The Crookston City Council met on Monday night at the Crookston City Council chambers in the lower level of Crookston City Hall.
Regular Agenda
The council voted unanimously to repeal the City of Crookston Ordinance Number 86 third Series, which made it so Council Members could participate in Council Meetings remotely under certain conditions now that the pandemic has calmed. “What it is, if we’re at a CHEDA Meeting or Park Board or whatever, we can continue to Zoom into meetings as long as we give a three-day notice,” Mayor Dale Stainbrook explained. Council Members can still appear at meetings remotely but must give a three-day notice of their location to their fellow counsel members prior to the meeting in order to make a contribution. This makes it capable of being more available to a broad amount of people and accessible without the case of a pandemic.
The council also voted unanimously to accept the standard allowance amount of $673,684 under the Revenue Loss Provision of the American Rescue Plan for the city to be used for the General Provision of Government Services. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) which was passed in March 2021, spread $65 billion in recovery funds for cities across the nation to provide support to state, local, and tribal governments in response to COVID-19 and in efforts to contain it. The Act requires States to allocate funding in amounts that are in proportion of the population of the city to the population of the State, in which Crookston took the standard amount to give to the general fundings like the arena and public building maintenance rather than specific areas for COVID. “It’s some revenue that we lost during COVID, we had our arenas shut down, our pools shut down but it still takes financing to keep the lights on, to keep it heated,” said Mayor Stainbrook. Also we can use the money to fix our pump stations and allocate some of that money to our lift stations,”
The council also voted unanimously in approval of accepting City Administrator Amy Finch’s resignation, who has been the City Administrator for Crookston since October 19, 2020 and served for a little over a year and 3 months. She submitted her resignation on February 8, 2022. It then led to the council unanimously voting to give Mayor Stainbrook authorization to engage DDA Human Resources to begin a search for the next candidates for City Administrator. Mayor Stainbrook believed that with a higher salary range ($101,760 -$131,000) for the position would open up a greater pool of candidates that will make a large pool of worthy options for the city to choose from. “What they’re going to do is because the job description and community profile is still relatively new, from my hire,” Administrator Amy Finch explained. “She’s able to post that quickly, they didn’t talk tonight about a salary range, a little bit higher, especially at the bottom. Trying to attract a bigger, qualified candidate pool.” But the exact price will be decided once a candidate has been chosen. The meetings to have Administrator candidates nominated and interviewed would be moved to May 2 and May 9 in association with David Drown Associates.
The Council then began to discuss searching for an Interim City Administrator in Finch’s absence, due to the fact that it would take at least three months before they could choose a new candidate. Mayor Stainbrook brought up the idea of not having an Interim Administrator at all, but after some discussion with the rest of the council, agreed that an interim was needed during that time. Administrator Finch believed an Interim would be very beneficial to the council, suggesting contemporary spending limits on each department or by bringing City Attorney, Couky Reynolds in to help run meetings with each department. Steve Erickson suggested reaching back to a previous administrator to be the Interim to help lead the departments during the time they search for a candidate, though they didn’t have any one on hand at the moment. The Council decided to discuss the subject further after more discussion with potential interims and other department leaders and reconvene with a final decision for the next meeting in two weeks. “We’ll let the council kind of sit on it for a couple weeks. I’m gonna sit with Amy and see what we can do if want them hear two days, three days, it’s just a bunch of logistics to work out,” said Mayor Stainbrook.
The Council also announced that it is in the process of completing a new website for the city that can communicate with each department of the council that is looking to see it’s full completion by early July.
City Administrator Amy Finch gave a final, heartfelt thank you to all her fellow council members for their efforts on helping the city and encouraged them to work closely with the next Administrator to help make the city better and more welcoming to people outside of the city. She wished the best for the community and thanked them for all of their help in her time as Administrator.
Consent Agenda
The Consent Agenda included approving the proposed City Council Minutes from their last meeting on January 24. As well as the resolution to approve all of the City of Crookston Bills and Disbursements in the amount of $630,160.12. There was also a resolution that was unanimously approved for 2022 License Renewals for City workers for Gas Fitting and Cement Mason. The Council then began a resolution to appoint two candidates, Macey Buker and Ryan Palm, both of whom were recommended by the mayor to certain boards and commissions for the next one to two years. The Agenda ended with the council approving partial payment Estimate No. 2, where City Administrator, Amy Finch was authorized to sign the payment application of $107,207.50 to Classic Protective Coating, Inc for the reconditioning of two 30,000 Gallon Filter Pressure Vessels.
WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE MEETING
Soon after the conclusion of the City Council meeting, the Ways & Means Committee met briefly for a Presentation by the Golden Link Senior Center. Golden Link Senior Center Rand Hughes presented the companies budget over the past few years and wished for the council to assist them with their funding issues that they’ve gotten over the years with them being $205 in debt. The Council members were willing to fund the senior center, but according to State legislature, the council cannot give county/state funds to a private institution for public service like snow movement, only through private and volunteer funds. The Council will continue to search for a way to help the Golden Link.
The next City Council meeting will take place on Monday, February 28, at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Hall Council Chambers.
