[Music] Good evening everyone. Welcome to the uh Columbus City Council regular meeting. The time is 6:00 p.m. The date is July 23rd, 2025. And the first thing on the agenda is a pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Before we start tonight, I just I know a lot of us attended the planning commission last week. Uh if we can all speak into the microphones a little louder. I sat in the back and I people were approaching me and just so we just keep that aware and even people that get up and talk if you really talk into the microphone so everybody in the back can hear. So thank you. We'll go on to the second item on the agenda is uh the adoption of the agenda tonight. Anybody? >> So this is Janet. I uh would move to adopt the agenda as presented. Okay, >> this is Jenny. I second. >> Any discussion? Any questions? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. >> Jenny. >> Jenny I. >> Janet I. >> Rob I. >> Scott I. >> And Ron I. Motion passes. We'll go on to the item B, the consent agenda. Anybody want to make a motion on that? >> Uh, so this is Janet. I move to approve the consent agenda as presented in item B2 of the July 23rd, 2025 city council meeting agenda. >> Rob second. >> We got a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Any questions? Any discussion? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. >> Jenny I. >> Janet I. >> Rob I. >> Scott I. >> Ron I. The motion passes. We'll go on to item number C. And the first item on the thing is a public forum. And uh just to let everybody know, the council will listen to the issues but will not engage in dialogue with the presenter. Questions from the council will be for clarification only. The public forum will not be used as a time for problem solving or reacting to the comments made, but rather for hearing the citizens forformational purposes only. Anybody in the office office? Anybody in the room here would like to get up and say anything on the open forum? Having nobody here, anybody online? Nobody's come forth, we'll close the open forum and go on to the first item on the agenda. Second item on the agenda, 2024 audit city audit report by LB Carlson, pages 16 and enclosure. And Jim, you want to come up and give your presentation? Absolutely. Mayor, members of council, my name is Jimden. I'm with Elby Carlson CPAs as they uh work to get my PowerPoint up on the present on the board here. I'll uh introduce myself. I'm again Jim Iikden with LB Carlson. Um just so everybody is aware um recently January 1st our firm merged um with LB Carlson. And I was previously with MMKR CPAs. Our entire firm merged with LB Carlson. So um the audit uh was engaged through LB Carlson, but it was pretty much the same team. My whole entire team merged with LB Carlson and it's been uh excellent for our firm and it offers quite a bit more resources for our company as well as for the city. So uh everything is working well in that from that sense. Um uh my goal this evening is to present the audit results for the year ended December 31st, 2024 for the city. Um I do have a PowerPoint. Um Cheryl, are you >> Yep. >> You're manning. Thank you for taking care of me. Uh as usual. Um so the goal of the uh presentation is to go through the results of the audit. It is a requirement in state law that the city prepare an annual financial statement. that financial statement was issued um in June and submitted to the office of the state auditor. Uh the goal and the role of the auditor is to issue an opinion on that financial statements that is required to be prepared by the city. Um uh we are also as part of our audit process required to um audit your internal controls as it relates to financial activities. Um we're also required to um complete an audit of your Minnesota statutes. um those laws that pertain to the city are audited by us. Um but we don't audit every law, just the law that the laws that are on the list provided by the office of the state auditor here in the state of Minnesota. We are also required to audit your federal awards um using what's a tool called the single audit if you were to receive more than $750,000 of federal dollars. That did not occur. So, um we do a audit the federal dollars that you get um under government audit standards but not the federal standard which was um not required this year. Um so moving on, I was able to issue what's called an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. It was the opinion you were looking for. Basically defined as a clean opinion, better better terminology than unmodified. So uh we were able to issue a good opinion this year on the financial statements. As you can see, we did issue one uh item uh what I would call a reportable item on the city's internal controls. Uh you have an inherent um um I'll call it limited segregation of duties in your internal control system. Um we report that in the report that it isn't um under definitions perfectly segregated. Um but we also issue an opinion that it is uh does have adequate compensating controls. to have controls in place to compensate for the limited limitations you're under. So, I always report that to the city council in this report. Um, I don't really call it a finding. I call it a reportable item. Um, and it's really in the the report that you'll state that there isn't any corrective action to take. Um, you're you have the right controls in place needed for a city your size and we don't make any recommendations for change related to that reportable item. Otherwise, you'll note that there weren't any other internal control findings or recommendations uh a clean report in that area. Uh lastly, as it relates to our opinion on your uh Minnesota Leo compliance, I mentioned uh we we did our testing and did not have any findings to report in that area as well. Uh so all in all from the compliance areas, we didn't have any findings at all. Well done. excellent work on the part of the city and the staff uh at the at the city that does all the work related to this uh particular financial statement. So in my report um that was issued we do issue some financial information um really the financial information that's provided is to give you some sort of sense for the financial results um looking for trend information really just making observations related to the financial condition of the city. Uh you can see on that particular presentation which is in my management report uh overall the the city's fund balance which is the equity position at the end of the year uh increased about 300,000 when you add up all of the governmental funds of the city. the city's general fund, which is the main fund of the city, did decline about 260,000, but most of that, if not all of that was related to transfers that occurred um uh that were uh taking some of the general fund dollars and moving into other funds. Almost $500,000 of the of transfers were made. Most of those dollars are actually sitting uh there in non- major funds. You can see the non- major fund balance uh increased almost 900,000. Um so overall the general the general fund of the city if you take out the $500,000 transfer did show an increase in fund balance and increase in fund balance position. Um uh overall you can see some of the other funds there uh um the activities are very typical for funds. You know debt service funds tend to mimic the debt service payments. capital can go up and down depending on project activity. So no concerning results to to note there. I think the next presentation shows the general fund financial position in a in a five-year graph. Um we in this particular presentation we're showing the uh city's fund balance again the equity position of the city's general fund at the end of the year as well as cash balance um for the last four years. Um overall you can see that that fund balance did decline as I mentioned. Uh the city's budget um projected an increase of about 190,000 when you take away the transfers the fund balance increase um just slightly more than that. So the budget for the city uh was mimicked quite well in terms of the financial results which is really from an auditing standpoint exactly what I'm looking for. uh you want to see, you know, those budget to action results be close to projections, meaning you're um really monitoring the the budget and the spending as you would expect. So, um financial results are are quite quite quite good. Uh on the bottom of that particular presentation, well it's not actually on the presentation, but uh one um item of importance is the city has a goal to maintain a fund balance um of roughly 50% of your operating budget. And and really that's needed for cash flow purposes. You're only getting property tax settlements a couple times a year. So you need almost 50% fund balance to operate your city. At the end of the year, the fund balance of the city general fund was about 165% of operations. So, um you're you're meeting the expectations, if not exceeding the expectations in terms of financial equity in your general fund. So, moving on to the next graph, I we do show some more information on general fund revenues. Um at the end of the day, that the general fund revenues were about 100,000 less than budgeted. Most of that was in property taxes. um um which were lower than anticipated. Uh if you look at the presentation which is on that particular graph, what stands out is the intergovernmental revenue line. You can see um intergovernmental revenue went um from 960,000 to 50,000 this year. Most of that was really related to one-time grants that from the previous year um public safety state aid and uh there was some federal aid for broadband project that were one-time items. The next graph shows the expenditures. Uh here you can see um overall the city's expenditures were 2.9 million which is about 200,000 under budget. Again from a auditor standpoint those are music to my ears. Just slightly under budget for the year. You're monitoring your expenditures quite well. Uh most of that was related to um unfilled positions but also some contingencies that were built into the budget that were were not utilized. Again, what you see there on that particular graph, one item that stands out is the the capital outlay line. Again, you had some one-time capital outlay items in 2023 that did not occur again this year. Um, moving to the next graph, the last two, um, one more, Cheryl. There we go. Uh, the city also has two enterprise funds. Enterprise funds would be considered business operations type operations. pretty much in this case it's the water and the sewer fund of the city. Uh at the end of the day um those fund balance positions were pretty much unchanged. They're declined roughly $40,000. Um those particular funds um uh do do uh you know go up and down depending on capital items and capital spending as well. So nothing concerning there. If you look at the next graph, you can see um here's your water fund. the water fund at the end of the day was very very close to expectations. Um at the end of the year um the the unrestricted net position the equity position of that fund is sitting at about 1.2 billion uh which is a good place to be from an equity position and that could be said also for the sewer fund which is this graph. Um the sewer fund did see some decline in financial results this year showing a decrease in in fund balance of about 9 94,000 almost 70,000 was related to repairs. Um and repairs can come and go depending on life and and things that happen in the real world. So those are one time expenses that ultimately probably won't recur. We hope they don't reoccur again next year. Um so this the last couple of graphs we have uh the presentation the the overall general fund financial statements the governmentwide financial statements are shown here. Uh we don't really look at these too close but it does give you a sense for how well the city is doing. Um, from one year to the next, the city's overall financial position improved almost $3.7 million, which is you went from roughly 40, what is that? 42 million to 45 million in one year, which includes a lot of things, but ultimately when you look at that number, you can really get a sense for the strength of the city's financial results uh this particular year. Um, last couple of slides. Um it is important to understand that there are a lot of accounting and auditing updates that are happening and a lot of accounting and auditing issues that we have to deal with. Um this past year we dealt with an accounting standard related to compensated absences. Um there's another accounting standard on on group capital assets that we issu that we dealt with last year. Next year we're going to be dealing with um accounting standards on on risk disclosures. Um, just bringing it up from the standpoint of the st the accounting in the the importance of the accounting staff here at the city. The the governmental accounting standards are not easy and they are complex and having the right personnel in place to have successful audits is really important and you have that um with in my opinion um here on staff. So that's an important element of this audit as well. So last my last slide here in summary I was able to issue a clean opinion on the city's financial statements which was with the opinion you were looking for. We had that one item on segregation of duties which uh doesn't change anything. No recommendations. No other findings to report. I did report the improvement in the general fund fund balance albeit declined. Most of that uh was related to transfers to other funds. um you're adhering to that fund balance policy you have um having adequate fund balance in your general fund. Uh we I showed the slight decline in the enterprise fund operations. Nothing to be concerned about there. Um and then lastly, I just want to state um you know, we feel as a firm that the city's really committed to the audit process. Um the results show that and reflect that. We don't always see that. We get commitment from the city council. people people are committing to our success. Um the city administrator and everybody here is really willing to make sure that this goes off uh well and and we I want to report that to the council as part of my last statement. So with that, I'll open it up to any questions you might have for me. >> Anybody have any questions? >> I do not. Thank you. >> Um I have one question. First of all, I want to thank uh Jack and Cheryl because I know you've been working on this audit for a long time really hard. So kudos to you that we we got the great report that that we do. Um my question has to do with the fund balance. So I remember last year you had made a similar observation that we had a pretty healthy um balance in our in our funds. And I remember talking about that because I think um some of us weren't didn't like the sort of perception that we were sitting on money, taxpayer money. And so I'm kind of looking at any one of you three to comment back. I remember there was an explanation for it. I thought some of it had to do with the transfers that happened that there were money there were money sitting in the general fund that really needed to be in other funds and it sounds like those funds got transferred. We're still pretty healthy over that. I mean I don't want to be at 50% but I don't think I want to be three times over that. >> So can you help me put get my head wrapped around that? Is there other um circumstances that we're not hearing about that that explains why that's so so high? So, my uh budget packet that I handed out the last meeting, it shows our cash fund balance as of May 2025. In total, we have 165%. But it's broken out between our general fund, our general city off, you know, city fund, public works is in there, public safety is included, and also our park fund. So when we're looking at the budget later on, I would ask you to refer back to this because this is a more detailed look at that total fund balance. And if anybody needs a copy, I can get you a copy before we start working on budget tonight. >> So, I'm still it's still confusing to me. I mean, because most of those um funds that you talked about, it looked like we were pretty lined up with budget. >> So, I'm still not understanding where the where the um excess balance is coming from. So, from prior years, we did have excess balances. I cannot speak to why that happened. Um, so for example, our public works fund right now, fund 120, our year-to- date balance is 663,000. Um, that's just money that was budgeted in prior years, but we did not spend all of the budgeted money. I don't know why, Janet, why okay, >> you know, maybe projects were cancelled or we had to delay projects. Um, Jim isn't here. I'm sure he could give a more detailed explanation. Uh, public safety, we have $639,000 sitting in that fund. Um, you know, maybe that could go down uh when we look at the budget. You know, we could look to see what 50% of our budget would be and we could reduce our levy by that amount. Um I think as we dig deeper into the budget process we can try to um adjust dep you know so that we are sitting at that 50% um for each type. I think that's a really great idea that we talk about it in the in the budgeting process. I think you know in the past what we haven't seen in the budgeting process is the revenue side of things. We always are focusing on the expense. Here's all our expenses from last year. does this has to go up or down? And when we talked about, you know, carry forward balances and stuff like that, that information was never really provided to us. So, I think that um we need to change that cuz I think that's too big of a cushion to be sitting on. And I I'm glad that those transfers happened last year that got some of that into the right funds. >> But, um we we need to have that be one of our goals during the budgeting process this year. Is that it? >> Isn't that enough? Yes. >> Any you have anything? >> No. This is great. Thank you again. >> Do you have anything? >> Nothing from me. Thanks. >> I'd like to add one thing, Mr. Mayor, in the kudos to staff. Cheryl's name should have been before mine. Oh, I I mean I Cheryl I know how much time you have spent on this and really the sort of welcoming feel that you get it it it's because Cheryl understands how important this is. So we are l we are lucky to have uh her as our finance director. >> I agree with that. I think we're sitting in good hands. Did they use that on all state? I don't have any other questions, Jim. Anybody else have any questions? >> Hearing none. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, J. >> Uh, the next item on the list is the NOA County Sheriff's Office 2025 second quarter report, page 17. And welcome, Lieutenant. and found. >> It's Matt, right? >> Yeah, Matt. >> Oh, you got the floor. >> Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council, mayor, city staff. Um, as Mayor Hannah Graph said, I'm Jessica Slavic. I'm a lieutenant with the Noa County Sheriff's Office, and it's also my privilege to be our liaison between my office and the city of Columbus. Um, with me tonight, I also have Deputy Matthew Bertina. uh many of you have met him before, but I just wanted to reintroduce him and I find it helpful to have him here. He can sometimes offer um answers that I don't have or additional insight on questions. Um before we get started with our stats and calls for service, I did just want to share some general updates. Um the first is that Night to Unite is coming up here on Tuesday, August 5th. Um, this event is designed to bring neighbors together and really strengthen um, community police relationships. So, I encourage the community, if anybody is having a party, um, to register it with the sheriff's office, especially if you want to guarantee that police and fire will visit the the party. Um, we have a form on our website where you can register your party. You don't have to, but I encourage people to. Um, I also just wanted to give a reminder that our office does do vacation property checks. I know we haven't had any burglaries in this second quarter. Um, but if you are going to be out of town for an extended period of time, uh, on the website under the service tab, there is a form. So, if you're going to be out of town, um, basically you fill out that form and deputies will frequently stop by the residence. They'll walk the perimeter, make sure that they don't see anything suspicious, um, look for attempted forced entry, our forced entry, and then if they do find anything, they will call so it's not a surprise when you get home or they get a a little bit better jump start on an investigation versus waiting um, and it being a delayed a delayed report. Um, I'm also excited to share that our office has partnered with Anoka County Community Social Services and Behavioral Health and we now have an embedded social worker at the sheriff's office. Her name is Ricky Thompson and she is a licensed independent clinical social worker. Um, so she'll basically be responding to crisis calls with our deputies. Um, she'll be connecting families with services and then following up with some afterare after those calls. Um, so I just wanted to kind of illustrate just the sheer volume of these types of calls because mental health is a community problem. Um, in just the first half of 2025 in the city of Columbus, our deputies have responded to 16 mental health related calls, 37 welfare checks, and have put 11 individuals on emergency commitment holds to go to the hospital to be evaluated. Um, so these calls can range from anything from individuals with suicidal ideiations, um, somebody in crisis, substance abuse disorders, homelessness, um, or even people who just can't simply take care of themselves. Um, so having this embedded social worker really just kind of enhances the services that we're already providing. Um, I will say our deputies do a really great job handling some of these calls themselves. Um, especially over the years, legislation has changed some of our post-licicensing mandates where during that licensing cycle, we are required to complete training on crisis intervention, mental illness, dealing with individuals with autism, conflict resolution and related topics. Um, but a lot of times law enforcement response is a little bit more enforcementbased or it's constricted due to, you know, the volume of calls for service. So, being able to have an embedded social worker, being able to follow up and actually have some case management, we're hoping will really reduce repetitive calls for service. Um, I did want to highlight a couple calls though that just highlight how well our deputies do on these. Um, on April 3rd and 4th, um, at a group home on PTOAC Street, deputies responded to two separate incidences, um, one on April 3rd, one on the 4th involving the same resident. Um the first time the resident was attempting to light his face on fire and wanted to get hit by vehicles. Um and in both instances the deputies were successfully were successful at deescalating the situation and they facilitated a voluntary transport um for a mental health evaluation. Um I also wanted to share and I did provide a flyer in the packets provided that uh the Lake shop uh open house is coming up on July 31st. Um so this is the newly completed building for um Lake or for the county highway and um in the park shop. So it's an updated facility and a great opportunity for the community to come and see um the vital role that they play on the east side of the county um keeping our highway and park systems um looking good. Um I also provided a flyer for Alexander House's annual hopefest. Um, Alexander House is one of our community partners. They provide services from shelter to legal advocacy to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Um, every fall we have an annual walk to help bring awareness to the topic and then that leads into October which is domestic violence awareness month. Um, I also added we did a scam prevention workshop a couple months ago. We hosted one at our sheriff's office. This was put on by investigators within our patrol division that was very wellreceived and well attended. Um we are now hosting two additional workshops and that flyer was also placed in the packet. And then on September 23rd, the sheriff's office is having our annual open house and that is from 400 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. where we invite the community into the sheriff's office. We have a lot of exhibits and demonstrations set up to share with everybody. So, any questions on the general updates? Okay. Um, all right. We'll turn it over to the calls for service report. And I provided some statistics to everybody. Um, but overall, the calls for service were slightly up, which is pretty typical for our spring and summer months. We did see a 17% increase in calls for service between quarter 1 and quarter 2. Um, so we're pretty much tracking on point to what we saw last year at this time. And I always like to look at the call volume um, overall in comparison to the contract coverage times from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Um, just to make sure that the coverage is sufficient for the calls. And um this last quarter we only had 24 24% of calls that fell outside of our contracted service time um which were handled by the countywide cars or neighboring contracts. Um so that does tell us that the bulk of the calls for service are within our contracted hours which is good. And then overall uh deputies had four felony arrest, 13 gross misdemeanor arrests, four misdemeanor arrests, and issued 27 citations. We'll kind of break that down now into different um different crime types, starting with burglaries and thefts. Um as I indicated, there were no burglaries this last quarter and I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Verina to talk about some of the theft calls. Hello, I'm Deputy Matt Verina. Uh so on April 4th, deputies respond to a theft in progress at Renas's Casino. A customer reported that his wallet had been stolen after he left it on one of the tables. Security located the suspect who was still on scene and they also recovered the stolen wallet from a bathroom trash can. The victim reported $80 missing. Surveillance footage showed the suspect taking the wallet, appearing to remove cash, and then taking the wallet with him into the bathroom. Suspect admitted to taking the wallet, but then he invoked his right to remain silent when he was asked about the missing money. Stolen cash was not recovered. Suspect was arrested and booked for misdemeanor theft as well as trespassed from the casino. On May 13th, deputies responded to a report of internal theft at Running Aces Casino where a former employee allegedly used a company credit card to make numerous unauthorized purchases totaling $8,700 about. Suspect is accused of falsifying invoices to conceal personal purchases. That employee had been terminated and the business is interested in criminal charges. Uh supporting investigation is ongoing in that one. On June 16th, a resident in the 18200 block of two lane, I want to say street reported the theft of highv value marine electronics from his boat, including a Garmin Liv Scope screen and pole valued at nearly $8,000. The thefts occurred someway sometime over a 4-day period, and there are no suspects or video footage. Evidence swabs were collected from the area where the equipment was connected, and the investigation remains active. pending any further leads or identification of serial numbers and that's also assigned to investigations and waiting on that lab result. Uh >> thank you. Um and then we had a total of two assaults. So I'll just highlight one of those. Um on June 13th, the deputies responded to the report of assault on Howard Lake Drive in which a female reported being physically assaulted by her former partner at the residence. Uh the deputies arrived. The suspect had fled prior to their arrival. Um however the victim did have visible injuries. She provided a statement was cooperative with the investigation. Uh cops alert was issued on the suspect and he was later picked up and arrested for felony um and that was based on his prior conviction. So if you have prior convictions it enhances um and he reached the felony level. So um yeah he was taken into custody and the victim was offered services. Uh we did have uh three damage to properties this past quarter. Um, one of them was on June 20th, there was a mailbox, damage to mailbox at the 9300 block of Howard Lake Drive. And then later on, deputies also responded to a property damage call at a residence on 167th Lane. Um, basically two unknown individuals were seen on home surveillance. Uh, footage approaching the residence um with one of them trying to kick in the garage door. The suspects were unable to make entry, but they did flee on foot. Um, their identities were not known to the homeowner. At this point, we have also been unable to identify them. Um, the damage was estimated to be about $400. Um, so that case also remains open pending investig or pending the identification of those suspects. Moving on to traffic. Um, deputies made 288 traffic stops and I will turn it over to Deputy Vertina to talk about some of the proactive work done by our deputies. >> All right. On April 8th, 2025, a routine traffic stop at the Holiday Gas Station led to deputies finding methamphetamine and opium. On April 14th, deputies located a vehicle in a ditch off of West Freeway Drive in the 15300 block. There are two 23-year-old males outside the vehicle. Through investigation, the driver was eventually transported to the sheriff's office for a breath test, which yielded a.20 VAC, which is pretty good over .008. May 16th, I located a suspicious vehicle parked after hours in our city park. The driver was found asleep in the driver's seat with his keys on the floorboard. I observed signs of impairment, clearing, slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and the order of alcohol. He thought he was in St. Paul. The driver admitted to drinking. He performed poorly on field sobriety tests. A PBT, which is the roadside test, got him at 173 BAC, and a later breath test confirmed it at 0.15. He already had a revoked driver's license, and his dog was given over to animal control. He was arrested and booked into the inoke county jail for fourthderee DWI and his vehicle was locked and left in the park. Charges were forwarded to the city attorney's office. On June 24th, Deputy Guey was doing stationary patrol in the median of Lake and West Freeway. He observed a vehicle jump a curb, so he attempted to initiate a traffic stop. The vehicle fled at speeds exceeding 100 mph with all of his lights turned off, not the deputy, but the suspect, and drove recklessly through residential areas, including blowing stop signs and crashing into multiple mailboxes. The pursuit entered the city of Centerville, where deputies successfully executed a pit maneuver. The suspect then rammed the squad car before he was boxed in and taken into custody at gunpoint. The driver was cancelled. I'm sorry, I'm going to butcher this. imminent Nicole to public safety, meaning he has a lot of prior DWIs, meaning he's unsafe to drive. So, he had a bad driver's license. He showed signs of alcohol impairment, and he provided a breath sample of.162 BAC before he refused all additional testing. He was booked for felony fleeing, DWI refusal, and driving after cancellation. There's also property damage to two mailboxes, and multiple squad cars. So, this is just really highlighting how important citizens are anywhere, not just Columbus, but anywhere they call in complaints. That gives us a reason to look into a certain area. I'm not everywhere at once. And when I get a call for a traffic complaint, I can start checking that area. And have had numerous successful DWI arrests from citizen complaints. So, it's always important to call in if you think it's not right. On June 20th, Deputy Guey responded to a reckless and possibly impaired driver on Broadway in Ferman. Reporting party had observed the suspect driving on the shoulder, crossing into incoming traffic, and traveling the wrong way through the roundabout. The suspect vehicle attempted to evade law enforcement twice. The vehicle reached speeds up to 86 mph and was eventually located in the dead end of Ind Street Northeast. The driver showed clear signs of intoxication and admitted to consuming alcohol. He refused seals he refused field sobriety testing, consented to a PBT which registered.158 BAC. Once transported to the sheriff's office, he refused the formal breath test. He was charged with thirdderee DWI refusal to submit to testing and booked into jail. And again, the reporting party had observed him driving on that shoulder, crossing incoming traffic, and going the wrong way on a roundabout. All very good indicators of impairment that we do see a lot. >> Thank you. And I just wanted to highlight too, out of those 288 traffic stops, um I know the citation number appears lower, but these are the types of arrests and tickets that we want to be giving. So, a lot of times the other traffic stops are really just about educating the public. Um, we don't want to be, nobody wants to spend their money on the highway, right? So, a lot of times if somebody just gets caught going over the speed limit a little bit, they don't have a lot of priors or maybe they pass on the shoulder. We like to just educate them on the purposes of why these laws are put into place and then utilize our citations and our arrests for getting the the fentanyl and the methamphetamine and that stuff off the street. So, um, but thank you for highlighting those calls. Um, I do have another call that I wanted to talk about. It falls into the quarter 3, but it's more of a public safety awareness piece. Um, especially in the summer months. Um, but on July 19th, we did have a jet ski incident that occurred on Lake. Um, we had three adults all on a jet ski. Um, not wearing life preservers. Um, that jet ski ended up cap capsizing and then they were rescued by bystanders. Um, so I just wanted to put that piece out there just as a safety and public awareness. Um, deputies just issued warnings and obviously educated them on the importance of water safety, but um, I just felt like that was more fitting for tonight's presentation versus waiting until I'm back in October. So, any questions on what we've prepared for tonight? >> I got a question. Uh, Matt, were you the one uh they had a chase that went over Broadway out of the roundabout there? >> Was that a motorcycle? >> I don't know. I just seen it looked like an oil. >> So, I haven't chased anyone. I have not been engaged in a pursuit in the last quarter. Uh, however, there was a pursuit that started a couple counties north of us on I35 that ended up terminating on Broadway and Kettle River Boulevard with no issue. Uh he was on a motorcycle fleeing for sure from Shago County deputies and Anoka County deputies arrived and assisted with the scene since it ended in Columbus. Um however that one I think he went back and forth a lot from the Broadway roundabout up into Lynwood even and Stacy or Wyoming, I mean. So that might be the one. >> Well, I just look at you could see where the oil pan went over made the mark and >> on the roundabout. I I you probably look at it. Do you see a lot of young men liking to go over the roundabouts? >> I have personally not seen anyone go over the roundabout. That would be I would certainly have a discussion with them about that. Um that being said, the we do stationary patrol especially around um Lake and West Freeway, which as you guys know is next to the casino and the interstate. That's a good spot to see the traffic that is not just in the main city. Not saying that we don't do patrol elsewhere, but that's a good stationary patrol spot. And I have had people almost hit my squad car on the roundabout, which you should not be going onto the middle of the roundabout. They almost hit my squad car and they end up being DWI. >> Wow. I have one a question for uh you, Lieutenant. is uh national night out. Are you going to have both the deputies on that night or >> No, we just have the one and then anybody else who's volunteered to come in and work that night. So, we have a lot of command staff members and reserve officers that volunteer to come in as well. >> So, you going to stop at a few houses there, Matt? >> I unfortunately never work Mondays or Tuesdays. >> You don't? >> Deputy Gury will be out. >> Deputy Gur will be here. >> Dan then? >> Yes. Yep. Jessica, do you know when the list of the Columbus parties will be posted on your website? >> I put an email in to Laura Landis today asking and she must be out of the office because I have not heard back. >> All right. >> But I was anticipating that that might be asked. So I will once I get that answer, I'll let you know. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Well, I hope to see you down at the park. Well, you won't be there, Matt, but unfortunately. >> Maybe Dan. Any other questions? >> Yeah, mayor. uh to the deputies. Uh as far as that roundabout goes, what would be the proper way then to proceed if you're riding a snowmobile in the winter >> in general with a snowmobile? >> Yeah, like like at that roundabout right there. So that that has been confusing and actually is is he maybe either you or another deputy a couple winters ago waved their hand at me like get off there. Right. I was at the top waiting to proceed across. But it's you're either crossing what potentially two lanes of traffic, otherwise you could just shoot right up and over, right? Um, snowmobile safety never taught you that. >> How do you how to pursue through a roundabout, right? Because it wasn't a thing when I was >> We do have recreational deputies. That might be a good question we can reach out to them about. >> U Deputy Abler is now in our rotation, so I can bring that up to him. He's working. >> Can I bring it up because I'm not the only one that I've seen do it. It's like a common thing right in Oka County. And I'll be frank, I honestly don't know what the proper way is. Obviously, safety is paramount. That's most important. Uh that being said, I'm certainly more concerned when it's a vehicle going over the roundabout. >> Um I I'll bring that up to the recreational deputy get an answer >> to not not know and then get a ticket for it. Would that probably be a warning initially, right? Like >> it is dependent on which deputy is stopping you or which offic. >> Sure. Sure. Yeah. This one just was like get put the window on, get off there. Fair. Fair. >> Fair enough. >> Yeah. >> Is that considered a confession? >> Hey, I'm fine. I did it. Yeah. >> I know what the statute of limitations is on that. >> Yeah. You might be able to people make mistakes. >> This is Jenny. I have one question. So, I know that as of July 1st, we had some changes, I believe, to motorcycle law. Is that correct? So, I know that um because when people renew their licenses, they don't necessarily get educated on some of the laws and changes. Is there anything we can do social media wise? I I like to share posts from the city and the county. Um that especially because I think today I had a motorcycle come between myself and another vehicle which I believe is now legal. And so is there any potential to maybe create some posts or something like that so we can um educate our residents on some of those changes? >> Did our community relations coordinator put something on Facebook? >> I think I think our sheriff's office. Let me look into that and then I'll forward you whatever we have and you can feel free to share it and post it wherever you need to. >> I do know yes, lane splitting and lane filtering is legal. Um it is only when safe to do so and I think it's up to 15 miles hour. There is caps on that. Um however you going to see that more and you don't expect it even even if it is legal. It's something you don't expect a motorcycle to come up behind next to you, but it is legal to do so when safe. That's the main thing for motorcyclists, anyone listening. >> But I agree cuz if you didn't see it on the news, it's hard to, you know, we don't get the bulletin on that. I found out about it because my registration's due on my vehicle and there was an insert in the envelope that I got in the mail and I was like, "Wow, this is coming up and I'm in law enforcement." And I had no idea until I opened that that that law was even coming. >> Right. And I know this is Jenny. So I know even with um the zipper merge that was a a really big deal a few years ago. Um and I know a lot of resident not just Columbus residents but in general people have a hard time with some of the sharing of things like the roadway. So just to try to educate people is important. So they try to you know be more cautious of especially motorcycleycling. >> Absolutely. Thank you Jenny. Yes. Thank you. >> Nothing. No. >> Scott, do you have anything? Nothing from me, thanks. >> Well, >> all right, >> I guess. Well, thank you very much, >> appreciate your work there, Matt. >> Of course, >> Dan. >> And Elisa >> Lieutenant, >> thank you. >> We hope to see you on National Night Out. >> Thank you. Have a nice evening. >> You too. Uh, next item on item C is uh number four is the city council workshop meeting date changed. Uh, page 18. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The regular city council workshop meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 5th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at the Columbus City Hall. This date conflicts with the night to unite program which is scheduled for the same date as the workshop meeting. Staff is going to request council consideration of rescheduling an alternate date of Monday, August 4th, 2025 for the workshop meeting to resolve the meeting date conflict or August 7th, 2025 is an alternate date to that. >> Anybody want to make the motion? Is there one or the other that works better for everybody? I I mean either is fine with me. Either of the proposed dates is fine with me. >> Yeah, I'm I thought we talked about that in the workshop though, didn't we? >> I don't remember. >> Thought we did that. We changed to the >> fourth. Fourth. >> Okay. >> Then I am This is Janet. I would uh move to approve the rescheduling, excuse me, of the date of the August 5th, 2025 city council workshop meeting to Monday, August 4th, 2025 at 5:30 to avoid a conflict with the night to unite activity scheduled for the same August 5th date. >> This is Jenny. I second. >> Okay, we got a motion that's been seconded. Any other discussion, questions? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Jenny I, >> Janet I, >> Rob I, Scott I, >> and Ron I. Passes unanimously. Go on. Item number five, the set agenda for August 4th, 2025. City workshop meeting page 19. >> Our city council workshop meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, now August the 4th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. The following items are recommended for discussion. City hall renovation needs. Uh there's an item two here says planning commission inter member appointment if required. I think that's already been taken care of. Outstanding escrow claims that we want to discuss with the council on how we want to handle those. And then the pack your lunch item, the 2026 budget discussion. If you have any other items you'd like to add, we can see what we can do to work those in. I have one other thing um for consideration and that would be um a review of the city administrator review process. So that was one of the things that was baked into this new process is that we would um review the process, make changes um as as required and then it would be set to go for the following year. And I would also like to just add u a discussion of city administrator goals. Um, so if there's time to do those two things, I would like to add that to the agenda. >> Anybody else? Scott, do you have anything? >> Nothing to add. >> We'll add that to it. >> No questions on that. All right. Then I'll make a motion that uh we move to approve the agenda for August 4th, 2025 city council workshop meeting as presented in item C.5 of the July 23rd, 2025 city council meeting agenda and packet to add what council person Tan said on the reviews and all that, etc., etc. >> Perfect. >> I will second it. We got a motion. Got it seconded. Any other questions, >> comments? Hearing none. Jenny >> Jenny I. >> Janet I. >> Rob I. >> Scott I. >> I. Over a section D consultants leaison and staff report. City engineer. Brian >> Brian Bachme mayor consulting city engineer. Good evening mayor and council. I have no reports this evening, but I'm available to participate in the discussion under the administrator's reports regarding the Hornsby project and the golf course or the tennis court project. So, >> thank you. The next city attorney, Megan. >> Yes. Uh well, I have one small update uh and that is just where we are with the cannabis rollout uh in the state of Minnesota. Uh so as you are all well aware, we adopted a uh cannabis licensing ordinance and zoning requirements for cannabis based businesses in the city of Columbus uh in advance of what we expected a licensing process to kick off in January of of this year. Um and that process was delayed. Uh but on June 5th uh the first social equity licenses were uh that lottery took place for retailers and uh also for the lottery for suppliers. So those are cultivators, manufacturers and and really people who are making the supply of goods to sell happen on June 5th. uh on July 22nd, all of the retail licenses will open up and that's when you can expect a a sort of increase in terms of the number of the the folks who are going to be engaging with the city. Um so I've provided the council with uh the office of cannabis management's new guide for local governments. Um just a couple of things to call out. uh the the OCM has really encouraged all retailer applicants to reach out to cities in advance of submitting formal applications. Uh so they should be working with your planning staff to to work through a potential retail license um and location, you know, optimization. Uh but then at the time that a retailer has a license that's been awarded by the lottery and has a location in mind, then they're going to submit to the city through this Asella software that the state has selected. Um and that will be the mechanism that the city utilizes to uh authorize the location from a zoning perspective. And so you you all may recall that we talked a lot about this preliminary application versus the final zoning application. uh and we elected to remove sort of this reference to a preliminary application from our code. Uh and and this is the reason why we did that, right? Is because there is actually going to be a state process for us to be able to verify that an applicant for a conditional use permit has a valid license um and for us to do an initial zoning review. Once that happens, uh the the staff will enter that information into the Asella software. there will be further state process and then and only then was an applicant going to come in for a conditional use permit. Um so we made a guess on an educated guess on how this process would work and we guessed correctly which is great. Um so at this point in time we do not need to make any changes to your licensing ordinance or to your zoning ordinance in terms of process um for your applicants but we should see those uh those applications to cities for conditional use permits in particular um should be picking up through the fall here. Scott has his hand up. Oh, >> what? >> Scott has his hand up. Oh, >> Scott. >> Yeah. Yeah. Hi, just one question. Can you spell so I could just look it up myself? >> A c E L A. >> Glad I asked. I wouldn't have gotten it. >> Yeah. No, absolutely. Um, it's sort of like the train, right? The sell, >> the Amtrak train with an extra fee. Um, and there are and the process in the sort of recommendations of the state are outlined um on page 11 of this uh guide for local governments. And Scott, your hard copy, I'll send you an email with it, but your hard copy is here at city hall as well. >> Okay. I imagine that'll be on their website, too. Correct. >> Absolutely. Just recently. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. Yes. Um, can you It's been really confusing to me when I've heard about the um, uh, tribes being allowed to open up a certain number of retail shops outside of tribal lands and what the process would be for that. I thought I read that that would be in addition to however many we had approved that it doesn't, you know, so if we say we we would allow three in Columbus, theirs wouldn't count towards that three. Is am I understanding that right or can you just speak to that a bit? >> Yes. So, uh, it's our understanding that the tribes have a special exemption from the local government requirements. Um, and so that would be an access of the of the three licenses, for examples, that would be available in the city of Columbus. >> And with that, their retail shops already open at uh, Max and Hankley >> and St. Cloud >> St. Cloud >> or at least they're working towards St. Cloud. I think they're building a big growth facility in Hankley, too. Like they just didn't relax. >> Pretty big. >> That all you have? >> That is all I have. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> You know, before we go on here, Jack, uh this person on the screen named Chris has had his hand up. Uh do we acknowledge that even though the open forum's done? >> I think Mr. Mayor, that's actually the mouse. Uh >> oh, >> the hand should probably be yellow if >> I've been looking at that the whole time and it would disappear then it would come back. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go on to uh the next one is the mayor's or city council's report. Item number three, Jenny, do you have anything? >> Uh this is Jenny. Yes. Uh two updates I had or Kung Creek had their watershed meeting on July 14th. nothing to report there. On July 17th, uh Fall Fest had its meeting. We can confirm that on Saturday, we actually uh were able to secure a band. So, we will have the Rock and Hollywoods performing that day. Um so, we will have some updates coming over the next few weeks um and confirming the website had initial updates done and completed today as well. So, thank you to Aaron for that. Um that is all I have for updates. >> Thank you. Janet, do you have anything? >> Nope. I I'll talk about the personnel committee under that item. >> Okay, Rob. >> Uh, planning commission is all I have. So, I believe I'll do that under six. >> You wait till that comes up. >> Yeah. >> And I have nothing other than my park board and I'll wait till that comes up, which is next item number four. Uh, the parks board report. Uh, this is kind of a two-phase. Scott, >> Mr. Wendell. >> Yeah. >> Oh, I forgot. Scott, I usually have you beside me. Do you have anything to say? >> No, I'm good. No report. >> I didn't see the hand. So, >> thank you. >> Any longer? >> Uh, back to the park board. Uh, item number four under D. Uh, this will be a two-phase. Jack will give the talk about the tennis courts because he wrote up a nice report on it. Uh at the meeting it was uh pretty well attended as is noted in Jack's report. Uh they did bring up a couple issues about um about having another um satellite there in the wintertime out in the park. That was issue was brought up. I don't know if we ever came to a conclusion on that. And then the other item that was talked about was adding four more garbage cans to the park, which was voted on and approved. So other than that, I'll leave that go until um your report comes up. Okay, J. >> Thank you. Uh item number five is a personnel committee report and that's Janet. >> So I would just uh this is Janet for AI sake. Uh, I would just refer council to the memo that um was passed out tonight on the personnel committee report from um our uh interview with a planning commission candidate. Um this is uh Mr. Andy Heinen. He submitted his application uh in mid July and we interviewed him yesterday. Um he moved to Columbus uh just a little bit shy of 5 years ago from Blaine lives in the Thurbeck phase 2 development on 172nd um court and he owns also 6 and a half acres off of Broadway and 180th that he uses for hunting. So he learned of this opening from following Jenny on social media. So thank you for putting that word out there. You just got us potentially our next uh planning commissioner. Um he has a a a degree um from Manoto State University majoring in law enforcement and park and wrecks with an emphasis in natural resource management and worked for eight years in Minneapolis as a park police officer and prior to that at Oak Park Heights Prison in the Department of Corrections. Um he currently is working part-time for Complete Performance as a personal trainer and a coach. Um serving on a local government board is new for him. his father uh served um on the planning commission in Sock Rapids and on the city council and then later on the county board. So, he he has heard a lot about it, but he hasn't actually done it and is excited to to to try it out. Um he enjoys the rural aspects of Columbus and wants to help preserve that rural nature um while keeping the city growing in the right direction to generate revenue and keep uh keeping taxes affordable. and uh we talked about the time commitment that it takes to be on a planning commission and he felt that he would have the time to serve and um would be able to devote the time necessary. So uh the planning or I'm sorry the personnel committee unanimously endorses his uh application and I'll take any questions otherwise I can make the motion to approve his appointment. Any questions? >> Nope. >> Nope. Okay. So then um let's see does Jack have a motion here? Yes. So, I uh this is Janet. I move to approve the appointment of Andy Heinen to the City of Columbus Planning Commission to fill the vacated seat of Lin Carver Quinn, which expires on December 31st, 2025. >> Rob, I'll second. >> We got a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Uh any other discussion? Any other questions? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Jenny. >> Jenny, I Janet I. >> Rob I. Scott >> I, Scott I, >> and Ron I. The motion passes unanimously. We'll go on to item number six, the planning commission report by Rob. >> Yeah, thank you, Ron. So, I was the planning commission liaison uh for last meeting and the future meetings here for the quarter. Um, we had a public hearing for the hidden park. Um takeaways from that adjoining neighbor uh showed interest in possibly purchasing uh that parcel asked who who else was going to be it offered up to. I said I explained in the past how we typically had offered it and I didn't know that that was a process for sure we were going to follow but we'd offered it to adjoining land owners. Um and they seemed happy about that. They asked about whether we're going to get it perk tested. They said there's lots of wet ground, unusable ground there. um that likely this year is flooded. Um like I said, ask about the process on that. Uh there wasn't there was I believe it was only one person on it, Jack, that showed up to ask questions. They brought their whole family. >> Um the next thing was on the Northwest Quad. Uh there was approval of a zoning request change from general commercial to include mixed use. Uh Harper family wedding venue. Uh there was a big turnout for that. Uh the Harper family wanted to host uh 4-hour wedding events uh up to two a day uh possibly uh on both Saturday and Sunday. Uh up to 10 of those a year. Um some of the commissioners uh comments on that were uh issues around parking issues, how they could only park on one side of the driveway. Uh there was reference to uh possible alcohol use and how that be managed um in which the applicants uh simply said they would ask them to leave the venue. Um but uh the public hearing then was open. Uh the neighbor to the east uh strongly opposed the idea. Security concerns, people smoking cigarettes, uh Carlos Avery being adjoining and possible fires due to people doing so. uh neighbor to the west. Uh concern about 10 weddings in a fourmon span, noise issues, effects that might have on sale of houses, questioned if 50 people would including staff as well. Um 10 other nearby neighbors from the neighborhood or more. Um they had con concerns about traffic issues, increased need of maintenance on the dirt road as well as excess use of the tar road. Uh you could get there two different ways. uh concerns of kids being run over, concerns of them just finally feeling like they had a safe neighborhood again due to uh dog issues in the past. Um questions about how are they going to maintain people drinking beforehand and them traveling down their roadway as it uh is used heavily by families. Um neighbors did ask and I said I'd bring it back um if more than just the certain footage amount of people that are adjacent to that property line could be notified. I think we had the similar issue on it was 170th where it was only the culdeac issue where it went into Thurbeck I believe was 170th. They had concerns about it too. I said it's come up before. um we could talk about it. So maybe it's something we talk about in a workshop in the future. Um but uh this ultimately was voted down uh with uh all all commissioners voting uh for no no approval of the venue and then uh as stated in our document here uh they did pull their application. So that's all I got. Questions at all? I think most people >> were either listen or hear. Yep. Uh, >> so >> very good. Thank you, Rob. >> We'll go on to item number seven, public works report, truck bed, pages 21 through 56. Public director made it back in time. >> I did. We have uh had a list station problem that I thought we had cured, but it wasn't. So, I ended up going back out there and having to wire in a new motor starter and a couple other little things. So, uh, hopefully, knock on wood, everything is back in operating form. So, Mr. Mayor and Council, um, tonight I want to talk about, um, the potential purchase of a new plow truck. We have a 2006 Sterling plow truck that is um, obviously 20 years old. And um on our capital improvement plan last year, we had that truck on there for a um 2026 purchase. I'm bringing it forward tonight because of the timing that it takes to buy equipment today. The lead time is a year and a halfish. So, um I've done this in the past where we kind of talk about it and you know I I shoot for a approval to purchase something early and then that lead time comes up and we don't pay till the calendar year that the budgets approved for. So, um what I'm looking for tonight is to um get approval to purchase a new truck. What we are looking at would be a 2026 MAC. That would be a match to the two that we currently have, a 2016 and a 2020. We like to do, you know, we like to buy all of our equipment as the same, so they match. If you get out of one truck, get into another, the ergonomics are the same, the controls are the same. All of that stuff is very um standard. So, we like to do that. With that, the contract would be with two separate vendors. So Ber or not Ber sorry Nus E equipment sells Mac cab and chassis and then they are a state contract vendor. Then you go to another vendor tow master state contract vendor and then they do all of the upfitting. So they put plows and wings and underbody plows and boxes and lights and sanders and all of the other stuff that make it look pretty. Um, the cabin chassis on state contract is $139,150.82. The tow master outfit is $179,340 for a total of $318,490.82. To put that in perspective, we bought a new truck in 2019 that was 27,000 if I remember off the top of my head. So, the price of equipment is skyrocketing. Um, I'm not sure how to manage that, but you know, we talk about that every year at budgeting. So, what I'm looking for tonight is some discussion and a hopeful approval for me to move forward with purchasing this truck. And for that, I'll open up to anybody's questions. >> Um, this is Janet. So, in the motions here, I think the the dollar figure got cut off, but you you quoted a total figure that's different than what's in the memo. Can you just tell me what that total figure is? >> $318,490.82. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I saw that, too. Um, and then my other question is, um, in the memo it talks about how the sale of the 2006 truck would generate, um, about $41,000 in revenue. >> How do you how do you know that? >> You take a guess. Okay. >> So, um, what we would do is we would put that out at the surplus auction like we normally do, right? Mhm. >> We would put a minimum bid on there of call it $25,000. You know, we'll pick a number, right? We're going to go out and look around a little bit and try to see what other equipment selling for, but um we kind of did some talking already and you know, you always have your hope number that is going to be considerably higher than what your minimum is, right? >> It's a nice truck. The downside of this truck, one, it's 20 years old. It has um just shy of 37,000 miles on them. We don't wear them out with mileage. Um we wear them out with just wear and tear. They go out during the ugliest times of the year. We put salt in there. It's very corrosive. It's hard on things. And you know, we work them really hard. So, you know, all of that said, if you look at it, it looks like a nice truck. But, you know, they don't make sterings anymore. They're hard to get parts for. So now you start running into some other issues too, you know what I mean? And and at 20 years, >> you know, we've we've well exceeded what we're saying is a life cycle. It it would be a good truck for somebody else. So we put it out on on um an auction site. >> Mhm. >> And um they take pictures, they put it out for auction, it sits out there for roughly two weeks or whatever, and people bid on it. And you know, we hope that it sells for more than what we put out for the minimum and that we make decent money on it. Now, I I want to also clarify that $318,490.82. There's tax and license on top of that, too. So, we hope that the sale of the 2006 offsets the cost of the tax and license plus some of this cost. So, >> um it it is it is truly a guess to answer your question though, Janet. >> Okay. We don't really know what they're going to go for, but >> a number and hope. >> Yeah, a lot of that is based on what we've seen for bids for other trucks in the past. >> Uh those prices are continually going up, but uh that's generally what we use as the starting point to approximate what we may receive for that vehicle. So then my other question is um so from the memo what I'm gathering is you want to push this up a year um just because this is an old truck and you don't want to be caught short. Is that >> so so technically it's it's on our CIP plan for 2026. >> Right. >> I just want the approval to order it now because it's a year and a half lead time. So if we wait till we won't pay anything for it today. Right. >> Right. But basically what it does is NUS Equipment puts it on their order list and we're basically bidding for a spot at the bodybuilder. >> Mhm. >> And then, you know, once we once we secure that spot, then we're in their queue. And when they see the truck, then they start building it, which at this point right now, when I met with them, they said they're a year and a half out. >> So, is this going to be I mean, I remember this came up. I can't remember what piece of equipment it was, but it came up with another piece of equipment where it was such a long lead time and I think it was about a year and a half. I think we got it quicker than that, but I think that was the but that was during the supply chain problem and so presumably there isn't that. There's other things now, but um is this going to be like do we need to change our budgeting for this so that we're looking like a year and a half to two years out or is this unique to this plow truck? >> I I think at this point the process that we've been doing is working well for us, right? They're vendors are allowing people to order >> early and they don't charge anybody till the calendar year that it's budgeted for. So, we wouldn't see a bill on this till we receive the truck. >> Mhm. >> It could be 2027. >> And then are you locked into a 2025 price? >> We are locked into this price. >> Okay. >> And that's that's what we build to now barring the, you know, in in other years when, you know, the Arabs and stuff kind of changed things. You know, they were hitting people with some different pricing, but I mean, they're going to be straight up with you on that. And for the most part, they've always been honoring what you've signed up for unless prices really went crazy like they were in, you know, 2019, 2020. That affect they they were doing some offset charging at that point because pricing was just it went really crazy then. >> Remember? So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you, Ron. So, um I know I believe it was with the road grader. Did we put that out to bid to local our local contractors or something last time? We did. >> Okay. And it was the other truck we sold on minbid >> the pickup truck. >> So, as a general rule of thumb, since I've started here and even well before I started here, >> our road graders have never left Columbus. Sure. >> So, we buy them here and Force Lake Contracting generally has bought every road graater that has been up for sale here for years until the last one that we sold and that one went to Rybeck. Yeah. >> So, >> you know, a road grader or something like that, I would potentially talk to local contractors and and they are generally asking me when are you selling? So, there are certain pieces of equipment that people will come and knock on your door and say, >> is this one of those pieces or not so much? This is going to be a smaller city or township or something's going to buy it off auction. >> A contractor more than likely. Okay. So, a contractor that's going to plow other communities, you know, like Lynwood, they used to do contract plowing. They didn't have their own trucks, okay? So, they would hire other people. So, somebody like that type of contractor would buy a truck like this and >> and they would, you know, go plow parking lots or other communities or it it could even be another municipality that >> Sure. >> You know, >> so more than likely at this we'd put it on an auction. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Any >> Rob to kind of give you an example, one of our adjoining cities sold a similar truck through the men bid process about a year ago. I think they got about $30,000 for it and they sold it to Boyer Trucks and now it's on the Boyer Truck for sale site for $55,000. and and they'll and and realistically when you look at cost today, right? A new truck is $318,000, right? That makes the value of your used vehicle worth more, too. You know what I mean? Because there are people that aren't going to spend 318, but they'll spend 50. So, I I mean, it it's kind of all relative at some point when you look at the price of vehicles today. A used vehicle is worth a lot more money than they used to be as well. So, >> one of the other things too in purchasing the Mac truck is we can extend the life cycle these out another two or three years as opposed to the freight liners and the sterlings that we used to purchase. Uh they seem to last much longer and we should be able to get more life out of them too. So, even though they're a little bit more expensive, you get better value out of them from a longer use period. And and you know, going off of that, there's products that you can buy today that you couldn't buy years ago that help um >> help with the salt rusting process. And you know what I mean, that you can you can put on there and it neutralizes >> neutralizes that salt and you know, we do that >> um regularly in the winter time. So, I mean, all of that stuff adds to um the life cycle of a of a vehicle. Plus, you know, we're buying stainless boxes instead of steel boxes. So, you know, that that's another thing that, you know, rots out because you you have that salt right in that box all the time. So, >> you have the original box on that 2006. >> Yes. >> That's unusual. You know, years ago when we had the old public works building, they used to leave salt sand in there all the time because that, you know, they it wasn't convenient for them to load and unload. And that is not a practice that we do today. So, we might load a like if it's going to snow tomorrow, we potentially load a truck and get ready. So we when we get here right away in the morning, we can just go cuz it takes a little bit of time. But we don't leave salt in vehicles. Once it's done snowing, we clean them out, we wash them, and you know, we wait for the next event and sometimes it's the next day. So I mean, it's it's, you know, but they they are way better than they used to be in that sense. Just most people are buying stainless boxes which don't rust out like the regular steel. So >> you have any questions, Jenny? >> This Jenny. So basically what I'm understanding is obviously there are new techniques and new things that can help extend the life of the I mean I obviously what it looks like I mean the the cost is extremely high and I understand that and no matter what that cost is going to be high understand but 20 years is pretty impressive for a vehicle. Are we expecting that potentially again for this new vehic I mean the quality of vehicles in general have deteriorated a little bit over time compared to what was in the 90s and early 2000. So I'm just curious what you think about that. >> Yeah, there's there's no question these trucks will last they'll last that 20 years for sure. Um and and really what it comes down to is maintenance. Are you doing the maintenance on there? Are you changing oil? Are you washing them? Are you fixing the leaks? Are you are you doing all of that stuff? And we do a really good job at that here. I mean, we are always making sure that, you know, the oil's changed. There's all of that stuff, you know, really comes into play. And I talk about oil, right? I mean, we change it every year. There's 36,000 miles on a 20-y old truck. So, I mean, it's not like it's not like we're running up on the, you know, I need to change my oil light because, you know, I've ran my 5,000 mi or whatever. We don't hit that. We do it once a year, you know what I mean? And and uh you know, the the really key though is making sure that you wash them and you know, every spring we take them over by the wellhouse and we literally wash them with a fire hose and you are trying to get in every nook and cranny to get all of that salt out of there. So you're, you know, trying to preserve them as long as you can. >> This is Jenny. One more question. So, um, we have the issue with the tennis courts as well where the what was budgeted does not meet what, um, came in for our different quotes. Um, are you seeing like 10 to 15% increases year-over-year? I mean, so trying to potentially better match what that is going to look like, I think, is important just so we you're able to get everything that you need. So, do can can you speak to that a little bit just across the board? Are you seeing increases of 10 to 15% annually or what does that look like >> in in everything? And we're going to talk about that, too. So, in our CIP plan, we have escalators in there to try to curb some of that and make it so it's not so drastic when we when we change that dollar value. And, you know, we started out years and years ago, I think, at about an $80,000 budget for a year for equipment, right? We're we're well exceeding that now. And you know what we've done in the past is add dollars to it. So, you know, maybe we add another $10,000 a year. And we've done that a couple of times. And then we started out with a 2% escalator. Now we're at a 4% escalator. And we're probably gonna change that number again, you know, or we're gonna ask to anyways because e equipment is I mean, as you see, I come in here and you know, these numbers are getting bigger and bigger every year, right? And I I don't I don't ever see it going back down. Let's say that, right? I mean, you buy a vehicle that used to be 40,000 and now they're 80. So, I mean, it's it's going up in in every every market. Scott has a question. >> Yeah. I was Jenny, are you done? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Scott, do you want to answer your question? Ask your question. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. I I've got three, it's almost more statements than than questions. Uh first of all, I think uh you know, being a part of fleet uh purchasing. Um one thing about bleed times, I think you're right in a ballpark. I think you're correct, Jim. They're not going to go down, especially with looming federal EPA standards that we in in the public or private sector have been looking at lead times between 12 and 18 months and I don't think that's going away anytime soon because of that. Um, second thing is as I did look over the bid and that seems right in the ballpark. I know it's sticker shock, but that seems right in a ballpark. Uh, what I would expect for that type of equipment. I'm not sure about the plow equipment, but the certainly the chassis is right in a ballpark. And third, I did go on to the website while we were having our discussion. Uh I'm frequently on that website and bidding and purchasing off the surplus auction website for Minnesota. They currently have two 2006 state plow trucks. They're tandem axle, not single axle. They don't appear in in as good a shape. And uh they're at right around $10,000 with four days left. And typically that would meet what J uh uh what uh uh Jim was talking about our reserve at $25,000. Those trucks uh little bit bigger but not in nearly as nice a shape are going to go for at least that $25,000 reserve that Jim's talking about and probably more. So I think he's also right in a ballpark for what we could get for that in in an auction. >> Is that it, Scott? That's it. Well, >> thank you. Thank you. >> Can I Can I make one other comment? It's not a It's not a question, but I just like for the public, um, we put money aside every year towards these big purchases, these CIP purchases. So, when we talk about the cost of of a truck like this, it's not like, oh, next year we're going to levy $300 and some thousand to pay for it. Um, which is why it's really, you know, good that you have the escalator in and stuff, but we we we put money aside for this so that we don't get hit between the eyes when these when it comes time to buy this. So, just a point of clarification. >> Yeah. That I mean, all equipment that we buy here, we pay cash. Y >> So, I mean, we the city council has always been very gracious to well, the residents and the staff to put that money away. And you know, you budget a certain amount of money every year. It comes out every year and then we just we buy what we need. >> Mhm. I I do know other communities that they they don't have a CIP plan and they're going to buy a $300,000 dump truck and they >> that goes onto their budget and they're, you know, their budget is up and down, up and down and ours is, you know, relatively stable all the time and that >> makes it very nice for residents and also very nice for us to be able to plan on how how we can manage equipment. And to that point too, I think some communities choose to borrow um to finance, you know, they they get equipment bonds and so then you're paying interest on top of that. So I'm really happy that we do not do that. >> Thank you. Well, I know one thing that you look at a regular pickup truck, I looked at a one ton, $78,000. That's just a pickup. So we get three times that size. So yeah, >> sounds good. Uh, anybody want to make a motion >> on this or are we done discussing it? Hearing nothing. Well, I'll make the motion. I uh Ron Hannigraph to Wait, where are you? to authorize the order of the 2025 MAC granite 2042 FRSA truck and the total master package for the dump body, plow system and apparatuses for the combined costs of $318,000. >> It was 490. Yeah, >> $49082. I remember 82. It stopped on 49 there. Everybody have that? >> Yeah. >> Anybody want to second the motion? >> Rob, I'll second. >> This is Scott. >> Okay. Rob seconds it. >> Uh, there's a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Any comments? Any discussion? Any questions? Hearing none. We'll take a vote. Jenny. >> Jenny. I. >> Janet. I. >> Rob. I. >> Scott. I. >> Ron. I. Passes unanimously. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And that is all I have for tonight. I just have one question. Are you going to put the new logo on this truck? >> We'll put a new logo on everything when you guys approve the logo. >> We did approve the logo. >> I don't know. I gave I gave Aaron a list >> and we talked about doing stuff and I have not been directed to >> buy new logos. >> We still have to bring back the compiled list of everything that's going to need to be updated so that you guys can evaluate whether you want to take that out of an existing fund or should we look at budgeting it for next year. Don't. >> Yep. >> Yes. This one will have a new logo on there. By by the time we get this truck, we will have everything logoed. Yes. >> Thank you. We'll go on to item number eight, the city administrative report. >> This is a report on the Hornsby Eureka Street project. The city of Columbus and Forest Lake had agreed in principle to partner on the 1.35 mile Hornsby Eureka Street reconstruction project pending the approval of a 2025 state bonding bill for the Columbus share of the project cost. The current Columbus portion of the project is approximately 0.25 miles with an estimated cost of $762,000. The proposed financing concept for this project was based on the approval of the state bonding bill to pay for the city of Columbus cost of the project. That bonding bill was not approved, but the city is eligible to apply for a mindot local roads improvement program funding through an upcoming grant solicitation project. Conditions for the eligibility of that grant were part of a $47 million transportation bill that was approved by the legislature also in this year. The use of the funds boils down to the fact that if the Hornsby Street Eureka Avenue project proceeds with both portions, the Columbus and Forest Lake segments at the same time, having a bid in August of 2025, Columbus would not be eligible to apply for the LRIP funds through the competitive solicitation process. The competitive LRIP grant is intended for upcoming projects and not to supplement projects that are already awarded and/or underway. However, if only the Eureka Avenue work, the Forest Lake portion has a leting in August of 2025, the Hornsby Street portion is pulled out as a separate construction contract with a separate letting after LRP awards are announced in March or April of 2026. Columbus would be eligible to apply for these grants. However, there's no guarantee that the Columbus project would be selected for funding. We do think we have a strong case to u be considered for this grant. The city of Columbus will not be able to partner with Forest Lake on a joint project unless exceptions and exemptions from MDOT requirements were approved for this particular situation. MDOT was not open to allowance of exceptions or exemptions to their program requirements. This means that the city of Columbus, if they want to complete this remaining section, will have to bid and construct our project separately. The timeline for the grant application process and the grant award is solicitation of applications in September of 2025, application submissions in December of 25, and grant awards in March, April of 2026. We also have talked with the city administrator from Forest Lake regarding plans and specifications to be able to hopefully use those to lower our cost of that because this is not considered an eligible grant uh eligible item. Uh I'll be meeting with Mr. Stats here next week to go over that plus issues regarding our wetlands credits that were approved. We received that cost from the Rice Creek whed. So at this time, staff is requesting authorization to apply for the local road improvement funds for the completion of the final quarter mile segment of the Hornsby Street is an independent project and negotiate use for wetlands credit funds within the limits of the LRIP program requirements and for any offsets to potential engineering cost with the city of Forest Lake. I might add too that the city of Forest Lake is going to be advertising their bids for this project probably the 1st of August and that's what is the difficulty in us partnering with them to do this and we can't use two LRIP grants for the same project and a portion of Forest Lakes money for their grant is from this fund. >> Any questions? Hearing none. Why don't somebody want to make a motion or >> This is Jenny or I can make >> Go ahead, Jenny. >> This is Jenny. I move to authorize staff to work through the Anoka County Highway Department and the city engineer to prepare a local roads improvement program, also known as LRI grant application for the Hornsby Street project and with the city of Forest Lake to the extent required on this project as presented in the staff report for this item. Is there a second? >> Rob second. >> We got a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. Any discussion? Any questions? Hearing none. We'll take a vote. >> Jenny. >> Jenny. I. >> Janet. I. >> Rob. I. >> Scott. I. >> And Ron. I. The motion passes. In your court again. K. >> Thank you, Ron. This is a memorandum, an update on our tennis court project bids. Uh the city authorized this project as part of the 2025 capital improvement plan to bid the project and evaluate the cost to see if we could actually do the work. Uh so through Bolton and Mink, we bid the project, took bids on um June 17th, brought this to city council. City Council had some questions about taking this to the park board for some additional input and to see if it can be combined with some other larger projects. We also announced at that time too that there was a survey underway to determine what the preference is for use in that where it's tennis, pickle ball, combination of that survey is still being conducted. The results of that will be finished on July the 30th. So, we met with the park board on July the 15th and reviewed the city council's discussion from our June 25th meeting with council. That meeting was to table decision for the reconstruction of the tennis courts in the city park. At the park board's public forum, six persons spoke regarding the use of options for the dual court use of both pickle ball and tennis. of those that spoke. The comments were equally divided relating to the preference for the different uses and the difficulties encountered with pickle ball and tennis play on the same courts. At the conclusion of the parks board conversation regarding the pros and cons of the bid alternate options and concerns of the two different users, a motion to table the decision on this subject was made and approved to allow further study on the topic and gather additional input on this topic based mainly on the survey that will be completed. The park board was advised that the project bid offer was only valid until July 31st, 2025. In postponing the decision to award the bid could result in delaying this work to 2026 or beyond. As an attempt to keep the project moving forward, staff informed the park board that they would contact the low bid contractor and request an extension the bid offer for an additional 30 days. This would give the park board the additional time to analyze the results of a survey regarding the question of usage on the courts and schedule a special meeting to make a recommendation to council to consider at their August 13, 2025 meeting. The park board is agreeable to this timetable and staff has contacted the contractor regarding the extension to a bid award date. The contractor has agreed to the extension with no increase in the base or alternate project bids. The tennis court reconstruction project will be rescheduled for discussion at the August 13, 2025 city council meeting and include any additional information collected between the park board meetings and this council meeting. So, we will have a special meeting of the park board next week or the first week in August. Go over those results of that survey, hear any further input, and then they will make their recommendation to city council on how they would like to proceed with this project. questions, comments. >> This is Jenny. I just wanted to acknowledge all of the residents that came last week. I went to the parkboard meeting. There were a lot of passionate residents of um between the pickle ball and tennis court or tennis um fans out there. And then we had two other meetings last week as well. And I think we had almost 100 residents uh to city hall and online. So, I just wanted to thank everybody for that. I also like to make a comment that the park board uh uh a pretty good group of people we have because right after the meeting a couple of them went over to Belts Park and Forest Lake to check out their new tennis court. They got two tennis courts with the pickle ball lines drawn in almost similar to what we have and uh then they were heading down I don't know if they went there down to Hugo to look at theirs. So they're putting a lot of time and effort into it. So, it was a lot of people. We almost had to call security and win pickle ballers. >> I have a I have a question for um Aaron. What kind of response are you getting from your survey monkey or whatever it was? Mailchimp survey monkey. One of those. >> So, uh in anticipation of that question, I quickly logged in to Survey Monkey and realized that we've had 72 responses. >> Oh, good. Oh, good. >> In about a week and a half. So, >> Okay. Good. had 40 in the first eight hours. >> Those are all the people that were here. >> You can you can keep logging in on that, can't you? Or >> um yeah, I don't know if there's any uh limit to the number of responses. However, I can weed out the ones that use the same IP address and only use one of the of those multiple responses. >> Oh, cool. So, Jenny, I attempted so I I did a test because we were trying to figure out there was a second survey listed um on the park and so we we u got that figured out online, but I I did a test and then attempted to submit a second one and it wouldn't allow it at least on that same computer. So, I think hopefully it should keep it pretty. >> So, no stuffing the ballot box, >> right? >> I know there's a lot of concern about that from the public. They didn't want the tennis people overloading, you know, boats and whatever it be. Well, no other comments on it. We'll wait till the park board figures it out. Next item there, Jack. >> Uh, this is the 2026 budget discussion. It's going to be a little bit different. The first part I was going to be I gave everyone a handout of this is the state audi the report we file with the state auditor every year for our tiff district. It was in the paper in case anybody had any questions. Uh Janet brought this to my attention and asked if we would mention it and bring it up tonight. But this is the annual report we file every year with the state audit for TIFF district 11 and pub is al also has to be published in the paper. The summary of the report has been given to you as a as a handout material and we're here to answer any questions you may have of any of the summary information that's included on this sheet. And it generally is officially what it reports is what the tax increment was prior to development, what it is after development, how much has been expended, and when the official descertification date of the project is. So, if you have any questions regarding these numbers, uh, we're here to answer those for you. >> So, Jack, did you say that there's a there's an explanation of this report somewhere because I don't see it. >> Uh, the explanation would come from staff. >> Okay. So, so I I gave it to you because actually the two people that asked me the question uh left, but I know where to find them. So, I can pass on the information. They wanted to know they wanted me to explain it. I had not seen this report, so I thought I might have a pretty good idea, but I didn't trust my understanding of it. So, could somebody just go through line by line and and just tell us what these numbers mean and then I can pass that on to the residents. I'll take the first four and then Cheryl will take the last four. The first four are the current next net tax capacity tax capacity is determined by the property's valuation times its property classification. So in this case the current valuation of this property is now about 11,200,000. We don't know exactly what has been classified. Generally, it's in that 2% range. If you use this figure they're showing here, which is 300. I can barely read it. 315880, that would be just a little bit more than that 2%. So, that's pretty close. So, if you take the valuation of the current property value and multiply it by the tax classification rate, that gives you the tax capacity of the property. The original tax capacity of the property was listed as $7,620. >> And that was the lot. >> That that that was the pre-development value. >> That's the land. >> So you you can see what it is increased. Uh the original original the capture net net tax capacity, excuse me. That's the difference between the original and the current. So that's $38,000. And uh going with that, I'll turn the rest of it over to Cheryl. She's more familiar with those numbers than I am. But that's how those valuations are derived. >> I got that far, too. And then all of a sudden, it's like I don't know what to do with the rest of these numbers. [Music] So, the principal and interest payment um that's listed is $36,244 and that is 80% of the TIFF revenue that we received from the county. So, originally we had received $45,366. Of that, 80% was eligible to be paid out to the TIFF recipient. So when you say that that's 80% of the tiff revenue from the county, >> where does that revenue come from? That's their property taxes. >> So the property taxes that they paid or they should have paid >> that they did pay. >> That they did pay. Okay. >> And then they get it back. >> Yes. Got it. >> 80%. >> Yep. Mhm. And then the tax increment received in 2024. Um in 2024 we tackled uh prior year tiff. So that number is a little bit higher than what it would normally be. I don't know if you remember going back um there was an issue with some of the requirements being completed. Um so in 2024 we had to go all the way back to the tiff increment received um to 2020 and then we ended up uh being able to pay that out in 2024. >> So what I wasn't sure on this is what the difference was between this tax increment received and the payment, the principal and interest payments that they got back. So, the tax increment received in 2024, that's actually 2020 through 2024. So, I know when when we do our budget and we get all of the numbers from the county, this is always part of that report, or at least it had been in the past. And it goes up every year up from the beginning to year seven I think it is. So every year this number goes up. I understood this number to mean that this is the property tax the that would have been paid and gone into the various different pots if not for the tiff because it's subtracted from our from our our tax revenue at least in the reports that we used to get just like just like the fiscal disparities is it was it was handled kind of at least in the reports that I remember seeing on the budget it was kind of handled in the same way that the fiscal disparities like if that program didn't exist here's what we would have had in tax revenue. >> I thought that's what this number was too but again I was not >> clarify that with Tammy on that sheet. I will ask Tammy about that. >> Okay. Um the 88,000 um that was expended that was actually uh paid to uh the TIF recipient. Um the month and the year the first tax increment was receded was actually July of 2020. It will be descertified in 2028. Um and that's all we have for the report. >> What's that last that last little item? I didn't understand that either. Outside of the district if fiscal disparities option A applies. I can check what option A is also with Tammy. Okay, thanks. >> I got a question, Jack. I I I wasn't around when this all started, but uh I thought that when people go under tiff that the city gets paid for all its clerical and processing. >> When when Cheryl says 80% we keep 20% of that money and that's for administrative purposes and essentially it's for us consulting with Northland Securities to file these reports. That's a big portion of it. And then anything else we can use for administrative costs for our own use. >> So this this must cost a little penny to print to put in the paper that we get that deducted. They get >> that that would be part of our administrative cost to pay for these print. >> So Jack, I remember that the prior council who authorized all this gave that money back. We don't get I if I'm remembering correctly we forfeited that 20% and that went back to bare homes. >> Okay. >> I mean I think that that's you know there was an administrative fee that could have gone to the city but that council declined it and gave it back to Bear Holmes is what I'm remembering. T typ typically though that administrative fee is kept by the city to use to pay their administrative costs. >> Yeah, I know. I know. Typically I don't think it happened here. >> Okay. >> How do you know if it happens? >> Maybe >> we'll have to go back and I can look at the original TIFF documentation. >> I I was at the meeting where they made that decision. >> What? >> I was at the meeting when they made that decision. >> I thought that was a decision made on u the asphalt company. >> Nope. I mean not that >> there was something else on that. >> Yeah, that we can get into that too, but that isn't this was this was a request that was made by the by the um >> council. >> No, by the uh business and the council granted it back to them and and I remember Elizabeth's face when that happened because you could have picked it up off the floor. A >> lot of money. >> It is. Yep. >> Any other questions? >> No, but it that Thank you for going going over that. It's um it's helpful. I mean, I get when I was campaigning, I would get a lot of questions about this tiff that it is a source spot for several residents that we have this. So, good to understand it. Well, going on with the rest of the budget discussion, the 2026 budget is in preparation and there are no handout materials for tonight as we're still waiting for wage and salary, bond review, and fire department inputs for the budget. This information will hopefully be available and assembled for presentation at the August 4th, 2025 work meeting. With the exception of the items mentioned, the remainder of the budget items are completed. So once we get these inputs, we'll be ready to make that presentation. The reason we're not doing it now is because these inputs are going to account for about 40% of our budget. So I want to get it all done at once so you don't have to go back and tinker and put a lot of placeholders in. So we meet with the fire board 31st. We'll get their inputs. Then uh we'll get something on wage and compensation here hopefully within the next two weeks. And uh the um other item is the um [Applause] Oh, it's the bond. We have a bond review, too, that Tammy's working on now. She'll get those. We had uh some issues last year with the filing of the bond reports that we weren't uncovered until we submitted those to the county. So, we want to make sure those are perfectly correct so we don't have to go back and revise anything again this year. So, once we get those, we'll roll out the whole thing for you on the on the 4th and we'll start that process. >> Any question? I want to point out what I submitted to the county last year was correct. It was an error from the previous years. So, I just want to go over that with a fine tooth comb. Um, we need to look at some special assessment revenue. Um, we need to look at some of the utility revenue. I want to make sure that we are exactly correct and we are staying on track before I give those numbers to you. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. One one other item though that I'd like to bring up here tonight though is what are our city budget goals for other projects that we think need to be addressed. I mean these could include things like talking about city hall renovation. What we hope to proceed go further in our document management system beyond 2025. uh our making sure we have our IT service contracts included in this. Uh the other thing we want to talk about is the collection of our delinquent utility connection which is to me a very high priority. We al also need to look at what if we want to start setting aside any money for our comp plan costs which are going to start coming up in about three or four years. depending on what firm we get and how much we're able to do in house could cost $60 to $80,000. And also we want to let you know that next year we plan to have that clear gov budget tool ready to go. So this will be a simpler process to present develop and to understand with not only staff council but also the citizens. it'll be a much simpler process and that's one of the big goals that we've had since we started this discussion last year. So, if you have any ideas or anything else you want to discuss about budget goals, please let us know by the end of next week and uh we can see what we need to do to address those in the next meeting. >> Any questions? Any comments? Can I ask a question that's not related to anything that you just talked about? I should have asked it earlier, but it was part of the consent agenda. So, it has to do with the um the resolution for the EDA. So, my question is um the it looks like by the resolution the effective date is the 9th of July. So when do when does this actually start in in reality? Like our next meeting is >> already started. >> It's already started. >> Okay. So So like >> mayor will need to make an appointment before the next scheduled EDA meeting so that the new EDA can organize the bylaws and seek uh a third citizen representative. and that will be on the agenda for our August 13th meeting to for that consideration. >> Okay. And then my other question is so so if the two citizen members that are on right now are reappointed, do their terms start over or do they continue on with the same terms because they'll they'll probably turn over and die if you tell them they're on for another seven years. I would I would I I would suggest that since they're already midterm and had been appointed for six-year terms that they just allow or are remain to uh fill out their term. >> I I I like that idea. I just wasn't sure like legally how it all worked out since we're forming a new EDA >> and their their terms are still staggered too. So that doesn't affect anything with that. >> Okay. Um and then do you want to say anything about like soliciting interest? Well, if anybody on the council that's interested in being on the EDA, let me know ahead of time. >> Right. Because there's two members and you're one of them. >> Yeah, I'm obligated. But >> Mr. >> If I don't hear from anybody, then I guess someone's going to be on it. So, but if you are interested, let me know and then we'll be all set come August 13th. >> Thank you. We all done with that there? I'll go on item E, announcements and reminders. Uh, local government officials meeting July 31st, 2025 at Bunker Hills Activity Center at 6:00 p.m. Jack, I believe all of most of us are going to that. >> Uh, >> we won't be. >> Huh? >> We have fireboard. >> No. Oh, no. Is it fireboard's at 5:00, right? Oh, wow. You're right. We'll have to regroup on that one. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. But because I suppose we got to drive those fire trucks over there. >> Yeah. >> Back to Forest Lake >> for parking. >> We'll talk about that one afterwards. Uh item under Noa County Sheriff's Office open house. Lake Highway Shop open house 5510 197th Avenue Northeast July 31st 2025 between 3 and 6:00 p.m. City Council August workshop meeting August 4th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. Night to night to unite parties at various locations in the city and Alliance Club sponsored events at the Columbus City Park. That'll be August 5th, 2025. Planning Commission meeting on August 6, 2025 at 6 p.m. and city council meeting on August 13th, 2025 at 6 p.m. Did I mess up anywhere? >> Perfect. >> Okay. Anybody want to make a motion to adjurnn or any other discussions? >> This is Janet. I move to adjurnn. >> Come on, Scott. >> Scott, do you want to >> This is Why do I always have to second the adjournment? This is Scott. I'll I'll second. >> We got a motion on floor. Been seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. We'll take a vote. Uh Rob >> Rob I. >> Janet I. >> Jenny I. >> Scott I just know you tried to make a few motions or a second. So I want to give you a shot. >> Well, thanks for your consideration, Rob. I appreciate it. Council, >> what was your vote? and Scott I >> Ron I meeting is adjourned at 7:50 whatever >> recording in prog [Music]