Council Minutes

Minutes/Committee of the Whole
Monday, January 4, 2010 – 5:30 p.m.
The City Council met as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, January 4, 2010 at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call: Council Members Bjerke, Glassheim, Gershman(by phone), Christensen, Kreun (by phone), Bakken - 6

Mayor Brown welcomed Boy Scout Troop 1 and their leader Kevin Murphy that were present to lead the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mayor Brown made the following announcements:

1) Commended the Street Department for their hard work over the last couple of weeks to clear all the snow from the streets and that they have worked overnight, on weekends and holidays to get our streets and intersections cleared. While we still have more work to do, they have been doing a great job for our community.

2) Commended the Celebrate the Night committee which held their first event on New Years Eve in the Alerus Center. He stated that initial reports show over 2,000 people attended this event and rang in the new year and look forward to another great event next year.


2.1 Application for exemption of remodeling improvements to residential buildings at various locations.

Bjerke inquired whether after these projects are completed if the City goes out to revalue the properties. Carsen stated that they do and not necessarily come up with the same values listed on the forms, sometimes more and sometimes less than the estimate on these exemption applications.

2.2 Application for abatement for 2008 taxes by Vernon and Edna Ellenson, 723 S. 18th St.

There were no comments.

2.3 Cost Participation, Construction and Maintenance Agreement for Project No. 6405, Concrete Panel Replacement, Pavement Marking and Mill and Overlay on Cherry Street (25th Ave. S. to 47th Ave. S.) (Federal Project)
There were no comments.

2.4 Cost Participation, Construction and Maintenance Agreement for Project 6425, Concrete Panel Replacement, Mill and Overlay ad Incidentals on 13th Ave. S. ( S. 20th St. to Cherry St.) (Federal Project)
There were no comments.

2.5 Cost Participation, Construction and Maintenance Agreement for Project No. 6476, Shared Use Path on 42nd St., Federal Project.

There were no comments.

2.6 Quiet Zone Improvements

Bakken stated that this item came through Service Safety Committee and looks to be a good project and through work of staff have been able to secure some extra funding for this project to implement it. He explained that this is a designation that is reviewed annually, so will be an ongoing item that we will be working to maintain so we don’t have one year and then lose and then get back. Gershman commented that we looked at this several years ago and would have cost the City a substantial amount of money to implement and commended staff and MPO for their work which has saved the City millions on this project.

(McNamara joined meeting.)

Christensen asked how the project will affect the downtown area and in particular the 3rd Street area where one proposal saw the loss of 21 parallel parking spaces which is a concern. The group discussed that the project is still being worked on and will require continued approval from Burlington Northern. Jane Williams, Traffic Engineer, provided information on the improvements that are planned for this summer which will include median installation on 4th and 5th Streets, which should give us the required number of points to qualify the downtown area and that any changes on 3rd Street would not be included until sometime in the future and that a lot will depend on timing and may not be able to complete even all the planned improvements this summer. The group also noted that East Grand Forks is not pursuing any type of quiet zone at this time so there may still be some whistle noise in town.

2.7 Review of 2010 renewal of liquor license for Crackers, Inc. (dba Campus Liquors, Down Under Pub, Sensations Night Club & Celebrity Ball Room).

Bakken stated that this item was discussed at the last committee meeting and committee felt that there were enough deficiencies with the application to forward it to the full Council for review prior to approving the renewal. He continued that this year there was a lot of work done on the process for liquor licenses and requirements to hold and maintain a license and that the hospitality group has been involved in this process and was made aware that the Council would be starting to take a more detailed review of all licenseholders.

The group discussed the deficiencies as noted in the information provided and whether there should be a penalty given. Swanson stated that there is authority granted in the City Code for the Council to issue, review and to impose penalties on licenseholders for violations, with the only stipulation being that they can not impose a penalty for a violation that has already had a penalty assessed and been completed. The group stated that there were some other applicants with some violations or deficiencies that were reviewed previously by the Committee and then granted their renewal and thought is since this is a new process this year and first time looking strictly at some parts of the application process and perhaps this year could serve as the warning year and hope that applicants get the message that holding a liquor license is serious and should be considered as such by applicants. Bjerke noted that some of the changes are also that the applications will be mailed earlier to the businesses and want to stress that for next year all applications should be in on time, with payment, correctly completed prior to the deadline in order for the application to receive approval by year end. Bakken stated that hospitality industry has been involved and aware of these changes and that we have 80-90% doing things correctly and now working on getting the remaining businesses into compliance.

McNamara questioned whether there should be renewal when there are errors and omissions like this and if there are any other factors to consider and why Council should continue to approve these and if shouldn’t be a penalty of some kind when applicants don’t use due diligence and take the process seriously.

Ted Korol, licenseholder, addressed the Council and apologized for the error and stated that he will be more diligent in the future when completing the forms and will work with the Police Department if necessary to ensure that there are no errors.

Kreun commented that the changes that came about this year were result of work on behalf of committee, staff, and hospitality industry and should improve the process for the future years. In regards to process this year, realize that there may have been some applications that had some errors and committee allowed them to go ahead, but this had a few more and that’s why came here for review.

Christensen suggested that perhaps appropriate to look at the forms and see if there need to be some changes, for instance possibly say “conviction within last 5 or 10 years” or whatever time frame feel is appropriate, which would also limit the amount of work to review these; and perhaps wouldn’t hurt to draft an instruction sheet to accompany the renewal packet for the applications to assist applicants. He agreed with other Council Members that holding a liquor license should be viewed as a privilege and not a right and is a serious matter which we carefully consider each year.

3.1 Information Items.

4. Citizen Requests

5. City Administrator Comments

6. Council Comments.

There were none

7. Adjournment.

Motion by Council Member Gershman, Second by Council Member Glassheim to adjourn meeting at 6:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,


Saroj Jerath, CPA
Director of Finance and Administrative Services

SLL