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 Agenda Monday, January 28, 2019 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 January 22, 2019 VI. City Update VII. Council Reports VIII. Regular Items: a. Discussion: Goal Update: FY19 Policy Priorities and Strategy Update: Housing – H Carrington b. Discussion: Gentrification Monitoring Update – H Carrington IX. Public Hearing: 6:15 p.m. a. Discussion: FY20 Budget b. Discussion: Hickok St. Bond Vote c. Discussion: Abenaki Garage Bond Vote d. Discussion: Local Options Tax – Sales and Rooms, Meals, and Alcohol Resolution X. Regular Items: c. Approval: Necessity and Reimbursement Resolution for a $3.7 M Bond for Hickok Street Water Work – J Baker d. Approval: Necessity and Reimbursement Resolution for a $9.7 M General Obligation Bond for the Abenaki Parking Garage – J Baker e. Approval: Water Rate Resolution – J Rauscher f. Approval: Wastewater Rate Resolution – J Rauscher g. Approval: Local Options Tax on Sales and Rooms, Meals, and Alcohol Resolution – J Baker h. Approval: Thrive Rate Resolution – R Coffey i. Approval: FY20 Budget and Capital Improvement Plan with $5,728,123.56 to be raised by taxes – J Baker j. Approval: Warning for Town Meeting Day–J Baker k. Approval: Appoint City Councilor for January 29, 2019 through March 5, 2019– S Leonard l. Swear in Nicole Mace as Mayor of Winooski XI. Executive Session: a. City Manager – Annual Review to take place in Executive Session per 1 V.S.A. §313 (a)(3) XII. Adjourn MINUTES January 28, 2019 Winooski City Council  The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Nicole Mace. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Nicole Mace, Eric Covey, Hal Colston Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Heather Carrington, Economic Development Director; Angela Aldieri, Finance Director; Eric Vorwald, Planning & Zoning, Manager; John Rauscher, Public Works Director; John Audy, Fire Chief, Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Paul Sarne, Communications Coordinator, Rick Hebert, Police Chief, Julie Hulburd, Human Resources Director. Others Present: Robert Millar, Jessica Bridge, Kristine Lott, Corey Mack, Elaine Esrands, Winooski Partnership for Prevention; April Werner, Ben Bergstein III. Agenda Review - None IV. Public Comment Elaine Esrands, Communication and Development Manager for the Winooski Partnership for Prevention. I wanted to introduce myself as a community partner and we are always looking to provide input with a little bit of City planning and be a partner on providing information about prevention. The Mayor and Council welcomed Elaine and the Mayor recommends reaching out to the City Manager. Mr. Coffey said he was asked on behalf of the City staff to say a few words. All the times I have seen you at this table it has always been phenomenal about telling us about what a great were doing. It is our turn to turn the table and say it back. You have been inspirationally committed to and compassionate about this community. We are all going to miss you quite a lot. The way you have been out as a champion for projects in this community, supportive of the work that we are all doing here for the City has been fantastic to see. You are leaving here with huge shoes to fill but we wanted to take a chance in public here to say thank you for your time with the City, and how much we appreciate all you have done. The Mayor said his first City Council meeting was dealing with parking, results of the TIF Audit etc. A lot of time has passed since then and I want to look at you people and say I am so fricken proud of all that you done and all that we were did together. There is a lot of expectation when someone comes into an elected position in terms of what they think they are going to accomplish and the things they set out for themselves as goals. It is never about your vision and your dream and what you want to accomplish. It is about listening and trying to fulfill the dreams of other people, and trying to support them and having the opportunity to live in a community that reflects what they want. What is so cool about this level of government is that we can actually do that in many ways. The second thing that is clear is that you do not get anything done by yourself. It takes the other four passionate volunteers up here giving their time and effort and their willingness to again sacrifice their own personal agendas to make a functioning group that makes good decisions. At the end of the day, we do not do anything without you guys. You do all the work and you make those things happen, and you bring them to fruition. I cannot say enough of the professionalism and the soft touches that you use with very difficult challenging issues from F-35’s to bacon signs, difficult things. Each turn you guys have handled them in a way that has helped our community not just get through them but come back closer, stronger and more together. I’m excited about the next chapter in life, but I can say without a flinch the last 6 years I’ve spent working with you all to try to make this community as good as we can has been the greatest honor of my entire life. I appreciate you very much and love all of you. Mr. Millar wanted to echo what the staff said. You have done a wonderful job as Councilor and as Mayor these past few years and it was an honor to serve with you up there. I would be remissive if I did not say that. January 28, 2019 Winooski City Council  V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VI. City Update Before we start the City update, the City Manager wanted to acknowledge Ben and April who are here from North End Studios. I shared with you an article in Seven Days about them coming into the O’Brien Community Center and we are extraordinarily excited for the potential partnership with them. We do have a draft letter of intent with them and we will be bringing that to you on February 4th meeting. Ms. Werner said they are very excited about the prospect of coming to Winooski. The article in Seven Days came out sooner than expected. We kept re-iterating there was no agreement yet but very hopeful that it will work out.  Regional Dispatch – The meeting with IXP and staff did not go well last week. At a Special Meeting of the Board this morning, we unanimously vote to have IXP recommend a new project lead to us and an associated timeline of the work. We will hold another special meeting on February 12th at 3:00 pm to review the recommendation and timeline.  Petitions we received: o Mayor – Kristine Lott and Eric Covey o 2-Year Council: Amy Lafayette o 2-Year School Trustee: Matt McNeil o 3-Year School Trustee: Margaret Bass  Redevelopment of 401 Main Street was discussed at Project Review Committee last week. It was conditionally approved with conditions pending a Traffic Impact Analysis  East Allen Street Scoping Study Local Concerns Meeting will be held on February 14th and be hosted by a joint meeting of the Planning Commission and Public Works Commission  Three Winooski Small Business Loan applications- seeing the committee’s recommendations on these loans at the second meeting in February. Community Services Programs o Registration today for Thrives February Vacation Camp o MOVE, PLAY, CONNECT PLAYGROUP: Starting on February 22, every Friday at 9:30 AM at the OCC o Adult PUBLIC SPEAKING: with Peter Burns, 5 sessions on Thursday evenings starting on February 28th o Ukulele Class – 4 week beginner classes starting on April 11th VII. Council Reports Council Colston - He stated he was sworn into the Legislature. He says he has a lot to learn and was assigned to Gov. Opps. He wants to understand the priorities of the City and meet with the City Manager. Councilor Covey - He said Partnership for Prevention held a community dinner the other night and a number of community members and people interested in serving the community showed up. He also said the downtown Winooski is looking for an Executive Director the position is located on their website. Mayor Leonard – updated the next steps, issued a school newsletter, presented in the World of Winooski, started a roll up budget and getting the message out about the ballot items for folks. Also, transitioning the roll of Mayor at the end of this meeting. Councilor Mace – She said she has met with Seth and Jessie to finalize the budget presentation. She said there are a lot of moving pieces and we want to present it with clarity. January 28, 2019 Winooski City Council  The Mayor asked the audience of anyone was here for the Public Hearing, which is to start at 6:15 p. No one in the audience was here for that so we followed the agenda. VIII. Regular Items: a. Discussion: Goal Update: FY19 Policy Priorities and Strategy Update: Housing. Ms. Carrington presented the FY19 Policy Priorities and Strategy Update; HOUSING. Discussion ensued concerning parcel data analysis, establish targets for a sustainable housing mix, incentivize development, reenergize the Home Improvement Loan Program, Fully utilize Fire House and data to inform housing discussions, expand relationship with Winooski Housing Authority and other partners , Improve engagement with landlords, undertake historic preservation planning and upcoming Council roles. Comments and concerns from the council were if the newer developments were included in the 70% rate, level of urgency, a cost study done between affordable housing vs. market rate, infrastructure expenses; and creation of a pot to hold those resources, and a policy in place to fund those resources. Mr. Millar said we are ahead of the situation and we are not in crisis. The Mayor said with the expanding relationship with the Housing Authority and other partners developing and supporting affordable housing is going to be a big key for this city going forward. See attached. Update. The City Manager said this is not specifically related to the Housing Commission work but along the lines, this can’t be solved solely by these big subsidized projects. This needs to be solved comprehensively in the City, but we are working on another big subsidize project with CHT with permanently affordable homeownership product at the front of the O’Brien Community Center space. A quick update is we signed a pre-development agreement with them in early December and they have continued to look at that innovation fund as well as conversations with funders to bring new market tax credits to that project, they are looking to move that forward very quickly. Ms. Lott said this is great work, I am glad to see this progress moving forward. I urge the decision-making body and commission to look at the entire landscape that is out there and not solely focus on affordability. b. Discussion: Gentrification Monitoring Update Ms. Carrington said the Winooski Housing Needs Assessment called for the City to invest in monitoring gentrification indicators. A full analysis of gentrification indicators was performed in August of 2017, to provide a benchmark for ongoing monitoring efforts. This is the second update to the initial gentrification report. Thus far, Winooski has not met the criteria for gentrification. A comparison of American Community Survey data (U.S. Census Bureau) from 2016 to 2017 shows a reduction in gentrification indicators met from the initial benchmarking. The indicators which show significant disparity between the two Winooski census tracts may be information and should be carefully tracked and analyzed. Staff recommends ongoing monitoring at an annual interval. See attached. There was some discussion concerning the tracking, the Mayor stated that this is a good benchmarking tool. IX. Public Hearing: 6:15 p.m. a. Discussion:FY20 Budget b. Discussion: Hickok St. Bond Vote c. Discussion: Abenaki Garage Bond Vote d. Discussion: Local Options Tax- Sales and Rooms, Meals , and Alcohol Resolution The public hearing started at 6:55 p.m. The City Manager said this is our required Public Hearing for public comment for items that we have been discussing over the last two months specifically around the proposed FY20 budget that I and on behalf of the staff presented on December 3, 2019 and we have been discussing since. Hickok St. Bond Vote – 3.7 Million dollar bond vote that we are proposing for the ballot on town meeting day that would replace the wter lines on Hickok and lead to new paving. Abenaki Garage Bond Vote – 9.7 Million dollar bond vote for now what we are calling the Abenaki Garage, a new parking structure on Abenaki Way in the downtown and the adoption. Local Options Tax for Sales and Rooms, Meals, and Alcohol Resolution – from capital projects including Main Street Revitalization project and the pool. January 28, 2019 Winooski City Council  The Mayor said we have had extensive public presentations on this material and addition to that we will be doing a full roll out of all the information. The public hearing closed at 7:00 p.m. X. Regular Items c. Approval: Necessity and Reimbursement Resolution for a $3.7M Bond for Hickok Street Water Work Mr. Rauscher said the purpose of the project is to replace +2,700 LF 6-inch unlined cast iron water main on Hickok St. and West Lane from Pine Street to Malletts Bay Ave. This section of water main is +100-year-old and has experienced five breaks over the last five years. This will not increase property taxes. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Covey to approve the Necessity and Reimbursement Resolution for a $3.7M Bond for Hickok Street Water Work as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. d. Approval: Necessity and Reimbursement Resolution for a $9.7M General Obligation Bond for the Abenaki Parking Garage The City Manager said the Bond vote for $9.7M. A complete financing model is presented here with non-property tax revenues used to pay the debt commitment and operating cost of the new Garage. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the Necessity and Reimbursement Resolution for a $9.7M General Obligation Bond for the Abenaki Parking Garage as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. e. Approval: Water Rate Resolution Mr. Rauscher said this was discussed during the FY20 budget presentation the enclosed resolution proposes a 2.5% water rate increase to support operational and capital improvement cost increase. The resolution would increase the existing rate from $38.67/1000 CF (2012 to present) to $39.64/1000CF. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the Water Rate Resolution as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. f. Approval: Wastewater Rate Resolution Mr. Rauscher said this was discussed during the FY20 budget presentation the enclosed resolution proposes a 3.0% wastewater rate increase to support operational and capital improvement cost increases. The resolution would increase the existing rate from $48.57/1000CF (2012 to present) to $50.03/1000CF. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Covey to approve the Wastewater Rate Resolution as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. g. Approval: Local Options Tax on Sales and Rooms, Meals, and Alcohol Resolution The City Manager said with the adoption of these Local Options Taxes was discussed during the FY20 Budget presentations. The intent of these new revenue streams is to mitigate the property tax impact of capital projects including the Myers Memorial Pool Reconstruction and the Main Street Revitalization Project. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the Local Options Tax on Sales and Rooms, Meals, and Alcohol Resolution as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. h. Approval: Thrive Rate Resolution Mr. Coffey said per discussions that have come up through the process of updating the Fee Chapter of City Ordinance, it was recommended that the Thrive rates be set annually by Resolution as part of the budget process rather than through Ordinance. As discussed during the Community Services Budget presentation in December 2018, staff are recommending an adjustment to the Thrive rates as spelled out in the attached resolution. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Covey to approve the Thrive Rate Resolution as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. i. Approval: FY20 Budget and Capital Improvement Plan with $5,728,123.56 to be raised by taxes The Mayor explained the budget process this year. He said in addition to that voters voted twice, one was Main Street Revitalization 20+ Million dollar investment and a total re-do of Main St. That vote authorized the City to see out bond funding associated with that project. Now this budget paves and services that debt. In a similar way, we asked the voters in August to approve a bond for a new pool replacement of Myers Memorial Pool. This budget also covers the debt associated with that bonding. By voting for this budget, you are not only approving all the stuff that we do January 28, 2019 Winooski City Council  as a city, snow removal, police services, fire safety and the community you are also authorizing those two projects to move forward and providing the funding to move those forward. See Attached MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the FY20 Budget and Capital Plan as presented and place on the warning for Town Meeting day a request to raise $5,728,123.56 from property taxes as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. j. Approval: Warning for Town Meeting Day The City Manager said this warning outlines the election for Mayor, City Council, and the questions that were just voted on. Your approval of this warning is required for us to warn the meetings, print ballots and run the election. See Attached. MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the 2019 Town Meeting Day Warning as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. k. Approval: Appoint City Councilor for January 29, 2019 through March 5, 2019 The Mayor said we mentioned in a public posting on front porch forum as a result of a resignation. We decided to appoint a temporary Councilor to ensure that there is a four person body in case of somebody got sick and there is an appropriate number of Councilors to support the decision making process. Through public outreach, there was not a lot of response but we did receive two applicants. The Mayor said he reached out to former City Councilor Brian Corrigan and he expressed a willingness to serve in that capacity. We also received a request to serve on as an interim basis from Corey Mack. Mr. Mack said he thought it would be a good opportunity to be part of the Council. I was considering running for the 1- year position. I have not submitted my paper work yet, but it is a good opportunity to jump right in. I put out there my experience and dedication to the City. I have been a resident from 10 years and have been involved on other City Boards. The Mayor said he has not had any feedback from Mr. Corrigan. Discussion ensued concerning the position because Ms. Lott had to resign and Mr. Mack is filling in the position, but is possibly running for the position. The City Manager said when we are looking at the Charter this is governance to flag in the future. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Covey to appoint Corey Mack to Interim City Councilor to serve from January 29, 2019 through March 5, 2019 as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. l. Swear in Nicole Mace as Mayor of Winooski The Mayor said he wanted to personally express that it has been a great pleasurer serving alongside you Nicole as Deputy Mayor and City Councilor the last several years. Up next, we have the swearing in of Nicole Mace for the City of Winooski as Mayor. The City Manager would like to add that she is a member of ICMA and has a very strong code of ethics and I am a political and do not get involved with the elections in the City. This is a very non-political statement. What we are about to do is about to break a huge barrier in our Community by appointing the first female Mayor of Winooski. I think that is something that should be recognized and celebrated tonight. The City Clerk swore Nicole Mace in as Mayor of the City of Winooski. XI. Executive Session a. City Manager- Annual Review to take place in Executive Session per 1 V.S.A. §313 (a) (3) MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Colston to go into Executive Session at 8:00 p.m. to conduct the Annual Review of Jessie Baker and to invite Jessie Baker, Seth Leonard and Kristine Lott as presented. Voted and passed 3-0. XII. Adjourn MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Covey to adjourn at 9:05 p.m. Voted and passed 3-0. ATTEST: _____________________________ City Clerk January 28, 2019 Winooski City Council