[0:00] [Music] [0:36] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, good evening. We'll call this meeting to order for the November 9th, 2023, Apple Valley City Council meeting. Uh, welcome everyone. Uh, before we get started, any members of the audience who have signed up to speak, when your name is called, we ask that you come forward uh so we can all hear you. Uh, the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. I would ask everyone to rise [1:22] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** and join us in the pledge. 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. All right, the next item on the agenda is to approve the agenda. And Tom, do we have any changes? [1:51] **City Administrator Tom Lawell:** Mr. Mayor, members of Council, good evening. No changes to tonight's agenda. [1:56] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** No changes. Do we have a motion to approve? [2:00] **Councilmember Goodwin:** So moved. [2:01] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [2:01] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Goodwin, a second from Councilmember Melander. All in favor indicate by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [2:07] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** And opposed? Agenda is approved. The next item is our audience participation portion of the meeting. This is for items not on the agenda. We have a total of 10 minutes for this item. I did not see anyone signed up, but would anyone like to speak to the audience participation portion? All right, seeing no one, we'll move on to the consent agenda. These items are routine and will be enacted with a single motion unless a council member or citizen requests to pull an item. Councilmembers, are there any items you would like to pull this evening? Uh, citizens, any items to pull? All right, we'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda. [2:43] **Councilmember John Bergman:** So moved. [2:45] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [2:46] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Bergman and a second from Councilmember Melander. All in favor indicate by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [2:52] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? Consent items all pass. We'll move on to our regular agenda and we have item 5A, which is an introduction of oath of office, and we have Chief Francis. As Nick makes his way forward, for family members who are here, if you're trying to get good pictures, feel free to get up, move around where you can get a good shot of this, so don't be shy. [3:04] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. Um, I've got a few folks to introduce to you today, which is always good. It's a great opportunity for us to introduce our folks not only to you as the Council but also the community as they've uh become members of our police family and now are out uh serving our community. So I'll start and uh ask Sergeant David Engel to come up. Probably a familiar face and a familiar name. Um, Sergeant Engel grew up in Apple Valley. Um, he began his law enforcement career way back when as an Apple Valley police explorer when I was actually the explorer advisor here in Apple Valley. When I was an officer, uh, David was an explorer advisor. He also uh fell in a long line of Engel firefighters uh that have served the Apple Valley Police Department. Uh, he obtained his bachelor's degree in law enforcement from Metro State University. Um, and as you recall, there's a few folks that have come before you where we said they worked with us as a community service officer, and then it was at a time when the hiring market was very tight and we did not hire officers for a little while. Um, and that that um held true for folks that were explorers with us or had a connection with us; we just did not have a lot of jobs. Uh, so uh David worked out in Marshall, Minnesota, from 2008 to 2012 as a police officer. Um, served as—did you serve as a field training officer out there? As a field training officer in his time there and um also as an EMT for North Memorial uh Ambulance Service. Uh, he came back in 2012 as a police officer um in Apple Valley and served as a patrol officer, field training officer, firearms instructor, and then also on our community impact unit. Um, he was promoted to sergeant a little while ago now here. Um, it's been quite a few months, but but we have not had the opportunity to get him in when when all the schedules work. Um, so he is working on patrol um supervising a patrol shift uh right now. Um, outside of law enforcement, he's married uh and a father who has a three-year-old daughter. Uh, he enjoys camping, hiking, and DIY projects around the house. Uh, and I'll let uh you uh explain anyone else that's here with you. [5:13] **Sergeant David Engel:** Uh, I got my wife, Amber; my daughter, Allison; my dad, Dan; and then my aunt and uncle, Don [and name unclear]. So they're here with me. [5:24] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Excellent. So um, I will invite David over to uh take his oath with the City Clerk. [5:49] **City Clerk Christina Scipioni:** I, David Engel, do solemnly swear... [5:52] **Sergeant David Engel:** I, David Engel, do solemnly swear... [5:54] **City Clerk Christina Scipioni:** ...that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Minnesota... [5:59] **Sergeant David Engel:** ...that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Minnesota... [6:04] **City Clerk Christina Scipioni:** ...and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police sergeant... [6:09] **Sergeant David Engel:** ...and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police sergeant... [6:14] **City Clerk Christina Scipioni:** ...for the city of Apple Valley, in the county of Dakota, the state of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability, so help me God. [6:26] **Sergeant David Engel:** ...for the city of Apple Valley, in the county of Dakota, the state of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability, so help me God. [6:37] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** [Applause] We have you invite whoever is gonna come up and pin your badge. Chairs are gonna get moved in. Watching from... cool. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] Thanks. [6:59] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** All right. Um, next I'll invite up Officer Mala, Officer Hogland, and Officer Lunder. Um, so we'll start with Officer Mala. Uh, she grew up in the Northfield area, uh, has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice leadership from St. Mary's University. Uh, she worked as a Dakota County park ranger and also as a community service officer here for us in Apple Valley. Um, and then went back to work for her hometown of Northfield as a police officer. Um, about a year and a half after leaving uh and going back to Northfield, um she came back to Apple Valley uh this late spring and she finished field training and is then on solo patrol. So we're super happy to have her back um and uh with us here in Apple Valley. Um, outside of law enforcement, um she stays active and busy bike riding, hiking, CrossFit, anything they can do outdoors. So um, and I'll let her explain anyone with her tonight. [7:50] **Officer Nico Mala:** Yeah, so my little fan section is over here. We'll start with my mom, Jill; my dad, Bill; my sister, Kaylee; her boyfriend, Mason; my little brother, John; my best friend, Jessica; uh, my boyfriend's mom, Mad; and then my boyfriend, Jonas. [8:09] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Excellent. Uh, we will go next with Officer Hogland. Um, Officer Justin Hogland grew up in the West St. Paul and Burnsville area, so familiar to the area down here. Uh, he joined the Army after high school and served active duty for nine years, uh, which included deployments and combat zones uh for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Uh, he continues to serve in the Army Reserves, which I think is important to note on the eve of Veterans Day here. Um, he obtained his associate's degree in police studies from uh Virginia Beach, Virginia, uh, and then after military service, he came back and obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of St. Thomas. Uh, outside of work, he's a father to a 13-year-old daughter, stays active coaching softball, uh, volunteering to support veterans, and also playing hockey. Uh, and right up your alley, yes. Right? We're working on that department hockey team, getting there. So, uh, and if Justin, if you want to explain anyone that's here. [8:54] **Officer Justin Hogland:** Uh, my grandparents in the back, my daughter, Ally, and my girlfriend, Connor. [9:02] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Excellent. Um, and third, Officer Mitch Lunder. Uh, he grew up in the New Prague area. Uh, he has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Winona State University, which is going to be helpful the next budget season when crunching the numbers. Um, and he began a career as a financial analyst and um worked in that um field for a while, and then uh worked as a police officer in Bradenton, Florida, uh for about three and a half years. Uh, he moved back to Minnesota to be close to family and friends, uh, and he's working um on patrol with us now. Outside of law enforcement, he likes to uh hunt, golf, and travel, and he's a little short on—I'll let you explain why you're a little short on family members here. [9:45] **Officer Mitch Lunder:** Uh, my cousin's playing in a Minnesota State High School football tournament, so everybody's there. [9:49] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** They can watch the recording later. [9:51] **Officer Mitch Lunder:** Yeah. Yep. [9:52] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** Uh, so I will have uh the City Clerk to come up and your oath. I can stand over there. [10:09] **City Clerk Christina Scipioni:** I, Nico Mala... I, Justin Hogland... I, Mitch Lunder... do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Minnesota, and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police officer of the city of Apple Valley, the county of Dakota, the state of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability, so help me God. [10:18] **Officers (Mala, Hogland, Lunder):** I, [Name], do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Minnesota, and faithfully discharge the duties of the office of police officer of the city of Apple Valley, the county of Dakota, the state of Minnesota, to the best of my judgment and ability, so help me God. [10:39] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** [Applause] Whoever's gonna pin the badges on to come up. I get to do the rare honor tonight. Oh look, we got... no yeah, go ahead. You got Dad. That wasn't... [Laughter] Nice. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Nobody's supposed to go on the inside. [12:18] **Police Chief Nick Francis:** I mentioned we're super proud of our department and uh these are these three new individuals just uh represent how lucky we are here to have people who want to work here. And we have others that want their friends uh to work here, and so we're very blessed to have a supportive Council and a a great community that makes policing uh pretty fun here in Apple Valley. So thanks. [12:41] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Thank you. Thank you. I just say welcome to our three newest officers. You've joined a great department and uh Nick expressed his pride, but we're pretty proud of you all too. So it's great to see the support in the room. Good to see a Winona State grad uh do do good. So welcome. And um, David, it was fun to swear you in the first time, so always fun to do a second round around as well. So, so congrats guys. Thank you. Nick, you probably want everybody—give this minute to let everybody kind of clear out and gather. Perfect. [Pause] What are we up to? 43 or 44 now? I knew at one time. All right, once goes well, you just start to build it. Interesting, somebody left. [14:02] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** All right, we'll move on to item 5B, which is to adopt a resolution approving a 7-foot sign setback variance for Wings Mortgage, and Alex will take this one. [14:14] **Alex (Community Development Staff):** Thank you very much, Mayor. As stated, this is for a setback variance for Wings Mortgage. It is a 7-foot variance from the required sign setback to allow a sign 6 foot from the property line where 13 foot is permitted. Sign is located at 1525 Glazer Avenue, the former Commons 2 building. Specifically, it's on the southern side of the site, and I will zoom in a little bit closer on that. This is an existing sign that was installed sometime in the 1980s back when the original Commons 2 building was constructed. It is getting slightly dated and is an existing sign uh which I wanted to emphasize because that is one of the key points for the findings that the Planning Commission had for the variance. As stated, signs are required to be 13 foot from the property line in the PD 290 Subzone 3 uh sign ordinance. So the sign ordinance for PD 290 Subzone 3 refers back to Limited Business, which is our professional office zone. That requires monument signs at 8 foot tall, 60 square feet for multi-tenant signs, which is what this is, and 13 foot back from the property line. This is the image of the existing sign. Wings did a great job redoing it when they redid the entire Commons 2 campus and added their expansion area; however, you can see that the bottom of the sign is starting to deteriorate, which is part of the cause for uh Wings to seek replacing the sign entirely. If the sign were left partially intact, it would not require a variance, which was another one of the findings of the Planning Commission. One thing that I specifically wanted to note in terms of the setback variance is that changing the grade of the sign to 13 foot would be quite impactful. That would place it back near the parking lot. This is up on a berm. This is the image of the proposed sign. It meets all other provisions outside of the 13-foot setback. Sharing this just to show a little bit more of the plan view and to show that the sign is not within any drainage utility easements or right-of-way easements, so it is one foot out of that, so there is not risk with expansion of that roadway at this time. Wanted to highlight a few other signs within the zone—going to move through these relatively quickly. If there are questions, feel free to have me go back to them. Starting with the American Cowboy Jack sign, this was a sign that we actually granted—or the city granted—a variance to back in 2018. That was in large part due to other signs within the districts and—or within the district and because of the location of that entrance being on a curb within the roadway. Looking through the district, one of the things of note is that it is difficult to find a sign at that 13-foot setback. Therefore, one of the pieces of the findings was that it does not confer any adverse advantage of this property owner over surrounding, which I believe is consistent, or staff found to be consistent, and the Planning Commission concurred. I'm going to go through the next piece very quickly because it is all the provisions for uh the city's granting of a sign variance. These are within code. I will then present on a slight summary of the Planning Commission's findings. So code requires that you meet all of the following under one or one and two. One here is that special conditions exist. The B is that special uh conditions were not caused by the applicant. The third is that a literal interpretation of these provisions will deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by others. The granting of the variance would not uh confer any advantage, and the proposed appearance would not have any adverse effect. Number two is not applicable to this sign. The Planning Commission's findings—you've got them in your resolution as well as the staff report. So this is a very quick summary, but essentially that uh the sign is existing and its grade would be greatly affected if it were to meet that 13-foot setback. The special circumstances were not created by Wings; they—the berm and sign were existing. It—they would actually be deprived of rights commonly enjoyed by others, as you saw with the other examples. Uh, granting the variance does not confer a privilege uh because of the reasons previously mentioned, and at least in my opinion, there's no adverse effect on the appearance. With that, I stand for any questions, and the action is before you. I do believe a representative of the applicant is present this evening. [18:50] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Any questions from Council? If not, we would take a motion to adopt the resolution approving a 7-foot sign setback variance for Wings Mortgage, 1525 Glazer Avenue, subject to the conditions in the resolution. [19:04] **Councilmember John Bergman:** So moved. [19:05] **Councilmember Goodwin:** Second. [19:06] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** We have a motion by Councilmember Bergman, a second by Councilmember Goodwin. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [19:12] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** And I will abstain from this one. All right, that takes care of 5A and B. The next item is Staff and Council Communications. Tom, do we have anything for staff? [19:23] **City Administrator Tom Lawell:** We do not. [19:24] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Uh, two items on the Council. Uh, just note that on our consent agenda item 4C was a Small Business Saturday resolution supporting the small businesses in our community and encouraging everyone to uh take the Saturday after Thanksgiving and patronize our our businesses in town. Second item is uh tomorrow is Veterans Day. Apple Valley High School is holding a ceremony starting at 9:10 a.m. About a 50-minute ceremony. Prior to that ceremony, they invite everybody at 8:15 for some social time with coffee, juice, and bakery products for our veterans, active service members, and their families. I believe all four of us will be there in one capacity or another uh tomorrow. So hope you all find some time to come join us and uh say thank you and celebrate our veterans. So councilmembers, anything else? John, you had something? [20:25] **Councilmember John Bergman:** Uh, a couple items. Congratulations to our staff and to the election judges that, as usual, always do a great job for the community when it comes time for election and election results. So Pam and your gang, uh, Kevin's in the audience, anybody else I haven't missed here, but thanks to all of you. Uh, number two, I'd like to—the second comment I'd like to um congratulate is the residents of this community that took the time to go vote and um pass an or or pass um a bond referendum that supports the park system for the city of Apple Valley. And to Eric and his group, um thank you, and to the residents that supported it, thank you also. So thanks. [21:11] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Perfect. Anything anything else? If not, we'll move on to the calendar of upcoming events. Our next regular city council meeting is Tuesday, November 21st, at 7:00 p.m. I would remind everyone that we have a holiday tree lighting scheduled at 6:15 just prior to that meeting, and will invite everyone to come join us for our annual tree lighting. City offices are closed on Friday, November 10th, in observance of Veterans Day. We have a motion to approve the calendar. [21:38] **Councilmember Goodwin:** So moved. [21:39] **Councilmember Tom Melander:** Second. [21:40] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Goodwin and a second from Councilmember Melander. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [21:46] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Opposed? That carries. Next item is a couple closed session items and um I'll ask our attorney—do you want to take separate motions on these? [21:55] **City Attorney Sharon Hills:** You may make it as one motion. [21:57] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** As one motion. So we have two two items for closed session tonight. The first is to convene in closed session under the labor negotiations exception to the Open Meeting Law to discuss the AFSCME and LELS union negotiations. The second item on that closed session is to convene in closed session under the performance evaluation exception to the Open Meeting Law to conduct a performance evaluation of the City Administrator. Do we have a motion to go into closed session? [22:25] **Councilmember John Bergman:** So moved. [22:26] **Councilmember Goodwin:** Second. [22:27] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** Motion from Councilmember Bergman and a second from Councilmember Goodwin. All in favor indicate by saying aye. **Councilmembers:** Aye. [22:35] **Mayor Clint Hooppaw:** And opposed? Uh, those both carry. So we'll reconvene across the way in just a few minutes. [22:56] [Music]