8.g administrators report
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: August 16, 2016
To: City Council
From: Neil Soltis, Administrator
Re: Administrator’s report
2016 Audit – Schlenner, Wenner & Co. has completed the field work on the 2016 audit. Subject to
any final adjustments, 2016 ended with a General Fund surplus of $25,496 based on revenues of
$1,873,887 and expenditures of $1,818,391. The year-end balance in the General Fund of $1,772,083
represents roughly 75% of 2017 expenditures. Under the City’s fund balance policy , the balance in
excess of 50% of expenditures is to be used to either reduce the tax levy or be transferred to the
Local Road Improvement Fund. The 2017 budget includes a transfer of $523,200 to the Local Road
Improvement Fund.
Board of Appeal and Equalization – The Board is scheduled to meet at 5:00 on Monday, April 10th to
hear any appeals regarding the assessed valuation of properties in Scandia. Below is comparative
change data from previous years and a summary of the change in values from 2016 to 2017.
Year Average value change Average Single Family Sales Price
2017 2.1% $ 407,500
2016 -0.6% $ 312,900
2015 -3.5% $ 340,700
2014 18.3% $ 287,100
2013 -9.90% $ 277,500
Scandia residential parcels - change in Value from 2016 to 2017 (# of parcels)
Decrease
No
Change
Increase
over
15%
10.1 -
15%
5.1 -
10% .1 - 5% .1 - 5% 5.1 -
10%
10.1 -
15%
over
15%
107 21 58 84 709 1,025 165 49 26
Capital Improvement Committee – The initial meeting of the Capital Improvement Committee is
scheduled for Tuesday, March 28th at 6:30 p.m. at the Fire / Public Works building. In preparation for
the Capital Improvement discussion Ryan Goodman, Adam & I will be meeting to start the discussions
on potential revisions to the road improvement plans and life cycle for maintenance of the city roads.
Comprehensive Planning – The Steering Committee held the 1st meeting on Thursday, March 9. The
Committee reviewed background information on Comprehensive Planning and the City’s
demographics and completed an exercise identifying the City’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats. A copy of the meeting handout is available on the Comprehensive Planning page of the
City website. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 20. The cost for the Steering
Committee meetings, pop-up meetings, and focus group meetings will be partially funded through a
Statewide Health Improvement Partnership grant through Living Healthy in Washington County.
Other activities that will be partially funded through the grant include the online community survey,
update of the parks, trails, and recreational facility inventories, and an inventory of locally grown
healthy food.
Half Breed Lake - The Washington County Board tabled discussion of renaming Half Breed Lake to
Sylvan Lake until their May 9th County Board meeting. While there appears to be consensus on the
part of the Board to rename the lake, there were a variety of opinions expressed at the hearing about
what the name should be. The county will be drafting a letter to be sent to the residents surrounding
the lake and the city officials informing them of an opportunity to provide additional input
(tentatively April 12, 2017 at 6 p.m. at the Headwaters County Service Center located at 19955 Forest Road
North) and establishing a timeframe for the submittal of petitions to the County regarding the name
change.
Forest Lake Holdco Solar Farm – The target date from NRG for the project at the corner of MN 97
and Manning is scheduled to go online is around 5/1.
Broadband & Cable – Following up on discussions regarding expanding broadband access, Midco has
provided a rough cost estimated for extending their services through Scandia. The cost to extend is
currently $10.50 per foot which works out to $55,440 a mile. That would be for a mix of fiber and
coax depending on their plant design. There are no update on schedule for the start of improvement
to Frontier’s infrastructure. The franchise agreement with Citizens Telecommunications (Frontier) to
provide cable-type programming over their system has been sent for their signatures.
Veterans Memorial – The Committee has Sheehy Construction drafting a detailed wall
plan. Building Restoration Corp. will work up draft drawings to work from and coordinate recruiting
veterans to build the walls. Graley Concrete has been lined up for the concrete work. The
Committee is seeking 4 or more truckloads of clean fill that should be a qualit y fill to support
plantings. I’ve requested that Adam have the opportunity to look at any fill before it is brought to the
site to ensure that is will support plant growth.
Federated Coops - Federated is open for the purchase of diesel fuel during the hou rs of 7am – 5pm,
pay inside. Their current schedule is to open the SuperAmerica portion of the store on April 24th.
Solar – The City continues to get inquiries regarding potential locations for solar farms and for
residential solar installations. It is anticipated that another application for a conditional use permit
for a solar farm will be submitted in the next month. Th e City has also received inquiries regarding
potential location on City-owned buildings or properties for solar installations.
Electrical Inspection contract – The previous contract with Dave Kichler has been reviewed by legal
counsel and sent on to Brian Nelson for review. Unless major changes are necessary, the contract
with Brian will be on the April City Council agenda.
Website upgrade – Judi is working with GovOffice on updating the City website. Key issues are the
identification of the base template, photos, and preferred site colors. GovOffice will also be assisting
in simplifying the home page and the navigation within the site.
Purchasing – U.S. Communities, which provides a cooperative purchasing program, recently added
Amazon Business to their listing of contracts that are available to the City. Other significant vendors
available for purchasing based on previous competitive bids are Advanced Auto Parts, Cintas,
Grainger, Home Depot, and HD Supply.
Below are summaries of bills to follow in the State Legislature as reported by the League of
Minnesota Cities. As of 3/16/17, there has been no additional action taken on any of the se bills.
City Street Funding Bill - The League and others support the measure, which would add a $10
surcharge on license tab fees and on motor vehicle title transfers to be dedicated to city-
owned streets statewide. The bill provides dedicated state funding for city streets—including
funding that can be used for non-Municipal State Aid (MSA) city street maintenance,
construction, and reconstruction and will be heard in the House Transportation Finance
Committee on March 16. The Senate companion bill, SF 933 has not yet been scheduled for a
hearing. The provision raises approximately $57 million annually. Half of the funds would be
directed to the Small Cities Assistance Account that was established by the 2015 Legislature.
The League has prepared city-by-city estimates showing how much revenue each city would
receive annually if this initiative is enacted. The estimated amount that Scandia would
receive under the bill as currently drafted is $203,000.
Small Cell Wireless Bill - HF 739 would allow small cell wireless equipment to be placed on
utility poles, signs, kiosks, traffic signals, light poles, and arches without the ability of a city to
adequately apply its zoning authority. Additionally, it prevents cities from negotiating rates,
permit timelines, and maintenance as it relates to the installation of emerging wireless
infrastructure. The House bill will receive a hearing the House Job Growth and Energy
Affordability Policy and Finance Committee. The Senate bill will receive a hearing in the
Senate Local Government Committee. Both hearings are on March 14. League staff will
continue to work for a final bill that ensures local governments continue to manage public
assets through zoning, and that allows cities to protect their proprietary interests in public
property in the public right of way.
Expanding Application of Open Meeting Law - HF 1105, which provides an open-ended
definition of “meeting” under the Open Meeting Law, passed out of the House Government
Operations Committee and is heading to the House floor where it has had a second reading.
Under the legislation, the Open Meeting Law would apply to trainings and social gatherings.
The Senate companion bill, SF 1715 has not been heard yet in the Senate. The League and
other local government associations testified against the bill, bringing up concerns that the
proposed definition of “meeting” would make trainings and social gatherings subject to the
Open Meeting Law. The bill defines “meetings” as “a gathering of a quorum or more members
of an entity covered by this section at which members discuss, decide, or receive information
as a group.” Rep. Howe committed to working on an amendment that would address these
concerns before the bill goes to the House floor.
Reverse Referendum Bill - HF 654 would restrict most city, county, and school referendum
elections related to finance issues to the November general election. It would also create a
new reverse referendum process whereby voters could challenge lev y increases by city
councils and county boards. The bill was referred to the House Education Finance Committee
for its next hearing, but will likely end up in the Taxes Committee for possible inclusion in an
omnibus tax bill. Under section 10 of the bill, the general property tax levy of cities over 500 in
population and counties would be subject to a reverse referendum process if the property tax
levy increases from year to year. Given the annual cycle of the property tax system and the
timing necessary for the system to function, the reverse referendum would actually be
triggered in the following year. The League testified in opposition to the bill indicating that the
reverse referendum process would make budgeting very difficult. The process could also be
confusing for citizens since the levy increase that triggered the reverse referendum would be
the increase in the previous year.