call meing 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 the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all welcome everyone to our October 15th city council meeting business I'd like to in the agenda um on under Public Works and Engineering B should not be streets and parks it should be water and wastewater and the agenda changing language [Music] we have I'll second a motion in a second all right Vernon hi Brandy hi Mike hi and David will be I all right our consent agenda items include September 17 2024 regular council meeting minutes October 1st 2024 work session meeting minutes and a resolution 2440 accepting donations to the city I'll move the consent agenda I'll second motion of second to accept the consent agenda any discussion hearing none Vernon all right Brandy hi Mike hi David will be I which brings us to public input do we have any written correspondence we do not Mr Mayor no written correspondence we'll jump right to miss Marie halava welcome oh thank you hello to the council and the mayor and everyone who's here this is a different than last time he was here these other keep changing it up I know exciting um I'm here basically um I am here for Pine Island age friendly to give you a brief update on the walk audit that we did on September 15th a hot and humid Sunday at 3 o'l in the afternoon uh we had 35 people that attended nine of which were under 18 14 were 19 to 54 years old and 12 were over 55 so we had a great mix of all ages that came to the walk audit um the walk audit that and the route we took was based on listening sessions that we held with community members what areas of the community that they were interested in us or that they had concerns about basically one of them was Main Street talking about speed um people driving taking the wrong turns coming around people all that kind of thing and the of course the big intersection down at Island Market quick trip and so for our walk audit we actually went from we based ourselves at the senior center and we went down Main Street pass quick trip to the old better Brew Corner then yeah just because of me then uh one block towards the school so we went from um the senior center over to city center past the 301 Apartments down to the fire department and back and then we went from the bank down and around the curve and came back up past the Lutheran Church and went one block up on this street that's one block over from or right on the corner of the senior center I don't know my street numbers um and so I'm just here to to thank the people that came we had 35 community members um we had mayor freeze was there commissioner Todd grth Miss Angie's Place Sarah Dawson from um Good Hue County Dana bergner from Three Rivers and aroko age friendly Jessica Thornton from Family Services Rochester and Olstead County ag friendly Chris Deets from the Boy Scouts and then we had Angela Coster senson there from the school from FCCLA and that's important because FCCLA the students are looking at doing something called a rural teen Road Safety assess initiative so they got the intersection at Island market and quick trip um along with another group uh that particular initiative is a peer-to-peer education and teen driver safety program that FCCLA on a national level offers students to do um Pine Island has never done that that Angela is aware of and if the students it's different than a normal project where they would go um to the uh Regional level then have to be judged and then go to State and then go to to Nationals this is something that they actually do a report put all their findings together and what their suggestions would be to make it safer and send it straight to Nationals if they get picked for that at Nationals they'll get $1,000 for FCCLA so they're able to use our findings that we have and then they also can work with the city the county um AARP and Pine Island age friendly so it's a good Cooperative thing so um that was my main thing was just to do that to thank everybody that came uh we will hope we're hoping to continue doing Walk audits we've already had people that say well what about my street which I knew was going to happen or what about in the winter time okay um and I'm working on finalizing all of the comments from everybody so that we can kind of figure out which are which would be priorities that we would bring forward to the city or the county um obviously go the county for Main Street um so that's it's our first one was kind of a practice one to speak but it was really good and I'll let you know Rochester had 70 people at their walk audit we had 35 had a higher percentage Yeah so yes um the other thing I just want to say as part of Pine Island age friendly um we support Pine Island arey Home Services we wanted to survive and thrive in the community if you receive their newsletter even if you're not an older adult please complete the survey inside that survey is going to allow them to um apply for the money that they have now to keep that funding funding is going to be really really tight for all of these Home Service organizations um and so please have everyone you know complete the survey by November 8th and get it back to them they promoting that digitally at all um there is a QR code if you open the newsletter and I believe they put it out on Facebook okay I don't know that for a fact okay but I mean that can be it but yeah it's not you don't have to do just a paper survey there is a QR code on here so you can you can download it and do it online but it's important that everyone does that so if you have friends that are in town whatever fill it out get it back to them um more information is better than less so thank you anybody have any questions by the way about the walk AIT I just want to um just just what Marie was saying so it was it was not only an educational opportunity up there on Sunday it was it was fun there was you had a very very group of people uh we were able to interact and we were able to meet people you don't normally get to socialize with and uh out on the walk audit we had the opportunity to have a very very wide range of uh of an age group that participated and so to be able to hear the different perspectives from the high schoolers that were there versus is you know the older adults just to see what their concerns were and then when you're actually looking through the um the list of items to to to look for become you become very aware of some of the challenges and uh things that we are doing right and things that we definitely can look at improving uh I was able to go with with Rachel there with the librarian and and uh and Miss Angie's place and we we had fun it was fun it was it was a good time and uh we learned a lot and and I'm looking forward to what we're going to be able to come up with yeah and I will say I have become much more aware after having been involved in all this and I've been on assema board for six years but um doing this I I've gone to other communities and Pine Island is way ahead of some of the other smaller communities as far as our walkability and the trails we have and things it's kind of now just kind of looking at interconnectedness and as we as the city grows what can we do to make sure that people can walk safely from one place to another and all the other things that are involved in that so and it was a football Sunday so it was it was a f it was one of the first football Sundays and uh and you guys weren't you with the group that got to buy lemonade from yes lemonade yes the local lemonade stand so anyway so thank you very much thank you thank you drop off for the surve for senior area of Home Services there's a QR code right in the box so if you can come to the library or I'll post it on our socials tomorrow yeah okay that'd be good if we could get that thing sharable on social media that's going to be its best chance of success I think City Hall is a job thank you we have no one else listed I wanted to to take a moment to recognize too we were able to uh recognize yesterday indigenous people's day and and uh being able to recognize our neighbors with the medon uh Dakota people and just wanted to thank them for their partnership and our relationship with them and mside National Farmers day so we want to thank our local farmers because they're still a lot of them in our he and want to appreciate their work as well uh we're going to move on to Administration first item is going to be item a which is resolution 2441 declaring a council vacancy as many of you are aware or former Council member Jason Johnson had to resign his position he announced that last month and this month we are going to be declaring that so I'll take a motion to accept resolution 2441 I make a motion to accept resolution 2441 I'll second a motion in a second U we were able to thank Jason last month but again I would just want to take the time to say thank you for his work in his time to this community and uh he did good work with that so um Vernon hi Brandy hi Mike hi and David is I which we are going to um so the next item is going to be Item B which is uh Council person's wage wages for we're going to do a public hearing for this this is something that Council has discussed um previously but I will take a motion to open up for public hearing in I'll move to open for public hearing second we have a motion in a second to open up public hearing Vernon hi Brandy hi Mike hi David is I uh Elizabeth can also respond on this a little bit but this is basically looking at what is compensated for Council persons that serve on the city council both mayor and City Council Members I will be very clear about this this job is not for money making by any means um it's just a way for to compensate the people that serve you want to take this apart yes so earlier this year Council tasked me with um looking at what area councils um were at and what they paid their Council persons uh I included it in the packet the grit that we compared ourselves to uh previously city council just had a set wage um per month and then any special Council meetings were had an additional um pay one thing that the council liked when we were looking at this is another city that had um a smaller monthly base pay but then moved to more of an attendance based where they got paid per meeting not just for special meetings uh so the ordinance before you is the ordinance that um you directed staff to complete um it has been posted so I believe we've been talking about this for a few months now is there anyone from the public that would like to say something share something or speak you're more than welcome to at this time if you have any concerns questions if not I'll take a motion to close the public hearing so moved second we have a motion second I should have asked to did you have any writings or emails from people no Mr Mayor I have received any correspondence have a motion a second to close the public hearing um no other discussion Vernon I Randy hi Mike I and David is I which brings us uh this will be an ordinance change ordinance 171 which is setting the council person wages and again as Elizabeth said these numbers are also public and posted as well uh for anybody that's listen list in online or in attendance here that would like to see those numbers you're more than welcome to uh request those at from the city hall um this will be an ordinance so we will be taking a vote to approve this change and Mr Mayor I will add that um so with this attendance based um there is a slight increase and that is with 100% attendance so if uh the mayor for instance had 100% attendance we'd be looking at about a $900 a year which wage increase if a council person had 100% attendance they would be looking at about a $900 wage increase per year as well so um I'll move ordinance [Music] 171 I'll second Motion in a second my 615 alarm yeah I don't know um council is there any other discussion on this ordinance change and just to clarify that is paid on a based on attendance now for going forward right yes I should I should have expanded upon that so per St statute any ordinance that is voted on um it does not take effect until after the next election right and so um if this is passed tonight then it would take effect in January after our next regular city election which is in November okay thank you vot Vernon hi Brandy hi Mike I and David is I I just I'd like to thank City staff for helping look into this and get the comparables was a huge help we are going to go on to item D which is resolution 24-42 establishing a cannabis registration designation cannabis is once again being discussed here yep so um back in June we discussed um whether the city wanted to take on the role of registering cannabis retailers in the city um or pass that um or designate that to good Hue County uh Council voted to retain that power um now after meeting with Olstead County they're requesting the same thing they would like a formal resolution passing on that designation um I included in the packet and just a draft resolution of both options whether to retain or pass along um like I mention in the memo it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to retain on one side of the County Line and pass along on the other um that would cause I think a lot of confusion for residents there'd be differing um requirements for each County depending on where the business is based so it makes the most sense um from our point of view to have a consistent ruling between the two counties um whether you want to reconsider um designating to good Hue County or passing both along um or retaining both I believe it's up to you but that's kind of what we're looking at we're just looking at a consistent ruling between both compies we're smoking pop Bob what is mean can you rem refresh my memory what this means for us yeah so the the biggest impact of of uh uh passing along registrations to a county of course most cities are in one County not two but the biggest impact doing that is that you forfeit when a city does that the ability to set your own app on the number of retailers within your city so as it stands now every city can cap the total number of retails if you want it retailers if you wanted to do that at one for 12,500 so in this town you could have one retailer only if the city wanted to do that if you uh pass that Authority along to a county you're forfeiting that right you are deferring to the Cy's total cap and in a case of a city that's in two counties I think there's confusion potentially about which County's cap applies and how that would apply would it apply in part of I think the answer would be that good Hugh County's cap would apply in the par that's in goodu and Etc with with homestead so I think that's confusing um you know I'll just cut to the chase I have told staff that I think that um given that you're split between two counties mostly in good Hue um the actual work of doing registrations is really not that big of a deal frankly for staff it's not that much different than tobacco registration uh and so to the extent they sort of split between two and it's not really clear how the law is going to work I guess at least in the short term I'm just going to say it I would encourage you to to think about retaining that Authority for the time being obviously down the road if things change if it becomes apparent that homestead's doing a great job and they can do the whole city and you can always move that direction later or vice versa with goodu but I think initially um sort of figuring out I mean fact the fact of the matter is City officials don't really know how this is going to play out right I mean we gota be honest about it I've been trying to be honest about that from the start um the the biggest thing is that you want to be able to set your own zoning requirements you can do that you're going to do that but I think the uh the putting a cap on retailers might be something you want to investigate I know right now you don't want to talk about that but down the road that may become a thing that's important to cities and who knows you know how you're going to feel about that in a year or two or five so so anyway I've said enough about that okay like the idea go ahead just for added context um I believe we're the only city looking at retaining an Homestead and good Hue so all other cities would be subject to those County limits um I don't have good Hugh numbers but Olstead County um they're allowing the lowest amount possible for them based on their population which is 14 I believe the whole County yep I think they've kind year um nine for the City of Rochester um have so that kind of leaves the remainder obviously for the rest of the Cities well and and and so can I can can I part that I mean here here's my concern to the extent you sort of want the pre market to work initially am I recalling that correctly that at least initially maybe that's where the council is headed I think there's some concern I would have if you delegated your authority to hestad County and their limit was 14 they may take the view that they're regulating all of Pine Island they're they're acting as your register rtion Authority for all of pine irland they've got a limit of 14 and oh we've got 14 now in Rochester that means we're not we're not going to register anybody in Pine is which is I don't think what you intend or at least that's not what you're open to and so I'd have a little bit of a concern because I think that's theoretically possible right I mean there could be 14 retailers in in Rochester and if you've delegated your authority to them I'm not so sure the consequences in that the 14 cap doesn't apply throughout Pine Island and it's all in Rochester and that's not what you want so so you're always going to be limited by the County's cap it's just our maintaining our ability to to to cap less than the County's cap uh no I'm not sure if I'm saying the same thing as you no I mean so let's let's forget about hestad let's talk about good Hugh yeah um if you don't delegate your authority to good Hugh and good Hugh sets the lowest limit possible which I think is going to be eight or seven or something like that and they all end up and reging if you set your own limit that you that limit applies here even though yeah our limit can supersede or go beyond we're the only city though right we're the only city with split County right pretty much yeah pretty much in good yeah okay but at the same time when we set our say we keep and retain it we can set our limit we can also put in the ordinance about you know so far from a school and all that so we can regulate that better here I think at the city level than the county and being split this kind of makes sense that we retain it and it stays consistent for everybody got a mayor I'm going to move the version of resolution 2442 that allows us to maintain our registration designation I'll second that second on 2442 both counties yes yeah because you know and I'm glad because answer my question we have the opportunity down the road if we need to adjust this we can we can do that and and delegate back to County if need be the challenge we'll have here too is you know like Bob pointed out City staff will be responsible for you know paperwork I'm anticipating it's going to be paperwork and trying to regulate and do po checks t or you're doing those to's doing those youing that what's the why why would cities not additional conversation why would cities not maintain their reservation dig yeah there's there's a well I mean the answer I've got from a couple of other cities around here um is that the perception is even though Bob says doing registrations is not that difficult it's going to be administratively difficult I mean I'm now having said that I think that's the reason that some cities are delegating to their counties you know it's a little bit awkward to do that especially in a city like this where your police force is Goodhue County and you'd be delegating registration authority to Olstead County but the folks that would actually have to do the inspections I think are the good H count police force so I don't even know how that would work frankly I don't know how Olstead County would handle registrations when in fact good Hue County cops would have to go into the businesses to check them out so I think it's a it's you haven't voted yet maybe so but if I was Voting I'd be voting with you so but yeah I'm just making sure there's not something I'm missing here thanks thanks Paul for making this clear keep voting for big government all right uh we have a motion a second correct counil yeah uh burn hi Brandy hi Mike hi May I we're g to get through this right all right uh let's move on to some exciting news here we got resolution 2443 which is approving the 2024 comprehensive plan this was something that was brought forward to council um at least the last month not the month before and uh City staff offered this online um for the public to have some input and then we decided to bring it formally to council tonight to officially pass what we got we've been working on this for about a year and a half now and so it's it's nice to see it come to fruition um we had a formal presentation on this in July and then like uh mayor fre stated we've had it available for public comment I have not received any comments um regarding the comprehensive plan but it is before you stand for final approval our last plan is um about 14 years old and it's recommended that they're updated looked at usually every one to two years and then um updated at least every 10 years so I'll move approval of resolution 2443 approving the 2024 comprehensive plan I second Mo in a second and I will formally thank those on the comp plan committee that participated uh we met quite a few times and we were able to get input from our variety of folk in town so I want to publicly thank them for their help in getting this put together so um Vernon hi Brandy hi Mike hi David is I we've got our plan very good item F which is resolution 2444 approving the lease purchase of the street sweeper we got some new up here who's taking this one I will Mr Mayor so this this is uh an agreement before you for the lease purchase so essentially we are purchasing the street sweeper over five years um I have the financial documents before you uh within that packet there's a legal opinion from Kennedy engraven um that one of attorney vos's colleagues was able to draft uh there's a resolution in there as well um it doesn't look like our resolutions but they're pretty adamant that they wanted to use their form not ours um and then whose resolution format is it uh the financial companies B financial and so with this we've already approved and have available the financing so we've approved the financing to come out of storm sewer and streets and then um going forward we have the payments uh within the budget for 2025 I'll I'll move resolution 2444 approving the least purchase of the street sweeper all second have a motion in a second on street sweeper I can't thank Public Works staff enough uh they got that machine out we are getting streets cleaned up something we've want it for a long time so thank you staff for doing that making streets look pretty yeah they have fun running it to I think think we have motion a second on the floor um any other discussion from councel otherwise uh Vernon hi Brandy hi mik I and David is I all right we are going to go to a a request to amend the utility billing policy are you taking this me I could take it that's fine Mr Mayor so essentially we are asking Council to amend our Utility Billing policy currently we have a late fee uh Clause that charges 10% of the total bill as a late fee um what we found is that we have some of the um same residents who get caught in somewhat of a um they don't pay their bill and then their bills get so large that their late fees are actually starting to become larger than what their bills were and so um ideally we want to work with our residents um we want to get enough to recoup the administrative costs that we have um for those bills not being paid on time but we think it would be in the best interest of our residents um to stick with the 10% late fee however cap that at $25 um per cycle so that ly would not be over $25 per month that would be a per month basis $25 correct yes so essentially if their bill was larger than $250 the L would be C at yeah okay so I can move approval to amend the utility billing policy second that motion in a second on the amendment thank you staff for working on that um and then the paperwork and numbers are in the council package so y um any other discussion or questions pertaining to that request hearing not I Bon hi Brandy hi Mike hi and David will be I thank you st Stephanie for getting that taken care of resolution 2445 which is to amend the fee schedule for NSF El electronic payment return late fees that's a sentence B So currently we have one um return check fee in our fee schedule um with the many different kinds of ways to pay online um there's automatic withdrawals from checking accounts there's credit card payments um online checks things of that nature what we've seen is that um the bank charges us different fees for that and we actually haven't really had a fee to recapture return credit card payments um it's always been focused on return return checks it's a smaller fee that we get charged for return credit card payment so again I don't feel it's adequate to charge the $30 return check fee for return credit card payment um it does vary because it depends how many times the bank um tries that credit card number so sometimes a bank will try it once sometimes a bank will try it three times and get charged for each time that that credit card is charged so we do believe that the $15 for a returned credit card payment to add that to our fee schedule would be adequate we would recommend keeping the $30 fee for return check payments um and I think those are the two charges am I right Stephanie it just be adding that return credit card payment to the $15 will cover multiple correct attempts on their card yes so we um we sat down with staff and we looked at previous so the average credit card is tried twice before it's declared on return so I don't think any have been tried three times so it's usually once or twice but yes it does recoup all charges that the city is charged in addition to the manyu staff time okay I can move approval of resolution 2445 to amend the fee schedule for n F electronic payment return and late fee I'll second that have a motion in a second any other discussion hear none Vernon hi hi Mike hi David is f all right we got a new member to request join the club over at Zoda area ambulance is a zeppa Township correct uh that is is correct so it was an oversight years ago when the zro area area Ambulance Association um created their joint Powers board they have always served mppa Township yet mppa Township has not been a part of the board so they're not they haven't been paying dues um so essentially this is to add mappa Township to that joint Powers board so then they can begin paying dues Thea Township has already voted um to accept that so great need a vote from all the member communities is that correct yes so all of the cities and all the townships that are a part of the Z area am Association has the same agreement um I'll appr do approve the request to approve the agreement to add new member to Zim area Ambulance Association move to approve it I'll second that motion and a second all the TS in all the land y welcome is up okay we've got Vernon hi Randy hi Mike hi David is about time they pay their share they're paying a rear dues for the last 150 years there we go we gotest friends over at the Fire Relief Association uh you guys presenting all right we'll call Jordan to the evening Council uh I'm on here behalf of the P Island uh fire department relief Association uh as a president we oversee the pension benefit level yearly and back in July had approached you guys with approving our um annual benefit level to be 7,300 uh with that being said uh we kind of talked about coming back and looking at a pension increase for this year um at going through um and looking at all of our numbers after our audit had come in um in the packet I included three different sheets of paper um paper that has 17 at the bottom shows our annual benefit level um for the last 10 years and so for the funded ratio um as you can see we've been kind of over that 5% range quite consistently after that 105% range we always look at at doing our fiduciary duty of doing an increase for our department uh with that being said uh currently this year we're sitting at 15% uh funded um as this year has gone on our uh SBI fund has increased the banally we have had two retirement payouts this year which was estimated around 190,000 uh on top of that we are currently sitting 66,000 um from the started at the beginning of the year with that also taken out so we've had a very good year in the market with the way that's been going um the other sheets that are sitting in front of you is the um audit and so with that that is actually with the numbers put in for an increase up to 7800 and um showing zero contribution which would be coming from the city and that's line item 15 on this sheet here so with currently sitting at 7,300 we'd be looking for a increase of $500 to the an annual benefit level which would put us at 7,800 any questions coun so uh mayor are you running the show here are you recusing your yeah okay so acting May so may speak whoever is in charge whoever's running the show down here I mean just as a reminder in charge I I know I know this has been in front of you a bunch of times but so the Fire Relief Association as you know is a separate governing body it it has its own board it does its own thing it administers the uh pensions for your firefighters uh there is though a scenario where the pensions that they owe to their firefighters become underfunded the underfunded word means if all of their firefighters retired at once or were rendered unable to serve all at once and had to be paid out that becomes underfunded so it's a pretty it's a pretty dramatic scenario that you think about where underfunded comes in but if that scenario could theoretically occur then the city is obligated by law even though this is a separate body you're obligated by law to make contributions to it to support the firefighters that serve you and so when the pension increases the likelihood that you may be asked to do that goes up and so that's the reason for the request I'm just reminding you of what I know you council member have been here to hear this before but so that's the reason for the request but or if the market takes a DI or if the market takes a significant dive the the market is such that the payouts owed to Firefighters collectively are no longer covered by the Investments that are made you have to make contributions so that that's exactly right um I you know I have no obviously input on whether you should approve a change or not I mean I think it's a retention issue you would hear from your firefighters that the pension matters to them whether you want to do it obviously though is a is a council decision but that's I'm just telling you the reason why this is in front of you even though this is a separate body that uh administers your firefighters pensions Jordan make me feel good again about the stop gaps that are in place for your Investments so for when money gets when money gets pulled change right if the Investments do take a dive because that's been a concern in past corre so right now our money is in um the growth um net and income and so with that being said uh with that money in there we can actually go in there and take money out whenever we want and pretty much we can move that money into our account which is just our general fund account for the relief itself it's called the special fund and so pretty much if something was to start declining in the in the market we have the opportunity to be able to pull money and put it aside just so we don't have any issues you know going down the road um another thing that's on one of the sheets is our appreciation so in that slot there we can actually put in what we suspect our appreciation to be for the year uh that number of 50,000 is very low compared to what we're currently sitting at for the year itself But to answer your question I mean yeah yes we can go in and be able to and who watches the Investments so um me personally I have the chance to look at it and then our treasure Matt shitty also has the the opportunity to look at it so with that being said we would just pull the board meeting uh you know hold a special meeting to be able to get the money moved alarms Bells whistles if they drop below I just right I mean for all due reason we thought a year or so ago we thought we had an issue we didn't end up having an issue because the form was whatever and but still it's real right and which we love you but we want you to support yourself so which you guys are very the board is very quick and that that happened back in 2020 with the whole Co Fiasco where they I mean they were able to call the board like that within a couple hours yes I just want to add something to like when you look at the approv liability these are all that's all information if when when people get to the age where they can take it out roll it over whatever there's you know if something were to happen now it's not like everybody can take that money and just go you have to be you have to be invested over the years yes yeah so there's a you know most of we only have we only have one firefighter right now that is fully vested that could you know walk away with it everything else people are not vested yet even when they do become vested they are not close enough to they're not at retirement age or anything so it's not like something happen one year you know just thank you to be fully invested you have to have 20 years on the department and to be half invested is 10 years and the age is 50 to be able to pull that so um I'll make a motion to approve the request to increase the Fire Relief Association pension amount I'll second motion and a second to approve the request we didn't make him sing feel like I'm making pardons on my way out the door just kidding Jordan thank you guys for yeah you two great guys that come present this to us I appr uh with your guys depending approval on that um I would also like you guys to um be able to make an approval for us to change our bylaws with this increase um what that would in entail is on page 23 of our bylaws uh we pretty much will write in that this would be the effective date of Change by city council approval and then from there we can keep track as we progress years to come so it's just more or less doc documentation for us in our bylaws so they need something more from me on that that or is that a second no it'll be a separate okay uh so we're going to vote first for the request to increase the pension amount Vernon hi Brandy hi hi and I will abstain from that vote um then we will go to the second vote which is for them to be able to we do that without an agenda item I'm just making sure we have to make an adjustment on that I I would uh I would encourage you to make a motion to add it it's a separate item so I I think that's the they make a motion to add the request to um L tell me again in the bylaw in the bylaws um on the agenda put it on the agenda to be able to approve it for them or do not approve it however we want to do that they just need Y how we doing Tak notes tonight yeah Stephie he's in the zone is [Laughter] smoking I'll second just just to um let's get through this cam whoever's running the meeting on this point um you know just just on on this point so I mean again the relief Association doesn't need your approval to change their bylaws other than changes that impact their pension and your potential obligation to pay out so I mean that's just again to make the point what why you'd be asked to approve this so we're I mean wouldn't they change them and then we'd approve them we're approving a change before they make it you are that's fair criticism yeah I'm just asking should we approve their bylaws next month when it's looks cleaner and we know what we're doing or I don't care in the past we've had a set of bylaws with the new language for you to review before we approve okay um I can come back next month that's not a problem and have that presented to you guys that's fine as long as it doesn't affect anything yeah nope and one comment I'd like to make to maybe on the uh pension when you come back with that on future years maybe includes a breakdown a division of where your staff is at in their penion years yeah def we can kind of identify you know like we got 50% that are within three years of full pension or something you know that'll help us plan better for realistic how much we would be obligated to if it took a DI yeah no yeah definitely can add that problem so yeah thank you Council for the workshop and those that attended so that was that was awesome so thanks thanks for your work and service perfect okay we are we are back on track there a motion hanging that needs to be resed or can we we need to resend that okay motion t yep y I agree with that we do have fun we're going to go on to a request to approve the mobile business unit for c c bque I think I got that right work on say that 10 times this is Boutique um paperwork was handed in and there were some adjustments made if you in the council packet we saw based on the time of the year and that we essentially got two and a half months left at the end of the year here um any questions for that no so no I'm G to screw it up it's a s bti um forward to the city essentially they just want to use Park in a city parking lot they said probably just two to three times a month um to sell um so women's clothing boutique and so they did submit all the paperwork with the appropriate liability insurance uh they are requesting the uh pro rated fee for 2024 uh I think three months or $50 it's usually $200 and then um full price going forward starting 2025 very good I'll move approval for the mobile business unit forsus Boutique I'll second it Motion in a second they had their business at different events we very much appreciate that Mr Mayor if I could just clarify does that include the pro rated fee yes that does includ includ the fee okay uh motion second any other discussion Council otherwise uh Vernon hi Brandy hi mik hi David is I that squared away we're gonna move on to Planning Commission which is a resolution 2446 which is request for variance at 3154 Street Southwest this is going to entail uh new building in the back yard of the property uh there is information in your Council packet along with a letter of questions from a neighbor but it sounds like those questions were answered by Planning and Zoning um and all questions are satisfied is the property you want he tonight that okay so if there's questions they're here I will do that so the city received an application from the Benjamin family located at 315 4th Street Southwest they're requesting a variance to their rear um yard setback to build a garage detach garage um the minimum setback is 20 feet in the R2 District they are requesting to construct the garage in 5 feet of that rear property line so they're asking for a variance of the difference of that 15 ft um I can rattle off the requirements for variance in our city fode statute the first being that Varian won't be permitted when in harmony with the purpose of the zoning code um they're requesting an accessory building in a residential district so we would consider that um to be in harmony with the code Varian is sh be permitted when consistent with Comprehensive plan again it's a residential district that's what is planned for um then we get into the Practical difficulties um these are kind of the standards in which we judge the merits of the application U the first being that they're using it within a reasonable manner um again it's a reasonable use to want to construct a garage in residential district U number two the Practical difficulties is the plight of the land owner um due to circumstances unique to their property um they have a pretty small lot it's an older um residential area the lots are not very big the Planning Commission kind of went through a couple different options of attaching the garage to the house changing the orientation of the garage to face a different direction trying to do something to fit it within those setbacks and there's not really a practical or reasonable way to do that um the way that they have it laid out makes the most sense for construction and um kind of the slope of the yart and whatnot so um they found that there were circumstances of their lot that were unique um and not created by the land hand over so they did find that it had a practical difficulty um the last point being that uh granted it will not alter the essential character of the neighborhood uh R2 district is an older portion of town they are surrounded by nonconformities there are garages built on property lines over property lines so it really wouldn't stick out any different than in the other properties out there um like you said there was a letter from a concerned neighbor um to the rear there's a low Point kind of in the the southeast corner of the lot um and so the Planning Commission requested that if Council does approve it they include a condition to mitigate um any flow there' have to be quite a bit of fill brought into the garage that would make that pooling um of water in the backyard any worse in talking with the homeowner um when they pull a building they've agreed to include some sort of um drainage plan um whether it includes some sort of drain tile to move the water out to the front yard or something like that um the city will review that um when we do the zoning review of the building permit so that's included in that resolution as well um we have that public hearing on October 8th of Planning and Zoning that was the only letter that we had received we didn't get any other feedback and um it was mailed out to all the required properties so Planning and Zoning voted unanimously to recommend the approval with that condition did you did you have any feedback from The Neighbors at 311 next St to you at all about where that garage is located are they okay good 311 brown house that to your e the other east side of your house yeah yeah we previous own our house put privacy P they access uh I can move approval of resolution 2446 requesting for the variance of 3154 Street Southwest I'll second that second accept any other discussion mayor just I Stephen and I chatted a little bit about um the criteria for this and I appreciate he just laid out all the rationale for um granting the variance so I appreciate that so that's good um bernon hiy hi hi thanks for going through the process and getting that figured out woohoo do a two- far garage right in a small neighborhood I understand that I live on that we might get snow this year all right we're going to move on to Public Works and Engineering which um are we doing these separately or together together take this voted on yeah in your packet there we had a request for purchasing two new pickups replacing the street and Parks pickup and the waste water and sewer pickup um we got a state bid or 76 23312 so we're looking for year and uh money will for Jim's pickup Water and Sewer will be coming out of water and sewer and streets will be coming out of our equipment funds and I have the two supervisors here so if you have any questions for them but I'm have it the Public's never seen a 13-year-old truck that's driven every day 14 years old now I encourage you to go look at one of these there I'm sure our guys do a great job but the seats are beat they're uncomfortable they're not you know today's technology hands-free driving all that stuff so yeah they take they take a beat 14y old trucks yeah so we they look nice I'm sure they do still they wear in tear beyond what is we've covered up some Rust so so this will have the boxes and everything this will have the utility boxes on it is a state bid so it the Chevy pickup so the boxes are already on they'll do all the wiring and anything we have on the bid here so you guys have to pick out your layout of your boxes and stuff yep sweet the plows on there too and stuff so I will add council the reason that we don't have multiple quotes typically we would get multiple quotes um municipalities can participate in what's called cpv It's The Cooperative purchasing Venture and so what that is is it provides State contracts or state bids to municipalities and other units of government so um the state essentially did the hard work and they already went out and got contracts um like with certain dealerships like this um so then we don't have to they can honor that with us we don't have to go out and get multiple we can just purchase it um through vendors that have state contracts um with the um yeah what is I'm sorry you guys that I didn't ask about this ahead of time trade allowance $ 899 87 boards that looks like an adder and then there's a $122,000 trade in trade payoff oh I see payoff the we don't ow money on the trade in stuff on the left do not apply um they just enter that so it says Trad bance that's actually cover up tra bance that's just $899 okay to be able to step in I see they just need another they just need another line for the adder for running boards got it okay okay okay well I'll move approval of the capital equipment purchase to trade in a pickup for streets in Parks second we have to vote and then we have to do it again we have a motion and a you want the trucks each voted on separately okay yes please it could because they're taking out different funds so on the streets and parks is take being taken out of the 250 equipment Farm all right got Mo second um Veron hi Randy hi M hi David is I I'll take a motion on the second uh move approval for the capital equipment purchase to trade and pickup truck for water and waste water second in a second and I will just comment on this one so we're asking that this is being taken out of our sewer and water and to reiterate to if there's people that are watching they have questions about these purchases this was this was plan the funds were there get ahead of theu so these have been on our Capital Equipment replacement schu David is thank you all right thank you guys thank you guys when are you looking at taking possession two sweet boxes on they ready to go sweet came early Christmas came early that'll be nice for you guys to have policies get S um we're GNA move on to Legal councel Bob do you have anything for us you know just real real quick since I'm here um we have a couple of real estate transactions we're working on um on your behalf uh we're kind of stampeding forward like a herd of turtles on uh getting the U the sale to the um the Prairie Island community uh on some excess RightWay where we're the the complication there is just that there's a lot of parcels involved in that and some of them have to be subdivided some of them are outside of the city and so the township has the way in so we're we're we are proceeding toward getting that closed and there's every reason to believe we're on track are we anticipating any trouble the township or uh I'd let Elizabeth speak to that I I don't believe so so the the parcel that we're retaining is part of a larger personel so we need to subdivide that parcel so we will be uh going before uh New Haven Township next week tues sometime in the next few weeks I think you're right Tuesday next week I I don't foresee any problems um so I I think it meets everything we've had a discussion with their a preliminary discussion with their administrator and everything seems to be in order so good good awesome the other one is U the north zro sanitary of sewer district of course requiring land to build a regional Wastewater facility that you're very very well aware of um that's been complicated just a little bit by how the funding Works through the state the state uh allotment uh to to make that happen has been a little complicated and so uh I've been engaged a little bit in that stuff I don't want to steal Elizabeth Thunder she's probably report on all that stuff but uh anyway uh that's what I've been doing and otherwise your staff does not require a whole lot of legal service for me so it's been good well how Bob how is the uh payment to menot are they you know that's contingent on the sale too right yeah so uh yeah mayor council no we owe the money and in theory we owe them money a couple months ago but uh they are quite appear appear to be quite understanding that we need those money in hand from sale to give the payment to them frankly I have not reached out to them to let them know that it's coming but I take it I take it they're tracking what we're doing they haven't sent us the colle yet we're not operating they know it's coming going check is in the burning but yeah I know I just wanted to make sure we weren't at a dead stop there and had to do yeah and there's no there's no consequence to that I mean eventually they may say pay up but there's no sort of we're not incurring interest or anything like that that's a fair question yeah all right let's on to Mo claims second claims motion second claims Bon hi hi Mike hi David is I we're gonna go on to Department updates administrator if I could Mr Mayor um if I could ask you to reopen public input um we do have um someone here who was looking at requesting a mobile food unit in town um they did not meet the Five Mile criteria and so they are here um and I'm hoping that they'll be amicable to talk to you and kind of let you know what they were hoping to do to to bring to town um and then maybe we could consider their application at a future council meeting if you seemed amicable about the 5 mile radius if you recall when we passed our mobile food unit ordinance um we said that the it had you had to have a brick of mortar within five miles um this business I believe would benefit fin Island but they are outside that five mile radius that Council set up so I will take a motion to reopen public input I'll move to reopen public input I'll second second buron hiy hi hi that feel free to come up to the Lector and introduce yourself and explain what's going on welcome please don't worry we're not scary the mappa that's good to hear thank you yeah so we've actually been running in mappa for the last year yeah and we need out and we're looking for a better Community a bigger Community um essentially what we do is we do espresso yeah Joe's Coffee truck hopefully good yeah I go through their okay perfect so you've seen me since then so Tara runs it on her own I work in town so it's kind of right now it's been just her if we get busy enough she will be looking to get help but obviously we just are looking for a better community um we haven't found a business that we want to work yet work with yet currently we're in the works of just trying to find another business that will essentially let us potentially sit in their parking lot or to plug in power and steal power from I mean if anybody's been by BP in mappa you saw that we were parked alongside the building there we were plugged in to a 50 amp plug and that's all we require but we don't so Mitch correct yes Mitch from the Eda has kind of been so we've kind of been discussing with him back and forth a little bit he had mentioned that like we could possibly use the city park but then we'd have to be in and out at the end of the night so we're trying to apply a business that'll allow us to be sitting there always it's not easy to move the truck in and out every day and it's got to be plugged in 247 with refrigerator running and ice makers and stuff like that so I guess if you have any questions for us but essentially that's what we are we're a mobile I don't want to say Starbucks because we're nowhere compared to them we're way better way better um all her sauces and syrups are all simple sauces simple syrups made in the truck so what I mean by that is it's flavors syrups or sugars and water so it's not preservatives and a bunch of the artificial I don't want to say garbage that you can get from a store but if it's good for six months on yourself there's on the shelf there's a reason it's good for six months on the shelf and that's because it's probably less natural so we try to have all the natural ingredients um she does an awesome job on all of her menus and rotating her um seasonal drinks and stuff like that sorry I kind of talk first too so I like to keep it real and rotate through like just keeping it fun so what what would you like the council to do for you um so we just kind of wanted to come here and kind of make ourselves visible to you guys because we know that there's been conversations we were looking at a brick and mortar potential build out that kind of stalled out I don't want to say it stalled out it just didn't work out on our end the way we had hoped so we kind of rethought and we just kind of want to get in the community see how the community would go for us see how the bigger Community goes and at the same time maybe that can pull in other people that are more potential to bring other businesses to the town as well would we need to revise our Mobile Food Truck ordinance would we can we VAR that opens up Bob a precent but also we put this thing in place kind of just winging it so I mean it might be worth a conversation of maybe talking in a work session of reviewing I know when we put that in place I think it was 2020 um it's been quite a few years now I know at the time council's intention was they didn't want to hurt local businesses and that was the intention of the five M radius um maybe that's something Council wants to revisit if um we can talk about if it's working if it's not if it's hurting or helping of the original intent of of the ordinance I like Case by case on some things we yeah this is this is something that the community has been very vocal so I would like to make it work yeah yeah I mean if if sounds like there's a general sentiment here among Council if that's how you feel I I would just direct staff to bring something back to you to make it possible to have it happen and then we'll talk about the best way to do that I'm I suspect it's getting rid of the five minute mile limit but maybe it's a variance I don't we'll have to talk about it but that's what you want to do direct staff to bring when is the next work session is um it's before next meeting right yes a regularly scheduled one would be December but we're trying to put one together to talk about some other issues okay give us special meetings yeah yeah so I mean honestly we are looking at Springtime oh we're trying to get ahead of everything trying to get everything plan to operate over the winter yeah we did last winter but you're not gonna have why you laughing at me we're not gonna people drink coffee all winter it's tough to have customers stand out there in a blizzard right got lucky last winter this winter we're just kind of putting a pause we like I said we're we're kind of over mppa I don't want to say that too loud but we're kind of over being in in mppa so we decided do you guys live in mppa we do okay we do which is why we wanted to be there right we wanted to support Community we live in and pay taxes to our school district and all that kind of stuff but hey it doesn't always work that way and we'll support whoever wants to support us right yeah okay oh good well so you don't actually need action on this for a little while we got time yeah yeah absolutely it's not a rush where we're not trying to get there this fall yet or anything like that can change as you you're communicating with Mitch she's yes [Music] Guru excellent that's right bus Guru yeah well thank you so much this is something we looking forward to thank you for the conversation yeah absolutely uh appreciate you guys considering field trip to mppa exced about it so good location how long will be open then in the fall here in mppa we are actually done right now you're done okay very good we pulled the truck last Saturday last Friday was our last day for the season so we're no longer open sounds good we got in the backyard if anyone to show up and needs a samp he sell flavored simple syrups oh yeah um we don't sell it separately if that's what you're wondering sure make old Fashions all right yeah maybe offline we should have an oldfashioned conversation sounds good missing on the spice lat all right thanks guys than appreciate it motion to close public input second second b i Randy hi hi thank you um we are at Department updates the administrator did you have anything to share um I'll just share a few things so this past week no it was last week already last week we uh had our all staff development day where we closed on all city offices and bring staff together so that was another um successful day of training for staff and to get them out of the office um we invited the sheriff's department to come and give a presentation on staff about um just what to do in critical incidents and things like that and then um we just talked about um mental health and the workplace we talk about policy changes that happened in the last year um do some teamwork exercises things like that um as attorney Vos mentioned uh we have been jumping through many any Hoops to get our funding for the Sanitary District through the state we awarded the $10 million and that is now being administrated through um PFA the public facilities Authority and they have asked for a lot of documentation to release the funds for the land acquisition we entered into the purchase agreement now I think it like six seven months ago we've had to extend that purchase agreement twice already um just trying to get the funding for that I believe we submitted our last funding request today so we should find out in the next few days if everything is approved and then um we have a tentative closing date for the beginning of November to acquire that land for the sanary district so thanks for everybody's yeah efficient government right yes exactly so um we've been working on that another exciting um uh component that I've had is UHA County Board of Commissioners invited me down to give a presentation on Pine Island just to let them know what's um happening within the city and to find um ways to collaborate together and so that was very well received with the Commissioners um we focused on access to LA County Road 5 housing and things like that so I'm hoping that we can build some Partnerships in the future to um work with County sweet Rachel yes library's been busy library has been busy and we're going to continue that for a couple of days um for those of you who don't me know me I'm Rachel gr and the librarian here in town uh we've got Story Time and music and movement alternating now on Wednesdays so Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock I think this week it's music and movement tomorrow so if you've got preschoolers or young kids at home U maybe homeschooling bring them on by 10 o'clock um and Miss Heidi will be doing song and dance this week and a lot of stories next week so they really enjoy I think this is her favorite part of her job is interacting with those kids so thanks for that and thanks to her for all um doing that and trying something a little bit different we used to do it on Fridays for music and movement and so we're just trying something a little bit different for attendance um in my report I talk a little bit about the partnership we have with the middle school high school library um they no longer are on the same C as as we are with through CCO so that they are we've partnered and that's why you see in my report that we had 115 new patrons last month is that the school is um going to be picking up books from our library to bring to the students and to some of the teachers so it's really exciting to have that partnership with them lots of work has been going into that and I want to thank the school for all of their help getting that going um I will be at MLA next week week it's our Minnesota Library Association conference uh just giving you all heads up that I won't be in on Thursday Friday and that's only in Rochester so I don't have to travel to St Cloud or anything this year so that's always nice to sleep in your own bed something that didn't quite make my report because it I got notification on Friday is that we received a $500 Grant from the wild green Futures organization that money is actually from the game Angry Birds And they support um pollinator projects around the nation so I think they had 20 min grants available and they chose our pollinator Garden as one of them so that'll be paying for a lot of the that'll be paying for all of the Fall equipment and um things that have been used so far so yeah it's just like Heidi said If you're looking for Grants and it's like sure and Angry Birds who thank God an Angry Birds right I'll never I'll never bash that red again game back yeah cool right on so that was just something um I was very excited to apply for and they have very they've got basically no Administration on that they just want pictures and updates so it'll be kind of fun to just kind of see what else they're doing this year with those other mini grants so cool and we're also going to be applying through celco for a community collaboration Grant to help fund the rest of that um and that's going to be be really exciting too because we're going to be hopefully putting in a peace poll and having lots of uh programming through the uh U ofm extension Master Gardeners of good Hugh County and so we'll be having lots of different things happening with that I'll also be tying in hopefully one town one title I'm looking at a Minnesota author um Diane Wilson who wrote the book seede keeper um and that's all about the native kind of use of seeds and planting and really getting back to the Earth so we'll hopefully be doing that next year I haven't heard back from her people yet um but stay tuned outside patio seating I have not had a chance to look for it yet okay we need to talk I have yeah I have ideas okay I would yeah come and visit just not Thursday and Friday next week otherwise the only other thing I have is on Thursday we've got Sip and spell that is our adult spelling be at South by Southeast registration starts at 5:30 um and the spelling will start at six so I encourage everyone it doesn't matter how good of a speller you are because someone will be better and someone will definitely be drunker and um actually in January when we did the first one everyone had a really good time I think we had 20 some people and then April was the weekend of the garage sales and that Thursday night was the last nice night of the whole weekend so we had two people show up so hopefully we'll have a couple more so please come on out to South by Southeast on Thursday uh registration starts at 5: the event will actually start at 6 thank you so much season we got Eda fire department busy smoke alarms is the themed fire department still has some smoke alarms people are running out of those Sheriff's Office anything for you dep been going well thanks for your work otherwise we will be going in before we adjourn or we're not going to adjourn but close session there going to be a discussion on Evergreen Place pursuant to Minnesota statute sections 13d .05 sub division 3 C3 the meeting will be closed to discuss offers or toner offers for the purchase or sale of real property by the C for Evergreen Place p number 68427 3 Z we take a vote on that first I'll take a motion I'll move to go close session a second a second Vernon hi Brandy hi Mike hi David is I thank you everybody for coming out tonight got question answer question so have a good night I'm d