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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-14-15 BPC MinutesBozeman Parking Commission Meeting January 14, 2015 7:30 a.m. Madison Room Parking Commissioners in Attendance: Chris Naumann Ryan Olson Dennis Bechtold Cyndy Andrus Ben Bennett Pam Bryan Kelly Wiseman Ben Lloyd City Staff in Attendance: Chuck Winn, Assistant City Manager Scott Lee, Parking Manager Laurae Clark, Treasurer Ashlie Portnell, Parking Clerk Guests in Attendance: Kyle Dornberger- Etha Hotel Action Items: I. Call to order, 7:30a.m. Ryan called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m. II. Disclosures of Ex Parte Communication None. III. Changes to the Agenda Ryan asked the BPC if there were any changes any one would like to make to the agenda. Scott stated that according to our bylaws we are required to appoint the Chair and Vice Chair positions annually and therefore suggest we do this first. Pam motioned to appoint Ryan Olson to Chair and Chris Naumann to Vice Chair to the Bozeman Parking Commission. The motion was carried unanimously. IV. Approval of December 2014 minutes Ryan asked for a motion to approve the December 2014 minutes. Dennis motioned to approve the December 2014 minutes. Pam seconded the motion. The motion was carried unanimously. V. Public Comment on non-agenda items - State name & address, limit comments to 3 min. None. VI. BPC Resolution 2015-01 -01 -Transfer of Administrative Functions of the Parking Department to the Bozeman City Manager. Resolution 2015-01-01. Ryan asked for questions or comments. Chris stated that there were minimal changes from the first draft. The city legal department helped clean it up. Chris wanted to highlight section #2 and #3 on the second page of the resolution- the supervision and responsibilities role of the BPC. Number 4 on the second page would clarify other organizational changes. Chris stated that the BPC will remain involved in those discussions. Pam asked how the City feels about this change. Chuck Winn stated that on behalf of the city, they are happy to help in any way. Chuck recognizes the difficulty of having a commission supervise a city employee. Making this change will improve the efficiency of the position. Ryan asked for a motion to approve Resolution 2015-01-01. Ben L motioned to approve Resolution 2015-01-01. Pam seconded the motion. The motion was carried unanimously. This will be presented to the City Commission for their final approval. VII. Manager's Report Scott presented the finance report to the BPC. He stated that December YTD continues to trend favorably. Permit revenue and transient revenue numbers are ahead of budget. Scott said his staff was taking a softer approach to issuing citations therefore citation revenue is down. They are issuing more warnings and trying to educate the public instead of just citing them. The average daily entries into the parking garage went up by 99 from last December! Utilization of the parking garage is increasing almost every month. Ryan asked Scott if he could crunch some numbers from the first year the garage was opened until the current year. Scott will try to create something to present at a future meeting. In addition to the Armory lot, Langlas and Associates (contractor for the Etha Hotel project) has requested from the City an encroachment permit to include closing: 1) the south side parking and driving lanes and the sidewalk on Mendenhall Street between Tracy and Willson, and 2) the majority of the length of the alley between Tracy and Willson. This permit will be considered and issued by the Public Works department. The requested time period is approximately 18 months. Scott held a public forum to obtain input from all businesses, residents or citizens that wished to provide comments or suggestions on the proposed encroachment permit. Even though this was not under Parking, Scott felt it would significantly affect parking and traffic flow and warranted us taking the lead and working with Public Works. The contractor agreed to modifications to the encroachment permit request to accommodate suggestions from the attendees. Scott and Chris will be meeting with Universal Athletics and other businesses that will be affected by the proposed alley closure and whose representatives were not able to attend the public forum. Afterward, a discussion will occur with Public Works and Legal staff to determine which requested closures will be approved by the Director of Public Works. This is expected within two weeks. Cyndy stated that the concerns mentioned should be easy to address by the contractor and city thru modification of the permit. We may have some solutions to help employees in the area. It will be a give-and-take situation and we are not going to be able to please everyone. Chris stated that the BPC has worked with the Ogles who own Kenyon Noble in the past and perhaps leasing some of the Kenyon Noble spaces would be the best option. The parking garage lighting RFP was presented to the City Commission on Monday January 12, 2015. Mckinstry is putting together a city wide plan and are pursuing the contract with the City now. The lights will be ordered by the contractor after the contract is signed, and delivery is expected within 45 days and the schedule is for a total of 12 days to install at the parking garage. Scott stated that the public can anticipate seeing one level at a time being closed once the install starts. They will conduct the install during "after hours" for the basement and 1 st floor levels to lessen the affect of utilization throughout the day. Tyler Electric was chosen to do the work. Sanderson-Stewart is the contractor for parking lot redesign gave a preliminary estimate to Scott of $55,000.00, which was an amount that was higher than anticipated. Chris said we agreed to incorporate the storm water component. Chris said to take the bid and make sure the Public Works department knows what portion of that is for their request. The Legal department has seen it and is working to get back to them for final review and approval. Jackie Woosley has officially given her notice and will retire as of March 24 2015. Scott will begin to working with the Human Resources department to recruit for her replacement, which is will be offered to internal candidates first. Scott would like to revamp these positions and ideally he would like there to be 3 full time officers, and then convert on position to an Administrative position to help him out with the department responsibilities. This was a goal of the BPC in the annual review process. VIII. New business Pam wanted to notify Scott that she had received a complaint/request that city employee vehicles should park in the back of the basement at the parking garage so other patrons can use the prime space. Scott stated he will contact those folks and ask that vehicles moved. However, lessees are allowed to park anywhere regardless of whether they are city employees or other lessees. Cyndy stated to the BPC that they need to come up with a list of goals they would like to meet for the New Year. The City Commission will have their meeting on January 26, 2015 and talk about their goals. She thinks the BPC needs to create their list so that it could be presented to the City Commission for approval. Ryan agrees with Cyndy and wanted to stress to the rest of the BPC that they need to identify what the needs are and what the problems might be, then a list of goals could be created. Chris asked if this is something that should be done every one or two years. Cyndy stated that the city goals are completed each calendar year. Cyndy would like to set up a time to meet with Ryan and Chris before the City Commission meeting. Ben B asked if the whole Executive Committee could meet with her. It was decided that Cyndy and the Executive Committee will meet on January 21, 2015. Chris wanted to remind everyone about the conversation brought up last month in regards to the parking garage lease agreements and lease cap. Currently we are only offering basement permits due to the lease agreements with the hotels for future use. The Finance office was instructed to no longer issue permits for non-basement spaces due to the future lease agreements. Even once the hotels execute their leases, the vast majority of their use will be at night. There will be minimal hotel overlap with day-time business use. Therefore the hotel leases could be withheld from consideration when calculate the total number of leases available and the lease cap could be significantly raised. Scott will work with the Exec Committee and they will present a revised lease cap proposal at the February meeting. Chris thinks it would be so easy to develop the rationale differentiating between the day time lease holders and night only lease holders. Scott will come up with a formal proposal for the February meeting. Ben L asked Scott why his staff is taking a lighter approach in enforcement. Scott stated that he looked at the appeal process between what was granted and what was denied, and if we knew a citation would be reversed upon appeal, then we should be issuing a warning only. He would like his staff to put effort in educating people instead of just issuing citations. Ben L stated that everything needs to be consistent. Scott said the staff is being consistent and trying to stay within the intent of the ordinances. This is always a balancing act. IX. Adjournment Ryan adjourned the meeting at 8:45 a.m. Respectfully Submitted Ashlie Portnell, Parking Clerk