Here is the transcribed townhall meeting with speaker identifications based on the provided context. **Note:** As specific timestamps were not provided in the original text, placeholders have been used to maintain the requested format. Phonetic names from the raw transcript (e.g., "Mangy," "Wall," "Cole") have been corrected to match the official names provided in the context (Monge, Woods, Mckenzie). *** **[00:00] Mayor John Monge:** All right. [Pledge of Allegiance] ...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. Roll call, please. **[00:30] City Manager Brian Frandle:** Council Member Mckenzie? **[00:32] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Here. **[00:33] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Here. **[00:34] Council Member Troy Woods:** Here. **[00:35] Council Member Jason Nordby:** Here. **[00:36] Mayor John Monge:** Here. A motion? **[00:38] Council Member Jason Nordby:** Second. **[00:39] Mayor John Monge:** All those in favor? **[00:40] Council Members:** Aye. **[00:41] Mayor John Monge:** Way to go. The next part of me is to open the meetings—I think we need to, excuse me, read the consent agenda first. **[00:45] City Manager Brian Frandle:** Yeah, you were so close. Pre-approved, you don't have to read it. You typically do, but you did just approve it. **[00:50] Mayor John Monge:** [Laughter] It's moving right along. If you want to read what you've just approved, by all means? Well, no, not technically. You have a long history of reading it, but okay. All right, so the consent agenda: Item A, February 21st, 2023, regular meeting minutes; Item B, February 21st, 2023, HRA meeting minutes; General claims of $485,893.70; HR claims of $208.78; approving appointment of the Planning Commission; approving appointment to the Economic and Development Authority; approving appointment to the Park and Rec Commission; resolution supporting requests for federal appropriations for the community center; Item I, State Statute 72.02 winter parking ordinance—so a temporary exemption for March 18th to March 19th of 2023 from 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., that is St. Patrick’s Day; Item J, resolution support for State Legislative solution to the Minnesota law enforcement staffing crisis; Item K, Electric Department contract directional bore for Sepula Boulevard overhead relocation, it's due to the Lilly project; Item L, Electric Department purchase of various size pad mount transformers; and Item M, temporary on-sale liquor license and charitable gambling application to Church of Saint Peter annual School Gala for event on Saturday, April 22nd of 2023. [Does anyone] want to pull anything? If they would, yes, even though it's approved, we'd have to back up backwards now because I got a little bit too crazy with the individual invisible gavel I have, so my apologies. **[02:15] City Manager Brian Frandle:** Technically you don't need to re-motion it at this point, it's approved. What we just did is informational, so we can move on to "Open to the Public" at this point. **[02:22] Mayor John Monge:** You're earning your money tonight, aren't you? You better not put in for overtime. All right, open the meeting to the public at 6:34. Mr. Schmoll, address please, and in three minutes if you could. **[02:35] John Schmoll:** John Schmoll, 2750 Chisholm Avenue. This will be the only person up here because there are no more slips there, so evidently there was a planning ahead that nobody else could speak, that was it, huh? Anyway, I read what you send out, City sends out, and maybe I should stop. But this time around, two notifications within two minutes for the workshop. I had to read it, had to read both of them, there might have been a change, I don't know, or there wasn't. But maybe you—you know, I don't know what to do. Should I just ignore it when you see two for the same meeting or not? But I guess I am just taught to read what you send out anyway. Second item is that—was there talk about starting workshops at 5:30? And did that—it didn't happen, or did it happen, and you are not holding workshops at 5:30? **[03:25] Mayor John Monge:** There was a request from [Council Member] Woods to have it longer in case it was needed. **[03:28] John Schmoll:** Okay, but that could happen at 5:30. **[03:30] Mayor John Monge:** Yeah. **[03:31] John Schmoll:** Well, and it should happen at 5:30. But it's an oddball when it happens at 5:00, so be aware that nothing is static, you got to know what's going on, okay? And last item: March 22nd newsletter. An increase from 1,201 calls in 2022 through 2023 with calls of 1,230 calls for the Fire Department is not an increase of 76 percent, per the newsletter said it was. Thank you. **[03:55] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you, appreciate the information. We'll close the meeting [to the public] at 6:36. Next up is the city business action items and recommendations. What we have on tap is the accepted bids and award contract for the 7th Avenue street and utility improvement projects, city project 22-01. We have Morgan Dawley here, City Engineer. Welcome, Morgan. **[04:15] Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** Thank you, Brian. Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. So, this item before you is a resolution for consideration by the Council to accept bids and award a contract for the 7th Avenue street and utility improvements project, city project 22-01. You may recall that this was a project that was bid last year during what was probably some of the more volatile construction pricing conditions that the state of Minnesota, and frankly nationwide, have experienced in recent history. At that time, the project came in over estimate and the Council did act to reject bids at that time, with the plan to rebid the project. **[04:45] Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** So what you're considering here tonight is the re-bid of that project with some slight scope reduction to again just work within the limits of existing financing and funding available to construct the improvements and really kind of prioritize the most important things. Just a background of the project area: this is in the vicinity of 7th Avenue and Helen, and on 7th Avenue, the roads and utilities between First Street on the west side and then just east of Helen, which in 2020 the reconstruction of 7th Avenue was left off. So, this will tie in directly to the new pavement on 7th Avenue there and then go west to First Street, and then also Helen Avenue between 4th Avenue and Sepula. **[05:20] Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** It's really kind of centered on what was not originally planned for but then became a consecutive activity: the redevelopment of the Lilly site, which is on the corner of 7th Avenue and Helen. The work has been coordinated and discussed between the Lilly redevelopment team and the city, and so there is some coordination between the two efforts there which will, if the Council awards a contract here, move forward through construction into 2024. Ultimately, we'll end up with—similar to what happened in 2020 with the Sentinel building redevelopment—the streets and utilities being reconstructed at the same time. **[05:55] Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** Generally, everything should be finishing up in 2024 on the same schedule or very close to one another at the very least, working in conjunction with one another. The bids were authorized last year by City Council and bids were opened on Tuesday, February 21st. They were competitive; we had seven bids. They ranged from the apparent low bidder, Eureka Construction, at just over 3.8 million dollars, to a high bidder of just below the engineer's estimate of 4.5 million at about 4.4 million. That is a good number of bids received, a decent spread, and so I'm happy to recommend award of the project to Eureka Construction in an amount of $3,825,223.40. **[06:40] Morgan Dawley (City Engineer):** From a scheduling standpoint, if the Council does award a contract here tonight, construction would be anticipated to begin in May—date to be determined exactly, but will be communicated publicly as soon as we would receive that information from the contractor with their schedule. And then it will continue through until June 30th, 2024, which is the specified anticipated completion date. And again, as I mentioned previously, that would be in coordination with some of the Lilly redevelopment activities and construction that is going to happen on their site specifically. With that, the consideration here in front of Council is the resolution and recommendation that City Council consider that resolution, which is accepting the bids and awarding a construction contract for the 7th Avenue utility and street improvement project, city project number 22-01. So with that, I'll stand for any questions the Council might have. **[07:30] Mayor John Monge:** Nothing, I guess? Yeah, no questions. Okay, and then I think there's a motion and need for the second then to act on the resolution. **[07:40] Council Member Troy Woods:** So moved. **[07:41] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** Second. **[07:42] Mayor John Monge:** I'm glad to see it up and back on the books, right? With that good pricing as well, too, so we're happy. All right, thank you. Thank you, Morgan. Reports? **[07:50] City Manager Brian Frandle:** Yeah, thank you, Mayor. So, we have the PD—they are going to be doing some interviews for two part-time CSOs and a full-time police officer this Friday. That’d be nice; once they get that up, they would be full-staffed once that happens. They're also going to be starting a program of community engagement. They are working with Brandon over at Macs [Diner]—they will allow the public to come in and sit down for time with a police officer, and Brandon said that he would pick up lunch for people that comply with that or work with that. So that'll be great. **[08:20] City Manager Brian Frandle:** Electric Department’s been out tree trimming, just doing general distribution system maintenance. As I've mentioned before, that tree trimming really pays off in the summertime storms for keeping the outages down. The Finance auditors are here; they will be finishing up early next week. We are still waiting on some information from Ramsey County to be able to finish it off, but Dan's been right on the ball with that, they've gotten all their information in. So they're just waiting on Ramsey County, and everything's looking good so far. And they actually did put a contingency offer for a person who applied for the Accountant position that you guys approved last year. So yeah, looking forward to that, it'll be a nice addition. Public Works—you've been doing anything? No snow, huh? [Laughs]. Yeah, lots of snow plowing. Sounds like we got more on the way, so I think the public’s about done with snow plowing and shoveling. Ron [Ritchie]’s got a target on his back. **[09:10] City Manager Brian Frandle:** And the Fire Department's also going to be bringing back that Safe Haven program. It's been a while since they did that, but they get carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, and then they will go into the homes and actually install them for them. So that'll be really nice. I don't have a start date yet, but I will let you know on that. And that is all I have for now. **[09:30] Mayor John Monge:** All right, thank you for the update. So next up would be the reports of the Council and Commissions, which will be the EDA annual report. Normally Robert Dew has done it, the chair of the EDA; he is out of town, so Brandy's going to pick that up. Thank you, Brandy. **[09:45] Brandy (Staff Member):** Well, I just have a black screen now. I want to—I don't know why this won't work. [Pause] Oh good, okay, thanks for your patience. Yes, Robert Dew would normally be providing this update to you, so I kind of just took his report and put it into presentation format for the public. As you maybe already know, the EDA is a seven-member body, and their primary goal of establishing and maintaining the EDA is to have an entity that is dedicated to working in concert with the City Council to achieve a shared vision of building a strong and adaptive local economy. **[10:20] Brandy (Staff Member):** This is primarily accomplished by setting a strong strategic vision for the economic development as framed in the Comprehensive Plan, defining and guiding a tactical economic development agenda, attracting, retaining, and expanding business within the city, and promoting the city to internal and external audiences. The EDA's primary activities include commissioning plans and studies, fostering new development projects, and business retention and expansion. In its activities, the EDA has continually attempted to balance the demands between what the residents of North St. Paul want it to be and what the market wants the city to be. Ultimately, the EDA has to provide recommendations and guidance to the City Council on what is best for the long-term economic health of the city. **[11:05] Brandy (Staff Member):** The EDA has served as a driving force to put many pieces in place for downtown redevelopment. For example, the EDA worked with the St. Paul Port Authority to solicit developer proposals for the former Lilly newspaper building site. The EDA ultimately engaged with the developer to redevelop that site, which will bring 82 market-rate housing units as well as seven live-work units. That development is anticipated to add 20 million dollars of new taxable real estate value and bring approximately 100 residents to the city. The EDA was also instrumental in the highly successful Sentinel residences and Anchor View/Anchor Commons redevelopment. They also worked with the proprietor of Macs Diner and provided funding to help bridge the financial gap that allowed that restaurant to become a reality. These developments in total have added, or will add, a million dollars in taxable real estate value to the city. **[11:55] Brandy (Staff Member):** The EDA recognizes the contributions of staff, the Planning Commission, the HRA, and of course the Mayor and City Council to what has been achieved in the last decade. In 2021, the EDA also initiated an update to the Redevelopment Master Plan. The updated plan serves as a guiding document for the city as a consolidated and agreed-upon vision for the future redevelopment in the downtown area. The EDA is proud of not only the final product but the collaboration and broad input that went into the plan and believes it provides a definitive source on the aligned vision of where we will be going. The EDA encourages the City Council, Planning Commission, and others in the city, including residents, to use that document frequently when evaluating plan development activity. So in summary, the EDA looks forward to continuing its mission of building a strong, adaptive economy in the city, and they thank the Mayor, City Council, Planning Commission, and the North Saint Paul Business Association for their support and collaboration. And most importantly, the EDA is grateful for the support and opportunity to serve the residents and businesses of North Saint Paul. That is all, thank you. **[13:00] Mayor John Monge:** We'll go on to Council Commission reports. Jason Nordby, you have any? **[13:05] Council Member Jason Nordby:** We had a wonderful presentation by the man to my left [City Attorney] about the Open Meeting laws. Especially what was nice is he really tailored it to how it affects the Planning Commission specifically. So, I think as a city we have a wonderful asset and are very lucky with the gentleman to my left. Now I know I got moved down here to number one! **[13:30] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Yeah, so the Arts and Culture Commission meeting is actually tomorrow. Usually it's on the first Wednesday, but there was a schedule issue, but they are definitely busy at work with different working groups around utility boxes, Project Snowy, the Art Cart, and the Paint Party. The Paint Party is happening March 23rd at Casey Lake at 6:30 p.m., and there's going to be a guided painting activity to celebrate spring. So that's what's happening with the Arts and Culture Commission, and that's all I got. **[14:00] Council Member Troy Woods:** Parks and Rec Commission decided to recreate in their homes because of the snow. So, we put Ron [Ritchie] to work outside! We have canceled the meeting, and it'll be rescheduled for the end of this month. **[14:12] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** First off, thank you, Brandy, for presenting the EDA presentation. I hope everyone, especially the newer folks on here, recognize that the EDA has done a lot over the last several years in developing and moving the city forward in the areas of what the residents actually want to have and see for assets. So, I want to thank you for that. The next EDA meeting is Wednesday, March 14th, at 3:00 here in Council Chambers. I want to thank Kevin Fuller and Archie Vickerman for their service—they have stepped down, and I don't know their total number of years, I will find that out, and I'm sure we will recognize them as well. And I'd also like to welcome on board Chris Thurson and Joe Matthews as the new members of the EDA. **[14:55] Mayor John Monge:** General business? Councilman Nordby, anything? **[15:00] Council Member Jason Nordby:** All right. **[15:01] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** I just, sure—there you go—about our residents and just the broader community. I think a lot of folks are experiencing a lot of mental health issues, and so in our community too, I think that's been a big issue and something that's been a challenge. And so, there's a 988 number now for those thinking of suicide. That number is now 988; before it was really complicated, so they changed that to be a little bit more accessible. But just wanted to bring that up. **[15:30] Mayor John Monge:** Good information, thank you. Cassidy? **[15:32] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Not a whole lot. I attended my introductory class for the Ramsey County Legal local government. I'm backfilling some big shoes left by Candy, and I'm looking forward to the first meeting on Friday morning. **[15:45] Mayor John Monge:** On mine, we had the League of Minnesota Cities we went to, as some new members here, so we had a lot of good information on that. That was a very good, very good information. It was two days, it was Friday and a Saturday, so we learned quite a bit and just what we learned from our wonderful lawyer down there, Mrs. Horn. So we were able to understand more about that and some of the ins and outs, so it was very good as far as that. Also, we have Planning Commission—Jim [Rothie] has joined us. Rothie, thank you, he's on our Planning Commission. **[16:20] Mayor John Monge:** Also, I was able to do a ride-along with the Police Department. That was a good Saturday a couple Saturdays ago, from 6:00 p.m. to midnight. It was good to be able to go out with the officer—I apologize, I'm terrible with last names, but Sergeant... Bettenburg? **[16:38] Chief Phil Baebenroth:** Bettenburg and Ross. **[16:40] Mayor John Monge:** Thank you, that's why I didn't try it! Both of those two. And our Police Chief, Phil, hooked us up with it. So we went out and we went on patrol. We saw a lot of good preventative work from the Police Department; we were going around looking at different areas that were trouble areas just to see the preventative patrol they do. They know the houses that have had issues, they know the area so well, and it was a great experience. A shout out to St. Mark's Lutheran Church over there—they have a side door that the police officers can go in anytime. They have snacks down there for the police officers so they can stop and have that. They have blankets and toys if they have kids, if there's any kind of issues they're able to have that. That was amazing to hear that St. Marks does that. **[17:30] Mayor John Monge:** It was great to hear about that and just to see the cars, understand all the equipment they have in there. I mean, he has a big roll tray with so much electronics. They got to have the cars plugged in when they're parked—that's why they're running all the time, because if you shut them down, you'll never start them again. So just understanding that with the Police Department was a great ride-along and a great way to see how well our police staff does and how much they care and how much they know about the neighborhood. I was at places, even though I ran for Mayor, I didn't even know existed that were North St. Paul—these little corners. **[18:05] Mayor John Monge:** I also had a chance to go along yesterday with Public Works, if you're able to ride in a plow. So that was a lot of fun to be able to do that and just to see what our Public Works department does and the staff and how hard they work. I went over to my son's house a day before the storm in St. Paul over on Hatch, went down the street and just about lost every filling and every fake body part I have with all the bumps in the road and the terrible plowing jobs! So it's just a big thank you to Public Works and how they take care of the streets around here—they do excellent work. We're blessed to have that. So it was a good couple weeks for me to understand more about North St. Paul and to get to see what all of our community does and the services I think we appreciate and hopefully we don't take for granted. So with that, anything else? **[18:55] Council Member Dave Mckenzie:** I just think it's interesting how we all want to ride in the plow truck, but nobody wants to mow! **[19:00] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Oh my God, I will mow! I will mow, give her her own section, yes! **[19:05] Council Member Troy Woods:** Yeah, Public Parks and Rec should have to mow, I like that idea. **[19:10] Mayor John Monge:** Anything else? If nothing else, I will adjourn the meeting. Anybody call? **[19:15] Council Member Troy Woods:** Move to adjourn. **[19:16] Council Member Cassidy Schweer:** Second. **[19:17] Mayor John Monge:** All those in favor say aye. **[19:18] Council Members:** Aye. **[19:20] Mayor John Monge:** Good night. **[Meeting adjourned at 36 minutes]**