII.WORK SESSION-APRII. 13,2009 8 Councilmember Holden encouraged the field inspectors to work closely with the record keepers to assure that the proper data was being collected. Councilmember Grant expressed discouragement for that fact that this program was taking longer than expected and that the City would not know the full effect of this work plan until sometime next year. He encouraged staff to borrow a great deal of this plan from neighboring cities to proceed in a timely fashion. Mayor Harpstead agreed stating he would like to see action taken more quickly as funding has been set aside to address the non-compliance sump pump concerns. He encouraged staff to use a very thorough form and that all information was = gathered for each inspection to provide the City with the most accurate data. Councilmember Grant suggested a note be written into the May newsletter - informing the residents that sump pumps were going to be inspected in the near future. Councilmember Holden questioned if there was a long term plan to have these homes re-inspected and if so, it should be written into the work plan. Public Works Director Hoag indicated the neighboring cities have completed some type of a re-inspect every 10 years or so. Councilmember Holden stated she would prefer City staff to do the inspections and not have this work contracted out. Mayor Harpstead agreed. Public Works Director Hoag explained that Jim Perron may be assisting the City with the sump pump inspections and that this would not be contracted out to an outside vendor that does not know the City. Councilmember Holmes questioned if the sump pump inspection also included review of the water meter and carbon monoxide detector. Public Works Director Hoag stated these items could be done together but that an option has to be given to the homeowner should they not allow City staff into their home. The homeowner would then be allowed to hire a licensed plumber to review the sump pump connection. a ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—APRIL 13,2049 9 Mayor Harpstead indicated that while the inspection form is being created boxes should be added to collect as much data as possible while City staff is completing the inspection. Councilmember Holden questioned how the City would address code violations if witnessed during an inspection. Mayor Harpstead indicated they would have to be addressed if witnessed by staff. Further discussion ensued regarding the replacement of batteries in water meters in conjunction with the sump pump inspection program. Councilmember Grant suggested that City staff gather only water meter and sump pump information to assure that the data was complete and uniform for each inspection, and that the carbon monoxide data be omitted. Councilmember Holden suggested a student be hired to create a database for the information collected from these inspections. She encouraged that this information be combined with old property records to create c one-stop shop for each property. Public Works Director Hoag stated that current office support staff is capable of creating a database with this information. He explained that much of the older information was kept on laser-fiche. It was the consensus of the City Council to direct staff to proceed with the Sump Pump Inspection Work Plan and to follow up. 2. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS There was nothing at this time. Mayor Harpstead ad* sty Council Work Session meeting at 6:5S d, C-0) J, �+ tan Ha stead Ronald J. Moorsle Mayor City Administrator