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01-08-24 CC WS Agenda Packet CITY OF SHOREWOOD 5755 COUNTRY CLUB ROAD CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION COUNCIL CHAMBERS MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 2024 6:00 P.M. AGENDA 1. CONVENE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION A. Roll Call Mayor Labadie _____ Callies _____ Maddy _____ Sanschagrin _____ Zerby_____ B. Review Agenda ATTACHMENTS 2. DIRECTOR POSITIONS City Administrator Memo 3. ORGANICS COLLECTION City Administrator Memo 4. ADJOURN City Council Work Session Item Item Title/Subject: Discuss Staffing in Parks & Recreation and Finance Departments 2 Meeting Date: January 8, 2024 Prepared by: Marc Nevinski, City Administrator Attachments: Park & Recreation Director Job Description Organizational Chart Background: The City will need take steps to address needs with two key positions this month. First it will need to begin recruiting for the Park and Recreation Director position. Secondly, the Finance Director will be taking an extended leave of absence, and the City will need to secure a consultant to provide interim financial management services during this period. Park and Recreation This position’s role has evolved in recent years. In the fall of 2022, the City hired an experienced and trained professional as the Park and Recreation Director, whose duties generally fell into the following broad categories: 1. Facilities - Manage field and shelter use and SCEC operations and rentals. 2. Relationships – Build and maintain relationships with athletic associations, South Shore Senior Partners, and other organizations. 3. Events and Programing - Plan and coordinate events (Arctic Fever, Safety Camp, Entertainment in the Park) and programming (tennis lessons, Bach to Rock, Tia Chi). Most recently, this position took on the role of staff liaison to the Parks Commission, which freed capacity for the Planning Director. Other objectives for the position, as understood by staff, included growing rental revenue at the SCEC, expanding programming, leading park improvement planning (South Shore Park), and an increased overall leadership and administrative role. In addition to the director, the department staff includes a permanent part- time recreation specialist and part-time casual ice rink and building attendants. Prior to starting the recruitment process, Council is asked to affirm the current direction of the department and discuss any other objectives and priorities it may have. Finance Director The Finance Director position is a critical role in a city the size of Shorewood. The position is responsible for managing the daily finances, accounts payable and receivable, cash flow, and investments; coordinating the budget process; preparing and submitting reports to regulatory agencies; and preparing for the annual audit. Current staff does not have the capacity to fill these responsibilities and will seek a consultant for interim financial management services. A contract for services will be brought to Council in a future regular meeting. Financial or Budget Considerations: None at this time. Discussion Requested: Council is asked to affirm the current direction of the Parks and Recreation Department, including any other objectives and priorities it may have. No discussion regarding the Finance Director is requested. Item 3 City Council Work Session Item Title/Subject: Organics Collection Information Meeting Date: January 8, 2023 Prepared by: Marc Nevinski, City Administrator Reviewed by: Eric Wilson, Communications and Recycling Coor Attachments: None Background Last year the MPCA acknowledged confusion existed between cities and haulers that collect organics via a subscription service (as opposed to an organized collection program). When Hennepin County required curbside organics collection in 2022, some cities choose to wrap organics collection into their organized waste and/or recycling collection program. Generally, under these programs all residents pay for trash and recycling (which include organics) services, regardless of whether they use them or not. Other cities opted to modify their licensing ordinance and require haulers to offer or make available curbside collection service for residents to subscribe to. This was more common in cities with open or hybrid collection systems. Because Shorewood is less than 10,000 in population, a third option was to provide at least one organics drop-off site to comply with the County ordinance, rather than require some form of curbside collection. Shorewood selected this option. State Law 115A.93 Subd 3 (C) says A licensing authority shall prohibit mixed municipal solid waste collectors from imposing a greater charge on residents who recycle than on residents who do not recycle. It is important to note that under State Law 115A.03 25a and 25b, organic materials are considered recyclables. The MPCA has determined that paying a subscription for organics service is a “greater charge”. It has further pointed out cities are required by law (through ordinance or policy) to prohibit haulers from imposing a greater charge on residents who recycle than on those who do not. The subscription service model was seen by some cities (generally those who had open collection programs), as a way to comply with the County’s curbside organics ordinance in 2022 without creating an organized organics collection system and avoid charging residents for a service they did not want to use or pay for. However, it appears state law negates this as cities are now requiring haulers, as a condition of their licensing, to comply with the law and not impose a greater charge on those who sign up for organics collection than on those who do not. Subsequently, residents in communities where organics subscriptions are offered are seeing a charge described as a “residential organics” fee added to their waste hauling bill in order to comply with State Law. We have not received any calls or concerns from Shorewood residents about such a charge, and Republic and Waste Management have confirmed that they have not implemented such a charge in Shorewood due to our drop-site model. Republic Services has identified seven households in Shorewood who have subscribed to curbside organics collection, despite the fact that the City complies with the County’s Ordinance 13 requirement by providing an organics drop site in lieu of a curbside service requirement. These subscriptions likely occurred due to customer service software identifying households by zip code rather than city names. Republic states its software is now more refined and accurate to avoid such problems. Waste Management reports no organics collection customers in Shorewood. Curbside Waste says it offers organics collection in Shorewood, but it is unknown if it has any such customers in the City. Its website does not show that it even offers organics service. Due to the determination by the MPCA, Republic has stated that it will need to start charging all of its Shorewood waste customers a “residential organics” fee if it is going to continue to offer curbside organics collection, and that this would put it at a competitive disadvantage to the other licensed haulers. Alternatively, to avoid imposing this fee, Republic could stop providing curbside organics services to the seven households it is currently serving, which would likely upset those households. If the Council wished to see curbside organics collection offered in Shorewood, it would need to modify City code to require all licensed residential haulers to offer it. Because of the MPCA’s interpretation of State law, such a requirement would almost certainly result in increased waste hauling fees to residents for a service most will not use. Another option would be to add curbside organics collection to the City’s recycling contract, currently with Republic, which would increase quarterly recycling fees for all residents. In 2022 Shorewood choose to offer an organics drop site to comply with the County’s organics collection mandate. To date, the Council has not discussed adding a curbside organics collection requirement to its code or engaged the community on the topic. Therefore, at this time, requiring haulers to offer curbside organics collection is not recommended. However, language should be added to City code to comply with State statute 115A.93 Subd 3 (C), as described above. It is possible under the State’s draft consolidated waste plan, as well as Hennepin County’s Climate Action and Zero Waste plans, that significant changes to waste and recycling requirements will emerge in the future, such as possibly lowering the population threshold for curbside collection or a county wide organized collection requirement. The timing of any such requirement is currently unknown but staff will continue to monitor this. Financial Considerations None at this time. Action Requested This memorandum is provided for information only and no action is requested. Staff will bring forward an ordinance update at a future date as discussed above.