DRAFT – These minutes are not official until approved at the next regular City Council meeting.

City of Bigfork

Regular Meeting and Public Hearing February 12, 2008

Members Present: Mayor Amy Tendrup, Richard Salmi, Jean Lexvold, Mike Stevens and Linda Koppelmann

Absent: none

Also Present: see attached sign-in sheet

Mayor Tendrup called the public hearing to order at 6:00 p.m. and stated the hearing was being held on the petition received for vacation of Pine Avenue. There was no public input on the issue.

The public hearing was closed at 6:03 p.m. and the regular meeting was called to order.

Resolution 2008-04: This resolution vacates that portion of Pine Avenue lying East of Lot Six (6), Block Seven (7), West of Lot One (1), Block Six (6), and north of Ash Street in the PLAT OF BIGFORK VILLAGE and reserves an easement to that Outlot lying north of the described vacated street. Motion to pass Resolution 2008-04 by Lexvold, seconded by Stevens, motion carried unanimously, (MCU).

Public Forum: Tendrup asked anyone wishing to address the Council to do so at this time.

Motion to approve the agenda by Koppelmann, seconded by Lexvold, MCU.

Consent Agenda #1- approval of the minutes of the January 8, 2008 regular City Council meeting

#2- approval of the Police Report for January 2008

#3- approval of the City Clerk’s Office Report for January 2008

#4- approval of the Financial Report for January 2008

#5- approval of the Public Works Department report for January 2008

#6- approval of the annual performance evaluation for Public Works Assistant Joe Zimmer

#7- approval of the Claims Paid in the amount of $19,724.76 including the January 15th and 31st payrolls and to approve the Claims for Payment in the amount of $38,284.91

Motion by Lexvold to approve the Consent Agenda, seconded by Koppelmann, MCU.

Copies of documentation relating to any consent agenda item are available at the City Clerk’s office.

Commissioners' Reports: Airport Commissioner Salmi reported that there had been icy conditions on the runway and there was an accident with an airplane. He stated that pilots should be calling ahead before flying in to check runway conditions. Tendrup clarified that it was unknown whether the icy runway was the cause of the accident and it was still under investigation. Public Works Superintendent Chuck Almhjeld added that the City's Emergency Response Plan would be updated to include this type of situation.

Salmi stated that he would be willing to attend the meeting at Itasca County regarding the City's request for cemetery land. Cemetery Commissioner Stevens reported that he was able to go.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Engineer's Updates: Jeff Ledin of Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. gave a briefing on the progress on the water system project. He reported that he had met earlier in the day with Almhjeld, Salmi and Roger Logdahl. They discussed the problems and priorities of the water system which will help Ledin in putting together the Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) for the project. This report is used for funding source applications. Dick Grabko from SEH plans to attend the April Council meeting to discuss funding options with the Council.

Council Terms of Office: City Attorney Andy Shaw has revised his original recommendation on the process for correcting the length of office terms for council members. His new recommendation was to have all Council seats expire as they were intended to when originally elected and that the terms be corrected during this year's election. Motion by Salmi to follow Shaw's recommendation, seconded by Tendrup, MCU.

Final Union Contract Review: City Personnel Attorney John Licke and Local 49 Business Representative Dan Kingsley addressed the Council with a few sections of the contact to finalize. It was determined that employees would not be paid at overtime rates for hours worked over eight in a day but would be paid at overtime rates for hours worked over 40 in a week. Language was added to the section regarding payout of unused sick time to reflect that the City would choose a health savings account, health reimbursement arrangement or a health care savings plan that benefited both the City and the employee and that sick leave would be paid out into one of these plans upon termination or retirement. The final area of the contract discussed was on emergency leave. The meeting was closed at 7:10 p.m. for the purpose of negotiation strategy and was reopened at 7:19 p.m. The language will be amended to reflect that if an employee uses vacation time for an emergency situation, they will have the option to earn that time back on an hour-for-hour basis. Motion by Lexvold, seconded by Koppelmann, to approve the negotiated contracts with language changes discussed and to authorize the Mayor to sign the contracts, MCU.

Licke will draft final copies of the contracts based on the discussion and forward them to Kingsley

Cemetery Land: Itasca County has asked that a representative of the City attend a February 19, 2008 meeting to answer questions regarding the request for land for cemetery expansion. As noted in the Commissioner's Reports, Cemetery Commissioner Stevens will attend this meeting.

Joint Recreation Resolution: As requested, Shaw had drafted an agreement on the joint operation of the beach with Bigfork Township and the Township has approved it. Motion to approve resolution by Stevens, seconded by Salmi, MCU.

NEW BUSINESS:

Water/Sewer Account #70: The Council received a letter asking for leniency on the water shut-off policy due to hardship. Stevens reported that there is an Edge of the Wilderness Samaritan Fund set up for hardship situations such as this and he volunteered to contact the appropriate parties. Tendrup suggested that the Planning & Zoning Commission be asked to review the policy for any future situations that may arise.

Personnel Committee Meeting Schedule: The City Personnel Committee has been meeting on an as-needed basis and would like to switch to meeting on the first Wednesday of every other month (in February, April, June, August, October and December). Motion by Lexvold, seconded by Salmi to approve the meeting schedule, MCU.

Letter from Shaw: Correspondence was received from Shaw stating that would be more efficient for the City to utilize Licke as both regular and personnel attorney. Motion to appoint Licke as City Attorney by Lexvold, seconded by Koppelmann, MCU.

Water/Sewer Billing Issues: Two different situations have arisen with water/sewer billing. There are two different properties that have two houses served off of one service line with a meter. In one instance, a second base rate has been charged for the additional house. In the other instance, it has not. Motion by Stevens, seconded by Tendrup to charge the additional base rate for the second home in both instances and to ensure that usage charges are incurred after 2,000 gallons are used, MCU.

The second situation is homes that lack a meter. The City has made an effort over the past couple of years to get all services within the City metered and only two remain without meters. The City has provided the meter to these homeowners but they have not been installed. Motion by Stevens, seconded by Lexvold to send a letter to each homeowner stating they have 90 days to install the meter and if it is not done, the City will arrange to have it done and the charges will be added to their water/sewer account, MCU.

Alden Olson - Streetlight Utility Billing Correspondence: A letter was received from Alden Olson asking that he be charged a street light fee for only one parcel as his property was originally one parcel but had been split into two. Tendrup clarified that the street light utility was set up to charge a fee to each parcel in the City. Stevens asked how many other parcel owners are in a similar situation and Storlie reported that there are a number of people who own adjacent parcels and are being billed a street light fee for each. The Council felt that if they were to consider adjacent parcels as one parcel for purposes of billing street light fees, they would have to increase the monthly fee amount in order to compensate for the lost number of payers. Tendrup pointed out that parcel owners have the option of filing with Itasca County to have the parcels combined. Motion to leave the ordinance and billing set up as it is by Lexvold, seconded by Tendrup, MCU.

Ordinance #147 - Minnesota Power Franchise: Motion to have Licke review the proposed franchise agreement by Lexvold, seconded by Koppelmann, MCU.

Quotes for New Computer: Motion by Tendrup to have Storlie order the Dell computer for the quoted price, seconded by Stevens, MCU.

OTHER BUSINESS:

Almhjeld reported that he would be sending a letter to the hospital with information on the revenue lost due to the incorrect meter. Salmi felt a similar letter should be sent to the school. The rest of the Council and Almhjeld felt the school was a different situation in which the City was at fault and they could not be expected to pay any additional charges.

Mayor Tendrup adjourned the meeting at 8:04 p.m.

Angie Storlie

City Clerk/Treasurer