East Grand Forks examines possible reorganization and update of city code

Sept. 24 – EAST GRAND FORKS – The East Grand Forks City Council discussed several proposals to update and revise the city code during a work session Tuesday night.

Many parts of the various licensing regulations the city runs haven’t undergone a major overhaul since the 1980s, and City Clerk Megan Nelson wants to clean up the code to make it easier to enforce, simplify administrative processes and reflect how business is done today.

“We have a lot of PDFs on our website right now, and I want to update it online and make it searchable,” Nelson said. “We’re thinking about recoding it, and then putting the digital city code online so people can search for keywords and find what they’re looking for, and make it a little more user-friendly.”

Currently, the East Grand Forks charter and city code are available on the website, but are not fully integrated. Rather, both the charter and code are a series of individual document files that must be accessed independently, section by section. For example, Grand Forks uses Municode software to provide an online version of the city code where the public can search and review the various sections as a web page, rather than as a document preview.

This process also allows the city to remove old provisions and terms that are no longer used or serve a purpose and reorganize or recode them to make navigation easier.

“Megan has worked really hard on this. This is the beginning of what she’s been working on,” said Council Vice President Tim Riopelle, holding up a stack of papers. “She’s whittled it down a lot. … There’s a bunch of things we could get rid of, and I would let her look at it and figure it out. So far, she’s been really good.”

The changes are likely a mix of administrative and code changes, which will require council action in the future. The city also recently revised its city charter to reflect modern language, policies and processes. That process is being reviewed by the charter commission

Gather and hold a citywide vote in 2020

; these changes will not require a citywide vote but will require city council approval, especially for official code changes.

The council also heard about the upcoming sales tax vote.

This fall, the city will decide whether to allow the 1% tax

A sales tax would be imposed for up to 20 years to allow for renovations at the Civic Center and VFW Memorial arenas.

If voters approve both questions, one for each arena, the tax would help fund projects ranging from rehabilitating the Civic Center parking lot to replacing the ice facility at the VFW Arena. If voters reject the proposals, the city would likely have $5.2 million in projects to complete at both arenas, which would likely come from property taxes or city reserves.

In another statement made by the Council;

* Revised an ordinance governing how solar panels can be installed in the city. The provisions would govern how residents can install panels on their homes and how it would work for commercial businesses.

* Reviewed the East Grand Forks Police Department’s request to purchase two new vehicles. The vehicles would replace older vehicles in the fleet that were nearing the end of their useful life and had more miles on them than Police Chief Mike Hedlund would be comfortable with on patrol.