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04-14-14 CC WS MinutesCITY OF SHORE WOOD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014 MINUTES 1. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Mayor Zerby called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS 6:00 P.M. A. Roll Call Present: Mayor Zerby; Couneilmembers Hotvet, Siakel, Sundberg, and Woodruff; Administrator Joynes; City Clerk Panchyshyn; Finance Director DeJong; Planning Director Nielsen; and Director of Public Works Brown Absent: None B. Review Agenda Woodruff moved, Siakel, seconded, approving the agenda as presented. Motion passed 510. 2. PRESENTATION BY DEB KIND AND ELLI ANSARI ON THE SOUTHSHORE CENTER "COVE" PROPOSAL Mayor Zerby noted that Greenwood Mayor Kind and Tonka Bay Councilmember Ansari are going to make a presentation about The Cove (currently called Southshore Community Center - SSCC). Mayor Kind noted she is a professional graphic designer by day and that Councilmember Ansari has experience in marketing and business development. She explained that both of them were members of the Southshore Center Advisory Committee (SCAC) which was formed last September by invitation of Mayor Zerby. The goal was to get representatives from the five cities that co -own the SSCC to come up with ideas about the future of the SSCC. She and Ansari decided to draft a proposal that the cities could react to. To date they have presented the Cove concept to the Greenwood City Council and the Tonka Bay City Council. Those two Councils have expressed general support for the concept of spending money on what she and Ansari have termed the "now" costs. The now costs would support building improvements and rebranding with the condition that this would be the last chance to make SSCC operations sustainable. Any money raised in excess of operational costs would be used for capital improvements to the building. Kind explained that the City of Deephaven venture. As of yet representatives from the decided whether or not VANTAGE will has withdrawn from participation in Minnetonka High School VANTAGE rent space in The Cove. Nor, ha sthe proposed joint Program have not the Minnetonka Communication Education (MCE) Board decided if it is willing to partner on providing the programming, scheduling and marketing for The Cove. She and Ansari did meet with MCE Executive Director Tim Litfin and she believes that he has generally bought into the concept but the MCE Board has not approved that. The Cove proposal has been revised many times based on input from Litfin. She and Ansari originally planned on leaving the name of the facility as is but based on strong opposition from Litfin decided to propose the name of The Cove. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES April 14, 2014 Page 2 of 6 She stated that she and Ansari did consider other names also (e.g., The South Lake Center, The Harbor, The Port, etc.). They believe the name The Cove is evocative of the hidden location; the location is probably the biggest negative for the facility. The name also gives homage to the Lake Minnetonka area. The concept includes naming the rooms in the facility after bays in Lake Minnetonka. She noted that she and Ansari have spent countless hours on their proposal. She stated some people have suggested having a naming contest for the facility but she and Ansari are not interested in taking that task on. She then stated that Tammy Magney (who helped them with the numbers in the proposal) thought the name The Cove instantly changes the feel of the facility. She noted their intent for this evening is to get the Shorewood Council's general buy in. But, their feelings will not be hurt if this Council does not like the proposal or if it thinks that doing the three -year pilot project is just delaying the inevitable and the cities should just pull the plug. Councilmember Ansari stated the SSCC has been Shorewood's cross to bare for the last couple of years. Shorewood has tried many other viable options. That is why she and Kind have presented it to other Council's as the last opportunity or a graceful exit strategy. Their proposal may not work. Councilmember Sandberg stated that she does not think she will be ready to make any recommendation on this at this time. She explained Shorewood staff needs to carefully look at the numbers in the proposal, noting staff has a lot of experience with running the SSCC. She also would like to hear what the Excelsior City Council's position is on the proposal. Councilmember Woodruff stated because this work session is being video recorded for viewing audience he asked Mayor Kind to highlight their proposal. Mayor Zerby stated it was his pleasure to work with Mayor Kind and Councilmember Ansari on SCAC. He noted the proposal is the culmination of a lot work by the SCAC and the VANTAGE Team. Then Ansan and Kind took that information and used it to help write a proposal. He then noted a name change had also been suggested by the Southshore Senior Partners (SSSP), the VANTAGE Team and others. He stated he likes the name The Cove and likes the suggested names for some of the rooms. Mayor Kind highlighted the proposal. The highlights are as follows The VANTAGE Team members are Minnetonka High School students. The Team's supervisor is Eric Sill. There were four key learnings from the VANTAGE Team's research. 1. There are six community centers in the metro area that operate at or near break even, so it is possible for the SSCC to break even as well. Kind noted that the SSCC is unique in that the building is paid for. Councilmember Sandberg stated that those centers had substantial advantages the SSCC does not have. Kind stated that one of those six had just room rental, just like the SSCC. 2. The facility's awareness needs to be improved. Forty -three percent of survey respondents had never head of the SSCC. Of the 57 percent of those who had heard most thought it was a senior center only. 3. To break even the facility needs to have professional programming, scheduling and marketing to maximize the use of the space. And, it needs to appeal to all ages and potential renters. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES April 14, 2014 Page 3 of 6 4. To appeal to all ages and potential renters the appearance of the building needs to be upgraded to have a "wow" feeling, the building technology needs to be upgraded, and the building needs new branding. • The City of Shorewood and SSSP had two key desires. One is the desire to have someone at the facility during regular business hours and programming and rental times. The second is the desire is for SSSP to be able to continue to rent space at the facility. • The proposal is a 3 -year pilot project proposal which the authors believe addresses the key learnings and key desires. The goal is to put the SSCC on a course that makes it viable for the future. • On March 5, 2014, the City of Deephaven submitted a letter notifying the other owner cities of its withdrawal from participation in the SSCC. The draft of The Cove 3 -Year Pilot Project Proposal reflects that. (Kind noted that the Cooperative Agreement for the SSCC does not allow one co -owner city to withdraw.) • The name of the SSCC will be changed to The Cove and the website and building will be updated to reflect that. • Upgrades to the building are proposed. A dramatic entrance will have a feature wall, accent lighting, carpet and so forth. In order to house "senior" items and make better use of the space, the large coat room would be repurposed into "The Corner" gift shop /display area — a centralized space to showcase bakery sale items, greeting cards, newsletters, books and so forth. Coats would be hung on an attractive new coat hook system in the hallway. The rooms would be renamed to Echo Bay Room (dining room), Gideon Bay Room (activity room), and Excelsior Bay Room (conference room). Black and white prints of Lake Minnetonka images would be displayed on the walls. A Cove executive board would oversee the upgrades. • The proposal reflects Shorewood would continue to have "fiduciary responsibility" and to manage operations, set room rental rates and so forth. NICE would provide professional programming for all ages. Marketing will be done through the MCE course /program catalogue that is mailed to homes in the School District. MCE would also be in charge of all program and rental scheduling which will result in space information being in one space. Rental fees will be for the room and table set -up only. The renter will need to arrange for linens, catering, liquor insurance, and so forth. • Program rental will be split 60 percent to the instructor / program director (that is what is done for all MCE programming), 30 percent to MCE (MCE currently gets 40 percent) and 10 percent to The Cove. Kind noted that idea was suggested by Mayor Zerby and MCE Executive Director Litfin seemed to be open to that. • Rental revenue from events such as weddings and class reunions would be split 30 percent to MCE and 70 percent to The Cove. • The Cove would be able to host fund raising events when the facility is not being used for MCE programming or rentals. • A site manager / receptionist would be paid by The Cove and would work four hours per day Monday through Friday. • The custodian would be paid for by The Cove and would report to and be scheduled by the site manager. • To honor the historic contributions of the Friends and SSSP, The Cove may discount rentals to the SSSP and may split proceeds from The Corner gift shop / display area. Shorewood would decide what the split should be. SSSP will need to keep a clear and separate identity for itself and its printed material. • The upgrade costs are estimated to be just over $90,000 with the "now" costs being $44,895 of that. (It was noted that Tammy Magney helped with the estimates.) The costs would be based on CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES April 14, 2014 Page 4 of 6 the population percentages of the four participating cities and then Deephaven's share would be split based on those percentages as well. The $44,892 would be split as follows: Excelsior - $8,452; Greenwood - $2,366; Shorewood - $28,761; and, Tonka Bay - $5,313. Mayor Zerby explained when the SSCC was constructed it was primarily for a senior center and programming was done by the seniors for the seniors. About four years ago the point was reached where the seniors were struggling to operate the SSCC. Shorewood stepped in and hired a contractor to run programming for non - senior events. SSSP continued to manage the senior programming. He stated from his perspective he believes people are striving for a hue community center with one entity doing the programming and scheduling for all ages. The entity that would do that is not known at this time. The use of the building is evolving and the building needs to evolve to meet those needs. What is in the proposal would do some of that. He then stated the six community centers in the metro area that operate at or near break even are located in the Cities of Andover, Chaska, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Richfield, and Shoreview. The Depot in Hopkins would be the kind of center to aim for. Mayor Kind concurred with The Depot suggestion. Zerby stated The Cove proposal is a way to refocus the SSCC. Mayor Kind stated MCE does provide programing for all ages and things could potentially evolve to where the SSSP could back away from the programming it does. Councilmember Hotvet stated that she has taken classes at the SSCC which were centered around the kitchen in the past. She then stated there should be a to -be- determined line item about future kitchen upgrade needs. She asked if that has been explored in depth. She stated she thought holding kitchen related programs could be a big ticket item. Mayor Kind explained that MCE Executive Director Litfin believes the kitchen is a plus for MCE because the MCE facility and the schools do not host cooking classes. Kind noted that the current kitchen is up to code and it is a commercial kitchen; therefore, upgrades did not make the "now" list. Councilmember Siakel asked who Tammy Magney is. Mayor Kind stated she is a local architect and co- owner of the Commons workspace in Excelsior. Kind stated she and Councilmember Ansari asked Ms. Magney for assistance. Ansari stated Ms. Magney has done other projects in the area and one of her current projects is in Excelsior. Ansari noted that Ms. Magney was very generous with her time•, she did not charge a fee. Kind stated Ms. Magney has designed some of the spaces at MCE that are used by the VANTAGE students. Mayor Kind noted that the VANTAGE Program is planning on expanding from 40 students this school year to 150 students for the 2014/2015 school year. Councilmember Siakel stated that there are residents who clearly want to support the SSCC. Therefore, she would like to find a positive solution. She then stated she thought there were some very good things in the proposal. But, it only addresses the minimal needs. There are capital maintenance /improvement needs that are not addressed. She stated there is a need for greater participation from the owners to satisfy the bigger picture needs. Mayor Kind stated that she and Councilmember Ansan have pointed out to the Greenwood and Tonka Bay Councils that there are capital improvement items that need to be considered. She then stated from her perspective if The Cove could pay for itself operationally then she thinks the Greenwood Council would support capital expenditures for the future. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES April 14, 2014 Page 5 of 6 Councilmember Ansari stated the Tonka Bay Council has always shown interest in maintaining the asset although no one has defined what that means. That Council has discussed the roof and the kitchen from a safety perspective. It has shied away from the programming part. It has not discussed the secondary needs officially. Independent of The Cove proposal the roof will have to be replaced in the not too distant future. Councilmember Siakel stated some of the capital improvements that will need to be done in the next four to seven years will approach $100,000. Tonka Bay's share of that would be close to 13 percent. There are more substantial contributions that would need to be made by Greenwood and Tonka Bay as well as the other two owners. Siakel then stated she would love for NICE to be involved. She asked if that is realistically possible. She stated a comment was made about pulling the plug. She asked what that means to people. Mayor Kind responded it could mean renting the building, closing it and paying the utility bills, or it could be one owner buying out the others. Councilmember Woodruff asked when this proposal will be presented to the Excelsior Council. Mayor Kind responded on April 21 at 6:00 P.M. Mayor Zerby noted that he plans on going to that. Woodruff then asked what appetite the Greenwood and Tonka Bay Councils have for helping to subsidize SSCC or The Cove operations. Mayor Kind and Councilmember Ansari both responded zero. Mayor Kind clarified that Greenwood has minimal appetite for supporting operations. She stated that over the years Greenwood has typically sent an annual check for anywhere between $900 and $1,200. That would be the level it would consider for ongoing operations. She then stated very few Greenwood residents use the SSCC because of the location based on a poll taken. Mayor Zerby noted that many Greenwood residents are supportive of some level of funding. Councilmember Siakel stated it's her recollection that Shorewood subsidized the SSCC at a level of about $60,000 annually. Councilmember Hotvet asked when NICE Executive Director Litfin is going to bring this to the NICE Board. Mayor Kind stated that will not be done until there is general support from the Councils for the four participating cities. Kind noted that Litfm has been involved in the process and been provided with a copy of every iteration of the proposal. The first iteration was an absolute no, but this iteration could work. Councilmember Sandberg asked what the comment that this is the last chance means. Does it mean that the deal would be killed if Shorewood does not accept all of the caveats Greenwood and Tonka Bay have identified? Councilmember Ansari stated to her it means this is the last time to have this discussion. Sundberg stated from her perspective it is time to "fish or cut bait ". Ansari clarified it could be some version of this proposal that is palatable to all four Councils or it could be something completely different. No one wanted to say no to the SSCC without an honest effort. Mayor Kind stated what she and Councilmember Ansari put forth is a true effort and they really do want The Cove to break -even or at least close to it. Councilmember Siakel stated Shorewood has been running the SSCC for the last several years. A couple of cities contributed at the end of some years. She asked what the other owner cities have contributed toward SSCC operations the Last five years. Administrator Joynes stated that is somewhat unclear. Joynes explained that there were some contributions for the digital sign. It's his understanding that Excelsior had CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES April 14, 2014 Page 6 of 6 money available and chose not to give it unless someone asked for funding. But he is not sure this Council knew it needed to do that. He thought there have been minor contributions from time to time; not anything routine on a year -to -year basis. Mayor Kind stated that Greenwood has contributed every year in December, noting that is old news. Mayor Zerby reiterated that he thinks the SSCC needs to be rebranded. Fie stated no one is sure what MCE will decide to do. He noted that Shorewood feels strongly about the SSCC and would like it to be supported with or without a partnership with MCE. He asked if MCE is part of the package for the other three cities to move forward with some proposal. Maybe another partner could be found. Mayor Kind stated she is unsure. Councilmember Ansari stated if it was a revenue producing partner she thought it would be okay; it does not specifically have to be MCE. Kind stated MCE is a proven entity and it needs more space for its programs. That was appealing to the Greenwood Council. The Greenwood Council had expressed concern that The Cove might just end up with the leftovers from MCE and not be a primary rental space. Mayor Kind stated she would report back on how the presentation goes with the Excelsior Council. Mayor Zerby thanked Mayor Kind and Councilmember Ansari for all of the time they put into writing a proposal. 3. ADJOURN Woodruff moved, Sundberg seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session of April 14, 2014, at 6:45 P.M. Motion passed 510. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Christine Freeman, Recorder Sc Zer y, ayor ATTEST: Je n Panchyshyn, City Cle'