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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-26-09-TCAAP WS HILLS Approved: October 12, 2009 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL TCAAP WORK SESSION MEETING AUGUST 26, 2009 6:00 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 6:00 p.m. Present: Mayor Stan Harpstead; Council Members David Grant, Fran Holmes, and Dave McClung. Absent: Councilmember Brenda Holden. Also present: City Administrator Ron Moorse. Not present: City Attorney Jerry Filla 1. AGENDA ITEMS A. TCAAP Reimbursable Expenses City Administrator Moorse presented the City Council with information on the TCAAP reimbursable expenses. He noted the City continues to work through these issues with the developer and provided a listing of expenses for further review. City Administrator Moorse handed out a spreadsheet specifically related to Mike Comodeca's expenses as well. Mayor Harpstead questioned the process being used with RRLD and the scheduled timeline staff anticipates to follow. City Administrator Moorse noted that he would be meeting with Eric Anderson on September 10, 2009. The process would include walking through each invoice ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AU UST 26 2009 2 on a chronological basis addressing any concerns or objections that have been _ raised. Councilmember McClung asked if RRLD has given the City a list in total of their objections to the invoices. He questioned if the City had a ballpark number up for debate or if this number could continue to rise. City Administrator Moorse reviewed the items in dispute with RRLD but that there were challenges with the large chunks of billings. He noted they still have to address invoices from Mike Comodeca and Steve Bubul. Mayor Harpstead questioned if a deadline had been set to resolve these issues. City Administrator Moorse explained a deadline had not been set but that the parties were hoping to work through the majority of these on September l oth. He indicated that items not currently- in dispute will not be reviewed again. City Administrator Moorse indicated he believes many of the items in dispute were to be covered by RRLD as authorized through a letter to the City. Councilmember Grant reiterated that staff has a budgetary authority of$5,000 for any unbudgeted item. Paying RRLD was not something the Council budgeted for 2009. He indicated that Eric Anderson should be made aware that any issues would be brought back to Council for approval Mayor Harpstead agreed with this comment and stated this was not a voting meeting and that the Council could not authorize any flexibility at this meeting. He suggested an additional staff member be present to take notes on the meeting. City Administrator Moorse questioned how he should proceed with RRLD if they feel an invoice was not their expense and he did not have the flexibility to offer a payment amount. Mayor Harpstead explained that discussions tonight should provide a level of guidance to know which items can come back before Council to be voted on. Councilmember Grant questioned how precedence would be set on these issues and the invoices in dispute. Mayor Harpstead suggested that question be left to the City's legal counsel ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26 2009 3 Councilmember Grant asked why Finance Director Iverson was not present at tonight's meeting. City Administrator Moorse indicated she had a prior commitment. Discussion ensued through the lists of disputed invoices. City Administrator Moorse explained the Utility Rate Study was billed 100% to RRLD and was adjusted to 30% after discussions as this was a City wide effort and did not fully involve just TCAAP. Councilmember Holmes questioned why the item was still unpaid after the issue had been discussed and reduced. City Administrator Moorse stated he was uncertain but that he would be following up with this on September l oth. He would need to talk this over with Finance Director Iverson as well. Mayor Harpstead indicated this should be quickly resolved as it was previously discussed and agreed upon. Councilmember Holmes asked why none of Mike Comodeca's bills were paid after June 12th City Administrator Moorse stated he was not certain. Mayor Harpstead questioned what other major items were being disputed. City Administrator Moorse stated the salary for the associate planner position, which was budgeted through TCAAP was in dispute. He indicated because the Community Development Director position was vacant in late 2007 and most of 2008, and the Planner position was not filled after August of 2008, a credit was given to RRLD. Councilmember McClung asked when Council was informed of this situation and that an agreement was made with Ryan about the staffing. City Administrator Moorse indicated he did not believe Council was ever informed of this information. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 264 2009 4 Councilmember McClung noted this was a policy decision and Council should have been made aware of this budgetary agreement. Mayor Harpstead stated this was a "gray" area issue as the expense would need to be incurred before it would be brought to Council. He indicated this position never really occurred an expense and therefore did not become a billable issue. Councilmember McClung expressed concern that important issues were not being brought to Council. Mayor Harpstead agreed that this should have been brought to the Council as it involved incurring a cost relative to the Planning Department. He stated a shift in the project then made it difficult for the City to request reimbursement for the position. This was a policy decision that belonged at the Council level. Further discussion ensued regarding the associate planner position. Councilmember Grant questioned the three major items disputed by RRLD. City Administrator Moorse stated the other items in dispute were invoices that were not reduced but the City provided additional information to RRLD to have them paid in full. He indicated they were still unresolved at this point. The Council then reviewed the invoices in dispute in chronological order. Mayor Harpstead noted SRF has only one outstanding invoice which was relatively recent and questioned if this expense was related to TCAAP or not. City Administrator Moorse stated this invoice covered the expenses of Ken Helvey from SRF to meet with Arden Manor to discuss the relocation process related to the local access interchange within TCAAP. He saw this as a fully reimbursable expense. Councilmember Grant indicated that all of the amendments to the PDA should be reviewed through this process. Mayor Harpstead reviewed the next invoices from Mike Comodeca's office Spencer, Prane & Britt. He questioned if these invoices were in dispute or challenged by RRLD. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26-51009 5 City Administrator Moorse noted there were no challenges at this time. Councilmember Grant indicated this item was in dispute as Mike was over budget. City Administrator Moorse stated this has been discussed. Councilmember Grant explained Mike Comodeca's work was completed because Barry Steinberg was not around, which meant RRLD was using the City's environmental attorney. He felt these expenses should be reimbursed. Mayor Harpstead agreed. City Administrator Moorse indicated the closed work session meetings discussing the PDA extensions regarding RRLD were important to Ryan and the City. Mayor Harpstead questioned if any of the invoice dollars were spent after dissolution of the development agreement between the two parties. He felt the answer to this was no. City Administrator Moorse indicated the City did agree to spend a specific dollar amount in May to close everything out. The expenses from Mike Comodeca and Steve Bubul were roughly $4,000 over the budgeted amount. Mayor Harpstead requested a copy of the double-signed letter that was signed in May and asked that Finance Director Iverson clarify the overage. Councilmember Holmes reviewed a memo dated May 11, 2009 with the Council to clarify this information. The next item for discussion was the invoices from Steve Bubul. City Administrator Moorse noted there have not been any comments or challenges on these invoices. He explained a substantial amount was spent on the Security Agreement that Ryan needed with US Bank, which was a fully reimbursable expense. Councilmember Holmes indicated Steve Bubul was not over budget and none of his invoices were in dispute. She then questioned why these invoices were not paid in full by Ryan and why staff did not check into this sooner. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST Zo. 2009 6 City Administrator Moorse did not have an answer to this question. Councilmember Grant reiterated that the expenses from Steve Bubul were for Ryan business. Councilmember McClung noted these invoices were dated back to August 14, 2008 and questioned when staff became aware they were not paid. City Administrator Moorse became aware they were not paid in June of 2009. Mayor Harpstead indicated this would have been sooner because the accountants would not let the 2008 books be closed until this was addressed, which was handled in March. City Administrator Moorse stated the billing was restarted in March. RRLD disputed the March billing, and would not pay the bills until the disputes were resolved. The Council reviewed in detail an invoice dated June 18, 2008 and discussed how the dispute was handled by staff. Councilmember Holmes indicated staff should have been checking on these invoices to assure that they were paid, after a new amount was agreed upon. City Administrator Moorse stated he was aware that the one invoice was not paid but assumed that it would be after the new amount was discussed. He indicated he was not aware that the City had stopped billing after October of 2008. Mayor Harpstead questioned why the City Administrator was not aware the billing had ceased until the auditor brought it his attention in March. Councilmember McClung asked why the billing had ceased and who was working to resolve the issues. City Administrator Moorse stated he had recently discussed this with Finance Director Iverson including her understanding that Eric Anderson had indicated he did not want to pay these bills until the disputed items were resolved. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26 2009 7 City Administrator Moorse indicated Finance Director Iverson had worked to resolve some issues, and he had worked to resolve the other issues, but he was not aware the billing had ceased. Councilmember Holmes questioned why Ryan was not allowed to pay the majority of the invoices when only several were in dispute. The next item discussed was the project management of Ehlers & Associates. Mayor Harpstead questioned if the concern with this issue was that they were over budget. City Administrator Moorse indicated this was the case, along with the fact they - would like more detail included in the invoice describing the work completed by Ehlers. He explained there was roughly $4,000 within the invoices labeled "various discussions" which Ryan asked for clarification on. Councilmember Holmes felt this issue should be resolved between RRLD and Ehlers. Mayor Harpstead indicated this should be fairly straight forward as Ehlers would need to provide timelines on the work completed for TCAAP. Councilmember McClung questioned how this issue would be addressed with Mr. - Anderson. City Administrator Moorse indicated he has discussed this in detail with Ms. Kvilvang and that all discussions were held with Ryan, the City or a negotiating team member. Mayor Harpstead clarified that on the three invoices in dispute only $562 itemed "various discussions" without further detail. The next item discussed was the engineering services. Mayor Harpstead questioned if the TH 10 and CR96 interchange was summarized. City Administrator Moorse stated the Bolton & Menk invoices for TH 10 and CR96 totaled $13,450. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26 2009 8 Councilmember Holmes added that two bills from Kris Giga were in dispute as _ well. City Administrator Moorse indicated these bills were related to the TH10 and CR96 project as well. The Council discussed a PDA amendment dated May 29, 2007. City Administrator Moorse indicated this was discussed with the City Attorney - and he explained this amendment was never signed. Councilmember Grant stated the City needs to take better care of the amendments to assure they are approved in the correct manner and followed through on. He questioned how the City Attorney knew this amendment was not executed. City Administrator Moorse explained he knew the amendment was not part of the PDA and that amendments #2 and #3 were merely time extensions. Mayor Harpstead questioned if it was possible this amendment never came before the Council for action at a meeting. Councilmember McClung indicated he remembered seeing resolutions regarding these issues but not an amendment to the PDA. He stated this was a major problem with the City's process. - The Council discussed how the approved resolution missed becoming a PDA amendment. Councilmember McClung questioned why Ryan was never held to creating an escrow account to assist in paying of these items. He also asked if Kris Giga's invoices disputed amounts could be further explained by staff. City Administrator Moorse indicated there were only two invoices that Ryan has indicated an obj ection to, and they are both related to TH 10 and CR96. Councilmember McClung reviewed the amounts of these invoices to be $1,467.31 and $287.18. He suggested these numbers should be added to the total engineering expenses in dispute for TH 10 and CR96. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26 2009 10 The Council then moved onto issues with the Barr Engineering invoices. City Administrator Moorse explained the dispute with the Barr Engineering invoices was with their attendance at an RAB meeting. There was question as to the relevance of having them in attendance at the first or second meeting. He clarified that additional work ordered by Ryan was started by Barr Engineering but not completed in full. Mayor Harpstead stated this was a tremendously complex environment with a lot of information. He explained that work completed by Barr Engineering pertained to environmental remediation and that residual bills would need to be paid by Ryan. City Administrator Moorse explained the WSB invoices noting these covered a review of City sewer and water issues providing a report with more cost effective options for the utility infrastructure. He indicated Ryan requested further information on this issue and was not disputing the amount. The next item discussed was the utility rate study. Mayor Harpstead questioned if this item was in dispute because it was over budget or if there were some other issues. City Administrator Moorse explained this item did go over the budget set within the PDA, which requires the City to provide Ryan with a notice of this overage. They then have the opportunity to provide comment. Mayor Harpstead questioned the total amount that was over budget within the total expenses. Councilmember Holmes stated the budget was $992,000 and the total spent over budget was $74,000. Councilmember Grant indicated this would be a large expense for the City to swallow if Ryan would only pay for the agreed upon budgeted items. Mayor Harpstead agreed but noted there were changes to the PDA regarding County Road H and TH 10/CR96, which increased the need for additional engineering expenses. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26, 2009 9 Councilmember Holmes felt there was no way Ryan could dispute the County Road H engineering expenses as this was fully TCAAP. Mayor Harpstead noted that if the City received a grant, they would be responsible for paying Ryan back a portion of these expenses. He questioned if the Council could provide guidance in this area and if they were in agreement with being flexible up to $20,000. Councilmember McClung indicated he was not willing to offer any flexibility at this time until Ryan provided more detail as to their disputes. Mayor Harpstead agreed stating the Council could ask for a specific proposal as it pertains to TH10 and CR96 so as to further understand the issues. The Council was in agreement with this suggestion. Councilmember Holmes questioned the difference in services provided by Bolton & Menk versus SEH. Mayor Harpstead explained that SEH was not chosen to provide services as they were too close to the developer. City Administrator Moorse indicated that SEH was doing the preliminary design work for Ryan on the County Road H interchange. Bolton & Menk was reviewing that work for the City. Councilmember Grant noted that he would like to know when the executed PDA amendments and/or resolutions came before Council, and would like to see the documents. He indicated that RRLD must have had representation at these meetings. Councilmember McClung agreed that this should be reviewed by Council with the signed documents. City Administrator Moorse stated that the County Road H document was signed and executed, but that he would bring these both back to Council for their review. Mayor Harpstead indicated this was his first experience with something not being co-signed or counter signed. He suggested the documents be found and that the minutes be reviewed before the September l oth meeting to provide staff and Council with the necessary information. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26 2009 11 Councilmember Holmes stated there was great ambiguity within the PDA agreement stating the City was to notify RRLD if items were over budget and does not give a remedy. Mayor Harpstead indicated RRLD did not pay their bills after items were over budgeted, but continued to use Counsel and exercising resources even though they knew the items were over budget. Councilmember Holmes explained that the reimbursable expenses were different than the budgeted items. Mayor Harpstead indicated the Council would need to address the budget overage issue, which would be close to $50,000. Councilmember Grant questioned how staff should proceed. Mayor Harpstead explained he would like to see the easy, non-issues off the table and start reducing the number. Councilmember Grant agreed. Mayor Harpstead indicated then staff could then get into the details on the other items. Councilmember Holmes stated the biggest concern will be the dollar over budget and how this will be resolved. Mayor Harpstead explained it would be in the City's best interests to get the other items resolved first and deal with Mike Comodeca's last. Councilmember Grant suggested Mike Comodeca be collected first and that if RRLD pays this overage in full, it may provide precedence with other items. He indicated RRLD helped drive Mike Comodeca's expenses over budget. The Council proceeded to discuss the office support needs. Mayor Harpstead questioned if the office support needs could be resolved and asked what was involved in the dispute. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST ZoaO07 12 City Administrator Moorse explained the City budgeted eight hours a week to assist with staff support. He indicated RRLD has requested additional information on what this work entailed. A specific pay grade needs to be provided. Mayor Harpstead indicated he would draft a set of questions to provide staff additional direction for the meeting being held on September l Ot''. He reviewed the questions brought up within tonight's discussion. 1. Fran's question regarding the City Planner I. The invoice for $1,231 from 2008, which had credits on the current period line, but still had a balance due. This item needed further explanation. 2. The overage compared to the $16,000 in the closure memo dated May 11, 2009. More detail and specificity was needed for Council. 3. City Staff needs to address the issue on who will follow up on bills that are not collected and how this process should be handled into the future. 4. The process to stop billing needs to be clarified. The Council has heard two different stories, both inconsistent from staff and it needs to be resolved. The Council needs to know the timing for stopping the billing, who stopped it and who gave the authority to start and stop it. 5. How does the gap of Arden Hills payments to the vendors without the collections from RRLD become visible to the City. This may need to be - reviewed within a staff procedure. 6. How do we get agreements signed as they pertain to two parties, assuring that they are counter-signed. A process needs to be put in place to make sure they are closed properly. 7. Why didn't we implement the escrow agreement as it was described within the first PDA. The Council needs a procedure in place with staff to assure that the departments are taking care of their obligations and responsibilities. 8. What level of project detail is available from Kris Giga and Deb Bloom if an invoice is disputed and details are needed. 9. Copies of the County Road H (4/30/07) and TH10 and CR96 agreements must be provided to the Council along with any related Resolutions or Council minutes, and City actions taken with regard to these issues. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST Z6,1000 13 10. Process for situations when staff is funded by third party and third party doesn't pay, such as with the associate planner. Mayor Harpstead asked that staff work diligently to prepare themselves for this meeting and be able to address all questions within these invoices. He indicated he would forward the above questions to staff, copied to Jerry Filla, which could then be forwarded to Council. 2. COUNCIL COMMENTS AND REQUESTS City Administrator Moorse indicated he met with Pat Nygard, which was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church over by Hazelnut. The church was looking to make a change with their property and may be interested in leasing it to the City. He explained he would pass this information along to the Council with further discussions to follow. Mayor Harpstead suggested this be passed along to the Parks and Trails Committee and have the issue reviewed and brought back to Council with a recommendation. Councilmember Holmes questioned if this was even a buildable lot. City Administrator Moorse stated there was enough room for a driveway along side of the parking lot if a home were to be built on the lot but that the City does - not easily grant variances if the lot were to be subdivided to increase the number of homes on the lot. Councilmember McClung asked if the church provided any numbers as to the price of the land for lease. City Administrator Moorse explained that he asked this question as well, but that an appraisal has not been completed to date. Discussion ensued regarding the estimated price of the land. Councilmember Grant encouraged staff to review the lot as well to assure that the lot was buildable. ARDEN HILLS TCAAP WORK SESSION-AUGUST 26. 2009 14 City Administrator Moorse stated that on Monday, staff along with Councilmember Holmes would be meeting with the MPCA. The City's of New Brighton and St. Anthony would also like to attend the meeting. Councilmember McClung questioned the purpose of this meeting. City Administrator Moorse explained the purpose would be to provide the MPCA an update on where the City is with TCAAP along with discussions on cleanup standards. The parks and open space use would be discussed along with Tier III standards. City Administrator Moorse indicated he was trying to arrange a lunch meeting with the County Board on a Tuesday. He noted they generally have their work sessions at 1:30 p.m. City Administrator Moorse questioned if the Council would rather meet at the City or downtown. Mayor Harpstead indicated he was flexible, but that it would depend on the day. Councilmember Holmes stated she did not want this to become over complicated but just wanted to hold a discussion meeting with the Board. Mayor Harpstead adjourned the City Council Work Session me 'ng at 8:37 p.m. tan ead Ronald J. J oorse Mayor City Administrator