Loading...
CHM 05/20/2002 - 00027168CITY OF FRIDLEY CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING May 20, 2002 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Gordon called the Charter Commission meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Don Findell, Anita Gerrety, Craig Gordon, Janet Johnson, Nancy Jorgenson, Deborah Monden, Maynard Nielsen, Francis Van Dan Members Absent: Suzanne Alvite Warren, Char Fitzpatrick, Harry Heck, Bill Holm, Regina Querimit, Cindy Soule, Dale Warren Others Present: Deb Skogen, City Clerk/Staff Liaison APPROVAL OF AGENDA: MOTION by Commissioner Monden seconded by Commissioner Jorgenson to approve the agenda for the May 20, 2002, meeting. Commissioner Van Dan requested Item 1. B. be added to discuss the election of officers from the April meeting, UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON GORDON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AS AMENDED. APPROVAL OF APRIL 22, 2002, CHARTER COMMISSION MINUTES: MOTION by Commissioner Van Dan seconded by Commissioner Findell to approve the April 22, 2002, Charter Commission Minutes. Commissioner Monden requested the attendance be corrected as Commissioner Findell was present, but Commissioners Querimit and Van Dan were not present. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON GORDON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING MINUTES WERE APPROVED AS AMENDED. 1. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS A. DISCUSSION OF PROPOSED BYLAWS AMENDMENT Motion by Monden, second by Commissioner Gerrety to amend the Charter Commission By -laws with the following language that was mailed to each commissioner on May 1, 2002: "If there is not a quorum of Charter Commission members by 7:10 p.m., the meeting would not commence and members would be dismissed. If the chair felt there was important business to be addressed, the chair would have the discretion to ask members to stay longer, but may not exceed an additional 10 minutes past the specified time." CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 20, 2002 PAGE 2 Commissioner Jorgenson was concerned that she did not receive the proposed amendment until 6:30 that evening. Chairperson Gordon said that a brief memo and the amendment were mailed to the members on May I't. Commissioner Findell said the proposed amendment had been mailed to the members at least two weeks prior to the meeting as required by the bylaws. Commissioner Jorgenson preferred not to have a time specified in the amendment but rather provide wording that if there was not a quorum within 10 minutes of the scheduled meeting time. Commissioner Findell said the bylaws did not refer to meeting times and wondered if the commissioners would prefer to create a policy rather than an amendment. Commissioner Monden requested that Commissioners contact the staff liaison by 6:00 p.m., or at least one hour before the meeting start time, if they are unable to attend. Staff could notify the Commissioners that there will be no quorum. Chairperson Gordon wondered how many commissioners were in favor of designating an hour prior to the meeting start time, as Commissioner Monden had requested. There was a consensus in favor of Commissioner Monden's request. Findell suggested changing the motion to state that if there is not a quorum by 10 minutes after the scheduled meeting time, the meeting would not commence and members would be dismissed. He also said it should be noted where in the bylaws the amendment would go and he thought it should go under meetings and guess it would go under 3 A. Chairperson Gordon suggested making the amendment as 3. F. and the other commissioners agreed. Commissioner Findell proposed the following language be added to the Charter Commission Bylaws: III. MEETINGS. F. The time of the meeting shall be called by the chair. If there is not a quorum of Charter Commission members within ten minutes after the meeting time is to commence, the members would be dismissed. However, if the chair felt there was important business to be addressed, the chair would have the discretion to ask members to stay longer, but may not exceed an additional 10 minutes past the specified time. Chairperson Gordon said the motion should also include the language recommended by Monden that commissioners notify staff prior to one hour before the meeting start time if they are unable to attend. He said the amendment should be rewritten and sent out to all of the members prior to the next meeting as required by the bylaws. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING NAY, CHAIRPERSON GORDON DECLARED THE MOTION TO AMEND THE BYLAWS WAS NOT APPROVED. Chairperson Gordon said that because the original motion made had been changed and all of the commissioners should receive the new language prior to the next meeting and have the opportunity to vote on the new language as proposed by Commissioners Findell, Jorgenson and Monden. B. DISCUSSION OF ELECTION OF OFFICERS Commissioner Van Dan was concerned about statements made at the previous meeting by Commissioners Findell and Holm about the election of officers in March. Commissioner Van Dan felt she had certain rights and that no member could stop another member from speaking. She wondered on what authority Mr. Holm had at the last meeting declaring there had been an error and that the election was invalid. Commissioner Van Dan spoke with some other officials and said the rule of logic dictated all of the proper requirements were met and it should have been a valid election. The Commissioner stated she would speak out in the future if something similar happened again and suggested going to court if necessary. CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 20, 2002 PAGE 3 Commissioner Van Dan also felt that the new commissioners should be sworn in at the meetings by taking the oath of office in front of the Commission so they would know they were bona fide commissioners. Chairperson Gordon felt it should be more of a formal nature in the future as well. Commissioner Van Dan also wanted to correct Commissioner Jorgenson's statement that Senator Betzold had created a new way for elections. Commissioner Van Dan stated Don Betzold was never Chair of the Charter Commission and did not circulate the referendum petition. She said she was the one who disagreed with the Charter Commission and circulated the petition for the referendum, that Betzold only defended it. 2. DISCUSSION OF CHARTER AMENDMENT — CHAPTER 7 REFERRING TO SINKING FUNDS Commissioner Van Dan had checked with the Revisor of Statues about the term "sinking funds" and was told it is a current term used in the Minnesota Statutes. Commissioner Jorgenson felt there might be a problem if the language was adopted as proposed as a project could more costly than originally estimated. She wondered if the maximum of 10% of bonded indebtedness a city could bond for could be changed as sometimes the city could have bonds out for several projects. She said the city also issued bonds for the HRA and that in one year you could possibly issue bonds which might get close to the 10% of the assessed valuation. For example, Phase 2 and 3 of the Medtronic project are coming up. She requested that the Finance Director review this possibly with the bond counsel they use for the HRA. Ms. Skogen said that state law does not allow a city to go over 10% of the assessed valuations of the city for its indebtedness. Commissioner Jorgenson asked if that included the HRA and Skogen said she thought so, but would find out for future reference. Commissioner Jorgenson just wanted to make sure there would be no problems with this and just wanted to be careful. Chairperson Gordon wondered if Rick Pribyl would give the Commission information on Commissioner Jorgenson's question. Commissioner Van Dan felt the charter language should be rewritten because it was written in 1959 and was not up to date. The language "before or after adoption of this Charter" should be removed because the Charter had been adopted. Commissioner Jorgenson said there were bonds the city had incurred and only two of the tax increment districts had been paid off. She said 25 years was usually the time frame of a bond. She said if you looked at all of the indebtedness of the HRA, you could end up with a project possibly going over the 10 %. Commissioner Gordon wondered if there was a way they Commissioners could understand bonding or of getting actual numbers or variables that relate to this language to try to understand this portion of the Charter better. He was wondering if there was a record available that addressed all of the bonds for the city and HRA the city had outstanding. Commissioner Jorgenson said the city was very cautious about not bonding for water projects and tries to anticipate and create a reserve fund for repairs. She said that if United Defense does shut down, there would be major clean- up costs of the area. Commissioner Van Dan said they rebuilt the plants twice, paid for with federal funds, they are bidding and collecting profits, and no one thinks of paying the Navy back. Commissioner Jorgenson noted that `Brownfield" monies have nearly dried up, due to the economy. This would be a tremendous loss of land, if it is just left to sit. But if there is a development project, it could be an expensive project and described how they are filtering the soil at this time. CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF MAY 20, 2002 PAGE 4 Commissioner Nielsen asked who the watch dog was to oversee that the city did not go over the 10% figure. Commissioner Jorgenson said it was the State Auditor. She added that when the debt is no longer owed, the debt is then decertified. How far in advance, if they think they are getting close to the 10% figure, is needed? Is it done on a consistent basis? How is it tracked? Commissioner Jorgenson said they kept very strict records and the city is also audited. She did not know if it would ever be a problem, but wondered if could it potentially be a problem in the future, especially due to the change in the property tax system. Commissioner Findell said if they had the money to pay the debt, it would not be debt. Commissioner Jorgenson said that the city would have to decertify the debt. The city has been very careful not to get into the position where they are over the 10 %. There was some question about why the Charter Commission was discussing bonding and indebtedness. Skogen reminded the Commission that one of the commissioners wanted to have a definition of sinking funds. When Skogen asked the Financed Director for a definition, he suggested that the language be changed to reflect the terms the city was using today. 3. FUTURE DISCUSSION Chairperson Gordon reviewed some dates with the commissioners to meet with the city manager to discuss the survey results. June 18"' seemed to be the best date at 6:00 p.m. If that date works for the City Manager, a confirmation letter should be mailed to all Commissioners. ADJOURNMENT: MOTION by Commissioner Jorgenson seconded by Commissioner Findell to adjourn the meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON GORDON DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 8:25 P.M. Respectfully submitted, "dAzosi - Debra A. Skogen, City Clerk/Staff Liaison Deborah Monden, Secretary