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Home My WebLink AboutCouncil Minutes - January 03, 2018_exppdf 1 January 3, 2018 Mayor Jerry Merrill Council Members: Christopher Mann Jordan Busby Mikel Walker Tisha Flora Brad Wolfe Sally Smith City Staff: Stephen Zollinger – City Attorney Matt Nielson – Finance Officer Keith Davidson – Public Works Director Val Christensen – Community Development Director Scott Johnson – Economic Development Director Blair Kay – City Clerk 6:30 P.M. City Hall Gil Shirley said the prayer Gunter Bird with Troop 825 led the pledge Mayor Merrill noted the passing of President Thomas S. Monson last night. Roll Call of Council Members: Attending: Council Member Flora, Council Member Mann, Council Member Wolfe, Council Member Busby, Council Member Walker, Council President Smith and Mayor Merrill. Consent Calendar: The consent calendar includes items which require formal City Council action, however they are typically routine or not of great controversy. Individual Council members may ask that any specific item be removed from the consent calendar for discussion in greater detail. Explanatory information is included in the City Council’s agenda packet regarding these items. A. Minutes from December 20, 2017 meeting B. Approve the City of Rexburg Bills Council Member Busby moved to approve the Consent Calendar containing the minutes and city bills; Council Member Wolfe seconded the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried *** Ceremony to seat the newly elected city officials: (Certificates of Election) – City Clerk A. Oath of Office: 1. Swear in Mikel Walker, Brad Wolfe and Christopher Mann as City Council Members. 35 North 1st East Rexburg, ID 83440 Phone: 208.359.3020 x2313 Fax: 208.359.3022 blairk@rexburg.org www.rexburg.org City Council Minutes January 3, 2018 2 City Clerk Blair Kay recited the Oath of Office with the respective newly elected officials repeating the Oath. Each Official was presented with a “Certificate of Election” and the “Oath of Office” document. The newly sworn in Council Members took their seat on the dais. B. Election of City Council President Mayor Merrill asked for nominations for the next council president. Council Member Busby moved to have Sally Smith continue serving as the City Council President; Council Member Mann seconded the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried Public Comment: not scheduled on the agenda (limit 3 minutes); issues may be considered for discussion on a future agenda. Please keep comments on point and respectful. Presentations: NONE Staff Reports: A. Finance – Matt Nielson Financial Officer Nielson reviewed the annual street report for 2017. The City brought in 5.9 million in revenue and spent a half million on new streets, 1.5 million on reconstruction, 2.2 million on routine maintenance and a half million on equipment. Dispursment was about 4.6 million with a carry-over of 1.3 million added to last year’s carry-over of 2 million, leaving the City with 3.3 million in carry-over for streets. The five year build out is over 7 million dollars. Council Member Busby asked where the 5.9 million revenue came from. Officer Nielson said it comes from gas taxes and franchise fees. Officer Nielson requested an executive session at the end of the meeting today to discuss contract matters. B. Public Works and Engineering: - Keith Davidson Director Davison did not have anything to report but took questions from Council. Council President Smith asked about the saline solution on the roads and if it works well. Director Davidson replied that it does work quite well. They spray the brine solution ahead of storms and it is good until it washes away. They also spread salt on some intersections and also a combination of sand and salt on other intersections. Council Member Busby asked about the metal utility box on Pioneer and Yellowstone that had been hit. The lid is completely off now. Director Davidson said he will look at it. 3 Council Member Busby asked Lisa Smith from the Rexburg Standard Journal if she would put something in the newspaper about street light outages and how citizens can report them by going to the City of Rexburg website at www.rexburg.org. Council Member Walker asked about the time table for the change of speed signs in front of the middle school. Director Davidson will get with Streets Formena Bill Blair and put those up and synchronize with the times of school. Mayor Merrill had Director Davidson explain the timing of stop lights. The State sets the internal clocks on the traffic lights along 2nd East and Main Street. During certain times it is on internal times and other times it is set by camera. During internal timing there may be longer delays. He has talked to the state to see if they can connect all the signals to have better control of the timing. Council Member Busby asked about the long delays at 7th S and 2nd E. Director Davidson said that light had a camera go out. C. Community Development: 1. New Construction Report – Bret Stoddard Building Development Manager Stoddard reviewed the Building Valuation Report for December. The largest is the Hemming Cedars Building B. This is the building that has retail in the bottom. Building A does now have occupants. The Building Department is working to get all the permits done this week before BYU-I starts back up for winter semester. Council Member Busby asked when the Hampton Inn will be done. Manager Stoddard thinks March 20th. Building Department Manager Stoddard reviewed some numbers. In 2016 the City had a building valuation of 75 million which included about 55 single family residential homes (single family residential includes townhomes) and 18 million in commercial. For 2017, the building valuation was 83 million with 70 homes and 27 million in commercial. There has been an increase across the board. Manager Stoddard brought up some questions from Council at a previous meeting that he was checking on. He was asked about Campus Courtyard and the old candy shop building. There is no permits on that yet. Providence Square did add 2 buildings by changing the storage property to a clubhouse which requires less parking so they were able to add more units. Mayor’s Report: Mayor Merrill reported that he has been meeting with news media in regards to the Tobacco 21 initiative by the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board. He and other staff members have been interviewing new Marketing Media people to fill Todd Shannon’s position. He met with the county in regards to the flood plain issue. Director Davidson and Bradley Peterson from the county went to Boise to talk with FEMA about the flood plain. He had some Webelo scouts come into City Hall to visit and take a tour. Craig Cobia with Beehive Credit Union is trying to 4 get a financial literacy presentation set up for high school students through the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board. Public Hearings: A. 6:35 P.M. Ordinance 1178 Annex approximately 2247 S. 2000 W. – Staff - (#17 00623), A proposed annexation which will retain the existing zoning (Commercial Business Center (CBC) Zone in the Impact Area for the City of Rexburg Planner Rindlisbacher presented the property to be annexed. It is 14 acres just south of Motel 6 and north of Wakeside Lake. It is adjacent to the current city limit line on the north and the west. The infrastructure is north on Poleline Road. Planning & Zoning recommended approval. Mayor Merrill opened the public hearing. Testimony of those in favor – NONE Testimony of those neutral – NONE Testimony of those opposed – NONE Mayor Merrill closed the public hearing. Council Member Flora moved to suspend the rules for Ordinance 1178 Annexing approximately 2247 S. 2000 W. (#17 00623), A proposed annexation which will retain the existing zoning Commercial Business Center (CBC) Zone in the Impact Area for the City of Rexburg; Council Member Busby seconded the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a roll call vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried 5 Council Member Busby moved to approve and consider third read Ordinance 1178 Annexing approximately 2247 S. 2000 W. (#17 00623), A proposed annexation which will retain the existing zoning Commercial Business Center (CBC) Zone in the Impact Area for the City of Rexburg; Council Member Smith seconded the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried Items for Consideration: Ordinance 1179 (First Reading)– Raising the minimum age to buy Tobacco Products in Rexburg from 18 to 21 – Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board Council Member Mann stated that he is proud of the MYAB. He thinks it’s a good law to pass. He knows there may be some concern about passing this ordinance in the city limits of Rexburg and not the county. Mayor said the MYAB is on the agenda for the county as well. Council Member Mann wonders if they should vote on it contingent on it being county wide. Council Member Flora thinks it would be good to lead out and then the county will follow suite. Mason Cameron with the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board indicated that they wanted to start somewhere so by having the city pass this ordinance, it would be the first step toward getting the county and then the state to pass it as well. Council Member Walker moved to approve Ordinance 1179 – Raising the minimum age to buy Tobacco Products in Rexburg from 18 to 21 and consider it first read; Council Member Flora seconded the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried Calendared Bills and Tabled Items: A. “LAND USE ACTION” – Bills Recommended/Approved in a Land Use Public Hearing Procedure (Recommend Suspension of the Rules): NONE B. Second Reading: Those items which have been first read: Ordinance 1177 – Amending the Development code for Short-term Rentals, Bed and Breakfast Inns, and Boarding Houses – Short Term Rental Task Force – Rory Kunz and Greg Blacker Council Member Walker moved to table Ordinance 1177 until the state makes their decision. 6 City Clerk Kay explained that it has already been first read. Council Member Walker wants to table the second reading. Council President Smith seconded the motion. Attorney Zollinger believes there will be clarification at the state level. Tabling it means we stay with the original law which means they would not monitor short term rentals at this time. Council Member Flora explained that the task force assigned to this issue worked very hard and came up with something that everyone agreed on. She fills like it’s disrespectful to table this now. If the state does make changes, they can always come back and look at it again. Council Member Wolfe agreed. He commented that since they have started something, they might as well finish it. He has talked to both sides and feels that this ordinance brings everyone together. It would be a shame to table it. Council Member Mann is in favor of temporarily tabling it. He doesn’t want to do something that isn’t necessary. He would like to wait for the states decision. Council Member Merrill asked if we are doing this because of what the state is doing or because it’s the right thing to do. He thinks the taske force came up with a good plan that would address the issues that people were worried about. The Planning and Zoning passed it and he thinks we should move forward with it and not leave it in limbo. Council Member Walker doesn’t want to jump into something that they may have to redo later. Council Member Flora asked what he is against on this ordinance. Council Member Walker isn’t against it he just wants to wait and see what the state does. Council Member Wolfe understood that they were doing this so that we could do what we wanted regardless of what the state says. Council Member Flora agrees that it needs to move forward regardless of what the state is going to do. Council Member Smith agrees that the task force came up with good solutions if the state varifys that that is what needs to be done. They had voted as a Council to leave it the way it was and just change the definitions. Mayor Merrill disagreed saying the vote was to change the definitions of bed and breakfast and boarding houses and then they were going to bring up the short term rental issue again later. It wasn’t a vote to not do it. Discussion about what exactly was being voted on previously. Mayor Merrill asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Flora Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried 7 C. Third Reading: Those items which have been second read: NONE Mayor Merrill asked council if anyone would be willing to attend the Martin Luther King benefit banquet at the Shilo Inn on Friday, January 19th. Council Member Mann offered to attend. Council Member Busby moved to go into executive session per Idaho State Code 74-206(j) to consider labor contract matters authorized under section 67-2345A [74-206A] (1)(a) and (b), Idaho Code. Council Member Wolfe seconded the motion; Mayor Merrill asked for a roll call vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora Council Member Mann Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council Member Walker Council President Smith The motion carried Executive Session started at 7:28 p.m. Executive Session ended at 8:13 p.m. Adjournment 8:13 P.M. APPROVED: ____________________________ Jerry Merrill, Mayor Attest: ____________________________________ Mary Flanary, Deputy City Clerk