[Music] be in the picture. [Music] 7 o'clock. We'll call the Savage City Council meeting to order. Roll call. >> Mayor Kelly >> here. >> Council members Ellford >> here. >> Coughlin >> here. >> Craigs here. Johnson >> here. will stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> 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. [Music] >> Um, public comments. The mayor and the city council believe public comments are a necessary component to 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, and we will ask that you limit your comments to three minutes. Is there anyone in the audience who wants to speak or wants to address the council? Again, I will not be giving you my name or my address for anonymity purposes because I've been threatened after speaking. Let's uh summarize what's gone on over the last almost year now. It's been 11 months. First of all, my voting rights were violated because of a political bias of your city clerk. Um, and then my civil rights were violated. This is back in November, obviously during the election time, uh, by putting me behind a whiteboard and not allowing me to leave andor forcing me to leave to remove my clo parts of my clothing. Now, we've gotten to the point where city administrator is has uh made accusations against me. Um, retaliation by the police department by falsely submitting that situation, that incident to the county attorney to try and have me charged with a misdemeanor is ridiculous. that didn't even didn't even hit the attorney's desk. I got a letter. I I had to get a letter. Why do I have to prove my innocence when I was never guilty in the first place? And then to be swatted by the police just two months ago. And I tried to provide the body camera footage tonight, by the way, to the public, but they would not allow me to plug the device into their systems because of a virus when it came from their own police department. This is a cover up. This is a corruption and the swatting with police with guns, hands on their guns to threaten my life. This is all retaliation by either the city, the police department. I don't know who, but we're going to find out who it is because there's going to be an investigation at this point. Um because I've contacted the uh uh uh police board uh that that takes care of policies and there was a total violation of policy by your police officer by not having his body camera on when he left the vehicle until he approached me. Um, that's a total violation of of even your own policies, which I will be filing a formal complaint and I know it will go nowhere because the last formal complaint that I found against when you guys had your city clerk who received my personal emails from a business situation with my association, you just slapped her hands, too. When is there going to be justice? When this is your administration now, mayor, when are you going to hold people accountable? This is ridiculous. It just keeps going on and on and on and the liability keeps mounting and mounting and mounting and there is going to be a civil rights lawsuit. There is going to be a lawsuit in Scott County over all this retaliation. Why am I being put through this and being persecuted for just simply wanting to vote and then now this domino effect of everything else. I'm tired of it. I want it to stop. I want you the police department to stop threatening my life with guns when I'm trying to file uh uh which is what your police officers told me to do. Serve the papers on on the association which I was trying to do that night. But not this officer presently here, but the officer involved get me unlawful orders. He has no this is private property first of all. It's and I own the association property and I was never even on the property for him to solicit a trespass and try to trespass me when I hadn't even gone on the on the property the first place. I was talking to an other neighbor in the circle that work uh shopped at the gas station that I work at. Why? Just tell me why. You none of you. By none of you saying anything, you're all culpable because you're all agreeing with this and and allowing this to happen. It needs to stop. Otherwise, we'll we'll get a judge and we'll get the FBI. But I'm and I'm going to challenge this law that was presented to me too about the liberals passed what three years ago. I Who would campaign at 7:00 a.m. in the morning with a hat that just wants to express my ability to keep this keep America great. How ridiculous that this started because of that and now we've had all this stuff happen afterward. When's it going to stop? That's my question. Thank you. Seeing no one else in the audience that wants to make a public comment, um we will move on to additions, modifications, and approval of the agenda. On the deis, there was um an addition to the consent calendar. Now he moved it. Thank you. Um for item 8 D1 um which is to adopt a resolution approving an application for exempt gambling permit for St. John the Baptist. Um so I would like to add that on to the consent um calendar under D uh two D1 >> D1. Thank you. Um with that modification, is there any other modification from the rest of the council or staff? >> No. No others from staff. Mayor. >> Motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Motion by Coughlin, seconded by Craigs. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Oops. We have to do roll call. >> We have to do a roll call. >> At least I remembered. Roll call vote. >> Mayor Kelly. >> I. >> Council members Alfred >> I. >> Coughlin. >> I. >> Craigs. >> I. >> Johnson. >> I. >> All right. We'll move on to proclamations. Today we do have a proclamation. And I'm going to come forward and we'll read it down there. Come on. Okay. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. >> Proclamation. It is welcoming week 2025. Whereas across the country, communities will celebrate National Welcoming Week on September 12, 21, 2025. And whereas the city of Savage is home to people of all backgrounds, including those who were not born in the United States, but now call it home. And whereas the city of Savage will celebrate its second annual welcoming week in 2025 to promote compassion, unity, and respect with a shared vision that all community residents should be valued and protected notwithstanding race, ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, linguistic diversity, socioeconomic status, or membership in any other protected class. And whereas our community depends on making sure that all feel welcome here. Today, new residents are a vital part of our community, bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas, starting businesses, and contributing to the vibrant diversity that we all value. And whereas, regardless of our heritage, we are residents united in our efforts to build a stronger community. By recognizing the contributions that we all make to create a vibrant culture and a growing economy, we make our community more prosperous and more inclusive to all who call it home. Now therefore, I, Christine El. Kelly, mayor of the city of Savage, hereby proclaim September 12th through September 21, 2025 as welcoming week in the city of Savage and encourage the business community, civic groups, other units of government, and community institutions to undertake initiatives beyond this proclamation to make the region a place of welcome for new and long-term residents alike. Total [Laughter] bomb. [Music] Presentations. There are none tonight. Minutes. Approve the minutes of the regular city council meeting from August 18, 2025. Any additions or corrections? >> Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve the minutes of the regular city council meeting from August 4th of 2025. >> Second. Motion by Alfred, seconded by Chris Craigs. All in favor? Oh, roll call vote. Uh, Mayor Kelly, >> I council members Alfred >> I. >> Coughlin >> I. >> Craigs I. >> Johnson. >> I. >> Motion approved. Um, there are no public hearings tonight. 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 utilities one, adopt a resolution declaring the cost to be assessed, ordering the preparation of proposed assessments and setting the public hearing on the proposed assessments for the 2025 street improvement project, city project 251. Two, adopt a resolution declaring the cost to be assessed, ordering the preparation of proposed assessments, and setting the public hearing on the proposed assessments for the South Park Drive improvement project, city project 252. Under police and fire, one, adopt a resolution approving an application for exempt gambling permit for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. Um, under finance, one, adopt a resolution to approve claims listing. Two, adopt a resolution to call a public hearing to authorize the levy of special assessments for the collection of delinquent utility bills on Monday, October 6th, 2025. And three, adopt a resolution to call a public hearing to authorize the levy of special assessments for the collection of miscellaneous charges on Monday, October 6th, 2025. Is there anything anybody wants to pull for discussion or action? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. Motion by Coughlin, seconded by Alfred. Roll call vote. Mayor Kelly. >> I. Council members Alfred >> I. Coughlin >> I. >> Craigs. >> I. >> Johnson. >> I. [Music] >> Moving on to general business. um consider approving the 2026 legislative priorities for the city of Savage. >> Who's going to handle it? >> I'll do a quick introduction, mayor. Um each year the city of Savage adopts legislative priorities. We've been doing that since I think 2019. And uh Chris Swanson, our assistant city administrator, has prepared uh some potential changes. We also uh are going to include a conversation about scales legislative priorities. They have asked us to comment on their 2025 legislative priorities. See if there's anything they would like to change. They keep moving this up in the calendar year for us. So that's why we're bringing it to you tonight. Um but other than that, I'll let Chris uh talk about our legislative priorities and the additions that we have for this year. >> Wonderful. Um, thank you Administrator Larson for that wonderful introduction. That touched on a lot of my points too, so we're good there. Um, so why let us why set legislative priorities? Um, it's integral to our intergovern relations between us and sort of the Minnesota capital and that process there. Um, they control the purse strings and they can also control the laws. So, it's good for us to have a back and forth with our representatives there. Um, what really kind of helps why there's a value to this process is there's hundreds of bills proposed at the legislature each year. Us having kind of a personal touch with our local elected officials and having kind of a set group of priorities to focus on makes us more nimble and more responsive to that process. Um, also lets us kind of spotlight areas of focus um, with our elected officials, allows staff to be more responsive when these things come up because we talk about this before it comes to you just so we kind of have a game plan as things arise through the session. And then also what I found in my couple years doing this work is once those elected officials start talking to us about this when stuff does arise um, particularly in the committees and such, they'll reach out to us and get our thoughts on it before all a sudden they're voting on a bill. So I think that's really important to have as part of the process. Um 2026 legislative priorities looks very similar to 2025. Um as we all may remember there was kind of a historic nature of this year's session. A lot of power sharing. Um not a lot of largecale bills was uh were done. Uh what I've heard is it's called the keeping lights on session. Um there also wasn't a lot of money to go around. So that made less bills happen. Um top five priorities besides from the uh challenge of reasonable bad faith data requests, these are all the same ones we had last year. Um we have added that data request uh priority um because we have seen a significant increase over the past couple years. Um Robbie just pulled some numbers for me and I it was they were too too big to not show. So 2019 we had 22 data requests. uh 2023 we had 36. In 2024 we've had 12 we had 120 data requests. We are really seeing um data requests with some of a malicious edge to them. We're also seeing a lot more commercial driven data requests. So that's requests on every vendor we've had since 1902 or every roof permit that's been p pulled in the history of the city. Um and then those companies scrub that data and they send out notices to everyone saying, "Hey, do you want a new roof? Come with us." So, we're really seeing kind of that increase. That's why it's one of the ones that we're seeing along as other um cities are seeing as a bigger need. What's really interesting, too, is this is just the data requests that go through the clerk's office. So, our police department also fields a significant number of data requests and they've also seen that increase. We also have community development takes them to internally. So, we're just kind of seeing more and more need um and we're trying to weigh that with, you know, access to this public information, but also recognize that we don't have a staff member to give to that. So, um we are kind of aligned with what the League of Minnesota cities has for that. So, that's one of our top priorities there. Other key focus issues is just transportation generally. Um we have kind of the more specifics within our packet, local control around community development, uh housing and elections, public safety, and then oversight and the environment. Um the three that we added for this year as opposed to our 2025 platform is opposing single way out legislation. Um this is in partnership with the Minnesota Fire Associate Coalition. Um basically just trying to maintain at least two ways out. If I'm saying that wrong, Jeremy, please please tell me I'm wrong. Um uh it's a layman's term for what they're actually doing. um supporting mechanisms again that would permit um cities to challenge whether a data request is reasonable and made in good faith including those that are frivolous submitted in bad faith that are unreasonably burdensome again I mentioned the like you know every vendor we've had since the 1900s those are real data requests that come in um and then also the ones that are primary for commercial purpose um as I mentioned we've seen a significant increase of those and then finally the last addition for 2026 is support local authority to apply rental licensing regulations on group assisted living facility facilities with six or fewer residents. Um so what staff is recommending tonight is that the council approve the 2026 legislative priorities for the city of Savage. Uh mayor and staff once approved will be meeting with our elected officials in the coming weeks to talk over these priorities. Um and it's just a reminder that the session begins on February 17th of this coming year and adjourns on May 18th. So, at that, I would like to open that up for any conversations, any discussions. Um, and then once we talk through this, we'll move on to the scale section of the conversation. >> Great. I um did ask Chief Breznahan to do a brief presentation on the um opposition to the single way out legislation because I'm going to tell you, I read the paragraph and went, "What?" And I was so confused, I thought, I'm going to go to the source of who knows how to explain this. Um because once I had it explained to me, I thought, "Oh, that makes sense." But anybody who looked at our agenda and read this maybe was as confused as I was. >> Chief Breznahan. >> Sure. Uh good evening, Mayor Kelly and council members. Singleway access really is revolved this new initiative that is trying to be pushed where they're going to reduce from two stairwells to one stairwell for a building that's three stories up to seven stories. Currently, you only need one stairwell for a first and second story multi-unit residential. Um, with us reducing from three to one in a threetory to a sevenstory. Why they're able to do that is they're trying to say you're going to get one access and then your fire service and their ladder companies are going to provide the second access. Currently, the state of Minnesota is 41st in firefighters per capita. So, we have one of the lowest per capita also. So, so we don't even have the equipment or especially the staffing even to perform this rescue currently today on those also with zoning and codes. We don't even get access to these buildings on all four sides. So, access is another issue. Then the safety of the occupant also when we have these instances happen now what we used to try to define as a rescue corridor and a egress corridor now you're sharing it. So now we have fire and EMS and police trying to share the same space that we're trying to get people to evacuate out of. So we are opposed to any legislative or code changes that would reduce egress from those multi-unit um apartment complexes. >> So we're talking about legislation that's changing it from an apartment complex that's three stories to seven where they would have two stairwells. Now they're just going to have one. >> Yes. They want to reduce it to one. This is mayor councel. This is more of a defensive position to let our legislators know that this is being talked about and we know that the builders have had an interest in trying to reduce fees and other regulations to make things what they say would promote affordable housing and we see as um not guaranteeing affordable housing is just making the building process easier. And this is one of the things that we see coming. So, it's more of a defensive position. >> I know we have an expert on the council who knows more about architecture than I do. I just for me when when you talk about only having one staircase and when administrator Larson and I were talking about it, I said, "What happens when that stairwell is blocked?" >> Correct. >> I um So, thank you for the presentation. This now makes so much more sense to me. Bob, >> uh to clarify, this is for new construction only. existing buildings that have two exits. They're not going to take one away. >> That is correct. It is for new construction only. >> And the opposition is not just coming from our fire department. The opposition is actually coming from the Fire Marshals Association of Minnesota and the Minnesota Fire Chief's Association. So, this is our fire personnel across the state who are in opposition of this. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And another question. >> Yes. uh does this meant to supersede uh Minnesota state building code? >> So it would be in addition to Minnesota state fire code, but they also be looking at adding to the IBC which is coming up here in the next couple years for renewal. So the state is kind of ahead of it right now and that's where administrator Larson is correct. This is a defense position. We want the IBC to actually take action on this and have this discussion versus us doing the action at the state level at first to follow the proper route and how we usually go about this code review. >> And the IBC is >> international building code. >> My apologies. >> Does that make sense to everybody or does anybody have any other questions on that one? Okay. Um, moving on to the uh the data request. Um, for me personally, I I think we have to figure out what that balance is and and part of that figuring out that balance is going to be conversations, right? because um I really do believe in in data requests and open government and transparency, those kind of things, but as you said, to have somebody say, "Can you tell us all of the roofing permits that have been requested in the last hundred years, that's really burdensome and to to me doesn't show any purpose." Um Bob, >> I I noticed uh that there was something about the possibility of allowing some of these commercial data requests if they pay a fee to do it. >> Is that uh can you explain how we would like make that decision that uh oh you're going to make us we're going to make you pay for it versus this is yeah public >> chair and commission. I think that's something that the lement of cities is exploring. Um if you look at their policy document I think they have you know 12 subsections on this you know one exploring the option of who dictates what is a frivolous you know data request also outlining what kind of in what cases can um staff charge for that already there are some cases where we can charge but also being flexible say it's not the lowest paid employee or if it's you know x number of pages or you know other examples like that I think the state would then kind of work on what those new rules are to dictate when the city can and for what charge. So, as of right now, I don't have any concrete examples for that, but I do know that would be kind of the process of coming up with new legislation. >> To be determined, but >> to be determined. Yeah, >> I still support the policy. Mayor, council members, to give a little more context to that, like we will get data requests um that will say give us like your monthly reports um in perpetuity for building permits or something like that. Building permits are a are a very popular one and those are the ones that we know that's for a commercial pro for a commercial purpose. If someone said give us your building permits for the month of October, we'd say here you go. But when they say um give them to us for every month and then keep giving them to us, we know that for a commercial purpose. And so we're just, you know, we're spending staff time to provide this information for their commercial purposes. And we feel like they should pay for our staff time to do that. >> And I will say it's my understanding we are not the only municipality that is dealing with these issues. This is something that's across the board for all municipalities. And I dare I say the larger the municipality, the more data requests they see. I can't imagine what Minneapolis and St. Paul see on a yearly annual basis. >> Chair and Commission, um, all city, or at least the ones I've talked to have seen this significant increase in the past couple years. Um, I was telling Robbie, you know, 201 when I started doing this, we'd have a couple come in each year. And now you're seeing, if not monthly, weekly, asking for all these very specific things, particularly more commercial oriented. And it's just getting to a point where we have to start if we continue at this rate may basically cover some staff time or figure out kind of what what the new rules are because as it stands right now it is it's a significant toll on our staff and it's different than it's been I think is kind of the big the big purpose of this conversation >> and and ultimately if we have to start adding staff to cover data requests we start have have to have that budget request conversation. Y >> um because additional staff is additional levy. >> Y mayor, mayor, council members, our city clerk has requested the last couple years to have um data request software uh that would help because we're also doing this basically by Excel spreadsheets. We're tracking the emails. This would allow us to manage it more. I can't remember if it's in this year's budget or not, but it was also a request this year. I'm seeing headshakes. No, it will probably be a request next year if it makes it in the budget. Um, maybe. But my point here is that that's Yeah, staff is asking for I think it's about 10 to$15,000 in software to help manage the request. And um Chris mentioned police Robbiey's up to 120 requests a year. Those are pretty complicated requests. Um I remember seeing the number from police. It's around 800 a year that they're getting in data requests. >> So would it be something we could look at um staff and the software as a combination that would need be needed? >> Chair and commission. I think that's kind of what the future conversations about budget is. It's staff and software. Um particularly as we kind of like look at again we we've seen this significant uptake in the past couple years. So what does the new normal look at? Do we continue to see it grow? Does it level off? Do we kind of have a better system in place for, you know, if they're commercial, here's what we have. We already have them pre pre-created. >> So, I think we'll kind of weigh those in the coming years. And if we feel a need either for the staff or the software, you'll see that as part of the budget process. >> I was thinking when you said that on just like organizing, if there's a way to organize them when they come in, like just to get them I don't know. know I'm an organizer. So I'm like first in the pile that it goes with and then you do that and then you kind of can go through them quicker when it's in like I don't know as like you're organizing your closet you have keep donate maybe and kind of >> it's a very dumb down version but you know commercial residential miscellane or questions that are more that need more time to dig into. just thinking from stepwise and more of a process based. >> I think the staff currently have a good process and I and as we said the police department has their data requests. So they have, you know, kind of their process and how they handle it. And the police department also has some extra things that they have to be concerned about with their data requests. >> Um so um they have theirs. Um, our city clerk does the general ones and then I think you said uh building or um >> there uh who else does data requests? >> Yeah, community development has some data requests too. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um >> it's more about the quantity versus the fact that the processes are in place and are working. It's just the quantity right now of them coming in. quantity and the request >> um just take sometimes an immense amount of hours to put together all of the data. >> Okay, >> Stacy, >> is this an a topic that scale has been talking about to try and coordinate efforts across at least the cities and the county? Um it is not on the scale legislative priorities but um it has been talked about at the League of Minnesota Cities. >> Would it uh okay with things the way they are? Is there an opportunity to collaborate and be more efficient? Not not legislatively but just like with systems and doing that >> scale. I'm not sure if there would be ways to do it through scale. This the software that staff is looking at um really just helps you organize it and gives it a if I'm saying this right Robbie gives it a workflow. So what we're concerned about is the quantity that comes in like we miss something or we don't want something to fall off the table so to speak. So, it just helps organize it and gives you a workflow to make sure that you are addressing um the data requests as they come in. I'm not sure if there's too many opportunities to uh to work with other cities on purchasing software or something like that. I think if there were, we could talk about maybe um a joint powers agreement for purchasing or something maybe. But I don't think that's really going to that will help. I don't think it's going to help a lot. >> Okay. And last question, is there an opportunity for outsourcing >> so that we wouldn't have to have staff do it that there's maybe companies out there that they specialize in that? >> Mayor and council, um, I think that's something you could explore. My experience with outsourcing, particularly if it's kind of like this level of detailed information, is it costs more for that company to do it than it does for us. Um, kind of as administrator Larson mentioned, the kind of delicate nature of these requests. I would prefer to keep that in house um just so we can ensure we have the right eyes on that. I would defer to Robbie to add if there's anything else she would say to that effect too or >> um Mayor Kelly council I I agree. I think the level of detail and um the nature of some of the requests that come in it it would definitely have to stay in house and I can't see a way to collaborate with other cities besides how do you do your process. Okay, we have to part of the what makes this challenging is there is information that staff has that is public that is available through these data requests and there is information that staff has that is not public and sifting through and making sure that when we provide information in some of our systems that information is blended. So in some respects you have to parse it out and separate it out. Some stuff gets redacted because some information frankly is not public data and cannot be shared and should not be shared. So it just makes it more interesting. >> How's that for a word >> for Johnson who's >> I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. >> So I'm curious. Uh this may be a League of Cities kind of type of question, but our obligation as a community is really to our residents, I believe. And so requests from them somewhat need to be unrestricted, but those that are broadbased nature, national requests or within the region, not of our residents, could we qualify those as separate? And could that be an instance where there's a charge that's acceptable? Uh just another thought and idea. See, and I I I think this is what we need to start doing, right? I mean, I think it's a great concept and it's something, you know, to start I think we get better legislation for especially something like this where it's a really delicate balance when we really start talking about all of the interests, right? I mean, I think the transparency like you said is so important, right? So, it's trying to figure out that balance between the transparency and also making sure that we don't, you know, reveal private data that we don't, you know, mess that up. But, and then trying to figure out are those requests are our responses important or to be as I don't know overarching for non-residents and and yeah, can can there be a different balance for non-residents, if you will? Yeah. I I don't know the answer, but I think we need to start having the conversation. >> Bob, >> um I I want to reel us in a little bit. I I know we're we're on the topic and we're trying to think of the way to fix it. That's what we're going to fix tonight. Tonight we're really looking at do we support on a legislative level seeing if they can help make this a better process. And so, um >> great point. We're not going to we're not going to figure it out today and have all the answers that we're looking for. So, I want to make sure we kind of look at this as as as what we're looking at it today. And and for a comment Stacy had, you know, is scale involved. Well, they are also uh in the process of developing their legislative priorities and we we have in front of us a list of last years and they've been asking communities to submit priorities that we would like scale to take up. And yes, there is an opportunity that we can bring our priorities before scale and say we think this is important to everybody at scale. Does scale support this legislative priority? So, so yes, there is an opportunity to possibly do uh work together and get some uh collaboration on that. >> Bob, I feel like you're moving us forward. >> Isn't there a game on? >> Not tonight. >> I don't watch anyway. Stacy, >> thank you. >> Um, I think that's a great point and I'll be honest, when I look at these and I see how many legislative priorities we have, plus then all of the legislative priorities that scale has plus all of them that everybody else has. Like to me, the more we can make them align, the better shot we have, right? So, how much of that can we do with some of these? Especially when we're basically saying we're taking our list from last year, we're renewing the entire list plus adding more to it. So, I just don't know how many is too many. >> Mayor, council members, that's a great point. That's why we try to identify the top five priorities. That's what we really focus on when we talk to our u state senators, state rep, and then we let them know about all the other things, too. But we really focus on that top five because we know that they're getting bombarded with uh priorities from everybody else as well. >> And mayor and council, I'll like to add to that too. So all the rest of the um other priorities you see, they are aligned with the League of Minnesota cities or other professional organizations like the fire association. Um we've been intentional about that because we recognize we can't do all this. We just can't. But the more we can say we also support this or our community also supports this the better. And then again if you know that legislature person's like I I don't know if I support this or not they can reach out to us. We can help push that conversation and be part of that coalition that helps them understand kind of where the city's what the city's needs are. >> The the other important part of about this I would say from my perspective is we'll get requests kind of at the last minute. stuff starts happening at the legislature and it's going a million miles an hour and an email comes through and says, "Will the mayor sign a letter, you know, requesting support for X, Y, and Z?" And I don't want to do that on behalf of the city without at least having some touch points with the council. And so if I know it's in our priorities, it's really easy for me to say yes or no, I mean, however that is. Um, yeah. So to the extent that our priorities are broad like that so I can respond is great but you have a great point about making sure that we're more effective with what we're asking them to do you know because they're not going to be able to give us the sky. Well, I think that's important with collaboration, too. That what you say to piggyback off of that, if we can collaborate as much as we can with different departments and see if we can come together, >> that I think in the long run will help >> make it so when things do come up, it's not, oh my gosh, what is this? We need to get it >> so we've already kind of seen it and kind of thought about it and at least looked at it before it so it's not like, oh, this is a huge surprise. So, I think collaboration is amazing. I'm I think it you guys are doing a great job >> and and we do have some good collaboration already with scale. Uh for example, the Quinton Avenue Bridge >> is actually a scale priority also and if you cross reference these two there there's a few that dovetail into each other. So >> um >> they they have been listening not only to us but other communities that are having the same issue. >> Stacy, yes. Do you want to add something first? I'll let you go and >> Okay. I was just going to add we're we we are part of these other committees as well with MVTA and the I35 corridor committee and they also have their priorities and just >> as much as we can intertwine those because I know those are the letters you're referring to. A bunch of them come from MVTA. >> MVTA the I35 169. Yep. We get those um requests. Yeah. Asking the mayor to sign on to whatever. Yeah. And they are very >> short short time frames. >> Yep. Short turn around. Mayor council member the the one thing I was going to add this was a change just last week. Um we may not need to include the uh potential bonding request for Quinton Avenue railway bridges. I think we have a good compromise with the rail. We're going to bring that to the city council at the work session next week to talk about that, but we may not need their support, at least not right now, uh, for replacing those bridges. >> So stay tuned. It's very exciting. >> It always is. So exciting. I'm excited. >> All right. Those were the Did we get Oh, no. We didn't get to the third. the uh uh rental licensing regulations on the group assisted living facilities with six or fewer residents. You speak to that a little bit, >> Mayor and Council. Um community development director Dean could speak to it, but I also think too just generally we're starting to have complaints about those facilities and I think historically they've been unlicensed. So we're just trying to figure out a little bit more control at the local level. >> Um Yes. So, um council um mayor, at one point, uh cities could require rental licensing basically for all rentals um licensed group homes as well. A couple year or two ago. Um there was a it sounds like a lawsuit against um a city and part of that was um ultimately rose to some change in state legislation um where it was not allowed uh for cities to um to provide rental licensing or require rental licensing for licensed group homes. um cities um as well as the League of Minnesota cities um are proposing to reinstate some of that legislation um to basically give um that local control to cities and so that we can make sure that the residents are safe living there as well as um these homes within neighborhoods uh are um in line with um neighborhood compatibility and things like that. So, um, it basically restoring what was there before. >> Bob, um, my last question is, uh, with possible drop of Clinton, is there any other items on this long list, I recognize almost all of it that has gone off the list, have we dropped anything from last year? Has anything been satisfied that we got what we wanted? [Music] Mayor and council, I would say I don't think we dropped anything off the list from last year. Um, as mentioned, it was these more local items. It was kind of quieter on our winds um there. Uh, again, more just kind of keeping the lights on and paying for the programs that were set to go into place. Um, but yeah, I think this may seem like an intimidating list, but I think if we continue year-over-year, we'll start to see successes there. >> Thank you. >> Um, I'm going to uh, one of the I'm sorry, Matt, did you have something? >> Okay. Um, one of the things that, um, I talked to Brad about today, um, was related to, uh, the elimination of the outdated and un unnecessary publication requirements. We've talked about this before that we have to, um, publish um, notices and stuff in the Star Tribune um, including projects that street projects that we have, that kind of stuff. And I threw out this idea that when we start um advertising for these projects, one of the questions we ask is how did you find out about it? And if we could get other cities, I mean scale is our first stop, right? To ask other communities, but if we can start putting together some data to show that putting it in the Star Tribune isn't getting you what you want, right? I mean, all of the people who are finding these aren't finding them from the paper or or maybe we'll be surprised. Maybe we will find out that that's how everybody's finding out about it. And I guess, you know, then I won't complain about that bill. But to the extent that I don't think that's where how any of these folks are finding out about these projects, I just I just feel like we're wasting money putting that in the paper when we have to do that. And so, you know, some of this is maybe we need to start providing data to the legislators that this is not effective, right? And and so that was my maybe we can start talking to our scale partners. Maybe we can start talking to other cities and start saying maybe we our response is we you know everybody wants this and it's gotten more immediate because it's harder to publish in a local paper because most of the local papers have disappeared and and it was one thing to put it in the Savage Pacer that I did never I never objected to that. Um, but it's another to put it in the Star Tribune when they they don't even have a huge coverage of our community, right? I mean, when when you know the Pacer covered such a large portion of our community and everybody was getting the paper and everybody knew what was happening because of the paper and you know and and now we don't have that. And um I just think the reason for the publication um is disappearing um the justification I should say the justification for the publication in this paper is is disappearing rapidly. Um, people are not getting their information this way anymore and I think we need to revisit the idea and maybe the legislature would appreciate some data that supports our claim that this is not effective. But that was my um I wanted to throw that out as my >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I agree with that and I do think it would be interesting to see what that shows. Um, I don't want to change the subject, but if anybody else has any comments on that, otherwise I will. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. So, the other one I think is really important that we need to make sure that stays like top of priority has to do with our water supply because water projects always take forever. And if we're not planning ahead and ready for any upgrades or updates that are needed before they're needed, then we're going to be too late. So, I know we have a couple on here about the Burnsville landfill and the Burnsville water treatment plant since we get a lot of water from Burnsville. And I just want to make sure that we're not comfortable because we're okay right now knowing that down the road we might not be. So, that's one I'd I'd keep just below top. >> Well, I was just going to say, do you want to bump it into the top five? I mean, it's a fair it's a a fair point. Do we want to bump it up to one of the top five or are we okay with it being six potentially? I I don't know that we have enough data or information yet for me to say that absolutely I need it in the top five. But I think it would be good timing to look at it and just see what information there is out there and just see if there is a need to try and push that sooner than later. I'm I'm hoping Burnsville is prioritizing that and just showing support, I think, is a good thing for us to put in our priorities, too. So, that's it's almost to the level of a letter, but yes, we do it it's it does affect us as much as Burnsville. >> And they're two completely different issues, right? I mean, the the Kramer quarry, right? We're directly getting our water there. And to the extent that that needs some rehab and whatever that will directly impact us sooner rather than later, the landfill is that amorphous thing that's out there that may impact us and as we all know if that starts impacting us that impact is going to be significant and that's you know um understating it. Mayor, council members, if we are able to take off the state bonding request for the Quinton Avenue rail bridges, we could move that one up. And and maybe it's just a kind of reminder that we don't want the legislature to forget that there is this really detrimental thing hanging looming that um yeah we I I would rather see it taken care of before it becomes >> you know critical >> and there are lots of issues across the state with water and so there is already a long line and I just want to make sure that we stay well We we and Burnsville stay on that list or get on that list as early as we can. >> Yeah. Yeah. And other communities. Yeah. their water issues are significant >> and they have come up quickly >> and when they come up then they're you know I I think we have done such a great job trying to get ahead and and get out there to make sure that we're prepared for our needs but that's based on what we know right now and what our needs are right now and projected into the future. You know that kind of stuff. um you know, our our big plan for our repairs for you know, our water treatment plants, and we've been preparing capital to make sure we've got that to cover it, but all of a sudden, if something else crops up, um we're going to give our finance director a lot of heartburn. So, if all of a sudden we turn to him and say, "Oh, we need 10 billion dollars to, you know, fix something and >> and move. >> Here's a box of Tums." That's right. >> And moving Quinton, uh, that's very far down. It's we've had a lot of support on that along the way to get to here, and it's not coming off the list. It's just maybe not the biggest scream. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. Do Do we feel good about what our priorities are or does anybody want to talk about anything else on this list? Are we ready to move on to the scale priorities? Does anybody want to talk about the scale priorities? We >> I would ask you make a motion uh formally approving these priorities. >> Thank you. >> Um just so we have that if questioned, let's say by >> and why and why don't we have could we have the motion be with um uh protecting our water sources uh as one of the top five priorities and then have the Quinton Bridges move down to not a top five priority and we can staff can figure out the language to put around that >> motion. So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Coughlin, seconded by Alford. All in favor? We're going to do roll call. >> Uh, Mayor Kelly. >> I. Council members Alfred. >> Hi. >> Coughlin. >> I. >> Craigs. >> I. >> Johnson. >> Oh, >> I saw his lips move. I >> There you go. We got it. >> All right. Now we can move on to scale as though. Okay, >> mayor and council, we're going to move on to the discussion around the 2026 legislative priorities for scale. Um, so the scale legislative committee is soliciting input from each of our members or their members um to assist in the preparation of the 2026 legislativeies for that group. Um, they are requesting that each organization review and respond to the questions below. I've included them in the presentation. Uh you all should have the I think 2025 policies. Um so we can kind of talk through what this is. Um questions are what are your top priorities in the policy? What's the top priorities in bonding? Um is there any support for other policy positions? Uh is our organization comfortable with the specific priorities outlined in the 2025 legislative priorities? As a reminder, 2025 not a lot happened. So theirs is very similar too. Um, are there specific priorities your organization would like to see added? And then is there something on the current list that should not be a priorities? And if so, why? Um, staff recommends that we talk through this uh document now. Um, and then we will respond by Friday, August 29th. you last week >> tomorrow morning. [Laughter] >> I I saw the day two again today and thought, "Oh, >> all right." >> So, >> we want to handle one question at a time, Chris. >> I Chris, I can I can go through their top priorities. So the incremental cost of growth is really uh about the developers pushing for either a reduction in building fees or uh potentially um loosening zoning regulations and allowing things just as right and taking away local control. Um reform of official public notices. That's something that's on our list. Uh that's what Mayor Kelly was just talking about. um housing. This is to support more affordable housing. But what Scales priority is and what they try to emphasize is that uh we are open to changes and we want to have flexible zoning and different programs be but we want to make sure that it is actually creating more affordable housing units, not just making the building process easier for developers. We we want to make a easy process for developers, but what the priority is is uh affordable housing. And what we have found is um just making the process easier doesn't necessarily result in more affordable housing units. >> Easier and cheaper. >> Yeah. I >> mean, that's part of the argument, too, right? Easier and cheaper. >> Because if they make it cheaper, then it will make it more affordable. And um to be honest, frankly, my experience is it's not making it more affordable. Um, it just gives them an opportunity to >> make more money. >> I know that sounds very cynical and I'm sorry. And and part of the scale housing legislative push has not just been talking about affordability, but it's been addressing the proposed legislation over the last two years of uh across the board, state level mandates on what we can and can't do with zoning and housing and ordinances and uh allowing things like all of a sudden multi-units to go into our R1 residential areas and things like that. So, um scale has it's not specifically listed on here as that, but scale has been a strong priority and we've discussed it here at this uh podium in the past also and and uh >> talked to our legislators personally about these issues too. So, that's kind of ties into this, but it's not explained in a five paragraph essay like that. It it is not. And like you said, we've had multiple conversations about this. We're obviously going to have to keep having multiple conversations about this because trying to come up with a solution for affordable housing is important. I truly believe that. I think it's, you know, something that will benefit all of our communities, you know, across the state. We just have to figure out how to do it right. And I I really do think the state's attempt at the LA ha the LA right I I think some of those programs that they've just started right have some potential of really having an impact but we haven't had a chance to I mean they just started we we've just gotten there and and we haven't had a chance to see the impact yet >> I will say so metro cities had a meeting last week um with housing and economic development policy committee and they talked a lot about a lot about the LAA and that they need to still push that and have that in the conversation as well as the states not liking how the state has been doing some of these things and that it's a big but I just wanted to say that that's a good committee. I'm glad I'm on it and was able to listen to the two speakers because they had a lot of information on that and how we can make this work. Um, so I can do a little bit more at the end, but that's another Metro Cities would be another connect point um with that committee. >> Metro Cities has been vocal on it. So has the League of Minnesota Cities has been very vocal on it. Um, I think um the uh MLC has also been vocal on it. We are no longer part of the MLC, but um I think they have also been pretty vocal on it. Um yeah, I I just think um I I think the dialogue is really important and um we want to make sure that the people who are um most knowledgeable are there at the table having these conversations because this is a problem we can fix. >> We can, you know, maybe not completely fix it, but there are solutions out here. We just need to find the ones that actually work. >> Yeah. And mayor, council members, council member Coughlin asked about our priorities. Is there anything that have been accomplished and can we take off because the list has grown over the years and I was looking through it. A lot of our positions are defensive and they've come from the the last couple years of the the developers council wanting to reduce building fees uh allow things by right and take local control. And that's what these two are from uh scales priorities as well the incremental cost of growth and housing. So, um, I'm just kind of tying those together. We have a we have not just like one or two. We have multiple priorities on our legislative priorities because we're just trying to play defense on these because it's come up multiple years >> and some of them have come up and they've surprised us. We didn't see them coming. >> Yeah. Um, the the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District state aid funding. I do not have a lot of information on this. Uh, scale was opposing a decrease to their funding. Um I'm not sure if that was approved or not. And then the last one is on road bridges. I think this was really uh came from the townships. Uh this position was to have mind take over those uh mindat roads where there is a bridge on it instead of having uh townships and cities pay for the the maintenance and the ownership of those. >> Mayor and council, I like to add a little bit more to that one. Um, I know for some years MDOT has been in a prior city I worked at, they tried to give the city a bridge. Um, and I can tell you bridges are very expensive to maintain. So, I think this is pushing back against Mandot's plan to uh gift cities with those and counties and local local areas. So, this is one I think that's been I think you saw MDOT start trying this in the past couple years and got pretty significant push back. So again, it's kind of that defensive posture of nope, you built this, this is yours, you maintain it. You know, as construction comes in, we can sort of talk about what that looks like, what the process is, but we don't, as a city, we don't want to own a bridge generally. Um, at least over Mindot property. >> That that would get us back to the Quinton Avenue bridges conversation. >> We have bridges already. >> Yeah. >> And then just one other thing to add. Well, I got two other things to add. um in talking with uh the scale exec team and Stacy who's kind of wrangling this stuff uh in their legislative subcommittee their I think their position was the same as uh what Chris was explaining our legis with our legislative priorities there wasn't a lot of movement so their legislative priorities are kind of the same as last year too so they don't they don't right now at least they don't forecast any significant new priorities ities on their list. My second item that I was going to say is if I think if there was something that we had like to see bumped up uh from staff's perspective um crit critical infrastructure is always important to us but uh the franchise fees I think that's kind of new and unique and there's an maybe an opportunity there. Um, this is allowing cities to charge uh broadband companies franchise fees for operating in the public rightway. So again, that's them being able to use public property for their business model. And we're able to charge franchise fees for uh utilities and telecom community uh businesses. And we think we should be able to charge for the broadband as well and re recoup some of the expenses that we incur uh by having them operate on our public property. So, what staff is looking for is just any uh any comments on the top five priorities, if you're okay with these or if you think something should move up or you just or something that you're not in favor of. >> Also, I think to the prior discussion too, um if we do feel like we can add stuff to, so I think there's some conversation around the data requests. Um, so that's something we could also respond back saying this is something that we have seen and then scale can talk through that. >> Y that ties into our earlier conversation about some of our new priorities letting scale know that and seeing if that can get on their list too. >> Yeah, I I think that's important. I think we make sure however however you think I mean between Bob being right our scale person or Chris is it best to add it to the priorities or is it a heads up hey this is an issue we want scale to start looking at it what do you think >> well scale has asked a question uh any specific pri priorities our organization would like to add so uh that'll be part of the response tomorrow that uh that we're going to give them is yes we have some new priorities and uh let them know what our new priorities is you know throw all three of them at them and uh and then I've been part of these scale priority discussions for many years and and once we get together as a group some times we say oh yeah we're that affects us too we weren't thinking about it and other times people say well that's your problem it's It's a different It's a different level. >> I have a quick question on the um scale supports the following policy positions. Are those already in place or are they to continue discussing? >> They are not in place. >> Not in place. The reason I ask and this is I'm putting on my school hat for broadband because just supporting the expansion improvement of internet broadband. as a parent and as somebody that uses it at home, especially as a parent, schools are getting more and more and I don't know if this is a school board, but I think as a staff and as a city council member, we members, we need to think about this. Schools are getting more and more um reliant on internet and broadband for things for their students. And I get it. I'm totally technology going home, but can we at all support school districts that are having funding issues right now or in the future to help with the broadband policy of supporting the expansion, improvement of internet broadband as a whole? And that in school includes schools because they honestly with the budget decreases and their struggles from a parent perspective it's very frustrating when you can't get on and I'm thinking about our community members that are underserved >> because through co I actually worked as um in the schools to help the kids that needed it come back because they weren't getting the resources they needed at home. So they would request a family, four kids in a bedroom trying to work on school work with different things going on in the background and school districts didn't have the resources to give them because they didn't have an internet or it wasn't it was spotty or things like that. was there anyway and we can maybe for a future think about it but I think we need to remember that and keep that in mind because we all are relying on technology even more and I think it's hitting the hardest in the schools which comes down to the parents and I'm really thinking those kids I had to support that had nothing >> it's a good reminder for us when we're having these conversations with our legislators right because I know our outstate um areas there's always conversation that they they don't have those resources and and the state provides a lot of resources to bring broad um internet and and broadband and stuff to them. And the reminder that we have underved residents here in the metro area who also need >> access somehow um is maybe just a good reminder when we start having these conversations. >> Yes, >> this is on the scale priority because they have actually specifically >> that's was what my question referenced that this is needed for students and >> uh this is needed for the farmers in the field that are uh >> smart tractors are connecting up with things like this. And so uh and and one of the >> things that scale has been trying to do the last couple years is to >> expand beyond the city's thinking. And >> that's why there's inclusion of things like the soil and water conservation district. And we've been much more engaged with school districts lately. We have that's right more school district involvement and that's become uh >> uh it's risen up in our priority levels at the scale level too. So that that is >> uh kind of being looked it it doesn't say directly that's the reason why but but that is part of the conversation. >> We can mayor council members we can add that as a note in the information we pass on to scale. We don't need a motion. I think we're really just looking for a conversation about the scale priorities tonight. >> Uh but we can add that as a note in the information we pass along to scale. >> Thank you. >> Part of it is I don't know a lot about scale yet and I'm going to but >> just wanted good clarification. Thank you. >> There's a meeting coming up. >> I know. I I'll go I'll go. I'm going have it on my calendar. Well, and maybe just to reiterate, the way their page is set up is similar to ours, right? And that these are all different policies that they want to support, but the ones at the top are the top priorities and the rest are the rest of the priorities. Yeah. Is that >> okay? Okay, makes sense. >> Just wanted to confirm I was looking at it correctly. >> Yep. Thank you. We've had a lot of thumb wrestling of what's our top five because uh >> their philosophy is uh we want to give the full list so our legislators know when something comes up that yeah this is important to my community but if you throw a hundred things at them none of them are get done if you >> no >> if you give them two or three and that's all you hammer on then sometimes those get done so that >> well get done or at least the phone call gets paid. Um, what did you say about this? Where where where did scale fall? How did how does the city of Savage, you know, think about this issue? So, yeah, again, it's that being effective. Yeah. >> Great. Mayor, council, I think we have direction on the policy positions. Um, secondary question on the capital bonding requests. Uh, we are top for the Quinton Avenue, Bridges, and Savage. I don't know if we want to talk through this at all or just stay quiet and just sort of see what happens with this. I think we're still coming out pretty well. But >> um we can I mean it's the same conversation with our legislative priorities. The conversation that we're going to have on Monday is we feel like we have a good compromise with the uh CPA CPKC uh where uh we wouldn't have to build the bridges back until the line is reactivated. So, um there's still a financial liability there, but it kind of kicks it down the road and then there is an end date to that agreement where the city is then if it nothing happens by a certain time, then we're not on the hook anymore. So, um that's why we're saying that we think we can drop it from our legislative priorities and I think we probably could drop it from uh the capital priorities for scale too. It still costs money to get rid of the bridge. >> It will. It's not um We could probably just >> push it over at this point. It's putting it back up. That's the really expensive part. >> I I think that one bridge if you blow on it hard enough, it >> it is not looking good. >> Anyway, all right. Um, more conversation. Are we Do you feel good? Do you >> mayor and council? I think we have good direction to respond hopefully the next day um to the scale email. Um, again, I appreciate this robust discussion. >> And ju just add my comments on the rest of these capital uh improvement projects. They all would benefit. They're not in city of Savage, but they would benefit the citizens of the city of Savage. The innovation center, if they were able to do that, we would have residents that would use that. All of our residents use the household hazardous waste facility. I think we are using 35 and um hopefully people are using the Louisville or the Louisville um trail there. So, these are things that impact the whole county. So I think we would be supportive of these. >> I do too. And I I think part of the whole mindset with scale, right, is, you know, we're we're an individual city, but to the extent that we can work together and be more efficient and effective. Um, it's good for everybody. And I mean, some of our scale initiatives with job creation and that stuff, some of this directly goes to that. I mean, the innovation center and stuff directly addresses wanting to have 50% of our jobs, you know, here within the county and and stuff. So, um >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Um and and thank you for being willing to have the conversation at this meeting. Normally, we do these at work sessions, so it's just sitting around the table having, you know, those conversations, but it seemed to work with the agenda to do it tonight. So, and and then timing. We didn't want to wait another week to to do it. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh moving on to uh city council reports. Does anybody have any city council reports? >> Go ahead. >> I do, Madam Chair. >> Yes. Sorry, Stacy. >> No. Um, I had an MV MVTA meeting on August 28th and they just shared some numbers that I thought were interesting because we were partway through the state fair and partway through Renfest and setting new records every day on ridership on MVTA. So, um, we didn't have the full data yet. We'll probably have that at the next meeting and then I'll I'll plan on sharing that out. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um, I had, like I said before, the um, I lost it. Sorry. Housing committee meeting, affordable housing. Um, we had two presenters. Um, >> he's back. >> You're You're good. Keep going. You're fine. We had two speakers um presenters um Annie Ryerson and Jennifer Bergman from the Minnesota Housing Financial Agency on Local Government Programs and Local Affordable Housing Aid. Um talking a lot about the La Hoa I and I can't remember what it stands for. LAA Hawaiian >> affordable housing aid. >> There we go. Affordable housing aid. I was on a little bit of cold medicine at the time cuz I had a bad cold. So, I was telling the dogs to be quiet. Um, it's a bargain. So, it was a really good conversation. Um, now having this meeting, it all makes a little more sense as far as what they're talking about because I'm still kind of learning what they're talking about and getting into it. Um, we are not going to have uh an actual meeting for the third meeting. we're going to just be able to send it to the committee members and have us um look at things that they're going to present to legislature and different things on that. So, that will be um see September, but that will be just sent to the committee members and then we will respond to what they sent to us. So, it's been a great um learning experience to be on the committee and I look forward to more. That's it. >> Bob, did you have anything? >> Nope. >> Okay. Matt, did you have anything? >> I don't. And I35 is canceled for September as well. >> So, you have nothing to do? >> No. >> Um All right. Um I uh Brad and I were fortunate to attend the state of the school address for um ISD 191. Um I think I mentioned it the last meeting. I am so excited about the new superintendent and after the state of the school address I am still so excited about the new superintendent. Um she is very high energy, very engaged um and just really I think wants to make a difference. I I think that's her life is just wanting to make a difference. Um so I'm very excited for where I see um her vision for district 191 and I think this is just really really amazing. So, um, getting a chance to to go to that was was fun. Um, and getting a chance to connect to other folks there. Um, today we also had the ribbon cutting ceremony for the mural there on outside of the library. I'm going to say to folks, if you have not been to the library, you need to go need to go in and see the inside. But uh the mural, the mosaic that's on the outside of the building is absolutely stunning. It is just so beautiful. And um my comment to folks tonight was the individual tiles represent us and it represents our the individual community members and their uniqueness. And when you put us all together, um the picture that is there is just absolutely beautiful. And I think that's what the city of Savage is is we bring our own uniqueness to the city and we have come together in a really unique and wonderful community. And um yeah, I the artists did just an amazing job. Thank you, Emily, for all of your work doing it. But the residents, the residents who came in and got to work on putting the Mosaic tiles together and um just the community input on what it should be and stuff, I just I am so excited about this project and the engagement that we had from folks. And again, it's it's beautiful. And I said today, um go and look at it and then go and look at it again and pick a different time of the day because it's going to look different to you every time you see it. And you're going to see something different as the light changes. I think artwork when light shines on it, it all you always get a different perspective. And I think that will be true for the mural. And I said in the city of Savage, take a different look at it because you're going to get a different perspective on the city as well. So um just absolutely beautiful. And thank you again to all of the folks who who just had some kind of input um on it. Um, and thank you staff because it it was just an amazing accomplishment and we had a lot of staff who were involved in making sure that that happened and um I just really appreciate it. All right, we're going to have an update on our roads. We tonight we we set uh the public hearing on the assessments for South Park and our neighborhood street projects and they are taking a little longer than I think we hoped. and I had just asked saying if he would give us an update on where both of those are at. And I've had some residents calling and asking. So, I'm going to just be quiet and let you take over. >> Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Um, I wish I was here before you tonight and said, "Hey, we're all done with South Park." But >> that's not the case. So, >> that's cool. >> If you remember when we started this process, we had three different phases for South Park Drive. Um, we're hope we were hopeful that if we started early down from phase one, which was east of the the roundabout, that we could do that before school ended because there's less school traffic in that area. Well, we were at a I think we're from a schedule wise, phase one and two were really good. Phase three, I think, has been a different uh animal in itself. So, um, if you look at the map here, phase one was, can I mention from the call from the roundabout here to 27, uh, that was fairly uneventful for the most part. Phase two was a little shorter. Uh, from the roundabout to kind of where those businesses are. Uh, if you remember the kind of daycare and then there's a strip mall associated with that as well. That was phase two. That went well as well. We've kind of gotten into phase three, which is kind of the busier area, kind of the commercial area in front of Target. uh some of the restaurants within the area as well. So that's kind of phase three which is kind of all the way to trunk highway 13. Um because of the weather we've they've lost quite a bit of days working days wise. Seems like it rained when it wasn't supposed to rain. Uh unfortunately and we also came upon some conflict in terms of small utilities as well that had to be relocated out uh before work could really begin. So um we are a little bit behind. Um, we're hoping to get this road opened up, uh, substantially completed by the 29th, uh, to open up, not necessarily get all the restoration or the workhorse down yet, but at least get phase all the phases done. Um, so we've kind of had a reshuffle some plans. We did complete the workhorse, plants, uh, pretty much everything else on phase one and two, which is a little bit ahead of schedule in terms of that. Um, you can, if you do drive out there, the medians are complete. Uh, we were still waiting on the light fixtures. uh for that that should be coming here next week. Uh they should be able to get that up here in the next couple weeks or so. So that should finish some of those areas up. Phase three uh we're still working on. So from a utility perspective, storm sewer should be completed here probably tomorrow. They ran into rain against this morning and lost a day's worth of work. So they are going to be back here tomorrow. Finish that. Uh our general contractor is working on subcutting the turn lanes uh as well as working on some of the sidewalk within the area. Hopefully that should be completed here by this week. Um is what we're anticipating. So, uh from a schedule standpoint wise, um milling, which is taken off a little bit of the pavement, we're started hopefully next week, mid next week as well. Um reclaiming probably the same week. U and then getting some curb and gutter put in uh or at least installed for the meetings, everything else. Uh probably next week sometime. So, from a rough schedule-wise, base course, which is probably when everything starts to get uh wrapped up, we're looking at probably September 17th for the base course. Um, but then there's so much activity. I know there's road closures in the area. There's so much activity between the base course as well as the work course that we may not be able to open up that section yet until pretty much everything's complete. So, um, you look at our schedule, base course 17th, plants, trees, restoration of the medians, we're talking about September 18th. um binder, you know, couple days after that, September 22nd is what anticipated it is. Uh and then work course two days later. Um they'll have to come back and do the striping probably about 3 4 days later. So probably by the end of September, we'll have striping completed for the whole entire stretch of of South Park Drive. So everything's weather dependent. Seems like it's uh raining when it's not, but um >> it is what it is. I think the contractors been are really trying to do a good job trying to keep things moving along. Uh but we have been delayed uh in terms of those utility relocations and then the weather as well within the project. >> Thank you. Now, can we move on to the neighborhood project? I've gotten some phone calls on that and and um yeah, I'll I'll let you start. >> Yeah. or 2025 street improvement project or the neighborhood street just off of uh Connelly Parkway um east of County Road 27 that is getting closer. So um we're probably looking at about a week week and a half of work uh before everything is pretty much complete. I know there's been some challenges. We've had it done do uh replace some curbon gutter uh last week uh just before the workhorse is being put down. We do walk through, make sure that any new new curb gutter that's been installed, if it's cracked, broken, we do replace that. If we do miss anything before that as well, we do replace that as well. So, that's kind of why you see uh some additional curb and gutter replacement within the area. Also, just from the restoration work as well, when they've got additional equipment in there, you know, they've got a Bobcat or some sorts, you know, they may break the curb or anything else. So we do walk through and make sure that the curb and gutter is replaced before uh workh hors is down. Uh patching is supposed to be done um this week. Uh supposed to have taken place parts of it today. Um but because of the rain uh the holes that they dug are filled with water. So they have to kind of pump that out, let it dry out. So that is supposed to take place here tomorrow uh pretty much for the rest of this week. patching some of those areas that did settle. Um because of the the time which is the nice thing is the time between the base course and the work course. If there is more time there is time for additional sediments to come through. Uh we able to take care of that which is a a good thing. Uh we have found quite a few areas that have been dug up um and will be patched and that before the wear course gets put down. Um paving of the wear course should be taking place here Monday um next week starting with the culde-sac areas. Uh so that is some of the harder paves or a little bit longer paves it takes to kind of get those areas. Uh and then Tuesday they'll come back in and do the mainline pave. So some of the straight straight roads uh that goes a little bit quicker. Uh generally they run more trucks uh when they do that uh just because they can get more production out of that type of paving operation. So um really after that is done they do have some minor side restoration to complete. Um, and really that's all it is for the for the project and hopefully we'll be done by by next week. So >> So I know that there was some utility work like last week or the week before. Um, was that our utility work or was that the utilities coming in doing their own kind of thing? >> That was ours. Um, fixing some of those catch basins that may have moved uh when the payment operation occurred uh or adjustments that didn't weren't correctly made. Now Excel Energy was in uh within the project area. That's why we kind of had the lag time. We had about three weeks to a month that we were not in there uh doing anything is because Excel Energy was replacing a lot of services as well as the mainline power line within the project areas. That's was something that was kind of last minute that came in that they wanted to coordinate. >> Uh and >> that was their project that they were coordinating with us so we didn't have to dig the road back up again. >> Yep. And so we wanted them to get in there before we did restoration within the project area so that we didn't have to essentially do it twice. Um so we had to coordinate with them with that one. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um oh and there was mailboxes. I know mailboxes got moved. >> Yep. Mayor M council. So as uh at the beginning of the project, what we do is we put temporary mailboxes uh just because the amount of impacts with the neighborhood. Uh we have gangs of mailboxes that are placed in a certain area. Um and then that's where all the mail gets delivered. Once the base course is put down um once the mailboxes are put back up, the ones that have been taken down uh individually are put back up. We do remove the temporary mailboxes. Mail gets redelivered to the individual mailboxes. Now I think the the issue that our resident had brought up was the the concrete curb and gutter replacement that was done the second time. the mailboxes were sitting right in front of that curb uh curb and gutter that was replaced. So, a barricade was put there. There's a hole in front of that area and so the mail may have not necessarily been able to been delivered to those mailboxes. So, that's something I think we have to from a staff and contractor uh be more detail oriented in terms of that. Uh we could have filled in that hole after we uh poured the curbing gutter provide some type of access to that. So, that's that's a learning opportunity for us. uh more of a hey if we can take a closer I know it's a rush rush to get some of these things done but that is a learning opportunity and I will um discuss that a little more with our contractor as well as our staff that if we do see things like that we should maybe address that a little bit uh quicker >> thank you um I think that was all of the questions that that I had um answered most of those um yeah um is there anything else from the council. Um otherwise I will entertain uh any other written communication, general information or followup. >> None from staff mayor. >> I'll just provide one quick comment. I just want to say thank you to communication staff for putting out the thing on the um pedestrian crossing on 154th because I know there's a lot of people who live south of 154th who are very happy to see that. So thank you. >> Thank you. All right. And with that, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> They're looking at me. >> They're looking at you. Motion by Alford, second Johnson. Uh, roll call vote. >> Mayor Kelly, >> I. >> Council members Alfred, >> I. >> Coughlin, >> I. >> Craigs, >> I, and Johnson, >> I. >> Meeting is adjourned. Thanks everybody. to get you.