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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/22/2007 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2007 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, January 22, 2007 at 6:07 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow, and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Interim Assistant City Manager' Mike Harman, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Agreement with Willamalane for the Collection of Park System Development Charges. Development Services Director Bill Grile presented the staff report on this item. Since 1993, the Development Services Department has collected Willamalane's park SDCs under intergovernmental agreements as part of the City's building permit process. The City incurs administrative and accounting costs as it collects the SDCs and issues checks monthly to Willamalane. Historically, the City has retained 10% of the park SDCs it collects in order to offset these incurred expenses. For 2005/2006, Willamalane SDCs were $194,220. The City retained $19,422 (i.e., the 10% administrative charge) but incurred an estimated $5,826 for credit card charges as the SDCs are often paid by credit card, and the city incurs a 3% bank charge (called a "merchant fee") when payment is by credit card. This resulted in an estimated net to the City of$13,596 (i.e., $19,422 less $5,826) for 2005/2006. Assuming no growth in housing starts from FY 2005-2006, Willamalane's new SDCs may generate as much as $463,614 during FY 2007-2008. Negotiations between City and Willamalane produced staff consensus that the City would be fairly compensated for continuing to collect the District's SDCs if a new IGA provided for an administrative collection fee of 6% rather than continuing the 10% fee that has been in effect since 1993. It is difficult to calculate the actual cost associated with collecting and administering Willamalane's SDCs, but the elements of the City's cost are known. These include explaining the SDC to the public and contractors, collecting and receipting the fee, accounting for the fee and generating a voucher in DSD and processing this for payment by the Finance Department -- which includes internal control reviews and associated activities. From past experience and as reinforced since January 1st when the new fees went into effect, the City's costs are somewhat greater during the first year that new fees are implemented; computer set-up changes, stafftraining, implementing policy changes related to capping allowable credit card usage, etc., are first-year costs that diminish over time. Still, it would be difficult to conclude that the City would not cover its costs with a 6% administrative collection fee over the life of the proposed IGA. To assist the Council in settling on appropriate cost-recovery to fairly compensate the City for continuing to collect the park SDCs and without unfairly charging Willamalane for the service, three different options are presented: 1) Negotiate to continue the status quo 10% fee for the recovery rate; 2) Adopt a 6% fee for the recovery rate; or City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 22, 2007 Page 2 3) Negotiate some other recovery rate not less than 6%. Attachment 2 illustrates trends in housing starts. Attachment 3 compares the 6% and 10% recovery rates and illustrates that the City's net from these would be $13,909 and $32,453, respectively. Staff recommends entering into a new IGA with Willamalane, with provisions that will include a 6% administrative fee for collecting the District's SDCs. Mr. Grimaldi explained how SDC's were set up through Willamalane. Councilor Woodrow said he was in favor of making this equitable. He asked if the merchant fee percentage would increase because of the higher ticket level. Mr. Grile said it would not because the City had a policy in place that capped the amount of SDC that could be put on a credit card to $8000.00. He said the City wasn't allowed to cover a merchant fee by having a surcharge, so this cap was a good deal for both the City and the customer. Councilor Woodrow said he had received information that the merchant fee would be increasing. He asked if that increase had been considered. Mr. Grile said he had not heard of the merchant fees increasing, so it had not been calculated. Councilor Woodrow asked if the six percent charge over the next four years of the contract compensated for employee raises over that time period. Mr. Grile said a detailed cost accounting had not been done. He noted that there was indexing on the SDC rates, so even if housing remained flat, the City would still see additional revenues which should cover salary increases. Willamalane Superintendent Bob Keefer said the district was phasing in the SDC's , having them increase five percent plus a Consumer Price Index (CPI) based on housing construction costs, which would increasing annually. The increase in fees coming in would likely be higher than the employee cost increase. The fee increase would be over five percent and the labor cost increase would be about three and a half percent. Councilor Pishioneri asked how much of our administrative costs the City was recovering now. Ifwe went to six percent, how much of the City's cost would be covered? Mr. Grile said he was comfortable saying the City would not lose money, but would make more money. Councilor Ballew asked about dedications of land from developers and if that acted in lieu of paying or offsetted SDC's. Mr. Grile said the SDC's were charged for construction. The dedication ofland would not be an activity on which the charge would apply. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 22, 2007 Page 3 Mr. Keefer eXplained some of the agreements with developers that often included credits to the developer in exchange for the land dedicated. Councilor Lundberg said it was not a great deal of money. Fees and charges were a form of taxation and revenue and the Park District and the City were both benefiting the same taxpayers. The money would all go to the public interest. She said she was in favor of charging six percent. Council consensus was to move forward with the six percent. Councilor Ballew asked if there was language in the agreement allowing this to be reopened if something changed in the next five years. Mr. Grimaldi said that language could be added. Councilor Ralston asked ifhe had a conflict of interest because his wife was on theWillamalane Board. Mr. Leahy said it did not appear to be a conflict because it involved two non-profit boards. 2. Priority of Services Update. Finance Director Bob Duey and Budget Officer Bob Brew presented the staff report on this item. The City Council's 2006 goals include a one year target priority to "Conduct Council Discussion of Service Priorities". To address this target, staff met with Council and discussed options on September 18th. Based on direction from that meeting, City staff developed a list of the 113 major services provided by the City and created a one-page description of each. Council members were asked to use these descriptions to rate each of these services as Priority 1, Priority 2, and so on through Priority 6. The same prioritization exercise was completed independently by members of the City's Executive Team and the lay-members of the City's Budget Committee. The results of these three rankings are included as Attachment B in the agenda packet. Mr. Brew referred to Attachment B in the agenda packet. The information was sorted by Council priorities, with the Executive Committee priorities and the Budget Committee priorities listed alongside. He noted that variations between groups had been highlighted. He said some of the cut off amounts between levels were very minimal, so he only highlighted variations that were significant. He noted the differences and the different perspectives that brought about those different scores. He said the goal tonight was to look at the priorities and for staff to answer questions from Council. Staff was looking for direction from Council on how to use this information for the budget development. Councilor Ballew asked how staff divided the priorities. Mr. Brew said each priority service was scored and weighted. He explained. Councilor Woodrow asked what the lists would look like if the mandated items were removed. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 22, 2007 Page 4 Mr. Brew said that was considered, as well as what services were self supporting. This was not a perfect instrument, but provided good information for the first phase. Councilor Woodrow asked if they could mark which ones were mandated and self-sustaining, Mr. Brew said he could do that. Councilor Pishioneri said this was fascinating and good information. He wondered why there was such a disparity between the groups and what that indicated. He asked if it meant the Council was out of touch on certain things. Mr. Brew said it could be a number of factors, including education of each group. He noted some of the other factors that could have affected the differences. Councilor Pishioneri referred to one of the services that had different scores for each group. This was a good tool for increased awareness for all groups. Mr. Brew said it was an opportunity for education. Mayor Leiken said the Budget Committee was fairly single focused. Council saw this type of information much more. He agreed it would be beneficial to educate the Budget Committee members if they wanted to be educated. Mr. Brew said the answers could not be considered statistically valid. Councilor Ralston said the numbers were predictable and it was a good exercise. He said part of determining what was mandated was defining what was mandated. He discussed why the Library rated fairly low and perhaps it meant people thought that wasn't a service government should provide. The data needed to be addressed and questioned. Councilor Lundberg said Council had to make the policies and decide the budget. Looking at it from a budget perspective, she preferred to look at the similarities. Some areas ranked lower by all three groups and could possibly be considered for budget reductions. Mayor Leiken said if this was done annually, the priorities could change as the City's situation changed. Councilor Ralston discussed the possibility of the priorities changing year by year and the affect it could have. He explained how he proceeded with this exercise by choosing first the high and low priorities and then those in the middle. He said the services ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th could all be put in the same category. Councilor Lundberg said those services ranked 5th and 6th needed to be considered because it represented something in each department. She said we needed to look at the common ground between the three groups. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 22, 2007 Page 5 Councilor Pishioneri said it surprised him to see support services administration listed as a priority six. Mr. Brew said the Council asked for a list like this and could comment on any ofthe ratings that they feel should be changed. Mayor Leiken said he felt the first instincts were correct and nothing should be changed. Councilor Wylie asked if staff could provide information regarding the percentage of rankings that were returned. Mr. Brew said he would provide that information. Councilor Ballew said the first priorities seemed to be action oriented, but didn't seem to take into account the funding needed to carry out those things. She asked what that might reflect. Mr. Brew said the Budget Committee seemed to focus on life, health and safety issues. The Executive Team knew the inner works of the City and so did the Council. Each group rated the things they saw or understood the highest. Councilor Ballew asked if each range was ranked in order of scoring. Mr. Brew said they were not, but were arranged in alphabetical order. He said he had not listed them in numerical order for morale reasons. Mr. Duey said staff had told Council they would not be ranking them individually, but rather in groups. Councilor Ralston said part of his thought process dealt with the budget it took for each service. Mr. Duey said some of the questions asked by Council tonight would be part of phase II. They were all valid questions for the next phase. Councilor Woodrow said staff had done an excellent job on this project. Mr. Duey said this information would be at the mid-year Budget Committee meeting. Staff would share some of the Council's comments about how this could be used and would ask for the Budget Committee's comments. Councilor Ballew said she would not want staff to be overly influenced in putting together the budget with this first phase. Mr. Brew said they would be reworking the services list for future. 3. GatewavIBelt1ine Proiect Development and Franklin Boulevard Proiect Planning Updates. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 22,2007 Page 6 Transportation Manager Tom Boyatt presented the staff report on this item. This is an opportunity to provide Council with an update on two important transportation projects now underway: · Developing the Gateway/Beltline Couplet Design for construction per the approved Environmental Assessment. · Completing a Facility Plan for the Franklin Boulevard corridor in Glenwood, including the Franklin/Mc V ay intersection. The City is currently under contract with the consulting firm CH2MHill to complete these two high profile projects. In prioritizing work flow staff has staggered the start-up of these projects, with Gateway/Beltline beginning first. The attached briefing memo addresses the current status of the Gateway/Belt1ine project now underway, and covers the next steps to develop the Franklin Boulevard facility planning effort. Mr. Boyatt said a public meeting for the Gateway/Beltline project would be held in about three and a half weeks. The City was mailing about 300 mailers to property owners and business owners in the area. Regarding the Franklin Urban Standards Project, the Springfield Economic Development Agency (SEDA) had begun working with a preferred master developer in that area. He noted other projects going in that area, including the I-5/Willamette River bridge replacement, the investigation of access options off ofI-5 to serve Glenwood, Springfield and Eugene better, and the American Institute of Architects (AlA) visioning effort. Mr. Boyatt referred to a 1980 report on the Second/Third Street extension refinement study, which is now the MLK (Martin Luther King) Jr. Parkway. The study also showed a Gateway/Belt1ine couplet, which was the same as the one being considered at this time. He said he found that interesting. He said staff wanted to check the traffic projections for the year 2000 from that report with the actual trip counts in 2000. He noted the impact of now trying to make this plan work for 2025. Mr. Boyatt discussed the Gateway/Beltline Project and noted that the public process was identified, they had worked through the right-of-way strategy, had a project development team and a technical advisory team made up of staff from Lane Transit District (L TD) and the State. He said Lane County had not shown much interest, nor had Eugene. He described the process with the hope that the end result would be the most balanced solution for everyone's needs. There would be impacts because the couplet design would be nine lanes across on Beltline. He said this project was on a tight timeline, in an effort to have potentially 90 percent of the design or at least 30 percent of the design completed by summer 2009. The schedule stacked a lot of project elements. They were talking with constituents and looking at right-of-way acquisition, all while beginning preliminary design. He described the normal process. Staff would not sacrifice the process or product to get there at an end date. Mr. Boyatt said the Franklin project was under contract. He had held off initiating work on that contract because it made sense to stagger these large projects and because SEDA was moving forward with the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) and Request for Proposals (RFP) and focusing in on the master developer. The City was now aware of the interest of the developer and could incorporate their assumptions into the process. The developer had indicated they were very interested in being part of the process. He said it would be about another two months before the first public involvement event or technical team meeting. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 22, 2007 Page 7 Mr. Boyatt discussed the AlA project. He said he would be participating in those workshops as a resource to provide information about the City's project and the vision of the City and SEDA for Glenwood. Community Development Manager John Tamulonis would also be involved with. those meetings. There would also be a need to coordinate on land use and zoning work in Glenwood beyond the first forty-eight acres. Some property owners outside those forty-eight acres now wanted to be included. He said it was an exciting project from a design perspective. He said more updates would be forthcoming. Mayor Leiken said there were a number of people from Eugene that he had talked with that did not think giving Springfield jurisdiction of Glenwood was a good idea. Councilor Lundberg said there would be many variations on how things should turn out in the Gateway area with all the groups and businesses involved. Everyone had agreed on the big picture and couplets, but not the lights and driveways. She said those differing opinions could mean this project went past the deadline, which was fine. Mayor Leiken asked if Mike Kelly was the Public Works Director in 1979 and 1980. He said the planning from that time period was part of the success that we have today in the Gateway area. He said there was a great lesson to be learned regarding visioning. Councilor Ballew asked about the Franklin Boulevard study and if changing the alignment had been considered. Mr. Boyatt said an honest look at the opportunities available should give the City some flexibility regarding the alignment. It would take careful interaction with the property owners and SEDA's vision. Councilor Ballew said it was worth considering. Mayor Leiken thanked staff for the update. ADJOURNMENT \ The meeting was adjourned at 6:57 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa <' " Attest: ~~ ~ySo .. . CIty Recorder .