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Minutes of the Grand Forks City Council Service/Safety
Committee - Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - 5:30 p.m.________

The Service/Safety Committee met on Tuesday, May 25, 2010, at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers in City Hall with Chairman Kreun presiding. Present at roll call were Kreun, Bjerke, Gershman.

Others present included: Al Grasser, Todd Feland, Mark Walker, Dean Rau, Don Shields, Bev
Collings, Chief Packett, Officer Braaten, Chief O'Neill, Brad Gengler, Tom Hanson, Steve Burian, Dale Bergman, Emily Fossen, Howard Swanson

Chairman Kreun called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m.

1. Bids for Project No. 6101, District No. 642, paving S. 48th St. from 16th Ave.S. to 32nd Ave.S. and for Project No. 6101.4, Dist. No. 466, storm sewer and drainage on S. 48th St from 17th Ave.S. to 32nd Ave.S.___________________________________
Mark Walker, asst, city engineer, presented prelim. abstract of bids received, bids were
opened by DOT last Friday, and came in at significant amount less than the engineer's estimate; that the DOT will continue to research bids and verify that they have met qualifications and award of bids is contingent on NDDoT concurrence. Comm. questioned as this is considerably lower than the estimate and with state and federal funds, will the savings stay with the City. Mr. Walker stated the savings come to our urban funds and stays in that pot and will be available for other projects. A good portion of this project was also funded by the City, as there was ineligible work that the City had to do and savings comes directly to the City. Kreun noted that the estimate was $7,170,956.00 and low bid came in at $5,190,206.68 and Comm.approved and moved the recommendation to council contingent upon NDDoT concurrence.

2. Bids for construction of Project No. 6484, District No. 643, S. 18th St. reconstruction from 24th Ave.S. to 28th Ave.S_____________________________________________
Dean Rau, asst. city engineer, reported this is full reconstruction of the street, including
curb and gutter, received bids last week and came in about $30,000 less than engineer's estimate, have received one protest to the project and is approx. 13% of the total assessment district and the protest period ends the 27th of May; and is their recommendation to award contract to the low bidder, Paras Contracting, Inc. Comm. stated to move that forward as recommendation to the council.

3. Bids for construction of Project No. 6521, 2010 Bike Path Maintenance.
Mr. Rau reported there was section of the bikepath that was in need of repair and would
do overlay on those sections, opened bids this past Monday and were approx. $6,000 lower than estimate, low bidder was Opp Construction and recommended award of contract to Opp. He noted there was one bid that was non-conforming and would reject that bid. Bjerke/Kreun concurred in recommendation and to move to council.

4. Request for driveway variance.
Al Grasser, city engineer, reported the driveway variance by Philadelphia Macaroni at
1801 N. 36th Street exceeds the authority that he has as city engineer and needs to go to the city council, that they are familiar with their turning requirements with their trucks and seems this is the best way to handle their access; most of this is with their current expansion project. No cost to the City and very little traffic in this area. Bjerke/Kreun concurred and to move this forward with the recommendation to council.

5. Bid specs. for Quick Response Assessment Team SUV for fire department.
Chief O'Neill stated their State Homeland Security grant program and is part of the NE
Regional Response Team for CBRNE events (chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear and explosive devices), and this would be quick response team where could put truck with people in it and send it to the area and would have command along with detection equipment and do survey of site - this is totally state funded and upkeep for the equipment will also be state-funded and vehicle will also be able to be used on a daily basis here. Vehicle will be stored Columbia Road fire station as have hazardous equipment out there. Bjerke/Kreun concurred this as part of a regional portion of the State striving to utilize more of this equipment on a regional basis rather than individual city basis (lettering on the vehicle will be NE Regional Response Vehicle), and make that recommendation and move forward to the council to approve purchase of the vehicle.
Grant award was $51,800.

6. Declaration of old police equipment as surplus and approval of sale method.
Chief Packett reported this is result of several years of police department being very
successful in getting grants for replacing of equipment, and have several items where difficult to out-source those locally and if wishes by committee and council to declare these items as surplus and then enter into agreement with proposed GovDeals which will put the equipment online where only governmental agencies authorized to bid on the equipment will purchase the equipment and easy for the City to dispose of this surplus equipment. City receives percentage of the sales - Agency keeps 7% of sales and anything over that City retains for general fund. Comm. moved recommendation forward to council to utilize that company for the sale of used equipment.

7. Declaration of 1965 Ford Galaxie as surplus and approval of donation.
Chief Packett stated this was purchased in the '80's by the Police Reserves for special
events and parades, etc. and have run into storage problem in recent years - Historical Society will take that vehicle and store it and put it on display - would be their request to declare it surplus and enter into agreement with the Historical Society. Value of the vehicle was included as result of legal counsel. Comm. moved to declare as surplus and recommend that it be donated to the Historical Society .

8. Acceptance of SWAT tactical vest bids.
A staff report indicates the police department took bids for 15 tactical vests for the
SWAT team, two bids were unacceptable as not meeting specs., and best acceptable bid is from Streicher's, Inc. and that the police dept. did receive a grant of $33,000 for the purchase of these vests - bid price is $34,738.00 and they do have additional grant funds to cover the increased cost of approx. $1700, and all covered by grant funds. Old vests will be declared surplus and added to the online sales. Comm. moved this item forward to council for approval.

9. Downtown noise enforcement - Info.
Kreun stated that he had requested police department to bring this forward as have had
people questioning enforcement of noise ordinance vs. other areas of the city. Chief Packett
reported on calls for service in the downtown area on a 2 1/2 year compilation of statistics - downtown area defined in area east of 5th Street and the River, and between Kittson and University Ave., and also pertaining to the concern that council received the area of 3rd Street north and south with same boundaries identified as the area where several liquor license owners hold businesses and can see from data in 2008 and 2009 little over 1600 total calls in the downtown area and of that approx. 376 were disturbance type calls and have broken that out as far as percentage that occurred in the whole area vs. only on 3rd Street and that in 2008 about 43% of the calls occurred on 3rd Street and 55% of the disturbance calls occurred on 3rd Street, in 2009 41% of total calls occurred on 3rd Street and 50% of the disturbance calls were on 3rd Street, have partial data for 2010 those totals have dropped a little and 37% of the calls occurred on 3rd Street and 45% of disturbance calls; statistics an be what you want them to be as what that means to us but concerns for residences were being broken out in higher rates than the 3rd Street bar area and appears that the statistics fall in line with total calls and doesn’t' seem to be a disparity between residences and businesses.

Bjerke stated with the new smoking ordinance and with outside places, shoving people outside
perhaps be an impact because if making people go outside, esp. in summer, pushing them outside
vs. inside. Kreun stated have to monitor to see if change in these statistics and to e-mail this to the address he provided.

11, 2010 Justice Assistance Grant application-notification. - Info.
Chief Packett reported that a staff report prepared by Lt. Remer indicates that this is an
annual application that the department makes on the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funds and are basically allocated funds based on population and crime rate, that because of past concerns on disparities re. Sheriff's Offices and other jurisdictions being part of that jurisdiction in recent years, have chosen to divide the funds between the police department and the sheriff's office based on calls for service and crime rates, etc.; that would be providing about $12,000 of the $49,000 to the Sheriff's Office for the purchase of equipment as they deemed necessary. Informational item for committee and council.

10. 2010 Quarterly Liquor License and Server Training Update. - Info.
Kreun stated this committee had asked for a quarterly report and update on our local
liquor license and server training information. Officer Braaten reported he had put report
together relating to alcohol compliance checks, violations of alcohol related ordinances for the
last 5 months, and asked for questions or concerns.

Bjerke questioned violation at Long Haul Saloon where the AG.'s Office took no action on 5th
failure and if there was reason for no action - it was noted there was no information listed, however the individual who was working that night was cited and fined for serving a minor - Information was forwarded to the A.G.'s Office by the city prosecutor and no explanation was given. Bjerke noted that also listed was the Down Under Pub for 5th violation on same date and server was cited. He stated that if the State doesn't think this is important that the City should take some action. Bjerke asked if they could contact them for reason why and report back to the committee with the information.

Bjerke also questioned matter of T.J's Pool and Darts - relative to their license as there was some confusion relative to ownership. Officer Braaten reviewed background information - that last fall when T.J.'s Pool and Darts wanted to upgrade their license to a Class 1 from a Class 3, that in the license applications there was information that there might be a third party involved as percentage holder in the company and by the time the license was processed there was no information given.

Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported the original license was issued to a partnership, Travis VanSickle and his wife, that they discussed the possibility of transferring the license to a corporation which was established December 27, 2009. Mr. Sando is a stockholder in that corporation, however, the license was never transferred at a State level or local level to that corporation.- the license always has been in the name of the partnership, and the question is who has been operating the business - the corporation or the partnership - can't conclude that there has been a transfer at this point nor determine that happened - there are two entities, one which holds the license the other does not, and that corporation is no longer in the picture as of about the third week of April - the license is clearly being operated now by the partnership - but there is a period of time that the matter is still under investigation - that is not the subject of which is going to go to Municipal Court in June - are still looking at it but don't want to go into any more detail on that but the question is not whether there was or wasn't a transfer but rather who was or wasn't operating the premises during the months of January, February or portion of March. It will be a matter of determining whether or not there was an illegal transfer or an illegal operation.

Bjerke also questioned matter of Gilly's - Officer Braaten reported that on May 2 about 2:00 a.m. an employee of Gilly's was involved in an aggravated assault, on a public sidewalk, the preliminary hearing on that incident is set for June 7 and arraignment on June 9. Since any action or conduct by an employee is a reflection on the licensed owner. Information will be provided to the committee .

Kreun noted there currently are 73 licensed liquor establishments, one pending for Lincoln Golf Course. and no action of seeking license and no alcohol being served - Southgate had it in the past and now Eagles Crest was going to run the bar, restaurant at the golf course.

It was noted that there have been people either found guilty of some of the failures in our tests and alcohol server training violations - and violations will be listed on license renewals. Officer Braaten stated he was at city prosecutors office this morning and disposition for Mi Mexico is that they pled guilty to the server training violation and then the administrative penalty for not providing their records was dropped, either brought the records in or sent their employees to server training and that was cleared up last week.

Kreun stated this first actual reporting update that we have had and will be doing that every quarter; that we are serious about our compliance checks and about having people go through the program for training and want to continue that. Bjerke asked if new licensees are briefed on the server training, etc. and what is required of them; that new license holder should be made aware of that - not sure who should follow up on that. Chief Packett stated the intent when this was discussed about 6 months ago at the committee level was that new application would have a cover sheet with it so that when they were mailed by the clerk's office along with some definitions - they are still working on that. He stated the new application has not been developed yet so if have business coming in mid-year - were going to do that through IT - comm. asked Office Braaten to follow-up on that to see where they are on it.

12. Public Transportation - FY 2009 Federal Transit Administration (FTA),
5309 capital request.____________________________________________
Todd Feland, director of public works, reported that they received $1 million and have gone over this in the last two years and this is our most refined list that they want to proceed with
to execute the grant on and asked committee to approve this list of almost $1 million and most of the projects have heard about, such as hybrid bus and concrete road replacement, the diesel fuel tank, opticom at two additional intersections that they added onto that project, as well as some shop work that were needed as part of that project, bus pit fill-in and non-revenue service vehicles. They did talk about the bus AVL and that was a system that was one project that they need to bring back and the automated vehicle locater (AVL) paratransit and dispatching, those vehicles with the fixed buses and being able to see where those buses are and results of component with system and whole system. He stated that is one project that they haven't bid yet and will bring that back for approval, is on their list that they would come back with final cost. Will bring back to committee bids on two of these projects within the next few weeks. Bjerke/ Kreun moved this forward as presented to the council for adoption along with the AVL system being brought forth later.
12,1 Information relative to applying for grant.
Feland stated only need to inform the committee that they would like to apply for a grant, that recently he highlighted some information - that just approving called Hydro Transit Administration 5309 money, that this grant is that the federal government or FTA has $775 million in unallocated money that they want to allocate, deadline to submit grants for these are June 18, 2010; this is unallocated money that has become available recently - FTA State of Good Repair, Bus and Bus Facilities initiative funds. He stated though not assured of getting any money but would like to submit under this grant for the bus facility renovation project, that project is scheduled in CIP in 2011 and 2012 and total project cost $2 million in CIP and $1.6 million of that will be federally funded because its an 80% federal funded, and local share 20%, and if we do receive a portion or anything will bring that back to the city council for concurrence on that.

Mr. Gershman stated it is 80-20% and 20% is local share and already have that in the CIP. Feland stated this is just another funding opportunity and rather than waiting for 2011 they are giving an opportunity to catch up. Kreun stated they would move forward with that recommendation, even though it is not on the agenda - Feland stated they won't bring this to city council, jut information to committee that they are going to submit an application, and if do receive word will bring back to committee and then to council.

Chairman Kreun asked how the riderhship is doing. Dale Bergman stated ridership right now is stagnant, has gone down in the last 3 weeks with University being off; but overall this year holding steady. Feland stated that over the last two years 17 or 18% increase but holding steady with the increases.

13. Grand Forks Water Treatment Plant Pilot Program.
Mr. Feland reported this is another part of our capital improvements plan and are in the next stage and have included the technology tours and currently working on the funding development, on both state and federal level, and will come back with local level. The next stage,
that with our recommendation bid, chose the conventional treatment route and part of that treatment route, this is going to be an augmented conventional treatment process that we already have. There are two component parts that encompass this pilot study, one is the ozone/peroxone and the granular activated carbon and biological activated carbon or GAC and BAC . That we saw that filtration in St. Paul plant and most of the plant he saw in the Denver Metro were membrane plants that they chose not to do; and part of that process we weeded out the membrane plant which probably saved - to pilot a membrane plant a million dollars. That we didn't pick the membrane and concentrate on the conventional and particular areas that we have not used in our treatment system and as part of this there is an agreement with Advanced Engineering and there is also an agreement to purchase some pilot test equipment, some misc. plumbing costs in there and there is a lot of environmental laboratory testing and that testing will be conducted by our own lab at the water treatment plant.. They are also requesting a UND graduate student to help support the project on our behalf, Adam Zak; along with Steve Burian and Shaun Gaddie, operations mgr. at AES, and several other individuals, one of the project managers on the project for Advanced Engineering and Burian has been working on our project both on the financial, in and out on the technical end, which is very important to us. Adam Zak will join the team as part of it and did have the opportunity to work with Adam working with the landfill.

Bjerke stated the purpose of this is doing a test drive and study our water for a year in this process to make sure we're doing the right thing. Feland stated would start in August and end in May so we're going to get all different weather conditions and get a good look at it and thinks it's going to be money well spent.
Kreun stated that having been on the tours and gone through this there was a lot of discussion between the membrane system and the conventional system and it comes down to go to the conventional system basically was our source water - the type of source water that we have is not consistent with most of the places that we visited and did research with. Now that we have narrowed it down and believes it is the correct decision not to look and test the membrane system as well, because we don't feel that its going to be viable in our situation but this is extremely important to make sure that it is going to work and work the way we want it to work so that when we invest $100 to $110 million in next 20 years that it is the right component and right mix and fix for our community because extremely huge project. He stated should move forward with those recommendations and will do that with concurrence - Mr. Bjerke moves that forward to the council with recommendation that we start the pilot project for our water treatment plant and if we can stay on schedule somewhere around 2014 maybe start building. Big project and lot of work ahead of us.

14. Planning Dept. - discussion re. temporary sales of travel trailers.
Chairman Kreun stated this was brought forward by some travel trailers being positioned around the community and not requiring license or anything in that nature so this is beginning of discussion stages of whether we should or should not have some type of business license, etc.

Gershman questioned city sales tax when these vehicles are sold. Brad Gengler stated he wasn't familiar with the process but would assume it is the same process as motor vehicles, etc. and paid upon the issuance of the license, etc. .

Howard Swanson, city attorney, stated the information today indicates that all of those trailers that are located are run by businesses within the city of Grand Forks, do not meet the definition of transient - transient merchant is somebody that is located outside the city of Grand Forks doing business in the city of Grand Forks. The question on sales tax - the title of the vehicle including trailers, etc. are not subject to sales tax but to an excise tax The City does not get any part of the state excise tax. Only distinction between them is manner in which the State has chose to set up a state tax - the City cannot tax anything that is not taxed by the sales approach by the State - have to piggy-back on it.

Brad Gengler stated at the request of Mr. Bakken a few weeks ago, he raised some concerns and asked us to look at under zoning rules and enforcement rules - and came to the determination that because where all these vehicles are parked they are located in a zoning district that does allow the sale of vehicles as indicated in his memo - he stated they are going to have to be somewhat cautious because he identified a few questions/concerns they should be asking as we go through it - the temporary nature of what they are doing - as look through various licensing, etc. the City doesn't have an actual license or permit for this type of activity and if attempt to do that, then ask ourselves what would the fee be, and on what grounds would we deny somebody a permit vs. other conditions.
Inspections deals constantly with the idea that the zoning code says that vehicles have to be parked on a paved surface, whether concrete or asphalt, and that is definition of a parking lot as it would relate to a dealership - but have areas with vacant lots or partially developed with gravel, grass in areas of town where vehicles are spread out and sold, and City faced with "how come letting them do it", and as far as a blanket ordinance but directed to one of these cases where trailers are parked on something other than a hard surface area.

Kreun stated we have car lots that are licensed and under those conditions, have consignment places that are permitted, licensed under certain conditions and individuals or groups that have several pieces of equipment, whether, boat, 4-wheeler or car, etc. than can consistently uses certain public areas for display of equipment and if that fits into this problem as well or not. Gengler stated its is an issue of fairness and who is cited by what rules if somebody is going to be doing it or permitted - or somebody who may do it for a month or two and several ranges throughout town - some do it in good order where others may not.

Kreun stated if people are paying taxes on property and following our ordinances and the other is using somebody else's parking lot that isn't designated as used car lot and charging for that or doing it free of charge is that what it was designed to do and should we be doing that or not. Gengler stated to look at principal use of the property, whether vacant or not being used for what it was and does that open the door for that parking lot in this case have sales, could have been motorcycle sales - and now don't have any rules to apply. That is what Mr. Bakken's concern was and why he asked to have this researched and brought forward .

Swanson stated first thing would ask committee is what are you trying to regulate - Gengler has been telling you what is under zoning matter, and what you discuss about licensing has nothing to do with zoning which falls under the city - the city of Grand Forks does not have and does not require a general business license, and currently do not have on the books, you referred to licensing or permitted car lot and that is not by the City - if the issue is of a concern need to flush out what is it you believe is a concern, multiple use of the lot and that would fall under zoning code, if a licensing issue, would fall in Chap. XXI, which is police power and has met with Inspections, Planning and question he asked, what issue are you going to address.

Swanson stated he is asking if there is a problem and what is it - they have walked through a number of issues - asked if the locations where these trailers are parked, are they zoned for that activity under Zoning Code, and answer for all the locations you are aware of were in proper zone - and if questions, are they on a hard surfaced lot, etc. and could look at that, but need to understand that review has to be broader than one type of use and they were able to identify a number of other locations where they are not on hard surfaced - the question about placing things for sale on public property on street, etc. do have an ordinance on that and do address that and in their discussion were not able to identify any location that these trailers are on public property. He noted that when first started coming in where they were located, and how many were on the lot, but as currently exists not aware of any Code violations that have existed that have been addressed by staff. - If there is a thought of how to regulate it can follow through - but need some guidance from council what concerns you want us to address.

Gershman stated this may have been going on in past years - but because Leever's is so prominent and are right there - perhaps give it a little more time - before going down ordinance path.
Gengler stated that because of mass numbers and are FEMA trailers that were offered up as surplus property so people were buying them by the hundreds.

Kreun stated have had properties advertising individuals vehicles for sale on prominent corners.
and that is not the intent of the business - grocery business selling cars in the parking lot and have had people ask if that is kosher. Swanson stated they could look at specific locations where that concern comes in but comment generally that your Code does not limit business use to any particular use - if that were the case would have difficult time with locations such as Target or Wal-Mart where they have a wide variety of items that they sell - they think there are some points where the uses are inconsistent that asks questions - not aware of any specific Code violation that would enter into play - we do have ordinances that address vehicles that are parked for sale on public property but have not taken that to the extreme of private property - and asked do you want them to follow up and look at that.

Kreun stated that one of the questions would be if you have a car lot, are they going back to Mr. Gershman's question if a car lot's taxed any different than where they actually sell cars vs. parking lot. Swanson stated he didn't know that this was a taxation question - that if were to ask the city assessor if have two consistent properties, both equally improved, one selling cars and other selling something else, the value of those two properties would not be different because of the use they were put to - the value is based on the improvements, location, etc. of the property and not sure if the tax issue. He stated if have two different properties, one on a paved lot and the other not being paved, expects the value of the property on the paved lot would be higher than the property without the paved lot - market value of those properties different. - He stated you do have some Code requirements for certain uses to be on paved areas and --- limited uses or terms or period of time - can creep out into those areas - one precaution he would tell you is to be careful on how far we go because maybe surprised at how wide that net is cast - an issue of adv. vehicles for sale, doesn't think the intent is to impact the car owner who has a for sale sign in their car and park it on the street in front of their house, but is surprising how many ordinances you may read that would lead you to that conclusion that it would be illegal to have a for sale sign on a car that is parked on the street at work or home and that is not the intent.

Kreun stated the biggest concerns that has been brought to his intent is that people have is of the Leever's parking lot, whether that was of trailers or old Ponderosa parking lot on Wash. and couple other places as well, that are utilized by groups or number of individuals to sell those trailers, cars, etc. and those are accepted practices.

Gengler stated as far as staff's direction they can continue to monitor things throughout the summer time and actually see what are the problems, if there are problems at all without taking any steps - Kreun stated this was information discussion item and no actual report and was brought up by Mr. Bakken and that over the last few years had several calls on different issues of that nature - the only way we would change that is to put an ordinance in place, and tends to agree that at this point in time monitor and look at it to see if it creates large problem or not..

Bjerke stated they are parked where they can be parked in proper zone - and if want to try to have a license from Grand Forks, not a transient, then looking at licensing every business in town, and doesn't want to go down that road. Swanson stated there are some cities that do have general business license, Grand Forks does not. If council members have a particular issue that they want to examine, whether ordinance that exists in other communities or if they could draft one, his office would be happy to look at that - but is looking for guidance what exactly is you want to do.

ADJOURN

The committee adjourned at 6:50 p.m.

Alice Fontaine, City Clerk