Council Minutes

Minutes/Committee of the Whole
Monday, December 22, 2003 - 7:00 p.m.

The city council met as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, December 22, 2003 at 7:00 p.m. in the council chambers in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call were: Council Members Brooks, Hamerlik, Glassheim, Gershman, Christensen, Kerian, Kreun - 7; absent: none.

Mayor Brown announced that when addressing the committee to please come forward to use the microphone for the record, and advised that the meeting is being televised live and taped for later broadcast.

Mayor Brown commented on various events held during the past week and upcoming events:

City's area transit schedule for this week, that on December 24 the City bus will make its last run at 3:00 p.m., Dial-a-Ride and Senior Rider will run until 6:00 p.m. and no night bus; on December 25 no bus service, Dial-a-Ride or Senior Rider. He wished everyone a happy holiday season and no matter what your faith and hopes all have the fortune to enjoy family and peace through these times, and reminder to those who may not be able to be with their families, servicemen and women, and the family of Dru Sjodin and may thoughts and prayers be with them all.

2.1 Pledged Collateral Report and designate depositories of public funds.
There were no comments.

2.2 Bids for Project No. 5458, Sanitary Sewer on 6th Avenue (I-29 to North 43rd) and
43rd Street (6th Avenue North to Boyd Drive).______________________________
There were no comments.

2.3 Cost Participation, Construction and Maintenance Agreement for Project No. 5287,
Johnson's Linear Park Bikepath.___________________________________________
Council Member Kerian asked what the cost is to the City. Cindy Voigt, asst. city engineer, stated that the direct City costs are everything besides construction, DOT only funds 80% of what is bid, City will have to pay testing costs, inspection will be done in-house, any reporting or internal office work in-house, and these are expected costs unless bids come in higher than estimated, budget will cover those costs in addition to the splits the City has to pay. She stated there is $162,000 from the DOT and our match is $30,000.

2.4 Change Order #3 for Project No. 5416, 2003 Storm and Sanitary Sewer Repairs.
Council Member Gershman asked if there was policy to bring forward a change order for $1,000. Ms. Voigt stated that any time a contract goes over $30,000, have to bring it before council.

2.5 Sanitation Department brush and tree chipping bid.
There were no comments.

2.6 Purchase of Class 400 transit vehicle.
There were no comments.

3 INFORMATION ITEMS

3.1 Hazard elimination project request to the NDDOT.
Council Member Kerian stated there were some projects included and that we are adding more and did we do that because we think there is a better chance with the additional projects and asked about the process. Ms. Voigt stated that the summer submittal was that the DOT only gave us one or two weeks to determine what our needs were and now had more time to think about it and wanted to add those identified as potential hazard funding projects and added those to our previous list, that DOT will rank them.

6 MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

1) Council Member Brooks stated report on water park as requested by Council Member Christensen; Mr. Duquette stated request had been made re. CanadAd hotel development and anticipates further information from them in next week or two.

2) Council Member Hamerlik stated Season's Greetings to everybody.

3) Council Member Christensen stated that the year 2003 has been a productive year for the City of Grand Forks, for administration, and for the employees for the City of Grand Forks; that some of policies and procedures put in place - pay for performance and methodology employed for future compensation of the employees and thinks it will be a great benefit for most of the employees. That Council Member Hamerlik's committee has put together an innovative plan so that people who are retiring can use their comp. time to buy into and get their own health insurance at no expense or cost to the City. He com-mended the administration, Mr. Feland and consultants and those that worked in the development of our new study for our rates and put something in place that will help future councils make decisions in the planning process to pay for the infrastructure that we need, and thanked Mayor for this year.

4) Council Member Kerian wished everyone Happy Holidays; and commented about women in the community in protecting themselves, and that it isn't just women who are vulnerable, have had experiences in the community where men, women and children have been vulnerable and there is some need for everyone to care for themselves - but need to work harder at being the kind of community that just does not tolerate violence against people through education and through the way we accept or don't accept other people - that we need to work on that individually and hopes as a community we choose that same path.

5) Council Member Kreun wished every Merry Christmas - and commented about Time magazine's person of the year - and that is our military people throughout the world - that he has utmost admiration for these people and they make it possible for us to do what we are doing tonight and wished them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hopes they all come home safely.

6) Council Member Gershman stated this has been very interesting year on many levels, and thanked employees, department heads and the mayor for working hard to achieve the savings in the employee structure of $243,000 and the 2 mill budget reduction that we had this year, that is not easy to do and that everybody is working hard to accomplish that. He stated that this council went through interesting period with the mayor and others where we had a public debate and vote on the water park, and that he is proud of the mayor and council as day after vote were back working together and with the mayor and that speaks to the quality of the people that he is fortunate to serve with and wished everybody a happy and safe holiday and new year.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Member Gershman and seconded by Council Member Christensen that we adjourn. Carried 7 votes affirmative.

Respectfully submitted,



Candi Stjern
Acting City Auditor