e okay calling the meeting to order welcome it is the January 7th 2025 city council meeting I hereby call the meeting to order members of the public May attend this council meeting in person or may watch or listen remotely by viewing the meeting on Channel 8 WCTV and the city's website at www weta.org WCTV 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 zoom 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 on the cable channel you'll be asked to unmute and then you may begin your comment all public comments must include your full name and address this is our first meeting of 2025 where all the current council members are the same and the new guy is the mayor here my name is Andrew Mullen and I'm thrilled that you're here and uh here we go we are going to start with uh the pledge of allean so if you'd stand if you are able and we will pledge allegiance face the flag 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 the next uh item on the agenda is roll call and uh let the record reflect that all are present I will also note that earlier this evening uh the entire Council participated in a workshop and reviewed the following the phase two of Municipal cannabis dispensary feasibility study by 7 group to determine if there's interest from the council at this time to continue exploring whether or not the city of wetta should be entering the Cannabis business we will review that again here in a minute and talk about the results of that meeting uh city manager do we have anybody on Zoom at this time okay so the next Mr Mayor we do not sorry it was okay that's fine uh so so uh the next item on the agenda is to approve the agenda do we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented or do we need any amendments move to approve the agenda as outlined Mr a second I'll second okay we have moved in second and all in those in favor say I I I uh the motion passes the next item is probably the reason some of you are here is the public forum um before we proceed to the public forum I just would like to start with a few very brief remarks I'd like to start by thanking uh publicly Joanna Mutan for her years of service to our community most recently as mayor uh later this evening we will affirm appointments to boards and commissions if approved we have over 50 citizens of our fellow citizens serving in this capacity if that moves forward and as part of that process we have three uh citizens stepping down this year um and including our chair of the Planning Commission um before the term was ended um we will have a recognition of those Folks at a near to city council meeting but I just wanted to acknowledge them and we will publicly recognize them at a meeting near to now um so without further Ado uh um just as a reminder in the public forum if there are any uh members of the public in attendance tonight and are interested in speaking you need to state your name and address and indicate uh if you're representing a group entity and limit your comments to three minutes as possible if the item you wish to speak about is something that is on the agenda uh fill out a form on the table and hand it to staff for those of you who are watching on Zoom which are currently nobody please send a note to chat via and staff will let you know when you will be uh sort of required to speak we also require if you are on Zoom to have your camera on the first item on the public forum is the swearing in of our new members and we have three members to be sworn in and we will start with Ken Sorenson then Alex pish and finish with myself so Jeff if you and Ken and any of Ken's guests would go over to the Das here for your swearing in please thank you Mr Mayor and good evening Council uh before we initiate this saring in I just want to say on behalf of the Wisa Community organization it's my honor and privilege uh to conduct the oath of office for council member uh senson council member pish and mayor Mullen um our beautiful and historic Community was founded in 1854 and Incorporated in 1883 so over these 150 years in addition to hundreds of council members um mayor Mullen you are the city's 28th mayor uh uh we still need to confirm that but the 28th mayor uh and we are thrilled uh absolutely thrilled that you are here and now a part of this very well-respected Legacy of leaders and leading a team including our current Council of dedicated public servants so a really special night uh a few housekeeping items before we begin um I will also be giving uh mayor Mullen and the coun members a certificate of election acknowledging their uh winning of the local election um and then if you'd like to say a few words after the swearing is complete uh feel free to do so we will be taking pictures during the swearing in and then uh I believe mayor Mullen will uh conduct a short recess to allow family members and any additional pictures that is not accomplished during the swearing in to happen um I think that's it all right uh so council member senson if you would please raise your right hand and repeat after me I st your name I can senson do solemnly swear do solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States to support the Constitution of the United States Constitution of the state of Minnesota constitution of the state of Minnesota and to discharge faithfully and to discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of council member the duties of the office of council member of the city of wetta min innesa of the city of wetta Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me go congratulations thank well I wasn't prepared to say much but just want to say how enthused and excited I am to continue my role on the on the city council I still feel a little bit like I'm the Newbie up here um and I want to express my uh gratitude to and admiration to staff and to my peers uh and colleagues on the council I think we have a a wonderful group of people and prepared to make good decisions to uh move our city forward you know I hope I can bring a bit of knowledge uh and expertise uh to share from my years in in in Industry especially on certain items pertaining to land land use and the like uh my wife uh is here I can tell you we thoroughly enjoy living here we love our city uh we have great things ahead we're very optimistic about it and uh thank you again thank you Ken next up is Alex pleus for his third swearing in as a council member third term oh good council member pish uh if you could please raise your right hand and repeat after me I st name I Alex pish you solemnly swear do solemnly swear to support the Constitution of the United States to support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and to discharge faithfully and to discharge Faithfully the duties of the the office of council member the duties of the office of council member of the city of wetta Minnesota of the city of wetta Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations well I didn't prepare a speech but I I'll just say a few words you know in in uh in light of my more recent election which some of you probably know about uh the drama that I used to experience here in wett is now going to be very much of a respit for me so these are the high points in in my life U and as I I told the Press Corps the other day when they asked a question uh What uh what's it been like you I know I'm diverging here from wetta but I thought it was appropriate considering my former uh firefighter colleagues is the answer to the question was I I thought my election was going to get me into the business of politics which of course this is part of uh it did not it got me into the business of fire hose drinking and my 16 years in the fire department I guess prepared me for that uh but seriously uh this has been a tremendous pleasure for me uh I think wetta is known as a council that is cohesive uh we deliberate well we dis disagree with each other well uh we come to consensus and we move forward and I look forward to the next four years thank you thanks Alex you got a pla Alex this to my collection yeah I guess next up is yours truly okay ready you guys want to come around or yeah you can stand behind there you go ready all ready all right mayor mhler Mullen if you could please raise your right hand and repeat after me I I Andrew Mullen do solemnly swear do solemnly swear do support the Constitution of the United States to support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and to discharge faithfully and to discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of Mayor the duties of the office of Mayor of the city of wetta Minnesota of the city of wetta Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my Jud judgement and ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you thank you oh man don't ask politicians to say anything I will very brief um I first want to recognize my parents 90 and 85 years young and thank them for being here tonight as well as my daughter uh Paige and my wife Kristen without their support you know for all of us have our our Peeps and our people you can't do this job I'm thrilled to be the 28th mayor of wetta or 25th whatever it ends up being when we look at the history records uh I'd like to recognize also former mayor will Cox who is here tonight as well as well as our fire chief uh other uh First Responders uh and thank you for all being here our uh police chief um and thank you so um I will do my best of ability to serve this community that I love I uh pledge to uh collaborate with with my uh colleagues here with our staff and with our boards and commissions to do the best job we can to Steward the city that we all love and I thank you for being here and let's get on to getting the work done we will I guess now have a short recess to allow those who don't want to stick around for the fun part of the meeting can depart and uh thank you all for being here so we'll just uh click to a short recess and then uh we'll reconvene in five minutes thank you you want pictures e e e e e e e e e e e I the first round to drink there you go we're on all right we're going to call the meeting back to order thank you for that uh nice ceremony for the new reelected and a hardfought election for for Ken and for Alex and then uh we're all sworn in so the next item on the agenda is new agenda items um does anyone have any new agenda items to discuss or bring up go ahead Ken May it's okay your mik isn't on microphone uh Mr Mayor if it's uh okay not really an item but a quick comment if if if that'd be okay that'd be fine um and may under the context of um I may not be here for the next meeting and and workshop but I would just want to encourage um this Council to um uh put short-term rentals high in our priority I think it's something that um is an issue that that we need to deal with and the sooner we deal with it the better um so I think it's an issue that is um here now and and um I would just I just want to make that a quick comment in case I'm going sure thanks thank you Ken uh duly noted for the record uh anyone else want to bring up any items uh that are new okay next on the uh agenda is is approving the consent agenda um on our consent agenda tonight is approval of city council workshop and regular meeting minutes of December 17 20124 approval of the check register approval of Municipal licenses approval of the Thursday April 17 2025 time and date at 5:30 p.m. for the 2025 local Board of appeal and Equalization meeting boy that's a mouthful approval of the second reading and Adoption of ordinance 845 to regulate cannabis businesses to accept the resignation of planning commissioner chair Lissa Stockton and approval of the special event permit for the 2025 Chile open by the wetta West Metro formerly known as the wetta chamber and approval of the amended 2025 meeting calendar city manager I believe that you have one correction that you need to note on that consent agenda yeah thank you Mr Mayor on on page 13 of the agenda packet for the minutes of the December 17th meeting there was an error there for the vote of the Cannabis regulations it said 5 to zero it was actually 4 to1 so Kathy LV our city clerk has already corrected that but I wanted to make sure that was um esta on the record okay before we approve the consent agenda with that change is there any other adjustments to the consent agenda that anyone would like to make or would anyone like to pull any items from the consent agenda uh mayor if it's okay I would just like to make a comment on item F sure what go ahead yeah um so I wasn't aware we're going to have maybe another session to really acknowledge Lissa stock in in in her role but um since this is the first meeting where she has officially resigned um you know she was on a plan commission for five years the last two as as chair and um I think in many respects she did a very wonderful job and we dealt with many um major projects major developments I think she did a really nice job of making there sure there was honest discussion and and consensus uh on the on the issues and I just um uh look forward to letting her know how much uh we appreciated her at a later dat yeah no that's very nice Ken thank you any other further comments on Lissa's uh situation well I I think we'll have another time for this but I absolutely want to acknowledge also Lissa she uh um took over as chair after I left and we worked together for three of her five years and um I found her to be incredibly articulate incredibly um well I mean she always did her homework and she just uh added a great deal to the conversation in the Planning Commission so Lissa if you're out there we're going to miss you thank you any further comments well I guess I'll we on it too I did not serve with her on the Planning Commission but I certainly observed her from afar in the in the audience here um and I've been wrong with her for the whole ride I was the first one I think to encourage her to actually do some of that so um we're going to miss her on a Planning Commission but we're not going to miss her in the community she's as smart as a whip yeah any any F yeah I'd hate to be the only not one to not wish Lorissa well on her next chapter and thank her for all those years of hard work and service to the community I will Echo that as I uh stated in my remarks earlier there are four including Lissa stepping down from current service and we will at a very near Council uh meeting acknowledge them um as it pertains Lissa I couldn't uh state it any better than those that are here I have not been serving in this room for over eight years so I did not have an opportunity to serve with Lissa but I did meet her when when she first moved to to the community uh I guess it would have been oh way back to 2014 and uh I I was pleased to see her serve I'm sad to see her go but I agree with Alex I don't think uh We've we've lost sight of Lissa's contributions to to our community um so with that comment with that adjustment are there any items that need to be corrected or items to be pulled I would like to pull the Cannabis to the regular U discussion um so I'll try I guess I have to have a motion David to move the agenda or the uh consent agenda forward yes mayor you can ask for a motion to prove the consent agenda without that item and uh with the minutes corrected as noted okay so I will make a is there a motion to approve the consent to agenda with the modification and the item pulled as presented I would like to make that motion Mr Mayor okay is there a second second Mr Mayor okay all in favor I I oose no so that moves forward um under new business is uh consideration of adoption of resolution 01225 or do we need to do this blue card now uh let's just tackle it sure that's okay uh do you when do you want before we do that just to be for clarity purposes when do you want to discuss uh item seven uh oh the one I pulled yeah let's do it at the end so we'll finish with cannabis we'll address this blue card now and then we'll go into our a regular agenda does that make that sounds great great so we have a blue card that was filled out by Kevin Sullivan um would you like to approach the microphone and state for the record your comments if you wouldn't mind when you get there take your time just your name and address and then what item you'd like to to discuss with us thank you sir can you put the mic on press the button for the mic here we go got it and the reason I'm here tonight is I am the incoming president of the sons of the American Revolution the sons of the American Revolution is a patriotic society and it's uh located in uh Minnesota and every state has got a chapter of the sons of the American Revolution and the reason that you may know about the sons of the American Revolution is the sons of the American Revolution the Daughters of the American Revolution and the children of the sons of the American Revolution conduct the flying pancake breakfast in um the Union Depot area every town so we've been doing that for a number of years and we really like it and all of the state societies come together and Coes here in wetta and we are really thrilled and pleased with the outpouring of support that the citizens of Wisa have given us and also the support of the actual city government for the government to allow us to use that space the at the Union Depot so with all that said uh there is a 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence coming up in 2026 and we would like to donate a bench to be installed in the park perhaps and commemorate it on uh July 4th of 2026 and uh at a minimum we'd like to do a bench but maybe we'd like to make it a little bit larger maybe do a flag poll where we can you know raise a Betsy Ross flag and that kind of thing so I brought some paperwork if anybody wants to um look or talk about that further um maybe I can come back next month and you know come up with a um a different proposal but I just am here tonight to see if there's an appetite for the city to team up with uh our three groups to do something memora for thank you for coming for forward I don't think that this venue would be appropriate to take action on it but I will uh receive the idea on behalf of the council and put it on a future agenda via staff so that we can weigh in and decide how best to take advantage of your very gracious offer and see what we can do to uh partner with you to celebrate the 250th year of the birth of our country okay yeah that sounds good so if you wouldn't mind um giving the materials to staff and then you can work with our staff to get on a future agenda um where we can uh discuss this uh your proposal more specifically but thank you for bringing it Forward okay thank you you bet okay so um we are now on new business and uh the first item on the new business is to consider adoption of resolution 01225 designating appointments and assignments for 2025 um before you get into presenting the options I would like to propose a way for us to go through approving these if I have support from the council so my proposal that's it's a long list of appointments and I guess my recommendation to try to efficiently go through it is to break it up into three buckets the first would be what are we as council members signing up for and being appointed to protem you know various boards and assignments that our Council roles then there are appointments for things like the City attorney the newspaper of record that would be the second bucket and then um there are then boards commissions and task force so we could just take them in that order to to try to efficiently go through and drive consensus on each of them and then move it forward as a package is that acceptable to everybody okay so city manager if you would uh or would take us through what the the staff's recommendation is and then we'll take it through in the order that I recommended uh thank you Mr Mayor happy to do so uh just a real brief presentation here um highlighting what's in the council packet um pull that up um really this is an uh this resolution that assigns all of the official appointments and and representatives of the city um is done at the first meeting of the year it it's for uh from a legal perspective we have to fill these certain Ro roles and name them uh but also there's a a lot of City appointed um roles and responsibilities that we need to update every year based on you know changing of staff and changing of council as well uh there's a few nuances with all of them I don't think I need to go through them all but you know a couple things to note um panaway is a good example we we've got uh because the partnership is critical and it's important that we have both staff and the council connected to the conservancy and build those relationships we have several roles related to panaway and the conserves actions a few planning studies um and as you mentioned Mr Mayor the um Council related appointments on different uh task forces uh the resolution it's kind of chopped up uh but we can certainly start out with uh the uh Council related appointments I mean you can you can take it all the way through and then I can or I've kind of prepared to organize them into those three buckets I don't know that uh yeah this is what I put together um in terms of what the discussion is related to the council appointments tonight so maybe that's a good way just kick it off so uh I'll just go through each of them and then what what the staff is rolling as the recommended and then let's have a conversation amongst ourselves if if we're all comfortable with staff recommendation we'd like to make any adjustments so first is Mayor proem and the order is for Alex plexus to retain mayor proam and then next in line would be Molly McDonald based on seniority then we move to the Fire Relief Board of Trustees and the recommendation there is for me to serve on that with Jeff dah and Kevin clarick the next uh ones are all either task force or um commission related that have a council representative so we're being asked to have two Representatives the mayor plus one council member on the panaway partnership team we are being asked to have a two council members on the panaway district committee uh two is it two council members numbers or you're saying one in a backup for the panaway district committee we've uh historically had two okay and then two for the zoning task force and then up to two for the public art and steering committee and since that's new there are nobody uh there so let's start with the easy ones I think mayor proem is typically based on uh years of service on the council do was anyone opposed to the recommendation of Alex uh with Molly in second position there okay so we'll move on from that one uh the next one is Fire Relief Board of Trustees uh does anyone I I would accept being uh appointed to the relief board are there any objections to the mayor being appointed to the relief board for fire okay then I'm going to go to the next one which is the public art steering committee up to two um I had a chance to talk to folks a little bit in advance and uh council member pleus expressed some interest in serving on that committee so I'll put his name forward is there anyone else on Council we can have up to two to serve on the public Arts steering committee anyone if no one else would I I would love to be a part of it okay so we have Alex and council member Molly in that role any objections to that okay so then um I have a recommendation on how to try to make the remaining appointments a little bit more efficient um the only one that's Guided by any you know formal document or or or policy is to have a representation for the panaway steering committee the rest of these are task forces and I would like to see us at least put at rest the Section forance House task force the zoning task force the panaway district committee task force and try to collapse that into one or two council members that address panaway for 2025 and my desire to do this is out of pure efficiency I don't see us uh moving forward with any construction on panaway in 2025 of any kind um but I again it's all about efficiency and trying to use our time wisely so I'm going to make a suggestion to collapse the section Foreman's house the monthly representation on the panway uh board meeting and the uh leadership panaway to be just one group and it could be one or two members in that group to tackle all those things if they were to come up during the course of the year that's my first suggestion and I wanted to get get people's reaction to that suggestion if people feel strongly about leaving them in place and I'm fine with that I'm just trying to be efficient go ahead um just in regards to the panaway district committee uh we've been talking a lot about and I'd love to hear what um council member Park Hill thinks as well but um our last meeting we we felt the same way a bit but we the the the committee as a whole preferred and and I think agreed upon that we would kind of hold off disbanding for the year and maybe just keep one or two meetings just to check in and make sure and so if that's something that you would be open to or comfortable with and and also council member Park I'll make sure I'm remembering correctly how we how we left it yeah I don't think we had a huge list of items to accomplish but uh given what may come up this summer and what um given that there's fundraising involved um it seemed maybe premature to completely disband it okay that's fine so I'm I'm fine with that so let me revise my proposal to say leave the panaway district committee can we collapse the section Foreman's house and the monthly and Leadership into one or two roles again for efficiency sake do we have any opposition to monthly leadership well so there is the um panaway uh let me find it here team the panaway team and then there's the monthly uh council member that attends the Conservancy board meetings as a as a uh Observer okay I'm suggesting that we collapse that into one role of one or two members of this body to perform that function Mi Mr Mayor one comment we we may have to come back to another meeting because I do know that that this represents how the um joint public private partnership um agreement um right it mandates having a a leadership meeting doesn't mandate a council participant in the um as a monthly representative in in in the uh in their board meeting we can we can double check that but yeah that might be yeah correct so um we would want to confirm that regardless but I think we can move forward with that intent that you have okay and again all I'm trying to do is drive efficiency I'm not trying to I mean uh anything other than just trying to be mindful of our time and try to be efficient well I have interest in staying on as on the team but I don't have interest in going to the Conservancy meetings so in in this world of efficiency does that mean then you're either on all or nothing no not at all I'm I'm simply um suggesting to try to make it more efficient and if there's not support for it we leave it the way it is okay Mr Mayor I can just weigh in at least one thing is the section Forman house uh design part of this can be collapse because we're done there's nothing else to do so that can be eliminated all right any objections to the Section forman's House task force being eliminated no okay so we'll do that and then I will try to come back to this and see if I have it right and have consensus so I will uh withdraw my recommendation for adjusting the panaway committee assignments and we'll go back to what is was in practice in 2024 so that would be up to two council members for the steering committee and one member of council to attend the monthly meetings so uh you would like or you put your name forward to serve on the steering committee is there anyone else that would like to serve on the steering committee and just to clarify Mr Mayor on the resolution that is the um Team commit all right the team sorry I'll use the right term the panawe team meeting I would like to serve on that okay is there anyone that would like to serve on the monthly uh Conservancy board meetings I would uh have an interest in that okay so I had an interest in serving on the um we call it the the panway where is it the not the monthly what is it called team meeting Hanway team meeting I'd like to serve on that so we' need to break a between Jeff Molly and myself I don't feel super strongly about it but I I uh feel like I would like to serve on that committee so does anyone so you don't want two Council people on that no I I I'm saying mayor and one council person or two Council people is what I'm suggested well I think since Molly's been on it before and I do think the mayor should be on it honestly MH so I will resend my volunteerism okay there we go so let me see if I can take the first Rong of these and see if I have it right so we have mayor protom of Alex in first position and then Molly for the Fire Relief Board of Trustees we're putting forward Andrew uh the mayor Jeff D and Kevin CLA for City representative on the panaway team we will put mayor Mullen and council member McDonald for the panaway district committee we will continue to have Jeff parkel and Molly McDonald serve on that for the wetta Conservancy Leah Zone which would be the monthly board meeting Council appointed position we would have Ken Sorenson um and then for the art uh committee we would have uh council member plish and council member McDonald did I get that right from everyone's from a council perspective okay so let's go on to the next rung which is the city of appointed uh you know positions such as lmcd so we have lmcd um Matthew Thompson for a term expiring on 2027 we have the Suburban rate Authority representative which would be city manager Jeff dahah we have the City attorney reaffirmed as beston Flanigan and David schelzel we have the prosecuting attorney as Jeffrey Lambert the health officer of hennipin County the official newspaper as Sun sailor the assistant weed inspector boy that sounds like a fun job Kurt CLA the city Forester Bennett Miran the responsible Authority for purpose of the data and privacy acts Kathy LV the assessor for residential commercial industrial utility apartments in the prominade of wetta hennipen County the official depository as the Old National Bank the registered Municipal advisor as isers and the designated auditor as of Malloy monteu Kowski and revich mm KR are we okay with all those appointments Council okay great then the last bucket would be moving to um the uh appointed Representatives um for Planning Commission that's the last item to be filled right so we talked earlier about appointees right we do we have a slate of appointees as well oh uh is it just uh just trying to fill uh chair uh Lissa Stockton oh m where uh um that would come back to the next meeting okay so I've accomplished I think everything on this list I've got consensus I would accept a motion inclusive of what I just ticked off I have one question please Mr Mayor um are we what about the zoning task for oh did I miss that one is that one dissolved zoning and and um just to confirm the design committee for Section informance House that those two would be dissolved okay okay is that correct Mr Mayor yes okay good are we okay with that are we okay with the zoning and the uh section form in house task Fork being dissolved at this time okay so I'm seeing nods so now we would take this as I would accept a motion for resolution 01 2025 appointing these appointments and assignments for 2025 do I need to read it off again Mr Mayor I I think you've got it right I think the the edits to this resolution that you went through in your discussion are pretty clear on the record so I think your motion could stand I would just amend it you know just append it with as amended as you discussed okay so I would accept a motion to approve this resolution with the Amendments discussed so moved mayor okay do we have a second second moved and second and all in favor say I I I okay eyes have it the next item on our agenda 8B is the approval of 2025 legislative priorities council is this for you yes uh thank you Mr Mayor uh so similar to uh the last item which is uh an action that we need to take uh at our first meeting this is not required but this is something that we've we've uh been in the practice of doing uh especially as the city and the state gears up for its legislative session so ultimately um this time of year the city council Direct staff to um Advocate uh legislative priorities if there's alignment with our strategic initiatives uh we utilize a consultant to help us do that it's lockerd grindall Nan to assist with that advocacy uh and as I mentioned all of the uh anything we advocate for needs to be consistent with our strategic initiatives in this case diversify Revenue achieve and sustain operational excellence and sustain Community character and safety that's a big umbrella typically these what we advocate for are the big ticket items in our strategic plan uh and just briefly I'll go through what's in our uh draft legislative priorities that was discussed uh in a meeting a workshop in December first off is a a significant bonding request uh this would be our I think third request uh since the last time we rewarded funds for the lakewalk in this case we're asking for dollars for not only future phases of panaway you know uh ultimately probably more than probably years down the road but clappr Park um the beach shaver Park and um we are working on A needs assessment for Public Safety facilities not knowing how that might come out we're going to we we know we're going to need help with design and that's going to be a a lofty amount so we thought at this point it'd be appropriate to ask for uh design n related uh bonding dollar so all all In Sum similar to what we discussed in December it's a $15 million request next item is a sales tax exemption uh we've been successful in the past asking for all uh for all the projects that are identified in our bonding request that those projects are exempt from sales tax uh currently there's no mechanism for that those to be exess uh exempt next big one I would say is the local option food and beverage sales tax this was the item that was discussed the most I would say at the workshop uh this is an item that we have really moved forward with advocating for two years ago we were not successful in getting um the allowance by the legislature for us to move forward with that uh and concurrently that year the legislator P legislature passed a moratorium on sales taxes so right now advocating for it is is not going to be fruitful unless that moratorium is lifted and we don't know what's going to happen there um but our our our based on what we discussed in November or December we would Advocate to lift that moratorium and ultimately um uh support the allowance of a future food and beverage sales tax for this community with the condition that um you know there's a lot more engagement that that needs to be done prior to you know getting too far ahead of this um the reason why food and beverage you know as a result of that that Workshop discussion is because it's much more flexible uh in terms of what we can use it for and ultimately there was discussion about how it really um takes Revenue that's generated from businesses that are where a lot of people are coming from the outside where there's a lot of City services that are needed for them uh more so it doesn't mean other businesses don't have that cause but more so with food and beverage type businesses um so those are the reasons why we focused on food and beverage versus a broader sales tax last one was something that was brought up at the meeting uh and very very gerine to our community was to advocate for more local control for fines and fees for nuisance type um uh offenses with our police uh whether it's ebikes whether it's parking violations whether it's uh noise Mufflers all that there's a lot of restrictions you know I don't want to get into it now but that the state uh legislature has placed on how much we can find what our you know what our boxes to how we can U ultimately punish uh violators uh we want to advocate for more local control to do it you know to right side it for our community so those are the uh four General uh priorities that we want to advocate for uh but you know to have a discussion in public is important before we move forward with anything with our lobbyists so happy to answer any questions that the council has questions of staff from Council yeah um just one question Mr Mayor um so just so interest understand on this sales tax issue is this to Lobby would this be to Lobby that state to um get rid of the moratorium or Lobby on behalf of why is that a uh getting the sales tax issue uh good question council member senson um it would be ultimately for both because in order to move forward with any type of sales test they have to lift the moratorium uh that may be an obvious thing coming down the legislative session I don't know that for sure though uh so ultimately would be to you know Advocate to uh lift moror and then uh allow us to initiate our own sales tax okay thank you uh any further questions of staff so let's bring it back to council for discussion and I think uh maybe the best way to do it is just one by one and see if anyone have any comments or adjustments that they'd like to try to uh provide staff guidance to provide our lobbyists so we'll start with the bonding request which includes Capital Improvements related to panaway claic park shaver Park and Public Safety design facility any additional comments or feedback that you want to offer staff on this item um I could make one comment on it the public safety facility um that is not something the council has discussed okay and I think we should before we go in and Lobby for you know Lobby for it because I don't know anything about it all I know is apparently we need a new thing and it's in the capital plan for 10 years out or something like that so I think it's important for us to dig into these Capital expenditures before we you know I I don't know maybe it's something we do need I don't know anything about it and I feel like I should know about it um maybe just see if any others uh have questions about it or shared uh council member parel's concerns I'll just wait and I I think that's a reasonable thing to note it's uh it probably doesn't change the fact we'd still like to get $15 million from the state right and then we kind of decide where we're going to spend it um so let's ask what we're never we're probably not going to get 15 we'll get something less than that if we get anything uh but he's got a point we haven't talked about it so let's talk about it before we list it as a legislative priority for our lobbyists any comments from staff on that yeah Mr mayor council member plish uh and that's exactly what we started to talk about uh in December was well can it hurt to have it on there we brought up that it we don't really know what this needs assessment is going to look like so it might be premature but does it hurt to add because if if we take it off then we're going to have to you know shave off $2 million of the bonding request as well because we have to have all that request allocated and and you know uh directed specifically to an expense so um we could just ask for it next year or even though it's uncomfortable because we does we don't really know what looks like and a lot of Engagement has to happen first with the council with the community um all we're doing right now is asking for money to help I can tell you this if if a legislator watched this meeting I would pull that right out of the request right now um but I mean I don't feel strongly about it I think it's a very fair point council member Park Hill and I I would support pulling that from the bonding request at this time given you know Alex's comment and Jeff parel's comment and then we can always add it back right after we've surfaced it at a council me being to discuss the need for a new Public Safety facility would probably have to be next year if it's too far in the legislative session but for sure we can add it to a future request any anyone else can weigh in I mean I don't feel strongly about it so we've got two people expressing concern one neutral and two silent at this point excuse me um I I mean I kind of remember the conversation at the end of the year and felt comfortable having it on this um Year's priorities and in the requests so um I'm fine with leaving it in too but so I I don't have a strong opinion about it I think we I'm perfectly fine all right just to move this along I'm going to say leave it we have three three nods to say leave it next one is sales tax exemption on construction materials comments from Council on that line item or nope everyone comfortable with that okay the next one is local option food and beverage sales tax and this is both advocating to release the restriction on having local area sales tax and then if that is removed then going for a food and beverage tax over a broader tax so comments or questions from Council or comments I guess on that one go ahead I would have a question um maybe a little more clarity on what we mean by more flexibility on how tax can be spent if we go with just um the food and sales tax yeah so the the historically for um municipalities that have received food and beverage sales taxes they're able to use um those taxes for reimbursement on operations so that the local option sales tax usually is limited to capital projects food and beverage allows us more flexibility to utilize it for operations so labor um but at the moment right both are handcuffed by the legislature can do neither correct so then the option here would be with his clarification would be do we want to move forward if advocating to release the Restriction to have a local tax I think there's going to be consensus on that the second part is do we go for a Hospitality tax or a broader tax and the difference as I heard you articulated is one provides a restriction that won't allow that Capital to you for operations and one does not Hospitality allows you to use it for operations if you go for a broader sales tax that would be outside of hospitality in our business Community then you would be restricted to use it for Capital not operations correct yeah did I get that right you did okay so we have uh council member s's question any other comments from Council on this one yeah I'd like to make a comment um this was like ju opposed of either or and uh and you weren't part of the discussion but the the the food and beverage sales tax not only is it uh preferred because it's more flexible it's preferred because there is a sense that 95% of people that visit our food and beverage establishments are not from wetta so the tax burden on wetta residents would be a lot less than the other tax which would apply much more so to wetta so there's several reasons why the food and beverage sales tax is the preferred any any other comments on this one no I agree with that though I would well I let me just make one other comment I would say that I would prefer not to have a broad sales tax because that will be ta that will tax the citizens of Yetta more and um I I don't think we need another tax in this state fair enough um or in this town let's say yeah no fair enough I mean so uh I've had a chance to study this I did not have a chance to to review it the last several years as you guys did um I'm comfortable moving forward with guidance to staff and our lobbyists to try to allow local communities to tax themselves if they so choose so no issues there I do have a little bit different perspective but I'm not going to draw a red line over it I I actually if we're going to do this I prefer the model of allowing a referendum to happen and the citizens to vote whether or not they want to be taxed um that's my general perspective on it um you you have to do that I believe if you go for the general uh tax well we don't know because the law is being adjusted right uh yeah Mr Mayor if I could chime in um it's like it currently in statute a local option sales tax does require that it is um voted on Via referendum um even despite that not being a requirement of food and beverage sales taxes that has been put on put in place by the legislature with the last few that have been approved okay so not required but likely okay so I mean little bit a game of hypotheticals uh something I feel more strongly about personally is that if we are going to propose a tax on any stakeholder in our community whether it be residents paying for it visitors is paying for it that they have full understanding of why that that after this meeting we direct staff to go out and meet with the chamber to go out and meet with every single restaurant owner that will meet with us to explain to them that we are going to go do this my recollection of what I read in the paper is the last time we tried this we maybe didn't do all the engagement we could of and we got to the capital and and the retail lobbyist sort of chimed in and said you don't have the support of your community and we we kind of didn't look like we had our ducks in a row so if we're going to do this I I would support it but I would direct staff to go out and meet with every single restaurant owner that will meet with you to explain to them that we're why we're doing this and what we're doing and the second part of that would be I don't know if we can get it tonight but before uh an our lobbyist goes to the capital that we have some consensus on on generally what we'd use the money for I'm not a big fan of you know asking for money for the capital without some guidance on what would you use it for um you can say it's going to be used to offset property tax great for what right um if we're going to tax somebody I want some general guidance from this body on we need the money to do what Public Safety Parks whatever it may be and so I don't think I want to hold it up tonight but could we you know before in the session what just started this week or not even yet we we have a little bit of time to to you know offer some feedback back to an on that so that's how I feel about it I'm not going to hold it up but I wanted to State my uh my perspective on what would need to be in place to support it Mr Mayor what we could do because I do think even though the session's starting up in theory soon um with the moratorium we've heard that that might not you know be lifted until the very end of the session so we do I think have time a little bit of time to come back to the council and talk about what an engagement plan might look like uh as well as just what we've presented before about what it what it could pay for and have that discussion before we get too far into it that would make me comfortable any other comments on that one no okay the last one is local control and fines fees and uh for nuisances such as uh noise and ebikes um comments or discussion from Council on that one um I I would make one quick comment that um that I would expect the lobbyist to go one step further and um not just look at control on fines and fees but also are these um nuisances detrimental on a broader scale so should they ask the the state legislature to look at it more holistically and Statewide which I assume they will but no good comment good comment others I'll just say that I'm philosophically in favor of granting more control lower in our government instead of H in our government and I think that's what this is all about is to give us more control rather than have the state or the county telling us what we need to do thank you I I just have oh council member par okay I just have one comment I met uh recently with uh commissioner Bo Carlson from Three Rivers as well as at large member Jan Gunther from Three Rivers and ebikes is high on their list and so through this process I think we have an ally there and could we ask staff and our lobbyist to check in with three rivers to find out what they've got going because they're a larger you know government entity than they are and if we're align with they they want some regulation on ebikes as well so if if staff could add that to their list of you know engagement that would be appreciated we we've already got a meeting plan hasn't happen yet but we're on it okay so uh I think do we need a motion on this one okay so uh I guess I would accept a motion to move forward the 2025 draft legislation priorities a amended with the feedback from Council um heard here tonight I would accept the motion Mr Mayor I'll make that motion okay first second second from Member senson all in favor I I oppose it passes so the next item I asked to be pulled which is the approval of the second reading meting of adoption of ordinance 845 to regulate cannabis businesses before I asked uh staff just to make a brief summary of what that ordinance is and the action we're taking I want to revisit our Workshop uh topic for tonight which was the entire Council met with staff in Workshop earlier this evening to discuss uh further uh action on exploring whether or not uh the city of wi Zetta would entertain uh entering into the Cannabis business and applying for a license I would say that my summary of that meeting is we had a consensus unanimous consensus to put that action on hold which would mean for the foreseeable future or you know on hold until a council this Council or future Council brings it back that we will cease expending any resources money or staff time exploring entering the Cannabis business so I just wanted to state that for the record and then with that there is a related but separate matter which is the second reading of the uh ordinance around now that we've decided we're not going to get in the business we still have to allow a business to operate in white Zetta and so if staff could just Briefly summarize the resolution and then we'll take a vote on it does anyone have any other further comments from the workshop I don't want to cut anybody off if I if I misrepresented uh the meeting if anyone wants to make a comment about the workshop okay so staff if you could summarize the the or the resolution before us sure thank you Mr Mayor so this is the second reading uh at the last Council meeting the council approved the first reading of ordinance amendments both in our in our um regulate licensing part of our code as well as zoning that really sets the local regulatory framework to allow cannabis businesses that means retail that means uh delivery that means manufacturing although that doesn't really apply because we don't really have manufacturing districts here but cannabis uses to uh Loc within the city part of that was a um a map a buffering that the the state gave us the ability to utilize to um influence where we felt comfortable cannabis business could locate and um I would say the council uh had a lot of discussion robust discussion about that and ultimately we have to allow areas in within the City commercial areas that that could um house a cannabis business uh but the council chose to be pretty conservative in terms of allowing it in just a few areas uh specifically along Wisa Boulevard and then further out along 12 uh just a few uh eligible kind of commercial districts so this was all a part uh as a result of the legislation that the city passed or the state passed sorry couple years ago and they allowed us to put a moratorium in place that would not allow any cannabis related businesses until the end of this past year so that's why this is coming to you now we want to make sure we had something in the books in case the the state does get their act together and we start to see their application of process you know move forward and we could have cannabis businesses coming to the community so uh thank you city manager any questions of Staff no any desire to have further discussion at the council level of this ordinance for its second reading no okay so I would accept a motion then for the approval of the second reading and Adoption of ordinance 845 to regulate cannabis businesses I will make that motion Mr Mayor by uh council member parkle do I have a second second second from council member pish all in favor say I I those opposed that passes five to zero uh and then I think we are on to the city manager report thank you Mr Mayor I just want to again congratulate uh mayor Mullen and the rest of the council especially council members plish and um Sorenson on your election and we look forward to working with you it was a hard fought campaign for some more than others thank for yourself Alex I did and we just I know speaking on behalf of Step We Appreciate You guys' service not only just to the community but how much you care about the people in this organization that provide those services so uh looking forward to this year um reminder MLK day coming up I think that's on the 20th so offices will be closed uh update in Community Development uh congratulations to Val corals uh her titles Chang to city planner which involves some more responsibility uh so congrats to her uh we're still working to fill our community development director position uh we've got uh interviews next starting next week so hopefully with the next month or two that'll be filled and um with the uh the um start of uh mayor mullen's tenure um we will mayor mullen's going to begin with uh a cool uh new initiative to to breed more Community engagement and have uh meetups at the mun monthly meet meetups at the M uh known as the Wiis bar grill and the first ones on February 10th from 7 to 900 p.m. M uh I I I think it's a great idea and I I hope you know you get a lot of positive feedback who know I'll may be seeing there by myself but at least I'll try but our plan going forward is to have these monthly meetings and uh we'll see how it goes but what we've got a great venue for it so why not do it right uh and then the last thing we're doing a little bit differently this year uh starting the year off with the beginning of the year with a state of the cities with a new Council so our um um plan is to have in this room state of the Cities Thursday February 25th from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. show short and sweet kind of more of a a happy hour type um you know get to know your neighbor part of the beginning and then a program at 5: and then a Q&A for anybody that uh has any questions to see uh where the city's going in 2025 okay any questions to the city manager I have one comment okay uh Chile open is on February 8th and there still is tickets yes wow that's a that's a first I just got the Lowdown from the head of our Chamber of Commerce and it sounds like a really fun day fantastic be my first one I'm excited about it I got a team together and oh fun we're going to have a good time and apparently there was an event Friday night too that you can get tickets to that has live bands and a live band and I think they're actually serving alcohol that night so okay so Chile open onka February Chamber of Commerce Mother Nature is billon ice out there right now so we're right we're at 8 inches apparently um any other comments for city manager I I just have one just want to reiterate that at the next meeting we're going to publicly recognize the folks that are stepping down and we will address the reappointment uh of of chair not for the chair but for another member of our community to serve on Planning Commission to replace um Lissa Stockton so that'll be on our next council meeting later this month yep correct okay if I have nothing further oh shoot we went past 8 o'clock but I will accept a motion to uh conclude tonight's meeting and thank you for your patience everyone on my first meeting uh I haven't been in this room for eight years and not ever in this chair well I guess I was mayor prend so I did leave the meeting a few times but it takes a little bit to do it and uh appreciate your patience with that I'll accept a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second Mr Mayor second all in favor I I I the meeting is closed thank you e