I'll call the meeting to order. Welcome to the February 10th city council meeting. Um, members of the public may attend this meeting in person or may watch and listen remotely by viewing the meeting on channel 8 WCTV and at the city's website at weisetta.org/wctv. Public comment during the public forum and or public hearing portion of the meeting may be provided in person at the meeting in advance or by logging into the team's call and raising your hand during the public hearing. When your name is called in the meeting, you will be seen and heard in our council chambers and the cable channel. You'll be asked to unmute and uh turn your camera on. Then you may begin your comments. All public comments should include your first name and uh who you're representing. Next, we uh item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. I would ask everyone to stand if you are able follow along. 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. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Next is our roll call. Uh let the uh record reflect that all council members are present. I will also note that earlier this evening the uh city council uh participated in a workshop and discussed the following discussion of the greater uh Lake Minnetonka area legislative coalition and then uh just discussed our future workshop topics for uh February, March and April. Next is uh to approve the agenda. I would need a motion to approve the agenda or do we need to make any changes to tonight's agenda? Mr. Mayor, I'll make that motion. >> Great. Could I have a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. That passes. Next is um public forum. Do we have anyone um here or uh online for the public forum? >> Mr. Mayor, we do not. >> Okay. So, no items there. Um we have a new agenda item. Do we need to add that to the record formally? Um or or is just take that in course? The one that item B, it's already been on there. >> Oh, yeah. It's been added to the agenda as amended. >> Great. >> So, we don't have to deal with that. We'll go on to the consent agenda. Um, on tonight's consent agenda for review is approval of the city council workshop and regular meeting minutes of January 20th, 2026, approval of the check register, approval of municipal licenses, approval of resolution 042026 authorizing and approving and authorizing the execution of a cooperative construction agreement with the M Minnesota DOT and um, ADA improvements. Adoption of resolution 062026 supporting the authority to impose a special local food and beverage sales tax to fund operations and capital improvements and adoption of resolution 072026 approving residential recycling grant agreement with Henipin County. Could I get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented or do we need any amendments? >> I'd make that motion, Mr. Mayor. >> Could I have a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. That passes. Um, we have nothing on public hearings. So, we'll go on to new business. We have two items tonight. Uh, just noting that the agenda was updated uh earlier today. So, we have two items tonight. The first is consider approval of administrative policy related to liquor licensing installment payments and approval. The first reading of ordinance 856 amending city code chapter 501 general licensing provisions 502 intoxicating liquor and 503 wine and 504 3.2 malt liquor and 505 private club liquor. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council. It's a very long title but uh simple in concept. So I'll I'll break that down for you um here. Um, so some background on this request and the reason for this ordinance amendment and administrative policy. Um, we've been approached by some restaurant owners with concerns about the timing of our liquor license fees. Those renewals come up in March and that's when they have to submit all their paperwork and pay their liquor license fee. Um, that's at a slower time for the restaurant industry, so it doesn't really align with their cash flow. Um, and as you can see, our 2026 um, on sale liquor license fee is a little over $13,000. So, given that, we looked at some options. The city clerk researched and um, found an option to allow for installment payments. There are several other cities that already do this and um this would allow for the renewals to still come forward in March but allow for their payments to be spaced out into June and December where they have um more business at that time. Um so this gives them some flexibility but as a city it doesn't really change our process that much. Um the total dollar amount that's due to the city remains the same. It just allows them better flexibility in terms of the timing. We did um reach out to some restaurants um about this proposal. We heard back from five people that said they were supportive of it and we heard no negative feedback. Um this does require a minor code amendment to all the sections of our liquor license. So that's why there's um so many listed um there just to allow and reference that it can be paid in installments according to our policy. So there's no again no change to the deadlines but allowing the approval of the administrative policy and then making these ordinance amendments is what would we need in order to allow this kind of flexibility. So with that I would ask for you to consider approval of the administrative policy related to the liquor license installment payments and approval of the first reading of ordinance 856 amending city code chapters 501 502 503 504 and 505. and I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Questions of staff. >> I have one quick question. >> Go ahead. >> Uh, manager Joerger, is that March deadline typical or a state deadline? My the reason why I'm asking is I would hate for some restaurant tour to think that the deadline is aligned with when the fee is due and I'd hate for someone to misunderstand or get lost in the shuffle and then all of a sudden have their license left. >> Yeah, that's a really good point. So, we actually send out uh an entire packet of renewal paperwork to every um business. So, they're notified with they have a lot that they have to submit to us which then we submit to the state. So, it's not that they have to come into city hall and inquire about it. We're we're sending them a packet of renewal information. So, I'm not concerned that it's going to lapse. And again, keeping it at the same timeline um I think will help with that. And we've already um worked on a letter to them to explain kind of what this installment plan would look like as an option for roll out. >> Well, that feels great. I think [clears throat] uh this sounds like a real lowhanging fruit way of um listening and adapting to the needs of um our local businesses. I think it's great. Yeah, I I too am just really pleased this came up uh I think a couple times during our engagement process around food and beverage sales tax potential and this was a suggestion from them and it's great that we were able to act on it um showing our flexibility and support of our very large restaurant community. So that's great. >> Any other questions? Otherwise, I would accept a motion to approve uh the approval of the administrative policy related to liquor licensing installment payments for 501, 502, 503, 504, and 505. >> Mr. Mayor, I'm just going to add it's it's approval of the administrative policy and approval of the first reading of ordinance 856. >> Noted. I would make that motion. Could I have a second? Second. >> Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed passes 5 to zero. Thank you. Next is item 9B which is consider adoption of resolution 092026 related to general obligation equipment certificate series 2026A and authorizing the issuance and awarding the sale. Uh this relates to the purchase of a uh fire ladder truck. >> Yes. Uh, thank you, mayor and council. So, uh, at our last council meeting, the city authorized moving forward with the issuance of about $ 1.55 million in equipment certificates to pay for our upcoming, um, fire department ladder truck. As part of the process to issue debt, we went through another rating process. I'm pleased to announce that we did maintain our AAA bond rating. Um, so earlier today was when the um, sale was had for this debt. There were seven biders on it. The lowest true interest c cost was 2.74%. Um the issue size was decreased by $175,000 due to receipt of a premium bid. So now we're looking at authorizing um debt of 1.375 million instead of 1.55. And that's reflected in your um resolution here tonight. um an update on, you know, by authorizing this debt, how might this impact future levies? Um looking at in 2027, if all things were held constant from this year forward, it would impact our 2027 levy about 1.3% of an increase and a little over 1% in 2028 and then flat through there. Um so with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the issuance of this debt and the purchase of the ladder truck. Otherwise, we'd be looking for adoption of resolution 92026. >> Questions of staff hearing? None. Then I would >> I'd just make a comment that um this is just great proof of the importance of us maintaining fin like fiscal discipline and the strength of our city from a financial standpoint and the impact that this has on like the cost of what we do. I mean, this is a couple hundred thousand dollar savings from what we thought just because of the I mean, not just because of the strength of the city, but it like it just highlights the importance of our fiscal discipline and the financial just maintaining the financial strength of the city. >> Makes everything we do cheaper. >> Yes, >> thank you for those comments, Council Member Crook. I completely agree. >> Whenever we keep getting that Moody's endorsement of AAA, we'll take it. [clears throat] Any other um comments? >> Yeah. One question. Uh so when the new truck arrives, we're going to dispose of the old truck. So just for the purpose of our wa v vast viewing audience, what will happen to that truck? How much do we think we might get for it? And what will we do with the money? Where will it go? >> Yeah, great question. So we're still in the process of trying to find what we think is a reasonable price for that. Ultimately, we are going to sell it and the proceeds from that we would put back into our equipment replacement fund to which is where we pay for things like this out of. So, that's where it will go. We're planning to keep both ladder trucks for a period of time as we get the new one all the way functional and up and running. Um, but we're still working on the exact purchase price. We're we've ladder trucks are kind of a hard thing to find the market for. Um, so we've reached out to some other kind of consultant sale agencies and we're trying to get a ballpark price of what we think we could get for it. >> So if we're going to keep both of them for a period of time, where are we going to park them? >> Um, one of them's going to the older one is going to go out to public works for a period of time. Yep. >> Any other questions? Hearing none, I would uh accept a resolution for adoption of 092026 related to the go equipment certificates series 2026A and authorizing the issuance and awarding the sale for our fire ladder truck. Who would like to make that motion? >> I'll make that motion, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you. A second. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say I. I. >> Those opposed, that passes 5 to zero. Um, now we are on to city manager report and discussion item. >> All right, I've got a couple of items to update the council and community about. Um, the first is just a reminder that we will city hall will be closed on Monday for President's Day. Um, the next thing I want to make sure folks are aware of and thanks to the mayor for reminding me to publicize this. On February 19th in the council chambers from 5:00 to 7:00, Mandot is hosting a public meeting to talk about the upcoming construction project along Highway 12 that's going to start this spring all the way through fall. So if you have questions about that project or want to talk to somebody in person, that's from 5 to 7 on February 19th. >> Yeah. And we'll be publicizing that on social media and in our uh email newsletter. Um I would encourage us all to read it. It's a fairly extensive project um going a great distance and connecting >> uh further west all the way from Minnetonka out to Shoreline Drive. So there's some pretty hefty improvements but also some hefty disruption that will happen beginning in April all the way through fall. >> Yep. >> Uh down to sometimes single lane on both sides um on on 39412. So it'll be hard to get in and out of Visetta and further west this summer unfortunately. >> Yep. >> But some good improvements on along the way as well. >> Mhm. Absolutely. So, it's a big disruption. So, if you have questions about it that want to make sure that folks are aware of that upcoming meeting. Um, another upcoming meeting, February 26th is our state of the city which will be in this room hosted by um the mayor. So, please keep that on your radar and attend if you can. >> Um, a couple of other things. Um, this meeting uh was off our typical cycle of first and third um Tuesdays of the month. So, just as a reminder, our next council meeting is February 24th. We're going to maintain that off cycle for meetings in March. So, we'll be meeting March 10th and March 24th and then kind of back to our usual cycle after that. And then lastly, we are recruiting still for two for some openings on two different boards and commissions. So, we're looking for folks to join the Energy and Environment Committee and the Heritage Preservation Board. So, if folks are interested, there's information on our website about what those boards and commissions do. um and contact Nick Keyser um or look at uh look on our website for Nick Keyser's contact information and um he'd be happy to give you an application or talk to you more about what those boards are like. And that's what I've got for you tonight. >> I just had one more thing to add just for the general awareness of the public. Um we are moving to first round of interviews for the city manager position which will be uh Thursday of this week where we have five very qualified candidates. um that we'll be interviewing and we're targeting the week of the 23rd for our finalists um you know assuming that all the process steps hold. So just just a general awareness um you know update for the public. So on track to hopefully make that decision by the end of end of February. Um so we have both internal and external candidates um in that first round. So that's all I have for that. >> Great. >> Anything else that we'd like to add or ask or comment on? Hearing none, I would Is there anyone else uh for public comment, >> Mr. Mayor? There is not. >> Okay. So, then I would accept a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting after 17 minutes and 30 seconds. >> I'll make that mo motion, Mr. Mayor. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> I'd second that. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. >> The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. When was the state of the city? >> Uh, it's going to be the 26th. >> Yeah, but what time