Council Minutes

Minutes/Committee of the whole
Tuesday, December 27, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.

The city council met as the Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. in the council chambers in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call were Council Members Hamerlik (teleconference), Gershman, Christensen, Kerian - 4; absent: Council Members Brooks, Glassheim, Kreun - 3.

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 last week and upcoming events:
He reminded everyone that First Night is on Saturday, December 31, from 6:00 p.m. to midnight, that there will be great entertainment and ice sculptures.
He stated next week we will be celebrating the retirement of Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten from the police department after 31.5 years and retirement ceremony at the police department at noon on Wednesday, January 4.
That tonight is our last meeting in 2005 and would like to share some of his thoughts about last year and his hopes for 2006, that he wanted to thank the city council, department heads and all city employees for hard work during the last year, that the city is well governed, well managed because of efforts and initiatives. He thanked the citizens of Grand Forks for their commitment for making Grand Forks the great place it is; that in 2006 will see Grand Forks continue to grow and see it prosper and be a regional leader in many ways and looks forward to working with everyone of you next year. Happy New Year to all of you.

2.1 Grand Forks Park District funding request for the Splash Park in University Park.
There were no comments.

2.2 Use of excess sales tax dollars for Air Base retention related expenses.
There were no comments.

2.3 Pledged Collateral Report.
There were no comments.

2.4 Project No. 5849, 2006 TE Shared Use Path, N. 55th Street and University Avenue.
There were no comments.

2.5 Engineer's Report for Project No. 5702, paving 40th Avenue South (South 20th Street to Reummele Road).
There were no comments.

2.6 Mosquito control 2006 bid recommendations.
There were some questions re. the building issue, need for that and recommendation.
Don Shields, health department, reported that 3 years ago they leased a mosquito control facility in a building on the west side of Grand Forks (building located near present landfill, 1525 N. 73rd Street - first right going north after the gun club off of Hwy. 2 - about 1 and a quarter miles out of the city limits - property owned by J & R Investments - Rachel Gornowicz) and the lease is up in May, 2006, and one of the options was a lease to purchase, to determine what may be less expensive for the City, and they are recommending the lease to purchase because after a 10-year period of time the lease to purchase at $48,000/year would be cheaper than an on-going lease, that 5-year lease is $30,000/year and would probably increase. He stated after discussion with the city auditor to recommend that they add subject to negotiations to purchase, it may be to the City's benefit to negotiate outright purchase price and have it bonded instead of doing a 10-year lease.

The city auditor stated next week they would be voting on the lease - for lease purchase up to the 10-year timeline but subject to negotiation which may come back to council; that in the Public Building Fund they have several items for both police and fire departments with the intention when set the budget of bonding those items, and if it becomes more reasonable for us if we are going to end up owning this property at the end of 10 years, to bond it along with those other items at somewhere in the 4% range rather than paying the interest rate on this lease, will bring that to council for a change in this document.

Council Member Gershman asked if there is an appraisal on the building, what is assessed at, doesn't want to vote on something like that without further info.

Council Member Christensen stated $48,000/year for 10 years is half million dollars, and asked if they put out an RFP for bids on various buildings in town or received proposals from other landlords. Mr. Shields stated they put out an RFP with advertisement in the paper, and sent that info to every realtor in town and others that requested it, bidders on the chemicals were separate from the building lease - only one person responded with the lease facility, and is from person from whom we are already renting the facility. Mr. Christensen asked when was the last time we bid a building to buy for half a million dollars and perhaps something the City would have a separate item for discussion.

2.7 Request to accept vehicle bids, police department.
Council Member Hamerlik reported that 2 firms submitted bids and that recommendation
is not to take low bid but next to low bid; that there are 5 places in the bids that are required and another 5 that are preferred - that the required must be met by the bidders, and preferred at the request of the department - that there is a lot of equipment that they carry in the vehicles but have difficulty not taking low bid because of $8,000 difference in the bids as they meet all the requirements in the specifications.

Capt. Kjelstrom stated that basically what the preferred states is that what they are looking for is interior room in the passenger compartment and in the trunk, with all the equipment in it and are going to be adding printers also to go along with MDC's (mobile data computers) and there is 8 cubic feet more interior room in the Crown Victoria, and they are looking for room not only for the equipment but for the officers who carry a lot of equipment themselves and that is why the preferred is in there. Council Member Hamerlik asked why that was not a requirement rather than a preference. Capt. Kjelstrom stated that was the way it was worded by Lt. Johnson when he made up the specs. and thought that was the way to go with not trying to be specific as far as any particular automobile or vehicle, bottom line is they are looking for space in the trunk and passenger compartment - that the Crown Victoria has more than the Chevrolets.

Capt. Kjelstrom stated they have Chevrolets in the fleet but tend to sit more than the others because of room that is in the Crown Victorias, but not the preferred vehicle for what they need for an officer who spends 10 hrs. there.

Mr. Swanson stated the City has the ability to draft its specifications according to what its needs or desires are, can identify preferred requirements in a bid, and that at some point there is a decision to be made, discretionary decision as to whether or not you will trade low price for preferred option, and gives an opportunity for the bidder to try to meet those optional requirements. It is permissible, and standard is you are to accept the low bid unless you can articulate a rational reason as to why you are accepting something other than the low bid and is a discretionary function on the part of the city council.

The city auditor stated in the past they have used the process, lowest and best, and best is a determination made by the council when you have preferred specifications, there are areas where we have not chosen the low bid, police vehicles is one of them - have the history of the last 3 or 4 years where it has been the Crown Vic's and Chevrolets have come in less than those vehicles, but is based on what is best for the operator, etc. and that is a decision on part of the council

2.8 Budget amendment water utility.
There were no comments.

2.9 2006 polyphosphate bid approval for Water Treatment Plant.
Council Member Hamerlik stated that this is not low bid. Todd Feland, public works,
stated they are recommending polyphosphates from Calciquest which came in at .565 per lb., low bid was actually .560 per lb., and stated reasons are: 1) the packaging and 2) based upon testing the product regarding the soda ash buffer, and the feed of the product, and for those reasons are recommending the second low bid of Calciquest. He also noted the bid that was opened at the last council meeting was the Pristine bid which is third highest bid.

2.10 Grand Forks Renaissance Zone Project GF-40.
There were no comments.

7. MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

1) Council Member Kerian thanked the people in the city, our police, fire department, health people and those who worked during the holiday so others can enjoy a nice holiday weekend.

2) Council Member Hamerlik asked that the council consider at one of their work sessions or on committee of the whole whether the current title of administrative coordinator is appropriate, after having used it for several years, seems not as meaningful as another term and what that function is; and requested that it be put on work session or committee of the whole. He wished Merry Christmas and Happy and fruitful New Year to everyone.
Mayor Brown stated they would place that on an upcoming work session.

3) Council Member Christensen pointed out that this council has achieved a lot of milestones this year, some go unnoticed, have addressed the smoking issue, resolved along the lines of a majority in the community; addressed the issue of how we are going to fund our greenway, on-going care and maintenance, and no increase to citizens; addressed the funding our city employees, their pension and salaries; changed the sign ordinances and finishing up with that; addressed issue of residents in the University area as far as what they felt to be a loss of their neighborhood; and are about to see construction start downtown for a new housing project; we are starting to see an interest in revitalization of the downtown, there is a property downtown being sold, St. John's Block, and people buying that are from out of town and next year bring additional developments downtown and other good things to come.

4) Council Member Gershman stated three years ago approached the mayor and council about putting up $750,000 for retention of the Air Base, that was a lot of money but other cities around this country and not as much money as many of them spent, that we were successful in that and that was one of the greatest achievements of the Congressional delegation, the State and the City in recent memory.

Council Member Christensen stated that we are about to see the beginning of the construction of the Canad Inn project, and have had a good year as a council and administration and looks forward to more next year.

Council Member Gershman stated the big issue next year for him and for this community and the city council is air service development and nurturing that airport - if you think that airport is not important to this entire region, to our social, cultural and economic viability, and that he is going to be working on that extensively this coming year. He wished everybody a happy and healthy new year and thanked the council for their courtesies and considerations and to the mayor and the staff - and thanked everybody.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Member Gershman and seconded by Council Member Kerian that we adjourn. Carried 4 votes affirmative.

Respectfully submitted,



John M. Schmisek
City Auditor