Past City Council Meetings

Fruita City Council Minutes 1 November 21, 2017 FRUITA CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 21, 2017 1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE A moment of silence was observed in lieu of the Invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 2. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Council members present were Bruce Bonar, Dave Karisny, Kyle Harvey, Ken Kreie, Joel Kincaid and Lou Brackett. Mayor Buck called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 3. AGENDA – ADOPT/AMEND • COUNCILOR BONAR MOVED TO APPROVE THE AGENDA AS PRESENTED. COUNCILOR BRACKETT SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION PASSED WITH SIX YES VOTES. 4. PROCLAMATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS There were no Proclamations or presentations on the agenda. 5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Merv Meineke, 1820 O Road, stated that he was part-owner of the Palmer Heights Subdivision on 20 and J Road and that he was going to be resubmitting an application with the Community Development Department. He said he was waiting on the timing on it for financial reasons, but that the sewer expansion that the City has been talking about putting in up Highway 6 & 50 (instead of J Road) has affected him. Mr. Meineke said he is going to go through with the application and is going to ask for his project to be approved with the original layout of the 72 lots on 20 acres. Mr. Meineke continued that in talking to staff, he learned that the City was considering a moratorium on density bonus points and that the new application would be requesting those again. He said that the project will be targeting some substantial housing with a blend of the original design. He said he just wanted to get in front of the City Council to make them aware of this and wished them a Happy Thanksgiving. There were no further comments from the public. 6. CONSENT AGENDA Fruita City Council Minutes 2 November 21, 2017 A. LIQUOR LICENSE RENEWAL – A REQUEST TO APPROVE THE RENEWAL OF A BREW PUB LIQUOR LICENSE – MALT, VINOUS AND SPIRITUOUS FOR SUDS BROTHERS BREWERY LOCATED AT 127 E. ASPEN B. BOARDS & COMMISSIONS REAPPOINTMENT – A REQUEST TO APPROVE THE REAPPOINTMENT OF ELLEN ROBERTS TO THE SENIOR ADVISORY TASK FORCE FOR ANOTHER THREE-YEAR TERM TO EXPIRE IN NOVEMBER OF 2020 C. BOARDS & COMMISSIONS REAPPOINTMENT – A REQUEST TO APPROVE THE REAPPOINTMENT OF SALLY EDGINTON-D’AGOSTINO TO THE FRUITA TOURISM ADIVOSRY COUNCIL FOR ANOTHER THREE-YEAR TERM TO EXPIRE IN NOVEMBER OF 2020 D. OCTOBER 2017 FINANCIAL REPORTS – A REQUEST TO APPROVE THE OCTOBER 2017 FINANCIAL REPORTS Mayor Buck opened the public hearing on the consent agenda. There were no comments from the public regarding the Consent Agenda. • COUNCILOR KINCAID MOVED TO APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA AS PRESENTED. COUNCILOR BONAR SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION PASSED WITH SIX YES VOTES. 7. PUBLIC HEARINGS A. RESOLUTION 2017-46 – A REQUEST TO APPROVE A RESOLUTION OF THE FRUITA CITY COUNCIL APPROVING THE FIRST RELEASE OF THE SUBDIVISION IMPROVEMENTS AGREEMENTS FOR BRANDON ESTATES FILING 3, PHASE 2D SUBDIVISION Mayor Buck noted that the applicant was present in the audience and asked if they wanted to address the Council. She noted that she had requested that the item be placed back on the agenda after a discussion that she had with Cody; it seems that there was some information that was not getting to those in charge, and after some good communication, she felt that everyone could move forward with it. Cody Davis, 341 Hartford Court, stated that there have been some problems with the irrigation at Brandon Estates. One of the main problems has been an old HOA-maintained valve that has been leaking a lot of dirty water and air, causing the system to shut down. He said that he is working on getting it fixed right now. Mr. Davis continued that there was one issue that was his problem, but he had to wait until all the stuff was mucked out of the vaults, so the repairs have been scheduled for months. He added that the scheduled date of the repair(s) had been moved up and the work is almost done after it started the previous day. Fruita City Council Minutes 3 November 21, 2017 Mr. Davis added that as a side-note, he was born and raised in the Fruita community and is committed to it and building good houses/great developments, so he hoped that the Council could see that. He also apologized for the lack of communication in the past. Councilor Karisny asked Mr. Davis that when he builds another irrigation system, how is going to build it to avoid the issues that Brandon Estates has seen? Mr. Davis responded that a lot of the issue is that Brandon Estates has a dilapidated existing system and that he didn’t develop the old portion of Brandon Estates. Councilor Karisny said it was his understanding that there needs to be some valves and other options on the irrigation system that haven’t always been installed on irrigation systems in the past. Mr. Davis said he thought Councilor Karisny was referring to a “clean out.” He said this was another miscommunication; he thought maybe the Mayor had communicated to staff, who had communicated to a contractor of his, but he never hears it, so he had committed to the Mayor to put in a clean out valve in the system now or on the next filing. Mr. Davis said a lot of the problem boiled down to a lack of communication, really. Mr. Bennett stated that this particular Phase (2d) of the subdivision did not have any requirements directly related to the irrigation system and that at the last Council meeting, the Council had discussed a previous phase that had already been approved that was tied to the irrigation system. He said Council had approved it at the time because staff had gone out with the developer and everything seemed to be functioning, but during the last irrigation season, some of the issues arose. Mr. Bennett pointed out that everything related to Filing 3, Phase 2d of the Brandon Estates Subdivision has been completed. Mr. Bennett said that staff was recommending approval of this phase of the development at this point. Councilor Karisny said he concurred with what the City Manager said and said that the question he presented was so that everyone learns something from this so that when the next subdivision goes in, the necessary components of the irrigation system are included as well to avoid potential problems. Mr. Davis said that the guarantees are really built in; the City of Fruita still has security from Filing 2a and 2b for warranty. Councilor Karisny said he was referring to the actual engineering that is required to make an irrigation system work properly and all he was suggesting was that this would be a great time to learn from this problem so that any new construction is built to a standard that doesn’t cause the City Council to have to go back and address these types of issues. Mr. Bennett said he felt that this is the case for most development and that the Brandon Estates situation was unique. Fruita City Council Minutes 4 November 21, 2017 Mayor Buck said that there are a lot of things that can be learned from the mistakes made at Brandon Estates. Mr. Bennett said that he didn’t want it to come across that the City’s inspections of all its subdivisions have led to the same kind of issue that occurred at Brandon Estates because it was an isolated problem there and everyone has learned from it. Mayor Buck said it would be really great to use Brandon Estates as a case study of how not to do a subdivision: having it split off with two different owners, being developed at two different times, having to merge HOAs and just the whole way the subdivision came about, which she said has been a nightmare for everybody. Mr. Davis agreed. Mayor Buck opened the public hearing on Resolution 2017-46 - approving the First Release of the Subdivision Improvements Agreement (SIA) for Brandon Estates Filing 3, Phase 2d Subdivision. Hearing no comments, she closed the public hearing and referred back to the Council after confirming that Mr. Davis had no further rebuttal. • COUNCILOR BONAR MOVED TO APPROVE RESOLUTION 2017-46 – A RESOLUTION OF THE FRUITA CITY COUNCIL APPROVING THE FIRST RELEASE OF THE SUBDIVISION IMPROVEMENTS AGREEMENT FOR BRANDON ESTATES FILING 3, PHASE 2D SUBDIVISION. COUNCILOR KINCAID SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION PASSED WITH SIX YES VOTES. B. 2018 BUDGET PRESENTATIONS: 1) 2018 BUDGET OVERVIEW: CITY MANAGER MIKE BENNETT AND FINANCE DIRECTOR/CITY CLERK MARGARET SELL City Manager Mike Bennett said that the Finance Director/City Clerk Margaret Sell ran into some pretty serious health issues over the last month, although she is now doing better and that despite that and the time-consuming work on the Family Health West bonds Ordinance, she and staff have worked on the 2018 Budget continuously in a team effort. Mr. Bennett said that the bright side of it is that during the last month, staff has been able to obtain more trends in revenues and also with the passage of the public safety tax and some other things, looking at the trend of revenues this year and what’s on the horizon for next year, staff is sitting on a much different point in projecting the budget than they were three or even two months ago. Mr. Bennett noted that the Council has heard presentations from each department and after he went over the overview, there would be a short update from the Sewer Fund and also from Human Resources. He said that for the presentations that the Council had already heard, there haven’t been many changes and if there were any, he would cover those in this presentation. Mr. Bennett stated that the Council adopted their goals in 2016 and staff still continues to align the City’s resources, time and efforts to achieve all three of the areas of focus of providing core services Fruita City Council Minutes 5 November 21, 2017 and impacting Quality of Place, Economic Health and Lifestyle. He said that it all comes down to why the City exists in providing those core services, which are the typical essential services that cities provide. Mr. Bennett quoted a favorite author, Jim Collins, who wrote “In building greatness, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment; rather the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough and beyond.” Mr. Bennett said he wanted to thank the Mayor and City Council for being so supportive of realizing that besides short-term goals and action items that are accomplished by the City in shorter periods of time, the overall effort and vision that has been set is bringing forth progress, but it is a long-term process. He referred to the City’s logo and the Council’s goals, saying that if the core services wheel is being spun, the faster it is being spun, the more impact there will be on the other three areas of focus. Mr. Bennett said the 2018 Budget is currently being updated in the Budget Overview section, which is what he and Mrs. Sell would be covering, as well as the Budget Transmittal Letter from himself to the City Council. Mr. Bennett noted that Fruita had very positive results from the Community Survey; everyone is celebrating the 95% rating of the overall quality of life as being “excellent” or “good” and 84% rating of the overall quality of services provided by the City as “excellent” or “good,” and how Fruita is 35% above the national average in those things. He said staff does take this to heart because it emphasizes that the City is on the right track, that the City continues to prioritize what it is working on and it also emphasizes the areas where the City wants to see the percentages increase as the years go on. Mr. Bennett stated that Fruita got to celebrate the Kokopelli Trail groundbreaking, which was an event that tied into the 25th Anniversary of the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). The trail is progressing very well at the moment and should be open in early spring of 2018. He said that staff is waiting on bridges to be added, which have been ordered. Mr. Bennett pointed out that the trail goes right by the Greenway Business (Industrial) Park that the City has been working on since 2007 through 2012. The trail will also go by a lake where Colorado’s first cable wakeboard park will be built. Mr. Bennett added the side-note that Mesa Grand is working with FHE, the large manufacturer of oil and gas equipment that has a patented product that’s actually becoming required to be at every drill site called a “rig lock,” so they are growing at a rapid pace and will need to double in size by adding 40 or 50 more jobs. They like the same lot that the Imondi Wake Zone was going to use for their parking, so staff brought the two groups together and they are working on trying to identify how both companies can locate in the lots that are available in the area. Mr. Bennett said it is looking fairly positive at the moment, but it is another positive story about an expansion and new jobs to the area. Fruita City Council Minutes 6 November 21, 2017 Mr. Bennett said that Fruita has a lot of momentum going on right now; there are 107 new business licenses in 2016 and so far in 2017, the City has 85. These are new businesses doing work in the City, but they are not all brick and mortar locations, although a good portion of them are. The numbers do include home occupation businesses as well but do not include the over 200 business licenses issued every year by the City for special events. Mr. Bennett continued that the City Council has approved eight (8) new minor/major subdivisions with a potential of 105 new dwelling units. There is a subdivision in the process for 207 dwelling units and as the Council heard earlier, there is another subdivision in the works plus a couple others that will be coming in, so Fruita is seeing an uptick in new development. Mr. Bennett said it has been a seller’s housing market; it has become a regular occurrence for people to sell their house in Fruita at full price in two days throughout the City. Mr. Bennett also said that Fruita has some very solid business prospects in the works right now. The City is working with the State of Colorado, Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), the Business Incubator Center, landowners and other Economic Development. He noted that the City has had lots of prospects, which has been a good thing, but staff is eager to land some of those and get past some of the hurdles in pricing the land and cost of start-up capital. Mr. Bennett continued that with the Council’s support, he and the Mayor have traveled to many different trade shows last year. In 2017, they went to a couple of new ones but it has transitioned into being invited to speak at multiple events. Some companies have taken Fruita up on hosting their product launches and press camps. He said that partnerships remain a very top priority for the City of Fruita whether they are with grant agencies and other agencies in the valley; partnerships are really how Fruita gets big things done in a small city. In 2017 and moving into 2018, the City has really focused heavily on building and strengthening those partnerships. Mr. Bennett stated that one partnership in particular that he would like to highlight is the Communities that Care program, which he said will be a long-term partnership. He said he was unable to attend the youth meeting, but the feedback from those that were there the previous week said that there was a good group of youth in attendance. It was also said that the meeting really opened the eyes of some of those involved that have seen the needs and know they need to be proactive to help the health of the youth in the Fruita community. Mr. Bennett said the City’s Play Like a Local campaign was launched this year. It highlights locals and what they enjoy doing in Fruita and is an example of an effort that helps merge the marketing to residents, tourists and to businesses alike because it takes an approach that (although geared towards tourism) the campaign is the same type of value proposition that the City offers new residents and businesses. Mr. Bennett added that there would be an article in the next issue of the City Link that was also posted to the City’s website in his Weekly Update the previous Friday from Slate Communications offering Fruita’s residents a Flickr account where photos can be obtained and used by businesses in their own cross-promotional marketing and encourages locals to use certain hashtags such as #gofruita when posting their own adventures in Fruita to help spread that message. Fruita City Council Minutes 7 November 21, 2017 Mr. Bennett continued that the establishment and creation of Fruita’s Core Behaviors/Core Values was a big effort that was not just on paper. He said he was very proud of the City’s workforce and the leadership of the Human Resources Department and the Employee Relations Committee in taking these ideas from creation into implementing them in many different ways throughout the organization. Mr. Bennett stated that in regards to Fruita’s fiscal outlook, some things to highlight include: • City sales tax revenues are trending 10% higher in 2017 over 2016. • County sales tax revenues are also trending 8% higher currently. • Use tax on vehicles is trending 22% higher. • Use tax on building materials is trending a little bit lower, but the City had some large builds last year such as US Tractor. • Fruita is just under the amount of new dwelling units over 2016, but in November, the City issued 10 new dwelling unit permits and knowing that the City has approved 105 to be built, Fruita will see an uptick towards the end of the year and especially the beginning of next year, so staff is not too concerned about the number because there are a lot more in the works than in previous years during budget season. • Lodging tax is trending 8% higher. • Property tax is up due to reassessment of property values in the county, construction throughout the county and annexations. • The county-wide public safety tax passed earlier in the month and will relieve the burden of funding the current amount to the 911 Communications Center. Fruita currently pays (in this year’s and next year’s budget) $287,000 to the Communications Center for this necessary 911 service. • In 2019, 2020 and 2021, the public safety tax will go up somewhere in between $56,000 to $60,000 over those years. There will be increases each year. • The budget of $287,000 for the Communications Center is actually pretty conservative because staff is not accounting for future sales tax increases, which this line item is tied to; it is a percentage based so that if sales tax goes up, the amount Fruita receives will go up and if sales tax goes down, the amount Fruita receives goes down. Mr. Bennett said this new tax will help with the struggle the City has had over the years. The City has cut other things and has spent more than is taken in while still increasing the amount to the Communications Center. • Staff is taking a conservative approach to budgeting revenues; the amount budgeted is just above the actual amounts received last year. • County sales tax is budgeted to go up 5.7% of the total General Fund revenue (taxes are the largest portion of revenue that the City receives and funds the majority of the General Fund). • Staff is budgeting taxes in general at 9% above where the City was in 2017. • Intergovernmental revenues are going down because unlike past years, Fruita won’t have large grant funds. In the 2017 Budget, there was $4.2 million in grants for trail projects and this will not occur in 2018. • The City has gone after one large Energy Impact grant for the sewer extension project and staff hopes to hear news about the award very soon. There is another cycle and the City can apply again if it is not awarded the grant this time. Fruita City Council Minutes 8 November 21, 2017 • Revenues for all funds are budgeted in 2018 at $17.5 million plus $1 million of available funds to make up $18.5 million in 2018 revenues. • The General Fund is budgeted in 2018 to go up 9%. • The Conservation Trust Fund is budgeted to down 6%. • The Community Center Fund is budgeted to have a large increase due to Amendment 70, which requires that the minimum wage go up and will cost the City of Fruita $110,000 in 2018. Other Community Center expenses have grown quicker than revenues, which have actually done very well but have not grown as fast as expenses. • The City has been able to maintain no increase in fees for seven years, but with Amendment 70, the City cannot absorb the additional cost in the Budget with increasing fees in 2018. The Budget does not include the full increase that would be needed for 2020 because staff is hopeful that the smaller increase will carry the City through 2018 and 2019 and then staff will see where the revenues and expenses are before automatically implementing another increase. • $400,000 is budgeted for TABOR. • The 2018 does not include any major changes in restricted funds. • The 2018 Budget does include the 25% (of operational costs) reserve fund that is normally budgeted every year. • 49% of all revenues for all funds come from taxes. • 40% of all revenues for all funds come from charges for services. • The 2018 Budget also includes a sewer service charge increase of $2.50 per month. • It has been a goal of the City going into 2017 to do an in-depth sewer rate study so that staff can compare a set fee against a consumption based fee, as well as a comparison against the study that the City recently had done that shows that the City has $5 million in Capital Project needs over the next five years in the Sewer Fund related to the Wastewater Treatment Facility. • The difficulty for City staff doing a sewer rate study is getting the information from Ute Water because their data is not broken down by customers residing in Fruita city limits only. • In the 2018 Budget, staff has budgeted (in the Sewer Fund) to hire an outside firm to work with Ute Water to compare different models of rate studies. • Waste Management’s contract with the City for trash collection includes the ability for Waste Management to increase their fees based on the Consumer Price Index. Their fees to the City are increasing $.40, which will have to be passed along to Fruita residents. • A decrease in Highway Users’ tax has been budgeted based on information staff has received. • Severance and Mineral Lease taxes in 2017 came in much higher than budgeted ($130,000 received versus $50,000 in the budget). Staff has been told by those who work with the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) that Fruita can plan on about the same amount in 2018, so staff budgeted a little over $100,000 for these taxes. • The City of Fruita has not yet received applied for grant funds for the sewer interceptor extension project, but staff expects to hear about the award very soon. The grant was presented a few weeks previous by staff. • The City is in its third year of Priority Based Budgeting, when staff is really going to have to determine if it will work with the existing accounting software. Fruita City Council Minutes 9 November 21, 2017 • In the 2018 Budget, there is $90,000 budgeted for drainage improvements done by the Grand Valley Drainage District • Overall expenses in 2018 are budgeted at $18.5 million and include operations (the largest portion of expenses), debt service, the City’s capital program (15%) as well as other expenses. • Purchased services have some decreases in larger projects that the City won’t have in 2018, but there is an increase in legal services. 5-2-1 Drainage fees have gone up. • The City will be getting a new work order system for the Public Works Department that will track, trend and help staff maintain costs. Staff has found a service to provide this that will offer some opportunities to do some more app-based communication with the public and will be more efficient. • Information Technology services will increase in 2018 because the City needs to upgrade its e-mail system and the City’s IT provider’s fees are increasing. • There will be a number of Capital Equipment expenses in 2018 for both repairs and replacements. This includes required mobile data computers for the Police Department, which were traditionally provided by the City of Grand Junction or Mesa County but are not any longer, so the City will take on a larger cost of maintaining and working with the City’s IT provider for the new equipment. Mr. Bennett stated that there will be mainly small Capital Projects in 2018 compared to some of the past years. The City has been paying for Capital Projects from the General Fund fund balance every year and this was historically replenished with over $1 million in severance tax that Fruita used to receive in years like 2009. When the Severance taxes dropped significantly a couple of years ago, it wasn’t enough to replenish the General Fund and instead went towards operations. This means that the City hasn’t been replenishing its Capital Projects fund enough. Over the last few years, the City has dropped to spending about $700,000 per year in Capital Projects from the General Fund: $600,000 in 2016 and $300,000 in 2017. A portion of this is coming from current year revenues, which is a first in a long time. Mr. Bennett further explained that about every year, the City has been fortunate enough to put back into the fund balance somewhere in the range of $300,000 that the City doesn’t end up spending in the budget. Meanwhile, the City has been spending $700,000, so the fund balance has definitely been decreasing. $200,000 in contingency funds are budgeted and traditionally come from fund balance as well. If the City doesn’t spend it, it goes right back into fund balance. This year, all $200,000 is coming out of current year revenues. Mr. Bennett said staff feels very good about being able to dedicate portions of revenues coming in towards Capital Projects. Mr. Bennett said that the City is going to take a step forward on the Gateway Enhancement Project by doing some improvements to the roundabouts. The project will be funded from matching funds from the Devil’s Canyon Fund and the Arts and Culture Board’s fundraising efforts. Mr. Bennett stated that there were a lot of maintenance and infrastructure projects in 2018; the largest being the sewer interceptor extension project if the City is awarded the grant that it applied for. Fruita City Council Minutes 10 November 21, 2017 Mr. Bennett said that staff feels much more confident about the trends because the last numbers for sales tax revenues staff received were in September. He continued that staff doesn’t see any reason for these revenues to drop in October and November. Mr. Bennett noted that staff presents financial reports to the Council once per month and looking back at some of the summer months, the sales tax revenues were the same as what the City had in the spring and fall, which are typically the higher months. He said that the revenues stayed very steady during a very hot summer, which he said was a good trend and that it will be interesting to follow it into 2018. Mr. Bennett said this has allowed staff to put a focus on some things that the City has had to put off for a number of years. He added that he is not one to jump quickly into adding positions, in fact, his history in the work force has been that when people leave, he has reevaluated the position to see if something different can be done instead of automatically replacing employees. Mr. Bennett commented that Fruita is still functioning as a small City in some ways when actually it has doubled in size over the last ten years. A full-time Fleet position has been created because Fruita’s fleet is just so large that it is getting impossible for two people to keep up with the demand. Maintenance workers from streets, sewer, irrigation, mountain water and all the other different Public Works divisions are having to help out with the Fleet work, but then the street sweeping or other City services don’t get done. Mr. Bennett said staff has tried to choose positions that have strategic impact on not just the area that the new position will be doing but also relieves other areas. The new Fleet position will allow maintenance workers in the different divisions to focus on the work that they do so that they don’t get behind trying to keep the Fleet continually caught up. Mr. Bennett added that the City will also be adding a part-time maintenance worker in the Parks Department, which has not seen any additional help in quite some time. They would prefer a full- time person but feel that they can get pretty far with a part-time person. Mr. Bennett commented that these positions were not just picked out of a hat; there have been many discussions with Department Directors and they are not just thinking about their own department, they are looking at the City as a whole and what it needs. Mr. Bennett said a part-time custodian will also be added to the Public Works Department. Again, maintenance workers are being pulled from their main responsibilities to do custodial duties, which then gets those maintenance divisions behind and crews are just barely keeping up. Mr. Bennett stated that the City will also be hiring a new Planning and Development Director. The first round of interviews will begin next week, but until the position is filled, it is hard to make a lot of big decisions in regards to the rest of the Department and staff would like the new Director to be part of that process. He added that the City is fortunate to have an interim Director (Greg Moberg) who is working three days per week and is actually getting quite a bit done. Henry Hemphill, Planning Technician, has been keeping things going in the Planning Department and for the work load that the Department has, things have actually gone fairly smoothly. Fruita City Council Minutes 11 November 21, 2017 Mr. Bennett stated that Mark Angelo, retired Code Compliance Officer, was functioning as a full- time employee for a lot of the year with part-time hours. For the time being, the City will be transitioning this position to part-time and will add a full-time position of a Planner II, which will give the Department the ability to have a mid-level position in addition to the Director. The City won’t be hiring for this position until later in the year and after the new Director has been hired. Staff will be evaluating the needs and duties after the new Director is on board to determine what the team needs to ensure that the development process is smooth and provides the highest level of customer service to developers while fine tuning and updating the City’s Land Use Code. Mr. Bennett noted that there is a long list of updates to the Code that staff, the Council and the Planning Commission has identified and the process has already begun with the interim Director. Mr. Bennett continued that staff has budgeted to add another position of what is being called an “Accountant,” someone that can help with the accounting load because Margaret Sell, as amazing as she is, cannot handle it all with the growth that Fruita is experiencing. He added that the City needs to begin taking steps to prepare for when Margaret retires. In summary, the new positions in the 2018 Budget include: • Part-time Parks Department maintenance worker • Part-time Public Works Department custodian • Part-time Code Compliance Officer • Full-time Planner II • Full-time Accountant • Full-time Fleet technician Mr. Bennett said that even after last year when staff struggled through probably the tightest budget ever in the last 34 years, staff strategically went after pay discrepancies. Also in the 2018 Budget, a 2% increase for personnel is included, exclusive of the increases that are already happening in part- time staff at the Community Center. Staff will be evaluating how the revenues will come in through the end of 2017 to determine whether it would be best to do 1% across the board plus a 1% bonus or a 2% pay increase, which typically go into effect in April. Mr. Bennett said that fortunately, even with conservative budgeting, the City is financially healthy enough to include those pay increases in the balanced budget. Mr. Bennett noted that all the updates in the 2018 Budget would be available on the City’s website and that December 5, 2017 would be the final hearing on the budget. Councilor Karisny asked at what point it would make sense for the City of Fruita to have in-house IT rather than continuing to contract with outside vendors. He said he thought that if a municipality has more than 50 employees, it needs its own IT Department. Fruita City Council Minutes 12 November 21, 2017 Mr. Bennett responded that this was something that staff has evaluated and there are plans to get comparison quotes in 2018, but staff feels that the City is getting more value from the contract than it would a full-time IT employee. 2) PERSONNEL ISSUES: HEALTH CARE, PAY PLAN, STAFFING – HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR ODETTE BRACH Human Resources Director Odette Brach gave staff’s presentation on the Human Resources 2018 Budget. Mrs. Brach stated that the Leadership Team (Department Directors) and Employee Representative Committee (ERC) went to work to develop and implement the City’s Core Values. She said these have been incorporated into the hiring process to ensure that candidates fit within the City’s culture. Mrs. Brach continued that staff worked with the ERC to revamp the Employee Recognition Program and incorporate the Core Values into the program and work continues to keep the Core Values in the forefront. Mrs. Brach reviewed what the ERC came up with for the Core Values. These values are represented by each letter in the word “Fruita,” so they include Fun, Respectful, United, Innovative, Transparent and Authentic. Once these were developed, she and the City Manager met first with Department Directors and then with City staff to share the Core Values and to get feedback. Mrs. Brach stated that for the first time ever, a Supervisory Team was created that meets quarterly to discuss issues, coordinate efforts and have some training. Mrs. Brach also reviewed the recruitment in the City of Fruita in 2017. Staff recruited in 2017 included: • 2 Police Officers • 2 Wastewater Operators • Recreation Supervisor – Athletics • Recreation Supervisor – Aquatics • Mechanic • Animal Control Officer (converted to full-time) • Code Enforcement Officer (still vacant) • Planning & Development Director (in process) • 5 Public Works and 5 Parks seasonal and/or part-time employees • Several Community Center employees Staffing in the 2018 Budget includes: • Public Works  Fleet Position  Part-time Custodian • Parks Department  Part-time Parks Maintenance Worker • Planning Fruita City Council Minutes 13 November 21, 2017  Full-time Planner  Convert Code Enforcement Officer to part-time • Finance  Full-time Accountant In April of 2018, employees will receive a 2% increase across the board. Mrs. Brach reviewed the Health Insurance benefits for City employees in 2018. Staff received quotes from Rocky Mountain Health Plans and Colorado Employer Benefit Trust (CEBT) for the 2018 Renewal and the City will continue to offer a dual option through Rocky Mountain Health Plans for health coverage. Mrs. Brach reviewed the monthly premiums, co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums for health insurance, which will see some increases in 2018. She also reviewed the City’s dental insurance and vision coverage. Councilor Karisny asked what the window of time was for employees to sign up for either of the two health insurance plans offered and whether or not they could switch plans during the year. Mrs. Brach responded that employees cannot switch plans during the year; open enrollment occurs in the month of December and the insurance goes into effect on January 1st. Mrs. Brach added that an employee can make a change (addition or deletion) to their plan if there is a change in family status such as birth of a child, loss of employment, marriage, divorce, etc., but the plans cannot be switched. Councilor Kreie asked if the health insurance benefit was available to all City full-time employees and Mrs. Brach responded that it is. Councilor Brackett asked how much of an increase the City and employees would be facing in 2018 and if there were also increases in last year and the year before that. Mrs. Brach responded that the City experiences an increase in health insurance costs every year. Mr. Bennett added that the trend across the valley is increases in health insurance of anywhere from 10% to 20% while the City of Fruita’s increase in 2018 will be at 0.5%. Mrs. Brach gave an example of the City’s current Monument Plan through Rocky Mountain Health Plan versus the new 2018 Monument Plan where the employee only premium was $545.71 in 2017 and will go up to $548.91 in 2018. She said that for an employee plus one, the total monthly premium will be $1,097.83 but in 2017 it was $1,091.41. For a family, the 2018 monthly premium will be $1,454.62 versus $1,446.12 in 2017. Councilor Brackett asked if employees gave any feedback on how appreciative they are of receiving health insurance coverage at such a minimal amount. Mrs. Brach said a survey was done this year to find out what things employees liked about working for the City of Fruita called “What do you Value?” and they ranked the importance of health and dental insurance as the number one valued aspect of being employed by the City of Fruita. Mrs. Brach noted that the City also has a “Supplemental Health Insurance Plan,” that is funded each year to help employees offset their deductible. Currently, the deductible is $3,000, so an employee Fruita City Council Minutes 14 November 21, 2017 would essentially pay the first $1,500 and then the City gives them the next $1,500. They have to provide their Explanation of Benefits to the Human Resources Department to show that they have incurred those costs. Mrs. Brach said she knows that Fruita’s employees are also extremely grateful for that benefit. Mrs. Brach pointed out that the City’s health insurance is probably the best recruiting tool that Fruita has. 3) SEWER FUND: WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT SUPERINTENDENT TERRY ANDERSON Mr. Terry Anderson stated that an accomplishment of Fruita’s Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) in 2017 was that they got with Colorado Mesa University, who has agreed to take all of the plant’s bio-solids at no cost. He said that this year, he and his staff had Thermo Process set up a meeting with Telluride, Plum Creek Water Reclamation Authority and South Fort Collins to come tour Fruita’s wastewater facility. Telluride spends $330,000 per year on bio-solids disposal, Plum Creek spends $675,000 and South Fort Collins spends $850,000. Mr. Anderson reported that the City of Fruita has spent nothing in the last four years on bio-solids disposal, calling it one of the biggest accomplishments for any wastewater plant. Mr. Anderson showed a graph depicting the total energy used by the WWTF in the last three years as well as a graph showing that the City of Fruita had the same amount of effluent flow in 2014 as it will in 2017. He said this is a remarkable accomplishment and he commended the Public Works crews that run the collections system for doing a fantastic job. Mr. Anderson continued that most people would probably see an increase between 3% and 8% per year and this isn’t based on the number of taps that are connected to the system. Mr. Anderson said that because the Public Works crews do such a good job taking care of the sewer system, the WWTF doesn’t have a lot of floatables or “scum” that arises in the clarifier. He said that typically, a treatment facility would have to process about 3,000 to 3,700 gallons of scum disposal on a daily basis, which equates to about 1.4 million gallons per year, but because the City’s collection system is so clean, WWTF staff has been able to direct the vat flow back to the head works and not even put it to the solids disposal. This means that the WWTF does not have to treat 1.4 million gallons on a yearly basis, resulting in a cost savings of $25,000 - $30,000 over a three-year period. Mr. Anderson said that if the WWTF didn’t have those kinds of numbers, they would probably have to be asking for more staff, especially to help on the weekends. He said that Fruita is unlike most treatment facilities in that it only runs a five-day per week operation and staff only goes in on weekends to do a quick two-hour check through. Most plants have full operations going seven days per week, so Mr. Anderson said this is yet another way that the WWTF is saving a lot of money. Mr. Anderson explained that the facility will, however, have a challenge in the next few years because of the impacts of Regulation 31, which says that the treatment plant has to have phosphorus Fruita City Council Minutes 15 November 21, 2017 below 1 part per million and that there must be Total Inorganic Nitrogen at less than 15 parts per million. He said that Fruita’s WWTF was not designed to do either of those things. He said that he believes that through some operational changes, the WWTF may be able to comply, although he said he couldn’t make any promises yet. One of the things that the WWTF staff has been doing is the addition of sodium aluminate, which will tie up the phosphorus so that hopefully, the plant can meet the requirements of Reg 31. To get to the Total Inorganic Nitrogen acceptable levels, staff is looking at doing some modifications where they will turn off some blowers in the middle of the night and do some de-nitrofication. Mr. Anderson said that WWTF has been working with Mark Maxwell at TetraTech to come up with some innovative ways to make Fruita’s wastewater facility work without having to spend a ton of money. He said that if the City has to do de-nitrofication with concrete, motors and pumps as well as modifications to the plant for phosphorus removal, the cost will range somewhere between $5 and $7 million. Mr. Anderson continued that another challenge at the facility is hydrogen sulfide, which when mixed with oxygen, creates sulfuric acid, which destroys concrete. This has been quite a problem at the facility; it has eaten up a lot of the infrastructure inside the head works and eight manholes have been almost completely destroyed. There are plans to deal with this, but Mr. Anderson said that he would like to add ionizers that hopefully will prevent the sulfide from becoming the destructive acid. Mr. Anderson said he wanted to stress that the City of Fruita was very lucky in hiring the two newest employees at the WWTF, Matt Hefly and Glen Phelps, both of whom have brought a lot to the table. Mr. Anderson stated that the total energy used at the treatment plant has remained pretty consistent throughout the years, but might increase fairly soon by $5,000 to $7,000 per month looking at the growth projections. He said that the processes at the plant will determine when the second oxidation ditch will have to be turned on. The first one is currently at 88% capacity. Mayor Buck recalled that the oxidation ditch that was chosen for Fruita’s wastewater plant was the most expensive option when the facility was built and she was led to believe that the City wouldn’t need to do anything but the plant could be modified if necessary, but not to the tune of $5 to $7 million. She asked if the City chose poorly on the options for the plant because she did not expect to have such a big expense so soon into it. Mr. Anderson responded that the City did not choose a bad plant. He said if you look at the whole thing and all the processes, it was an excellent choice because the facility can be modified if the City has to do that in order to meet all the regulations that are forthcoming. He said that if the plant doesn’t have the right features, it just cannot do what the state asks. Mr. Anderson said the bad thing about it is that right about the time Fruita had to make up their minds what they wanted to do for a treatment process, the state was working on changing regulations. He explained that most facilities that discharge into a river do not have to get rid of Fruita City Council Minutes 16 November 21, 2017 phosphorus; right now the only plants that do that are the ones that are discharging into Lake Dillon and Cherry Creek Reservoir. Mr. Anderson said that because the water in the Colorado River is moving and is not really clean water, algae isn’t built up, so he wasn’t sure why there was such a rush to get rid of phosphorus. Mr. Anderson said that the good news is that because everybody is kind of in the same situation as the City of Fruita, the state has set the regulations back ten years. He added that he recently saw a presentation that proposed that because everyone is waiting ten years, they will have to deal with “enhanced regulations” in ten years, which means the regulations will be even tighter. Mr. Anderson said he wouldn’t say this will happen for sure, but all indications are that they could be. Mr. Anderson added that he had just spoken with one of the guys who built Fruita’s wastewater treatment plant and he ran a couple of ideas by him and he said that the idea was as good as any that he’s heard of for Fruita’s type of plant. He said he thinks the WWTF is going in the right direction and he believes that staff can make it worth, but without the plant truly being designed to meet the upcoming regulations, it is going to be difficult and he just wanted to prepare everyone for the future. Mr. Anderson encouraged everyone to come to the plant and pick up bio-solids for their gardens or yards, emphasizing the fact that the City paid absolutely no money for bio-solids disposal, which he called a good feat to achieve. Mayor Buck opened the public hearing on the 2018 Budget presentations. Hearing no comments, she closed the public hearing and brought it back to the Council. • COUNCILOR BONAR MOVED TO CONTINUE THE PUBLIC HEARING ON THE 2018 ANNUAL BUDGET UNTIL THE DECEMBER 5, 2017 COUNCIL MEETING. COUNCILOR BRACKETT SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION PASSED WITH SIX YES VOTES. 8. ADMINISTRATIVE AGENDA There were no items on the Administrative Agenda. 9. CITY MANAGER’S REPORT City Manager Mike Bennett reminded the Council and Mayor that City offices would be closed on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving and we wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. 10. COUNCIL REPORTS AND ACTIONS COUNCILOR BRACKETT Councilor Brackett had nothing to report. Fruita City Council Minutes 17 November 21, 2017 COUNCILOR KINCAID Councilor Kincaid reported that the Chamber had its annual board retreat the previous week and the City Manager attended as well. They discussed future funding and the Chamber’s goal of being 100% self-sustaining. They also discussed getting the Chamber Board and the City Council getting together again because it hasn’t been done in awhile. COUNCILOR KREIE Councilor Kreie reported that he did not attend the Associated Governments of Northwestern Colorado (AGNC) meeting. He said that the Downtown Advisory Board has been unable to find a good source of Christmas trees, so there will be no Christmas tree lot in downtown Fruita this year. COUNCILOR HARVEY Councilor Harvey said he didn’t have anything to report. COUNCILOR KARISNY Councilor Karisny reported that the 5-2-1 “kind of” had a meeting. He explained that Greg Lainey was the Director of the 5-2-1 and he resigned in mid-August. The new Director is Trent Prall, who is also the Public Works Director for the City of Grand Junction. Councilor Karisny explained that the 5-2-1 is an authority that was created to help with drainage issues in the Grand Valley. Councilor Karisny noted that there has been a legal question as to whether the 5-2-1 has any authority over the drainages in the valley. Mr. Prall sent an e-mail to all the municipalities asking for an electronic meeting so that the 5-2-1 can adopt its budget and reauthorize the management of the 5-2-1 by the City of Grand Junction. Councilor Karisny stated that the electronic meeting would be held and he read an excerpt from the e-mail which said, “We have been waiting of course on the decision on the GVDD fee. Once a decision is made, the board will be able to move forward on the next steps for the 5-2-1 Drainage Authority. The City of Grand Junction is interested in pursuing a long-term solution for the 5-2-1, either as a full functioning drainage authority handling water quality, operations and maintenance and water quality and/or as an organization similar to the stand alone structure focused on water quality that was in place in 2008/2009. As is currently stands, the City of Grand Junction is not interested in continuing the present model past 2018.” Councilor Karisny said he imagined that the City Engineer would be involved with the TAC committee talking about it over the next year. Councilor Karisny noted that there was an increase of $6,000 in the 5-2-1’s budget that Fruita’s City Manager and City Engineer are aware of and they are okay with it. Councilor Karisny read an excerpt about Kathy Daniels, who used to work for the City and was recently recognized nationally by Crime Stoppers USA as “Board Member of the Year.” Fruita City Council Minutes 18 November 21, 2017 COUNCILOR BONAR Councilor Bonar had nothing to report. Councilor Brackett recalled that the Police Commission met the previous Wednesday and basically the Police Chief talked about two public complaints about minor incidents. The next Police Commission meeting will be held in January. MAYOR BUCK Mayor Buck said she went to Vail and when four medical professionals found out she was from Fruita and is the Mayor, said that they love Fruita! 11. ADJOURN With no further business before the Council, the meeting was adjourned at 8:46 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Debra Woods Deputy City Clerk City of Fruita