This transcription includes the names of the officials and staff based on the provided list and the context of the meeting. **Note on Names:** The transcript contains some phonetic variations of names (e.g., "Folkers" for Volkers, "Markham" for Morcomb, "Willenbring" for Wrich). I have standardized these to the names provided in your list. *** [00:00:00] **Kevin Zabel:** Of the Oakdale City Council for September 12, 2023. Sarah, will you take the roll? [00:00:05] **Sarah (City Clerk):** Yes. Council Member Her? [00:00:07] **Noah Her:** Here. [00:00:08] **Sarah:** Council Member Severson? [00:00:10] **Gary Severson:** Here. [00:00:11] **Sarah:** Council Member Morcomb? [00:00:13] **Andy Morcomb:** Here. [00:00:14] **Sarah:** Council Member Wrich? [00:00:16] **Katie Wrich:** Here. [00:00:17] **Sarah:** Mayor Zabel? [00:00:18] **Kevin Zabel:** Here. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. [All: 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.] [00:00:35] **Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Council members, in front of us we have an agenda. City Administrator Volkers, do we have an amended agenda since we moved that swearing-in? [00:00:43] **Christina Volkers:** No, you're going to have to amend it on the fly tonight. [00:00:46] **Kevin Zabel:** That's just fine. So council members, we're going to strike the oath of office down below. We don't need to also change the corresponding consensus motion system. [00:00:54] **Christina Volkers:** Mayor, City Council, I did pass out a new RCA which we will upload, which has clarification that it is recommending approval of the new police officer subject to pre-employment screening, which is often how we do it when we bring it to you. [00:01:08] **Kevin Zabel:** Got it. So council members, we have those two items: small corrections of the consensus motion as well as removing the oath of office tonight. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended? [00:01:19] **Kari Moore:** I will make a motion to approve the agenda as amended by the Mayor. [00:01:23] **Kevin Zabel:** Also, I should clarify—we’re not removing those two; we're moving one and changing the other. Chris on the corner of my eye is panicking. So, there is a motion. Is there a second? [00:01:33] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:01:34] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And the amended agenda is adopted. In front of us tonight, we have three sets of minutes for approval. First up: Workshop minutes, August 22nd, 2023. Council members, any changes or corrections? I'll look for a motion. [00:01:52] **Andy Morcomb:** So moved. [00:01:53] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:01:55] **Kari Moore:** Second. [00:01:56] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And those minutes are approved. Next up, we have minutes from the regular meeting, August 22nd, 2023. Council members, any changes or corrections? I'll look for a motion. [00:02:11] **Gary Severson:** I'll make a motion. [00:02:12] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:02:14] **Katie Wrich:** Second. [00:02:15] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And those minutes are approved as well. Finally, we have a set of special Workshop minutes from August 29th, 2023. Any changes or corrections? I'll look for a motion. [00:02:29] **Gary Severson:** So moved. [00:02:30] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:02:32] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:02:33] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And those minutes are approved as well. All right, we're going to move on to the public hearing section of the agenda. We have two tonight. First up, a public hearing on vacating an alley within block three, Forest Park's second edition. Do we have a staff presentation? [00:02:51] **Christina Volkers:** Yes, we do. Max, welcome, take it away. [00:02:54] **Max (Staff):** Thank you, Mayor and Council. Give me just a moment to pull this up. So here we have a proposed vacation of an unbuilt alley. This alley was never built and is located a few blocks east of Tanner's Lake between 7th Street, Grafton Avenue, 6th Street, and Goodwin Avenue. While this alley was originally platted in 1946, it was never built or used for access purposes. This issue was brought to our attention during a real estate transaction as a title company flagged the property due to the presence of a garage encroaching into the alley. We later took a look and found that during the review of the alley, there were multiple encroachments across several properties leading staff to recommend vacating the alley in its entirety. Additionally, the vacation of the alley would bring all of the encroachments into compliance. In terms of precedent, the city has vacated unused alleys with apparent encroachments in the past, including in this neighborhood and other older parts of the city. As a result, City staff are recommending approval. As a reminder, state statutes require a public hearing to be held in order to vacate the alley. Additionally, this motion requires a four-fifths minimum vote from the city council. And with that, I'm happy to take any questions. [00:04:09] **Kevin Zabel:** Council members, any questions for Max right out of the gate? Alrighty, well at this time we're going to go ahead and open the public hearing. This is an opportunity for anybody in the audience to step up to the podium, state your name and address, speaking about this one item only. We'll have an opportunity during open forum to talk about anything else, but if anybody would like to speak about vacating the specific alley, please feel free to do so. [Pause]. I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back up for Council consideration. Council members, any questions or comments? Lively bunch tonight, I like it. I'll look for a motion. [00:04:47] **Kari Moore:** I'll make a motion to waive reading and adopt resolution 2023-86 approving the vacation of an alley within block three Forest Park second edition. [00:04:55] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:04:57] **Gary Severson:** Second. [00:04:58] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And that alley is vacated. Next up we have an interim ordinance authorizing a study imposing a moratorium on the operation of cannabis businesses within the city of Oakdale. City Administrator Volkers? [00:05:14] **Christina Volkers:** Yes, City Council. What's before you tonight is a little bit of background. Effective August 1st, 2023, the state legislature approved legalized possession of cannabis. With that, there will be a licensure process through the state of Minnesota; it will not be available until approximately January 2025. In that legislation, it did allow cities to permit cities to pass moratoriums, which would include a study of how it would look and where it would look and what rules should it look like in the city. The Office of Cannabis Management is expected to develop model ordinances that we will use at that time, but this was discussed at the August 22nd workshop. Posted on September 1st was a draft ordinance calling for a moratorium on sales essentially in the city of Oakdale for cannabis and opening new businesses in the city of Oakdale until 2025 or until the Office of the State cannabis office is open. Therefore, what's before you tonight, you're going to do a public hearing and after that, consideration of the motion to adopt the ordinance and approve of the moratorium. [00:06:21] **Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Council members, any questions for staff right out of the gate? I actually have one. We've done interim moratoriums in the past for planning and zoning related items, but I remember all of those were capped at 12 months; they could not exceed one year. I assume this was a special exemption written into the cannabis law? I'm looking at Jim Thompson. It just says it can extend past the 12 months that they use for planning and zoning? [00:06:44] **Jim Thompson (City Attorney):** Mr. Mayor, members of Council, I believe that is the case. [00:06:48] **Kevin Zabel:** Did they specify a specific date that our moratorium could extend until? [00:06:51] **Jim Thompson:** Well, I know the moratorium cannot extend beyond the time that the state does adopt the regulations. The moratorium does apply to time, place, and manner, which is slightly different than zoning. So I'm confident that the way this was drafted is appropriate under the state law. [00:07:07] **Kevin Zabel:** Works for me. Council members, any questions before we open up the public hearing? Okay, so at this time we're going to go ahead and open up the public hearing. Same as before, anybody that would like to speak on this item, please feel free to step up to the podium, state your name and address for the record. Try to keep comments in three minutes or so. [Pause]. Seeing none, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back up for Council consideration. Council members, there's two action items here, so we will take those separately since they have different vote requirement thresholds. Final comments? All right, look for a motion. [00:07:44] **Kari Moore:** I'll make a motion to waive reading and adopt ordinance number 905 adopting an interim ordinance authorizing a study and imposing a moratorium on the operation of cannabis businesses within the city of Oakdale. [00:07:56] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:07:58] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:07:59] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion and second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And that interim ordinance is approved. [00:08:08] **Jim Thompson:** Mr. Mayor, I did find the provision and it does allow the city to adopt the ordinance until January 1, 2025. [00:08:15] **Kevin Zabel:** Thanks, Jim. One more action item under this topic: authorizing publication of the ordinance by title and summary. Can I get a motion? [00:08:23] **Kari Moore:** Make a motion to waive reading and adopt resolution 2023-88 authorizing publication of ordinance number 905 by title and summary. [00:08:31] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:08:33] **Noah Her:** Second. [00:08:34] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And that resolution is adopted as well. Next up on our agenda we have Open Forum. This is an opportunity for any members of the public to share with us whatever's on their mind. Before we get to that, I have a few proclamations to read. First up is recognizing Direct Support Professional Appreciation Week. [Mayor reads proclamation]. Therefore, I, Kevin Zabel, Mayor of Oakdale, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim September 10th through the 16th as Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week in the City of Oakdale. We have one more proclamation recognizing Constitution Day and Week. [Mayor reads proclamation]. Therefore, I, Kevin Zabel, Mayor of Oakdale, Minnesota, do hereby proclaim September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week and September 17th as Constitution Day in the City of Oakdale. Let's circle back up to Open Forum. House rules ask that people try and keep their comments to three minutes or so. Please feel free to step on up. That's you, Les. [00:10:48] **Les (Resident):** Well, I didn't find out about this ordinance change for the chickens, so I really didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but I did my best. My reason for being here is to ask to have Amendment 906 vote postponed for a month or more to resolve issues with the amendment. Some proposed changes are not practical and some issues are not addressed sufficiently. I was on the Oakdale Planning Commission for 13 years along with Mayor Zabel, who was just starting as I was just finishing. I was chairman of the Oakdale Ordinance Committee for seven years. During that time, I rewrote many of the city's ordinances. The chicken ordinance didn't need any changes; it was simple and basic and it worked well for decades. I have also helped many Minnesota cities write their chicken ordinances. I teach classes at the Oakdale Discovery Center about keeping chickens safe and comfortable in frigid climates. I stress code compliance and how to keep neighbors happy with roosters, etc. I'm an administrator of an internet group with a hundred thousand members. Nobody's coop from Canada to Texas would meet the proposed 906 ordinance. Hardly a coop in the whole nation could meet what is being proposed. For one, the temperature of 32 to 85—nationwide, everybody's coop goes above 85 degrees. In Texas, for instance, chickens can handle 100 degrees or more just like humans. Cold weather, about 50 percent of the coops in the state, including northern Minnesota, are not heated at all. My chickens choose to sleep at minus 20 degrees in the unheated aviary on purpose. Window requirements—my coop is insulated and well ventilated, but has no windows on purpose. I believe the intent of that paragraph was for ventilation, not to have a window. I just don't have one; I have other ways to provide ventilation. In the change, there's no mention of humidity—that's pretty important. It should be less than 80 percent, but above that they start to get respiratory diseases. Less than 60 percent is ideal. Also, regarding coop size, the ordinance divides it into coops, runs, and exercise yards. There's no provision for chickens of different sizes or breeds. Some chickens are 20 ounces, not much bigger than a robin, and others are 20 pounds. You can probably only get two chickens of the larger breed in the amount of space required by the amendment. So it has to be flexible. Roosters—there's no need to restrict roosters. If a rooster makes noise, the nuisance ordinance applies. Some roosters are nearly silent. I decide if they are too noisy for other people. Roosters are the guardians over the hens. There are methods to keep rooster sounds from being a problem. I’d keep mine in their insulated coop until eight in the morning and then I’d let them out. [00:14:48] **Kevin Zabel:** I do have to enforce the time restriction, Les. [00:14:50] **Les:** One final thought. Dogs make more noise than roosters usually. Chickens and pigeons should not be subject to the same set of rules. Pigeons are comfortable at minus 40 degrees; my chicken isn't. There is a Twin Cities Chicken Tour coming up where you can tour a chicken coop and see what they really are like. Thank you. [00:15:21] **Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Les. Is there anybody else that would like to speak under open forum? [Pause]. We're going to keep going. [00:15:28] **Les:** I'd be perfectly happy to have a meeting on this ordinance, not approval of the ordinance. [00:15:35] **Kevin Zabel:** Thank you, Les. Moving on to consensus motions. We got a bunch tonight, A through O. City Administrator texted me and wanted me to call out one specific one—the police officer one has been added to consensus. [00:15:52] **Christina Volkers:** Yes, and that will be uploaded online. It would end up being "P." [00:15:58] **Kevin Zabel:** Okay. A through P tonight. Council members, are there any individual ones that you would like to pull for individual consideration? [00:16:05] **Katie Wrich:** I'd like to pull H and J. [00:16:08] **Kevin Zabel:** H and J. On those two, just a heads up, since there's two action items, we would take those separate like we did on the public hearing. Council members, any other ones? No? Okay. Can I get a motion for A through G, I, and K through P? [00:16:21] **Kari Moore:** I will make a motion to approve consensus motions A through G, I, and K through P. [00:16:26] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:16:28] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:16:29] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? And that laundry list of them are approved. Let's circle back to H. Council Member Wrich, you pulled it. Would you like to give us a quick summary and share your thoughts? [00:16:45] **Katie Wrich:** The reason I pulled it, a couple of questions. I think maybe the Chief can answer as far as the residents: if we were to approve this ordinance, how would that affect the current residents and the number of chickens or birds that they have? [00:17:01] **Kevin Zabel:** Chief Newton, would you like to join us? [00:17:05] **Nick Newton (Police Chief):** Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council members. Can you repeat the last piece of that? [00:17:10] **Katie Wrich:** If we approve the ordinance, how would it affect the current numbers that certain people have that are approved over six? What happens to those coops and those birds if we approve the ordinance? [00:17:21] **Nick Newton:** Sure. We would give them a grace period to one, let them know the change of the ordinance, and give them time to come into compliance. It's not anything the police department will go out and enforce immediately. We would just influence them to follow the ordinance. [00:17:39] **Kevin Zabel:** To that point, Chief, can you remind us—is the animal permit an annual renewal process? [00:17:47] **Nick Newton:** Yes, it is an annual process. What we do in this case is have our staff reach out to those who received permits this year and reach out to them proactively to let them know about the change. [00:18:03] **Kevin Zabel:** Thank you. Council members, any questions or final comments on this item? [00:18:07] **Katie Wrich:** Related to the sizing and the heating of the coops—do we know where that information came from? [00:18:13] **Christina Volkers:** Mayor, Council, that came from all those sample ordinances. I pulled like 14 of them from surrounding cities and our Assistant City Attorney used the compilation of those in the draft ordinance. [00:18:28] **Katie Wrich:** I'll just say that I will be voting no because I am against allowing slaughtering for private residents. I know we don't allow it for commercial, but I'm also against it for private. [00:18:41] **Kevin Zabel:** I'll look for a motion. [00:18:43] **Andy Morcomb:** I make a motion to approve consensus motion H, part one. [00:18:48] **Kevin Zabel:** Just the ordinance text itself. There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:18:51] **Noah Her:** Second. [00:18:52] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [Zabel, Her, Morcomb, Severson: Aye]. Opposed? [Wrich: No]. And that ordinance change is adopted four to one. Next we'll take the question about publication title and summary. [00:19:05] **Andy Morcomb:** I'll make a motion to approve consensus motion H part two as presented. [00:19:09] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:19:11] **Noah Her:** Second. [00:19:12] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [Zabel, Her, Morcomb, Severson: Aye]. Opposed? [Wrich: No]. And that is approved four to one as well. Next we have J. [00:19:25] **Katie Wrich:** Jay is related to the smoking of cannabis and hemp in a public place. There's a few things I want to request. In section 3A, we have "any indoor or outdoor areas that is used or held out for use by public whether owned or operated by public or private interests." I'm going to ask if we could change that to state "any indoor outdoor property owned, leased, or controlled by a government unit including the city" and to exclude private property because private property has rights. I feel like this is a bit of an overreach telling private commercial and retail owners what they can and can't do on their property. [00:20:07] **Kevin Zabel:** How you would like to handle this? We can make the motion and second as written, and then you can offer that as an amendment. [00:20:18] **Katie Wrich:** I don't get what you mean. [00:20:19] **Kevin Zabel:** We would just make the motion and second on the baseline ordinance, then you offer changes and we vote on those individually. It’s an easy way to track whether it's passing or failing. [00:20:33] **Katie Wrich:** Okay. [00:20:34] **Kevin Zabel:** So, council members, let's get a motion and a second on J part one. [00:20:37] **Andy Morcomb:** I'd like to move to approve consensus motion J part one as presented. [00:20:42] **Kevin Zabel:** There's a motion. Is there a second? [00:20:44] **Noah Her:** Second. [00:20:45] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and a second. [00:20:46] **Katie Wrich:** I would like to propose an amendment to the consensus motion J to change the wording from 3A to "any indoor outdoor property owned, leased, or controlled by a government unit including the City" versus what it currently states. [00:21:05] **Kevin Zabel:** I have a question regarding that. Jim, wouldn't the indoor piece of that be covered under the Minnesota Clean Air Act? [00:21:13] **Jim Thompson:** It covers smoking; I don't think it covers what we're talking about in this ordinance, but wouldn't smoking marijuana be covered? I'm not 100 percent sure. [00:21:26] **Kevin Zabel:** Are you talking about homes, Katie, or private property businesses? [00:21:31] **Katie Wrich:** Also homes, but private property businesses. I want those excluded. [00:21:38] **Kevin Zabel:** To that comment, for me, this goes back to requests I received from the business community. The proposed language gives clarity that we're treating smoke derived from cannabis same as any other nuisance. I support a business's right to decide how to run their business, but there are elements subject to public accommodation laws. [00:22:15] **Andy Morcomb:** I'm fine with any oral way of consuming cannabis other than smoking inside, but I don't support being allowed to smoke it. [00:22:36] **Kevin Zabel:** So Council Member Wrich moves to amend consensus item J, striking 3A and replacing it with "any indoor or outdoor property owned, leased, or controlled by a government unit including the city." There's a motion to amend. Is there a second? [Pause]. Motion fails due to a lack of a second. Second item? [00:22:58] **Katie Wrich:** Second item is B1, the wording "no person shall vaporize or smoke cannabis flower, cannabis products, or lower potency hemp edibles." I don't know how you can smoke an edible, so that's the wording I think we need to fix. [00:23:13] **Christina Volkers:** Mr. Mayor, I do concur from my layman's reading that the word "edible" shouldn't be in there. Jim? [00:23:22] **Jim Thompson:** That was put in when we were considering a broader version. Low potency hemp edibles are only consumed; they're not consumed by smoking. It would be appropriate to remove that phrase. [00:23:38] **Kevin Zabel:** So Council Member Wrich moves to amend consensus item J, item B1, to strike the words "lower potency hemp edibles" from B1. Is there a second? [00:23:51] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:23:52] **Kevin Zabel:** Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. All right, B1 is adopted. [00:24:01] **Katie Wrich:** Section C. I would like to ask Chief a question related to the petty misdemeanor part of it. Can you explain petty misdemeanor and what fines are associated with it? [00:24:12] **Nick Newton:** A petty misdemeanor would just be a payable offense. It would not be something someone would be taken into custody for. You'd be issued a citation just like a traffic stop. [00:24:26] **Katie Wrich:** So there's no criminal record associated with it? [00:24:28] **Nick Newton:** Correct. [00:24:29] **Katie Wrich:** How much do we charge? [00:24:32] **Nick Newton:** I don't think we've established the fee. They can range from $25 up towards $500. [00:24:37] **Jim Thompson:** I think the state cap is at $300 for a petty misdemeanor. It's a monetary fine, not a criminal sentence. [00:24:50] **Katie Wrich:** The whole point of this legislation is to reduce impacts on lower income folks. Charging them every time there's a citation isn't helping. I can't vote for a petty misdemeanor at this point unless we talk about really low fees or no fees. [00:25:12] **Christina Volkers:** I don't think petty misdemeanor amounts are Council action; are they in the fee schedule? There will be state fees that you will not be able to waive regardless. [00:25:31] **Jim Thompson:** We could work with the prosecutor, but right now this ordinance doesn't establish the fine per se; it just says it's a petty misdemeanor. [00:25:42] **Kevin Zabel:** Did you have a proposed change there, Katie? [00:25:44] **Katie Wrich:** No, I don't know what the change would be. [00:25:48] **Kevin Zabel:** So it's consensus item J part one as amended. There's been a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. [Zabel, Her, Morcomb, Severson: Aye]. Oppose? [Wrich: No]. All right, that passes 4-1 as amended. And then the item about title and summary. [00:26:07] **Andy Morcomb:** I would like to move to approve consensus motion J part two as presented. [00:26:11] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion. Is there a second? [00:26:13] **Noah Her:** Second. [00:26:14] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion and second. Final comments? All those in favor say aye. [Zabel, Her, Morcomb, Severson: Aye]. Opposed? [Wrich: No]. Passes 4-1. Council members, I need to go back up and make a motion to reconsider consensus motion I as presented. [00:26:35] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:26:36] **Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? Consensus motion I is back before the body. This is regarding allowing liquor license holders to obtain a THC license. My question for staff was: what's the best way to address the provision that says Edibles must be behind the counter? THC seltzers are bigger. Thinking about liquor stores, it might not be feasible to hold those behind the counter. Should we table it to get the language right? [00:27:32] **Jim Thompson:** The provision the Mayor is talking about is in another section of the city code. If the consensus of the council is to change that for liquor stores, we would come back with a different ordinance. It wouldn't stop you from enacting this one. [00:27:54] **Kevin Zabel:** My suggestion is we take this to a workshop. [00:28:01] **Andy Morcomb:** Currently, there is no ordinance allowing the sale of these products in Oakdale, is that correct? I would rather pass this because we have consensus that we are willing to allow these products, then come back and deal with the nuances. [00:28:30] **Kevin Zabel:** They can't sell those until they get a council-approved THC license anyway. It will be at least two weeks. [00:28:50] **Christina Volkers:** This was going to go out in the quarterly newsletter tomorrow—that you guys passed this. We'd have to redo the whole publication. [00:29:10] **Noah Her:** I think I would be okay with supporting a motion to approve as is. Our intent is there already. [00:30:11] **Kevin Zabel:** I can live with that. Who wants to make a motion to approve consensus motion I as presented? [00:30:22] **Noah Her:** I would like to make a motion to approve consensus motion I part one as presented. [00:30:26] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion. Second? [00:30:28] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:30:29] **Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. [Zabel, Her, Morcomb, Severson: Aye]. Opposed? [Wrich: No]. Motion I part two: title and summary? [00:30:40] **Noah Her:** I make a motion to approve consensus motion I part two as presented. [00:30:44] **Kevin Zabel:** Second? [00:30:45] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:30:46] **Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. [Zabel, Her, Morcomb, Severson: Aye]. Opposed? [Wrich: No]. All right, back where we started. Advisory boards and commissions: Council Member Severson? [00:31:01] **Gary Severson:** Only main item was a home occupation permit for a dog grooming business. Planning Commission did recommend approval. [00:31:18] **Kevin Zabel:** Staff reports: Finance. Adopting proposed 2024 property tax levy. [00:31:25] **Christina Volkers:** Kyle Stansica is our accounting manager; he is helping out now that Jason Zimmerman, our former Finance Director, is in the background. [00:31:37] **Kyle Stansica (Accounting Manager):** Good evening Mayor, Council. The City of Oakdale is required to adopt a proposed property tax levy for 2024 and certify it to the Washington County Auditor by October 2nd. The proposed 2024 property tax levy is $18,227,988, which is up 13% from 2023. The median residential property in Oakdale was valued at $343,000, an increase of almost 9%. It is estimated the city share of property tax would increase about 10%. We are proposing five new full-time employees: three licensed police officers, one Public Works maintenance worker, and an assistant city administrator. Staff believes this accomplishes essential objectives like focusing on city services and maintaining appropriate fund balance. [00:35:48] **Kevin Zabel:** Council members, any questions for Kyle? [00:35:54] **Noah Her:** No question, but just a comment. This was not an easy decision. I have a lot of respect for all the work staff has put in. [00:36:26] **Kevin Zabel:** I'll just add: thank you to all of our staff. This budget is responsible. We are booming and growing. We are cutting the overall tax rate but bringing in more money because of the $80 million in new tax base construction. I am damn proud of it. Can I have a motion? [00:38:43] **Noah Her:** I would like to make a motion to waive reading and adopt resolution 2023-84. [00:38:56] **Kevin Zabel:** Motion. Is there a second? [00:38:58] **Gary Severson:** Second. [00:38:59] **Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Opposed? Adopted. Thank you, Kyle. [00:39:07] **Noah Her:** Mayor, if you don't mind, I have things I have to tend to. If it's okay, I'll excuse myself. [00:39:15] **Kevin Zabel:** Thanks, Noah. City Attorney Mr. Thompson? [00:39:23] **Jim Thompson:** Nothing to report tonight. [00:39:27] **Kevin Zabel:** Ms. Volkers? [00:39:30] **Christina Volkers:** You've heard enough from me, thank you. [00:39:35] **Gary Severson:** Nothing for me. [00:39:36] **Andy Morcomb:** Nothing. [00:39:38] **Katie Wrich:** My yearly reminder to go get your skin cancer evaluations, please. [00:39:46] **Andy Morcomb:** I just wanted to say thank you to Les who came out and spoke. I learned a lot. [00:40:17] **Kevin Zabel:** I've known Les a long time. Tonight we had our Touch-A-Truck event—great turnout. Tomorrow the St. Paul Area Chamber is hosting awards; Oakdale is a finalist in two categories. Family Fun-flatables is this Saturday at Walton Park. Farmers Market is this Wednesday, 2 to 6 PM. Voting for the photo contest began today on Facebook. In front of us we have a claims roster. Can I get a motion? [00:41:48] **Kari Moore:** Make a motion to approve the claims as presented. [00:41:51] **Kevin Zabel:** Second? [00:41:52] **Gary Severson:** Second. [00:41:53] **Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. Bills are paid. Motion to adjourn? [00:41:59] **Gary Severson:** So moved. [00:42:00] **Kevin Zabel:** Second? [00:42:01] **Andy Morcomb:** Second. [00:42:02] **Kevin Zabel:** All those in favor say aye. [All: Aye]. We are adjourned. Thank you and good night.