The Hampton City Council met on Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at the Hampton City Hall for the regular scheduled meeting. Present were Mayor Skog; Council Members Jennifer Budrow, John Knetter, Ron Endres, and Amanda Jensrud. Also present were Mike Slavik, Dakota County Commissioner; Chris Meyer, City Treasurer; and Cory Bienfang with Bolton and Menk.
Regular Meeting called to Order - Mayor Skog called the Regular Meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
Disclosure of Interest – None
Approval of February 11, 2014 Regular Scheduled Meeting Minutes – Motion by Knetter seconded by Jensrud to approve the February 11, 2014 Regular Meeting Minutes. All voted in favor. None opposed. Motion passed 5:0.
Approval of Disbursements – Council Member Budrow questioned the invoice received from Dakota County for salt/sand. Wendy Carpenter, City Clerk explained that the County bills the City directly for the salt/sand that is used by the snow plowing contractor. Knetter stated that more salt/sand had been used this year than previous years. Motion by Budrow seconded by Knetter to approve the March disbursements. All voted in favor. None opposed. Motion passed 5:0.
Public Comment – Mike Slavik, Dakota County Commissioner announced that MnDot will be installing additional delineators with signage along the southbound curve of the 52/47 interchange. Slavik also stated that property tax statements have been sent out and that Dakota County was one of eight counties that reduced taxes and that property owners will be seeing an approximate 8% increase in valuation. The commissioner mentioned that statements could now be emailed out as an option.
Petitions, Requests, and Communications - Chris Meyer, City Treasurer provided the 2013 Financial Statements and explained that the State Auditor requires this to be reported annually and that the statements consist of nine schedules including statements of receipts, disbursements, and balances within the different funds. Additional information included all activity and cash balances and detailed information on each account including the enterprise funds, accounts receivables and payables, an investment summary, list of outstanding debt, and all disbursements. Meyer explained that in 2013 the water fund had a loss of $18,570.00 due to a large amount of depreciation on the fixed assets and the sewer fund had an additional income of $17,828.00 due to the sewage dumping. The Treasurer also stated that the 2006 bond had been refinanced in 2013 and the interest rate went from 4.42% to 2.10%.
Reports of Officers, Boards, and Committees
Engineer Report – Cory Bienfang with Bolton and Menk spoke on the contamination testing in the Main Street and Lincoln Street area and as an access agreement has been already put in place, geo probing was planned to begin the first week in April. Bienfang stated that he has been working with the County and going over maps to ensure minimal impact and the County has offered to provide assistance to the City in areas of extending City Hall hours if needed, a mailing of newsletters to residents, and perhaps having an open house after the project is complete to explain findings. Knetter recommended sending out a newsletter two weeks prior to the start of the project and an open house after to explain some of the issues that may come up and to educate residents on what has been determined.
Deputy Fletcher asked if there were any concerns and reminded residents to keep their vehicles locked. The Deputy stated that the Sherriff’s Department was addressing the traffic concerns on County Road 47 and asked if there was certain times of day that were worse than others. Jensrud stated that the morning and afternoon work commute seemed to be a concern.
Water / Sewer Report - Knetter stated that there was a check valve that had failed on a well and that it would need to be replaced and also requested that property owners make sure their water meters are clear of snow and accessible as the meters will be read in a couple of weeks.
Park Report – Endres questioned the broken boards on the ice rink. Budrow said that it had happened while Sno-Moe was plowing the snow off and that when the weather permits, she will be able to determine the extent of damage.
Street Report - Endres commented on the season’s snowplowing and said that he had a few complaints as well as some compliments from residents. Budrow stated that she had attended the Fire Department meeting and that there were concerns with Water Street being plowed too narrow. Knetter commented that it had not been plowed to the curb and Jensrud suggested if there was a problem again next year, that Council consider going with parking on one side of the street. Endres requested Bienfang check on some signage options to label the parallel parking area on Main Street. Skog questioned who would enforce the signs as the City had not entered into a JPO with the Sherriff’s Department. Council decided to wait and see if parking was still an issue after the snow cleared.
Unfinished Business – Water / Sewer Discussion - Skog questioned the Clerk on how she arrived at the numbers provided to the Council regarding the water and sewer software miscalculations. Carpenter explained that the accounts that had been input as commercial verses residential were all re-figured as well as the multi-unit properties that ran off of one meter as they were also set up incorrectly in the system. All accounts were figured per thousand gallons using the correct base charge reflecting the number of units within the properties. The summer discount was not factored in and Carpenter stated that all residents did in fact receive a discount through averaging the winter quarters water use. Skog stated that the figures provided were incorrect and requested reports on fourth quarter billing and also mentioned that the Council should see a report on accounts that receive late fees. Knetter said that he didn’t need to see that information on a monthly basis. Endres commented that Skog didn’t trust the Clerk with the water and sewer billing. Skog said that wasn’t the issue but felt that there were a lot of delinquent accounts not being addressed. Carpenter provided a spreadsheet of accounts that were overdue at this time and the status of them. Skog mentioned that there was an account that he knew of that was not listed and had a high balance. Carpenter confirmed that the account Skog spoke of was in fact making regular payments on the balance owed. Skog stated that payments were not acceptable and that properties should be assessed. Knetter said that the payment plan issue had already been addressed at previous meetings and that the Council should move forward and make a decision on what course of action would be taken regarding accounts that were overcharged or undercharged due to the software miscalculations before any more time was spent on this issue. Skog said that the Clerk was ultimately responsible for the issue and was not doing her job. Carpenter stated that she had still found problems in the billing and had been working with Banyon so all issues should be resolved and billing will be correct moving forward. Jensrud offered to volunteer her time to help go through all the accounts within the City to see what miscalculations were in fact applied. Council agreed the City Clerk, Deputy Clerk, and Council Member Jensrud will go through all accounts since the installation of the new software and figure the correct charge per thousand gallons taking into consideration the multi-units corrected base charge. Motion by Knetter seconded by Budrow to credit all accounts that had been overcharged, but not bill the accounts that were undercharged. All voted in favor. None opposed. Motion passed 5:0.
Adjournment - Motion by Knetter seconded by Jensrud to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor. None opposed. Motion passed 5:0. The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Wendy Carpenter