Office of the Council Clerk Thursday, September 2, 2004
City of Gardiner, Maine Regular Council Meeting
7:00 PM
1. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Rines called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM
2. ROLL CALL
Jean Dellert, District 3 Richard Nickless, At-Large
Dennis Doiron, At-Large Richard Rambo, District 2
Phil Hart , District 4 Stephen Hanley, At-Large Mayor Brian Rines
Jeffrey Kobrock, City Manager
Molly Gallant, Council Clerk
Councilor Webster absent.
3. PETITIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, RESOLUTIONS, & PUBLIC HEARINGS
3.1 Public Hearing for Liquor License Renewal for Janelles Restaurant.
Public Hearing opened and closed with no public comments.
3.2 Public Hearing for Municipal Investment Trust Fund.
Public Hearing opened at 7:08 pm.
The Municipal Investment Fund grant of $500,000 will help fund the first phase of waterfront development. Combined with several other sources $1.7 million will be available.
Public Hearing closed at 7:10 pm.
3.3 Consideration of Comments from the Public on Issues that
Do Not Appear Elsewhere on the Agenda (Please limit comments
to five minutes.)
Mayor Rines stated that he received at letter from Lynn Gerard in which she resigned from the Water District Board of Trustees, effective immediately. She served on the Board for many years and will be missed greatly.
4.CONSENT AGENDA
4.1 Consideration of Accepting July/August 2004 Warrants
#1 07/01/04 030109+030132-030137 $ 100565.73
#2 07/08/04 030138-030196 $ 230289.27
#3 07/15/04 030197-030278 $ 189759.82
#4 07/22/04 030279-030367 $ 359661.47
#5 07/29/04 030368-030439 $ 258998.27
#6 08/05/04 030440-030536 $ 152584.02
#7 08/12/04 030537-030606 $ 227204.67
#8 08/19/04 030607-030646 $ 320005.76
#9 08/26/04 030647-030685 $ 192354.95
4.2 Consideration of Councilor Webster Signing August 2004 Warrants & Councilor Dellert signing September Warrants.
4.3 Consideration of Accepting Council Minutes 7/8, 7/15 & 7/29.
4.4 Consideration of Liquor License Renewal for Janelles Restaurant.
Motion by Councilor Dellert and seconded by Councilor Rambo to Accept Consent Agenda Items 4.1-4.4.
Vote: 7 in favor 0 – opposed Motion: passes.
Councilor Dellert will sign the August Warrants in Councilor Webster’s absence.
5. NEW BUSINESS
5.1 Consideration of Resolution 04-39, Maine Municipal Investment Trust Fund.
Motion by Councilor Rambo and seconded by Councilor Nickless to Accept Resolution 04-39, Maine Municipal Investment Trust Fund.
Vote: 7 in favor 0 – opposed Motion: passes
5.2 Consideration of Resolution 04-40, Route 126 Sidewalk.
Motion by Councilor Nickless and seconded by Councilor Hanley to Accept Resolution 04-40, Route 126 Sidewalk.
Vote: 7 in favor 0 – opposed Motion: passes
5.3 Consideration of Resolution 04-42, Loan to Gardiner Board of Trade.
Approve $150,000 loan to Gardiner Board of Trade for assistance to purchase commercial real estate within the City. Loan is interest only for 24 months with payment due at maturity. Loan will be secured through a 2nd position on the land being purchased.
Motion by Councilor Hanley and seconded by Councilor Nickless to Accept Resolution 04-42, Loan to Gardiner Board of Trade.
Vote: 6 in favor 0 – opposed (Rambo abstained) Motion: passes
5.4 Consideration of Resolution 04-43, Proclaiming the Week of September 17, 2004 through September 23, 2004 as Constitution Week.
Motion by Councilor Hanley and seconded by Councilor Rambo to Accept Resolution 04-43, Proclaiming the Week of September 17, 2004 through September 23, 2004 as Constitution Week.
Vote: 7 in favor 0- opposed Motion: passes
5.5 Consideration of Resolution 04-44, Granting Grace Period for Interest Accrual.
Motion by Councilor Hanley and seconded by Councilor Rambo to Accept Resolution 04-44, Granting Grace Period for Interest Accrual.
Vote: 7 in favor 0 – opposed Motion: passes
5.6 Discussion of Budget Review Process.
Councilor Rambo stated that he believed that the process for Budget Review could be improved. After discussion it was agreed to review the budget process .
Motion by Councilor Rambo and seconded by Councilor Hart to Direct the City Manager to Schedule a Discussion on the budget process in February.
Vote: 7 in favor 0 – opposed Motion: passes.
5.7 Consideration of Reorganization of Planning and Development Activities.
Code Enforcement, Planning, Tax Assessing and Economic and Community Development Services will be joined into one department. This reorganization will allow us to use existing resources more efficiently and support development –related costs with development –related revenue. Chris Paszyc will become the new Director of Planning & Development.
Councilor Hart stated that he would not be voting for this measure because he felt that the Economic Development Director was a sales person for the City of Gardiner and if he took on the new duties he would not be able to still do the job in the same capacity.
Motion by Councilor Nickless and seconded by Councilor Hanley to Adopt the Structure of the Reorganization of Planning & Development Activities.
Vote: 5 in favor 2 – opposed (Hart & Dellert) Motion: passes
5.8 Discussion of Review Process for Maine Rural Water Association Management Evaluation and Kent Associates Service Center Study.
Mayor Rines asked if there were any objection with combining Agenda Items 5.8 & 5.9, there were no objections.
Manager Kobrock stated that there has been two different studies released, both reports having substantial recommendations. The final report should be available to the Council and Water District in mid September, it will be available in hard copy and e-document. There will be two work sessions, one to review the information and clarify the report, the second to take action on the implementation of the report.
Mayor Rines stated that Lynn Gerard has resigned as Chairperson of the Water District Board of Trustees, she had devoted many hours to the position, she will be greatly missed.
5.9 Discussion of Lynn Gerard Memo.
Combined with previous item.
6. CITY MANAGERS REPORT
Manager Kobrock stated that the Council needed to establish a voting delegate for the MMA Conference, in the past it has been Councilor Dellert. The Council nominated Councilor Dellert to be the Council Delegate for this year.
The Waterfront Task Force has recently been very busy with organization of the Waterfront Project, there may be multiple phases, as many as five and the Task Force recommendations will probably be coming to the Council fairly quickly.
Some other communities have been doing some authorization around debt service and the Palesky Initiative. The theory is that Palesky allows you to charge your debt service that is voter approved above the ten mil cap. The City of Gardiner and some other communities approve debt by a Council process. The theory has been for the community to get the debt approved by two-thirds of the voters before Palesky passes and then it can be charged in addition to the ten mils. One, the theory is contested very substantially, even those who have pursued this theory agree that they really don’t know if it is a valid approach or not. Manager Kobrock stated that he has not been interested in this approach because it seems fairly clear that it is extremely questionable from a legal point of view as
to whether you can reapprove existing debt. In addition to that, it plays right into some of the frequent comments from Palesky supporters about how municipal officials are doing anything that can be done to work around the Palesky Initiative. The other is, what if weren’t approved? Manager Kobrock stated that he hasn’t ignored this; it isn’t his decision to make all by himself. The Council agreed with Manager Kobrock.
Manager Kobrock spent the last two days at the New England Management Institute, every moment of the conference was spent talking about Palesky, very fascinating discussions. MMA unveiled a Palesky website, memun.org, with very detailed information; the address will be in this week’s packet.
There were discussions earlier this year about doing further work concerning the Palesky Initiative, the time is running short, does the Council want to pursue? The Council, after some discussion, was interested in the Manager meeting with some citizens with a Palesky budget. Manager Kobrock at the next council will present a model budget; the Council will brainstorm with different scenarios.
7. COUNCIL DISCUSSION AND PUBLIC COMMENTS
Councilor Hanley remarked that on September 18, the American Legion is having MIA POW Remembrance Day.
Councilor Dellert stated that she has some Question #1 information that she will copied and distributed to the Council.
Councilor Rambo stated that on August 19th the Portland Press Herald had interesting article on Oregon’s Question #5, it is very interesting, and is posted on the MMA website.
Councilor Nickless stated that he is very pleased to be on the North West Quadrant Committee, also being pleased with the way things are progressing.
Councilor Hart remarked that he received an anonymous letter recently stating that the City had lost $16,000 in arbitration, wondering why the Council wasn’t aware. Manager Kobrock stated that he had intended to speak about it that evening, but with the late hour, had intended to bring up at the next meeting. The cost to the City is only the wages paid to the reserve officer of several thousand dollars. The potential savings were the overtime expense of approximately $16,000.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Rines adjourned the meeting at 10:20 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Molly M. Gallant
Council Clerk
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