June 2nd, 2026 meeting. Agenda. Staff. You’ve got some stunt flying you’d like to do tonight. Yes we do. Thank you. Mayor. Members of the council, we’ve got three items or additions to the the agenda for tonight. The first one is going to be to, uh, other business. Item 11 a the voucher disbursement report. This is an addition of the actual report that council was emailed earlier. They also have a printed copy in front of them right now. So that is one edition. The second one is going to be an addition to new business item as ten D, which is um, relating to terminating a limited use agreement. The council received an email about this earlier with the added memo that’s been printed. They also were emailed the memo. And the memo has been updated on the online packet and in the printed packet at the table at the front. So that would be the next edition. And then lastly, staff, I just want to recommend amending the agenda so that old business follows new business, just in case. There are folks here that want to be a part of those discussions or hear those discussions, but don’t want to sit through the closed session later. Um, so those are staff’s recommendations for tonight’s agenda. Great council. Any objection, anything you’d like to. I’d make a motion to, um, move new business in front of old business as item nine. Second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say no or nay. Okay. Tonight’s agenda has been approved. Uh, next, we’re going to move. Yeah. Mr. mayor, if I may, Council. Just so we, uh, catch up properly in the clear. Correct. Correct me if I’m wrong. We would also ask that you formally amend new business for the added item. Okay, so. In addition to moving new business in front of old business, we’d like to add, um, the item about, uh, terminating limited use agreement. Second, I heard a second. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Those opposed say no or nay. My apologies. It’s okay. Uh, agenda is approved. All right. Moving on. Consent agenda pursuant to Council rules. One motion non debatable will approve the recommended recommendation noted. Any member of the council may ask for an item to be taken from the consent agenda for discussion in separate action. Such items removed from the Consent Agenda shall be considered immediately following the approval of the balance of the Consent Agenda. Staff. Anything on the consent agenda? Nope. Uh, Council. Anything you’d like to remove from tonight’s agenda? Is there a motion? Hearing none. I will move that. We approve tonight’s consent agenda. I’ll second. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Those opposed say no or nay. Tonight’s consent agenda has been approved. So what did we approve? Uh, we approved the city council meeting minutes from May 19th, 2026, and we approve city council work session, meeting minutes from May 12th, 2026. We approved the city council town hall meeting minutes from May 18th, 2026. Uh, we received the sustainability committee meeting minutes from April 15th, 2026. Received parks RECs, Forestry Commission meeting minutes from March 24th, 2026. Uh, we received a pair of HRC, uh, Human Rights Commission meeting minutes from March 26th and April 23rd, 2026. Uh, appointment of absentee ballot board and deputising staff for the 2026 city elections. Uh, we approve the updates to the city manager contract. Uh, we appointed new parks and RECs and Forestry Commissioner Matthew Wrench. We approved a consumer fireworks sale, app sales application, approval of licenses. We also approved the second reading for a zoning text amendment to code section 820. Public and right of way. Trees, vegetation. And we approve the second reading of a zoning text. Amendments to city Code sections 825. Tree pruning and Chemical treatments 835. Tree disease and Insect Program 42.11. Definitions and 425. Sorry for 25.11 and then for 25.15. Minimum standards. Moving on to presentations. First up is our friends from North Memorial. Yeah. Mr. mayor. Council, briefly, just a quick update. North Memorial and Sanford Health have representatives here tonight. I know they’ll introduce themselves as we get going. Uh, so the public is aware. Uh, typically under the presentation model, this will be an engagement between city council and the representatives here tonight. Uh, there are opportunities to give further public feedback. We’ll be happy to continue to advertise those. Uh, but we’ll go ahead and invite, uh, those here to speak to. Come on up. Thanks. Tim. Excellent. Well. Thank you for the opportunity. To speak with you tonight and talk a little bit about our partnership with Sanford Health. I’m here with Bill Gaston, the CEO of Sanford Health. I’m Trevor Wallace. I am the CEO of North Memorial Health. Uh, just really appreciate the opportunity. Obviously, we have a very close partnership with the city of Robbinsdale, with north Minneapolis and all the surrounding communities, really trying to make sure that we can take care of our community and take care of the patients. And we’re really excited to talk about this partnership tonight. So we thought we would do a few things. One is to just give you a little bit of context for how we got to the point of, uh, seeking a partner for North Memorial Health. Talk a little bit about the process that we went through to select a partner. Uh, and then I will turn it over to Bill Gaston to talk a little bit about kind of what comes next and really give him an opportunity to introduce Sanford Health to, to the community. Okay. Uh, so first of all, going back a few years, I’ve been CEO for about three and a half years now. Uh, and I’ve been pretty public and clear about some of the challenges facing North Memorial Health. Um, we’ve worked a lot with the legislature, and, you know, the state and federal government is trying to find a way to solve some of the headwinds that are facing, uh, health care right now. And, uh, we have been largely not successful in getting any additional public funding. And, you know, the challenge for us has been with increasing headwinds coming into health care. We were recognizing at North that we are of a size and, frankly, of a of a financial strength, uh, that it was going to take something different in order for us to be successful in the long term of caring for our patients and what we were, uh, constantly faced with was we could probably survive, but we would survive in such a way that it was going to have a deeper and deeper impact on the care that we provide. Uh, because we just have so many headwinds coming to us. That was what originally started the conversation for us around. We need to think about something different. Obviously, we’ve tried for the last several years to get some additional public funding that hasn’t been successful, and we realized that our next best step would be to seek a partner that would not only help us survive into the long term, but truly then build on the strength of decades of service that North Memorial has provided to the communities to even be stronger and grow from where we are. So in the middle of last year, we and our community based Board of trustees, uh, decided to launch a process. And what I would just leave you with, it was a very purposeful and deliberate process. We identified 12 different goals and objectives that we had in order to meet the kind of current needs, as well as the future needs of North Memorial Health in serving our patients and serving our communities. Uh, we reached out to over 20 different healthcare organizations across the country. Uh, looking for anybody that we felt might be a good match for what we do. Uh, and I say 20 not to say that, you know, we had an indiscriminate ask out there. It really, truly was. What organizations do we think could help us with our mission? One of those that we reached out to because we thought they would be a potentially very strong partner with Sanford Health. And right out of the gate, we saw that Sanford was against her 12 different goals and criteria, things like do they meet our do they match our culture? Do they have a strong academic presence? Are they even willing to invest in communities even when it’s hard to invest in those communities? Uh, do they have multiple lines of business that might make them more resilient to some of the headwinds that are facing health care? They did very, very well against those 12 different goals and criteria. But what really stood out to us was the fact that they very much felt like North Memorial Health. And when I say felt like, what I mean is their commitment to the patient, their commitment to the communities that they serve, even when it’s not easy to serve those communities for financial headwinds or other things that are barriers to providing care. Uh, the patient was always first, and they were very dedicated to the reason that they were in health care. The mission behind their work, um, every single time that we had an opportunity to meet with the Sanford Health team, it felt very natural because their commitment to the patient matched North Memorial’s commitment to the patient. They talked about their mission the way North Memorial talked about their mission. They wore their the badge of responsibility to serving communities the same way. North Memorial wore that badge of responsibility to the communities. Uh, so while they were absolutely, you know, one of the strongest, uh, partners that we started with in the 12 different goals and objectives that we had, it was really the fact that they felt like us and they felt like they were going to be the best partner for us carrying on our mission that we’ve carried on for decades, serving, um, not only just the Robbinsdale community, but the Robbinsdale, the North Minneapolis, all the surrounding communities, Maple Grove, and certainly across 8500mi of the rest of Minnesota that we serve through our EMS network. Um, the last thing that I would leave you with is that, um, in working with Sanford Health, we also looked for a partner that would not only just help us through the financial challenges that we had, but also share our goal to really strengthen the organization and strengthen everything that we do for these communities specifically, and notably, Robbinsdale Hospital, the level one trauma center that serves this community is so critical to the communities that we serve, so critical to the all of the state of Minnesota. We wanted a partner that not only saw the vision of maintaining that service, but truly strengthening that service and building on something great that we’ve done for over 80 years, uh, making it even stronger resource for the community and for generations to come. So with that, I will turn it over to Bill Gaston. Thank you. Trevor. Thank you. Trevor. Uh, mayor. Thank you, city Council, thank you so much for the invitation and the opportunity to be here this evening. Uh, bill Gassen, I have the privilege of serving as the president and CEO at Sanford Health and would love to just share with you for a few minutes here this evening, uh, sort of standing on the shoulders of Trevor’s, uh, opening comments here and just share a little bit about how we ended up here from our perspective, a little bit of information about who Sanford Health is and who Sanford Health is in the state of Minnesota. And then we’d love to turn it over to questions that you might have as well to. So, uh, Sanford Health, like North Memorial, is a community based 501 C-3, not for profit hospital and health system. Uh, we’ve been operating in the state of Minnesota now for over three decades. Uh, we actually have over 10,000 employees in the state. And then through a network of 19 hospitals that we provide care through here in the state of Minnesota. In addition to that, we have 74 clinics where we also provide care as well. And then we also operate in a smaller segment. Our provider owned and allied health plan as well, too, is a part of the care that we are able to provide here in the state of Minnesota. Uh, as Trevor stated, we had the distinct privilege of being contacted by him, uh, several months ago. And Trevor, in that conversation, shared with us the vision for North Memorial. He explained to me, and then eventually to others on the management team, some of whom are with me here this evening, as well as to our board. The reason why they were seeking a partner, uh, and for us at Sanford Health, that was really important. We’ve had the privilege of growing over the years with other like minded, community based organizations that are very similar to North Memorial. Sanford Health, back in 2009, was of a very similar size, actually a little bit smaller, and have just had the great benefit over the years since then to have other very like sized like minded organizations say, we think that the best way to deliver care in this country is to do so as a not for profit hospital and health system, we believe it’s best because we put first the patients. We’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days out of the year. And we provide care for everyone, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, no matter where you’re from, and no matter whether you have the ability to pay. And I believe that in this country, that is a decision that we’ve made. It maybe doesn’t always manifest itself in the way we’d like to see that happen. But I do think the way in which we can sustain that in advance, that going forward is through the mission of other not for profit systems. And so, first and foremost, when I received the call from Trevor, I was excited to hear their why and their why. As Trevor explained there. But as we listened, uh, resonated with our vision. And so our mission is to care, comfort and cure. And we believe that the way in which we are able to do that and to achieve that, is by never losing focus of the fact that at the end of every single decision we make is a patient. Uh, and that really resonated with me and with eventually with the board at Sanford Health when Trevor and then later his management team and then his full board articulated and described themselves as a patient centric organization, because at the end of the day, as not for profit hospitals and health systems, the only reason we exist is to care for our patients, care for the people who provide that care, and then to care for our communities. And I think that’s one of the very unique aspects for us in not for profit health care is that you are always a community asset, and at the same time, that also necessitates that care must be local. Uh, and so for us, in having the opportunity to come together and partner with North Memorial, we really see that opportunity to come together and do what we’ve done elsewhere in the state of Minnesota, communities like Bemidji, communities like Worthington now, communities like we have here in Robbinsdale. We’re at the end of the day. We have many of the same and similar challenges across our footprint. For Sanford Health, the vast majority of the footprint we serve is rural, and not all of those communities are rural. We certainly have some suburban communities where populations are much higher, but the vast majority are geographically isolated and economically challenged communities, which mirrors a lot of the challenges that we see in our urban communities. But if you’ve seen one community, you’ve seen one community. There are still very unique aspects to each community. And we believe that the best way to address that is to have local leadership, that has accountability, that has authority and has the ability to be responsive and to meet those needs. And so as a part of our model, we do believe, as Trevor talked about, that there’s strength in that strategic size and that scale of being able to bring together system resources, the ability to invest in things like virtual care for an infrastructure that extends care for 80 different specialties for us across rural and urban communities alike. But you have to balance that with local needs. And for us, it was really important that we didn’t want to partner with an organization that was in a position where they didn’t want to continue to lead at a local level, but an organization that just wanted to be a part of a larger system that could bring to bear those additional resources but still maintain that local leadership and that local accountability is really important to us. And that’s exactly what was required in order to be a partner with North Memorial. And so, very specifically, as we looked at that opportunity that was in front of us, we had a lot of common ground. Um, and I’ll use this example. Bemidji Bemidji is an organization that invited us in back in 2012 to say, we think we serve a critical part of the care infrastructure in Minnesota, but we just can’t do it anymore on our own. We’re geographically isolated. Uh, we have some unique challenges in our population. There are 20% of the population of patients that we serve. Are Native American across the country. That’s 1.3%. And there’s some unique challenges as they came to us and said, we need help with we need to make sure we can provide culturally sensitive care. We need to make sure that we can work with them and work with tribal leadership in order to meet those needs. And at the same time, we need resources that we cannot provide today in that part of the state of Minnesota. Back in 2012, if you had a heart attack, you were hundreds of miles away from the next catheterization. And unfortunately, in those situations, that oftentimes leads to demise for the patient. And since that time when we made a commitment that over ten years, we would invest $75 million, we saw fit in partnership with those communities to now, almost 15 years later, to have invested $175 million into that community where there’s three cath labs. Now, in that community, there’s a culturally sensitive addiction and recovery program that’s there that allows individuals to seek recovery by leaning into some of the advancements in Western medicine, but to do so in a way that is culturally sensitive and responsive to what matters to them in their communities, and then at the same time, have also had the opportunity in the ability to extend critical care and infrastructure into that community that would not otherwise be there. And that’s something that we’re really proud of. And now it is a geographically isolated, sparsely populated part, much different than the Robbinsdale community. Both of us have about a 75% government payer mix, which creates a lot of challenges. But by coming together and leaning into those system resources, we’re able to continue to not just sustain, but really grow and expand. And I’ll leave you with this as we begin to transition to open up for questions. One of the things that I really wanted to hear from Trevor and his team, which we did loud and clear that the mission wasn’t just to maintain services at Robbinsdale. The goal in the mission was to be able to grow and to expand that, to be able to lean into the fact that, yes, it’s a level one trauma center. Yes, it serves a safety net function, but this is also a place that provides extremely high quality, complex care to some of the most challenged patients that come across, regardless of their demographics of their situation. And to me, that’s attractive and that’s exciting to not just maintain, but really looking for ways in which we could expand and to grow that, uh, especially connected to in a part of the expansive EMS program that they have, which is a point of pride, as it should be. That’s the largest and most comprehensive EMS program in the country that’s attached to a hospital and a health system. And so part of that commitment in coming together, and we’ve shared this publicly, but we want to importantly share this here that we have memorialized in our agreement that our commitment is to maintain the core services that are required to be able to maintain that level one trauma status, and that, I think, is extremely important. Uh, I can tell, uh, as we’ve talked before, but I can tell Trevor this, that it’s not just important for Robbinsdale, as he’ll share this hospital here provides care for a much broader section of Minnesotans than just those that are living in this area. And so we see that as a key part of delivering care in Minnesota, and would be very proud to be able to partner with into the future. Working with Trevor, his leadership team, which will remain in place as a part of this merger, as well as continuing to work with their local board of directors. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Council, any questions that you have? Yes. Council member.. Rhonda. Thank you. Mayor. Um, thank you guys for that presentation. Um, I represent Ward four, where North Memorial is at currently. Um, thank you for all your work. Um, I do have a couple of questions just regarding cost of healthcare and what comes with mergers, especially from out-of-state acquisitions like this. So can you speak a little bit on what it would mean for folks in Robbinsdale, north Minneapolis, in terms of like quality of care and cost of health care? If this merger were to go through? Yeah, I maybe can start with that. You know, I think one of the biggest challenges that we have in this country is, you know, healthcare in this country is fantastic. Uh, but health care model of financing is really broken. Um, there’s a lot that’s wrong with it. And one of the key things that was, you know, that our board of directors and our management team at, um, North Memorial really thought through is, look, looking forward with the headwinds facing us is can we deliver the quality of care that we want to be able to deliver for this community when every single year it’s getting harder and harder and harder just to make our payroll, to be able to invest in the buildings and the equipment and everything else. And so a big, uh, precipitated for this was to have a study partner and a partner that we could use to figure out how to solve some of the problems facing health care in Sanford across their 56 different facilities. Is that 58? I was close, um, you know, there’s a lot of learning to be had in how we can solve some of the problems. They also have, you know, a very active research organization, 1100 clinical trials going on right now. That’s new ways to treat patients, treat patients better, potentially even at a better cost. Uh, so this was a key reason, you know, the quality of care that we provide, not only maintaining the services, but continually getting better at the services that we provide, continually driving quality was a key reason that we thought it was important for us, even as hard as it was, was to give up. Our independence was absolutely required for us to do. Uh, and again, thank you very much for the question. Uh, I’m familiar with some of the studies that maybe you’re thinking about there. And I always say this it’s dangerous to venture into those, uh, arrangements that I know nothing about it than what I’ve seen from afar. So I can only speak to what I know at Sanford Health. Uh, and I do know that the communities that we’ve had the privilege of partnering with have not had the adverse results that you speak of. In fact, what we have seen is we’ve seen a sustainment and then a growing and advancement of care and being able to advance that at a better total cost of care. Uh, I’ll use an example, uh, legacy Med Center, one out of Bismarck, North Dakota. When we merged with them back in 2011, that was a community that boasted a one star hospital, that was an organization that was losing physicians and losing care teams left and right. Roll the clock forward to today. That is now a four, knocking on the door of being a five star hospital. The highest level of quality of care you can provide. We’ve added net 400 new providers to that community, and being able to expand care, expand opportunities and do that at a lower cost. Bemidji is one of the examples that I talked about there. In addition to bringing vast new array of services, bringing a cancer center that did not exist before that time, bringing important and critical behavioral health. In fact, that is the first pediatric empath center in the state of Minnesota that we were able to bring to life in Bemidji, Minnesota, and able to again, to do that at lower cost of care, to be able to provide for those patients and to be able to provide for those communities, which is something that I can speak to personally about what we’ve done. Importantly as well. There too, we’ve doubled the number of providers there. In addition to bringing together sort of the collective efforts to be able to recruit and retain and to train that talent. Uh, one of the other things that we’re really blessed with at Sanford Health is we have 40 graduate medical education programs. Uh, those are really important. And we fund most of those with our own philanthropic dollars that we’ve raised to make sure that they’re not contingent on state or federal dollars, which, unfortunately, can be challenging right now as budgets get tight. As I know, this room knows well. And as you do that, it’s really important. 40% of those physicians who train with us stay with us, and that means they stay with us in those communities. 70% of those who train stay within 100 miles of where they train. So it may not be an immediate benefit to Sanford Health, but it benefits the region when they decide to stay, even if they go work for a different hospital, different health system, different group. And then one of the other ways that we’re able to not only extend more care to cut down on the access challenges, but to do so in a way that’s more cost effective is by leveraging our infrastructure through our virtual care system. We were blessed a number of years ago to receive a $350 million philanthropic gift with a single purpose of building out virtual care infrastructure that would then not be bound by, uh, distance, by boundaries, even by state lines, subject only to privileging credentialing. Now, through that, we provide 80 different specialties through that virtual care. And for those individuals that we provide care per, uh, on a, on average per patient on those encounters, it saves them 176 miles in driving, and it saves over $300 out of their pocket in each one of those encounters and medical costs. And the reason why that’s. Important, when you think of it, is around affordability. And Trevor and I talk often about this internal within our organizations and externally, because we do have an affordability challenge in this country. But in addition to the direct affordability challenges in health care, there are those indirect costs. And so oftentimes we see that that is a barrier from individuals getting care. And if you think about having to travel 176 miles, now you’re having that individual have to find time off from work, perhaps having to find childcare, having to find reliable transportation, and then being able to afford meals, sometimes lodging. And then we are blessed to live in the part of the country that we do. But there’s a good part of the year. Travel can be really dangerous based on weather as well too, which adds additional worry, strain costs and oftentimes leads to deferral or complete absence when it comes to some of those care appointments, especially from a maintenance and a preventative care perspective, which we know can have drastic outcomes as well. Thank you. Thank you for that. Um, I have two more questions on this. Okay. Um, on to my next question. On, um, with Fairview Health, and I just want to ask what’s different this time around with North Memorial? Um, because that merger did not go through, um, last time, but another attempt here. But I just kind of want to know what’s different. These questions are going to be asked. And yeah, no, I really appreciate the question. The opportunity to be able to speak to that. Uh, and as you’re right, about three years ago, we were in the process of working on a merger with Fairview. Uh, the very similarly had approached us, as did the conversation here with North Memorial. Uh, and first and foremost, I would say we’re in a completely different time in the country right now. Uh, I think evidenced by the conversation we’re having here today. Uh, healthcare is in a different place right now in this country, and it’s in a different place for a lot of reasons. But a lot of it does come down to affordability and those challenges. And then the country is more acutely aware of that now, especially in light of the passage of H.R. one, the One Big Beautiful Bill act. And now looking at potential and further Medicaid cuts and reductions and creating potentially greater barriers and challenges to coverage for, uh, for our patients. And so, as a result, that’s created an additional level of strain on the health care systems. And as a result, it’s had more organizations start to look for what are ways forward. I think very much how Trevor has talked about, at the end of the day, we wish that was the case, but public funding is not going to be the answer, unfortunately for all of this, because there’s just not enough of that to go around. And so it’s really looking at how do we continue to advocate every day for the right type of funding? I’m with Trevor, uh, no matter what anybody says, it’s objectively true. The best health care in the world is still in the United States. Unfortunately, the health care financing and the economics behind it are not in the same level of, uh, superiority as it should be. And as we’d like to see that be. So it’s incumbent upon us as hospitals and health systems, to work together to figure out how do we collaborate, how do we maximize, how do we make the most of what we have in order to expand and to extend that care and make good use of strategic and appropriate size and scale, finding ourselves together with other like minded organizations, allow us to do things like leverage, you know, virtual care. As an example, I give that example once the core infrastructure has been invested in and made, then now that’s done, the ability to now expand that with a new partner doesn’t cost more money. It doesn’t cost more resources in order to do that. But for each individual organization to be able to create that on their own, there are too many financial barriers in front of that that unfortunately create that impediment. Um, and so we just find ourselves in a different place right now in the world. We find ourselves in a different situation. And, uh, you know, we find ourselves a different partner. Uh, North Memorial, at the end of the day, uh, I say you can have as many slogans as you want to. You can put whatever you want to for your mission, your vision, your values. But organizations are comprised of people. Uh, and at the end of the day, it is the people that are within that that drive the culture. And we have such an incredible cultural alignment that I do think starts and stops with the patient. Uh, we say oftentimes, I said before, at the end of every decision we make as a patient, and as we finished up our meeting with the board of directors, uh, the board of trustees for North Memorial, and we went back and talked with our board. Our board chair was here. Our management team was and we talked about, is this the right next step for us? Right. Is this does this make sense? And what we said is we looked each other in the eye was this is an organization that’s focused on serving its patients. That North Memorial believes that the only reason they exist is to care for these communities. And that creates a kindred spirit between the way in which we see the world. Um, one of the questions that Trevor and I appreciate it and, and his board talked to us about was, you have to understand, being a safety net hospital, a level one trauma center, and we have two other level one trauma centers that we own and operate as a part of our system. But they said it’s difficult to cause that math to work. Uh, and as a result, that’s why it operates at a deficit. Does that concern you? Does that scare you? Uh, and as I shared before, after Trevor and I talked, Robbinsdale is a big part of our why. And again, our organization only exists to be able to serve those who otherwise, but for not for profit hospitals and health systems would not be served. And we take great pride in the fact that for many of our communities, for many of our patients, we say, but for Sanford Health, there would be no one else there to care for these patients. It’s much the same for North Memorial. And so we see it as a privilege and a great stewardship of the resources that we’ve been blessed to steward, to be able to use those dollars in partnership to come together to carry out this mission. Thank you. And I have one more question. Sorry to ask all the questions. That’s a good question. But I promise that you guys will go soon. Just kidding. So, um, just the last question. Um, with mergers also come layoffs, potentially. One of the things with North Memorial is that we have a lot of Robbinsdale residents in North Memorial or north Minneapolis, folks that, you know, like living close to where they work. It’s one of the many benefits from having hospital in the Twin Cities here. But what can you say about potential layoffs that could come from a merger like this? Yeah. Um, similarly, I know the studies. I know the other examples, but can’t necessarily speak to those. I can only speak to what we know as Sanford Health. And as we’ve approached each one of those communities, some of which I’ve talked about here today, it’s really about how do we provide more care for more patients. It’s not having a scarcity mindset. And so the goal isn’t how do we just hold on, do just enough. Uh, in one of the unique aspects about health care, unlike perhaps other businesses, other industries, other service industries, is that it is local. Uh, you don’t pack up your shop and move all your manufacturing to some city in the middle of wherever. Um, at the end of the day, the care teams have to be here locally. The assets need to be here locally. And we believe very strongly that those who are making decisions that no one understand, the communities need to be here locally as well, too. And as we’ve gone into these communities, I’ve talked about Bemidji, I’ve talked about Worthington can think of, you know, other communities where we’re providing across that network of, you know, 19 different hospitals across the state, thief River, these are communities where we’ve grown and expanded services, not where we’ve retracted. Um, and so I would ask that notwithstanding sort of what you may read or see elsewhere across the country, hold us accountable to what we’ve done, uh, and trust us that what we’ve said we have, we’re going to do here is just like we did before. And that’s fully intending on what we’re going to do into the future. Thank you. Thank you for that. Excellent. Any other questions for council? Yes. Yeah. Thank you mayor. Thank you both for the presentation and for taking our questions. Uh, one thing that I appreciate you mentioned is how at the end of each decision, there’s a patient and you’ve both talking at, uh, spoken at length about how important it is with integration with and alongside the community, which is great to hear. And with that spirit in mind, I wonder if you can speak to how the Robbinsdale community and the Northwest Metro community can have a voice in future decisions? Yeah. A couple different things that I would say there. Number one is, um, the North Memorial stays North Memorial. I mean, again, names may change, but the management team, the facilities that we have, they stay in place. Uh, so our long track record of partnering with the community, serving the community, no matter what the needs are, regardless of anybody’s, uh, ability to pay. That was one of the things that we specifically looked for in a partner. Um, and that also included making sure that they share a commitment to working with the communities. You know, we’re in communities all across the state of Minnesota. This is a very important one. Maple Grove is a very important one in all the places that we serve with our clinics and our EMS network, all of those communities require us to know what that’s on those communities mind. We will continue to to do the things that we’ve done. Uh, and as part of this integration and in terms of kind of where we go next as as an organization with Sanford as our partner, uh, we will continue to partner with the community to make sure that we are not only meeting the current needs, but thinking about what’s coming for the communities that we can help with. And likewise, what’s coming for North Memorial, Sanford Health that the community can help us with. We’re going to be experts in health care. We’re not going to be experts in everything. So we’re always going to look for those opportunities to partner and making sure we’re helping the community, and the community is helping us where they can. Um, thanks, Trevor. What I would add in addition to that is, you know, from a structural perspective, and Trevor talked about this, our model, uh, is what we would refer to as an integrated model of care. So we do believe it’s important to do the hard work to integrate how you operate and how you function, to make sure that you get the benefits and the efficiencies and all of that. But at the same time, we believe it’s critically important that you have to have local leadership. And so Trevor, who stands here today, is the president and CEO for North, we’ll stand here tomorrow after the organization will be combined in that same capacity. In addition to that, the local board of directors will still continue to remain in place. And in fact, that board will continue to be the board of ultimate authority that will decide all the privileging, all the credentialing, which bottom line what that means is that will be who determines what are the care services that are provided in this community? Those decisions aren’t made somewhere else. I believe very firmly in this. So does our board. Sanford Health at a corporate level does not have a policy that determines the types of care that’s provided. We think those decisions need to be made by those who provide the care, those who live in the communities and know those communities best. Furthermore, one of the important when we refer to them as part of our cornerstone commitments is that when Sanford Health partners with another organization, one of our requirements is that those organizations, even as they become part of the Sanford Health, have to continue to maintain the same level or greater investments in the local community. And that means and that goes beyond just the bricks and mortar and the infrastructure to provide care. That means partnering and coming alongside other nonprofits in the community, partnering with other business leaders, because we believe that there’s also a responsibility to be a strong corporate steward within these communities and not just seen as the provider, uh, like North in many of our communities. The health care provider is one of the larger employers in those communities. And so, to your point, an FTE isn’t just a number on a spreadsheet. These are the individuals who make up and comprise leadership in a culture within that community. Bless you. Uh, and furthermore, these are individuals who and again, this is part of it from a local accountability perspective. We believe very much in that when you work in and live in a community and you see those individuals who are your patients, those colleagues of yours, and you see them at houses of worship, you see them at community events, you see them at the shopping centers, you see them at basketball games. There’s a different level of feel. That’s not a name, that’s not a number, but that becomes somebody who, you know, uniquely and intimately. And I think that that leads to better care in those communities as well, which is one of the ways that we think we continue to maintain that local culture and that touch and that feel within a community that by having those living in here, working in here and operating here who know the individuals best, be the ones who are empowered to make decisions. The only thing, the last thing I’d add is, uh, I’ve been with the organization three and a half years, and and the story that you shared that you were born at North Memorial Hospital. One of the reasons I love being at North is that that happens every day. Every day I run into somebody who has been at the organization for 50 years. I run into somebody who was born there or whose grandkids were born there, or whose kids were born there, or all of the above were born there. Uh, that is a that is a responsibility that I, uh, not only have, but I embrace because that’s one of the best things about health care. It’s what we get to do every single day. We get to come to work and we get to help facilitate people helping people. And that’s a pretty, pretty great thing. And that doesn’t happen without a good partnership with the community. So I forgot one other thing I might add there too, is also two members who currently serve today on North Board. Uh, we’ll actually come on to the Sanford Health Board as well too. Uh, and so I apologize, I left that part out. But we also think that that’s an important part for integrating in the cultures is having individuals who know the communities and know that organization in this situation, North intimately well being on our board, they’re helping to influence the conversations that are taking place is they think about what is the best way to govern and oversee for all the communities that we have the privilege of serving. Thank you. I’ve got a question. Yeah. So I heard investment and, uh, growth. Is there any plans to expand the existing footprint? Um, you know, I mean, I don’t know the occupancy of the buildings that North owns, but, you know, I understand you guys will be bringing additional programs. That’s the idea, right? Any any anticipation of changes to land use or buildings? Uh, you know, this is one of the things that I think we will, uh, once we get fully through the process and close the transaction. The reality is that as an independent healthcare organization, North has not been planning out growth in the Robbinsdale community because that just wasn’t on the table. Uh, now we have a new set of possibilities in terms of how we can grow, how we can leverage resources across the entirety of the Sanford system to bring more resources here. We just had a board meeting. We talked about the cancer care that we provide for the community, and we do see an opportunity for us to do even more, uh, to bring new therapies, to bring new services, to bring more access to the community. So we haven’t really gotten into that because from a regulatory perspective, we can’t quite yet do that. But I can tell you that there are more possibilities than there ever were going to be with North as an independent system. Excellent. Yeah. And maybe the only thing I’d add to that is one of the things that we are still permitted to do at this time is they can share with us that they have some deferred capital investments that have been placed on hold. And so we were able to commit that we would step into those right away and then sit down together and then see what else do we need in the future? What else are the opportunities as we look ahead to make sure that this is known for? Yes, being a great level one trauma center. Yes, being an An incredible safety net within the community, but we want it to be seen for even more, and we want to make sure that people say, I want to come here because this is the best place to get X, Y, and z. You fill in the blank, and we know that patients already come here to do that, but we think more should be able to come here into the future, pursuing the highest and best. Excellent. Yeah. Please. Yeah, that’s gonna be great. First of all, thank you so much for being here and presenting as well as, uh, answering your questions. Um, I guess one thing you spoke about the distinctive nature of being non-profit. Yeah. Um, and I agree with you, but I feel like the majority of hospitals in Minnesota are non-profit. And so I’m just curious, like, how is that unique? Or like, what do you see that’s unique as far as this relationship and why you call that out as being a differentiator? Yeah, I’ll I’ll start. I’ll say from my standpoint, uh, well, there are many that are not for profit. Uh, majority are certainly not for profit. Not all the calls. And so for clarity, what I was speaking to is not all the phone calls that we received, not all the outreaches we receive are from non-profit organizations. Uh, and so for us, it’s really important when deciding who we want to partner with, finding ones that have that same organizational structure, because that aligns to our vision. We think that that’s really important. Again, you can have conversations. Uh, tune in to whatever station you want to. People are saying, is it a right? Is it a privilege referring to health care in this country? Uh, we believe that we’ve already determined in this country appropriately so that it’s a right now, unfortunately, isn’t always equitably distributed in this country. But we believe that the best way to be able to meet that need and be able to stand behind that commitment of this being a right, is because of the mission of not for profit hospitals and health systems that, by their nature, never close. Right. Seven days a week, 365 days out of the year. And you come into these communities, you come into these hospitals, these facilities for care, whether you have any coverage at all. If you have a need, you’re able to come in there and have that need met. And I think that’s the right way to look at it. I believe that’s what people deserve at a human level. And I do believe that the only way to be able to provide that in a comprehensive way is through that vision, and that structure is nonprofit hospitals and health systems. Great. Thank you. I would just quickly. Add what we evaluated when North was facilitating this process to evaluate different partners. We spent a lot of time on what does it exactly mean to be a not for profit? Like what? What does that mean to this organization? And kind of three things stood out. Number one is any any profits that are made, any money that is made in the organization goes right back into the care for the patients that that we are serving. So there’s no, you know, no shareholders or anything like that. It just goes right back into the care, it goes back into the buildings, the equipment, the programs, all the things that we create. The second is you’re going to get care, irrespective of your ability to pay. Uh, and that was another thing that, again, was very important to us as North Memorial that we wanted to see in any potential partner. Uh, and certainly when I talk about how the patient was at the fore of everything that Sanford talked about, uh, that was one of the key things that that we, we talked about, uh, and then the last is making sure that, you know, if it gets hard in the community, if it gets financially hard in a community, you don’t just walk away, you don’t just close up shop. You are there all the time. Uh, that’s one of the things that we’ve done for decades at North Memorial Health. It was incredibly important to us. So that for us is what not for profit really meant. Okay. No, I appreciate that. And maybe one other thing there, because I made reference to this earlier. Uh, the other thing that I think uniquely positions you is how you partner in a community. If you’re a nonprofit. Um, and it may not be expressly dictated by your 503 status, but I believe as far as the heart of an organization, if you truly believe in that nonprofit mission, that you’re willing to do that. And so some of the things that we do, I’ve, I’ve got as a bias, uh, hunger relief, my father, uh, created and ran a hunger relief organization for 24 years. And so for us, in a lot of our pediatric clinics, we partner with and have a food pantry there within those clinics. Uh, we think it’s a dignified way for families to not only come in and have their medical needs met, but at the same time then leave with a food prescription that allows them to take wholesome, healthy food with them and allows them to move forward. And it’s those types of thing. If you’re focused only on the bottom line, you have shareholders to worry about. You’re thinking about your next earnings call. You’re not probably going to make those decisions because it’s shareholder return that dictates the future. Not not that that’s bad or wrong, but that’s what is it for us. It’s around patients. It’s around people and it’s around communities. And that’s what drives us moving forward. And that’s exactly what we see with North Memorial and the way they show up in this community and others. That’s great. Um, I guess one other thing that I’ll just say is that North Memorial and I mean, it’s tied into the fabric of Robbinsdale. We’ve grown up together. Uh, and I know you’re talking about the involvement in community and helping community, and that all sounds great. But to us and to Robbinsdale, it means being there at whiz bang days. It means, um, being involved in our community meet and greet in the fall, and all of the different ways that North Memorial supports our community. And we work together and support North Memorial. And I guess I’m just wondering, it sounds great and I appreciate that. But like, how do you stay committed to that fabric of what we’ve built together between Robbinsdale and and North Memorial? Yeah. Um, well, first and foremost, the individuals who do that today are still here tomorrow. Um, uh, and as a part of the mission of the organization, that’s what happens. And that’s where, again, I invite people to to judge us based on the communities that we partnered with before. And that’s exactly what’s happened, uh, that they’ve continued that partnership, that deep engagement, that deep involvement, whether it’s, you know, partnering with the local schools, whether it’s partnering with the community on different needs, it may not be purely related to health care, but overall relates to the wellness of a community. And at times it’s even it’s just financial viability. How are you serving your as a partner is trying to invite new business owners into a community that’s trying to, you know, continue to stimulate the economy in that community? We think that if you’re going to bring business and you’re going to bring family into a community, you want to make sure they can have great health care. Uh, and so, again, we see ourselves in healthcare in the provision of that as being a vital and integral part of the infrastructure of any community. And so the way in which we would intend to do that is the way that we’ve always done it. And I don’t know that there’s a different way, really, to be able to do that. I’m not sure how you can be serving out that mission and how you could be, you know, North Memorial and Robbinsdale Hospital, how you could do that without being in part of and fully engaged in that community. So. I would just acknowledge. How important that question is. For the last several years, one of the key things that we looked at was we continually were scaling back our budget for community involvement, right. Historically, we’ve we’ve funded parades. We’ve been at high school events. We’ve done those kinds of things, and we’ve had to scale that back because as a, you know, small independent health care system, there just wasn’t the funds to continue to do that and still make sure that we’re meeting our primary mission of caring for the patients that are coming to us. One of the key reasons that we engaged in this partnership was because we we were believing that our, you know, desire to stay as an independent was starting to become more important than our mission. And that just wasn’t right. And we wanted to have a partner. We wanted to bring somebody else to the table that could help us get, uh, stable and sustain us, uh, but continue to grow. So we could do these kinds of things, investing in the community like we all want to. Great. Thank you. Excellent. Any other questions? Um, not a major question. Thank you so much for being present and being here and answering the questions of my fellow council members, or very great questions, by the way. Um, my question really is like, I know you have a crowd of people with you. I’m curious about who you brought with you today. Guys, this is a this is a big deal. I appreciate the amount of people in the amount of intentional time they took to come out. And so I’m just curious, who else is with you today? Yeah. Uh, thank you for the question. They appreciate being acknowledged. Uh, so with me here in the back, uh, I’ve got Nathan Peterson, who’s an executive vice president and chief of staff here at Sanford Health. He actually.. Sorry. Uh, he actually had to start doing, uh, Minnesota legislative affairs when he started with the organization about 15 years ago. Uh, Jennifer Grennan is the executive vice president and the chief administrative officer at Sanford Health. As accountability for human resources, for legal, for compliance, for risk, for program management. Jennifer, I’m going to stop now because I’ll leave something out. Uh, then next is Matt Hawkes. Matt Hawkes is the executive vice president and the chief operating officer for Sanford Health. Uh, Matt grew up in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Uh, and before coming to work at Sanford Health after he finished up his education as well. And then what’s. Oh, Erica, there. You are. I was like, where did you go? And then. Erica Batchelor is the executive vice president and the chief external affairs officer at Sanford Health. And so has accountability for our media, for our communication, for both internal and external as well, too. And then our foundations as well all report up into Erica Batchelor as well. Uh, Angela, Juliana works with us as well to hear. And our media relations as well. And then Trevor. Yeah. So, uh, Bjorn Gunaratne. Uh, chief strategy officer for the system. Uh, we have Beth. Therewas who is our government affairs and public relations lead, and then Abigail. Creek. Did I say that? Right, Greg? Sorry. Um, who is with our communications and public relations team? Yeah. All right. Oh, well, we didn’t bring Senator an rest, but Senator Anne Rest is here. We know her. Yeah. That’s right. We like to claim her, but she sometimes resist. Yeah. And I guess. Thank you so much for for going to that. And thank you all for being present tonight. And I guess a question I would have is, as you think about mergers of this type, are there questions that we didn’t ask you that you would expect us to bring up, especially in talking to the City Council and think about what that means for the community? It’s something that we’re missing that we didn’t ask you, that you would. Yeah. Care to expand on or. I mean, feel free to anybody, I guess. Really? That’s a good. Question. The team says they try to anticipate all those questions. So so our answer would be no. Um, you know, I think one of them is, uh, and I think, uh, I can’t remember who had asked a question really around around the people, uh, and thinking about the potential people impact. And is that layoffs? Is it those sorts of things. And so maybe I guess I’d take that a little deeper after having addressed that, but which is more or less just thinking as you come into these situations, how do we think about the care teams? How do we think about the colleagues, our associates and the workforce? Sort of in general? And that’s something that usually would anticipate, you know, and sometimes people ask questions around, uh, either represented workforce or unrepresented workforce. And, um, that’s, you know, one of the things that we’ve had the privilege of sharing is that today at Sanford Health, with the great benefit of working with employees who are represented in some who aren’t represented. Uh, we have 26 different collective bargaining agreements in our organization. 23 of them are in the state of Minnesota. Uh, and I can say that sort of, again, uh, washing aside sort of some of the things that you may read or see elsewhere. Uh, we’ve been blessed with an incredible care team and workforce who we have the privilege of working with, those who are represented, those who are not represented. And anytime you enter into mergers with other organizations, that’s always a topic that comes up is how do we make sure that everybody is treated fair and equitably in that process? Uh, and so one of the things that we get the opportunity usually to speak to, uh, is, of course, the commitment that we’re required to by law, but it’s the right thing to do regardless, is that, of course, you honor all of those collective bargaining agreements that are in place. You continue to work together in a very cohesive manner. You negotiate in good faith as those contracts come up again. But at the end of the day, it’s recognizing and this is one of the incredible things about health in healthcare, even with the advent of incredible technologies. And nobody talked about AI tonight yet, which is pretty amazing. Um, even with all of that, it is a people intensive calling, which I think is incredible. And only thing that you do in healthcare is that what you do through your people. And so they truly are the heartbeat of the organizations. That’s how we deliver care. That’s how we meet people. That’s how we show up. Yes, we’ll leverage technology to help expand and be able to increase access, but at the end of the day, it’s through our people. And that’s just it’s a question I would normally expect to get and have an opportunity to speak to a little bit more. So you did cover some of it though. Thank you. Um. I just add two quick things. One is, um, you know, often the relationship that, uh, patient has with the health system is through their doctor. And do we anticipate this really disrupting any of those physician relationships, especially because North Memorial has a lot of independent physicians as opposed to just having an employed physician model. So we’ve really vetted that early in the process and can assure you that it doesn’t necessarily matter whether they’re employed or independent. We’re wanting to make sure that the physicians who are, uh, were so privileged and lucky to have at North Memorial stay there and have, you know, long, productive careers, as long as they want to. Again, we have a lot of challenges in health care, so we will have, uh, great opportunities to partner with them. But those that will remain the same. Uh, and the other thing that I could just imagine coming up is, you know, with Sanford being the much larger of the two organizations, you know, uh, is this an important thing to them? Is this community, is this organization going to be important to them in their agenda? I hope you can see it is, um, and this has been consistent through, uh, through the whole process is that, uh, this is a very important, um, uh, partnership for Sanford Health, uh, because they truly believe that it’s not only in the best interest of their organization, but it’s in the best interest of North Memorial and ultimately, all of the patients that we serve across the entire Sanford footprint. So, uh, that might be the other thing that I would expect to come up. And I can tell you 100% consistently, uh, the large number of people that they bring, uh, to every, every opportunity is just reinforcing to me that this really is very, very important to them. Uh, not only because of, you know, making sure they’re a strong organization, but because it’s the right thing to do for patients and communities. Any other? Yes. And then just last point here, um, are you guys planning to attend the public forum next week? Um, am I correct in assuming that. No. Yes. Okay. I think we have a fairly prominent role in it. Uh, and so maybe it’s a bit of a warm up for us. Uh, but we do absolutely intend to be there. And, uh, I will say this, that, um, and we had the opportunity to share this with the attorney General’s office as well, too. That much like this opportunity, it is really important. Uh, even if they’re hard questions, even even if people are skeptical, it’s way better to hear about it there. Give them a forum to address those questions. Those concerns. Otherwise, you don’t have the opportunity to perhaps meet them where they’re at. And so I actually see it being a very key part of doing this in a way that’s going to be successful long term. That’s just a key evidence of, again, our willingness and responsibility to partner with the community. You can’t do that without first and foremost listening to the community. But you did get spoilers, so don’t share it with anybody. We wanted to get. Thank you. That’s all I got. Thank you. Uh, gentlemen, I’ll, uh, if there’s no other questions, I’ll just end, uh, with this. Uh, Trevor. For starters, Jason said it best. North Memorial is woven into the fabric of Robbinsdale, and we have grown up together. I am a alumni from the maternity ward there, and you guys have saved my bacon more than once. It’s. We’re so blessed to have a hospital this close. And, uh, one that invests in the community. And I know you guys have scaled back. You know, we’ve seen it. Um, not that, you know, we don’t understand, but I have spent nights worrying about what happens with the hospital, so I’m very excited about this potential. And, uh, you know, Bill, I just wanted to say to you, too, you know, when you hear a leader talk about people as much as you talk about people, that is, I’m in the business of human capital in my day job. I believe it or not, this is not a full time job. And, uh, you know, the companies that do well are the companies that talk about their people and make them front and center. And I just like that is a good sign for me. So I’m very eager and optimistic and look forward to next week’s discussion. So thank you both. And thank all of you for coming in. Um, this is great. Really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank. You, thank. You, thank you. All right. We still got more to go. Uh, next up, we have the 2026 Pride Month proclamation. Thank you. Mayor, members of the council, I’m just going to give a brief overview of this for you. Um, as part of an ongoing series of proclamation supporting inclusivity and, um, just diversity and equity in our city. Um, our internal, um, staff Dei committee has put together a series of proclamations, um, to uphold this and support this. And I know support from the council comes for this, too. Um, so we wanted to, um, for the month of June, um, put this proclamation in front of you for LGBTQ Plus Pride Month proclamation. Um, again, just sort of solidifying our support and, um, encouragement of individuality and unique identity in the city. And with this proclamation, the city also has put up a, um, progress flag at the city hall out front here. Um, so, um, we just asked the, the council to support this and make a motion to declare or proclaim June 26th to be LGBTQIA+ pride month in the city of Robbinsdale. Thank you. Uh, Council. Anything to add? Thank you. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, thanks as always to staff for the the work. Um, put in to this proclamation and bringing that forward for, uh, our consideration, I am happy, as always to support this proclamation. Um, and I also wanted to highlight a few opportunities for folks to be in community, as it is really important right now. Um, so near to Robbinsdale, not too far away. Um, we have the Golden Valley Pride Festival coming up on Saturday, June 13th. Um, that’s being held at Brook View Park. And then another opportunity, of course. Uh, Twin Cities Pride is later this month, June 27th. That weekend at Loring Park. And then some additional pride events before then include, uh, a Cheers to Pride event happening uh, this Saturday, actually, which is a community ride and run happening not too far away from here at UW brewing. And then there’s a pride family fun Day happening June 21st at Como Park. Uh, from 11 to 2. So again, I wanted to highlight some events. I’m hopeful that Robbinsdale will eventually look to these other great events and hold something similar in the future, but until then again, it’s really important to be in community. Um, so I hope you can attend one of those events and happy pride. Yeah. Other questions comments. Um, well, I’ll just, uh, I’ll also say I’m happy to, to support this. Um. Oh, is anybody going to the Golden Valley Pride event? I will be there. So, um, I just wanted to make sure three of us are going to be there. We need to tell somebody. I’ll also note that city staff, um, set up a volunteering. So we have several staff that will be, um, tabling at Golden Valley Pride. And the council is welcome to be there with us. So. Absolutely excellent. I believe we’ve signed up to give hugs. So we’ll be there. Uh, happy, happy happy to support this. And and, uh, proud that we are doing it. So yeah, with that, um, we need a motion here. Yeah. I’ll make a motion to, um, to proclaim, uh, June 20th 26th as Pride Month in Robbinsdale. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Those opposed say no or nay. All right. So it’s been proclaimed. Uh, next is public hearings and there are none. And then we pulled new business in front of old business. So, uh, first under a new business, we have the rezone request for 13 municipal parks. Eric. All right, we’ll get up second. I’m sorry, I’m having to take their perfect. Thank you again, mayor. Thank you. Council. It’s always happy to come forward and present between you all. Um, today, this is a rezone request. Um, actually, staff driven for a park rezone for 13 municipal park properties. So after some review, especially with Sanborn, Park City staff ended up uncovering that currently 13 municipal parks right now in the city are zoned incorrectly. Right now, multiple properties in. I’ll show the list right after the slide. Um, 13 properties are now zoned as R-1 Single Family residential R-1 single family Residential is the standard zoning for homes that you see in majority over all of Robbinsdale. The park should be zoned actually underneath public facilities like how it is for expanders and the Robbinsdale Middle School Park. Um, those two parks are zoned correctly at this time. But right now, underneath the zoning classification, we would see Sanborn and other park zone as similar to a housing development. Fundamentally, in zoning practice, this is incorrect. And we’re hoping to come today and just clean this up is the majority of what staff is attempting to do. So I’ll just have the list here of all the parks that are all zoned R-1 at this time, this includes Hubert Humphrey Park, Lakeview Terrace Park, Lee Park, Manor Park, Mielke Park, Norma Dubois, Kelly Park, Parkview Park, Sanborn Park, Thomas Hollingsworth Park South, Halifax Park, Triangle Park, Sunset Park, and Walter Soul Hockey Park. All of these properties at this time are zoned R-1 Single Family Residential, and we just want today to come forward and just clean this up to better represent what they are. City staff have no interest and I believe council as well have changing these to any other classification, allowing any homes to be built on our parks anytime soon. So today we’re just coming forward to clean that up. So I actually wanted to show this map to really understand where this kind of difference is coming from. Um, on this yellow map that we see over here, this is our draft land Use 2040 plan. This is our comprehensive plan that we have submitted to Metropolitan Council that we utilize for long term planning within the city. You might have noticed a majority of that map is yellow. That is going to be our low density residential. This is where we want to see these R-1 single family homes built, constructed and maintained. When we look at all of the parks, though, I’m going to play with this. You see that? There we go. You can see Sanborn is actually going to be seen as green. This is going to be shown down here as our public public areas. This is going to be seen with Thomas Hollywood Victory Memorial. Lee. These are going to be seen and categorized as public parks, not our yellow parks. There are not R-1. We are seeing a difference. And this is actually going to be a conflict with the Municipal Planning Act. We need to have our zoning maps and our comprehensive back maps mirror. When we look over at our current zoning map, the majority of it is white, including Sanborn Park. When we look down here at our symbols, we can show that our R-1 is being shown as our white. We are seeing major differences to our zoning maps, to our comprehensive maps. This is seen in the zoning world as a negative, and we are just hoping to get this cleared up. So this is not just been a community development staff driven. We have also reached out to our Parks and Recreation director and City engineer. They had the opportunity to look over our changes, and they both stated they have no concerns with our reasons. I also went and reached out to the Three Rivers Park district with our associations, Joe Hockey, to make sure that they didn’t have any issues with our rezone. They’ve stated that since the operations of the parks are not changing, uses are not changing the physical dimensions of parks are not changing. They had no concerns with the rezone happening tonight. The Planning Commission also had the opportunity to look over our rezone request as per policy. Um, they scheduled a meeting on May 21st, 2026. A public hearing was held at the meeting. No comments in relation to the reasons were made during the open or to the public forum. Um notice. The public hearing was published in the city’s official newspaper and posted on the city’s bulletin board and per policy, we did send out notices to any residents 350ft away from all parks within the city. City staff received multiple inquiries from residents, mainly wanting clarification on why this rezone is happening and what it entails. The majority of residents, after talking with staff, felt comfortable with the reasonable rezone request and didn’t have any large issues. They mainly thought that we were going to make some alteration or change to the park. We are not proposing any such at this time. We are not changing any of the atmosphere of the parks. We just want to make sure ten years in the future, zoning code still sees it as parks. With that, staff would recommend a motion to approve the draft resolution. Attached with your packet to rezone the. The following parks R-1 single family to the Public Facilities District. I’m available for any questions you may have at this time. I have a question. Yeah. Making a motion. Do we need to name each park individually, or can we just say like subject properties, parks within Robbinsdale? I did put into the resolution all the parks listed already. So if you wanted to and correct me if I’m wrong, Tim, if you wanted to just do a or a motion to approve the draft resolution. The parks are included. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Any other questions or is there a motion? I’ll make a motion. Okay. Uh, to rezone, uh, the park properties in the draft resolution. Say.. All those in favor say aye. I. Oppose say no or. Nay. Rezoning. Thank you. Well, perfect. All right. Oops. I back right out of that. Moving on to new business item B conditional use permit for outdoor service at 4050 Lakeland Avenue North. Perfect. I’ll get that right here. Thank you again. This is going to be a standard conditional use permit for the property of 4050 Lakeland Avenue North. You may remember this one since we did a similar one last year. It is the same individuals coming forward. Renaissance Fireworks Incorporated. They did get approval on behalf of the property owner, Robbins Center Partners LLC, and they submitted a conditional use permit application on March 25th, 2026, to allow the operation of a temporary outdoor fireworks stand and accompanying storage container. Um, you may remember they came by last year, applied for a conditional use permit, applied for a fire permit through our building department, and ended up running their stand and then left. We had no issues with the fire department. We did not have any issues with the building department and similar. We had no issues with our police department as well as firework. Renaissance. Firework has come back again since they had a good sale and they’d like to keep going. Um, the proposed per site plan, they will be occupying eight parking spots in the parking lot as last year. This will include their sales tent as well as a shipping container that they will be using for storage. That shipping container is what they’re going to be storing their products in after hours. So that way they cannot be masked within, uh, criminal manner. So on the map here, this is just the location of where they’ll be operating. You can see in the red circle there on the map, that is just the area. They’re going to be well behind the main parking that’s going to be utilized for the businesses. We did calculate the required parking amount for. Actually, that is going to be the next slide there. So we actually were able to calculate the parking needs. For. That uh, we were able to calculate the parking needs for the individual businesses as well as the parking needs for the Robbins Center and the amount that they will be taking over. Um, we found that they’ll have ample surplus parking, as they did last year, and we don’t see any issues with parking wise. Um, in the B3 highway commercial district. We did look and see that they did need outdoor service sales. So up for their operation, the B4 zoning district states that any conditional use permits or requirements in the B1 two three are also required within the B4 as well. So since the B3 Zoning district stated conditions, permits are needed for outdoor sales, it is similar needed for the B4 which they are located in at this time. There are four conditions with this copy stated in the B3 district is that outdoor use is limited to 30% of the principal use is floor area. They’re taking a minor amount compared to the property. We did not see that they’re anywhere close to this requirement. The second was the outdoor area must be fenced, screened from neighborhood neighboring residential properties or abutting residential districts. Per section five, ten, 25 subdivision two. The majority of the lot is actually going to be covered with the strip mall itself. Um, there should be no issues with any type of residential districts viewing their sales. We didn’t have any issues last year, and looking over the maps, we didn’t see any areas where this might come into question. The third one is lighting must be hooded and directed so that the light sources are not visible from the public right of way or nearby residents. Per section 510, subdivision 25 or subdivision five, similar with the last requirement since the strip mall and other areas are being blocked from residential view, their lights should not cause any type of issue to residences, and with the subsequent highway elevated higher than the parking lot itself, we shouldn’t see any issues with the highway either. For visibility six the fourth one is that sales areas must be surface or grass to adequately control dust. The parking lot is asphalt, so there should not be any issues with control of dust. With that, through those conditions, we did not see any issues with the four listed. This is just going further into what it is described with the parking situation. They have 269 spaces present on the lot. 221 are going to be needed for the uses, and with the eight required for the operation, we saw ample surplus allowed. They are also going to be posing for a temporary sign permit as well. Um, they applied for a similar one last year going with their cup. They’re proposing a banner sign measuring 30ft to be attached to the sales tent during the duration of the cup. Our temporary sign permits allow signs up to 50ft for use during that time. This is going to be within our realm for the permits. Um, the the applicant has applied for the temporary site permanent. And after the review, the permit is compliant with all zoning standards. Staff will approve the sign permit pending approval of the copy. We just don’t want to take their money for the sign permit not knowing if the copy or not. So we did hold that until this has been approved by the council. This is the sign that they’re proposing. It’s a standard sign that says fireworks. Makes sense. Um, the fire police and building department reviewed this as well, including the fire marshal, city engineer. Um, they did have the opportunity to look this over, and a fire permit was issued on May 12th, 2026, to let you know a fire permit was issued. This means that they’re underneath the guidelines of the building department at this time. Who do have fire review credentials through the state of Minnesota. Once they have gone through the process and do the review requirements, they will end with the building permit. So at this time, they’re in the review, the issuing phase, as they should be with the building department. Do.. And with any conditional permits. We do need to go through the eight conditional use findings of facts to make sure they are required. They’re meeting the requirements maintained by the city. I will go through them quickly just to make sure that we are understood that they have met all eight requirements per city code, that this use is consistent with the comprehensive plan, since they are operating a commercial use within our commercial district. We did see this use compatible with the B4 zoning district that the geographic area involved is not going to cause any issues since they’re not making any exterior changes to the parking lot itself, they are only putting up a sales tent and then shipping tater, which they will then remove at the end of the duration. We do not see any issues with this, um, requirement that the such use will cause deterioration of the area in which it is proposed. Since we did have this permit reviewed by our fire department, our building department, engineering department and police department, who all reviewed it to make sure that it is consistent, that they’re not going to have any deterring factors. We did not see any issues with this finding effect. The fourth one is that the character of the surrounding area is not going to change, since this is a commercial use and a commercial district per. As I stated with the comprehensive plan, we don’t see any issues with this finding. In fact, the fixes that there is a demonstrated need for such a use with the applicants. They did have a successful run last year operating their sales. They’ve come back again to keep operating. We see that there is a need. Our community wants to be able to celebrate with fireworks within the community, and we feel that there is a need, so we would have no reason to stop them. The six is that whether the proposed use would cause odor, dust, flies, vermin, smoke, gas, noise or vibration, or when imposed hazards to life or property in the neighborhood since they will be taking their product and then properly containing it after hours. So that is not open for anyone to come and mess with. We do not see that this will cause any, uh, hazards to the neighborhood. And as with last year, they did not cause any issues for the police department or fire. We think they would still again this year not cause any issues. Again. The seventh is whether such a use would inherently lead to to encourage or disturbing influences in the neighborhood. Since this use was monitored closely by the police department last year, the chief of police is well aware of their timeline and will have a close monitor it again this year. As well. And the last one is whether stored equipment or materials would be screened and whether there would be a continuous operation within the visible range of surrounding residences. This was similar to the findings of fact within the B-3 requirements, that all residents will not have the ability to view the sales tent from their area. We do not see an issue with that finding effect, and with that we don’t see any issues staff wise with this conditional use permit and operation. The Planning Commission did review the proposed conditions permit during their regularly scheduled meeting on May 21st, 2026. A public hearing was held at this meeting. No comments were made in relation to the application, and the public hearing was then closed. Notice. The public hearing was published in the city’s official newspaper and posted on the city’s bulletin board. Ten days prior to the meeting. City staff have received no inquiries from residents. The City Council motion for a recommendation of approval to the city council’s, with two added conditions. Those added conditions that this planning commission asked for was that the applicant meets all requirements specified in their fire permit that was issued to them, and then the second that this cup is only valid between June 19th, 2026 and July 5th, 2026, as specified by the applicant. Now with that, the applicant is here tonight to answer any of your questions and I am available for any questions as well. Um, any material change from last year to this year. For their application? Very little has changed. I have no questions. Any questions? Thank thank you for being here. Yeah. Well, definitely. Thank you for being here for sure. Thank you. Appreciate it. Sorry I miss business minded but yeah. No I’ve got no questions. I’ll take a motion and, um. Wonderful. I’ll make a motion to approve the conditional use permit request for the 262 to allow the use of an outdoor fireworks stand at 4050 Lakeland Avenue North, with the following conditions. The applicant meets all requirements specified in fire permit. RB 2026 three, zero seven and B that is, Conditional Use Permit is only valid between June 19th, 2026 and July 5th, 2026. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Those opposed say no or. All right. It’s been approved. Thank you very much for choosing Robbinsdale to continue your business in. All right. Moving on. We have got administering the 18 day in-person early voting period versus the 46th day in-person absentee period. Thank you. Mayor. Members of the council, I’ll give a introduction and overview of this item for you. Um, well, it’s exactly like you said. Um, there’s new legislation in law in Minnesota that lets municipalities, um, decide whether they want to do the traditional 46 day in-person voting, which is, um, you know, a process where people can fill out an application, bring in a ballot, seal it into envelopes, and then we store it. And also as a program can send it to the county, which incurs costs, um, or which kind of is already in place as, um, early voting uh, 18 days before the election. Um, cities could choose to do that instead of the full 46 days. So they’re giving an opportunity for smaller communities with potentially less resources, less, less staff time, just an opportunity to pick what works best for them in their communities. Um, uh, there are a few reasons that we are recommending that the council advise that staff, um, go to an 18 day versus 46 day voting timeline. Um, a lot of those work around staff capacity. Um, the full extra 28 days beyond the early voting of 18 days just puts, um, other projects behind or other, um, you know, staff members works to the side. Um, since we have to help the voters that are coming into City Hall. Um, like I said before, um, if we get absentee ballots, we have to courier those to the county, which is an additional cost. Um, I think with the limited amount of ballots that we would get during that time, if people got the mail, they could bring them back. We could certainly just have our absentee ballot board that you approved earlier tonight. Um, take care of those early absentee ballots, um, that are getting just brought back to the city hall. Um, we’ve also heard from other communities and municipalities around us and just regionally about their interest and intrigue to wanting to do this, too. So as part of like a continuity, to want to just make sure we’re kind of all on the same page, um, there’s a, there’s a lot of other communities that are proposing this to their councils as well. Um, so just as that like as a continuity and sort of regional, um, buy in, um, has been happening around with other cities, my peers and I know the city manager has talked to some of his, too, and they’ve all been interested in doing this. And then I think another, um, point to make is if you look at past data, um, about 70% of the votes have come in, have been during that early voting period. So the last 18 days and then up to and on Election Day. Um, so you think of a lot of the staff time for those early days just isn’t being translated into the numbers on paper. So, um, among those and probably other reasons, but um, and I think a big thing to note too, is this doesn’t eliminate people’s chance to early vote. You can still get a mail in ballot, um, mail it back to the state. Uh, you could still go into a Hennepin County government center or their county government center. Vote early that way. And then also, if you were to, um, get it by get a ballot by mail, you can bring it back to the Robbinsdale City Hall if you want it to. Um, and we would accept those there too. So there’s other ways to early vote beyond just here early. Um, and like I said, the last 18 days is the influx of time we get. And we really want to make sure that staff aren’t burned out and that we can provide the best voting and the best, um, process for voters during that time. So, um, we would recommend a staff and you’re welcome to ask any questions, but, um, recommend that the council approve the transition to the 18 day in-person early voting model for the 2026 election cycle. So both the primary and the general election, um, and then we would also ask that we continue to provide standard mail in and then drop off apps and services for the full 46 days, um, which is the statutory window. So next. Council, any questions? Comments, concerns Councilmember Greenberg. Yeah. First of all, over the last couple of years, I know you’ve put a ton of work staffs, put tons of effort into being available for early voting, and I know it was a huge undertaking. And so just a I think it all went very smoothly. So thank you for all of that work. Um, I’m glad you shared the data on the numbers of people that are voting in this additional 28 window, that it’s relatively small, and I think also calling out that we’re not disenfranchising any early voting because there are still options. Um, but I think it makes sense from my perspective to focus in on this 18 day window. So I’m in support. Yes. Councilmember Friedson. Thank you. Um, yeah, I’ll I’ll echo that the the process in in my experience with voting early has been incredibly smooth. And that doesn’t happen without a lot of work behind the scenes. Um, so thank you also for that. My question is, um, what communication plans does the city have for communicating this change for residents so that folks know early, um, how to make a plan to vote and how that might look different than previous years. Yeah, I think, um, you know, obviously we haven’t really put much out there because we weren’t sure how the council would lean on this decision. Hopefully. I think you’re all leaning one way, but, um, I think, you know, obviously we’ll update our website as soon as tomorrow morning, just with, um, updated information. Um, we’ll want to get stuff out on our social media. So certainly like Facebook and other channels. Um, and then, um, I think, you know, if at the council direction, we could certainly send out a flyer, a postcard, if that’s something you’d want us to do. Um, I think there’ll be maybe a lot of media anyway around this change. So I don’t know if that would be necessary, but, um, certainly we could do more. It’ll be in our, um, weekly Barton brief, and then certainly, um, as we go through utility billing invoices, we can mention it in those too. So. Okay. Great. Thank you. Um, I’m, I’m not necessarily advocating for a post, uh, communication. I know that can be, um, quite costly. And, and I think the, the channels that you’ve mentioned can be quite effective. I would advocate for physical signage, particularly for the, um, in the memo you’ve outlined it, um, three alternative voting options. I think having physical signage here at City Hall, um, communicating what those options are would be great, but otherwise I have no other questions. Yeah. And we’ll make sure that we have, you know, three windows up at the front in our city hall. And so we’ll make sure those staff that manage those front windows are aware and know too. And we can certainly put up signage around the building for that. So I like thank you. Appreciate that idea. Cool. Some other questions I’ll take a take a motion. I can do a motion here. Um, take a motion to uh, recommend that the city council approved the transition to the 18 day in-person early voting model for the 2026 election cycle, while continuing to provide standard mail and drop off absentee services for the full 46 day statutory window. I’ll second. All those in favor say aye. Aye aye aye. Those opposed say no. Renee. All right. 18 day passes. Uh, next up, item D under new business, terminate limited use agreement for 3353 Chowan Avenue North. Mr.. Mayor, Council members. Good evening. Good evening. I’m going to try, uh, looking at the report on my phone tonight, something a bit different. So bear with me as I work through that. Right. This. Um. Firstly, uh, apologies. I don’t normally like, uh, walking in reports at the last minute, but this is an issue that’s moving fairly quickly and really have to be brought up to council tonight. Couldn’t wait another cycle to get dealt with. This particular issue relates to a limited use agreement that was approved by the City Council in 1995 for the property owners of 3353 Chowan Avenue North. The limited use agreement gives the owners of the properties the right to utilize a portion of the 34th Avenue right of way, uh, for vehicle parking, just fine up Chase. Yes, it is. Excellent. I’m gonna do old school here and put stuff up on the at the scrounge around and find a reasonable size map. The area that we’re talking about relates to, uh, this portion of of right of way here. It’s kind of at the at the back of, uh, Montgomery Wards. There we go. Well. No, that’s good, that’s cool. All right. Yeah, a little area there. It’s not actually, uh, constructed road. It’s it’s right of way. Um, in ownership. So it’s owned by the city, but, uh, it’s unlikely that that piece of road would ever be reconsidered or ever constructed because of the, uh, the challenging grades through there. Uh, there are a number of utilities contained within that right of way. Uh, particularly city sanitary sewer and storm sewer. Now, the limited use agreement allows the owners of that property to park vehicles registered to the property. Um, and given the steep terrain in that area, the property owner has constructed retaining walls to kind of create a flat area. Got a photo that was taken today? Kind of, uh, indicates that area. So parts of the, uh, the limited use agreement included standard kind of conditions that the retaining wall will be kept in, good state of repair, requires the property owners to indemnify the city, require that the parking area be hard surfaced, and that the usage of the area not interfere with the storm sewer that runs through there. As you can see in that photo, there’s a double catch basin. Uh, right there on the on the bend, and there’s a pipe that goes from there kind of straight down the hill, if you like, uh, to a bunch of catch bait or not catch. But manholes that are down the hill. The limited use agreement also included a termination clause, uh, that requires the city to give 30 days written notice to the property owner. Uh, a copy of of the original report and the limited use agreements was attached to the last minute report. Um, in your packets. So the reason we’re discussing this right now is, uh, just just last week, um, a whole started to develop in the asphalt surface. Ah. Come on. So that whole, you know, was was in the vicinity of this vehicle here. Now, it’s never good. We’re a hole starts to develop above your storm sewer. Um, so city staff originally started in a immediately started investigation on that. The storm sewer pipes, uh, run about 200ft down this slope to a manhole that’s down the hill. I’ve got a plan here that kind of outlines that as well. And then it drops into a 20 foot deep drop structure to try and negotiate that significant difference in grade between the kind of Montgomery and the old Montgomery wards now the North Memorial Outpatient Center. And this area up here, it’s very, very steep. So just quickly, those catch basins that you saw in the previous photograph is at this location here. Those cars were parking in this area here you can see by the contours. It’s it’s really steep. That pipe runs down to a couple of manholes that are way down here. And it’s this one here that’s a 20 foot deep drop structure. And the invert that leaves that particular, uh, structure there is about the same level as the parking lot down here. Okay. That’s not, um, not easy infrastructure to get to or deal with. Now, unfortunately, this particular pipe that’s about a 200ft run, by the way, this, uh, infrastructure was put in in corrugated metal pipe. Um, we’ve had issues with corrugated metal pipe last year, uh, when when a pipe blew apart during some rainstorms. We’ve got other potential issues in other parts of town with corrugated metal pipe because they get to about this age and the bottom of them rusts out. And when that bottom rusts out, that allows water to get out of the pipe. And what it does is it stirs up all the the soil and the bedding underneath it and kind of draws it back into the pipe and you end up with a void. Over time, that void gets bigger and bigger and bigger until it finds its way to the surface. And that’s when you end up with a sinkhole appearing clearly not a not a good situation. So while we were doing the, uh, while staff was doing the the inspection of the area, we also took took close, um, look at the retaining walls as retaining walls that go around the property here. And uh, some of those retaining walls are actually quite tall. They’re eight feet. When you get to the part back here, it’s an eight foot high retaining wall. It’s a timber retaining wall. Uh, and they parked cars on top of it. That’s, um, kind of a formula for for trouble. Uh, I doubt those in doubt. Those retaining walls have been engineered properly. I doubt that they have any, uh, drainage behind them. Um, I doubt that they were designed to cater for a surcharge. A vehicle surcharge load on the top. And as a consequence of consequence of all of those factors, those walls have started to bulge, which is kind of the first indication that they’re starting to fail. I do have a couple of pictures here. It might be a bit difficult to discern the bulge, but. Um. It’s kind of a general kind of bulging here. And this this isn’t the tallest part of that. Wall. So there’s some concern about the, uh, the wall having not been, I guess, kept up to to good standards. So in order. To take care of things, we need to take some action. While while the road itself, uh, is not a constructed road, there is kind of a car track that goes through the this area on the city right of way from Chowan Avenue to the apartments that are kind of on Drew Avenue at the back of the properties. And I would hate for a retaining wall to collapse at a time when people were were walking through there, because that would be quite, uh, catastrophic. So. We are under the assumption that the entire pipe for the length of that run. Again, from from here. The sinkhole is here. Uh, so this entire pipe has to be considered in a state of failure, if not failure. Now, very close to failure. So we need to do something about that before it does completely fail. And we end up with a huge trench cut through there because of that water getting out of the pipe. In order to do that. Um, what we’re looking at is potentially replacing the the entire line. And what we’re looking at is a potential alignment like this. Rather stay out of this area here. We’ve got overhead power lines. We’ve got all sorts of other complications. So, um, staff think that that that would be the best option. We’re currently getting some prices from contractors to see how much that would would cost to do that. Well, luckily, the pipe itself is not very deep. So an excavator will be able to get through there, lay that pipe in and then the the the big change in grade is taken care of by that big drop structure. And we think we can connect to that drop structure. And we should be good. So we’re still in the process of gathering prices for that, which I will bring back to City Council probably at the next meeting. Once I have that. Sadly, this is not a job that has been budgeted for, but we do have some allocations in storm sewer, both operational and capital, that should be able to cover the cost. Of this. Uh, plan is would be to put it back in probably PVC or HDPE, maybe HDPE, because that’s corrugated on the outside and that will help that pipe grip the the ground as it’s going down the hill and give it a bit more stability. So in order to to perform that work, we’re going to have to dig a trench through this parking lot area and through parts of the retaining wall. So that’s going to cause the destruction of part of that retaining wall. And um, it’s not up to the city to replace that retaining. Wall. Um, if we were to replace retaining walls, that would add quite a substantial cost to the project. And it wasn’t built by us, was built under the limited use agreement by the resident there, and they have the full responsibility for that. Uh, right now, what we’re looking at is, is potentially terminating the the retaining wall in this area here, uh, before it starts to get really, really tall. I don’t want to get into that tall retaining wall. Um, so our plan is to allow this work to happen. We should terminate the limited use agreement. Uh, give the property owner 30 days notice that we’re doing so. And at the same time, I would, uh, in the Same letter I would write to him and advise my concerns about the condition of the remainder of the retaining. Wall. So, um, so at this stage, uh, we are recommending to City Council that we, we terminate this limited use agreement. And, uh, for me to advise the property owner of what’s happening. Uh, so we’ve unfortunately, the vehicles that sit there. A couple of them are unmovable. They don’t operate, they’re inoperable. So they’re going to have to get hauled out of there somehow. Um, but giving giving the owner 30 days formally to to get that stuff out of there so that we can access our, our storm cell line and take care of it before it completely, catastrophically fails. So that that is the the ask of, uh, city council tonight for this item is to adopt the the resolution that terminates the limited use agreement at this site. Okay. Thank you. Richard. Great. Great amount of detail that really sets the stage for why this needs to happen. Uh, Council, any questions? Comments, concerns, motions? And a question. Yep. So. Have we been in touch with this resident at all prior to this? Um, Yes, we have, uh, Councilmember Greenberg, we’ve. He was the one that brought the sinkhole to our attention. Okay. Um, so as soon as we saw that, we we mobilized staff to get down there and start to investigate. Well, what’s going on here? Um, we’ve also advised him that of the limited use agreement and that we would likely have to terminate that limited use agreement. Will has also spoken to the. The property owner advised him that it was coming to City council tonight. Um. And I think he advised that he wasn’t interested in showing up and speaking about it. But he is he is aware of of the situation. Was it expressed that. Like, do they want to keep the parking spots and the retaining wall like or. I don’t know that he’s, he’s given a strong opinion one way or the other. Okay. Um, right now, as I say, I would be taking his retaining wall part up to here. Um, I don’t wish to touch this part of it, but I wish to advise him that I’ve got some serious structural concerns about it. Um, I guess my one other question. Just thinking about the resident, and I know it sounds like he should have some advance warning of getting the formal 30 day notice, but, like, I mean, I could see that being a large surprise. And if those vehicles don’t move, they gotta have him towed. And that could be like a surprise expense that they might not be able to cover. I’m just wondering, like if we give them 30 days and they can’t move those cars, what do we do? Council Member Greenberg, if it gets to the point where we’ve got a contractor lined up to do work, uh, the city would have to remove those vehicles because I need to get access. I need to get an excavator. Small excavator through here. And that’s the only way I can do it. Okay. That’s, uh. It’s unfortunate, but, I mean, rain’s coming, right? And that thing gets bigger, becomes a bigger problem. And like you said, if it can fall in on somebody. I understand the urgency. I do. That is unfortunate, though. Um, any other questions? Yes. Councilmember Perry. Thank you. Um, Councilmember Greenberg’s question sparked a thought for myself around unexpected costs, and I know that the city has, um, provided loans for, excuse me, larger, um, unexpected street repair. And I think a reasonable interest rate. Is that something that would become available to this homeowner? Should they, uh, require some assistance with being able to pay for these costs? I. Councilmember Pridgen, I think as part of the letter I send, I would put in a paragraph that says, if you need assistance, reach out to us. Excellent. And we’ll see what we can arrange. Okay. Um, you know, the best case scenario, I think, is if the property owner can move the the vehicles, including the inoperable ones, and we can get in there and do minimal damage to the retaining wall, just kind of get rid of the parts that we need to get rid of to do our work. That part of the retaining wall is, is a lot, lot more shallow. So the the lasting impacts may not be as bad. I think we can just spread the, the material out. And you know, we wouldn’t have this nice pristine parking area anymore. But he wouldn’t be losing everything. I got a picture here that I can. So that’s the retaining wall in that, that upper part. The part that we’re going to have to dig through. And as you can see, it’s not much of of a retaining wall. It’s more wall above the ground than it is actually retaining the, the ground itself. So I think in the best case scenario, we can punch that pipe through here, remove that part of the retaining wall spread, you know, some dirt to kind of even it up in terms of grade. And I think that would be the best result all round. And that’s what we’ll we’ll shoot for. Thank you. Great. Any other questions or is there a motion. I guess. One last question. Just as far as terminating the, uh, the limited use agreement. I mean, you need access to this is is the only way to get access to that is to terminate the limited use agreement. Because, I mean, in theory, you’re gonna be done with this project, and then it kind of goes back to the way that it was. I’ve thought long and hard about this situation. Um, in an ideal world, I would like to let him continue to get the benefits of this area that’s really not usable for anything else. Um. I am concerned about the safety of the walls. Um, that that does bother me greatly. Um, the the reason that I think I’m leading with the termination of the limited use agreement is, is got to move those cars. In speaking with him last week, we said, you know, can you get rid of these cars? He gave us his assurances that, yes, he would. Well guess what, they’re still there. So I need some formal mechanism to get those cars out of there. And I think the the best way to do that is by terminating the limited use agreement. How are you doing with that? Uh, Mr. Mayor, Council, uh, not to extent of the vote on this front. Boy, I think a couple of questions that we’re moving to staff and going into this with the priority that, um, you know, it’s the public safety is number one here, that it’s in the best interest that this is, um, addressed for the reasons Mr. McCoy has melded. But secondary is a part of that process. Again, knowing that that’s an urgent item, um, going through and bringing back to council as a part of what those quotes and bids might look like. Uh, remedy to help assist with any financial or burden. Otherwise that that would be a part of the process that we would be willing to take on. So really willing to see. Seem a bit strong. Um, that’s in the best interest of the city in public safety. Um, but we will certainly keep in mind those other concerns, uh, again, whether it’s related to cost or burdens that may otherwise be incurred. Okay. Thanks, Jim. Um, and it’s great that the city is willing to work with them. And thank you for the question on that, mayor. Mhm. Any other questions? Comments, concerns. Can I get a motion. I can put a motion. Um put up here. I’ll put forth a motion to adopt the attached resolution that terminates the limited use agreement of the 34th Avenue North right of way by the property owners of 3353 Chaplin Avenue North. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye aye. Opposed? Say no or nay. Okay. Thanks, Richard. Thank you. Thank you. Uh. All right. Going back to old business, consider a closed session to discuss the purpose of purchase of real property. Thank you, Mister mayor. Council, from time to time, the city council does discuss exactly what you mentioned. The potential purchase of real property. Staff’s recommendation is to, by motion, go into closed session. As part of that motion. Staff recommends that council name the property listed, which is 3400 Oakdale Avenue North. All right. A motion to close to move to a closed session to discuss the purchase of real property. Um, 3400 Oakdale Avenue North, Robbinsdale, Minnesota. Second. Those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Let’s see. No more day. All right. That’s the session. Let’s talk about it. Open the meeting. Yes we do, we do. I’ll take a motion to open the meeting. So moved. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. As opposed to say no or nay. Meeting is officially open. Well, as that took us through old business, we are now moving on to other business. Uh, about your requests. Pending approvals for disbursements. Staff. Anything to add, counsel. Any questions? I’ll make a motion to approve the disbursement report. I’ll second. All those in favor say aye. Aye aye. All. Opposed? No or nay? Okay. That’s been approved. On to administrative reports. I don’t have too much to report on. Report on. I just want to, um. I’ve been mentioning it for the past few weeks. Maybe once. Sorry. Um, the window today closed for our Ward three in Ward four candidate filings. Um, Ward three ended up having two candidates. File and Ward four ended up having three candidates. File. Um, so unless something changes, those will be the. The Ward two won’t go on the primary because we don’t have three or more. So you won’t see those again until the general election. And then Ward four, because we have three or more, there would be a primary for that ward unless someone withdraws at this point. But, um, just wanted to update the council on where we’re at with that. So that’s all I have for tonight. Excellent. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. Council, a few quick updates for me. Thank you. Uh, want to share my thanks to the community as we switched over to the unique new UB payment system, noting that bills are due a week from today. Uh, it was, you know, like a lot of software changes, a few bumps along the way. But people have been very good over the phone, in person, uh, working together to make that switch. So, uh, I do expect to hear in this last week and maybe after the due date, uh, we’ll continue to work with folks. If you have questions about the new system, please just give us a call. Stop by city hall. Uh, we’re happy to assist. Uh, I want to share out that, uh, The Guardian 40 software. Uh, this is a communications tool that’s going to be replacing tip 401. We’ll continue to get that information out. Um, it’s just a platform that, uh, we have found. We’ll have more tools and more opportunities for those touch points that we’ve used, especially at the public safety pieces. Snow emergencies, those types of things. So communicating out, uh, continues to be a top priority in this new platform. Uh, we’ll be sure to share, uh, what that looks like. Uh, want to share the opportunity again? Uh, flocculation. Uh, tours. Uh, the signup form is active on the city website. As the city continues to celebrate, uh, some of our amenities, showing some of that stuff off to the public can be fun. Uh, and then a different kind of, uh, water feature. The splash pad is now open. Uh, so those are looking forward to that in the heat. Uh, please go check that out. Uh, the ag attorney general is hosting a public forum at North. Uh, hasn’t been designated yet. Excuse me. Uh, but for Monday, June 8th, uh, at 6 p.m., uh, to sign up for that. That is through the AG’s office. But we have posted the links, uh, both on our website and our social media. Uh, so stop by if you can’t find it on the ag side, uh, on our materials or same thing. Give us a call. We’ll be happy to let you know how to register. So again, you got to register for that and they’ll share all details. Um, again, being hosted through the attorney general, uh, this weekend, a couple of items. The, uh, diggers plant sale. It’s going to be, uh, on Saturday, as well as the kids composting event. So I was looking forward to connecting with people in the community. And then upcoming, uh, moving the park, uh, will be June 12th. And do you want to note that the water efficiency rebate runs through the end of the month? Uh, the last item I want to share, I’ll give a shout out to some city staff. Uh, as we continue to look for ways to connect with community members as a part of whiz bang days, uh, some staff have taken on a community blood drive. Uh, so we do have registration, and it is through, um, the American Red cross. Uh, but you can, uh, again through the city communication channels. Register for that. That will be on the 9th of July. Okay. Thank you. Tim. Council general Communications is next. Council. Any comments? Council member Parisien. Council. Um, I wanted to first congratulate those who have chosen to file for wards three and four. Um, for the upcoming election. And, uh, thank you for your willingness to step up and serve our community. Um, I have announced this elsewhere, but I, after a lot of consideration, I’ve made the decision not to run for re-election. And I know there will be time for this come the end of the year, when my term is up. But I. I want to take an opportunity now to say that serving in this role has been an incredible honor. And I, I especially want to thank everyone, including council staff and those members of our community who work every day to make Robbinsdale a great place to be and a great place to belong. Um, and I also want to say thanks for, you know, thinking back four years ago from now when I made that decision to file and, um, I, I want to thank those who have supported that decision and my candidacy. Um, so I wish those who have filed all the best with the upcoming campaign season. And thank you again. That’s it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, mayor. Anybody else? Yeah. Real quick. Um, yes. Thank you. And Mia. Um. Councilmember position? We do. I think. Yeah, we’ll have time for sure to say our thanks and continue appreciation for you, but yes, congratulations on the decision. And, yeah, we appreciate what you’ve done so far. And we’ll continue to the rest of this year. Um, I just want to give a quick shout out and say, this championship season for most high school athletic sports. Um, so this is a quick shout out to those kids who are still competing student athletes, as well as other debate teams and other things happening as well to in the community and to say hi to your neighbors when you get a chance. So it’s nice out. Um. And I just have one thing. Thank you again. Uh, Council member Parisien. Um, look forward to this last couple of months, but thank you for your dedicated service and really means a lot. Um, I did just file for candidacy for Ward four, and I’m actually finalizing a campaign launch event at one of the Robbinsdale businesses here. Um, more to come on that. But once I get things finalized, I’ll get my website up and running. But, um, I do plan to run again, because these last four months have just been terrific, and I want to do it for another four years. So. That’s all that I got. Excellent. Thanks. Hey. From you. Jason. Yeah. I mean, I’ll just say congratulations on your decision. Uh, council member Parisien. And, uh, excited for, uh, what you have in store. Uh, and then, um, council member Cassandra Aranda. Um, it’s been great working with you. So congrats to filing. And, um, for everyone who put their name in the hat. Um, as someone who’s done that before and made that decision, uh, you know, it. It’s an honor. And, um, but it also says a lot about what you think about your community and how you believe in your community to, uh, to show up and do it. Um, and I guess the last thing I’ll just say in reiterating from the city manager’s, uh, note on the diggers, uh, plant sale. Um, it’s really a great organization. Uh, they’re going to be at the Robbinsdale Historic Library, which is an amazing space to check out. Uh, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.. So make sure you go over there and check it out. Support the Robbinsdale diggers. Thanks. And I have just one more thing. Sorry. My my wife just texted me to remind me to shout out to the Robbinsdale residents. She just recently joined by nothing, a group on Facebook where you can actually like, you know, just give away plans for free. Um, she posted, hey, we’re a first time homeowners looking to get our garden going. She the amount of responses that she got within, like the first two hours of her posting, this was ridiculous. She got 13. Um, ladies at our entire gardening hour teaching her everything there is about perennials, all that stuff. And that’s just a testament to like, what Robbinsdale is seriously like. She’s already made new friends, and we’re having lots of people over for coffee. And so this this is all great. And if you guys haven’t joined already, the By Nothing group chats on Facebook, highly recommend. That’s all I got. All right. I had to put that phone out there. Yeah. Sorry. I’ve had experiences with that group. Um. All right. Well, uh. Yes, indeed. Mia, congrats on your decision. And, um, a distinguished three and a half years. You’re still here for six more months. So let’s, uh, it better be good when you when you leave. You you got a good speech lined. Up for us. Um, but congrats. It’s it’s, uh. It’s been great. And congratulations to those who submitted their applications as well. Uh, I will say two things. One. Uh, happy Pride month again. And two, we gotta fix the feedback in here. Like I’m going to challenge staff for the next meeting. The feedback has gone just so that is my wish, and I would love it if it could come true. And other than that, I think you guys do a great job. Bang up all the way around. Richard, as always, thanks for being here. Your knowledge and the way you present information is, is, um, second to none. So, um. I’m okay. Is there a motion to adjourn tonight’s meeting? So moved. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye, aye. Those opposed say no.