City Council

Remote Winooski City Council Meeting Monday, December 14, 2020, at 6 PM • Attend online: https://zoom.us/j/95675248278 • Attend by phone: 1 646 558 8656 • Webinar ID: 995 0786 6711 • View our Remote Meeting Procedures and Public Comment Request Form at winooskivt.gov or call 802 655 6410 I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council minutes of 12/7/20 b. Approval: Accounts Payable Warrant ending 12/10/20 VI. Council Reports VII. City Updates VIII. Regular Items a. Introduction: Jenny Hill, Recreation Programs Manager – R Coffey b. Approval: Resolution: Town Meeting Day 2021 Ballot Items – K Lott c. Discussion: Commission Review of Master Plan Goals – K Lott d. Approval: Letter of Support – 70 Main Street Tax Credit Application – H Carrington e. Discussion: FY22 Budget: Public Works and Capital Improvement Plan Presentation – J Rauscher f. Discussion: Main Street Revitalization – 90% Plans – J Rauscher g. Discussion: Transportation Impact Fee Presentation– J Rauscher h. Approval: Grant: Vermont Community Foundation Spark Connecting Community for Skate Park Improvements – R Coffey i. Approval: Grant: Vermont Afterschool for All for Recreation Programs – R Coffey j. Approval: Grant: Child Care Workforce Stabilization Program for Thrive – R Coffey IX. Adjourn 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  MINUTES The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Councilor Colston led the Pledge of Allegiance. Members Present: Mayor Kristine Lott Councilors: Amy Lafayette, Michael Myers, Hal Colston, James Duncan Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Finance Director; Heather Carrington, Economic Development Director; Paul Sarne, Communications Director; Jon Rauscher, Public Works Director; Eric Vorwald, Planning & Zoning Director; Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Others Present: John Bleything, Steven Berbeco, Cara Montague, Bryn Oakleaf, James Leas, Jonathan Slason, RSG; Marshall Distel, CCRPC; Jason Charest, CCRPC III. Agenda Review – None IV. Public Comment – None V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Lafayette seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VI. Council Reports Councilor Lafayette said she attended the SHCP and there’s not a lot of new business but the discussion was around updates. Councilor Colston – None Councilor Duncan – None Councilor Myers wishing everyone a safe and Happy Holidays Mayor Lott – said she attended the Finance and Planning Commission meetings; the finance meeting we discussed policies that staff put together and the Planning meeting we are continuing discussion around accessory dwellings. She said the Planning would be the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. She said she attended the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce meeting and this meeting was pulled together to let folks hear from our Chittenden State Senators. Some of their priorities and generally everyone were focused on food and housing security. VII. City Updates • COVID Update o Testing daily for the foreseeable future and at least through January. ▪ At the OCC ▪ 5 to 8 on Mondays. 9 to 3 all other days including Saturday and Sunday. ▪ Daily – can sign up at the VDH website or walk in. All information is on our webpage ▪ This testing is an “observed nasal swab” – meaning it is self-administered with a medical professional observing and is not as invasive as past tests. Check out the flyer on our website with step-by-step instructions. ▪ All materials are translated and there will be translators on site. o We are tracking a few situations in the City and have restarted daily “huddles” with the Vermont Department of Health and community partners. ▪ Please do not spend time with anyone outside of your immediate household ▪ Wear a mask ▪ Socially distance ▪ Wash your hands • We have been awarded the Municipal Planning Grant to support of hiring a consultant to perform an equity audit. • Equity Director – posted by Wednesday. • City Hall Hours over the holidays o ½ day on Thursday, December 24th and closed Friday, December 25th o ½ day on Thursday, December 31st and closed Friday, January 1st VIII. Regular Items a: Introduction: Jenny Hill, Recreation Programs Manager – R Coffey Mr. Coffey introduced Jenny Hill. He said under the circumstances she had been an awesome addition to the team. We are already starting to see programs coming out. Jenny comes to us from Charlotte, North Carolina, worked at the U.S. White Water Center, in Charlotte and graduated from Wake Forest. Ms. Hill said she graduated from Wake Forest and studied architecture. She said she found her way into recreation and her post-graduation was at the U.S. White Water Center. It is like an outdoor recreation, amusement park in many ways. Recreation has always been my personal outlet. Please feel free to email, call me and have a conversation of what folks want. b. Approval: Resolution: Town meeting Day 2021 Ballot Items – K Lott The Mayor outlined the Resolution pertaining to the electronic signatures. See Resolution attached. Council Lafayette had a question concerning an email address. The Mayor said the email address is only required by the person filing the petition so the clerk’s office can contact them if they are any questions. MOTION by Councilor Duncan seconded by Councilor Myers to approve the Resolution for 2021 Town Meeting Day Ballot Items as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. c. Discussion: Commission Review of Master Plan Goals – K Lott The Mayor said at our September 21st Council meeting we had agreed to ask our policy advisory commissions to participate in a Master Plan progress check. With our commissions being aligned to the priority areas in the Plan, and their annual work plans drafted to align to Plan priorities, commissions were well positioned to discuss progress to date and future priorities. These discussions were framed in a series of questions: See attached. Discussion ensued concerning the priorities base moving forward. Councilor Duncan said the Housing Trust Fund is the most important to keep an eye on. The Mayor also said we need to take this back to the commissions and letting them see the progress. Councilor Duncan also said he wanted to address the composition and equity, this needs to be reviewed by each commission The Mayor said we need to do a better job of sharing updates. Each liaison needs to share updates with their commissions from City Council meetings. Councilor Lafayette said the Safe Healthy People Commissions is overwhelmed with goals that they have. The City Manager wants to reflect on the City’s strategic vision and master plan that you all bought into and the community has bought into. I think this is one of our real strategic advantages. I’ve never worked in a community before where there is such an articulated shared goal and work plan. I want to commend you for going back to that plan and checking in on it and going in the same direction. Taking an eight-year plan and talking about what you’re currently doing on it and what you’re doing on it with essentially volunteers, both Councilor and Commissioners is really lofty and hard. We as a staff are here to support you as council liaisons to these Commissions. I also want to call out that this is an 8-year master plan and we are about a year and half into it. We will do this work together over many years. It is great to check in on it regularly, but I hope you really celebrate you, as Councilors and the Commissioners celebrate the successes we have had very quickly in a year in a half. The Mayor said she would summarize this discussion and put it in our next meeting. d. Approval: Letter of Support – 70 Main Street Tax Credit Application – H Carrington Ms. Carrington said we received a request for a Tax Credit Application letter of support from 70 Main Street LLC. The property owner of 70 Main Street is preparing an application to the Vermont Downtown Program for tax credits to support code updates and façade improvements for the conversion of the existing building to house Four Quarters Brewery. The applicant seeks a letter of support from Winooski City Council, to be signed by Mayor Lott. MOTION by Councilor Colston seconded by Councilor Lafayette to approve the Tax Credit Application letter of support for 70 Main Street as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. e. Discussion: FY22 Budget: Public Works and Capital Improvement Plan Presentation – J Rauscher Mr. Rauscher presented the Public Works and Capital Improvement Plant for the FY22 budget. He said we are looking for level service funding for the Public Works Operations. The General Fund budget is for $1,357,895. Our General Fund Capital is $1,003,741. Mr. Rauscher said there are some changes in the format project sheet. We added review criteria that we want to start ranking these projects. We have nine projects for the capital plan. There was some discussion on sidewalks, paving, fleet cycling and debt roll over. The Mayor said we are falling behind on the resurfacing work. Mr. Rauscher said the Water fund, Capital Fund has no major changes, we have level funded services, and there is no new capital. The water budget is for $911,977.00 we do have stepped rate increases to eliminate reserve fund usage for budget balancing. He said the proposed FY22 water rate would go from $40.63 to $42.09. Councilor Colston asked how this compares to other communities. Mr. Rauscher said we are in the middle of what other towns are charging. Mr. Rauscher said the Sewer Fund and Capital budget is $1,144.530. He said we do have an increase from $52.03 to $54.88. He said this would finally balance our sewer budget. There was some discussion amongst the council concerning bio solids, critical vs. smart planning. Mr. Rauscher presented the Parking Capital Fund budget in the amount $156, 652.00. He said this fund includes on street and Cascade Garage, No on-street capital funds or expenses for FY22, reduced available capital revenues due to COVID impact. No designate Reserve set-aside for FY22 and focus on annual preventive structural maintenance work. See attached FY22 Budget f. Discussion: Main Street Revitalization – 90% Plans – J Rauscher Mr. Rauscher gave an update of the Main Street Revitalization project. This provides our quarterly Main Street Revitalization project. See attached. He said the biggest change is to the schedule • 90% documents completed – January 2021, Revised to February/March • Right-of-Way (procure all easements) – March 2021 VHB to provide City with ROW drawings January, assume 6 months June 21’ • Construction Documents – April 2021, July/August 21’ • Construction Award and Start – June 2021 Fall 21’ The Mayor said she is very concerned about the business impact. I think we should be engaging this timeline with our businesses. Mr. Rauscher said the ROW process is the best time to do that. This winter is a good time to start this discussion. Ms. Carrington said we always thought there would be round table discussions, no need to alarm people too soon. There was also discussion about the timing with exit 16, the circulator and Main Street revitalization. The Mayor called a 4-minute recess at 8:11 and meeting reconvened at 8:15 p.m. g. Discussion: Transportation Impact Fee Presentation – J Rauscher Mr. Rauscher gave an overview of the Transportation Impact Fee. In August, RSG presented an overview of impact fees including the framework for a Winooski Transportation Impact Fee. Since August, RSG has prepared the following additional documents for review and discussion; • Draft Final Winooski Transportation Impact Fee Study • Draft Land-Use Table and Handbook for fee payers • Draft Impact Fee Ordinance He said this information is dense; therefore, our goal is to provide an overview of each document for initial feedback. In addition, we would like to confirm whether this is an initiative you would like us to move forward for implementation. Enclosed please find the presentation RSB will be going over during the meeting. Please not that in the draft ordinance is an exemption for affordable housing. If the Council decides, they would like to move ahead with implementomh an impact fee, our next steps would be to finalize the listed documents. Once finalized, a public hearing can be schedule for the ordinance adoption process. Mr. Slason, RSG gave a presentation on the Transportation Impact Fee There was substantial discussion concerning the Impact Fee presentation. The Mayor said if we want to move, forward with this we would want our City Attorney to review this ordinance before we approve anything. h. Approval: Grant: Vermont community Foundation Spark Connecting community for Skate Park Improvements – R Coffey Mr. Coffey is looking for approval to accept $3,000.00 in grant funds to support improvements at the Winooski Skate Park. He said with the support from the “Safe Healthy, Connected People” Commissioner, Bruce Wilson, a large group of skate park users connected with local skate park designer/builder David Woo (Talent Skate park) to craft a plan and budget for making improvements to the Winooski Skate Park. These funds represent an important first step in improving the safety of the Skate Park, as well as helping to move towards the longer-term goals spelled out in the Master Plan for this facility. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Colston to approve the grant funds for $3,000.00 to support improvements at the Winooski Skate Park as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. i. Approval: Grant: Vermont Afterschool for all for Recreation Programs – R Coffey Mr. Coffey is looking for authorization to apply for the VT Afterschool “Afterschool for All” grant for up to $11,000.00. He said on December 2, 2020 a second round of funding for VT Afterschool announced the Afterschool for All grant program, with an application deadline of Friday, December 11, 2020. Staff intends to see $11,000.00 in grant support from VT Afterschool to help with costs associated with running 4 sessions (February, April, and two weeks in June) of a week-long STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) themed camp for elementary aged youth through our Recreation Program. MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Lafayette to authorize staff to apply for the VT Afterschool “Afterschool for All” grant for up to $11,000.00 as presented. Vote and passed 4-0. j. Approval: Grant: Child Care Workforce Stabilization Program for Thrive – R Coffey Mr. Coffey is looking for approval for acceptance of grant funds to support one-time payments to nine city staff who provided care through the Thrive Program during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said City staff applied for the Child Care Workforce Stabilization Program and we were awarded $8,442.00, which will support a one-time stabilization payment to eligible staff (9 total employees) who provided childcare through the Thrive Program between September 1 and December 31, 2020. These funds are a one-time bonus payment (payed in addition to salary earned for time worked). MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Colston to approve $8,442.00, which will support a one-time stabilization payment to eligible staff (9 total employees) who provided childcare through the Thrive Program between September 1 and December 31, 2020 as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. IX. Adjourn MOTION by Councilor Myers seconded by Councilor Colston to adjourn City Council meeting at 9:05 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST:________________________ City Clerk