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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007/11/19 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session CITY OF OFFICIAL MINUTES T. LOUIS CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION PARK NOVEMBER 19,2007 The meeting convened at 6:37 p.m. Councilmembers present: Mayor Jeff Jacobs, John Basill, Phil Finkelstein, Loran Paprocki and Susan Sanger. Councilmembers absent: C. Paul Carver and Paul Omodt Staff present: City Manager (Mr. Harmening), Communications Coordinator (Mr. Zwilling), Director Technology and Support Services (Mr. Pires), Community Development Director (Mr. Locke), Finance Director (Mr. DeJong), Broadcast Coordinator (Mr. Landis) and Recording Secretary(Ms. Schmidt). Guest: Henry Camacho, Paul Kravolec, Unplugged Cities; Tom Asp, Consultant 1. 2008 Budget Discussion Mr. Pires gave an overview of technology and support services for the 2008 budget report. He further stated a major IT project would be to establish a unified backup tape library system, storage area and email service cluster to enhance system capacity, reliability, availability and recovery. Mr. Zwilling explained to Council the budget impact on marketing and branding, stating that money would be spent incrementally for the next couple of years, project by project as necessary. He further stated there would be an increase in the upcoming budget of about $30,000 to cover the creation of a new community handbook, which would take the place of several currently existing. Mr. Zwilling stated he hoped some of the cost would be offset with sponsorship and ad revenues. Mayor Jacobs stated he liked the park prospective pieces they were doing on the local channels. Councilmember Finkelstein stated he liked the use of original programming, stating it made people feel involved and further asked if there was any use of the studio by teenagers. Mr. Zwilling stated they were working on that and hoped they would be able to mentor them. Councilmember Sanger asked why the support services budget had decreased. Mr. DeJong stated that it was just basically a reclassification transfer, but stated the funds were fundamentally the same. Councilmember Finkelstein asked if they would see a decline in cable fees. Mr. Zwilling stated it was a possibility with the amount of competition but nothing dramatic. Mr. DeJong stated the franchise fees would continue to go up. Mr. Pires stated part of the cable fee decrease they may see would be due to the bundle packages options cable providers were offering. Mr. Locke gave an overview of the 2008 budget. Study Session Minutes -2 November 19, 2007 Councilmember Sanger asked if there were any new potential foreclosure programs and asked why the City would have to provide more money if the State would be providing additional funding. Mr. Locke stated it would be to help fund the county with a position, stating the City would not have to hire anyone to help with this. Councilmember Sanger inquired about the duplex acquisition program. Mr. Locke explained that the City would acquire it, make it environmentally friendly and then sell it as two sales versus one. Councilmember Paprocki stated he had a hard time deciphering because such a large proportion was placed in the miscellaneous category. Mr. DeJong stated basically only one thing in revenue services went up and that was 8 percent due to the bonds for Park Nicollet. Mayor Jacobs asked how many land trusts were done in 2007. Mr. Locke stated they did two. Mayor Jacobs asked if all the excess land property had been sold. Mr. Harmening stated the proceeds were received and were parked waiting for task force input. Councilmember Finkelstein reminded staff to work on setting up the task force for those excess land proceeds. Councilmember Sanger asked Mr. Locke if there was a need another staff person. Mr. Locke stated he appreciated the recognition, but the work seemed to be evening itself out. Councilmember Paprocki suggested using interns for assistance if there becomes a need for another staff person. Commissioner Sanger suggested Council study the excess land proceeds at their retreat. Mr. DeJong stated that in the areas of accounting, treasury and assessing they were short in the assessing area, but restructuring of the departments would save approximately $10,000 a year. He also reminded Council that new audit standards would be implemented in 2008. The meeting recessed at 7:15 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 8:39 p.m. 2. Wireless Update Mr. Harmening stated the purpose of the discussion was to have an understanding of where they expected to be by the end of November and some possible scenarios. Mr. Pires updated Council on the progress of WiFi. He further stated that ARINC's previous projection was that Phases 1, 2 and half of Phase 3 along with all poles being put in the ground for the rest of the City would be completed by November 30`h. He went on to state that as of today, ARINC's best estimate would be three sub-areas that could be completed in Phase 1 by November 30`h, with no completion dates for the rest of Phase 1, and all of Phases 2, 3, or 4. He had been informed by ARINC that they were also having supply issues with solar panels. Mayor Jacobs asked if any part or phase had been turned over to test. Mr. Camacho stated that he has not had any portion turned over to him and that he had not had responses back from ARINC on when that possibility would be. He went on to state that he felt AR1NC's overall proposal did not reflect a wireless engineer was involved, and this may have resulted in ARINC underbidding the project. Mr. Camacho further stated he suggested stopping Phase 1 and moving onto the redesigned Phase 2, since the Phase 1 design did not appear optimal; but they did not respond to his suggestion. Councilmember Sanger asked Mr. Camacho if ARINC was Study Session Minutes -3 November 19, 2007 not returning his calls. Mr. Camacho stated they are just not telling him anything and when a question is asked, their response is they'll get back to him, but do not. Councilmember Sanger wanted to know if this had been the process all along and Mr. Camacho stated they have recently brought some new staff for assistance, which has helped. Council discussed alternatives, options and scenarios for the project at this time, asking if it were thought that ARINC no longer wanted to be part of the project if they did not meet the City's contract due date. Mr. Kralovec stated that Unplugged Cities felt the project could be salvaged with the help of municipal WiFi engineers and also dependent upon whether materials would be removed and they would have to start all over again. Council and staff also discussed the financial amount spent to date, if any of the materials were City owned and if the public should be notified at this point. Mr. Harmening said ARINC owns the materials at this point. Mr. Pires stated the City has not accepted any portion of the project. Councilmember Paprocki suggested having Unplugged Cities do a proof concept in Phase 2 or 3 to see what the next step would be. Mr. Scott advised that they would have to allow ARINC every opportunity to complete the project by November 30th, as was the contract due date. The meeting adjourned at 9:50 p.m. ---1 ----)1a/P/.44j--)447b4S2-1, „ /7 (27/ Nancy Stroth, dty Clerk Jeff4acbbsjMayor