[Music] there's a Tapo under letter number or number one this is October 23rd 2024 and that's just a mistake it should be December mber 11th 2024 so if you want to change your change your notes go ahead and do it and Jesse one more clarification in the packet is the bill list but you have a supplemental Bill list it was given passed out to you the highlighted items are those that were added from Monday to Wednesday today so we're asking you approve those in addition to those that you received in your packet thank you and so with all of that I will make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented with the additions for December 11th 2024 is there a second Yep this is Su all second any other questions or discussions if not I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I letter number c public open forum is there anyone in the chambers or or online who would like to speak at public open Forum sure come up to the mic I know some of you are familiar with me um I just had a quick question because I do you need my address full name and address Jennifer Latin 7944 174th Court Columbus Minnesota uh 55025 um I saw on our community page last week that and I didn't see it on the agenda so I wanted to address it that um an incident had happened and I was just curious because um I I guess more curious if anything had come of that or if there was going to be any discussion around what that looked like in terms of having council members together and in any kind of setting where it isn't um publicized or published was there any plan to discuss that tonight I have no idea what you're talking about that's what I'm aware of okay so was it last week after the meeting um I believe there was an incident where three of you were together does that sound correct do you want to talk about this bill sure thank yeah I think I think there was a complaint filed with the city administrator and I wouldn't call it a complaint I'd call it a meltdown go Mr Mayor and councel um the city administrator contacted me uh after the last meeting uh mentioned that three council members were in the chamber ambers after um the the meeting um there were a number of discussions going on my understanding is no official business was being conducted at at that uh time that's how I understood it um but I actually did provide to the city administrator an outline of the open meeting law in addition we have some information from the Department of administration so I'm just going to go through that right now so we're all clear the other thing we often do and I mention this to the administrator is whenever there's a change over in County uh we often do a uh kind of a legal discussion about what their Authority is what open meeting law is when meetings can be closed when there's conflicts of interest so I think that's probably a good Workshop item with uh two new council members coming in um but addressing open meeting law the key to open meeting law is whenever a quorum of the council is present so three or more members uh no official business can be conducted outside of a public meeting so the key in any discussion is what whether there is official business of the city going on um and so this this body is aware of that we've had the discussion um going back to I think the beginning of everybody's terms um but it's always a good refresher and it applies not only to the council but any Committee of the council and any City commission so the Planning Commission for instance has the same uh requirements under law to conduct official business within an open uh meeting and a published meeting okay so when it comes to I mean obviously at City Council meetings people are going to be talking after meetings and things like that and I expect that right so it seemed like that's maybe what happened last week it sounds like and so I just wanted to be clear where they're going to be maybe parameter set like 10 minutes or 15 minutes and we try to move out or I mean obviously coming into this I want to understand and so I just think it's maybe appropriate that we all understand as well does that sound fair uh it it certainly sounds fair I think it's up to the council whether they want to establish um requirements beyond the legal requirements and and uh policies on conducting City business some some cities do that uh we had actually I believe looked at that uh question some time ago and adopted uh practices we we the council adopted practices that is um so I think it's it's always a fair question we we want the public as as a body the city council wants the public to have a high level of confidence in the actions that are taken that actions are taken in a public meeting the discussions that occurred a couple weeks ago were not official City business I think somebody was ordering food um so I I don't know that that constitutes official City business but it's always good to to be aware and to be concerned that that those rules are followed and then if people are here the doors will remain open is that correct yeah I think my understanding from talking to the city administrator is that the doors just lock themselves it wasn't a matter if somebody locked the public out it's just uh I don't know if it's after certain hours they lock or actually what happened is when uh the meeting was over Mrs heglin and Jim worked on a problem here on the audio and Jim left and he said he was going to lock the door and he did I said that's fine because I was going to lock it when I left so that's why the door was locked and that's perfectly fine and understandable so I just again Moore was trying to get to a place where we all have understanding what that looks like so because I mean obviously you have a lot of people that are on remote now and the recording ends at after the meeting and so they wouldn't be privy to any information and so I just want to make sure that everybody's understanding of that does that make sense yes I just to recap regardless of whether the council changes any of its practices the law is clear that if you're three or more members are present you cannot conduct official business outside of a public meeting so that's that's the right line rule perfect thank you all so much so since we're on this topic this is Rob so what a quarum I want to get this out there if there was a council say two two Council people and anyone from a Planning Commission would that constitute a quarum is it only three city council or three with a combination of Mayor and city council it has to be a quorum there for a majority of that body so for the Planning Commission I I believe that's a five member body so three three members of the Planning Commission if a Planning Commission member and two council members are talking that's not a violation so I've said a council member wanted to have a uh a meeting with two Planning Commission members that's allowable correct okay I just want to check in case that would to come up in the future is it okay for a council member outside of regular meeting to maybe have a meeting with the whole Planning Commission on their feelings on me maybe a topic no okay no that would that would only happen in a public meeting and the other thing that the guidance that comes from the league of Minnesota City's Department of administration is also against serial meetings so I'm just going to take this opportunity I think you're all aware of that you don't start an email chain on what do you think I've never seen that done by this body in recent years so um I don't think we have a problem there but it's it's worth repeating that that um if somebody wants to um solicit your opinion about how you might decide uh a question the answer is always you'll find out you know when that item comes up so and I think this this Council has been very careful that's a whole another rule which is to the impartiality of your decision we've talked about that before um if you're if you're canvasing the vote so to speak uh you're no longer impartial in your decision-making so that's another thing it it relates to open meeting law but it's it's another uh legal principle so that's why you know while you can legally go talk to planning Commissioners you really shouldn't be talking to planning Commissioners about official business except for in a public meeting um that's that's really what the rule is intended so the public can then be here to observe that discussion and that decision making uh it's it's a different question if two council members go and talk to the city administrator about something that might be on the agenda you're you're perfectly free to do that um and and likewise I've said to council members you're free to call me if you have any question about what's in bounds or out of bounds and and you won't ring up a charge because that's part of our retainer service so um those are all things to think about but really it's a really simple bright line rule if official business is being conducted it should be conducted here in a open and public meeting one more if if a resident had a question are they able to cont cont you or does that first start go through the administrator and then to you that should that should be at the administrator's discretion okay yep because you know technically I work for the city government yep I think there's a view sometimes that I work for the whole community and and technically we do serve the whole Community through the city government okay and so if somebody had a legal question it should first go to the administrator the administrator can decide to contact me or the administrator can decide to bring it to the city council and say what would you like to do with this question so those are all kind of judgment calls that Jack gets to make okay thank you can I just say one thing too um so this has come up before and I appreciate the clarification I think it's really confusing for a lot of people they think that if there's three people in one place three council members or three planning commissioner members or whatever in one place at one time that you're violating open meeting law and that's not the case I think the other thing to keep in mind is that there's number of us that serve on a lot of committees and it is very possible that I could be up here meeting with Jack and Jessie could be in there meeting with Cheryl and Ron could be here talking to somebody else and we're not even talking we're not even in the same place at the same time but if you drive by and see three cars it's going to look like we're all here right and to Bill's point I think anytime there's a question like that col and talk to Jack I mean he knows why we're here and who we're talking to and what's going on so I mean it's it's pretty clear that that's that's to assume the worst is probably not very productive just ask just ask the question what was going on last night looked like there was another meeting going on and I want to follow with the you know I personally as City attorney feel like it was handled Well Jack consulted me not long after the question arose he gave me the facts I gave him my judgment um I came prepared tonight to address this in case questions came from the public with that I see someone's hand is up on the screen it's Tim but I can't read your last name because the letters are so small so Tim go ahead uh good afternoon or good evening uh Tim Wessel 80641 174th Court Northeast in Columbus uh I'm here uh first I'd like to discuss uh council member elect Latin uh comment that she brought up I appreciate the transparency that I know she's going to bring and her Insight uh from uh what she does for her profession and has done for our community so I appreciate that she will be joining you guys shortly um I just found it in interesting listening to the last 10 15 minutes uh council member elect Latin brought up the uh complaint of uh the meeting uh a quorum being present and then there I'm not sure exactly what the complaint is but I heard one of the council members say they weren't aware of any complaint and then that same voice said something to the effect of it wasn't a complaint it was a meltdown so I guess I was a little bit confused about the comments there um whether or not they knew of this incident or didn't after having said they didn't and then the attorney making it aware that the body was aware of the complaint that was raised so number one that's just what I wanted to cover uh number two I would also like to speak to sorry this is Sue wagaman can I address your first question yes ma'am um because because I was the one that said I wasn't aware I left the meeting uh before everybody else did I was the one that said I was not aware um I think Janet made the other comment but we have voices that are very similar so I just wanted to address that one no I appreciate that the camera isn't panning to you guys individually so I I honestly couldn't see who it was I just wanted to clarify that and appreciate council member elect Lin's uh question that she raised uh the second thing that I would like to address is the tax levy proposed for 2025 uh I've have been a resident here with uh my family since 2018 uh we built a home here in Columbus and we love the city of Columbus um since moving in uh our uh I want to address the 2025 uh proposed itself so I did a comparison of a lot of the cities in inoka County uh specifically cities that are similarly sized to that of Columbus um and I have seen on my proposed property tax statement that the city Levy is 4,200,000 and some change and with a population of 4,266 residents in 2023 that essentially puts the cost of the levy per resident at $992 uh in some change um my concern is raised because I look at the city of Ham Lake Oak grve Lynwood now then Centerville Circle Pines East bethl some cities that are comparatively sized to that of Columbus and while the city of Columbus is at $992 per resident um I'm seeing other cities such as Lynnwood at $394 per resident Oak Grove which is a much larger city than us at $485 per resident uh Ham Lake at $399 per resident so I'm seeing double if not almost triple the property tax compared to some of our neighboring cities in Anoka County itself that is concerning to me uh my property taxes uh since moving in in 2018 have increased almost 19% and I find it disheartening that some of the uh uh persons uh that were on the ticket for Council uh in the latest election were running and touting uh that they were going to get property taxes decreased or that the levy has decreased uh I have not seen that one iota uh the increase 2024 for my family specifically to the 2025 proposal is almost 6% % the county increase which I'm obviously not going to address the county increase uh is 22.1% and again 18.25% total since I have moved into the city of Columbus now over $600 a month uh in essentially property taxes that my family is now on the hook for this is very concerning to me uh it's concerning for a couple reasons because when you compare the services that we get in the city of Columbus uh to the other cities in the county there are many other cities that have 24-hour police for example we do not have 24-hour in the city of Columbus Police I understand how the Zone car works and that they respond to us but I'm talking about cities that have 24-hour coverage in their City secondly there are many cities including Oak Grove that have their own fire department and their own Police Department their Levy is the same and they have uh more than double the residents of the city of Columbus okay that is concerning to me uh the last thing I'd like to address is I spoke to uh council member hegland a couple years ago about this um Running Aces in the truck stop is a concern of mine and I spoke to council member heglund about maybe seeing if we can get the numbers of calls per service to the truck stop and Running Aces I was made aware in 2022 that Running Aces was uh paying a voluntary fee of essentially $888,000 uh towards Police Service for the city of Columbus knowing that our contract report for 2025 is $495,000 I would like them to pay to pay a proportional amount um for the services that the casino requires I have visited the casino uh in full transparency um I I do know quite a bit about uh law enforcement services and uh what that casino specifically uh needs and I feel like they're not paying their fair share and the calls for service and need for police there uh more than we probably get is is substantial so those are my concerns that I wanted to air uh in front of all of you tonight thank you for listening thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak at the public open [Music] Forum good evening Chase Roth 8820 189th Avenue Northeast in addition to the first issue that was brought up thank you for the clarification that you all provided um one question I have is moving forward with this next change over in Council I understand Ron you have two years left of your term what is the plan to fill that seat and how what does that process look like you want to talk about that I think you've talked about it a number of times uh Jack but go ahead the process is since Mr hgraph is a council member he will have to resign his position before he sworn in his position expires or let his position expire his position expires on December the 31st at that time he'll submit a letter of resignation to the city council the city council will then accept that and declare a vacant seat and then it's up to the council determine the process by which that vacancy is filled okay have have any names been thrown out who would fill your seat the process for that filling hasn't been determined it'll be discussed after the vacancy for the city is declared at the January the 8th meeting okay so there's no standard protocol already nope actually they could say they could just pick somebody out of the audience if they wanted to and Appo them there's no real guidelines except you have to be a resident of Columbus I believe for 30 days and be 21 years old so who makes that pick that'll be determined by the council they'll discuss what process they want to use and then they'll propose a nominee and then they'll vote on it okay all right thank you thank you can do we want to ex uh respond to Mr wessells comment on the levy I'd be happy to I'd like to just make a clarification on a couple of things that he said if that's all right B with me um couple things I think actually I appreciate how much time you've taken looking into this it's really complicated um there is a tool on League of Minnesota City's website that allows you to do comparisons across cities but one of the things it doesn't do is it doesn't talk about cities like some of them that you've mention that are over 5,000 in population and the amount of State money that they get that we don't get so part of the part of the problem with Columbus is that we don't get state aid and we spend a lot of money a lot of our tax dollars go out to other communities in forms of a tax called fiscal disparities so it's really hard to compare um us to other cities Oak Grove like you said is is much bigger they get thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of state aid we don't get we get zero and on top of it they also get money in the fiscal disparities program and we end up paying $2 $300,000 basically net a year towards that program so the fact that we have that sort of strike against us um makes it really hard to say you know we should be on the same uh playing field as some of those other communities I think if you look on the back of your property tax statement the one you just got and you look at the one last year it will show you every community in inoka county and it will show you their Levy and it will show you what percent increase or decrease there has been so if you just look at the city portion which is the only part that we're responsible for you'll see that we're at netive .2% for 2025 and we were about that for last year too so that's when you've heard me talk about the fact that we've held the held the levy steady or have decreased it that's what I'm talking about so um I just wanted to clarify that I totally sympathize with the amount of money that people spend on taxes um I don't like it either but it's um that's part of the reason why ours might seem high as compared to other cities and there's nothing we can do about that other than we've gone to the state to Levy or to Levy to lobby for Relief um in terms of the fiscal disparities and the state law just hasn't hasn't been kind to ities like ours that have a small population and I know Bill you've talked about this a lot too so if you have anything more to add to that you certainly can Mr Mayor and Council one thing the public should understand is uh the city has done a good job at attracting commercial Industrial Development uh particularly helping to co a coalition of government agencies to build the new bridge and all the RADS around it that's led to commercial industrial tax base the the dynamic is our population is is relatively stagnant our commercial industrial tax base goes up when it does more and more of that tax base goes into the fiscal disparities pool so as council member heglund has said uh we've been working with our legislative delegation to try and find a remedy for that in the meantime it does it does work against this community um that tax base has on the flip side that very same tax base has allowed this Council and others to to decrease the levy and this Council as I understand has been pretty uh proactive in that regard they can discuss that more in their budget discussion so that's just a little bit of background is it's a it's a bill it's a a law that went into effect in the 1970s uh most of Anoka County benefits from it uh this community because the population is is relatively flat flat and the city has been growing its commercial industrial tax base it does work against us we also don't get the gas tax money because our community is under 5,000 that's uh that's actually in the state constitution so very difficult to change and then finally local government AIDs that many of the communities in Anoka County get uh do not come to this community one other distinction that we have that three of those other cities or townships that you mentioned don't have is they do not have any type of Public Utilities we do that's another expense that we have to operate those and until we get build out we won't be in a position to really recapture all the money it takes to advertise some of that Bond debt so that's another distinction between Columbus Oak Grove lywood and Ham Lake thank you chck anything else from [Music] anyone if not we'll move on to the uh 2025 final Levy and buz budget presentation and a request for approval is there anyone in the public who would like to comment on that now Jesse the first thing we need to do is make a motion to open that up for public comment and allow anyone then to speak on the budget and the levy I'll make a motion to open it for public comment is there a second this is Su all second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I so now is there anyone else who would like to comment on the 2025 budget I see no one in the room and I see no one online so Jack would you like to begin thank you Jesse we've covered the public comment section sorry do I have to close the public comment part yes I'm sorry so I'd like a motion to close the public comment part this is Su all second Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I we've covered the public comment portion and that is a requirement of State Statute 275.50 and the comment period allows stakeholders to provide input to City Council on proposed budgets and tax levies the state requires that each City announce the date time and place of the meeting where residents can provide city council feedback on proposed budgets and those levies the Columbus city council approved the 2025 preliminary levying Budget on September 25th 2024 and set the date for this public comment period for tonight's meeting December the 11th 2024 the certified Levy amount of 4,231 55 was submitted to Anoka County on September 26 2024 for preparation of the 2025 preliminary property tax statements which were sent to Columbus residents in November 2024 the meeting date of tonight's meeting is also listed on the partial specific notices for the proposed 2025 taxes that taxpayers received in November from Anoka County the 2025 preliminary budget proposes a levy upon taxable property of 4,231 55 or a decrease of 0.2% over the 24 2024 Levy of 4,230 $232,300 th000 and an amount unchanged from 2024 the proposed budget for 2025 is 4,971 55 this is the general fund along with the 2025 non- levied revenues and the a separate HRA Eda Levy Enterprise funds which are the water and sewer accounts are paid entirely from user fees and their budgets are separate from the levy supported general fund and are not included in the general budget totals total expenditures including the general funds for the city are budgeted for 5,222 895 for 2025 staff recommends that Council have the public comment period which we've had and then consider approval of resolutions 2419 which is the approval of the 2025 budget resolution 2420 which is the general fund Levy and resolution 2421 approving the Eda HR Levy the approved 2025 Levy will be sent to Anoka County and final property tax statements will be mailed to Residents in March 2025 this is the second consecutive year that Columbus has produced a level or reduction of the city tax levy so at this point there's three motions in your packet that would approve those resolutions to set the final budget set the preliminary tax levy and approve the final 2025 HRA Eda Levy so we've been through this since August or September over and over again and and I think we all understand pretty clearly what the expenditures and the incomes are for the City so I'll make a motion to approve res resolution 24-19 a resolution to approve the final 2025 budget is there a second this is janed I second so we have a motion and a second are there any other questions or discussions on the final budget this is Rob I just kind of to what Tim was talking about I just wanted to share that there was many things that we cut and and Jack and Cheryl worked diligently to cut out of this to try and even bring it down farther so just wanted to share with that that there was additional cuts and and stuff taken from other departments to even try and minimize um the tax impact but if if it did go up do apologize I I'm not a fan of huge taxes either I don't think anyone is but um thanks thanks for all your comments tonight that's it anything else from anyone so I've made the motion and we have a second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I uh motion number three I move to approve resolution 2420 a resolution approving the 2520 or 2025 preliminary tax levy for property taxes collectible in 202 5 is there a second Ron I'll second it any questions or discussion I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I robbi and Jesse I motion number four I move to approve resolution 24-21 the resolution approving the final 2025 Housing and Redevelopment Authority property tax levy and budget is there a second Mrs Sue all second any other questions or discussions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I robbi and Jesse a item number three is the fee schedule Jack would you like to lead us a little bit on that thank you Jesse each year the City reviews the current fee schedule and discusses any recommended changes to be approved for the following Year's fees the following in your packet is a summary that supports suggested fee schedules for 2025 uh the schedule's listed in there with Redline comments as to those changes there was a later addendum come that came out that uh included some comments from the city engineer resulting to Water and Sewer fees and we can discuss those when we get to it uh these schedules are usually something that usually require a great deal of review and people have a lot of comments on them we're rolling these out here early so you can review them and any comments we can discuss them and make adjustments uh there's no really set deadline we'd like to get them approved by the end of December or the first meeting in January at the latest so board should we approve this tonight or should we wait until our last meeting in two weeks so this is Janet I I had a number of questions that I spoke with Jack about um related to this so one of them had to do with the community Senior Center which I'm all for opening it up to the public and and having a fee schedule um but I think we we started that process maybe a year and a have for two years ago and um one of the things that we felt we needed before we put a v schedule in place was a policy related to you know who can use it do you charge nonprofits the same as you might charge a you know uh for-profit is it only going to be for residents or non-residents Etc and we never resolved all of that so I think before we look at approving the fee schedule at least for that one particular item I think we need to get that figured out um so that the staff has Direction when they get calls to make reservations and I Know Jack I I suggested he' dig through and see what the last version of those uh that policy was so Jack would that make a problem for you if we don't approve this tonight no and to be we did not expect it to be approved because generally there's a lot of questions on these and it always brings up something that we really need to check and modify from year to year that's why it's done at manually and uh this is the first attempt at going through this making any changes or Corrections that you see that we need to do I think the other question that I have um on this is that there's a section on here for maintenance permit fees um but I know that the question has come up in the past about what is maintenance and what is repair and I think that it would be really helpful for the fee schedule to have that defined as well so somebody's fixing something on their siding is that does that require a permit you know what what constitutes maintenance versus repair and I think that we don't have a definition of that and I think that that has maybe um created some problems in the past so I would also suggest that we get that kind of defined before we um move forward with a approving that part of the uhle fee schedule as well but I'll make the motion that we hold this over until our next meeting does that give us enough time two weeks or should we postp January let's bring it up to the next meeting and then do you think it's a workshop item it wouldn't hurt to have it as a workshop item we haven't uh we probably won't have the workshop at the first meeting in January uh the thing about the fee schedule is we can amend it at any time so we might want to pass one so we'll have one at least in place at the first of the year and then make it if it's still something we want to review we can do it at the first meeting in February to go over this more thoroughly and devote the whole meeting to it yeah I'd like the way that sounds Mr Mayor and councel I I like that suggestion because in the past the city has always endeavored to have its new schedule January 1st um so you know the the non-controversial parts can go into effect and you can continue to tweak it as the time goes on so I'll make the motion to hold this over until our next meeting is there a second this is Su all second all call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob and Jesse I item number four the arpa Broadband Broadband Grant Che the city of Columbus will be the recipient of an American Recovery plan Act goes by the acronym arpa for broadband service extension to five underserved and unserved areas the city attachment three in your packet is a project map that shows these locations an additional area on line Street will become part of the could become part of the project three new Columbus Connections in this neighborhood would be included in the project with the exception of isolated end of lined extensions to be addressed by midco through other programs the availability of broad band service will be available to all Columbus residents at the completion of this work this grant is administered to enoka County and the history of this program is outlined in attachment one of your packet which is county resolution number 2014- 1119 midco made applications to the county on behalf of the city of Columbus in June 2024 for the arpa funds though the original Grant requests were denied the program was reopened due to the efforts of Columbus city council member Janet hegland and county commissioner Jeff reinard the northern in NOA County municipalities of Columbus lywood bethl and East bethl were ultimately the recipients of $1.6 million of these funds the city of Columbus's share will be $536,500 with midco contributing $471,000 to the project attachment one in your packet is the county resolution that authorizes the reopening of the community broadband program and the award of $1,600,000 to be used for support of the expansion of broadband access the City attorney has reviewed the agreement for the funding and has no Amendment recommendations however he did recommend certain procedural items that need to be corrected or need to be done to correspond with the Grant and that's the designation of liaison responsible for the administration of the project in Columbus and recognition at the final dispers first the request must be done by October 31st 2026 and also that the grant program requires compliance with several federal laws and executive orders and the county the city attorney's office will work with the city to make sure we're in compliance with all those in the original submission of this request exhibit a and exhibit B were not included only the appendices a b c and d were there but in this one appendix A and B are included in your packet so at this time the staff recommends that the city council consider approval of the ARA Broadband Grant subrecipient agreement and sign this submitted to the county uh things are worked out with midco on their construction schedule and hopefully they can get started this year and get this service another 118 residents in the city I just want to say one thing um and I know Ron had mentioned this before that um just thank you to Janet council member hegland um for all your hard work on this uh we started I mean when I started on the council four years ago it was Co and that's when the the arpa money started and we got the first round and we got um that all done and you worked so many hours with midco and centy link and um and then when this came around and we got denied and then your tenacity is what pushed this through so now we have the rest of our residents that have access and um you know I don't know that everybody understands how much work that is and I just thank you for all of that now we can close it out at the end of four years it's been thank you for for saying that it's been actually really rewarding that we've been able to to do this in the six years and I remember first having this discussion I remember bill I think you had had an estimate it would cost us $6 million to do this if we paid for it ourselves so that it was it's really uh rewarding to know that we were able to leverage dollars from you know grants in the county and deed and other areas to be able to get this done at no cost to this to the residents so M so yep thank excited that's all I'd like to say something also I I know we give our uh representative Reinhard credit for it but you approached him mhm and if you wouldn't have rattled the cage I don't think we'd have got the money well I think I think there was a miscommunication at the county level I don't think he recognized or knew that that we had actually applied he they had been told that we had that there were no applicants so I will I will just say this I saw that in the uh Forest Lake time and had I not read that in the forest lake times and said wait a minute we applied what do they mean that we nobody applied I would not have I would not have known to to call them and say what's going on here I mean this is crazy so if anybody hasn't subscribed to the Forest Lake times that one article just saved the city $600,000 so oh very good thank you m and so with that I'll make the motion to approve the American and rescue plan act Broadband infrastructure program subsequent what's the words subrecipient sub recipient agreement between the county of inoka Minnesota and the City of Columbus as recited in attachment to of the of the December 11th 2024 city council packet along with exhibits A and B and appendices a b c and d which are included in the council packet and are part of the agreement as presented is there a second Yep this is Sue all second any other questions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue i d i Rob I and Jesse I and item number five the midco cost sharing agreement I move to approve the midco cost sharing agreement as presented as item C5 on the December 11th 2024 city council pack and as amended by the addendum submitted to the city council on December 9th 2024 is there a second for that motion Rob all second Mr Mayor can I just make a comment on that certainly um the city administrator mentioned Federal compliance and the reason you got a fairly beefed up version of this second agreement is we are taking those Federal requirements and imposing them on midco as uh part of the buildout um they agreed to that last time they've agreed to this form so I don't think it'll be controversial but the way we we secure compliance is by pushing those Federal requirements down to midco and and they know what to do with regard to those requirements because they've complied before thank you and I'll just also clarify it's a cost sharing agreement because there's an input of 475,000 I can't remember exactly over $400,000 that midco is putting into this so that's why it's cost sharing M all right uh Rob question for Bill does uh with with these funds because they come from the federal government correct did they they are to carry prevailing wages cor correct for any labor that is done that's one of the Clauses perfect I just wanted to make sure that was clear CU I remember hearing that on the news and doing a little research on it thank you anything else anyone I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I letter D city engineer Kevin Hornsby drainage project good evening mayor and city council members uh Kevin Bitner city engineer uh first item uh to talk about is uh in regards to drainage for Hornsby Street um if you refer to the diagram that I provided in the packet uh this is to address um a drainage ditch that comes along the south side of uh be home and Crosses under Hornsby uh flowing to the east uh there isn't a real good drainage path currently as the uh the ground on that uh farm field is probably a couple feet higher than than the Culver and so what we've done is we've approached uh that property owner in regards to obtaining a drainage easement in order to um cut the ditch uh uh all the way to uh County ditch 15 um so that's depicted in the yellow and the property owner which is part of a trust uh responded and said that they aren't opposed uh to an easement but uh what they would like to see is to have uh either a ditch or Culver or excuse me a pipe uh go all the way over to judicial ditch 4 which is um basically off of their property to the East and so that certainly changes the scope of of the project um and then since it involves essentially two County ditches in the process uh the question would be whether we would want to petition the uh race Creek Watershed District to undertake a project uh for this um it would require a petition they would evaluate that petition and determine uh whether to move forward and that point if they would uh a report would be prepared and a public hearing conducted that's just kind of the initial stages um so uh the other option that we would have which isn't a preferable option would be to just obtain our drainage easement in the yellow um through process of condemnation um but the obviously the um the full project uh as preferred by the property own was is involves a lot more and uh so the city could petition for that project uh but ultimately the the cost would probably be more than likely born close to 100% by the city um so at this point it's just more for information and I don't know if you'd be prepared to authorize anything at this time uh but uh that's that's the communication that we've had with that particular property owner and so um we need some kind of um authorization I guess to to know how to proceed or or not um with this so if you have any questions certainly would be happy to answer them if I can thank you any questions anyone can you what what prompted this I mean it looks like we made the inquiry well yeah so so the when we did the Hornsby Street Improvement uh we never fully addressed the drainage away from from the street and so uh we needed to try to kind of bring that to some some level of resolution so we we Bill had drafted up uh some easement documents um a while back and so then we finally got around to approaching the property owner about potentially obtaining that ease so it's something that's always been in the bucket list since we did that Improvement and is it I mean is it imminent that we need to do that or I'm not wild about the idea of petitioning race Creek that's why I'm asking the question sure no I mean what we're trying to do is ensure the long-term Integrity of the road making sure we have appropriate drainage away I mean right now it's it's no different than it has been historically uh but at the same time if we can uh make sure that long term we're providing proper drainage away from the road so that we're not having any issues um with with saturation or whatever um that would be the preferred option but this hasn't been a problem in the past oh maybe Jim can speak more long term to that but um so so basically what we did when we reconstructed Hornsby is you know we redog all the ditches along Hornsby street so you know we've reestablished the drainage that was once there years ago um and in doing that we replaced there's actually two culverts that we have an issue with um but this one here we're addressing currently um right now the elevation of the outlet side of the Culvert is 2 feet lower than the drainage of where it's supposed to be draining to so what happens at this point now is any water that drains down as it should now hits that Culver and it just sits there and then backs up into the ditch ultimately um you know it'll evaporate or you know soak into the into the banks or the ground or but but could ultimately end up saturating the subbase of the road and create undue wear um so that's kind of what Kevin and I have been talking about um it wasn't it wasn't as drastic as it is now because now everything is reestablished except for this portion does that make sense so at one point it did drain mhm everything just kind of filled in over time you know Farmers you know plow fields and you get run off and you know same thing in in ditches and you know trees fall and you know leaves fall and you know everything fills in over time right um but now with the ditch lines reestablished the road redone we reestablished all of the grades at as they were years ago except for that portion so off the nap back of the napkin deal or 10,000 100,000 or a million in terms of the cost of the Improvement it's certainly not a million dollars um I i' hate to venture a guess at this point um it would require I guess the uh how we would get that across um whether we would do it in a pipe or in a open ditch is uh something that would have to be addressed the other issue that's involved is the potential of you know other environmental impacts wetlands and so forth uh which we don't know or about at this point you know if I were to just kind of take a stab at it it's probably a quarter million dollar project but that's that's strictly kind of a wild guess at this point so uh Kevin does that uh is that a natural flow right where the yellow line is there is that a culvert there then at that point the the yellow line is just what we would propose to excavate a a a ditch right now I'm assuming the way the it flows now is that uh as Jim indicated when we do get some flow in the ditch on the west side of the road it comes under the Culver it kind of holds up it has to build up uh to a point where it finally gets over that little um burm or the higher ground and it probably flows across that farm field wherever it finds the least resistance at this point uh making its way down to the the county ditch uh but there's no established drainage path there right now okay I just have a question on the Jim you said that the the Culvert is little bit higher than it 2 feet higher and so when the water gets there it doesn't drain through it so so the Culvert is 2 feet so the Culvert is where it's supposed to be okay um we kind of dug out around the outlet side which is on the east side of the road um just where that yellow line is and the ditch line is 2 ft higher than the outlet elevator a of the Culvert so the little Basin that they dig and put rip wrap in there that has to fill up and then once that fills up then it flows over the bank as Kevin said and then it flows out but ultimately you're holding I'm I'm saying 2 feet it could be 1.6 it could be 2.1 but it's roughly 2 feet was was it supposed to be that way or was it just miscalculated a little bit in terms of what supposed to well if the water is not going through like you say it's well the the like Jim indicated there probably was a drainage path at one point um from that Culvert to the county road ditch but over time that's probably filled in you know with sediment um you know the wind blows blows dirt into the ditch and so whatever drainage path was there before is is now subsequently filled in when we replaced the Culver we didn't change any elevation of the Culver we put it back um at the same same elevation it was knowing that we still um had an issue to the east because that that property is now a couple feet higher than than the Culver so so there has to be a little bit of the water has to build up um in the Culvert and in the ditch be on the West Side before it finally pushes it over the uh the land and and finds its way down to the ditch some way so so this spring when it was raining so hard did you how big was was the backup on either direction you know April May June was flood City around here I would suppose that you you mean I didn't didn't necessarily walk the ditch right saying there's grass in there but I would suspect that when the ditch line is full it probably goes to the north side of uh be holes and then you know what I mean then there's enough um volume in the ditch to hold the vast majority of that with you know evaporation and you know what's going to soak into the ground and stuff like that so so it does dissipate by itself it it will absolutely because whoever develops this property will have to do that with the city doesn't like condemnation it's one thing we're known for is we don't like that and we also don't like to spend a bundle of money and whoever does develop this will have to get drainage eventually or at that point we we would ultimately I I don't want to say require but would would probably try to get the e at that point so we can do the work yep so we can get it accomplished without spending anything which is kind of what we're talking about doing with the other property um where that because there's another Culvert by 15th and the development that we were talking about I don't know a few months back with the race track back and that that's where the other cul is so we would attempt to remedy that same situation with that development so to me that sounds like a plan yeah I I just have one other question about when in his letter when it says that they drove the perimeter and ditches of our property we talked about the current ditches and how the water does not flow through the disch ditches because they have not been maintained are they talking about other ditches or they count they're talking about the county ditches um ditch 15 and and ditch four uh goes across their property so they're referring to those ditches The Rice Creek ditches okay cuz those should I mean they Rice Creek has a plan to clean their ditches it's not a very good correct and they could they they as private property owners could approach the Rice Creek to to have those taken care of is that what they have to do approach them themselves yeah they should approach them uh requesting ditch clean out okay thank you Kevin uh one more item uh no more further questions on that uh just approval of the final payment to Aztec for our micro surfacing project um from this past summer uh took a little while to close out this contract um I was kind of in a disagreement with the contractor over final payment but they acques to what my requested last payment was so the total amount due um on this project is $1,223 17 so I'll make the motion to approve the final payment for the Aztec micros servicing project as recommended by the city engineer is there a second Rob second and any questions or discussion anyone uh just more of a comment it seems like that uh that stuff seemed to hold up pretty good at least on Howard Lake Drive I drive that every day and it it at this point it took those whoopy sections out where it was kind of a pumpy so we'll see how it holds up over time right right and and the hope is is that uh you'd get a minimum of 5 years and if not longer um that that would um stay in place um you know we've had mot does this this process frequently um Anoka County also uses the process it's pretty widely used um and it's very fitting for those areas where you like you see got the little whoops the little cupping of the cracks that form in the pavement so it fills those in it fills in the little ruts the of the Wheel tracks very well and uh it gives a nice surface a nice black surface um again um which is which is good for snow melt and those kind of things so um Ronny Na's Boulevard was in pretty rough shape there down by the pump house and that all kind of filled in real nice too so kind of impressive stuff it looks good yeah yeah thank you anything else keevin uh no just uh again um this is my last council meeting and so I just appreciate everything uh working with the council um it's been a great great run and I feel really good that we've got a good person uh following up and you'll be in good hands so happy retirement yeah happy retirement very much thank you all right I don't think we voted on that last motion I don't think we voted on the last motion I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I mayor and city council report no I'm sorry attorney report all right I don't have anything other than my comments earlier all right and are we ready for the new session down at the capital we're I just met with our team today as a matter of fact and we'll see they split government all all over the place all right power sharing that's the word what is it power sharing at least in the house yeah and a couple of lawsuits to resolve and so there you go stay tuned yeah here we go again Ron I uh don't have anything other than then we got the lights up from the park out the park so was there anything from the last Park board meeting the last Park parkboard meeting yeah well there few items but I uh didn't bring my notes on them but the ones where we're going to finish up uh they want to put all the money towards removing those trees this year second of all they want to get the master plan if I'm right jack at that correct master plan I can't think of anything else other than we talked about the lights dugouts and we talk to dugouts yeah and I think their meetings what the 19th of January correct so we'll get that straighten out thank you other than that nothing else so um just that I have have my final Forest Lake cable Commission meeting on Friday which is a holiday party for the staff so I will be going to that on Friday late afternoon NOP um all I have is just uh Kevin thank you for your service on the council it's been very nice to work with you and uh you've always been very helpful so look forward to working with Brian um and then just want to let most of the public know Bob and or uh Bob Ron and I were talking about it before the meeting but a longtime resident just lives up the road from us here Bob cockburn passed away I think he had a lot of years uh as a force Lake police officer he was the uh School the aison when I went to high school so always kept us safe and uh yeah it's a it's a sad loss so just wanted to share that with the community that's all Personnel committee report Janet so in the packet you have a couple of items um one is the DDA proposal for the job classification and compensation Services we talked about this at our last workshop and um I just I did a summary I'm not going to read it for you here but I'm assuming that you guys read it before you came so what I would be looking for is um the Personnel committee recommends that we engage in a contract with dda's human resources um with Mark Goldberg as our principal consultant and then uh contract for option five as outlined in the in The Proposal with a maximum cost of $111,000 so I'm making that motion this is Sue all second so we have a motion and a second any other questions or discussions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and chesse I and then the second um item from the Personnel committee is a proposed promotion for our Planning and Zoning technician um elanar Han uh again there's a memo in here that outlines everything but just for the purposes of um the public since we haven't talked about this one before um Miss Han was hired as a planning technician on May 22nd 2023 she started at the first step of the pay scale after a second uh secondary satisfactory uh six-month performance review she moved on to step two and after her one-year anniversary she moved on to step three um we had developed a promotional pathway in these positions um when we hired Ben the last planning U person that we had so it starts out when we hire someone straight out of college they they're hired as a planning technician then they move to a plan um assistant planner there's an associate plan planner then there's a planner or a senior planner so there's a job description for each of those things and Miss Han has um mastered all of the requirements of the uh planning technician and has taken on some of the duties in the new um uh assistant planner position mostly the difference between the two is the amount of authority and uh independent work that she needs to do and also the complexity of the work that is being done so we feel really comfortable that uh she is capable and able and already doing some of that work and so we're very happy to um recommend that the council um approve the promotion of Miss elener Han from planning technician to assistant planner this would be effective on December 28th 2024 and it would be putting her at step three in this new position um from step three in her old position uh that would be a hourly wage of $306 um and that would include the uh 2025 cost of living increase so that's my motion well this is Sue I'm going to Second and also say Eleanor you have done a wonderful job um we when Janet and I and Elizabeth interviewed you and um you you know you were freshly out of college and weren't you yes that's always a risk and you have really proved yourself and you've done a wonderful job you've you've done everything that we asked with a smile on your face plus more I know and I've I've heard all good things from your manager so I'm very happy that we're able to give you this promotion thank you so we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote I'm gladly going to say yes I sue I Janet I robbi and Jesse I and I'll Echo everyone's sentiments but I knew it from the beginning elanar so so anyway I for me thank you very much and let's keep rolling yeah congratulations yeah congrat congratulations congratulations thank you Planning Commission report item number five commission appointments we have planning commissioner Robin Wood whose term expires on December the 31st uh Robin has applied for a reappointment to the commission and uh the just one moment here please there you go thank you Mr wood served on the commission for over a year he's been an active participant in his role as a member of the commission Planning Commission terms are for three years and Mr wood has request reappointment as I previously stated and staff is requesting Council to consider the reappointment of Robin Wood to the city of Columbus Planning Commission so I'll make the motion to approve the reappointment of Robin wood for another term on the city of Columbus Planning Commission effective January 1st 2025 good catch yeah no I would just WR good catch I'm starting to wake up is there a second as Ron I'll second it any other questions I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I I might add that on the Planning Commission agenda for December the 18th will be the consideration of the passage of the Cannabis ordinance so that's been something that uh Elanor and City staff and city council and the City attorney have worked on for the past 6 months so we hope to see that come to fruition on next Wednesday night do we need to do Susan's reappointment excuse me do we need to do Susan's reappointment yes we need to do Susan's also okay Susan botch uh was appointed to the Planning Commission in November 2024 she replaced Barb and Phil Barb Bob's unexpired term so she was only on here technically for one month she has also requested reappointment and she's uh been very good to work with She interviewed well and uh did uh I think she'll be a great addition for a continuation of a full term of the commission so staff recommends her reappointment to the city of Columbus Planning Commission so I'll move to reappoint Susan botch for another term of the city city of Columbus Planning Commission effective January 1st 2025 is there second this is Janet I second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I number six Park Board and park board report and board member appointment you've sort of given us your report Ron uh as far as the appointment uh this is involves Mr Steve Ray Mr Ray was appointed the city of of Columbus Park Board in August of 2022 he served on the park board for two years and been an active participant in the activities and work on the board Park Board Park Board terms are for three years and Mr Ray's term expires on December 31st 2024 Mr Ray has requested reappointment to the board and City staff recommends that you consider his reappointment to this position so this is the guy who puts up lights good right uh well we he no it was Brad norling oh so I make the motion to approve the reappointment of Steve Ray for another term on the city of Columbus parkboard effective January 1st 2025 is there a second this is Su all second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I Public Works Jim no report Mr Mayor thank you uh number eight City administrative report Eda citizen member appointment Karen Fleming was appointed to the city of Columbus Economic Development Authority in December of 2022 M Fleming has served on the Eda with distinction and represent the city in an exemplary manner in her role as a citizen member of the authority Eda terms are for six years and Miss Fleming's term expires on December 31st 2024 Miss Fleming has requested Reed reappointment to the authority and staff recommends the city council consider her request and reappoint her for another term so I'll move to approve the reappointment of Karen Fleming for another term on the city of Columbus Economic Development Authority effective January 1st 2025 is there a second all second so we have a motion in a second I'll call for the vote Ron I sue I Janet I Rob I and Jesse I letter e announcements and reminders Planning Commission meeting December 18th so next Wednesday at 6 and then the Wednesday city council meeting gets moved to December 23rd Monday night since it's the week before Christmas I do have a question on the Planning Commission meeting next week is that a joint meeting or is it just the Planning Commission I think it's just the planning the public joint correct it's about the pot stuff is no not a joint not joint it's about heing joint with the te meeting what it's not yeah joint pot meeting so anyway you heard that took me a while today on the radio they were screaming what so they they said that they're not going to do they had the the special Lottery lottery which got postponed a few weeks ago now they're like they're just going to put them all in together with all the regular people and it's going to be about 6 months so it'll be a while we still need to pass our ordinance but it would Pro it's probably going to be a while before anybody's license would receive a license and come to us and request there's a couple lawsuits pending over the process I will also just add that there was an article again in the forest lake times last week about the um Forest Lake Council approving their ordinances and they are requiring all cannabis businesses to be under an iup not a [Music] cup just an FYI yeah just an FYI there anything else anyone would like to discuss if not we'll adjourn our meeting at need a motion second oh sorry need a motion I just did it and you just got a second make a motion to move to motion to adjourn and seconded I'll call for the vote second I sue I chaned I and Jesse I at 7:18 [Music]