Loading...
12-7-09 CC WS Min5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD COUNCIL CLAMBERS 6;00 B ®M. Mayor Liz6e called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. A. Roll Call Present. Mayor Liz6e; Councilmembers Bailey (arrived at 6:15 P.M.), Turgeon, Woodruff, and Zerby; City Administrator Heck; Finance Director Burton; Planning Director Nielsen; Director of Public Works Brown; and Engineer Landini Absent: None B. Review Agenda Turgeon moved, Zerby seconded, approving the agenda as presented. Motion passed 4/0. 2. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Administrator Heck stated Council has discussed the goals for 2010 during work sessions over the last several months. He had asked Council and staff to provide him with their suggested ranking for the objectives identified for the six categories of goals. The meeting packet for this meeting contains a copy of the draft prioritization of the objectives based on consolidated feedback he received. The packet also contains the Planning Commission's input on how it thought the tasks for the Planning objectives should be prioritized. The goals and objectives for Parks and Recreation will be discussed with the Parks Commission during its December 8, 2009, meeting. He asked Council to identify any changes it had to the draft prioritized lists for 2010. He explained the step following this objective prioritization process is for Staff to determine how it is going to accomplish the objectives. He noted Council will be presented with the final document during its December 14, 2009, meeting. Councilmember Woodruff asked what Council should assume about Staff's ability to achieve the objectives identified because that would affect his priorities. Administrator Heck explained the objectives for 2010 reflect what Staff wants to complete in 2010. Heck suggested Council prioritize the objectives. He stated Staff will complete those items that Council absolutely wants completed in 2010. The agreed upon prioritization of infrastructure objectives is as follows. 1. Develop and implement a long term financing plan for road maintenance and construction. 2. Develop a standard procedure for obtaining resident input on the installation of water services prior to street reconstruction. 3. Implement a road improvement plan such that plans and specifications are ready for spring construction. 4. Ensure proper preventative maintenance of local roads to preserve their integrity and longevity. 5. Implement infiltration and inflow inspections and maintenance tasks as budgeted each year. CITY OF SHOREW OD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES UT S December 7, 2009 Page 2 at 5 Develop and implement a strategy to encourage people who have access to municipal water to consider connecting to the municipal water system. Develop an annual maintenance and inspection plan for each facilities major components. The agreed upon prioritization of parks, recreation and environment objectives is as follows. I . Evaluate the deer harvesting program and establish policy guidelines. 2. Achieve a break even status on the Southshore Community Center operations in 2010. 3. Increase marketing of programming at the parks and the Southshore Community Center. 4. Annually evaluate and remedy playground safety concerns. 5. Expand programming for Southshore Community Center. 6. Determine the feasibility of establishing community garden. 7. Plan and implement a policy to address diseased trees such as Emerald Ash Bore, Dutch Elm, etc. 8. Increase recycling program participation by 10 9. Discuss improvement options with community partner City of Chanhassen for Cathcart Park. Councilmember Zerby stated he wanted Staff to ensure the conversion program to the new recycling program is successful. If only a certain number of the objectives would be able to be completed he did not want the recycling program to fall off the list. The agreed upon prioritization of public safety objectives is as follows. 1. Work with the other cities to create a plan for the long -term care and maintenance of the public safety buildings. 2. Work with the police Coordinating Committee in implementing a funding formula update as required by the arbitration decision. 3. Work with the Coordinating Committee, other cities and the chief of police to obtain regular reports on activities. 4. Work with the Governing Board, other cities, and the fire chief to obtain regular reports on activities. Councilmember Woodruff stated he was okay with the original ranking provided all four objectives can be completed. If not lie wanted to lower the ranking for Objective 1. Mayor Lizee noted the police and fire chiefs already prepare regular reports on activities. The reports are included in meeting packets for their respective governing board's regular meetings. She asked for more definition on the reporting objectives what it means. If all that is wanted is for all Councilmembers to receive copies of the reports that is an easy task to accomplish. Councilmember Turgeon stated she does not receive copies of the reports. Administrator Heck stated he will forward Councilmembers copies of the reports, noting they already exist. Administrator Heck stated all four of these objectives should be completed in 2010. The agreed upon prioritization of finance, services and human resources objectives is as follows. I . Establish annual budget priorities and service level expectations. 2. Prepare and present financial reports to staff, council, and outside reporting agencies in a timely and accurate manner. 3. Establish monthly analysis and reporting of the City's financial condition and health. crry OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES December `t, 2009 Page 3 of 5 4. Develop and implement a methodology to review staffing allocation on an annual basis. 5. Establish a sound process to evaluate staff based on results and expectations. 6. Develop long -range financial and strategic plan. Following are some comments that were made about the finance, services and human resources objectives. Zerby asked what the difference between the long -range financial and strategic plan and the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) are. Woodruff stated the CIP only deals with capital improvement projects, and he is not sure what the other is. Bailey agreed the long -range plan was vague. There was ensuing discussion about Objective 3, monthly financial reporting. Bailey wanted to receive the reports developed on a monthly basis. Zerby didn't want to spend 30 minutes a month discussing the reports. Bailey stated Council shouldn't spend that much time discussing them. The variance report highlights the significant differences between budget and actual. He thought it would be acceptable for Staff to simply state there is no change, and most of the time there should not be any action. It would be a mistake to discuss each individual line item. Zerby indicated he did not want to create more work for Staff if there is not a corresponding benefit received. Zerby indicated he expected Council would be notified if there were a significant variance. Bailey stated Council is the steward of the City's financial resources. He thought having the reports on the agenda on a monthly basis provided the forum and data to perform that stewardship. Lizee stated receiving a monthly report would be fine provided Council does not want to delve into the minutia. ➢ The there was consensus to delete the objective to develop a long -range financial and strategic plan. ➢ Heck explained all personnel will have some type of performance evaluation. ➢ There was discussion about the ability to get all 5 objectives done, and it was noted that Heck is responsible for Objectives 4 and 5. The agreed upon prioritization of the city planning and protective inspections objectives is as follows. 1. Implement and publicize the Shorewood Comprehensive (Comp) Plan. 2. Provide in -house government training service (GTS) for planning commissioners and others. 3. Develop a proactive process to ensure planning district plans remain current and viable. 4. Provide continuous review and revision as necessary to the City's development regulations. Following are some comments that were made about the city planning and protective inspections objectives. ➢ Turgeon explained the Planning Commission had asked that the GTS training be a top priority. Turgeon recommended the training occur in January or February 2010. There are a number of Commissioners who could benefit from the training. Lizee commented that she was disappointed that none of the Commissioners had taken advantage of the training offered through the League of Minnesota Cities. Lizee recommended the training be conducted after new appointments have been made to the Planning and Park Commissions. She suggested an invitation be extended to the Park Commissioners and the other cities. Turgeon stated the appointments should be known in February. Bailey indicated he would support making this a priority in 2010. CITY OF S ORFWO D WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES December 7, 2€ 09 Page 4 of Turgeon commented the Planning Commission had discussed the need to discuss marketing the Comp Plan and vehicles for communicating the Plan. Turgeon asked Council how much effort it wanted spent on communications vehicles. Bailey suggested the Commission and Staff decide that. Heck asked if publicizing the Comp flan or implementing it an important issue. Woodruff thought both were important. The distributed draft list of citizen communications and involvement objectives is as follows. After discussion there was consensus to have Administrator Heck revise the list prior to the December 14`" Council meeting. I. Develop a resident survey tool to evaluate residents' satisfaction with city services. 2. Increase the number of residents who receive the electronic newsletter by 15 %. 3. Increase the number of residents who sign up for the city subscription service by 10 %. Following are some comments that were made about the citizen communications and involvement objectives. ➢ Woodruff stated there are more tools then just a survey that could be used to evaluate satisfaction with city services. ➢ Woodruff stated Ile had trouble differentiating between Objective 1 and 2, and he questioned if the cost to do them could be justified. Heck explained the subscription service is for residents to go to the website and find a menu of items they can select to receive electronically. Woodruff stated there may be ways to reduce the cost of the newsletter other then distributing it electronically if that is the goal of Objective 2. Zerby stated the newsletter could be published less frequently. Bailey stated he wanted a goal of reducing the cost of the printed newsletter without reducing its readership. He thought Staff could determine how to accomplish this, and he did not want a specific percent identified. ➢ Zerby stated the City's water policy and road plan need to be communicated and that should be an objective. ➢ Turgeon stated she thought the City had a goal of having interactive forms for things such as paying bills. That's not included in the objectives. Liz& stated a goal could be added to develop interactive /on -line services. Heck stated those objectives are listed under target 2010, key 2011 goals as Objectives 4 and 5; the interactive piece mist be added as well as the payment for reservations. Zerby cautioned about an interactive system where they would be limited use. Heck stated the two objectives can be moved to 2010. Administrator Heck stated lie will have an updated document for the December 14 "' meeting. 3. STAFFING RECOMMENDATIONS Administrator Heck stated the meeting packet for this meeting contains a memorandum from him describing his recommendations about the operational and organizational structure for City staff. He explained the goal is to reallocate resources, not reduce them. Heck reviewed his recommendations. The city engineer position will report to the city administrator and not to the director of public works. The human resources functions and risk management functions will become the responsibility of the city administrator, noting they are currently the responsibility of the finance department. The level of planning activity has dropped off considerably over the last 3 — 4 years, noting there were supporting documents showing the level of activity. One of the part -time planning assistant's (Pamela) will be dedicated to web activities; that position would report to the deputy clerk CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES UTES December 7, 2009 Page 5 of 5 Councilmember Turgeon asked it there was a way to prepare similar charts for other areas. She expressed great concern that the City was down to 554 permits and expenses exceeded revenues by $192,000. She stated she did not have an issue with any recommendations provided that there is sufficient work to justify reallocating some of the planning staff's time. She noted the City had one zoning text amendment and one variance through September of this year. She asked for a Little more information about the rationale for having a little more staff time dedicated to the Center. Administrator Heck explained Council had expressed a desire for reporting on Center activities and expenses and revenues. He will build the reports and Twila can run them on a quarterly basis at a minimum. Currently Twila spends 65 percent of her time on parks and 35 percent helping at the front desk. In his proposal she will spend less time at the front desk and more on parks and Center activities. Pamela will help out more at the front desk as needed. Turgeon asked if it would make sense to have Twila do the minutes for the Park Commission meetings as opposed to Kristi Anderson with CRR. Councilmember Woodruff stated he supports Administrator Heck's recommendations. He commented that although change can be hard it can also be good. He stated one benefit of reallocating some of the planning resources to other areas is the City retains the skill sets should the need for them increase. He recommended Heck assess if there is any way the Building hnspector can help the City Engineer. Heck stated the Building Inspector has been helping the Engineer. Heck then stated there has been discussion about utilizing outside resources when needed. Councilmember Zerby stated there may be more enforcement issues as the City ages and he encouraged staff to keep abreast of that. 4. ADJOURN Turgeon moved, Woodruff seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session Meeting of December 7, 2009, at 6:59 P.M. Motion passed 5/0. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED Christine Freeman, Recorder Christine Lizee, Mayor