Busy council talks budget, park and PLA

Cloquet city councilors approved a master plan for Pine Valley Park Tuesday and continued their ongoing debate over the current Cloquet Project Labor Agreement. Additionally, councilors got a quick overview of the proposed 2022 budget, which included a proposed preliminary levy increase of 3.49-percent, or $109,400.

City administrator Tim Peterson said department heads did a good job of holding the line on expenses, but there are increases the city doesn’t have control over, including a 35-percent increase for workers’ compensation insurance, which will cost the city an additional $170,000 next year. On the flip side, the public works reserve fund will see a decrease of $85,000 next year, which is part of the reason taxes aren’t going up more. A 4.49-percent increase in Cloquet’s taxable market value on existing and new construction will also help.

Much of the increase is driven by the massive jump in police and emergency workers disability claims over the past two years, because claimants receive workers’ comp. Out of a $170,000 jump in workers comp costs for Cloquet, just under $118,000 is police department costs. “All the other job classes saw a baseline minimum increase of 4.5 percent,” Peterson said. The increases in costs for workers’ comp hit cities across the state because of the jump in disability retirements. Such increases are unsustainable for small cities, Peterson said, explaining that until a few years ago, the state covered the workers’ compensation program. “Eventually, something has to change,” he said.

Included in the budget are American Rescue Plan funds, federal dollars which can be used for only certain purposes related to the pandemic. Cloquet set aside $300,000 in broadband internet funding, and $230,000 to recoup revenue losses caused by the pandemic.

Councilors will vote on the preliminary budget and levy at their Sept. 21 meeting and finalize those numbers in December. The levy can decrease before the December vote, but the city cannot increase the estimated levy after the preliminary vote.

Pine Valley plan

As part of the process of getting Cloquet’s Pine Valley Park designated as part of the Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission, Cloquet city councilors approved a master plan for the city’s woodland park with its ski jumping, bike trails and multiuse running and Nordic ski trails.

Landscape architect Karyn Luger and engineer Dan Hinzmann of SEH, the company hired to develop the plan, presented the plan to the council.

Gaining the regional park designation (which doesn’t apply to hockey facilities) would allow the city to apply for state Legacy funding for the park.

As part of developing the plan, SEH held an open house in January, attended by about 35 community members. “It was a very engaging event with a lot of discourse back and forth,” Luger said. Additionally they received 109 comments and priority rankings through an interactive online survey. Following the community input, they met with members of the Parks Commission and eventually broke down the plan into 10 features.

These included the following:

• Renovating the existing chalet to upgrade utilities and make it ADA-compliant, plus adding a pavilion nearby;

• Improving cross country ski trails by grading in places, upgrading existing lighting to LED and adding additional lighting, and improving the trailhead for the Pine Valley West trail (aka Spring Lake Road).

• Improvements to bike singletrack trails and amenities, including adding amenities to the bike trailhead such as restrooms or changing facilities and a mountain bike skills area, along with better signage, especially for winter biking.

• Ski jump improvements are a high priority, as the 20-and 40-meter jumps need sandblasting and repainting to ensure the integrity of the structures. Also on the list was recontouring the slopes, adding summer-use matting and evaluating the potential for a 70-meter jump, which is the minimum size for national competition.

• Reopening the second ski hill which was most recently a city tubing hill, but which was used in the past for downhill skiing; reshaping the slope for beginners and adding signage to encourage multiple uses of that hill.

• Developing the 35 acres that is currently undeveloped. This was a low priority but could include more multiuse trails.

• Signage and wayfinding to the facility from Highway 33.

• Trailhead and parking lot improvements, including access to the parking lot and a new trailhead building with restrooms and storage space.

• More picnic tables, and making them accessible.

• Natural resource management of the existing high-quality natural spaces.

Luger estimated costs for the improvements could range from $3.7 to $5.9 million.

She also mentioned snowmaking for Pine Valley only as a “future consideration.”

When councilor Sheila Lamb questioned the wisdom of not doing snowmaking first, because it facilitates most of the winter activities at the park, public works director Caleb Peterson said the goal for Pine Valley is not to compete with nearby downhill skiing facilities. The goal of snowmaking would not be to cover 5.5 kilometers of ski trails, he said, more to cover a short training loop when Mother Nature doesn’t provide adequate snow.

He noted the city doesn’t charge for use of the park, and the ski club and other organizations want to continue with that model.

“It becomes a discussion about not only having the infrastructure, but who’s gonna do the work,” he said. “If it’s gonna be the city, obviously that would likely come with fees and the city doesn’t have the staffing to undertake that.”

Although the council approved the master plan unanimously, Tim Peterson stressed that the projects are not ranked, and any projects would still need to be approved individually by the council.

PLA frustrations

The council and various union representatives continued discussions about adding a prevailing wage requirement to the city’s existing project labor agreement, which was removed and subsequently reinstated to the city code earlier this year by the council. The prevailing wage requirement would apply to any non-union contractors bidding on a project, while the PLA would continue to apply to union contractors.

Discussions reached an impasse when Ward 4 councilor Kerry Kolodge — who has been advocating for the prevailing wage addition to the PLA — asked Craig Olson, president of the Duluth Building and Construction Trades Council, if Section 10 of the Cloquet PLA was non-negotiable. Olson said yes. “You’d be throwing us out,” he said, adding later that the PLA has to meet certain criteria to allow the labor unions to defend them from legal attacks like the current lawsuit against the cities of Cloquet, Two Harbors and Duluth.

“That’s the elephant in the room,” Kolodge said.

Adam Johnson of the carpenters union said they could show councilors how “cheating contractors” have learned to game the prevailing wage system at future meetings.

Ward 3 councilor Chris Swanson pushed for more flexibility.

“It is very frustrating to be stuck at this spot where there’s something to talk about but nothing to negotiate,” he said. “That’s an impossible situation: it’s not really a negotiation, it’s just a conversation about what has been handed down, and that’s a rotten spot to have the city be in.”

He pointed out the PLA document was generated years ago, and there wasn’t much of a conversation then.

That lack of discussion in the past led to the current debate, said Kolodge, who was on the council in 2017 when the PLA was first passed with minimal discussion. “The union said here’s what you’re going to do, and they had four votes,” he said.

After over an hour of debate, which got contentious at times, the council chose to continue the ongoing PLA discussions at work sessions (which would be open to the public) and invite both union representatives and non• union contractors to participate. No dates were set for the meetings; instead, city administrator Tim Peterson asked councilors to email him regarding their availability.

“We need to be as inclusive as possible and public,” at• large councilor Lara Wilkinson said.

In other matters Tuesday, the council:

• Appointed Michelle Pederson to the vacant spot on the Citizens Advisory Board, a three• person volunteer board that has historically worked with the police chief on hiring, complaints and discipline within the department. Pederson is a child protection worker for St. Louis County. She has a law enforcement degree, and a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in social work. “I feel like I’d provide a good, broad background,” she said.

• Appointed Joshua Bailey to the position of finance director, to replace longtime director Nancy Klassen, who is retiring Sept. 30 after working for Cloquet for nearly 18 years. Bailey has worked as the city auditor for Duluth for the past seven years and has worked for Duluth since 2008. Before that he was a local government auditor for seven years and the chief accountant for Itasca County for two years.