Welcome everyone. Um, I am Subud, Mayor Pro Tem, because our mayor is out today and it's my pleasure to uh fill in. So, Kim, can you do the roll call? Council member Bechor. Here. Council member Engelking. >> Here. Council member Brosnahan. >> Here. Council member Ferris. Here. Council member Bodwin. Here. And Mayor Pro Tem Bud. Here. All right. Before we begin our meeting, let's say the Pledge of Allegiance. So, join us if you'd like. I pledge 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. Great. We have an agenda in front of us. Do I have a motion for approval? So moved. Second. Moved by Brosnahan, seconded by Bodwin. Um, any discussion around the agenda? Hearing none, uh let's take a vote. All those in favor of approval, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The agenda is approved. First thing on our agenda this evening is uh some some presentations. Uh the first presentation is accepting a donation to the city to support the summer concert series, and for that we're going to hear from Lisa Abernathy, the recreation supervisor. Yes, hello. Good evening. Thank you for having me. Um, on behalf of the Parks and Recreation Department, we just want to give a generous thank you to the St. Louis Park Rotary for their continued support of our summer concert series that we hold in the lovely Veterans Memorial Amphitheater each summer. Uh we have our Wednesday morning kids concert series, our Wednesday evening concert series, and then our open mic series. And then sprinkled throughout the summer, we have some theater performances as well as our some Saturday night concerts. Um so, I did leave a concert brochure for you all. Um so, encourage everyone to come out to the park this summer and enjoy some entertainment. Um and again, the Rotary has been a great support and um are also involved in the the evening performances. Um they show up to represent the Rotary as well as contribute what they can to that event. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone have any questions for Lisa? All right. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. That's a very generous donation. I just had a few moments to preview their preview the the brochure and it's full of all kinds of exciting events throughout the summer. So, check it out on the website and mark your calendars. Does look like a lot of fun. Okay, next proclamation is observing the International Compost Awareness Week. And Council member Bronson is going to read that proclamation. Thank you very much. It's my honor to read this as I am a backyard composter. So, this is the proclamation observing International Compost Awareness Week 2026. Whereas the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation along with Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other countries have declared the first full week of May to be the annual International Composting Awareness Week. And whereas composting is a way of returning organic resources to the soil, conserving water in during extreme drought or flooding conditions, decreasing erosion, reducing water consumption and non-point pollution, and decreasing the dependence on chemical fertilizers. And whereas composting is an effective form of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. And since organic materials make up approximately 30% of the material in our trash stream, composting is a significant way for St. Louis Park to reduce waste and to help Minnesota reach state recycling goals, and whereas organic materials such as food scraps, compostable paper, compostable products, and yard waste have all been composted and converted into a nutrient-rich soil amendment known as compost. And whereas local governments, highway departments, soil conservation service, and extension offices, and public works professionals can have significant impact on clean water, soil, and climate change by using compost for public works projects, Paul. And whereas composting creates green jobs and infrastructure for cities and states who implement composting programs. And whereas International Compost Awareness Week is a pub- publicity and education initiative to showcase compost production and demonstrate compost use. And whereas this year's theme, "Compost: Feed the soil that feeds us," was selected to highlight the role compost plays in sustaining life on land. Now, therefore, let it be known that the city of St. Louis Park, in recognition of the efforts of the US Composting Council, the Minnesota Composting Council, soil conservation stewards, residents, landscapers, farmers, recyclers, public workers, composters, gardeners, and plant growers everywhere, hereby proclaim the week of May 3rd through the 9th, 2026, as International Compost Awareness Week. Thank you to all of you for doing this. I didn't even realize there was a Minnesota Composting Council or a US Composting Council, but it seems they're doing good work in making us aware of this important week, so um I'd encourage everybody to compost. It's a very down-to-earth proclamation. Well, thank you, Paul. Grown, grown. Thank you. you, Commissioner or Council Member Pearson. Um I too am a am a composter at home and absolutely love seeing how much more of that I have than my garbage or than trash. So, um so it's amazing how much healthier that can be for our environment. Um the next proclamation is observing National Therapy Animal Day and we are joined tonight by a very special guest. We have um Bonnie Thiesse from North Star Therapy Animals with Annie, is it? With Annie, um who is a therapy dog herself and um we'll have her come up in just a minute, but I'm first going to read the plaque for the proclamation. Whereas April 30th has been designated as National Therapy Animal Day in the United States and whereas St. Louis Park recognizes the positive work of thousands of therapy animal teams serving in communities across the United States. And whereas therapy animal teams in the city of St. Louis Park interact with a variety of people in our community, including students facing literacy challenges, veterans, seniors, patients, and those approaching end of life. And whereas these exceptional therapy animals who partner with their human companions bring comfort and healing to those in need here in the St. Louis Park community, schools, medical facilities, and organizations. And whereas National Therapy Animal Day presents St. Louis Park residents the opportunity to research and engage with therapy animal teams and meaningful therapy animal visits. Now, therefore, let it be known that the mayor and the city council of the city of St. Louis Park hereby observe National Therapy Animal Day and encourage all people to recognize the profound impact of the bond between animals and humans. So, Bonnie, I will ask you to come up and uh This is Annie. Okay, let's Ooh. Come here. Come here. There we go. You sit. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, good girl. Oh. What are you doing? What are you doing? She's shy. She is not shy. Well, you can do whatever you need to do. There you go. I'm going to >> I got to get the wagging tail. There you go. There you go. All right, thank you. Oh, thank you. How do you get her? Here. I know you're She's like, I think everyone here should just take a minute to spend time with me and pet. Thank you very much for joining us and bringing her along. Um, I actually have a younger sister that is a dedicated animal therapy team, a part of a team, and um, and really finds that work so rewarding cuz it's brings such joy to people. So, I I'm glad that we get to take this moment to recognize those of you that put in the hard work to uh to make it all happen. Any other comments from council? Okay. We will move on to um recognition of donations, and that is for um me to read. Um I'm um going to announce and express our appreciation of the following donation from the Saint Louis Park Rotary in the amount of $7,250. Um it's a donation to support the Parks and Rec Summer Concert Series that we heard about earlier. So, um just want to make um mention of that um of that donation, and it's much appreciated by the city and its residents. Um let's see. We have two sets of um, minutes from our city council meeting on April 6th and our special study session meeting minutes of April 6th. Any um, or do I have a motion for approval? I'll motion to approve the meeting minutes. >> And second. Motion moved and seconded. Any discussion or amendments to those? All right. They look good to me as well. So, let's take a vote on that. All in favor of approval of the minutes, say I. I. Any opposed? All right, that approval passes. We have a consent agenda with several items on it this evening. Um, do I have a motion for approval? >> I'd move approval of the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Do we have I had a comment that I just wanted to make on one of the items. Um, on um, item 5D, we are approving the donation of retired city um, computer equipment to PCs for people and I think that's really cool that the city um, donates that to an organization that actually makes reuse of as much of it as they can. Um, it uh, 32,000 lb of e-waste was saved from landfill and more than 200 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent um, also was um, prevented. That's the equivalent of 46 cars in annually, so I think that's pretty significant and a much wiser way to make use of our old um, IT equipment than um, than putting it in landfill. So, I just wanted to call that out. Anyone else have comments on consent items? Uh, Council or Council member Godden. Sure, thank you. Um, a couple items on I think are worth noting. First is the resolution approving the 2026 through 2028 International Association of Firefighters Local Number 993 Assistant Chief Battalion Chief Labor Agreement. As always, I want to thank our human resources staff and also the union for coming to a labor agreement and and agreeing to work for us for another 3 years. I'm happy whenever we have labor peace. Which we have consistently here in city of St. Louis Park. The other thing I'd note is we are approving mobility sharing licenses for both Spin and Lime um scooters are they referred to? Yes. Anyway, we've approved those licenses again and they'll be populated throughout the city and I'd encourage our residents to both utilize them and be safe and careful on them too and don't leave them laying on the sidewalks. Thanks. Any others? Any other comments? All right. Um we need to vote on that. Yeah, great. So um so let's uh take a vote on the consent items for tonight approving the consent agenda. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? The consent agenda passes. We don't have any public hearings this evening. We have no regular business on our council meeting. Any communications and announcements Kim? Yes, I do have a few. I have like the fun get outside ones and then I have my nerdy budget one for you all. So starting with fun get outside, Earth Day is this week. There's a celebration at the library on Wednesday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Come there and and play. We also have a creek cleanup event on Saturday morning starting out the municipal service center. Um and you come and help beautify the creek. We do this as staff every year as well. We do a cleanup event and it is just a fantastic way to get out and and spend some time together. Be sure you dress for the weather. And then if you're not too tired after cleaning the creek, we have the annual kite fly that afternoon. So Saturday afternoon and that's going to be at Louisiana Oaks Park starting at noon. Bring lawn chairs, bring a picnic lunch, bring a kite and fly it with members of the Minnesota Kite Society. Then the the last thing that I have is around budget planning. So it is almost May, which means the departments are figuring out their their budget proposals to give to to me right now. We're starting our fiscal planning. So residents can mark their calendars for some public dates, some key dates. August 3rd is when the general fund proposed budget will be presented to council. September 8th is when we'll talk about the capital plan and then September 22nd is when we'll ask you all to consider the preliminary levy. We also are really proud to announce a brand new online budget book. Traditionally, the budget book is printed and it's thick. The online one you can click into it, you can explore. Every department has its own page that talks about the accomplishments as well as the numbers and kind of be able to see what the tax dollars paying for here in St. Louis Park. So you can find that all this information I've talked about on our web pages. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. A lot of fun stuff with our spring weather. Okay, so we have nothing further on the council meeting agenda. So with that this meeting is adjourned.