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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.1975080518:30. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council August 5, 1975 Mayor Standley called the meeting to order at 5:07 p.m. with Councilmembers Behrendt, De Gregorio, Parry, Pedersen, Johnston, Wishart, City Manager Mahoney, and City Attorney Stuller present. ACCOUNTS PAYABLE ~' Mayor Standley said that the accounts payable had only been received this morning. Council decided to put off considering accounts payable until the August 25 meeting. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION There ~were no comments. COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS 1) Councilman De Gregorio asked City Manager Mahoney if he had checked with Street Road damage Superintendent Smith about the road damage occuring from the Larkspur runoff. Mahoney Hopkins from told Council he had written Smith about it and had inspected the site himself and could Larkspur see no damage. Councilman De Gregorio said the damage was quite bad. Mahoney told Council he would take care of it. 2) Councilwoman Pedersen asked if there was a way the City could request that a pay Telephone at phone be installed near the post office annex in the Concept 600 building. There is a Concept 600 lot of traffic in that area and no telephone. Russ, from the Concept 600, told Council he had contacted the phone compnay and they would put a phone in if a location could be found. Russ told Council he would be willing to find a location. 3) Councilwoman Pedersen questioned the necessity of street blockages during construction. Councilwoman Pedersen asked if the alleys could be used instead of blocking the streets. City Manager Mahoney told Council that the building inspector requires this for safety. ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY - Special Events Permit Aspen Historical Society A representative of the Historical Society were present to request for a special events Special Even~ permit for August 20, 1975 for a benefit for the Historical Society. The benefit would Permit be a luncheon and fashion show on the museum grounds. Councilman De Gregorio moved to approve the special events permit; seconded by Council- woman Pedersen. All in favor, motion carried. MAGNIFICO LIQUOR - Purchase and Sale Magnifico ~'% David Slemon presented Council with an affidavit from Robert Freimuth stating that he had Liquors interes~ in the Magnifico Liquor Corporation; and that the money was loaned to his sister purchase & with no rights of control or interest. Mayor Standley asked if Marilyn Freimuth live~ sale in Wisconsin and since she was not going to move to Aspen, how she got involved in the Magnifico Liquor enterprlse. Slemon said she got involved through a friend, Steve Sofrio, who was a local resident, and possibly through her brother's awareness of business in town. Slemon pointed out he represented the corporation, basically through the President, Alan Lauer. Councilman De Gregor~o asked what recourse the Council had if they found out that Freimuth was exerting control. City Attorney Stuller told Council they could initiate a revocation or suspension proceedings and would have a trial to present evidence. The Council can make a determination of whether Freimuth had been actively involved. City Attorney Stullel suggested taking Freimuth's affidavit and watching the operation. If anyone determines that Robert Freimuth is involved, then ~his should be brought to the attention of the City Council. Slemon told the Council he had talked to the State Liquor License Enforcement and the State Solicitor General's office and they were both of the op~n~on that under the facts in this case, there is no problem so far as they were concerned. Councilwoman Johnston moved to approve the purchase and sale; seconded by Councilman Parry. All in favor, motion carried. INCREDIBLE EDIBLES - Mall Extension Lease Incredible Edibles Mayor Standley told Council this extension lease had been recommended by the Mall Commissio Mall Extension for two months, until October 31, 1975. Mayor Standley commented on the chairs and gray Lease fountain, which he did not feel went with the rest of the mall. Councilman De Gregorio moved ~o approve the extenstion for two months; seconded by Councilwoman Johnston. All in favor, motion carried. CITY MANAGER 1) Jim Roark, City-County Sanitarian introduced his new assistant, Phil Rauschfield. Sanitarian Roark gave a report on his ~nspections of Mesa Store Bakery and the City Market. Report Thursday, July 31, 1975, Roark ~nspected the Mesa Store Bakery and found the place in Mesa Store pretty bad shape. Roark left a list outlining the things to be cleaned up before his Bakery next ~nspection. Roark re-inspected the bakery August 1st and found that the owner had not complied. Roark asked that the operation close until they straightened the items out. The bakery was closed about five hours. They managed to get the bakery clean an this time. Roark said some items needed to be coreected but there were time constraints. He felt the bakery is on the r~ght track. Regular Meeting Asp~ City Counc~ August ~, 1975 Mayor Standley asked if Roark had told them to keep the outside of the bakery clean. Roark said he had mentioned that and also wind blowing the trash to the other side of the street. Council suggested having theCity place more trash receptacles in the area. Roark told Council he had inspected the City Market. The manager had indicated to Roark he had increased the staff and have added a special clean up crew. The manager said one Sanitarian of thier problems is running 4,000 people a day through the store, which is pretty heavy Report traffic. City Market closes at 9:00 p.m.; then the stock and clean up crew come on; City Market then the clean up crew comes in again about 2:00 a.m. and works until the store opens. Roark told City Market to concentrate on the visible debris throughout the store. Roark said the meat counter looked very well. There was no evidence of rodents. City Market had the services of Orkin who come in on a weekly basis. The Orkin people have given several recommendations to control the rodent problem. Roark suggested to City Market to have the pallets 10 inches off the floor in order to clean under them and eliminate the rodents. Roark pointed out to Council the problem with dirty dumpsters. There is no service to clean these dumpsters. Roark said he felt tha't Aspen Trash should have to provide dumpster cleaning service to the people who rent these dumpsters. Roark said he hoped there was some way this problem could be worked out with Aspen Trash. Mayor Standley said the City should get together with Vic Goodhart. Aspen Trash is PUC now, and the City can sign a complaint. City Manager Mahoney said he would work it out with Jim Roark and Vic Goodhart. Roark told the Council that the 208 work program will be submitted to COG. Pitkin County got an air quality monitoring program. There is $25,000 available to run two air quality monitoring projects. Underground- UNDERGROUNDING OF FACILITIES ing City Manager Mahoney told Council that at budget time the City had asked for $50,000 to continue with new equipment and $50,000 to underground four additional blocks. Mahoney told Council it was his desire to start at the Wheeler Opera House and go east. It was Mahoney's assumption that everyone would like to have an undergrounding program. Mahoney had talked with Mountain Bell last fall and it was agreed by Mountain Bell that if the City did not take on too big an undergrounding program, they would join the City in the program. Since then, Mountain Bell had done a different cost accounting and they now refuse to join the City in the burying program unless the City provides Mountain Bell with $28,000. Laying! ~ Contract the telephone wire is not the big cost; taking the hook up from above and hooking up down with below is the big costs. City Manager Mahoney had asked Merrick & Co. to submit a memoran- Mountain dum on this problem. It was submitted to Council in their last packet. Bell City Manager Mahoney had asked Electric Superintendent Stogie Maddalone to explain what his program this year is. The City is not undergrounding the four blocks intended but has gotten into a bigger program that was not anticipated. Mahoney told Council that the City has not been able to supply City Engineer Ellis with the easements needed to do the four original blocks of undergrounding. The City is going ahead with undergrounding where we can get the easements. So far, the City has spent about $10,000 of the $50,000 budgeted. Economist Simmons looked into trying to develop a P.I.F. for electricity. With certain blocks in the City on Holy Cross Electricity, Mahoney told Council he did not feel justified making some citizens of Aspen pay the P.I.F. and not others. Holy Cross pays for the electricity hook up; they don't have a P.I.F. Mountain Bell told Mahoney they did not want to set a precedent in the City of Aspen by bearing the cost of going underground. The City has an agreement with Mountain Bell not to charge a franchise tax. Mountain Bell presently pays the ~'ity 2% of their gross. Mahoney told Council the point to decide is whether to abandon undergrounding based on the fact that it is hard to get citizens and Mountain Bell to join us; or the ~City can terminate the agreement with Mountain Bell and go into a franchise. This would require a vote by the citizens of Aspen. Mahoney said it was his recommendation to terminate this agreement which would take slx months. City Attorney Stuller had directed memoranda to Council about this problem. Stuller said she felt there was a lot of risk involved in the approach mentioned by Mahoney. There is an alternate approach to contract with Mountain Bell as the contracting party on under- grounding rather than mandating undergrounding and using police powers. This, too presents problems. Mountain Bell would immediately challenge the City's right to impose under- grounding requirements. Mountain Bell could try to negotiate down the gross revenue receipts in a new contract. Mountain Bell can assert they have historically used the rlght~ of-way in Aspen. The City would have to submit a franchise tax for voter approval before the end of six months. Mountain Bell could ask PUC for a rate increase if the under- grounding or the franchise tax were high. City Attorney Stuller told Council she was trying to anticipate all the issue that might arise. Stuller said she did not know Mountain Bell's arguments or their position. Stulleri~ suggested passing an ordinance requiring undergrounding and let Mountain Bell take this to the PUC and challenge it. This way the Courts could handle the requirement mandati~? undergrounding. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council August 5, 1975 Mayor Standley asked for an update on the June 24th California PUC decision, if this would authorize municipalities to require undergrounding. City Attorney Stuller said she would have to search out that information. Aspen is a prime City to take up this cause as the commercial and aesthetics are combined. If Colorado recognIzes the rights of municipali- ties to require underground, Aspen could make a good case. Councilman Wishart questioned how long it would take to contest an ordinance requiring undergrounding. City Attorney Stuller said up to two years, which would put off undergrounding for two years. Councilwoman Johnston asked if the City felt they had reached the end of the attempt to talk to Mountain Bell. Councilwoman Johnston said she felt Mountain Bell was a progressiv~ organization and this might give them a chance to pat themselves on the back. City Managel Mahoney said he felt a notice of terminatIon of the present contract would get Mountain Bell in ~o talk with the City. Mayor Standley asked Mahoney how high he had gone in the Mountain Bell organization. Mahoney answered jus~ to the local representatives. Council- man De Gregor~o suggested getting higher up in the hierarchy before the Council gets to a point where a decision must be made. Councilman De Gregorio said he felt that that had not been exhausted. Mayor Standley said ~here is three weeks until the next Council meeting. This will give City Manager Mahoney a chance to talk to Mountain Bell and also will give City Attorney Stuller a chance to do research on this item. Councilwoman Johnston moved to add the mall protest question to the agenda; seconded by Mall Protest Councilman Wishart. All in favor, motion carried. Question City Attorney Stuller said she had a request to do a summary investigation of the proce- edings establishing the mall. The question raised was whether or no~ after all the protest had been withdrawn more than 50 per cent of the frontage owners objected. City Attorney Stuller had made research of the mall proceedings and determined that a~ no time did more than 48.88 per cent object to the establishment of the mall. At the end of the June 6, 1973, continued meeting, then City Manager Russ Campbell announced that only 11% of the frontage owners still continued to object. Werner Kuster objected to the City Attorney's summary and wonders whether or not he indeed withdrew his portest. This answer lies with Russ Campbell and Mall Coordinator Pat Dasko. The Mall Comn%ission recommends that the City Manager, City Clerk, and City Attorney be directed to try to determine what in fact did happen with reference to each mall objection. Stuller said her recommendation is to assu~e that the proceedings are correct. Perhaps the protest should come from the frontage owners and they should take this challange to the City. City Attorney Stuller said she made the best investigation possible. If 50% of the frontage owners did object and continued to object, the only requirement is that the City submit to the electorate the question of the street closure. Mayor Standley told Council the Mall Commission felt the request was a fair one if they were going to continue approving expenditures and work on the mall. Mayor Standley pointed out that the Council went through a process of meetings. The City did the best job and it was legitimate. If the frontage owners want to protest, let them take the initiative. There is no reason for the City ~o spend time and money on this question. Councilwoman Johnston questioned a protest at this point s~nce there had not been mention of one in thelast two years. Councilman Parry said it was his understanding that the City would give the mall a two year chance, and then Council would reconsider. City Attorney Stuller said Council had made 50 per cent of the Mall Commission membership abutting owners. Councilwoman Johnston moved that the Council is not interested in investigating the protest. If someone makes a formal protest to the City, the Council will react to that; seconded by Councilwoman Pedersen. All in favor, motion carried. Councilwoman Pedersen moved to adjourn at 6:07 p.m.; seconded by Councilman De Gregorio. All in favor, motion carried. K~uter, City Clerk Regular Meeting Aspen City Council August 25, 1975 Mayor Standley opened the meeting at 5:08 p.m. with Councilmembers De Gregorio, Johnston, Parry, Wishart, and City Manager Mahoney present. MINUTES Councilman De Gregorio moved to approve the minutes of July 28, July 31, and August 5, 1975, Council meetings; seconded by Councilman Parry. All in favor, motion carried. ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Mayor Standley reminded Council that Accounts Payable had been tabled at the August 5th meeting. Councilman De Gregorio moved to approve the accounts payable for August; seconded by Councilman Parry. All in favor, motion carried.