City Council

Winooski City Council Meeting Tuesday, October 29, 2019 6:10 PM Claire Burke Council Chambers 27 West Allen Street Winooski, VT 05404 Mayor Kristine Lott - klott@winooskivt.gov Councilor Hal Colston - hcolston@winooskivt.gov Councilor Jim Duncan - jduncan@winooskivt.gov Councilor Amy Lafayette - alafayette@winooskivt.gov Councilor Mike Myers - mmyers@winooskivt.gov Jessie Baker, City Manager - jbaker@winooskivt.gov I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of October 7, 2019 b. Approval: Payroll Warrant period 9/22/19-10/05//19; 10/06/19-10/19/19 and Warrant ending 10/25/19 and Subsequent to Payout Warrant September c. Approval: Planning Commission Re-Appointments d. Approval: ACH Proposals – Healthy Dollars VI. Council Reports VII. City Updates VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Resolution: Mayor’s Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness – K Lott b. Approval: Resolution: Small Business Saturday –H Carrington c. Approval: Request to Correct Manifest Errors in Grand List – T Nelson d. Approval: Grant Application: Working Communities Challenge – H Carrington e. Discussion: Goal Update: Economic Vitality – H Carrington f. Discussion: VLCT Legislative Update – J Baker IX. Executive Session  Executive Session Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. §313 (2) the negotiation of real estate purchase or lease options related to Winooski Hotel Group.  Executive Session Pursuant to 1 V.S.A. §313 (2) the negotiation of real estate purchase or lease options related to Lot 7D. IX. Adjourn  MINUTES The Mayor called the Meeting to order at 6:00 pm and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Deputy Mayor Colston. Members Present: Mayor Kristine Lott Council Members: Hal Colston, James Duncan, Amy Lafayette and Mike Myers Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Janet Brouard, Sr Assistant City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Finance Director; Heather Carrington, Community and Economic Development Officer, Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Jon Rauscher, Public Works Director; Eric Vorwald, Planning and Zoning Director. Others Present: Meredith Bay-Tyack, Downtown Winooski Executive Director; Ted Nelson, Vermont Appraisal Company; Karen Horn, Public Policy and Advocacy Director for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns; Dave Tilley, Veterans Administration; Adam Dubroff, Representatives from Dale Boca; two University of Vermont students. III. Agenda Review – none IV. Public Comment The Mayor asked the audience if there were any comments other than what’s on tonight’s agenda. Adam Dubroff, Winooski Hotel Group came up to address the Council. He wanted to let the Council know that he is still enthusiastic about the opportunity of bringing a hotel to Winooski. He is looking forward to more dialogue with the Mayor and Council. Mayor Lott thanked him for his continued interest and will be in touch. V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0.  VI. Council Reports Councilor Myers gave a huge thank you to all that made this year’s Pumpkin Festival a success. He heard there were 1004 lit pumpkins this year. He mentioned that he attended “International Night” held at St Francis School. Each class was given a country to learn about and provide history, interesting facts as well as food samples. He said the kids did an outstanding job. Councilor Lafayette wanted to second the thanks about the Pumpkin Festival. She also wanted to personally thank the Parks & Rec and City Staff and the folks at Downtown Winooski. She attended the meeting at the Airport, updates were presented and the MOU between the affected Cities has been tabled for the time being. She also attended the Downtown Winooski Business meeting. She said it was nice to see the businesses coming together, sharing ideas. Mayor Lott said that she and the City Manager held a Commission Orientation and was a great success. She was proud to attend the F-35 welcoming ceremony. She spoke with the Air guard and is scheduling them to come and give an update on arrival of the rest of the fleet. She was on Channel 17. This week’s topic dealt with Winooski Partnership for Prevention. She met with the residence at Our Lady of Providence to hear their ideas or concerns on current City services. Councilor Colston said he attended the Equity Council meeting. Things are moving along. He will be attending the first Safe, Healthy Connected People Commission meeting to be held on November 5th as well as the first Charter Commission meeting on the 6 th. Councilor Duncan said he attended the Housing Commission meeting last night. He said they are currently working on the Trust Fund Policy. VII. City Update  Boys Soccer Team has their semifinal today….  Thank you for rescheduling – ICMA was fantastic.  Pumpkin Festival o Thank you for coming out o Thanks to Sally 18 years of work o Thanks for Ray and the CS Team as well as Downtown Winooski  November 3 – mock election - Janet  Thank you for attending the Commission Orientations. Please remember your role as Commission Liaison as workplans are built across groups.  If you were at Halloween in Winooski, you may have met consultants from Omnes. There were here last week collecting public feedback and the Parks and Open Space plan is underway.  DRB meeting on November 5th for Main & Mansion Appeal  PC meeting rescheduled to November 7th with a brief walking tour of downtown to look at sidewalks and setbacks  Public Comment: Airplane Disclosures o South Burlington is not doing anything specific other than general real estate disclosure form o If we were going to explore, we would need to specifically define a line of disclosure. We recommend trusting the existing processes. o Looking for direction on if to proceed  Audits o Annual external audit – here the week of October 14th. Preliminary conversations with auditors suggest this will be a clean audit with a few minor policy recommendations. Excellent job to Angela for facilitating this process and, yet again, leading us to strong financial health. o State Auditor’s Office – every 5-year audit of our TIF District. We have received notice that they are wrapping up their process. We understand we will receive a draft report around Thanksgiving. Initial conversations indicate that this will also be a clean audit.  Last week we were part of the Cachet Financial issue that delayed payroll. Over 200 Vermont employers were impacted. We are still working to resolve with PayData. All staff have now received what is owed and we are continuing to work out the remaining items that came up as a result with some staff being paid twice and fees being incurred. PayData has assured us that future direct deposits are secure and will not be affected moving forward as they have moved all our clients off from Cachet Financial – Bancorp and onto our alternate ACH Partner and that they will be covering the fees incurred by all of their client's employees.  Upcoming Events and Programs o FD Open House Sunday November 3, 2019 from 10-2 o The Winooski/Burlington youth football team won their semifinal matchup with Bradford last weekend, and will be playing South Burlington in the Northern Vermont Youth Football League Championship game on Saturday, November 2nd at 12noon at Essex High School. o Saturday, November 23rd from 1 - 4 PM at Richards Park for a Turkey Bowl Flag Football tourney. This will be free, and open to all... details available on the website and Facebook. o Playgroup and Storytime for children 5 and under will be starting on November 15th. Program will run on Fridays from 9:30 - 10:30 AM at the OCC (movement activities) and Storytime at the Winooski Library will start at 10:45 AM. This is a free program, so come escape the cold with your littles this winter! o VII. Regular Items a. Approval: Resolution: Mayor’s Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness-K Lott The Mayor introduced Dave Tilley from the Veteran’s Administration Regional Office. Mr. Tilley gave a brief overview of the importance of this challenge. The Mayor presented a few slides showing the stats to date; successes as well as some challenges encountered. The Mayor is pleased to be a part of this challenge. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Duncan to approve the Resolution: Mayor’s Challenge to end Veteran Homelessness as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. The Mayor called a 2-minute recess to take a photo presenting Mr. Tilley with this newly adopted Resolution. The meeting reconvened at 6:45 pm. b. Approval: Resolution: Small Business Saturday – H Carrington Ms. Carrington said the City of Winooski has been invited to participate again this year in demonstrating our commitment to our small, local businesses by establishing November 30, 2019 as Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday draws national attention to the important role that small businesses play in boosting our economy, thus creating jobs, and maintaining our neighborhood character. Meredith Bay-Tyack, Downtown Winooski Executive Director said that Small Business Saturday is one of their signature events held. She said each year the Association provides signage and materials to promote the event. MOTION by Councilor Lafayette seconded by Councilor Duncan to approve the Resolution making November 30, 2019 as Small Business Saturday as presented. Voted and passed 4- 0. c. Approval: Request to Correct Manifest Errors in Grand List – T Nelson The City Manager said Mr. Nelson owner of Vermont Appraisal Company is here tonight. Ms. Baker said that the City has contracted with Vermont Appraisal Company to fulfill our assessing needs. Mr. Nelson said each year it is their job to maintain our Assessor records by, inspecting properties, providing administrative services and ultimately filing a Grand List each year in July. The Assessors are able to make any corrections up until that filing date. If any errors and/or omissions are discovered after the Grand List is filed, they must be brought to the governing body for approval. Mr. Nelson said he is here tonight to correct two errors that were discovered in the current 2019-20 Grand List. These are not substantial and do not pose a significant hardship to the City’s finances. The two properties needing adjustments are 25 Winooski Falls Way, -$271,300 and 120 Malletts Bay Ave, - $99,100. The Mayor thanked Mr. Nelson for being here tonight and for explaining the correction process. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Lafayette to approve the Request to Correct Manifest Errors in the Grand List as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. d. Approval: Grant Application: Working Communities Challenge – H Carrington Ms. Carrington said the City of Winooski has been identified as a priority community and therefore makes us eligible to apply for the Boston Fed Working Communities Challenge Grant. She said there are only 9 priority communities in the state and Winooski is the only one in Chittenden County, thus making us a prime candidate to receive funds. She said the Grant is broken up into two phases, first submitting a letter of interest. Successful applicants will then have the opportunity to participate in the Planning Phase to ultimately apply for a share of the Working Communities Challenge Implementation grant which is expected to be up to $300,000.00. Ms. Carrington said staff would like to propose using these funds to expand and continue our equity work and implement systematic change for our low-income residents. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Lafayette to approve the Grant Application process for the Working Communities Challenge Grant as presented. Voted and passed 3-0-1. Councilor Colston abstained. e. Discussion: Goal Update: Economic Vitality – H Carrington Ms. Carrington gave the first FY20 Policy Priorities and Strategy Update. She outlined the adopted priorities, implementation efforts and actions that can be expected over the next few months. See Ms. Carrington’s full narrative attached. f. Discussion: VLCT Legislative Update – J Baker The City Manager introduced Karen Horn, Public Policy and Advocacy Director for the Vermont League of Cities & Towns. Ms. Horn said that the VLCT advocates for legislation that helps improve and strengthen local governments. Ms. Horn gave the Council an update on the Legislative priorities for the upcoming session, including the ongoing top discussion regarding self-governance. The Mayor thanked Ms. Horn for coming tonight and for the VLCT’s continued support to the Cities & Towns throughout the State. X. Executive Session MOTION by Councilor Lafayette seconded by Councilor Colston that they move to find that premature general public knowledge regarding ongoing negotiations of real estate purchase or lease options relating to the Winooski Hotel Group and the redevelopment of Lot 7D would clearly place the City at a substantial disadvantage, because the City risks disclosing its negotiation strategy if it discusses these negotiations in public. Voted and passed 4-0. MOTION by Councilor Lafayette seconded by Councilor Duncan that we enter into executive session to discuss negotiations of real estate purchase or lease options with the Winooski Hotel Group and for the redevelopment of Lot 7D under the provisions of Title 1, Section 313(a)(1)(A) of the Vermont Statutes and invite into executive session the City Manager, Finance Director, Community and Economic Development Officer, Public Works Director, and Planning and Zoning Manager. Voted and passed 4-0. Entered in Executive Session at 7:45 pm. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Colston to adjourn the City Council Meeting at 8:25 pm. Voted and passed 4-0. ___________________________________________ Asst City Clerk