Council Minutes

Minutes of Grand Forks City Council/Committee of the
Whole - Monday, April 23, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.___________

The city council of the city of Grand Forks sitting as the Committee of the Whole met in the council chambers in City Hall on Monday, April 23, 2007 following the special council meeting with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call were Council Members Brooks, McNamara, Gershman, Christensen, Kreun - 5; absent: Council Members Glassheim, Bakken - 2.

Mayor Brown commented on various events during the past week and upcoming events:
He stated weekend a great commemoration, acknowledgement of successes and expression of our appreciation to all of our friends around the region and a time for the community to reflect and turn the page. There were hundreds of people that made this event a success and special thanks to the Anniversary Committee, Rick Duquette and city council for their leadership and direction. He also thanked Mayor Stauss and East Grand Forks city council for their partnership and cooperation, and a special thanks to Diane Stanislowski, Lois Folkers, Kevin Dean, Sharyl Simeone and John Bernstrom for months of preparation, and to city staff from public works, engineering, finance, police, fire and all the rest.

Rick Duquette, city administrator, made several comments about the celebration and commemor-ation this past weekend and was important to do. He thanked the Anniversary Committee, Mayor Brown, City Council President Gershman, Council Member Brooks whose work and vision on the committee made these events happen. He thanked the many businesses and companies that contributed over $90,000 to the celebration event. Many people in the media and Alerus Center staff helped make the events happen, and thanked Diane Stanislowski in his office; Pete Haga, Lois Folkers in the Mayor's Office; Kevin Dean, Sharyl Simeone and John Bernstrom, Info Office; Peg O'Leary at the Historic Commission; Mark Aubol, street department; Meredith Richards, Urban Development; and thanks to the police department and firefighters union for their hard work at the celebration event last night and throughout the weekend. He thanked them for giving him the opportunity to be a part of this.

Mayor Brown thanked Mayor Pat Owens for letting us thank her in the proper manner after all she did for our community.

He stated that we are entering upon storm season as we witnessed last Friday (sirens) and reminded everyone when the sirens blow should seek shelter and tune into Channel 6 for more details, and not call 911 for general information, want to reserve that line for life and death situations. He thanked Council Member McNamara and Kevin Dean for getting out a quick and accurate message Friday night.

2.1 Application for exemption of remodeling improvements to commercial and residential buildings at various locations______________________________
There were no comments.

2.2 Request from Citizen Assistance Programs for gaming site authorizations at Joe Black's, 118 North 3rd Street and Johnny's Lounge, 701 S. 15th Street.________
There were no comments.

2.3 Request by Gilly's Bar & Grill, 9 North 3rd Street, to serve alcohol in conjunction with outdoor café seating._________________________________________________
There were no comments.
2.4 CVIC contract for services.
Council Member Christensen stated that CVIC had a need last year, was put into the
Mayor's budget; State Legislature is trying to get something passed in Bismarck so cities can have a special election for mill levy, and commended them for their patience with us.

2.5 Plans and specifications for Project No. 6137, Dist. No. 631, paving and street ­ for Countryview 4th Resubdiv._____________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.6 Plans and specifications for Project No. 6133, Dist. No. 93, Overlay Sunbeam Addn. east of Belmont Road.____________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.7 Bids for Projects Nos. 6064, 6065, 6066, 6067, utilities and paving for Desiree
Drive.____________________________________________________________
Council Member Kreun stated the project is being protested out and people have the
ability to do that, that property being developed piecemeal and costs are very high; there is another area across the street that is going to be brought in the same way and costs are going to be astronomical to those citizens because of the way it is being developed. Mayor Brown stated that there is a neighborhood meeting tomorrow night and that the neighborhood can protest out paving but cannot protest out the storm sewer and other items. Kreun questioned whether it would pay to put in the storm sewer if not putting the streets in; and noted that it would be up to the neighborhood to decide that.

2.8 Consideration of bids for Project No. 6077, 2007 Sanitary Sewer Repairs and Project No. 6078, 2007 Storm Sewer Repairs.___________________________
There were no comments.

2.9 Consideration of bids for Project No. 5986, Police Dept. Impound Lot Improvements._______________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.10 Consideration of bids for Project No. 6119, Easement Sewer Cleaning Project.
There were no comments.

2.11 Set public hearing for determination of substandard dwelling and garage at
505 Cherry Street._________________________________________________
Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported the action council will be taking is setting the
public hearing, that they will first hold the public hearing and from the public hearing will have a number of factual findings to make, one of them is depending upon whether this is an occupied structure or not, whether it can be reasonably reclaimed or rebuilt, and have to make findings as to the cost of the damage versus the value of the structure and cost of repair. Assuming you make those determinations and the cost of repair substantially exceeds the value of the structure, you can order the demolition; there is a period of time that you can give for repairs, typically it is a 30-day waiting period but can extend that; and if there are other options available that become apparent during the course of the public hearing, you may require those or impose those options at that time; not a forgone conclusion that would be demolition, however, in most cases when it is reached this point that is usually the request that would be presented to council.
Bev Collings, Inspections, reported they have reviewed property and identified the items that make the structure substandard, listed those items along with description, that she has talked to parties involved and responsible for the property and are in agreement that the buildings should be demolished, but don't have the ability to do that, City is going to proceed with the condemna-tion and ask them to take them down, if they don't do that in that 30-day period, then take bids for demolition; cost would be special assessed against the property with 5-year payment date. She stated this property is going back to the County for taxes, that it is a buildable lot so when the structure comes down, lot will go for sale by the County.

She noted that the next item on the agenda is a smaller property, 25'x140', is buildable, but different situation with ownership, owner is deceased and would go back for taxes.

Ms. Collings stated if individuals have problems with houses in neighborhoods - that they should contact the building inspection department and they will look at the structure, contact the owner to see if someone is living in the structure, they will evaluate the structure to see if it can be repaired or not, if repairable ask them to do the repairs and if no progress on the building and feel it is substandard, then through that process is brought to the city council, asking that it be declared substandard and have it ordered to be repaired or demolished. Timewise they proceed very carefully because of ownership issues, could take as little as 6 months or up to 18 months, that they try to work with the people, keep it on the tax base.

Mr. Swanson stated that if there is a situation of imminent danger for public health and safety there are some different codes that can be utilized to act, but for the most part there are a number of requirements established by ND Supreme Court that probably are going to limit us to not much quicker than 6 months to go through the entire process.

2.12 Set public hearing for determination of substandard dwelling and shed at 310 N. 7th Street.__________________________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.13 Bid and design for office furniture at Police Dept.
This item was pulled from the agenda at the request of the police department.

2.14 Water meter and remote read bid summary.
There were no comments.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL COMMENTS

1) Council Member Brooks stated he would like thank you to Ken Baker, who was president of the University and offered space out there so that the government of the City of Grand Forks did not have to leave the city and was very important then, that President Baker had his hands full out there but made space available and owes a thank you for that. Mr. Brooks stated that he has a saying on his stationery that has been there for many years and it says "How successful you are in life will not be determined by how well you did during your good times, but how well you did during your bad times." and that we all did good!

2) Council Member McNamara stated that he wished they would have addressed an issue tonight that during their discussions about the hospital that came up and deals with contractors, and thinks it needs to be addressed in public and phone calls and comments that they all heard and have gone around the community and was told that Altru would address it tonight but would hope in the near future they would address that and put that to rest.
He stated that his family moved here in 1998, but on Sunday when they were about to pull sheet off the plaque, you think about all the different events that go into making that, is amazing to see how much pride by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, and what happens when a community pulls together and Congratulations to everybody. He stated re. the performers in Keep the Faith 10 years later - what a great play and congratulations to them and what a great deal it would be if they could go to New Orleans and write another little chapter and continue giving of this community to other communities. Congratulations to everybody, esp. the city staff on job well done.

3) Council Member Christensen stated re. the Aurora and Altru situation - that he finds it unfortunate that because of his profession that he was placed in a position where he had to recuse himself from voting on a very important issue in this community; his professional ethics say that he can't take a position adverse to a client, and citizens have to understand that there will be times when public officials can't take a position on an issue and that is where he found himself.

He stated he thinks it is important how we address tax exemptions, time has come for us to have a screening process, the statute says that the commission unless it finds that it is not competitive is to bring it forward, have a hearing and address the issues of competition but it is incredibly loose and have to put this back into the Economic Development area with Urban Development and the Growth Fund and try to have some criteria, maybe only 6 or 10 points, as in August 2005 when they reviewed their rules and came up with a better process for economic development consideration, and suggested that we do that in the Growth Fund Committee because have a couple council persons, people from the EDC and independent people and bring back those recommendations to this group. Council consensus was positive.

4) Council Member Kreun expressed his thanks to 9 companies in our community that took the initiative to help raise the funds to pay for $90,000 out of our $146,000 budget for flood commemoration and named those companies because that added up to $45,000+, will do more recognition in the media: Community Contractors, Construction Engineers (Curt Eickhof led this group and appreciate his work on this item); Gowan Construction; Lunseth Plumbing & Heating, Opp Construction; Strata Corporation; ICS; Alerus Financial and Aggregate Industries; they need that recognition and we appreciate it. Mayor Brown stated we also need to thank Council President Gershman for sponsoring some activities too during our weekend.

5) Council Member Gershman stated he is extremely proud of this city council, that the issue tonight with the abatement could have been very divisive and the demeanor of each council person and the time and thoughtfulness that they put into their decision caused those of us that disagreed to respect their decision. He thanked staff for a great weekend, and thanked Mayor Brown for emceeing; one of the things that impressed him were the number of Army Corps of Engineer and FEMA retired people that came back here, was great to see them, they were a huge help to us, and they said they had to see the success story, and that talks about dedication of public employees and is very proud of them as well as our own.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Members Gershman and Brooks to adjourn. Carried 5 votes affirmative. The meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,



Saroj Jerath, Deputy City Auditor