Mayor & City Council

WORKSESSION MINUTES College Park City Council Tuesday, September 3, 2019 Council Chambers 7:30 P.M. – 9:40 P.M. PRESENT: Mayor Wojahn; Councilmembers Kabir, Brennan, Dennis, Day, Rigg, Kujawa and Mitchell. ABSENT: Councilmember Kennedy ALSO PRESENT: Scott Somers, City Manager; Bill Gardiner, Assistant City Manager; Janeen Miller, City Clerk; Suellen Ferguson, City Attorney; Dan Alpert, Student Liaison; Julia Nikhinson, Deputy Student Liaison Mayor Wojahn opened the Worksession at 7:30 p.m. CITY MANAGER’S REPORT: Mr. Somers welcomed the Mayor, Council and residents to the first Council meeting at Davis Hall, our new temporary location while the City Hall project gets underway. He highlighted items from the Weekly Bulletin. Councilmember Mitchell announced that Mr. Somers and CEO Daves are serving on the MML Legislative Committee again this year, and Mr. Somers announced that Councilmember Mitchell is the Co-Chair of that committee. AMENDMENT TO/APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA: Approved without amendment Mitchell/Rigg 7-0. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 1. Review City Hall Design Development Drawings including layout of the Council Chambers – Design Collective: Meredith Sullivan and Sarah Maddow presented current drawings and Council Chamber options. Council comments: • Concern about sun exposure on west-facing side – response was that shading would be integrated into the design - concern about how shading the Council Chambers windows would interfere with the look from US 1; • Clarify location of elevator; • Interest in City Hall signage being closer to the street and more sculptural; • Feeling that marble may be too pretentious; we are young and vibrant and don’t want a staid look; • Where will the projector screens be in the Council Chambers; don’t want them to interrupt the clean design. 2. Review of draft 19-O-13, “Unruly Social Gathering” addition to Chapter 141, Nuisances: Code Enforcement or police officers can enforce. Owner will get one warning, 2nd time will be cited. If there is more than a certain number of violations in a two-year period, the owner can lose their rental occupancy permit. This does not address large roving groups of people; this is property-based. Noise measurement not required in this chapter. Question about how “excessive traffic” is defined. Can we prevent a landlord from passing fines on to a tenant? No, City does not provide this type of advice or see what is in the lease. Wording about issuance of a citation is “may” not “shall,” so there is some discretion. Rigg to introduce. 3. Review of 19-O-09, amendment to Chapter 138, Noise: Kabir to introduce. 4. Discussion on next Strategic Plan: Interest in finding ways to get more engagement from the community. Interest in finding ways to reduce cost. Resident/community survey will inform the Strategic Plan this time. More public engagement would mean a larger sample, which would increase cost. Community Survey outreach should be in Spanish and should include at least one focus group in Spanish. Also include a targeted outreach to campus/student body. The CPCUP Strategic Plan RFP just went out so there will be some synergy there. Move forward with City RFP. Future Worksession to discuss having a M&C subcommittee to review proposals, interview applicants, and make a recommendation to Council on who to use. 5. Mayor’s Travel Request for US Conference of Mayors, Vice Chair for City Livability/Bicycling: Mayor Wojahn requested travel funds to participate in the US Conference of Mayors City Livability/Bicycling Committee. He feels this is an opportunity to engage on a deeper level with the USCM to help develop its agenda on both guidance to member cities and their policy agenda for federal advocacy. This committee role will require attendance at two leadership conferences in addition to the Winter Conference in January in Washington, DC and the summer conference in Austin in June, both of which are already budgeted. The first is in Michigan and the second location is TBD. He estimates $3,000 will cover the cost of travel and lodging for both meetings. To Consent next week. 6. Business of the Year Recognition Program: Mr. Somers said this program started in May. There have been 14 nominations for 7 businesses. Council should think about appointing a subcommittee to review the applications and develop a recommendation for the Council. Council asked if residents can vote for their choice over social media, if non-residents can vote, if a broader list can be considered, if there should be categories to steer the voting (i.e., best “something”), can we provide recognition to more than one committee, are there different categories? Develop a hybrid program between popular vote and editor’s choice. Question about whether the program guidelines would need to be amended because nominations were made under previously approved guidelines. Can Council vote if they nominated a business? Subcommittee can develop a recommendation for a hybrid approach. Kujawa, Brennan, Day, Kennedy. Return future. 7. Appointments: Santosh Chelliah to APC, Robert Catlin to CPHA, Theresa Keeler to CPHA, Ann Bolduc to Seniors Committee, Mark Shroder to Noise Control Board, Anna Sandberg to Airport Authority, Taimi Anderson to Animal Welfare. 8. Future Agendas: • Advertising “The Haven” on City platforms (Mitchell/Rigg 6-1-0 (Kujawa opposed)) • Discussion with Tree and Landscape Board about a Tree Ordinance (Rigg/Day 7-0) • Update on the Zoning Rewrite (Rigg/Mitchell 7-0) The Worksession was adjourned at 9:41 on a motion by Councilmember Day, second by Councilmember Dennis, vote of 7-0. _______________________________ Janeen S. Miller, City Clerk