City Council Workshop

Blaine City Hall City of Blaine 10801 Town Sq Dr NE Blaine, MN 55449 Anoka County, Minnesota Minutes - Final City Council Workshop Thursday, April 20, 2017 6:45 PM Cloverleaf Farm Room A NOTICE OF WORKSHOP MEETING 1 Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Mayor Ryan at 6:45 p.m. 2 Roll Call Quorum Present. ALSO PRESENT: City Manager Clark Arneson; Planning and Community Development Director Bryan Schafer; Finance Director Joe Huss; Police Chief/Safety Services Manager Chris Olson; Lieutenant Dan Pelkey; Economic Development Coordinator Erik Thorvig; Public Services Manager Bob Therres; Communications Technician Roark Haver; Web Coordinator Heidi Andrea; Senior Engineering Technician Jason Sundeen; and City Clerk Catherine Sorensen. Present: 7 - Councilmember Hovland, Councilmember Clark, Councilmember King, Councilmember Garvais, Councilmember Jeppson, Mayor Ryan, and Councilmember Swanson 3 New Business 3-1 WS 17-26 SCADA SYSTEM REVIEW REPORT AND RECOMENDATIONS City Manager Arneson stated Barr Engineering was present to go over their review and recommendations of Blaine’s SCADA system and to answer any questions the Council may have. Sheldon Sorensen, PE with Barr Engineering, introduced himself to the Council and then reviewed his findings from the SCADA System Review report. He found the City’s system to be very normal and the controllers used by Blaine were utilized by many cities. It was noted electronic SCADA systems had a 10-year lifespan. He commented on the short-term recommendations from Barr Engineering along with the long-range standardization goals. He recommended each of the water plants have a pressure transmitter. City of Blaine Page 1 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final April 20, 2017 Mayor Ryan questioned who would be contacted by the new water system should an issue occur. Public Services Manager Therres stated the on-duty public works maintenance worker would be contacted and then continue down the list until a City staff member is contacted. Councilmember Clark asked what the difference was in speed between the current system and the proposed new system. Mr. Sorensen indicated the new system would be approximately 100 times faster than the current system. Councilmember Jeppson inquired about the current system. Mr. Sorensen explained that portions of the system were new and had been updated while other portions were in need of enhancements. He recommended that all panels be brought up to today’s technology. Councilmember Garvais requested further information regarding the new closed system. Mr. Sorensen described how the network would be designed and understood the City may like to have the ability to access the site remotely. Councilmember Clark asked if the City’s current SCADA system would pass Homeland Security inspection and if the new system would also pass. Mr. Sorensen said he believed the remote access piece may be of some concern. Councilmember King questioned if the City had to have its own network or if another provider could be brought in for this service. Mr. Sorensen recommended the City provide this service so as not to have to face any shutdowns or problems from an external provider. He stated he would look into the benefits of using fiber as several sites have fiber available. Councilmember Clark wondered what changes would be made procedurally for the City. Mr. Sorensen stated the most important issue is passwords and to have operators log in with their own unique passwords. Councilmember King said he did not understand why the City allowed all of its passwords to be monitored by an outside vendor such as In Control. Councilmember Clark agreed and asked if this function could shift back to the Police Department or Human Resources. Public Services Manager Therres stated this option could be investigated by staff. Councilmember Garvais said he was in favor of this function coming back to the City. City Manager Arneson reported staff would be using the recommendations from Barr Engineering to assist with long-term budgeting for the system improvements. City of Blaine Page 2 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final April 20, 2017 Councilmember Clark asked if the cost for the improvements could be in the six figures. Mr. Sorensen said he anticipated that to be the case. Mayor Ryan questioned when the system was last audited. Public Services Manager Therres said he believed a partial audit was completed in 2015. Councilmember Clark stated he liked the idea of running improvements and upgrades over the next five years and believed the password control needed to be improved. He thanked staff and Barr Engineering for a thorough report. Discussed 3-2 BLAINECONNECT - CITIZEN NOTIFICATION OVERVIEW Lieutenant Pelkey provided the Council with an overview on the valuable information that would be available to Blaine residents through BlaineConnect. He explained the Emergency Notification system, CivicReady, would provide several avenues for pushing information to the public. He noted residents would have to opt in to the CivicReady system in order to receive information but that this new system would not replace the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) administered through Anoka County. He provided further comment on the content of the messages that could be sent and indicated this system was very user friendly. Councilmember Clark said he was pleased with the direction staff was going with this. He stated he did not want to dedicate the City’s website homepage to just this one topic. Lieutenant Pelkey reported a graphic would be included on the City’s home page with BlaineConnect information but would include other slides covering many different City topics. He indicated he would forward a screen shot of the City’s homepage to City Council for further review. Councilmember Hovland questioned how a determination would be made that information should be pushed out to the public. Lieutenant Pelkey explained he had written a seven-page emergency information document to address this matter. Councilmember Clark requested that staff inform residents that this emergency information system would be migrating and that residents were automatically enrolled from previous databases in case they wished to opt out. City Manager Arneson reported the new website would be going live on Thursday, April 27. Mayor Ryan thanked Lieutenant Pelkey and Web Coordinator Heidi Andrea for all of their work on the new system. City of Blaine Page 3 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final April 20, 2017 Discussed. Other Business None. ADJOURN The Workshop was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Adjourned City of Blaine Page 4