Fun right to his head. Should I change this? Okay. All right. Yeah. This is what you need. This is the normal agenda. Are we ready? All right. Calling to order the April 15, 2025 meeting of the Lawn Lake City Council. Good evening everyone. It's 6:30 p.m. All all council members are present this evening. Let's start with item number two, which is the pledge of allegiance. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, moving on to item three, mayor's comments, Long Lake news meeting reviews and updates. Just uh a couple updates this evening. Not a whole lot happening as far as as far as community events that have occurred in the last couple weeks. I want to highlight that on April 3rd, I went to the state capital along with our city administrator and our our um contracted city engineer and we we testified for a bill in the legislature in the House of Representatives for a bonding bill from for Lawn Lake, an approximately 11 million request for bonding for Grand Avenue project and adjacent streets. The we testified in front of a committee there and we'll we'll see as the legislature progresses whether or not we are lucky enough to obtain that that funding. There's quite a few demands, quite a few cities, counties submitting bonding bill requests this year. So, the odds are probably against us, but uh appreciate Representative Andrew Meyers for sponsoring the legislation as well as Senator Johnson uh as well in the Senate for sponsoring that. So, that was uh on the 3. Uh yesterday I attended an event with uh Representative Kelly Morrison, US Representative Kelly Morrison. She held an event for local mayors in her district. She met had a had a breakfast, got updates about what's going on in DC. And then she also received updates from all the uh mayors as to major uh events, things occurring in their cities, demands that they have or requests that they have for federal assistance. Uh fire departments are a common theme. There's three cities there besides ours that were um in talks doing it to merge their fire departments and uh orno mayor was there as well and we certainly brought them brought her up to speed on negotiations going on here regarding our fire department situation. So that was a hot topic. We mentioned all the mayors that were in attendance mentioned the financial constraints on fire departments and and uh equipment and that sort of thing. So good event there. appreciate the invite to that and to mark your calendar for May 4th, Sunday, May 4th for the Long Lake Fire Department pancake breakfast uh coming up here before we know it. Always a great great event. I know the chief and his colleagues are are stocking up on maple syrup and batter and eggs and all that kind of thing. So, the uh well, hopefully the the cost doesn't go up too much this year with the price of eggs and the tariff on those that Canadian uh maple syrup, but we'll see how that all goes. So, make sure to attend that event. All right, with that, we'll move on to item four, which is to approve this evening's agenda. Accept a motion on that. I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Second. Thank you. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Item five, consent agenda. Items A through D on the consent agenda this evening. Any questions for staff regarding items on the consent agenda. All right. If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. I can make a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. Second. Thank you. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Item six, open correspondence. Open correspondence is an item on the agenda during which the public may address the city council. No formal action is taken by the uh city council and comments shall be limited to 5 minutes or less. And open correspondence. Comments may also be emailed to city staff by noon on the date of the meeting. Anyone wish to approach this evening for open correspondence? Yes. Hello. Good evening. Um Kelly Grady 271 Green Hill Wayne Long Lake. Um I just wanted to uh come and speak about the item number seven um about the fire amendment uh the agreement for contract for fire protection. Um, and I just wanted to say I attended the Orono City Council meeting last night, which was a marathon um, with a lot of discussion and um, a lot of voices were heard and I appreciated um, the ability to finally do that. Um, one of the things I will say about Long Lake is that I have really appreciated your steady hand um, through all of this. The open communication that you've provided when you hosted several open forums um, which invited our uh, neighboring city of Orino residents to attend and stay up to date on this. I've pre I've really appreciated the honest reporting from this council and um the correct data that was presented when false data was being given um to justify the need for a duplicative and redundant fire department. Um, and also the commitment to public safety from the Long Lake Fire Department who um, and the firefighters who have continued through really unsteady times to um, remain dedicated to their post and to what is the priority here in this community, which is keeping people safe. Um, this has been an incredibly difficult time. Um, and although I can only speak for myself, I know there are a lot of fire families, not just in Long Lake and Orino, um, who have been keeping a very close eye on Long Lake. I receive emails from them all of the time from other cities, far cities in the Twin Cities that have nothing to do with this debate. They have got no dog in the race, as they say. But, um, they have all been really uh, cheering from the sidelines, and I've really appreciated that. Some of the comments that are heard last night at the meeting um included a comment from Chief Tu Chay uh Shay Chilikowski. Sorry if I butchered your last name, Shay. Um but he uh made a comment that we you will um to the Orno council that you will pay more to fix what was never broken. Now he was making a defense that uh the Orno Fire Department is never broken. And I will say that I couldn't agree with Shay more. Uh they will pay more to fix what was never broken. The Long Lake Fire Department was never broken and they have proven that through their current budgets that's been presented and uh honestly through the divisive nature of everything that's been happening in this community. There is a cost to that that is not there's no dollar amount and it's depressing and hard. Um I also um uh another firefighter or firefighter came up and asked for um made a request for mediation. um if this council chooses to vote tonight to um approve the amendment tonight that there would be some sort of um mediation or something to help bring the firefighters together. This, you know, this is not lost on Long Lake leadership that this has been incredibly difficult. It's not lost on Long Lake families that this has been incredibly difficult. And I think any um anything that we can do to support them um in an effort to come back together uh would be greatly appreciated. And uh it's something I've been talking about for a long time. So I'd appreciate that as a consideration. And then just um I regret that I can't stay for the entire meeting tonight. I have to be gone. Um I have to go. But I will be watching. And I'm hopeful that this council will continue to push forward with the initiatives that they have been from day one, which is keeping this department together and moving forward into a shared services agreement with our surrounding municipalities. So thank you so much. Thank you, Kelly. All right. Anyone else for public comment? Yes, sir. Honorable mayor, members of the council, Brian Miller, 295 Lake View Avenue. Just want to say congratulations. We're getting to agenda item 7A. Uh I wanted to reflect back a little bit back to the year 2022, uh when the this all really started to fire up and become contentious. But I really just want to say congratulations on getting to this point. We couldn't have done it without a council like this. I've said it before. Uh even Todd Newcomer who as a private citizen stepped up uh in the community and spoke up did a great job. And for uh Chief Highland standing up uh stepping in to become uh new chief for Long Lake turned out to be a godsend. And uh the city staff as well just they've done a fantastic job over the past couple of years. And I am so sorry you had to go through this. It didn't have to happen. It was all created by Mayor Walsh and his cabal as I like to call it. And uh you know, we're all paying a price for it. But and also to uh you know, the residents, a lot of residents stepped up and had the life sucked out of them too for getting to this point. So good luck from moving on from 7A and beyond. Thank you, Brian. Anyone else for a public or open correspondence? [Applause] Yes, sir. Uh I'm Gabriel Jabour, 985 Tankav Road, Ono, Minnesota. Well, I thought it's only appropriate that when things go right, we do show up because people always show up when things are going wrong. And I as a person who live in this community and don't define where I live by the physical border of a city because that doesn't determine my quality of life. I'm here to really thank you guys for staying the course for taking all the abuse from our former council. I wouldn't say mayor, the whole council except for Alisa towards the end. And you I was a little frustrated. You were a little bit too slow for me, but I'm always on 300 miles an hour. And I really really appreciate that. And good things happen when we work together. The city chamber they're sitting in happened because we were together. For those who not aware of it nor I'm trying to get credit or anything. I represented long leg in the condemnation after I put you in condemnation gave you quickly for 360,000. We got 7.2 million. So when we work together good things happen. I didn't mean to be bragging about it. Although I'm proud of it anyway. So you guys really stayed the course and prevailed and good should always prevail over evil. That's what I believe in my life. There's only one little big hangup for me. I was really grateful for Gina and when you told me she's no longer around and I said what? And I've been on the phone with her and she been a great asset to me personally of bouncing thing looking at lay of the land. I didn't seek everybody. I figured you got so busy doing the work. You don't need more coaching. You need more foot soldiers, but I've been on dialogue with the mayor and the mayor and my daughter went to school together. Then we lived all together. So, it's kind of like we really are a community and I really encourage you to re-engage, have a barbecue, invite them, do something. I don't know what it is. and let's just try to resolve that lawsuit because we, me and Jim White, former mayor Barbara Peterson are filed an amigious brief on your side and that coming for a hearing very soon in May for all or oral the argument and it really be helpful if we don't be in court again, you and them. I mean it's time to bring together because something gonna happen between the attorneys or that is gonna ignite a little borish fire. That's my opinion. Thank you for your time and I'm sorry if I took more than your five minutes. Thank you again. Great. Thank you, Mayor Jabbor. Appreciate you coming. Anyone else? Welcome. Mayor Haltman. Tim M. Holman, 280 Lake View Avenue. Um, June of 2022, I had the pleasure of speaking to the uh, Oreno City Council. And these are the minutes from my speech. And I only could last three minutes, by the way. Timothy M. Holman, 280 Lake View Avenue, Long Lake, is almost 44 year resident of Long Lake. 46 years now because this is 2022. and a former member of the Long Lake Planning Commission, EDA board, member of the city council, former mayor has been following the ongoing saga of Mayor Walsh's determined effort to control the Long Lake Fire Department. Regarding the residents and businesses serviced by the Long Lake Fire Department and firefighters, Mr. Holman would like to see Mayor Walsh to put aside his ego and accept the offer from Long Lake in purchasing the station, station one at Willow Drive in Orno. to quote a former Excelsia resident speaking to MC Jagger from 50 years ago, you can't always get what you want. And uh he didn't get what he wanted. So, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Holman. All right. Anyone else? And no submitted email email submissions? Nothing. Thank you. All right. Great. With that, we'll move on to item 7A. Uh regular business. discuss and approve first amendment to agreement in contract for fire protection. Scott, are you going to kick this one off? Sure. Start it. Thanks, Mayor. So, I am happy to introduce the first amendment to um the agreement from 2002, which was set to expire December 31st, 2025. Um in the body, you'll see that it highlights kind of where we're at, how we got here, and both cities intents moving forward. Um, also in the agreement is an exhibit C and that is the two departments goals of how they're going to work together and go through this transition because in exhibit D both cities have agreed to negotiate um a joint a joint powers agreement fire district or some kind of partnership and so um with those terms kind of being set um we that's going to be the second part of um this transition. And so the first one is going to be working together and the second part is going to be moving um to more of a joint powers or fire district model. Um and I guess I'm going to turn over to Charlie because this is a product of the hard work of both both cities negotiating back and forth for good four months. So I want him to um kind of show what is going on if there's any questions but staff is here also to answer any questions that may um come up. Great. And does staff have a recommendation on this? Are you recommending? Uh, so yep. So staff does recommend the motion to approve the first amendment of the agreement as stated in the the memo. Great. Okay. Yeah. So this is uh something that uh council member Dick and I have been working on for pretty much since the first of the year meeting with our counterparts in Oro which on their negotiating committee which was is Mayor Tunheim and uh council member C. version mean quite a bit. Uh gotten to know each other very very very much over these last few months and a great uh representatives of their city. Great. They want to work with uh with L and surrounding cities and continue the partnership that our cities have had for many years minus a bump or two in the road. uh get the uh the the elements here or to get our you know consolidate our fire departments, get them back together kind of the way it was before July 1st of last year when previous council chose to go in a different direction and create their own independent fire department. This will bring many facets of that that department back together along with continuing on the part-time duty crew model that they've implemented over there using part-time employees that uh serve the majority of the daytime now and majority of the day and they'll be able to scale those hours back once LL Fire is reintroduced into the service area because we have a lot more Lake firefighters than than uh Orno had paid on call firefighters. In fact, a lot of in my understand there's about seven paid on Colorado firefighters left and five of those seven are also lone lake fire uh firefighters. So kind a lot of redundancies there and carrying do multiple pagers and things like that. So, as Scott said that the first amendment lays out an extension um or kind of the the um allows is or requesting to add a service area back in to be served by the Lone Lake Fire Department, the Navar service area as well as allows some uh extension of the current contract which currently expires on December 31st of this year. Some language allowing an extension to occur. So, some good language in in there. And then uh as was mentioned uh there's a couple of map exhibits that have to outline the CAD service area that uh we that would be requested or will be requesting to have L fire respond to as well which includes the two bays in Lake Minnetonka that were sort of pulled out as part of this deal as well last year. And uh and then uh exhibit D is is perhaps the best part. It lays out a course for the future. It lays out the the path for a jointly operated fire department between the two cities and hopefully other partner cities as well. There's some language in there about potentially someday creating a fire district uh taxable fire district and lays out a lot of the parameters. You know, not uh um not not every uh minute detail. It's not meant to do that, but at least to lay out the framework of what a future uh fire department would look like that's operated by both cities. And that is something that we've been pushing for all along. We've got many letters that we've sent to Oro over the last few years. We've done presentations on this saying Lake has never wanted to been in the position we that we must have absolute control over our fire department. In fact, we have not. As the contract showed, we didn't have absolute control of the fire department when it came to some things like capital capital budgets and annual budgets and things like that. Uh but we didn't want to have stake in the fire department. It's been the L fire department since 1915, 110 years now. So, we weren't willing to just simply turn over the keys to our fire department to the previous uh Orno city council. So, I'm very thankful that the residents of Orono recognized the the situation and stuck stepped up to uh allow a new council to come in and work actually with their neighboring city, Long Lake, and create a partnership for the future for fire service that that both cities can be proud of and and hopefully and most importantly that our firefighters can be proud of as well as they put their lives on the line and serve our communities. So, I think there's a lot of great things in here. There's uh as I think council member Persian said last night, there's not uh the neither these uh documents are not perfect for either city. There's always give and take when it comes to negotiations and you're never going to get exactly what you want. But I think there's a really good balance here for both cities to be able to come out in the positive end and and move forward uh together and have our firefighters move forward and kind of improve some morale issues that are going on and give them just really a hope for the future. I know leadership has already been talking about uh you know recruiting and and getting uh an exciting time now going forward with an all with a new department in the future kind of a consolidated department and there's been members of the community kind of sitting back on the sidelines and saying hey why would I want to step up to become a firefighter for a department that you know may or may not exist in a in 12 months or something like that. So now there'll be a very clear path forward where where hopefully more members of our community will be willing to step up and and be part of a great uh new department going forward. So some thoughts that I had. I don't know. Council member Davik, did you want to make have any other reflections on our Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you to Mayor Tunheim and to Steve Persian uh for working with Charlie and myself for these four months. Um, we've had a lot of meetings with them and um, and they haven't always been easy, but uh, I think we uh, have mutual respect. I respect them and I think they respect us. Um, and we're rebuilding trust and I think that's an important piece of this to get back to um, you know, having a relationship based on on trust where there was none before. Um, and so I'm I'm excited for this. Like as Charlie said, this is our position has been really since 2017, Scott, when we uh when we had that initial draft of a JPA. That's that's been our goal from the very beginning. Um and we've been steadfast in that. We've never we've never deviated from that. We've never wanted um we've been willing to give up, you know, uh operational authority and and put it under an independent fireboard. That's what we've said from day one. and and that's where where there's this moving and um and I'm excited for that and uh and one thing that was important to to us was in that transition to have all the paid on call firefighters uh in one group on in one department. There's been some discussion I've seen about about how that's going to go and and we believe that for the sake of morale um you need to have unity among the firefighters and and we didn't want an us versus them thing going on even in this 8-month transition period. But um but have it to be a cohesive group because when you have um uh you know positive morale that's going to impact public safety. I mean, when you trust the guy that's that you're fighting next to you and and Cody and Mike, you can say this better than I can, but you have to have absolute trust for the these guys that you're working side by side with. And uh and that's going to impact how effective you are as a firefighter. And so for the sake of public safety, um that morale was important to me and uh and and in order to to maintain that or to keep that at its highest level, it was important to have all the the paid on call guys under and gals under one roof under one department as we move to this JPA and ultimately hopefully district as as as we go there. So, um, just thanks to those guys, uh, for for putting in the time and and, um, and I'm glad that we're we're we're where we are now and and the work isn't finished. I mean, we certainly have more work to do. But this is this is a pretty major hurdle um, if we all three cities approve this. And we don't want to forget about Madina either because they're they're a key part of this. I mean, Oro and Long Lake has kind of been working out um, the major differences here, but we want to to Madina to be part of this JPA discussion as well. um they don't have to be but but we we invite them to be so that we can continue that relationship with them uh going forward. So that's it. Yeah, it's great summary and um council member Persian put together a lot of the operational details and in exhibit C along with you know our input and what I envision is um that we're kind of giving our fire department leadership uh like you know hopefully an easy to work template on a on a silver platter and hopefully kind of take that and work the operational details out. We want to kind of step back from this point forward, let the fire professionals work on those operational details that are laid out in exhibit C and as far as training and equipment sharing and staffing and those sorts of things. So, we'll look to to uh those professionals to do that. I know they can they will do that. And so, there's been some yeah, some you know critique that um maybe where's there's too many the count the elected officials are doing all the work here and that sort of thing, but that was really just to get things started. Now, we'll let the the leadership take it take it from here. Well, yeah. And I would have preferred this agreement be much shorter than it is, trust me. And and and put that uh those decisions on uh Long Lake uh fire leadership as well as Orno Fire Leadership and to work those details out operationally and so forth. So maybe we got a little bit uh too into the weeds on this, but you know, it kind of went that way and and we are where we are. But we're still going to rely heavily on on the fireship to figure out how to uh make this work operationally and be successful in that. Yeah, exactly. And um and and just an update on the on the legal action we were forced to take against the previous Orno City Council for um you know, breaching the contract we were in with them. that that is still um there's uh is still in progress, but we're very much now this is laid out here in uh many parts of these documents is working out on a settlement to get that past us now and work work to get that wrapped up as soon as we can so we can focus on on the future. So, just a little update there as well. And so this is so the oral city council passed uh a resolution last night to allow their mayor to sign this first amendment and we're are is our hope that the Madina city council who will be meeting in about five minutes will be doing the same thing as well and then hopefully here in a couple a minute or two or a couple minutes we'll we'll approve this as well. It does take all three three cities to since we are all contract uh cities in this agreement. We need to all pass those. Any uh council members, anything else you you want to add in? This has been a long road for all of us. And yeah, I also want to thank Persian Tunheim and then Charlie and John. I mean, I know you guys put in a huge amount of effort and we've been I feel like we spent a lot of time on this, too, but I know it's probably like 1% the amount of time you guys spent. So, it's a huge effort. Really appreciate it. Um, it's it's an awesome thing and I think you mentioned it as well. It's this doesn't get us done. It's the first step and it puts us on the right trajectory and that's to me that's what's exciting is that it feels like we're going in the right direction here. So, very cool. So, I'm going to let John do you want to make the motion? Wow. Sure. Well, and before I do that, I was just going to say that for those who aren't like following this, the details of this, this first amendment is largely just returning those two CAD zones that were removed uh last July. Was it effective July? Yeah. So, it's the CAD zones that cover Forest Lake and North arm of of Lake Mitanka. And really, that's that's that's kind of the the meat of this amendment. But then we added on, you know, uh these uh these exhibits that commit us to to sort of not stop there, but now let's get to this JPA discussions and let's get to the JPA and let's settle the lawsuit and and things like that. So um but but as far as you know what what we're deciding on right here is simply uh the return of those CAD zones and then operationally how we're going to you know operate uh for these next eight months until and some joint um cooperation between the Right. Right. So yeah I'll uh I'll make a motion and uh it's short and sweet a motion to approve the first amendment to agreement and contract for fire protection. I'll second that. Yes. Yes. All right. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Excellent. Excellent. Thanks for all your work on that. And she'll also point out former council member Joyce who council member newcomer replace, but she was a big big part of this as well and working through this with us for the couple years that she was on the council the four years she was on the council. So team effort and then staff of course as as well and uh you know chief chief highland and assistant chief Harley you've been through a lot as well and you've guys have been kind of the captains of the ship here keeping it afloat for the last uh se several years here now. So, we very much appreciate your your leadership and and bringing this keeping the the the team as cohesive as it possibly could be over these last couple years through very challenging times for our fire department. So, appreciate your work in that. Thank you very much. Yes. And I've heard you um referred to as a players coach, kind of a fire chief, which I think is um you you have a lot of respect from your firefighters, I believe, because you're you know, you're there in the trenches with them if you have to be, right? That's that's the word I've heard. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And you know, we the fire department has the respect of the council as well and they appreciate all you've done over the past couple years. So, thank you. Thank you for saying that. All right, with that then we move on to item 7B. Um, this is about and review city council code of conduct policy. I think Janette's going to kick this one off for us. Thank you, mayor. Um earlier in the year we started looking at a draft ordinance to amend chapter two of our city code the administration section to um deal with council salaries adopting a schedule for there we go. Okay. um to um adopt a salary schedule moving forward with a regular escalator so that they could deal with council salaries in perpetuity essentially. Um but then you know when I took a look at that section I realized how much content was truly missing compared to your average municipal code things like establishing council order of business at meetings, meeting schedules. Um so the draft that you originally saw was probably about two to three pages. I think I have it at about eight or nine now. Um, but it's um thorough and addresses some things that haven't been in our code that that I think um things like um establishing a policy for background checks. I was a little surprised as I was checking our code to realize there was nothing anywhere that kind of talked about that. So using an opportunity to really put in some great language um that reflects our operations. But part of that, we have had some discussion, I know previously, um, about city council codes of conduct. And over the last few years, I think we've seen more and more Minnesota cities um, begin to adopt and enact these. Um, and I just thought I'd read straight from the packet what the goal of adopting these codes of conduct um, for city councils really has been. And in my mind, reading the bullets, um goals are to foster transparency, trust, and confidence in local government, to highlight relevant state laws such as open meeting law, um and statutes that govern the roles of our elected officials, to identify best practices to help set the tone for council member professionalism in both public and private interactions. to establish guidelines to improve collaboration and maintain a positive, respectful culture at city hall and at council meetings. And last but not least, to provide a tool to assist in the orientation process for newly elected city council members. Um, which I I really think can actually uh come in handy. we really haven't had something like this that talks not just about the legal ease um of becoming a council member but also a little bit about the atmosphere of doing so. Um so at any rate with that in mind I reviewed um a number of cities examples of codes of conduct and prepared a draft. I emailed you earlier today. Our city attorney did take a look at the draft and had um some recommendations particularly in the conflict of interest section. Um I can show you on the overhead if you'd like the o you know to see the redlined version. Um really agreed because all you really show his changes were generally very minor until we reached the conflict of interest section where I think he believed um it was maybe important to get a little more concise and a little less Janette rambling. So a lot of this references statute. A lot of this is based on statute. Yes, a lot of this is and I have included some statutory references. Um and and these were also common in a lot of the codes of conduct I saw. Um I I found it helpful. I actually when I was doing this, I was referring back to the statutes to read them and take a look at them myself and make sure the references were accurate. So as you can see on page one, it it was, you know, very minor stuff here. just adding a sentence here or two that he was a fan of. This is where it gets a little bigger. So, I had had these sections about contractual conflict of interest versus non-contractual conflict of interest. I'll be very honest, I did steal those from another city's code. Um, he preferred this paragraph version here. So, I had emailed out this updated version earlier today, not in a red line. So instead of these multiple paragraphs here, he recommend recommended consolidating conflict of interest to this paragraph. Members shall not participate in a matter before the city council that affects the member's financial interests or those of a business with which the member is associated unless the effect on the member or business is no greater than on other members of the same business classification, profession, or occupation. Though often not prohibited by state law, interested members should also seek to abstain from any matter in which the specific circumstances may compromise a member's objectivity. Members should disclose all conflicts of interest and potential conflicts of interest to the city council and then moving on and abstain from the council's discussion, debate, and vote upon a matter under review if a conflict is determined to exist. So, that was really the big change. The rest of this is, as you see, little stuff. Um, and there's nothing. Oh, just caught caught an extra D there on the last page. Um, but, uh, generally uh, comments were very mild with with the exception of that section. And after reading it, I do feel like he did a much better job with that than I did. Um this is although it is a draft I'm putting for you before this um that it is pretty thorough maybe more so than you might then you might see um it kind of represents some common language from larger cities and smaller cities and and I feel like that's a standard that Long Lake can sometimes strive for because while we're a small town we're also very much in the metropolitan area and and so that's why I tried to be maybe a little bit more substantive than a two-page document on this one. Great. I have a couple options before the council. Um, which would be um option A. Um, if you like the draft and you know with John's changes and you feel good about where it's at, um, staff is happy to recommend a motion to adopt the city council code of code code of conduct policy. And with that, we'll be able to cross reflect that in the new chapter we're um you have some amendments. Um it with amendments, we can certainly do that. Um otherwise, if this is kind of rushing it, we're happy to take direction and bring this back before you at another meeting. So I have one question. So, you know, it's a little um kind of like if after you have a hearing to defend yourself if you violated this conflict of interest and rec violates the law standard has occurred, the council may censor uh refer the matter for criminal prosecution. So, the criminal prosecution I'm just curious none of this is criminal in here. So, it I mean there's this is not a criminal statute. No, this is not uh this is not necessarily No, but um accepting gifts is one example. So, this would be under a criminal statute, right? There there are certain things that if you were to violate them in a manner that is very egregious, like a really aggressive conflict of interest or a accepting a very large gift that that would and you wouldn't need this. You wouldn't need this to prosecute somebody for that anyways because they've come under a criminal statute. That that's true. through the intent of this of that language and you know obviously John took a look at that as well is the intent of this language is to keep the options open so that whatever the matter is if it does have to come to a hearing if if an investigation finds that that's warranted then a of course the subject of the hearing has the right to be heard and be present um but b depending on the manner of the violation the option of doing something like censuring referring for criminal prosecution. Um requesting council members, you know, don't participate in a decision or other action as deemed appropriate um in consultation with the city's legal council. So, the idea is to keep all all of your options available to you as a council. And I mean, we could refer to criminal prosecution. I'm assuming that this kind of absolves the kind of gives them the right to do at the city council. sort of absolves them from liability for moving forward with something that doesn't amount. Essentially, that's the intent. If the council is reporting something for criminal prosecution, you have a document, a policy that you were adhering to that states that you have the right to do that. You know, it seems I'm just saying this because criminal prosecution I mean that I I understand you've violated the law and you you I don't know what the requirements are for reporting a city required to report. I assume they have a legal requirement to report something that could be criminally prosecuted. Do they? And whether this is something that should be in a different part. I mean, I think I think that as John as our city attorney reviewed it, I think he to be appropriate where it was because again focus on the criminal prosecution portion of the sentence, but to focus on all of the measures that a council has because if somebody's taking a bribe to throw a vote one way and it's not going to be here that they're kind of looking at the authority to do it right. But if something were to come out at a council meeting and it happened here the first time um yeah coun basically this is to establish all options for okay council action because the criminal part seems like are we elevating it to criminal when it's not really criminal? No no no that that is just one bullet point of yes that the intent is not to go straight to that. It's only to have that in the kit if it is deemed appropriate. And that is usually a higher level of bad. That's a good Is that the law school term for that? I like that. That for a bumper sticker, but yes, that is 100% accurate. Six years of law school, whatever got you. That's good. So, I I have a question. And I mean, I like the theme of this. Um, is there something for like appointed? Um, I mean, you could see a situation where there's a planning commission thing that could there's going to be open hearing that, you know, could the bribe situation. Could there be something that guides that conversation? Or somebody comes in here from city XYZ and says, I am on the parks commission and I'm here speaking to you. Well, are you speaking as parks commission or or not? Just like kind of that representation. Honestly, I don't think it would be difficult to modify the entire language and it you mentioned that and I almost went there is is the honest truth. Um, some of the examples that I saw were focused solely on their city council as elected officials, but many of the in fact I would I would argue all of the provisions of law that are general standards of conduct um apply just as much to appointed board and commission members as they do to city councils. it would not be hard to amend this to add a bunch of magic words to commission or board everywhere uh where it says city council. So ultimately is probably um so that but yes if the council did want to direct that we extend this to cover expectations of the boards and commissions as well. Yeah, that would not be hard to do. Yeah, personally I like that. Yeah. And I mean and granted Yep. you know, planning and certainly parks are advisory, but they're still very influential. So certainly. So what that would cover then would be the appointed positions. Um that would be a large me. Yeah, I like that one versus we certainly can do say that if we were doing one for thei commissions only. I see that the would be very very similar. So I don't think that it would be go back and add commissions are held to open meeting are held to of those. Um, so I I I don't think it would be difficult to do. Um, just kind of dig back in and add those words, commissions and boards after city council in a lot of places. Okay. Yeah, let's let's do that. That might as well get her done the right way the first time. Long as everybody agrees not to do anything egregious the next couple weeks before this is implemented, I think we'll be fine. Make sure we're not doing background checks, right? That's we're not sure. We're especially doing No. Um, so it, you know, with that direction, I'd be happy to make those adjustments and bring that back at an upcoming meeting if the council would like me to do so. So, is that C option C then or certainly a no motion is required. Oh, okay. On the other hand, if you simply love the language exactly as is and just want me to make an amendment to reflect boards and commissions where appropriate, happy to do that, too. But I, you know, I' I'd like you to feel confident in the document you have in front of you. So, I' I'd be happy to just do the amendments and bring it back. So, Janette, in terms of um Okay, so this is all a lot of it seems to be, let's say, common sense. Yes. And so when you do get somebody new on a council, I know they go through a lot of training, but um the planning checklist that you could put off like, hey, you know, most people know about the OB meeting law. Um you know, if you have a financial interest or something or um are somehow affiliated to an issue and that your judgments and um biased that you should recuse yourself. Is there like a just a quick sheet that you can give people as a reminder? There isn't yet. I will say that a four-page document that covers a lot of that is a lot easier than days worth of we don't really materials like that or you know with coming in you have the opportunity to attend the League of Minnesota City's wonderful newly elected officials training um appointed positions don't have necessarily that same opportunity. It doesn't exist for them. This could kind of become that guiding document kind of like a check like a little even paragraph. I could use it to make a checklist once adopted to kind of create a checklist for Yes. I don't think that would be hard to do. And the reason why I'm suggesting that is a lot of times this gets overlooked. Yes. Yeah. Yes. And with this tool in its final form adopted, it would be something that anytime we have a new appointee, I I'd actually give it to everybody to be quite honest with you. I'd make sure everybody had a copy of it in their possession that is a current member of any border commission so they can see what the council adopted as guiding principles uh for the council and for its boards and commissions that advise them. Um but uh it also would become a tool that we would immediately hand to anyone coming in into a position um as a new elected official or appointed official. Something we can hand them right away that says be aware of this. Um I I recall actually council member newcomer when you were first elected before you'd had the chance to go to that newly elected officials training. I remember sitting there one day thinking you know since he's in the office I should see if he's aware of open meeting law and what that means. which was very helpful because you don't find out about those things in detail generally until you get through that training. So my hope is that you know this this can become a good resource to help with some of that early education while we're working to prepare anyone for their position. Great. Well, yeah. I like fine and by the after you do that, just make sure you didn't catch anything that 100%. Yes. That so that sounds good. Option C it is. And no motion necessary. Thank you very much for taking the time to read through that. Getting closer. Great. Great start. Like we've said before, we don't have any issues now. We got a great council now, but might as well get something like this put in place before to prevent any issues from occurring. All right, that we'll move on to item eight. Other business already go around the room here. Council member Nukem, I know. All right. All right. Council member Feldman. I'm good. Thank you. All right. Council Dick. Nothing for me. All right. Uh, I think I covered my item well. Last week we approved the Bidco um, agreement um, franchise agreement for publication. And I think Sean might have been contacted. Um, actually um, Jim with the LMC, Jim Lmberg, he had reached out um, I've been contacted as well. I was contacted directly um by a representative from Midco, but also Jim sent out an email to the cities to collect a lot of information about the right-of-way permit process and primary contacts. So, I think that he could put that all together in one package for Midco. I did also speak with Midco directly. U so yeah, they have everything they need. I also linked our forms and my response to Jim, so they've got everything they need from us to start making applications. Um, and I'll I'd be happy to let the council know when we receive one. I know it's something we're very excited about. So, competition would be good in the telecommunications around here. Yep. Right. Right. Well, we'll see how bring fiber to Long Lake. So, that's exciting. I know the Maple Plane mayor mentioned the other day that Maple Plane has signed a separate franchise agreement since they're not part of the the LMC. So there Medco is definitely and then Oro has a course and so Medco is definitely making the rounds here amongst all our neighboring cities. So it'll be good. All right. Anything else? Oh, that's it. All right, Scott. It didn't snow today. Yeah. First time in like two months, right? True. Yeah, right. So, no. We broke we broke this. Anybody got to go home and file their taxes after this or just a reminder? Fairly minor. Okay. All right. Good. Good. All right, Chief. I'm good. Thank you. All right. Great, Janette. Um I will have one ordinance coming in front of the council in May. Um we're going to go ahead and get that um fencing amendments ordinance taken care of. Um, so we'll have that on the May 13th planning commission meeting and subsequently on the council meeting to follow. Um, we did that go through the planning commission already? It will go to planning commission on May 13th. Yes. Yes. And we're excited about it because I it's a frequent ask about border tiein f update which were really actuallyive. We a six foot fence no matter what around pools. no covers or well it regardless of covers cuz covers can fail. Auto covers can fail but most communities go with a at least 4T approach. So we reduced and went with the standard rather than being the exception. So um standard is 4T minimum 4 foot security fence. Yes. So we went with that approach. Um, so I I think we have a good document put together for the planning commission to review and it's a little more common sense quite frankly. Nice. Nice. I always remember to get my born on April for the write off or the deduction. Got it. Yes. Thank you very much. Awesome. There's an ice cream shop coming to town. There is. Oh, yeah. I I got the building permit actually yesterday and it's in review right now. So, yeah, that should be going um it'll be in the what we our grand open a spinning wheel and face painting and some ice cream specials. Um it'll be called Shivers. Embrace the cold is their motto. Mhm. We're excited about it. Pretty good, actually. Did you come up with that? No, but uh that we know the family pretty well. Oh, good. My daughter and our daughter swim together. So, good. Yeah. No, we're very much looking forward to it. Permits are moving forward. I back in a I should see and off and away they'll go. Will it be sit down? It's not very So I'm sure they would be probably sit down. Not yet. So the one we don't want the open up for operation yet'll be looking. Okay. Got it. Yeah. Great. Um, I was just going to let council know that week, um, Jeff from WSB was here and we had the bid opening for the payment management project and bids came in lower than they were expecting, which is wonderful news. Um, nice. So, we're moving forward with that and under budget, which is finance I'm extremely pleased about. That is scheduled for the May 6th agenda right now. Yes, they'll still be presenting for Okay. So, got it. Got it. Yes. And thanks again for the time you spent with me going over all the budgeting stuff. You are more than welcome. Yes. She took a lot of time and they'll dig deep into how things work and helped me out extensively. So, Oh, good. I thought if we were going to put the first quarter on consent and I better make sure that that our members understood exactly what I was presenting so they could I I know it's approved but I just had one question since we're talking about it. It's inter our revenue, the water billing and the every all the billings we've received different percentages and I'm just curious like is that just because we were budgeted wrong like um the water revenues was 19%. Yeah. And you would think if we already sent out the bills they should be pretty consistent. They would have been consistent. I will tell you last year um we didn't actually increase our water budget this year because last year watering was down quite a bit and I so we just kind of left it where at where it was there. It was just low watering. Um, we're going to see an increase. It waters, it's normal for it to be around 19% right now because we kind of hit the irrigation season. Um, oh, that makes sense. Sewer, if you recall, with me adding the Metropolitan Council um, sewer treatment fee, I tried I knew that some of that fee was already kind of calculated in the sewer revenue. And so, I had um, adjusted that the first 2,000 gallons would be at no cost. But that was kind of a rough guess for me to see how sewer came in. And so sewer is the one that we really really focused on in 2025 for rates because we knew that the ME council fee went up so high and we needed the the balance. So I expect water to I think we'll see an uptick once irrigation happens depending on what mother nature does for us this year. So, we we of what we budgeted. Yeah, I know. I know. And I've already I've already told Janette, I've got plans and work for kind of how to um take that in consideration. However, we if you recall, we only have around 200,000 in that fund. So, I needed a little bit of a buffer to get these three projects going. So, it's going to get it's going to buy us a buffer whereas we have a buffer in water. Maybe we should budget more for it. I'm already getting phone calls. I'm already getting phone calls. Well, because our revenues are, as you said, and the other thing that it's it's not guaranteed right now, but for recycling, we are in a contract for organics right now and we're very comfortable with where everything's going. Unfortunately, Henipin County, if you realize it's a mandate that everyone has to be charged for organics. Now, Henipin County is starting to backpedal on that. Oh, actually it's not Henipin County. There's a state I'm sorry pending state legislation in the works. So if that were to get reversed, we're still in a contract. And so we wouldn't necessarily be able to to charge all of our residents, but we would still be being charged. So we need to start establishing a little bit of a buffer and recycle just a couple that we can't build. So and that's not our that's nothing to do with our you know Yeah. That's kind of puts us everybody in a pickle. It it does and it'll be interesting to see how they deal with that. So, love force mandates. Yeah. Unfunded force mandates. Yeah. Both doing and undoing of them. Yeah. Uh you know, a little more notice would be nice, right? That is all I have. All right. Great. Last call. All right. if there and then next meeting is on Tuesday, May 6th, the potential work session either 5 or 5:30 followed by a council meeting at 6:30. And before that though is the pancake breakfast and uh I think you already have posted a quorum notice for that or you will. I did indeed as well as for the candidate forum coming up for the orno council candidates. So got it. That's tomorrow night or city council chambers or live stream. I posted that on Friday. So you are absolutely covered should anyone choose to attend. So all right, great. All right, sounds good. We I will adjourn the meeting by general consent at 7:28 p.m. So I hear you're an east coaster, too. Where from? You got to go. Sister me. Sister me.