9.a) Staff Report-Log House Landing CmteSCANDIA
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: October 21, 2014
To: City Council
From: Kristina Handt, City Administrator
Re: Log House Landing Improvements Special Committee
Background:
At the special Council meeting on September 23`d, the Council agreed to advertise for applicants to
appoint to the Log House landing Improvements Special Committee. The solicitation for applications
was advertised on the City's website, facebook and posted at the community center. Press releases
were sent to the Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, Country Messenger and Forest Lake Times. An email
was also sent to those signed up on the City's website for updates. The application period was two
weeks and closed on October 10tH
Section 7, Subdivision 1 of Ordinance No. 91 pertains to committees created by the Council and
reads as follows:
The council may create such committees, standing or special, as it deems necessary.
Committees shall consist of as many members and perform such duties as the council may
require.
Issue:
Who should be appointed to the committee? What are the committee's duties?
Proposal Details:
The Council determined the size of the committee to be 9 in September with the following make up:
One Council, Two Watershed Board, Two Planning Commission, One St. Croix River Association
and Three Public Members. The respective boards have offered the following names for appointment
to the committee:
Council -Sally Swanson
Watershed -Kristin Tuegne, Steve Kronmiller
Planning Commission -Christine Maefksy, Steve Philippi
SCRA-Don Hansen
The following people submitted applications to be appointed to the committee.
David K. Hebert
Pam Plowman Smith
Lisa Schlingerman
Ron Barczak
David L. Trauger
Ray Burris
Peter W. Warner
Betsy Brock
The Council should appoint three from the above list to the committee.
In addition, when the Council has created committees in the past they have designated staff for the
committee. I would recommend the City Engineer and Public Works Director staff these meetings.
Staff would be available to answer questions and perform administrative tasks such as posting
agendas, sending out materials to members in advance of the meetings and taking minutes. The
committee will be subject to the open meeting law therefore a quorum of the members should not be
discussing issues outside of a schedule and posted meeting. Special meetings must be posted at least
three days in advance. Staff would recommend that at the first meeting all of the meeting dates are
set so that they can be posted with sufficient time.
In addition to appointing members, the ordinance also pertains the duties of the committee. The
Council should provide clear direction to the committee on what their duties are. The Council should
provide direction on what issues they expect recommendations on. Will it be the same as the issues
the Council discussed at the Sept. 23rd meeting? Or given the short time frame for the committee to
meet would it be more productive to focus on those areas that there wasn't Council consensus such as
the design standards -curb and gutter or other alternative, slope of the road, storm sewer, and other
options?
The Council should also consider providing direction to the committee on when recommendations
are expected to be reported. Staff is recommending the timeline included in the engineer's report in
order to obtain the most competitive bids for the Log House Landing project AND Quinnell Ave
work. Bidding the two projects together will bring down costs as well as bidding them before
contractors' schedules are full. The proposed timeline would allow the committee to report to the
Planning Commission at the November 5th meeting as previously discussed in September and would
allow them an extra week to tweak any proposals after getting Planning Commission feedback before
making final recommendations to the Council at the November work session. A copy of the letter
received from the watershed district is also in the packet. Before the Council orders bid plans, time
needs to be allotted for review and comment by the watershed district board.
Options:
1) A) Appointments: Appoint agency reps and staff identified above and three public members
to Log House Landing Improvements Special Committee
B) Duties: Provide recommendations regarding design standards that will work with Council
desire to allow two-way traffic on a paved surface.
C) Timeline: Adopt the timeline suggested by the City Engineer.
2) A) Appointments: Appoint members other than those identified above
B) Duties: Provide recommendations on all aspects of the project
C) Timeline: One meeting a week for six weeks except for Thanksgiving week. Report to the
Council at the December work session.
3) Some other combination of the above options for Appointments, Duties and Timeline
4) Options other than those discussed above for Appointments, Duties, and Timeline
Recommendation:
Option 1