07-13-2010 WS Page 1
MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION
Hopkins City Hall, Raspberry Room
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Mayor Maxwell called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. Present were Mayor
Maxwell and Council members Kristi Halverson, Rick Brausen, Bruce Rowan, Cheryl
Youakim, Hopkins City Manager Rick Getschow, Community Services Director Jim
Genellie, Public Housing Manager Stacy Unowsky, Director of Planning and
Economic Development Kersten Elverum, Building Official Christopher Kearney,
Housing Inspector Elizabeth Page, and Finance Director Christine Harkess.
Public Housing Update:
Stacy Unowsky provided an update to the City Council on the following topics:
Dow Towers waiting list;
Social service (ROSS) grant;
Stimulus projects (generators, windows, elevators);
Federal (HUD) funding status; and
• Dealing with difficult tenants
A new topic of discussion was smoke -free public housing. Stacy stated that many
HRAs in Minnesota have decided to go smoke free in recent years. In 2009, HUD
issued a notice strongly encouraging HRAs to implement nonsmoking policies due
to business and health concerns. While careful consideration of this issue is necessary
a few key facts were highlighted:
Units vacated by a smoker are approximately five times as expensive to turnover in
comparing costs for painting, cleaning, and overall preparation of the unit; and
• The majority of our renters are non smokers and are experiencing second hand
smoke from neighboring units and our HRA staff are routinely exposed to smoke in
performing their jobs.
The City Council felt that this topic is an important one to explore. Stacy will begin
surveying residents and having discussions with them regarding the potential for Dow
Towers to go smoke free. The Council will conduct a work session toward the end of
the year at Dow Towers to further discuss this topic and to receive a tour of the
facility and view the latest improvements.
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Rental Licensing Program Update:
Building Official Kearney stated that we are just over two years into the expanded
rental inspection program and much has been learned by staff, tenants and owners.
In 2009 Housing Inspector Mark Lucht concentrated on single - family and duplex
dwellings and then in 2010 he moved on to condominiums and townhomes. Liz Page
has concentrated on inspecting apartment buildings when she is not involved in
Code Enforcement, Truth -In- Housing and Property Maintenance duties. Over the last
two years Liz's percentage of time spent on Code Enforcement and Property
Maintenance is increasing while time spent on Housing Inspections has decreased.
Kearney listed the most common violations found during the rental inspection
process. There is no real pattern on what type of property the city is finding the items
to be corrected in. They have found some of the worst cases in owner occupied
duplexes, while a single family home managed by a professional property
management company can be free of violations. Then there are cases when just
the opposite is true.
After the inspection process, properties are scored and put in category A, B or C.
Category A properties are inspected on a 3 year cycle, Category B on a 2 year
cycle and Category C every year. Roughly 420 of the category C buildings
improved to category A or B the second year they were inspected while 58% stayed
at category
Staff believes the. program is working and worth all the effort. Life safety and health
issues such as illegal bedrooms in basements, missing fire separation walls between
garage and dwelling units, no smoke defectors as well as other life safety issues are
being corrected while the overall quality of the rental stock in the city is increasing.
In terms of finances, the rental inspection fee income has averaged just over $24,000
for the past two years. Projected Rental Inspection Revenue for current year was set
at $32,000. We found that once the inspectors got into the Single Family Dwellings
and Duplexes staff time per inspection and the follow -up that is required increased
greatly compared to apartment buildings. Kearney stated staff is continuing to Kook
at ways to increase the number of inspections while offering professional customer
service such as using in -field notebook computers to cut down on the paper work,
enabling the number of inspections to increase. While these steps will increase
inspections revenues somewhat, in order to completely cover the cost of this
program, annual fees and /or inspections fees may have to be increased.
Council thanked Kearney for the presentation and expressed satisfaction with the
current program.
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2011 Budget:
City Manager Getschow and Finance Director Harkess discussed the work done to
date on the proposed 2011 Budget. Preliminary data suggests a proposed levy
increase and budget increase that will be less than 2.50.
One major item of note is the decertification of a TIF District for 2011 which will assist
in alleviating some of the city tax rate increase.
Final numbers will be discussed in work sessions in August prior to the September 7th
Council meeting when the preliminary levy must be approved.
Other
After distributing a draft, City Manager Getschow stated that the goals and
strategic plan for 2010-2011 will be placed on the next Council meeting
agenda for approval.
Getschow discussed the upcoming work sessions that will take place off -site yet
this year with the Hopkins School Board, at the Center for the Arts, and at Dow
Towers.
Council discussed time and duties for the city booth at the upcoming
Raspberry Festival
On a motion by Youakim, and second by Halverson, the meeting was adjourned at
10:20 pm.
Rick Getschow, Secretary
CITY COUNCIL
ATTEST:
Eugene J. Max ell, Mayor