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Home My WebLink About2000-01-27 Council MinutesCorcoran City Council Minutes 1/27/00 APPROVED 2/10/00 Page 1 of 4 CORCORAN CITY COUNCIL MINUTES JANUARY 27, 2000 CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL Mayor Guenthner called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. • Members present: Mayor Kenneth Guenthner, Councilors John Bucher, George Gmach, Dixie Lindsley, and Ron Thomas. • Also present: Administrator Roberta Colotti, City Clerk/Treasurer Cindy Patnode, Engineer Vince Vander Top, and Attorney Jeff Carson. • Also attending: Bill Halverstadt, Stan Chastek, Pat Puhle, Loren Kohnen, Val Nybo and Dan Heitke. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Guenthner opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. APPROVAL OF AGENDA • Motion: JB/RT; all in favor - to approve the agenda with the following additions: 1. Administrator’s Report: Budget Meeting Report • Council reviewed the issue of offering open forum at the second meeting of the month. This meeting is to be primarily a work session type of meeting. The Council consensus was to allow open forum at the second meeting. Open forum allows for a five (5) minute presentation on any one topic. CONSENT AGENDA • Motion: RT/GG; all in favor - to approve the Consent Agenda with the following items pulled for discussion: Approved as Consent Agenda 1. Approval of Corcoran City Council Minutes of January 13, 2000. 2. Approval of Moving Board of Review Meeting Date to April 13, 2000 at 6:30 p.m. 3. Approval to terminate the Personal Accident Policy through The Life Insurance Company of North America. 4. Authorize Administrator to prepare a letter of support for the Hassan Township Greenway Planning Grant. 5. Approval of Resolution 2000-05, A RESOLUTION APPROVING A GAMBLING LICENSE FOR BINGO AT THE HENNEPIN COUNTY FAIR. Pulled for Discussion & Approved Separately • Motion: RT/DL; all in favor - to authorize payment of Pre-Paid Claim #87 in the amount of $51.73 and Claims Pending Payment #53-86 in the amount of $232,337.34 for a combined total of $232,389.07. • Motion: DL/RT; all in favor - to set the 2000 Contract fee for T & C’s Janitorial Service at $15 per hour. The City Administrator is to prepare a contract for consideration by the council at a future meeting. CITY PARK PLAYGROUND – George Gmach & Val Nybo Councilor Gmach and Jaycee’s member Val Nybo presented a request to purchase playground equipment for the City Park. Corcoran City Council Minutes 1/27/00 APPROVED 2/10/00 Page 2 of 4 • Motion: RT/JB; all in favor – to authorize staff to order playground equipment from MN/WI Playground Inc., as presented in their bid proposal and with any necessary change orders, in an amount not to exceed $65,000. (Funded by: Park Funds & Jaycee’s Donation) • Motion: RT/JB; all in favor – to authorize the City Engineer to work with MN/WI Playground Inc. in preparing the site plan and developing a RFP for installation and site work. WASTEWATER COMMISSION REPORT – Loren Kohnen MPCA Rule 7080 & Draft City Code Chapter 50 Sewers The City Council reviewed the MPCA Rule 7080, draft codified city code and two draft ordinance amendments prepared by the Wastewater Commission. The City Council requested that the following items be included in the codified ordinance draft for final adoption by the City Council at a future meeting. Wastewater Commissioner Halverstadt reported that the minority opinion of the Wastewater Commission was to allow warrantied individual sewage treatment systems. However, the majority opinion was to prohibit them except for by variance. The proposed ordinance excludes warrantied systems. • Motion: GG/JB (Favor: GG/JB/DL/RT – Opposed: KG) – to accept the recommendation of the Wastewater Commission to incorporate the ISTS draft ordinance into the draft code section 50.25 as presented. • Motion: JB/RT; all in favor – to accept the recommendation of the Wastewater Commission to incorporate the draft ordinance, providing for reporting of on-site sewage system maintenance and repair, into the draft code. • Issues for future review by the council on the draft codified city ordinance Chapter 50 include: o Section 50.08 Nonconforming Uses – Is the term public nuisance and/or public health safety & welfare sufficiently defined. (City Attorney felt is was sufficiently defined.) o Section 50.10 Maintenance Procedures – Is it appropriate to include maintenance procedures in the ordinance or should an outside document be referenced. (Council generally felt maintenance procedures should be a separate document unless inspections were to be conducted.) o Section 50.27B, Permits & Licenses Required – states that anyone doing maintenance shall be licensed by the MPCA. Then section 50.10A states that an owner or agent shall perform septic tank maintenance. (If the council removes section 50.10 altogether that would eliminate this conflict.) o Section 50.30A Restrictive Standards – Questioned the requirement of two septic tanks. (Council generally in favor of this requirement.) o Section 50.45 Wastewater Issues Commission – Council requested that this section be strengthened to increase the authority of the Wastewater Commission. o Section 50.45B - Council noted that all nine members of the commission are appointed. o Section 50.47 Inspections – Council questioned if this was for new construction or maintenance. If it is for maintenance do we have the police power to do this. (Loren Kohnen, Building Inspector & Wastewater Commissioner, stated that we may want to do a maintenance inspection program and that the MPCA has grant monies to established this type of program.) ISTS Regulations – Hennepin County – Response Letter Council authorized the Administrator to prepare a letter to Hennepin County stating that the City of Corcoran will serve as the official agency for administration of ISTS regulations within our city limits. Corcoran City Council Minutes 1/27/00 APPROVED 2/10/00 Page 3 of 4 Hennepin County Ditches Council was informed that Hennepin County is discussing the option of turning the ditches over to either the watersheds or the cities. Wastewater Commission Officials Jim Bullert was elected Chair and Stan Chastek was elected Vice-Chair of the Wastewater Commission at the January 10, 2000 Wastewater Commission meeting. STAFF REPORTS Attorney’s Report – Jeff Carson Assessment Policy – Overview City Attorney Jeff Carson reviewed the City’s policy regarding postponed special assessments. Postponed assessments are not payable until the property is developed. The postponed assessment was designed to minimize the hardship to farming citizens and those with large tracts of land that did not intend immediate development. The City Council was in favor of continuing to use postponed assessments when appropriate in development activities. Another tool that landowners may use is Green Acres. The Rolling Hills Road project is to be partially financed by the project developer and partially by MN State Aid (MSA) funds. The use of postponed assessments is an option for paying for the balance of the Rolling Hills Road project. The City Engineer will be setting up a meeting with the affected property owners to review the road re-alignment. At this time the issue of postponed assessments can be discussed. Mayor Guenthner requested that the City Engineer model the size, value and location of the Rolling Hills Road re-alignment project. • Motion: DL/RT; all in favor – to remove the city code section providing for a road access charge from the draft city codebook. Engineer’s Report – Vince Vander Top Maple Grove Sewer Interceptor Project – Update The City Engineer met with the Metropolitan Council about the Elm Creek Interceptor (ECI) and the south connection to Corcoran. The Met. Council may be willing to view the south Corcoran connection as a Met. Council interceptor. This means that 0.5 to 0.7 mgd would be allocated to Corcoran at this connection and that the Met. Council would participate in the payment for this interceptor. It also appears that if Corcoran wishes to build the connection for capacity beyond the 0.5 to 0.7 mgd, Corcoran would be responsible for this additional cost. This would come into play if we continue to request the 1.2 mgd capacity, for example. The City Engineer presented two development case studies based on either 0.7 or 1.2 mgd. The Met. Council is hosting an informational meeting for local officials at the Maple Grove Community Center to discuss future wastewater needs in the ECI service area on January 31, 2000 at 6:00 PM. This meeting is open to the public and sponsored by the Met. Council. The City Engineer and City Administrator were directed by the City Council to set up a meeting with the Met. Council and Maple Grove to begin creating a three-party agreement for design capacities and cost sharing. This will not only include the south connection, but may also include the other two connections, County Road 30 (middle connection) and Hassan (north connection). They are to report back to the full council on February 10, 2000. Corcoran City Council Minutes 1/27/00 APPROVED 2/10/00 Page 4 of 4 Administrator’s Report – Roberta Colotti Personnel Issues – Insurance & Vacations • Administrator reviewed the transfer of the life insurance policy from Anderson Agency to LOGIS. The policy remains the same with $10,000 term life insurance policy for full-time and at $5,000 policy for part-time employees. With employees having the option of purchasing additional insurance at their own cost. A meeting was held on 1/27/00 with the insurance representative and city employees to review the life insurance benefit. • The Council was generally in favor of having employee vacation time accrue on a monthly vs. annual basis. At this time vacation will be credited to the employee’s account on a monthly basis in accordance with the existing handbook. Ultimately the entire handbook is to be updated and the vacation section will be condensed. • Administrator reported that she met with Councilor Gmach to prepare a plan for updating several personnel issues including: Rewriting the Employee Handbook, Job Descriptions, Job Evaluations, Salary Chart, Police Union Contract Renewal, Police Chief Contract Negotiations, Management Union Desertification, Staffing Levels, and Safety Programs. Budget Report • Administrator reported that she met with Councilor Bucher to review and prepare a monthly budget format. The budget will be presented in this format beginning in March of this year. MAYOR & COUNCIL REPORTS • Council questioned if dust control could be placed onto special assessments in accordance with Chapter 429. ADJOURN • Motion: DL/RT; all in favor - to adjourn the meeting at 9:50 p.m. Submitted by: __________________________ Roberta J. Colotti City Administrator