[Music] for January 22nd 2025 the time is 6:00 p.m. uh the first thing on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance if everybody will stand and remove your hat I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one na God indivisible with liy and justice for all the third item on the agenda and item a is the adoption of the agenda I move to approve the agenda for January 22nd 2025 the city council meeting is there a second Rob PA second any discussion hearing none we'll take a vote Jennifer Jenny I Janet I Rob I and Ron I we'll go to section B the consent agenda and I'll hand that over to Janet um I just want to call to the attention of the council that there were three sets of minutes that were passed out with some edits that that I caught so um and there's one for the November I'm sorry December 11th city council minutes that also had edit submitted but you don't see those because they haven't made them yet but they're mostly just typographical non-substantial ones so with that clarification I would move to approve the consent agenda as presented in the January 22nd 2025 city council packet and the supplemental Bill list which is distributed as a handout to the council prior to the meeting and also um with the edits submitted and distributed um to the council tonight this is Ron I'll second that is there any discussion Rob um so was that for the minutes as a whole Janet all of a minute that were in this tonight's packet there were there were four sets there's three that you have in front of you with red line edits and the fourth one you haven't seen yet because I just submitted them this afternoon and they didn't have time to make them but they aren't any anything that's going to change the the meaning or the defin it's mostly typos that I caught okay I just I had one edit um there was uh Rochelle which is my wife she got on Zoom um but it was after the meeting it started so if we can add her to being uh attendance on the zoom which date is that that was uh last two two Tuesdays ago what to that the the January 8th one correct yes ma'am so I will amend my motion to include adding relle as an attendee for the January 8th meeting and clarification you noted most of these are clar uh just name changes is that correct what I'm seeing they're either name changes or they're just clarifying statements so nothing that changed the outcomes of any of the conclusions mainly gr gramal errors of sorts either either um spelling errors grammatical errors things that were I felt you know we needed to add so no action was taken those kinds of things yep thank you yep and M mayor and councel um anytime we do this where they're made kind of um at the meeting uh members are free to look at those changes and if if need be we can bring them back at other meetings to further clarify right y great okay so we have a motion and an amendment to the motion you need a second to my Amendment I'll second that then there you go okay no more discussion we'll go back to a vote Jenny I Janet I Rob I and Ron I we'll go to section c presentations and items for Council actions number one is a public forum uh before I ask Jack to read out our uh rules I just like to let everybody know that we got to keep it to a limit tonight I know last meeting we had one of them got out a little longer than needed if it gets too long I'll I'll interrupt you and ask you to get to the point so Jack you want to read thank you Mr Mayor the public forum provides an opportunity for the public to address the Council on items which are not on the agenda in this case we're waving that this is on the agenda but this is an important matter we want to hear people's opinions the public forum may not be used to make personal attacks air person grievances make political endorsements or for political campaign purpose the council will listen to the issue but will not engage in dialogue with the presenter questions from Council will be for clarification only the public forum will not be used as a time for problem solving or reacting to the comments made but rather for hearing the citizens for information purposes only if the majority of the council would like to address the issue in more detail it can be added to the agenda or can be addressed during the regular agenda of a future meeting or referred to staff for further review and response thank you Jack I'd like everybody to understand also that this will be the last open form to speak to the council tonight on these issues in other words if you have something you want to talk about on anything on the agenda Now's the Time to do it once we close the open Forum that's it it it won't be another moment to speak so if there's anybody in the audience that' like to uh get up and make a comment or a statement about tonight's agenda or which mic uh grab whichever one you want you got to say your name and your address and kind of pull the M mic down have a seat okay my name is Cindy angel I live at 14048 Ferman Street and I thank you for letting me speak I left this meeting the last city council meeting and I was so mad and the reason I was mad I was mad at two of the city council members who wouldn't even consider the votes of the public in the last election I voted for Scott and so did 1264 other people and I was really appalled that you wouldn't even consider my vote considering everybody got two votes which means some of those 1265 people voted for you to and I don't know if you even took that into consideration but I think it's appalling that you would not even consider it secondly Scott's charges of 20 years ago where he was acquitted he was acquitted and Jennifer that does mean not guilty you and I had a conversation in the back of this uh Council chamber right after you were elected I overheard you talking to another gentleman who is actually sitting in the back here I saw him tonight about Scott's and his charges and I confronted both of you and asked if either one of you had read the whole article where he was acquitted and you told me that that didn't mean he wasn't guilty and the only reason he was acquitted was because he was a police officer and they couldn't yes yes you did Jennifer you did and I have a problem with that anybody who doesn't respect the judge in the case or the police department I have a problem I hope you're not a anti- police person where we have to worry about the security of of our community when you vote on that that's a concern of mine and I you know when you don't have respect for the justice system or the police I have a problem with it and I did my homework on Scott I knew exactly who I was voting for I had never met the man before he started running for election I talked to him did either one of you I don't think so I think it was just a convenient way for you to beat your opponent was to go out and slander him and I don't agree with that at all I I did my homework I not only talked to Scott and got his explanation I also talked to two former policemen he worked with and Rob you know one of them and it's not Ron this is a former St St Paul policeman sure you know who I'm talking about I don't believe so you got a name I'll give you a name but I'm not going to do it in public you want his name I'll give you his name and we're not going to carry on a conversation slandering us might as well slander them uh it's uh we're not going to Rob we're not going to discuss talk with them they're allowed to talk to us we're not going to carry on a conversation anyway that's just my opinion and I just was so upset last time when I left here I just wanted to let you know about it I thank you thank you ma'am my name is Marilyn Latin right 16010 Kettle River B bouevard Columbus I just want you guys to all remember that you were voted in by the People by the people of this community and not by any special interests that gave you money and funding for your run as mayor or as a council member you need to remember who you are sitting up there for not your businesses your people thank you Chase Roth 8820 189th Avenue Northeast Lord Acton power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely as the council you have a lot of power in the city all the power arguably you have the power to hire to fire to create or terminate positions you set the budgets you have a big plan zoning and development and what happens with power comes the possibility of abusive power what is abusive power Websters defines abuse of power as misuse or improper application of one's Authority essentially using a position of power to take unjust advantages of others often for personal gain it implies maltreating harming someone by exploiting your power over them when an off-duty police officer enters a restricted area for a personal Vendetta that's an abuse of power and the thought of somebody who's going to disregard the law like that sitting at this table is sickening to me and you know what I'm talking about I too read the article the situation resulted in a for inch gash in the back of somebody's head 12 Staples and it cost a major municipality $30,000 what we refer to today as hush money I've seen how people react to the thought of $88,000 for a special election what would a $30,000 settlement look like if the four of you can't come up with the unanimous decision on who's going to fill the vacancy I think you owe it to the people to hold a special election [Applause] uh my name is David Lisa uh 18126 Vasser Street uh here in Columbus um I passed out prior to the meeting I passed out a copy of an article from the St Paul Pioneer Press I gave it to all the board members and to the attorney um I too Echo the same uh as this gentleman does I don't think that uh the individual deserves to be or is can be on the board I'm not comfortable with it the other statement that was made that there were you know 2,000 some odat people pardon me I don't know the number that voted for the other gentleman there was also a bunch of people who voted against him more people that voted against him than voted for him so please keep that in mind thank you very much thank you anybody else in the off audience here Lynn cver Quinn 7540 1502 Lane Northeast I'm going to lighten the load here okay all what I want to know is that the Planning Commission meeting last week we made a recommendation to the council to approve something and I don't see it on the agenda so I was just wondering if there's a problem it's uh it's because you got the two weeks to wait okay and that was a mistake okay thank thank you anybody else in the audience Dave Pon 6731 pic street I'm here to speak to the fact that I believe that Scott ran with you Ron your literature and his name were on multiple mailings you ran together I think Scott should be excluded as a potential person only because of his relationship with you I also think think that over the uh over this election period you had the choice to wait 2 years to run for office not creating this problem of the empty seat you could have waited two years and ran so with with that in mind I think your choice to run one person against the two seats that are open created the issue and I think you should address that and I think the people of Columbus should know that the problem we're in right now is because of your choice to knock me out of the election because you did not want me as the mayor so if if there's anything you can do now would be to recuse yourself from this decision because of your association with Scott and let the three choose who's going to be our next council member or take and bring this to the city and let the people vote for who they want to fill the seat that you vacated because you wanted to be mayor prematurely I believe the only fair thing to do here is to either hold a private election or a public election and spend the money because the wrong person up there is going to cost us more than 10 12 11 $133,000 whatever the number was it could cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars making improper decisions spending our money like has been going on for the last eight years thank you Ruth miles 7828 Camp 3 Road Northeast I want to thank you for having the opportunity that last time we were able to talk and stuff with it and you went back that you were going to have the different committees put in applications with it I'm eager to hear that application process and how you went about doing it and I don't know if there's U if you finalize it tonight or when you do with it but at least you gave us the opportunity to hear our voice and hope you make the right decision for all of Columbus thank you anyone else in the audience is there anybody on Zoom that would like to get up and speak or state statement and would you give your name and address you see anybody Jack is that all since nobody's on zoom and nobody else wants to one more maryn Latin 16010 Kettle River Boulevard Columbus you last time or two weeks ago you alluded to the fact that there's nobody watching and there's usually nobody out here the fact of the matter is there are a tremendous amount of people that watch the reruns I watch the reruns I watch everything so just because you're not seeing them on there and you're not seeing them here they are paying attention to what you are doing thank you anybody else we're going to close the open forum and we're going to go into uh item number two the stock discussion of appointment to fill the vacant City Council seat of Ron anagraph Pages 4- 15 Jack you want to lead us into that the situation that got us into this is Mr anagraph was elected mayor with two years less than two years two years still remaining on his term at the time of the election uh Mr HRA had to resign his seat with less than two years that creates a vacancy on city council uh state law is silent on the appointment process on how this works so city council may decide how it will determine the appointments state law also provides it statutory city councils which we are one make the appointment to fill the vacancy except in the case of a tie vote when the mayor makes the appointment the council May appoint any individual who is eligible for election to that office generally to be eligible a person must be a US citizen or resident of the city and at least 21 years old the council may but is not obligated to appoint any candidate previously defeated in an election for the office a resigning council member may not vote on the appointment of the successor to that vacancy a council member who is elected mayor however May participate in the appointment vote to fill the vacancy in his or her former C Council position after discussions of options to fill the vacancy Council reviewed the following three choices call a special election upon a current commission Authority committee or board member from one of the people one of those that served Columbus or appoint the candidate finish third in the 2024 general election there was discussion and three motions that followed the first one was to remove the option of the special election the second motion was to approve opening the application process to individuals sitting on City boards commissions or committees that are subsets of the city and the final motion was to direct the city administrator to provide written correspondence to all members of the park board the Eda the Planning Commission and the Public Works advisory committee of the options to apply for this position with that there were three people that submitted an application or a letter of intent for the vacant Council seats and those were for Russ mcferson Lynn Carver Quinn and Scott Wendell at tonight's meeting Council will consider these applicants for selection to the vacant city council position Mr Mayor thank you Jack well Council we got uh three applicants I not really in favor but everybody wanted to give their opinion I'm not favor of interviewing them I think we read their resumés I don't know if we want to go through that or not anybody have an opinion on that um I'd actually like to make a motion if I could um since I made the motion the last time to do the application process I've receiv received a lot of phone calls uh since the last meeting uh with displeased people not being able to have their voice heard I would like them make a motion to reconsider uh about an appointment process and call for a special election though it might take more time I think it'll assure ensure a lot more transparency within the process um but I would need a second on that this is jny I second okay we have a motion and second any discussion I thought we went through this before but uh we'll take a vote if there's no discussion J Jenny I Ron no Janet nay Rob I so the motion is defeated any other comment motions I just I just wanted to share that I had to make that motion through you know receiving a lot of a lot of phone calls since the last meeting people that like we were told watch the meeting after the fact and things so thanks for uh considering I also received a phone call from Mr Jeff durin who I think has talked to a few of you uh he could not be here tonight but he wanted to uh let you all know that uh I know he's on the cable commission and I know that that's not being considered uh but he was still interested and I just wanted to make a point that he did note that as well well he was being very thorough because he called me too and he also talked to me at the cable commission so kudos to him for uh his persistence well I made a a statement in the beginning here what's your thoughts on the applicants do you want to interview them or have you got enough information through the resumés that they handed To Us by interview do you mean interview publicly here tonight in front of everyone right or what however you think yeah however you I would I would like for the four of us to sit with each each person I think that that would be great because it would be nice to get to know the different people who have have put in their their um request and nomination but um I think that that would be especially because we aren't doing a special election I think I think due diligence seems to be uh something I'm in favor of because we have a very divided house here well that would be we'd have to have it the public M yes Mr Mayor and Council it would be a public meeting by virtue of you all being there anybody else that thought I guess if we did do it that way what would we work off for questions like when we we uh we did the city administrator right we had a set of questions that we worked off and we took turns but I guess any feedback on that would be appreciated well I look at I think we know all three of them at least I hope so by now I I'm not really interested in bringing this out I in an interview I don't know um I know Mr wend from the time on the uh the short time on the Planning Commission and Lynn from working with her uh on the commission but I have no clue who this other guy is is I wanted to call him but the phone numbers were scribbled out he was on he's on Zoom he's my neighbor okay why were the why were the phone numberb scribbled out so we could contact them to interview them personally private uh data their their protection of their private data I I believe that was the reason I think in there they asked us to reach out to them if we had questions and then we deleted their phone number right the information would have been available through the city administrator I believe any anything that's published with phone numbers emails address or redacted okay put out to the public initially because that's protected information at this point okay thank you I I'm going to make my statement um I've read all three of the letters of Interest included in our Council packets from Rusty mcferson Lyn Carver Quinn and Scott Wendell um I've also been contacted by former council member Jeff derin who continues to express his interest in being appointed to the vacant count uh Council seat and he could not attend tonight so I asked that I reaffirm his interest and obviously asked you do the same thing um I appreciate and thank all of those who have stepped up to be considered um I've worked with Miss uh Lyn Carver M ly Lynn Carver Quinn as co-chair of the Fall Fest and also um in her capacity as the Planning Commission chair and I can attest to her strong Community advocacy and her commitment to serve Mr mcferson is my neighbor and I have known him and his wife Sheila for years I can also personally attest to his interest in the city and involvement on the Public Works Advisory Board um so my vote is not about any concerns that I have with these generous folks who have stepped forward um my position was and still is that the elections are about the Public's exercising their right to choose their government leaders I don't know how anybody can say that they were who voted against anybody there was three candidates and two open seats um in our recent election on November 5th just over two months ago 1265 voters cast their vote for Scott Wendell and as I said in our last meeting this was only 43 fewer votes than council member Latin received so clearly there was significant public support for Wendell as the city council candidate I cannot not think of a more fair outcome than to have every voter who cast a ballot for the city council to have at least one of their candidates represent them it' be incredibly arrogant to think that I know better which candidate best represents their priorities than those who voted so it's with this conviction and my respect for the election process that I would be in favor of appointing Scott Wendell is that a motion I can make it a motion and I if anybody else has anything to say go ahead and make a motion so then I move to appoint Scott Wendell to fill the vacant City Council seat of Ron hgraph for a term to expire on December 31st 2026 and I'll second that motion there's a motion on the table any discussion hearing none take a vote Jennifer nay Janet I Rob Ron I would anybody else like to make a motion uh this is Rob Bush um I've R reviewed uh Lyn Carver Quinn's as well as the others uh applications uh uh to be on Council um past experience is extensive um in the city of North St Paul which is a much larger City uh than ours not discrediting our small town but knowing knowing the amount of projects that come through the Planning Commission in that area it is extensive uh 15 years on that Planning Commission um served here as two years as Planning Commission chair uh co-chaired with Janet on the Fall Fest for two years which uh which both were both years were very successful due to both both your's uh uh involvement in the that um so I would like to make a motion that we appoint uh Lyn Carver Quinn uh for the vacant seat of Ron hanra this is Jenny I'll second so we have a motion on the table and it's seconded any discussion hearing none we'll take a vote Jenny I Janet nay Rob I and Ron nay so I guess we got to look at you our City attorney what do we do next unless there are any other motions that might pass uh you are deadlocked and in that case the statute revised that the mayor appoints the um vacant seat person for the vacant seat well I'd like to see a a compromise or something but it sure doesn't appear it's going to happen so pardon you have one more candidate we got everybody made a motion I know who's talking out there Mr Mayor we don't take comments from the floor outside of public um open Forum so that's okay no comments I uh I just want to make a couple statements here number one just because we had an open form and people get to shoot at people and you don't get to return to fire when we had an election on uh November 5th there were three people that ran for councel we could have had two and nobody out there would have had a choice you wouldn't had a choice to vote for anybody because the two people are going to get in the same thing happens with the mayor if one runs for mayor and nobody runs against them I guess they're the mayor because there's no other option so I agree with fully with what Lyn says there's a 1,200 people out there that voted for Scott w I also have to say and I can I don't sit and count them either Rob and Jennifer but I get calls too I got a lot of calls too about stand your ground stay with us the voters the 1200 so just remember that that we're all here to work together and it'll work out but I do believe that you did have a boat and anybody who wanted to run could have ran but nobody did you could have had a mayor who was elected years ago with nobody running against him if that's what you want you always have that choice and it'll come up in a couple years so I'm going to go with Scott Wendell as our next council member Jack you're corrupt [Applause] so um Mr Mayor um and council members uh your options are to swear in Mr Wendell and have him take a seat this evening uh since that's not on the agenda um you'd have to amend the agenda it would take uh a majority vote to amend the agenda the alternative is to swear him in this week and then he could uh be seated at the next meeting I I move that we do it uh outside of the public eye like all the rest of us had to do I don't think you had to it's it was a choice I I mean I I agree that let's not do it tonight I don't want to amend the agenda I'd like to get through the rest of the things but um I just want to clarify that that whether you're in the public eye or you're not is up to the candidate to decide we all had that choice that's fine I think it if if it's not on the agenda then what would happen in the normal course is between meetings he would be sworn in and he'd be seated at the next yeah in response to that maybe that was just a confusion of mine cuz both times I was sworn in beforehand and that just could have assumed that right due to being C when we got sworn in individually by ourselves so yeah that that's okay I I know that the times had for slake in the paper swearing in during the meeting but that's fine and and if if uh Jack would not accept it I mean uh if Scott wouldn't uh accept it then we can turn it to the next council meeting but uh you could do it right after this meeting also to whatever okay we'll go on to the next item on discussion appointments of to commissions and committees and Boards Pages 16- 19 that assignments of city council persons to commission committees authorities wos and other public advisory boards as the Aon or members are recommended by the mayor and confirmed by city council as this Council was not not fully seated until January the 2nd or approved only those essential appointments necessary for meetings to be held prior to this council meeting were made on January the 8th 2025 those appointments were that that of Deputy Mayor part boardly aison for the first quarter of 2025 excuse me part boardly aison and then the alternate for the par board Planning Commission liaison for the first quarter of 2025 and the Personnel committee the following remaining are commission Authority and committee appointed positions recommended by mayor hgraph for consideration the first one is the Planning Commission there's three quarter there's quarter terms for each one of those Jennifer Laton was appointed for the January through March term and at this time mayor hanra recommends that Janet heglund be appointed for for the April through June term followed by Rob Bush for the July through September term and at this time since Mr wendle was recommended for appointment Mr wendle for the October through December term Jack did I miss anything on there with where you said I'll take any the mayor I'll take open position and and Ron is volunteered to be the alternate for anyone that can't attend if you got a day you got to get out of there and can't be there okay okay thank you sir for the fire department liaison uh mayor hanra recommends himself and council person Rob Bush as the appointments to this board the fire department meets his notice by the adoption of the Forest Lake Columbus fireboard meeting schedule that soon to come out generally it's about four times a year for the inoa county sheriff's department mayor hanra recommends that he be the Thea on to that position meetings are scheduled as needed and last year there was only one meeting for the sunrise River Water Management organization it's recommended by mayor hanra that council member Janet heglin and citizen member Tim melor be recommended for reappointment to that board both of them have a long line of service on there and have a great body of knowledge on that board in addition the city is also in the Rice Creek and Creek Watershed management districts uh council person heglin is the current city Lea zone of the Rice Creek Water Management District board and is recommended for reappointment to that organization uh currently there is no liazon liaison to the Creek Water Management District uh mayor hanra is requested that any council person that has interest to serve on this board if they wish to volunteer for that they will be considered for appointment to that organization should we wait till Scott's on here to fill that yeah we we can we can wait till next week if you want to do that yeah let's hold off on that also the also there's the Forest Lake cable commission uh Sue Wagman was the city council representative Sue did not run free election so she is no longer the elected representative to that that position is still vacant and open if you want to wait till next time uh I don't think they have Janet do you know when their next meeting is uh let me look here I have the agenda next meeting is March 20th okay we don't have to make that appointment at this time we can wait till everybody's sworn in and everybody's seated uh the other board that requires an appointment or not a board it's a Fall Fest committee uh uh it's mostly been a volunteer position uh council member heglin has served as kind of the coordinator of that for the last two years and uh I think she wants to reduce her role in that so staff is essentially looking for direction as to the need for a council the aison to this committee and to find the degree of Staff responsibility for the Fall Fest committee for 2025 so so if you'd like to appoint a council member as a liaison and designate for further discussion what staff responsibilities are going to be in this mostly it's been on a volunteer basis uh Lorie Spangler our Deputy city clerk has handled most of the coordination of that from the staff level uh with the input of several other staff over the past year and uh all we need to do is make sure all those roles are defined and we have someone that's going to be ahead of that from the uh City level and going forward too I think it's going to it's appearing more and more likely that the city's going to have to take a bigger role in this to make sure we have coordination of the event I'm not sure what you're asking do you want us to discuss this or yeah I'm asking to we're looking for direction on what to do on this anybody that wants to volunteer well let me let me let me project I mean I think I think in the past as as Jack has said it's been primarily a a volunteer position I mean prior to 2019 it was really run by the Lions and the seniors um so I think that um there's been a lot of work done in the last couple of years ly's done an amazing job with fundraising she's got that down to a you know a fine science and has we've worked out a lot of policies and procedures related to that and I've done a lot of work in terms of trying to put some of that structure together too one of the things that's been a challenge as a as a even a council member trying to do this is that there's a lot of um parts to this that you really need to be a staff member to execute count you know whether that's contracts with the NOA County for the for the um uh traffic control and things like that there's a lot of ideas that come up that are I don't know can we do that or can't we do that is that legal who can do that that sort of thing so Jack and I have talked about we talked about this last year that I really felt that it was time for the city to for City staff to take a leadership role in this and then have a group of volunteers that they can assign tasks to um we didn't actually have enough staff last year to do that and that is why Lynn and I co-chaired it once again but I think we do now with with uh the higher of Aaron and I'd really recommend that you know in the next week or two we sit down and we really fine-tune what is what is Staff going to do what's the volunteer group going to do and then you can go back and ask for volunteers for specific things I think I think how we've done it in the past doesn't make sense anymore now that we have staff on board that have expertise and can can actually put this put this uh event together and it's so it'll be so much easier than us on the outside trying to figure out how to get this how to get this to work so question even in a reduced capacity uh would there I think it would be important to still have a liaz on are you still interested in that position or is that something that you'd be willing to pass the torch on I'm more than willing to pass the torch on it I but I think what I'd like to do is be able to Define what that leison position is because you know we did everything right Lynn and so that's not a liaison that's a coordinator so I I want to try to transition transition this from coordinating the event to being a liaison and and more advisory and and just making sure that you know the resources required are are being met so I think we can talk more about that and and I'm you can you can uh push back on that if you want but that's that's what I would recommend well I I think the important thing is that we identify what the best method to implement this is and identify those roles as you mentioned those of Staff those of the volunteers and what the aison could contribute until we get to that point then we don't really know what the assignments are going to be but I think that's a good start and a good way to get this kicked off another thing is it's very important it's January but time is of the essence a lot of the things need to be started early uh especially those things involving fundraising contractual Arrangements between those people that are doing vending and those that are being the uh attractions that we bring in like the petting zoo we need to get those contracts executed probably within the next month or two to make sure we can secure them uh so the quicker we can get on this the better I agree so just like to note I would be interested in assisting with that if just as a note so if we can decide that tonight that would be fine and I'd be more than willing to participate in that I mean I'm fine I'm fine with you know naming you as a liaison I just felt like it was fair to Define what that meant and what the time commitment and stuff is um but if you're willing to do it I say go for it so were you thinking then like kind of Aaron would be the lead from the city side and then Jenny would work in conjunction with him or and Lyn if Lynn's still willing to well definitely what I was envisioning again this is just my my Envision is that someone like Aaron or someone he would delegate would would coordinate this which means having the vision executing the contracts making sure we're compliant with all the policies coming up you know getting input on new ideas um coordinating the the volunteers assigning the volunteers um for for different task scheduling the volunteers um promoting working on the promotion all of those things are have been really challenging especially the promoting part on the outside because I mean it's not what I do I don't have resources to do that so one advantage we have this year is we don't have elections going on so that will free up some additional staff time to assist in the coordination of this event I mean Jennifer I was spending 10 to 20 hours a week towards the end on this so it's I don't think you'd want to do that but I think that a lot of what I did can be done by staff now that there's kind of a template for it yeah I think like you said we're we're kind of at a shortage with with elections plus we we I think we have at least two extra staff than we had at that point right just cuz was Carissa gone at that point or did she leave shortly thereafter shortly there after okay so yeah we're we're actually back at the same number because we had Connor gone Carissa was gone and uh the other position Conor was was vacant too so uh but but again not having to deal with the elections having to deal with three elections two of which fell in between Fall Fest one right before and then another in a couple weeks after uh really limited some of our resources and capacity we got it done so it will give us a little bit more free time to devote to some of those activities and in terms of fundraising I mean us on on the council can't do that legally and staff can't either so that is going to have to be a volunteer and there's no better person to do that than Lynn if she's still willing to do that am I allowed can I can I ask Miss Carver Quinn if she is still willing to participate or do I need to uh Mr Mayor um you should uh invite her to the table since you're running the meeting but at the council memb request Miss Lyn cber Quinn oh Lynn would you want to come up thank you very [Music] much okay I do think it's very important to have a staff person on the when we meet because there's paying bills there you know getting permits I mean that's kind of the central person so it is very key to have a staff person assigned to us um and you know if Jenny if you're if you and Janet can work together so you can kind of learn the ropes there if we get started fundraising early instead of July um like we have the last couple years I will have more time freed up for myself to help out at crunch time but the way it's been going the last couple years we haven't gotten the forms ready for sponsorship until I'm out there in August and I'm busting my butt cuz it's not going out to people once it's going twice three times so the sooner we can get started the sooner we have time to open up in crunch time when it happens but it would be great if we had both of you Janet showing Jenny actually What It Takes cuz it's a lot and then a staff person it would be really smooth so are you willing to assist me that way oh absolutely and are you willing to participate still yes yes I will and those are the key questions I think okay and we'll get some things together and I think we need to call General organizational meeting I'll check with everybody's schedule and we'll try to get that arranged as soon as possible okay sounds good thank you very much and thank you Lyn uh Jack or Bill do I make a motion now since we got this kind of yes if you'll make a motion to approve those recommendations that we just read and that you made okay I move to approve the recommendations of mayor hgraph for the 2025 liaison member appointments to the city of colus commissions committees and Boards as included in the staff report item C3 and that would include those that are being held over there's a couple of spots that were held over right all right should I throw that in there no I think it's clear it's clear okay somebody want to Second this is Jenny L second okay we have a motion on the floor any discussion any questions Jenny no Jennifer you want to vote I mean this is Jenny Jenny I Janet I Rob I Ron I we'll go to item number four Citywide recycling events Pages 20 20 and 21 Jack each year the city hosts multiple opportunities for the residents to participate in Citywide recycling events these events are communicated through a newsletter postcard distribut to each residents the city is proposing six events for 2025 and those are exhibited is attachment one in your packet they are to include in the spring a bicycle drop off day a drop off with coupon a drop an issue on the same date with free paper trading here at City Hall uh week of July 14 through 18 pick up and coupon for two free items paid by the city residents bicycle drop off in the fall and another drop off day with free coupon items and throughout the year the battery single sort Recycling and organic collection for the residents and provides the compostable bags to be used for the organic program in addition to the above events there is funding available for recycling opportunities provided in other proposed community events which were investigating other ways to try to maximize our ability to obtain County funds to fund this and expand their recycling efforts thank you Jack I'll make a motion I move to approve the proposed Citywide recycling events as exhibited in item C4 attachment 1 January 22nd 2025 city council packet Mr Rob I'll second that any discussion any questions I have some I have a question um Jack uh in number five it says in addition to the above events there's funding available for recycling opportunities provided in proposed community events um I had sent an email I don't know maybe a month or two ago to Lori suggesting that we also offer recycling of um election signs or you know the signs that people have in their yards for school events and things like that um we learned that there is a recycling center in Mound that takes these and actually shreds them up and makes them into new new um Coral plast which is the material that those signs are made up to Ron and I collected a whole bunch of them a whole trailer of and hauled them down there um I don't remember when that was in November or something after yeah and they were they were thrilled to get them they were thrilled to work with us as part of if we wanted to try to do that for recycling and what I've also learned is in NOA County and Washington County their um Central recycling centers will take them but they'll only take up to five so it doesn't really do much good so what I had proposed to Lori was that maybe what we could do is make it known that if people have those signs whether they're from elections or from you know uh school um graduation things or whatever they could drop them off here there'd be a designated spot and maybe once or twice a year you know someone on staff could haul them down to Mound all you have to do is call and let them know that they're coming and they come and help you unload um and if there's funding available that could pay for the time of the I'm assuming it would be public works but whoever ends up driving down there and pay for the cost of the gas and things like that so if that's if that's what that item means and I would propose adding that to this list that is something I know she's checked on and I think that's going to be added to the list of services that we'll provide is that appropriate to add to this list or is this is that not considered an event no well I I think it'd be appropriate just to add it just to make sure we have it in the record okay so that motion passed right no no we didn't take the vot that was discussion discussion so that would be an amended motion yep okay so I would I would well who made the who made the first motion I did do you want to amend your motion to include that yeah include that I can't I can't repeat all just just that you're they adding recycling of those Coral Plass signs okay so we had a motion we had it seconded by Rob if I'm right yeah that's correct would you second that second that again thank goodness okay now we can vote vote Jen Jenny I Janet I Rob I Ron I we'll go to item D consultant staff report and we'll go to city engineer Brian good evening mayor and councel the one item I was uh just going to report was to indicate that we did provide additional language in the Engineering Services contract that was acceptable to the finance director and City administrator so uh the signed contracts were returned this evening so well thank you Brian we'll go to the City attorney next yeah uh just one item also um at the request of the council I spoke with Margaret vessel about doing another day on the hill which always seems to be well attended by the council uh just as a reminder the day on the hill follows uh the scheduling of League of Minnesota City so if council members want to take part in their morning program that's an option for you and then we would meet uh at Larin Hoffman public affairs for lunch have a quick um recap of what's going on in the session hopefully things will have settled down by then in terms of who's leading and who's they actually are in session right um and then uh per whatever is on our legislative agenda I believe we have two items um a capital Improvement item and a fiscal disparities item we would get an update on that those uh pieces of legislation and then you would uh go to the Senate offices and the house offices and catch folks as we can uh to advance our cause so it's usually a fun day usually a productive day and I believe it's uh March 6 so uh that would um the city administrator would notice a public meeting since you'd be together as a group um and we would get that scheduled and work with our uh delegation to make that a productive uh morning and afternoon sounds great thanks for checking on that anything else bill that's all I've got thank you uh we'll go to city council reports Jennifer you have anything no Janet um yep I have a couple things uh actually just one thing one is it is the um report from the cable commission meeting that I attended uh for Sue well in Sue's place um and this was just last Friday so there were a number of things that came up that I thought would be of interest to the to the board um the first one is that Paul Peterson as he has talked uh about his willingness to help us I mentioned the creddy Acoustics that we continue to have in this um room and he said he thinks it might be um the speakers more than the microphones so if you give him a call he will come out here and he'll do his magic testing and all that and hopefully help us solve that problem um so that was good news um they did recognize uh Sue Egan's uh work on the on the um board with a little party afterwards so that was kind of nice and then the last thing is he brought up um an organization called MAA which stands for the Minnesota Association of community telecommunications administrators and they have um also a legislative platform that they are asking their members to support they were on the Hill last year and this is really um kind of acting as an advocacy organization to help shape the sort of rapidly changing telecommunications landscape what it really boils down to is that there used to be a fair amount of dollars from the cable franchise agreements and with things going to uh broadband and less people subscribing to cable that money is drying up and there's this organization is um lobbying to tried to tap into some of the uh Broadband dollars that are flowing through the cable companies and of course the cable companies aren't wild about that idea so um I think they're going to ask for a contribution from their member cities and for us we would be asked for about $100 this is nothing we have to take action on now it's more of an FYI so I I um I told him that I would bring that uh to to the council just so that you had a heads up on that and you might as they develop this a little further you may want to ask if Paul wants to come and give us an update on that um and that's pretty much it from that meeting thank you Janet Rob no report mayor all right I have the park board report but I'll wait till we get down to that we'll go to the Personnel committee report Janet um so there's a memo that I put in uh the file for everybody and I won't I won't read this unless you guys haven't had a chance to anybody want me to go over what's in there was it in our packet or is it it was emailed out and then it was okay here I give it oh got it okay so it doesn't sound like you I have not okay so let me let me just briefly go over it so we had um received approval from the council in November to post a part-time up to 15 hours a month contract position for a recording secretary to recording the to record the minutes so as you may know our minutes have been pretty much delayed in getting out and that's not that's not ideal and it's not how we want to do business we've looked at we've had uh an organization called timesavers try to do our minutes and they haven't really created minutes of the quality that we want in the past staff has done it but staff is always um challenged because their their days are taken up by by things that are more urgent and and they always minutes always kind of get back to the um back burner and then they get behind on those so we've in the past there has been recording secretaries they've um been uh employees but they did recording they recorded the minutes for council meeting and um Planning Commission they did more than just the council um minutes this position would only do the council minutes um and then notes from the workshops um so when we talked about this in November we were authorized to post the position there was about $3,600 annually that was built into the budget and that was initially earmarked for paying Time Savers um we posted the position on nove I'm sorry on December 9th on the website in the social media channels on the dynamic sign and then I contacted some people that I thought might be interested and I also um contacted Pastor um Brad Friedland down at the Crossroads Church and asked if he had anybody in his congregation that might be interested and he actually did and sent us um a referral and this was uh Danielle peacock she lives in Forest Lake and we interviewed her on January 10th um she uh is um formerly 23 years at a company called R&D systems and it's now known as biotech I know this um company pretty well they're a biotech company and she was in charge of shipping and she Rose through the ranks in that organization starting as the um uh like a shipping administrator and then uh was moved into a supervisor position and lastly into a manager position she took minutes for all of their management meetings so she's not done it for a um municipality but she has done it for an organization um she described herself as detail oriented an independent worker Dependable a clear and attentive Communicator um that is really what we saw when we interviewed her as well Jack has reached out to the three um references and got pretty much the same assessment from those really glowing results um she says she can meet the expectation of getting our minutes out for review um in 3 to 7even days after the the meeting um is held and she's immediately available to start so I'm willing to take any questions otherwise I can make the motion to move forward with Contracting with her I have no questions Jennifer you can go ahead I have none oh you have no questions I have have I have I reviewed her information she looked like she seemed more than adequate um and you met with her and seemed like it everything went well so um was the the pay range seemed adequate um no so no on my account everything looks good with that okay good do you have any Jack or um I have one question how how do we come up with the hours like 15 hours a month basically two meetings two meetings a month plus a workshop and from our past experience with staff they I mean it really depends on how long the meetings are but they average about 5 hours per meeting to write up the minutes so that's how we came up with it I mean it's going to take her longer probably the first few sets that she does but and it was up to 15 hours so there's flexibility there correct it's not an A flat 15 hours no no she will charge us by the hour for which she but but that's you know that's what we told her to kind of expect and that's what we would expect from a budgeting standpoint but certainly we end up having extra meetings or things like that that it might go above that so would we expect that she'll she'll do this type in of these minutes here at the city offices she will do this um likely from home I mean she'll prepare the minutes from home she may be here especially the first few meetings in person but she will more than likely do most of her um compiling of minutes from the recordings okay when I meet with her I will encourage her to come to a few of the City Council meetings in person you can get a better sense of the flavor than you can even when you watch it remotely on Zoom but that kind of gives you a little bit better understanding of maybe some things going on some things in minutes taking or essentially having better background on your material so you can be able to write it up much better and the other thing I'd like to do is give a a big pat on the back and a big thank you to Lori Spangler and Elanor Han who stepped up and they've come up and taken over the creation the production of these minutes here in the last two months after we've had two or three things that didn't work out for us and we hope to get all these C up by our February 12th meeting they did a great job I agree so if there are no other questions then I would um move to uh direct the city administrator to execute a contract with Dan uh Miss Danielle peacock for recording secretary Services as described in the posted position description and at a pay range of 20 to $25 an hour um we believe that her professional experience and her skills will be a valuable addition and a key to improving our public access to our meeting minutes I just have one more question would she then be an employee of the city or a subcontractor she's a subcontractor oh okay yep and and just I don't remember Jennifer if you were here when we were talking about this before I guess not um but the reason we were going with the subcontractor is because she meets the definition of a subcontractor she can do this whenever on her own schedule we're not really directing her work she's using her own um computer and working remote yes yeah and this is Jenny and I will second your motion thank you we got a motion on the table uh any discussion any questions having none uh Jennifer Jenny I Janet I Rob n Ron I I I know Janet yes ma'am yes sir sorry yes sir okay I'll go to the park boards I was uh U sorry uh Planning Commission oh yeah I'm sorry sorry your debut your debut they both start with P yes so yeah Planning Commission there's a Planning Commission meeting I know several members are in here uh tonight uh Planning Commission meeting 115 uh garage Solutions Condominiums uh CTI also known as man caves on Lake Drive uh they requested an amendment to their existing cup to add to additional buildings um which would make seven total buildings I believe um and so that was reviewed by the Planning Commission and verified the verified site plans and documents were in order and recommended this to move forward to the council I talked to Jack about it uh before the meeting and I know that um Miss Carver Quinn did as well because she's on the Planning Commission um because it was not on the agenda for tonight and was um mentioned at the Planning Commission that it would be this will be addressed at the next city council meeting to allow for two weeks um to make for any changes or questions that need to be addressed with CTI uh so just know that that is why this is not on tonight's agenda we had quite a bit to cover anyway um one other note there was an item that was removed relating to reviewing zoning changes to the Northwest uh for a corridor uh that was um put on hold I think because of some uh Watershed questions and some variances that way so just know that that is TBD to be determined and that is it for Planning Commission thank you Jennifer the next item was a park board report uh Park Board met last night and I'll just get some key points here we talked about the dugouts out on the U the ball field across the street and at this time flah or Force Lake Athletic Association uh don't have a lot of information at this time they're waiting to some issues with the Forest Lake City and uh the school district on funding and they budgeted and there's just a little mixup going on here but uh hopefully by March 25th they'll be in and this thing will get settled on the dugouts what we're going to do with them the other thing we talked about removal of dead trees at this time two bids came in I should let JW talk about it he's up next anyway but um we had two two uh uh bids come in and they weren't apples and apples and he can discuss that one he's got going to resolve that issue uh we also should let everybody know that Ryan Stark of RVs Landscaping is not going to cut our grass anymore so that's another issue that JW is going to or Jim's going to talk about uh what's he going to uh how we're going to plan that out and the board is still working on the master plan and committee is meeting February 19th with Ellie and they're moving along so that should be complete pretty soon from that we'll go right over to Public Works Jim you got any well I thought you were going to cover my whole report for me but I guess not um Mr Mayor and councel um last night at the parkboard we did talk about trees um I met with Jack Davis this morning and we kind of hashed out the the what we'll call apples to Apple Tree bids and um we did go with um uppercut tree service and they did start today and are probably 34 of the way through um what what we hired them to do already so I if you walk through the park tomorrow you're going to notice a lot less trees in there um as far as um Ryan Stark um I I met with him and kind of went over our Park contracts both the Mowing and the the field contracts to make sure that what we were going out for bid for was what he is currently doing today um we made a couple of small adjustments but I mean everything was pretty much what what we agreed upon in 2008 um so I I compiled a bunch of bid paperwork and I gave that to Jack and him and I have kind of been discussing that but you know kind of wanted to work through the next couple of meetings here but in the next week or so I anticipate that we'll be going out for you know bids on both of those contracts so that's that's what I have uh take any questions if anybody has any I have a quick question so was Ryan at the end of like was if he had decide if he was going to continue to do this would he have had to rebid the contract or was he halfway through the two-year contract that he had we approved basically his contract in this year's budget so hyp none of them were signed at this point but um he bowed out before they were signed so he was up to be renewed anyway he was up to be renewed thank you so this is Rob what what was the purpose for Ryan not wanting to come back to our community is he closing business or just getting overwhelmed he's closing business okay so he he's he basically is shutting down shop and enter entertaining new job opportunities so I think I think you know he's been doing it for a lot of years and you know you know that kind of business business if it rains outside or you know you need to cut grass and do field maintenance while it's nice outside and you know it's a lot of time away from his family and things like that and you know he's just had enough you know look looking for a 9 to-5 job or a 7 to 3:30 or whatever whatever it may be okay he did an amazing job and had a lot of pride in his work does he have any recommendations I mean you sometimes getting a recommendation from somebody you know they they have like-minded Associates that they can Rec commend so so I asked that question and and he recommended a couple of people that that I have those contacts and and I grabbed a couple of more out there so I'll at this point right now I have a list of four maybe five people that I'll I'll contact did a good job Jim thank you but they already cut 3/4 of the trees down yeah boy so I they they basically they had a crane out there um and a in a lift so they had a guy in a lift that would go up and put a choker on the tree and then they would hook that crane to it and a guy would cut it off at the ground and they were taking whole trees and dropping them in the parking lot limming him in the parking lot smart hauling out the the logs and then chipping the rest of the brush did they do the west side first or they started on the west side and took what they could get um but they knew that they had a crane coming today so then they moved over to the east side which is where they use that crane for most of it so are these all Oak wit trees that die ash trees oh they're ash trees okay I think he Jesse Ms even said that there isn't a alive one in there is there I I don't think so I thought I thought he said that just to let everybody know the reason we're doing it now is the ground's frozen so we don't dig a lot of holes mhm yes whatever that's quick yeah uh okay we're on to uh Public Work City administrator report my only update is just to remind you that the local government officials meeting is January 29th if you want to go to that uh you've been sent the notice or contact me and I can make the RSVP for you and also for Jenny and Rob we want to get you registered for or or Scott for the uh newly elected officials training with the league of Minnesota cities I think you'd ask a question about certain classes yeah and I already registered Lor very good all right thank you that's all I have thank you anybody else have anything to discuss tonight anybody want to make a motion to adjourn you want to do announcements pardon announcements read the do we need to do that thanks you bet man I haven't been in this position item e announcements and reminders Park board meeting January 21st well that was yesterday city council Workshop February 4th 20125 at 5:30 Planning Commission meeting February 5th 2025 at 6: p.m. and a city council meeting on February 12th 2025 at 6: p.m. I'll move for adjournment Rob Jenny I oh you want to Second it oh Jenny I'm sorry a second the motion we'll take a vote Jenny Jenny I Janet I Rob I Ron I [Music]