City Council

27 WEST ALLEN STREET WINOOSKI, VERMONT 05404 (802) 655-6410 CITY OF WINOOSKI (802) 655-6414 (fax) JESSIE BAKER CITY MANAGER MAYOR SETH LEONARD DEPUTY MAYOR BRIAN CORRIGAN mayor@winooskivt.org CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR NICOLE MACE COUNCILOR ERIC COVEY COUNCILOR BRIAN SWEENEY Agenda Saturday, June 24, 2017 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. O’Brien Community Center I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. City Update VI. Council Reports VII. Regular Items a. Approval: Introduction of Fee Ordinance – J. Baker b. Approval: Introduction of Zoning Amendment Changes – J. Baker c. Approval: Set 2017-2018 Tax Rate – J. Baker d. Discussion; FY18 Council Priorities Conversation – S. Leonard & J. Baker VIII. Executive Session a. Personnel Issue under 1 V.S.A § 313(a)(3) IX. Adjourn MINUTES The meeting was called to order by the Mayor at 9:00a. The meeting began with the pledge of allegiance led by Councilor Sweeney. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Brian Corrigan, Brian Sweeney, Nicole Mace, Eric Covey Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Angela Aldieri, Assistant City Clerk; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Heather Carrington, Community and Economic Development Director; John Audy, Code Enforcement Director; Richard Hebert, Police Chief; Paul Dreher, Zoning (arrived at 9:28a) Minutes of June 24, 2017 Winooski City Council Page 1 of 3 www.winooskivt.org Others Present: None III. Agenda Review Mayor Leonard stated that executive session would occur first during the meeting. Ms. Baker stated that the fee ordinance item would be pulled from the agenda due to a material error. The draft presented for introduction does not include the most up to date public works recommendations for fees. VIII. Executive Session a. Personnel Issue under 1 V.S.A § 313(a)(3) It was noted that this item is for discussion of a personnel matter that could reveal personal details if discussed in open session. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney, seconded by Deputy Mayor Corrigan to go into executive session for the reasons stated inviting the City Manager to join them at 9:05a. Voted and passed 4-0. Council returned from executive session and the meeting reconvened at 9:21a. Mayor Leonard stated that no decision or votes were taken during executive session. IV. Public Comment No public comment was made. V. City Update Ms. Baker stated she had no updates for Council. VI. Council Reports Mayor Leonard reminded those present that there was a Community Dinner to be held tonight at 5:30pm at the Winooski Senior Center. He went on to state that French Heritage would be held from 10am until 3:30pm tomorrow June 25th in coordination with the Farmers Market. Deputy Mayor Corrigan announced the birth of his grandchild two weeks ago. VII. Regular Items a. Approval: Introduction of Fee Ordinance – J. Baker This item was pulled from the agenda during agenda review. b. Approval: Introduction of Zoning Amendment Changes – J. Baker This item was discussed at length at the City Council meeting on June 19th. It was noted that the procedure surrounding ordinances would be reviewed. This item needs to be introduced and Mayor Leonard requested that Council vote to set the public hearing date. INTRODUCED by Councilor Sweeney MOTION by Councilor Covey, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to set a public hearing to consider the proposed zoning ordinance changes on July 17th. Voted and passed 4-0. Minutes of June 24, 2017 Winooski City Council Page 2 of 3 www.winooskivt.org c. Approval: Set 2017-2018 Tax Rate – J. Baker Ms. Baker presented the calculation of the tax rate for FY18 based on the lodged grand list. She noted that the grand list excluding TIF properties had increased $1.7 million, but that $3.4 million had been anticipated. The proposed rate was $1.045 which is a 1.2% increase totaling $.0125. Grand list growth was not as high as anticipated due to less progress on Main Street projects than anticipated and a reduction to the values at the Millhouse property. There are not many legal options to amend the tax rate as the voters approve a total amount to be raised by taxes. Discussion regarding the FY2018 budget, vacancy savings, and previous tax rate calculation followed. Mayor Leonard expressed a desire to draft something for the public outlining the change from estimates and the impact to households. MOTION by Councilor Mace, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to set the tax rate for the 2018 fiscal year at $1.045. Voted and passed 4-0. d. Discussion; FY18 Council Priorities Conversation – S. Leonard & J. Baker This item was prefaced that the City has done a lot of updating and modernization. Winooski used to be perceived as a difficult place to do business. We are in a very different place but continue to increase expectation and therefore need to take a realistic look at the goals and priorities of the City given the resources available. Council had set a vision statement to help guide decisions regarding what values the City holds. As part of this process the roles of staff and Council will be outlined with the sequencing of actions so that everyone is working together. It was noted that these efforts are made on top of keeping the City running and that not all our goals can be accomplished at once. Ms. Baker gave a presentation that set the roles of each group. She discussed the current strategic vision and the staff recommendation to expand transportation infrastructure to include all municipal infrastructure. Discussion regarding what might be missing from the vision statement followed with environmental sustainability being noted as something to include. Discussion regarding assigning commissions strategic vision priorities to address to avoid duplication of efforts followed. Ms. Baker went on to have staff review achievements of the City furthering the goals of the strategic vision. Council brainstormed ideas for what success for each section of the vision statement would look like when implemented. Staff added items that they saw as high priority as well. Each Councilor then voted for the top three things they thought the City should pursue. Discussion followed regarding items that Council identified as most important and reconciling those with those identified with staff if different. In many cases items deemed high priority were linked. See attached photographs of brainstorming sheets for items identified as priority. Discussion followed regarding the roles of the commissions, accountability for progress back to Council, impacts to budget, and benchmarks. Consensus was that commissions should focus on the policy areas of master planning by taking the work plan back to them for discussion as to their role in the next couple of months. Calendars outlining the work flow will be generated by staff to show the bottle necks for workflow. Council was in agreement that monthly updates would be useful. An additional calendar for Council outlining when they could expect updates on different aspect of the strategic vision goals was discussed. Additional discussion regarding annual review of progress to occur on an October/November schedule followed. IX. Adjourn MOTION by Councilor Mace, seconded by Councilor Covey to adjourn the City Council meeting at 12:40pm. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST: ___________________________ Assistant City Clerk Minutes of June 24, 2017 Winooski City Council Page 3 of 3 www.winooskivt.org