Yeah, right. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. So, I'll call this meeting to order. Welcome to the June 20 June 2nd, 2026 city council meeting. I hereby calling the meeting to order. Members of the public may attend the city council 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.orgwv. Public comment during the public forum andor public hearing portions 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'll be seen and heard in our council chambers and the cable channel. You'll be asked to unmute and then you begin your comment and also turn on your camera. All public comments should include your first name and the uh group that you're representing. Uh next on our agenda is the pledges of allegiance. And I would ask if you're able to stand and follow along. >> 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. Next is uh roll call and let the record uh reflect that all council members are present this evening. I will note for the record that earlier today we held a workshop prior to tonight's meeting to discuss the following items. Uh the 2050 comprehensive plan and an RFP review for outside uh resources. Discussion of uh our CIP and unallocated fund balance transfers. um consideration of sale of public property and discussion of future workshop topics. Next is uh an item on our agenda is to approve the agenda. I would need uh a motion to approve the agenda as is or does anyone want to make any changes to the agenda? >> I would make a motion to approve as is. Mr. Mayor, >> may I have a second, please? >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. that that moves um along. So, next is our public forum. We have a few items on the public forum tonight. Um so, just a reminder, if you're interested in speaking, please state your first name and the group you're representing and limit your comment to three minutes. Um and then, um that's if you're not formally on the agenda. Um and those that are here to to speak to something on the agenda, fill out a card and provide it to staff and we will slot you in when that agenda item appears. So, first I believe we're going to do new employee introductions first, I believe. Am I turning it over to Mr. Kelly or to Miss Jerger? >> Yeah, we're going to turn it over to Mr. Kelly. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Uh, I'll ask Zach and Deacon to step up to the podium for the grilling that will happen shortly. Um, we were hoping to have our, uh, new utility billing clerk, Angie, join us this evening, too. Unfortunately, she's had some personal matters that she had to tend to kind of at the last minute. So, we'll bring her another evening. But tonight, we have Zach and uh and Deacon from our parks department. Brand new employees to stand up to the podium, please. [laughter] They won't bite you. Uh Deacon is to your left, Zach is to your right. Uh Zach joined us in February. He brings some uh several years of hands-on experience in grounds and landscaping operations, most recently serving as a landscape lead specialist with the University of North Dakota's facility management team. He also holds a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of North Dakota. Deacon to the to your left uh joined the city in April, so he's only been with us a couple months. uh and he brings experience uh in parks and parks maintenance operations, most recently serving as a sanitation equipment operator with the city of Grand Forks and previously uh serving as a park supervisor for the city of Hector. Both of them are already proving to be great additions to our public works team. So, please join me in welcoming them to the city of Wisetta. >> Welcome. >> Feel free to grill them. >> Yeah. Any questions of our our new public works staff? >> Hearing none, maybe you're going to get off easy today. >> Yeah. The only thing I would add is um just to acknowledge that um both Zach and Deacon came to our parks department after we had had some vacancies which our parks department had been so stable for so long and we had um Kurt Clampage retired and so dealing with being short staffed for a number of months. They were such a welcome addition to the team and are part of what they're a critical part of what helps keep Weisetta beautiful and enjoyed by the community. So, thank you both so much. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. >> See, that was easier than I told you it was going to be. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next on our public forum, we have an update from our house representative, state house representative Patty Achim from district 45b. Um, city manager, did you want to provide an introduction beyond that? >> Um, I I don't know how I could do a better um introduction other than just to um also acknowledge and thank Representative Aome for um her representation of Weisetta. She supported a number of bills for us um this year. She was a key part in helping us um get the special legislation for TIF for Panoi because she fought so hard for us. So, just want to acknowledge um the work she did for Wisetta and thank her for for that. >> Thank you. And I guess for the record um my name is Patty Achim uh state representative for House District 45B of which Weisetta is a part of. And since I've been here last, a few couple new faces on the council. So nice to see you, though I think I've met some of you. um appreciate your partnership and your presence coming down to the capital to help move some of uh the initiatives through the committee process. So appreciated your help with that. And I wanted to just take a minute and maybe talk a little bit about some of the highlights that came out of the legislative session this year. And um as you know um in our very closely divided legislature um things that that progressed and ultimately passed really needed to have bipartisan support both last year and this year and I'm proud of the work that we did accomplish. Um I will just you going back to last year um passed a budget on time to keep government going which was great and um accomplished a lot of really good things. And so this year, one of our um top priorities was to stabilize HCMC. Um as you know, our safety net hospital is um crucial to providing uh health care to so many and um really was on the um cusp of of closing. And so, um, the state coming in to help partner with the county to ensure that it remains, um, a, you know, wonderful resource that our community needs and, um, and can can continue to have going forward. Um, and closing of the hospital would have put just, you know, terrible strain on all of our, um, hospitals throughout the metro and even in greater Minnesota. And so um the getting that passed or getting it the uh funding to stabilize it and along with some um governance changes in how the hospital is over overseen um were important things that I'm glad we were able to accomplish um this session. And I will also say one of the things that has been really important to address um many of the uh issues around fraud is passage of the office of the inspector general. And um you know when you pass something as large and as important as that, it never happens easily. And so um working together both um across the aisle as well as both um both part or the house and the senate, it was good that we were able to um get that passed to ensure we can be properly um preventing fraud and when it is to be prosecuting to the fullest to ensure we can prevent um any any um services that are so needed and important to so many people um are not going un um und delivered. So that was another important um uh thing that we passed this year. Another um oftentimes on the non-budget year we pass a bonding bill and this year was no different. As you may know, Weisetta did have a provision that was being um requested in the bonding bill. Unfortunately, that one we didn't get across the aisle or across the the line, excuse me. Um but overall we did pass a really robust bonding bill this year including um uh local projects. We as you may recall last year the state passed a bonding bill as well but there were no local projects that are so important. There are so many cities like Weisetta that have big projects that are really unable to accomplish them without the help of some state partnership. And so um I'm glad we were able to get a robust bill passed. disappointed we didn't get the Wisetta provision. But um that leads me to the next thing and that is really the the tax bill. And um as uh the city manager pointed out, we were able to successfully uh get a an um exception into the tax increment financing bill that had been passed for Weisetta previously to include um several of the things in the Panaway um project, including the Echo Park, the Foreman House, and um the remodeling of the depot park. And so I'm really happy that we were able to do that to be able to um help and partner what with Weisetta on that really important project and um so thankful for that. Um and I will also say sometimes um at the legislature what I have found is not only important what you pass but also what you maybe can prevent from passing. And so one of the things that I have worked on hard this year is to ensure that local units of government, local cities maintain local control over land use and zoning. And it's um my roots in in city government as a former council member in the city of Minnitonka that um I it's people such as yourselves who are rooted in the community who um really have the best um uh perspective on how we should be um doing land um planning. And so um I will continue to advocate for that and fight for that. but um was able to prevent the um zoning reform or the um bill that they call the Starter Home Act that ensures really I mean I I think the the name of the bill I thought was a little ironic because it it alludes to being a bill that provides affordable housing and I think the real ironic part is that nothing in the bill ensured affordability and so um that was really my biggest concern. I do think that we as communities want to and need to ensure that we have affordable housing. Um that bill unfortunately wasn't going to ensure that and so it wasn't something that I could support and um something that I I worked hard to prevent and um we'll continue to do that going forward. But um those are just maybe some of the highlights of the the session and things that I was um personally involved in. I I think overall we know that affordability continues to be a a big problem for many of us in our um in our communities and so I am hopeful that um in the ongoing sessions or going forward we can really address that in a meaningful way. Um, and I I chair the energy committee at the legislature and so recognizing the impact on energy bills is um important and um I certainly hear that and see that um from those within our community and so I think that there were some missed opportunities that we could have had an impact and we will continue working for that in the future. But um so that's kind of my I guess I maybe went over my three minutes and for that I apologize. >> Oh, that's all right. Thank you. Um any questions for Representative Aum from from council? >> Yeah, I'm curious uh how close was that local zoning control bill to being passed and like how much momentum does that have going into the future? And encourage you to stay steadfast on [laughter] but I'm I'm curious how how much momentum that has. Well, um it does have bipartisan support and it has um bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. Um it's a national push that's happening and so we can see that there are um model model language, bill language that is being um brought forward by um some of the national developers around the country. And I think it's it's hard to if I had the crystal ball, I would probably be more successful at the capital than I am. But I I think that um is it gaining momentum? I think and it's also um I I think that because um many have um assumed by the name of the bill that it was providing affordable housing and um the fact that there are no affordable housing provisions in the bill. I think um communicating that has been helpful with some of my colleagues in my caucus. Um I I will say that um in the lo it was the local government um committee, the elections committee that the bill was heard in and I sit on that committee and um I voted with all of the Republicans to not um move the bill forward and um the rest of my um Democrat colleagues all um I voted against it. I I don't I think maybe I misspoke, but I I voted with um the um Republicans against it and the rest of my Democrat colleagues voted in support of the bill. Um ultimately it did not pass and there was uh some great resources that were brought forward um through organizations like Metro Cities, the League of Minnesota Cities um to help with that. Um but I think it's going to be something it's not going away. um they're going to keep trying. And um so it's something that we need to be communicating with um our um friends on other councils um our uh legislators that represent other councils to ensure they understand the implications that it will have on cities. And I think that there's a lot of us in the the metro area that it, you know, our cities are pretty built out. Um but I will say that um some of the maybe unintended um consequences are um around or not consequences but risks are around infrastructure and you think of water whether it's storm water or um wastewater. Um not all of our our uh pipes are up to being able to handle big increases in density. And so I think it's going to they're not going to stop trying. I will continue to stand strong. Um but it's close and um so I would encourage you to talk to your friends around the metro. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from >> Just have one quick question and it might be more for manager Joerger, but with the TIFF exception, um really exciting we got that. Uh so appreciate it. You mentioned Eco Park, um depot park and also the section foreman house. Is shoreline restoration included in that as well? Okay. >> Yes, >> it is. Yep. So it says including shoreline restoration, marsh and water quality quality improvements and peer extensions of the lake lakeside boardwalk and creation of eco living classrooms. >> It's wonderful. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you for all your advocacy for Wisetta this last session and for all that you do for your constituents in in Wisetta proper. So >> well it's my pleasure and um I thank you for the really important role that you all play and um my door is always open so I if you don't have my phone number I'll make sure you get it and I know the mayor has it so share it if if others do not. Absolutely. >> And um yeah I'm here to partner and if there are things that I can help with please reach out. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Have a great rest of your night. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Uh Mr. Mayor, before we move on, I I think there might be some people in the audience who also want to speak at the public forum, but maybe don't understand the process. Could you >> Sure. No. So, if people aren't on the agenda item, you just fill out a card and you can uh hand it to staff and then um give you a chance to speak. >> Yeah. And take your time. Thank you for that, Molly. Sorry. >> Assume there's nobody on teams. >> I was just going to chime in and say while we're waiting, there's no one on team. >> Yeah. Okay. Well, we can check that box. Okay, thank you. So, um this is Ka and Fam and Sam FA. If you could approach the um uh podium here and welcome. Um you're at 726 Lake Street and you're talking about Jame Hill Days and the Art Fair. Yes. So, thank you for being here. >> All right. Hi. It's um Okay. Hi everyone. Okay. My name is K and this is Sam. So, we are partnerships at uh the nail salon in downtown Wyatta located um se um seven uh 726 Le Street East. Okay. Today I want to share by um today I want to start by sharing how incredible grateful uh I am for the city, the chamber and this amazing communities. Okay. event like the art fairs um and the GMJ Hugh days are truly uh what make guata so special. We absolutely we absolutely love the energy they bring for our street and we deeply appreciate the im amount of the hard work that goes into organizing dump every years. Being a part of the downtown communities for the past three year have been wonderful. However, looking at the uh um looking at it from the operational side as of the small service business um the big event we can prevent some very heavy uh financials and logistics challenge for us. Okay. um during this event especially Jam Hudday's Oalon actually lost you know our revenues because we rely on appointment and you know lack of access um make nearly impossible for our regular client to reach us on this day I want to bring a field special logistical to here so we can hopefully brainstorm some smooth and collaborating collaborative solutions ution for this future festival. So first um store for uh storefront uh visib visibilities and private uh and private property battery uh promotion 10 are sometime placed direct in front of our storefront completely block all business sign. So additionings many might not realize that half of the road in front of our salon and the neighbor business are actually private properties. Uh we would love to work with the city um to plan to keep everything specials um at the front zone clear of the 10 uh of the 10 entirely uh respecting our p uh our private properties battery while keeping perittance shop visible. And second um postevent clearing and parking block while the cleaning up uh team work hard this year's uh last year's several vendor left the large trailer behind and the event structure occupied two of our uh you know dedicated customer parking spot you know 4 day after the event uh wrap up on top of that the public parking uh the the public dress and were rearranged and left directly in front of our parking space. uh for the server business losing client parking for the long terms have have a major have a major impact or you know like daily flow. And uh and the third one unauthorized utility use vendor plug into our building um exterior electricals outlet and then run their equipment and generator during their event without permissions. And again the vendor noise is really you know they are conduct right inside of our salon you know like that make our customer not really happy about it. So um so we love being a part of the house guetta and want to continue falling supporting the situational however because of the financing impact on small business like our is so significant. So we hope to start the conversation on how we can be better protect our um local front uh storefront and then Sam have a couple's you know the idea about you know like how we can prevent you know >> so we propose you know two just two proposal um first one is this one is from sales >> what they do is they move [clears throat] in the middle >> to the center. Yeah. >> Yeah. So they have 12 feet 12 feet in both sides. Um so what what we proposing is we can move do similar thing move the bender to the the middle but right here is 19 ft. This is I think it's private property and the other side 13 ft. is still much wider than essential and it it will make much better visibility for all the stores to speak here and lastly I if we can I don't know how much money uh we make from this event if we can have some form of financial reimbursement for the uh for the small small businesses over here especially for businesses like our We we count on the win um the summer and you know the whole weekend just we lose all that. >> Yeah, just for the record, they were proposing that the tents used for the two festivals be moved to the center of the street. So, thank you for that. Um thank you for your presentation and others have submitted similar feedback. So, um we appreciate the additional input and we'll take it into consideration as we look at next year's event. this year's event is already fully planned, but as we look to next year, um, we'll take it into consideration. So, >> about hijacking the I understand the process and we we really love the city. We love the community, the support here. >> No, and I appreciate that and that's why I certainly wanted to give you the leeway to say what you had to say tonight. So, thank you for that. >> Yeah. And I would also um just add that I'm happy to relay your comments to the chamber as well, like noting some of the issues you had with with cleanup and use of your your building power that I'll make sure I also pass that along to the chamber to make sure that they're looking for that and preventing that from happening, too. >> Yes. Yeah, we we've been telling Becky, but I think Becky left now. >> Yeah, they have a new chamber president now, Judy Johnson. Um, so I'll make sure I pass that along to her to make sure she knows about that, too. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you for operating your business here in Weisetta. >> Okay. Next um is new agenda items. Uh does anyone of council have any new agenda items they'd like to bring uh up or discuss? Hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. The next item is the approval of the consent agenda. On our consent agenda this evening is approval of city council workshop and regular meeting minutes of May 19th, 2026, approval of the check register, approval of municipal licenses, award of a contract to quality flow systems for lift station 2 rehabilitation project. Approval of the sale of the floating docks to marine dock and lift, approval of the temporary lease agreement with Schaefer Contracting, Inc. adoption of resolution 29206 accepting a donation from Jeffrey von Gil Gilern. Um and that is the comprises the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented or do we need items uh removed or amended? >> I'll move to um approve the consent agenda as outlined. >> Great. May I have a second? Please >> second that. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Those opposed >> no. So that it passes five to zero. Next um is our public hearing and I don't believe we have any items on our public hearing this evening. Um we do have one item of old business that was tabled from our last event and that is um consider the denial of the special event permit for the Highi in the Lake concerts at Makanda Restaurant 294 Grove Lane East. Um and so this will be the city manager I believe or will it be public works? >> I'll turn it over to public works director um Mike Kelly. Um, but like the mayor mentioned, I did just want to clarify that this did come before the council at the last meeting, but we only had three council members present and per our charter, actions have to be agreed to by a majority of the full council and there was split decisions. So, we literally could not take action on this item at the last meeting. So, that's why it's coming back before you tonight. And with that, I'll turn it over to Director Kelly. >> Thank you, city manager. Uh, good evening, council and mayor. Uh, as the mayor mentioned, we brought this forward at our past meeting uh to talk about the special event permit uh called Hi-Fi on the Lake uh presented by the Makanda Restaurant. Uh at our last meeting, uh we presented that the application was for July 17th and 18th, a two-day event. Uh the event was originally scheduled for 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Approximately a thousand attendees each night with uh electronic dance music as uh the primary form of music. As part of that discussion, there were several alternatives that were presented not only for dates and times and maybe reconfiguration. What you see on the slide tonight in red is the applicant's suggestion for an alternative date, July 25th, and a suggested alternative time frame of 3 p.m. to 1000 p.m. So, it would be a single day event rather than a two-day event as was mentioned at the previous council meeting. The event takes up the boat launch adjacent to the Makanda restaurant as well as the depot parking lot. um it would meet the same conditions that were placed on the event in 2025. In fact, the applicant has provided some additional information regarding subwoofer subwoofer placement um for the event that would help mitigate some of the lower base uh impacts to the neighborhood emergency plan, etc. And the traffic plan or the layout of the event has not changed since the presentation at our last council meeting. I will remind you that our special event, the reason that we bring these forward to you is it's considered a level three event, more than 500 participants. This particular event being a concert where they're selling tickets is subject to our ticket fee um section of our ordinance. Uh as well as I wanted to mention that our special event matrix which was approved by the council in 2024 uh limits the number of these larger events in July to two. I asterisk that with the fact that special events may be considered by the council for approval provided they meet the parameters of our um our ordinance and I will say that past events have met that those parameters by meeting safety etc. So based on that and based on code alone, like I mentioned at our last meeting, based on code alone, this would be a third event when only two are permitted in July. It's staff staff's recommendation to deny the special event permit, but I would be open for any questions. And I know that our applicant is also here to answer any questions you might have. >> Any questions of staff at this time, Mr. Sorenson? >> Um, yeah, Mr. K. I I think I asked this last um meeting we had but for the benefit of those weren't here. So the recommendation is to deny this permit and um the the reason for denial as you stated is well this is more of a question is is it because of the um three or the three events that [snorts] we're going to have in one month which is not in compliance with the ordinance. >> That's correct. It's strictly our recommendation is strictly based on the recommendations and the requirements provided in our city code. >> If it weren't for that, the recommendation would be >> Yeah, I think we would approve it. We've had it in the past. >> Uh I think our applicant has has worked hard last year and this year to make adjustments. I think he heard some of the things that he and I had spoken about over the phone prior to our last meeting had suggested some at the last meeting about reducing the days of impact uh trying to provide some mitigation. Um so he's been a a good applicant to work with. I know that there have been concerns about the impact of noise to the adjoining residences, but it's a it to the applicant's point, and I'll let him speak to it. Um, it's a it's a one-day event as it's currently proposed. >> Yeah. Just just one followup. That's >> okay. So, um, based on that, what are we doing differently this year than last year based on the the noise level and the, um, issues we heard from the community? >> Well, I think the 10:00 is what he's asking for for an ending time. Last year, I believe we ended at 10:30. Uh, the the orientation has not been suggested to be changed, so I want to make sure that we're upfront about that. the stage is still located uh adjacent to the water facing towards our downtown. Um the other things uh he's provided a plan for a layout of the subwoofers uh that I need I need to understand it. I'm not a sound engineer and I'll let him speak to that a little bit more. Um but the intent [clears throat] would be to reduce the impact of the base that leaves the event. Um th those are really the mitigation things that we have. He's been good about providing an emergency plan. He's been good about uh connecting with our police department about security not only from the private side but from the public our our department for the event. So >> yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Other questions of staff at this time? I'm assuming that we'll have the definition of a cardi cardio subwoofer. I hope so. From >> I have one more quick question. Go ahead, M. >> Director Kelly, in our packet, it didn't look like the application had changed at all. Are you telling me that today that the application is different from what's >> the application itself? No new application forms were submitted. No applica, no new layouts were submitted. The applicant supplied an email suggesting that they would like to rearrange the date to be July 25th instead of the July 17th and 18th with a longer time frame during that 1-day period. >> That was that was the additional submittal. >> So two days to one and then the duration of the event. >> It it was done via email, not a formal application. >> Okay. And that doesn't >> I think based on the time frame that we had from the last council meeting it was really wanting to make sure that we had updated information from the applicant that we could give to you based on the conversations that we had >> so that the full panel could understand that. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Other questions of staff? >> No hearing none. So you wanted to invite the applicant up to clarify a few things. So >> please Mr. Good evening. Um, so yeah, the word you're using, so basically what it is is a lot of bands use it where you put one bass this way and one this way >> and it counter cancels the bass >> name and address. >> I've never seen it in principle, but a sound engineer name and address. >> Oh, sorry. Aaron Switz, 20,100 Lake View Avenue in Deep Haven. >> Okay, thank you. And you're representing Hi-Fi in the Lake. >> Yes. Um, and so that auto cancels out that. And then the other thing is they can put some bass in the back that shoots this way so you're not firing all from this way. And then the bass waves I guess cancel each other out as they travel through. So those are the two things. And I said a decel counter more for you know keeping it in the range that other festivals that we know around the country use. Um and to document you know the the pluses and minuses if this ends up happening. >> Okay. Mr. Clay, were there other things that you wanted clarified other than that? >> No. Really what I wanted the applicant to explain was the the subwoofer layout to help cancel out the the bass impacts. And again, I'm not a sound engineer. I might look to maybe someone at the far left of your dis that might have some familiarity with how uh larger music events are handled. But I'll let you guys get [clears throat] any questions you might have. [sighs] >> Fair enough. And one last thing too I guess from so I also threw in the you know that August 1st was also you know potentially um and my big thing too you know tonight's tonight but you know what is the process and how long in advance can you apply for these >> because obviously the timing on this is I don't even know if it does happen because I have to obviously be pretty hard in the next two months in the summertime. So just throwing that out there is just for more kind of in the future. >> Yeah. Our permit application process that we have gives a minimum requirement of 90 days prior to the event. It can happen any time before that. >> So you can apply over a year. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> The question for the Mr. >> So the original application it was over two days and it said that the attendance was a thousand people. Was that per day or is that split? Okay. So you're still having a,000 people. >> Yes. >> How do you fit a,000 people in that? We actually had 1,500 last year. >> Did you really? >> We did. >> And no, >> we did 1,000 on Friday night and then we realized how much extra space we had. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I know. >> That's remarkable. And no crowding issues. No. I mean, obviously. >> No, it was actually kind of >> It probably could actually handle a little bit more, believe it or not. Yeah. I think because a lot of people were also up up on the top layer. >> So, it spread it out. So, yeah. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um, and maybe sorry I I realize this is maybe a question for staff, not the applicant, but so are our limitations of two level three events per month. I mean, that's not a necessarily a hard and fast limit. Correct. Like we have the discretion as a council to approve more in a month um if if we want. You know, it's I think the intent there was so you don't have say three events closing down Lake Street in a month that has significant impact to businesses like the nail salon that we just heard from. >> Yeah, mayor and council uh council member Cook to your question, correct? Our code does allow um the council to approve more than that so long as you like we find that the event would meet all the conditions in our code and does not impact negatively any of the other previously approved events. The other events that are approved for July already are the rummage sale and the flying pancake breakfast. So I think it's pretty safe to say that those those events don't overlap or impact one another. And the pancake breakfast happens here at city hall. >> Um, correct? >> The flying pancake breakfast happens at the depot. >> Oh, it's at the depot. Okay. All right. Okay. Got it. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Any other questions? >> Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Senson. Um, so 3 till 1000 p.m. Is that one long concert or is it two separate concerts or what's the >> No, the idea behind it was last year we actually I think started at 4 and then went to 10:30 when this got compressed in the one day. I'm I'm hoping to get multiple people to come play because otherwise, you know, I I don't know. I think I'm going to call it a festival. Probably like a block party to be honest with you. is what the new it'll be like high-fi block party from a branding perspective because it's not really a festival if it's over one you know one day. So the idea is to have three people you know uh international, domestic, whatever it ends up being come play with a couple local people, >> but they're just one ticket for the whole day. >> One ticket. I'm going to do one ticket. Yeah. >> All right. Thanks. >> Yep. >> Okay. Is that all the questions we have for the applicant? Okay. Thank you. So, I'd bring it back for uh discussion at the council level in terms of how we're feeling about these adjustments and if uh we were going to support the denial or if we're open to um a different path. >> Go ahead, Mr. P. >> I actually have a question or two for staff that I thought of. Uh one is how many level three events are scheduled for August? Do you know, >> council member and mayor? There are currently zero larger events scheduled in August. >> Okay. So, just from a calendar perspective, if this event happened to cross the line into August, I'm not saying they should move if it but if it did cross over, there's no violation or whatever at all. >> That's correct. >> Okay. So, the the suggestion for Dow is based purely on the fact that we've got three level three events in in the month. >> Correct. two of which have nothing to do with music. >> Correct. And I'll come back just to clarify that all events of this level need to come to forward to the council for review. >> It we're following the procedure and policies that were put together by the council several years ago regarding special events and also mentioning that there is the discretion for the council to approve those any more events in a single month provided they don't negatively impact those already approved. Okay, this kind of goes into commentary, but again, if they did move the concert, and I'm not suggesting they need to, but if they did move it into August, then the staff would have no reason to recommend denial. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. Well, then I'll just start and I say I I really have no reason to deny it. I mean, if it were three concerts in July, Yeah. then that would be a different thing. But the rumage sale and then the pancake breakfast, it's this is the one concert in July. So, um I' I've read through the packet. I have no reason to deny it. So, I'm going to vote in favor. >> Okay. Thank you. Who else would like to weigh in um next? >> Sorry, I'll go. I I wasn't here the last time. Uh but I did watch it. Uh and I was actually I was um somewhat impressed by the demographic that you said that this attracts. This is serving actually not even the target clients of Makanda. This is so um this is kind of >> my daughter's friends. >> Yeah, there you go. So, it's serving the need of a certain demographic of uh residents and neighbors who uh who came because I think you threw out statistics about the vast majority were from this zip code or the surrounding zip codes. Um, and you know, it's a it's a segment of the population that um, Mr. Mayor, I think you had said like the like if we don't provide this or like this is a this is an entertainment venue that we're providing for a demographic of our of our town who they don't have an alternative for anything like this here in town. And so a day of this for them is I think a good event. I and based on uh what uh Mr. Kelly his response here about, you know, this would not be denied if it were a date in August. I don't think that this has any sort of competing impact with the pancake breakfast or the rummage sale. And I I person I I don't have any reason to deny this application. So, I would support it. >> Okay. Can I just add that if I attended this thing, I think it would raise the average age by a full year. [clears throat] >> That might take the attendance down to >> do the math on that. >> Oh, there you go. So, maybe not. >> There you go. >> Um, can I ask a quick clarify question, Director Kelly? If any level three event comes to the council, correct? So there is still always discretion for it's not just simply well is it July 31st or is it August 1. So, um, the way the stage is oriented, the the feedback that I have gotten over the years, this, for lack of better words, drum beat of, um, opposition, um, I just don't have it in me to go to bat for that again this year. So, I'm going to vote against this, um, proposal. I just don't feel the mitigation is um going to spare the the community um the disruption that I think it that it really does cause. So, >> okay. >> Thank you for that input. Um Mr. Sorenson. >> Yeah. I mean, I didn't come here with a strong opinion one way or another on this topic. I know we talked about it a couple weeks ago. I think we talked clearly about the three events in in one month and I I kind of agree with the commentary that was said on that. Um especially being you know again the rummy sale and the the pancake breakfast. The other thing I mean there's one level three event in June with the art festival right July 4th is a big event. Uh this would be um an event in in August in the downtown area. Then J JJ Hill would be the next one in September. So it felt to me like they're fairly well staggered out. Um you know, I'm not I'm not crazy about the noise all day. um just not I think a lot of people are are going to enjoy that in our in our community, but I'm I'm going to vote I'm going to um vote not to deny this because I I do think it provides a unique opportunity for a lot of residents uh in the in the area and we you got to um give them a shot to see how it goes for this one day. Hopefully it won't be quite as loud, you know, if we do this. I think we ought to learn from this though if we want to do it again and really um do everything we can to try to minimize the the complaints we have because it's just freaking loud, right? Um but I'm going I'm going to um not support the recommendation of denial on this. >> Okay. Thank you for that, Mr. Sorenson. So um I don't want to be repetitive. I mean I I think giving one day to the stakeholder group is is not unreasonable. I do think the applicant has done a few things to mitigate. We'll see if it actually works. I mean, obviously the decel readings and whatnot and and I I don't think there's an event that we have that doesn't come with some complaints, right? And it's just trying to find that balance and I think our policy gives us good guidelines to make sure that we don't overdo one month or several months in a row. So, I'm going to vote in favor to support this um with the caveat that we want to see the data and that we want to make sure that we're running a high quality event, a safe event um for those kids um and their parents um uh for this one day. So, with that, um any other questions or comments? >> Oh, just Mr. Mayor, you you made a comment. you're going to support this, but you're really >> well support moving it forward, not support staff's recommendation. Right. >> So, thank you for that. Yep. No, thank you for clearing that up. I guess I I was assuming based on my record in the last meeting. So, >> Mr. Mayor, just based on the conversation this evening, I would suggest that uh against the staff recommendation on your screen that you make a motion to approve the special event permit as uh submitted. And Mr. Mayor, I would just add to Director Kelly's, you know, with a I think the code would want uh part of that motion to include based on uh the fact that it's been shown that the event meets all the criteria of section 51405 of city code and it would not negatively impact other previously approved events. >> You said 51405, >> correct? 5145. Okay. So, I would accept a motion to approve the special event permit for High Five in the Lake Concert with the adjusted date um with the additional mitigation factors of the stage um consistent with uh our ordinance 5.1.405 with no negative impacts to the other events um during the period during the month. It >> Mr. Mayor, just previously approved events. >> Previously approved events. I would accept a motion for that. >> Mr. Mayor, I'll make that motion. >> Thank you. May I have a second? >> I'll second that. >> Okay. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed? >> Nay. >> That passes 4 to one. So, good luck in putting it together. We'll see if you know, I know you've still got some work to do to see if you can actually put together a lineup that will work. But um thank you for working with our staff and and thank you for making adjustments to try to make it uh more acceptable uh to to try again this year. So um next is new business. This is a really interesting one. Um so we're considering a motion establishing an 8day 18-day in-person absentee early voting period for future statewide primary and general elections pursuant to Minnesota statute section 203B-081. Mr. Mayor and Council, this item comes before you after a recent change um made at the legislature that's pretty timely for an election uh to decide what our early voting period is. So, our city clerk Kathy Lerig is going to make this presentation for you tonight. >> Good evening, Mayor and Council. As city manager Joerger mentioned, there was a recent law uh May 18th that signed was signed in by the governor uh allowing the cities to administer inperson early voting and direct balloting. It's all the same term now. Uh early voting is technically the term, but it all means voting prior to election day. And the option before you is to allow that early voting for 18 days rather than the 46 days that's been traditional for many years. Uh the law stipulates that cities retain the flexibility to determine how this works best for them and their city for in-person voting. The hard part is that the state uh is letting every city determine what works best. So there is going to be some consistency issues uh as we go through this and you'll see some of that um various cities that are voting for 18 and some are voting staying with 46, but I'll get into that a little bit later. So, what's changed? Previously, you had 46 days prior to each election. Uh, you could cast your ballot in person here at city hall. You could mail it in to Henipin County. Uh, you had lots of options. That 46 days prior is still available for inperson or I'm sorry, for mailin ballot through Henipin County. Uh, but the 18 days is shortening uh the time frame and the window for people to come in and vote here in person at city hall. Uh the new option um a lot of cities are going with this. Um it it just is taking a lot of staff time, the burden off of sta small staffs especially. Uh it's taken that burden off of staff for the 40 full 46 days. Election day operations, ballot board work, absentee processing, everything in preparation for the election. Nothing changes with that. We're still doing the same behind the scenes work that we've always done. Uh the important part to know is whatever decision you decide tonight, it is not a permanent decision. Uh there's opportunity to change that for future elections, but this change will be specific to the 2026 election for the August primary and the November general. Uh the change would allow a 14week notice for future elections. So we could revisit whatever your decision is next year or even early 2028. So, what are the advantages of going with the 18 days? Uh, like I mentioned, it's it's significantly reduces staff time. Uh, it cuts 28 days of administrative processing of election ballots uh per election. So, it's almost a full month of election administration that that we would not have to do. Uh, it would be less disruptive to city hall operations. We have a lot of people that come in. It's become very busy for in-person voting here at city hall. Uh we're one of the busier cities for that for that voting. Um so operations meaning behind the counter and for us just with doing all other administrative actions that we do. Some of that has to be put on hold while we're administrating elections. Potential cost savings for a few of the staffing options could include uh overtime for staff that has to be here. Some of the new law has changed that we have to require two at a minimum two staff members at all times to be here for elections. Uh we used to be able to maintain that with one at times, but now the the law requires two. So we might have to staff with extra election judges or possible other staff. Uh and the law the advantage allows the city is just to tailor it based on your local demand and what you're seeing for trends here for voting in our city. potential concerns for this 18 days. Uh it obviously shortens up the time for voting uh for the voters. Uh so so that is a a new change. While they can still vote uh via mail, the 18 days in person would be a big change for them. So communication will be a huge factor if this decision is made to go with 18 days. Uh we'll have to make sure that we're publicizing this and getting mailings out. Henipin County will also be a big part of that communication as they're our election administrator for the county. Uh city still may incur some costs despite the shorter time. Uh as mentioned, we may have to pay overtime. We might have to have extra election judges to help us administer this. Uh but that wouldn't change. We'd have to have them during the last 18 days no matter what. It's turning out to be the busier trend for us. uh and communities with a higher voting participation might create longer lines for the to come in and vote. So just some statistics if you can see this uh the two charts on the side on the left uh is just kind of noting in-person voting. The blue line is the first 28 days of this election is for 2024, the primary and the general. Henipin County saw about 20 a little over 20% of voters coming in during the first 28 days and then it certainly surges during the last 18 days which is part of the trend of what we're seeing and why the law is change or proposed to change for this. the last 18 days is just becoming very popular and the reason is is individuals and voters can put their ballot directly in the ballot counter just like they do on election day. It's not an envelope process like it was for the first 28 days. So you can see the trend is there. Uh and just to show some stats for Weisetta specifically, we do still have people coming in on election day. Uh there are some people that is just their preference. But you can see in 2024 over to the far right that number did drop in 2024 compared to 2022. Uh and the reason is we saw a heavy turnout. We had about 1500 voters that came through here of about 3,200 uh on a uh for early voting. So in 2020 it's significantly lower just because that year was COVID if you're wondering why it was so low. So there's many cities that are coming up to their council just like we are here tonight. Uh many of them are meeting in the next week to 10 days to make a decision on this. Uh the two columns, the first and the middle column are the cities that have already chose with their council uh to uh shorten the election to 18 days of early voting in their city. So there's quite a few that are going with some that are around us here locally around the lake. Uh the five on the right have chose to stay with the 46 days just to allow more opportunity for their voters. Uh Minneapolis being of course the largest city in Henipin County. Uh the other um cities just made a note that they didn't want to take anything away from their voters, but they may reconsider it next year and see how it plays out this year for other cities. So, Henipin County is asking, it's not a formal resolution that we're being asked to act on tonight, uh, but they have asked for an official motion to be made by the city council. Uh, staff recommendation is to make a motion establishing an 18-day in-person absentee early voting period for the future statewide primary and general elections. And with that, I'll take any questions. >> Thank you for that presentation. Questions of staff? I I have one. Um, so just remind me for the mail-in process that remains. So you're inside that 46 day window and someone comes to the counter and it's not inside 18, would we be able to give them instructions on how to complete their mail-in vote? >> Absolutely. Well, we can point them to the website directly where they can ask for it online uh or we can provide a form for them to mail in and ask for that ballot to be mailed to them. >> Okay. And then, excuse me, I don't know the rules explicitly, but let's say it's um on day 19, does that can they still do mailin or is there >> they can and ballots can actually be dropped off the mailin ballots. If somebody receives it at home, they can still drop it off at city hall and we will send it via Curry to Henipin County. So, there's still that option to drop it with us >> as long as it's within the >> That would be the entire 46 days. They could drop >> entire 46 days. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Other questions of staff? Okay, so we bring it back to the council for discussion. Um, how do folks feel about this? Um, I think we've been presented with good data to help us uh guide a motion, but uh who would like to begin our deliberations? >> Go ahead, Miss McDonald. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you, Mayor. Um uh thank you um city clerk for that um presentation and and the backup data. I support the staff recommendations. Um I think looking at our data, looking at our engaged community, um I think they'll they'll understand, they'll get it. And um staff [clears throat] time is so valuable. So, and I have no doubt if someone comes in 20 days ahead, they will be treated kindly and told of the the new policy or whatever. >> Thank you for that. Who would like to go next? >> Mr. Clish, >> I'll go. I I support this as well. I think 46 days was inordinately too long in the first place and everything can get accomplished well within 18 days. There was a time when you could only vote on election day. So, this is dramatically better than that. So, I support this. >> Okay. Thank you for that, Mr. Senson. >> Yeah, I I'm going to support this also, especially looking at some information of the last primary. 80% of our more than 80% voted within within 18 days. I think it makes a lot of sense and I'll be supporting it. >> Okay, Mr. Cook, >> fully support it. I think the voters have plenty of opportunities uh to vote within uh a reasonable time frame and the uh to reduce the burden on our staff will be uh very helpful and uh so but yeah I'm full support of this. >> Yeah, I too support it. I mean they can still vote in the 46 day window. It's just not in person. So, if that is their desire and the absentee ballot doesn't change either, I don't believe. So, there's still very good options in a 46-day window, including in person 18 in if this is fully supported, which I think it will be tonight. So, I would I would also support it. Um, so I guess we just need a motion and I'd look for Mr. Shelzel like how specific is do we need to be on this in terms of >> Mr. Mayor, I think the clerk has teed it up perfectly. The it's right there on the screen. if uh you want to ask for that motion. >> It's a simple motion. >> Yeah. A motion establishing an 18-day in-person absentee early voting period for the city of Weisetta for future statewide primary and general elections. >> Okay. I would accept a motion to that effect. Please. >> Mr. Mayor, I would like to make that motion, but before I do, I'd like to point out a little light-hearted observation about bureaucratic language. Uh this is described as in-person absentee balloting. Uh, to me that's a bit of an oxymoron. You can't be absentee and imperson at the same time, but given that I would like to make this motion. [laughter] >> Fair enough. Um, I'm trying not to laugh. [laughter] Uh, may I have a second, please? >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Uh, hearing none, that passes five to zero. Okay. So, now we're moving on to city manager uh report. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council. Just a couple of updates for you tonight. Um one I do want to highlight as the MDOT construction continues. Um coming up on Thursday, June 4th, the entrance ramp eastbound to Highway 12 off of Lake Gleon Lake Road will close. So, the detour will then send you from Moisetta Boulevard up on Central Avenue. So, that's going to start on Thursday. So, just heads up and plan for that. Um, I also want to promote that our police department has some amazing community engagement events coming up. Um, but one later this month is Sand Castles and Squads is on June 30th. Um, you can come on Tuesday, June 30th down to Wisetta Beach from 1 to 3:00 p.m. Um, and build sand castles with a couple of our police officers. So, I think it's a really fun um, event for kids. So, I want to make sure people know and show up for that. Um, and the last thing I want to mention, we talked about this a little bit at a community meeting we had last night. Um, but we've heard a lot this summer and in previous summers about noise and exhibition driving and I just want to assure the community as we know that this is an issue that we are taking steps as a city to address it. So, some of the things that we've been doing is we authorized additional overtime for our police department to do basically some special details to try and um deter this activity from happening. So, a couple of things I wanted to point out is that just in the month of May alone, um, between overtime from our own city officers and resources that we pulled in from the state, there was an additional 81 and a half hours of overtime um, detail for for traffic enforcement that month. And there were 85 citations issued on Lake Street alone. And 31% of all of our citations were issued on Lake Street. So, I just want to assure people through some of the data that we are taking this seriously. Our police department hears you. We're doing our best on enforcement um to make sure that people get the message that um exhibition driving and and that kind of habit is is not to be tolerated on Lake Street. So, [clears throat] I just wanted to pass that along of like we hear you, we are doing something about it. I know that that doesn't solve the problem entirely, but we hope that overtime that that um continues to curb that behavior. >> That's all I have for you. >> Thank you for that update. questions of our city manager. Any other updates from council that you wanted to offer? >> Okay, I'm hearing none. So, I would accept a motion for adjournment, please. >> So, moved. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. >> We're adjourned.