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 COUNCILOR HAL COLSTON sleonard@winooskivt.org DEPUTY MAYOR NICOLE MACE CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR ERIC COVEY COUNCILOR KRISTINE LOTT Agenda Monday, June 4, 2018 6:00 P.M. CLAIRE BURKE COUNCIL CHAMBERS I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of May 21, 2018 b. Approval: Warrants: Warrant ending 5/31/2018 and Payroll for period 5/6/18 – 5/19/18 VI. City Update VII. Council Reports VIII. Regular Items: a. Pool – Bond Necessity Resolution and Timeline-R Coffey b. Treasurers Job Description-S Leonard c. FY18 Policy Priorities and Strategy Update: Housing-H Carrington IX. Executive Session a. Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. § 313 (1)(B) labor relations agreements with employees: Fraternal Order of Police X. Adjourn MINUTES The Deputy Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilor Covey. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard was absent. He was participating via cell phone. Councilors: Nicole Mace, Eric Covey, Kristine Lott, Hal Colston Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Angel Lane, Asst. City Clerk; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Heather Carrington, Economic Development Director; Angela Aldieri, Staff Accountant; John Rauscher, Public Works Director; Alicia Finley, Park & Rec Manager. Others Present: June 4, 2018 Winooski City Council  Pat Everts, Megan Everts, Cindy Robare, Jeffrey Myers, Michael Myers, Dan Weisberger, Scott Olmstead, Jessica Bridge and Robert Millar, Housing Committee Commission members. III. Agenda Review The City Manager said she sent out a Supplemental Agenda for tonight’s meeting. We needed to add the Chittenden Solid Waste District FY019 Budget to the consent agenda because we had discussed it at the previous council meeting. MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Colston to add the Chittenden Solid Waste District FY019 Budget to the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. IV. Public Comment – None V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Lott seconded by Councilor Covey to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. VI. City Update The City Manager gave the following updates: The City Manager introduced Angel Lane Asst. City Clerk to the Mayor and Council.  Rail bridge rebid- Bids due this Friday with work to commence in the middle of July  Annual Municipal Parking Garage Washdown: From Sunday, June 10t5h to Wednesday, June 13th, 2018. This will be coordinated rom the top down. Info is on the website, posted in the garage, and has been sent to the users  Weaver Street Bike Pop-up: Will continue through Sunday. Feedback forms are available on-line and in paper at City Hall.  “Discover Winooski” Going on in Winooski right now! Events will be held throughout town this week and specifically in Rotary Park Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings!  Wednesday doubles with the first Winooski Wednesday of the season with Sabo-you-ma and free meals for kids.  May need a special meeting at the end of June to set the tax rate. More to come. She also stated that Alicia and Zack have been working on the trails VII. Council Reports Councilor Colston – None Councilor Covey – None Councilor Lott – None Deputy Mayor Mace said it was a great retreat and we focused on strategies and thanked the staff for their support on a Saturday morning. VIII. Regular Items: a. Discussion: Pool – Bond Necessity Resolution and Timeline – R Coffey Mr. Coffey stated that the Council had asked for a couple of things. Attached you will find a Flyer prepared for the Fundraising Committee, Bond Necessity Resolution (prepared by the City’s Bond Counsel, Preliminary Schedule after a successful Bond Vote (prepared by Weston and Sampson) and the cost modeling to include an incremental tax rate impact. The City Manager said we also are looking at implementing increases, this would be an interest only debt for the first five years and then it would be a cumulative add over the years. Mr. Coffey said the Pool Committee med on Wednesday night and Mrs. Robare would give you an update. Mrs. Robare said we had about 8 or 9 people at the meeting. She said the Midas Foundation 5013C is all set. We have created a website donation link, which will be up, and running on June 15. The sub-committee is collecting data past and present. We are going to major donors and we June 4, 2018 Winooski City Council  will pinpoint the top 10 donors and meet with five of them by the end of July. I also, want to thank Ray for putting together the flyer. Councilor Covey supports the original proposal. He asked if there is no impact to the bond rating. The City Manager said the City of Winooski is not bond rated by itself. We go through the Vt. Bond Bank, which is available to municipalities. Councilor Lott said we have received a lot of input from community members. The pool is an amenity not a revenue generator. There is no data here that reduces the tax impact proposal. Councilor Colston said he supports the original proposal. This place is accessible, exciting and engaging place. Let the voters decide whether they want the pool. This is an incredible asset. Deputy Mayor Mace said the pool would open for 2021and the Community Services Commission supports the original. If the vote fails in August and we attempt again in November would the pool still open in 2021. Mr. Coffey said yes it would. Mr. Jeff Myers gave a brief timeline of the pool. We have been talking about his pool for the last 10 years. We do it or we do not. Let the citizens of Winooski decide. Mr. Mike Myers understanding was that the Mayor and Council were voting on tonight. Deputy Mayor Mace said we have not decided on the three options. The City Manager said we have to follow a legal process. Deputy Mayor Mace said that Mayor Seth Leonard also supports the original proposal. She said the sense of the Council is to put the original proposal forward. The Council is prepared to vote on the Bond Question on June 18. There was a two-minute recess at 6:40 p.m. and the meeting reconvened at 6:42 p.m. b. Discussion: Treasurers Job Description The Mayor gave a background on the Treasurer’s job description. He said we have been having this conversation for about 8 months and has come to fruition. At the conclusion of the last fiscal year, we decided to put together a group that would review the Treasurer’s job description. The treasurer’s position has been around just a little over 3 years. The sense was it has been functioning over three years. We wrote the position description brand new and now let us come back look at it and see how it is functioning and see if there are any changes that need to be made. He said the review included having a discussion of what this position actually does or is supposed to do. We looked at staffing capacity, and consider what technical role or hands on role the position was playing. We also reached out to Vt. Leagues of Cities and Town for information, Treasurer’s handbook. We also have our charter that describes the position and we have had conversation with our auditors concerning alterations or changes. As a result, of the review we put forward a memo that was passed this spring. It stated that the Council would move forward to creating a position description that closely aligns the duties of the Treasurer’s position with the charter and doing so we recognized that and take a lot of scope off of it. We also reduced the line item in our budget by several thousand dollars. The purpose of that was to acknowledge the separation of duties properly in set up. The draft of the Treasurer’s description models the charter duties set forth. I want to acknowledge Dr. Ticehurst for all his work and time here that we gave him a vague position in terms of what the rails look like. We took the points of the charter and you can see those expressed in the document of the position. Deputy Mayor Mace said, as the Councilor who worked with Seth on this the only thing I will add for those of you who are relatively new with this discussion is the previous job description was ambitious and blended. There were some operational, policies and financial advice, some skill sets and expertise that we were very fortunate that we had somebody with that background as we looked at the organizational structure and roles and responsibilities. I had some questions about why we would have policy and operations work occurring outside of the scope of the City Managers offices. We are very fortunate to have Mr. Ticehurst. We are making sure the position fits within the organization. Councilor Lott appreciated the background. Deputy Mayor Mace said we have two people that report to the Council, which is the City Manager and Treasurer. The Mayor said the document states three years for the Treasurer. He also said General Statute says is to select a treasurer for a term of one to three years. What we have done annually is approved the appointment because that is what we put into our charter. The Mayor said he had a discussion with the City’s Human Resource Attorney concerning the term. After three consecutive terms, we will have to open the position back up. Deputy Mayor Mace said this is on as a discussion item, so at the next meeting we would approve the position description. The Mayor said if there is any feedback or concerns, that would be helpful because of timing perspective this a July 1 appointment. If possible, we would like to go through the posting process and engage Julie on this. June 4, 2018 Winooski City Council  The City Manager would like to add that this is an important conversation and Dr. Ticehurst has been so helpful to me in the beginning. This is my counterpoint in insuring that we are spending the tax dollars wisely to you all. I think it really says something about the community that you are willing to have these conversations. Thank you for having these conversations and thankyou Dr. Ticehurst for all your assistance to me in the last year as well Deputy Mayor Mace echoed my appreciation for Dr. Ticehurst and just informing this conversation and this process. She also said we are prepared to approve this job description at the next meeting. c. FY18 Policy Priorities and Strategy Update: Housing Ms. Carrington said she brought two housing commissions tonight Jessica Bridge, who is the newest member, homeowner, and realtor and brings a great deal of expertise. Robert Millar, prior City Councilor who demonstrated his commitment to affordable housing through that time and who is a renter in the City. We have a very well balanced commission. We have representatives from the Boar of Winooski Housing Authority, Burlington Housing Authority, and Housing Coordinator for Vt. Refugee Resettlement Program, Vt. Housing Finance Agency, and Superintendent of Schools. Ms. Carrington said per the Council adopted 2017-2018 Policy Priorities and Strategies and the accompanying monitoring plan, we present the third goal update on housing. She said the staff recommended strategies are to: - Update form based code to ensure that new project in the Gateways include affordable housing. - Create and support a Housing Commission. Through this Commission, establish goals for a sustainable housing mix (EV) - Implement Firehouse software – Improve focus on quality housing - Streamline and clarify the permit process (EV) -She said Firehouse software is working very well we will have information on the most frequent code violations and the top 10 list. It takes a four year cycle to get through the entire City. She said the purpose of the Housing Commission is to engage the Winooski community in developing the vision of housing in Winooski in alignment with the Strategic Vision, and to assist with making strategic policy decisions to guide staff work. The commission will serve in an advisory capacity to the Planning Commission. The Housing Commission will assess community-housing needs, perform data-gathering and analysis, and establish city-wide goals for housing. It will make recommendations for housing policy, and identify the tools to incentivize the City’s incentive programs. The Commission will support the Planning Commission by bringing community opinions, attitudes and needs to the decision-making process, while being advocates to the wider community. (Per Charter for Housing Commission) Ms. Bridge said the Housing commission has established the following principles to guide it work: 1. Encourage the development of affordable housing options for a broad range of income levels. 2. Foster a mix of housing types to serve the needs of different family compositions, household types and multi- generational needs. 3. Promote quality housing that is safe, healthy and durable. 4. Preserve and sustain the scale, character and settlement patterns of our neighborhoods. 5. Protect current residents from displacement. 6. Support sustainable growth, density and creation of additional housing units. 7. Be guided by data-driven decision-making. June 4, 2018 Winooski City Council