3.1. DRAFT MINUTES 01-19-2010 (2)'I T' LIB I' IT" I L
° L ICE I' LL
~ I , Z 10
Members Present; Mayor r~lin~ing, Councilmembers Zerwas, Motin, ~Iestgaard, and
Gumphi•ey
Members Absent; None
StaFF Present: City Administrator Lori Johnson, Street Superi~~~d~nt Phil Hals, Assistant
Street Superintendent Phil Hals, Fire ChieF Jo~~~ Cunningham, Finance
Director Tim Simon, City Attorney Peter ~ .~~ City Clerk Tina Allard
1. Call Meeting To Order
Pursuant to due call and notice thereoF, the n~., of the ~~`'River City Co~~cil was called
to order at 6:30 p.m. by Mayor Klinzing,
2. Consider 1/I9~ZQI0 Agenda
Mayor ~~linzing added the Following ~~~~~. t ~~ g~~da;
Discussion on City Administr~~~~ ~.~mance`eview Process
® Fire C11ieF Let~~r, ~o the Editor
MDVED BY C~ CTI~~EMBET~. ~~~..wAS AND SECGNDED BY
CDUNCTLMESR'~5'G D T APPR®~TE THE AGENDA A5
AMENDED. MGT~~ C ~D ~~~.
3. Cons~d C~r~~~:A ends:
~~ncilmember ~v'~~aard retested to remove Item 3,T From the Consent agenda and to
add it to the next ag~~a.
M~~ED BY CD,~~CTLMENTBER wE5TGAARD AND 5EC®NDED BY
CGUCILNTE~T R ~ERwAS TD APPR®YE THE F®LLDwTNG CGNSENT
AGE~A~
3.2, CHCT~ REGISTER
3,3. PAY EQUITY TMPLEMENTATTC~N REPGRT; PLACE
ADMTNTSTRATTVE ASSISTANT P®STTTGN FGR FIRE .AND
BUIDLTNG MAINTENANCE TNTG PAY GRADE 4; PLACE SENTC~R
ADMTNTSTRATTVE A55TSTANT TNT® PAY GRADE G AND APPRGVE
TTS PGSTTTGN DESCRIPTTGN
3.4, GNE YEAR E~TENSTGN GF THE EAGLES MAT~SH ADDITION PLAT
~.5. GNE YEAR E~TENSIGN ®F THE HILLSIDE ESTATES PLAT
3.G. PURCHASE CHEVY IMPALA LS FRGM STATE C®NTRACT TN THE
AM®UNT DF $~7,45J.95
City Council Minutes
~anuary 1~, 2a~0
Page 2
3.7. RESLUTI~N 10-05 AUTH~R~ZING CITY ~F ELF DIVER T~
SUBMIT AN APPLICATI®~ FDR AN ENERGY EFFZCZENCY' AND
C~NSERVATZGN FLGC~ GRANT
1~DTI®N CARRIED 5~a,
4, ~ en Mike
No one appeared far open Mike.
Fire Chief Letter to the Editor
Chief Cunningham reviewed his letter to the editor for the lo,~ jspaper and asked for
Council feedback as to whether it represents the city's pos~~.d ~ ~.~ted the letter is in
response to a letter submitted last week regarding the ca~.titive b~d~xg process for fire
equipment. ,>
Ms. Johnson stated city staff followed the co~~t ~ocedure~ end noted that ~,fdon't always
get as many bids as we would like. f
Attorney Beck stated city staff did consult with him ~~ ~s item.
~t was Council consensus to move f~~~~~~~ ~,~t% sending t% leer as it was drafted.
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5.1. Annual Street Department Can~tal Pu~~ses
--
Mr. Hals presented tl~c s~f' report.
llri®VED BYC~NCILII BER ZF~R AS AND SECGNDED EY
C®UNCILME~ E ~~~TG T APPRGVE STP.EET EQUIPMENT
PURCI~ASES AS ~~~T~I~D ~~ `~ STAFF REPORT. MDTIC~N CAR.RZED
5-0.
5.2. ~~~~bal Update o w Re~.~~~1
~'F Hals provided an ;update on the Christmas holiday snow removal, He reviewed hours
i~ ~~ by staff and nd an exti.~a day should have been spent with cleaning the roads up in
or. ~ the streets t be in better shape, He stated at the time he was given direction that
overt~~ l~.ours ~s be kept down.
Ms, Hals re~~~ed the amount of salt and sand used and noted the city had to use twice as
much as normal due to the late cleanup afterwards. He stated costs were fairly even between
whether to allow employee overtime versus using the additional salt.
Mr. Hals stated staff would be experimenting with a new mixture utilizing beet juicesugar
beets} as apre-treatment method, which lowers the melting temperature of salt.
Mr. Thompson stated this hasn't been discussed by other departments yet but they may
propose continued and additional cooperation from other departments. He stated they axe
considering the addition of four routes to plow cul-de-sacs. He stated this would help the
current fleet of plow trucks focus more on the streets rather than spending a lot of time
cleaning up cul-de-sacs, which can betime-consuming due to the large size of the regular
City Council Minutes Page 3
January ~ 9, 2010
plow trucks. ]He noted the Building Maintenance Division has a pickup with a plow, Elk
River Municipal Utilities has afront-end loader, and the Street Division has another plow
that could be rigged economically, He further stated this could allow the plow trucks up to
30 additional hours on the streets.
Mr. Thompson stated the Street Division appreciates the assistance the other departments
have been providing,
The Council noted the following comments:
® They appreciated the efforts of staff during the unusual stc~ especially when they
had to give up their Christmas holiday in order to keep ~~es safe in their travels.
They wanted to know the work did not go unnoticed ~~d Dave received positive
comments from citizens.
Staff should be given more latitude on overt when it comes ~~ h.ealth and safety
issues. They noted this is an important sc.~~~~ for citizens.
~:
Tt was noted the city would no longer be invol~~ .nth ass~.~~g the County Highway
Department for plowing county roads during the i~~ ~~1~ morning plowing.
b.~. Publ~e works DiL•eetoar,,U date
Ms. Johnson presented the staff reps
for the public works director positio
p Re-advertise
Re-evalu tl~e p
® Leave~~~~~.on op~
Review ~~~a~
Consider an~h
Sl~~ ~rher ha~~ ~'s imps
cent projects.
position
~.~n descrip
~~r awhile
dog tl
~d st ~e Maue has declined the job offer
e nab ~~ ~1~~~~~ng options,
cil may wish to consider
~~ for the city to have an engineer as soon as possible due to
cilmember Ma~ suggested hiring a consulting engineer and to let the public works
~r position re~~~~ open for awhile in order to re-evaluate city needs. He suggested
~~ ~.~~til sprin~`~~ammer.
Mayor r~~~~g concurred and suggested scheduling the March worksession to discuss this
issue and the ~rgani~ational structure,
Ms. Johnson stated a decision should be made regarding the handling of current engineering
needs.
Councilmember Moon stated he was fine with using John Anderson for current projects but
would prefer to go out for bids for any new projects,
MOVED BY COUNCIL~IEMBER MOTIN AIVI~ SECONDED BY
COUNCILMEMBER GUMPHREY TO CONTINUE UTILZING THE
SERVICES OF JOHN ANDERSON ON CURRENT ONGOING
ENGINEERING PROJECTS. MOTION CARRIED 5-0.
City Council Minutes
Januaxy ~9, ~~10
Page 4
Mayor I~linzing noted two Councilmembers suggested reviewing this position and the
organizational structure at the March worksession and asked if this is the direction the full
Council would like to take,
Councilmember ~Iestgaard stated he is not ready to move forward with the worksession and
doesn't understand what transpired between Wednesday evening when Council voted to
hire Mr. Maurer and Sunday when Mr. Maurer declined the offer,
Mayor I~linzing stated an offer was made to Mr. Maurer and he declined it. She stated no
one knows why he declined and now Council needs to move forw~~ ~ith decidin what to
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do with the public works directox position,
Councilinember Westgaard questioned if city staff offered ~ ~~~ -~ ~~. Maurer and how
the communication process was handled, He noted Coin receive . utter from Mr.
Maurer stating he declined the job due to the carre~p~~.dence over the ~ few da s. He
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questioned what this meant and he would like to u~~estand what happe before he can
move forward,
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Ms. Johnson stated she had various meetings on ~"~~~~~, r and Mr. Maurer was out for
onions of the da so th
p y ey weren t able to connect, Sly ~t~~ted she met early Thursday
morning with public works staff to t~ then that even tl~=~~h Mr. Maurer wasn't staffls
choice for public works director, the ~p~ ~r~ .the Councii p~~kd, and staff would now
make it work. She stated on Friday m~~ing 4h~ e ~r. Ma~e~ an email meetin re uest
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to see if he could meet that afternoon ~e~o~.t~ p~ ~ benefits. She stated Mr. Maurer
declined the meeting request. Ms, John~~~
asked that he call her ~ th~v can discuss
the other candidate ~n `~"~:i.~y; that he did
Councilmember ~'~~;~a,s sta ~~, ~s~aurc~.•
would be in on Mo~~~, e~~e~ ~ aa~~ ~'`~d noon and they could discuss it then.
Councilmmber ~ei~wa~ ether noted Nis, Johnson replied to Mr. Maurer statin that he is
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not pori t ~~.~~~~. as he ~ ~o longer a contracted employee but that he should call so
~~ could work ~~~~ugh the ~~~.s of his employment. Councilmember Zerwas stated Mr.
~aurer may not ha~-e "elt welcomed as a result of the response,
ahnson stated ~` contract with Mr. Maurer had ex fired and he wasn't et a ci
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em~~~e and typ~~~ employees don t start working until the employment terms have been
appro~~~ by C~.~d. She further stated that Mr, Maurer contacted Ms. Astrup with the Eli
.~.iver St~~~ ~~~~~~ ~rnetime on Friday to let her know he didn't lan to acce t the osition.
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Councilmember Moon noted this was a unique situation but stated that Mr, Maurer
acknowledged in his own email that he was no longer in contract with the city and not et a
city emplo ee. He stated he is not sure wh Mr. Maurer Y
Y y declined and suggested it could be
due to the Council vote or to the employee issues. Councilmember Moon stated he is not
sure it is still a viable option to offer the position to Mr, Maurer or whether it should be
offered to the second choice candidate but he would be okay with it if Council wanted to
move in that direction,
std slae res~~nded back to Mr, Maurer and
employment terms. She stated she informed
;et the position.
t an email to Ms. Johnson indicating he
Councilmember Moon stated the Council needs to move forward on this issue. He stated
when the interview committee was completing interviews of candidates it was unclear on
whether it was necessary to have the engineering certif cations for the position or if the ci
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City Council Minutes Page ~
January 19, 2010
would be limiting the best possible candidates by requiring it. He stated Council could
xeview the pos~t~on descr~pt~on to make adjustments if needed,
Councilmember Gumphrey concurred with the need to move forward, He suggested re-
advertising for the position immediately.
Councilmember Moon stated an engineer is needed but questioned the necessity of f~11in
g
the public Works d~reCtOr' position.
Mayor I~linzing suggested listing engineering qualif cations as a desired qualification on the
position description but not have it be required. ,uh
Councilmember Westgaard re-iterated he was not read to m~ ~rward with a decision
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tonight.
Councilmember Motin stated he didn't see that Ms. ~~~nson did an tl~ iron or was
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unwelcoming. He stated Mr. Maurer was in the of~ on Friday but didn'~ pond to the
meeting request email until alter he left in the. ~~~~~oon, He Mated if Mr. ~i,°r has issues
working with Ms. Johnson, it was his issue.
Mayor ~~Iinzing agreed and stated she sent an email ~ ~~.~, Maurer invitin him to lunch and
ivin eve indication she wanted ~~ ~v ~ ' g
g g ry e forward w~ti~ ~~ ~n the position.
Councilmember Zerwas stated the C~~~c n~~~ ~~~ e rou n~ it's Ixri ortant to kee the
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position description inline with where ~ ~s no~~ry ~ ~.~~ned if the March worksession
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would work to review the position dese~~~.~nA
Mayor I~linzing stud phi ~~, would be ~ded to the March worksession a enda.
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7. ether Business
Di,~cussir~~ Vii' ~drn~~~~~~~~r ~'e orrnanc~e .A.evie~ ~'roc~esf
~~~~~ I~linzing di~~buted ~~~.;#sample erformance evaluation forms and noted a
p
d~ision needed to made on ~rhich forms to use,
~~ council agreed ~~~n the following process:
~~ ~ze ~~rmance form number 3.
~~~ o be sent and returned to the Mayor. Put on cover letter that staff is
enc~~aged to make comments and to rely only on the ratin s stem.
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~ Mayor and Acting Mayor to meet and compile the information.
® Ms. Johnson's direct reports, Peter Beck, Lori Johnson, Phil Hals, and the City
Council are to complete the .form.
Council questioned if there was the possibility for them to meet in closed session prior to
the performance xeview meeting in order to review the forms
Ms. Johnson suggested checking state iaw to make sure it was possible and to determine
how to set it up. Staff and the city attorney will report back to the Council on this issue.
City Council Minutes Pa e ~
January 19, 2010 g
8, Council U dates
Councilmember Moon stated the Northstar Commuter Rail is allowing overni ht arkin in
a limited number of desi Hated arl~in s ace g p g
g p g p s on a vial basis in theit• lot,
~. Staff U dates
Ms, Johnson asked for Council authorisation to send a Letter of Intent for a new stimulus
grant by the Department of Commerce. The grant would allow commercial and industrial
businesses to apply for• loans for energy efficiency projects, She noted a match would be
required by the city that could be funded from the Revolving Load ~zid,
It was Council consensus to send the letter,
10. Ad'ournment j
There being no further business, Ma or 1~linzin ~~~=~rned the meetin ~ ~~he
Y g g Elk River
City Council at 7,40 p,m,
5
She further stated the City Council will go into a Ci~~ ~ session ursuant to Attorne - '
p y Client
Privilege, MN Statute 13D.05, subd. 3~b), for the pur~a~~ of discussin the Cher hills
Bluff Qutlot A lawsuit, g ~
...
Tina Allard, City Clerk
~.
Stephanie r~linzing, Mayor