tell meone we're live and we're at six o'clock all right good evening I'd like to open the meeting so the date is 27 February 6: pm and we'll go ahead and uh open the meeting we're going to start out with the Pledge of Allegiance so if you can please s uned States stand naiv all right City administrator Natalie will you please take R call here we're getting it here she's got to find the not button I'm did you call yeah here did you I here yeah consult Bo here and City administrator John all right perfect let's move on to approving the agenda uh there's a couple items that I would uh request to remove from the agenda before we even get started um so on the consent agenda uh item three e e is an echo I would like to remove that one and then also on new business 6B to remove that one uh some additional information has to be collected on that and we want to make sure that we're presenting uh information um before we we do any type of uh review of that Mr Mayor I'd also like to move 6C to consent agenda you would yes it's pretty straightforward okay 6C to consent so if somebody would like to make a motion for that Mr Mayor counc Brian make a motion to approve the agenda as amended okay and that would be the uh threee being removed 6B being removed and 6 C being moved to consent agenda is that correct yes all right I'll second that perfect all right with that we will do a roll call vote um I would like to start with uh council member rainville yes yes counc member Brian I counc member Glazer I and I also am an i motion carries all right moving to Planning and Zoning oh correction we have to do public form first I don't know how I got down on my agenda so far so with the agenda approval we'll go on to the public form did anybody sign up to speak tonight you would sir would you please come up to the microphone and state your name and your address please my name is Dana henham I live at 21245 Gypsy Valley Road yes sir first of all thanks to all of you for for what you do uh in your different roles um Mr Mayor and and K I probably know you guys least of all I've been familiar with Dan and Frank from for now and before and Natalie too so just a little background about myself before I kind of get to what I want to just mention um my wife and I bought our property here now then over on Gypsy Valley Road back in 1994 we didn't build until 97 and living here in nown we raised four boys they all went to the St Francis School District um and we really happy to to raise our boys here and uh it's funny I run into people that find out I live in northern they say boy I'd like to move to now then if I could make it happen I mean people do know about now then when we first moved here I I had a job in St Paul I was plant manager for a factory for Modine manufacturing so it's about a 37 mile drive but if you like where you live and you like where you work you make the drive um before that I worked at a job for about 17 years now that counts my senior year in high school college and then after college and uh it was a kind of a fast-paced job a lot of work but why I left there was I had a boss that um his leadership style kind of progressed to where I didn't like it I'll say I'll say it was toxic so I decided I had to leave and made a change and so I went to mine at mí I had probably the best boss I ever had and his name was Fred ganway and he had a saying that said if you don't have people problems you don't have problems and I really like that job I look forward to next day at noon you know I just really like working there unfortunately Modine closed three American plants um back around 2001 ARS was one of them they offered me four different jobs in four different cities but my wife and I didn't want to relocate we wanted to stay now then raise our boys here we're trying to starting to get plugged in here so anyway um what I did then was I I kind of made a career change I got into construction and that was that was a big change but a few years into construction uh I came across the opportunity to work on the the Bor Edition here at the recycling center and so I we built the Bor Edition because we just got this new plastic Bor and we had to keep it inside and that's when I started to get to know the town a little bit better and then during that time I became aware of the fact that they needed a snowplow operator somebody knew I knew how to plow so I've been plowing for now then on a part-time basis for for a long time the very first day on the job I didn't bring my now then map and so I Joe said where's your map I said I didn't bring one so he drew the whole North half of nowland to scale perfectly and that's what I followed on his piece of paper I brought my map every day since then but uh it was pretty impressive that how Joel knew the town that well um besides working on the Bor Edition I was also able to work on the maintenance building next door it used to be kind of a different looking building we changed the whole roof line and the whole exterior um we did we did the interior at the recycling center and then we redid we did the addition at the uh fire hall the cool thing about working on the fire hall is I got to get to know the the people in the department got a pretty good group of people there in the fire department Got to Know Chief Schmidt assistant chief Lawrence they kind of educated me on General fire department needs and I will say this too is what we have over there in the firehouse a really nice training room and there were times when I'd see uh former mayor Pon and uh Chief Schmidt and Joe Lawrence all having good discussions there um and that was good to see the other thing that happened and I'm kind of jumping forward here is Scot ler came on board and I really got to know Scott what Scott did right away good or bad he was was plowing snow and so it helped us out but it also helped Scott get to know the town and what I got to know about Scott was he really liked now then and he planned on working here till he retired in fact he looked at one of my friend's houses because he was my friend was thinking about selling and Scott was thinking about buying it and uh it didn't happen of course but it was just nice to to see how Scott interacted with everybody with the staff um and I just liked how everything was moving and now then because there was some history here some in the road over the many years but it was just great to see um Everybody kind of in sync um and I'm talking about the office staff the councel maintenance group fire department it was just really nice for me to see that um so can I ask you to wrap up in about one minute I will do that I'm sorry I'm actually cutting it short too so I apologize for that but then what I noticed last year things started to change and I was hearing it from from different people and people that I trusted and people that I respected and unfortunately I think there was one common denominator in that whole thing and um and I know that from what I've heard with the results of the election and the results of the mayor's election things could have been even different as far as our staffing needs or lack thereof and so I guess what I want to do is I know we have this open Council position and I know there was a closed door meeting and since that meeting this Council position has been open and I know there's talk of appointing somebody I know there's talk of an election I know the election's going to be around $10,000 and it's going to take a lot of time and it's going to happen out in August but my thoughts are if we consider just appointing somebody and you guys just with that person and with Mary um just run the city lead the city and just move forward we have good people we don't have people problems but what I'm afraid of is this can kind of drag maybe the negativity from last year into this year so my just humble request is let's appoint a person I know I'm just one resident talking about the election but to me I think we should skip the election appoint a person and move forward and take care of the people's business so thank you very much thank you sir there any more that are signed up for uh public forum any other say hearing none we'll move forward we will uh uh the consent agenda is next um is there discussion on the consent agenda or should we have a motion to approve Mr Mayor so one one of the things that i' like say that again we approve the agenda go ahead uh council member rville I would move that we um approve the agenda consent agenda as amended which was removing three e and adding six C from under new uh new business okay so we have a motion to approve consent agenda as amended we have a second from council member Brian all right we will do roll call vote Mr Glazer would you or council member Glazer would you start please I counc Brian I Council M rainville hi I and I also an i motion carries consent agenda is approved all right now we can move to Planning and Zoning um administrator do you please uh take us through what what do we need for update on that yeah um planner Nash actually talked about this and she had been waiting for the county to actually get to a point where we were going to delegate the retail registration to Anoka County that would all also delegate the authority jurisdiction and um compliance also to the county uh it was pretty much a straightforward ordinance just stating that we are going to delegate all of the registration compliance authorities to the um County and it was kind of a fill-in the blank form that many of the small cities are doing um I don't believe that the city wants to keep that authori so recommendation is to please R forth and sign it any discussion on this at all do we know how many other cities in anela County have moved forward with this and and gave the uh the county the ability to uh lead and direct this we know that I believe at the administrator meeting that I attended they had said six so far but at that point we hadn't been involved either so certainly is there any negatives to doing that I know there was a 10-page document that came with it um but we believe they've got a good policy that it makes sense for the city I didn't see anything that was negative uh for the city in this but was there any open conversation on that at all anybody see something different that I did not Mr Bo has a point Mr Mayor just to add to your question initially this kind of effort it's not limited only to Woka County I can tell you in Scott County they're doing the same sort of thing uh and the same uh thing in what county is it what was I just from um goodu goodu count is doing the same sort of thing so this is kind of a template around the entire met to me it very much makes sense um I just wonder if there's any other discussion or input on it if not uh ask for a motion Mr Mayor Mr Mayor make a motion to can you pull that one yeah councilman rainbow go ahead I was going to make the motion but I will second Dan's motion all right Council Brian will you finish your motion please I'll make the motion to approve the um cannabis business orance ordinance that um has been proposed delegating the retail registration of to the county to an open County R would you like to second that yes I will all right we'll do a roll call vote starting with council member Brian all counc member Glazer hi counc member rainville hi and I am also an I so motion carries um it's fantastic and we'll move on to the city administrator update we was going to give an update on the appointment process as of five o'clock today we have seven applications we have um questions that Mr Bo put together and some questions that residents put together um all of those will be sent to you um tomorrow for your review according to the timeline that we had I was hoping that you're going to rate your questions so that we can ask all the applicants the same question but the top one between the four of you council members um uh Mr Mayor go ahead where you want a spe specific number did you say top five yeah top five please because we're only where do we maybe Frank would we maybe want to do like eight and then kind of go from the top five down or we take the five most frequently mentioned questions which you guys have designated take a look at them um if they're all in one category we'll Pro you'll probably want to move them around a little bit but otherwise the hope is that they'll naturally disperse so yes the council would make the decisions on which gr and where they are in the interview if you'd like so it's basically is as we send them forward to Frank and he'll come back with a recommendation and then we can change them as necessary any more on that and there any other question what was the due date back for the uh to ranking the questions was that on Monday that they had to come back to you guys very soon I believe it Monday or Tuesday because then we're going to do interviews on yes sir yes those will be open to the public um and the applications with the answers to their questions will also be open to the public the applications will be posted with the packet however it will be redacted with any personal information information there certain data we cannot share but the whole process is open to the public which is really important to be transparent um wanted to bring you up the speed on the name brand storage and that rental home um there's been several complaints throughout the years um we Frank is kind of looking into it we've got a lot of police reports I've got a lot of junk on the property I've got a lot of um cars garbage that sort of stuff is all over that rental property um I do have photos from recent um that came along with the complaint asking us to do something about that um Frank of looking into it we have I how many of you remers 20 police reports 40 and I've only got two loads so these start as far as I can tell back in 2004 some of you guys may be able to remember before that I don't know but it keeps coming it doesn't matter what year it is they were almost in every other year frequency but of different sorts you know someone cut my lock and then stole all my stuff the owner cut all my lock and stole all my stuff or bringing some sort of Contraband in there and trying to leave it and then have it found more recently that's been some of the issues so we're trying to find a way to address those the property owner just as any of us as Property Owners is responsible for abiding by the law and need to try and find a way to make that happen in this case just as we try in every other case but I think I'll talk to you about potential expense on too something like this has a long tale can you talk about the steps that have been done so far in the last 60 days uh mostly we're just doing the research at this point to be able to have the background with it the last letter that I saw had sent to the property owners and the the renters was from 2022 and it was threatening some things and then it just got dropped so we want to do something to kind of move forward with this whether it's a if we go through with the prosecution side or if we go through with the administrative um fines which is the process uh the previous planner was trying to do with the administrative fines but we can't necessarily do all of that unless some of our ordinances are chained for allowing us to do all of that and it's good for us to work together with the sheriff obviously other municipalities if they're affected whatsoever ourselves obviously the county uh themselves good collaborative collaborative effort here can go a long way to helping us get this result and then the key will be stay on it stay on because I mean you you've got kind of the same kinds of clients in there and there's some very good clients I don't mean to suest uh that it's a problem all the way through but there are some that there is a otherwise you wouldn't have that reset of vism from 2011 all the way up them so Natalie you had talked about we had talked about I don't know remember if it was at the council meeting or just to say that we should move forward with sending a letter similar to what was done two years ago right but no letter has been sent at this point not at this point Frank is working so on me um I'm trying to find out where that is and that's part of the my request to the sheriff is do you we we can't find that letter you know where it is I asked the same question of our prosecutor who appeared he was copied on that 2022 letter so I'm I'm trying to see if there's an end to that or if it just never went anywhere that's a different game I you know I I don't want to treat it like he's already been notified when in fact we dropped the ball and then I do have unless there's any other discussion yeah I think we should have a little bit more discussion on it or do you have a recommendation on how to proceed at this point my recommendation right now is to proceed with a letter to the property owners um and just make them aware of the effect on the city because of the police activity the trash the vehicles how that area has become kind of a a harbor for be to happen so and could we establish with that letter of timeline so we could start the finding process whatever takes place for whatever we have in our ordinances at that point yes and then I also have a message out to Cindy asking her to review the iup or cup to see if there's anything in there with the violation with the um with the rental home um because I thought the iup was specifically for the storage units um I don't believe that it um in Incorporated a residence to be rented so we are double-checking to make sure some cities also have an ordinance if you rent a property it has to be inspected there's a a fee that comes along with this process does now then have that we don't at this time and I have had several people asking me if we do meaning that they're probably doing some rental property but we don't have the inspections at this time are they like toate renters or are they landlords I because you got two different perspectives of course those folks um and we have had both good is there any other discussion from the Council on this all right and I had one more item that I want to add to it um Joe brought in a potential seasonal employee he would like to move ahead with figuring out what is our process going to be with this Council as to how are we going to hire our seasonal employees um is it something that he and I can do is it something I need somebody on a committee to do um what is the time frame that we can get this going it is a retired service member he would like to do a lot of the mowing he would work up to 40 hours so we probably wouldn't be hiring two it would just be one he understands that it would be just for the 120 days he also understands that if he potentially wants to be um an alternate snow CL driver that he would wait that 35 days in between to become a seasonal for the winter as well so I just need to know or need some direction as to how does council want to hire or what the hiring process will be I would love to provide guidance but can I get a little history what what have we done in the past do we hire one two three seasonal employees what what has been our practice here it's been kind of on and off it's the years that I've been here I think we've had two last year we had two um we had the Personnel committee at that time and they came to all of the interviews um and help make the decision um last year we only had the two um nobody else had applied for the job if we were to hire this one is it typically about 40 hours a week for the two seasonal employees is that what they were doing it is they were just part-time college students so if we were to go forward with this one um sounds like he would be willing to work more hours but what if we found another college student that wanted to work 20 would we split it 2020 that'd be the preferred if we don't get another application then we could he could bump up and get more hours right I could definitely talk to Joe about that it depend upon what is in the budget for that I know there's money in the budget for 40 hours for seasonal for six months for the summer in Parks between parks and Public Works that was my next question was it budgeted the answer is yes Mr Mayor canl go ahead my question is um as far as seasonal employment goes does somebody working over 32 hours a week have any impact in regards to benefits or is that no it does not because it's seasonal seasonal and it has an end date and then there's that lapse of time that has to occur for Reemployment and that is due to the public the perah the public employees retirement Association so the the employee or the seasonal employee would not have any benefits at all even though they're working 40 hours because it's a temporary position right they would qualify for the ESS which is earned per hour workers count if they got her um but mostly I just need to know what does our process want to do this individual actually did volunteer for us last year too and painted the bathrooms at the Twin Lake Parks typically when when I'm hiring in in a hiring process I'm looking two to three months out I'm looking to take applications um depending on but you have to know how many positions in this case it's about 40 hours so we've consumed that um it's really to me it's coming down in the interview process and can you tell me last year what what did we do for the interview process uh Scott and I went through the applicant again there was only the two we actually had the Personnel committee was there they how many people are on the Personnel committee and did did that was that a representation of the council the city council to be able to come back to council recommendation so we could take volunteers if we had two people that wanted to be involved in that that could be something similar to because we don't have a a hiring committee right now or Personnel committee or any of that no Mr Mayor questions from from the councilor go ahead council member rainville um I I I would suggest that we allow uh so the council is the final hiring body so we have to approve the hiring however I believe we can allow Joe and Natalie to interview the person to see if they're a good fit and if they are then bring that person to the council or review at a meeting and a and an appointment to it um to try to schedule additional interview with different different people staff is going to be very busy with this special election and so um whatever we can do to make it easier um on staff I think it's uh in the best interest of staff so I would be fine with Joe and Natalie um I can't think of doing the interview and then bringing the candidate back interview yes thank thank you uh Council rille I would also like to say if a council member wants to be involved and they wanted to attend the interview they should certainly be welcome to um but there's no obligation it would be just voluntary but it's there there is additional coordination no doubt no doubt about it but I think it can be a very open process they would like they should you have to keep it to council members otherwise you've got an open meeting can't we just do one if they wanted to sure yeah but I sorry no more than two correct correct yep um and I would be willing to exclude myself from from doing that interview um I I can definitely Echo what councilman Marill has said is I'm okay with uh um Natalie and Joe doing the interview but if you guys would like to go in and be part of that you certainly would be welcome Mr Mayor cons Brian go ahead it's it's my opinion that there there there actually is value of having the the Council if the council is is the one who has the final approving Authority it is helpful to have them available and If the times are if the times are set up where count two council members can come I certainly would say that um there's certain value in it I would not make that I would not make it necessarily optional for every position that the city has but um in this case I'd be okay with you know we set up a time and if Council wants is able to attend that they can attend okay would you would you be willing to attend I I yeah okay for yourself sir it it just depends on my schedule so so just and when when the interviews are going to be sorry interrup so just offer you the opportunity yeah okay all right so is that enough guidance ma'am that it is thank you does that complete the administrator update it does okay so just to summarize that up um you guys could do the interview but you're going to coordinate uh to see if their schedules allow for M council member Glazer council member Brian um and see how it go from there and they may attend they may not attend correct and he has already given an application so I have not posted the seasonal yet that what's on our radar and I believe that is why this gentleman brought it in because we knew we are going to be posting I would also like to to say that if there is a um because college students can use this as their summer job that if there is another one um the first applicant does not automatically get 40 hours it would be divided 2020 if that's case if no other applications then he would be able to to get the 440s okay that's what I would ask okay so we're going to move on to new business first one is coordination of steps and timing to accomplish uh city council and staff goals in 2025 right p on the right page page 46 I think there it is right there um Mr Bo do you want is there any specific point you want to talk I know this is a page and a half long is there any key things mind if I summarize it please and I'll try and be brief and if I'm not I'm sure you'll let me know to be brief May I'm just the council there are four very important things we will be doing in the remainder this year and perhaps even as part of 20 26 uh one and the first I guess most important thing you'd have to say is to make a five member Council out of a four member city council uh and uh so you've approved the point in the process the good news is we've got seven people who appear to be interested uh in applying for that we've got 25 24 questions here that you can choose from we've got a schedule laid out I haven't shared that with you but we we will certainly do that uh and so we're well on our way to getting that accomplished and I'm optimistic that you'll you'll be able to make an excellent choice among the seven people and frankly I don't know a one of them but when I hear people and their involvement in this community I can't help but believe you're going to get a very good person to make a that key F person now uh you did approve uh a uh special election in 2025 that is an area that I'd suggest and you've heard me say this before I'd suggest you change that to 2026 why for a variety of reasons and they spread all over the organization one it's better for the person appointed it takes about a year or more and you'll you'll see this you probably already have to become uh a fully um vetted city council member because it's about a year uh that we go through the uh the city uh grind if you will approving budgets and that sort of thing they they come around the year and to be able to have a person see that entire year is beneficial to them secondly it's beneficial to the city council because that person works for you or works with you for a year and the council becomes a closer unit that doesn't mean you old say yes when it's time to say yes or no it means you understand what another's perspective but you respectfully are going to stick with your own but I think it makes for a better city council overall from a staff perspective I think you saw the list of activities that are mandatory for us to keep that election going if you didn't I'll certainly share it with you but during the summer which by the way is the height of of work season in cities um our staff our office staff is also going to be going through these uh steps that they must go to prepare for an election it would be nice for the staff for the public so that we can get the work done so we're not running from Pillar To Post as it were uh but instead trying to get the various things done when when they need to be done um so the public feels that they're served as well um we the next item uh is after you've appointed your fifth council member um Mike humle who is with with the uh um what would you call him uh human resource uh team has said I don't think we should go out for your city administrator position until you've got the fifth council member why because you've only got four or five uh eyes looking at it until that fifth person is is in uh it's it's problematic for the new person if they're not part of that process because there is a a very important alignment as you well know between the city council and the city administrator and all you have to do is just miss one Council member and it can mess up the entire relationship um just trying to pick up here real quickly uh the league of Minnesota cities who is going to come out and work on roles uh and relationships and I was very gratified to hear that that's important to the city council uh but they will not do it until you get a five person counsel so there's that key step which is right in front of us um right now and that will be undertaking so my if there's any questions or if I've misunderstood any action you've taken it would be helpful to know that right now um including the 2025 because there'll be a point at which if I understand correctly we can't turn back um if if we start taking the steps then say wait a minute we want to go leave it now that you may need to clarify that's how I understood it to work uh I would nonetheless represent or recommend that you do appoint your person for into 2026 not 20125 for the reasons I gave and I just hope that maybe you discuss a little bit if you decide n none of that is important that's fine you guys are the decision Mak Mr may go Mr Bo my first question pertains to uh bullet point number three so in your um what you just presented to us you said uh Mr humle um recommended not pursuing this but it it says in here will not initiate the process so so is he is it it's his recomend recommendation that we wait or is it or is he stating um flatly that he won't initiate this process until we have a five member Council um well money does talk so I mean if you said look go do it start it right now I you know I haven't asked him is he gonna fight this to the death but he believes it very important that there be a five member Council who can collectively make that decision on your new city administrator both for the administrator and for the council so that was his perspective much like the league of Minnesota City said we won't be coming out to visit you until you have a five minute council did that answer your question I I completely understand you know the league because you know that that fifth council members you know stating from the the training that the mayor and I just went through um this last weekend Friday and Saturday you know thank you by the way it's invaluable to you know the education that they provide so I I can appreciate that one I'm just I just wanted to clarify um in this RCA it's and as we discussed yesterday in our packet review meeting that he wouldn't initiate it but you just stated here that he recommends not he just recommends holding off so I was trying you know what I can't answer for him I can't turn his Corporation around but I asked him which works best which would he want to do he'd want to have a full five member Council because leaving 20 % of the votes out that one person could make well it's $14,000 right we leave one council member home who may have a perspective that is disruptive to the rest of the council when the decision is made and we potentially wasted that 14,000 plus I know humle is going to say look um because I've asked them I'd like to cut back I'd like to make this a faster process what about making that 30 days that you put the ad in the paper 15 21 28 I don't care just shorter um how about the the actual interviews can we use an earlier week than you specified without even knowing what your schedules are trying to find ways to contract them but he knows his business far more than I do and if he said nope no way on the 30 days I don't think we have an option except to try and find something else and I he will try to do that I think just on the 30 days there's the other thing about the 30 days is the 24mth guarantee because if he had one could argue that wa only gave me 14 days to solicit and that's why we got we didn't get the candidate I knew it was out there and so I'm not g to stand well he's going to have to stand up for the 20 four days would you be able to clarify clarify that point because the way it's written it says he will not initiate okay so that I think that is your question is yes yeah because it just it just how you stated it here it makes it sound like well he would but he recommends not how it's stated in the in the RCA it says he uh will not initiate the process okay I'm sorry defin let me get that I Concur and then and Mr Mayor I just had I had another another point of a question on bullet number two in regards to the special election and this goes back again to our conversation yesterday in in our packet review meeting um my understanding yesterday was a decision doesn't have to be made tonight to that that that there is an opportunity um if the if the council so chooses to postpone that special election to 2026 um that's still on the table yes but things that aren't front of mine sometimes slide off to the side I I would hope that we wouldn't let that happen here but there's types things there's as as as by Mr henin's um presentation tonight and you know the the rest of the conversation around the city is not something that's going away it's and I get emails that I'm responding to so it's that's not something that's going to uh Le Fade Away thank you sir so I think based right on that point I think it could go into further conversation on point number two um is it timing that would possibly allow us to not do the special election um and I'll just talk openly to everybody is so for myself I believe that we can interview and select a person we had a stalemate at the last city council meeting uh I elected to uh change course because I want to move forward as a city um and it's going to cost us $10,000 and I I received feedback um not everybody's excited about spending that 10,000 um but if that was something that we want further discussion on or we would look and say hey maybe in maybe it's timing maybe I don't I don't know is there any other steps that would allow us not to go into the special election in 2025 go ahead Council M br voice um just trying to be clear based on the proposed timeline that is included in the packet um if everything goes as scheduled regardless of whether we have the election in 25 or 26 someone has to get appointed to to fill that vacancy until that special election there will be two special elections in 20 there will be a special election in the general election for Council seats if this is done in 26 there will be one candidate that gets elected for two months and then one candidate to fill the full four-year term if the election is held in 2026 based on the calendar that's proposed by March 20th a it is possible that that someone will be appointed to the council so that means based on number two that was proposed oh wait based on number three that was proposed we Mike humle will have a five person Council by the end of March and we can continue on and based on number four that was proposed the league of Minnesota cities again we will have a five person Council and we can move on if if five people are sited Seated on this Council theoretically again based on the proposed timeline we won't be starting the special election till May 2nd so unless I'm misunderstanding anything until that candidate finally we have until whatever the deadline is to for that candidate filing period to go okay we we potentially don't need a special election but at least the option is still available you're correct is there any deadline from from a perspective to stop the process that we have to do it stopped by here or it has to go forward I just have to get it stopped prior to the first step or I should say the Second Step I've already let the county know that we're going to do it so it's already on their calendar it's probably already been told to the Secretary of State so what we would have to do is go through the process to pull that off um I do want to make one more clarification on the league of Minnesota cities um they will not come out until after the spe special election they won't come out with the appointed temporary person um is that because we slotted or elected to go with the special election in 2025 correct because if we had have delayed it till 2026 and put it as part of the J they come out yeah they won't come out prior to so so if there's excuse me if there's a special election in 2025 they will not come out until 2026 after the general election no they will come out to in September after the special election is done and somebody is actually in place okay so any other discussion on it um do we want to make a motion to stop the special election C Ryan sounds like not at this time is what I'm kind of hear I don't think there's a need to at this time we still spending $10,000 we haven't we haven't spent the money yet and and we haven't we haven't approached the deadline so what what would be the de sorry I didn't what is what is the official so when we were talking yesterday in in our meeting you referred to you referred to the fact that in February you missed a specific ific deadline because it was on the very day that we would have had to get information to them that is correct and that would have been for a May election correct that would have been for a May election that is correct what is what is that same what is that same corresponding date for an August election I would say probably April 21st would be my drop dead date because I've got to have time to get it published in the paper Okay so there you know there is some time but I will verify that with Tom to make sure because he's registered us with the state of Minnesota with the Secretary of State saying we're having one it's not on the website yet which is good and hopefully they don't put it up until after the May election so maybe for our next meeting we could come back with say here's the deadline so if we wanted to stop it we could potentially discuss more and say yes we have to stop it before this time if we're not going to stop that make sense yes okay yeah all right any other discussion on uh the RCA from Mr Bo um I believe there was going to be a little bit more discussion about how um does the council want to handle the job description with Mike right I mean you put the job Des yeah but I I think we was gonna wait till Mike is here so that he can have his input to the council as well okay but you're right it's three years to we need to move forward okay are we complete move to the next agenda item Mr Mayor counc R go ahead um I I want to thank council member blae and and council member Brian for taking the time to reconsider um whether we have a special election or not um I I just think it's a um good idea to keep thinking about it um as you know I'm not in favor of it um and it's just the dollar amount that we haven't budgeted for and the um extra work for our staff our staff is starting to work very well together and I'd like to see that continue and if we threw an special election in there that is going to hamper that um so I want to thank you both for um reconsidering whether we go with the special election or not thank you great thank you Council rainville moving on uh the next agenda item is sixd there's nothing in our in our package for 6D um but it's talking about scheduling a town hall meeting with residents to hear questions um and get answers and so what I was looking at is setting up a date probably sometime in April after we get our fifth council member selected uh and to be on board and I would like to know if we would like to do this as a council um and that would be my recommendation where we're here we we basically do an open form for the residents to ask questions um but I think it would be great if we were here all as a council Now by then hopefully council member rainville will be back here so we could all be in person in April so I didn't have we we haven't selected a date we just said I just kind of April um but again so they could ask ask us questions clear up any misconceptions um and that was really the intent so I'd like to open that up for discussion and see if you guys had any other input and if you'd be willing to come in and set a date in April Mr Mayor C BR go ahead it would be um if if if we wanted to have a town hall meeting I would agree that yes the entire Council should be here so if that would um mean we have to put that off until council member rainville is back in town then that should be fine if we wanted to pick a date now we can do that or or should we use the 24th of April which was the additional Council date uh no no I will not be here okay all right is is there a date could we say like possibly the 17th would you guys be open April 17th I will be and as I've already informed Mr Bo that I will be unavailable for inperson meetings the week from the 12th um and I'm out of t on until the 19th actually 20th probably right so is it possible we look at the uh like the the 10th of April is that possible and it doesn't have to be in April the goal was just to try to get it uh and make sure we're open I mean if we had to move to May because that made more sense you know but how about the 10th of April I'd propose that we already have a city council meeting on the 8th so two days later we'd come back and it's no business would be conducted it's just an open form for the residents now the question is Council rainville would you be back by April 10th Mr Mayor yes I would be but I would just say that the farmers the farmers I will be back um the farmers market just scheduled their spring vendor meeting for Thursday April 10th so the hall is going to be reserved for that we can ask them to go downstairs and they could have their meeting down there but that's the day of that meeting so all right I'll propose the next date how about May 8th would that work we do not have a council meeting that week um would that work it's a Thursday and it could be May 6th if that made more sense on the Tuesday May 6th is water okay so we won't do the six May 8th May 8th and 24th of April for the record is the fire protection council meeting so I got that I didn't propose that one yeah so May 8th currently works for me pleaser would that work for you yes rville May 8th would that work for you yes it will all right and it works for me too I think we've got a date set hang on a second Mr Mayor do do we know what I I just don't off the top of my head when does the farmers market start is it not till June let Mary answer and that might be a question for council member rainville I just she's looking at her letter right now right yeah I'm just trying to coordinate if if Farmers Market's going on the parking lot might be full so we might we still could do it just depending on the timing of it all so they start on I think they start in June okay Mary's trying to get in council member rain are you on mute yes yes yes I was we cannot hear you sorry I had really nice things to say um so the farmers market itself will not start until the latter part of June so June we got a bit of time so that date sounds like it would work all right if that works for everybody we'll set that date um and then we'll publish it and again it's just open for for residents to come talk ask questions um we won't have any Council business taking place there won't be any votes that night okay are we gonna still stick with six o'clock I think that makes sense it's pretty much a standard okay and are you gonna I just I'll have it posted on the website and the Facebook page so um are there going to be any time limits for people to speak I I would assume that would probably be a good thing but it could be potentially longer than the three minutes so we're not to hurry them up so if they had five minutes probably five minutes would be the time limit okay and any any discussion on that maybe uh saying we have a as of right now we're we're allowing a three to five minute time right uh time for speaking depending on ATT depending on tournament because otherwi you know five minutes per person could till you know I think it's a great call I think it's a great call because if you have 40 people and they all want to speak guess what you three minutes so three to five minutes depending on the I think that's great it'll keep TR okay any other discussion on that or can we move um we don't need to make a motion because we just set a meeting date Mr Mayor um so we could move on to Old business uh Council rainbow go ahead so am am I did I hear that Dan is not available April 24th so that meeting can come off the calendar that we had set for a second council meeting um but if Dan is unavailable that is coming off the calendar or are we still staying with it well a April 24th we would have somebody else we would have another council member by then okay all right I just didn't know if I should take it off my calendar or not I'll leave it Mr Mayor with so much emphasis being put on having a five member Council um I I would advocate for um canceling that meeting in August when council member Brian isn't going to be here in April or excuse me in April um I I I I think that would be important it was an additional meeting set up that on this additional one so if you're not going to be here if that's the recommendation from the group I that that would be my that would be my preference that it be we're gonna have like seven meetings in March so if we canceled one in April I think I I would be okay with that yeah yeah yeah my because my hourly rate has gone way down with these extra meetings there's no hourly council member rainville would you be okay would you be on board for canceling the 24th of April that will I I will be happy to take that off my calendar yeah I I would also be happy to take it off so I think it's a great recommendation at the time I didn't I wasn't informed yet when the fire protection Council meetings were so after we scheduled those extra Thursday meetings that's when I found out that they just happened to fall in that cycle so it's no longer on my calendar all right I don't even know what we're talking about okay all right okay so no we definitely have a lot of meeting scheduled so all right if we're okay to move on to Old business uh 78 Mr Mayor go ahead okay I not sure what the protocol was for me to stop somebody pulling something off from moving it into consent consent um but I would like to go back to that Culvert for a moment okay um in the RCA um Joe had estimated that the asphalt hatching would be about $110,000 the actual bid came back at like $25 $5,000 so his uh suggestion is to use the $10,000 that was set for this one to redo the Asel on 185th where they put the Culver in last year and the sand it sunk so we'd like to rep patch that one let uh this one sit for the whole year so that that grade can actually get settled real well and make that part of our road projects next year I just wanted to make you aware that that part of the road then by his recommendation would stay dirt for the a year and then it would be part of next year's asphalt patch do you think we'll get a lot of push backs so this is an asphalt road road right now and if we're going to replace the Culvert there's going to be what a 10 or 12 foot wide stretch of dirt that would be there I'll say and that would be like that for a year it would um it's on that caki road I don't know if you guys have gone gone through it what Joe was concerned about is that that Culver collapses that leaves the city liable liable for any emergency vehicles I can't get down there for the homes that are in that CAC I think we all support replacing the CAC trly coming down to the AST what his deal is I don't believe we'll get as long as they can get back and forth it's going to be a lot better than not being able to is it a three Road or is it's a culto sec it's a dead Okay so we're not talking a lot of traffic then no I don't think we'll get any push back um and that's Jo recommendation then that way we won't end up having to rep patch again Mr May concerns from the Council on that Mr Mayor Joe in the past Joe's recommended doing something similar in certain spots so that we've left patches that we've repaired open because we have no idea how they've settled so I'm okay with leaving it open counc rville go ahead I was I Echo council member Brian we've done that it shows suggestion in the past it's worked out um if it's a c toac maybe we can just send letters out to the residents on that call to SAC to say this is what we're doing um so that they're aware of it great we don't need to vote on again because it's already been approved it's already been approved I just wanted to make sure that you were aware that we're maybe going to do a little flip-flop here um just for that part okay any other did you have any comments sir okay thank you no thanks for bringing that up because I was not aware of it I did not read that um let's move on to seven old business a this is one if I remember right counc BR you had questions on this um City administrator Natalie Johnson was not here to answer those questions so I will Mr Mayor Brian as I understand it we have to approve a fourth quarter financial report even dated by 1231 of 24 for the end of the year even if there changes made after the fact to the 24 budget is my understanding that um there will be changes based on the um based on the results from the audit that can of still go back and and affect the 24 budget so um and that that that financial report is required to be uh completed as part of the audit so with that in mind I make a motion to approve approve the 2024 fourth quarter report dat as of the budget as of 1231 24 Mr Mayor 30 seconds council member rville I would second council member Brian's motion perfect we'll you have any coms we see okay um let's go into roll call vote Council M rainville would you start please I counc member Brian hi counc member wer hi and I'm also an i motion carries all right with that we've covered all the items on the agenda and the time is 702 this is really exciting we still have to um take care of the resolution amending the budget and there are two options that Lori gave you so you could do it the way that she was originally planning to do that or you could look at the second option that she gave you what page are we on it would be 110 and 111 um actually starting at 109 109 check okay I missed that I just need a minute to read this I've definitely seen email tra traffic on this so the difference between page 109 and 111 is what the difference between 110 and 111 are the two different resolutions I'm sorry it would be at 11 one fall yes and it's just the way that you're going to designate the uh conduit Bond money okay so the resolution of 109 puts the conduit money into General funds it does and where does it where does it go for page uh 111 whereever you guys would like to designate it to and we talked about um and I'll just talk openly about that that's the only difference um we talked about potentially putting it in um some type of savings that could be utilized later on or it can go into general fund that was the two recommendations I think from L on this um is there any other place open this up for discussion is there any other place where you would like to see that $50,000 go if it goes in a general fund it can be used for anything and if it goes into the general fund she has it helping uh reduce the deficit at the end of the year for 2024 using less fund balance I thought she when I talked to her I thought she said it was not needed to reduce fund balance uh because it flushed out differently than what she initially thought and what was budgeted for 2024 okay you've had the most recent conversation with her and we've been doing reports back and forth for a lot of weeks so and does she need an answer on this right now where this has got to go we do have to have it before the budget or before the audit and when is the audit that starts in three weeks four weeks are we meeting again before so we can yeah we could do something I would recommend tbling it and because something may have changed but when I talked to her she said that 50,000 was not needed in the in the general funds to reduce that before things had changed she gave she sent me an email with what had changed and it it just ended up falling different than what was budgeted so I would recommend we get that information get her recommendation on where what she thinks would be the best for us because I don't have the answer on what she thinks is best okay and council member Brian I think you had some ideas of what you wanted to do with it or when it was discussed in in May at the council meeting it was that that we were going to accept the accept the conduit Bond and then determine later what we were going to do with it it wasn't that necessarily it was going to go where we would where we would um go right into the general fund where we would um offset the fund balance so it's not that it's a necessarily deficit per se but it's using less of the fund balance um and if if you it seems Mr May that you do have new more upto-date information than what is available to us that it's not necessarily um needed to use less of the fund balance so I just wanted to bring it up to see if if it's something where we still wanted to use it in the fund balance or it I can there there certainly can be other places that it can be used to um it was potential to do some Renovations here um I Know Chief um Miller said that there was going to be some um fire department expenses so I just if we didn't necessarily need to use it to use less of the fund balance I kind of wanted to hold it all out and not adjust the budget accordingly and I think that's going to be her updated recommendation I don't know when she submitted these but these seem like they're probably two weeks old or so she we did submit it just okay so I this has got to be two week old information then yeah there's multiple updates so we'll table this if you guys are good with that Mr Mayor if I could add one more thing for you know from what we we gleaned last Friday and Saturday uh from the league um two of these things one being the conduit Bond and the other being the $225,000 in EDI fund which is economic development which we actually is my understanding we don't even know why we got that um in my in my mind both of these items are onetime payments that aren't and onetime payments aren't necessarily recommended for uh you know putting into your general fund to to um Offset you know budget shortfalls or whatever so do we want to consider both of those items that's just a question and it's a great question uh leading in for the conversation I have with Lori she said she would have to consume the 25 from the EDI but the 50 would not be necessary uh to to fix the deficit so it could be so let's wait till she comes back um could Lori be at the next meeting is that possible so we could talk a little bit more in depth um I don't believe March 11th I don't think she'll be back yet but I'm also trying to text her right now we could ask the question but I'm definitely okay with tabling it right now we'll make sure we have up toate information so we can make the best decision for the city on it m Mr mayor council right when when we when council member glaz and I were Blazer and I were going doing our packet review that was one question one one possibility that we thought of would be to set up some a meeting specifically with u Lori to have just general questions answered about the budget and where things are at so I can say that I I did have a meeting this last week with her it took me one week to get a time frame to be able to meet with her because she had she was busy um so when would you request to do that is this something in March or April okay see if she see if she's open for a meeting and see if we can do it you know if we could do a lunch time meeting or something and that work or it could be in the evening also oh it has to be open to the public whichever we do whatever even if we meet with Lori yes sir oh unless it's only two of you unless we meet two at a time yeah and maybe we go that route so we don't have to have a meeting but we can still meet with Lori maybe that I think I would recommend that because it's really about building our knowledge and understanding it's is really what that was the whole goal with me meeting with Lori understanding where we're at what do we got for challenges coming up just so we can talk smartly about it um I did I do have one more note if we're if we're complete with that um I did talk to uh Conexus today and they said that uh they would like to come and present at the March 11th meetings to talk about the update on the uh the compass plan um and they said what when do they need an information because they would like to do a short PowerPoint um and I said at least one week prior is the information's got to be um so that would be next week and then I gave my email address and I I it could be there now I don't know but I wanted to bring that up is an agenda item was that the meeting you had uh a special assessment heing or am I miss no it was all tied to the internet people have questions the nowland residents have questions on the internet and it's from Comcast but Comcast is working directly with Conexus and using the polls so they were going to present uh some information talk about the project as a I was wondering if it was a full meeting already we were putting them in there but I obviously thinking about the wrong meeting I think it would be a few minutes is really what I think now okay if you tell me that doesn't work because it doesn't make sense because the meeting is too long I can call him back you know what that will depend upon how many residents show up for the assessment hearing okay so um if Conexus can just ex you know give an explanation as to why the permits are taking so long that would be outstanding by the permits what what you mean by the permits um we need Comcast needs permits from conect us to use our polls yeah so there's the whole process and they would be able to explain that better than us I know the residents would love to hear that and that's why I I did request some to come in and talk I think it would be very good because there's many questions about the internet people want the internet they would like it yesterday or five days ago so I think it would be important um if we can answer that question okay customer Brian no I'm just saying yes I would like the internet internet yes he would he would like some internet all right is there any other things that need to be covered uh before we JJ the meeting Mr mayor council member Brian if there's nothing else I'll make a motion to adjourn I would love to have a motion to adjourn anybody I'll second that all right so with that um we will close