Based on the context provided and the phonetic cues in the transcript, here is the speaker-identified version of the townhall meeting. **Note on Names:** This transcript appears to be from 2020 (based on the COVID-19 references). Some names in the transcript (like Councilmembers Folch and Vaughn) are not on your current list but were active officials during that term. "Bosonic" is identified as **Joe Balsanek**, and "London" as **Councilmember Lawrence**. *** [0:00] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** ...and local emergencies percent to Minnesota Statutes chapter 12 and other laws further attendance of the meeting by any member of the City Council's city staff or the public at the regular meeting location of the City Council Chambers is not feasible due to the Cova 19 pandemic and closure of City Hall to members of the public as a result of the foregoing the city's the special city council meeting will be conducted solely by telephone or other electronical means as provided in Minnesota Statutes 13d point 0 to 1 and no in-person meeting will be conducted in the city council chambers. I think it is important to [0:45] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** recognize that using a video conference isn't that as good as an in-person meeting but it is necessary under circumstances we are doing the best we can to maintain transparency and due process I would appreciate everyone's patience and cooperation as we work through this meeting please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. [Pledge of Allegiance] Thank you. Seeing that the [1:39] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** meeting is held remotely I'd ask Clara Flatten to call the roll. [1:45] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] [1:50] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes, but the rule reflect that councilmember Braucks is absent. Council members, could I have a motion to approve or could I have—is there any corrections to the minutes for the meetings from the regular meeting of June 1st and the special meeting of June 9th? They are approved. Comments from [2:29] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** the audience for right now—any comments from the audience? We have options for comments that have been emailed prior to the meeting as well as interactive feature during the meeting. For the email comments they have been forward to the City Council's and the receipt is acknowledged. Please recognize that items not to the man and the agenda will not be discussed this evening. We ask the attendees to use the raised hand feature and they will be invited to speak one at a time. I want to remind everyone that the public comment period is not intended for any intended dialogue. One here that would like to [3:14] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** address the council at this time? So members, are there any council items to be considered? I'd like to add to administration a number 5 and that is a contract for the interim financial services. That okay with all of the council members? Clerk Flatten would you call the roll please. [3:55] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** Councilmember Vaughn? **Councilmember Vaughn:** Yes. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Haus? **Councilmember Haus:** Yes. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Balsanek? **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Yes. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Fox [Folch]? **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Yes. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Leifeld? **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Yes. **City Clerk:** Councilmember Lawrence? **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Yes. **City Clerk:** Mayor Fasbender? **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. [4:04] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** So again that item will be added to administration number five. Consent agenda. Council, I would accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. [4:18] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Okay, yep. [So moved]. [4:22] **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Seconded by—I'll second it. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Balsanek. Any discussion? Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. [4:30] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** Councilmember Vaughn? **Councilmember Vaughn:** Alright, yes. [Roll continues] [4:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** The motion prevails. Awarding of contracts—award of contract E 21st Street. E 21st Street water quality improvements. Today we have with us Public Works Director Nick Hager. Welcome, Nick. [5:05] **Nick Hager (Public Works):** Sorry about that, I had on mute. Thank you, Mayor Fasbender, council members. For your consideration we have a resolution awarding a contract for the East 21st Street water quality improvements project. This is a project for which the city and Vermillion River watershed were able to obtain a nice grant funding amount through the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources. We had nine bidders on the [5:44] **Nick Hager (Public Works):** project with the lowest bid coming in from Minnesota Dirt Works and the amount says just shy of $185,000. This is a project that has several nodes if you will that are spread out along East 21st Street where various water quality improvements will be installed and the contractor word falls in line with the budgeted amount that we had for the project which was a little bit less than $240,000 overall which includes engineering design and inspections and various soft costs that go with managing up project. The city shear in the overall cost for this project is about fifty three thousand dollars so that amounts to roughly a 25% share or less than a [6:30] **Nick Hager (Public Works):** 25% share overall. Much of that has already been expended through development of the design of the project so we just have a little bit additional expenses that will actually be attributable to the city in the end. We did look through the bidders qualifications on this one like we do and did some reference checks and found them to be adequate so staff is recommending the award of the contract to the Minnesota Dirt Works in the amount of one hundred and eighty four thousand six hundred sixty four dollars and ninety five cents and I'll turn it back to you mayor and I can stamp her questions. [7:10] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Nick. Council, is there any discussion? I'd like to have a motion to accept the motion [7:18] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** awarding of the contract to Minnesota Dirt Works for 21st Street water quality improvements in the Manzo's one hundred eighty four thousand six hundred and sixty four dollars and ninety five cents. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** So moved. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Balsanek. Any discussion? Clerk Flatten, please take the roll. [7:50] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Yes. Motion prevails. Vacation of alley Block 134, sixth and seventh of Bailey. For this item we will have an introduction by Community Development Director John Hinzman followed by a public hearing then potentially action by City Council. John, welcome. [8:13] **John Hinzman:** Thank you Madam Mayor and City Council members. We have before us tonight a request a vacating portion of an alleyway. This is a public hearing and action requested. After they'll go through a a brief summary of what the request is. Please note that the action tonight will require six of seven council members, so with the absence of council member Braucks, it will require unanimous approval to vacate the alley. So I'm gonna share my screen here... looking at the right [8:51] **John Hinzman:** thing here—actually I don't think... let's try this again. Okay, now I got the right thing up here. You're looking at an alleyway—I'm looking at the wrong screen. Okay, this is what we're looking at. Alleyway is between Bailey Street, 6th Street, and 7th Street. The alleyway is unimproved, stretches across here. There's a portion of the alleyway that we're looking to vacate that is the approximately 100 feet of area which is highlighted here in orange. This is located behind Matthew Hymen's house which is located here, who is the person asking for the request. The request is being asked because Mr. [9:28] **John Hinzman:** Hymen plans to build a new garage in this vicinity here which would abut the alleyway itself and would not meet the setback requirement. So he is looking to vacate the alley itself which is 20 feet wide. There is no City improvements in here nor is there any City improvements planned. There are a couple of private utilities so we would be vacating the alley but reserving and it's been over the the portion that we are vacating. We have notified the public and we had a couple of conversations with neighbors primarily on the eastern end of it that had concerns about access into this garage over here in particular. That was the reason why the vacation request was [10:14] **John Hinzman:** taken a little bit shorter to be just the western 100 feet. So we are recommending approval of this subject to the resolution attached. I can stand for any questions or you may open the public hearing at this time thank you. [10:30] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay, thank you John. At this time I will open the public hearing. Anyone in the audience that would like to speak to this? No, seeing none. Okay at this time I will close the public. Council discussion? Councilmember Leifeld. [10:59] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** For the vacation of these alleys, I've been noticing we've been getting a few more these every year. We see a handful of them. Well what's the purpose? I noticed there's one over between 15th and 14th over in that neighborhood between Lake Ashland and heading east there. What was the purpose for this? [11:20] **John Hinzman:** Council member, a lot of the older plants that were recorded had a center alley that was applied in between them and the purpose was for people to have that and proven to utilize it. Over time some of these were improved, some of them are used, in other cases they're not. And so we get requests to vacate or to remove the alleyway. We're taking a look [11:46] **John Hinzman:** at a couple of things. Number one: what's there presently? Number two: what's our the purpose into the future on it? And if there really is no public purpose now or in the future and it's not going to cause any distress to the neighboring owners, we've generally vacated these alleyways. **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Thank you. [12:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any other discussion console? **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Your Honor? **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Balsanek. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Yes thank you. A question for John. Will his driveway for the garage be Bailey Street or is he going to continue to the north with it? [12:33] **John Hinzman:** Council member, I believe it would come from the north off of 6th Street. I do not believe he would be crossing the railroad spur between Bailey and his property which is just east of Bailey Street. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** All right, is that railroad spur active or it's just right of way? **John Hinzman:** I don't think it's very active now, in fact I don't think it's active at all. It used to be as John Smith used to use but I don't think it's active now. I think Nick turned his microphone on, do you have any more information? [13:05] **Nick Hager:** There it is. That is the spur that heads out to the Ardent Mills mill so it passes right by parallel to Bailey Street and continues on. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Okay thank you very much. [13:20] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any other discussion Council? **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Your Honor? Councilmember Fox [Folch]. I was just gonna make a motion to approve. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Motion made by Councilmember Fox. [13:30] **Dan Wietecha (City Administrator):** Additional council discussion? If I could just chime in and John, correct me if I'm wrong—I think this requires just a majority vote of the council. You had indicated it requires six votes. I think that might have been for the special use permit coming up later but please correct me if I'm missing something there. [13:50] **John Hinzman:** No no, Mr. Wietecha [Flugel], you are correct as usual. I am an error on that one. That's for the special use permit. Thank [14:05] **John Hinzman:** you. So require four votes tonight with those present. Great, thank you for clarification. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Yes. Motion prevails. Public hearing—sidewalk cafe requests and extensions of sidewalk cafes. For this item we will have an introduction by Community Development Director John Hinzman followed by a public hearing then potentially action by City Council. John. [14:51] **John Hinzman:** Mayor, City Council members, I'm going to put my screen on here. What we have is a request for public hearing to include a few more sidewalk cafes. I think we're all aware of the history, the actions that were taking at the May 18th and June 1st meeting. At the June 1st meeting we established the first batch of sidewalk cafes. We do have four more that are requesting action: that would be El Mexican, Hastings Social Tavern, The Legion, and Froth and Cork. These are consistent with the sidewalk expanded approvals of May 18th and I'll also go through the effect upon the right of way right after we go through the public hearing here. So, public hearing tonight to consider the sidewalk cafe and license agreement for [15:37] **John Hinzman:** expansion here. What they would consist of is as follows: let me go here... this would be really two expansions within the right-of-way itself. One for El Mexican which would utilize some of the the fencing for gifts galore, their traffic barricades—this is something that we found out late today and we'll be able to accommodate that—and the American Legion. Those two items will include parking lot or excuse me, parking space expansion into the public street area. I've got a couple of maps which show what a couple of these look like. See the Social House here is just down to the sidewalk, no public barricades necessary, everything would need to be confined privately. At the American Legion, we are [16:25] **John Hinzman:** looking at closing up a couple of parking spaces towards the northwest corner—these are handicaps spaces themselves—to create an area for outside dining. So this will require some traffic control measures similar to what we saw on 2nd Street. We'll also have one more area on 2nd Street—this is Sibley Highway 61 towards the west here. The area here highlighted is the El Mexican area in which a new expanded sidewalk area into the parking lane would continue. So this would be for parking stalls consistent with some of the other ones that you see here. So this is the plan that we have before us. So what we're looking at tonight are a [17:10] **John Hinzman:** couple of different actions. One: hold the public hearing to consider the liquor license expansion. The liquor license expansions would be consistent with the drawings that we have been showing here tonight. The second action would be to approve the authorization of liquor license agreements to ensure that they have certain compliance and certificate of insurance requirements within there. And then to approve the plans that we've shown here. These plans would be for additional barricades and fencing that would be installed similar to what we've seen out here that were done at the June 1st meeting. So this is a public hearing, you can open it at this time or I can stand for any questions. Thank you. [17:54] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you John. This time I'll open the public hearing. Anyone in the audience that would like to speak? They can use the raised hand feature to be invited to speak. [Pause] Any? Will close the public hearing. Council discussion? Council discussion? Okay could I get a motion to approve the new sidewalk cafe licenses for Hastings social LLC d/b/a Hastings tavern, El Mexican restaurant of Hastings, American Legion, and Froth and Cork? [18:25] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Your Honor, make a motion about status. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Leifeld. [18:35] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** And Councilmember Lawrence [London] second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Any other council discussion? Clerk Flatten please call the roll. [18:50] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Yes. Motion prevails. Okay. Public Works—today we have enough to approve the cooperative agreement easement and long-term stormwater BMP maintenance agreement with Cemstone for East 21st Street and we'll ask Nick to join us again. [19:29] **Nick Hager:** Mayor tonight, this dovetails into the action that the council took just about five minutes ago to award the contract for the East 21st Street water quality improvement project. In designing and laying that project out, it's one of the most promising areas that our staff determined for water quality improvement facilities happened to be in the area of Cemstone's concrete plant driveways that are connected to East 21st Street. And I got to give a lot of credit to City Engineer Ryan Stempski and Assistant City Engineer John Cavin for working with Cemstone to carve out this space and discuss with them how things could [20:16] **Nick Hager:** function and get their buy-in in order for us to implement these measures on part of their property. Now to go along with that, of course, we need their permission and one of the things that's in the action before you here would be to have the city approve the easement agreement that goes with this. But we also have a cooperative agreement that outlines the cost responsibilities for each party. The city of course is doing the project and as I spoke to earlier with the contract word, we have a relatively little amount of cost here for the whole project. Cemstone in turn is also going to be investing in this for some of the overall work that they would have that [21:04] **Nick Hager:** crosses over onto their property at no additional cost of the city, so they have skin in the game on this as well. But the cooperative agreement is meant to memorialize what those cost responsibilities are. And then lastly the long term stormwater BMPs agreement is really to solidify the fact that Cemstone will be responsible for maintaining this—these measures throughout time—making sure that they clean them out on a frequency that's adequate to keep it functioning as intended and as desired. So it's kind of a three-part item there that we've brought together in one action and we're asking the council to approve all of those in a motion tonight. [21:50] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you okay thank you Nick discussion? **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Your Honor? I'll move the staff report. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Balsanek. **Councilmember Jen Fox:** This is Councilmember Fox [Folch], I'll second it. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Fox second. Any discussion Council? [22:20] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** I'm sorry your honor, I did have a couple of questions for for Nick. Oh sorry... is this—this is a perpetual agreement then? There's no sunset on this agreement? **Nick Hager:** Correct, I believe it goes throughout time and it's transferable with any subsequent owners. So whoever might purchase the property at some future imaginary date would also be responsible for continuing to maintain this as long as it's there in existence. **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** Okay so it's in perpetuity. Second question is: who is going to monitor this? Is the city responsible to monitor it? [23:05] **Nick Hager:** Well the city will certainly be monitoring it as it's adjacent to and connected to our right of way areas and feeding into our downstream stormwater system. However the the cooperative or the long-term maintenance agreement does place responsibility on Cemstone for doing periodic inspections of it and then addressing any issues as they arise. And anyone who enters that sort of agreement with the city for stormwater facility maintenance is required to furnish a report on at least an annual basis to the city indicating all the times they've taken a look at it and their subsequent follow-up actions. So I think we have a couple layers of oversight there that will ensure it's going to be kept looked at pretty frequently. [24:00] **Councilmember Tim Lawrence:** And this is fairly common for the sake of the public? There are lots of agreements—I'm not sure how many more with the city of Hastings—but statewide self-monitoring is a very acceptable kind of an arrangement when it comes to things like this? So as long as the owner of the property is honest with everything, you know we'll see the reports—hopefully all good reports then. Okay thank you. [24:35] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Discussion Council? Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Yes. Motion prevails. We have a resolution: a special use permit taproom extension rooftop for Spiral Brewery. This item is introduced again by Community Development Director John Hinzman. [25:10] **John Hinzman:** Thank you Madam Mayor and City Council members. We have before you a special use permit request and approval for the Spiral Brewery. This would be to use their existing rooftop; it would be limited in no more than 30 seats. You may recall that during the original approval of their permit for a tap room there was indication that there would be a rooftop so this is consistent with those plans that we've been seeing the last few years. Planning Commission did review this on June 8th at the public hearing. No one spoke for or against the item at that [25:42] **John Hinzman:** time. The Commission recommended approval with limited discussion. The approval itself is subject to certain conditions: one is to obtain a liquor license which is the next requirement tonight, and then to adhere to local noise operational rules, approval of building plans, and then HPC approval. That HPC approval would take place tomorrow night. Now this item is the one I meant to flag which means there are a need for six of seven council members to approve this one tonight, but it would need to be a unanimous vote by the council to approve the special use permit. So what are we looking at here? We are looking at this portion of the rooftop here—not the whole, but a portion of it. The bottom area here shows what that would be. This area is what would be improved as the rooftop [26:29] **John Hinzman:** patio area. The stairs come up from the building and about this location it would be an exit across the building down some existing stairs to the next building, the Meyer company. We'll show in a second a couple more views of what the property would look like improved on the top—a nice area up there—and this would be their secondary access point out. So that concludes my presentation for tonight and if you have any questions I could take those at this time. And I think Amy Fox is in the audience if you will have any questions for her. Thank you. [27:10] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Council discussion? **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Motion to approve as recommended by staff members. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Fox. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Balsanek second. Any additional discussion from Council at this time? Clerk Flatten please call the roll. [27:40] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Motion prevails. Along with it we have the approval of the liquor license premise extension for Spiral Brewery. John you want to move on with that? [28:15] **John Hinzman:** I'll continue with that one, Mayor. This is a simple one. Normally this would be on the consent agenda being that it was a condition for approval of the special use permit we placed it on for discussion tonight. This is simply the the permit request for the liquor license. They would need to provide insurance requirements for that. We're recommending approval. [28:35] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** I would accept a motion for approving the expansion. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** So moved your honor. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Balsanek. **Councilmember Jen Fox:** [Beat you to it] second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Fox beat you to it Councilmember Balsanek. Any additional council discussion? Okay. Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. [29:05] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Motion prevails tonight. Under administration we have a presentation and approval for the 2019 comprehensive financial report. This item will be introduced by Finance Director Melanie Lammers. Melanie. [29:33] **Melanie Lammers (Finance Director):** Thank you. Good evening Mayor, members of Council. We recently completed our 2019 certified annual financial report with the help of our auditors Bergen KDV. So tonight to make a presentation on the results of that is Caroline Stutzman from Bergen KDV. Caroline. [30:00] **Caroline Stutzman (Bergen KDV):** Good evening thank you for having me, Mayor, members of the Council. I'd like to take a few minutes of your time tonight to go through the results of the 2019 audit. I think we have a presentation being pulled up here. Beginning in the first page the main reason that you asked us to work with you is to provide an opinion on your financial statements. The opinion we are providing for you is what's called an unmodified opinion. That's the highest level that you can receive and not a change from what you would have received in previous years meaning we believe those financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects as of December 31st 2019. In addition to looking at the numbers as we went through our process and the next page we indicate that we conducted our audit in accordance with government auditing standards indicating that we consider internal control as we go about that process. We do have a few [30:52] **Caroline Stutzman:** findings listed here. We did go through these in detail with the Finance Committee prior to this meeting so I wasn't going to go through those in detail unless anyone had specific questions about them. Alright in addition we conducted an audit in accordance with Minnesota legal compliance. The Office of the State Auditor puts together seven checklists full of state statute items that we asked a number of questions about. There were no findings related to any of those items either. So then we dig in to the financial analysis information beginning with your general fund. General fund fund balance increased in total by about four [31:37] **Caroline Stutzman:** hundred and fifty thousand for the year and ended at just over 5.9 million. The components of that fund balance are identified here in the chart under 2019 identifying most notably the unassigned fund balance which is what's available for future operations ending the year at just under 5.6 million. That amount does also represent 49.1% of your 2020 budgeted expenditures or approximately six months of those budgeted expenditures. The policy that you've established for yourselves indicates 30 to 40 percent of that subsequent years percentage so you are in compliance or slightly above what that policy is for you. On the next chart [32:26] **Caroline Stutzman:** we see general fund revenues. In total, general fund revenues increased 5.1 percent mostly in the property taxes and charges for services as a result of an increase in levy. General fund expenditures are on your next slide here. Total expenditures increased one percent—so relatively break-even year on the expenditure side of things. A little bit of fluctuation between items just as a result of positions essentially not filled—for example in Public Works—and then the turnover in general government, as well as increases in police and capital outlay items in regards to increase mill and overlay [33:14] **Caroline Stutzman:** costs and items like that. General fund revenues budget and actual is presented on this chart. So similar to what we just saw for revenues but including that budget. In total, general fund revenues were over budget by point five nine percent—so less than one percentage point variance and as close as you can possibly get with the size of budget that you're looking at. That's great! On the expenditure side standpoint we have a similar presentation here. In total, general fund actual expenditures were under budget four point seven percent. Similar explanations as far as [34:00] **Caroline Stutzman:** what some of the changes were previously. General government under budget as a result of the administrator turnover and some conservative budgeting on the capital outlay side of things for mill and overlay projects, as well as some unfilled positions in Public Works leading to that variance. This chart is for the fire and ambulance special revenue funds—so a separate fund for fire and ambulance. This is total revenues, total expenditures, and fund balance. Revenues decreased and expenditures decreased—there was a grant in 2018 that we did not have in 2019 on [34:46] **Caroline Stutzman:** the revenue side of things. And then expenditures, there was some capital equipment purchases in 2018 that were not present in 2019. So fund balance increased then by two hundred eighty six thousand. This fund—Parks and Recreation special revenue fund, again a separate fund for Parks and Recreation—is presented here. Revenues increased about ten percent; there were donations received in regards to the damaged soccer fields. On an expenditure side of things that that theme follows through there as well; there were additional repair costs and hours relating to those damaged soccer fields and then fund balance increased about 60,000 for the year. When we shift gears [35:35] **Caroline Stutzman:** a bit to the enterprise fund, starting with your water fund. Revenues—operating revenues decrease here. There was an increase in rates that was offset by decreased usage and then operating expenses increased with fluctuation in pension expense. And you see at the bottom tan and orange bars, both are operating income: one is with depreciation expense, one is without. We just touch on this from the perspective of analyzing those operating revenues to ensure they are sufficient to cover all of the operating costs including depreciation expense and for 2019 that is happening; you're seeing both of those lines above the bar there. [36:23] **Caroline Stutzman:** Sewer fund presentation similar to what we just saw in the water fund as far as presentation. Operating revenues increased here about 6%. There was an increase in rates as well as base charges. Operating expenses increased six and a half percent, also related to those pension expense fluctuations that I touched on earlier. Similar story in the tan in orange bars as far as those results ending in operating income for the fund and fully covering depreciation expense with both of them being above the bar. Stormwater fund similar presentation as well. Operating revenues increased about 12% with an increase in [37:09] **Caroline Stutzman:** rates. Operating expenses increased—again the pension expense fluctuation is leading to that change. Operating income was the results of that activity and again fully covering depreciation expense looking at those two tan and orange bars. The hydro fund on this next slide: operating revenues were down a bit here about three percent; there were turbine breakdowns throughout the year. And then operating expenses did decrease—there were fewer repairs and maintenance costs in 2019. Fully covering depreciation expense and resulting in operating income for the fund of about 93 thousand for the year. Then the last [38:02] **Caroline Stutzman:** two slides here look at tax levies and tax capacities. And then on the next one we'll get to the tax capacity rates but for for starters: the green bar there is the tax capacity that increased seven point seven percent for the year and the levy is blue which increased five point four percent for the year. The impact of those changes leads to the boost that you're seeing in the tax capacity rate here on this slide for 2019. Be happy to take any questions anyone may have. [38:45] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Carolyn. Councilmember Leifeld. [38:50] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** Oh, unmuted. I was just checking. [39:00] **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Yes thank you your honor. Request for Melanie Lammers. Melanie, can you send this report so we can see it? I'm looking here at the agenda item and it was not included in the agenda item but I think council members should have a copy of that. Is that possible? **Melanie Lammers:** Absolutely yes. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Okay thank you. Thank you your honor. [39:55] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Your Honor? This is Councilmember Fox [Folch]. Thank you your honor. Prior to our council meeting we had about a 40-minute conversation and that being the Finance Committee of the council, which in attendance was myself and Councilmember Vaughn, and we heard a more in-depth presentation that was provided by Miss Stutzman and had the ability to ask more detailed constructive questions of staff. And I would like to [40:23] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** say that I've been very impressed with our city's finance staff the last three years, three and a half years that I've been on the council and it's wonderful to hear reassuring words from these independent audits that finding just minor little you know issues that they catch—there were four—but as we talked them all through they were what anyone would consider probably minor issues and staff were well aware and they were working towards reducing or completely eliminating those audit findings from future years. And so I just wanted to say thank you to Miss Lammers and other finance related staff in the great work [41:09] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** that you do on our behalf. And and thank you Miss Stutzman for your presentation. [41:25] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay any other discussion council? I would accept a motion to accept the 2019 comprehensive annual financial report. **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Your Honor, this is Councilmember Fox and I'll make that motion. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay. Councilmember Fox. I guess Councilmember Vaughn, is that a second you were unmuting for? **Councilmember Vaughn:** Second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Vaughn second. Any other discussion? Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. [42:05] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. And thank you to Carolyn and Melanie for your efforts. Proposed City Council workshop on diversity equity and inclusion, decided to be presented by City Administrator Dan Wietecha. Welcome Dan. [42:41] **Dan Wietecha:** Thank you Mayor. Really just very briefly as you're all aware, over the last four or five years the city has put some efforts towards diversity equity and inclusion and I believe still have an ongoing commitment in that area. But in light of a lot of recent social interest, two of the council members reached out—could we have a workshop more further discuss these topics? So that's really what's before you tonight: would you like to have a workshop? Are there any particular parameters that you might want on that workshop or what might be included with it? I would also point out that Derek [43:26] **Dan Wietecha:** Jagger the YMCA and Thrive on who we've worked with previously in some of this has said that he can help facilitate that workshop in order to help make sure that it's more than just a discussion but there's some result or action steps to help come out of it. So that's what's before you. I can certainly stand for questions or Councilmember Fox or Councilmember Balsanek might have. [44:05] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** I see your honor. The last year or two I had been suggested during council conversations that the city take on an initiative that's provided by the League of Minnesota Cities—it's called GARE. That stands for Government Alliance for Race and Equity. It's a national program and the League makes the program available to cities across the state. And I won't go into a lot of the details in regards to that but it is a training opportunity both for staff and elected officials that they provide background information so that we can understand where we have come from as a society and then more in particular as what government has done to impact race and you know imbalances. It's just it's fascinating to listen to and then to really understand how important it is for government entities to have strong [44:58] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** policies you know in regards and being forward-thinking about how it is that what we do impacts minority populations and such. And so I would like for that conversation to go on and learn more about how it is that we could perhaps as a city take on the GARE program. There's more to it than that but it's a really wonderful—I've been to a couple of the trainings personally and I think that it's well worth that. Then also I have been to many of the Thrive meetings and I know that there were a number of suggestions that came out of Thrive in the end that were things that the city could do to take on [45:43] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** and we haven't had that chance as a city to look at what some of those recommendations were and how it is in what it is that we could do to begin to implement some of those things. And so what I'm really interested in more so is what is that the city can be doing to be more forward-thinking in regards to how our policies and our practices impact minority populations. You know separately is issue of doing like a training quote-unquote with staff and elected officials you know on the topic is background information. And I know that there are a few of us—Councilmember Leifeld, Mayor Fasbender, Councilmember Braucks—who had been you know in attendance of the [46:30] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Thrive. And so I think some—I know that you know some of us have been more active and participating in those local initiatives and so I'm not sure if we all need to come up to the same level of understanding. I would suggest that if we talked about GARE that would be an opportunity for everyone to kind of get on a level foundational basis and doing that. So anyhow just throwing out there some thoughts about how it is maybe that we could proceed on this particular topic thanks. [47:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Fox. Councilmember Balsanek. [47:20] **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Yes thank you your honor. We're not in a void in terms of understanding and appreciating and doing things about diversity. Over the years the Council has had workshop sessions and I think it's important to point out that our Police Department, our Fire Department, our EMS department and our city staff in general have had workshop sessions over the years. So this is not something where we're starting out from scratch. I would—before I go any further—I'd like to move that we accept the proposal for a workshop on diversity [48:07] **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** equity and inclusion. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Balsanek. I have a second and the motion on the floor. **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Provide a second. However, I mean again it's really you know what does that mean? I mean it like personally I don't—I'm sorry I thought I still had the floor—go ahead go ahead that's for a second. [48:45] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Yeah, again it would be more specifically as to what it is that we're proposing. If it's just a training just to you know like understand the content that's one thing, but what frustrates me in the past is when we have a conversation about a topic and I feel like we're all beginning to become more educated and then we don't have follow-through action items that are identified and then we continue to you know strategically stay on those follow-through items. And so you know honest to god I feel very unsympathetic to staff right now—I think we're all really stressed when it comes to Covid 19 and the impacts that it's having to staff and us as individuals and our families and such. And so I don't feel that I want—I personally don't want to ask anything that is far-reaching for staff. I think that it's thoughtful for us to begin to plan I just think that we should be very respectful of just everything else that's going on in life right now as we're moving forward. And so I'm not—I don't think that we should do something tomorrow but I think that we should schedule it and make plans forward into the future thanks. [49:55] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Fox. Councilmember Balsanek did you want to say something else? [50:00] **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Yes thank you your honor. This workshop would be only for the City Council. With some correspondence with our city administrator we felt it was best to leave it in that narrow vein and and then Dan can do some things as necessary with the staff as we go along. I would like to thank Leah Heating who my daughter who's a teacher at Hastings Middle School has called one of the finest students to ever graduate from Hastings High School for her diligence and very in-depth questions and comments that have led us to this particular point of the proposed workshop. It's citizens like this who are integral and important and valued in terms of doing things right and pointing things out that the city perhaps should take advantage of. Thank you your honor. [51:25] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Balsanek. Still need a second and the motion on the floor. **Councilmember Jen Fox:** I made the second point sorry. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay that's all right. Any additional discussion Council? Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. [51:45] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Motion prevails thank you. I'll have an update on financial impact of Covid 19. Administrator Dan Wietecha. [52:15] **Dan Wietecha:** This information really is really just meant to be informational. I see if he had any particular questions or comments. At this point there's no action item on this. Really it's a matter of—there's just a lag in getting the actual numbers they pending they get into the accounting system. A lot of transactions occurred by credit card so there's another month delay on the statement. So as we started to get a handle on expenditures related to Covid as well as on some the just financial differences April 2020 versus April 2019, we wanted you to have that information as it became available for us and just timely for your future consideration. [53:15] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Okay thank you and then do you want to go back to the pandemic preparedness plan? [53:27] **Dan Wietecha:** Thank you. Maybe it's not everything with being and changing and adapting every day but the governor's recent executive order number 74 which came out about a week ago—we've gonna have to go for the provisions in it referred to critical sector businesses needing to have a preparedness plan by June 29th. The other piece that that may exist—and the city falls into that category of critical business piece it makes it difficult is the state guidance on what that plan would be required to have in it is supposed to be posted online no later than today, the 15th. At least as of 1:20 this afternoon it was enough yet. So in order to know League of Minnesota Cities recommendation of having this adapted by the City Council there was no way that it was going to have a draft and reviewed by date by staff from an operational standpoint and included in packets that went out last Thursday for a meeting tonight. It just the timeline doesn't work. [55:10] **Dan Wietecha:** But what the League of Cities advise is that adoption preparation and adoption of that plan could be voted and authorized by the City Council to delegate back to the city administrator—myself—obviously working with staff to make sure that it meets operational needs. It's something that in staff meetings—maybe not in terms of a return to the workplace discussion—but it's something that we've been discussing in our staff meetings in action personal protective equipment. But it comes down to how do we provide a safe environment for our employees, safe workplace, as well as a place that's safe for the public come in visit our buildings and departments but with that really the request is that you would authorize. [56:35] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Dan. Council, any questions? **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Your Honor? This is Councilmember Fox. Thank you your honor. Thank you Dan. I understand that the league did—or sorry—you can find that template to use; I think was on the DOLI website, that's where I had seen it. And I understand that it's kind of a tight timeframe and you've been working on it all along anyhow or it's just putting into into a formal template and so I would in a moment I'll make a motion in regards to that. But I had a question in regards to the finances and so it's my understanding that that the local governments can apply for FEMA [57:10] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** assistance and I believe it's the Police Department who's the contact on that for expenditures in regards to Covid 19 for additional supplies and staffing and such. And he had also looked at the guidance in it and said that grants that were made available for small businesses are eligible for reimbursement. And so I'm curious—as you're providing some of this information I see that Hydro isn't listed and I understand that they're considered a separate entity—but I was wondering if you can speak to what staff is planning to do in regards to preparing for a federal reimbursement request. Thanks. [57:58] **Dan Wietecha:** There's a few pieces done back in there so let me see if I can get one. I'd point out we—the city—has already received two grants, one through the state and one federal to benefit the ambulance EMT aspects of the Fire Department as I believe were about 18,000. And in terms of other reimbursement the FEMA does provide historically public assistance for different leagues of natural disaster type thing like tornado or a hurricane and this makes me eligible under that. And since since the start the county's Emergency Operations Center has been coordinated with mostly police departments in order to submit for reimbursement through FEMA if that's appropriate and we've set up our website portal in order to submit those if that's the way we go forward. [59:15] **Dan Wietecha:** We're deliberately holding off because there's potentially some other funding that may be more beneficial than the FEMA funding. FEMA funding is typically at 75% reimbursement. If we are eligible for CARES Act funding, it's at 100%. The FEMA funding on wage reimbursement typically is only for overtime; the CARES Act funding is regular hours not just overtime. The FEMA has some pretty hefty application procedures in paperwork. The CARES Act, although we need to have some record-keeping, it's extremely streamlined and almost just "here's a bag of money spend it appropriately and hope you don't get [1:00:20] **Dan Wietecha:** audited." Now if you do get audited you should be fine because you spent it appropriately and you got some record keeping. But really the potential on this CARES Act money is much easier to work with and a hundred percent reimbursement versus seventy five percent reimbursement so we've been holding out to see if that would be eligible for the city before we submitted anything. That's still an option but it looks like during a special session at the legislature they are working on it and will be releasing CARES Act money to cities and [1:01:08] **Dan Wietecha:** counties. It's federal initially, federal money given to the state and then the state could choose to keep all of it or it could choose to release a portion of it to cities and counties. There are a number of requirements by the federal on what it can be used for but since it's a pass-through from the state, the state could put additional requirements on or tighten up what it might be allowed for. At this point it looks like what's being discussed at the legislature is very consistent with federal guidelines so it really could be very useful for the city. You had asked about—you said [1:01:57] **Dan Wietecha:** that none of the head releases were on the spreadsheet and that's really a matter of kind of that stretching through the end of April. I think those grants were done in May so they just didn't show up on that sheet. But one of the eligible uses of the CARES Act money on the federal side is grants to small businesses directly related to the Covid and assisting with their closure or assisting with their ability to reopen. So I would expect of the hundred seventeen, hundred eighty thousand dollars of grant money that the city gave as assistance to a number of our businesses could be entirely reimbursed. We're still waiting on it coming through the state; on the FEMA side that's not even an option. [1:02:50] **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Terrific thank you for that explanation Dan I appreciate it and I'll make a motion to authorize staff to move forward and preparing their pandemic plans as required by the executive order thanks. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** I'll second that. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Balsanek. Additional council discussion? Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. [1:03:50] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Motion prevails thanks Dan. We have done for—so Dan if you want to speak to the internal financial services part just give us an update what happened today. Okay. Kelly [Julie], welcome. [1:04:17] **Kelly Murtaugh (Assistant City Administrator):** Thank you. Thank you Mayor, councilmember. So tonight we're asking you to authorize staff to work with IEM financial solutions to provide financial services prior to Finance Manager Melanie Lammers' last day of July 6th. So since Melanie gave a resignation notice we've been working on a transition plan when we've identified several items outside of the day-to-day operations that will be happening in the next few months and we believe there's that staff capacity to absorb this work within the finance department. So some of these items include the development of the 2021 budget, issuance of debt for the street reconstruction project, then finalizing the utility rate study review and analysis. [1:05:03] **Kelly Murtaugh:** So we've reached out to several firms and are recommending that we work on a contract that they provide these services and fill suitable replacement can be hired. So we're still finalizing their contract but with the next council meeting not taking place until July 6th—which is Melanie's last day—we're asking to begin this work while Melanie is still here just for the week. So this work we'd be billed on an hourly basis and you've said enough to exceed $6,500 and we anticipate they'll be salary savings to cover this when Melanie the part says a new finance manager likely won't start at the top of the fuel so I can stand for any questions okay. [1:05:45] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Kelly [Julie]. Discussion council? **Councilmember Jen Fox:** Your Honor? Apparently Councilmember Fox. I would just like to thank Melanie for her—has it been four years of service now? Three or four years of service? Three? It looks like that you've done excellent work and we appreciate you Melanie so thank you and I'll make a motion to authorize staff to proceed in negotiations for this for the supplemental professional technical work. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Great thank you. Councilmember Fox. I'll second that. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Thank you Councilmember Balsanek. Discussion? Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. [1:06:50] **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Motion prevails and Melanie yes thank you for your years of service to us and we wish you well. Council, do any announcements? **Councilmember Vaughn:** [Inaudible] it's set for a reason okay. **Councilmember Joe Balsanek:** Alright. [Pause] [1:07:20] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** I have a couple. Well several downtown establishments have created or extended their outdoor dining spaces. They are also many additional options nearby for you to enjoy curbside carry out meals. Helpful parking, parks, and public spaces map is now on the city website. The fourth annual Make Music Day will be a live stream event on June 21st and performances from 2:30 to 7:30. And Thrive Thursday will be teleconference event about racial justice—listening to community voices—on Thursday June 18th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. See your—see the Thrive in Hastings Facebook page for details. In-person absentee voting starts Friday June 26th 8 a.m. to 4:30 here at City Hall or at Dakota County Administration Center on D. We have a—I'm sorry—Tuesday June 16th we have a Heritage Preservation Commission meeting and 7:00 p.m. Thursday June 18th the Public Safety Advisory Commission meeting has been cancelled. Monday June 22nd Planning Commission 7:00 p.m. July 6th is our next City Council meeting. Council, I would look to have a motion to adjourn please. [1:09:00] **Councilmember Lisa Leifeld:** So moved. **Councilmember Vaughn:** Okay second. **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Councilmember Vaughn. Clerk Flatten, please call the roll. **City Clerk (Clara Flatten):** [Calls Roll] **Mayor Mary Fasbender:** Yes. Motion prevails. Everyone stay safe. Good evening thanks I'm good wait take care bye-bye.