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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/08/1994 COW minutes REVISED 2~25~94 MINUTES COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FEBRUARY 8, 1994 I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Mayor Gerald Farley at 7.37 p m Present at the meebng were Trustees George Clowes, T~mothy Corcoran, R~chard Hendncks, Paul Hoefert, M~chaele Skowren and Irvana Wilks Also present at the meeting were Vdlage Manager M~chael Janoms, Assistant to the Vdlage Manager Dawd Strahl, F~nance D~rector Dawd Jepson, Inspecbon Serwces D~rector Chuck Benc~c, Planmng D~rector Bdl Cooney, Pubhc Works D~rector Herb Weeks, Deputy Pubhc Works D~rector Glen Andler, Water Streets/Buildings Supenntenden~t Mel Both and Commumcat~ons Adm~mstrator Cheryl Pasahc II, MINUTES Acceptance of the M~nutes of January 11, 1994 Mobon made by Trustee Hoefert and Seconded by Trustee Wilks to accept the M~nutes Trustee Hendncks requested a modification on page 6, item VII Minutes approved as modified M~nutes of January 25, 1994 were approved Motion made by Trustee Hoefert and Seconded by Trustee VVilks Trustee Corcoran abstained Mod~flcabon was requested by Trustee Wilks and also a modification was requested by Trustee Hendncks M~nutes were approved as modified III, CITIZENS TO BE HEARD Robert McBride, 211 Prospect Manor, spoke He ~s concerned about the increased taxes which the V~llage Board recently approved He stated he felt that the Board should look at why add~bonal services are prowded and the related expenses of those services and stop trying to be all th~ngs to all people He suggested a survey of residents to determine how much household income has ~ncreased over a period of five or ten years related to how much taxes have increased He stated that services may not have to be the best of everything at all times He felt that the Village should follow the lead of businesses and decrease the level of services based on the revenues avadable Trustee Corcoran stated that he would be wllhng to d~scuss the Board's decision process w~th the resident at h~s convenience The resident furnished h~s phone number in order for Trustee Corcoran to contact h~m at a future date Emle Lasse, 805 South Elm, spoke He stated he reviewed the tape from the previous week's meeting and wanted to comment on that meeting He wants to bring to the Mayor's attention the Mayor's comments just prior to the Referendum on D~stnct 57, He stated that he felt that Trustee Hendncks should be allowed to speak relating to the District 57 Referendum because the Mayor obviously has stated h~s opinion prewously Mayor Farley suggested Mr Lasse consider bnng~ng back something pos~bve about hwng in the Village by the next Board meeting and spend less time focusing on the negative items He stated it was ~mportant that the V~llage Board refrain from taking the t~me for d~scuss~on of Referendum issues which have no beanng on the general service delivery of the V~llage ~tself He also stated that he has the right to voice h~s opinion in a letter to the editor just as any other resident Trustee Hendrlcks stated he wanted to clarify h~s comments from last week's meeting relating to the D~stnct 57 Referendum He related h~s comments had to do with the question of b~nd~ng versus advisory Referendum and used D~stnct 57 as an example of repeated ws~ts to the ballot box in order to receive d~rect~on He felt it was important that the Board take the position recommending a b~nd~ng Referendum Ifa Referendum were approved by the residents, there would be no need to go back for further Referendum votes IV, REVIEW OF WEDGEWOOD TERRACE STORM WATER STUDY Manager Janonis provided an overview of the Wedgewood Terrace situation He stated that last summer, m response to resident concerns, the Village Board authorized a study to determine the nature and extent of flooding m the Wedgewood Terrace Subd~ws~on area and to make prehmmary recommendations ~n rectifying negative conditions He stated the Eng~neenng study is now complete and is asking for direction from the Village Board to proceed w~th the process of includ~ng the recommendations in the Flood Control Program for fiscal year 1996/1997 Melse Pond, of Rust Engineering, summarized the report The general area that was stud~ed is bounded by Euchd, Rand and Wolf They looked at four specific areas w~th~n the subd~ws~on and ident~fied five causes and recommended solutions based on the location of the area of problems Each recommended solution addressed the 10, 25 and 50 year flood zones The primary cause of a vast majority of flooding ~s due to mfilhng of ~ndlwdual residences and not allowing proper flow of water off properties She stated the construction of the Thomas Moore subdlws~on d~d not necessarily increase the problem but may have actually ~mproved the s~tuat~on by rel~ewng some of the water ~n the northern section of the subdivision 2 'General d~scuss~on followed where by details of the ~nfill process was discussed S~nce the properties themselves were developed ~n a p~ece meal fashion, much of the drainage was not designed for the enbre subdivision Also, heavy landscaping has d~splaced much of the drainage swales Also, there was some concern voiced that ~f the V~llage prowded the funds necessary to improve the drainage, th~s problem would not be repeated at a future date Some natural infill would be occurnng regardless of how the swales and drainage areas were maintained However, there is a poss~b~hty of a drainage easement in order to standardize the maintenance and m~mm~ze the ~nd~wdual homeowner's impact on the flow of water Mayor Farley asked what was the general consensus of the cit~zens in th~s area which would be affected by this proposed drainage Manager Janonis stated that the residents of the subd~ws~on had been not~fied of th~s meebng and their input requested Mayor Farley stated he felt it would be better to have a meeting ~n the area of the subd~ws~on for ~bzens ~nput related to specific areas of concern and the V~llage Board would consider their ~nput once they had concluded their input and rewew Mayor Farley asked the audience ~f there ~s general support for the proposed solution Peg Combs, 101 West Stratford, read a V~llage letter addressed to the Board from Lucy D~ng of Three Oxford Place The letter bas~celly stated that Ms D~ng is thanking the V~llage Board for looking ~nto the problem and attempting to resolve the drainage problems Ms Combs continued speaking about the flooding problems that are unique to her street and outhned which specific parcel on her street has various problems She stated that water comes from Euclid and does not flow properly through her lot or surrounding lots She ~s not satisfied w~th the proposed solution Trustee Skowron spoke She stated that she would encourage a neighborhood meebng now that the overall plan has been presented She stated that ~nd~wdual property owners could d~rect specific comments d~rectly to the consulbng engineers for resolubon ~nstead of at th~s forum w~th the V~llage Board Debble Forsander, 1120 Meadow Lane, spoke She quesboned who ~s going to pay for the solution - the V~llage or the homeowners? Mayor Farley stated at th~s point ~t has not been dec~ded who w~ll be resl~onslble for the cost, however, he ~s concerned about making sure there is a long-term solution to the problem He sa~d ~t would be a waste of money to build a drainage system that would again fill ~n s~m~lar to what has caused the current problems Nancy Boblkewiecz, 1114 Meadow Lane, spoke She stated that each lot was developed ~nd~vldual w~th no regard for overall drainage of all the homes once they were completely developed She stated that the homeowners would keep up the new system if ~t was installed She stated that the Wedgewood Homeowners Association was going to meet th~s coming Thursday to d~scuss th~s issue Mayor FaHey stated that he feels the number of people present is a small amount of the residents affected and felt in order to get a full heanng of residents' concerns, he recommended the report be d~scussed at a neighborhood meebng Trustee Corcoran suggested that the meebng th~s coming Thursday be deferred until proper not~ce could be sent out to all affected residents That way, the full input of all affected residents could be d~scussed at a s~ngle meeting w~th the consulbng engineers present Bob Regan, 1009 Meadow Lane, spoke He ~s the Acbng President of the Wedgewood Terrace Homeowners Association He would ~nwte any members ~n the audience to the Homeowners Assoc~abon meeting scheduled on Thursday and requested that the V~llage assist ~n prowd~ng proper nobce to all affected residents Trustee Hendricks stated that he felt th~s is the proper forum for ~nput from the residents Trustee Clowes stated there seems to be some confusion as to whether the system was ~n place before and whether ~t was designed to actually dra~n water. The consensus of the V~llage Board was that the discussion of the eng~neenng plan be sent to a neighborhood meeting ~n order for all affected homeowners to have ~nput V. CABLE TV STATUS REPORT Communications Administrator Cheryl Pasalic prowded an overview of the current cable TV system w~th~n the V~llage of Mount Prospect and how ~t ~nterrelates to other telecommunication services which are related to cable Her rewew ~ncluded details of rate regulation, two-I~ne cable conversion to a s~ngle coaxial cable, Franchise renewal, customer service and local commun~cabons One of the problems that ~s affecbng the cable TV system m Mount Prospect ~s the lack of finalized regulabons from the FCC However, until those regulabons are completed, the V~llage is mowng forward w~th prepanng for our Franchise renewal As part of th~s renewal which w~ll take from one to one and one-half years, the Commun~cabons D~ws~on ~s prepanng for a community needs survey and ~s talking to other communities ~n an effort to coordinate negot~abons to reduce costs related to Franchise renewal Some of the most recent problems which have affected TCl include the conversion to the s~ngle cable and the company reorgamzat~on which has recently taken place Sue Dean, Customer Service Manager for TCl, spoke to the Board She addressed the customer service ~ssues and outhned TCl's response to resolve issues which have been raised by Cheryl and the c~t~zens TCl is also instalhng a new telephone system which ~s designed to handle more calls and offer quicker solubons to customer concerns Trustee Corcoran stated that he was concerned that TCI is not following the Cable Complaint Ordinance and hoped the new phone system would resolve some of these issues He also stated that he felt ~t was important for TCI to track the types of complaints they receive ~n order to respond more quickly to common resident concerns Trustee Clowes stated he felt TCI was setting ~tself up for a large volume of complaints again and of tackhng too many things at one t~me On the other hand, he felt he generally had good service Trustee Wilks stated she would hke to see TCl commumcate their recommendabons ~n terms of a cost to the V~llage Board The cost relabng to resolwng the outstanding complaints She stated she also felt they had generally good service Trustee Hoefert stated that he had experienced problems first-hand and asked that the complaint matrix be explained to h~m F~nally, he stated that wh~le a decision was made to shut off one of the cables at the bme of the conversion and questioned why we were wa~bng on rate ~nformat~on that supposedly is confidential but ~s necessary to be furnished by law Sue Dean stated that it had been a d~fficult three months due to three ma~n ~tems coming together at one t~me which would be the phone system problems, the conversion and the general turnover due to the reorgamzabon She stated TCl d~d their best to communicate to the c~t~zens at the time of the change over to the s~ngle cable However, a decision had to be made at a point m time when the sw~tch over was going to occur Cheryl Pasalic stated she had received some ~nformabon relabng to the rates but has not received all the ~nformabon due to the alleged confldent~ahty. She ~s currently awaiting a legal op~mon to determine whether this ~nformat[on can be rewewed as part of the rate analys~s Trustee Hoefert asked why couldn't the mformat~on relabng to the rates be prowded on the general outline TCl has previously provided Also what would be the process or what would happen ~fthe V~llage Board d~d not renew the Franchise Agreement Cheryl Pasalic stated the laws make non-renewal very difficult and there have to be major items which constitute a major breach of the contract 5 Trustee Hendricks stated that we, as Trustees, must run government hke a bus~ness It seems we have not played hard-ball w~th TCI ~n the past He suggested we apply penalbes as necessary as ~t ~s ~mportant to enforce comphance Cheryl Pasalic stated that fines had prewously been lewed against TCI However, TCI reformed the V~llage Board that fines would be passed along d~rectly to customers based on regulations Therefore, the fine was lewed but was not collected They have been put on nobce in the past for various finable offenses and they usually responded quickly to resolve these concerns Trustee Corcoran stated that he th~nks customer service must conbnue to ~mprove and TCI must stop playing games relabng to the orgamzabon or name change and the V~llage's priorities must match the service that TCI ts prowd~ng VI. BUSINESS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM Manager Janonis prowded a general overview of what had prewously been d~scussed In summary, at the January 11 Committee of the VVhole meeting, the Board formally d~scussed the ~dea of prowdmg hmlted assistance to businesses coming ~nto or already existing ~n the V~llage VVh~le the Board was far from unanimous in ~ts comfort for such a program, the staff was d~rected to begin drafting a reasonable policy that would provide for the posslb~hty of limited assistance under very bghtly drawn criteria based on a bona fide hardship or special circumstances and to be prowded m such a way to strictly hmlt any risk to the V~llage VVhlle a comprehensive program would include a policy covering both new and ex~st~ng businesses, it was agreed that as specific components of overall policy were ready for review, they would be brought forward for review and comment Trustee Skowron suggested the Board set a bme hm~t for d~scuss~on as to not to make th~s d~scuss~on a forum where prewous pos~bons would be rehashed Mayor Farley suggested that the d~scuss~on end at approximately 10 20 p m B,II Cooney outhned the parameters which came out of the last d~scusslon at the Committee of the Whole meeting General components ~nclude ~ncreasmg revenues, d~verslfylng the economic base, increasing the employment base and improwng the competitive advantage of Mount Prospect He and staff attempted to structure a program which would avoid opening Pandora's box The proposal that ~s presented ~s specifically designed for retail estabhshments He feels that the outline addresses the issues that were raised by the Village Board at the previous meeting Trustee Corcoran stated he generally accepts the outhne as reasonable but would hke to see the up front targets of sales figures prorated over the five year period For example, as an mcenbve for the business to remain ~n Mount Prospect, the bus~ness would pay more tn year five than they would An year one Manager Janonis stated that pubhc improvements help ~n defining the amounts of reasonable assistance Trustee Skowron asked for a definition of what an extraordinary cost ~s Mr. Cooney stated that extraordinary cost must be estabhshed first before mowng forward w~th the program ~tself and ~s typically defined as some type of so~l contamination or s~te problems Manager Janonis stated that he just reahzed that there was one component of the program that ~s not outhned ~n th~s program For example, ~f the cost of the extraordinary expenses exceeds the pubhc ~mprovement cost, the lesser of the cost would define the assistance He felt ~t was a very tough standard to show how the contamination has caused the land not to be developed and there must be a h~story of development attempt Trustee Skowron stated that the staff d~d a good job An prowd~ng the parameters for pohcy development She stated she could generally support the pohcy outhne Trustee Hoefert stated he feels the land will always have problems and the resolubon of those problems ~s the buyer's and seller's respons~b~hty not the Village's He also feels that a developer will try to h~t all the points outhned ~n this program Mr, Cooney responded to Trustee Hoefert's questions whereby he stated that At still comes down to a pohcy decision by the Village Board whether they want to have the opportunity value of a development relating to sales tax amounbng to approximately $5 O0 of taxes for every $1 O0 of assistance prowded Trustee W~lks stated she would hke to congratulate the staff for incorporabng the V~llage Board's comments from the prewous meeting, however, she cannot support the program She stated she did not feel ~t was the Village's responslb~hty to ent~ca stores to come ~nto the Village She also feels the policy ~s too vague and leaves too many open doors Finally, she feels ~t ~s inappropriate to increase sales tax by one-quarter cent and then turn around and give At back to mult~-mllhon dollar cerporat~ons as incentives to locate m the Village Mayor Farley suggested that this d~scuss~on carry over to another Committee of the VVhole meeting because ~t appears that Board members are not yet ready to prowde d~rect~on Manager Janonis stated he feels that a deferral now would put the decision off unbl April due to the upcoming Budget Heanngs Trustee Hendrlcks stated that he is against providing any type of assistance whatsoever He feels that assistance ~s inappropriate Mayor Farley stated he can support the program but suggested the elimination of Section C where extraordinary costs were defined ~ He felt that the seller could ~nfiate the extraordinary cost by wanting too much money for the land, therefore, the land itself would be over valued based on the conditions that ex~st on the property He further stated that it appears the V~llage Board ~s spht 3-3 and feels a 4-3 vote does not prowde enough d~rect~on for staff He feels ~t should be a stronger, more pronounced commitment from the Board than a 4-3 vote Manager Janonis stated that maybe a 4-3 vote is not enough d~rectlon, therefore, the Board may want to consider dropping th~s item at th~s point Mayor Farley stated that he would I~ke better unification of the Board ~n order to proceed Trustee Skowron felt that ~f th~s ~ssue moves forward on a 4-3 vote, ~t w~ll open up debate each bme a developer may approach the Board whereby conflicting philosophies will again be discussed Mayor Farley stated he felt th~s ~ssue should be dropped at th~s t~me based on the consensus of the Board VII. MANAGER'S REPORT Manager Janonis prowded an update of the Melas Park redevelopment Based on the revised plans which the Arhngton Heights Park D~stnct ~s recommending, the number of parking spaces have gone from approximately 230 plus the 109 spots at the Pubhc Works Fac~hty to approximately 679 parking spaces He felt th~s change was ~n d~rect response to the Board's comments from a prewous Committee of the VVhole meeting At this point, the plan w~ll move forward to generate consensus necessary ~n order to approach the Metropohtan Water Reclamabon D~stnct VIII. ANY OTHER BUSINESS Trustee Corcoran asked that Manager M~ke Janoms draft an Ordinance outhnmg t~me hm~ts for elected officials who speak at the Board meetings and also asked that an Ordinance be drafted whereby Trustee Comments are moved to the rear of the Agenda ~nstead of the front Trustee Hendrlcks stated that he would like to d~scuss the SWANCC Executive Board membership He was concerned that he was not allowed to attend a SWANCC Execubve Board meeting even though he was a V~llage Board member He would ask that a new Ordinance be drafted to allow all V~llage Board members to participate d~rectly tn the Executive Board meetings by designating all members as alternates to the Board Mayor Farley stated he could not support the Ordinance requested by Trustee Hendncks because ~t would allow for all members of the Village Board to speak at the Execubve Board meebngs He stated he ~s qu~te comfortable w~th Trustee Corcoran's leadership and would I~ke to keep th~ngs as they are Trustee Hoefert stated he agrees w~th Mayor Farley's pos~t~on concerning Mount Prospect's representabon on the Executive Board Mayor Farley asked the rest of the V~llage Board members ~f there was any support for Trustee Hendncks' suggestion whereby all members of the Village Board be added as alternates to the Execubve Board members of SWANCC Trustee Hendrlcks stated he would I~ke to just go to the meetings and I~sten and would promise not to speak He just feels ~t ~s important to know what ~s go~ng on because Board members do not receive Execubve Board m~nutes Mayor Farley stated he had requested Board members to refrain from attending Commission meebngs where they may influence or ~nbm~date lay members of these Commissions He stated that Trustee Hendncks' suggestion for add~bonal membership at the SWANCC Executive Board as related to his attendance at other Commission meebngs Trustee Hoefert made the mobon to adjourn ~nto Executive Session Trustee Skowron seconded the motion Village Board members entered ~nto Executive Session at approximately 10 50 p m IX. ADJOURNMENT V~llage Board members returned from Execubve Session at approximately 12 13 a m and promptly adJourned for the evening Respectfully submitted, DAVID STRAHL DS/fcc Assistant to the V~llage Manager 9