Part 2
** 6:12pm **
Regular meeting is recessed and Planning Committee is rejoined.
* Bryn Mawr Meadows planning update report by asst. super. Judd Rietkerk.
Rietkerk goes through the history of the plans, and pulls in all kinds of other plans, including former Superintendent David Fisher's plans in 1998 to build more sports facilities in the parks, including the Ft. Snelling facility that exists today, the many and varied plans for Parade Stadium and the areas around it, the city's north-south connector (Van White Boulevard), use of artificial turf in some of the mentioned locations, and an NFL grant used at North Commons and applied for at Parade. In 1998-1999, Brauer and Associates, Ltd. was hired and drew up plans for Ft. Snelling. In 1999-2000, the Guthrie announced it was moving, and that triggered the creation of new plans for Parade, created by Cunningham and Associates. Then somewhere in there, the City approved the north-south connector idea, but the exact location is not firm. This triggered the Park Board to hire Brauer and Associates again, this time to draw up 2 concepts for Bryn Mawr. Then there was a plan to use artificial turf at Parade Stadium. Then another contract was let to Ingraham(?) and Associates to evaluate Parade and Bryn Mawr due to the Guthrie moving to the riverside.
Much, much more detail about the various iterations of plans and NFL grants at North Commons and Parade, and the number of ball fields at Bryn Mawr, etc. were reported. Some plans emphasized softball, others emphasized youth soccer, still others had mixed adult/youth field usage. Other plans had a new stadium with Astroturf and bleachers built next to Parade and the ice arenas. There is also a plan for a banquet facility near Parade. The north-south connector has been moved since the 2000 plan. New road location resulted in having the consultants relook at plans. New plan supposedly emphasizes "quality not quantity" of sports facilities, including 3 adult/youth softball fields located on the current city impound lot. In the past 2 months, a consulting firm was paid $10,630 out of a "pre-planning" "slush" fund which had contained $303,000.
* Comr. Mason reviews the history:
-- the Bryn Mawr plans were dropped several years ago when the city indicated it would not give up the impound lot and the rock crusher site (both on east side of Bryn Mawr Meadows).
-- the plans were not ready to be presented to the board at this time.
-- from her years of experience on planning and zoning commission, and as Park Board liaison to it in subsequent years, she learned that preliminary plans do not leave the Park Board without being marked as "DRAFT". She has copies of the plans that Comr. Bob Fine presented to city council members, and they are not so marked.
-- at least 4 commissioners had no idea the plans existed, that money was being spent on developing them.
-- Bryn Mawr is in Mason's district and Fine nor staff bothered to communicate the plans to her.
-- Interim superintendent Jon Gurban initiated the discussion of the Bryn Mawr plans after a "dry run" of a staff presentation to commissioners, i.e. in their absence.
-- Comr. Bob Fine "hangs around" the Park Board planning department and Rietkerk says this is how he learned about the plans which he then took to his meeting with several city council members to discuss.
-- Mason was told the $303,000 "pre-planning" fund had $30,000 a year added to it until last year when money was short, yet she can find no mention of that expense, nor the fund itself in any of her many financial documents dating back years.
Comr. Bob Fine is not present, and Mason wants him to have an opportunity to explain to the full board what he was doing and why.
** 6:42pm **
Comr. Erwin says this situation could have been avoided with a few ground rules: etiquette for commissioner conduct, and the Board should be determining major new expenditures, not staff. He comments the Park Board is losing money on the Ft. Snelling athletic complex and he is hesitant to do it again.
Comr. Berry Graves comments that a reduction in the number of softball fields at Bryn Mawr, as per the most recent plan, is a bad idea. They are used intensively by adults. She also points out how mixing youth and adult field usage has been problematic in the past, and how the board has had a long term goal since 1997 of getting away from combined adult/youth field usage. She also has questions about whether the city will give up the land at the impound lot and rock crusher, and about putting kids recreation facilities on top of the known ground contamination in those areas. She wants the Park Board to set their own standard of pollution mitigation and not just use the minimum standard from some outside agency.
Comr. Young says the Heritage Park and Van White Boulevard discussions never included Bryn Mawr to her recollection. She has a number of concerns: (1) commissioners not talking to the district commissioner for the district that the plan is in, (2) talk about new development when we can't even maintain the parks we have, (3) reserve funds usage, (4) wants a superintendent's report at every meeting about what is going in the park departments, and (5) there are too many questions around this Bryn Mawr plan.
Comr. Olson says the board is not breaking ground at Bryn Mawr, but needs to look to the future. He believes people will support it because they need to recreate and get healthy.
Comr. Hauser asks if the artificial turf discussion mentioned by Mason was part of the pro-soccer discussion. Answer: No. Hauser thinks we need a lot more soccer fields. Hauser says a lot of words but not much of anything in substance, while playing the "it's for the kids" card [a tactic used by a few commissioners to block off any criticism of a project
since of course, no one wants to "harm" the "kids."] She is also worried about the loss of parking revenue from the Guthrie and about the cost of maintaining the Sculpture Garden.
Comr. Young says the issue is timing, disrespect to commissioners and a lack of reports from the superintendent. She asks what the deadline is on the NFL grant. Answer: mid September. Young points out that the land north of the Park Board HQ building (now becoming townhouses) was a lost opportunity because the Park Board did not have the money, and where will the money come from for this project?
Comr. Olson says NFL funds are for Parade, not Bryn Mawr.
Comr. Dziedzic says that staff [Gurban and Rietkerk] was taken to the woodshed tonight and he defends them, wants them to "stay creative" in spending money on project plans like this.
* Xcel's Aesthetic Flow Plan Survey report by asst. super. Rietkerk. Staff has a number of changes they want Xcel to make to their survey which they want to use for deciding what an aesthetic flow (amount of water) over St. Anthony Falls would be. Park Board staff has a number of reasonable and intelligent suggestions on how to improve it to make it more representative of the public's view as a whole, and how to keep it focused on the subject of the survey. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) apparently has something to do with this, as well, perhaps requiring Xcel to complete this survey.
Comr. Kummer comments on a previous Park Board resolution requiring some minimum desired flow over the falls, and apparently completely confuses the changes the staff wants to request from Xcel over Xcel's survey to determine a "public" number with that resolution.
** 7:20pm **
Planning Committee adjourns.
Administration and Finance Committee, chaired by Hauser, is called to order.
* Item 7.1 asking that the board adopt a resolution requesting the maximum certified tax levy increase for 2005 (4%).
Comr. Dziedzic says that is 4% on top of full market value as limited market value is going away, along with the assessor raising the value of homes, and to keep that in mind during the budgeting process.
Asking for the maximum, can't go above it, but can go below it.
7.1 PASSES.
==== End of Part 2, much more to come ====
Chris Johnson, Fulton
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