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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-06-1997 CMW COUNCIL/MANAGER WORKSHOP OF THE CITY OF MAPLEWOOD 5:00 p.m. Monday, January 6, 1997 Maplewood Room, City Hall MINUTES A. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Bastian at 5:02 p.m. B. ROLL CALL Mayor Gary Bastian: Present Councilmember Sherry Allenspach Present Councilmember Dale Carlson Present Councilmember Marvin Koppen Present _ Councilmember George Rossbach Present Others Present: City Manger Michael McGuire Assistant City Manager Craig Dawson Community Development Director Melinda Coleman Finance Director Dan Faust _ Public Works Director Ken Haider Community-oriented Services Coordinator Colleen Dirkswager C. APPROVAL OF AGENDA ,d 1. Councilmember Rossbach requested that item (Ll) be added: Highwood Estates. Mayor Bastian ' wished to discuss information from the January Mayor's Forum as item (L2) City Manager McGuire asked that the following items be added: (L3) Oakdale Fire Service; and (L~) Meeting with Legislators. r Mayor Bastian moved approval of the agenda as amended. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Carlson and approved. Ayes: All January 6, 1997 Council/Manager Workshop Page Two D. SIGN ORDINANCE Councihnember Koppen had invited Kitty Rhoades, executive director of the Suburban Area Chamber of Commerce, and Andrew Nath, president of the White Bear Avenue Business Association, to speak with the Council about businesses' concerns with the proposed sign ordinance. Ms. Rhoades was present; Mr. Nath was not. Ms. Rhoades related that businesspersons who had spoken to her about the proposed ordinance were concerned that sign regulations would be more restrictive rather than less. Council and staff reviewed a memorandum from Ms. Rhoades about specific issues. Community Development Director Coleman noted that changes in proposed ordinance were mostly of a minor nature, and were intended to update wording and improve consistency. Major changes related only to window signage and temporary signage. For one type of temporary signage--banners--businesses were comfortable with new regulations except for the size limit: 16 square feet would not allow for legible messages. Koppen believed that the City of Oakdale had a regulatory structure that was easy to understand and administer. Total signage at any one time could not exceed 20 percent of the total wall area. Council directed that the second reading for this ordinance be placed on the Council's February 10, 1997 meeting agenda. E. IN-FILL DEVELOPMENT STUDY Community Development Director Coleman reviewed the progress on the study and requested Council comment and direction. Staff had identified 28 sites which met the in-fill criteria; 17 of these were less than ten acres in size. The City Attorney had advised that concerns the Council had previously expressed could be addressed through the zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations. After discussion, the Council wanted to have a conditional use permit (CUP) approach explored further, with the understanding that provisions would need to be carefully crafted. The Council also wished to have this topic discussed at the Council/staff retreat over February 6-7, 1997. F. FINANCE DEPARTMENT STAFFING OPTIONS Finance Director Faust noted that staff turnover presented opportunities to reassign duties and improve customer service for ambulance billings. According to customers, the City is not meeting their expectations because it does not process their insurance forms. He discussed three options. Continuing the present practice would still cost $25,000/year. January 6, 1997 Council/Manager Workshop Page Three The other options would cost $5,100 or $15,000 more in 1997. Advantages of these options, particularly the latter, would include: more prompt payment; some savings in fees charged by collection agencies; and improved customer satisfaction. Council agreed that the latter option ($40,000 in 1997) should be implemented. It requested that staff inform the Council in two years if this approach was not meeting expectations. G. REVISION OF PROCEDURES FOR CANCELLATION OF AMBULANCE BILLS This item was not discussed at the Workshop and rescheduled for the February 3 Council/Manager Workshop. H. REVISIONS TO SOLID WASTE CHAPTER OF CITY CODE Councilmember Rossbach offered some wording changes designed to make licensed refuse collectors more responsive to their customers' interests. Discussion ensued about the practical effects of his proposals. Several councilmembers were comfortable with the most recent revisions proposed by staff. Council directed that the latest revisions be placed on the agenda for the January 13 Council meeting. Council further directed that there be additional communication that the City went through the process to consider organized collection and decided to retain the current system with some additional regulations. I. COUNCIL/STAFF RETREAT City Manager McGuire noted that time commitments have been made with Riverwood Conference and with Dr. John Vinton (retreat facilitator) for Thursday-Friday, February 6-7, 1997. The format would involve little if any team-building, and instead focus more on specific issues. Specific topics would include: community-oriented services, business/economic retention, and in-fill development strategies. Council also requested staff to see if it would be possible to have another presenter who would use part of the session for participants' personal or professional development. J. COMMUNITY-ORIENTED SERVICES City Manager McGuire noted that the December management staff retreat focused in part on COS, and that the February Council/Staff retreat would also have a lot of time spent on the topic. He introduced the newly-appointed COS coordinator, Colleen Dirkswager. January 6, 1997 Council/Manager Workshop Page Four Dirkswager outlined her initial efforts at planning for COS, and asked for further Council comment and direction. Councilmembers were excited about the positive visibility that this would give the City. They asked that she talk to each councilmember to gain their perspectives on COS. K. 1996 CITY MANAGER EVALUATION councilmember Carlson reviewed the draft report of the Council committee. He reviewed performance in 1996 and progress on 1996 goals. The report identified goals for 1997, both for the City organization and for the city manager professionally. Modifications and clarifications needed in the report were noted during the discussion. The committee recommended that the city manager receive the general salary adjustment " for 1997 and alump-sum merit payment for performance. The evaluation would be placed on the agenda for the January 13, 1997 Council meeting. L. OTHER BUSINESS L Highwood Estates: councilmember Rossbach wished to discussed communication from the area about this subdivision. Council agreed that a neighborhood resolution of the issues should be encouraged. 2. Mayor's Forum Update: This item was not discussed at the Workshop. 3. Oakdale Fire Service: City Manager McGuire shared a memorandum he had received by fax just before the Workshop meeting began. In it, Oakdale instructed Maplewood not to respond to emergency fire service calls in the area in Oakdale that had been served by the East County Line Fire Department. 4. Meeting with Legislators: Staff had contacted the eight legislators representing Maplewood to determine what times worked best for meeting with the Council. The City Council decided to set the meeting for 6:00 p.m. Monday, January 13, 1997 in the Maplewood Room at the City Hall, and ordered that notice of the meeting be properly posted. M. FUTURE TOPICS The list of future topics, which was presented in order of priority identified by the Council, was noted. N. ADJOURNMENT At 7:08 p.m., councilmember Carlson moved that the meetint* be adjourned. councilmember Allenspach seconded and the motion was approved. There was no further discussion. Ayes: All