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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004/02/09 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Joint CITY OF Official Minutes ST. LOUIS Joint City Council/School Board Meeting PARK City Hall, City Council Chambers February 9,2004 A reception welcoming school board members commenced at 7:00 p.m. with the business meeting being convened at 7:30 p.m. Councilmembers present: John Basill, Phillip Finkelstein, Paul Omodt, Sue Santa, Susan Sanger, Sally Velick, and Mayor Jeff Jacobs. School Board members present: Keith Broady, Rolf Peterson, Nancy Gores, Jim Yarosh, Jerry Timian, Julie Sweitzer, Bruce Richardson. City Staff present: City Manager(Mr. Harmening), City Clerk(Ms. Reichert) School District staff present: Interim Superintendent(Mr. Walker); Community Education Director(Ms. Severaid) Mayor Jacobs again welcomed school board members and thanked them for their attendance. Mayor Jacobs stated the desired meeting outcomes which were: information sharing, enhancing the relationship between School District and the City; and, strengthening the Partnership of the School District and the City. He also referred to the agenda for the evening. 1. Budget Deficit—School Chair Broady outlined some of the budget problems facing the district and informed persons present of how progress was being made to address the significant funding decreases experienced by the district. A combination of program cuts, reductions in facility costs and staff reductions are being implemented to address the problem. Boardmember Timian also pointed out that despite the decreases in funding, the district continues to offer quality programs and services and continues to attract good students to St. Louis Park. 2. City Budget Mr. Humming presented an overview of steps that had been taken by the city in dealing with funding reductions. Like the schools, a combination of program cuts and staff reductions were implemented. In addition, the city was able to tap into a new revenue source through the implementation of franchise fees and was spending down fund reserves. 3. Facilities Brookside—Boardmember Yarosh gave a brief overview of the history of the Brookside building, including information about the current purchase offer being considered. Councilmember Basill commented on neighborhood involvement stating that there was some general support for the proposal, but density was an issue of concern to many of the neighbors. Mr. Harmening stated that the city had not yet received any plans for review from the developer. Lenox—Ms. Severaid informed the group that the district is covering all of the operating costs of the Lenox building which houses the SLP Senior Program. The city does contribute funds to the Community Ed programs, but that contribution cannot be used for operating costs such as facility staff and utilities. Joint School Board/City Council Meeting -2- February 9, 2004 She stated that there is some legislative authority for the school to seek funding for operating costs, but only at buildings which the district does not own. She suggested the city partner with the schools in exploring options for taking advantage of that levy authority. Eliot- Improvements need to be made to the Eliot building in order to preserve their primary tenant, District 287. The district is working with Ehlers and Associates to seek funding which may require participation from a 3'l party. The city may want to consider participating. Councilmember Velick said she was receiving questions from residents in the area regarding timing of any work that may be done at the site. Mr. Walker asked what kind of timeline worked best in dealing with public process. Councilmember Santa responded that the public process should begin right away and that it was the city's practice to begin communications with all interested parties as soon as rumors started. Mayor Jacobs followed up by saying he felt it was acceptable to begin informing the public by saying"we don't know" and that even that was more palatable to interested parties than no communications at all. Mr. Harmening offered to work with Mr. Walker on a process that would involve both the city and the district. 4. STEP Mr. Harmening informed the group of steps taken so far to find a new office space for STEP. Some options available to the organization were to accept an offer of free space at , or a lease to own option near the space currently occupied by the Emergency Food Shelf. Ms. Severaid stated that the STEP offices will remain at the Brookside location until such time as they are required to leave by the new owners. STEP continues to work on identifying funding sources. 5. School Foundation Boardmember Timian reported that the foundation was entering their second year and was quite satisfied with the performance of the foundation at this time. 6. Children First Mr. Harming stated that Children First is still very successful in the community and that the board is working to identify dedicated funding sources. Two sources that had been relied on heavily in the past were not longer available. 7. Superintendent Search Process Boardmember Sweitzer reported that they are working to identify a professional search firm and were hoping to have a new superintendent in place sometime during the summer of 2004. Chair Broady stated that the board hoped to involve members of the public and other interested parties in the process in the beginning, when needs are identified and again at the end when finalists are identified. He was concerned about privacy issues for applicants,but wanted input from others regarding the new Superintendent. Joint School Board/City Council Meeting -3- February 9, 2004 8. Youth/Senior Summits Mayor Jacobs was very pleased with participation in last years' summits and was hoping for even more successful events in 2004. The youth summit is scheduled for April 29th and the senior summit is scheduled for June 30th(note: date has been confirmed). Mayor Jacobs invited all school board and city council members to attend the summits. 9. School District Levy Boardmember Richardson stated that the referendum was extremely important in that the coming referendum was a renewal of referendums adopted by the voters in years past. School board members were working with Bill Morris of Decision Resources as an advisor. The choice facing the district was whether to place their questions on the ballot at the presidential election of 2004, or to wait until the local election of 2005. Ms. Reichert stated that the projected voter turnout at the 2004 election was 70%, while the projected turnout at the next local election was about 15%. During budget cut talks, the council had considered combining local elections with federal and state elections and eliminating the odd-year local elections entirely. They chose to continue odd-year, local elections however, due to the reality that the odd-year elections produce a smaller, but better informed voter pool. Councilmember Sanger suggested that the city and school board work together to educate voters on budget issues facing both entities. She felt that Councilmembers could be of great assistance in helping to educate voters about the need to pass the referendum. 10. Development Project Update Mr. Harmening gave a report on commercial and housing development in the city saying that development was continuing at a brisk pace. Boardmember Timian asked if any conclusions had been drawn from the Housing Summit process currently underway. Mr. Harmening responded that the Housing Summit group was considering many issues related to housing, and that no firm conclusions had yet been drawn from the study. He also stated that St. Louis Park was well on its way to meeting Met Council housing goals set for our city. 11. Next Meeting Mayor Jacobs suggested the two boards meet again to continue discussions. He felt that both groups could be more effective if communication lines remain open. Items suggested for a possible future agenda were suggested by members present. Topics suggested were: * Referendum * Restoration of Community Education and ECFE Funding * Vision SLP * Public Process and Involvement Chair Broady suggested that summer, after a new school superintendent is in place, may be a good time for a next meeting of the two groups. 12. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.