[0:00] e [0:54] I call the meeting to order welcome to the March 4th 2025 city council meeting uh memb MERS of the public May attend [1:01] this meeting in person or may watch and listen remotely by viewing the meeting on Channel 8 WCTV and at the city's [1:09] website at weta.org WCTV public comment during the public [1:15] forum Andor public hearing portions of the meeting may be provided in person at the meeting in advance or by logging on [1:22] to the team's call and raising your hand during the public hearing when your name is called in the meeting you will be [1:28] seen and heard in our Council Chambers and the cable channel you will be asked to unmute and then you may begin your [1:34] comment all public comments must include your full name and address uh the next [1:39] item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance I would ask everyone to stand if you can are able and follow [1:46] along I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the [1:53] Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and [1:59] justice [2:05] okay next on our agenda is the roll call um I will note that all council members [2:10] are present this evening next I'd like to uh recap what we discussed in Workshop earlier tonight [2:17] so all of us participated in a workshop and reviewed and discussed the following a presentation by the henpen county uh [2:24] assessor's office uh who serve as the city's assessor for both commercial and residential properties [2:30] uh for a briefing before our local board of appeals process which is in April of this year uh focused on 2025 property [2:38] value uh tax assessments by henpen County next we had an informational session on tax increment financing from [2:46] staff and our advisers to review and update the Tiff cash flow study uh as an [2:51] outcome uh we're going to be using this information in our budget planning cycle uh midyear this year next is to approve [2:59] approve tonight's agenda I need a motion to approve the agenda as is or if anyone would like to make any changes to the [3:07] agenda I'll move to approve the agenda as outlined mayor okay do we have a second second all in favor say I I was [3:15] oppose that passes um the next item uh on the agenda [3:20] is actually uh the public forum uh just as a reminder for those who are here in [3:26] attendance tonight and are interested in speaking absent the firefighters which will be called up separately um you need [3:31] to uh uh state your name and address uh and indicate if you're representing a group and limit your comments to 3 [3:38] minutes uh if you want to speak to something that is on the agenda you need to fill out a form at the back table and [3:45] uh send it forward to staff for anyone that's watching on the teams link please send a note via the chat feature to [3:52] staff and let them know what agenda item you would like to speak about and uh we also just note that if you do want to [3:58] speak via teams you need to have your camera turned on um next on the item it's one of my favorite times it's my [4:05] first time as mayor but uh we're swearing a new firefighters tonight and uh the public house is full tonight in [4:11] support of of these uh these these individuals joining our fire department I just have a few comments before I'm going to turn over the city manager um [4:18] our Yetta volunteer fire department boasts a long and storied history in town going back to the late 1800s when [4:25] it was a private Enterprise and then when its formal founding in the city in 1912 [4:30] um then it further formalized itself as a private Corporation in [4:35] 1922 uh before becoming a formal Department of the city of wetta and then [4:40] uh in 1963 it's an amazing institution with multi-generational service to our community and it's really an amazing [4:47] night I'm going to turn over to the city manager to lead us through the presentation of our new firefighters [5:02] thank you mayor Mullen and council members uh good evening everybody uh as the city manager I think it's probably [5:08] my greatest privilege to uh swear in our best public servants whether it's the [5:14] council police officers in this case are wonderful firefighters uh with the wi [5:19] fire department um and real quick before I introduce uh Chief clap Rich I just want [5:25] to say in addition to just seeing the family here and the entire fire Department here how touching that is um [5:33] our fire for many reasons our department is unique um currently I would say that [5:40] we're one of the very few fire departments uh few paid on call SLV [5:46] volunteer fire departments that are pretty close to fully staff uh our departments the the members [5:54] in our departments aren't doing it for the money uh Lord knows they don't get a lot of it uh they're not doing it even [5:59] for the pension they're not doing for the fame they're truly doing it just to give back and serve their Community [6:05] making it a safe place to live work and visit uh so um and it speaks just you [6:13] know full paid full paid on call departments is a tough um Dynamic these [6:19] days when everybody is so busy people don't have the time to volunteer there's a lot of uh requirements of the [6:25] firefighters for again uh minimal pay despite that our chief our leadership [6:32] our department continues to recruit and retain the best so I just wanted to [6:38] acknowledge that we're a unique situation AI unique Community for a variety of reasons uh this is really [6:45] exceptional uh so with that I wanted to uh introduce or bring uh Chief clait and [6:51] um we're g to start the swearing in process [6:59] well good evening Mr Mayor members of the council uh I guess I'd start out by [7:06] saying thank you for allowing us to be here uh this is something that uh we [7:12] don't do a lot because uh we have a lot of people that come around and they stay for a [7:18] long time so we don't have to do a lot of swearing ins uh I want to say thank you to the [7:25] members of the audience that came to support these people and all the members [7:30] of the wisett a fire department uh this this program started about 20 years ago what we do is [7:39] they get hired we usually we usually hire them and then within a couple weeks they're in school and then uh after [7:46] their year is up we bring them over here and we swear them in so these four [7:53] tonight have all in probably I think just a little over seven months have [7:59] gone through firefighter 1 firefighter 2 [8:04] Hazmat and EMR medical class okay all [8:09] total just that class not any of our stuff no fire calls just the class work [8:15] is about 225 hours twice a week [8:20] for uh 7 to eight months so all of these all four of these [8:28] are uh were hired last October I think it was the 16th of October and I think [8:33] probably on the 21st they were in class so what we're going to do is I'm [8:39] going to we'll call them up one at a time I'll read you a little bit of stuff information about them and then I'll [8:46] have Jeff swear them in once they're sworn in then they get to pick who comes [8:51] up and pins their badge on for the first time so first I'll take BART [9:00] you can stand right here so this is a Bart [9:08] Bastion Bart has lived in oeta for over 40 years he was born in the Netherlands [9:14] but moved here at the age of three with his father and mother and [9:20] siblings he currently lives in his wetta home with his two daughters Josie and [9:25] Iris and his girlfriend Stacy and her daughter Brinley Bart graduated from the University of [9:31] Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering since then he has worked at [9:36] various companies over the years abart has been a fire department firefighter with the fire department since 2023 and [9:44] is excited to continue in his spare time Bart enjoys [9:49] spending time with his family friends playing pinball cycling working on cars [9:54] and putting his degree to use by fixing and Building Things [10:01] Bart Bastion thank you Chief uh Bart if I [10:09] could have you uh raise your right hand and repeat after me maybe get a little closer so we can hear [10:15] you I state your name I Bart Bastian do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I [10:21] will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and [10:26] the constitution of the state of Minnesota and the con constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will discharge faithfully and I will [10:33] discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of firefighter the duties of the office of firefighter in the city of [10:40] wetta in the city of wetta County of hennipen County of hennipen state of Minnesota state of Minnesota to the best [10:47] of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations you [11:03] [Music] if you need to pin them a [11:15] bit Lo [11:30] open for no workers comp [Laughter] [11:37] claim hey there we go there's one more hold on they don't do blood winging here like [11:45] I went through [12:08] shouldn't be that hard can't get it perfect as long as it's not stabbing there we go there we go hey we [12:15] got it you guys [12:24] want absolutely yes [12:42] right wonderful did you want to say anything Bart no just thank you for letting me uh [12:49] support the community being a firefighter thank you [Applause] [13:06] next we have Sarah [Music] [13:15] bbon Sarah lives in Long Lake with her husband Mike Van Patton who's also on [13:20] the wi a fire department they have three kids two dogs and two [13:26] horses Sarah grew up in Plymouth with her mom as a teacher and her dad as a [13:31] fire captain in Minneapolis she grew up with a sense of compassion for not only people but also [13:38] for Animals she is a district leader with the Humane Society of the United States [13:43] and works in with legislation for ongoing animal rights Sarah works [13:49] full-time as a professional photographer and has had a successful business for over 20 years she has also [13:57] published up also a published author and wrote The Bucket List book been there [14:03] done that in her Spare Time Sarah enjoys camping traveling horseback riding time [14:12] with family playing the piano painting trap shooting and almost [14:19] any Adventure Sarah started her Adventure being a firefighter in 2002 at the city [14:26] of St bonifacius after several years years her husband Mike suggested joining wi Isetta [14:31] fire department and she eagerly joined us in October of [14:37] 23 she said she picked wisett a fire because they have the nicest fire chief [14:42] around go I guess what it says is she is personally my favorite [14:50] firefighter Sarah bourbon s if you want to get a little [14:55] bit closer raise your right hand and repeat after me I state your name I Sarah bourbon do solemnly swear do [15:01] solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of [15:08] the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will discharge faithfully and I will discharge Faith Faithfully it's a [15:15] tough one the duties of the office of firefighter the duties of the office of firefighter in the city of wetta in the [15:21] city of wetta the state of Minnesota the state of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my [15:26] judgment and ability so help me God so help me God congrat rations than [15:34] you we have coming [15:40] up they were supposed to already [15:57] [Applause] yeah we we'll do we can pause a little [16:04] bit later to big one that sounds good okay thank [16:12] you thank you to my favorite Chief uh no I honestly been really [16:18] honored to work with all these gentlemen um on wetta they're really truly amazing [16:25] so thank Youk [Applause] [16:32] Chase Chase [16:38] Salsbury thank you Chase Chase has lived in wetta since [16:45] 2022 with his wife Lauren and has a two-year-old two and a [16:51] half-year-old son named Jack which this is already no good because two and a half [16:58] weeks ago or two weeks ago Whit William came to the family [17:05] so uh he's got two sons Chase grew up in Phoenix with his [17:11] mother Lori Father Bill and sister Ally Chase went to the University of Arizona in Tucson where he earned his bachelor's [17:18] degree and PhD in Optical engineering since gra graduating college [17:24] Chase and Lauren have lived in Boston San Francisco and he now works as an engineer at Honeywell in Plymouth in his [17:32] spare time Chase enjoys spending time with his family working on house projects running biking and CrossCountry [17:40] skiing Chase Salsbury Chase if you want to raise your [17:47] right hand repeat after me I stage your name I chase Salsbury do Solly swear do [17:52] Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of [17:59] the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will discharge faithfully and [18:04] I will discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of firefighter the duties of the office of firefighter in the city [18:09] of wetta in the city of wetta County of hennipen County of hennipin state of Minnesota state of Minnesota to the best [18:15] of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank [18:21] you [Applause] [18:49] do later okay great um oh also I guess this is out of date as well because it [18:54] says I have spare time which I no longer do um and last time I was allowed to say [19:01] a few words I didn't say thank you to my wife and so I'm gonna correct that mistake now but she watched Jack for how [19:08] many hours 225 y yep well I could do this so thank you Lauren Thank you Lisa thank you [19:21] John and last but not least we have Mike Van Patton [19:29] so Mike lives in Long Lake with his wife Sarah bourbon they have three children in high school Blake McKenna and [19:36] Crosby Mike grew up in Independence with his parents Charles and Betty Joe Van [19:42] Patton he went to delno high school and then on to gustavis Adolphus College [19:48] where he played football as well he's he got his Masters in Education and as a special education teacher in the [19:55] Minneapolis public schools Ben p started his service with wetta fire in October [20:02] of 23 and feels blessed to work and learn with an amazing group of [20:07] firefighters Mike loves spending time with family attending his kids sports [20:13] riding their horses fishing cooking and learning new things Mike Van [20:20] Patton Mike if you want to raise your right hand and repeat after me I Mike Van Patton do you solemnly swear do [20:27] solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of [20:33] the state of Minnesota and the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will discharge Faithfully I will discharge Faithfully the duties of [20:40] the office of firefighter the duties of the office of a firefighter in the city of Wisa of the city of wetta County of [20:46] hanpen County of hanpen state of Minnesota state of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best [20:51] of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you [Applause] [21:34] yeah and I just uh have loved my experience so far as a firefighter uh really look forward to serving our [21:40] community uh and just we have the best group of guys um and GS to uh learn from [21:46] and and uh serve with and uh the the the community is well protected so thank you [21:52] thank you for all that have supported us and everything we've done [Applause] [22:07] so mayor and councel I don't know if you want to say a few words or or grill our new newest employees uh so I'd leave [22:14] that up to you if you want to otherwise it might make sense to pause just for a couple minutes for some just give anyone on Council a chance to make any [22:22] comments okay so I just oh sorry Alex would you like to say something well I was just going to say I miss all you guys a couple years ago I don't miss the [22:30] Subzero drills but most of the rest of the stuff and chief you're actually [22:36] okay that's that's not what it said it didn't say it it didn't say I [22:43] was okay uh be before we take a break though [22:48] uh I'd just like again to say thank you for allowing us to do this it's not something that happens often but uh it's [22:54] very nice for us to be able to come over here and do this and it sounds like you have a very short meeting if uh if you [23:03] get done with your meeting in time uh you're more than welcome to come over to the fire station for some cake wonderful [23:11] so uh please uh join me again in recognizing our four newest firefighters and also I'd like to recognize all the [23:17] other First Responders from I think one of the finest if not the finest uh Fire [23:23] Department in the state of Minnesota thank you [23:29] okayy we'll we'll stand in uh recess for a few minutes allow you guys to get on to cake and uh more important [23:57] things [24:27] e [24:57] e [25:27] e [25:57] e [26:27] e [26:57] e [27:27] e [27:57] e [28:27] e [28:57] e [29:27] e [29:57] e [30:26] e [30:56] e [31:26] e [31:56] e [32:26] e [32:56] e [33:26] e e [34:07] all right we're going to reconvene and continue with the public forum we do have one individual that would like to [34:12] speak if Eric lamb is here if you'd approach the podium and just state your name and your address and what you'd [34:18] like to address us on this evening welcome thank you um I'm Eric L I'm at [34:23] 300 Central can you press the button on there you go [34:28] okay is that that's good Eric lamb 300 Central Avenue South so I wanted to speak briefly on just two items uh I I [34:36] addressed several items to at that time Andrew Mullen now Mr Mayor and congratulating him on his uh election [34:44] and uh I thought he I thought Mr Mayor you gave a great thoughtful response to the issues I had in the email two of [34:51] them the two items I wanted to address the first one briefly is around the budget is Andrew knows I objected to the [34:59] 7% increase on the budget I know it's a struggle for all of you trying to figure out all the services certainly the cost [35:06] of our critical services like the fire department are something that are very important to the community but I I felt [35:12] we should be closer to whatever inflation rate is and not having 7% increases a lot of people in the [35:19] community talking about increases in the late recent years to property taxes around here have been severe uh second [35:26] item more importantly for our little small community in Central Avenue wise Lake Street that my [35:32] neighbor Mr senson is very familiar with is we have had an increasing amount of [35:38] short-term rentals in that area and I won't be here the next couple months so I just wanted to address it as it comes [35:44] up to your on your agenda um with several of us in the neighborhood field [35:50] has been a lot of negative impacts from that the parking the noise um the the [35:55] sort of disruption of the community character that we have in that area and [36:01] the especially it takes away affordable housing long-term rentals for people who [36:06] might want to work in this area and live in these houses so I know you're going to be taking some steps hopefully or [36:12] maybe have on licensing and fees which is great uh frankly quite a few of us in [36:18] our little neighborhood would prefer if you just forbid them in wetta so I just [36:24] want to go on record uh Mr Mayor kind of knows my position on this wanted the rest of you to hear it and I appreciate [36:30] the time yes thank you Mr lamb okay city manager do we have anyone on teams that wanted to speak Mr Mayor [36:36] we do not all right before we move on um to the next agenda item I wanted to take a moment to honor one of uh wisel's [36:43] finest citizens George Ry who passed away recently uh George and his wife Barb were longtime wise out of residence [36:50] in a fixture on the local scene for decades uh like his son Greg uh George was a super volunteer in fact he was the [36:57] first winner in the early 1980s of the gym fish award which is a local honor bestowed on individuals with significant [37:05] contributions to crime prevention within the wetta community a fun fact about George that I was made aware of is that [37:10] he often sang in a barber shop quartet over the years and I'm sure uh that there was a great rendition of sweet [37:17] adelene playing when George was welcomed to Eternal peace at the perlier gates uh over the weekend here there is a service [37:23] plan for George on Saturday March 22nd at 10: a.m. at wetta Community Church and the full details will be um in in [37:30] Sunday's paper um so with that I'll move on to new agenda [37:36] items um does anyone have any new items that they'd like to discuss or bring up [37:41] uh at the council level um next uh is the consent agenda so we would be [37:48] reviewing approval of the consent agenda which include the following approval of the city council workshop and regular [37:54] meeting minutes of February 4th and February 18th 202 5 approval of the [37:59] check register approval of Municipal licenses approval of a letter of agreement with marily Borg Babcock for [38:06] the maple tree tapping program approval of Professional Services agreement with Davy Resources Group for the tree [38:13] management plan preparation adoption of resolution 05 2025 approving the [38:19] extension of zoning approvals at 1405 Holdridge Terrace and 15419 and 15429 Y [38:27] East known as harbors of wetta and a receipt of the 2024 fourth quarter [38:33] financial report so uh I would accept a motion to uh approve the consent agenda [38:38] tonight or if there's any items that needed to be pulled Mr Mayor I make a motion to [38:45] approve the consent agenda we have a second second all in favor I oppose that [38:52] passes um the next uh item on the agenda is new business there actually are no [38:58] new business uh items on the agenda so with that we would move forward with the city manager report and discussion items [39:05] city manager thank you Mr Mayor uh just three quick things in terms of stuff happening next week uh first off we have [39:13] the mayor Meetup at the mun uh uh that's on Monday at 7 o'clock I believe uh so [39:20] come one come all uh your grievances give us give the mayor your compliments we'll take them um and that again is at [39:28] the mun close to the front I think just yeah there be a table yep yep yep uh on [39:34] March 13th the chamber is hosting their annual mayoral luncheon which mayor [39:39] Mullen will be on a panel with mayor Miner of Long Lake mayor wosi of [39:44] Plymouth and then mayor weome of motanka have some questions about you know [39:50] commonalities in our communities and also what makes our communities unique so uh if you're interest if you're a [39:56] Community member that's interested in attending it's is it's a really interesting event um contact the chamber go to their website you can get tickets [40:02] there uh that's at 11:30 Thursday March 13th at the Country Club lastly uh as uh [40:09] the mayor indicated we had a workshop about assessments and what this year's look like um just so residents and [40:15] Property Owners know the valuations are going to be out in the mail next week [40:21] late next week so that'll start the process of our local Board of appeal and Equalization ultimately that uh hearing [40:28] will be held on Thursday April 17th at 5:30 um go to our website for those that [40:34] are unfamiliar with the process you can check out all the the the timelines and and how to get more information about [40:41] your property value uh what they're proposing if you have any questions or concerns about it all that information [40:47] is on the website um and also just feel free to call City Hall if you have any questions that's it thank you any [40:53] questions of our city manager okay with with that I would accept an a [40:59] motion to adjourn this evening's meeting and onward to cake if you're upt for it accept a motion I'll make that motion [41:05] Mr Mayor second second all in favor say I I our meeting is adjourned