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Minutes of Grand Forks City Council/Committee of the
Whole -Monday, June 25 2007 - 7:00 p.m.___________

The city council of the city of Grand Forks sitting as the Committee of the Whole met in the council chambers in City Hall on Monday, June 25, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. with Vice President Glassheim presiding. Present at roll call were Council Members Brooks, McNamara, Gershman (teleconference), Christensen, Kreun, Glassheim - 6; absent: Bakken - 1.

PRESENTATION BY SERTOMA CLUB RE. JULY 4, 2007
CELEBRATION

Representatives of the Sertoma Club made a brief presentation relative to the July 4 event and thanked the City in their partnership with Sertoma for the past several years and has been one of the largest supporters of the event; that they changed format this year and having a party on July 3 with band and over 21 concert sponsored by Dakota Sales, and on July 4 family event. Activities on July 4 include kids parade, petting zoo and pony rides, half marathon, car/truck show, cutest baby and best apple pie contests, derby car race tractor pull, fireworks. Council Member Brooks volunteered for judge of the apple pie contest. Proceeds of the raffle tickets go to help make Sertoma Park handicap accessible. All the entertainment is free (except pictures on pony) and everyone is invited to come, including people from surrounding areas..

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE DISCUSSION ITEMS

2.1 Negotiated sale of Sales Tax Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2007D.
The city auditor reported that issue will change to 2007C since didn't make the sale on the Advance Refunding Bond issue. He stated that Mr. Hoover and Brian Osowski from Bremer Bank in working with Cirrus on some renovation planning, etc. and Mr. Osowski had worked with Zion Bank to look at potential for refinancing this bond issue and saving some funding, and worked with Springsted to try to evaluate whether we should look at this with a rate that Zion had given us or if get a better rate by going to market, result was that Zion Bank was willing to offer a 4.1% rate, and when they gave final proposal they will hold that rate until July 9, 2007, and because of switches in the market over the last four weeks don't affect this rate, savings are approx. $245,000 which is $102,000 per million and benchmark $50,000, and are recommending that and bringing this to the next council meeting for action to meet that deadline date.

2.2 Request for change in gaming sites limitation.
Council Member Gershman stated organizations are limited to 5 sites, and Development Homes has requested increase in the number of sites by a minimum of two and suggested that they give the other organizations opportunity to respond.

Cara Odegaard and Sandy Marshal, Development Homes, reported the reason they brought this to council was because they were approached by one of their current site owners who has opened up another site and wanted them to operate gaming in that site, and because they have 5 sites they contacted the city auditor to see what would be the next step in possibly getting additional sites or increasing the maximum. She noted that some of the bar owners have approached them about moving into some new places and that because of the maximum limit they are forced to go with out of town charities or someone that isn't willing to conduct some of the same game types or operate in different management styles.

Howard Swanson, city attorney, reported that the maximum number of sites was determined at the time that charitable gaming was first started in North Dakota as the city council was concerned that they not have one particular charity become the overpowering gaming presence in the community, they wanted to make sure that multiple charities or non-profits had the ability to enter into gaming so that those proceeds were distributed among various forms of charity, the number 5 seemed to be reasonable given the number of charities that were expressing an interest or were doing gaming, and was reflective of the number of locations that would be eligible to host gaming without giving any one particular charity a larger presence than others. This is an ordinance requirement, do not have authority to give a variance, and will require change in the ordinance. He also noted that this is the first request that he is aware of for a change in the number of sites.

The city auditor reported that his office provided a listing of sites authorizations and the only out of city charity is Northern Prairie Performing Arts of Fargo and they have 4 sites - that they had a site when Borrowed Bucks was first opened and haven't seen a huge demand from out of city charities. Gershman stated there is a potential of out of city charities coming in if the gaming site investment is too large an investment for local group(s) to handle and that could happen, and questioned the number of gaming sites with 5 locations. It was noted there are 29 authorized sites, 2 groups have 5 each and 1 group has 4 and 2 groups have 3, and several other groups have 1.

Council Member Christensen stated a few of these sites are single sites and only have 5 groups that have multiple sites, and questioned if it is appropriate to have a limit any longer on the number of sites, that there are other organizations that do gaming that aren't operating up to their capacity, and if contact these people to see if they are interested but that is meddling in someone's business - and the issue is do we have a cap any longer and if so , what is that cap and the reasons for having a cap.

Ms. Marshal stated they contacted all of the other charities that operate gaming in Grand Forks to let them know that they were making this request, certified letters were sent out approx. week ago and didn't get any response from any of the other charities, indicated that it wasn't a strong feeling about their request. Ms. Marshal stated in their letter they did request that the limits be open-ended and asked as an alternative would be to limit it to two additional sites up to a total of 7.
She stated Development Homes has been operating since 1974, are a private non-profit agency and entirely within the community of Grand Forks, don't have branches elsewhere in the state, governed by a local board, and have 150 individuals in Grand Forks and employ over 300 people between program operations and gaming operations.

Mr. Swanson advised that an ordinance could have first reading at next council meeting, July 2, and could be up for second reading, second reading is technically a public hearing on the adoption of an ordinance on July 16 and could be adopted. He stated council could act on this item on Monday evening by giving first approval for an ordinance and introduce the ordinance for first reading.

After further discussion it was suggested that the ordinance be introduced at the next council meeting and have public input at that time and get input and do in one step rather than delaying it.

2.3 Respread special assessments for Storm Sewer Project No. 5374.0, District No. 413. _______________________________________________________
There were no comments.
2.4 Application for exemption of remodeling improvements to residential buildings at various locations.__________________________________
There were no comments.

2.5 Disposition of old Red River Raw Water Intake Structure and real property, Project No. 6170.___________________________________________________
Council Member Kreun reported the property is located in MN and the committee was in
favor of disposing of the property, would take liability off the City and give somebody else the
opportunity to use it if necessary. Mr. Swanson, city attorney, stated the recommended action to
declare the property as surplus and allow property to be sold at public sale.

2.6 Agreement with Grand Forks Park District to operate and maintain Sunbeam Trailhead Facility.__________________________________
Mark Walker, asst. city engineer, reported he received e-mail from John Staley, Park
Board, that this agreement was presented to and approved by the Park District officials; that they
had a request to amend the agreement by including a clause indicating that the maximum
responsibility that they have for making repairs is $200 per incident, sets cap as to what repairs
they would do; if acceptable to the council, he would make that modification, City would be
responsible if graffiti, significant amount of vandalism, etc. The Park Board is agreeable to carry
insurance on the building, and hailstorms, etc. would be covered He noted this hadn't been
included in a previous agreement, and that if this hadn't been addressed would be up to city staff
to maintain this facility, and Park Board has agreed to maintain it (providing paper products,
opening the doors in the a.m. and locking up at night, etc. and the City is agreeing to pay for the
utility costs, capital improvement costs, etc.

There was some discussion relating to cleaning of parking lots in the winter for this facility as
well as one in Kannowski Park; and Mr. Walker stated if Park District does not clean, that City
wastewater staff normally cleans the parking lot to get to the adj. pump station; that they will
work out who does the parking lot cleaning. Mr. Christensen suggested that whoever
is responsible for cleaning both those facilities be responsible for cleaning the parking lots in
the winter; and asked that to be worked out by next Monday. It was noted that this agreement is
for one year and could be altered by either party. Mr. Walker stated the $200/per incident is
relatively low, but the Park Board is doing the City a favor by stepping in and taking care of this
facility, and that if they wish that to be a max. exposure, staff would recommend following
through.

2.7 Historic Preservation Commission appointments.
Council Member Gershman reported that he nominated Ms. Benoit, that she is very
diligent in what she does, has a strong sense of historic preservation and would hope that her
nomination would be approved.

INFORMATION ITEMS

3.1 Statement of Changes in Cash Balances as of May 31, 2007.
Information only.

MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER COMMENTS

1) Council Member Brooks stated they have a work session scheduled for Wednesday and that
several people will not be attending and not sure if need quorum.

2) Council Member McNamara reported he has received a number of phone calls re. homes that
they believe are in a state of disrepair or other various complaints, a meeting is scheduled at
Valley Middle School (cafeteria) Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. and suggested they bring address
or photo of offending property, would take information and work with appropriate people to
rectify problems

ADJOURN

It was moved by Council Member Brooks and seconded by Council Member Kreun that we adjourn. Carried 6 votes affirmative.

Respectfully submitted,



John M. Schmisek
City Auditor