All right. Good evening. Uh, this is the June 4, 2025 Cottage Grove City Council meeting, which I'm calling to order. Uh, first thing I just want to read real quick is that this meeting is being recorded by True Lens Community Media. You can view city meetings live and replay them on cable channel 799. And the meetings are also streamed live and archived on the city of Cottage Grove's YouTube channel. Uh so our next item uh after call to order of the of the meeting here is pledge of allegiance. So if you'd please rise. 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. All right, the uh clerk, please do the role. Council member Clawson here. Council member Olsen here. Council member Theiti here. Council member Garza here and out of breath. Mayor Bailey uh here. All right. Next on our agenda is open forum. This is the opportunity for anybody that wants to speak on open forum this evening. Uh we did have a signup sheet out in the entryway and we didn't have anybody sign up. Is there anybody wants to speak uh but forgot to sign up? All right, I will go ahead and close open form. We'll move to number five, which is adoption of the agenda. Move the agenda. We have a motion by council member Olsen, second by council member. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next is six presentations. We do have two this evening. The first one is a very exciting one for us right off the bat. Uh the Craig Woolery scholarship presentation uh by the public safety board. And I will just mention that uh we have Sophia Noli uh who is going to be receiving that uh award this evening if you will. And so council, do you want me to come down after you speak or do you want us quick presentation then I'll let come down if that works? All right. Uh so Brad uh if you want to start us through this. Thank you. All right. Good evening mayor, council members, guests. Uh my name is Brad Peterson. I'm the deputy director of public safety. Tonight I have the honor of having the public safety board retired uh director of public safety Craig Woolery in the house. and we have Sophia here um and we can formally um award her with a scholarship. So, following um uh Craig Wer's retirement, um Council Member Olsen and his wife generously donated to the public safety board a few years ago and created a um a scholarship program for young adults who are pursuing a career in law enforcement, EMS or fire safety uh to promote public service and um advocate and promote for that pipeline of um promoting that career path here in Cottage Grove. So, as you know, we're very proud of the fact that very many of our uh public safety members um are homegrown, raised here, and continue to serve here. We're very proud of that fact. And so, that scholarship continues to feed that pipeline, um and and continues to promote that important work of public safety service. And so, um in just a moment, I'm going to turn it over to Julie to say a word. So, I'd like to invite the public safety board to come join me at the podium. And I also like uh Craig Woolly to come up and just say a little bit about um his service and career and what the scholarship means to him and our community. Craig, thank you, Captain. Uh a lot of memories here. I had 34 years with the city and and happily retired. Um, College Grove has been very good to me, my family. It's been a wonderful place just to raise a family. And you all know that. So, I'm not going to say any more about that. But, um, the challenge of finding good people for public service and whatever branch they choose is really, really challenging. And when you get an opportunity to to help a local person, I had a chance to meet Sophia right before the ma meeting. She's uh very excited. The parents are very excited to um to have her send her off to UMD and I'd hopefully that maybe you guys have an opening here for her when she finishes. But um the Olsson's Justin and Kim, Council Member Olsen, it's a awesome program to be able to provide local funding for local kids to to improve and and serve their community in different ways has been amazing. So, thank you. And with that, I'll step away. Ditto. No. Um, everything's been said about how this program started, and we're honored as the public safety board to have Justin entrust us to, you know, put out the scholarship, find the recipients that qualify for this um, scholarship. And so this year, um, Sophia Niy is going into an area that wasn't on our radar, conservation. So she's planning on being a DNR officer. So it's a well needed area. She's excited. She's already taking classes at Centry College, so she's already got a start. Plus, she told me that at her cabin, her neighbor is a DNR officer and she did some ride alongs with him. So, she already has a view of what's going to happen into her career. So, we're very excited to um present Sophia tonight. Although we did a presentation at the high school for senior night and she was awarded her check and her um her letter at the bank or the awards presentation, but she did not know she was receiving it. So, it was a total surprise for her to see her name up there and get this taken care of. So, we're very excited to present Sophia Noti, future DNR conservation [Applause] officer. So, council, why don't you join me down in front and why don't we get the the board up here and Sophie and Craig and Brad? No, I'm okay. I don't have anything. Thank you. Oh my god. You ready? Y Do we want to get mom and dad and brother? Yeah. Come on up. Yeah. Get right in. Right in here. He's a little bit taller. There you go. All right. So, uh, real quick before everybody jumps away, let's Yeah. I just wanted to say, uh, first of all, uh, congratulations on graduating obviously this year, correct? And UND University, is she going to century orders? had classes. Yeah, she's doing it now and then going up there. So, um it is, as you were saying a little bit earlier, it's a little different uh uh different than maybe a police officer or firefighter, but actually I think you have a little bit more power if what I've heard from people about uh conservation. So, uh very excited to see that. Glad that you're uh going to represent us here from Cottage Grove. And maybe what I'll do real quick, cuz I know he kind of kicked this whole process off, I will hand out the mic over to uh Council Member Olsen, maybe say a few words. Oh, thank you. No, I'm good. Thanks very much. So, first of all, congratulations. I got to tell you, if you haven't already uh heard it from from uh former director Willery, huge outdoorsman, hunting, hunting, fishing, uh you name it, skiing, he he does it all. So, I'm I'm thinking he might be a little jealous of this whole conservation officer path that that you might be taking, but um it's really neat to have somebody who's on that track actually be a scholarship award recipient. And I have no doubt you'll do very well. And it's exciting also for me to see uh somebody local who you know has that passion has already started taking classes uh through through Century I'm sure through your 916 and what have you and now you're going to translate that up into UMD. Uh our purpose in in forming this scholarship is as I told you outside, we want to see young people in this community who have that passion, that drive, that interest in some career path in the public safety realm and and this is a a wonderful path. Um you know, have the ability to pursue that with a little help. And I have to say, um, it's not just Kim and I, it's, you know, our Cottage Grove Lions Club donated $2,000 this year and last year. We have several other, um, you know, notable members of the public, including, uh, Commissioner Bigum and her husband, John, uh, always make a donation. So, there's been a lot of people who get behind this. A lot of it is because we all love Craig and Katie and his family and and we want to honor his legacy, but we also love this community and and he and his family gave so much to us as a city. This is our opportunity to give a little something back. So, make us proud. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you all. Thank you parents uh for sharing with us and uh All right. We'll let you get back at it then. Thanks. All right. You I'll shake this hand. You got her. But that might be just in time for me. Maybe. Maybe. All right. Wishful thinking. Yeah. So, next on our agenda on the presentations is the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. And I believe uh Brenda Melanowski, our finance director, will start us and then she's going to kick off um Rebecca Peterson from Red Path. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. Uh yes, uh we have uh Rebecca Peterson here with Red Path & Company. That is our city audit firm uh here at the city of Cottage Grove. um and she is here to present uh the annual comprehensive financial report um to you. Um and so I just wanted to remind uh city council that this is the second uh year uh that we've uh have uh Red Path & Company um with Rebecca in charge of that audit. Um it has gone very well again for the second year just like the first year. So our uh thanks to her and her team uh for being such a smooth process. Um what you have in front of you um and what is on our city website is our annual comprehensive financial report um which is uh letting um not only you uh but uh anybody in the city that wants uh information about our financial results and reports they can go to our city website and get that. So with that I'm going to turn it over to Rebecca for the presentation. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me here tonight. Um, as I go through the audit, um, you may recall me saying last year, you know, we work really closely with city staff during the audit, but we really do work for you as governance. So, if you want me to stop and clarify anything or if you have any questions as I'm speaking, please stop me and we'll go over things. Before we get started into 2024 financial information, I just want to call out that the city's annual comprehensive financial report from 2023 was submitted to the government um government finance officers association and received an award for excellence in financial reporting. Um I believe it's the 34th year that the city's received this award. The 2024 statements will be submitted as well and we anticipate you'll receive the award again. for 2024 audit results. We'll talk through a summary of the reports that we issue in conjunction with the audit and then some highlevel financial information. The first report that we issue in conjunction with the audit is an opinion on the financial statements. And this is really the primary purpose of our audit is to look at the city's financial information, the financial statements, do some analytical analysis, some tests of details to enable us to provide an opinion as to the fair presentation of the financial statements. We're not saying that everything is exactly right to the dollar. It just simply would be too cost and time prohibitive for us to look at absolutely every financial trans transaction that the city enters into. But our procedures enable us to offer an opinion as to the fair presentation of the financial statements. And this year we've issued a clean, unmodified opinion on the statements. It's the highest level of assurance we're able to provide on the statements. And in summary, it's really the result you would want. The next report that we issue in conjunction with the audit is a report on internal control. As part of our audit, we don't audit the city's internal control, but we gain an understanding of the processes and the procedures that the city has in place in order for us to plan our audit. Um, in doing so, we do a rotation um looking at different areas. So, every every year we look at a different area of the city and then some things we look at every year. This year, our rotating procedures included um a walkth through or a secret shop, so to speak, at the golf course, looking at their cash receiving processes there, um amongst other procedures. But I'm happy to report that there were no internal control findings this year. And that means not only did we not identify an efficiency in the controls that we tested during our audit, but there were no material audit adjustments. Um, auditing standards require that if we as auditors propose an adjustment to the city's financial information that um, rises above a certain materiality threshold, we're obligated to report that as an internal control finding. So, it's really a nod to staff that there were no um, audit adjustment findings this year. The next report that we issue in conjunction with the audit is a report on Minnesota legal compliance. The Office of the State Auditor has a series of requirements that they like us to look at in conjunction with our audit. And I always like to qualify that we are accountants, not attorneys. So, we're looking at these uh legal compliance requirements from an accounting perspective. Um we're looking at things like where are the city's funds held? If you have cash deposits, are they properly insured or collateralized? Those types of things. Happy to report that no findings of non-compliance um were included on our report this year. And again, that's the result you would hope for. The final report that we issue in conjunction with the audit is a communication with those charged with governance. And it's really a letter from us as the auditors to you as governance that is full of a lot of templated and standard language. And so here on the slide, I've called out really the portions of that letter that are unique to Cottage Grove and kind of the summary of the bullet points that would be important for you to know. The first required piece of communication in this letter is anytime there's new accounting standards implemented in the city's financial statements, we're required to communicate that to you. This year, there was a new accounting standard implemented, Gazsby 101 on compensated absences. And this is really looking at the cost that the city has or the liability that's incurred by having um compensated time off available to your employees. um that type of leave has always been acred in your financial statements, but this standard standardizes it across financial reporting for all governments. So everybody's reporting the same type of thing as a liability. Um and so under this standard, anytime there's changes in leave policies where say like a higher acral level would be allowed to employees, it's going to increase the liability to the city on on your books. The next component of required communications is on accounting estimates. And it's just a reminder that if you look at your financial statements, not everything in there is a firm hard dollar, but there are some estimates included there. The first item that I have bulleted is the net pension liability. This is an actuarially determined estimate and it's based on the fact that city employees participate in the state retirement plan, PAR. PAR hires an actuary to calculate the net pension liability for their plan as a whole and then they divvy that liability out to all participating employers. So based on the actuarials actuaries calculation, the city of Cottage Grove at the end of 2024 had a $10.8 million pension liability. Um and this is something that's paid off on through your payroll cycle, through your regular contributions. Per is not going to come knocking at your door and ask for a $10.8 $.8 million check next week. It's and this fluctuates wildly depending on market conditions, employment levels, and whatnot. The next estimate that's included in the city's financial statements is an allowance for your EMS or your ambulance receivable. As I'm sure you know, um, when an ambulance run goes out and a bill gets created, 100% of that bill is not always collected. You're restricted by Medicare and Medicaid rates and other factors. So city staff need to look at the outstanding bills and estimate the portion of those that they truly believe be believe to be collectible and what they think will need to be written down. And so that allowance for uncollectible fees there is an estimate in your financial statements. And finally the third estimate I have reflected here relates to lease receivables and lease liabilities. Um, anytime the city has a contract that qualifies as a lease or similar item that has payments that continue out over time, you're required to present value that and report it in your financial statements. So, an example of that would be your water tower and tenna leases. You lease space on those water towers to cell phone companies and they've got future committed payments. You have a receivable on your financial statements for the um value of those. Remaining bullets that I have on here are all good news. No difficulties encountered in performing the audit. If we had encountered significant difficulties, we'd be communicating that to you. No disagreements with management. Again, if we did have a difference of an opinion, we would make sure that you were aware of that. And finally, any other matters. If anything came to our attention that we thought you should know about that didn't qualify for reporting in any of the other buckets of our reports, we would include it in this letter. um this year there's nothing included there but just know that that is the spot that those types of communications would occur. Moving on moving on I just have some highle financial information. Um the first bit here is just recognizing the city's property tax collection rate 99.42% for 2024. It's a great collection rate. Um, you know, I audit a lot of cities around the metro area and this is one of the higher ones I've seen this year. So, good news for the city. The second bullet I have here is looking at the city's fund balance. Um, as you may recall, it's important for the city to hold some reserves because one of your primary sources of funding is property taxes and you receive those payments twice a year. So the funds that you have on hand at the end of one year need to get you till halfway through the next year before that first property tax payment comes in and then again you need to have enough on hand to get to the end of that year. So the city has developed a policy that says you want to have 45% to 55% of the next year's budgeted expenditures held in reserve at the end of the year for 2024. Your general fund unassigned fund balance that reserve was equal to 48.2. 2 of 2025's budgeted expenditures. So, right within that range. Um, and I know this time of year we're looking ahead to the 2026 budget. So, just a reminder that, you know, you can see on here that 482 48.2% is equal to about 13.7 million. If you held that fund balance number at 13.7 million year over year over year, pretty soon you're not going to be at 48% anymore, especially in times of rising costs. that fund balance amount does need to rise along with um your budget. You can see here I've got a budget to actual slide for the general fund. Um the first column is your originally approved budget. That's the budget you would have approved at the end of 2023. Your final budget includes budget amendments that were done over the course of the year. Then your actual column and then finally your variance. Um, I will point out, you know, the intergovernmental revenue row, you'll see that it was under budget by about $417,000. That simply relates to the timing of some police aid that the city received. I believe it was budgeted in 2024, but actually received in 2023. Looking down at expenditures, you'll see expenditures under budget by almost $900,000. And in talking to city staff about what happened here, you know, there's various factors, but ultimately the message I heard was just really great fiscal responsibility across all departments that everybody was doing a nice job adhering to their budget and being respectful of spending. So at the end of the day, the city had an positive increase in fund balance of about $151,000. And then here I just have a slide showing general fund expenditures by function. So you can see where those expenses are going. That green bar in the middle is public safety. Um public safety is very important but also expensive. It's a big portion of the city's budget. The next up I have a slide that shows you your general fund revenues, expenditures, and fund balance. So that green line you see is total revenues. The blue bar is total expenditures and the gray bar is fund balance. So you can kind of see how your fund balance compares to the expenditures it needs to cover and how your revenue is covering your expenditures there. Next we're going to get into some of the city's business type funds or proprietary funds. And these funds are intended to be self-supporting over time. you know, it doesn't mean that they can never show a loss, but just generally over time they're intended to support themselves. Again, the green line here is your operating revenue, and that blue bar is your operating expenses. So, that's your payroll, supplies, materials, those types of things. That gray portion of that bar is depreciation expense. And the reason we're showing that on here um is because especially in some of these business type operations, future capital costs are expensive. And so you want your operating revenue to cover your operating expenses but also have a gap so that you can be saving for future capital needs. And so here in the streetlight fund you can see your operating revenue is covering your operating expenses but not quite your depreciation. And so what that means is your operating revenue isn't covering the historical cost of capital. And you know the future cost of capital is going to be more expensive than the old stuff was generally. So, as you head into the 2026 budget cycle, and I believe there's a rate study coming that's going to look at this, just be aware of the need to be covering your costs in this area. And here you can see your streetlight fund unrestricted net position. This is the component of fund balance that you have available in that fund. Next, I have the EMS or the ambulance fund. here that green line you can see it's not quite even covering operating expenses for 2024. It's dipped down into the blue a little bit. That's okay. One year occasionally as an ongoing trend. It really puts the sustainability of the fund at risk. Um but I will say that this is not unique to Cottage Grove. Ambulance and EMS funds are notoriously struggling as costs increase and Medicare and Medicaid aid, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates are not keeping pace with those costs. So, really important to watch this, but just know it's not an isolated incident to Cottage Grove. And here you can see the impact of some of those rising costs without the rising revenue. This is a fund balance of the fund over time. The unrestricted net position for the fund balance this year is just slightly in the negative. Next, I have the water fund. You'll see that your revenue is covering your operating expenses. It's covering that blue bar. The depreciation, it's not even coming close to covering. Um, but there's a reason for that. You have a temporary water treatment plant that is being depreciated over a very short time frame. And so that's why you're seeing this depreciation so large. Uh again, it's going to be looked at during the utility rate study. You need to be aware of it, but um just want to caution you that the gap here is not as concerning as it might look to be. Then again, your unrestricted net position, you can see that's rising rising a little bit year-over-year. Next, we have the sewer fund. Here your operating revenue is covering your operating expenses but is not covering your depreciation. So same comment as other slides. It would be looked at in the utility rate study but important to be aware of. And your unrestricted net position. This blue portion of the bar shows your unrestricted resources available for spending. If you had an unexpected cost in that fund, that's what's available for spending. That gray portion is an inner fund loan. So there is a loan that sewer has loaned out to other funds and I believe it'll be 2032 before that's repaid, but it's being repaid annually. Next up, I just have some comparative information. So if you look at the right three columns, this is Cottage Grove information for 2022, 23, and 24. And then the left two columns are some comparative information. And so what this is looking at is its revenue sources per capita. And as we know, every city funds their operations a little bit differently. Some use property taxes, other use fees, different balances. You can see that for 2024, Cottage Grove's property tax cost per capita based on the way it calculates out here was about 523. and that is less than the statewide amounts or the amounts for nearby cities of 565 and 713 um respectively. If you look down at the total total revenue per capita, you're going to see the cottage grows at about 1,800 while nearby cities are at 1,200. That's a direct result of the water treatment projects that are ongoing. You have a lot of intergovernmental revenue coming into the city to fund some of those costs. And so that's skewing that total number up a little bit. But next I have the same comparison looking at an expenditure perspective. Um 2024 if you look at expenditures just current expenditures in total for the city you got 788 compared to nearby cities of 845. Um if you look function by function you might see some little differences here and there. Every city offers slightly different amenities. I know Cottage Grove, you've got your um great ice arena and other park programming. So, it's going to make your culture and recreation expenses look a little bit higher than cities that don't offer some of those um offerings. And again, if you look down at capital outlay and construction, you're going to see that your capital outlay number is much higher than nearby cities. Again, you've got that water treatment project going on. So, that's what I have pre-prepared for you. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Fantastic. Thank you. And uh I I'll first go to my council to see if there's questions. Uh Council Member Olsen, thank you. Believe it or not, I love this presentation every year. And the reason I do is because um it tends to reinforce the things that we hear from our staff throughout the course of the year, but specifically during our budget discussions, which by the way never seem to stop. Um but when we get into the heart of the budget conversation, um we get some some messaging that um remains consistent, you know, through that process. And then uh when we have a presentation like this uh it's nice to see that that has all kind of come to fruition all the predictions and things. I wanted to ask specifically about the EMS fund. I know you do this for several other cities and um you mentioned that this has been a challenge uh in numerous areas of the state and of course you know the uh state legislators been talking about trying to do some things and I don't know if they're going to get anything done but they're trying. Um, but I guess what I'm going to ask you is, uh, in your professional opinion when you look at this sort of data, um, how alarmed do you get? Is it, is it, uh, you know, like, oh my goodness, we're in a world of pain or or, hey, we need to make some adjustments here. I would say when I look at, you know, this slide in particular, looking at where the fund finished the year, um, I think you need to be very acutely aware of what's happening in the fund and make sure that you have a plan for the future, but like I said, this is not unique to the city of Cottage Grove. It's something that every city is going through. Um, and operationally, you know, you're you're close to right on for your operating expenses. It's the future cost of ambulances that you need to plan for. those types of things that you need a plan to cover your capital. So, you need to plan for it. You need to be aware of it. Um, am I worried that the ambulance department system is going to fall apart in a year or two? No, not really. As long as you're doing your appropriate planning and and I ask because um, you know, I started doing this in 2008 and the EMS fund has undergone a multitude of changes in that time frame and a lot of it does have to do with uh, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, etc. Um and and uh I know that this is a challenge and for Cottage Grove maybe a unique challenge because we have a service area. We don't just cover our city. So we also have uh Newport and and St. Paul Park and Greycloud etc. Um and we sort of pick up the tab for all of that. And uh when you go do a run to those cities, part of the challenge is um you know, if you're not getting private insurance, you're going to take whatever you get from Medicare and Medicaid. You can charge whatever you want. You're just not going to get it back. So I wanted to get your sense of um you know, how you felt about this so that we can start making better decisions about how we want to manage this because there's a risk here. you you in the next slide you showed the um dollar amount that uh uh is you know operating expense without depreciation and what that what that net net was and it's negative it's net negative and net negative is never good so um I think this is this is a wakeup call for us it really is and uh luckily our staff has been working with some of those surrounding communities to try to get some additional cost participation or any cost participation on on at uh so that we can maintain the fund and maintain the service. But that insight was very good. The other thing I wanted to mention too is um the amazing amount of dollars saved in expenditures. Um I think you mentioned it was roughly $879,000 saved versus the budget in expenditures. Such a credit to our staff and and we compleiment the staff regularly. We are the second lowest taxed community in Washington County per capita and we don't get local government aid where you know the person or the the place below us does. Um and that really requires our staff to uh sharpen their pencils pretty pretty regularly and I think this speaks for itself. It's pretty awesome. I mean is this a trend you're seeing or is this kind of a unique circumstance? Um I don't want to be careful when I say this. could be missing one. Um I don't recall an audit I've done yet this year that has shown every department under budget for their expenditures. Good. Good. Well, again, uh thank you for being here this evening and sharing this information with us. Uh as a council member, um it makes my heart swell with pride in in the staff that we have here in the city. They do such tremendous work and um as I like to say, the numbers don't lie. They speak for themselves. So, uh very grateful for such a nice clean audit. Sounds good. Uh, any other council? Yeah. Uh, council member Garza. First, I want to say thank you so much for presenting and giving it to us in a way that is um understandable and we were able to digest it and and really get the really be proud of what our city has done and what our staff has done. So, thank you so much for that. I had another question to piggyback on um council member Osen's comment regarding EMS. So in your opinion because you are doing other other cities as well with our city um not just servicing our immediate city, we do the surrounding area. Are there other cities that are in the same type of unique situation that they are servicing the surrounding areas? And if so, how are they looking to deal with that if they're running into the same type of situation that we're going to eventually be more short than what we already are? Yeah, I think there's a variety of plans because no two situations are unique, right? And so, um I know one city that I'm familiar with, they group their fire service with their ambulance service and then their um external cities that um their service area, they might get charged a fire fee that then goes into this fund to help with that. Um, there are different extra fees, transport options you can do, but there's no great one-sizefits-all because every department is set up so uniquely. You know, it might work for a different department to pick up extra transfers, but it might not work for this department if it's not staffed with two ambulances at all times. It's um so there's a whole host of different things that folks are trying. um nothing has proven to be the magic pill quite yet. Um so I think everybody is just trying to look at their unique situation and see what they can do in their specific set of circumstances. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Any other council? Um just a couple I'll I'll piggyback a little bit on on the EMS situation because as it was kind of alluded and thank you by the way for the audit. Thank you, Brendan, and all of our staff for doing such a great job of managing the the budgets. Every department to be under budget is pretty amazing. I'll just say that right off the bat. Um it does go to um this testament I'll say as mayor uh that you know we're always very very careful with the taxpayer dollars in this community and that slide definitely shows it. Uh from the um the general uh comment on EMS though, one of the things as it was alluded to is we are obviously having conversations with our surrounding communities and for those um that may not be aware uh that are watching this or listening. Uh one of the things is we have a service area. So we are required if you will to cover uh our surrounding communities um because everybody has to have some type of coverage. What we have already done is our uh administrator myself have already had uh some discussions with uh actually all of them now I guess all of the surrounding communities uh regarding uh some type of a cost share uh piece to this puzzle um because the other option that would be available to us which is what we've shared it isn't necessarily what they want I don't think as those other communities nor I think what we necessarily want but we also my opinion as the mayor of Cottage Grove the taxpayers of Cottage Grove shouldn't be having to pay for all the ambulance services for these other communities at this particular point uh at with no uh nothing getting back brought back into return. So, one of the options that we're looking at and that's why we're having those conversations with the other communities is to help bridge that gap. So, you saw that one uh slide had a little bit of a deficit on there, right? Um our goal is not to have deficits. That's that like you said, Council Member Mos the bad thing uh is having any deficit in any budget. But um the other option would be then to um cut cut those cities out to a different service uh and and doing a contract. Uh and if we did that, uh what that would mean to those communities just so I can say it is significantly reduced service. uh so much so that those particular cities uh if you called for an ambulance uh whereas maybe in Cottage Grove it's if it's coming from Cottage Grove it would be there you know 8 10 minutes whatever that that run time is you're talking at least half hour uh and so we don't want that uh the I don't think the other communities want that but at the same time I also believe and I think I can speak for the council that the uh the citizens of Cottage Grove shouldn't be fronting the entire bill for all the communities everybody needs to help uh at least in some way, shape, or form. So, I did want to just let the public know that is something that we are looking at from a city's perspective. So, when we dig into those uh into those particular um budgets as we're going into this year uh to see exactly what that is. But again, that I just wanted to throw in there about the the EMS service. And then again, just amazing to see where we're at per tax for our citizens on average comparatively to our surrounding communities or even the state. um is unbelievable. So, thank you Brenda. Thank you staff uh for doing such a great job and thank you council uh for making sure that we keep the taxes as low as possible and and supporting our citizens. So, thank you. Any other comments? All right. Thank you uh for presenting. I do know uh we do need to uh accept I'll make a motion to accept the annual comprehensive financial report for the year ended December 31st 2024. All right. So I have a motion by council member Olsen, second by council member Garza. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you again. Thanks for coming in. Excellent. All right. Next on our agenda is consent. Uh it is there anything council wants to pull for separate discussion on consent? N if seeing none I'll look for a motion and a second to approve consent. Move consent. Second. We have a motion by council member Theiti. Second by council member Clawson. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I opposed. Motion carries. So if you happen to be here for anything on tonight's consent agenda. They've all been approved. Uh 8 is approved dispersement. 8A is to pay the bills. Move the bills. Have a motion by council member Olsen. Second. Second by council member Garza. Any other discussion on the bills? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. Nine is public hearings. RN this evening. 10 is bid awards are unnone this evening. 11 is the regular agenda. We do have one the this nice three back here waiting for us here. Thank you for your patience. Yeah. uh the uh Independent School District 833 uh transition building, 7,000 Jamaica Avenue South, and uh Emily Schmidtz, our community development director, is going to walk us through this one. So, yes, welcome. Good evening, Mayor Council. I think it's may perhaps no surprise today was the last day of school for kids out there. Right. Right. So, the next item on your agenda for consideration um is a school district project uh to move um we were calling it the transition project, but it's to move their NextStep program, which is at two different locations currently um to uh what was previously the home of Lifeway Church um at 70th Street and Jamaica um to utilize that site for that program. So, as a part of that, they need some additional space on the site. Um, so they are proposing about an 8,000 foot addition to the building to support a cafeteria, some additional office spaces, and then some other uh specific spaces in there for the programs that they do offer um to folks I believe 18 to 21 years of age for additional life skills um uh some uh career um training and then some independent living uh skills as well. Um this site is zoned R3 which is residential. We do allow for uh educational facilities as a conditional use permit in our R3 zoning districts. Um so as I indicated, they are proposing a building addition um just on the east side of the building as you can see on the uh site plan before you. Um and again that will support a large portion of their um uh programming that they provide um as a part of their NextStep program. Um, some additional exterior improvements include uh some uh landscaping improvements, recreational spaces, including uh a garden, a basketball court, um, and some other outdoor play areas. As a part of that, the applicant is not proposing to expand the parking lot. They're going to use the parking lot as it is today, however, do some restriping there. Um, the uh, proposed use of the building requires about 20 parking stalls. They are proposing 70 so sufficient to support um obviously uh the folks who are going to be utilizing the site uh teachers etc. And then as you can see some additional bark parking spaces for the buses um that will also be utilizing the site. So a unique request uh to this particular site is a variance uh to the uh imperous surface. Um so when we think about a variance right is a practical difficulty something that that just uh you know is out of our control. So when we look at uh uses specifically educational uses or places of worship, uh both of those uses are permitted within residential districts. However, a lot of times those uses do require some additional infrastructure, right? You want to make sure that there's parking um but also continuing uh to to be that good neighbor in those residential districts. So the applicant is proposing to be at about 49% impervious when 40% is the maximum. Um, so just above that threshold with their addition and additional basketball courts. So that's what's pushing them over the edge. Uh, but it's important to recognize they are meeting their storm water standards on the site and still a very good balance of open space to impervious on the site. The applicant is proposing 65% class one materials. The existing building does incorporate some brick already. Um, but they are going to give it, I'm going to call it a facelift, right? little lipstick, little little mascara maybe. Um and then that addition will also include those 65% class one materials. The applicant is proposing to meet the minimum landscape requirements on the site. Uh as you recall, we do have a coefficient. We use a calculation for the area of disturbance um to make sure that those areas are being landscaped with shrub trees, etc. One final unique aspect to this site is there are actually some trees as you can see on the screen outlined in red that were planted at one time uh over uh some water mane. Um and we really care about our our city infrastructure, right? Um and we want to make sure that we can protect that in any way that we can. So uh today we would never permit, you know, a tree to be planted uh over our infrastructure. So, in this unique situation, we're asking that they actually remove those trees um so that we can protect that water mane. Um but it's important to note that there are other mature trees on the site and they're also filling in the gaps with their required landscaping. So, the site will still continue to look full, green, and luscious. And finally, it's important to mention um this is adjacent to a county road. Uh 70th Street most of you are familiar with. Um, as with all projects, we look to say, okay, in the future, uh, is additional right ofway needed, and this is, uh, no exception. However, because the project is not, uh, adjusting the site from a a platting perspective, right? They're not proposing to adjust the the property lines, um, they're working through with the county on what we would call a rightaway easement. Um, as opposed to platting that rightway, again, preparing for the future to be sure that, uh, if 70th is ever expanded, they have enough rightway to support that. So with that said, I will leave the recommendation before you uh here for any questions and I know the applicant is in the audience as well. All right. Uh thank you uh Emily Council. Any questions? Uh Council Rollson. Thanks Emily. So first of all, I'm super excited that um the school district's finding a way to bring the two separate NextStep facilities together. My my son spent several years in Nextstep and uh I can tell you that it was challenging for space purposes because some of the programming was in Cottage Grove, some of it was in Woodbury. They had to bus kids back and forth depending on their activities and the day. Um and you're dealing with a population of students who have a variety of needs. And uh whenever there's any sort of disruption to the schedule, it can be challenging. So this is great. A couple of questions because we're dealing with that population and and you can phone a friend if you want on this. Um you know, this site provides an opportunity for outside activities that did not exist in the past in those other facilities. And my personal concern is supervision because um you know yes you're dealing with young adults who uh are in that 18 19 20 year old range in terms of their um genealological age. But sometimes uh that developmental delay has them at a much younger age and there's proclivities for things like um running and and uh not really paying attention to where you're going and those kinds of things. So, um, what do we know about supervision or or, uh, any kind of I don't know if this is the right word, but containment to ensure that we keep people safe, especially next to a county road like 70th Street that's busy. Any anybody want to field that for me? She's been volunttoled. Okay, that happens to me a lot, too. I understand. Thank you. So, I'm Nikki Lockach. I'm the administrator of the Next Up program. I'm well aware. Yes, for those who aren't, I'm the administrator of the Nextep program in South Washington County Schools. And I appreciate that question. Um, every day our student safety and security wherever we are is um first and foremost things that we're thinking about. So, um we know our students well. Um so, our facility in itself within the doors we feel is very safe. the spaces that our students would utilize outside. Um we do have we do have perimeter fencing for those spaces, the sport court and then when they would be um on by the learning patios um in the space a little bit more the gardens um we would have some like that parking space between where cars would potentially be moving. We have a high staff to student ratio. Yep. You sure do. So like when you look at the number of parking spaces that we're considering um some of our students have onetoone staffing um and we think about how they move in their day and the places that they're accessing based on their environmental awareness that predictability and how confident we can feel that they are going to be able to successfully move in their learning space. um their IEP teams, those teams that come around their learning. Um every year in that transition from high school to to a transition program, consider the facility, consider what that building is like and the supports that are there. And always consider if the program we offer here in the community is the best for them or possibly our partner with 916 Intermediate School District. Right. So um our students learning experience um is very much built into our design for this plan and then we still continue to make that student by student decision about what their day looks like and also what their learning environment where their actual location is that they learn. Such a great answer and you must be so excited. We are so excited. Yeah, I'm excited for you. I I I looked at this and I I read through the plan and I thought, gosh, I wish Corbin could have had that. But you know what? Um, he still had a great experience, but this is just this is going to elevate your whole program. It really is. So, we agree. Thank you. Thank you for that. My next question is about storm water, so you may not want to take that one. Um, so you mentioned impervious surface, obviously storm water uh capture, that kind of stuff. So um what if any provisions are going to need to be made on the site for storm water capture being that yeah Ryan uh for storm water capture being that that impervious surface is going to go up you know exponentially Mr. Mr. Mayor, members of city council. So with the engineering team, we work with our uh storm water review uh staff who do take a look at each project. Um so we would have given them a letter early on to let them know what they had to do. And there's kind of two parts. So there was already a lot of existing impervious and they are not required to do additional treatment of that. So it's just that amount um that's going up. Um, and as Emily mentioned, you know, they're accommodating the the necessary treatment on site to make sure they're not increasing their rate um, and doing all the water quality things that they have to do as well. That's specific to the added impervious. So, we have no concerns whatsoever because again, that's on that path towards the river, you know, just to make sure we're good. Okay, perfect. Well, again, exciting project. Looking forward to seeing it be completed. And thank you guys for entertaining my questions. Sounds good. Thank you. Uh, council, any other questions at this point? I I have just maybe one. I'm not sure which one wants to answer it. So, uh, you're obviously taking the two projects or the two remote places and putting them into this one spot. One's in Woodbury, one's here in Cottage Grove. What's your timing? What's your what's your plan? Because obviously this gets approved tonight. Obviously, you construct the building every talking a year from now, two years from now. Whoever wants to take it. I'll take it. Uh, self-nominated. Evening, mayor, council members. Uh, bids are actually coming in tomorrow for this project. Awesome. So, our intent is to hopefully get this approved. U, we'll KA is our construction manager. They'll vet the bids. Um, and hopefully we'll be able to get it on our board agenda for the end of June and get things rolling. We'd love to have shovels in the ground by September. Okay. This is going to open up next fall. That's our goal. So, a year from now. Yes. Yeah. That's Yep. Fall of 26. Yep. Yep. So, it'll um Yeah. And again, we're This is one of those projects that's so much fun to be a part of because we're looking at getting kids out of a strip mall, you know, and getting them into a place that's going to just it's going to be great for them. So, yeah. Good. Good for you guys. Awesome. Thank you. That was my that was my question. I just was that was easy. We have some interest in redevelopment as you know already. So yes, thank you. Of your current of the current Yeah. where you're at in Cottage Grove. So thanks. Thank you. All right. Uh seeing no other questions from council. I see a resolution on the screen if somebody would like to take it. I'll make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-081 approving the variance for the maximum impervious surface standard in the R-3 zoning district based on the findings and the site plan review and conditional use for an 8,374 square ft addition and site improvements for the educational facility located at 7,000 Jamaica Avenue South. All right. So, I have a motion by council member Garza. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by council member Clen. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. There you go. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Uh, now on our agenda, next is council comments request. I'll start my normal. Nothing for you or you have something. Yeah. Just want to uh mention a couple weeks ago, our public safety team um along with some high school students teamed up and raised some money for basic needs in the South Washington County Cares unit. Uh they raised almost $9,000. So, um my thanks to the police and firemen for and high school students for putting that together. The fire department did win. I'm However, I they didn't have any uh video review or challenges, so I'm not sure. But next year the I have it on video. Mhm. That they actually won as I have it on video. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh Council Member Brolson. Thank you. Um couple things here. First, uh I wanted to follow up on something that we talked about at our last meeting. Those who who uh were watching at home or in the audience may recall we had uh Cottage Grove resident Gary Spooner here. um and we honored him with uh the historic preservationist of the year award. And in that same meeting, we had several uh residents who live at the Dominium Legends facility here in town come to talk to us about some of their concerns related to um what they're paying in rents and those sorts of things. And uh they actually had a legislative update meeting at the Legends this past Saturday which Gary coordinated uh and that was for Senator Seabberger, our two um state representatives and then uh uh Commissioner Bigum from Washington County and and I were able to attend as well. Um it was a very nice meeting uh cordial, good conversations. Um lots of good questions from the residents and you know one of the key takeaways here is uh there is legislation that is working its way through the state uh senate and the state house of representatives that will provide some additional guidance to uh the the property owners of that sort of facility as it relates to um various rents that they charge and and uh you know the return on investment for the resident etc. The Senate actually did pass the bill already this year, but it has not yet passed the House. And um Senator Seberger was uh really good about explaining the various provisions of the bill, etc. This is one of those things that actually came up several years ago and the mayor got involved. And at that time, uh, you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong, mayor, but, um, the mayor was, I believe, president of the metro cities, uh, consortium, which is a, uh, lobbying group here that works with, um, metro communities and at the state legislature. Uh, we also have the League of Minnesota Cities. Uh, I I am now a board member of metro cities. the mayor um timed out and this was put on their legislative agenda as a lobbying uh conversation at the capital 3 years ago and so it's been working its way. Sometimes you know government works a little slower than we'd like. But uh the good news is there's some some positive outcomes uh in the offing here hopefully this year if that bill can pass the house and ultimately be signed by the governor. But I want to give you guys an update that it is something that we're working on. Um, cities have very little control over these sorts of things as as you heard in uh some of the commentary from various members of the audience but uh we do have the power of influence and uh influence over our state legislative contingent is certainly being brought to bear. Second thing is um I wanted to mention that uh we had a really nice Memorial Day session this year, a Memorial Day event out here near the um Veterans Memorial on the on the patio here at city hall. The weather was perfect. Um we we had uh nice attendance for the event. It was 10:00 a.m. on Memorial Day and we had two very powerful speakers who I thought did just a magnificent job uh in talking about the experience of our Asian-American and Pacific Islander veterans and their status um within the veterans community. I wanted to pay a special thanks to the Washington County Honor Guard for being here that evening um or that morning rather to uh present the colors along with our own Cottage Grove Police Department representatives uh Sergeant Pat Nickel, Sergeant Mike McCormack, and then uh um Officer Tyler Smith. And then um I wanted to also or Tyler Harris rather. And then I also wanted to thank um our uh Mississippi River Valley beyond the yellow ribbon team for getting here nice and early at 8:00 and getting all the flags and chairs and everything set up. This is one of those things that it takes a whole bunch of people to put together and we couldn't do it without the support of our city staff including those folks at River Oaks who bring up the chairs and take them back etc. But it was a great day and a lot of credit to the people who were there to make that happen. And then the last thing, mayor, that I wanted to mention, and I certainly don't want to take anything away from council member Theiti's uh soon to be very, uh, ebulant, um, commentary about Strawberry Fest, but, uh, we have a really special guest coming to Strawberry Fest this year. Were you planning to talk about that? Uh, uh, Eric being here. Oh, I probably was not. Okay. So, so we have a really special guest coming to Strawberry Fest this year. Um, for those of you who were at our food truck festival last year, Eric Dowel, who did the big community puzzle that many of you have seen, uh, the big painting and then the puzzle. Um, uh, you know, last year we were hoping to have him for Strawberry Fest and it just didn't work out that way. So, we ended up doing it at the um at the food truck festival and it was a great day and you know we had a lot of fun and Eric signed a bunch of puzzles and you know he's a very charismatic guy so we got a chance to sit and visit with a bunch of people but um he he decided he wanted to come back and do it all over again except this year he wants to do it at Strawberry Fest. So, we're going to have him on Saturday the 21st of June at Strawberry Fest. So, if you have a puzzle at home, you want to come get it signed, great opportunity to do that. If you haven't yet purchased your puzzle, this is a phenomenal opportunity to come and and purchase your puzzle, get it signed, maybe get a picture or two with Eric. Um, you know, make make a thing of it. Uh, I think it'll be really cool. Um, so I'm looking forward to to seeing him again and and looking forward to having him back in Cottage Grove. And with that, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you. Sounds good. Thank you, Council Member Wilson. Council member Thei. All right. Not very fast. Here we go. Yeah. I will mention something about the puzzle though, please. is that it's it's uh you know makes a fantastic wall hanging post. You first of all it's a it's a great family activity to put the puzzle together and and you can do it over time or or whatever, you know, and and getting everybody together, putting the pieces together, learning more about uh about your city or or your the city you used to live in or or you know, whatever. And and uh so it's amazing. And then, you know, once you get it put together and you and you frame it and it it's a it's actually quite a beautiful uh picture, too. And it goes with a lot of decor, let me tell you. So, uh so that's uh it's amazing. And also obviously if you have Eric put a his his initials on it. Also if he if he dates it because I'd always tell the kids, you know, when you find something, you know, if it has a date on it, it could be valuable someday because you know what you know how old it is. So at any rate, in terms of Strawberry Fest, I I can hardly believe actually that it's it's only two weeks away. It's it's 15 days away. I mean, uh, uh, it where's the time gone, right? And, uh, you know, just a couple of the the different activities, the the hours and things like that. Uh, you know, the carnival is coming back into town. Uh, on June 19th, that's Thursday. Uh, it'll everything will start at 400 p.m. and and runs till 10:00. And and then on Friday, it goes from 2:00 p.m. to 11:00. On Saturday, 11:00 a.m. That's right after the parade, by the way. that starts at 10:00 a.m. Um, and uh uh it'll go till 11:00 p.m. and and then on Saturday it goes or Whoops, wait, I got those days wrong. The 22nd. Yeah. Oh, on Sunday the carnival. Yes, thank you. is from 12:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. So, uh, and then also, uh, again, I'm going to mention that Thursday we've had got an expanded kids program and in and family day on Thursday. So, you know, and the fact is is that for some people it will be a holiday. Some of us have to still work on that day. But but uh so uh you know it's be a great day to get the family out. Uh and I I've been told it's going to be a fantastic weather and everything like that. So uh you know get the family out, have a fantastic time. There's a tractor pull. There's a just a variety of activities on Thursday. Uh Friday, something again new something new that we got is is we're going to have a drone show. So it's it's these things are neat. I don't know if you've ever seen them fly around, things like that. Uh but uh it is fantastic. The technology, you know, is is uh is extremely interesting with these and and they actually, you know, kind of put together a story board and they make like a 3D video of kind of what it's going to look like. And it's something that then the Strawberry Fest committee looks at, approves and everything and and uh then it all comes to life on on and that's Friday night at 10:30. Uh a little bit late. The kids might have to have a nap beforehand, but uh uh Huh. I said I might need a nap. Yeah, maybe. Me, too. Yeah. But uh so and then uh and then Saturday we do have the uh the fireworks again at 10:30. Um, we've got bands on Thursday night. We've got bands two bands on Friday, two bands on Saturday. Uh, you know, I I could be I could talk for another hour or two. So, I I maybe I better just let you let you go to the the website that has all the information about it. Uh, and that's at strawberry cottaggrovestrawberryfest.com. We need to shorten that someday, but uh cottaggrovestrawberryfest.com. and uh all the activities are there. Um and uh I mean it's it's it's going to be a great show, great uh great event, great uh great time. So fantastic. Thank you. Awesome. Uh Council Member Garza. Thank you, Mayor. Well, yes, I agree. The puzzle you should do with your family. We have been working on it since the food truck fest. We're working hard though. Slowly but surely. Slowly but surely. So, yes, it's definitely a fun was involved. Um, and also to piggyback off of um um council member Olsen's comment related to um the meeting that they just had um up at our um senior living facilities. I was actually I just visited Washington DC this past week and I had the opportunity to sit in on some of the legislative sessions and it was really really promising related and surrounding to housing. So, um, as much as we're hearing within our, um, the news and social media and all the things that are happening right now, um, I felt good to hear that there is no no, um, they are still moving, um, right ahead to make sure that housing is affordable for people and, um, they are they're just working hard on that. So, there it it just seems like um, that hasn't been forgotten and I'm really happy to to say to be able to share that with you all. So, and pretty much that's that's it. I've had a busy week, but that was a really great takeaway to know that we are still working hard on making sure housing is affordable. Awesome. Sounds good. Awesome. So, uh last thing I'll just throw throw in there. Obviously, we've talked about Strawberry Fest. Um we do have safety camp uh that is coming up here on uh June 22nd, uh ages 6 to 9 at the old Cottage Grove Fire Station. It's uh from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30. If you're interested, you can register online. is $35. Great event for kids. I get the opportunity to go out there and speak them to them, excuse me, uh while while that event's going on and uh great learning experience across the board for our public safety department all across the whole thing there and parks. So again, that's June 22nd uh from 8:00 a.m. to 3 uh 3:30 p.m. And the ages again are 6 to 9. Uh and then movies with Mo uh is June 13th. Uh it's the first movie of the year uh 7:00 at Highland Park. Uh Highlands Park, which is where the splash pad is. And it is called The first movie that is going to be seen this year is called Wild Robot. I I I've seen it online. I haven't seen the actual movie yet, though. So, that's going to be a great opportunity. Encourage everyone to come out. It's always kind of fun, especially when the weather's nice, right? Uh bring your blanket. Uh there's like some free items out there for people to do uh some food and free popcorn, free lemonade, free glow sticks. I believe Eggro Queen will be there, Mike Mart will be there, and I think we have a couple other smaller vendors um as far as food goes. So, should be fun. So, and again, it's uh just so I can say it, it is a uh if you want to buy stuff, you can, but it is a free event for anybody that wants to go there. That's the important thing to remember. to talk about all the free stuff, but if you just want to go uh put a blanket out there with the family and the kids and watch a great movie, uh this is your opportunity to do that. So again, that is June 13th at 700 p.m. at Highland Park. Okay, so with that, uh that was it for cons uh council com request. Uh we do not have any workshops open to the public or closed to the public this evening. So 13 and 14 is down. Uh so I'll look for a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjurnn. We have a motion to adjurnn by council member Theiti. Do I have a second? Second. Second by council member Garza. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Excuse me. Uh opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. We are journed.