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HRA Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, June 16, 2015 Page 2 1 2 a.Hotel/Motel Study – Craig Waldron & Jason Foutz 3 Chair Maschka welcomed former Roseville Community Development Director Craig Waldron, 4 now with Hamline University; and Mr. Bilotta introduced Jason Foutz, student team leader 5 heading up this Capstone study for a group of Hamline students. 6 7 Mr. Foutz summarized his credentials currently serving as Assistant City Manager for the City 8 of Oakdale, MN; holding a law degree and currently finishing his MBA in Public 9 Administration, as well as previously serving as an elected official in AZ. Mr. Foutz expressed 10 his appreciation to the HRA for providing this opportunity to be involved in this hands-on 11 experience versus typical theoretical studies; and thanked staff and Department Heads in 12 Roseville for their assistance in moving this project along. In particular, Mr. Foutz thanked the 13 Roseville Police Department’s Community Relations Coordinator Corey Yunke for his 14 assistance, and credited him in part for this final study. 15 16 As a precursor to his presentation, attached hereto and made a part hereof, Mr. Foutz advised 17 that statistics had indicated several problem motels in Roseville, representing a significant 18 problem. Mr. Foutz, in this executive summary, advised that the intent of the study was to 19 provide a series of items for the HRA’s thought process and options for future direction and 20 potential steps to take. Mr. Foutz noted that recommendations provided soft to harder touch 21 options, as well as potential redevelopment of problem sites, and options between. Mr. Foutz 22 noted that there were many different approaches to consider, and flexibility was necessary as 23 there was no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem, nor would it get fixed overnight, but 24 require a long-term strategy, staff resources, and a strategy to resolve the problems. 25 26 Commissioner Dan Wall arrived approx. 6:16 pm 27 28 Discussion between Mr. Waldron, Mr. Foutz and HRA members during the presentation 29 included how calls for service (CFS) were defined; target average ration to stay below at 0.05 30 (CFS to room ratio); bifurcated management at hotels; and the need to remove the “silo 31 mentality” citywide for involvement of staff from various departments to address the 32 particulars in bringing everyone to the table in attempting to resolve the issues. 33 34 As detailed in the report, Mr. Foutz reviewed the recommendations related to: policy, 35 implementation, enforcement, collaboration and communications, and hotel owners and their 36 management. 37 38 Mr. Foutz stated his pleasure in seeing a nuisance ordinance already in place in Roseville; and 39 referenced available State Statutes in place to assist the City in some instances, and application 40 of nuisance fees to property tax bills. 41 42 Mr. Foutz noted another goal is to avoid tenants becoming long-term residents at motels, at 43 which point they fell under tenant/landlord laws, making their eviction and enforcement of 44 activities much more cumbersome. 45 46 Mr. Foutz suggested the initial next step would be implementation of a lodging establishment 47 policy (detailed in page 13 of the study) providing a long-term policy with many nuances; 48 however, he cautioned that it may also result in hotel staff and managers reporting issues at 49 their establishments. 50 51 At the request of Member Wall, Mr. Foutz advised that he was waiting for a return call from 52 the Ramsey County Attorney’s office providing feedback on this study, even though research 53 had been obtained from their office, and their staff had spoken to students on several different 54 occasions. 55