Good evening everyone and welcome. Thanks to everybody for being here tonight. I will call this city council meeting of the Bloomington City Council to order. Tonight is Monday, May 18th, 2026. Thank you to everyone joining us here in the chambers and everyone watching online. We will begin our meeting as we always do. If you're able, please stand, remove any head coverings, and join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Once again, thanks to everyone who is joining us this evening. Appreciate it. Council. Uh before we get into our agenda and the approval of the agenda prior to this meeting, uh the city manager, Mr. Walker, made me aware of a formal request to reconsider an action previously approved by this council. Our council rules of procedure provide a process and council member Rivas has met the requirements of our rules for possible reconsideration at our meeting tonight. So before we vote to approve on the agenda, council member Revas, do you have a motion to make? Um, if I may, >> I don't >> please turn your mic on. >> After careful consideration, I believe that I will not be making that uh motion to reconsider the vote. Uh, if I may give an explanation also to that. I I I appreciate you all showing up here today. uh it is um very considering of you to be here and I do it wasn't my wish to bring you out to council chambers when you could be doing something completely different at this time. However, after considering all the facts that I have and and all the emails that I got from people involved and and and answering back to them with the facts, I I haven't gotten as much request as many requests to bring this to vote again. So that taking taking that into consideration, I would just go ahead and completely take this away from the meeting and just if we can just move on and that would be great. And again, I apologize for all you you guys uh time. Uh like I said, you could be doing something more constructive than being here tonight. Um, and I appreciate also the other people that got involved. But I I again uh nothing can be done without the support of a of a large amount of people consider this. So again, my apologies to all of you for taking the time uh that you could be doing again something more constructive. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Rivas, and thank you for the uh thoughtful consideration of this issue. I greatly appreciate it. So uh to let you all know we won't be considering we won't be reconsidering uh the the use agreement at Dar Al Farooq this evening and uh it will not be we will not be able to bring it back or bring it forward again. So the decision that was made two weeks ago by the city council will stand and will not be reconsidered. So just to let you know. So >> thank you. about two hours. >> Yeah, it's not This is my friend. How's it going >> together? Good. >> Good. How are you? What's your name? >> Matthew. >> Matthew. >> Yes. All right, council. Now that we have uh the folks have uh have taken their leave this evening, we'll get on with our agenda. And our first item of the evening is to approve our agenda. The agenda is actually pretty manageable tonight, council, and I'm hoping we can uh get through our work in a in a uh timely manner. Under under introductory items, item 2.1 is the introduction of new employees. We've got a handful of new employees that we're going to get a chance to say hello to this evening. Item 2.2 is a proclamation for public works week and looking forward to meeting our folks from public works as well. Item three is our consent business. Council member Dalisandro with the consent agenda tonight and we have nine items on the consent business. Under item four are hearings, resolutions, and ordinances. We have uh three items. Item 4.1 is a resolution awarding the sale of general obligation sewer revenue bonds series 2026 C. Item 4.2 2 is our first public hearing of the evening disregarding ordinances amending chapter 20 Centerpoint Energy and XL Energy franchise fees and item 4.3 is our second public hearing reszoning from uh FD2 to B1. Uh the address is 830 Old Cedar Avenue South. Under item five, our organizational business, we have one item. We'll get an update on our fire department response and performance from our chief and our deputy chief. Thank you for being here this evening. I saw them walk in. There they are. They're back. and then we'll wrap up as we always do with our council policy and issue update. Council, is there any corrections or any additions that uh would like to be made to the agenda tonight? Hearing none, I would move the agenda as stated. >> We've got a motion and a second by council member Dalisandro to accept tonight's agenda as stated. Hearing no further council discussion on this, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion carries 70. And we have an agenda. We're going to start with introduction of new employees. I know we've got a number of folks from community development, uh, from legal, from public works. Who wants to start for us tonight? Not everybody all at once. Let's start with legal. Uh, Miss Mandershide, why don't you start? Oh, wait. There's Kim Bergen. Come on, Kim. >> Development. >> Community development. >> Thanks. >> Good evening. I'm Kim Bergrren, the director of community development. We've got three new staff here to introduce to you tonight. I'll start with Chiron Robertson. Robertson. Chiron is a program specialist for the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Her first day was on March 2nd. She was born and raised in Minneapolis and brings seven years of experience as a property manager for tax credit and income-based units. In those roles, she work closely with single, elderly, and disabled adults as well as families who need housing assistance. On a personal note, Chiron loves to cook for her family. >> Good evening and welcome. >> Thank you. I'm excited to join the team and look forward to my whatever the future may bring. >> Ben, we're glad to have you here and glad to have you with the city. Welcome. >> Next, I'll introduce Brienne Phillips. She's the new office support specialist for the housing and redevelopment authority. She originally is from Iowa and brings experience previously working for project for pride and living and Minneapolis public housing authority. Brienne enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling with her mom. >> Good evening. >> Good evening, everyone. and um very happy to be with the city and thank you. >> Great to have you here. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And finally, I'll introduce Richard Oxnness. He's a new building inspector aid for the building and inspections team. Richard enjoys joined the city on May 4th and has worked as an independent contractor for most of his career, but recently worked as a building inspector for the city of Egan. In his role as a building inspection aid, Richard will be um primarily performing the time of sale inspections. >> Richard, good evening. Welcome. >> Good evening to all of you. Uh new and exciting uh career path for me. So, um a little time with Egan and now I'm I'm here. I'm happy to be here and been here a couple weeks and I like it quite a bit. >> Good. Very happy to have you on board. Welcome. Welcome to all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Miss Mander. All right. Good evening. Um, I'm here tonight to introduce Holi. She has worked as a parallegal for the past 17 years with experiences in legal research, document preparation, problem solving, case management. supporting attorneys and committee members in fast-paced environments. And she, I can testify, uh, shares my love of process and and, uh, efficiency uh, and I've already identified um, a shared love of problem solving. So, um, outside of work, she likes spending time with her family and trying out new restaurants. So, she has also lots of really good recommendations, especially for bakeries. Good evening. Ho, welcome. >> Hi. Good evening. Nice to meet you. How are you? >> Glad to have you. Thanks for being here. >> And Julie Long is going to make an introduction from public works. >> Mr. Mayor, Council, I'm really pleased to introduce Cameron Lzanic. Um he started recently in the engineering division working in our survey group. Um he is surveyed in over 20 states. He grew up in California but has lived in Minnesota for the last seven years. And on his free time, he likes to read books and he's on pace to read a hundred books this year. >> Good evening, Cameron. >> Hi, thank you. It's been really great working here so far. Been enjoyed working with everybody in public works that I've had the opportunity to. So, >> fabulous. Glad to have you on board. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. So, uh, Richard, Shannon, Brienne, Hola, and Cameron, this is the point where I I say welcome to you all, and we're so very glad to have you on board. And to remind you that, uh, even though we're the ones sitting up here, you're the face for the most part for the city of Bloomington. You're the you're the pre the people that many of our residents will associate with Bloomington. And there's a high standard for the work that we expect and the work that our residents expect. And I have no doubt that you're going to be able to meet and exceed that every single day. And so I'm looking forward to you starting and working with the city of Bloomington and look forward to working with you and seeing you in the future. So welcome aboard. Thank you very much for being here tonight. Next on our agenda, council is a proclamation. I'm going to head down to the podium. Stand right back over here. Camera's up there. Everybody smile. Uh, a proclamation, our annual proclamation for public works week. This is falling May 17th through the 23rd, 2026. And it reads as follows. Whereas public works services provided in our community are an integral part of residents everyday lives. And whereas the support of an understanding and informed citizenry is vital to the efficient operation of a public works systems and programs such as water, sewers, streets and highways, park maintenance, public buildings, solid waste collection and snow removal. And whereas the health, safety, and comfort of this community greatly depends on these facilities and these services. And whereas the quality and effectiveness of these facilities as well as their planning, design, and construction is vitally dependent upon the efforts and skill of public works officials. And whereas the efficiency of the qualified and dedicated personnel who staff public works departments is materially influenced by the people's attitudes and understanding of the importance of the work that they perform. Now therefore, I, Mayor Tim Busy, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as public works week in the city of Bloomington. And I call upon all residents and civic organizations to acquaint themselves with the issues involved in providing our public works and to recognize the contributions which public works officials make every day to our health, safety, comfort, and quality of life. Dated this 18th day of May, 2026. Uh this is, as I said, it's an annual presentation and it's an annual proclamation and it it's always one that I point out. These uh these folks are what they make the city go round. You guys really do. And if uh if uh if your work is not done well, we hear about it every day. And uh uh so I greatly appreciate the work that you do uh appreciate and understand the hard work that it is and really do appreciate that. And uh and I've got a a soft spot in my heart for you because my first city job, I was still in college and I spent the summer cleaning sewers in the city of Sartell. So uh I became uh very well acquainted with a sewer jeter. So it was a lot of fun. So but I appreciate it. I appreciate everybody. Thank you much for being here. Is uh is somebody prepared to take the mic from me? Anybody? >> Sure. >> Go ahead. Step on up. >> I'd just like to thank all of you guys for your support for our department. It really makes it a fun place to work and we all really appreciate it. So, thank you. >> Sounds good. Congratulations. Why don't we get a picture if we could? We'll go over here and then Thank you much for your work. Thank you. That's right, council. A sewer jeter. >> A sewer jeter. We can have that discussion later. Item three on our agenda is our consent business. Council member Dalisando with our consent agenda tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, yeah, I'm looking forward to um us talking about sewers later tonight, in fact. Yeah. Um, so I have Council Member Nelson holding 3.3. I did not hear for any other holds. So, absent any additional last minute here, I will move the agenda. Anybody? Okay, great. So, with that, Mr. Mayor, holding 3.3, I will be moving items 3.1 and 3.2 uh and then items 3.3 3.9 as uh as indicated in our agenda packet. Second >> motion by council member Dalisandro, second by council member Carter to accept tonight's consent agenda as stated. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I opposed. >> Motion carries 70. Item 3.3, council member Nelson. >> Thank you, member and mayor and council member. Just want to quickly bring this up. I it was an item that uh we had discussed previously with regards to changes to R1 zoning missing middle and um really appreciate the work of staff, the developer and residents in the nearby area to work together on this project uh to make it a project. And I just want to, you know, there were some questions and concerns particularly related to density of this project. And um I just want to highlight that the density of this project is almost identical to the density of the existing town homes uh just adjacent to the west and north of that um I think it's River Crest there. And you know, this will provide some additional owner occupied uh projects within the city, although uh from what I understand, fairly expensive, but you know, that's okay. It' be a place for people to move into and and uh do that. And um throughout the process, there were concerns related to private roads, private sewers. All of those things got resolved. And so just want to take the moment to thank staff and uh working through all those issues to make this pro process go smoothly and and this project move forward. I think it's something we've been talking about for a long time and we got we had a project to move forward. So >> absolutely. Thank you, council member. And and I will echo the the density I think is is appropriate. It's not inappropriate, I think, for the area. And I also do believe we we are to the point uh any housing is good housing right now as if we can get any additional housing. I think it's it's a good thing because we continue to be significantly behind in our housing needs in in this metropolitan area. So council, any other questions or comments regarding this? Council member Nelson, would you like to make the motion? >> I'd move item 3.3. >> Second. >> Motion by council member Nelson, second by council member Dalisandro to to accept both motions associated with item 3.3. >> To accept both motions associated with item 3.3 this evening. >> Any further comments or questions council? >> Hearing none. All those in favor please signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion carries 70 on item 3.3. Council me council member Dallaso. Thank you very much for your help with this tonight. Moving on to item four on our agenda. Council, this is our hearings, resolutions, and ordinances. And we will start with item 4.1, a resolution awarding the sale of general obligation sewer revenue bonds series 2026 C. Miss Economy Scholer is with us this evening with I think some good news and it appeared. Mayor and council, this is my first time using my own laptop, so I had to make sure I figured out how to do this correctly. So, uh, the project overview, uh, for this North Central Sanitary Line, um, you can see that there's >> Miss Con, can I ask you to get into the microphone? We're having a hard time a little bit there. Thank you so much. >> Sure can, mayor. So, on this project, uh, I think it's been before the city council many times over the years. Um, and this is the financing portion of this and it will be uh just over 13,000 linear feet of uh sewer pipe that will be placed in here. Just to give you some context on the timeline, the first time this appeared in the CIP was in 2012. Um, and it was out there through 15 and then um because we didn't assign any funding source to it, it came off the CIP through 2019. It came back on in 2020 uh at the end of or beginning of 2025. It was um one number one of on our state bonding request. We did not get funding. Um it was again on this the city's um project for state bonding. And last night, just after midnight, we got an email from our lobbyist saying uh we uh had been awarded the $4 million for this project. So, we scrambled very early this morning with our uh municipal adviser to downsize the bonds, but we can work through that. So, S&P did give us a AAA rating on this. It reaffirmed our outstanding. And at that point it was the bond amount was going to be 24,630 and as of this morning we sold bonds at 20,300. The winning bid was JP Morgan with eight bids. Um it's a 20-year term and the interest rate is a little higher than forecasted back at the end of February by 14 basis points. Uh it's now at three uh.93%. So still very much a market rate as as everyone knows the market's been shifting. Um it's not like gas prices really skyrocketing. So I'm really happy that it's only 13 basis points. So it was a good day in the market and before you was the motion. >> Thank you so very much. Miss economy shoulder council. Any questions comments on this? >> Council member Delisandro. >> Uh appreciate the opportunity to speak on this mayor. Mostly because I just think the serendipity of this showing up during public work weeks is pretty good. Right. I mean, this is what we want. This is the the lead in with the proclamation. Um, Mr. Ler, just to clarify, so the original um the we were basically able to take the $24 million ask and reduce it by 4 million because of the bond that we received from the state was that's the kind of the net net of why it went out at 20 million or was it 28 that went to 24 that then proceeds at 20? Mayor and council member Lzandro. Um the project amount that they are looking for is um 25,500. >> Okay. >> So they are going to get the 25 million 500 with um the bonds, the premium that was on the bonds and the 4 million. >> Gotcha. Okay. That's all I need to understand. Thanks. Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Council Member. Council member Carter. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, so, uh, in terms of the total project cost, are we worried or do we feel like we have enough buffer in there for kind of just the volatility that we're seeing in terms of costs of supplies, cost of gas, which will all affect the project. >> Mayor and Council Member Carter, pause one second. I will let the city engineer speak to that one. >> Thank you. Long. >> Uh, Mr. Mayor, council, it is our best anticipation that we should not see a large escalation. I will let you know that in our contract, there is a fuel escalation clause that is written by MDOT and we follow all of the standards that should that be necessary that is we would use that. At this point in time, we don't anticipate that. Um, we have had our first change order on the project. It was a Z change order. Basically, they wanted to pay for materials on hand separately from installed costs. Um, but they didn't ask for additional funds. >> Thank you, >> Mayor and Council Member Carter. One other thing is that um the bid has already come in and um been awarded by the council. So, we were able to use those prices and the contingency within this um bid amount. Any other questions, comments, council? I just want to echo council member Dallasro's uh serendipitous comment how this to have this come when we recognize public works week. I think it shows just the importance of public works within any city anywhere. And uh and I I also want to I know we will have other opportunities. We haven't taken the vote yet, but I'm assuming we're going to head forward on this. And I just want to recognize the work that our Bloomington legislative de delegation did on this to make sure that this was part of the bonding bill. Uh we have seen I think for the past 5 10 years Bloomington what's a nice way of saying it under reppresented in the bonding bill. I'll say it nicely. Uh so it was very nice to see the work uh that they put in paid off on this. And this is a good a goodly sum 4 million plus or $4 million I think to help us with this. and not just uh not just some sort of vanity project, but an important project that is really going to spur development in the in the Pan-American district. And we owe them a debt of gratitude and we'll have the opportunity, I'm sure, in the near future to thank them personally, but I wanted to make sure that we thank them publicly as we do this as well. Anything else on this council? If not, council, I would look for action on it in 4.1 this evening. >> I'm happy to make motion. Council >> member Disandro. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I move to adopt a resolution awarding the sale of general obligations through a revenue bond series 26 two, sorry, 2026 C in the original aggregate principal amount of 20,300,000, fixing their form and specifications, directing their execution and delivery and providing for their payment. Motion by council member Dalisandro, second by council member Robertson to award the sale of general obligation sewer revenue bonds series 2026 C in the principal amount of 20,300,000. Any further council discussion on this? No further discussion. All those in favors, please signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed. Motion carries 70. Thank you very much, Miss Economy Scher. Well done. Appreciate that. We will move on to item 4.2, two. Our first public hearing of the evening disregarding ordinances amending chapter 20, Centerpoint Energy and XL Energy franchise fees. Miss Economy Scher will stay with us. Bob Simons is here to join her. Good evening, Mr. Simons. >> Good evening. >> Let's see if I can get this right. See if we can. There we go. Mayor and Council Bon Simon and I uh are here for the utility franchise fees with Centerpoint Energy and Excel Energy. Uh, we do have Michelle Swanson from Excel in the audience and Cat Kusen from Centerpoint Energy. Should you have questions that Bob and I can't answer with that, what happened to the Where' it go? There we go. So, the agenda tonight is uh talk about the timeline history, uh some status and conditions, retaining walls, um our public engagement activities, the actual proposed uh franchise rate increase, and then um time for public hearings questions. So on the timeline, we've gone through a number of items with the city council um during 2025 and um we were directed to come back to the council. So we met with the council for a study session on March and we had the open house in April and we um started a let's talk page in um from March to May and then tonight um is the public hearing on this item. All right. Thank you, Lori. Uh, good evening, mayor and council. I'll be giving some information on the history of our franchise fees, how we've been utilizing them, a little bit of on status and condition, and then the public engagement that we've done as well. Um to begin uh franchise fees were first established in 2015 um with a goal to implement um changes in how the PMP was funded showing the council's commitment to a few different areas of the PMP at being uh overlays seal coats park trail and rightaway trail construction and maintenance. A little bit of the history. Uh back in December 2015 council approved the implementation of franchise fees with the next increase to be in 2021. We began collection of franchise fees in April of 2016. From 2016 to the present, we've been collecting franchise fees for the overlay, seal coats, park, and rightaway trail construction and maintenance. Um, in the summer of 2020, um the the increase for 2021 was delayed due to um COVID 19. Um, in July of 2021, council approved um, an increase to franchise fees, which also included the the the use of CIP multimodal projects with franchise fees as well. Two years later, we came back in May of 2023 um, with another franchise fee increase that with the idea being every other year. With that increase in 2023, uh, we also included not only the CIP multimmoal projects, but also sidewalk and ADA improvements as well. and we came back in July of 25 um um with another increase and the council decided to postpone that until 2026 and now we're back with our current uh how we utilize our franchise fees for our PMP techniques for street reconstruction does not utilize franchise fees. Uh street mill overlay does utilize franchise fees and also our state aid uh maintenance funds. We've overlaid just over 85 miles of streets since 2016 using franchise fees. Seal Coats utilizes franchise fees. We've sealed just over 225 miles of streets since 2016. Um, also our trails and parks and rightway construction and maintenance utilize franchise fees. I think we've we've uh reconstructed about 10 miles of trails um since 2016 and about three three to three and a half miles of park trails as well. And then also sidewalks utilize our franchise fees. A little bit of information on status and condition for these different areas. In regards to our streets, uh we have, as you know, just over 340 miles of center lane miles of streets, um at different varying pavement condition index values, but overall we're doing very well in regards to our streets. Um back in 2025, staff took took a close look at the PMP overlay program. Um we knew that we with the up with the program, we would be uh able to reduce mileage. Um, starting this year, we actually reduced the overlay mileage by one mile, which freed up um, some funding around $200,000 of funding that we could use for other components of the franchise fees. And we'd like to discuss retaining walls here a little bit later in the presentation to utilize those, put those funds towards. Um, in regards to sidewalks, we have just under 250 mi of sidewalks in Bloomington. 75 of those miles or so being of deficient width, that being less than our standard 6t width. And um, generally in good condition. Our sidewalks are improved through our a general maintenance contract each year as well as through our PMP and other infrastructure um programs. Um as I mentioned, ADA was it was um included with franchise fees a few years ago or ADA improvements. We have almost 5,000 existing pedestrian ramps in Bloomington. And each year with our infrastructure and other PMP projects, we replace about 150 to 200 of those. Last year we, for example, I think we replaced like 155 or something like that. Um, in regards to our trails, uh, we have just under 50 miles of asphalt trails in Bloomington, 32 miles in rightway, about 15 miles of park trails. Our PCIs are set up similar to our streets in regards to our different ranges of pavement condition indexes. When we first started utilizing franchise fees back in 2016, we had about 10 miles of trails that were in the the red range, the reconstruction range. We're down to about four and a half with a majority of those being Normanddale Boulevard which is which we're going to be um doing this year and next um between Old Shaki Road and 94th Street. With the trail projects, they do take some time um to develop. A lot most of those have rightaway acquisition. Normandale Boulevard is no different. So it does typically the rightway acquisition process is nine months to a year to acquire. So um we're getting through that that that those lists of trails and we're getting very close at this point. Um, in regards to upcoming trail work, we have, as I mentioned, Normanddale Boulevard in in regards to sidewalks on Nicollet Avenue from um, Old Shockby Road up to American Boulevard as part of Henipin County's Nicollet Avenue reconstruction project. There'll be um, sidewalks and trails improved in 27 and 28. And then in regards to park trails, we have Moyer and Central Parks that are coming up this year and next as part of our 9mm Creek corridor renewal project. our PMP life cycle just showing that with routine maintenance um we can extend the life of our of our pavements. One of the items that we look at every year when we come through with our PMP projects is where we can improve safety multimotal sidewalk conditions with our projects utilizing our franchise fees. One example is just west of west of here on 98th Street just west of Penn Avenue with our 2026 overlay project. We're going to be looking to take one existing narrow deficient width walk um along 98th as well as some curb walk and removing both of those and replacing it with standard walk filling a gap where there's standard walk on both sides along 98 street. One of the items we'll be utilizing our franchise fees for. We are also looking at other techniques, other sustainable techniques to be um utilizing with our PMP program. Um last year um one of our 2020 reconstruct areas as you can see shown on the map here Washurn Vincent Upton area we did a reclamite um maintenance technique versus doing our seal coat. We've been working with other neighboring cities on their use of reclamite. So we did a test area of our own similar to a seal coat and the type of the maintenance that's done but there's no rock included with that. It's just a liquid emulsion. So we're going to look at that and possibly do a few more areas as well. And also we utilized warm mix asphalt last year when our one of our overlay areas in the southeast side of town um lowering mix lower mix temps saving fuel and we cut uh carbon dioxide emissions by about 5,000 kg which is basically the equivalent of one passenger car and we're going to look to continue to do that with some other areas moving forward as well. Now retaining walls, we're looking to add another category to our franchise fees and that being retaining walls. We have just under 530 retaining walls in our existing in our rightway. So, we have a lot of walls, varying ages, varying sides, varying sizes. Um um and with those retaining walls, we have a few of them that are coming up over the next couple of years. A few that we replaced in the last couple years and some that are coming up, for example, on 90th Street, we replaced a few a few over the last two years and we'll be replacing another one this year. There's a few along Normanddale Boulevard, West Bush Lake Road that are in the near term. Our retaining walls previously were funded using our general fund. A small amount of dollars were allocated towards small retaining wall repairs and then we'd carry over those dollars from year to year um as well as utilizing state aid dollars where we could um for these retaining wall replacements. With these larger walls, it's hard to be carrying over those dollars from year to year and still keep up with this maintenance. So, we're looking to utilize some of that those franchise fees dollars um to um help with our maintenance of our retaining walls. In regards to the public engagement that we've done this year with this with this franchise fee update, we've hosted a Let's Talk Bloomington page since we since we met with council back in um early March for the study session. We opened a franchise fee update page um which is still active currently. Uh we also um sent out a a few social media blasts and esubscribed as many individuals as we could, thousands of individuals that were on e-subscribed lists within Bloomington for an open house and also for this public hearing. Open house was held on April 29th. We used the uh home improvement fair as a way to to to get the information out there as well. We've used our website. We had a a blurb in the May briefing as well. Unfortunately, we didn't have any attendees at the open house on April 29th. We tried to pull a few in that were walking past and talk to them about franchise fees, but they had zero interest in talking to us about it. So, um, so unfortunately, we didn't have anybody attend the the open house, but we did put the information out there in as many avenues as we could to get to get the word out. So, go ahead. >> And then, circling back to the the franchise fee rates, um, the last time the council authorized an increase in the rates was in 2023. So, we've been at the same rates that are listed currently in the 2026 column. And so, um, moving forward to the 2027 proposed rates, the residential rate will remain flat. The commercial non-demand, um, is increasing by $110 per month and the commercial demand at $17 a month and then the larger commercial industrial by $18 a month. And so it's been three years since we've had a rate. So some of the numbers are a little high, but it covers those three years. And we will not have another rate increase or we'll not be coming back to city council for another two years. So that's all we have. We'll stand for questions. >> Very good. Uh appreciate it. Uh council questions before we get into the public hearing. And I have one. Remind me the difference between demand and on demand. >> Mayor and council, I will ask one of the experts if they could come in and explain the difference between demand and on demand. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Michelle. >> Good evening and welcome. >> Good evening, mayor, uh, council members. Um, it's a little difficult. >> If you could introduce yourself. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Michelle Swanson with Excel Energy. Um demand is essentially if if a uh commercial customer actually has kind of a peak load that's considered a demand and depending on how large that is they will be in a rate class where they'll be charged based on that demand. So, you think about a residential customer, I mean, their demand, their demand, even though they're a non-demand customer, um would typically be on a summer day at 4:00 in the afternoon on a hot humid day. Um so, our businesses though, they actually generate enough power and have enough load that they do end up having a peak, which we do charge for. Got it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. That's helpful. Oh, and I think we have an >> Thank you. >> an addendum. >> Mayor and Council Cat Kudson for Centerpoint Energy. Uh gas is a little bit different. So, we don't have demand. And within the packet, it notes where the uh commercial and industrial categories fall within it. So, for simplicity's sake, there's just the one the one area, but demand is for electric rather than gas. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Very helpful. Thank you much council. Any additional questions? All right. Thank you much for the presentation. Don't go far. With that, I will open this public hearing and item 4.2. This is a public hearing regarding ordinances amending chapter 20, Centerpoint Energy and XL Energy franchise fees. Is there anyone in the council chambers who wishes to speak on item 4.2 this evening? Good evening and welcome as far as it goes. Is that as far as it goes? >> I think so. Yes. >> Darn. Okay. So, >> if you could introduce yourself. >> Thank you. Uh, my name is Matthew Howitt. I'm a resident of Bloomington. Um, before I begin, can I ask a question with an answer? And it has it pertains to the uh franchise fees. Who's paying the franchise fees? Is it the customer paying the city or is it the corporation paying the city for these franchise fees? >> What we do generally uh Mr. Howland is we we collect the questions and answer them afterward. And uh as as we finish up the the public hearing, it just makes it easier so we're not shooting from the hip. We give staff time to collect their their thoughts a little bit. >> Sure. Okay. Well, I'm shooting from the hip here. So, >> Mhm. >> bear in mind, I'm under the assumption that the residents will paying these um franchise fees. And I find that interesting because um both Centerpoint and Excel are raking in record profits. Their CEOs are making tens of millions of dollars a year. I don't see. And in addition to the uh energy crisis that was artificial uh on top of it, um it stands that the residents are going to be taking multiple hits on this if if my assumption here and pardon I got wrapped up into all the other stuff that happened prior to this uh um outside. So uh I I didn't I kind of walked in here a little bit blind about this. Um, but if my assumption here is correct, I'm all for great public infrastructure. Um, I'm a huge proponent of active transit. I want to see more bike lanes. I want to see safer streets. I want to see the ability for residents to claim their own destiny in terms of what is built around them and uh makes make their own their own streets safer. Um, but at the expense when we have we when we could potentially be offered the choice of who's paying for this, I feel as though it should be the corporations that are breaking in record profits handover fist. So that's my five or uh two cents. That's all I got. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Allen. Others wishing to speak. >> Miss Ray, do we have anyone on the phone? >> Mayor, we do not have anyone online. >> Last chance for anybody in the council chambers. Council, no one coming forward in the chambers. No one on the phone wishing to speak. I would look for a motion to close the public hearing on item 4.2. >> So moved. >> Motion by council member Dallas, second by council member Reebas to close the public hearing on item 4.2. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion carries. 70. >> So, we did have one question. Uh, who ultimately pays? Um, I I think my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is this is charged to the utilities and then that cost is generally passed on to the rate payers. Is that correct, Miss Coner? >> Mayor and council. Um, that is correct. Um the ordinance as it's written um is a contract between us and the um utilities. >> Okay. All right. >> And um just to point out that the residential rate is not going up. So >> copy. Thank you. >> Council uh public hearing is over. Thoughts on this? Council member Alesandro? >> Because I can Mr. Mayor. I'm going to make the same statement because I think it's relevant to the speaker's question anyway. Um, so we charge the the the uh utilities and I understand there's legislature that might come in the future that's actually going to do this to the folks that deliver fiber now to the curb. Okay. So, I'm I'm under the under the understanding that they may be rolled into this at some point. I haven't heard definitive on that, but my understanding is that fiber payers, the the you know, AT&T, T-Mobile's all the PO people that came roughshod through our utilities last couple years are going to also potentially be charged franchise fees. That is because they use our rightways. That's the whole point. It's for our roads. It's to let them have access to our easements and everything like that. For any of those uh folks who have had um folks in our neighborhoods coming through and cleaning up all the trees on the back of our your houses and everything like that, they get if you had if you had flowers back there, sorry, that's what they get to do. That's part of this whole thing. And we get charged to maintain the things that allow them to ease of access of use around our city. They don't have to pass them through to customers. They don't have to. Okay. But your beef can't be here. Your beef has to be with the PUC because it's this it's state legislature that allows these companies to pass through to rateayers and that's where it needs to change. I would love to see it change. Anybody wants to invite me to go to a public speaking event at the state house to get it changed. I'm all in on it. Um but so I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of our speaker tonight. Um, but it is a problem of the PUC and our state legislature that that the that Excel and Centerpoint, no offense to them, are allowed to pass this through. If they weren't allowed to pass it through, they'd have to eat it. They would because we would charge it anyway. But the whole system is built so that it comes right back to us as the payers. And that's unfortunate. So, um, I'll just make my annual plug every time we talk about this to go talk to your PUC and go talk to your state legislators to get that changed. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Miss Council Member Dellesandro. Council, other thoughts on this questions, comments, council member Rivas, >> I won't say much. I'll just say D to that agree 100% with that. >> Thank you, council. If there are no further questions or no further comments on this, I would uh look for action on item 4.2, noting that we have motions, two motions. one uh for each Centerpoint Energy and for Excel Energy. Just to be clear on that, anyone like to take this on? Council member Robertson. >> Thank you, Mayor. I move to adopt an ordinance modifying the gas franchise fee on Centerpoint Energy Resources Corp. doing business as Centerpoint Energy, Minnesota Gas, for providing gas service within the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, and amending the codified fee schedule appendix A for fees and charges for services established by ordinance. And do I >> No, we're gonna do one at a time here. >> Second motion by council member Robertson, second by council member Lman to adopt the ordinance modifying the gas franchise fee on Centerpoint Energy Resources Corp. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Opposed. Motion carries 70. Council member Robertson. >> Thank you, Mayor. I move to adopt a resolution directing summary publication of this ordinance. An ordinance modifying the gas franchise fee on Centerpoint Energy Resources Corporation doing business as Centerpoint Energy Minnesota Gas for providing gas service within the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, and amending the codified fee schedule appendix A for fees and charges for services established by ordinance. >> Second motion by council member Robertson, second by council member Lman for summary publication on the XL Energy portion of item 4.2. No further council questions on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. The motion carries 70. Council member Robertson. >> Thank you, Mayor. I move to adopt an ordinance modifying the electric franchise fee on Northern States Power Company doing business as Excel Energy, a Minnesota corporation, its successors, and assigns for providing electric service within the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, and offending the codified fee schedule appendix A for fees and charges for services established by ordinance. Second motion by council member Robertson, second by council member Lman to adopt an ordinance modifying the electric franchise fees on Northern States Power doing business as XL Energy. Haven't said that in a long while. Northern States Power. Any further council questions on this? Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries 70. And Council Member Robertson. >> Thank you, Mayor. I move to adopt an ordinance modify, excuse me, directing summary publication of the ordinance modifying the electric franchise via Northern State's Power Company doing business as Excel Energy, a Minnesota Corporation, it successors and assigns for providing electric service within the city of Bloomington, Minnesota, and amending the codified fee schedule appendix A for fees and charges for services established by ordinance. >> Second motion by council member Robertson, second by council member Lman for summary publication of the XL Energy portion of item 4.2. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. >> Opposed. The motion carries. 70. >> Thank you much for the presentation and the information this evening. Council member Robertson, thanks for taking on those long uh motions and thanks much for the information from our representatives from XL and Centerpoint. Thank you much. We're going to move on council to our second and final public hearing of this evening. Item 4.3 is a public hearing for resoning from FD2 to B1. The address is 830 Old Cedar Avenue South. Liz OD from our plan staff is here. Good evening. Welcome. >> Good evening, mayor and council members. I am here this evening to present on a resoning at 8030 Old Cedar. So yeah, the location is 8030 Old Cedar Avenue South. Um that's um just off of Old Cedar and 80th Street. Um it's a the existing building is a twostory multi- um tenant building with a varying um mix of tenants but uh mostly um office and it's uh zoned FD2. And so the proposal uh the property owner wants to add a retail tenant which is specifically a spa or salon. Um and retail is not allowed in its current zoning district. Um, and retail is a limited use in the B1, the proposed Oops, sorry. Um, retail is a limited use in the proposed B1 zoning district, which is uh can't occupy more than 25% of the floor area. And what they're proposing uh for the spa and salon is only um 6% of the floor area. Um and so they would meet um the uh size uh limitation um under the proposed uh new zoning district. Um and so B1, this zoning um district is more of a transitional zoning district between uh residential and commercial uses. Um and it's um uh what was my note here? um lower intensity um uh uses um in this zoning district and then you'll see that there is um residential to the north and then some office kind of commercial uses um to the south. Those uh southern properties are also zoned um B1. So this is also consistent the proposed zoning district is consistent with the um surrounding properties. And so with resoning, we have to make sure that it's also compliant with our comprehensive um plan. And so the current guide plan is office. And so this B1 proposed zoning district is more in line with that um zoning or the guide plan because um FD2 is more of industrial um which allows for more warehouse and u manufacturing uses whereas B1 is more um office uh oriented. So, this does comply with the um existing guide plan and they're not proposing to change a guide plan. They're keeping the office um designation. Just want to note that. Excuse me. And then uh with Oh my goodness. Um with this uh we analyze um the existing office land use category as I mentioned which allows for uh professional um and business offices as well as limited accessory, retail and restaurant uses. And then as I mentioned before, this proposed B1 zoning district is more compatible. Um, and it's consistent with the surrounding sites and land uses and that it's also um not going to create an excessive burden. Um, it's served uh adequately by Old Cedar Avenue. It has utility capacity and compliant off- streetet um parking to accommodate the um small retail tenant. So with that pretty short presentation, planning commission and staff recommend approval and the property owners are here in attendance should you have any questions. >> Very good. Thank you so much, council. Any questions? Modate? Council member Delisandro. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And just a quick question. It the the building itself looks like an office from the get-go. So I was I'm kind of curious why it was zoned FD2 to begin with. Do we know why it happened that way or is it just was it like a turnover situation or anything? Uh, Mayor Del, Council Member Dolesandro, I'm not sure I have the answer to that. I know I mean FD2 is freeway development, so it's right along um a freeway, so that sort of makes sense, but I'm not sure about the historical >> um kind of context there. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I I and there's no there's no tenants in there now that are going to be in conflict with B1 by virtue of them being if if we if we make this change. There isn't anybody currently in the building that's going to be like, "Oh, no. I'm not I'm an industrial person and I'm not going to fit now or anything like that." >> Uh mayor, council member, no. As I mentioned, uh most of the tenants are office related and that's consistent with B1. So, >> very good. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Council member Lman, could you talk about the coffee shop? Oh, sure. Um, mayor, council member Lman, in the application materials, the um, property owner mentioned opening up a smaller uh, coffee shop, which is a restaurant per zoning code, which is not allowed in the proposed B1 zoning district. Um and so um if they wanted to move forward with that in the future, they'd have to pursue a city code um change, privately initiated city code change to allow for restaurants in B1. Um as I uh mentioned that um the owner I don't think intends to move forward with the coffee shop at this time, but just so they're aware that it would require um another kind of step in order to operate that. Very good. >> You mentioned that the the building owner is here. Is there anything you'd like to add to the conversation this evening? >> And the answer can be no if you if you'd rather not. >> I if you have questions, I can answer them, but >> any questions? No. Okay. Thank you. Stick around. Maybe some will will pop up. Very good. All right. Thank you very much, Miss OD. What I will do now is open the public hearing item 4.3. This is a public hearing regarding reszoning from FD2 to B1 at 830 Old Cedar Avenue South. Anyone in the council chambers wishing to speak to item 4.3 this evening? Is ready? Do we have anyone online or on the phone? >> Mayor, we do not have any callers online. >> Last call for anybody on M4.3. Council, no one coming forward. No one on the phone wishing to speak on item 4.3. I would look for a motion to close the public hearing on item 4.3. >> So moved. >> Motion by council member Carter. Second by council member Robertson to close the public hearing on M4.3. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries 70. Council, any addition questions on this or or comments, concerns? If not, I would look for action on item 4.3. Council member Carter. >> All right. I would move to an adopt an ordinance amending the zoning district map by reszoning 8030 Old Cedar Avenue from FD2 Freeway Development to B1 Neighborhood Office. >> Motion by Council Member Carter, second by Council Member Dalisandro to adopt an ordinance amending the zoning district map by reszoning 830 Old Cedar Avenue from FD2 Freeway Development to B1 Neighborhood Office. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries 70. Council member Carter. >> I would move to adopt a resolution authorizing summary publication of the previous ordinance amending the zoning district map by resoning 8030 Old Cedar from FD2 freeway development to B1 neighborhood office. >> Motion by council member Carter, second by council member Dalisandro for summary publication of item 4.3 tonight. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries 70. >> Thank you very much, Miss OD. Congratulations on the resoning. Well done. Uh thank you council for the discussion on this. And that will wrap up our items under item four. We will move on to item five, our organizational business. And we have one item here. This is a an update on our fire department response and performance. We've got both our chief Julie Seal and our deputy chief Jay Forester here with us this evening. Good evening gentlemen and welcome. >> Good evening uh mayor and councel. Uh happy to be here tonight. Just going to give you a quick update on the fire department. I'm going to provide some data from 2025 and so far in 2026 and then Chief Seal is going to talk about staffing and um answer any questions you may have at the end. Uh deployment metrics. This really uh referencing our uh distribution of fire stations and our multi-unit effective response force. Our fire stations are located uh we have six fire stations. are all in the correct locations. And uh um these go hand in hand because uh we need to have all six staffed in order to meet our our uh response time goals. Um this is the map of the uh call distribution throughout the city. So you'll see the six fire stations there and where all the calls are in the city. As you can see, they're spread out um pretty pretty much throughout the whole city. So, and basically we need six fire stations. Have a quick video here we're going to show you of a fire that occurred uh about 3 weeks ago on West 90th Street. This is a video um of how fast fire uh can move and smoke and how dangerous it is and how important it is to have uh working smoke detectors in your home. This fire started on the outside of the house at about uh 4:00 or 5 in the afternoon. Uh we got dispatched uh for a house fire. This is the Ring camera of the inside of the home. This this uh footage was provided to us by the homeowner with permission to show it. I can see we have a couple dogs kind of wondering what's going on. You see the glow on the left there. Um, I don't know if you can hear kind of the popping and breaking of glass and it's also a cat. So, this fire starts to grow and it it grows very quickly. Um, the smoke you can see on the top of the ceiling is entering the house now. That smoke's going to start to build um and lower. Clearly, it's coming coming in now. Um, and people that were if they were inside here on this floor, they would only have uh, you know, seconds to get out. The smoke and heat's going to is build in the home and then lower. So, the heat right now at the top of that that ceiling level is uh is dangerous, but it's going to come down. You could still get out at this point if your smoke detectors are are sounding. Um, as you can tell, the the dogs and the cats are pretty worried. I will say these they get out. They're they do survive. >> I like I like dogs, but the cat was a smart one there. Ran right down the stairs. >> That cat went downstairs. >> Smoke alarms would have activated working smoke detectors by now and it would have alerted anyone that was in the house. There is someone in this house and you'll hear them shortly. >> No smoke detectors are sounding here. So, as you you can barely see her, but she's coming up the stairs there uh in the video yelling for the the dog and the cat or the dogs and cat. >> The fire is still growing. Um >> we're not sure if we're in route or not yet as far as but here you can see the video coming in from the outside. Uh this is our first engine uh from station 4 arriving >> uh and two chiefs. >> And you can tell this fire is advanced um all through the outside there into the interior of the home and into the attic space. Our crews do a nice job. They uh get water on this quickly. get that water into that attic space, put that fire out, and then we also sent crews inside. Got a search of the home, the dogs and the cat, and they went out the basement door with the with the uh uh occupant that was still inside the home. Everyone was okay. No one was injured. Um but, you know, this is just reinforcing the fact of working smoke detectors and then having enough people to put on that fire ground to put this fire out. An effective uh response force for us. um you know is those multi- multi-unit responses. So an incident like this or a serious car crash where people are trapped, hazmat incident, tech rescue, um and so forth. Here's some uh photos of the aftermath of the fire. You can see the heat and uh smoke damage of this house. If you're inside that space and you weren't able to exit, you would not survive. So, for 2025, our our metrics are we had about 11,730 calls. Um, we had 73 of those where we had to roll short with only two firefighters on a truck. Usually, this was due to one of our firefighters being uh sent in an ambulance to help with patient care and the rest of the crew going back to the station and getting going back in service with two. We had 19 structure fires in 2025 where we actually deployed hose lines. We had one civilian fatality and we had 14 injuries. Uh 11 of those were from one incident uh for smoke inhilation due to lithium battery fire. Lithium battery smoke is very toxic, very dangerous. We're seeing more and more of these lith lithium battery fires throughout the city. Um so if you encounter something like that, you get into that smoke, it's it's very dangerous. uh PAP call to arrival. So, our goal is seven minutes. That's when someone calls 911, the dispatcher picks up the phone, that's when the clock starts. 730 7 minutes 30 seconds. That's when we uh want to get there. Our uh stats for 2025 uh was 9 minutes and 11 seconds. You can see we did not meet our goal. Our districts with no staffing or staffing shortages, district 2 is 952. District 6 in the northwest part of the city is 10 minutes and 20 seconds. Um again, that effective response force, our arrival, we have multiple uh people that we need to put on the scene is 11 minutes 30 seconds. As you can see, we're not even close. We're at 2636. That number even goes up if you add a couple more. And I'll show you that that stat here shortly. Overlapping calls, 42% of the time we have overlapping incidents. uh this has an effect on our ability to respond and get that number down because we just don't have enough people and enough truck staff. So you can see two calls there's 3,600 incidents where we had two and then it just kind of goes down from there. But um 42% of the time of overlapping incidents is is quite high. >> Just to point out six calls eight times we don't have six truck staffed. So, we were filling those in with chiefs and and other response >> for 2026. This is uh up until April 30th. Uh calls are up a little bit, 4%, we're at 3929. Uh roll shorts, we're at two. Fail to roll zero, which is good. 10 structure fires uh as of the end of April. We've added to that number in May. I think we've had three or four more. uh some couple serious apartment fires in the last couple weeks. Uh no fatalities thankfully. We've had four injuries. 70% of our runs are EMS incidents and 30% are other uh fires, hazmat, public service, non-emergency calls. EMS uh cardiac arrest outcomes. This is uh kind of just putting a plug in for our uh our model of uh responding with paramedics on our on our engines. We have uh try to have one paramedic on each truck. We're uh seeing some successful data here coming back on cardiac arrests uh where we're getting Rosk and uh ECMO patient patients and I'll kind of get into more detail on that but this um really uh Rosk is really getting their heart back pumping and and uh so we've had 32 cardiac arrests the first part of this year. 10 have we've gotten Rosk back on on scene or in the ambulance. 11 unfortunately didn't make it. And then we had 11 that were transported for uh either Rossk or ECMO. We don't know uh what the outcome was there. As you see in the slide, ECMO definition is there. It's it's really what it is is it's a it's a new newer uh um medical um technique they're using where it's really something that is outside the body that helps pump your heart and help your lungs and then that gives the doctors time to get in there fix what the problem is and give your heart time to recover and your heart or your uh lungs time to recover as well. It's really uh pretty cool to watch how they do it and it's it's really uh taken off here in the metro area. It's not they don't do this all over the country, but uh they're going to actually getting to the point now where they're going to do this in the field and uh so we're seeing a lot of success with it. So our 2026 uh uh performance uh PAP, so 911 call pickup to our arrival. We want to be at 7:30. We're at 9:08. District 2, 934 and district 6 1026. Uh 11:30 for our uh 90 percentile on effective response force uh to reach 15 personnel on scene. You can see we're at 2320. To reach 16, it jumps to 44 minutes. So on a large fire, it's going to take us a long time because we have to call in mutual aid, other cities to to come help us and it takes them time to to get here, drive here, you know, get the call and all that. So overlapping calls. You can see that stat is still up for 2026 40% of the time. And Chief Seal is going to take over staffing plan. So currently we have 48 full-time firefighters, includes captains, 22 are paramedics, 23 are emergency medical technicians. We have three vacancies currently. Five are currently off shift for paid parental leave, injured or light duty. So currently we have 40 firefighters working shifts. We also have 62 part-time firefighters which are integral to our operation and are the reason we can staff even four rigs all the time and five rigs some of the time. We have nine command staff and five firefighter fire inspectors. 2027 our will propose we will propose to hire nine fill the three plus filling three concurrent vacant positions. So we want to promote three more to battalion chief's position. I have a second battalion chief on duty um in the city. Promote three to captain. That doesn't add any um numbers to our number. that just promotes three firefighters to captains um um and provide um supervision to that fifth engine. Uh we have 54 career firefighters on shift for three shifts, 52 part-time. You can see we have a steady attrition on these slides. Um for our part-time people, 12 command staff. Um we should be able to staff five engines consistently. We cannot staff five engines consistently now. and then um hopefully also construct fire station two. So, one of the things we're doing in the interimm um in two of our stations is to provide temporary housing uh for our firefighters at the stations that um quite frankly were built uh for a job that doesn't exist anymore. Um so, the uh both stations five and station six, we added these bunk houses. And I'd just like to thank community development for the help they gave me making this happen. Um and the planning staff. Um so we providing living quarters for uh those crews at station five and six. These stations are in the capital improvement plan. Um and that plan um lays out over the next several years replacing the stations that um don't have adequate facilities. Um, replacing one fire station is a good investment. Um, replacing all your fire stations to meet the community needs is is really um forethought and planning for the future. So 2028 staffing, we would propose in 2028, at least right now, no new full-time 24-hour shift hires as our second group of 18 firefighters come off a safer. um we'd still have 54 full-time on shift. You can see the attrition rate for our part-time goes to 43. Um we would propose to hire 10 part-time firefighters um in in 2028, but you can see there's a cost associated to hiring part-time people. Besides, this is just getting them stood up and and hired and and in place just for 10. Um looking at hiring two firefighter fire inspectors. And the reason for this is, as you well know, the city continues to develop. There continues to be additions to um not only our built environment, but the existing environment and changes with it that require um fire inspection and diligence on enforcing fire codes, which um have a huge impact on uh life safety in our buildings. Um, and you can tell um by the fact that um in many places we go, many homes we go into where they do not have working smoke detectors or they do not have um good fire safety behaviors that um these people spend a lot of time trying to reme remedy those things. And we'd um hopefully open station 2 in May or June of 2028 and start planning and design for fire station five. So going forward from 2028 29 to 32 um the plan currently is to hire six full-time firefighters each year. Um and in 2020 2032 we'd end up with 78 on shift in conjunction with part-time firefighters. We are not certain how well we're going to be able to maintain our part-time firefighting staff. Um we continue we will continue to monitor it and and see how it goes. Um, as you recall, the original plan that um was put forth a number of years ago now already, three years ago now already um was that we'd end up with 78 full-time and 75 part-time. And you can see our number for part-time is dropping considerably. Um, and uh, one of the the things we have struggled with is being able to have the bandwidth in our command staff to um, put on full-time people and we just can't put on full-time people and part-time people at the same time. It's two different kind of uh, uh, uh, school settings. Um, and the part-time folks are will take probably 12 months of school um, two nights a week. once we hire them with their certifications. So, we're thinking about eight months, eight to 12 months of school for those part-time people to give them the same training we give our full-time people in an 8week academy. So, we're going to continue to evaluate staffing um our part-time staffing and and we may have to make adjustments based on that. And with that, we can stand for questions. >> Thank you, Chiefs. Greatly appreciate it. Questions? I see council member Carter and Council Member Dellesando. Thank you, mayor. Um, first, thank you so much for everything that you do every day. Um, so I have one or two quick questions. So, for stations that are fully staffed, do we see better um outcomes? So, better PAP and better effective. >> So, force >> I I had enough forethought to add some of these numbers. Um so in 2025 um the the the PAP to arrival time overall in the city for our 90th percentile was 911 but in the district around fire station one that number was 8:22. Um so all of our numbers in the other districts with the exception of district five were in the eight area 8 8 minute area. Um and the fifth district was a little over nine. Um, if you look at district 5 around station five and around station six, far west side of town, hard to cover from any other direction except coming from the east. So if um if engine five is busy, it takes a long time for another rig to get in there to cover that area. So that time naturally goes up goes up a bit. The same result would happen with um um 2026 in that those numbers in those areas where stations are staffed are considerably less than the overall 90th percentile. Um and those are 90th percentiles for that district. It's not um not an average. Um so we do see an improvement in response in the um areas where the stations are staffed. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Um, and then, uh, for those watching and probably for some of us, uh, can you explain just the different positions? So, like what does a battalion chief do? What does a fire captain do? Um, that's different from a a firefighter who's just going out and like fighting fires every >> Well, I will say that they all fight fires. >> Yep. >> Um, firefighters, all right, are when we started started hiring people, we hired firefighters. firefighter paramedics, firefighter EMTs. The difference between a paramedic and EMT is a level of skill that they can um provide to our to our citizens or our customers um on the medical side. As firefighters, they all pretty much had similar or or the same skill level when they came in. So, when they ride the truck, they can really do any position on the truck. um they learn to drive. They they learn to to fill in the other um um spots where they stretch hose lines and and and so all those things are part of being a firefighter. A fire captain then is in charge of that crew. One of the reasons that position is very important is because um it's um in the environment. Think of yourself going into that house after that smoke had gone all the way down to the floor. that fire captain is responsible for those crew members even though they can't see them. All right? So they have to that the rule is you either have to be either see each other, touch each other or hear each other. So he is actually vital to um firefighter life safety inside a structure fire. On top of that, when we go to a medical um that captain is responsible for the overall management of that medical scene with the crew. So they have a higher level of responsibility not only for the crew members but also to um to our customers. So that's why that position is important. One step up from that is a battalion chief who then manages the stations in the city for that day they're working. All right. And so that battalion chief has duties other than just going to fires. you saw him responding to a fire and and the battalion chief in this case was uh the first chief on scene and was assumed command of the fire and ran that fire. Um the the battalion chief also goes to full arrests um drug overdoses any anything on the scene that might seem that we need um um kind of overwatch. Plus, that battalion chief then goes and picks up riders when the rider rides in the back of the ambulance to assist the paramedics all the way to the hospital. Sometimes that's one, sometimes that's two. We've even sent three firefighters in the back of an ambulance to assess assist on a on a a significant trauma case. So, so they've got a lot of things going on and that's one of the reasons um that one isn't enough because what happens when um we have one sent down to HCMC to pick up writers. Well, that falls on the rest of us to be paying attention to our radio at all hours and days of the night and pick up those pick up those calls. So, we're still in the process of growing our system, still in the process of meeting the needs of the community, which we are a ways away from doing. in what I would consider a satisfactory way yet. >> Uh thank you for taking the time to explain that. I think for you know people who are not in the firefighting community. It you know they're we don't totally understand what all these positions mean and I think as we're talking about adding more and promoting people and you know adding positions at different layers. I think it's just important for people to understand how important those positions are. So appreciate you taking the time to talk through that. >> Thank you council member Carter. Council member Disandro. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thanks for the update folks. I appreciate it very much. Um the the the picture that is it uh still becomes a little challenging me for me to paint and I think that this is just a function of me being a visual person and not seeing a visual that defines this for me is what the what the outcome is when all of these kind of uh transitional elements are complete. And what I mean by that is you have six new fire stations or six renovated fire stations. In some case you have X number of people in each of those fire stations that are full-time staff. There's Y number of part-time people supporting that station. I mean can you kind of paint the picture and then maybe tell us like where you where number one you think we are like what percentage complete are we? Are we 30% complete in in our goal? are 50% complete in our goal, etc. And then and then when and then the third part of this, I guess, is how the complications you're now seeing around these part-time folks might change what you might need to do as it relates to that plan. I that's a lot to ask, but I feel like if you could like kind of put put that in blocks like that, I think it would help me a lot. Appreciate it. >> I will try. >> You might have to steer me back on the course. >> Draw a visual on my paper while you do it. Okay. Um, first thing I would like to say is is that um, seeing the future is difficult. Um, so that's part of the reason I called out the fact about part-time. Um, but I'd also call out that the same concern with full-time. It's getting harder to find people that want to do this job full-time. Um, so what does the picture look like? Um, when we're completely built out, um, I I would love to be able to tell you it's this and when we get there, we've reached the goal. Um, but I would be telling you that based upon what the city is like today and in 10 years, I don't know what the city's going to be like. All right? We don't know what new developments going to be have, what, you know, what new um, great things that have happened in the city. We don't know those things. Um the increase in population. Um because quite frankly, right, the thing that drives um fire department responses in any community is people. If we didn't have any people here, we wouldn't have a fire department here, right? Okay, just makes sense, right? So, as the population increases, the more calls we're going to get. All right. As our demographic changes and as the age changes, the more calls we're going to get. So, what I'll tell you is is that um currently right now the plan had been that 78 and 75. I am not sure if we're going to make the 75 on the part-time side and that may adjust the 78. Um it may adjust it up. Um, the other piece I would like to say is is that as we continue to build buildings and the buildings are bigger and the density is greater, when you pack more people into a tighter area, the danger level goes up when we have a fire and the increase um, demand on staffing is um, commensurate. Um, we had a recent apartment fire at an apartment building that happened during the day. And um, I'm I I love to tell people that um, I live by luck. I wish I lived by skill, but I don't. I live by luck. This happened on a Monday morning. Um, and that Monday morning, we happened to be having an officer's staff meeting. So, I had a whole bunch of people that were on trucks that I wouldn't have normally had. Um, and we were taking people off balconies via ladders and out windows via ladders and multiple hose lines laid. I mean, it went the fire went extremely well. Um, I've told other people this that four or five years ago that same fire we' we did not save the building. We'd have lost the entire third floor. Um, and the reason I say that is is it would have taken us five to eight additional minutes just to get trucks out the door. Okay? because we didn't have people in the stations. So, this is something or if we did have people in the stations, they weren't enough and chiefs were filling in on the spots. So, I guess for a long-term picture for you, that picture is going to continue to change and morph as the city does. The way I see it right now, the 78 and 75, we'd be in pretty good spot and we'd be able to staff six stations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Um and um that's like I said providing that we don't have any any uh any significant changes. >> That that makes sense. Thank you for that. I So so if if that plan holds, we're about 50% on staffing because we have 40 people now plus or minus the folks that are on holiday or PTO or whatever and we want to get to that 78. Let's say round up to 80, right? So we're approximately 50. We have two new fire stations that can accommodate F and we have systems in place for the others. We've got a CIP plan for two of them and then we're going to renovate number one, I think. Right. So, like we have that plan, too. Um, if if that I would assume that 5 years from now, assuming we get there, we we would we would be able to come back and we what we wouldn't be asking for, correct me if I'm wrong, is another fire station. Am I right about that? Am I wrong about that? I just want to kind of have a sense for >> we believe the six fire stations and where they're currently located is adequate. >> Okay. >> Um >> and we're building them to accommodate what you're >> correct >> conceptualizing, right? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Okay. So there was that one time where they had actually programmed eight fire stations for the city and we've come back on six and we've verified um that six with the the city gate study that they came in and did the standard of cover. So um you guys didn't just have to believe me but there was somebody else to tell you that six was enough and they were in the right spot. So >> all right very good. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Council member Revis >> just to add more to the um so if the city develops let's say we go to 150,000 people that there's going to be more traffic out there that potentially the setup that you have right now the six stations where they're located at would that be sufficient to get to places taking the the extra traffic into account >> the the six stations would still be adequate however we might need to add people into those six stations. So instead of just having six engines staffed, we might have six engines and two ladders staffed. >> That's good. Thank you. >> Other questions, council member Lman. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um >> I'll start off by saying that uh you know there's certainly uh the reality of the risk. I think you've really laid that out here and I think the video is is is quite uh well I might say quite damning if you look at that. I you look at the video and then you look at the numbers behind that. I think that that really does uh tell the the story of the risk that we have our situation that we kind of as we move forward. Um so there's no no question in my mind there in terms of what uh you know what what's happening there. So uh you also have raised you know uh the staffing components of this and it really doesn't sound like this this particular way it's laid out really does solve the staffing problem. you've kind of, you know, pushed that out there and kind of So, it sounds like we we still even if we go down this down this direction are going to probably have additional issues trying to staff up >> whatever it may or may not be. >> Yeah. Only if you try to get me to commit to what the future's going to look like. >> I'm not going to I'm not going to do that. >> Five years ago, I couldn't have told you we'd be standing here today. So, >> so with all that being said, I look to the city manager and uh you know, wow, this is a really an just this as it is with all those other questions not really answered or or in a sense answered because we know the risk. you know, we look at what we're committing to doing uh through um you know, 2032 and what that that's going to mean for our our taxpayers and they're going to be impacted by that. You know, is this the only alternative that we have? What other priorities are out there? I just I'm I'm very concerned, you know, because we have a number of other uh priorities and things that we're thinking about. And I I just I look at this this is a real commitment and you know in some ways it doesn't really solve all of our issues. I know we've done this with the safer grant and that kind of thing but as I look at just this by itself and then the other items we want to layer on top of that. Uh wow I kind of get a little bit frightened. So >> uh Mr. Mayor, council members, council member Lman, uh I think one of the things that's advantageous is that the the council has defined some pretty clear priorities. um establishing a full-time fire department is is certainly on that list, if not at the top of that list. Uh at the council's uh retreat uh within the last 30 or 45 days, one of the primary takeaways we heard as city staff was to finish the initiatives that the council has started. Uh so again, with the understanding of building out this full-time fire department being a major priority for the council, uh we are planning budgets that will continue to deliver on that expectation. but also cognizant of the um economic pressures faced by residents and businesses in our community and looking to bring forward budgets that um continue to establish the priorities set by the council but are also um cognizant of that fiscal reality as well. So, we'll continue to look to fund those priorities, but also use tools like our priority based budgeting um to allocate those resources in the most um efficient manner possible. Other comments, council, well, uh thank you. Thanks for the update. Thanks for the work that you do. if you could share our thanks with the rest of your staff and and everyone wearing the blue for the city of Bloomington, we'd greatly appreciate it. And um we'll it it's a challenge, I know, and it's a challenge for everybody. And uh we're just going to continue moving forward as as Mr. Walker said, we're going to get the work done on this and see where we end up. So, I appreciate you being here. And you're missing a heck of a lightning show behind you there. Thinking I'm going to need a canoe paddle to get home. Yeah, it might have. >> Thank you, gentlemen. Council. Next on our agenda is our council policy and issues updates. And I'll kick off as I always do uh with a recap of our city council listening session earlier this evening. We had four speakers tonight. We had uh Sally Ness uh revisiting the Smith Park joint use agreement and concerns that she had about it. Andrew Thu was speaking about the the conditions allowed at Smith Park and some of the cleanup that we need to do. and we I think took note of that and are going to look at that from our our city staff. Jamie Anthony talked about Smith Park just in general, but more uh more even uh more specifically about uh inclusion and acceptance within our community of the different folks who who live here in our neighborhoods. And uh Chris Nicholson spoke about also Smith Park, especially the rectangle field and the use that it does get by the u the soccer associations in town. So, we had four speakers tonight and we appreciate everybody who came forward and um had a good conversation. The only other thing I have, council, I think you've had the you got the note, but I want to make sure I want to reiterate it again. June 1st, we need to be at full strength. So, even if you're remote, you need to be able to attend the the meeting on June 1st. We've got some votes coming up that require a 70 vote. If they end up as 70, I'm not assuming anything, but to get them passed, it needs to be 70. It can't be 60. It's got to be 70. So, make a plan that on June 1st, you're either here or you're uh you're remotely being part of this meeting. So, all right, Mr. Walker. >> Uh, mayor, members of the council, mayor, thank you for that reminder. That was one item on my list, so one less thing to cover. Uh, also wanted to share with the council tonight you discussed the North Central Sanitary Sewer Project and the funding that was allocated by the state. Just to let you know, June 1st, we'll also hear from our state lobbyist um letting you know how the legislative session ended uh how Bloomington's legislative agenda fared, which I would say we did very well um in the context of a historically uh tied legislature. So, uh we'll hear a fuller report on June the 1st. Uh, and the only other thing I wanted to add in light of the fire presentation we heard tonight, I saw a very nice note uh that came through from one of our residents. Uh, he and his adult son toured uh, let's see, fire station 3 uh, recently. Uh, his adult son uh, experiences uh, autism, epilepsy, and some respiratory challenges. Um, this resident took the time to write our fire um, leadership that this was one of the best tours he has ever experienced. um really shared his appreciations for the department's um consideration of his son and the experience they provided with him. So, just in the context of the service that our our firefighters do, I wanted to share and recognize their outstanding work uh and the impact that our employees continue to have um on our families in Bloomington. So, thank you. >> Very cool. Very nice to hear. Thank you, Council. Anything to add this evening, Council Member Alesandro? I I just had a quick followup from our um our conversation on on um the PMP. I feel like at one point we were going to get an update um and maybe it won't come till the fall uh about the retaining walls and like whether we were going to maybe try to get rid of some of them or like what was our plan for them. So we've obviously now have have incorporated retaining wall stuff into the PMP. Can we just get an update? I don't know if the assessment is complete yet or if or if anything, but if we could get that, I think that was an act follow-up item from a couple of months ago. >> Duly noted. Thank you. >> Anything else, council? Council member Rivas. >> Yeah, I just uh if it's possible to get an update on that wall that I mentioned at the last meeting, at the end of the meeting also, if it has been repaired or if there are plans to repair it or something. Kind of saw it this morning, but I didn't stop to look at the details. I just kind of took a glance at it. So, >> Mr. Walker, anything? >> I I can quickly share that our staff are continuing to investigate that and don't have a final report for you yet, council member, but we'll share that with you and the rest of your colleagues as well once their assessment's complete. >> Council, if there's nothing else, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn tonight. Motion by council member Revas, second by council member Robertson. Is that Robertson? Very good. to adjourn tonight's meeting. No further council discussion on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. 70. Thanks much council for the discussion this evening. Thank you to staff for the work that you do and uh the presentations and all you brought forward tonight and thanks to everybody who joined us and watched online. Everybody have a great rest of your week. Thanks much.