[Music] good evening everyone tonight is Wednesday April 24th 2024 it's about 6:01 p.m. and I would like to call to order the Columbus city council meeting for tonight our first order of business will be the Pledge of Allegiance please join us iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all would someone like to make the motion to approve the agenda for March 27th 2024 city council meeting so this is Janet um excuse me I move to adopt the agenda for the March 27th 2024 city council meeting this is Su all second any questions or discussions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I Jesse I uh consent agenda I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda as presented in the April 24th 2024 city council meeting packet is there a second this is Su all second are there any questions or discussion yeah M Mr Mayor Rob Bush here uh online um so just wanted to State on the 32724 minutes I believe it was line 32 and 33 it doesn't call me taking a vote at all on that and I do not recall exactly the discussion on that so can we hold those out for approval for the next meeting uh minutes for the next meeting no problem so this is um you know uh Jack you can weigh in on this but Jack and I met with um the the the yes about the minutes and I didn't know if we wanted to have her take a look at these before we approved them because she acknowledged that there were some changes that they needed to make or so if you're going to do one I was thinking maybe she could just look at both of them I think so too thank you so then um you might want to amend your motion well amend the motion uh after Carla has looked at and revised and corrected anything in the minutes aren't correct either that or you could just um move to approve the consent agendas number three in poll one and two that would be appropriate okay so moved is there a second for that this is Sue all second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I Jesse I thank you everyone public open forum is there anyone here or online who would like to speak at public open forum and then we'll move on to number two the septic system variants 697 West Broadway Pages 1-4 packet and the discussion is leader is Ron hgraph leaon from the Planning Commission to the council uh this application was brought by uh Deborah Academia and uh for representing their parents Ralph and Nancy duly they uh met last week for a discussion and there was no discussion on it and it was an unanimous decision to approve the septic 2 system I wish I could add more but that's about it anybody else have anything they'd like to add well I was just this is Sue I just wanted to add that I thought it was really helpful at not last meeting but the meeting prior um the uh I don't know if it was the engineer that was here that explained the difference in the septic one two and three very nice basic description that that really helped me understand that so I just thought that was really helpful so thank you whoever did that but no questions y rob you got anything no Ron um I believe uh I feel like the questions had got covered in the first meeting so thank you well then I'll make a motion I move to approve the variance for 6907 West Broadway Avenue P 04- 32-22 D 24-1 and then 04- 32-22 D31 d002 and 04- 32- 22- 31- 00003 to approve sep type 2 septic system for this plat subject to the G set forth in the variant staff report PC 24-13 and exhibited as attachments number one item c.2 of the April 24th 2024 city council agenda and this is so all second any other questions or discussion I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I and Rob I we say I there we go very much you thanks for coming by on to number three deer Marsh plat correction Pages 15- 18 in our packet Jack I think you can take us through this thank you Mr Mayor David zegler a NOA County Surveyor has requested an appearance before city council to address a correction to the deer Marsh plat which was recorded in 2007 when originally recorded several dimensions for the easements were omitted the Omission has been brought to his attention by land surveyor is working on undeveloped Lots within the plat and by State Statute this oversight must be corrected attachment to in your packet highlights the adjustments to make the corrections for the record for this process Mr Zigler is requesting Council approval of the corrected plant and the signature of the mayor and the city clerk as exhibited an attachment to of your packet all right anybody have any questions I mean it seems pretty straightforward but I can't really tell what the difference is so I am d z of the county just need you have come up to the front table pull that microphone right to your mouth and give your name and address for the record please so if you hear me now um my name is David ziggle I'm the Anoka County Surveyor so when this was originally made those Dimensions were not included for the easements so what we did is we we contacted the original surveyor and he put those Dimensions back on to the plat that allows for people to determine where the drainage and utility easement is so they don't build anything within that okay and is it the this red part right here yes ma'am okay all right thank you that was my only question anybody else so why is why is the um this is Janet Why is the uh looks like the signature circled did it not get signed either or uh no the signature was signed the the page one I believe I'm not sure which page that is but the first page it looks like this it's it's the correction that's it's the correction oh so that's where we have to sign because of the correction correct that's why there's okay got it sorry I thought I thought there was something else that didn't get done thank you no all right then I'll make the motion to approve the correction of the easement Dimensions to the dear Marsh plat as exhibited in attachment to item C3 on the April 24th 2024 city council agenda packet is there a second Ron I'll second that any other questions Rob did you have some yeah I did mayor um just curious were the I'm looking at at it now were the land owners themselves notified of this change or is this just something the Count's doing to correct the past practice so there is no change it's just dimensioning an already existing line okay all right there has been no changes to anybody's property nothing has changed it's just it actually shows the dimensions they were omitted when this was recorded on like three lots all right thank you for that appreciate it anybody else so then I'll I made the motion we had a second I second it yeah I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I I thank you gentlemen thank L Newman Force Lake Fire Department annual and budget report Pages 19 through 40 and he came dressed for Success all right good evening Chief good evening don't usually show up in fire gear but uh we had an accident on Horns Bean Lake Drive on my way here so my shoes are sitting at the fire station so what I'm going to cover today is just our annual uh report year end uh this is what we provide the uh joint fireboard in March at our first meeting and basically we talk about the responses and what occurred back in uh 2023 and then it's forward looking as far as some of the things uh that we're looking for goals and and uh expenditures for uh 20125 so um good we can go to the 11-year run history so this reflects a run history from 2013 up to 2023 and uh you know in the last decade we've gone up considerably from where we were uh prior to 2023 had always been in the 300s and our first year uh kiding 500 was 2019 and we've kind of been in that high 400s to uh mid uh or high 400s to Mid 500s and a lot of that causes just population growth uh increase in medical runs aging Community uh that type of thing one of a couple of the different items that can really have an impact on our run counts is severe weather calls because during those type of incidents we can get 20 calls in a day or when we get into grassfire season it really looked like we're going to head down that path this year and uh luckily we've now started to get some moisture in the ground so hopefully that will help uh keep that call count down uh next slide here's a breakdown of our fire calls uh fire alarms medical CPR full us gas leaks uh usually our top number of calls that we get in a year uh either can be system malfunction actual fire alarm burnt food or actual fire so uh what's really moved up the list here since 2013 is Medicals and CPR full arrest we separate the CPR full arrest out to just show that we do incur a lot of those types of calls a lot of them are opiate related so drug related versus just an aging population as being the main cause call statistics so as you know with the joint fireboard um our split is about 2080 uh for cost and every year the run count uh percentage is about equal 20 80% this last year it was uh 22% for Columbus calls and and 73 for four slate calls and we ran about 5% for mut Aid calls uh Mutual Aid calls we have Auto Aid agreements with all of our neighbors uh that helps we have major calls they're automatically called for structure fires so that increases our Manpower and it increases uh on scene response time for Mutual Aid partners that are coming to help us or US going to help them we had 52 total calls last year um 23 were given and 29 were received and 27 of that more Auto Aid where it just we're paged at the same time they're paged and 25 or Mutual Aid calls where we get on scene and it's an evolving incident and we feel that we need additional resources so we'll request another agency uh call statistics by the week uh pretty even this year um Monday was our lowest and uh Sunday was our highest but it was pretty close throughout the week usually it's never the same day every year it just kind of moves around um uh every year so uh calls by time of the day uh Monday or 8 to or 7 to 10 that's a vis time 82% of our calls happen during that time frame 18 from 10: to 7: in the morning when most people are sleeping average response times for both uh for Lake in Columbus 8 minutes and 44 seconds uh for all runs in Forest Lake 8 minutes and 23 seconds for structure fires uh 6 minutes and 7 seconds for Forest Lake all runs in Columbus 9 minutes and 23 seconds and for structure fires 2 minutes and two seconds and the disclaimer there is we were actually coming back from another call when that call came in for the Columbus call so we're there within two minutes on that call so if we go to the uh previous slide from here nope one after that the one with the red in it the NFP 1720 so I'm trying to give you the reader digest because as the guys in The Joint fireboard know I like to talk so I'll try to speed this up if you have questions feel free to ask NFPA 1720 it's the standard for organization and deployment of fire suppression operations to the public by volunteer fire departments it's kind of our benchmarks what our goal to achieve one of the things that makes it hard for our department is we cover 84 square miles 46 square miles in Columbus 36 square miles in Forest Lake and we have a lake in the middle uh which makes it hard going around to the uh East and Northeast portion of our city and out in down uh uh Broadway to Lexington you got some longer distance from fire station so when you throw that average in uh it's going to be pretty hard for us to meet that standard for response overall but if you look at uh probably what I would consider the more important calls for structure fires um we're meeting that response time for both Manpower and on scene response time and that typically one of the big causes for that is when the Call Comes in it's a structure fire guys are there's urgency in that call more so than you'd have for a seal alarm with no symptoms or a fire alarm that that has no smoke or flame scen so um when urgency is needed these guys step up and it it's reflected in our uh benchmarks and we meet the 1720 for that standard both response and uh Manpower okay dual Ro employees I'm not sure if if um how much Columbus overall no that we do this in force Lake but we have uh two employees that work in the building department their main job's building but they uh priority is fire so if the pager goes off they stop what they're doing they respond to the fire call or to the to the station to respond to the fire call uh we started this program in 2014 kind of as a pilot program to see how it uh effective it is and it's been very effective it's reduced our response time it's increased our Manpower help helps us get a a truck out the door quicker Monday through Friday 8 to 4:30 um we have two employees Nate Moz and Nick vanelli um just to give you an idea Nate Moz responded to 148 daytime calls 126 of those ended between 8 and 4:30 we add a 10-minute disruption time into that time frame uh to give a number so we can show what disrup disruption happens in building because they have to drop what they're doing respond come back you have some disruption time there um so it's 141.5 total hours 17.68% firefighting 6.8% of total time his program cost is 6,263 with Nick vanelli it is uh 93 total hours 11.62 uh days spent firefighting 4.5 % the total time for a cost of $3,386 so it's a fairly inexpensive way to get daytime quick daytime response Al real quick uh when you talk about program cost that's that's what the fire department is paying out of their budget well this uh dual Ru employees has been covered by the building department and so that's something that historically hasn't been built back to Columbus uh I think that was a miss when that whole thing was set up before my time I think they missed that oh um there's been conversation on looking at that as far as an expenditure that gets split with Columbus uh but at that historically that has not happen but overall it's a small cost overall for a pretty uh quick response during the daytime what the city of Forest Lake then is doing is saying for the amount of time they're gone this is what it cost us yes I I I calculated it out based on um all the statistics we keep and then the 10-minute uh disruption time to come up with a total cost based on uh payroll thank you so that's pretty cost efficient do you plan to keep the program going along as it is yeah you know it's supported um you know historically it's kind of been um it causes disruption in the building department and and when our guys leave other people have to pick up that uh you know their duties because Nick valali his main function is a as a permit Tech is to when people walk up to the window assist those guys so when he's gone other people have to fill in for that so uh if we could plan and schedule fire runs it' be a lot easier to deal with that but since you just don't know when they're coming uh it just ends up being disruptive but that seems like a pretty good trade if somebody has to come back in 15 minutes to get their permit yeah well I mean if if you if you look at what's accomplished through the program um it's a great program for the city it's a great program for the residents it just you're the other people that have to fill in that can get frustrating once in a while and I understand that right well we all do but yeah if your house is unfair it's good to have them all show up absolutely and and the option to having this type of daytime cover cage is hiring a full-time employee for $60 to $70,000 so you can see it's a huge cost savings and it's probably as good a response time if you had somebody in the fire department because they're just next door yep absolutely it it it eliminates that drive time because they're right in the city offices right across the door from you guys okay thank you okay member statistics so uh when we're fully staffed we're at 32 firefighters we're appr to go up to 40 members um just because we're approved for that doesn't mean that we've have 40 members we look at that and as long as we can provide a response uh you know good service to the community that's what we want to be at and 32 members has really worked for us in the past we're meeting like our our metrics um right now we're one short we had a uh 23e veteran retired and so we'll look in 2025 F filling that position um we have got eight firefighters in Columbus 20 in um Forest Lake and then we have uh Chief responders that aren't assigned to a department uh average age is 41.8 the oldest is 94 Jo hul started September 19 uh 57 he's our maintenance guy um he was operational all the way up until uh 88 years of age comes in every day our because of that our Department's spotless he also cleans station two as well our oldest active is 61 years old our youngest is 23 and the average uh uh years on the department is 9.52 uh since 2014 we've hired 23 firefighters and we still have 19 of them so our retention rate for a paid on call fire department is extremely high uh Chief goals uh ISO we're getting uh judged this year uh for our ISO rating comes out every five years basically your insurance company uh uh when that evaluation comes out uh they have an option of using that rating um to determine Insurance um when I started as Chief Columbus ISO rating was six it dropped to a five for SI was a five it dropped to a four we're hoping throughout this process on some of the things that we're doing like uh hydrant flow testing um newer equipment uh increased training that potentially we get another drop it would be nice to see um the calculation the algorith calculation or algorithm that they use is kind of like Chinese algebra to figure out uh but at least right now we're going in the right direction uh we've got some of the goals that we working on in 2024 is increased training our Cirus training that's active shooter in the school um as of this point we only have four firefighters that haven't been through that program and then hopefully we'll get them all this year and then every one of our firefighters for both Columbus and Forest Lake have been through the active shooter training uh driver school in St Cloud we get them eight hours of behind the wheel um up there in fire trucks so they when they're responding to a fire they've at least been through the training to how to handle a vehicle that big and then FAO which is fire apparatus operator we have seven uh firefighters in that uh once they're complete with that three4 of our firefighters will be actually fire apparatus operator certified through the state which is a high percentage for a department Al that Driving School do they have to go there every 3 years or something or did they just once they go through that's it we would like that but it's extremely expensive to put somebody through that because you've got you want 8 Hour training behind the wheel and you have a 4-Hour classroom and so you have 32 members times that every three years with all the other training that that we have um right now we're just trying to get every member to have gone through that program once that happens we'll start looking at potentially increasing that time but we do uh two trainings in in-house trainings our uh driver's trainings are they is that mandated by the state it's not mandated in fact we don't even need to have a commercial license as an emergency responder um it just our trucks are big and they're heavy and these guys need to have some behind the wheel time thank you so we make it a priority for us okay Public Safety money uh it is a this is not a grant this was just a one-time uh money uh due to the state having a boatload of uh money left over last year and there's no expiration on this so each municipality received a certain dollar amount based on population Force like got $918,000 Columbus got $182,300 uh the first round that's what we purchased with our first um round so it was $28,946 153 and Columbus was 2,788 now the hydrant flow testing in there that is not shared that's a force likee expense that's going to go through public works but we requested it through fire that's why it's reflected on here so any questions on that okay future Public Safety money um here's a list of items that we're looking at in the future the the biggest one expense is the firefighting robot I wish it wasn't called that because people hear that and they go holy cow what do you need a robot for uh this is a uh tool that's used where we see a huge value is for underground uh parking structures with the EV fires because they burn at such an incredible temperature um upwards of about 3500 de and our gear is just not designed for that so if you get a um vehicle fire in that type of structure it's going to be difficult for us to contain and if the sprinkler system isn't successful meaning that if multiple calls cars um uh become part of the main fire that sprinkler systems designed for three to five heads anything beyond that you start losing pressure and it's difficult to contain so this is something I brought up to the Joint fireboard this is something that'll be in future discussions um basically it's an awareness at this point um all the other things may fall under Public Safety money they may fall under um just regular CIP um uh budget money but it's included in our uh presentation as a potential future expense moving forward so any questions on that okay safer Grant oh wait I got a question now yeah those uh 10 800 megahertz radios you got are you is that all you have are you replacing the originals no we're we're replacing them at a rate of three a year and so uh when we got our 800 megahertz we got all of our radios through a grant initially because uh uh part of that was Columbus uh went to the 800 megaherz system first and was County was on the U uh VHS system and uh the because our dispatch and everybody else is on VHF in Washington County we basically said we cannot talk to an NOA count so an NOA count actually gave us a grant to purchase I think eight or 10 radios and then when Washington County went online then they gave us a grant and we bought the rest of the radios and so our radio system um the radios we have 2018 was their last year for basically being covered and we've been replacing three each year so by perching radios in this um Public Safety money or in a you know 10 at a time uh that will catch us up up because we're never going to get caught up at 3 a year because them radios only have a certain life cycle and then you have to replace them thank you again we've replaced about half of our radio so we're we're sitting pretty good it's not an urgent have to do it where we're going to be in trouble it's just when a radio breaks or a battery goes bad there isn't a replacement for it Al can this is Janet can you um can you explain how do you the future Capital Equipment cost what's the process for going through and deciding what you're actually going to purchase when it comes to vehicle there's a capital replacement plan yeah and I know about that but I mean on this list that you have that's using the public safety dollars yep so um firefighter robot we don't have that EV blankets we don't have that so some of this stuff is new equipment we've never had before um 800 MH radio that's best practices they say that a radio is going to last you 15 years you may get longer you may not you may get less time MH um electric fans uh airack fill [Music] station um each one of those is basically based on best practices I guess what my question is is I thought I I heard you say that these were especially the robot was mostly just at a discussion point now when you actually make the decision to purchase the things on this on this list I that we get bring it up to the joint fireboard and we see if it fits in the budget okay and and you know the last couple of years it's been budgets are tough yeah but this is using the public dollars that you got right so it'd be using whatever the balance is of of what you received yep okay and it really comes down to you know our city you know is forestlake going to use that money for other things is Columbus going to use that money for other things and so if it if there's you know if it doesn't look like money is going to be there then it'll get moved to the CIP okay I see thank you yep okay safer Grant uh we applied for this uh initially when we brought it to the Joint fireboard it was for two positions a firefighter engineer and a training Captain uh through discussion uh we moved that down to a training captain and that's what we applied for uh the safer Grant uh was due at the end of last month we're 4 days early on that um Grant awards are August 1st to September 30th uh with the safer Grant if we're awarded that it covers all costs for the first three years so that's payroll benefits um anything employment expense related and then on year four once that Grant period EXA expires then the city would pick up that expense um right now Force like I'm the only full-time position I'm not looking to make force Lake into a full-time Department we have operated under a paay on call model very well for a long time when uh a lot of departments around us are struggling with retention and recruitment it hasn't hit us yet and um I'm hoping that we get a 10 15 20 year looking forward that we can stay in this model cuz it's extremely less expensive and as long as as we're able to provide a good service at a good response time uh to our community and fill those or fill those needs uh this model has worked very well for both cities so with that being said in um slide for this safer Grant budget impact last slide okay so in in uh 2018 there will be a budget impact if we're wed this grant like I said the grant safer Grant picks up all expensive for the first three years and then in 2028 uh a training Captain with uh wages and benefits will be $145,000 238 and so that for columus that would be $ 29,41 191 that would be an 28 expenditure I just have one sorry I have one question on that so if you did do get the grant do we then have to vote on if you're going to pursue it because that would be an impact on our budget after three years or do you go ahead with it and then wait the three years and then come to us for um so our next step in the grant so in what we did is we brought it to the joint fireboard joint fireboard um approved Mo moving forward with that Grant and then it went to the force Lake City Council they approved uh moving forward with that Grant um if we're awarded the grant we'll actually come back to the council with a job description and a and a um basically a package that outlines everything what that person's going to do here's what the job description is uh figure out what the expenses are and and everything that goes along with that then they'll get presented to the council we'll know in um August 1st through September 30th is that Grant award period so it's early enough in the in the budget process uh to make it part of the budget um and that's what our next steps would be okay thank you so moving forward our next uh in July July I believe might be the end of June first of July in the next joint fireboard that's when we bring up the operating budget uh for the fire department and then uh we'll cover it with the joint fire board have that discussion and then it's brought back to the councils for further discussion then we'll have a couple meetings um after that period once we get feedback from both Forest Lake and Columbus Council good any other questions anyone so you said Columbus or Columbus uh Forest Lake Council already approve this yes okay did it come to us for approval I hear the fireboard did but yep it it did not go through Columbus okay through the council um it hit our uh joint fireboard at the end of March I think it was on the 27th it hit our Council on the 13th it was due or maybe April 7th and then the grant was due by the end of the month so pretty short cycle to get that completed okay um so that's the steps that we follow but be if we're wed the grant then there'll be a whole another process on this to go through and bring up a job description and all that and these excuse me this is Janet so these are new positions that you current Curr ly don't have correct correct and it's just one position oh but they do these two different it's listed as two because when it was brought to the Joint fireboard we initially the ask was for two then through discussion The Joint fireboard it was brought down to just a training Captain okay not the engineer correct okay and that's what uh that's for the safer Grant that's what we applied for is just one fir footer not two got it by requesting just one position instead of two does that heighten our opportunity Are we more likely to get it or not um you know it it the sapr grants kind of that Chi Chinese algebra thing again um they don't really specifically break down what they look through and they rate that um but there's 500 million is basically what is there for uh safer Grant last year they had a $1.5 billion worth of ask so there's a lot more people applying than they have funds to support and so what they're looking at is if I'm going to spend money in your community I want the best possible outcome that I can get for the money that I'm spending we're in that tough position I mean I think we have a great story that we're a smaller paid on call Department we have one full time uh employee um by adding another employee or your first full-time employee you basically um increase your productivity by 50% and so um I think it will help with response we have our two um uh uh dual roll firefighters and by adding another guide during the day you basically get four firefighters on scene and there's there's uh NFPA rules that say you need four firefighters on scene before you can do any interior firefighting right now we can't do that for most of our responses by adding one more we will we will be able to and so that's what they're looking at is if we're going to spend that money will will that benefit your community enough to make sense for us to support that and so I think we have a good story uh but there's a lot of departments that have similar stories and in the bigger departments where they've cut funding and they've cut uh Staffing positions they're applying for that grant to get those Staffing positions back and so they've got great stories so uh this is just uh hurry up and wait and see and hopefully we're it's a positive outcome for us anybody else have a question I have a question now not on this topic but how's it going in an NOA County here with Medicals um it's still higher percentage wise for call outs than we have in force Lake uh based on the number of runs that we have in a in a um in a given year we haven't seen any declines um I should probably back up a little bit and give a little explanation so in force like force like PD they're all EMR trained and so when M Health provides uh met EMS coverage for force Lake and so when they get a a call that comes up Force Lake responds to probably 80% of the calls you know the stub to at 2 a.m. probably not but anything that's a that's a little bit more critical run Force Lake PD will respond because they respond Fire doesn't have to respond and so it it as a result Force like fire response to uh CPR full arrest lift assist uh mcis or accents involve um a certain number of people accents have exucation required or when a uh police officer or ambulance request us uh when they feel that they need additional assistance in inoka County you have uh uh basically the sheriff's department out here and your coverage is for 12 hours a day 7 days a week and so um during those non uh coverage times or even in some instances where there's coverage provided um if they don't have a deputy in the area a lot of times they'll page out fire and we'll get canceled before we ever get there and so that's been a challenge to um work with the sheriff's department and try to control those calls where we're not necessarily needed for coverage um and try to reduce those numbers of cancel calls it's it's tough on our guys to get out at 2: a.m. get to the station get cancelled before you get there and um historically um it's been over 50% of our calls medical calls in Columbus are canceled before we ever get on scene whereas in Forest Lake it's more like seven or eight% I've seen a Sunday big difference Sunday morning you had somebody do you have an SUV that takes off with firemen for medical we do yep you don't take whole rig then you're just taking that small yes we we um through covid dollars we're able to buy a utility 2 vehicle on that that's a onton pickup truck um that was housed out here but our utility one uh is having issues so we moved that back out to or to station one to to our airboat and uh we replaced uh a chief vehicle which was that um uh curban and we move that to station two as the utility uh two vehicle until that gets replaced here next year I seen it I think Sunday morning early it went out and I I've never seen that before yeah it it's it makes sense I mean in CPR full arrest those type of medical calls a quicker response has better outcomes than when you're driving a big engine especially in long distances they're slow and so uh we moved to uh Medical Response in a smaller vehicle to get quicker on scen times good idea yep so this is Janet um on those Medicals is that is that an issue to work out with dispatch or with the sheriff's department because I remember probably two or three years ago the sheriff's department telling us that they were they were working on that and they you know they would expect to see a reduction or even an elimination of those kinds of but I don't I don't know what their solution was so I'm curious like who you know is that something that Ron could help with by you know working with the sheriff's department or where where is where's the issue line so it's it's a little bit of both and so um I'd say mostly with the sheriff's department and I have met with the commander uh they're historically um I think it was last year maybe we met with the lieutenant who is Leon or um our person for col y um and this this is going to be a never ending issue it just uh you get new officers in and they're assigned to Columbus and and a lot of the uh municipalities in in NOA County their fire departments respond to Medicals and so if they're assigned to say Lynwood who they run all Medicals and then they come to Columbus they're used to that and so it just this is something that's never going to go away it's just we're going to every year or other year we're going to have to sit down with them and meet and remind them and um that's our best fix and then just work with um I no County dispatch to remind them of what our response model is so just it's going to be an ongoing thing so who do you have to meet with I think we met with Jessica I think we sat down one time with Jessica and talked about it I think you were there there too Al yep I was there and it's I think it's just like Al says it's uh if you're not a first responder which force life PD is and you've got guys out here that don't do Medicals you're trapped you know who do you call and you got an ambulance what how many what's the coverage of the ambulances there one or two that are covering our district or how do they it depends on the time of the day but there's up to four daytime ambulances in the the area yeah but you know they they provide a lot of mutual aid for uh Lakes Region for Alina that is in Lio um that area and they'll move their ambulances around as needed they do transports and so um I commonly hear um every day every other day that they're out of ambulances sometime throughout the day and that may be just for 20 minutes half an hour uh until they can bring a patient to where it needs to where they need to go get the ambulance back in service and then get back into the coverage area or move an ambulance from a different area over into our area but it just kind of revolves on the number of calls that they have going on at the time it's a tough tough deal I mean because like you said you get officers that they're not going to start CPR or whatever they don't have oxygen I don't even think they have aeds in there do they um I think some do and I think that um uh you know there's different various levels of of training and I think that um the big thing is there's there's 12 hours a day that you just don't have coverage in Columbus and so that closest uh uh officer may you know be one city over but when that call comes in it's easy to page out fire uh kind of as a default cuz like I said most municipalities in an NOA County their fire departments respond to all Medicals so just something we need to work on and and work to keep those call calls down keep that from just slowly creeping up well with another meeting with Jessica in the next month or something yeah I think that's something that that we should set up yeah I mean because it sounds like it's the cancellation that's the problem right I mean it's it's not that you don't want to be called if they need you but then you get your guys mobilized and then they get there and it gets cancelled so I and I remember from their presentation you know a few years back that was what they were trying to fix was the you know the high number of of calls that get cancelled Y and trying to you know not call you if that's what you know what it's going to be so I think that's the problem to solve well I you're right and I I think another role is that the reason they call the fire department cuz the ambulance isn't there yep and they're stuck and who we got to call somebody mhm and like Al said that sometimes those ambulances will be down at ramsy down in St Paul transporting and so they're just looking for help and then all of a sudden they call them and then the ambulance arrives then they cancel them so it's a it's the round circle just keeps going yeah I you know I don't think anybody's doing anything intentionally wrong I just think that uh everybody's busy and and because most departments and or municipalities in the no count run Medicals I think that it just you get in the habit of calling fire for these type of things and I think that um the higher ups just need to say Columbus doesn't do that yeah remember so do you have a lot of Medicals on our uh eastern border over there by Running Aces and that in the daytime when we don't have a squad um not really you you'd think that'd be a lot more because that's where the population uh has been but it really we uh it doesn't make up a sizable percentage of our over overall Medicals between loves and and Running Aces we do get calls out there but it's not unproportionately high as I could see if you don't have a deputy our deputy comes on in the afternoon so if you don't have a deputy here and one coming from lywood or way out there they never get there you know in time for you guys you'd be there already so y doing a good job either way cool thank you any other questions no I will just congratulate you on your retention and I you know you it's really impressive to hear you know how you've been able to make this work where so many other municipalities have not and that you've got a crew that you know has has stuck it out with you so you're doing you're obviously doing things right so congratulations and thank you well I I will say this it it uh I hear a lot of chiefs that don't have Municipal support and it's it's it's challenging with today's budget um it's a struggle for paid on call departments and in Forest like fire uh we've been fortunate we've had great support by Columbus great support by Forest Lake and uh we've been lucky to get really good Staffing so I think all that plays a huge part it well there must be something in there with the good leadership too so take credit where credit is due good thank you thank you thanks thank you Al number five Code Compliance report Sean lard in our packet it's Pages 41 through 64 okay so considering this is the first quarter um um for my report the outstanding items from 2023 are LCI Rock super be Stern drywall and Dave's Contracting um obviously they're all cups and several are illegal we only have one hold over ordinance violation and that was due to frost so you pull your microphone up just to hear yep we only had one outstanding ordinance violation from 20123 and that was due to frost so he should be getting that moved soon in January of 2024 uh there are two new calls one cup and one ordinance violation both were closed February had five calls all five were General ordinance violations and three of which were closed and March uh four new two general one zoning and one miscellaneous uh we had a gas pipeline issue but that was rectified and three remain open um the big win is Iverson Street uh luckily uh the resident came into voluntary compliance and um the neighbors are very happy with that outcome thank you to Bill and Megan for their work on that the other projects uh that were completed in the first quarter where City staff all went through AED and CPR training through the forest lake fire departments um we also got two new aeds for City Hall considering ours were probably they don't know exactly but well over 15 if probably over 20 years old those old ones um had batteries replaced and now they're in our city trucks my vehicle and uh Jim's vehicle um in case there's an issue out in the community or with one of us so we're repurposing those old ones as well um department of homeand security completed a site survey and presentation um I asked for and got some stop the bleed kits um which involve some tourniquets and Gauze and things like that uh not only for City Hall here but for um public works as well in their vehicles if they're working with chainsaws or whatever those tourniquets are I've seen it firsthand they're they're a literal Lifesaver um DNR parking lot and Resident issue completed along with legal that's over with finished and discussed a format um monitoring septic pump records with uh the City administrator and the 2024 calls taken so far um 55% so far been closed 45% open and the vast majority are clearly General ordinance violations the secondary just being cup issues a turnaround time is less than a day typically unless it's the weekend obviously um but yeah in then as far as how long it takes to get closed as you can see most General ordinance violations would be closed fairly quickly within at least well within a quarter if not within a month question questions ma'am I'm just curious and I don't know if you listed them any somewhere else but like a general ordinance violation what's an example of that an example be junk vehicles um IR a conx box um there was some growing rooster issues at one residence what was it there were roosters were crowing ah so just general ones in the in city code it's got I think it's 5-500 it's everything that's listed in that section okay okay good thank you so I have a question too um I know one of the things that we had envisioned with your position was that um for all of the conditions that are put in our cups and and iups that there would be sort of an annual um inspection to make sure that you know that they're still complying has that program been set up yet nothing's been annual as of yet but no um most of the cups no because the cups that when I started back in July they are just now getting approved so so you're doing the new ones but I think I think there was the thought that depends on what the conditions are I mean obviously if a condition was to put up a fence and they put up a fence it's going to be their next year to and that kind of thing but I think that there was um you know there was a a vision that there would be a review of all of the cups on an annual basis to make sure that that um compliance was still being maintained okay and so I think but I think that was a future thing and so if you're if you're looking for something to do that's one of the things that I think is still on the to-do list okay yeah J Jan and I had some discussion on this yesterday and I'll be exploring that with Sean to do cup inspections that'll transfer it away traditionally from the planning department and also to looking to do some iup inspections too that are visible from the road and the public rideway yeah and I the other question I have is I know that when we created your position one of the challenges we had was a um database assist for you to be able to use that would be um able to keep track of what you're doing if it needed to you know trigger reminders things like that the idea um was to try to buy the module that was part of permit works because it would interface then we ran into some problems because permit Works was getting uh Acquired and I've recently heard that they are still out there they are still operational so if we do you know if we've looked into and this is maybe also for Jack have we looked in relooked into getting that module so that you have um the the data system that we'd Envision you would need to be able to do your job yes I have not and um I didn't know I thought they went out of business so yeah so I think Jack you that was something you and I talked about I think too right you had said that they were acquired they they're still in business they're they're they're still in business uh and Sean and I had a brief discussion about this and we're looking into what might best benefit him uh we're going to have some discussion with some other providers that may have something that's going to be more specific to us and better more useful for our purposes so banion is what Cheryl uses for their their software they have a technically a module for it okay and we spoke with him two weeks ago maybe I think about that um regarding that module so that's an option since she already uses it um and we can you know relook and do re look into that I will say that the system I've set up I'm I'll still be doing that for redundancy purposes but so far nothing's been missed as far as dates or anything like that so yeah I think it was the interface with sort of the you know the property IDs and things and probably now that that was being loaded into a banon probably either one of those systems would work now at the time I think that was only in our permit work so I just we budgeted for it so we should get get you the tool that you need to to do the job Mr Mar and Cowell just a quick couple of updates on items that were listed in Sean's report LCI Landscapes has an improved cup uh we are finalizing the development agreement so that one should should come off um pretty quickly um Roc is actually making application I think there was a letter that went back to them it was is not fully complete but they're at least in the process we've been working with their attorney I'm getting a complete application in and then I think I think you're aware that superb um has made a commitment to move the materials off site by early fall is that my recollection yes sir November 1st is the uh the deadline and and um cannot recall his name at the time but he said that he found a space over in Center City he will be transitioning over there so come you know the 1st of October I'll be making contact with him and see where he's at with that that's the dumpster corre business right Apollo and and Pine and just a note we do work with Sean on fors projects and one of those Megan's working on is a set of nuisance forms I believe that's if not done close to done so there's a you know even outside of the you know electronic databases there's a lot of back and forth and so those projects are ongoing say uh Rob here I had a couple questions uh for Sean if I could mayor go ahead yeah so on that superb disposal I know some time back I had talked to them while I was uh about a year after I'd been on so a couple years ago now and they had purchased a property on Lake Drive they're not planning on I know they still own it and there's a renter in there now but are they not planning on moving it to that location at any time oh if you know they own it and they're renting it that I was under the impression that he sold it okay maybe that could be I think I think it's been a while but that super B sign was up there on that little billboard for some time you know and it still is um but the he was uh that was a contentious conversations uh with him regarding that apparently um prior to me showing up and then after I showed up he was basically told no so no that is not an option for him yeah I kind of I kind of got an earful I'd run at a dumpster for him knowing kind of what was going on um other other questions uh just two more please Sean is the DNR parking lot issue what was it what was the deal with that one 165th in zodiac um it was the DNR legal team had not responded to bill for what Bill probably two years I think you said um it was reignited because the resident there uh wanted action prior to Elizabeth leaving uh you our legal team got a hold of our legal team and it's been settled as far as that goes now I say it's settled um for some strange reason I have to meet with the DNR tomorrow morning at 8:30 regarding that issue I explained in the email that the issue is dead and done on my end um and it I got the general impression they want me to enforce DNR things which they will be told though okay and that that was was that in relation to the Emma property easement to access state land yes sir the driveway perfect thank you for that clarification and then the other one was the conx Box just not sure what's up with that it was it's it's been he almost might even be grandfathered in for how long it's been there um so I got the complaint in the winter and he wanted to wait till spring the spring thaw so it doesn't ruin it and he's got a very tight space um I said that would be fine so he I think it I think he mentioned to me by May 1st if I recall my report in my office so okay so that wasn't related to Ron with the with the deal on Iverson Street no no no no NOP completely separate y n oh and uh and just give you give you props on that one uh thanks for helping assist to get that cleaned up and um I've seen a lot of neighbors actually over there talking to Ron now so they must be pretty happy with them wow okay which is surprising right yeah not not two of them but two other ones so yeah but that's all I got thank you you bet any other questions anyone nope good job thank you great job on to number six the master jpa court services agreement Pages 65 through 85 Jack will lead our discussion thank you Mr Mayor several years ago a joint initiative was launched between the Bureau of Criminal apprehension State Court Administration and local Prosecuting attorneys to establish a system of electronic charging for criminal offenses the E charging process allow cases to be submitted electronically by law enforce departments to the prosecuting Agency for review and consideration of charges upon charging the case is in sent electronically back to the police department for approval and then submitted to the court for entry the Bureau of Criminal apprehension provides the computer network to facilitate this process access to this network is granted through the execution of a joint Powers agreement there is a joint Powers agreement that is in place between the city on behalf of the City attorney which expired on July 30th 2023 and needs to be reinstated Minnesota statute restrict the duration of joint Powers agreements to fiveyear terms and the reinstatement of the current agreement want would run through April 2029 the purpose of the master jpa in court services amendment is to allow the continued access to the BCA data and systems for criminal justice purposes through the bca's criminal justice data Communications Network proposed resolution for the continuation of the joint Powers agreement is exhibited as attachment one in this report for council's consideration the city's prosecuting attorney Joe Murphy with the firm of Carson clel and Shredder is requesting the attached resolution be approved by City Council and the mayor and city clerk sign the attached agreements the master G jpa and the court Amendment agreement all included in your packet cost for this service are provided in this jpa are not Bill directly to the city but are generally included in the flat fee paid for a criminal service from our prosecuting attorney any questions anyone well so I guess I was just um I mean I understand this is something that we need but we're paying for the database for the attorney that we use for criminal things it's not our regular City attorney it's our criminal attorney correct um and what what that is it's it's a pass through cost so it's a charge that they incur and they put it in their flat fee so we do not receive a bill for it even though we're actually paying for our portion of that service to access that database so we pay them a fee every month is it their retainer or what we pay them a flat fee by contract and I believe it's uh what's $1,476 a month for their prosecutorial service and their criminal service of the city and it's a really good deal where I was previously the flat fee for this service was around $120,000 for a year wow okay does this uh include like all DWI and stuff like that is that what we're talking about it it would include anything that's charged and goes to the court system but not a felony felony the county would handle right uh the county handled the felonies that's correct so all misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors be that's correct things that go through prosecution from the city criminal attorney and I believe uh Mr uh interim City administrator we as a city recover something like 2third of the violation costs uh I don't know if it's exactly that high but we do recover a portion of the cost through our share of the fines that come back okay here's we get ours after the state and the county get theirs yeah the reason I think it was 2/3 it's because it used to be 1/3 and then when we took over the prosecutions with the contract with Joe Murphy it became it it flipped yeah okay good so here's a a strange question so if somebody's charged in Carlos Avery by a DNR officer are we paying for that it depends on on how it's going to be prosecuted well if it's a misdemeanor it would be in our city it would be so we we I only happen to know this because I knew a person that got charged with having uh his gun didn't have a plug in it and it was a misdemeanor and it went to court Ina County yeah and I just wondered if we got part of that fund so it goes to the DNR Mr May uh council member it's my understanding if it's a misdemeanor it's handled by our prosecuting attorney if it's handled by our prosecuting attorney we receive approximately 2/3 or maybe 60% of the fine Revenue thank you and and again this this agreement was in place prior why it expired and was not renewed at to time I'm unsure uh I'd say this is probably the second or third time this is probably been up for Renewal all right I'll make the motion to approve resolution resolution 2024-25 this is Jack again City Hall and Public Works summer hours Pages 86 and 87 in our packet thank you Mr Mayor on May 24th 2023 city council approved a schedule for summer hours for city employees that allowed the closing of City Hall at 1M on Fridays is requested city council consider adopting summer hours for 2024 due to the early voting period from June 28 to August 12th for the county and state primary elections City Hall will have to remain open to the close of normal business hours on Friday through the summer to compensate for the election open hour requirements and avoid any conveniences to Residents seeking other city services the pro proposed changes for the 2024 schedule would be open on Monday through Friday at 7:30 a.m. to 400 p.m. with reduced Staffing on Friday afternoons the Friday afternoon Staffing would include a minimum of two employees with at least one trained to assist absentee in direct ballot voters Public Works hours are proposed to be Monday through Thursday 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Friday 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Friday afternoons will be covered by the scheduled on call employee of the week all staff would continue to work 40 hours per week with a compressed schedule and rotating assignments for Friday afternoon work should any hours be needed to meet the 40 hour schedule they could be made up on Friday afternoons or would be charged the employees crude leave Time Performance expectation and job responsibilities will remain unchanged with this proposed schedule the summer hour scheduled is to propos to begin the week of Memorial Day May 27th and run to the end of the week of Labor Day September 2nd this is a benefit that is cost neutral and helps promote a work life balance is an important component of our broader goal of maintaining a positive work environment and employee retention any questions anyone I do have um so I'm trying to understand the uh and by the way I thought it went really well last year and I I don't think we got any complaints about that schedule um so I'm in favor of it when you talk about the due to the early voting from June 28th to August 12th that means that the city hall will have to REM remain open until the close of normal business hours on Fridays is that for the whole summer or just for between June 28th and no that would be for the whole summer because we do have residents that come in I've noticed in previous places on Friday afternoons for burning permits or to get a small building permit for projects they want to do on the weekend and it's not going to be difficult to staff City Hall to accommodate those people that come in on Friday afternoon expecting to receive that service so City Hall would be open until 400 p.m. the whole summer we'll just have some rotation on who covers on Fridays and that would give most people that afternoon off for probably three fours of the weeks during the summer okay so the two there will be two people here all summer until 4 correct at least two okay okay thank you rob did you have a question yeah thank you mayor um so my question was to either Jack or uh Jim is there as well um as far as these these hours are related all all staff was on board with with uh doing this everyone was talked to about it and they were all in favor that that that's correct and I spoke with Jim and he that was the summer hours that were used last year and seemed to work best for them okay okay I'm good with that and then so if like with public works if say we have a you know a tornado or a storm over the weekend and those guys come in then they'll be on overtime correct yeah if they come in over the weekend even even if we worked a full day they would be on on on overtime on the weekend sure sure I know it's a little different in the winter with plowing and things like that they do some shifting around hours but um just want to make sure everyone was good with it so thank you anything um and I'm I'm also in favor of it I think you know trying to provide flexibility while maintaining the services is a is a good balance um you and I talked about this but I'll just restate it it would be really helpful when people are flexing their schedules if they would change their voicemail and change put it on their email resp response so that when you are trying to find somebody if you know that they're out of the office I don't care why they're out of the office but it's just very helpful to know you know I'm not in the office I'll return on whatever day um both voicemail and and uh um email I think that should just be a practice regardless of whether we're doing City hours or not when people are off on their PTO or whatever it's it's very frustrating if you're looking for a person and for a week they're gone but you don't know that because there's nothing on their email or their voicemail indicating that so I'd like it to be part of the deal be part of the direction given if this is approved thank you well whether it's not approved or not where they take leave time and off that needs to be standard protocol y all right I'll make the motion to approve the designation of the summer hours and schedule for the time period for Memorial Day through Labor Day for 2024 as presented in item C7 of the April 24th 2024 city council agenda packet is there a second this Janet I second any other questions or discussion I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I I number eight uh PFA and mdh letters of intent water system improvements Pages 88 through 97 in our packet and this will be uh Kevin and Jack I'll go ahead with the report Kevin and you can add anything that uh you think's necessary as a background as discussed at the city council workshop on April the 9th Bolton and mink prepared the application and cover letter to the Minnesota Department of Health to be placed on the project priority list this is the first step in becoming eligible for low interest interest loans and potential grants for improvements which would at a minimum include an elevated water tower potentially a water treatment plant and the to locate these facilities Bolton and mink has also prepared a cover letter to the Minnesota public facilities authority to be placed on the intended use plan being placed on this plan for these potential improvements places no obligation on the city to move forward with any project if these proposed project rank high enough on the list to be funded then commitment to the project is made by the city city council has requested to authorize Bolton and mink and interim City administrator Jack Davis to submit these applications on behalf of the city to the Minnesota Department of Health and the public facilities Authority the pro project priority list won't come out until September October time frame and at that time additional discussions on the city decision to move forward with any of these projects can be discussed again being on these list or submitting these letters or approving these letters does not commit us to the expenditure or obligation of any funds have anything to add not unless you have questions I think that was pretty self-explanatory everybody so would someone like to make the motion I'll make the motion I mov to authorize Bolton and M and the interim City administrator to submit applications on behalf of the city to the Minnesota Department of Health and public facilities authority to to have the water system Improvement project included in their project priority list and intended use plan for funding considerations noting that additions to these lists do not commit the city to a project this is oh okay it's moved and seconded any other questions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I Jesse I on to City engineer report Kevin um just an update on projects um we have a uh preconstruction meeting set up for May 7th for our pavement maintenance projects uh the crack ceiling and the uh chip seal project uh trying to lock in on our micros surfacing project on um Zer Street 147th uh contractor indicated perhaps the start date or start period the week of May 6th which would be great because we have a completion date May 17th in order to try to get everything wrapped up before racing season starts um so working on trying to get those projects lined up and scheduled um other than that that's it thank you City attorney report Mr Mayor and Council just two quick items um a legislative update uh Senator K was able to get us a hearing tomorrow um at 8:30 you can tune in if you want online uh both mayor prer and council member heglin will be there um council member heglin and I met with Senator KW this afternoon along with Margaret vessel to prepare uh testimony and that went very well and so we're just kind of excited to get our story out there again and uh that means that Senator an r at least was on board to the extent of providing a hearing obviously if if she was not she could have you know told us to come back next year so so uh we're excited about that um with regard to the bonding bill um we are um in the Senate version uh they're not taking testimony any longer on in the house and so um what that will require is when when and if we get into the Senate version there'll be um conference committee hearings on the bill and that's when that's our opportunity to get into the bill in the conference vote so we're hopeful if there is a bonding bill that will be included Ed uh but that all remains to be seen and continue to work behind the scenes on that so that's uh the legislative update any questions um how do I get the link to listen in or watch the I'll send hearing tomorrow okay good because I am open tomorrow and at 8:30 it's at 8:30 we may not be the first bill up so you could be watching other other fun being done okay so uh but I'll send it out to the whole uh Council this I get home and then bill can you do can you just um session ends May what's the date is It's usually the third Monday but um they've got limited days so it could be a little earlier than that I'm guessing that it will go particularly with the you can all read the news I'm not going to yeah I'm not going to cover the news item but it was big news uh one of the Senators um well I'll just tell you to look look in your newspaper y okay it's all over the news uh there's a little bit of uh um discussion about um one Senator there's only a one vote majority and so if one Senator can't participate the question is is the Senate somehow deadlocked so that that's that's taken um kind of priority over in fact the Senate adjourned um when they met in full session today over it and so it's it's kind of ging up the schedule right now but let's just say they figure out how to move bills um not withstanding that that news item um I would expect they would go almost all the way to the third Monday which is the 20 it's the 20th of May this year session done on the 20th so it won't be very long before we know how all the chips fall exactly yep and um you know the the as Margaret has said several times the bonding bill is usually last to fall and so that will'll probably know on the 20th or if they adj earlier on the on the day of urement okay thank you my second item is just a little bit of good news um we did receive a mutual termination agreement from David harchenko the reason that's good news is uh two things it it saves us the trouble of going through a formal notice process um he was very cooperative and also embedded in in that termination is a direction to the uh title company to release $110,000 of earnest money um I also spoke with Mr harchenko and he committed to um paying the approximately $1,000 of fees that he has um on account here with with the city so that's a good way even though it didn't result in a project that's a good way to wrap up he was very complimentary of the city um the number of chances he got during the whole covid pandemic to to make this happen so we we move on to you know our next developer and hopefully that um hopefully that works out that's all I have thank you thank you uh Council memb report Ron back to bill here so is the Fisher thing still going the Fisher family yes this clears the way for that okay all right uh the only thing I have to report I I don't know if Jim was going talk about the park board well we have met the park board had their meeting and uh Jack was there too right yeah uh not a lot happened but uh Matt uh jeez where are my notes uh the young man for the eagle scout Matt magat he uh showed up in the um the park board kind of put their uh wishes on him I mean allow him to plant some trees but he going to divide them up between um big park across the street on Kettle River in Notre Dame and hidden park one's going to have seven oak trees uh the park across the street was going to have eight uh we talked about the Dugout covers uh but the uh Forest Lake Athletic Association didn't have anybody there to talk about so we're putting that off and Jim had some costs on some of them which were pretty high and then we talk about Park lighting that's kind of put off until our next meeting and uh tennis uh Court repair was still uh put on weight for a while till we get some more information on it and um other than that we're still working on the park master plan I can't think of anything else can you jack you got it oh Jim hope you're good okay thank you that's about it so okay I just I have a report from the forest Leake cable commission we had our uh meeting last week and just two things uh Diane Hefner I think I can't remember her last name um she has decided to retire she's going to she put in a resignation and um is working with the Forest Lake uh mayor and that Forest Lake City will be posting that position to um fill her Gap um she will go through the end of this year so it'll be six months um before she uh transitions out of that um the other item is in the jpa it's right now it's just Forest Lake in Columbus um Scandia used to be in the jpa but they um bought out of it I don't know it had to be right before I started so it was probably a little over four years ago and um they have a new city administrator and councel and they may want to get back into the jpa so they are going to we they have steps that they have to do they have to um get a new resolution from their city council um in Scandia then they will go to the forest lake and Columbus they'll come here um and give the presentation of why they want to go back in um and then they will come back to the cable commission to discuss all the steps that that would if that all goes through fine um then we'll discuss next steps but one of the big questions was always who pays for the um legal fees to redo the jpa and that would be um on Scandia to pay all those fees so more to come on that anything else um well I attended the Fall Fest soort did Ron uh meeting the kickoff meeting so I thought that went really well and um Janet and Lynn have a really good system set up for uh making assignments for people so I'm excited to uh participate in that and hopefully it'll all go off without a hitch pray for son pray for son J um excuse me I have just a couple things um and then I'll be talking again when we get to the personel committee report but I also was going to mention Fall Fest we had a pretty good turnout um we'll be having monthly meetings from now until probably the end of August I've got some dates that I'll be floating around I I cleared with uh Jack about when we don't have other things the thing we didn't know is when the cable commission meets that isn't on the city's calendar um well it's on the Thursday it's only like once a quarter okay so I can get I can find I'm just trying to think and I might have wrote it down our next meeting is June 20th okay well and I think most of the dates we looked at were on a Tuesday so it probably wouldn't interfere because yours are on a Thursday right and ours are at 4:00 so it wouldn't be in the evening okay so anyways stay tuned for a an email that will throw some tentative dates on for upcoming meetings and then you can um hopefully they should all work they're not meetings that are going to interfere with our Workshop or Council or anything like that so and I think say Jan what time were you thinking about hosting those meetings moving forward at um we started this one a little later because Sue had the cable commission but it'd probably start at 6 okay sounds good thank you um so it'll go to everybody who who got my last email plus one or two new people that that were um added um I attended and so did Ron the lion pancake breakfast on Sunday it was their last one of this season so there won't be anymore until our Fall Fest Sunday um when they kick off so that thought they had a pretty good turnout and as usual it was delicious and then lastly um last week I think it was last week no it was this week it all blurs I attended the uh water-based funding implementation funding meeting so this was one I talked about a little bit ago where every two years um Bowser releases dollars into that one Watershed one plan thing and it's supposed to be a mix of Metro dollars and non-metro dollars and in the past two rounds four years um that group has wanted to um the lower St Croy partnership is wanted to combine it and then they use it and they get to say how it all gets spent so at this meeting the convene meeting is the meeting where we decide how the money is going to get divvied up and um I was there representing municipalities as well as one other City administrator and then uh from afon and then um Tim melier was there uh representing the board long story short there were $75,000 that was allocated to the sunrise River wo to do some projects one of which is going to be on Lake so that's nice we're going to actually see a project that's going to happen in Columbus that will that will benefit that Lake and then I think we've really set the precedent for um requiring that group to consciously think about how to spread that money around so that it's not just sitting in one pot in one small group mostly Washington County people deciding how it's going to get spent so I was pretty happy with how that turned out Rob anything from you yeah mayor um I had sent an email to Jack letting him know that I was going to be on interactive format here tonight but he did uh respond and wanted me to mention where it was I was at um so I'm at the ven uh of the embassy Ro in Washington DC it's a 2015 Massachusetts Avenue Washington DC um my report uh today I was fortunate to be able to meet with Tom emmer staff of District six or congressmen um was able to bring up uh some of the sports betting issues we've been going going on with um he had he had stated that you know it's not typical that he's able to deal with that but he would try and help out he said he's going to have to go before an Ethics Committee if he's able to do anything um before he's e even able to speak to the state uh State and Senate reps at the state level um also did speak about uh need for more dollars to then Broadband encouraged them next time to vote Yes for those bonding bills an NOA County did uh receive a lot of money from those bonding bills Highway 65 uh and things of that nature uh and our our uh District or our Congressman ended up voting uh no on that so uh but we did end up getting money and I know we we have initiatives uh that Janet's working on uh to extend Broadband as well as the rest of us so um and then yeah that's a what I have thank you and ex Mr Mayor may I say one more thing I had um I forgot I had a citizen um approach me about a project in Lio Lakes so it's not in Columbus but it's right on the other side of the Border um Robinson side Farm yes yeah so it's not passed yet but they have a organization that wants to take over you know purchase the sad farm and put in a community have you heard about it Jack you have okay um I mean I don't know it doesn't impact Columbus but uh I mean traffic and different things like that could could affect um some of the citizens that live right on the border there of Leno and Columbus which is about less than a half a mile down ultimately anything in that area of loo is going to have s traffic impacts on Lake Drive so yep uh the highway department projects are long overdue and it's good to see they're getting started on those I think there was a a short article on that in the St Paul paper today so uh and what I understand is that the project is still ongoing they had submitted an application and it was deemed incomplete and they're going to resubmit the application and the loo mayor and City administrator said when it was complete they would review it and that's the status of it and would they have to they don't need to notify us of anything do they no okay on comprehensive plans and things like that you need to contact your bordering neighbors but on this they're under no obligations to inform us now if it were crossing city limit lines they would but in this case no okay all right thank you that was all I have Public Works Jim yeah can can I just speak on that quick Sue so it's actually called Madina lakes and I too did get call from two Lio Lakes residents just wanting to let us know that it was a possibility that was coming and they were concerned about extreme congestion on Highway 14 there as well as a couple people that aren't fall from from you there on Pine Street so oh okay thank you there's concern about that project out there for sure there's an article in the Tribune on Sunday paper about it so thank you on the North Robinson sou or sou South South so that's a long ways away from our border so I did I did a little research on it it would be I think like a mosque or something it would be a whole Community Apartments restaurants uh uh I don't know what they what they pray at or whatnot but yeah that's what it is thank you rob nothing Jim right excuse me mayor I have a question for Jim um two questions actually a comment and a question first of all uh I had a resident uh living on Notre Dame thank me this weekend or yeah it was this weekend um for lowering the speed limit on Notre Dame she and her husband were um very grateful that that had been lowered they walk along Notre Dame a lot and they said it's it's still a little bit heroing but not nearly as much as it was before so if you it's nice to hear people who say thank you for doing that because I know we've had a few that have not liked the idea of having to drive slower um and on that note my question is I know that I think you was it a three-year plan in terms of getting all the signs up posted I just I couldn't remember and somebody asked me about it so can you refresh my memory and what the plan is for rolling out the whole the whole Citywide thing we we prioritized the streets where the bigger the problems in the first year which was about a year ago oh I was actually going to talk about this at a workshop because I don't exactly remember what the plan was because I know we kind of haggled around yeah yeah and I thought at one point you know we we worked on the complaint areas the first go round plus all the gravel then from what I remember I thought we were just talking about maybe waiting until we had more complaints and then we were going to deal with those as they came but I couldn't remember what we were going to do so I was just going to ask at a workshop or something and just kind of be offline and say what what do we really want to do here so okay I I mean I'm going by memory too but I'm sure it's it should be in our minutes what we decided I my memory was that we were going to roll it out over kind of like a two or threee plan so so then so as as part of that disc discussion if we wanted to do that y I can come up with the locations or I was just going to ask you guys if you had areas that you wanted to do it doesn't make any difference to me okay so well if you remember what the date was then we can look at the minutes and then we'll we'll we'll know what we decided yeah I remember that date yeah exactly well about it's just hard because you can't just do a search on the minutes and pull stuff out so if you don't know about when we did it I just thought maybe because you had to put so much work work into the presentation and stuff somewhere in your computer you'd have a date we're actually going to talk at a workshop about being able to pull stuff up here one of these days too so oh good can't wait well and I'm super excited that we're getting the guys in to help us like learn how to use that system next door too so I will be there for sure all right uh interim administrative report Jack my only reminder is that the local board of appeals and equals ation meeting is September the 30th at 6:00 April April I said September last time I'm trying to put it off April the 30th at 6: PM uh if you have concerns issues questions or wish to appeal your property valuation or your property classification this is the only opportunity that city council can take any action on that so if you wish to present this before city council and have city council act on it this is only once annually and this is the date if you don't do it then then potentially you can make your appeal to the county but uh that's a one-time shot too so if you have any questions on your property valuation or your classification please plan on coming to this meeting to present your case have your uh your data to support your request and uh the city council will consider consider what's brought to them thank you and that's next Tuesday yes correct 6 p.m. anything else that's it I have a question for Jack on that have you talked to Alex at all about you know how many people how many uh inquiries they've had usually we get sort of a little bit of a heads up and sometimes he'll send a PowerPoint presentation in in advance I I I have and I got a response back late this afternoon he did send his assessor report but he didn't give any indication as to how many people had approached him okay I did have we did have one local business contact us and they were wanting to know what to do I told them to try to talk to an NOA County first to see if they could resolve the issue with them before the hearing as many times they can do that and if not then come to the meeting on Tuesday April 30th okay thank you Personnel committee report Janet okay this will be pretty short um but Janet's going to give it so you all received a memo from the Personnel committee yesterday I believe it was and then you should have all received a link um that I sent to you to the one drive folders where all of the semi-finalist um information and recording of their virtual interview is and um so right now there's there sort of two questions I have for you um in that memo We spelled out sort of a timeline of how we plan to proceed realize that there's a lot of information for you to go through and some of it you're not going to see until Monday which isn't going to be as much as what you already have to wait through um the interviews alone are probably 7 hours worth of viewing is that about right Sue about six it's about an hour a piece yeah six hours of viewing so plan accordingly um the idea is that you will go through the scoring you will get those sheets to sue however you decide to do that you can scan them and email them or you can take a picture with your phone and email them or you can arrange a meeting time to just hand them over so that she can enter them into her Excel spreadsheet that deadline is May 3rd at 400 p.m. and then by the 6th you'll get your your score sheets back with the totals so that you can kind of see of the six finalists the way that you scored them you know who who who goes from the highest number to the lowest number and that will help um facilitate the discussion that we'll be having on May 8th on May 8th you will also get a report that will be distributed at the meeting that will show um across the council if you average all of our scores together the six semi-finalists from from the top to the bottom so you'll have that information there so my first question for you all is do you feel like you're going to have adequate time to get through all of this and be able to um discuss on May 8th at our council meeting because if not we can push it out how far would you push it J um well it's going to it's going to depend it would it could be that we would call a special meeting or it could be that we would do it at our next council meeting I think it depends on how much more time people need I mean clearly we want to get we want to get through this as quickly as we can so we're going to try to take the path that gets us there the fastest dep pay on people's availability Janet when was it you needed the scoring done and back by so we can get get those it dwindled down to those six final candidates so you'll do your scoring and get those off to sue by May 3rd at 4 pm then you'll get you'll get it back with the way that the the um calculation is done so the The Waiting of each of the things times the the score that you get you'll get your numbers back from her on the sixth and then on the eth is the council meeting that we're scheduling the discussion okay and so if you don't think you're going to be able to get done by May 3 to get it to sue um then I think we need to push that date out from the from the May 8th meeting what what's kind of the feeling of the rest of the council like I can really Crunch and try to but that's going to be you know couple nights of after work watching those right couple three probably right six six seven hours you said you know I if it were me I would do like one one semi-finalist a day but that's how I would do it just because I think you kind of get brain dead after you spend an hour hour and a half stuff you might have a higher tolerance for it than me you're younger than I am yeah so and one other question is I had I had in my calendar a city administrator meeting on the 30th is that something we had previously planned or did I just put it in wrong um I think we sorry this is Sue I think we tentatively originally planned to have a meet have our special meeting and then but we got delayed and and it's also our LBA meeting so we had to cancel it because we have our our local board meeting so that's what I was trying to clear up because I got two things at the same time on the calendar y you can cross off the city administrator when that's not perfect happen so I don't know is anybody else feeling like that's not enough time it's about is it 10 days 9 days days nine days now 10 days as of yesterday I I'm counting but but I mean it does take like I know everybody's busy and you know it took it took me you know I split it up watching the the interviews three different times I watch two at a time um but we also had gone through all the resume and all that other information before I started the interview so um you have double the amount of work to do really reading through the resume watching the interview um and then once the the report that's going to come from Allen that's coming Monday Monday this coming Monday it she's going to try to get it done by Friday but Monday is her absolute deadline so so that's just another piece it's going to be a report on the results of the dis assessment it's a personality assessment that'll just add to the information that you already have on uh the resumés and the interviews so sue you had said they're doing a disk assessment is that kind of for the personality type is that what they're okay cool I've done those in the past they work good um so then we would be on the 8th of May and that's our regular city council meeting night correct correct yep okay but but you'd really have to get your work done by the 3D at 4 o' to get it yeah to get it to sue okay I can do it okay all right so then having said that um the thought was is that we will come together at our May eth meeting we'll go through um the scores and we'll discuss it and it may be that you know the way that the the candidates line up just from a number standpoint you know maybe isn't exactly the way we want to go because we're all going to have Impressions from our you know going through it in different biases and things and so I know when Sue and I did it just to whittle the the candidates down to the semi-finalists it was really it was a really productive discussion and she caught things that I didn't catch and I caught things that she didn't catch and at the end of the day we were able to settle on six people but we didn't each of our lists didn't I think they overlap by two so I mean you didn't start out that way and I would anticip ipate it might be the same way when our Council brings gets together so um the thought is is that maybe we have the discussion and you want a day or two to sort of think it over before you actually have to vote on a on a decision and with that in mind we thought perhaps we should schedule a a special meeting a short meeting that would only be to to vote on the on the um finalists and we could do that on Friday the 10th if people were available so this is the time you get on your calendars and look um if we did it on the 10th it it would have to be before like 11:00 in the morning or it would have to be after 1:00 in the afternoon because we want Ellen there and she's not available between 11:30 and 1 um so if if that well first of all the question is do you feel like we it would be advantageous to have that special meeting scheduled in case you know you want to have some extra time to kind of think everything over that you're going to hear at the meeting on the 8th or yeah so you're thinking fe uh the May 10th then during the day and I I could make that work okay so all right and you're were thinking around 11 well she's not available from 11:30 to 1 so I'm thinking that you know if you plan for like say an hour we would have to be done by 11:30 okay and I actually was thinking I have I did find something else that I have that day to but if we could do it early like by 9 okay or even 8 mhm um that would work for me yeah I know earlier earlier the better that day that that Saturday's fishing opener so it's boss will be heading out of town well I mean option is to is to look at the 13th 14th or 15th because I have times that are possible then too but yeah I would be I'd be best at the 10th if possible during in that in that window if that Works forever so do you want to try to say the 10th if we we could say 8:00 and then we'd probably be done by 9: 88 that'd be great and it would be here so all right then Jack would you mind posting that for us please bead I'll let Ellen know that that's what time she should be available and then just just a reminder as you go through all of this material if you have any questions at all Ellen is your contact person and I in the memo I put her her um phone number and her email address if you have any technical problems accessing it let me know um like Ron did have some problems that wasn't his wasn't his fault um and so there's some kind of weird nuances with our Council emails and depending on how they got set up it might work or it might not so um okay try make sure you can get in there because you don't want to wait until two days before the meeting and then realize that you can't get in the darn folder right right okay but I'm your contact if you have technical problems okay thank you thank you that's it anything else from anybody Mr Mayor and councel I think you should uh set the meeting by a vote oh thank you that's right we need to have a motion so I would um thank you for reminding me uh I would move to uh schedule a special meeting to um name the the two to three finalists in the city administrator search um here in the chambers uh beginning at 8:00 a.m. on uh May 10th this this is Sue all second all call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I anything else anyone before we adjourn uh the only other thing is local board of appeals don't forget 6 p.m. next Tuesday ail ail 30th and I'll make a motion to adjourn is there a second this is Su second I'll call for the any objections I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I I our meeting is adjourned at 7:55 [Music]