City Council

Minot City Council Executive Retreat Meeting Minutes October 25, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center 2576 8th St. SW, Washburn, ND 58577 Meeting Minutes: The Mayor called the Special City Council Meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. A roll call followed with the following present: Aldermen Podrygula, Olson, Jantzer, Wolsky, Straight, Pitner, and Sipma as well as City Manager Barry. All present, no one absent. The City Manager welcomed the Council to the meeting and reviewed the agenda and discussed meeting expectations and logistics. The Mayor encouraged frank and constructive discussions. Others expressed interest in focusing on aligning as a team on issues. The City Manager requested that the Council reflect back over the past 12-18 months to identify and celebrate past accomplishments and successes. Collaborative Wolsky - Completed two extraordinary budgets. Sipma – Anticipating and being more proactive on city issues. Courageous leadership of council tackling big issues. Jantzer – Pleased with increase in community engagement and City is doing much better at communicating. Pitner – Much improved transparency and communication/information. Likes how the City is using data and presenting facts. The City is doing a better job defending itself with facts. Budget, flood, parking garages, NDPS, 16th Crossing, HUB City, increased relationships with press, Governor, and school. Increased Economic Development and optimism of community. Mayor – City staff are much more prepared and courageous on defending the City. Staff are using data and facts. Podrygula – Appreciated staff, invited public involvement and engagement. Mayor – Recognized that some of our biggest critics have come to defend and support us. Podrygula – The council is engaged and working much better together, city public processes are vastly improved, community is getting its dollars-worth with the council; the administration is growing and coalescing as a team. Page 1 of 5 2020 Census  Use churches, other organizations, and military to get the word out about the importance of having everyone counted.  Need to get information out that dispels concerns and hesitation to encourage Minot as their primary place of residence.  Annexations o Need to ID all “no protested” letters and annex now. o Be aware that we will have to ID the cost of services we would have to provide to newly annexed properties o Tax dollars and CDBG dollars may increase if we reach the Census threshold The Council all agreed to the following annexation approach 1) Study those with “no protest” letters 2) Identify those without letters but get services 3) Do a volunteer survey 4) State Fair Ground: Pursue requesting sales tax from State Fair via annex or a contract. City Hall  City expecting to receive HUD Waiver soon.  Need to conduct a space analysis and plan.  Consider existing buildings downtown first. Parking Garage  Council discussed discounting ticket prices for students.  No changes were suggested to consider.  Council will reevaluate ticket prices after the Cypress lawsuit concludes. 2 Mile Surcharge for Building Permits  Council discussed the practice and the request by a citizen to change the practice.  Council members decided to keep the fee as was established by existing ordinance Financial Planning and Priorities  Council felt like this topic was discussed in satisfactory detail during the budget process.  Podrygula suggested a department-by-department rating of how the department is doing, what it needs, how much dollars we need.  Suggestions was made to have a separate meeting from the budget priorities. o Discussed HUB City Funding, Special Legislative Council, Landfill Fee Equity, and City Capital Improvements Plan. Flood Control Financing  Barry explained SRJB contract and presented the flood control-financing model for the next 5 years.  Mayor thinks we need another ½ © of sales tax in 2019.  Extensive discussion ensued regarding the financing approach and possibilities. Page 2 of 5   Concerns were expressed about fundamental fairness of local share contributions and city capabilities.  Council concerned that the City is paying more local share than others do and the city is using its bonding capacity for others benefit.  Council concerned the City cannot raise enough local share dollars at the current contribution rate to complete the project.  Council wants to push SRJB to encourage the collect additional local share dollars from other jurisdictions. o Approach going forward should  Include Jason Zimmerman in conversation.  SRJB should be in lead position.  SRJB should seek additional local dollars.  SRJB should get other locals/counties to add a ½ cent o Council agreed that a formal resolution should be drafted stating the City’s concerns and the need for more local share participation was needed.  Want to inform the SRJB first before issuing the resolution.  Ongoing operations and management for flood control still not addressed. Who and how to pay for?  Council recognized that the City still has enormous municipal needs that will require extensive revenues to overcome. Council expressed concern about placing too much money toward flood control and not having enough for City needs.  Beautification adds also a concern (betterments) based on a recent financial modeling and an evaluation of our contract at SRJB.  Discussion around the SRJB Contract with the City revealed: o 50% of one penny of sales tax is the City’s contract obligation to SRJB o 27% additional sales tax is collected and put to flood control currently above contracted obligation  Could use the additional amount over the 50% for Flood Control Betterments, River Front and Center, Economic Development, Flood Control Operations and Management, City needs, etc.  Approach to SRJB: o SRJB needs to develop a financial plan and model to determine their solvency.  Request they pursue that work  Then request a Council resolution be made to get the public informed and put SRJB on notice that no more dollars will go to the project above 50% of one penny on January 1, 2020 unless/until they can get more local share contributions from others. o Cite the city’s financial challenges and projections. o Council wanted the City Manager and Mayor to communicate this in person to the SRJB Leadership at their next internal meeting. Economic Development  Discussion of modifying the Community Development Director position to a Community and Economic Development Director position. o Adding skills and capabilities to the City team will be an advantage to economic development for Minot and help fill gaps.  MADC, Visit Minot, Chamber of Commerce may not be overly concerned provided it doesn’t conflict with what they currently do.  Council approved changing the CDD to C& EDD and providing some flexibility in job Page 3 of 5 Mergers/Consolidations  Updates provided by the Chairs of the Parks and Rec Merger Committee and the Library Merger Committee.  Work continues on both fronts. Customer Service  Barry presented the preliminary draft of the City’s new Customer Service Program.  Podrygula has a huge interest in and experience and was grateful for the progress but has long felt the City is behind the ball on customer service efforts.  Bismarck employees get 4 hours training at their hiring.  Podrygula would like to have council members be asked for expertise.  Council would like to put customer service standards on a future COW meeting for discussion Open Meetings  Discussion was had about open meetings laws and procedures. Several scenarios were discussed. Council was discouraged from creating quorums at Planning Commission and other Committee Meetings due to noticing and to prevent potential open meetings law violations. The group also discussed ex parte communications and quasi-judicial communications. Council recommended the Planning staff identify Quasi-Judicial items on the Planning Commission Agenda to avoid the possibility of ex parte communications. Council Pay  Council discussed Council and Mayoral pay and benefits and compared them to other benchmarks. It is clear that Minot Council members are under-compensated.  Council would like their Salary Survey updated in early 2019 and for recommendations to be made and included in the 2020 Budget. Council Media Requests  City Manager and Mayor discussed Council media inquiries/requests.  Mayor encouraged all council members to be careful about how they represent the City and to use and work through Derek for formal City positions on issues.  City Manager cautioned Council Members to be conscientious about and detail whether their statements are personal or formally represent the City’s interests. Agenda Setting  All Council members were encouraged to honor deadlines for submitting agenda memos/items. o Staff and the public need adequate time to prepare  Podrygula wants new and other business sections on agenda but that may not be necessary since the Council agreed that it wants staff to put whatever council wants on the agenda as opposed to having it vetted by the CM and Mayor. Page 4 of 5 Council Meeting and Schedule/Structure  Discussed and recommended going to 5:30 p.m. twice a month City Council Meetings and eliminating COW Meetings. (2nd and 4th Tuesday)  CM to review and ensure no conflicts prior to bringing forth an Ordinance change. Ombudsman Discussion  Briefly discussed as time was running short. Who should respond, how to record issues and the need for a formal process were topics identified for future conversation. The Council was unable to get through the entire agenda and urged the City Manager to schedule a Special City Council Meeting to discuss the Legislative Issues and Priorities topic within a week because of the urgency surrounding the rapidly approaching Legislative Forum the City has scheduled with area legislators for November 13th. Motion made by Pitner to adjourn and seconded by Jantzer. A roll call followed with the following Ayes: Aldermen Podrygula, Olson, Jantzer, Wolsky, Straight, Pitner, and Sipma as. All agreed. The Council adjourned at 5:31 p.m. Page 5 of 5