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CCM 05/12/2014 CITY COUNCIL MEETING CITY OF FRIDLEY MAY 12, 2014 The City Council meeting for the City of Fridley was called to order by Mayor Lund at 7:06 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Lund Councilmember Barnette Councilmember Saefke Councilmember Varichak Councilmember Bolkcom OTHERS PRESENT: Wally Wysopal, City Manager Deb Skogen, City Clerk Greg Kottsick, Public Works Don Abbott, Director of Public Safety Darcy Erickson, City Attorney PROCLAMATIONS: Presented the following proclamations: National Police Week: May 11-17, 2014 Peace Officers Memorial Day: May 15, 2014 Public Works Week: May 18-24, 2014 APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Board of Appeal and Equalization Meeting of April 14, 2014 City Council Meeting of April 28, 2014 Councilmember Bolkcom indicated Jim Blazer's name is misspelled in the City Council Meeting minutes. It should be Jim Glazer. APPROVED AS CORRECTED. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MAY 12, 2014 PAGE 2 OLD BUSINESS: 1. Second Reading of an Ordinance Amending Fridley City Code, Chapter 28, Carnivals. WAIVED THE READING OF THE ORDINANCE AND ADOPTED ORDINANCE NO. 1316 ON SECOND READING AND ORDERED PUBLICATION. NEW BUSINESS: 2. Claims (163732 – 163931) APPROVED. 3. Licenses. APPROVED THE LICENSES AS SUBMITTED AND AS ON FILE. A CORRECTION WAS MADE TO THE DATE OF THE FRIDLEY ‘49ER DAYS PARADE. IT WILL BE HELD ON JUNE 26, 2014. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA: MOTION by Councilmember Barnette approving the proposed consent agenda. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA: MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to approve the agenda. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OPEN FORUM: No one from the audience spoke. OLD BUSINESS 4. Resolution Waiving Requirement for Non-Qualifying Organization and Supporting the Application for a Minnesota Lawful Gambling Premises Permit for Spring Lake Park Lions at Broadway Bar and Pizza, Located at 8298 University Avenue N.E. (Ward 3) (Continued April 28, 2014). FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MAY 12, 2014 PAGE 3 Mayor Lund removed himself from this item as he has personal interest being a member of the Fridley Lions Club. He handed over the chair to Mayor Pro Tem Robert Barnette. Debra A. Skogen , City Clerk, stated Minnesota state law requires a lawful gambling organization applying for a state premise permit to obtain a resolution of support from the City they will be conducting business in. Fridley City Code Section 603.25.2.E requires an establishment to seek a qualifying organization. Section 30.02.1.B defines a qualifying organization as one having one-third of its membership residing in the City or one having a principal office or business in the City for a continuous period of at least one year. If the establishment is unsuccessful at locating a qualifying organization, they shall attest to that fact. City Council may waive this requirement for a non-qualifying organization. Ms. Skogen stated Broadway Bar and Pizza's lease with Spring Lake Park Youth Hockey has ended. Broadway Bar and Pizza did seek out and interviewed two qualifying organizations but also interviewed three non-qualifying organizations. Based on the interviews, Broadway Bar and Pizza determined Spring Lake Park Lions was the best fit for their organization. The City received a premise permit application from the Spring Lake Park Lions for Broadway Bar and Pizza at 8298 University Avenue NE, and Broadway Bar and Pizza and Spring Lake Park Lions asked the City Council to grant a waiver allowing them to take on lawful gambling in Fridley as a non-qualifying organization. Ms. Skogen stated the premise permit was brought before the City Council on April 28, 2014, for their review. City Council took testimony from the owner of Broadway Bar and Pizza, the president and gambling manager of Spring Lake Park Lions, and the gambling manager of the Fridley Lions. Ms. Skogen stated currently there are no criteria in the City Code for issuing a waiver. Broadway Bar and Pizza have not provided the City with evidence required by the City Code Sec. 603.25.2.E that qualifying organizations are not available or are uninterested in their site. Such evidence would justify granting of the waiver. Ms. Skogen stated staff’s recommendation is to discuss and make a determination of the direction Council wants to proceed by adopting the resolution to waive or deny the request. If the City Council believes the intent of the City Code is to require a qualifying organization if one is interested, the City should adopt the resolution denying the request for a waiver. The resolutions in front of the Council may be amended or changed as they see fit. Councilmember Bolkcom stated one of the reasons they continued the discussion until tonight was to review the minutes. On Page 70 of the agenda book, in the minutes from the Council meeting of April 26, 2010, she had asked if it made sense to put criteria in the ordinance. City Attorney Fritz Knaak responded "with the language in the ordinance, the idea is preference for Fridley organizations and it must be stated so. If preference was created to Fridley organizations it would make sense to have that be an ongoing preference. If no Fridley organization were available and an establishment wants someone to come in, they may come in at the sufferance of the City until a Fridley organization would want it. Council could waive this option without this language in specific situations. Technically Council has the right to do that which may create a FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MAY 12, 2014 PAGE 4 situation where someone would consider an enforceable right to renewal and Council may find them in a court case." Councilmember Bolkcom said the discussion started because there were other communities that would only allow organizations residing in their own community. Fridley wanted to do the same thing. At the last meeting, there was a lot of discussion as to what "residing" meant. One-third of its membership has to reside in Fridley. There was a discussion about what would happen if no organization in Fridley came forward. From what she read throughout all the minutes, the discussion was based on whether they wanted to give preference to Fridley's organizations and be similar to a lot of other communities. Basically the waiver was put in there if there were no organizations. Councilmember Bolkcom stated in the current case, they do have an organization residing in Fridley who wanted to have this gambling license. There was a lot of discussion and they ended up saying there does not need to be any criteria because if there is an organization that resides in Fridley, they would get preference. There would only be a waiver if no organization in Fridley was interested. The City could then allow an organization outside of the City. Mayor Pro Tem Barnette stated he agreed. Councilmember Varichak stated it was nice to get the minutes to know they were on the right track and have the minutes to reaffirm that. Councilmember Bolkcom stated there was even discussion that each organization was supposed to come forward by February 1. Ms. Skogen stated in 2010, the premise permits went from being approved semi-annually to being approved perpetually. At the time the ordinance was drafted, there was only one Fridley organization, other than the American Legion, the VFW and the Knights of Columbus, who held their own charitable gambling in their own buildings. The other organizations were all from outside the City. When the City surveyed the surrounding communities in 2010 and again this year, they found that three of the seven do have preferences and only allow organizations from their communities. The other four do not. Ms. Skogen stated this came forward because Broadway Bar and Pizza interviewed and they wanted to have the establishment of their choice. There could be some different interpretations from the way the ordinance is currently written, which is why staff is suggesting two resolutions. If Council felt the discussion and the intent of the ordinance is that it is only be for a qualifying organization, this would provide them additional evidence in support of the ordinance. Councilmember Bolkcom stated Ms. Skogen mentioned the establishment needs to present evidence. Where is that referenced? Ms. Skogen replied it is a discussion she and the City Attorney have had. The evidence would be that they went out to seek some different organizations. They may have found them, but they were not interested or available. They did go out and they did seek the organizations. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MAY 12, 2014 PAGE 5 Councilmember Bolkcom asked Ms. Skogen for clarification. Is she talking about when an establishment seeks organizations to come into their facility and there is no qualifying organization? Ms. Skogen replied another organization would be seeking a premises permit for Two Stooges. They have interviewed and will be going with the American Legion. However, if the Legion was not interested and because the Fridley Lions had ceased their operation there, the evidence they would bring in is that the Legion was not interested and the Lions had closed their operation so they needed a waiver to bring in somebody else. In this case it is a little bit different. Reading the ordinance the way it is written, even knowing the background, it needs to be clarified a little bit more. That is why staff brought it forward this way. Councilmember Bolkcom stated what Ms. Skogen is saying is that from the intent of the minutes, if you read the minutes from the past meetings, it was the intent of the Council at that time to give a preference to an organization in Fridley but that it also made sense to put something in so there could be a waiver if there was not an organization in our City. That way, the establishment could still have a charitable organization in their establishment. That is how she remembered the whole conversation. It would probably make sense to go back and look at that ordinance and maybe develop criteria. Wally Wysopal , City Manager, stated what Councilmember Bolkcom pointed out is exactly the dilemma the staff was in. The ordinance does not reflect what the Council desired and just made a blanket statement that a petitioner can request a waiver. The objective standards, for staff to interpret that, do not exist. Therefore, it had to come back to Council for clarification. It would be helpful to have that ordinance clarified. At least now they have it on record that Council's interpretation of the waiver means there are no other Fridley organizations that are available to provide that service. What they are being presented with is a request for waiver that there are available organizations, but they prefer to use someone else. That is just the clarification they are looking for. Darcy Erickson, City Attorney, stated Mr. Wysopal has adequately described it. Once you review the record, the minutes of the prior City Council meetings back in 2010, they contain references to creating a more restrictive environment and creating a preference to local organizations. They are a good source of what the intent of the current ordinance is. That is accurately stated as there probably is an organization that is qualifying and interested, but the preference of the applicant is for an outside organization. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to adopt Resolution No. 2014-38, Resolution Denying Waiver of Requirement for Qualifying Organization for Minnesota Lawful Gambling Premises Permit for Spring Lake Park Lions at Broadway Bar and Pizza Located at 8298 University Avenue NE. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, WITH MAYOR LUND ABSTAINING, MAYOR PRO TEM BARNETTE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF MAY 12, 2014 PAGE 6 5. Informal Status Report. None. ADJOURN: MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to adjourn. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:37 P.M. Respectfully submitted by, Denise M. Johnson Scott J. Lund Recording Secretary Mayor