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11-09-15 CC WS Mtg MinCITY OF SHOREWOOD CITY COUNCIL WORD SESSION MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2015 I- 1�1�[iT111a7. 1. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD COUNCIL CHAMBERS 6:00 P.M. Mayor Zerby called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. A. Roll Call Present. Mayor Zerby; Councilmembers Labadie, Siakel, Sundberg, and Woodruff, Administrator Joynes; City Clerk Panchyshyn; Finance Director DeJong; Director of Public Works Brown; and City Engineer Hornby Absent: None B. Review Agenda Sundberg moved, Labadie seconded, approving the agenda as presented. Motion passed 5/0. 2. TRAFFIC COMMITTEE Administrator Joynes explained that Council had asked staff to reevaluate if the approved budget for the consulting services to support the volunteer Traffic Committee and facilitate the Committee's meetings was adequate. Staff reviewed all of the documentation, including the request for proposal (RFP) and the meeting minutes when decisions were made. The Committee was established with two thoughts in mind. One was the City wanted to solicit input from the Committee on possibilities for calming traffic along the Country Club Road / Yellowstone Trail / Lake Linden Drive collector route between Country Road 19 and Highway 7. The second was about whether or not the Traffic Committee should remain intact for a longer period of time to look into traffic pain points around the Shorewood. He thought that charge warrants more discussion and would require more funding than what has been approved for looking into traffic calming options. The RFP accepted was for approximately $6,100 in services including meeting facilitation. Staff has spoken with Chuck Rickart, a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE) with WSB & Associates and the main consultant for this effort, about extending the length of the Committee's meetings in response to concerns expressed that the one -hour long meetings were too short. He thought the Committee is somewhat confused about its current mission. The Committee is getting into areas that are not part of its task. The scope of its current task needs to be reaffirmed to the Committee. Council and staff never intended for the Committee to discuss changes to the former Minnetonka Country Club redevelopment site. Some Committee members appear to think the Committee has that authority. Some thought rerouting Country Club Road through that site could be an option. It is not. Joynes noted that during the January or February 2016 Council and staff retreat there will be discussion about traffic in general throughout the City. The discussion would be about things like traffic pain points, short sight lines on many of the local roadways (in large part because of trees), and the number of requests to reduce posted speed limits. Engineer Hornby explained the Committee has had two meetings. There are two co- chairs for the Committee. The co -chair for the second meeting did a very good job of trying to keep the Committee CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES November 9, 2015 Page 2 of 4 members focused on its current task on the collector route. There was discussion about a variety of things related to the route. He noted that the meeting currently scheduled for November 19 has to be rescheduled because Mr. Rickart cannot be at that meeting. Councilmember Sundberg noted that she was in attendance for the first 30 minutes of the second Committee meeting. She also noted she is pleased that the meetings can go on for longer than one hour; one hour is not sufficient time. She stated during the second meeting a member of the Committee asked if the Committee was just supposed to rubber stamp what Council and staff have put forth. She clarified that Council genuinely wants to hear what the Committee's concerns and suggestions are. She stated she thought the makeup of the Committee of volunteers is good. But, the Committee needs to stay focused. Engineer Hornby stated some of the Committee members want to get into the details right away. The co- chair kept bringing the members back to focusing on ideas and not details during the second meeting. Councilmember Sundberg stated someone asked if it would be possible to participate in the meeting via phone. Administrator Joynes stated staff could arrange a conference call if the Committee wants that but it would not be possible to Skype. Joynes then stated that some of the Committee members thought phone participation could disrupt the flow of the meeting. Mayor Zerby stated he assumes the approximate $6,000 for consulting services is for more than six hours of facilitation. He then stated that during the first meeting there was a request for background information and he asked if the Committee was provided that before the second meeting so they could review it before the meeting. Engineer Hornby stated some members wanted to be provided with certain traffic studies. The consultant explained that information requested was strictly traffic counts and not traffic studies. After looking at the packet for that meeting Hornby noted that studies were not provided. Zerby stated it would make more effective use of the Committee members' time if information was provided to them before they showed up for meetings. Administrator Joynes stated Mr. Rickart will allow for longer meetings and noted that the second meeting lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes. He also noted that Mr. Rickart needs to prepare for the meetings and that is billable time. He suggested the budget for this effort be increased up to $10,000 based on the consultant's and /or Committee's request. Councilmember Sundberg stated she would be comfortable going up to $10.000. Councilmember Woodruff stated he thought there is Council agreement on the scope of the Traffic Committee's effort. He noted he has no problem increasing the budget for this effort but he does not want to pick an arbitrary amount at this time. He suggested waiting until a few more meetings have been held before increasing the budget. He stated he does not want the budget to put a constraint on the length of the meetings. Administrator Joynes again suggested the consultant or Committee make a request of Council to increase the budget if needed. He stated staff will reiterate what the Committee's charge is to the Committee. Councilmember Labadie stated she is comfortable with adjusting the budget for this effort when the need becomes apparent. Councilmember Siakel reiterated that Council is not asking the Committee to rubber stamp anything and she noted that Council will ensure the Committee will have the resources needed to be effective. Councilmember Woodruff clarified that Council has not provided the Committee with anything to review and approve. There is nothing to rubber stamp. CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES November 9, 2015 Page 3 of 4 Councilmember Sundberg stated she thought the Committee is just supposed to provide Council with recommendations. KINNEENTWITIJITST / FORESTER PROPOSALS Engineer Hornby explained that per Council's request staff solicited responses to a request for proposals (RFP) for providing arborist / forester services. The City received responses from Craig Sinclair, Jubert Tree, S &S Tree and Horticultural Services, Inc., and Burks Tree and Landscape Care. The meeting packet contains a copy of a matrix comparing the proposals. The review of the proposals is somewhat subject because not all of the proposals provided a direct response to the questions in the RFP. Staff had to search proposals for some of the information. Staff recommends three of the applicants be interviewed; it does not recommend interviewing Jubert Tree. One of the applicants had a retainer rate and an hourly rate. The hourly rates ranged from $50 to $95 for manager and field staff. Administrator Joynes asked if Councilmembers had any interest in participating in the interviews. He noted that staff will create an interview format including a list of interview questions that would relate to the tasks identified in the RFP. He stated Council may want to separate the tasks if it would be more comfortable with different applicants providing different services. For example, the task of doing a diseased tree program versus inspections. Mayor Zerby stated from his vantage point one of the most important things to do is to finalize the City's tree management plan. He thought Council and staff have been discussing the emerald ash borer issue and doing a tree inventory for about six years. The inventory has remained very close to complete (for illustration purposes 90 percent complete) for a long time. He noted that S &S Tree and Horticultural Services and Burks Tree and Landscape Care both offer tree preservation / management policy / strategy and implementation services. Having the skills to provide those services is paramount as well as being able to evaluate trees. Based on the information it does not appear the other two applicants provide those types of services. Administrator Joynes stated he thought Craig Sinclair has done those types of things based on his RFP but did not state it the same way as the two firms did in their proposals. Councilmember Siakel stated she agrees that the tree inventory /tree management plan needs to be completed. She asked if there would be value in contracting with two of the applicants. One would do the tree inventory only and thereby eliminate any concerns about potential conflict of interest about identifying trees for removal and then removing them unless there is adequate oversight by staff. Administrator Joynes stated that is a legitimate option that should be discussed after the interview process is complete. Joynes noted that one of the proposals referenced that firm's conflict of interest policy. Councilmember Woodruff also agreed that it is important to complete the tree inventory. He stated he would like to have a tree management plan created for the City. If the inventory is 90 percent done he thought a plan could be created from that information and the information from the remaining 10 percent could be woven into the plan. He then stated the scope of work needs to be defined and a timeline of tasks needs to be determined. Then Council needs to decide how to fund the execution of the plan. Councilmember Siakel noted money has been set aside to start this project. She stated she thought that basically members of Council were saying the same thing. She then stated the consultant would complete the inventory and develop the management plan. That is different than having a person who would help residents diagnose what is wrong with their trees. Mayor Zerby noted that Director Nielsen has stated the tree inventory is basically complete. He stated the next task is to come up with policy on how to deal with all of the infested ash trees and the most expeditious way to get that done is to hire a firm that has worked with other municipalities to develop a CITY OF SHOREWOOD WORK SESSION MEETING MINUTES November 9, 2015 Page 4 of 4 policy. He then stated if the City were to add a staff member to deal with arborist / forester type activities providing tree assessment assistance to residents would have been a bonus benefit. He noted that residents can call up a tree service to get that assistance already. He reiterated the priority should be to get a tree management plan developed and approved by Council. He stated he would like to avoid losing all the ash trees on City -owned property and hopefully throughout the City. Councilmember Woodruff agreed the priority should be the tree management plan. He suggested Council consider adding a member to staff who has expertise in management of diseased trees, sight line management, tree pruning management and who can help Public Works determine what kind of resource is needed. to do the field work. Providing tree assessment assistance service could be a nice thing to do but it is not a requirement. Mayor Zerby concurred with Woodruff s comments. Woodruff then stated he thought the City has three good candidates to select from. He noted that he knows something about S &S Tree and Horticulture Specialists; it is a very good firm. He clarified that is not a statement of endorsement at this time. Councilmember Labadie suggested staff set up the interviews. She stated it sounds like all members of Council are in agreement with what the City needs. Mayor Zerby suggested scheduling a work session to conduct 15- minute -long interviews with the top three applicants. Councilmember Siakel recommended allowing more than 15 minutes for each interview. There was Council consensus to allow the interviews to last up to 30 minutes each. Councilmember Sundberg asked why staff did not recommend Council interview the fourth applicant. Engineer Hornby explained the information provided in that proposal was very lacking from his perspective based on what the RFP asked for. Hornby then stated the three recommended applicants could perform the work. Some of them could do the management activities and the physical field work. Mayor Zerby stated he hoped the firm / individual selected could help Public Works personnel if needed; similar to what WSB & Associates does for engineering activities. Woodruff moved, Labadie seconded, Adjourning the City Council Work Session of November 9, 2015, at 6:28 P.M. Motion passed 510. RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, Christine Freeman, Recorder JeA Panchyshyn, Cit Cleflk �Scp der �—�� yor