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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.110701 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7, 2001 Vice-chair, Bill Dinsmoor called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. Members in attendance were Eric Cohen and Terry Butler. Jori Busch, John Start and Andrew Kole were excused. Bill aske~d staff to check on the interview date for board members. Staff will report at the next meeting. Bill said the board talked to Sarah Oates at the last meeting and it was mentioned that possibly the Parking Dept. could help with the enforcement issues for signs, right-of-way issues and to help other departments out. Sarah has difficulty with the complaint driven notion that the city had adopted years ago. It is difficult for her to get out and do the enforcement and it takes away from her other job. Tim Ware, head of parking informed the board that they have expanded their horizons this year by picking up the trashcan violations and bear enforcement. They help with the Environment Health Department, Brian Flynn. The parking officer spends from 6 a.m. until NOON daily with that enforcement. Regarding the signs, right-of-way, construction his employees are finding or rather locating the violations and reporting them to the proper department before a complaint call is made. His employees do not have the authority to enforce right now. Numerous times it is just checking permits. It would certainly take a step off the process if they could give them a notice at the site. Bill said enforcement was brought up by Heather Isberian regarding people having perpetual for sale signs in their windows. Terry mentioned that this might not be the time to come down on people who have for sale signs in the windows longer then allowed. Bill said it would be nice to have someone address code issues to the businesses and explain it. What would be getting in the way of this concept? Tim said the only thing in the way would be training. Bill said the t~aining would cost more money and it would create employees being more valuable and that would increase salaries. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7~ 2001 Tim said his employees would have to be changed to an enforcement officer. This would include not only parking but sidewalk encroachments, sidewalk sales, etc. Tim said he believes in the enforcement officer and numerous cities do it. Bill said right now individuals wait till they get caught and it is cheaper to get away with it and pay a fine then to pull a permit. Tim said encroachment permits cost $350. Tim said community safety, zoning and other different enforcement departments would become one. Tim said he would need direction from Steve Barwick. Tim said he feels he would be able to recruit more if the job description is widened. It would also help people get things done. Bill asked the difference between red tagging and siteing or noticing? Tim said red tagging is shutting down a project. Bill felt that it is better to be pro-active. Tim said it is difficult for his employees to break off everything they are doing, come back and notify the right dept. Terry said giving a sense of pride in your job and actually communicate with the businesses would help our community. It is a matter of training, finesse, and can develop a rap pore with businesses. Tim's dept. is the natural department. Terry said she has seen a great change in his department lately. Terry said rents are dropping and they are getting cooperation from landlords. Terry said Tim would be good at the job himself as the code enforcement. Eric reiterated Terry and Bill. Charles suggested getting a list of other communities' job description on code enforcements. Bill said he also feels that parking officers should be the ambassadors of the city to give information to tourist etc. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7~ 2001 Tim said it is in their job description already. Part of the uniform selection is how important we can make them and invite individuals. Tim said he doesn't feel the funding is an issue or the increase of personnel. Possibly in the summer add another person. Lee Cassin, Environmental Health Director said Tim's employee is already doing enforcement for Environmental Health six hours a day and she supports the idea. Staff was directed to have either the City manager or the Assistant City Manager at the next meeting. VALET PARKING Tim brought up the Valet contract, which will be increased from $1:50 to $2:00 per.car in the garage for next year. They have eliminated the City of Aspen valet parking sign that they used last year. Terry said parking is a problem downtown. The only negative is; it is one more raise in the price of something in Aspen. We need to care about everything in Aspen. Tim said it is not a raise to the people it is a raise to the operator. We should discuss what he is charging people to park the cars. There is no restriction on what he can charge. Eric said he has no problem with what they charge because people do not have to valet park. If you don't like the price don't use it. Terry said she is talking about the perception that it is one more thing that we have raised the price of in Aspen but she is not saying no. Tim said the valet charges depending upon the season. He has heard up to $18. to $20. a day to park your car. The charge is by the car. Tim said his department is starting to plan because the bond is running out and the garage needs to be a self-supporting entity. We will loose the quarter penny sales tax funding. There is only one vendor and it runs one COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7~ 2001 way when he is there and a different way when he is not. If there is an issue he takes care of it relatively quick. Bill suggested that the prices be fixed and posted and Tim should discuss this with the valet. A posted price that people can anticipate. Tim said that would solve the traffic problem because you get a lot of people that pull in there and get shell shocked. Terry said people coming from New York who pay $40 there to park might park if the sign is posted. Bill suggested that Tim work with the Valet and come up with a price that is suitable for him. Eric said the city is granting this guy a monopoly then we have the right and reasonable argument to say OK we are granting you a monopoly and this has to be a fixed price. We need to have some control or rather posted price. FARMERS MARKET Chris gave an overview of the farmers market. The name has been changed to the Aspen Saturday Market. The goal is to fill up the market with farmers/and other vendors. There will be a portion of agriculture items and a portion of other items. There was a discussion about prepared food. Lee Cassin said it could be defined as potential hazardous and not potentially hazardous. Hazardous would be things that have to be prepared off site at another licensed facility and sold as a take home item. The agriculture side will be managed by the farmers. Bill said he feels the farmers market people do not want food or meals prepared on site. The board is not in favor of full meals. Terry said ne one is interested in having ham burgs on site. Tent asked Lee how she handles the food lest on the mall. Lee said people prepare their food at their establishment and then bring it out and they have the facilities to keep it warm. They serve mini portions. 4 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7, 2001 Chris said with the local booths that gives local people a chance to participate and not be excluded. Once a year CCLC could put an add in the paper stating what booths are available. Eric said we could deal with food by weight. That gives you the tasting aspect. That puts a parameter on a tasting vs. a hot dog. Bill said this also opens up a new area of food safety. The vendor needs to be aware of it. Chris said he bought meat because he could be able to sample it. The vendor would have to be informed of the state health requirements. Eric said the board should only allow samples and demonstration for local booths in the Taste of Aspen. Eric said the meaning for the Taste of Aspen is the samples and you show the menu etc. It is not to sell meals. The local vendor would have to comply with the state regulations. It is not the business of the local restaurateurs to be selling take home prepared meals. Terry agreed that samples and demonstrations are the meaning of the Taste of Aspen. Eric said no matter what is sold or tasted it must comply with state and local health regulations. The board discussed the bathroom issue and staffreported that a toilet would cost $80. a month for service. Also, if tables are purchased they could be charged under the entry fees. The board chose Conner Park and wrap around the front of City Hall as the expansion area for the market. Terry felt that the $80. for the toilet would be the best service for our community. Wagner Park will have toilets next summer. Chris said regarding the management CCLC could handle anything not related to the agriculture. Initially it would have to be the CCLC. At some point a market coordinator could be hired. Eric said it could be spread around the board initially. The term could be five years with two automatic extensions and the farmers market should go through October. COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7~ 2001 Larry Thoreson, Finance Department relayed with the numerous potential vendors one person needs to be in charge with a list of the vendors and who is allowed and who isn't. He is looking for voluntary compliance on the part of the vendors. Larry suggested one license holder and they collect the sales tax from those individuals cormng and going within that booth. BUSINESSES Bill said one of the by products of restaurant failure is they walk away from the business and leave employees etc. unpaid. They walk away from sales tax etc. Larry said when restaurants close they normally get sales tax because technically they are escrowed funds. The Restaurant collected funds that did not belong to them and so payroll and sales tax are the first things to get paid. Larry said he still has to go over the business in order to get the money and he files a lean. Bill suggested that the restaurants be bonded. Eric asked if restaurants could escrow more money? Bill asked if a business could buy an insurance policy or similar to bonding? Staff was directed to check with the city attorney. Terry said she is in the small small lodge industry and every year she gets stiffed $40,000 by people canceling at the last minute. She has to fight hard to get any money back at all. She would take out an insurance policy to protect herself. Larry suggested that perhaps an additional step should be added to the liquor license process that they be required to provide evidence of some type of msurance. We could escrow earnings that upon the cessation of the business, and then wait for a period of time to see if there are any claims the money would go back to the restaurant owner. 6 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7, 2001 DOGGIE BAG AREAS Staf£relayed that the bag container runs around $200. and the bags are. 12 apiece. Terry said she did a search of the city and the mall is covered well. The outer lying streets have a tremendous amount of dog excretion. One area is in front of World link caf6 in the little park area. Across the corner from Don Liemus's parking lot on Hunter Street. Right in front of Little Annie's. Another area is Hyman right before you get to Wienerstube there is a parking lot and dog pop piles up on the actual sidewalk. On the corner of the Wienerstube and Spring Street one could be used there. On Cooper near Chocolate factory, Tuscanno. In from o£Aspen Square one in the middle of that whole area would work. Corner o£Mill across from Fox photo. On Hyman past Mill down by the Crystal Palace on either corner. A lot o£dogs play in Bass Park but there might already be one there. Bill said to get progress we need to educate people and have them available. Terry said it is hard to just get one bag out. She is willing to negotiate with the company and thc Parks Department. Terry asked to check i£the sign would come out o£our budget? Staff will check with Parks. Ten~y said the question is how clean do we want downtown. MOTION: Terry made the motion to spend up to $1, O00 for dog dispensers, second by Bill. 7 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 7~ 2001 Yes vote: Bill, Eric, Terry Terry said she would work with the Parks person on the appropriate locations. Charles had an idea to check with the t~vo pet stores in town and maybe they would like to buy advertising. Bill said in Paris the city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in the emergency room treating people who have fallen because of dog feces. They hired a company with special scooter that have vacuums on them. That became too expensive so they are on an educational campaign. COMMISSIOENR COMMENTS Eric said the Wagner Park project is several thousand over budget. McCabe thought that the expense for renovating the playground could be adjusted and that was an area to save money. The playground is in violation of safety regulations and that was dismissed. Eric said doe to the violations the playground will probably be upgraded due to liability issues at stake2 Eric said he appreciates the fact that they are trying to adjust and getting back down to budget. MOTION: Bill moved to adjourn; xecond by Eric. All in favor, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m. Kathleen J. Strickland, Chi&Deputy Clerk 8