Mayor & City Council

WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL November 4, 2024 7:10 P.M. 1) CALL TO ORDER Deputy Mayor Sweeney called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Qunell, Caltabiano, Davis, Sweeney, and Norton. Mayor Muhlfeld and Councilor Feury 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, Police Chief Kelch and Fire Chief Hadley. Approximately 10 people were in the audience and zero attended virtually. 2) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Deputy Mayor Sweeney asked Mariah Joos 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 1:42) a) Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau providing an update to the FY25 Strategic Plan (p.112) Mariah Joose, Board Chair for Explore Whitefish, provided an update on their winter media buy. When the Council originally approved the Strategic Plan, in March, they had identified some winter target markets for Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland. As they were moving forward to do their media buys for this coming season, they found they needed to do some changes to those markets based on some data that they collected. They are removing Portland and adding Dallas. Julie Mullins, Executive Director of Explore Whitefish stated as they found over the last two years, Portland hasn’t been coming during the winter season as much. There are 13 ski resorts between Whitefish and Oregon and a the lack of direct flights coming from Portland. They are starting to see an increase in the number of folks coming from the Texas market. 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 13:52) a) Minutes from October 21, 2024, Regular Session (p.168) Councilor Qunell made a motion, seconded by Councilor Caltabiano to approve the Consent Agenda. The motion carried. 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) Ordinance No. 24-12; An Ordinance amending the Resort Tax Administrative Ordinance, codified in Title 3, Chapter 3 of the Whitefish City Code, providing an extension of 20 years  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 4, 2024 and revising the uses of resort tax pursuant to voter approval in the 2023 general municipal election, updating the goods and services subject to and exempt from resort tax based on official interpretations, and revising the applicable penalties for failure to report or remit taxes (First Reading) (p.171) (YouTube Video 14:30) City Manager Dana Smith presented her staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. The proposed ordinance is an amendment to the current Resort Tax Administrative Ordinance and accomplishes four items to resort tax administration: 1) Documents the recent elections that have taken place related to resort tax, enacts the voter approved uses and extension of the 3% resort tax to January 31, 2045; 2) Updates the goods and services subject to and exempt from resort tax based on interpretations by the city manager since Ordinance No. 11-13 was approved by Council in July 2011, 3) Revises the applicable penalties for failure to report or remit taxes, and 4) Provides clarifications, grammar corrections, and removes gender specific references. The effective date is set for February 1, 2025. Councilor Caltabiano suggested rewording 1) Section 3-3-8A thru E, eliminate “three percent (3%)”, and keep “of the resort tax revenue”, for simplicity, and 2) Section 3-3-8A remove “residing in the city” and remove “equal to” and replace with “in the amount at lease of 25% or 24% and above”. Manager Smith stated that “residing in the City” should be stricken. The state law requires any amount collected that are not committed within the fiscal year must be remitted back to the taxpayers. She doesn’t think the language can be changed in this code. It comes down to how we are budgeting. She also stated the recommendation for removing the three percent (3%) verbiage could be removed from Section 3-3-8A thru E and added in the introduction paragraph of that section. Councilor Norton addressed the verbiage in Section 3-3-12E and suggested adding verbiage that a report is required every month. Manager Smith stated that was the intent of the language failing to file. It could be changed to “a business that fails to report taxes due or fails to remit resort tax”. Councilor Norton added she would like pet food to be exempt from the resort tax. After some discussion, Council directed staff to include pet and livestock fee to be exempt from the resort tax. Deputy Mayor Sweeney asked if the penalties proposed in the ordinance going to cover the cost to enforce. Manager Smith said essentially it is going to depend on how delinquent they are, and eventually we will get to the civil complaint and then that is where the cost really escalates. There are rules on how much you can collect over the amount of resort tax that is due. These cover the cost of staff monitoring, mailing notices, postage. She does feel $50 is reasonable. Deputy Mayor Sweeney, like Councilor Norton, would like to make it crystal clear that if you have a conditional use permit, to run a short-term rental, you are required to file, even a zero report every month. Manager Smith stated, regardless of how the entity is operating, they are required to report. There is no exemption to zero filing. Deputy Mayor Sweeney opened the Public Hearing. There being no public comment, Deputy Mayor closed the Public Hearing and turned matters over to the Council for their consideration. Councilor Davis made a motion, seconded by Councilor Norton to approve Ordinance No. 24- 12, amending the Resort Tax Administrative Ordinance to include three corrections; 1) pet and livestock feed to become exempt; 2) 3-3-8A remove “residing in the city”; 3) 3-3-12E remove “file” and replace with “report”. The motion carried. b) Ordinance No. 24-13:An Ordinance amending Zoning Regulations Title 11, Section 11-5, Sign Regulations, 11-5-4-A, Exempt, Prohibited and Special Standards, 11-5-5-A-3, General Sign 2  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 4, 2024 Standards, 11-5-6-2-A-6, Old Town Sign District, and 11-5-6-4-A, Residential District, of the Whitefish City Code (First Reading) (WZTA 24-03) (p.187) (YouTube Video 42:08) Planning and Building Director Dave Taylor presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Deputy Mayor Sweeney opened the Public Hearing. There being no public comment, Deputy Mayor Sweeney closed the Public Hearing and turned matters over to the Council for their consideration. Councilor Qunell made a motion, seconded by Councilor Davis to approve Ordinance No. 24- 13, An Ordinance amending Zoning Regulations Title 11, Section 11-5, Sign Regulations, 11-5-4-A, Exempt, Prohibited and Special Standards, 11-5-5-A-3, General Sign Standards, 11-5-6-2-A-6, Old Town Sign District, and 11-5-6-4-A, amending 11-5-6-2-A-6-c Changeable copy signs (i.e, with manually changeable plastic slide-in individual letters) are no permitted, Residential District, of the Whitefish City Code. Councilor Caltabiano asked why are we discriminating against slide in letters? Councilor Caltabiano made a motion to permit interchangeable letters of any nature. The motion failed for a lack of a second. The original motion to approve as amended carried. 7) COMMUNICATION FROM PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR a) Consideration to approve the conceptual design for East 6th Street and authorize staff to proceed with final design and bidding of Option 2 for construction in 2025 (p.209) (YouTube Video 58:24) Public Works Director Craig Workman presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Caltabiano made a motion, seconded by Councilor Norton to proceed with final design and bidding of Option 2 for the East 6th Street Reconstruction Project. The motion carried. b) Consideration to approve the Engineering Contract for the Railroad Crossing Elimination Plan (p.232) (YouTube Video 1:12:15) Director Workman presented his staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Norton made a motion, seconded by Councilor Caltabiano to ward engineering contract for the Railroad Crossing Elimination Plan to HDR and authorize the City Manager to execute the contract. The motion carried. 8) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY ATTORNEY (YouTube Video 1:16:12) a) Consideration to approve the Settlement Agreement between BNSF Railway Company and the City of Whitefish for the BNSF Loop Trail and authorize staff to submit an application for a bridge easement to DNRC with regards to the Whitefish Yards project (p.279) City Attorney Angela Jacobs presented her staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Councilor Davis made a motion, seconded by Councilor Caltabiano to approve the Settlement Agreement between BNSF Railway Company and the City of Whitefish for the BNSF Loop Trail and 3  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES November 4, 2024 authorize staff to submit an application for a bridge easement to DNRC with regards to the Whitefish Yards project. The motion carried. 9) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY MANAGER (YouTube Video 1:24:14) a) Written report enclosed with the packet. Questions from Mayor and Council? (p.289) None b) Other items arising between October 30th through November 4th Police Chief Kelch reported the Flathead Sherrif Posse will be manning all voting polling places on the day of Election. 10) COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILORS (YouTube Video 1:25:52) a) Letter from Claire Oswald regarding a new business in the downtown area (p.292) Council Comments Councilor Norton reminded everyone to vote. It is an important election. People can register day of election and vote at the Flathead County Election Department in Kalispell. Councilors Caltabiano and Qunell also reminded the community to consider the local government while voting. 11) ADJOURNMENT (Resolution 08-10 establishes 11:00 p.m. as end of meeting unless extended to 11:30 by majority) Deputy Mayor Sweeney adjourned the meeting at 8:38 p.m. /s/Francis J. Sweeney Deputy Mayor Sweeney Attest: /s/Michelle Howke ____________________________ Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk 4