[Music] all right we are right at 7 o'clock so I'll call tonight's city council meeting to order and Jolene could we have a roll call please council members Ericson here husnik here valento here Roberts here mayor Bane here I invite everyone to rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance pled Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all members of council we have an agenda before you I will entertain a motion to approve or any changes move I'll second we have a motion and a second all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and our agenda is approved our next item this evening is open Forum open Forum as any interested parties opportunity to address Council on any topic of your choice of their choice um we do also have um two um planned public hearings this evening the first being for our first regular agenda item which is the Hidden Creek Edition and second is for the shields Lake consideration and so if you are here to speak on those topics you are welcome to to either speak now in open Forum or for those public hearings um those are our three planned um times for um public input this evening is there anybody signed up for open Forum there's not right anybody online Jolene um no attendees raising their hand to speak mayor all right we will close open forum and bring the agenda back to council Council for your consideration tonight uh is consent agenda items 6A through 6j I will entertain a motion or any changes I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda items 6 a through 6j there is a motion is there a second I'll second we have a motion and a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and consent agenda is approved our next item this evening is item 7A which is consideration of the Hidden Creek second edition and Abby you're going to start us on this thank you mayor Bay and members of the council uh tonight before you you have a request from job John dobs representing Headwaters Land Development the request for you is consideration of a final plat for Hidden Creek Second Edition that's a 37 lot single family residential development on 11 acres so up on the screen you do see the site location where this is proposed to be at at the end of Headwaters Parkway that is uh the second phase of a multiphase development just as a reminder the City previously approved a preliminary plat and PUD for a 620 acre development in February of 22 in August of 23 you approved a final planned unit development and the first phase of the uh development which is that kind of pinkish red area um almost fully developed out now we're moving on to the green and the north um regarding the final plat for consideration tonight we have received comments from the city engineer and has received Watershed District approval overall the plan generally conforms to to the city's comprehensive plan the zoning code surface water management plan engineering standards and the such it conforms to the preliminary plat standards and approval conditions and does meet the city's minimum standards for development prior to Plat approval you have a few things to consider this evening um one of them would be the vacation of a drainage and utility easement that kind of snakes through the out lot as it's platted today the city required this in the event that those subsequent phases didn't go through that we could loop our water up to the existing water mains to the north additionally um English Avenue North is at the end of the existing development a culdesac was temporarily put in again in the event that those subsequent phases didn't come forward so tonight you need to hold a public hearing on the development specifically to consider the vacation of those two or excuse me to consider both those vacations State Statute does require you to find that there's no public purpose for those um staff has done analysis on this and given the fact that we have this new development coming forward the roads are going to connect the utilities are going to connect through that this second edition we don't have any public purpose anymore for that utility and that roadway easement additionally for your consideration tonight is a development agreement associated with Hidden Creek second edition there are a couple things the developer asked for the city's consideration on in that uh development agreement one would be the consideration of three Model Homes the city has written written into the development agreement the allowance for two Model Homes at the um extension of English Avenue North because we'd be able to provide the access to those two lots kind of coming off that area that's already prepped just at the end of that culdesac additionally the request has been to allow for Parkland dedic fees tonight that's $2,500 per lot for a total of 92,500 to be dedicated for the future Parkland development of the headwaters um The Hidden Creek neighborhood uh staff has indicated that uh we do believe that this should go into our Park dedication fund but that in subsequent phases the developer could come forward with a proposal for the development of a Parkland and we could consider using those fees at that time but right now since no parkland's being dedicated it should just be going into our Parkland dedication fund to offset some of the costs that we need throughout the community and then lastly the third thing for your consideration is um the consideration of deferment of the headwaters Parkway development so as a reminder the city allowed for the temporary construction of Headwaters Parkway during the first phase a requirement was that the second phase would have to have full buildout of that Parkway so the developer has asked for the city's either defer M of that to a subsequent phase or something written into the development agreement that would allow for temperature or wether dependent delays to allow them to do it into June of 2025 we live in Minnesota we all know that there's temperature and weather conditions the development agreement is written so that we can come back and ask for those amendments at a later time but staff's opinion is that the development agreement is written requiring Headwaters Parkway to be built now before the release of any more building permits other than those two Model Homes is in the be Public's best interest right now we have um we're getting close to 22 residences 22 new families in the community adding more houses to this neighborhood uh without all of the public infrastructure in place isn't good public practice we really should be requiring our public um improvements fully developed before we add more properties um lastly just uh note um the there are four motions for your consideration tonight staff has written them out in the staff report um we can go through them after you hold that public hearing if you like but there would be a minor modification to the fourth one to authorize staff to incorporate the financial securities into a single letter of credit um as part of the da approval so for again in quick summary your consideration tonight is consideration of the final plat for Hidden Creek second edition the vacation of the English Avenue North RightWay um the vacation of the drainage and utility easement through Hidden Creek and the consideration of The Da uh first You' my recommendation would be to open the public hearing take public comment close the public hearing and discuss and I'm here to answer any questions now or or later whichever you have very good very good thank you Abby Council before we um hear from the developer and also open public comment any um first questions for Abby before we continue all right um and I know Mr dobs is here um before we open the public hearing is there anything you wanted to present to council or anything you want us to know um yeah I'll talk please um good evening John dobs from uh Headwaters Land Group um we appreciate all the effort that's gone in to get us to this point and uh in general don't really have any um objections to almost everything except for the headwaters Parkway conversation um as I think a few of you will recall uh when we stood here and talked about um the first phase uh we talked a lot about the neighborhood to the north as well and no heavy trucks no heavy equipment any of that the part that got left out I think at least from my point of view and the discussion uh that was just given is is that the way that this process is going we were hoping to already be graded it rains every 3 days it rained last night we're way behind um last year it was so dry we had to stand here and discuss with staff how to change the way we graded the site because it was so dry this year it is as wet as I've ever seen it I've been doing this since 1992 so the way that the process has to go because there are people in the first phase is we have to finish the second phase so that the residents in the first phase have a way to get out once we start working working on Headwaters Parkway Headwaters Parkway is going to take about two weeks Fair assessment Ryan about two weeks so we have to build all the second phase streets curb um small utilities we'd like to get sidewalks in before we come back and tear out Headwaters otherwise the people that live in first phase have nowhere to go right now we believe that we're going to be doing the asphalt work in the second phase probably mid September if not late September just because how the weather's going and right now every 3 or 4 days it rains which means we lost today and we will probably lose part of tomorrow as well from grading because the soil is Pretty Tough what all that means is is that we're into September or October before we go back and tear Headwaters out of the ground and then we shut down for two weeks that time of the year temperature snow rain things don't dry that's a public Street um and then to uh in my opinion to also hold building permits on the entire 37 lots and not be willing to put any language in the developers agreement if it gets to the point where the weather is tough is basically putting a gun to our head and I just don't understand why right now there's a 32 foot wide Street holding up pretty well uh for context the reason we wanted to do temporary mat was right at the where Headwaters ended um was a drain tile system that drains two miles to the east used to be called judicial ditch number four that's been pumping water into the subsoil for a hundred years I was concerned that it would destabilize the road and we'd have to come back and tear it back out Mr Goodman thought that it would hold up he was right right up until this spring and right now if you go out there right where the road starts to curve there is a hole in the ground about this big because the inspector for the city our contractor missed it there's a piece of drain tile that got cut that's pumping water straight up it'd be right under the curb of where Headwaters would be built today so I don't know know the future anymore than Mr Goodman does and I respect that that being said um Our intention and what my ask is been for weeks is that we put off the construction and Headwaters until next summer our intent is to come back and do the third phase we have to do Headwaters finish it before we do the third phase um because we can't have equipment coming through the north if we could do it June 15th to June 30th of next year we could plan the neighbors could plan the Builder could plan everybody would know hey the road's going to be closed for 2 weeks and you got to go through the neighborhood don't bring your equipment don't bring your construction equipment I talk to all the Neighbors on our North Boundary and I've been talking to them I was talking to them tonight um they are pretty gracious so far with all the dirt and all the dust and all the stuff but you know I'm trying to impact them as little as possible it looks arbitrary to me that the decision has been made that this has to be tied to building permits and we have to finish Headwaters this fall I believe what's going to end up happening is we're going to be running later than I already think I was an optimist for a while but I'm not anymore it's going to be cold we're going to be moving snow we're going to have to move more expense because we're going to have to cure the sidewalk sidewalk asphalt um gravel roll tests all of those are weather and moisture dependent in the city code correct Ryan all of them are if it gets too cold you can't you have to do special measures things get more expensive it's our road until we put the final lift in We Own It you guys haven't accepted it it'll be a better Road next summer my plan was to already be mostly built I'm hoping I'll get it built before the end of September Capstone has done a phenomenal job with the building if you guys haven't been out there it's really doing well um talked to a bunch of the residents they're all happy life is good um we just want to systematically work our way through the process given where we're at today given the weather which I don't know what it's going to be tomorrow I disagree that it's a in the public best interest to pull it in this fall and did not have any language in the developers agreement my experience with that is we start to get late in the fall then we're going to have dialogue with the staff and the staff's going to say to me because I've heard this before in the developers agreement it says blah blah blah and then now it's like okay now we really have to grind it out and or pay whatever cost it is to try to get Asphalt in I don't know what the rush to the red light is I just don't and yes I am the fact that it wouldn't even go into the developers agreement is a weather dependent thing I kind of see as a gun to my head and I don't understand why we're here so that's kind of my point about that that's the only real issue we have uh the developers agreement has um extra assurity in it that in my understanding later in this meeting will get cleaned up um for a letter of credit um so I see that as housekeeping but this is not housekeeping thank you yeah and it's not before the next phase it's by June 30th of next year we'll have it done so thank you anybody got any questions or comments yet I will later let's move to um public hearing and then we can um open it up for some discussion all right um with that let's open up our public hearing and if there is anybody that would like to speak on this topic please um come to the podium and we'll open up public hearing now is there anybody that would like to speak on this topic angelene anybody coming forward online no mayor all right leave it open here for just another moment and not seeing anyone come forward we'll close public hearing and bring conversation back to council Council let's open it up for um any questions that you might have um both on the presentation from Abby comments we may have heard we comments we heard from Mr dobs um go ahead and let's just open it up my question would be for Ryan I mean that it seemed like a this seemed like a really reasonable request based on what's going on there and the the folks that have been doing this job too they're they have a proven track record and so I think uh they could possibly get that done the way they're saying and uh so I don't know if unless Ryan has some really compelling um so mayor city council uh deing staff discussion the reasons why we are requiring the Parkways part of phase two as it was discussed and part of phase one so it's not something new that's coming but the reasons we're uh requiring that is it's gone through one phase freestyle cycle right so all the sub cuts from the de into the East Parkway where it stops now to the intersection up into the existing development was subcut last year fabric was put down all the sand was put down about 5 in or so of Class 5 was put down it was was left low on purpose no one were going to have to come in and uh reclaim the existing bituminous temporary mats and that would generate some other class five talking two weeks of construction right with 22 homes right now you got 22 homes out there that's they are going to have to go up and around an existing neighborhood that's going to go past 63 homes plus 21 other town homes that's if they take the straight route otherwise they could go three other side streets and effect and drive past 57 more homes if we allow phase two to go in that's 37 more homes plus all their contractors that are going to be driving up past all those homes I just outlined so to deal with two weeks of construction now why we're only got 22 homes trapped in there it makes the most sense to get it done now and there and then we're talking two weeks of construction so there's not really much work to really do there but the longer we wait prices will probably go up and we're going to affect more residents not only in this development but already people that have been living to the North for well over 20 years right and that's what we're trying to avoid it's only going to get worse and more congested as you wait if Public Safety has been a concern too because even right now with the narrow roads that were allowed Al can't get a fire truck through there so this is the reason why this was written in the development agreements I open that with any questions you might have followup questions for Ryan um I have um so I have concerns over allowing the the delay in the construction um I think my concerns are primarily I'm hearing I'm hearing weather related concerns and can we just wait to do this till next spring and with that comes some thought that maybe next spring is easier and we don't know what that is and so I I'm concerned on allowing such a long time frame of delay um that if if the entire project were to be delayed that's one thing um but simply the the to allow for the sequencing to be changed for weather again I I I just find us on this path on adjustments for weather and this doesn't lead to a good place and so for the reasons Ryan indicated around you know just concerns over Public Safety we've already given some concessions on this particular Street related to the design that was a fairly big concession for us um I have some concerns over allowing the change in sequencing any other I guess we'll open other points of feedback there are other um components on this project um we can start walking through those motions or any other questions folks may have hearing no other questions if we wanted to I'm happy to entertain a motion if anyone's ready can I make a comment I'm sure a a comment if you'd like to come to the podium for sure first of all I don't know what concession you're referring to on Headwaters Parkway I by the way I'm Paul bramman um working with John on the development of this um I so I don't know we gave you a design concession when you were um on Headwaters Parkway as part of the our previous um approval okay maybe somebody can tell me what that is because I don't think you have we have a temporary road map but the road itself was never a compromise or a reduction on that Headwaters Parkway my understanding but that was a concession that was not our that was not our standard practice right so to Ryan's point you know you're forcing us to put this in and and then and if we don't get it in you're telling us we can't pull building permits on the phase that we're putting in that's absolutely ridiculous that's that's as it's vindictive I appreciate your opinion but I also find the language of we're holding a gun to your head kind of offensive well I didn't say that but I'm telling you that to put in there that we'll do it at our best efforts to try to get it in very you know barring weather we don't even know this year has been very hard for us we don't even have our site graded we don't even have it halfway graded and maybe this phase isn't ready to move forward then Sir with all respect and again I don't want to entertain this conversation right now all right ready for motions if anyone's ready for motions can I so motions are are we talking about these other things about the Parkland or is this just this just yeah that's yeah okay so um the three Model Homes can we discuss that a little bit is I mean is there a why wouldn't we if there there ask for three why was why is that not possible so um they've asked for three and we've written in two the without having those the infrastructure in place the public utilities the roadways um the we're concerned that we'd be adding more homes into a neighborhood that we can't adequately Serve and Protect um so the two homes just to the north of the existing roadway we'd be able to access with the temporary roadways that would be in place um we thought that two was a reasonable request customary practice uh for the city has been one and so to ask for three is just a little bit above and Beyond what we are customarily would do and we can still protect and serve those two existing or those two future homes where is the proposed third home on the map do you have can um believe if I remember right it's lot seven so um it isn't even in the area where the temporary culdesac is located they would have to do some further site grading and improvements in that area to be able to get um access in did you have other questions council member Roberts about the other items um so the Parkland um dedication I I could see maybe going forward where where a developer want is going to spend this money wants to keep it within that neighborhood I can see that um I would suspect that' be a policy change that we would have to do on something like that um so I I going forward I'd be in favor of this but unfortunately my understanding that's not the policy of the city so it'd be hard to to make that change for me right now this is only um the completion of Hidden Creek second edition is only half of the whole neighborhood we still will have conversations about Parkland dedication with the subsequent phases the third phase being that whole other half or even portions of that half and I do think it's appropriate to have those conversations um as we kind of continue forward but right now without having any sort of Park Land Development even proposed um and knowing the council knowing the needs of our Park system as it is um IT staff believes that it would be in the city's best interest to put that money into the Parkland dedication fund to be going to those improvements needed throughout the community since the existing residents the future residents of these phases are going to be using that existing Parkland system for quite some time and then one last thing I I understand the the frustration Mr buam and Mr dobs um we have done some concessions we allow this park uh way to be built half built we did allow uh outside engineering to come in which is two things that we typically have not done here in the past and so I just I understand the frustration but please know that we are willing to work with developers that that that we want to help wherever we can I think we have done a pretty good job of doing that I would hope that if we do get into a weather situation and it's close that maybe there's a little bit of give and take on allowing some of these um uh building permits to be issued if that's what it takes but just to continue to work in good faith with staff and we appreciate the development and and everything that you've done here and and look forward to working with you in the future we're not open to additional public comment I can't sign a developer agreement that the city can arbitrarily hold up our building permits I mean that that that I get you know I mean there's a letter Credit in place I I just I don't even know who thought of that that we putting millions of dollars in the ground and if we don't get a road in you're going to hold up my building permits it sounds like we find the road to be pretty important yeah but it listen to what you're doing I mean look at the consequences if if we don't do it it's a it's insane I mean I agree if we can do it and weather and things straighten out and we're able to move our project along but you're asking me to sign something that we don't have any control over and we would work with the staff try to get the road in if we can do it we have the money we have the letter of credit we have everything in place but to make me sign a developers agreement that says you're going to hold up building permits I really would love to know who on the staff that came up with that idea we we're not doing this this evening way to work with your developers and encourage us to come and mayor I was just going to remind you then as you take the Motions you'll want to take them in order as they are in the sheet to make sure you vacate things before you approve the pl so underst understand any other questions related to the Motions on the table that are before us all right we can walk through these and again happy to entertain discussion along the way if anyone has questions or points of discussion um so first would be motion to approve and I would move that Council approve resolution 723 2401 approving the vacation of the unused utility easement as part of the Hidden Creek first edition is there a second second we have a motion and a second any discussion on this particular motion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose motion carries second I would move Council um approve resolution 7232 2402 approving the vacation of the unused English Avenue North roadway easement as it was ploted as part of the Hidden Creek first edition is there a second I'll second we have a motion and a second any further discussion on this one hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppos motion carries third motion to approve resolution 72324 403 approving the Hidden Creek second edition final plat is there a second second we have a motion and a second any discussion on this one hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose motion carries for discussion purposes I will also move that Council approve the development agreement for the hidden plat or for the plat of hiding Creek second edition by in between the city of forest lake and Headwaters Land Group LLC with minor modification by the City attorney and to authorize staff to take steps NE necessary to put all financial securities associated with this development agreement and the first phase development agreement into a single letter of credit that contains the cost of the parkway once for discussion per purposes I will make the motion is there a second I'll second it we have a motion in a second open to discussion I'd be curious if there's a number of uh building permits that devel developer would be find useful over the course of the winter if things go go Ary this fall and we end up having a continued wet summer as we've had um I mean surely they don't need all the building permits to uh keep themselves busy over the winter but that there might be a compromise there perhaps do I under so let's oh before I interject a second question um do we know that answer or what's the um we do not it's it's just not it's not customary practice to allow for building permits to be released without all the public improvements and that's not just Forest Lakes way that is a very standard development requirement that the public improvements go in before you start building homes and introducing more residents to the neighborhood so we did not ask that question um staff has advised the developer we have a lot of time I know what you get going and time goes quick but we we've got quite a bit of time between us and when snow is flying and so I think um getting these approvals getting them out there um we as a reminder to the council we did already approve a mass grading agreement they can go out and and grade the site they've been doing that um getting these approvals and getting them out there to work is important and keeping that communication open so that if we need to come back and have that conversation about release of additional building permits we can but we do think it's premature to be asking for that at this time can somebody describe um what the public safety limitation is on not having of not having that street and I Brian in your comments you made motion of not able to get a fir truck what specifically is the limitation and can we just describe that again what the public safety impact is I don't don't know today what that is what we've talked about is the the weight of fire trucks causes an issue on on roads that are that have a single lift and haven't been developed all the way through the other concern is when you start getting out into phase two where you start build a lot of houses we don't know what that or what that uh moisture if we get moisture will do that roadway once again being able to access that with heavy trucks so if that turns into muddy um uh Frost coming out of the ground and just us not being able to reach those houses that far ahead in uh construction was um they start building the houses okay I um I appreciate the um kind of the intent of the the direction you're taking council member Ericson my concern is we end ourselves up on this slippery slope of I mean part of one of the questions that comes to my mind is can we can we authorize a um building permit but hold a certificate of occupancy until the till the um that roadway is complete so that some construction activities can take place but we aren't impacting actual residents because we are holding that certificate of occupancy and as those words come out of my mouth I just again I get concerned that we are because of weather we are allowing things to get resequenced in a way that is just not I'm I'm just not comfortable that it's the right path um so coun or Christina mayor so when you said that I I wanted wanted to let you all know that we thought about that too the cosos and I think you need to again think about your future residents right so they may have put down money and been paid on this house if you're now going to be holding up that Co they're going to be upset they're not going to move into their house on time they're going to have to find other living arrangements this is a real life scenario I lived in my previous Community it does happen and so we are staff is really thinking about our current and future residents first and foremost when we make these recommendations to you yeah thank you for bringing that up um one of my um most awful times as on Council was when we were um having concerns over CER certificate of occupancy over Lighthouse laughs and the calls we were getting from residents who are um needing to move in and needing to to make some arrangements and that pressure is not a fun place and I'd rather just again avoid it all together um so other discussion we do have a motion and a second on the table I I will say I have um I'm I'm going to support this development agreement tonight but I am concerned about the level of conflict in the room and going you know going into an agreement with this level of conflict um is challenging but this has been a long-term relationship we've solved lots of problems I'm going to I'm happy to um agree to it or support it um with some optimism that will'll find a path but I do have some concerns so um with that all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries thank you so much okay Council for um um our next item this evening is Shields Lake consideration and Amanda we're going to start with you and then we'll open up a public hearing yes thank youor uh so just point of reference in your packet this starts at page 123 uh this is a vacation of a public Road off of 207th Street it's a portion of 207th back in 2021 uh the city entered into a land swap agreement with Joe and Dena Palumbo um this agreement has been sort of on hold well title issues on both the City's piece of property and uh the Palumbo piece of property uh were being dealt with it required um a some something similar to a quiet title action so it was actually kind of involved but uh we did finally get everything cleaned up and the final piece of the puzzle is vacating this public road we agreed to do so in the land exchange agreement if you remember the um property that we um are giving them is if you go to page 25 um the property that we are giving them is uh a p of city property that was initially taken as uh Parkland but because it is wet and um the the low-lying nature of the property does not allow it to become developed so we are um swapping that piece of property for a small piece of property up by uh Shields Lake the public bolt launch uh which both I'm told by both Dave and Ryan that it is valuable for uh City purposes up there um so um that's what we're getting in addition to $10,000 from Palumbo that was the deal that was reached the piece of 207th that is being vacated is essentially the piece that is now becoming Mr Palumbo's driveway so he sort of if you think about it as a doughnut he owns all of the property on the outside of the doughnut and the city owns the hole in the middle and now he's going to own everything because that's the piece that he's taking so we just need to um clean up the uh the the um public right of way because now like I said it'll be a private drive for him uh as you mentioned your honor this is a public hearing so I would ask that you open a public hearing and then move forward very good I'm available for questions as well thank you Amanda with that let's open the public hearing if there's anyone that would like to speak on this topic please come forward and if you are online please raise your hand so that Jolene can recognize you is there anybody that would like to speak on this topic this evening Jolene anyone online no one raising their hand mayor all right not seeing anybody or seeing nobody come forward I will close public hearing and bring conversation back to council Council happy to entertain discussion or a motion if anyone is ready I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 072 23 2405 vacated in a portion of 207th Street North as presented I'll second we have a motion in a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries our next item this evening consideration and award of our sale of bonds and Kevin uh mayor and city council I would like to welcome Bruce keml um from Ellers and Associates who has assisted the city uh with the issuance or this process of Bing the sale of equipment certificates uh just to kick it off uh before I turn it over to Bruce there are two documents that were placed in front of your computer this evening one is an updated resolution from what was in your packet as the sale of those bonds uh closed this morning so that is updated with current information from what Bruce will be going over this evening as well as a sale report um from relating to the equipment certificate sale as well so it's a little bit reminder of how the city got to this point as part of the 10-year Capital plan equipment certificates were identified as a funding source for two fire engines and two snowall trucks and um leading us to this point of issuing these equipment certificates to pay for those um equipment needs so right now um the impacts are that there would be a tax levy for the next 10 years that would associate with issuing these these equipment certificates uh so the recommendation is for uh city council to approve the award of these equipment certificates and with that I will turn it over to Bruce thank you Kevin welcome Bruce thank you mayor and council members um I'm just going to go through a few highlights in this s day report that I think you all have uh we did take bids at 10:00 this morning on the city's behalf and received six bids alog together in this competitive sale if you flip forward to the bid tabulation page you can see all six bids on the front and and back of that page the winning bid did come from bny melon Bank of New York melon Capital Management out of Pittsburgh with a true interest rate of 3.28% uh that is considerably lower than what we had estimated we always try to estimate conservatively so there's no unpleasant surprises but this was almost 70 basis points or 7% better than projected which was more than the the margin of of cushion that we had put into our pre-sale report so the market has moved a little bit and certainly helped the city um just so you know The Debt Service on these certificates will be about $111,000 per year less than what we had projected so it'll be about $284,000 per year on average for the 10-year term one thing I also want wanted to note with the bny uh bid you can see that most of the coupons on the certificates are fours and fives but the actual reoffering yields are all in a really narrow band between 3 and 3.2% that's an indication of how flat the market is right now in terms of interest rates and uh what it means also is the differential between the Y the reoffer the excuse me the coupon and the reoffering yield uh is what generates premium and we've had premium on past Bond issues before this one was no different and we were able to use that to reduce the overall size of the bond issue so it may seem a little strange but you're issuing just over 2.2 million but you'll be netting a little over 2.3 million for all of the capital equipment and the difference there is because of that net premium that we were able to use um and then reduce the bond size accordingly you can also see that the bidding was very competitive um all of the bids were really in a tight band which just shows again the demand for Bonds in general but also for highly rated bonds like those of forest lake and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment but why don't I stop and see if you have any questions about the bids received or the the the bond sale itself any questions so far okay great so then mayor I I did want to just note uh we did include the S&P rating report on the city um as part of this Bond issuance process certificate issuance process we did have a good discussion with rating analysts from S&P uh your staff did a great job of preparing for that call answering their questions essentially in advance and the the call went very very smoothly as did the affirmation of the city's existing rating of aa+ you may recall that doublea plus is just one small Notch lower than triaa and triaa is the very highest rating that a city can get um and I was interested to note that the analyst this time made a point of saying that you were really on an upward trajectory or they call it upward pressure which I think is kind of funny but long story short is they don't expect any changes in the near- term within the next year or two but if the city continues to grow and exercise strong financial management and budgeting practices all the things you're already doing uh they were kind of indicating that you would be um definitely a candidate for a AAA rating at some point in the medium term which was really encouraging so kudos to all of you for the budget decision- making you've been doing over the last several years and again I just want to give credit to your your team here um for being very well prepared and providing all the information that shows S&P that you're on top of your game do we have a clear path of what that would take to get that AAA rating or a clear picture of what those benefits would is the is it worth that additional effort that's a great question um I wouldn't I wouldn't um advise doing anything different as a city in terms of hoarding a lot more money or or making any drastic budgetary changes I will say one thing that they were very interested in is that uh you're doing more in terms of um financial planning both with the CIP that you approved or or adopted a couple weeks ago ago as well as with the financial management plan that we'll be discussing here tonight so it's those kind of things that don't really cost a lot or hamstring you that I would encourage doing to just keep building up your financial management metrics um but otherwise I think the city growing being in a prosperous area being part of the Twin Cities metro all of those things will go a long way to to get you there thank you Council any followup questions question so far all right so that's all I had for the presentation um I would encourage you then to take up the resolution awarding the bonds and the reduced or revised uh amount of $2,205 th000 to bny melon thank you so much Council open for questions or a motion if anyone is ready make a motion to approve resolution 7232 2406 aing the sale of 2.205 million General obligation equipment certificates to B and Y melon there's a motion is there a second second motion and a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries thank you for the work on this I know Kevin and um Bruce all right that moves us to our next item which is um considerate just a great segue um from our previous topic into um our financial management plan and um Kevin I think you're starting I yes mayor city council um so from that discussion we're getting moving on to our financial management plan which again Bruce from Ellers assisted with uh the city putting together again this a reminder of what this financial management plan really is in Bruce we'll go into more detail but just wanted to remind Council that in this financial management plan presentation that you will see incorporates the 10-year Capital plan that has been presented to council this year so all those numbers uh Levy dollars and uh projects equipment purchases that you have seen previously are reflected in this management plan um just wanted to point out as well that um at the time that this was put together uh Christina and myself had not sat down with the department heads yet to review the 2025 preliminary budget with department heads so there will be some um minor changes from what you see tonight to what's presented at the August 19th meeting I this want to make you aware that we're make any changes um from those discussions reflect that in the financial management plan and bring that back to on on the 19th but this is really to get as to Bruce's point a really key part in What S&P like to see with that Bond rating it shows Good Financial Planning and budgeting for the future so really um I'll turn it over to Bruce but really what we're looking for from Council tonight is any questions they have for Bruce or city staff ourselves um for what they um have questions on in the financial management plan but also if you have any questions or changes that you would like staff to bring forward um at that August 19th uh work session for the 2025 preliminary budget and with that I'll turn it over to Bruce great thank you again so I'll be referring to the PowerPoint that's up on your screens as well was the memo that I believe was in your Council packets and um some of you have already heard some of this introductory information about the FMP so I won't go into a great amount of detail on it but essentially what we're trying to do with an FMP as Kevin alluded to is bring together uh projections for your operating budget and your all your key Levy supported funds and also your capital budget again in those same Levy supported funds so that we have a really clear understanding of the overall affordability of the the game plan if you will and what changes to City policy City budgeting practices Etc might be necessary to make things happen make the priorities of the council happen as you anticipate them so it's really meant to be a living document this is not a recommendation this is not you know set in stone we would really expect that Kevin and Christina would continue to uh work with this and to test assumptions have us make updates as appropriate but it's really meant to be a highlevel planning tool that has value on its own but then also can inform the annual budget budgeting process going forward so um it's something that we've had a lot of success with in terms of helping clients see where there might be pitfalls but on the converse side where also you have the financial wherewithal to get things done for the community and sometimes without a tool like this it can be hard to know right well gee what are the what are the tradeoffs or um can we really afford to do this without spiking the property tax levy or draining fund balances Etc so that's really the point of this FMP and um I'll just give you a little bit of detail on our findings the work we did and the findings of this update so Kevin if we can go to the next slide uh you should have a oh that's right you told me that okay so I already talked about uh the uh a lot of the key elements of the financial management plan another thing that I want to note is we do project the city's tax base as part of this as well um we've tried to be very conservative here I'll talk a little bit more about that in the future by conservative I mean not assuming huge Dynamic growth year after year after year but assuming something that is you know steady and stable and that we think is um probably less growth and will actually occur in Forest Lake but gives you again the confidence as the decision makers that we're not expecting a wildly crazy and and robust growth cycle to keep continuing over the next 10 years we also talk about um Debt Service in or we project Debt Service in this model as well so um as you know in uh the the CIP that was approved a couple weeks ago there are projects that are assumed to be cash financed in other projects that are assumed to be debt financed we have all of your existing debt in the model but then we also layer in uh projected Debt Service for these new projects and what the debt levies would have to be so we're looking at levies both for operating and for um Capital cash contributions or cash Investments and then for Debt Service as well clearly these decisions on whether to use cash or to use debt are up to you ultimately um you get to decide when it's actually time to take on these projects but um we've again used the assumptions in the CIP and to serve uh jumping ahead what you can see or what you will see is that the city all things being equal does have the capacity to take on the CIP without any drastic impacts on your finances or your taxes the bottom line here um I just want to note because there's a lot of inputs a lot of assumptions but we always look to the property tax impact and the fund balance impact and you know if the property tax impact looks like it's getting out of line or if the fund balances start really tanking then we know okay it's time to change some assumptions either looking at the list of projects are there certain projects that aren't as much of a priority or could be deferred or are there other things that the city could do to mitigate some of those uh negative impacts that's really what we're looking at is both the tax impact and the fund balances and making sure that both stay within reasonable ranges so I won't go over this slide too much um we did take uh the the last FMP that we did with the city back in 2021 have Incorporated information from your 23 audit your 24 budget and some preliminary numbers for your 25 budget and then also took in line took into account the CIP and the city's Staffing projections for the next 10 years one thing I really want to note um and we'll talk a little bit more about this later is you might have noticed the Staffing projections really starting to add up and having a cumulative impact on the budget but it's really clear from talking with staff that they understand that a lot of these Staffing changes would be tingent on continued growth right so we're we're forecasting we're projecting out what the these needs might be what the financial impacts would be but if the city of Forest Lakes growth does slow down quite a bit for whatever reason you as a governing body of course would have the decisions to make as to whether and how to actually make all those Staffing additions so I think with that I will jump into um a few of the specific highlights from the model just noting again that we are looking for your feedback as Kevin noted and any changes that you'd like to see before you really get into the meet of your 2025 budget process okay so a lot of these uh uh findings are uh comparable to the ones in the short memo that I had in your board packet or your Council packet uh the first thing I wanted to point out if you if you've seen the the actual uh projection here uh the the general tax levy is really calculated to produce a balanced budget and that's the only essentially line in the model that goes wherever it needs to go in order to get to a balance so all the other assumptions on non-levy revenues all the other assumptions on operating expenditures those Drive what happens in that general fund Levy line okay line four on the model so I want you to just know that there's um that's not again set in stone but is really a function of the model to say all things uh as shown what does the levy need to be to get to a balanced budget the uh Staffing additions in line 15 I already mentioned those a little bit um again those are projections uh and I think you know they make sense based on that the past history of the city but again those would be subject to future decisions and um possible changes either possibly accelerating them possibly deferring them or some other set of changes moving on to line 20 uh this is a contingency and kind of the result of an a good discussion that Christina Kevin and I had in that even though the model shows what the levy needs to be in order to hold a break even budget as the budget grows your existing fund balance while it's really significant in in a good place that existing fund balance would become a smaller percentage of the next year's expenses right because it's a flat dollar amount your expenses are growing and therefore it's not going to stay at or around 50% of your expenditures which is the city's policy so we actually added in this line 20 this contingency to imate okay it's it's a placeholder admittedly but what kind of additional uh or of more funding needs to go into the general fund Reserve in order to stay at or around that 50% Mark and we're not quite on 50% I wanted to just sort of show it more as an illustration but you can see that um the city will need to think about how to keep a fund their your fund balance at an appropr level both in dollars as well as as a percentage of the budget does that make sense to everyone okay all right moving on to a few other key inputs on line 29 this is the uh the estimated Levy for the bonds that you just awarded uh on the previous agenda item I wanted to just note that we've got that incl uded we will update that with the actual results it won't be $310,000 it'll be less than that even at 105% of the debt amount um but uh that that is there along with the YMCA debt the city set are refunding and the road bonds that we worked with you on back in 2019 I should also note that a lot of your debt falls off rather quickly once we get past 2033 so you know this Model H has its pros and cons we things start to get kind of fuzzy after 10 years actually probably get a little fuzzy after about five years but just know and we can give further information on this that a lot of your existing debt falls off in the early to mid 2030s which will free up capacity to do you know whatever then the a future Council wants to do in that regard okay I did include then all also uh special tax levies for economic development uh Capital Equipment replacement Capital Improvement Parks dedication in the building maintenance fund I want to make clear that each one of these funds has its own page that's part of this model that projects the revenues and expenses including these levies okay so uh in the future city staff can look at all the assumptions that then feed into the summary page um but as you can see uh we're not showing a lot of growth in these levies just more sort of flat amounts that along with other revenues uh are sufficient to pay all of the cash projects cash funded projects that are in the city's CIP that's what this is really about is tying back to those projects that aren't going to be bonded or that City staff didn't think made sense to bond and what is the kind of Levy that that will be necessary to pay for those projects as estimated and when estimated so all of those roll up uh as you can see um well let me let me break this down a little bit more so we did include then the existing tax levies that would be the the operating tax levy the debt levies and the special tax levies all of those uh add up into lined 36 and then for the bond financed capital projects on the next line that's where we projected out what The Debt Service would be for those projects if you did decide to do them as scheduled and issue bonds for them okay so that's new Debt Service levies uh for those projects that are Bond financed and then uh I won't get into the minutia of of uh the fiscal disparities distribution but you can then see that we have a net Levy to taxpayers projected on L 39 and I'm sure this is of interest to you all the estimated Levy increases again caveats abound here right but you can see that for 2025 we are projecting about a 133% increase in the levy um and I understand that that is underneath the Target that has been set at least preliminarily so we seem to be in a good place obviously a lot more work to be done um that you'll all be doing in setting your 2025 budget but nothing about the city's operating plans or Capital plans led the model to say you know you need to raise your Levy by 25% so that's a good thing and then you can see for future years there are um it sort of Bops around a little bit in terms of the levy increases and of course each year the city will be updating this plan right and you'll be putting in actual information from 2024 you'll have your 25 budget and then 26 budget and so hopefully over time as you work the plan so to speak this will just keep getting better and better with with more precise information so then the last thing I just wanted to note are the tax rates and the tax impacts um let me yeah so what we did as it relates to the tax base is we assumed 3% growth per year on existing values so for all of your homes we're assuming that those values increase by 3% per year on an inflationary p uh perspective and then we also assume that the city's tax base will grow by 1% per year due to new development new residential development primarily so altogether we're looking at about a 4% per year growth in the city's tax rate or excuse me tax base we aren't assuming any growth uh or any new development in commercial industrial and we know that that's a very conservative assumption because you are having commercial you are having industrial growth in the city but because that is so lumpy and hard to predict we didn't want again this model to be overly optimistic in terms of the tax based growth that would come on the CI side of things and really wanted to focus on res presential and what's realistic to assume for residential growth so given that uh when we take uh you can see how we've uh inflated the tax base the tax capacity of the city and then when we divide the projected Levy by the projected tax base we of course get the tax rate projection and that tax rate is on line uh 45 so you can see again that we stay in a in a relatively stable upward pattern no huge increases but that essentially over this projection if you were again to do all of the capital projects as projected and when projected um you could see that your rate might increase from roughly 40% up to 50 some per over a 10-year period but that's again really caveat because we would expect your tax base to grow by more than 4% per year and of course you'll be making budget decisions each and every year right so if you do see modest growth then you get to adjust operating budget assumptions and capital budget assumptions which will then bring down that tax rate impact so I don't want anyone basically I don't want anyone leaving here saying the city's tax rate is going to go up to 50 some perc that's a projection given all of these assumptions but there's a lot of decision- making along the way that will adjust the actual outcomes so I think that's most of what I had um just I guess in conclusion you know this is a big step forward for the city and I want to give credit to both Christina and Kevin for moving this forward having your CIP was was a massive um undertaking to complete but also provided great information and you know both that CIP and this FMP I think will help the council not have to reinvent Wheels each year right you've got a plan obviously plans are separate to change you get to decide how they change but in terms of keeping track of the city's priorities and what you want to do and when you've got that written down now and you can really work from this model this document in moving the city forward um so I think that's really exciting as well as again the benefit with S&P um and and I think they'll be very excited to see where this lands as well as the city's you know actual budgets for future years so why don't I stop there and ask what questions you might have Council let's just open it up what questions might we have so I understanding correctly that we're a 1% growth rate is how does that compare to our last five years in terms of residential growth so I don't know that we did an analysis I think this is what um Ellers had used the last time they did it and we just stuck with that is that right Bruce we landed there so personally I'd love to see this with a little bit more context sure um because watching our tax rate go from mid-30s to mid-50s makes me a little sick to my stomach and thinking about double- digit tax levy increases throughout of the next five years um that's a lot one thing on your a couple slides back Bruce sorry may please um we didn't talk about this and I'm sorry I missed it but you the Tiff District that's expiring in 2027 right and the fact that we didn't include that in here that would increase your existing tax based on what starting in 28 correct and so I think maybe we actually I'm Sor it's actually in 27 Oh in 27 so I think we might need to do a little bit more work um I'm sorry Kevin and Bruce that I missed that earlier but that's all that money that's being paid into that Tiff now gets to come to your you you know your general funding so that might help with at least that 28 big increase so again this was a starting point but we can certainly continue um to look at that I I will say that too again that it's common that we don't use that you don't use commercial projections in these just because they're so um so much more difficult to predict whereas you kind of know you've got plats for housing coming along and and they might come along and so for that reason that is why it's conservative but certainly if Council feels like a different percentage numbers or you want us to to pull you know some actual residential numbers um to base us off of or what we had asked um Abby to do is to kind of look out we know what your comp plan says for how many people and units you're supposed to add over the next till 2040 this only goes till 2033 split it out how do you think that's going to happen and I think the number was pretty close to 1% so that's kind of why we even it out so in some respects there was a little methodology behind it I guess um it's it wasn't exact it did exactly line up but also do recognize that it's conservative but of course if Council wants us to throw something more in there where you know that's exactly the kind of feedback we'd like to hear tonight yeah I guess at least for you know argument sake know you know know what it's been for the last five years we've obviously added a lot of multif family you know there's more coming you know we've got some great developments on the horizon you know if is that 1% then then it is what it is but I'd just be curious so multi family normally and we sometimes kind of put that in commercial that's the other reason it's not included yep they get typically tax at a commercial rate unless they're um subsidized housing or or something like that so I I know it sounds weird but it doesn't fall into the residential bucket usually from a tax perspective got it Council mayor Ericson I did want to point out on this slide um this is overall tax based growth but in the last three years your tax base has increased by 6% 24% and 8% so quite a bit more than the 4% average um and one of the nice things things mayor and Council about this model is that while we're really fond of it it's basically a glorified Excel workbook and you can test lots of different assumptions so our base case might stay at 4% for planning purposes but then we could see okay what if we assumed 6% average annual growth or 8% average annual growth and what would that do to the the tax rate projection that might help with you know some of your heartburn knowing that um most likely the rate impacts are going to be less than what we're projecting here yeah just we had a lot of hard conversations last year when we settled on 14 and they saw that the projections for the next couple years are double digit so I think we just need to be really mindful of that right I think we do need to also just recognize the Milestone that now we can quantify the heartburn um this is the first time that we've had um both the expense side and the revenue side all pulled together so to see what how this plays out over 10 years we've been operating blind for many years and not knowing what that projection is and how all of these pieces fit together so um at least we have some quantification which drives decision and all of the good stuff so um it it I share your I share your concern on that trajectory and you know at some point future iterations of this um you know I like the idea of showing a couple of different scenarios and we might always be planning towards that Baseline as a bad day scenario um or as a not wonder you know less than wonderful but to see you know a number of different scenarios also just so that there's some visibility that we are managing to that um if nothing else just helps the kind of the perception of it's not the plan necessarily that we're at 53% it would you know we would be making adjustments along the way absolutely and I I don't think you all as the governing body can say that enough it's like this is a really good tool it's not a budget right and hopefully it's a little bit better than Apple weather on our iPhones cuz that seems to be completely wrong all the time but you know it's it's definitely based on a set of assumptions and the other thing um jumps out at me is the the opportunity over time to smooth some of the ups and downs you notice in year 2033 we're at a you know 1.7% over time there's some opportunity to maybe help you know shuffle and smooth that out a little bit so it's just not so drastic but personally um I I cringe a little when I see the double digit increases but we've also been talking about you know our you know the initial preliminary you know last year came in at 20% right and we didn't pass that but um to start to see because of the revenue impact that these numbers are now less than 15% there's some progress from some of the previous projections we had seen and this just gives us kind of the tools that we need to kind of refine further what's needed when so I I see a lot of positivity and just having having this level of planning done so well done to everyone that put it together great the last thing I would like to just note is that um I'll be working with Christina and Kevin to make any updates to this this fall once you do lock in your 25 B 25 budget and then we will be most likely here working with you next spring on the financing of the NorthShore Trail right reconstruction project which I know has been a priority for the city for for a while I recall discussions about it uh pre pandemic I think so um anyways that's all you know to come but uh I look forward to Future discussions I did have one small question just around the mechanics of of of assumptions what do we have built into that intergovernmental line what is I I see a common every year it's about $500,000 is that assuming what what is that assuming is that bonding funds is it what um recurring sources of revenue what what is that what does that look like mayor and city council um mayor ban are you just to be clear are you referring to line um I lost it here for a minute is it line seven line seven yeah uh that is intergovermental Revenue related specifically to the general fund um my recollection is there's a lot of um police state aid okay and then there's um a fire state aid pass through that we passed through as well as in there and that makes up the majority of that line item the city is receiving a little bit over 50,000 of LGA this year uh but that is going away for 25 so that's um in that line but that makes up the majority as long as some other state grants and funding that um mostly from the police and fire submit for reimbursement so we're we're very comfortable assuming any we should knock on some wood right assuming that that is recurring Revenue this is and so anything that we would have request we would request in the future and be awarded for State bonding funds is just an additional ad right unplanned and okay correct correct Robert so as much as I appreciate the kind worst case scenario for budgeting purposes if going forward if we can talk I mean my understanding is multif Family Apartments is some of our most valuable taxable properties and so if we can try to include that in here so we to council member Ericson's point about getting a real number it just it gives a little less angst on making these decisions and a more of a true number of what those percentages could be um but do you have a strong feeling you can predict the number and size and value of the multif family that you think is coming in the future the existing stuff is in here it's the future stuff that is missing right and that's okay sometimes hard to predict I mean I again open to it if the council can land on a number that you can agree to but that's why we we didn't um include it because there's just so many variables right in that right because it's about their value you can take your median home value which is what we did and and estimate how many new you know single family homes Town Homes even you can roll in there but it's just a little harder for a part but there H there has to be something there there has to be a at a low and some kind of a number just to factor it in because it is our most valuable taxable property what what do we have for in our comp plan because mean we have certain you know density requirements so I mean is there's some assumptions built into that that would be reasonable I mean there's a a lot of assumptions I mean the fact that there's no inflation on some of these numbers seven years out gives me heartburn as well but we know that it's going to change right so I think we can rest assured that there'll be more multif family coming to town when that sequencing happens well let's get the interest rates down first and make them affordable to build again but um they'll come yeah and there is supposed to be inflation I've noticed as we sat here too that some of the lines didn't and we'll follow up on that um and so I just want to also I'm G it's going to sound just like what I told you when we did the CIP really we call it a plan but it's really a tool and really focus on next year right I promise you even when Kevin brings it back in August it's going to look different because each time you get more information you're going to change it um we'll you know have some updated stuff even just from the smaller Bond today and whatnot um so it's good to do the long range planning but don't I would just encourage you to not get too hung up that you're making decisions to harm today because of something that may or may not happen in the future lock it in on it all right any other questions comments all right thank you for being here this evening thank you thank you yeah good night all right um our next item this evening is item 7e which is consideration of our contract for median options and Dave good evening mayor and Council uh it was a council priority um for upcoming budgets uh to look at the landscape and only the medians on Lake Street uh Broadway and and the two roundabouts at 97 and 61 uh the the current uh 10year CIP holds $725,000 for that that project uh part of it 375,000 25 and another $ 350,000 26 uh during this uh discussion uh staff has kind of uh relayed messages that it's difficult to maintain what we have and the reason why we kind of need to redo it all um but also discussion maybe there's other options of to fill in these these areas of landscape whether it's maybe you just need to put concrete one because it's serves no purpose or maybe you need to Turf some out that gets mowed or add trees instead of uh plantings uh that's a a tough task and way above my my level of expertise and uh administrator H had recommended a company that had done this for Lake ELO and a couple it was a developer that needed to do some landscaping and some of their Medan so uh reached out to Lucius and had him put together a proposal uh for the city to look at all these little pockets of landscaping along Broadway and lake and the two roundabouts um go through a very thorough process involving the city council at uh about three workshops including U you know a final design sketch at the end um as you can see I attached the the proposal it's it's a pretty well well thought out uh process I think it'll generate you know like he spells it out you'll get four idas at the beginning narrow that down to two and then narrow down your final so it gives uh staff and Council a lot of input to be able to kind of figure out what's going to look nice but also set itself up for Success longterm for maintenance so uh the bid came in at well higher than this but uh Christina beat him up a little bit and got them now to lower the price uh but it came in at 12 thou a little over $112,000 which is under 2% of what we're proposing the total project to be um I think by doing this exercise we are probably going to realize that savings back maybe and then some just by the modifications we make uh I think it's a very good proposal um I think it's it'll set up that that um how we want it set up and at at the end of this we can choose to stick with this company to do final final plans and go through the whole bid process and do the inspections and all that or we can take these final designs and you know do what we want with them so um that's that's my Spiel if you guys got any questions uh for me I'd be more than happy to answer them thanks Dave questions for Dave comments just just one thing I'd like to add to the the August uh Workshop is all budget it's Kevin's time to shine and then the next the thought would be the next three workshops so September October and November would where we slide this this these workshops in so that final design would come in in November um you know if if that would work for Council we'd just work with Lucius to get him scheduled for those three workshops and it would give us a little over a month or so to to get that first task done where he meets with public work staff and uh council members are interested to do these walk arounds and other uh Community people so we can have that time to coordinate and find time to get all that that done for that that first Workshop thank you I um I appreciate this um kind of coming forward in this manner um I think I think it's wise that we're considering long-term design and Al long-term what is the what are the design elements we want and then what is the maintenance that's needed um it it's not the approach that when these projects went in initially that we took and we've kind of seen that and um we're at the end of those you know useful life of that Landscaping so this NE we also know that this next phase is quite expensive so let's get it right for the long term I think The Upfront planning and us all having the opportunity to visualize what that's going to look like and provide input along the way I suspect as Dave suggests that we may find that our ultimate project might come down in cost and certainly we'll have a lot more opportunities for some public input along the way so I don't know why we wouldn't do this but happy to entertain any thoughts anyone else might have any comments may be ready for a motion if anyone's ready make a motion to approve contract with Midwest Wetland improvements in the mo not to exceed $2,346 there's a motion is there a second I'll second we have a Motion in a second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries all right um moving on to our next discussion item um is item um 7f which is consideration of our city administrative recruitment proposals and Amanda thank you honor yes uh Council if you recall on the uh July 1st special meeting uh you directed me to find additional recruitment fir Ms um to uh present proposals for a new city administrator search if you recall there was two things that um Council really wanted the search firms to focus on the first being um helping Council to build out a much more robust uh profile for what what the city is looking for in terms of a city administrator so creating I think that I think we use the term Avatar uh for what the city administrator will look like and then the second piece is to focus on a much more targeted uh recruitment procedure so one that would be um would utilize picking up the phone and calling individuals who are currently employed as a city manager City administrator or in some level of City Administration um who meet that Avatar profile um a and see what what can be found for in particular uh potential candidates in the metro area uh or a Statewide or even a little bit outside of the state that would have relevant experience in cities of this size or you know slightly smaller that are looking for that next step up in position uh we did receive three proposals we received a proposal from Express Employment Professionals GMP consultants and gov HR and uh all three were invited to present this evening I believe two of the three are in the um audience right now um I believe both Express Employment Professionals and GMP Consultants are here I did speak with uh Charlene from gov HR they presented the first time we did this back in uh January or February whenever that was and so uh they had some scheduling conflicts and we're not able to attend tonight um but she said that that you know the presentation that she would give tonight would be generally similar to what she gave the last time so I will turn it over to Carl if you want to come up and he's with Express Employment Professionals he can chat a little bit about his process and answer any of council's uh questions I'll turn it over to you Carl sure thank you and is the presentation going to be on the screen I have it here too if that works no it's it should be in council's packets right okay I don't think we okay perfect well thanks for having me me back I was here virtually last time and I'll try to run through this relatively quickly most of the information here is is the same as it was uh the prior time um couple things I'd like to highlight up front is that you know our firm we embedded in the community I can look out the window and see my office and where it's been for the last 10 years here uh just about 10 years uh we also you know as Amanda had said we we take a a very serious approach up front at building a profile what we call a discovery profile basically an avatar and asking lots of questions to really refine what it is that the city is looking for in that candidate uh and our team we're we're true Head Hunters we use data tools to go out and find contact information use that Avatar that we've we've created to narrow down a list and then we we pick up the phone we call those people we use about 15 different data tools to do that and lastly our our team uh we're part of a franchise organization over 800 different locations across North America our team in still water that all they all they do down there is professional head hunting where our office here does more of your production labor that sort of thing they were number one in our company last year the number one Revenue generating professional search office out of over 800 locations for our company so just a few kind of highlights I wanted to touch on before I get started so uh briefly a little bit about our company Express Employment was founded in 1983 headquartered out of Oklahoma City Oklahoma uh there's over 850 locations in five countries that includes all 50 states in the US all the Canadian provinces as well uh last year we had over 79,000 client organizations companies that we served as a company that was in 2022 when these numbers were pulled and our specialized recruiting group that's the name of our team in Still Water that's a subsidiary of Express Employment as I mentioned all they do there is professional search some more geared towards City administrators those types of rules uh let's see the next slide we succeed by helping others succeed so as I mentioned we're we're very much Community oriented I I sit on two different volunteer boards here in the city of Forest Lake the Forest Lake chamber and the Forest Lake Area Community Scholarship Foundation as well and I grew up not too far from here in shy Minnesota went through Mountain View High School and uh played against Forest Lake and lots of sports growing up um so we're very much Community people here our team in Still Water just a little history there so our franchise group uh a friend of mine from college his dad opened his first Express office in 1991 and that's our Redwing location and we've slowly expanded from there organically over time as we've uh grown and had had some successes along the way and been able to organically grow so we expanded into River Falls in 1999 of course I was still in high school at that time that's this before my time but s Cy Falls that's when I started in 2013 with the company we opened Forest Lake in 2015 and then in 2020 uh actually a a football friend of my brothers growing up also from the shore view area uh he joined our team and had a track record of leading successful organizations he's the president of a decent sized software company located here in Minnesota left there came and joined our team and has help us help help us grow into the number one Revenue uh search team in all of Express as far as the types of roles that we fill um in 2023 our company filled 37515 administrative roles that were keyed into our computer system is where this data comes from over 11,000 Human Resources positions 4600 engineering and Technical positions 177,000 accounting and finance related administrative positions almost 32,000 cleric positions just to give you an idea of you know the type of work that we do going into a little bit about our our process so initial discussion so that's as Amanda alluded to really understanding sitting down with your hiring team usually that's an hour to two hour long conversation depending on how much information we have up front as far as job description and those things but really getting to understand the organization's culture the environment you know the the types of um CI size of City types of scope of projects that they've done in the past of the type of candidate that you would like to to fill this role from there uh we we move forward with candidate search we have about 15 different database tools some of the big ones obviously we use indeed all of our recruiters have uh LinkedIn uh recruiter search packages which are expensive search tools for recruiters to use uh we also use a the a data tool called Zoom info that's you know how we contact passive candidates who aren't on indeed they're not on LinkedIn um but might be looking for the right opportunity if it presents itself we're picking up the phone and and you know Dialing for Dollars as we say uh from there we're we're we're doing a vetting process through our own interview process trying to match the you know based on the skills that you're looking for the technical skills the cultural piece all of that U trying to find that that right candidate narrow it down to typically an ideal world three to five candidates that we can then present to the city where you make a determination on who you'd like to interview yourselves from there we do reference checks more vetting we can do uh we can mix a match different skills testing and whatever it is that you're looking for personality test all that kind of kind of stuff uh and then hopefully by the end of the process and I've kind of outlined some a timeline on that but by the end of about two months we should have a candidate ready for you to to hire and and then we're skilled in negotiating through that process as well and kind of walking through that that hiring and onboarding process the details make the difference so we're very much sop focused uh all of our all of our different processes have Sops that go along with them and that's really what what drives and um our search process so we're very focused on details trying to find you know spend that extra time I had a a company uh that we work with a few weeks ago said I was the only company that showed up and went on a tour with them out of the five companies that they contacted to to work with this manufacturing facility um that just you know that's important to us that we go out and we see the environment we really get to know the type of person that you're looking for the environment that they're going into all of that and we we focus on those details to make sure that hopefully the outcome is what you're what you're Desiring uh the next process there is kind of outlined on the the following page too as far as a search Project timetable so developing those specific uh specifications that you're looking for uh researching and sourcing and a lot of these the dates that are on here are going to be somewhat driven by the city and how fast you're looking to move some of it's dictated especially once we we get to actually searching for the candidate that's probably a couple weekl long process to to Really you know get the level of messages out the phone calls follow-up calls followup emails all those things that that's kind of the bulk of the timeline here um but as far as you know the rest of it it's kind of dictated by the city as far as how how fast you want to move through this but developing the the search specifications understanding who that candidate is research and sourcing those candidates through some of the tools and and things that I mentioned before following up repeatedly oftentimes with those those candidates that really fit that ideal Avatar and then from there it's um submitting candidates typically you know as far as the hiring team goes everyone gets an email uh with a resume information about the candidate why we feel like they're a good fit hopefully you're getting somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five of those and and then narrowing it down to the list that you want to interview then from there moving forward to Second interviews final interviews and then determining as far as negotiating compensation package and the onboarding strategy from there and then after they start uh we check in with you know whoever you determine is kind of the hiring manager there and then also with the candidate uh as time goes on to ensure that it's an ongoing good fit 're they're happy you're happy all that kind of thing the following page has some client testimonials for our office uh the first one there I won't read the whole thing but that's from Don waram who's the general government director of Poke County uh he had Mark gilker in our office uh ran a search for him and oftentimes we have one person that's assigned to a particular search but it's multiple recruiters who are working on it at any given time and he had great things to say as far as he had a disappointing first search uh and then contacted our group and we successfully filled the position uh the second one there that's from a gel who actually lives right here in the forest lake area she's HR Manager for a manufacturing company called calpan just talking about how nice it was to work with Casey on our team moving on towards the end here so we offer a guarantee of of two years what the city had requested um if the that initial cidate that we place does fall through for whatever reason whether it's performance related on their side or you know City uh terminates the person or they leave voluntarily any any of those reasons um then you can either elect to have a replacement candidate or 100% refund I should also mention that we're 100% contingency based so you don't pay us a dime unless we find you the the candidate that um you feel it's going to be a good fit and that means that you know if you have u a Darkhorse candidate that comes in and applies on their own in the meantime and you decide to take that person through your process and hire them uh that's no sweat off our back we do lots of search is that um unfortunately don't bear any fruit for us and that's just part of the the business that we're in and and we don't we don't mind that we're we're contingency based no retainers up front um so the fee that outlined there $29,500 um typically I mean we're a little flexible with the billing but normally once the person's Place uh then we we like to have payment within 10 days and then that you know as I mentioned there's a guarantee built in for for two years there and then the quality piece uh as I mentioned we like to check in with the candidate as well as the organization make sure that you guys are happy with with what you've seen and and gain your feedback to understand how we can better improve our our service um so in closing I'd really like the opportunity to work with the city on this and I think we can help you find that next city administrator that will help continue growing the city and everything all the nice things that you do here so with that I'm open to any kinds of questions that you have thank you so much Council what questions might we have for Mr amily if if we did have that dark hor can come through um would you be available to do any vetting if we if if we're as an organization are able to do that do you see that as a an opportunity uh yes we we can do that and that'd be probably a different conversation as far as like the you know fee structure and things like that but be more than happy to do that council member thank you you were um kind enough in our last search to um be available and were I think set in place to um do an additional background check and reference check on a candidate that we were um wanting some additional information on that as you think about the scope of services is that the level of is would that be included for a number of finalist candidates if we wanted to include that level I'm I can ask that question specific to you because we kind of agreed on what that would look like and just want to some Assurance on does that fit is that is that an extra component on top of what would be your standard process um what are your thoughts it that does fit and you might have noticed that the number changed on our fee and part of that was most of our search and placement our the end client the company is doing the that actual final vetting and onboarding we're not the employer of Records so oftentimes we don't do that however you know we we were able to have our attorney draft up some documents and enable us to do that and so that's part of the reason the fee change is because I do expect that that'll be part of our process this time most of your clients don't have the public data requirements that we have and so we would prefer that that is something that you do on our behalf and then also you're able to provide a single lens to all five of us of that information that you would provide which is also probably a different process than what happens in the public sector so we would like to we I think I speak to myself I I would find that to be very important um and then also because we are in the public sector can you just describe what level of online search reputation like what does that look like of information that you might bring back to us as far as you know newspaper articles of past employment or how does that fit and how would you get that information to us sure so typically we start like our references we're contacting past employers past co-workers that sort of thing occasionally personal references but vast majority of the time those aren't going to really tell you what you need to know uh we do some searching around i' would say I don't we don't have like a standard procedure as far as I I know a lot of our customers they they go on people's Facebook pages and things and and check and um we've been told not to do that so we don't do a lot of that but as far as public record search and things we can we can do that and we do regularly conduct background checks on behalf of our our clients and things of that nature yeah that answer your question it does and I think what we would be looking for is more of what is the publicly available um you know it's the what does the you know 30 minute Google search bring back as far as topics of note I think we would find it incredibly helpful to have that be summarized and provided to us in absence of that we end up each doing our own and it it just we will probably likely still do some of that on our own but to have that Foundation of information that's done and provided to us would be helpful um and then through that I'm interested in um how your recommendations come through the process um are you as you're gathering information and starting to form some professional opinions how is that expressed to us and what is that kind of the professional side of the um service shine throughh I say in I mentioned that kind of after we we recruit Source our candidates we're presenting typically we present with an email and this can all be customized to what you're looking for so this is just kind of standard operating procedure but we'll we'll send an email that has all the hire managers copied on it it has their resume and then what we call a write up and that's typically probably four to five paragraphs explaining some more information that's maybe not in the resume talks about their salary expectations all those kinds of conversations that we have upfront that like I said don't show up in your your typical resume um and then so some of that information will will come through there you know here's where we feel this person is a little bit weak versus the job desp that you're looking for here's where we feel that they're very strong um past that I mean a lot of times we're picking up the phone and having those more kind of candid conversations um but ultimately you know especially with a two-year guarantee that's a that's a long guarantee doesn't do us any good to try to uh RAM a square peg into a round hole and give you the the wrong candidate who's going to turn over two months later we're just going to end up doing more work in the long run so we're very focused on you know trying to find you that right person the first time around and two of my favorite questions in our kind of what we call our Discovery profile learning who you're looking for what makes this an attractive position what makes this an attractive place to work and the flip side what makes this an unattractive position potentially what makes it potentially an unattractive place to work U so we're trying to talk the wrong candidates out of wasting your time wasting our time we're trying to talk the the right candidates into hey take a look at this it might be worth an opportunity go out and interview thank you Council I don't mean to hog the mic here other questions that you might have all right thank you so much thank you um okay uh second we have uh Greg with GMP and he um for your packet his presentation starts should have just froze starts on page 18 three thank you welcome thank you mad mayor council members and staff uh I'm not Greg uh I'm Jeff Weldon sorry that's all right right I'm Jeff Weldon I'm a senior consultant with uh with GMP Greg prothman owns the company um and he's based on our company headquarters out in Seattle I head up the Minnesota operation I'm my home office is in sock Center so I'm only two hours away and I I'd be hitting up to the operation here and I'd be your lead consultant with the assistance of Bob lson um who was also in the Washington state area um I don't have a formal presentation um and I did not want to waste your time with any more information than you already have in your packet uh from our proposal um so I think our proposal speaks for itself so I didn't want to take any more time to do that but what I'd rather do is just leave you with four crucial points tonight that I think our key takeaways that I want to really impress upon you um and and I'd be happy to stand for any questions and the first is that um the the the Avatar profile that uh that we've were talking about and that I know you're very concerned about we think that is a key foundational part of of our company's approach um there's nothing more important than getting a good base of knowledge good base of familiarization with this community and what you expect from your next city administrator so as a result um we spend at least uh uh two days in uh in consecutive interviews here meeting with you privately and your staff and any other community stakeholders that you deem important for us that would help us get more information about the organization the community the culture we ask a lot of questions we want to make sure that we can identify candidates that properly align with the specifics of this community and this position and what you want so we make sure that the candidates we're finding are going to implement your agenda and not their agenda so again a key part of that is uh is those stakeholder informational meeting um up front the second uh key point about that is is the robust recruitment effort we use a lot of the same platforms um that most companies use when we advertise and Market in an effort to try to attract candidates but we also pick up the phone relentlessly and we make those calls um I've got service of 29 years in both Minnesota and um and South Dakota um I work for the Minnesota Legislature before getting into local government and I've got a lot of contacts around these two states and we we pick up the phone and we relentlessly um identify people that we think would be a good fit for that Community profile that we've been working on and make every effort to try to recruit them um to look for um New Opportunities um here in Forest Lake What's significant about this point is not that there's a lot of people out there who are looking to leave their current position they may not know it yet they may be happy in their current position but when they've been approached with an opportunity for another one it's been suggested to them we find that they often times make the very best candidates because they've been approached about the idea of advancing their career in another Community for a different type of a challenge that's happened to me twice um in my career so I can attest to how that to how that works so we pick up the phone we make Relentless contacts and efforts to try to get them to to apply for the for the position the third point that I want to make is um how we help you facilitate at the decision making process from the applicant and start that narrowing down uh process um we know that this uh is very difficult we get a lot of information from all the candidates they submit their resume cover letter and then we also ask them to uh respond to a couple supplemental questions about the um about the position or their experiences this is an an attempt to try to assess their writing skills so we provide that information to you um as well in addition to the preliminary Google background search and several preliminary uh background pieces of information for the semifinalist level what we do is uh we do um online interviews um inperson interviews uh if we can to try to um develop a list of semi-finalists that we would present to you in a work session we never try to substitute our judgment for yours but our job is to help you um weed through all of this information to try to narrow down the best candidates As you move toward making that selection of finalists um out of that batch um and one of the ways we do that is is we help with a numerical system and we will rate and rank each candidates on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the best and we would recommend any candidate that receives a seven or higher to be considered for um advancing to the finalist stage so that is a way to help quantify all of the data all the information that we've assembled and put together as a way of recommending uh that to you we'll show you the data of all 10 or 12 semifinalists we've reviewed if you want to pick a six or your judgment is something other than what we've selected that's perfectly fine U but we think it's our job to help you in that narrowing down process um as we get to that and that numerical system is a way of doing that the last thing I want to mention to you is that um these things don't always work most of the time they do but there's every once in a while where we'll come up to the finalist and'll say this just doesn't work we don't think we've got the right candidates for the right fit this candidate does not meet your needs we don't think they'll be happy here we offer a guarantee as well and it's described in our packet but sometimes we just have to pump the brakes and say we need to back up we need to start over we want to hit the reset button a little bit and figure out what we need to do differently to help get you through this process so you do ultimately get a new city administrator um like I say it doesn't happen very often but we do not force somebody in or encourage somebody just to finish the job and be done we want to stay with you to make sure that you've got the right fit this is about long-term relationships and they are very vital relationships to you and your constituents so we want to make sure they work um so we uh uh stick with you through the process from the very beginning we have a guarantee um as well it's um uh 18 months on the guarantee and if if this person leaves um within the first um uh uh 18 months then we will do the search at no cost only only expenses and if we never you don't hire anybody out of the process and we find that there's nobody in that list of finalist that works either from your thoughts or from my recommendation to you then we will stick with you and we will do whatever it takes to continue the process for as long as it takes to make sure that you ultimately do get a city administrator that you will be happy with so um again um I didn't have anything formal in in a by way of a presentation but I did want to just make those a couple of crucial points and I'd be happy to stand for any questions thank you so thank you so much Council let's open it up any questions that you may have um you in your presentation talked about my and kind of addressed my question I had to the former candidate on um you your how how does your recommendation come through the process so I appreciate I appreciate that um do you think about as I think about the most important phases building that Avatar is Mission critical but also so is building that first base of candidates um as you may know we had some frustration over their first base of candidates the last time we went through this process um what do you do if we are together sitting in a room and we're just not happy with the list of semi finalists are you open to continuing that um of um kind of casting a broader net and and not proceeding into the semi-finalist selection or what is that walk me through what do you do in that scenario if the pool feels a little weak what do we do excellent question we go back to the pool and we start over Okay and we cast a wider net we look at different places um where we uh um could try to find a more fertile ground for for candidates maybe um but we just we do not proceed with any of the candidates unless you're happy with what you see or you see some basis of the candidates there that that is worth proceeding some of them are going to fall off and as a way of narrowing them down that's that's going to happen but um we will hit the reset button and and go back out to the we will read advertise reopen it we'll look we'll try to find out why we didn't get a good group of candidates that's that's the crucial issue as well trying to analyze what happened what what occurred or didn't occur and say why didn't we get more candidates um applying um so you know um we will stick with you in the process and we will not proceed with if you're not satisfied with what you find thank you um and then could you just speak to um as part of your vetting of candidates and selection of candidates what what does your research process look for as far as um Gathering you know publicly available information how how do you what is your process look like to gather that information and then get that information back to us yeah our firm uses a a third party to do all of our background checks and the stuff we we look for we had described in the in the the proposal it's education uh previous employment um criminal history um all kinds of those types of things and all those reports come to you as in the packet of deliverables you'll get that information for the semi-finalists at the work session when you look at narrowing down the list and then you'll get a more detailed analysis um um when you look at the three to five finalists that you select or however many you want to select then then we go into a higher level of detail for the final um evaluation okay those are my questions Council any other questions you would want to add all right thank you so much for being here thank you very much Amanda any additional thoughts or comments for us uh thank you H yes so just a reminder uh gov HR is not here um but the their packet or their proposal is in your packet as well it is generally what they provided uh the first time they did the the packet um so not a whole lot has changed there I do what I'm looking for from Council is a selection of one of these firms or if you tell me you don't want any of these firms then I'll go back out and fish again um and if you do want to select one of these firms to instruct me to enter into an agreement with the chosen firm thank you Manda Council I look forward to hearing your feedback what are your thoughts point of order is it helpful if I ask them to uh the the two individuals from the different firms to maybe leave the room for this discussion they have the right to be here it's a public meeting but I don't know if it makes it easier for Council to have this conversation if they're not listening this will be one of the easier conversations we have together so you're welcome to stay if you'd rather leave in all of respect for your time it is almost 9 o' I also I also respect your time so but you're more than welcome to stay so happy to okay thank you thank you so much Council thoughts well we were had this conversation before I was advocating for um Carl's company is because they are local I like the contingency based you know um where I think the other firm it's 165 just to get started and then plus expenses so the overall cost I think is pretty similar um by the fact that you know if we have our own candidate and I think we've all gotten emails um to that effect um we're not on the hook for a dime unless we want to use them to vet those candidates so I don't know in my mind it's a win-win I I would just say it's unfortunate that um yeah I didn't realized that Carl's firm worked in the public sector this this uh testimonial from Poke County says a lot I know some of us on the council were concerned if we uh didn't move on our last candidate that we wouldn't find a good search this says another another example of it was a failed search we went back out and we found a good some good candidates I think either one of these firms would do a much better job than the previous firm uh clearly uh I do like uh Carl's presentation the local part of it uh to uh council member uh Ericson's point about if we do have some opportunity that have organically come to us we're not on the on the hook um and I would my suggestion would be go with the with uh Carl's firm very good thank you council member husnik or council member valent any thoughts they both had good presentations as far as I'm concerned uh but the local the idea of a more local thing has been uh tossed around quite a bit and I would support that also so and go with Carl I agree that their both presentations were super good um gmps and govhr are both on the cheaper side but I do like that with Carl it is I mean we all know local um but one thing that really I think sets him apart is that from our last experience he was he was there for us and he was willing to go and um and and it was quick right like we we were just like hey can you help us and he was just like of course I'll do it over the weekend and so he was it was crunch time for him and he was more than happy to help us um and for me that's that's just that that cherry on top um that it's the energy behind that um I really appreciate yeah I um I came in tonight ready to go um either direction either GMP or um Carl's firm um and so so I I think there's good options either way um I also appreciate you know he was really willing to jump in and assist on our last search um and just was really a professional in responding to that call um the this will be two different approaches um but we have also said that we wanted a more non-traditional approach and so I think we would we will get that from specialized um GMP has a more traditional City administrator recruitment process and I they have those more traditional contacts um I have a little concern a little bit of concern with the not a little bit of a less traditional approach that they have the ability to get the calls back but also sometimes that different approach and a fresh perspective um has that same effect of getting um that call back so I I'm happy to um you know support the move towards specialized this evening um again I think we've got a couple of really good options on the table and I think the most important one is that we we um do take action tonight and keep this moving if we are going to consider some additional I um if we're going to consider some candidates that might come to us directly I do think we should instruct um Amanda in her contract to have some level of um em embedding those into this process so that we don't have multiple tracks that are unorganized or unplanned for um and so you know there's a certain amount of while he may not get the finders fee component of the agreement um I think we would want him to use the background and to you know kind of include that candidate in their interview process and so maybe there's a you know something different that is done in the fee structur but something that compensates them for incorporating that candidate into the process because what I don't want to do is US end up with three different tracks so we're kind of competing with our own channels um I think we want to coordinate approach and we need to kind of manage the Public's expectations of the process accordingly um I would trust that that that agreement can be worked out um but I think we should have a common agreement and a and a common service provider thoughts Amanda as you hear that is that some does that seem clear yeah your honor Council can I ask a clarifying question around that so if if um if I heard him correctly it sounded like if we kind of had somebody that was St separate if it's because our the city's name has been out there in some of the media around us you know retrying the process I have received some um reach out from um individuals in the community who are or the the area who are interested in the position and have asked to please you know share my information with whomever the recruiter ends up being so to me I think the question that I need to confirm with Carl is if I give you the name but you're just sort of putting them through your whole process and then that's the name that the council ultimately selects I'm not sure if we get to say we're not paying you the the the full amount I think we probably may maybe we get a discount but I'm not sure that he'll go along with he get zero dollars I I wouldn't and that's what I want to make sure of I wouldn't expect him to get zero dos but I also want him to be motivated to include those those candidates that we might you know Source ourselves or might come to us organically that he's including those in the process and and and maybe that's my point of clarification so ones that have just sort of come organically obviously I have not reached out to anybody about this position they just came I think that might be different than if there is some instruction from Council or if Council themselves feel compelled to I know this person I want to reach out to them I think that might be a person that we could say as one of our dark horses or whatever he called them um versus just they they were they're just excited for the process hey give throw my name in with the recruiter that would have he would have found them anyways I would agre is that fair if I said if I sort of negotiate assuming that that's where you want to go something along that lines in the negotiations with him and I'll talk with Carl and figure out what he meant by that yeah I mean I think ultimately we want we want his team to manage the process for all candidates and so really just kind of find out what his expectations for a fee would be if we say he you know here two people that or three people that have come to us organically and take them through your process what is your expectation for compensation okay yep can do and I think maybe we can even say that more positively what he the scenario he presented tonight of the Dark Horse candidate where he gets paid zero I think we should affirmatively say that's the process we don't want we we it it could happen but that is that is not the preferred process so let's contractually go into the agreement with I wide open to that understood okay thank youor um anyone ready for a motion on this yeah I'll make a motion that we direct Amanda to enter into contract negotiations with Carl with specialized recruiting group to find our next city administrator I'll second we have a motion in a second any further I just say a few words I just I just want I mean I think we're in a better place than we are July 1 here I know that there's been some question as to why we didn't land on that last candidate but we are in a better place than we were July 1st we can't rush to make this decision it's important decision to just take the time that we need and so I'm I'm happy for this decision tonight any other comments hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I oppose and motion carries thank you Amanda for the additional leg work on that okay our next item this evening cook us out into our close session all right so our next item this evening Fenway field rehab project and Dave when he's done adjusting temperatures we just don't want it to be a meat locker again you're not get so hot it's because everyone's sitting on this side of the room I'm mayor and Council uh here tonight to talk about the the Fenway field uh rehab rehabilitation project um there's a lot of words in this memo but basically we talked about this a number of times about the fields need to be rehabbed at Fenway Fields um solicited quotes uh got low bid from Peterson companies for 141 420 uh you can see on their quote that's attached it's a full rehab of all four fields in the quad and field five um pretty pretty thorough work um and also will be uh lasered so in the future future we do a rehab project they can just laser guide all their equipment to get it right back to to level again so that's the one perk of getting that that in the future projects it's not going to be as much time and you're not we're also not going to let it get this this far away as well um this is part of that whole um 250,000 Fenway uh uh Improvement project that was in the CIP uh pickle ball courts were first and then this and the last piece is the fence lowering which is estimated under about under $20,000 so that'll probably just be cot out to either Midwest or Sentry fence to do that work uh original estimates was about 175,000 is what I had first figured for this came in at 141 so a little bit lower which which is good um I think with all all the projects included will come in about $50,000 under the original funded amount so having a extra is always always okay uh the work would be planned for closing the fields down on Labor Day so it will let all the the summer Sports be done um and then we wouldn't have any be able to have any fall ball out there but um this would still give us time if approved tonight it would give time to coordinate that and um in talking with the school district no no teams have scheduled fall ball games or anything so it won't be calling people and tell them they have lost field reserv ation so this would get blocked out through the rest of the year um there's a lot of s work on the Outfield uh where the EG lime touches the Outfield and um infields on Fe field five so it's recommended with all that s that just really nobody touches it through the rest of the Year let it go through a freeze thaw and then it'll be ready ready for spring of 2025 uh this has been a long time coming it's we've been talking about this since 2020 2021 one so it's it's finally coming coming to fruition and believe we got a really good contractor you probably know they've done all the high school Fields they did all those Renovations of the track and the the softball field so I was really glad that they came in a little bit and I think they'll do a lot of good work out there because a lot of their families have kids that play out there too so um they'll be stamping their name on that um as well and a local company out of Wyoming so uh if you have any other questions for me be more than happy to answer them otherwise I would look free to approve this project thank you Dave Council questions for Dave this evening Madam mayor I have no problem uh making a motion that we hire Peterson companies to the tune of one $141,400 for the Fenway field rehab project as presented by Dave I'll second we have a motion and a second if we could just think you in the motion it's it's adding a 10% contingency just like we kind of did it belt so I don't have to come back with the change order just in case they have to move baseball I'll amend my motion to that for the 10% contingency amended motion and second second the amended motion any other any discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and motion carries next item for consideration this evening uh the airport manager RFP and Christina yeah mayor and Council so we've been talking about the report um Lots over the last 6 months and there's been questions about um management out there we had conversations at our last joint uh meeting with the air airport Commission in June about the need for minimum use standards or airport guidelines um in the past you know we've had a hanger owner essentially volunteer as time as I understand it to be the manager when he left then the previous assistant administrator had the duties added to his job description and I think at least from a staff perspective we've just come to realize that there's um a need to bring a level of expertise to manage the airport develop policies negotiate and enforce lease provisions and and provide better oversight that we just can't do um with current city staff and all of the other combined duties so in the in your packet is an RFP uh request for proposals that I've put together after reviewing examples from across the country ran it by um Dave and Amanda um as well to get some local feedback uh the what's in there is a proposal that would seek a firm or or an individual to serve as an airport manager for a 2-year time period and that's something you know certainly council could provide feedback on um as far as how long we might want to um have somebody come in the goal is to eventually I think get the airport to a place where um City staff can manage it in addition to their other duties but right now there's just so much work that needs to be done um that we feel we need to bring somebody in so that's why I say there could be some discussion about how long Council might think that takes to happen um but as of right now it's drafted with it with two years and certainly the city can reevaluate at the end of that time period if they want to extend it or not um the RFP also lays out the scope of services that include the again the development of those minimum use standards or airport guidelines that we talked about in June um it also includes covering administrative tasks Ops oper operation and maintenance but again Public Works is still doing the snow removal and mowing it's more just maintaining the the operations out there equipment property leases if the airport had to be closed in emergency communications and meetings um you know being that that that point person for helping coordinate The Flyin or attending airport commission meetings and whatnot and general expectations so um and also because there might be things out there that we just don't know that since we're not experts it does allow the opportunity for the proposer to suggest additional services that aren't listed there that they may think we we need so um another uh topic for discussion or consideration by the council is as it's drafted right now um it doesn't require any minimum um number of days hours of days throughout the week that the airport manager would be on site it's kind of left open-ended um we've certainly hear about issues out there of all day all days of the week and times of the day but I'm not sure how we plan for that while also balancing um the financial reality of of uh having somebody on site all the time so it was more about them at least being available by phone and email in the case of emergencies and and setting their own um expectations for being on site um also just want to call out that the RFP does take uh the approach that the new manager would take on more of an economic development um approach out there coordinating with the Eda marketing opportunities out there things like that um I know this is again a higher level policy discussion for the council to really um give direction about what they see as the future for the airport includeed in there um honestly just again because I saw it in some other examples from from across the country but if that's not the direction and we want it to be more of a recreational use um we can certainly make changes to that language um let's see so we do list in there's some minimum requirements that they um have five years as an airport manager at a similar or larger sized airport or any combination of training and education experience that meets that in the city so discretion um if we ISS if Council approved tonight issuing this request for prop proposals it would be due on August 23rd probably in um early September then staff would begin scoring those um identifying folks if if we think we need to bring them in for interviews we could run it through the airport Commission in either late September perhaps their October meeting if they stick with their every other month meeting schedule um since I'm new to this I have no idea what you can expect from cost so I didn't even want to venture anything and as I've discovered on a few other things whether it's the the medians or a space needs study the cost have really gone up over the last few years too so I'm not sure that it would have been helpful to reach out to some of these folks that have had done it in the past so with that I'll stand for any questions and um again just looking for Council Direction on those things if you want to change it or affirmation that we leave it as is thank you Christina Council just open it up thoughts feedback I think you I think you did a nice job pulling together uh request for proposal I mean I think it highlights and um calls out the things that we maybe feel are most critical you know from an initial standpoint um I fully suspect that we're going to probably get stuff from all over the board in terms of what people might come back and say they need uh from a time commitment to accomplish this um and the cost will you know be varied as well but it'll give us a good starting place to you know continue the conversation figure out what makes sense for us at the end of the day and I think the two-year time frame is is good um you know I don't want to handcuff some group to a year but of course you know the final contract will have an escape Clause of some fashion so um it doesn't lock us into anything that we don't want I would assume so I think it's a really good St point Thank You other points of feedback thoughts I think it's a little bit a little bit much for this airport of this you know if you're looking for somebody that with these qualifications um our income there would never pay for it it would never pay for it so um I think there's some other ways that can be done um the the last thing that Dave needs too is some another layer biocracy when he's already out there doing 90% of the work out there and so we got to be very very careful there's nothing wrong with getting a a proposal we just got to be careful how we go about it Wells to it yeah other other thoughts um go ahead I was just going to say I think um it's a good start and it'll be interesting to see the responses that we get um I think uh like council member Ericson said they'll probably be varied so um makes me a little bit nervous but it'll also be interesting to sit um nonetheless so um yeah I think it's somewhere to start and and we'll see counc BTS I I think the professional management of this is is crucial it's it's why we're in the place we're in right now the issues we've had potential lawsuits urgency situations it's it's needed and I'm I'm I appreciate the effort that's gone into this and look forward to seeing uh what we get back yeah I've um fielded some questions just kind of questioning like why why do we need to do this and I look forward to having a broader conversation on the why when we have those proposals back and we're kind of digging in further into the scope of services and pricing that out um but I would just offer up um a couple of things one is is I looked through the RFP I looked through the RFP from from a lens of what do what do I think doesn't need to be on here and there really wasn't anything that I would say that's just absolutely not needed I think it's more of how might that be bundled together and what does that look like from a cost perspective and so I think we need to get to the next stage to have that conversation um and then the other thing I would point out is the option that was previously funded or the option that was previously staffed in that this you know kind of went through our assistant City administrator that position isn't here anymore and and isn't going to be here um so we don't have that option on the table table um and in absence of that a lot of this has fallen to Christina and that is just it's a it's a appreciate she's taken on that work and I appreciate you've you've jumped in and um you've done a lot in six months but that also is not part of what we want that job the city administrator job to be um that's also fully general fund funded um and we we need the airport to we we need this position to manage the airport and it in absence it kind of ends up in default on our city administrator's desk and I think that's just reached a level of we kind of have recognized the gaps which brings this proposal forward tonight so um I do think we need to as we're considering that that next proposal um engage a conversation with the airport airport commission um I suspect we'll have some conversations also on scoping to your point and what's needed um but I think we need to see kind of what gets proposed back percentage of you know time we're reaching out to experts and they're going to kind of look at our you know current airport operations and they're going to have some you know professional opinion on what that percentage of on time should be so um I'm happy to support this tonight any other comments or any anyone have any amendments or changes they'd like to see otherwise we might be ready for a motion if anyone's ready I'll make a motion to approve the issuance of a request for proposal for Airport Manager there's a motion is there a second second there is a motion and a second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and motion carries our next item this e our next item this evening and our final um uh General um or final action agenda item for the evening is consideration of 7i which is resolution 72344 accepting donations for arts in the park and um part of this we have four different businesses that have um provid a donation specific to arts in the park for our kids and family night State Farm the Neil Peterson agency at $150 keep it up tutoring at $150 maple tree pediatric dentistry at $150 and Shop Co Optical at $150 and I would move that Council um approve with gratitude resolution 72344 is there a second a second we have a motion in a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and motion carries let's move to staff updates with our new seating configuration I guess let's start with Amanda and we'll just come down the line we'll skip Council we'll do council at the end but Amanda you're up nothing tonight your honor all right Christina nothing for me either all right and Ryan he city council just one updates uh there will be a detour posted starting next Tuesday uh Excel Energy's got some gas main replacement to do along County Road 50 so uh westbound County Road 50 between Highway 61 and good viiew will be closed down and the dour will be Northbound on good view and west on 210th out to the roundabouts eastbound uh on County Road 50 at that intersection area will still be open it's anticipated that last two to three weeks um so they just don't have enough room to not uh encroach into the westbound Lane so Ryan didn't that get postponed it did it was supposed to happen was it this Monday or the Monday before so they they just alerted it it's been rescheduled for Tuesday July 30th thank you Kevin no updates very good Jolene no updates this evening Abby no updates Dave no updates Chief Newman mayor and Council I just have one update I would like to thank Corey Murphy uh for his five years of service to the city as the city's building official and I wish him the best on his future endeavors he'll be missed I Echo those comments thank you and chief Peterson mayor and city council no updates very good uh bring up to council for updates uh we'll start with council member Roberts really no updates just uh I was involved in the Lake Fest Street dance at malards and I appreciate the work from Public Works fire and police was a great event no problems that I'm aware of and it seemed like everyone had a great time so thank thank you to the city for that and staff fabulous council member valento no updates council member HCK uh no updates and council member Erikson no updates all right uh no updates from from me either um so we will move into a closed session I would move that Council move into a closed session persu to Minnesota statutes 13 d05 subdivision 3B for a confidential attorney client discussion regarding threatened litigation by Northern PLS Aviation Incorporated is there a second I'll second we have a motion and a second all those in favor signal by saying I I I oppose and we're in close session this will be the this is the last item on our agenda so after the end of this close session we will come back into council's only to adjourn the meeting thank you [Music]