[music] Sha call a shack city council meeting for Tuesday July 21st to order. If you could please take the role. >> Council member Delaney >> here. >> Council member Whiting >> here. >> Council member Contreres >> here. >> Council member Laura >> here. Mayor Layman here. Item number three, please join us in the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Item number four, approval of the agenda. Is there any changes to the agenda? >> Nothing from staff, sir. >> Councel councelor Contrarus, >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Councelor Delaney. Discussion on the motion. Seeing none, all in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. >> Item number five is consent agenda. Any changes to consent agenda from staff? >> No sir. >> Councel Mr. Whiting >> make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Lara seconds the motion. Discussion on the motion. >> You want to read it. >> Mr. Reynolds, could you run down the consent, please? >> Yes, Mr. Mayor, members of council, these are the consent agenda items for Tuesday, July 21st of 2026. 5A declares surplus equipment and public works. 5B authorizes final acceptance of payment for the 2025 SCADA system expansion product project. 5C approves a budget amendment and authorizes execution of a change order for the Lions Parking lot improvement project. 5D is the Firehouse Subs public safety foundation's quarterly grant award. 5E is Minnesota Department of Safety's DWI traffic safety officer grant program grant application. 5F is the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Zero Enforcement Program grant application. 5G approves a cooperative agreement with Scott County for the Marshall Road Trail Extension Project. 5H is approval of the July 7th, 2026 city council minutes. 5A is a scheduled network switch replacement bid. 5J approves temporary liquor licenses for BHB2 LLC doing business as Badger Hill Brewing. 5K is the approval of an updated Rhythm on the Rail special event permit and temporary liquor license for the Shockby Chamber. And 5L approves on sale and Sunday liquor license licenses for Valley Fair doing business as Valley Fair. >> Thank you, Mr. Reynolds. We do have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion passes. Item number six is public comment. This is for items not on our agenda. If you want to address the city council on an item that is not on the this would be the time to do so. You're allotted three minutes and under council adopted rules. We'll have no campaign or endorsements, no personal attacks, and we'll try to maintain a respectful dialogue, children friendly as this is aired to the gen. If you could set your timer, clerk. >> Hi folks. It's an honor to be here tonight. My name is Michelle Gunderson Bar. I have lived in Scott County and Shakabe for almost 40 years. I am also beyond a lot of other things. A mother, a grandma, a therapist, adjunct faculty, all kinds of things. I'm not saying that for my ego, but I'm saying those things so you know that I know what I'm talking about tonight. I am the very proud mother of a gay Shakabe graduate who is now happily married to his husband and they call Minneapolis home. I am so proud of him and his husband living their true authentic lives. Did you know that almost 40% of all queer youth uh contemplate suicide during their formative years? We all know that the brain isn't fully developed until we're 25. So that's ages probably 10 until age 25. 40%. That's almost half of queer folks under the age of 25. That's unacceptable. So what can we do as a shakabe community to become more welcoming, affirming, loving place for them? The research shows us that community support matters. But what happens in the world that we all live in and that includes Shakipi. So it's not just what happens at home, it's our community. Having a supportive community can half the rate of suicide contemplation for those kids. Imagine that. Even if a queer kid doesn't have their support at home, they can look around their community, see support, and know that they are beloved. Mental health outcomes are largely driven by environment and community for queer people rather than their identity. That kind of blows my mind. Community support can be public comments from our leadership. It can be a pride flag waving in front of homes, businesses, and cities. It can be pride stickers on local businesses. It can be investing time and dollars into future generations that choose to call Shakabe home. Hear me when I say that I am not looking for permission or asking for money. I'm here as a courtesy only. I'm looking at you, city leadership, to personally, privately, professionally support us. It matters. Our Scott County Pride team has been meeting for several months. We've already had too many events and we are looking at uh Scott County Coney Pride 2027. Um the events that we have had, the youth, the adults, the grandmas and the grandpas and the parents, they're all telling us that it's very much needed. So, we're doing it. Before I wrap up, I want to make sure that everyone here knows that if you are in the community and you are spewing so many negative things about the queer community, people read that. People see that and it matters. It mattered to kids like my son who was bullied. So, this is really a big deal and I think it's time for Shakipi to get on board and lead with love and inclusion and fairness for all of our citizens. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. All right, >> one minute. >> Hi there. My name is Jessica and I have come before you guys multiple times. Um the current issue that I have is that I did get clarification from a judge that um my property that has a shared driveway is considered an easement. The previous judge did not have the right to divide the property and a fence was erected, a permanent fence was erected on my neighbor's property on this easement, which is an ingress and egress. And so therefore, I was told by the city hall that if I was able to provide a judge's ruling that the fence would come down. I'm trying to sell my house and this has been a huge barrier to selling as nobody wants to buy it with this fence on it. I'm asking that an expedited um expedited removal of this a revocation of this um fence permit be done. The person that erected the fence put it up in a day and he can take it down in a day. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> And a reminder, if you could uh state your name and address for the record or write it in on the sheet there for the city clerk. Oh, >> sure. Excuse me. Sorry about that. Thank you. Good evening, city council members. My name is Kaylee. I live on Beerling Drive East here in Chakapi. Um, I'm here to speak about the recent data center developments within our community and specifically the massive amounts of water usage, noise pollution, and strain on our local power grid. Um, and the impact that it may have to the wildlife conference cons conservation area just a few feet next to it. Um, neighbors in that area have already complained about it about the noise multiple times. Um we've already seen push back across the country and even in neighboring city cities like Edina and Elk River. Um I think we need to start the process of a data center more terrarium. And uh here's why. One of my biggest concerns is that a new data center at Dean Lakes Boulevard will need massive amounts of electricity requiring expensive upgrades to local power lines and transformers. Uh the cost of these upgrades could be passed on to residents through higher monthly electric bills. Um this is a GPU based data center and um they're purpose built to act for AI factories for AI training models. Um these high performance graphic chips consume astronomical amounts of electricity. Um, this is an AI data center being placed right next to a nature conservation area as well as a neighborhood filled with residents who have children and lives that they're going to have to listen to that all day long. Um, among that, industrial hygienist and environmental health specialist Tammy Clark said that there's not really even a closed loop system that can help with that water um, pollution. It's still picking up water. That water in a closed loop system is being contaminated. It's picking up anti-corrosive, anti-scaling agents and bioides. And then what's happening is that water gets what's called blowdown gets blown back down into the aquifers or the rivers. Um, and the water treatment facilities are not capable. They do not have the filtering media media and they are not capable of filtering those particular types of corrosives. So that just makes its way down into our aquifers and our rivers and eventually our clean drinking water. And I think it's important for us as a community to kind of get together and see what we can do to maybe fix that or offset that um and stay safe. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I I have a question. >> GBU. What does that mean? >> GPU. >> Oh, GPU. >> Yeah. They're like uh the chips that they use, they produce massive amounts of heat and electricity and just all that stuff that makes it so it's really hot and um all that extra cooling and stuff that it needs. It's the reason why it's so hot. >> It's like a CPU for like a home computer. GPU is bigger >> bigger. Thank you guys for your time. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else that'd like to address the city council on a matter not on the agenda? >> My name is Paul Klein. Live at 1471 Primrose Lane. >> Can you do that in the microphone for us? >> Sorry about that. I'm My name is Paul Klein. I live at 1471 Primrose Lane in Shaki right behind Cup Foods. And I'm really getting annoyed at all the jet traffic and the lowflying jets over club food and the circling and uh not even when it's cloudy. And I think that you guys really need to address uh is that was that airport built there for crop dusting or was it built there for jetting? And the houses are getting everywhere. You hear about the plane that landed at the school last year or so ago. Every time I hear one coming by real low, I wonder if it's gonna land in the park right behind Cub Foods where I live at the end. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> The uh height of the jets coming out of Flying Cloud is controlled by the FAA. Obviously, we can raise our concerns. >> They're getting lower and lower. >> I think thousand feet is the minimum. >> Some jets are awful and they're feeding the noise from the highway. Okay. >> All right. Thank you, sir. Anybody else that'd like to speak to council on an item not on the agenda? If you give us one minute here, he's going to reset the >> there. Can you see that? >> Yeah. Good evening. My name is Katherine Coller. I live at 906 Ramsey Street. I've lived in Shakby my entire life and I'm not an expert on data centers but the little research that I have done I just ask you to take the time to really research and understand what you're approving. I remember sitting in this not this city hall for those of you who have been here for a long time but another city hall when that same area was asked to become a park and it was a very controversial discussion at the time when Southbridge neighborhood went out and it's a very special place the Savannah Oaks they're not throughout the world they're not even throughout Minnesota and to introduce a data center into that area would just I just ask you to reconsider it. So that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Did you sign and >> small details always forget the little things. >> Thank you very much. Would you like to sign in? Would you like to sign in now or when you're done? >> Sure. Well, my concern is uh the data center and also communication within the city. Now that we don't have a paper, it's so hard to know what's going on. >> [clears throat] >> I I know it's not necessarily your responsibility or the city's responsibility to have a paper, but like I just found out about this uh AI center by looking at the concerned citizen website, which is not all news. It's also local stuff that's just personal. And I just think is there someone or some department that can stir up the news? And then as far as the data center goes, uh, do we really want the water below Shakipi and in this area to be used by the data center? It uses so much. So I was wondering if you already had your conversation about it and where it is, where it is now. Have you made any agreements? And maybe if you haven't made the agreements that at the next meeting there'd be more discussion about it so people could understand what's going on. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Let's uh let's do a couple of clarifications here. >> Good question. >> Um my understanding is the data centers that we have, two of them are 10 megawatt each. Uh both of them have closed systems where they don't use groundwater for cooling norther so they're not returning any cooling water back into the ground. They have like this I don't know what the chemical stuff is inside of it, but uh it's a closed loop self-contained system. At least that's what I was told when we had the discussions. Um there's a proposed Mr. Delaney, how big is the proposal? >> There's a proposal for a 50 megawatt total facility. Phase one will be 25 megawatts. Phase two will be another 25 megawatts in 2028. It's a single building. There's no additional buildings. There's no campus expansions. Those larger ones are hypers scale. This was more of a colloccated um enterprise. >> Are they closed loop? >> It's closed loop. There's no water being pulled in from the aquifers. >> Okay. I I asked Mr. Delaney because he's our appointed leazison to the Shaki public utilities commission which handles the electricity capacity and service in the city of Shakipi and they have their separate board and commission. So I just make you all aware of that. um they ultimately make the decisions on whether they can supply power, how they're going to route it, and all these other things. Mr. Reynolds. >> Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. One of the big things that I think everybody needs to understand is the city council doesn't have the power to stop a business that can come into a place that's properly zoned for. So, with a data center, it's it's zoned for an industrial area. uh if we tried to stop a properly zoned area and zoned building from coming in, we could get sued because we've already said that that's okay. So, a lot of times when you have issues with data centers, what happens is that they're going in front of city councils to be reszoned. So, you'll have an area that's not zoned industrial and uh there's an attempt to try to zone it to industrial. Uh we actually only in the in the whole city have only two areas where data centers could even go and they're relatively small. Uh and they're both in industrial areas. So we have we currently have two. This is the third. Uh we've had one for 20 plus years at least. Uh these are not big facilities. These are normalsiz buildings. So uh again it's if it's zoned for it, it's coming in. We really can't do anything about it. Any anybody else that would like to address the city council on a matter not on the agenda? Seeing none. Item number seven is business removed from the consent agenda. We had none removed from the consent agenda. Item number 8A, appeal of decision by the board of adjustments and appeals to allow a dog daycare and boarding at 1424 Primrose Lane. Mr. Kursky, when you're ready, the floor is yours, sir. Mayor and council, in 2025, the council adopted amendments to the home occupation ordinance allowing limited dog, daycare, and boarding businesses to operate within residential neighborhoods under home occupation permit. The ordinance establishes specific standards regulating the operation of homebased dog daycare and boarding businesses, including limitations on the number of animals, parking, outdoor activity, fencing, annual inspections, licensing, and compliance with nuisance and noise regulations. Allison Newsteader submitted an application to operate barks, bellies, and rubs and beyond pets sitting from her residence at 1424 Primrose Lane. During the administrative review process, neighboring property owners submitted written comments expressing concerns regarding barking, traffic, parking, odors, neighborhood character, and other potential impacts. Because of the objections, staff denied the application. The applicant appealed, which is their right. Uh the administrator decision to the board of adjustment and appeals. Following a duly noticed public hearing, the board of adjustment appeals consider testimony from city staff, the applicant, and neighboring property owners. and after reviewing the evidence unanimously voted six to zero to overturn the staff decision to approve the home occupation permit. Two neighboring property owners subsequently have appealed the board of adjustment and appeals decision to the city council. The city council is acting as an appelllet body and reviewing the BOA decision. Tonight, council is not conducting a new permit review or determine whether individual council members would independently approve or deny this application. and rather the council's responsibility to determine whether the BOA correctly interpreted and applied the home occupation ordinance. The BOA acted within its authority. Their decision is supported by substantial evidence contained within the administrative record and the BOA's decision was not arbitrary, capriccious, unreasonable or contrary to law. If the council finds the board of adjustment and appeals properly applied the ordinance and its decision is supported by evidence, the board of adjustment appeal decision should be upheld. >> Questions of staff? >> Mr. Whiting, >> had this uh homeowner had a day doggy daycare center that wasn't licensed in the past and was getting renewed uh this point or is this a new new adventure? Mayor and council, that's correct. They were operating prior and that's one of the board's positions was there weren't any complaints prior to them getting licensed and that if there are future complaints, there is a path forward for the neighbors to then complain and between the police department and our staff, we would address those complaints per our ordinances. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Kursky. the uh the standards and regulating the operation. I I'm I'm reading that under the home occupation like I would a conditional use permit where we put things into the conditional use permit to address or minimize uh potential concerns. So, under the home occupation ordinance, we've drafted into that um things to mitigate potential concerns and that's great. What are the remedies if concerns pop up? So, mayor and council, as you'd mentioned, mayor, there's the board of adjustment appeals looked at all of the conditions that are in the current ordinance. If there are violations, they would notify the police department, the code enforcement officer would go out and then they would get back to us and as we said at the board of adjustments, then the board of adjustments could then revoke the license. >> Okay. And the property doesn't have any complaints to date. I heard that. So, all right. Any other questions of staff? >> Mr. Delaney, >> I mean, are there any key findings that led the BOA to BOA to conclude the applicant satisfied the ordinance requirements? >> Council member, you have to >> I'm sorry, I got speak with the microphone. Sorry about that. >> Are there any um cons I'm sorry. Um looking for key findings that led the BOA to conclude the applicant satisfy the ordinance requirements in their meeting >> right here. >> The key findings are the applicant, you know, these are the requirements that are in your ordinance. to the applicant resided at the property. The proposed operation complies with the maximum under dogs permitted based on the testimony. Required off street parking was available. The required fencing was provided. I believe the backyard is fenced in. Dogs will be housed primarily indoors. There no outdoor kennels proposed. The property complies with the physical standards established by the ordinance and the permit remains subject to annual inspection and annual renewal. So, this is one of the only occupational home occupation permits besides the Airbnb or short-term rental that you have. Most of them once you get a home occupation license, you have it forever. Both these and the short-term rental have to be applied for every year. And if there's complaints, we would then not renew it. >> Thank you. >> Obviously, them complaints would have to be verified. >> Correct, Mayor. Okay. What's the wishes of council? >> Sorry, >> Mr. Lara. >> I make a motion to approve resolution R2026-0 or sorry 107 upholding the decision by the board of adjustments and appeals to allow dog daycare and boarding at 1424 Primmers Lane. >> Is there second? >> Second, Mr. Whiting. Discussion on the motion. [clears throat] I I think the uh board of adjustment and appeals was correct in their decision. I I don't think they had any uh any verified information that the applicant wasn't abiding by the letter of the ordinance. Um and they didn't have any justification not to approve. So I think uh I think they did right. So I I would agree with the motion and the second. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Motion passes. Item 8B, appeal of revocation of hotel license for American Group of Properties LLC, Baymont Hotel. Mr. Kurski, >> mayor and councel. So um the staff uh revoked this under the hotel licensing. The uh hotel owner then appealed to the city council to have their license reinstated. So they have been operating conditionally upon either reinstatement or denial this evening. So the city of Shakby licenses hotels to protect health, safety and welfare of hotel guests, employees, neighboring properties and the general public. hotel license is conditioned upon the lences continued compliance with city code and other applicable laws and responsible operation and management of the licensed pre premises. The Bayont Hotel has been the subject of continuing concerns involving management practices, public safety, police calls for service, disturbances, criminal activity, fire and life safety concerns and repeated demands upon city's resources. The city has communicated its concerns to hotel ownership and the management has provided the Lency with notice and opportunities to correct conditions at the property. Despite efforts and significant incidents, the operational concerns have continued. Police records document 84 incidents associated with the Bayont between 2025 and 2026, including 41 incidents in 2025 and 43 in 2026. Incidents have included disturbances, assaults, threats, suspicious persons vehicles, unwanted guests, intoxicated persons, welfare checks, theft warrants, domestic incidents, criminal sexual conduct, fire alarms, and other calls requiring police, fire, emergency medical, and city staff responses. There are two significant incidences. Uh, one was, uh, they had basically a sellout of the hotel to a party that ran a adult event. Um, after that event occurred, the police department was notified there were missing persons. The police department found the missing person's vehicle in their parking lot and upon further investigation and talking with the hotel gained access to the room and found two people had uh were deceased in the room. um both tested positive for fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine. The second, which is a much larger incident on March 28th and 29th of 2026, the hotel knowingly permitted the entire property to be used for a 24-hour event. They resulted in threats of potential gang violence, assaults, disturbances, repeated fire alarms, suspected ordinance violations, and the assignment of additional Shakabe police officers on overtime and 16 calls for service. Following a review of the operational history of the property, the city initiated proceedings to revoke their license. Um, to give you an idea, after the event, staff identified the following violations in the property from the event on March 28th. prostitution, prostitution related activities, sex trafficking or other forms of human trafficking, maintaining a public nuisance in violation of Minnesota State Statute 609.74 clauses one or one or three permitting a public nuisance in violation of Minnesota statute 609745. Unlawful sale, possession, storage, delivery, manufactured, cultivation, or use of controlled substances. Unlicensed sale of alcoholic beverages. Unlicensed sale of cannabis or low potency hemp products. Unlawful sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages, cannabis or low potency hemp products or unlawful possession or consumption by persons under the age of 21. Unlawful use possession of a firearm, firearm parts or ammunition violations of state law or city ordinances related to license activities and disorderly conduct violations. Um we did after this the um police department and myself and the fire department met with the representatives of the property and expressed their concerns. The police department did not find out about this event from the property. They find out through some of their channels and social media. They went to the property, talked to the promoter, told them this was a bad idea, that bad things would happen. The event went on anyway. Um the event had unlicensed uh security company there. They had told the property owner they had received all the necessary permits which none of which was true. Um incidents the police responded to included disturbance assaults, threats, suspicious persons, vehicles on and on um that evening to the fact we had four police officers in overtime. Um security had long guns. It was not a pretty sight. Um when the police department was asked why they did not intercede in the event and stop it, um the officers said they didn't have 40 police officers available because it was a very large crowd with a lot of weapons. They had identified gang members that potentially had weapons on property and they were not about to start um a much larger issue with only four officers. So since then again we have um been documenting issues with the hotel. Um I think you have seen a proposal. I think it's 15 or 16 pages from the hotel. I think the biggest concern out of the proposal we've seen is they're still proposing level five events which are lockouts where basically they sell the hotel out. We have found a hotel is a hotel in this community. I mean, we have very few instances where somebody sells a hotel out to a different operator and they run special events. Um, this hotel has evidently done that in the past and based on um, police reports and activities that have occurred there, it has not turned out well for the community. >> Thank you, Mr. Kursky. Question of staff. [clears throat] >> I got some questions. >> Mr. Mr. Lara, >> could you clarify how many days passed before those bodies were found? I I couldn't hear you, sir. >> Could you please um clarify how many days it took for those bodies to be found? >> You'd have to check with the police department, but they were not able to identify the people. That'll give you some idea. >> So significant, >> Mr. Delaney. >> Sure. Well, now several questions here. Thank Thank you for the packet, by the way. That's a lot of great information. My one question is, should taxpayers and city staff have to actively supervise a private business in order for it to operate safely? I mean, I saw the proposal they're proposing, but that's costing tax dollars for us to do this. So, that's my question. I'm sorry. Should taxpayers and city staff have to actively supervise a private business in order for it to operate safely? We we don't normally do that. Mayor and council, that's correct. I mean, um, so having four officers come in on overtime to police an event that was privately run is kind of unheard of. I mean other organizations from the chamber etc. they hire police and pay them to be there for the events. Um I think going forward they're proposing you know put up some money to cover staff's enforcement of their agreement. But I think one of the issues is there's not another property including the amphitheater where we have such a long agreement where we would have to spend a lot of time enforcing things and checking things and meeting. I mean this is 175 room hotel. This is not a huge, you know, convention center. >> Thank you, >> councelor Contrarus. >> Mr. Kursky, just to verify, city officials did serve hotel management with written notice explaining potential ordinance violations associated with the event and activities being advertised. I just want to verify that city officials did do that. >> So, so prior to the event that was advertised, we didn't know about it. I think the police department basically went to the hotel management. Go ahead. >> Yeah. And what essentially had occurred is that um the police department was getting some flags from their monitoring of social media and gang activity uh where essentially uh a gang had threatened to come in and shoot the place up uh which immediately flagged our police department as there being a a significant issue with this particular event. police department went and talked to the operators of the facility. Uh explained the situation, found out what was occurring, that they literally were renting out the whole building and locking locking people in uh when all of this activity was going on. The police department had told them that that was not a good idea and that it was a possibly violating many multiple uh ordinances uh city ordinances. and the management decided that they went ahead and were going to do it anyway. Uh, and then I mean I think you can today still go online and see video from inside what was occurring in that hotel uh which was striking. the smoke alarms kept going off because the amount of marijuana smoke inside the building, which of course is illegal uh uh in and of itself, [clears throat] which I don't think that was one of the things we we were looking at, >> right? >> Uh but yeah, there were multiple uh once we found out about it, we went there, we talked to them, and uh it's essentially was we're going to do it anyway. Now, when you have that many people in that kind of a state, we don't have, you know, we only have 52 officers total in the city of Shockby. >> So, you can imagine how many are on duty at any one time. Uh we had four officers at this building because of the things that were occurring. Uh there's no way that we could do anything other than just try to keep a lid on things to make sure things didn't get out of control because if our officers attempted anything, clearly that would have caused more of a problem than than But there were multiple instances of of of them seeing all kinds of violations and uh uh it was just an unacceptable threat to the health and safety of the community. period. And that's not to mention that's just that event, the swingers event where the two people died of drug overdoses and were sitting in the room for days until they were decomposed. That's a whole another issue. >> Any other questions of staff? For the record, the council did receive the >> letter from Lark and Hoffman dated July 17th. We did receive that by email. Is there anybody here on council that did not receive that prior to tonight? >> We got it. >> Okay. And we also did receive the proposed conditional hotel license uh that was supplied to us by staff from Baymont Inn and Suites. Anybody on council not received that earlier than tonight? >> Okay, very good. All right. If there's no other questions of staff, what's the wishes of council? [clears throat] >> We want to >> Mr. Thompson. >> Uh, Mr. Mayor, this is an appeal. I do recommend that you allow the the lency an opportunity to address the council on the on the question that's before you. Okay. [snorts] >> This is their opportunity to do that before you make any decisions. All right. And before we do that, I want to make sure that there's council has no other questions of staff at this point. Not this time. >> Good. Okay. The would the uh the license holder like to address city council >> and your name name and address for the record, please can put on that paper that's on the desk. If you would please sign in on the paper for us, please. Thank you. >> Absolutely. Mr. Mayor, members of council, uh my name is Megan Rogers. I will sign in on the piece of paper. I'm an attorney with Lur and Hoffman. and I represent the property owner. Um so first and foremost uh we are here tonight to fully acknowledge the events of March 28th and 29th. Um this is a significant problem and we acknowledge it. We acknowledge that. Um what you will hear from me um is what our hope is to do to fix it and to remedy this issue. um because we see this hotel as a contributing member of your tourism group. Uh especially with the investment that you've made in the amphitheater and everything that the city is working on doing from an economic development perspective. Um what you'll hear from the hotel manager, the hotel property owner, um is how we got here and what mistakes we made. Um and so, you know, I want to address the block nation, the lock-in event directly. Um it it's unacceptable. Um the property owner and the hotel management group understands that it's unacceptable. Um what we thought we were booking was a a full hotel buyout event. Um the promoter that worked with the Shakape Police Department or that had communication with the Shakape Police Department. >> And by the way, he did not have there was no communication with the Shakape Police Department. Just so you're clear. Um we we understood from the uh staff report that there was a walkthrough that was completed as part uh of the record that the city we we we >> once we found out about the issue >> we became involved >> understood. There was no >> there was no there was no prior engagement. There was no good faith basis on the part of the promoter. Completely understood understood there. Um what was represented to us as staff has has been consistent about in his testimony um was that all of the permits would be managed um through the pro the promoter and those conversations would be had and that that those payments would be made. Clearly they were not. Um clearly they were not. Um the uh nothing about this event has proceeded according to what the the license holder intended um including being paid for their portion of the event. Um >> let me ask a question. Is this is this the same event that staff told this >> wasn't a good idea? >> Yes. So Mr. Mr. Mayor, uh, that is correct. On-site management learned of this event or of of staff's communication 3 days prior to via a letter from the the police department. Um, and what you will hear this evening is that that information was not communicated to the uh to hotel management. Um, so on there's a distinction in their operations model between on-site managers and the overall license holder. Uh we have part of the 15page conditional license is a full restructuring of how we run and operate this hotel so this does not happen again. >> So just so I'm clear for council clear. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> The on-site management. They work for the company. >> Correct. >> And the company is not monitoring their on-site management. >> The company is monitoring the on-site management. that doesn't seem to be the case. >> It did not happen in this case admittedly. Uh and that is why we have restructured what the requirements are including the requirements of the position uh in order to ensure that this does not happen again. I I want to reiterate to the council that the oper that the ownership group here takes this very seriously. um we 100% acknowledge responsibility for a failure, a distinct failure uh in this event. Okay. But we do believe that through uh the conditional license that we have proposed for your review this evening and the structural changes that we have made within the hotel uh that we can stop this from happening again and that it will not be an ongoing problem for the city. Uh now I heard very clearly from staff and from from the council uh that you're concerned about having to have oversight over uh this operator having the expense of that oversight and the and the reasonable question of why would you allow a a full room buyout of this hotel? again um we will absolutely accept uh a license that prohibits 100% buyout of the event. What we did as an alternative here was to give uh the city control, the city administrator in particular control to say whether the a buyout was an acceptable buyout or a nonacceptable buyout. And he did that for a very specific policy reason, which was to attempt to address um potential events coming into town for the amphitheater uh and for your associated sort of entertainment district if someone needed the 175 rooms and it was in the city's interest that the city could say yes, this is appropriate in a very different context. But to be clear, promoter events are we are saying that those are prohibited. the type of event that happened on March 28th and 29th are prohibited. Um I I'll address what is undeniably an uncomfortable conversation uh with regards to uh the Midwest Euphoria event. Um now that doesn't have the same sort of policing impacts that uh the the lockin event had. Um it's an event that has been held at the hotel previously where a group buys out every single one of the rooms. Um there is not exposure to sort of other people in the context of this assembly. Um but the hotel was approached by Midwest Euphoria uh since it has received this notice. It contacted city staff and said we were asked if if we could sell the whole hotel for this event. Uh the city police department said that's a really bad idea. um it has a a a penumbra of of issues that are associated with it and so the hotel did not move forward with that booking. Um I appreciated the nuance and uh the attention to detail of staff and the staff report uh with regards to the distinct nature of the hotel buyout versus sort of individual drug use or that there had been any allegation that hotel had provided um th those materials as part of this event. uh the event uh organizer in that situation has been very clear that they are a drug-free experience. Again, that is not something that is going to happen at this hotel or that the hotel would accept. And even during this interim period, um the hotel has been very clear um that it is not taking a full buyout of the hotel, which is clearly in its uh um its economic interest. the uh so we acknowledge um that there is that there are events that have occurred that give the city concern. Our goal is to do two things. To maintain ongoing operations of a property that has received $10 million of investment over the past six years by this ownership group. um that uh continues to provide jobs to people within the Shakapei community and that continues to provide uh a high quality uh hotel opportunity um for people attending events uh at the amphitheater. Um now ownership will talk about the success that it has had over the summer that it is absolutely grateful for um and the increased traffic that it is seeing. Um, we also recognize that what we're asking for is for you to exercise additional oversight beyond what is required by your traditional licensing process. And we are stating and we are offering to set up an escrow account to cover those costs in the context of the additional staff review that it would require. Because one of the things that we have specifically asked for is that um there's now a new ranking, a tiering if you will, of the types of bookings that occur at the hotel. And there are other cities that operate this way in the context of their traditional licensing ordinance. Uh Brooklyn Center is one of them. They have different tiers in terms of their level of oversight and they have different licensing costs that are associated with that. We took that model uh and tried to recreate it in the context of this conditional license um so that we would give the city greater authority uh over the operations the day-to-day operations of the hotel and also pay for that oversight along the way. Um, and our goal with this is not a permanent condition, but essentially allowing a 24-month period to reestablish trust um that has clearly been broken between the city council, city staff, hotel operations, and the community. Um, we are not standing here tonight um disputing the testimony that has come before you. We are trying to find a solution and and more so we believe that we have implemented operational controls um that will significantly benefit the hotel first and foremost because these types of events are terrible for hotel ratings and reviews and and reputation within the community. Um but also uh will meet the city's underlying policy goals through your licensing ordinance. Um, and so with that in mind, I'd like to turn it over to hotel ownership to to give some background on on how we got here and the and the changes that we are proposing moving forward. >> Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Jazz Singh. I will try and be very transparent. I will accept wherever we have faulted and I will try and clarify where wherever I think that we have been misunderstood or our picture has not been entirely clear. I will basically address three issues that the city has raised. One is the adult life event that we had been holding this event of March 28-29 and the 16 police calls that were received on March 2829. Before that, a little background. We have invested around $12 million in this property ever since we acquired it in 2016. And in the last four or five years towards renovations and improvements we put in $4 million. But not in a single year we have turned any profit. But still we continued our investment in the property, continued to pay the wages, paid our property taxes because I had hoped that the development model of the Shakipi city will sooner or later turn around and we'll be able to do much better than what we had been doing. We have 175 rooms but the occupancy turned out to be only 25%. no profits at all. So when we accepted these events like that adult life event in an offseason thing, it was with the hope that it was just economic survival for a short time. We hosted 16 events for that particular group. 15 events went by without any incident. Those people were decent. They didn't create any public nuisance. But on the 16th event, unfortunate incident happened and that can happen with anyone because it was in a private room. Two adults who overdosed themselves I guess. But we took a serious note of that incident and voluntarily stopped those events, permanently banned them. Though it was a quite economic setback to us because a full hotel booking in a offse was really helpful to us considering with a four $12 million investment not a single year we had made any profits. So that was that event. Second was this March 28 29th event. Now in this particular event we were actually blindsided by the promoter. He he showed us a contract of 38 to 40 guards, armed guard that he's going to hire and two police patrol cars, Shakipi police patrol cars from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and then from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. And these cars were there. So when these two things happened that there was armed security and these guards were there these artists who were performing were of kind of national repute their sensor the their sponsors were like very reputed people. So we took it that they will like organize the event well. But when the event started I will also address the shaky police letter that we got 3 days prior to the event. Firstly, I accept that it was a very serious omission on our part that the person at this hotel who received that letter, he did not put up that letter well till well after the event. That was a very serious submission on our part. But even if that letter was received, the event was at such a stage that we couldn't have cancelled this contract, considering that thousands of dollars of contracts had been executed by the promoter with various artists, security, everything, we have opened oursel to a very serious hood. So we told the promoter that this is the kind of thing before the event. Please make sure he assured us that we put 40 no smoking signs all over the property just because we were apprehensive these people might smoke. 40 to 50 signs were put all over the property. When they even started these people just ignored the sign and they started smoking. Now the building our building is very peculiar. It is it's a pool in the center. It's got a atrium and on four sides there is a three-story building. So if anybody is smoking in that central atrium, it's bound to set off the fire alarms. And that is what happened three times. >> Excuse me. Do you allow smoking in that center? >> No, we don't allow smoking. It's a non-smoking hotel. And still in spite of that, we put up 40 signs all over the hotel saying that no smoking, there'll be a $250 fine. But events just got out of our hand. These people started smoking. The police was present there. The security was present there. The hotel employees just got overwhelmed. I I was away for a long time from the property. I came recently and I interviewed each employee. They have got been with us for 14 years, 15 years. I asked them just one question. Why didn't you call the police? When these people were flouting our hotel rules, they were not listening to us. You saw all this thing happening. Why did you not call the police? They said the police was already here. Who who were we to call? So it is it was just one of those events that things went just out of our hands. And the 16 police calls like that happened that day. I mean there were like four calls coming within a span of 5 minutes. Those multiple people who are fighting in the hotel lobby or something. So everybody is calling 911. It is those kind of call. The first one is at 2:59 p.m. where a threat has been given to the hotel. Now the hotel staff did not call, the promoter did not call. The police had their own intelligence. Somebody called them at 259 to tell them that they apprehend appre they are apprehensive that there can be gang violence. We were not aware of it at all till this time we received this letter from the city saying that this was the case. >> Is this the event that had 800 armed security guard hired by the promoter? >> Yes. 40 40 armed guards hired by the promoter >> 40 >> then so these were the kind of calls like which happened there I can dwell more on them and say like I mean look 16 but the figures look 16 it's not so bad like because there were multiple people calling for that same particular issue and finally I would like to say that we have stopped these kind of events we don't need to host them any longer because the kind of revenue that we were doing in one year with the amphitheater opening up we have done it in 6 months so we don't have to follow any of these events we don't have to do these things because I would like to run this hotel by the book with rules and regulations absolutely 100% in place I have served in organizations which have made me like that. I don't believe in taking shortcuts or like doing things where like you are compromising with your integrity. We don't want to do that. And this amphitheater will help us to run this hotel in a very very professional manner. We we are not going to permit any full hotel buyouts at all because we don't have to. We are not going to permit any third party promoters who are like promoting ticketing events or stuff like that. We're not going to do that any longer because there is no need for us to do it. Our model has totally undergone a change with this amphitheater coming up. I assure you like I mean you give us one chance and we will run a very clean organization. Thank you. >> Yeah. Could you please tell the council about the organizational change that you experienced in terms of the death of the leadership of your organization uh right before this event? >> So the organization changes are [snorts] in the sense I will just mention here like my majority partner why things became a little loose at the hotel. I was the managing partner here. My father expired some time back and some other incidents took place. I had to be away for a long time. Our majority partner he was assassinated in Canada. So in our ship kind of became rerless for the last one year. We couldn't exercise much control much that we had wanted to do. But now my partner who is the majority partner his sons are very actively involved. they are going to be more so running this the show now and we have made some we going to make some changes at our like the general manager level and some other like front desk positions where we'll put in responsible people who will be able to handle things like these like I mean I don't see any reason if people are not listening to you that you raise the issue to wherever it needs to be raised because we cannot have so many people smoking in the atrium and become making the place totally lawless. It's just not acceptable. But our employees got overwhelmed because probably they were not so experienced. Probably they were they didn't think that they in fact like um deferred to the security around them which which for for which there was no need to do it. They could have still raised it up. So I apologize for all those things that has happened and I assure you like going forward we will we will put up a good show. Thank you. >> Thank you. Questions from council. Council members have any questions for Mr. Whitey? >> Um I do have a question. Has staff had a chance to look at the proposed conditional uh operations uh manual that they put forward? >> Yes, we have. has it have you thought about whether or not that that would be satisfactory moving forward or with uh >> Councilman to be honest I'm not a hotel manager that's not what the city of Shakipi does and we should not be in a position where we have to manage an independent business >> understood councelor Contraras >> thank you mayor sir this one's for you so you are a partner correct with you said that the sons of the majority >> um partner >> will be now um >> where are they right now? Why aren't they here? >> They they they are in Canada. Unfortunately, they could not get a visa because their father was assassinated. So, they applied for the visa. For them to get a visa, all the property ownership needs to be transferred to their mother's name. and then the Canadian immigrations will give them visa. So there is some technical reasons why they in fact this gentleman who is the elder son he wanted to come for this event. He was turned away from the airport by the Canadian immigration. So there is there is a problem which I think the probate is going on in Canada. Once that is sorted out I think it's going to take one or two months. Once that is sorted out, they will get their visas organized and the plan is for that gentleman to be here most of the time. Then >> thank you. >> I have couple questions if you so for my life I've stayed in a few hotels in my time. If I if I stopped at a hotel for the night, which usually for me and most people, we travel, we stop at a hotel, we we get a room, we settle into the room, maybe get a bite to eat, get cleaned up, and go explore the surrounding areas before we get a good night's sleep, and continue on with our travels. If I came to a hotel with 40 longgun armed security guards, I'm not sure I would stay there. I think I would turn around and leave. So, I'm not really sure how, you know, maybe the question I should ask you is how many hotels have you visited only for the event, not for the night's rest? So may the exceptions that we make in such cases is primarily when it's a full hotel buyout. There is no >> hotels have you stayed at that you went there for the event and not for the night sleeping and your travels. >> I have stayed in a lot of hotels. I have traveled recently. I was in Vietnam, Japan, Italy. I have traveled a lot. >> You went there for the event not for the evening of sleep in your travels. >> That is right sir. But like I said, the only reason such a thing gets allowed is primarily because it's a full hotel buyout. There are no other guests there. >> Since the city told you that your corporation, your business, that this event was not a good idea and they went ahead and did the event anyway. You're telling us to make an agreement and assume that it's going to be followed when we've already told you don't do this and it happened anyway. So why would we think that this would actually be enforced? Um, so we were not told in a specific manner, don't do it. Like had there been specific intelligence like what came at 300 p.m. on the day of the event that there is likelihood of gang interference or whatever. There was no such input of any kind that this event can turn into a manner like what it turned out to be. Had there been any grounds for us to cancel the contract, we would have done it. But there were no grounds for us to cancel the contract that we had entered into and we would have opened oursel to a a big financial lawsuit in case we had canceled at that point of time without any solid grounds. >> Wide openen drug use and gun exposure is probably a pretty good clue. >> Absolutely, Mr. Mayor. Uh and one of the very important things that's a part of our application to you here this evening is a holistic change in how promoters are vetted so that this promoter had a reputation which the Shakapi police department uh determined it's how they led them to this information. It's how they were able to provide that notice to the hotel that this could be a problem and that was not known to the operations team here. Um but now those items will be known because they're required to go through a list that's in included within the conditional license. It's something that we are being required to do so that they appropriately vet the promoter. The other really important component is that we have integrated as part of exhibit B of this conditional license which I take the city man administrator's position that that the city is not uh in the business of running a hotel. We are in the business of running a hotel, but it has to be to your standards. And we are trying to set those standards so that um it's something that the city could be supportive of. One of those sets of standards is exhibit B, which specifically has all of the rules and regulations um that anyone staying in this hotel must follow. Anyone visiting the hotel must follow, including security guards, which would have immediately prohibited that long gun security response. Um, so our goal is to show the how we are going to do it to you. Um, to give you evidence that we have thoughtfully considered what our operations must look like. That gives you strong enforcement authority if we don't do what we say we're going to do. Um, and explicitly requires us to be the partner that the city did not have in this situation. The city worked tried to work with our team and we failed you in that regard. And so what we are saying in this conditional license is that we will step up. We will provide the city staff with reports. We will provide you with information. We will provide you with the certainty that you need. And if we don't do that, then the license is revoked. Um but it is our hope that we could find a path forward towards continued operations. >> Mr. Rogers, you just had mentioned that uh promoters in the future were going to be vetted. Yet my understanding was is that we weren't going to have promoters anymore. >> Correct. So we have defined so and when I say vetting it means for anyone who is doing a group booking. So if we have a wedding that comes in that wants to rent 150 rooms that would be a higher level event right that would be a class 4 class 5 event um based upon the definitions within the conditional license. We would need to ensure that the person who is putting themsel forward as the main uh uh organizer of that event or a charitable organization or something along those lines um is capable of having the event that we are leading the conversation with the city that we have all of the information about their insurance. Um all of these things are good practices, best practices for a hotel operation. Um but you're correct promoter events are absolutely excluded. promoter events in the context of u of what you experienced in the lockin event. >> Okay. Any other questions that council has for the license holder? >> Mr. Lara, >> I'm still trying to wrap my head around that the management you're turning it over to cannot even get into this country and yet they're going to be managing this property. And then that hold one second. And then that I heard that TRA ownership has to be transferred to someone's mother before they can get a visa to come in here. It just that's what is that? So it's a little difficult to understand but it's something to do with Canadian law that p that to get a visa for here the American people the sorry I'm saying Canadian immigration it's the American immigration to give them the visa the American immigration wants that they should be able to show that the property is in their name so once the probate is over 1/3 one/ird is going to get property is going to get transferred to all of them then they have the legal right to be here at the property and stay here. Right now since the property is still in their father's name the immigration is not helping them with the visa. I hope I have been able to explain to counc and along those lines uh ownership is going to Jazz is here. Um he is working with the ultimate heirs of his partners uh of of the overall company. Multisur hotels owns properties throughout the world. Um but but this is a pre preeminent importance to the hotel group and we are proposing a period of transition so that when uh Na'vi Singh and his uh brothers can become uh and can become uh permitted to work uh under US immigration rules um and can be here in person that they absolutely will be but we do have a bridge here. Um but there certainly what I want to acknowledge as part of this conversation is that um this did not the the property has been owned by this hotel ownership group since 2016. This particular event um did not again not not an excuse. Um there was significant disturbance within the ownership group which has now been addressed. Um and we have a person who can be fully engaged on site um and uh and and proactive with the city as as we are promising within our conditional license. >> Oh, Council, >> thank you. Um he stated one to two months, right, that you guys thought that it would take immigration to approve those visas. Uh do you guys not know the time? He did. Um do you not know the time frame for immigration currently? So that is not like a time stamp you know you can't say one to two months because that is something we don't know and then another thing looking at your exhibit B I just looked at it and I immediately saw number eight human trafficking hotel maintain zero tolerance if we were to approve this hotel um human trafficking um is a big thing and obviously we stated that this had been happening in your hotel. That is huge. And and what I'm trying to get to is that hotel employees are trained to recognize indicators of trafficking and shall immediately contact law enforcement whenever trafficking or explo exploitation is suspected. Yeah, that's a hard one. Council member Contraras, I I I don't disagree. Um I am going to now proceed to make sort of an uncomfortable statement which is that uh the hotel has trained its employees uh consistent with Minnesota law in the hotel trafficking um training that's required of any uh licensed hotel within the state of Minnesota. Um so that has been completed um as well as supplemental uh training. Um, however, um, we are drawing a distinction here between, uh, consensual events, um, that are perhaps outside of the the norm, uh, if you will. I I don't know if that's a appropriate way to phrase it. Um, as well as adult entertainment, which is clearly prohibited. There's no question adult entertainment is clearly prohibited. Um, if you if you watched the videos, uh, I'm sure you did, uh, you know, as as did we, um, you there was, uh, activity that is not per permitted within the zoning district occurring at the hotel. Um, we do not, we are acknowledging that completely. It is a failure across the board in terms of the March 28th. >> I'm sure some of that activity is is allowed in society anywhere. Uh h so our statement is this is this is an event uh it has um it's significant. We we do not hide from that. Um what we are trying to craft is a path forward uh and a path forward that the the city could be supportive of um and that could reflect this uh hotel group's ongoing investment in the property and desire to do things uh in a in a fully compliant manner. >> Thank you. >> So Mr. Thompson, uh Mr. Mayor, members, before you take any official action, I think you just asked the um appellant whether they have anything else to add. I was going to ask council if they had any further questions or if they were done. >> Got answered. Yeah. >> Do you have any Did you have something, Mr. Delane? >> No, all mine got answered. Thank you. >> Okay, >> I'm good. >> Good over here. Do you have any last comments? Uh my only last comment um is we have put forward this conditional hotel license uh in front of you. Um it was completed uh through uh my experience in working with uh hotel providers uh in reviewing other city codes uh in uh crafting it uh from what we know the the wrongs were. Um and and and if we miss the mark, what I would ask is that you continue this hearing um so that we could work collaboratively with your staff um at the hotel owners cost uh to craft something that this council could be supportive of um and is reflective of what we want to bring to this community. >> And you, sir, any last comments? Yes, I would like to just reassure you that we will run it absolutely by the rules and regulations and whatever conditions are there in the conditional license we'll follow them in letter and spirit till such time we you think that we are good to go on our own there'll be nothing we'll not give you a chance like this ever again >> okay thank you thank you for being here So, let me ask the council a question. Obviously, we could revoke this license if that's the council's wishes. I'm I'm not inclined to accept their uh proposed conditions. And the reason that I'm not inclined to accept your conditional hotel proposed licensing conditions and stipulations is because I think if if council decides to go that route, which I'm positive that has not been determined at this point, um I would prefer our staff team along with our police department and our zoning coordinator to be a part of that process if that's council's wishes. Now saying that absolutely what has been brought before me and counsel is unacceptable at every level and I find it hard to find a management capacity person that lacks this much common sense, basic common sense for so long in one So it begs the question, what is the oversight of your site management team from your corporate offices or whoever's in charge? I would be curious to know if this moves forward an answer to that question and I'd like to see it in writing. Council, what's your wishes? >> Mr. I So, we're going to go I'm I'm going to circle back to the New Year's Day double fatality incident. It is not the event itself. I am respective of people's choices. What does not sit well with me is how long it took for your staff to find th to find for those bodies to be found. because I would think that a um an establishment would have housekeeping in their same day, very least the next day. It took these they ended up being unrecognizable which tells me that was way too long. That is what does not sit well with me. It's not the event itself that was held. it was clearly shows the type of um oversight that happens uh for that >> or didn't have it >> or that yes so can I answer that sir please so why that happened was because this is off season so we've got very few housekeepers during offse just two or three are there so by the time they start cleaning the rooms go there it at times get late during the season every room gets cleaned and is ready the very next day or even the same day. But during offse because in a hotel with 175 rooms there are barely five or seven guests for most of the time. So we don't employ too many housekeepers to make sure that everything is ready in a earlier time frame. >> Excuse me. >> That is the reason it >> in the off season you're not full up. You know what rooms are occupied. It was a full hotel booking. So, we start from >> Well, if you had a if you had a full hotel and you're telling us you didn't have enough housekeeping on staff. Is that what you're telling us? >> That's right. Because it's a off season, so we we have got enough time to clean the rooms. There are no new guests coming in the next day. >> You have an obligation and a responsibility to do certain things under laws, various laws, including state laws as well as city laws and federal laws along with fire marshall laws. you've managed to just violate all of them. Uh it's unbelievable. And I know that you're not denying what has happened and we're trying to find a solution. And I will restate to council that if we're if we're not going to pull a license and we're going to try to put a path forward, it I would prefer it be our staff that does that. And and if we're not going to do that and we're going to revoke this license, I'm open, but I will not support accepting what was provided us from Lark and Hoffman. And no offense to you, ma'am, or your firm. So, council needs to to decide what >> I was going to wait for a motion on the floor here, but um is somebody willing to start us off so we have some discussion on that? >> Sure. Um because we are and Mr. Mayor, to go off of what you just said that you wanted you would want our staff to um to be in that talks and to facilitate that that would go along the lines of us being in the business of hotel management, which we are not. Well, I'm looking at it as a if we go down that road, a 24 monthth period where they can actually draft what the expectations are, what the penalties for not meeting these expectations are, uh how the followup and checks are going to be taken care of, how uh how it's going to be funded uh during that 24-month period. Um, and that's what I was thinking, but that's something that obviously staff would have to work through if we go down that path. >> M, Mr. Mayor, >> Mr. Thompson. >> Yeah, it's clearly there's two options before the council tonight. If you're if the council's wishes is to revoke the license, you're fully fully prepared to do that. If that's not the council's choice, I would recommend that you continue in the matter if you're going to give direction to staff. We haven't had an opportunity to vet. >> Absolutely. >> Absolutely. I'm not that I just want to let you know that that would be the second option, not to necessarily adopt that. >> I'm asking council what the majority direction [clears throat] wants to go. >> Mr. waiting. >> From my point of view, I'm, you know, we have a we've been putting together a great, you know, social district area out there. Uh, we've got a lot of partners out there with Canterbury Park and the amphitheater. I can understand in March it was an off season. Uh, I think you mentioned that now with the concerts going on, you're doing are you filling the filling the hotel with the concerts? Well, good. Good. So, that that uh is a change. It shows that, you know, we're building up that area. Now, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to even say this, but in my mind, I'm not in the business of shutting down hotels. There's a certain percentage of of a hotel stay that goes back into the community through the Chamber of Visitors Bureau. So, we we kind of in a way cutting our own throats and having a derelict uh building until it's sold again doesn't in look good to me. So, I would be inclined to continue. I wouldn't go for a full year, but I would uh think about six months to let staff work on this proposal and of course adjust the fee schedule uh to make sure it's paid for. >> Councelor Whiting, when I was mentioning 24 months, that would be the length of the provisional uh >> proposed >> license, not not six months to bring it back. >> Okay. I see. >> Okay. because that that was the timeline that Lark and Hoffman had in their stipulated uh conditional proposal and I would I would stay with that timeline, but I would want all of the concerns addressed by our competent staff who I have much more confidence in, no offense, than I do to the operators of this. >> No, I think they could use this as a starting point and work from there. >> And I want teeth in it. uh and I want penalties shown and >> you know if this happens >> this is what happens and you know there might be some stipulations in there that if this happens it's automatically revoked it doesn't even come back to us >> might even go out to other hotels as well that could potent be a potential you know rider >> um or we can revoke it too so I'm I'm just trying to put options out there Mr. Um, so we can get some discussion going, I'm going to make a motion to approve resolution R2026-016 upholding the revocation of the hotel license for the Baymont Hotel and adopting. >> Conclusions and order. >> Second. >> Motion and second. Any discussion on >> Mr. Thompson? Uh before you act in that motion, I do recommend we add just a couple things to one of the whereas clauses to take into account things that have happened tonight. So on the second to the last whereas clause were list of things that the council considered. Um one thing that I heard tonight that we should add there including videos of activity taking place inside the hotel that's not specifically referenced in the findings. Uh the other thing to add, we referenced the May 5th, 2026 hearing letter. Uh we should add a a reference to that finding and also the letter from um the appellants attorney dated July 17, 2026 in the attached proposed conditional license. And uh at the next to the end of that paragraph right after the word safety personnel add the evidence and testimony considered at the hearing on July 21st, 2026 before the city council. >> Would the motion maker like to amend his motion with the recommendations of our attorney? >> Yes. >> And the second? >> Yes. >> Okay. Is everybody clear on that? >> Yes. Is the records keeper clear? >> Okay. Discussion. >> I don't think it's a good >> Go ahead. >> I don't think it's a good use of city resource. I mean, we're I read through that proposal we have. We're conducting compliance meetings, review reports, monitoring events, and providing point of sites. I agree with our administrator. We're not in the hotel business. That's a lot of staff time. >> Okay. >> Councelor Contrers, >> thank you. And my um point is despite um receiving city warning and being advised of you know potential violations, hotel management and the many times our police have been out there again using our city resources. I'm not there. >> Okay. Well, what I'm what I proposed as an option and I'm not saying it's the right option would be reimbured for any expenses. Obviously, um the goal is to put a template in order with expectations, penalties, um which could include a revocation on the spot by the zoning administrator without coming back to council. Um it's trying to save a business, but I get where you're coming from. It's totally unacceptable what's happening out here. No doubt. All right. Any other discussion? >> Nope. >> I said [clears throat] my piece. >> All in favor say I. I >> opposed. >> I >> motion passes. >> 4 to1. >> Was it 4 to1? >> Thank you. >> Item number nine, leazison reports. Mr. Where did I start last time? >> I think we started on this end last time. >> Mr. Delaney. >> Okay. Sh public utilities. We did have a meeting to buy cable and I think that probably kicked off this whole data center discussion. What I would like to propose was wait for other business but I even brought this up in Smuck. We need to have a workshop on data centers that may help clear the air with the community and just also get staff and even council educated on the different types. >> There's nothing that stops the public utilities commission from doing so. >> Well, I also made a recommendation to them too just to I'm making it to both bodies. That's something that needs to be done just so everybody's aware of of the different types and everything because we do have a data center concern. Again, I brought it up over there that community needs to be educated because there are moratoriums going in place, but also there's a different there's different types of data centers. I just want to make sure that's clear. So, that's that's out there. Um the other is um officer swearing in. We I went to the swearing in this past I think it was yesterday. This week's gone by so quick. Um, welcome to our new officers. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Yesterday, the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority Board met, the executive committee, um, looked at three proposals for our operator contract. Uh, just going to be starting some negotiations there and discussions. And just a quick budget update. That's about it. >> How's the budget looking? >> Good. Just the changes, you know, making budget amendments, things like that. >> Councelor Contrarus. >> Thank you, Mayor. But I have no report tonight. >> Councelor Lara, >> thank you. Uh attended the swearing in of the two officers yesterday as well. Um it's glad good to see that um our uh force is growing and also um learning how long it takes for us the recruitment process to happen. So we really do find the best of the best. So welcome. >> Very good. I attended the uh swearing in of the police officers. Cookies were outstanding. And the myth of police and bagels is just that a myth. They're actually to donuts now. >> Cookies. >> Has there been a change in the Has there been a change in the sprinkles thing or uh >> the frosting is >> leadership? You know, it could be sprinkles. My >> frosting is always good. Uh Mr. Reynolds, staffing, anything? >> Uh just one thing. Uh, I sent you all this email, but I think it's important that we recognize some superior uh, activities of some of our staff. The Minnesota Government Communications Association Northern Lights Awards just occurred. Uh, we have a perennial award winner and Deb Noble, >> who is just the, as I call her, the award-winning Deb Noble. She's just phenomenal. >> She's a champion. She uh she won uh multiple awards including the first place award for the Farmstead bike park logo which was also listed as a finalist for best in show meaning for everything. >> Uh and uh Amanda Lily, our communications manager, also had several awards. So congratulations to both of them. I will say that the uh third place for the Sand Venture pre-sale event, I don't know if you're aware of that, but there was a pirate that was involved in that. So, they got third place, but uh I thought that maybe that would have been a little higher. But anyway, uh so congratulations to both Amanda and Deb for just superior once again being recognized by the state association. >> The pirate had the bronze and not the gold. >> Did not get gold. city bill list. Questions on the bill list? >> None for me. >> Uh other business and we're going to have to We didn't get a list of what we have going on. Um if our park and rec director wants to mention to the community what we've got going on between now and the next meeting, that would be great. And while she's making her way up here, there is um tomorrow is uh Rhythm on the Rails. >> Yep. Rhythm on the rails. And Thursday we have things at the Hubert Park, I believe. >> That's the concert rain. >> Yes. This Thursday we have our uh summer concert series at Huber Park. Um and I'll also highlight that it's supposed to be nice and warm and Sand Venture is a great place to enjoy a nice hot summer day. So come on down. Um there's lots of traffic going on, but the pool is open. Um and it's a great time. >> Rhythm on the rails tomorrow, >> correct? Yes. Rhythm Rhythm on the Rails is tomorrow as well. >> Is is it going to be Mitchell Hall? Is that the rain one or >> Mitchell Hall is going to be on August 13th, um which is also night to unite. Um so the parks and rock department has applied for a block party permit for Huber Park. So people can >> cool >> um come down, listen to the music and be part of both events at the same time. >> All right. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you very much. Any other business? >> From me. >> Motion to adjurnn would be in order. >> Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to I'll make a motion to adjurnn to August 4th, 2026 at 7 p.m. >> Seconded by Council Contrarus. Council contrary got a second. All in favor say I. >> Opposed. We're adjourned.