[Music] the date is February 12th 2025 the time is recording in progress and this is the uh city council meeting for February 12th the first thing on the agenda is the pledge allegiance so we all stand I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] okay um the adoption of the agenda anybody want to make a motion on that oh no there's a motion under I move to approve the agenda for February 12th 2025 city council meeting and add agenda item number F which is a closed session so we'll close this this at a certain time so the council meeting for a private session we'll go on to item number B consent to Jen now oh we need a second what we need a second oh that's right it's all second it okay now we take a vote right Jennifer Jenny I Scott I Janet I Rob I Ron I I got SL I just want to clarify that the Clos session is a public meeting it's just closed to the public because we are in negotiations for the sale of certain property in Columbus thank you Bill M we go on to Item B consent agenda the consent agenda is considered as one item of business it consists of a routine administrative items or items not requiring discussions items can be removed from the consent agenda at the request of city council or staff members uh item number two approval of September 25th 20 24 City Council meetings reason I read that one out is uh we want to approve that one items three through 8 I'd like to table until another time I think they need more review okay and uh I move uh to approve the consent agenda as presented in the February 12th 2025 city council packet and the supplement Bill list which was distributed as a handout to council members prior to the meeting and like I said um table items 1 through 8 No 3 through 8 read what nine 3 through 8 3 through eight yeah so we're approve on one and one two and nine correct corre okay so I second we'll take a vote can I clarify number two predated um Mr wendal and I so we would abstain from that correct well you weren't here yeah I attended the meeting but I wasn't so I think what we you can probably clarify this bill this comes up a lot there's two ways it's interpreted I think the standard way that's been done here if you weren't there you didn't vote but I've also had explained to me that if you attended the meeting and you read the minutes you could vote on it correct me if I'm wrong Mr City attorney either way it works um our typical practice is not to vote on meetings that you didn't attend but of course since we have video technology you can watch the the meeting so we did attended just work time okay thank you okay should we take a vote Jennifer Jenny I okay Scott I'm going to abstain I did attend those meetings however I don't feel very comfortable accepting my own resignation in item N9 Janet I robbi and Ron I item C is presentation item Council action number one is a public forum we're going to ask public if anybody would like to step forward and uh State their concerns please state your name and your address and pull the mic right up to you thank you Mr Mayor my name is Derek Lind I actually live in Ramsay we're handing out some materials right now unfortunately I've only got seven copies so it would be just the city council members and then the the attorney and the city administrator uh I'm actually with a group called aset a citizen act uh a citizen group for election Integrity we were here last fall first of all I want to say thank you for passing that post elction review you're one of Seven Cities to do that we appreciate that ACD has been in business now for 3 years it was actually started by a Columbus woman um Brenda Miller I think you guys know her well the reason I'm back tonight is Anoka County is in the middle of purchasing brand new pole pads and we've been jumping up and down for 2 years telling them to get rid of these things these are electronic pull pads we used paper until 2016 we've given you guys a presentation on that I know we have some new faces here on the council uh there's three reasons why we think this is a terrible idea the first is uh we think they're a waste of money the second reason is we absolutely believe there're a security risk and then the third reason is we have kind of a legal question that it's a question we'll bring up in the very end so if you could look at that packet real quick I'll kind of walk you through that this will be real real quick the first issue I believe it says uh data security that should be the first page of the packet there at the end of the day these these pull pads are iPads with cellular service that depend on third party software that is never going to be more secure than paper at a local Precinct I don't care what anybody says trying to appeal to your common sense there that's all they are iPads cellular service third party software you could turn and if you look at that page there you can see the pros and cons of using electronic through paper you can go to the second page please we'll talk about cost a little bit uh I don't know how many of you were at that presentation by inoka County on on January 29th but Tom Hunt stood up and he said these are going to cost about 100 Grand our numbers are coming in at about $850,000 and um if you look at that actually if you go to page three that probably tells you a little bit more there's more to it than just the hardware now Tom did say he had some State money I believe he he has said in the because I listened to a recording of the of the presentation it was $160,000 in state money so the original bill was $271,000 just for Hardware from uh bro no in but then after that you got all these other things that go with it and you can see the list of items there um and then there's a first year a second year a third year it goes all the way down to six years I'm not going to go through every detail with you you can read that on your own time but if you add it all up we get a much bigger number than $100,000 so so we would say it's a waste of money these things only last 5 to seven years that's what Tom said in his presentation and you only use them on Election Day so why are we spending that kind of money for something like that by the way County just raised our taxes by 16.86% so they should be cutting costs everywhere I understand it's not your problem but we're making making the money case uh the last item if you go to the very last page of that packet um there should be a jpa from the city of Inver Grove Heights down in Dakota County NOA county has been saying that they have the authority on these pole pads they can tell you they can force you to use them and in fact when they push these out in 2018 it was kind of pushed out quietly and it was done among staff NOA staff was talking to the city staff this was a major change to our election system should have had a political process involved you guys should have voted on that up or down but I don't think you knew about it you guys probably weren't here in 18 not sure if that's the case or not but what's interesting is we found in ner Grove Heights that city has a jpa with Dakota County and so that's kind of our legal question we don't give legal advice you got an attorney you can look at that but at least in that circumstance we're assuming that INF Grove Heights was able to vote on this whether or not they wanted it so I I'm I'm trying to be brief here I don't want to take up a lot of your time do you guys have any questions I know you weren't expecting me to show up tonight but anything nothing if you do you can reach out to Brenda you guys know how to get a hold of her and we'll try to get your questions answered I want to thank you again for your time your support and thank you for passing that for last year that was a very big deal so well thank you Eric have a good day thank you Eric anybody else in the audience for the uh open Forum we're going to go to the uh Zoom or online anybody out there that wants to make a comment on open Forum I don't see anybody so we're going to close the open forum and go on to item number two under C2 CTI garage condos conditional use permits Jack thank thank you Mr Mayor we have Elanor Han here with us tonight and Elanor will go over the staff report and present the findings and the recommendation of a conditional use permit for CTI garage condos and then be available for any questions regarding those recommendations Elanor hi thank you Jack uh everyone can hear me all right yeah yeah okay um so we've recently received received a cup application for the amendment for the uh CTI garage condos this will they've been um in our community for a number of years the first cop was issued back in 2008 and since then they've come forward every couple of years to add an expansion or change some of the Amendments um some of those conditions this will most likely be the final Amendment to the cup and the final expansion of the of the garage condos and so we really wanted to take a minute to make sure that we have all of those conditions um sorted out everything's down pat as this will probably be the final amendment to that um some questions came up after the public hearing hosted by the Planning Commission back on January 15th regarding the fact that after this amendment the cup will change hands from primarily being um under Joe bayy to the HOA as a whole um and how that legal transition will work and then what kind of conditions that we can have to miate mitigate any effects that that will have as it moves forward um in the future and changing hands consistently and so you should have a couple of different staff reports in front of you one that was submitted last Friday as a part of the packet and then um another one write as a handout right before this meeting with a couple additional edits as well primarily after the public hearing we double checked with Anoka County Sheriff's Office and confirmed that there have been no written police reports nor any complaint calls on record for this facility and then I also added that the city itself has not received any complaint calls in at least the last five years there were a couple of issues with the neighbors a number of years ago but those have resolved and we haven't had any issues um in the conditions uh we changed a couple of things sorry about that since the public hearing and then again right before this meeting um primarily regarding that transition to the HOA ownership um we've also added something in condition number 18 starting there um ensuring that the any buildings that are remodeled as time goes on in the future are consistent with the performance standards of the initial buildings um changing condition 19 to allow small amounts of gasoline and motor oil to be stored which is consistent with the um facilities HOA bylaws and Covenants as it's a garage condos they're going to have some gasoline and some motor oil and we should allow that in a reasonable amount the main big thing is making sure that the HOA informs us informs the city of any changes edits or amendments to those bylaws and Covenants just so that we are informed and also gives us a updated list of contact information for board members annually so we know who to reach out to when Joe is no longer the person in charge and that we can um communicate with the with the facility um as time goes on um I think that covers it but does anyone have any questions for Joe or I yeah this is Scott um what is a reasonable amount of [Music] gasoline yeah that's pretty understandable um Mr Mayor and Council I would just uh interject that reasonable would be in light of the use of the building so these are condos they're um you know garages so you know enough to power a car that's a reasonable amount enough to power 10 cars not a reasonable amount I think the reason that you use the word reasonable is because it's different based upon the use or the user the type of vehicle that's in the garage got it thank you sure and I'll just comment to um Scott I I had actually brought that up because their um bylaws state that they can do it and and then our cup said that they couldn't so I thought we needed to be consistent between those two documents and it made sense to me for the reasons that bill bill brought up okay perfect thanks for the education um this is Janet I I had a question but this is probably for more for bill so I'm looking at condition 24 and I just um I don't know how you revoke a cup on something like this so can you can you walk us through like what the process would be if we really ran into problems sure Mr mayor council member the um with any conditional use permit the council does have authority to revoke a cup it's done rarely it's done after notice and hearing and the reasons for it should be pretty uh substantial or significant um in my mind when you have a condominium you wouldn't revoke a cup for the violation of one owner you would do it if there was a violation in the common area there was consistent problems with the property as a whole uh but if if you have one owner who's a problem you would go through Code Compliance enforcement rather than revoking a cup revoking a cup is the ultimate Hammer again it's rarely used I've only seen it done a couple of times it was done once here in the time I've been here um and so it's it's kind of the the option of Last Resort and then my second question is what happens if sometime in the future they decide to dissolve their HOA uh Mr mayor council member the that is also a rather involved Pro process because the the common elements are held in common and so whenever there's a common interest under state law you have to have um the common interest Community um type of ownership they could dissolve the association but then they would all own that property in common without the rules you know guiding the use so again it's an unlikely scenario but as insurance companies are kind of getting out of the business of ensuring Condominiums because of problems uh with with costs and um basically it's a long warranty period under condominium law um I'm seeing more and more clients come to me and say how do I how do I get this building or this unit out of the association and it's not an easy process but essentially what would happen it's like say you have lakes Shore property and there's a bunch of cabin lots and they own the private road all in common they don't have to have an association but they have to they own it in common and so they're all responsible for it so every if you could dissolve the association I'm not sure that you could uh but if you could it would it would um all of the owners would share in common ownership of those those you know common elements like the driveway the parking area areas the um I think there's a grill area or or a I don't know what you still have a campfire there yes we got a picnic area correct picnic area that's it I was struggling for the name of the but all of those things would still be owned in common so they can't get away from that it's not like it's not like they they can I I think what you're getting is who's responsible for that yeah and how do you how do you enforce or address any um issues with non-compliance I mean there's 100 however many 50 now I mean there's a lot so and and some of those folks don't live here in fact many of them don't live here so I just wasn't sure if if that happened if that's um if that then uh gives you grounds to uh revoke the cup or I mean I just just curious like how you even deal with something like that you could I mean if so if problems arise um you could revoke the cup but then you still have these units and what what happens to them so I think it could be problematic uh often times there's a super majority vote required to dissolve the association so it's I don't know if it's 3/4 or 80% or you know some high number so it doesn't happen often but I do know that insurance uh premiums have been going up on these types of facilities I don't mean the garage Condominiums I mean uh condo facilities facilities that are in a Condominium Association so the way this condition is is written still makes sense for a cic it does because we could have problems with the common elements okay and and that would be one way to to enforce uh compliance Ron uh to Bill uh question on the HOA so that's typically homeowners association right these aren't really they're not livable spaces are they that's correct is this just a generic term that's used for this this type of development it is okay you know for for lack of a better word you could say the cic association sure which is a common interest Community um you could give it a different name but it's been referred to as homeowners association and I don't think that's problematic we we definitely don't expect people to live in these units yeah I knew there was some kind of talk around whether whether not they could or couldn't live in them back in the past so just wanted to make that clear thank you and if I could interject the the the exact name of the association is garage solution Condominiums Owners Association great thank you Joel appreciate that so just for uh Elanor we could clean this up by just saying Owners Association striking the word home perfect and I wanted to make uh one other clarification I was reading through this this afternoon and um there was a Prohibition against businesses um let's see do you remember which number that is we did some time ago have somebody not in this location but another location wanting to start a business and there was just some wording I wanted it's 21 thank it's 21 all right no units shall be used as a business um the units aren't used as a business they're they're used for a business or occupied as a business so just a little bit of word smithing there that can be changed yeah yeah bill that's in our that's in our HOA um rules also good used for operation of a business little tweak there I have one question um this is more for our city administrator do we have any Citywide policies about HOAs I mean this brings up more questions about policies that we maybe should put in place for HOAs and not specific to um the garage no they've been treated on an individual basis and uh maybe it's something we need to look into Mr Mayor and Council one of our longstanding lines that we've been careful with as a community is HOAs are a private document they're between owners and so we we get notice of them to make sure that somebody's in charge that you know roads are being cleared if there's an association uh but we rarely dictate the contents of a HOA because they are private documents between private parties and I think this mainly focused on having a contact and ensuring that the city is aware of and so even for residential it's important to know maybe who would be the contact for those HOAs as I think my point or what I'm trying to get at as as Bill stated it is a private uh interest group but you know maybe we need to have a few just basic checklist policies like these that are mentioned so we're sure we have contact information and have some assurances that some of these other services are being provided not that we can control them but we do know that they're there thank you I would also like to add to everybody that we do have a professional management team a company that manages the HOA for us they basically help us run meetings they pay all the bills and make sure stuff gets if there is a complaint they they're the ones that to handle it all I got a question Joel yes on your your letter you wrote on December 11th uh and I talked to Ellie about this uh it says you're currently using 122.5 gallons of water yep a day so when they figured this out in 2008 the septic system and that did they figure out how much water each unit would take and how many units you would have cuz I you note that 300 gallons is what Olsen says is what it's the peak then yes so it was designed for 300 gallons per day is is and that was designed by a I guess you call it a septic designer a sewer designer um and we have you know we have the two systems so the one North one but the what what I'm adding to now is actually what we call the Southwest um system and that's the one that's at 120 so we can you know we have plenty of room to add to it okay um and the amount of we'll be adding we'll never we'll never maximize that out I I just brought it up because I thought that was odd how many units you have open now 100 or 90 well there's 135 units right now but like I said that's split on the two systems okay we have two Mount systems out there we have the original uh cic 292 that's on one system and then the 320 is all on a separate system I just thought that was such a low amount but it is and you know a lot of I bet you not even half of these have a bathroom in them and then you know so many of these you don't even see the owner out there I mean it could go you could go a month before you see the owner out there there some more yeah there's a there's a small group you see almost every day but the rest of them they just come and go and they probably don't even use a bathroom half the time when they're there I I I I just look at I I wash my car in my garage and I probably used 10 gallons and I thought if you have 135 that's a you know yeah must that's another thing that's interesting I have the floor drains and we do all that to code and I bet you I only have about six people that actually washed your car inside the garage because they have so much stuff in it they can't wash it without getting everything wet so really it's more of a storage center it really is that a place of you know some guys work on cars but so much of it just used for storage I must be there's very few guys that actually are doing much out there quite honestly I go by I see always like you say the same people out so well thank you anybody else have any other questions discussion nope make a motion here uh make a motion that I move to approve the conditional use permit for CIT garage condos this is Janet second any discussion any questions start with you Rob Rob I Janet I Scott I Jenny I and Ron I so the motion's approved thank you Joe you all right thank you have a good evening we'll go on to item number three Companion Animal Care agreement thank you Mr Mayor The Companion Animal Care agreement was discussed at the January 8th 2025 city council meeting and resulted in additional information being requested as to the Northwoods Humane Society impound services staff and council member hegland reviewed this matter with Companion Animal Care on January 28th 2025 as stated at the January 8th council meeting the city through Companion Animal Care currently impounds animals with Northwoods Humane Society there is no contract with Northwoods Humane Society for this Services Companion Animal Care's previous impound partner Otter Lake Animal Care ended impound Services due to lack of staff and space for housing animals as a result companion animals care secured the use of Northwoods Humane Society as an pound service into their facility in Oakwood Oakdale is open in May of this year the Companion Animal Care agreement proposed for Council approval is a solution to not having a contract with Northwoods Humane Society as it is to be effective immediately and not delayed until May 2025 Companion Animal Care is essentially leasing kennel space from Northwoods Humane Society while Companion Animal Care is being built this allows Northwoods to provide interim service without Northwoods needing to spend time drafting impound agreements across the 25 plus Minnesota cities they have contracts with and since they are only providing impound service on a temporary basis this impound agreement would serve the as the agreement during the periods Northwood is being utilized and will be the impound agreement once the Companion Animal Care Centers is open eliminating the need to draft a new agreement as the use of the Northwoods Humane Society impound services and inter solution The Companion Animal Care impound service agreement is to become effective January 1st 2025 instead of the current renewal date of May 2025 the new agreement is designed to save municipalities impound costs Companion Animal Care is requesting at the city of Columbus approve the exhibit exhibit an attachment one of this packet so Animal Control service in the city continues normal once the Companion Animal Care Center is complete in May of 2025 this contract will remain in effect and there will be no need for an additional or modified contract uh on the Companion Animal Care contract in attachment one there have been a few modifications so this would be the amended contract one of the modifications refers to the listing of the address of the location and not referring to it just as a location this is highlighted in the handouts you received under 1B and under I believe it's 2B uh so those addresses are listed also the City attorney had one additional comment regarding indemnification under 5B and I will let Bill explain that one yes uh Mr Mayor uh thank you Mr administrator um I did receive a question regarding uh responsibility for liability and I went back and looked at the indemnification indemnification language in particularly in 5B so it's typical that a service provider would indemnify the city against damages because they're providing the work uh but you know a lot of uh contracts are D drafted with mutual language which is fine uh but I want to strike um uh in line 1 two 3 4 arising out of or resulting from the performance of work under this agreement and then but only so it it would the city would only be responsible for claims that were caused by their negligent acts errors or emissions which are going to be pretty much non-existent since we're not performing the work so I wanted to clarify the work is not being performed by the city but rather as in 5A the work is being performed by the contractor so so if you just uh strike out arising out of or resulting from the performance of work under this agreement agreement semicolon but only then then we've got about a sentence that makes sense and I don't know council member heglund does that address your question um in part I still am a little confused um because the agreement um for the impound is now between CAC and Northwood Humane Society so and we don't have any agreement we don't we're not party to that agreement so all we have is is what we have in front of us and I don't see anything in there that that um defines who is liable should something happen to a party's animal that um is brought to Northwood Humane Society and is there within that 5day period um I just I don't see anything addressing that so that makes me nervous yeah and what I try to do with you know kind of a a surgical strike on this is to make it clear that the city is not responsible for performing the work which would include housing the animal okay um I'm my only concern is if I you know Mark it up too much we're going to go another round and and we don't have an agreement so I I I'm at least comfortable that that shifts responsibility for the work clearly where it belongs on the contractor um but if there's other language that you or other council members would like to see in here right we could certainly propose that so if there isn't if if all that exists between CAC and Northwood Humane Society is a lease agreement does that still cover us if they're not a subcontractor to CAC the you're correct in saying that the only agreement you have is with cic and so we are not a we're not a party to that lease and so we don't have any obligations under the lease okay then I'm good good all right any other comments thank you for looking into that sure so before we make a motion do we have to add that in there to remove that yeah the motion would include making those two changes under 1B and 2B and with the uh change that the City attorney recommends under 5B and with that too we can make those changes and approve that and I can get them them to make that change send it back to us they can sign it and we can sign it yeah it doesn't have to come back yeah so I can make the motion so then um I would move to approve the Companion Animal Care agreement as presented in the amended uh agenda item C3 hand on of February 12th 2025 city council packet with the changes that were discussed um tonight related to the location of the impound facility in items 1B and 2B and um striking the sentence in items 5B arising out of or resulting from the performance of work under this agreement semicolon but only this is Scott I'll second all right we have a motion any discussion any questions confirming it was 5 a and not 5B correct no it 5 the change was 5B oh okay any other discussion comments hearing none we'll take do we have the seconded we did oh Scott yeah sorry right next to me I didn't hear you what we'll take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Scott I Janet I Rob I and Ron I go on item number four 2025 commission liaison appointment assignments of city council persons to commissions committees authorities wos and other public advisory boards as Liaisons or members are recommended by the mayor and confirmed by city council with the exceptions of liaison to the Creek Watershed district and the Forest Lake cable commission the appointments to these positions were made and approved at the January 8th and January 22nd City Council meetings in discussion with mayor hanra mayor hanra recommends the appointment of Scott Wendell as the city council member for the Forest Lake cable commission and Jennifer Laton is the council liaison for the Creek Watershed district there was a question posed to me about liaison for the Fall Fest committee uh we have a Fall Fest committee that will probably be scheduled for February the 25th next week and that topic will come up at that time anybody any questions on this or comments so this is Janet I just have do we want to add Jeff as the um at member at large for the cable Commission on this table Jeff D uh there there's a handout too that updated the organizational chart that um Jeff dur is a citizen appointee to that he was appointed okay sorry I see okay he was appointed for two years back in December yep sorry I was looking under the cable commission line Instead at the bottom great and Jennifer you see you be alternate for the park board yes confirming correct and Rob the fire board's okay thank you uh anybody else have any questions did so did we name the Creek Jennifer was okay okay and Jennifer I will get up with you and discuss Creek has three different sets of meetings uh they're all available to attend virtually a lot of them are in the day I did talk with Tim Kelly and he was glad to see that we're appointing liaison thanks it the result in better communication with us but I'll get up with him and you and I can talk about the meeting schedule thank you and then everybody understands we got the uh three Monon cycle for liaison for the council and if you can't make one or you have plans give me a call and I'll sit in for that one okay having that done um I make a motion that I move to approve the appointments of Jennifer Laton as the city leaz on to Kon Creek Watershed district and Scott Wendell as the city council member on the Forest Lake cable commission this is Jenny L second have a motion any other discussions questions hearing none Rob robbi janed I Scot Jenny ey and Ron I the motion moves on is approved we'll go to number item number five electric uh check signing authorization electronic I'm sorry city council discuss converting the manual signing of checks to electronic signatures and discontinuing hand signing each page of the list of Bill submitted for Council approval at each meeting at the February 4th 2025 work shop meeting Direction was given to staff to include this request as an item for consideration at tonight's meeting in addition to transferring electronic signatures for checks staff is also recommending that the custom of each council person signing every individual Bill list at regular Council meetings be discontinued the roll call vote for the bill and supplementary Bill list approves and accomplishes the same result with less inconvenience and more inefficiency for the timely processing of claims and payments so at this time Council has requested to approve those two recommendations and discussion items we had at the work meeting uh to answer just a few questions maybe in advance is our bank has a policy that accepts fact simbly or electronic signatures and also the fact that we're working with banion Cheryl can answer any questions in detail the big question with them is how do we format the check so we can get the three check signers on there any questions com well then I'll make a a motion uh I move to approve the electronic signing of City checks by authorized signers and the discontinuance of council signatures on Bill list submitted for approval one point of History this is really a hold over from our town board days and it's uh it's held on for almost 20 years so that's impressive yeah we've been a city for 18 yeah wow so question then is that eliminating these okay so it's only going to be the check signers we won't look over these anymore and sign off on them you've done your last one yes tonight we all signed about 14 or 15 pages so yeah you knowbody know the benefit of that is that sometimes the council member misses a meeting sometimes they attend remotely sometimes they forget to sign them then we have to try to contact you it affects your schedule and sometimes it's delayed the payment of bills so this is really a good good move for efficiency of making prompt payments thanks and I do appreciate you sending out the weekly or bi-weekly uh bills and that so that's been helpful and then approval process oh I'm sorry no I I I have a question it's a um it's a policy question so is there a written policy somewhere that um dictates that when we do it this the current way there has to be all of us have to sign but in this new way there does not just needs to be a majority I'm just wonder and I mean if there isn't that's fine but if there is then that policy should then be amended to reflect a majority instead of a unanimous if there's an issue on the bill list the bill in question should be pulled for discussion so if it's disapproved it doesn't affect the rest of the bills so if there's three or four bills in question and we go to approve the bill list you move to approve those bills that approve the bill list that you had no questions on then go back and discuss each one of them individually for your approval or disapproval yeah but I'm not talking about an individual dis you know dispute on a bill I'm talking about unanimous versus majority so so I mean if we don't have a policy I mean we've been doing it for 20 years I'm assuming somewhere it's written down that that's how we have to do it but if it's not then we're good okay it it's just it was a practice that came from the town board and it just continued through all all the years and I think if you research it I don't think you'd find a you know okay because Town board government you know runs with a much smaller staff usually and um and so all the all the board members signed off we do not have a policy for this okay um it will change our process so right now we print the checks for you to sign um we would not print the checks until Thursday morning now so we would want you to go through we get your approval and then we would print the checks and issue those so it will be a change we will no longer be printing the checks for Council we will wait until after Council and we will print them the following morning okay MH well we have a motion on the table this is Scott second any discussion any questions hearing none Jennifer Jenny I Scott ey jedai robbi and ronai the motion passes we'll go on to item number six Lake Crossways Lake Drive streetlight installation city council reviewed information regarding the installation of a street light at the intersection of Lake Drive and Crossways Lake Drive at the February 4th 2025 live Workshop meeting as a result of that discussion staff was directed to include this item for consideration on the February 12th 2025 city council agenda there have been concerns expressed to the city regarding the difficulty of seeing Crossways Lake Drive intersection with Lake Drive at night this is more of a problem when traveling south and turning left from Lake Drive on the Crossways but traveling the opposite direction is also an issue in addition to the difficulty locating the intersection in the dark the shoulder width on Crossways is narrow with a steep slope on the south side of this intersection that drops 10 ft to the bottom of an embankment this condition along with poor visibility at night exposes vehicles that had over steered with the potential of sliding into the depression at the bottom of this Bank there have been a number of these type of incidents at this intersection with the most recent being a mail van on December 16th 2024 installing a street light at this this intersection and greatly improve visibility and minimize these types of accidents at this location placement of a light at this location would be contracted through Conexus Conexus would install the light and build a city for the cost there's an exist existing Pole to transform with this intersection which reduce the cost of installation the estimated cost will be approximately $1,500 and Conexus would build a city for the monthly electrical charges the city would have to obtain a RightWay permit from an NOA County highway department for this work but the permit fee would be waved this permit is for records of improvement and review of the Conexus design requirements ad joining Property Owners will be contacted to explain the Improvement and address concerns to minimize any impacts of artificial lighting created by this project so at this time staff is looking for city council direction to proceed with application to Conexus for the authority to enter into an agreement with pending approval of cost I think we also discussed the fact that we need to look at maybe some better signage at this intersection and also we agreed that we would look into some other intersections in the city that might have the same issues any discussion so we talked about this a lot at the workshop um and doesn't I don't I still think it's a good idea so I don't have anything more to say Rob yeah I just had a question and and I'm not real I'm familiar with the area but I haven't noticed or not I know like on Howard Lake Drive because that's kind of a a similar similar situation right where people are throwing their binders on quick to make a left or a right but is there a sign on Crossways Lake Drive that's on the opposing side and that might be helpful too cuz I I want to say there was or is there on Howard Lake Drive there is on Howard and it is helpful right for someone that's not from the area they can catch that you know the sign Howard Lake Drive was a compromise to a street light mhm okay that that was initially what we talked about and then we opted to go sign instead of street light there sure sure that's another intersection that we got to talk about inter immediately as I was looking through it here is that that popped into my head right that's a dark intersection especially when you're coming south and that's another one of those that are hard to see if you're turning out onto Kettle River right there's a quite a Grove of trees there to North so that's one that also would benefit from a little bit of an intersection Improvement there so that the intersection intersects at 90° rather than a skewed angle right well Jack you gave us a list of four or five that you thought that was one of them yeah another one was uh Notre Dame and Broadway but I think Crossroads Church has got that big light there now they might be Illuminating that whole area well another thing that we want to I want to look into also is exchanging the location of the directional sign the Columbus City Hall with the one that says no passing on the shoulder it blocks that sign until you're right on it the sign is small and very hard to read at night so if you're looking for City Hall and you're not familiar with the location it's very easy to miss that intersection any other discussion on this topic this is Jenny so my major question is focusing on those obviously this is important for tonight but will we talk about will we discuss this at a future meeting then regarding other intersections yes we we we'll develop a report and bring that up at a future work meeting probably in March or April okay thank you so then the only thing I would just like to thank Dan and Pat for bringing this up to us because I mean I turn on that road all the time and it never occurred to me I mean so sometimes obvious eludes us so thank you for bringing that up it's good suggestion well I'll make a motion then uh I mve to authorize staff to submit an applications to Conexis for the design and cost of a street light at the intersection of Lake Drive and Crossways Lake Drive authorized staff to enter into an agreement for the installation of a light pending Council approval of the cost examine the need for additional signage at the intersection to prepare a report for counil on future sites that may my that my met may need Street lighting this is janed second any discussion any questions here none Rob robbi Jan Scott ey Jenny I and Ron I we go on to item number seven Sunrise River Water Management shed report or whatever attached in your packet is a sunrise River wo 2024 mini report it's pretty self-explanatory this was sent us by Jamie Sherburn uh the uh he works for the inoka Conservation District and he's the administrator for the sunrise River wmo it does list something about the wo what their priorities are some Grant programs and some of the major accomplishments they made in 20124 uh they'll be coming out with a annual report here fairly soon and we'll probably be getting their budget information request probably at the end of this month so that's just there for their review and if you have any questions we can answer them here or we can get Jamie to give us an answer if we can't we can't don't have it at hand or I'll just add that um so this was actually a draft report so if there's any changes or things that you'd like to see in it I would need to know by next Thursday which is our next meeting um and and you're right will'll be approving a budget next Thursday so you'll be getting that very soon so there's no action required here it's just if you have any question or want to make any comments on it okay anybody have any questions can we move on to item number eight public forum sign in sheet and guidelines city council discuss incorporating guidelines of procedures conduct to the public forum signin sheet at the February 4th 2025 Workshop meeting Council directed staff to make changes to the guidelines that were previously presented and include them for consideration on tonight's meeting the proposed sign in sheets with guidelines is attached in attachment one of your packet and staff is requesting that city council approve these or make any changes necessary there were certain Chang that you requested the last meeting that were made some things that were left out specifically the one that that related to issues not on the agenda that was removed so what we have in this the public forum will be open to comment on any item I have a question um the way that this is written right now it says a resident or property owner May address but our very first person today was neither of those I don't have a problem with non-property owners or non-residents do it so do we want to broaden that sentence just say attendees or the Public Public yeah that's that's a consideration Sometimes some cities actually limit this to Residents and Property Owners but I've also been told that kind of maybe in fringes and borders on First Amendment violations so uh to give you two examples East bethl limits it to Residents and non-property no they they allow anybody to speak the city of Cambridge limits it to Residents and Property Owners it's totally up to us however we want to do that I'd be in favor of just changing that to the public and then I think you'd be hard pressed to tell somebody who came to public meeting that they couldn't speak yeah if you have an open well we usually air on the side of being more inviting problems yeah um the other question the uh gentleman who brought the election issue yeah um the other question I had is I like these guidelines um but I'm wondering about the need to have them sign in and especially sign in prior to the time because I don't know how you do that with zoom Well we'd have to put in it's a good point we'd have to put in there especially social exclusion for zoom and generally what happens if you require them to sign in before they can speak one of the staff members would to go get the signin sheet and give it to the mayor so he could call them up and zoom would have to be excluded from this because there's no way for them to do that I just went through that in St Cloud on Monday night and it it helps the recordkeeping um just you know to know who was there and the topic that they were addressing that's probably the only reason to do it creates a little decorum I guess we don't usually have people lining up to talk to us might be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist I I'm all in favor of having the the guidelines so that everybody knows what the guidelines are and actually having those guidelines as part of our maybe our agenda for the people who are attending by zoom zoom but it just seems again that it's not necessary to ask people to sign up if they're going to get up here put their name and address and tell us what they're going to talk about anyway and you know if it changes and we have a line of people that want to talk to us then that makes sense but I mean it's unusual that we even have anybody that takes advantage of that that's just my thoughts and you could you could have it I'm just based on experience you could have it as a preference it's there people can sign up but if they don't it's not like they can't come to the table Yeah and right now it says must so that's that's where I'm coming from encouraged yeah yeah I know good of the two cities I mentioned previously one enforces it very strictly the other one does not if you don't sign up it doesn't mean you can't speak the ones that sign up are given the opportunity to speak first and then the invitation is extended anyone else that wants to get up and make a comment and and I also like the ability for somebody to sign in and provide their information because that may be a situation where we may want to reach out and contact them after the fact so we have have their contact information that we might not otherwise get um and again that can be optional M so if you if you want it desire response we have that information handy the only issue I have is item number eight well really the whole thing because people come in to sign they're not going to sit out there and read this whole thing I I mean what do we do or do we set it up on a table where they they read it may not be used for personal attacks to air personal grievances make political statements I mean they may not even read this no and Mr Mayor um for years it was something similar was um on on the desk in front of you and so when the mayor would open up the public open for that would be read now you don't have to read this lengthy thing but there was a shorten version that was laminated and sat here all the time at some point it's it wasn't here anymore but so you could condense this you I think you've done this a couple of times when you've had a full house where you've read kind of the rules of the yeah another way we'd have to look around and figure out a little bit better way but it could also be displayed on the screen uh where I was before we didn't have the zoom everything was was a live broadcast so we'd have the agenda on the screen and part of the agenda on the public forum included this statement so it very visible anybody that wanted to speak and it was referred to not read in its entirety but to make sure everybody had read the guidelines for the public forum before they got up so we just need to be able to remind stuff here we can have it on the sheet out there and maybe put it on the door but sounds good so so then are we agreeing that number two we would change instead of saying a person Desiring to speak must sign up would would say our encouraged to sign up or requested to or requested to and then on number eight I would change May to must it's not it's not optional what in number eight I would change May to must the public forum must not be used to make personal attacks blah blah blah May means optional okay the way you said it is correct uh it's not personality attacks it's personal attacks yes so just strike ity any other questions about this or comments I guess I have a question so per say we have a a developer that's in here that has done wrong in previous cities or not followed through on things and you know someone from another city comes and says hey you don't want this developer in your town because XYZ didn't follow through with what they said it might be another council person might be a resident from another Community is that blocking somebody from doing that with this because I feel if there's someone coming to our town that's might not do well by us I want to know about it and I don't want this to impede that Mr Mayor and Council and I've said this previously we have to be really careful with business defamation or any form of defamation so what you know it we can ask someone not to make those attacks if they do it it's part of the record sure but we don't want to encourage it as a community because the only thing that should be presented are things that can bear up under scrutiny they're factual you know we can scrutinize whether they in fact did occur or we we don't really want to encourage that sort of thing because it ends up putting the city in a position of creating a form for business defamation okay which is a which is an actionable claim that can be made and and and create some liability sure so like like you'd said previous public documentation you know I'm thinking about the business I'm in a contractor doesn't pay his workers uh developer doesn't pay the contractor things like that I as a council member want to know about that and don't want people like that doing business in our town so right and and the way I would read this as a personal grievance is that is public information that you're bringing to the four that's different than so and so's got um you know they're doing campfires every night you know at my bedroom windows that's a that's a personal grievance between two Property Owners this isn't the form to resolve that that's kind of what I read in that I Don't Know Jack if that's no thank you for the clarification I think I I definitely got what I need there yep thank you I I would agree with the personal Grievous thing that that's a neighbor versus neighbor issue MH okay I'm good so I make a motion that uh I move to approve including the additional guidelines as presented in attachment one of this item to the public forum sign in sheet plus the changes changes by council person hegland how's that this put the words in go ahead yeah I've got I've got that recorded okay uh did you second it this is Jenny a second okay okay was seconded any uh comments questions all right we'll take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Scott ey Janet I Rob I and Ron I we'll go to item D consultant Le Leon and staff reports number one is the city engineer Brian good evening mayor and councils I didn't have anything listed on the agend agenda for this evening but this afternoon I did get a request from the U Rice Creek Watershed District to consider an additional extension to the 60-day review period for the Hornsby Eureka Wetland impact permit that was jointly submitted by both Forest Lake and the City of Columbus uh the previous waiver was granted by both cities but there have been some delays associated with the determining the eligib eligibility of the project to use the local government Road Woodland replacement program credits uh the current waiver expires on February 14th this Friday uh forest lake has already granted the extension waiver the request is for Columbus to to Grant the waiver extension for another 60 days if it's not granted the permit application will be denied by The Watershed district and both cities will have to reapply for another permit so the the request is for the council to to consider extending the waiver this is the the road there Eureka Eureka Hornsby project yes so can you explain again what the waiver of what it's the 30-day review period when you apply for a permit an agency has to act within within 60 days right and if they you know they can request an extension they have an additional 60 days that's what they're requesting oh got it so it's just like what we do when we extend yes got it correct and like what we do yeah when we extend yep Jack any comments no I think that's reasonable and that's something we should consent to and uh respond that we're okay with that so should we make a motion then that would be good if it's on the record I uh make a motion that we extend uh the rice it's Rice Creek Watershed permit for another 60 days is that good enough ran for Hornsby for Hornsby Hornsby I'm sorry it's a Rob I'll second that any other discussion questions take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Scott ey Janet I Rob I and Ron I anything else Brian nothing thank you thank you go on to uh City attorney Bill uh just a quick legislative update uh since there's now a power sharing agreement in place um at the at the house that there actually both bodies have power sharing agreements um the uh it's the work can start uh it's been very hard to get anything jacked peted get any bills introduced uh because of what what's been going on with the legislature so uh for the newer members the two items that are in the city's legislative platform actually there's three items um one is simply monitoring the first item uh which has been a number of years we've been trying to get some relief uh under fiscal disparities uh the city is a net payer and a significant net payer given its size into the fiscal disparities Revenue sharing pool the other item um that actually we did get into the bonding Bill last year but the bonding bill was not passed um and that is a modest request for funding of North Hornsby um and that's a project that would connect uh a reconstructed urea Avenue uh with uh the other portion of Hornsby that has been rebuilt so there's a segment that that would need to be reconstructed so that you'd have kind of fresh pavement all the way from Forest Lake uh through to um uh Highway 23 so those are two items that the city is actively pursuing in addition um we are monitoring um sports betting activity our our legislative delegation is really active in that but we just as a city monitor that because our largest employer and biggest um property taxpayer is is running running Asis Harness Park so that's more of a monitoring exercise the other two uh hopefully will result in Bill introduction our legislative delegation has been very helpful in recent years in in uh leading the charge so uh throughout the session when there's something to update we'll update you I think you have for your calendars uh I think March 6 is City day on the hill we we uh schedule that on the same day that the league of Minnesota cities is up there so if you want to attend the morning session with the league you can do that we have an afternoon session with our public affairs group uh which culminates in uh going around and talking to legislators about our interests so if you don't have that on your calendar please put down March 6 um for those who don't attend the league event uh it'll start in our office with lunch um our St Paul office so more more to come on that thank you Bill you're welcome item number three under D is uh council's report Jennifer you have anything nothing nothing Scott uh nothing tonight thank you rob um yeah thank you mayor so the only thing I have to report um we had that email sent to us about the State of the State deal uh with met Council um did attend that it was at Elance field um not a lot of stuff that was pertaining to us up here right um had uh been questioned by other cities why why would Columbus be here are you even hooked up to sewer um so enlighted a few people about where Columbus was and and who we are uh but also did U connect a little with Gail cederberg uh she did state that she wants to come back uh and do a presentation to us this year again I believe she came last year the Year previous uh no she was claiming she did and I thought it was maybe one of them meetings that I was out of town for or was on Zoom um so that was an offer that was put out to us so I think the last time we had anybody here was with vento yeah Sue okay so it was Sue okay um yeah I was was wondering too because I didn't recall it but uh I just went with it so um mainly mainly based around what's going to happen around alance field and uh big developments down there not a lot pertaining per se to our area but want to make sure as there in case there's something that was so Rob we've reached out to our she's our sector rep and she wants to come here in March or April to give a presentation so we'll get her scheduled on the agenda sounds good that's all I to report mayor thank you Janet um yeah the one thing I have is that uh you and I attended the local government officials meeting that Anoka County um put on on January 29th there were a couple things that they talked about that um I think are of interest to us um one had to has to do with the opioid settlement program so that this is a lawsuit that was um that was uh I guess filed and um um settled there's some cities in Anoka County that are getting a monetary settlement um in order to get a monetary settlement you had to be part of the lawsuit we are not so we're not getting money but I think the thing that we could um benefit from is they are the part of the funding that in NOA county is getting is to purchase Naran for um AED kits so if you want to have some here in case somebody overdoses or someone in the park overdoses you want have some um I would suggest you contact Patty constant who is the program uh director for this uh program and she I believe will be able to um send some our way and then you would lock it up in the AED kit or wherever you lock those kinds of things up um the other thing they talked about quite a bit was um what Derek mentioned and that is the discussion of the pole pads um it's a really tough situation I think I think a county is fatigued of the of the um inquiry but I think that they bring up some really good points um I I I would like to invite Tom Hunt here to talk to us and maybe at a workshop and H so we can ask them some questions I mean I've had I've had a conversation with um the folks from asid and I and I do think that they have some um some valid points they also think the county has some valid points I talked to Lori our Lori Spangler about like what would you mean to your operations if you had to go back to paper and she's like oh don't even talk about that so I mean I get that it's not efficient at all for us to do that so I'd like to think that if we sat down with with Tom maybe there'd be some Middle Ground there um to the point that Derek made I there was some discussion about the interpretation of the state statute that um the county is uh and the County Attorney interprets to give them authority to um basically make the decision that they're going to use it and then all the municipalities under the county have to follow that um it's a may not a shell and basically what uh Brad Johnson said and he's the County Attorney is that's the way we're going to interpret it unless somebody challenges us so it would take a lot lawsuit to settle that argument there was one change in the county the county did previously do three random test now they've expanded it to nine okay the post yeah so I think I mean I do think that they've given some but I I I don't know I I I wasn't quite satisfied there was a lot of people who wanted to talk to him and there really wasn't time to ask all the questions so I think if we could get them here that might be helpful like in a workshop if you would mind doing that and then the last thing I'd sent you Jack and but it was later this afternoon a copy of the legislative platform that inoka county has um so it's a little three trifold thing um so maybe you can send it out by email to everybody on the council I was thinking maybe we could have a copy of it here but basically it outlines what the um priorities of an NOA County are um their legislative priorities unfortunately one of their legislative priorities runs smack da against one of our legislative priorities so we'll get to talk about that more later I guess they are not in favor of what we're doing with fiscal disparities that's it that's it well I have something on my agenda tonight I uh the uh Forest Lake times always asks the Mayors or whatever to write an article or something about what's our city up to and what we're doing and and I wrote One and it's going to be sent out here soon and we always want to make contact with the public you know we never tonight we have a big crowd but uh other than that we don't usually see a lot of people in in the city so uh an example of uh what I plan to do is there's some people out in the audience sitting here is uh open up the doors to come and see the mayor and a council member and what I'm talking about is at the Lion's pancake breakfast they have it every third Sunday uh maybe from 10:00 open the door to the chamber and I would be here and any council member that wants to come along as long as there just two of us here we're not violating any rules and um leave the door open in case somebody wants to come in and talk to us about their concerns about the city or anything and I know a lot of you come to the the uh Lions breakfast I talked to Gina about it and she was all for it she's with the Lions and one reason this started up is I I think because of Dan uh Pat back here because that's where we found out about the uh Crossways MH the street light and stuff we would have never known unless you guys wanted to come in and and talk to somebody in the city or whatever but we're just having coffee and pancakes and we found that out and it generated a conversation with the council and we're moving along so I don't know if this is going to we only have three left this year and that'll be this Sunday and then March and April they don't have it may and the next one's in September so I'm going to open the door up here this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and I'll tell you what I'll do it alone the first day and see if we you know for a couple months and see if we generate anything I mean I know you saw everybody was in two hours if nobody comes in but you never know you never know what's going a lot of people that come to the pancake breakfast aren't from our city but a lot a lot are from our city so it's another way to open the door and any way we can uh communicate with the public I think is a good role so anybody have any questions on that and if you're interested in it uh let me know and uh I mean we can sit here in half coffee so that's all I have to say and what's next here item number four Personnel committee report Janet um there's a report in your packet and it was sent out in advance and it has to do with um a planning commissioner appointment this is filling the vacancy that um was created uh when Scott was Seated on the council um I don't know I don't want to read the report it's a page long here but if anybody has any questions or wants me to highlight anything I can certainly do that otherwise I can make the motion I have any questions do you have any questions anybody have any questions I will say that the candidate Kim Snell is in our audience there she is right there so thank you Kim um very well qualified to be on our to be on our uh Planning Commission and she's had um an interest in serving in that capacity for a couple of years so I'm glad that everything lined up in terms of her availability and and a vacancy so so with that I would um make the motion to approve the appointment of Kim Snell to fill the Planning Commission position vacated by Scott Wendell with that term of appointment um to expire on December 31st uh 2027 actually I think that's wrong it's 2025 sorry 2025 this is Scott I'll second any discussion I'd like to say she's a Master Gardener too so we can also bring our tomato plants in and uh no comments uh questions let take I'd just say that that is a very impressive resume and she's bringing a lot to the table for the city so you're right it is yeah fantastic I appreciate your efforts to help us out thank you take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Scott ey janed I Rob I and Ron I and welcome the group Kim thank you we'll go on to the parks board report uh I have nothing on that we're going to meet coming up here in a few weeks uh item number seven the Public Works report no report Mr Mayor thank you Jim City administrator's report I'd like to report a bit of good news as a city met their and exceeded their recycling tonnage requirements for 2024 and uh all that credit goes to our Deputy city clerk Lor Spangler who administers that program and did a fantastic job on it so uh next year we'll be when we come up this year we'll be applying for some additional grants one will be for the recycling of plastic campaign garage sale yard sale signs to try to add some other services to that uh that also includes our drop off our Organics their recycling uh the way that is funded by the county is every city in an NOA County gets $10,000 and then we get $5 per household in addition to that there there's a formula for labor in our case it's $7,000 that we can put for staff salaries for administration and anything that has to do with the recycling program and then the additional grants that we can apply for so the city's Budget on that was $31,000 all funded by the enoa county and from the taxes they collect from their recycle fees and again miss spanger did an excellent job it's probably the second or third year in a row we've met our recycling goals the county does set those for us and it's based on population so we've got a good program and we just look to expand it the only other thing is that after we go through the announcements and the adjournment uh the City attorney will give us a direction to go into close session okay thank you Jack so announcements and reminders uh President's Day February 17 2025 the city hall is closed the Planning Commission meeting for February 19th 2025 has been cancelled yeah next week and the city council meeting for February 26 the next one uh 2025 at 6: p.m. and item f is a closed session so we have to adjourn the meeting then correct anybody would like to make a I I'll just read the uh the notice negotiations to sell city-owned real property identified as PID 2432 222005 and P 2432 221006 uh pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13 d05 sub subdivision 3 C3 and that is the open meeting law and uh we are allowed to go into a closed session for the purpose of real estate negotiations thank you Bill so then um make a motion that we adjourn the meeting second Rob any other questions comments statements Jennifer Jenny I Scott ey Janet I Rob and Ron I session's closed thanks everybody for coming [Music]