Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. All right, we'll call this meeting to order. This is We're going to start the meeting now. >> We're going to start the meeting. >> Thanks. >> All right. It is Monday, January 26, 2026. This is a um study session of the Minnotonka City Council. And we'll start by um going around and doing introductions. Uh, Sarissa >> Sarissa Saraki, senior management coordinator. >> Eric Nelson, city attorney. >> Good evening. Mike Funk, city manager. >> Kimberly Wilburn, uh, city council at large. >> Paty Foster Bolton, Ward One. Rebecca Shack, mayor. Casey Kley, w Calbert, city council at large. >> Paula Rome, W three. Bernard Diamond, assistant city manager. And we'll go around the back row. Are we not? >> Oh, okay. That's okay. All right. Um, moving on then, we will get right into our business items. And the first item, uh, 3A, which is park board and planning commission interviews. And we're going to talk just a little bit before we get started on process. And that's uh, Eric. >> Actually, I'll go. >> Oh, Sarissa. Sorry. I figured it didn't go well. >> Well, I knew Eric was talking about it, so I wanted to. All right, Sarissa, sorry about that. >> No, that's okay. We will be interviewing for the park board and planning commission tonight. And we have three interviews for the one vacancy on the park board and four interviews for the two vacancies on the planning commission. And I'll just go to the schedule real quick. Um, so the parkboard interviews, all three of them will be in person. The two first ones for the planning commission are in person and the third one will be virtual and then Gretchen spoke with Mayor Shaq this morning and mayor will share her notes from that phone interview. Then after the interviews, you have your questions on paper in front of you for each candidate. You will write your notes and comments on those sheet of papers and you will provide those to Mayor Shaq after the study session. Mayor Shaq will review the comments and notes and then bring her recommendation forward to the city council for approval at the February 2nd council meeting. Any questions or further comments from Mike? >> I would just add so change the process from last year. So you have as mentioned packet for each candidate question each candidate. Just write your notes down on there as they answer questions to staff. One thing I would note is that those comments are public. Just keep that in mind. So whatever you If someone asked to see these forms. >> Excellent. Thanks, Mike. Any questions? >> I think there's an extra one. >> Yep. >> Kimberly, sorry. >> That's okay. >> All right. >> Great. >> All right. >> Are you ready? >> Um, yes. I think so. as we you'll go get the first candidate. As we do that, we were kind of going round and round on whether it's most efficient for me to just do the questions or I guess my alternative suggestion was we could each take um questions for one candidate. So, if anybody these guys down here don't care ahead. >> Okay. All right. All right. I think we'll just stick with that. >> All right. Is Ryan in the room? Okay. You can come up to the center table, Ryan. And then this is recorded, so if you just want to make sure it's connected to your shirt. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you so much for coming tonight. And you were in here while we while we went around and introduced ourselves. So, we'll skip that step and we'll get right into it. And I think you know um you've seen the questions and also you were advised you we have 10 minutes so we're going to keep this really as painless as possible and we'll cruise through these questions and great >> um so again thanks for coming. So the e the first one is please tell us about yourself and what in your background makes you the right person for this position. >> Awesome. Yeah. Uh my name is Ryan Cadet. I'm originally from Minnitonka. So I grew up around here and then recently came back to Minnotonka after finishing my master's in urban and environmental policy and planning over in Boston. And part of that degree I really focused on policy and planning surrounding parks. Um, and so I wrote, you know, my thesis on urban park policy and then also sort of in my free time I do a lot of youth education specifically in the outdoors and that involves sort of tutoring and then also summer camps in camp settings, summer camps in parks and then also got to lead a park maintenance crew in Boston of high school students. And so I think that sort of being involved in a parkboard is a really great opportunity for me to combine those professional interests, those experiences, and then also apply that to the city that I'm from and a city that I wish success for. >> Excellent. Um, our next question is, "Residents of the city often express a deep investment and personal connection to our public park spaces. Enhancement of the city's natural environment while offering active and passive recreational amenities are both highly regarded community values. How would you approach balancing the differing community perspectives when residents have opposing views on parkland use and recreation priorities? >> Yeah, I think getting as many views as possible is really important. um being able to have knowledge of as many priorities as possible helps in all decision- making. And so that sort of is the first step in making any decision. When I consider sort of parks, I think parks should have as many and as diverse uses as they can. A park with only one use is only going to get used every so often. And so incorporating as much as as can be possible and that's going to be sort of the more difficult question but incorporating as much as possible into a park I think would be my priority and so leaning towards knowing as much as possible having as much knowledge as possible and then leaning towards inclusion in whatever way can be done I guess feasibly or realistically. >> Bear with us as we take our notes here. Um the third question is the city emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion in our body of work. How does this effort intersect with the work of the park board? >> Yeah, I think parks having diverse uses is intended for cities and communities to have diverse people. Um, I think when I sort of think about longer term park planning projects, you know, in a perfect world, everyone feels like they can see a plan for 20-year outlook of park trails and feel like they have been considered and they've been included in that plan. And so, I guess the work of the park board really is making sure that people feel like the spaces outside of their home that they can use is for them. And so either it has those uses or their opinions were considered in that long-term planning. >> All right. Based on your understanding of the commission, what do you think will be an individual challenge for you and a challenge for the group and how do you propose overcoming these challenges? Yeah, I think I think an individual challenge for me is that you know I my perspective is I was a child growing up in Minnetonka and I now am a planning professional working in Minneapolis and living in Minnitonka and so sort of I'm excited to be hearing the community opinions that you know I very likely never heard um when I was playing baseball in the park and whatnot. Um, and I think I think as a commission, one of the biggest challenges always is figuring out how to hear community voices because people are willing to come into a meeting like this and share their opinion and other people are not. And so sort of with with the board and with the staff and you know whatever the city can do making sure that people can be considered in the decisions that happen in the room in city hall. >> Excellent. Great. Well, that's what we have and what we really appreciate again your application and um coming in. We'll finish our interviews, coate the um the respon, you know, the feedback, and then we'll make the decision. You'll hear in advance one way or another of next week's meeting. And um whether you're the person or not, we will hang on to this information too when from time to time vacancies open up throughout the year. So even if it's not your time now, you know, there's a real possibility we'll be reaching out in the future as well. So, thanks again for your commitment. Really? >> Yeah. Thank you so much. >> Do I have any questions? >> Um, >> I I don't have any prepared now. >> No problem. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. >> Thank you. This is what you're getting. >> Mhm. Right up here. Hi, Heather. All right, so you know, we have 10 minutes. You've seen the questions. Um, so what we're cruising through these given our our very aggressive timeline. Um, we usually introduce ourselves. I think you know all of us, so we'll just move right along. That's right. um and get to the Thank you for being here. Really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> And >> yeah, the opportunity. >> We'll we'll get right into the first question. So, please tell us about yourself and what in your background makes you the right person for this position. >> Well, thank you, Mayor Jack. Um I believe I'm a strong candidate for the park board. I have uh over 30 years of professional natural resources experience. I've worked for uh various municipalities um done independent consulting work. The last 20 years of my uh natural resources career has been largely focused on pollinator conservation. So I have authored uh four books on plant pollinator mutualisms. I'm a nationally recognized thought leader on native plants and pollinators. uh more most recently I just founded a new nonprofit. So the nonprofit is uh formed with a board of researchers from the University of Minnesota and the DNR and it's basically we have published a website that will be a free public resource characterizing the 500 plus bee species we have in Minnesota. Uh, in addition to that, since filling out the Parkbard application, I've um just recently taken on a part-time job with Minnotonka Public Schools. So, I'm actively uh administering and coaching a before high school sports club. So, so I'm doing that part-time. Um, I also have been a head high school coach for the Minnesota State High School League. I'll be being an assistant coach this year for a spring sport. So, recreation is is a big part of of my life in addition to natural resources. And as you all know, I'm a a very active volunteer. I've been volunteering for the city of Minnotonka for more than 14 years. I I lead efforts in four parks. I've volunteered in 13. Uh I have visited every single park within our park system and uh in addition to that I I lead pollinator surveys, vegetation surveys, bird surveys. I helped train other lead park stewards. Uh helped uh ad admin and run the park steward meetings. So I have a lot a big wealth of experience of understanding the park system. Uh lastly, uh I've been very involved in the park policy plans, following those for more than 15 years. I can tell you all about the old park policy plans and have been actively providing input and most importantly as a volunteer, we we heavily rely on the natural resources master plan to guide our work within parks and also communicating with staff of of the work that we are doing. Great. I'm curious about the coaching now. I didn't know that part. Okay. Um, residents of the city often express deep investment and personal connection to our park spaces. Enhancement of the city's natural environment while offering active and passive recreational amenities are both highly regarded community values. How would you approach balancing differing community perspectives when residents have aos opposing views on parkland use and recreation priorities? Thank you. Yeah, I absolutely agree. I put that in my park board application that I believe uh besides our wonderful schools that we have within our city limits, I think one of the primary reasons people move to Minnotonka is because of the the natural environment and the and the quality of our park systems. So, uh, I think our park system is outstanding. We provide both active and passive recreational opportunities in addition to having fairly high quality natural resources that benefit people in a multitude of ways. Um, I would dis uh respectfully sort of disagree with the way the question was posed because uh I don't really feel that people who are uh advocates for active recreational amenities, they don't necessarily not like highquality natural resources, right? So you you it's sort of a polarizing way to look at it. And the way I look at our our park system as a whole um through the lens of the park policy plans is that we can do both. We can do both very well. We have enough uh parkland and park space. The natural resources master plan clearly outlines um the quality of the different areas and acreages in in our park system. So we have this this template and this model to work from so that we can continue to provide additional uh active and passive recreational opportunities without impacting the natural resources. And I think it's really just the park board working together to find creative solutions to to achieve that. Uh the other for example if we had a high quality natural area that has had a lot of natural re resources investment. We can certainly have a defined trail through that area that immerses people to enjoy that high quality space, but I think that has to be coupled with clear expectations and uh communication of park rules. The uh staff have just rolled out new park monument signs and my understanding is soon our parks will have new wayfinding signs and and new rule signs. So I think resetting all of that through this park planning process will provide guidance for all the individual park visitors and um understanding the value of what is offered within the park system. Um the city emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion in our body's work. How does this effort intersect with the work of the park board? I think the this um DEI intersects directly with the park board. First and foremost, we want to ensure that everybody no matter their cultural background, their age, their ability to be to feel welcome and safe within our park system. And I think that's first and foremost for all parkour members to to keep in mind. We have uh residents that come from diverse cultures, backgrounds. We have different ages uh as residents of course and abilities. Um I think we the park board plays an important role in in continuing to assess and evaluate the existing parks, their amenities and whether or not they are accessible. For example, uh, one one example that I spoke with mayor Shaq about recently was the city staff just published a GIS map of all the the park system with um toggling layers of the different amenities. So, you could toggle on and off whether a certain park has a tennis court, for example. And one idea is to add um to that existing GIS map uh the areas within parks the trail systems that are already ADA compliant for example. So if somebody had a disability or then they could use this map to find out which parks parks would be accessible for them. I also think we have opportunity to look at our existing parks, our our main trail systems and ways to retrofit or change some of those segments of trails to make them ADA compliant. So, for example, Purgatory, the main loop trail around that park. There are a couple of steep up and down hills that are greater than a 5% grade. um realigning those trails along the contour of that slope rather than up and over it would meet ADA requirements. So I think as a park board member I would like I would see myself suggesting sort of creative solutions to sort of fix some of these minor issues to make uh some of our park spaces more accessible. Based on your understanding of the commission, what do you think will be an individual challenge for you and a challenge for the group and how do you propose overcoming these challenges? This is an interesting question and after giving it some more thought I I realized I think one of the main challenges for me as an individual would be um finding patience. I'm a I'm self-motivated, self-starter, self-employed. you know I I am I create I am an idea creator and then I implement those ideas and government works at a very small slow pace as you all know so I think uh one of the challenges for me will be to find patience and to understand that this process doesn't happen overnight you know the park policy plans take months for staff and consultants to develop uh public input you know park board review etc etc so having a little more patience. As far as the park board, I would say um perhaps one of the challenges for anyone uh serving on the park board is just uh falling in the into the trap of maybe stereotyping people into a certain box, right? So, for example, you may want to stereotype me into a box of being solely a natural resources advocate. Um when in fact, uh that's not the case whatsoever. uh sports and recreation is is a very big component of of my life as well. And so I think the park board needs to understand that everybody has is multifaceted and complex and maybe uh very passionate about a specific issue that comes towards the park board. But as a person and as a resident of the city, they also have a multitude of values that we should understand when we're looking at um any kind of maybe controversial issue. And uh lastly, I think the the park board really must do their best to meet the needs of all residents. And that is super hard and we know that as as council members. But I really think that if we are able to work together and uh find creative solutions then we will continue to innovate, lead and also communicate clear uh rules and expectations within our park systems that uh we will continue to have these outstanding parks. that are the primary reason in my in my opinion that um people choose to to live in Minnetonka. >> Excellent. >> Well, thank you Heather. Thanks for applying and for coming in. Really appreciate it. So, we are um going to coate all of our notes and I'll get the feedback from the rest of the council and then we'll make our decision in advance of next week's meeting and reach out and let everybody know. And we always hang on to the applications and our notes. So if it's not if we're not selected this time, you know, there may be, you know, that people leave throughout the year and we'll keep that in our file. >> Thank you so much. Almost exactly on time. time stamp staring right at you. >> Hello, Barbara. Thanks for coming. >> Thanks for having me. >> You've got a little microphone you could clip on your turtleneck there. but we just record it for our record or for the website. >> Um, well, thank you for coming tonight. We'll get started by just having the council quickly introduce themselves. >> I'm Kimberly Wilburn, uh, at large. >> Paty Foster Bolton, W one. >> I'm Rebecca Shack. I'm the mayor. >> Kissy, welcome. large suitcase. >> So you I think have the qu have seen the questions. So we will get started. We've just got a brief 10 minutes. So we'll keep it moving. But um and uh so we'll start with question number one. Please tell us about yourself and what your background what in your background makes you the right person for this position. >> Well, I'm a retired geologist deep rooted in Minnesota and I've had lifelong interest in our natural landscapes. Um, my professional background and personal interests I think have trained me to to look at land as not just a scenic space but it's a system requiring management of especially in parks resources infrastructure and environmental impact. So my goal in joining the park board is to offer my experience and to be a representative of the community to city staff and the council. I want to ensure that in governance of our parks, we make sustainable decisions that protect Minnetonka's natural beauty while being fiscally and structurally sound for now and future generations. All right. Um bear with us as we make just some notes. The second question, residents of the city often express a deep investment and personal connection to our public parks park spaces. Enhancement of the city's natural environment while offering active and passive recreational amenities are both highly regarded community values. How would you approach balancing different community perspectives when residents have a opposing views on parkland use and recreation priorities? So, we are fortunate in Minnetonka to have a large variety of community and neighborhood parks, but I recognize that variety often leads to competing priorities. So, my approach would be rooted in two areas, both objective data and forward thinking. What was the last thing you said? >> Forward thinking. The post plan update from 2021 and the community survey survey of 2024 should guide and inform how new requests for changes to park usage would fit into residents wishes. But we must also be open to new ideas or we will not get future generations involved. I love the sauna and the parks initiative for that reason. I I feel it touches on what it's important to young adults and it's an introduction to the parks and the fact that there is multiple parks right near Shady Oak. I mean, right. So I it's um I mean I I I think it just involves multiple levels of thinking to ensure that we yeah um like when perspectives clash I would say I would lean on the framework that the city has put together to ensure that we balance quiet conser conservation with active of recreation because I think that is one of the flash points, right? Um and we need both, right? We we can't have parks for future generations if we're all run up with trails, right? But um we want to ensure that no single interest group outweighs the long-term health of the park system, right? Um the city emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in our body of work. How does this effort intersect with the work of the park board? >> I think DEA in parks is about eliminating barriers, physical, financial, and cultural. I am interested in physical accessibility ADA compliance to ensure trails and open spaces are navigable to all for all ages and abilities. Beyond that, the park board must be proactive in seeking out voices that aren't always heard at public meetings. Whether it's through lowcost education programming or diversifying the types of recreational amenities we offer, our mission is to ensure that belonging is a fundamental part of the Minnetonka Park experience. We aren't just protecting land. We are fostering a community space where every resident feels seen and invited. And then finally, based on your understanding of the commission, what do you think will be an individual challenge for you and a challenge for the group? How do you propose overcoming the challenge? So my understanding of the commission is that we serve in an advisory role where the guide the goal is to guide and support city staff. So as such for me individually I will be an active listener and focus on my role as a liaison for the residents. For the group a recurring challenge will be scope and budget. We may have many wonderful ideas but limited resources. I would overcome this by maintaining a pragmatic big picture view, prioritizing projects that align with the master plan and provide the highest impact for the community while always remaining transparent with residents about the why behind our recommendations. Excellent. Great. Well, we really appreciate your application and coming in tonight and the processes will coalate the recommendations, make a a selection um in advance of our council meeting next week. So, pretty short turnaround. We'll let you know one way or another. And then also for the candidates that aren't selected, because we have so many good candidates, we keep the um this information available so that if there's a vacancy mid year, we can kind of look back at that and fill the fill the spot. So, >> okay. >> Um there's always a future opportunity as well. >> Well, thank you for the opportunity to uh to talk with you tonight. >> Thank you. Second. Okay, we're shifting gears to planning commission. Hello. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> You're Jonathan and we are We'll introduce ourselves how we get started. So, uh we'll start with Kimberly. >> Kimberly Wilburn at large. Paty Foster, Bolton, Ward One. Rebecca Shack, Mayor Ky, W four. De Pala Rome, W three. >> Nice to meet you all. >> Well, thanks again for coming and we you have the questions. We've got a limited amount of time. So, we're going to get right into it and give you an opportunity to share with us. Um, the first question is, tell us about yourself and what in your background makes you the right person for this position? >> Sure. Uh I've been a resident of Minnitonka for the last 16 years. I'm married and have two boys that I've raised here in uh in the community. Uh I've been working in healthcare for the last 30 plus years as an executive and uh in many ways um I would say that that has uh some indirect correlation. We have a lot of complex uh decisions to make um many different uh types of uh constituents whether it's physicians, nurses, the community, etc. And you're often having to weigh a lot of different types of decisions. And I think for me um it is my background but also my interest in finding ways to be able to serve the community. Uh, I have more time now that boys are are leaving the house and um thought this would be a productive way to do that. >> Excellent. Um, the planning commission holds public hearings on land use items during which the public provides feedback that may be positive or negative and may differ from staff recommendations andor commissioner other commissioners opinions. What is your approach when trying to make difficult decisions? I I think it's really important that you do have to hear all voices. I think you also have to balance uh not necessarily uh the loudest voices and I think it's um it's through that you also need to seek out where you're missing voices and determine if you have gaps. Uh I do think though that ultimately you also have to balance that against um what is being said uh how do you hear it? uh but what does the data say as well and you have to take that into account and then ultimately you're going to understand how do you apply what you've heard against what are uh the policy and uh the requirements of whatever that topic might be. So I think it's a balanced approach. Um I don't think there's a right and wrong answer many times. I think it's about finding the best answer that meets the needs. >> Excellent. All right. The city emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in our body of work. How does this effort intersect with the work of the planning commission? >> Uh I think it's I would suspect it's really has to be thought of as at the core of it. Uh we are at a time where um you know I would say Minnetonka isn't a outer ring suburb. It's really you're seeing the the density and the complexity of uh population growth and that then makes us really have to reflect and think about how do we understand uh what the total needs are of the community. Um inclusion is about actually trying to understand and hear all of those uh different aspects. Uh I think we also have to understand what does fairness mean and you cannot just assume that again what has worked traditionally will work for the future and we're going to have to think about new ways to serve the community and also be very reflective of what is that community starting to look like and what are their needs. >> Excellent. All right. Based on your understanding of the commission, what do you think will be an individual challenge for you and a challenge for the group and how do you propose overcoming these challenges? >> Yeah. Well, I'm not a planning expert. I mean, so let's start with that as a challenge. Uh I think it's about deeply understanding uh how do I how do I uh hear the and and gather intelligence from the resources that are the true experts in planning and zoning. Uh and that's the challenge for me, right? uh I think is is getting up to speed in a way that makes me a valuable member of uh the commission. I think the commission itself um is actually quite challenged if you think about we're looking at a time where there's a lot of change and how do we balance where we want to see the the the community grow and what should it look like and then how do you make those right decisions. You know, it's back to when the diversity, equity, inclusion topic. Uh we will have more nimism that will be a part of what uh is within uh the discussion and folks will want to use land and land will become more precious. So I think having the right way that we apply the fair rules and law against what we want to do for setting the groundwork for what the community has to look like 20 30 years from now is really the challenge of that commission. >> Great. Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you so much for applying and for coming in and we've got a short turnaround. We're going to make this we're going to gather the information and make this decision in before our meeting next week. So, somebody will be in touch and um I've been telling everyone we hang on to the application. So, if you're not selected now, openings sometimes pop up in the middle of the year and we'll reach out then. >> Sounds good. >> Thanks again. Hello, Matthew. Thank you for coming in. Welcome. have just put it anywhere. >> Okay. >> Um we will get started by introducing ourselves. So we'll start with Kimberly. >> I'm Kimberly Williburn at large. >> Paty Foster Bolden Ward one. >> Rebecca Shack mayor Ky W four. >> Deb Calbert at large CK Paula Rome W three. Well, these guys, they they're very valuable. More valuable than we are, but we will skip them for now. >> They're not that valuable. >> They're just the super important. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, so we've got the limited amount of time. You've seen the questions, so we're just going to jump right into it. Um, we'll start with the first question. Please tell us about yourself and what in your background makes you the right person for the position. >> Sure. A little bit about me. We uh moved to Mitaka in 2017. We have two kids. Um I'm married, two kids. They're in public schools or was that a district 284 at the moment. And um more about me and my work experiences. I'm currently licensed practicing architect at LHB in the Minneapolis office. They're actually the le firm. And I've had a little bit of a non-traditional career path to being an architect where I've worked with um a landscape architect first, which is pretty non-traditional. And then um with a real estate developer, and finally after 10 to 15 years out of school, I'm working for my first traditional firm structure. But that I I really see that as an advantage where I can see things from multiple angles and and just love the collaborative process with other designers. It's just gi given me a lot of perspective I'd say and then just what else can I contribute I I can work on large scale I've done canvas master plan I can work on detail scale I can do flashing roofing material transition detail I can work both very quickly and transition between the two and um very very familiar with the application of just building code design building guidelines building design guidelines building code land use um accessibility code. All these codes I do that daily for work. Very familiar. Um there's an exercise we did a lot at my old job where it's what can I do with this parcel of land? And it's just I can that's a quick exercise for me is what does comprehensive plan let me do? What does zoning code let me do? What does site development plan process? And those are exercises I can do those pretty quickly. Very familiar. >> Excellent. Uh the planning commission holds public hearings on land use items during which the public provides feedback that may be positive or negative and may differ from staff recommendations andor commissioners opinions. What is your approach when trying to make difficult decisions? >> Yeah, I um I just wanted to say I have been involved in kind of these planning meetings before. So this is it's something I'm interested and passionate about that the public still gets engaged in that process but but naturally people will not like some of the decisions. So what is my guiding criteria I would say is that does this meet the intent of well for Mitaka would be does this meet the intent of the does this meet the intent of land use does this meet the intent of zoning and does this meet the intent of comprehensive plan and I think if my moral compass is saying this meets the intent of what the city has established as their framework then I'd feel comfortable proceeding despite Great. Okay. The city emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in our body of work. How does this effort intersect with the work of the planning commission? >> Yeah. So, I I just jotted down my notes like this is something we discuss at work all the time, but at a very different scale. So for my job it's accessibility and um sustainable building guidelines is something I work with very often. But as a planning commission I I would say it's a different scale or different mindset where now we're talking about things like is the site accessible to everyone? How does it connect to different modes of transportation? Is is just the building laid out well? Like is it accessible? Where's the front door? It's it's really how are people get in here? How are people experiencing this building? But also there's there's so many things I could really talk about on a granular level. Like every if we're building a massive parking lot, can we can we introduce tree island? There's something to bring back human scale. So there's there's so many ways to apply that. But um what is it all about? Is is it is it safe? Is it accessible to everyone? Does it again does it meet the long-term vision of the comprehensive plan? There's so many frameworks there too that you have to respond to, >> right? >> Yes. uh based on your understanding of the commission, what do you think will be an individual challenge for you and a challenge for the group and how do you propose overcoming those challenges? >> Yeah, the thing that came to mind is I just I haven't been in in a commission or board since college. I was on a hall government and a resident hall association and that was 2012. So just the the forum or the process or the the meeting formats. I think that would all be like new to me or like just something I haven't been in for a while. And also I think I'd have to I'd have to reframe myself as not being in the architect and not being the architect in the room anymore, but being a member of the council now or being a being the commissioner to the council. I think it takes a new mindset because I've been in my position so many times before in presenting and proposing projects to the council and just I think I'd have to remove that mindset. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. Well, great. Thank you so much for taking the time to do the application and for coming in. We're going to make the decision this week in advance of next week's council meeting. So, one of us will be in touch and we hang on to these notes and applications. So, if the opening comes up mid year, we have if you don't aren't selected now, there's still opportunity down the line. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So, our next one is virtual. Sandra Johnson. Everyone Start a webex. Looks like the meeting is going because it says 23 minutes. It's it's not just the final commission. It won't help. Okay. Well, just hang tight. >> I know. Please. >> Actually, it might just be good for us to announce in the room. >> Sandra, can you hear us? What happened? All right, we'll catch up on notes. I think we're on time. >> Yeah, I don't think Sandy's not scheduled till 6:55. >> Oh, okay. Well, we can text. >> Um, >> do you want to go through your notes? >> Yep, we can do my notes. So, um, okay. So, I spoke with Gretchen Sure. this morning um and we went through the questions. She um was just getting ready to get on a plane, which is why she couldn't she's traveling this afternoon and couldn't even be on virtually. Um she indicated that she's lived in Minnetonka for 7 years. She's a woman of color. She's worked um in architecture, interior design for 25 years. And she didn't say when, but she um when um RT Rybeck was mayor, she served on the planning commission then. So, it's been a little bit of time since she's been on the planning commission, but she was on the planning commission in in Minneapolis. Um, and she's really interested in getting involved here in Minnetonka. um regarding diff making different difficult decisions. She indicated that the number one priority is gathering all the input, hearing everybody's position. and she understands that um even the the number one thing people want is to be heard more than anything even if they're not um ultimately their perspective isn't the final answer. Um she is really focused on future looking decisions and considering comp plan and how we're building for the future. She recognizes she's fallable. She's not perfect and so she wants to keep an open mind and will consider all points of view. Uh, regarding the DI question, um, she thinks that, you know, this planning touches really everything, every perspective of people's lives and types of people. We have to be sensitive to cultural differences and perspective. We have to be inspired, be able to be open to be inspired for change and willing to listen to people's um lived experiences and how something might impact them and also consider who we're not hearing from and how um people who might be not comfortable speaking up are might be impacted by a planning commission decision from challenges. She recognizes of course she has inherent biases. So she wants to keep open to those and that um maybe her fellow planning commissioners would have same the same biases as well. Um she thinks it's important to the challenge is always weighing the individual individuals wishes and desires versus kind of the greater good of the community. Um she thinks that sometimes people, you know, even if a business opportunity might be good for the community, that people kind of are resistant to those kind of changes and particularly hard on some of the the developers because they don't they're not um not trusting of developers. Sorry, some of my notes are a little messy. um make sure she's not showing preference to any specific group of people and then working really hard to establish common ground. So those are my notes. I apologize they're not perfect, but I hopefully that gives everybody a little bit of a taste of who Gretchen is. All right. Well, it looks like we have Sandra now. Hi, Sandra. Can you hear me? >> Oh, you're muted. >> Sus is going to help get you unmuted. Okay, great. You're We can hear you now. Okay, good. >> Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for taking some time out of your um trip to meet with us. We've been working hard to just keep these interviews on our 10-minute pace here. So, we will start just briefly by introducing ourselves and we'll start with Kimberly. >> Kimberly Wilburn at large. >> Paty Foster Bolton, ward one. >> Rebecca Shack the mayor. Ky Kling W four Deb Calbert at large CA representing W three. >> Well, thank you again for joining us and we'll just h get right into the questions which I believe you have seen. The first question is please tell us about yourself and what in your background makes you the right person for this position. >> Sure. I've been a resident now for almost 30 years living neighborhood and my work background I am retired I worked with the Bloomington department until 2009 basically just doing routine health with ordinance drafting interpretation sometimes by then in ' 09 to 16 when I retired I is with the strategic development team which looked at the redevelopment of districts like America that was all redone and then of course the world of America and so you meet with a large group internally and figure out all the details of those developments and then get your case set up before >> Great. All right. Um, the planning commission holds public hearings on land use items during which the public provides feedback that may be positive or negative and may differ from staff recommendations and/or commissioners opinions. What is your approach when trying to make difficult decisions? Well, I think the first thing we have to do is listen empathetically to both the proponent and any components to the development application and then if it's really controversial I would go and actually look at the area take notes share them with the leaders. After that, I would like to learn from staff. Um, what is the code? Um, what do you think? What are your recommendations and collaborate with commission members? I think that by using all of your senses and working together, you can answer a lot of these questions because individuals might know the answers and staff is going to be helpful. >> Great. Thank you. The city emphasizes diversity, equity, and and inclusion in our body of work. How does this effort intersect with the work of the planning commission? >> That's a great question. And on this little rip is looking at the resoning in residential districts. And what that hopes to do is to open up Mitaka to housing opportunities for traditionally disadvantaged groups um or people in the area who just have the money right now to buy property and working with professionals and being in two days. That's an exciting opportunity. It's a little more intelligent than the offices project. It's much more chiseled and I think it's a really good chance to open up our community to people and groups that we don't see in our city very often. I mean, my neighborhood is very homogeneous. um about the same socioeconomic and very profusion. >> Excellent. Based on your understanding of the commission, what do you think will be an individual challenge for you and a challenge for the group? Excuse me. And how do you propose overcoming these challenges? >> Sure. What's going to be the biggest challenge? I think it's when you have an organized group of opponents to a particular application. They generally have a leader and they may be, you know, very enthusiastic and they they really believe that they have the right answer in protecting their community. Sometimes um they're going to be the person the city staff and the commission. I think in that case you have to be very respectful, listen to them. Um you know, give them the let them know that you care. But ultimately it may be a real nice situation. It may I don't know about the dynamics of another type but I think um saw the signs of some I think those are the toughest things for me as a commission member I would look to the chair. I mean that's uh the chair is the one who's going to control that meeting and give the most support I could to that chair. >> Excellent. Well, thank you so much for again for taking the time to fill out the application and for your work on the zoning workg groupoup and for taking a little time out of your travels to meet with us. We're going to collate all of our our interview notes and make some decisions this week and somebody will be in touch. Um, and then we'll hang on to the information should an opening come up throughout the year. you know, if you're not the person that's selected for at this point, we'll uh you're not off the hook yet. >> Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you guys. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Good night. >> Good night. All right. So, we have our notes. If you have anything, so I'll be looking through everybody's notes. If you have anything in particular that you want me to pay attention to or want me to know about your perspective, just maybe put it along the top of each page and then I'll make sure to review everything. Um, does anybody have any questions? We're kind of changing it up this year to have it be a little more uh qualitative versus quantitative. you know, understand what people thought about the candidates versus just like a strict ranking. >> Did you hear? >> I heard Kimberly. Yeah, >> this >> I think it's going to be a lot more work for you, but >> I took notes on this piece of paper. >> That's okay. >> Name Do I need names on America? Um >> I I I would Yeah, I would. And just remember that there may consulting those notes is also >> okay. I'll hold against my spelling. >> I mean, >> should we say who we like? >> Yeah. Should we like should we sayate like the right or >> um you know if you you if you have something you want me to know like I I'm pulling for this person you can include it if you want you know if >> I do got my favorite >> so maybe let's we can take a break people can finish their notes because I think it would be helpful to the extent and maybe if you can't get them to me tonight, you can um drop them off here in an envelope and they'll get to me or um >> unless >> you can Yeah, you can leave them in an envelope at the front desk and I'll be here at some point and I'll get them and as long as we can have them by Wednesday for I work. Is that okay, Sarissa? Then we can get in touch with everything. >> I'll make a decision quickly once. Okay. >> I mean, frankly, I should probably give a whole fresh thing if you actually want to read my notes >> because this is like this is worse than it than a doctor's prescription. >> Okay. So, >> let's officially we're on break. >> All right. We're back. So, oh, hold on. All right, we're back. We are moving on to the next agenda item, which is the W 2 city council vacancy update. And Miranda, is that you? >> It is me. Thank you. And of course, Mike and Eric will jump in um need be. So, we're going to discuss the war two city council vacancy update. A little bit of background of course with Mayor Shaq becoming mayor which creates a war two vacancy. Um the war two term does run through January 3rd 2028 and the memo on the website we put through 2027 just because it was only a couple of days and it was a weekend. So the right correct date is January 3rd 2028 but you may see through 2027 on the memo and on the website. Um, the city charter does govern council terms and vacancies. So, at the January 12th, 2026 regular council meeting, the council was presented with the option of filling the vacancy through either a special election or an appointment. And as you all are well aware, the council did direct staff to proceed with an appointment process. Um, the appointment must be made by March 6, 2026. I was doing a little factf finding today. I've been here now 11 years and I went back and verified Patty Aome's special election she mentioned on Friday. We also did have a special election on April 10th of 2018 which was award three um which was our most recent and I think it had a 4% voter turnout. So Patty Ahomes was the 2% on Valentine's Day in 2012 and then there was one in 2018 that had a 4% in W three. So did verify those facts um from Friday um today. So um very low turnouts for those special elections. So moving forward with the appointment process. Um so application outreach. So on Friday, January 16th, which was the Friday after that Monday meeting, the application was posted on the city's website. Um we do also have paper copies at city hall as well if anybody wants to come in and grab those. The front desk does have those. um information was shared the next week via website, social media accounts, and then we did email the um city council um subscription list as well. And then a brief article directing residents to the city's website for more information will be included in the February Minnitankka memo edition, which should hit mailboxes um late this week. So with that, we did just allowing if we anticipate January 29th, the memo memo hitting our mailboxes, we wanted to give at least a couple of days for folks to get an application in. So it is closing next Wednesday. Applications are due um by 11:59 p.m. next Wednesday evening. So application review and candidate selection. So, following Wednesday at 11:59 PM, the application closes. We will turn around the next day and between Sissa and I, we will conquer this and we'll be sharing the applications with the city council and post it on the city's website with private data redacted. There's a lot of things that need to be publicly made with this process and this is one of them. So, we will redact the data and get it posted on the website. Um, then we move into determining the interview process. So there is kind of a threshold pattern here with how many candidates we get. I should share we have five candidates as of today. So right five candidates as of today. So we are currently sitting at five. So the number of applicants will deter determine the interview process. So if there are five or fewer we're at five at this point and we would welcome an interview to all of them which would be February 23rd. Um, knowing we're at five today, I assume maybe a couple more will roll in. Um, with six to 10 applicants, um, council will review the pool and screening process and screening scores and direct staff on which candidates to interview. We potentially hold that conversation at the February 9th study session um, with interviews again on February 23rd. And then if more than 10 applicants, the council may follow the same approach as so if we have more than 10, we could still have that conversation on February 9th or the council could form a subcommittee which is less than a quorum um to review applicants and recommend interviewing candidates. So those are kind of our options there. Um council review and interviews. So again on Monday February 9th depending on the number of applicants um we could either the study session discussion on the candidates and the scoring or um form a subcommittee of less than quorum. If a subcommittee is formed it will conduct reviews between February 10th and February 17th and there is a holiday in there somewhere on President's Days on a Monday. I think the 16th. um Wednesday, February 18th, the scoring results will be posted on the city's website and then we would reach out that day um for selected candidates to contact for interviews because the following Monday would be the 23rd. So trying to give candidates enough time to get it on the books, but also being transparent on the front end of when the interviews will be as well. On Monday, February 23rd, there is a regular council meeting that night at 6 PM. We would recommend having a special meeting at 5:00 pm prior to that 6 p.m. meeting um to host the interviews. Um interviews do need to be broadcast and streamed. We can do that in this room. We would have to rearrange council to be sitting where Mike, Eric, and Sarissa are. and the candidates would need to be sitting kind of where I am a little bit closer. Um because the cameras are right here. Um so in order to capture council and candidates, we would just rearrange the room. We would do those in here and we could broadstream and um stream it from this room. Um following the interviews, the council will take a break. So hoping to wrap those interviews up, council would take a quick break, probably to eat. Um and then um staff would tally the results. The council then would reconvene to review the results and announce the selected candidate. So it all has to happen that evening and then from there on Monday March 2nd that evening the council is scheduled for a a study session. So we would host a special meeting at 5:30 to in the council chambers to appoint a war 2 council member. the appointee would be sworn in immediately following that um appointment and then on March 6, that is the deadline. So, we're hoping that this proposed timeline ensures compliance with the required deadline of March 6 and supports a transparent and orderly process to fill the vacancy. This is a more condensed version of the timeline we're looking at. So again, on January 16th, um the application was posted and then that runs through everything I just stated. Um this gets posted on the website tomorrow for review. So I just wanted to make sure it was more in a table format for folks to review. Um because we are on crunch time with a timeline, so I'm sure we can get everything done in a timely manner. So this is just the same timeline laid out in a more um table format for those to review. And with that, we turn it back to council um for any questions or feedback on the proposed appointment process. Um so turn back to you guys. Council questions, comments. I have one I have one question and that is can you talk a little bit more about the subcommittee? I I'm not understanding that and how take that one. >> Sure. Um, so the the part part of the reason that we've proposed this process and and I'm not sure if it aligns exactly with what's been done in the past for an appointment process, but um there was an iPad department of administration opinion um on the open meeting law from early last year uh that found a violation of the open meeting law when there was a an appointment process that was u an appointment of the entire body wasn't like our board commission members. That's a mayoral appointment. So, distinguishing that, it was an appointment of the entire body. And what they did is they took um scored handed their scoring sheets down to the clerk and then went on with the meeting. And then so then the scoring was tallied outside of the meeting before the next meeting in the interim period. and they found a violation there because they basically said as a as a body appointment, the the scoring sheet constituted your vote and a vote has to happen in the open meeting. And so that's maybe where we kind of reconfigured this maybe a little bit differently if if any any had experience with this type of process. the the notion of the subcommittee was sort of to deal if we if if in the event we get sort of an unwieldy number of applicants uh and can't feasibly fit in the time to have a robust discussion of each and every one of during the time period that we've allotted in this tight timeline. The idea with that is less than a quorum you're then you're you can you can form that subcommittee uh and conduct that review in this case with um >> three or less and it would it could occur outside of the open meeting. >> Correct. Correct. It's just screening screening the applications to determine the pool. >> So >> So my question is are we pulling people out of a hat for that subcommittee? Right. And that's kind of the difficulty here tonight since we're approaching you and the application window is open and we don't know how many we'll have yet. So, we're trying to just think through scenarios in advance. But you could theoretically, yes, you could do it that way. I you know, um it would it would be up to to to the group to decide. >> And did you have a follow-up? You look like you have a followup. I'll think about it. Okay. >> I'm trying to be mindful, >> Paty. >> So, March 2nd, I'm sorry, that's a is that a meeting? >> So, they would just they would go they would they would be particip Okay. >> That that individual who's appointed and sworn in would would sit in on the on the meeting right after. >> But they they'll know on the 23rd. Yeah. >> Yeah. I get it. >> So, I mean, they'll have a whole week. >> They'll have a whole week. No problem. >> Um, for the Minnetonka memo, can you remind me if those memos go out to apartment buildings and how do people are they signed up for those memos? How do people get those memos? because I just want to make sure I keep saying it's it's an inclusive >> and I think about I know it's in this board but I'm wondering do all department people get those memos so they possibly can have opportunity >> yeah so the memo good question the memo goes to every address in Minnotonka okay >> you don't have to sign up you don't have to register it doesn't go to registered voter it's any address in Minnetonka um we so it'll hit every mailbox in the Natunka. Again, this is targeted at W 2, right? >> So, I do know that um Kirsten Jagger, she is our community economic development coordinator, was going to help us make sure our apartment complexes in war particularly spreads the memos into those mailboxes. So, I I because sometimes I think the problem is they get dropped on the apartment complex and then the apartment complex needs to distribute them. And so because we can target war two, we can call around to those apartment complexes and stop by and make sure they are distributed. >> Okay, that was my only question. >> Yep, it was on our website. >> Yep. Absolutely. >> Good question, Mike. >> Thank you, mayor. Uh just real quick, just going back to the subcommittee if you will. That's a decision that you could make at that February study session. So it just really depends Deb on the volume of applicants you get. You're not required to do it. I think staff is just suggesting at this point it's an option for you to consider as a way to manage a high volume number of applicants. And I guess my suggestion would be that on the Monday phone calls if it if we have more than 10 then you can indicate to Mike whether or not you're interested in being on the subcommittee. We can filter it down that way. And then I think we can somebody I will be remote, but somebody can draw names of the people then if there's more than three people who want to be involved, >> right? Does that sound okay? >> Can you say that again? I was having trouble. Oh, sorry. Um, so we'll know on February 9th at that meeting before that meeting how many candidates we have. And in your Monday call with Mike, you can indicate if there's more than 10, yes, I want to be on the subcommittee or I it's okay. Somebody else can do it. And then if there's more than three people that want to be on it, we'll draw names. >> Right. >> Yeah, that sounds good. Yep. We'll do the same thing we did whenever we drew names the last time. Somebody >> zoning. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. No, go ahead. >> And then the second thing again that's March 2nd. So you'll be making a selection process. They'll get sworn in and they go right into that study session. But we will do some orientation. So there that will that will happen. We have uh we have we have some pretty good plans in place from election to election. We didn't have to do that so far with the election because the three of you got re-elected. Um, but we'll do the orientation person as well >> and they can decide if they don't want to participate in the study. I mean, it's easy much easier to sit in a study session and observe than in a regular council meeting. So, the timing is pretty good for this, right? Because that's a March 2nd's a study session. >> Yeah, correct. >> So, that would be that's the good news. Anything else on this? Anybody spread? I mean, I've seen people spreading the word. It seems like it's getting out there. Um, they have another week, so keep it up. Just based on what what Erica was saying, so I mean, so it's not a quorum, but I mean, we've had drilled into our into us that we don't express our preferences outside of a public meeting. So, does this actually accomplish our goal of meeting the the open meeting law if we're if we're g if even a subset because then some of us are voting. Um so so the the subcommittee of less than a quorum would conduct and have the um the direction to staff about who to who to send forward for the interview pool. So it would be important to to to make clear that those selected for the subcommittee to do that screening and the selection would not be interacting with any other members of the council in terms of that and those members who aren't on the subcommittee should not offer it and they and those individuals on the subcom will not >> take it. It's they would conduct their work >> in isolation essentially. >> Okay. >> So >> and then of course then you go to the interview process and then that everybody hears it, everybody scores it. everybody has a vote. So this is just that initial idea or way we came up with to address the scenario of sort of again a large volume of applicants. >> Okay. >> So and it and as um the assistant city manager noted if if if we're slightly over 10 and you'd still prefer to conduct that review as a group at the February 9th study session, you can do that. That's certainly your discretion. um that the secondary notion of the subcommittee was just if it gets to it I think there's a probably a certain number there where it just would be really tough to handle in the >> time allotted. >> Great. Anything else? Appreciate all the all the work that went into kind of making sure all of these things fit. So I know you guys put your heads together to do that. Thank you. All right. Well, our last item is the February study session topics. Mike, you got that? >> Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so February 9th is our next study session. Uh, and before I just mentioned February 9th, for tonight, we actually had teed up a long-term asset planning discussion that was a placeholder if we needed more time to talk through the sales tax. So, We got through that conversation. You adopted the resolution, which we really didn't need that time for tonight. So, our agenda is a little bit lighter in that regard. I'm sure that probably feels good to everyone that we're on on a really good timeline tonight. So, then looking ahead to February 9th, u two things. One is the community survey. It is that time of year uh where we do bring in Peter Leatherman. Siss has already started communicating with him and with our staff as we start to gear up for questions that you'll want to ask the council. Last year we started bringing in Peter Leman to this group so that way you have an opportunity to see Peter face to face and then talk through community items that you want to see on the survey and we'll do the same at the staff level. But Peter will be here to tee that conversation up. And then also we have Will. I guess I look over to Will. Um he's aware of it. So Will and Julie uh will be mainly leading that Trail Street and major capital improvement program review. So really kind of highlighting projects in 26 and perhaps even 27. So some of the things on there is like the Three Rivers Park Trail project coming up. There's some other big projects coming up. So that way you'll get a good flavor for what's up on the horizon. So that's teed up in February. March is our policy ordinance review. So we have council policies and procedures on there. Rearrangement of perhaps right meeting agenda. We talked about that a little bit. Uh substance regulations that goes to that Kimberly has brought up and then library zoning code rewrite along with that shortterm rental conversation. So that's this kind of this quarter laid out as always council you know these are your study sessions and so if there's ever topics that or you want to change this this is always in your purview otherwise that's the schedule for now. Any questions? No long do you does anybody else have it? And maybe you >> Colleen, >> I I I feel like we have had a lot of discussion over um the city response and I feel like it's a it's a it's it would be diminishing returns. And I I just feel like I don't want to set aside more time because I'm sure it'll come up, but I I I really feel like the job is getting done of communicating to the residents what the city is doing. And I feel very strongly about this. Um, you know, I think we're doing what we can. We're getting the message out. Um, I don't want to start something that that is unnecessary. >> I I would say I would say this. I got a plethora of emails today from residents who feel as I do. I share their impulse, their sentiments, and I also know that there are different there people different levels of government have different authorities over different things and things that they're asking us to do which would in a perfect world be awesome. We don't have the authority to enforce. So, it would be a performative exercise that accomplishes literally nothing. Um, puts even more pressure on our beloved, relatively small police force that is vastly outnumbered by the 4,000 federal agents that are here. And what I want to do, we we hired a consultant that is going to start collecting the data, helping us form in coalition our responses so that we have strength in numbers and a united front in the West Metro and hopefully building a coalition beyond. And I I understand people's impatience, but we can't enforce what we can't enforce. And I think what we have to help our residents do is communicate with the right levels of government. They need to write to their federal legislators to have them pass the things like can't wear a mask if you're a federal law enforcement agent. They have to identify themselves. They have all the things that we thought were laws and were just societal norms. We have to plug those holes at the federal level because only the feds can enforce the feds. unfortunately. And so now we see all of the the holes in our, you know, in our laws. It would be wonderful if they made it easier for local government to hold federal officials that violate constitutional human uh constitutional law and human and civil rights to hold them accountable. And I'm hoping that our federal uh legislators can do that. But so many of the things that people rightfully want to have happen, we can't. >> Thank you. That's how I feel. >> Um any other comments? >> I was just going to say um like the the consultant has been hired. You know, we've had the initial meetings um with this this group of cities about having a unified messaging. So, I'd like to at least wait and see what that messaging is of, you know, what the recommendations are and what comes of that. Um, and then like I guess if if we strongly object and want to have a discussion, but I I at this time I don't think we need to to set aside time and you know and I get it. I've been getting all those emails as well. And when I do respond and with the email that you sent out with all of the things listed, 99% of the people say, "Oh, wow. Thank you. You know, I didn't know >> and thank you for and so I feel like it's, you know, and um so, you know, it's just a matter of responding to each email. >> Anybody else? I'll just weigh in really. Oh, do you mind? Go ahead, >> Mike. I was just going to mention a couple things. Um, so if you if one of the options, so if you want to have that conversation, you want to direct staff a couple different options, right? Directing staff to plug something into our study sessions. You you can direct staff to put something on a regular meeting. Um, that can happen as soon as you want it to happen. or you could uh call for a special meeting and have a special study session dedicated to this topic. We would caution the council not to get into too much of a debate about it tonight because it's not an agenda item. Really, you want to focus your conversation on do you want to have the conversation? If so, where does that take place? But just want to lay out those options for you. And then second, just want to mention uh to the point Kimberly's making, just to update all of you real quickly that uh tomorrow from 2:00 to 4, uh the mayors and city managers are meeting with the consultant uh walking through um everything from STR identifying the strategies, the tactics, the messaging. So, a lot of that's going to shape up tomorrow. And so I I'll report back to the council on that progress and then you can decide it can how you want to use that information and if you want warrants further conversation. >> Yeah. Thanks Mike. And I I would kind of reiterate some of what what's been said without kind of going too far. But for me the the thing is we're nothing's off the table and we don't know dayto-day what's happening. Right. I think we do have a very concrete plan that we've been working through. I will tell you, I got to get I mean, Mike is working on this seven days a week, sun up to way past sun down. And and we're in communication. I don't think Mike ever anticipated we would be. He'd talk to me so much in the first three weeks, but you know, we're in communications many days, multiple times a day. And so, a lot of the good work, I think, is being done. it it's sensitive. It's we don't want to we we've made some commitments to our partners to try not to get the h the horse out of the barn, you know, and ruin that relationship. So, it doesn't mean I'm not saying we're not going to have I'm not going to feel the need to call a special session. Maybe if something happens that beyond this, we may have to do that. I just think it's premature to do that now. And I and we are doing a lot of work to try to protect our vulnerable residents. Anything else? >> I kind of agree with everybody else. You know, I think, you know, just continue to communicate with the community is probably the best thing to do and ask through all the different things. >> And I would anticipate that for tomorrow. There'll be some there'll be more messaging happening. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. I opened my big mouth. >> What did you do? >> I told someone that um we wasn't getting that many emails. I wasn't. And then all of a sudden, they called me on the phone. someone getting that many emails and then it was flooded today. >> Sorry. >> Why Why would you say that? I told Mike I said I'm not even getting any emails about it. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Well, well, don't lose any sleep over it because we're, you know, >> everybody's doing what the one thing I can say with absolute certainty is everybody in this room is doing the best they can and doing a good job at it. So appreciate everything that everybody's been working on and you've all got your personal passions and that's inspiring as well. So, um, with that, I think we've gotten through our agenda, and we will take this as a win to end our first study session at 7:41, >> thanks to Mike's removal.