Based on the list of officials provided and the phonetic context of the transcript, I have identified the speakers. **Note on Identifications:** * **"Gmi" and "Grot"**: These phonetic transcriptions in the roll call correspond to Council Members **Lisa Zimmerman** and **Chris Nobach**. * **Steve Lindell**: This Council Member was not on your provided list but is clearly identified as a voting member in the transcript. * **"Neil"**: Referred to as the outgoing City Administrator (preceding Jon Radermacher). * **"Zach"**: Addressed during reports; likely a staff member or consultant (possibly related to engineering or community media) not explicitly on the primary list. *** [4:21] **Matt Montgomery**: I got tons of stuff I'm gonna—I got... there you go. Call to order City of Cannon Falls City Council meeting for Tuesday, July 2nd, 2024. If I could get a roll call, please. [4:21] **Sara Peer**: Zimmerman? **Lisa Zimmerman**: Yep. **Sara Peer**: Nobach? **Chris Nobach**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Jeppesen? **Ryan Jeppesen**: Yep. **Sara Peer**: Johnson? **Chad Johnson**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Kronenberger? **Matt Montgomery**: Your audio on? She is present via Zoom. **Sara Peer**: Lindell? **Steve Lindell**: Here. **Sara Peer**: Montgomery? **Matt Montgomery**: Here. Uh, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [5:08] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, if I could get an approval of our amended agenda. So, motion from Lindell, second from Lisa. All those in favor, I—do we have to do roll call because even for the agenda? All right, roll call vote for approval of the agenda. [5:08] **Sara Peer**: Zimmerman? **Lisa Zimmerman**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Nobach? **Chris Nobach**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Jeppesen? **Ryan Jeppesen**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Johnson? **Chad Johnson**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Kronenberger? **Laura Kronenberger**: [Via Zoom] I. **Matt Montgomery**: She said "I" but her—oh, there you go. **Sara Peer**: Montgomery? **Matt Montgomery**: Hi. Oh sorry, it's all right. True Minnesotan, oh there you go. Uh, nobody signed up for public input, so we will skip that portion. The consent agenda: consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as Council business. I'll go through them for you. Item A: just and correct claims for the accounting period that ended June 26, 2024. B: meeting minutes for June 18th, 2024 City Council meeting. Item C: Resolution 2765 adopting the primary and general election judges for 2024 and setting their hourly wages. Item D: approve 72nd Avenue way Improvement project deferred assessment. Item E: Resolution 2766 authorizing fund closures for year-end 2023 Cannon Falls audit. Item F: Resolution 2767 granting conditional use permit for Dollar General. Item G: Resolution 2768 granting variance from front setback for Dollar General. Item H: Resolution 2769 granting variance from parking stall requirements for Dollar General. Anything that the Council would like to be pulled down for discussion? [6:42] **Matt Montgomery**: Hearing none, I would accept a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. **Diane Johnson**: Second. **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Ryan, second from Diane, and we'll take a roll call for approval. [6:42] **Sara Peer**: Zimmerman? **Lisa Zimmerman**: I. **Sara Peer**: Nobach? **Chris Nobach**: I. **Sara Peer**: Jeppesen? **Ryan Jeppesen**: I. **Sara Peer**: Johnson? **Chad Johnson**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Kronenberger? **Matt Montgomery**: Londelle, one job Steve... Montgomery? Oh sorry, that's all right, that's still... that's uh 6-0. I can see that Laura is saying yes, but we just don't have the audio. Yep. [7:28] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, that gets us to the only item of business for the council tonight: the executive search consultant. So we formed that committee for Neil's succession plan. We met earlier this evening. Neil had reached out to three separate agencies. You guys have information on two out of the three because the third never got back to us. Just to give you a quick observation: we've worked with DDA (David Drown and Associates) before on multiple occasions, most recently I think it was a pay study. And then the other is South Central Service Cooperative out of Mankato. I'll give you the just a will really quick recap: DDA's price would be roughly 24,000 and South Central Service Co-op will be roughly 14,000. It's our belief that their services will be almost identical, so really the the difference is cost. [8:14] **Matt Montgomery**: You'll see in the SCSC recently they've dealt with communities in our neighborhood: Le Sueur, Faribault County, St. Charles, Byron, Kenyon, Blooming Prairie, Blue Earth. So they are in southeast Minnesota fairly regularly. They know this area. Neil said that when they do the search, they are pretty expansive—they go into the Dakotas looking for people who might be interested. So this isn't just that they've worked with people in the region; the candidates that they find are from far away as well. So if there's any discussion or questions to be had on whether to decide to go with South Central Service Co-op or David Drown and Associates? [9:07] **Matt Montgomery**: Does the committee have a recommendation? Yes, we voted and unanimous we were in favor of South Central Service Cooperative. We found that if the service is going to be the same and the cost is the difference—and yes, we have a history with David Drown and Associates, but there might have been some mistakes that were made that we weren't too happy with. So, and obviously, people—I get it, people can make mistakes—but if we have a chance to try out working with somebody else that saves $10,000, I think we're all happy with that. Any other questions? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to accept hiring the South Central Service Cooperative to try to find our new City Administrator. **Diane Johnson**: So moved. **Steve Lindell**: Second. **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Diane, second from Steve. We will take the roll call vote. [9:53] **Sara Peer**: Zimmerman? **Lisa Zimmerman**: I. **Sara Peer**: Nobach? **Chris Nobach**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Jeppesen? **Ryan Jeppesen**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Johnson? **Chad Johnson**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Kronenberger? **Steve Lindell**: Hi. **Matt Montgomery**: All right, it passes. Gets us to our reports. Nobody is here from the Chamber, so we'll just go right around the horn. Jed? [10:39] **Jed Petersen**: Our mill and overlay up on Holiday Avenue in the industrial park was completed over the weekend. Looks great, they did a good job. The footings at John Burch Park for the third-base line dugout have been dug and poured today. Great, so we are moving. It's good to see. It looks like the wall—Blake Burrow will be here on the 22nd of July to start the wall side of the project. The other projects around town are moving; they've been a little bit hampered with rain events and whatnot. The Cannon and Third Street project is moving along. They're tying in services this week. They're hoping to get people off of temp water possibly next week, depending on how things go. And that's all I got. [11:24] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, thanks Jed. I just want to—if we could reach out to MnDOT just to see if we could learn anything more about that traffic study. We've had some residents that were asking about the trackers. We would love to have more information if possible. **Jed Petersen**: I will do that. **Matt Montgomery**: Perfect, thank you. Chad? **Chad Johnson**: I have one question. Do they have an estimated completion date on Cannon Street and Third Street? **Jed Petersen**: I know that when they bid the project, we have a completion date of—is it October? It's been a tough summer, it really has. The rain is—and it's not just them, it's subcontractors and everybody that they deal with as well. **Chad Johnson**: Yeah, thank you. **Matt Montgomery**: Zach, anything for you tonight? **Zach**: I don't think anything tonight, no. **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Chief? [12:10] **Jeff McCormick**: Well, a couple of things, Mr. Mayor. First, you may have noticed it continues to rain, which means the rivers—while they've dropped—are fluctuating and still at a higher than normal level. That's created some problems for us with some of our green space parkland area. So as we go into the Fourth of July weekend, I talked with Tony from Public Works today. We made the decision that we're going to continue to leave lower Hannah’s Bend closed just because it's very wet. The river hasn't gone down far enough for us to really make an assessment as far as stability on the banks, and so they're going to be putting some barriers in place at the parking lot and on the trail just so we don't get vehicles trying to get down there anyway. Especially with the fair going on, sometimes people will think that the lots are full and they're just parking there; that would be a bad idea this time. [12:58] **Jeff McCormick**: Tony and I are going to meet tomorrow morning and go take a look at the area above the pool for the same purpose, to try to ascertain is it going to be dry enough and stable enough that vehicles can be put up there if there's a need for overflow. I did reach out to Greg Kurth of the Fair Board last week and spoke with him about both of those locations just because they have used them in the past for overflow. The Fair Board had made arrangements with Ag Partners to use the big gravel area behind their weigh station building, and then they would just run shuttles back and forth. So they've already made arrangements, but we are going to verify tomorrow morning and make a call on that area behind the pool. If it's available, we'll let Greg know; if it's not, then barricades will be going up to keep that area so that vehicles don't get up there and cause damage to the parks. [13:43] **Jeff McCormick**: Besides that, the fair will be starting up tomorrow. Quite excited; that brings a lot of people to town. We want everybody to come and have a good time. We just ask that they behave themselves in any manner that they would in their regular communities. We've got a great activity event occurring: the 4th will be the parade. For the residents along the parade route, that will mean some street closures, lots of congestion, lots of people on the boulevard. So just bear that in mind if you're coming to watch the parade or have family that's coming in. We're going to start shutting down parts of the route at about 10:30, especially on the east side of downtown. We usually try to leave the west side open until that parade actually starts, but we’ll do our best to get people to where they need to be, especially if they've got mobility issues—we want to try to get them there so they don't have to walk quite a way. [14:29] **Jeff McCormick**: But for the residents, bear with it; it's only a few hours and then kind of returns back to normal. Fireworks are always a big issue this time of year, and again, kind of understand that if there's a lot of them going off, it makes it hard for officers to get to every single complaint in a timely manner. But we're going to do our best. If you can provide us an area that it's occurring in, or better yet, the house that it's occurring from, then we can talk to the people that are responsible as opposed to trying to track down where it's occurring at. Believe it or not, when they see the squad car, a lot of them stop. The speed trailer will be going out; we have it charging right now. We're going to be putting it on 6th Street by the siren on the route to the parade just to remind people what their speed limit is and that they should slow down and drive the speed limit. [15:15] **Matt Montgomery**: All right. Quick question: parade rain or shine? **Jeff McCormick**: The parade goes rain or shine. The only thing that interferes—and we've had a couple of years where we've had to delay it—would be lightning. That's if there's a significant amount of lightning, then the parade chairperson will make that final call on if it's canceled or not. If it is, then we move through the route just letting everybody know that that call has been made. **Matt Montgomery**: Okay, I've seen some people asking the question, I didn't know if that's... **Jeff McCormick**: Yep, and Lieutenant Buhler will be in for that, so he maintains our social media account. If something like that were to happen, he would be able to update that immediately and get that out on that platform to try to get people the information. [16:48] **Matt Montgomery**: All right, thank you Chief. Sarah, can I ask one quick—yep, I know you didn't want me between two rivers and Hannah’s Bend. That little trail, is that open or closed? That paved path that goes right along the edge of the river? **Jeff McCormick**: That is open—well, let me rephrase. We had some trees that came down in that area and I don't know if Public Works has gotten that cleaned up yet. **Jed Petersen**: I don't think they've got out yet. **Jeff McCormick**: Yeah, so that's the reason that that's taped off. The path itself was—I don't believe—compromised, but there are obstacles on it that would make it more hazardous if people were, say, firing down that trail on a bicycle and suddenly there was a giant branch. [17:33] **Jeff McCormick**: So along those lines, I'll just let the Council know: we are working with Goodhue County and the state. I anticipate this will likely receive a FEMA declaration because of the extent of flooding to Minnesota. Most of the members of this body have not been seated when we've had one of those events, but as your Emergency Management Director in addition to Chief of Police, that'll be a function that I'll be doing. So once the rivers get down low enough that we can ascertain all of the debris and all of the stuff that's going to need to be cleaned up, we'll make those decisions if it's something we do with staff or contractors. Just bear in mind we've got to do those in compliance with the regulations that FEMA sets if it does become a federal declaration. [18:19] **Matt Montgomery**: Okay, thank you. Not just volunteer work? **Jeff McCormick**: Not just volunteer work. Typically we wouldn't want to have volunteers running chainsaws and that type of stuff unless they're trained. When we had the tornado, we actually did get volunteers, but they were volunteers that were within a state program that operated chainsaws and went out to do those types of events. **Matt Montgomery**: Got it, got it. All right, thank you Chief. Sarah? **Sara Peer**: Neil, just a reminder, you have a work session on the 23rd, correct? It was moved forward a week. I did contact all the nonprofits, so I've heard back from three. I'm pretty sure they'll all be able to attend. **Matt Montgomery**: All right, thank you. Lisa? **Lisa Zimmerman**: Nothing. **Matt Montgomery**: Ryan? [19:07] **Ryan Jeppesen**: Just wanted to thank all the volunteers, sandbaggers... yeah, that too. **Matt Montgomery**: Neil even got in on it! What, was your picture in the paper? I didn't see you. All right, that's it. All right, thank you. You didn't have to lift any bags; I deferred to them young football players. There you go, yeah. Chad, nothing? Diane? [19:55] **Diane Johnson**: Just another quickie. On the audit report, it recommended having quarterly financial reports. As July 1st is our new year, are we going to start implementing that or...? **Matt Montgomery**: Okay, all right. Steve? **Steve Lindell**: Uh, just a happy Fourth everybody, stay safe. I'll end up with fingers like mine. **Matt Montgomery**: You use that joke every year! **Steve Lindell**: Yes, I do. **Matt Montgomery**: There you go. Laura, I don't know if you got your audio fixed, is there anything you'd like to share? All right, all right, enjoy your vacation. [20:41] **Matt Montgomery**: Pretty much the same thing: thank you to all the volunteers. Obviously this flood is about a once-every—I wouldn't say it's a once-in-a-century, it's maybe a once every 30 years roundabouts. Seems we were at this level last time... I would have to go back and look, but it was either 2010 or 2016. **Jeff McCormick**: So they are not that uncommon for us. Somebody said it was the '90s they thought it hadn't been this bad, but if you have the records... '90 was even worse. '90s took out the bridge and stuff. **Matt Montgomery**: Yeah, so this is—I mean, it's rare, but it's not so rare that we don't see it. But thank you to everybody. Obviously the emergency-style situation, the sandbagging, the zones that got done—you know, thank you to everybody that helped with that and thank you for trying to save our residents' homes. [21:27] **Jeff McCormick**: I think unfortunately we are probably going to see more of these events, Mayor and Council, simply because as the weather warms, warmer air holds more moisture and when you get those heat pockets sitting in spots, it tends to wring that moisture out over those areas repeatedly. Much like the pattern we saw over the last month with rain every two to three days. **Matt Montgomery**: Well, and it just slowly continues to add up. Yep. The forecast right now that's—you know, I wish everybody a happy Fourth, enjoy yourself, have fun, have a great time at the parade, have fun at the fair. If bad weather comes, be sensible. You know, my old FOX 9 colleagues: "Stay Sky Aware." Like, if it looks bad, don't go do dumb stuff. So be safe, enjoy the Fourth, hope for nice weather so that we can enjoy the fireworks and all that stuff. So with nothing else, I would accept a motion to adjourn. [21:27] **Ryan Jeppesen**: So moved. **Matt Montgomery**: Motion from Ryan, second from—I'm gonna say Lisa. All those in favor? It's got to be the... **Sara Peer**: Zimmerman? **Lisa Zimmerman**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Nobach? **Chris Nobach**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Jeppesen? **Ryan Jeppesen**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Johnson? **Chad Johnson**: Hi. **Sara Peer**: Kronenberger? **Steve Lindell**: Hi. **Matt Montgomery**: We are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.