ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

At a Special Town Board Meeting on July 1st, the Board hired Jason and Bryce Otte of Otte Excavating to be the new Road Contractors.

It seems Mark Henry of Henry's Excavating had declined to renew his contract after all, even though he was granted the job at the last regular Board meeting.  Mark had submitted the lowest quote among the three applicants.

It should be noted that, when dealing in quotes as opposed to bids, the Board is not bound by law to take the lowest responsible bidder.  Quotes can be used (only at certain money amounts) to allow greater flexibility and even negotiation among the applicants and the Board.  This flexibility has been an item of some divided discussion among Supervisors in the past.  Some prefer the quote; some the bid.  Once the amount of the contract rises to, I believe, $100,000, a bid must be used.

Both Ottes and Henry have been Road Contractors before for the Township.  Commissioner Charles "Butch" Hansen was the third entity to submit a quote.  It was stated at the meetings that Hansen did not own the equipment needed to do the job, but that he could procure it quickly if given the work. The Hansen quote was the highest rate per hour, based on a formula used by the Board since Jeff Otto, former Chair and Road Supervisor, devised it a few years ago. The formula weights the different items such as road grading vs. fallen tree removal by the percentage of the total job they constitute in a typical year. This gives a more realistic assessment for comparison, since the road bid or quote involves rates for a number of items, not just grading and snow plowing.

Since Henry bowed out, the Board elected to then consider the other two of the three original quotes submitted.  This happened at the Special Meeting and was posted as an agenda item.


As an attendee at the meeting, I felt the discussion of the "merits" of certain contractors was a little questionable, at best.  However, Chair Kenny Miller quoted the Minnesota Association of Townships Town Government Manual and reigned in what I also considered improper discussion based on what Supervisor Brian Budenski labeled and also objected to as "hearsay."  The Board must be very careful to follow law when considering such money matters. To do otherwise would be to open the Township to possible lawsuits.


One item of note that should be of interest to residents is the grading schedule.  This schedule was also

drawn up some years ago and has been attached to the road contract.  The schedule gives frequency of grading for our different roads based on their traffic levels.  At times, it has been alleged, that Road Contractors were held to strict adherence to the schedule, regardless of conditions such as whether the road was wet or dry, dust coated or not.  If a road is graded when dry, it has been described as "pushing marbles across the road," a process whereby the fines in the gravel can be blown away and lost and additional gravel application could be required.

If a road is dust coated, the goal would be to disturb the dust coating as little as possible and, if necessary, only when damp, so as not to greatly reduce its effectiveness.  This has been approached differently by various Road Supervisors.








The present philosophy stated at the meeting is that the grading schedule is a suggestion, the implementation of which will be directed by the Road Supervisors, currently Supervisors Behrendt and Budenski.  How it will be implemented will be at their discretion and based in part on road and weather conditions.  The
optimum is to keep the roads in the best shape possible at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers, not always an easy feat to accomplish, weather being what it is here. Since roads represent the biggest chunk of the Township budget by far, what happens with them is of direct impact to you as taxpayer and not just as traveler.

Keep in mind that any comments on the roads are to be directed to the current Road Supervisors, not past ones or the Road Contractors. The current Road Supervisors are the persons involved in overseeing the budget in this arena. Budenski's and Behrendt's numbers as found on the website are:

Cory Behrendt  952-985-5411    
Brian Budenski 952-292-6028

WHOM CAN YOU "BANK" ON???

Another important point from May Board meeting:

During the Road Contractor contract agenda item, it "came to light" that last winter, an additional $14,000 (amount stated by Supervisor Miller) was expended on various front loaders and operators to remove large snowbanks that had piled up along roads in certain spots in the Township.  This money spent was stated as being above and beyond the road contract budget. 

(Full disclosure: One of the sites was directly across from my house, though I had nothing to do with it.)

 For purposes of the quote discussion at the meeting, this information was apparently brought up to debate whether quoted costs from applicants were "actual" or not.

During the rather heated exchange, Supervisor Mark Ceminsky stated that the expenditure was "on me," that he had authorized it.

It should come as no surprise to any Supervisor that he/she does not have the authority to okay such an expenditure on his/her own! You, the electorate, have selected a BOARD to make such decisions-- jointly.  Spending taxpayer money is always a Board decision.


During the time that Yours Truly served as Supervisor, the Board addressed this sort of situation on a minor scale by approving up to $2,500 on an emergency basis only, between meetings only, at the discretion of the Road Contractors. Think tree down in road. ONLY such expenditures that met these parameters were authorized by the sitting Board at the time. Anything else outside of a regular meeting such as, say, adding more gravel (as in routine maintenance) to a section of road would not, under normal circumstances, qualify as an approved expenditure. Cost? Emergency??  Probably neither would be met. This would have to be talked about and decided on, voted on, by the Board at its next regular meeting.


So what, you may ask, is a Supervisor to do?  Wait until the next Board meeting, perhaps weeks away? Certainly not.  What he/she should do is this: Ask for an Emergency Meeting of the Board.

From our Ordinances:

ORDINANCE 2: TOWNSHIP ADMINISTRATION 
Chapter 1: Town Board Meetings



2. Emergency Meetings 

"An emergency meeting is a special meeting called because of circumstances that, in the judgment of the Town Board, require immediate action involving protection of the public, peace, health and safety."

"All regular meetings, special meetings and emergency meetings shall comply
with the notice requirements set forth in the Open Meeting Law, Minnesota
Statutes Chapter 13D."

Also from our Ordinances, (Ordinance 2, Chapter 3, Section 5 - TIME AND PLACE OF MEETING) although spelled out in the Planning Commission section, but which, I believe, addresses Statutes Chapter 13D, thus applying to the Board as well:

"Emergency meetings may be called by the Chairperson or any two Members in writing filed with the clerk. The demand for the emergency meeting shall specify the date, time, place and purpose of the emergency meeting. As soon as possible the clerk shall telephone all Members and leave a message that informs the member of the date, time, place and purpose of the meeting; if a Member cannot be reached by telephone, then the telephone message may be left with an adult at the residence of the member or on the answering machine of the Member at the Member’s residence. If the message cannot so be left, the clerk shall deliver a written notice to the residence of the Member and tape it to the front door of the residence. The clerk shall make good faith efforts to provide notice of the meeting to each news medium that has filed a written request for notice if the request includes the news medium’s telephone number. Notice of the emergency meeting shall be given by telephone to each requesting news medium. Notice shall be provided to each news medium which has filed a written request for notice as soon as reasonably practicable after notice has been given
to the Members. Notice shall include the date, time, place and purpose of the emergency meeting. Posted or published notice of an emergency meeting shall not be required..."

A quick phone call to then-Chair Pete Storlie asking him to call a meeting and a gathering of at least three Supervisors for a brief, ten-minute session would have solved the issue appropriately.




Of note is that the claim would have been approved by the Board at its next meeting.  I do not recall any problem with or conversation about this situation at that time.  That might have been a good opportunity for the Board to clarify for everyone's benefit what the proper method is to handle these circumstances!


POINT OF INFORMATION ONLY: Any serial discussion/approval involving three or more members of an action/expenditure that might take place outside of a public meeting would not be in keeping with the Open Meeting Law, in my opinion. As I have always understood it, the Open Meeting Law provides for the public's right to listen to and observe discussions held and decisions being made by the Board of Supervisors concerning Township business.  This is the same reason a quorum of these public bodies may not start a discussion of Township business before a meeting has been called to order and why a quorum may not hang around and discuss Township business after a meeting has adjourned.

Is it likely anyone from the public would have been there or perhaps even known about such an emergency meeting? Probably not, but that's totally beside the point, folks.

"TECH SAVVY!"

More credit where credit is due:

Also at the last Board meeting, newly-reappointed Commissioner Carrie Jennings, Planning Commission liaison to the Board for the evening was, in my opinion, of great help to the Board, especially concerning the Road Contractor quotes that were submitted by three sources: Mark Henry, Road Contractor for the past year; Otte brothers, Jason and Bryce, former Road Contractors for Eureka; and Commissioner Butch Hansen.


Carrie had her computer with her as she always does, even though wireless isn't available at the moment, (something she has frequently asked the Board about).  On said computer she had the spreadsheet formula that former Supervisor Jeff Otto had helpfully provided some years ago when he was on the Board.  What this does is to weight the various prices according to the percentage of funds a particular task usually takes. This gives truer information concerning the actual costs under any one quote or bid.

Even though the spreadsheet has been used before, Carrie seemed to be the only person present who had it available for use.  At least she immediately had it up and running. (I can remember another meeting in the past when the Board halted its consideration of quotes or bids until Jeff was called and showed up with his technology!  You try to retire...!)  In just a few minutes, she had provided the necessary information to the Board.

The Road Contractor for the year is again Mark Henry, whose quote came in considerably lower than the other two.

Jennings also used her smart phone to look up information when the Board had a discussion of  magnesium chloride vs. calcium chloride for use in dust coating.  It seems one, I believe the calcium, reduces the amount of salt put into the environment, something a geologist cares about, as we all should/do. Mark Henry provided information regarding the relative availability of the two products and info about Dakota County's use.



Citizens can expect dust coating to arrive in time for Memorial Day Weekend, weather permitting, the Board stated.

            Looking forward to it?  I am!