Informational Meeting

MINUTES Tuesday, June 18, 2013 Informational Meeting 4:00 PM at Carnegie Town Hall Sioux Falls City Council 235 West Tenth Street Members Present: Sue Aguilar, Kenny Anderson Jr., James Entenman, Michelle Erpenbach, Greg Jamison, Dean Karsky, and Kermit L. Staggers Members Absent: Rex Rolfing and Mike T. Huether Staff Present: Denise D. Tucker, CMC, Assistant City Clerk; Lorie Hogstad, CMC, City Clerk; David Bixler, Budget Analyst; and Jim David, Legislative/Operations Manager 1. Call To Order Council Chair Jim Entenman called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. He said there will not be a Land Use Committee Meeting today. 2. Staff Report A. Lorie Hogstad, City Clerk Hogstad said information was received that there will not be a Joint Lincoln County or Minnehaha County meeting next Tuesday, June 25th. Also there are no electronic requests for the Informational meeting. The consensus of the Council was to cancel the meetings. A change in state law means that effective July 1st raffle requests are no longer required to be placed on a City Council Meeting Agenda. Hogstad said a designated administrative official can approve the request. This can be handled by the City Clerk's Office. Discussion followed. Hogstad said Item 36, on tonight's agenda, is the Resolution to approve the Argus Leader as the City's official newspaper. The rate that the Argus Leader is going to charge is $5.84 per column inch, which is an increase of 4 cents per column inch. She said we are getting a 10 percent discount due to publications being camera ready. Next year's Election publications will be handled separately in the budget. The Argus Leader Advertising Director Kelly Redfearn will be at the meeting tonight. Hogstad said the slight rate increase is not near the maximum that they can charge per state law. Discussion followed. Entenman asked Hogstad for an update on the contract with the school district for voting places. Hogstad stated, a meeting was held yesterday with representatives from the school district, Minnehaha County Auditor's Office, the City Council,  and City Clerk's Office. She said discussion was held on the agreement, which had been on a few City Council meetings but deferred to the September 17th meeting. Hogstad said there were many unanswered questions, which led to the deferral. Many questions were answered during yesterday's meeting. Peter Blanck will come in late August regarding ADA compliance for vote centers. Blanck is internationally known for his ADA work. Discussion followed. 3. Public Services Committee A. Report on meeting held Tuesday, June 11, 2013 Councilor Kenny Anderson Jr. said the Public Services Committee met and reviewed the Tobacco Policy. The presentation was given by Don Kearney, Director of Parks and Recreation; Jill Franken, Health Director; and staff. The policy is geared toward youth events. The Police Department has not issued any tickets, but they have handed out packets for people to place their cigarettes in. Discussion followed. 4. City Council Open Discussion There was none. 5. Presentations A. May Monthly Financial Report by Tracy Turbak, Director of Finance Turbak presented the monthly financial update. He said the Sioux Falls MSA Unemployment rate is at 3.5 percent. He said from a year ago, more than 3,200 additional people are working in the Sioux Falls MSA. Turbak said Building Permits valuations are running more than 120 percent ahead of where we were in May of last year. The General Sales Tax dollars, 12 Month Rolling Growth Rate, ended in May with a 5.6 percent growth rate. Turbak said the Entertainment Tax Collections was at 5.1 percent. He also discussed revenues and expenditures. The expenditures are running ahead of last year due to Operation Timber Strike. Discussion followed. B. Operation Timber Strike and FEMA Funding Assistance Process Update by Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works; and Tracy Turbak, Director of Finance Cotter introduced staff members who would be providing today's presentation. Regan Smith, Emergency Manager for the City of Sioux Falls, explained the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program. On May 1st and 2nd, he said the City participated in a preliminary damage assessment, along with other eligible applicants in seven counties throughout the state that were affected by the April 9th storm. Gov. Dennis Daugaard requested and received a Presidential  declaration on May 10th. Smith said on May 22nd, there was an applicant briefing held and the City did put in a request at that time. On May 31st, there was a kickoff meeting with FEMA and City staff. He explained the work being done by City staff to formulate projects and to meet the FEMA requirements. Smith reviewed the rest of the process. He then explained the purpose of the grant program and the eligibility requirements. Project deadlines were mentioned. Discussion followed. Cotter said there are still arborists working on punch list work around the City, which involves 1,100 trees with hazardous hangers or trees that need to be removed. Later there will be a City wide stump grinding, for stumps in the right- of-way. He updated the Council on the tree branch drop off sites. Discussion followed. Turbak spoke about reimbursement of the budget, which was affected by Operation Timber Strike. Discussion followed. 6. Adjournment Council Chair Jim Entenman adjourned the meeting at 4:58 p.m. Denise D. Tucker, CMC Assistant City Clerk