The Crookston City Council met Monday, November 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers of Crookston City Hall.
The meeting started with a presentation by Ehlers, which provided an overview of city funding. Todd Hagen from Ehlers gave the presentation. He talked with the council members about putting a Financial Management Plan into place over the next three months. Ehlers will utilize city audits from the past several years and 2024 and 2025 to help the city set up a 10-year road map toward financial health. Hagen mentioned that the city hiring Ehlers at this point was really good timing.
The consent agenda included the approval of the meeting minutes from November 12, approval of bills and disbursements for $405,946.90, and adopting the 2024 street improvement projects, including the reconstruction of Houston Ave from Hunter Street to South Ash Street, bituminous mill and overlay of North Broadway from South Sixth Avenue NW to Fisher Avenue, and bituminous mill and overlay of Third Avenue NW from Bruce Street to Old Trunk Highway 75. The Consent agenda was approved unanimously by the council.
There was a public hearing regarding increased water and wastewater rates for 2025. The hearing was open to the public, and after no comments, it closed.
The first item on the regular agenda, resolution 8.01, was regarding adopting the proposed assessments for unpaid water and sewer charges and current services. With this resolution, all unpaid code enforcements, mowing charges, and water bills will be made a special assessment against the properties involved. City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge explains. “It’s very straightforward; it’s just that any delinquent water/sewer bills that are owed, those move forward, and at the end of the year, we have sent numerous notifications throughout, and at the end of the year, the city has the opportunity to file for those amounts due on the taxes on the properties involved,” says Shoobridge. “So other taxpayers don’t have to absorb that loss.” The resolution was approved unanimously.
The next item was the approval of the Non-Profit Organizations Requests for 2025. After receiving clarification from legal, the opinion is that the city does not have statutory authority to provide grant monies to Get Kids Outdoors. The Attorney General recommends not funding private recreation programs. Fred Parnow from Get Kids Outdoors attended and spoke to the council. He let the council know that Get Kids Outdoors is not a club, no membership is needed, there is no board but just volunteers working together to get kids as many opportunities to do outdoor activities as possible. The council members wanted to help Parnow and his organization but felt very strongly that they must follow the Attorney general’s recommendation. The other five non-profit organizations were approved unanimously for their grants as they were laid out at previous meetings.
Resolution 8.03 was regarding a conditional use permit with respect to parcel 82.0679. The property, 1504 University, is owned by Jeff Evers and is being leased to Radhwan Alwanan and Ali Alfureedy. The occupants want to open a retail tobacco store. This is the second recent request of this kind for this location. The Crookston Planning Commission recommended that the Crookston City Council grant a conditional use permit. The council unanimously approved the conditional use permit.
Next was a resolution vacating a portion of 4th Avenue South and Vance Street upon petition of a majority of abutting landowners. The Council was provided with a petition with the signatures of a majority of the landowners abutting the property to be vacated. The city council’s approval makes it possible for Tri-Valley to continue its plan to build a bus garage on the property and open up the land to more building opportunities. The City Council unanimously approved the resolution.
The council was also asked Monday night to approve a resolution to retain an attorney to assist the City of Crookston in evaluating the City Administrator and clarifying the roles of the City Council/City Administrator. The Crookston City Attorney feels that it may be an inherent potential conflict if he were to be involved in the evaluation of the City Administrator and wishes to bring in an outside attorney to assist in the matter. Mayor Dale Stainbrook and other council members spoke out about the cost of hiring a lawyer when the city budget is already in trouble. Stainbrook also says the evaluation process has worked in the past. “In the past, we have always done it in-house,” says Stainbrook. “Basically, I feel we are hiring outside help to do the job that we should be doing.” There were too many missing pieces even to make it a consideration, says Stainbrook. “I think it was pretty vague; we didn’t have a lot of information as far as what’s this going to cost or how the framework was going to be done. I just don’t want to pass on that there’s a form out there that our previous administrators, that’s prior to Amy Finch, the council got a worksheet and rated our city administrator, and that was then either turned into the Mayor or a council member that was interested to tally up the points, the concerns, and the recommendations.” Mayor Stainbrook feels very strongly that the City Council can do this, and he was not the only one. The resolution failed at a vote of 5-3.
Last on the agenda was a resolution to approve the Leagues of Minnesota Cities Roles and Responsibilities Workshop for the City of Crookston City Council and City Staff. This resolution came about as the Crookston City Attorney spoke with the League of Minnesota Cities, Council members, and city staff about clarifying their roles and responsibilities. All members need to agree to voluntarily participate in a Roles and Responsibilities Workshop through The League of Minnesota Cities. The workshop is free and will be scheduled sometime in January/February. The Council approved the resolution unanimously.
The meeting was adjourned and after a short break the Council went into a Budget Workshop to review the preliminary budgets to include facilities.
Council Budget Workshop
Tonight’s Budget Workshop started with the council reviewing the six budget scenarios the City Administrator had put together per the council’s request. Three of these had the pool budgeted in. As has been the case in previous meetings, the council is still trying to find a way around closing the pool. Discussions were had about pool rate increases and higher rates for out-of-town users. It seems that there is still no budget option that is going to get Crookston putting money back into reserve funds this year.
When asked how the budget session went tonight, City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge said this. “It went fairly well, council is kind of giving staff and I direction where to go,” says Shoobridge. “ We have narrowed down the options; we are really looking to get some feedback from the residents regarding facilities versus tax rates,” Shoobridge says there are always tradeoffs one way or another. He is hoping that, moving forward, they can find something equitable for everyone in the city.
We also asked him how things looked as far as the pool goes heading towards decision making time. “They have given direction, they want to move forward with two versions, one of which does include funding the pool, the other, does not include funding the pool.” Shoobridge agrees that just being prepared is a good practice. “Right now the thought process, the feeling that I got was that the council is open to keeping things as they are but again we are really going to be holding off our final decision until the truth and taxation on December 9.”
The frustration can be felt sitting in council chambers as council members throw ideas around in an effort to make the budget work. We asked Jeff Shoobridge how things got this bad. Why has the city found itself trying to dig out of a hole? “Not looking to the future for many decades, funding from reserves, things that should have been funded through other means, without strategically planning,” says Shoobridge. “ This council has done a good job in starting the framework in moving forward with some strategic plans.”
It’s not all about using funds the wrong way, says Shoobridge. “Our budgets have always been artificially capped in the past at 2%, 3%, and as a result, staff has been forced to make due. The unintended consequence of that, a few years ago, was that the city’s wages were very much lower than the comparable wages for similar positions in the region, and from 2022 to 2023, they did have to meet an adjustment that had a significant impact on the overall operating budget every year so the city could fill open positions and be competitive with hiring the best candidates for those positions.”
