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FAIRMONT-- The Fairmont City Council meeting had a full agenda Monday evening which included approving the council rules of procedure.
City Administrator Cathy Reynolds said in February of 2020 the council had a workshop with the League of Minnesota Cities to look at council operations and a second work session was to be held in May of that year. However, it was cancelled due to Covid.
She said they had picked back up the training this year with the January and February training sessions and during that time drafting the rules of procedure was discussed.
"We have an initial draft of some rules of procedure based off of League of Minnesota Cities models," Reynolds said.
She said the council can suggest any changes or review it and adopt it as presented. Council member Randy Lubenow asked if there's already a charter that addresses the topic. Reynolds said the charter actually says that the council shall determine its own rules and order of business.
"It seems some of these provisions are for people who are volunteers on committees and seems like it would scare me from wanting to be on any of these committees," Lubenow said.
The seven page document, which includes both rules of procedure and council code of conduct, goes over several items such as the consent agenda, public hearings, and communication.
Council member Britney Kawecki asked if City Attorney Mark Rahrick supported the document. He said that he doesn't support or not support it because it's up to the council but that he believed it was a good discussion for the council to have.
"There's points in here where I believe it talks about, if there's something we want to put on the agenda, if there's a discussion and the majority says they don't want to talk about it anymore, but I don't think the questions have been answered, I can't bring it back to the council for six months," Kawecki said.
She asked how that is doing any service to ward two and shared that the majority of the questions she asks come from constituents.
"I'm confused about this document," Kawecki said.
She also agreed with Lubenow's concerns about code of conducts for commissions, boards and staff as many of those people are in volunteer positions.
Council member Michele Miller asked why the creation of rules of procedures came up in the first place. Mayor Deb Foster said it was back in 2017 when the League of Minnesota Cities began doing workshops with the Fairmont City Council to make sure everyone was holding up what they were supposed to be doing.
She said in 2020, the League stopped doing in-person sessions for quite some time and just recently started again.
"It seems to me that some of the policy is needed concerning some of the actions that have happened in the past," Miller said.
She said a policy is especially needed when it comes to the consent agenda as the current council has had issues approving it in the past.
"As far as bringing topics back to the council, I don't think anyone here believes that you shouldn't be able to bring it back, but continually bringing it back, without moving anywhere... gets us nowhere,' Miller said.
She also pointed out that the policy is meant to be a guide. Council member Bruce Peters offered that he thinks the policy is mostly common sense.
A motion to approve the council rules and procedures passed 3-2 with council members Miller, Hasek and Peters voting yes and Lubenow and Kawecki voting no. A motion to approve the council code of conduct also passed 3-2 with council members Miller, Hasek and Peters voting yes and Lubenow and Kawecki voting no.
During staff reports, City Engineer Troy Nemmers said he wanted to clarify some information that was going on last week regarding the soccer fields. Nemmers said information was requested from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency regarding a notice of violation that was issued to the city's wastewater treatment plant in 2014. The notice was regarding biosolids that were placed in 2012.
"It's my understanding this information was shared with a council member, the Fairmont Soccer Association president and the open discussion Facebook page. Portions of this information were shared with the public, inciting concerns from the public and leading to the soccer association restricting access to the soccer fields," Nemmers said.
He said city staff made contact with the MPCA to confirm that all corrective actions were addressed from the 2014 enforcement. In addition, he said it was confirmed that there was not a concern for safety in 2014 and there is not a safety concern now. He said once the information was obtained, it was shared with the council, school district and soccer association.
"Just to close, city staff would encourage residents to make contact with city hall prior to validating social media posts or other online statements generated on the open discussion Facebook page or other sites that work to generate negativity or incite fear in our community," Nemmers said.
In other news, the council:
-- Heard a presentation from Nemmers regarding the 2022 surface water intake protection plan.
Nemmers said that since the city's nitrate exceedance in 2016 there's been gathering of agencies to look at the city's drinking water source, Budd Lake. He said the Minnesota Department of Health has been working with city staff over 18 months to consider creating a source water protection plan.
On Monday Amanda Strommer, MDH Source Water Protection District Planner, was present to give a presentation to the council on what they came up with over the last 18 months.
Following the brief presentation, the council approved to authorize and submit the 2022 SWIPP to MDH for final review.
-- Approved the resolution to authorize submitting the funding application for the next round of waste water treatment upgrades. The estimated cost of the projects is $18.8 million and the city will be working with the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority on the funding process.
-- Approved an agreement with Erickson Engineering for professional services on the Memorial Park Drive bridge replacement. Nemmers said the project would be done in 2023 and will not exceed $104,000.