[Music] 6 o'clock. Let's get started here. And Jolene, will you please take role? >> Council members Ericson >> present. >> Larson >> here. >> Miller >> here. >> Valento >> here. >> Mayor Roberts >> here. And if you're able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, we have an agenda in front of us. I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda minus item 9A to be removed per the uh request of the developer. >> Also move to approve the agenda with the removal of items 9A. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. We have an agenda. Next item, awards and recognitions. So, as as many many know, the city suffered a devastating and heartbreaking loss with the with an offduty passing of Detective Joshua Brown on August 11th from an unknown medical event. Detective Brown was hired by the Force Lake Police Department on October 28th, 2017. He served as a patrol officer, use of force instructor, range instructor, and most recently assigned to the Washington County drug force and SWAT team. He was an outstanding police officer and was a great friend of many in the police department and the community. There was a fantastic turnout at the visitation of the funeral on Monday and Tuesday of last week week which showed how many lives he truly touched. He has survived by his wife Jennifer, four children, and one grandchild. We'd like to thank uh a number of law enforcement agencies that stepped up and helped our department in patrol our roads during that time. Those were Cottage Grove Police Department, Woodbury Police Department, Oakdale Police Department, Still Water, and Washington County. This was really appreciated and really hit home for me personally when that evening going to Arts in a Park and seeing a Still Water and Woodbury patrol officer uh doing the beat for our our guys when they were really having a tough day. Uh it was an emotional time for everyone in the city and where it really hit me personally is is after walking out of the church at the funeral uh uh Councilman Ericson was able to attend with me um and seeing our officers truly truly suffering and how close they were to this individual. And it really did show that it was not he was more than just a partner and a a co-orker, but a true true friend. Please join the council for a moment of silence in honor of Detective Joshua Brown and appreciation for his dedication to the service of our city. Thank you. Right. Our next item here, open forum. This is an opportunity for anyone to speak uh come to speak to the council. Please leave uh give us your name and address and limit it to around 3 minutes. >> Eugene Hurst. Eugene Hurstell 10234 204 Street. U I would just like to uh part of the pickle ball group again. Uh um appreciate uh what has been happening. Um we couple years ago there wasn't much communication but then we were able to get communication from Jamie and stuff and it really improved things and that we want to work together with it and and it's culminated now to even more cooperation and Kyle we really appreciate Kyle too and how he goes back and forth. And then we've got Don here who's a great mentor for all of us and uh works hard for the parks and trails and stuff. And so we are very pleased what's been going on and uh wanted everybody to know that and and like of course Allan's not here but with the with the fire department and all that putting that together and stuff and it's going great guns out there. Hannah get your paddle. Jolene get your paddle. But Mr. Ericson. He's been there, but we're going to get him again. But anybody else come on out and and it's it's a great time of social and we got plenty of good people that'll make you feel wanted. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else like to speak this evening? >> All right. With no one else coming forward, I'm looking for approval of this evening's consent consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda item 7 A through I. >> I'll second >> motion a second. Any further discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. We have a consent agenda. Our first regular agenda item uh A 8A ordinance revisions in Abby. >> Thank you. Uh, Mayor Roberts, members of the council, as the council may remember, last year we started a zoning code update project where we re um create a new architecture for a zoning code. And the intent then was to go through the zoning code in kind of section by section to clean up the code for consistency, for ease of use, consolidation. Um earlier this year, our former planner Ken Roberts and a consulting planner Claire Stickler had worked with the planning commission on consolidating the landscape standards in our zoning code. Just for reference, landscaping was in a few different places. The intent of the architecture amendment was to pull it all into one place. And I'll take those words, jumble them up, get rid of what we didn't need to reformat it. So included tonight are two different ordinances that clean up our landscaping ordinance or landscaping regulations in our zoning code. The intent of this again is just more cohesion, more access, better accessibility and it being user friendly for the most part. The landscaping regulations stayed the same. um reorganizing and condensing and eliminating a lot of duplicity really went a long way with the landscaping regulations. At their July 9th meeting, the planning commission reviewed the draft ordinance, held public hearing, directed staff to make some changes, and at their last meeting on August 13th, um they made recommendation that the city council approved the two enclosed ordinances, 757 and 758. Um staff's prepared those for you. You can make one motion or make them both together or individually, but it would staff and the planning commission are recommending you approve ordinance 757 and 758. Both of them pertaining to the landscape regulation. Any questions? >> Council, any any questions? >> This just one without having read all the changes line for line. What would you say would be the biggest change besides just the layout of it? any significant change that homeowners or developers should be aware of? >> Um, so sure, that's a great question. I think the biggest change is that we will require less landscaping. Um, our landscaping ordinances as they sit right now are pretty excessive um, in terms of the quantity of plant materials that we're asking for. We have not had a development that has been able to meet our landscaping regulations without necessarily being um, over landscaped. Now, I do see Commissioner Council Member Miller looking at me um kind of sideeyed. We do have um provisions in our current ordinance and our future ordinance that do allow for some flexibility without having to go through the variance process that seems like a development site is overlandscaped or under landscaped. We can ask for more. Um but that was a big thing was just taking those standards down a notch, not excessively, but to make it a little bit more um less burdensome. >> I think our development sites will still be well landscaped, welldesigned, and we'll still have all of the very nice features we want in our new developments. Um maybe just uh without necessarily being over-the-top regulated. >> Maybe one follow-up question. I had the opportunity to get out in the field last week and visited Castlewood and just having a conversation with the folks at the table about the loss of trees out there. Does this new um ordinances as written give us the flexibility that if there was a development that maybe was going to be over landscape that they could pivot some of that landscape to like say a park that's in desperate need of trees. Um we do have provisions in the code that if somebody did not meet the landscape regulations, so in a circumstance maybe where woodlands were being removed in excess, then instead of replacement, they can pay fees in lie of uh the actual mitigation or landscaping requirements. Right now we do have a fund in the park capital fund that the tree mitigation is specific for tree mitigation in public places. >> Okay. Thank you. Other questions? >> Any other questions? I I I I appreciate the time put in this and and revisiting this because you know, you do see on especially in some of these commercial properties where you're required to put um trees in that, but then signage and then when that those trees the landscape get larger, then you're blocking signage. So, um, I appreciate this and the fact that the thought that it was we're a little over landscaped in some areas and been able to be flexible there. With that, is anyone want to make a motion? I would make a motion to approve, excuse me, ordinance number 757 and ordinance ordinance number 758 um pertaining to the landscaping regulations in the city of Forest Lake. >> Motion second. >> Second. We have a motion. Second. Further discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. uh public so 8B public works steering committee and Mark >> Mr. Mayor and council um this item of course could just just as well be handled by Dave but um the two of us are sort of engaging with the architects now that we have that contract um in the works here and uh want to get rolling on design. U obviously this is a a big project for our community and we want to make sure that there's um proper allowance for stakeholder input and uh we started to think through who a group of stakeholders would be um and you know realize that we have some excellent uh resources on some of our boards um and have kind of um handpicked a couple folks from there that have some expertise in in the things we're wanting to talk about um and uh came up with this list here just that we thought would be appropriate for a stakeholder group um consisting of two council members, a member from each of the committees, um public works director obviously Dave and myself and then a number of people from the public works various divisions of the public works department and um yeah including the lead mechanic as well. So um we're here to see if the council has any other input as to what a stakeholder group might look like. Um certainly add, you know, members at large from the public or something like that if we found somebody. But, um, wanted to keep the number, you know, somewhat reasonable, too, so we're not, uh, you know, too many people. It becomes a little difficult to wrangle schedules and all that kind of stuff, too. But, uh, otherwise, this is our proposed roster and we would, um, ask the council for suggestions as to how that might look. any um thoughts initially on how many times this group would meet? >> Yeah, I mean I think you know um probably uh monthly or so I think um depends on how swift we're moving through design work. I think it's rather than timeline basis going to be more about design inflection points. So when we get to a certain point and have a major decision to make um you know are we going to have a dog park associated with it like we looked at one option you know you know we start to lay out the site can we how much of that northwest corner can we carve off here's an option here's an option so some design inflection points will be important spots um but yeah we'll we'll try to obviously respect these folks's time they're all people who are giving time already so u certainly we're not going to be weekly or anything like that so any thoughts on this? Are you looking for um volunteers from the council tonight on the the uh TVD or is that I >> I think we could wait as long as you know as long as we want to just endorse this >> um structure, we could move forward with it. I think at the next planning and zoning commission and at the next committee meetings, we could have those committees endorse either our suggestion or their suggestion as to the representative would be and then um council could either do that tonight or take some time to think about it and do it at the next meeting. >> Okay. >> I assume these are daytime meetings with a number of staff members on the street committee. >> We're we're flexible. I think we could do like a late afternoon type of arrangement. I know a number of public works guys uh do typically get off at 3:00 or so. Um but you know we try to work that work that out. [Music] >> Any additional thoughts, Dave, on on that? [Music] >> Just looking at it, we probably should get community development on there. Just by looking at that list, we should probably have somebody from community, whether it's Abby or somebody on that department. if if we're talking about dog parks and and expanding some um parcels there that development should probably be involved at some point. >> I didn't even just popped in my mind right now that we should probably have them in there. >> Yeah, that probably makes sense. would is that then would you Mark suggest that we take one from here and then add that or just an additional >> I think we just add an additional person from either Abby or her staff and um you know I think just probably with the staff part too we we'll we'll mix and match depending on what the topic conversation is I mean once the site layout is put together does Aby's team care how the interior of the building lays out probably not right and um to some degree maybe Dave doesn't much care about the commercial site in the northwest corner maybe. So there might not be um you know we'll we'll judge that as the topics come up you know whether or not all the staff needs to be in attendance. >> Well I so serving on a similar committee when we did this building here and being able to have that input from a a broad spectrum of people was I think helpful and helped design this building to be as as good as it turned out. And so I think this is a great idea. Um, is there anyone no commitments tonight, but anyone consider wanting to be involved more intimately involved in this process than >> I'd be willing to. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Except me. Anyone else? I'm more than willing to to do so. So, if u maybe that just makes it easier if it's myself and council member Larson, we can make that decision here tonight and and approve this. So with that, does anyone want to make a motion? Are we looking for a motion to accept this? >> Certainly make a motion to accept the structure with the two of you as appointees. >> I'll make a motion to authorize the formation of the ad hoc committee to be referred to as the public works building steering committee consisting of the individuals named above as well as a member of the community development department with council members Larson and Mayor Roberts filling the council's posts. Response. Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> We have a motion. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. >> 8 C BD and refresh project. Dave. >> Yep. So, back in June, uh, council approved, uh, plans and specs and going out to bid for phase one of the median refresh project. uh final completion of the plans took to about middle of July and and the bids went out about mid July. So um August 14th the final bids came in uh there was two biders. Um there was they were sent out about six or seven. A lot of them were just full for the year. It's I think we've learned from this that we probably want to do a spring planting or or do something more in the spring to not um to try to get no more competitive bids. But regardless, uh we got two bids in. Our our budget was uh or our budget was 145,000. Uh engineer estimate was 108,000 and low bid came in at 113. Most of that was wrapped up in uh traffic control. And then we didn't anticipate that every contractor quoted it as removing all the irrigation out of the boulevard and then replacing it back in. So, um Lucious kind of estimated that they just work around that. So, those two costs um pretty much equals back up to that engineer estimate. So, uh what we're looking for tonight is approval to do that that phase one of the project. Uh that would start in September uh September 15th, I believe the start date was. and then u final completion October 31st. I'm here for any questions if you have one questions Dave or staff. Um, so you look at these numbers and you might think median just landscape, but but as Dave mentioned, there's, you know, a lot of irrigation, there's concrete, there's a lot of hardcape stuff that's going on here other than just plant material. >> Yeah, I could have brought it back up. I mean, but council has gone through this numerous of times of all the concrete added, irrigation changes, all that stuff. So, I think you guys are all pretty much aware of, like you said, it sounds like a lot of money, but it for the work that's involved, it's it's pretty close to what those estimates are. >> I make a motion to approve the awarding the median refresh project phase one to Lambridge Ecological, Inc. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. All right, we are in the discussion part here. As mentioned, uh 8 A 9A is uh removed from the agenda. So, we'll go to 9B, strategic planning process. Mark, >> Mr. Mayor and Council. Um, you know, one of the things that, um, when I came on board six months ago, um, obviously wanted to take a little time to get my feet underneath me and learn a little bit more about the city and the history of, um, some of our our plans and programs that we've had in place. And um I feel like now at this point, six months in, that I have enough of a background and um have established enough uh of the history and so forth to begin to execute a a strategic planning process. Um oftentimes cities will engage in this sort of mid-inter and uh come out of it in the spring with a strategic plan. I kind of um like the idea of starting in the fall and and starting January one kind of hitting the ground running a little bit more. And I the timing of that kind of works out just in terms of our hiring process. You know, the next three weeks we're going to have three new employees here. Got a couple months for them to get acquainted and get on board. Um, and I think as you can see from the schedule I've laid out, we would still be able to um, you know, begin that process now and then January one, when I say be up and running, I I really mean be ready to present something to the public and get a little bit of public engagement going and then, you know, that spring time frame Q2 sort of uh, March, April, May, um, be able to really start rolling out the implementation of of strategic goals and that kind of thing. So, um I want everyone to understand too that this doesn't mean that we're until we get this in place, we're doing nothing. This, you know, there's always that um that sort of adage of you go to war with what you have. Not to invoke war here, but uh you're doing things as you go, right? And there's a necessity to doing that. But I do think it is valuable to step back and take a strategic look at what we're doing and why are we doing what we're doing and is there are there better ways to do what we're doing. So, um, I think it's a great thing to get going here to have a little focus to our discussions and to our goal setting. Um, so if anyone has comments on this schedule, um, I'd be glad to take them and or any sort of the elements of the how we approach this. Um, you know, I think one of the staff suggestions after I kind of put this to the department heads was, do we do we have sort of a a section ahead of Q4 here or in Q4 where we do some public engagement ahead of our formulation? So, do we ask the community through some sort of community survey or something um what are your priorities in town? Uh, and I think that's the age old question I always as an engineer Ryan knows this well too like do you bring a project to the community and say, "Well, we haven't really discussed anything or figured anything out. What do you think?" And then they sort of scratch their head and look at you like, "Well, I don't know what to comment on." Or do you bring it to them and then they look at you and say, "Well, it looks like everything's already been decided. What's my input worth?" Right? There's it's a very delicate balance as to when the appropriate time to engage the public is. And I think maybe the answer is at all times, right? So maybe there's a little bit of before engagement, maybe there's a little bit after. Um, and by after and after we've had a first draft of it to look at. Um, so I'm certainly open to squeezing a little bit of that into that Q4 time frame as well as getting some public feedback. I'm just very high level general goals. So that's the only maybe sort of tweak I would have to this otherwise um I'm just sort of looking for a general endorsement of this timeline and we will bring back specific actions as we go forward here. Again, this is discussion, so we're not looking for a motion necessarily here. >> So, when you say retreat, what are can you paint a picture of what that would entail? >> You know, in other communities, it's just been simply a different venue just to clear the mind of, you know, being in this room and or one of our little conference rooms. Um, have a little bit more relaxed atmosphere. It's still an open to the public meeting. I've I've had even members of the public sit through a six-hour retreat at another community. Um, so yeah, you just pick a venue in town that has some meeting space, get a little bit more relaxed and have a little bit more casual and and forthright conversations about goals and um a little less structure. Sometimes um we will work in some structures. Sometimes we'll u you know have sometimes a little bit of educational you know background on some of the stuff that city departments do. Um, and then sometimes you'll do a little bit of uh get to know you type stuff, icebreaker type stuff. You know, it's a little bit of a chance for a council to get to know each other a little bit more. Um, obviously some of you have long-standing relationships, others don't. And but at at the very least, sometimes it's an opportunity to say, you know, some of the questions I've seen as icebreers, why did you get on council? What what motivated you to run? Um, you know, what what bothers you? What keeps you up at night? Those type of questions. just so we can call all sort of get that stuff out of the table and start to talk through some of those things. So, um usually it's a combination of a lot of that stuff where it's a little bit of um get to know you feel good stuff and then it's a little bit of um background information and then a little bit of strategic thought. And um generally coming out of it, you might have a few topics that we might want to reconvene. Maybe not at a retreat, an all day retreat type session, but just at a special workshop or something of that nature. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Do you uh do you envision hiring someone or having someone from the outside to facilitate this? >> Yeah, I I told staff the other day, I'm still very much 5050 on that. I think it can be very valuable. Um, it can be a nice lift off of staff's shoulders to not have to go through the machinations of producing documents and uh turning out, you know, minutes and gathering thoughts and all that kind of stuff. Uh, but at the same time, I do want this to be heavily staffled and um, you know, not just the expenditure part of it, but uh, just making sure that we're all bought in and are all doing the work to make sure that this is uh, a plan that staff is fully behind and isn't sort of led in the direction that a consultant might want to lead it, you know, um obviously you're still in control of that consultant, but you know how when I mean it sometimes there's just different perspectives that come forward. And um so I I could go either way. If anyone felt strongly um or had a recommendation on a consultant they've used, we we certainly take that. I've been exploring a couple different consultants. I want to have that option ready for you as we get to that point. So I have I haven't solicited proposals yet, but I've talked to a few consultants already about the possib Any thoughts on that piece of it, council? >> I'm open. >> And sometimes it is nice to just have a third party facilitator. And if they're good at their job, that's all they're doing is facilitating, right? They're not interjecting their opinion so much as just being the one to kind of be the intermediary and keep things moving. That kind of thing. >> I would be I'd be open to that. I I think I don't know if there would be a maybe it's a a city administrator from a neighboring city that's in this that we're not spending a ton of money for consultant fees, but to just lead that and be that third party removed and not so intimately involved in what you know all of our thoughts are, but or just get some pricing maybe next step on something like that. I just I think for other than yourself, but for the staff to be really heavily involved, which I'd want them be participating, but actually presenting might be a heavy lift for for the that at this point, but appreciate it. Thank you. So, I guess first question, are we in favor of of this plan? And if so, um, maybe we get some some pricing on on having someone lead that potentially. >> Think it's a good idea. >> Yeah, I I think it's laid out well. >> Is that enough direction? >> It's enough. Yeah. Just just, you know, in the in the memo, I think I I it's hard for me to remember sometimes what what's in the memo just in my head, but um I think I talked about just the timing of this being after we adopt the preliminary budget, right? There's really no time obviously between now and adopting this preliminary budget to have any sort of strategic discussion but we're going to get there adopt a preliminary budget and then it's a chance for us to take a deep breath right and say okay that's behind us it was a tough go to get there obviously we spent months talking about a budget um you get there and then you I think that'll be a nice framing part of our discussion here's our budget that we've adopted as a preliminary budget where do we go from um what can we do within that budget for next year? What might you know this isn't necessarily just a I say strategic planning process for 2026. It doesn't mean we're going to do a one-year strategic plan, right? This is probably a three to five year plan um where we have some much longer uh long view goals. And so, um, some of those things will be thinking about what can we do within our budget, but we're also going to look at that 10-year plan, see the obstacles or opportunities that we have in that plan, and what can we do within that framework. And so, I think um, that'll be a nice, I think, timing, that's that October time frame for a retreat where we can say, all right, we just came off the budget cycle here. Let's regroup and see what we have going forward. So, >> um, the How about the question as to when to bring public input in? Any thoughts around that council before, during, after? I mean, we can spin up a a survey or, you know, some engagement piece beforehand. It doesn't hurt to put that out to the public. Um, you know, I think Mark's probably on to something where, you know, their feedback might be a little bit ambiguous versus if we bring forward, hey, here's what we're thinking, you know, are we on track or not, at least that gives them some boundaries in which to react to. Um, so, you know, if we can spin them something super high level beforehand, you know, doesn't hurt. But I think we're going to probably we should expect our our greatest feedback and look for our greatest feedback once we kind of give them, you know, a picture to color in. >> I I think you hit on something there. May maybe in that we get the process starting, but through that in the middle of that process when there's some maybe some direction from us that we put that out and make sure that we're tracking with what the community feels we should be working on. might be a good good thought process. And that brings up a bigger question as to surveys in general. You know, you uh council member Erikson mentioned going out to Castlewood and we've got a a big expense there in the next couple years. And so, one of those questions to the public is do we do we want to continue invest into this municipal golf course and what does that look like? And so questions like that might be a separate survey, but just surveys in general and trying to get as much interaction with with the residents. So this could be the start of that. >> Okay, that's enough direction then. We'll >> 9C naming rights for city buildings. Uh Dave. >> Yeah. So, we're at the parks commission on Wednesday night and uh a resident came up and and asked um that the parks commission be interested in naming the clubhouse after Jim Trudeau. Um Commissioner Tyson perfectly said, I don't think we have a policy on this and I don't know if that's something that the parks commission should be deciding. I think that's probably a city council decision or discussion to decide if they want to start putting naming rights on on city buildings. So with that, I kind of quick minute quick turnar around and put a me on here and just a discussion uh with council of if that's something council would entertain, if that's something council wants to stay away from. U we've done memorials and done plaques. We just haven't really done naming buildings. The only thing that does come to mind is the Deonte airport, but there's there's a lot of history there just instead of, you know, naming that that facility. So, just looking for discussion, direction of what you want from staff uh to do next steps. >> You want to anything? Yeah, I mean I you know just I can think of an example in Hugo they named the the park there Pete Peterson Park. Um you know there's a number of I know in a former community I worked for it was talk about naming picnic shelters and you can get down to that level of stuff too, right? And like as Dave mentioned, you have benches and trees that can be or paper bricks and that kind of stuff. So there's a continuum of of things way to honor people. It's just a matter of whether or not you want to go that direction. And then as Dave mentioned in the memo, you could go all the way up to like, you know, making it a revenue generation type of thing. Obviously, like usually that's more for like an ice arena or something of that nature, but certainly an opportunity. Yeah, this is a kind of a tough one because, you know, in this particular situation with um with Jim Trudeau and his connection to that golf course and all he did for this community and his time here as as police chief and sheriff and on and on, the Lakes Youth Service Bureau. Um, it kind of is a no-brainer for me if the family was on board with that that this would be a very fitting uh memorial to to to Jim for everything he's done. Um, you know, then that brings on the next question is okay for signage is there money in a parks. So when you start going down that road like what if this then maybe a policy is the best way to to do it. Um, I think that potentially there's got to cities have to have policies in place like this. So, not having to recreate the the wheel. Um, but I I I'm not also a big red tape person either. So, I, you know, it's like but we have issues sometimes with naming, you know, tree bunny plaques at the park and all that. And so, it's a slippery slope, but >> I think you have a the right idea, though. I'd rather see uh that facility especially in particular rather than being named after a business or something like that having it named after somebody who's put so much effort and detail into keeping that building and things alive for the community I think is a is a good thing. And as far as like your signage, I bet you could probably get some some of the people would be willing to have a fundraiser or something like that to raise money for whatever type of signage you'd like to put out there or have a annual golfing event or something to raise money or something like that. >> And that and that was kind of what was discussed at the parks commission meeting is naming rights and memorials, right? So, at that same meeting, they approved a memorial to be placed at uh the Flaw Fields or Fenway Fields for Elhogi, and it was a bronze plaque that listed a bunch of things that he did and that it was his favorite spot and they want that put there. And that was part of that discussion too is does naming it Al Hoggy Fields mean more than having a a plaque donated that when you walk into the clubhouse there's a plaque that has you know Jim Trudeau with all of his accomplishments. you know, that's what you weigh out is if you name it, do people even understand what it's named or is it is it more valuable to have a, you know, a plaque when you walk in there to for somebody to go, okay, no, I understand, you know, what this is. So, they kind of went back and forth on that as well of, you know, what's more does the name as important of, you know, having something there that actually lists out the accomplishments? and we got down a rabbit hole and then let's let council decide this. >> Thanks, >> Dave. With that plaque or whatever that you just described out at the fields, what budget covered that? >> So, the the flaw paid for that. So, they uh they proposed it, they designed it, they brought it to the parks commission to get approval to get it. We have a memorial policy now um with the city. So they they approved it and then let them place it there at at Flaw Fields. >> Can you say more about that memorial policy? >> Well, you guys approved it. So they they recommended uh the council to approve it, but it's it's spells out trees, benches, plaques, >> you name it throughout the city of how you go about it doing it, who who's responsible for cost, all that those steps. So there's that there's kind of a a process now to being able to at least do that. >> Sure. >> So if we want to do this these naming right things that's what I would recommend if we want to go down this path that we create a policy. So there is a policy that's black and white that everything gets evaluated you know the same way >> instead of just kind of somebody comes up and says I want to name it this and then we say okay and then so same thing with memorials that we just wanted that process of how this goes along. Yeah, I would agree 100% that while there might be things like this clubhouse that feel kind of obvious, it's not going to be the only one. And so to have a policy in place that we can lean on or future councils can lean on and staff can lean on, it's absolutely the way to go in my opinion. >> Yeah, I definitely think that there should be a policy. Um, especially if we have the policy for the memorials, I think it only solidifies that we should have a policy for this as well. Especially because this it can get to be such gray area of people coming in and Jim Trudeau is a name and a person that the community knows well, but if it's someone who the community doesn't know well, would a council be like, "Oh, no, we don't know that person." So I just without a policy to me it could go down um the path of who you know based on who council knows um or who staff knows. So I think a policy would be the best direction to head down. >> Um in this particular case I think we were we were emailed by maybe the resident that had requested this back a number of years ago. There's nothing really other than just approaching the planning comm or the park commission. There hasn't been a formal request for this yet, right? >> Because there's really no there's no process of doing this other than u the resident coming up and and and proposing that. So I think that's part of that policy, right, is here's here's the steps to do this. And like you said, it's who pays for it? Is there a petition? is you know what all you know it's probably going to have to be a workshop deal where we find a bunch of different cities that have these policies and then kind of just like we do with other things is figure out what what the city wants to do. But every time you say one thing and then it's five more questions on that one. So it's I think having a policy with black and white is the way to go if we want to go down that route of allowing people to name it. The other thing is if you do open it up then it's going to be hard to say no to somebody if they want to name something and if they follow the policy that then >> and maybe at the end of the day our policy is is that there is no naming rights. So I mean >> that was my last sentence too is you know we can also just choose to not have a policy and we don't name anything. We we we allow memorials, we allow plaques to be put up, we can we allow trees, benches, all that. we just are not going to let you know our city buildings be named. So I mean that's also an option. Do we um I I don't know maybe on this particular request that came to the parks commission and is there ability to go back to that that individual or if there's a group that's behind that uh and ask if a memorial some type of plaque similar to what they did out at Fenway is um s you know suffice or they they'd be okay with that or if they really do want a name you know the actual name on the building then there's probably going to be a little bit of a delay to be able to review that and see if that could happen or and it may not end up being possible. >> Yep. We can go back to him. I still need to know what you want me to do with naming rancing. Do you want me to create some policies and and and look at that or do you want to stick with that we're not going to be naming city buildings? My opinion is as just a council member is we want to stay away from the naming rights. I think it's a very slippery slope. However, before we would go ahead and say yes, I think we have to come up with our conditions, our rules, how we're going to do that and what's all going to be involved. So, at this point, I would say the plaque would be the only option or the recognition program we have currently in place until we as a council either decide we want to look at this and evaluate it and come up with a policy or just say no. I think naming city buildings and city parks and things like that can become a very challenging thing especially if it's maybe based on donations um more so than recognition or whatever and and there's I think there's a lot of challenges with it personally but it's my opinion. So, I don't think you're going to get a hard answer here, Dave, where it's like you probably want us to say, "No, we're not going to name BA buildings at all. It'd be done." But I I think a little more thought because there could be some opportunities that we're we might miss out. And not that we can't change a policy in the future, but you know, if there are some naming rights where there's some revenue opportunities for the city for a parks department or something, I wouldn't want to completely rule that out. Uh, so I think um that's just mine, but but Kevin is leaning a different way, which is fine, but if I'm in the if you guys are thinking, you know what, let's not go down this road, I'm open to that, too. I'm not not hard set on it either way. >> I guess personally, I'd rather maybe at a workshop look at what are our peer communities, those that we usually benchmark against, you know, where are they at on this? What are they what have they done? Um, you know, just so we're not, you know, at least at least looking at the options. We may still end up saying, you know, no, but I think it's at least worth the conversation. >> Maybe not a full-fledged policy, but just some general parameters that other communities are using. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's where it gets tricky because you probably have naming rights and then you have memorial names, right? So you could have name your company ball fields versus name your person ball field. And it may that may be just a petition that says we want this named after this individual where name your company ball fields may be generating dollars for the parks. So that council member Miller's point I mean that's that's where you get down that which way do you go with that? I mean, is it a are you trying to generate revenue or are you trying to, you know, name places after, you know, memorials and that's that's a whole >> I'll work on it. >> I I mean, >> put it on a workshop. >> Yeah. And and this isn't I don't think this is, you know, with everything else going on, it's not something I think we need need immediate uh attention to. I think it may be a response back to the individual saying we could we'd be more than open to do a memorial type plaque for the building right now, but we're just not prepared to make that decision and sometime over the winter if it's a work, you know, we can just get some thoughts on what other city's doing and and move forward that way. >> Yep. We'll definitely reach back out and kind of let her know where we're at. I don't I don't think she was assuming it was going to get decided tonight, but just to kind of give her a heads up of uh we're all at with that. I think I have enough. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank Thank you. Uh staff updates. Um we'll start with uh Jolene. >> Just a quick update. We have our first human resources dedicated staff person starting this week. So I know I'm excited. I know a lot of our staff members are excited. So we'll be welcoming Wendy Peterson on Thursday. Um and then I'll also be conducting deputy clerk interviews this week as well. So big week in the administration department for hiring. >> Great. >> Um I just wanted to call out an item that was in the consent agenda for the general public. The uh mid coast borderto-border grant that the council contributed to dedicated funds to many years ago, but we're actually um providing for. It did provide fiber internet connection to over 300 properties in the kind of southwest corner of Forest Lake that had either no reliable or under under reliable unreliable um service options. So that was a pretty big um project that Midco did and I think that many of our residents and businesses are going to benefit from or could benefit from. >> Dave, anything else tonight? corn feed. Corn feed tomorrow night. So, um, come on. Come on. Come on. We have 11, 1100 cobs of corn to give out. Uh, starting at 6:00 p.m. They'll probably get going a little bit earlier than that, but uh, we have parks commission and uh, beautifification crew uh, running the running the stand. So, come down and get a bunch of volunteers. So, >> stop out. Uh, Rock and Hollywoods, too. This is the last Arts in the Park for the year. So, it's kind of the last grand finale of the year. >> Great. Uh, Chief Peterson. >> Yeah. Mayor and City Council members, no updates, but I just want to thank you for uh the nice um tribute and recognition of Detective Josh Brown. >> Ryan, mayor, city council, I got a three updates for you guys. Just keep in mind the first one, I'm just the messenger. Uh so I'm just going to read the email that I got for related to Highway 97 today just so you guys have the same information that I have. Uh right now we are stating that Highway 97 will be open from Everton to six trunk highway 61 as a single lane in each direction by September 6. The single signal will not be operational at this time. So it will be an allway stop until that is functional. Entire stretch of trunk highway 97 is anticipated to open by mid November. So that's obviously a lot different changes than it was when I before I went on vacation. So I just wanted to relay that. I'll obviously be following up with some additional questions throughout the week on that schedule. Uh South Water Tower, the logos have been completed. So just in time for football season, so that'll look really nice. Uh Northshore Trail, we plan on paving uh base course on phase three end of this week. maybe goes into early next week just when they can get to it. Uh and then we'll just have uh phase one left on Northshore Trail. Remember phase two is Hayward Avenue. Phase one actually is uh by far the shortest phase. So that'll be a nice short phase to finish that. Uh and then we'll start milling and reclaiming in phase one on September 2nd, so after Labor Day. So everything should be paved uh along Northshore Drive for Labor Day weekend. So that'll be nice. That's what I have unless you have any questions. >> And then when will the go back and do the final course lift? >> We'll still got to work through phase one and get that base course paved and then we'll pave everything all together when it's ready >> this fall. >> Yep. Correct. Amanda, >> no. >> Mark, just a reminder, we do have a work session on Wednesday this week. That's a new schedule. Um, the fire board meeting scheduled for Thursday has been cancelled. Um, Alan, I believe, just made that decision late this afternoon. We'll be communicating that out to everybody else. Um otherwise um no I think as Jolene mentioned we're happy to welcome one of our first new hires here uh on the administrative side but also have two more that will join us time before the next city council meeting. So you can imagine we're going to on board three very important hires here and we thank the council for their support giving us those that that help. So it's going to be a huge difference >> council member Miller. No updates. >> Council member Valento. >> Nothing from me today. >> Council member Ericson. >> Yeah, I had the opportunity to um attend Detective uh Josh's funeral and it was you know just the stories and the people that shared from from the front was just very very moving. So your your comments at the top of the hour were spot on. Um, and then I also had the chance to uh meet with Dave and the folks running um Castlewood Golf Course, get a tour of the work being done out there um which is very very helpful um as we start to consider budgets. So really appreciate the time they took. Um so thank you Dave too. >> Council member Larson, >> nothing to add tonight. Thank you. >> I don't have any more to add. They don't. As far as those two points that uh Council Member Ericson made, and I mentioned earlier, Castlewood, um they're doing great things out there. There's 14,000 rounds of golf last year that was played and they're on track to do that again. We started this week, right Dave? Some enhancements to uh couple of the greens. >> Three uh drainage uh issues and a green expansion. So that's this week. Uh so, you know, long term, a lot of money needs to be spent out there to keep that uh facility up to par. Um feedback from the public would be really welcomed on on that, but um I think they're doing a great job and it's with 14,000 rounds, it's for sure the heaviest used park in the in the city. So, we appreciate that partnership with them. So, uh that is all we have now. We are going to go into a close session. Is anyone willing to make that motion to go into close session? >> Sure. I move to close the meeting pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.05 subdivision 3A for the city administrator performance review. The close session will be held in the forest conference room and will commence immediately. Once the close session is completed, the city council will reconvene the open portion of the regular meeting and as there is no other items on the agenda. Once back in session, the council will adjurnn. >> Motions or second? >> I'll second. >> Any further discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. I'll just make one other note that uh for those watching from home, uh we will not be videoing through this. When we get done with our close session, we'll be coming back in here and journing the meeting. So, we are in close session. [Music]