North St. Paul City Council — Transcript
Sunday, May 17, 2026
Arts and Culture Commission Procedures
Public Art Installation and Planning
Community Arts Events and Programs
City Budget and Financial Management
City Infrastructure and Services
Votes (10)
Approval of Minutes from April 1st, 2026
Moved by Eliza Verma [0:31] · Seconded by Jordan [0:33]
A procedural question was raised regarding the necessity of a motion to adjourn a meeting under Robert's Rules. The consensus was that it is not required.
East Metro Symphony Orchestra (EMSO) Presentation
Eugenia Meltzer introduced the East Metro Symphony Orchestra, formerly the 3M orchestra, describing its size, rehearsal location (St. Marks Lutheran Church), and upcoming May 17th concert. She sought commission guidance on advertising and noted the orchestra's growth has led them to outgrow St. Marks as a venue.
45th Parallel Marker Project Development
The commission discussed plans for a marker at the 45th parallel, with Southwood Nature Preserve identified as the optimal location. Design ideas included an obelisk or a rock with a plaque, along with proposed wording for both the marker and an interpretive sign to explain its geographical significance. The process for obtaining approval from the Parks Commission was also a key discussion point.
Utility Box Wraps - Photography Call Approval
Moved by Sharon Clark Williams [1:59] · Seconded by Eliza Verma [2:00]
An update on the photography call for the utility box wrap at 19th and Lake indicated five applications were received, and the project theme of photography was affirmed for its natural blend with the park concept. The commission approved the expenditure for the wrap and artist stipend.
Utility Box Wraps - Artist Selection Process Discussion
Jordan (staff) recommended that the full commission review artist applications for public art projects to ensure transparency and avoid conflicts of interest, aligning with best practices. Commissioners debated this, expressing concerns about potential bogging down of the process, trust in subcommittees, and the sensitivity of publicly critiquing art. Troy Woods suggested a process similar to RFPs, where subcommittees filter options for final commission review.
Autumn Arts Festival Update and Spoken Word Event Integration
The Autumn Arts Festival is progressing with various acts booked, including music and dance, and 35 confirmed artists for its new downtown location. A discussion ensued regarding integrating a Spoken Word event into the festival; staff expressed concerns about noise interference. Alternative venues like Fly by Coffee or the Casey Lake building were considered, but commissioners preferred integration into the festival or a standalone event at Casey Lake, ensuring a pre-recorded submission process for government-backed events.
Public Art Project - Penny Press Designs Approval
Moved by (Implied by discussion) · Seconded by (Implied by discussion)
The designs for the Penny Press were presented to the commission and received positive feedback, particularly for the snowman design. The commission expressed unanimous approval, paving the way for the project to move into production.
2027 Budget Adjustments and Future Planning
The commission reviewed the 2027 budget proposal, comparing it to 2026 allocations. Key suggestions included increasing the Art Cart budget for potential rewrapping/painting and hired artists, and budgeting for a community art show/gallery open to all ages. A significant initiative proposed was the creation of permanent signage and an art walk map for existing public art. Discussion also covered flexibility in the mural budget, allowing reallocation of funds to other art projects if mural opportunities are not secured early in the year.
Reallocation of Kids Create Budget Overrun
Moved by Eliza Verma [7:03] · Seconded by Sharon Clark Williams [7:04]
Jordan (staff) reported an overspending of $95.31 in the Art Cart (Kids Create) budget, which falls under Ava's event budget code. The commission was asked to direct where these funds should be reallocated from, and they voted to use the Branding and Communication budget.
City Council Meeting Update
Troy Woods reported on the recent City Council meeting. Highlights included excellent 2025 audit results, confirming the city's strong fiscal health. Ongoing policy discussions covered city responsibility for alleyway paving. Updates were also provided on successful city garage sales and 'trash to treasure' day, the upcoming city cleanup day (with fees and new streamlining efforts), and the future of solid waste providers. He also confirmed that the city had stopped chlorinating the water at the beginning of the month, with state testing results pending.
Notable Quotes (24)
In the adjournment, it said that I asked for a motion, but didn't we learn from a lawyer guy that we can just adjourn for Robert's rules? We don't have to ask for an adjournment.
And if you take the three and turn it becomes an E. And so we are the East Metro Symphony Orchestra. We're about 80 people... We rehearse at St. Marks and we have been there since January.
I appreciate any guidance on advertising. Um I I have posters. We did our last Christmas concert at the high school because we've outgrown St. Marks.
the best location seems to be the Southwood Nature Preserve... the 45th latitude goes directly through Southwood Nature Preserve.
I think it would be good to have a wording for interpretive sign because I think people might not know the significance of those few words and to have something more explanatory...
I obelisk is my number one choice for the shape. And if you don't know what that is, that's the shape of the Washington Monument.
We're going with photography. It's going to be a great idea because it'll blend right into the concept of the park and enjoying nature and all of that.
It's come to my attention that when doing like the best practice while doing call for artists, um, would be kind of have the commission review and discuss applications during meetings.
I think if we're saying hey Sharon you take charge of this project I am giving my implicit trust in she knows how to choose like I guess I don't understand why it feels like that just bogs it down a little bit more.
I would equate this to so right now the city is going through a um equate it to like an RFP... they can filter out like the... Yeah. And then bring you like the best options,
But maybe, oh, maybe I'd go into an in-depth artistic critique of it. Is that fair to the people who are submitting it? If I'm sitting here going, 'Well, the composition is this, and while this vaguely reminds me of this, but I have seen this before, and nobody wants to hear their art picked apart publicly like that.'
She sent Tom and I an email today. So we have a lot of different acts booked. Um, they've got music from the Andes and Mariachi band. Uh Chinese chopstick dance, a percussionist, and Polar Drift.
We also afraid of that event kind of being a bit too noisy because there's going to be performances, it's going to be downtown, there's going to be food trucks. We're not 100% confident that there'll be a space that this won't the poetry um slam won't get drowned out.
The whole purpose behind it was to find an event that anyone could participate in. But as I said before, um it's not going to be a poetry slam, which is spontaneous. They can just come up and speak. We can't really have that in a governmentbacked event because we have literally no idea what they're going to say.
Fly by Coffee is lovely, but it's um I mean that's where our subcommittee meets. So, we're in there often, but it's small and narrow and so it would not I mean it would lend itself to hearing of course that spoken word, but it would not lend itself to having people witness it.
I really love these groups. Oh my god, the snowman is any input on these designs. They turned out great.
Any other thoughts or suggestions for adjusting the budget for 2027? Um, one thing is the art cart, the new one. I don't know if you guys have any plans on editing it or like, you know, rewrapping it, painting it.
We need signage for our art... We've got we've put forth all this effort to get artists and to bring this amazing work to our town and it's not signed and also we need to put it on the website so if somebody wants to visit North St. Paul they can realize that we are cosmopolitan and you can go on an art walk around our town.
Projects do end up costing more. There is always the option of the commission going to city council explaining why this is costing more. It's not set in stone.
If we can't line somebody up, then we pivot to an another known entity presented to you you through email... and then proceed with that art because I feel like we're getting more tight in our ability to make things happen.
I got the art cart. Turns out that it overbudgeted on the art cart by $95.31... I guess I'm looking for direction on where that $95.31 should go that isn't from the Art Knight budget.
We had our, uh, 2025 audit results. Uh, city came in really well... we are at 67% of that. So we are fiscally doing well as a city.
The other thing that we had um that we discussed was um alleyways. It was a big discussion item about what responsibility the city should have in regards to paving um alleyways.
As of the beginning of this month, so I want to say it has been about 10 days. Um, the city stopped chlorinating the water... Now that the hydrants are all flushed, we did stop chlorinating the water.
Ordinances & Resolutions (5)
Procedural guidelines for conducting meetings, discussed in context of adjournment rules.
Request for Proposal, used as an analogy for the artist selection process.
Financial audit for the City of North St. Paul for the previous year, showing good fiscal health.
Current year's budget for the Arts and Culture Commission projects and operations.
Proposed budget for the Arts and Culture Commission for the upcoming fiscal year, subject to adjustments.