Good. Okay. Ready to go? Three, four. And then pressing the pound key are asked to enter our participant ID or by watching it on the media channel 16 or live streaming at Brooklyn Park City Council. Thank you. So go ahead and get a roll call. Attendance. Yes, ma’am. Council Member Ericson, Council member. John. Mayor pro tem. Kalinowski here. Mayor Winston. Council member page. Council member McGarvey. Here. And Council. Council member. Tran. All right. Thank you. Devin, let’s all stand up to the Pledge of Allegiance. United States of America and to the citizens. One nation under God. Jesus Christ. Thank you for the musical accompaniment to the Pledge of Allegiance. We’re going to go ahead and start with public comment. Public comment provides an opportunity for Brooklyn Park residents and business owners in Brooklyn Park to address the city Council matters relating to city business, not otherwise on the agenda. Public comment may not be used to make personal attacks to air personality grievances, or to make political endorsements, or for political campaign purposes. City council’s members will not engage in a dialogue with speakers. Questions from the council will be for clarification only. Public comment will not be used as a time for problem solving or reacting to the comments made, but rather for informational purposes only. Public comments will be limited to 15 minutes in individual comments to three minutes. Um, public comment looks like temple. You take that right? We have another one. We have this last meeting. Okay. Good evening, mayor Pro Tem. Can you please turn on your microphone? Thank you. My name is Colette Hempel. I live in the Trinity Gardens area of Brooklyn Park. I support affordable, quality new housing based on the income levels of our community. Residents. I never said that. That all new housing needs to be affordable. If, um. If you have an income of 40,000. Your rental amount monthly should not be. I should have a maximum of $1,200. If you are starting teacher, your rent maximum should be $1,500 per month. And good luck finding, uh, even a townhome for 180,000. That is considered Minnesota’s affordable housing for homeowners. If your household income is 90,000, you can afford an average house price in Brooklyn Park. And of, um, the $370,000 and rent of 2700 per month. I just and that’s only if you didn’t have a divorce with the 90,000 dual income household income prior to council members. Paige and John serving on this council, I witnessed the majority of this council turned down affordable housing effort, grants and and accommodations to support jail companies. In July of 2023. In March of 2020, for the park, the Noble park and ride that had some homeowner townhomes that they wanted us to pay $43,000 per unit as a city to subsidize. April 20th 4th April of 24. The W project by North Hennepin College was for affordable asking for the grant. They were turned down. June 20th, 24 revived church wanted to support for 300 affordable senior units just by completing a road that is already in the plans for the Blue Line extension. December 20th 24th Devin George asked for support for affordable Housing grant. You said no to say that I was excessively, in fact, inaccurate. Last week at the EDA meeting about you’re not supporting enough affordable housing in our community. Um, people need to review those meetings and make their own determination. Families, seniors and workforce individuals deserve quality housing, that is. Let three. Minutes not just run down deferred maintenance. Thanks, Clint. Apologies, Doctor Smith. I skipped right over you for response to public comment from last time. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Pro tem and council. Um, during our last meeting, June 8th, we had one public comment from the city council meeting. It was from Joshua Orloff, and I hope I’m pronouncing his name correctly. Um, 8457 Sumter Circle North. His comment was to consider tying the pay of elected officials to the average wage of residents in Brooklyn Park. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Smith. So we have a request to table, um, the public presentation, the proclamation three B one until July 13th for the agenda with nothing else at this point being noted for removal from consent. Is there a motion to approve the agenda and consent with the tabling of the proclamation to July 13th? Moved. All right. Okay. We have a motion made by Council McGarvey and a second made by council member Erickson. Can we do a roll call? Vote, please? Devin. Council member Zhang. Mayor Pro Tem Kalinowski. Aye. Council member. Page. Hi. Council member McGarvey. Aye. Council member. Tran. It looks like she is in the lobby to join the meeting. Yeah. Okay, I got it. Sorry. Thank you. Should we finish the vote for this without her? Since she didn’t even hear the motions? Okay. Council member Erickson. And the motion passes. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Yes. Votes. Zero. No votes. Thank you. Devin. And please note that Council Member Tran is in the meeting. So at this point, we will move to the presentation. Three B two the health equity update. Yes. Good afternoon everyone. Uh, I’m doctor Emma Boyce. I am the health equity coordinator here with the city of Brooklyn Park. I work closely with Doctor Davis, my manager and his manager, Doctor Smith. Um, today we are going to be providing an update on how we’re using data strategic partnerships and also, um, some community partnerships to really advance health equity here in Brooklyn Park and to ensure that residents have, um, equal opportunities, uh, to improve health outcomes. And so we will start by primarily just talking about what health equity looks like in Brooklyn Park. Um, for today, there’s four main questions I would like for us to just, uh, discuss the first one, go to the agenda. And where is the front? This does not work. I don’t think we we have a better one to. Okay. I should go back. There. Yeah, we’ll go back. Okay. So what we would like to do today is just to be able to explain what health equity looks like in Brooklyn Park. We want to also interpret data through the lens of our health equity framework. We want to connect our strategy to action and really discuss how each of us, including council members and city residents, can be able to really help us improve health outcomes for every single resident here in Brooklyn Park. And so I want to be clear about the methodology of what went into this analysis. We used, uh, ten plus public, uh, data sources from the CDC. Um, the EDA, um, the environmental justice screen, um, the US, RDA food. So we had multiple data sources, and this was important because we really wanted to identify geographic and population disparities and consistency in trend and the multiple data sources really help us validate the findings from independent data sources. One of the data sources, which is the American Community Survey, has a margin of error. And because of that, again, we looked for consistency and patterns across multiple data sources. And this was important so that we are allocating resources based on need, right. And doing it from an equity lens, not only to be able to inform programming for health on a goal, but also policy recommendations. And so I just want to be clear that the strength in this analysis really is because we use multiple data sources and we do have additional data sources that we’re looking through because we want to make sure that we without a doubt, we have increasing confidence in how we’ve been able to identify needs here in Brooklyn Park. And so I also want to be able to just provide this because these maps are difficult to look at, especially if you don’t have an app or stat background. There’s two types of map that we have in this analysis analysis. The first one is just percentages, which is part of the whole. So for example, with a lot of our demographics map, we were looking at actual share of residents across multiple indicators. The indicators potentially people of color, African American. And so that was the percentages. And so when you see that for example, if there’s 70% of people of color is primarily saying that within that neighborhood, seven out of ten residents identify as such. Right? So the the descriptive percentages were used just to be able to describe where people live in Brooklyn Park. There’s another map, which is relative percentages, which is percentile, and that is comparing neighborhood across Brooklyn Park to comparing them to each other. To be able to identify the greatest need. And that was important because we needed to understand where to allocate resources to have the greatest impact. So taken together, we have actual percentages to be able to show where people live in Brooklyn Park. And then we have relative indexes or percentile to show how neighborhood compared to each other. And together they really informed comprehensively how we make decisions based on data. Um, and so I just want to say that all of the analysis we did was done from our public health approach. Uh, public health is more than just health care, right? 95% of public health happens outside of a health care setting. And so in this analysis we’re looking at we have over 20 different indicators. We looked at. This is a condensed version of this report. We have more slides or more data. If you want to we can share with you. But we’re looking at indicators across housing safety um economic stability, um, and other environmental health and access to our health and social conditions. And so this is really important because these social determinants of health, as we call it, they influence how we were born, how we will live, how we will age and how we die. And so after this presentation, when we go through this, these questions, we have few recommendations for the council to consider. But before we start looking at the data, I really want to just level set on our equity lens. And equity requires us to ensure, especially from a government perspective, that we co-create solutions so that everyone in Brooklyn Park has a fair and equal opportunity to be able to achieve health in the highest, more, um, optimal, most level. Um, and that they thrive with in Brooklyn Park. And so equality on the other hand right assumes that everyone is equal. So definitely we need to share resources in a way that, um, the same which is inherently flawed because we know that communities have different challenges and barriers. And so we are leading from an equity lens because we want to make sure that resources in Brooklyn Park, um, are not only distributed fairly in opportunities, but also in health outcomes. And so before I go through the maps, I just want to level set and discuss primarily these social determinants of health is a big word, but primarily what this is, is these are conditions outside of our clinical setting that primarily determines how we were born, how we will live and how we die. So these factors are including economic stability, income, um, education, safety, community safety and research show up to 90%. Um, they influence health outcome. And the important thing while we’re here having this conversation is because these social determinants of health are shaped by government policies and government resources. And so we really want to be able to make sure that government is at the center to co-create solutions to address some of the health disparities we see here in Brooklyn Park. And as I said, we have over 20 indicators that we looked at for consistency across Brooklyn Park. These are some of the categories we look through. So economic stability, education and access, quality access health care, access to health care, uh, neighborhood. And also, um, social, um, context, civil engagement. And so this first slide, right, I always like to lead with this slide because I think this is what we love about our city of Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Park. This is our greatest gem. Brooklyn Park is diverse. It’s one of the most diverse city in Minnesota. Here are 65% of the residents or people of color. Brooklyn Park is more diverse than the US, right? It’s even more diverse than Maple Grove. Our neighborhood, green city. And so, um, aside from 65% of residents being people of color, 1 in 4 Brooklyn Park residents are foreign born like me. They were born outside of the US. And so, you know, we need to take that into context when we are allocating resources based on need. Uh, we need to take that into context. I also need to just point out here that on average, uh, 10% of Brooklyn Park residents are poor. But that’s not the reality at the neighborhood level. And the last thing I want to say here is that even though Brooklyn Park residents, economically, they are less, um, affluent than meant for growth, they have a higher rental share. So 30% of Brooklyn Park residents are renters, right. And so even though we are diverse, which is our greatest strength, that does not equate, uh, equitable outcomes. And so we see now from where we are looking at the data suggest that there are uneven access to health and social conditions. Here in Brooklyn Park. We have different diseases, burden across chronic diseases, access to transportation, housing, um, and economic stability. Right. And so that’s where we are. And so we really took this equity lens to be able to really understand who’s impacted here in Brooklyn Park, where equity is in Brooklyn Park, where is it? Equities are in Brooklyn Park. Excuse me, where they are concentrated, what systems work? What are the structural barriers that are really driving those, um, uneven health outcomes here in Brooklyn Park? And then how we can respond together strategically so that we are having a greater impact based on allocating resources. And so this is the first map. Again, this is descriptive. This is just looking at where people live in Brooklyn Park. And so their percentages. So across one of the things I want you to pay attention when you look at the maps are consistency right in patterns. So the map on the, the the maps on the left, they show across six different indicators of where people are living in Brooklyn Park. So whether you look across people of color, African American, Asians, Hispanic, all of the different subsets of people of color, historically marginalized population, you see that even though Brooklyn Park is diverse, our diversity is concentrated in south of 85th. I think when you go through the data, you will start to see south of 85th, 85th. Now appears to us from the data and the findings that 85th now is our equator of injustice. Um, in Brooklyn Park. And I say this, having been living in Brooklyn Park 26 years, um, and across every single indicators we see this, um, divide where population north of 85th have better outcomes than those south of 85th. The graphs on the right, which is the bar chart. Um, what they are showing is when we looked at those neighborhoods in Brooklyn Park, for example, the one on my bottom right, um, the people of color share it shows, for example, in neighborhoods like kickoff, 84% of the people in that neighborhood identify as people of color. And so what the message here from this graph, whether you look at the heatmaps or you look at the bar chart, what it shows is that, um, even though we are diverse and we take pride in that, our diversity is concentrated mostly south in neighborhoods south of 85th, this map is tricky because I must admit. Right. Um, it’s from a epi perspective. It’s easy to digest, but from a layman’s perspective it’s difficult. So I want to take some time on this map. And what we are showing here are two things. We’re doing a descriptive analysis. So just say where people are on the left, which is the population of color. And then on the right we’re looking at primarily where disparities are relative to each other, relative to our neighborhoods. Right. So the map is primarily where people live. And so we use percentages. And so you will see again the trend in that the darker the the map, the higher the percentages of people of color. So what that map is showing that most of our people of color, people who identify as color, they live south of, um, 85th. Now, the map on the right is a little bit different. Uh, this is relative index to need. So we looked at across multiple indicators. I want to say eight different indicators. Whether it was housing instability, transportation, food access, safety. Um, we see that um, relative to each other, those neighborhoods mostly south of 85th, has the greatest not only structural barriers, but also they have a higher concentration of people of color. Right. And so what that equity and social justice detects is that we ought to prioritize resources, programs and investments in those neighborhoods. And that’s why we did this. Second, um, question, which we wanted to see where the, um, disparities are concentrated, looking at multiple structure indicators, um, across multiple different data resources. Um, I will stop here and turn it over to Doctor Davis. So just be able to provide context before we go on to the next slide. Good evening, City Council. Mayor Pro Tem, we fundamentally believe that health equity and health inequity is a public safety issue. We fundamentally believe that medical apartheid is occurring in Brooklyn Park, as well as across the nation. So we started to develop a definition for that. And I will give you a couple seconds just to read the definition and particular the second bullet. In 1966, Reverend Doctor King, in a discussion with some health practitioners and an organization meeting, stated that some of the most pervasive, inhumane realities is that lack of quality health in this country because it leads to morbid realities. And what we are seeing is morbid realities that are perplexing our community, as well as the community of Minnesota across the nation, as well. Um, as we think about medical apartheid, I also need you all to think that we have an opportunity to curtail this reality. I’ll turn it over to Doctor Boyce. Okay, so. Then the next slide here primarily again, this is our third, third question in our health equity framework is what systems are driving these inequities. And I can tell you we’ve looked at 20 different indicators and more to come. Um, because we are constantly looking at different data sources across multiple indicators. And in every single indicator. What is poverty? Remember I told you that on average, uh, 10% of Brooklyn Park residents are poor? But that’s not the reality. South of 85th. South of 85th, that number goes up to up to 20% in those neighborhoods, right south of 85th. There’s higher unemployment. South of 85th, there’s greater renter share, right south of 85th is higher crowding in housing. Right south of 85th, we see higher percentages of underinsured. So people are working, but they may not have good insurance to be able to get access to quality health care. Um, that they would need. Right. We also have limited, um, English uh, south of 85th. And this makes sense because that’s where we see a higher concentration of foreign born residents here in Brooklyn Park, south of 85th, has greater percentages of people living with diabetes, which is a chronic disease. Um, epidemic. Right south of 85th. There’s a higher concentration of people with obesity. Right. And so these two indicators on the bottom here, these are relative, um, indexes. And again, these are comparing communities or neighborhoods within with each other. And what we see is there’s something called social Vulnerability Index which is where we determine which communities are less likely to rebound in the midst of, of, of epidemics like Covid and other natural disasters. And what we see, again, the most vulnerable communities here in Brooklyn Park, they are south of 85th, right? Similarly, we looked at crime in this, um, data we got from the city of Brooklyn Park dashboard. Thank you, chief. And again, the higher um, reported crimes are south of 85th. Right. And so what this is showing is that these systems are not isolated. The problems we see here in Brooklyn Park, they are not isolated to just one thing. We see an overlying, um, um, over multiple structure inequalities across economic, social health. Right, that are contributing to these uneven health outcomes here in Brooklyn Park. And the reason why I’ve said that, you know, 85th now is our, uh, demarcation of injustice here in Brooklyn Park, having been a Brooklyn Park residents for 26 years. Um, it’s because in across every single indicator we looked at, we see this consistent pattern in worsening health outcomes. Um, across multiple data sources south of 85th. Um, and so what we have been doing as a team, now that we’ve gotten enough data to be able to understand community need, we started asking ourselves, where should we prioritize resources first, given that resources are limited. And so we have these, um, six different categories that we looked at, whether, you know, demographic, demographic, demographic. I can talk right now. Um, access, barrier access, uh, demographic access to barriers, economic stability, housing instability, safety, exposure, health outcomes, um, and health access. And we came up again. This is relative index score. So relative to each neighborhood how neighborhoods compare. And we looked at across these six different categories. And again the neighborhood that had the greatest need across these six categories was hit off right. Had the greatest need relative to every single neighborhood we saw in Broken Park. And the list goes on with, you know, Village Creek, Shingle Creek, and these are our greatest needs. And the reason why we did this, again, because we wanted to understand where we can deploy the resources we have to have the greatest impact. It was not to label neighborhoods. It was to be able to see where can we have the greatest impact by deploying resources in those areas. And so this is our deployment map for health on the goal. We’ve already started doing work there. Right. And so the first tier of neighborhoods, those are our immediate priority. We’ve also been partnering with the University of Minnesota, for example, to be able to provide education around cancer and other chronic diseases of the the neighborhood in the yellow, those are elevated priorities. And then the neighborhood in the blue of those are monitoring partners. So what we hope to do is to provide direct services in the red, um, expand those services based on the resources we have to areas that are, um, yellow and then partner with community based organizations to be able to provide services. Um, in the neighborhoods that are labeled here, blue, because we understand that resources are limited and we can’t be everywhere at the same time. We want to have the greatest impact. And for now, those neighborhoods in red, those are our priority neighborhood. Um, and so we’ve been talking we’ve provided some of the same information internally. You know, we’ve been having conversations with our our community development team around how do we really look at when stabilization, because housing instability is an issue here in Brooklyn Park. Right. And we don’t want to lose our diversity when people move out because the city is unaffordable. Um, and so housing is a huge priority for us. Our safety is also a priority for us. We’ve been working to set a meeting with Djibouti and, um, the fire department to be able to coordinate resources because as you see, the disparities we see here, they are not isolated, right? They are overlapping. And so the best approach will be to coordinate resources to have the greatest impact. The other thing we’ve been doing is to provide service delivery in those areas, meet residents where they are. And because Brooklyn Park is diverse, it requires us to do it in a culturally responsive way. And so our mobile health unit, which is health on a goal, provide education. That’s multilingual, right? Taking into taking into account there’s a high immigrant population here. We also have been having discussion with, you know, Paul and team and our team around economic, um, how we can be able to support, um, and make sure that some of the economic development we lead from an equity lens to make sure that we are allocating those opportunities in a way that we can, um, concentrate to on the south of 85th. Um, and so quickly, just to go over some of the, uh, strategic partnerships we have, we’ve, you know, established a partnership with the University of Minnesota, um, economic launch, screening, uh, initiative. They were over the world, uh, last, um, last second Tuesday, um, in June, I believe, to be able to provide some education around health. Um, and, and and screening around cancer. We also have a partnership with a mental health clinic that be able to, um, support mental health initiative. Um, we had a mental health, um, community event on the 23rd of May. It was highly successful. We also have a partnership now with Minnesota Department of Health to be able to co-create solutions around providing mammogram screenings for women here in Brooklyn Park. Um, and so we’ve been working strategically to make sure we provide those resources. That’s based on need. And so to this date, we’ve had about 15 plus strategic partnerships meeting we’ve identified, and we are in the process of formulating a memorandum of understanding with about ten plus partners. You know, we’ve reached, uh, up to 1500 residents in different initiatives. Uh, we’ve had multiple community events, including our mental health. Uh, um, event on the 23rd of May. Um, and I think we are trying to ensure that partnerships, um, inform, you know, the way we do things because we understand that communities are different and we want to meet people where they are and to find partnerships to help us do this work. That’s what we’re doing. And so for the next six months, we want to establish more partnerships. We want to have more programs. We have a back to school, uh, screening event next month, August. Sorry, I’m thinking this is July, but August, we have our back to school event to be able to provide, uh, back to school physical and health screening for. We are targeting 300 to 500, um, teens here in Brooklyn Park. And that partnership is with Doctor Kim, who is a surgeon. She works at the Maple Grove Clinic, but she’s living in Brooklyn Park. So, um, a couple of recommendations before I stop here is that I think based on what we’ve seen from the data, we are recommending that the council really integrate health, um, through an equity lens, meaning that we consider health and economic policies, right, to be able to really inform allocation of resources here in Brooklyn Park, because we understand our service delivery model does not. It’s a short term solution, but to really address these structural barriers, we will need policies to be able to, um, sustain whatever solution we provide. The other thing we are doing is to expand our health on the go model to those strategic neighborhoods that we have identified based on the highest need. We’re looking at our partnerships around preventative care, mental health support, food access, because those are the things that residents are greatly concerned about. Health. Um, it’s important, but also housing instability has been a problem for residents here. And so we are prioritizing that. Um, and I think one of the things that we want to really, um, advocate for is just to invest in preventative and community well-being, right? Really try to prioritize initiatives that improve housing stability, food security, transportation, neighborhood safety, chronic disease prevention, so that we can really, really improve health outcomes here in Brooklyn Park so that your zip code doesn’t determine your health outcomes, which is where we are right now. And then lastly, you know, have a, um, have data informed policies that you make here, um, have, um, mental health. We have already department, but mostly be intentional around population health outcomes by establishing a public health department similar to the city of Bloomington, uh, which are one of our partners that we’re we are working with. Um, and so I will stop here and I just want to say, you know, we’ve been really intentional to really understand community need. And now we have been really looking at strategic partnerships to be able to not only provide short term, resources to residents, but now really council, um, it’s we will really appreciate, you know, brainstorming, co-creating long term solutions for residents here in Brooklyn Park. I thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate the presentation. All the work that went into the data and analysis, um, can you guys do me a favor and please make sure that Maria Tran is back on there? So if she has questions, I can see her because I can’t see her on my screen. I’m sorry. No, no, no, it’s it’s fine. But if she has a question, I won’t be able to tell. Okay. Thank you. In the meantime, uh, Councilmember Page, thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Um, thank you for the presentation. Um, when I reviewed it at the end of last week, you speak very fast, and I want to thank you for that, because there’s a lot of information there. But it also seems like a really large, um, ask. It’s a lot. Right. And so I have three questions. The first one is do you see a partnership happening or currently ongoing with other educational organizations? I see we do a lot at one college, but there’s two other three others. I’m just wondering if we if we’re working on those folks for, um, strategic partnerships, if that’s part of that alongside Hennepin County, because I know they’re out in our community a lot. Yes. So I would talk to we are in a process of having a partnership with enough Hennepin Community College. They have invited us to be able to provide health education. They are also in the process of creating a public health department, which is what we want to see. So yes, we also have some conversations going with the University of Minnesota. Uh, that public health department or Doctor Davis can speak to other partnerships. Uh, we we are in conversations with President Bodine, Hennepin Technical College, as we have um, really wanted to tap into some of their dentistry because they have a dental assistant program. Um, so, yes, I think they may even have a nursing program. I’m not 100% for sure, but we are in contact with President Bodine. Some of our team members, in particular, Vice President Allison, I can’t remember her last name. Please forgive me. And I will also say not only at the college level, but we also have been, um, engaging also, school districts where our park center, other schools, trampoline park and all these other schools to really be able to, um, have, um, the need to understand, uh, from the very inception, public health and teaching students and having them understand how they the little things that they can do to be able to improve their health outcomes. So, for example, during Juneteenth, we had a session around food as medicine. You may not be able to afford expensive food, but you can still eat healthy. So we are starting not only at the college level, but also at the high school level, to just be able to educate people on public health and what they can do themselves, and also what we can do to hold our elected officials accountable as well. Great. Thank you for that. Um, but just adding there’s also, um, Rasmussen. So I know some of those all of those schools have a requirement to do just for example, phlebotomy. So many blood pools, etc.. And there are some free services that they, they give out to the public for that. And I love that you said dentistry because that’s huge too. So I love that. Um, so you answered all my questions except for. Let me just look really quick. Oh, so this map. So I’m looking at this one. But when I, when I look at the, I sort of need just a little definition of lower priority because when I match it with these, there’s several neighborhoods that are pretty high. Um, in four of your, um, system, I don’t know what’s the right word. Get help me with or educate me with that. So separate. Yeah. Okay. So if we look at, for example. It’s hard to match. But let’s go above 85th to the left and you’ll see you’ve got your tier three here and up above there. Those are all low priority. But in a lot of these, um, poverty, unemployment, renter households, I mean through to limited English diabetes, obesity, down to social vulnerability, safety, exposure. It’s only a couple that they don’t have. So I’m just wondering how that’s prioritized. So for health on. The go slide. That you’re looking at. Um yep. So I have this one. What systems are driving. Does it have a number on it. Oh yeah it is. Oh I ripped it 15 and 13 are good examples. Yeah. So if you look at I think is slide 18 what should where should we act first. There were six categories that we looked at across uh demographics and access barriers, economic stability. And we look at indicators in all of those categories. And we came up with a composite score based on a composite score. We developed this priority. So yes, your point is taking that perhaps maybe those neighborhood has 4 or 5 things that they were high. But across all of these categories we were looking at those neighborhoods that had, um, not only overlapping barriers, but there are also, um, from an equity lens. So not only a higher population of people of color, but also highest need across these six categories. So I, I, I’m sorry to interrupt. Um, I understand the data and how it was, um, how you arrived at that. I’m just wondering for health on the go, if there’s an opportunity to maybe expand a couple of those neighborhoods, because it it looks like there. I think definitely we’ll go wherever the need is. And we want to meet people where they are. I think what we have said is that, um, even we were up 85th recently to provide health education. So yes, health on the go. We go anywhere. But I think what we are preferential to making sure where the highest need is, that’s where we prioritize. So we have partnerships in these areas. And if they’re hosting something and invite us, we will go. Okay, so that’s not just you’re not setting okay. So it’s by invitation. Well not necessarily. There are certain areas. So for example here in these high priorities area, we co-create um events. Right. So for example at the word we are there every second Tuesday when they are having the of good in the hood food distribution. We provide education. Doctor Davis has worked to get a spot where we are providing education there every single time. Right. Because that is a high priority. So we’re going to prioritize being there with a higher frequency. In other areas we have things, but it may be like, um, maybe Juneteenth or like a event where there’s a health care and we’re invited. And so we go with our trucks. But in these neighborhoods where the greatest needs are, we have a schedule like this Monday, we’re in this neighborhood this Tuesday because that’s where the need is. So we have higher visibility. Uh, do I make sense? You do. I just don’t it. I’m just looking at all your charts, and I’m seeing a high need in some of those neighborhoods that are listed. Low priority. So I was just asking. Okay, I will look at it. And I think we definitely can expand. I think resources are limited. And so we are being strategic. So yes, I will go back to the data and I think, um, the frequency I’m in the process right now, I’m making sure we have our service delivery maps and schedules, and I will look into that and take that into consideration. Okay. Thank you. Okay. It’s going to be Council Member Erickson and then Council member Tran after that. Thank you so much for the presentation. Um, in a few minutes, we’ll be hearing from Commissioner Jeff Lundy. And I know that he has been eating, sleeping and breathing have been health care for the last 6 to 8 months, maybe longer. Um, and there is a Hennepin Health Care clinic right in the epicenter of this geography. Um, I didn’t hear them mentioned specifically as a partner in this work, but that seems like a obvious connection. And they have facilities and resources right there in the right, in the center of that space. So I would love to hear from Commissioner Lundy later about about that resource in our community. And then. Yeah, we’re actively working on it. We have reach out to the manager there. Um, both Doctor Davis and I have, um, have met her, and we are in the process of formulating some type of agreement with Hennepin Healthcare right here. We know it’s a priority because it’s right there on, on, on, on scene and Brooklyn Boulevard. And definitely we are working hard strategically to bring them on board as partners. And. Council member Tran. Thank you. Um, hi. Um, thank you for the presentation. Um, I want to know, um, how do you collect these data? Um, to come to the conclusion, um, do you contact directly to the the family, the residents in the city, or do you get the data from, uh, U of M and the health care system? That’s a good point. So we have multiple data sources here, and we’re really strategic in how we do this. Some are publicly available data. They are collected by the US government. So for example, the American Community Survey uh, is done by the US government. That is something that they do, um, on a routine basis. Uh, the for example, the USDA food access to collect data from households around food insecurity. We also have data from Hitech, which is, um, health, um, across communities in Minnesota here. And they collect indicators. Not only is it reported through clinics or that aggregates our data and reports to health entities, but it’s also some survey level data. So the data we collect is a mixture of survey from residents. Uh, versus also government data that’s aggregated and reported to them from whether it’s health care clinics or other places. So for example, we get data on people who have been diagnosed with diabetes or this is aggregated. So for example, uh, healthcare communities report, ah, to Minnesota Department of Health and other entities. The number of people who they’ve diagnosed. So yeah, there’s a variety of their pushed out some of the data surveys, some the US government does on a routine basis, others is reported in an aggregated format to government sources here in Broken Park and uh, in Minnesota. Sorry. So then if the data comes from the system like that, how can you have the map on the geographic and in the city? So the data when it’s reported is reported at different levels. We call them you unit of analysis. Right. It can be at the census level. It can be at the zipcode level. It can be at the neighborhood level. Right. So because we know the zip codes are associated with neighborhoods, we can be able to, uh, strategically map outcomes at the neighborhood level. The other thing I want to say is that at all of our community events, we collect data from residents. We understand that Brooklyn Park have 20% of residents of foreign born, and especially with recently the metro search here, a lot of immigrants are very reluctant to provide data to community, um, and government sources. So we understand that. And so we are always looking for ways to collect data from residents themselves. So every single time we have any type of event, we collect data and we collect what is your zip code? And then when they provide us the data, we can understand where they are living with in Brooklyn Park. Based on that zip code analysis. Thank you. With a mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative analysis. So what the people tell us goes into the data. Hmm. So that includes the the address.. Not not necessarily because we’re really concerned about HIPAA. We don’t collect data at the um, zip code. We collect it at the zip code level. So for example, if I tell you I live my zip code is 55444. That is so many houses in that neighborhood. So you don’t know specifically where I live, but you know which neighborhood I live in, right? So that’s how we are able to really understand where resources are, where, um, residents are by collecting zip code level. And all of the government data sources does similar things. It’s either at the census level, typical level, and usually when we request data, like recently, we requested that we request our data here for Brooklyn Park. We were specific that we wanted neighborhood level data for Brooklyn Park. But the Doctor Davis point is that we always want to make sure that the numbers we see, um, uh, they are contextualized by residents. We understand that, um, people who are in close proximity to suffering, they can better be able to tell you what economic instability looks like. So we are always talking to residents, whether it’s through, um, feedback methods, focus groups, discussions. We have couple of listening sessions that are coming up in July where residents are going to tell us all of the data we see, if that is that lived experience. Right. So we want to make sure that we are really, um, the need is based on perception and need of residents, not necessarily what we collect from a government source. Thank you. Um, but, uh, you know, uh, adding to this service, I think, um, the program should, uh, make an education program to, to let the residents know because, uh, um, at the I working in the health care service more than 20 years, and I see the, um, the people in the community, uh, you know, one thing, not many people recognize that the, the food, uh, import from, uh, seafood, fish import from China, from Vietnam. You know, it’s very high. Um, song sodium that, uh, you know, when people eat, they, they get like, uh, swelling food swelling, and it will come to the disease, like heart disease. And, you know, diabetes. But not many people know. So. And here in Minnesota, we have, uh, many lake. We have, uh, you know, first fish, why don’t we eat the fish? Fresh fish here. Why why do we have to buy the the import? Uh, you know, uh, stoplight, uh, you know, not good for health, not healthy. So, uh, I wish, like, this program can educate people, uh, you know, educate people more about how to eat healthy. Thank you. Thank you for that. Council member. Tran. Um, at the top of the year, we would like to revisit your question because we agree to what you’re saying, that education in our community is absolutely paramount. And we are trying to put together a plan for the year, actually, for the three to the next 3 to 5 years that will address some of the strategies to allow us to enhance our community with additional education around health equity as well as advocacy as it relates to policies and legislation that help remove the the barriers for health inequities. Thank you. You’re welcome. One of the things I noticed when we were looking at the the different Disparity maps is the, um. Social vulnerability map is pretty colored in through most of the city. And I’m curious your thoughts on that. Doctor. Doctors. So. Um, social Vulnerability Index is a really good indicator, and I think it’s probably the, um, this is what it’s used at the CDC center for Disease Control and Prevention to really understand vulnerabilities within communities. And this was what that was used to be able to really allocate resources during Covid 19. And it is true that compared to, um, Brooklyn Park, you know, because there are, you know, multiple inequalities and that social profitability index, it looks across 16 different indicators for different thematic areas, demographics, um, households. It takes into account a lot of indicators. And yes, if you look at that in that context, um, there’s an aging population. There is, you know, not only people of color, but there’s other things around mental health. And so, yes, there’s more. Communities in Brooklyn Park are vulnerable. But I think with the Social Vulnerability Index, the closer you are to 1 or 100%, the more vulnerable you are. Right. So the CDC has this, uh, framework where if it is less than 0.5 or less than 50%, you are vulnerable, but not as vulnerable as someone closer to 100. So, yes, you do see a lot of vulnerabilities. But I think what’s important is that they usually designate low, moderate and high. So the communities are closer to 100. Those are the highest vulnerabilities, which means that they are less likely to rebound from natural disasters like Covid 19. And we know this because Covid 19 actually precipitated, um, health outcomes here in Brooklyn Park. And so that’s what we need to pay attention to. So yes, you will see a lot of vulnerabilities, but I think what I need to do is to really put low, high and moderate so you get a better context, as you know, which communities here in Brooklyn Park have moderate to high vulnerabilities. And those are the ones that we need to concentrate on. Because what that is telling us, if we had another Covid 19, they are less likely to rebound or, um, Covid 19 or another public health epidemic would precipitate poorer outcomes. Thank you. Uh, one of the things I mean, just with that, you have the Social Vulnerability Index and then the safety exposure. And I hear what you’re saying. There’s the gradient, but some of these are still pretty high percentages. They’re not 5%. They’re 70. They’re 80. They may not be red 90, but they’re still pretty high. So those those two graphs in particular really stand out is a little bit more broad. We need to do two things right. We need to look at this as an overall but also go in targeted as you’re showing on page 19 for your tier one two and three. But I, I think I’d take a little bit of umbrage at the designation that it’s just south of 85th, and I don’t want to have those neighborhoods that are clearly, um, two tier two and three that are also having struggles, feeling like they’re they’re not seen or what they’re experiencing because they’re north of 85th has less view from the city. Um, and I don’t want us in the habit either, of creating division in our community like that, where one community. So as a whole, we have to really make sure that we’re united in some of these things, because that orange on page 19 is pretty, pretty scattered too. Um, and I and I think I heard that perhaps from Council Member page, we just want to make sure that. Yes, what you’re saying there is huge disparities we do have to address, but I don’t want people to feel like the real challenges they’re facing with safety and vulnerability aren’t also seen. And I’m really curious, your perspective on, um, what a municipal health department does. How do you see that functioning for Brooklyn Park? So I think, you know. One of the one of the things that we need to have this conversation automatically, it puts you in a position where you get allocation of resources. So, for example, we learned that Hennepin Public Health, Department of Public Health gets $330 million, but none of that money come here. And that’s primarily because of that allocation. They get money from Minnesota Department of Health. They get money from I used to work with the Ryan White program, and because of that destination, we got money for the Ryan White program from, uh, HR. ESA. Right. So there are a lot of perks when you have that destination. Um, there are resources that the Minnesota Department of Health sends your way. I mean, and it will really help us to be able to do this work. Well, the other thing that it does is that we have been, um, engaging other departments of health, like, for example, we’ve had a sense of conversations with the city of Bloomington, um, and also, um, um, Hennepin County so that we understand some of the lessons they’ve learned. Right? So we’re not co-creating or doing things in parallel that we’re complementing each other. It is true that Brooklyn Park, um, it’s a city, but Brooklyn Park is a city within Hennepin County, so it’s really important that we, um, learn lessons from other Department of Health so that we can be able to, um, um, implement best strategy. And so, aside from the allocation to really send resources here and making sure that you are also with other public health departments. So you are co-creating strategy. One of the things that I’ve learned in 20 years, being a Purple Heart practitioner, is that solutions in isolation are not something we want to do. We want to make sure that what is, um, being implemented here at the City of Brooklyn Park is, um, complementary to what is done in other cities across our Minnesota. And so that level designation will put us in spaces in Rome where we can have those conversations and make sure that we are implementing best practices, something that’s good for the residents of Bloomington. They are also important for the city of Brooklyn Park. And its residents. And so those are my two immediate thoughts on the Purple Health Department. Do you have. Any more? Thank you. I also understand that the work you’re doing here is also working towards helping us get more resources to address these issues. And thank you for that. It’s it’s really important data for us to be looking at and looking forward to more work with this team in the future. So thank you very much. Yes. And if. There’s any. Need specific to your constituency, we are happy to support at any time. We have so many data, we couldn’t put everything here. But yes, if you want to see especially how this looks like for the people you serve, we’re happy to support you in making informed decisions. Great. Thank you. Don’t forget, Commissioner Lundy is in the room, so go bend his ear to. All right. So thank you for the health equity update. I don’t think there’s any more questions. So it looks like the next. And I don’t believe there’s an action on that one. Let me double check. Nope. So no voting. That’s easy okay. The next one is the very substantial booklet. We have three B3, the 2025 audited annual Comprehensive Financial Report and auditor’s reports. Hello. Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem um Kalinowski, uh Council members and Doctor Smith, this evening I’d like to introduce Ryan Engelstad, who is from Bergen KTV, our audit firm Ryan is joining us online. As you can see, he’s with us. Um, and he is going to be sharing the 2025 audit report for the city. All right. Thank you. Molly. Uh, good evening, mayor Pro Tem and members of the council. Uh, I appreciate you having me on the agenda tonight. Uh, to provide a recap of the results of the audit work that we did for the city for the 2025 year. Um, as mentioned, the deliverables that we provide, it is a lot of reading material, uh, there. And what we do for these presentations is, uh, within a slide deck, 15 or so slides, I’ll just runs through the kind of the key, uh, highlights or takeaways from the deliverables that have been provided. And then, uh, just wanted to mention to you that, uh, later, uh, in a few weeks here, I think it’s the 13th of July. I’ll be on site there at City Hall and meeting with the audit committee, uh, to go through the deliverables in more detail, uh, than what? I’ll have time for tonight. So, uh, just wanted to provide that. Um, and then also, I think it’s worth mentioning before I get started is, you know, the presentation here that we’re doing at at, uh, June 22nd, we’re, um, you know, notably ahead of where things have been in the audit kind of cycle and in the recent years, uh, just within due to a number of different factors. But, um, it’s my third year being involved in the audit. Uh, I think, uh, year one, it was out in August, September. Now we’re last year, I think it was late July. Now we’re back into June. So we’ll be in a position where we can get everything filed without having to utilize extensions and, and things like that. So, uh, big credit to, uh, Molly and LaTonya and others there at the city for all their hard work and, and being able to kind of get get everything ready for the audit and, uh, being, uh, addressing our questions and requests and all that in a very timely manner. So thank you for that. Um, Molly, uh, let’s see, it doesn’t look like I’m able to share my screen on my end. I don’t know if you have the slide deck, uh, loaded up onto the machine there that you’re at, but otherwise, if I can share on my side, I can. I’ve got it open. I can do that quickly. Here. You have to go. You have to go to the. Shortcut. And then while they’re while they’re bringing that up to you. I did want to mention I apologize for not being able to be there in person. Uh, tonight for this meeting, I very much prefer to do these in person, but, uh, it’s with the, uh, we, uh, doing a quite a few, uh, city audits, um, ended up with a conflict tonight. And, uh, so I met another, uh, city hall, uh, this evening, and I’m about ready to make my way down the hall following this presentation to the council chambers there and doing a presentation. So, uh, but given I was able to, uh, I’ll be there in person to meet with the audit committee next month. Um, like, I’m doing it in this fashion. Uh, works out here for this year, but I will definitely be there in person next year, so. All right. So let’s see. Molly. Um. Uh, yeah. In front of me. Like I can share quite yet. Uh, can you please make sure Councilmember Tran is on this screen? Thank you. So, Ryan, I do have the presentation in front of me. Okay. Uh, all right, so you have it um cheering there. Uh, on a. Screen or uh okay. Uh so why don’t we let’s see. Um split my screen on my side here so I can see if there’s any hands being raised or anything. So feel free to ask questions as I’m going through. Um, but I’ll, I’ll move through this pretty quickly. Um, and if there’s anything I don’t touch on that you want me to elaborate on, please let me know. So, um, towards the front of the annual financial report, which is the, uh, the thickest of the three documents that we provide, uh, there is a section that’s referred to as the Independent auditor’s report. Uh, there’s a lot of verbiage in there. The kind of key sections. The first one is the opinion, uh, that is reflected and, uh, the couple paragraphs that are included there. You don’t see the word unmodified or or the word clean showing up in those two paragraphs. But that is the type of opinion that we are providing, uh, with regards to the financial statements. And as mentioned or as noted here on the slide, that is the optimal result when it comes to a set of audited set of financial statements. Um, the responsibilities and management and fair presentation of the financial information to us in the maintenance of internal controls, our duties as the auditors is to, um, provide assurance that the financial statements are fairly, fairly presented in all material respects. The work we do as part of the annual financial statement audit, uh, given that we’re not testing every transaction, uh, that occurred throughout the year, nor would the city want to pay us to do that. Um, uh, the type of assurance we’re giving is considered to be reasonable rather than absolute assurance, but that is a high level of confidence that we are providing, uh, at that level. So 90 to 95% confidence that there’s not anything material that would go undetected as part of the process. So I apologize. I got a message here saying my laptop is on a volt battery. So bear with me one moment. I don’t want to lose lose folks here. Um, sorry about that. I didn’t realize I was getting that long. Okay, uh, we can advance Molly to the next slide here. Okay, so then the other deliverables that we have, um, there’s a reporter labeled Government Auditing standards in Minnesota legal compliance. So the first two bullet points here titled touch on that report. Um, the report on the internal controls over financial reporting. Uh, as part of the audit, we looked at a number of things around internal controls, appropriate segregation of duties. So having checks and balances in place, those types of things, everything checked out well in that regard. Uh, that the other element that comes into play when it comes when it relates to this report on internal controls is if as part of the audit process, uh, if we as the external auditors identify any, any balances for which, uh, our, um, uh, factually or likely misstated, um, you know, based on the underlying support that we received and so forth, uh, we then propose an adjustment and depending on the, the, um, significance of that adjustment in dollars as compared to the materiality for the related, uh, fund or opinion unit. Uh, we then have to, uh, determine if there’s a need to report it as an internal control matter, given that us as the external auditors can’t be part of the internal control system. So we did have a few adjustments that surfaced that we identified as part of the process. Just a much of it was just tied to, uh, year end cutoff matters. So reporting in one year versus the other. A lot of times when things happen close to your end, it can get a little tricky with, you know, how to interpret, uh, dates on certain documentation versus others. Uh, so we work through that with management. Ultimately got to the point where we had those those adjustments proposed and then reflected through the financial statements. Uh, so given that those adjustments were made, we can still provide that clean opinion on the financials. But we do have to report that matter, uh, in that internal control report that we did assist with a few of those, uh, adjusting entries. Okay. And there’s more detail that can be provided on those. I’ll go into a little bit more detail with the audit committee, uh, when I meet with them as to kind of more specifics around the nature of those and so forth. But, um, the other item in that report is with regards to Minnesota legal compliance. So the state auditor’s office publishes a guide that we work through, in addition to our other audit programs. And looking at the various state statutes that have financial pertinence. Through all the work that we did in that regard, there were no exceptions that surfaced that were, uh, that we would need to report on as as far as the finding. So great result there, uh, for the city. And then we also, um, provide a communications letter and, uh, within that letter, various required communication points really sums up, if you know, kind of how the audit process went, if we encountered significant difficulties or had disagreements with management, those types of things, uh, it all reads very, very favorable. Uh, in that regard. So, uh, the, the team there, as I alluded to in my opening comments, uh, did a great job, very cooperative, uh, well prepared. And we appreciate all that hard work. Uh, then in addition to that, through that letter, there are various graphs and, and such that provide some financial trend info and so forth. I’ve included those graphs in the slide deck here. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. Um, so we’ll take a quick look at those here. Um, in just a minute or so. And then the last bullet point here is that, uh, for any local government or nonprofits that receive federal funds, depending on the extent of the, uh, expenditures that were incurred during the year related to those federal grants? Um, if it goes over a threshold of $1 million, uh, there is then a need for us to do a specific compliance audit that’s separate from the financial, somewhat separate from the financial statements audit. It’s issued as a completely separate report. Um, so in working through and later in the process, getting more details around the, the, uh, arrangement with, um, uh, and uh, with the funding coming from HUD as it pertained to the Huntington, uh, Huntington Place, uh, development and so forth. The um, ultimately, based on documentation provided and so forth, and the timing of the expenditures, it was determined that that separate compliance audit is needed for for that piece for 2025. So we’re going to be working through that here in the near term. And and then getting that that issued that report is not due to the federal government until September 30th. So we’ll have that issued, uh, well, in advance of that point. Okay. And move forward here. Please follow. All right. So then with the financial results and trends, uh, we’ll first look at the general fund. There’s probably 4 or 5 graphs here on in regards to that. And I’ll be real quick here. So during 2025, uh, revenues exceeded expenditures by about $3.5 million. You can see over that five year period, uh, both revenues, expenditures and then the fund balance position trending upwards as, as would be expected. So really demonstrates the good stewardship, uh, that’s in place by the city, uh, to drive, drive those results. Uh, moving to the next slide, uh, with the general fund fund balance, um, the metric that often gets looked at and is incorporated into fund balance, fund balance policies is, uh, the extent, uh, that the fund balance covers the subsequent years budgeted expenditures. And for the city of Brooklyn Park, the fund balance policy that’s in place says that the city would maintain a unassigned fund balance between 35 and 50% of the next year’s budget. And, uh, the state auditor’s office also publishes guidance on that. They say that municipalities should have no less, uh, no less than five months of coverage, uh, in their fund balance at the end of the year, because it’s it’s halfway through the next year before the first large property tax settlement comes in. Uh, therefore, the need to have the the fund balance there to provide for that cash flow for the first half of the next year. Uh, so with that, uh, the way it shook out for the city of Brooklyn Park, uh, if we go to the next, next slide here, uh, please, Molly, uh, you can see there for 2025, uh, continued increase and, uh, getting up to close to 48%. Uh, so certainly a good position to be in for the city, both in comparison to your policy as well as, uh, the minimum threshold at the state. Uh, uh, suggests for cities. Okay. All right. So then moving forward, looking at the general fund budget, actual results here, uh, favorable variances on both sides for revenues and then as well on on the expenditure side, uh, that drove that, uh, notable increase in fund balance. Uh, so on the revenue side, uh, some offsetting factors coming into play there on the on the first line for tax, taxes, revenue, uh, that’s where the most notable, uh, variance comes in. And it’s, uh, negative. So the amount of tax collections, uh, did come in a bit less than the, the levy that was approved by the council. Uh, so the difference there was about 3% on that. That variance is a bit more than, than usual. I would say. Uh, a lot of times it’s, you know, certainly very common for, you know, uh, all but say one, 1.5% or, you know, somewhere in that range, uh, as far as the amount of taxes that, that were, that are in delinquent status at the end of end of the year as it pertains to the levy for that year. Uh, so something just to keep an eye on there, uh, in that regard. Then the other revenue lines with notable variances, charges for services, this is one that often has conservative budgeting included just because of the unknowns as to what the extent of, um, uh, activity will be from one year to the next, uh, pertaining to, you know, motor vehicle, motor vehicle licensing, police security contracts, uh, all of those types of things. Um, and then also, you know, building permit revenue, etcetera, just based on the, the extent of activity that’s happening out there. Uh, then the other revenue line, you can see that all set up favorable variance of about 1.7 million. Uh, the biggest item, uh, that’s, uh, driving that relates to the investment earnings. So the general funds portion of the overall investment pool of the city, uh, the allocation that’s done to the general fund based on both interest earnings and then the fair market value adjustment that happens. Uh, that’s required under the Accounting and Reporting standards. Uh, so a few years back, there was a significant downward mark to market adjustment. Now, in years since then, there’s been continued recovery of that. But it’s again, a line item that’s often budgeted conservatively because things can change pretty quickly as it pertains to interest rates and so forth. Um, so that that is not unusual from what we see, uh, across the board for other cities as well. So those are the big items on the revenue side. On the expenditure side, general government expenditures is where the most significant variance was a 2.4 million favorable variance. They’re about 20%. Much of that is tied to, uh, just some staffing vacancies, as well as some contingency items that were built into the budget that ultimately, uh, did not have to be utilized. Okay. So that is the the comments there on the general funds, uh, budget tax will. And then I think we’ve just got a couple a few more graphs. Um, so here just showing in, uh, bar graph form and then breaking out the different categories of revenue, uh, seeing what’s happened over that five year period. Uh, so just easier to see and, uh, in that form, uh, in some cases. So nothing further to add. Their, uh, property taxes was where the largest increase was about $4 million, roughly 7% increase on that line item, uh, tied in with the uh, approved levy by the council. Okay. Uh, okay. Moving forward to the next one. Should be a pie chart on the revenues. So the makeup stayed very consistent. As expected. Just a very minor 1% shift between other and then property taxes. Uh, given the extent of the investment earnings, uh, the other revenue category, uh, increase, uh, just slightly in terms of the overall percentage. Okay. And then moving on to expenditures, uh, so here you can see, uh, the extent of expenditures by category, um, as expected, public safety is, uh, for all municipalities. Uh, at least all that I work with is, is by far the number one, uh, most significant category as far as the allocation of the expenses. So we’re we’re, uh, Brooklyn Park is at, um, uh, in line with kind of those, uh, the metro cities, uh, you know, similar, similar size and so forth. And so that is in line with our expectations. And then, uh, other other line items within their, um, all state kind of very, very much in line. And as expected. Okay. Uh, and then a pie chart on the general fund expenditures again, there stayed very consistent, I think just a slight 1% shift between public safety and public works, just based on a lot of times, uh, fluctuations and staffing levels and so forth. In that regard. Okay, okay. Continuing on, um, public utilities fund, we’ll look quickly here at the, um, enterprise funds. So with this one, um, the key takeaways here from this slide is that the, uh, so the water and sewer, uh, utilities combined, uh, produce positive operating income in all five years presented. Uh, and that’s both, uh, with the, uh, depreciation expense included. And then we also show what the, um, operating income was, uh, that was generated without the non-cash depreciation expense to get a better sense from a kind of more of a cash flow, cash generation perspective. Uh, what transpired. So certainly a good year for for the utilities, uh, function there. Uh, much of that on the revenue side, the increase was driven based on, uh, rate increases. And then, uh, notably on the, uh, for water for the water component, uh, usage increases as well. In 25. Okay. On the expense side, the the increase wasn’t quite as large, about $1 million year over year, roughly, say 5%. And that was tied mainly to increased contractual service charges, mainly on the sewage disposal side. Okay. Uh, so those results then drove the change in the in the net position or fund balance. Uh, so looking at the next slide, uh, total fund balance went up by about 5.3 million. Um, and then uh, with that, uh, we also look at the unrestricted net position specifically. So here you can see, uh, for that unrestricted portion, it went up actually by about 7 million. Uh, so what that means is the other component of net net position, which is the net investment in capital assets, had a slight decrease based on annual depreciation expense and so forth on the infrastructure and other assets. Uh, so I good growth. They’re building up the reserves in the utilities fund to be able to uh, uh, address future maintenance costs and, um, infrastructure improvements and so forth, and limiting the extent to which debt is utilized for those, uh, improvements. Okay. All right. So then continuing to move forward here, um, the storm sewer funds, another one that had, uh, positive income all five years presented. And then, uh, for 2025, uh, overall result was approximately 1.7 million increase in the total net position. Uh, there’s some other factors that come into play with, uh, non-operating revenues and transfers and so forth. So that’s why that number is a little bit different than the orange, uh, baa, baa in this chart here. Um, but then looking at the next, next slide of that 1.7 million increase, about 1.2 of that one, 1.1, 1.2, uh, was went to the unrestricted net position. So some of that went to the net investment in capital assets. But, uh, looking at it over the past, uh, past few years here, um, from the end of 23, again, building, building that, uh, fund balance position back up nicely there. Okay. All right. Continuing on. So the street and signal light fund, uh, another one that’s, uh, doing well, uh, generating, uh, plenty of, uh, cash flow, uh, again, to build up those future reserves as shown on the next graph. Uh, for this one, you can see what’s transpired, uh, over the five year period. So we advanced to the, uh, the fund balance. Uh, slide here, uh, unrestricted net position going from 20, uh, the end of 2021 to end of 25, it comes out to be a approximately 60% increase. So again, being able to put dollars aside to cover those future costs related to those particular, uh, assets and, and needs as it relates to street and signal lights, uh, again, without having to uh, incur at least limit the extent of uh, debt that’s utilized for both those, uh, improvements. So, okay, so that’s it. Uh, as far as the graphs. Oh, no. Sorry. Recreation fund. I forgot we had we had, uh, one more. So, so with this one here, uh, also producing, uh, good, good results. Operating revenues were up a bit, uh, just tied to increased, uh, facility rentals. Uh, so this includes the golf course and other, uh, other components on the operating expense side, it was a bit more notable jump, uh, going from 24 to 25. Much of that is tied to, uh, personnel costs just with additional additional staff. And then, uh, wage adjustments, things like that. Okay. So even though there’s the increased expenses, uh, during the year, there was still operating income that was generated and contributed to the growth in the unrestricted net position for that fund, as well as shown on on the next slide. Uh, so we take a look there. Uh, you can see that, uh, again, moving uh, upwards to, you know, reaching nearly $2 million, uh, there at the end of 2025, uh, again, uh, healthy reserve in place for that, uh, component. Okay. So that is it then, uh, for the graphs that I have, um, you know, there was a lot of information and moved through it pretty quickly and a lot of reading material for you that was in your, uh, provided to you with your for your packet. Um, like I said, I’ll be meeting with the audit committee in a in a few weeks here. Um, certainly, if anyone sees anything as you’re looking more at the materials, um, feel free to, uh, kind of raise that up if you’re not part of the audit committee. Uh, you know, communicate that, uh, to the to those folks, and we can make sure to address any of those matters there at that meeting. But do we have the time to field a couple of questions? I probably should head down the hall here real soon for the other meeting, but I want to make sure I address any, any, um, you know, urgent questions that folks have here. So. Thank you very much. Um, that is a lot to take in. Uh, does anyone have any questions for the gentleman? Um, seeing none, we. Thank you. Feel free to run down the holiday or next meeting. Uh, we do have a motion to entertain about the receiving of the annual comprehensive financial report. Is there anyone that cares to make a motion? I’ll make a motion to receive the annual comprehensive financial report for the year ended December 31st, 2025. I’ll second that roll call. Vote, please. Devin. Okay. Council member page. Hi. Council member McGarvey. Council member. Tran.. A council member. Erickson. Council member. Zhang. Mayor Pro tem. Kalinowski. The motion passes with six yes votes, zero no votes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We appreciate the opportunity to be of service to the city. Take care. Take care. Thank you, Ryan. And thank you, Molly two, for the presentation. Appreciate it. Okay. And we will now move on to the moment. Everyone’s been waiting for the Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lundy’s update on the first district. Commissioner. Steve. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Mayor, Pro tem Council members and staff. Um, you know, I was going to apologize for my presentation, but I’m here on the same night. The audit committee gives a report. I really don’t feel that bad anymore. Um, so if I can, I’ve got the bar set, so I’m gonna see if I can at least, uh, break that. Um, if I can get it to work. Well, that’s the shortest presentation in history. You guys should be really happy. Yeah. It’s nothing fancy. You all? Yeah. Oh, wow. If we don’t share. It. Yeah, I’ll stop sharing. Nope. All right, we’ll try it again. I just chewed up the one minute that chief really gave me. So that’s gone. Uh. You’re excused. Uh, just briefly, and I’ll put this up here. I think it’s really important. After your presentation on community health that we connect. So, uh, on here, you’ll see my staff at an Ingrid. Uh, they can set up meetings. I think we should have a conversation. I mean that in a good way. I think there’s lots of opportunities to connect and to, um, to work together. Because at the end of the day, there’s less money now. There will be less money next year. Um, at every level, community health and public health are kind of, uh, under federal attack. And so that means any grants and stuff that you might begin from the federal government will, um. So it. Can do this. There we go. So just that, um, on the on this slide, just my I always put my staff up front because they’re always available to you. Um, you can reach out to any of us, uh, and you’ll be reaching to all of us. Um, and then on the right side, just positions. I hold leadership, obviously. I’ll talk more about the Hennepin Health care later a little bit, but, uh, let’s see if. There we go. Um, you know, we talked a little bit. You saw lots of maps. And I’m going to add to those maps for you tonight. Um, we talked about the Blue Line extension, which has long been the city’s plan for trying to help drive down some of those barriers and really starting to try to hone in on stuff. Is a blue line going to address everything that we see in our communities? No. But is it a good start? Yes. Because if you can’t get to the hospital, it’s kind of hard to have access to health care if you can’t get to a college. It’s kind of hard to access the ability to learn and do things. And so we just see that every front, if you are not able to get there, you’re not able to do a lot of things. And so obviously the blue line extension is everyone here knows connecting four cities. Uh, something I like to highlight is that 87% of the people who voted for consent did that is very high. That is very high nationally. It’s very high in the state of Minnesota. And that really speaks to the fact that people who are elected leaders are agreeing with this project. Is does it make everyone happy? No. But is there a lot to be happy about? I think there is. So I’ve got maps as well, so I’ll blow through a bunch of them. Um, but I just want to see ask a simple question. See if you see a pattern. As you watch these maps, here’s the map. Median household income. The darker gold is less money, not more money. You think it would be the opposite, but it’s actually reverse. And so you see the blue line heading up through the north. Um, right through the middle of that heart. These are the disparities that Community Health talked about. These are the disparities that we all talk about. Um, that happens. People of color. Minnesota, if you’re in Minnesota and you’re a person of diverse backgrounds, you face extra financial challenges. That has been historic. That’s been a generational. That is a fact. You can predict a lot by looking at where people of color, because Minnesota does a really good job of, uh, called Minnesota Nice, which isn’t a nice thing, um, where we make sure we concentrate all the people in certain areas and you can see the diversity. And I love the diversity. I know you do, but the simple fact is that we have had policies for decades that have driven us to these, these barriers. Um, and so this map highlights again, where it is, it’s not going to get prettier, uh, commuters who who take transit. If you look in Brooklyn Park, you might be thinking, hey, no one takes transit. You know why? Because there is no transit. Um, I still say getting from east to west is near impossible. You have to leave the city. Um, I was grateful that they gave us a line that goes from the Brooklyn Park Library to Northtown. I never in my entire elected life had anybody ask me for a line to get from the Brooklyn Park Library to Northtown, but that’s what we got. What I have had is people trying to get east and west to get to grocery stores, getting to jobs, getting to the colleges that we have in the city. You can’t get that going east and west. You have to leave the city to get that. And so if you look at that, it’s it’s really an opportunity for what the blue line can do. Housing cost burden. This is the percentage of people. How much money do people pay just to simple fact to have a roof over their head, have a restroom and a place to sleep. That is what, at the end of the day, a place to live is. And here we pay more cost, a percentage. Education attainment going down. The same thing. Uh, I think staff was here when I was in Maple Grove, which clearly I was out of my element. Speaking on a metro transit panel there. But I wanted to point out one thing. I want to point it out right here. I picked my son’s both go to the U of M when they were trying to get home. They can take an express bus from the U of M to Maple Grove. No stops. You know how many stops it is to go get from Brooklyn Park to the U of M? It’s more than one. Uh, it’s not a 25 minute ride. It’s about a 50 minute ride. Um, yes. Even the city of Blaine has an express route. Sorry, chief. Um, bring you into it. So here you have two cities, Blaine and Maple Grove, that have express bus routes to a world class educational opportunity. That the place that needs it the most. Look at that map. Doesn’t have an express bus route. Please tell me, how is that equitable that people who face extra barriers can spend 4 or 5 stops to get into a place, and other people get to hop on and spend one stop? Um, that’s why I pick up my son there, because it’s the fastest way for him to use transit to get home. I think that’s wrong that you can have that right next door years of potential loss, life, life lost. These are where illnesses and lack of access to health care cost people and lives. People live less, longer. If you don’t have access to health care, people live less, longer. If your financial challenges are different. If you live in substandard housing, all these things that we know that goes into contributing to a person not living as long. There’s your map right there. Again, median home value. Again, darker green is not means more money. It actually means the opposite. And so we know and you know that when you’re setting your tax levies that the more tax value you have easier. This is about the cost of government across those. And when you don’t have a lot of money, it tends to be borne by those. And so in our area we are resident heavy. We do not have as much commercial development. And so this route again goes right through the middle of that last one. You heard talk about the Social Vulnerability index for the CDC. It’s really your ability to weather a storm. That storm can be financial. It can be health. It can be all kinds of distress. It can be mental health. This is not a map you want to be on. If you want to be in communities that can weather a storm, it’s not just about Covid. It’s about if we have a recession next year, this map is going to get hit harder. And so I’m hoping what you see in all these maps, they’re all the same. And what we’re trying to say is that I hope you say it’s not just that we believe we’re owed, we are due for the Metro Council to invest in our communities. We are due in the state of Minnesota and to invest in our communities. We are overdue. The Hennepin County Transit tax was designed from day one to fund the Green Line and the Blue Line, which means this community has been paying for transit for the Green Line. And if we don’t get the Blue line, we will continue to pay so other people can have a better transit system. And so I know that you have one of the ways that we can talk about action and how can we drive results. If you’re sick of those maps and how those things start to add up, one of the ways we can start to make life easier is make it easier for people to live in our communities, make it easier for them to get to places, to education, to jobs, to health care. Um, if this line goes through, you’ll have two hospitals on the blue line of North Memorial and you have eight CMC. I think last thing on this one is just if you look on the left side of that, the 27 more percent increase, I’m sorry, 27 times, not percent, 27 times the property tax increase within a half a mile of a light rail. Broken Park has, I believe, five stops. That’s the kind of value that gets driven back into your community. When you put $3.5 billion investment into community, it goes somewhere and it shows up somewhere. And so I think this is going to help rebalance that. Um, and that’s a decision that you all have made and talked about as well. The last thing I’ll point out is takes about 4500 people working a couple of years to three years to build a light rail line. And so there will be jobs, companies all around the metro that will have an opportunity to make work and to do, uh, take part in that effort. So I’ll push ahead. You only got a few more slides. Um, HCMC, a little hospital I got involved with last year, actually, I got really involved. I was privileged to be chair of the hospital board. I asked for that position because we were facing the opportunity that you never want to have, where you have to close a hospital. And I can tell you this at the very time that they were getting close to passing the bill, we were making plans because there’s simply a moment of time where Hennepin County cannot continue to pay for the safety net hospital for the entire state. And I’m grateful to all the legislators, Republican and Democrat, both chambers and the governor who came together to bill that delivered that. We still have a lot of work to do. We still have a lot of challenges, but at least we start all these challenges that we’ve seen come in advance of H.R. one, which is not going to be kind to safe net hospitals. We expect to lose $1.7 billion over ten years due to that bill, because it takes away aid from the people most vulnerable. Think about the community health presentation, the people most vulnerable, the ones that are going to be affected by that, that social vulnerability index. I think that’s going to get better or worse. When H.R. one starts to hit us, it’s going to get worse. Economic support I’ll just say this I believe that we all do better when we do it together. I think the days where cities and counties just did stuff separately, and we all hope that other people are talking, have got to come to an end. We need to be talking more. Um, I know Jay is gone, but Doctor Smith, I definitely want to talk to your community health people because we will go faster together. Uh, what they can do on the ground locally as far as awareness, connectivity can be backed up with the county. The fact that the county brings dollars to the plate to help people that are in the midst of that. Because if you don’t have a house, everything else falls apart. If you’re tackling mental health and you don’t have a house, it falls apart. If you’re taxing addiction, if you don’t have housing. And so one of the things I still want to do is remind people that if you have people that are facing challenges with their housing, with this pain, the county does not have enough money for the whole year. What we’ve done is very purposefully said that we are going to hold our money until someone ends up in eviction court, because when we’re in eviction court, we have a group called Ars, Adult Representation Services that will provide free legal advice to a person facing eviction in the courtroom. They will work with the judge and the landlord to find the right price to keep that person in housing. And we have found if we wait till that moment, we can get a better deal than if I offered it on month one, so we can make that money that we don’t have enough of last longer by waiting to that. So anybody that you encounter that is facing eviction, it is they are closer to help than there are farther, which sounds counterintuitive because if they go to eviction court and they go to their court date, which we’re encouraging everybody to go, we will have staff there ready to help them in the courtroom. First time they show up, we’ll be there and we’ll have the ability to negotiate on their behalf, and we’ll have money there to try to help keep them there. So, um, I’ll be sending out a chart here in about probably the end of week, but evictions are actually down a little bit. We don’t know if all the effort we put into combating Metro Surge was that part of it? I think it was because there was money that went into the system. Uh, we don’t know if Metro Surge was overstated. I don’t know that either. And we think that will probably be about for probably this fall. We’ll know how evictions are going because we’ll see the bubble. It takes usually 6 to 9 months for something to really appear. So I think we’ll see. Metro surge numbers appear and not appear this fall. But I do think that cities like Brooklyn Park, where you put money into in partnership with the county that we got into hands of Brooklyn Park people helped stave that off. And we talk about that last slide. Um, we have opened a crisis center called Youth Crisis Crisis Stabilization Center, which is at 1800 Chicago. It is a place for kids who are not found competent to go to receive mental health care. Usually that’s the driver. It is not meant to be a final stage. It’s meant to be that first 30 to 45 days to get them there, stabilize them, find a diagnosis, and then move them to another place. We still have the challenge and I will ask for bookend parks help this fall or this year at the legislature that we deliver a really good report on what the state needs to do. And they promptly did exactly what they did in 1997. They did nothing. They did made no changes to anything. We’re still exactly where we are. In fact, we’re worse off. If you read the news, uh, a couple have closed and one lost their license because at the end of the day, we still can’t hire enough people to staff. And I’ll just leave it like this. You can have a person who has just a little bit of needs. You can have a person, a lot of needs. The reimbursement rate is the same. So a person with a lot of needs probably needs 1 or 2 staffers, seven by 24. The person with a little bit of needs probably needs one staffer a day. Um, and so the cost for a person with high needs. So providers who don’t have a lot of money tend to say we’ll take all the low cost ones, the easy ones. That’s not the people showing up at the police department or showing up at the hospital. Those are the easier ones are by definition easier. But the ones that we have challenges with, the reimbursement rate doesn’t change with the need. So, um, try to make it quick. I think you heard enough on the community health, but think about those maps. And so if anybody tells you that we don’t deserve that, they are full of it. I’m trying not to swear. That’s my new thing for now. Um, but the fact is, those maps have existed forever. When they talked about North of 85th, I heard that when I moved here, I heard north of 610. I heard north of this. Everything is always north, north, north. And so I think those challenges have been there. So I’ll just say that the county is trying to lean in to work. We know that we have the same budget challenges you do, but we’re going to try to put our efforts where the bang for buck. We are having a conversation about what we have to do and what we like to do, and the stuff that we like to do that is not mandated. We will probably be moving away from some of that stuff simply because we need to put our money into things that we have to do. Um, I’ll stop there. Thank you. Commissioner. One clarification I’ll just say that we do have an east to west busing route that started in December of 2025, runs seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.. So that is something that I do want to make sure that we know that council member, former council member, now House rep ZP Lee, myself, the mayor in council meetings, advocated for every time that council came here to do an update on Blue Line. All of us pushed them. Um, because they really wanted us to wait until after light rail was built to provide any east to west busing. And we said, that’s absolutely inappropriate. It’s inadequate for our city. So I do want to recognize that we had a win. So it connects Brooklyn Park to Oslo, Coon Rapids and in Blaine. And it runs every hour. So just so you now know your work, previous councils work to advocating for that. We got it. Uh, Council member page. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Um, I think last hello. Thank you for your presentation. Last year, you had mentioned you were going to put something together so we could have that hot list of things that we should be applying for. That is to put that energy into that. I think I did not see that. Is that something that you can put together and get over to us this year to take a look at, or is that going to city staff, do you know, do you remember that? Yes and yes. I would say it probably is going to staff, but I think that I’ll just say that it was not delivered. That would be the more responsible thing. And I will track down that. I think it was on housing and some of those supports. Um, so I will owe you that. Can I thank you for that? The second thing is that I’m not sure if this is the right, um, place, but is there a support through Hennepin County that we can look into for the congregate care situation? I understand it’s at the state level, but, um, given your experience with other cities, is there something that we can join forces on or continue to work hard on.? It’s complicated. And so here’s how it goes. Some stuff is licensed by the state, inspected by the state, and administered by the state. Other stuff is licensed by the state, inspected but then delegated to the county to run. So the type of facility determines who is ultimately responsible. Um, but so sometimes it’s the county, but we’re actually carrying out a decision made by the state. Um, so I think the best way to probably do it is if you have an address and I can try to see if I can find out what kind of license it is and who’s that. That might be the most, uh, probably the best way to respond, because it is. I think there’s 15 different categories and how they’re licensed and then administered. And then how are they inspected? Run the gambit. I appreciate that. And that’s something that someone brought up before. If we could at some point figure out which is which, because I know we have different designations that I understand there’s some opportunity on some the way there. I don’t know the classifications, but I know what you’re sharing with. So thank you for explaining that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, perhaps this is helpful to council Member Page’s question. We did go and testify. The legislature. There’s a significant cost for Brooklyn Park at this point with, um, our public safety and other resources, um, kind of subsidizing, I would say the state’s lack of funding to Brooklyn Park once the licensing, um, laws changed. We did have some language inserted into one of the licensing organizations this year to take density into consideration. But Brooklyn Park currently has more congregate care than all of Ramsey County combined. We we do have a significant number. So that’s impacting I mean, I thought of this as I was listening to the community health conversation. Um, we’re losing a lot of first time homebuyer options. So a lot of our single family homes are being bought up, especially in certain areas of the city where the heat map lit up because they’re of a certain age. The 1960s, uh, Rambler style. So, you know, we’re facing as a city already just challenges with, um, budget. It’s nothing new. You were mayor here. Um, and then we have some of these costs, unexpected costs that we continue to bear. So I don’t know that Hennepin County right now is an answer with the budget issues you guys face. But if there are solutions or anything that you see from the county perspective to help us, um, if there’s grants we should applying for for public safety, whatever it might be, uh, we would love assistance with that. Yeah. And Madam Mayor Pro Tem, uh, I just put the map up because the map. I guarantee you this map shows exactly where the group homes are located. It’s the cost. The. You know, where it’s easier to buy a house. And you’re right. The rambler style is the style because they can put three residents on one level because they don’t like to use stairs, because someone might fall and hurt. Therefore, um, it’s that style drives people to hear. And then you’re right, the if people are buying all these homes that could be affordable for families to use and they’re being used for business because these are businesses, um, then that’s one less house that’s available for a family. Exactly. Thank you, Commissioner. And one of the ironies is the legislature was also looking at a bill to limit corporations from buying up large chunks of property, but they weren’t considering that for the congregate care, which is when we looked at some of the licensing numbers in Brooklyn Park, uh, about 97% of our corporations, LLCs and corporations, they’re not nonprofits. So it is we’re struggling on that front, too, with some of our equity options. Um, so again, anything creative from the county would be really excited to talk about. Does anyone else have any commissioner questions or Hennepin County related? I was excited to hear all this stuff. Yeah. And can I ask you a question? What do you I mean, this is like a moving target, but what’s the anticipated next steps or dates for a light rail construction? Yep. I think we’re looking at if we can get the Met Council so inspired to hit submit on the submission button, which we want to do this month before the rule changes. I think we’re still looking at probably 2027 for start. There are things that we can do, the county can do ahead of schedule. We’ve already bought some land along there. We’re talking to some of the people on highway 81 in Brooklyn Park. Also about that. So we’re we’re working ahead. We’re just kind of waiting for that moment to strike. Um, and so I think there’ll be some stuff where we can start, but I think it’s, it’s really about getting the final answer, which is, uh, a submit because you’re not going to find out the answer. And I’ll just say, um, you know, Green Line was approved during the Trump one. And so I know everybody could tell me, oh, it’s so different now. It’s so horrible. All true. But at the end of the day, uh, you will get nothing if you’re not asking. So yeah, agreed. Mayor. Madam chairman, if I may, there’s a question I think, about North Point and also about Hennepin Health Care in Brooklyn Park. I think, uh, just to differentiate between the two, they both provide services, um, that residents can use. I know that North Point has been looking, talking to Brooklyn Center with some places to kind of expand their already a number of Brooklyn Park people that go to North Point. Uh, the difference between Hennepin Health Care and North Point, I’m afraid I actually know the answer is one. North point is a federally qualified health center, which means when you do a dollar of care at North Point, you can build the government for buck. When you do that same care and help and health care you for a buck, you get $0.60 and you can figure out why things don’t go well financially. But I think both of them are very much interested in how can they provide services, especially dental services, which is one that has not recovered post-Covid? Uh, people are not able to access our free and reduced dental services, um, like they could before. Thank you so much, Commissioner. It’s very appreciated. And there’s no action to be taken on this presentation. Thank you. Now, I want to thank all the community members who have been so patient, sitting, um, listening to the exciting work of the city business. We’ll move on to public hearings. We have item 5.1 and it looks like Keith, Julie be presenting on a sale on sale. Intoxicating liquor license. I’ll start over. Thank you. Item 5.1 is a public hearing for an on sale intoxicating liquor license for Asian Moon LLC, doing business as Asian Moon at 8000 Brooklyn Boulevard North. This is a new license for this location. The previous business there was hot pot and in previously Baker Square. Before That the application has been approved. The background check has been completed on the applicant. I believe I’m not exactly sure. Is there an applicant for a major moon here this evening? Okay, he is here. We recommend approval of this license. And with that, mayor and council members, we’ll stand for any questions. Or you can open the public. Any questions from council? Before I open the public hearing? Okay. Opening the public hearing. If anyone has any comments or questions, okay. Seeing none, we’ll close the public hearing. Bring it back. Does anyone care to make a motion? I’d like, and I’d like to make a motion. Oh. I’m sorry. Excuse me. Council member Erickson, did you have a question? Are we going to make the motion? Got it. I’ll let Commissioner Page go for it. All right. I’d like to make a motion to approve an on sale intoxicating liquor license for Asian Moon, LLC, dba Asian Moon, located at 8000 Brooklyn Boulevard. Thank you for doing business in our city. Thank good. The motion made by Council member page. Apologies. I called you Commissioner. How dare I? Council member page. Seconded by Council member McGarvey. Devin, can we please get a roll call? Vote? Mayor Pro tem, I believe that was council member Erickson that. Seconded. Yeah. Thank you. I’m making stuff up. Keep me honest, Devin. Thank you. All right. Item 5.1. Council member page. Council member McGarvey. Aye. Council member. Tran. Hi. Council member. Erickson. Council member. Yang. Mayor Pro tem. Kalinowski. Hi. The motion passes with six. Yes. Votes. Zero zero votes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. So your motion is passed, sir. Thank you. Okay, Mr.. July 5.2, another public hearing. Yep. Mayor Pro Tem Council item 5.2 is another public hearing. This is an on sale wine and three two malt liquor license for Blue Cajun Corporation, doing business as Blue Cajun there at 8517 Zane Avenue North. This is a new license for this location. The previous businesses there were the included subway and the crumbs and coffee which held food licenses. The application has been approved in the background check completed on the applicant, and I believe the applicants are here this evening. And we’ll stand for any questions. Thank you. Okay. I do have any questions from council before the public hearing. Seeing none, we’ll open the public hearing. Any questions or comments from the community? Seeing none, we’ll close the public hearing. Does anyone care to make a motion? If there’s no further comments? All right, Council member Erickson. I will do this. One motion and a second to approve an on sale wine license and 3.2 malt liquor license for Blue Cajun Corporation, doing business as Blue Cajun, located at 8517 Zane Avenue North. Just a second. So the motion was made by Council Member Erickson, seconded by Council member Jean. Can we have a roll call? Vote? Devin. Council member McGarvey. Aye. Council member Tran. Aye. Council member. Erickson. Council member. Council member. Yang. Council member page. Mayor Pro tem. Kalinowski. Aye. The motion passes with six yes votes. Zero no votes. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Seeing no more of those, we have another public hearing. This is item 5.3. Uh, looks like prepared by Devin and presented by newly elected chair Zach of the Charter Commission. This is a public hearing and first reading of an ordinance to consider the recommendation of the Brooklyn Park Charter Commission to amend chapter nine, section 9.04 of the Home Rule City Charter. A couple. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem and council members. Um, so I’ll just do a brief overview of what the community long range, um, Improvement Commission is proposing. Um, so at the February charter Commission meeting, community Long Range Improvement Commission Chair Takuya Cochrane and staff liaison Mitch Robinson briefed the commissioners on a request to add two non-voting youth liaison positions ages 14, 17 and one non-voting emerging leader position ages 18 to 24. Currently, the Commission is authorized to have one non-voting youth liaison. Uh Chair Cochran emphasized the importance of supporting youth and creating meaningful opportunities for them to help shape the city in its future. They expressed interest in identifying the most efficient path to amend the charter to include additional youth members. The Charter Commissioners reached a consensus that the charter could be amended to allow for additional non-voting youth liaisons to the community. Long Range Improvement Commission. And the commissioners also requested that. Oh well, I’ll skip over that part. Um, at the May Charter Commission meeting. Um, Chair Cochran presented the proposed amendment to the commissioners following the presentation and subsequent discussion, the Charter Commission amended the language to specify that that non-voting youth liaisons are to be are to be appointed by the mayor with approval from the City Council. The commissioners then voted to recommend the proposed amendment to section 9.04 to the City Council for consideration. And I believe you have the, uh, the wording of that. So I’m open to any questions. Does anyone have. Thank you. By the way, for the presentation. Miss Cochran, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? Um, I just wanted to say that we really have an opportunity to include youth in this process. Um, I know that Brooklyn Park, we love our youth, and we love to support our youth. And I just want to continue to find ways to help them. And it is my hope that you guys will help me by voting this amendment. Amendment to the charter. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Questions from Council. Okay. Seeing none from them, I’ll ask a question. Um, Miss Cochran, do you as coming up with this recommendation for amendments to the charter and being unclick. Are you seeing more youth interested in these positions? Have you been hearing from younger people wanting to participate? Absolutely. We have. And then just given the political climate, a lot of youth are really wanting to know how can they participate in positive changes in our community. That’s great. Good. When young folks figure out how government works, it’s better for all of us. Absolutely. Well, seeing no discussion needed on this, I think we’re all aware and understanding of the request. Is there anyone that would like to make the motion? Mayor Pro Tem Kalinowski, did you open the public hearing? Yes, ma’am. Yeah, I should do that. Thank you. Thank you for keeping me honest again, Devin. Okay. We’ll open the public hearing officially. If anyone has any comments or questions. I’ll close the public hearing. Thank you. And now can entertain the motion. Okay. Council member McGarvey. I’ll make a motion. To waive the reading and adopt on first reading. And ordinance amending chapter nine, section 9.04 of the Home Rule City Charter. Okay. Thank you. So the motion was made by Council Member McGarvey, seconded by Council member Zhang. Can we have a roll call? Vote? Council member Tran. I. Council member Erickson. I. Council member Zhang. Council member page. Hi. Council member McGarvey. Hi. Mayor pro tem. Kalinowski. Aye. The motion passes with six yes votes. Zero no votes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to both of you. Appreciate it. Glad to see you stepping into more positions with our city. Right. Hey. Let’s see. Now, moving on to things that don’t require me to open public meetings and forget all about it. We’ll go to item 7.1, General Action Items, a charitable gambling discussion with Keith Julie presenting. Hopefully I can find this. Oops. The worst luck. Of this. Minimize that and then share. Don’t share. And then the windows. All the windows. That was the one you shall get. my gambling. Here I go. All right. Then I can do the slideshow and then. That slideshow. From the meeting. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Pro tem Council members. So two weeks ago at your council meeting. I wasn’t there that evening, but there was a in that. That’s an item that’s coming up after this one for a lawful gambling license. Um, that prompted some really good questions about, um, what the ordinances are, what the statutes are, um, about the spending rules and regulations. So over the past couple of weeks, this information I have on a handful of slides also in the council report. Um, there’s a lot more information out there about, um, charitable gambling. Those statutes quite long. Um, uh, the ordinance has been around for a long time. Um, it’s kind of been a status quo type of a city’s giving out these registrations. The gambling board sort of being in charge of licensing these. And we’ll get into some of the different parts of that here. This evening. Um, so the lawful, ah, charitable gambling in Minnesota includes bingo, raffles, paddle wheels, tip boards and pull tabs. Typically you see the pull tabs. It’s what you see on either paper or electronic pull tabs. You see a lot in the bars and restaurants. Our city ordinance, um, requires a premise permit or registration, so it’s not a license. It’s really the state gives out the licenses and it allows cities to enact an ordinance so that they can, um, approve the locations, put in some regulations around spending in the trade area, which I’ll get into here, and then charge an annual fee for the administration and any enforcement investigation each organization can have up to three locations in the city, and those locations are all, um, typically restaurants, but they have to have an on sale liquor license to qualify for this premise permit. And our ordinance states a 75% of net profits must be spent on lawful purchases in Brooklyn Park or in our trade areas, and the trade area is something that’s required by state statute, and that includes your city. And then all surrounding or connecting cities. So for us, that’s Champlin, Osceola, Maple Grove, Crystal, new Hope, Brooklyn Center. I think that’s all of them. What that means is they need to on their net profits. So the amount they take in minus their allowable expenses, they have to spend 75% of that either in Brooklyn Park or one of those cities. And our ordinance also says, and Minneapolis, I’m not exactly sure why, but that’s something we can talk about as far as code amendments in the future. So looking at the statute that obviously governs everything that we can put into our ordinance, it allows cities to adopt more stringent regulations for lawful gambling if we wanted to, including prohibition of gambling altogether, the Gambling Board audits spending reports for compliance. They have a point system used to ensure proper spending. Spending must be for lawful purposes. And and we have our local spending requirements included in the report was a an article from the League of Minnesota Cities, which has a lot of information on all of the different things that, um, are entailed with lawful gambling, including the regulations for the organizations and the different types of spending and and things like that. So, so, and cities are allowed to adopt ordinance requiring certain spending percentages, which we talked about is 75% here. So these are are five organizations that have lawful gambling premises licenses and premise permits in Brooklyn Park. So you can see looking at these locations, they are in either Brooklyn Park or one of our surrounding cities, they wouldn’t have to be. Technically, there could be an organization from really anywhere, um, that could apply and be eligible. Um, however, luckily for us, the the organizations that we have here, um, are located in Brooklyn Park or surrounding city and including the one that’s proposed that we’ll discuss at the next agenda item for tonight. So we talked about what some of the options are, because I know there’s questions and concerns about making sure that the spending that’s coming in for these organizations is being properly spent where it needs to be by law, which is in our in our trade area. Um, one of the options, I believe we have would be to increase that current 75% requirement in the trading area. There’s also provisions to add a 10% expenditure of net profits requirement, but it would have to be in a bucket of things to be spent. Um, charitable organizations, police, fire or other emergency operations. And then we also know that cities are not allowed to pick like any one particular organization or operation. So there would be need some more, probably background and digging in with our our legal department and finance department and exactly what some of all that means if that’s a direction that the Council would like us to further consider. There’s also a 3% local tax for all charitable gambling, but that would have to be spent directly on the administrative or investment investigation work only. So with that, um, I’ll stand for any questions. I know that there were questions about the spending and the 75% in that area, and, um, what I can say about that is it was always my understanding that the state gambling board, who reviews these licenses was the one who that group, and I don’t know much about their staffing until it does it, but they were doing the review of the spending of these organizations. Um, not only if it was unlawful purposes or not, but even within trade areas. We’re in the process right now of reviewing exactly the bounds of what the state is looking at and what we need to look at as well. Um, there’s some there’s some room for improvement for us, I believe, and we can um, and we already have started working with our finance department, pulling together some spreadsheets, really looking at the data in more depth so that we can make sure that the rules that we have on the books, as far as where this spending needs to be, is actually is happening. We don’t have any concerns or any complaints that came in and or any real reason to believe that any of those organizations on our list are not properly spending. But we we need to do, um, some more work and ensuring that that happens. And that’s what we intend to do. So that all stand for any additional questions. Thank you so much, Mister Julie, for the presentation. Um, anyone have any questions? While people are thinking of their amazing questions, I’m going to ask a couple, um, so of the five that you listed. , where. Is the money raised for the charitable gambling going? What association? So, like the Champlin Park youth hockey, that seems pretty self-explanatory. But what about the other ones? Yeah, the take down club is a wrestling group. Um, the pro-am typically is tied to the golf course. The tavern at Edinburg. Um, and other charitable organizations. And the Jaycees. Um, they do a lot of work. They’re kind of like the Lions and the rotary, where they’ve got a lot of different things going on in different cities. So and so when we start to dig in more on the financials, we have to keep in mind, like we would look at just take any one of these, like the take down club, we would look at that operation at the brewery and look at what are those net profits. And then from that, make sure that 75% is in Brooklyn Park from that location. But if you take, like the Jaycees, for example, they may have operations in multiple cities and all over. We really have to pin down on, you know, the the Mad Jackson, the Broadway pizza, what that amount is to make sure. So and we’ve seen um, and we provided some to the council in the memo, those financial reports can be quite daunting and long, and we need to spend more time really digging in to that. Um, so unfortunately, I don’t have a a lot of good answers on the details right now, but I can tell you that we’re working on it. It’s great. Yeah. Appreciate that. And we definitely want to know a little bit more a question about that too is so that the state that audits these financial reports, correct. Do they provide any information to us as a municipality? Were these charitable gambling activities are happening? We have not heard from the state. And what that tells me is that they haven’t seen any problems. I would expect that if they found some discrepancies in either the type of spending that they’re doing, or if it was outside of the trade area, if indeed they are focused on that, that they would notify us and then let us know what actions they either would like us or we have to take by statute, um, which I would assume would maybe include some level of maybe warning at first to get get them back in line with proper spending and then possibly, you know, suspension of the license down the road. So but we haven’t heard anything from them. So that tells me that we wouldn’t until it was something that we needed to take an action on an adverse action. So if we change two questions with this, then so if we change, say we decide we want to move forward and change, we want to remove Minneapolis, which why is that even in there in the first place. Um, and increase the percentage to be spent in Brooklyn Park and add the 3% local tax. Say we want to do all those things. We tell you that we’re going to move to do that. Then does the next item, 7.2. Does that become proactive to this? If we approve it today and then we say we’re changing this policy, does that then impact all of those listed or only the registrations going forward? I would think that it would affect all of them for for sure for next year’s renewal. Yeah. Um, um, but when you have a change like that, that’s to be fair, we wouldn’t go to the ones that are just hearing this right now and going and the one that’s being approved tonight, they need to start operations and start generating their money to start spending before we can look at it and make sure that they’re following the rules anyway. So any rules that apply to them wouldn’t be even reviewable until they’ve had time under their belt, so to speak, with their their earnings and the spending. So but I would believe I believe that this change then would be in effect for everyone at the same time. Got it. Although it would affect them in theory, if we changed the rules about where the money is allowed to go and if we increase the percentage, um, and added a tax. So I mean, it could have big impacts on, on them. Those are the questions I have. And it looks like Council member page. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Um, I’m particularly interested in this because I see it as an opportunity for revenue. Revenue for organizations within our city. So I did do a deep dive on the organizations. It appears that there’s no question that they’re all doing good work. So I want to say that first and foremost, I did not think that anyone was doing anything that we were looking for a problem, nor any of the the organizations or the establishments. But what I do see is there’s a lack of transparency on a couple of those organizations, because they’re simply reporting money going to their general fund, and that does not given us give us enough information to determine if they’re following the ordinance. So it would be my hope that we could look at those neighboring cities that we are bumping up against, and we’re required to have in our trade area to maybe match some of their requirements. I know in some of them they have a little bit higher fee for the gambling, which is another revenue source for the city. Um, we certainly don’t want to push people outside of our city to do these activities because hats off to a couple of these, uh, organizations are making a ton of money for youth. Um, so we appreciate that hard work. Um, so I’m thinking I would like to learn more about an opportunity, about an increase in licensing fees, if that’s warranted, not requiring it. And then, um, checking the other cities to match, and then additionally finding a way to confirm that we are compliant with, um, if we just go over the list that you provided to all of us last week in the email, there is one organization that it’s just you’re unable to determine to determine. It’s a very low percentage based on the direction. And I will add, if you can go back to the list, um, I know the take down club is still in audit status. They’re very new, so they aren’t reporting if anyone’s looking. Um, youth hockey is. Let’s learn from you. Let’s do exactly what you’re doing because they are doing an amazing job for their community. Um, and then the Jaycees. Excellent. Um, there’s not enough information on Edinboro. That’s the one that I’m a little unclear on. And Palmer Lake, what they’re doing for our veterans and their donations is beyond measure. So everyone here on this list is doing great work. I just think there’s a little room to, you know, make sure we’re not missing out on an opportunity. So thank you for pulling that all together. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Council member page review of other cities absolutely can do that. We’ll do that right away. Increasing the fees. There is a, um, some language in the statute about that premise. Um, permit I think 250 is the cap on that. Um, I saw that in the League article somewhere. Um, but we can double I can double check that. And with regards to compliance, um, absolutely. We will, um, you know, we have some ideas already around bringing in the gambling managers, um, at least annually before the renewals and maybe another time to sitting down with them, bringing in all the paperwork and having them explain what they have so we can really get into the weeds a little bit with these organizations on where the spending is going. Can I mayor Pro Tem, can I respond, okay, thank you for that. You know, I just realized I goofed up. I was um, I was doing the investigation fees, which was the higher amount. So thank you for that correction. Um, and then you said something after that, I can’t remember, but thank you. I just really appreciate the work. And looking into. That. Thank you. Okay. Mister. Julie, do you have any direction? Are you still seeking some direction from council as far as what we’d like to do going forward? Yeah, mayor Pro Tem, I think if we want either additional information on these ideas about the 75%, adding the 10% and the 3%, maybe we can do a memo with just another next level kind of what that means after we have a chance to chat with our finance folks and city attorney and get it more buttoned up for you to, maybe we can do that memo in the next few weeks. That makes sense. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. I have a question. Oh, yeah. I’m so sorry. Council member Tran. Go right ahead. Uh, thank you. Um, do you know. Related to the item earlier? Three be two. Um, like our city look like, uh, very vulnerable. Can community in, uh, you know, vulnerable economically. Health. Uh, condition. But now with this, uh, gambling, um, service or business, is it, like a contradiction? Because I wonder who. Who are the one who that have money to play for gambling? I’m not exactly sure. I, um, caught the exact question. Could you repeat that for me, please? Uh, Council member. Yeah. Related to early years. We have a presentation. Uh, the item three be two. Um, uh, it shows us, like, in Brooklyn Park. We have ten neighborhoods that, uh, you know, in vulnerable, uh, you know, need to need to be, uh, taken care, uh, you know, like, economically vulnerable help, uh, you know, health care, health care, uh, you know, um, security. And then with this, uh, gambling serve, uh, three opening at the same time, I wonder who are the customer to play to have? Uh, yeah. Yeah. Is that contradiction? Yes. All right. Thank you, Council member Tran. Appreciate that. And thank you again, Mister Julie, for the presentation. Thank you. Looks like you’re, uh, staying right where you’re at because 7.2 is you again. Yeah. So this item was, uh, tabled last week and brought back tonight, uh, following our discussion, um, for issuance of a gambling, uh, premise permit for the Edinburgh, USA Pro-Am at Joe’s Sports Bar. Pizza and African Deli, located at 7450 Unity Avenue. That’s the old Godfather’s location. Uh, Edinburgh, USA is a qualified non-profit. It’s allowed up to three locations in Brooklyn Park. This is their second location, and they currently hold one at the Tavern at Edinburgh. Uh, we have approved the application and recommend approval of the premise permit. Thank you. Council member page. Uh, well, I don’t want. I was going to make a motion unless we. Good. Okay. I’d like to make a motion to waive the reading and adopt resolution 2026, approving the issuance of a lawful gambling premises permit for Edinburgh, USA. Pro-Am Foundation at Joe’s Sports Bar, Pizzeria and African Deli, located at 7450 Unity Avenue North in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Contingent on completion of all building renovations and issuance of a food license. Thank you both. So we have the motion being made by Council Member Page and seconded by Council member Eriksen. Can we please do a roll call? Vote? Okay. Council member. Erickson, hi. Council member Yang. Council member page. Council member McGarvey. Council member. Tran. Um. I think. Mayor pro tem. Kalinowski. The motion passes with five yes votes and one abstention and zero no votes. Thank you. Thank you Devin. Appreciate that. Moving on. We have no items for discussion and we will move on to verbal reports and announcement. Any verbal reports from council members. Looks like Council Member Erickson. I just wanted to say thank you to all of the city staff who helped put on a beautiful Juneteenth event on Saturday. Um, it was a great opportunity for neighbors to connect with each other and celebrate an important piece of our shared history together. Um, there must have been 5075 city staff involved in putting this on and connecting with community members. And, um, I think it was very well done. And I hope more and more residents will, um, visit next year. Uh, it was just a great time for our community to be together. So thank you to every city staff person who was involved in putting that on. Uh, Council member page. Thank you. I’ve got just a few things. Surprise, surprise. Um, I was also going to echo that for Juneteenth. It was an amazing, beautiful day. The music was wonderful. Um, I want to give a special shout out to the Commerce Department that did. I believe we had 24, uh, social media or online posts, and they were phenomenal. A mixture of video of the staff and community leaders. And I look forward to see what we’re going to have for, um, our colors of Southeast Asian or Latino Fest. I’m super excited to see, um, it was an amazing, amazing event. Um, and then I wanted to also just talk a little bit about grants in our city. We don’t have specific grant writers. And what I’m learning from my community engagement is we have some amazing, amazing city staff, directors and staff members in Brooklyn Park that are writing these these grants and getting money for our city. And so I just want to say a special thank you to every person who is a part of that. That’s I know some people are here right now. I can see you. Um, and I’m not going to name you because there’s too many. But we have really, really great. I’m going to air, quote, grant writers within our departments, and thank you for the money that you get for our city. Council Member John. Thank you. Uh, just a few announcements. Um, a reminder that this Saturday is the East District Community Cleanup at River Park from 2 to 4 p.m.. Um, we’re going to be providing everything. It’ll be a fun time, obviously, because I’ll be there. Um, and then also, I also wanted to say thank you to collect, um, and the chill Foundation for all that they do for our youth in Brooklyn Park. Um, during our last rec and Parks committee meeting, there were more chess boards being donated. So thank you so much for all that you do for our youngins here. And then, um, aside from that as well, to not in correlation to anything in relation to council, but I did find out that I’m having a baby girl. Yay! That’s all. Um. I just wanted to say thank you to Brooklyn Park. Um, it’s the end of pride month. This weekend is the Pride Festival, and in seeing some of the our neighboring communities have had really negative conversations around the LGBTQ community. And I’m so proud to be in Brooklyn Park, where we support the humanity of one another and our neighbors. And I’m just really, really proud of us as a community for not, um, going low like that, but rather seeing the the bar set. I mean, basic decency is the bare minimum here. So thank you for that. Brooklyn Park. And with that, we will now go on to council manager reports and announcements and a thank you and a really good job to Doctor Smith for running this meeting. Even though she’s not feeling as well as she would like. Thank you so much. Um, I only have one item. There. Um, just as a reminder, there’s five Mondays in the month of June, and so tonight is our last meeting for this month. Our next meeting will be July 13th. We do not have a meeting July 6th, so. Right. It’s Christmas, Christmas in June and July. Right. Mayor Pro tem Kalinowski. Yes, sir. Yes. I just want to make an announcement that on Friday, June 26th, is our first day of absentee voting. So we’re open from 8 to 430 until August 10th. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that reminder. And thank you to for all the work you do, ensuring our residents have the most access to voting as possible.