[Music] OB to order first order of business will be the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for all like welcome everybody to our June 18th 2024 council meeting we got a fairly short agenda tonight we keep ball rolling we got uh first item is going to be consent agenda which includes our May 21st regular council meeting minutes May 29th Council Workshop meeting minutes request serve alcohol and public property request for wage increase for accounting clerk resolution 2421 accepting monthly donations request for out ofate travel and request to appoint Brandon Miller to the Eda board I'll move the consent agenda I'll second Motion in a second to accept the consent agenda any other discussion otherwise PA I I Jason I I there was one written correspondence in your packet Mr Mayor for you all to read one item written did everybody get to read that y all right we're gonna just keep going uh Administration item a is going to be our candidat registration Authority discussion who's going to be leading this one I can start it out uh so we are contacted by good Hugh County um essentially they are in the same boat we are where they're starting to draft their ordinance for cannabis and they didn't want a direct answer but they kind of wanted to know which way we were leaning so essentially the city could retain um registration Authority for cannabis businesses or we could delegate that registration authority to the county uh there are some pros and cons to both if we delegate the registration authority to the county essentially we wouldn't have to register any businesses we wouldn't have to worry about enforcement that would be all through the county um the negative is then we do not have any authority over any cannabis businesses where they're located in the county or if there's any businesses within our city um we also would not be able to uh regulate where they are in the city things like that where if we retained registration Authority although it would take up more staff time because we would have to be the ones registering that but then we essentially would retain control control for things like zoning how many we have in um within City Limits and things of that nature like see us keep control if we can handle the extra work that's my opinion don't feel I'm G to make a motion that we request to retain registration Authority that work yep they just kind of wanted to feel where cities were um in respect to that so I think that would be sufficient might put a motion to do we have a second on that second that potentially ask makeer to tweak that um just or provide some information and let you decide if you want to tweak it so uh you know just to Parlay off what Elizabeth's already said um I my understanding is so there's somebody else in my office that's primarily being the guru on this stuff I'm not that person but I I know enough to be dangerous about how this is sort of rolling out now in the state I think the reason that a county like VI would want to have cities turn over registration authority to the county and have all of the Cities do that is then this the county alone would get to set the total number of licensed businesses that could H happen in in the county uh and if some cities don't do that then within those cities that retain registration Authority the cities get to set their own limits right so I think have pointed that out that's I think that's the real driver for a county to want the cities to turn that over um and and so just to say that and then as to whether you want to do it or not I think the motion was uh to to request the county and not seek that or not get that it's entirely up to you so uh it's your decision if you want to delegate that Authority so uh you know unless there's a reason to make a request to the county about what you're going to do in the future you just what you're going to do you can make a decision now not delate that Authority and with count know obviously you could reconsider that down the road you could change your mind in other words but uh if the decision tonight is you don't want to turn that over you don't need to ask the County Commission that you just decide that okay so and I again I think your motion said did I miss a potential amendment I was ready to take notes and I'm no no yeah your motion was that I that we request that the you have we can yeah okay so yeah I'll amend my a motion that we retain registration Authority for cannabis businesses is that I'll second thatne said this is that can alsoit as well I more favorable to all our city government I think it's important that we're able to allow and we're able to to not allow right as we wish so yeah that's and one thing we don't have control of is where they will put those within the county you know they may all be over towards Redway or something we don't know but but maintaining registration registration Authority we we do we do retain that right disc mayor and Council it's again I'm not going to pretend that this liw is Crystal Clear it's 50 some long and it's difficult to wait your way through it that said I think on this point on the point that council member Paw's making um uh if a city retains the registration and Zoning Authority that the law gives to cities which your You' now got a motion to do that in front of you uh if you do that there are some zoning restrictions you can place on these businesses so you can say they can't be within a th000 feet of the school and there are other limitations like that that you can impose you can also obviously and we must be clear about this you don't have to allow a retail cannabis business out of somebody's home right you can restrict those to commercial areas and in fact that's what you only to do today it would say to do a retail business I don't care what it is cannabis or anything else you can only do that in place zone for retail if you want to be in the production end of cannabis you can only do that in parts of our city that are zoned to allow production if you want to grow this stuff you can only grow it in places in our city where it's own so you would be retaining that Authority and then the additional authority to say you can't sell it within a thousand fet of school or or whatever and that's the stuff we'll have to put an ordinance in front of you to do that down the road so none of that goes to your emotional yeah no that's y good I'm with you all right Vernon hi Mike I Jas IID is thank you resolution 24-22 a request to approve election judges we are going to be getting into election season we presenta the judges with an updated election judges correct correct per state statute we need to pass a resolution declaring who our election judges shall be I'll make the motion 2422 approve that a second motion second I'd like to publicly thank those in our community in our area who step up and help with the elections is very much appreciated this be a long long day so any other discussion Vernon right Mike hi Jason Hi David is I resolution 24-23 is request for 2024 THC business license quick trip I'll move approval of resolution 2423 I'll second it a motion in a second there and yes so now confessed that I don't know what I'm talking about I can't shut up about cannabis businesses I iiz for that um because I I really not ask this but just one point of clarification the mo motion is appropriate the request that's in front of you soly appropriate just to be clear of our my firm's understanding of the law as it stands today uh and and previously under prior the prior the first round of legalizing THC in Minnesota under that law two sessions ago cities can do this can can license the sale of THC products low Lev THC products understand though that when the state system the State Licensing system goes into effect which is expected to happen early next year whatever license you've granted will just go away right the state will at that point cramping City licenses issued all over the state for THC or whatever City are licensing today the state program will then be picked up and running and so any business like the quick trip license you'll have to go and convert the City License into a state license in order to keep selling uninterrupted so just want to be clear that you're not granting this forever or even for a year it's only go until until the the state program is up there all right second correct yes hi Mike hi Jason Hi David is before we go on to Planning Commission I I'm sorry i g to let you do any updates you wanted during public input in case you had a scattle I really don't have upates I actually just stop in see all your wonderful faces um we've actually having our five monthly meetings now with Liz I think uh has really helped kind with our back for communication but I just want to stop in couple things that we've had uh very successful Cheese Fest uh sounds like very good turnout uh on at least Saturday night Friday and know had some weather but on ourn and I've talked with the Chiefs Fest committee as well as Liz I think things went well successful things to improve on for next year just like we do every year we can always do something better so uh we also o have six new deputies starting right now at the Sheriff's Office the average age is probably about 23 years old uh we have four just got out of college then on the opposite end we've got uh another one who's got 20 plus years in law enforcement and another one kind of right in the middle where she's a second career for so those are kind of the big things we've had going on lately usually try to keep you updated I know you send it out to the conso when I send you know thankfully actually we haven't had a lot going on I mean it's kind of that Festival season so each City's kind of got their own things going on so that uh actually occupied a lot of my time lately planning uh most a different cities Festival than than this one but these guys are well aware of how much I appreciate to into Jesus but no more so I just want to see if anybody had any questions may give you we also have a meeting coming up next Monday with Liz and were you coming to that one yes okay that's thought we were shooting that but that's also an open invite everybody I know it's not great time on those because we usually do them in the morning and jobs but if there is another way that we can make that work another time that we can get together for some of those where you know if it's later in the day or something John and I are both pretty flexible and we get a date with just something to keep in mind because they really I I think that's something that has been very again I I just wanted to turn it over to you guys and if you had any questions for me that I can answer I know there are some questions some I can't answer Chief had tremendous turnout great back that's always big help and they've boosted their numbers so they're getting more people out now so I think they had four each night there and uh last year I think we only had like two or three a night but they're getting a lot more new people in and uh that are really excited do thank yeah thank your staff please on our behalf yeah and it's likewise they're all appreciative of the support we get here as well so um and just kind of to touch a little bit on the marijuana thing boy is that kind of a mess still sorry don't make quite a bit but I could imagine from your perspective the mess yeah the problem is is that the state really put it out there fast and didn't give people an opportunity to understand the laot and a lot of the people that we run into it's just it's really a misunderstanding they think of the lot of mean hey I can have marijuana marijuana whatever I want it's not really how it works especially in a vehicle and the best way to explain it to people is having marijuana in a motor vehicle is a lot like having a bottle of alcohol in a bottle can keep marijuana in your vehicle it just needs to be in the trunk you can't have access to it you can't have an open container with you in the vehicle a lot like alcohol you can have alcohol you can store it in the trunk with you but you can't have it you know sitting in the center console with and I think it's going to take a while for people to learn those things um you're probably seeing a lot of those tickets coming through and it's education at this point for us and people eventually will learn and I honest I don't see it probably for a couple years before they really grasp those laws but that's that's what we're working through right now with those it's still new um we really haven't had any problem with businesses I think most businesses understand where that line is or I can sell THC products sell Leaf material and and good we haven't had any issues with it so um sounds like youve kind of made yourself knowledgeable on it so if uh you do see any of that stuff coming around please let us know because I'd like to ask question yeah so I'm just interested I'm not that knowledge about doing that but um uh have you seen any uptick in uh having to uh site people for driving uh under the influence of marijuana I know it's very very hard to test for obviously but is that a thing now or is that is that not I want to say I've seen a couple come across okay so we now have two uh Dres drug recognition evaluators um so we just got another one so now we have two we W have one on a day shift one on a night shift which really improves that um but to show somebody is impaired by marijuanas it's pretty difficult uh we are one of the few agencies that actually we got one of these new I don't know what the word for it is but think like a PBT for alcohol this is a test kit for marijuana um so we can't use it as a legal test but the company has given them to us just to put it out there to try them out they want to know how do these work and it's strictly voluntary the person has to agree out take the test it's a little saliva test you put it in the machine and it'll say what their value is of how much marijuana they've had kind of like you see with um it's it's a ways from being something that's uh you know allowed and Port but we're at least headed in that direction of an idea of how we can do it because those Dres when they do those tests it's an hour to two hours to run all of those tests that they have to do to see if somebody's impaired is there a legal limit of impairment or is it zero tolerance so right now there isn't so what it has to be and the reason for these drug recognition evaluators is they have criteria I mean they're almost a doctor at this point because they know how the body reacts to everything and what these tests do is by the time they get done they're able to say you are under the influence of this substance and it has impaired Char they then take that person for a blood draw just like we would do with alcohol blood draw or urine and then we get those test results back to show that yes in fact they were that is in their system that actually that level still that's that's questionable but having that that that drug recognition evaluator be able to say I ran them through this B batter of test and they didn't pass that's where a lot falls on right now future though yeah I really do see these machines becoming better technology and being able to I think this the state patrol was testing that same thing right this past summer or whatever they had yep yeah it was on on a couple of the news feeds and uh yeah there's I can't remember there's so many throughout the state that were put out there and we just were lucky enough and we've been able to deploy it a few times it does in fact interested in the findings once the stud's done I think they said uh I think they're waiting it's either one year or two years to collect enough data appreciate you guys thanks l y thank you we're going to move on to Planning Commission resolution 2424 a request for variance at 212 Main Street south2 yep so in your packet um the city received an application from Nathan tarks for a variance to the prohibition of apartment units on the first floor at his building at 212 Main Street South um for those that are unfamiliar it is down the block here on the front side it is TKS financial and Agave TexMex and then his building wraps around the back of the bman building and there is a business Suite on the back it used to house um the food shelf it is now a vacant commercial space um the applicant is requesting to convert that first floor commercial space into an apartment unit um our city code section chapter 11 section 11.40 subdivision 2A permits apartments in the C1 District however they must be located above the first floor um so he is asking for a variance to that requirement um to allow him to have it on the first floor um I'll kind of summarize my report here um and the findings of the Planning and Zoning commission um there different standards laid out in our uh city code the first being variants shall only be permitted when they are in harmony with the general purposes and intent of the zoning code um Apartments units are allowed in the C1 District however the Planning Commission felt that the intent of the code was to keep commercial space on the first floor commercial um regardless if it's basing Main Street or not um that was their interpretation um also speaking to the harmony of the zoning code um one of the requirements in our code uh section 11.70 subdivision 23 um parking for apartment units apartment units are required to provide one and a half parking a street parking spaces per living unit or yeah per living unit um there would be no provided off street parking space um with this current situation if you were to convert it to an apartment unit um so the Planning and Zoning commission took issue with them not being able to conform to those parking requirements um the second prong variances should only be permitted when consistent with the comprehensive plan um the comprehensive plan does allow for mixed use of Housing and commercial in the C1 District um so there's no issue there um then we get into the Practical difficulties test um the first prong of the Practical difficulties test is reasonableness um the applicant proposed that it would be a reasonable use since apartments are allowed um the Planning Commission again raised concerns regarding um parking on whether it would be a reasonable use of the space um the second prong is uniqueness uh Minnesota statute requires that there be a unique plate on the landowner um some sort of specific practical difficulty that they cannot overcome um the applicant's argument was that the rear entrance to the business was the Practical difficulty um there isn't Main Street access there is access on the side alley as well as the back alley the Planning Commission did not find um that those access points stood up to the standard of a practical difficulty um and then the third prong being essential character the variance of granted would not alter the essential character of the zoning District they didn't find any issue with that um in order for them to find in favor of a variance request they do have to check all of the boxes um it's not a two for three or anything like that um so they did find issue with a few of those standards laid out so they did recommend um they did recommend denial of the variants there was a public hearing held on June 11 11th the notice was published in the newspaper as well as sent out to all properties within 350 ft of this property in question we did not receive any feedback from other property owners no one attended the public hearing but the applicant so there were no issues from the public didn't we go through this flower shop yes so they were granted a variance I believe the rationale behind that property is there was no second floor to have an apartment in this building has multiple living units already in the available upper floors um so I believe they in that case Council on the Planning Commission felt there was a practical difficulty being that there wasn't a second floor this instance the argument for the Practical difficulty of the entry way U the Planning Commission did not feel raised to that level I'm going to move resolution 2424 denying the variance request of 212 South Main Street I'll second that second he invited yep yep so we let him know that following um the Planning Commission they just made a recommendation to council councel say so he was mayor I just think it's important to uphold the Planning and Zoning commission's work and our ordinance as it's written it's the basis for my motion and the lack to parking speaks to a lot there too yeah I could go on and on but got a motion second any other discussion Council all hi hi thank City sta on that let's move on to Works request for theill over uh mayor council I got three four quotes uh one from dur out D services one from SNL Contracting and the other from elor along with roster Santa gravel Santa grael came in with a low quote of 99,1 15617 so um asking for your approval to sand gravel and in the blocks we're talking I had the map in there one block at First Avenue Southeast and three blocks at Third Street Southeast and one block on Sixth Street Southwest and one block on First Avenue Southwest I'll move approval for uh Rochester Salon gravel we have a second second a second roster sand and gravel and Todd just for those that are listening are you able to just give a brief description exactly what they're going to the street so what they'll be doing is taking an inch and a half of black top off and resurfacing with a new quote a new coat black Co this is stuff that had Street projects 20 years ago when I moved here right yeah yeah and uh can you help me with the increase in sand and gravel's bid from original to they forgot to put in manhole adjustments we didn't hold them to it okay we need those we need them all right they're they're yeah a lot of them are in bad shape they need okay they need help so yeah I would also like to add that this is all budgeted funds um if you recall Council and just for council member Paul last fall when we were putting together the 2024 budget that is when we asked for an increase in the Street Maintenance um uh section of the budget just so that we can start some of this routine maintenance so our streets don't fall behind so this is um completely within that budget long as it quits raining it'll get done before school starts right no guarantees hi hi [Music] hi thank you I don't I got nothing move clams second hi I updates anything from City administrator no I just like to say that our um new Finance clerk has started so if you have not already met her please stop by city hall and introduce herself um we're looking forward to having about two and a half months of overlap with Carol to help that knowledge transfer Library here you got all filled up in the basement over there with books we've got a lot of books yes so uh thank you my name is R for those of you who haven't met me I have a librarian here in town just's a couple of things we have a couple of new staff members of the library this summer uh jayen lee is here just for the summer she's uh she emailed me saying hey I have don't have don't have college classes you have any openings so we took her on board we also have Kate Reynolds out of Rochester who is uh hopefully going to be more of a permanent uh employee for us and they've been working out great doing a lot of training and getting to know the community better so that's wonderful summer reading program is underway and I think last time I looked we've had over 200 people sign up for summer reading this summer and a lot of kids have been returning their challenge sheets to hiding and getting their prizes so if you know of any kids or even adults we've got a couple of moms and dads who've also signed up send them to the library 200 is that comparable is that more it's a lot yeah um before the pandemic I would say 200 was our top okay and last year we had I think 250 280 by the end of the summer but yeah they we every day we get more people so it's been kind of fun to see all the kids coming in y uh celco which is our Regional Library office is putting together um bids and demos and everything for us libraries looking at getting a new catalog so we currently use a system called Horizon through Cersei DX and um it's basically the way we keep track of our books who has them keep track of our borrowers where they live all that kind of information and the library directors around the region have decided that we're ready to move on and get something different so just wanted to give you all a heads up that that is in the works next summer is their due date or their uh estimated time this will all be rolling out so we'll have a lot of fun next spring trying to figure out what we're doing so giving you warning to give me Grace in about six seven months otherwise one thing I did not include on my um report that I forgot all about is that the legislature actually approved a law or a bill that will ban book banss in the state of Minnesota so we are currently working on our collection development policy which tells us how to collect books how to um decommission books and so we're going to hopefully be V in that all together with this new law so Bob be be aware that I'm going to be sending you something here in not too distant future hopefully by uh our Monday night meeting that we have for the board of the library I'll have everything ready to go for them um and then we'll send that on to the city state is going to ban book bands going to disallow Banning books disallow B Banning books and it's for any publicly funded organization or publicly funded Library so that includes public libraries School libraries that are publicly funded so Public Schools Charter Schools any kind of University that get State funding any of that kind of stuff so it's uh pretty exciting for us in the information literacy world that we're not going to be preventing people from accessing materials um and of course my whole stand is that parents have the right and responsibility to say yes or no to whether children are whing to check out so um we are looking forward to not having to worry so much about book challenges or things on our shelves but we will still have something in place where parents and other community members can contact us if they think that something needs to be moved so if it's in the currently in the youth Library maybe moving that upstairs to the adult library or doing some other looking at the materials so we hope to have more information for you in that next month they of course it's a very vague bill at this time and we haven't gotten a whole lot of direction from State Library Services imagine that right so we're hoping to have some legal um uh advice on that as well from the state so we'll hopefully see that coming through too any other questions for me growing right along yeah everything I can't believe it's already almost July so thank you very much have a good night thanks Rachel thank you Rachel like to thank the chief Fest committee for a great job and they worked well with the public works I'd like to thank Public Works guys it's a long weekend and week for us so big shout out to them and I also want to thank the fire department uh for helping us Sunday night coming down bailing us out app thank you fire department busy busy last part of the month beginning of the month all right yeah I um had that in my notes earlier uh tery is GNA be coming want to say next month to do a cheese pest update to city council about how the weekend went but I would like to just publicly thank them and and uh City staff put on a great weekend WEA was a little bit touchy on Friday night but people still showed up uh issues from the law enforcement perspective was very very minimal um so thank you for as many guests as we had in the community it was very fun we got lots of people vendors were happy and able to talk to the carnival show and they were extremely happy as well they said that them while every year so that's something the community can be proud of that and I apologize earlier I said my computer was giving issues with that letter um I just want to put out a public note to uh to guests coming to the S Pool and it is it's disheartening hearing that there's some young people out there that are not doing well with their behavior and I'm just calling on the community as a whole they you know some of these people can be better they don't need to be going to making issues it's uh sad getting phone calls with the kids getting picked on beat up there it's not a place for that to be taken place and parents need to be responsible and their kids supposed to get place to be so asking Community to do better so anything else for the better of the order take motion so moved second favor I