11/03/2009 MinutesCITY OF GRAND ISLAND, NEBRASKA
MINUTES OF CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION
November 3, 2009
Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, a Study Session of the City Council of the City of Grand
Island, Nebraska was conducted in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 100 East First Street, on
November 3, 2009. Notice of the meeting was given in the Grand Island Independent on October
28, 2009.
Mayor Margaret Hornady called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The following
Councilmember's were present: Gericke, Zapata, Ramsey, Dugan, Carney, Haase, Gilbert,
Niemann, and Meyer. Councilmember Nickerson was absent. The following City Officials were
present: City Administrator Jeff Pederson, City Clerk RaNae Edwards, City Attorney Dale
Shotkoski, Public Works Director Steve Riehle, and Finance Director Mary Lou Brown.
INVOCATION was given by Mayor Margaret Hornady followed by the PLEDGE OF
ALLEGIANCE.
Presentation of Web Site Conversion. Wendy Meyer-Jerke, Public Information Officer and Paul
Briseno, Assistant to the City Administrator reported that over the past year the city had
undertaken measurers to increase communication and responsiveness to residents through
expanded use of technology. A new web-site had been developed through Vision Internet which
would streamline the internal updating process.
Recognized were Kurt Spiehs, Pat Larson, Paul Briseno, and Wendy Meyer-Jerke who worked
on the web-site rebuild committee.
Presented were new capabilities of the site such as: e-notification tools, ability to produce forms
and surveys that citizens could submit online, online polling, an "In the Spotlight" feature on the
front page, Emergency Notification, a Document Central location, and acity-all calendar with
search options according to departments and categories.
It was mentioned that several third party vendors had been incorporated into the new site. The
Citizen Request Management System would allow City officials to better analyze needs and
trends while increasing the amount of work accomplished by staff. Other features included:
automatic reports, customer satisfaction surveys, follow-up communications to citizens, and the
Grand Island Video TourBook. The Human Resources Department and Police Department both
had interactive new tools in place to help better meet the needs of residents.
A demonstration was given of the new website showing easily-accessible online services, timely
information updates, and the fresh vibrant look of the new website.
Compliments were made by several councilmember's concerning the great job the committee did
and the look of the new site. Discussion was held regarding making this site available on mobile
phones. Currently the site does not have this capability, but may in the future.
Page 2, City Council Study Session, November 3, 2009
Discussion Concerning Downtown Metered Parking Pro rg am. Police Chief Steve Lamken
reported that the Police Department does not believe there is a need for metered parking
monitoring in downtown Grand Island. The Police Department recommended discontinuing the
Metered Parking Program.
Chief Lamken stated the need for metered parking was more critical when downtown was the
primary retail shopping area in the City. The purpose was to turn over the availability of parking
stalls for customers of businesses. The metered parking was based upon parking congestion or
the lack of available parking.
The current metered parking program was a parking stall rental program and regulation was
conducted by monitoring. Currently there is not a problem with congestion of retail customer
parking in the Downtown area based upon the Police Department's study of parking in the area.
A PowerPoint presentation was given of the study conducted between September 2008 and
January 2009.
The following people spoke in opposition of discontinuing the metered parking monitoring in
downtown:
• Craig Hand, 4220 Calvin Drive
• Ray Evans, 4701 West Schimmer Drive
• Michael Morledge, 2207 Stagecoach Road
• Maudie Walters, #14 Chantilly
• Ed Walker, 224 East 19th Street
Discussion was held concerning (selective) enforcement, cost, resident/customer/employee-
employer parking, fines, rental fees, and where those fees/fines go to.
City Attorney Dale Shotkoski explained the fine structure associated with congested parking.
Since there was no congestion in the downtown area there was no statutory authority to collect a
fee. Mentioned was the difference between on-street parking and off-street parking. Also
explained was that fines by law were to be paid to the school district. City Administrator Jeff
Pederson commented on the $20.00 parking fee and the possibility of using part of that fee for
administration. This was a monitoring program in which costs would increase.
Discussion was held on what the BID was doing to help alleviate the problems of employees and
employers parking in front of businesses downtown. It was suggested we reassess the parking
boundaries and fees and possibly partnership with BID.
ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
RaNae Edwards
City Clerk