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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-24-2019 Council Work Session Minutes Orono City Council Work Session Monday,June 24,2019 Council Chambers 5:00 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Dennis Walsh, Council Members Richard F. Crosby II and Matt Johnson. Representing staff were City Administrator Dustin Rief, Finance Director Ron Olson, Police Chief Correy Farniok, Accountant Maggie Ung, Community Development Director Jeremy Barnhart, and City Clerk Anna Carlson. Guests: Bill Wolfson, Curt Frethum , Owner of Lake West Development Meeting Start Time: 5:04 p.m. 1. Parks Commission Dog Days event Update Police Chief Correy Farniok gave a brief update to the Council about communications for the Dog Days Event held on June 22nd in Lurton Park. Mayor Dennis Walsh asked that the Parks Commission and the police department communicate the process prior to any future events. It would be a good heads up so that everyone understands the process. Council Member Matt Johnson asked if any miscommunications were due to the process used with Citizenserve. Farniok responded that the applicant is given an acknowledgement form to sign off on. One the form,the applicant acknowledges their requirements and expectations for the day of their event. In this case the applicant signed off on the acknowledgement form but did not follow the requirements. City Administrator Dustin Rief mentioned that he has not spoken with the Park Commissioners regarding their take on the issue. 2. Budget Finance Director Ron Olson presented the Revenue fund Budget. Discussion took place regarding transferring 80,000 from the pavement management fund to the Streets Maintenance, General fund, which is a segregated fund. Things like potholing, crack sealing, and striping were coming out of the pavement management fund in the past. It makes more sense to have those items come out of the streets maintenance fund. The pavement management fund will be mainly used only for mill and overlay as well as other similar projects going forward. Olson presented the Expenditure Budget by major category. The biggest increases are in the personal services. Engineer, Legal and IT Services. The biggest change is shown in the IT Services fund. The fund has now been created and will be shown as personal services as it effects every department. In addition, Liability Insurance is seeing a large increase due to Police Department and land use claims. Walsh asked if anyone has any questions regarding the Expenditure Budget. Orono City Council Work Session Monday,June 24,2019 Council Chambers 5:00 p.m. 3. Eisinger Flats Tax Increment Funding (TIF) Discussion Community Development Director Jeremy Barnhart presented the Eisinger Flats TIF discussion. He noted that Lake West Development Owner Curt Frethum approached the Mayor about TIF funding for Eisinger Flats. Frethum joined the discussion and explained that there will be approximately $7 million in estimated costs for cleanup of the area, however we are reaching out to the City for TIF on it. Barnhart explained that TIF if used, captures the taxes associated with increment between the property value now and the property value at the conclusion of the project, for a specific period of time; funds are to be used within the district. In addition to City taxes, TIF funds capture County and School District taxes as well. Walsh noted the City should consider looking into any possible issues in order to decide if the City would want to do TIF. Johnson asked how much did they originally budget for cleanup for the project. Frethum explained that originally they budgeted around $1 million for the project. He added they did not foresee the substantially higher estimated amount which was presented earlier for cleanup of this project. Walsh mentioned that the City needs to have a philosophical discussion regarding the possibilities to approve of TIF or not. They City would like Lake West Development to find out if there are any possible grants they could apply for, before the City would consider approving TIF for the project. Rief mentioned that it would be beneficial of the city to have certain requirements if it approves TIF. Walsh would like more information to be brought back to the entire council for discussion before making any decisions for or against TIF for the project. Frethum asked if it would help the Council if getting someone from the MPCA here to talk about it would be of interest. 4. Performance Reviews Rief briefly presented a draft version of the HRWize Employee Performance Software. Johnson asked if this will be a tool you would use at the end of the day. Rief mentioned that this is a good way to track and use for any future decisions about individuals for termination or promotion. Rief would like to implement this once we set Orono City Council Work Session Monday,June 24,2019 Council Chambers 5:00 p.m. parameters. Olson added that if you give a grade of above or below average you will be required to justify the answer. Crosby will be forwarding information he received from the league regarding performance evaluations. Walsh noted that now we have this in the system we can improve on it as we go. 5. City Owned Properties Barnhart mentioned Council directed staff to get more information regarding all the City owned properties. There are 172 parcels and 52 lake accesses overall. Walsh mentioned he would prefer that staff looks at each parcel and recommend or figure out what the best use or purpose for the parcels would be. He noted that staff should find out makes sense for these properties. Council may prefer to look at them as they come up. Walsh asked for opinions of the Council if the City about the sale of parcels on Crystal Bay Road. Johnson mentioned there should be some sort of benefit to the City in finding ways to improve the easements so people can use them. Crosby would be in favor of cleaning them up. Crosby mentioned the City would not be in favor of giving them away. Those are dollars the City could use for other upgrades to the city. Barnhart mentioned the Council may want to develop a policy for situations like that. Walsh agreed and would like to see a policy that includes unique and generalized ideas in order to bring it to Council. We should not make it so specific that if can't be brought to Council. Barnhart will bring back to Council to further discuss a policy for this. Meeting End 6:55 p.m. ATTEST: alYA%t. YCj& 4 46. Anna Carlson, City Clerk Dennis Walsh, Mayor