President Carlsrud called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM.

Members present: President Carlsrud, Commissioner Bishop, Commissioner Magnuson, Commissioner Erickson,

Pledge of Allegiance (Please Stand)

New Business

N2.  Consider Raffle Permit for the Valley City Lions Club on September 14^th, 2021.

Commissioner Bishop moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Magnuson.  Motion passed unanimously.

N1.  Discuss Valley City Municipal Code Section 15-01-12.1 regarding Assessment of Unpaid Utility Charges.

President Carlsrud asked the public for comments.

Dick Lorenz stated he has some rental property and doesn’t object to it going on the taxes but feels the rental owners should get some sort of notice ahead of time.  If the tenants are 30 days late there should be notice.  It would also be nice to get notice when tenants disconnect.

City Administrator Crawford stated we do give notice about 45 days to both the landlord and tenant.

Dick requested notice sooner.

City Administrator Crawford explained our current deposit policy for new accounts.  Also added that we trying to work things out.  Before the landlords weren’t able to call in and check on a tenant’s bill.  We are thinking of having the tenants sign something that makes the landlords able to check the status of the account. 

Mike Payson questioned if anyone has thought about how this affects affordable housing?  Some of the landlords may look at raising rent as a way to help cover the utility bills.  The other concern is energy assistance.  If the landlords are paying the utilities the tenants lose the ability to receive energy assistance.

City Administrator Crawford stated there may be some landlords that choose to do it that way but many won’t because they can’t control how much someone uses the utilities.  For the energy assistance, yes, they have to have the utility in their name to receive the assistance.

Mike Payson added he did not feel the utility bills should not be placed on the landlords, that it should be put back on the city or government.

Dean Ross stated he doesn’t think it’s the landlord’s responsibility.  He bases his rent including the utilities because it’s all electric heat so in the winter it’s substantial.  What happened to making them responsible for paying for their utilities?  Isn’t that why there is a deposit?  What if you get a tenant that is upset with the landlord, will they purposely not pay their utility bill just so the landlord gets stuck with it?

City Administrator Crawford stated the city will still do what they can to get the bill paid.  There is approximately $15,000 per year not getting paid.  A lot has to do with once they are gone there is no way to get to them.  

Commissioner Magnuson added that we are having this meeting to hear from the landlords because we didn’t do that prior to creating the ordinance.  Magnuson questioned if Dean thought the unpaid bills should be put onto the rest of the people’s bills that are paying them because that’s where they’re going now?

President Carlsrud added that we did have 3 public meetings regarding this topic that were published in various places and no one showed up.  It gets to be a cost if we send letters every time for people to show up.  We are here today to listen to ideas because it’s not fair to the people of our community to have $15,000 to go on the tax roll.

Mike Payson added that this could be tough for young investors.  If it’s an average of $15,000/year maybe they city could think about adding that into the budget?

Commissioner Magnuson requested a fair solution.  Dean mentioned that $15,000 is pennies to the city but then someone else will come back and say we just spent $500 on garbage cans and that’s a great deal of money.  So $15,000 we’ll just write off goes to everyone that’s paying utility bills.  Are you okay with covering somebody that’s not paying their bills?  Do you make the deposit $1,000?  Chances are if they are renting they can’t afford that.  Now you’re running the small investor out of business because they can’t rent to them because they can’t afford utilities.  We’re open to suggestions.

Mike Payson suggested assessing it to everyone in the city because it would be such a small amount.  I don’t see that it should be a burden on the landlords when it’s more of a governmental or energy assistance thing.

Commissioner Magnuson stated a question was presented to him by a couple that could not attend the meeting.  Hypothetically if they rented from someone and didn’t pay their bill so the landlord was stuck with it and then they just jump to someone else’s apartment.  Can we track if they’re delinquent?

City Administrator Crawford stated there could be a question added to the form when they apply.

Commissioner Bishop stated what we’re doing now is trying to fix the problem after it happens.  What we need to focus on is not letting the problem happen.  Do landlords run credit checks on their tenants or the city on people coming in to get utilities?  Maybe your deposit is based on your credit score?  Maybe that has to be worked out where the city and landlord has it worked out together.

Mike Payson stated there is a facility in town that has not been managed well and 50% of their units have not been rented.  Think of the burden on that landlord when you’re down 50% of tenants and some that don’t pay rent on time and now they’re getting hit with unpaid utilities.

President Carlsrud stated if we work together we have a better chance of getting the cost causer to be the cost payer.  We can come together to lessen the chance of those getting away with fraud or theft, whatever you want to call it.

City Attorney Martineck added that the ordinance was drafted to be discretionary so it’s not like on January 1^st there will be a drop dead date.  It’s just there if we need to use it.

Adjourn

Meeting was adjourned at 5:44 PM.

President Carlsrud called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM.

Members present: President Carlsrud, Commissioner Magnuson, Commissioner Bishop, Commissioner Erickson, and Commissioner Gulmon

Others City Administrator Crawford and City Attorney Martineck, Finance Director Richter, Administrative Assistant Johnson, Deputy Auditor Klein, Police Chief Hatcher.

Pledge of Allegiance

Approval of Agenda

No Changes.

Approval of Minutes

Commissioner Bishop moved to approve the minutes from the August 17^th and August 30^th, 2021 meetings, seconded by Commissioner Erickson.  Motion passed unanimously.

Approval of Consent Agenda

Approve Monthly Reports from the Fire Chief, Electrical Superintendent, Building Inspector Finance Director and Municipal Judge.

Approve Raffle Permit for Sheyenne Care Center.

Approve Parade Application for VCSU Homecoming Parade on Oct. 2 at 10:30 AM on Central Ave from 12 St. NE to the VCSU Foot Bridge.

Approve Block off the Street Request from RL Stearns for the alley running East/West at Ace Hardware from beginning September 8^th for about 2 weeks.

Commissioner Bishop moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Magnuson.  Motion passed unanimously.

PUBLIC HEARING

Public Hearing for 2022 City Budget.

President Carlsrud declared the Public Hearing Open.

Finance Director Richter gave overview of the 2022 budget.

Steve Jorissen commented about the city taxes going up about 10%.  Wondering what is going on?

Finance Director Richter stated there were a couple factors in the 10%.  When you take the increase on the value of your home, I believe it’s 5.8%.  Last year for the budget we reduced our mill levy by 4.51 mills.  We had Covid CARES funds for about $100,000 to offset that, to buy down our mill levy.  We no longer have that so we brought the mill levy back up to what it was before we have the Covid CARES money.

Steve Jorissen asked if what we are saying is that this year budget is pretty much like it was about 2 years ago.  Overall what is the dollar amount that the budget went up?

Finance Director Richter stated for the general fund the expenditures increased $138,609.

Commissioner Bishop moved to close the hearing, seconded by Commissioner Gulmon.  Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner Gulmon moved to approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 1089, an Ordinance Adopting the 2022 City Budget, seconded by Commissioner Magnuson.  Motion passed unanimously.

New Business

Approve Monthly Bills for the City and Public Works in the Amount of $2,347,996.56

Finance Director Richter reported about $283,000 in PFP because of purchasing the maintenance building and also the two vacant properties.  The new equipment lease for $68,000, BND some PFP debt service due for another $64,000, invoice for the FD addition for $53,000, construction projects are around $750,000 and MRES is another $460,000.  The remaining balance is our employee salaries and insurance.

Commissioner Gulmon moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Magnuson.  Motion passed unanimously.

Approve Valley City Barnes County Development Request for Funds.

Jennifer Feist stated this is requesting $10,000 to assist with the drain analysis in the Northwest Industrial Park. 

Commissioner Bishop moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Gulmon.  Motion passed unanimously.

Consider the Valley City Barnes County Development Corporation’s request to Retain $188,000 of Economic Development Funds.

Jennifer Feist stated this request is because we recently accepted an offer to purchase a building in the Northwest Industrial Park.  We are planning to construct a new manufacturing type building in that area.

Commissioner Gulmon moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Bishop.  Motion passed unanimously.

Consider Granting Easement to Barnes County Park Board for Monson Trail.

Commissioner Magnuson moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Bishop.  Motion passed unanimously.

Approve City Administrator to Negotiate Sale of City Lot Located North of West Main Street in NP Additions 5 and 6.

City Administrator Crawford stated she presented the offer of $48,200 for the property that we own which also included the right of way and the easement for the Monson Trail.

Commissioner Magnuson moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Bishop.  Motion passed unanimously.

Consider Site Authorization for Barnes County Wildlife Federation at the Valley City Eagles Club on April 2, 2022. 

Commissioner Magnuson moved to approve, seconded by Commissioner Bishop.  Motion passed unanimously.

City Administrator’s Report

City Administrator Crawford stated we closed on a cold storage building for the PFP.  We also closed on the PFP lots that were able to be built on so we could protect that.  The property to the west is being used as community gardens but we spoke to the owner and they can keep doing what they’re doing until we’re ready to build the flood wall.  The closing on the Valley Implements building should be this Thursday at 9 am.

City Updates & Commission Reports

Chad Petersen from KLJ updated on the construction.  Main Street Streetscape the rain last week slowed progress a little bit along with some of the basement windows we encountered under the sidewalk that has been there for years.  The concrete work on that block should be done early next week and then we’ll be shifting to the concrete work between 2^nd and 3^rd.  We’re making progress and still on schedule.  We’re still waiting for a term date for the mill and overlay on south Central. We have some parades coming up and need to make sure we’re communicating with them.

The recommendation to fix the drain by the Elks is to take bids this fall so there is a contractor in place and get the materials ordered to do the work this spring.

Commissioner Gulmon stated a couple meetings ago a discussion took place about a collaboration with the Park District and CVB about a Marketing Coordinator.  That is nearing completion, interviews are taking place this week.

President Carlsrud thanked to all that worked on the budget.  Our water department has reported that our water supply is in a good position so we aren’t likely to go on any restrictions.  Thank you to our Police Department and the Fire Department.   

Adjourn

Meeting was adjourned at 5:35 P.M.