[0:00] [Music]

[0:13] Hey,

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[0:19] Ah.

[0:26] [Music]

[0:56] Good evening. Welcome to the November

[0:58] 3rd city council meeting. If you join me

[1:00] for a moment of silence in the pledge of

[1:01] allegiance

[1:18] to the flag of the United States of

[1:20] America and to the republic for it

[1:23] stands one nation

[1:26] indivisible with liberty and justice for

[1:33] Okay, roll call, please.

[1:36] Michelle Vulk,

[1:37] here.

[1:37] Luke Kelly,

[1:38] here.

[1:38] John Burmel,

[1:39] here.

[1:40] Dan Walter,

[1:41] here.

[1:41] Joshua Lee

[1:42] here.

[1:43] All right, great. We'll move on to item

[1:44] three, citizens comments. Is opportunity

[1:46] for those in audience to address the

[1:48] council for up to three minutes on issue

[1:50] not related to something agenda.

[1:54] Seeing none, move on. Any additional

[1:56] agenda information, Mr. Miller.

[1:58] Nothing tonight, Mayor.

[1:59] Okay. And we'll now turn it over to our

[2:02] police chief, Brad Pollson, for our

[2:04] quarterly report. Good evening, Chief.

[2:10] Good evening, Mayor and members of the

[2:11] council here tonight to present our

[2:14] quarter 3 report covering the months of

[2:16] July through September of this year. As

[2:20] we always do, we'll start with the

[2:22] mission statement. The Lakeville Police

[2:23] Department exists to ensure an excellent

[2:25] quality of life in Lakeville by serving

[2:27] and protecting in a professional and

[2:29] innovative way.

[2:32] It has been a year of of movement for

[2:34] Lakeville PD. So, uh highlighting some

[2:36] of our quarter three uh long-term

[2:38] retirements here on this slide on the

[2:40] left there is Jenny Davis who after 25

[2:42] years as a records technician. Uh

[2:44] retired in August. Uh thinking back to

[2:47] 25 years ago in a police records job,

[2:49] her her job changed significantly over

[2:51] those years and she did a great job of

[2:52] adapting as time went on. But happy for

[2:55] her in a in a well retirement. In the

[2:57] middle there, Officer Chad Laughler. Uh

[3:00] he had a total of 28 plus years in law

[3:02] enforcement. Uh I think he was 21, a

[3:04] little over 21 with Lakeville PD, but uh

[3:07] Chad did a lot of work with canines over

[3:09] the years. He handled three dogs with

[3:10] Lakeville uh Storm as you see there

[3:13] along with Tank and Shadow before that

[3:15] and he's given a lot to that program

[3:16] over the years. Then on the right, uh

[3:19] community service officer, our lead

[3:20] community service officer, Randy Smith

[3:22] spent eight years with us uh and did a

[3:24] great job in that role. uh he did a lot

[3:27] of onboarding with our seasonal CSOS,

[3:29] younger employees who are at college age

[3:31] and getting them outfitted and and

[3:33] trained and up to speed.

[3:36] So now back filling some of those spots

[3:38] uh starting in uh in August, Kristen B

[3:41] who is a new records technician. She

[3:43] comes from us uh comes to us from the

[3:45] Minnesota Department of Health where

[3:47] she's been spent 13 years there uh doing

[3:50] newborn screening, public health data

[3:52] analysis. She did a lot of work on

[3:54] substance abuse including uh opioid over

[3:57] overdoses. So a lot of lot of crossuh

[4:00] section with public safety in that role

[4:02] and she's been a great addition to our

[4:03] team and our staff.

[4:06] Uh new community service officer Bill

[4:08] Nelson who spent uh little over three

[4:10] years as a reserve officer for us. Uh

[4:12] kind of a a second or or third or even

[4:15] fourth career. Bill's done a little bit

[4:16] of everything over the years but uh his

[4:18] main career was a air traffic

[4:20] controller. Retired from that. also a

[4:22] member of the the US Air Force. Uh but

[4:24] he's jumped right in uh where Randy left

[4:27] off and and he's uh his time as a

[4:30] reserve has certainly helped him get up

[4:31] to speed quickly in that role.

[4:35] A few new officers uh starting out in

[4:37] July. Bennett Wrand was also a cso for

[4:40] us for a few years. Graduated from

[4:43] Winona. Uh so he's been around but

[4:45] officially started in his sworn role in

[4:47] uh middle of July just after Pana

[4:49] Prague.

[4:51] All joining him is Joe Baron. Um Joe

[4:54] grew up in the St. Peter area, went to

[4:56] school up at Baiji State. Uh this is his

[4:59] first uh sworn police officer job. So

[5:01] he's uh uh doing well. All of these

[5:04] officers see here are are winding down

[5:07] their field training phase. So they

[5:08] started in July and and kind of starting

[5:09] to wrap wrap some of that up. So close

[5:12] to being out on their own.

[5:15] Megan Karp uh also started in July. you

[5:18] see there. She was one of our u grant

[5:21] funded recipients of the uh the IC poet

[5:23] grant. So graduated from Henipin

[5:25] Technical College uh in July and started

[5:27] with us as a sworn officer. She uh got

[5:30] her undergrad graduate degree from St.

[5:32] Cloud State but came to us really from

[5:35] the hospitality industry.

[5:38] And then Josh Enavald,

[5:40] also on the IC Poet grant, uh, graduated

[5:44] from Minnesota State Mano and prior to

[5:46] Lakeville PD was at the Carver County

[5:48] Sheriff's Office in a in a detention

[5:50] deputy role.

[5:54] Quick update on the first center. If you

[5:56] haven't seen pictures or driven by, some

[5:59] good progress out there. Uh, most the

[6:01] exterior walls are up. Uh the big push

[6:03] now is to get things tightened up and

[6:05] enclosed before uh before the snow

[6:07] flies. They're they're coming along good

[6:08] on that. Uh there's a note there, the

[6:11] first layer of asphalt will be laid

[6:12] before winter. That now down. I drove by

[6:15] earlier today, so that's a that's a good

[6:17] sign. So, uh we're on track with uh

[6:20] getting that sealed up to do the

[6:21] interior work over the cold weather

[6:23] months. Uh as far as partnerships, we're

[6:25] in the final stages of uh finishing up

[6:27] some capital member uh agreements with

[6:30] four area law enforcement agencies, just

[6:32] putting kind of the finishing touches on

[6:34] those agreements. Uh and also continuing

[6:36] to have a conversation with the local

[6:38] college on partnering on a potential

[6:40] skills program there. Uh they were

[6:42] waiting to see some of the uh changes

[6:44] with uh the Minnesota Post board and the

[6:46] education requirements that they were

[6:48] looking at and now that that's been

[6:49] flushed out a little bit, uh those

[6:51] conversations have have re-engaged. So

[6:53] that's uh exciting for us.

[6:57] Highlighting some of our support from

[6:59] the Lakeville Public Safety Foundation.

[7:01] On the left there was a significant

[7:02] grant for a UTV uh which we received

[7:06] just before Panaprog this year. It was a

[7:07] good tool to have out there uh to to get

[7:10] around downtown. I think that picture is

[7:12] from just before the parade. But uh with

[7:14] with crowds uh that's that's a nice

[7:16] asset for us to have. Uh also good

[7:19] conversation piece for people coming up

[7:21] to to look to engage with our staff. Uh

[7:23] given our parks with Ritter and now

[7:25] Grand Prairie, some of these large area

[7:27] parks that uh it's not probably

[7:29] conducive to drive a squad all over.

[7:30] This will be a good tool for us to get

[7:32] around in those areas as well. On the

[7:35] upper right there is our what's become

[7:37] an annual police fire softball game that

[7:39] our public safety foundation helps to

[7:41] support. Our first round at it uh in

[7:45] late September. We made it, I think, one

[7:47] batter in before the skies opened up and

[7:49] we got rained out quickly and uh we

[7:52] tried to cancel, but the fire department

[7:53] wouldn't let us. So, we uh we came back

[7:56] in October and uh and we came up short

[7:58] once again. But um always a good time to

[8:00] get together with with their staff and a

[8:02] relaxing evening for for everybody. And

[8:05] then on the bottom right, that picture

[8:06] is from the uh police and fire ball in

[8:09] uh September, the biggest foundation

[8:11] event every year where we highlight and

[8:13] honor the both police and firefighter of

[8:15] the year. And it's a room full at

[8:18] brackets of supporters and donors and a

[8:20] and a good evening for all of us.

[8:24] Community engagement, just a few

[8:25] highlights there. We get a lot of um a

[8:28] lot of requests for uh for events and

[8:30] for our staff to come out and speak or

[8:32] interact with people. Some of it is uh

[8:34] just uh by happen stance as well with

[8:36] people driving around and looking for

[8:38] opportunities. Uh but these are a few of

[8:40] those moments. On the left there is

[8:41] officer Andy Shurmer doing a drone

[8:43] demonstration at the fountains. Uh one

[8:45] of our senior care facilities. They're

[8:47] always amazed at some of the new

[8:48] technology trends that are out there. So

[8:50] we're always happy to get out there and

[8:51] show them some of our tools. That's uh

[8:54] CSO Anuka Lang talking with a gentleman

[8:56] and is I believe a parrot of some sort

[8:59] that the bird does talk. I've seen it

[9:01] before. Uh that's down at Antlers Park.

[9:04] On the upper right is a community

[9:05] education visit. I believe that's

[9:07] Officer Brian Smith up there. And then

[9:09] on the bottom right, safety camp which

[9:11] is in August. Always a good turnout for

[9:13] that. And the helicopter landing is

[9:15] always one of the one of the big

[9:17] highlights for all the kids to see.

[9:18] That's North Air. That helps us out with

[9:20] that.

[9:22] And of course, it seems like a long time

[9:24] ago, but this was in quarter three in

[9:26] July. Panaprag. Uh it's it's a heavy

[9:28] lift citywide, including for our

[9:30] department. Um, we wouldn't want to do

[9:32] it every weekend. Uh, but it's a great

[9:35] way for uh for us to uh interact with

[9:37] the community. Uh, by and large, most of

[9:39] the folks that are out there looking

[9:40] just to have a good time and enjoy the

[9:42] community, enjoy each other. There's

[9:43] always a handful of people that uh that

[9:46] we deal with and try to do that as

[9:47] discreetly and and efficiently as we can

[9:50] to not impact everybody else's good

[9:52] time. Uh but always proud of our staff

[9:54] for the amount of days and long long

[9:56] days and hours that they put in to uh to

[9:58] safely get through all of those events.

[10:03] And then uh National Night Out, which is

[10:05] in early August, about a hundred parties

[10:07] again this year. We get to as many of

[10:09] those as we can along with the fire

[10:10] department. But again, a great way for

[10:12] kids to jump in squad cars and check out

[10:15] equipment and interact with officers. Uh

[10:18] we had another good weather year, which

[10:20] always always helps us out. And uh some

[10:23] of us ate way too much once again. So

[10:27] highlighting some of our training and

[10:29] development. Not uh intending for people

[10:31] to read through every bullet point on

[10:33] the slide here, but there's a lot of

[10:34] acronyms and abbreviations, but just to

[10:36] kind of capture the amount of training

[10:38] and development that gets done. That's

[10:40] one of our uh internal priorities is

[10:42] professional development. There's

[10:44] certainly a lot of training tied to our

[10:46] lensure uh which we're mandated to do.

[10:48] Uh but there's a lot of extras that uh

[10:50] that people look to try to enhance their

[10:52] skills. Uh both technical skills,

[10:54] leadership skills, mentoring. Uh you see

[10:57] a real variety there from the upper

[10:59] left, the Glock armors, the folks, our

[11:01] staff that inspect and maintain our

[11:03] firearms. Uh some of the more um I guess

[11:08] job related tasks with emergency driving

[11:10] out at the Dakota County uh track. Uh

[11:13] and then on the right you see uh leading

[11:16] without rank uh mentorship and

[11:18] leadership uh northwestern school of

[11:20] police staff and command. Those are more

[11:22] leadershipbased programs that uh we do

[11:25] our best to get uh get our staff

[11:26] through.

[11:29] Moving into some of the uh the numbers

[11:31] here, the statistics and a lot of the

[11:33] slides leading up till now uh with our

[11:35] community activities. Um they're they're

[11:38] fun uh events for the most part for our

[11:40] officers and positive. the uh

[11:42] statistics. I think what kind of gets

[11:44] lost and buried in some of these is some

[11:46] of the heavier work that our staff does

[11:47] that um you know isn't as well

[11:49] represented in public slideshows and

[11:52] presentations, but I don't want it lost.

[11:54] I know the council recognizes this, but

[11:55] for the public uh there's some heavy

[11:57] calls that our staff deals with and uh a

[11:59] statistic doesn't often tell the whole

[12:01] story, but these are just a way for us

[12:03] to show some of the work that gets done

[12:04] on uh on the more enforcement side of

[12:06] things. So, third quarter uh police

[12:08] reports um actually pulled. We're down

[12:12] uh we were down uh about 30 from uh

[12:15] third quarter of 2024.

[12:18] And then our 911 uh CRU call transfers.

[12:21] These are calls that come into dispatch,

[12:23] 911 calls that the dispatcher uh

[12:26] realizes are probably better served by

[12:28] our crisis response unit. So we've we

[12:30] saw 25 of those calls specific to

[12:32] Lakeville in quarter 3. uh and we

[12:34] continue to be right around that 75 to

[12:36] 85% that uh police department never gets

[12:40] involved with um which is how that

[12:42] program or that um function is intended.

[12:45] So good to see those numbers kind of

[12:46] tracking consistently.

[12:50] Calls for service uh you can see in the

[12:52] parentheses just above the title there

[12:54] um we're at about 12,400

[12:57] in quarter 3 down from u 14,200 uh last

[13:02] year. Again, that's driven largely by

[13:03] our medical response. Fire department

[13:05] move moving to full-time, there's a lot

[13:07] less medical calls that we uh respond

[13:09] to. So, that's been a good improvement.

[13:12] Uh welfare check and crisis mental

[13:14] health calls, both down a little bit in

[13:16] quarter three, which is which is great

[13:17] to see. We put a lot of afterare

[13:20] resources out there to try to minimize

[13:21] uh the call back on on some of our folks

[13:24] that uh are struggling uh with certain

[13:26] things in the community.

[13:29] And then uh more traffic related, our

[13:31] traffic stop numbers uh were down in

[13:33] 2025 and quarter 3 driven largely by a

[13:36] little bit shorter staff in in patrol

[13:38] with some of our changeover and uh uh

[13:41] people out on medical leave and other

[13:42] types of leave. And then uh crashes are

[13:46] relatively consistent year-over-year

[13:47] with property damage and also personal

[13:50] injury.

[13:53] And just a comparison to some of our

[13:54] neighboring uh agency total calls there.

[13:56] We're just uh right in between Apple

[13:59] Valley and Burnsville in quarter 3.

[14:04] And on criminal offense reporting on the

[14:06] far left, they're driving under the

[14:07] influence. Those numbers are up a little

[14:09] bit. Uh we've uh we have three trained

[14:12] drug recognition experts. You'll call

[14:14] you'll hear them called DRRE. Uh but

[14:17] they uh are great at looking for um

[14:19] drugs outside of alcohol. So, uh,

[14:22] cannabis, prescription, uh, opioids,

[14:25] things like that. And we're seeing more

[14:26] and more drivers impaired by u

[14:28] substances other than alcohol. Uh, but

[14:30] it's a different type of of training and

[14:32] skill set to recognize those. So, as our

[14:34] staff continues to get more used to that

[14:36] and trained on that, uh, we're hoping to

[14:38] see those numbers continue to to go up

[14:40] as they're more proactive in uh, in

[14:42] taking our impaired drivers off the

[14:44] streets. Uh, aggravated assaults are up

[14:47] just a little bit. Simple assaults or

[14:48] misdemeanor assaults down. Um the the

[14:51] one other one to highlight there that

[14:53] which is a pretty significant drop

[14:54] damage, vandalism. Um those are more uh

[14:58] what we would call kind of a spree type

[15:00] of crime where sometimes you might get a

[15:02] pack of these all in one uh one event or

[15:05] one evening which can generate a number

[15:07] of case files based on one uh evening of

[15:10] activity.

[15:13] And finally just some snapshots from our

[15:15] uh social media work out there. The

[15:16] animals always get uh get a lot of

[15:18] attention on the left there. I think

[15:20] that's officer Engel. It's a little

[15:23] small for me to see from here with a

[15:25] injured bald eagle. Um, you know, all

[15:28] kinds of things that we get called to to

[15:30] assist with. Uh, they they're large and

[15:32] dangerous. Uh, but we were able to get

[15:35] that bird up to the U of M Raptor

[15:37] Center, which is always a great partner

[15:38] and and very willing to uh work with

[15:40] staff and in getting uh injured raptors

[15:43] up there. In the middle was a awfully

[15:46] friendly raccoon which went to a

[15:48] wildlife rehab center up in Roseville.

[15:51] Uh on the right there is a picture from

[15:54] prior to swearing in uh when we

[15:56] introduced our officers here a few

[15:58] months ago and uh a birthday uh shout

[16:01] out to K9 Nora on the right.

[16:06] That wraps up our uh third quarter

[16:08] report. Happy to answer uh any questions

[16:10] you may have.

[16:11] Okay. Thank you, Chief. Questions,

[16:12] comments?

[16:14] Just a

[16:17] question with the uh impaired driving

[16:19] stats. Uh have you noticed in

[16:23] proportions between alcohol and let's

[16:25] say marijuana or other drugs? Um those

[16:28] used to be rare, relatively rare, but

[16:31] have you seen a change in that?

[16:33] We have seen an increase. I don't have

[16:34] the numbers in front of me with

[16:36] statisticals. Um it is still largely

[16:39] alcohol. I mean that is still the main

[16:40] driver. And I do think a piece of that

[16:42] is it's it's more recognizable and

[16:44] officers are are more trained in

[16:46] enforcing that. When you think of a

[16:48] roadside portable test, uh we have tools

[16:51] that can detect alcohol. We do not have

[16:53] something that someone can blow into

[16:55] that detects uh THC or you know other u

[16:59] other substances, intoxicating

[17:01] substances. So that's a piece of it, but

[17:02] we are seeing the trend uh rise with

[17:05] other drug impairment for sure. That's

[17:07] it's good to see us investing in a

[17:09] training that's going to allow people to

[17:11] detect that.

[17:14] Joshua

[17:19] G, thanks for the report. I um had a

[17:22] request for your next quarterly. Um

[17:24] we've received some new striping at the

[17:28] uh roundabout and I'm curious if we

[17:30] could maybe get a report on potential

[17:32] decreases in fender benders around that.

[17:35] Yes, we are tracking those. It's still a

[17:37] little early to get a good grasp of it,

[17:39] but we will provide that um those

[17:41] numbers at uh the next quarterly report

[17:44] for sure.

[17:44] Thank you.

[17:45] You bet.

[17:47] Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it.

[17:50] Okay, moving on to our consent agenda.

[17:52] Mr. Miller, anything you'd like to

[17:53] highlight?

[17:54] Thank you, Mayor. A few items tonight.

[17:55] 6G is an acceptance of a donation to the

[17:58] fire department from the McCoy family.

[18:00] Uh Skyler McCoy was a former firefighter

[18:02] for us and his family donated over $32

[18:05] that's going to be designated toward

[18:06] fitness equipment for the fire

[18:07] department. Item 6M is an amended and

[18:11] restated joint powers agreement with ISD

[18:13] 194 Lakeville schools. You reviewed this

[18:15] at your work session last week. This is

[18:17] in relation to um revised use policies

[18:20] for facilities and parks between the the

[18:22] two entities. And then item 6 is a

[18:24] resolution of support for the 2026

[18:27] through 2030 Dakota County Capital

[18:29] Improvement Program and we uh appreciate

[18:32] their support and partnership and uh

[18:34] projects that are occurring in

[18:35] Lakeville.

[18:36] Very good. Thank you. Uh council, any

[18:38] items you'd like to have further

[18:40] discussion?

[18:41] Not I will take a motion agenda.

[18:46] Is there a second? Any further

[18:49] discussion? Seeing none, all those in

[18:51] favor say I. I post. Okay, the consent

[18:55] agenda passes. We'll move on to item

[18:57] seven, a public hearing imposing a

[19:00] service charge for special district

[19:01] number one for taxes payable in 2026.

[19:06] And I'll turn it over to our finance

[19:08] director to give us

[19:10] Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the

[19:12] council. Um, the district special

[19:14] service district was created in 1998 and

[19:17] it has to follow Minnesota statute 428A.

[19:20] One of the requirements of that statute

[19:22] statute is holding a public hearing

[19:24] every year um to impose a special

[19:26] service charge whether there's a charge

[19:28] or not. Um the special service district

[19:31] advisory board is recommending a zero

[19:34] special service charge for taxes payable

[19:36] 2026

[19:38] and the budget that they have um

[19:40] provided or put forth for 2020 their

[19:42] 2026 2027 year is an exhibit B. Um, and

[19:47] with that, I'll just open it up for

[19:49] public hearing or any questions council

[19:51] may have.

[19:52] Okay.

[19:52] Of the board.

[19:53] This is a public hearing, so if you have

[19:55] any comments related to now open.

[20:01] Okay. Seeing none, I'll take a motion to

[20:03] close the public hearing.

[20:06] Okay. Is there a second?

[20:08] All those in favor say I.

[20:10] I.

[20:11] Opposed? Public hearing is closed. And

[20:14] with that, I'll take a motion to approve

[20:17] budget and charge. Yep. Council member

[20:19] Burmel.

[20:20] I move to approve the resolution

[20:22] imposing a service charge for special

[20:24] service district number one for taxables

[20:27] payable payable in 2026.

[20:31] Is there a second?

[20:32] Second.

[20:33] Any further discussion?

[20:36] The only thing I'll note, I had a

[20:37] conversation at one point with the DLBA

[20:40] and they think they're getting to the

[20:42] point where they're almost drawn down

[20:43] and they're going to have conversations

[20:44] about what the future of this charges.

[20:47] So that I'll take a motion or roll call.

[20:51] Burmal

[20:52] I

[20:52] Walter

[20:53] I

[20:53] Lee

[20:54] Vulk

[20:55] I

[20:56] Helier

[20:56] I Okay, motion prevails. Um items 8,

[21:01] nine, unfinished and new business.

[21:04] Seeing none announcements. Our next city

[21:06] council uh meeting is uh Monday,

[21:08] November 17th, and our next work session

[21:11] is November 24th. And with that, I'll

[21:13] take a motion to adjurnn.

[21:16] Is there a second?

[21:18] All those in favor say I. I. Opposed.

[21:22] We're adjourned.

[21:25] [Music]