[Music] ladies and gentlemen this is Wednesday May 22nd 20 recording in progress 6:01 p.m. and I'd like to call to order the Columbus city council meeting for tonight I'll encourage everyone to pull your microphones close Allegiance please join us I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands na indivisible I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda for the May 22nd meeting that's tonight is there a second this is Su second any questions or discussion before we approve if not I'll call for the vote Rob would you like to go first Rob I Janet I sue I Rod I and Jesse I or agenda is approved switching it up toight uh consent agenda uh I move to adopt the consent agenda as presented is there any any changes or any discussion Janet I know I'm usually the one that messes us up but not tonight anyone else hope I check to commas they're okay all right I'll call for the vote robbi wait did we get a second I don't think we got a second I'll second it oops sorry that's all right and Rob I Robi Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I is there anyone here who would like to speak at the public open Forum or anyone online who would like to speak thank you uh our next issue will be the Minnesota veterinary neurology cup and that's Pages 1 through 18 in our packets Ron hgraph is leaon and will lead the discussion for us well on May 15th uh the applicant uh Melissa Carpenter Anderson uh was at the uh meeting and uh tell you the truth there wasn't much of a discussion the Planning Commission kind of went along with everything and there was no real complaints and uh they sent a recommendation on it I unless rob you got any questions on this yeah Ron um I was just talking around before I just want to make sure that this meets the building standard for the area as far as the the sighting application and meeting that neutral tones I I don't mind that it's white I just don't want to do some precedent setting I know there was questions around truck align uh and them being a white building and not being Earth Tones or neutral tones um so just want to make sure and maybe that's for Jack um if this if this is going to fit that and there won't be any issue just for the record that does meet the architectural standards there is a percentage standard for stone just for general purposes but other architectural elements that are added to that can substitute for that 50% Stone requirement so this does meet those standards okay thank you and then I just this is Janet I just want to um mention I I went back and looked at um the ordinance about the colors because we did make a change to that after um the bare homes and and truck align discussion so I think we used the word neutral but we didn't really Define it and but we did say no neon no brilliant colors and I think that the problem we had at least with um be Holmes was that it was really This brilliant white so I think the color is that she's um presenting our our fine with our ordinance standards and I don't mind the color I just remember all the talk around that so I just wanted to be clear we weren't doing something precedent setting for the future so it's all thank you any other questions or discussions anyone beautiful looking Ron would you like to motion uh I may I move to approve the cup for Minnesota veterinary neurology pin 24- 32-22 d42 d001 0 as presented in the May 22nd 2024 city council packet item c.2 is there a second any this is Janet I second any other questions for the applicant discussions yes oh it's it's a beautiful building yeah yeah just one more are you when are you breaking ground if if this is when this is approved um hopefully it depend we just okay cool and who are you working with for GC if you don't mind me you're working with Garder okay fantastic thank you I'll call for the vote Rob I Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I congratulations yeah welcome to the hood here we are number three clear clear budget software presentation uh Jack Davis thank you Mr Mayor City staff has been researching software programs to assist in preparing City budgets we discussed some of this information in our last work meeting and we presented a propos proposal from Clear gov that seem to suit our this needs for this capabilities uh we have a representative from Clear Glo go here tonight Andrew Roth who's going to give a presentation on the software and be available to answer any questions you may have after he finishes Andrew all yours yes wonderful thank you Jack everyone can hear me okay yep very good yes thank you all right wonderful well um evening Council um as Jack said I'm Andrew Roth and the solutions adviser here at cleargov thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to present to you today uh I'd like to start by giving you an idea about the conversations that Jack Cheryl and I have had so far uh I'll share with you a little bit about who cleargov is as well so you know who you're talking to and finally just a few Solutions and how they'll help so let me pull up my screen here and get started oh you know I'm getting a message here saying host is disabled participant screen sharing is there any chance we could uh hang on one second okay there it is try that again now we see the proposal but we don't see you that's what happens can you still hear your screen uh yes I was hoping to to share my screen is that possible hang on you make him the presenter there you are should be able to hang [Music] on you click by his name I [Music] believe yes M hang on there we go I think I've got [Music] it okay wonderful everyone can see my screen okay yes thank you beautiful all right thanks for your patience there um let me pulled this up so for some context you know during your budget process today Finance primarily is working in Excel this 40-year-old software that um it works well enough if you know how to use it but the reality is that there are a lot of hands touching the budget for finance that translates to a lot of Version Control a lot of different versions of spreadsheets with a lot of formula dependency and formula dependency plus Version Control ultimately translates to a great risk of Errors being introduced to the budget and that's where we come in because it's very inefficient for finance professionals to spend hours and hours on what is essentially data entry and quality control so this is something that we're I'm going to talk to you about today that Finance Loves because it'll save them a ton of time while making sure that the budget stays accurate your departments will love it because it allows them to manage requests of Finance on a shared platform uh so that they can see and interact with the budget and at the end of the day this is going to make your conversations at Council meetings more effective while communicating more efficiently with constituents because there's greater transparency in regard to your budget and spending I like to uh pause here because I mentioned this is built for local government we're actually the most trusted provider of budgeting software to local government in the country we work with about 1500 clients none of that means anything if I tell you that we help someone in Florida or Massachusetts or wherever that's why I like to share just a few of your neighbors who were using cleargov um this is not a comprehensive list of everyone we work with in Minnesota um but I didn't want to overcrowd the slide more than I already have so we're built specifically for local government most software isn't it's made for the private sector and relabeled or it's built in big cities like Los Angeles and Chicago so when I spoke with Cheryl we talked about what local government needs what Columbus needs specifically we talked about comp implementing your existing Finance systems flexible workflows collaboration where it's appropriate put another way this isn't about asking Columbus to fit around the demands of our software instead this software is built to support the budgeting processes and work within existing systems it's uh it's tools again we don't work with big government we work with local agencies because we believe that every Community desires and deserves a government that's empowered to work as effectively and efficiently as possible that starts with tools so um when we get started first thing we'll do is we'll get your Finance team set up with our own in-house Finance team made up of former government Finance professionals and bring you on board with best in-class training uh besides getting your data on board their concern is getting everybody comfortable in the software connecting with existing systems like ban uh good news is because we're talking about the budget we don't want to break the budget so this is made to be affordable as well and to that end let's go ahead and let's talk about the uh the tools at play so we're talking about building the budget and then presenting it presenting for workshopping for reference in these meetings for transparency with the public Etc um when we talk about building the budget budget there's those three parts I showed you Capital personnel and operational budge today that's all built in Excel and we talked about spreadsheets Capital budgeting though in cleargov is a tool that's meant to make it as easy as possible to submit and monitor Capital requests and outlays over a multi-year horizon you know Cheryl uh gave me the example of the firetruck you'll need to buy well fire trucks I've learned are Pretty stinking expensive um so planning out several years makes it super easy for the finance team to know what those costs are going to look like in a 5-year plan 10year plan however far into the future we're planning out these Capital costes there's also really friendly easy to understand dashboards around relevant projects which is really helpful for getting a visual and having transparency with where that money is going Personnel is where a lot of communities tell us they feel the greatest risk for errors in the record keeping because Personnel budgeting you know your wages additional pay your benefits is really strongly formula driven uh in Excel and there's a lot of lot of risk of miscalculation so in clear you're eliminating that formula dependency excuse me uh you'll also be able to model potential changes like if you want to experiment with what happens if we have a 3% cost of living adjustment what's the effect of changing Healthcare cost over time if someone leaves or retires and we want to backfill that position how does an overlap in their time affect the budget whatever the case is scenario planning is going to give you a clear picture of how any of those possible changes affect the city's bottom line it's about good planning to ensure that we're efficient and good stewards of the budget not just in this year but looking out toward the future as well uh today operational budget is a back and forth process that involves a lot of spreadsheets uh multiple versions there's a lot for finance to monitor it's also mishmash of disorganized conversations going on outside of the spreadsheets so in clear's operational budgeting we want to create a shared platform where those conversations can take place and budgeting can happen more transparent more efficiently and with less risk of error one moment here excuse me sorry allergies that time of year and the last piece I want to give you here today is digital budget book this is a web first way to present your budget so that all of your budget that you're building in the back office can feed to a presentation automatically instead of spending time in spreadsheets you'll automatically have visuals now Council when you need to get answers about the budget how awesome would it be to pull up an Interactive budget book like this one here from Prior Lake and get a breakdown of where all all of our funds are going here immediately visualized you know interactive you know still in the spreadsheet however much data you want to include there or in Victoria's budget book here um you know let's pretend that we are in a meeting and the question comes up well you know how much did we how much revenue did we have from building permits last year we can immediately pull that up and have the answer as well you could also do like Redwing and Redwing Redwing doesn't have the narrative they don't have a lot of the details you know in here in Victoria they have overviews of each each department and what their spending looks like it's just the numbers laid bare um demographics meanwhile one more thing I'll show you here uh they're going to really put decisions that are made about what to do with budget and dollars here in context so constituency why some of these decisions are made you know why are we investing in more senior programs why are we putting more dollars out there for families it's why are we building a new school well it's because we have a lot of young adults having children and then the overall presentation here we want to enable Finance to create a beautiful presentation without needing to get a degree in design and spend time where where they really need to be spent that's what we're proposing here in a nutshell is uh tools to uh build and present your budget again this can be used to Workshop make it easily understandable and explainable at the end of the day this can become a public facing website as well so your constituents will appreciate that transparency too um final note I'll just add that you know one of the big reasons I hear about communities wanting to do the digital budget book is that they want to create a world where residents are coming to the city and its website accurate information um you know out there on the neighborhood app Facebook social media wherever it's all sources where frankly you don't control the source of information information may not be accurate maybe something someone misheard which got out of hand and spiraled into a whole narrative we want you to control that source of information and give your citizens accurate and transparent data because that's what clear government is all about um that's what I have for you uh what questions do you have for me who has questions uh this is Sue my question is um and I didn't I looked through most of the proposal not all of it but is this a year you do it a year at a time I mean can you cancel after one year or how does that work yeah great question so we write this as typically a three-year agreement that said uh we understand that government is always subject to Appropriations right so budget time comes around and you guys decide you know what clear go was a nice experiment but we don't need it next year I don't think you're going to say that but if that happened we're always subject to Appropriations um and we always put that Appropriations Clause into our agreements as well so okay thank you this is Ron I got a question so this would be on our website is that what I understand so is this something like when it's 4:30 on Friday before Memorial Day weekend and Cheryl hits a button it's right up to date when someone gets online and they see that or does she have to place it back into the website how do that work yeah so the data is going to be automatically updated um in the year in question so if she's building fiscal year 20 but it's the fiscal year 24 budget book that's not going to update automatically with the New Year's budget data but if she's building out Fisco year 25 budget book and she changes the data it's gonna automatically update for you thank you did I explain that okay so this is Janet um I think I had understood from our Workshop that this platform doesn't actually live on our website it's sort of you can you access it through the website but it doesn't actually live there is that correct yeah correct um so if you today if you Google for example um you know Prior Lake budget you'll come to their uh web page where they have all their historic budgets and it just links directly to the clear du site now we do have uh customers who will embed the budget book uh so that all the data is there included um almost like um like an iframe you know what that is essentially it displays as part of your own website um most of our customers though will link to the cleer goite okay and then my um next question is how far back I mean we're going to be loading data obviously for the year that we're working on but we can also load data for prior years is that correct correct and how far back can we go or how far back do we do people usually go yeah um ultimately it's as far back as you'd like to go uh we recommend at least three to five years for benchmarking when building out that budget so you can see that historic data um that said we have you know clients who come on board and they want to have you know 10 or 15 years of data um it's all according your preference okay and then um my next question is if after a year or two we decide that we're not going to continue with this does the budget books that we've already built go away or they maintain like a PDF or something like that that can still be accessed yeah so the data is yours um you're no longer a customer we don't have rights to hold on to the data and present it on your behalf so um you still have a PDF um all this data is easily accessible and savable to a PDF um the website though no the website uh would go away okay and then um in your proposal you have uh a section about data requirements and you said a few vendors include an export to clear gov button is Banyan one of those uh no no no so uh the way this would work is when you come on board our implementation team would map to your chart of accounts you have in b um so that we can receive that data in the form that is thank you that's that's all the questions I have right now so this is Rob um my only question is as it relates to you brought up the demographic thing uh with like a chart or bars that kind of showed you know whether a community is trending to an older community or younger community have you found or have you heard that possibly developers use that to kind of track you know areas to develop in uh for certain things whether it's senior care or things of that nature yeah yeah absolutely so I I've heard about this being used all the time as a reference the source for that data is the US Census Bureau so um you know pulls directly you don't need to maintain that or anything of the sort you do have some option in the settings of how it displays um but um yeah I've heard about it being used as a reference um as a source for a lot of difference thank you appreciate so I have one last question I don't know if you can answer it or not it might be specific to whatever our um website platform is on but a lot of times when there's links on websites um you can get back to the website you are on pretty easily and sometimes you can't so if somebody clicks on the cleargov link or the budget link or whatever we call it is it going to be like then they they go off to your you know to your platform and they can't get back without sort of re Rel logging into our or is there a easy like back arrow that will get them back onto our website yeah so it is uh an easy back arrow um let me actually demonstrate that for you if you like um you can see like here on Prior Lake if I click on their 24 budget book I bring it up and it's just a simple actually opens in a new window so it'll still be there for you okay so they okay that's good all right so we've heard the sales pitch what do you think Cheryl what do you think Jack how much a benefit is this it's not inexpensive but fill us in please fill me in um I think it would make budgeting easier I think that we should try it um and if you decide you don't like it after one year um then we could look at different options but I really like all of the information I like how it's presented I like how they will host it um and how we can do budgeting in real time I would like to try it for one year Jack as the interim administrator do you think this is a step forward for us I definitely think it is our current system of presenting budgets is very unclear it's kind of hard to follow it's a system of probably maybe 20 pages of spreadsheets so it's not intuitive and it's very difficult to go from one area to the next area this would Link in very well I think it has all the features that we need to make good and clear concise budget presentations to the council and also for the public to understand too and I think one of the key things in being transparent and presenting information to the public is letting them know how their money is being spent and this is a great tool I think for demonstrating that I just have one more question um how so since we don't have the easy export to clear gov button in banion how difficult is it to export data I mean I've I've worked with software like this and sometimes that can be the rate limiting step trying to export The Source data to what would be a really cool platform yeah for sure um so mentioned when you come on board we're going to map to your chart of accounts what's there in B what that essentially means is that when we receive uh that data we're going to teach a system that when something comes in with um with this account number it's going to map over to this value and clear um so we're essentially teaching cleargov to understand what the markers on the bang and exp mean uh similarly moving data back to banion from cleargov um you know which typically typically this is done couple times a year moving between Finance system and budget um it's going to be a simple flat file export um probably there will be a couple columns that need adjusting uh but you know essentially it's the same data right what's the budget bye different line items so is that did I answer that okay um I give it a c but but okay so going back the short answer is well going back to clients that use banion give me a sense of like how long does it take to actually get the data that you need to build this budget book over to you I mean I I imagine there's a range how long typically or how many hours typically oh yeah so um when you come on board we will ask for a couple reports from Banyon um our data team starts that mapping getting fully on board and using the software typically UH 60 to 90 days is what we plan on um you know some certainly you can get in and start working on immediately like building out you know narrative around the budget books um but getting all your historic data loaded bringing your your current data in there um that's what be on boarding process is about okay and then this question is for Cheryl is there anything within our budget that's not in banion that he would need to get access to I mean are there things outside of banion that I mean I know we have always had our budgeting process be a bunch of spreadsheets which I totally agree with all the risks of doing it that way um but are there other data that he would need to access that aren't living in Banyon no okay now I'm done I'd like to add one other comment in doing this budget the way it's been done in the past and with just essentially Excel spreadsheets Cheryl and I are probably going to have to spend a good week once a system like this is in place then you can probably do a draft budget in a couple of hours so there would be a cost Savings in time in this we don't I don't have the exact figures but I do know it would save the two of us quite a bit of time that we can put the other other priorities Ron you had a question I had a question but I think I'm confusing myself this isn't like looking in the checkbook right in other words nobody get online and say well we got 2.5 million in the budget and we spent $3 million or and as a month's you know like we get our tax ta money from the county and it refunds the the bank account do they see any of that or no no so this is not going to be an open checkbook no um it'll show what's budgeted um checkbook is SE it would show what's budgeted and also could keep track on expenses to date but we're going to give you those financial reports that I promised on a monthly basis so you'll be able to keep up like that that' be more like a balance in your checkbook but it will be uh whenever you look at this in certain times of the year and it's updated it can show what the budget was for this line item what the expenses were to date and it'll give you a good picture of where we are financially and that along with the financial reports you'll receive will keep you up to date in almost real time and it's is something you can access to and pull up some information if you're curious about the budget items kind of what's been spent so it won't it won't it won't open us up to anything that's going to be sensitive information or anything that's nonpublic thank you soe you're techie I'm good you're good yep all right anybody else R I'm good someone like to make a motion I will so um I may excuse me I move to approve the proposal by cleargov to purchase the budgeting software as presented in the May 22nd 2024 um city council packet uh item C3 attachment one this is Sue all second any other questions or discussion for anyone I'll call for the vote Rob I Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I there we go can't wait to see it yep item number four an NOA County score Grant and in our packet it's Pages 49 to 63 thank you Mr Mayor annually the city applies for the Anoka County Municipal score Grant the application is a request for funds to support and increase recycling opportunities for the city of Columbus the grants are funded from residential and Commercial County Solid Waste and Recycling tax taxes Grant funds in the amount of $31,250 in Anoka County $10,000 plus you get $5 per resident in addition to that and that's a total of there's 1,573 household so there's an additional 71 $ 7,145 These funds can be used for our recycle events which are spring and our fall recycle days uh the co mingle dumpster membership dues and promotions the other aspect of this is the enhancement funding which we can qualify for up to $652 it's used for a summer curbside events park recycling in our Organics program and the balance of this can be used for administrative costs in the amounts of $734 which is essentially approximately 25% of this grant as I said the city's funding is based on a $10,000 allotment that each municipality in inoka County receives along with an additional $5 per household allocation the household counts used for the allocation calculation are from the 2022 met Council demographic estimates for 2025 the city's tonnage goal for this year is 469 for for 2025 is 469 tons the city met their annual goal requirements in 2023 and 2021 the tonage goal is set by Anoka County but there is no penalty if the goal is not met but it is there to encourage recycling the city's done a great job in the past two years and we're on target to meet our 2024 goal so again these are funds that fund their entire recycled in program so there is no impact on our general Levy budget by using these funds for that use I also have Lor's logged in to if anybody has any questions the question was asking me is is there anything else we can use these recycle funds for the way the grant is written and the rules and regulations pretty well restricted to these categories that I just enumerated in the presentation any questions or discussion anyone this is Janet I do have a few questions um so I was looking through the grant itself and on page 54 of our packet where there's the promotion base funding I know um Lor's put in dollars for the flyer and for the postage and mailing list um I was wondering whether or not she I imagine those days are pretty busy when we have the drop off events if she ever has any need for volunteers to help with that and if that's looks like there's dollars available to incentivize volunteering I don't know if she's thought about that or not but I was thinking that might be something to consider there there could be sometimes there's need for helping people to direct traffic generally the vendor that we hire to do that pretty well runs the program as far as unloading directing people where to go I do know that in the mornings when these things open it can be pretty hectic so it wouldn't be a bad idea maybe to have some people here during those early hours of the operation and then my um other question under that same category is there's a category for educational entertainment which I don't know what that exactly is but one of the things I thought about was for a Fall Fest you know if we had a booth or a you know a display or something that we could man again it might take volunteers and we could certainly um uh incentivize participation in that way but I was thinking that there might be dollars available to support something like you know trinket giveaways at Fall Fest or you know giving away the B the the biodegradable bags or something like that and it seems like that would be the place to put it so that was just another idea that um if she hadn't thought about it maybe that we could do something like that too and that's certainly something we could look at and that event would be a great way to promote this also yeah people like free stuff um and then I the other question I had is on page 56 at the top that says program Administration based funding is $400 that number is provided to us by the county right like we don't get to say oh this is how many hours it really takes and correct okay those are those are my questions anything else anyone in that case I'll make the move to approve that staff submit the inoka County municipal waste abatement Grant application for the city of Columbus for funding for the program of the Year 2025 in the amount of $31,100 $11 is the max that we can apply for and that's even if you're adding these these other two items that's correct we we'd have to try to work those in with the existing dollars what this grant does they give us 10 every municipality gets $10,000 and then for each household you get another $5 so that's the limits of the grant that's available to us does that answer your question jenet uh well I don't have the Grant I don't have the grant language in front of me so if that's how it is that's how it is it just seems that they have all these extra things that you can do for enhancement but then there's no dollars to fund them that makes no sense to me there's you know I think there's ways that you can maybe switch some of the funds around if you need to within that amount but this is this is the max that we that is available to the city of Columbus okay so then I guess your motion's just fine well then I'll restated that I move to approve the staff submit the NOA County municipal waste abatement Grant application for the city of Columbus for funding for the year 2025 in the amount of $31,100 and Jesse I item number five Council Workshop meeting date change and that's on page 64 of our packet and you'll read the background information the schedule for the 2024 city council Workshop meetings was approved by the Council on December 13 20123 meeting the workshop meetings are currently scheduled on the 2 Tuesday of every month at 5:30 :0 p.m. due to current conflicts with the state and the employment schedules of the council members it is recommended that the workshop meeting be changed from its current date to the first Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. pending approval of this request for the meeting date change the new schedule will be published in the forite times and revised on the city website so this was discussed at our Workshop quite thoroughly I think it was discussed um at our Eda Workshop so even though it wasn't a council Workshop we did we were all here and discussed it and I think we all agreed that this first Tuesday would work so just making sure I know I checked my calendar and moved it already so is it still good for everybody it's fine for me yep okay good you want to make the motion sure so I move to approve the change of dates for the city council Workshop meetings beginning June 4th 2024 from the 2nd to the first Tuesday of the month for the remaining 2024 calendar year this Rob I'll second any other questions or discussion I'll call for the vote Rob I Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I uh our next item is midco broadband partnership Grant and Janet would you lead the lead the discussion please sure excuse me midco will be applying for funding from the inoka county Broadband partnership grant program the grant will fund a $2.2 million project to provide high-speed internet to 127 unserved or underserved residents actually it's households in the city midco share of the cost would be approximately $835,000 and the city's contribution would be a cost of up to $65,000 the grant would fund the remaining um uh portion of the 2.2 million if this project is funded and upon its completion 90% of Columbus uh households will have access to uh high-speed Broadband um funds are available to serve the remaining 10% of the pockets of homes without service through line extension grants and these are available through uh Minnesota Department of deed information on the program can be obtained by contacting uh Jack Davis at the Columbus City Hall um at the at the main number if anybody's interested in doing those line extension grants the other thing that midco has told us is that they will give us the names um and addresses of households that meet the the criteria for that and then City staff can contact them and encourage them to sign up through the deed website and that's how that's how these things get funded the line extension grants City staff requests that Council consider approval of the letter of support and commitment for midco Grant application as exhibited in attachment one to this report so if you look at your packet you'll see um a a map sort of cartoonish type map of Columbus and the areas that this grant would cover um on the that's on the right hand side of the page on the leftand side is the um sort of neighborhoods that we're talking about and the uh total number of passings and what the what the total cost of that is so that is uh straight from the Grant application the grant is due to Anoka County on June 10th I believe if I'm remembering right um and then uh there is a a draft letter of support on page 68 of our packet um and pretty much just reiterates what I just read to you happy to answer any questions I don't have any questions but I will say that this project has been going on for a while it started the year well the year started on the council was when Co started in 2020 and that was a big topic for everybody um Columbus was in a really challenged area for internet and um I think the money that we used from our whatever you call the cares and the arpa money yep um to get Columbus up to speed and now 90% with the other 10% being accessible at least MH um um I mean that's a huge goal so I appreciate all the work that you've done on this and um I know that I've been able to take advantage of switching to midco from the poor service that I was getting um so I really uh appreciate it and I know we talked the other night that the funds um are in the budget and we wouldn't have to come up with the funds so yeah I'm in favor of that so thank you um be from our Eda budget which is makes sense considering how important having high-speed internet is to development in in our city I mean I will also call out that midco has been an exceptional partner in all of this when we started this process bill you might remember this we wrote letters to seven different um internet providers asking them if they'd be willing to partner with us and midco is the only one that came through and they've been really responsive and and um you know I've really I I think prioritized our our ask and so I'm really grateful for for their support on this yeah I and I just want to share um there's a portion on there where it says zingu Street Northeast and there was a point in time where none of the providers would bring there was supposed to be part of the th backck preserve or or said that and they had promised that and and that was before I was on Council so I'm just hearing this from residents right out on the campaign Trail but um their only availability to get internet was either through like a hotspot through a Wireless company or to be on starlink which uh some of you know how expensive that starlink is and uh they have rights over that area as well but um that's fantastic I think the people on zingu as well as all the rest of are very happy about it so thanks would you like to make the motion I surely will so I would move to approve the letter of support and commitment for the inoa County Broadband partnership Grant application and project as presented in the item C uh. 6 report and attachments of the May 22nd 2024 city council packet this is Su all second any other questions or discussion I'll call for the vote Rob I Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I item number seven uh the have set the agenda for the TW June 4th 2024 Workshop meeting page 69 and it reads our Council Workshop meeting scheduled for Tuesday June 4th or June 11th at 5:30 p.m. uh pending Council Workshop meeting change of date the following items are recommended for the agenda Oracle Fishbowl software presentation pending mspec pending and the 2025 budget report and beginning discussions the staff recommends that the city council set the agenda for the items presented or make additions or deletions to this list as appropriate anybody have any problem with June 4th or June 11th I think we've already approved a change of that date but I can confirm that both of those presenters can be here at our June 4th meeting both Oracle and menp correct okay we let's go with June 4th and I am really curious what Oracle fish bow software is that sounds like fun do you know who knows give us the info oh you're pointing at me I am like the least experienced person in this Public Works software please so the Oracle Fishbowl software is a software that Elizabeth started working on five years ago um we we've kind of worked through the process Oracle kind of changed their plan and then Fishbowl came on board and Oracle basically is uh a cloud-based server company that stores data Fishbowl is the software that allows us to put that data into um storage and also allow us to get it back out so all of the files and stuff that we have around this room will all ultimately be um scanned and stored in the cloud and then that allow allows us to access that at a lot faster rate than we can today um and it it just makes things a lot more efficient obviously most people know how that works so that's kind of what that will be about okay thank you MH that does sound exciting and one other thing too we talked about is we're running out of space to store paper here and this would solve that problem things like property files would be then electronically stored uh places where I've been before when this has been done then the property owner is given the opportunity to take their paper files that we have there would be some paper files that we'd still maintain but this would give us a lot more space in City Hall and as Jim said it'd be a much more efficient means of storing and retrieving information and a lot of it or most of it would be accessible via the website to the public so I'll make the motion to approve the agenda for the June 4th 2024 city council Workshop meeting as presented and or as amended is there a second is R I'll second I'll call for the vote I have a question when are we going to do the ordinance on the septic I was thinking that was at this this work we we can add that that's going to be a long discussion if you want to add that we can switch some things around well it looks like it's a pretty full I mean the budget could take a while it kind of depends on on we we we could we could set a limit on the these presentations the the mspec presentation was probably going to be 15 20 minutes the Oracle Fishbowl presentation probably the same length we could set a time on our budget presentation this will be the first one and then we could at least start the discussion on the chapter 14 changes if you want to add that to that excuse me uh Mr Mayor and councel um the uh product that our office sent back is detailed there's a number of questions that are kind of built in uh we had anticipated that we would go through those with staff and that we would crank out another document round so that it would look cleaner by the time it gets to the public so there'd be less embedded questions and and more answers would this be too soon to then put it on the agenda it could be uh although you know that that discussion could happen next week and you know subject to I I saw Chris on the line and and others uh schedule that that could happen next week and then a draft could be turned in time for the June 4th meeting but I just wanted to give that Proviso so I I think you'd rather see a cleaner document than one that has a lot of bubbles question bubbles in it well I've seen those bubbles a couple of different times so I totally get it yeah well I think if you're if you're uh thinking you'll be prepared by that time we should add it on the agenda okay all right could I could I speak for one second this is CH sorry hey guys I have not been able to read through the uh chapter 14 from uh Bill's office quite yet I did talk to Chris today and we might need a little bit more time so if we're not ready by the 4th would that be okay to move to the next um Workshop meeting that's fine with me if it's not ready we can do it do you want Chrissa do you want us this is Janet do you want us to put it on here and if you're ready if we're ready we'll do it and if you're not you don't have time to do it then we'll just bump it to the next one oh yeah that's fine that'll work I just don't want to disappoint you guys if we can't get to it no problem all right thank you all right thanks guys thank you thanks Chrissa anything from anyone so we need to vote we have a second I'll call for the vote Rob I Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I city engineer report Kevin I've been racing up and down your nice roads seems to have worked out pretty good good evening mayor and council members yes that was going to be one of my items if you haven't driven down um Running Aces Boulevard or how Lake Drive um that's our micros surfacing uh product that we uh first time that we've done that here in the city um it definitely provides for a much better ride uh on those roads and I think it'll definitely add some longevity uh to those as well we don't have the roads striped yet so that's um yet to be done we did do some uh temporary stuff around the around the uh racetrack just to make sure we control the turn movements and whatnot but it's not complete yet so it seems to be very nice yeah so uh the other item I wanted to touch base on and I and I did you should have got an A Memo from me that Jack emailed out um earlier in the week that's in regards to pomac um the county is uh moving forward with uh evaluating an improvement and their next step is to issue a request for proposals for Engineering Services uh to do the preliminary and final design as well as the uh environmental documentation and permitting in my discussion with Jerry o last week he was telling me about this and he asked a question in regards to whether they should include in their scope the potential of adding a trail um to pomac and U you know it seems like a good idea Jim and I talked about it we certainly would recommend that uh at least from the standpoint of evaluating it to see you know what what the cost would be uh potentially I mean it's three miles so it's it's not going to be a cheap item uh but at the minimum I would say that you know if if we were to proceed forward uh at least get the area graded out so that there could be a trail added at some point in the future but at this point it would be just a matter of adding adding that to the scope of their request for proposals so it could get eval valuated and then uh have the opportunity to bring it back to the council to see if you want to continue moving forward and keep it in the plans and specs for bidding um and the county will pay for the trail no this is a local cost this is a city thing yes that's why even if they do the book work on it we have the opportunity to say no correct yeah we would want the option of saying no I mean they they wouldn't proceed forward if they if they knew that they weren't going to get uh money from the city to to to have it done so they would definitely be seeking um city council approval to move forward and and I'd want an interim step there where we would um see you know what the potential cost would be and what the implications of that are so um but they'll come up with that they'll come up with the possible cost correct yeah and they'd likely look for a cost share on the on the engineering side of it as well to pay for that evaluation I don't know what that cost will be that'll be a function of what the proposals are so well I say let them figure it out we can decide no if it's a million bucks it ain't going to happen if it's 50,000 we can do it I don't think for the estimate right we have to pay for the for them to estim we would have to pay for the evaluation as well but we have to pay for the evaluation of the road whether it includes the trail or not not is that correct no just just for the trail the tra it's a county road so the county will you know fund the the the road portion of it uh but it would be just the trail component of it they they would look to the city to to fund that portion well if you could find out how much that would cost I mean I would love a trail that'd be awesome but where where do they put it in the ditch or do they put it in the the engineering study would would determine so okay so I don't know what the cost would be they would have to go into the uh RFP first so that they could get bids on it and determine what the cost would be and then we could decide whether to move forward or not so do you know if they have to buy right away likely I don't know that for sure but um you know with adding a trail there could be even a more potential need for RightWay but um I don't know the total answer to that I would I would say on E east side of that yeah the east side of that road they cleared it out pretty heavily you know and there's quite a bit of rideway there that they cleared out already I think what do they maintain 27 ft off the edge of the road um I don't know what that was that their standard when they can is to get 50 ft off of Center okay maybe even 60 depending on the type of roadway it is I'm 27 on each side I think there's portion of that road that they have more RightWay than as you go north I think there's less RightWay than on the south end so it might be 100 or 120 ft up to Notre Dame and then it might be less if you go or sorry not Notre Dame but Camp 3 and if you go north of that I think it's uh potentially less than that but not positive okay County County Roads rways vary all over the place the old rway standard was 880 ft and newer standards are up to 100 120 ft so we'd have to check and see exactly what it was on the length of that street and uh also depending what the topography was there may be some drainage requirements in there some ditch work and it's uh it's also a pretty long link so I would imagine that there would be various differences in the rideway width two different segments of patomic street so Kevin are they um they're doing an RFP for the engineering portion of this correct okay and are you did I hear you say that they would expect us to cost share that engineering report as it relates to the trail as it okay and are you I mean I I know that several cities that have done Trails have gotten grants for that is there anybody in your office that has a connection to you know the agencies that provide um opportun ities for finding grant funding to offset some of the cost of trails we have a grant we have a grant unit in our okay company because I I think that that's I mean that would be something we would want to pursue obviously and I think that it's part you know it's been part of our Park master plan in the works to try to connect to existing trails around us so I think it fits in really well sure yeah no I that was my thought too is that uh if nothing else uh you know if we could get at least graded out uh they're they're targeting 2026 for this construction of this project um that would give us some time to to pursue some potential Trail funding um you know the ones that I know of that there's some DNR money whether this would fit or not I don't know um we'd have to check into other sources too so okay thanks I would I would say on this I I've heard a lot about people wanting alternate places in the park to just to walk and explore and things and uh I think during our budget at I mentioned there there was some grants at the city of bla got to connect schools and parks there was some sort of grant funding for that so if we tie that all together somehow maybe I'm interested in it myself all right do you need a motion or just Direction I I think I think direction is adequate I'll I'll let them know that to include um that in their scope but also included as a breakout cost that could be brought back uh to the council for final approval great thank you um the other item related to that is uh it's likely um our our transportation group would be interested in proposing on this project I don't know what would the council have any issue with with our transportation group being involved or proposing on this work no I don't confli for okay just to check that and then uh the only other item is related to our maintenance project um the cracks ceiling work is ongoing and uh I think they're about well over half done um so I would anticipate sometime early next week they would have the crack ceiling done so um that work is progressed ing that's all I have thank you paternity report Mr Mayor and council members just two items tonight uh first a legislative update um You probably all saw that it was like crashing the cars but uh the uh there a lot got done a lot didn't get done uh the problem is the bonding Bill didn't get done and so we did not get 615,000 for North Warby um so disappointed in that there was a a late breaking bill that was a cash only bill um but that that got passed by the house and not the Senate um one of the uh one of the issues is um there was a lot of politicking around uh the creation of delays both sides accuse the other of delaying um you know it happens in election years the the reason we saw so much activity last year is because it was a non-election year and the Democrats controlled you know the two Chambers and the and the governor's office so um the you know on the positive side and there is you know good news the good news is we we got hearings on both bills so we dropped two bills we had authors on two bills we got hearings on both bills the fiscal disparities um bill has more visibility than it than it did in in probably two or three years and the bonding request was modest and everybody we worked with said kind of is a no-brainer you know Columbus doesn't have its hand out all the time unlike some cities uh it's a reg it's a regional asset to connect the you know multiple cities through that Corridor and Karen Hosley in particular who sponsored the the Forest Lake Bill said she'd be happy to bring this back again next year and and obviously our authors were just terrific both Senator KW and representative West so a lot of good tread work um on on behalf of all of you and and with all of you a particular shout out to Janet he who appeared with us almost every Friday morning to to help us work on updates and strategy and also your interim City administrator was at at many of those meetings as well so thanks to their support um and as you know the mayor was out on behalf of one of the large uh large businesses in town and and made quite a quite a bit of Headway there in representing the community and and the that asset so uh you guys are no strangers to you know how it works uh downtown down in St Paul and and you know if you if you desire to go back again the path is you know well worn so any questions uh just a comment when we began all this last whatever February or November whatever it was probably November we had all discussed that it probably wasn't going anywhere because of the makeup of the house senate and the governors however you told us I think that by being present and being active we're seeding the waters for next year and I think you were pretty accurate on all of it and next year is right around the corner and maybe if we have a little bit of a break this fall we could be lined up next year to help settle some of the big issues for Columbus so so we you did your part we did our part they hurt us they'll be happy just not to have us banging on their doors next year so anyway thank you and thank Margaret for us too yep and I just have one quick question cuz it looked like the did the sports betting thing not do it didn't get passed so nothing happened on that right um one thing that we should check on is the sports betting didn't get passed but there was the historical that one did get passed so they they they had passed that bill um inde attendant of the sports betting Bill and what that means is that uh there can no be there cannot be wagering on you know these machines that use prior run horse races I think I think both canterberry and runny NES had had already purchased those and planned to roll them out they got the uh Minnesota racing commission to okay it and then the legislator got legislative groups got upset about the fact that they thought that the racing commission was overstepping their bounds and quickly passed a bill that said oh no no no no you can't so I don't know I don't know what they do about that they'll probably have to file a lawsuit or something most likely with regard to sports sping though I don't it's not going to go away right because you know surrounding states have it there's it's just um making a three or four-way deal so that the tribes the tracks the state are all on board and you know I guess if there's any good news there that the longer people are in rooms talking to each other it's like the Uber lift bill right I mean that did get passed and I know something about it and the politics of it and it took two or three years and it got done and so I think you know by the same token sports betting should get approved at some point and you know and all of us believe uh should include uh relief for the tracks thank you then my other item is um I heard from the attorney for uh DF David fiser Investments David fiser Investments was going to take over the apartment I say was because they're not going to H uh was going to take over the apartment project from David harchenko and um you know they had some discussion towards the end of their deal about pretty small things relating to Escrow and asro accounts I think they got that all worked out um by the way we should get our our fees from harchenko the city fees that were uh related to the review of that project um but at the end of the day um Katie milander representing David Fischer said we're going to step back from the project doesn't mean we're not interested um they just don't want to jump right back into a purchase agreement when the financing markets aren't there for this type of project so we left on good terms um but they just said we're not ready to to sign another purchase agreement what that means and and uh the interim City administ administrator and I have talked about you know whether it's time now to revisit the whole marketing of the quads you've got the road in on the northwest side you've got interest on the northwest side you've got really a prime site along the freeway a great apartment site a great commercial site do you want to continue to Market it through you know your signs and your efforts do you want to look at you know a broker there there's what I've sensed is there's more activity as people get ready they're they're not quite ready but they're getting ready for projects and so all a sudden there's this uptick on the on the work you see that leads to projects that's engineering architecture permitting entitlements so you don't have to decide tonight it's probably something for your Eda Workshop to to kind of bat around you know so that's I think with the at least the pause or conclusion of that whole two and a half years of extensions and so forth um it's it's time to maybe rethink how we Market those Parcels they're great Parcels um the city's had pretty good luck in selling property right so you know that's it's not all bad news but um some of the Prime sites are still available including a lovely little corporate campus site up on Northwest Squad overlooking a wetland up on the hill great great Road access thanks to Public Works and Engineering but anyway so more food for thought as you put together agendas anything else Bill nothing until the plan commission report Ron HRA I don't really have anything other than I did uh attend that uh whatever we want to call it red litter day when we got rid of all the junk out here uh that was pretty well operated it wasn't that crowded though uh I don't know if you heard anything about it Jim but it was well uh organized uh I like that you know the same people that been there for years or the years I've been going there was pretty well operated so other than that nothing Eda report are you are you skipping the city council report are you skipping the city council member report not intentionally all right well well mayor I have no report it was covered under Pages 65 and 68 so so I was just going to mention that we went to the um Forest Lake chamber legislative I think that was Ron was there and and Jack and the mayor and myself it was um actually really well attended and Senator KW was there as well as Karen Hy they talked about this was obviously before the Meltdown so they were still talking like things could happen um but I just have to say senator koun has been an incredible partner for us this year and has really gone to bat for a number of issues that were important to Columbus and um the fact that they didn't come through was doesn't speak to the effort he put into it so soon no report R anything more and I have nothing public no Eda Jack thank you Jesse uh at our Eda workshop and regular meeting last week we brought the subject back up about the discussion of how we're going to handle the business retention and expansion program we have two volunteers that are going to assist in that uh Judy hunos and Karen Fleming and I think we've we'll come up with a kind of a proposal to initiate that here hopefully in July after our next meeting we also discussed about marketing and branding uh several different ideas approved a concept for you using the billboard covers on several of our locations along the freeway and then went on to discuss basically the city Eda budget for 2025 thank you Public Works Jim no report Mr Mayor except the roads are really nice I hope that lasts for 10 years that's a white tape you and me both number seven in City administrative report Jack I have nothing further to add thank you Personnel committee report Sue and Janet um just drum roll please oh no oh that it this isn't quite the drum roll Point yet Dr yet okay I do have one one thing to uh bring up and this um has to do with uh an item of business that we had at our last council meeting which was the resignation of Connor Keith as you recall Connor is our public information coordinator and his last date will be the end of this month and he's moving to um Baltimore right Baltimore yep so um I think Jack has had a chance to talk to staff about how to divvy up his responsibilities after uh May 31st and um one of the ideas that came back was that at least as it pertains to the website and being able to populate things on the website and update send out the minutes those sorts of things that this is something that Connor could do remotely from Baltimore and is willing to do that I so I think that um we talked about this in our Personnel committee and thought it would make the most sense if we just maintained him um as an employee on a part-time basis or a casual basis we can figure out that part so that he would still get his same hourly wage and would be able to help us out for the interim till we kind of figure out what whether or not um this position needs to be posted or whether or not we divvy up the responsibilities across you know other other areas so I'm looking to the council to uh get feedback on the idea of utilizing his expertise remotely for the purposes of maintaining the website and that was primarily at what right correct website yeah we thought the newsletter we could we could hold off on that since it's not due for another 6 months we can figure figure that out later sounds good to me how many hours you talking about I don't know did he give you a sense of that Jack no I was we were going to have that conversation today but he was ill and couldn't come to work today so we'll have that tomorrow I'm thinking you know it's going to be probably say 10 hours a week somewhere in that range so what we could do is you know I could make a motion that we would um extend his uh employment as an employee uh for no more than 10 hours a week he would have to report you know on an hourly basis what he's working on and take his direction from um the city administrator and then we can revisit it in two or three months um see if there's a longer term solution that makes sense or if we are okay with doing this for now so that my motion okay I second this is Sue any other questions or discussion call is there a cut on benefits or what's just an hourly wage well he wouldn't be benefits eligible for for 10 hours a week okay he would or wouldn't would not would not that's what I thought okay I'll call for the vote Rabbi Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I that's it for me now are we ready for the drum roll yes so we're asking Ellen our consultant to come up and give us uh feedback on the council so we put together and I didn't write this down sorry um we had our final interviews last week we had our staff uh meet and greet and we had the public meet and greet and then the council took all the information along with the um personality assessment and then ranked our top three candidates and sent them to Ellen so she is going to give us a little summary of what she received but before you begin pull your microphone up Ellen and give us your name and the record where you live your name and what you do and while you do it okay for the record my name is Ellen hinr I'm a human resource and organizational development consultant working with the city of Columbus and primarily with the personnel commity and it's been my pleasure to work with the committee in creating and applying a rigorous search process in finding your permanent City administrator and as Sue spoke of it's we've had a lot of inputs into the de ision that the council will be making tonight and some of the feedback that came from the citizens earlier this week was all three are great can't you find positions for all three and isn't that how it goes you choose the one uh can't choose all three an update from today is that Eric Johnson we withdrew his application from the permanent City administrator position so yes you all provided to me independently the ranking of your choice which of course is based on lots and lots of information from lots of sources and it was unanimous that your choice for the permanent City administrator is Jack Davis oh so so if um Mr Mayor if you and Council can share a reason why you made that choice um so this is Sue I just want to start because I did make a few notes um just you know mainly about our process we we had started if everybody doesn't remember back in October of 2023 um we the Personnel committee took the task seriously because this was this is a big deal for Columbus 20 years with the same administrator and we um really wanted to find the best candidate for the job and we did get Jack as an interim which has worked out really well um but we also wanted to ensure that the process was objective and had Integrity so um we did start out with trying to get a search firm that didn't work out so we decided to do it on our own with Ellen with Ellen's help and uh legal counsel we did use um kind of the same process that would have been used by a search firm um but we had I think we had a lot of good resources um Janet did a great job writing a lot of you know the brochure the job description I mean we work together and of course I did some stuff too but we did a lot of work and Ellen you did a lot of work um we had our legal uh person on every Personnel committee meeting we met every week um went through the whole posting going through all the the um resumes whittling it down we used a weighted average Matrix to get it down to six and then we used the process of including the the council members uh to get it down to three and then of course like we said before we did the final interviews last week um and I'm just happy about the process that we used I think it was fair it was thorough it was um true to what we were trying to do and I I feel like we were able to get the best results um that we could have gotten with a surge firm um with all of that without the headache that you know some of our neighbors are going through right now um so anyway so I really feel like Jack has the best characteristics that we were looking for I was really happy um to see that uh the staff was in favor the majority I mean just you know not getting into too many details but that meant a lot to me that the staff really supports and they've been working with them for you know a few months and so that was important to me but I really believe that he can get us to the next level that we're going to um managing the council goals and objectives and I'm just looking forward to working with him so congratulations Jack thank you very much you're on the Personnel committee so I you know I would I would Echo everything that that Sue said I think the other thing um to mention is that we had an incredible pool of talent to choose from and uh I mean that was one of the fears that we had taking this on ourself is that we would not get a good a good pool of candidates but it turned out we had our cup over overfloweth it was amazing and so um but having said that I I I have to say that you know I I am really happy that everyone agreed that Jack was the right person um I've worked with Jack a little bit um prior to his his uh interim appointment here and I've always had really high regard for him and and his work ethic and uh his steady respectful nature um and I'm really happy that others saw that to um staff and the feedback from the public was especially um helpful because usually you know public has a lot to say after the fact but not aren't really willing to weigh in and be part of the put skin in the game and and we had a great representation we had business represented we had um Planning Commission former council members members of the public so we really got a wide range of people who showed up and spoke to each of the candidates and and that feedback also was overwhelmingly in favor of of Jack so I um I'm really glad I'm glad I'm glad we're done with this I'm glad that we could like move forward and be out of this interim State and and uh um but very very happy with with the results thank you mayor um I think Jack brings vast experience and open mind and willingness um he's been hearing out the council and mayor he's always offered to um do sitd downs and this is prior to um and maybe I'm a little more biased cuz we had some time to work with them uh previous to other candidates um but during the interviews he had great questions he didn't he didn't uh cut out and have to think about what he was going to say he had an answer ready uh in his head already and I think that just comes from his vast experience and working with a community like ours right um with with uh the previous communities with um the disc dis assessments through the process I know that was very helpful that's something I do with a hiring process through my uh employment at work uh my day-to-day operations so that was helpful uh see the types of people and and how they interact with individuals so um I feel like Jack was the fit um got calls today from members of the public uh some of which are in this room uh saying that they thought Jack was uh was the person um I did agree with that beforehand and and would say we had a great pool of candidates and um the process worked so here we are so thanks and welcome Jack well I don't know if Jack's accepted this job but well we didn't vote yet he told us he wanted it but we can talk to him later about that but I just to the public or to the citizens of Columbus that uh this was a hard process there's a lot of people qualified people and it's the first time i' ever been involved in hiring a city administrator but uh it's a it's a dangerous job and when I say it's dangerous almost all of them have been at other cities and sometimes when they're let go they don't know it's coming and uh it was amazing the qualifications that came in that they all carry and stuff like that but it was a long process and uh a lot of people talked about interim have an advantage and they do and then they have a disadvantage and I've seen that happen too in other cities where they get in there and then all of a sudden they're not welcome so uh jack fit in and uh I'm glad he's our new administrator if he accepts the job you know welcome aboard Jack and finally uh we've kind of had a nice test run I've got to work with Jack three or four days a week for the last three or four months he's very genuine I think and he has found lots of things that need to be spiffed up or corrected or changed and as we move into the 21st century in Columbus I think he recognizes that and he has the experience to do it and so I'll be happy to vote in your favor Jack if you'll quit emailing me at 5:00 a.m. at least wait till the sun comes up please and and seriously and it's the everybody was qualified we had 17 qualified people but I think that maybe Jack is the best fit for Columbus he came from a similar City he's not trying to start a career or feather his nest or do anything he says he likes to work and he likes the people here and he likes the city so if all of that pans out to be true I think we have a good fit so thank you Jack we'll see what happens yes sir all right well here let's make the motion first or you want to speak can I say just one thing out of myair yeah I want to thank everybody involved in this it was a great opportunity and I look forward to serving the resident of Columbus this city council and thank you from the bottom of my okay all right so I will I think we have to make a motion right okay I move wait a minute where am I Eden number one I move to approve an offer of employment to Jack Davis for the position of the city administrator for the city of Columbus subject to entering into an employment agreement well second that motion any other questions or discussion I just have a quick question do we also have to say subject to background check and and or is that subject to background check and reference check okay so I amend the motion to add subject to a background check and what was the other one uh employee employee references employee references and I'll res second that and I'll call for the vote Rob I Janet I sue I Ron I and Jesse I okay now we can clap thank you Ellen for all your help it was really a pleasure to work with you thank it was my pleasure but I have to go Shake Jack's hand now okay all right counselor so now we close this portion we close the public portion to discuss yes Mr May if you want I can just describe what's going on next and then then uh you can close the meeting so um because the next step is an employment agreement uh under the attorney CL privilege rule the council can meet with their attorney to give direction as we prepare that agreement and that's done in a closed session to keep that all confidential um but nothing changes the uh the administrator has been selected and uh since we're all very reasonable I'm sure the terms will be reasonable and and we'll uh we'll have an employment agreement here shortly so that's that's uh that and I would like to say just on behalf of the firm because Megan Rogers my partner has been involved every step of the way this is once again the little city that can and and does because you know you go to the capital and you represent yourself you take on um a search like this and you didn't use a search firm and you're all the better for it so it's very impressive when a community of this size can do things that communities twice two two or three times larger maybe stumble or fumble with and so I just it's been great to be a part of this process and I want to thank you for bringing in primarily Megan to to assist you thank you thank you thank you all right and so the city council will hold a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statutes section 13d .05 subdivision 3B for discussion and advice regarding the employment agreement for the candidate selected for the city administrator at this time the city council will go go into a closed session so that means everyone who's waiting to go can go and the rest of us will sit here and hash it out take coule [Music]