[Music] uh I want to introduce myself as the new mayor Ron hanra I also want to introduce uh Jennifer laon Leon leton over on my right she's new to the Council this year and off to my uh left is Janet hegan she's uh been on the council for 6 years and on her side is Rob Bush who is an incumbent who is just reelected again this year so I just thought I'd introduce everybody and also thank the ex- mayor uh Jesse prer who's here tonight and sue agman for their service and uh thank everybody for being here so today is January 8th 2025 our first meeting of the year and you probably wonder why we have all the sheriff's deputies here and it's a check lights and plates out in the front parking lot the first thing uh we're going to start off with when we do every meeting is a pledge of allegiance everybody stand I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice the third thing on the agenda on the item a is the adoption of the agenda and I'm going to make a mo motion that I approve the uh agenda for the January 8 2025 city council meeting with the removal of item C8 Rob I'll second that motion Ron is there any discussion any comments take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Janet I Rob I and Ron I we'll go on to the next item and the B consent agenda uh I want to make a motion that I uh move to approve the consent agent agenda as presented in the January 8th 2025 city council packet and the supplemental Bill list which was distributed and handed out a handout to council prior to the meeting anybody like to second that um I just like to suggest an amendment I made a number of uh corrections to the August 28th um city council minutes none of them are substantial enough that we have we can't approve it but I just want to include that they have there's some uh errors that were corrected and and Jack got those this morning so I'll second it with that Amendment okay any questions any comments so if I'm right Jennifer can't approve the the minutes because she was I think that's just us three right pardon just us three that's correct yeah okay Janai robbi Ron I we'll go on to item number c presentations and tonight we're glad to have half of the enoka County Sheriff's Department here uh Sheriff uh Weiss if uh if you could lead us on and or maybe Jessica Jessica the lieutenant she's our liaison to the city of Columbus so to your floor thank you mayor good evening everyone Council mayor um as mayor Hannah graph said I'm Jessica Slavic I'm a lieutenant with yoka County Sheriff's Office and it's also my pleasure to be the liaison between our office and the City of Columbus um tonight we're going to be introducing the two Columbus deputies one of our shift sergeants as well as the investigator for the city of Columbus um and then I've prepared some end ofe stats and some calls for service I'd like to share um but before that I will turn it over to sheriff wise for [Music] comment thank you Mr mayor council if you'll indulge me a couple of minutes you have a lot of work to do I can see so um I'll try not to take too much of your time here uh but as is our tradition there's going to be doing or we're going to be doing introductions of the deputies that serve uh the citizens here of Columbus uh but I also wanted to come and talk and make sure that people get to know me well cuz of course it's our honor to provide law enforcement service to Columbus um as I've said previously is that there are four things that make for a good law enforcement agency uh two of them are provided by the citizens of Columbus that is supportive elected officials and supportive citizens so I want to thank both you the council and the citizens that are sitting behind me um for the support that I know our deputies feel every single day because it makes a big difference in the work that they uh do and the service they provide to the citizens the other two pieces that I like to call it my four-legged stool approach but we need to have a good culture within the office and we do you have great characters here um my recollection is last year we got into a little bit of joke telling almost with some of the deputies and the work that they've been doing for the citizens um and then competitive wages which is the piece that I wanted to specifically mention to you is that um while we enjoy the support of the citizens and the council here is that the wages that the cost basically of this law enforcement service is getting expensive and I know it's a big line item for you um as you Levy your taxes on to the citizens but I want you to know that it's really important that we keep competitive wages for the deputies we want to always be fully staffed and not have that be an issue and so as you see that line item please know that I'm Anoka County resident myself all my family are Ana County taxpayers in one city or another and we're very mindful of squeezing nickels and how important that revenue is um well how much the taxes impacts your taxpayers and we're very mindful of those costs but um just as you see these contracts just know that we want to provide a competitive wage for the deputies that work here and then the last thing I'll mention is that the biggest uh ticket item if you're watching the news at all is the replacement of the inoka county jail and you as elected officials um actually I extend a blanket invitation to you all to reach out directly to to offer a tour to you of the existing jail I know you're going to get questions cuz if uh we get to the stage where um a bond needs to be levied on property taxes is that it'll be a a big ticket item that the taxpayers are going to be concerned about and they're going to want to know that that money is well spent and I want to make sure that you all I mean we can't practically offer a a tour to every citizen but we can do we can offer tours to elected officials and that you can be a conduit and know the information the backstory um so that you can be well informed when people ask you about that so uh please just keep that in mind as the year progresses cuz we're you know moving forward it's incremental process but we're moving forward on on replacing the existing jail so um you're actually welcome to ask me a question any time but if you don't mind I think I'll turn it back over to Lieutenant Slavic to keep keep moving oh thank you Sheriff appreciate it yeah thanks for having me I appreciate it all right well then without further delay we'll we'll start with the two gentlemen on the left um I have Deputy Matthew vertina and Deputy Daniel gruy hello mayor council members of the public I'm Deputy Matthew vertina Matt um I've been a deputy I suppose I should face you guys um I've been a deputy uh for the past 11 months and I've been with the sheriff's office as a Explorer since 2016 in high school uh Reserve CSO and then finally a uty um I'm from ramsy and I went to St clut State and got a Bachelor's of law enforcement um forgot the exact word but bachelor's degree in law enforcement um and I'm just really happy to be in the city of Columbus I chose to stay in Columbus for this upcoming year because I like the city I like the calls for service and I like the fact that some days we're going similar to call to call and some days I can be more proactive trying to find warrants and other such needed law enforcement activity in the city um and I like just being close to the freeway having busy areas and then also just going throughout the residential neighborhoods and making sure everything is as it should be I don't have anything else so well thank you thank you Matt what about Dan my name is Daniel gruy I was born and raised in Ramsey Minnesota um I went to henen Technical College where I got my Associates for law enforcement um as I was doing that I was also a CSO here for 3 years um this is my first year as a deputy and my first city contract for Columbus um so I'm happy to be here and there's a lot to learn from me and I can't wait well thank you for being our deputies I appreciate it thank you for your service all right then to the right of the sheriff we have Chief Deputy Bill Jacobson investigator Shan Merritt and Sergeant Matthew Conor good evening mayor and Council again my name is Bill Jacobson I serve as your chief deputy and as the sheriff mentioned we're absolutely honored and proud to serve the city of Columbus hello I'm Sean Meritt I'm investigator with the sheriff's office for uh been with the sheriff's office for 23 years now in the past 12 years investigator and all of those 12 actually with uh the city of Columbus so I'm very familiar with it um and uh Joy continue to do it and uh another year towards retirement so um and my name is Matt o Conor I've been with the sheriff's office for 11 years uh spent uh the previous five or sorry five years as a k9 Handler and the last two as a patrol Sergeant within the Patrol Division thank you thank you any questions for the staff does Sheriff does every city have their own investigator or is they take up so many cities no each each City can contract to have an invest some investigative time um there's some uh I would call it blanket coverage uh but a city can add that kind of service to the contract if they're more interested in having um more intentive investigations related to crimes that happen in their city so it's well it's you get good bang for your buck out of having an investigator assigned to Columbus for sure so you still have the major crimes unit yeah that's a that's a separate unit the the um CID criminal investigation division does Major Crimes that's countywide and then we have another investigative unit in Noah henip and drug task force that does drug rated crimes okay thank you appreciate it any other questions nope okay we'll go ahead and move to the report that I prepared I believe everybody was given a copy of that I give you a second to get that out and look um now last quarter when I was here we were just coming out of those summer months so we did have a 45% increase in the calls for service those numbers are now down which is pretty typical for the winter months um now that our yearend totals are here you can see that they're pretty comparable to 2023 um in 2024 we had a total of 2,380 calls for service um which was 37 more calls than what was had in 2023 um so just a 2% increase and then in comparing to 2022 a 5% increase so just a slight increase with that um um you'll see that felony gross misdemeanor and DWI arrest were all up and um any questions on the first page before we go to the second page on some Trends and some calls for [Applause] service one of the other things that I wanted to mention is I do always look with a 12 hour contract from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. I do always look at the calls for service during that contract time um and in the past quarter there were 270 calls that occurred outside the contract coverage time um between that 2:00 a.m. and 2 p.m. however out of that 952 calls of service total that only counted for 28% of the calls so we definitely have um our shift coverage in the right spot especially when we look at the priority and emergency responses and then of course during that non-contract time there's from our countywide deputies as well as the neighboring contracts okay looking at some of the trends um on the second page and you'll see that we didn't have any burglaries in this last quarter and only two for the year um and thefts and stuff were also down I think we talked about this last quarter too about you know the postco numbers and how they how nice they look and the increase and the prevalence of easy to use home security systems and the ring doorbells and all of that um but we did have a couple thefts I wanted to talk about um the one that I wanted to share um with online shopping becoming more of a routine way of making purchases many think that the big worry is um package thefts after they've been delivered um however in this instance the theft actually occurred either at the factory or at the Amazon distribution center um the victim who lives at the 6200 block of 141st Avenue or 800 MP3 player from Amazon that package arrived on November 18th at about 2:30 in the afternoon and when the recipient opened the package the music player was missing and somebody placed like a random adapter and a small brass pipe to mimic the weight and the feel of what an MP3 player would be um so that theft either happened at the factory or at the distribution center and Amazon required a police report in order for them to replace that so something kind of unique that you wouldn't think you would have to worry about um the other theft I wanted to discuss was at running ases on December 7th there was a wallet that was stolen from one of the patrons that wallet eventually turned up to security but had $400 missing security was able to track down the victim in the alleged suspect however the suspect brought the wallet into the bathroom where there is no security um he denied taking the $400 out of the wallet any questions on burglaries or thefts well the burglary shocked me a little I just I don't know if times are changing or what but it used to be when you lived in the out areas like this burglaries were high but it seems like they're going down yeah the trend is definitely great um yeah crimes changed too I don't know if you have any other thoughts on that as the investigator of Columbus but I know you know the prescription drug thefts aren't occurring as much as they used to I know that was a pretty big motive before breaking in a houses for prescription drugs with the opiate epidemic and things but I think there're just more more like uh credit card fraud or internet scams things like that that people have to be mindful for bank doesn't call you and ask you for money or have you go to the bank or have you withdraw and deposit and do anything like that so that's been happening in the neighboring area as well um and then you know you can't avoid hacking but if you're getting asked any questions it just doesn't seem right on your computer just delete the message and uh you know play it safe go with your gut feeling on it speaking of scams there was one I know it went out in the Friday update from our crime prevention coordinator um but I did want to share this one because as investigator Meritt said the um the frauds and the the way these people kind of of really prey on people and get them in a state of panic and then all of a sudden they're doing unsensible things such as making wire transfers um and it's completely fraudulent um on January 2nd our victim here is a 41-year-old female from Columbus she was driving home from work when re she received a phone call from a Hispanic mail the mail told the victim that her 16-year-old daughter had stumbled upon his drug trans transaction in South Minneapolis so they took her hostage and needed the victim to send her money in order to set her free um the victim could hear a female crying in the background saying mom our victim also had a 16-year-old daughter who was out with her friends and in the Twin Cities area so we believe the suspects were looking on Facebook they they were looking and targeting their victims um our victim in this case was instructed to send a Western Union money transfer of $1,500 um instead in her state of panic she sent a money gram for Walmart and then the suspect got mad at her and said that he needed to send more she needed to send more money um through Western Union and at that time she then did send another $1,000 by that means and um after that was done she did call her daughter her daughter was home in Columbus um so unfortunately those transfers have all been sent um the preliminary information is showing that the money was wired to Toca Mex Meo so very unfortunate circumstances but that's kind of how those crimes work asz they just get you in a state of panic and shock and before you know it you're acting irrationally and sending money transfers so um okay back on track with assaults and damage to properties you see we did have a slight increase in assaults especially within this last quarter we had a couple um one of them was at a fight that occurred on December 15th in Running Aces and the fight was over $800 that was borrowed by one male to another the suspect tried to collect his owed funds from the victim um when the victim walked away from him the suspect attacked him from behind kicking the victim victim to the ground and proceeded to punch him several times the victim in this case did not fight back some Good Samaritans in security pulled the suspect off of the victim the suspect was issued a citation for fifth degree assault and ultimately trespassed from Running Aces security did advise the deputies that the victim owes several other people at the casino money so not a huge fan to the other patrons there um and then on November 28th we had a domestic stabbing in the city of Columbus um deputies were called to the location for a family domestic between a father and son where one male had stabbed the other male there were non-life-threatening injuries um but the suspect was placed under arrest for second degree assault on that any questions on assaults or I I may me have another question our Medical's going out on the freeway we getting a lot of medical calls out there Matt from working half the rotation medical calls as in I can't recall a single medical call where it's not a crash with injuries um and it's been a good while since we've had a crash with injuries on I35 okay what about like drug calls or anything like that overdoses or anything on the freeway specifically or in general well in our our interchange over there with all the businesses I don't believe so no it seems a lot of our overdoses and other substance related calls are usually people passing through the area and at the 24/7 gas stations or Running Aces where they have symptoms call 911 and even some of the times when we get there they're already gone choosing hopefully to self transport to Wyoming hospital or somewhere else uh but we just end up not being able to oh thank you thank you I have one question as well if I can um going back to thefts um I know that you talking about how thefts are becoming more intricate um and and talking about the Western Union and all that as we have our population is aging and things like that and even I would believe somebody if they had called in something in that situation do you offer any kind of PSAs or things relating to something that our community might be able to watch online or even come here and learn about how to watch and monitor for that yes we do and feel free to jump in if you have any other information being down in Patrol but our Prime pre uh prevention coordinator does do stuff like that so we'd be happy to come out and and do anything or um I think visiting some of the senior facilities and things like that have been done in the past and we'd be happy to continue doing so we just have to plan that with you but okay great thank you I have a a couple questions this is Janet um the weekly report that we get from Laura right is really helpful is that public information is that something we could put on our website because I think the residents would really be interested in that and I think we've not known for sure whether or not that could be shared in the way that it's written yes you could disseminate that uh through your newsletter your Facebook page your City website however you would like okay I mean I think it's really helpful cuz you hear a lot of like well I heard there's a lot of problems ABC wherever and I think seeing those those numbers really kind of tells the story in a more factual way so I if we could do that Jack we could get that on our website I think that'd be helpful and then the second question is I remember last year Sheriff wise you said one of the priorities was going to be um enforcing speeding and I see the traffic stops are down is that because people are being more comp client or and the reason I asked that is because in my own neighborhood it seems like they are slow they we've changed some of the speed limits and I've noticed people are driving more slowly but um curious what what your observations are and your experiences are yeah and looking at your data is that the while the number of citations or traffic arrests as we call them are down the number of traffic stops are substantially the same okay keep in mind that especially in um oh a suburb a city like Columbus is that a lot of the inactions don't necessarily require a citation to change driving behavior so we'd like to think that that would make a difference postco I think the freeways just roads in general we're starting to get more voluntary compliance of course which is a big part of the goal um but yeah that um the emphasis on driving conduct especially as it relates to semaphores which is the most dangerous one for sure people disregarding a red light or um I just would say leave it at at a red light would be definitely would be a point of emphasis but um yeah yeah the cops that are here they're making traffic stops it's always a function of um how available they are versus calls for service and some calls for service require more paperwork and so on um but I know the deputies make good use of their free time at making traffic stops and trying to make a difference but it's you know it's all a complicated deal because people also want to see squad cars in neighborhoods but simultaneously most of the speeding is probably out on the main roads um so it's kind of a complicated mix um but that's why it's important for you to have a good relationship with your deputies and know them on a personal level too where you can reach out to them and tell them what's important to this community especially if there's a like a hot spot that really seems to be a problem okay and I think last time it was County Road 19 that was a hot spot and I always whenever you bring that to my attention I relay it to the deputies so they can saturate some enforcement there um but we ultimately we do uh leave it to the discretion of the Deputy whether to issue a citation or not and the other thing I wanted to point out too was that um the DWI arrests are up um so sometimes the quality of the Stop and the type of arrest may take more time too with um doing a blood or alcohol testing the transportation to jail all of that kind of stuff takes a little bit more time and a little bit of a better quality of a stop as well um especially with the increase in the felony and girls misdemeanor arrest as well contribute to those traffic stops and I know last night I was out for a walk it was just getting dark and I saw one of your squads walk drive through our neighborhood and they were they were patrolling the neighborhood so I really appreciate that wonderful and then I did want to add to Janet on the um the Friday update that Laura Landis sends out she does usually keep up on the scams too and yeah I thought that would be really helpful to to Jenny's Point yeah to share that great okay the other thing I wanted to share um one last call of service that I wanted to highlight was some bomb threats that were had at the city or at Running Aces in November um essentially what had happened is Running Aces had received a series of bomb threats emailed to them over the course of a few days due to the nature of those threats we did have K9 explosive detection dogs um deployed out there on two separate nights um however no explosives were found the emails that came in were from a a plat form called proton um which is based out of Switzerland and they're very difficult to work with and Trace any kind of information um with means of IP addresses and those sorts of things um so ultimately the threat was deemed to be a hoax um and the emails eventually did stop but we did take that very serious and um we worked with resources from Minneapolis Airport um the ATF all kinds of other agencies to assist in in securing the area so that's all I had prepared for call service yeah thank you Ron um of our two deputies I was just curious have either one of you been csos in Anoka County previous to yep so I was a CSO here for 3 years um I actually worked out here in Columbus quite a bit as a CSO so yeah okay thank you and I was a CSO for probably half a year um CU I was a reserve before that so it was after the Columbus contract for CSO no longer existed um however I always enjoyed coming out to the east side as a countywide CSO going through Lynwood Columbus and obviously we still would respond to calls for service throughout our Patrol area um so I always been happy to see the experience of the more ordinance related to other crimes and just see how the cities work from each other yeah and I think it's nice that you got to learn the city at a you know whether a younger age or a lesser wage right so you were prepared when when you did come to as full Deputy so thank you thank you I have one comment I'd like to make Not only would I like to thank the sheriff's office for their excellent law enforcement services but also the line of communications we have with your office are excellent and I also want to particularly thank you for working with us in the relocation of your space in City Hall ultimately to the Public Works building your cooperation has been enable and it was fantastic thank you very much thank you Mr Davis thank you any other questions for patrol operations or sheriff's office in general okay well thank you all very much have a wonderful evening thank you thank thank you all for your services really appreciate it thank you Mr Mayor on item number C2 it's public forum and Jack you want to yeah I would like to read a statement regarding the public forum uh the public forum provides an opportunity for the public to address the Council on items of concern the public forum may not be used to make personal attacks air personality grievances make political endorsements or for political campaign purposes the council will listen to the issues but will not generally engage in dialogue with the presenter questions from the council will usually 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 for informational purposes if a majority of the council would like to address the issue in more detail it can be added to the agenda or can be addressed during the regular agenda of a future meeting or referred to staff for further review and response thank you uh we're going to open up the public forum we're going to start with in the audience here is there anybody that like to get up and make a comment you have to say your name and your address and speak clearly into the microphone thank you my name is Ruth miles I live on 7828 Camp number three Road Forest Lake I've been a resident here for 52 years my husband's lived here all his life um I guess I'm kind of surprised I was coming here to see the Le the the the sworen in process of the new Council people in the mayor and to me it's obviously it's already been done when did that transpire without it being notified to the public that you were swearing it earlier I mean I'm kind of disappointed because that's why I came here another thing is is knowing now that your mayor who's taken over your spot is a conso thing and as a citizen here I would like to have a say who comes in and takes that position with it I don't know the format of all this stuff with it but I'm very disappointed I don't know if there's rules and bylaws but most places that I've gone the first meeting of the month they that's when they have their swor in time so sorry I'm disappointed well thank you uhon uh we're not really into carrying on a conversation but it will be discussed tonight later better be and it might be put off to the next meeting but it's coming okay thank you Mr Mayor and councel I will address the the question is it's been long-standing practice in this community and several communities to have the swearing in done before the first meeting in fact there's former council members in the audience who probably went through that same process it's an efficiency so that when people arrive the the night of the first meeting they can begin their they work as a council member it's also efficient if if an emergency comes up before the first council meeting uh they're already sworn in and they can act on behalf of the city so that's that's nothing new I've I've been City attorney a very long time and and I don't ever actually remember attending a public swearing in so just a little bit of history is there anybody else that would like to get up and use a microphone seeing nobody come forth is there anybody on the internet there that would like to step forward and state their name and address the font's so small I can't tell who's who there seeing nobody coming forth we're going to close the open forum and uh go on to item number three which is the acceptance of letter of resignation anybody want to read that motion thank you Ron I'll read the report real quickly okay Ron hanra submitted his letter of resignation from his City Council seat to the city administrator effective January the 8th 2025 and in turn that letter was cc to the city council resolution 20251 which is exhibited as attachment one in your packet is requested for approval by Council as a recorded acceptance of this resignation thank you now we need somebody to second that right no we need a motion so I'll do it um so I move to approve resolution 2501 Ron hogra's letter of resignation from his city council person seat effective January 8 2025 Rob Al second hearing that is any discussion any comments hearing none we'll take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Janet I Rob I and Ron I we'll go on the item number four you going to read that one Jack yes thank you Mr Mayor city council member Ron hanra was elected as the mayor of the city of Columbus on November 5th 2024 as a result of his election to this post Mr hgraph a sitting council person whose term expires on December 31st 2025 has resigned his position by notice to the city administrator effective January 8th 2025 Mr hgraph is required to resign his Council seat being prior to being sworn into the office of the Mayor of Columbus in this case the resignation of Mr hgraph supports the existence of a vacancy of his Council seat and Council should pass a resolution to claring Mr hogra's Council seat vacant and fill that position as soon as possible council is requested to approve resolution 2025 d02 which declares the vacancy of the seat do you want to read it sure um so I move to approve resolution 2502 Declaration of a City Council seat vacancy there second this is Jenny I can second any discussion any comments hearing none Rob will start on this side you want to vote oh Rob I Janet I Jenny I and Ron I go on to item number five appointment process to fill the vacant seat Council seat of Ron hanra right as stated in the previous report Ron hanra submitted his letter of resignation as a city council person from the Columbus city council and has been sworn in as the mayor of the city of Columbus the city council has accepted the resignation of Mr hgraph by the passage of resolution 25-1 and declared as vacancy of the seat by resolution 2502 city council must now determine the process for selecting Mr hogra's replacement this is this is a very important statement right here Minnesota law is silent on the appointment process and thus city council may decide the process for making those appointments state law provides that statuto City councils make the appointment to fill a vacancy except in the case of a TI vote when the mayor makes the appointment that means all members of the council including mayor can vote on the appointment as long as at least a quarum of the council is present a majority vote of those present is sufficient to make that appointment the council May appoint any individual who is eligible for election to that office generally to be eligible a person must be a US citizen resident of the city and at least 21 years old the council may but is not obligated to appoint any candidate previously defeated in an election for office a resigning council member may not vote on the appointment of the successor to that vacancy a council member who's elected mayor however May participate in the appointment vote to fill the vacancy in his or her former Council position staff recommends Council fill the city council vacancy as soon as possible by a process that include could include the following options the call for a special election appointment of a commission member board member or previous elected official to that seat or the appointment of the candidate that finished third in the 2024 general election for the two open Council seats or other options preferred by Council uh attached in this packet of information is the LMC summary for the appointment process which outlines this in detail so at this time I would request that Council decide on a process for making this appointment to be made on January the 22nd and the question boils down is it going to be an elective decision or appointment decision I will say one thing about the call for a special election it would follow the same terms as that of the general election we had in February the county must be notified by February the 18th our decision to do this the earliest we could have the election would be either May the 10th or the 20th however that doesn't fit in with some schedules going on here so the election would have to be held on August the 12th uh the potential cost of that special election would be $8 to $10,000 and the person that would be running if that was the process selected would be only serving about 14 months of a two-year term and would have to run again and maybe those persons ran previously uh the other two would be more timely and I think a better process to follow but I'll leave that up to the council to make that decision for the crowd Jack what will those other two options be or maybe those that hav't been listening to the meetings in the past yeah in in order really to appoint somebody in a with a prob could be a short term on this with the experience necessary somebody coming in you sometimes it takes a year to kind of get up to speed on what's going on would be to look at somebody from serving on an existing commission or board or a committee or maybe a previously uh elected public official use that for your appointment selection if there's one or two or three select those and interview them the other one would be to take as I stated before to take the runner up or the next highest vote G get her in the 2024 election uh some places actually go and actually open it up by taking resumés and letters of intent to apply but I don't think that's really fair because everybody here ran for office they worked hard uh and it's this is just a shortcut to get on city council so I would recommend either one of those two options that I just gave you Mr Mayor and Council just to be clear uh for everybody listening and and here tonight the only requirement is that you fill the vacancy you can do it by appointment or special election it's it's really that simple so so with that with the appointment and I know I had brought up the fact of maybe like an application process and we interview but uh Jack alluding to maybe we don't want to do that but I was reading the statute for vacancies on the uh Secretary of State website and as I read on through it in uh subdivision 2A under vacancy um I believe it's under 2B it says if there's two years remaining in the vacancy that there needs to be a special election so how does that play into this is there something because we're under a certain amount residents that we don't have to follow the Secretary of State guidelines or there isn't two years it's it's less than two years as of tonight so that's that's ridiculous it's not ridiculous it's the it's the statute so yeah all right I mean if if this occurred in a there's sometimes a situation where well all of you other than the mayor have a four-year term so if you were in in your first year first year and a half a special election so because we're 8 days into it but Ron actually took the mayor seat on the first day of January the the vacancy is is uh as of the resignation so the the vacancy uh occurred this evening with the resignation and the council's acceptance okay thank you Bill y any questions I mean ultimately we have a lot of people here tonight I think that this is probably why you all are here um not to say that you all couldn't be here to listen to the sheriff who are wonderful um but we have a lot of passion in our small City and I think it's important that we acknowledge that tonight um we appreciate that all of you are here so we obviously have a lot of maybe different opinions on what this should look like um but I think for the health of our city it's important that all of us agree on what that looks like does that seem fair well I think what the statute says is that the majority decides so it doesn't have to be unanimous it would be great if it was but it doesn't have to be unanimous um and since there's only four of us on there if it's a tie then the statute says that the mayor breaks the tie so I I I don't know if that's what you meant but that's what we have to follow by law well I think so in the event of a tie it would be because we don't agree right so in the event of a tie it would either be Ron deciding what that looks like or we put it back on the people to decide and I think in my opinion in the best thing we could do in the event of a tie two and two it would be important that the citizens decide what that looks like so Bill maybe you can speak to the legalities of that sure uh Mr Mayor and councel um I think council member heglin actually stated correctly what the statute requires the statute requires that the C filled the statute requires that that either is done by appointment or by special election uh because we are less than 2 years uh left on Mr hanac Craft's term and so if if the council it's always preferable that the council acts you know in in concert with one another but there's been plenty of times where that hasn't been the case um and so if the council Deadlocks on this 22 then Mr hgraph can appoint um the successor and and that's exactly how it reads um we've we've looked at this we advised the city administrator on this Megan Rogers actually is a specialist in election law and so she did all of the the work leading up to tonight to advise the city administrator so I'm I'm very comfortable that it's been stated now every council member can have a different opinion about how that process should go and ultimately uh you'll you'll get a chance to vote on on your preferred option um but that's that's essentially it it's it's it's not terribly complicated um I'm sure there are people that would prefer an election and there are people that would prefer an appointment and we'll we'll see how the council acts so but to Jennifer's point I think one of the questions we should ask ourselves up here is whether or not there are a lot of people here in the audience I think the the assumption is that if they wanted to weigh in they would have done it during public forum but having been in the audience I know that I wouldn't have necessarily known that so we can also take comment if we all agree during items of the uh on the agenda so again you can advise on that bill if you want to but I don't want to feel I don't want people to feel like we're shutting them out and we don't want to hear what they have to say but typically that would have been done during public open Forum so maybe you can speak to how you take comments outside of that sure Mr Mar Council that actually was the city's long-standing practice that if you came and you wanted to speak on at the public form you spoke on items that were not on the agenda those rules were changed as you might recall in the last uh 12 months to to actually create more flexibility uh for people to show up and comment um on items that are on the agenda and so it's really at the mayor's discretion the mayor leads the uh the meeting and and sets kind of the decorum for the meeting uh but the council can all weigh in on whether you want to open up the mic uh for public comment on this particular topic I don't really see any downside to that and I don't think it's it's certainly not um uh in conflict with the the council's current rules for taking public comment rob you got an opinion I'm I'm fine with it if we want to open it up to the public I think we should I agree okay well open it up to the public we'll open up the public forum does anybody excuse me that like to discuss this issue or whatever and make a comment please step forward say your name and your address and we'll go on yeah my name is Tim M here I'm at uh 8306 177th Lane Northeast and just for full discl closure I'm also on the uh board for the sunrise River Water Management um in hearing everybody's the the uh information about how much it would cost to run a special election the timing that it would take for a special election Etc I I think that's really ridiculous and unconscionable amount of money to have to put forward um from the city uh particularly we're not a big city right so that's number one I just think financially physically I think it's irresponsible second um we had an election less than three months ago in that election there were three individuals and the separation of vote count between the three individuals was not a lot and so I think the public has already spoken because everybody in the public knew that Mr hgraph was up for the mayor's position everybody knew or should have known or should have been aware about enough about Civics to understand that there was going to be a vacancy if he's elected so it only makes sense to then appoint the individual that came in third for expediency purposes for continuity of services or financial fiscal responsibility those are all the reasons that I think and I I would venture to Guess that what uh 2,300 other people who voted for the third candidate would also agree that that's the the form that you guys should take so that's all thank you there's somebody else that like to step up J can I quick ask a question to the resident to Tim I don't think we're supposed to have oh okay a I don't know I don't think anyone got 2,300 votes oh that's what a normal protocol is yeah Mr Mayor and Council generally public comment is to is this direction so fair enough council members Mr Mayor uh Dan Mike 16423 pic street so as I sit back here and listen to uh this debate that's going on about how to fill a seat I would like to make a recommendation to miss Lyn Carver Quinn who I believe sits on a public or the Planning Commission as we speak um I've had a chance to talk to uh Miss Quinn a couple different times so I think she'd be a good viable candidate to fill that seat and hopefully keep the city running in the right direction with a good leadership that we have so that's all thank you thank you is there anybody else that would like to set up come up forward Jerry I'm going to stand if I sit on it's going to take while get up again I just had back surgery a couple months ago Jerry Wii 14647 Lake Drive I just my opinion it'd be foolish to spend $110,000 for a special election and so I I think it should be appointed and uh and if we do go doing a special election I won't be represented correct there'll be a vacant seat until that time no if you have a special election due to the length of time it takes to get it done you'd want to make a temporary appointment because we would have a four people on the council and there's too many chances for tie votes tie votes mean no votes so you still have to make it a temporary appointment anyway to keep things running properly one other thing I'd like to say about a special election is we have a very small staff if we have a special election it's going to take a lot of Staff time diverted from from their duties uh we went through a difficult election process last year we had three elections we had to do doing another than in a short period of time is going to affect the way we act actively do Service delivery to that's a a cost it's uh you know you it's hard to calculate but it would involve City staff having demand that essentially what it is you have to follow the same procedure so you have to have the early balloting 46 days before the election then you have to have two weeks of direct balloting in which you have to have two staff members Manning everything over here election judges and it becomes quite a task to pull that off okay so my opinion let's have a permanent replacement as quick as we can and get this over with thank you thank you Jerry thank you is there anybody else i' like to get up hi my name is Christina readyy 13958 jrell Street I just wanted to say that it would be really nice to see some fresh faces on the board I think it's been long past du um as a younger citizen here I've been here for 20 years and I think it would be really great to have a new point of view coming in thanks [Music] good evening um Lyn Carver Quinn 7540 1502 Lane Northeast so I did consider running um but chose not to but I have been asked and talked to quite a few residents that had asked me if I would consider and I did call Ron on Sunday I believe and that I would like to be considered here's the big picture for for those that think there was one candidate that didn't get in and that should be the pick there were actually two candidates on the ballot that did not get in office so when you're discussing this I want you to look at the whole scope of things you have two candidates that didn't get on the ballot not just one and I think you owe it to the residents to respect their votes people voted one got in for mayor two got in for Council so you should really think clearly when you're doing this I've been involved in a lot of other cities I've seen them reach out to Planning Commission or Eda members um I think I've shown the couple years I've been chair of the Planning Commission I've co-chaired Fest for two years I'm very in invested in my community when I live here and balest brought the businesses and the community together and so I want you I would be honored to do it if I'm one of your picks um I hope you will consider me and have a good night thank you is there anybody else that would like to get up good evening mayor and City Council Members I'm Jody KBS and I live at 7509 172nd Avenue in Columbus Minnesota uh I guess this might be um a question to Mr Griffith if our seat that was held by um Ron was open till tonight but he actually took the seat of Mayor on the 1 how can he hold two elected official seats uh Mr Mayan Council um I I want to restate what I said earlier the resignation occurred on the day he sent the letter um that's not what you stated on the record though you said he his was stated tonight on the record in the public for correct I just I just said that I want to correct what I said Jody so so when when Mr hgraph sends a letter that he's resigning his seat that's the resonation it was accepted tonight uh creating this process for a vacancy so in any case there's less than two years left on his term correct the appointment the appointment that's being made is to fill a seat that is vacant for less than two years on the term it's up to the council whether they want to treat that as a vcy that they can appoint and fill or or order a special election correct I understood that I just wanted clarification on the time frame of the two seats being held right so Bill can I just ask a question just again for clarification I thought I was just trying to find it I was I thought um Ron's letter of resignation stated it was effective the eth so that's his resignation as a council member he got sworn in tonight as the mayor so he didn't have an overlap there was no mayor there was no mayor in there was no mayor from January 1 till tonight if there had been a business that would have required the mayor I would have had to step in as the deputy mayor but I didn't so right okay yeah so there was no overlap and Mr Mayor and Council what I was clarifying is the resignation occurred effective when Ron stated because he was giving up the seat on that date the action of accepting that resignation uh created this process for filling the vacancy right so that's that's the the clarification I was trying to make when you when you got up and asked the question Jody okay because there's no date on on the agenda saying what date that letter came in of resignation so thanks for the clarification yeah it's in the it's in the public packet okay yep thank you and it's on the website thank you you want to come up Jeff all right I sure to there not okay uh Jeff dur 18319 Bender Street Columbus uh uh I'm not sure how you're going to pick candidates for this position but I would like to be considered uh I got 15 years past experience on the council I've always been an independent voter never picked a side so it's just just wanted to throw my name in there thank you Jeff thank you uhuh Ru miles 7828 Camp number three Road live in Columbus down at the triangle where all the action is um I'm very disappointed again now with what's going on here that with the eight I was just up here wanting to know I if you were soring in tonight why didn't we see that to me it should be document was it documented yes yeah and is it how was it documented well I I don't want to get into a conversation with you okay that's just a protocol that we do we're allowing you to speak okay okay listening to everyone here and I have one of I'm one of those person who had talk to Lynn Carver Quinn and I do know D Dan pavoni who also ran with it and with those two names in mind I would hope you would consider somebody who knows what's going on here at at the Town Hall and I give them my support that you would decide who you think is best to serve there with it to meet our needs okay thank you thank you Ruth anybody else that like to get up good evening Council my name is Dave paval 16731 pic Street um congratulations Ron fought a good battle I can't hear you D congratulations Ron fought a good battle I'd like to uh just throw my name in there as a uh potential candidate here I have uh 8 years of experience as mayor as well as uh 8 years of running from a so if uh you want to consider me that'd be great thank you thank you that was kind of funny anybody else want to throw their name in here's experience Ronnie I make a comment statement MO a little slow on this new hip name is Tom olon 13332 lion Street Columbus hopefully I won't go over too much of what's already been covered but I do have a few comments first of all how do you pronounce your last name L Latin l h i yeah it's been pronounced three three different ways so far so I'll try to remember that congratulations thank you so much glad to see you here hopefully uh you'll do well welcome Rob back again for another four years and our new mayor Ron thank you sir congratulations uh first of all I do not support a special election every council member here at one time or another is involed to watch out for our tax dollars how they're being spent I see it on your campaign literature and I think it's a waste of tax spare money so that option I would throw out the window I did a little brain teasing just to see what that would cost and I heard a $10,000 figure for the city came out of this discussion so I thought well what's it going to cost the rest of us and other individual expenses so I did some number fing if you want to use your pencil go ahead we have 3,78 Columbus registered voters that's per that state of Minnesota I think Rob excuse me referenced it on the uh Columbus web page link whoever did that I like it we had 2843 voted this year 89% turnout so I did some fudging you know how many people would show up and you you could work these numbers anyway you want so I took 50% of the 3,000 78 possible voters rounded that down to 1,500 that might be able to make it to a vote here then I said well how many vehicle trips is that going to take so out of the 1500 some are going to go together husband wife some are going to come over so solo so I say well we got a th000 vehicle chips to come into to effect and I figured out well let's see I drive 8 Miles here 9 and a half actually actually so round trip for me is 16 I rounded that down to average for everybody that's going to come far and close to 15 then you take the federal mileage rate that you get for driving a vehicle for federal tax deduction 70 cents a mile 1,000 trips by 15 miles the round trip I have to make by 70 comes at 10,500 approximately out of pocket for everybody else is that's not being taken into account that lives in this city that's not being paid by you know it's coming out of my pocket your pocket whoever shows up for the vote so that's not counting the personal time lost and I'm being conservative in my estimate so if I threw together the 10,000 the city's paying the 10,000 I would probably say it's going to be more than that that would total cost would come it's probably cost 30 40,000 to run this election that's ridiculous so that option as far as I'm concerned that doesn't even include whoever is going to run may have to spend in in personal finances you know what it takes to run a campaign and do it on short notice that is out of the books secondly I would recommend that the city consider Scott Wendell to fill a seat vacated by our new mayor I believe Mr Wendell has the Integrity the community support qualifications and Rec recognition to represent Columbus what kind of person are we looking for here we want a person with roots in Columbus Scott and his wife a lifelong resident have raised five children in Columbus over the past 20 years they have family ties to Columbus going back four generations and they've got multiple Generations in the elementary school over here Scott has a long history of a community committing to Community Services he's served as a police officer we had them here tonight for 211 years in a variety of roles he was a squat team member patrol officer lead background investigator Mount Patrol trainer mobile force field Force team leader and technological unit officer he's a two-time recipient of life-saving medal three time for the exceptional service medal he's won a k9 Achievement medal and he's a DARE officer and if anybody doesn't know what D does they work with in partnership with the police officers parents and schools to help prevent the use of drugs game membership and violence so you can't that's all I can say on that in addition he's involved in youth programs and Boards he's volunteered for the Forest Lake youth football coach he served as Community Education volunteer basketball coach he's a former board member of the Forest Lake youth football league and Lead director of the national flag football league on the government service he's a member of the Ramsey County Business Administration board for hazardous waste generators Scott's a former business owner with his wife who operated other Columbus home and he believes in responsible home o occupied businesses which was a thing for the last couple years around here in the past Scott has served on the Columbus Public Works Advisory Board the road paving subcommittee and most importantly C Scott currently serves in the Columbus Planning Commission and is currently uh is current on the issues facing Columbus he doesn't need it to get his training wheels Hey Ron and time to get up to speed the rules that were set forth uh sorry but I think they laid some rules out before this I'm sorry what this is a public open Forum right I I I know it is but we haven't set a time limit on anybody here yet tonight have we Sorry to interfere then I I I think we have to call it kind of quick I've got about one minute match one minute drop my bi I all well you don't have the floor okay Jeff I I I think getting up and walking up and intimidating isn't the right route we got to relax here and calm down we're trying to solve a problem not create another one know I'm sorry what you know it's I you don't have the floor okay Jeff I don't want to carry a conversation between us or the council and that's just a normal protocol and uh Tom I think you do have to cut it quick here I'll be done in 30 seconds 3 seconds and sorry Tom if I vote total between the second and third and that's already come up is was 43 votes and Scott had received 1,65 now in the last four years ago in the election you had 1231 votes that's at least a good representation of what Columbus is looking for I would recommend Scott for position thank you Mr Mayor do you want to set a limit on uh I think we probably have to now because people are getting you can't now that you've allowed one person to go we we can't that's Mr Mayor you're you're running the meeting he can establish the the time limits on public open for him he's the he's the chair of the meeting Jennifer that's how how that works under medot law just doesn't seem fair to allow one person to go on but nobody else to go on fine it's it's up to the mayor whether he wants to establish a time limit Mr Mayor it it let's Rob yeah yeah no I I was just and that's Tom I wasn't trying I I interjected on you while you're were speaking I apologize I felt like it was going down a more political Manner and before we open public open for that's we set those rules for us I think it did get out of control and when I see out of control we got people up here whether uh Tom rattled off for 20 minutes or Lynn got up and made her debut I don't think we need a soap box up here to advert what we're doing I mean if they're running if you want to get involved in this make your statement and get it over with I don't believe in putting a time limit on it but as we've seen it did get overhand on that one and I don't know what people are going to say add a time so I don't know uh council do you think it's best that's fine I think the council other council members have expressed concern about establishing a time limit mid uh testimony I do think the statement uh that was made at the beginning uh uh from uh Mr Davis that this is not an opportunity for political campaigning if you want to talk about process uh people have certainly indicated that they're open to uh being appointed I don't think that crosses a line but then we start reading people's resumés now we're campaigning for those folks we're turning an open form into a political campaign so that was stated at the beginning of the meeting everybody I think understood that thank you okay so we're still not going to have a time limit kind of just that's your call Y yeah we if it gets out of control again will cease it so sir you're up here uh you want to state your name and your address and Chase Roth 8820 189th Avenue Columbus I've been watching so far on zoom and fortunately I was up here in time to speak I find it kind of Despicable that we knew this day was coming for the last two months and this is the first time you're opening up to hear voices and opinions from the community that's despicable you knew you won November 5th 6th we knew this day was coming so to address it now is BS that being said given the short length of this term I think we should really consider somebody with experience as some of the names have already been thrown out not a freshman here to fill less than a two-year seat so okay thank you I do not normally say anything my name is Marilyn laen 16010 Kettle River Boulevard Forest Lake or Columbus sorry my concern here is that we do a background check if you are going to you going to appoint somebody then we need to do a background check a lot of nice things have been said about a lot of these people but that is not necessarily correct so I really feel like we need to do a background check before you appoint anybody okay thank you I don't well I'm not going to make a comment on that I don't want to carry out a conversation but why don't you uh take the public comments and then you'll have Council discussion and you can ask any questions you want of myself the administrator okay is any body else like to make a comment statement want me to State my name again no we know it okay actually there's minute takers so it would be good if they yeah they better better say your name what there's an audio recording and it helps the minute takers no who okay my name is Ruth miles I live at 7828 Camp 3 Road Columbus I'm where all the action is on the triangle with it I appreciate of what you're doing here tonight opening this up to us with it and I think with hearing the comments that I had I like to see this wait till your next town hall meeting and then go that gives you time to think about what you really want to vote for here because it's we are the citizens and we support you and time time Tales so I appreciate that you're here that I'm here and all the people are here so thank you for giving this time thank you Ruth is there anybody else hearing none we'll close the open Forum again I don't think is there anybody online that like to make a comment hearing nothing there we'll close it and we'll have a discussion about this would you like to make a comment anything Jennifer or I can start with Rob or I can start with Janet anybody I started last [Laughter] time I mean there's a lot lot to digest here I think um I just want to start by thanking you all because I think we had a lot of differing opinions going on and everybody is very respectful I think and tried their best to be respectful uh and we obviously had a lot of people who had interest in the position what and I just wanted to take a minute and thank you all for being here because I think and I believe in community involvement um I I think it's hard because we have a lot of people interested um I think that you know obviously it we sounded like Scott Jeff Dave and Lynn at least all had interest um so I want to make sure that that's acknowledged and not just breathed over um because I think all of you have you you know a lot of I mean between all of us here we have hundreds of years within this community and I think that all of you have a lot of passion and we have passion for our city so I think I I want to acknowledge um and potentially find a way to acknowledge the four people that are interested okay want V so I um I appreciate all of the input as well as I think back to how we started did this um Jack threw out a number of suggestions and I also want to remind all of us that the point of this discussion is not to name a person but to decide on a process so I think I I I always start with the easy stuff it sounds like there is not um support for a special election and maybe we can take that off the table right off the bat if that's how we all feel and it sounds like that's pretty much was the consensus of the people in the audience as well so that I would make that as a a suggestion but I'll let Rob weigh in and you weigh in first I I'm happy to make that motion if everyone's in agreement Rob your thoughts yeah so my my thing on the special election was I was just trying to reference that statute but it seems I was interpreting it fairly well I'm sorry about being passionate about it it seems like 8 days you know it's almost could could I say one more thing about that statute Rob yeah there's a couple of other things bill can correct me if I'm wrong but State Statute also says there can be no official business conducted by the city on a holiday that's observed by the state and actually that would only become effective like at 12:01 a.m. so technically that would still be less than two years on the term sure because Ron's Council seat didn't expire till December 31st correct the day so it's kind of a little small Nuance the the other reason we want that's good to do that is because if he' resigned as a council member earlier then we're left with the possibility of having to do something not having a quorum so okay y so so that was I was just trying to put that forth for us to chew on right um just to make sure we are doing the right thing um do you want to keep going before I no no I I think I I was wondering what your opinion was on Janet's deal about election it it seems from we have here and if you showed up tonight you wanted to have your voice heard that um it seemed like most didn't want a special election um but that's kind of the vibe I was getting so I think we need to go with the will of the people I did have a few people call me and say they wanted to see a special election they didn't care what it cost to have their voice heard they wanted their voice heard so I'm a little torn on it um but if if we can come to an agreement on some sort of application process or interview process uh maybe going on that route I'm definitely not in favor of just moving to the next highest vote recipient because I don't uh I just not Jennifer do you have thoughts on a special election um it sounds like people would rather we discuss that and make a decision I from the sounds of it people did not want that um and so based on the opinions of the people who spoke I think that it's appropriate that we work to try to make it decision okay I I uh I go along with the your thoughts I think a special election should be we should wipe it off slate and figure out how what other options we have left so does that require a motion bill I think it' be helpful to take a vote so then I oh you want to can we maybe discuss the other options prior to setting that forth sure you can you you can bring a motion now or you can package it all together either way works it doesn't matter to me however you want to do it mayor well I I think the election why don't we just get that off the table right now then we can discuss what's left I I I just don't see an election being the route right now that's I we get that off the table we'll figure out where we're going so then I would uh make the motion to um remove having a special election as an option for moving forward with to fill this vacancy anybody want to second that I think we need to discuss the options before we make a motion well there's ation process is to make a motion get a second and then have discussion yeah because otherwise it just fails for lack of a second right no no well uh I'll second the motion but it doesn't seem like it's going to go anywhere so so we're back down to square one then well no so now we have a motion in a second now we can have discussion correct it's okay I read I read my Roberts rules for dummies before I [Laughter] came all right so uh what's the reason and can you help me out why you don't want to vote that out of the question here or well I'm feeling like let's let's let's talk about the other options right is you know is the will for it to come to a tie and then you just appoint who you want want or what I mean where are we at with this I mean we kind of got to go through all the processes so they understand what what the options are here right Mr Meritt if that's the case then you should just take the vote if you should just take the vote on the motion unless there's other discussion then then that can be off the table you can then package everything together once you agree on a process and maybe you won't agree on a process you know that's that's a possibility part of the reason for filling the seat is so you don't have two two votes right and so um but at some point you're going to have to set a process or the default position is if you can't get a vote from the four members then the mayor will be in a position to appoint so it's it's best if you can get some concurrence here tonight okay well then we have a motion we on the floor and a second and a second and I and I will just say I'm making the motion because I didn't hear anybody out there say they want a special election I agree with the testimony that's been given already that it's not a good use of public dollars to have an election when we just had one 60 days ago um and I think starting all over again with this process isn't isn't in my opinion the best interest of the city so that's why I'm saying and it's a hard decision and I'm sure there's going to be a variety of um options that people will want to consider but you got to start whittling down the options or we'll we won't we won't we won't be able to come to a conclusion so if this is the least favorite of everybody that's why I say take it off the table and that's why I second it just to narrow it down sure where we're going so any other discussion not hearing any we'll take a vote Jennifer nay Janet I Rob nay and Ron I so tight the motion fails okay well somebody else can make a motion then I guess can we talk about the other options then at this point yeah yeah I think everything's open yeah I mean it is is the majority of the body in favor of some sort of so I've done some research on this like you had you were saying you you'd done some there um I noticed Grand Rapids Minnesota they just had a vacancy they opened that up for an application interview process all all of the council all the four remaining uh got the interview and come to a census on who they thought the best candidate was I felt like that we did that with uh with our city administrator and I felt like that that went fairly well um and whether it's not as a strenuous I mean we went through quite a numbering process and things of each candidate we kind of know the groundwork of it is that is that anything that others would be interested in I this is Janet I mean I think that's one way that you could certainly do it I I I go back to what is an ele you know why do we have elections the elections are not for the city council members to select who's going to sit up here the elections are for the people too and we just had one there were three people that put their names in a hat and or put their names on a ballot and said that they were willing to run for two seats on the council I I don't know for sure but Lynn I think who you were speaking of was the person who ran for mayor which that's not the position we're trying to fill right now certainly we could consider Dave's um offer that he would be willing to be considered but my there was three candidates for this two seats so when when I think about what the whole purpose of an election is if we'd had an election a year and a half ago I'd probably feel differently about this if we had an election where two candidates had the majority of the votes and the third candidate had very few votes I would probably feel very different about this but we had 39 votes between the person who got elected and a person who didn't it's pretty darn close I think that ignoring the votes of those 1200 and however many 39 or 69 or I wrote down the number Tom sorry I don't uh 1,65 votes um when it was only 60 days ago that they were cast I don't feel good about that so I would be in favor of going with with the third candidate and I'll just put it out there and that's why I I I have to concur with uh Janet on this I do believe in elections I believe the public gets to make a choice but if one of the three candidates that were ran for councel would not Iran we wouldn't have a choice nobody out there would have a choice cuz they just get elected because they're the only two on it the same way with the mayor if I didn't run against uh Dave on the thing you wouldn't have a choice Dave would be the mayor so I I I agreed that we gave people a choice on November 5th and they voted and Rob got the highest votes Jennifer got the second highest and then we got a third person there it cost a lot of money to run election and any one of you or anybody in the city could have ran but they didn't and now all of a sudden everybody wants the position and I I have a problem with that I figure that people put the effort in it and if it was sitting any other way if Rob would have been the third one out I'd probably support him and my reason is is cuz he has the experience if Jennifer would have gone the other way I'd probably support her it takes a lot to run an election you're door knocking you're begging for money and you're looking for votes and now all of a sudden everybody wants the position because they don't have to do the work and I'm not I'm not criticizing I I praised the people that stood up and said they're willing to step in but they weren't willing to step in for $2 to register to vote I mean to uh run as a candidate that's all you have to do and you got 10 days to make a decision and after the 10 days you got three days you can back out of it but nobody did that so we had three people and that's why I think we should leave it down to the to the three people but if we can't come to an agreement I don't know what we're going to have to do here I mean so with the candidate you're considering do we name that person do we I mean I have some issues with some things I saw in the newspapers about the person you're considering and I think that's maybe some of the issues people are having here tonight are the is the really what do we consider anybody can pay the the dollar $2 but there are other things to consider as well and one of that is the the reputation of our city right and that's where I'm concerned that that is truly my concern and so when you look at some of these different things going on how is that not considered as well so Mr Mayor and council members as legal council for the city I have to advise any council member any elected official to be very very careful about your statements if they're factual if there's matters of public record fine uh but you should confine yourself to those things that are known that are factual so we don't end up with a situation where there's public defamation so that's my role is to kind of keep people in in the bounds um I think that uh certainly your comment about wanting to to vet the council members that's that's perfectly legitimate I I think that's where council member bush is coming from also legitimate are the other comments you heard from the council so you're just going to have to you know pick a path and see if you got the votes for the path and then and then if you have a process where you're uh taking applications you know anything that's a matter of public record is fair game to be considered how about we narrow it down to uh just uh applicants that are on assemblies or Commissioners now or on commissions they can apply I think uh no offense to some of the people that put up that haven't been here for six seven years haven't attended a meeting they may know the protocol when you're up here but they don't know what the history was in the last 3 four years or the last 6 months but why don't we leave it up to an application on on who's ever on a committee uh whether it's parkboard Planning Commission Road Commission whatever and we make a decision off of that they can put an application we review them or whatever I I'm trying I mean we spent a huge amount of time um defining what the criteria were for the applicants for a city administrator and we evaluated those applications against that um we don't have that for Council Members I mean I you'd have to develop that you're talking about a big long process if you're going to do this right and that's why I don't think asking for applications make sense we don't have a process to evaluate them I mean it's going to come down to what we're talking about tonight is who we who we think deserves to be named or appointed or and and so when you when you're looking for employees you've got a job description you've got here are the minimum requirements here are the essential qualifications and you evaluate the um you know the applications based on that and as you remember that's how we scored them too we don't have that for Council Members so we would have to create that I think you can weigh in attorney if you want to but I mean I think to do it fairly you would have to do that in advance of asking people to apply or at least prior to when you were evaluating those applications Mr Mayor and Council because there's very few legal requirements for someone to run uh the administrator discuss those you really don't have to create a set of standards you might want to uh you might want to take you know belabor the process and you know have a set of standards for reviewing those applications you could simply say just as people voice their indication tonight of a willingness to serve we simply want to know if you're willing to serve and if you'd like to say why and why you're qualified that could be in a letter it could be two pages it could be two paragraphs so you're not legally required to set out standards that's something you can decide to do um um you know when you're when you you're Contracting for a city administrator for a number of years you know obviously there was it was a much more defined process and and you have an employment contract in place and standards within that contract so the the interesting thing about this process is it's it's those those three requirements I think a citizen 21 years old and and yeah resident 21 years of age so it it can be that simple so you you again throwing it back at the council you have to decide how much of a process you want it could be simply you're going to consider all applications received by the next meeting I I don't know if I want to go through a thousand applications I I mean I'm just being frank and but uh if somebody wants to write a paragraph or you know that they want to serve or something we got to move somehow get this across MH I I think I think again I I will state it again I think we honor the votes of the 1265 people that that voted I mean 39 less than Jennifer and Jennifer is sitting up here there's a lot of people who wanted that person to be on the council and you got fairly elected that's great but now we have an open seat and I this is an elected position it's not an employ it's not like hiring an employee this is what the public should be weighing in on and saying that they want and 1265 people did I know we have a lot of people here that don't agree with that but 1265 people did and to just discount that I think is wrong so I'm just going to say that I morally cannot support the candidate that you're putting forth the candidate that you two ran with I I just can't do it and I won't vote for it so I'm just going to tell you that now and however it's figured out it's figured out if it ends up by appointment so be it we'll live with it for two years I still think we should do the application process and even if it starts with commission only um at least something so that we can review everything together as a group I think tonight has it's become a little bit U more than I think any of us thought it would be and so I think for us to look at it together might be healthy if that makes sense I just I'm trying to be healthy about this and listen to the people that are here as well well I I I have strong feelings too just like Janet does we had 12 I I with all due respect Rob I I I think you're throwing a word morally out there I I don't know if anybody ran a criminal history on me and I surely didn't run them on all you guys and I don't ever plan to I figure that if you got the will to come in and donate time and that's just what this is It's donating time not making a million dollars here right I uh I just have an issue with that I do believe that there's 1,200 people out there that voted for that young man and I think we got to honor that too so if you got guys want to make a motion or something we'll see how it goes again um so this is Rob I'd make a motion that we move forth with uh some sort of application process um as Ron stated possibly a p paragraph and a bio about why you're suited for the job uh that we open it up to previous elected as well as uh individuals that are sitting on boards as Ron noted whether that be the part board um or or many boards that are covered cable commission um by the city i' look for a second this is Jenny I'll second well I can't uh I have to put some limits on this this is a discussion now we got a motion on the table and um I think we have to limit it down I don't mind the idea of putting it on the Committees but I think that anybody's been out of office for eight six 7 years or whatever they're not in tune with what's happening here and I just think we should keep it to people like on the Planning Commission with a park board or the Road and Bridge or whatever I can't support that that motion jet I I I mean I I said what I was I mean are you willing to amend your motion uh depends what the amendment would be based on what he just said you take off the previously elected if if that's going to keep this moving forward yes you willing to second that Amendment this is Jenny second the am so let's get it clarified now what are we talking about the Planning Commission I don't know so so you had stated anyone that's currently sitting on a board uh you know or a commission or an assembly or a wed or something of that nature that's associated with the city does that sound uh Mr or just just to clarify that the official commissions and Committees of the city um do not include the leaz on positions to other bodies so you could I you could certainly expand it to that but if you if the objective is to get those people that serve on commissions and Committees of the city it would be those that have been named Park Planning Commission Eda uh Road and Bridge what am I missing is that it there's a number of Layon positions so that would eliminate the watersheds yeah those positions are layons to other bodies oh sorry I thought I stated that earlier to my point that that's lay is on position to another body all the other commissions and committees are subsets of the city they are they serve the council they serve the city I mean that's that's just a way to define it you can certainly expand it to anybody who's got a any other appointment as well but that's that was the sense of what I was taking from from the mayor and if I'm wrong the mayor can correct me well I I'm trying to limit it I I think you're right on one point but I'm kind of going where Rob is is how are we going to get this thing moving because I do fully believe what uh Janet said and uh I I'm trying to work this out and I don't think I don't think you're going to get a consensus on what I said okay I mean I think you're just not so you're either going to have to try to exercise your Authority or take it down another path well what what's the other authority I have uh Mr Mayor um if the council attempts to appoint somebody and they become deadlocked then you can make the appointment okay and I think correct me if I'm wrong bill tonight we're not appointing anybody we're just choosing the path to do this that's exactly right so everybody should understand this is the council's time to try and come to consensus on a path in a process and if you can't do that then I imagine at the next meeting there'll be some some votes and if those votes don't are deadlocked then the mayor is free to appoint so tonight again just to clarify because I want to make sure I understand this too because we're just talking about a path it has to be it has to be a majority and the mayor vote is not a tiebreaking vote is that correct that's correct okay thank you yep you you need to get to three okay and and so there is a motion on the table it's the original motion made by Mr Bush second seconded by council member Laton so you need to take action on that unless it's going to be amended then you would take action on the amendment and and the amendment was boards and commissions correct and not previously elected that's what I heard was seconded yep okay and I'm making a concession there I want to tell you that so that is the motion and the second because both the motion maker and the secondary have agreed so you should take a vote then on that that amended motion I um I don't know if I can support that motion okay now I look at it I I have to Stand My Ground on on the 12200 votes I withdraw my amendments um well the motion has been made and amended you should just vote no okay yeah all right if if we're still under conversation is the individual here today no I don't see him you can certainly has anyone asked him if he wants to be or have the position result so you can I know you're trying hard not to name him but he it's a matter of public record Mr Wendell yeah thank you I don't see him here if you talked to him and asked him I'm guessing he would want it right but I don't know that any I don't know that'd be up to Jack to call him or whatever we've not asked him okay I did reach out to Mr Wendell yesterday to keep I kept you in the loop Jennifer and told him that the meeting tonight would not be to make an appointment but to select the process and he did indicate at that time he was still willing to serve okay thank you Jack and mayor so we're going to take we have to take a vote we're going to take a vote Yes anifer okay I want to clarify are we on Rob's motion the amended motion that you amended motion seconded that I seconded yes then I would vote yay Rabbi Rabbi s it's okay for the purposes of moving this along it still includes the person that I feel is the right person so I will vote yay on that you're vote in what I will vote Yes so we can move on and have a process okay all right so my vote will be yes too we'll move this on to the next meeting uh unless we set up some standards so I think we have to define the process now so what are we going to ask for people who are currently on the commissions and boards to do right so we had some people that did make a comment out there if they're not on a commission or whatever they're not on the list it's just anybody on our commission's assemblies or whatever Mr Mayor and Council can I just suggest a few things since um the time is short between meetings I suggest that there be a written communication with every everybody who serves in that capacity that they be invited to apply um by uh probably within a week or 10 days so it's clearly ahead of the next meeting that they have a statement of their interest their qualifications they can submit a bio whatever they want to do to support um that application and that that um that the staff led by the administrator will sort through those and provide a summary and and all materials will be made public perfect perfect okay so you got to make a motion on that then uh yes that would be good go ahead I was just wondering if we can have kind of a timeline of pre to have those in before the meeting so we all have time to digest them right and read them exactly I I said something like you know 7 to 10 days but okay you decide because we only got two weeks so maybe they have from today they have 7 to 10 days to apply and then we have the rest of that time too I'm just suggesting the outline you guys can make the motion as you see fit I'm going to look at the calendar right now so today is the 8th so 1 2 3 4 5 six 7 days would be the 15th 10 days would be the 17th which would be if you said by the morning of the 17th you'd have it for a packet is that correct no correct uh but we got Martin Luther King in there don't we or that's a Monday that's Monday so you won't be there that day well the 17th is isn't that prior to that y so so I'm going to make the motion that we direct staff to send a written correspondence on to all members of our City's boards and commissions to ask them to submit a letter of uh interest to serve as on the city council it would be due by 8:00 the morning of January 17th to be considered by the council at their 20 uh 22nd January 22nd meeting and they would ask they I mean a letter of intent or a letter of interest with their qualifications is what we'd be asking for there's the motion Rob I'll second that any discussion any mend Ms nothing Rob want to vote um or I guess I guess if Janet would be willing want amendment that it could possibly uh be included in our agenda packets for that Friday perfect y because that would give them sufficient Time by when we'd have to pick them up the afternoon and and actually when they come in they will probably go out separately before the packet goes out to give you a little bit more time to take a look at them like via email y but it it'll be in the packet that will be prepared on the 17th yes correct good okay take a vote robbi janed I Jenny I Ron i h we work through our first problem as a council yell no crying no yelling and crying I love it I I'd like to say something this is a great example of practical people working out a very difficult problem and you are to be commended thank you you it's a very difficult decision and I've been through processes like this before where it would just go south in a hurry you all did a great job thank you thank you Jack so much paper here where are we no no and I wanted to take a minute and thank you both for working with us oh absolutely that's what we're here for all right we're on item number six Mr Mayor number six yes all right uh discussion of appointments to commissions committees and Boards thank you assignments of city council persons and I'm going to read this I went over organization and other public advisory boards as liaison or members are recommended by the mayor and confirmed by the city council as this Council will not be fully seated until January the 22nd staff recommends that only those essential appointments necessary for meetings to be held prior to the next council meeting be made tonight these appointments are for the position of Deputy Mayor Park Board liaison Planning Commission liaison and the Personnel Committee in my discussions with mayor hanra he recommends that Janet heglund be appointed as Deputy Mayor he made also the recommendation that mayor HRA himself be appointed to the park board with Jennifer Laton as the AL alate for the Planning Commission he recommends that Jennifer Laton be appointed at the first quarter term as the city council liaison and for the Personnel committee that Janet heglin myself and Ellen Henrik be appointed to the Personnel committee anything left on that list would be done once the full council is seated so we'll have a chance to assign those duties more equitably across the board did did you mention the fireboard and I miss it uh the the fireboard doesn't meet before the next council meeting so after we disappointment is made at the next council meeting then we'll assign those other positions okay CU then we'll be fully seated sure excuse me so we have to vote on that yes with that then motion so I can do it I know you're your your voice is starting to give on on you appreciate it um so move that the appointments and liaison for the deputy mayor um Park Board liaison Personnel committee and Planning Commission liaison be approved as as reported by um administrator Davis and as recommended by the mayor and that the remaining assignments as identified in agenda item C6 be made upon the seating of the full Council this is Jenny I can second we got a motion any disc discussion none mayor okay we'll take a vote Jennifer uh Jennifer I Janet I Rob I and Ron I move on to number nine actually be number seven seven and yeah I'm sorry what what we have here we've had an interest expressed by the Columbus seniors to maybe start using the community center again is a source and place for their meetings there was a policy that was prepared several years ago that wasn't approved it was kind of left hanging out I believe this happened about the time of Co about that time the seniors did not rent the facility or use it anymore that's included in your agenda and it's mainly tonight for discussion only because we didn't have a work meeting so I'm asking that you all consider the approval or discussion of that policy for the community center rental and if you just want to do it and make recommendations for changes in that I have a couple changes too that I'd like to make and we can consider that for passage at our next meeting so this is Janet um I I want to ask Bill um do remember when our seniors kind of seated their their space and their assets and we had an agreement with them about how we were going to we need to find a copy of that agreement because this policy needs to be concordant with that and there are things in here at least as I remember it that aren't concordant with that so I would recommend that we don't I mean we can certainly discuss this but we don't take any action on it until we have that and we make sure that what's in that agreement is also represented in this policy one of the things for sure is I believe that they had priority to have the center um on Tuesday afternoons and if they're interested in me me again I think we need to include that as a priority of use so I I if we can find that and work that in I think it would be good I think the other question that I'd like to pose for the rest of the council is whether or not we want to open this up to non-residents and it is it is in there right Janet correct it is it is now it's a little bit more of a charge though it's more of a charge but I think my question is that that um you know it's it's a Community Asset supported by tax dollars of the these residents so do you want to open it up to people who don't contribute towards it I I don't have I mean I could be convinced either way but I think it's a question we need to answer I guess at a minimum my opinion is that the the residents have to have precedence over any non-residents but how do you do that if say a non-resident booked it first and then a resident so that's kind of that's kind of the bind in my mind I also think that you know many other cities have these kinds of facilities this is the only one we have in Columbus so I guess you know it's bought and paid for I guess I would just like to have it reserved for our residents and our and our groups you know our nonprofit groups and our community groups and things like that within the city of Columbus and then we don't have to you know we're not looking to try to fund this um this uh asset so I don't think we have to open it up to everybody um and that way we don't have to worry about whether a resident or resident group gets you know um edged out because a non-resident group already reserved it and put down their deposit that's something to think about though I could be convinced otherwise you got any thoughts Jennifer oh I think it all looks fine anything on the whether residents only or not allowing it to non-residents I mean I'm I could be SED either way I mean I think it's hard to put residents first when it really is when you sign up no two people are coming at the exact same time to sign up so I think it's maybe a non-issue I guess you may speak to it more in terms of whether it's actually an issue I think it it will be an issue if you have a group that says you know I want it every Wednesday I'm making up a date every W third Wednesday of of every month um for the next year and here's my check and then you get a group that wants to have Grandma's birthday party on a Wednesday night that lives here and they can't because it's it's reserved so that I mean it that whether it happens or not I have no idea but I think that's that's very likely to come up at some point yeah I don't think we have L here but Jack how many times is this place rented we haven't opened it up to be rented yeah it it's it's not open now but the the only request we've had for use of the facility since I've been here it's a small sample it's just a year and a couple days is one for a meeting and once we told them there was a fee for that they said our neighbor has a three-car heated garage we'll use that so so to answer your question I mean there for for a very many number of years the city was operating under the correct assumption um because they were told by the county that they couldn't use this facility for anything more than what the seniors used it for so if the seniors met once a month for four hours and it couldn't be used for non- senior uses any more than four hours that ended up being incorrect we got uh written documentation from HHS is something that was the very first thing I did when I came on Council and it opened us opened up the opportunity to use this for the community however we wanted to and also for for the city um and then Co happened and it was shut down for 3 years because nobody was meeting and blah blah blah so when when we were past all of that then it was well let's come up with a policy and it sort of died by lack of interest and also I'll be honest Elizabeth wasn't wild about having it open to the public so I think it's great that you're bringing it up again I would like to see it be a Community Asset and be used by by the community and so we just I think we need to develop a policy so that it's administrated consistently and everybody knows sort of what the rules are and what the costs are and things like that so but that's why we haven't had this come up before is because we kind of because of Co and because we just never finished this piece of work and and and I do take that back the Lions do use the facility for their pan their pancake breakfasts once a month so and they have used it for a meeting occasionally but they usually do all their stuff over in the Public Works building now y so um I I feel like that that was donated right by by seniors was there no no there was there was an HHS grant that was administrated through the county and the the terms of the the terms of the grant were misunderstood by the person in the county and so what she had told Elizabeth was was if you use it for anything more than what's getting used for seniors you have to pay back all of the grant money and it was 100,000 and some odd change right and that ended up being incorrect information so we got a letter from HHS clarifying that it's ours free and clear there's no need to um repay the grant money and it opened up opened up the opportunity to let others other than the seniors use it okay at the same time the seniors were looking at um not meeting as often but they you know they they had put a lot of um of their own effort and investment into that they had chairs and things like that and so we crafted an agreement that basically said we would call it the senior Comm Senior Community Center so that it was always clear that seniors were an important part of the use of that and we would give them priority use and I think they used to meet on a Tuesday afternoon and that might have been part partly baked in or baked into that agreement and then there was some language in there about assets and who owned what and and things like that so um but then again co co happened and when uh that was over that group had sort of um I don't want to say Fallen apart but they a number of them weren't there anymore but now I hear that they're interested in re um reusing it and re regaining uh their group and which is I think is great um but I think we also have the opportunity to just make this a Community Asset to everybody so there you go there that's the history app appreciate the history and and and like you you had said earlier uh I'd heard I heard uh administrator merkow uh kind of scoff at people wanting to use it or anyone ever wanting to use it but I feel like it needs to be an asset that's available to our community and going back to I I would like to have our community of Columbus have the priority first so I do appreciate you bringing that up um and maybe if there's taste I know you said you both can go either way Ron where you at on this um do we want it just for our community I mean it's not a huge space you know people are always looking for places to hold birthday parties we got a beautiful park across the street that that could be utilized with that um well and I think I think you know what I've heard people say too is you know if they were having a you know a family get together reunion or something like that in the summertime then they might also want to have you know to use the outside picnic round or picnic tables and things like that so I think there's a number of things we should look at related to this and we don't have to decide it tonight but maybe we can provide our our input and then when you get find that document that guides the use for the seniors and we can look at a revised version and what I would like to do and and I'm going to retract my offer to bring it back at the next meeting for approval but this would be on our work meeting for February so we can go over any changes correct them then and then have it brought before the first council meeting in February sounds good to me so we're we're pushing it to the next meeting no because there's a lot of stuff we probably need to do and there' probably be more Corrections I'd like to start making some of these changes now to this then we can bring it and discuss it at our work meeting so that way we can make any further changes finish it up and bring it to our first meeting in February council meeting for consideration of approval so I'd be willing to make the the motion with the amendment to only have residents at this time um so um we really wouldn't need a motion on that that's more Direction at this time okay because we're not taking any form of action on this so we can certainly incorporate that into our changes in this Mr Mayor and councel and given the that consensus or Direction I want to look at like for instance the parks are used by others outside the community um and so whether you can have a priority or an absolute ban on you know whether it is a res whether it's legal to have a Prohibition on outside members of the public using public facilities well and and and if you find that then maybe there's a way to word in the prioritization of residents absolutely if there happens to be a conflict between a resident and a non-resident okay so I have a sense of the the direction thank you MH oh which one we number nine one nine right yep yeah and we did pull item number eight and I just want to go over that real quick this relates to the Companion Animal Care Service that we're doing on an impound agreement we did make some progress with them and they have agreed to have the residents that have a dog impounded come to the city to pay for that so we don't have to be a collection agency however there's a few little details we have to work out with them and one of them would be what happens if the people want to come on a Saturday to pay so what we're going to go back to them is see if we get an extension on that five-day whole period to cover weekends and holidays good point yep so we'll get those done hopefully by next meeting and see if we can reintroduce that there then for approval so with that the last thing we have here under item C under presentations is we need to set the date for the 2025 local board of appeals and Equalization meeting uh we've been requested by the county to submit two dates as our choices for the meeting both of our choices Must Fall between the dates of April 14th 2024 through I mean 2025 through May 5th 2025 any week night within that date range is available except for April the 16th Minnesota law requires at least one member of each board must have completed training provided the Department of Revenue within the last four years two of our members have completed that training and that is council member heglin and council member or mayor hgraph I would also encourage the others to take the training number one because this is a real good way to learn the process and what goes on with lb& it can be done online and it's about a 45 minute to an hour course if you're interested I can send you links to that but in order to be certified or qualified for this year it must be done by February the 1st so Jennifer and Rob I'll send you the information and if you can take it it would be great and if nothing else you learn a lot about it thank you so uh what we would recommend and is our date for the meeting be April the 15th and our alternate date be April the 29th and we would submit these to the county for their approval so I would ask that you consider a motion to set the dates of April 15th for the local board of appeals and Equalization meeting and April the 29th 2025 for the alternate meeting date so this is Janet I have a conflict on those States but I mean I don't have to be here if I mean I know I don't need to be here but if we could consider the 17th and the 24th does that work that'll work too I do have a conflict on the 15th okay that that's why we're asking for the local union meeting yeah so the 17th is on a Thursday Y and the 24th is on Thursday does that work for everyone you say 24th yep that's okay so then um I would move to approve the date of April 17th um and April 24th 2025 sorry the date of April 17th 2025 and the alternate date of April 24th 2025 for the 2025 local board of appeals and Equalization meeting Rob second okay any discussion hearing now we'll take a vote uh Jenny I Janet I Rob i r i excuse me Don apologize it's not contagious least that's what the doctor said today we go on to number D right correct okay city engineer Brian good evening mayor and council members the one item I have tonight is to renew the Professional Service Services agreement uh there's no changes in the section language or the duties uh the four revisions that were made were primarily dealing with address the designation of the Personnel the hourly rates and the term dates uh for another three-year period um with that I'd stand for any questions that Council may have I have a question um so I looked over this uh agreement and I was curious there's a client's responsibility section but there is not a consultant responsibility section there's obviously the services that you're providing right and what I'm thinking about in particular and Cheryl correct me if I'm wrong I thought we had some problems with timely invoicing in the past and I would like to see that addressed in here that we have a requirement to get invoices in within pick a date number of days number of weeks whatever after services are rendered so that we stay on track with it financially that would be one thing that I would add and if you had a section that said um consultant responsibilities you could put it under that or you could put it wherever else it fits I wasn't aware of that we can certainly we agreeable to that okay I don't know if there's any any other responsibilities that anybody else would come up with but that was the only one I was aware of okay would I just made Cheryl happy I got a big smile in order so we don't have to bring this back would you want to approve that with us adding that condition in there and make it so then I would yep I would move to approve the proposal for the Professional Services contract with Bolton and mink as presented in item D1 attachment one with the addition of a clause um addressing timely invoicing as their responsibility and we would like to use the term of 15 days does that work Brian yes okay okay this is Jenny I can second so we got a motion in a second is it second oh I didn't hear you Jenny okay any discussion comments none take a vote Jenny I Janet I Rob I Ron I that all we have Brian that's all thank you we go to our counselor there yes Mr Mayor and Council you have our engagement letter this is how we presented our engagement on an annual basis two um additional tweaks that we um addressing a desire to have more time with the attorney under the retainer so would encourage council members staff to call when they have questions uh We've increase the retainer amount by $500 a month to incorporate that but within that then would be all routine phone calls any um legal review that's less than an hour and um and all of these council meeting regular Council meetings that we attend so that's our proposal the idea is to create a incentive for staff and council members to call when they have questions or concerns so they can get them addressed timely the other thing uh that we've done uh and I think this will be a help to applicants uh We've added a schedule of fixed fees and so you'll see things like development agreements easement agreements storm water agre agreements the creation and preparation of those would be under a fixed Fe the only exception to that would be sometimes we get you know it always takes another attorney to drive up the fees right so we get another attorney representing a landowner calling and spending hours on on documents that's that would be built hourly but the actual preparation of the document which is fairly non-controversial would be under a fixed fee schedule that would be something that could be published here at the office and so applicants would know kind of what they're getting into um before they undertake those applications one thing I'd like to do to comment on that flat fixed fee schedule it gives us a much better opportunity to identify all the cost of these permits variances land use agreements UPF front so that the people that apply for these don't have any surprises down the road so it's going to be a great use in us being able to identify most of the upfront cost a lot easier than we have in the past I like that I have I have a question two questions is there somewhere in this agreement that's going to Define what you just said was included in the retainer um it's in the letter but but the thing that I said which was not in the letter is review under less than an hour we in the retainer so I'm happy to add that that that's my intent and I've reviewed this with Megan Rogers the assistant City attorney and she's comfortable with it as well yeah and I didn't see that that the questions could be from staff and City Council Members which I think is great cuz having had my hands slapped in the past not by Jack but prior like you can't call the attorney because it costs us this much per hour I'm really glad that now we don't have that restriction and any one of us can do that and the staff can as well so that's great I'll add both of those and we'll send out a updated letter based on your comments and then my second question is um I know a lot of time gets spent when we do ordinance work is that just an hourly because it's too hard to put a flat fee on that or it it is and we're cognizant of that um you know we actually with the discussions with the city administrator we wrote off some time this year because some matters took long much longer than we anticipated what I'm proposing to do and I'll be happy to add this to the letter I think I actually did but um we're always happy to provide estimates and so maybe when we start a new ordinance project like the storm water ordinance or um cannabis cannabis um we can um just as the engineers do we can provide an estimate of the work and uh that that'll create a little more uniformity around how those projects I I really like that idea I think that's great thank you m and we appreciate the City attorney working with us to keep our legal cost under control and they' made a lot of good steps in this direction and we appreciate their cooperation and working with us too thank thank you any more discussion no want to make a motion I'm U moved to approve the letter of Engagement for the Professional Services of L Larin Hoffman for the 2025 as presented in item D2 attachment on with the changes that we just discussed we did yeah what did we change I can recap them if you like yes oh you mean add everything you said yeah we're going to we're going to add a statement that staff and city council members are free to call us under the retainer file and that the retainer file includes any legal review less that takes less than an hour of time and that uh at this outset of projects like ordinance work will give an estimate of time for those projects okay did off y all right I second any other discussion on it no no we have a second on this motion I just did okay Jenny I Janet I Rob I and Ron I finally we get to D3 you have anything to report tonight Jennifer I have nothing I just want to thank you all again for being here thank you rob uh yeah just a big thank you to the community uh for support uh through this last Fall's election um immense support fantastic voter turnout for all good numbers so thanks to all the voters for uh driving up here or early voting um any Resident that's got concerns might my cell phone number is on the website so give me a call thank you jet um I will also extend my thanks to everybody also for being here it's it's really nice to see faces out there cuz normally we don't so thank you and please continue to come because we really do care what you think and we don't know that unless unless you you come and and uh tell us um the other thing I'll just quickly mention is that I attended a January 2nd Sunrise River wo meeting so I'm just reporting back that we're starting work on the 2026 budget um it's looking to be coming in under what was uh outlined in the um St uh Watershed plan so um we're meeting again uh around the middle of February and we should have a more firm number but it's it's likely going to be right around $50,000 which is right in line with what what we've been paying and um less than what's in the plan um the other thing uh I was supposed to let you know Jack is that 27 28 29 are going to be substantially more and that is because we'll have to do our work to do our 10-year plan and the estimate estimated cost for the 10-year plan is about close to $50,000 so it's like when we do our comp plan there's a lot of engineering and other legal stuff that goes into it so don't think it's going to be 50,000 going forward no and and and we realize that those watershed management organization budgets are not linear they go VAR to the cost that are associated with the work going on that year so right and and that's one of the things we talked about too is is from this point on building in you know a set amount towards the next 10year plan so that we don't have those those big fluctuations it makes it easier for everybody um the last thing I just wanted to mention which is a big win for them is that they submitted a um Grant to Bowser the Board of Water and Soil resources um for just under a quarter of a million dollars to do a project in Isanti County but it affects uh Lakes Martin Lake typo Lake um and it is to take a ditch County ditch that runs through there and create kind of an a a pond on the side of it so that a lot of the phosphorus and other setup sents and other things that have been getting into the sunrise River and then flows flows into that Chain of Lakes will settle out there and they had estimates about how much um phosphorus reduction and sediment reduction and other nutrients would be captured that way it's on private land the person who owns the land is putting in $22,000 of their own money to make this happen so it's that's a really good size grant for um an organization this small and it's going to do good things for lakes that I think a lot of people in Columbus utilize even though they're not in Columbus so I thought that was that was worthy of mentioning cuz I I think that um this is the kind of work I was hoping that board would take on and they've really they have done that so and it's really big kudos to Jamie Sherbon who's the administrator and wrote the grant for it that's it that's it yep and uh I have nothing to report other than the election's over so let's all relax and hopefully we can get along and this this process will go and like everybody says we never see three people out there at night at or one or two we have some that come all the time but thank you for coming tonight we'll go on to item number four the Personnel committee report no no report no report Planning Commission report there is none right jack correct uh Park board report there's nothing to report on that Public Works report JW Mr Mayor and councel um I I don't have anything to report but I'd like to uh welcome Jennifer Laton um to the board looking forward to working with her uh congratulate you for winning the mayor's seat and uh congratulations to Rob for winning his seat um I I throw this out to every new Council that if it ever snows which I'll be honest with you I hope it doesn't um I welcome any one of you to come on a snowplow ride um with the drivers and kind of get a feel for what we deal with out there um some days it's really good some days it's not but um that just you know anytime um call and you know there's not really it might be 3: in the morning but if you're if you're ready we're willing so I just throw that out there that's all I got well I was lucky enough to get one them 3:00 in the morning calls and it was a lot of fun but I I think we also should say that you can ride with the deputies too if you if you talk to Jessica they'll take you and see what you know I gone with Chris before a couple times and it's it's good to get out there and see what they do so thanks JW City administrator report other thing I have to report is there's going to be a local government officials meeting in January I believe it's on the 29th uh I'll have more details to send out so if you're interested in going let me know I'll make sure you get the information either you can make the reservations yourself or I can make them all and for your information Jennifer this is the local government officials of voka County get together generally once every two months they have an agenda and topics that we talk about common problems they have a meal they vary the location it's uh I believe this next time it's going to be at the Bunker Lake Boulevard facility over on Hansen so uh just let me know if you want to go and also for you the league of Minnesota cities has training for newly elected officials I would recommend that very highly and I'll send you the information on that if you'd like to attend and you can do it online thank you so much no it's in person it's in person in Bloomington some of it's on there's some online stuff first and then it's over a weekend in person yeah then they generally encourage you to do the online stuff first before you the in person y uh Mr mayor in Council if I may interject I I will also make my offer that I make every two years when new council members come and we do it we've done it as a work session for the full body I have a very short uh you know half hour one hour program on kind of key key issues for elected officials it's a nice refresher for everybody it's on things like you know the Quorum the voting the Roberts rules open meeting law all of that so if if I'm invited to a work session I'll certainly show up and uh do that for you thank you what are you doing in February Bill let me check I think I can make it okay all right can I can I asked Bill a question um I just saw that the league was putting out their cities on the hill date already and I know we kind of got an early start on our legislative but I haven't we haven't talked about it since then and I also know that things are kind of way up in the air with the state so maybe at February we could talk about that too at the workshop yep and I'll check with marget as well okay okay we're at to item e on the agenda with an announcements Planning Commission meeting on January 15 2025 at 6 p.m. here at City Hall Eda Workshop meeting January 16th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. Eda regular meeting January 16th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Parks board meeting January 21 202 25 at 5:30 p.m. here at City Hall and city council meeting on January 22nd 2025 at 6 p.m. before youour I have a question were we supposed to adopt our calendar oh yep we dropped that where was it's it's not on here but I know we had it in our packet so I'm just thrown it too we adopted the calendar last meeting oh so it was just in here for information okay perfect okay with that I'll take anybody who wants to make a motion for adjournment I move to adjourn I second Jenny I second any discussion none want think a vote Rob Rob Jan I Jenny I and Ron I I'd also like to say something real quick here that Forest Lake City Council is having the same issue we are and their meeting is on the 13th of January where they're going to discuss their open seat same thing the mayor was elected had two years left on his Council if you got time and you have nothing to do [Music]