Good afternoon everyone. Thanks uh for having me. My name is John Pearlich. I do go by JP cuz when I started at the St. Paul area Chamber there were three other John's on staff and I have uh survived the Hunger Games. Um but I was given a nickname to differentiate. Still can't get my real name back. Uh really grateful to be here with you today. Uh I do serve as the vice president of government affairs for the St. Paul Area Chamber and uh if I can keep my boss B Kyle from firing me, I will have uh been in my pit role for six years come this January. So really honored to be here to uh moderate today's panel discussion, growing Oakdale, positioning our city in 2026 and beyond, you know, and thank you to our panel participants uh to the Oakdale area chamber uh and for the invitation to be here. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. I am going to take a couple of >> Why do you have two sets of glasses? Anybody else wondering? >> Because I'm not aging gracefully. Uh, so the, uh, the good folks at Oakdale Optical, big plug, told me uh, I needed some readers. So that's why I have two pair. Uh, so a couple of points of personal privilege, aside from my glasses. Uh, while Mark Cove couldn't be here to join us, uh, I do want to thank him uh, in front of his peers, his colleagues, and some might even say his friends. Uh, Mark Cove put $2 in my bank account today because he cannot pick winners uh, come election night. So, thank you to Mark Cove. Um, and I would also be remiss if I didn't mention my uh good friends from what we lovingly at the St. Paul Area Chamber call the Oakdale Mafia. Uh, Mr. Schwarz, Mr. Ranki, I don't think Bob Bullion's with us, but gentlemen, it's always a pleasure to see you. Let's get into the panel. Uh, we'll do some introductions and get to the questions. Uh, we're very fortunate today to have an experienced panel representing Oakdale. Uh altogether, our four panelists have an impressive 73 years of combined service to the city of Oakdale. That's a uh that's a big number. Uh we'll start with Mayor Zabel uh to my Well, I guess they're all to my left technically. Um we're going to start with you, Mr. Mayor, because well, you have the election certificate. >> That's right. Uh Mayor Zavo has served uh on the Oakdale City of Oakdale City Council for nearly 11 years. uh served the city of Oakdale. Began as a planning commissioner in 2015, was elected council member in 2017, and mayor in 2023. Welcome, mayor. Thanks for being here. >> Thank you, JP. >> Uh we also have city administrator Christina Vulkers. Said that right. Correct. >> Chris is good. Chris is good. >> Oh, Chris. Wow. >> We're getting uh real informal up here already. >> We all call him the boss. Chris has been with the city of Oakdale for 5 years. Uh has 37 years of government experience working with county government, state and county courts, and cities in both Minnesota and California. She began her career in Oakdale in 2020. Fire Chief Wald has been with the Oakdale Fire Department for 33 years. Now I see how we get to 73 years of combined service. He began as a volunteer firefighter in 1992 and worked his way up through the ranks to become the first full-time deputy chief in the city's history in 2003. And he was promoted to fire chief in 2020. Uh last but definitely not least. Um he's probably the only one in here with a gun. Uh do we know that though? Yeah, we don't know that. Nor nor can we ask. Uh, Police Chief Nick Newton has been with the Oakdale Police Department for 24 years. He began as a police officer in 20 2001 and rose through the ranks to become sergeant in 2006. Captain in 2020 and police chief in 2021. Welcome panelists and thank you for being here with us. We'll start with the mayor again, election certificate, and I'm a rule follower. So, Mayor Zabo, Oakdale has a proud history as a strong, familyoriented community. How would you describe Oakdale's identity today? And how is it evolving as the city grows? How is it involved as you've served the city? >> Yeah. Uh, can everybody hear me if I go without a microphone? Microphone better. Okay. All right. We'll pass it back and forth. uh our identity as a city, you know, I think we see it all around us like uh JP said, it's evolving. It's growing. Um for a long time, we kind of plateaued as a city. Um for better or for worse, I think for better, for definitely because that I think during those plateau periods, that's when as a city we can really hone our skills and our services. Um and so having that stability in our population base means staff can really hunker down and do what they do best. And when when we talk about our reputation around the metro, that is definitely a huge part of it is we are known for top tier services. Um that's how our residents uh identify with us, but also our competitors, as we like to say, in other cities. Um when it comes to evolving, you know, I think that's part of the that's the most exciting part about serving in local government is we get to help shape what that that identity looks like going forward. Um, obviously our our community partners, our stakeholders, groups like the chamber, Rotary clubs, um, youth athletics, they all get to play a really important role in that. And so, what does our identity look like in the near future to be determined? I think that's kind of exciting. >> Thank you. I'm guess we're going to do a little followup on that cuz you had mentioned partnerships and uh last week I spent uh 3 days in Detroit on our chamber's inner city leadership visit and uh if you don't know anything about Detroit, Detroit could have in the early 2000s could have been called close to a failed city. Uh they had declared bankruptcy, blight, public safety issues, kind of the whole kitten kaboodleoodle. But one of the things they talked about was partnerships, public private partnerships that help drive their their revitalization and their rebirth. Um, you know, what are some partnerships and collaboration that you look forward to and that you see is the need to to continue to grow Oakdale? >> Yeah. Um, you know, public private partnerships for a growing city as we're kind of closing the the development chapter um of our city. Obviously, a ton of partnerships there as we're building out a 206 acre neighborhood in Willowbrook. Um, we rely heavily on our our private partners in that project. Um, not only to build it, but, you know, to to get a reli reliable residence base there. Um, once the development chapter ends, then it's redevelopment in in our community and a lot of communities. Um, you know, I was talking with a resident a couple weeks ago. Uh, look at a lot of the cities touching 494 and 694 around the metro. We all kind of came about as a city around the same time, mid70s. Uh there was a court case that kind of opened the doors and allowed a lot of cities to organize. And we're all kind of aging at the same pace, which is kind of exciting, but also daunting. We're getting at that 50 to 55 year point where a lot of things need to be updated. They're we're just aging out of infrastructure, government buildings, um even staff, you know, generational turnover in our staff. Um all of that invites new opportunities for us to write that next chapter in our community. private partners play a huge role in that. Um, you know, I think, uh, when Chief Newton or Captain Newton at that time was interviewing for the chief position, um, the community panels that we had put together as part of that process to weigh in on what should public safety look like in our community helped steer that process. Um, I think I think some people in this room were even on those panels. And so having those different perspectives at the table as we're working to build a city, shape a city, guide a city, indispensable. Absolutely indispensable. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Chris, we'll be moving on to you. And uh Lori, if you're out there, I could use that copy of questions because I printed the wrong copy. >> Thank you. >> Uh I've got the No, I don't. I have only mine. Sorry. Do you guys have yours? >> We'll We'll wing it. Wing it. Okay. I I've talked to enough cops and fire chiefs in my time that I'm sure we can come up with some questions for them. Uh so as kind of the administrative lead in Oakdale, you know, how's the role of local government changed over the past decade? What trends are you seeing that kind of shape how cities operate, how cities develop, how cities kind of look forward to that next generation? So, I've had a long career in lo in government, local government, and and it's changed dramatically. You know, um we use these words like transparency and accountability as in a general sense, but really that has become the the the thing that drives local government. You know, we we want our citizens involved. And that has changed. It used to be let's keep as much secret as possible. I mean, we're talking 20, 30 years ago, but not secret in that we don't want to share. secret and that we don't want the attention. And so we've had to evolve and and accept the social media aspects and and all everything's out there. And so that's been a good thing. It's been a great thing for local government because there isn't anything behind the scenes. Anything you want to know, we're willing to tell you. And we post it. I mean, we post a lot. We post on social media and our residents post a lot. They have post a lot of questions and we are right there answering it. And that's evolved. It never used to be like that. Well, we've lost our local print newspapers in many situations. Um, there's other ways now and it's far more um impacting to people and so we've had to kind of adjust with that. So, that's a big thing. The workforce too has been another thing. Um, you know, we've got many generations in the workforce and all of you own businesses and you know this. they're from my generation or older than me and then you know there's four generations and that are have different needs and the younger workforce um is different and we've had to evolve and that's a good thing. It's been a benefit to the older I don't mean age but the more tenured um workers in that we the the younger generations have brought you know this need to be flexible and you know the remote work and and to really care about the personal things that are going on in their life and allow the wellness and so forth and that's been a benefit to everybody. So I think the theme is really evolving local government I think is evolving all governments but specifically local government I think we're doing a pretty good job keeping up with it. So, we're trying and if we are doing it wrong, trust me, the workforce will tell us we are doing it wrong and we need to adjust to that. So, >> what's the future? >> Well, the future is more of that I'm sure um more, you know, as as some of us age out of the um system, I think there's going to be more innovation and more trying new things. You know, when when I was raised in this world, you know, we were always very careful. I still am, you know, very proper, very careful, very whatever. and this new generation is coming up with these great ideas, things we could have never thought of. And we need to allow them to experiment with that. And I think that's a different way to um evolve. And then with the with the residents, you know, more hearing from them, answering them, having them come in. You know, nobody wants to come to city hall anymore. We try not to take it personally, but they don't. And so we want them, we want to hear from them, however that looks in whatever way. So I think there's more of that. So, you mentioned generations a lot in that answer, and you know, trigger warning for the boomers and the Gen Xers, myself included in this room. Um, I'm about as high-tech as a number two pencil. So, uh, are we going to see a Tik Tok, uh, channel from the city of Oakdale? Maybe some some choreographed dances, you know, >> from the mayor. >> Yeah. like like I don't even know how to use Slack. Um I probably couldn't even tell you what a Slack is, but like how are you incorporating some of those new technologies, communication platforms, uh AI, uh into government work? >> You know, we don't do press releases, right? Those are big be prep floor. We don't really do press releases. We send the mayor out to do a video for a minute or so, and he's always telling us, keep it short, right? Keep it short, >> short and to the point. >> Yep. do the message. We've got the Monday morning minute which tells Oakdale what's going on and the mayor is doing that for 60 seconds every Monday and it's we're we're trying to evolve with the technology. We've got cclick fix. That's a recent thing that um the city implemented. Every resident or anywhere I guess you don't have to be a resident of Oakdale, but if you have something to say about Oakdale, the buildings, the parks, the streets, the snow, whatever, submit the ticket on Seclick Fix. It's an app free. Download it once and it's super easy. Comes right to us. we follow up on it. We're still adjusting a little bit. So, patience is good, but that we're adjusting as needed and we're trying to adjust. Government is not known for being super fast in this regard, but we are trying. So, >> I'm put your hand down. Uh, I'm going to add a follow up on that because I I think Chris, to your point about government evolving, I think in my time, what, nine years on council, the biggest shift I have seen is how government has changed how we approach our residents. Um, in being more proactive in meeting our residents where they're at. You know, we like to say in local government, we never want to be top 10 most important things in any resident's day because that's bad. Um, people are busy, people are they have hectic lives. How do we what we do, whether it's communications, whether it's public safety, meet our residents, meet people visiting our city where they're at so we can be a part of their lives, not expecting them to come to us. Um, that's a huge shift. It requires just a different mentality that probably didn't exist 20, 25 years ago in local government. So, for the better, I think, but it requires a lot more time investment, resource investment on the front end versus being reactive. >> Have one thing on it. Yeah, >> you know, Mayor, that's a good point. I think what we have evolved to, I keep saying that word, but it's a really good theme, um, is that we try to get our residents to, um, trust and respect us. We do the right thing at the beginning, and then when things come up, they have, they figure out how to get a hold of us and we can respond and, um, we can adjust as needed, but it's really about that trust and respect at the front end. And I think in Oakdale, we've done a decent job of that. I think our residents think we do okay. We try to do okay. I think they think we do okay, but that's really important for the next phase as we as everything changes. So, >> pass it down to the chiefs. I think this is a good topic of proactive versus reactive in our services and how police and fire are changing too. >> Yes. I mean, just in the last 20 years and you talk about evolving in just different areas, whether it's a public works, fire, police, um we're operating at a today where AI is taking it by storm. um every industry and we're we're seeing as our newer officers that we hire, they demand this technology. They they grew up with computers. They expect that we're going to have computers um and all this technology, drones, and you know, for us for Oakdale evolving in 2018, we had a major change where we shifted from paper to digital and that included a report management system, a CAD system. In 2023, we brought in bodywn cameras and uh digital evidence management systems. And you know for evolving as a as a police force you know when it comes to crime um really good example I have this is when I started my career in 2001 if we had a violent crime uh if it was a shooting or a violent assault uh the expectations for us then was just to collect a few statements on audio cassette tape take a couple pictures uh send a report to the prosecutor u and that was acceptable where we're at today is there's far greater expectations and there should be because we want to make sure we get it right. But, you know, those those expectations, uh, you're going to go there, you're going to interview every party that's involved, uh, you're going to collect and recover all the evidence. And probably the biggest change is now they want a forensic investigation with every type of uh, incident that occurs. So, that's that's a takes a lot of uh, a lot of uh, resources, you know, including the officers, the detectives that need to dedicate time extracting this information. So, uh, we are evolving with the times and we have taken really big strides here in the last few years. And Chief Hold, I can turn it over to you if you want to talk on that, too. >> Yeah. >> Well, I a couple things. Um, one, talk about trust and building trust within the community. You know, um, Nick and I and our public safety, you know, we're we're we're all about community engagement, right? That's how we build trust with the members of our community. We're out there. We've done more community events or PR events over the last year than we've done probably in the last 5 years that Nick and I have been in our roles. We just feel it's important to get out and get with the community. Bring people into our firehouse for tours, events, birthday parties. We just had a Halloween thing at the fire station the other day. We did a two-hour event. We gave over 500 hot dogs away to residents down there, as well as candy and other things. It's important for us and it's the only way quite frankly to build trust with our residents and our community as it's changed over the years, right? I started in 1992. Tell me that I and I'm born and raised in this city. So that's either sad or or really good. But um >> we appreciate it. >> But um I've seen this city change tremendously. Whether it's diversity, whether it's growth, whether it's urban devel, it doesn't matter. But it's changed in our way to build trust, especially post the George Floyd era with our residents is is for us to engage with the community as much as we can. That's how we build trust. So when we come on calls to see these po they have familiar faces, whether it's the schools or commercial businesses or residents or whatnot. So that's the one thing I wanted to add. The second thing is is our department is also has the technology has just skyrocketed over the last few years with AI chat GPT all that stuff. Um we continue to look to evolve in different ways that we can be more efficient. We can be more fiscally responsible by being more efficient and not ask to burden the taxpayers. Um and just do different things that we normally wouldn't do. And the technology is a big part of that. So, we're also really really looking at different ways we can do things. >> Sorry, that was long. >> Thank you, Chiefs. Uh, you know, looking here, if my math is right, uh, about 57 combined years uh, to the city. You know, you've already mentioned technology and some of how the the job has changed. Are you are you seeing different crimes, different types of emergency response scenarios? You know, I I come from St. Paul where we hear a lot about, you know, fentanyl crisis, co-responders, uh some of those things. How are your uh departments kind of navigating those those new challenges and and what are some of the newer challenges you're seeing? Uh yes, as our community continues to grow and evolved, u our city, our officers, firefighters, we're all experiencing some some new things and we're learning from those. And you mentioned a fentanyl. I mean, just two nights ago in front of our Cub Food store, someone uh overdose on fentanyl. Um 15 years ago, that that stuff didn't happen often. we're finding ourselves more and more often um dealing with these challenging situations. And you know, as the the city continues to grow, we expect there's going to be some shift in in services that we need to anticipate. Uh we anticipate there's going to be more quality of life issues, more homelessness, uh behavioral health issues will continue. Uh it's probably our our biggest thing we're dealing with right now is navigating this this change in behavioral health. Uh our officers uh go to 40 hours of training for crisis intervention uh scenario-based training uh continually for deescalation, managing crisis uh situations. And quite frankly, our our citizens have come to expect a more tailored response to our community uh instead of just this revolving door of going to a person's home uh dealing with the crisis and then leaving then coming back the next day doing the same thing. So, we're doing uh everything in our power to connect our our citizens that are going through crisis to uh the appropriate resources. Chief, you want to add to that? Yeah, I mean this this is this is a this is a softball up to me. Easy to hit out of the park here. So, our biggest concern in the fire service um is not only active shooter and persons in crisis. Those are the two biggest things that if you asked me years ago would we be dealing with um these situations, I would have lost the bet. There's no way. Um but you know, our fire staff probably eight years ago started wearing ballistic vests. our fire staff, not police officers. We don't carry guns. Our fire staff, they wear ballistic vests on every call that they go on. If that doesn't give you an indication on how things have changed over the years from safety and from a threat perspective, that should tell you everything, right? And the other thing is is the the crisis calls um in the last like chief had mentioned in the last 3 to four years probably since the pandemic um have skyrocketed. that that's the majority of what we do on the ambulance side of things is is deal with crisis um and how we navigate through that and and train our people to have um deescalation techniques. Uh how do we be sympathetic? How do we deal with people that are in crisis? How do we not um make it escalate even higher? U that's the majority of what we're doing now versus um years ago where we were dealing with people with heart attacks. And we still do that, right? But um the crisis calls are hands down um what I've seen over the last few years that really really put an impact on at least our staff as well cuz then we have to take care of our own staff, right? So we have to embed a you know mental health and make sure we take care of our own people who continuously go out and deal with that. And these are some changes over the last few years that in my early careers we didn't we didn't deal with that. It's just changed over time. You know, I I want to I want to touch on something Chief Wald said there. You know, firefighters wearing ballistic vests. Think about that. You know, um perhaps one of the biggest challenges that local government has to deal with is just the nature of the world around us. Obviously, we I don't think anybody would, you know, guess that 10 years ago we would ever say we'd be at that point where firefighters have to have protection. Schools, same thing. I mean the amount of thought thought and planning that has to go into keeping our schools safe and secure learning environments astronomical. Um even you know so starting next year I think you all know the police department will be undergoing a renovation along with that is city hall as we work through the design plans of that having conversations about okay where should panic buttons be located within the building because the reality is there's always going to be somebody upset at local government and the degree to which they take it is unpredictable. Um, you know, I think one of the one of the design features in the city hall remodel that I'm perhaps most proud of is that all of our staff is going to be parking in secured parking. That is a huge change that city hall staff would have to be in a secured fenced in park parking area for their vehicles. But when you hear things like city staff members have had their cars vandalized by people upset about code enforcement, you know, and then you think of how many of our staff members work late at night as the city council is meeting, you know, th those things that seemed um out of reach in the past are very real and tangible now. It's just a recognition of where we're at as a world. Um and so yeah, it's an additional investment. We we wish we didn't have to make it, but it is the reality that our staff, if you're a city vocal staff member, raise your hand. We have a lot of our senior leadership team here with us today. It's stuff that they deal with every single day that for elected officials, we never thought was possible, but it is just the reality in local government. Well, all of government. >> I'll uh keep an eye out for my invite to the ribbon cutting. >> Absolutely. Uh, Chiefs, you had mentioned not only dealing with people in crisis, but also helping your officers and firefighters as they kind of process through some of that. I know over in Woodbury, they have Otis, the service dog. Um, if you don't know who Otis is, I highly recommend you get to know Otis. Uh, are we going to see an Otis type service dog coming to Oakdale anytime soon? Look at those smiles. >> Yes. Yeah, we we hope to see uh our wellness initiatives um be more holistic as we evolve into the the future. But you know, just on that topic of wellness, it's funny when Chief Old and I started our careers, the word wellness was was not even a a vocabulary word in our organization. um you you witness something just tragic and the the supervisor's response is well shake it off, get back out there. These calls can't can't stay in stack. Um to a point we're at now is we have officers walking around talking about therapists they're seeing. Um it's it's viewed as a is a sign of strength, not a weakness. Um so to see that change is is been just fantastic. And not to mention in in public safety and also other fields, but recruitment and retention uh issues, uh these newer officers that are are coming into this profession, they're they're working in a more complex and uh accountable environment and they also they look for wellness initiatives. When um we're posting a job posting, we really have to hit the points of uh hey, we uh we support you. We have wellness initiatives. We have therapists, you can see uh both uh mind and body wellness initiatives. Um and also we're we're trying to keep up with the the advent and technology to make sure that these young officers can operate in environment that uh that they're used they're used to what they grew up with. >> Chief, you want me to talk about a dog? >> We we would we would love a dog. It's just it's a little complicated um to bring a dog into the firehouse. Um, some of our neighboring agencies have have done that. It's been very successful. So, we're certainly open to it. It's just it's not as easy as just going to Koko's heart and grabbing one and bringing it back to the station. There's there's there's things to think about, but that is the I mean that is another thing in the fire service as well as um the police department that we're seeing though a lot of those it just um we have to take care of our people. I think um if I could just add about wellness you know our employees um you know they expect and and and they want additional concentration on wellness as an employer and as such we've we've done a lot of things really different than I would have imagined even 5 years ago. You know we we offer um we make sure that they have access to workout areas. We really promote that during the day and and they're running over to the fire station. We don't have a lot of them right now, but we've got new buildings coming on and they'll get a lot better, but um we've got employees that are running over to the fire station during the day and working out on the equipment there and police officers of course and public safety are excellent at it. But regular city hall employees, um public works employees, for example, we offer so much um so many opportunities for for um remote work and alternative work schedules like I mentioned earlier, but I don't know that anybody works literally 8 to 4:30 anymore. there there's just so many opportunities. If they need to leave during the day, we've got the flex time. People can take their computers home. We get our work done. We've got metrics and we check it, right? But it's just so different. And being nobody's coming in city hall, which I complained about earlier, it allows us to go and um do other things, you know, work remote or have a more flexible schedule and stuff. So, that's great. And the council's been extremely supportive. We close the buildings, all buildings for our annual employee appreciation event. We've got um we've got staff all staff meetings that we've re incorporated and people love getting the information and having the opportunity to participate and to tell us what they think. Lots of surveys. They love to tell us what they think. So that's a good thing too. >> Uh you know the one thing I would add um I remember oh it was a handful of years ago um Chris asked us or asked council to impose summer Fridays. Yes. >> Closing down city hall Friday afternoon allowing those hours to be spread throughout the week. Uh, and I remember I was a skeptic because I said, "Well, what about all of the residents that want to come in on Friday afternoon to pull a permit? >> You know, they should they should have the ability to do it." We took a leap of faith. Uh, anybody want to guess how many resident complaints I've gotten because they weren't able to go in on a Friday afternoon in the summer? >> Zero. Zero. You know, so sometimes proof and concept matters, you know. Um, but I do think it has been a tremendous benefit to just say, you know what, go enjoy the sunshine while we have it. We don't get a lot of it up here. So those small carveouts that we can make from a policymaker perspective um through our city administrator really do matter. I mean it's one small thing but a lot of small things add up which is pretty cool. >> As someone who also has summer Fridays at their place of work, I endorse it. Uh thank you to the panel. I hope you're open for some questions because I'm going to turn the mic over to the audience and uh see what they got for you. Schwarz's hand went up immediately. >> Mike. Um, my biggest question is, is the employee parking heated? >> No. Uh, the G the general employee parking, no, it is outdoor, but police will have indoor parking for their cruisers. Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, separate parking area. >> The mayor is still going to be trucking through the police. >> Yep. Yep. Um, seriously though, when it comes to the technology, how has it increased for those I I maybe not in Oakdale, but I'm sure other communities have those residents that, you know, can be a real pain or have multiple police calls and stuff like that. So, has the technology now in seem to have increased that because more other residents are seeing either negative comments or, you know, kind of seeing what's going on more. Uh, I would say I I think it goes back to Oakdale's proactive style. You know, when you see that negative comment on social media, being able to get out in front of it, course correct before it spirals out of control is huge. Um, you know, we will never get away from those Facebook posts. Uh, I heard a loud boom or I saw a bunch of squad cars. But there is still that level of trust within, you know, public safety, for example, that that the situation is being handled. As a city, we have been abundantly clear if there is a threat to the public, we will communicate that out. And so it kind of leaves it in that sheer curiosity stage, not community concern stage. Um, and I think throughout all of our departments, that proactive style we have seen time and time again paying dividends on those community questions that come about. Get ahead of the story, get the information out there. They may not like it. It is what it is, but I think that contributes directly to nobody coming to city hall to see us. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, I I think I can speak loud, too. Rachel Pres, Oakdale resident and I work at Community Drive. We're based in Still Water, but serve central in northern Washington County. Shout out to Chief Wolf for a second. He did a tour for my son's birthday when he turned four three years ago, but it was so much fun. So, um, just just thank you so much for working with us, uh, at the community side. One question though, as we talk the future of Oakdale, one thing we weren't talking about, and I would love to hear how you're all planning for it in your roles, our aging community. As we know, the population in Washington County, the largest single decade of age right now is 50 to 59. So, the next 10 to 20 years, that's all going to be an age that continues to age with us. And we can talk technology, we can talk a lot of different things, but we have folks who um are going to have different needs. We all know that those needs are changing as that population becomes the largest we've seen as an older adult population. So, how well do you feel um we are prepared and how are you preparing for a increase in older adults? >> Yeah. Uh from a policy perspective, I can use that. Yeah. From a policy perspective, you know, I think there's two big areas that every city wants to focus on. social services, which is a direct partnership with our our our friends at the county. Um, and how we can leverage the interactions that our city staff, public safety, whatever it might be, um, leverage those interactions to get residents, older residents that need those social services to that resource. You know, at the city, we're not we don't provide those resources, but we have the direct contact. We have the relationship, the interaction with those residents. So, we have to be the conduit. Um, secondly, housing. Housing is a huge issue for every community in Minnesota right now. We are 100,000 units of housing short. Half of that has to be in the metro. Um and so as we think about what space is available in our community, it's becoming less and less every single day. But also the the desires and the needs for types of housing is changing also. We're seeing older residents want lowmaintenance, no yards. That's a very different development model than Oakdale 20 years ago. And so look at Willowbrook. You know, when LAR Homes came in there and said, "We want to do 50 foot lots, you know, slab grade, no basements." It's like, whoa, we don't have that in Oakdale. But then also look at the age demographics of who've moved in there. You know, I know a handful of residents that moved from bigger homes on the golf course where they raised a family for 30 years, wanted to stay in the community because they love our community, they love our services and that fit their needs where they wanted to be. Um, we also, every city is just dealing with a huge backlog on kind of that natural progression of housing. Um, we have a lot of residents who have lived in homes 30 40 years. Um, during the COVID years, it would have been the natural time for them to move into assisted living. congregate care um as kind of the next step of their housing journey. Well, it was co they didn't they chose not to for I think entirely valid reasons. And so when we think about that natural progression of housing, that stopped it because in theory those, you know, if we think about our community, uh, kind of the cottage style down by Tanner's Lake, you know, south of 10th Street, uh, west of Hadley, prime examples of a housing stock that would have been really, um, would have been turning over a lot during those years and also would have been really, um, good options for entry-level home buyers. It stopped the whole process. And so we need to think about housing options for seniors that can kind of restart that. Uh Oakdale Commons, the senior 55 plus community that opened up behind HY is a great example of how we're trying to get those wheels turning again and creating a housing product that seniors want to move into. >> The mayor did a great job talking about housing. I'll just expand on that. Andy Goff is in the audience. Andy, raise your hand. There you go. He's our community development director and he spends a lot of time on this subject and working with um Washington County CDA and we have a lot of developers that are interested in senior housing and transitional housing and and the different levels of senior housing. So, he's been spending a lot of time in our staff working with these developers to make sure that Oakdale is prepared for that situation. With that, I'll turn it over for public safety. Yeah, it was uh touched on earlier was about our the amount of uh engagement that we're doing with our community. Uh just so for the police department, just this year we've done 34 formal uh community engagement events and we really strive to kind of touch all the diversity of our community from kids going to daycarees, schools, um all the way to uh engagement with our our senior citizens. Uh this year we started uh what's called the senior safety seminar. Uh we do two of those where we try to connect with with our uh aging population and really try to take that opportunity to talk about cyber crime, uh cryptocurrency scams, all these things that are just evolving, these scams we can't keep up with. So we we do our best to do that through prevention engagement. I'll be brief because Eric's hovering over me right here, which tells me it's time to be done. Um, the aging population is a huge concern of ours. That's that's the most of our ambulance calls. I talked about crisis, but aging population is where most of our ambulance runs come from. So, as as they age and community ages, it really taxes our services. And the more calls that we go on, the more calls for service. So, we have to look at additional staffing, which then there's a budget and financial impact. So, it's just it's it it's a trickle effect. Um, we try to and by getting people out of their own homes um when they become older into care facilities, it lessens it a little bit because there's staff there to take care of them a little bit versus they're on their own in their own house, which then they just call 911. And we go to repeat people day in and day out. Sometimes we go to people every day. They call every day for us to either come help them, pick them up, take them to the hospital, whatever the case. So that's a huge thing for us. >> Yeah. >> Are we getting these guys? >> All right. I'm going to say one last thing real quick. As we talk about Oakdale now, Oakdale in the future, um, and the challenges our staff face, challenges our residents face, I want to say without a shadow of a doubt, the team that we have in place right now, from council members Carrie, Gary, where' Andy go? >> Oh jeez. Uh, okay, maybe not him. Um, from from the elected team to our our staff, our our leadership in Chris, our senior management team, the chiefs, Melanie and HR, Cory, public works, Andy, community development, assist city, admin, Jake, Lori. Where'd Lori go? There's Lori, communications. There is no doubt in my mind we have the perfect team to push Oakdale forward, to meet the needs, meet the wants of our residents now and where we're going, more so than I have ever had in my entire tenure. Um it >> good job. >> We we should all be incredibly excited of where Oakdale is going and then add in all of our amazing partnerships with our community, whether it's the chamber, um our the faith community, our school district, that only makes us better. And so super excited about where Oakdale is going because and I a lot of it goes to those that came before us and laid a lot of groundwork. Um so we should all be incredibly proud of our community. You know, I I use it on social media a lot. #be Oakdale proud. Um because I don't think we've always said that in our community in such a a deliberate and outward facing way. We should be Oakdale proud. This is a hell of a community even though we're in Lake Elmo right now, but it's fine. Uh >> awesome. Thank you guys. Go Oakville. >> Uh with that said, that does conclude our meeting today. Are you guys going to be available to stick around for any more questions? So, if you have any more questions, these guys are nice enough to maybe stick around for a couple of questions privately. So, thank you so much for being here and we will see you guys at Coffee and Commerce on Tuesday.