that students uh can um pursue and you know debt and things like that that are associated with college or readiness for college is is not necessarily for everybody and the system needs to be maybe a little more comprehensive with that. So, we want to continue some work in that area, but uh students are humans and uh we want to make sure we're as rounded as possible. Now, that said, uh I'll get to this a little later. Um under my administration, one of the things I want to uh get us back to in Lakeville is uh academics first and always. um we need to get a little uh we need some improvement in our achievement uh and and how that's reflected in in our um student body uh that's a teaching and learning process. So you'll hear me talk a little bit more about the emphasis of that as we uh as we move forward here. But our enrollment uh is just over 12,000 now. Uh we are growing uh as a school system. I I think back in 2013, I think we were around right around 9,600 right in that area. So, um our growth is is uh real and it's challenging and in school systems um one of the biggest challenges you have with growth. It's the best problem to have, but there's a lot of financial tension that's associated with that um because of the way uh we're allocated funding um and our revenue and the timing of all that is is not synchronized. So you grow and the money follows uh and so there's some challenges on your system there. So just sharing that little bit of knowledge. Um student demographics we have uh in our student body um this is this is kind of how it breaks out. Um there are a lot of different languages spoken and this is not uh unusual for metro area communities. Um we have a a small uh homeless population but it is uh resident in our system. Um we do have about 20% of our students uh receiving educational benefits. Uh free and reduced is essentially uh what you may have heard in terms of language around uh that population. And uh we do cover 86 square miles of uh of territory and a lot of it's down south part of our school system and you all know that uh our academic profile students that are receiving English language learner support. So these are students whose first language is not English um trying to work with that population and it's it's had a little bit of growth in our system. Uh but these are just some numbers that kind of give you a sense for academically how we're profiled uh as a system. Um one of the things I'll call attention to is in the state of Minnesota uh our MCAs are kind of the the major metric gauge. Um and and it's an important gauge. We we have to get more focused back on on what that means. But the state has made some changes while I was away for the past two years. Uh and I think in my last year as superintendent, this all started where uh students can opt out of MCA testing. Um that if you just know basic statistic analysis that starts to change that uh situ that that reporting and understanding changes um internally. So inside baseball so to speak, but in general population our our uh our community might not understand that nuance. I think the ACT is a pretty good metric as well. Um if you're over 20 or even in the 20s as a uh school system, uh you're doing pretty darn good. Um but that's for college, right? And that there's more to life than just going on to college. Um and so the balance of that or the changing of that and our ability to communicate it has to get a lot better. Um so people understand. Um so we have a few we have some efforts at that. This is one of them. um we call it life after graduation. And there's um there's some data the state started uh collecting on students because many superintendents were trying to um share with their community kind of what is what happens to our students after they graduate. And this is a picture of that. Now the challenge here is it only goes up to 21 and that's because that's the the latest data set. So it has a lag in it. We're obviously in 2024 25 school year, but interesting to note uh more of our grads are entering the workforce right away. We can see that if you just uh look at the the percentage numbers. It's not it's not the majority, but it is uh some growth. We know that most of our students are staying in uh North Dakota, Iowa, Won't say it. Um and Minnesota might be some Packer fans here. I don't want to encourage them. Okay. Good. Good. Um and fewer students are needing developmental education when they do go to college. So, um, one of the challenges that we were, um, receiving information back from colleges on was that when a graduate from, and this just shows Lakeville area schools, but Minnesota in general, but again, back to local and immediate Lakeville schools, we were getting word that our kids weren't prepared, especially in those freshman courses, which um are oriented on your lower-end math requirement. irements as well as your composition and essay writing uh that kind of stuff. So uh we we've made some improvements uh in that in our system and I think what you'll see when we are able to show uh the next year and the next year that those numbers are dwindling where our kids are are better prepared for that. So just an indicator of uh of some academic improvement. um our students, we we spend a lot of time surveying our kids and surveying our community. Um I I started doing that big time uh right coming out of COVID and uh apparently they sustained that effort. So, these are just some some areas uh where students uh were surveyed about safety, um their environment that they're in, and um are their classes relevant. And uh while the 70 76% I mean, if you're talking political polling, this would be off the chart, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about kids and their experience in schools and how they perceive it. You know, I'd like to be in the 90s in all these areas. Um but uh so there's some room for growth here I guess is the point of this chart. Uh and we'll we'll look at that uh as we reshape our organization. Um this is some information it shares with you staff. If you look at special education and teachers and our community ed you're you're that's about half of that pie. Um, so that's delivery of instruction in some manner or another. And then the rest of it is support capacity that we have to provide in order to make all that work. And I'll give you um here in the next chart um some more uh facts or fast facts that give you a layout of our school and where we are right now. Um we we operate nine or 19 facilities uh 2 million square ft of space. Um, and again, the system we're under is is brick and mortar and that's how we deliver uh education. So, having those facilities in good working order and safe uh is pretty important and takes a lot of effort. Uh, we serve over 2,800 breakfastes each day um to our students. We're traveling 10,000 miles a day roughly. That's a a rounded number. It's actually rounded slightly down, but like today we drove 10,000 miles uh and and delivered our students safely. Um even though the the weather can be challenging, and today was was one of those days, we have about 9,000 riders. Um that that's going to expand ever so slightly. I mean, on a rounded number, it'll stay there. I've made some adjustments based on the work that was done with boundary changes and how we uh how we are measuring for walkers and we'll be adding a few riders in. It's not a big number but just ever so slightly up and then the lunches served we're doing 8,600 a day. So all the uh logistical requirements and the supply chain and the the tail for all of that's pretty significant uh for our operation and uh we're doing it every day. So uh I think we're we do a pretty good job with that. Uh the challenge there is to find efficiencies and reduce your expenditures if you can. Um so already been digging into that quite a bit. uh student and staff devices. We're operating 17,000 of those. Um as you know, information technology and the utilization of information information technology uh creates issues around cyber security. We've made some big strides and we use Arctic Wolf uh as our primary support for that. Um doing really well I think compared to where we were. I can tell you going back to 2013, we're light years ahead of that. Um, but our information technology program is is doing gang busters right now and uh obviously co had some impact on that. Uh I am not an advocate for for online learning as a method uh when you're talking about uh on in mass. Um there are uh students who are better and more capable of learning that way. Um but that the numbers are much smaller. Um I am an advocate for in-person learning. I was uh frustrated with uh COVID to say the least. was not an advocate for what the Minnesota Department of Education chose to do and I was vocal about that. But uh we did learn a lot in terms of our delivery and capability, but it's it's not a preferred method and don't mean to uh offend or bother anybody in particular about that. I just want you to know where your superintendent is on this. Uh and uh you know, I pray every day that we don't do something like that ever again in the history of this country. But um things are challenging out there. Um academic report card. So you know the first thing with with this there's two things. Uh one is the student needs to be in the classroom and um they need to be consistently in the classroom. So do the teachers. And so there's some you know in my my view there's some challenges there. Uh we're trying to get better at it. 81.9% of our students that are uh consistently in class is obviously above the state average, but we we definitely need to do better at that in my humble opinion. Our report card, so this this first chart is about uh graduation rates. We do well here. Uh the issue I know in some districts is um the adjustment of standards in order to make these numbers look better. I refuse to cooperate with that. We have a standard and we're going to live to that. And uh I think if you're anywhere over 91 to 92% consistently, you're doing a great you're doing a good job. Um obviously the goal is 100% but uh humans do things even uh even when they're 17 and 18 years old. So um perfection is is the goal. Uh getting there is the challenge. So um this is frustrating and this is where we definitely have to do some uh some work. This is just my opinion reporting out to you. Um, our data shows through 2024, I think. Is that on there? Let me get uh Yeah. Okay. Got my eyes on here. So, we we have we have our work cut out for us. Now, I some of you may have heard about the ReadAct. Are you familiar with that? um that's that probably that should have impact uh on on the system. I don't think it'll have impact uh on scale for at least two years. Um so there's some intervention we have to do on our own uh before the I think the benefits of of the redact will come to play. My frustration with the readact is um the unfunded mandates that come with that. Um and and it's not to be pjorative or negative. It's just the reality of the situation and as I come back in and reassess things um that that one g gives me concern. But uh we definitely got to get our reading all of our scores need to need to improve uh across the system. So to that end we're we have some strategic objectives. If you go to the next chart, um the first one is our teaching and learning, our practices and processes. They they need an overhaul and they're going to they're going to get one. Um and the team is good. Uh the the focus, the leadership and the emphasis has to change in the leaders. You know, any organization, the leaders take it where it's going to go. Those results that that you see are about leadership. So, I own that. Um, so if I own it, what am I going to do about it? And it's going to start with the whole leadership structure in Lakeville area schools has to be accountable through evaluation processes. Um, and that has to also include our our our teachers and we have great fantastic teachers and again the leaders will take it where it's going to go. Um and in my view process and procedure around evaluation is one line uh of improvement but that's the top priority. Um we have to improve our systems of support because again we're dealing with humans whether they're little or you know adults or near adults. Um how they show up into your classrooms uh is a is challenging for everybody. Uh, I'd say that postcoid, post George Floyd, the world's, you know, I won't say, well, the world's shifted, but our country has shifted and, um, we we get some manifestations of some difficult behaviors. Um, and we just have to take that on head on. Uh, so we're trying to do some things there, uh, so that the environments that these kids come into are are as safe as they can be and we're addressing their social emotional needs. Um, I know that always sounds like a soft thing. Um, but if you if you go into a classroom, and oh, by the way, you're welcome to come to our school district and be in our classrooms. Uh, I'd love that. Um, if you could observe a elementary school classroom, uh, and some of the dysregulation that, you know, affects other kids. Um, maybe, of course, I answer to you. Uh, but seeing it is believing it, I think, is a a real message. Um but again having standards and holding people accountable there's no other way to do that and you have to do that first. Um we're going to focus on curriculum based on standards standards that uh I if if the Minnesota standard is up to the Lakeville standard, okay. If it's not, it's going up. Uh because we can't we just can't lag behind. Uh, we're going to focus on tier one, which without getting into all the details of that, it's like, you know, Vince Lombardi, I know he's a Packer guy, but what are you doing? Well, I don't know. Here's the deal. You know, this is a football. What's the fundamentals? What are the basics? Our teachers have been asking for this. Uh, this is where we have to focus is fundamental. um basic do do the blocking and tackling correctly and support that and resource that the rest will take care of itself. Um differentiation is is a real thing. Every kid's not the same. Um although I think if everybody becomes a robot, you know, I guess that's going to happen in this world. Um maybe our kids won't have to do anything. I don't know. um actively engaged students is really the key. Uh if if kids can be inspired and motivated, they will learn and that is the challenge every single day in our classrooms. Uh looking ahead, um if you looked at any of our board meetings recently, um one of the one of the biggest things I wanted to make sure I talked to the board about first and foremost was finance and and where we are. and I gave him a five-year projection of what we look like. But I want to share this with everybody because um this is the fundamental challenge that exists in public education finance. This is how Minnesota does business. What Minnesota that this chart shows you here is the blue line shows you what the um public education system in Minnesota should be financed. So financed at that's the blue line for and this is just showing Lakeville. Okay, just to give you some context, but what what we should be financed at under one variable condition called inflation. Um and then the yellow or correction orange dashed line shows you what the actual is without any inflationary adjustment. So why is this important to understand? So I the two years I was away I was working with as a consultant only with uh with small businesses private businesses and um the the mantra in those small businesses is uh margin right uh and margin does matter and I I fully get that the challenge for a school system and where there is a a departure is we don't produce a we don't produce a product where we can change the pricing on or the rating on. Uh and the same thing with service. Service you can adjust your your rates, your contracts, things like you have some mechanisms to work your revenue and and the other part is obviously process and procedure being super tight down to the micro in order to impact that budget. Right? So if you're delivering a service from soup to nuts, what happens with say a technician from start of work to end of work and all the resourcing in between and you you dial that in so tight you you can't you can't find any white space, right? Um I wish we could be more like that in a in a school system. It it's it's just a different animal. But revenue and your ability to handle the revenue mechanisms, the levers, whatever you want to call it, are far more free in business than it is in public education. We are the we are so highly regulated and when it comes to dollars, you have six funds and they shall never cross each other. like I can't take from fun four and put it in fund one or vice versa which is a a a big limiting factor but not pacing with inflation. So it's like saying you're the market's going to cost you more but we're not going to resource you more. So that's just a predicate. It's not a complaint. It's just if you understand this then if you can give me the next chart here enrollment drives the revenue that you get from uh from the state and I'm not talking about levies or or taxation uh local local taxation I'm talking about state level um so enrollment drives everything 100% of what you get from uh the Minnesota Department of Education or the legislature through the gened formula or your special education formulas or any of your funds is driven by enrollment. Growing enrollment is a great thing. It's a good thing. This is the adjusted projection based on cohort survival. Um the district I guess while I was gone went to some other kind of planning mechanism with some forecasting. Um my experience in the district from 2013 till I left was uh uh plus or minus 1% accuracy rate for using a cohort survival method on our enrollment. So our our budget was pretty tight. Uh they went to something else. I I don't think it was successful for them. This that you see here is a five-year enrollment projection based on cohort survival. So, we're going back to to what I believe works. Um, finally, forecasting. Um, I if you dive into school district finance or school finance, um, it can be very complicated and I think it's intentionally so. Um my when I distill everything in school finance comes down to this metric right here which is your unassigned fund balance. The school district has a requirement that upon discovery, if the district is going to tick below 5%, the superintendent has a requirement to report that upon discovery to the board of education with mitigation strategy. Um, I'm very sensitive to this because if you don't pay attention to it, bad things can happen. Um, this 5-year projection shows that in this current fiscal year, which is 25, we will restore ourselves back to that 5% um or higher floor of reporting requirement to the board. And then you can see what I project out over the next uh uh out to 2030. So, I felt the board needed to see that and know that. And I share that with you uh because money matters, right? It's super important. Um, and you want to make sure that you're you're on top of that. So, um, there are some planning assumptions there. Uh, I won't get into them all, but um, they're the ones I've always used since I was a CFO in St. Paul, and this this has always worked. Um, or at least it has for me. Um, anyway, I just wanted to make sure you know that. Um, some more community information. Uh we did the community polling uh during last couple of years in Lakeville. School district administration board has spent tax money effectively. 71% um I guess I scratched my head on that one. Uh and I trust the school board and administration do what is right for students in the district. 80% agree. That's not bad. Uh I'm going to I want to push both of those up for this school system. And then if you would uh uh kind of in wrap up uh we we do have um decent academics in our school system compared across the state. Um but our our arts, our activities, our athletics, um I don't know about how how that plays here in Elco New Market, but this is pretty big stuff in the Lakeville community. Uh, everybody in the state knows Lakeville probably because of the arts, activities, athletics. I wish it was because of the academics. So, in qu I guess I'm in a position to quit wishing and start doing. So, that's my presentation to you all and I'll stand for any questions that you may have. Thank you. Thank you. Sure. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Um, so my biggest concern with Lakeville is the budget. I feel like our taxes are pretty high for our district. Um, and I don't feel like when we moved to the district a few years ago, I I felt like the classroom sizes were large. I feel like the sports were expensive. There were just a lot of things that kind of shocked me and I've I've been in the general area forever. Um, so my question to you is who's responsible for the oversight of the budget and what is the plan for that? Making sure funds are spent appropriately? That's me. Okay. That's me. Okay. I um I can I'm pretty sure there's probably very few superintendents who walk into the door and give a five-year forecast on the budget. Class size is a is a really difficult problem because you have to have physical space and if your class size the smaller the class size, the higher it costs by a long shot. In fact, it's your highest expenditure in in your organization if you're a school system. Finding that balance is very very difficult. Um, I do agree that the class sizes, especially in some of our secondary areas for sure, um, are not properly calibrated. That said, the yin and the yang is, okay, do I put in additions and how do I do that? Uh my goal and what I did with the elementary schools, I did it through lease levy, which did not was not required to go out to levy until we knew we had to have a whole school. Um and keeping property taxes down. I'm extremely sensitive to that, but I can't have class sizes of 50 either. So um it is a difficult balance as far as rates for um participation in activities. Um I have done several uh studies across what the south metro is. We're in some areas we're a little little high. Um I made an adjustment once as superintendent in my previous time. Um I need to go back and see where we are today. I I I don't know today. Um, but it is my responsibility. So, you can call me and tell me what I need to do. I don't I I won't point to anybody on my staff. It's on me. Tom Michael sir the district within the district city of Lakeies in the state even though housing is slowed down to 400 homes a year and we are on the grow multiple national looking at our community that's the next community so there is the potential for continued student growth indicated that that's what the numbers are showing. What does the district's long-term facility plans look like at this point? And we don't know because previously we were engaged in those planning processes and the last round of plans we were not and so we're kind of wondering what you can tell us at this point. Yeah, what what I can tell you, uh, if you look at the enrollment and the fact that we're flat, uh, and that our growth rate is is slower, um, the the the talk when I walked in the door was when, where when and where are we going to build a middle school? Um, the numbers don't bear that out. Now, if you use the projection method they were using uh or they the district was using before I got back, you might be able to make that case. Um but not with a cohort survival assessment. Um and and so I don't see that. Uh the first potential um uh build would be additions maybe in the middle school area. But to the longer term growth um what I see is just what you're pointing to um that it's coming down this way and so we need to build down this way. your sack and whack need to be kind of figured out uh for that kind of support because it gets did I use it? You guys, you all know that. Yeah. Okay. I say that sometimes at the district and people look at me crosseyed. I'm sorry, but you all do know what that means. So, um that that and you know how expensive that that proposition is, right? And so, you can't just plop a school down. And I know you know all this stuff. So, but we're we do agree that we think it's it's southern and even if it if even if it weren't like let's say I had to I had to build a middle school tomorrow, I'd be looking southward, right? I think that's the right that's the right direction to be looking. Um because if you just look at the geometry of the school district and the geography of all that um obviously in the north we're pretty dense and not so much in the south but that's where it'll come. So being ahead of that or seeing that is important now as far as process and procedure. So I came in I I met with uh the the group that they had put together asked just some simple questions about numbers and I got a lot of trout stare and I don't know. So I just kind of like said okay reset and we're in the reset button transition with school board. Um some working behind the scenes a little bit. Uh but we we are going to reset that. Um, and I promise this council and you, sir, you will be part of that. You have to be part of that. And if you feel like you're not, um, knock me over the head with the biggest hammer you have, but I hope it's rubber. Cor. Awesome. I feel better already, Josh. Yeah. No. And and Tom was going down the the path that I was going to go about the new development possibility or whatever. Both my wife and I graduated from Lakeville. Uh, we moved down here north or south or there's only one at the time. So, we graduated 2000. Well, you look way younger than that. So, okay. I know, right? Um, but one of the reason, one of the the big boxes that it it checked down here for us was being in the Lakeville school district, but when we got down here with a not quite a preschooler and a baby, we had Eagle View right there. So, we open and rolled and you know, so I I can appreciate um and many of our folks in our neighborhood are are were on the Lakeville side, but many open and roll. And now we're we're we're in the system, you know, and you know, we've contemplated because middle school and high school are pretty equal distance. Uh bus rides 45 minutes give or take. Um, so it's a hike that way, but the elementary school and and I guess my point is I hear the middle school maybe that's the biggest need, but once you get in elementary school too, you hook families and it's not that business and and then it's like, all right, so then we're willing to drive further or whatever, but that was probably the biggest, you know, factor. I also just want to say I appreciate your approach like it's refreshing. Uh, you know, COVID and the pandemic um shined a light on a lot of different things that our state and systems all did wrong and did right. And I can I can very confidently say your communication during that time was phenomenal. And I mean that was we were getting the emails because we were in the Lakeville school school district but we weren't you know families in the district. Um and I just very much appreciated uh your approach and your communication. Well, thank you sir. Um again you'll get 100% out of me. Um and you know I love the school system. I just know we can do better and it's on me to deliver. So, I'm totally okay with that. And again, the other thing I'll say, too, is I I app I I appreciate the critique of, you know, this isn't going well or this isn't going right. I don't get too emotional about that. I just want, but others do and I appreciate that. I want to focus in on what are you telling me and can I fix that? Or if I can't, I can tell you my why. you deserve that. And then I just want to be out in the community and everywhere I can be to pass pass the message. So, we're uh really looking hard at uh our strategic communication because I think uh we need to amp ourselves up a little bit on that. I just I'll echo briefly something Josh had said about the COVID thing. You and I worked a bit together during CO and I don't know of a more just hated area, the new area. I mean, that there were so many slings and arrows coming your way. Um, but you handled it with grace and I'm glad you're back. And that being said, my daughter's a junior at South. Abby, do you have anything you want to say or any questions? You good? You good? Okay. All right. Things going okay for you? Yeah. All right. Well, just so you know, you are loved, right? You are loved. Okay. That's all I got. Thank you so much. Yeah, I appreciate it. I I have been I have actually had real slings and arrows, so you know. Yeah, it is what it is, right? Appreciate the work you do. Yeah, thank you. And thank you for your service. Uh community service can be really tough. So, hats off to you for stepping up and doing that. I appreciate it. And again, if if you don't want to yell at me, make sure Tom is yelling at me. I appreciate you. Thank you for the time. Take care. All right. Happy holidays. And uh Chief, thanks for everything you do. Just want to make sure our blue is No, it's a good idea. All right, with that, we'll open it up to public comment. Anyone have anything for public comment tonight? Mr. Mayor, Council, just a couple things. Uh um be careful on the roads. We had a lot of spin outs today and uh we we did our levy the other uh let's see Tuesday at uh um 6.8% and uh some I know some of us uh uh what I know I know I know uh it's I don't think it's going to happen again. So it just and I think there's a couple shots across the bow just it got out of hand. the insurance uh costs have really escalated so much that uh um it was almost nothing we could do and our cost of workers bringing in sheriff deputies and health and human services assessors, everybody just went up dramatically. So, and we're competing against other taxpayers in the cities and in the state. So, it's a it's a tough thing. So, anyhow, thank you and thank you, Mr. Mayor, for everything. And I see you're going to be on one of our advisory boards, I believe. So I am hope to see you around. So any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else care to speak under public comment? Once, twice. All right, we'll close public comment. Move on to consent. Does anyone have anything on consent they'd like pulled or have any questions? Not. I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve consent agenda. Motion by Kate. Second. Second by Gina. All in favor? Consent passes. We have no public hearings, no general business. So, we'll jump right into reports for administration. No, Mr. Mayor. Uh, public works. Two hot topics. Be patient on the streets. First snowfall in a year. So, be patient. And ice rinks. The lights will be on when they're open. Those are the those are the phone calls that I take multiple times. So, when they're open, the lights will be on. When we get calls, direct them to you. Lights aren't on. the ranks are open. So, other than that, everything's been great. Thank you, Mr. Bear. Can I just I just want to say thanks to to Corey and Rich online. There was a resident, non city resident, I believe. I can't remember now that she's a resident. So, okay. But, uh had some well issues, private well issues. And while we didn't think that there was maybe anything that it was city related or pumping related, uh Corey and Rich jumped all over it and problem solved and helped troublesoot shoot some stuff. So, just appreciated that. Nice. Uh, please no issues, but just wanted to say that myself and the department, we really appreciated working with you, Mayor Julius, and you, Commissioner Styles, over the years and appreciate all of your support. Thank you. I have a question. Go ahead, fire away. Adding to the numbers, I want you to explain because I always get confused. Um, all right. So, your calls for No, not that one. Where did it go? Yeah, calls for service year to date more than doubled. So, calls for service for us isn't just people calling 911. It's everything. So, it's all the extra patrols, driving the communities, community engagements, traffic stops. It's not all bad. Correct. It is. you have more officers on now and they are very active and they are very out there doing what they need to be doing. Okay, perfect. And then the total incidents handled that would be bad. Total incences I'm sorry calls for service are they have gone up because we this year we have um had more activity. We have had more calls and different things. Um that isn't necessarily bad though because that can also be permit to purchases and things that people are calling about for positive things. Um total incident is handled is everything and that will definitely have gone up quite a bit. Yeah, that went up. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that I was remembering each one correctly. Thank you. Rich, you're you're with us online. Do you have anything for engineering? You're unmuted now, Rich. All right, this has been fun. Rich, no one can hear you, but I'm gonna imagine you have something great to say, so hopefully uh nothing too crazy that can't wait. Oh, there you are. We can't hear you, Rich. You're super duper duper quiet. Sign language. So family. Nothing. This isn't working. Rich. So, I'll have Rich. I I'll have Rich, if he has anything, provide me with an update that I'll forward to you guys tomorrow. Thank you. Thanks for trying, Rich. Community development. Um, I don't have any updates, but I will echo um Chief Bell's sentiment. Thank you for all the support that you've given community development department over the last since I've been here the last eight years. Thank you. Thank you. Anything from parks to be passed along. Okay. Uh CC I don't have anything. We don't meet this month. Okay. Uh other committee reports scale. Nothing exciting to report for scale unless you have something for service delivery. Uh service delivery met on Monday. Um two topics. One was continuing to move forward with researching the ability of centralizing open burning permits. These aren't recreational fire permits. This is I have a big brush pile generally outside city limits. um the smaller communities in um the county are the ones who generally do those and they we do hundreds of them a year and right now they come to the front counter and we have to work through that. Um there is a discussion going on of possibly uh the county passing an ordinance on this where it gets delegated to the DNR and people can go to the DNR any time of day. they can pay a $5 fee and they can get their permit and it's like a lot of other of these general blanket permits that you can burn. You just have to follow these rules. It sounds like there may be varying opinions from different communities about whether or not they want to delegate that authority and some communities it's a revenue source for them or at least they cover their cost for it. We do not currently charge. Um so that's an ongoing discussion but the main topic was the insurance consortium. Uh we're moving on to seeking to move on to phase uh two three and four. Phase two would be working through the governance structure of the entity and setting that up. Um and then phase uh three would actually be working through the like say the nitty-gritty details of how thing of how things would work um and plans and going out and getting numbers and then phase four would be go no-go um from participants. Everybody right now is interested. Some cities are actually would like to go right away and they're in a better position. Most aren't. Um there's a cost to going through those additional phases. We estimate up to about $75,000 of fees to get there between legal and consulting to go through all of that. Um that's just to get to that point to get to go to no go. But it's a com it's a complex niche area of the law and you need to make sure you're doing things well and then you need to have admin. You need people that are going to go out and work with the insurance providers to get numbers and and all of that. We're going to be going back to scale and asking scale to fund that. Uh the service delivery and the cities believe it's our money. We paid it in. We're just making a withdrawal and this is a very scale type topic. So we feel confident that um those dollars will support this effort. So we'll be going back in January and talking to the executive board and asking them to um commit dollars to be able to keep the process moving along. So I35. No meeting in December. Okay. Uh discussion by council. I do want to have the last word, but um anyone else have discussion topics? All right, folks. This is my last council meeting and Gina's as well. Um what a crazy ride, right? Um, when I started looking, forgive me, I'm not a self-indulgent guy. I don't like talking about myself, but I'm going to take a quick minute to to do that. So, when I started running for city council, I took my daughter, who she's turned 17 next month. She was seven then at the time, and we decided to go around doortodoor as a writing candidate, and she was riding on a little scooter. It was kind of a pain in the butt, but she went door to door with me and we knocked on doors and asked people to write me in for a city council candidate. I one of the greatest feelings I ever had was when I got the call from Sandy at the time saying I won and I came out of my bedroom and I looked at Nick who was the first person my son in the back and the smile he had on his face was like no smile I'd ever seen before and that meant the world to me. Just spending that time with my kids, having those moments with my kids just meant the world. And you know, since that point, we've done so many things. We've done so many great things as a city council, as a community. Um, the city from where it was at that point to where it is now, it's not like the city was in a bad place, but we've worked so hard. We've done so many great things. And I just want to briefly go around. Tom, you're kind of the, if anyone knows who Sammy the Bulgarano is, he was the hitman for the mafia, basically. Go to this one. You're you're kind of that, okay? You're the henchman for the city council. I mean, every time we come up with something that's not going to be popular, people want to like us on the city council. They don't have that same like for you necessarily as a city administrator. So, you get the unfortunate duty of just having to execute negative stuff and positive, but negative stuff. And I speaking on behalf of the council, we can't tell you how much we appreciate you serving in that role and you handle yourself with class and professionalism and it doesn't go unnoticed. So I I appreciate that. Um Andrea, the fact that you and I never speak is such a great thing. you are. I I think we've had one phone conversation in the 10 years and but that speaks to your your ability to kind of work behind the scenes and make sure we're always in the position we need to be. And I've never in my life felt that we were at the risk of losing a lawsuit because I have the most confidence in the world and as you in you as our city attorney. Corey, I I still can't believe you're here. First of all, when you've been working since what, three in the morning? No, I I actually Oh, you're lazy then, I guess. I was going to be here. I'll be I You know, I've always appreciated the fact that you you've said you said this at our orientation at my orientation. Josh was there, too. You're never really going to ask for anything you don't need. And you have absolutely stayed true to that. And that means so much to us as decision makers that we can rely on the fact that we you're not going to us. You're going to tell us what you need and if you and we're going to figure out a way to get it done. And that's what that's what small towns are all about. And so I appreciate you for that. Greg, you're the third chief of police I've had since I've been on here. And I can't imagine a more popular chief of police. The this town loves you. And when you know, and I love Brady, too, and he was great, but the amount of people that pulled me aside and said, "Why isn't Craig our chief?" Why? It it just speaks to just what you do in our community and how much our community appreciates you. And that makes all of our jobs so much easier. And you're very much appreciated, Renee. You know what I love about you, Renee? When I do something that pisses you off, I can tell by the look you're giving. You You don't You don't hide it, but you're very professional, but I know when you're pissed and you think I'm an idiot, and that means something to me. And you've done so much for our playing department. And you've groomed two great um great guys and and Jake and Brandon to to carry on. And you've done a fantastic job, and I I appreciate it. Linda, I wish there were so many more of you in the world. Honestly, you are you're one of the people that I just look forward to seeing because you're going to have a big smile on your face. You put together our events like it's your own family's party and it's just we need more people like you and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you. Gina, I've said this to you a few times before, but I'll say it again. Well, I'll even expand on a little bit more. I you know so we had all these Niagara meetings right if you remember that and there was one gal I don't know her name and it's probably a good thing I don't know her name but she spoke at every public hearing and she would look down at her piece of paper as she had notes and she would rip us to shreds but she'd never make eye contact she'd never take a minute to actually listen to any counterarguments or anything and I don't mind saying this is my last me I couldn't stand in anything that she was said, I was never going to take her seriously for that reason. You were the opposite. You You didn't like what we were doing with Niagara, but instead of just complaining about it, you stepped up and you you made yourself available to help this city. And the city needs more people like you that just I don't I'm not happy with something, so I'm going to help work towards a solution. That means something to me. So, thank you. Thank you, Amanda. You are like Mrs. Elco New Market. You're you're the ultimate towny. Every I mean shoot. We had a moment of silence for your grandpa to start this meeting. I mean there is there's no one in town you can speak to that doesn't say something highly about you. And when you speak at a city council meeting I get a little scared because you rarely ever speak and when you do it's authoritative. And but you know what? I can always look to you and know I'm going to get a good reaction from the city of Ela New Market because you represent the people and I appreciate that. Josh. Josh. Josh. Josh. Josh. I call you a good friend and we've disagreed on so many things. I once called you shameful in a city council meeting because we were arguing about a budget thing and it was I wasn't going to go there but you um you know the fact city government should be about people like you and I sitting down disagreeing but having good respectful conversations working to an outcome that better that betters the community as a whole. You are an absolute statesman and I hope you continue on to great things in your career whenever you're done with uh Elco New Market, but the city's lucky to have you. Kate, you know, one thing I'll never forget is coming to Firehouse and sitting down with you and you were just waffling about whether you pursue a spot on the city council. And I'm so glad he pursued it and I'm glad we had that conversation because you are such a community leader, you know, not you were at that point a restaurant owner. Nothing wrong with that, but you decided you wanted to be part of the leadership part of this community and you stepped up and you busted your ass. And that is an admirable thing. And you know, I hope that's something that you when you go to sleep each night know that you did something well for our community. Um, so with that, the last thing I want to say, so I've had, for those of you that know me and some of you that don't, I've had some real struggles with mental health over my life. But the last four years have been I've had a lot of pretty dramatic things that have happened that have been a big challenge. And we all have those things. We all have challenges from a mental health perspective, some more than others. Um, and as Commissioner Wolf mentioned earlier or alluded to, I was appointed today to be um part of the county's mental health advisory board and something I'm really looking forward to. And as I've mentioned before, I'm looking to pursue a future career in social work or psychology or wherever that ends up taking me. But when I was this past summer, I was golfing with some buddies and I was talking about some of the anxiety because I've had crazy anxiety when it comes to things like fire rescue days, for example. Great community event. Absolutely terrifies me. It was always a struggle to I mean, if anyone noticed, I would shoot out of there and get home as soon as I qu as soon as I could because it was just so uncomfortable. So, I was explaining that to a friend and my friend looked at me and said, 'Yeah, Joe, we get that. Why in the hell would you decide to be on the city council? And that's really the reason because I I I don't have any illusions that people are going to go back and view this and it's going to be a big thing. But if there's one kid out there, if there's one person that thought they could have that thought maybe there could their illnesses, their things that they're battling are holding them back from doing something that they really loved. Boy, just keep doing it. Keep doing it because the opportunities are there and there's good people around you that are going to support you and just keep following what you want to follow. So that that's all I got to say and I'll take any motions to adjurnn. All right, I'll motion to adjurnn. Anyone second that? Who said second? See, that doesn't count. Any seconds? Anyone? Second. Second by Josh. All in favor? I I Thank you everybody. I mean it. Thank you.