"Good evening and welcome to the city of Woodbury city council meeting for today, April 2nd, 2025. It is 7:30 p.m. We are here in council chambers. We have a full house tonight because we got a swearing in going on and anytime we do that, we'd love to see all the extra people to come. So, uh that'll be a fun celebration momentarily. Um, but just as a standard, this meeting is always here uh done live in person. We also do offer it virtually. So, if any of you have enjoyed this evening and you'd like to watch us next time online from home, you can do that. Just find the agenda online, click into the green button, and you can join our meeting virtually. Um, we always take public comments before, during, after the meeting. So, feel free always to to raise questions with us. Um, and if there's somebody listening online, if you do have a question, there's a spot there to raise and we will be monitoring that throughout the meeting. Um, and is as is our standard, would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our um assistant city administrator, city, city clerk Ashley is here. Ashley, would you please do the roll call? Council member Morris here. Council member Santini here. Council member Stafford here. Council member Wilson here. Mayor Bert here. We are all here tonight so we're able to conduct tonight's business. And our very first order of business is the swearing in of new police officers, Trevor Johnson and Anthony Piper. And I'd like to introd public safety director Jason Posel to share a few words. He's excited. Wait to come to Woodbury forever. Thank you, Mayor Bird. City Council members. This is an exciting night for our department, an exciting night for the community. We're going to be swearing in two police officers along with conducting badge pinning. Our mission at Woodbury Public Safety is to serve all people with compassion and courage. What makes that possible is hiring people who share in our values of integrity, trust, respect, and excellence. People have people have a servant's heart, who understand that the profession exists to serve others. That we often encounter people on their worst day and work to make them better. Policing is a noble profession and we're proud to be introducing these off new officers to the community. So tonight, we're going to be swearing in police officers Trevor Johnson and Anthony Piper. I'm going to turn it over to assistant director Matt Glad for a couple of words. Good evening, Mayor Burke. Council members, uh, as mentioned before, we're uh, swearing in Trevor Johnson and Anthony Piper. Have it open. If you both would come forward, please. Yeah. Now you can, if you guys could stand right over there. I'm just going to read the meaning of the badge, what it means to wear that badge every day and on every call. A police badge is the most recognizable symbol of a police officer. It represents pride, honor, integrity, service, and self-sacrifice. It represents our commitment to our mission to serve all people with compassion and courage. It represents our commitment to our values, integrity, trust, respect, and excellence. Your badges all have unique engraved numbers on them. These numbers signify your place in our AY's h history since 1968. This number will never be duplicated. Gentlemen, thank you for choosing to serve our community of Woodbury. Appreciate it. I'll turn it over to Mayor Bert for the uh oath of office. Yeah, I'll come down for the official swearing in. Okay. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I, Anthony Fer, do solemnly swear under oath do solemnly swear under oath that I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States the state of Minnesota state of Minnesota and faithfully discharge the duties faithfully discharge the duties of the police officer police officer in the city of Woodbury city of Woodbury in the county of Washington the county of Washington and the state of Minnesota state of myself to the best of my judgment and ability. to the best of my judgment and ability. So help me God. So help me God. Fantastic. Um now we'll invite the family members to come up and pin the badges on. So who have we got here? Are the little boys helping? Come on. You want to help? Come on up. That way if you poke them. Yeah. No poking. No poking. A that's awesome. So, on behalf of the city of Woodbury, I'd like to congratulate you and wish you well into your future. And also just to say to you and to all of our public safety team that uh Woodbury is recognized and known for a great safe community and we appreciate all you do. We have so many residents that have moved here. We've got 80,000 plus. Um many often the choices come because we are a safe community. So, thanks for all you do to keep our community safe. And with that, um uh I'd like to bring city council down just to shake everyone's hands and then we'll do a few pictures. And then I know you always head out on your way and do a lot of celebrating. So want you to go enjoy that too. I can't open up my computer. I was about to say You guys want to bring your family up? You want to do the officers first stand behind? Sure. [Laughter] Donna, stand to his left. Yeah. Find your face, Donna. Yeah. Yeah. All right, here we go. Perfect. Great. Bring the family members up too real quick. That's awesome. Here we go. Perfect. Wow. Congratulations. [Applause] We'll give just a moment for the group to clear out. They get to go celebrate now. Are there celebrations sponsored by like Dunkin Donuts? I thought the K9 fund sponsored that'd be great advertising. I know it'd be great advertising advertising. Dunk donuts maybe. Yeah, we offer something. Okay, we'll now move on to our next special order of business tonight and this is the proclamation for volunteer appreciation week. Um this occurs uh volunteer recognition week is April 20th through April 26th, 2025. Whereas volunteerism is an integral part of our great culture and heritage with Minnesota ranking third nationwide in volunteering. And whereas in Woodbury, more than 300 volunteers of all ages annually contribute volunteer service. That's just specifically to the city. We got volunteers doing all kinds of things elsewhere as well. Uh volunteers in Woodbury make their community better by providing support to those in need, enriching the education of our youth, helping people with disabilities, and stewarding the environment. And whereas recognition should be given to our dedicated volunteers who have demonstrated their commitment to the betterment of our community throughout the year. Now therefore, I am W. Bird, mayor of the city, Woodbury, Washington County, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim April 20th through April 2026, 2025 to be volunteer recognition week in Woodbury. As we continue to face the challenges and opportunities of society, I call on all citizens of the city to sustain and increase Woodberry's volunteer spirit now and into the future. together we can serve Woodbury and serve it well. So, thank you to all the many volunteers, whether it's for the city or all the various volunteer organizations and groups and nonprofits we have around the community. It makes us stronger and better. So, I appreciate all that. And if anyone isn't volunteering for anything and you're interested, there's got all kinds of groups that are looking for people at all times. Visit the Woodbury Expo. A lot of them will be there. Yes, exactly. Woodbury Expo this weekend. Um, I now would like to read a special proclamation recognizing Woodbury resident Brian Johnson for his 21-year tenure on the South Washington Watershed Board. Um, and Brian, I'm going to read the official proclamation. I have a lovely framed one to give you, and then if you would like to come up and say a few words, we'd love to welcome you to the microphone for that. So recognizing Woodbury resident Brian Johnson's 21-year tenure on the South Washington Watershed District Board. Whereas Brian Johnson is a resident of the city of Woodbury. Mr. Johnson has served as a manager of the board of the South Washington Watershed District for 21 years including over four years as president. Whereas through Mr. Johnson's leadership and service, South Washington Watershed District has fostered and sustained effective working partnerships across southern Washington County. And whereas under Mr. Johnson's leadership, South Washington Watershed District has made substantial infrastructure investments to protect the district resources, including and especially the central district overflow system. Hassan Bank and Carbal Parks storm water facilities and enhanced street sweeping, all of which directly benefit the surface water and the groundwater in Woodbury. Whereas Mr. Johnson will be retiring from his tenure on the South Washington Watershed District Board of Directors on Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. Now, therefore, I W Bert, mayor of the city of Woodbury, Washington County, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim April 8th, 2025 to be Brian Johnson Day in Woodbury. I encourage the residents of Woodbury to observe this day and express their appreciation to Brian Johnson for his many years of service. his dedication to water resources and making a positive local impact is admirable and should be pursued by all in our community. So, Brian, thank you again. 21 years is a long time. Would you like to come forward and say anything and then um I'll bring this down and we can do a little photo. But, um Oh, thank you very much. Um I've been honored to serve on the watershed for all these years. U I've had some great friends. When I uh started on the watershed, uh Dick Stafford gave me a call and said, \"I would like you to do something.\" And if people understand Dick Stafford, you don't refuse Dick Stafford even even now. And he's been dead what 10 years anyway. Uh and and then 10 minutes later, uh uh Bill Hargus gave me a call and said, \"I'm glad you accepted this position.\" So, you know, uh it's it's been a long time. I've known several mayors. Uh Clint, you've been an excellent friend over these these years and I know you'll be retiring soon. I wish you the very best. Absolutely. Uh and I am really glad uh that while we leave the watershed with a with a small group who are dedicated and happy uh I think it's going to be moving forward in in good place. So thank you again. Thank you. Well, and again, all that work on, you know, the central flow, I mean, that has been a huge project. So, um, I have an official recognition for you here. Oh, and there's So, the official proclamation signed, sealed, and delivered. There it is. Oh, and you've got your watershed district shirt on. And then there's That's the last time I get to wear. These are more part Oh, this is the box that goes with it. Thank you. Um, would you like to come back here? Let's stand. Would you guys all stand for a photo? Is somebody taking a photo? Oh, he's the one. You guys got to come. Yeah. So, it's not perfect. [Applause] And uh Brian, remind me there is a there is a celebration for you. Retirement celebration. Is it on the 8th? Is that the official day? At 5 and you know it's in the public works building at 5. Okay. Yes. And I wish you all. Thank you. Yep. All on our calendars. So, we can make it. We'll definitely be there. Thank you. Um, okay. Let's see what is next on our agenda. Okay. Next is the open forum. Make sure I got all that. Yes, it's the open forum portion of our meeting. I do believe we have some speakers here. So, allow me to read the open forum. Um, I mentioned to some that I talked to earlier this week. We don't always get people showing up for the open forum, but we have some tonight. So let me just share kind of the protocol that we have for this. Uh this is a portion of the meeting where a maximum of three persons will be allowed to address the council on a subject which is not already on the meeting agenda. Persons wishing to speak must complete a signup sheet that's here. I already have three um in front of me um uh let's see um okay and we can also take something for you through the Q&A chat feature if somebody wants to say something. Sometimes they allow a little more flex. If we have four people and we could take four, whatever. Um, when you please come forward to the um podium to state your case or a question, please provide your name and address for the record. Uh, we try to limit you to three minutes each. Uh, we do have a little timer going over there. So, again, we allow a little flexibility, but let's, you know, just get your point out quickly if you can. Uh, the council does listen attentively to comments, but in most instances will not respond at the meeting. Typically, replies to the concerns expressed will be made via letter or phone call within a week. So, uh, with that, I'd like to invite forward, um, Brian Bowman is our first person for open forum. Craig Bowman. Did I just say Brian Bowman? Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm doing a a time warp here. I'm like, I worked with a Brian Bowman or I went to college with a Brian Bowman or something. Oh my goodness. That's okay. I think I think it is college by the way. It goes back a long time. Craig Felman. My apologies. Welcome. Thank you, judge, for I'm no relation to Brian, by the way. Okay. But name and address for the record, please. Uh Craig Bowman. My address is 3625 Williamsburg Court. Uh my name is Craig Bowman. I am here tonight to discuss the plans for Wedgewood Park to be converted to a storm water drainage area. The parkland is located just west of the tennis courts. I am here to express my concerns about the lack of communication and the community involvement for the project that will impact our neighborhood. My wife Ann and I have lived on the north side of the park for 32 years. We built our house because of the park and all it offers. In the winter, you see cross-country skiers. In warmer weather, you'll see families enjoying playing ball, running dogs, and all the other activities that you expect in a park. I know the city spends a lot of time planning parks and green spaces for residents to enjoy. Woodbury is known for its bike trails and beautiful parks. A week ago, I learned about the plan to convert the park into a storm water drainage area. Apparently, the city sent letters to only the families whose homes are on the park, but I did not receive a letter. The letter mentioned an opportunity to attend an open house, but again, I didn't attend that open house because I didn't get the letter. So, uh, after I found out about these plans, uh, I contacted the city and I spoke with, uh, a city engineer and he admitted that the park will no longer be usable for recreational purposes once it is converted into a storm water, uh, reclamation area. Uh after that, I contacted the mayor and several city council members last week and I was surprised that no city leaders were aware of this project. This appears to be the engineering department driving this project without giving notice to the mayor, to the city council, to our homeowners association, or to the residents of the city. We do not know what processes were used to choose this site. We do not know if there are other alternatives to destroying the park for this project. I think the process is flawed when no one from the city leadership or the residents of the neighborhood are notified before such a drastic change is made to the park. I ask that you put this project on hold until the residents are given a chance to collaborate uh with you in looking at alternatives to destroying the park that so many residents uh enjoy. I have heard that one objective for the city is to reduce the costs of maintaining the parks. If that is an issue, I think that there are other options to reduce the costs of mowing and maintenance uh that would not ruin the park for current and future residents. Now, for your information, the city already has a storm water drainage area over by the ballparks. And so, I walk by there often. I think it was completed several years ago. uh when you go by that drainage area, there's never any water in it. So, I don't know if it's underutilized, but again, I think that there might be other alternatives to um you know, tearing up the park. And so, I'm asking for the city council to uh consider at least putting this project on hold until we can get more information. And again, we'd like to collaborate uh with the project. Thank you. Terrific. Thank you. Um let's take I think these are all on the same topic. So, uh John Shner Let the next speaker, you want Brad. Brad Johnson next. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Bird, City Council. My name is Brad Johnson. I live at 3695 Williamsburg Parkway. My property is on the parcel that Craig Balman just addressed. I have been an original resident of the Wedgewood Park development. Uh, and I actually moved in 32 years ago today. Um, we paid a premium to have the parcel on the park and we have enjoyed uh that open space for 32 years. Uh looking at your heritage walk out there, I see in 2005 the city passed a referendum for $6 million to acquire open space. So obviously the city also finds open space very precious and the neighbors on this park have found this very precious. I've heard that it's felt that the park is underutilized or not well utilized. And I can attest as Craig just did that we see cross-country skiers, we see families hitting baseballs, throwing pris frisbes, uh running their dogs, meeting together. I go out there in an open space in the middle of the night with my telescope and look at the skies. You can't do that from your backyard because of the houses and the trees. So, um it's uh I support the idea that perhaps we should put a pause on this uh this development. Um I also agree with the comments of uh Craig Bowman that there was very poor communication. I only learned about this recently and I've talked to many people that I see out in the park, none of whom are even aware that this project is uh planned to be moving forward. So uh I felt compelled to come here because not because I feel a single voice is going to have much impact but uh I didn't want this to go forward without knowledge that there are objections and uh we do find this space very precious and well utilized um and uh thank you for your attention on this. Thank you. Okay. Okay. And John Shidner, you know, these these guys have covered it really well. Okay, that's great. Okay, so um just after hearing those two, um we you've had communication with several whether staff members or assigned council members this week. So I would now like to turn to Chris Hartzell, our engineering director, who's prepared some additional information to share with you all and the public, anyone else that might be listening to understand the complexity of this project. Um, as as many of you know or those I've spoken with, you know, this is all related to the installation of our water treatment plant and the associated pipe work and some of the requirements that happen when you when you dig up the ground and put in 17 miles of pipe to run water from all of our 20some wells to get to our water treatment plant and back. Um, it it is a long detailed project, but I'm going to turn it over to Chris to share things from the engineering perspective. Yeah. So, thank you, uh, mayor, members of the council, and the public here today. Um, as you mentioned, um, all of this really stems back from the pipeline distribution project related to our water treatment plant. That's been a project in development well over 10 years. I've spent my entire career being a part of it. Um, and this is the culmination of actually starting some of those projects. And the reason why this is required through our water quality rules. So, again, we have a required water quality treatment for pipelines. That's something that, you know, we didn't just make up. It's part of the national standard, the state standards, and our wershed district standards. We can't be less restrictive, but we can be more restrictive. In general, Woodbury follows our uh watershed districts in terms of their standards. Um, this project overall with 17 miles of pipe lies between two different wershed districts. South Washington watershed district and Ramsey Washington waterhed district. We're required to treat a certain level of volume about 1.1 in over the impervious surface that we um disturb during the the process. But when we do look at how do we treat those, it has to be in its tributary area within that watershed district for the impact that occurred. You are allowed to look at it collectively and of course most of these pipelines are along road quarters and they have limited room and availability to treat the water quality. So there was a really comprehensive study through this whole water treatment plant and distribution pipeline uh project that looked at how do we find the most cost effective feasible sites that meet the state and local rules that the city must comply with. So a couple of things that the staff looked at is the location of existing storm water best management practices uh the hydraologic soil group. So in other words, you know, is the soil conducive to draining um or to a sufficient level that that we need? Uh the location of existing storm source. So can we get water to these sites? The existing land uses, you know, are they parking lots or are they open space? Groundwater elevations. Obviously, we can't infiltrate water. If groundwater is present, it doesn't go anywhere. And then the contributing drainage area, how much water can we get there to treat to meet our water water quality requirement rules. So when I talk about a comprehensive study, I know we're dialed into Wedgewood Park, but AU2S, our consultant, along with engineering staff, the city engineer, and a lot of people from engineering and public works really dove in and said, \"Okay, let's just look collectively at the city.\" They looked at 36 sites and those are shared by both the green, the blue, and the red dots on this screen. The red dots were rejected purely because they just didn't work based on all those criterias. For whatever reason, we weren't able to get water there or couldn't be treated uh in the way that we need for the project. The blue are potential sites. We said, \"Okay, maybe these might work. We need to explore these further.\" And then the green is the selected sites of there's seven total selected sites. Uh one of which is of course in Wedgewood Park. So there are four sites that were approved for the BMP maintenance. Um and that's really a best management practice is what it's referred to, but it's a device that's used to both uh reduce the water quality volume as well as treat the water that goes through the system. Um this whole project was approved through the community engagement plan. That is the process that the city and its council has developed and asked staff to follow to make sure that we are complying with you know community engagement and the way the council is looking for it. The unfortunate thing about this project is as we talk about 36 sites and narrowing it down. There isn't a lot of room uh for these sites to go. When I talk about five not feasible but not se selected sites really that c comes down to four of those sites are on private property and one of those sites um doesn't have sufficient water quality volume to meet the requirements. So when you look at well what's feasible getting down to the seven that are shown that we're moving forward with um really are the only sites available to meet what we need to complete the water uh treatment plant and the pipeline distribution. So in this case the the style of the openhouse if you look at the spectrum of how the community engages this is a level of participation that was just informed. There's information given, but there really isn't a lot of choice on where this needs to go in order for us to move that project forward. Uh there was an open house on February 21st. There was about 58 mailers. There was overall from staff's perspective fairly good participation and we did have robust conversations that um looked at Wedgwood Park amongst many others and people did ask that question, can this go anywhere else? And our answer was not really. There isn't a lot of space available to meet these requirements. What's wrong with that site of the the pond that that got um excuse me just a second. Um we're going to let Mr. Hartzel finish his conversation and sharing of information. Yeah. So this was what was proposed for just Wedgwood Park. It wasn't all of the other seven areas that we are talking about. Um if you look at it along Raleigh Road, there is an existing existing storm water pond that's located to the south. There is the upland area that we're referring to. Um what we're looking for in terms of water quality is infiltration. So there's two different styles of water quality treatment. There's what's called a NER pond nationwide urban something pollutant um type pond. That's usually a settling pond. So as sediment and pollutants come in, it's big enough and with enough column of water that that sinks to the bottom and that helps address the issue. The infiltration basin is a requirement because it does both that but it gets rid of the volume which controls the rate or the the rate of those water going to our lakes, rivers and streams. The unique thing about even though this is shown in blue here, uh infiltration ponds require a draw down within 48 to 72 hours. So as we mentioned that area that was reconstructed up in Wedgwood Park on the northern half, the reason you don't have water is that's intentional. It's not supposed to hold water for mosquito purposes. What we are proposing to put back is native vegetation. So, what you see kind of on the left of the picture there is a realistic look of native vegetation. This picture is taken near the sports center. Of course, there is a wet pond in this picture, but that's not what this will look like, but that would be consistent with the type of vegetation we would be uh restoring back in this area. So to look at as um Wedgewood Park in general, this is an aerial shot. Wedgewood Park is, you know, two different open space areas with a walking trail in between. Um the green highlights exactly where we're talking about putting a constructing an infiltration basin. And then there is availability of open space just to the north roughly uh 210 of a mile. So, with that, do you have any questions? I I I've got questions, you know. Um um excuse me. Um I will allow a few questions to take place, but you'll have to come to the microphone and ask. We'll take just a few more. I'd actually I'm going to need a green sheet if you do want to speak. So, if you could fill one of these out and then come forward. Um this is not intended for a dialogue and a debate. um happy to answer some things and get back to you some information, but I would just I'm just going to reinforce a few things. So, one is city council is not aware of every single thing that happens by our city staff. There are things at a policy level that we get involved in, other things that we don't. So, the fact that none of us happen to know about these particular pieces of this project, trust me, with 17 miles of pipe and the entire project went on, there is so many pieces of this project. It is the largest um public works project we've ever done and we are not going to know about every detail. Um so so and it doesn't have to come before city council approval. There was a report done that we talked about 36 sites being reviewed. How many pages was that report? Approximately 78 78 pages of detail. I know Mr. Bowman I don't know if you were able to pick yours up today. We tried sending sometimes it didn't go through that report was big giving in PDF form but I encourage you to review that report. It is extremely detailed. It probably costs to do that work, engineering work, between hundred and $150,000. We have limited space. We are we are all in a bind because of PAS in our water. We as a council have agreed and decided that we're going to treat the water the drinking water from our entire city so that our generation and generations to come have ample drinking water. And that is the most important thing. It's unfortunate that tied to this there are these requirements to do um uh to do extra storm water work. When you start putting big extra steel and pipes in the ground, it is a requirement we don't have a choice around it. It absolutely must occur. Um the alternatives were evaluated and determined and we we don't have a choice. As it turns out that land that sits there is city park land. The city can choose to do with that land what we want. We do like to provide information to the neighborhood and the residents about what's happening there, but we're we're down to no choice. We at this point, we cannot delay this project. We are moving as quickly as we can to bring you safe drinking water, and that is the number one priority. Um so to take time and reevaluate, we've evaluated we've evaluated these all these zillions of sites, 36 sites, and this is what we've come up with. Um so unfortunately, we don't have a lot of alternatives. You still have open space. We're not taking that space. We're not putting a big building there. It is still open space. You're going to have nature there. You're going to have butterflies. You're going to have birds. You're going to have, you know, nature around. And there's probably some areas around it that you can still utilize. You have a park nearby you. Um I'm sorry that you feel there is poor poor communication. Please do not blame that on engineering. It is a policy that we've set as council on how we're going to communicate to the public. Um and they followed the policy. A notice went out on November, sorry, January 24th. The meeting was held three or four weeks later. It seems as though there was ample time. I don't know if you didn't get your mail. I don't know if you were home. I'm not sure any about that. But we have done everything we can to communicate this properly. Um what I can say to you is that this project, a similar project has been done in the past up off of Woodbury Drive near Margar's Lake. Those residents too were not happy about losing their grassy null and and turning it into a storm water basin. But we had no choice in that case either and had to do it that or that group came together and said, \"Well, we'd at least like to work with you.\" I like your word, uh, Mr. Bowman, and collaborate. We'd like to collaborate with you on what are the plantings and what is it going to look like? And I think that's something that city staff can work with you on if so there are some enhancements or some things we can do, but we're down to no choice. So, I I just want to state that from my perspective and not give you a false sense that there's something big that we can do at this point in time. With that, if there's one more, if you wanted to speak, one more person, I'll take a green sheet and hear something. Um, and if any council members would like to say anything more, um, we will I'll welcome that from city council members. Welcome, EMR. Um, my name is EMR Shipner and I live at 3694 Williamsburg Parkway. Um, I live directly across the park right um, across from Brad and Clean. Um, the thing I want to comment on is you said there was 58 mailers. We never got one. We get our mail every day. We always get everything that the mail says they deliver. Talking to so many of our neighbors, they never received any notification. And even Craig himself, who's directly on the park, we figured, well, maybe it just went to the direct ones that um he never received any communication. So, we're deeply disappointed about the communication. Then getting our chance to input and to say there's no choice. The saying going from a very active place where you can go out there when my kids used to go practice doing their soccer um bouncing the ball it's well utilized then to a nature space which is admirable in a way but it takes away the utility that green space and you say we can walk down to that other area. Well, that area is used a lot by T-ball players and has a different purpose than what the purpose of that green space is. And all we can say is how disappointed we are because all of us really like the environment, we like the nature, we love the park system and we just feel like there has been a breakdown in the communication. And some of the questions that got asked were just will this really remove the POS? we really don't understand the project. So, we're just I guess really disappointed. Thank you. Thank you. Let's just clarify because this is not this particular um project is not PAS removal. PAS removal is happening at the water treatment plant that is being built south of Hargus Parkway uh uh east of Radio Drive, just south of Wood of East High School. um that is and we're having these massive filtration systems put in to filter the water. So the water is going to move from wells through all this pipe to get to that filtration plant that removes the PAS. This is in place only because of Can you just restate the watershed or the requirements to do extra filtration when we're putting extra imperous surfaces in the ground? Please help us understand why this is needed. I never can hear this. Okay, I'll have Mr. Mr. Hartz will explain very briefly and then we're going to move on because it is it is a requirement. So the wershed in this particular area is South Washington watershed district they require 1 in of volume over the impervious surface that you disturb. Once you get below the pavement surface that triggers the rules. So as we remove pavement that acreage times one inch converted into acre feet equals the volume of water that you need to treat. That's why you need volume and that's purely from an environmental storm water perspective. It you're correct. It has nothing to do with PAS. It's ancillary to the infrastructure that's required to treat the PAS. So, let me just back up a little bit to cl to help clarify this. The pipe he got a little engineeringish on us. I can't help. Right. So, the the the pipes that we that the mayor was talking about, the 17 miles of pipe that we have to to put into the ground to get all of the raw water to the facility that we're building in order to treat may or may not be directly in this neighborhood. Meaning that there may not be a pipe in that we're putting on this street that we're but we are disturbing other pavement in other areas requiring a certain amount of that work to be done. your the one inch per whatever the the engineering stuff that you talked about they we then had to find a home for that requirement that those requirements were now down to seven sites that we're down to. So it's not that the pipe is going in here and that's why we're putting it here. We just didn't have anywhere else to go and we have the requirement that we have to put it somewhere. And to be clear, it's not just this site that's getting this extra work. It's how many sites total? Seven sites. There are seven other communities around Woodbury that are impacted in similar ways because we had to put pipes in for the entire city that disturbed the service that disturbed causing the requirement. The requirement is it has to be in that drainage area within the South Washington wershed district essentially. And and Steve, thank you for speaking. Engineering nerd. So um well intended. Yeah. With that, if you still have questions, our engineering staff is available to help you understand it. It is complex. It is civil engineering work. It is water movement work. It is very complex. I don't understand it all. But there is a massive report that you can read and understand how the logic was determined through engineering that we've got to put this someplace. And this was one of the sites determined. Clint, did you want to say something? I just want to say, Mr. Bowman, the report's at the front desk. So, if you want to read the report, uh, if you have insomnia, it's really helpful for that, but it's at our front desk. Um, I almost could get it for you if you wanted while you're here, but um, take a look at the report. The thing I want to just emphasize, too, is this is not a casual endeavor. And I understand that your homes are being impacted, a way of life, a scenery. Um, and it's been really difficult for us as staff. I mean, we're not just these seven. There are roadways are losing trees. There's equipment. There's going to be dust and dirt. And it's going to be really difficult for the next three years. There are no question that the PAS is causing us big challenges. And we're trying to address those challenges. And we've just value the water safety issues so critically. So, at the council's urging, we have been moving as fast as we possibly can. um and trying to design these things in as we're required to do. So this is not about reducing the amount of space that we mow. This is not something we wanted to do. It is a requirement that we're having to do. We're spending a lot of money on it and we spent a lot of research and I think if you look at this report um you'll see that this is not a light endeavor. It was a very heavy analytical big lift and there is a shared burden shared burden by a lot of people and as we manage to the bigger and greater needs of our community there are some areas unfortunately your beautiful park which I walk by all the time that are being impacted. So we're sorry for that. Um but it was not with intention. It was with compliance and requirement and with the need to get this water treatment plant going. Thanks, Glenn. I appreciate you saying that. Um, at this point in time, we're going to stop the discussion. You're request copy of the report, please. Yeah, absolutely. How do we want to make that report available? Chris was able to email it to me, but I tried to forward it and it was so Lori blocked me. He's got It's printed out. I have it printed out for Okay. So, how many people might want a copy? Do you We will uh we will make three more copies. We'll put them and just one of you come to the front desk tomorrow and pick it up. And uh the printing is free. Yeah. Yeah. Chris, you want to add something else? I'll say uh just for my benefit, I printed out a copy and you can have it with a copy that's up front if you want to see it today. Okay. If you want to pass that on, I think that might be appreciated, Chris, because you have access to that. Um again, Clint, I appreciate your extra words. I didn't mean to be so harsh. I just wanted to set expectations that we don't have a choice. And again, as Clint said, we're sorry. I'm sorry. and and we all please we're going to need patience in this entire community for the next three years. If you have driven if you tried to get here by coming on Pioneer Road, you found out you couldn't. We are going to have major road closures. We're going to have major obstacles in the way. Again, many trees are coming down. We have a lot of impact. It's very sad and unfortunate to a community that is grown and to and to be so beautiful with our parks and open space and trees. We love all that. And because of this water issue, the need to provide safe drinking water for all of us, we have to do it. And it's it's just something we all have to live with. So apologies that your particular community and your your n backyard is being impacted, but we we don't have a choice. So you know, if are we uh planting native plantings in the in that whole green area then up on the screen? That's correct. Yeah. Does the city maintain or make sure that there's no We talked about in our workshop the ordinance of, you know, noxious weeds and things like that. Does somebody make sure because we are all trying to keep these weeds out of our yards and then if they're right in our backyard, it's makes it difficult. So, mayor, members of the council, yes. So whenever we do native plantings, the con with native plantings is they take longer to establish, but they're more resilient and durable once they do get established. So any of our native plantings that we do typically comes with a 5-year maintenance period. So and the contractor that we hire is responsible for getting it to a point that's an acceptable nature and it's well established. After that, we do have a program that the city council u with a budget that we do spot spraying and regular going out there and making sure that invasives are controlled. Uh thankfully, when you do get things established, it does its own job of trying to keep out invasives. Okay, thank you. Okay, we're now going to move on to our consent agenda. All items listed on the consent agenda are considered to be routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion and an affirmative vote by roll call of the majority of the members present. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member or citizens so request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered a separate subject of discussion by the council. So with that I do offer this up to the public if anyone wants something removed from consent agenda. I don't see any hands being raised. Okay. So, council members, anything from you all? If not, please. I'm sorry. I thought 6A. I'd like to remove the minutes. Like to remove the minutes. Okay. Um, anything else? If not, um, I'd like to have a motion. I'll move to approve consent agenda item 6B through six, I believe. Uh, N. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Council member Santini, I. Council member Stafford, I. Council member Wilson, I. Council member Morris. Hi. Mayor Bert. I. Those consent agenda items pass. We will move uh 6A to discussion, which we will I got to write that down so I don't forget. All right. Um so now we'll move on to our public hearing. Let's see. We have two public hearings tonight. um in order do well first of all do I have any green sheets for the public hearings? These two topics are um revenue bonds and consolidated plan. Okay. If not I may not read all of this but during public hearings we also take comments. Um I limit it to we green sheets. You got to do all the green sheets. We limit the amount of time etc. If anyone wants to talk do a green sheet and I'll give you all the rules after that. But if we don't have green sheets I won't I won't bother with all the rules. Um, so the first item is 7A authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds under Minnesota statute blah blah blah all regarding the MSA MSA building company and math and science academy. With that um the hearing is now open and um Jamie is going to be here and tell us more about this. Thank you, Mayor B. And this doesn't get engineering geeky, this gets finance geeky, right? Okay. All right. But I have somebody else here to pay close attention. So thank you, Mayor Bert. Thank you, council members. Um, so tonight's public hearing is in regard to conduit debt issuance for the math and science academy. And I think you'll remember that there was something similar to this in February, and I will get to that, um, a little bit later in the presentation. So, um, MSA Building Company and Math and Science Academy, uh, they're requesting the city of Woodbury issue approximately $69 million in conduit revenue bonds. And like I said, um you'll remember that council took action in February to authorize uh the issuance of 60 million. Um but after that issuance was authorized, there were some new developments and the deal to close on the new school uh which re is which is going to require MSA to refinance uh bonds that we issued in 2020 on the existing schoolhouse. So, in order to refinance those, uh, we need to add an additional $9 million under the request for a total of $69 million. And we have to have the public hearing because we're increasing the amount. And that $9 million is going to be used to refinance bonds while the 60 million is going to go towards the um renovations to the current schoolhouse and the brand new schoolhouse. So, the uh MSA's new campus is going to be located off of Bailey Road uh just east of uh Eastridge High School. And like I said, uh the additional 9 million is going to go towards refinancing the 2020A bonds uh that were used to um u previous renovations to the existing schoolhouse. and all and the 60 million is going to be used for acquisition of the site, construction of the new campus and then renovations to the existing site. Uh these bonds are conduit so the city is not liable for the repayment of the bonds. It's solely on MSA and the revenues generated from the operations of the school. So the city is not obligated for the repayment of the bonds through taxation or anything like that. And um I guess before I end I just want to recognize that uh representatives from MSA are here along with JP Vang their uh project management team and also Sophia Ley the city's bond council for any technical questions or questions about the project. So staff's recommendation uh for city council is to adopt resolution 25-73 authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds under Minnesota statutes sections 469.152 through 469.1655 as amended to finance and refinance school facilities for the benefit of MSA Building Company and Math and Science Academy and approving related documents and taking certain other actions with respect there too. and then I'll open the floor to any questions. Um I'll first uh the hearing is open so this is an opportunity if the public wants to say something. I need a green sheet. Um if you don't want to say anything and then uh Ashley if you just check online as well. Not seeing any I'm not seeing any green sheets or anybody online. So that with that I make a motion that we close the hearing. Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? Wait. Yes. You sometimes I go too fast. Did we get a second? Yes. Okay. Sorry. That all happened so quick. I'm sorry. Okay. Looking for someone make a motion. Oh, no. You moved. Okay. That's to close the hearing. To close the hearing. Seconded and now we are going to I asked for Okay. Okay. All right. You're right. We're We're good. We're just going I'm going too fast here. Okay. All in favor? I I I Okay, the hearing's closed. Now I open it up to council members for comments and questions if anyone has any. You have questions? I don't have any questions. I just always um just from a clarification for uh I think the public just in case they're not aware given that the math and science academy is a charter school. They do not receive um funding from our property taxes. So just for the public's benefit to understand that distinction between the public school district um with regards to charter schools and where funding comes from. Great. And Sophia, since you came all the way here, do you just want to take a few minutes and explain things from your perspective as our another finance detail person that you are? Yeah, I'll try not to geek out. Yeah. Um my name is Sophia Ley. I'm with QTAC Rock City's bond council. Um we're here again um to we for the public hearing um that's required under the federal tax rules because we're issuing uh we're being asked to issue an additional $9 million to refinance refund bonds that were issued in 2020 to refinance the original facility. And we're here because we're extending the the the term of the original bonds. And so that's required. Um so the city has already approved the issuance of bonds in the not to exceed principal amount of 60 million for the the construction of the new facility and renovation of the existing facility. And we're here now to um for the approval of the refinancing the refunding bonds. Um there's no liability on the city's part. The bonds will be paid from the revenues generated by the project which are uh lease revenues um to be paid by the by the school to the the conduit borrower. I'll take any questions if you have any. I don't have any. Thanks. That that was extra helpful explanation. Thank you. Okay. Um we have some questions then. So, um, so the 9 million then is, uh, to go towards the existing MSA Academy on Park Crossing. Is that what's called Park Crossing? So, the additional 9 million is to refinance the principal amount that's still outstanding on the existing schoolhouse. And then the 60 million a portion of that is going to go towards the renovations of the existing school. Okay. Was not a change that was in that was in the initial 60 million we've already approved which included the new building and the renovations. It was all inclusive of the program. So this is just refinancing the 9 million better rates or something. What what's or you extend the rate? You extend it out that you know all the above. I'm sorry. I guess when I'm reading is it is it just a refinance or is it I'm I'm a little confused because it says to finance and refinance. So the financing relates to the new money portion of the bonds and those are that's the 60 million to be used to finance the renovations to the existing facility and then to finance the acquisition of the land the new um the new property and construction of the new facility on that land. Again, that's the 60 million red million. And the 9 million is uh up to 9 million will be used to repay the existing bonds that were issued by the city in 2020 which originally refinanced because those themselves were refunding bonds originally refinanced the the original school facility. So you're just basically paying off the 2020 bonds with the bonds to you know the up to 9 million in in bonds to be issued in 2025. Okay. So it's not something we've already done. This is Right. This is we did we did it in 2020. Correct. But it's not the 60 million. It has nothing to do with the one we just passed. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Amending that. Yeah. So this this resolution sort of a amends that original resolution that was adopted in 2020 excuse me February 26th which you know approve the issuance of bonds and not to exceed principal amount for the new money portion for the you know the renovation of the existing facility and construction of the new facility. This resolution here is approving an additional 9 million for the refunding bonds portion to refinance the so basically paying off the 2020 bonds and we just stated 69 million is a not to exceed amount uh because we are sort of rea re restating the in amending the resolution that was adopted on February 26. And do we have uh for city staff? Thank you. Do we have uh something coming soon regarding the MSA parking situation and how it impacts neighborhoods and the surrounding businesses? Mayor, members of the council, we are looking to have that by the end of April. I think we had a 90 days back when it was approved. So should be middle to end of April. Okay. Would someone like to put forth a motion on this one? I'll move to adopt resolution 25-73, a resolution authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds under Minnesota statutes section 469.152 through 469.1655 as amended to finance and refinance school facilities for the benefit of MSA building company and math and science academy approving related documents and taking certain actions with respect there too. Second motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. Roll call, please. Council member Stafford, I. Council member Wilson, hi. Council member Morris, hi. Council member Santini, I. Mayor Bert, I. That resolution passes. Once again, congratulations. A lot of work ahead. Looking forward to it. Be prepared for all the other construction happening in the city besides your school, East Ridge, Woodbury High School, and all the roads. Be prepared, people. Okay. Um Jamie is up again. Today's a Today's a day for all Jays. We've got some Jason's coming up. We got another Jamie. Uh so Jamie, this is the 2025 through 2029 consolidated plan and the 2025 annual action plan. The hearing is now open. Thank you, Mayor Bert, council members. Um so tonight's public hearing is in regards to the 2025 2029 5-year consolidated plan and 2025 annual action plan. Um both those plans govern the city's uh use of HUD funds such as CDBG, also known as community development block grant and home partnership funds. So um the consolidated plan is essentially a very very long grant application to HUD that every entitlement community needs to submit every five years. And what it does is it really just serves as the umbrella for the the next five years and the annual action plan that we approve every year around this time. Uh the consolidated plan uh pretty much just determines the needs, sets the funding priorities, determines the resources for the next five years and sets the goals that our annual action plans each year are supposed to meet. So, um, we just ended our last five-year cycle last year, and now this year we're starting year one of our, uh, new five-year cycle. So, this image up here just kind of shows, you know, the purpose of the consolidate plan. It's just kind of the overarching guide for those funds. And then we have the annual action plan under that. And then the caper report, which is just an update to HUD showing that we're spending our money the way that we told them that we were going to spend it. And caper stands for consol. You got me. consolidated annual performance. Consolidated annual performance something. I was almost close. It's on my bingo card. I win. Um so in on February 26, uh council adopted a motion to establish our 2025 2029 funding priorities for CDBG and home. Uh those five priorities were affordable housing, park and public facility improvements, public services, commercial industrial rehabilitation, and program administration. Uh that's more than we've had in past years, but it's always good to have a broad spectrum of priorities because then you don't have to go back and adjust your five-year plan if you decide to go in a different direction. Um, so the anticipated resources for 2025, uh, we believe that we're going to receive $250,000 in our annual CDBG award. Uh, $11,250 in program income. So that's money that comes back from the home ownership loans that we've issued with CDBG and home or CDBG. Uh, we have some unexpended prior year funds. We believe that's going to end up to be roughly $35,000 by June. Uh we're still not receiving our annual home award because we're still repaying in Noa County for the Orville Commons project. And then we anticipate $5,000 in home program income. Um and just to note, uh this amount is subject to change. We typically don't know what the exact amount is going to be until uh late May. So in 2020, where does that go? It's not in here. Where where does Laha go? Laha. So that's in the uh separate fund that has a separate but it doesn't go into this and go separate. Yep. So HUD has its own fund and then LAA has its own state fund. Y mayor and council members LAA is state funding. These this is federal funding. Okay. Yep. These are just the federal CDBG and home. They can be used for similar purposes but for accounting purposes we keep them separate. Right. Thank you. Uh so the draft 2025 annual action plan which is part of the consolidated plan. Um we're staff's proposing uh three different projects and activities. So the first one is $198,000 of CDBG for a visitor building/warminghouse improvement project at the city Shaunie Park. Uh $48,250 of CDBG for a rehabilitation project at a group home owned and operated by Hammer and Nur. Uh the group homes located in Woodberry and it serves uh four income eligible disabled adults. um it's their home. They also receive uh community based services at the group home. And then $50,000 of CDBG for program administration. So that's monitoring past projects. So we pay contractors to make sure that the income limits and um applications that those residents need to fill out every year are done correctly. Staff time that's spent on writing these very long grant submissions to HUD um and other monitoring type activities. Can I ask you a question before you move on? Y so I'm sure that we have many group homes in our community. Um how is it that this one gets this much money and do others have the opportunity as well or how does that work? Yeah, so typically how we decide projects is we'll collaborate with other staff and we just you know if they have projects um we can recommend hey that might be a good fit for CDBG if you're looking for funds for that. Um, other projects that are out in the community, like some of the CDA projects we've done in the past, they typically approach us when they have a need and then we just vet what the project is, if it's eligible, and if it fits within our goals. Um, and this year, uh, Hammer and Nur just happened to reach out to us. Uh, we looked at their project. We vetted the organization. Uh, they sent us photos of, you know, the repairs that they wanted to do and gave us a cost estimate. And that's how we determined this project. We typically don't do like a typical RFP process that a lot of other bigger communities do for their funds. Um it's well we actually did do that back when we got the COVID funds when we funded the community services. So we do have something in place to do that. We just typically have always had a city project that took up most of the funds. So we never really did outreach or did like an open request for proposals. But we decided this is a great project. They reached out to us. it fits within our goals and priorities and it really has, you know, a direct tangible impact on some residents in the city. Question. I would agree with that, but can I just go first? Yeah, you're the mayor. Um, just from an equity point of view, I just want to make sure if we're I mean, this is a sizable sum of money and are we equitably ensuring that others had equal opportunity for this? So, my question is going to pig that. Okay, then go ahead. So CDBG memory serves because this is federal. There are only certain locations andor there's a there's a mini map within the city where these funds can be used for. Am I correct? So this is not just citywide. There's only certain areas that are eligible to receive CDBG funds. Well, that's typically what we usually use because we do parks, but there's other eligibility criteria. So if you're directly benefiting households or individuals that are income eligible outside that zone, right? Okay. That's or Yeah. or if you know they fall within um you know a targeted group so that could be elderly people with disabilities things like that then you can go outside of those specific areas. Okay. Yeah. So then to the mayor's question back to yeah back to first of all we don't we don't really even know how many group homes there are because that's a state licensing thing that's we're not privy to that information. But again I'm just asking from an equity perspective. Right. And I think we're going to think more about that because we've really touched just about every park that we can. So, we're really going to try to find ways to, you know, find projects or have projects find us and have a more, you know, standardized approach to if somebody outside of the city wants to request something, we have a process for that. Um, so yeah, so I think definitely Shaunie is probably the last big park project that park and wreck has, you know, said that they have left in these areas. So yes, that's definitely something we can evaluate for next year. Okay. Um, okay. So just to touch on Hammer and Nur and who they are. So, they're a local 501c3 nonprofit and they uh provide community-based disability services. Do they rebrand? Is this Hearts and Hammers? I I don't think so. This is This is not Hearts and Hammers, just rebranded, right? Well, no. Oh, well, they're Hammer Ner actually here. So, if so, if you'd like them to come up and tell a little bit about themselves, but because I think Hearts and Hammers does the home improvements at it. Yeah. and I maybe they have a similar logo. Um, yeah, so they own h homes and apartments throughout the metro area and they provide housing and also on-site services and just community based services to adults with disabilities. So that could be intellectual disabilities and other disabilities. Um, the project that we're looking at um is the home that they operate in Woodbury and the funds are going to be provided as a grant to renovate that Woodbury property. Um, and these photos here are just a couple photos that they sent over just to show the type of improvements that they're going to make. So, they're going to do a driveway replacement. Uh, there's a lot of windows that are damaged and outdated that need to be replaced within the home. And also, the flooring um has a lot of damage done to it as well. A lot of the residents, you know, have walking assistance, things like canes, things like that. Um and then also the installation of a secure and organized medication station for the staff to utilize where they can securely store things um have a more orderly process to that and better serve their residents. Uh the Shauny Park project. So like I said, this is going to focus on the visitor facilitywarming house. So it's used as a warming house in the winter months. Um this project's going to include updates to the restrooms. Um, it's also going to be a a exterior building remodel with window replacement. Uh, some interior finishes like a new carpet, LED light fixtures. Um, and then they're also going to add a U outdoor picnic patio area to the outside and a walking path that better connects it. Um, and all these new improvements are going to, you know, be accessibility focused. So they're it's going to be much more accessible to people that use it uh that might, you know, be in a wheelchair or have some other type disabilities. It's also going to bring the building up to code with the a lot of, you know, the U restroom fixtures and things like that. Uh so the next steps in the five-year process and the annual action plan, um so there's going to be a 30-day public comment period, which is part of our citizen participation plan. Uh the adoption of the consolidated plan in AAP is going to be at the May 14th city council meeting and then immediately after that the plans are submitted to HUD for their review and approval. So, the action that we're requesting tonight is that uh council adopt a motion opening the 30-day public comment period uh regarding the draft 2025 2029 consolidate plan and the 2025 annual action plan um opening April 3rd tomorrow and closing on May 2nd, 2025. And then any questions? Thank you. Um the hearing is now open. a representative from the company. If you'd like to come forward and state anything, I'd like your name and address for the record. Nate Reed and I am unfortunately not a Hugo uh Woodberry resident. I live in Hugo, 5979 Egglake Road North and I'm here representing Hammer and NER. Um Hammer and NER is a merger of two organizations that happened in 2023. Northeast residents had been operating on the east side of the metro area for about 50 years. I was started in 1973 in a convent in the city of White Bear Lake and as things changed and as the people that lived in that convention of who started out as children as they aged, we looked at group homes. So, as you commented said, there are a wide variety of group homes throughout the state of Minnesota. There are some amazing organizations. Hammer is one of those organizations that operates on the west side and in 2023 Hammer and Northeast Residence has merged to become Hammer and NER. So Hammer residents had been working with different communities and CDBG funds for a while and Northeast had on and off been working in those communities but not really had the opportunity to grow that um just from the standpoint of not having the staff. So, one thing that people don't understand about group homes is the money that is raised within those the money that comes into those group homes from services provided only covers the services provided. It covers minimal staffing um and unfortunately not enough pay to retain staff. So, we really um try to focus our energies on that, but it does not cover home maintenance. Um so we rely on the little bit that is left maybe at the end or the generosity of our communities and HUD um and CDBG funds have been a part of that. We don't have that baked in necessarily but we do appreciate the opportunities to apply for those funds and seek those funds and part of the reason we do that is well there's two main reasons we look at at our homes and improving those homes. One is for the people that we support and we do have several people that live here um that are here. that is our our our biggest f um focus is is the care and what we can do for those individuals within the home and our staff um we have several staff here as well and they're just amazing. I I I'm a fundraiser. I don't get to be in the homes and do the amazing work that the staff do but I do go into the homes right and you can imagine your own home wear and tear it ages. when you have a home for people with disability that aging of the home generally compounds because of various factors but then you also have the wear and tear on the outside and exterior of the home. So the other portion is we want to be the best neighbors that we can possibly be and when you don't have the funds to fix up the outside of your home and a couple of these projects do affect the exterior then seeking out those opportunities um is important. So we're really grateful that we had the opportunity to apply for funding. I've been enjoying working with Jamie on that. We do have a mask out in several other communities. We also know that some communities are not doing CDBG grants this year. Uh but really appreciate the opportunity to come and be advocates for ourselves and for our community and the people with disabilities and that there are lots of group homes here. I would love for all of those homes to be up to a level of care that I believe Ham um provides for the individual we support. We are the largest nonprofit provider of the service um in the state of Minnesota and we're actually going to go through another merger here in the next um year. So that will further increase our size but with that becomes the responsibility and being good neighbors um just compounds. So when you have 90 it will be 98 group homes and all nonprofit we're not pocketing that money. That money goes back into our services. We we really need that support. So thank you for the time. Um, and really thank you ladies for all showing up and being advocates for yourself as well. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Awesome. All right. Any other um anybody online for comments? I make a motion that we close the hearing. That was a motion. That was It was I realized that was a motion and you seconded it. All in favor? I Okay, the hearing is closed and open now to council for comments or questions or a motion. I was just going to say I I just am excited of that opportunity and I'm glad that your staff and the program that at least somebody was aware that that's an opportunity and I do think it is something that we should explore more. Um particularly Jamie to raise that with us to understand that again our levels of parks at this point you know we're we're sort of reaching capacity or or have maximized. So um to think through that program a little bit and communication I think would be great. So I agree. Yeah. And and my question was right along the size part of that it's also a a state bill that I read today that restricts cities ability. Do we have any understanding to your question? Do we know the facil are they required as part of our um rental licensing? So do we do we even know I think they are accept exempted because the state licensed because the state licensed them but we we wouldn't have any record of them then to then reach out and say hey that either there's H funds or CBG funds or whatever that was my that's a communication then to the licensing board on the state level to then maybe communicate with put resources where yeah exactly so yeah right I only had a question uh quickly about Shauny Park uh P&R Are they going to review the park plans for the public? Parks and natural resources commission. Yes. Laha and PAR and PNR. I'm turning into one of those people. Um the acronym people is parks and natural resources. Have they reviewed that Shauny Park plan or is that in front of them at some point? Mayor and city council. I do not know the answer to that. This is recommended from our park staff. So again, we have that census track map that I think you were referring to earlier. So this was the one that they suggested was sort of in the next capital need list. So I I don't know the specifics in terms of whether the PNRC looked at this particular request. And I don't know if they dive in I mean if it's sort of more of just like a renovation versus either like a reurbish if they're taking out like a play structure and putting something new in or re Yeah. I think the PNRC only gets involved if it's a new park. I don't even know if they do the refurbishment. No, that's not true. It got to be a major. Yeah, I don't think this quite hits this doesn't hit the trigger because there was something I want to say one of the last ones I had attended I thought where it was talking through um it wasn't a true or maybe it was in some materials about it wasn't a true like forl like of something. Oh yeah, we've had a couple of those. Right. And so I think like it sort of to that point it was like more of a a larger decisions or or planning part of it. Yeah. when you I think converting pickle ball you know tennis courts to pick and that's part of my question right is accessibility upgrades and necessary facility upgrades understand but at that point you know if we're not going to come back to Shauny Park for a while the PN the parks and natural resources commission review is there a need study do we want to alter do we want to include pickle ball in the offseason blah blah blah you know all the things that the PNRC group does a good job in reviewing the park if this is the last time we're going to touch it for a while that was my question. It's not just the yes, we need to upgrade the facility to make it compliant for ADA, but as with any of these, if council's majority feels that you want the PNRC to review, just give us that direction. We'll do that. There's nothing that says they can't come back in future CDBG years. Wouldn't be something we'd normally do, but if that's your desire, then that's what we'll do. And council and mayor, um, this is a public hearing to open the comment period, so it's not approving the plan. So, we will be coming back in May after that hearing period has closed and if there there could be comments where things could be changed, but we will check with the park staff to answer that question in May and give you a more solid answer. I just have two two questions and maybe it maybe it's something that maybe in May when we come back I I don't know, but Shaunie Park I feel like has had a lot of CBDG dollars heading to it the past few years. Mayor and members of council, we did have, I believe, one I'm going from memory. Um I don't I don't know that you have it. Maybe you had the 10 years in here. Um Carl might have been Yes, Carl would remember it. I will give him that. We don't speak his name. I have not. We don't speak his name. So there is in the in your packet. I'm just looking. Yes. 2022 there was a rehab project at Shaunie Park. it looks like um and we have from 2010 to 24 listed in the sort of reduced version which is still about 10 or 12 pages long um but there is a whole list of those so in 2022 and that is another thing I think the the HUD program my understanding again you have to differentiate so you can't keep adding on year after year so they kind of like you to come with a big project and then you know if that was three years ago this is a separate project so you have to really identify how This is different from the one in 2022. And then just uh one more question regarding the um nonprofit the hammer and ne it um how do we do we have a verifying process that the money that they do get is actually being put into the Woodbury property. Right. So, they're going to enter a subreient agreement with the city. And then in order to be reimbursed for the project, they're going to have to give us the invoices, show that it was paid, and then we need to verify that with HUD also, and keep record of that. And there's also labor reporting that's required. So, the person that goes out to monitor the labor is going to be able to show us that work is being done and for the price and for the materials that they stated were going to be used. Okay. So this is a federal project, not a state project. Good question to know. So it's not just we're cutting a check and no feeding our future. Yeah. And and mayor and city council, just again to add to that, um Jamie mentioned the CDBG COVID funds that we had a few years back. One of those projects was Cabbell Hill, which is owned by the CDA, so another governmental agency. But again, through that process, it had to be qualified. It had to meet the standards of the COVID rules, but again, they also had to have the monitoring. We had to make sure they were doing the things they were going to say. That's where the caper comes in. That's where we report. And I found out what caper means. Consolidated annual performance and evaluation report. So that's every year we go back and we look, this is about September, so you'll get to see us again. So this is looking forward, the caper looks back. So we'll be again reporting back to the feds through you. This is what we did with the money that we said we were going to use in a certain way. Great. Well, I will um make a motion that we uh open the public comment period regarding the draft 2025 2029 consolidated plan and its 2025 annual action plan opening on April 3rd, 2025 and closing on May 2nd, 2025 as listed in council letter 25-101. Second. Oh, there you go. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Council member Wilson. Hi. Council member Morris. Hi. Council member Santini. Hi. Council member Stafford. Hi. Mayor Bert. I. That public comment period is now open. Okay. We'll now move on to uh we've got three discussion items. We'll first start with the uh more we're more geeking out here on finance stuff. Issuance and sale of general obligation bonds. Jason Shermach or another Jay and Jason Oswald are both here. The Jason the Jason show. I just want J squared. Jason, I knew you guys wanted to fully geek out on this, so I bought support with me. Go full. We want to hear it all. Enlighten us. So, uh, tonight I'm seeking approval for um a general uh obligation bond issuance and sale for three specific projects. The three individual needs are being combined into uh one issuance um to create a larger market for the bonds and to reduce the issue interest cost. Right there. right there. No, this one. There you go. I need all the support I can get. The city's uh finance division has uh worked with the city uh financial adviser Ellers on preparing for this bond issuance. And as the mayor indicated tonight, uh Jason Arzswald from Ellers is joining us to go over the pre-sale report for the issuance. Right. Well, good evening, mayor, members of the council. Again, Jason Arzold with Ellers. Good to see all of you. Uh just a brief presentation I'll go through quickly. I know you have a lot on the agenda tonight and then I'll stand for any questions that you have at the end of that. So just we're going to talk about the bond issue, what we're funding, the details of the sale, things after the sale and then what we're doing tonight and what the next steps will look like. Uh Jason talked about this, but uh the total issue size that you have outlined in your report and again the report just outlines a proposed bond issue. That's what we're doing tonight is just showing you what we intend to do. Uh we have an opportunity to make changes still and if you approve everything tonight, we'll move forward under the premises that are contained in that report. But as of right now, 16.175 million, as Jason mentioned, is funding multiple projects. Uh the water treatment plant and piping project, the southeast water tower, as well as a 2025 street improvement project. Just create some efficiencies with respect to doing all of that. Um and saves on interest cost. So just briefly about uh all of these uh projects here, 8,150,000 of this issue is for that water treatment plant and piping project. There's still about I think $7 million is what I recall to finish that. So, it's being broken into two issues just because the timing of the project taking so long and and some unknowns about what those end costs might be. So, we'll be able to have an issue that more closely matches what those final actual costs truly are and then delay the interest for that piece of it until such time that we actually issue those bonds. There'll be a 20-year term uh paid from utility revenues and right now we're projecting an interest cost of 4.37%. Uh the Southeast Water Tower project, very similar, 6.11 million of the issued size is for this particular project. Again, a 20-year term, again, paid with utility revenues. And because it's a 20-year term on this piece of it, again, 4.37% is the current estimate as far as the rate is concerned. Uh the and then finally, the 2025 street improvement project. So 1,915 of the issue is related to that particular project. It's essentially financing the assessments portion of that project. uh both the assessments and the term of these bonds is 15 years as has been the custom in the city and it is very typical for a road project to have a 15-year term. Uh debt service again here is paid from special assessments and then uh the projected interest rate here is about 4.05% and that's just a function of the fact that this is a shorter term portion of the bond than the longer 20-year term portion. Uh we will go ahead and have the issue again rated by standard and pores which is has been the custom here. uh you have a currently a AAA rating which again is the highest rating that S&P assigns and the advantage there is that helps with lower uh interest rate costs when you do go to actually sell the debt. Uh we sell the bonds competitively as I'm sure you recall. What that means is that we'll essentially solicit bids for this debt. So the entire marketplace will bid on the bonds. will take all those bids and evaluate the bids on the basis of which one offers you the lowest true interest cost and then come to you uh at the sale day which we'll talk about and recommend awarding to that lowest lowest bidder effectively uh for your debt and then they'll have a call feature. What we mean by that is that you'll be able to prepay the bonds after 10 years. So the so the remaining five years of the street reconstruction bond or the remaining 10 years of the of the water project bonds could be prepaid or refinanced at that time which sometimes happens for a lower interest rate. Those are the sale details after the bonds are issued. There's some things that you need to do. I won't go through all of this. Ellers helped you with all of these things. We need to continue providing financial information to the markets because these bonds trade in the secondary market and they want to know how the financial health of the city is holding up. So we put those reports together. uh arbitrage monitoring. Those are just making sure you're complying with IRS requirements. We're already talking about that on the front end, making sure we're able to meet all of that. And then investing of the bond proceeds. We've got a long um uh kind of spend down time for these projects. So, we'll be also helping to invest the proceeds immediately after issuance that you're earning interest on those dollars as they're being spent down for the project. So, that's happening as well. And then as just again tonight's action, just as a reminder, there's a resolution there that essentially provides for the issuance of the bonds and authorizes staff and Ellers and and Sophia to go forth with preparing the bond documents and preparing for the bond sale. Uh and so we'll do all of that uh after tonight. Uh we'll have in fact we have the the conference of the rating agency already set up the call with the rating agency. uh have that call, obtain that rating, and then uh accept the bids on March 14th, 2025, at which point uh we'll come back that evening with those results to you uh for your acceptance of those bids and the and the awarding of the sale. So, with that, I will stop, but happy to answer any more questions or go into any more detail about the proposed issue. I just have a basic question just out of curio. Go back to uh the street the the the slide with the street uh 1.9. Okay. U so this Yeah, it's 1.9 million but the cost is 4.05% and I is Crystal here. What what is the percent that we tell the residents that they're paying the assessment? Isn't it? Not to put you on the spot, but I'm just trying to because it was like 1% over something I remember or whatever. Does somebody remember reach out to elders at the time of the assessment and we get what the market rate is at that point? That's what we add to the assessment as an interest rate. Okay. So my question is this is what we this is what the city's going to be paying to borrow this money. What are we collecting? What what are we collecting or send you a response? You'll send me a response. Okay. Because I'm curious. I you know I don't want us to lose money on it. gap. What's the gap? That's what I want to know. Okay, send me a response. I want to know the gap. And to be perfectly honest, um, as of Friday, we had already received $350,000 of prepayments on these assessments. Out of how much is out of 1.8 million? Holy cow. Um, and checks have been flying in Monday through today that I haven't tabulated. Okay. We would reduce the amount of the is issuance by any amount of the prepayments. Okay. But if the prepayments get us below a million dollars, I I am leaning towards pulling this bond issuance all together. We're doing it out of uh cash flow or yeah our funding ourselves. Okay, interesting. Okay, that's curious. All right, so get get back. Oh, you know the gap answer right now? Well, I had to look up the council directive on special assessments and I'm just going to read it directly with him. I carry with him because these type of questions come up. Yeah. Um and this is what I remembered so I just wanted to speak accurately. Um assessments shall be levied at an interest rate of 2% over the interest rate of any bond sold to finance the improvements. The rate is provided by the financial adviser at the time of the assessment role being prepared which may be different from the rate on the bonds at the time of sale. So we this was at our last meeting that we did the assessment. So that would be at that time would that have been in the 2% on resolution then on 2% according to what I see 2% on the plus the 4% so 6.05%. What? Well, it was whatever it was at the time at the time of the assessment. Correct. Correct. Well, at the time of the assessment role, which 2025 assessment role won't be isn't there yet. We don't know yet. Well, we did it last. Yeah, I think we just awarded the project. It wasn't here last meeting. Okay. Get back to me. I was I was on Okay. One of my questions is just because again we get these seem somewhat straightforward but um just from a clarifying there are sometimes we get a bond request that we have a cap on and I can never remember what that is where you might have where we can only issue so much bank qualified. Thank you. And so this is not bank qualified so this doesn't go against that amount that we have. Is that correct? Uh, mayor, members of the council, this this exceeds their $10 million limitation for bank qualified bonds. So, these will not be bank qualified simply because it's more than $10 issued in one calendar year. 10 million. So, or send 10 million. Sorry. We're borrowing for $10. We have a bigger problem. We don't we wouldn't advise that a would you be the lexicon. Yeah. $10 million limitation and you're over that. So, we're issuing these upfront. we already know they're not going to be bank qualified. All that means is that it means it means almost nothing except the fact that uh banks, financial institutions can't repurchase or bid on the bonds. So sometimes that means that the rates might be a little higher. Gotcha. But in in the way the market is is performing right now that the spread between those two things is very very close. So I don't really think there's going to be much of an impact that way. Yeah. Thank you. on the 8 point on the the the uh water treatment the pipeline the 8 million that we're issuing for that that is the city's respons that is the city's responsibility not refunded by the 3M law and it's the first trunch of we're going to end up doing about 30 some million 20 20 to 30 somewhere okay maybe and um some of it is going to be well some of it's cash right and some of it will be debt. This is again the first trunch of it and as Jason said, we're continuing to figure out that final number. So, we just wanted to get some capitalization for now and then we'll come back in another point in time when we have better clarity in terms of that final state number. Yeah. Can you say that 20 something million does that include then for the water tower? No piece of million. Correct. I just didn't know if I meant that. Okay. So 20 to 30 it does not include the water and the final amount too. We're also waiting to hear if we are getting a sales tax precisely. So that would impact the final number as well. That's right on the city side of the ledger. So the six the six would include the sales the the full in. So that would be sales tax responsibility is for the six 61 what it was what was the water sales taxes on pipe and water. So the 61 is for both projects. No, our sales tax exemption request the water tower part just this project the 61. Yeah. But what will happen is the second trunch will be adjusted based on we'll take 61 and then whatever the next whatever the next ask is you know either be higher or lower based on our we're not going to get that. We're not going to know until we're going deep here is what we Yes. Right. Until August firing minds want to know. Would you like me to? I move to adopt resolution 25-74, a resolution authorizing the issuance and sale of general obligation bonds series 2025A and the proposed aggregate principal amount of 16,75,000. Did I say that right? You did. I'll second. Motion a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Council member Morris. Hi. Council member Santini. I. Council member Stafford. Hi. Council member Wilson. Hi. Mayor Bert. I That resolution passes. Yay. That's the end of the finance discussion. And now for the third Jason of the night. Coming forward. We're uh we're going to I didn't even realize that one. Jason Cubed. Jason number three. Jason the third. It should be noted for the record that uh the chief chief posal left and I'm assuming got cake at the end. Didn't bring any back and is coming back empty-handed. I don't know if he left. Did he? I didn't went to the bathroom. I would have brought cake. You missed the cake. I was gonna say you needed rock cake. So, um Jason Posler, our director of public safety is here to talk about the um agreement between City of Woodbury and South Washington County School District 833 for the school resource officer services. Welcome, Jason. Yeah, good evening again, Mayor Burton, city council members. I have a short presentation uh for you regarding the proposed SRO contract, school resource officer contract. So, we've been in contract negotiations with district 833 on a new SRO contract since June of last year. Um, we partnered and worked closely with the city of Cottage Grove um to work through this contract and we've been negotiating alongside of them as their contract was up as well. City attorney uh Kevin Sandst\u00f6m was point on these negotiations. He's here here with us this evening and can also help answer any questions we have along the way. So touching on the nuts and bolts of the contract. So we in uh you know we uh provide SRO service for Woodbury High School and for East Ridge High School. That's what this contracts uh contract incorporates. Um that's 40 hours per week during the school year. Um it does not address the contract does not address any special event staffing. And this was intentional as we wanted to have more flexibility for future um changes that might occur and we wanted to separate that out from the SRO contract. Additionally, the SRO legislation and contract uh language is specific um to the role of the SRO program. So that's another reason why we had left it off. We're going to be working on a se separate contract to help address those special staffing events. So this is the financial breakdown. Um on the left shows where we were previously at and then what the proposed contract is in 2025. So for uh previously 75% of the actual uh the burden rate of actual inschool time was how the payments were calculated by the district. Um moving forward the proposal is that 75% of the annual full burden rate u will be um charged to the to the school district. Um, previously training was paid for by the city and under the new contract $2,250 per school resource officer uh will be paid to the city uh annually and that will incorporate equipment and training. The training is approximately $500 per year and that equipment costs uh cover things that they regularly utilize throughout the course of their day. Uh, previously the contract was set on an annual renewal date at the end of the year and under the new contract provision um, we'll have a 60-day notice for contract termination. So, practically, uh, here's how it works for absences and removals. Uh, if the SRO is absent from school, uh, we'll pro provide a substitute. Uh, per statute, we're allowed to use a substitute for up to 60 days before, bless you, before they'd be required to attend specialized SRO training. Okay. Um, if there's an emergency emergency situation where we can remove an SRO without notice, um, we would just not receive payment for the duration of that time. Would that mean like short staffing or something where we needed to have crisis something? Okay. So, for clarification, you don't mean for the day. You mean for an extended period of time? For an extended period of time. Is that defined? I don't think believe it's defined in the contract. No, it's it's fairly broadly worded to give the city discretion if there is a public safety emergency or short staffing that we need to use that SRO for other purposes that we can take them out of that position. Okay. But the extended period of time is up for debate then on when they don't have to pay. Well, anytime that the SRO is I think not working in the SRO capacity at the school, there's there's going to be calculations in accounting for that. Okay. So then it goes back to my original question. So if they have to leave for the day, then they're not paid for that day then. Correct. And the goal would be to um would be to provide a substitute in that place and then we would receive payment for that. Well, there is a lotments in the contract for time off for the officers too and so there is time that they can spend away from the school and and we don't get any deductions for that. Yeah. And again, for whatever reason, the the city or the district can terminate the contract with the 60-day notice, but does it renew annually with different rates or it just it's it's baked in? It's baked in. Okay. 75% whatever the actual Okay. So, evergreen, however, not sol not static in the values. What the terms of the agreement are are are evergreen, but the the values of the agreement are are not static like our old one. Yeah. And it will be dependent on the officers that we have in that position. Those will be their actual 75 75% of that person, right? So more senior, more it's going to cost them more or less senior. Okay. Great. Great. Yeah. And then finally, you know, we have great people in in these SRO roles. um they're there for the right reasons, developing trust and relationships and keeping our kids safe. And we're continue to be partnering uh continue to partner with the district and the schools to provide this service. And uh with that uh any questions? And I will add one thing here. I apologize uh Madame Mayor, members of the council. um in looking at the version of the contract that is in your packet and just trying to make sure we had the right version in there. I actually realized that there there was a lot of redline versions of this going around in the month of March and there were some uh final uh changes to some of the whereas clauses on the very first page that the uh district wanted and didn't uh that version of it apparently didn't get into the packet. So I just wanted to make note of that. Um, essentially it's the school district word smithing on some of what we call recital typically at the start of the contract. They don't affect the substance of the contract at all. But in particular, the third whereas clause talks about your council resolution from the fall of 2023 and in the effort to renegotiate the contract. They wanted that rewarded a little bit. And so that change uh was requested by the district. And I told them, I don't think there was anything wrong with the version that was in your packet, but it's a whereas clause and so I didn't really care that much. And so I told them that was fine. But that version unfortunately didn't make it into your packet. So just for the record, I want to read what the district wanted whereas clause just so we clear that up and that will be the version that gets signed and approved assuming you approve this tonight. But right, can you read the what it what it what it was and what it's going to be? We can hear the difference. If you look in your council packet at the the first page of the actual um school resource officer agreement, the third whereas clause down says, \"Whereas pursuant to city council resolution 23-155, the city sent a notice of non-renewal of the 2008 agreement to the district in the fall of 2023 with termination of the 2008 agreement effective on December 31st, 2024. Here's the language that the school district wants for that whereas clause. Whereas, pursuant to the city council resolution 23-155, the city sent a notice of its intent and desire to review and renegotiate the terms of the 2008 agreement and end term. And then one more minor change to the next whereas clause. We're just adding at the very end of the fourth whereas clause a statement that says that this new agreement which will be effective January 1, 2025 uh which shall supersede the 2008 agreement. So just adding one more statement there making clear crystal clear that the 2008 agreement is done and over and this one is a replacement of that one. So with those two changes, all the rest of the contract is uh agreeable to this the attorney for the school district as well as the superintendent and staff of the school. Has it been approved by the school board yet? Uh I do not well has it actually their board has approved it. Okay. With their language with this new language, I assume with those changes. Yeah. Can I just ask was 23155 a non-renewal or was it a renegotiation letter? That's I would just like to know what the letter said. Uh the the resolution itself says it was directing that the council wanted staff and authorized staff to cancel the 2008 agree. That's my that was my memory. So then why are we changing I mean we have the letter we know what it says. We cancelled the contract and we wanted to renegotiate because we feel as was evidenced this last week how important SRO's at the school are. But I why are we not just put doing what our letter said? Um that's again mincing words or word smithing on district and I don't think it is mincing words. It's us taking a stand on what we were saying. I think in the big picture um there's a reason they're asking for a change and and you know um having been a bystander to your voluminous contract changes it's big process you have city attorneys of two different cities you have the school district attorneys there's lots of language I think the substance of the agreement is unchanged the intent is unchanged um I think the contract does everything you want it to do and There's compromises by all parties on language. So, um did we like the language we had? Yes, we did. But is this something that substantively substantively changes the um agreement? No, not really. It's it's just kind of a version of history. And I think we all have our versions of history. Um well, but but that's but that's not I mean there's no we all have our versions of history. The letter memorializes 23155 memorializes exactly what the history is. We still have that resolution. What is your concern by acquiescing to I don't know. I don't I don't haven't fully thought of it. I guess only for the fact that it's just it's you know 9:15 at night. I'm tired and it's just kind of been sprung on us. But there is a reason um that the school district has asked for that to be changed. I haven't been in the negotiations. This is the first time I've heard of that. So I don't have an answer to what it is. But it is concerning frankly as news to me that they felt the need to word smith that whereas clause because we've been laboring under the belief that we sent them notice of a non-renewal and that the agreement came to an end at the end of December of 2024. And I I've been pushing on the school district's attorney for months now to try to get this finalized because of the fact that uh you know it was our full belief and understanding essentially we're operating in good faith but without an effective contract in place for the last few months here. So given all that I said you know what I'm not going to I'm not going to push back on this. I'd rather just you're providing disclosure, Kevin, but the terms and conditions of the agreement are not negatively impact. It doesn't change the different views and well and the fact is if the next whereas talks about the fact that it is superseded to me that insinuates that the agreement was not renewed and that is the spirit of the original. So, and there's been so many iterations of this, right? I mean, it's unbelievable. It's gone back, as I said, there was a lot of changes in red lines even in the last month, but there have been changes in red lines going back and forth since June of last year, as director Posel had mentioned. Well, and it does document city council resolution 23-15. You could go back to that original language and argue that point if you wanted. And I just want to be clear. I mean, I agree with everything you said, Council Wilson. I'm just trying to figure out how can we how can we approve something that isn't fact. That's our that's not fact. If we have 2315, it doesn't change the fact. I understand that. But then let's rec remove that whereas I just think this is a skinny rabbit. I wouldn't shoot. Yeah, because will you just reread the red line language just slightly? The proposed red line of that section again. Pursuant to city council resolution 23-155, the city city sent a notice of its intent and desire to review and renegotiate the terms of the 2008 agreement. No, that is not what that was not what we did. That is not 23155. So remember, this is a whereas clause. This isn't a contract. This is like So just so then we can go back to that. If they're going to change it at the last minute, then I'm going to go back and request a change at the last minute, Clint, to say take that section out. just say we sent 23155. Done. I I they're they're asking for a change that is factually incorrect. I'm with Council Member Wilson. I remember sitting in that room and specifically saying cancel the damn contract. Yes, but we have Cottage Grove's agreement. We have the school district's agreement. Cottage Grove is not being referenced agreement. We're changing the whereas clause. you know, we are we are approving separate agreements because we have to. But I I just don't think again, I understand what you're saying. I agree. It's been a slog. I don't disagree with this. And I understand that it doesn't change the nature of the agreement, but they're changing a version of history that they weren't acting in good faith. And if I go all the way back, I'm still pissed at the school district about their behavior. So, they're going to change this contract on us at the 11th hour for something that actually did not happen. I'm I'm a no vote. I love the contract. You guys did a great job on the terms of the agreement. The school district's going to jerk us around on that language at the last minute and factually they weren't in the room. They don't know what we said. I'm not okay with that. So that's why I guess I'm asking what I I maybe we need to look at 23155 trying to find. Does it say we want to renegotiate or does it say we're terminating? It it says it's directing the count it's directing staff to terminate the agreement. Okay. Which we did. I I you know I I just think there are times to rise above and and and and we have. We've done that the entire time. I know. But there this is a good agreement for us. Oh, this is a great agreement. I want everybody to understand. I really do. I love this agreement. But what I don't love is rewriting history when it is memorialized in our documents forever. we terminated the contract is what you're telling me we did and they want us to say we wanted to renegotiate it. Now that's if if what you're telling me is true, I do not have that letter in front of me. If the letter said we are terminating, then how in the heck can we as a council sit here and say we're going to we're okay with the the new language that says we want to renegotiate. We did not say that. We terminated. I love the I love this contract though. other than these warehouse clauses that that say things circulated to us was completely fine with the draft that was circulated to us. Well, I understand your concernation with it. I I still am with Clint and I would advise and recommend move on and approve it. I feel like you put us in a hard situation here. We didn't do that. It's just the school district did. Yeah. Okay. What What version did the school district approve? Did the school board approve? I would assume I didn't watch their meeting nor review their packet, but I would assume it would be a version with this uh revised whereas clause that I've read. And just to be clear, their whereas clauses are the same as ours. We have to they're asking for us not just the terms of the contract, but they want us to do all the whereas clauses. We can't take them out. The whereas clause is part of the agreement uh to the extent that you can't have two different versions of a contract with different language in them. Otherwise, it's not clear. And um again the but the key issue here is that the wearers clause doesn't actually affect the outcome of the obligations on either party here and we did pursue negotiations after we terminated the contract for sure. Um so I mean the fact of us pursuing negotiations isn't incorrect. I honestly I just wouldn't I understand what you're saying. I'm I'm a fighter, too. But I'm not a fighter. It's a It's a matter of fact. Okay. I'm a fat person, too. But I I just think that there's just not enough gain. There's no gain. We gain. Well, there has to be some place or they wouldn't have asked for it. Of course, and I they've, you know, they have their particular belief system too, which has been pretty strong. It's not a belie in the room. Make the motion. This is that this is this is not a debatable what what action we took. It's not that's not debatable. It is for them because they weren't in the room. Well, the contract was ended and they're admitting that in that one whereas and second of all, we were directed to negotiate. But you were also directed to terminate. So, I'll go back to the original question. Does someone have 2315 available? Jen's busy looking. I'm trying to find I am too. I am too. Not it's the it's not easy to search. I can I don't like changing history. Well, the reality is history is what it is and Yeah, but that's not and the resolution was passed by the council the resolution is a matter of fact and it's referenced in that whereas clause and so I it's a distinction without a difference in my mind, which is why I told the the district's attorney it didn't it didn't um raise any concerns from my perspective. Um, and I will say I I reviewed the record. Is this the same school board attorney? It's the same school board attorney. Uh, although I will I will say I think it's um, what month it was a communication from the district rather than the attorney that where they wanted this change. That's more concerning. And I know that Clint did I I reviewed past email history and Clint did send a copy of that of your resolution to the school district shortly after was passed and signed. And so the school district did physically receive via email a copy of your resolution. And I was at the school board meeting where they discussed it. So I I know exactly what fact was. Yep. And again, I think we're word smithing to no particular end here with any purpose in terms of what this whereas clause does or doesn't say or mean. Well, this whereas clause changes history and it changes the fact that the city council took a stand for something. Um, so that's what it changes you take a stand. It does change that. We are saying we as a council are saying we didn't we're we're agreeing to the fact that we didn't do something when we did. No, I think the I think you the agreement was cancelled. We renegotiated. You know, I think the order of the words and and well, there is it doesn't say in there that we canled the contract, does it? their their whereas clause their new whereas clause right it says it supersedes and that the the 2028 contract well that's just saying that the terms of this agreement are going to supersede the terms of the previous agreement that that we now said we didn't cancel so it's it's a double win in my mind is it not we've got other correspondence to that effect say that again attorney can someone tell me when the 2315 was authored when it would have been in our packet May, September, whatever time September of 23. It was definitely September that bill faded days before school started. The issue arose Yeah. in September, but I I'm wondering, did we do it in October when when 2315 was we're looking for that letter when we had the audience and I apologize. I did pull it up when I got the message back about wanting to um you know word smith this whereas clause to reread it myself and I did confirm what it said but I don't have a copy of how about this if you can come to terms with the amended but we will transmit the agreement and in the transmitt of the agreement we can reference the language affirm that that original language is the language you prefer. But in the better interest of agreement, however, for the record and to be clear, you know, we'll reference exactly what was said in my email to the school. Can we um and that can we do a combin can we just offer a combination of what is stated here, which is a non-renewal and whatever the other words were, negotiate and blah blah blah. Can't you just combine? So, it's very clear that we wanted a cancellation and that we went on and did it's an adopted agreement by the school. So, the agreement because they met before we did. Yes. Yep. Well, that's not our problem. Oh, well, I understand. But if you don't adopt their That's fine. The language they got for the change. I understand. When did they ask for the change? Uh, I think that was back and forth in in late March. the sense she got the version is not the most current version. Yeah. I and I I'll fall on the sword here. I think it was my fault I sent the version 84 C. Yeah. 84 C instead of D on Tom Aaronburg or whatever and and so this last little change didn't get into. So I think that's important to note too. It wasn't just he called you up today and said, \"No.\" Yeah. No, this drives me crazy. Exactly. Um I'm I'm really on the fence on this one. I mean, I like facts to be facts. I feel like there's been gamesmanship in this all along. I hate to continue to to like allow I mean, it it just shouldn't be allowed to happen. And the words are the words. We love the and I I mean I and we're I also had to take more time on this. I'd like to just put it to bed and we are meeting with the school district on Friday, you know. Yes, we are. Well, so so then there's there's this other point. We've been operating without a contract for uh five months, almost an entire school year because school's out in like a month and a half. Four months, right? December. because you're Yeah. December, whatever. We're operating without a contract. What is it? What is another meeting going to what is another two and a half weeks going to cost us? I have been concerned, just for the record, I have been concerned that we're operating without a contract in general because I absolutely ag No, we shouldn't be, but we're we've been doing that in good faith. We've been negotiating staff has been negotiating in good faith. They've negotiated a a good contract for all parties. I'm great with that, but I I'm with Council Member Wilson is that they're doing it for a reason and with with Mayor Anne of this entire debacle. Yeah. I I've I squarely I still squarely put this on the school district for the way that they handled this and this is just one more reason of changing. They weren't in the room and they complained because they weren't in the room and now they want us to they want to change. But they received the letter. They absolutely received the letter and and it's I was in the room and I remember saying very specific things and that is not it. So I would suggest that I'm I I'm just I'm my eyes are burning that we get 23155 in our you know if you could forward us that letter. I would say um I am not I mean as much as I want this contract signed I think it's a great contract. I am not going to say yes to something that I know was not a factual thing. So if that means that we have to table this and renegotiate it or get that word language changed and if the school district has already approved theirs, they can. It doesn't do any good. Uh because if it's not approved on our part, then that's one thing. Uh that's you know if and you're saying it doesn't change it that they have a contract and I agree with it except Cottage Grove isn't wasn't part of our letter. So they must have different contracts. Their wherees are different. There would have to be because they're not the same. So So our contracts are the same but different. So I'm kind of thinking we need to negotiate our warehouse clauses. Why don't we do this? Um, a let us send you the resolution in question. Let us send you the uh transmitt of the um of the termination of the agreement. So you can see what your resolution was. You can see what it was that we said to the school district in terms of its termination. And then you can just keep it open looking at those two documents. Put it put this aside. Look at it. The mayor and I will have a chance to meet with the school district on Friday. So it just uh we can have the conversation. So we have three things happen. One, you get the resolution. Second, you get the correspondence with the resolution. We can have a conversation meeting with them Friday, right? And we can have that conversation and then bring it back for council consideration. you having looked at the document and ahead of the meeting of the next council meeting, we can provide you the mayor and I can provide you uh response to our meeting and and how it went and and the concern. I'm assuming you're going to raise the concern then. Yeah. Not just me. Frankly, I need to refresh my memory. I don't remember the particular correspondence and exactly what was said. I don't have the resolution u handy. So maybe we should start a new packet in our Oh, here we go. they have it. Although I think it's also because when I should make sure it's a signed version because I have a lot of versions. So it's also funny because that's I think part of it why we can't really search is because in the packets the resolution doesn't really have a number usually until it gets assigned. Um I won't borrow everybody because there's a lot of wherees. It's a huge resolution. So do we just want to that's send you the resolution, send you the correspondence. We'll have a conversation, express council's concerns. Yeah. Yeah. And then just if you all could keep an open mind and then you can read for yourself to saying, \"Okay, here's what we said. This is how it lines up with the proposed agreement.\" And then maybe what we can do, Kevin, is we can give the council a redline version of what they received in the package. September 27th of 2023. So, I'm all for keeping an open mind except if the letter says I'm not going to I'm Well, there's just it's just kind of crazy to say we need to keep an open mind. So here so so here's what I what I would propose doing then. Not moving to adopt or reject the res moving to table it. Yep. So then that then we're not rejecting. Correct. Okay. So I make I may take I make a motion to table resolution 25-75 to do everything Clint said. Second motion. Well, yours uh can thank you for the motion to table. Question for you before this is all tabled and done. If we simply deleted the third whereas clause al together so that there's no reference to your resolution and and it just says city and district have renegotiated and have come to a new agreement that supersedes the 2008 agreement. Sure. Is that No, no. Now I'm not sure. Can can I just then food for fatter for a moment just read the two resolves? Yes. That were part of this 155. Well, I don't know if it really was one because it's so after a lot of wherees of the history about everything be resolved that the city council of the city of Woodbury, Washington County, yada yada yada um on the direction provided by attorney general in the Minnesota Post board directs the city administrator, public safety director and with the input from city attorney and the independent school district 833 to continue to evaluate and make appropriate decisions on behalf of the city of Woodbury and either resuming contracted services or continuing with the suspension of the contract. And be it further resolved that the public safety director and city administrator are authorized to review the efficacy of the SRO services as currently constructed and engage with the uh 833 as well as with other community stakeholders as may be appropriate on updates to the 2008 contract for policing services for the 2024 2025 school board year and beyond. That's what the resolution. So that was in here. So to me collection, thank you for finding that and reading it. I will tell you that is not what the final resolution says. Final res that changes my my recollection and not to throw fuel on your fire here, but the final resolution that got passed does say directing staff to terminate the agreement. Okay. Okay. Well then Okay. And maybe part of the district's consternation was they pulled out the packet packet because that sounds very similar. No, I think they have a Clint did send Clint emailed them a copy of the final ver signed version which does have the language in it. Um I I did review the email history on that. Okay. So, okay, we're we're back to tableabling and I would say table. I have a motion and a second by Donna. Any further discussion? I think we've discussed it to death. Yeah. Can we just do a voice? A motion. Pardon? Motion. Steve motion. Donna seconded. Can we just do an all in favor? I say I. Or do you want to? We better do a voice. Let's just do a voice just to be clear. Voice vote. Uh, council member Santini. I. Council member Stafford. I. Council member Wilson. I. Council member Morris. Mayor Mayor Bert. I. This item is tabled. We now need to go to 6A, the pulling of the minutes. Council member Wilson, I forgot. I did. No. Look, I'm so proud of myself. Okay, so 6A, I pulled the minutes. Yeah. Um, so I know that there was some question on whether uh this should have been brought beforehand and let council know. And I will say um I I want to reiterate that council has the opportunity to pull and so do any anybody pull anything they want at any time until it's passed. Um, but also the fact that I believe I have an email communication regarding the last time I pulled minutes and saying the council can't know beforehand what my proposed changes are because then it's considered a violation of open meeting law because somebody would know what I was thinking beforehand. So in this situation um which makes it difficult then in this situation I'm going to vote differently. I felt like there were some things that were not included in there that were important facts. So, I'll be voting differently. Oh, okay. I'll make make a motion to approve the minutes. Uh, agenda item 6A. I'll second. Motion a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. The roll call, please. Council member Stafford. I. Council member Wilson. No. Council member Morris. Hi. Council member Santini I. Mayor Bert I. Those minutes uh pass. Staff report. Uh Chris, I understand you it's not it's not yet May, but construction has begun. Transportation has been impacted. We'd like to hear from you. Thank you for preparing. No, I want to hear I want to hear. Mayor, members of the council, uh yeah, that was the intention. Uh construction started way earlier than probably we've seen in the past. A lot of contractors move their equipment on site before broke restrictions which are allowing them to start uh really as soon as uh it was end of March and early April. Um my daughter woke me up at 2 a.m. this morning and I never went back to sleep. So my eyes are also burning. So in the favor of all of us here and myself, I'm going to try to move at lightning speed. So just to clarify, projects were still finishing up. When finishing up, what that really means is landscaping, uh, just minor corrections, punch list items. That includes the Gold Line bus rapid transit, working on landscaping, the 2024 roadway rehabilitation project looks great, but we go back and make sure all the curbs aren't cracked as well as Beenberg Drive, Carol Boulevard, and the re rehab project. And, uh, no surprise, Gold Line opened. Uh, staff rode the bus. It's a great experience, I will say. Uh, Metro Micro Micro. What a what a game changer. Honestly, what a what a nice service for Woodberry. In terms of the Let's see, I'm just going to skip through this. Uh, major projects scheduled for 2025. Uh, we have the water treatment pipeline projects. We have Dale Road from Radio Drive to Copper Ridge Drive. This is Steve's favorite project. The 2025 roadway rehabilitation project, Woodling Drive trail from Valley Creek Road to Ger Drive. and Tamarack Road from Weir Drive to Radio Drive. So, just going to cruise through these, but as we've talked about, construction's going to be pretty heavy and intense this year. Most of that's going to be related to the water treatment plant pipelines. The first one is Pioneer Drive and Interlock and Parkway. Construction's already began on that. Traffic control is in place. Uh contractors going to begin removals early in April pending weather um along Valley Creek Road. uh they're going to start clearing and grubbing in the next few weeks. Uh we don't really have phasing and scheduling. The phasing and scheduling that was bid as part of the project, the contractor has come back and said, \"Hey, I think I can do this better and more efficiently and and have less lane closures, but it essentially reverses the schedule of when work would start.\" So staff is still working through that to verify that it'll work. Uh but when it does, we're hoping for some fairly positive results that will help uh both the motorists and and pedestrians in Woodbury for a shorter duration. Uh but there's no doubt that um work along Valley Creek is really going to impact people's schedules this year. There's some really big uh uh closures at uh Radio Drive and Valley Creek. It's going to be shut down for two weeks for casing pipe. Uh, and there's going to be lane closures along Valley Creek, east and westbound, uh, during the course of the project, and we'll give more information as we update uh, uh, the the council. Uh, the good thing is is Radio Drive and Valley Creek will never be shut down at the same time. Uh, so there'll still be east, north, south movement, so you'll have to take another east west road when Valley Creek is shut down, either eastbound or westbound. Generally, they're not shutting down both at the same time. Bailey Road, Hargus Parkway, construction is going to begin next Monday. Uh they've already started placing traffic controls and they're really just waiting on better weather for removals. Uh Settller's Ridge, it's tenatively scheduled to begin in May. We haven't gotten contracts scheduled, so stay tuned for more details. And then Dale Road project, um it's scheduled to begin in early April. Dale Road will be closed to through traffic from April through October. Phase one will include closing Dale Road between Radio Drive and Chestnut Drive. The project includes constructing a roundabout at Dale Road and Chestnut Drive, water mane installation, trail construction on both sides, and construction of a two-lane divided roadway. 2025 road rehab project. Uh, it's begin. It's scheduled to begin for phase one in mid to late April. This is Donna's favorite project. This is my favorite project. We're going to start right in front of your home, Donna. 4 a.m. Yep. All the trucks are going to get parked. Just make sure that every other Tuesday I can get in and out. We'll make sure that happens. And maybe the Wednesdays, too. We need you to get just watch for the giant lift station in your front yard. That's that's coming anytime soon. The Lions Club garage sale will be accommodated in the project schedule. We know that's important to the community. Uh Tamarak Road between Weir Drive and Radio Drive will be rehabilitated starting in August of 2025. Um work includes resurfacing the road existing trail along with constructing a trail on the north side of Tamarak Road between Beenberg Drive and Radio Drive. Some of these closures will be required to be coordinated with work on the water treatment plant pipeline project. And then our favorite project uh we traded again the Washington County Service Center for a trail along Woodlane Drive that helps support the gold line improvements. As you know that's sorely needed um in terms of use of the gold line and be able to get to the shopping centers. So, there's going to be a 10-ft trail on the west side of Woodlane Drive between Valley Creek Road and Gder Drive um constructed this year. No road closures are expected, but some lane closures will happen uh during construction. And then there's actually a they didn't mention this, but there's a little portion of uh trail on the east side that's going to be where the new service center is. It's going to connect down to Ger Drive, but it's also going to connect to the shopping center. Nice. So, um, and if you really want to get from north south along Woodlane Drive, you can navigate on the east side through the existing Kohl's parking lot and something that, uh, but there will be a continuous trail on the west side. And as always, if you'd like to know more about our projects, you can find them online, uh, through our interactive transportation CIP. And don't forget to sign up for InTouch updates to get the latest news on current construction activities. I would encourage folks specifically to sign up for the water treatment plant pipeline distribution. There's so many individual projects that are having impacts during the course of the year at different times and they're all collectively being organized under one basically umbrella. We talk about these as different projects in in-house, but for the public, if they sign up, they're going to get what's going on communitywide anytime there's an impact to any of those major corridors where the where the water man is being constructed. And that's through I'm sorry. And that's through the water treatment in touch. Yes. The Okay, good. Yeah. Because I will say there there a lot of the major roads are going to be um like pretty soon we're not going to be able to get anywhere. Um are are is there going to be some timing on those what bring back scooters? Uh I mean like you know by by the next update there'll be more concrete timing. We're still working through a lot. I mean are you going to be aware and uh yes all of this has been very well coordinated even in terms of what projects we're doing in what year? Yeah. Um, we've done our best, but there's no bones about it that construction is going to be difficult. Thankfully, I'm not aware of any major Mindot projects that are also going to impact us. They wouldn't tell us anyway. Well, they would tell us, but usually a day before. Yeah. Or two days after. Or two days after. Yeah. Um, so thankfully, you know, all of the construction issues are mostly going to be caused by the city and not other partners. So, we can control some of it. Thankfully, is the thankful that a water treatment plant pipeline and and distribution point is being I would add that there are other rights away requests that we're working hard to resist which will is this county? No, it's other private sector entities that want to use our rightways. So we are okay having some significant conversations on this the emergency we have with water and that other projects regardless of the business desires are having to wait. Yeah. Yeah. Can you real just real quick talk about um Valley Creek Road east of Sellers Ridge Parkway and just what is the county looking at doing with that roadway? That's it's I've had public bring it up. I I'm not clear on what's what the talk is where it goes to two. Yep. So there was how it might divert south. I don't know. Tell me what. Yes. So there was a study that the county's done through that corridor from Settlers Ridge Parkway going to the east all the way to Manning Avenue. And what they were looking at different options to move through that people through that corridor and consider a long-term approach to uh the corridor, right? So, it's not fixing everything at one time, but it is what what should we do and what should we prioritize. One of the options looks at realigning Valley Creek at the end at Manning Avenue um in order to essentially connect a roundabout at Manning Avenue further to the south of that hill uh to align it with that other intersection. That's really a very long-term plan. I think the the county is interested in doing some short-term improvements because that's a very high accident intersection. Yeah. At Valley Creek and and Manning. Um but to do that alignment, it's probably better to wait till development comes along and that's done through the development and the platting process rather than extreme takings to be frank. Yeah. Um, but there are some things that we can do in the interim to route people, which it could include as simply as, you know, right in, right out, and then having a J cut type intersection to bring you down to the intersection to avoid those conflicts. All things that we're talking about with the county, but nothing formalized at this point. Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Clint, your report. and mayor and council uh we have a very detailed report for you but given the hour I think I'll just mention a couple of things. So we we've had a lot of conversation tonight about the water treatment pipe construction. In my report you have some mention about a very successful open house we had and how well attended it it it was. Um and then also we've had some discussions about project and questions. And so I just want to encourage members of the public if you have questions or concerns regarding this project that we have a hotline phone number which is 651-4487127. Again 651-4487127 to please use that. Alternatively you can use the project email address at water treatment woodburymn.gov. again water treatment atwoodbury.gov for any questions you might have. We touched on the significance of the project. We just had the transportation report that has talked about the roadway impacts. Just a lot going on. Um and we want to be um really continue to communicate well with the public. So, we understand that the challenges we're going to have over the next three years, there's going to be a lot of disruption and and dust and trees and parks impacted uh routes uh impacted, businesses and homes impacted, and we're just working very very hard and very diligently to bring safe drinking water to this community as soon as we possibly can. So, we are having some pain. We are going to get some gain. Uh we're very fortunate, frankly, in the midst of all this construction to be able to have this opportunity to build a state-of-the-art water treatment facility faster than anyone. And when we're done, we're going to be a leading example of how to treat water treatment. And I think we're going to have communities from across the United States and maybe even the globe as PAS is really coming to roost to come to our community to see what we've done and how we've done it and how quickly we've reacted. So, uh, forbearance and patience and and just seeing the long run is what we're hoping and asking for most people for all people. Uh, just in terms of neighborhood meetings, uh, we do have one which is on the 2025 roadway rehabilitation pre-construction meeting on April 10th at 6 PM, city council chambers. Our next workshop meeting, we will have phase uh, two of the street lighting rate review. We got phase one, the the primmer, and then we'll talk about uh which is uh good given the fact that we talked about um housing redevelopment authority and and CDBG and and home. We're going to talk about um our HR and how we should form it, housing assistance program, our local affordable housing aid, the LAA program from the state, uh and then some follow-up to the at home in Washington County meeting that I think most of you attended. We have no public hearing scheduled for the next council meeting. Great. And then in terms of other meetings, we have tomorrow night, the state of the city at on April 3rd, tomorrow, 6:30 p.m. Eco Valley Golf Course and all are welcomed. So that that's my report. Great. Community Saturday. Community Expo and the expo. Community expo on Saturday. Yes. 10 till 4. Okay. No. 10il 3. 10 till 3. You can be there until 4. I'm not going to be there till 4. 10. Till three. Woodbury High School. Woodberry High School. Woodbury High School. I just want a special recognition to this group of students. Okay. Was this was this a class assignment? Was this a Are you Is this a pluses for like sticking to it? You need like extra credit notices from us for staying the entire time? Yeah. Letter of Done. Provide. Just give us a draft. I'll sign it and um proof just show them the end of this video where you stayed and we'll show the time stamp on here. Can we excuse you for being an hour late for school tomorrow? Can you what comment on real quickly? Yes. Neo is a dear friend her mom and I and she contacted me. These are all engineering students at the University of Minnesota and are interested in wanting to meet with our engineering department with a specialty on our water treatment plant. All right. So, I'm setting up meetings or tours and I talked to Mary. Um, but if we can help these students who How many of you live in Woodbury? Just Ne. That's all right. That's okay. We'll get the rest of you. We'll charge the others. Yeah. But they've they've selected our our amazing engineering department and water treatment plant um as a project they're working on and that's all I know. Wow, that's awesome. A lot to learn. Sign up for the InTouch. Get get on that right away. Learn more about it. Thank you for being here. And with that, uh motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I we are adjourned."