Grand Forks City Council members discuss council comment policies, receive briefing on development projects

May 8—GRAND FORKS — Grand Forks City Council members on Monday once again considered potential changes to public comment policies during meetings, but after a 25-minute discussion decided to bring it up again at next week's council meeting.

The discussion came during the council's Committee of the Whole meeting, held at the HIVE building downtown. It picked up from the last conversation on the topic, which came on April 24.

City Council President Dana Sande on Monday outlined several areas of focus for council comment policies, including:

* Whether council comments should be moved from City Council meetings to Committee of the Whole meetings.

* Whether the five-minute time limit should be reevaluated.

* If the comment portion should be moved back to the end of meetings.

* If comments should be limited to Grand Forks residents and business owners only.

* If comments should be limited to items on the agenda.

* Whether an amendment should be made to citizen comment cards.

Among the proposed policy changes that should be considered, according to Sande, is deciding who can speak at meetings.

"I will be very honest: I believe that we should limit council comments to Grand Forks residents or business owners," Sande said. "I've said it a few times at a few meetings. I don't see any reason why we would allow people that aren't citizens of Grand Forks or business owners — people that don't actually have business or a vested interest in our governing policies — why we'd provide them a pulpit to come and speak to things, especially when they're not on the agenda."

Sande said he might feel differently, however, if non-residents want to come to speak specifically on agenda items.

"I might be willing to consider that as well," he said.

Comment policies were changed last August by the council. A number of people have been regular speakers at council meetings over the past year, mostly related to the city's work to bring a corn mill — backed by a Chinese company — to Grand Forks. The council decided to move away from the project after the Air Force determined the mill would be a threat to national security.

The policy changes in August included:

* Changing each speaker's time limit from three minutes to five.

* Moving the citizen comment portion ahead in the agenda so that it follows announcements.

* Keeping the current rule that says people can't share their given time with others.

* Requiring those who wish to speak at City Council meetings to submit a comment card — which includes their name, address and subject — before the council meetings start at 5:30 p.m.

* Limiting written statements to two and a half pages.

On Monday, council member Rebecca Osowski reiterated that she's not in favor of changing the current policies, especially considering the changes that were made last summer.

"Maybe in the future I would be willing to consider some of these changes, but I really feel that we're trying to make these changes because some people may not have liked how things went during the whole Fufeng debacle," Osowski said. "I just think that we should just leave everything alone right now. I think it doesn't make us look very good if we start changing the rules."

Osowski also asked how the proposed policy limiting comments to Grand Forks residents and business owners may impact those in neighboring communities, including East Grand Forks and Thompson.

Council member Kyle Kvamme said there shouldn't be any gray area surrounding council comments. He said a code of conduct needs to be followed, addressing the time limit and other rules.

"If we're going to treat everyone equally then it should be a uniformed application of whatever our rules are," Kvamme said. "So if that's turning off the microphone, I think we need a code of conduct."

Council member Ken Vein said having a code of conduct would "be of value for everybody."

"Sometimes when comments get to be too intimidating it actually intimidates people from making comments," Vein said.

He said at the Legislature, intimidating comments "would not be tolerated," so having a code of conduct "would be of value."

Osowski said the council needs to also follow a code of conduct to ensure a level of respect is achieved between meeting attendees and council members.

"If we expect them to be respectful toward us, I think that they deserve for us to speak respectfully back," she said.

Council Vice President Bret Weber asked Osowski to be more specific about council members being disrespectful. She replied that she has felt that, at times, the tone of council responses hasn't always been respectful.

"I just want to make sure that there is common respect between us and the citizens," she said.

Council member Tricia Lunski asked who would enforce that code of conduct. Sande said enforcement would most likely fall on himself and Mayor Brandon Bochenski.

"Whether people agree with it or not, I think the mayor and I have taken a lot of heat related to Fufeng because we're the people running the meetings as much as anything," he said.

Sande, toward the end of the discussion, said "I'm not hard sold on any of these things."

"Perhaps getting further input from our citizens wouldn't be a bad idea. I wasn't necessarily expecting us to have any motions tonight or make any motions," he said. "What I would like, though, is if we move this item as it is to next week's City Council meeting, then we would be able to hear citizen's comments related to this issue as well."

Also Monday, council members were briefed on the Epitome Energy and Memorial Village II development projects. The $44 million Memorial Village II project entails a mixed-use building that will include commercial space proposed for the UND Bookstore, a restaurant/bar, offices and other commercial space. Additionally, residential space will entail 167 apartment units along with a fitness room and study rooms.

A softball complex with an NCAA regulation field is also set to serve as a complementary addition to the Fritz Pollard Jr. Athletic Center. The softball complex will serve the UND softball team, Grand Forks Public Schools, regional high schools and the Grand Forks Park District.

The proposed Payment in Lieu of Tax — or PILOT — will likely span up to 20 years. The details are still being worked out on what the recommended percentage of the exemption would be in correlation to a proposed loan from the city's Economic Development Fund for helping to finance the softball complex.

The PILOT agreement will continue to be worked out throughout June with a groundbreaking of the site possibly between July and August. The grand opening for Memorial Village II is expected to be in the summer of 2025.

Also Monday, a drafted development agreement for Epitome Energy, which announced its plans to build a soybean crush plant on the northern end of Grand Forks last year, was presented to the council.

The development agreement is broken into 12 sections, including the financing and cost allocation of city infrastructure; tax and other incentives; and utility rates and fees.

One section of the drafted agreement also outlines that the developer will need to comply with governmental requirements, including those under Senate Bill 2371, "relating to ownership interests or investment in the developer and/or financing of the developer from (a) any person or entity from a foreign country or identified on the office of foreign assets control sanctions list and/or (b) a foreign governmental body or agency."

Tax exemptions for similar facilities in the state were provided to council members for their information. A plant at Casselton received a PILOT payment in the amount of $230,000 for 15 years.

The Epitome Energy plant, which was originally planned to be built in Crookston, was set to receive a 100% exemption for years 1-9 with the cost savings from the tax exemption available for project development.

City Administrator Todd Feland said the development agreement is set to be wrapped up by the end of summer. At present, Epitome Energy is working to obtain an air permit from the state.

Both projects will be discussed during a Local Government Advisory Committee meeting on May 22.

In other news Monday, council members:

* Reviewed a classification and compensation plan update. The update comes as a Classification and Compensation Study conducted by Condrey and Associates, Inc., recently concluded. The objective of the study was to review and determine updates to the current classification system, along with collecting salary survey data to produce a recommended pay plan. Two proposed salary scales, which would update current salaries, were presented to council members to consider, with more discussion to come.

* Received a downtown progress update related to the Downtown Action Plan. Some large-scale ongoing projects include Franklin on Fourth; the Olive Ann boutique hotel and event center; and the Beacon by EPIC Companies. Other projects highlighted during the meeting included the improvements made in Town Square.

* Considered allowing a Pedal Pub to operate in Grand Forks. The proposed route would take the bike pub through downtown Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.