City Council
Regular MeetingMendota Heights, MN · July 18, 2023
Minutes
CITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS
DAKOTA COUNTY
STATE OF MINNESOTA
Minutes of the City Council Work Session
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Levine called the work session to order at 4: 15 p.m. Councilmembers Lorberbaum,
Mazzitello, Paper, and Miller were present.
Staff in attendance included City Administrator Cheryl Jacobson, Assistant City Administrator
Kelly Torkelson, Public Works Director Ryan Ruzek, Park and Recreation Manager Meredith
Lawrence, Public Works Superintendent John Boland, Recycling Coordinator Courtney Selstad,
Finance Director Kristen Schabacker, and City Clerk Christine Lusian.
ORGANICS COLLECTION
Coordinator Selstad provided an update to the city council on the Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency' s ( MPCA) plans regarding organics collections. The state has a goal to reduce solid
waste by 75% by 2030 and organics collection is a part of the strategy that they are going to use
to try to meet that goal. Staff have met with representatives from Dakota County and the MPCA
to identify upcoming requirements and resources available to Mendota Heights to meet those
requirements.
The MPCA has recently published a draft policy plan which outlines their strategy to achieve
their waste reduction goals. Council is invited to submit comments on that plan through
September. The plan will be finalized by the end of the year. Once the plan is finalized, counties
have until Q3/ Q4 of 2024 to develop their own plan for how they will respond. Dakota County is
anticipating that there will be some kind of organics collection requirement by 2026 based on the
timelines of the State.
The MPCA hosted listening sessions last week at which the waste haulers expressed concerns
about labor shortages, licensing issues, and limited capacity at the existing organics facilities.
There is a new organics facility that just broke ground in Scott County. Staff would like guidance
from the City Council as to how they would like staff to approach these upcoming requirements.
Some options that the city council could consider would include finding a hauler who is willing
to do curbside organics collection within Mendota Heights, investigate the feasibility of
instituting organized organics collection in Mendota Heights, or expand organics education and
activities to increase the participation in the city' s organics drop off program.
Parks and Recreation Manager clarified for the city council that if there was interest in doing
curbside organics collection that the city council would need to institute organized trash
collection as well. This is a hot topic that generates a significant amount of public feedback. If
the city were to move in this direction then staff would recommend working with a vendor to
support the initiative.
Councilor Paper asked staff about the feasibility of developing an ouse organics collection
program. Councilor Mazzitello stated that the development of such a program would require
significant administration on the back end. Council Paper recommended that the development of
a program like this be funded by taxes rather than by additional fees and asked about the
feasibility of using existing city property to manage organics collections. Public Works Director
Ruzek clarified that there were significant requirements by the MPCA regarding organics
management sites that the city would not be able to meet. Mayor Levine shared that the city
shouldn' t try to recreate the wheel, but that we can learn from other cities who have done this.
Parks and Recreation Manager shared that Dakota County has offered to pay for a study for
Mendota Heights to figure out the feasibility of an organics collection program. Councilor
Lorberbaum shared that she was interested in the staff looking into the possibilities of organics
collection.
Councilor Mazzitello asked if it would be possible to pull a report together before the comment
period expired with the MPCA. Staff said that timeline would be challenging to meet, however,
other cities are further along in this process than we are and can speak to some of the questions
and issues that this data will illuminate for Mendota Heights. Councilor Mazzitello shared that he
supported a study funded by the County. Councilor Miller asked what the county would want
from the city as a part of the initiative. Parks and Recreation Manager Lawrence clarified that the
County would be looking for clear direction and commitment by the council regarding interest in
moving forward on the initiative.
Councilor Lorberbaum requested that staff connect with staff from the City of Edina as they
implemented an organics program prior to the requirements by Hennepin County. Staff
confirmed that they have been and will continue to be in contact with staff at the City of Edina
and other cities that have experience implementing these programs.
Councilor Mazzitello clarified that he was not interested in government run waste collection.
SNOW EQUIPMENT
Superintendent Boland introduced the department' s request for snow removal equipment that is
not currently in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The equipment requested has the ability to
be used year round, however, its main utility will support the city' s efforts in snow removal
specifically in cul-de- sacs. The new equipment is safer to use as it has increased visibility and it
will be able to use different attachments that we have in our existing equipment. The new
machine will speed the response of public works for how long it takes to clear snow and it will
reduce the amount of snow that gets packed onto roads.
Councilor Lorberbaum said that the residents think that public works does a great job and wanted
to know why staff needed this when they were already doing such a great job. Superintendent
Boland clarified that this year' s snowfall included a lot of challenges for staff and reinforced that
the equipment would improve safety during snow events.
Councilor Mazzitello asked about the feasibility of using existing equipment for trade in value to
fund this request. Public Works Director clarified that the equipment that Councilor Mazzitello
was referring to is currently used as a back up for snow removal at the industrial park and that
the city should not get rid of that equipment until the replacement has arrived.
Councilor Miller asked if the equipment would be able to be used outside of snow events.
Superintendent Boland confirmed that yes staff would be able to use it year round, but the
primary benefit it would add to the city would be during snow events.
Councilor Paper asked staff to look into the feasibility and costs of using other vendors.
COMPENSATION STUDY
Kelly Torkelson introduced the compensation study to the city council. She reviewed the city
council' s strategic priorities which include recruiting and retaining staff. Torkelson reviewed that
the hiring market is getting increasingly challenging and projections for recruitment efforts in the
future.
Tessia Melvin reviewed the benchmarks that the employees have proposed. Benchmarks
includes cities that have a variety of characteristics that reflect the range of the market for
employees. Some of the cities are bigger, but some of them are smaller. Some cities have a larger
tax base, some are smaller.
Mayor Levine said that it doesn' t make sense to compare us to cities that are much larger
because going to a larger city is a promotion. We shouldn' t be comparing our city to cities that
are so much bigger than us. Assistant City Administrator Torkelson stated that the goal of this
conversation is not to say that we should be paying the same as some of these larger cities, but it
is important to outline the context for the market, these are the cities that we are competing with.
While some jobs have more differences between Mendota Heights and Apple Valley, there are
other jobs which are very similar, and having the cities in the benchmarks will make sure that we
are including those as well.
Councilor Mazzitello said that in reviewing these cities, there is a pretty good split of cities that
are larger and cities that are smaller than we are. Dr. Melvin shared that out of 24 cities, 11 of the
benchmarks are larger, 14 are smaller than Mendota Heights.
Councilor Mazzitello shared that at Ramsey County, the county board of commission has a
philosophy to pay 65 percentile of the market. Currently pay is significantly below that and the
impact is that they cannot keep people employed.
Assistant City Administrator Torkelson said that Dr. Melvin has pulled together some data that
can show where we fit in the existing benchmark environment, what we would be looking for
from the council if there are any specific changes to the list of benchmarks and where the city
council would like staff to aim their analysis towards from a pay philosophy perspective. That
will help the city to ensure that we are meeting the expectations of the council with the
recommendations that we make in the report.
Mayor Levine wanted to aim to be right in the middle of the benchmarks but also to be
competitive with cities that we provide better service than.
Councilor Mazzitello said that Mendota Heights is a great place to work, that the city has
relatively low turnover in staff. There are some of the intangibles which can make up the
difference in competitiveness that are left over from having average pay.
Assistant City Administrator Torkelson said that while these intangibles can be powerful
motivators, they are not necessarily sufficient to keep staff when the market has higher pay as
well as their own intangibles attracting staff. Sometimes people like where they work and they
still end up leaving because they need to pay bills. That is a reality of the situation, these other
cities are also a very nice place to work. If the city finds that we are paying below the average,
they are going to consider that as a recognition that they are under paid.
Mayor Levine said that the city has a lot of costs that are coming up, if we are committing to a
30% pay increase to staff that might not be something that we should be doing right now. Dr.
Melvin clarified that the study would not show that type of necessary adjustment.
Mayor Levine confirmed that she was comfortable with the proposed benchmarks. Councilor
Miller shared that he would like the city to be competitive with the market and that the middle of
the market should be the least that the city do. Councilor Mazzitello added that one of the main
reasons people stay or leave an organization is because of the leadership.
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Levine adjourned the meeting at 5: 41 p.m.
ATTE
Stephanie B. Levine, Mayor
C e , City Clerk
Agenda
CITY OF MENDOTA HEIGHTS
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION AGENDA
Tuesday, July 18, 2023 4:15 p.m.
City Hall 1101 Victoria Curve, Mendota Heights
1. Call to Order
2. Discussion
a. City Compensation Study
b. Organics Collection
c. Snow Equipment
3. Natural Resources Commission Interviews
4. Adjourn
Alternative formats or auxiliary aids are available to individuals with disabilities upon
request. Please contact city hall at 651-452-1850 or cityhall@mendotaheightsmn.gov.
_________________________________________________City Council Work Session Memo
DATE: July 18, 2023
TO: Mayor, City Council, and City Administrator
FROM: Kelly Torkelson, Assistant City Administrator
SUBJECT: Compensation Study
BACKGROUND
DDA Human Resources, Inc. (DDA) was hired by the City to conduct a market analysis,
calibration and implement recommended changes to the city pay plan. The project will
include:
• A Market Analysis of council selected and approved benchmark communities.
• Determination of current pay in relation to market and discuss desired pay
philosophy.
• Create pay philosophy and re-calibrate pay grid
• Prepare budget implementation to determine payroll costs
Benchmark communities are identified as a part of the market analysis from which the
consultant will make comparisons to Mendota Heights. These benchmark communities
may share a variety of characteristics with Mendota Heights and there may also be
significant differences between them. A part of identifying the variety of cities within the
analysis is to represent the range of what makes Mendota Heights unique as a city and to
best represent the standard from which the city can compare employee compensation.
During the 2017 compensation study, population was primarily used as the comparison
for benchmarks. In reviewing the market trends within the city as well as within the
broader employment market, staff are recommending to expand that analysis to include
things such as proximity, service level expectations, tax capacity, tax rate, and
expenditures.
The project leadership team reviewed initial benchmarks which were then brought to two
staff meetings that were open to all staff as well as the city’s unions. These meetings were
an opportunity to review the process of the compensation study and to get staff feedback
and recommendations pertaining to the benchmarks that would be presented to the city
council. The list, including these recommendations is as follows:
Anoka South Lake Minnetonka Chaska
Arden Hills Police Department Hastings
Columbia Heights South St. Paul Lakeville
Farmington St. Anthony Village Golden Valley
Hopkins Stillwater Robbinsdale
Little Canada Vadnais Heights Victoria
Mound Waconia Eagan
Mounds View West St. Paul Savage
North St. Paul White Bear Township Prior Lake
Robbinsdale Anoka Inver Grove Heights
Rogers Lake Elmo White Bear Lake
Rosemount Apple Valley
In addition to these benchmarks, the following cities were also identified as Spotlight
communities. Spotlight communities are cities or counties that, while you want to know
what they are paying their employees, are not necessarily a good match for salary
purposes because they are usually much larger. Including the data as a spotlight
community allows the client to be aware of what some other cities or counties are paying
without distorting the market data from similar communities to their own. The cities that
staff are recommending as spotlight communities are:
St. Louis Park Woodbury Bloomington
Edina Wayzata
ACTION RECOMMENDED/REQUESTED
The above information is for review by the City Council. The city council should provide
their opinion on the suggested benchmarks. In addition, staff would like the city council
to discuss pay philosophy for the city to help guide the study’s recommendation for where
to place the Mendota Heights’ goal coming out of the compensation study.
_________________________________________________City Council Work Session Memo
DATE: July 18, 2023
TO: Mayor, City Council and City Administrator
FROM: Courtney Selstad, Recycling Coordinator
Meredith Lawrence, Parks and Recreation Manager
SUBJECT: Organics Recycling Update
INTRODUCTION
The City Council will receive an update regarding opportunities to increase organics
recycling activities in Mendota Heights.
BACKGROUND
Knowing that Mendota Heights has a high rate of resident participation in organics
recycling and that it is of interest to the City Council, city staff met with Dakota County
environmental staff to discuss the possibility of curbside organics collection and other
related activities. This meeting also included a representative from the MPCA, as they
recently released the draft Metropolitan Solid Waste Management Policy Plan which
includes proposed requirements and suggestions for organics management.
From this meeting staff learned that while a curbside organics collection requirement is
a possible outcome of the draft policy plan, it would not become a requirement until at
least 2026. The meeting also included discussion of the various ways to, and pros and
cons of, offering a curbside program.
City staff have also been brainstorming possible organics recycling activities, outside of
curbside collection, that would enhance the use of existing resources for diversion of
this material from landfill.
BUDGET IMPACT
There is a large range of budget impacts based on activity. The biggest expense would
be staff time or consulting fees if Council wants staff to further investigate curbside
collection. Increased staff time expenses for additional organics recycling activities will
be included in the draft budget for 2024.
ACTION RECOMMENDED/REQUESTED
The City Council is asked to receive the staff’s update and discuss the goals for organics
recycling activities.
_________________________________________________City Council Work Session Memo
DATE: July 18, 2023
TO: Mayor, City Council and City Administrator
FROM: Ryan Ruzek, Public Works Director
John Boland, Public Works Superintendent
SUBJECT: Snow Removal Equipment
INTRODUCTION
The City Council is asked to consider the purchase of snow removal equipment to plow
streets, cul-de-sacs and trails more efficiently and sustainably.
BACKGROUND
During and after snow plowing operations, Public Works clears 65.2 centerline miles of
streets that includes 110 cul-de-sacs and 27 miles of trails. Also plowed are public
parking lots and ice rinks. Historically, the cul-de-sacs have been plowed with pickup
truck mounted plows. When the snow berms get large and turn to ice, the following
snow plowing operations do not allow the trucks to push the snow to the curbs which
creates narrower cul-de-sacs, filling more driveways, and covering up fire hydrants and
storm drains. This situation means staff has to come back to the cul-de-sacs with a
wheel loader and push the snow back between plowing events.
Prior to this last season, Public Works bought a SnoWolf Quattro blade that mounts on
the wheeled skid steer, which was used to replace a route and to plow the fire station
parking lot. This unit has proved to save time, and enables the operator to shelf snow
higher and was able to get near the curb through the entire season, so there was no
need to return with the loader to widen cul-de-sacs on that route.
When clearing trails, staff switches from their straight blade to a V blade to enable them
to get through the paths. This method works until the berms get too high and does not
allow the snow to rollover the top of the berm. At this point staff needs to use a snow
blower to clear the trails and widen them out between snowfalls. A more challenging
problem is associated with all the trails that do not have a boulevard between the street
and trail. Not only does the snow on the trail need to be moved, but the snow that is
rolled off the road and into the trail needs to be moved also, creating the need to blow
the snow rather than plow it.
Presently Public Works has 2 snow blowers that run on the skid steers. These blowers
are effective, but a travel at a much slower speed. This season found staff using both
skid steers, the backhoe, and the wheel loader on a regular basis to move snow between
snow clearing operations. Even without a mechanical issue occurring on one of these
units, staff would have benefited from additional equipment. Staff did look into leasing
a blower during the season, but there were none available.
Staff would like to create more efficiencies and prolong the life of all city equipment
during snow clearing operations by:
1. Adding additional skid steer/loader operations to the cul-de-sac route similar to
the one they have now. This would be done by purchasing another Sno Wolf
blade for the newly purchased Toolcat to replace another pickup cul-de-sac
route. With this blade, it will eliminate most needs to revisit these cul-de-sacs
between snowfalls to move snow back to the curb ($12,000).
2. Purchase a new compact wheel loader with a Sno Wolf blade and snow blower.
This would be used to replace a cul-de-sac pickup truck route also. This loader
has a faster travel speed that will help in travel between cul-de-sacs, better
visibility, a higher lift for stacking snow, and would be used all year for loader
operations. It is capable of hooking up to all existing skid steer attachments that
the city presently owns for versatility ($196,000).
3. Staff would also like to retain an existing Mack plow truck to add one more route
to the street plowing, and/or as a backup for a potential breakdown of one of the
other trucks. This would make 5 plow routes instead of 4, which will get the snow
off the roads quicker, and help reduce salt usage from less snow compaction
from vehicle traffic ($260,000, would be $230,000 if existing truck is used as
trade-in).
With these proposals, snow removal operations will certainly be more efficient. By using
the proposed equipment, the need for pickup truck plows will no longer be needed on
two of these trucks, and the wear and tear on the trucks will be minimalized. From
December 2, 2022, to March 1, 2023, staff added over 400 hours of use on the 2 skid
steers, backhoe, and the wheel loader, along with fuel and time associated with these
hours. Some of this time was spent plowing and opening catch basins, digging out fire
hydrants, and pushing back areas that will continue to need attention. A majority of the
time, however, was spent moving snow back on the trail system and cul-de-sacs. This
new equipment will all be more agile, safer and easier on the driver to run than present
equipment. By finishing snow operations in a timelier and efficient manner, staff will get
the snow off the roads quicker which will alleviate snowpack from forming, and reduce
the salt usage even more.
City staff also receives complaints from residents that have cleared their driveways prior
to the snow plow making a second or third pass which can deposit more snow. The
home owners are then upset of having to clear the snow from the end of their driveway
again. Having a complete snow removal done in less passes will save on staff time,
overtime, staff fatigue, while reducing fuel and salt usage do to less equipment hours
and better snow removal.
BUDGET IMPACT
The cost for the equipment is $12,000 for the new plow, $196,000 for the compact
wheel loader, plow, and snow blower, and $260,000 for a new Mack Plow truck with
brine capabilities. The plow truck was identified in the Capital Improvement plan as a
scheduled purchase. Staff is projecting that this new equipment will reduce the salt
usage, staff time, and have back up equipment that can be repaired under standard
rates versus paying emergencies rates or not having equipment available.
The Mack truck and compact loader will be used year round.
ACTION RECOMMENDED/REQUESTED
The City Council is asked to provide feedback and if the Council is in support of the
proposal, staff will bring a purchase order to the Council to place orders as the
equipment is currently not in stock. The compact wheel loader could be available for
the 2023-2024 plowing season if an order can be placed in August and the city would
take possession in late November. The Mack plow is projected to be a minimum of 24
months for availability. The city is still waiting on the Mack plow truck that was ordered
in October, 2021.
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