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CHM 05/15/2017 CITY OF FRIDLEY CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING MAY 15, 2017 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Ostwald called the Charter Commission meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Commissioners Gary Braam, Don Findell, Manuel Granroos, Richard Johnston, Ted Kranz, Bruce Nelson, Rick Nelson, David Ostwald, Barb Reiland, Pam Reynolds, Valerie Rolstad, Cindy Soule, Avonna Starck, and Richard Walch Members Absent: Commissioner Zach Crandall Others Present: Deb Skogen, City Clerk/Staff Liaison Wally Wysopal, City Manager Shelly Peterson, Finance Director Jake Foster, Management Analyst Scott Lund, Mayor Julie Doth, Fridley Citizen APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Reiland MOVED and Commissioner Johnston seconded a motion approving the meeting agenda. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Reynolds said the fourth paragraph on page four should be changed to provide clarification that Commissioner Rolstad was speaking in that paragraph. Ms. Skogen said the whole paragraph was Commissioner Rolstad speaking and there was no need for clarification. Commissioner Reynolds said on page five, and instance of the word “was” should be changed to “is”. Ms. Skogen said she wrote the minutes in past tense and it should remain to be consistent. Commissioner Reynolds said on page ten her preference was not to remove the CPI but keep the 5%. She preferred to keep the restriction as, but would be more comfortable with removing the APPROVED 09/05/2017 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 15, 2017 PAGE 2 CPI and keeping the cap than removing the restriction altogether. Ms. Skogen said she would review that section on the recording. Commissioner Reiland said on page three, the sixth line of paragraph three the “r” was missing in the word “Grove.” Ms. Skogen said there was another section where the words “in Anoka County” should be added where Fridley is said to be the only fiscal disparities contributor. With no other changes to the minutes, Commissioner Reiland MOVED and Commissioner Kranz seconded a motion approving the Charter Commission meeting minutes of May 3, 2017 as corrected. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Chairperson Ostwald offered a handout outlining Minnesota’s open-meeting law. He said he was concerned about some of the email communications being sent between commissioners. Further discussion took place detailing how the commissioners should avoid violating the open-meeting law in the future. OLD BUSINESS Discussion of Chapter 7 Chairperson Ostwald introduced the ordinance staff was requested to provide to be recommended to Council for the Commissioners review. Commissioner Reynolds asked if they weren’t going to discuss the draft, but rather “jump right in” to the proposed ordinance. Ms. Skogen said that is what was requested of City staff. Commissioner Reynolds referred to the minutes from the previous meeting referencing a statement from Commissioner Rick Nelson requesting a rough draft of the edits for Chapter 7. Ms. Skogen said the consensus of the Commissioners was to prepare an ordinance to recommend an amendment for council action. Ms. Skogen described the edits based on their request. Commissioner Reiland said she would like to discuss the proposed language change regarding the levy restriction to ensure it was clear. Ms. Skogen said they may want to clarify the language further in Section 7.02.1 to ensure the language was written clearly. APPROVED 09/05/2017 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 15, 2017 PAGE 3 Commissioner Rick Nelson said his motion was to use the previous year’s levy as a baseline, not that the 5% cap should not include the last year’s percent change. Commissioner Findell agreed, but thought the language worked as it didn’t reference the percentage change in the previous year’s tax levy. The Commissioners discussed the clarity of the language. Ms. Skogen suggested adding the word “more” after the previous year’s levy for clarity. Commissioner Soule suggested splitting the sentence into two sentences for further clarity. Commissioner Findell suggested the words “time to time” be removed. Ms. Skogen said the words “time to time” are present, because the City’s classification might change. Commissioner Findell still thought they should be removed, and suggested that a period could be put in their place to break up the sentences. Further discussion took place regarding whether or not the sentences should be split, and where a period would make sense. Shelly Peterson, Finance Director, suggested the commissioners remove the words “from time to time” and add a period after the word “member” as suggested by Commissioner Soule. She also thought the words “provided that” and “in dollars” could also be removed. She suggested starting the next sentence with “The amount of taxes…”. Commissioner Reynolds asked if the removal of “in dollars” could be misconstrued, to which Ms. Skogen said it was added when the levy restriction was changed from the mill rate. Ms. Peterson said the levies are always “in dollars,” but the phrase could be added at the end of the sentence. Ms. Skogen re-read the amendment: “The City shall have, in addition to the powers by this Charter expressly or impliedly granted, all the powers to raise money by taxation pursuant to the laws of the State which are applicable to cities of the class of which it may be a member. The amount of taxes levied against real and personal property within the City for general City purposes shall not exceed 5% more than the prior year tax levy. However, if necessary, it may be increased up to an additional 3% with the vote of four members of the Council.” Chairperson Ostwald asked if anyone had any other changes. Commissioner Findell asked if the word “it” should be clarified in the last sentence, and changed to “the levy.” Commissioner Rolstad MOVED and Commissioner Soule seconded a motion to accept the updated language. APPROVED 09/05/2017 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 15, 2017 PAGE 4 UPON A VOICE VOTE, 13 COMMISSIONERS VOTED AYE AND 1 COMMISSIONER VOTED NAY (COMMISSIONER REYNOLDS). CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. Ms. Skogen outlined the other changes recommended in Chapter 7 where state law conflicted with the charter. Commissioner Soule asked if the State Statute numbers or chapters would be subject to change. Commissioner Nelson asked if they could just refer to “State Statute” rather than specific chapter numbers to make sure future business does not get hung up due to changing of chapters. Commissioner Nelson added the “current statute could be referenced in parentheses. Ms. Skogen continued reviewing the proposed changes. Commissioners then began to go through each section of the ordinance to discuss any potential changes. Commissioner Reynolds asked for clarification regarding the language on recycling in Section 7.02, and why recycling was removed from Section 3.A to Section 3.B. She said everything in Section B were items or services that were assessed by usage fee, and items in A were mandated. She asked if she could then opt-out of the recycling programs, or choose not to use it if it was moved to Section 3.B. Ms. Skogen said recycling was mandated and therefore the City has to provide it to all residents. Commissioner Reynolds said recycling should be moved back into Section 3.A rather than 3.B. Commissioner Starck felt the fee for recycling was a very nominal fee so it should present less of an issue. Commissioner Rick Nelson asked if every fee collected from recycling was used for recycling services. Staff stated it was only used for recycling. Mayor Lund said in years past the City’s recycling program generated a small amount of revenue. As it has progressed, the program began to “break even”. Now the contract is up for renewal and the current rate structure won’t cover the cost of the program as recycling valuations have gone down. He further confirmed the rates charged for recycling only covered the cost of the recycling services. Commissioner Reynolds stated the rates were soon to cover expanded recycling services, as she said there was an RFP that has been created to do so. Mayor Lund said he was not aware of any RFP or plans for expansion of the recycling service. Ms. Skogen said the organics portion of the City’s recycling service would be voluntary and residents could choose not to use that service or pay for it. Commissioner Reynolds MOVED saying that the original restriction of an increase in CPI or a 5% growth could be added to section 3 to control those costs. With no second, the motion failed. APPROVED 09/05/2017 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 15, 2017 PAGE 5 Commissioner Rick Nelson MOVED and Commissioner Reiland seconded a motion to move the recycling fees back into Section 3.A from Section 3.B UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECARED THE MOTION CARRIED. Commissioner Findell asked if Section 7.08.E needed to include the language “of this charter”. Ms. Skogen said she left it out to remain consistent throughout the charter. Commissioners agreed it should not be changed to keep the charter consistent throughout. Moving to Chapter 7.04, Commissioner Rick Nelson asked if they wanted to ensure the Council could arrange additional budgetary meetings by putting parenthesis to the “s” in “meetings.” He also felt this would give Council the opportunity to have more meetings if needed, but would still be allowed to have one estimated budget meeting. Commissioner Rick Nelson MOVED and Commissioner Soule seconded a motion to add parentheses around the “s” in both instances of the word “meeting” in Section 7.04. UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECARED THE MOTION CARRIED. There were no comments or questions with Sections 7.05, 7.06, and 7.07 Mayor Lund suggested changing the word “However” to “Moreover” in the last sentence of the section and to add the word “affirmative” before “vote” at the end of the sentence to make sure it was understood that raising the tax levy an additional 3% required an affirmative vote of 4 Council members. Commissioner Rick Nelson agreed with the latter part of Mayor Lund’s suggestion, and said it was important that it calls out a number (4) rather than a percentage or majority vote in case a member is absent or abstains from the vote. Commissioner Walch agreed. Ms. Peterson said there was also an area in 7.15 that referred to a 4/5 vote of Council, and this language could also be changed to remain consistent. Commissioner Findell said they addressed this in the last meeting, and wanted to be sure that at least 4 members were voting. After further discussion, Commissioner Walch MOVED and Commissioner Starck seconded a motion to make the additional change to Section 7.02.1. UPON A VOICE VOTE ALL VOTING AYE CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. Commissioner Rick Nelson MOVED and Commissioner Reiland seconded a motion recommending an amendment Fridley City Charter Chapter 7 by ordinance to the City Council. APPROVED 09/05/2017 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 15, 2017 PAGE 6 UPON A VOICE VOTE, 13 COMMISSIONERS VOTED AYE AND 1 COMMISSIONER VOTED NAY (COMMISSIONER REYNOLDS). CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. Ms. Skogen said she would provide the ordinance to the City Council to schedule the public hearing. Looking at the Council schedule, she said it would most likely be held the last meeting in June. Ms. Skogen introduced a memo written by Ms. Peterson outlining additional areas where Chapter 7 conflicted with State Statute, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), or the State Auditor’s Guidelines. Commissioners were presented with a redlined version of Chapter 7 provided by Ms. Peterson as suggested ideas to make the charter more compatible. Commissioner Starck asked how urgent the proposed changes were. Ms. Peterson said there are sections of the chapter she cannot currently comply with, and that the City has not been complying with, so she did not think it was urgent. Commissioner Kranz suggested Commissioners review the redlined version quickly while Ms. Peterson was in attendance. Ms. Peterson reviewed the proposed changes. Commissioner Kranz suggested it be placed on the September meeting agenda. Commissioner Nelson said he did not feel comfortable making these wholesale changes during the current meeting, especially given that they spent 8 months on the first section to which Chairperson Ostwald and other commissioners agreed. Ms. Skogen suggested the Commissioners review the material during the summer. Staff could provide any additional materials upon request. The Commissioners were in agreement. Commissioner Soule commended Ms. Peterson for her hard work and thoughtfulness in providing this information, and throughout their discussion. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Granroos MOVED and Commissioner Starck seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON OSTWALD DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 8:16 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Debra A. Skogen, MMC City Clerk/Staff Liaison APPROVED 09/05/2017 CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 15, 2017 PAGE 7 Commissioner Manuel Granroos Secretary APPROVED 09/05/2017