Natalie could you check the sign in the U floor items too please any all right mrena would you call please present council member Angel pres council member alers heard anything council member flat anybody know anything there and CC Ryan herey cler family Johnson Chief Deputy Jacobson and Scot City administrator is present roll call State thank you uh have an amendment to the agenda I would like to pull from the consent agenda the October 8th meeting minutes um the item D accept the third quarter financial report and item g icma m membership contract any other amendments to the agenda Mr mayor council mayor Brian I'd like to move from new business um items um C and F to the consent agena Mr Mayor let see hang on let me catch up here right Mr Mayor Bri if there are no other amendments I wish to move the consent agenda as amended second motion council member Brian second council member rainville all those in favor signify by saying I I I post motion carries we'll start with the uh public form we have Mr Sam KS would like to [Music] speak good evening address 19223 Burns Park I'm just going to make it I'll try to make it quick I suppose but we're back here another city council meeting because we just can't seem to get this dialed in on a day-to-day basis so Saturday the 9th of November I was out like a lot of us hunting me I'm hunting on my property and uh right about the prime time is what I'm going to call it I got joined by my neighbors four wonderful dogs running right through my hunting area now that'd be that'd be something if it was the first time but that marks the ninth total time that not only have they come through documented but the sheriffs have responded to that address for uh their dogs run um I've got a lot of questions about this because there's there's uh zero consistency with with anything um we can date back to the 15th of February that's when the administrator Scott ler had told me that there's no sense in putting in a code complaint because he won't do anything about it anyways because the sheriff's office is the Authority for for the dogs running loose and I can understand that that that makes sense in my mind uh but there's zero consistency with the Sheriff's Office and that's that's a a sad Misfortune it's something so stupid and so minute that I I have dogs myself but I have a fence and if you can't control your dogs just let them run from people's properties and we have a code we have we have a code for that the city does so why doesn't the city enforce the code um let's see everything has policy and procedure um and why why are why am I getting so much resistance from the city for this issue that's that's one question that I'd like to ask I've talked to a couple different city council members um there's there's no answer there's no answer the the incident on the 9th which was Saturday they sent the CSO out and even after the previous citations this this household's been cited twice in the last nine nine times inconsistently of course but this last on Saturday they weren't excited for it and there's there's clear video evidence of it that I give to them every single time it happens I wouldn't call if there wasn't so I I understand it's Petty but again it's not their property if you can't control your dogs I don't want to be responsible for their dogs in my property I can't walk my own dogs around my property because their dogs are running loose constantly so on the 21st of October I spoke with council member rainville 22 days ago she said that she would follow up with me about what the policy inde said if the city has a leg to stand on for sending a letter out citing the the household so the Sheriff's Office doesn't site then the city should site I mean if the idea here is to site the people that way they stop the infractions by getting cited you keep getting cited you want to stop paying the citations and you stop then you fix yourself basically so that's where I'm at here uh the expectations that I have for the city use the city code help your residents I I really don't see the complication and why I'm running into so many roadblocks with the city staff and council members on on what the appropriate actions are to take uh I'll leave that at that and just the zero consistency I I spoke to a couple of different deputies that the patrol area here and now then uh Deputy Matt I believe his name was he's fantastic very helpful uh another one deuty Chris the first time I spoke to him on February 15th back to that day that I spoke with with Scott lner uh the first time that I actually spoke to this Deputy Chris the very first conversation that I had explained him what's going on and I'm I'm I'm seeking guidance I don't know what to do I'm supposed to follow your guys' policies and procedures if I had it my way I would take an alternate route but that's ground upon so I have to follow your guys's policies and procedures um why don't you so when I spoke to this Deputy Chris the first words out of his mouth after I explained to him he said let me find the nicest way to say this and I thought dang that's a that's a heck of a way to start off a relationship and then he told me it's none of my business so he did later on let me know that they did get cited that that time he said that that I should not be made aware uh that the citation takes place which fine I get that it's not in my business that they can CIT it but if it's consistent it's should be none of my business but if I'm not here today it just continues and it continues and it continues and it continues and if they're not being cited then what's the point what's the point of having a code if you're not going to enforce it so that's where I'm at here um I I really would appreciate if we could button some of this stuff up outside of Council meetings because there are way more important things to deal with um I have more important things to do I'm sure you do too but we're here talking about dogs on property so I apologize for that but that's the that's the floor item so as long as it's brought up to everybody's attention hopefully someday we can do something about it you have any questions for me not this point Thank You wonderful well thank you so much so we uh move on to consent agenda as amended Mr Mayor May Brian motion to approve the consent agenda second and motion councilman Brian second councilman rainville all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries next we have R Riv Consultants to address P du invoice and discuss Code Compliance there now you're double covered double cover yeah there you it's red should it be green bottom button it that should be good okay yes morning morning it's been a long couple of days it's under what it's under engineer okay instead of making a special we put it together that's that's fine yep we're good not that you guys aren't special but thanks for that yeah good evening mayor and councel the the staff report that was put together there's two topics that we're going to be speaking with tonight one is the um uh building permits that were issued prior to the effective date of our contract and also uh some code enforcement I'm Andy Shader um Chief Building official with r Consultants Carrie litzky is with me she's our program administrator um so the staff report I read through it again does a really good job of bringing us up to date uh where we're at with this and uh the topic of conversation is are the permits that were again in existence prior to our contract date the contract uh as it's written would require that to not require but would call that to be done on an hourly basis at $90 an hour um however there was a better way to go about that much less expensive way to go about that which was grouping them together at flat rate um Miss litzky and I we talked about this and we went through the most effective way to close to address these permits and since uh uh it was an approach where there would be like permits projects grouped together we chose a different approach we went through there over a couple of days uh we brought those into our system um we had access to the city uh computer system we brought those uh those projects into our current system uh and we went through to analyze them and group them together again to be more efficient and and so that's the way we went about that in order to to be more effective more efficient and to save save some some dollars in that respect it looks like there were a uh 128 permits that were uh effectively not closed out prior to our contract date so that's what we were left with was 128 permits that we went back to again bring them into our system we went by each one of them to analyze where they were at in the in the process uh if it was a set fee permit like a residential maintenance Roofing siding and windows that requires one touch other projects such as new homes remodels uh and things of that nature there were a number of inspections that were still remaining so even though there were 128 permits there were a number uh numerous more inspections than the actual number of of permits [Applause] themselves so I guess that's really the only introduction I have on the topic um any questions or things that we can help clarify any questions on the part of the council the bill is $199,000 And1 19,000 plus 62 um my only my only question is um council member R we get a motion and then a second so have discussion so I I would move that the council thanks from for work and their patience and the C authoriz the payment of 1,620 I'll second the discussion all right so I have a motion by councilman rainville second by councilman Bryant um so the um as you'll see when you see your uh attorney's bill this month uh there was an extensive discussion after uh we pulled this from the agenda last summer um to identify now this was was part of the messy transition from from minspect to Rum River and so there were a lot of hours put in uh and trying to figure this out uh authorized by the council I did investigate uh talked with the State Building officials um talked with our attorney extensively and in the short vers of it is this was an an agreement that was made prior to council's awareness this was a bill that was submitted invoice was submitted last April um with the understanding that that we would proceed um the short version of it is though the process wasn't done right um the commitment was made by the city um to have a one-time Bill and it was commitment made by R River to close out all of the open permits that were left behind when we separated from inspect so while the process um isn't what it should have been and I would hope going forward we don't spend $19,000 without Council approval but we did in this case and uh legally we are obligated because that commitment was made to Rum River and so this is a bill we do need to pay so hopefully going forward we don't don't encounter things like this again so if I might mayor and councel um under the terms of our contract we were obligated to perform that work uh at $90 an hour and what we did was to group them together again so we would not incur that $9 an hour fee yeah and the question that that came up and the reason it took to try and resolve with the attorney and with the state building codes which ones needed to be closed out which ones were there's a lot of confusion on the last bill that we paid with minspect they submitted a an invoice for $626,500 we chose to pay ,700 of it and contest some of those so we really don't know how many of those were closed out how many of them had to be closed out how many of those had been started under minspect and they had some of the money for it how many of those weren't started under minspect so we weren't really clear as a council if some of these hadn't been started and if looking at the bill the invoice from minspect it looked like some of those had not been started should not those have residents been charged by Rum River to start and finish the inspection some of these things were uh you know if it's 180 days before you have to renew the permit well they were over 180 days old and that's what we went back and forth with the building official if they're over 100 days old and you didn't in writing issue a renewal or mspec didn't issue in writing a renewal then that permit is void and they have to start over again and so what we're doing is we're taking taxpayer money to pay you without knowing if the residents who got the permit should have paid you or if we had a case because there's still last we heard an issue with minspect trying to collect on their last bill so so the the issue is not you you did a great job you gave us a flat fee said we can clean this all up the question I had at the time with staff was you know to clarify is that 19,000 include all your research time you when we got to build the invoice again this summer it was like if you don't do this now we're going to go back you and Bill you at the $90 an hour and we'll bill you for the research time and we'll bill you for those other things and so yes it's it's for the City's best to go with the flat fee because that's what the commitment was made by staff in April um and it's a better deal than going at $90 an hour the question was we never had a chance to have that discussion saying should the people that applying for this permit be paying for that rather than the rest of the residents uh picking up that tab for some of this and and how long did we have for mpect to close those out before we made the transition to Rum River those are discussions it would have been nice to have back in February and April and and that probably was happening between your staff and our staff but it didn't ever come up to the council and so the bills kept coming up to the council and we didn't have information so it took me hours to try and resolve it and ultimately what it says is the process was was flawed but staff made a commitment you owe the bill and so the shortest version of it right now is um we have an obligation to pay it and we have a motion to pay it and so I think unless there's any other questions at this point I say we go on the motion Mr mayor council r i I want to thank for M for their work on this it was not a clear process um it was could have been done better it wasn't um but they submitted a bill and we delayed that payment so I really appreciate their patience I'm grateful that they're not uh charging interest on it um they've been will to work with staff then I just my motion we need to pay this invo and start new y any other questions all right all those in favor signify by saying I I oppos motion carries [Applause] thank you Mr Mayor city council I have the next bullet point under 4B and that is to um talk about now then's code complains program um there's again quite a bit of history in your packet before you tonight um just highlighting some of the um important dates that um have happened so again our contract was approved uh and we started Services here March 1st soon after that uh it was requested um that we meet with staff to go over options since the previous planner um that was uh with at that with the charge of um Code Compliance was no longer with the city and the city still had a priority for property preservation and maintenance and so we began meeting with staff um going through some of our workflow uh at that time also the new city planner uh Cindy Nash with collaborative planning uh also met and was involved with these discussions we had identified um along with the uh nin's project manager that they had engaged with at that time we identified several areas within the code that um should have been reviewed um even some items taken out of zoning place in general regulation uh review of some nuisance um language and just an all over um review of the code language and um uh uh Miss jevie brought that um topic to the council at their March 18th meeting at your March 18th meeting and then um reported back that um at this time no immediate action was going to be taken and um that she was going to be on leave between uh March 28th and May 6th and also let us know that no new or a current co- compliance issues um uh or complaints would be forwarded to Rum River that it was in kind of a a pause until um either her return or if we received um other direction from uh City staff and so um fast forward a little bit of time again more calls we right at that time in April where the calls start coming in our understanding um was that that had had kind of sparked more of let's get together have some more conversations and at that time then um administrator laner uh got the team back together and um we had met with uh the City attorney rupe and uh reviewed again some of these um codes that needed to be um reviewed get a good uh um alignment with the practices um that are most commonly done in the Code Compliance sect along with um making sure that we were operating within stat statutory laws as well and so um following some of those meetings um it was uh brought back to the council I believe and again that was had been placed on pause and now we're back again today so um what we're looking for again is um some good solid direction from the city council on um you know would you like us to uh re-engage in some of these conversations um we think right now uh we're actually going through this uh with your neighbor um Oak Grove where our co-compliance team is going to be giving a presentation on the program as a whole and um seems a work session is an appropriate um platform for that so you can dedicate a good chunk of time cuz it is a pretty big topic that would be our recommendation if you'd like to move forward to get more information on the program that we offer answer any questions and to see if there is interest in that again um there are those in this Council that in past history were very concerned with process and while good things happen process breakdown does cause confusion um the March 18 meeting minutes did direct that nothing else be done so as you said meetings continue to happen with the attorney with yourself so charges were continued with without knowledge of the council that those meetings were going forward that being said again water under the bridge um but we we keep going back to process issues and saying well that's too late for that let's just pay bills or go ahead um the the last request we had was for staff and and and contracted staff as I recall to come up with a process what was the process because some cities start charging fines right away which I think was one of the recommendations that I had seen in the process that had been floated out there earlier uh o Grove does not start charging people so I I think it's it's a it's a very important thing um for residents to know that we're not just out there looking for things to charge people with or um starting to find people um if they don't respond immediately so the council seemed to in the past be most concerned about what would be the process what are the letters that go out how does it work I mean we we wanted to see what staff could do first before we engage Rum River you know can we do this in a nice way and say hey here's here's what could be potentially a violation it looks like that's violation of the code can we get this cleaned up before we start engaging a stronger approach to them which has always been the city of malin's approach so that I thought was what we were were expecting tonight was what is the process but as you said car a work session would be good for that and what are the letters that would go out what would cause them to go out what does staff do first before it goes over to Rum River and this is what we've been pondering I guess for the better part of a year and it seems like we just haven't been able to get it off the table and so we just say well we have no um um process so we just don't process complaints so um Mr Mayor if I mate yes um uh just I just want to clarify for the audience and council members Rum River has has not build nor do we intend to build the city of now then for any work that has been done up until this point I can't speak to any other consultant that was involved but I can state from r memb on R M's behalf we will not be nor have we build for any of those meetings and work we we appreciate that too we have received bills from others we we look at um this as a partnership um just just as we do as act as your being your designated building official um you brought up a a very good point Mr Mayor that um dealing with these very sensitive issues in a manner that is respectful thoughtful intentional clear uh is extremely important and we believe that we have the staff that can accomplish that uh we have a an entire division housing division uh Co a Community Development Division within Rum River and we have certified inspectors and um people that you know get continuing education on this uh every year and um it really impacts having the that skilled um technical uh not just technical but also the soft skills that is needed to um interact and communicate with your residents in a very respectful manner we believe that we have the right staff for that uh we are in several other jurisdiction Oak Grove yes is one of them um one of the uh um uh biggest concerns with your with one of your your neighbor over there is how long it takes for some of these cases to get closed out and uh it is true that we are um and would be you currently have an administrative citation process um and they do not they are entertaining that it is very common because um the only two paths are civil and criminal criminal really puts the focus on the person not the property and uh and and civil takes an extremely long time and is a lot more expensive attorneys are a lot more expensive than R so um not only do we have the expert staff we have a tried and- true program that we have in several jurisdictions um and I'm more than happy to provide you with uh those contacts for those City administrators you'd like to have conversations with them um to see how it's going and how it has gone for years um it's it's a it's a really tough subject and I think you really need to have that skilled um skilled approach with uh your community members on um on how to get into compliance well I I don't disagree it's just it's been a it's been a pending issue for the better part of the year and we've just gotten nowhere on it and and yeah and there isn't a black and white um you have your administrative citation structure within your program I understand excuse me for interrupting here but and I just need to know we're going through this so we can keep the the meeting moving here um we we you're looking for direction to say Can we is the council willing to move forward with some type of partnership in this and and I may not be here for when that meeting happens but um my concern has always been when we turn things over to professionals who do this in many other cities that what works in bigger cities what works for other cities isn't necessarily A match for now then when we started looking at you know Planning and Zoning was starting to to look at changing ordinances because of conversations you guys had with with the planner to say these should be moved over to nuisance her comment at planning zoning was this will make it easier for Rum River to enforce these and so so we're looking at are we making it easier for you know we hire good professional contractors we we engage you because of your professionalism and your your interaction your ability to interact with residents but when residents are getting cited when resid Gant are are being U accused of violating code and the building official or the inspectors for the building official are the same ones that are on people's property for other reasons that might see some of these violations again the where is the the check valve on that how how do we how do we and and that's the discussion we haven't had yet what's the process U you know what is you know how does it go through the city how is it communicated to the council and how is it followed up and how we have the separation of the building officials on your property for something we had we had a big issue two years ago with that somebody was on the property for or making a a statement that never got verified and it it ended up being months and and a lot of animosity um when there really was no violation to begin with if I might Mr Mayor thank you for the opportunity for bringing that up they are completely two separate and apart issues the building inspectors are there to administer the State Building Code we're not there to respond to concerns or complaints about condition of premises things of that nature the code complaint C is based on whatever format you want that to look like are they Anonymous complaints are they do they come with a name that's entirely up to you uh the the Community Development Department through Rum River is completely separate and apart from the building inspector if we're out there looking at a at a roof and there's junk and debris or outdoor storage that's not our concern that's not our Direction when we're there at that time so there's no overlap none whatsoever and I I appreciate that I'm just saying we haven't had those discussions right so thank you for the opportunity to explain that yeah cuz I can see where that could be be perhaps muddy how going Brian in the interest of time I'd make a motion to set up a work session as soon as we can with the now then staff and R River Consulting to um uh re re um format our existing uh to to to revisit our current Code Compliance process and see if Rum River would be able to accommodate that and include uh discussion on any future changes or adaptions that may need to be made second a motion from Council M Brian and second by Council R any other discussion counc member council member Brian I'm I'm wondering if you would be willing to amend it to that we would wait until January it's November been dealing with this for a while I we had issues prior to the previous planner to and that there wasn't any follow through and that caused us much difficulties um so I would like to wait until January so that we have our council members and that they can participate in it it's a learning experience for them to see what it is we have what we've done in the past and how how can we if we need to better that process I think that the administrative process that we had in place was was good when we used it it worked um we just didn't use it which is you know for many reasons it's not wasn't right but um I'd like to ask council member Brian You' be will to to have that meeting in January with Mr Mayor at this time I do not wish to wait till January we have as was mentioned we have a current compliance process that is in place and just needs to be um adjusted to to have a different uh administrator to um whether it be our for former planner or R River consultant so if if my question to Rum River Consulting was can you can you currently um for when we meet can you currently administer our existing process while we then could potentially set up another meeting in January or whenever to if there's a proposal to look into a different model for Code Compliance so we have something in place that we can do now you do have a program in place um I it's not the preferred model and and I definitely and in respect that what what works for one Community might not necessarily work for another but similarly to um building codes um when you have a process that is in place that has been tested all the way to Administrative Hearings Court things like that um and that is it it's effective um it's you know slightly different and again at a work session we would be able to to really get into the weeds and and do some of those comparison um the language revisions that we that I have proposed um actually was more to do with ambiguity within the code language not to make it easier to um administer the program um there are areas within the current now then city code that um I have that has been in other city codes that have there's precedence where judges have thrown that back out saying this is not clear language it it it isn't clear enough and so to go through that whole process to knowing that um the language wouldn't stand up if if needed if it needed to um it's been my experience that by looking at those and making some adjustments or at least having the discussion and uh us being able to demonstrate why we feel that way um would be my Approach I'd like to um if if we have to that to that point work session it would be good idea the the Planning and Zoning when when the planner said they were actually moving it wasn't it wasn't uh nuances of language um it was moving from one section of the code to another taking things out of code putting them into nuisance so they're easier to enforce um it was it was significant changes that were being proposed in in our ordinance in our codes um the other part of it to council memb Brian's questions we've been hearing for months that we just can't do anything because we have no code enforcement we have a process it's been in place the idea of Code Enforcement is not to be nailing people to the wall not to be citing people most people just don't know they move out to now then they aren't aware and so a clarification of you have some ordinances and there there could be a letter says there might be a violation um most people clean it up so to to hold this whole process up where it's been sitting months and and I don't know I I haven't seen a complaint log but but understanding that there's probably a a massive number of of complaints that could be cleared up relatively quickly and to council member ril's point that if we want to have a a more robust Workshop to improve the system and you know after the new council's in that makes sense but we have you know a month and a half two months before that work session before something could be resolved and codes could be changed it could be many months out and if if there are residents as we've been told that are complaining and not getting any response from the city Why not start it right away with the system that's in place with the idea being um a word to the wise is sufficient and if we have somebody who's not cooperating then we we have a more robust system that can be enhanced in the future to to be more effective it has if it has to go before judge but very few of our cases have to go before a judge and and so getting something in place CU all we've heard all summer long all spring and summer long is we we can't do Code Compliance because nobody's there to do it we don't have staff to do it we're not going to do it and so if you have staff to do it and and we can engage you right away what does that look like and and how quickly can we clean up the backlog of of code compliance issues that simply need attention of this may be a problem let's check it out yeah thank you Mr Mayor and um I would have to defer that to staff where we are not aware because we don't receive the complaints that comes through City Hall and so we would need to take a look at um what some of these open and outstanding cases are um the length of time and maybe some of learning of of the background on some of the reasons why it has taken um quite a bit of time to um get action done I think there's a little bit of learning on our part as well well because because there's been nobody to do action there there has been no response because we've been told there's nobody to do no no one to take action on so I have no idea I don't know if the council has any idea how how thick or thin that that complaint log is or what the the nature of the complaints are because we've requested a number of times and and um I don't know what it currently is if there's a lot if there's a few if they're significant if they're not but but if if the process is there can we use it may rers I uh I guess I tend to agree with Mary it feels like this would be a good opportunity for the team to come in and take a fresh look at this I think some of the issues that we've had with code compliance is there's a lot of variation in nowland in terms of we have a Lake Community we have a two acre Community we have a 5 acre community and we have a rural community and we're trying to put all these ordinances in place for all of those different types of properties and that inconsistency is what's gotten us into trouble so it feels like a good Workshop to go through some of these examples that we potentially have and see where they fit and see where we Clarity the code would be beneficial if you just turn on a program that they're saying may not be the best fit in the next month and a half after being waited a year and a half I don't know if that adds some value except for those people that have been waiting for for their complaints to be addressed but so Mr Mayor Mr ler so to make a statement that you haven't been provided with any Code Compliance and then you shifted it and said recently um that that's not a fair statement we've provided this council with what we've been dealing with with code compliance second of all I've worked with r River we got the flowchart done we got the letters done and we got those things done might be the meeting you're referring to right there the last Direction I was giving your city administrator when it comes to Code Compliance was try to make a phone call talk to these people see if you can resolve it over the phone if it doesn't get resolved over the phone then bring it to council and Council can make the decision if we need to do that what we've been doing is we've been keeping it on a report we've tried to contact everybody I'm the one that's making the contact with folks if they have concerns and if it goes past that I was hoping we were going to be able to start working on some of these back to what Rum River is talking about here um there has been work that was done to it but in one of the last meetings you guys have said to me that you want me to be able to call them you want me to work on the process but you don't want me to touch ordinances you guys all recall talking about that you guys didn't want me messling in the ordinances so the reason to bring them in front of us tonight was is to try to get some consensus with the council can we take a look at some of these ordinances can we try to change some of these or at least have a discussion around them because if we're put a process in place but the ordinances aren't going to support it then I'm just wasting money and I don't want to do that time and money from staff and from Rum River so when we were discussing this and bringing this in front of the council was let's just make sure that the council's all on board exactly what I'm being accused of not doing but um get Council on board to make sure that we're all in agreement on how we want to March forward we didn't bring a workshop tonight that wasn't Our intention at all to bring a workshop tonight to be able to do that it was to what does council want are you okay with it let's take a step and then let's move towards the next step so I just wanted to clarify that a little bit because uh I don't think we're all on the same page when those things are being said so thanks so are there code issues that could be cleared up under our existing process on that on that list our existing process before Rum River got involved yeah I was asked to take care of him over the phone if I could and then log in if we the system we've had for years under under Liz yeah the the letters that we have MH the identify where there might be a violation of code send out the letter and see if it gets cleared up is are there simple things like that on that list that could be cleared up before a a work session potentially I'd have to take a look at it again there could be something and I think that's that's what what's being requested can we clear up some of this and then let the new Council have at it change the all the ordinances or change the ordinances as needed um so that it's clear and people know what they're being accused of and how they can remedy that and they understand the process start to beginning if you don't cooperate here's what happens because again that's what we don't have in front of us so if that's the work session that that half the council wants to have in after the first of the year but can we do anything between now and then because whenever that you're not going to have it the first week of January probably you might have it in mid January you're still going to be by the time you get that process in place you could be looking at February so now you're talking about that many more months and if no no in no remedy of of complaints has been happening for many months then we're talking about about a year without resolution so does it make sense to do something in the interim and let the new Council come up with a better system based on what other cities are doing Mr Mayor coun raino so council member Brian has a motion on the floor and at this point I have kind of Forgotten what it was so if M if council member Brian could re revisit his motion um and and and maybe we break it into two one is the let's work on what we have now we've in the last month and a half I think we've gotten all the comp Code Compliance list or the code the complaint list um and so if we would direct staff to look at that to Contin continue their work with Rum River what can we do to to complete off any existing complaints the easy ones I would have to say um do that and then the second piece would be to have a workshop in January with re River and staff and the council to say where are we with what you're proposing how does it mesh with what we have what recommendations do you have and then move forward with that is that councilman Brian so my my question after the motion was made was um I guess the first part would be a has R Riv Consulting seen our existing process with the letters the letter system and then there's followup after that yes back in March and it is identified in the city code okay the answer to that would be yes the short answer okay then the followup question is does Rum River Consulting have the capacity until we come up with a a revised compliance policy to administer now then's current compliance policy yes I believe we do I would I would like the opportunity to review that in its entirety again okay I understand that so I understand so my motion basically wanted can I clarify your question sure well go ahead do they have capacity not is our is our system good do you have capacity if you're saying you have people on your staff that can go out and respond to to that's how I understood thank you Mr that is how I understood that question right now do we have the staff to be able to administer your current program the answer to that would be yes and I apologize that I did not answer that no that's okay I that's where I was going but I just wanted to go so we have a compliance policy with the first step being hey somebody said something here's a letter are you doing it or not it's not even necessarily going out yet to that point but if we have a mechanism in place and R Consulting can administer our current process where we're switching our Administration from our former planner to Rum Consulting as far as administering our current process then I'm okay with scheduling a meeting whenever to revisit that exact same process or the the compliance process to to modify it as as we the council sees fit right based on the recommendations from R River Consulting may I ask a clarifying question please um typically as long as the complaints come through City Hall we just don't want our staff arbitrarily making decisions on which complaints are valid or concerns that come in are valid and which ones are not we would appreciate um that being vetted through by your staff and feel that that's more most appropriate which I don't believe be a problem wouldn't that be the same either way I'm sorry wouldn't that be the same with your revised system absolutely I just wanted to make sure that that was every that's been the council's Direction all year long was it should come through Staff first and make sure that it's something valid before it's turned over and costing more money because somebody's got to pay for your services but that's that's going to be the same whether you have a new and revised system the existing existing system so D part one of your motion is to can handle it now have them handle the current process they can handle the current process now schedule a work session whenever determined I would rather do it sooner than later or at least start before decary I'd rather start before December but if I like January yeah cuz there's probably some preliminary stuff that we can get out of the way and then go into January that's my opinion but if I we can schedule it whenever but at least to have rum R and administer the admin the current process as it is and then we can um revisit the the entire process at a later date whatever that date is okay so so let me ask this since this has been on the docket since last April I'm assuming you're ready to go with that work session you you've got You've Got A system that you're using in other cities and this has been something that's been discussed for months and months and months so if if council member Brian's request that we have something as soon as possible are you ready to go for a work session yeah because we were told to Halt we have I've worked on already some potential amendments on the city code and have those documents but we would need time to actually put together formal presentation um I can verbally tell you what our process is uh but I it would be good I I'm just saying I'll be honest I need to be able to look at our calendar as well to see I mean it's it is already the middle of November and we're doing a lot of end of year reports at um and some of and I take that on to do with our other jurisdictions and things like that either at the end uh in December or in the beginning of January I would need some potential dates to ensure and that's why we're here discussing this tonight so when council member angil says let's move it to January that's the first that came up that let's talk January so it sounded like we're going to do something as soon as possible and now we're saying yeah maybe not maybe we're not ready for that so Mr Mayor are we ready or not coun Bri I'm including as soon as possible and if Rum River Consulting wants to work with with our staff to come up with some dates and we can then coordinate things and if it's sooner than later great if it has to be after the first of the year great but at least something is in place now so Scott can take the existing complaints that he's vetted and go here we go and and Scott to your point earlier you've those complaints have come in you've talked to the the parties involved they've inv vetted as far as these are legitimate and something should more should be done that is correct I am vetting them as they come through Mr Mayor can I ask a question as well will you guys part of the Cod compliance will you also do the annual inspections or rechecks with the iups and cups for us would that be part of it that's that's a whole that's a whole another thing now you're opening up a whole well that is the majority of the larger complaints if I might Mr Mayor um we do that work in other jurisdictions as well and that can certainly be part of our process is to follow up now we work very closely with we're also designated as fire quod officials in some jurisdictions and that is part of this as far as following up on homebased businesses and and conditional use and Inter interim use permits you're right that is a whole another Avenue but we do provide that those Services as well since we're in the community correct for for years we we've asked our contract staff and staff to take a look at the iup cup process do do they even exist do the businesses even exist anymore if an iup has been inactive for a year it's gone if a cup is the the property has changed if the use has changed and so we we asked first of all just find out if they even exist and if they don't if somebody buys a property and they've got a commercial use on it and they're paying tax on a commercial use that they're not doing maybe they want to get rid of it so our plan years ago was to identify those and anybody who wanted to get rid of that cup and not pay the commercial taxes on their property we would give them a lump sum get everybody together that want to get rid of them and we go to the county and try and process that out the first step was just do they exist we're kind we're drifting here let's get back to I didn't bring it up I understand that but we're going down a rabbit hole it's for the interest of time we've got a motion we've got a second we've had some discussion on is it going to be before after the first of the year let's nail it down and move forward all right trying to clarify the motion then so we know because that's that's the other thing we we quite often say I thought we said this so what is the motion so the motion is that R River Consulting has the capacity as they have the capacity to process our be the administrator for our existing Code Compliance process that Rover would begin that um as of today and our administrator laner would forward whatever um vetted complaints that are available to be moved into the letter process to Rum River Consulting for processing and then a met a meeting will be scheduled with Rum River Consulting and staff and the council to as soon as it can if it needs to go into January that's fine to discuss a revised compliance process I'll res second that all right we have motion second we had a lot of discussion all those in favor signal by by saying I I I opposed I motion carries thank you thank you very much thank you thanks you guys for being here all right next item on uh engineering would be the U Road improvements recommendations [Applause] we have a a motion on this one Mr mayor council member rainville I would motion that we receive and file we're not going to make any decision on anything so I would move that we receive this that staff keeps it on the on the docket as far as um when we start to look at doing roads in 2025 that this information is here for for our use I'll second that all right the discussion would be if we're going to if the city plans on doing the 2025 the seven seven of them they're on there typically that those studies are started in the fall here so if you're going to do something you could get behind the curve as far as the the required meetings and the bidding for contractors for next year but um we have a motion to file it for now and um I'm guessing new Council will bring it up as part of their Capital Improvement plan Mr mayor council Brian question for administrator laner is I know that we've talked about in the past um do you know if Shane has engaged um or have we talked with Ramsey at all if they are planning on doing the rest of the what we've called the Rogers Lake area and um from where they left off West to 47 where we could theoretically look at during Kum and if there's a need to if it's possible to squeeze in the um I don't know the street name the rest of nowan share off of Green Valley off of vadium that was part of Ramsey's project is that yeah I think I think it's uranium that where Ramsay just redid that area um this past summer if that needs to be done or if that gets somehow incorporated in to the to your point herum is the one that Ramsey hasn't done anything south of the now then border on urum right and uranium the seven houses on uranium couldn't figure out why all that was done and their portion wasn't done and somehow we missed that that that Ramsey was doing the neighborhood south of uh now then on uranium and so you go on this nice new road and then you hit our road in uranium and it's not so nice so to your point you're asking to find out when Ramsey is looking at doing the Kum south of 181st in that neighborhood and can they when they bid that put in uranium from 181st up to 182nd that correct MH so I don't if that's if that's been talked about at all uh the only recollection I have of talking to Shane about was on Kum I believe was that they were talking about that didn't need to be replaced if they were looking to do some seal coating and that type of stuff but that was early on so that was that's old information potentially so I will I just wrote a note down to follow up with him on that in this one I was asked it uh I was asked to put together the three-year plan we put $500,000 a year into the capital budget and I asked Shane to go out and gave us his best estimate of what it was he actually came and drove and looked at these before he provided to me that's why it took a little bit um but that uh was what was requested to me to be able to get done but I will certainly follow up with that piece with Shane that I don't we haven't recently had a conversation about that now and then and it's a bit unusual but that uranium part that that two block area of uranium MH um be pretty expensive to do it but it wasn't part of another project so could somehow did we ever recall was that part did that name ever come up in our discussions or anything that we had as a I don't know why we didn't know they were we didn't know Ramy was doing it okay okay it was one of those things that we would have expected that uh that when the project was bid in that part of Ramsey they said oh by the way here's a dead end culdesac that's a block long we should talk about doing that too and we dismissed it because it's you know you're you're a long way out of now then to get to it gotta and we were looking at and we were focusing on Rogers Lake and didn't realize that they Ramsey actually included both parts in the in their bit so and didn't do the one in between right yeah what was the last part did what they didn't do the one in between oh perum is between Waco and and uranium they didn't do that but they jumped over into off of vadium and did that that neighborhood over there so all right all right so all those in favor of uh filing that report I I I oppos motion carries I didn't see anything in here on a fire department there is that is correct sir so no fire department all right Chief Deputy maybe I was a door open could be open got check and see if the doors open been busy up in the North End yes sir uh Mr Mayor members of the council and citizens of now that I have for you the October 2024 sheriff's report for activity in the city of n then we did respond to 139 calls for service overall uh year to date we're down 41 calls from 23 to 24 of those calls in 2024 16 were to Barone three animal calls 17 Medicals and 16 animal complaints in the interest of time um you see the summary of The Bar None calls uh in your packets uh lots of calls of assaults fights and other altercations at the campus a few I will highlight on the 15th at 3:9 p.m. we responded uh to the campus on a report of a resident that had assaulted a staff member that Resident uh punched a staff member in the face and then pushed another staff member that Resident was arrested for assault and damage to property and was transported to the hospital for care few other important ones we had a number of calls of fights in progress and disorderly juveniles on the 27th at 11:12 p.m. we responded to the campus on report of four juveniles that had fled on foot they were all entered as runaways then later uh the fall morning they had burglarized a business in Oak Grove those juveniles were discovered after they set off the alarm uh at the business and uh all four were arrested and booked at the line Lakes Juvenile Center um that call required eight squads to resolve uh given the burglary and um of course when we respond to those calls in an act of burglary we don't know their juveniles we don't know what's going on so we respond in force to keep the community and our our deputies safe calls for Baron from 23 to 2024 up 22% year to date I have a meeting uh scheduled with the patrol command um with Baron Administration early next week to discuss um some background and see if we can come to some resolutions on reducing calls for service at the location some other noteworthy just just quickly before you get off of Bar None sir 16 I mean this is unusual yes sir for them I mean 252 increase eight squads to resolve five squads to resolve six squads to resolve five squads that's a lot of Manpower Mr Mayor it is and um frankly we're concerned about the number of deputies that are having to respond to that facility uh and uh we're we're looking for some Creative Solutions to reduce calls there we do talk regularly with their staff um try to find some collaborative Solutions um we're not having much luck right now and um if we are called to the facility for what's reported as emergency we are going to respond so um it does create it it puts us in a tough spot um we will respond we will make sure the residents the staff and the community are safe but we are also appropriately concerned about the number of hours being spent there so so and it's not on the agenda but Scott can you know a number of months ago um even last year we were going to um Council agreed that you and I would meet with attorney rupe try and come up with the appropriate cup because it seems like they're expanding their services there and they're expanding to client tell that they're not capable of handling we've gone through this repeatedly but you're looking at this report this month it's gotten completely out of control and it's beyond what we believe their cu if anybody knew where it was allows them to operate under so Scott do you have any have you and and Mr ruy had any conversations on the cup regarding bar other than the conversations becoming up and that you were going to be part of it chief deputy and I talked a little bit um when they closed down that while in the housing unit we did see uh a reduction and we were hoping that it was going to stay like that um but obviously after we had our leadership meeting last weekend and and Chief Deputy shared with me the numbers and all that kind of stuff it is uh it is on my high priority list to be able to do that but no we did not start without you that was that was going to be you and I and Bob and chief deputies start having those discussions so can we have that because I've got 16 years in on this and I've got a lot of history with it can we schedule that as soon as possible because somebody knocking what was that no that that sounded like gunshots some you locked the door I checked the door it was closed but I didn't lock it no that was over here right but they're on the they're on the ramp probably right trying to get somebody's attention Dey Mr mayor council member Angel we did give direction about a year ago and then we also gave Direction about two months ago because we didn't remember that we'd given the direction before um I would prefer that we send them and I've said this numerous times send them a cease and assist they don't have any proof of that they have any anything from the city of now then that allows them to do anything and they're running a business they don't have a license for they're not equipped to do it based on these reports stop if they want to come to us after they figure out what they want to offer their clients they can come to us and start new but at this point it'll be no different than if a a a a business or residence was operating something they didn't have a license for we would tell them stop and I think we've gotten far enough down this road that we need to just tell them to stop I think we had that proposal to the attorney at one point and and I have to go back and look at notes but we weren't able to just do a ceas and assist and we'd have to check what what that is but if if we could get the group together as soon as as possible because we've got tremendous amount of history on this to get into a cup and if we can get this documented if we can do a cease and assist that's great we still have to document what it is they're allowed to do there well and and to the attorney's point is we have to make that such a solid document that these incidences can't happen any isn't Mary's point is if they don't have an existing cup or iup they don't have a permit to do anything and then they can come to us and say what they to do and then we can ask how they to keep the place safe so we don't get 16 calls a month from our sheriff's department and start and they can apply for a an intern an iup because there's no record of one correct there there's debate over that nobody can find it on the county level because this was a county situation before we we incorporated barnon can't produce anything they can't produce it and we know for a fact that whatever they thought it was to begin with has changed multiple times in the last number of years I agree with Mary so it and certainly if we can do a season assist that'd be the EAS easiest way to start and they can start over again with a with an iup or cup that's crafted in such a way that this never happens again what Mr Mayor counc m r it would have to be will have to look at our zoning and if our zoning does not allow them to do what it is they want to do then they can't apply I mean if if our zoning doesn't allow a or C then they can't do a or C but I if Mr laner could check with the attorney to see what the status is of a previous direction to do a season assist I I don't recall getting anything back from the attorney at all and all the time we've talked about this I and I don't know if he have the ability to figure that out you know what he has and if if that's not the case um if we can do that immediately do that I still think we need to then craft what the conditions would be for going forward but do you want Mr M cease an assist that's the one is that what you're referring to if we can do that yeah gotcha and if we can't then we have to figure out what we can do to to remedy the situation so can we get that in a motion something yes that's my motion I'll second it okay so we have a motion which is what for City attorney excuse me the city administrator to reach out to the City attorney in regards to a previous direction of um authorizing a cease and assist for the bar none facility if we are unable to do a cease and assist how can we get them into compliance to meet existing zoning ordinances if they can't come into compliance then they can't be there no different than any other business whether it's operating in a commercial area or a resident operating something in their home all right that being the motion the um all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed sorry motion carries thank you about no you're good and then just Mr Mayor just a comment on the the staff up there they have been very strong uh communicators with me and the Sheriff's Office and and trying to come to um Solutions um they've been at the table um I think that the fact that we have not come to Solutions um frustrates everyone involved here but they they are more than willing to communicate with the city and be part of the solution so um I think their intentions are good we're just not we're just not finding a path to being successful here so let me let me ask a question on that so when we've met with them before part of their resol last year was to tell staff not to call the sheriff let's let's handle it ourselves and and the calling the sheriff at the last res because we're trying to get calls down do you think some of these these escalations where we're seeing five dat squads responding um do you think that's because they've tried to handle on their own and it's gotten out of hand or they just have a different clientele Mr Mary I think it's probably a mix of those things they did close down their shelter program temporarily while they sort of re-evaluated it as the administrator alluded to but I think that they have brought in others and the other programs to backfill those shelter spaces so I think that has created um additional calls um they frankly they just have more kids there which creates additional calls and in reading into some of the reports because I see them all I think that our deputies who are working the road are encountering staff who have less experience and are less trained um given just the amount of turnover that the facility has seen um it's a hard job and um folks take it on and they do the best they can but it's a hard job and I think that we do want them to call if things escalate out of control so people don't get hurt but I think that um their turnover uh in their Staffing is creating some of the issues that our deputies are seeing on the front lines uh other noteworthy incidents uh in the city for the month of October on the 1st at 4 12:00 p.m. we responded to report of a dog at large 6700 block of 189th this is a pitbull that we've responded to a number of other times the owner was cited on the 8th at 1:27 p.m. we responded to 182nd Lane on report of an elderly male who had passed out after being stung by a bee first arriving deputy found the victim was unresponsive and not breathing CPR uh was initiated uh we had assistance from now then fire pretty quickly tragically the male was pronounced deceased at the scene on the 19th at 8:27 p.m. a deputy was on patrol in nland when he ran a registration check on a vehicle on Viking Boulevard he found the owner of the vehicle to have a revoked a driver's license and an outstanding warrant for his arrest the deputy was able to confirm the owner of the vehicle was driving and made contact with him and he was arrested on his warrant he also was driving on revoke license and cited for that and then on the 20th at 2:57 a.m. we responded to the area of St Francis Boulevard near Clear road on the report of a crash with injuries the deputy discovered that the vehicle had left the roadway and struck multiple mailboxes driver showed signs of impairment but did deny drinking any alcohol he was ultimately arrested for DWI after being found over the legal limit and was booked at the enoka county jail now just have one final thing prior to questions um a member of our our team at the sheriff's office um Deputy Chris brought to my attention some outstanding work by a member of the city of now then staff and I just wanted some time to talk a little bit about about that um I'm going to read from the nomination letter here this mostly um um was information provided to me by Deputy Chris so um we have some policies that you'll hear about how this works but please indulge me if you go in accordance with policy 101 3.4.3 I would like to nominate a Community member for an acso office combination I'm sorry Commendation the Community member Natalie Johnson is part of the administrative support sta for the city of now then after an acso Deputy reached out to her for help with a citizen in need she responded with unusual thoroughness and conscientiousness she provided Superior Service that brings credit to her community and now then's partnership with our office without a doubt she performed well beyond normal expectations the incident of note began when acso Deputy Chris was dispatched to a complaint of a recreational vehicle and camper parked on private property the caller reported the vehicle had been in their parking lot and was occupied Deputy Chris arrived and made contact with the occupants of the vehicle and he advised them of the complaint Deputy Chris learned the occupants of the RV had been living in the vehicle for the past 3 months and had been struggling to find a place to safely Park without disturbing the community Deputy Chris advised it was clear that the elderly couple was struggling and had medical issues Deputy Chris advised that he did have to ask the two to leave the parking lot for the night but told them they could stay in a nearby City Park for the night Deputy Chris advised he confirmed with the couple that they had food water and medications and what they needed to meet their immediate needs but he was concerned about their long-term well-being since Deputy Chris joined the now then Patrol contract he has developed a strong working relationship with now then staff including Natalie Deputy Chris recalled that Natalie was active in her church so he reached out to her over the weekend to see if there was any other support that could be offered to this elderly couple in need in Deputy Chris's words Natalie sprang into action in a short period of time she not only found a campground for the couple to stay at for a short time she and her church paid for a week for them to stay there additionally Natty put them in Natalie put them in touch with other congregation members specializing in Social Services for Seniors to help them get the services they so badly needed Deputy Chris describes Natalie as one of the finest people he has had the honor to work with in his career he is advised that she has consistently been a great partner to Deputy Chris and his now then Deputy Partners Deputy Chris wrote that he is grateful and proud to work in a community that is represented by people like Natalie in this instance Natalie put several put in several of her own t several hours of her own time to help total strangers without a doubt Natalie made a difference for this family and helped us accomplish our shared mission of helping those in need and making our community stronger we cannot be more proud of Natalie and she continues to be a great partner not only to acsl but to the now then community in accordance with acso policy I hereby request you consider this nomination and if you deem these actions award worthy you forward them to the sheriff for review and the sheriff did review this nomination you are hereby being awarded with an acso office commodation so join me we're going to we got him we got him what do you that's awesome well done now turn around turn Chris hold on one more photo off this way one one more one more want you want be in this yeah congratulations natal needless to say we're um we are proud of our partnership with the city of now then um and I I work with Natalie all the time every day and she's great and so I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to share that um with your citizens just know that they're in good hands with her uh with her uh in the office there with that I'll stand for any additional questions I hope can ask questions after that none here but yeah our act to follow I'm just say congratulations Natalie congrats Natalie none of that surprises me given your dedication wouldn't all right keep moving here time to write it up Planning and Zoning we have uh cannabis ordinance is being worked on looks like that'll be a work session in December after she consults with attorney rupe here all right we had the goals to try to get it here just what it wasn't finalized to be able to get in here tonight so all right administrator update okay um couple things that you have on there and then I get one quick addition but the uh presidential election uh went very well ran very smoothly the judge team was a or the judges were awesome um those of you that were there which I think was all of you you were able to see that in action uh Natalie did a great job of of putting that together I can tell you I got multiple compliments the pot luck because seems to be one of the favorites people are always bringing a bunch of stuff in there but several compliments on Lexi from the judges themselves on how easy she is to work with and she knows her stuff which uh she was trained very well by Natalie um so I'll give credit there even the residents had a bunch of nice things to say um people really like the church being able to do it at the church uh no offense to the fire hall but it it does uh it does uh condone well for what we're trying to do um the only complaint we got to the whole thing is the lights in the actual voting booth themselves so we have a plan that we've already started working on there uh for for next time around um it was a long day um Lexi is not here but I'd like to thank Lexi and Natalie for the long day we ended up as we talked about earlier tonight we thought once we got down to the county that the county was going to have things by 10:30 11:00 well I can tell you that your staff to include myself was still sitting at the city offices at 2:30 in the morning waiting for things coming through so we finally finally got uh got out of there and uh and uh as you know during the course of the evening um the the results came out so thank you to everybody that was involved in that especially to Natalie and Lexi um I got over there that afternoon and and spent the evening there and it was a well old machine I was very impressed with that they were able to pull off so um update on M Kinzie Hills just uh I met with Jason gusterson a couple times out there uh I've uh talked with Andy from Rum River today uh we have our plan put together as far as the the co goes with that I'm going to probably make one more visit out there the last time I met with Jason he was super super close to having everything done that we needed him to do so I don't think that's going to be an issue and he's been more than happy I also brought uh Isaac Schultz out there with me representing the fire department on the last visit just to make sure that he knew that or that his expertise on being able to get tankers and trucks and stuff in there so I I'm I'm fairly confident I'm very confident I should say uh that the McKenzie Hills uh situation will be resolved here very quickly so um status of the uh interm part-time fire chief I don't have a whole lot there other than I can tell you that um the individual that we're sending to Martin McAllister they have all his information uh Mr Miller is going to need to just contact them and set up some time and then once that time is set up and he goes through the evaluation then I'll get the information back and I can share it with all you so that'll be two individual the two individuals that are moving forward in this process one of them is already done their background the other one will be done here shortly so awesome so that should be getting done um I guess it's it's it's the night for Natalie here so I just wanted to to say thank you to to Natalie on Friday she has her three-year work anniversary um so if those of you that knew when Natalie came in here 3 years has gone by in a hurry but um so congratul ations and N Natalie on your three-year work anniversary coming on Friday and then a week from Thursday or November 21st Lexi will be off probation and she'll have her six months in and she'll time flies by already but so Lexi will be off for probation a week from Thursday or the 21st before I get into the last piece there because what I have here goes into the last piece so I I just wanted to quickly just provide you all with a little information here so I just got a couple quick bullet points uh the following points that I'm about to address you are unrelated to recent elections or or the addition of Ken Shane to the council or the reelection of council member rainville my concern center around the lack of clear leadership Direction expectations and transparency regarding certain roles such as the part-time fire chief Code Compliance and as was demonstrated tonight with some of the topics that we talked about I find the absence of support and respect from some individuals in this room and outside this room along with the ongoing micro manage to be quite troubling since my arrival I have been I have not received a performance evaluation or guidance concerning expectations the breakdown of trust and respect reached the Tipping Point during the recent closed door meeting prompting me to bring these this uh matter to light all that being said I'm sorry it has come to this but Natalie is going to be handing around to you uh my letter of of resignation I can no longer do this anymore um nothing has changed I have not received an apology for anything that was done beyond that closed door meeting nothing has moved forward I've had no communication so with that being said as you look at my letter of resignation I'll let you read it real quick and I have a couple comments at the end for yikes you break that break can we get a another one of those so I think most of you had an opportunity to read through that my intention is to go out in good standing um 30 days from tonight will be December 12th as you see in the letter um I would like to be able to just feel confident that that you all you know with the holidays coming up and some stuff that's going on with uh with my family or also right now my family is actually going through sickness coming through the house and I'm just trying to stay away from it that if if there was a day or two that I needed to use during this uh transition period out in 30 days that the council would grant me the opportunity to be able to use a day here or there or if I'm not feeling well to be able to do that um the only reason I bring that up because in our Personnel policy it talks about um not using any PTO time but it also States in there that um my contract overrides anything in the Personnel policy I just want to be perfectly clear going into this that if I was to take a day or two and I was certainly would let you all know if something was to come up that I would still be able to end my tenure here with the city of now then in good standing and that my PTO would be paid out right now as of today my PTO hours are at 239 hours that's subject to change if I take something or if I acrew anything but as of right now I would expect uh I will leave in good standings and that the council then would be uh treat me right I guess and and be able to pay me all the PTO uh whatever's on the books at the end of my 30 days I'm sorry it's come to this I really am I got a heavy heart i' I've I appreciate the time that I've been able to be here I appreciate the residents that I've met and the business owners that I've met this is no way a reflection on any incoming Council or anything like that or reelected Council it just got to the point now where um it's affecting myself it's affecting my family and um it it was just time that I needed to take care of me that hold closed door that we were all powered of took about everything out of me that and and I couldn't believe where we ended up and um this process has been I started this process just looking because I didn't know where the council was going to go during that uh closed door deal um but once we went through the closed door deal and how things were handled or not handled from my perspective after that um has determined to me that it's just uh I'm not welcome here any longer and it was time for me to protect myself and my family and I made the determination that uh I needed to move on so I wanted to share that with you tonight I'm sorry that you may have felt blindsided but I wanted to make sure that you guys heard it from me and didn't hear it from anyone else um my staff is aware is aware of this and um I don't know what else to say other than it's time for me to move on but I want to thank you for all the time and and and and what you allowed me to do while I was here um but currently I just can't continue to operate the way things have been operated here in the city so with that I guess that's all I got to say on that other than I did bring it up before we have to talk about the next one that's why I put it in that one spot but Mr Mayor May R Mr ler I I'm really saddened by this I I I'm so saddened you've done an excellent job course um there's been a portion of the of the council that didn't hasn't provided enough support for you and I apologize that by part of that uh I I understand what you need to do for your family but I'm very saddened and I'm saddened for staff you've you've taken our staff and molded them and they've been nothing but um excellent employees and and the their focus on doing things correctly and taking care of the the residents and and getting things done um you've done an excellent job have a better Rel I see Joe back there if he's still there I got a better relationship with Joe now than I have in ever and I appreciate that you helped Foster that um I'm just I'm saddened I would like to ask Jo Jo sh stays out the office we'll take care of that Joe I appreciate you I app I appreciate you bringing it up for that that's not we're not going to do that right that's not appropriate right now sorry to shut you down but I'm going to have to brother let's say this it's duly noted how's that okay okay sounds familiar Mary I appreciate the kind words I feel the same way I I'm saddened also um it was it was difficult for me I went at staff can tell you I've been back and forth and back and forth um but ultimately at the end I I just had to as much as I love the city and the residents and the business owners I had to put my health and my family first and when I look at it through that lens then then the decision made and it's hard for me because I consider all the guys in public works and staff I consider them all family all of us um but it's it just got to the point where I I just had to do something so I appreciate the kind words thank you very much I have a heavy heart also right now so thanks for what you've done and helping out with asking questions and having an open door you're very welcome still all your had huh I still owe you had yeah yeah thanks SC are we in agreement as a council then everything in this acceptable the 30 days the Yeah couple days if I need to do anything all that is all acceptable okay thank you for that I Mr Mayor R I hate to say this but I would move that we accept his res uh City administrator lner's resignation um and conf confirming that um according to his employment contract he's got his 30 days um he is does have the ability to use PTO if needed um and would be paid out for any PTO he has at the end of the 30 days um and that we as a council move to PO for a city administrator second have a motion and a second any other discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I iOS motion carries thank you very much last thing I have on the administrator update here is office hours and the reason I wanted to obviously said it once and I'll repeat myself I apologize um but we wanted to with everything that was just discussed right now uh puts us in a situation here for office hours for December and um I may have Natalie speak into this a little bit because she it affects her and it affects Lexi and it affects timing and all that through the end of the year um but part of that is we wanted to just see what the excuse me the council's appetite was is being able to close the office uh for for some for for a period of time if you will uh here towards the end of December to make sure um or to ensure that these folks can can still take their so you can see that these vacations to Mexico and all that these were pre-approved on the books way before any of this others oh I see I'm sorry I see it on there so there's added at the last moment oh so there's there's vacation Natalie and Lexi have vacation scheduled from the 15th to the 22nd of December they're in Mexico that was approved when we still had Chris here and we thought between Chris and I we'd be able to swing it and all that kind of stuff so I'd still like to be able to obviously honor that because it's their their family trip um then we talked about being closed Christmas week um as a staff we did that I believe last year uh we we ended up closing that week um so what we're looking for is just and Natalie feel free to chime in if you want to but uh we're looking for the ability to be able to um maybe close the office for segments of time starting the middle of December through Christmas into New Year's depending upon who we have for staff here so their vacation is the 15th to the 22nd and we got the week of Christmas so what are what are you it's not ideal but what are you proposing that that we be closed the week of the 16th through the 20th and the following week or through Christmas day or what I would think yes um well for sure the 16th through the 20th unless somebody wants to volunteer to answer the phones and do recycling Mary Mary um um I was planning on working Christmas week except for Christmas Eve and Christmas day anyway so I was going to work on year end stuff but um to be quiet uh Lexi probably would come in and still answer the phone and stuff but we had you know the shop everybody was going to be off Christmas week so I just needed to see what council would approve or not approve so you you technically are saying the 16th through the 20th and then Christmas Eve and Christmas so you you could be open a couple days that week possibly you would still prefer the office closed I mean you take calls but officially closed the 16th through the 20th and then M open for calls the 26th and 27th that would be that would be outstanding if we could do that if there's things that need to get done residents could call and make an appointment okay but year end is going to have to get done then don't forget about the 31st what your baby oh no I took that off oh you Chang it okay okay I told my son have to do the I was all right so I think you heard it then I had one other addition I thought she had on my calendar but it's changed so uh I think that that is our proposal if you will um so the office would be closed the 16th the 20th the shop would get be closed from the 23rd through the 27th is that what I heard unless there's snow then they'll come right and it was I think um it's not it's not going to snow it's not going to snow yeah I think it was um Council that said that to use PTO for those days is what we had expected so I think that's um Public Works is plan all right do we need a motion to make that happen or I just needed to make sure you weren't going to make me cancel the trip no all right so we have a motion to uh close the office 15th and 16th to the 20th and the shop 23rd to the 26th pending the weather 27th sorry so we have a motion council member Brian second second council member rville any other discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I close motion carries have fun of me yeah exactly Mr Mayor councilman Brian one question about the election I know there was a lot of people there um the morning of where P1 was lined up back upstairs with P2 wasn't do you think we need to look at by in the next four years that we have a third precinct um possibly the county likes to keep them under 2,000 we're not quite there yet so I know we'll go through those numbers when um Mr Mayor raids out the caucus or the canvasing M we've got all of that but yes I mean they do want to keep the precinct under 2000 my problem right now is we didn't have enough we I only have four P pads for that Precinct and all four of them were used a lot of people came right away in the morning yeah I didn't know if it tailed off or it did and then it was pretty much steady all day tailed off and yeah it was just before work okay just curious yeah Natalie pulled a good audible on that one too she took stuff she moving stuff over from one to the other side yes uhuh she made it happen yep so did all right sorry if I didn't say it that's the end of my administrator update sir thank you it's a terrible update worst one ever all right so new business we did U get from the county the election canvas we have a resolution here where as the city of now then held an election for the office of Mayor and two council members on Tuesday November 5th 2024 during the general election whereas on this 12th day of November 2024 the now then city council has met the canvas and set election results canvas set election results whereas the votes tabulated at the set election results were mayor for a two-year term Shane hibon 1485 votes Jeff Pon 1317 votes and Ryden 17 votes Council for fouryear terms Ken Glazer 1287 votes Mary rainville 121 votes Sher lady Olsson 856 votes Steve Schmid 765 votes and write in 22 votes now therefore be resolved by the council city of NAA and the official election results winter for the office of mayor for the term 2025 to 2027 shall be Shane hibbon be further resolved by the Council of the city of now then the official election result winners for the office of council member for the term of 2025 to 2028 um should that be 2029 um Ken Glazer mayy rainville motion for the adoption of the forgoing resolution was proposed by so moved council member Ryan was duly seconded by second council member Alders and upon a vote being taken thereupon the following voted in favor all those in favor signify by saying I I I I opposed so all in favor and following none voted none voted against so was passed and adopted by this now city council 12th day of November 2024 and to the uh point point that Natalie had the results were for my it's a two-ear um in Precinct one we had 1981 persons voting 93.8% turnout uh Precinct two we had 118 persons voting and 94.8 6% turnout uh the county wide average was 88.6 4 and now then was represented well and addition well above the county average and um we had about 3,400 people registered sign I'm a yes congratulations Jason you're on the let's just make sure I don't sign myself up again all [Applause] all right next item an RCA for city council emails Mr Mayor member Brian make a motion to approve City emails for city council members and at uh $4 per month for um Microsoft out well to approve city council email so I'm just going to leave it at that for the moment a second I have a motion by councilman Brian and a second by councilman rainville any discussion Mr Mayor the I don't believe we need to be paying for the off whole Office Suite is is $4 a month to create the emails or is that literally because we have to have an Outlook account no that's because of the email that with the server that's or the host that's hosting it so it's $4 a month to have the email $4 a month to have the email not to not to purchase any software right and it's the um my problem with doing that without the suite is that if you don't have your the suite at home or on whatever you happen to be using you won't be able to open words or the yeah the meeting the word documents or Excel documents but but they're PDFs but anybody could use any version of anything that can read an Office doc or a spreadsheet or a PDF and they can they can pick whatever they want and they should be able to view those okay I just what they said there's no I'm just wanted to clarify that there isn't any qualifier from from our it folks that they're saying no you have to have Outlook he just said for Word and Excel or um any PowerPoint or anything like that they would have to be but if they're just a PDF I'm sure it' be fine but if I had a lot of documents I don't send out right there's open right there's several options I just didn't want to make I was pretty confident that we didn't okay that that would work I just wanted to clarify that that's not what our it talk about the Microsoft Office Word yeah so we'll go with the $4 one they're still deciding if that's $4 to create the emails and we don't need to pay for the software like on my iPad I'm not going to use Outlook right and if this is just the email if it's $4 a month to cover the cost of the email then then I would then my motion would include covering the $4 per month for covering the cost for the emails okay to begin January 1 that's fine all right say motion second motion by council member Brian second by council member Alders any other discussion saying and hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries consent item C was moved to consent it item D move to amend the hiring process Mr Mayor thanks rain um I submitted this RCA um in regards to how we are um the process for using the process to we would go forward using um for hiring positions that report to the city administrator um in the past we used a hiring committee when interviewing to fill open positions uh this committee consisted of two council members the city administrator and the deputy clerk um I'm recommending that the council re refine the process and so I propose an interview committee Co consisting of the city administrator Deputy Clerk and a member of the affected Department the new committee would also be given the option to include an outside party to participate in the interview process if they so wish as long as there's no cost to the city an example would be including other public safety personnel to participated in the current fire chief um interviews all current uh processes used in the job posting and applicant rating would continue to be used um I.E the city council approves the job posting the closing date based upon the recommendation of the city administrator city council will continue to be responsible for the final hiring decision this committee responsibilities would be limited to positions reporting to the city administrator my recommendation will hopefully lessen the time period between job posting closing applicant rating interview SE scheduling interviews and presentation to the city council in addition as the committee members will be working with the new hire on a daily basis they are best suited to determine if the applicant is a good bit so I move that the city council Implement a new process for interviewing for open City positions the new position the new process will be an interview committee consisting of the city administrat Deputy Clerk and a member of the affected Department the committee will have the option to include outside party if they so wish as long as there's no cost to the city an example as I stated before would be including other public safety personnel to participate in the fire chief interviews all current processes used in the job posting and applicant rating will be will continue to be used um and I the city council will approve the job hosting closing dates based on Rec recommendation of the city administrator city council will continue to be responsible for the hiring final hiring decision this committee's responsibilities would be limited to positions reporting to the city administrator and it would be uh this change would be effective November 13th and does not have any effect on the current fire chief hiring process like we get a second that is a motion second for discussion okay we have a motion council member anille second council member alers Mr mayor council Brian having conversations about putting things off till the next the new council's in and I think um we have a process for current for current um a current hiring process that's in place we should be able to use that um granted we need to uh based on the last couple meetings uh adjust it adjust it as far as who the council members are going to be but we have that in place and then going forward if the new Council wants to uh change the hiring process they the new Council would have that ability to I I do think it's important for um because we're a statutory a city um all employees are technically employees of the council and um I think only getting a name at the end and voting on it um doesn't serve the um resp responsibilities that the elect elected officials have in a statutory seate I do think it's important for the council to uh continue to be part of that again if the new Council wants to change that but I think that um that it's important for the elected officials to be responsible to the residents on on Staffing so Mr who those who those inter who the interview committee will be yeah that's up to the council um I I think that you know to clarify one of the things we've said in the past is is while staff members are part of the interview process they have not been voting members of that and if the two council members disagree on the final recommendation to the council the the practice has been to bring those uh candidate or candidates to the council for the final interview and I think that's a effective way until the new Council decides otherwise Mr mayor council I I don't know of any other city that the city council is involved in the hiring process other than the final acceptance of a new employee um it's done by the internal staff um and I I I believe this is the right route we have two positions that are open now we need to get them filled with Scott's resignation it's even more important that we are able to start tomorrow with with interviews of people who have submitted applications um Natalie is going to have her hands full and she needs to have that that staff support within the office and so I believe this is an important change and a change that's needed um and needed needed even more so given um our city admin City administrator's resignation the council is still the this council is still the final hiring has final hiring decision yeah that that would be a name is presented to us and it's a yes or no um I would say there's probably a lot of things other cities do that we don't do a lot of other cities have HR departments a lot of other cities are running away I don't think now then residents want their cities to be run keep appearing uh please don't become the cities we moved from so I I don't know that that's a we have a a small staff um and I do think again if if you look at the uh statutes that the council delegates responsibilities that they can't handle themselves they don't have time to handle themselves and I I think this is one of those things that's important for the council to be responsible to the residents for the uh screening of the employees that we hire but that's my opinion Mr Mayor sir do you think your city administrator has less responsibility to the residents of now then to to get the right person in there I I I think that that You're Not Elected okay so and that's and that's my point is is there there's a different responsibility as as we have seen um elections matter and if the residents aren't happy with what's going on then they have the the opportunity to do something about that Mr Mar I think I think Mary's he did yeah Mary's point is if it's at a Scott level decision and it's his team leave in power Scott and have the trust in him to find and retain the best staff of the city and like literally we just had someone get a exemplary award um and uh so I I guess I agree it's like I am not going to be able to find or ask a better question than our administrator would be on who do we think is best for the office or who do we think is best for one of our um team members that are going to be plowing now it's like so I just I think it comes down to it's like for this role we're trusting this person to put together the team to make it happen for the city ultimately yes we have the decision right on hey here's the person that they're recommending but do we trust that person's judgment and let them make the call and let them run their team I think is what it comes down to Mr Mayor counil May Brian we we've also said that we're going to talk to the league and and get best practices and then based on that information um theoretic and looking into changing policies and procedures um we've even had that discussion tonight about this is probably best waited till after we get the new Council in place so let's treat this like all the other ones that we talked about that need to be Revisited with the new Council and and um go with that Mr mayor council R I'm just trying to be of help to staff um again we have two openings we need to get them filled we need to get them filled ASAP um we're coming into a a holiday period uh people's schedules are busy um to try to get scheduling in the more people you involve in trying to be part of an interview that can delay the process um based on current obligations of the existing Council um again I'm just trying to move this process forward so that staff can get uh interview done and get somebody in front of the council for a decision hopefully in December Mr Mar can I finish my thought now I'd like to hear his thought it's your thought so we waited to be able to have this conversation we had uh interview schedule for three candidates for administrative assistant uh as a Friday we weren't able to uh do those interviews because we needed to come here because we didn't necessarily have a process in place we do have interview scheduled now for the 14th for three candidates to be able to come forward the whole idea behind this is to be able to kind of expedite things and move things I've also had other conversations with council members that really want us to take a look at the recycling center um I'd really like to be able to leave staff in a good position with the remaining time that I have here and the more that this stuff drags on and drags on and drags on it's longer it's longer for me to be able to try to help and make a smooth transition here so uh I I would just like the council to consider the fact that I think you have a capable administrator and staff here that can do interviews to be able to bring in a couple administrative assistants without upsetting the apple cart or making residents in a city are now than upset so thank you for letting me finish this was approved in September I I again we we've had we approved the moving forward on the request for U Staffing in September it's now November 12th we had a process in place obviously um um broke down later later on but I do think it's important to have Council respons take part of the responsibility so Mr Mayor I'm going to call the vote Mr Mayor I'm calling the vote okay and I had asked before you said call the vote so there's there's nothing that says we have to be part of this process and I didn't recognize you oh okay all right all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed I Nate n motion fails so Mr mayor council rainville then who does the council wish to be in on the interviews on the 14th and who is Staff comfortable having in on the interviews well that the U it's up to the councel I guess if if staff gets to determine what council gets to do then then they should be on the council Mr Mayor councilman Brian interviews on the 14th I'll find out tomorrow tomorrow if I can make the 14th word if I knew roughly what the times are Mr Mayor I have a commitment from 10:15 to 3 which means I'm gone from 8:30 to 4: so I'm unavailable that day and I cannot cancel that out what interview do you have them scheduled or you I do yep Mr Mayor okay the first interview is at noon second interview 1:30 third interview 2:45 so basically from noon to 3:00 is what we have them all three scheduled for first one starting at noon noon noon you went too fast I couldn't oh I'm sorry noon 1:30 and 2:45 245 I can do it I'll make it work you can make it work mhm I'll take the day off or half day off so counc Brian and council member Alders will be the uh do we need two yeah okay noon 1:30 and 2:45 on the 14th 11:14 got it yes sir that's correct city offices we have everything ready for packets and everything all right so that takes care of the next RCA Mr Mayor how my raino um under old business the we have three things we moved already see oh that's right I'm sorry I forgot my apologies all right um first one we moved was the October 8th minutes and on U item number eight administrator update on the October 8 minutes so would be page 31 in your uh in your packet I believe the actual number for the road study was $21,200 and the $1,500 was the the ms4 payment so I think that really should be 21,200 for the road study that is what the road study was yes this says 1500 oh I didn't see that piece of that was for the ms4 yes the ms4 was, 1500 sorry I did not catch that all right all right no we do not have an invo yet so not for a lack of trying but then uh I had a question on item number nine2 um on the arel property that U we had a remove concrete and fill bid for $3,500 if Mr Rotel did not respond to remedy this or ask the courts for an extension in 15 days did he ask the courts for extension no because we're still working with the county to be able to get the information delivered to him the countyy is going to charge us $80 and they will take make three attempts to try to get a hold of him at a resident residence that we think he's at right now so we're in the process of making that happen right now so he has not even uh received or we have not attempted to serve him yet at this point so that is still coming we got to work through that process what it looks like and uh worked with Bob to make sure that we were good so and trying to find him and trying to find him as hard yeah I mean we could spend the money and try three times it's not not then what do we do we we went through certain channels to try to find out where where we think he is but um we're just kind of hoping at this point so but more to come on that but that estimate is still good for that work yeah if that was the question Mr Mayor counc rille um to City administor ler is it $80 per attempt or $80 for three attempts $80 for three attempts is what we have gotten on an email yet that they will do the and three attempts for that price and then can the chief Deputy if we are unable to uh um to reach him and provide him do we just move forward with the process to check the statute stat yeah our team is pretty good so let them give it a shot maybe we can discuss next steps from there I'm happy okay thank you so we I'll move to authorize the $80 for the three attempts to find them I moved your seconding yeah so motion by the mayor second by council member Ryan all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppos motion carries and then I had one other um thing that um on page 32 of that report sale of the uh potential sale of the outlot um there's going to be some discussion with the attorney the engineer the planner and administrator and myself to what it would take to get that is anything move forward on that we have so I have just asked um our planner and engineer to be able to look at what steps are we going to have to uh step through to make sure what have we already done so we don't have to duplicate the process that was an important part that Council share Let's Not Duplicate what we have and once they are uh getting the information back to me then we will schedule the meeting uh with your mayor you are involved in that because I know you have a you had information and you were kind of the point person there for a while um but uh they are still doing their research and getting back to I have not heard back from either one of them on next upep so but it is uh it has been moving forward since the last council meeting I have met with the two of them to document what process has been done what still needs to be done and what does it look like going forward for that piece of property yep and then we will get the rest of us together all [Applause] right and um with those notes with those comments that the corrections on the U the more engineering I would um move the um minutes uh for the four for the October 8th second motion from the mayor second Council rainville any other discussion seeing hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I I I opposed motion carries [Applause] and councilman rville you had something on wait I see I'm sorry icma um I'd say we table that until you have a new administrator second that any other discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed motion carries I'm a yes sorry that I'm a yes I didn't verbally said it to myself who first and seconded that one I first councilman rville second and counc rville you had something out of the uh old business yes the um one two three four five six seventh bullet point um was an action item for me to contact sudall for the score Grant which was in the consent agenda um so that can be taken off the action items all right anything else and hearing none I'll take motion to adjourn do journ second we are journ talk about report oh I'm sorry we did miss that one we didn't approve the third quarter financial report so we're unadj um I move that we table the third quarter financial report to the December meeting I was looking through the uh year-to-date numbers and and I think it's it's uh not there's a number of things that 34s of the Year through were were at 100 to 300% over a budgeted numbers and I think it would it would behoove us to look at the expenditures to date in conjunction with that report from Lori um for year end here because we don't get the fourth quarter report until the new council is there so I would uh table that third quarter report until the December meeting my motion that's second half a discussion all right uh so if you have concerns Mr Mayor can you um provide those concerns to staff so that we can have them to look at prior to yep you we just I just got the report tonight on our desk so but looking through the U the second quarter report and the numbers we had during the budget cycle that's what so I will provide those to [Music] staff now I'll take that motion oh so we had a motion a second all those in favor of tbling that till December meeting signifi by saying I I I I opposed motion carries TR again [Music] Mar third time I think look like you had a good season with the h It's Kind like [Music]