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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4B 09 16 2019 City Council Minutes 1 4646 Dakota Street SE Prior Lake, MN 55372 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES September 16, 2019 CALL TO ORDER Mayor Briggs called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Present were Councilors Thompson, Burkart, Braid, and Erickson. None were absent. Also, in attendance were Interim City Manager Olson, City Attorney Schwarzhoff, Police Chief Frazer, Fire Chief Steinhaus, Finance Director Erickson, Community Development Director McCabe, City Planner Matzke, Public Works Director/City Engineer Brotzler and City Clerk Orlofsky. PUBLIC FORUM Briggs: Reviewed the process for the public forum and explained that items scheduled for public hearing or items for which a public hearing has been held but no final action is taken are not eligi- ble for discussion on the public forum. Dave Chromy, 16731 HWY 13 S, Prior Lake, spoke on behalf of the Economic Development Au- thority (EDA). The EDA is asking the City Council to support the proposed EDA Levy and the budget. Prior Lake has collected an EDA Levy since 2013. With the growth of the City over the years the EDA budget has been decreasing leaving little flexibility for the EDA to utilize available budget funds for economic development initiatives. The proposed Levy increase can help them promote businesses and bring new opportunities to the community. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION BY THOMPSON, SECOND BY BRAID, TO APPROVE THE AGENDA. VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Nay ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion carried. APPROVAL OF CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 4A. CONSIDER APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER 3, 2019 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES MOTION BY BURKART, SECOND BY THOMPSON, TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE SEPTEMBER 3, 2019 REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING. 2 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☐ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Nay ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Abstain ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion carried. CONSENT AGENDA Olson: Reviewed the items on the consent agenda. A. Approve the Claims Listing B. Approve the Building Permit Summary Report C. Approve the Animal Control Services Report D. Approve the Fire Department Report E. Adopt Resolution No. 19-103 - the Assessment Roll for Unpaid Special Charges list- ing F. Approve the August 2019 Treasurer Agenda Report G. Adopt Resolution No. 19-104 - Authorizing A Special Deer Hunt within the Corporate Limits of the City of Prior Lake H. Adopt Resolution No. 19-105 – Approving a Temporary On-Sale Liquor License for Boathouse Brother’s Brewing I. Authorize City Staff to submit an application to the Metropolitan Council Water Effi- ciency Grant Program J. Approve Public Infrastructure Cost Allocation Tool K. Adopt Resolution No. 19-107 – Approving Off-Site Gambling for the Prior Lake-Sav- age Optimist Club MOTION BY BRAID, SECOND BY THOMPSON, TO APPROVE THE CONSENT. VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Nay ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion carried. BRIGGS: ASKED INTERIM CITY MANAGER OLSON TO GIVE AN UPDATE ON ITEM 5H. OLSON: EXPLAINED THAT THE APPLICANT IS WORKING WITH THE POLICE CHIEF TO FI- NALIZE THE SPECIAL EVENT PERMIT FOR THIS EVENT. BRIGGS: THANKED STAFF FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE COST ALLOCATION TOOL. PRESENTATIONS No Presentations Scheduled PUBLIC HEARINGS 3 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes No Public Hearings Scheduled OLD BUSINESS No Old Business Scheduled NEW BUSINESS 9A. Adopt Preliminary Tax Levy and Announce Public Budget Hearing Date Director Erickson presented the budget overview and discussed the components of 2020 Pro- posed Tax Levy Change. Briggs: Asked Director Erickson to comment on how the City continues to see a reduction in the annual change. Director Erickson: Explained that the City has had a significant increase in its tax base on the growth and the market value adjustments made on an individual’s property. Erickson: Commented on how the same value home in Prior Lake will have a significantly lower rate than the same value home in any other of our neighboring cities. Erickson added that a lot of residents mix up their City tax with their total tax. The City’s tax rate is about 25% of your total tax rate. Thompson: She has concerns that the City is not showing all services that the residents pay for. Prior Lake is number three at the top for water and sewer. She prefers to look at it as a bucket that includes all services that the residents pay for. Erickson: Stated that he understood Thompson’s point. However, tonight we are just looking at the levy and how Prior Lake’s levy is compared to other cities levies. Braid: Pointed out that labor is a high number in the City budget; however, given the labor mar- ket and healthcare costs that this City Council approved, the City Council did not have much of a choice or the City would risk the loss of service. MOTION BY BURKART, TO APPROVE A MAXIMUM LEVY INCREASE OF 5.5%. MOTION FAILS FOR LACK OF A SECOND. Erickson: Stated that this is only the preliminary budget, and the budget can only go down from where they set it tonight. There are many unknows for the budget and costs he would err on the side of the higher amount so that the City will have enough to cover themselves and not limit themselves in the future. MOTION BY ERICKSON, TO APPROVE THE LEVY AS PROPOSED BY STAFF. MOTION FAILS FOR LACK OF A SECOND. Braid: Asked Director Erickson if the City Council was to remove the $90,000 place holder for the one-time trail replacement, what would that get the City Council down to for a preliminary number. Thompson: Stated that she would like to see the preliminary tax levy set at 6.9%. Growth plus inflation plus debt service is what the tax increase should be. She’s not a proponent of the debt service part. She would like to eliminate that but that won’t happen. Director Erickson: Answered Braid that it would bring the preliminary number down to 7.3%. MOTION BY BURKART, FOR A MAXIMUM OF 5.9% INCREASE FOR TAX LEVY, SE- CONDED BY BRIGGS FOR DISCUSSION. 4 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes Burkart: Explained that growth never pays for itself. Next year appears to be a 2.7% increase and staff explained that it’s catch-up for past shortfalls. He feels that our budget process is dated and stale. He would like the City Council to consider a joint Citizen Council Budget Com- mittee approach. As a part of that process, he’d like to see a detailed look back each year that compares the previous years’ budget to actual. All the City Council does year after year is rub- ber stamp what is presented and that needs to change. He believed there is waste and the cur- rent process precipitates waste. He believes there are services occurring that a Budget Commit- tee might no longer identify as necessary. The City can do better and we are all on the same team. He’d like to keep the annual increase reasonable. For him 6.8% is not reasonable nor is it sustainable. Additionally, 77% of the budget is payroll. At the City Council meetings, the Council reviews Claim Checks and those are payables. The City Council has never reviewed payroll dis- bursements and that’s 60-70% of the City’s Budget. It’s the City Council’s fiduciary responsibility to know where the cash is going. If payroll goes from $700,000 - $800,000 month over month the City Council should know why. The City Council asked for this information eight months ago, the City Council agreed two months later that they should see those disbursements and guess what he has not seen them yet. Burkart asked three times to where the disbursements are, and three times the staff told him next time. For the budget increase next year, he is comfortable with a compromise increase of 5.9% if that is where they end up and he would like to collabo- rate with staff to decide what areas are prioritized with that increase. Anything more Burkart is against. Anything less Burkart is potentially in favor of. He does not see the justification for an additional 1.1 Million dollars of money flowing into the government coffers and out of the more efficient private sector. Braid: Explained that although he appreciates Councilor Burkart’s comments he does think that a few things were missed. For example, the $484,000 that Braid pointed out earlier that Burkart voted in favor of as a part of the union contract. While he appreciates that the City Council has to be able to take care of things moving forward and that is debt reduction. The City Council can’t kick the can down the road and make political statements to artificially deflate it to add more debt moving forward. That is not a sustainable way to move forward. While Braid does ap- preciate Burkart’s comments and political rhetoric, he does not believe that his comments are entirely accurate if you were to look at the numbers. As far as the budget committee goes Braid feels that the City Council was elected to be the Budget Committee. But, Burkart’s comments are misleading. So, with that Braid will not be in support of Burkart’s motion this evening. Director Erickson: Added that historically the City has not included payroll information with the Claims because State Statute 471.38 says it does not apply to claims or demand for any sala- ries since those are approved by the annual budget process. That’s why payroll historically has not been included with the claims. With the changes in the City Manager position, there was a disconnect on what should be provided. Staff is providing this information monthly now and it will be for the previous month’s activity because the City pays two weeks in arrears. Director Er- ickson reminded the City Council that the City does look at the budget to actual expenditures every year at a Work Session and staff provides a detailed report to the City Council at that Work Session. Staff also looks at the quarterly budget to the actual information that does in- clude payroll information. So, staff is happy to include it with the Claims on the City Council, which it was for tonight’s meeting agenda but the only reason it wasn’t originally included was that State Statute only asks for the claims since payroll is approved during the annual budget process. Erickson: Stated that some of the things that were said sounded as if this were a perpetual in- crease to the homeowner of 8%, and that is not true. A home that has no increase in value actu- ally has a reduction in tax levy with this budget. The average home increased in value over 5% and those homes would have an increase of 2.2% and that is below the cost of living. This is not an unsustainable increase. This City has grown and with that growth in the City there are more 5 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes roads to plow, additional police, and the City Council has to expect that with the increase in pop- ulation there will be an increase in the total cost of the City. That’s what this levy is. It’s the total cost of the City Tax Levy. Briggs: Seconded this motion purely for the sake of the discussion. Briggs’s perspective is that he knows what will be cut from the trail budget, having been through this process before. He is also concerned that the EDA levy will be cut. As the City Council looks to get the City on a sus- tainable path the Council has made significant efforts as a Council to do just that. They have specifically targeted reserves to continue to pay as the City goes. Versus continuing to kick the debt down the road. The City Council has also had a solid year in terms of growth. He would like to move forward with the tax levy and still return to our citizens some of the benefits of the growth. Briggs disagrees with Councilor Burkart from the standpoint that this is not sustainable. The City is impacting the effective tax rate in our community in a favorable direction for two years running. Briggs would vote against this motion. Braid: Added that the City has a great staff here and this is not meant to be a shot at staff, probably one at past councils. When he first arrived on the City Council the City was in a finan- cial mess. There was a fund for equipment, facilities, trails that were underfunded which just leads to more debt over time and costs the taxpayers more and more money. What previous Councilors have done was to keep cutting and cutting and what happens is that you never get to a sustainable path. If you look at the Capital Improvement Plan bar chart slowly builds these funds up so that the City can pay as they go and stops going further into debt. Secondly, the City was going to go it alone for the Water Treatment Plant to the tune of $15 or $18 million that was mainly meant to service the annexation area. With the Harstad v. Woodbury decision now that area may never be annexed. Had the City gone forward and done it alone that would have left the City in financial peril. These are some things that the City Council is not really discuss- ing. Then if you look at Public Safety, Chief Steinhaus has done a great job in a difficult situa- tion. Prior Lake has firefighters making $12 an hour to run into houses on fire. All the Chief is asking for is to be competitive to draw talent or get body cameras, or to have early warning si- rens that didn’t have battery back-ups. All of that is not acceptable from a Public Safety stand- point. Some of these items are not out of line. Can the City Council work that number down? Yes, absolutely. It took years to get into this situation and it will take more than two years to build the city back out of this situation. Burkart: Thanked the Councilors for the healthy discussion. If everyone felt the same way, there would only be one of us. Burkart will continue to be an advocate for the taxpayers. He stated that 5.9% is too great and he will always support the taxpayer. Erickson: Requested that the EDA Levy be separated from the City’s Levy. Erickson feels it should be its own separate discussion. QUESTION CALLED BY BRIGGS ON PREVIOUSLY STATED MOTION BY BURKART, FOR A MAXIMUM OF 5.9% INCREASE FOR TAX LEVY, SECONDED BY BRIGGS FOR DISCUS- SION, VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐ ☐ Nay ☒ ☒ ☐ ☒ ☒ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion failed. MOTION BY THOMPSON, SECOND BY BRAID, TO SET THE LEVY AT 6.9%. 6 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes Braid: Stated that the City Council has more work to do to get the Preliminary Budget to a more palatable amount. Currently, the City does not have a City Manager and the City is still navigating the Harstad v. Woodbury situation and how some developers are not willing to pay their fair share. Braid is not willing to add more debt to get that done. He does think the City Council needs more time to look at the budget and whittle it down. Thompson: She feels that 6.9% is reasonable and she knows that the City Council will whittle the budget down from there. Briggs: Spoke against the motion. He feels as though the City Council is just picking a number, without fully understanding what they are cutting from the budget. These cuts result in decreased service levels. With the growth of this community, he thinks it would be wise to use this year as a means to further the City’s sustainability and digging ourselves away from a debt future. At this time, he cannot support the motion on the floor. QUESTION CALLED BY BRIGGS ON PREVIOUSLY STATED MOTION BY THOMPSON, SEC- OND BY BRAID, TO SET THE LEVY AT 6.9%, VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☐ ☒ ☐ ☒ ☐ Nay ☒ ☐ ☒ ☐ ☒ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion failed. Briggs: Encouraged the City Council to deliberate and move through this Preliminary Budget. Thompson: Stated there was no way she would support a 7.98%. She doesn’t feel that 1% is that big of a cut. MOTION BY BRIGGS , SECONDED BY ERICKSON, TO SET THE LEVY AT 7.4%, Briggs: Doesn’t want the City Council to rush prematurely with having a new City Manager work with staff to come forward with what those additional cuts might come from. If the Council decides to cut that number too low tonight it will constrain the City. He agrees the Council needs to find a compromise and knows that the City Council will work on whittling down the budget. Erickson: Reminded the City Council that this is the Preliminary Budget, it’s not the final budget and he is sure that the new City Manager will find places to whittle this budget down and the City Council will work to get to a reasonable place. If the Council sets the budget at 7.4%, it does not mean that it will be the final budget. There are so many unknowns in projects, and agreements, and legal issues that the City will face in the next year. Briggs: Added that November 4th Work Session will also be a Budget Discussion. Thompson: There are two sides to the coin. Yes, it is a Preliminary Budget so what is the differ- ence on the number. She does not agree with Erickson on the unknowns. There aren’t any un- knowns going forward. QUESTION CALLED BY BRIGGS ON PREVIOUSLY STATED MOTION BY BRIGGS , SE- CONDED BY ERICKSON, TO SET THE LEVY AT 7.4%, 7 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☒ Nay ☐ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☐ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion failed. Braid: Stated that he is not in favor of reducing the residual trail replacement or equipment re- placement or facilities funds but the $90,000 place holder for the one-time trail replacement Braid could see that going away. Especially since the City is going to discuss the parks and the master park plan. He doesn’t feel that would be a huge detriment in service. That would bring the Prelimi- nary Levy to 7.3%, and he is fairly confident the City Council could find .4% somewhere in the budget and still not dilute the EDA, and he would also like to see the EDA broken out as its own levy as is more transparent and self-sufficient. MOTION BY BRAID, THOMPSON SECONDED, TO RECONSIDER LEVY AT 6.9%, BRAID PROPOSED TO AMEND HIS MOTION TO SET THE LEVY AT 6.99%, THOMPSON SE- CONDED THE AMENDED MOTION, VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☒ ☒ ☐ ☒ ☒ Nay ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐ ☐ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion carried. COUNCILMEMBER LIAISON UPDATES Erickson: Attended Community Safety Committee 9/12, 9/8 Fireman’s Chicken BBQ Braid: Was out of town last week. Burkart: Attended 9/12 Suburban Transit Authority, 9/16 Suburban Transit Authority, 9/8 Fire- man’s Chicken BBQ at the VFW Thompson: Attended the Fireman’s Chicken BBQ at the VFW on 9/8, 9/10 Prior Lake-Spring Lake Watershed Meeting, SCALE meeting on 9/13 Briggs: Attended Chamber of Commerce Board Meeting 9/4,9/6 SCALE Executive Committee, 9/9 Metro Cities Transportation Legislative Committee, 9/9 Regional Council of Mayors, 9/9 EDA Meeting, 9/10 Metro Cities Municipal Revenue Legislative Committee, 9/8 Fireman’s Relief Fund BBQ, 9/11 Live, Learn, Earn Post-Secondary Education Meeting, 9/13 SCALE General Meeting OTHER BUSINESS / COUNCILMEMBER REPORTS 12A. Street Project Update City Engineer Brotzler provided an update. 13A. ADJOURNMENT 8 DRAFT 09 16 2019 City Council Meeting Minutes MOTION BY BRAID, SECONDED BY BURKART, TO ADJOURN THE MEETING AT 8:30 P.M. VOTE Briggs Thompson Burkart Braid Erickson Aye ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ ☒ Nay ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ The motion carried. Respectfully Submitted _____________________________ Lori Olson, Interim City Manager