01-11-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, December 7, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 6 of 15 PRESENTATION – Continued years – the operating disbursements; however, the cash balance has not changed too much and is still able to support those operations. Regarding the cable fund, Ms. Schwieger noted Orono does not have a reserve goal and there is not a lot of activity that flows through; there were some capital purchases this year and that is where they see a decrease in cash. She then gave an overview of all of Orono’s funds, noting it is important to understand that although the City has a few bank accounts with a lot of cash held, it is broken out into these separate funds they just talked about. She showed a chart onscreen that illustrates over the past three years what of all those separate fund cash balances look like and what pieces they each hold. The next slide looked at cash balances as far as how Orono can use them. She explained some special revenue funds are restricted and they also have some restricted debt service funds; there is a portion assigned for capital and the unrestricted there is the general fund which is for operations, and they also have the enterprise fund. She clarified this gives an overview of how Orono can use their cash balances for different things. Ms. Schwieger said they take information from all of the other cities in the State of Minnesota and put them in to charts that compare how Orono is doing compared to Hennepin County, and also compared to Class 4 cities, which is based on population. The first chart illustrated their tax rate compared to Hennepin County and Class 4 cities, noting Orono is very low on that comparison. Orono’s taxes per capita, as they have a higher home value, can still be very high in comparison to those other cities. She showed a chart on debt per capita compared to those peer groups over the past four years. As seen on the debt maturity schedule, it will continue to go down until they issue more debt. Current expenditures per capita will be higher because of the City’s public safety contracts; this does not take into account the revenues that come in, but rather looks at the total public safety spending which is higher than other cities in the area because Orono serves other communities. Capital expenditures per capita were higher as well; however, Orono has more projects going on so that fluctuates quite often. She showed a chart outlining water fund debt service coverage, which focuses on how much operating receipts does the City have coming in to cover the debt payments and the higher that is the better – they want to have enough revenues to cover debt payments going out. The Council thanked Ms. Schwieger for the presentation. PUBLIC HEARING 21. LA20-000072 – 3570 Ivy Place, CUP – Permanent Dock Jeremy Barnhart said last December the Council approved a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a permanent dock at 3570 Ivy Place; when the Council approves a CUP, they approve a plan and if any changes to that plan are desired by the Applicant or the City it needs to go back through the CUP process. He noted there is no minor change clause in the variance process, so they are going through the public hearing process for this dock. The Applicant missed the deadline for the December Planning Commission meeting and is asking the Council to waive the Planning Commission review and have the Council hold the public hearing. Barnhart explained the code allows the Council by unanimous consent to waive the Planning Commission review and then the Council would hold the public hearing and react to the application. The Council has done this occasionally in the past (2 applications in 2018); the Applicant is seeking the Council to waive the review to allow construction in January 2021, rather than waiting until February. The Lake Minnetonka Conservation District has approved the revised dock configuration and Staff has analyzed the proposal based on the criteria for CUP and is recommending approval. There are two actions needed tonight 1) The Council waives the Planning Commission review of the public hearing, and 2) The Council opens the public hearing and reviews the proposed application. Staff recommends approval of the dock application.