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CHM 04/26/2010 - 29992CITY OF FRIDLEY CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING April 26, 2010 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Soule called the Charter Commission meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: Members Present: Commissioners Peter Borman, Gary Braam, Don Findell, Marion Flickinger, Carol Hoiby, Bill Holm, Ted Kranz, Rick Nelson, Pam Reynolds, Noel Ryan, Lois Scholzen, Keith Shaw, Cindy Soule Members Absent: Commissioners Jorgenson and Plummer Others Present: Deb Skogen, City Clerk/Staff Liaison and Cindy Ruschy, Staff Liaison APPROVAL OF AGENDA Ms. Skogen requested the election items for discussion be moved up on the agenda as she had to leave at 7:30 for the City Council Meeting. Item 7 was moved to Item 6. Commissioner Nelson MOVED and Commissioner Findell seconded a motion approving the meeting agenda as amended. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOULE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Hoiby suggested three small changes to the minutes: Page 2, first sentence under Discussion of Chapter 7, the sentence should read, "Commissioner Nelson asked how much a 1 %..." Page 3, 6d' paragraph, last sentence should read, "...rental pFopei4ies th property owners have cut..." Page 4, 3 d paragraph, change fixtures to capital outlay. Commissioner Findell MOVED and Commissioner Holm seconded a motion approving the Charter Commission meeting minutes of March 22, 2010 as amended. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOULE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Commissioners Flickinger, Kranz and Ryan all signed their Oath of Acceptance for their reappointment to a term expiring April 22, 2014. DISCUSSION OF CHAPTER 5 Ms. Skogen said she laid out the amendment for the changes that are needed. She recommended including birth year on the petition, because in the past when verifying petitions, there were sometimes two individuals with the same name living at the same address. By putting birth year on the petition, it could be narrowed down to the individual that signed it rather than not counting it. She reviewed the days needed for holding a special election. CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF APRIL 26, 2010 PAGE 2 She talked with the Elections Supervisor at Anoka County to find out how many lead days they would need and they had recommended 7 days for the ballot prep, 46 days for absentee ballot voting and 1 day for the special election, or 54 days. Ms. Skogen wasn't sure if that was enough time and needed further clarification. In addition, she stated a special election could not be held between August 10"' and November 2nd and 30 days past November 2nd It was confusing and she said she felt more time was needed to review it. She recommended tabling the proposal until she could get further clarification. She suggested that Chapter 2 be tabled too, in relation to vacancies, to get further clarification. There was a brief discussion by the Charter Commission of the number of days needed to notify the County to ensure there was enough time and the procedure for absentee ballot voting. Commissioner Nelson MOVED and Commissioner Findell recommended tabling discussion of Chapter 5 to the May 24, 2010 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOULE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. DISCUSSION OF CHAPTER 7 Commissioner Findell said his motion from the last meeting had not been added to the draft copy of the proposed amendment. Commissioner Reynolds said recycling was still listed as a non -fee rather than a fee Commissioner Borman asked what the additional information provided on recycling was for. Commissioner Nelson said he wanted to provide information after Commissioner Reynolds felt the City should get out of the recycling business. Chairperson Soule said recycling was discussed at the February meeting. They reviewed the changes and recommended the changes should be reflected in the proposed amendment. Commissioner Holm felt the only other issue of concern was the CPI plus 2% or 5% whichever is less. He said they could submit all of the changes related to everything with the exception of the tax levy increase amount. They could send a separate issue about what you want to do with the CPI plus 2% or some other number. Commissioner Reynolds asked why they wouldn't just submit the whole proposal and allow the Council to make the decision about using the 2% or 5 %. Commissioner Holm said he would like to see all of the changes, as he felt it would be an improvement. But he felt the Commission should decide. He was concerned that this might put the Council on the hot seat because of the results of the last election and they may decide not to implement the changes because they would be inviting the city open to another petition. Commissioner Findell said it was a major compromise to what was originally proposed when the amendment was proposed. He did not think there was any contention in the group. Commissioner Holm said the City Council would still have the option of going before the voters to ask for an additional tax levy. Commissioner Nelson said unfortunately that philosophy puts the fix a few tax years out before anything can be done. He said he disagreed with the changes because it would be another two years out before they could go to the voters to ask for an additional levy. If the Council approved it, they would have an opportunity to put it on the ballot this year asking for additional money; will you approve a higher tax levy and when would that tax increase then take effect. CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF APRIL 26, 2010 PAGE 3 Commissioner Nelson said an increase in the tax levy would have to be provided to the County by August, where they could propose a higher tax levy, and if not approved the levy would then go down, but that they could not increase the levy if it were not adopted in August. Commissioner Reynolds said state statute would allow them to change it based on a ballot question. Commissioner Holm said that they would have to provide the county the levy plus the increase and then either confirm it or reduce it in December based on that election. Commissioner Kranz asked since the electorate voted against the question last fall, if there was an uncertainty about adding the 2% to the CPI, so now they were drifting back to the original language. Commissioner Borman said they would be better off making changes if the City had been asking for increases all along. He said they should have tested it right away instead of increasing it the little bit that was allowed by the restriction. After three tries of failing they could go back to the voters to let them know it wasn't working and still be in the same predicament. He said the only time it had been tested was for the rate increase on the utilities. Commissioner Findell said LGA was being provided when the restrictions first went into place, but felt the major cuts to LGA was four years ago, when the worst started, and that had only been two election cycles. Commissioner Soule said Rick Pribyl had called her today to discuss a side effect of the restrictions. She said there was property that had been placed into a tax increment finance (TIF) district over twenty years ago that had recently expired and come back onto the tax roles. Because of the restriction, the taxes cannot be added in when determining the levy. She said there were three districts, The City Center, Moore Lake, and the NW area of the City. Rick would be willing to put a presentation together, but it is very complicated. She said the Commission may want to consider this before the amendment is sent to the City Council. Commissioner Findell asked if he had expressed what implications it would have on the City. Chairperson Soule said he thought an amendment could be proposed about expiring TIF districts being allowed to increase the tax levy, rather than keeping it at the current level. Commissioner Nelson suggested a change to Section 7.02.1. that would say any property coming off of TIF would not be restricted. Commissioner Soule said Moore Lake came off in 2008, the North Area in 2009 and Center City in 2010. Commissioner Hoiby wondered if something could be added later rather than holding up their proposal, because of the time frame. Commissioner Reynolds said the Task Force in 2000 must have addressed this because they talked about other governmental units. Commissioner Holm said the basic discussion was whether or not the restrictions addressed other governmental units and they felt it did not and clarification language was prepared and adopted for that purpose. Commissioner Borman wondered why this language couldn't go forward and what would that change if the City went and asked for an increase. The Commission decided they would like to have Mr. Pribyl provide a presentation for the next meeting. Commissioner Borman asked if when the 2008 Moore Lake TIF expired, this would mean an additional $595,000 tax money coming back to the City? Chairperson Soule said that was the property valuation. Commissioner CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF APRIL 26, 2010 PAGE 4 Reynolds said it was an 11% increase on the tax base for those properties. Commissioner Holm said it would be spread among the city, schools and county. Commissioner Soule said Mr. Pribyl was just starting to look at the issue, but had provided Cindy with a brief synopsis so far. Commissioner Reynolds asked if the result was that everyone's taxes would go down? It appeared taxes would go down. Commissioner Nelson said Section 7.02.1. said the City could only go from the previous year tax allowed by 2% plus CPI or 5 %. You now have more tax base coming in that can't be more than that percentage amount. He said if you had one million dollars levied and you got $600,000 new money coming in, you could only levy the $400,000. He said this happened in another city. They thought because Wal -Mart came off of TIF with LGA cuts it would give them some relief, but found they couldn't use it. Commissioner Soule said it could be levy limits or some other state statute. Commissioner Findell said hypothetically, if you had $100,000, and $10,000 was coming back to the city's portion of the tax role, the city could only increase the tax levy by 5 %, so you could really only use an additional $5,000. Commissioner Reynolds asked if these were the three districts Mr. Pribyl had addressed in the HRA and why it wasn't realized in 2008 or 2009? Why did it all come back this year? Commissioner Soule suggested it would be a good question to ask Mr. Pribyl next month. Commissioner Findell MOVED and Commissioner Holm SECONDED a motion to have the proposed amendment ready for the Commission to forward to the City Council. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOULE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. DISCUSSION OF CHAPTER 2 Commissioner Borman MOVED and Commissioner Ryan SECONDED a motion to table Chapter 2 to the May 24, 2010 meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOULE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Commissioner Soule said there would be a discussion of Chapters 2, 5 and 7 for next month with Rick Pribyl coming to provide a presentation on TIF funding and how it affects the City's ability to levy taxes. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Ryan MOVED and Commissioner Findell seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON SOULE DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED AT 8:20 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Debra A. Skogen, City Clerk/Staff Liaison CHARTER COMMISSION MEETING OF APRIL 26, 2010 Carol Hoiby, Secretary PAGE 5