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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006/08/07 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Regular CITY OF OFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS CITY COUNCIL MEETING PARK ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA August 7, 2006 1. Call to Order Mayor Jacobs called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. Council members present Mayor Jeff Jacobs, John Basill, C. Paul Carver, Phil Finkelstein, Paul Omodt, Loran Paprocki and Susan Sanger Staff present City Manager (Mr. Harmening), City Attorney (Mr. Scott), Community Development Director (Mr. Locke), Community TV Coordinator (Mr. McHugh), Director of Technology and Support Services (Mr. Pires), Finance Director (Mr. DeJong), Planning/Zoning Supervisor (Ms. McMonigal), Senior Planner (Mr. Walther) and Recording Secretary (Ms. Stegora-Peterson). 2. Presentations 2a. Jr. Leaders Parks and Recreation John Bartheleau, Park and Recreation Dept. Playground Leader, and Michelle Margo showed a video and presented certificates to participants of the Junior Leader Program. Mayor Jacobs thanked Junior Leaders, the Park leaders and their families. 2b. Children First Asset Champions Network Karen Atkinson, Children's First, reported on the Asset Champions Network, a community-wide approach to obtain a network of individuals from community organizations Mayor Jacobs felt many people were excited about taking Children First and the Asset Building model to the next level Ms. Atkinson noted recently Mr. Harmening became chair of Children First. 3. Approval of Minutes 3a. City Council Minutes of June 5, 2006 The minutes were approved as presented 3b. City Council Minutes of July 10, 2006 Councilmember Sanger indicated on page four, fifth paragraph to substitute "replotting" with "replanting" The minutes were approved as corrected. 3c. City Council Minutes of July 17, 2006 The minutes were approved as presented. 3d. City Council Minutes of July 24, 2006 The minutes were approved as presented City Council Minutes -2- August 7, 2006 3e. Study Session Minutes of July 17, 2006 The minutes were approved as presented. 4. Approval of Agenda and Items on Consent Calendar NOTE The Consent Calendar lists those items of business which are considered to be routine and/or which need no discussion Consent items are acted upon by one motion If discussion is desired by either a Councilmember or a member of the audience,that item may be moved to an appropriate section of the regular agenda for discussion 4a. Adopt Resolution Nos. 06-125, 06-126, 06-127, 06-128 and 06-129 imposing Civil Penalties for Liquor License Violations according to the recommendation of the City Manager. 4b. Approve a Temporary On-Sale Intoxicating Liquor License - Holy Family Fall Festival, 5900 & 5925 West Lake Street, St. Louis Park to be held September 22 & 23, 2006 4c. Adopt Resolution No. 06-130 appointing election judges for the Primary and General Elections to be held September 12 and November 7, 2006. 4d. Resolution No. 06-131 for Final Payment 39-05 Frattalone Paving Inc. - Street Improvements and Watermain—20041000 4e. Amend the 2006 equipment acquisition program to allow the purchase of an additional vehicle for the Police Department. 4f. Adopt Resolution No. 06-132 authorizing an application for a grant from the Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Demonstration Account 4g. Human Rights Commission Minutes of May 16, 2006 4h. Human Rights Commission Minutes of June 20, 2006 4i. Planning Commission Minutes of June 21, 2006 4j. Approve Vendor Claims for Filing(supplement) It was moved by Councilmember Sanger, seconded by Councilmember Omodt, to approve the Agenda and items listed on the Consent Calendar The motion passed 7-0 5. Boards and Commissions - None 6. Public Hearings - None 7. Requests, Petitions, and Communications from the Public—None 8. Resolutions, Ordinances, Motions _ 8a. Citywide Wireless Internet Authorization to Request Bids Resolution No. 06-124 Mr Fires introduced staff and consultants and presented the staff report. Councilmember Basill asked about the additional cost to the City for the bid process. Mr Pires replied staff was requesting $50,000 to complete the bid process, the study, the site visits and to continue service to the existing pilot areas. City Council Minutes -3- August 7, 2006 It was moved by Councilmember Sanger, seconded by Councilmember Carver, to adopt Resolution No. 06-124 authorizing staff to request bids for design, purchase, and implementation of a citywide wireless Internet network, with Council reserving the right to reject any and all bids should Council determine they do not meet financial or performance goals, or for any other reason Council may determine is in the best interest of the City Councilmember Finkelstein complimented staff for their work. This is based on acquinng 35% of the households and 15% of business subscribers. As part of the bidding process can they also look at other variations of the percentages? Mr. Pires responded there were several additional pieces of information they wanted to add, including additional scenarios. They had also been talking about alternative technologies and looking at feedback received from wireless pilot customers regarding the pncing structure. Councilmember Finkelstein asked if they were closing the door on exploring opportunities such as partnering with the City of Minneapolis Mr. Pires replied the City of Minneapolis was intending to make a decision and he talked about possible collaboration, particularly for subscribers in either city to stay connected. Councilmember Finkelstein asked if that would be part of the bidding process and asked if staff had also been explonng if other suburbs would join Mr. Pires replied the City Manager was setting up a meeting with other city managers who had expressed an interest. Councilmember Finkelstein noted a final thing he would like to see in the bidding process was if there were a change in technology or things didn't go well to have an exit strategy. Mr. Pires replied some of the opportunities for exit strategies were unpredictable six months ago such as the interest other organizations were showing in existing networks. Staff will address those issues in October. Councilmember Omodt asked about the cost break down for the $50,000. Mr. Pires replied a significant piece was to keep the pilot project going. The rest was the engineenng that went into designing the bid document and site visits. Councilmember Basill stated when they began the pilot, he did not support it, although he was in favor of wireless Once they made the decision to go ahead, he hoped for a smashing success. He was concerned with low participation and that the pilot didn't meet goals. A lot of good issues had been brought forward, which made him feel good they didn't roll it out citywide He would not support this again, although he would love the community to be wireless. Technology changes very fast and they could be buying something that is obsolete He would like to see private business do this and to reduce the risk to taxpayers. Councilmember Omodt indicated he would be abstaining because his company does work with some of the vendors. Councilmember Carver spoke in favor of the motion. It made sense to go forward with the proposal because they had made the investment so far. They had started learned a lot and had more to learn. The motion extended the pilot a small amount and wisely kept the City Council Minutes -4- August 7, 2006 pilot up and running, at a reasonable cost, to examine whether or not to go citywide. On the point of the technology, the kind of WiFi they were talking about was not going to go away anytime soon. They were looking at the middle of the continuum and trying to buy a proven technology they knew worked. They were doing this sooner than a lot of places and were taking advantage of the expenences of others. He noted he received a letter from a private sector entity letting him know they were close to doing something, but couldn't tell him where or how. The private sector had a long opportunity to deliver service in this community and hadn't done that. High speed Internet is just as vital for their future as water has been in the past and important to the future. The fiber optic cable they are putting into the ground for infrastructure and in other cities, there is a very high value to the capital and the fiber optics put in the ground. They will have invested in an infrastructure that will continue to be there and will be valuable to someone and perhaps once they've done the work, one of the private businesses will come along and ask to lease the fiber optic cable. Councilmember Sanger was also in support of going forward with the pilot project and was in favor for the reasons Councilmember Carver laid out. It was true that technology was changing, and always would be. If they said they were not going to try a wireless program because technology was changing, they would be paralyzed and never do a program dependent on high technology. That was not a valid reason for stopping the pilot project. As far as waiting for a private enterpnse to come along, they had been waiting. A private company came to St. Louis Park to explore whether it would be possible to install a citywide wireless network and they left. They decided they couldn't make a sufficient profit and no other pnvate company had been back. They needed this to help move the community and businesses forward Many residents had expressed enthusiastic support. Many were waiting to sign up for the citywide project and weren't willing to change their email address for a pilot project they were unsure would go forward. If they get to the point of having a citywide permanent project, they will have a great deal of support. Councilmember Finkelstein believed they were taking baby steps and if they didn't continue the project and send out the requests for proposal they would never find out how long it would take to walk He was a little nervous spending more money, but was more nervous if they didn't take the final step and prepare themselves for the world their children would be inheriting To spend $50,000 was a lot of money, but it was approximately$1/resident and they needed to figure out what it's going to cost to take the next step in this project and what it would cost if they didn't take this step. He supported this Councilmember Basil' clarified it was not because technology was changing, it was because of the nsk. It was not because he opposed WiFi, he was in favor. As the pnvate company came forward and said there wasn't sufficient profit to do this, it made sense it worrisome how the city thought there would be profit He wanted WiFi, but would like to see a no cash down network and subscnber's pay with no cash down by the city He thought WiFi would happen in time without risking taxpayer dollars. They should be a customer of a privately operated system. The nsk of the dollars that they spent on the technology would be on the shoulders of the pnvate enterpnses and they have an obligation to pick the nght technology. Now they were putting the nsk on the taxpayer, which gave him great reservation City Council Minutes -5- August 7, 2006 Councilmember Paprocki indicated he was in favor of this. This is not cutting edge technology, but is good. The key is the life of the technology. The income projections are based on having a 36% enrollment of households over five years. He was skeptical they could get 36% enrollment, they were at 25% and needed to grow 50%. Yes people like it, 25% do. At National Night Out the 25% was real. There are people that don't have computers that are WiFi capable, people that aren't interested in having Internet, people who have cable, etc. People need to know upfront even though they don't have Internet or WiFi, they would use their tax dollars so their neighbor can have WiFi. They need good numbers up front so they don't have surprises in later years Half of the equation is the cost. Fiber is the most interesting part of this project and would be here for a long time. Councilmember Carver commented in response to Councilmember Basill's question about the profit, this was not being done to make a profit The ideal situation would be for this to completely pay for itself with rates and the amounts charged per person at the variety of levels. There are other benefits they had not catalogued or pnced. The City currently pays $20,000/year to provide for Police to have wireless access. They would become the provider of that service if they have wireless and that would no longer be paid This will be part of the next round of analysis. There are a number of benefits. Mayor Jacobs stated he was in favor of the motion. Councilmember Basill was saying it was not whether to do it, but who should do it, which was a legitimate question This is to create an environment where new businesses can thrive and where residents, students and schools can compete. He was glad they did a pilot and they learned a lot. They need to find more answers and determine how much this would cost and if it was worth it He hoped it was and that they could achieve some of the municipal benefits and there may also be other costs savings. Mr. Pires commented one of the interesting things about this project was that they were looking at it on a retail basis and looking at subscnber revenues trying to support the cost of the project. That was contrary to the way most other communities had looked at wireless, they looked at it purely from a municipal benefits point of view. While they were looking at it from a retail point of view, it was a business that they would be getting into, that also means if they have the infrastructure there it would serve other benefits municipally. Part of the goal between now and November is to try to articulate those. What he heard from the comments from Council was it would have been nice if it would have been there already In St Louis Park, 70% of residents have a choice of one broadband provider and many would argue that was not competition. He also heard that down the line through an exit strategy it might be nice if they were not even in this business. Perhaps one of the roles they would play would be start as a provider and another provider would manage/operate the system in the future. The motion passed 5-1-1 with Councilmember Basill opposed Councilmember Omodt abstained 8b. West 36th Streetscape & Public Art Discussion GI Ms. McMonigal presented the sfaff report Mr. Walther reviewed the project parameters. Mike McGarvey, SRF Consulting, presented the plans for the streetscape. City Council Minutes -6- August 7, 2006 Councilmember Finkelstein felt they were missing a unique opportunity to distinguish the city and West 36th Street. They can develop something that would become a regional draw. It needn't be more expensive or less durable. They should look more outside the box and draw people out and engage them into the community. This seemed to be a continuation of the Excelsior and Grand motif, which was nice, and he suggested vanous other forms of public art. Businesses also needed to be taken into account. They needed to pay attention to the cultural infrastructure as well as other infrastructures. This is an opportunity to put art into the public space and their everyday life and they weren't using it. Mayor Jacobs clanfied the discussion on the public art was next. Councilmember Carver added he heard a couple of times "like Excelsior and Grand", these are different places and he didn't think it served them well to have multiple Excelsior and Grands. These places would be in competition and both needed their own unique character. Over time these places would develop their own draws because of what it was like. Councilmember Paprocki felt this was a unique location that it was near the core of the old City He didn't want it to become another Excelsior and Grand or be like Wayzata. This should be a place where they try to tap into the history of St. Louis Park and also draw in longer-term residents Mayor Jacobs stated they would discuss the thoughts of the Council and the process. He wanted people who knew what they were talking about to create this and have a public process with the stakeholders to tell them what would make this a unique place. Councilmember Omodt stated that the streetscaping didn't look very green and it would be nice to have more trees The last streetscaping they did on 36th Street didn't look nice for very long and he didn't want to do the same thing. He questioned if the design would be easy to maintain, is it going to be maintained, will it be in a special service district? Excelsior and Grand would continue to look the way it does because it is in a special service district and had standards. He wanted to design with the idea that it would be maintained. Councilmember Basil' felt the discussion was very refreshing. This was very important street going into the Elmwood neighborhood and connectivity through the community. They needed to analyze what they were doing, to take their time and get this nght and make it long term with public art incorporated. Councilmember Sanger stated when she thought of 36th Street and the streetscape issues, it seemed they shouldn't be discussing the streetscape without also discussing the traffic and congestion They also needed to discuss pedestnan crossings and visibility. Her second concern was the difficulty in seeing the presentation matenals and she would have preferred having this as a study session where they could talk more freely and see larger pictures. Ms. McGonigal replied they were looking at a maintenance service agreemenefor properties along this area to take care of the streetscape They were also looking at special treatments for pedestnan crossings, but did not have anything specific at this time. There is a light planned for Xenwood and 36th that would come with the Hoigaard's redevelopment City Council Minutes -7- August 7, 2006 Ms. Walsh stated this wasn't intended to be all inclusive of what they expect, this was the basics elements of the streetscape plan. There are opportunities within the streetscape to do public art and they were looking at that. There were also opportunities outside of the typical streetscape Part of the streetscape and public art in this area isn't just intended to ' be sculptures, it may also be benches, manhole covers, etc Jack Becker, art consultant, presented the potentials areas along 36th street for public art. They were looking at many themes including: connectivity, history, nature and green, and diversity. _ Mayor Jacobs asked about next steps. Mr. Becker replied one of the first steps would be meeting in more depth with the developers that were moving forward. Mayor Jacobs felt a unique feature of Excelsior and Grand was that they became involved in the design stage and it was incorporated into the project design from the beginning. He felt it was important to do that here. There were unique opportunities to do something special along this route to denote that this was St Louis Park Councilmember Basill agreed working with the developers was key. They needed to capture this at the nght time frame to get it done and have the vision. As they move forward, is there pre-staging that could be done inexpensively A lot of development may not happen for many years and they want it to be walkable. He would push for an intenm plan or pre staging to be ready for the long term, but make it better for today. He asked for an update on Highway 7 and Wooddale and about the traffic on 36`h. Mr. Harmening replied they are interested in seeing the construction of a grade separated crossing at Highway 7 and Wooddale to address traffic issues. SRF Consulting helped with an application for Federal funds to assist in building the crossing where Wooddale would be separated from Highway 7, with appropnate access points onto Wooddale. The cost of the project, including acquisition is approximately $18 million. They completed most of the acquisitions They applied for Federal funds and received approval of $6 million, which would be directed toward the cost of this project. This moves them up on the pnontization list for Sate funding and they are in conversation with MnDOT and the County on fulfilling the rest of the funding needs for the project. The soonest a project would be done would be 2009. The grade separated crossing will provide a tremendous relief to the traffic problems in that area. Councilmember Basill added the grade separated crossing would also have pedestnan access'on both sides to allow people to cross above-grade. Councilmember Finkelstein clanfied he was not looking for cutting edge art that hurt anyone or have people wonder what it is, but he wanted to be sure they didn't end up with an Excelsior and Grand light For planning the streetscape he would also like them to talk with the businesses because there are a lot more opportunities for public art and activities on the South side of West 36th and not the North side. He would be interested in seeing what Citizen State Bank, Beltline Properties and the Ford Dealership felt. He was also pleased to see Target noted in the report Target missed a major opportunity to do something special in their remodeling and this would be an opportunity to correct that. They would also need to get neighborhood input. Because there may be a potential LRT stop, that would also be an opportunity. Mr. Harmening indicated staff was providing an update and were working on this. It was clear that the Council didn't want this to be an Excelsior and Grand look alike and wanted this to have its own character and distinction They will continue conversations with a group of property owners and interested parties along the 36th Street corridor, City Council Minutes -8- August 7, 2006 including Citizens Bank and developers. They were not done with the streetscape either. There will be conversations with the Elmwood neighborhood and other stakeholders in the area about what the streetscape would look like. Ms. Walsh noted neighborhood representatives have been involved in the 36th Street Corridor Art group. Councilmember Basill stated it had been a good process. 9. Communications Mayor Jacobs reported that the 2006/07 St. Louis Park City School Calendar was in the mail. He thanked staff and everyone involved in National Night Out. He also thanked the Human Rights Commission who sponsored a forum with Somali residents. It was a very successful event and a good learning experience. Mr. Harmening stated Comcast was about to take over the cable franchise and asked Mr. Pires to present an update on upcoming changes. Mr. Pires indicated the franchise transfer was effective July 31st A representative from Comcast explained their plans at the Telecommunications Advisory Commission meeting. For now there will be no real changes at the customer level in terms of pricing or Email addresses. Comcast is planning on forwarding all Email from the current Roadrunner address to a new address within a year That will turn into Comcast.net. Within a year everyone has to change their Email address. Comcast is planning to have their next pricing scheme available on January 1st, which is when rate and service changes occur. Before that time they may have a realignment of channels. Mr. McHugh added that the one-year transition showed how the operators had learned that longer was better for a transition. The fastest change would be that trucks would say Comcast. The biggest channel changes would be additions if a subscriber has digital service. Subscribers with analog service will also have channels affected. Mr. Pires added Comcast is absorbing all of the commitments of the franchise recently finalized with Time Warner, including local origination. Councilmember Basill asked if the Email accounts would be set up the same way as Roadrunner, such as one subscnption with five Emails and remote Email access? Mr. Pires replied they didn't get into that detail. Councilmember Basill believed those were important service questions for many people. Mr. Pires stated Comcast said nothing would change immediately. They needed to ask Comcast those questions about remote Email access and multiple boxes. Councilmember Sanger asked if they knew when Comcast expected to provide notification of changes to residents? Mr. Pires replied letters were in the mail now to all current customers. Councilmember Sanger believed people were asking how much their rates would raise and how fast Mr Pires felt one of the things that would be important would be importance of the cable franchise in the community, particularly with regard to local origination programming. He suggested Comcast come before the City Council to provide an update and answer questions. 10. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. City Clerk ayo