We got to wait for that light to change. Oh my fingers. All righty. I will call this meeting of the city council of Oak Park Heights, Minnesota to order. First item is the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. And then the approval of the agenda. I believe we have one addition item G under consent, which would be fireworks sales and storage at Lowe's. I move approval as agenda is presented with the amendment. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Next is my swearing in. So I guess I'll go up front for that. All right. [Music] says, "Okay." Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Chuck Dhy, I Chuck Dhy do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Minnesota the constitution of the state of Minnesota and that I will discharge faithfully that I will discharge faithfully the duties of the office of mayor the duties of the office of mayor and the city of Oak Park Heights the city of Oak Park Heights to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability Mr. And we'll take a few minute recess for the mayor to take family photos to celebrate the moment. Thanks, Steve. It's a good picture. It's not going in. All right. Thank you. My pleasure. That's a fabulous signature. Thank you. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Guys signature. I'm sure. Good job. Yeah, absolutely. over here. [Music] One more time. Lovely. [Music] Congrats. [Music] Congratulations, mayor. I did. Thank you. Thank you. You know, you probably could have got public works to do. I said you probably could have got public works to do that. Oh. [Laughter] That's all right. I got it. All righty. We'll call this meeting back in session. Um, first item is council and staff reports. Um, let's see. I was it did a um I can't think of a word. I see you see um coalition utilities. Yeah. the coalition coalition of utility cities meeting on Monday just doing a wrap up on the session and and kind of some plans for going forward. One thing is we're going to be getting a rebate back because they had more money in their coffers than they need. So according to their bylaws that then we get a rebate. So so we have some money coming back. Um parks commission meeting last week was cancelled and I will be attending the league of Minnesota cities um conference up in Duth next two days. Uh, and we'll go to council member Johnson. I attended the middle St. Croy watershed meeting for this month. The big item on the agenda was the Rainy Johnson estate parking lot expansion. Um, the uh, watershed did suggest approval with one condition which was sent over to this administrator this afternoon. Uh, council member Lindr. Uh, I have nothing new to report. I wasn't able to attend the um the fire meeting. So maybe you can Yep. give a quick update here. Okay. Council member Runk. I have nothing to report. Okay. Then city administrator. Yeah. Mayor, council, good evening. Uh quick update on our well three project. So we have started that. Um really excited to be able to get a a shovel in the ground out there. Um that's going to be a multi-year project. So looking to finish that uh in 26. So a lot of work has gone into that even before my time. There's been a lot of time and energy from the council and city staff on that. So we're excited to get to the point here where we're getting a shovel in the ground. Uh and then two uh related to the fire uh advisory commission meeting. Uh met with uh cities of West Lakeland uh Baytown Township and um also uh Bayport. Uh that was believe last week I think roughly. Uh well regardless uh had a meeting to talk about the history of how we came to the agreement, how long um the entities have have been together to form their arrangements. Uh we have talked about at future meetings uh having a guest speaker come in to talk about uh fire district and also uh chat about a uh JPA joint powers um alliance uh just potential options of conversation. So not saying that we are going that route but want to make sure that we look at things as we evaluate this and our contract comes due at the end of 29. So, had a good conversation with the group and look to continue those in the future. So, was there anything brought up? I know that's that one was hard to schedule and I wish I didn't. I was hoping I could make it, but I was hung up with something else, but um I know we were looking to have those more often. Did they just Was it discussed there to try to get those scheduled? We have a number of them out in advance so we don't have the issue like we had for that meeting trying to get scheduled. Yep. Thank you, Council Member Luligrin. Uh we have uh we had some of that discussion and it is hard to get, you know, all the ships at sea together for those. Uh what we talked about is maybe looking at the next one of trying remotely um of having that meeting remotely just given that if we have a guest, you know, a guest speaker um that they wouldn't have to come out to to Bayport and I think that might be an opportunity for us to to try of just how that works from a remote standpoint. I'm more of a in-person person. I don't know how, you know, everyone else feels on that, but maybe for the at least the next couple meetings, uh, when we have those guest speakers, we could try that out, see if that is more beneficial, if that's easier to, you know, get the group together. Um, and, you know, we can always go back to the in-person meetings. But yeah, it is it is kind of a challenge to get all the schedules to mesh. I got a question. I got a question. I saw where there was a a fire. Chief, maybe you would know more of this. There was a fire in Stillwater, a house fire a couple weeks ago. It's on and Churchill and I saw something in the paper about it sounds like there's a new procedure and that since it was a structure fire, they automatically had called Monidai and Bayport. Yeah. So you're referring to the it's called auto aid. Um essentially it's a like a strike package. So instead of the old traditional one where your fire department rides on scene says start me another agency, start me another one or they know right off the gate, they've taken a new approach to major structure fires and developed like a strike package. And so the dispatchers automatically do an auto aid. It's called tune or a tone out. and that gets all the local ones rolling as well as back fills the ones that are on scene. So, it's kind of a new and improved strategic approach to firefighting to get the maximum effort of, you know, your apparatuses and your personnel. Everybody's being toned at the same time instead of the 3 to 5 minute gap maybe until a leadership arrives on scene and says, "Oh, send us some more." Well, no, we're going to send you. You can peel off if you need to, you know, but so it's kind of a good approach. It quite it is. Um, and everybody's kind of moving that direction now. We've seen so Yep. Is that I think that's what you would I was on duty for that as well and heard that, you know, a lot a lot of resources really quick, right? I mean it's just that it changes the dynamics and what the fire departments need in this particular on the equipment based right obviously guy and responded they were bringing in their own rigs and so y goes into the larger picture of how much equipment do we need in this Um well, please chief. Uh good evening, mayor and council. Just a quick note as 4th of July is fast approaching and it lands on a Friday, no less. So uh we've got extra staffing on Friday and Saturday uh for the city as well as there'll be additional uh DWI patrols. Uh so we're going to keep an eye on the this will be the true I think the big test for our new boat launch ramp and the busy that weekend there. Of course it always is on the 4th as well as the high traffic of pedestrians on the uh St. Crossing bridge and just traffic in general coming in for the fireworks on a Friday. So there'll be extra staffing for that and we're uh good to go. That's it. Pretty quiet. Yeah. Thank you. Assistant assistant city administrator. Good evening, mayor and council. For you this evening, I have just one item. The recycling award winner. Um Erin Wilson at 1437257th Street North was chosen as the most recent recycling award winner. And for her efforts, she can choose between a smoke detector or a fire extinguisher for free that we give her through a gr grant program that we receive from Washington County just to thank her for recycling. Okay. Well, thank you. All righty. Now we'll move on to our visitors and public comment um with two presentations. Uh first one would be the 2024 audit presentation by Red Path & Company. Mayor and council members, thank you for having me here this evening. I'm going to go through a summary of audit results and then some highle financial information. Um, and you may have heard me say in the past, we work really closely with city staff during the audit, but we really do work for you as council. So, as I'm talking, if you have questions, please feel free to interrupt me. Um, and we can go over those. There were four reports that we issued in conjunction with the audit this year. The first one is um, our opinion on the fair presentation of the financial statements. Thank you. Um, this is really the primary purpose of our audit is to look at the city's financial information and offer an opinion as to the fair presentation. We're not saying that everything is exactly right down to the dollar, just that it's a fair presentation. The results of our audit this year are that we issued a clean, unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of assurance we can provide. And really, in summary, it's the result you would want. The next report that we issue in conjunction with the audit is a report on internal control. As part of our audit, we don't audit the city's internal control, but we gain an understanding of the processes and the procedures that are in place in order to plan our audit. And if anything came to our attention during the course of our audit that caused us concern in the control environment, we would identify it in this letter. Um this year in particular, we paid attention to some compensating controls that the city had in place during um absences or tenure breaks in the finance department. Um and nothing came to our attention that we needed to report in this report. So that's good news. Um it's fairly common for cities to have findings in the internal control report, but no findings this year. So again, that's the result you would hope for. The next report we issue in conjunction with the audit is a Minnesota legal compliance report. The Office of the State Auditor has a series of compliance requirements that they like us to look at in conjunction with the audit. And I always like to remind you that we're accountants, not attorneys. So, we're looking at it from an accounting perspective. Um, and during our testing this year, we identified one instance of non-compliance, and that relates to contracting and bid laws. There was a project during 2024 that went out for bid and the solicitation for bids was posted on the city's website, but it was not published in the city's official newspaper and that's one of the compliance requirements that the state has is to publish that solicitation for bids in the newspaper. Um, so we had to identify it in our report, but that was the only instance of non-compliance identified. The final report that we issue in conjunction with the audit is a communication to those charged with governance letter. It's a long letter from us as the auditors to you as city council. Um, and most of it is standard kind of templated language. So, I've drawn out the key pieces that are unique to the city to identify for you here. The first item that we're required to um communicate to you is any accounting policies changed during the course of the year. There was a new gazsby gazsby stands for governmental accounting standards board that the city had to implement this year. Gazsby 100 and accounting changes and error corrections. Um error corrections is in the name of the find or of the standard but there weren't any error corrections this year. It just addresses um how changes within the city get represented in the financial statements. So if there's a fund within the city that has significantly increased operations or significantly decreased operations, it changes where it's presented in the financial statements and then we present that in accordance with this standard. So it did have a small impact this year, but um not anything of significance. Oh, can you jump? Oh, sorry. All good. Um, the next item that we're required to communicate to you is to remind you that there are some estimates within the city's financial statements. Some numbers within the statements are firm known amounts and others are estimates. So, I've identified the three most sensitive estimates here. The first one is the um present value or the net realizable value of land held for resale. So, if the city has property that you're holding for resale, accounting standards require you to report that on your balance sheet at the estimated amount that you're going to sell it for. Um, so if you have a developer agreement to sell something for a dollar, you would need to write that down for a dollar. Because the sales price is an estimate, we identify it as an estimate in your financials. The next item I have identified here is a funny acronym. It's spit up liability. It stands for subscriptionbased IT arrangements. And what that is is looking at uh when the city enters into a long-term agreement to access software, you've committed to make monthly or annual payments on that software, which creates a liability for the city. It's considered an estimate because we're estimating the term, the length of that agreement, if there's any renewal periods, and also the interest rate that's used to present value that creates an estimate. So, um significant, but it just really represents an agreement you've entered into. And then finally I have the para net pension liability and this represents the fact that city staff participate in the state parah pension plan. PAR obtains an actuarial study on an annual basis to identify the plan's net pension liability as a whole and then they allocate that out to all participating employers. And so this year Oak Parks Height's share of that is 1.6 million. You can see over the past couple years it's varied quite dramatically. Um this is just an actuarily determined number that fluctuates based on salary of employees of your payroll as a whole market conditions actuarial assumptions. Um it's not something you actually need to pay on other than through your payroll contributions. So um balance sheet item that you're required to include and it's a large dollar amount which is why we identify it here. um remaining required communications. We had no difficulties encountered in performing the audit this year, no disagreements with management, and if anything else came to our attention during the course of our audit that we thought you should know about, we would report it in the other matters area. Um but nothing identified this year. Next, I just have some highle summary financial information. This is a summary of results for the city's governmental funds. And governmental funds are those that are supported by property tax dollars or grant dollars um you know some sort of funding source other than self- sustaining. Um I will call out maybe two significant pieces of activity here. If you look at the general fund which is the top row two columns over from the right a large increase in fund balance this past year of almost $800,000. There's various factors that are going into that, but I think the two largest ones are some significant investment earnings, investment income, and then some significant cost savings and snow plowing. The snow plowing um expense line was quite a bit under budget, which is contributing to positive results in the general fund. And then at the very bottom, you'll see that your fund balance for capital projects increased. And that's just planned savings for future projects. And then here I have a summary of the general fund budget to actual. You can see revenue above budget and expenditures below budget contributing to that increase. Here I have a slide that shows your general fund minimum fund balance. So what those blue bars are is your minimum fund balance for per policy. The city's fund balance policy has various components. And so I would say that this bar represents the minimum of the minimum that your policy says that you have to have. And then that red line is actual fund balance. The vast majority of fund balance that exists between your minimum policy and your actual has been allocated and earmarked by policy for specific items for some specific savings and whatnot. Um, the reason why the savings and this fund, this minimum fund balance is so important is one to cover you for onetime unexpected costs. If something significant happens, you need to be able to cover those costs, but also to manage your cash flow. If you look and see um, as a reminder, the city's primary source of revenue is property tax payments. And those come in twice a year. They come in about this time of year um and then at the end of the year and you need to have sufficient cash or resources on hand to get you from one property tax payment to another while you spend down that cash. So you can see the significant decrease in general fund to cashier. Next up I have some information on the city's business type funds. Now the business type funds such as your utility funds are intended to be self-supporting. So all the costs of that fund are supported by user fees or similar re um sim similar revenues. Here you can see the bar is various components of operating expenses. And that red line at the top is your operating revenue. When we look at these business type funds, we generally like to see a bigger gap between your operating revenue and your operating expenses. You want your revenue to cover your expenses clearly, but you also need s um sufficient differences to save for future capital. There is some depreciation expense represented here, but that represents the cost of old capital and capital is not decreasing in cost. It's, you know, increasing exponentially. And so, you really do want to pay attention to this, especially as you head into the next budget cycle. looking at your utility rates, it's important to consider your future capital needs and make make sure that you're earning enough to cover the cost of those. If I could just cut in here quick, Rebecca, I mean, mayor and council, this is exactly why we're doing the water and sewer utility rate study to make sure that we are properly funding our utilities not only for the short term, but also for the long term because as Rebecca said, you want to see that that separation there. Um and so I think it'll be very informative not only for staff but our residents um to see you know the results of that water and sewer rate study and have that known certainty for the long term here. And then similarly for sewer you can see that it has improved slightly in recent years that your operating revenue is beginning to cover your operating expenses but you still don't have any gap there to save for future capital. And one of the biggest components of expense here is that Met Council sewer expense that you do not have control over. The Met Council tells you what it's going to be on an annual basis, and that's what it is. Um, and so you need to have enough revenue both to cover those increases and your capital. And then finally, storm sewer. You can see that you do have a gap here between your operating revenue and expense. But if you look at the scale, um that's a re relatively small dollar amount. One significant in incident or one significant expense could eat that up rather quickly. And so as you look at your water and sewer rates, I would pay close attention to storm sewer as well. And I think that's all I have pre-prepared for you, but I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any. question. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thanks for having nice job. Thanks, Rebecca. And next we have Washington County Attorney introduction, Kevin Magneson. So, the good news is that I have a PowerPoint, but I'm not going to use it. Um, it's best for everybody. I understand. I'll try to keep this as I mean there's some cool videos and stuff on there that u but you know the sensational stuff that's not what you're here for right well I'm just going to be honest I got some graphs and stuff I'm going to read off of real quick but um I don't have a real agenda other than just come and say hello and make sure that we've got good communication we're talking so um chance to answer any questions or anything you may have um congratulations Mr. mayor. Um, thank you. It's an honor to be here on the day that you were sworn in. Um, we have a lot in common. I mean, it was both with mixed emotions that we take, you know, you took your position, I took mine. I was also appointed after Pete died, and that was really rough. I still miss him every day. Um, so it it's a it's a mixed sort of operation. I get that. Um, but you know, I'm not going to give you any advice. I didn't know what even what the county commissioner did when I when I started the county attorney's office after 20 years in private practice mostly federal court. But you've been doing this for a while. So I'm not going to I'm not going to try to tell you though we are going to be on the same ballot. So I got that to look forward to. Hopefully you'll have a a Soviet style election like I had. But um also I have to say that one of my favorite parts about the entire park heights uh government system is your police chief. Um Chief Hansen has been great. He welcomed me when I started invited me on night to night or national night out and we spent some time together as well as um he tries to keep his um his records person from calling me. Sandy, I love her. She hasn't called recently so I'm hoping that means that we're getting our stuff in on time. Um, but I do really appreciate when something is not quite right and I every time I see her, I say, "Keep it coming." I really I really appreciate if we're not getting our stuff done and turning it around quickly, I want to know about it. Uh, and lastly, of course, you're you know, you've got competent, excellent um, city council, great firm. So, um, I'm sure that makes life uh, a little easier when you've got good legal advice there. Uh so I just was going to run through a couple of statistics or ne tried to talk about you know some some high level things maybe get a discussion going if you want to talk if not I'm happy to sit down whenever uh because I know these meetings can get a little long. So, we have 61 and a half cuz we have a part-time person, a half-time lawyer. So, there's 61 and a half uh people in the office and it's pretty much it's a little bit more attorneys and staff, but it's about 50/50. And we take about um 1500 referrals a year. That's up 500 from a decade ago. Um and we end up charging, you know, about 75% of those. Uh, and I think that rate goes up, I think, because the law enforcement, you know, is just gets better and better in Washington County, and you can kind of tell. Um, sometimes it's a it's a measure of what the county attorney's office is doing, but I think often it's the measure of the kind of case referrals we're getting. And, um, you know, 75% um, is a pretty good number when you consider there's a lot some of those we just can't charge for various reasons. So a couple of crime trends that I think people want to know about the kind of barometers of our of the time, you know, so autotheft related crime. So that's everything from joy riding to autotheft to being caught in Washington County with you know a car that was stolen in Ramsey. So receiving stolen property. Um and you know those numbers um have gone up. Um, you know, at first I looked at the 2019 number and I thought, "Oh man, that's 55. That seems like a lot." But then when we looked at, uh, you know, 2021 in the middle of COVID, it was at 93. Um, and so we're we're back to we went to 77 and 2 and 23 was 46 and uh, 24 was 47. So, I mean, it's still too high, but I think we're making um, some progress. And again, I think a lot of that is the way that law enforcement has been addressing the that crisis there. And safe to say that it's no longer the epidemic that it that it was before. Um, criminal sexual conduct also has stayed pretty much the same around, you know, 30 high 30s, low 40s, but again, in 2021, that same year, it was um uh at 50 instead of being at the, you know, high 30s, low 40s. So you can really see in the kind of stuff that we're looking at that the the effect that the COVID, you know, and the whole pandemic response had on just our society. So I talked a little bit about autotheft and I had some cool pictures, but you know, they're really not that worth it uh to spend time on. But I will tell you that um joy riding is something that I hear a lot about. And you know, it's it's it's crazy because, you know, when I was younger, uh, you know, entry- level crimes were, you know, smoking dope dope and shoplifting. Um, but now it really is joy riding, you know, and and that's a situation where, you know, some kid takes the Kia challenge, gets a car going, invites their buddies in, they drive around a stolen vehicle, and what you do with the stolen vehicle is you commit other crimes. And then, you know, pretty soon, kid went for a ride. he's doing stuff, you know, that that's it's that's illegal and the next thing is they're trying to do their own joy ride, trying to get their own car and take it for a ride and and then that just translates right into the autotheft, you know, the um statistics and then the car jacking stuff that we've seen. The good news is we haven't had a car jacking in 2023 or 2024. We had one in 2022. Um, and so you hear about that going on in, you know, the bigger cities, but it's not an issue that we're dealing with in Washington County. You know, and recently carjacking became its own crime. Um, you know, before we just charge someone with uh, you know, autotheft um, assault, but it became its own crime, some enhanced penalties, and that's because of all the, you know, the attention that it got. Um, but again, you know, we haven't had anybody charged under that. We have not charged anyone under that statute, which I think is great. So, there is a a a crime trend that I'd like to draw your attention to because I think it's a barometer of our society and it's one that I'm not happy with and that's fleeing from law enforcement in an off in in a motor vehicle. So, in 2018, we were at we had 35 cases that we charged. In 2022, it was 111. And that tells you a lot about what's going on. And um you know it dropped down to um 82 and then in 2024 it was 75. It's still too high. And that's I mean the only way you can account for that is it's a cultural shift at some level. And I think uh in in almost every area whether it's um talking to people in the in Sto Prison or or you know Heights um prison um the um um the boiling temperature just seems to be so much lower. I mean people are throwing down for things that make no sense at a younger age in a more dramatic way. Um and you know there's a I mean their guns are everywhere. I mean kids have guns. Guns are really that's why when I went to law school I never thought about that someone might be shooting at me. So when I look at the people who do go into law enforcement I think you know thank you very much. Um because I mean there's a very real possibility you could get shot at. I think most people at some point in their career do um and and when you've got young kids who particularly during the co era you know my daughter was nine at the time and it took three adults to get her to do that at home learning. I mean we had to tackle her. We had to bribe her. We had to threaten her. She's crying, flopping around the floor. The last thing she wanted to do was do. Now, imagine if you don't have that kind of intervention, you know, and you're on the streets with a $700 iPhone and nothing to do. I mean, that is a not a great recipe for an 11-year-old. And I think we saw a lot of that. So we're watching I know a lot of the sociologists are watching that demographic move through the system and they're seeing when you start talking to some of the truency people in high school that the people who are now in junior high you know they're suffering from some of the effects or the lack of development that they had because a lot of folks you know the only structure they get is in school right you know and whether it's a band teacher or coach or teacher you know or in clubs or in church or whatever but when you're locked at home and there's not a lot there. You know, that's that's a really sad situation for all of us. Um, and I don't I don't weigh in on the on the political side. I mean, teachers, you know, all I can say is that we know now what the effect of not having these positive influences um that we work so hard as a as a as a city and as a county to deliver. So, I'm going to talk just I skipped a couple things and again don't want to take too long here, but I'm proud of the the the East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force that Pete started. Um, it's, you know, been a huge success and I can't emphasize enough the importance of having that be a local task force because the BCA has one, right? And um you know they do a lot of great work in in Minneapolis and St. Paul and maybe Duth or you know some other places. This is actually got a surprisingly high amount of sex trafficking because of the docks. But you know if something blends into Washington County you know then they pursue it. But there's there's just not a lot of enforcement going on through you know a statewide agency as there is you know having the local task force. And it's it's one of those things. It's like, you know, like weed killer. You know, you don't realize how many dandelions come out until you stop spraying, right? Or whatever. And it's it's definitely like that in this in this um in this realm. Um you know, when you when we're doing a sting and you look when they post a post a fake ad, you know, with a with a detective as a mark um posing as a sex worker, you would you would be shocked at the number of solicitations that come in. I mean, there's no shortage of demand out there. And I think that task force is really effective at keeping a lid on it because the stuff we're seeing, I mean, it would be much worse if if people didn't know that there's a task force work in Washington County. One of the things that I've done since since I became the county attorney is I've been putting I mean, we're still doing the stings and the recovery operations, which are which are really important. Um, but we're spending more time investigating and looking for people who are on the dark web or different places looking for underage um sex workers or they're looking to buy it, you know, and that I mean that's a different level of evil. You know, getting someone a sting is pretty bad because that, you know, we're using an underage decoy. So, that tells you a lot about them. But someone who's actively out there seeking someone like that out, I mean, that that's that's that's pretty significant stuff. And the other thing I've been focusing a lot on are runaways because we have the tools in our task force to really do something and you know and that's one of the hardest things to crack. You know somebody runs away you know you have just a limited amount of time and then you start to lose your grip on the situation. Back when I was you know I remember as a kid everybody go to the Greyhound station to look for you know people that had run away. I mean now it's all online right? There's so much grooming that goes on before a kid runs away now and they don't know who they're interacting with half the time. You know, you could have someone who thinks she's she thinks she's gonna go off with her 16, 17, 18 year old boyfriend and a 32-y old man's one who picks him up from the house. And we had a situation like that in Cottage Grove. There was a grandmother of a 14year-old who was texting on an app called um text now. It's it's like a Snapchat ad. And um so her grandmother reported her missing. We were able to get the information. We were able to get a subpoena, emergency subpoena to that app, get the geographical location information, indicated that she was at Boy's Motel in Newport. And when the officers went there, they found her. She was by herself, but she was had been there for a couple days, and she was there with nothing but a neglige, you know, and and she had been assaulted for for, you know, quite some time. But the fact that we had this capacity to work, I think probably, you know, may have saved that girl's life or at least, you know, kept her out of of that life. So, that's kind of my my highlighting of that. I I'm with Pete all the way. I think that's a worthwhile thing for us to focus on. Oh, one other thing on that on on the um on the sex trafficking. A lot of times people ask me, you know, what can they do to help? And uh I think Pete did a really good job of raising awareness and I'm trying not to drop that ball. Um but I think the area where we're still really anemic is on the recovery side. You know, we we meet with these uh folks when we do a recovery operation and we have counselors there and they see all the right things, but then when it comes time to do a real placement and a real intervention, there's so few resources that they're really hard to get them to make that step. And there's a new um house that's about to start, a new um charity that's about to um start operating in Oakdale. And I went and visited it. It's it's not open yet, but it's this beautiful home in an upscale neighborhood. It's like middle class, upper middle class neighborhood. You would never know that it's a group home for um you know, women, typically women, I think it's for everybody, mostly women who have left the industry, the sex work, the sex trafficking industry. and there, you know, they've got a beautiful home, a lot of respect that comes with part of that whole um counseling and and um um u recovery process. And that's an area that we can't get enough, you know, additional resources and people who care. So, I always put that plug out there. The house is called Cord's House if you want to look it up. I think it's a great um it's a great idea at least. We'll see how it goes in operation, but everything looks great so far. So, I'll talk a little bit about um you know my my philosophy on prosecution just briefly. Um, you know, there are a lot of different perspectives and things that that we can talk about, but just know that the the number one priority as I look at this is public safety. And I think there is a necessary emphasis on, you know, diversion and rehabilitation, especially with younger offenders or less serious offenders or people who are struggling with mental illness or or chemical dependency. But I don't think that in the process of trying to help somebody, we should put the risk on the backs of that person's neighbors. So I don't want to release somebody back into the community on this theory that they're going to get better when you guys are the ones who have to bear the, you know, the the risk that comes with that because what they reaffend is going to be, you know, in your neighborhood. So we we do a lot of work um in the diversion side. the circles of justice are are really helpful especially for younger kids you know going through to hear what the impact of their actions are um you know but but I when when it comes time for difficult decisions we make those we certify um you know if we need to a juvenile for adult court don't take that decision lightly or extended juvenile jurisdiction where they're in a detention um center for for for younger people but the good news is that the vast majority of kids that we see are ones we did something really stupid and that happened to be illegal and so they've got a criminal offense. We take them in, we put them through the diversion program. We try to get them help where they need it, whether it's, you know, chemical dependency, anger manage, um help going to school, uh planning, you know, organization skills when they go through the program, we never see them again. That vast majority of kids that we deal with. So, I think there is I mean the bad kids are pretty bad. You know, this the crime that we're we're seeing is is pretty serious because they're 11 12 years old. They got guns. They're doing some things, but it's only a handful. I mean, we maybe have 10 cases a year that are like that. They take most of our time, but you know, but the vast majority of kids coming through are getting help and we're not seeing them again. And that's a little bit contrary to the sort of I think the popular perception that that our youth are running wild. Let's see. Um the one thing I'll highlight, I think you probably um have encountered, you know, folks from our civil division that they don't get a whole lot of press, but um you know, they're doing all kinds of stuff. They see everything from soup to nuts. And uh I'm not going to talk about that, but I just want to didn't want to leave them out knowing how important they role they are um advising the county or um handling um particular for the main uh for the major departments um like public works and human services and stuff. They're really involved in some of those legal decisions. So with that, if you have any questions, happy to to address those. Question. All right. Well, thank you very much. Yeah. Look forward to kind of keeping the conversation going. Sure. All righty. Well, we'll move back on to consent agenda. Um item A, approve bills and investments check 71,864 to 71,913. Approve the city council work session notes from June 10th, 2025. Approve city council minutes from June 10th, 2025. Approve ordinance regulating virtual kiosk virtual currency kiosk. E. Approve license for the sale of fireworks by TNT fireworks in Walmart parking lot. F. Approve amendment to employee handbook related to the healthc care savings plan benefits. And G, approve license for fireworks storage and sale at Lowe's. I will move the consent agenda as presented. Second. Okay. And roll call. Council member Johnson? Yes. Council member Lojigrid? Yes. Council member Rock? Yes. And Mayor Dhy? Yes. All righty. We have no public hearing. We have no old business, no new business. Is there any other council items or announcements? Just a quick reminder, uh, night two nights coming up August. We only have one more council meeting before that. So, I just out there. We've got a several that have already committed. Council member Johnson's got one and Cobra Park is already on the list. Okay. So, out there you have any neighbors, we uh push that note. We'll get them signed up for August 5th. Thanks. All right. Thank you. I move we adjurnn. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. We are adjourned.