HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-06-01 City Council Work Session MinutesMINUTES
OF THE EDINA CITY COUNCIL
WORK SESSION
VIRTUAL MEETING
TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2021
5:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Hovland called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Answering roll call were Members Anderson, Jackson, Pierce, Staunton, and Mayor Hovland.
Staff in attendance: Scott Neal, City Manager; Chad Millner, Engineering Director; Don Uram, Finance Director;
Aaron Ditzler, Assistant City Engineer; Ryan Browning, IT Director; Jennifer Bennerotte, Communications
Director; Risi Karim, City Management Fellow; Jennifer Garske, Executive Assistant; and Sharon Allison, City
Clerk.
Also in attendance: City Attorney Dave Kendall; City’s consulting attorney Jay Lindgren, and Ann Swenson, chair,
Street Funding Force.
STREET FUNDING DISCUSSION
Manager Neal said how to equitably fund long term capital infrastructure improvement, in particular streets, has
been challenging for many years for Edina and many other cities. He said they were trying to be proactive in
coming up with a funding policy that would address equity and fairness for residents in neighborhoods already
assessed and those not yet assessed. Neal said the resident-led Streets Funding Task Force, and staff, provided a
report to Council recently and staff was looking for Council’s direction on how to change the street
reconstruction assessment policy.
Engineering Director Millner stated that staff was looking for guidance on the funding breakdown of how much to
special assess and how much to be funded with taxes. He said at the Council retreat, Council discussed a
breakdown of 25% special assessment and 75% taxes, with a transition period of six or 11 years, and developing a
change management plan. In response to information requested by Council, Millner shared how the cities of
Bloomington and Minneapolis paid for street reconstruction and shared that approximately 50% of Edina’s streets
have already been reconstructed. Millner said Ann Swenson, chair of the Streets Funding Task Force, was present
to answer questions, as well as attorney Jay Lindgren of Dorsey and Whitney, and city attorney Dave Kendall, to
provide legal opinions on providing refunds and taxes.
Lindgren explained that cities did not have statutory authority to refund tax dollars. He said the tax rate had to be
applied uniformly and used for public purposes and, in this case, it would be used to refund a private benefit which
would make it difficult to show uniformity. He said franchise fees would be more equitable and is used in other
cities to pay for street improvements. Kendall said his advice to the task force was similar to Lindgren’s except for
using franchise fees. He said the task force did not consider franchise fees a viable option.
Council discussed franchise fees as an option, but Swenson explained that the task force did not consider it a
viable option because it treated all lot sizes the same and most small lots were already special assessed, and staff
added that the monthly franchise fees would need to be increased from $1.90 to $4.90 to collect $1M annually.
Option 2 of the task force’s recommendation was discussed as preferred by Council which was to pay for street
improvements with general levy100% over 16 years. Millner said staff would come back later with a draft policy
for Council’s review and approval.
ADJOURNMENT
Edina City Council Work Session Meeting, June 1, 2021
Mayor Hovland adjourned the meeting at 6:37 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, __________________________________________
Sharon Allison, City Clerk
Minutes approved by the Edina City Council, June 15, 2021.
___________________________________________
James B. Hovland, Mayor