Mayor & City Council

WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL July 15, 2024 7:10 P.M. 1) CALL TO ORDER Deputy Mayor Sweeney called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Feury, Caltabiano (Virtual), and Davis. Mayor Muhlfeld and Councilors Qunell and Norton were absent. City Staff present were, City Clerk Howke, City Manager Smith, City Attorney Jacobs, Finance Director Gospodarek, Planning and Building Director Taylor, Public Works Director Workman, Parks and Recreation Director Butts, Deputy Police Chief Conway. Approximately six people were in the audience and zero attended virtually. 2) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Deputy Mayor Sweeney asked Riss Getts to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3) COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC– (This time is set aside for the public to comment on items that are either on the agenda, but not a public hearing or on items not on the agenda. City officials do not respond during these comments but may respond or follow-up later on the agenda or at another time. The mayor has the option of limiting such communications to three minutes depending on the number of citizens who want to comment and the length of the meeting agenda) None 4) COMMUNICATIONS FROM VOLUNTEER BOARDS (YouTube Video 2:38) Riss Getts, Whitefish Housing Authority Acting Executive Director provided an update to the Council. She reported they are almost done with the civil work for the Depot Townhomes site. They are working hard on the final plat application along with the subdivision improvement agreement. That should be coming to the Council for approval by the end of August. They plan to have foundations in before it gets too cold. General updates for the Whitefish Housing Authority, every five years public housing authorities are required to create and submit a five-year plan to HUD. Public participation is required through creating the plan. The five-year plan is important to receive federal funding. They will send the draft to city staff to forward to the Council for feedback or commentary. 5) CONSENT AGENDA (The consent agenda is a means of expediting routine matters that require the Council’s action. Debate does not typically occur on consent agenda items. Any member of the Council may remove any item for debate. Such items will typically be debated and acted upon prior to proceeding to the rest of the agenda.) (YouTube Video 6:05) a) Minutes from July 1, 2024, Special Session (p.16) b) Minutes from July 1, 2024, Regular Meeting (p.17) c) Ordinance No. 24-08; An Ordinance amending Zoning Regulations Title 11, Chapter 8, Section 1, Appendices, Appendix F, Whitefish Sign Districts, and Appendix G, Sign Standard Tables, of the Whitefish City Code (Second Reading) (WZTA 24-02) (p.26) d) Consideration of a recommendation for confirmation of Police Officer Jake Ferkin pursuant to MCA §7-32-4113 (p.32) Councilor Davis made a motion, seconded by Councilor Feury to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. The motion carried by raising of hands.  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES July 15, 2024 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. a) Resolution No. 24-26; A Resolution disapproving a petition to discontinue, abandon and vacate the unconstructed City alley between W. 8th and W. 9th Street (p.34) (YouTube Video 6:33) Public Works Director Craig Workman presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Deputy Mayor Sweeney opened the Public Hearing. Neal Bartleson, 411 W. 8th Street, stated he is fourth generation of this property. His folks acquired the property in 1985 and have known about the alley easement. It has been maintained and manicured by the homeowners adjacent to the alley. It is between two dead end streets. It was brought to his attention in conversation with the city to propose the abandonment of the alley. For 88 years it is clean, manicured and taken care of. There is a chain link fence down the center of the alley. There being no other public comment, Deputy Mayor Sweeney closed the Public Hearing and turned matters over to the Council for their consideration. Councilor Davis made a motion, seconded by Councilor Caltabiano to adopt Resolution No. 24- 26; A Resolution disapproving a petition to discontinue, abandon and vacate the unconstructed City alley between W. 8th and W. 9th Street. The motion carried by raising of hands. b) Ordinance No. 24-09; An Ordinance pursuant to Title 6, Chapter 2, Section 5, Prohibited and Restricted Parking, of the Whitefish City Code, to establish additional parking restrictions (First Reading) (p.43) (YouTube Video 20:08) Public Works Director Craig Workman presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Deputy Mayor Sweeney opened the Public Hearing. Rachel Schmidt, 675 Woodside Lane, supports limiting parking as proposed on Woodside Lane. There is no opposition from the HOA. It does point to a bigger problem. Businesses that are created that don’t have enough parking spots to begin with. She suspects the office building on the corner of Woodside and Wisconsin serves the public and that is when there are 15 to 16 vehicles parked both sides of the street. This will alleviate the safety issues, but those vehicles will park farther down the street. The mail service refuses to deliver to mailboxes if there are cars parked blocking the mailboxes. This does alleviate the safety issue but points to a bigger issue where businesses do not have enough places to park for their employees and customers and bleeds down into the residential area. Kevin Kaltschmidt, Don K General Manager, 21 JP Road, stated there is already no parking on the east side of Shiloh Avenue. He has witnessed the homeowners park on that side of the street. The neighbors are upset because when they moved in in 2020, Don K didn’t have as many people parked there. After Don K had more inventory there were more people parked on Shiloh Avenue. He asks, if Shiloh Avenue will become a thoroughfare, and once the development of connecting Whitefish Avenue to Shiloh Avenue is complete, at that time make the street no parking into effect. Don K is working on a project to increase inventory storage on the west side of Highway 93. 2  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES July 15, 2024 There being no further public comment, Deputy Mayor Sweeney closed the Public Hearing and turned matters over to the Council for their consideration. Councilor Davis made a motion, seconded by Councilor Caltabiano to adopt Ordinance No. 24- 09; An Ordinance pursuant to Title 6, Chapter 2, Section 5, Prohibited and Restricted Parking, of the Whitefish City Code, to establish additional parking restrictions (First Reading), modifying Section 6 to reflect Section 3 shall take effect on November 1, 2024. The motion carried by raising of hands. 7) COMMUNICATION FROM PUBLIC WORKS a) Consideration to award the 2024 Roadway Overlays Project construction contract (p.55) Public Works Director Craig Workman presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Feury made a motion, seconded by Councilor Davis to award the 2024 Roadway Overlay Project to Nelcon, not to exceed $1,193,506.25. The motion carried by raising of hands. 8) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY MANAGER a) Written report enclosed with the packet. Questions from Mayor and Council? (p.61) b) Other items arising between July 10th and July 15th Manager Smith reported negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Polic (FOP) took place last week. There is one item left for discussion. City Council provided approval for Manager Smith to write another letter of support for the Greater Valley Health Center for a grant to expand hours of operation. 9) COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILORS Councilor Feury asked if an ordinance can be created to prohibit parking vehicles with trailers close to intersections. It blocks the vision and causes traffic to turn into oncoming traffic. Councilor Caltabiano spoke to the work session that was cancelled in regard to the resort tax property tax relief. He presented two options: #1 the status quo is that we rebate a minimum of 25% to property owners. Whatever remains from the unused is added to the rebate. We have seldom rebated only 25%. Manager Smith stated that is correct, the revenue based off of prior collections and if we were to adjust that number to an approximate growth in resort tax, we could potentially retain that additional funding but it is clear in state law that you have to rebate funds that are not budgeted to be used as additional property tax relief. #2 additional 10% potentially allocated to community housing. Voters passed some allocation to workforce housing projects. No where does he see a possible discussion on rebating checks to residents who are not property owners. He wondered if Council would be acceptant of evaluating an option that includes a rebate in residents who do not own property. Manager Smith asked Councilor Caltabiano to provide his proposal in an email so she can add it to her staff report for the work session scheduled in September. Councilor Sweeney asked Director Workman if the intersections of Commerce Street and Highway 93 South could be added to the list to overlay. Director Workman stated that intersection along with others along Highway 93 S. will be done internally. The majority of those intersections are state right-of-way. 3  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES July 15, 2024 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 7:58 p.m. /s/Frank J. Sweeney Deputy Mayor Sweeney Attest: /s/Michelle Howke Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk 4