you you you good evening ladies and gentlemen it is now 5:30 and I will call this regular meeting of the Burnsville City Council to order it is our tradition to stand for a moment of silence and then we invite you to join us for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence today it is a very special day because we have the Girl Scouts here and it is the spirit week for the Girl Scouts and I would like for them to come up front and to lead us to stand first for a moment of silence and then leaders and in in the in our Pledge of Allegiance okay so we will all stand for a moment of silence and the flag is over to your right over there okay so let's all be silent for a moment before we say the Pledge okay I believe just to give the play 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 thank you so much girls you can take a seat and now we have some announcements and we have two proclamations our announcements have to do with all of our upcoming meetings council meetings are scheduled for Tuesday October 8th at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday October 22nd at 5:30 p.m. we have work sessions also scheduled Tuesday October 15 at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday October 29th at 5:30 p.m. we're in the midst of budgets we're always in budgets but this is the run-up to our budget adoption in December so here are the here's the schedule file budget today we will be adopting the maximum tax levy and then we will have a budget work session on Tuesday October 29th at 5:30 p.m. another budget work session on Tuesday November 12th at 5:30 p.m. and then we will adopt the tax levy in the budget on December 3rd at 6 p.m. and everyone is invited to join us at our council meetings if you so desire or you can watch us on TV as well so we have two proclamations one is for the Girl Scout spirit week Proclamation and the others for manufacturing week and I'm going to do it from that side so I'm going to first do the manufacturers week Proclamation because when we do the Girl Scouts then we would like everybody all the girls to come up and get the proclamation okay and then if you want to take pictures that would be wonderful also great so we'll do manufacturing week October 1st through the 7 2019 whereas manufacturing is a dynamic and robust industry crucial to the health and strength of Minnesota's diverse economy and whereas manufacturing added 50 2.7 billion to Minnesota's economy in 2018 representing the second largest contribution 14% to the state's gross domestic product by any industry and whereas workers took home twenty one point six billion dollars in wages from Minnesota manufacturing jobs in 2018 the second largest total payroll among private sector industries and whereas manufactured exports brought 21 billion into the Minnesota economy in 2018 and whereas manufacturing in Minnesota pays an average annual wage of 67,000 ninety-eight dollars which is 15 percent higher than the state's overall average wage and whereas manufacturing provides 322,000 highly skilled well-paying jobs which significantly contribute to Minnesota's high standard of living and economic vitality now therefore i Elizabeth Kouts Mayor of the City of Burnsville on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim October 1st to October 7 2000 and 19 as manufacturing week proclaim this 17th day of September 2019 and now the proclamation for a Girl Scout spirit week 2019 whereas 19:12 Girl Scouting has filled the leadership pipeline in our communities by preparing and inspiring millions of girls and women to be active leaders with the highest ideals of character conduct and patriotism and whereas throughout its long and distinguished history Girl Scouts has been the preeminent leadership development organization for girls where they can unleash their potential to be leaders our world needs both now and in the future Girl Scouts expertise and timeless programming offers every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership in a girl led girl focused at all girl environment and whereas through Girl Scouting girls gain courage confidence and character to meet their local communities and the world a better place girls get exposure to new experiences in science technology engineering and math the outdoors and entrepreneurship through Girl Scouts unique programs and whereas 28,000 local Girl Scout members and 9,000 volunteers will be celebrating a hundred and seven years of this American tradition and its contributions to the community now therefore i Elizabeth Cowlitz Mayor of the City of Burnsville on behalf of the city council do hereby applaud the commitment Girl Scouting has made to America's girls and proudly proclaim the week of September 16 through the 22nd 2019 to be Girl Scout spirit week proclaimed on the 17th day of September 2019 all right girls would you come up and receive the proclamation okay now what we're also going to do girls we're all going to stand over there and take a picture I think everybody your mom's and everybody so you want to turn around so they can all see your pretty faces but we're going to go over here Rick so everybody so we can be with the City Council [Music] [Applause] the next item on the agenda is citizens comments this is the opportunity for anyone in the audience to address the council on a item that is not in the printed agenda and not an application form that will be coming before us at a future date does anyone want to address the council anyone seeing no one we will move on the mix is additions to the final agenda and this is for emergency items only miss McCauley are there any emergency items to be added to the agenda there are not madam mayor thank you members of the council very good we are at the consent agenda the consent agenda is a group of items that's considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion however an item on a consent agenda can be removed for a separate discussion and vote is there anyone in the audience who wishes an item on the consent agenda to be removed for a separate discussion and vote anyone who wishes an item to be removed miss McCauley no madam mayor members of the council may I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda please second there's a motion and a second all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and the motion carries we are at item on the regular agenda and the first item is a public hearing this is 5a and this is to approve off sale liquor license for starworld liquor LLC doing business as bluemax liquors located at 1 4 6 4 0 10th Avenue and our city clerk Michelle Collins is presenting miss Collins thank you madam mayor city council this is a new an application for a new owner for the Blue Max liquors and starworld liquor as you said an investigation was conducted on the principles involved nothing was found to deny the application the this approval tonight is conditional upon receiving all state approvals and this is a public hearing I stand for any questions any questions for Miss Collins ok thank you I will open the public hearing is there anyone who wishes to address the council on this issue seeing no one I will close the public hearing council your pleasure councilmember Kia makes the motion second by councilmember workman yes and then discussion miss Schultz so on these public hearings especially where there is a public hearing simply because there is a new manager this is something that I'm hoping we will be taking a look at for the future to see if this is an unnecessary layer of what we're doing for compliance it's not like city council interviews these managers knows who they are anything like that it's very pro forma so it's questionable as to if if we would do this or continue to do this and how this interacts with state licensing and the role of city government so I just wanted to interject there that this is something that we are hopefully as a council and our city manager and staff will be looking at for the future okay and mr. Jam Nick our attorney will also take a look at it and see what state statute has to say about this okay if there is nothing else we have a motion and a second all in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay motion carries the next is also a public hearing and this is to approve of wine 32% on sale liquor license for Taco John Mexican Grill LLC doing business as Taco John Mexican Grill this is located at 1 4 6 3 5 County Road 11 and miss Collins yes thank you very mu this application is for a new what we refer to as a wine and beer license for a new restaurant on County Road 11 there next to the Devon E's in the Devon a strip mall location Taco John Mexican Grill all the investigations have been concluded on the principles involved nothing has been found to deny the license this license is also conditional upon any state approvals that are required this is a public hearing I stand for any questions any questions for Miss Collins ok this is a public hearing I will now open a public hearing is there anyone who wishes to speak to this item anyone who wishes to speak to this item closed the public hearing members of the council your pleasure second there is a motion in a second all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and emotion carries thank you the next item is an application of Dean and Barbara Johnson holdings for a Planned Unit development amendment for exterior materials and landscaping deviations located at 1 4 0 for County Road 42 West to adopt the ordinance and findings of fact miss Arnold our planner is presenting miss Arnold's good evening thank you madam mayor good evening members of the council and so this subject site it's zoned b3 plan unit development the proposed plan unit development amendment is related to the use of a nun impregnated concrete masonry unit as well as some landscaping deviations related to the installation of trees at the September 9th Planning Commission meeting the Commission was comfortable with the deviation related to landscaping due to the site's limited space for mature trees as they develop and its topography the Commission's recommendation to differ from staff related to the exterior materials request the applicant and the Commission did discuss the facade the side of the building and they reached a compromise to prime and paint with the concrete masonry unit and continued the stone veneer along the base of the building and as is on the front the findings of fact within your package and the recommendation here do reflect the Commission's a majority recommendation of approval of the plan unit development amendment with the language of condition 1 as discussed by the applicant and the Planning Commission at their meeting thank you okay any questions of miss Arnold it appears that all have has been reconciled yes so there are no issues okay members of the council your pleasure councilmember Gustafson makes the motion second by councilmember Katie all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and the motion carries the next item is a public hearing and this is a resolution to adopt the first half of the 2019 code enforcement assessment mr. Chris foresman our licensing and code enforcement coordinators presenting mr. porcelain welcome good evening madam mayor and councilmembers this is the public hearing for the first half 2019 code enforcement assessments special assessments these fees are typically those that involved charges that the city has incurred for mowing properties for property maintenance items things along that line this is a cost recovery program and is intended to recover those cost of the city incurs to perform these services the this period is from January 1 to July 30th 2019 and isn't included in this council adopted when we send out notices we send it out to the affected property owners through our notices of violation they're giving at least 2 to 3 notices and strongly encouraged to contact us if they have any questions on anything Council adopted this resolution declaring the COS and calling for this public hearing on August 5th 2019 the notices of this hearing were sent to the affected property owners on August 23rd and in that detail that if there's any unpaid fees for code violations it they had the right to object at that point this notice also invited all property owners to an open house that we had on September 4th 2019 to discuss their violations and any fees that had accrued up to this point we had one person show up and would resolve one through the telephone perhaps tonight any property owners wishing to object need to sign ahead of time and so or they can waive the right to appeal at the time of this middle I don't believe we received any formal objections and I'm happy to say that this is my 13th time up here in front of the council for special assessments and we have a total for this first half of the year of only 5920 dollars that we did not collect and I'd really like to emphasize this was through a lot of extra effort by staff to work with residents to talk them through these and to explain them what law requires and I'd also like to say I believe it'd be a lot of extra effort by all the property owners understanding what the codes require and calling us in advance is which is exactly what we want to do so happy with that so from Friday or Thursday when we received the packet it was 7000 and you reconciled 2,000 of those between then and now yes as of two o'clock today was 6255 and then this evening you said it was five thousand I was an hour ago yeah so one of the things that when we started this program and I know how much it was so would you tell everybody when we started this program way back and it was because the neighborhood's were becoming very tired and depressed and our real estate folks were not happy with the looks of the neighborhood and we had some flight so how much was that first assessment if I recall correctly I want to say around 35,000 air so we've come a long ways and a lot of that is educating people again and on what they need to do and I I think a lot of people have really taken that part and I think the community looks a lot better when we got here yeah and I think one of the things that happened also is that a lot of the people did not know that we had a property maintenance ordinance and once they found out they complied that continues to be the case okay members of the council councilmember Keeley I also want to point out the what really triggered this whole thing because we were working with property owners for years but we had a slumlord apartment owner that I believe was the real spark that lit this fire to put this department in place and obviously it ended up having to be shut down and taken to court before they finally got out of their slumlord ways and cleaned their act up and made the place inhabitable and reopened eventually but prior to that I think we worked with everyone just the way you're doing today and we've got a lot of compliance I'm not so sure it was all about the neighborhoods and how they looked and more about a really bad situation with an apartment complex yeah councilmember Schulz I first of all let me say that I appreciate the work that you and your apartment your department does you are doing exactly what counsel has been directing you to do for a length of time now and and you've been doing it to the best of your abilities and I absolutely know that you do work with our residents and I do hear back on that I will be voting abstain the reason why I will be voting to abstain on this is because I believe with the the history behind it with councilmember Keely highlighted which was this was something that was created to target to one very specific situation and now has just been allowed to continue in ongoing I'm hopeful that we as a council can come up with a better direction and a different way to interact with our residents in the future and to start going away from more of the proactive code enforcement's because we've been through the city you you guys have been very thorough you've done an excellent job and so I think we're we're at a point now where we can have different different priorities and so I'm very excited for that and I am excited for the conversation that we as the council will be having about that so I wanted to explain my vote in advance thank you very much is there anything any other questions per mr. Forstmann if not members of the council I need a motion oh it is a it is a public hearing I'm looking at the wrong thing okay I was looking at a resolution this is a public hearing is there anyone who wishes to address the council on this item anyone who wishes to address the council on this item seeing no one I will close the public hearing members of the council your pleasure would approve them second councilmember Gustafson makes the motion second by council member kellyo in favor please say aye opposed say nay and motion carries thank you mr. fortune then one abstention thank you Thank You mr. porcelain and we are now an item five E and five years of resolution to establish the proposed budget the 2020 proposed tax levy and the authorizing cancellation of certain deferred tax levies mrs. Caleigh stri our finance director is presenting this evening and she has been presenting since June at least tonight you won't have two and a half hours so you can have your voice thank you thank you madam mayor members of the council tonight we have we are about the midpoint of our budget process as madam mayor referred to we had a meeting last week a council work session where we discussed at length the options for the maximum tax that you will need to adopt tonight you are required by law to adopt a maximum tax that goes on the preliminary property tax levies that property owners will receive from Dakota County in November you may go down from that number but you may not go up from that number through the rest of the budget process so this process began in June and it will be finalized in December when you adopt the final budget and CIP tonight you have three items to take care of tonight the city levy you have a resolution for the city levy that also includes cancellation of some deferred tax levies that's a kind of a technicality for Dakota County to set our higher debt taxes and then also the Economic Development Authority will need to adopt the EDA levy and then will return back to the City Council meeting to approve the EDA levy as the City Council we always take a look at the city levy and the EDA levy together to be as transparent as possible you because you have control over both of those levies so this year we did some proposed changes between the city and EDA funding which increases the city levy with an offsetting reduction in the EDA levy so that is why you are seeing a higher amount in the city levy and a negative decrease in the EDA levy in total it is a 2.1 million dollar change in the levy which represents six percent of total levies last year and as I mentioned the first thing we'll do is the city resolution and then moving on to the EDA meeting and then city council resumes for questions any questions for mr. Ike members of the council I need a motion to adopt the resolution establishing the proposed budget the 2020 proposed tax levy and authorizing the cancellation of certain deferred tax levies no proof yes I have you councilmember Gustafson makes the motion and did I hear a second second by councilmember Keeley council member we are at discussion council member Keeley we had our kind of our public airing of our prison after a two-and-a-half-hour wonderful presentation best budget presentation we've had since I've been on council thank you very much for that this budget is get numbers that I have yet to ever see since I've said at the Dyess related to a tax increase the two million dollar number is what we control the percent is just what it is when you divide it into our total tax pie as we refer to and at 6% it is not something that I certainly would have ever wanted but there are extenuating circumstances that are all sort of coming together this year that would be near impossible to overcome unless we just plan out said okay we're gonna cut this department and stop doing this as a city and I think it's fair to say that over the last 1012 years we have been a very very physical prudent counsel not every year but most years in fact going back to 2010 during the recession we cut 20 full-time equivalent positions and cut three and a half million dollars out of her budget over a couple years and then another million in a year before a year after that it was four to half million accrued over a couple of years but and we really right-sized the city to focus on clean and safe and we were very lean and mean and we stayed that way we stayed at the same level of employees for a long time and I certainly was very proud of the work we did because it certainly met my expectations and my goals to become a council member to run a fiscally prudent City then we come up to when we need more economic development staff like where there's a lot of cranes in the air as as council member gustn likes to say and I to share that opinion and a lot of inspections to do for not for proactive property maintenance but plumbing electrical building etc because we have so much building going on so our economic development department which was framed with a staffing structure to basically support almost no economic development you know inspecting some remodels and a few things suddenly get an onslaught of all these projects and overwhelmed very quickly so a little bit over time going on there now but we need to fix that and we need to adjust that in a couple different ways but so that comes on and then of course we chose to have a compensation study and it hasn't been done in 25 years and it needed to be done but I don't think anyone knew that it was going to result in such a huge bump in our wages to catch people up and so we really learned that through incredible physical prudence over the last ten years or so it actually that sort of probably enhanced the gap that our staff was and throughout our city throughout our entire city was being paid compared cities and so compensation studies showing a shine a bright light on that gap and we have to take care of it so we're doing it over a few years we did a little bit last year we're doing a lot more this year and and it is something we have to do because we're we've put ourselves in a position where we don't know choice but it's not that these people didn't deserve that they do and we're certainly in a better time now than ten years ago when we were very very tight on budgets and so we have that and we have other cost drivers normal you know when when people work hard and they do a good job they expect there an annual raise they don't like to make the same money year after year and go backwards as inflation does grow a little bit and eat into their income and health benefits aren't going down so we all fight fight this in our private sector jobs and the city has the same challenge I will note something that I I want to I don't I haven't heard this lately but I want to make sure that everyone really hears us very clearly this city many many many years ago went to more of a high deductible type of health plan which reminds me of the 80s when I was working back in the eighties was all 80/20 there was no $10 copay go to any doctor as much as you wanted those plans from many many years ago got replaced in this city and we were one of the first cities I think to do it with these major medical plans to mitigate the cost to the city taxpayers and to the employees and I think that was the right move but those costs continue to go up every year just like any private sector group health plan so those are the biggest driver of this then you add on the compensation study you add on some additional investment in Edie and you add on some things that we need to fix in the city because some things are getting old and you know you have a you have a very large percent increase one that I honestly never thought I'd ever even you know be in a position to have to justify but there are extenuating circumstances that are hitting us this year so as much as I don't like signing off on and supporting a 6% levy increase though all the work that staff is down over the last year and they've listened very closely to all of us on council and I write and our input to be able to restructure some things like the loss of half a million although it's becoming a little less than that because the trash going to the dump is is increasing but losing a half million dollars on a fairly short notice of tipping fees a host piece definitely caused us to have to make a shift last year and more shifts to get things in the right place in the right enterprise fund and funded by the franchise fee for our infrastructure of like our buildings our facilities I don't wanna say infrastructure to loosely facilities I think it's all the right moves and it's all being done and it's kind of coming all to head this year so I do expect to see a better number a lower number next year and I expect to see an even lower number in the ensuing years as all this economic development comes to pay off and bring us some expanded tax base and we're able to look at numbers more than a 3% or 4% range and work on that rather than dealing with what we had so this is a this is a not an easy thing for me to do but I'm going to support as a second emotion support because I understand all the numbers I understand where all the money is going and I understand why it is going and why it is the number that it is and and so I think we're in the best interest of the city taking care of the assets and doing the right thing for our employees this is a let's swallow this pill this year and move on so with that thank you very much Mary one of the things that you didn't mention it's because we moved one point something from the decertification of the heart of the city one point over to the general fund so actually in reality it's less than 6% the money is there it's about four percent some six or something yeah right yeah and so it really really but you made good points with regard to the things that we've been doing we continue to work hard to deliver for our citizens what they expect of us and to ensure that we keep their assets maintained and improved so this is what we're doing and we say in our values that we treasure our employees and we have not done a good job of doing that and we are doing that now through the compensation study and we are right sizing our compensation for our people and yes you're correct we have expenses that we do not have control over they come to us and we need to make sure that we meet those expenses as well so councilmember workman so it's not six don't even shift come to mind and thank you for your institutional knowledge on all of this I just maybe I'm asking her declaring a point of reference here that this vote is to set the max tax and that we're not actually voting on a finalized budget right now correct it's December when we found we adopt a budget so I just wanted to clarify that because it was a very compelling statement by councilmember Keely but it sounded that serious didn't they well okay councilmember Keeley thank you madam mayor just one point I am NOT ever going to give up the pursuit of driving down the cost of government and here's I want to make this statement now because as we see that the pie get bigger and these new tax revenues come in for the last 13 years I think I've seen point four or 0.5 I don't think I've ever seen anything bigger than 0.5% of new money meaning if we had a cost drivers for 4% on existing taxpayers and there was new money of a half a percent it would be net three and a half percent on the existing taxpayers when these projects hit the tax rolls and I'll say again please Dakota County come up to the 2019 technology here and let's cut a year off of that two-year lag the that's new money and we levy a dollar amount so if our levy is going to go up by X but we get you know y&z in I want that money to go back to a reduction in the levy I will not be looking for ways to spend that new revenue when it comes in I will be looking for that new money to reduce existing tax payers burden and so that's the return on investment that I'm looking at for a year like this it's going to come back in two years three years four years five years every year after that actually as long as these projects continue to come in it will come back in a larger than a half percent hopefully something in the tune of a one and a half to two percentage points of reduction on existing taxpayers Thank You councilmember Schultz much of I mean we did have a thorough discussion of this at the at the work session a few things I would like to point out and I do think residents deserve an explanation because this is one of our more important votes that we take this vote in the in the budget vote are two of the most important you know decisions that we make as City Council members and so residents do deserve not just to know what our vote is but why we're voting the way that we're voting so that they can make an evaluation you know is this the type of representation that they're looking for my concern is that while we have a great credit rating and I do not fall out to staff at all for their budgeting because they're they're doing again what we're asking them to do none of that I have any fault with whatsoever but I am looking into the future and it's not just you know you don't want to look at just this year next year and the next year you want to look at what is the trajectory that we're on and when we're looking at the trajectory that we're on with you know some of those hard areas that take up the majority of the budget that really aren't going to change and those things are you know how much do you do you pay your staff and what are the benefits and and you alluded as well to the raising cost of benefits and those types of things maintaining our facilities and infrastructure our court facilities those types of things that is all projected to continue to increase so I have a question of sustainability and is it sustainable to regularly have these types of levy increases is that something that we can just keep doing ad infinitum and we've been doing it and they are projected in the future that we will have future levy increases this high higher and slightly lower so we are seeing those projections that that is what what will be requested and we are having this levy increase proposed levy increased at the same time that we will be proposing the quadrupling of our franchise fees which is every person pays you know whether you're a resident of business and nonprofit that type of thing and we're looking at quadrupling that and if we if we weren't it would be asking for an even higher property tax levy increase at the same time home values are going up and staff has noted that it is expected that homes will have on an average a 5% increase in the valuation of their home so that's all coming into it as well so for these reasons because I would like us to start having more discussions on sustainability of budget and you know these these things are not easy conversations and they're not fun and they're rather painful and we also need to hear from residents on what they're looking for from us as a city what services do you think absolutely have to be provided what infrastructure absolutely has to be there what are your expectations so that we can do that and we can do it to the absolute best of our abilities it is for that reason that I will be voting no ok very good are there any other comments if not members of council I need a motion and it was made and it was made by councilmember Gustafson second by councilmember Keely all in favor please say aye aye opposed say nay nay and the clerk a subdivision of the house thank you I will now recess the Burnsville City Council meeting so the Economic Development Authority can convene Thank You president Gustafson I call over the Economic Development Authority are there any additions to the final agenda please let the record show all commissioners are present we will move on to the consent agenda I need a motion motion motion by Commissioner Keeley second second by Commissioner workman all in favor all right passes on to our regular agenda we have one thing on it and it's the resolution authorizing the proposal levy of a special benefit levy pursuant to Minnesota statute section four six nine point zero three three subdivision six and approval of a proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 and is our presenter as well I don't have really anything to add other than the total amount of this EDA levy would be 197 five hundred which is a decrease of 545,000 there are any questions we need a motion motion to approve motion by Commissioner Keeley second second by Commissioner cow it's all in favor passes for one we have nothing else on the agenda there's no miscellaneous so I need a motion to adjourn Marsha to adjourn second sir Keighley motion to adjourn we sure went to adjourn old favor and we go back to the City Council met America thank you because of my burger sub Senate I will now reconvene the Burnsville City Council meeting and we are at five g 5g is the resolution to approve a proposed tax levy by the Burnsville Economic Development Authority for taxes payable 2020 this is the action that we ratify the actions of the EDA may I have a motion please Orson to a second councilmember Q makes the motion second by councilmember Gustafson all in favor please say aye I oppose say nay and the court has the division of the house okay thank you members of the council there are no other items to come before us this evening and a motion to adjourn a second there is a motion to adjourn by council member t lee ii by councilmember Gustafson all in favor please say aye opposed say nay and the motion carries good night and thank you for being with us