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Home My WebLink About2017 02-27 CCM Study Session MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND THE STATE OF MINNESOTA STUDY SESSION FEBRUARY 27, 2017 CITY HALL – COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER The Brooklyn Center City Council met in Study Session called to order by Mayor Tim Willson at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Mayor Tim Willson and Councilmembers Marquita Butler, April Graves, Kris Lawrence- Anderson, and Dan Ryan were present. Also present were City Manager Curt Boganey, Deputy City Manager Reggie Edwards, Public Works Director/City Engineer Steve Lillehaug, Director of Business and Development Gary Eitel, Director of Community Activities, Recreation and Services Jim Glasoe, Deputy Director of Building and Community Standards Jesse Anderson, and Michaela Kujawa-Daniels, TimeSaver Off Site Secretarial, Inc. CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSION OF AGENDA ITEMS AND QUESTIONS Councilmember Ryan requested the following correction to the Study Session minutes of February 13, 2017: strd Page 3, 1 Paragraph, 3 Line: “He stated the tests performed by the EPA have shown the water is safer for residents now than before…” and to change it to the following language: “He stated the tests performed by the Minnesota Department of Health has shown the water is safer for residents now than before…” It was the majority consensus of the City Council to accept the revision to the February 13, 2017 City Council Study Session minutes. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson requested the following correction to the Study Session minutes of February 13, 2017: thst Page 2, 4 Paragraph, 1 Line: “Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she has been approached about meeting with people and has reached out to them only to be turned down for a meeting. She stated she met with Ms. Miller and enjoyed that conversation a lot.” and to substitute it with the following language: “Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she has been 02/27/17 -1- approached via social media to engage in dialogue regarding issues an individual wanted to discuss. She requested instead of continuing the discussion via Facebook, either an in person meeting or a phone call to continue the discussion and on more than one occasion the individual declined to do so. It was the majority consensus of the City Council to accept the revision to the February 13, 2017 City Council Study Session minutes. MISCELLANEOUS None at this time. DISCUSSION OF WORK SESSION AGENDA ITEMS AS TIME PERMITS ORGANIC RECYLCING REVIEW – TIM PRATT Tim Pratt, Hennepin Recycling Group Coordinator, provided a presentation and background on this item. Mayor Willson stated he was in Chicago a while ago and he saw youth doing some farming with compost and would like to know if that is something the City can do with the compost items collected. Mr. Pratt stated this is something they considered but they usually try to get the leftover food items to other people in need first, second they would want to give the food to animals in need, and lastly they would look at composting it into gardens like Mayor Willson referred to. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she has three bins for pick-up already as she has garbage, recycling and yard waste. She asked if adding this service would add an additional bin for her to use and put out every week. Mr. Pratt replied, yes, it would if they choose the Minneapolis model of the service. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she likes the program and encourages composting but doesn’t want to mandate the City use it due to the extra cost to residents. Councilmember Ryan stated he agrees with Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson and would like to encourage the composting but doesn’t want to impose another cost on the residents unless it is something they want. Councilmember Graves asked if there is a reason that organic materials shouldn’t be put into landfills. Mr. Pratt replied, yes, stating it is because organic materials give off methane when trapped in landfills, and noted methane doesn’t provide any quality to the air or earth. Councilmember Graves stated she feels the County may be using this as a way to gain more funding and that it may create more work for residents. Councilmember Butler stated she uses Randy’s services and didn’t see anything on this new service communicated to her. She asked how this new service was communicated. Mr. Pratt stated they sent out postcards in the fall. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she would like to see some citizen feedback before they decide how to move forward. Councilmember Ryan agreed and stated he feels that if they 02/27/17 -2- can provide some cost comparisons to residents they could get a good consensus from the public about if this is something the majority wants to do. Mr. Boganey asked if Brooklyn Center chooses not to participate in this program, will that affect the other surrounding cities opportunity to participate or change the cost for them. Mr. Pratt stated it could affect either or both of those things. Mayor Willson asked if there would be another truck doing the pick-ups in addition to their regular garbage and recycling trucks. Mr. Pratt stated the City could decide how to handle that and contract with one company. Mayor Willson stated right now he thinks they should decline the service until they get input from citizens. Mr. Pratt stated they can request the pricing in the RFP. He noted doing an RFP doesn’t commit them to entering a contract with the company, it would provide more information so they can decide if they want to proceed. It was the majority consensus of the City Council to have staff, through the RFP process, gather more information on costs and details on service, then bring it back to the Councilmembers for review and ultimately gather resident input to decide how to proceed. CONTINUANCE OF COUNCIL DISCUSSION REGARDING CITIZEN DIALOGUE – CITY MANAGER Mayor Willson asked the City Manager to share a concept that he and the City Manager had discussed to help facilitate citizen dialogue. Mr. Boganey described an approach where the City Council would identify topics for citizen discussion in a facilitated world café process. Mayor Willson stated he feels this approach would mostly work well and stated he would like to see the proposed idea for this meeting documented and then come back to the City Council for review. Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she likes the idea of having small tables where topics are discussed at each table and a moderator would facilitate the meeting. She stated she would also like to see a yearly meeting that is open to any and all topics not based on specific topics. Councilmember Butler stated she likes the small group model as well but she doesn’t necessarily like choosing the topics because she wants the citizens to choose the topics. She stated having a bigger meeting to address some of the issues on a broader scale and then breaking into small groups later would be ideal. Councilmember Ryan stated he is in favor of having a facilitator run a world café style meeting. He stated he would like to see an agenda on specific topics for a few meetings and then have a meeting that offers more of an open mic style where any topics could be addressed. Councilmember Graves stated she likes the idea of a facilitator and stated the youth council has a group that does that. She stated it would be great to incorporate the youth in this process, allow them to use the skills they are learning and to be involved in government meetings. Mayor Willson stated the idea is great and he would be in favor of that. 02/27/17 -3- Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson stated she would suggest the first meeting they hold be open forum and then, based on the level of interest the proceeding meetings be on specific topics raised by citizens from the first meeting. ADJOURN STUDY SESSION TO INFORMAL OPEN FORUM WITH CITY COUNCIL Councilmember Ryan moved and Councilmember Lawrence-Anderson seconded to close the Study Session at 6:45 p.m. Motion passed unanimously. 02/27/17 -4-