Mayor & City Council

WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL November 16, 2020 SPECIAL SESSION 5:00 P.M. Via Webex 1) CALL TO ORDER Due to confusion of the starting time on the agenda, Councilor Feury started the meeting. Members present were, Feury, Hennen, Davis, Norton. Mayor Muhlfeld and Councilor Sweeney joined around 5:30. Councilor Qunell joined at 5:53. 2) INTERVIEW FOR BOARD AND COMMITTEES The City Council interviewed incumbents Toby Scott, John Ellis, and Allison Linville for the Planning Board; incumbent Ben Cavin for the Whitefish Lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee; and incumbents Doug Peppmeier and Ian Hasson of the Board of Adjustments. Incumbent Peggy Brammer did not attend the interview for the Whitefish Lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee. 3) PUBLIC COMMENT None 4) APPOINTMENTS a) Mayor Muhlfeld reappointed Toby Scott, John Ellis, and Allison Linville to the Planning Board. The Council ratified his appointment by roll call. b) Councilor Feury made a motion, seconded by Councilor Hennen to reappoint Ben Cavin and Peggy Brammer to the Whitefish Lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee. The motion carried by roll call. c) Councilor Feury made a motion, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to reappoint Doug Peppmeier and Ian Hasson to the Board of Adjustments. The motion carried by roll call. 5) Adjourn Mayor Muhlfeld adjourned the Special Session and opened the work session. /s/John Muhlfeld _______________________________ Mayor Muhlfeld Attest: /s/Michelle Howke _______________________________ Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk  WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL November 16, 2020 7:10 P.M. Via Webex 1) CALL TO ORDER Mayor Muhlfeld called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Qunell, Feury, Hennen, Davis, Sweeney, and Norton. City Staff present were, City Clerk Howke, City Manager Smith, City Attorney Jacobs, Planning and Building Director Taylor, Public Works Director Workman, Parks and Recreation Director Butts, Police Chief Dial and Fire Chief Page. Approximately 34 people attended. 2) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Muhlfeld asked Director Workman to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3) PRESENTATION a) Whitefish Legacy Partners update on the Smith Lake Easement (p.37) Heidi Van Everen, Executive Director Whitefish Legacy Partners (WLP) presented information regarding collaborative project, “The Smith Lake Legacy” also known as “The Smith Lake Public Rec Use Easement (PRUE)”. WLP is asking for support to submit the application that is provided in the packet on the website, to the State Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Northwest Land Office. She provided background to this project, which is a part of the Whitefish Neighborhood Plan. Smith Lake is located at the head of Whitefish Lake. The proposal for the Smith Lake PRUE will surround Smith Lake and offer new recreation opportunities and provide important connections for the Whitefish Trail. The Smith Lake PRUE will ensure no development, provide permanent access, allow the development of the Whitefish Trail, and add additional stacked loop trails in the area surrounding Smith Lake. The lands will continue to be owned and managed by the state, and it is their expectation the state will retain management of commercial recreation in the area including the winter grooming and snowmobile user’s and also continue to manage the timber in the area. The City and WLP will work together to secure the easement terms to benefit the public, manage the public access and the long-term maintenance. WLP will continue to serve as the community transaction partner to uphold the Whitefish Neighborhood Plan. and act as the project catalyst, and lead fundraising and capital campaign efforts required to fund the project. The capital campaign will also help to grow the existing Whitefish Trail Endowment Fund to make sure it can support the new infrastructure. As the Smith Lake PRUE progresses in 2021, WLP would like to work with adjacent private landowners to ensure that the connections heading east and west from the Swift Creek Trailhead are secured. WLP is working with the Foley family to connect from Smith Lake to the forest service lands in Hell Roaring and also considering an alternate route to connect Beaver Lakes to Woods Lake to the Swift Creek area. These connections are not on state land, so they are not a part of this proposal. The Foley family has proposed a land exchange with the state, and it includes a donated trail easement. The state is working with four adjacent landowners on the southeast corner of Smith Lake PREU, to consider for road users’ agreement. We need to make sure all these projects are moving forward and staying coordinated and ensuring that they are compatible with one another and adhere to the Whitefish Neighborhood Plan. Mike Jopek, Whitefish Legacy Partners Chair, Blanchard Lake area, stated the Smith Lake project is consistent with the project’s environmental assessment that was completed by the State of Montana in  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 16, 2020 January 2019. The Smith Lake PRUE will protect highly developable lands and provide a wonderful community asset in perpetuity at the head of Whitefish Lake. The project will provide a critical link for the Whitefish Trail. The project promises to sustain local timber jobs, conserve key habitat and scenery, defend wildlife prone areasareas areas prone to wildlife encounters, guarantee public access and high- quality recreation, and protect the city’s water supply. To date WLP has secured over $12 million to Montana Schools through various conservation and recreational projects. The Smith Lake Project will contribute several million dollars more to schools in Montana. This application to the State allows for the required time for us to determine the cost via market analysis, consider other trail possibilities, refine the projects footprint, and ensure implementation of the project is aligned with the community goals. Councilor Qunell made a motion, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to authorize Whitefish Legacy Partners to apply for the Smith Lake PRUE to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Northwestern Land Office. The motion carried by roll call. 4) COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC Chris Schustrom invited the community to help hang the Christmas decorations, Sunday, November 22nd. Volunteers should meet at the intersection of 3rd Street and Central Avenue at 8:00 a.m. Alan Myers-Davis, 2045 Lion Mountain Loop Road, Director of Development at WLP, commented on the joint grant application that is agenda item #7. WLP is thankful and excited to have the opportunity to partner with the city and the Stumptown Art Studio on a grant application to the Montana Office of Tourism. Of the $35,000 application approximately $10,000 will support adding the Whitefish Trail to the City’s vehicular wayfinding signs and approximately $25,000 will support Stumptown Art Studios proposed art exhibit in the Baker Avenue Underpass. This project will improve user experience by further integrating the city’s bike and pedestrian paths with the Whitefish Trail. Our local outdoor recreational amenities not only generate tourism dollars for our community but more importantly they make Whitefish a vibrant and special place to call home. William Hagen, 384 Del Ray, speaking on behalf of himself, his wife, and the Foley family, own land at the head of Whitefish Lake, close to the Smith Lake PRUE. They are in strong support of the WLP application. It is critical to preserve this open space corridor and preserve the land in a way that expands opportunities for the public to utilize these areas and protect the wildlife corridors. Melanie Drown, Stumptown Art Studio, reported they are excited and honored to be a part of the Baker Avenue Underpass Public Art installation project. They are applying jointly with WLP for a grant through the Montana Tourism Office and asking for support from the City of Whitefish to be a co- applicant. 5) CONSENT AGENDA a) Minutes from October 26, 2020 Special Session (p.45) b) Minutes from November 2, 2020 Special Session (p.48) c) Minutes from November 2, 2020 Regular Meeting (p.49) d) Resolution No. 20-40; A Resolution to abandon the intersection of Lake Park Lane and State Park Road, and rename the remnant State Park Road north of the intersection (p.56) e) Consideration of a request for Final Plat for Mountain Brook, a 15-lot subdivision located off Armory Road, zoned WLR (One-Family Limited Residential District) (WFP 20-02) (p.59) 2  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 16, 2020 Councilor Norton made a motion, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. The motion carried by roll call. 6) PUBLIC HEARINGS (Items will be considered for action after public hearings) (Resolution No. 07-33 establishes a 30-minute time limit for applicant’s land use presentations. Ordinances require 4 votes for passage – Section 1-6-2 (E)(3) WCC)) None 7) COMMUNICATIONS FROM PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR a) Consideration to work with the Stumptown Art Studio and Whitefish Legacy Partners to co- sponsor an application for the 2021 tourism grant (p.142) Public Works Director Craig Workman gave his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Sweeney made a motion, seconded by Councilor Feury to authorize staff to work with the Stumptown Art Studio and the Whitefish Legacy Partners to co-sponsor an application for the 2021 Tourism Grant. The motion carried by roll call. 8) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY MANAGER a) Written report enclosed with the packet. Questions from Mayor and Council? (p.152) None b) Other items arising between November 11th through November 16th Manager Smith reported she hopes to have available at the next meeting and a Memorandum of Understanding with Flathead County, City of Columbia Falls and the City of Kalispell regarding the Flathead Emergency Communications Center. Voters approved to implement a special district to fund the Flathead Emergency Communications Center. The city will no longer make payment to the county for their services, instead it will be levied county wide. With this special district the management and the employment of staff will be transferred from the FECC Board to the county, which will occur on January 1, 2021. Staff is working on the garbage contract. As staff is looking into the animal resistant containers, they are facing some logistical issues with the 300-gallon containers. There are no 300-gallon containers on the market. She Manager Smith is waiting on FWP to schedule a meeting with the City and Republic Services to look a way to do 90-96-gallon containers for those homes that share the 300- gallon containers. They may just focus on the river corridor instead of the entire city. We could also look at the potential of burdening the cost of those containers. She wants to get direction from FWP first if the bears will move further in from the river. She also hopes to have a draft of the RFP for recycling for the central recycling site. Because the ask Bidfrom Republic for servicing that site is high cost, and because they are not exclusive to serving our area when it comes to recycling, staff felt it to be appropriate to put out an RFP, because there are other recycling vendors in the county. 9) COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILORS a) Consideration of appointments to volunteer boards and committees not made during the Special Session preceding tonight’s meeting The Mayor and Council made appointments during the Special Session preceding tonight’s meeting. 3  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 16, 2020 b) COVID-19 Manager Smith stated she had three things to bring to Council’s attention. 1) The Flathead County Health Board has offered us a seat if council would like a seat on the Health Board. As a member, Council would have the authority to review the budget that is prepared by the Health Department and review and approve septic permits. There are other benefits to being a member of the board other than dealing with the current pandemic. The council supported the recommendation by showing of head nods. 2) Manager Smith showed the first video from the Whitefish COVID Task Force that is uploaded to the city’s website. The Task Force is moving forward with a lot of the messaging such faces on banners throughout downtown, an ad on the S.N.O.W. Bus, new videos to promote on Facebook, and takeout boxes with stickers or branding on them for our restaurants. 3) The Flathead County Health Board has created a task force and invited the City Managers. Not only did the Commissioners deny overtime for their salaried exempt individuals, but they also denied a mobile unit for providing vaccines. Assuming all goes well, vaccines will be in the valley mid- December or early January. They were looking at a van to try to get the vaccines to everybody. The Commissioners said they would not fund it. Manager Smith would like to continue exploring that option. Cares funding is not going to work, because you have to have it delivered and in operation by December 31st. Because of the Cares funding we have received a lot of funds as reimbursement for fire and police wages. One option is we purchase a vehicle or an ambulance to assist the county to rollout the vaccine, and then use the vehicles as a long-term asset of the city. The majority of the Council showed support with head nods, Councilor Norton was not in support. Discussion followed between Council and staff regarding the liability of the city’s involvement with the vaccine. This would be more of a lease agreement for use of the vehicle, or the use of a city facility, between the County and the City. Manager Smith stated that the County Health Department is going to put out a press release talking about holidays and gatherings, and also asking leaders of the faith to work onwith their congregations during the holidays. Rabbi Roston is asking people to pledge for COVID safety through her interfaith clergy group and county wide. Councilor Sweeney gave a shout out to Rabbi Roston. Her idea of trying to bring faith leaders into this process of educating the public and getting the public committed is an incredibly helpful thing. The COVID Task Force may be the most effective group to get people to listen. The problems we are seeing are being generated out of private gatherings. Councilor Qunell echoes Councilor Sweeney’s comments. We are all frustrated by the County and their lack of action. The feeling he gets from people is exasperation. Schools will be full capacity four days a week starting November 30th. There is a feeling of helplessness of what can we do. He feels the same way with respect to our local economy. If we try to shut down restaurants and bars, we know that is only to hurt the people at the bottom. So where does that leave us? It is not worth our time to pass an ordinance, we cannot enforce it, and we do not have the staff to enforce it. He thinks we could pass a resolution that clearly expresses what we expect from people that live here and people that visit here. A resolution that that supports the messaging the Task Force is putting into place and to back up our Task Force. 4  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 16, 2020 Councilor Norton is not in favor of just a resolution. She provided some documentation that is appended to the packet on the website. We are in a very dangerous position right now within the county. Normally the public health experts would be telling us when to shut down, what our occupancies should be, how to mitigate the spread. A lot of those efforts have been silenced at the county level. We do not have appropriate enforcement to guide that behavior change. She provided a COVID response timeline, an interim analysis of COVID-19 cases in Montana as of October 30th, the Biden/Harris COVID-19 plan, an article about Osha OSHA and possibly federal requirements for employee safety and workplace safety, and a mask mandate comparison between Governor Bullocks mandate directive and our ordinance. She thinks we can do more because we are A chartered city. She also provided a list of tools that are used for controlling the spread. They are things we could implement as a city. before the holiday season. We are hearing a lot of anxiety from our citizens, and we keep passing the buck. She would like to do more not less and agrees a resolution is helpful, but at some point we have to act on not having people gather, enforcing masking and making sure that we are doing our part to stop this catastrophe. Discussion followed between Councilor Norton and Councilor Qunell. Mayor Muhlfeld asked and Councilors Sweeney, Qunell, Hennen and Norton feel Council is not doing enough and would like to do more. They would like to discuss it further in a work session or special meeting. Councilor Sweeney felt a discussion with the Task Force at their next meeting would be helpful. Councilor Feury stated there is a lot more we could do, but we just convened the COVID-19 Task Force and they just started their work. If Council were to create a new set of rules it will create mixed messaging. We need constant consistent messaging. It ultimately comes down to personal behavior. We can influence it through a constant messaging system. He does not think legislating is going to fix the problem. More discussion followed. The majority of the Council agreed to take these issues to the Task Force and ask their opinions if Council needs to create a policy before setting a special meeting. Councilor Sweeney asked for the letter that was sent to the County Commissioners and the County Health Board to be sent to the papers for publishing. The task force is where we have all the stakeholder, the messaging needs to be consistent. Council Comment Councilor Feury wanted to have a moment of thought for Mike Gwaizdon who died on Friday. He served on the Council admirably and was fundamental in a lot of the early fundraising for the trail and countless other things he has done He was a civic minded individual and longtime member of the Whitefish community. He appreciated his input and insight. Councilor Davis mentioned there are various proposals in our community regarding the Resort Tax re-allocation that really help build our community. He thinks helping to fund the Whitefish Trail system is a good idea. The trail system has become a valuable community asset and he wonders if it is enough and if we are showing enough support. Councilor Norton mentioned if the task force is going to develop policy it would be nice if the professionals that are trained in public health, and it would be helpful tocould be on the task force. 5  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 16, 2020 Councilor Qunell said a few words about Rob O’Neil who also died this last week. He was a working- class guy, who came to Whitefish to be in a place where he could ski, be outdoors and live in a small town. He was a good member of our community. Mayor Muhlfeld also has mentioned Rob O’Neil and knows his extended circle of friends here and back in New England. The showing of support this last weekend was unremarkable, he was an incredible father, husband, brother, son, a stand-up guy. He is going to be missed by so many people. His thoughts go out to his family and friends. Mayor Muhlfeld would like to explore what some language would be to include not just parkland acquisition but open space. Manager Smith stated the one thing to think about with open space is you are looking to probably to do conservation easements. The cost for a percentage to build up enough is going to be difficult. Something to consider if we want to bond the Resort Tax. She does not think that it is unheard of, but she thinks there needs to be a percentage shown for open space alone. As we look at adding it as a separate section, we are going back to voters to bond. Mayor Muhlfeld’s concern with adding additional section is complicating the ballot language. What we have accomplished as a community without an open space measure is pretty remarkable. He hopes that trend is going to continue. He would rather not risk losing the resort tax by adding an additional item for open space and conservation. 10) ADJOURNMENT (Resolution 08-10 establishes 11:00 p.m. as end of meeting unless extended to 11:30 by majority) Mayor Muhlfeld adjourned the meeting at 9:26 p.m. /s/John Muhlfeld _______________________________ Mayor Muhlfeld Attest: /s/ Michelle Howke ______________________________ Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk 6