All elected officials were present tonight. The council added an update on Stack Hill to the agenda. The engineers for the development said they have been tracking how the 102 conditions of the preliminary plat are being met. 80% of those conditions have now been completed, 10% are met in the form of comments received and responded to and the final 10% were items that would be bonded so the final plat could be approved. Final plat approval would trigger the creation of individual properties that would be put on the tax rolls. Council Member Hunt noted this needed to be done prior to July to hit the tax rolls in 2009.
Hunt confirmed that the council's action at the last meeting of firing of the town planner without a replacement would not impact this process. The town could hire any engineering firm to confirm that technical conditions had been met, while the council could confirm the planning conditions had been met since we do not have functioning planning commission. Mayor Transue requested that the attorney for the project meet with the town attorney to determine the best way to proceed (public hearing or something else).
Mike Cohen asked that two conditions imposed by the council be removed 1) 10' setbacks where the rest of Ruston is 7.5' and 2) the 60' view corridor requirement. These requirements were not part of what the planning commission had required and were put on by the council later. The two attorneys will discuss how to proceed with this change as well.
Council liaisons were assigned to the following areas:
- Stebner: Public Works and Parks
- Huson: Land Use
- Hedrick: Public Safety and Courts
- Albertson: Budget
- Hunt: Infrastructure
The clerk has not been able to order enough copies of Roberts Rules of Order, 10th edition as required by the council rules. The mayor will look into getting a town credit card with a small limit for use for Internet purchases and the like. In the meantime, Council Member Huson will order 10 copies of the rule book.
The council did not like how public comment went at the last meeting. Council Member Albertson wants to return to banning all public comment unless the council votes to make an exception at the beginning of each meeting on specific items. Albertson felt that the same people used public comment to complain and re-haggle old issues from the last election, which they lost. Hunt did not like people signing up to comment on every issue and that those who commented were not providing pertinent information. The council wants well thought out comments in her opinion. The public will still be allowed 2 minutes to comment at the end of each meeting (after all business has been completed). The formal change for the rules will be presented at the next meeting.
After much discussion on the school building, it was decided to form a citizen's committee of real estate experts to advise the council on the options for town-owned properties. Al Olson (fiance of Council Member Hunt) is a developer and has agreed to work on such a committee. Two other real estate agents would be invited to join.
The mayor asked if the committee would be asked to look at all the options, including whether the town should even keep the school building. Huson mentioned one of the options might be to ask The Commencement to purchase the building since they had a long term lease for much of the space. He noted the council could adopt rules and procedures at the next council meeting (as suggested by the town attorney) that would require "them to throw their shit out on the street." Both Hunt and Huson suggested the best option for the building might be to "rip it down".
The mayor encouraged thoughtful, careful consideration of the issues and to engage the community especially considering the history. Albertson responded by saying the council should only talk among themselves and not engage the mayor in these study sessions. He felt the mayor raised too many obstacles, among other complaints. The mayor left the meeting a few minutes into Albertson's comments.
The council decided to set up this citizen committee and engage the public after the committee had decided on the options. Council Member Stebner wanted to be sure the committee would not plan on spending any of the surplus property fund to achieve their recommendations. The committee will explore the best use of the school, the current town hall and the resident fire fighter house next door.
The meeting adjoined about 8:15 pm.
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