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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003/06/23 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session ((CITY OF OUIS OFFICIAL MINUTES "(CT./1Y RK CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION June 23, 2003 The meeting convened at 7 00 p.m. Present at the meeting were Councilmembers John Basill, Jim Brimeyer, Paul Omodt, Susan Sanger, Sally Velick and Mayor Jeff Jacobs Staff present: City Manager(Mr Meyer), Director of Community Development (Mr. Harmening), Economic Development Coordinator(Mr Hunt); Director of Public Works (Mr. Rardin); Public Works Coordinator(Mr Merkley), Public Works Administrative Specialist (Ms Hellekson), Finance Director (Ms McGann), and City Clerk (Ms. Reichert). (It was noted at the beginning of the meeting that item 3, Update on Wolfe Lake Commercial TIF District was inadvertently listed as a discussion item This was intended to be a written report and was therefore removed from discussion) 1. 2002 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report(CAFR) Ms. McGann introduced Jennifer Thienes of Kern, DeWenter, Viere, Ltd. to present an overview of the report Ms Thienes summarized information contained in the Management Report and stated that the City's financial picture was good and that the CAFR would once again be recommended to receive the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting for fiscal year 2002. She also commended staff for their organization and cooperation during the audit. Councilmember Brimeyer asked if the city was prepared for the new GASB 34 reporting requirements. Ms McGann responded that the conversion process was well underway and that the conversion was going relatively smoothly 2. Proposed Purchase Agreement with Anderson Builders regarding the sale of 3501 Louisiana Ave S Mr. Hunt outlined the proposal and stated that staff was comfortable with the pro-forma as it was presented He also introduced Mr. Gary Anderson of Anderson Builders. Councilmember Sanger asked if the contamination on the property posed any risk of on-going liability for the City Mr Hunt responded that the purchase agreement would hold the city harmless. The city and the applicant were also moving forward with participation in the VIC program, administered by the MPCA, which would provide additional protection to the city. Councilmember Sanger also asked whether the Park Tavern would be interested in purchasing the remnant currently leased for parking from the city. She questioned why the entire parcel was not being sold to the applicant which would relieve the city of responsibility for negotiating the sale of the remnant. Mr. Harmening responded that Park Tavern is interested in purchasing the leased space and that there would be no significant hardship to the city in moving forward with negotiating that transaction. Study Session Minutes -2- June 23, 2003 Councilmember Santa asked if there would be an increase in traffic volume. Mr. Harmemng responded that the new signals and improvements at the Hwy 7/Louisiana intersection would allow for increased volume in the area. Staff informed council that they would return at a future meeting with a negotiated purchase agreement for council approval 4. Solid Waste Mr. Rardin presented a brief overview of the process stating that Proposals had been issued in April which allowed the vendors 30 days to respond. Following receipt of the proposals another week was allowed for staff review. A presentation to staff was then made by the vendors with both vendors supplying additional information over the following week. Staff did identify a cut-off date for input in early June. At that time an email was sent to the vendors requesting their final information. On June 6th the input process was locked. Mr. Rardin also spoke about the difficulty in comparing proposals. He felt that since the total package price for each vendor was remarkably similar, the differences between the two was in the customer service and transition components. Staff felt the customer service package proposed by Waste Management was supenor to that presented by BFI and also felt that there would be fewer transition issues if the contract was awarded to our current vendor. Therefore, Mr. Rardin stated that it was staff's recommendation to award the contract to Waste Management. Mr. Rardin also informed council that a data practices request had been received from BFI to review the entire proposal submitted by WM and that the attorney was currently reviewing the document to determine its status under the data practices statute. Mayor Jacobs commended staff for the excellent work done in creating the solid waste program and in the vendor solicitation process Other councilmembers echoed the Mayor's comments. Councilmember Brimeyer asked for clarification as to the purpose of the discussion. Mr. Meyer responded that staff was asking council to provide direction as to which proposal to present for final approval. Councilmember Sanger questioned the fact that WM's proposal did not include charges for special pickups She reminded staff that council had directed that special pickup charges be included. Mr. Rardin responded that there would be no problem in identifying a charge in the final contract documents, no matter which vendor council chose to award the contract to. Councilmember Omodt asked about reference checks and if that had been done. Mr. Rardin responded that over the course of the past 18 months there have been numerous conversations with other cities about each of the vendors There had been good and bad comments made about each. Study Session Minutes -3- June 23, 2003 Councilmember Bnmeyer commented that there had been no transition plan in place at the time of the last vendor change and that had been very detnmental. Councilmember Santa said that planned changes to the solid waste program itself coupled with a change in vendor could be disruptive. Given the changes in the program it may be beneficial to remain with the current contractor. Councilmember Sanger asked about differences in the proposals regarding recycling credit. Ms. Hellekson stated that the recycling credit for BFI for the year 2001 was $8,000 and $17,000 for 2002 based on Chicago Pncing for recyclables Mr Rardm responded that the figures given on recycling rebates fluctuated based on market from one year to another and that figures stated in the proposal cannot be confirmed. Councilmember Velick stated that council had earlier agreed that cost alone would not be the deciding factor in making a vendor choice. Service considerations were more important than cost. Councilmember Sanger asked about a service component proposed by BFI where a 3rd party contract would be let to monitor service calls. She asked where in the analysis that component was included Mr. Rardin stated that the 3rd party component by BFI would have been at added cost to the city. He also stated that BFI had been reluctant to utilize the city's database already in operation at WM. Mayor Jacobs asked a BFI representative to clarify their position on the 3rd party contract and use of the city's database The representative stated that BFI was willing to do anything the City wanted Councilmember Omodt stated that he had personally done some calling to get information regarding service provided to other jurisdictions He had also personally experienced a recent missed pickupe from the current provider. Mr. Meyer clarified that it is not a missed pickup unless they don't get back by the deadline time. Mr. Omodt asked that staff check references further. Mr Rardin stated that over the course of the past 18-24 months there had been a great amount of research already done on service and performance Councilmember Velick pointed out that the WM proposal provided a much better package in terms of missed pickups and penalties She felt that the WM proposal seemed to be "banking on" good service. She felt that spoke well to the WM proposal Mr. Rardin commented that it was a good idea to look at the proposals in terms of what they say each will do It is difficult to determine how well they will perform by calling other cities, as the SLP solid waste program that will be instigated is different than programs the vendors deal with in other cities He felt that if they perform well and do what they say they can, the WM proposal is better than the BFI proposal. Study Session Minutes -4- June 23, 2003 Councilmember Basill asked about reporting procedures for service problems and how each contractor handled their reporting. He asked how we could be sure of the integrity of the reporting process. Mr. Merkley explained the database and system currently in operation with WM that had been designed by the city in cooperation with WM. The system has been in place for some time and improvements are being made all the time. The system proposed by BFI involved reports submitted in paper format that would need to be reviewed by staff. It would take some time for a new vendor to transition into using the city-designed system. Mr. Meyer added that the city has been monitoring service performance by WM for some time and that our program compares very favorably to national standards Mayor Jacobs asked the council to come to a consensus on where to go from here. Councilmember Velick stated that if other councilmembers felt they needed further research she was ok with that, but was ready to recommend that the city go forward with awarding a contract Councilmember Santa also felt that more research was ok and suggested that results of all research done over the past several months would be valuable in helping the city to put together the educational component for residents. Mr. Meyer offered that staff could try to get answers to questions regarding references council was asking for and include that information in the report for the meeting of the 7th when council is expecting to award the contract. Councilmember Omodt insisted that the information be provided in advance of that and Mr. Meyer suggested a staff memo with the information be sent to councilmembers with their mail prior to their receiving the agenda packet for the 7th. Councilmember Omodt agreed with that approach. This item will return for a council decision at the meeting of July 7th. 5. Communications Mr. Meyer asked council if they were supportive of a new initiative where The Jewish Family and children's Service and Sholom Home would receive grant funds to create a program similar to children first which would be directed toward seniors in the community. Council was supportive and directed staff to prepare a letter stating their intent to support the program. Mr. Meyer also pointed out that councilmembers had received a packet of information from Sojourner Project regarding a change in vendors for the services they have been providing. Councilmember Sanger shared with council a letter that had been distributed in the Fern Hill neighborhood in response to pamphlet that had been distnbuted there. She felt distribution of the material in the original pamphlet may constitute a hate cnme and suggested that those persons who responded with the subsequent letter should be commended. Mr. Meyer suggested that staff refer the matter to the Human Rights Commission. Study Session Minutes -5- June 23, 2003 ' Ms Reichert asked council to review the applications that had been receiving in response tot he city's advertisement for planning commissioner, and to forward to her the names of three persons each felt should be named as a finalist. Following receipt of the names staff would schedule interviews. It was agreed that a committee of staff and Councilmembers would meet to review the city's current appointment process and to suggest changes to the council for how this could be done more efficiently 6. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:16 p m Deputy City 1 Mays r