more communication more transparency more Avenues of communication with with the comm's director you know they can explore more into those spaces and provide more of that information more of that context um you know the neighborhood I live in here in corkran we have a you know it's a private Facebook group just because you know you don't necessarily want a bunch of other people coming from outside but for instance you know with the city of corkrin Facebook page where you know you can post you know let's say you interview you know the interviews with the candidate you po you know you make four posts whatever it might be and you have links to their uh their web pages for more details and stuff like that getting more information making people more informed and making the information easier to access and one of the one of the advantages of a longer voting period is during those dark days one of the strategies that was used several times was to send out a letter three days before the election and it had a lot of really negative and you know false materials in things that couldn't be refuted and it couldn't be refuted in time for the election so with the the longer period you know somebody sends it out before the voting starts there's going to be plenty of time for somebody else to refute it and you know that is an advantage of the longer periods I think as far as trying to assess qualified candidates all anybody has to do is actually go to the candidate forum and uh the cream does rise to the top oh yeah even though I I feel like uh the form itself should be actually longer um because I just don't think enough can get covered in the time that the League of Women Voters allocates for that but I really do appreciate their efforts and how they how they've run it the Forum but maybe there could be two or three candidate forums over the course of uh an election cycle uh or three months before whatever it might be and uh I think that uh there there could be more actual questions presented by the voters to to subsequent because a lot of the questions are somewhat screened or prepared in advance by the Le of Women Voters but uh if you if you attended or watched online it it was very clear the people who actually understood how a city runs and uh there is a misconception by some people in the general population that the city just can do whatever it wants and be nice yeah it would be very nice but you got M counil you got hannahan County you have all these other entities you have three rivers parked you know you have the Watership you have all these entities that actually have a higher stronger voice than actually the city does and so um I think it takes being a part of the city process to actually even know that and learn that and uh that that was very evident to me in the last candidate Forum that there were some candidates who just didn't even understand that I I think an important piece of Education besides just besides educa the residents of corkrin on their candidate choices is um educating the population as a whole what does a city council member do because that might also screen out yeah your qualified candidates or like attract certain candidates or have certain people say like I am I don't want to 3,000 page I mean that 40 hour monthly kind of commitment I mean who's going to know that thinking they're going to come in they think probably oh I attend a few meetings okay we're good that kind of ongoing I think that could be an ongoing year round just like citizenship sort of educational piece that we working towards a Citizen Academy uh that that we had in other cities that I worked in uh it's it's labor intensive for staff um but that is a goal of ours in 2025 to be able to offer that to educate the public and we've also changed up the way that we process some of our information so the way that we're doing the budget this year is very intentionally broken down by department so anyone who's interested that attends or watches online can understand how each of the Departments work because each department is briefing so so to understand how the sausage is made in in doing City business without getting down into all of the ingredients you know keeping it at a strategic level CU that that's a thing that people um don't quite understand either is they think that they're going to come in and and maybe they're really good at accounting and they're going to come in they're going to fix the finance department that's not the role of a city council member either it's it's staying at the Strategic maybe coming down to the operational level but not getting in to the Tactical level of of what you do day-to-day and um in my 8 years of municipal government that's a learning curve particularly for new counil members in which they come in very confident in certain competence and they want to apply that well-meaning in ways that they're like oh this is where I'm supposed to be operating and so helping the public understand generally how we do what we do but I agree educating potential future leaders and commissions are great breeding grounds for future council members I I keep promoting that too you know we have three commissions here in Corr and trying to generate interest because that gives people a look behind the curtain on how the business of city government is done running directly for Council without having served on one of those commissions is kind of a red flag right there I mean if you you have a lot of opportunities to apply for the Planning Commission Planning Commission is probably the best place because that's the part that deals with the most complex issues oh gosh and if you can if you can get on that for a couple of years you learn a lot it um I'm sorry it seems to me when I look at one of the major things that I guess I would question is what are the issues facing the city of courand and I think the general population doesn't even understand that I don't understand it you know give me a list of what the top 10 issues are going to be in 2025 for the city of Coran then I'll have a better idea of what everybody's up against here that's trying to solve these issues and then after that give each one of the candidates for office or council members an opportunity to say how they feel about each one of those 10 issues and then it seems to me you're going to bring together enough information for the average citizen to understand now I know what theity cities up against what they're trying to solve and now I know what each one of the candidates positions are in trying to solve that when the city gets into its process of doing the comprehensive plan is really an opportunity to have significant input into the future of the community that is probably the number one thing because everything else sort of flows from that the finances ultimately flow flow from that or contribute to that or are limited by that uh the uh Public Safety obviously has to support that so you know that vision of what the community is going to look like from a physical perspective is probably the most complex issue in other words somebody comes in and says we want to look like mial Grove whole bunch of the community gets turned off okay uh somebody comes in and says well you know we have what development we have we want to make sure it's good quality like they have in Maple Grove that's a different issue so so for your awareness the comp plan uh we are intentionally slowing the role on the comp plan so 2028 is when we'll really uh have to reveal the new comp plan in past years we probably started work earlier but met council is really pushing some agenda items that are going to call for greater density and if you watch the last legislative session so is the legislature I was up at Capitol Hill a couple times uh working on that talking to our elected uh because greater density is going to really mess up our plans uh two elections before that's going to happen exactly so so uh but the if if they get it through I mean they almost got it through the last legislative session um uh so for us we're not going to actually start we didn't fund anything for the comp plan in 2025 we're intentionally waiting to see how it how the chips fall in 2025 to start our work in 2026 uh We've provided initial feedback 2026 is when we really start our heavy push has to be done in 2028 but just for your awareness if you haven't been part of the C Plan before I would just say two for awareness purposes I think that's great that we want to make say you know we say citizens aware potential candid it's aware um you know but you I think you also alluded to the fact that children move away but children stay and so it be really nice to if we put some focus on educating our children as well you know at various age levels so that they understand what goes on in the community here and you know how the city that they grew up in was run or should be run right and in theory I I think that would probably keep more people wanting to keep this community this way or maybe they take the values of this community with them when they do that that is a challenge of having five different school districts within our city limits is is is uh we're we're not going to be welcomed into the classroom to try and have those types of conversations whereas when we're in shap and it was one school district I taught at the high school uh open sessions probably half a dozen times a year just talking about rear day and and how the city runs uh because close to these other school districts the some of the other students are not in corkin um why is that a school district would feel differently if I came and said this is how a city runs and wise that it would say that no it's not well maybe the night to unite yeah so so we we definitely try to if there's if there's other suggestions on how we could potentially leverage that you know right now we it's a great opportunity for us to connect uh and we try to educate to a degree um but we also are using that as an engagement opportunity to get feedback so so more and more we're trying to use that to understand what do our residents want so as we move into the comp plan season it's going to be a great opportunity for us to get feedback um but engaging the kids you're right they they're uh they're very transparent about how they think and feel about this right it it's it's unbiased feedback in the in the perod way you know and um you know a good example it's my 12-year-old he loves to go what we call trash walks we have crabber nabers we have a bucket we walk along the road and we just pick up trash until the bucket's full because we want to make our neighborhood you know more beautiful I hope those are long walks um not as long as you like but you know they're getting better as time progresses right and you know so for me it's like okay he cares about where he's living and so I want to Foster that nurture that he's like can we go for a trash walk that absolutely doesn't matter it's super hot super cold I'm all about it because he cares about where he lives and so I just want you know in theory if we inform people we inform them in a way where it doesn't seem boring or exhausting maybe the adults too that have their kids would see that engagement maybe that could get them excited as well because we're not just talking about the people running or just about you know the you know the adults we're talking about the families and that might become more attractive and maybe engage more people in city government as well because we're engaging them as a family unit so for the ideas if I could we we don't have another election impacting our city council till 2026 uh even if something were to happen and someone were to step down uh I would have to be someone in recently appointed uh otherwise they're not going to have enough terms so they'd be appointed by the council so um if if I could ask for other we have a new Communications person and I I would love lots of ideas if you've seen like I took the Buffalo newsletter as an example if you have other examples of things where you think they're doing it right and you'd like us to try and adopt some of that same strategy uh please drop me a note uh and and let me know so that we can incorporate that and we've got some Runway here we've got two years until the next election to try and incorporate some of these ideas and also in the next two years we're going to continue to improve our technology so that we'll have better ways to oops so we'll have better ways to connect uh so so some examples in other cities I've worked we've had just online newsletters that residents can sign up for when they're interested we haven't leveraged that capability here yet but those are the sorts of things that will help better inform the public and keep them apprised to what's going on speaking of qualified candidates uh we have six Commissioners whose terms are expiring in 2025 uh they are Gerald David hackinson Daniel buckolz Randy Megan and Jonathan all of your terms expire this coming year October of 18th uh we would who are serving for longer than that would appreciate not losing six Commissioners off of the charter Commission in one Fell Swoop so uh if I could encourage you uh to uh consider uh re applying and uh letting you know your firm be extended out another 3 years uh I know I would appreciate it I'm sure George would appreciate it and now Jim would appre there's only three of us there's only three of us left of you all even so life oh my go so um what's the best way Jay for them to just contact you about contact Deb that Deb Deb Deb's our point of contact uh and yeah the sooner that we can get that cleared up if you are interested and if you actually if you intend to not apply or run again uh we would appreciate knowing that as well so that we can do some recruiting as well and and if you're uh willing right away to we're appointing it's we're coming up early part of the year is when we do the appointments right uh and so if if we have clarification uh right away that allows us to know how how much we need to recruit we need a minimum of seven on the charter commission uh and a maximum of 15 how are you doing on the Planning Commission Planning Commission is good uh parks and trails commission we will go down by one uh because uh one of our commissioners was just elected to council um and we need a watershed commissioner and a deputy Watershed commissioner desperately ifications for wed willing to learn well and go to the meetings and represent the interest represent the interest of the community but but any anybody we have a great our our new um uh engineer and development superintendent has a lot of experience with the Watershed and they're going to be the new staff rep for that and so they will be at the meetings you won't be flying solo whoever that is uh but but I was trying to recruit a replacement for Ken since February when Ken told me that he was going to be going we thought we had someone it we we didn't we weren't able to close the deal and so now poor Tomy Anderson who just wants to retire and they meet once a month uh yes yeah Watershed meets once a month need a commissioner and a deputy it's going to be brought up again on Thursday uh we're we're in desperate need there and then however many Charter commission members uh and then potentially one parks and trails commission do you want to uh talk about the incorporation oh yeah so I included a document just uh for your awareness is I'm a history buff but I also like to have our paperwork so if you'll see there this document from Steve Simon Secretary of State dated November 4th I just wanted to let you know what that was um so from time to time we're asked to provide documentation demonstrating when we were incorporated as a city and and uh to to support for different applications and such and it's been frustrating that some people have questioned the documentation that we provided or there's been differing dates and so I contacted the Secretary of State and they said well there's this date and there's this state and there's this state which date do you want I said all of them I'd like i' like you to validate all of them because it shows corran's story corkran didn't just become a city before it was a city it was a village and before it was a village it was a Township and before it was a Township which became the day that Minnesota became a state it was a territory since 1855 I'm having trouble with the paperwork since 1855 but I was able to get the secretary estate to put in one document all three of our important dates that demonstrate uh corran's life uh so I was pretty excited about that because they told me they wouldn't do it and I they they wanted no you got to pick a date which date and I'm like no all of them are important all three of them tell our community story thank you for that Jay appreciate that's very awesome that and I noticed that they did uh Define us as a home Charter City yes that's important I don't know if there's a difference between our unfinished business and the new business we've been talking about I think we've LED them together so that okay yeah that's is there any other new business left unfinished business that uh you'd like to discuss Jim did we like table the War I would I would say that that up in the a I would agree with Jonathan I think uh if you want to use the word table that's fine or put I didn't know the figure of speech here yeah put it on the periphery I think it should always be something that we may want to discuss yeah um I think initially when we first started talking about it we were thinking of trying to get ahead of a potential problem we have it in the works but but I'm I'm not sure that I'm not sure getting ahead of a problem that doesn't necessarily exist is necessarily getting ahead of a problem you know so uh I I and I think after really you know because I've been really talking about this or pondering it for four or five years and uh you know how you keep thinking about things and more things come to light as you do that and for me what really became more more prominent in my mind was the qualification of the candidates and having truly qualified people and I know that we can take a whole evening and discuss what does it mean to be qualified I I think there's a difference between being qualified to be able to run and qualified to actually serve in that capacity and like I mentioned all you have to do is watch the candidate forum and you can see the people who actually understand how government works and how others might just seemingly might have an agenda but with that said I I feel like anything we can do to uh help Elevate the understanding of the constituents in our community on where the candidates are what their backgrounds are what they backgrounds in terms of service and so forth um uh what they where they may land on some of the issues I think those are all very important things and if we can put some mechanisms into place or add to the mechanisms we have is probably a better way to say that uh that would we would then serve our city in a very good way that way quick quick question for those who who are parents uh when I was in Shaka the the school district there did the uh a mirror voting at the different precincts where the kids got to come in and they voted to has that ever happened for your kids that might be something really interesting for us to explore for 20126 uh I worked one of the precincts because I was one of the in my role I I was partnering with the school the children's education and uh it was really cool to see these young people come in with their parents on election day before school and cast a vote and then we provided that information to the school district to the Civics classes so that they could have conver the social studies classes so they could have conversations about how people voted and why they voted that way and it it was it was pretty neat that's awesome I love that yeah I agree you have to be careful that you don't do it too far ahead or your pollsters and be looking at the school [Laughter] R that's good George you know those kids are going to mirror pretty closely what their parents are but I think what that does is that Fosters the conversation between the parents and their kids to explain the why right I'm voting for this cand why oh because they they have this position why right it's the five wise and we all know kids love to say why right I think that's fantastic it sets a precedent of Civic uh opportunity or privilege I I I I saw a lot of people say civic duty I like to frame it as my Civic privilege uh because um it's it's a priv PR to be in a country um I was serving in different countries where I got to watch them do an election for the first time and you see people who get to exercise their voice for the first time in democracy it's inspiring you ever see them dip their fingers in yeah the purple yeah totally yeah we have po Haitian refugees living with us right now they've been with us for 14 months it's part of the Biden Administration uh policy for helping nicar frins Cubans ukrainians and and Haitians because of the unrest that's happening there and it's it's amazing how uh when you grow up in a country where you have freedom like we do sometimes you can actually take it for granted um but uh it's it's been good to be able to have them with us to teach them what what it really means to have civic responsibility and yet in spefic uh privilege in a sense too you know the the the it's just not necessarily a right as much as an honor and distinction to be able to have these freedoms and so um it it's it's something that uh when you grow up in it sometimes you don't value it as much and being having them live with us the the hell on Earth that they've had to go through not just from the gang's perspective but so much money has been dumped into Haiti by other countries us included as well as benevolence from you know different churches or benevolent you know tax exemp Ministries or whatever and so much corruption is there in the government and it always ends up in the pockets of the elite and um I'm just grateful that you know we have a system in place here that uh we can change things if we don't like who's in power and not everybody in the world has that so it's it's a something to be thankful for anything else that anybody like to bring up the new business hearing none do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting okay Jim Jim and Randy Randy Randy yep all in favor say I I I'll post same hearing none thank you for the quum and thank you for the good discussion and thank you Jade for your Insight yes appreciate thank you