strengthens our community. >> Log on to learn more about what your local cable channel does for your community. [Music] It's 7 o'clock. We'll call the Savage City Council meeting to order. Roll call. >> Mayor Kelly >> here. >> Council members Alfred >> here. >> Coughlin >> here. >> Craigs >> here. >> Johnson, >> let's stand >> virtually. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> Here virtually. >> Oh. >> Oh. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Matt, did I hear you're here virtually? >> I am in tenants virtually. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia this week. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> All right. Um, item number two, public comments. The mayor and the city council believe public comments are a necessary component of elected governance. With this principle in mind, we welcome individuals to come to the podium to inform us on an issue or provide feedback or concerns about matters in Savage. Please come to the podium, provide your name and address. We ask that you limit your comments to three minutes. Seeing no one in the audience, I will move on to item three. Additions, modifications, and approval of the agenda. Any additions or modifications from council? >> Motion to approve. >> Oh, second. Motion by Coughlin, seconded by Craigs. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> I. >> We need to do a roll call. >> Oh, >> sorry. Thank you. Roll call vote. Mayor Kelly. >> I. Council members Alfred. >> I. Coughlin. >> I. >> Craigs. >> I. >> Johnson. >> I. Motion carries. There are no proclamations this evening. There are also no presentations. We'll move on to the minutes. Approve the minutes of the regular city council meeting from August 4th, 2025. Are there any additions or modifications? Stacy, >> I just had one modification. Um, in there it calls out that we did roll call votes last in that um in that meeting and we did not. So, I think we just need to make it so that it says we did not do roll call votes. We did other votes. >> With that change, I'll take a motion for approval. >> Motion to approve the minutes. >> Second. >> Motion by Alfred, seconded by Craigs. Was that okay? >> Um, all in favor? Oh, sorry. Roll call. >> Mayor Kelly, >> I. >> Council members Alfred, >> I. Coughlin, >> I. >> Craigs, >> I. Johnson, >> I. >> Motion passes. Approve the minutes of the city council work session from August 11, 2025. Any additions or corrections? >> Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. >> I'll make a Oh, do you want to go? >> Second. >> A motion to approve the minutes from the work session on August 11th. >> Second. >> Motion by Craig, seconded by Coughlin. Roll call vote. >> Mayor Kelly. >> I. >> Council members Alfred I. >> Coughlin >> I. Craigs I Johnson >> I motion >> carries. We'll move on. There are no public hearings this evening. The consent agenda. These are routine items of business that are collectively presented for approval through a single motion. A council member may request that an item be pulled from the consent agenda for separate discussion and action. Under personnel, adopt a resolution authorizing personnel actions for the city of Savage. Under engineering, adopt a resolution ordering preparation of a feasibility report for the 2026 street improvement project, city project 2601 under uh let's see and two under engineering adopt two resolutions for the highway 13 corridor improvement city project 23-26. Um and there are two separate provisions under that. One is for the city of Savage um to apply for a grant funding from the transportation economic development and transportation economic development infrastructure programs for the highway 13 corridor mobility and safety improvement project. And then the second is adopt a resolution in support of the city of Burnsville's application for the Minnesota highway freight program for the Minnesota Highway 13 and Nicola Avenue mobility improvement project under police and fire. adopt a resolution approving an an application to conduct excluded bingo for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on September 28th, 2024. Under finance, adopt a resolution to approve claims listing. Under general, adopt a resolution approving a special event permit for Northwest Food Truck Fest to be held on August 24, 2025 at the Savage Sports Center. and two, adopt a resolution approving a temporary onale liquor liquor license for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church and School for September 27th, 2025. Is there anything on the consent calendar that anybody wants to pull for discussion and or action or questions? Seeing and hearing none, I will um entertain a motion for approval. Motion to approve the consent agenda items. >> So it's match turn. >> What was that? >> Second. >> Motion by Alford, seconded by Johnson. Roll call vote. >> I. >> Council members Alfred I. >> Coughlin. >> I. >> Craigs. >> I. >> Johnson. >> I have fun. >> Do we hear? >> Yeah. >> I didn't. You made it. Okay. >> All right. Sorry, I didn't hear it. All right, moving on to general business. We're going to receive an update on our zoning code changes and updates. Regina, thank you, mayor, members of the council. Um, for the council and the viewing audience, uh, many may remember that in mid 2023, the council retained consultant HKGI to lead a comprehensive zoning code update, um, as well as our subdivision um, sections of our code. Uh, the prior code had been um, in place for over 30 years and really was in need of is in need of a refresh. It's outdated. There's conflicting language um, and there's confusing language as well. So, as our community evolves, um, our city code should as well. So, um, there's commitment, uh, from the council to, uh, propose changes. Um, the last check-in that we had with our city council and our planning commission was back in November, um, of 2024. So, it's been quite some time. Um, between then and now, um, staff has been working hard behind the scenes, um, redlinining the current ordinance and working on draft changes to the code. Um, we have received some public comment um, early on as well as feedback from our city commissions, our economic development commission, community equity commission, and again our council and planning commission. Um we have gone over some themes uh within the city code um such as sign regulations, lot sizes and dimensions. Uh we talked about flexibility on housing types um flexibility with building height for things like um for uh product types like multifamily housing, commercial and industrial development. Uh we discussed flexibility and refinement to exterior materials and design standards and parking um adjustments as well as permitted and conditional uses. Uh we have a long laundry list of um permitted and conditional uses within our zoning code today. So looking at kind of um making it more flexible um not calling out things like bakery, butcher shop, deli, and just you know calling it commercial or calling it retail. Um so really simplifying things um to make it easier for businesses to locate here in Savage. Um we are also uh have looked and continue to look at our procedures for review processes for not only new projects but amendments to projects. Projects come in the first time through it's pretty easy. As um we see tenant improvements or um redevelopment opportunities, things get a little more complex. So how can we streamline and make things easier? Um so those are the things that we have been looking at behind the scenes. Um as well as we've been working on making some updates to the environmental section uh from a again from a staff lens from um shoreline to steep slopes storm water infiltration impervious surface u making sure that our code meets current best practices um as well as in alignment with the wershed district wershed um organizations and the department of natural resources. So, it's been a heavy lift uh behind the scenes. HKGI is in receipt of our staff draft edits. Um once they take all of that information and um provide that back to us, then we will do an internal review of those changes. Um and then we will come before the council as well as the public um through Let's Talk Savage. and we'll continue to have some engagement with our city commissions as well as the general public and other stakeholders um such as the um Savage Chamber. Our goal is to have the final ordinance in front of you by the end of the year. Um so more than happy to answer any questions. Um we're we're getting to that finish line. We're very excited to be towards the end of the finish line. Um, but uh again, happy to answer any questions that you might have because it has been a while since we've checked in. >> I'm going to go to Matt first. Matt, did you have any questions? >> I don't at this time. Thanks for checking. >> Okay, thank you. >> Anybody on the Dismile? [Laughter] >> Okay, he's got something to say. Um, so my wife asked me tonight, how long a meeting is this going to be? I said, "Well, there's one item on here that if we get a full update, that's going to be like an hour and a half or there's nothing in the packet to back it up. Maybe it'd be 5 minutes." So, this was a Thank you for an update to tell us where we're at because I almost forgot about this because this is a process we've been working on for a while and I was kind of wondering when we're going to finish it. Uh, my question is, uh, what was our original timeline goals? Have we met those? And if we haven't, has it been just things took longer? Are we waiting on our uh staff? Are we waiting on uh our um H >> HKGI the consultant? >> Yeah. Our consultant. Uh so uh are we still on timeline? And if not, why not? >> Yep. Um so it's been a combination of things. Uh the we're about a year behind. Um and part of that reason we started late. Um as you may recall in um mid of 2023 there was a staff turnover. So uh we lost two of our planners. Um had to hire two planners. Um so HKGI provided some interim services. So they put a pause on the zoning code update when we first got going um so that they could augment some staff services. So, um, there was also some onboarding of our city staff that had to take place. And not only were they trying to learn our existing code, but they're also trying to make, you know, recommendations on modifications to our, um, to our proposed draft code. And so, um, it has taken a little bit longer from, I would say, you know, just for staff to come on board. um as well as there has been some um I would say um slower response uh from our consultant um to reply back to some of our um draft edits. So um combination of things, but again we're we're getting there. Um we're we're almost done and and >> Well, great. Well, thank you for uh kind of filling in the time gap there, but uh what do you see that we can do pro proactively to help this be successful now that there's a restart? Is there some additional things that we've thought about since then? I mean, some things have changed here even in the last year. Uh uh how can we be successful with this? There are things that we are learning along the way along the way again with some new staff, new eyes on on um the changes. So we've actually done some of the work um inhouse as well that we originally had expected the um consultant to do or that they didn't identify as part of their scope of services. So we've kind of added on some changes. Um some of those being uh with our environment our environmental sections um impervious surface uh as well and steep slopes as well as um some of the sign regulations. As you may recall um we were before you with a PUD amendment for the Ross dress for less signs. um looking at ways uh to be a little more flexible in in that um respect. Uh was a um something, you know, that we we noted and that um we're proposing some some changes as a result of that. And as a result of the um flurry of conditional use permits um for swimming pools um that we've seen, you know, how can we make it a little more flexible to do some of that um at an administrative level? um again ultimately with council support of that but um those are things that we've been flagging along the way as we've kind of stumbled um as a staff trying to >> Thank you very much. I I look forward to u the final result and and good job. >> Thank you >> Stacey. Maybe just to piggyback on that a little bit, I know it has taken a bit longer and if the goal is to get it done by the end of this year, I'm going to be a little bit selfish and saying I'm hoping we have more than just like a weekend to review it before it comes to us. So, if we could get it and have like a week or more, that would be helpful. >> That's the only comment I Yes, I I mean, if we could spend Christmas reviewing it, sure. >> That's good feedback. I >> Or even smaller chunks. Yeah, I mean if we can, you know, do something like that too, that would I I absolutely am going to concur with that comment that Yeah, >> I'm guessing it might go through some of the other U committees before it gets to us, too. So, >> I will concur with chunking it up, but not over winter break or Christmas break. >> Take your time. It's it's it's just a deadline. Don't worry about it. It would be nice though to have this done before the year is is over. This project is really taken a long time to >> been 30 years. >> I would like to say thank you Regina and your team with all of the staffing turnovers and from somebody who is newly elected on on the committee on the city council that I understand that time to learn things and different um it's like education all the acronyms and things like that. It takes a little bit to learn those. So, I appreciate your team and the hard work you've done. Um, what was the consulting company again? >> Um, HKGI is the consulting. >> Okay, got it. I'm going to look up what it is later. >> Okay. But thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. >> Thank you for the update. >> Thank you. >> And now we'll move on for our information technology division cyber security presentation. Chad, >> mouthful. That was a mouthful. >> Yes. >> Moral support. [Music] >> Tech support. Show them how to use this. >> Might need it. >> Careful. He was very kind to me right before the meeting started. Okay. Well, I'm very excited to come and talk with everybody about our cyber security readiness. Um, that's a big technical term, but basically this is my opportunity to talk a bit about um what has recently occurred in the city of St. Paul and uh the systems that we may and uh may not have in place to help protect us against uh something similar occurring. I'd very much like to keep this an interactive presentation. So if there are questions along the way, please raise a hand and uh be happy to address them in turn. Um cyber security. So what are the risks involved with information technology systems? Well, first is loss of data. So we have gigabytes and gigabytes of information um that we have acred across the years from all of the different systems that we have in all of our city departments and divisions. Um that data includes uh systems such as our police and fire department records management system, our public utility SCADA infrastructure, our records uh our document management system, our financial system, our point of sales system for our liquor operations, our geographic information systems, our HR systems, our park and wreck registration and facilities management systems just to name a few. So data from all of those systems are contained within our IT infrastructure and is technically at risk at all times. Um what would happen if we were to have a cyber security breach? Well, potentially we would need to shut down all of our IT systems. That's exactly what occurred in the city of St. Paul. They were down for the better part of a week. Um basically clearing out their systems and making sure that um the attacker, the bad actors as we called them were out of the system. Um there would definitely be an interruption of city services. Our residents uh resident and businesses would be interrupted. Um and a compromise of IT resources u may be used to stage additional attacks. And so with our IT infrastructure if someone were to get into our system, guaranteeing the sanity of those systems would take time to completely purge them out of everything that we have. What were some recent examples of cyber security intrusions? Well, the Interlock ransomware group claimed responsibility for what happened in the city of St. Paul. Um, the city of Oakland, California recently had a similar attack. There were data breaches going back to 2015 in the Internal Revenue System. Uh, in 2020, the US Federal Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Defense, State, and National Health Institute were uh breached as well. Um there are several ongoing what we call DDoS or distributed denial of service attacks that target the internet connections of government uh operations. There are ongoing fishing scams, malware scams and uh we are also potentially subject to third-party vendor breaches. So, it's not just our own information systems, but the various managed service partners and vendors that the city does business with. Since they interconnect with our information systems, we are at risk from that potential vector as well. So, I'm saying a lot of scary things here. So, let's shift over to talk a little bit about some of the protection that we have in place. Okay. What are best practices to secure our information systems? Well, first and foremost, our internet service provider is the state of Minnesota. Um, and so with that connection, we are required to follow the criminal justice information system or CEIS uh requirements. Uh, that means that information uh technology personnel such as myself that has physical access to these IT systems um we need to complete annual certifications. There are frequent uh audits that occur uh to make sure that we are following those best practices. Um we have the control facilities access so only specific personnel are allowed into our data centers. Um and we also have ongoing network traffic monitoring from the state. Um, if there are any anomalies that are detected, such as a PC um that may be sending out spam or a PC that may be trying to infiltrate another information system, the state of Minnesota monitors that and then gets in touch with my division to check it out to see what might be going on with that particular workstation. So, that is a benefit of the state being our internet service provider. Uh we follow practices such as secure destruction of hard drives and portable media including USB drives. Anything that leaves the city of Savage uh before it is brought to the dump is securely wiped using military standards or it actually goes through a shredding machine. So no data leaves our organization including passwords and other secure information. Uh we use what we call network segmentation and encrypted traffic for PCI systems. That's very wordy. What does that what does that mean? Uh so our point of sale systems um anything that we our park and recck systems any information system that we use that um is an exchange of exchange of currency uh if we are taking payments for registration. If we are taking uh point of sale uh system payments uh we use a completely separate network from the state for that. Um, and we do not allow those two different systems to interact with each other. And so PCI compliance refers to that as SACD compliance. And we we have that in place with that system of two different connections. We uh enforce strong password policy in the city. It's not very popular, but we do require a minimum of eight characters with a special character and a number. Um we discourage uh reuse of frequently used passwords. Um and we recently implemented two-factor authentication um which is using what you know and um basically what you have to guarantee that you are who you say you are to have access to city information. Um Microsoft authenticator was the platform that were rolled out just within the last year. >> So I have a question. >> Yes sir. Um, I'm not really affected by this because every time I start up my system, it doesn't like make me password every time. It has biometrics. It recognizes my face. And so, do I get past that because the authenticator is not beeping every time I open my laptop. >> So, we don't require two-factor authentication outside of a 90-day period. Um so in combination with the biometrics such as fingerprint and facial recognition uh for now that was what we put in place when we implemented two factor we may increase that now uh to more >> as long as I check in open my laptop once a week I'm not going to have to go through >> correct it it won't force you to do multifactor authentication every single time. >> Uh will it uh will I have to do that when I get into other systems even though I'm already on my system? Yes. Um, so our multiffactor authentication today extends um to all of our Microsoft 365 loginins. So your Outlook and your Word and your Excel, those applications, your productivity software. As we move more toward what's known as SSO or single sign on with other information systems within the city, then two-factor authentication will be necessary for those systems as well. So that's an upgrade path that we have planned. And how will this affect my uh my phone if I want to check my email not on my laptop? >> So uh with your phone, the Outlook application does require the two-factor authentication within a 90-day period as well. >> Thank you. Welcome. Uh hardware upgrades, software upgrades. Um we like to think of cyber security as an onion. So there are many different layers and I'd like to talk a little bit about what those layers are that are presently in place. Um the city uh within the last three years has spent approximately $875,000 on cyber security related systems. Let's talk a little bit about what those are. First off, hardware. Our network core and edge switch replacement project which has been ongoing for the last year is about 95% complete. We expect to have that at 100% by the end of this month. Um that is a 7-year lease on cyber security equipment, cyber security related equipment. Um a part of that are our upgraded firewalls. Um does everybody know what a firewall is? What a firewall does? That is probably our first line of protection. It sits between our city information systems and the internet. And it basically allows for known traffic to have access and unknown traffic to stay out. Um, we have what's known as virtualized server infrastructure. So, back when I started in IT, which is going on about 28 years ago now, um, our servers, we called them pizza boxes. They basically sat in a rack stacked on top of each other, and if there was a problem with one of those servers, we had to literally reload it, sometimes take it out, and physically replace it. These days, virtualization allows us to have uh one server with up to 30 different servers running on it at the same time. We're able to back up the state of those servers. So, if there is a suspected infiltration, we can very easily take that server offline and bring it back to a known good state. Um, and we deploy wireless security across all of our city facilities. um that's uh required for you to join our private city network. Our public network is open but has no access to our city internal city information systems software on each and every one of our laptops and on our desktop computers. We require the use of anti virus software. Um we also run what's known as SIM. That's security information and event management system. Um that is our Splunk system that we put in place within the last six months. That is uh think of that as a supervisor that runs on the top of our network that looks at all traffic. Anything that does manage to make it past the firewall is inspected from this software and raises red flags. If there's any suspicious activity that is happening on our network, it also allows us to aggregate logs of that. So if something does occur, we can go back and have a complete history of when something may have started on our network. >> Um we >> does that go uh all the way into email traffic? >> We do keep uh a record of every email sent and received from the city. >> Does does a security information catch viruses or known fishing? >> Yes. Yes, it yes it does. Yes, it does. >> Because I I delete things all the time that I I'm not open in that. But I don't know if sometimes sometimes it sends out a test thing and you're supposed to like report it and then you get a kudos to say thank you, you reported the right thing versus picking on it. Do do you guys do that? Because >> we we do. In fact, uh we're going to talk about that momentarily, but we call that our security awareness training platform or SAT. And um we have uh cool new tools that we're going to be rolling out in the near future. I'll talk a little bit about how those work as well. >> I shouldn't just delete them all. I should report them all. >> Reporting is good. Um, we have what's known as a mobile device management platform. Uh, MDM is what runs on all of our cityisssued cell phones. And, um, in it, we love our acronyms. So, that would be our BYOD phones as well. Essentially, that would be a bring your own device. So, if you're required to use a cell phone within the city of Savage for your day-to-day work, you can either uh elect to take a city iPhone or bring in your own phone. Um that's acceptable under our cell phone use plan. Um both of those two types of devices have MDM loaded on it. So, what is what is MDM? MDM allows us to deploy applications securely to your phone. It also allows us to send something we call a kill pill. So, what is a kill pill? That sounds scary and something out of the CIA. Um, if a city employee were, for example, to lose uh their phone, um, that phone could potentially contain information that could be used uh to get into our system or city information uh that uh uh we wouldn't necessarily want out in the wind. Um, and so an MDM platform allows us to use the internet to push a command to that phone to wipe cityowned data from the device. Um, why is it important to target only city-owned data? Well, if it's a BYOD situation, we wouldn't necessarily want to wipe out all of the personal data contained on that phone only to have that phone found a day later, for example. So, it allows us to um use a fine scalpel instead of a baseball bat to eliminate that threat. Um it also MDM allows us to keep track of um the applications that are loaded. If there's any bad actor applications that someone may inadvertently install on their phone, we know about it and the system can actually proactively either prevent or remove those apps from service. Um we also are moving towards secure client and server operating systems. Um what does that mean? Well, eventually Windows in October of this year will be ending support for Windows 10. Um, we have roughly about 90% or will have 90% of our desktops moved to Windows 11 by that October date and we will be for a period of time going into 2026 on extended support for Windows 10. So, we will keep those operating systems secure. What are the next steps in staying cyber secure? Uh, security awareness training, as I mentioned, is a platform that in IT we use to keep our city staff up to date with best practices such as not opening attachments you're not sure of. Um, and also, uh, it allows us to do simulations, um, which would be us, um, simulating a campaign of infiltration. Um, and so it allows us an opportunity to um, show in real time staff what that might look like and then uh, teach our staff how to react and how to report uh, anything that would be suspicious or potentially threatening to our network. Um, single sign on I talked a little bit about the more we can move towards single sign on the more two-factor authentication can be in place for all of our information systems. Virtual private networking access is needing to run a software client on laptops and on mobile phones to be able to have access to internal city systems. That's a capability of the new network firewalls that we purchased and we will have that online within a few months. Um we are looking to work with managed service partners and pulling quotes together for disaster recovery backup as a service. Now do we have backups of our city information? Yes, absolutely. Um, a backup as a service would allow us to work with a vendor, cloud-based vendor, or have remote sites where we would be able to securely keep our data in the event that there would be a complete loss of a city of all of our city facilities or in in city network information infrastructure. Um, so that is those are opportunities we are looking at in the near future. Um, and then developing a disaster recovery policy, which is something that I've had in place in the last two cities that I've worked for, basically outlines what we call a runbook if uh an intrusion were to happen within our system. How do we react to that? And then working with our EOC command to develop roundt exercises around that disaster recovery policy. And with that, are there any other related questions? >> I have one question. This might be like a spooky one, and I'm gonna knock on wood and say it doesn't happen, but you said the CJIS system through Minnesota helps to do all of this stuff. >> Yes. >> If that were defunded by any reason by the federal state level, what would that look like for us as a city? Yeah, that's >> to either have more money that needs to manage that or fall on more on you guys. How would that look? Not that I'm saying it wants needs to happen, but if it does, what do we do? >> Right. That that's a that's a great question. Um my answer will be that all of the other systems that I mentioned are in addition to the sieges security. Um, so if in that eventuality, if that were to occur, we would still have our firewalls. We would still have all of those other systems that I mentioned in place. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Matt, did you have any questions? >> I don't have anything else to add or question. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, I just had a couple. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> No, that's okay. >> Go ahead. I was just going to make a comment and say thank you for presenting the information and ask whether or not you have concerns about sharing what we all are doing so that everybody knows. >> I question >> um I have I have no specific uh concerns at this time. Um, I did not plan on getting into details about specific systems, but one thing that I will mention is, um, within the next upcoming budget cycles, I will make sure that I'll identify if there are systems that we are considering or that I'll make recommendations for us to take a look at and point those out specifically. >> I also want to say thank you because I had a fishing scam on my work phone and you were amazing. police were amazing to call me right away and let me know what happened and how they could help. And so it does happen. I've this is the second time I've now ga for personal I was too. So it and they have AI sophistication that has voices that sound like the person. I mean it is amazing what they can do when they want to get into your system. So, if they ask you for gift cards or any I know you sent out that email, but I'm just telling the public too and everybody else asking for gift cards, sending you the verification code, even if you think it's legit, don't do it because it causes so many problems on a personal and professional level. So, thank you for all of your support in that and the police department as well for taking care of that. >> It's very difficult these days to spot those scams. >> Yes. All right. I had a couple. Um I know for the city of St. Paul um they had asked the governor for um assistance from the National Guard and that the National Guard has some IT experts that um came in to help them with their um situation. Um as I understand it, there were some protocols that the city of St. Paul had to go through to make sure that they could have the National Guard inner um acting for them or or involved. Um, do we know what those are and are we prepared for something like that ourselves? >> That that's a great question. Um, I'm sure there are protocols um that are involved if we were to find ourselves in that situation. Um, I would work very closely with our police department and our EOC commander uh to make sure that we're aware of what those requirements are and we would vet those and definitely follow them. >> Great. Thank you. And then my second question was in looking at what happened to St. Paul. Um I also um came across um something that there is some resources at the federal government to do some round or some tabletop exercises um to prepare for if something like this were to happen and how we would approach it and are we going to be moving to do any of those? >> Absolutely. I've I've been made aware of some resources that are available to help us put together some roundt exercises including some individuals from the League of Minnesota Cities and we'll be reaching out to them to see if they would be available to assist us with those exercises. >> Great. Thank you. Any other questions from up here? >> No, but I would like to be involved madame mayor in those round tables too because I think it's a very important issue we all have to just really think about and be aware of. I would imagine the way this will roll out is our tabletop will first involve our city staff and making sure that all of our emergency personnel and staff know what they're doing. And then we'll do something with the council as far as what our role is and what we can expect and what um that our city staff and population residents can expect from us as well. >> So that would be kind of how I would expect it to roll out. >> Yep. I'm seeing some nods. >> Not have the technology hat, so it that would be amazing. >> And and I don't either. We we were having that conversation today. Um but what what we do have is I really feel like we are in a really good position um here with not only our IT staff, but our um emergency personnel staff. And I just really um I think it's important for us to keep circling back and making sure that we're prepared. and when other cities, you know, have these situations to take a breath and say, "Okay, if this were us, where are we at and and are we prepared?" Um, but I after it happened to St. Paul, I just knew that there were a lot of questions out there, can this happen to us, too? >> Absolutely. Um, the city IT list serve, which is uh shared between many uh cities in the metro and across the state, um there's been a lot of information uh about what happened in the city of St. fall and coordination uh coming from that as well. So, we're making sure we're keeping up to date and vetting our own cyber security systems against uh what happened there. >> Thank you. Did you have something to add, Chris? Yeah. >> May bearing council, I want to say this has really been a passion of Chad's and his team since he started. So, I'm not saying St. Paul was good, but the timing with kind of the new programs he's implementing is really helpful for us to tell that story about here's why we're making these changes. here's why why now you have two-factor authentication here's what the expectation is moving forward so I think we're at a great opportunity to sort of tell that story both to our internal staff to you as elected officials and to the community so I thanks Chad and his team for all the work they put on this >> I I will concur thank you thank you to all the work that you and your staff are doing and to the other staff I I know this stuff does not live in a bubble right I mean to the extent that everybody is using you know our information technology to the extent that everybody is engaged here. Um I just know that it takes everybody's time to make sure that these things are working. >> It is absolutely a team process. >> Thank you. The last message I have is for our residents who's ever out there listening. Uh if you send an email to myself or the council members and you don't get a response, it is possible that email got gobbled up by our our programs and our email systems. Then the the email system may think that it's a fishing scam or something like that. So, uh, all of our phone numbers are available on the website and I'm gonna, you know, go ahead and reach out. I'm going to say it for all of you. Um, but I I just want to make sure because I get emails more often than phone calls. And to the extent that, and I I bring it up because I just had a resident um send me emails and her two emails that she sent me both got caught up by the city's uh server uh protections and um I didn't get them. And so um it wasn't I didn't want to respond. It was hard to respond to something I didn't have. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. City council reports, >> Bob. >> Uh, >> you had a scale meeting. >> H, >> do you didn't you have a scale meeting? >> Yeah, I did have a scale meeting. A scale meeting. I I did attend virtually. >> Uh, and uh, Brad was there. I was gonna say >> maybe Brad can uh tell me a little bit more about what I wasn't paying attention to. >> Sure. >> Um at the general membership scale meeting from uh was it last Friday or two Fridays ago? >> Well, we've had two scale meetings. One was the >> general membership and then one was our uh >> executive meeting which was kind of boring. at the general meeting. Uh, Chief Breznahan and, um, I can't remember the fellow's name from Jordan. Breeze, Lieutenant Breeze or Assistant Chief Breeze, uh, from Jordan. Uh, fire presented on the state of the fire service uh, in Scott County as we are today. and scale decided to have this conversation because as you are all well aware we've had a lot of transition and changes in the fire service over the last five years. We can see it happening in the metro. We can see it in the state and Scott Countyy's uniquely positioned within the state of Minnesota as we have a very urbanized north half. We have a very rural still south half. Um, so, uh, the north half is kind of moving a little quicker than the south half. Uh, and there's also questions about the townships because we provide, uh, luckily Savage does not provide service to any of the townships, but many of the other cities, I think almost all of them except for Credit River provide service to a township and township wants to know what's happening, why are expenses going up, why are calls for service going up? So, uh, we had a conversation. We decided to break this up into two pieces. And so at the last general membership meeting, uh Chief Resham presented on the state of things where they're at now. Uh uh he presented information on budgets increasing. Uh the last trends and calls for service. It's not just the city of Savage. It's all uh communities their calls for service are increasing. And what's interesting is it's not because their populations are increasing or uh traffic in their areas are increasing that's contributing to it, but we're just seeing a general increase in calls overall and that's putting strains on resources. So it's not just Savage that's feeling this, it's all the communities. So that's what we presented um at the last general membership. In the September meeting, we're going to present on we're going to have a facilitated discussion. and I'm going to facilitate the discussion. Chief President Han's going to be there. Uh Tom Terry from Elco New Market, he's the city administrator. uh fire chief from Prior Lake and then the fire chief from New Prague are going to talk about where they see the fire industry going in the next 5 to 10 years, where we need to be looking, where we need to maybe put some resources, maybe where we need to do resources or excuse me, do more research and then talk about what we can do in the next one to two years, baby steps. uh the city of or the state of Minnesota when you look at us compared to the other states in Minnesota we've traditionally kind of underinvested in fire service because we have this tradition of having the paid on call well we're seeing that that's not working anymore and so we're shifting and so we're I think it's pretty easy to see where we're going to be in the next 5 to 10 years because there's a lot of examples all over the United States and >> I want to thank Chief Brnahan uh Jeremy you did get a lot of information and I was able to follow it because some of it you've already kept uh us informed on the city of Savage and our fire service model and and how that you've al also already shared how that affects the rest of the county. But I'm guessing uh as you're looking out in the crowd, you probably found some what blank stairs. So, uh, I I I hoping this was a good wake up for, uh, some other members of the scale community, uh, to kind of understand something that they don't really think about too much. But, uh, but then, uh, there were a couple voices that stood up and said, "Yeah, it's costing us a lot of money. >> What's this all about?" And so, uh, thank you very much. Uh, excellent presentation. I look forward to the second half. Well, just for our residents at home, um we throw those acronyms around all the time. Um not only is it um infamous for it, but so are police and fire. Um but scale, so you know, we're just as guilty sitting up here. Scale is the Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency. And think of it as all of the um uh public entities within Scott County. So, it's not just your cities, your townships, it's also the school boards. Um, and it's all of those folks coming together to see what can we do better as a county, as an organization, um, to more efficiently and effectively use our resources. Um, and I think scale has been tremendous for the city of Savage over the years that we've done this. Um, I've just been so impressed with the group. Um, one of the things that it did was we had the regional have have the regional training facility that our police and fire departments use for training. And we just need to continue to have these conversations and what's going to be best for the county, what's going to be best for the city of Savage and our residents and how can we most effectively use our resources to provide for our residents. So, um, that's my plug for scale and why it's important. Uh, all right. Any other council reports? All right. Um, I have a couple of things. Um, so we did the, um, last th Thursday. Um, we had an employee appreciation lunch, um, which I think was well attended. And I only say I think because I missed the first half of it. I was at a funeral. And so, um, I'm just going to publicly thank, uh, those folks who weren't had to leave and get back to work before I could get there. Um, but just again, uh, our staff is great and to publicly thank them for everything you do is really important to me and I think how we operate. Um, and just for residents at home, because I do always ask where how everything is paid for, this is actually paid through our employee sunshining fund and so there are no city tax dollars that were used to uh, pay for that lunch. Um just an important call out I think. Um I also got to go on the Minnesota Riverboat tour. Um that was sponsored by the Minnesota River Watershed District. I think I have that correct. Um we boarded a Jonathan Paddleford type boat um and went down the Minnesota River um to St. Paul. Um and there were actually a couple other staff members who were there and um it was a great trip. I thought um really um interesting. Um there was some great information that you know they talked about and it was also a great opportunity to talk to other people who are impacted or concerned about the river. Um so it was um it was fascinating fascinating group that was all put together and the concerns were vast. Um, we had people, you know, like CHS and our port businesses, you know, who are really concerned about the river because this is a mode of transportation for them and critical to their um, businesses and what they're doing. Um, and then we had a lot of people who were concerned from an environmental standpoint and wanting to know, you know, what we were going to do and how we could clean it up and what ideas we had. And, um, I said to a lot of people, they wanted to know what my ideas were for cleaning up the river. And I said, I have learned something as mayor. I no longer have to have the answer. I just need to find the right people who do. And there are a whole lot more smarter people out here with ideas on what we can do to clean up the river um than me. And I am going to let them uh help us figure that problem out. And I will listen. I will listen and we will get it done. And it's certainly something we can do. Um but it was a like I said it was a really interesting eclectic kind of mixture of people who were there um that evening. Um this morning um I got to go to the Savage Palooa which was a um a reading event the Savage Library was putting on all year long and Chief Juel was Chief Brady was there uh representing the police department and I and um it was just a lot of fun. It was just a lot of fun getting to see um all of these little ones and um as little ones tend to do, they were very excited to tell us stuff and ask their questions. Um but I just thought it was really interesting and I was talking to some parents after it was done. And what I love hearing is not only do I think my kid learned something today, but I learned something today. Um which I thought was really great. Um, so I have um been doing an exercise anytime I get asked to be around kids. Um, and one of my things is um, how are we going to pay for it? And so I tell them that one of the hardest parts of our job is trying to figure out how we're going to pay for things. And so today each kid got a fake dollar bill and they had to decide who was getting paid. And they had $1 and they had four buckets. So, we had a bucket for police, we had a bucket for fire, we had a bucket for parks and our playgrounds. Um, and then we had a bucket for our snowplow drivers. >> And, um, it's always fascinating to me to see um, where they put their dollar. Um, and they were very little. I mean, little little kids. And, uh, every bucket had money, so everybody got paid. Not everybody got paid as much as others, but I I just think it's really a fun exercise for them to do and and to think about and to make their parents think about it as well. Um so um a couple of things coming. Oh, before I finish, we I just wanted to do a shout out. Uh, we had a fellow um over the summer, if you think an intern. Um, Emily Bolan spent the summer with city staff and um I would love to hear more from city staff and what you thought, but um I thought it was just a fantastic um uh experience for her and um I thought it was a great opportunity for the knowledge base that's in this room and in this building um to be shared to that next generation. And I am just so appreciative again of our staff that was taking the time to help her learn more about what it means to run the city of Savage. Um I will say Emily did come from a really unique position. She serves um in a exoicial capacity I think for the city of Ames and so she also sits up on the day for city council meetings. So some of that was stuff she already knew. But I talked to her and she just learned so much and was so grateful to um staff and and folks for her experience. Um let's see, where am I at? Um another uh tremendous thank you goes out to our staff. Jennifer Wells is one of them for our night to unite was just an absolutely fantastic event. I think we had 53 parties that were registered. There were some glitches with some of them. Uh I've heard one of them they bumped up the time because they thought the time worked better. So when staff showed up, they weren't there, which is fine. Um, I think 53 parties speaks volumes about what this community is. We are a community of small neighborhoods who care about each other and want to get together, want the city to show up with our police and our fire and our snowplows and our park and wreck people who had games to play and and all of that kind of stuff. And um, I love it. I think it's just such an important night um, for our residents and for our staff. I think I hope I think our staff gets thanked a lot that night and I think they really walk away with um an appreciation for what they do. So if for no other reason, we're going to keep doing it just so you all get your thank yous. Uh so come do I do I have all of them? I think yeah coming up um tomorrow night we have another treats and tunes at Tro Park from 6 to 8. And I know all of this is in our newsletter, which our residents love and they rely on, but I don't feel bad about putting an extra plug in. So, most of this I'm pulling right out of the newsletter. If you don't have the information, check the newsletter. Um, but threes and tunes tomorrow night. Um, then we have our shredding event on August 23rd from 9 to 11 at the Savage Sports Center. You can bring two uh bankers boxes, I believe, uh, to get shredded. Um, and then, um, I am thrilled to talk about, uh, September 2nd. If you don't have it on your calendar, get it on your calendar. September 2nd is our mural dedication when we're unveiling that. And it will be from 5:30 to 6:30 at the library. If you've been driving by, it's close to being done. And it looks absolutely beautiful. I mean, just absolutely beautiful. And um so appreciative of the folks who have been working so hard all summer long not doing that. Um what else do I have? Um I one more. Uh uh ISD 191, the Savage Burnsville Egan school district um on August 27th at 8 o'clock in the morning has their state of the school address that Dr. Daniels is giving. So, um, all of you can certainly go or I >> Wait, you said to August 7th. >> August 27th. >> 7th. Thank you. >> 827. >> I need to turn my hearing it up. >> 8 a.m. Uh, it's the 21st. Oh, thank you. >> 21st. >> My one. It looks like a seven. Thank you. August 21st. >> This week, this Thursday um at 8 o'clock in the morning. And then um I have uh poop bags because if you read your newsletter, you found out we do not have a poop fairy. I hate to, you know, destroy anybody's hopes and dreams. Um but we have they're really cool. I just think they look really neat. They're like little plastic blue doggy bones that are filled with poop bags. And it really is a cool idea. Um, and they're available at city hall here, at the um, uh, police department, and at public works. Um, and then the last thing I have is I'm, uh, there is a road closure notification that just went out. >> Yes. >> Can Can we ask me where >> I I Well, I know I'm putting you on the spot. Um, I thought I had it. Um, >> I just read it and I can't remember either. >> Wait. Nope. >> I got it. Nope. Here it is. Park in Louisiana roundabout. >> Closure to take place Friday, August 22nd. That's this Friday, from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. And then Monday, August 25th from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. I think again. And it's that T right there at the roundabout. >> South Park Drive and Louisiana Avenue. All right. And then we have two followups that I'm gonna have Sang come up and and talk to us about before I forget. Do you We have two items. The first one is information on the solar buildings and then the second one is on uh 154th in the traffic there. 150th 150 >> 150th um council's pleasure. Which one you'd like? >> Um can we do the solar grant first? >> Certainly. Certainly. Mayor, members of the council, um just an update on that project. So, back in April, um council approved or accepted the bids, uh approved the contract to True North for that solar system, uh to be installed at water treatment plant 2. Um, since that time, staff has been working with the state to put a contract together, the agreement, everything else. So, it's going through our our city attorney, their legal department as well. So, that's actually pretty close. Um, we are expecting about two weeks or so. We're going to have a kickoff meeting for that project uh itself. Um, it's going to take about two to three months to put everything together. Once we have that meeting and although the work should only take about two weeks uh just to get the process, everything else put together, it's going to be two to three uh months for that. So, um I do have I think there was a question in terms of the break even point uh for the project. Um the contract to True North was for $107,000. Um 60% of that is being covered through the state grant. Uh another 30% is through the federal tax credits that are available. Now, there were some concerns previously when we're going through that process that those tax credits would not be available, but it seems like with the bill that was passed, uh it's still in place. So there were some restrictions or dates revised for the residential component of solar. This is on the commercial side. So I think anything before 2026 or July 2026, we have four years to complete that construction. So there is some time to complete that. Um with that um for costwise uh with the to the grant as well as the tax credit, we're only like $12,000 that the city would pay be paying into this. Uh so the break even point as proposed is about 3.2 uh years I I believe but there were some additional consulting costs associated with that. We did have a consultant help us with a process to go through that. Um so that was about $9,000. So that's going to add another probably four years to kind of to get to that break even point. So we're looking at maybe six seven years to get to the even point. So the system is supposed to last about 30 years. The solar panels themselves have an 85% efficiency rate at that 30-year mark. So, they're still pretty efficient. Um, if I can bring up the the spreadsheet that kind of shows um is it >> it's up there. >> Yeah. Press the >> document cam. >> Document cam. >> Robbie, >> I hope you could see that there. Um, so you can kind of see the break even point at 3.2 two years and kind of list goes down. So, if everything goes right, uh over 30 years, you know, we should see a rate of return of about $139,000 uh of savings. So, using the the existing rates, um perhaps some escalation rates in terms of electrical rates moving forward. So, that was what the anticipated cost would be. Uh life expecty of those panels are about 30 years. There are some other components within that system that's a little bit less. The inverters, for instance, are 10 to 25 years. Um, the racks themselves that that the solar installs onto has got a 20-year warranty associated with those. So, there may be some maintenance costs associated that, but overall, this is kind of what we're thinking in terms of that that savings um for the 30 30 years. >> And this solar is going to help with energy efficiency for the building the itself as opposed to the water treatment processing equipment. >> Correct. marriage >> and then saying after the 30 years is it a whole new installation for the panels then after that potential 30-year stability? >> Good question. I mean they're still 85% efficient in terms of the solars themselves. So we could evaluate that when the time does come. Um I think it's the other components that we probably are more concerned about. Uh the inverters um the racks themselves being you know in terms of the age themselves. So we'll have to take a look at that when we do get to that point. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And then saying we are the grant is still out there. Correct. And we are looking at some of our other buildings. >> Correct. There was just a recent webinar that was uh that took place probably about 3 weeks ago to kind of give additional information on the upcoming grant process. Uh so our water resource engineer uh manager Jesse Carlson did was able to attend that. Uh we did put something in the CIP for the coming year in terms of that grant funding. So hopefully we'll take a closer look at that again uh and kind of evaluate uh what is the next building that could potentially have solar installed on it. Uh if it's treatment plant 3 or it's even here at city hall. Um more evaluation needs to be done on that one. >> Thank you. And now item two. Um I had a lot of questions night. Um folks want to know what's happening as far as a light or whatever on 154 150th. >> No, >> no. >> Two different issues. >> Okay. I misunderstood what your question was. >> Okay. >> So, my question has it. >> Yes. So, earlier this summer, we had somebody come and present about issues on 150th Street, especially with the high school traffic and the two entranceways and cars going all which ways and people walking through. And there was some meetings that were done. And I ran into him last week and he said, "I haven't really had much of an update." So he was kind of curious. I said, "Well, I can ask that question." So just looking for an update on kind of where we're at with >> crossing 150th to get to the high school. >> Correct. >> And I had a lot of that on night two night as well with that. >> So I could, mayor, members council, I could do both here. I I'll answer that one first. >> Start with 150. >> We'll give you an update on that pedestrian crossing as well on 154th. So great u so back in March the traffic safety committee did invite Mr. Kulie to the to the the meeting themselves. We had a good conversation. He shared his concerns in terms of the the overall traffic around the high school parking themselves as well during you know um when kids are getting picked up. You know parents are parking in different areas within the neighborhoods to pick up the kids. Um so it's good conversation overall. We do understand his concerns uh in terms of the access to the high school and access out of the high school as well. Um, we did share a couple things we've done within the area that kind of helps. We're hoping to alleviate or how to help some of those make it a little bit safer. Uh, one was a pedestrian crossing 150th themselves. Um, that RFB or which is a rapid rectangular flashing beacon was installed as part of the Zinran Avenue project that we did back I'm going to not remember here probably about six, seven years ago. Uh so that was installed as part of that project to kind of help with the pedestrian mobility across 154th 150th I should say. The next item we talked about was also the the speed limit changes that kind of took place. We were kind of going through that process. At that time we were meeting with Mr. Kulie. We hadn't gone through that yet but now the the the speed limit has been lowered on 150th. So it was at 40. Uh now it's down to 35 miles per hour. So hopefully that kind of helps in terms of the traffic uh from a safety perspective. Um, as part of that meeting, we did share, Miss Kulie, we're going to go out for a proposal or work scope from one of our consultants to kind of evaluate uh the traffic through that area. So, we did reach out to one of our consultants. They provided a proposal for about $12,000 to complete that study. Uh, unfortunately, we don't have the budget um that was kind of allocated for it and we kind of share that we would kind of look to see if there is remaining budget within the engineering budget this year to complete. If not, we'll have to look at something earlier in 2026 to complete that work. Obviously, summer there's no school, so we really can't do anything anyways uh at this point. So, that's what we're kind of looking at. We do have that scope. We'll have to revise that scope a little bit with our consultant. Um so, we are going to look at the budget with finance a little bit to see if we have something here. We did reach out to the school district as well. They're well aware uh as you know, they do have a new uh operations director um that recently started. So, he's kind of been evaluating kind of the circulation around the high school site as well, uh, sharing his concern. Um, he is going to check with their superintendent of finance to see if they do have some budgets available um this year still, but he's not um he's not um kind of sharing that he does, but he's going to check for sure to see if that is the case. So, uh we may be able to kick this off. Uh we'll check for sure what the budget is is like this year. Uh but that is kind of the the update for that. >> Thank you. >> And the school district budget is I think July to June I think something like that. So um they're they're on a different cycle than we are. >> And as a parent in the district I will tell you it's going to be very unlikely. I will be shocked if there's money in the budgets because we're cutting a lot. They are cutting programs. The whole school is closing elementary school. So I would be shocked but it is something we definitely should look at for next year. Just as a parent perspective on that. >> So that any more questions on that update itself. >> 154. Thank you. I didn't ask for that one. That was what my head said that your request was. Sorry. Yeah. >> Um council members with council as if you've kind of driven that area. There's been some removal work um at the intersection particularly the the concrete work the curb uh getting getting that ready for the the concrete pore so we can make that ADA compliant as well as allow the directional crossing of 154th. So that happened I believe last week. Um this week they're working on the conduit underneath to provide power um to both of those RF again RFBS uh so they can get operational from a push button standpoint. So that's ongoing. I think that was happening today. Um the sign has been ordered. Um the only issue with that is it is not anticipated to be shipped until August 28th. Um now the intent was to kind of get that project done before school started. Um, so we're hoping that sign does come in, everything's in place for it and we all we have to do is kind of put it up and kind of test it and get it operational. So that is the hope. Um, push comes to shove, it may be a couple weeks delayed uh, beyond that time period, but uh, we're hoping that the signs do get here uh, in time before school starts. >> Thank you. Can I maybe just add? So, I think it would be helpful if we can do social media updates maybe on something about that project because I think a lot of people probably think what's happening up there is related to the apartments and not necessarily to a crossing. So, it would just be nice to keep keep people informed as far as that's what's happening at that intersection right now. If if there's ways that we can push that out a bit more. Thank you. >> All right. Anything else? Um, >> thank you, S. >> All right. Written communication, general information, and follow-up. We We did a lot of that just now. >> Thank you for the snacks. >> All right. With that, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion by Alfred, seconded by Craigs. Roll call vote.