Minutes - Council - 10/08/2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Administrator Ulrich stated these ordinances have been in place and reached the end of their 20 -year life, including the franchise fee language that has been in place for the past 20 years. This is a renewal for each of the utilities to operate in the City's rights -of -way. Mayor Strommen recessed the public hearing at 7:42 p.m. in order to open the next agenda Case and related public hearing. Councilmember Backous stated there is confusion because Page 6 in Ordinance #13 -19 includes the proposed rates for the franchise fee. City Engineer Westby stated the rate language in the Anoka Electric ordinance is not supposed to be included and should be in the franchise fee ordinance itself. Staff is working with Anoka Electric to remove that language from this ordinance. He explained the old single ordinance expired and the two new ordinances include much of the same language; however, were boilerplate documents from the two utility companies and one (Anoka Electric) contained rates that should not be included in this ordinance. Mayor Strommen apologized for the confusion that resulted. She stated Ordinance #13 -20 for Connexus, Section 9, references a franchise fee that a separate ordinance would impose. She asked if that language should be mirrored in Ordinance #13 -19 for Anoka Electric. City Engineer Westby answered in the affirmative. Mayor Strommen stated if the Council supports introduction, that correction would be required to the Anoka Electric ordinance prior to consideration of adoption. Councilmember Tossey stated he cannot vote on an ordinance that is not correct and he does not support including reference to franchise fees in these two ordinances because he does not support franchise fees. Councilmember Tossey stated because of that, he will oppose introduction of these ordinances. William Kingston, 15760 Andrie Street NW, stated it was mentioned by staff that franchise fee language was in the ordinance adopted 20 years ago. He asked when the Minnesota statute was passed to allow cities to assess franchise fees for public utilities. City Engineer Westby stated he does not know and cannot answer that question. Mr. Kingston noted if the statute was adopted less than 20 years ago, the language relating to franchise fees could not have been included in the original utility ordinance. 6.02: Public Hearing — Introduction of Franchise Fee Ordinance with Anoka Municipal Utility, CenterPoint Energy, and Connexus Energy City Administrator Ulrich introduced the topic and commented on the need for long -term funding to address a Street Maintenance Program (SMP). City Council / October 8, 2013 Page 7 of 24