Open the business meeting. Call to order. Everyone rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Any changes to the agenda? Uh no, Mr. Mayor. Motion to approve the agenda. Second. Motion by Josh. Second by Kate. All in favor? I we have a presentation but no one here to present to. So we'll do public comment. Okay. No one's here for public comment. Consent agenda. Does anyone have anything on consent they want pulled? Motion to approve consent agenda. by Kate, second by Amanda. All in favor? I We have no public hearings, no general business. All right, we have a we have a presentation, Officer Bell. in the room, too. So, Officer Barry uh was born and raised in Maine, and he joined the Air Force upon graduating high school. Um, one weird thing about him, two weird things actually, is he doesn't go by his first name, he goes by his last name, Barry. And then the other thing is he does not have an accent. So, I have not figured out, and if I hadn't done his background myself, I'd think he was lying. But um so yeah, just a couple interesting things about him. Uh he served as an Air Force security officer for 11 years on bases in North Dakota where he met his lovely wife Erica. Um Officer Barry decided to leave the Air Force to become police officer. He got hired by the Watford City Police Department in North Dakota. For those of you who don't know, that's the Bakan oil fields way out out kind of west. Um not missing much out there. and he uh he he worked patrol and most recently he was a school resource officer. So he was a kid wrangler. Spent a lot of time chasing around oil filled workers and stray bison. I make that part up. I assume that's what he did. I I don't know what else you do out there, but um Officer Barry, Erica, and his three two children and one somewhere else. Um came to stay with their friends uh who lived here in Elona Market. They come here um last few summers and stayed with them and they actually fell in love with the town. Um so when Barry and Erica when they decided to move to Minnesota, this is the only place that they actually applied. Um Barry's a big fan of baseball, which is perfect because of course we have two baseball teams here and at least one I know made the playoffs to the other one. They both made the playoffs and lost first rounds. Okay, I'm sorry I brought that up. Um so Officer Barry, he completed field training and he's been working solo patrol since June. Uh he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the job, including working with juveniles. Um he's been a great addition. He fits in well, I think, with the community. He's got a a quirky sense of humor, which fits great with the with the department. We're all a bunch of goofballs at times. So, um, he's been doing really well and I think he's been pretty well received by the community. Uh, so with that, I'd like to welcome Officer Barry aboard and glad to have you with us. Thanks, Chief. And if you'd like to do the badge pinning, [Applause] Patrick, get to the other side. Oh, wait. Maybe you have time. Join the mayor. Join the mayor. Don't be scared. All right. I'll hold this like that. Your right hand. Hi. State your name. I Daniel Barry. Do solemnly swear Do you solemnly swear to uphold the Constitution, laws, and ordinances to uphold the Constitution, laws, and ordinances and faithfully perform my duties as a police officer. and faithfully perform my duties as a police officer. Never betray my badge or the public trust. Never betray my badge with the public trust. Have the courage to and will hold myself and others accountable. Have the courage to and will hold myself and others accountable. Promote the vision and mission of the department. Promote the vision and mission of the department. Provide fair and impartial law enforcement. Provide fair and impartial law enforcement. Practice community values based policing. Practice community values based policing. Serve with pride, integrity, and excellence. Serve with pride, integrity, and excellence. And provide quality service to the best of my ability. So help me God. And provide quality service to the best of my ability. So help me God. Congratulations. Thanks. Second, mayor, if you could. Craig, you want to lead us off? Yeah. Police report. Um, I can bring it up here. So, I've included um I think in previous reports the mention of the spirit pump program and this is through the BP here in town and they approached us and wanted to look at a way to give back to the community um to be more involved in the city. Um especially it's it's all new ownership and management there, all new employees. Um, actually all of the employees live here in town. I don't know if everyone knew that. Um, it's a national program um that is run through BP. So most of the BPS are privately owned. um they're under the umbrella obviously of BP and then BP has this program and what they're looking at doing is they would use um images that you see here and I'll go through them but to actually brand in essence one of their pumps as an Elton Market Police Department spirit pump and the proceeds from every gallon um from that pump two cents would go to the Elco market police department go to the city and then ultimately to our department and we would use it for officer safety things. Um, body armor, um, you know, we actually carry tourniquets, different things like that, safety vests even for when we're out on traffic stop or on crashes, things like that. And then also for, um, community engagement. So, our super popular badge stickers, those are surprisingly expensive, you know, so help pay for things like that, Night to Unite, um, Shop with a Hero. So, we'd be looking at using the proceeds for those. Um, and then we would obviously need to advertise the program. We'd have probably some kind of an event there, like a kickoff event. Um, post stuff on social media, city newsletter. They would probably post on their social media. And then basically what they would do is donate either every month or maybe quarterly whatever the proceeds are from that pump directly to the city. Cool. And then um the program. So as you can see the this is what the design would look like on the pump. So you're going to have um the toppers, the sides. Um and the nice thing is anyone driving along County Road 2 would be plain as they would see that. And so here is another view what it would look like. So in essence, we're asking for your permission to use the logos to use our emblems. That's awesome. And then currently they do have these programs. Uh Spear Pump is in um has been executed at other stations throughout the country, primarily in Wisconsin. Um so here's an example of of what one that's actually being used currently looks like. And then here would be another one. So what we're asking for is is in essence your permission to to to do this to let them use our our emblem. um the pump would look like like this and then for us to accept their donation. I don't know how long this there's no end date for this program. It just goes until they potentially say we don't want to do this anymore. I can't say for sure how much the amount will be. It's going to vary obviously. They think potentially a couple hundred dollars a month. Um which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you consider how expensive body armor is nowadays, things like that, I mean every little bit helps. How much are those stickers? You said they're expensive. About a buck a piece. I think really 79 cents go when we buy in volume. Do we need a motion to approve this though? I like the design. No, this is just direction that you guys are okay with it. We'll bring back any action items that may be required once we get into the the nitty-gritty details of it, but we want to make sure before we spend a lot of time on it that you guys are okay with okay with it overall. Is this just a BP type of program? Yep. Yeah, it certainly could be. So, I don't know. Quick. Yeah, maybe soon. Maybe soon. Quick Trip will be doing it. I I don't know. But um Okay. Well, we'll uh we'll work something up then to bring back. Awesome. We'll keep going. Then the other thing I have is I want to give you guys a heads up. U we are looking at purchasing a new squad in 2025 had been budgeted for. Um as you are probably all aware the cost of cars has kind of skyrocketed. So we are under budget by about seven grand and what we were expecting. Um keep in mind we buy the basic vehicles but by the time you upgrade and upfit with everything it gets even it gets pretty expensive. So, we're going to be about $7 to $8,000 short. Um, kind of projected at this point. We are looking at maybe buying a truck this time instead of an SUV. Um, the reason for that is being in a squad for 10 hours a day is is pretty kind of it takes a physical toll on your body. The more room we have, the better, obviously. And if you've seen some of our officers, we have some pretty big tall people on our department. not me, but I'm big one way nut. So, part of it is looking at other options for them to make them more comfortable. Um, some of the other things where a truck would help out is you guys are probably familiar that tends to drift a little bit here in the winter when we get snow. Um, obviously the four-wheel drive would help us a lot on certain days to get through to emergencies to even just drive on County 2. It can it's gotten pretty bad out here at times. Um, the having a bed is nice because there are sometimes where we would love to be able to close off a road because of a down tree or some kind of a hazard. Well, we can't get a barricade in the back of an SUV, but you can in the back of a truck or we get a lot of found bikes down at Wagner Park that we have to go pick up or things like that. It'd be nice to have a bed of a truck available. And then also hauling around. You'll start seeing it now with the school year coming up. We're going to get the speed trailer back out, the one that shows the the speeds. It's a little easier to haul things like that around with the truck. Um, the truck is more expensive. It would be around about $4,000 more because it takes some different equipment. Trucks just are a little more expensive. But when you expense that out over the anticipated six-year lifespan of a squad, it's about $700 more a year. Um, so kind of looking to make sure you guys would be okay of us pursuing possibly a truck versus an SUV because obviously it's a departure. You do see the Scott County has trucks. Um, but it would be a departure for us. It'd be you'd have the same emblems, same logos, the same everything on there. Um, the other issue that we are going to run into is when you order a government vehicle, they have windows that they're called and only from this time to this time can you order a 2025 um interceptor truck and the problem is when you order during that window, trucks are now and cars are caught up in production that they will be shipped before 2025 and it is payment on delivery. So, the issue we're probably going to run into is that we would have to probably pay for this truck or even SUV because the SUV window is open right now in 2025. So, wanted to prepare you guys to think about that. Um, to see if there's any concerns, if you have any, don't do that. Don't pursue this. Um, but right now, the window is not open. I can't order right now anyway. I can't order an SUV. I can't order a truck right now. But I wanted to make sure seeing where you guys are at any issues with the truck, any potential issues if we had to buy it in 2025 or in 2024 versus 2025. So, as you as you guys know, um once it's in the budget and if it's within the appropriate year, within the appropriate amount, we just handle the purchase administratively. So, technically, if we're going to have to buy it the year earlier, you guys have to authorize that purchase. The other thing is when we talked about the adjustment in the budget related to squads that did not include this. This was prior to having this knowledge. So what we're seeing is that the cost just continues to keep we're we're chasing the number within the budget. We'll probably have to sit down before we get the final budget and make some additional tweaks. We don't know what that looks like. This information just came up as Craig was getting numbers for the upcoming year as the window our pricing for the window just opened. So, we're going to be taking a look at that. So, we wanted to make you aware of that as well. Um, and then of course there's the truck question. It's a little bit more expensive. There's a clear rationale for it. Um, we've had the discussion on and off with both of Craig's predecessors over the years. Um, and historically they have they actually used to be very like it was pretty close. Um, the separation is starting to show up a little bit more. Um, we, let's face it, you buy a truck that, hey, how come those guys got a truck? Um, we want to make sure that you're comfortable with it and can explain the rationale before we go down that route. If it's something you're not open to, then we'll stick to the squad approach. But I have no problem with the truck. I have no issues. Me neither. Can you throw a bad guy in the bed? Uh, I can. You may have to find a new chief, but sure. Put a topper on it. Nobody will know he's back there. Yeah, just we we'll keep it hidden and quiet. Don't hear him or her. Well, there's and those are things that we'll evaluate. Topper would be an additional expense, but if you have a topper, you can go here puppy into the back of the truck. It's harder to do with a squad and when they poop, it's easier to clean off the bed. That's what I'm thinking. That drunk you can throw in the bed. Yeah. Don't hear any objections. So, Uh other than that, uh things are going well. My guys are doing well and and we're just trucking along and it's good. Thanks. Thank you, Tom. So, uh administrative reports. Um second quarter financial report was included in your packet. There wasn't anything earthshattering in it. So, unless you have any specific questions, Kelly's here to also help answer questions. I'm hearing none. Okay. uh scale legislative priorities. I give everybody a heads up that at this meeting uh we were going to be looking to respond to a survey that scale was going to be sending out um to the general membership. One survey per organization. So it put the administrators of each organization in the position of collecting feedback. Um as you can see it's going to take us probably five minutes to go through this or less. Um it's a lot simpler than they' originally made it sound. So, um, question number two. In the past, Scale has supported a number of capital investment projects requesting state funding for our communities. There was no capital bonding bill in the 2024 session. Scale should prioritize these projects in 2025. Yes or no? So, for us in the future, it might be, for example, trying to get money for the interchange. Yeah. In the past, it was for redoing a bunch of work in through the downtown and Bell Plane. It's been for flood plane mitigation and um work uh work that they did in downtown related to the river and its erosion in the downtown area and shock. There have been a number of projects over the years that in different communities and it's a little bit of we support you on this and then you'll support us later. I think what they're really trying to get to is should we continue to be doing this putting the emphasis on that going forward supporting everybody else's capital projects that have some sort of regional significance? I say no. I I just don't think there's I don't know. I I think it supports the notion of scale kind of being a big government entity of its own. Um the fact that we're t talking about this at a council meeting rather than like an actual scale presentation kind of I mean there's going to be some context that's going to be missing and that kind of irks me but I don't know. Does anyone else have opinions? I'm just thinking about the bridge. I think we'll still we can still get support for the bridge. We can get that through I35 solutions. We can get that through our neighbors outside of scale. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Yeah. I'm neutral on that one. I'm neutral. Let's be the Let's be know. Let's be nobody. Okay. Next question. Scale should continue to expand lobbying efforts to retain local control over street improvement fees and maintain local control over affordable housing and zoning restrictions. Yes or no? I am a hardcore no on the zoning restrictions and affordable housing. I I I understand the street side. I mean, I think local control is good for some things, but I don't like the lobbying so much. So, just so you know, if we had not if scale specifically had not taken the lead at the legislature over like the last five years, we now would have no control over our lot sizes, our architectural standards. I mean, this is what that's talking about. This is the batsy stuff. Now, there may be elements of that. This is a broad statement and That's what I don't like about it. Okay. But the yeah I mean if yeah I think the intent is they the new without knowing what the specifics are. It's philosoph generally are these something that we approach the specifics of it get worked out by the executive committee when we look at specific things. It's the same reason why I can't stand cities in the league for what they're doing in some of this local control talk and and they they spit out local control like it's the only answer and they don't look at any other solutions and it's it's just mindboggling to me. Yeah. But there's two sides that right right with what the DFL was trying to do from my understanding was take away a lot of our local control and in a way that I don't think was good for us. agree. I don't disagree necessarily or with the blanket either way I think is bad. I I mean I think taking away all local control is bad. I think maintaining all local control is bad because cities do a lot of stupid things too that make us all look dumb and result in the state needing to take away local control. So I mean we need someone to lobby on our behalf. I mean whether it be our new mayor or I don't know. And I think that cities should lobby on their own behalf. We don't need anybody else. I just feel I struggle having to fall in line with shock being savage and lake and everybody else, right? Answers. We need more detail. We can't answer. We've been talking. It's because it gets killed in committee. Um there's been more discussion, but there um certain people and certain positions within committees just kind of made sure it never went anywhere from a discussion standpoint. And there's been different reasons. It's been out there for as long as I've been in the career, which is as long as you've been in the career as well. Um there has been more interest in having a a thorough discussion on the topic. Um because quite honestly streets are like every other piece of infrastructure we have like water, sewer, storm water and the idea of being able to approach that infrastructure similarly there's a certain logic to it. Um there's been there's been opposition to it. There's a really strong opposition to it from the development community. In their mind uh the general taxpayers of the larger community should pay for those streets. um in the discussions I've had with their representation from Batsy, etc. Um so that development doesn't pay for it, but it gets paid by somebody else after they've made their money and left. So um again, uh the idea that should we have the ability, and it doesn't mean you have to do it as a city, it just says as a city, you would have the authority to be able to do something. And what it exactly looks like, there's not a specific proposal. There's been proposals in the past. There's been proposals from the league. There's been proposals from scale. There's been proposals from any number of organizations. That's exactly what it Yeah. Again, the street improvement fees, if it stopped there, I'd say yes. Everything else I'd say. I think that's where they're wrong because there it's going to vary so dramatically between communities and those that are leaving those communities and what they want. Correct. But This is saying that you should have the ability within that community to make those decisions and not have it be dictated to you or remove your ability to to do it. I mean, the question says scale should continue to expend lobbying efforts. I mean, I think the bigger discussion is what are we lobbying for? And if we as a county can't get together on what we're lobbying for, then I don't think scale should be put in the bill for it. But but there are some things in which I think there is a benefit for and most of those lobbying effort those lobbying efforts to date primarily have been to stop things that we would cons that we would have and have as a council been adamantly opposed to right it wasn't a blanket we're going to oppose anything but it was against specific bills portions of specific bills that have come forward right so remember with these statements these aren't like here's the specific legislative platform they're asking uses it and that's how the metric cities uses it and that's how the league uses it. This gives them permission to argue against any one of these and they'll just pull the local control card. That's it. So they're not looking at the specific except unlike the league or metro city's scales membership decides the very detail of it through the executive committee and we have had input in fact Joe's been consulted on letters that have been sent on those lobbying efforts in the past. So I agree these are broad statements but to some degree I would argue that they can't be super specific like this is the specific because we don't know what the legislative situation is coming up with scale we have a much smaller group that we have actual influence with or a greater degree of influence to look to look at the details of how that's implemented as compared to um League of Minnesota cities which is like what 500 cities and you know and I would argue staff doesn't follow any direction period. So correct and and there is no staff at scale except the staff for the cities in a a single lobbyist who takes direction and quite honestly on a lot of those efforts the lobbyists may be doing work behind the scenes but a lot of the actual like hearings and stuff is actual it's it's mayors and council members and staff members from from those cities. So while I understand I would argue that it's not exactly the same. Would it be too much to ask to know what they're going to lobby about or like vote on it or that comes later? They're trying to get this general feel at a high level so they can put that together. I mean, I don't mean right now, but I mean like if we think it's a good idea in general, but like going forward before they lobby on a bill to know. So yeah, I mean there there is part of the scale discussions what the legislative priorities are and how to actually go about them and scale as a group kind of decides those. What if we're like strongly opposed to them? They'll still the same thing. I mean we're debating a an answer that every other city and every other township's going to say yes to. So we're just wasting our time anyway. Exactly. So yeah. Okay. I agree. Yeah. Number so what should be the answer on this? whatever. Just don't leave it blank. Honestly, if they can't be more specific in a question, we're not going to be more specific in an answer. So, uh, scale has historically placed a very high priority on the education provided our citizens. Whether this is in support of programming or school safety, scale should continue focusing efforts in this area. I'm the wrong person to be talking to about scale. I am I've really become anti-scale over the last two years. So, I'm going to say no to everything. I guess they but they're out there and they're trying to help programming for our kids or our citizens as far as like when they were helping with the seniors. And I I believe that this looking at it and I wasn't involved in the direct discussions of the development questions. This looks like a hey, should we do stuff on behalf of our school district members or not? I don't even know what they mean by this. I don't know the specifics of it. I think it was intentionally written very broad of anything that we might lobby for that might help the school districts. Yes. Are they doing this because they're trying to figure out if they still need to keep their lobby person at scale? No, I think what they're trying to do is like not look at the specific lobby, but the topic areas. Should we be lobbying on school stuff? Should we be, you know, should we be spending any time in these effort areas or not? Not I don't think this is the area of scale as much. I mean I number five. Yes. Business economic development for sure. Scale is about combining resources to increase efficiency. It's not about making decisions as a county in this capacity. Right. I don't know. I don't even want to fill it. Yeah. I think we have a blank. Fill it out. When is it done? They've asked us to respond. It's like anything else. You can do what you want to do. Don't do it. Don't do it. We've wasted enough. Just ignore it. Okay. And what and I will be asked why we didn't provide a response and how should I respond to that. The gist I'm getting is that the questions are too high level, too vague, and not specific enough to give a response. It's a good good response because there's a lot of nuances and there are aspects of it where we would say no and aspects where we would say absolutely yes. That was a good answer. You got anything more for better than whatever. Um I do have a couple of quick updates. Yes. Two quick updates. Um staff had a meeting with Niagara this morning. Two parts to it. one uh one a portion of the meeting other than just general construction project updates, coordination, those types of items is they did indicate they did make a request for some flexibility in their operating hours related to some aspects of the construction. Staff will be evaluating that pursuant to our past discussions. I will be updating the council after staff has had a chance to review it with our thoughts on that um before I make a decision with regards to that to get any feedback you guys might might have. Um second item is they've advised us that they have um hired or selected the facility manager um and it is a local resident. The announcement is forthcoming. We do not know who it is. Do they give any reason to want to adjust the hours? Like at all? Being able to get work done by the time things get too cold. Um trying to weigh the cost of the the cost of it, which for one specific request could be like a million dollars worth of cost difference. and the trade-off between um ripping the band-aid, so a little more incon more more inconvenience over a shorter period of time or having inconvenience over double the length of time. So, I'll go through the details of that with you guys. We were presented with the information. We need to evaluate it internally. So, I don't want to get into it here because I would be speaking inappropriately at this point. Okay? But we'll be evaluating that. Okay. Anything else for administration? No. Okay. Reports. Um, skip around a little bit. Engineering. Awesome. Community development. I do have a couple of things to report. We have a planning commission on Tuesday talking or related just to zoning yours. will bring at your next meeting. I'm sorry. Um feedback. Uh so subtle. I'll be uh we'll be bringing that to you as well before we go out for public hearing on that in September. Um we will also be working on the detached continued work on the detached accessory structure zoning ordinance amendment and um a minor amendment regarding tree requirements and landscaping. Um, I had advised Kate before the meeting, but the city has been noticed by the Department of Natural Resources, the Met Metropolitan Council, that we need to adopt, will be required to adopt a shoreland ordinance within approximately the next 12 months. Um, we don't have a choice about that. Uh, so we are already, it is a model ordinance. um we're going to try to push it off um as probably you know through towards the end of the 12-month period because it does have some pretty serious imp implications uh for various properties in the city. So um and then we met with a group that will be representing um potential development on the 3acre site just west of Dakota Acres Town Houses and north of the new apartment building. There's 3.1 acres. We have a group that is trying to move that development forward sounds like with uh by next spring. So we'll be working on that. Um and then we are working with um on park I35 the looking at the possibility of getting that site uh certified through deed as a shovel ready site. This gives some marketing potential to the site. Right. Um CC Linda, first of all, we have skipped around a couple and there's one on here that's really important that I'm going to cover all of them. I'm just bouncing around. I figure I'm just in the room and then we'll Okay. All right. I got it. Um, just a quick little update on our meeting that we held on Tuesday at CC. We had a a super guest uh uh Chamber of Commerce executive director Ariana Burmeister came to our meeting and proposed a micro gallery. Um what this is is a little box that businesses would donate to have made. And inside these boxes would be um art projects from local schools from New Prague and Lakeville. and they would like these displayed at our tree lighting event um in December to bring more people in on that event and then possibly take have the businesses take these boxes back to their businesses to showcase um the students artwork. So, no objection. And we talked about the community picnic reminder that is at this Saturday. Anybody that is available, please come and join the fun 11 to 1:30. And we also did discuss a little bit of the Halloween party. The Halloween party is on a date that absentee voting has to be taking place and be open at city hall. So, I won't be available for the Halloween party. I'll be here doing absentee voting, but I have two good representatives that are going to represent me there and we're going to try and get tons of volunteers to work the event to have a successful event. So, that is it. Linda set us up for success over many years. So, thank you. And a reminder that the community picnic is Saturday. Oh, you did. Okay. Thanks for listening, Tom. I so good at it. Joe's on fire today. My wife reminds me of it every day. I I have no scale reports. Is there anything for service delivery? Um continued discussions. already gave council updates on it in our one-on-one bi-weeklys um related to the insurance consortium. That was the big topic. So, that's continuing to move forward. We're going to try and move to the next phase where we actually look at what it'll take to set it up. Sounds like the earliest that it would happen would be 2026, possibly 2027, just based on the practical timing of of working through it. Okay. I35, next meeting is September 12th. All right. All right, I skipped over public works, fire department, and parks. Is there something in particular you would want to bring up on them or is anyone have an update for them? I do. So, um, fire department is looking at doing a house burn on the old Kman house next to city hall. Uh, they are required to notify the council of it and make sure that it's included in the minutes. So, I am noticing the council that they will be conducting the burn on the house on September 28th. Hence why Linda was so insistent that we got it. Are we going to put it on Facebook or let anyone know or just kind of do it and let We will right before the event let people know that we will be conducting something in the area so that people don't call right in but we don't want to advertise it to the point where people are coming with coolers and chairs to watch what's going going on. Can you tell us be September 28th? Okay. But this all show up until September 28th. But uh the intent is it's going to be a multi- agency practice burn because of its proximity to city hall. We actually have the facilities and staging area on the weekend to be able to actually do um you know a joint training event. So it's it's it'll it'll be a big deal. Okay. And nothing for public works and parks. Nothing beyond the reports. Any discussion by council or motions to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second motion by Amanda, second by Gina. All in favor? I. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody.