Council Minutes

Minutes of the Grand Forks City Council/Committee of the Whole
Monday, February 27, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.________________________

The city council met as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, February 27, 2006 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:
Congratulations to the UND women's basketball team for outstanding season; good luck to them and the men's teams in the upcoming playoffs.
Congratulations to both our hockey teams for a great tournament and strong second and third place finishes; and congratulations and thanks to organizers and volunteers and REA staff that made it such a great tournament.
Our community was host to the Sportsman's Show with great turnout and Feast of Nations which also had great turnout, fun events for our community and a good job to the Alerus staff.
He stated he would like to issue an official congratulations to U.S. Men's Curling Team for an exciting finish and a bronze medal, esp. to Joe Polo, the team member who is a UND student and a community member; our staff is working to see if we can get the team or at least Mr. Polo to show off the bronze medal at the council meeting so the community can celebrate with them.
He stated they had an excellent meeting with UND Senate last night that helped promote good communication and was great first step.
He stated he wanted to give our best to the Grand Cities Children's Choir, Primoverchi , who will be singing in the North Central American Chorals Directors Conference in Omaha on March 3; that the 7th and 9th grade singers under the direction of Ms. Popejoy have been invited to represent Grand Forks as one of the nation's best, and our own William Duquette will be one of the singers and one of the percussionists for this event, and wish them the best; and thanked community members who have volunteered to serve on Mayor's Cabinet on Youth and Young People that he has convened for this Wednesday afternoon.
He noted that the Knight Riders won the State Gymnastics title for the 3rd year in a row; Breanna Jones was first place all around, and Emily Wang was second place all around, and congratulations to the Knight Riders.

A video from the Alerus Center was shown which is celebrating its 5th year and poised for greater success in the future.

2.1 Applications for exemption of remodeling improvements to commercial and residential buildings.________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.2 Technical corrections ordinance amending provisions of Chapter 8 of the Grand Forks City Code relating to traffic motor vehicles; Chapter 9 relating to offenses and miscellaneous provisions; Chapter 11 relating to animals and fowl; Chapter 12 relating to fire protection and prevention; and Chapter 13 relating to smoking in public places and places of employment.____________________________________
Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported some of the changes are an incorporation of State
law that should have been in Code last August, i.e., the child restraint requirements, etc.; other
comments were being collected over a period of time from the police department, from
prosecutor's office and from municipal court, some are language changes in which they have
removed the word infraction and substituted the word offense, others they have changed from a
non-criminal offense to a criminal offense, and another category is they have taken some that
were criminal offense before and made them non-criminal. He stated he has quite a bit of
detailed information and if anything in particular they would like to know about - and has been in
the works for about a year. There are no new offenses and one offense is being deleted, has to do
with the provision of firearms to minors and is in violation of State law and have correlated ours
to State law by deleting it. He stated for the most part they are substantive changes insofar as
making corrections but nothing particularly controversial.

2.3 Job title change.
Council Member Glassheim stated that the committee that created the administrative
coordinator's office several years ago, they were in significant debate over a long period of time and the name was deliberately chosen so as to send the signal that this position was the first among equals rather than the boss; and it says that the person in that position rules by virtue of making good decisions that other people honor rather than by the power in the position, but should stay with the administrative coordinator title, that it is a question of what kind of signal we want to send. He asked if they want the most powerful employee in the city or do you want the first among equals who rules by gaining consent and gaining agreement through the delegated authority of the mayor. He stated there is a strong case to be made for retaining the administrative coordinator position title as it is today.

Council Member Gershman stated the signal that it sends is the reason why many of them in that meeting decided it would be a good idea to bring this forward and change the name because when Mr. Duquette is among peers at various conferences, he has a title that doesn't really exist anywhere else, that administrative coordinator is a nothing title around the country, and when people call the city to do economic development, to inquire about certain things, many times Mr. Duquette is the person they call or perhaps don't because it is administrative coordinator and don't know what that means, and his job description is one of administering many functions of the city and the departments and works very well, and for those reasons he thinks it is very important; this has no change whatsoever in his pay scale and benefits or in his influence over the council; he works for the mayor and for the city council.

Council Member Brooks stated when this position was established, had some concerns and had some recent things they had gone through and personalities enter into that as you develop that job description and title that goes with it but at this point in time when he reviewed the data our organization chart reflects that position as what really needs to be called a city administrator, we have an organizational chart in the city that has one staff position at the top and that is crucial from a management standpoint to have that type of organizational structure, that we are a service industry and our most important asset that we have is people,. Leadership is about consensus building, about presenting yourself and leading to the point where those people want to follow you, the title needs to go with it because it is clumsy outside the city. He stated it is crucial to have that top position and present it appropriately as it relates to elected officials.

Council Member Hamerlik stated this was brought forward because the term they are now using for that position has been tried and is outdated, and somewhat political as to how that title was arrived at, to get a term that was satisfying to everybody on the council, that it is a term that best describes his job at this time and sees no reason why it shouldn't be changed.

Council Member Kreun stated that the position will have no job duty changes nor will the position change the line of authority, the purpose of the job title change is to provide clarification.

Council Member Christensen asked when we do our pay for performance review, if numbers are regional or national, and his pay gets based on their review of other same job descriptions. Darrell Hovland, Human Resources, stated when they do the salary surveys and when look at the administrative coordinator position, looking at a 10-upper midwest state region and when do a comparative match, looking at a city administrator for Rick's position; to get a better comparator for our salary survey have had to look at city administrators and when look at the job descriptions, normally look at position that has a 75% match in duties, and when look at this position it is almost 100% match with the city administrator so it fits better in our organization.

Council Member Glassheim stated that committee met with some long history of employees who wanted to take control of the administrative apparatus of the city and they were quite conscious of that history and didn't want it repeated; and were seeing a level chart with the first among equals at the center of the table but the department heads essentially able to function on their own with the mayor setting the rules and guidelines but that the coordinator would only enter things that had city-wide implication and this was a strengthening by having an administrative coordinator was to coordinate the 12-13 department heads each of whom was thought to be good at what they did - have two different messages - one is to send messages to outsiders and that is okay but he wants to send messages to insiders, people who work in city government and thinks the message of an administrative coordinator rather than the administrator is a more flexible and little more encouraging and seems that if not changing anything why changing it - and would like to have before the next meeting a copy of the organizational chart and the job description and that job description written for administrative coordinator rather than administrator. Council Member Brooks asked that copies be sent to all the council members.

Council Member Glassheim stated he was very happy to be working with Rick and has no problems with what he has done and not sure how the operation works internally but happy with the demeanor and with quality of decisions and quality of the work product, and this is not an argument over that at all.

2.4 Median opening on 24th Avenue South for Project No. 5674, Columbia Road and 24th Ave.S. intersection reconstruction.____________________________________
Wayne Lembke, city traffic engineer, stated before council is the Columbia Road and
24th Avenue project, the median just west of Columbia Road that serves as access to the Alerus Financial Bank, and when this project was initially studied with the Columbia Road and 32nd Avenue South project concept report, the recommendation was to close the median at that time, and primary reason was the number of east-bound left turn movements going north on Columbia Road created enough stacking distance with the vehicles there and would actually block this intersection so the recommendation was to close and report was approved by council. He stated when working on the design and having discussions with the adjacent businesses, Alerus Financial being one of them, they expressed their concern about the median closure and staff took another look at it since it had been a few years since the report had been done and had consultant, CPS and sub-consultant for traffic, HDR, do a study and that study is in the staff report. He stated they had them look at different alternatives to see what kind of operational and safety impacts would present themselves if we allowed this median to be open, and ran through the scenarios they looked at:

Scenario 1 is what is out there right now and provides 100 ft. left turn lane at Columbia and 24th and provides a short turn lane into the Alerus Bank and will allow right in and right out in left turns out of the Alerus Bank so a full intersection.

Scenario 2 shows the median being closed and is approved layout that was presented in the original PCR that was approved by council; and this provides a lot more storage for left turn movements as well as through movements.

Scenario 3 provides more left turn storage by extending the left turn lane and not providing the taper and extending it through the median because vehicles will at times be backed up through the median so that it provides more storage for those vehicles and also provides left turn into the Alerus with full open access.

Scenario 4 is similar to Scenario 3 but could potentially build the median so that it wouldn't allow a left turn out of the Alerus Bank since that is the most dangerous of the turning movements that could occur there would help restrict the left turn movements out of the Alerus Bank.

He stated those were the four scenarios that were analyzed by our consultant and that their recommendation is that we stay with the original proposal of closing off the median in Scenario 2, that it does provide the safest alternative that they have presented tonight and provides the most storage capacity for the vehicles at that intersection and provides the best level of service for Columbia and 24th; however, the report also goes into the crash history of the intersection and they haven't had any crash history at this intersection based on turning movements in and out of the Alerus Bank with its current configuration, and feel the level of service by allowing this to be open at this time and is not a significant decrease in the level of service at Columbia and 24th, major delays are to the Alerus Bank customers and Alerus Bank has provided us a letter stating that they are willing to accept those delays to have this median opening. Building Scenario 3 would allow would be in the future if a problem does occur could move to Scenario 4 where we would remove those left turn movements out at a minimal cost if that were to be the case that we have a safety issue in the future. He stated the other thing to consider would be that we are not asking for a scenario selection tonight but just asking council to look at the traffic data, impacts of allowing this or not allowing it and decide whether or not you want them to proceed with a PCR amendment because if want to move forward with this need to bring it back to the State Department of Transportation and get a PCR amendment to our original PCR tht was done with the Columbia and 32nd project.

Council Member Kerian questioned queuing and percentage of blockage time in Table 5 and Table 6. Mr. Lembke stated the Tables 5 and 6 compares different scenarios (Table 5 -Queuing and lane blockage data - eastbound left turning traffic at Columbia Road and Table 6 - Queuing and lane blockage data - eastbound through traffic at Columbia Road) and can see all of them at some point during the 20-year projected peak hour turning movements and have some blockage for some percentage of the time.

Council Member Kerian stated in terms of rating of those two intersecting streets, do we have policies that would in general prevent a driveway there. Mr. Lembke stated as far as setback requirements from Columbia Road for their access they meet the guidelines for that and their access is okay and is whether or not the median opening should be provided at this location. He stated one of the things they looked at when tried to analyze the safety of this, have a similar situation at South Washington and 17th Avenue Ave.S. where frontage road comes in and the crash data he pulled for the last 5 years and haven't had any problems with that intersection which is basically a Scenario 4 with no left turns out but does allow left turns in and a similar situation is operating in town with relatively safe conditions.

Mr. Lembke reported that the total project cost is increased and the NDDoT has freed up safety funds to apply towards the project because it is one of our high crash intersections and it qualifies for safety funds, and that the safety funds that the federal government is willing to allocated towards the project is $1.49 million which reduces the amount of urban funds that we need to apply towards the project and basically the urban funds and safety funds will add up to our total federal participation and the City's share of cost would be what our local match would be which would include our urban match and safety match, and safety funds match is only 10% and urban funds have to match 20% and are getting good deal from the State. He noted that the $428,000 is our urban program funds, federal funds, that are allocated to us and we designate to be used to certain projects and we currently have programmed in our State Transportation Improvements Plan (TIP) for $952,100 and we need to amend the STIP document, formality that we need to go through, so that we change that number and that is what really doing.

Terry Longtin, Director of Property Management for Alerus Financial, stated they are aware for the ingress and egress of their customers, safety is a major concern but today works pretty good and have a lot of traffic coming in and out and do have another exit - can exit through drive-through or parking lot to the north of their building - the majority of their traffic is going south and then exiting either east or west; a concern they have is to the north on 22nd Avenue South, that any traffic going east on 22nd Avenue South (stop sign) and extreme problem going north and going south is even a problem and that have a concern because if lose the ingress and egress on 24th, will pick up traffic. He also noted that they do have some stacking, exiting going to the south but are okay with that and would prefer that remain intact for the time being which they anticipate several years.

Council Member Hamerlik stated one of his concerns was that if you allow traffic to come out of that parking lot going onto 24th and take a left turn, there isn't much room for anybody that wants to go south or straight ahead because there are 3 lanes going east on 24th west of Columbia Road, and what is going to happen with all that traffic; that north of Gate City (you don't have to go north of Alerus to 22nd and take a right to get to that dangerous area with the traffic) you can go out behind Gate City and get into 22nd; that he goes on 29th and goes north to 17th Avenue N. He stated he is concerned because of the need for Alerus to have that open and yet the traffic that it is going to create, esp. though going east on 24th or to try to take a right to go south, will never get across 3 lanes because traffic increase. He asked if they could have a right egress a block north of 24th so they don't have to go to 22nd and take a right (curb cut on north end of parking lot), and would help those going south without having to go to 22nd.

Mr. Korman stated they did look at the right out onto Columbia Road, but one of the big impacts is that they have a dedicated right turn lane going southbound at 24th Avenue South so they would have a right turn going into that turn lane, and would not be good idea.

He reviewed several issues as they see them, that when looking at arterial roadways they look at the primary function which is to move a lot of traffic safely and efficiently, that mobility and safety are number 1 and number 2 as access, access important but have to look at safety and efficiency - roadway efficiency is measured by level of service, delay per vehicle, congestion, and safety is measured by accidents. He stated their recommendation, as well as HDR, traffic consultant, is Scenario 2, which is the approved Project Concept Report alternative that was approved in 2002 and also the corridor study that was approved in 2000 as well. He stated Scenario 2 closes the access so that the Alerus driveway becomes a right in and a right out onto 24th; and the reason for the recommendation is that it is the safest of the 4 scenarios, it provides the best level of service, Level Service C, which meets the City's guidelines and has the lowest delay per vehicle. He stated there are some drawbacks with egress and ingress, they did look at accesses for Scenario 2, there is access of right in/right out on 24th, can go to 22nd Avenue and do a left or right, and also if go west from the Alerus, can go to South 29th Street. He stated another consideration is the Alerus Bank with a destination type trip, that if bank at Alerus can drive the extra 500 ft. to use their facility. Second ranked is Scenario 4 which has a three-quarter access and has the second best safety of the 4 scenarios, improves delay for vehicle and level of service is a little better (Level Service F) but little higher up the scale. The third ranking would be Scenario 3 which opens that intersection up and concerns with Scenario 3 are the south left bound maneuver from the Alerus driveway, concern is have motorist that was leaving the Alerus Bank going southbound and wanted to take a left, they would have to cross 5 lanes of traffic and about 285 feet if going southbound on Columbia Road, this would be possible mid-morning, mid-day but during peak hours it would be very difficult if not impossible to do it safely; another concern is that same movement, southbound left out of the Alerus driveway and the visual obstruction (if a person turning left into the Alerus Bank) and not be able to see clearly who was coming from the west and potential for accident.

Council Member Gershman stated that is the situation we have now and it is accident free, and to say now that if we do that it will be accident prone when we already have the history where there are no accidents, knows they are recommending Scenario 2, but for disclosure he is on the Board of Alerus Financial and will not be voting on this, but does have the right to speak to it; and that in the staff report re. Scenario 3, it has a level of service of C. It was noted that Scenario 3 shows level of service C in one area and a level service F in another area. Mr. Korman stated they used two models they used t analyze the traffic and the Sim Traffic Model is assumed to better represent what actually happens.

Mr. Korman stated in looking at Scenario 4 and the Sim Traffic Model it is a level service F.

Council Member Gershman stated if look at history it is a pretty good judge of what has happened because it is quantifiable and is not a level F, that could take one group of scenarios and Sim traffic model can turn into another level, and council has a choice of which one they want to do, and historically know that this is not a bad level, and Alerus is saying that a delay of 7 more seconds for their customers is acceptable because that is where the stacking is going to be.

Mr. Korman stated that Scenario 3 and Scenario 4 are very similar, and only difference is that gets built up for the three quarter access, so could build Scenario 3 and if became high instance of crashes at a later date, could build Scenario 4 at a minimum cost in the future if needed to - only adding a little bit of curb and planting grass.

Council Member Kreun stated if look at the National Standards 20 years out is where they would take that intersection or crossover out but utilizing what's happened with the latest crash data and probably not too much of a problem there, and to basically design the intersection with the left turns from both directions and if crash data starts to increase 10 - 15 years down the road at a minimal cost could make it a three-quarter intersection and reduce crash data, and that as long as the level of service and crash data are not unsafe at today's standards, could leave it open for Alerus for both left turn movements and if data indicates that more accidents happening because of those left turns, then for small amount can change it to a three-quarter intersection, and make the most sense.

Mr. Longtin stated concern that if this happens and access is closed off, the access to the Mall maybe should be shut off because it is already a congested intersection today, and if that were shut off will still have illegal U-turns but wouldn't have this traffic coming in; and concern for those coming off of S. Columbia Road and turning right assuming they have right of way and causing an accident for someone coming from the east.

Council Member Hamerlik stated planning for a change down the road troubles him, that if plan for this and then a certain number of accidents and then change it, who will determine that, one death or 14 accidents and is a concern. He asked if there had been any discussion about a light on 29th or if that is too close. Mr. Lembke stated that wouldn't meet their space requirements for a signalized intersection and wouldn't look at putting a light there.

Council Member Christensen stated he would like staff to bring them the full intersection for Columbia Road on Monday, that it is counterintuitive to him to have the eastbound lane - 3 lanes - right turn lane, left turn lane and straight - and they are taking them from the traffic coming from the east going west, and will have a right bound lane and when light turns and traffic moving from the east and going west, they will have people making right turns and people going west, but still have the people coming from the north and in high density times and moving traffic and going to create one lane going west - not buying that - have two lanes there and should keep two lanes, can't see 3 on one side and 1 on the other. - get information before Monday. Mr. Lembke stated the way the signal operation would work is that it would only allow 1 turning movement at a time that would be coming to use the westbound 24th Avenue, and one of the concerns he has is if they open this up and allowing the right turn lane from southbound Columbia Road as well as northbound Columbia Road, you create a zone of conflict in this area where people are turning into two separate lanes ands trying to shift lanes in relatively close space if trying to access the Alerus Bank, and has concerns doing that.

Council Member Brooks asked that information be sent to all council members before next Monday.

2.5 Amendment No. 1 to engineering services agreement with CPS, Ltd for Project No. 5674, Columbia Road and 24th Ave.S. intersection reconstruction._______________
2.6 Amendment No. 2 to engineering services agreement with CPS, Ltd. for Project No. 5674, Columbia Road and 24th Ave.S. intersection reconstruction_______________
Council Member Kreun stated on item 2.4 they are only being asked to proceed with the PCR amendment next Monday and not deciding which scenario but if redo this report is there some cost involved. Mr. Lembke stated that is what items 2.6 is involved with, and if go forward with the median opening would need to approve the Amendment No. 2 to pay the consultants to go through and redo that PCR and get appropriate approval for that - $17,000 additional and acquire property for the project; Amendment No.1 was for some of the costs for CPS to do some of the R/W acquisition and appraisals but haven't finalized the R/W acquisitions for the project yet but most of the work has been completed.

Council Member Brooks stated that on Monday he would like to look at the costs, and breakout.

Council Member Kreun stated they need a bikepath in there and acquiring some property, and asked Mr. Longtin how that would affect their operation. Mr. Longtin stated that Alerus Financial is looking at the bikepath, waiting to see what is appraised at and understands the $17,000 issue, that they want to mitigate this and waiting to see what the bikepath value is. In addition going back to item 2.4, they do agree with the safety and have those same concerns and understand that this is a 20-year study and based on that they like the idea of either staying as is today or Scenario 3, which leaves egress and ingress the same and could go with Scenario No. 4 if needed; that would be their preference.

2.7 Utility removal agreement for Project No. 5982, Columbia Road transmission line removal.______________________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.8 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5957, District No. 158, Street Lighting - Prairiewood 1st Addn._______________________________________
There were no comments.

2.9 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5958, District No. 159, Street Lighting - Adams Drive.______________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.10 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5959, District No. 160, Street Lighting - Countryview 3rd Addition.___________________________________
There were no comments.

2.11 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5960, District No. 161,
Street Lighting - 44th Avenue South._______________________________
There were no comments.

2.12 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5961, District No. 442, Sanitary Sewer for Highland Point 1st Addition.___________________________________
There were no comments.

2.13 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5962, District No. 290, Watermain for Highland Point 1st Addition.____________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.14 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5963, District No. 443, Storm Sewer for Highland Point 1st Addition__________________________________
There were no comments.

2.15 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5964, District No. 691, Paving Highland Point 1st Addition.___________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.16 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5881, District No. 621, Paving and Street Lighting for Zavoral's First Addn.____________________________________
There were no comments.

2.17 Create special assessment district for Project No. 5981, District No. 162, Walkway Lighting - Sertoma Park.________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.18 Consideration of bids for construction of Project No. 5905, 2006 ADA Curb Ramps.
There were no comments.

2.19 Change Order 2 for Project No. 5769, Phase V Landfill Closure.
There were no comments.

2.20 Budget amendment request #2 for Fund 2169 Infrastructure.
There were no comments.

2.21 Engineering Services Agreement with CPS, Ltd. for Project No. 5954, Phase VI Landfill Closure._____________________________________________________
There were no comments.

2.22 Wastewater Division surplus property.
There were no comments.

2.23 Annual Plan for 2006 State HOME Funds.
There were no comments.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

1) Council Member Brooks added congratulations to the Grand Forks Gymnastics Team, which took their 3rd title, which is an accomplishment in any sport. He stated that they will be putting out something on the form they are going to have for people interested in running for offices and great to see. He stated a reminder that month or two ago he had asked for info. re. Airport Authority and for one of the meetings in March they want to take a look where they are going with that in terms of the Airport Authority and structure.

2) Council Member Glassheim called attention to the Feast of Nations this past weekend that he attended and should be in the Alerus ad because they cooked for 1,000 people a variety of spices and foreign dinners and was excellently done, and was as if you were in New York City, people of every culture, every kind, every color, every religion, etc. dances from each culture; all peaceful and harmonious, was an astounding and wonderful event.

3) Council Member Kerian asked about the HOME Funds, people are anxious about some of those properties that are going to be available when flood protection is up, and when would those properties might be available, and will individuals have an opportunity to look at those properties or a larger development. Mr. Hoover stated they would begin to gear late this year for that and as far as individuals making application for particular properties, will have to review it on a case by case basis but had very good success with the Almonte situation and will likely do that where they have large tracts of properties, bring in neighbors and ask them for their thoughts and will go through RFP's so that the homes that are placed there will be compatible for the neighborhood.

4) Mr. Swanson reported that mediation on the Kindness Animal Hospital annexation has been set for Tuesday, March 14 at 9:00 a.m., a public meeting in City Hall.

ADJOURN

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

Respectfully submitted,


John M. Schmisek, City Auditor