This transcript has been formatted with speaker names based on the context of the Oakdale City Council meeting and the provided list of officials. [00:00] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** All right, we’re gonna go ahead and call to order the Oakdale City Council regular meeting for October 24th, 2023. Uh, Sarah, will you take the roll? [00:05] **City Staff (Sarah):** Council Member Moore? **Council Member Kari Moore:** Here. **City Staff (Sarah):** Council Member Severson? **Council Member Gary Severson:** Here. **City Staff (Sarah):** Council Member Morcomb? (No response) **City Staff (Sarah):** Council Member Wrich? **Council Member Katie Wrich:** Here. **City Staff (Sarah):** Mayor Zabel? **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. [00:15] **All:** 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. [00:25] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Council members, in front of us we have approval of the agenda. I don’t see any changes on there, is that right, Chris? All right, council members, can I have a motion to approve the agenda? [00:35] **Council Member:** So moved. [00:36] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [00:37] **Council Member:** Second. [00:38] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? And the agenda is adopted. Next up, we have approval of minutes—two sets tonight. First, for our workshop on October 10th, 2023. Council members, any changes or corrections? I’ll look for a motion. [00:50] **Council Member:** So moved. [00:51] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [00:52] **Council Member:** Second. [00:53] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? And those workshop meeting minutes are approved. Next up, we have minutes from the regular meeting on October 10th, 2023. Council members, any changes or corrections? I’ll look for a motion. [01:10] **Council Member:** So moved. [01:11] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [01:12] **Council Member:** Second. [01:13] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? And those minutes are approved as well. Next up is public hearings. We have three of them tonight. Oh boy, this should be fun. Chris, is there a staff presentation on the first one? No? All right, well, the first one is certification of—Kyle’s ready. I’m sorry, Kyle, come on down. Hey, good job, Kyle. Kyle Sasa, our finance representative. [01:35] **Kyle Sasa (Finance):** Good evening, Mayor and Council. So yes, this first public hearing is for the certification of delinquent utilities and inactive accounts to Washington County for inclusion on the 2024 property taxes. The city annually completes this certification process, which starts in about July and continues to December. This certification protects the city and serves as the city’s collection process for unpaid utilities and other accounts. Currently, there are 256 accounts with the total amount of the proposed certification of $172,000. This list a month ago was at about 340 accounts. This list may be reduced and it will not be expanded. Payments will be accepted until December 15, 2023, and any remaining balances after that date will be submitted to Washington County to be levied on the 2024 property tax statements. And yes, with that, any questions, Mayor and Council? [02:30] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Council members, any questions for Kyle? Seeing none, Kyle, thank you. At this point, we’re going to go ahead and open up the public hearing. This is an opportunity for anybody in the audience to share anything they’d like on this specific item only. To do so, please step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and proceed with your comments. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Council members, any questions or comments on this item? I’ll look for a motion. [03:00] **Council Member:** I’ll make a motion to waive reading and adopt Resolution 2023-106, certifying delinquent utility and inactive accounts to Washington County for inclusion on 2024 property taxes. [03:10] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [03:12] **Council Member:** Second. [03:13] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? And that passes. Next up, we have a public assessment hearing for a city project. Jesse? [03:25] **Jesse Farrell (City Engineer):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. So, this is the public assessment hearing for Ideal Avenue, also known as Phase Two for County State-Aid Highway 13. This will be a brief assessment hearing. Most often these assessment hearings are for the benefit of neighborhoods, so you’d have possibly a fuller Council chamber with a lot of questions. In this case, the assessments are to developers who were stakeholders throughout project development. [03:50] I’ll give a brief project background, touch on the funding agreement, and then if there’s any public testimony for the Council to hear, then the Council’s decision on the assessment roll. So, on the screen now is Ideal Avenue, just north of 34th Street or Old Highway 5. It borders Lake Elmo and Oakdale, of course. This was roughly a $5 million project and it involved local participation for things like the trail, the curb and gutter, things like that. The Council is aware of the improvements associated with it. Here’s one of the plan sheets. This was a rural section, so it didn’t have storm sewer, and it was carefully developed. A couple project difficulties were the wetlands in the area and the high-pressure petroleum lines. [04:40] This is one of the "after" views. You have a median, curb and gutter, new pavement, utility relocation, and notably there’s an 8-foot trail now on the Oakdale side running north to south. These improvements were coordinated carefully with the developments and was timed so that when 40th Street opened, this was ready to go. The funding agreement for our portion—we have assessments to developers, all that’s guided through the Master Funding Agreement (MFA). The City Council approved that back in June of 2021. For us, the final cost appropriation was really close to the estimated cost, just over $513,000. That was our share. The project itself ended up right around $5 million again, about half a million goes to Oakdale’s share and we’re passing along all those costs to the benefiting developers as per the MFA. [05:35] Tonight we’re going through exactly half of those costs, which is $256,000 of special assessments. The remainder of those costs is getting recovered through a separate agreement. For these special assessments, the duration was specified in the MFA for an 8-year period, just like our other special assessments where it’s 2% above the city’s rate. There’s a 30-day grace period, and interest will begin accruing in November. The developers are welcome to pay at any point in time through November 24th. After that point, they’d have to pay through the county. So for tonight, the next step is to hear if there’s any testimony, then ask you to adopt the assessment roll. [06:25] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Jesse. Council members, any questions for Jesse? Alrighty. Before I open the public hearing, I’m going to look down to Jim, because I think there’s special rules if anybody wants to appeal their assessment, correct Jim? [06:40] **Jim Thomson (City Attorney):** That’s correct, Mr. Mayor. Just in case there is someone here or watching on TV, make sure they understand the process. Once the assessment hearing is open tonight, if any property owner that’s affected wants to appeal their assessments, the first thing they need to do is file a written objection tonight, give it to the City Clerk, and do that before the public hearing is closed. Assuming that condition is met, the next thing they would need to do is file a court action within 30 days after the assessment resolution is adopted. [07:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thanks, Jim. And for anybody that does want to appeal, there are assessment appeal forms on the back counter. Jake, did you have a question? (Pause) Look on your face. So with that, I’m going to go ahead and open the public hearing for City Project 2022-03, County State-Aid Highway 13, Ideal Avenue North. If anybody would like to speak or file an appeal, step up or grab a form. We’ll give it one minute. It’s gonna be a fast minute because nobody’s jumping. I’m gonna go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back for Council consideration. Council members, final comments? I’ll look for a motion. [07:55] **Council Member:** I’ll make a motion to waive reading and adopt Resolution 2023-107, adopting the assessment roll for City Project R2022-03 CSAH 13 Ideal Avenue North in the amount of $256,257.32. [08:12] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [08:14] **Council Member:** Second. [08:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? That resolution is approved. Next up, we have a public assessment hearing for City Project 2022-02, 40th Street North. Jesse? [08:30] **Jesse Farrell (City Engineer):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. This project, again, was in cooperation with the construction of 40th Street North and Ideal Avenue. A lot of that included a realignment of it to maximize benefit to the surrounding properties, new neighborhoods, and parks. Looking at the plan sheets, this first sheet is right at the 694 bridge. You can see the road narrows to match the existing width. Once the roadway is fully developed, there is a sidewalk on the south side and an 8-foot trail. It includes street lighting, trail, and sidewalk on both sides. It features a roundabout. The roundabout design shifted a little bit during construction because the pipelines were not at the precise elevation as planned. Adjusting pipelines during construction would have been a serious problem. [09:30] This area will have parks and playgrounds built. The terminus at Ideal Avenue brings the trail and sidewalk all the way to the new trail on the county road. We had an improvement hearing for this back in June of 2022 where the council ordered the project. Tonight, I’ll describe the project financing and ask the council to consider adopting the assessment roll. Here is one of the "after" photos taken a few days ago—the trees are coming up nicely; it’s a beautiful project. Residents will be able to take a trail both south to 34th Street and north towards the Gateway. [10:15] For project financing: some of the construction expense was local (City of Oakdale) and some was developers, as part of the Master Funding Agreement approved on June 30th, 2021. The final project cost is just over $3.5 million. Of that, Oakdale’s share was capped at $1.87 million. The developer share was anything beyond that, which is nearly $1.7 million. This project included the street and the storm sewer; it doesn't include the sanitary sewer and water main, which were public improvements we didn't participate in through this process. Repayment duration is eight years with a 30-day grace period. Final step is to hear testimony and consider adopting the role. [11:35] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Jesse. Council members, any questions for Jesse? Alrighty, we’re going to move on to the public hearing. Same rules apply as our City Attorney Jim Thomson mentioned before. I’ll open the public hearing for City Project 2022-02, 40th Street North reconstruction. Seeing no one, I’m going to go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back for Council consideration. Council members, can I have a motion? [12:10] **Council Member:** I would like to make a motion to waive reading and adopt Resolution 2023-108 adopting the assessment roll for the City Project R2022-02, 40th Street North reconstruction, in the amount of $1,685,772.21. [12:28] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [12:30] **Council Member:** Second. [12:31] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments or questions? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? And that resolution is adopted as well. Thanks, Jesse. [12:40] **Jesse Farrell (City Engineer):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. [12:42] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Next up on our agenda is Open Forum. Before we get to that, I do have one proclamation to issue regarding First Responders Day. Whereas 911 dispatchers, Emergency Medical Services, fire personnel, law enforcement, and search and rescue teams protect and aid the public... whereas in 2019 legislators established October 28th as First Responders Day... therefore I, Kevin Zabel, Mayor of Oakdale, hereby proclaim October 28th as First Responders Day in the City of Oakdale. The city is incredibly fortunate to have some of the most amazing men and women serving our residents. We offer a heartfelt thank you to all of them. [13:50] We’re still under Open Forum. If there’s anybody in the audience that would like to share whatever’s on their mind, please step up. Seeing none, we’ll move on to consensus motions. Council members, we have A through H. Are there any you would like to pull? Hearing none, I’ll look for a motion. [14:15] **Council Member:** I’ll make a motion to approve consensus motions A through H as presented. [14:20] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [14:21] **Council Member:** Second. [14:22] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? A through H are approved. Next up is Advisory Boards and Commissions. The only one that met was Parks and Rec; the liaison is Council Member Morcomb, who is absent tonight, so he will give his update at our next meeting. Staff reports: Community Development. Mr. Gitzlaff, welcome. [14:45] **Andrew Gitzlaff (Community Development Director):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. The item before you is requesting approval of a continuing affordable senior housing agreement with PHS Oakdale (Presbyterian Homes). They manage Echo Ridge Senior Living. This is a 100-unit building; 20 units are income-restricted affordable units for seniors. There is an existing agreement from 1998 set to expire. Presbyterian Homes has requested to renew that contract. This property had a TIFF district that was decertified early last year. 2023 is the first year this project is on the tax rolls. [15:45] City building and public safety officials have no concerns with this property. If signed, Presbyterian Homes would seek the 4D tax rate classification. Only the 20% of affordable units would be at the 25% tax rate; others would be at 125%. This is in conformance with our housing affordability plan. We found that 4.3% of Oakdale’s senior population are living in poverty, so this is an important option. The agreement would be for another 10 years. They need to apply by March 31st, 2024. We have offered to pay the recording and application costs, which is a few hundred dollars a year. Happy to answer any questions. [17:35] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Andy. Council members, any questions? I will look for a motion. [17:42] **Council Member:** I’ll make a motion to authorize the Mayor and City Administrator to execute the continuing affordability senior housing agreement with Presbyterian Homes for Echo Ridge Senior Living Community. [17:55] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [17:57] **Council Member:** Second. [17:58] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? (One nay). And that passes 3 to 1. Thanks, Andy. Next up, Engineering—2024 city project. Jesse’s back. [18:15] **Jesse Farrell (City Engineer):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. This item is initiating our 2024 Street projects, including street reconstruction and mill and overlay. This includes the neighborhood between 40th and 50th Street—Hadley from 40th to 50th and local streets north of the Discovery Center. The street reconstruction component is estimated at $3.7 million. We also have an overlay project on Helmo between 4th and 10th estimated at $1.2 million. The timing of Helmo might be suspect with the BRT project, so we might pull it later, but we’ll include it now. We are asking the Council to adopt the resolution and authorize the City Administrator to enter a service contract with an engineering consultant for $445,000 to prepare a feasibility report. [20:10] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** I have one question. On the Helmo part, will we know whether we’re going to include that before we go out for bids? [20:20] **Jesse Farrell (City Engineer):** We’ll know before then. My intent is to combine the reconstruction, overlay, and trail reconstruction into one contract to get economies of scale. [20:45] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Council members, any other questions? I’ll look for a motion. [20:55] **Council Member:** I’d like to make a motion to waive reading and adopt Resolution 223-109 initiating city projects R2024-01 and R2024-02 and authorizing the City Administrator to enter into a service contract for the feasibility report. [21:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** There’s a motion. Is there a second? [21:17] **Council Member:** Second. [21:18] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? Those projects are initiated. Next up, Finance. Kyle, come on down. [21:30] **Kyle Sasa (Finance):** Mayor and Council, as part of the 2023 Street Improvement project, $3.7 million of costs were projected to be funded by debt. After a recent review, project costs came in under budget. The expected cost is now $4.7 million, about $400,000 less than the $5.1 million estimate. Additionally, we received $250,000 in prepaid assessments. This decreases the required debt issuance. The city retained Baker Tilly as its financial advisor. Representatives are here to summarize the results. True interest cost was about 4%. I’d like to invite Michaela Hewitt up. [22:50] **Michaela Hewitt (Baker Tilly):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. The final results were $2.86 million in General Obligation Improvement Bonds. They were structured as a 10-year term. In August, the market was showing 3.41%; actual results today were 4.03%. We received five bids; the low bid was from TD Securities. Moody’s assigned a rating of Aa1 to this issue and affirmed the city’s existing Aa1 status, noting a very strong financial position and modest fixed costs. We recommend affirming the award to TD Securities. [24:30] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Is there an action item with this? [24:35] **Jim Thomson (City Attorney):** I didn’t plan on you doing a motion because we already did the resolution authorizing it, but you can affirm the award by motion if you’d like. [24:50] **Christina Volkers (City Administrator):** Mr. Mayor, we started this process at $3.7 million and we’re down to $2.8 million. The market was very kind to us today. It’s nearly a 25% savings from what we originally estimated. [25:35] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** I’ll make a motion to affirm the award of General Obligation Improvement Bond Series 2023A in the amount of $2.86 million to TD Securities LLC. Is there a second? [25:50] **Council Member:** Second. [25:51] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). Opposed? It is affirmed. Thank you, Michaela. Jim, anything for us? [26:05] **Jim Thomson (City Attorney):** Nothing specific, Mr. Mayor. [26:10] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** City Administrator Volkers? [26:12] **Christina Volkers (City Administrator):** I’ve said enough, thank you. [26:15] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Council presentations. Jake, anything? Noah? (No responses). I have a few. We are looking for nominations for Oakdale’s Volunteer of the Year. Nominations are due by October 31st. The City is hiring ice rink attendants for $15 an hour. Our first indoor market is Saturday, November 11th. Finally, Halloween is one week from today. Please be safe and wear something reflective. I heard one of our council members is going to have big candy bars at his house! Council members, let’s pay the bills. Claims roster is just over $2 million. I’ll look for a motion. [27:40] **Council Member:** I’d like to make a motion to approve claims in the amount of $2,008,120.97. [27:50] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). The bills are paid. Motion to adjourn? [27:58] **Council Member:** So moved. [27:59] **Mayor Kevin Zabel:** Second? All those in favor say aye. (Group: Aye). We are adjourned. Thank you and good night.