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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSSN092914 CITY OF CENTRAL POINT City Council Study Session September 29,2014 MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Mayor Williams called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. II. ATTENDEES Mayor: Hank Williams Council Members: Bruce Dingier, Ellie George, Kelly Geiger, and Rick Samuelson were present. Allen Broderick and David Douglas were absent. City Manager Chris Clayton; Community Development Director Tom Humphrey, Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore; Police Chief Kris Allison; and City Recorder Deanna Casey were also present. III. BUSINESS A. Dangerous Animal Ordinance Police Chief Allison introduced a proposed ordinance for the Council to discussion regarding dangerous dogs in the city limits. The proposed amendment is similar to what the City of Medford is working on. They have not finalized their ordinance yet, but have been working on it for a while. Staff needs direction from the Council on if we want to tighten our regulations when it comes to aggressive animals. Amendments would require owners to maintain control of their dogs in public places. The City would impose penalties on the owners of dogs who injure other animals or people. She explained the number of recent animal violations in Central Point: 10 dog bites to a person; 5 dog bites to another animal; 137 barking dog calls; and 111 running dogs. She explained what the definition of a dangerous dog would mean in the amendments and what an unprovoked definition would be. She stated that failure to control could mean sanctions for the pet owner. Jackson County Animal Control has limited hours and they are not always available when an incident happens. Staff can look into options with local vegetarian's to house lose pets for after hours. CONCLUSION: Council agrees that the general penalty should be the fine of $250 as with other code violations. Staff should return to Council with an Ordinance revision for Dangerous Dogs. B. Public Works Corporation Yard Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore explained that staff is having ongoing discussions regarding the needs to development a jointed Public Works-Parks Operation Council Study Session September 29, 2014 Page 2 Center. Thelan is to look at current and future needs. Theyhave hired Pivot P Architecture to look at the options. The initial cost estimates to build a brand new facility using public dollars will be a minimum of $3.5 million dollars. The costs are based on current cost estimates based upon comparable within the state. These costs do not include parking and storage needs of the facility. Staff has started to look at multiple options for moving forward on a conjoined facility. These include building a new facility; looking at existing warehouse space; looking at properties where we could obtain a long-term lease of 20 years or more to move into a large warehouse and remodel a portion of it for office space. After some research we have found several locations that this option would work. The property options may be just outside the City Limits. We do not plan to spend any money at this time. But if there is development on the city property we may need to escalate the options to move the Parks Corporation yard. CONCLUSION: Staff will keep the Council informed regarding the options on Sage Road. C. RVSS Franchise Fee Mr. Samitore explained the viability of enacting a franchise fee on Rogue Valley Sanitary Sewer(RVSS). There have been a variety of sewer related projects that have happened in the City with damage to city infrastructure because of those projects. Several years ago the City of Phoenix enacted a franchise fee and RVSS appealed that to the local circuit court. The city's home rule prevailed. RVSS then appealed that decision to the Court of Appeals with the city home rule prevailing in that case also. RVSS is appealing to the Oregon Supreme Court which will be hearing the case in 2015. RVSS is the only utility in the City that is currently not paying a franchise fee. Until the right to establish a fee is settled in the courts any fee enacted and collected would be held by RVSS. He provided the possible rates at the normal 5, 6, and 7%fee rate. The goal is to reimburse the City for damage done to the infrastructure. Mr. Samitore showed several photos of damage done by construction that was authorized by RVSS. We are not trying to ad money to the general fund from RVSS we also want to allow them to keep their rates low, but we need to have something in place to encourage them to not damage our infrastructure without repairing it. We could also work on a strict policy to make them adhere to our rules and safety guidelines. The City of Jacksonville implemented a big fee which discourages RVSS from doing any work in their city limits. We want to keep our system intact and running, but the city cannot afford the liability that RVSS causes to our infrastructure. There was discussion regarding different types of franchises and the fee associated with each. We could add enforcement to our current Public Works Standards and practice Council Study Session September 29, 2014 Page 3 guidelines to make sure if they do work in Central Point that they are safe, and repair any damage they cause. CONCLUSION: Staff will watch for the Oregon Supreme Court decision with RVSS and proceed at that point. This was an informational only item that the city will be recommending some type of fee or enforcement for RVSS projects. D. CPE—Traffic Concerns This item was not discussed due to time restraints. IV. ADJOURNMENT The Study Session for September 22, 2014, was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.