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HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: August 17, 2012 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: th SPECIAL EVENT PROCESS REVIEW 1.: On August 16, I held a meeting with staff associated with the special event review process, along with representatives of the BID, Convention & Visitors Bureau, OAEDC, and various downtown businesses. The purpose of the meeting was to address issues that had come up over the course of the summer due to the impact of special events on the community, particularly in the downtown area. I have enclosed an outline of the Agenda that we used for this meeting. You will notice that a variety of issues were identified and took up a good part of our discussion. Some of the key topics that came up included notification of impacted parties. Special Events Officer Matt Harris provided a draft form that we are considering to have special event organizers fill out to identify street closures that may impact properties in the vicinity of a special event. The group agreed to review this form and provide Officer Harris with feedback. Other issues focused on impacts on traffic and access to properties. We brought up the issues of the 45-day application process, and the pros and cons of enforcing that rule. There was also brief discussion on limiting the number of events, and/or making additional requirements for events in the downtown area, due to the number of events that take place in the downtown area over the course of one year. We also discussed including the BID and CVB in our special event review process, with particular attention to having the BID circulate information to its members so that they are aware of a special event and its potential impact prior to the permit going to Council for consideration. The BID members in attendance and a number of businesses agreed to discuss this issue at the next BID Board meeting and provide me with feedback. Our goal will be to incorporate these comments and determine if any changes need to be made to either the policy or any of the administrative procedures that are used in considering special event applications. In the meantime, if you have any questions about how this meeting went or where we plan to go with it, please contact me. QUIET ZONE UPDATE 2.: I wanted to provide an update on recent progress for the proposed new railroad “quiet zone” toward the northern end of the city. The bid for construction on Public Works Contract 12-13, approved at this week’s Council Meeting, includes the paving work for the Butler Avenue and Snell Road crossings. At the same time, we (along with Winnebago County and CN) are applying to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a waiver that would allow the quiet zone to be designated while preserving the current 45 mph speed limit on County Highway Y. After construction is complete, the FRA will need to verify that the constructed improvements match the plans we submitted, and they will need to approve our waiver. Only after both of these occur will the FRA be able to certify this as a quiet zone. Staff has informed Mr. Gehrt (a resident very interested in this project) of the status of our project and the approval process. If you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact Transportation Director Chris Strong. Weekly Newsletter August 17, 2012 Page 2 GIVING GALA NOT SPECIAL EVENT…FOR TIME BEING 3.: This week, City Attorney Lynn Lorenson, Special Events Officer Matt Harris, Parks Director Ray Maurer and I had an opportunity to meet with representatives of a group of people that have been organizing the Giving Gala, an event at which members of the public offer items to other people at no charge. You may recall that the Giving Gala has held at least two of these events in recent months on the first th Saturday of every month. For the August 4 event, we had initially determined that the event was qualified as a special event, but later agreed to allow them to hold their event without a special th event permit pending a review of the event. On August 16, when we met with the group, I determined that given its current circumstances, a special event permit was not required for this event at this time. However, I strongly suggested to this group that given their desire to use a specific portion of Opera House Square, and given the potential for issues that could come up during an event that needed coordination between the city and event organizers, I asked that they submit a special event application, which is at no cost to the organizers. I also indicated to the group that because this event qualified as a low risk event, no insurance would be required of this group. For the most part, I thought the group was open to discuss the possibility of applying for a special event permit to protect their ability to plan more effectively for this event. However, there remained some members of the group who felt that they had the right to organize this group as a public assembly, in which case they would not be required to have a special event permit. I reiterated that I did not feel that the event, at this time, required a special event permit, but encouraged them to submit an application and meet with the Special Events Committee in the interest of cooperation. The event permit would also insure them a reservation at the park, as well. I was informed that the group will not submit an application and the Giving Gala will again take st place on Saturday, September 1. If you have any questions regarding how we address this event, please do not hesitate to contact me. WORKSHOP ON EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE 4.: As was discussed at Wednesday’s Council Meeting, various Council Members have questioned staff regarding the city’s health insurance program, including topics such as how our provider is selected, how the program is financed, how the city’s self-insured program works, along with other options for health insurance. Based upon those questions, I reported to Council that staff was prepared to have a th Workshop at the August 28 Council Meeting to explain how our program works, the components of our employee health insurance program, as well as an analysis of why the city has the current program in place. As we enter the 2013 budget process, we want to make sure that Council is familiar with all of the components of a line item in the city’s budget that costs over $9,000,000. We hope that this information will be beneficial for you as you enter into some difficult budget deliberations. Our goal will be to provide the basic presentation outline to the Council in next week’s Agenda packet. In the meantime, if you have any questions or thoughts on information you would like in this presentation, please contact Assistant City Manager/Director of Administrative Services John Fitzpatrick. SAB INPUT ON CENTRAL GARAGE 5.: During the discussion on the central garage design at Wednesday’s meeting, Council Member Poeschl brought up the issue of the Sustainability Advisory Board’s (SAB) input regarding design features of the new central garage facility. Public Works Staff and Kueny Architects met with the SAB on two occasions over the course of the summer to discuss the project. Additionally, the SAB had discussed the central garage at a prior meeting without Public Works present. In our review of the minutes, we discovered that the SAB had, in fact, made a recommendation that the central garage seek LEED certification. Weekly Newsletter August 17, 2012 Page 3 That recommendation was not passed onto Public Works immediately, and some miscommunication developed about whether or not the SAB had made that recommendation. Once we became aware of that recommendation from the SAB, we shared that information with John Wallenkamp of Kueny Architects. Mr. Wallenkamp believes that there are certain design impacts of formally seeking LEED certification versus simply building the building to LEED standards. As a result, we will be coming back to the Council within the next few weeks to discuss this issue specifically. Mr. Wallenkamp would like to know that the city will or will not be seeking LEED certification before he begins the design development process. As an alternative to LEED certification, we can pursue the same approach used by UW-Oshkosh in which we build the building to LEED standards, which will give us the same economic benefit that the University enjoys with their Sage Hall building, which is not LEED certified either. With respect to other input from the SAB, we will be presenting to the Council those formal motions made by the SAB for your consideration so that we fulfill our obligation of forwarding recommendations from the SAB to the Council for your consideration and/or approval. In addition to the formal recommendations, the SAB members also made individual comments and suggestions to Mr. Wallenkamp regarding the building. Because these comments were not formally adopted by the SAB as a specific recommendation, these individual suggestions will not be commented on specifically, but merely incorporated into the design as needed. Meanwhile, we will be contacting UW-Oshkosh on different sustainability features that they had in their buildings to determine if these ideas may be applicable to the central garage facility. Council can discuss these items again when we bring the SAB recommendations to the Council within the next month. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Public Works Director David Patek. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 6.: Other items I’m enclosing with today’s Newsletter include the latest FOCUS newsletter, published by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which features an article on public opinion on legislative performance. Insofar as minutes are th concerned, I’m enclosing the following: The minutes of the August 7 Plan Commission meeting; thth the minutes of the July 17 Downtown BID Board meeting; and the minutes of the July 12 meeting of the Public Museum Board. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 7.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of August 20 include the th following: On Monday August 20, I will be meeting with OAEDC Director Rob Kleman regarding an update on prospect visits that he has conducted. At 1:00 p.m. on Monday, I will be attending the FMTV 10,000 Vehicle Event at Oshkosh Corporation. I have no formal meetings nd scheduled for the remainder of the week as I will be out-of-town from Wednesday, August 22 th through Friday, August 24. As a result, there will be no formal Newsletter on Friday, August th 24. Jackie will be on vacation all next week, so you won’t be receiving any information from th this office until the week of August 27. If you have any questions regarding my schedule for next week, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you need any assistance next week while Jackie and I are gone, please feel free to contact Assistant City Manager/Director of Administrative Services John Fitzpatrick. MAR/jdc Enclosures