[music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> All right, everyone. >> That was Cindy. >> That was >> I think it's the uh the appropriate time. Um I'll call this meeting to order and uh let's see. Today is Monday, December 15, 2025. This is a study a study session of the Minnotonka City Council. Um meeting has been called to order and we will do introductions and we will start to my far left with Miss Saraki. >> Cersa Saraki, senior management coordinator. >> Eric Nelson, city attorney. Darren Nelson, finance director. >> Mike Fong, city manager. >> Paty Foster Bolton, ward one. >> Uh, Kimberly Wilurn at large. >> Rebecca Shack. W two. >> Brad Wenome, mayor. >> Kizzy Copy. W four. >> Paula Rome. W three. Deb Calbertt at large. >> Leslie Yetkco, natural resources manager. >> Julie Wish, community development director. >> Will Manchester, public works director. Scott Borman, police chief. >> Kelly OD, recreation director. >> Kevin Fox, fire chief. >> Jace Alexander, DEI supervisor. >> Yeah, please do. >> Amanda Maxwell, member of the public. >> Very good. So, um, welcome everyone. Good to see you all. Um, we've got a handful of business items tonight. The first of which is the um item 3A is the 2026 strategic plan action steps and I will turn that to uh Miss Saraki. >> Thank you mayor. So tonight we are talking about the 2026 action steps and we will hear from each team lead of the strategic priorities and the question we have for this discussion is does the city council support the 2026 action steps for each desired outcome. So we do have all the action steps action steps drafted. So, we're not looking for direct input on which ones to also create under the desired outcomes. We're more looking for questions and comments on the ones that we already have. So, keep that in mind as the team leads are presenting. And you will also hear about the performance metrics and that is more of a FYI because those are always ongoing. We're always looking to improve those. So those won't be on the report that you approve in January, but you will hear about those today. And you can also ask questions about those. The timeline. So back in 2024, you participated in the city council with retreat with rap uh rap consulting and that is where you created the 2025 through 2027 strategic plan. So we are now on year two. when we go into 2026 and we had our kickoff meeting October 8th and after that kickoff meeting the team leads and their teams drafted their action steps and performance metrics for 2026 and then we held our two strategic plan workshops on November 13th and 14th and after those workshops from the feedback team leads um revisited the action steps made any necessary changes And then you will hear about those action steps today. And then after the meeting or the study session today, you will see them again at the January 12th um city council meeting. And that's where you will approve them. And how we did the workshops, it it was similar to what we did the past few years, but we did have random assignments. Staff used to sit with their departments, but this year it was random. So we had all the departments mixed together and it was a little more interactive. Um the each team lead presented their action steps, desired outcomes and performance metrics. And then in the small group they had [snorts] a discussion about those and then with we had posters all over the room and with colorcoded post-it notes they decided if they had questions, comments, if they wanted to collaborate or green was good to go. So they had red, yellow, and green. And then we had a large group discussion. And I think um having employees sit their departments, we had a lot of conversation. I think they're very productive conversations. We were able to identify where maybe action steps over overlapped and so we're able to cut back on those. Um and then they provided a lot of feedback to the team leads and they were able to revise their action steps from those conversations. Um just a reminder of how the strategic plan is laid out. We have six strategic priorities and then the second level we have 18 desired outcomes and those are what you determined with Craig Rap back in 2024 and below that are the action steps and those are updated every year and the action steps um are updated. So each year we make progress towards the desired outcome and the strate and the strategic priorities and desired outcomes are the three-year plan. So after three years, we hope we can accomplish those desired outcomes. Um I think that's all I have. And then staff are the ones who determine the action steps. So just keep that in mind. That's all I have. Mike, do you have anything to add to this slide? >> Thank you, Sarissa. [clears throat] Oh >> yeah, I have a question. Is there a level between I'm just trying to understand the structure. Is there a level between the um desired outcomes and the action steps because it looks like there's goals in between those like you know you have 1.1 goals you know you have your desired outcome for example financial strength and then you have goal 1.1 or what I'm going to high level creditworthiness and then you have action steps underneath that. So the desired outcome is a high level creditworthiness. >> Well, um Okay. So those Okay. Got it. So there's there can be more than one. Got it. >> Yes. So I think under the financial strength there's three desired outcomes and then there's usually three or four action steps under each desired outcome. >> Okay. >> Thank you. And as we go through these with each team lead, we will have all the action steps showing up on the screen, but they are pretty small. However, they match exactly what is in your packet. So, make sure you pull it up so you can also read them as we go through. >> Thank you, Sarissa. >> So, Mike, or back to you, or should we just um go through each [clears throat] um uh strategic priority and and have each team lead walk through it? What are you thinking? >> Yeah, thank you, mayor. Um, be before Well, yes, we're going to turn it over to Darren here. He'll start with financial uh strength. >> I do have just a couple quick comments and a couple slides. So, so thank you, Brad and councel. >> I think going back to your question, Paulo. So, it we [snorts] we often call it a three-level plan. And so, >> like again, Serissa outlined the strategic priorities. Those are the six and you're going to hear from our six team leads today. And then those desired outcomes are real specific. And so for example, when the council decided financial strength was a major pillar, the question then becomes, well, what does that look like? And so that's defined then by those desired outcomes. So the desired outcomes [clears throat] really define what it means to have financial strength. From that then we as staff create action steps to support that. So they um and for example the first one under financial strength and I'm jumping into Darren a little bit is that desired outcome of high level creditworthiness. So that's the desired outcome for example what staff then does is all right so how do we do that? So if the outcome is high level creditworthiness then what we as staff do in those workshops is come up with the strategies. We call them action steps but then come up with the strategies of what does that look like and how do we get there? So, that's what we're going to discuss tonight is those action steps that support those desired outcomes. As Sarissa mentioned, um we're going to hear from the six team leads tonight. And I just pause to say thank you to Sarissa. She's been really instrumental in organizing our workshops. Uh because we do have roughly I do the I don't do the exact headcount, but it's you saw the photos. It's it's 40 to 50 staff members that get involved. And that's been an evolution I think of our strategic plan is really looking to involve as many staff people as we can because really to accomplish a strategic plan it's more than just directors. It's more than the city manager. It's our team and that's just part of our values here at the city is collaboration and that's a word that was noted up there by Sarissa. So it's a real collaborative effort between all of our departments. Uh part of that's just you know it's easy to become siloed in organizations as big as ours. So what we really try to do is focus on coming together as a team and really looking at how do we work together across departments to achieve the desired outcomes that you've outlined. Um so with that just real quick next slide. So again thanks Sarissa. I appreciate all of our directors all of our participants in this process. I would say and I think our directors would say the same that we've really I've really seen just our whole team coalesing around the importance and the value of this of this exercise because it does really create the framework for how we allocate resources. That's that's the importance and the and kind of the magic in all this is that for a city it's easy to it's easy for people to go off and do their thing. It's easy for staff to do different things. What we try to do is then allocate our resources. That's what makes us efficient and we really get um our staff members really trying to work together to make sure we're accomplishing the same the same mission and vision and goals. So with that, I I know you've seen this before, that's why I'd be really quick. This that Baldridge excellence model um that I've pointed out to you before on the left hand side of that, that's where you genuinely [clears throat] live council. You're the leadership arm of this. And then we're talking about strategy and that's really the importance of tonight is really honing in on that strategy. We're going to share those strategic excuse me, share those action steps with you. We want your support of those and certainly any feedback you have have on those. And once we we hone in on that strategy and these action steps, that's really where it transcends over into the right hand side of that where I work with our directors, our directors work with their own teams on really making sure we end up with the results that that we want and that's really through our our workforce and our operations. There's just a lot of synthesizing that happens in all that. So, I just again want to remind you of that. And then next, real quick, you saw this here um at the budget session um last Monday or a budget conversation last Monday. Again, we're down at the bottom of this. And so, as you know, we've worked our way through this with vision, mission, values. It's part of our we have our strategic plan. We've now getting close to finalizing our budget or have finalized our budget. Now, it's that more executional side of things. And so, for us tonight, it's those work plans. That's really where we define again our action steps. And the other thing I would just leave you with is our strategic plan is one body of work for the city. And while the strategic plan is extremely important, it's not the entire body of work. And so for our directors, uh we work together on creating those own departmental work plans, some elements in those work plans are, yes, the action steps. Uh directors and their staffs also have what's called indicators or goals, if you will. So there's another body of work that is important to our directors as they work with their own staffs on advancing best practices efficiencies. So then again there's more body of work outside of the strategic plan that we work to uh identify. We also build in those those work plans, our capital improvement planning and a lot of the other documents that you see throughout the year like our EIP, our post plans. All those documents come alive more in our annual work plans where things get really defined. Uh and that's just part of I'd say at the end of the day accountability. We want to make sure as staff we're accountable to you as a council and ultimately accountable to our residents. So there's there is a real synthesis uh and process involved as we pull all this together. So with that being said, I don't want to spend any more time. Let's we can Brad and council. I want to turn it over to Darren. He'll talk about financial strength and we'll work through our six presenters here. And we we know there's six presenters. We hope we 10 minutes a piece. So, we're going to try to go as quickly as we can, but not again, not trying to go too fast. So, we're just brushing over stuff. So, >> and Mike, just quickly for process, um, so we've got six presenters. We're going to they'll um make their presentations. Um, as and council is to ask questions. When do you want those questions to come? After each section or do you want us to wait till the very end and then um you tell us and we'll monitor things accordingly? >> Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. So at the end of each, so after Darren's presenting, we'll have a stopping slide that'll say questions and comments. So we'll pause after each. >> Perfect. >> Thank you, >> Mr. N. Thank you, Mayor. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, so I'm going to start off with financial strength. That's our first strategic priority, and that's defined financial strength is defined as a financially responsible organization that delivers results. And so we have um our our desired outcome our first desired outcome under financial strength is high level creditworthiness. And we had lots of discussion about this when we developed this. I'm really looking to uh maintain our AAA bond rating which is our target. Um that's not necessarily our outcome but our high level creditworthiness is our outcome with that. And so um we have three action steps that help us achieve that credit that high level creditworthiness. The first one is to maintain a Moody's rating agency fund balance rating are very strong and so uh Moody's has a whole 50-page document on what goes into a rating of the city. We are looking at some trying to measure some of the things um that we have control of on that end of it. Some of the things that Moody's rates we don't have control of. This is one of those things or these first two are two items that we can control on that end of it. The second one 1.1.2 two is to maintain a Moody's rating agency net direct debt rating of very strong and so that measures um basically that measures our net direct debt against our taxable market value and so anything below 75% um is good. We are at about a 2.3% range on on that end of it and such. So um we're sitting in a very good spot on that end of it and we measure those things as our targets here at the end as well too. Um and the third one is to maintain the water and sewer utility fund minimum min minimum cash balance. And so as we issued a bond um recently for the water and sewer utility fund that helps us with our our cash balance looking at our utility rates all those types of things helps us maintain that minimum um cash balance in there as we move forward with our big capital improvements down the road. So desired outcome 1.2 is improve alignment between service expenditures and identify priorities. this one where we had lots of discussion on about us always adding programs and and and not necessarily having the resources to always um accomplish all those those ads of programs and things like that. So, we really want to focus on the strategic plan and the programs that help us achieve those strategic priorities on that and really lift those items up. Um and maybe isn't so wide, but it's a little bit more narrow and really lift up the items that we really want to focus on. And so, our first action step there is 1.2.1 2.1 is to complete the priority based budgeting implementation process by allocating program costs and scoring um among citywide programs. And so we've gone through um staff has gone through the first step of identifying the programs. We're in the process of of finalizing those. Um we have about 315 to 320 or so programs that we've identified. And so our next step in the process, which will be beginning probably this week, we'll be scoring or allocating costs to those programs. And so that'll take a a number of weeks to do that. But uh we will start going through that process and then we'll go on to the scoring piece of that. 1.2.2 is the input uh 2025 actuals and the 2026 budget into the priority based budgeting program. So right now we're working off the 2025 budget trying to get a base in place and then once we get that in place we'll input actually the 2026 budget in there as well. Um I would like to amend this one a little bit. I did find out on Friday that actuals actually don't go into the program. It's just budget numbers that go in there. So, um, as a final document, I'd probably take out the the 2025 actuals out of this step on on that end of it. And then the third one is to utilize priority based budgeting to identify resource reallocation opportunities within the 2027 budget. And so really looking to utilize that application to help us identify those programs, you know, look on that on those fringes, find out those programs that are that we're doing that aren't providing that are either high cost and not providing a big benefit to to citizens or residents or um to the public on on that end of it and trying to reallocate those resources to areas that are providing a big benefit um to lots of people on that end of it. So that'll help that'll be part of the budget process for this upcoming year. be kind of laid on top of our current budgeting process as another um kind of layer to the current budget process. And then our last one, desired outcome is expand sources of revenue for capital improvement projects. Um I think specifically we're looking tried to find nonpropy tax related revenues is when we looked at this during the um during the work session with the council or the retreat. Um our first action step there is to work with University of Minnesota Extension Service to update the sales tax projection numbers um utilizing the latest data available. A couple years ago we got some updated numbers or got a sales tax projection um from the U of M extension service on their numbers and so we'd like to update that and get some more uh more current data that's available. I think it's been probably two years since we've we've done that. So we're working on that and then 1.3.2 two is dependent upon obviously council and legislative actions. Um develop a referendum plan for a sales tax question potentially on the November 2026 ballot. And then our last one is to develop and coordinate a process to identify, apply for, and monitor grants and other external funding sources. Uh Sarissa has done a great job of kind of putting together our grant spreadsheet or tracker on that end of it. uh we'd like to work with her a little bit closer and try to fine-tune that a little bit to make sure that from the financial side of it, we're getting all the information we need. So when we do our reporting, we can go to one spot and and collect it all versus using that as a starting point and then trying to dive into trying to find the right documents on that end of it and such like that. So So that's what we got there. And then our performance metrics uh for the first one, as we talked about the bond rating, there are targets to maintain our AAA bond rating. We've seen um what having a AAA bond rating does with interest rates. It really helps minimize the impact to residents and and utility users. Uh 1.2 performance metric is to um improve alignment between service expenditure and identify priorities and there was to identify programs and priorities and to identify a dollar amount of targeted dollars that are reallocated um from some programs to other programs on that end of it. So, and then our third one is to um increase our non-levy revenues by $2 million per year. And I think we did um and this is across both capital and operating pieces of that, but we've done a significant amount of grants over the last couple years on that end of it. So, I don't know what the exact dollar amount is right off hand, but um all of it has helped with either leveraging our existing dollars or new dollars coming into the city on that end of it. So with that, I'd be open for any questions. >> All right. Thanks, Darren. Council questions. Deb. >> Thank you. Um yeah, so uh so I had basically two questions on this one. The first one is if we're not putting actuals in the um priority based budgeting, like how do we know that we're because it's the actuals that tell us if we're improving? The other question is where does the new ERP fit into our um strategic action plan? >> So as I'll answer your first or your second question first here in regards to the ERP. Um, so I had a little discussion or a little not a little discussion but a discussion with uh Mike probably a month or two ago about the ERP along with the priority based budgeting application and >> um from a staff availability and a staff sizewise. Uh we don't necessarily have the capability to do both at the same time and do them both well. >> And so what I proposed to Mike is that I'd like to really do priority based budgeting for this year and for the next year. So 27 budget and the 28 budget and really get that fine-tuned and get us in a really good spot to help us realize dollar savings on that end of it and identify which programs we have throughout the city. And once we have those programs identified like that and understand them, that'll help us build a chart of accounts for a new ERP system so we can input programs right into a new ERP which would then be able to help us find the actuals because right now our ERP system doesn't have the capability to put all these programs into it and account for it on on that end of it. So I think it'll be it's a long-term process. You know, it's a you going to be a three, four, five year deal on that end of it. But um we will get to a point where we have those programs built into an ERP system, but it won't be with our current system on that end of it. So, >> thank you. >> Other question, Kizzy? >> I guess I got a question. Have you identified um the programs that are performing well and the ones that are not? And then talked about reallocating. So, um yeah, I guess that's my question then. Um I guess I don't know this might sound like a weird question but is it about the performance or the service? >> So >> so great questions. Um we are we haven't started that step yet. So we've identified all the programs that that the city has and so now our next step will be now assigning costs to them and then once we do that then we'll be doing the um we got the cost allocation and we got the kind of the performance allocation piece of that. So are those are those programs are they mandated um will be one of the identifiers. Are they you know how big is the group of people that it's serving? Is it a you know is it a high cost? there's a lowcost type of deal on on that end of it. And so once a number of those attributes are are measured, we'll be able to and you'll go through all 325 of those programs and then basically come out with a score of like where these programs rank on that end of it. So you'll be able to kind of take that lowhanging fruit to start with and say, okay, is this is this a program truly important to us? Is it meeting our strategic priorities? Obviously it you know if it goes away or gets reallocated a certain group is not going to get a program or a service that they have been getting but if it it's a benefit to the greater good that might be a benefit on that end of it and the council will be a part of those discussions as well too. You'll see all these programs and you'll see kind of the rankings of them as well too along the way on that end of it. So um it'll you guys will definitely be involved with um seeing us seeing that through this this process. So, I don't have all the answers yet as we're still kind of a work in progress for me on that end of it, but um what I understand it should it should roll out fairly well and and be fairly easy to understand once we have it all scored and ran. So, >> all right. Thank you. >> Great. Other questions? Anyone? >> I had just I had just one other one. >> So, I talked to Mike about it this morning and uh uh so it sounds like if we get to it before the end of next month. Um the sales tax qu about the sales tax question on the November ballot. It has to be by January end of January. Okay. So as long as we Yeah. >> Correct. And um so just to for context um Deb or council member Calbertt was we're just talking about what we things we're talking about on a Monday morning phone call and as we're talking about this agenda item just with the sales tax um I'll get to the timing of that here in a second but just to maybe set that up a little better is next Monday uh we do have a scheduled council meeting. So Jan, next Monday is the 22nd. We do have a schedule council meeting looking to convert that to a study session. And I think I've mentioned this to most of you. Uh converting that to a study session format because we're hoping to cancel that meeting, but we in terms of business items, we don't have a lot, but we do have a couple items that are do need some attention. Uh one of those is as we're talking with our facilities [snorts] planning. And so next Monday we'd have one agenda item dedicated to facilities planning. And so some of the items you've talked about and we've shared together with you as staff is our four fire stations. We have the Opus area public uh public space improvements, Williston, Marsh Community Center. Uh so just given the nature and the potential impacts of all of those, looking to have a conversation on long-term planning. And so at some point you as a council, we as a city together with you as staff really looking at how what's the cadence of that? When do these projects start? How do we fund them? What's the what years potentially could they uh these improvements come into play? So there's just a lot of conversation around that. One of the potential funding sources for these improvements is the sales tax. Something we've talked about before. So the timing of the sales tax is such where if we were to look to have a November 26 ballot question, you as a council, we as a city would need to have a resolution approved by January 31st of 2026. So having that conversation next Monday is really the first step in that at least having that conversation. We do have then two other meetings in January to continue to discuss the feasibility of adopting that resolution and if there's support to do so, yes, we would need to do that by the end of January. We'll have some staff um other staff at that meeting next Monday. And short of really kind of getting into all the nuances of that discussion here tonight, um there's a there's some complications to it just given what I would call a dual track type process because there's the current state statute with that January 31st deadline. While at the same time, we're aware that both in the House and the Senate, there are going to be different versions of a tax bill that are looking to probably make changes to how sales tax is implemented across the state. So there's we we'll talk more about that next Monday and some of those nuances uh to all of that. >> Great. Thanks, Mike. Um other any other questions? >> Um I've got one. I mentioned it to Mike earlier. Um you we're talking about priority based budgeting. I like the I like I like the sounds of that. >> Um but I was hoping for maybe a little bit. Um if um Darren, you could provide a little bit more. when when we were um when I was in Salt Lake City at the National League, um I did wander by the what is it? Tyler Technologies is the is the um software provider and the and the the experts on um and they were very happy to see me from Minnetonka, not me personally, but a representative from Minnetonka, but um and I just thought if you could give us kind of a a quick primer on priority based budgeting and and uh what what we hope to gain from it. I mean, I would I would think all budgets are priority based in some ways, but this is a specific methodology. And if you could just explain that a little bit better, I'd appreciate it. >> Yeah, absolutely, Mayor. And so, and I think Rebecca put it well at our council meeting last week. She talked about program budgeting and and really we look at our public safety program or that we've been focusing on over the last couple years. That's that's a program. it's going to be a little bit more defined within our priority based budgeting piece of that, but we really are kind of budgeting as programs um historically throughout the city on that end of it. This will clarify it and define them a a lot cleaner and um into into greater detail on on that end of it. And so each department will have has identified the programs that they allocate their time and costs to. Um and so what will happen then is that those are all identified and so we have 300 and some programs across you know eight departments. Um it isn't going to get into the the minutia level of a program. So you could have activities that are happening within a program that um make up a are part of a program. You know we're not getting into that that detail [clears throat] level because it's going to be too hard to allocate costs and and those types of things to that great of detail. But um we're still got a good number of programs that we can help identify across the organization. And so we're going to score those. We're going to we're going to allocate costs and then we'll score them according to um like five criteria on that end of it. And so when they when we finish this, we'll really have programs kind of in four quadrants. So be programs that are identified as high cost, high benefit. And so those are obviously there's a high cost, but it's benefiting a big portion of of our community on that end. And there'll be high cost, low benefit, which probably isn't the greatest area to be on that end [laughter] of it. And then there's the the the high >> hopefully the mayor and council is not in that [laughter] quad, but that's a matter of opinion. >> Right. And there's high benefit, low cost, and then uh what's my fourth one? High low. >> Low benefit, high cost, low cost, low benefit. >> There you go. There you go. Thank you so much. Um and so then we'll really look to prioritize to kind of take that quadrant where we had some high cost low benefit pieces of those and see um identify what those programs are. Maybe some of them are mandated. We can't do anything about it. So that we we have to keep them there. Um but then there are opportunity to maybe say okay let's you know we've added things over the years and years and years and um it may be time to say okay let's reallocate our time and efforts on this program to something else that provides a greater benefit um at a at a better cost value for everybody on the end of it. So, >> well, thanks thanks for that brief. >> Yeah, it's a work in progress. It's this is our first year of it. So, we'll keep fine-tuning it as as time goes on, but >> well, um Paty, >> well, I I this is a comment because I was at the when we went to when it was the um league or national league of cities and I was at that workshop, the priority based financing and and and I was really excited about it. I mean, it seemed >> for somebody who doesn't know anything about finance, it felt very clear to me. Yeah. >> And that this process feels so much clearer um and and not easier but much more understandable. >> Yeah. >> But also and it seems like like there are programs literally that you plug these >> right correct >> into. Yep. Absolutely. >> And so um I really appreciate that you and you guys have been going to a training the two of you. Is that correct? Uh, so with our contract, we have some direct connections with with Tyler Technology. >> So I appreciate it. >> Anyway, >> and just to give you I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Just Thank you, Brad. To give you an example of when we talk about programs, I'll use public works as an example. So as you know, public works is a budget. It's one of our eight departments. Within public works, we have line items from salaries, benefits, buying stuff, contracts, you know, we have these standard line items that are consistent with every department. How and as you know with public works, they do, you know, within public works there's salaries and but what they do is a whole host of programs. everything from snow plowing, filling potholes, street sweeping, all of that. In our current budgeting format, you don't have that information. You don't have how much do we spend on street sweeping? How much do we spend on snow plowing? And so with those are then considered programs. And so what this these 300 plus programs identifies those activities and labels it a program. So we'll have at the end of this you'll have a sense of how much do we spend on street sweeping? that would probably be a high cost high value or somewhere I don't know if it's high cost but high value um so that's where programs come into play is really identifying all of the activity that we not all but >> is we want to get granular without getting >> you can create a thousand programs if you want I mean so it's really starting what we think is a pretty good place around 300 315 programs and we'll see how that works and we'll continue to refine it but at the end of the day what you will get and what our residents will get is a better in-depth picture of where monies are allocated to which functions. >> So just quickly and then we'll move on. But um Darren, thank you for the explanation because you know we just went through we just passed our budget and we heard from not too many residents but we heard from some residents both via email and in person and you know we heard terminology like musthaves versus nice to haves and um other things like that and you know well what is the city stopping do doing versus you know just adding programs and and I think that the segmentation that you're talking about and the analysis that you're talking about will help us answer those questions in and and budget better um in in the future. Not that we budget badly now, but I think that knowledge will help you us answer the question, what can we stop doing because we know that there's a lot of high priority pro things that come forward that we can add and and if we add forever, we're we're going to really get ourselves into a budget place where we don't want to be. So, I mean, I really applaud this initiative. Um, you know, I'm I'm not going to be around here to uh to learn um firsthand, but but I do want to be I do want to pay attention to this because I think it's really important for the city. And I also think it's important for the city from the perspective that we can explain to our residents why we're doing things. And we've eliminated these um high cost low pri you know low value programs because we've analyzed it and and we're stopping doing things because that's that that's how we've analyzed and um reflected on it. So we're it'll make it'll create help us create better road mapaps going forward and and and be more effective and more efficient with taxpayer dollars. So enough said but but thanks for that summary. So, anything else on uh because we're we took quite a bit of time on that one, but it's a big topic. So, um I will turn it back to uh Sarissa. We're going to turn over to uh chief. >> Good evening, everybody. Uh I have the next priority, safe and healthy community. And that is defined as create initiatives to enhance community well-being, engage residents to build trust, and prioritize programs, education, hazard mitigation, and emergency response. As a reminder, this uh is police and fire. So, we have a fair amount of action steps. We are larger departments. Um and our first desired outcome is a continuation of our implementation of our public safety master plan. In 20123, there was a very robust uh uh evaluation of our departments. And from that, there are 47 recommendations within the police department and six within the fire department. And so you'll see uh most of those action steps uh align with those recommendations. And I will uh the first one is to evaluate and enhance the real-time operations center to support expanded operational capacity and coverage. Next one is to enhance staffing operational efficiency of the patrol division. Next one is enhanced investig investigative capabilities by implementing a crossrain program focused on emerging crime trends. intelligence-driven methods and proactive case development. Next is transition identified medical call types to the fire department as the primary responder to improve efficiency and community care. Next, continue progress toward fire department service level objectives. This includes increasing peak hour staffing at fire station 4 utilizing paid on call and full-time firefighters. Next is begin the process for station two facility project. This includes steps towards the state bonding process, acquiring an architect for design and evaluation of the current site. Next is seek opportunities for grants to aid in fulfilling staffing requests as detailed out in the public safety master plan to improve fire department performance metrics. Next is develop and host a public facing dashboard to provide real-time progress tracking of fire department performance metrics. And the last one is to explore the development of a prehire program to maintain adequate patrol coverage during vacancies. [clears throat] Our next desired outcome is to ensure public safety readiness for the opus area redevelopment as we uh see light rail is getting closer and closer. Uh action steps to support that desired outcome include collaborate with Metro Transit Police and other public safety partners to continue coordinated response efforts in conjunction with the potential substation in the Opus area. Collaborate with Metro Transit and other public safety partners to facilitate drills and exercises to prepare for potential incidents involving the Metro Transit Green Line Extension Project. Next is to implement a targeted outreach strategy for the diverse and densely populated opus area focusing on building strong relationships with community members and addressing their public safety concerns. Next is to monitor development in opus area and track public safety calls for service. Use this data to proactively adjust public safety response and allocate resources based on emerging needs. And the last one is to review fire department rescue plan and collaborate with other public safety partners to identify potential deficiencies in rescue equipment and training required for future metro transit green line extension service and develop strategies to mitigate potential impacts to the community. And the third desired outcome is to enhance public safety mental health response. Uh first action step to support this desired outcome include the research additional strategies to enhance departmental and community wellness. Second is to develop and pilot an alternative mental health response model. Third is to en enhance emphasis on family support focusing on officer wellness. And last is to enhance the training of fire department personnel to better recognize and respond to mental health related calls. And then for our performance metrics for each of the desired outcomes, the first one as we uh look at metrics for our public safety master plan is to uh response time for fire and EMS and the target is to meet service level objectives defined in the public safety master plan. And the second metrics is the continuation of our implementation of our Axon ecosystem. And we will target milestones. We're going to be entering year two of that of that project. uh performance metrics for desired outcome 2.2 two in the opus area is we track our community outreach activities. Not only the number of activities we go to, but how many people participate and any any barriers into those part and folks that do participate making sure that when we host a host an event, we have good attendance. And then uh call for service data. I think it's important to track our yearly call for service data in that area. And lastly, our metrics for mental health response is just in general tracking our mental health data. You know, how often are we going out on calls? What what type of call are we going out on? And then um uh hopefully as we uh move into a a co-responder model, we do see a a continuation of a reduction in the use of force related to mental health calls. And that's a lot. I know I just said uh I think I I hope I didn't go to it go through it too quickly. But uh I'll turn it back to the council for any comments or questions. >> Great. Thanks. And councel questions. Deb. >> A [clears throat] very minor question on action step 2.1.9. It says explore the development of prehire program to maintain adequate patrol coverage. And I know that has to do with the um cadet program, but how how how would that work? Um that is in part on our one it's one of our other strategies for hiring. Cadet is a little different. A prehire is and it could actually include a cadet would be typically somebody puts a notice that I'm retiring in 90 days. Um when that person retires we do an application process. >> You get 90 days I get two weeks. >> I think we we have an incentive. There's an incentive. I mean if someone gets a really good offer they could leave tomorrow. Um but oftentimes I think there's an incentive to give us 90-day notice and then um so that's how we do it now and we do a process by the time we actually hire somebody to replace that person maybe eight nine months has went by a prehire program would allow us to technically kind of go over our allotted um strength temporarily knowing someone's going to retire so we could start to backfill a little quicker >> and the you know how much quick it depends on find I mean there's a lot of factors but it relates to can we do this what would it look like? >> Thank you, >> Rebecca. >> Thanks. Um, I just have two comments. One, I've been I'm really proud and it's so good to see some of these real delineated action steps about the mental health side and co-response and also um the notation and the action step regarding medical calls and transitioning the first response to that. I've been bragging about it because I just think it's I it's so um collaborative and I think it really changes the view of public safety and to be a leader in that way is just really cool. So, thank you. Also, you know, I think we should I'm glad to see all of this preparedness for the light rail opening. I mean, 18 months seems like a long time, but I think that we should be talking about this because the community I think it'll put the community at ease in some ways to say our public safety is really we're we've been working on this for years and we're we've got a handle on it. And so I I was really happy to see all of those references and the action items for that as well. >> Thank you, Rebecca. Anything else? Go ahead, Paul. >> Thanks. Um, two quick things. Um, I was a little Maybe you could, um, clarify me for me. It's in, uh, goal 2.2, the ensure public safety revenues for the Opus area where it says calls for service data. Um, and what did it say? Uh, target changing overtime comparison trends. >> Where was that? >> In the metrics. Oh, metrics. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I just wasn't sure what that meant. I just what what is I wasn't I was having trouble understanding that. And then the other thing that I was interested in if this there's an action item, if this is an appropriate place or if there's still talk and I think Mike and I talked about this this morning about the EMS situation, the kind of account. Yeah, I'll I'll speak to the target and then maybe my partner if EMS comes up, someone can weigh in on that. >> Okay. >> I think it's a constant evaluation of their of the EMS system, whether it's police, fire, continue. So, I think that's is part of it. I'll let you weigh in. And really what that is is, you know, as often times during peak call times, if we don't have the proper staffing, there is an overtime um >> um >> okay, >> consideration. And so, can we see a correlation? And obviously we want to reduce it as we we bring on the power shift and we've done these things. What you know does it decrease overtime cost. >> I don't know if that answered your question or not. >> Yeah, I just wasn't sure what that was. >> And I don't know about EMS if there's anything more needs to be offered up. Um >> just more about the situation with Henipin County and that that may be a separate conversation perhaps. >> Yeah, thank you Paul. Well, I'll I'll start and Chief Fox feel free to to jump in. So with our strategic plan, so we we've got the three desired outcomes and so with the EMS conversation, certainly it's an important topic. Um you don't see an action step in here because it doesn't really relate to any of the three desired outcomes. That being said, there is ongoing discussions um on that front and chief, do you have that in your indicators at all with with EMS? >> Yeah, we do. We have a number of indicators relating to that. So as I said earlier, so our body our body of work is this is a big piece of our body of work and then there's so there is certain elements this is a good example of where it's it's certainly on our radar screen. It doesn't really show up in the strategic plan but it is an indicator within the fire department or in their work plan. There are conversations happening. Uh, Mayor Wearsome and I have been uh attending meetings that have been facilitated by county commissioner Heather Eden uh pulling together the district district six cities to have that conversation on EMS. Uh the other I think the big thing that's happening right now is the uh Hen County did initiate a um study on EMS services in district six. Um we'll end up sharing that with the council here soon. Uh but there are those conversations are ongoing. Y >> any other comments or questions, >> chief? Do you have anything else to add to that? >> All right. Um and I just had a quick comment on the desired outcome 2.3 and the action steps 2.31 through 2.34. Um, you know, clearly, uh, mental health is such a big part of our response. And the thing that I'm encouraged by with the action steps is that they're not just targeted at our public our mental health response to our customers, but we're also talking about the mental health of our public safety personnel because those are two really important aspects of um mental health and if we only were attacking one, I think we would be missing um missing out. We need we need our officers and our firefighters. Um they they see a lot. They don't talk about a lot of what they see, but um it there's these traumatic events that happen to people are also traumatic for our first responders. And so mental health is so critical and it and and we need the we need the people who know how to deal with mental health issues in the field but we also need to take care of the mental health issues um in on our team and I'm encouraged that we are targeting both. So just a general comment but I I think it's really important. Anything else? All right, we'll go to the next. >> Okay, mayor and council, >> greetings. >> I'm the lead on the next strategic priority, which is sustainability, resilience, and natural environment. And [clears throat] the overall goal to be a community that values the natural environment, sustainability, and actions that lead to a more climate resilient. So, we have three desired outcomes for this strategic plan. >> [clears throat] >> The first one is to be a more resilient community community that both navigates and adapts to Minnesota's changing climate. And under that we have four action items. And so the first is develop and implement an annual work plan based on climate action adaptation plan or CAP that encourages and supports residents and businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emiss communitywide greenhouse gas emissions. The next is to host quarterly interdep departmental cap staff team meetings to implement the annual cap plan. So this is internal coordination among departments within the city to focus on climate issues. Uh the third is perform two to three targeted outreach events related to resilient which is a program we have that targets residential property owners and encourages them to participate in installing resilient landscaping practices. So it could be a rain garden, a buffer, native plant. Um, basically adapt to and then the fourth is plan to implement an education campaign on flood reduction as part of the Excelsier Boulevard and trail construction project. Um, [snorts] with climate change, we're getting more intense storms. We're having more flood events. So we're trying to help residents understand what they can do on their own property to mitigate some of risks. The second design outcome is protect, manage, and enhance the natural environment. >> Did I miss one? Did you say there's a fourth one? >> There is a fourth. >> Okay. Just make sure it's I think it's in your packet. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it is in the packet. Yep. Uh okay. So, the second desired outcome is protect, manage, and enhance the natural environment. [snorts] So, this is focused a lot on habitat restoration activities. Uh we have three action items. The first is initiate 10 acres of new habitat restoration across multiple parks identified in the 2026 CIP program. Um the second is plant 10,000 trees in the community um including trees sold through the tree sale that residents are planting on their own properties as well as um trees that are planted by city staff on public lands. And then the third is educate and connect property owners who have installed resilient landscaping practices um by hosting maintenance workshops, garden tours or other events that help connect them, help them understand how to m maintain and manage these practices they might have on their property and just sort of build a community around those practices. [snorts] And then the third desired outcome is communitywide adoption of sustainability and conservation best practices. So again we have four action items under this. The first is provide education and outreach to encourage encourage residents to transition from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles including both battery operated and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The second action item is provide education, outreach, and incentives to encourage residents including incomequalified households that meet the 80 80% area media median income median income to complete home energy squad visits so they can understand how they might reduce their energy use by installing some you know um materials or whatever it might be to reduce energy use. Uh the third action item is provide education and outreach to encourage residents and businesses to support and implement carbon-f free electricity and participate in building electrification. So this could be um you know using electric uh equipment um putting in solar whatever it might be related to reducing electrical use and then promote the city's water efficiency rebate program to incentivize both indoor and outdoor water conservation. So this is about water use. Um one of the biggest um energy users is actually water. So uh you probably hear about data centers which we don't have here but those are big [clears throat] water consumers. So any way we can promote people to reduce water use helps in energy as well. So those are the um the action items. If we go to the metrics. So for the first action item about mitigating and adapting to climate change, we have three metrics. Um the first is community gas communitywide greenhouse gas emissions. Um our target is um reducing residential and business greenhouse gas emissions by 52% by 2028. Um to stay on track with the cap uh which is has a goal of 63% by 2030. And so that was a change from the last year. There was a little bit of change in the math. I think we mixed up a little on the math. Um the cap goal is for 2030. This strategic plan goes through 2028. So we had to kind of downscale some of those um emissions. [clears throat] Uh the second metric is the number of residential landscape p practices installed through our resilient Mitanka program. So our goal is 100 additional participants by 2028 that have installed some type of practice on their property. And then the third is number of property owners um contacted by mail, phone or directly in person about mitigating personal flood risk uh on their private property. And so the goal is 200 property owners are reached. And this isn't just putting something in the memo. It's actually talking individually to property owners. For the second desired outcome, we have uh this is related to managing and protecting the natural environment. We have three metrics here as well. So we have the first one which is acreage of restored habitat in our parks. Um we have a target uh of of uh completely uh this relates to not only restoring but maintaining uh 500 acres of restoration areas. So basically 500 acres that are active under some kind of active restoration uh in the city um on public lands by 2028. The second metric is number of trees planted. So I mentioned our action item is a thousand trees this coming year. Um the total is 3,000 by 2028. So that's a lot of trees. Um however as you know we're losing a lot through um emerald ashbor and other uh causes. Uh the third is number of residential property owners educated on resilient landscaping best practices and this target is 100 u property owners that are educated in some way whether we talk to them phone calls we go out and do a site visit that are have more understanding about resilient landscaping. And then the third um desired outcome which is related to adoption of sustainability and conservation best practices. Um we have a number of metrics here. Um the first is the number of electric vehicles that are registered in Minnetonka. Um our target is 1,250 additional registered vehicles by 20 uh 2028. Uh we have number of completed home energy out energy squad visits and our target is 600 additional um visits in the next couple years. a number of res renewable energy subscriptions. So these are solar garden customers and renewable connect customers which um relates to on-site solar installations. Uh and the target is 200 additional renewable uh energy renewable energy subscriptions by 2028. Um the la second to last is number of electric heating or cooling equipment installations and the target is 20. Um so think about like heat pumps um on residential properties or working with businesses. Uh somewhat somewhat new technology for Minnetonka. So um we're hoping to reach more um property owners to install those. And then the last uh metric is gallons of per capita water use. And the target is to maintain the per capita water use at 75 gallons per person per day, which is actually a target set by the Met Council, which we [clears throat] do typically meet. So, we want to make sure we're maintaining that. >> And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions. >> Great. Thank you, Leslie. Um, questions for Leslie. >> Deb, >> um, I talked about this with Mike uh this morning a little bit as well. um with the changes at the federal level incentivizing um EV use and are these realistic or reach goals at this point? >> Yeah, we we talked about this a little bit. Um in my understanding and I can um pass it over to Julie as well. um he she's really involved with their sustainability group, but none of these t uh metrics um relate to federal funding or rely on federal funding. So, we're hoping that these targets are achievable. If not, we can certainly uh assess as we go as, you know, maybe climate changes. >> I mean, it would be great. >> I just you know, there are incentives that >> for cars. Yeah, for sure. for the >> but I think a lot of the the solar subscriptions are still out there. You don't need a credit for that to buy a solar garden subscription, >> right? >> So I think there's nonfederal a lot of non-federal in this plan. Um >> there are some of course but you have a very you know active uh community in this in this realm. So I'm I'm hopeful I'm hopeful that folks will participate regardless of incentives. So, >> other questions? Rebecca, excuse me. >> Thanks, Brad. Just a quick comment. When, you know, I was out door knocking, people with beautiful gardens that they've put a lot of work into with native, you know, all whatever their rain gardens, whatever they are, are so proud. I really like the idea of a garden tour. I think the people would really like it, too. In fact, I I asked a couple people if they would be interested and they were like, "Yeah, I'd love to do that." So, I like that idea. >> Anyone else? >> Paul, do you have one? >> Yeah, I just a quick one. Um I I asked Mike about this this morning and I think there was a couple things. One of which was a dashboard that was talked about that I've heard about. Is that um on the horizon? >> Are we talking about greenhouse gas tracking or kind of the over um sustainability dashboard. >> Yeah, I know. >> Dashboard here. >> I had just heard something um through the great buying sustainability commission that there was talk about um a dashboard and so I was just wondering if that was indeed the case or that was mistaken. >> You know, in talking to Ally, sorry, I'll just jump on this one. Um you know, the regional indicators dashboard to me is pretty dynamic. Um some of the their waste data is really accurate and up to date. Uh the greenhouse gas is a little behind, a couple years behind for Minnotonka specifically. So in my opinion, you wouldn't recreate that. I mean, it's already linked on our website. You can find it. You can see it. The dashboard's there. Um, I'm interested to hear what the Met Council is doing in preparation for the comprehensive plans because they also are working on a greenhouse gas emissions tool. And so, um, it's not out for public consumption yet, but our [snorts] sector rep has come and talked to us about it. So, I think it's a mashing of what regional indicators does and what the M council wants to track and seeing what happens there. So, I don't want to create a new one. Um I think we'll we'll continue to develop what we have which is regional indicators and and promote that. >> So I was just curious how we then um measure ourselves against our plan really like how are we we have these you know so is there a way that we are going to kind of track some of that. Can >> you go back to the metrics please? >> So we just go and look by the metrics basically. Well, this is on the dashboard like the dashboard inside the dashboard. I don't know what. >> Yeah. So, the strategic plan is with the strategic plan on the website, all these metrics will be >> on the website. >> Okay. So, >> so while they're noted here, >> it's actual data and Sarissa is instrumental in working with all of our team leads on >> these metrics noted here are charts and graphs on on the yep on the website. So, everything that's noted here will be >> um viewable by the public. >> It literally is a dashboard. >> It is a dashboard. >> So the the housing dashboard sits inside this dashboard >> and links. I would see the same thing for the regional indicators that [clears throat] would tell you >> how much greenhouse gas emissions would be, >> but it wouldn't be a new dashboard because I don't want to recreate that data. >> It's data with it. It's it's dashboards within the dashboard. >> Yeah, that's what I said. >> And we Yeah, we do have charts for all of these already. So, we've already been tracking this information and that's that's available. Okay. >> Yeah. Right. >> That's on the Invisio dashboard. >> That's on our strategic plan. The on our website, we can pull it up at the end, but uh there is a on our website is our strategic plan and that's clicked on it brings you to our entire strategic plan. And within that, >> y >> lives all this data. >> And so, it's tracking if if we're actually achieving as well. Right. >> Okay. and and for for uh these particular metrics, we have the target uh actually included on that chart. So, we'll have a target and then we'll have the data from as far back as we have information for. It may not just be the three years of this plan and so you can see the trend if there is any and what that target is. Okay, cool. Thanks. >> Anyone else? >> Quick one. just as I look at this um the second bullet point number of residential landscape practices installed you know rain gardens native planting so forth. So if if someone like me says well I want to be as um um as environmentally appropriate with my landscaping as I can be and I have no clue on what to do. Um can I can I call you and have somebody stop by and say, "Okay, here's my yard. It's not big. What is it? What would you if I wanted to be more, you know, do a better job with water, do a better job with energy, you would make a recommendation, tell tell me some things I could do? >> Absolutely. Yes, we um Christine Peterson, who is our engagement coordinator for natural resources, she's the point person on that program. >> Okay. >> You anyone can call up, we if you sign up, we can help guide you with providing you more uh education information or resources. We have online classes that are available and also somebody can come and provide technical assistance and say what are your goals? Here's what you could do on your property. If you're goal is to protect water quality or protect pollinators, they'll give you some ideas of what you can do. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> All right, I think we're ready to move on. So, next is liveable and well planned uh development and that is Miss Wish. There's a road project on my on my [laughter] front page. I don't know. >> Can't you can't it's not very livable without road. >> Good point. Good point. [laughter] Can't get there from here. Exactly. That's funny. It's a good project. Will um is really about balancing communitywide interests and respect for Minnetonka's unique features while continuing community reinvestment. I think we all understand we have to keep growing um because we have we live in a region that is is in a positive growth pattern. Um the first desired outcome is about the number of affordable housing units within the city and it was increasing. I'm asking the council to consider maybe a different um desired outcome here. It's really increasing and diversifying the types of housing uh within the city. I think that covers more widely what you're doing in this area. I mean, you do talk about affordability most often, but I think you're doing other things like HIA and that sort of thing that that can kind of raise to a different level of housing involvement that isn't just creation of affordable units. So, that's a change I'm asking for. Under the action steps, we would evaluate city programs to provide funding for affordable rental and ownership products to assess the effectiveness of the programs. And what this is, we did it a few years ago with the EDAC where we took each program and tried to um evaluate exactly what was happening in each program. Who were the target markets for these programs? Was it working? That sort of thing. We do it on a mini scale within the EIP but kind of broadening the scope in the evaluation of that. The second action step is to preserve uh I'm sorry pursue and consider new types of housing such as manufactured homes. And then when we're talking about what this means during our staff meeting um the word city contracted meaning the city would be the u promoter of this. So, we would be the people kind of getting the ball rolling on the purchase of the manufactured home. And then 4.1.3 talks about creating a plan for outreach to expiring affordable housing contracts. You're right on the cusp of having a bunch of units expire in the next couple of years. And so, and we know this, we've been watching it. Um, but it doesn't really matter to the the owner of the project until you're about to expire. So, we're um watching that and trying to strategize about how to outreach for these folks to keep the contracted affordability intact and we've been successful in the past on that. It's just we're watching closely. Go to the next slide. Thank you. Uh the current language is enhanced vitality across business sector focusing on large corporate businesses. We had some back and forth about this last year. um perhaps a language change to say creating a positive business environment by connecting to small, medium, and large businesses because that really does reflect what we've been doing. We've been putting out a lot more uh feelers for large corporate uh visits, but it's hard and um I can see our work is kind of affecting the whole gamut of business type. Um in the work plan or the action step plan we would have identifying key priorities identified from the business survey and implement them in 2026. Second is develop a method to identify business needs when staff members meet with businesses. The third is build relationships through events focusing on businesses and one-on-one business meetings. And then finally, celebrate business success through storytelling. You can kind of see this in our Thrive magazine where we pick, well, we don't pick, we beg uh businesses to share their story. They're not often [laughter] wanting to share. Uh but we try to get people in all different types of businesses and different backgrounds and all of that to share um what they're doing. And then the next is to the current language here says continue to support opus area transformation as a vital and connected part of the city. I don't know why we I changed all the desired outcomes. I didn't mean to do that but I just >> trying to be more reflective of what you're doing. Um continuing the transformation of opus by implementing the physical improvements in the area because that's really what's happening. you're starting to see the actual um infrastructure and whether it be the wayfinding or you know any of the improvements that we've been talking about for a long time, they're coming to fruition now. So the action steps are to implement the wayfinding and lighting projects in Opus. Uh second is to design the open public space near light rail with public engagement and creating plans. And then finally prepare planned infrastructure needs prior to light rail opening in 2027. metrics for this area. Um for the first outcome or the desired outcome, we have number of affordable units and then in this we track affordable market rate and the type of housing units. So we do that in our housing dashboard. No net loss of affordable units. So this would track the uh those that are expiring. Hopefully we're not going to lose them, but because we've talked to them and implemented a program And then under desired outcome 4.2, we have no net loss of businesses. And we're measuring this by the Secretary of State's business list that they keep track of. And we would have a goal of 5% new businesses between this three-year time period. Um, we also track pretty closely our elevate and open to business usage. uh the EDAC heard from specifically the uh open to business program and their stats last week. Number of on-site business outreach meetings. Our target target for next year is 45 meetings. And then construction value, uh our target is one um a half a billion dollars between 2025 and 27. And that's it. So if you have any questions, >> thank you Julie. questions or comments from council. >> Very impressive. >> Yes. Well, you're getting off the hook pretty easy here. >> That's because I'm here all the time. >> We talk a lot about this. Yeah. Well, well, nice, nice job. And I um >> you know, I I like the idea of diversifying housing types and and I would even like to see us expand the um when we talk about that what we think about um you know, I mean, I've you know, new technologies, um you know, and you know, we're working on zoning. Um but I I think you know what what are what are maybe some breakthrough ideas that we can you know [clears throat] come up with to um to enhance the diversity of housing types that we've got in the community. So just a general comment but I think uh it looks good. >> Thank you. And you're okay with the desired outcomes changing? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I think that they makes I I am I don't want to speak for everybody. All good. >> Perfect. >> All good. No argument. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome next. So, >> Brad, oh, I'm sorry, Julie. I want maybe I know we're it's in the works, our zoning code rewrite. We're doing that, >> but I'm wondering, [clears throat] should we just put that as an action step in there? >> Yeah, [laughter] but we could put it somewhere >> under one of our desired outcomes. We should have we should have a reference to our zoning code update. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. >> Yeah, >> good catch. >> I'll figure out how to where to put that. Yep, good point. >> All right. Now, Paula, >> I think also in the strategy, and I don't know if it it um was develop a comprehensive green space strategy and then conducting a housing need assessment. Are those action items or just strategies or kind of both? I guess is um I saw that in the mix as well. >> The first one I didn't hear you. um zoning code establish uh development principle and guideline principles and guidelines conduct housing need assessment and develop a comprehensive green space policy those that language was in there too or am I missing am I >> okay I must have >> yeah do you have a reference Paul though >> um I will look because I rewrite I'll find it just wondering um >> sounds like something I'd write >> yeah it was in [laughter] there somewhere >> hang on >> it in there 2025. >> Okay. But I was just wondering if um sustainable um green building practices is anywhere in there. If we're considering that at all in the near future as since it's not in our goals, I assume it's not in action. Is there a time when we would like be able to revisit and talk about that like not in the context of action steps? Do we wait for the next three years you were talking about in order to put that on desired outcomes? Is that how that works? So I think so with yeah the timing of the strategic plan that was outlined earlier. So we're in 20 like I mentioned 20 or Sissa mentioned 2026 is year two of three >> and so really >> basically we're baked in for our desired outcomes for is that my >> kind of fairly baked in. Again we're we want to be nimble. So, if there's uh if the council's looking to if you want to modify or add desired outcomes, um I I would suggest maybe that's the next item on the agenda is, you know, let's bring this to a study session and spend some time at a study session talking about >> if we want to make some changes to some of the structure in the desired outcomes, >> right? Thank you. >> And and and while it's a three-year plan, that doesn't mean it's baked for three years. It means we take we take a look and refresh anything that needs updating each year. Correct. >> Correct. Yep. And that's >> and that's what we're doing right now. >> Yep. That's correct. I mean, the top two levels of the plan are fairly baked. I mean, the the six pillars, those are what I would call kind of cemented in. >> Yeah. >> Per se. And then the desired outcome, that's a less less hard concrete. So, it's >> fairly prescribed. However, again, I like I mentioned our goal is to be nimble as well. So if there are in in the three years of our strategic plan if there are if we need to pivot to something we need to have a different focus or a diff a renewed focus then yes you as a council need to then have that conversation and then >> I would say that'd be a study session topic where you want to have a conversation and then we look >> we're not doing that right now we're talking about action plans more right now so this isn't isn't where we're talking about desired outcomes and I was just wondering what the mechanism is for reviewing that in between those threeyear >> I would say study sessions. >> Yep. >> But we're not doing that currently right now. So we can suggest that as a >> correct. Yeah. Yep. Correct. >> Anything else? >> All right. Well, it's your turn now. >> Everybody look at the nice picture though that Will chose for his slide. [laughter] >> Are those lights flashing? [laughter] >> What' you say, Will? might have picked this one. [laughter] >> All right. Um, our overall goal on infrastructure and asset management is to provide reliable high quality infrastructure. Our desired outcome, our first one is improve reliability and efficiency of utilities and facilities. And then our first action step is to identify utility replacement program needs and future long-term utility replacements including our talk station and our white key for design which is in the lake area. Uh our second one is coordinate uh electrical utility line overhead boulevard west of Willist and then our preliminary work on Excelsier Boulevard east of County Road 101. And then our third one is uh review our GIS or geographic information systems and plan for our future goals to utilize the technology and then collaborate including uh uses for natural resource forestry division [clears throat] and then looking at software upgrades because this software is continuously changing just to keep up with the technology. Our second desired outcome is safe quality well-maintained roadway system. So it's coordinate the 2026 pavement capital projects and this would include the Cedar Lake and Richdale areas. Our second one is review and update the city's annual pavement management plan. So continuous basis council reviews this in our CIP and so we look at this [cough] every year. Our third is to enhance um transit offerings through a new transit cooperative agreement with Metro Transit. And then our last is collaborate with our regional and state partners on means of transportation including the three rivers park district Bryant Lake regional trail. Our third desired outcome is to enhance safety, walkability and connectivity of the trail system and this would include explore additional enforcement activities related to ebikes. Our second would be to coordinate the 2026 capital improvements trail construction along boulevard. And then final kind of overlaps with some of the stuff Julie's doing, she just mentioned is coordinating the trail plan in the open area. Weated on a lot of this just to make sure the best we could looking at our desired outcome by one and our performance metrics. Uh we're looking at a percentage of our annual improvements and so that varies for the 1%. I don't know necessarily there but it's kind of related to this study session that we did recently on the utility infrastructure and then our GIS technology we're targeting our number of uses for GIS um our desired option 52 the safe quality and well maintained roadway system looking at our citywide pavement condition index which is the target that we we look for on the 80% in good condition every year and then our agency coordination looking how many miles of street we're rehabilitating every year. So on average 10 miles is what we're looking for. And then the final enhanced safety walkability and connectivity of the trail system looking at the number of trail miles added impact household connections targeting 4.2 miles. And then finally looking at number of contacts related to So that's the overview. Any questions? >> Very good. Any um any comments or questions? Um Deb, >> thanks. Um so a uh kind of sort of goes along with a desired outcome 5.1. So, as I've mentioned a couple of times, and you were the recipient of some emails over the summer about um reliability, customer service um and Mike and I were in meeting a meeting at with the Southwest Suburban Cable Commission where we talked to the attorney that's the staffer. Um I mean his suggest his suggestion had to do with you know as service agreements come up to change the wording of the service agreements to to sort of make sure that the utility companies understand what the expectation and responsibility responsibilities are. And I think Mike probably has an even better idea what would need to go in them. But it kind of sort of it's sort of adjacent to this. I don't know if it rises to the level of making it an action step, but it just seems like it it might help in the effort uh for desired outcome. 5.1 is sort of looking at the not just like the, you know, actual burial, but when we're negotiating service agreements having to do with that kind of thing. >> Yeah. Um, yeah, we can look to add an action step. I can work with Will on some language. >> Yeah. Yeah, that' be no problem. We'll work with Eric and Mike on the language. >> I like that. >> Are there anything else? Council >> um I've got one. Um and and I don't know if this really appropriate now. Um but when I when I look at um 5.3 um enhanced uh safety, walkability and connectivity of the trail system, you know, we've talked over the years, you know, I mean, our I believe in our our prioritization system. I think it works well. However, I think every council member has one or two or three >> little segments of trail that if we could get one thing done, it would just be nice to get that done. it. Rebecca talked about one um last week or earlier this week, you know, on Plymouth Road that boy, if we could just get that done, that would really improve the um you know, the trail system. And it it's not big, probably not expensive, but collectively they're expensive. But I was wondering if maybe we could come up with a way and say, "Okay, each year each council member gets one segment of [laughter] of not not, you know, you know, not not more than x number of feet um to complete a trail segment because I know that there's a when we go down a certain road um and it happened today and I'm riding with my wife, she says, "Look at that. It would just take just a little bit and then it would then the trail would be complete from here to here. >> Yeah. >> And and I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to bore you with the details now, but could we come up with kind of a little pseudo system >> that would enable us to sacrifice because I'm sure each of us each of us have one and you know and again put some limits on it. you know, it can't be 2 miles long, but [laughter] but it but it, you know, but it could be 150 ft or something like that because I I there's there are just a lot of little uncomfortable segments of trail that are not completed. And we we you know, because it'd be such a big job to do them all, we kind of don't do any or many. And maybe if we just said, okay, each council member gets one one segment each year, we're going to do it. We're just going to do it and we're going to figure out how to make sense. um we could make progress on that and it would it would make council members feel like gee we got something done this year. So just an idea. >> Sounds like you're supporting an increase in franchise fees. >> It could well be. It could well be. I mean, you know, there's there there's a path. You know, sometimes there's got to be a path, but but if if a if a council if each council member knew that they were going to get a segment of trail done each year, they might they might lobby for the that increased source of funding. So, it's just an idea. It's probably not appropriate now, but but I think it it [laughter] would it probably it would enhance uh safety, walkability, and connectivity of the trail system. So, I throw it out as the suggestion. >> Well, let's put it on the study session conversation point. >> Yeah, there we go. Fair and good point. >> And I think too, Brad, next Monday when we talk about facility >> improvements, we do have trails as part of that conversation for next Monday. So, I I think it'll get some more conversation next Monday as well. >> Good. >> All right. think about that idea and poke holes in it. >> I don't I don't think we want to poke holes in it, but one of the one of the challenges is I think for some of the smaller segments and and Will can correct me if I'm wrong because Will and I have talked about this. It's been a while now, but I think some of the reasoning like like some of those smaller gaps exist is >> don't have got to buy right away. >> Yeah. >> Retaining walls. They tend to be really expensive endeavors even though it might be two blocks. And so, yeah, we can certainly talk about that. And then how do those get fit in? And and then how do the proverbial how do you want to pay for it? >> Yeah. And and one other one other thought I had was that um there there I mean I think the one on um there's a place on Plymouth Road with the new development that's taking place by the Wells Fargo Bank. You know there there there there is a need for some of those. >> I think that one is going to be done with that project >> and that's that's the point. If there's if there's a private development project and I know that there's a new apartment building going up and that could be right where my wife reminds me every time that we need a trail segment completed. Why did we when we were approving that project say as part of the approval you need you need um you need a trail segment here get it done. If you want to build your apartment building you better um complete that trail segment too. I think we could be a bit more aggressive on things like that because um you know the people are going to live there are going to certainly benefit from that. So maybe we could be a bit more demanding with within the framework of legality. >> There's there's a little bit more to that story but >> yeah yeah understood. Okay enough said. I made my point. Anything else? Otherwise we'll move on. >> I I would there's this one. Can you back up Cersa? I just need to comment on this because it's I find it exciting. Um by point uh the reference to transit. >> One more. >> What are you saying >> right there? >> 523. >> Yep. >> Enhance transit offerings through new transit cooperative agreement with Metro Transit. Um, I just comment that staff has it's on there and but staff has been engaging with uh with our providers and I'm excited that I I'm optimistic that we'll be able to maybe bring something forward this year that will be exciting. Julie's saying don't get ahead of it >> next year. >> Next year 27. >> Yeah, 27. >> 27. >> Thank you. don't know. >> But getting plans in place and getting, I think, a game plan outlined for I think some real >> exciting improvements and enhancements in 27. >> Go. >> Great. Okay, let's see. We have one more, right? >> Jace, >> community inclusiveness. Jace, good to see you, man. Welcome. >> Well, yeah. What' you do to Sarissa? >> I don't know. [laughter] >> She had a road project. >> No. What' you do to Andrew? >> All right. Uh well, yep. I've got uh community inclusiveness. So, thank you, council. It's good to see you all. As always, I appreciate you saving the best for last. So, here we go. >> Thank you for that. >> You're welcome. [laughter] I'm just I'm just serious. No. Um so, um our overall goal here is to build an engaged, accepting, and compassionate community that embraces diversity and varied perspectives to create an inclusive and equitable city for everyone. So the first desired outcome, all people feel welcome and engaged. There's four um action steps under there. The first is to host four community events showcasing and celebrating diversity, equity, and inclusion. Uh the second 6.1.2 uh facilitate four engaging workshops or panel discussions featuring speakers and experts geared towards fostering a culture of continuous learning and community education through a DEI lens. Um and so just to be clear, there's a little bit of differentiation there. The first one would be kind of some of those uh bigger events that we've done like Black History Month or um Pride Junth, things like that. Um and the second is um geared more towards some of the community offerings that that we'll do. And a lot that's already being offered um with Kate and the team here in the community center. And so just being more intentional about tracking those um is what that differentiation would be. Uh 6.1.3 use surveys and community feedback to document engagement experiences and barriers to participation in city services and activities. And 6.1.4 use symbols and language to promote inclusive accommodation for city services events and programs. And so what that might look like is um the logo we have for sensory rooms. It's on the post that goes out about KidsFest. So you start to notice it's there. Um same thing for um if if if you have um hearing needs or whatnot. we have a symbol for that and so you'll know um maybe at the c start of a council meeting that you can ask for those accommodations and and it kind of becomes something that shows up everywhere and we we all uh kind of understand what those symbols and language means. Uh all right uh 6.2 uh enhance community representation through art and imagery. Uh so we got two action steps here. uh develop partnerships with the Minnotonka Hopkins Youth Advisory Board and and local schools to encourage students to participate in creating art and to enhance current marketing tracking system and selection process for art at the marsh. And for the first one of these, um, right now we have we're working with some Vantage students that are creating a a little video for us about just trying to get more youth engagement in some of our boards and commissions in general, but really trying to work on building those relationships uh so that we can bolster that. All right. And 6.3, uh, create and expand equitable opportunities for accessing programs, services, and facilities. Uh so the first one, develop a standard practice for collecting demographic data on who's accessing city programs and services. Um and so that really is just how do we standardize it when someone fills something out uh to apply for a commission? Are those the same demographic questions we're asking if if we're asking at all for different um services and programs that we have? Of course, always optional, but just want to make sure that it's the same across all the things that we're doing as as a city. Um 6.3.2 Two, develop a youth programming initiative targeting diverse communities and fostering positive relationships with police and fire. 6.3 provide new recreation class offerings uh in each area, youth, teen, uh adult, and senior. 6.3.4 Promote program services and events at the marsh. 6.3.5 Provide low and no cost special events that build community. 6.3.6 Provide a minimum of 60 youth scholarships in 2026. 6.3.7 provide a sensory space at Summerfest, KidsFest, and Burwell Spooktacular. And 6.3.8 offer at least six ACE internship positions. So then as we go over to our uh our metrics for some of these, let's see, where did I put mine? I don't have the right angle for that, so I'm going to go off my sheet. Um, so for a 6.1 number of of promotions for of inclusive spaces, so the target being for every event that has some kind of accommodation attached to it, it's in the um it's in the post, it's in the flyer, whatever it is right away. Um number of submissions to the essay contest is one thing that we're going to be tracking. Uh and then uh number of surveys provided to community members. So, right now we have a target of um surveying committee members at a minimum of two events. Um I think we'll definitely do more than that, but trying to be more intentional. I know like for our our Latino event, we worked with Matt Kuma and had someone from parks asking those questions that um that they're trying to get feedback from the community on. So, again, trying to not always reinvent the wheel, but what are we already doing in different places that we can start to interject different uh departments andor projects? um uh to get a better result. Uh for 6.2 uh some of those metrics uh number of student created art pieces uh that are installed, performed, published, etc. So that would in that that could include some of the writing samples that we get. Uh number of applications to uh to display art at the marsh. And I know right now it's kind of been word of mouth. So again, some more intentionality about, you know, how are we getting applicants? Um because while word of mouth is awesome, it means you have to know the right people. And so again, just trying to think about how we can be as equitable as possible there. Um and then for 6.3, number of events uh with lactation spaces. Again, a symbol language, something that you would see that you know it's there. Um number of events with sensory friendly spaces. We have a target of trying to do at least five. um number of ACE positions offered and uh versus number of ACE positions filled because it depends on what we get. Um and then uh rec program participation and membership numbers. So trying to improve those numbers um of membership as we go on comments, questions. >> Thanks Jace. Um comments or questions for Jace? >> Deb. >> Thanks mayor. Um so this is you know this is incredibly important work and boy got a lot of work. >> Um but uh >> I'm just wondering sort of you know in your networks what you're hearing about and you know it's not the not the first time I'm bringing it up. you know, we're referring we're we're using the the hot button words diversity, equity, and inclusion. >> Um because the work is really important. We have to do it. And so what are you hearing in your networks about continuing to use those words? Um how it may affect municipalities that do it. >> Um including the name of your title, >> the commission, and the work. >> Yeah, good question. Uh so there's been lots of discussion about this. Uh and I've been able to talk to people across several different cities. Um I'm the uh chair of Equity Connect, which is DI practitioners across different cities. And so I've been lucky and that I've been able to touch base with lots of different people. Um and really it kind of comes down to what's your city status. I mean uh in terms of resources, in terms of how much funding you get, in terms of all of those things. Um the other thing that we're finding is they're looking for the coded language. So that's kind of the consensus that many cities have come to is we're doing it. This is what we have been doing. If you want to find me, you will. And changing the name um to try to you know stay as safe as possible for as long as possible >> isn't really working. And so you kind of have to decide, you know, uh, you know, do we want to try to plate this for to hold on or keep the spotlight off of us as long as possible or do we want to stay with what you all wanted in the first place and because again, this was started before me. And so as you were starting to have these conversations and so thinking about what that looks like for you. Um that's kind of been the conversation though because lots of people have if they get tons and tons of federal funding funding obviously nervous. Um and so I see those some of those cities trying to play with words a little bit more. Um I think we're just in a little bit different position and we're really lucky to to be where we are. Um, and so I hope I hope that answers your question, but yeah, it's it doesn't seem to really matter if if if people want to if they want to come, they're going to come. Doesn't matter how we spin it. >> Yeah, >> that part. >> Good to know. >> Anything else for Chase? >> He's so good. >> Well said. >> Hell no. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Um, you know, go ahead. >> I guess I I I do kind of um have a comment. [clears throat] I guess I was thinking about that as um Darren was giving um the updates around performance and services and it made me do it made me think about you know the DEI work because I know yes this work is under attack but because it's so important and we need the work to be done um I agree with what Jay said it doesn't matter you know if you change the name of it if someone wants to read through your documents and see what you're doing and you know kind of pick through it it's going to happen and so um but that is why I was thinking about it as he was given that um you know just talking about like reallocating and I was like I hope this is not going to be reallocated. So that's like the first thing that came to my mind. So that's that was part of that thought process. So >> Oh yeah. >> Well well thanks for those comments and um you know and I'll just add that our values haven't changed. and they're not going to change. >> And um Jayce, you know, I want to I want to congratulate you. I I think you're doing a great job. >> But but the other thing that I really love about the work you're doing is the diversity of the def definition of diversity. >> Yeah. >> I mean, we're not, you know, I mean, um kind of the dividers want to make this all about race. Let's be honest. Well, race is a big part of it, but so is consideration of lifestyle, where people are in their lives. I mean, lactation stations, I mean, we haven't had a lot of conversation about lactation stations in the past, but you've brought that forward. Um, you know, sensory sensory um spaces. Um, you know, we've done things like that for a while, but but you've really put emphasis on that. Um, and I think I think the broad and inclusive perspective that you're bringing to the whole issue of diversity positions us well both with the people who value what we're doing and the people who may be questioning what we're doing. And I think we could say, hey, listen, this is this is a very broad initiative. And we I mean when it's and it's 100% consistent with our strategic plan that when we say we're a welcoming and inclusive community, it means everybody >> and and I think I think you've really brought great focus to that. I really appreciate your presentation and and the approach that you've taken. So I think that that positions Minnotonka really well and you and I have talked about that separately. So, I think it's worth noting and saying. >> Thank you, mayor. >> So, anything else? All right. Well, we've got more of an agenda here. So, I think that wraps up >> this item. >> Discussion questions. Okay. >> I think we've indicated that, but anyone want to comment specifically on the on the discussion questions? >> Support 26 2026 action steps. >> Yes, we do. >> We do. We do. [laughter] All good. >> We heard we we heard a couple tweaks. We'll come back with a couple tweaks. Um and then I think as Sissa pointed out, uh the January 12th regular meeting, we'll have this as likely a consent item for you to officially uh approve uh for 6. >> Great. >> And then if we could, mayor, just real quick, uh could you just pull up the website, Sarissa? Is there a way to exit out of there just to give you a flavor? because after you as a council again approve this on January 12th, Sarissa uh then works on uploading all of this data and updating the strategic plan as it as it um lies I guess on our on our website. U and so I think this helps illustrate if you haven't been to our website just kind of quickly point out to you what that looks like. you as a council receive quarterly updates at council meetings and you get kind of a year-end snapshot, a little deeper dive, but that's what it looks like on our website. So, anyone, it's it's transparent. It's meant to be transparent. It's public facing in the sense we have our six um pillars there listed and then I think as you noted earlier Paula with all of the data, it's all listed there. So, all the metrics that we talk about, this is the current year's plan. Many of those same metrics do carry over. Uh staff has I think tweaked a couple of those because again we want to be flexible in how we report the data. Oftentimes we might um present to you oh let's present the data this way and then we learn like there's a better way of presenting it. So we may make make some adjustments that way but again that data is all there uh for anyone. It's public facing so anyone can go and click around and see all the metrics and the tracking that we do on it. >> Great. [snorts] Thank you. >> Okay. All available online for not only us but the public. All right. Next item on the agenda is 2026 city council study session work plan. And I'm going to suggest we take a break now for >> um about seven minutes and then we'll come back and we will I think that um probably the the most content intense part of the study session is over but we've still got quite a few quite a bit of discussion ahead. So let's let's come back >> five or seven minutes. >> All right, we'll uh restart. The next uh topic is the 2026 city council study session work plan and I'll turn that over to Mike. >> Yeah, thank you Brad. Council Sarissa, thank you. We've got as noted in the staff report uh just entering this conversation. two questions that uh staff is asking for you to discuss is what public policy matters does the city council want to discuss during the 20 six study sessions and obviously that's the exercise we're going to go through. Uh and then at the end of it uh one of the questions that we want to ask is does a council um how do the 30 really kind of how did that 30 minute open time work? Do you want to see any adjustments to that? Keep it tweak it. So I think we want to just flush that out with you as well. Um moving on. So in the staff report what we kind of the goal in the staff report was to really distinguish kind of two different categories in our study session work plan. One what's noted here is what I call those kind of annual staple events things that really we have to schedule and those are related to uh having Peter Leatherman come and talk about the annual community survey. Tonight's study session, for example, every December, we're going to hone in on council and staff appointments. Um, we also have budget items throughout the year that we want to schedule, our legislative priorities. That's again on tonight's study session work plan for December, the action steps, um, all things housing, as we like to call it. Um, that's usually a July thing where we do housing conversation, and then the zoning code rewrite is something we'd want to also plug in. So, those are kind of I think items that we do want to plug in. Uh, if you looked at your staff report, we did have an attachment that noted most of those items. Um, so you'll see those kind of plugged in already, but there's also then that leaves a lot of open space for your time as a council to really prioritize what it is that you want to talk about next year. And so, these are the items from staff and council. So staff has some suggested items uh for your consideration and then throughout the year I've made note of some items you as a council have brought up to me either in our phone calls or one-on-one meetings. So those are noted here as well. Uh so we do have mentometer. We used mentometer last year to help try to facilitate that conversation and help prioritize. That's really the next step in this is to take these items and in essence use mentometer to flush that out. I mentioned to Brad before we do that um if there's an opportunity then for council to talk about items that you might have up there that you want to advocate for because it'd be helpful to have some context as to what some of those bullet points are. So, I think Brad with that I really kind of turn it back to you and um ask uh your council members and I did talk to all of you I think on the phone just mentioning this is kind of how this would roll tonight. Um so if there's anything first off there's anything on this list that should be added we should also u make note of that. Um and then I think then asking council if they want to add any context for some items that council want to advocate for in essence to getting it on next year's plan. >> Great. Well, just a couple of quick comments on this. I mean, one is that um I don't really have a dog in this hunt. Um in 2026, I'm not going to be here. This is going to be what uh what you all want to do. And so, I think that's important. Um but, um there are a couple things that I wanted to share just from a perspective uh point of view. And one was um a while back um former Governor Tim Palente came and talked to the regional council of mayors and he said something that really stuck with me and um and he said, you know, he he before he was governor and before he was a legislator, um he was an Egan city council member and Egan has five council members on their council. and he said, 'You know, being a city council member is the only level of government that I was ever in where if I wanted to get something done, I only had to convince two other people. Now, we have a seven prison council. So, here we have to convince three other people. But when you're governor, you have to convince a lot more people than three. And when you're a state senator or a state representative, you have to convince a lot more people than three. And so that really drove home this notion that I've long had held that this is a team business. But if you really want to get something done, you have to work with other council members. If you think, well, I got elected and I have all this power, the reality is you have no power. You are just a resident. Because if you can't work with other council members to build consensus around what you want to get done, you will you will be able to go to council meetings and you'll be able to share your opinion and you will get nothing done. You have to work as a team. And so now we're limited by the open meeting law. So we can't have a a quorum, but if there's something that's really important to you, you can talk to two other council members and and get their um get their support. If there are three people in a council meeting that speak passionately about something, it's a rare circumstance where that item will not pass. But it's a team game. If you're if you're a lone wolf and you want to get stuff done, well, it's you that's that's great. You can be a lone wolf, but you won't get anything done. So, that's my point is because last year when we did the mentter thing, you know, people brought up all all these different topics. There are a lot of things that got one vote. it was the person who brought them up and and they there was no consensus on them. So, I want to provide that as an intro because I think I know council members have things that they want to get done and you know and and I know council members get frustrated when the city manager says, "Well, it takes four votes." And he's really saying the same thing that um Governor Palente did, but I think Governor Palente said it in a way that wow I mean the only level of government where I only have to convince three other people to get something done is a pretty powerful notion. So I thought before we go through this process um that I wanted to share that and then what I thought I I kicked this around with Mike and you know we want to do this um reasonably efficiently. Um, so what I would kind of recommend is why don't we each identify the things and I'm not going to identify I don't I again I don't have a dog in this hunt for next year but why don't you identify things that are important to you and then we'll take turns. We'll go around and you can champion if if street trail and project you know or let's see um review de uh developer refinancing policy if that's your thing. Okay. Okay. Well, then sign up for that one and make a, you know, a 30 secondond pitch on why you think it's important and then I think staff is ready to use a menty meter to to see where um after we've done that and then we'll just take turns and if somebody has five things up here and and other somebody else only has one. Well, you know, we're each gonna we're going to go through all the people who have one and then you can get your do your second one and then if somebody somebody has five, they can at the end they'll get the they'll get their shot on their items. But but I think that way if we each own these items and each pitch them and each prioritize their mind, we can get through this fairly quickly and we can come up with a good plan if that makes sense to everyone else. >> Yep. So, >> what if we have other things? >> Well, I think that you can also I think you can I mean we can add those now if you'd like um and consider those or you can or you can bring them up um if you have other things. You're not limited to this list. So, we just want to try and move move forward, [clears throat] you know, um kind of move through things as, you know, as efficiently as possible, but give everyone a chance to say the things that are important to them, um to make a pitch on them. And if there are some things that should come off, say, well, that was my idea, but it's not as big a deal to me now. Um um we can take them off as well. So, I think we can add let's, you know, let's do that now. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to add or would anybody like to pitch for maybe um taking some things off of these issues? So, um council member or Kimberly whatever >> both. Yeah. Um so I have an addition two things I'd like to add. Okay. So um one so in discussions with Mike I would like to have uh a session where we talk about um specifically uh advertising targeting youth around tobacco around cannabis and THC pro products and then um in that same session a talk about orratom I don't I don't know how But it's a it's an opioid type substance. It's been I know it's served as at a restaurant in uh Hopkins. They serve it as a drink. I don't know if any any places in Minnetonka serve it. Um there's all kinds of warnings and Mayo Clinic has some warnings out about consuming it. Right now it's not a controlled substance. It's not anything that we have. Uh, but I'd like to get some more data on it and what's going on around that and if that's something that we need to talk to our legislators about. >> Call it again. >> K R A T O M. >> K R A T O M >> and you drink it. >> I think you can eat it >> like a tea. >> Yeah, you can drink it like a tea. I think it can be consumed different ways, but >> take it back to my job. [laughter] >> I think all kinds of stuff. And you can and you can serve it to minors and >> yeah if it's not controlled >> yeah it's not regulated. So as far as I know you can yeah >> um >> well I I jotted down here uh Kimberly advertising targeting youth regarding said bad substances. I mean because in reality they're all bad. I mean, yeah, you know, things that are potentially harmful and I think I think we can be inclusive in that. >> Um whether it's tobacco or it's, you know, um vaping or whe you know, >> all the above. >> Cannabis. >> Cannabis for youth is not a good thing either. That's it. >> Um >> Brad, oh, I'm sorry. If I could just jump in real quick. So, yes, Kimberly mentioned it to me earlier. >> On the left hand side, that last bullet point says update review of cannabis stores in Minnetonka. Yeah, we have it teed up different. We didn't get the staff did not get this updated on the slide, but in mentometer, what do we call it? >> Substance regulations. >> Sub substance regulations kind of covering all things from THC to flavor tobacco to >> Okay. >> Cannabis. >> Cannabis. >> Cannabis torto. So, >> yes. >> Okay. And then >> y >> real quickly is um it would be nice to get again council uh where council is regarding drivethrus and uh drive-through regulation and that way when I'm on the zoning >> as a representative on the zoning thing I can like make sure that I'm >> have you know >> understand where the council is. Yeah. All right. So, um, drive-th through regulation. How's that for a concept? >> Yeah. >> Is is drive Yeah, drive-throughs. It may not be I'm sorry, this slide did not get updated from uh our meeting earlier today with staff. >> It is in mentter, right? So, we do have drive-throughs in Mento. >> Okay. So, I guess that's just me advocating then as opposed to >> Okay. Well, you you got your first two. [laughter] >> Okay. Good job, Kimberly. Is there anything else people would like to add? Well, um I have something, but I don't know if it [snorts] can go here. But I've been thinking about like um you know the ICE situation. Uh I know that we really can't control the federal government, but I would like to have a conversation around like um learning more what we can do to help with u what's happening at the federal level. Um I feel like we don't discuss it enough. So, I would like to know like what can we do to do more supporting our residents? >> Now, would you like to see that on a a study session? >> Yeah, I wanted it on the study session. So, I don't know. >> Okay, we'll add it. Yep. Okay, we can add that. >> Um, >> so should we call that? >> I had two. >> Okay. >> I don't know what to call it. >> Well, I'm sitting here thinking um Fed State um enforcement issues or something like that. Um >> yeah, local control type, you know, I was >> enforcement concerns >> locally. >> Yes. >> Okay, I'll jot that down for now. >> All right. Thank you, Ky. And then Deb, did you say you had a couple? >> Yeah. So, um I know that uh Will talked about ebikes. Um, but I mean that was a huge topic at the doors. [snorts] I mean, huge. And I know that it's a >> West Metro issue. I know that the legislature likely will not touch it because it's so specifically a West Metro issue. And because of that, I feel like if we're going to solve it, like we kind of need to solve it. So that kind of ebikes. And then um also I think I think things are [clears throat] already in the works about this, but um adjusting our public comment period practices, which which Brad, you and I were in that um >> session together, and I know it's already in the works, but um >> Mike and I have been talking about that and kind coming up with and Brad coming up with just kind of a standardized policy so that we don't look like we're targeting people. And I think we can manage that, >> you know, and one one of the things that I talked to Mike about is that because it it >> it may it may occasionally feel like a change to first amendment, you know, practices here may be worth it to talk about. Maybe not. I mean, you know, because honestly, if we just are doing something like comment cards or a sign-in sheet where people don't have to give their address, say publicly, but we have it, you know, it just streamlines a little bit what what happens. But, >> you know, um, a couple of comments on that. I mean, I think there's two pieces of it. One is item eight on the agenda, you know, and where we put it and how we handle that. And then um the other part is when we solicit public comment about an item that is on the agenda. And you know I think having two sets of rules and being very specific about that. Um you know I don't think if you're if you're here for a housing project and you want to come you're not you don't have to fill out a comment card for that. I mean that's that's but but we might have public hearing you know when we have a hundred people in the audience who want to speak um we may have a different time restriction >> than when we have three people who want to speak and so you kind of gauge that you look at the audience and say okay we're going to set the rules up treat everybody the same. Um, but that's going to be different than item eight where we might have some very specific rules and specific limitations and maybe a timer and maybe all all sorts of things. Maybe a a pre-filled out comment card. I mean, that's that's TBD, but I think those are two separate types of public comment and we can treat them differently, I believe. And I think that that for me the third part of that is really what we learned in that session about what's legal and what's not legal, what we can do and what we can't do, what residents can say and what they can't say >> and to whom and to have us learn that. >> Yeah. So >> yeah and and and one further comment because you know whenever when I was sitting in that session I was doing a little self-critique and you know I think we want to treat everybody the same and but I you know but I know that there have been circumstances and you'll know what I'm talking about um where you know I haven't treated everybody the same you know we tell you know um we had a circumstance where somebody came and wanted to make a fairly lengthy political statement And I knew of this individual in the past and the city had had some interaction with this individual and I thought, okay, what's the better decision to, you know, say, well, you're limited to three minutes and cut that individual off or let him go and I let him go because I thought that would be the least disruptive to our meeting and so forth. But, you know, as I look at it now, do I do that? Did I would I do that to every speaker and just let them go? And the answer is no. So, you know, I want to make sure that our rules are consistent and and so I think the more specific we can be, the better. And and Rebecca and I have talked about that and that's but anyway, I think it's a good a good one. >> Anything else you'd like to add? >> Yes. >> Or take off. >> Well, that's that's the next that's the next question. Are there some things here that we can um >> Oh, yeah. Excuse me, Paul. There we go. Um, actually, not a couple things to to consider, but also things uh to advocate for and also maybe change potentially. Mike, you and I talked about this and I don't know if you followed up with staff on the potential. I just know that the last two years we've talked about EIP and CIP in the same session. Was there any follow-up with staff about um before this? I just it it just gets to be a lot and by the time we get to the business part of the EIP discussion which is last um everybody's pretty comeoma comeosse and so it I just maybe it doesn't get as our attention is waning usually by that point and I just wondered if there's any it's worth it all considering splitting those two into different sessions and looking at things more by subject areas. I know things have to get sprinkled throughout the year, but um I I was you for me the way I had to think about these things um in order to make it work in my brain is to break them into subject areas um a little bit and that's where it came to me is there we have a lot of housing related items. We have a lot of things sprinkled in there that are capital improvement related items. Um would it help people get their arms around them to split those into you know kind of the CIPN related discussions and EIP related discussions? >> Yeah. Yes. I mean I think absolutely. Um so I I would just say it this way. Tonight, we really want to try to prioritize what you want to talk about. >> And then after tonight, what staff will do is take this feedback and bring back a filled in or completed calendar >> that will show how we can >> get these all fit in in a way that works for everybody. >> Okay. So, that wasn't a a what, it was a how. Um, so that would be my um how suggestion. Um, and then in terms of um what um I was wondering if we could have a more dedicated robust discussion about sustainability and natural resources. Right now we don't have a um it's sprinkled but maybe having bringing some of those things some issues like a a a topic area like part of a study session going to that. I don't know if there's interest in that. um and bringing and then >> so so sustainability issues um any more spec specificity on that? >> Um well just like we have EIP and housing and and land use. I mean maybe it would fit into the housing thing because it lives kind of under community development if we can include a an action item of I guess putting uh that discussion there or somewhere sprinkled throughout. um just you know kind of an update and and discussion on any goals that we have. And then um I guess the lastly is is parks kind of any any updates on kind of parks. I just didn't notice that in terms of our um things that we're looking at during the year. Um so again either as part of the CIP or discussion and maybe that'll live within that. We don't need a a separate discussion or action or study session item here. Um so I don't know if there's any interest in any of those. So just thought I'd throw them out. >> All right. Well, I'll add parks. So then um and I would just clarify Brad. So Sarissa's we're she's getting those typed in so she's listening and we'll put those up on mint meter. >> Yeah. And I would just say I think for any of these ads and maybe use your example Paul of whether it's a sustainability conversation or park conversation you're advocating for that and then so I think if if it makes it to the list then at some point staff would want to understand what is it that more specifically you'd want to bring forward. What is that conversation look like so we could prepare for that. >> Okay. >> So um I think now Oh >> sorry. Yep. Sorry. Um, I mean I I wanted to advocate for the off leash dog review. >> Yeah. >> In Purgatory Park, which I'm wondering if that can't because I know that in the we're talking about other >> Yeah. >> Um, dog parks and different parks and if that could all be >> um >> together. >> Yeah. >> Dog park review >> like with the sustainability, natural resources, parks sort of discussion. Yeah, >> they're all interrelated. >> Yeah, but like when you you mentioned parks and I was thinking, well, >> you know, >> could Yeah. Could we talk about other parks when we do the Purgatory Park review >> in Yeah. other parks, but also other dog related >> related issues? >> Issues. I'm going to advocate for taking two things off because I think they're state issues and I see them as issues that we're going to be talking about with our legislators which is group home clustering and I don't think we have a lot of authority over that and I think we're getting ahead over our skis on that and then also speeding. I mean, to me at least, and I maybe this is less of a clear issue, but um you know, one of the things that I think is really um a an opportunity potentially are the is the camera enforcement and kind of seeing where that goes before we because I think that would help us have a more um informed discussion if we know if we have an opportunity to do some of the >> I'm not saying the word correctly, camera patrol or whatever it is. Yeah, I agree with that. And also, I don't know how other people feel about the 30 minute free time, but I feel like it didn't do any good and I would like to take it off. >> Well, there are times we the meetings got long, we didn't get to it. >> We didn't get to it. So it seems and and so what happens is we spend an extra 30 minutes talking about just saying what the subject was >> and I feel like it was a waste of we I would have rather gone home. >> Yeah. I'm gonna disagree with that because at least from one instance I was able to bring up something that has made it onto the proposed study session which is the short-term rental issue and that wasn't something that was on you know the um study session list that we composed this time last year. It came up after the fact and you know so that was something that was concrete that came up because of that and the whole reason you know, to have that was because we're here right now setting this stuff for the entire next year. >> We don't know what's going to happen, you know, say even between now and June and having 30 minutes of quarterly time to be able to bring something up and potentially advance something. Um, we may not have to use it every time, but if it's I' I'd rather have it there and not use it. >> Well, I mean, if it's there, we're going to use it. That's that it it had I don't remember it coming up that we hadn't used it. I'm just saying I maybe reduce the number of 30 minute free time. >> We only have four. >> I think we could use it more efficiently. >> Yeah, that's what I was. >> I think we could use it and really try to stick to stick to 30 minutes. I think that's going to be a priority and um try to be really efficient in presentation and conversation. If it solicits a lot of conversation, that means it's something we need to talk more about. If it's kind of a and I've had duds, I'm going to be if if I bring up a dud and it doesn't really get anywhere, then we know and it'll be enlightening. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um so perhaps we could reduce it to three from quarterly to >> trimesters >> or well or [laughter] >> I think there's another discussion to be had about the study sessions and being more efficient all all told >> right [laughter] and we've done a great job of that >> and I don't know that we want to do that tonight but >> no well I think too I mean why why don't we um talk about coming up with some some methodologies and rules to make the 30 minutes more more effective and useful, >> you know, and and maybe along the lines where okay, if you have something you want to talk about, you get five minutes to make a presentation >> and um and then, you know, and so that means you could be, you know, have um four or five of those in a a 30 minute period. And if if you know, you get your five minutes and it's up um then you move on to the next one. And if you run out of them, you don't extend it. Okay, we're done. We're done more quickly and it's more efficiently, but we did have the opportunity for people to have an opportunity to bring um items up and you know and make your pitch quickly. >> I agree. >> So, I think there's some methodology we can make. You know, we definitely I think I hear a pretty broad consensus on wanting to make the 30 minute time more effective than it has been. Let's work on that before we decide to eliminate it would be is kind of the take I'm what I'm taking away. So now, okay, now speaking of efficiency, we've got we've got this list. We've taken two off. What? Speeding and group home clustering. Um, you know that um >> is there anything else people would like to take off? >> I just have a question for like the candidate filing fees. Yeah. >> Like whoever that is, could you could you just like give me a just a quick Yeah, right now real easy. You to file for uh to run for a place on city council, you have to pay $5 and that is it. >> Um I think I personally think there needs to be a higher barrier to entry. Not barrier to entry, but you have to have more invested in running for a seat >> to um it it indicates that you've thought about this. I'll pay I'll I'll give $5 to anybody who asks for it right now. So line up. But if somebody tells me it's a hundred or $200, like okay, I I have to want to do this. >> Um >> well, two two things on that. Go ahead. >> I was going to say, well, the county charge um I thought they charge Oh, I might be wrong. I was going to say $100, but I might be wrong on that. But, um, I think it's I hear what you're saying, Rebecca, but we don't want it to be too steep where people, you know, maybe can't afford if it's like $200. That that is enough to deter someone to run for office. So, I don't want to put people in a position where we >> I just want to talk about it. I'm not >> We're not We're not going to debate what it was about to know whether to vote for it. I I had a question though. I wanted to know what the digital accessibility mandate kind of what can I understand what that was about. >> That's a staff one and Okay. If I could, mayor, maybe just I can touch base on a couple of the staff ones up there. >> Uh so the first >> could we highlight the staff ones and >> go ahead. >> So the first one not noted there Trail Street and Project Overview and that's a that's a staff ad. Just added that this actually this last week. spoke with uh Will Manchester about that. The idea it would be in perhaps the first quarter of every year, likely a February or March. January study sessions are a little harder, >> perhaps a February or March where staff could uh present to the council >> the big upcoming projects for that year. So, for example, if we had something in February, March of 26, staff could just spend a little time highlighting the 26 projects and 27. So, for example, rewind the clock with Excelsier Boulevard where staff then could come forward and say, "You know what, council, we've got these three big projects coming up. Here are some important elements of those projects or some features of those projects, whether it's trails or roundabouts or signals, uh, pedestrian crossing. So, at least you got a better sense of what's on the horizon and at least having that information going into a construction season." So, that's why that's listed there. Um, a couple other ones that staff had put up here. Um, the second from the bottom on the left, which is review status of the public safety master plan implementation service level objectives. And talking with Chief Fox and Chief Laura Boom, uh, we suggest that at some point next year, staff give an overview of just really where we're at with the whole implementation. 2026 is, I think, the third year of our plan. and uh just with the council's adoption of the service level objectives this last year just updating the council on that progress. So that that's why we suggested putting it there as an as an update. Uh moving over to the right hand side of that list uh to the question just asked digital accessibility mandate. Uh that's uh again a staff initiated conversation in that just updating the council on what we're doing in terms of complying with the new federal mandates on digital accessibility. There's some significant costs related to digital accessibility and to further what I mean by that is our website. So there's new standards uh for our website in terms of how we post information. PDFs don't count anymore in terms of digital accessibility and we have help me Eric or some like thousands of PDF documents on our website. So there's there's a real effort on the new requirements on what we convert and how it's to comply with the new federal to the new federal laws. So it's an update on that federal that accessibility issue because there's going to be likely some budgetary asks in 2027. So that's why Eric anything else on that? I think. >> Okay. Um and then Purgatory Park is I think come up and so June that we probably got to that should have maybe on been on the first list but June we had committed to coming back to the council on an update on Purgatory Park >> and the off leash dog review. Uh Marsh update I think that was a staff initiated talking with Kelly just doing an update just on Marsh and where we're at with the marsh finances. Um, did I miss anything staff? I think those are a few of the staff suggested items. >> All right. And then you know the list. Oh, I've got a Did you get all the ads or >> I just we were in addition to ads, we were supposed to talk about anything that we had here pre-existing if there was any questions. And I just wanted to say we have short-term rentals. So, I think that was on the study session. I don't know if that's still I thought it was going to stay or that there was going to be some proposal in Q1. >> It's in there. >> Yep. No, no, no. I just wanted to make sure that we knew that what that was and I really appreciate staff taking a look at it and the fact that you know hopefully we can agree to do that. It's uh becoming more of an issue with the investment properties now that are are coming in. and there's been some data coming out and then um reviewing the developer refinancing policy that kind of came about I think for me um out of uh at one point where we were helping [clears throat] a developer refinance uh multi-family housing and then is there any way or should we be um you know is that a a point where we could or should um maybe ask for things I think for one project I asked it was a new project I asked them to do rooftop solar >> to solar >> rooftop solar ready >> um you know so you know should we be looking at that and that was you know I don't know if this is the appropriate place to put that for a study session or if it's more of an operational versus a a you know kind of a higher level thing so that would require a policy change so that would have to be a council >> yeah so yes that would confirm that because that would be a policy change that would be a study session in topic too. >> Great. Thanks. But that's what that was about. >> All right. So, we need to um in the interest of moving forward um um does let's let's each um let's go through and try and put names by these. Um and uh so Mike, the first one is a Trail Street project overview. That's staff. Okay. Um and then uh review developer financing policy. Who that is that? >> That that was the one Paul was just talking about. >> Okay. Do do you want to own that Paula? >> Sure. >> Okay. Um let's see. Review council policies rearrangement of the regular meeting agenda. Is that >> that's me and >> it was probably Yeah. Yeah. Rebecca and staff probably >> conversation maybe about I think that would include some of what Deb was talking about and also you know are there ways that we can kind of make >> I'm really hoping and tonight's not setting a very good precedent but that we can be more efficient in our meetings in 2026 because it's a lot of feedback that I've heard from council members but frankly from people on the doors several people said well I went to a meeting and it just got too late and so I left and I couldn't give my feedback. That is not I think what our goal is, right? >> So we so we really need to find a way probably reflect personally >> on that a little bit too, but on how we can be more accessible to folks because being there until midnight is not good for us, but it's really not good for our resident. It's not good for staff and it's not good for our residents. >> All right. And then I would just say the other quick thing in the rearrangement of the agenda why why I wrote it that way is if you if you make changes to the agenda and for one example was comments from city manager and council that's item seven I believe there are a lot of cities that put that towards the end >> but to do something like that requires a policy change of the council so it's a policy discussion that's why it's written that way. >> Yeah. And then um discussion on recreational amenities, self- sustaining versus community funded. And I think we have examples of both. I mean we have um >> ice arena. >> Yep. Ice arenas. Um and and then yeah, just different different things that some pay for themselves and some are are paid for with taxpayer dollars. Um somebody want to own that? Was not me. And I and I it may have been just Well, that could be one I just put on the list because I heard a conversation about it. >> I I'm in and one of our convers that might have been me. >> I mean, I think it kind of lives in Marsh operation. I mean, is that really what >> it really? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, that's tie those. There have been comments from former council members who, you know, kept on making comments about, you know, jettisoning our ice arenas. Um, and I think we all I don't think it was just one person. This has come up several times as we grappled with. And I know it came up at the doors for me because you have people that are so grateful for the marsh and don't really, you know, they want it as a public amenity. Then you have other people that that, you know, think it should be privatized and then other people that think that um it has to be um self- sustaining or forget it. So there was a wide variety of views in the community and we've talked about it over and over. So that's one that to me came up over and over. I don't know that um any one of us really that it became >> that's underlying a lot of things. >> Yeah. Well, I mean then maybe we take that off and and um and uh cover that issue with Marsh operations update. Where's it doing? And and if there's anything to be added to that. I'm I'm for making this list more efficient even though I won't be here. Um, does that sound all right to people? And >> yeah. >> All right. So, let's let's take that one off and put Marsh operations update and you know, if there's a sub point on that, we can add that. Um, the HERK, Henipin County Energy Recovery Center. Um, is there is that a is that a topic we want to discuss on a study session? >> I think I've brought up before. at this point. No, because at this point I'm just like it's been a lot with that. So, >> yeah. Okay. Yeah. I I think Yeah. Other avenues. >> Okay. We can move that one off. >> Okay. And then short-term rentals. I think Paula, you want to own that one? >> Yep. >> All right. Um public safety master plan update. That's that's going to happen. That that's going to stay. um cannabis stores in Minnetonka and I think we've broadened that with um this whole issue of um controlled substances advertising um you know update cannabis stores but then I think as a subpoint to that we could make um a u you know advertising um targeting youth with controlled substances and we can define that however we want but does that >> do that for with potentially harmful substances. >> Isn't that's right. That's right. Control. >> Use substances. Do not use the word controlled. >> Yeah. >> I'm just saying for >> that way we know it's all substances. >> It's all substances. >> Substances subject to abuse. >> Yeah. >> Subvices. >> Sugar. >> That's my [laughter] a long time. >> Okay. So then >> filing fee. Yeah, we talked about that. That's me >> and that one and you know and I think that can be um filing feesprocess because I think there I mean not to discuss the issue but I think there's two things there. One is you know you want to get away from gadfly candidates and five bucks creates that opportunity. On the other hand, to Kizy's point, you make it too high and then you limit your market because um people who are who, you know, a 100 bucks is a lot of money to can't do it. Then a lot of cities have say require 25 signatures, >> you know, and anybody can get signatures and it demonstrates a seriousness of okay, you can either either pay a hundred bucks or you could you could pay $5 and get 25 or 50 signatures and it demonstrates that you're willing to put some effort in. And that's a big I think some of the candidates we had for mayor this time probably if they would have required required to get 25 signatures would not have been on the ballot speculation my part. So >> okay >> anyway um group home cluster we took that one off for the the appropriate reason. Um budget discussion CIP EIP I think we've >> won it. >> We want it. It's got to be there. Yeah that's that's that's a lot of study sessions. Um, and then Deb, you brought up cryptocurrency, crypto ATMs. Certainly a controversial area. What are your thoughts? >> I kind of want to keep it on because it's really a a vulnerability issue for some of our certain, you know, for people in the community that might be um taken advantage of. And so, um, I just think it's hopefully wouldn't take very much time, but I, uh, in discussion, but, um, it would be, I think it's worth talking about, um, possibly what other communities are doing so that we, um, >> okay, >> can make some informed decisions about actions we can take to protect our residents, including possibly prohibiting crypto ATMs here so that they can't get ripped off which is you know what's happen I mean it's a national um topic >> all right so that we've got that and Deb Deb you can own that a little bit digital accessibil access accessibility mandate we've covered that purgatory park we know that's going to come forward um you know maybe sub point on there um other >> other dog park locations add to that is that is that good is that satisfying to people >> yeah Um, >> and then marsh operations, we're gonna have opus placemaking. I mean, I don't think that's going away. Um, any comments on that? >> No, we need it. >> No, we need a plan. >> Okay. And then >> what's that? >> There will be a plan that they have to look at. So, that'll be in a study session. >> Yeah, that's good. And then speeding's coming off youth and community programs. Um, Ky, I think that one you had that one. I put it on there, but I think it's embedded in our, you know, strategic plan and I think, you know, we've done a lot and I think it's not going to go away. So, I mean, if you want to take it off, you can, but >> Okay, we can we can do that because to your point, I think it is it's going to get covered and and and and you can make sure that we're mindful of it when we when it comes forward. That'd be good. >> So, then um we've already added advertising targeting youth. um drive-thru regulation is not on there. And I think there's a pretty broad consensus that that's um that's something that we should look at because we're going to keep getting requests and unless we deal with it, we're going to be in no position to say no. Correct. >> Yes. Yes, for sure. >> Okay. Um and then you know the whole issue I mean the whole ICE issue I I I jot it down as f federal state enforcement concerns locally. I mean impact of federal law enforcement actions on our community and now that's >> and that's a mouthful. Yeah. I just don't know how to say it like how do we address that some type of way because I have been thinking like what can we do on a you know you I remember us always saying local control right >> so I was like how do vocal control play into this >> and I think I mean I think I think it's really kind of something that would come from Eric and really [clears throat] kind of >> um and and law enforcement from Scott you know on what Okay. How how are different law enforcement agencies organized, federal, state, and local? And how and what say do we have? Who do we who do we work with? Who do we not work with? And and how can we, you know, what's our relationship with them? I mean, I think I think that's a worthy topic. >> And what can we do and what can we not do in our municipality? >> I mean, you know, but I think I mean, certainly it's a legislative thing. um you know if you're going to change but but it would be it would be very it would be that that would be a very long putt I think to to make any changes there but understand our degrees of freedom and how we operate I think is important and how we how our local law enforcement works with different agencies I mean there's there's a lot of different agencies >> okay >> am I making you uncomfortable Scott or Eric on any of that >> well that's to be put on them Right. >> The mento meter. >> Yeah. >> All right then. >> I think >> All right. >> That's an agreement. >> And then um >> there's we're discussing stuff that we can discuss in the study group. >> Yeah. And then ebikes. Um you know, I I heard the comment that it's a West Metro thing, but I think it's broader than that. >> I think so. >> Yeah. I mean, there's there's >> Okay. And then um let's see. And then we talked about public comment already. Um, and then sustainability and parks are the two, but we've added parks basically to the purgatory park conversation and dog parks. Is there is there a broader conversation on parks alone? >> Yeah, I Paula, >> does that sound good to you? >> Um, yeah, we can put it there. Um, yeah, that's that's fine. I mean, we're talking about that and purgatory and opus placemaking at various places and drive-thrus. All of them kind of are swimming in the same pond there, it seems like. >> Okay. >> Park sustainability, whatever. Yes, >> a sustainability pond. [laughter] >> Okay. Well, >> sustain. >> Well, okay. That Okay. >> But, >> but that's I I think we there's two different issues there. I think there's the parks issue and then there's a sustainability sustainability issue. And you could put Yeah, you could put drive-throughs and um you know, >> I'm sorry. Drive-throughs is Yeah, that's >> Yeah, that's that climate action plan. >> So, never mind. >> Parks. >> I mean, maybe I don't know. I mean, regarding parks, our joint meeting, I always see that as kind of an opportunity. if there's something we want to hear about. I I suspect we're going to be hearing about master planning this year. But, you know, I see that as an opportunity every year to, you know, talk about parks. >> Yeah. >> Me, too. >> Yeah. >> I would just, >> but we're still keeping the the office. >> Well, we still have to vote on all this stuff. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, Sarissa, are you have you been following kind of do you have a sense? I mean, >> I think I just need clarification on is sustainability matter matters >> an update. It's >> you can take it off. >> Take it off. >> I mean, it's it's more of an area than an >> an issue. It's more It's more of a a subject than a topic. >> Okay. And then is parks going to be its own separate category? >> Um or or is it part of the purgatory park off leash? you know, because we've got dog parks under that. Is there is there should we make it a broader conversation of on parks? And that's a question staff weigh in too. I mean, if we had a if we had a if we had a study session on parks and included that um um other dog park opportunities and a purgatory park update review, I mean, that would be kind of a comprehensive parks thing. Does that does that make sense? >> It does. I I guess I would just ask the question just for clarity. And when you say parks, more specifically, what does that mean? And and again, I would say the same for sustainability in the sense that we have a sustainability commission. >> Yeah. >> We have a parks board. >> They they're doing work on your behalf. Uh though all of our boards and commissions by matter of process are coming to the February 3rd regular meeting to give an update to the council on their own work plan. So, the boards and commissions are going to be presenting their work plans to you in February. Um, so I guess I would want to understand it'd be helpful to understand like when you say parks, what what do you mean by parks >> or sustainability? What I mean, so where does that fit in? Because we have our boards and commissions doing work and they're presenting their work plans to you. And so there's an opportunity in there for you to direct boards and commissions on if there's something of particular interest of you, whether it's the sustainability and the cap or if it's parks and their work plan, if there's some interest of you of them doing some exploratory work or some direction to them. Well, well, I would say I mean just thinking about it, I mean we don't need to be redundant if there are I mean I I think getting an update on Purgatory Park because it's been such a big deal is something that we want as a study session item. We have to do it. >> Yeah. >> Um but but I think you know a broader you know some of the more broad questions could be part of that parkboard review and then we're not being redundant. >> Okay, that sounds good. >> Makes sense to everybody. to Rebecca's point, we have the joint meeting, right? If there's anything specifically that we want to discuss. >> If there are some questions on this list that we would want to direct either the park board or the sustainability commission, we should do that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Sounds good. >> All right, Sarissa, is it kind of straight now? >> We'll see how I did. >> All right. Okay. You probably did just great. I'm sure she did. >> Okay. >> So, the idea is um so Sissa took notes. I know you can't read everything along the bottom there. Um, so if you use your phone and do the QR code, what Sus and I talked about, and if you want to change it, now's the time to do that is to >> before you vote, we teed it up to pick five topics that are your top five, and then we'll see how that kind of shakes out and then if we need to make some adjustments, we'll we'll go from there. So if you think that's an okay starting spot, >> go into Mentometer. All those topics that we just talked about should be listed there >> and just use your finger and kind of press on the things you feel are most important. >> And I just say that because we if you think about the study session work plan, we we actually do not have a study session in >> what month? >> July. uh it's on the plan. We there's one month where we could not get a study session scheduled. >> September. >> September. So we have 11 study sessions and we know December is always this conversation. >> And so >> so you have 10 >> so we have 10 meeting 10 study sessions again with a lot of sprinkled in with budgets and set schedules. So my point of saying all that is that we have 20 things listed here and we're likely it's in your study session plan. So it >> we have CIP on here already and it's on here. >> So can we agree not to vote for that in our file? >> You agree? Yeah. Do not >> Thank you, Rebecca. >> Got it. >> Say that again. >> Don't vote for CIP. It's already scheduled. >> Yeah, >> because it's already in there. >> Okay. >> And I'm not voting. And I would also suggest that the public comment period can just be included in review of council policies and rearrangement. So don't vote for the Yeah. >> Don't vote for review of public comment. >> Okay. >> What about purgatory park? >> We're doing purgatory park. >> I'm vote. >> I think that's a good point. >> Five. >> Yeah. I mean, Purgatory Park's there, so we're it's going to be there regardless. >> Yeah, you're right about that. >> Okay. So, we're not voting on Purgatory Park either >> to >> correct >> because it's already there because it's already on the on the plan. >> You just changed it. So, now they can refresh it. >> Oh, yeah. It says waiting for presenter to change slides. Oh, I see. No, because I already voted. I got it. All right. >> Oh, do it again. >> So, hold it up there. >> It's been updating. >> No, it's updating every time somebody does it. That's why it's doing that thing. [clears throat] >> So, I'm sorry. We're not supposed to. >> Yep. >> Pop up there. >> Three people voted so far. That's still when the results pop up when I hit the over arrow. Okay. >> I think I did vote for it. >> So, we took purgatory out. >> Wait, so purgatory should not >> be on the list >> because it was >> purgatory is going to come up in June. >> Do you want me to take it off? >> Can you? I can. >> Mine doesn't update. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't submitted one yet. >> Oh, I can't because people voted already. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Not that I know what that's like. Are you ready? >> Wait. >> Yeah. >> I'm still waiting for the presenter to change. So >> yeah, that's I think Yeah, Brad's not voting. >> Oh, >> I'm not voting. I won't be here. >> Is everybody done? >> We've got six of seven because >> Okay. >> Well, I can't read topics. I can read it. It is five votes for trail street and project review. Two votes for review developer refinancing policy. Then four for the council I'll just go up to it. Then four for council policies re rearrangement of the regular meeting agenda that includes the public comment. Two for short-term rentals. Two for public safety ma master plan update. Three for substance regulations. One for can candidate filing. Zero for crypto. One for digital accessibility. One for well purgatory park will be on the agenda. Um, three for marsh operations, one for opus, four for drive-throughs, one for federal/state reinforcement concern, zero for ebikes. >> So, I think we have our five, huh? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Is that how many is that how many we need? Um, I mean, how many topics is staff really looking for? Well, let us go back and and plug these in because we want to guess I want to disconnect with staff on how much time we think these topics will take. >> So, we want to estimate are these is is this 30 minute conversations or are they two-hour conversations? So, we'll try to do some estimating on what how much time is probably needed on these. Bring back to you a filledin. We'll fill it in, move some things around, compartmentalize it like we talked earlier. I would say, yeah, I would say after the time assessment, I mean, there's five clear, you know, that got three or more votes and and [clears throat] then but the the three that got two, you know, if if we can if we can include those, if we have time to include those, great. If we don't have time, then they drop off. >> Um, but I think we've got I think you got the direction you need. >> Yep. I think we've got five clearly and then three more that have the two votes and we'll look to get all those in. Yeah. >> Is everyone feeling okay about this process? >> Yeah. I just have one quick question. >> Go ahead. >> Because at a earlier study session, we had agreed to go ahead and look at the short-term rental and now it only has two. Does that mean that we're not going to go forward with that? >> No, it's it's on there. >> Okay. >> Yep. It's on there. >> Okay. Because it only got two votes. >> Um so with we'll do the five and there's three that have two votes. Uh-huh. >> So, those we'll look to get those three in. >> Okay. >> But, >> but at a minimum, we did talk about having the short-term rentals come forward. >> If you can only get one of the three back, that's fine. >> Mike putting the zoning work together with >> Yeah. Y >> rather than having all these oneoff conversations. >> All right. >> And I think of staff too. We we might as we study this list, we might have some other suggestions of where these could come up in other conversations and how we can best package all of these. >> Okay. So, that brings us to um item C, which is uh 2025 legislative priorities. I'll turn that over to Mike. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> And I I'll preface. Yeah. Just quickly um on those that last two items. >> Okay. Um so, similar process to what we just went through. Um and Sarissa, do you want to tee that up? Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how I can not do this. >> All right. So, obviously the first uh first discussion question again in your staff report is what legislative matters should the city consider and prioritize for next year? That's the exercise we'll go through. And then at the conclusion of the conversation, do you have a preference or what works best to schedule our legislative session with our legislators? So, we'll want to get that scheduled here soon to make sure our legislators are available. Staff suggests Friday, January 23rd or Friday, January 30th. So, we'll need to hear from you. What works best for you? I mean either one works fine. >> Yeah. >> J was saying every Friday >> these are Friday. >> Oh yeah that's 22nd. Anyway okay but >> yes you're correct. >> Yeah. >> So you you want to tackle that now? Which is there a date that works better? >> Ackni. So yeah, maybe see if there's make sure there's nothing else calendared or >> for the legislators. >> Well, and the other Well, the legislators um I mean I think they'll show up. I mean, the legislative session doesn't start till the middle of February. The only thing >> When is um when is uh >> MLK day? >> MLK day, but that's that's earlier. Well, that doesn't interffect affect either weekend. I mean, sometimes >> sometimes if if we're on the >> following the 23rd, then you'd have a longer weekend opportunity, but I don't think that's an issue. >> No. >> So, pick one. >> Choice. >> Yeah. >> If it sounds like there's flexibility, we'll work with our legislators and see what works best for them and get it scheduled. >> Yep. >> Okay. All right. All right. So, let's go into discussing these legislative priorities. Again, as I was chatting with both Brad and Mayor Elect Rebecca on these kind of same thing, I think just kind of quickly go through the list for context if we can and then we have mentometer to flush out what the priorities are. And I think what we've um have learned through our legis in working with our legislators, if we can identify three to five, I would always suggest no more than five kind of major priorities, doesn't mean that others can't be listed. What we've listed as u what we've tended to do in the past is um call those awareness topics. So it's it's still keeping them on the list, but certainly elevating which ones are most important to the city. Um, so if it's okay, would you like me just quickly run through the list for context and then we'll pull up Mentimeter and and try to keep it moving. Um, so housing, I know housing has been um, as we all know first and foremost, I think with Metro Cities, with MLC, with the league, uh, we know there's going to be more housing bills coming forward. Um, and so I again, so it's listed on there as a potential legislative priority. it was this past year as a legislative priority. Um, and tiff pooling and Julie's can answer questions on housing. There's also housing can go pretty darn deep in this conversation, but again, I think want to flush out with the council. Where does housing fit in terms of this conversation? Ebikes, enough said on probably ebikes uh being on a legislative priority. I will say that um my understanding in talking to Metro Cities, the league, and MLC, they all three of those have those listed as a legislative, not priority, but it's in their legislative platform. They have a policy position on it. Um I don't know how much attention this will get at the legislature. uh because it is more isolated. I don't want to say to the suburbs, but I from what I'm hearing in terms of the lobbyists, it's more isolated to the metro. So, I I don't know to what extent the league will take up ebikes as a as a big priority because the league represents statewide. So, I >> I'm sensing the league's probably not going to take the lead on it. therefore the lead. And I I believe there's probably some thumb wrestling between Metro Cities and MLC on which which of those agencies will take the lead. >> Um, >> for what that's worth, I just want to make sure you're aware that ebikes, while it's very important to us and a lot of suburban cities, I'm I'm sensing it's it may not get a lot of traction legislatively. >> Um, bonding certainly, again, we have our bonding request. It's probably going to be high priority. uh accountability for utility and fiber companies companies. This really relates to looking for legislative help perhaps on our right ofways and this goes to all the rightaway permits that have been issued. We hear from residents with concerns on a lot of times the nonresponsiveness, poor craftsmanship, lack of utility companies back and doing good restoration efforts on rightways. So again highlighting that clustering of group homes um has come up. Uh Paul I think this is something you had mentioned the expansion of a pilot program for public safety cameras. Uh right now there are two cities Minneapolis and chief board at Columbia Heights or Ingrove Heights. >> I'm not sure which >> there's another suburb that has Columbia Heights. Columbia Heights um does have a pilot program where there's cameras out to capture speeders and whether that's something that is the interest of this council of as a priority seeking further expansion of that for perhaps other cities. Uh Deb expansion of franchise fee authority that's come up in our southwest cable commission. Mhm. >> Uh there is uh Woodberry is kind of the leading example on this one where uh it's pretty legally complicated. I probably won't get all the explanation correctly. There's been a premise though at the federal level that for franchise fees, it's you know we have our cable franchise and it's been cities have always had that franchise agreement with the cable company. That's where we collect fees. Uh there's again I say the premise at the FCC that um fiber optic companies are exempt from cable franchise fees. There's been some changes I think interpretation of that law and I think the question for you the council is do we want to be in a position to advocate for expanding franchise fees to fiber optic companies? Um Woodberry is taking that approach. Um there are some other cities taking that approach and we've had conversations. I say we meaning Minnitank as part of our Southwest Cable Commission on looking to expand that authority uh to cities. Um if we get that authority that would certainly perhaps be a revenue source to plug a hole with revenue loss with the cable franchise fee uh low cost sales tax um conversation that's been on the current plan the current legislative priorities for this past year. Another one noted there is construction sales tax exemption. U this is more of a statewide matter. Um cities for have long advocated for sales tax exemption for construction projects. Uh we do pay sales tax as a city on construction. There have been exemptions to cities over the years. We as a city did get a sales tax exemption when we built the new police and fire facility. That takes special legislation to get exemption of sales tax on your materials. It saves us considerable amount of money and just knowing what we have on the horizon for potential capital costs. Uh seeking construction sales tax exemption would be beneficial um for us obviously. So that's the list. Very quickly going through that. Um, mayor and council, I would suggest if there's something you want to add to this, now's the time to do that and then or answer any questions, add to it, and then kind of go through a mint meter exercise. >> Kimberly, >> um, I guess it's a question if it needs to be added. Are we still um, wanting to look at our EMT service and availability to choose or response times, the whole thing? So, I guess I would ask >> I couldn't hear you, Kimberly. Sorry. Oh, the >> you don't have your mic on. >> No, >> that doesn't um >> No, I know, but you don't. >> It's on. >> Sorry. >> Um, so, uh, EMT response times and our ability to choose our EMT service or >> local control over >> control over that. Is that something that we're still >> which we had >> advocating for? >> Yeah. >> Yep. that's still being looked at at the state level. Um it didn't gain a lot of traction last year, but uh for our fire service day at the capital, it is still one of our priorities this year to uh try to keep those discussions moving. So yeah, it's it's definitely on the radar there. >> Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I would suggest um Sarissa that if we could I would suggest council we add EMS or local that local control element >> and EMS being a subcategory of that. >> And I also talked to um Mike about local control about planning and zoning specifically in the local control section. And I had one about, you know, I understand or it's been talked about that the legislature is going to talk about safety at the Capitol and limitations on guns and and access in c in the capital building. And I don't want to kick a hornet's nest, but if that's a conversation that's going to be added or had, I'd like them to think about including cities and having a right to >> um restrict firearms on city property and council chambers particularly. >> I think Metro Cities has that in their platform. >> So I have a question. You said local option sales tax is that's one of those things that's already on so we don't need to >> Well, I think we may want to talk about what our request if we're going to have one. >> So, we do need to vote on >> I probably and and I would recommend I think and rest is still a factor. So, I would take the word option out of that because she that that's a good way to just prejudice her opinion on our request by she does not like the word option. Local sales tax. Yeah, >> she's a chair of the finance, >> right? >> And I have a question. So the, you know, these are all really good and then we have last year's priorities. Are we trying to are we, you know, because for instance, there's nothing I think the support resources for juvenile justice, family support, small businesses are still really good. And um there's nothing in here really again for environment and we had some good stuff in there last year as well um for EAB the CAP and POS and th those kind of aren't going away and um so I was just wondering uh you know it looks like we're bringing ebikes out of out of the awareness topics and into a legislative priority. Um, you know, what about like the Highway 7 TMO? You know, I I just didn't know where this would fit in in sort of what we already had because all of the housing stuff is still really good in last year's. So, question I had. Well, you know, and I'd comment as I looked at the 2025 legislative priorities, I I thought there was a legislative list and not priorities. >> I think there's too much there. >> And I think if we want to get attention, we need focus. >> And I think that's what this exercise is. >> Um I think if housing made the cut, I think the stuff that's in housing would would be there. But I think I think we have to pick and choose what's important to Minnetonka. >> Okay. And um and then we there's a lot of stuff we care about. What's important? >> Well, I mean, if we don't put something about the environment in there, we're missing a strategic priority personally. >> So, we can pick one thing, but we I would put something in there. And I mean, you know, climate is huge for me. it there are I still I mean P FOS is kind of my baby but it may not be the same for everybody. >> I mean the one thing that I agree I mean I think it's a priority. The one thing I struggle with is what are we asking for? Like this list kind of gives us very specific things that we want in Minnetonka. And the environmental stuff is you know do we have a thing that we want? I I don't know that we've identified a thing. It's more like make sure you're prioritizing the environment or POS. What does that, you know, what does that mean? I I don't know what it means. I actually had some things under environment. Um in addition to POS to consider um for me it was um you know and I don't know where they are in this is building codes, you know, state level green um building codes. um you know it's hard to we've we've talked about I think I've had the conversation where it's hard to impose local ones um you know because it is it'd be easier to have it at the state level so I don't know if it's a priority or a subject for awareness um and then you know kind of incentives for the clean energy adoption and transition I know funding is going to be um challenging this year potentially, but either for awareness or within the environment, those are things that um you know obviously relate to our own plans. Um and I don't know if we still need EAB, you know, if we need to keep that mitigation in the front. So those are three things that I was thinking about >> and I don't know if you know we can't put them all perhaps if there's a way to if people had priorities or that or other things that they were thinking of. agree that we have >> I mean it's fun you know as far as I'm concerned for the environment I mean for me for POS it's restricting it's restricting production and providing you know helping um municipalities that are dealing with it pay for it and and you know help them with resources to mitigate it because it's very difficult and um you know I think with emerald ashbor it's really you what what the state has been trying to do which which is provide funding again for um tree loss mitigation. So, I think those are, you know, those are kind of easy ass. And in terms of things like um juvenile justice, there aren't there are so few resources for juvenile justice. There's just nothing there. And the legislature needs to help the county figure out how to support youth that get crosswise with the justice system because there's no place to put them and there's we don't have any supports for them. >> Didn't they just open anyway? They just they did. >> But I I I think we're you know >> Is that something that the city asked though or is that a county asked? I just don't know. Well, I think >> my my view is um that we really need to get focused on, you know, what three to five things do we as a city really care about and would like um like our legislators to carry the freight on. Um I think a lot of these things are going to get carried by um other people but you know what have our what have our residents asked for and and how can we bring some focus to this because >> I mean you know I think last year we I think the list we have here is a wish list and not a and not priorities and I think again I'm not voting but I think we have to understand what do we want to try and get and what's important to us and I think there should be some specific specific asked with these and three to five and otherwise otherwise we're just having a conversation. >> Can we vote? >> Yeah. >> So, and thank you. We can turn this over to Mentimeter and Sarissa, can you just pull up Mentoimeter because how we tried to get to that. And um so the list that we just looked at was created based on something that came forward that I got from a council member or something that in the emails that I sent out recently just in terms of asking the council ahead of time so we could streamline this conversation things that are important to you. So that's the list was developed on what I got from you. And so how we thought we'd tee this up to bring some focus to it. So each of those bullet points that we just read off, you're asked each of those individually. For example, on housing and tiff pooling, is this a priority? So I think we'd like to maybe put two categories on our on our one pager that we'll create. one is is this a priority for you or does it fall in the other category of just an awareness topic where we want to h we can just highlight it with our legislators. But I I think the mayor is correct in that it it really is important that we as a city really just bring three to five things forward saying this is what's really important to us. There's some other things that we can mention >> and I know the league struggles with this too. The league has 100 pages of legislative priorities and I can tell you because I work and know the lobbyists pretty well there that at the end of the day the league has 100 200 policies and at the end of the day the league really focuses on like 20 of those. And so that's because legis you can't overwhelm legislators. I and so I think it's really important >> or said another way it's easy to overwhelm legislators. So you got to be focused or you get nothing. >> You get nothing. And so I think while we can hone in on lots of things that are important. >> I think that's a better one. >> So that's how we're kind of teen it up is to really kind of understand from you of these what are priorities? What are perhaps just awareness topics? >> Yeah. >> If you want to remove them, great. And then or if you've got another thought about that there's an other category, >> right? >> Well, I say so we're doing it one at a time. >> One at a time. So just kind of one at a time kind of how do you what do how do you kind of categorize these >> because we really only want like three to five priorities. >> Right. >> Right. Yep. >> Yep. And and you might say priority on all of them. That's okay. And we'll just kind of see where this all lands and continue. >> So we want way less than last year. Is that is that what we're saying? >> Yeah. >> I don't know why my eyes not working. If you go to just mentter.com and then you can put that number in and it'll bring you to the >> Oh, >> yeah. >> That for some reason that QR code was tricky. It wasn't working for me either. >> Well, it's >> I think my cursor was over it. >> Oh. Oh, I see. >> It's working now. Huh? >> Is it? >> Are you in now, Ky? That was a It was an easy one. >> Oh, there it is. >> Wait a minute. Thank you. >> Let's get along, y'all. >> Did you vote on this one? >> Okay. >> It's meant to be vote. Amanda's gonna be like, "No thanks." >> Okay, good. >> Yep. >> All right. Consensus. >> We doing it one at a time. >> Yep. >> I think your phone should change as I change the slide. getting the weight to change slides. >> Okay, should be easy. Oh, Oops. [laughter] >> Are you okay? >> That's interesting. Do [clears throat] we think a lot of people are talking about this >> talking about speeding? >> No. I mean a lot of people across the state. >> Is this ebikes or the no speeding? >> Are they talking about expanding the pilot camp program? >> Like is this a is there chatter about this >> out there? I mean, there's been some articles and stuff about, >> you know, people wanting it or not wanting it. >> Are you ready? >> Yeah. for that um camera one. My daughter got a warning at my house. It's like a warning ticket in the from Minneapolis. >> Okay. >> I called her. I'm like, I know you got a warning. Warning is better than ticket. >> That's what I told her. I said speeding So this I had a question about this construction sales tax exempt. Is that saying that like construction companies don't they get exempt for tax? What does that say? We don't have to pay on the supplies for us when we build something. >> Oh, we get the taxes. Yeah. >> Okay. Long. >> Quick clarification. >> All right. >> And then I didn't know if we were voting on local control or environment. >> I think we Yeah. So I I think how I would you is there a way to summarize what you have on the screen or not? >> Um >> so I think you probably saw the results of that. I think for tonight's purposes I have I think staff has what we need. We will update this one pager based on the results and then I would just probably look to add a topic of local control and just have a g kind of a couple themes under local control >> and then I would if it's okay with council under um under the category of awareness add a couple items on environment >> similar to what we did for this year. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> I mean, we have two legislators who are very receptive to those kind of topics. >> So, we're good. We're done. >> I mean, there's this. Should we vote on this thing? >> I think we're okay on that. >> I think we have >> I guess my question for you, I know it's getting later, council, are you comfortable? At least right now. I think at least what I've seen. I I think >> if you've got the direction you need, I think we're fine. >> Probably pretty good. >> And I'll bring it back. We'll bring it back to you in the January meeting. You can make changes again. You'll have another chance to take a look at how this is pulled together. If something needs to be amended and added to, we'll have that chance at January. But I think for tonight, >> we have enough direction. >> All right. So, that brings us to item D, the 2026 city council and staff appointments. Mike, I'll turn that over to you. >> Um, well, thank you, Mayor. Uh, I'll probably just quickly turn it back to you in in my conversation with all of you today. I think we talked about logistically how we'll um tee this up tonight. Uh, as you noticed in the um attachment in the staff report, uh, it's largely blank. Uh, so that way you as a council can I think we'll do a a draft scenario. I talking with Rebecca and Brad today just on how that will be facilitated. I think I know Brad or Rebecca's going to maybe take more Rebecca's gonna take more of the lead on this one. I believe >> it's 2026. Yep. I think >> so. We'll do a draft scenario. Pull pull a number out of the cup and whoever has number one gets to go first. We'll just start filling in >> uh the assignments for next year. We did update from the um staff report. We did update uh where um I think Rebecca has a couple spots. So, for example, on I494 corridor commission, Rebecca has a leadership role there. So, she is chair. So, it would be logically put her back obviously want to be back in that spot. Uh Deb is also in the Southwest Suburban Cable Commission. She's the chair of that. So, it would be logical for Deb to go back into that. Um Hopkins School, there's our school city meeting. That's always for mayor and city managers. Same thing with Minnetonka. Uh, so Rebecca is listed there as mayor. And then on the fire relief association by statute, that's the mayor's position. So that would be Rebecca as well. Um, could you just scroll up real quick? Just a note on you see the green line extension committee. There's a work steering committee, the change control board, the advisory, the ones that are crossed out no longer exist. So, as we've gotten closer to light rail opening, those committees are are being >> deleted, >> kind of fading away. They're deleted. They're done. But there is the Greenlight Extension Corridor Management Committee. That is one role yet on that. And also the places committee. >> And so when we were talking when Mike and I were talking, you know, there was some consternation about available spots last year. So, we thought we'd kind of with Brad moving off and that opened up a lot of places as well. Um, just letting people kind of go down the line and pick and then no pressure. So, if you don't have the time and the interest or the capacity, you don't have to do any of these. So, if you want to pick one, then pick your one and then opt out of the next round. So, we'll just continue until everybody has either all the slots are filled or everybody ha is satisfied with their roles. I've taken my number out and I'll just if there's a a spot to fill in um with my role on 494 and the other obligations, I I don't feel like I need to take um get my first pick or anything on any of this. So Sarissa put numbers together. Everybody's going to pick to see who goes first. And then as Mike calls it cuz he's a fantasy football guy, we're going to do a snake draft. So number the number five will go first in the second round. So 1 2 3 4 5 >> 5 4 321 >> like fantasy football. >> And uh the other concerns I just noticed on MLC, the Metro Legislative >> that's fold it's really folded up. >> Okay. So can we ask questions number one? >> Sure. This one? >> Yeah. >> So >> wait, not this one. >> The landing land trust. Yeah, that that's a >> which means >> that's that's homes within reach. That's the >> Yeah, I know what that is. How much time in >> Not very much time. Um it is um they have >> I think they have um board meetings every month, every other month. >> They go from 5 to 6 PM on a Tuesday night typically. And so there's probably five or six meetings a year. And then there is one annual meeting that is often on a Saturday morning and it's kind of an event because some of the homeowners come and they kind of make it a family thing. And so I mean that's basically it. Then I was I was treasurer. So there were a couple of other executive committee things that I did but um they'll pick a different treasurer. >> Yeah. >> So it's it's I I would say six six or seven meetings a year. Okay. So, because I'd like that. >> Okay. That's your pick then. >> Which one? >> The West Henipin Affordable Housing Land Trust. >> Who's number two? >> Um I am. And I will uh take the LMC improving local economies. >> Did you get that, Sarissa? I didn't hear that. >> Improving local economies. >> Paul's going to take LMC improving local economies. Who's got number three? >> Wait, I'll do the the housing. >> Which one? >> The Metro >> Metro Cities Housing and Economic Development. That's Kizzy. >> What was Paty's first? >> Walt. >> Walt. Yeah. >> Okay. Let's let Chris You're You got it, Sarissa. Okay. Uh who is four? >> Me. >> Um I will do Green Line Extension Corridor Management Committee. >> Okay, good one. Okay. Okay, Deb. >> Um NLC ENR. that one you I think that one >> you're already in on that one. >> All right. >> Yeah, you're already to apply for that, right? >> You have to apply for that. Yeah. So, you're >> I'm going to stay on my improving services delivery committee for LMC then. >> So, Sarissa, can you add the NLC one for Deb and then also >> over here? >> Yeah, improving services. That's the one that's the second one down on the top. I don't think it was listed on there, but I'm on the NLC. Community economic development or I was and applied for it again. >> Okay. >> Economic development. >> Community and economic development. >> Okay. So, Deb, are you ready with your second choice? >> Oh, yeah. Um, so I would say, um, just make sure it's on here. I would love to on the Minnotonka Family Collaborative. It keeps me afloat. >> So, you're feel good. Uh Kimberly, right? You're five or four. Yep. >> Oh, it's me again. >> Mhm. >> Um I guess I'll do places committee again. >> You got that source of places. >> That's green light. That's the That's Green Lane place right there. >> Okay. And then uh Kizzy, are you three? >> I'll do the schools. >> All right. Hopkins schools and communities. You got that? Okay. Uh then it's uh Paula. Um, oh, you just did I'm sorry. You just did Hopkins School and Communities, didn't you? Oh, and then um then goodness. Um, if I would mind to be what's uh EDAC. Okay, great. Um, Paty, do you want another one? Are you good? Okay. >> Um, so then Paul, it's back to you if you want another one now. No pressure. >> Okay, I think I'm going to hold for now. >> Okay. So, does anybody else I Um, Deb, you'll be last. Uh, you can probably take as many as you want. Kissing, you're you're good. Kimberly, >> I would just like I've been on the improving local comm that that one [laughter] repeatedly. So, I would just be like a second member on that. Paula can be the voting member. >> Yeah. I mean, we can do that on any of these, right? So, if we're interested in sitting in on >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean and I would encourage you know people to consider other opportunities only because it it broadens our reach but um >> yeah no you know no you do what you want to do. >> Can we be a second >> you can I mean I I think >> well I would love to be a second member on affordable I want to be the first one so I would love that if we can >> on on what >> she wants to be the land wall. >> Oh, >> that one's a little different. >> That's a board. That's a board >> versus a Yeah. a a committee. >> You get a point. >> I got a question for you. >> It's not our It's not our board. >> But can anybody come to those meetings though on Tuesday nights? >> I don't know. >> Is that open? >> You know, I don't think they're personally public, but I think you could attend if you wanted to. >> I mean, I would call I would call Brenda. Um, >> yeah. Yeah. And ask her if you could attend. >> So, it looks like everybody's satisfied with for now with what they have or they're they're prepared to live with it. Um, what I would suggest is maybe Sarissa can email this out again. Everybody can take another look at it, see particular look at the >> committees that I'm on that haven't been chosen because I'm on the metro agency's committee. I'm on the elections task force and >> um >> I I'm so >> okay I might want to pick one but um but Debb if you want to continue on those that's great but don't feel like you need to pick everyone to have coverage. >> I I just need to consider whether I have time to do a metro cities one. So what these are are confirm I mean what we have to confirm these at a council meeting but these are kind of what we've solidified for tonight and if people have regrets or they want to do more Sissil or Mike will email this out and then we can re-evaluate if we want to add to our obligations. I can I can do the local um improve the local economies. >> I think I was on that one last year >> so that we've got two people listed already. >> Sorry, never mind. >> Okay, >> Deb, did you want your name on the metro cities or are you going to think about it? >> The ones you're already on? >> I think she wants >> I mean it's very it's so minimal. I mean the meetings are short. They're three basically three times a year. >> Which ones were they? >> So it was the uh metro agencies committee >> and then if if the staff liaison really think it would be useful to have >> although I mean here's the thing Metro City's transportation general government committee is completely open. Mike's already sitting on metro agencies now. Well, I can do that one. >> I was considering that one, too. But >> yeah, the that one's on Mondays. Just so you know, that that committee meets on Mondays, which is >> for you. >> I'd love to sit on that one, but Mondays is too difficult. So, that just so you know, that's a council that those are on Mondays. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, great. What I was saying was if there's a staff member that's on one of these committees and feels like it would be really useful or imperative for us to get a council um member on there, please let us know and we'll figure out how to make it happen. Otherwise, this looks like a good division of labor. >> I'm sorry. >> Oh, yeah. So, the other uh just to wrap things up, I think we're close to the end. Uh and that's on the zoning. >> Oh, right. >> The zoning uh task force, zoning, what do you call it? Zoning >> work group. Work group. >> Thank you. Zoning work group. So, question for the councils. How would you like to move forward with the zoning work group appointments? And there's kind of two considerations. I'll speak to one, Julie, I think, will speak to the other. Uh, the council approved the mayor being on the zoning work group and then Kimberly was I think you got your name drawn out of the hat on that one with the mayor's um coming off obviously. Well, the question for the council is do you want to replace the mayor? >> Alex Hansen is on here as well. So Julie's going to speak to that. And so with the mayor coming off, um the question for the council is do you want to replace that and do you replace that with another person from the council and then with the mayor coming off keeping Brad on as a resident or or are you giving him the heaveho? [laughter] >> I'm indifferent. I will do I will >> so so the mayor will so the mayor's been on serving as the mayor representing the council and so with the mayor coming off obviously you have to decide where does the where does Brad fit into that if he's going to remain on as a resident >> you would need to make that decision and then a replacement for for Brad so that's one question and then I think to what Deb just mentioned Julie will speak to then Alex Hansen >> yeah so Alex is off in at the end of January and so he could stay on as a resident as well. You do actually have an applicant for planning commission who's on the zoning work group who's not the planning commission representative. So, it depends on who you pick too in the end how this whole makeup um ends up. >> Um or, you know, or you can just have somebody else serve as planning commission. You know, they can pick somebody in January. So, it just depends on how you want to how you want to do it. >> So, I will say as as a member of the workg group that I would not be opposed to continuing with the people that are already on the work group like um the mayor's knowledge doesn't disappear because he's no longer mayor and Alex the same for Alex >> assuming that he wants to continue. >> Yeah, if he's willing to. >> Yeah, I'm sure. >> Yeah. I think like I feel like we haven't really dug in yet and gotten gotten to the meat of our work and so I feel like the the group that was selected to to work and is still a viable group. >> I I agree. I think it's useful. I think it's useful to have people with experience and Alex is obviously probably the longest standing planning commissioner to have his experience I think is useful likewise with Brad. I'm willing to serve I if it if it makes sense to the rest of the council but I don't know that we need to introduce anybody new to the group in the interest of efficiency. >> Well, can we do both? Can we have Brad stay on and have another representative from the council meeting you? >> I think we can do what we want. We've kind of set this up as a there's it's not like a defined in in our ordinance. >> Do you does staff feel like it would I mean you know >> Rebecca's known for brevity which she strives for but Do do we feel like it would be start getting unwieldy in terms of numbers? I I don't I mean I kind of feel like I want >> but if I participated as just an observer so I was there I could understand what was going on but I would really defer to the group for comments and discussion. >> Yeah, >> I think it's okay the way it is. I mean, >> we don't have to put the thumb on the scale or anything from >> But >> I'm inclined to make sure that the people that are have been doing the work don't disappear. >> Yeah. >> Because we just it's almost it's almost like everything they did just gets erased and you know, whoever it I just would >> prefer to keep the folks that have been on including you, mayor. Sorry. No, >> I agree with you, Deb. >> And I I mean, if you want to be there, I think it's all to the good because >> you're going to have to deal with whatever they come up with. >> It's an important issue. Um, but I serve with the pleasure. [laughter] >> All right. We already talked about this, Brad. We want you there. >> We want them there, but we want you there, too. >> Okay. So my full circle, we'll just go ahead and push this back on with the makeup that they're talking about and then >> have like a dismounted attachment to this for the zone. >> And do we need to make does council need to take action on that? >> Yeah, because it is that's the way they appointed >> appointed those. Okay. >> You know, on the 13th of last year, >> that's when you appointed. >> So we'll include that with the other appointments listing. Y >> I think that's all right. >> I think it is. >> That is it. >> Is there anything else? >> No. >> All right. Well, we can call this meeting ajourned. And you know, I'd say farewell if this were my last meeting, but but it's but [laughter] but it's but it's not.