Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Minutes - December 05, 2018 1 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 Deborah Lovejoy – City Clerk 6:30 P.M. City Hall Micaela Truchard said the prayer. Kimberly Walker led the pledge. Roll Call of Council Members: Attending: Council Member Flora, Council Member Mann, Council Member Walker, Council Member Busby Council Member Wolfe, and Council President Smith. Mayor Merrill asked to be excused. 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: Staff Reports: Finance: A. Finance - Matt Nielson Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Budget Adjustment for Parks/Golf. Council Member Busby expressed some of his concerns about the budget adjustment and taking the $19,700 from the contigency fund. Finance Officer Nielson stated that the city has not had a budget adjustments in Fiscal Year 2019 and any emergencies that may arise in public works would come from the public works funds. Council President Smith asked how much funds are currently available in the contigency fund. Finance Officer Nielson replied there is about $160,000. Council Member Mann commented he would prefer not to postpone the drinking fountains needed at the city parks and to leave the $2,000 line item in the FY19 budget; then increase the contingency amount to $21,700. Council Member Flora indicated one of those drinking fountains is going to be installed at Park Street Park. This park is heavily utilized and the drinking fountain would be of benefit. 35 North 1st East Rexburg, ID 83440 Phone: 208.359.3020 x 2101 Fax: 208.359.3022 deborahl@rexburg.org www.rexburg.org City Council Minutes December 05, 2018 2 Council Member Mann moved to approve the Budget Adjustment for the Parks/Golf Departments in the amount of $35,600 and an additional $2,000 from the Contingency Fund; Council Member Wolfe seconded the motion; Council President Smith asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora None Council Member Mann Council Member Walker Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council President Smith The motion carried 3 1. Resolution 2018 – 15 Proposed City of Rexburg Fee List Changes – Matt Nielson Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the proposed City of Rexburg Fee List changes. The short-term rental fees were passed by ordinance; those fees are being added to the fee list. In the Customer Service Department, the Public Gathering Permit fee is increasing. The recommendation is to increase the fee from $25.00 to $50.00. The cost to process the public gathering permits exceeds the $50.00 fee. Council Member Busby questioned the reason why the fee amount of $50.00 already exceeds the cost of a public gathering permit. Finance Officer Nielson explained the internal process for a public gathering permit and the departments involved in reviewing the permit for approval contribute to the cost. There are also a lot of variations with each permit requested. City Clerk Lovejoy indicated when considering the time involved in reviewing the permit by the Police, Fire, Public Works, and Customer Service, then collecting the fees associated with each permit, the costs begin to add up. Finance Officer Nielson reviewed a few of the Golf Fee changes. All of the golf fees were reviewed with the Golf Board. He said generally they try to stay within a 5% increase and in quarter increments. They changed the fee in the daily play, golf cart rentals, season passes, and driving range fees. The changes for the fees are shown without tax, with tax and capital fee. The capital fee is for capital improvements for the golf course. The fee with the most change in rate is the senior pass. Currently, with the senior pass, you are only allowed use it on Monday – Friday before noon. Their intent is to increase the rate by about 30% and the seniors would be able to use their pass every day. Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Legacy Flight Museum fee changes. The board recommended the following changes: the Family Pass fee would change from $15.00 to $20.00, there would be an increase in the Group Rental rates and an increase in the Kitchen Rental rates. Finance Officer Nielson reviewed some of the rate increases for the Recreation Department. The Kidsburg entrance fee will continue at $4.00 for the time being; however, if there is a need to change it to $5.00, it may be changed. Council Member Flora mentioned there have been comments by some of the citizens that the $4.00 might be too high of a cost. Council Member Busby asked if Kidsburg is being attended well. Finance Officer Nielson replied he doesn’t have a financial analysis for Kidsburg at this time. The city sold about $3,000 worth of punch passes during the grand opening. He would prefer to have at least thirty days of use before the financial analysis is done so that the numbers are not skewed. Finance Officer Nielson said there is a recommendation to increase the girls’ and boys’ basketball fee to $60.00. The current fee of $45.00 is not covering the costs involved to run the programs. There are a couple of fee changes for the Teton Dam Marathon. The Zone admission fee needs to be added to the fee list. The Zone admission fee is $4.00. Finance Officer Nielson pointed out the proposed high increase to rent the Romance Theater and Tabernacle. One of the main reasons for the increase is the money invested to improve the buildings. The deposit was increased to cover any damages to the building. Council Member Busby said the cost to reserve the facilities are in line with what the high school charges to rent their theater. He asked if there are separate fees for non-profit and for profit events. Finance Officer Nielson indicated there are separate fees for those types of events, there is also separate fees for non-performance and performance events. Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Public Works fee increases for streets. Most of the fees are related to claw back fees; for example, curb and gutter is costing the city more, it went up form $47.00 to $55.00. Storm water fees would be increased. Street construction for the roads has increased substantially. The asphalt costs alone for both residential and commercial went up from $36.00 to $73.00 and $28.00 to $47.00. The asphalt increases were calculated from the recent bids. Council Member Busby asked about the length of time for the rental of the Romance Theater and Tabernacle. Finance Officer Nielson replied the city rents the two venues in four hour increments. 4 Finance Officer Nielson reviewed the Wastewater and Water claw back fee increases. The main line fee for wastewater went up from $17.50 to $25.00 and the fee for water went up from $20.00 to $22.50. There is also an out of city fee that equals 50% more in cost than the in-city fee. 5 6 7 Council Member Walker motioned to set a public hearing on January 9th, 2019 for the Proposed City of Rexburg Fee List Changes; Council Member Flora seconded the motion; Council President Smith asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora None Council Member Mann Council Member Walker Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council President Smith The motion carried Public Works & Engineering – Keith Davidson Public Works Director Davidson reported all of the city street projects are shut down for the winter; however, snow removal has begun. The intent to create a Local Improvement District for portions of 2nd North, 2nd South and Terra Vista will be discussed at the next City Council meeting. Council Member Busby asked about the fire hydrant that was hit and about the costs to repair the fire hydrant. Public Works Director Davidson said it’s difficult to determine the cost because it depends on the damage. The cost of a new fire hydrant is around $2,000.00. Community Development – Bret Stoddard Building Official Stoddard reviewed the Building Valuation Report. There is an error in the report with the valuation of the new Christensen’s Body-Shop. The actual project’s valuation is $1,025,000.00 thus increasing the total valuation report to $3,083,068.00. Council Member Busby questioned if the Christensen’s property on 4th South has been purchased. Finance Officer Neilson replied The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints purchased the property. Building Official Stoddard reported all of the permit case types are available online in the public portal. The deadline to have all of the permit cases available online was scheduled for January. They are pleased to have been able to meet their deadline sooner. The software is limited until the next update with the merchant portion of the software. They are hesitant about the merchant side of the software because they want to make sure it charges the permits correctly. Building Official Stoddard reported the Building Department is continuing to work on closing out the older permits. Some of the projects extend longer than the general 180 days. There are some projects that could last up to five years. The 180 days starts from the last inspection that was completed. He said without the constant review of the older permits it would allow for some projects to become stagnant. 8 Council Member Flora said it appears a section of the Cantamere Apartments has become stagnant. Building Official Stoddard replied the developer is working through a couple of details on the last buildings that are complete. The developer has not paid the building fees for the other buildings as of yet. The Building Department has been in contact with the developer. The section of the project with the taller building is close to being finalized. The developer hopes with the completion of that building there will be more income available to complete the rest of the project. Council Member Busby said the building has been exposed for quite some time and questioned if they will have to start all over with rebuilding the structure. Building Official Stoddard replied it depends on the wood product that was used and how the product is delaminated from moister. Some wood products can last up to a year. Mayor’s Report: Council President Smith reported Craig Rindlisbacher will be leaving the city to work in St. George, Utah. He will begin his job there on December 31st. He will be difficult to replace. Council President Smith mentioned the formation of the Downtown Advisory Group. The group is not city sponsored. She has been asked to be a part of the group and attended the group’s first meeting today. She is pleased with all of the group members, they are enthusiastic. She can envision a lot of good coming from this group. At some point they would like to have a downtown association and include local merchants to take over the events the city has been involved in. Council Member Flora asked for the names of the group members. Council President Smith mentioned a couple of the members including: Dan Moldenhauer, the owner of Olive Avenue, Todd Davis from Realty Quest, Matt Smith, Jeff Morin with BYU-Idaho, James Allen, and Robert Chambers. Council President Smith mentioned Shop with Cop will be this Saturday starting at 6:00 A.M. at the Tabernacle. The parade of police cars going down Main Street will start at 6:30. Public Hearings: None Items for Consideration: None 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: None C. Third Reading: Those items which have been first read: None 9 Mayor’s Business: Council Member Mann asked that the City Council Meeting scheduled for December 19th be held at 7:30 A.M. instead of 6:30 P.M. Discussion regarding the dates for the City Council Meetings in January. The meetings will be held on the 9th and 16th at the regular time. Council Member Busby mentioned at the Traffic and Safety meeting, they discussed a BYU-Idaho class that was given the task to complete a traffic study at Millhollow Road and 1st North. The proposal is to have a three way stop sign. The study indicated that the three way stop sign would not back up traffic. The study will be reviewed at the next City Council meeting. 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 November 21, meeting B. Approve the City of Rexburg Bills Council Member Flora moved to approve the Consent Calendar containing the minutes and city bills; Council Member Busby seconded the motion; Council President Smith asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Council Member Flora None Council Member Mann Council Member Walker Council Member Wolfe Council Member Busby Council President Smith The motion carried Adjournment 7:14 P.M. APPROVED: ________________________________ Jerry Merrill, Mayor Attest: _____________________________ Marianna Gonzalez, Deputy City Clerk