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Minutes of Grand Forks City Council/Committee of the Whole
Monday, March 23, 2009 - 5:30 p.m._________________ __

The City Council met as the Committee of the Whole on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Brown presiding. Present at roll call were Council Members Bjerke, Gershman, Christensen (teleconference), Kreun - 4; absent: Council Members Glassheim, Bakken - 2.

Mayor Brown commented on various items during the past week and upcoming events:
He reported they have worked with the Alerus Center, UND Student Government and the Convention & Visitors Bureau to secure buses for our citizens to help with Fargo's efforts. Buses left today at 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. and will leave the Alerus Center tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday if needed. The City sent its sandbag machine and crew this morning and told Mayor Walaker that we stand by to provide help in any way that we can.
Congratulations to Thomas M. Murphy who will retire March 28, 2009 after 31 years service with the police department.
Annual ArtWise begins tomorrow at the Alerus Center through Thursday and every student in the community has a chance to display artwork and encourage everyone to attend.

ABILENE AWARD APPLICATION BOOK

Jerry Youngberg, chair of the Chamber's Military Affairs Committee, Chief Master Sgt. Carlson and president of the Chamber, Barry Wilfarht were present. Mr. Youngberg presented a copy of the Grand Forks Air Force Base Abilene Trophy application to the City; that this is an award that the Air Mobility Command recognizes a host based community as the best in supporting the personnel stationed there. Grand Forks has been recognized and awarded this trophy twice before. Mayor Brown thanked them for the Abilene Award Application Book.

FLOOD PROTECTION UPDATE

Rick Duquette, city administrator, reported that Mayor Brown and Mayor Stauss coordinated on items related to both communities, that as of tomorrow they are closing the greenway on both sides of the river; and that the Point Bridge will be closed tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., important to get floodwalls closed and expected snow may affect the installation. Volunteers going to Fargo - 2 buses leaving tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and to return at 5:00 p.m. and thanked the Public Information Office and the Alerus Center staff for coordinating this effort. He also noted that inter-agency coordination meetings will start tomorrow at the EOC.

Al Grasser, city engineer, reported the Weather Service is predicting additional rain for tonight and Tuesday (rain changing into snow), major snow in the Devils Lake Basin and for us 1 to 3" Tuesday and into Wednesday.

Council Member McNamara reported present.

He noted current reading on the river is 32.5 ft. and read estimates for the coming week - Tuesday at 34.7, Wednesday at 39.0, Thursday at 43.3, and Friday at 46.9 and Saturday 49.2, Sunday 50.4 and Monday 50.9. Anticipated ranges of crests for Grand Forks is 48.5 to 52.5 at end of March or early April; and at 44 - 46 range there are a number of closures that need to be done - closing Sorlie Bridge in the Wednesday/Thursday timeframe and the Railroad Bridge in the Thursday timeframe; that these numbers may change and Weather Service updates them every day and depends on the amount of rain/snow.

There were questions relating to closure of the Kennedy Bridge, when plug drains in basements, Mr. Grasser stated that as of now we have good storm sewer system and sanitary sewer system in place, have large pumps to take care of the stormwater should we get a storm event and will be shutting those after this event passes this week, a number of lift stations have standby power and others have capabilities to be hooked up to portable power, have portable generators and as of now doesn't see an exceptional risk on sanitary sewer stations going down, no guarantees but haven't identified anything specific to cause concern. The Kennedy Bridge would not be closed until the river was at 52 or 52.5 ft. before water would start crossing some locations on Hwy. 2, Grand Forks side good to 57 or 58 ft. but low spot on East Side and that is where would trigger that closure. EOC will be staffed over the weekend.

Don Shields, health department, reported they have been working with number of health and human service agencies, that plans are to put an Altru ambulance and crew at the downtown fire in East Grand Forks as soon as the Point Bridge and Sorlie Bridge close. At the point where Hwy. 2 Kennedy Bridge would close they would bring that crew back to this side of the river and Crookston ambulance service would take over downtown East Grand Forks. In addition in terms of major trauma Altru has worked with the air service out of Bemidji and they are prepared with 30 min. flight time to support all of the eastern side of the Red River.

Council Member Kreun suggested that council members go to EOC and look at preparation schedules and some of the things that are already in place.

ND LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Pete Haga, Community/Government Relations Officer, reported not a lot of action specifically related to Grand Forks but this is the week where bills have to be reported out of the second house - bills start in either the House or the Senate, and this Thursday is the deadline for the bills to come out of the second House. After that go into conference committee and final day allowed to be in session is April 30. Some of the highlights over the past week are - Rep. Glassheim's bills re. landfill siting study are in conference committee, passed both Houses with some amendments and the bill to provide for MPO employees on eligibility with NDPERS has passed. Two bills re. Renaissance Zone extending boundaries have passed; recently provided testimony in opposition to bill which would limit sales tax in counties to 1.0% and sales tax to cities to 1.5% because of the basis of local control and that the residents of the community are the ones that vote those in and don't want to take that tool away from them. Other bills they are continuing to watch are the Governor's property tax relief proposal; Commerce Dept. budget that includes some funding for the BRIC efforts locally and funding for the Center of Excellence which have been a success. The two extraterritorial zoning bills remain and being whittled down and becoming more alike with some minor differences between the two but anticipates more amendments to those bills and try to give better report by next week.

2.1 Extend City Board of Equalization from April 14, 2009 to May 4, 2009.
There were no comments.

2.2 Bids for Project No. 6144, Replacement of Stormwater Pump station #187 located at Columbia Rd. and 32nd Ave.S._____________________________________________
Council Member Gershman questioned architecture of the building and landscaping.
Mark Walker, asst. city engineer, showed pictures of the exterior of the building - brick exterior with large vents for the generator, and flat top roof. He stated he would have to check to see if funds for landscaping in the bid package, but if not, easy to work with the Park Dist.

2.3 Cost Participation, Construction and Maintenance Agreement for Project No. 6341, Intersection of S. Washington St. and 47th Ave.S. Traffic Signal.________________
There were no comments.

2.4 Consideration of bids for Project No. 6348, 2009 Sidewalk Repairs/LMI Sidewalks.
Council Member Bjerke questioned whether installation qualifies for CDBG because in
LMI area, should use Hwy. Users Funds for roads and if CDBG can do some of the sidewalks,
etc. would like to see spending more in that area to help rather than Hwy. Users Funds. Dean
Rau, asst. city engineer, reported they have a CDBG project coming up for alley returns and some
minor sidewalks, but this is mainly our standard city sidewalk and would be in the Near North
Neighborhood to do sidewalk replacement. It was noted that $150,000 are from CDBG funds and
$204,000 are from Highway Users .

Meredith Richards, urban development, stated in answer to question of how much of the Eliot
fund are we spending ; and that in this case all the sidewalks are going to be funded using Eliot's
fund in order to not mix federal funding with local dollars, mostly of convenience in terms of
bidding; we do have CDBG funds going into infrastructure in this area but separating that out to
do the alley returns so that this project is strictly sidewalks, does not contain any CDBG but the
CDBG will be used for project that is bid next week that does alley returns and some sidewalks in
conjunction with the alley returns.

Council Member Christensen stated his question is that for properties in the Near North
Neighborhood all costs for the 5 ft. sidewalks will be paid for from Highway User Funds - that
the Near Northside qualifies for the LMI area and why wouldn't we use CDBG money for the
sidewalks and the alley. Ms. Richards stated this approach was to get as much work as possible
done in this construction season, if we wanted to limit our improvements to CDBG funding only,
could do sidewalks but then the alley aprons wouldn't get done, that Eliot's fund money was set
aside to be used for infrastructure projects in LMI areas and was agreed that is what we are doing
and that is approx. 2 years approx. worth of funding, will spend it down and no plans to earmark
it for future projects in either the MUNI area or any other low mod part of town at this time but
the funding will continue to flow into it. Mr. Christensen stated that the questions for us is why
not take the CDBG money and do the sidewalks this year and next year do the alleys with CDBG
money, and save your 2115 money. Ms. Richards stated that is council's prerogative but as an
agent for improvements to the MUNI, urban development's approach was to do more sooner
rather than later.

2.5 Bids for construction of Project No. 6350, 2009 Concrete Street Repairs.
There were no comments.

2.6 Award bid for portable car fire trainer.
Notation was made that the amount is corrected to $112,770.

2.7 Grand Forks County Planning Commission appointment.
There were no comments.

2.8 Downtown Design Review Board appointment.
Council Member Bjerke stated that he doesn't think that the downtown needs any more
extra rules than other areas of town and will be voting against the motion, not a commentary on
the person, but thinks it is an unneeded committee.

Council Member Gershman asked what that Commission is doing about signage and windows
downtown, and should be doing something to improve the looks of downtown - and asked if
communication could be made with them to let council know if they are doing anything with the
signage; and also asked when appointments made to give them a listing of members.

2.9 Public Works Department fleet vehicle bid.
There were no comments.

2.10 Public Works Department - Street Division tandem truck, box and hoist bid.
There were no comments.

2.11 Public Transportation city bus purchase.
Council Member Gershman questioned why purchasing 2 rather than 4 because if have
savings of $312,000 per vehicle over 12-year period that seems to mitigate the additional cost
upfront and should consider buying 4. Todd Feland, director of public works, stated we can buy
3 hybrid buses with the money we have but need to replace 4 and another reason for proposing to
do this is that could replace all 4 buses at the same time. He stated the est. life cycle cost is
$312,000, however, the hybrid vehicle costs between $200,000 and $225,000 more upfront and
more like $100,000 savings once you deduct the initial capital cost increment with that. He stated
that with the transit vehicles these 4 vehicles will replace 4 12-year old buses on existing fixed
routes and is a benefit for the City because get newer buses that will be more efficient and cause
less maintenance issues.

Council Member Bjerke stated the committee's main reason is want to get a valid comparison and
will be buying 2 diesel buses and 2 hybrid buses, track everything on those buses and a yearly
report will be brought back to committee for fuel usage and repairs - this will give a year's
comparison on these two types of buses, and in the future would buy the type of bus that is more
efficient and save taxpayers money.

Council Member McNamara stated that recommendation is to replace 4 buses but hope don't have
to conduct experiments in Grand Forks because we reject everybody else's data - Mr. Feland
stated his initial recommendation was to buy 3 hybrids but there were some risks because we
never had them before but do have good information from other communities but would still have
to go back and find enough money to replace the fourth bus - these buses won't be in Grand
Forks until in 2010. He noted that cost for four diesel buses - approx. $325,000 so that would be
$1.3 million; and that we have approx. $1.176 million from the stimulus funding and our plan
was to use that money to buy as much as we could because there is no match in that money - that
we also have about another $700,000 in 5309 money and that requires a 17% match and that is
how we are packaging this up.

2.12 Fannie Mae line of credit.
Council Member Christensen stated the Housing Authority can't repay the loan for
various reasons and they have requested an extension of time to pay us back - and at the same
time they are making a request for the abatement of their taxes - doesn't see where they aren't
hand in hand.

Meredith Richards stated this request is limited strictly to the Fannie Mae line of credit and
doesn't attempt to address the tax exemption issue - that the Fannie Mae line of credit was
established a few years ago for various affordable housing activities and the affordable housing
district infrastructure was funded short term out of this and a home buyer incentive program
was funded from this - other programs have in effect paid off their debt to Fannie Mae but
the Housing Authority still needs a construction line of credit to complete the Promenade
Subdivision, that they have about 11 homes that they expect to sell during this selling season, esp.
with the federal incentive money so Fannie Mae has been very cooperative in terms of working
with the City and allowing, subject to council approval, to allow this extension to take place at
very favorable terms and on a short term basis.

She stated that if the City doesn't extend this line of credit the City will have to repay Fannie Mae
the $1.3 million on April 9, which is when the line of credit expires. This doesn't cost the City
anything because the Housing Authority has agreed to pay any extension fees, interest costs and
any costs associated with extending the line of credit and does relieve the City of the burden of
paying off the balance of the line of credit immediately.

It was noted that Fannie Mae will not extend that credit directly to the Housing Authority, line of
credit as it exists today is with the City and they are willing to extend that but won't take the City
out of the deal and work directly with the Housing Authority. Technically, the debt is with the
City, the loan is secured by the Promenade property so collateral is there, and Housing Authority
will be able to pay this off by April 9, 2010.

Terry Hansen, Housing Authority, stated that if they were unable to pay off the balance and if
there is a balance it will be very small by that time, but if unable to pay it off, by that time
perhaps the local lenders/banks would be more receptive to their applications to refinance it at
that time and to take the City totally out of it even if there is an outstanding balance. The
Housing Authority did attempt to refinance the debt with current lenders but in the current
condition of the financial market and thinks the local lending agencies were questioning whether
this was good sound advice for them to get into a land development transaction at this time and
that is why we are going back to the City and asking them to request the extension from Fannie
Mae so could give us the time to sell off the inventory and pay off the debt.

Council Member Kreun stated the reason this development is taking place is because of the
land that the City purchased in 1997/98, it was turned over or sold to Congressional I and II and
put us in $20-30 million worth of debt and to develop this and get us out of that particular debt,
we are down to $1.3 million and speaking as a member of the Board not asking too much for us,
that is taken over that responsibility of the City to extend this loan, which the Housing Authority
will be able to pay back - this is still part of the recovery of the flood of 1997 and part of this
project, this is reciprocating portion that the City can do to help sell off those lots and property
from the 1997 flood.

2.13 2008 Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER).
Meredith Richards, urban development, reported that their office had published notice of public hearing at which comments will be received, HUD does require that we submit this report on or before April 1, and that if the council can open a public hearing at the committee of the whole meeting, accept any comments, if there are any, and then close the public hearing, that would complete their and HUD's purposes. The requirement is to hold a public hearing and if that needs city council action rather than a committee of the whole action, then would request that we convene as a council in order to do that.

Howard Swanson, city attorney, stated he wasn't comfortable in advising you to go into a city council meeting because we have not advertised it as a city council meeting, there is no restriction that prevents you from having a public hearing in the course of a committee of the whole meeting, and won't render any opinion as to whether you comply with HUD requirements but procedurally the Mayor can ask for public comments tonight. Ms. Richards stated that was her request.
Mayor Brown opened the public hearing. There were no comments and Mayor Brown closed the public hearing. (This item will not appear on the city council agenda on April 6, 2009)

Council Member Christensen excused.

3. INFORMATION ITEMS

3.1 Portfolio Management/Summary as of February 28, 2009.
Information only.

ADJOURN

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

Respectfully submitted,



Saroj Jerath
City Auditor