Liberty and justice for all. >> Just to remind council members to turn your microphones on. >> Is there any changes to the agenda? >> No, Mr. Mayor. There is not. I >> get a motion to approve as presented. So >> second. >> Who first? Who was the first? Okay, you were the second. >> Yes. >> Um all in favor? >> I >> I >> um there's no pro presentations, proclamations, or acknowledgements. Anybody here for public comment for anything that's not on the agenda? >> Charlie. >> Yeah. What is it? You can have five minutes. >> For two, [Music] Well, do we have the buy in from all of the homeowners? Because we have you have to go out and talk to the homeowners and ask them if they are okay with them being moved. Well, we talked about the city's interest. >> We don't have any. >> We are not talking. >> We don't have any specific issues with the location of the of the boxes. >> Right. But all all you got to do is take Marty with you and knock on doors and say, "Hey, do you mind if I move your mailbox?" >> Come on, you can do it, Charlie. >> I got faith in you. >> Because once you once you get the approval from the home homeowners, then we can then they can just move it right on up to that spot. nothing [Music] that's designated as a curb gutter with bumps and cutouts. >> So, I think it's fair to say that the mailbox issue has nothing to do with the city, but we had a council person on their own time go and help find a solution for a location that was in nobody's yard that nobody would have an issue that was acceptable to post office. I think what Kate's saying is now your part of the job is to go get permission from and she found somebody to build the mailbox bank. Well, I did, but they want to know who's going to pay for it. They will build it, but then they need the the wood bought for them. So, I don't know that that is actually going to pan out. And I'm still waiting to hear back from said boy scouts to see how much it would cost. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Chat with your neighbors. >> Yeah. I think the city people area which you guys do hold these with, don't you? >> Yes. >> Well, in the public area, >> it is, but it's not our mailboxes. So, I we've I'm if the council will grant me way I think the council needs to make a clear statement of where we're at on this and what our involvement is. We've spent closing in on a couple of hours at meetings on this particular topic >> and we've no offense Charlie, but I think we've said all that everybody understands the situation. We don't need to rehash it. I think we just need direction on what the city's position is so staff can do what is directed or not directed. I think it's time to get it done because Marty's tired of having cars or vehicles on his tracks from time to time. So, and all comes after >> I'm looking for direction from the council. Charlie, speak to the council, please. >> That's that's because it's time now to make a move because >> So, respectfully, balls in your court. Talk to your neighbors. Make sure it's okay. Buy the wood. The boy sculls will build it and you'll be done. >> Easy. >> It's that simple. >> Is it that you don't want to go knock on your neighbor's door? I'm confused as to why you're stonewalling this. >> The reason I'm stonewalling is there's a public easement on >> but it's your mailbox. It's your neighbor's mailbox. It's not the city's mailbox. These are your things. >> No, they're not my mail. I'm not I'm not talking about my mail. I can move my mail out of that city right away. No problem. And then people will be able to go up and down that alleyway as they want to. The city changed by curb and gut. That's what brought this here. before they could simply just drive around the >> Yeah, I understand that. I think everybody understands that. We've talked about that. >> That too. We've all discussed that. So, right now where it's at, Charlie, >> you and your neighbor have to go knock on the doors of your neighbors to let them know you're moving it. That's where it's at. >> I thought the city could participate because it is a public. At least the city could do letters do this here project. >> I think we're talking about an hour, Charlie. Just knock it on the doors. I I don't I don't think that's unreasonable. >> Sounds like he's asking a lot from person. >> Uh >> is trying to do city work or alleyway or whatever you call >> if that's what you want to call it. The city that's the city's position. The city put mailboxes that were there back where they were there. >> When you get permission from your neighbors to move the boxes, the boxes will be moved. >> Do you have anything else? >> Do you need somebody to go with you to each house? >> That would be wonderful. A city representative of some kind because I look really stupid. around talking about mailboxes. >> I would >> because it's a public entity that's blocked. >> I think the council has to decide whether it's a city issue or not. >> It's it's not a city issue. The property, the owner of the mailbox owns the mailbox, maintains the mailbox, and puts the mailbox where it chooses as long as it meets city requirements. In this case, while it's the city's easement, the city is fine with the mailboxes there. So, it's the the owner's responsibility to if they want to move it or have it moved to move it to a location that's acceptable to wherever it's being moved. And the city's gone as far as to provide a location for those mailboxes on city regular property that's acceptable to the post office that's still within the immediate neighborhood and is happy with doing the maintenance of mowing around it and everything else so that there would be no issues with another property owner taking it onto their property and a council person on their own time went and found somebody if the materials are provided to build the mailbox bank. So, I think the city has gone beyond done work on something that isn't a city issue quite a bit to help facilitate the solution to the issue. >> Charlie, could you push the button on the mic? Thank you. >> If you are looking for somebody that is not in a city council hat and just walking with you, would that be allowed? It's certainly allowed. It's up to the council whether they want to authorize that or not. >> If you want to go do that, you can go do that cuz then it's then we can But I need you guys to Okay. or not. Okay. Whatever you want to do. >> Well, and honestly, if it's a council member, you certainly can do it on your own initiative as a citizen of the city, but not represent the city. >> Right. I would be there as a citizen of the city, not as a council member. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> All right. >> So, I can come up and park one of my farm wagons in in that city easement after the mailboxes are removed. What does that have to do with >> Well, you guys have it blocked with mailboxes. It's not It traffic cannot flow through it as they want. >> It's not meant to be. >> It's not meant to be. >> That's a separate, >> but there's a natural gas line in that alley. And I'm sure from time to time, Minnesota Energy does go up and down that alley and they can. >> It's not It is not an alley. It's not improved. It's a right of way that allows for utilities and utility access and people who have rights to go in there, such as small utilities to do it, but it is not a utility that provides a right for other individuals, general members of the public to do it. That area is essentially like any other other properties where it's your yard to the middle of that rightway and you can maintain it as your yard and you have the responsibility to maintain as yard. But as a city, we and other people who have have rights to go in that rideway area like easements around everybody's yard to deal with utilities, small utilities, etc. So, if you wanted to go park something in there, as long as it's permitted under code, you certainly could. Although, if you're parking, I have to let you know that parking has to be on an improved surface on in on your property for short term. If you needed it for a yard project, that wouldn't be a problem. >> Very well. Thank you. Thank you. Um cons anyone else that move on the consent agenda and any discussion need to be have on that? Motion to >> I was say can I get a motion to approve consent agenda as presented? >> I will second. >> All in favor? >> I look like one public hearing. >> Uh we have a uh I'll give staff report then the mayor open public hearing for anybody that might be present. Uh council is being able is asked to hold a public hearing and consider resolution 2546 which would vacate drainage and utility easements uh upon petition of budding land owners uh within uh Boulder Point 8th edition uh or associated with Boulder Point 8th edition. We have a developer who's looking to plat two single family lots. the uh easements that are already in place with the original platting of that neighborhood would need to be vacated in order for that plat to occur. So, the council is being asked to vacate those easements um in as the plat application is moving through. Um staff is recommending it. there's no um reason not to do it at this particular point in time because easements will also be reestablished as part of the new plat um in that particular location. Um the vacation of easements does require a public hearing for any interest parties to come and ask questions or um provide any additional information as part of that as testimony in that hearing. >> Any question? Yep. Yep, you can close it. >> Seeing none, public hearing is closed. >> We can do reports if you'd like. Um, under administration, I have nothing. Uh, Corey also had nothing in addition to what was in his written report under public works. >> I just wanted to say thank you guys for considering another officer. I was not expecting that. Um, I know my guys really appreciate will will appreciate at least the consideration. Uh, it's tough. They're still working by themselves at times. Um, you know, we're we're scrambling people to cover things. So, that means a lot to you guys are at least considering that and certainly it would be greatly appreciated if that does happen or not. Um, if you've met Officer Aalia yet, uh, she's been on the road for this is week one. Um, really outgoing. I think she'll be a good fit here. Um, so hopefully you guys see her. I'm trying to to get them to bring her around to can introduce her to people. Um, Detective Barry is kicking butt, doing really well. We have sent up several cases already that have gotten convictions or are getting charged. Um, including solicitation of minors, um, child porn, things like that. So, um, couple of victims of fraud. We've at least identified the suspects, which is really challenging. So, I think it's bearing fruit. Um, and certainly if we can get that moved to a permanent kind of standalone, I think the sky's kind of the limit on what we can maybe ultimately do with that as we build that that position up. So, thank you for at least getting us to the point where we're at now. >> That's all I have. >> Um, Jay was going to be here at 7 o'clock for his report, so we'll see him later. I have no report. I have no >> uh we uh had a meeting today um to review the concept plan for the August Ventures property. Joe Sullivan's the owner of it. Same gentleman that sold the property behind us to M&I. As you guys know, that's kind of his next project. um had DRT meeting uh basically all of our key staff uh the developer plus uh representation from quite a bit of representation from the township. We had their engineer, their chair, their planning commission representative and their clerk here. Um two of those people live in very close proximity to the project. It was a very good meeting. I think uh right now the plan is that the concept plan is going to go to the planning commission here in August. You guys can expect to see it in September and we'll probably be moving forward, I would expect with annexation in October, November. Uh the plan is at this point for them is to start moving dirt construction season 2026 if they can bring everything together. >> I see they're moving dirt across in the >> senior highrise. >> Yeah, >> they're making it look nice for marketability. >> It looks a heck of a lot nicer. It's really nice. >> I didn't know if they had anything that they're specifically doing with it or >> No. Well, in the discussions we've had with them, you know, the clearing in this is really to put it in a better position for potential development, whether they want to do it themselves or if they want to market it and flip the property. Um, we had a meeting last night. Uh, we really had anticipated having a really meeting till September, but the concept plan for August Ventures uh came through. So they reviewed that and uh provided comment on it in time for the DRT meeting today. Um under administration I forgot to mention we did conduct first round interviews today for the account accounting technician position. We have three individuals that are moving on to the second round. So this was a very solid uh group of candidates that we had. Um second round of interviews are next Thursday. So we'll know if somebody moves on to background after that. Excellent. CC, >> we meet next week. Um, so I don't have anything for CC. Just a plug for community picnic next weekend. >> What time does it start? >> Um, it's 11 to It's 11 to 2. I will send a point. I will send um an appointment for that. Setup's around 10:00 and usually we wrap up by 2:30. That's really quick. >> Do you need helping with that? >> Anybody we can get. >> I will be out of town. >> Okay. >> I've also stolen two public works people that will be out of town. >> Um, >> we've calculated that to run it efficiently, we need somewhere around 8 to nine people. >> Um, we've run it with as few as five. I can tell you that's not fun. Um, remind me to talk to you after about >> Okay. >> We'll talk after. >> All right. Scale >> others. That's tomorrow. >> Um, executive committee. >> Uh, executive committee. I think the executive committee is tomorrow morning. Okay. >> Uh, scale was last week. general membership and service deliveries canceled for this month. >> I35. >> Is it canled? >> Cancelled. >> LMC Metro Cities Policy Committee updates. >> Uh we just threw this on there. The they started in July where the first group of meetings. I don't know if anybody else is doing any of those policy committees. I usually do a couple um and it's specifically related to the housing and then local economies for the league which does a lot of the housing and general government and things like that. Um, I guess the one thing that I want to just I clarify and make sure uh I'm still good uh in this spot is as we've talked about over the years, some of the issues that get brought up in this one are specific to some of the the stuff that I do on my day-to-day stuff. I work with group homes, assisted living, things like that. Um there are a lot of cities that are we're going through the talking about it on a regular basis. Um, and one of the things that some of us are really trying to encourage is more stakeholder engagement, some collaborative uh, ways to work through this. Um, so I just want to make sure everybody knows that I'm very engaged in this topic. um both from the provider side because that's what I do, but then also from the advocacy side and where we historically have kind of as a city kind of generally positioned ourselves is wanting to work together um and be collaborative and not be the the nimily like community that others are. Um so >> I'll state it less politely because of Josh's full-time job. Sometimes they suspect that he's not necessarily speaking as a council person but is speaking as an advocate within his industry. Well, and to be very clear about it, I got my hand slapped after the last meeting of saying you shouldn't really talk as much anymore because you're representing what I believe in from a work personal side and I'm not representing Elco New Market. So, um I think everybody I' I've been clear of where I sit on this and if anybody has any uncomfortableness or if I'm not representing our community, well, I'll certainly represent how I'm going to represent for my work and personally, but I I won't wear the Ela new market hat. Um, but and where I stand out is because I'm basically the only city person that ever pushes back against this stuff and it makes them all uncomfortable and uh they don't enjoy the conversation as much as I do. So, uh, I'm going to >> You need backup. >> Well, no, I don't need backup. I just want to make sure that I'm not out of bounds. I just I just want to make sure, like I said, I'm not out of bounds. I will be very respectful of the direction that the council wants me to go in or not go in. Um, but if I have the support of council to continue to do what I've always done, then I'm going to and really try to leverage it and turn it into a good opportunity. So, I mean, as an example, you know, we have a a provider just outside of town and trying to connect and have them work with the city, work with PD, fire department, township, and come to some solutions. and and so um using that as a model of we don't have to play the games of cities going and and doing things outside the scope of what cities should do and really try to bring stakeholders together and trying to encourage that using us as almost a model of this is how it could work. We could we could bring folks in problem solve work together understand all the different perspectives of this issue. Um, but at the city level and even in the provider side, we put our blinders on and we we focus in on on what we have to defend. So, as I've become aware of some of these issues, what's apparent is that there really needs to be a structural overhaul. But that that's very uncomfortable and it's messy and it's big and it's hard. So, everybody kind of everybody kind of retreats to their corners and defends their immediate territory. And um my opinion is that if the city just simply took a position that Josh could represent that the policy position of league of the league and metro cities is that there should be a task force or a collaboration between various stakeholders to look at uh real solutions. Pardon I don't have better language. That's really what needs to be done. When you listen to the various entities, they all agree, yeah, it's a problem. It needs to be fixed, but there isn't a strong push to get everybody in the room, um, so to speak. Even although everybody says, "Oh, we're happy to." Nobody's actually really doing it. >> I trust you, Josh. >> Agreed. >> And if anybody feels uncomfortable at any point, just tell me and then I'll use my other hat and go that fast. >> Just keep doing you. All right. Um, do we have to motion on that? >> Yeah, unless there's questions or discussions by council on this item. >> Any any >> motion to approve 2546. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> motion pass. General business. Anything in there? No. Seeing none, move to discussion by council. Any discussion? >> I need to cover fire. >> Oh, yeah. >> They're not here. >> Um I Jay was planning to be here, but I had told him to be here at 7 because it was a relatively short meeting. If you guys if you guys would be willing to give me a minute, I will double check and make sure he's not being held up on a call or something. >> Sure. Well, the way you guys are shutting me up. That's crazy. almost digital. requested that we move his report to next meeting. which is a lot of things. >> Sorry, >> I'll second it and then Yeah.