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Home My WebLink About01-23-2017 Council Work Session Minutes MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION January 23, 2017 5:00 o'clock p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Dennis Walsh, Council Members Richard Crosby II, Aaron Printup, and Victoria Seals. Representing Staff were City Administrator Jessica Loftus, Community Development Director Jeremy Barnhart, Senior Planner Michael Gaffron, and City Clerk Diane Tiegs. Guests: Sharon Klumpp, Waters and Company; Steve Tallen, Tallen and Baertschi Attorneys 1. Housekeepin� Items for the New Council a. Direction for Taking Work Session Meeting Minutes Council directed Staff to provide more in depth minute taking of the Council Work Sessions. b. Food Preferences Light meals are provided for the work session meeting nights due to the long evening. Council would like to continue the light meals and rotate food orders between the local establishments. Jessica stated that approximately$60 is allocated per work session. Council would like to try having coffee/cookies available for the residents during the February Council meetings. This will be re-visited in March to determine if this will be permanent. c. Future Work Session Topics or Requests Loftus provided background on how items are place on the work session agenda. If someone would like discussion on an item it is added to the list for future topics. Pressing items for discussion are prioritized with future topics filling in the agenda items for the month. i. February Draft: 1. Joint Park Commission Work Session for annual check-in. 2. Interview Candidates for Two Openings on the Park Commission 3. Park Future Use ?(DW) Applications are being accepted for Park Commission alternates since Council approved the addition of alternates at the lanuary 9, 2017 meeting. Walsh stated he would like to place protections on the parks and would like to review with Soren what can or cannot be done with park property. Walsh stated he wanted an ordinance stating a 5-0 vote was needed to sell park land. Aaron stated that typically when land is donated for park usage there is an agreement in place. Page 1 of 4 2. Text Amendments Barnhart reviewed how ordinance amendments are reviewed by the Planning Commission. The Commissioners prefer to review amendments at a work session before the Public Hearing of the in-depth amendments. a. 15%Structural Coverage—overlapping regulation 15%structural coverage less than 2 acres. b. Special Event Permits c. Small Lots/5-foot Setback Walsh said the City does not need the extra layers in the code and that the code should just state hardcover and get rid of the structural coverage for lots under two acres only. This would cover everyone under the same rules. Barnhart stated consideration should be given to what is included in the hard cover, i.e., decks for instance. Massing relates to the size of the structure (height, width, and depth) on a lot. Loftus related some cities have floor area ratio to contain massing in lake cities. Printup asked for some history of when the hardcover and structural coverage ordinances were enacted. Gaffron said the hardcover ordinance was done in the 1970's and structural coverage was in the 1990's. Walsh stated garages are larger now which takes up more percentage of the hardcover. Denny would like to provide more flexibility to residents than they currently have on smaller lots and this would allow them to add a little bit more house. leremy is concerned with possible massing in some neighborhoods if the structural coverage is removed from the ordinance. Printup said the majority of the small lots are on the lake and 70 percent of the Orono population is on a small lot. Barnhart said Special Event permits were a major issue last fall. There have been more than occasional private parties. The ordinance should have more specific requirements. Barnhart discussed what can be done in the 5 foot setback. Landscaping walls can go up 2 feet for landscaping without requiring a variance. Revise the ordinance for new lots with 5 ft. easements for drainage stating it can be planted at the residents own risk. The Council by consensus, agreed to move forward with the three amendments as illustrated in the stafF report. Page 2 of 4 Interview Prosecutin�Attornev Steve Tallen (continuedl Tallen stated he tries to run an efficient, aggressive firm with a heart with reasonable representation. Council can give the direction of what is important. It is his belief that the passenger should pay the fines. Misdemeanor civil cases solve the problem. If Council would extend an offer for his services there would need to be timing for taking on another community and coordinate with the police department. He would also request the court to switch the Orono day for prosecution and coordinate that with the police department. Tallen & Baertschi are ready to take on another city. Tallen would like to be connected to the City's records through LOGIS if possible. Tallen stated that the City's current prosecutor is just himself. Tallen's firm has a staff. Walsh stated that Tallen's firm provides depth and the assurance that someone is always available in the office. Orono rates would be based on a fixed fee and the workload would fluctuate depending on how zealous a police officer may be in issuing tickets. Appeals would be billed at an hourly rate and out of pocket expenses would be billed back to the City. In closing Tallen stated he would like to work for the City of Orono. Adjournment 6:45 p.m. ATTEST C__-` __. � _-��- .., .__ Anna Carlson, City Clerk Dennis Walsh, Mayor Page 4 of 4 3. Presentation on Administrator Recruitment from Sharon Klumpp, Waters and Co.,a Division of Sprin�sted Sharon Klumpp provided and update on the recruitment process and stated revisions per the Mayor for the agreement have been made. Klumpp stated that moving forward with the process she will request Council input, which is a critical piece to understand what the Council is looking for in reference to expectations and a timeline. City Council Members will be contacted individually for a conference call on January 31 or February 1. Each will be contacted by email to set up a convenient time. Council is in agreement with that. The purpose of the conference calls is to assist in creating the recruitment brochure. The questions were provided in a handout for Council Members to review before their conference call: The recruitment brochure is scheduled to be ready for advertising by February 10, 2017. Klumpp stated that the City Council hires the new administrator but she would also like department head input as well. Council agreed that an email questionnaire to department heads for hiring the new Administrator was appropriate. Loftus will inform staff to expect an email from our consultant with questions to respond to for the hiring of the new Administrator. Klumpp reviewed timeline and the process of a video recording of applicants. Candidates are given a link to video their answer to a question. They are given 3 minutes to answer a question then the video is forwarded to Council for review. Walsh said if things fall behind a bit it is good to keep the process flexible to assure the best candidates. Walsh said we are close to finding an interim administrator and plan to hire at the February 13th Counci) meeting so that person has an opportunity to spend time training with the City Administrator. 4. Interview Prosecutin�Attornev Steve Tallen Attorney Steve Tallen re-visited with Council about his firm's qualifications to represent the City of Orono as the prosecuting attorney. Walsh requested that Council reconsider the top two firms for the prosecuting attorney and invited them both back. Tallen attended this work session and Potts is available to attend the February 13th work session. Tallen reviewed his resume and previous experience. Tallers � Baertschi primarily provide prosecution services to municipal clients. Currently the firm provides services to the City of Maple Grove, Robbinsdale, Medina, Loretto, Deephaven, Woodland, the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District, Osseo, and the Hennepin County portion of Rockford. Representations include quite a bit of conflict prosecution and criminal prosecution cases. Tallen assures he does not have a conflict of interest. The City of Orono's work load is comparable to the City of Medina. Page 3 of 4