January 19, 2016, Council Minutes
CITY OF SPRING PARK
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
JANUARY 19, 2016 – 7:30 PM
SPRING PARK CITY HALL
Westonka Historical Society Dr. Pam Myers and Secretary Sharon Corl. Students from MWHS Civic Class.
1. CALL TO ORDER - Mayor Williamson called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL - Pavot, Hughes, Bren, Horton, Williamson
3. INTRODUCTIONS - Williamson introduced the council and staff to the public. Administrator Tolsma, Clerk Lewin, Commissioner Mason.
4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
5. ADOPT AGENDA – Hughes wants to add a discussion item under reports and Williamson will report on today's police meeting. Pavot said she will also be asking to speak. Hughes makes a motion and Horton seconds to adopt the agenda. All votes ayes, motion carries.
6. ADOPT CONSENT AGENDA – Bren makes a motion and Pavot seconds to adopt the consent agenda. All votes ayes, motion carries.
a. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes from January 4, 2016
7. PUBLIC FORUM – No one.
8. PRESENTATIONS & GUEST SPEAKERS –
a. Westonka Historical Society Presentation -
Dr. Pam Myers said the board decided a year ago that they would like to present a report every six months. She said the article in the newsletter summarizes statistics of visitors and volunteer hours for the museum. She said they are open every Saturday from 10 am-2 pm and one of their visitors said they learned about the museum from the City’s newsletter. She said they are expanding their space and they found two Spring Park treasures. She found the blueprints for building the Spring Park Depot and the blue prints for building the Spring Park dancing pavilion. Mason asked if the pavilion is the same as the casino and Myers confirmed. Williamson asked if this is the same area where the present day Yacht Club is located and Myers confirmed again. She thanks the city for its continued support.
9. PETITIONS, REQUESTS & APPLICATIONS – none.
10. ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS
a. Resolution 16-07: Resolution of Support for WeCAN –
Williamson said WeCAN is the social service agency and they are requesting the city endorse their request for funding. He said there is a pool of money previously referred to as the Community Block Grant and authorization of support is requested. Bren makes the motion and Hughes seconds. All votes ayes, motion carries.
11. REPORTS OF OFFICERS & COMMITTEES
a. Mayor and Council –
• Williamson said there was a follow up meeting of the police commission because there was a larger proportionate increase for our city. He said the difference was substantial. He said there is a formula wherein 25% is calculated according to market value, 37.5% for population and 37.5% for calls for service. He said they wondered why communities had different ratios. He said some of it had to do with change in property values and some of it on calls for service. He said there is a desire to create more stability. He said there was a cap but it was eliminated in the new contract. He said they are talking about a cap again. There is also interest in a straight average to take the calculations year by year and average with a moving average so spikes and valleys would be evened out and therefore a greater degree of predictability. He said surplus monies could be returned or carried over to the capital fund. He said there will be contract language revisions proposed in the future. Hughes said the fire commission uses that rolling three year average for their contract pricing.
• Hughes – he said there was a January 16th article in The Laker. He said some inferences were made that the LMCD was going ahead with. He said they’ve changed their meeting setups. He said there is more continuity to their meeting line-ups and allows members to attend. He said their legal representative has been the same since almost the beginning. He said an RFP was put out and three firms were selected. He said all three firms were interviewed and the original firm did come out on top, however all three of the firms stated the biggest challenge was bringing the ordinances up-to-date.
• Pavot said on page 11 of the same Laker edition there was an article regarding an individual who needed assistance due to heart failure. She wanted to remind everyone that City Hall has an AED device that could be used to shock someone in case the need is necessary. Williamson said Heart Safe is working on identifying where AED’s are located. Williamson would be interested in seeing more available, especially in the area of the trail. Hughes said he was a CPR instructor and he took a refresher course recently and more specifically resuscitation of infants. He said people trained in CPR need to offer assistance. Williamson said the State of MN has a Good Samaritan law that prevents litigation if efforts were made in good faith.
b. City Administrator
1. Organizational Analysis – Recommendation to Proceed –
Tolsma said the past few months the Personnel and Finance Committee discussed options to research an organizational analysis. He said the committee received three different proposals and these have been reviewed and discussed. He said there was a unanimous consensus for a preferred vendor and it is being brought in front of the council tonight. Hughes wonders how long this will take and what the time frame will be. Tolsma said 1.5-2 months for the entire process. Williamson explained there is some urgency to this due to timing. Hughes moves to engage Springsted to perform the organization analysis. Horton seconds. All votes ayes, motion carries.
c. City Engineer - nothing.
d. City Planner - nothing.
e. City Attorney - nothing.
f. Public Works Superintendent –
Williamson said there has been communication from Goman. Tolsma said there are six lift stations and five have onsite backup generators that perform a weekly test on Wednesdays. He said they run for about a half hour and they are supposed to switch back to the normal power supply. He said Lift Station 3 malfunctioned and went down with no power. He said an alarm did not generate and therefore there was a sewer backup on Del Otero and two homes were affected. Goman has been trying to ferret this out and has found this is not a common occurrence but there is another safeguard that can be installed at each lift station where there is battery backup to power the control panel and also send out an alarm. He said the total cost is about $1200. Hughes wondered about the battery life and wondered if it recharges or they need to be recharged. Tolsma said batteries are meant to last about five years. Williamson said in the old days alarms would flash and someone would notify the city and a backup generator was moved to the site. Williamson said there never has been a problem with this in the past and he is mystified. He is concerned if this is installed, there could still be equipment failure. He said it’s not the price, it’s whether this will solve the problem or not and send out an alert. Tolsma said staff has also discussed whether the old way was really so bad with the flashing alarms and the audible alarms. He said there could be more discussion on this. Hughes asked if there is a way to trigger a test event to make sure it works. Tolsma thinks this could happen and maybe this could be tested on the lift station that malfunctioned. Williamson wonders why that signal only goes to Goman. He thinks there should be a backup person. Bren agrees, she was wondering the same thing. Tolsma said when Orono is on call they do receive the alarms but he’s not sure if it’s only when they are on call. Tolsma agrees that the request to try this out first makes sense.
12. UPCOMING MEETINGS & TRAINING – Hughes adds a fire commission meeting January 27 from 11-1 p.m. at Mound Fire.
a. January 25 – Work Session – 7:00 PM
b. January 27 – LMCD – 7:00 PM
c. February 1 – Regular City Council Meeting – 7:30 PM
13. UNFINISHED BUSINESS -
14. NEW BUSINESS & COMMUNICATION – Hughes moves to pay the claims and Bren seconds. All votes ayes, motion carries.
a. Bills & Payroll
15. MISCELLANEOUS (Information Only) -
a. Mound Fire Department Press Release
b. Mound Fire Department December Report
16. ADJOURNMENT Horton makes a motion and Hughes seconds to adjourn the meeting at 8:32 p.m. All votes ayes, motion carries.
__________________________
Wendy Lewin, City Clerk
____________________________________
Dan Tolsma, City Administrator
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
JANUARY 19, 2016 – 7:30 PM
SPRING PARK CITY HALL
Westonka Historical Society Dr. Pam Myers and Secretary Sharon Corl. Students from MWHS Civic Class.
1. CALL TO ORDER - Mayor Williamson called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m.
2. ROLL CALL - Pavot, Hughes, Bren, Horton, Williamson
3. INTRODUCTIONS - Williamson introduced the council and staff to the public. Administrator Tolsma, Clerk Lewin, Commissioner Mason.
4. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
5. ADOPT AGENDA – Hughes wants to add a discussion item under reports and Williamson will report on today's police meeting. Pavot said she will also be asking to speak. Hughes makes a motion and Horton seconds to adopt the agenda. All votes ayes, motion carries.
6. ADOPT CONSENT AGENDA – Bren makes a motion and Pavot seconds to adopt the consent agenda. All votes ayes, motion carries.
a. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes from January 4, 2016
7. PUBLIC FORUM – No one.
8. PRESENTATIONS & GUEST SPEAKERS –
a. Westonka Historical Society Presentation -
Dr. Pam Myers said the board decided a year ago that they would like to present a report every six months. She said the article in the newsletter summarizes statistics of visitors and volunteer hours for the museum. She said they are open every Saturday from 10 am-2 pm and one of their visitors said they learned about the museum from the City’s newsletter. She said they are expanding their space and they found two Spring Park treasures. She found the blueprints for building the Spring Park Depot and the blue prints for building the Spring Park dancing pavilion. Mason asked if the pavilion is the same as the casino and Myers confirmed. Williamson asked if this is the same area where the present day Yacht Club is located and Myers confirmed again. She thanks the city for its continued support.
9. PETITIONS, REQUESTS & APPLICATIONS – none.
10. ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS
a. Resolution 16-07: Resolution of Support for WeCAN –
Williamson said WeCAN is the social service agency and they are requesting the city endorse their request for funding. He said there is a pool of money previously referred to as the Community Block Grant and authorization of support is requested. Bren makes the motion and Hughes seconds. All votes ayes, motion carries.
11. REPORTS OF OFFICERS & COMMITTEES
a. Mayor and Council –
• Williamson said there was a follow up meeting of the police commission because there was a larger proportionate increase for our city. He said the difference was substantial. He said there is a formula wherein 25% is calculated according to market value, 37.5% for population and 37.5% for calls for service. He said they wondered why communities had different ratios. He said some of it had to do with change in property values and some of it on calls for service. He said there is a desire to create more stability. He said there was a cap but it was eliminated in the new contract. He said they are talking about a cap again. There is also interest in a straight average to take the calculations year by year and average with a moving average so spikes and valleys would be evened out and therefore a greater degree of predictability. He said surplus monies could be returned or carried over to the capital fund. He said there will be contract language revisions proposed in the future. Hughes said the fire commission uses that rolling three year average for their contract pricing.
• Hughes – he said there was a January 16th article in The Laker. He said some inferences were made that the LMCD was going ahead with. He said they’ve changed their meeting setups. He said there is more continuity to their meeting line-ups and allows members to attend. He said their legal representative has been the same since almost the beginning. He said an RFP was put out and three firms were selected. He said all three firms were interviewed and the original firm did come out on top, however all three of the firms stated the biggest challenge was bringing the ordinances up-to-date.
• Pavot said on page 11 of the same Laker edition there was an article regarding an individual who needed assistance due to heart failure. She wanted to remind everyone that City Hall has an AED device that could be used to shock someone in case the need is necessary. Williamson said Heart Safe is working on identifying where AED’s are located. Williamson would be interested in seeing more available, especially in the area of the trail. Hughes said he was a CPR instructor and he took a refresher course recently and more specifically resuscitation of infants. He said people trained in CPR need to offer assistance. Williamson said the State of MN has a Good Samaritan law that prevents litigation if efforts were made in good faith.
b. City Administrator
1. Organizational Analysis – Recommendation to Proceed –
Tolsma said the past few months the Personnel and Finance Committee discussed options to research an organizational analysis. He said the committee received three different proposals and these have been reviewed and discussed. He said there was a unanimous consensus for a preferred vendor and it is being brought in front of the council tonight. Hughes wonders how long this will take and what the time frame will be. Tolsma said 1.5-2 months for the entire process. Williamson explained there is some urgency to this due to timing. Hughes moves to engage Springsted to perform the organization analysis. Horton seconds. All votes ayes, motion carries.
c. City Engineer - nothing.
d. City Planner - nothing.
e. City Attorney - nothing.
f. Public Works Superintendent –
Williamson said there has been communication from Goman. Tolsma said there are six lift stations and five have onsite backup generators that perform a weekly test on Wednesdays. He said they run for about a half hour and they are supposed to switch back to the normal power supply. He said Lift Station 3 malfunctioned and went down with no power. He said an alarm did not generate and therefore there was a sewer backup on Del Otero and two homes were affected. Goman has been trying to ferret this out and has found this is not a common occurrence but there is another safeguard that can be installed at each lift station where there is battery backup to power the control panel and also send out an alarm. He said the total cost is about $1200. Hughes wondered about the battery life and wondered if it recharges or they need to be recharged. Tolsma said batteries are meant to last about five years. Williamson said in the old days alarms would flash and someone would notify the city and a backup generator was moved to the site. Williamson said there never has been a problem with this in the past and he is mystified. He is concerned if this is installed, there could still be equipment failure. He said it’s not the price, it’s whether this will solve the problem or not and send out an alert. Tolsma said staff has also discussed whether the old way was really so bad with the flashing alarms and the audible alarms. He said there could be more discussion on this. Hughes asked if there is a way to trigger a test event to make sure it works. Tolsma thinks this could happen and maybe this could be tested on the lift station that malfunctioned. Williamson wonders why that signal only goes to Goman. He thinks there should be a backup person. Bren agrees, she was wondering the same thing. Tolsma said when Orono is on call they do receive the alarms but he’s not sure if it’s only when they are on call. Tolsma agrees that the request to try this out first makes sense.
12. UPCOMING MEETINGS & TRAINING – Hughes adds a fire commission meeting January 27 from 11-1 p.m. at Mound Fire.
a. January 25 – Work Session – 7:00 PM
b. January 27 – LMCD – 7:00 PM
c. February 1 – Regular City Council Meeting – 7:30 PM
13. UNFINISHED BUSINESS -
14. NEW BUSINESS & COMMUNICATION – Hughes moves to pay the claims and Bren seconds. All votes ayes, motion carries.
a. Bills & Payroll
15. MISCELLANEOUS (Information Only) -
a. Mound Fire Department Press Release
b. Mound Fire Department December Report
16. ADJOURNMENT Horton makes a motion and Hughes seconds to adjourn the meeting at 8:32 p.m. All votes ayes, motion carries.
__________________________
Wendy Lewin, City Clerk
____________________________________
Dan Tolsma, City Administrator