tell you everything. Anyhow, um so please do that. And then I'd also like to call this meeting to order and this is November 3rd, 2025 for the city of New York City Council meeting and the first order of business. I'd like to ask that you join me for pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all this evening as well as those that are watching later on on our YouTube video. I'd like to start out with introductions. I'm Lisa and I'm the mayor. And to my left are council members, Peter Vicky, Lacy, Brian Govern this evening. And then staff present this evening. She is our city with WSD. Then we have Gary Peters who is our public works director. And then Paula Bowman who is our assistant city administrator. To my right, I have Chas who is our city administrator, Brian Grim, who is our finance director, David Ael, who is our community development director, and then Craig Splenders, who is our Jacob police. Um, I have just a couple items that I'd like to switch if I could on our agenda. So, first I'd like to take items six, A, and B, and switch those around so that we do item B first and item A second. And then um Senator Ann Johnson Stewart is going to be joining us this evening. She will not be able to be here until about 7 o'clock. So I'm going to just move this special presentation down after our public hearings if she's here by then. Otherwise um we'll just keep moving her down until she gets here and it should be sometime right around 7. If that's okay. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Thank you, Miss Lacy. Is there Thank you, Mr. Brian. Brian, I'm sorry. And I am on Jet Lake. I'm just going to make that clear. I got home late last night after 24 hours. Anyhow, um so with that, thank all those opposed. Motion passes 5. So, we'll move on to consent agenda items. Are there any ones you wish to remove from hearing? None. They consist of A approve our work session meeting minutes from we don't have the dates. >> October 20th. >> Thank you. October 20th, 2025. B is approve our city council regular meeting minutes from October 20th 25. C is a resolution to approve claims. B is a resolution to accept the improvement and authorize final payment for the 2023 suite improvement project. Yay, finally. Um E is approve our building inspection reciprocal services agreement with Victoria. Also another great one. F is approve our temporary liquor license for the Northwest Town Alliance for their holiday for the holiday tree lighting event. Mean that they're coming back. And then G is approved. City of Ministries does not relieve the monetary limits on municipal for viability. So do I have a motion to approve consent agenda items A through G? >> Thank you, Mr. Victory. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Miss Blazley. Any further any questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by I. Opposed. Motion passes by. So we're going to move on to our public hearing. I'm going to start out. Um this is a public hearing and we have Todd Hagen here with us this evening from Ellers and Associates. Um welcome Mr. Hagen. Nice to see you again. Maybe we need to just do a brief explanation for the public as to why this why we're doing this um public hearing. It's for our bond that we're going to be issuing for the 475 bond. And there's a difference between 475 bond or 429 bond that we usually do. Maybe you could just do a quick overview. Um so that the people watching will kind of know why we're doing that. >> Thank you, Mayor. Nice to see you too, council members, staff. Um Tyler Hen drive here um tonight. It's been a great weather um some people still have their docs and boats out. Um, so yeah, today we have a public hearing. I only call it street reconstruction plan. I like to call it the street reconstruction financing plan. It's a five-year plan, but really it's one expenditure uh for your 2026 street improvement project uh number 0126 plus uh the West Edge Boulevard. Um you folks have seen the plan, the draft plan. Um it's for a maximum amount of 3,450. Um what's different about this um approach as opposed to just a regular general obligation improvement bond uh is that I think we're little short of 20% assessment threshold 429. So what we do then is uh switch over to a different state law authority which is a general obligation street reconstruction plan bond and it's 100% available from property taxes but on an annual basis we'll use that um by the special assessments that come in that are um too low for improvement bond um but they're just fine for for this. So we're we're getting at the same um financing just in a different way. will follow pesky state law. Um, and that's what I'm here for and what the bond is here for. And um, that's that's what we're doing this stuff out for you. So, um, that's what we're doing. And it's not uncommon. Uh, assessments, trying to meet that 10% threshold is is difficult sometimes with these expensive projects and I get it. Uh so it is nice to to have other so we'll have to try to lower that might be very big deal. So that's what we've got. Um tonight you'll see on the plan I mean it's a short and sweet sort of plan. Um it really uh the only thing you need the alone limitation is what we call the the 3% net test in there and see that it's um uh so under under this particular authority unlike the improvement bond it's exempt from a 3% uh net net debt test. Um, this one is subject to that and plays off of your estimated market value, which is somewhere north of three billion dollars. Multiply that by 3% and you've got 91 almost 92 million of authority. Um we've already um are using um 4 million of that for other projects uh that are just subject to net which is being a property tax um that in the bond issue uh plus this bond issue you've got like 84 mill but you got capacity so it's a good tool to use and we're using them so Hopefully that's a good explanation for the flow. So we have to hold a public hearing like we are um and we're doing it too with the 429 process. So I launch the public hearings uh for these for these projects to finance them. Um and then this one's a little bit different too. So after tonight's public hearing, if you approve a preliminary um preliminary approval for the issuance of the bonds and approving a street reconstruction plan, we we can't really do anything until 30 days since probably referendum period. Um so we want to make sure that that that ends. Um and that will end on December 3rd. And then we've also got that uh the street improvement project will be coming something like that. So you want to make sure we get all of this moving forward and kind of done that before considering those and then we start the bond process. So little waiting for you after tonight. So I'm here for any question. >> And so just um a couple things for clarification. We're also going to be um issuing um with this bond in addition to that we're going to be doing some equipment certificates kind of wrapping them together so we save money on on the bond costs. Um so there's the equipment certificate and then I believe the low um project that we're doing as well. >> Correct. Some of the items from this year that were the security cameras and my loans. >> Yeah. So there's couple other things that we're we're going to be financing. It'll be in addition to the 2.345 million. That's just for the roads, but we're going to save money because we're going to wrap it all together. We're also going to wrap the water water infrastructure bonds in with this >> um later. Well, it's going to be with this at the same time. So, they're going to be wrapped together. Again, saving money on on the bond or issuing of the bond cost. But again, just making it clear that the water bond that we will float is going to be paid for out of water um user fees and those that bucket, but the other portion of this bond is going to be paid out of general fund dollars. So I just wanted to is there any question on that? >> Are those separate funds or is it just uh legally by the right? >> Yeah, good question. We're we we can issue one bond with three or four purpose. Hopefully answers your question. So there like the mayor said too, each of the purposes has its own sort of stream related amount of cost of issuance and other things that go along with it. So they're easier to track, right? So it's going to look like you're issuing three, four bonds or whatever, but it's all bundled into one. So it's a larger bond issue. It's going to be every 20 years, >> right? Which which we could, but um just like the progress of commercial, right? So we'll try we'll try to do something and more. But the other the other thing that um that we're doing is we're we're looking at are we bonding for half maybe approximately half of the water infrastructure bond right now or a cost right now because we're going to wait and see what happens at the state. We might get bond might get some money from the state. So if we do then we don't need of a bond for the water infrastructure. The other thing that that does because the project is going to be taking about two years to complete, we don't need all that money up front. So, we don't want to be paying that interest rate already up front. That also staggers the bond and it gives us a little more wiggle room in terms of cash. Is that maybe a good explanation? >> Yeah. Yeah, and I think that if that's what the council wants to do, I think yeah, right now in the packet it's sort of shown as one bond. And I think we've talked about the pros and cons of doing one bond, you know, 26 27 million just all in early 26 or breaking it up into like, you know, 13 million now and then see what we get from the if anything from the state and then maybe another 13 or hopefully less, you know, or something later. And I think Todd could work to structure that to we'd have a like a 2026A bond that would have like those three purposes, right? you know, the streets, the equipment certificate, and then the port part of the water or whatever, and then you do the rest in 2027 as the the rest of the water treatment might might be the best way to go based on where we're at if council agrees or thinks so or >> and that that's good, too. And kind of not to get into weeds, but um also because we're issuing over $5 million, right? If we play this correctly and get that two-year kind of spend down thing figured out, we'll be able to hit these IRS thresholds of spending certain amounts at certain times over the two years to keep all of our investment earnings on this too. So it's not about the investment in >> without bonds you should make somebody ask >> they're following the arbitrage rules basically right now and we know the bank respectable charge Right. So, so we'll I think that's what we try to do is try to find the right mix here uh with the spend downs and we don't want to issue too much and lock it in pretty much too. So I think that's we got a lot of options with excuse me. So the so the bond holder and purchaser initial dealer was kind of like they see that general obligation in front of it and they see a bond rating plus the triple a year scale. Um, and I'm just going to look at the material there when I'm thinking about that. So, under underneath that is staff, right? And for the body, make sure that this carved up correctly and you know pay for equipment equipment, you know, property tax is not split those up and have separate purposes like three bonds and so it is in a cost of insurance. It's all correlated um throughout the fee for so purposes too which saves you money that way too because if you uh issue them in separate series over separate times of the year it's just a brand new bond issue every single time the cost to everybody right starting from square one evening but if it's space out more than three months in between um it could be it could be incurring those costs in a So that's what we're trying to do. So yeah, when you go into the market, they see Christa, they see their rating, they see it's a general obligation bond. See, it's pretty large and they'll just get off the bat. >> I mean, just for logistics. So you don't need to have like a 2026 A, B, and C bond. It's all 2026A just with three revenue streams or or potentially, you know, multiple revenue streams or whatever. So it's all >> correct. Yeah, >> you don't need to have so the geob for the water treatment, you don't need to have a public hearing, but because we're bundling it with with the road project, you have to have a public hearing if it's a road project or or non road project. But if it if it includes a second, but it doesn't meet that 20% threshold. So that's why we have Okay. So you don't need you could float if you can float go bonds if you're not doing public assessment. Ge water sewer. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Um assessment bonds. I think we talked about 20% got it own set of public hearings, right? And then the equipment typically does. So if they're all a little bit different, this does >> it's just the options. And then we're still following the 20 the the 429 process in conjunction with 475. Correct. That's why we had the multiple public hearings. >> I just want to make it clear. So you might say, well, why are we doing this now or we didn't do it before? >> We did that back in 2012ish. >> Yeah. Yeah. the 475. >> So if there are any other questions, all right, if there are none, then what I'm going to do is I'm going to open the public hearing right now. So I need to get down. I'm opening the public hearing. There is nobody here for the public hearing. So um I guess I can legally close the public hearing and take it back to council. And what we do need to do is um it's a resolution in our packet to adopt a street reconstruction plan and providing preliminary approval for the issuance of the bonds there. Is there a motion to that? >> Thank you, Miss Lacy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Governor. Any further questions? Hearing none. All those in favor signify with I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes by I should say four. So, um, moving on. So, thank you very much, Mr. and we'll see you again, I'm sure. >> All right. We're going to move on now to business items, and we're going to start with um B, which is the resolution to support for the acquisition of 6,300 Danger Road by MCWD. We do have a couple of people from MCWD here this evening. I'm first going to hand it over to David. Do you want to say anything? because it was um brought to the planning commission. So, I'll give you to you. You can give us an overview and then um you can too. Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of council. Um as the mayor stated, we have a resolution of support for the purchase of 6300 Pina Road by the Min Creek Wershed District. Uh the property owners that live there did reach out to the wershed district and ask them if they were interested in purchasing the property. um they they understood and knew the significance of their property and where it sits within the subwaterhed of the Painter Creek uh wershed uh district if you will. Um the parcel is near some of what the the district does own now for land holdings and it also has been identified their 27 uh water management plan as a significant area of importance. Um, as we all know, uh, Painters Creek eventually leads to Jennings Bay. Jennings Bay is on Lake Minnetonka. As we all know, it's one of of the impaired water bodies within Lake Pinneton. Halstead Bay being the other one. Um, so that is the significant uh importance of the location of this property. Uh, there's a heavy load of phosphorus that gets uh let out out of Penis Creek into Jennings Bay. Um and the watershed district will be looking to uh for future projects uh with this property in order to help reduce that uh prosperous that goes into uh Jennings Bay. As the mayor stated, this dis this did go to the planning commission on October 27th. Uh the commission unanimately recommended that the council go ahead and move forward with that res loosen up support for the purchase of the property. Um and as the mayor stated, we do have representatives from the district here. if you have any questions for them and staff is also available for questions. Um, and just kind of for clarification FYI, they don't they don't need um city approval, I believe, but not by state statute. So, I do recall um I think if I'm not mistaken, it just this is kind of a courtesy on their part. >> Correct. Uh I think both agencies over the years with um previous uh instances uh uh have set forth policies to go through this step >> um to to to look for support from the the local government. Um the the park district does legally need a per state statute. They do need uh compliance with our uh planning agency with our comprehensive plan. Um so the the wa the park district is a little different than a watershed district but per policy for both agencies this is the process that we do follow. >> Thank you. Any questions of staff because otherwise I'll have motion a couple people here >> just to confirm. So if the go through this would remove the private test from basically and um it's about $1,500 a year just so you know. But the other thing is also we can still assess them. So if we ever did a a road project, they would still be a theft. Um so they it's a little different with assessments versus property taxes. So they don't give property taxes. They do have to be assessment. Should should there be an assessment? >> Yeah. How many websites? >> Our portion just want to make that clear but yes. All right. So with that you want to come forward and introduce yourself please council members Kay Sarn planner project manager district. I'm happy to be here tonight. Can answer all and any questions, but I can start with just a little bit of a primer on how the acquisition kind of came to our knowledge and kind of what we see as the near-term and long-term plans to the site. Um, so as Mr. Ael mentioned, uh, the property seller team actually reached out to us in late July. Um, the property had been sitting on the market for a few months, I think since late May, early June. Um and the seller had recalled the watershed district's interest um from about 20 years ago when we tried to acquire a conservation easement um over the property and that didn't move forward. So here we are 20 years later. um staff began kind of dusting off um the original merits of the site and looking at how the project now fits within our suppership strategy. Um and one of those early things of course is reaching out to city staff and understanding how the property um is in alignment and support city goals. Um one exciting thing is we luckily had kicked off some some watershed diagnostic work this year. So, we were able to kind of take an early look at what the data is telling us. Um, and we're really seeing that upstream of this property is where majority of that phosphorus is coming in. And so, this specific site is position in water really serves uh to provide opportunities for that regional water quality treatment for Jenny's Bay and Bay. Um, as far as kind of short-term plans for the site, um, it does have quite a few older structures on it. I think the house is dating back to 1890. Uh so we do plan to demo all the structures and substructures um on the sites except propells um with the exception of the newer bullshed that sits on the property. Um and then do some mild regrading native seating in those areas to keep the site kind of in a temporary conservation state. um just to give us time to really work through the monitoring of the civil wershed, engage with our civil wershed partners and kind of our next 207 plan um that we just really kicked off putting in motion um and then give us time to really do that feasibility study on kind of what the potential um project would look like for the site. Um long term, I think the site has a lot of great features that set it set it up to kind of support the strategies um in our implementation plan. Uh the site itself has about 1500 feet of creek frontage um which about a third of a mile and it's um adjacent to publicly owned land between the district and the city um through Per Creek Estates Park there. So with public ownership on both sides of the channel uh we see that as a great opportunity to restore the creek and and wetlands through that breach. Um and then given its regional position in the silk watershed, we'll be exploring how we could potentially treat um the incoming phosphorus that's come through that site before it downstream. So we'll of course as we get into those conversations be keeping in close coordination with city staff on how um it can even support future opportunities for recreation to the site to use passive recreation and offer park green space. Any questions? >> Follow it. >> Um, >> we've got a few ideas kind of swirling our heads. Um, so we're seeing that a majority of the phosphorus that comes through there is dissolve. So, it's a little trickier and kind of narrows your your options for for treatment and removal. Um some of the options I'm just given um the nature of the site would be pumping water potentially out of the creek. Um and doing that some of that phosphous removal up on the upland portion is about 9 acres of upland on the site. Um that could be a sand iron filter. It could be something like an alum injection facility. So there's a lot of potential to explore there but still early to say exactly what it look like. Is there a uh a strategic plan on um like land acquisitions around that region? >> Yeah. Um I think to be more strategic as we get it ahead of our our wershed management plan. Um you know 20 years ago we had a program kind of designed for just acquiring parcels all over the wershed really for conservation and conservation only. Um I think now our acquisition strategies are really targeted around where we can put capital projects and water quality improvements. Um so we need to see kind of that multi- benefits for the water quality project before I think the district would be interested in a quant um when you do a a project. So, let's just say you just you determine what type of a project you're doing and you need X number of acres or square feet, whatever it may be, and then put a conservation over that area of the parcel and then and reselling it then for for private use. >> Yeah, that's a great question. That's something we talked about with our board. Um, if there was interest from the city, I think once we get into feasibility and look at, you know, of those 11.4 4 acres. Um what would we need to build out a capital project? What would we need to maintain? I think there would be a willingness to explore, you know, putting part of the parcel back on that, >> right? Um so we would have to decide that now. We would just say, you know, because those would be interested in in that. I think it would be kind of a win-win for everybody. Um, especially if you're thinking about future purchases, again, if they're in Trista, I think we really want to take a a deep dive and a really good look at that such an option. >> Yeah, I think that makes sense. And I think we can weigh that against what opportunities we see from a, you know, public, right, >> amenity standpoint, providing passive recreation to the site in conjunction with some of the nearby conservation areas. All right. Any other questions? >> The one uh one kind of question I got a couple from Kathleen. She's not able to be here. Just kind of how do you guys settle on a purchase price? Um how do you how do you get there? Do you use an appraisal? Um how does that all work? >> Sure. Yeah. Part of our policy associated with acquisition is that we do obtain an appraisal. Uh, so once there was, you know, the the check-in with city staff, um, and from the briefing with our board, we did engage in appraisal. Um, the listing price was 850 on this parcel, we negotiated an 825 purchase price. So, kind of right in the middle of our appraisal value and then the asking price was. So, um, that's part of our our process here. Any other questions? Okay. So, um, what what they're asking for is resolution of support for the acquisition of 6300 vote and the acquisition. >> Thank you, Mr. Vicky. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Governor. Any further questions, comments? None. All those in favor signify by. All those opposed. Motion passes for Thank you very much and we look forward to more information. So now I'm going to move back to our special presentation. I see that Senator and Johnson Stewart is here. Um first of all I want to say welcome Senator. Thank you for taking time out of your I know very busy schedule to be here. And again I just want to say we here are sitting here at the city. We um are not wearing our Democrat or our Republican hat. We are here um nonpartisan because we represent all the people in our community and I really want to focus on the issues that pertain to our city and issues that we have um an interest in and I think um we gave you a few ideas but maybe the um other council members might have a few more ideas. I'm hoping you have information of course and bonding and and how we can get money and how you're helping us to do that. We also want to talk a little bit about the highway seven safety coalition and corridor. And I also want to talk about any potential um bills that might be coming to the house and senate regarding planning and zoning and housing issues. That was a huge issue um last um session. And then maybe one other question if you happen to know is there any talk about a special session yet this fall? That's what I know so far. And I may have a couple questions regarding fire districts and we might come up with a couple other ones, but these are ones that really are near and dear to our hearts as city elected officials. So I hope we can have some conversation about that and thank you very much for coming. My pleasure. Thank you, mayor. So I'm Senator Anne Johnson Stewart. I only know Jasper and Lisa. Oh, anybody? [laughter] >> I'm happy to get together with any of you if you have time or interest. Um, I was a state senator in 2021 and 2022, uh, representing Senate District 44, which was Plymouth, Minnetonka, and Woodland. And then during redistricting, I was districted with Kelly Morrison, who, uh, received DFL endorsement and went on to win. She served for two years. I continue to be really involved with local infrastructure issues because that's my area of expertise and really the area where I spend most of my time. I'm a civil engineer and I uh I'm a civil engineer. I teach at the University of Minnesota and um when I was first elected I had uh organized an or a group called the infrastructure alliance. And so even in those two years that I wasn't serving I to try to build um support for things like bonding and trunk highway funding, etc. So, I'm back in the legislature now with this new district that extends, as you know, all the way out to the county line. Um and so, Minatrista and St. Bonnie are my furthest west um constituents and they really have enjoyed getting to know Lisa. Uh Frank and I'm sorry, mayor. Uh I'll try to be more respect or more >> fancy. Yeah. Um Jasper and I have spent quite a bit of time together. He's really quite um motivated and interested in understanding water rates and water infrastructure. So he and I have worked together on quite a few things. Um I really I will take as much time as you give me. I teach at the U so I'm happy to talk for two or three hours. No time. Let's try one again. Has no idea. When you talk long for a living, it's like no big deal. Today I was at the transportation alliance and they only gave me 15 minutes which was for some people an eternity for me. I barely got the introduction out. Um the most important thing I want to cover and again I'm happy to come back mayor. Um is this one pager that Jasper and I worked on. he did the majority of the work but we did go back and forth so that as we present this one pager sorry two pages to the bonding committee um what I know the bonding committee is looking for is covered in here so he's done a great job and I want to thank him for that um I am on the bonding committee and while I'm not the vice chair I am kind of the ex the kind of pretend vice chair uh Senator Papus relies on me quite a bit. Um as um we tour the state uh we don't really have a time to see every single community that needs bonding dollars. So that's why I had uh the Trista and some of the other communities in our district put this together so that we were prepared. And in fact after Senator Favis saw this. We did not get on the tour but she is now wanting to schedule a meeting which I think is a good thing. Um really um I coached Jasper on what we're looking for here. Really the bonding committee. This year, let me just give you a very brief history. Last year we were told by the governor uh that we only had $700 million to uh provide in bonding. For those of you don't that don't know, Minnesota is one of the states that helps local governments fund their infrastructure projects that have regional significance. even though we feel the straight a little bit from that, but they must have regional significance. And we usually try to fund up to half of the bonding or the um project costs. Um and last year we were told we couldn't do any local projects. Now, we did funnel a lot of money into what's called the public facilities authority. And I know that Minatrista is in that list and is pursuing funding. However, the reality for this Senate district is we really have too high of median household incomes and home values to score very high on that list, which would allow for grant funding. So, this year, so last year, we did not do a lot of very many local projects. Really, the only ones we funded were through that PFA. This year though, we have 1.3 billion, or at least we've been told by the governor. And so we're going to really focus on small communities and we're frankly going to focus on water and sewer infrastructure. Uh I've been meeting with Senator Pavis for the entire last year, even when I wasn't elected, um to really prioritize that. And so that's what we're focusing on. Uh there's other communities around here that need road projects. We're asking for money for road projects that are um being dug up because of the water and the sewer infrastructure. Then at Trista, of course, you guys are well aware you need your infrastructure. You need the water pipes to go to your very um kind of northern area. And so that's one of the requests. So this is what you guys are asking for. Um I again I think Jasper did a great job. I really wanted him to focus on the fact that you guys have an entire section of entire township of Miami. You guys are six miles by six miles. You are six times as big as um you know St. Bonnie or Excel shear >> 32 square miles just just >> say again >> 32 square miles square miles >> yeah 6 by6 right minus a little bit but anyway um I really wanted to emphasize the fact that you guys have to extend pretty far up every foot of pipe of course costs a lot of money and so that's what we're asking for so I will pause right there if you have any questions around bonding I'm really going to push for Minatrista to get at least some portion of their project funded through state. These are grants, so general obligation bonds, which I don't think Minister has ever gotten before. Those are that's just that's just state funded infrastructure. Senator, just FYI, we've never gotten anything. We've never asked for anything. Correct. This is the first time that the first time that we're hoping we get um Y hopefully that'll put us up higher than others. >> Yeah. and we are ready to give that message. So, I just heard from Senator Papus today that we're gonna put us on a Zoom bonding tour and so we'll be hearing from you. >> You know, you weren't here. We were tell >> Yeah. So, don't feel like we're going around you. It's just we've been conversing and getting prepared. So, the bonding tour was last week. We were in Excel and Matanka Beach. But what I had the rest of the communities in this district put together was this. So that on the bus when we were going from Excelsier to St. Bon or to the Taco Beach I was able to talk about the communities. So really important you get this because you are growing fast as you already know questions when you will find out maybe has a question. >> So so the process is this of course we don't go back into session until February 17th this year. We have a short year. It's a policy year and we'll be focusing on those kinds of things. Um, we will get our numbers from Office of Management and Budget in early 2026. Governor will play around with those numbers a little bit, but again, we're expecting $1.3 billion. And then I am talking fast because I know you have other stuff to ask. So, in case you think I'm rushing, it's so we can get to other stuff. Um uh we won't know until the very last day of session if the bonding bill passes. It's usually kind of held hostage by all four caucuses. So the House and the Senate Republicans and the House and the Senate Democrats will bargain with it because general application funds must be funded by uh supermajority. So both Democrats and Republicans have to vote for it. And so oftentimes it's used as kind of leverage. So you will not find out if you got any money until literally the last minute. Um and I've told everybody this. Don't give up. If you if you I'm sure at that time I'll be speaking with the mayor and saying, "You're in. You're not in. You're in. You're not in." And that is exactly how it goes. Um, and so that is one of my missions is to take the politics out of bonding because I really believe everybody should be able to drink water comes from their tap and flush their toilets and get good results. Uh, and so really that's our focus is on so water and I I'm really working hard to make it difficult. We do any other questions regarding water. Right. Right. So next, what is the next big item do you think coming up in the next session regarding the is it going to be again the housing and planning involving those issues? I think it will be housing. We don't have um right now Patty you guys have Annie Meyers. My other partner in the house is Patty Aim and both Patty and I live in Minnetonka where they have a full-time person working on housing issues and zoning issues. So we are um really leveraging that and we are working mostly Patty to help come up with some strategies so that we can come into session actually pre session with some objective or with some objective legislation that Patty and I can vote for. Um last time around I stood on the state um uh state and local government committee. We're the ones that had to pass the housing bill through and we voted it down. Um I I believe in affordable housing, absolutely 100%. But I had heard from all 15 mayors and many of um our city staffs that the policies that were put forth in legislation last year just weren't workable. Um really frankly weren't workable. I mean, for you know, some of our communities where they're fully build out where the land is prohibitive, a little expensive. I mean, you cannot I can't afford a house in many of the communities that are in my district and my husband and I are both working professionals. So, the land in Weisetta precludes it from even investigating affordable housing. So, what we're doing is we're coming up with some alternatives. Um I sit on the bonding committee and what we know is that there's many communities that want to um ex want to develop in like areas that are reszoned voluntarily by the communities. Rochester for example has a large industrial area that they want to um redevelop with affordable housing units but the sewer pipe going to it is big enough for the building that used to be there. not for the 1,800 affordable housing units that they want to build. So, cities are being handcuffed by the existing infrastructure, whether it's the roads, mostly it's the water and sewer, frankly. Frankly, mostly it's the sewer. I mean, if you're going to build move in 3,600, 5,000 people, you need to be able to transport their sewage. And so, this is one reason why this should not be political, right? like everybody creates sewage [laughter] and drinks water. So, I'm working right now [clears throat] to enhance that funding option so that communities that do want to do uh affordable housing development, they're not they're they're not hindered by their existing infrastructure. So, they have extra bonding money and extra funding so they can explore those options so that communities like Tonka Beach or I'm sorry, Tonka Bay or Minnitanka Beach, they don't have anywhere to put affordable housing. Yeah, I think our biggest issue is um the bills that were voted last year um the middle and housing bill and it would just preempt um all of our zoning um and planning um and it would basically throw out a comprehensive plan of which we spent a lot of time creating and a lot of money creating it and we're just trying to throw that out the window. And the other um thing that we adm is is also um not just the um sewer and water infrastructure, but then there's also additional policing, additional staffing, additional fire and in fire. I mean, how can you get fire trucks on these tiny little WS that they want to put in? So all of those things considered is can be a huge impediment. And really what we look at, we want affordable housing no matter what. But what these bills really were was just a taking and just doing nothing other than lighting pockets of of developers and builders. And we want to work with them. We want to have them in our community, but we need to work with them rather than having them dictate to us what we can and can't win in our community. because I think that's why we were we were elected to represent the people here. So I think um in your next session keep us afraid at the bills and we will also keep appraised with that because we're very much in tune with that but um and I know that we cities also very much involved in that as well. So we'll we'll be we'll be hearing what's going on and you'll be hearing from us so that you know how to represent that are in your district. So, we appreciate that and I know you did that last year and I know Andrew Myers will be hearing from us and he knows that and he's aware of that and I believe that um our representatives will be representing us. So, we greatly appreciate that. It's my pleasure and I I do understand and I spent time lessons I you know like with them getting our mayors together regularly but once a once a month and then sometimes on the off times there's other groups that are meeting around housing around property taxes around electric or around um electric bikes >> and those are really our three top priorities right now. So I am available and I do understand your issues and I feel exactly the same. >> I said that's the challenge. You're putting out six mile square so a lot of it is rural and so just >> that's correct. and you should be the ones that decide how your community is developed and where development takes place. Oh, I really support volume. Yeah. Um, they both have my cell phone number. So, yeah, you have seen it's a lot more efficient to call me directly than both of my staff. And I know she's watching this and she's probably cringing, but >> the only the other big issue um that pertains directly to our city as well as a number of cities here, we've been working on a fire partnership agreement of course and heart. One of the issues we run into is the there's two different fire departments and two different relief funds um retirement funds and to try and balance it out and bring them together. It's very very costly. And now I know um throughout the state there's a lot of fire departments that want to converge or want to do JPA or else districts. And so that's one issue that's come up in our discussions and our um negotiations. And that's something I think the state should look at. How are they of help um to bridge that that funding gap if you will? But then the other one, the other issue is um with districts, if you create a fire district, the one and only formula that you can use as 100% market value. And I think there might be some u maybe us included or other communities around here that might be interested in a different formula if we ever wanted to create a string. and that would be making a 5050 spline 50 market value 50 um service calls. So if if there's something the state could do to change that that law that says we have to do only that one formula because again every community is different and every JPA or every district might be different and the needs might be a little bit different. So having one formula that fits everybody in the entire state is a little difficult. So keep that in mind. Um if that can come up um I think we would really appreciate um some of we are giving in that area. Um yeah in response I would say it's not a matter of if it comes up if we wanted to come up we can investigate that. I know or long lake and water town and or maybe it's Maple Plane. Not sure. >> I think it's Maple Plane. They're very interested in that topic and I think just by nature of the size of our communities and how invenates to both equipment but then also retirement benefits and then just logistics as well. >> Thank you. We'll put that on the agenda. Right. Anything else? >> We don't want to take that one. Thank you for the mayor's meetings. I would love to be able to make all of them, but really appreciate your time and attentiveness to our meetings. Really appreciate it. So, thank you very much. >> Yeah, and I'll continue to work with Mindot and my colleagues on the Highway 7 project. It's something I'm very familiar with and something that I'm following. So, mayor, if you have any specific issues or if you have constituents that want to talk about that, my way. >> All right. Thank you, D. Yeah, I'll come back anytime. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We know. >> Thank you for saying. All right. Well, again, um so now we'll go back uh to our business items. And our last business item is the A20 order 19. And this is for communication and outreach assistant um assistance related to the water utility changes. I believe um we talked about doing some sort of mass if you will a lot of communication regarding the rates and regarding the change from quarterly to monthly and this will take some educating public and informing them. Jasper, do you want to add or do a quick overview or >> Yeah, I definitely can. Um, Madame Mayor, thank you uh for letting me talk about this a little bit. Basically, what this will give us um from a staff side and that's, you know, me, Gary, Paula is just another tool in the toolbox to help communicate a lot of these changes that are we're talking about doing. Um, one with the water treatment plant construction. One big aspect is we're going to have a project page or this would allow us to have a project website where they're updating it with pictures from on-site like almost immediately just to kind of keep everybody in the loop as far as the progress, where we're at, what to expect um with the plant. Um that's one big piece. The other pieces are um social media posts, website, or I said website, um newsletter, uh and then yeah, a a kind of defined social media structure post. Um, so it it's it's it's, you know, $18,840 not to exceed that, but what it is is it's a task order. We don't have to spend all of that, but when we have a a newsletter that needs to go out or a, you know, social media post, what this will allow us to do is create graphics and and things like that nature to to help us communicate. >> So, let's say um they we say, "Well, we should send out a postcard via a snail mail." you know, um they'll create the design and the the wording and all of that and then will they print it or they give it to us and then we print it. >> So, good question. So, we would be um we're in charge of all of the um printing and and things of that nature um to get those out. So, >> um we're city will handle mailing lists, printing, postage, hosting, notifications, uh bill adjustment, social media posting. So they'll they'll prepare. They would so in a social media posting situation, they'd help prepare what the post would be. Paula would then post it because she's the the social media person. So um really it's just another kind of technical support piece to help communicate what we're doing. Um and it's it's a lot. I think you maybe sense a little, I don't know, nervousness, but with the monthly billing change and with the the um you know, the plant going online and and and bill, you know, rates going up significantly um likely over the next few years, you know, making sure that we're able to maybe step up our communication with the residents to to try to head off any um hostile calls or people saying they don't know, they didn't know or we had no idea. You know, we're just trying to >> do our best um to communicate. This is one of the pieces that we think can help. >> Isn't the one of the main benefits of they've probably helped cities through this before and this is sort of our first time going through it. >> They do. they have they have experience in that sense of um especially with the utility rates and they were one of the you know I think you remember from maybe the last meeting or the meeting before uh you know we kind of initially maybe a month or so ago started talking about all the different changes and they they had some real hesitancy of doing everything by January one you know with the utility bills moving from quarterly to monthly um with the plan going online and with or not online but you know being awarded and then also um with the utility rates you know what we're looking at as far as increases. So, just a lot of things maybe to overwhelm folks. Um, so they do have experience >> question. We don't have to spend all we we'll be the drivers. We can say, well, we want a postcard to go out now or we we want a newsletter or we want this. So, we can be the drivers. I feel like if you want to be informed, you have to be proactive. I don't think the city sending a bunch of mailers or spend a lot of money on a active website gets people. I think when I want to know who's a call, I call I get on the city website. I think our website's great has a lot of information on it. I need an information I go through the website and everyone in the world uses you know uses the internet. So I I don't know that we have to be that much that much more. Well, the thing is is we just experienced we just went through and experienced um a whole bunch of residents telling us they didn't know they didn't know and yes yes it's people's responsibility to be in the know but yet we still get people constantly saying well I didn't know you know when did you do this when did you say this you know this is just another way to let everybody know when why In other words, for instance, the race, how many people would want to review and go through all of our council meetings and work sessions and listen to understand why we're doing the readings that we do, you know? So, I think I think it's it is so important so important to do with our messiness whether you think it's their responsibility or not. It's also our responsibility. It's our responsibility to try and communicate as much and as best we can our residents to help them understand why things are happening and and how it's going to affect them. That's our responsibility, right? But we have a website and we also have the ability to have people sign up to our Facebook page if they want to get updates and it I have experience I'm sure we all have where I saw something on next door complaining you know we all need to storm city hall this was a year like we should have stormed city hall a year ago about this particular we can go back and forth and argue about whether it's our responsibility or their responsibility But I think from a city standpoint, when I took office, people were saying, "Oh, the city never communicates. They don't do this. They don't do that." And one of our biggest even in our um our priorities and our goals in our strategic plan, communicating with our residents is one of our top strategic plans. So if if that shouldn't be, then that needs to come out on our strategic plan. But our strategic plan specifically lists one of the top fives is communicating with our residents. That's why we do the newsletter. That's why we have the website. That's why we do um the Facebook page. But with this particular thing with the water infrastructure, I can guarantee you that you're going to have a whole bunch of very angry people, if we don't communicate as best we possibly can with them why we're doing what we're doing and how much it's going to if we don't I I'll sit back and I'll I'll I'll send them to you because then I'll send them to the website with the explanation. All right. I mean, yeah, but how much is enough for the most part? Everyone, someone's going to always complain no matter how much you send. Did you do that? >> But it's okay. We have a website and we have a newsletter. I was in the planning commission before this saw some discussion treatment back then wasn't a lot city so conspiracy developed very contentious beings people just came out because They do they know they have so fast [clears throat] Yeah. And one, if I may, um, one touch point that I was here to experience was when we um, upped the rates and I think Q3 of 2022, I think it really hit hit the residents and I mean, we were we were inundated. We tried to get out the information through our normal means. Um and it was quite disruptive to I think mostly staff some city council. I mean we got 300 calls or you know something like that which is significantly more. Um so we're trying to head off that one you know because we want to communicate with the people and you know they're they're big for whatever reason they weren't engaged and they didn't know that the rates were going up. But so we're trying to do everything with this that we can to get that information out. So, this is, you know, if we want to if we want to kind of take it to the next level, this will get us there. Um, we can do the standard stuff, but I'm just I'm afraid that that might lead to a lot of questions, a lot of calls, a lot of, you know, stuff that that could be avoided potentially with this. >> Well, the other thing, too, is even just to update the website uh with information that's that's accurate and that's clear and concise. Um, that's that takes time, too. and then also to post on a Facebook page and to you know all of that takes time and um and all of that takes expertise as well but I can't tell you how important it is one it adds to transparency it adds to um better communication and understanding and the other thing is it adds to trust and there is a huge issue when your residents do not trust you and they don't trust you if you're not talking to them. If you're not telling them what's happening and why you're doing what you're doing, they there tends to then create it creates a mistrust or or well, why didn't you tell us? And you know, so I I can't tell you I've done this so many years. I I'm I'm far more experienced in this than you are. So, I'm not trying to, you know, obviously undermine your ideas, but I got to tell you, if you don't do this, you're you're going to have staff pulling their hair out and and they're going to be inundated with calls and the community is not going to trust us. And there is so much value in the community trusting us, knowing that we're trying to do the best we can. There's a huge difference. Huge difference with what happened 10 years ago with what's happening today. I can't tell you. I It's Yeah. And we don't have to spend the full 18,000. We can we can we can draw we can be the drivers. We can say how much we want to do and when we want to do it, but we have to do more than what justice. Okay. And I'll just make one more comment. $18,000 Okay, send a letter every week from city hall. I don't need to hire someone for fancy graphics and I just think send a letter to every single resident. Is it the folding the envelopes and putting them in the mail? How why do we have to spend $18,000? I mean I'm sure I and I will defer I do not have the experience you have and I was very helpful Brian when you said 300 or someone said 300 people call that's I didn't I was surprised to hear that I know this is expensive but you can't make people read their mail you can't make people and hiring I don't know why we need that's a lot you can cut in half doesn't >> yeah I mean it's an idea right that >> and I'm not a host. I again, you know, I've only been here videos. I'm learning every day I'm here and I realize every day how much I don't know. But I think that seems like a huge amount of money. Let's help me understand. >> I think part of it might be whether this helps or not is if you look on page 79, we don't have like five communication specialists and you know, they just have a lot more of wealth of resource and knowledge to be able to put this. I mean, they're going to be able to put up together stuff that makes sense to get out to the residents. We're gonna we can try our best and in addition to our daily duties, try to send something out, but they've probably done this before. And you hopefully that I guess I was going to ask Jester with the 18,000. I mean, I'm sure they've had like similar rollouts in other communities as far as what the right information and how much and what the information should look like. I mean, we can take our best stab at it, I guess, but I mean, they've that's what they have a team to to do this and stuff. We don't. we have, you know, Paula does her best as part of her other job duties basically, right? Or Jasper, you know, >> so that's I guess how I try to boil it down is that they are able to to do this and have done this for other communities where we would be doing this why let me ask the question. Brian, do you want to weigh in? Do you have any thoughts? Um my uh we can't communicate this on our terms uh proactively or we don't we're going to be communicating as calling. So I'm going to expern >> and um I absolutely understand your concern about sending thousands. We're not saying we're going to spend 2,000. I think what we need to do is, and I think they'll put together a plan if I'm not mistaken. They'll say, "Here's what our recommendation is." Um, and then we can say, "Okay, let's do this. See how much that cost? How much time does that take? Okay, was that effective? You know, we can do this, this, and this, and then we can be the drivers. and we can spend 3,000 or we can spend 8,000 or we can spend 18,000 and I think we we can drive what they're going to do. >> Yeah, if I may. Um, so it is outlined in the task order what the deliverables are going to be. It's the project website, newsletter, postcard, and then all the social media. That's about half those deliverables are. And then there's one phase five that's support that's roughly half and that's for the day-to-day. Hey, we have this question or this thing is coming up that we we didn't anticipate. It's for that. That's the that's where where we may not spend that money. But if something comes up, there's a task order that's associated with this kind of communication project that we can then use. And this is over 30 months. So this this kind of starts and ends, you know, when if it would get approved and it's a 30-month project. So all you know two and a half years um it comes out to be you know whatever that is $500 a month you know something like that $600 a month. So it's it's it's a longer term project. So it's not a not a you know $18,000 we're going to spend it in a month. It's it's over 30 months. So if that helps at all. So basically the deliverables that we're talking about are about 9,000 and the other you know support piece of the unknown is about another 9,000. That does not include the printing of the books. >> No, it does not. >> It's not. It's not. There's much more involved. They're that they're just brainstorming on what words we're going to put on a piece of paper and then they're going to tell us we're going to print it. >> I mean, kind of uh you know, but they've done this before and they know what works. Um >> but really it it adds this >> it's not like staff has to do anything. >> Yeah. And if >> and if postage and that type of thing would be included in this, it'd be it'd be much more. I mean it costs us anytime we send even a postcard to a resident, it it costs us about a dollar for printing and for postage. >> That's over and above what they charge. >> Yeah. And there's, you know, 20 250 >> we don't have the staff to put together the the the postcard. So who would design it? What what >> did this I understand this really >> doesn't do a postcard to do five or six postcards and then he has to sit there or Paula has to do this and and they have to get all the correct information and they have to design it. I mean um I don't get it. So, I know you're against this. That's fine. Invoke. I mean, I just want to understand more. I mean, I'm asking these questions so I can understand. I don't need a fancy logo and it doesn't have to be really pretty. If it said, "Here are 10 things you need to know about your water. Why these expensive? I don't need a fancy marketing firm to tell me, wow, you know, I I think we should try it first. I mean, heck, give me the bullet points. I'll draw something up for you the first time. expected and I'm I'm willing to help do this and I know that there's other cities where there are council members that do this for them because that's their expertise. So, I'm not saying it's my expertise, but you know, we're very and I so respect you, Madame Mayor, and your knowledge and you clearly have far more side. However, I do social media every single day and I know what's effective and I know what gets to people and it's uh Facebook pages and Instagrams are free >> and I think we can that your opinion but council what is your pleasure? you want to um hold off, not do this. Um bring that something else um >> all right and so do I. So I'm looking for a motion to um uh approve task order number 19 for communication and outreach related to the water changes. >> Thank you, Mr. Govern. Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Dicky. All those in favor signify by I. I. All those opposed. Name. Motion passes. Uh 31 with Miss Lazy Des. So, thank you and I appreciate all of you. Thank you. Um next we move on to um I believe administrative items, staff reports. Yeah, Madame Mayor, members of council, um don't have much other than we're kind of in the the throws of uh the holiday tree lighting planning. Um as a reminder, that's December 4th. Um we we have started having some donations roll in, so we appreciate all the the folks that that are donating. Um you know, I think we'll likely hit our goal. There will be fireworks. We have that agreement uh all in place. So that's all all set up. They they're they're fully permitted through the St. Bonafacious Fire Department. So, um, that'll be good. So, we're we're in the process of planning that. Hopefully, we have good weather. It sounds like there's going to be a little shift in our, uh, prolonged maybe summer, um, soon. So, we might actually be in winter by the time this hits. >> So, we have Santa coming. So, they get in December 4th from 5 to 7. It's right here at city hall or revenue store. And then we um fireworks. We also have wine beer sales, food sales, bonfires. So, it'll be fun. >> Okay. Anything else? >> That should be it. >> We do have a planning commission meeting on November 24th. >> November 24th. What's on the agenda for >> a couple variances and a conditional use permit? >> Anybody? November 24th. >> Peter, can you do that? Um, anything else from staff? Um, then council reports, are you going to go to the WCC meeting November? Last one. I have a question. Um, is the next work session at 5:30 or 5:30? >> Supposed to be at 5. We'll get that updated. Yep. >> Thank you. Any other reports and I met the next? Yeah. Um, I was just at the uh Westside Community Commerce lunchon and it was it was jam-packed. But one thing that was really impressive was Kevin B, our student spoke about some of the wonderful things. So it was really impressive. So I was America really amazing by Um all right and then um I'll be attending um several Zoom meetings between now and December um again with mayors and John Stewart and also Northwest League next week next week and um I have been gone for my family meeting um so I'm back just a little about 3:00 in the morning right now. Um, so with that, that's all there is. Um, we can be a journey. If I have a motion, thank you, Mr. Vicky. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Govern. All those in favor, please sign with I motion pass. Thank you. Thank you very much and we will see you in two weeks. Number 17.