call the uh April 14th, 2025 meeting to order. I'll stand for the pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Make a motion to adopt tonight's agenda. Second. We have a motion. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. None heard. Uh public hearing. Mr. Mayor, um we have possibly a little bit of a change to the agenda tonight. If I can get my mouse to work here. Um and I will have the attorney maybe give us some options on what we have here. Thank you, city administrator, mayor, council members. What we have uh on the agenda are two items there for the city of East Bethl economic development authority. One is an enabling resolution. What enabling resolution is is it's a really kind of a fancy term for really the governance resol resolution. it's the one that created uh both the uh EDA but then if there's going to be any changes to that governance model and so forth then you have to amend that by statute you need to provide a public hearing public hearing notice and a two-eek notice the second part of uh any EDA is the governance itself and the commissioners of which this particular body has uh full control as far as appointment uh this body has decided initially uh through discussions to visit the idea of changing the governance model so that the EDA board of commissioners itself is strictly this particular board and that is what this public hearing notice is is for. Um, but we need to have 14 days for that to occur. And as a result, we haven't quite met the statutory definition of uh the need for that 14-day public hearing notice. And I don't want to jeopardize at all this, you know, governing change. So, we're going to have to renotice the public hearing. So, my recommendation to our city clerk as well as our city administrator is that we go ahead and have this public hearing and then continue it on until uh the first meeting in May and then we can close it and adopt an enabling resolution. I actually prefer and really kind of like so by happy accident I think this actually worked out as far as a good governing model to begin with and that is is when you're gonna you know substantially change you know your economic development authority governing body whether it be an HR EDA or a port authority we don't see a lot of those anymore um that this provides an opportunity for you know the public the residents to to see hear comment and so forth and then after you've had that first digest any of that information if there is any and so forth and then finally adopt it at the next meeting. So again, that's a long explanation, but I want to give the the context that my advice is is that you open it. Anyone that wants to be heard on this enabling resolution uh can obviously stand up and and and voice any issues or communications they have, but don't close it and then continue it until the first uh Monday meeting in May. Thank you. Can I ask a question? Why wouldn't it be April 28th, which is 14 days? Because we have the notice uh wasn't correctly noticed. So, we have to redo the notice. We're not going to be able to get the notice out until um well, we need to get it out by April 25th, but the the next meeting is 14 days from now. So, the only way we could have corrected it is somehow if we got notice today. Excellent question. I would have loved to have been able to do it at our uh April 28th meeting, but um we can't. Thank you. So, Mr. Mayor, just by way of history, the current economic development authority, the way it's structured, you have seven members on there, two council members and five citizens uh that were appointed for various different um terms. and uh and the just by way of comparison, the HRA, the housing and redevelopment authority has all five council members on that. And uh the discussion was then, you know, does uh does state law allow us to change the EDA, the economic development authority to the five council members as well? And so um I had our attorney go through and do that analysis and uh it was determined that you could make that transition. However, those with terms that are expiring at some point in the future uh would need to run unless they resign, they would need to run their their full term and as they then are up for renewal, you would appoint a council member uh to that and um and essentially go from seven members to five members at that point once it's all said and done. So, okay. uh for discussion here. I'm going to start out. I've got a uh letter that was sent to me today by Brian Bazansen who is on the EDA. Um Mr. Mayor, do you want to open the public hearing and then Okay. Yeah. We'll open the public hearing 20 25-21. So, with that said, I'll read this out right away from uh Brian Bazansen. As I said, he says, "I'm rather surprised and frankly offended to see on tonight's council packet that the citizen EDA membership is being terminated. I was aware there has been discussion of such action, but to not have the courtesy of addressing this to the EDA beforehand is unwarranted. I have read Mr. Larson's packet input and want my comments entered into the public record. I am away from the city and will not be back in time to attend tonight's meeting or I would be there and express these thoughts face to face. I have served on various East Bethl boards since the early 90s and one partial and full two-fold terms of councel until cease filing. This is not open and transparent government in my opinion that was sent to me this afternoon. So, any other discussions? Mayor, you've opened up for a public hearing. So, any residents that wish to speak, I think now is the time for them to come forward. Rita, 2360 Good Hugh Street, Northeast, East Bethl. If you have citizens who want to be on your authorities and your consoles, I don't think you should preclude them from doing that. Thank you. Anybody else hearing? Seeing none, uh, mayor, you could close the public hearing and then have discussion. Hearing none, we'll close the public. Uh, how do we extend it to the next meeting if we close it? Oh, we won't we want to suspend it. Boy, thank you. Council member Mundal, I'm so used to proforma and you listen. So, uh, yeah, it would be nice to have a motion and a second and then vote to continue and then you could have discussion, but continue the public hearing until the first uh, meeting in May. So, that would be your motion and a second and a vote. So, I guess I'll make a motion to uh suspend and continue the public hearing until the next meeting that the city attorney has stated. I believe that's the 24th. May first meeting in May. First meeting in May. Okay. First meeting in May. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion second. All those in favor? I I opposed. None heard. Motion passes. Then do we have discussion on this or you you may have a discussion. Okay. Um I'm just wondering why we're doing this. I mean I I watched the one meeting where I was unable to attend. Unfortunately, I was sick. Um I but I still don't understand why we wouldn't want citizens on our EDA. The we why wouldn't we want their voices, their opinions, their thoughts, um their connections that they have and their professional ways that if they are willing to come to a meeting and they want to come, then why would wouldn't we have them come? Why would because otherwise we're just in an echo chamber here with our only thoughts. Um I'm just not understanding this. Uh one of the reasons that was given was that well there's only three EDA meetings last year. I I'd like to ask why why was there only three EDA meetings? Um, I've been the been on the EDA as lizen for multiple terms. Uh, we nearly always had a meeting every month. Um, what's changed that we don't do that now. I'm I'm just pretty opposed by this. But I I don't think it's right. We should have citizens involved. I don't see why we wouldn't. We This is a city that's made up of citizens. Why wouldn't we want their voices in a professional manner where they can address the council in longer than a threeminut term on the public forum? Why won't we want them to engage in discussion? Can I make a comment because I'm in favor of this um and it it I know it was being discussed on the last council and with other people, but um I was on it for over a year and I found it to be very ineffective and I found it to be um prolong getting anything done because it goes through there then it has to come to council and it's to me it was was costing the city more money that we really didn't need to spend because the EDA people some of them had some good ideas but it was essentially seemed to be ineffective like nothing was happening. We decided to do one little thing and six months later, nothing had happened on that one um economic business. I can't think of the word. It's not coming to my head. But so I'm like, why are we wasting our time? And and all they would do is direct the city to do anything anyways. So nobody up there was doing anything except coming to meetings and directing the city to do stuff and it and maybe spending money and I'm like this isn't necessary. That was my that's my opinion and that's why I was in favor of this. Now Mr. Look, he probably has some other answers to some of your questions. Mr. Mayor, do you want me to comment? Um, a couple of things. Uh if you pull up the uh law as it relates to uh EDAs, there's very specific authorities given to members of the EDA board. Um and I think if I understood correctly some of the questions on those authorities, would that not be more appropriate for elected individuals to have as opposed to citizen members? That's this is again a question that you guys had brought up and or some of you some of you had brought up and we we work through it. we, you know, are bringing it forward to see if there's support to pass it. Um it's not that staff is supporting this or not supporting it. It's um it's a different way of conducting an EDA that um that uh can certainly be done. Um why were there three ADA meetings? There was um you know, that was in part due to my scheduling of if we had something important to talk about, we would schedule a meeting. I I I've always been a um a person who doesn't schedule meetings for the sake of scheduling meetings. I think everyone's time is very valuable and if we have something very important to handle, by all means, we we need to schedule that meeting. Um the other thing, of course, is the ADA does not have a very large budget to be able to do things. If you if you look at maybe an EDA in Blaine, for example, they've got a lot larger budget. They're purchasing parcels of land. they're they're perhaps uh including it in uh you know in tiffs or whatever the case is to incite businesses to come in. They have a maybe a more functional EDA um uh because of larger budgets and of course larger budgets uh means more taxes and uh and I don't know that people are necessarily uh going to uh going to support that part of it. But the one thing that kind of through this whole process of analyzing this, the one thing that I thought might be very uh interesting to start would be a business advisory council uh where we have very prominent businessmen members in this community that um that have very good ideas. I know the former mayor and I met with Kurt and with some other individuals as well. Um just kind of ask them how are things going? What do you see are are are ways uh that things can be improved in the city? And this could be a council that could be put together of volunteers that could perhaps deliver that information that you're looking for without those statutory authorities um that are that are tied to this. But um but aside from that, it's uh you know, it's certainly a it's a decision of the council and um and if you guys um you know, want to conduct uh EDA meetings as well, similar to HR meetings, that would be that would be additional workload for you if you were to to change the enabling resolution on this. Anybody else? I know at the previous meetings I voiced my concern about the transparency and the citizens uh just as Brian has. So I've already voiced myself on that. So no further discussion. I'd like to point something out here, mayor. Uh prior to us becoming council members, and this was u over two years ago now, we did not have a public forum up here. There was no voice of the residency. And and I believe Brian, you were sitting on this council when that was going on. Now, for some strange reason, we come in and we want to hear the voices of everybody. We want to hear the voices of the residents. If I may interject, I try to get the public forum back into the council at least twice. Well, I'm just telling you what was going on just like you're trying to do now. And the the point is I want to hear from the residents just as much as anyone else does, which is why we brought it back. And the three minutes and three minutes and three minutes that the residents give us have been more than I've gotten out of the EDA and that council for the three years or going on three years I've been up here. Okay. Don't forget that we're residents too. We've been elected by residents to represent them and we have firsthand and sometimes we have what some people be considered non-transparent but it isn't. We try and bring everything up the minute we find out about it and go through it and discuss it. Uh, I think it's very important that the EDA works in this city. Uh, it's a smaller city, but I also believe that residents play a huge part in taking advantage of our public forum. Our residents don't need to be on any council or committee to voice their opinion because they will be taken very seriously by this council. That's what I'd like to point out. Yeah. And the public forum is very different avenue for addressing council and expressing ideas than being on a commission. Yeah, they actually talk to us. Yeah. Well, anything else? Any further? Well said. Moving on. public forum Sarah Mclofflin. Thank you um for letting me speak here. I this is my first time so forgive me. Um, I am here to address a concern that was brought up to you guys, oddly enough, following the EDA conversation about how you're able to get things done. Um, this was brought up in the meeting in September 9th of 2024 and September 23rd of 2024 in regards to uh, well, my neighbor, an address living 12230 lane Northeast. If I can just interrupt you for a second, can we get your name and address for the record? My apologies. Uh Sarah Mclofflin, 1148 231st Lane Northeast. In um those two meetings, uh some of my neighbors who have joined me here today as well um discussed the problem house that we have next to us. Um it is a known drug house. The police know the owner by name. Um, currently the owner of the house has not been on the residence for the last 8 months. He's been incarcerated probably in the last two years. I spoke with his brother today. He's probably been there six months. Um, but the people who inhabit his house have taken it over. Um, with that they have completely ruined our neighborhood, our safety for our children. Um, I have three young girls, well, teenage girls that live right next door to these people. Um, I will call them these people because they are people that should not be around others to see. Um, in the meeting in September 9th, uh, Mr. Look, you stated that you guys would discuss this issue with your city staff meeting. Um, I don't know who Berg is, uh, probably not here, stated they would do what they could as quickly as they could when this issue was brought up of our complaints. Um, with also giving the forewarning that this stuff takes time. So it has been six months um since that last meeting. It has been five years since this situation has been had. Now I have not came to any of these meetings. This is my first meeting because my husband would not allow me to um in fear of retaliation from these drug addicts that live at this house next to us. Um, in the meeting in September 23rd, um, it was stated that the city would look into the abatement process of cleaning up the property. Nothing has been cleaned up or looked at. Um, and then attorney Larson, you had stated that there are other courses of action that will be looked into. I am first before I bring up city ordinances that I have looked into wondering if there is any recollection of that meeting or what actions have been taken to take charge of this horrible situation that we're faced with. Mr. Mayor, if I can comment on this. Um, Ms. Mclaclin, thank you for coming in. Um, this has been an ongoing issue that we've been dealing with. Uh since that, excuse me, since that meeting, we did have the staff meeting. We brought our law enforcement up to speed. They increased significant pressure over there. They arrested some folks. Um one of the one of the things that we're up against is if the property owner allows people to be on his property, they're not breaking a law. Um and so um you know, they're not squatting if they're allowed to be there essentially. Um, so it until they're breaking laws, can the law enforcement, you know, move in and and um and and make sure that uh you know that they're being held accountable for that. Uh, as far as junk vehicles and things like that, I think that were on the property, buses maybe from my recollection. Um, that is a those are code enforcement issues that yes, um, can be dealt with. And I don't know that the city has engaged in abatement as of yet essentially where um you know the owner is told to remove the the junk vehicles or whatever the the uh the issues there and failure to do so the city will then go in and remove it and then build them for it. And that's a pretty aggressive move. I don't think the the city has done that before in the past. Uh but it's certainly an an option if all the processes have been followed and it's a lengthy process. I mean I know there's some some property owners that we've been dealing with for years. So it's um it's not a quick resolution to that. So Mr. Look, as I uh stated before, the owner of the house has not been able to return to his house for the last 8 months um in risk of breaking his sobriety of being in jail. Um when he did return after he was incarcerated and came back, he was quickly arrested again due to all of those people living in his house that would not leave. He has came over to our house with a meat cleaver in the back of his pants, scared for his life from the people that were living in his house at that time. and we had called the cops and that it was represented. So, I'm just stating that this person who does live there has not been able to return to the premises. And while he was incarcerated, this camper moved into his house, which my understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, with any of these um these ordinances that you guys have in place, the Division 3 blight ordinance would say that since this camper was placed on his property illegally without permission for more than 48 hours, the city then would have the availability to come in and remove that. Is that accurate? I'm not sure the legal on that on that aspect of it, but um what I will tell you is this is new information for us as far as the um the owner coming back and not being able to to um you know, he hasn't returned make use of his property. Um, this is also, I believe, a civil matter which he would need to evict or whatever the legal process is to remove these people from that property. Uh, he would have to start that process. So, unfortunately, they lost an eviction notice with these people because they know how to play the system. And the reason that it was lost is because of instead of a 90-day eviction notice, they were only given a 60-day. So then once that was not passed, these drug addicts invited more people to live in this house and this is when this camper showed up and then Dan was not allowed back on his property. So I understand that this is a uh takes time. Um I understand that an abatement application would be an aggressive move. However, I have seen double K9 units, double drones, 17 squad cars encasing our whole neighborhood. Um, we have a beautiful Anderson Park that is not very we don't feel very comfortable allowing our children to go there. Um, enjoy the beach, enjoy the lake because it is known that these people who inhabit Dan's house sit and do their drugs in that parking lot. Cops can't drive by every second. I don't expect them to, but the problem is is they're like cockroaches and they scurry away when the light turns on. And once they see that the light is off, they come out and the warm weather brings them out way more. In one day, I can see seven different vehicles going into that driveway, sitting there for a moment, getting out, going in the house, coming back to their car, and leaving fastly past my house. Now, if that isn't a drug deal, a drug house, or someone just picking up their drugs, I don't know what is. And I've been watching this for five years. Um, I recently was threatened by the lady who does not have any permission to live there, which I was strictly told that in regards or from Dan's brother who has power of attorney. Um, she was she's not meant to live there. She did tell my husband and I while we were out in our yard that we need to sleep tightly because we don't know who her son is. And this just happened yesterday. And this is why I'm here now. I did make a police report. As I explained before, my husband would not allow me to come here in fear of retaliation of our property, of everything we work hard for, and the house that we love and have lived in for the last 10 years. Um, I have a whole lot more. I don't know how much more time I can talk. Um, but I have a whole lot more ordinances that I feel like these people would be able to be in violation, but I have not seen any change. I have also made complaints to to the city about the junk and all that stuff. I can pass these pictures around and show you. The one major one that is coming up right now is I see we have no ordinance in the city of East Bethl for cats. Um the deputies told me that cats are um maybe considered farm animals. Uh but I don't know if any of you council members could let me know what ordinances we have of cats um within the city of East Bethl because I have not been able to find one. Currently, there is 15 or more cats living in a 2acre lot. Um, the cats will often come into my yard with their fleas that you can obviously see, attack my German short hair, pee and poop in my yard where my dog then just rolls and rubs himself all over it. Sarah, I'm going to have to stop you there. Typically, we only allow three minutes per deal. I'm sorry, but your comments are well taken and we appreciate your intent here. And uh Miss McCl, we'll try and look a little further into this. If those are extra copies and so forth, uh you could certainly leave them uh with me and I'll make sure that they become part of the record as well as that uh the staff can have them and take undertake further investigation. Thank you. Um, have you met with the city administrator with this new information? Um, in regards to the case, everything that you talked about tonight? Oh, well, I guess I didn't realize it was new information as there's deputies there once a week. That there's some that is new information. And um if you want to set up a time with our city administrator uh present all that, he'll take whatever time is needed to go over everything and u maybe at our next work meeting we can get an update and have um some not maybe not a plan but uh some options that we could do to alleviate this. Yeah, Mr. Mayor and Council, what I will say is that our law enforcement have been working overtime as evidenced by the number of cars and drones and things like that that have been casing the area. Um, I can assure you that they're very aware of the issues over there. I can assure you that they're not turning a blind eye to it and if there's any way they can enforce anything, they absolutely do. Um and um and I understand that you know that the residents probably see more than they do because obviously they're not living there for the last 5 years. So what we'll do is we'll bring this up in the staff meeting again tomorrow and I'll get an update from the sheriff as to um you know what they've done and what they're finding and that sort of thing. We'll we'll be able to maybe put together an action plan as early as tomorrow. Yeah. Sorry. Is there anybody can ask a question just in regards to your comments. if the if the I guess the reason that I'm here Oh, I guess the reason and the main question that I'm here is that I know that the authorities only have limitations that they can enact. So, I'm really looking at you guys as council members to start enacting some of these regulations that you guys have for the city of East Betho. Um because I feel like you are the only ones that are going to be able to clean out that yard, clean up that house so we can get our neighborhood back. I know that the authorities can't. So that is why I'm here as well. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your courage. I know that was hard. Yeah. I'm not sure what the city can do yet, but u I I'm well aware of this house and I've talked with staff about some options about what can be done. Um so hopefully we can come up with uh some sort of game plan. Right. Thank you. All right, moving on. 60 consent agenda. I'll make a motion to adopt the consent agenda. Have a motion. Second. Second. Okay. Any items need to be pulled tonight? None being pulled. Okay. I ask for a motion and a second we got. And all in favor? I I opposed. None heard. Motion passes 7.0A site plan. Uh good evening council. My name is Zeke Peters. I'm not Kendra Lindall. She was unable to make it tonight and I work with her and I've worked on these project in East Bethl. Um and we'll be presenting the planning items for you tonight. Um this first item we have is for a site plan and conditional use permit for a second building on one lot located at 18750 Ulissi Street Northeast. Um the applicant is present and is able to answer questions you may have specific to their plan set. Um let me go into present mode on here. There you go. All right. Um, Classic Construction has applied for a site plan and conditional use permit for a second building on one lot. The building is guided light industrial and is zoned industrial at this moment. Um, in the city code in the industrial district, you allowed a second building, principal building or structure on the same lot as long as they are related or similar in use. Um you can see this is an older rendering they gave us that was presented to the planning commission. The new building is the um one located here with the blank signage and the panagold building as it's called is the one on the south that is existing. Um they have provided a new plan and this is the new rendering to show some compliance with the screening requirements required of screening loading docks from public rideway. And you can see this here. Um their site plan and landscape plans have been provided to you. Um they were required after the planning commission to present a landscape plan of the entire site as the landscape on site currently did not match the approved landscape plan for the original building. Um they are now in compliance and actually have more than enough trees and shrubs to meet the standards of the code today for landscaping. Um the ordinance includes 10 standards for an interimm or conditional use approval standards for site plans. Um staff finds that these general standards have been met. The city engineer has also reviewed and provided comments um that has been added as a condition of approval and they as mentioned earlier they have provided updated landscaping and screening exhibits that now show compliance with the city code. Um so the council action is either move to adopt the resolution that has been provided to you in the packet with the conditions um attached as recommended by the planning commission or to discuss alternative options. I'm available for any questions as is the applicant. Make a motion to approve resolution 2025-22. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? I just do have a question. Is this this is not a new business? This is a for office space or exactly what's going to be going on in this building. I'm It's sir, if you could actually come up to the microphone. I want to make sure that we get your answer on the record. Thank you. And introduce yourself, please. Kurt Strandland, 18542 Ulissi Street Northeast East Bele. So, this building is intended to be a lease space for other tenants. It will not be used at this time by Country Horse or Pan Gold. I knew some of it was going to be leased. I thought you were using some of it, too. Okay. Thank you. That's all I need. Thank you. Yep. Thanks. Any other questions? Hold. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I opposed none. Motion passes. [Music] Um 8.08 Barnuminiums. Well, went back to the beginning. Let me skip through all those. All right. All right, the barnominium discussion. Um I was not at the previous council meetings where this was discussed, but I did work on the reports and the data. Um largely there hasn't been a lot of changes um from the previous discussion other than the um problems that were pointed out at the last meeting with the building official around foundation types. This is what current code um allows in section 13 subdivision 1. I bolded emphasis added for the issue of what the building official has pointed out as problems related to denied barnaminium type housing request as of late. And this is a solid for the complete perimeter of the house. And so in your packet and right here I provided a kind of simple illustration example to demonstrate different foundation types for postb barn pullb and post frame construction. traditional and post and ground on the left post frame with a concrete pier that comes all the way up to a foundation type whether it's a floating slab or a slab on grade and then on the far right you have a short wall or a T- wall. Current code would require this furthest um foundation type on the right to follow the entire perimeter of the house. Um, so really the only question um for tonight, unless there are other items that have changed or that the council would like to discuss, is whether we should continue to allow or require the short wall perimeter foundation for all barnaminiums or if we would like to allow post and frame or post frame with concrete pier only for barnaminiums. It's important to note that the Minnesota State Building Code does allow these other two types of foundations for barnaminian type structures. However, they do require a structural engineer to sign off and determine that loads. It can handle the loads and resistance necessary for a residents. Um, it's in staff's opinion that this doesn't really reduce the cost. It's just a different cost at a different place. Um, but it would really be design dependent. And so really, that's the question up for discussion. We would like to send this to planning commission for a public hearing as it hasn't gone yet. Um that would need to go to the May meeting as that's the next one that we could notice for for a public hearing and then it would come back to council for more discussion if there was more things that wanted to be discussed and could change after it goes to planning commission. Well, my personal feelings is I do like the short wall foundations. Um, I may be okay with the post frame with concrete pier as long as there's been a structural engineering done on it. Um, I don't know how much I like the post frame with post and ground cuz I do know that there's treated wood that is allowable for ground contact, but um, it usually works pretty well. But I've also seen it not work and have it rot. So those are my thoughts with the having the post frame with concrete pier or a short wall. And personally I'm open to all three of those, but I think it should be dependent upon the use of the building and the structural engineer. So I think that those two things should determine the final solution or usage of whatever they're going to use in the building. Yeah, I believe the intent with the building inspector and everything was that everything is structurally engineered and that's the key component I believe. Can you talk into your mic because I couldn't hear what you said. I said I believe the building inspector's intent was that everything is structurally engineered, right? And that's the key point here. Post frame with concrete peers are fine as long as everything else is engineered. That would work. Oh, any Yeah. Well, I Yeah, that's that's great discussion, great direction. As we see, we would be allowing the post frame. Important to note, too, the building code has additional restrictions we would have to follow about frost footings, depth, wood treatment for either type of these constructions. They just allow cities to have a little bit of discretion with alternative foundation types as long as they're reviewed by a structural engineer as discussed. Yep. So, from what I hear, we would be comfortable allowing these alternative systems as long as they comply with the structural engineer requirements. Is that correct? In building code. Yeah. And the city has adopted the building code as well. So, any changes would be adopted by us. So, um, we would like to staff would like to bring this for a public hearing to the May meeting. Does that sound like something that the council would be amunable to? Everybody okay with that? Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. We want to get this right the first time out, at least as close as we can. So, I mean, it's now's the time to get go through these things and I agree. Okay. And you'll see any other changes? We changed the, you know, the gingerbread um we changed that to be front facade only for Barnuminiums and metal and we lowered the number based off comments. Other than that, there haven't been any other major changes to what you've seen. Yeah, I do have a question though. So we get this all implemented and planned and somebody who wants to build one if they need request one something that's different in this whole ordinance would they be able to get a variance for that or because there's just I know there's just thousands of situations and I haven't thought of something you know is that are is it possible or is this set in stone then and we would have to change the ordinance again to meet a need of a resident. Uh, Mr. Mayor and council members, yeah, if there was some obscure situation that came up, that would be a variance. Okay. I just want to make sure. All right. Good. Just a discussion, so no vote on that. Okay. Moving on. uh 8.0 G city administrator. Okay, Mr. Mayor, this is the part that um that we're going to bring forward. You're going to see um essentially the same thing come forward here. city administrator. Um in light of the decision earlier, um maybe it'd be appropriate to actually just go ahead and uh continue uh G1 and two, okay, to the first meeting in May and then it can all be dealt with in a package coherent fashion. Right. Uh Mr. Mr. Mayor and council members, you'll see this come forward on May 12th, then in the same format in which it is as after it's been noticed for two weeks and um and then we'll we can handle the approval at that point. Okay. So, we'll just reagend. We don't need a motion to continue. Okay. Okay, moving to staff report. Mr. Mayor, I'll just uh give a couple of updates here. Uh the first is that the security system has been fully implemented uh with our facilities and um as promised with uh with this cell phone, you can essentially pull it up and open a door right from here and turn off the security system, turn it on, do whatever you need to do. Um and uh and with that of course I wanted to just say that um the cameras are highdefinition cameras and we've had the opportunity to encourage someone to change behavior already. Uh and uh and that'll give us more flexibility as well when uh when and if there's any sort of funny business that goes on at the various different uh buildings that we have. Uh and so from a security standpoint, I think it's um it's very much improved. uh certainly the flexibility and also um the the ability to prosecute if need be. Uh the other thing I was just going to say is we um you might recall that uh Business View magazine did an article on East Bethl uh quite a while ago here um I'm sorry last year quite a while but um did an article on us and uh we kind of promoted some of the some of the growth opportunities that we have. We promoted some of the balance between rural and uh and um and residential and then also commercial districts and uh we ended up winning a best managed city award for 2024. So, of like mind of similar cities um in Tennessee and um I forget the other city that we went up against as well and uh ended up getting a best managed city award in terms of the work that we're doing here and some of the projects that are that are happening. So, we can hang that on the wall. But aside from that, uh Mr. Mayor, that those are the only two updates I have. Thank you. Council reports. I got one here. uh uh shortly. Well, I actually I got an email the other day from uh Petra Fagger, I believe her name is. It's the one with the grazing sheep. And uh she we approved it and everything. And her application fee was $300 and then she received a bill in the mail for another $1367. and she sent me copies and there's like tons of research on this the way it looks and the amounts I'm looking at this and I'm thinking well if a resident has questions about something to me personally if my neighbor if I was in the situation and my sheep was going to eat the neighbor's lawn and he was fine with it why are we even dealing with something like this for an IUP. To me, it's ridiculous in my case, but I don't I don't believe in it. But anyways, my thought is like for a resident to call a city and ask questions and then get this enormous bill for the answers that we already approved that this could be done. I'm thinking like, okay, it's almost like a double bill. And I understand that we have land form contracted, but in this case, I feel that the resident shouldn't be held responsible at a bill for $1367 for questions that she needed answers to because of our IUP for these sheep. So, I I'm just feeling this is way out of line. Plus, she was not aware of it. And if we're going to do this in the future, which I'm hoping that eventually Landform will be just a counseling entity for us because we'll have a full-time planning person that our residents can call up and get questions answered, but they're not going to get a bill like this. And if they are, they should be made aware of it that you could possibly get a bill for 500, a thousand bucks. This is going to cost you a lot of money for us to research, which I feel that as taxpayers, we're already paying for this service for the city. The city is already providing the service to our residents. So to me, this is over and above. So my recommendation is that this resident Petra Fagger is not responsible for that $1367. So do we need a motion to make this go away or what? Mr. L, can you provide some background on this? Sure. Uh Mr. Mayor and council members. Uh we had some discussions in the past about uh billing out for contract services and um and this is you know for example if we need attorney uh analysis on on certain projects come before we can charge that against an escrow. Uh if we need um Hackinson Anderson to do con you know u engineering work we can build that against an escrow. And um and of course what this involved, our city code requires us that it's not just as simple as saying, "Yeah, you can go graze on someone's property." It requires us to to go through the process of an IUP. And an IUP is advertising neighbors. It's coming before the planning. It's coming before the council. There was quite a few hours involved in that. And that's why the cost is uh what the cost is now. Um, you can certainly make a decision to say, "Yep, the city is going to absorb this." Um, the full-time planner that we have on staff, we do not bill out her time, but the contracts we historically always have. Um, so yes, it's kind of caught in between, right? because we're in transition right now with the full-time planner getting trained by the contract planner, you know, and eventually that'll phase out from a training standpoint here, probably by the end of the month. we're we're looking at. Um so so the reality is is that um you know you can come in and you can request an IUP or a CUP and and the question you get to answer is should the rest of the residents uh be responsible for the cost that the city will incur to bring it all the way through the process to get a decision, you know, to ultimately bring it to council and get a decision up or down. Doesn't matter if it passes or not. Um, yes, the the escrow amount is $300 and in this case it was closer to $3,000 uh for the cost uh to bring that through. So, um it's totally the prerogative of the council if they want to wave that cost, they certainly can. And it would need a motion in the second. And in my 12 years with city experience, I've never seen a resident get a bill like that. Uh, I I would agree that it's not right. And if you want to make a motion, I'd support it. I'm going to make a motion to eliminate any additional costs above and beyond the IUP CUP applications. Is that what I need to say? If I'm hearing things correctly, um, the resident would pay the $300 and any additional costs and so forth, the resident would not pay. It would just be the city expense. That's what I believe I heard. Yes. Okay. So, that would be the motion and second is that the resident is uh is limited to the $300 initial fee. Mr. Mayor, and also if there could be clarity that we are not going to bill out for the planning contract services. If you can weave that into that same motion or do a second motion. Oh, I for residents. I I think it would be a good idea [Music] to just make a specific motion to eliminate this build than a coverall. A coverall may Yeah, I was just thinking about it because there's going to be unique circumstances if you have a business or developer looking for a conditional use permit. Um generally those are going to be pass through uh costs especially with a conditional use permit that's running with the land of successors and interest. You also need to look at what is the unique uh IUP situation and so forth. So there might be instances where actually is very appropriate and that's just the cost of doing business and so forth. But we're dealing with a resident here. My point is that's why I said residents versus a business because a business I understand that we'd have different costs for that but like I say a resident to have to absorb something like this is ridiculous in my opinion. Correct. Hopefully it's an isolated incident and for the future. If there is going to be something like that, we need to at least let the resident know that it could cost more money instead of a surprise like this. We are changing the process on that. Okay, good. Okay. So, so the motion is the resident would just be uh limited to the $300 fee. I can't make that motion though. We have a motion. If you want to resend the motion and make a new motion just to uh resend this bill just for this resident. Yes. If if there be more residents that this happens in the future, we can take care of them one by one. I'll res I'll modify my motion to so it is for this particular resident for this particular bill. Petra second a motion second. further discussion. I think we better set up a work meeting then and reook at our fee schedules because this is going to bite us in the long [Music] run. So any other discussion then motion seconded. All in favor? I opposed. None heard. Motion passes. Thank you. I just want to bring up another thing is that I'd like to personally invite the fire department personnel to our town hall meeting if they can make it just to show their presence and we can appreciate that they're there. Jerry, if you could do that. Yeah, they do have something scheduled that night. Do they on the 24th? Yes, they have a open house or something. Is that recruitment information session? Oh, really? Okay. move it up here or move it up here. Okay. I don't know. Yeah, that's true. Maybe just have some representatives at the very least. And I was going to say, uh, Jerry, do you have something you'd like to say to us tonight? Yes, I have a report. Can he love to hear it? Do it right now. Is that fine? Go ahead. Mayor, city council. Good evening. My name is Jerry Strike. I'm assisting in administering the fire department for a period of time. Uh, good evening. I want to first start off. I I came in a little late because Mondays are the same night of our training. So, it's important for us to be in front of our staff to talk about updates and so on. And then came late. But while I was here, we had the open forum discussing the the issue in the neighborhood and and uh I want to discuss tomorrow. I will not be here in the morning for that meeting, but I want to make sure we talk about the fire code and how we can apply a fire code to some of this stuff because the fire code is actually much more authoritative when it comes to health and safety. um without a warrant. Actually, if there's any kind of uh uh probable cause that there is a life safety issue there, the fire chief has the authority to take action. So, so we'll look into that and uh see how we can apply that. So, good evening. I want to just give you a brief update on the fire department and what's been going on since our last meeting. Uh we have been inundated with grass fires. Uh we have had the NOA County in general has had a lot of grass fires and this this area of 48 square miles is one of the largest cities around of that size and we have all types of wildland areas which are very difficult fires to fight. Um I would rather fight a house fire inside than than tred through the forest and the the swamp in a bunch of gear on a wildland fire at 80 degrees. But our crews have been doing an outstanding job. Uh the DNR, Department of Natural Resources, dispatches uh through our dispatch with us and they have ground crews that come to all of our fires and they also have air support. Uh but I will ask the community to be more diligent in their recreational fires. Uh if you feel that it is dry out, it is dry out and you can watch the DNR website and you can see what the fire conditions are and if you see the smoky bear sign that says it's high risk, it's it's high risk. And it's also important to note that even though it may be an accident, uh, like you left your recreational fire unattended overnight without completely extinguishing it, you can be held responsible for that fire that rushes through the neighborhood and maybe damages homes and so on. And we recently had that just north of station one. We had a recreational fire that uh burnt the garage down. Uh, I'm going to post a video of that because we have a video from that wreck fire and the wind picking up and the fire going to the garage. And I asked the homeowners and they said that we could share that video as a uh a lesson for the community. But wreck fires uh and recreational fires three-foot diameter continuously attended some sort of means of extinguishment, kids away from it, not running from it, those kinds of things. It's also severe weather week last week. The siren went off on Wednesday. Uh that siren is a test for all of the area to make sure their sirens work, but also act as a reminder for the community to sort of ask the question, what would I do if there were a tornado in our area? Now, uh the severe weather is really the community's responsibility, meaning each homeowner should have a plan uh of what they're going to do for their community. like extra water and food and toilet paper and those kinds of things. Uh we've all been through that. So, um when the sirens sound, uh it's it's an alert if you're outside to go to some sort of broadcast TV or radio station in order to hear what the event is. Uh we I feel like we're seeing more and more of them. So, uh, severe weather is important and, uh, the question is, what would you do without 5 days of power? What would you do without 5 days of water? Uh, because your septic is down in our area because it's not uh we don't have uh municipal water system in that area and so on. But, uh, as far as the station goes, we've been really busy at the stations. We've been inventorying all the radios and anything any asset. We're verifying all of the asset list and finding out where it is and making sure it's in the right spot. We're organizing. We're getting rid of stuff that has been there for a long time. Uh we are uh going to remodel. Thank you for approving the consent agenda. Uh the crews wanted to update the carpet. They wanted to update the emergency operations center and the kitchen. They're making the kitchen into a firefighter kitchen, if you will. They're getting a 12-oot table that they're having built and they're putting their patch in it. And uh they met with public works and looking for some old fire hydrants, the used legs for fire hydrants and just good old firefighter stuff, you know, spree decor stuff. So, they're going to turn that into a kitchen. And then we also uh created a list for the new fire chief to come in and use as a tool to work with you maybe to improve some of the other the other areas as well because our stations are old. Uh the newest station uh help me uh mayor. But that was what 2005 the new station uh station one. Yeah. 2005 and that's the newest station. Yep. Yeah. So, we're starting to see the effects of the wear and tear of the stations. Uh, certainly. So, thank you for approving that. Uh, we started a branding campaign. Uh, branding meaning, who are we? What What do we look like? Who are those people behind the badge and the helmet? Um, I I need to clear up some social media post uh uh misinformation. Um, there is quite a bit of chatter when they saw the video of the firefighters on our social media page. I asked for control of the page. I happen to be very fluent in social media and marketing. Um, if you don't know, I I've owned the largest firefighter recruitment website in the Midwest, one of the largest in the nation. Uh, I actually donated it last uh, Saturday to the Minnesota State Fire Department Association, but I started it in 2009 because I was having recruitment problems when I was a fire chief and it it took off. But I'm using all of that information and all of the resources that I've gained over the years. actually received two FEMA grants of almost $3 million to push that out statewide and uh uh provide personal protective gear and all kinds of stuff with that money through that grant. But I'm donating my the time and all the effort and all the Minnesota Fire Hire videos and so on to East Bethl. You are not paying me a penny for that other than what you pay me to be your interim fire chief. So, um thank you. the the the notice in social media is, you know, I'm I'm always putting putting it in my pocket or something and that's just not the case. Um, recruitment is a very challenging issue to get somebody up at 2 in the morning to uh go help a neighbor when they have three kids under five years old and they just got back from karate and dance and football and everything else. And uh I've said it before, I'm going to say it again. Uh negative social media posts do not help at all. when somebody gets online and wants to learn more about the city of East Bethl, the city of East Bethl fire department, the public works department, whatever, those posts are visible. Most of what I've seen, uh, it's just not the right information. So, I've been messaging people who have been posting negative information, and I have had a few people call me back, and I've explained to them the facts, and they've turned it around. And I want to thank there's a Sazzy Vargas that's online right now in our community. She's a local influencer who just does a lot of really good positive stuff for us. And those are the messages we need. We're a volunteer department. These people uh our firefighters are your neighbors who get up for 17 bucks an hour at all hours. We've had I think it was three calls today. Two of them were at 2 and 4 in the morning. Um but we just don't need the social media. There's enough of that. So, we're branding. Uh, we started out with 70 likes and 100 followers on our Facebook page. We're at 1,200 followers now. And that video has been viewed 52,000 times in the last two weeks. So, what does branding do? Branding lets people see who we are. You don't know there's an opportunity to serve until they know who we are. So, we green screened a bunch of firefighters and we've got them in our posts and we've got them in all kinds of different gear and uh uh my company manages it and puts it on on the Facebook posts and we're going to continue that until um until we decide we have enough staff. Uh out of that marketing campaign in the last two weeks, I have five interested people already. So uh and our staffing levels are low particularly in the day. They are are low uh and we need to talk as a group at the next work session about you know where do we go with a a short staff in the daytime and uh and and so on. So um we have an information session on Thursday, April 24th at 6:30 at our station one. What is an information session? It's not an open house. When you have an open house, people are expecting hot dogs and soda and sitting on a truck. That isn't what it's about. If you're interested in learning more about what our fire department does and how you can become part of it because you do this after your work hours, you can fit this into your life. And it's our job, our job to make sure these firefighters can fit it into their life from balancing all the stuff that's required so that it doesn't uh become a detriment to their lifestyle and they can still go see their kids football game and so on. But uh the information session, we'll stand up, we'll have a PowerPoint presentation, talk about the history of the department, we'll talk about how to become a firefighter, what the training is like. You do get paid for it. We put $8,000 a year right now uh away for for a pension for you uh when you're in good standing. So, if there's anyone in the community who would be interested in being a firefighter, better better term is probably an emergency responder because we go to medicals, we go to water rescues, we go to crashes, we go to fires, we go to people trapped in things, we go to hazmat, we do all types of work. And if you're interested in that and want to be part of our elite team, uh we would ask that you come on April 24th uh to to see our staff and to learn more. Uh the new chief process is in order right now. Um it finalized last uh Friday at 4 p.m. Uh we're going to meet this week on those candidates. we did get a number of candidates and that's impressive because the uh minimum requirement was raised to a bachelor's degree and so to to get a number of applicants and I've seen the names there there's there's some good names in there and some of them obviously I I don't know but we're going to learn about them and uh we're hoping to have that new chief in the process or in position in the middle of May and then um I will work with that chief over a period of time and until they feel comfortable. I don't want to have them start from scratch. We'll just work it through the process and and so on. That being said, I think the time that I put in up front here with the organization uh uh is already at a point where I feel like um I could do more uh or or I could save you some money by not being there. So, I spoke to staff and I said, "What if I came on a Monday and a Wednesday and a Thursday and you have access to me 24 hours a day and they felt that was fine?" So, if you're fine with that, I'm going to I'm going to ask to reduce my hours, which means reduce my costs. You'll see that in the agenda. I did that already. And um I'll come when needed. I'll come to the big calls. Uh but, um I'm not needed at the station as as much as we anticipated. And uh I've said it before, but our fire inspector, our chief t our our uh full-timer does a lot of work for the organization from payroll to everything. So, uh we'll talk more about that, but uh I do plan to start that next week. I spoke to the administrator, he felt comfortable with it at the time. So, there uh we talked about social media and uh we're going to have a leadership meeting this week on Wednesday. I'm meeting with the station chiefs. We have three stations in our organization. Uh, and there are two lead supervisors. We call them district chiefs. Um, that manage that pool of people. And our fire officers end up being a span of control system for the fire chief. They everybody reports to the fire chief, but the fire chief obviously can't run the largest department in the city with 30 plus people. And uh so we have chiefs. So getting the chiefs involved. They've been very helpful since I've been here. We're going to give them uh time and we're just going to go through a bunch of stuff that needs to get done and get their input. And finally uh this week um uh Ben came up with an idea of having what he calls a learn and lunch. And on occasion, we're just going to post to our staff, hey, if you'd like to learn, uh, if you want to go through the pumps on the trucks or you want to get in the water rescue gear or whatever, cut car part or whatever, we're just going to announce it on the day and whoever shows up shows up. We were surprised when we had seven people show up at the learner lunch. Uh, so we did the pump operating, he set it all up, trained them, everybody's getting comfortable getting the rust off their arms and their brains. And then, uh, uh, Mr. Look and Mr. Smith came and we roasted hot dogs and had some food and so on and caught up with the team. So those little uh spurof the- moment trainings allow people to do things outside of standing in front of, you know, 25 others on a night crew to get five minutes on the pump. They've now can do it as long as they want. So I'll stand for questions. That's my update. I just want to make a comment just what I've seen in the short time you've been there that things are turning around and there's more positive people there which is great. So I appreciate that big time. Thank you. Thank you. If you hear the otherwise let me know. I will. Yes. Thank you. And I think we have an amazing fire department all three stations. And I did um want to ask you when the interviews are starting. I'll pass that on to Mr. L. Uh we'll be we'll be setting those up here in the next few days probably. Um perfect. I have a we have a schedule and I don't recall the exact time right off the bat here, but we'll be getting we'll be getting council kind of informed on that. We'll have the personnel committee with uh Mr. Strike and myself. Um um I think in the let me see the four. Is there one more? I'm trying to recall. The mayor was it the mayor? Yeah, he's on the personnel along with Jim. Okay. All right. And um and so then we'll we'll start those interviews and and uh follow that process through. So thank you. All right. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Thanks, Jerry. Any more council reports? Uh I got just a quick one. We had a Sunrise River meeting. Uh the budget was passed that got passed by all four cities. Um on the question of whether the uh joint powers agreement was changed on um for how the 10-year plan was going to be built to the cities. Uh, one city did turn it down, so there will be no change to that JPA for management versus non-management costs. Um, booster day is coming up in July. We will be having a booster day committee meeting on the 16th, this Wednesday at 6:30 right here at city hall. Uh we are always looking for volunteers of anybody that would like to come and attend the meeting. There's uh come and attend if you just want to watch. There's no commitment. Um otherwise we're looking for volunteers just to volunteer for an hour during the day or more or whatever your commitment level would be. So, if you're interested, uh, booster day meeting on the 16th, this Wednesday at 6:30 at city hall. Thank you. Okay. I have um a couple of questions. When um when is the new community development planner going to start coming to these meetings and presenting instead of land form or at least watching because I think it'd be great training and I'm not sure why they're not participating. She will be presenting at the next meeting. Oh, great. Okay, that answers my question. Um our town hall is the 24th. We talked about that. We did, Mr. Look and I were both at the East Bethl Chamber meeting, uh, which was a really nice meeting. And I wanted to bring something up. There was somebody there that did these this newsletter and they offered to put East Bethl News in here and to include uh, booster days. I mean, it it goes out to St. Francis, Oak Grove, East Bethl, and Bethl. I think our fire department could contact her and could get a page. But I was thinking that if instead of East Bethl spending all that money that we spend at our community newsletter that goes that I think we were trying to get out more than quarterly, but maybe we could um provide her some of the cost and skip some of ours and let her do our news. It's just a suggestion. It's something for us to think about. maybe bring up at the next um I don't know this person. That was the first time I ever saw her. Michelle Anderson. Yes. I never that was the first time I ever saw her. But I I think these are so nicely done and I and if if she had a little extra money, it could be into a booklet form and I I'd be willing to vote for that. So that's all I have. Yeah. It covers the uh St. Francis school district area. So what it covers? Yeah. and her and her partner who was a former editor on the courier have put this together. And the courier used to be a really nice book, too. Anything else? Yeah, I had the privilege of going to the 911 opening of a grand building down by the or the new Anoka building down by the Anoka County Sheriff's Department. I got to tell you, it is one heck of an impressive place. Uh to see what they're doing down there and to see how they help our frontline people out there is just amazing. I always thought of 911 operators, someone sitting at their desk with a multitude of people sitting next to. It's nothing like that. It's it's big. It It's impressive. It's well organized. They know everything that's going on. And uh I think it's a huge step. and I went down there with Matt and uh got to meet a lot of people down there and they're all excited about it and I think we're pretty lucky in this community to have something like that available to us. Big step up from where they were. All right, I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I meeting's closed.