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CCM 10/24/2016 CITY COUNCIL MEETING CITY OF FRIDLEY OCTOBER 24, 2016 The City Council meeting for the City of Fridley was called to order by Mayor Lund at 7:04 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Lund Councilmember Barnette Councilmember Varichak Councilmember Saefke Councilmember Bolkcom OTHERS PRESENT: Wally Wysopal, City Manager Darcy Erickson, City Attorney Kay Qualley, Environmental Planner Scott Hickok, Community Development Director James Kosluchar, Public Works Director Pam Reynolds, 1241 Norton Avenue Arthur Kallenbach, 7740 Beech Street Bert Martinez, 7786 Beech Street Scott Hansen, 7779 Beech Street Natividad Seefeld, 1106 Onondaga Street, APPROVAL OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: APPROVAL OF MINUTES: City Council Meeting of October 10, 2016 APPROVED. NEW BUSINESS 1. Receive the Planning Commission Meeting Minutes of September 21, 2016 RECEIVED. 2. Resolution Calling for Redemption of Certain Outstanding Bonds. Wally Wysopal, City Manager, stated these bonds have been fully paid off. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 2 Pam Reynolds , 1241 Norton Avenue, stated in the agenda she printed off, it said “Resolution Calling for Redemption of Certain Outstanding Bonds.” However, it said they were already paid. Mr. Wysopal replied the bonds are part of the tax levy obligation of the City for 2016. The City has to close them out or call them by the end of the year, but they will be fully paid at that time. Ms. Reynolds stated only if the City Council approves this item. Mr. Wysopal replied the tax proceeds have been collected on these bonds. The County collects that tax and turns it over. The City pays the bond company. If the City does not close these bonds, they will still be open. The City will not owe any money on them, but the bond documents demand the City close the bonds so that the bondholders can then close out their books on that indenture. ADOPTED RESOLUTION NO. 2016-61. 3. Resolution Authorizing Execution of a Source Water Protection Implementation Grant Agreement with the Minnesota Department of Health for Well Sampling. Councilmember Bolkcom asked how important it was to make sure the City used the Clean Water Land and the Legacy Amendment logo and all the materials. James Kosluchar, Director of Public Works, said they will not be promoting the project. It really does not apply. ADOPTED RESOLUTION NO. 2016-62. 4. Resolution Authorizing Execution of End Grant Agreement with the Metropolitan Council for Inflow/Infiltration Reduction. ADOPTED RESOLUTION NO. 2016-63. 5. Approve Proposed 2017 Development Review Schedule for the Planning Commission, Appeals Commission and City Council Action. APPROVED. 6. Claims (174370 - 174528) APPROVED. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 3 7. Estimate: Blackstone Contractors, LLC 775 Corcoran Trail East Corcoran, MN 55340 Oak Glen Creek Project No. 380 Estimate No. 9............................................................................$2,000.00 Jim Kosluchar, Public Works Director, said is the final warranty payment. The project was completed two years ago, and the City has a two-year warranty on the plantings. City staff did an inspection and made a payment last year around August. The City held the payment to the contractor until the warranty period expired. Councilmember Bolkcom stated so everything is going fine. Mr. Kosluchar replied they are meeting their percentage goals. He thought there was a 70 percent survivability rate. The plants that were put in there are pretty large right now. APPROVED. ADOPTION OF PROPOSED CONSENT AGENDA: MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to approve the proposed consent agenda. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. OPEN FORUM, VISITORS: Arthur Kallenbach , 7740 Beech Street, submitted a letter written by people in his neighborhood regarding a concern they have for flooding on the 7700 block of Beech Street. The people at the meeting with him are all building owners and operate businesses out of those buildings. There is one more business owner who is not represented at this meeting, but he signed the letter. Mr. Kallenbach stated they have had flooding for the last 25 years because of the action of the utility department of the City of Fridley and the design of their storm sewer system. Their businesses are along the railroad track. As the water is conveyed through the storm sewer system, it collects at a point just before the railroad track. It goes under those tracks in a 72-inch pipe. After it goes under the railroad tracks, it goes through a short ditch, and then travels under East River Road. Mr. Kallenbach stated when Anoka County put in that storm sewer pipe, they put in a 48-inch pipe. Water is going from a 72-inch pipe into a 48-inch pipe and is in an enclosed system from that point until it reaches the river. It goes from that 48-inch pipe and drops into a manhole and FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 4 goes into a 60-inch pipe and is conveyed down to the river. The math to get water from a 72- inch pipe into 48-inch pipe would have to be almost vertical and it is not--it is horizontal. The math just does not work. Mr. Kallenbach stated what the City has done to keep water from flowing over East River Road is to take the 72-inch pipe, and cut down about 70 to 80% of the flow. Therefore, 20-30 percent of it is allowed to flow. It backs up water onto Beech Street to the point where on September 21 they had anywhere from 10 inches of water in their buildings to up to 44 inches of water. Mr. Kallenbach stated they are talking about damages to property in excess of $200,000, and this was to protect the backyards of the houses on the west side of East River Road. When water flows over East River Road and runs down, there is immediate erosion that costs the City around $30,000 to rectify. Every time their buildings flood, it costs about $200,000 between the six businesses. That is not even counting the value of their buildings. How do you sell a building that is not in a flood zone, but still floods several times a year? There is potentially millions of dollars of real estate value that is worthless. One of the owners present said if they want to use this property as a holding pond, they should buy their buildings and plant cattails. That is the only way they would ever be able to sell their buildings. Mr. Kallenbach stated what they are asking the City to do is to have the City utility department immediately remove the 2 x 6's that were put across the 72-inch pipe, and allow that pipe to flow as it was designed and let Anoka County deal with the rest. They need to increase the flow under East River Road. He understands it is expensive. It was done wrong, but the business owners should not have to suffer for that. Mayor Lund stated this is not a new problem. He recalled an occurrence with at least one business in the past on Beech Street. He assumed they are located in the middle of the block where there is a low spot. Mr. Kallenbach is right. When they had the huge rainfall, he thought about Beech Street and the problems they might be experiencing. There were a lot of places that had problems because of the large amount of rain. Mr. Kallenbach stated it happens several times a year. This was an exceptional event. They do have a foot and one-half of water in the street several times a year. There is a problem with cars driving through there at night. They see the surface of the water and do not realize how deep it is. Cars are flying into this at 30 mph. People have stalled at 10:00 at night with kids in the car. A resident in the area helped one family, dragging them out in a foot and one-half of water and wrapping them up in blankets in their living room until the water went down and they were able to walk home or get a ride home. This happens frequently. Mayor Lund stated the City needs to look into this issue. He would like to confer with City staff. All these issues can be dealt with, but it always come back to the one thing and that is cost. It is not a great answer for them and it is not going to be remedied immediately, but they will see what they can do. The pipes should get larger as they get closer to the river, not smaller. It is segmented and he cannot tell them with any certainty at this point without review why it is like that. They will do their best to address the problem. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 5 Mr. Kallenbach stated he thinks it is important for everyone to understand, they purchased these buildings thinking they included a properly designed storm system. Someone else made the mistake, and they are suffering for it. As to the monetary concerns, the building owners are paying the price for that. It needs to come to an end and it needs to happen quickly. Mayor Lund stated they will see if they can resolve this matter. They owe it to the City's business community in that specific area and to try and do a better job of addressing the issue. Councilmember Barnette asked Mr. Kallenbach if they have a problem in the spring with the melting snow. Mr. Kallenbach replied, not necessarily, it comes through slowly. It is the rains in mid-summer and late summer. Councilmember Bolkcom stated they have met with Mr. Martinez in the past. It is not just the pipe. There are a lot more things involved. The City is working with Coon Creek and working with the Watershed. It is not a simple fix and it will take some time. Mr. Kallenbach stated in the past when those boards have not been in place, they did not have a problem. There is only a problem when those boards are in place. Mr. Kallenbach stated they would like transparency. They have asked many, many times over the last decade about what is going on, and they have gotten different answers. It would be nice if there could be a commission that could investigate exactly what the history is of that pipe and the whole drainage system. They are talking about the lives and livelihoods of 70 to 80 people who own and operate all the businesses, and the employees that work there. This is not a small deal. Bert Martinez, 7786 Beech Street, stated he has been here multiple times. Staff has been in his business, and he would like to welcome another visit in their businesses. Hopefully they can meet with the owners in the area of damage so they can see that three weeks after that they still have a tremendous mess. Mr. Martinez stated this goes beyond the monetary costs to being life endangering. That is where he draws that line. At one of the flooding events they had, he was informed that the valve was left closed. Five Fridley employees were there working shortly before the storm came. They could only get their tools and get out of there. There really needs to be a solution. It is not just economic hardship they are going through. These are not big business. These gentlemen sit in front of lead machines and mill machines and they are fabricating pieces with their own hands. These gentlemen make parts that are so accurate they are used by the military in their planes and the commercial Boeing airplanes. They come with open hearts to try and find a solution because they are tired. Scott Hansen , 7779 Beech Street, stated he is at the bottom of this area. They had 18 inches of standing water in their building. Councilmember Bolkcom stated there are a lot more things involved in this, but it seems kind of strange to them that the last big flood they had like the FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 6 Mayor said about six years ago, they were told that obstruction was removed. They did not have any problems for several years. Now all of a sudden it is back again. They want to know what happened. Mayor Lund stated they are going to have a meeting and see if they can come resolve this. Mr. Hansen stated with this last flood, they were told in the Fridley newsletter that they had a 100-year rain and it was far too much for the City's sewer system to handle. They do not know that because of the obstruction. Remove the obstruction and let us see what it was designed for. He said he runs a machine shop, not a dive shop. Mr. Hansen said Mayor Lund mentioned something that rubbed him the wrong way. He said the Mayor said he thought about them with the big rainfall. He asked where the Mayor was. Mayor Lund s aid admittedly, he was not out there trying to resolve the issue that night. Mr. Hansen replied that the Mayor had not been there during the last month to see what these businesses have been dealing with. Mayor Lund stated this is the first he has heard about it. He did think about them. Mr. Hansen replied that is why they are here tonight. They don’t want to be in the back of someone’s mind anymore. They would like some answers. Mayor Lund stated he was dealing with his own basement flooding at the time. He said they are willing to take a look at the issues and see if they can come to some solution. ADOPTION OF 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. PUBLIC HEARINGS: 8. Consider Amending the Fridley City Code, Chapter 113, Solid Waste Disposal and Recycling Collection. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to open the public hearing. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY, AND THE PUBLIC HEARING WAS OPENED AT 7:28 P.M. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 7 Kay Qualley, Environmental Planner, stated this item is for consideration of Text Amendment #TA16-03, amending Chapter 113, Solid Waste and Recycling. The purpose of review of this chapter is to update it to match State language and other aspects of the City Code, to improve Code enforcement capabilities (e.g. no burning of garbage, recycling items) and to ban that because we see it happening with the Code enforcement work throughout the City. We would add two categories of licenses--yard waste and organics collection--to increase tonnage reporting accuracy. Those are the goals and objectives. Mr. Qualley stated yard waste is a separate license. The City is not currently licensing that way. That is a service offered through holders of residential and commercial solid waste licenses. The County is now tracking yard waste tonnage reporting and staff is requesting that a separate type of license for these yard waste haulers be instituted. No other changes are suggested. Ms. Qualley stated the fees generally just involve the amount of staff time that it takes to review the license, which is very minimal. Ms. Qualley stated the term, "organics" goes beyond the compostable items that go in your home compost heap because you cannot put meat, bones, scraps, pizza boxes, Kleenex, and dinner napkins into a home compost, per City code. The type of organics being collected in Minneapolis, St. Louis Park and other parts of the Twin Cities, includes meat scraps and pizza boxes. Ms. Qualley stated based on conversations with the MPCA, organics account for 35 percent of what households toss away based. The numbers range from 30 to 40 percent, but by diverting that and turning it into a manufactured product of compost, it can be used along highways and used and bagged to be used in people's yards to increase the water holding capacity in soil, and decrease the amount of water used in the yard in the summertime. They call that source separation. All that means is the owner of the banana peel decides not to turn it into municipal solid waste by incorporating it with garbage but, just like recycling, capturing it and placing it in a dedicated container in a compostable bag. Ms. Qualley stated it is really necessary to get to the 75 percent 2030 metro diversion from mixed municipal solid waste goal. We only have 14 years to get the metro from approximately 45 to 50 percent diversion now to 75 percent diversion by 2030. Ms. Qualley stated Fridley is not currently collecting organics and it is leaking out to the other communities and to common dumpsters in Anoka County and Columbia Heights. Overall the rest of the County is collecting about 8.5 percent organics and collecting about 41.69 percent in recycling. Ms. Qualley stated they can be proud as a county that they do a little bit better than the rest of the Metro. We got to about 90 percent of our recycling goal last year. We are still working on improving recycling at our multi-units. If we can add organics collection and up the amount of source separated recyclables in terms of recycling and organics removal rate, we will be close to 50 percent of diversion as well. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 8 Ms. Qualley stated as to updates of the license category, staff is suggesting an organics license category, a single-source separated compostable (organics). The City does not currently have a provision for it as this time, and the City would have an organics recycling licensure for residential purposes only. The organics are processed and manufactured in officially-licensed compost areas. Ms. Qualley stated some of them in the past have been located as far as Shakopee and run by the Sioux. There are now more composting sites closer to home. Ms. Qualley stated right now Anoka County has requested that yard waste and organics and tonnage be tracked. Up to this point they have only been able to track municipal yard waste in a loose collection from the street sweepings. However, by licensing yard waste collectors, the City will get information to improve the accuracy of that mandated reporting. It is not part of the SCORE fund, but it is part of the distinct organics reporting categories. It will stipulate using the County format that every city in the County has to use for tonnage which is collected. Recycling tonnage, yard waste tonnage, and organics tonnage will be tracked starting January 1, 2017, or when the license is renewed, which in some cases could be the last day of March or April 1. Ms. Qualley stated as to the other items in Chapter 113, such as prohibiting outdoor storage of bags of leaves, instead of composting them or removal and hauling away, a lot of people are not availing themselves of yard waste services or of composting or taking their organic material someplace like the Bunker Hills compost site. They are just putting it in black plastic bags all over their yard. It is creating a Code enforcement issue because it is a violation of outdoor storage. Ms. Qualley stated also the Fire Department has requested that plastic dumpsters located inside a building be banned for mixed municipal solid waste. Compared to metal dumpsters, plastic dumpsters burn too hot and fast. The Fire Department is no longer allowing them and would like that included with the City Code. Ms. Qualley stated also they are indicating that construction dumpsters are not allowed in the street. Ms. Qualley stated as to other chapter housekeeping, they are updating a few definitions. Ms. Qualley stated and revisions would disallow burning of solid waste, recycling, organics, and yard waste. It does not affect fire wood. They are finding that people are burning things like aluminum cans and organics in order to avoid hiring a solid waste hauler. Staff would like to expressly have that prohibited in the revisions to Chapter 113. Ms. Qualley stated they are increasing the insurance amount from $500,000 to a $1,000,000 to update coverage for the license holders for liability insurance. Ms. Qualley stated staff is also requiring that dumpster enclosures be accessible to haulers and residents at multi-units. She is currently participating in an architectural task course with Anoka County as the lone Anoka County city representative to try and work on perhaps something with FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 9 University or perhaps with the architectural industry to try and increase the usability of these enclosures for both haulers and residents. There might be little kids coming down to bring out the garbage and they have to open up a gate, pull a pin, and hold the door open. What happens instead is that garbage tends to get dumped in the recycling part outside of the dumpster. That is contamination and they have poor results in multi-units as a result. Ms. Qualley stated also trying to reach a point where the designs for the enclosures are a little more user friendly for haulers. At any rate, right now they do their best in Code Enforcement to make sure the enclosures look good and function as well as possible. However, if they can improve designs in the future, they will certainly do so. Ms. Qualley stated they added commercial recycling requirements language because in 2016, the State Law requires commercial buildings with at least a four-foot cubic yard garbage dumpster to recycle at least three streams of recycling (e.g. cardboard, plastics, paper). A business would be subject to a Code enforcement letter that has at least a four-foot cubic yard garbage dumpster, and they are only collecting cardboard. They would say, you want to get a cart. Get some single stream recycling going here to be compliant with State law. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to page 134, No. 4 under 115A-551, Recycling and asked what No. 4 meant. It says "residential waste materials that would be mixed municipal solid but for the fact they are not collected as such." Mr. Qualley replied, some types of waste products if it is excessive to needs. The raspberries are a little too ripe and they are going to go into some kind of container of your choice because you own those raspberries but they are a little riper than you prefer to eat them. Now they are excess to your needs and are waste material. They could be mixed in as the waste that you dump into the garbage but, if you put them in an organics collection container, they become part of the manufacturing process, a compostable item called organics. Councilmember Bolkcom asked why the counties outside the metropolitan area only have a 35 percent weight of total solid waste generation versus if you are in the metropolitan area. Ms. Qualley replied she suspect the reasons that these rules for 2030 waste diversion or source separated useful materials diversion from a mixed municipal solid waste stream is because in the country or in these smaller towns, their ability to either pay for it or have reliable service that is cost effective is extremely limited. Much like she as talking about with, currently Anoka County and Columbia Heights having a dumpster where you can bring your baggy of organics, they are having to do that with recyclables and then they have going to have to do it with organics and other things. They are having to transport their stuff. They do not have the convenience in much of out-state Minnesota of having a container picked up from the end of their driveway. They cannot possibly meet the tonnage goals, and the same thing will be true of organics. Councilmember Bolkcom stated then on page 136 it says, each County must be submitted by October 31, 1995. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 10 Ms. Qualley replied what she is looking at right now is Minn. Stat. Sec. 115A.551 and the recycling strategy has a start date of October 31, 1991, to approve the strategy county by county. It had to be consistent with the county solid waste plan. That language was written a while back, but it is still part of Minnesota State Statute. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to page 138, No. 12, materials that are separated. She asked if food was considered recyclable materials. It says, "recyclable materials that are separated from mixed municipal solid waste for purposes of reprocessing included but not limited to." Ms. Qualley stated Minn. Stat. Sec. 115A.551 talks about recyclables being organics, compostable waste, traditional recycling materials like they have in the City's recyclable single stream, as well as yard waste. In Fridley's case, they are using their recyclables as the plastic stream, the paper stream, the cardboard, and the tin and aluminum can or container material. Councilmember Bolkcom stated it did not make sense. We were not really encouraging organics recycling. She asked why it would not be considered one of our recycling materials. Ms. Qualley replied the reason they do not include compostable materials and food waste in with the actual recycling stream is because sometimes grease contamination can prevent recyclables from reaching an end repurposing, such as clean white paper. You cannot go down one grade, because then you go down to unusable. That is why pizza boxes are not included in recycling. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she understands that, but asked if they were considering food a recyclable at some point. Ms. Qualley said for their purposes in the City Code, they are going to call the food waste “organics” or source separated compostable materials; and even though it is a source separated recyclable, they are not going to call it part of recycling because the City has a recycling contract that has distinct streams going into it, and the compostable items and the organics would be separate. Two different commodities collected separately, both recyclables under State Statute, along with yard waste. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to page 141 and asked how they came up with the time slot of 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for placement of the containers at the curb? Ms. Qualley replied, Chapter 113 predates her employment with the City; therefore, she is not entirely sure about that. She thinks it may be because a certain number of people are done with their work day and it might be convenient for them to bring the containers to the curb. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to page 142, Section 113.10, it says, "Composting is permitted on residential or City-approved properties." She asked if City-owned properties should be included. Ms. Qualley replied this composting is different than the collection of source-separated organic materials that might go to a very large composting site. The recent adoption of the Minnesota FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 11 Pollution Control Agency that a medium to a medium-small composting site is now allowed. A composting site at multiple areas that are community gardens would be allowed under this new scenario with the MPCA. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if the City did composting, such as Public Works. She asked if they put the grass clippings anywhere. Mr. Kosluchar replied they haul to a compost site in Anoka County. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to Section 113.10(5), is there an easier way to say "5 cubic yards"? To not exceed "x" amount by "x" amount? There is a gentleman where his whole back yard was composted. Ms. Qualley replied, a cubic foot measurement, a cubic foot being 3 x 3 x 3, is a pretty standard way to measure compost because oftentimes they have to be enclosed in either something with side walls or something like perhaps sort of a glorified recycling cart that you can stand on a frame and, generally, that is quantifiable by a cubic measurement. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to 113.10(7) and asked if she could put her weeds in a compostable bag and put it in her composting. Ms. Qualley replied, if you had a home-composting operation and you are mixing your greens and browns in a traditional home compost pile, a compostable bag of leaves could be put in there. Councilmember Bolkcom stated but here it says, in plastic or any other types of bags. Ms. Qualley stated the key phrase in there she believed in there is not be stored. Because of the high decomposition rate of organics in bio bags that are decomposable, they would they would be around for a very short time. What they are finding in code enforcement is 40 to 50 black plastic bags of leaves that do not decompose or clear plastic bags that are strewn around people's yards that are outdoor storage violations. In that language they were trying to avoid that. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she understands, but asked if she could put her paper bag in there. Ms. Qualley replied it is her experience that anything that impedes the decomposition process that adds another layer to it which is the physical barrier of a paper bag or even a biodegradable bag would just slow the process a little bit. What you really want is leaves mixed in with your banana peels and scraps in a home compost operation. As soon as those items get into contact with another, the quicker the process goes. That would be her opinion. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if increasing the insurance coverage to $1,000,000 was standard now. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 12 Ms. Qualley replied, yes. This proposal was reviewed by City Clerk Deb Skogen, and in terms of trying to update it and make it consistent. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if they felt there was any hardship. Ms. Qualley replied the coverage is pretty much coming in at that amount. They did not feel there would be any impact. Councilmember Bolkcom stated she understands "D", the Organics Collection License Procedures. If this ordinance were to pass, any hauler who would come in after this becomes a new ordinance or change in the ordinance would not be eligible to do organics collection, correct? Ms. Qualley replied, that would be true only for units 1-4 which would be simple family homes through a fourplex. Beyond that point it would be handled just like 13 plus units for recycling licensing in the City where that is a separate thing from a City contract. They would like to see one single license, exactly like recycling for units 1-4 because it is recycling essentially. It is another source separated product taken out of the municipal solid waste stream by the owner of that material. They do not think though with the current challenges for a multi-unit recycling rate at 40 pounds per unit if there is 107 pounds Anoka County is requiring, they have quite a ways to go with just plain recycling here. However, introducing yet another stream of complexity for multi-units that were not quite there yet would be imprudent. Therefore, staff is only recommending units 1-4 as an opt-in program in the future for the single licensure that would be able to be done in that fashion and have a regularized system the City can ride the coattails of other communities that are doing an excellent job of promotion right now and start to get closer to that 8 percent figure the rest of Anoka County is doing in organics collection and the City is currently at zero. Councilmember Bolkcom asked, and because we are not really going towards the commercial properties at this point, she thought a restaurant would have more organics than anyone else. There is nothing that would preclude a restaurant in our community to go to organics at this point if they found a hauler that would take it for them. Ms. Qualley replied, that is absolutely correct. Commercial removal of organic is happening. Organics are being removed from schools right. North Park Elementary School is already engaging in the organics collection process. However, the City's recycling goal is based on residential collection which includes multi-units and single-family homes. That 2030 75 percent diversion goal is about residential. They have had meetings though with the public school system about trying to improve both recycling and organics collection (e.g. at Stevenson School). Several commission members from the Environmental Quality and Energy Commission have been working on that. They try to encourage that every place that they can. Councilmember Bolkcom stated they cannot stress enough about the container placement. People are putting containers in the street. It is especially a problem with snow is being removed. She suggested that when this gets passed, a newsletter article could be written about the ordinance and include a request for people to leave the containers in the driveway for collection. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 13 Councilmember Bolkcom stated as to volume-based fees, she wanted to reduce her cart size and was told they were going to charge her money to pick it up. She thought that was wrong and didn’t know if that could be changed in the ordinance. Councilmember Bolkcom referred to page 148, under "11", conviction of any crime or misdemeanor pertaining to the license held. She asked for an example of what would cause their license to have their license revoked. Ms. Qualley replied, she would say a record of serious liability claims that have been unsatisfied could be a cause for discussion about whether the license should be revoked. Some of the other things that could cause a license to be revoked would be undue pressure on elderly citizens, bait and switch tactics to increase their share of the market, and things that were highly offensive to residents. Luckily with the quality of our solid waste haulers, that has been just about non- existent. Councilmember Bolkcom asked about recordkeeping for yard waste. Ms. Qualley replied, the City reports on all types of categories--the recycling, drop-off events, the recyclables, everything from the bikes the City gets, the tires it gets, etc. The City aggregates that at the County's request for the purposes of the City's SCORE reconciliation, and payback for events and promotions that it does. The City tracks its tonnage as well as the grant and financial records conciliation in all categories. And that is just another category, the yard waste and organics collection right now contains only municipal collection like all the leaves that are swept from the street. The City does not have the numbers and information for yard waste collected for residential properties. Councilmember Bolkcom stated but she thought Ms. Qualley said the County keeps track. Ms. Qualley replied, the County requests it from the City. They ask each of the cities to track it and submit those numbers which they then aggregate only for the state. Pam Reynolds, 1241 Norton Avenue, asked if what was in their packets tonight was the final language as opposed to what was at the Planning Commission, because there are some drastic changes between the two. Mayor Lund stated what they have is the most current language. Ms. Reynolds stated she did her research on the one that came from the Planning Commission and then she went on-line this morning and found that it was different. For example, in the budget impact there is a statement in the one for the Planning Commission that said, in contrast with the recycling program, the program if adopted would be opt-in and paid for entirely by fees from eligible, interested residents billed by the contractor instead of the City. She thought that was kind of important. Councilmember Bolkcom asked if it was in the ordinance. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 14 Ms. Reynolds replied it is not in the ordinance. Ms. Qualley replied she wrote an entirely different memo for Council. When she said the budget impact was supervisory in nature, it did not have anything to do with the collection of organics. If two licenses are collected, the existing staff, Deb Skogen, herself and the other involved people who do licensing, such as the Fire Department, are already in place and there would be no additional cost. If down the road they put together an RFP like they did for recycling when they had quotes for an opt-in organics program, the residents that opt in would see a charge like they do in St. Louis Park. It might be $40 a year or $10 a quarter. She does not know that information. Ms. Reynolds' comment is correct but by saying there would be no budget impact, she is not suggesting that a future opt-in household would not experience any budget impact because that is yet to be determined in the future. Ms. Reynolds stated that is how she understood it but a part of it was left out. Also, in the original version in the title it was called "Solid Waste Disposal, Organics, Yard Waste and Recycling Collection". In the new version "Yard Waste" has been removed. She is guessing it was just rolled right in to the term organics. Ms. Qualley replied, Attorney Erickson pointed out in between versions of this document she had managed to omit the words “Yard Waste.” That will be rectified immediately. Ms. Reynolds stated she is a member of the public. The information she originally had came from a public hearing at the Planning Commission so that is the information she was going from. Then she gets a different document, she has to go through again, and it may have caused issues for other people. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Mayor Lund do they not seek changes from the public. That is why they have a Planning Commission. They have a Planning Commission that might suggest things, they might ask questions, they might ask for clarifications similar to what she asked for tonight. They do see changes between the Planning Commission and when it comes before the Council. Is this anything different from what normally happens? They are trying to be transparent. Often there are changes. Mr. Hickok replied, that is correct. The beauty of having two hearings for an ordinance like this, one at the Planning Commission and one at the City Council, is they may get a great recommendation from the Planning Commission after they have reviewed it. However, there are occasions like Ms. Qualley just mentioned that Attorney Erickson saw something in there, it is caught before it comes to the hearing before the City Council and will be corrected. Ms. Reynolds asked in this document at 113.04, Containment of Solid Waste. "The owner of any dwelling unit or commercial establishment must provide and maintain on premises sufficient containers for the storage of all solid waste accumulated on the premises between collections." Then towards the back (paragraph 9 on page 147) where it talks about enforcement, it basically says the owner is responsible for making sure they have what they need to contain garbage. However, under the new language for enforcement, it says "The owner of a building or premises in or upon which a violation of any provision of this Chapter has been committed, or shall exist; FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 15 or the lessee of the entire building or entire premises," she has asked before about rental property and why the City Code says the owner is responsible for it but then it allows them to lay that off in the lease. So then they go into the enforcement language and they make enforcement language that lays it on both of them when if they would just enforce the language that the owner has to take care of it. Councilmember Bolkcom stated, it says entire building. Ms. Reynolds stated it says the owner or lessee of any apartment building, yes. Mayor Lund stated because sometimes the owner leaves it up to the lessee. Ms. Reynolds stated, yes, and they had that problem on Norton Avenue where the lessee was not getting rid of their garbage. Councilmember Bolkcom asked, why is it written that way? She asked staff to explain and if it was enforceable the way it is written. Mr. Hickok stated they see this as an improvement, frankly, to the process as it is right now. It is enforceable and is collected. When you enter into an agreement with the owner of a property, it is yours often to maintain it. The City is not going to be referee in those issues. Oftentimes they have had to issue a citation to both the owner and the tenant in a situation where there is an issue. There is culpability on both parts and the ordinance, the way it is written, is correct and is the way it was intended. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Attorney Erickson if she sees any problems with enforcement with the way it is written. Darcy Erickson, City Attorney, replied she does not think this provision is any different than other codes across the cities. Oftentimes the owner may be out of state, you cannot reach them, or the lessee may vacate the premises and leave the property stranded so it provides flexibility to the City and enforcement. Ms. Reynolds asked regarding 113.12, Recycling Collection, paragraphs (1)(B) and (2). In multiple dwelling units, the last line, says "Owners must also keep recycling carts or dumpsters clean and free from contamination, such as Mixed Municipal Solid Waste or Organics". If she owns an apartment building and she has her recycling, somebody has to make sure they are not throwing their garbage in the recycling or vice versa or just not into the recycling. She wondered why that language also does not apply to commercial establishments. Ms. Qualley replied, the reason why they have added that language is that doing inspections of multiple-unit dwellings lately has shown that there is a blurring of the lines of organics versus recycling materials. They are starting to see more of that and they are also starting to see that they need to strengthen this language because the multi-units performance of 40 pounds per unit instead of 170 pounds per person is the dismal failure they have of those who are managing or owning the apartments and their recycling programs as well as indicating what they have to do in FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 16 terms of education and inspections to make sure that these are cleaned out. The City has received calls from people saying they cannot recycle because the recycling company has reduced the number of carts down to nearly nothing because they are always full of contamination and they do not want to just have to throw the contents away. They cannot recycle them because they are contaminated. Councilmember Bolkcom asked what would be wrong with putting them in commercial establishments. Ms. Qualley replied, right now part of her job is the inspection of residential properties for compliance. If they happen to see in the course of code enforcement that somebody is missing recycling containers they might add that to a letter. She physically, and part of the SCORE Fund brief, is not to inspect commercial properties for recycling violations. Councilmember Bolkcom stated the idea behind the ordinance though is not just for tomorrow. It might be some day. Why not add it. Mr. Hickok stated it has always been the City's philosophy that what they put it in the ordinance is enforceable. Without additional staff and staff time, it is not enforceable. They are already obligated through the law to inspect the residential projects. They do not have the staff to do the commercial. Ms. Reynolds stated in that same section, too, it says recyclables in carts, containers, and dumpsters must be placed in close proximity to Mixed Municipal Solid Waste carts, containers and dumpsters to make recycling equally accessible to persons who are disposing materials. The next sentence basically says the same thing. Ms. Qualley stated they are very close, one is about dumpsters and other dumpsters and one is about carts with dumpsters. There is sort of a mixing of items. What typically happens on a commercial or rather a multi-unit site is that the recycling carts might be geographically distant from garbage dumpsters and that just about submarines the effectiveness of the recycling that is always contaminated. Perhaps Attorney Erickson may be able to reword that sentence before the first reading. Ms. Reynolds stated Section 113.15(1), License Requirement, it states "No person shall engage in collecting or conveying solid waste, organics or recyclable material from any premises, other than their own property in the City unless that person holds a valid license hereunder. Each such vehicle so used must be licensed." She had asked Ms. Qualley about landscape companies or lawn care services. If she hires someone to cut her grass and they dump the mower bags in their trailer and haul them off, do they have to be licensed? Ms. Qualley told her if they wanted to get a license so they could get containers and haul it away but the fact is they are already doing it. Do they have to get licensed? Ms. Qualley replied, the distinction here is that yard waste is collected currently from April to November on a weekly basis and having been a landscape contractor for 22 years, it is pretty rare for a landscape contractor to collect yard waste that consistently. However, if a landscape company wanted to provide a hard body container in 96-gallon and collect religiously at the FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 17 same time and same date as the garbage schedule from April to November for a rate, yard waste does not preclude them from doing so. That is definitely not the business they are typically in. Basically all they are doing is saying nothing is going to change for picking up of yard waste right now except we are going to have a separate license for it, and we are going to track the tonnage. Councilmember Bolkcom stated if a lawn service mows her lawn and takes the grass away this is totally different. Ms. Reynolds stated but they are hauling yard waste within the City. When the contractor comes and does the townhouses at the end of Norton Avenue, he hauls away a fairly good sized trailer of yard waste. Mayor Lund stated he probably only takes it up during fall cleanup. Ms. Reynolds replied fall clean-up and every time he cuts the grass. Ms. Qualley stated this would not fit the profile of yard waste collectors who provide a hard bodied container for collection of yard waste until pick-up by a regularized truck on an exact day of garbage collections. Councilmember Bolkcom stated what Ms. Reynolds is saying is if she is a lawn service, does she now need a license because she is taking the yard waste away? Ms. Reynolds stated that is her question because it says anyone removing yard waste. It does not say anyone hauling from container. Ms. Qualley stated she made a note of that. Natividad Seefeld, 1106 Onondaga Street, stated she also wonders about that because of their tree service and lawn service. It is lawn and plowing actually. They are getting ready to pick up all of their leaves that are in composting bags and it is random all the way through November until they close up. First of all will with the licensing changes, will that okay? Councilmember Bolkcom stated it will be looked at. This is a public hearing so it would not affect anybody who is now having someone do their work. Attorney Erickson stated she and Ms. Qualley can discuss changes to the content so that it is clear who is being licensed and who is not and what kind of activity is regulated and not. Councilmember Bolkcom stated they are not trying to change that. This is more for haulers who do this on a weekly basis. It is not necessarily someone who is mowing your lawn, correct? Ms. Qualley replied correct. Staff made a lot of changes in this chapter. It was a little bit dated, and they were trying to grasp the best language to indicate that those who provide a container for residents to collect yard waste throughout the week and then they haul their company's container away once a week with a yard waste contract from April through November would be subject to FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 18 this license. Landscape contractors who pick up seasonally or who might rake some grass even on a regularized basis would not be subject to these. That is a separate business model. The City just asks them to give tonnage amounts. Ms. Seefeld asked how organics recycling applied to the manufactured mobile home communities. She is in a smaller one and there is a larger one across the street. That language is not in there. It is apartments and business. She asked if that needed to be included. Ms. Qualley stated the City's recycling contract currently for single families through 12 units covers manufactured homes. Those residents would also be covered under a single organics license for housing 1-4 units. This will move forward with an RFP and create an opt-in organics program. Ms. Seefeld is welcome to participate in that program. Councilmember Bolkcom asked Ms. Seefeld if they have their own garbage. Ms. Seefeld replied their particular units are considered a cooperative so they are run as a business vs. the one across the street. Mr. Hickok stated the law is pretty careful about protecting manufactured developments and basically in all way, shapes, and forms the City treats them as single-family residential. Granted there is R-4 language in the City Code that talks about manufactured homes for things like setback for and the like that is true; but with things like this they would consider it a single- family home. Attorney Erickson stated the license created for collection of organics references residential properties. In this chapter residential properties are single, double, triple, and quadruple dwellings and manufactured homes. The definition for residential properties is set forth including manufactured homes. There is a provision for commercial establishments and multiple dwellings which is also defined. She invited Ms. Seefeld to look at the definitions, but they are trying to establish kind of a narrower scope for the opt-in at this point. Ms. Seefeld asked how they opted in for organics. Ms. Qualley replied they would talk a look at what an opt-in program would like at the end of this process. MOTION by Councilmember Saefke to close the public hearing. Seconded by Councilmember Bolkcom. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE HEARING WAS CLOSED AT 8:30 P.M. 9. Consider an Ordinance Opting Out of the Requirements of Minnesota Statutes, Section 462.3593. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 19 MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to continue the public hearing until November 14, 2016, to provide more time for clarification of the ordinance. Seconded by Councilmember Varichak. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 10. First Reading of an Ordinance Opting Out of the Requirements of Minnesota Statutes, Section 462.3593. MOTION by Councilmember Bolkcom to continue the first reading of the ordinance until November 14, 2016, to provide more time for clarification of the ordinance. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 11. Approve Change Order No. 3 for 2015 Street Rehabilitation Project No. ST2015-01. Jim Kosluchar, Public Works Director, stated this change order relates to the 2015 street project which was continued on through this season. It was awarded in July 2015. The project has reached substantial completion. They still have some punch list items to complete and those are getting wrapped up. Staff has directed alteration of the project work which fulfills the intent of the plans and specifications, reduces the costs of the work as much as possible, and actually provides value and reduces the effects of construction on residents and property owners. Mr. Kosluchar stated in this change order, Items 3.01 and 3.02 and 3.03 and 3.04 are all interrelated. They have 3,900 lineal feet of additional feet of additional curb and gutter and 371 square yards of additional driveway directed for replacement. These are related to additional utility main and service work that impacted curbing and driveways in the project area. They also encountered some pretty exceptionally flat topography in some areas that made minor grade corrections necessary. They typically have a standard offset on curb joints and they had to minimize that. They are going to look at that very carefully because some of the street curb needed to carry quite a ways before reaching an inlet. They wanted to make sure there was not standing water out there. Mr. Kosluchar stated these are non-assessable items which they allocated to any applicable utility fund, and work not related to utilities is eligible for municipal state aid funding so it does not impact assessments. Mr. Kosluchar stated Item 3.05 directed the contractor to place eight additional six-inch water main valves and because they had to reroute some of the water main on the project. That was to accommodate some requests made by property owners in one case and then to actually avoid conflict with the storm sewer in another case. They also replaced some additional existing valves that leaked upon operation so basically they did not hold. Again this is a non-assessable item allocated to the water utility fund. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 20 Mr. Kosluchar stated Item 3.06 directed the contractor to replace water services to the property line and that includes what are known as lawn taps. These are where the water main is across the street and in their plans they had just a connection at the main for the service. Water staff was concerned enough about the condition they saw of some of those services they decided to extend those across the street. They wanted to ensure there were no service leaks from those pipes that they touched with the water main so they replaced those as well. Mr. Kosluchar stated the proposed change order amount is summarized. The existing contract is nearly $1.9 million. The proposed change order amount is fairly large, $148,000, and increases the project by approximately 8.1 percent. They did look back at the project budget before recommending this. Each funding source is still under project budget including the streets, the storm water and sanitary sewer; and the aggregate of the project is still $154,000 under budget. If you total those all together the City is still under budget on the project. Ms. Kosluchar stated staff recommends approval of the change order as it fulfills the intent and plans and specifications, reduces the cost of the work and performance insofar as possible, and reduces the affect of construction on their residents and property owners. Councilmember Bolkcom asked what made it so high. Ms. Kosluchar replied there are a few factors that weigh into that. Because they have flat curb, it is more prone to freeze-thaw deterioration. They had icy spots in the gutters. The City does have a variability of soils in that project area. As she knows they have had some settlement issues in the past. Also, just the age with 50 years on everything that was out there. Over time you have plows come back and gouge a curb and it might crack. If it is large enough they do replace that. They also did more utility work on this project than any other project in eight years. Much of it was underneath the curb. Councilmember Bolkcom asked what they did for water. Mr. Kosluchar replied the water main is typically on one side of the street or one boulevard or near the curb. The residents on one side that are near the water main, the short tap, so their service runs to the City's shutoff at the property line (close proximity, maybe 10 or 15 feet away). The unfortunate residents on the other side have a long tap that runs under the street all the way to their property line. In that case it is going to be 45 feet or so until the curb stop and then proceeding into their house. What they did is they ran those long services across the street. They did not have those in the initial plan but when they got down and looked at what they had to connect to they were not in great shape. Upon consulting with the utility staff they recommended replacing them. They did not think they would last until the next construction. Plus, when they can go in and replace the main like that, a lot of times just disturbing the soils can cause a small leak which evolves into a big leak years down the road. MOTION by Councilmember Barnette to approve Change Order No. 3 for 2015 Street Rehabilitation Project No. ST2015-01. Seconded by Councilmember Saefke. FRIDLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF OCTOBER 24, 2016 PAGE 21 UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, MAYOR LUND DECLARED MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 12. Informal Status Reports. There were no reports. 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 8:45 P.M . Respectfully submitted by, Denise M. Johnson Scott J. Lund Recording Secretary Mayor