05-26-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, May 11, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 15 of 22 Printup moved, Crosby seconded, for the Termination of the Cleaning Contract and approval of the plan as laid out in the Memo. Roll Call Vote: Ayes 5 (Seals, Printup, Johnson, Crosby, Walsh), Nays 0. MAYOR/COUNCIL REPORT Seals stated it is a weird time; she has been home since March 12. She does not mean to be political, but what the Governor is doing does not make a lot of sense to her right now. She thanked all the First Responders, Policemen, Firemen, Nurses, Paramedics, and others for staying out there because they are the true heroes in this situation. Printup asked the City Administrator/Public Works to thank Hennepin County. There are a couple of digital speed signs on South Brown Road which are super helpful where it drops from 40 to 30. He hopes it doesn’t glare into anybody’s windows at home; he does not think so. He mentioned Rief could let people know if Spring Clean-Up is going to happen on the weekend. He thanked Tour de Tonka for their presentation. He agreed with Seals’ comments regarding the Governor. He said over the last month or so the Council has been hammering on communications and asking how the City gets things out. Also, the City has been bombarded with phone calls and emails about the utility bills, and he thought maybe the City needed better communication in notifying residents of why that was happening. He said he had another example of what is going on with the utility bills and the pass-down and the unfunded mandates: Because Orono is in the 7-county metro area, the City is required to have recycling services. If people do not recycle, they pay. If they do recycle, they pay. As far as the sewer bill, it is not the City that is applying these fees to residents, it is being imposed upon the City. He stated the Met Council, his not-so- favorite bureaucracy, is now talking about a 13% increase. Crosby asked if the Met Council members were elected. Printup said the reason they are his not-so-favorite bureaucracy is because its members are unelected. He is proud of the Orono City Council for sending a letter 2-3 years ago and making a resolution saying they do not agree with what the Met Council does, adding that may be why Orono is getting all of these hikes. He suggested Rief could elaborate more on the unfunded mandates. It pains the City when they have to do that, but sometimes the City’s hands are tied. Otherwise, it is like the Whac-A-Mole game, because the City can whack it down there, but then all of a sudden, the City is having to talk about easements, which is another resolution the City Council did, saying it did not agree with that. Johnson mentioned there was a drowning on Lake Minnetonka in the last week or so when 2 people were on a boat and ejected and one of the occupants drowned. Tonka Dock’s Crew Chief, Jake, who does a lot of work in Orono, was there with his barge. They rescued one of the people out of the water and used the barge to stop the boat that was driving around on its own, all of which happened before any emergency response. He said it turns out dock guys are essential workers. He noted it was nice to hear a good story about local people sticking their neck out to help, although it was a tragic situation. The crew consisted of some ex-military guys, and they all played a role to help out. He thanked Richie Anderson, the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District (LMCD) rep. He sat in on the last LMCD meeting, and there was an Orono resident who needed to get a variance to get his dock put in because he had to go out 180 feet to get into 4 feet of water. Mr. Anderson is only one of 14 votes, and he went out and verified the distance so that when he was at the meeting, he could confirm the resident needed to get this done. He commented it is nice to know the amount of effort the City is getting out of that position. He said he was in Florida the past week, and there is definitely a different take on how to deal with COVID-19 there.