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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-08-17 INC Minutes THE INTER-NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL (INC) MEETING OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA DRAFT MEETING MINUTES Thursday, Jun. 08, 2017 Attending: Kathy Powell (UNA), Joe Genovese (NHVN), Jack Tyler (Flan- ders Creek), Suzanne Held (NENA), Ginny Cowan (BCNA), Gail MacMillan (BPNA), Eli Anselmi (Loyal Garden), Lisa Prugh (Cooper Park), Amanda Griffith (Bozeman Pond), Maddy Weisz (VUNA), Rob Edwards (BCNA), Evette Allison (MarLin), Dick Canfield (SCAN), Bob Wall (SENA) QUORUM Present Jessica Johnson (City’s neighborhood coordinator) Mayor Taylor Jen Johnson (Bozeman Police Department) Katelin Green (Republic Services) 4:30 Kathy convened the meeting Commission room in City Hall No public comment Reviewed May minutes. Amended to indicate that the minutes that were reviewed were from April, rather than Feb. Eli moved to approve the minutes as amended. Jack second- ed. Motion passed unanimously. Police update – Jen Johnson Blood drive at Fire House 3 on Thurs. July 13 from 5:00 – 7:00 (Davis and Vaquero). Red Cross low on blood. National Night Out Tuesday, Aug. 1, in conjunction with Bogert Farmer’s Market. Next Coffee with a Cop will be scheduled in mid-July. Might try to have it somewhere other than at one of the coffee shops. Police Dept. representatives would like to attend neighborhood meetings and block par- ties this summer and through the year. A lot of construction in progress, resulting in calls regarding traffic issues. Molly Reeves hired as new animal control officer – in training now, should be on board in a couple of weeks. 4:45 City Commission update – Mayor Taylor Commission is in the middle of working on the budget. The recommended budget has no increase in ad velorum property taxes. This doesn’t include street, tree, and arterial/collector fees, which are not based on value of your property, but on some other factor (street frontage, etc.) Fees are increasing. Work ongoing to try to catch up on deferred street maintenance. This year is the last scheduled increase in the street maintenance fee, and arterial/collector fee has already reached its peak. Next year, that fee should decrease, when there has been a full year of collecting the increased gas tax. City has taken over a number of HOA parks, but hasn’t added an employee to the Parks Dept. since 2014. Might result in increase ad velorum tax to fund when the City must hire an additional member of that or another department. Decision will be made by the end of June on final budget – last meeting June 26. Fiscal year starts July 1, but City won’t know until Aug. what the increase in the tax base is, so currently working on estimates. May need to adjust levy based on results from the State. City also manages Open Trails bond, Police and Fire bond, and other funds. Recreation and parks and other functions are discretionary functions that often run on a deficit basis. (For instance, cemetery costs $500k more than it collects annually.) Library has copies of the proposed budget. Discussions on affordable housing will start again in July. Suggestions that city might go toward mandatory inclusionary zoning may be prompting more involvement in discus- sions. City may start subsidizing down payments for police, fire, and other city employ- ees. Strategic plan will be finished soon. It should be a five-year plan. Making progress on hiring new city manager. Firm that is helping recruit should be here in town next week. Search will be national. Firm will interview commission, community groups, will develop plan for how city staff and community will be involved. Arterial/collector fee was adjusted down from $1m by around $250k based on prediction of increase in gas tax. City will raise water/waste water fee as well, by around $22 annually. June 22, continuation of discussion on short-term rentals will be part of the Commission meeting. 5:15 Officer elections Slate (chair, vice chair, secretary/treasurer) Jennifer Rockne, Kathy Powell, Bob Wall Joe moved to accept that slate by acclimation, Gail seconded. Motion passed unanimous- ly. 5:19 FY’18 Goals and Work Plans Neighborhood worksheets due by June 30. FY’17 goals: - Support sustainability efforts. Action: participate in Energy Smackdown - Provide official recommendations to City Commission. Action: Establish process for drafting recommendations - Increase # households represented by NAs Action: Use press releases to increase awareness. Measurement was 25% increase of # households represented - Establish working groups Action: Add item to Jan. agenda to work on establishing groups - Publish quarterly press releases - Have a social event New goal suggestions - New recommendations o Noise ordinance o Follow through on ADUs - Outreach / increasing representation o Form new neighborhood associations. Add measurement similar to last year’s (25% increase in coverage) o Good Neighbor committee / Town & Gown program – engagement with Uni- versity students - Working groups o Explore establishing relationships with property managers and other ways to improve outreach to renters o Noise ordinance - Support city sustainability efforts o Increase education of residents on City programs and effort - Quarterly press releases o Possibly establishing a regular column, potentially coordinated with neigh- borhood information series o Use Next Door more effectively to spur conversation/awarenesss Jack proposed thinking about ways that we can contact renters as well as we can contact homeowners. Can we establish connections with property managers? Jack suggested es- tablishing a working group to explore feasibility of this. Jessica relayed some discussions she had at a conference last year related to improving outreach to renters. Can do mailings to physical addresses, can try to hold social events to help increase attendance. Should we continue the goal to increase NA coverage? Kathy suggested we continue the goal regarding sustainability. Mayor Taylor suggested finding ways to educate the community on the City’s sustainability program. Midtown neighborhood working on formation. Sundance Springs has expressed interest, as have Meadow Creek (south of Hope Lutheran Church) and Valley West. Jack won- dered if it would help to have other INC members partner with potential organizers to help with NA formation. Kathy pointed out that there have been difficulties getting papers to print press releases. Jessica suggested that neighborhoods could provide info that they would like to see on the new neighborhood section on the City’s web site. Bob asked whether it might be possible to get a regular (monthly?) column on neighbor- hood issues. Could reach out to Eric Deitrich, maybe someone else at the Chronicle to as- sess feasibility. Neighborhood information meetings might also help to drive coverage. Jessica suggested that increasing outreach in other ways would be good. Increase en- gagement with businesses. Explore how to engage a greater percentage of the existing residents in NA. Posting NA identities around the neighborhood could also be helpful. Discussed options for doing social events – like block parties. Jessica can help coordinate reserving space / blocking off streets, etc. Maddy suggested using Next Door more effectively – post summaries / high points, etc. from INC meetings on Next Door following meetings. Suzanne also suggested we could be more proactive to solicit input in advance of INC meetings and to increase awareness of topics that are being discussed in INC meetings. Jessica will work with Jennifer, Kathy, and Bob to organize and distribute in advance of next meeting. We should vote next month. Rob asked about the Town & Gown program and our goals interacting with the Universi- ty. Participation on the Good Neighborhood committee would be a component. 6:05 Jessica’s FYI Working group met with Chief Crawford on Tuesday. Discussed the existing code, diffi- culties enforcing it. Meeting scheduled next week (Tues. 5:00 in City Hall, Madison Room) with Mitch Overton to discuss ways to mitigate or manage noise from parks, other public places. Jennifer worked with MSU on issues at the football stadium. Group will hopefully propose recommendations that can be considered at INC meeting in Aug. Neighborhood information series – meeting tomorrow in Commission room at noon. To- morrow will focus on the cost of parking. Jessica asked each INC representative to mail at least one topic for one of these series. Annual neighborhood report due by the end of June – Jessica has mailed out the template already. Report includes goals for neighborhood association. INC representatives are asked to invite their alternates to attend an INC meeting with them Short term rental discussion will be part of the City Commission meeting June 22nd at 6:00. New city web site has some nice features to explore development projects. There is a UDC update happening in the large community room at the Library now. The parking commission (a citizen advisory board) has three vacancies. Contact Ed Meece – emeece@bozeman.net. Bookmobile rollout party will be Wed. June 21 from 5-7 at the Library. The City has a new website and now more information is available regarding develop- ment projects o www.bozeman.net o http://bit.ly/bznplanning Bozemanstreetreport.com details all the street projects. You can sign up for updates on the Rouse project by visiting MDT’s web site. Last week, Jessica attended the ITGA conference, which was a great learning opportuni- ty. The Good Neighbor Committee is excited to implement some new things. o Walk this Way will be happening on September 7th or 8th from 1am - 2:30am. We'll only be doing 1 night this year with 4 BIG booths on Main Street. Hope you can plan to join us. o In need of an INC representative to the Good Neighbor Committee. If you're interest- ed in this, let Jessica know. o The GNC is a partnership between the City and MSU to improve neighborly relations between full-time residents and students. Ribbon cutting for new bridge over Bozeman Creek will take place on June 22 at noon. Neighborhood Updates Bozeman Pond NA will have neighborhood party end of the month. Cooper Park NA had annual meeting at the school, poorly attended. Recruited two new people for committee, though. Committee membership will be finalized last week. VUNA had annual meeting in April, about 20 people attended. Doing potluck in Sept. Vandalism in park. UNA – planning potluck party for neighborhood soon. Flanders Mill – meeting tentatively scheduled for Aug. 30. MarLin – summer picnic in late Aug. May have some officer changes coming. Heebs de- velopment was a positive experience for the neighborhood. SENA – trying to figure out a summer event. Bozeman Creek – National Good Neighbor Day Sept. 28 – try to plan something at Christie Field, involve students. Public comment: Katelin Green with Republic Services. Trying to increase public outreach. Waste man- agement company, open to bringing garbage or recycling truck that might be of interest to kids. Working on waste reduction and recycling programs, would be interested in at- tending neighborhood meetings to discuss. Was also involved with Neighborhood Asso- ciations in Green Bay. Question from Jack – will the recycling initiative include glass? Not this summer, might be revisited later. 406-582-6659 6:33 No objections – meeting adjourned. Minutes recorded by Bob Wall.