[0:28] (Ambient noise) [0:58] (Ambient noise) [1:28] (Ambient noise) [1:58] (Ambient noise) [2:28] (Ambient noise) [3:12] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Here I will note for the record that all council members are present and in attendance. Uh, will the Honor Guard please present the colors? Please stand. [3:53] **Honor Guard / Audience:** 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. [4:28] (Ambient noise) [5:13] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Please be seated. Thank you to our Honor Guard. Uh, job well done as always. All right, we're going to jump right into the meeting here. Item two, approval of the minutes. I'd entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the regular City Council meeting on October 22nd, 2024. A motion? A second? All those in favor say aye. (Aye). Any opposed? Minutes are approved. Uh, item three, adoption of the agenda. We have a couple changes. Uh, first, we need to amend item 4E; it currently reads the address of 5084 Morehead Avenue, that should read 5085 Morehead Avenue. And then in addition, we are going to move 4D from the consent agenda to new business and that will become item 8B. So for clarity, that's the resolution ordering a feasibility report for the 2025 proposed pavement rehabilitation project. And if there are no other changes or corrections to the agenda, I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda. I have a motion. A second. All those in favor say aye. (Aye). Any opposed? We have an agenda. Item four, consent agenda as amended. I'd entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda. Have a motion. A second. All those in favor say aye. (Aye). Any opposed? Consent agenda is approved. Item five, visitors and presentations. We have the swearing-in of a new police officer. So Chief, whenever you're ready. [6:46] **Police Chief:** Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, thank you for the opportunity to share one of our newest police officers, Jordan McNamara, freshly off of his field training with you tonight and to celebrate with he and his family and friends who filled up this room as he takes his oath of office. We also really appreciate the opportunity that you give us every time we have one of these to show off our Honor Guard; tonight consisting of Captain Tuma and Officer Manar. I think they do a really great job. Jordan was raised in Forest Lake, Minnesota with his mother and father and the rest of their very rather large family. He graduated from Forest Lake High School in 2021, which makes him our very first COVID-teen hire. Living through school cancellations, virtual learning—it played a big part in his life. Part of his experience, however, in high school was when he was able to do in-person schooling and there was a police officer visit to school that day from the Forest Lake Police Department. That officer made an impact on Jordan and helped shape his immediate future. After graduating high school, Jordan began his academic career at Century College where I was fortunate enough to get to know him a little bit better. I know I might be breaking some rules here, Jordan, of student-instructor confidentiality, but I don't mind telling you he was an outstanding student in the two classes I had with him. He finished with over 98% in both—we can talk about that extra 1.5% later. He then finished his journey at the Hennepin Technical College where he received his certificate in law enforcement. One of the benefits of members of our department teaching at local colleges, as you know, is that we could pick the cream of the crop for ourselves. My predecessor, Julie Swanson, had Jordan early on in his academic career and she did just that. In the summer of 2023, Jordan began his service to our city as the Community Service Officer while finishing up his last couple semesters at Century and Hennepin Tech. Early this spring, Jordan was hired as a police officer. He successfully made it through our field training officer program with flying colors and ahead of schedule, which is why we are here celebrating him tonight. Jordan has proven himself to be an officer who is dedicated to service of others, has proven himself reliable as a partner both as a CSO and in the last few months as an officer. Last night, in fact, he proved himself reliable again by taking a kick straight to the face while making a domestic assault arrest with his partners. I'm sorry if you didn't tell your family that yet. Mom was like, "What?" He would never tell you about incidents like that because he's a bit of an introvert, he's humble, and he keeps to himself. In his free time, he enjoys fishing and spending time with his family and, of course, spending time with his girlfriend, Jasmine. Tonight, as I said earlier, many of Jordan's family members and friends and mentors are here to help celebrate, including his mother, Mary Jo, and his father, David, some of his siblings, and of course, Jazz, who will be pinning his badge on a little bit later. Jordan, please join City Manager Crawford up front so she can issue you your oath of office, after which Jazz will come up and pin your badge. [10:02] **Lindsey Crawford (City Manager):** Yes, raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name... [10:10] **Jordan McNamara:** I, Jordan McNamara... [10:11] **Lindsey Crawford:** Do solemnly swear... [10:12] **Jordan McNamara:** Do solemnly swear... [10:13] **Lindsey Crawford:** That I will support the Constitution of the United States... [10:16] **Jordan McNamara:** That I will support the Constitution of the United States... [10:19] **Lindsey Crawford:** And the State of Minnesota... [10:21] **Jordan McNamara:** And the State of Minnesota... [10:23] **Lindsey Crawford:** And will discharge faithfully... [10:24] **Jordan McNamara:** And will discharge faithfully... [10:25] **Lindsey Crawford:** Execute the duties devolving upon me... [10:28] **Jordan McNamara:** Execute the duties devolving upon me... [10:32] **Lindsey Crawford:** As police officer for the City of White Bear Lake... [10:34] **Jordan McNamara:** As a police officer for the City of White Bear Lake... [10:37] **Lindsey Crawford:** Without fear or favor... [10:39] **Jordan McNamara:** Without fear or favor... [10:41] **Lindsey Crawford:** To the best of my judgment and ability. [10:43] **Jordan McNamara:** To the best of my judgment and ability. [10:46] **Lindsey Crawford:** Congratulations. [10:48] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Thank you. (Applause) [11:16] (Applause and celebration) [11:37] **Police Chief:** And Mr. Mayor, we'll just need a few minutes for this very large crowd to clear out. If you want to head over to the Police Department, we have refreshments and we'll have an opportunity to take photos over there. So thanks for coming tonight. [11:50] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Thank you. [12:12] (Crowd clearing) [13:15] **Mayor Dan Joas:** All right, we can get going again. Item 5B, Finance Department quarterly report. Miss Kins, whenever you're ready. [13:30] **Carrie Kins (Finance Director):** Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. I'm here tonight to talk about the third quarter financial report for 2024. Uh, slight typo I noticed in the memo today as I was reviewing it: I have in there that the results are through the month of June. That is incorrect. This is the actual results through September with the year-to-date September being compared. Some interesting highlights of the financial report for this third quarter that were mentioned in the agenda packet I just wanted to highlight was the rental inspection fees are significantly higher in 2024. Now that we have full staffing, that department has really had some struggles over the last couple of years, and so it's very exciting to see that the staffing level is full and that everybody is doing the duties of their job. And so by doing that, we have more revenues and the rental facilities are all getting their required reviews. Park facilities continue to be in high demand, as evidenced in the facility rental revenues in 2024. The year-to-date is just over 37,000, while in 2023 we had 29,400. So that was a significant increase in the rentals for people using our facilities. As I go through the report, this is the time of the year when the variances start to see some differences. As we're going through the first two quarters, we still have plenty of the budget left, everything looks like it's tracking right on, but when we get to the third quarter, that's really when we start to see where revenues might be higher than what we originally budgeted for or expenditures might be lower. So as we're working on the 2025 budget right now, we're in the process of revising our 2024 budget. So when you look at these numbers and see, for example, that license and permits are significantly higher than what we budgeted, that will be corrected when we do adopt the revised budget. So we'll have a truer idea in that revised budget of what our fund balance will probably be. Some examples of some of the revenues that are higher than budgeted: In addition to the licensing and permits, our franchise fees came in a little higher than what we had planned on. Police state aid came in $20,000 more than what we had budgeted. And then the rental housing, the miscellaneous revenues, which would be our park revenues. Some of our expenditures that you will see adjusted down for our vacancies in departments—if there are any budgeted savings, if we had repairs that we thought we were going to need this year and we haven't used them to this point and it doesn't appear that we're going to need to have them this year, then we will be taking those expenditures out in the revised budget too. So that work is going on. You will see that when the draft budget comes out next week and have a chance to review both the revised budget and look over the 2025 budget. Interest revenues always are a very popular topic. We've gone through some tough years where interest revenues have really been low. These last couple of years have been much better than the couple years before that. The revenues are not recorded as interest revenues in each of the funds yet; at the end of the year, we take the interest and we allocate it to the funds based on the average cash balance in each fund for the year. So right now, just looking at the total interest that we've received through September 30th, we have $796,000. If you looked at the same period from 2023, we had $454,000. So definitely more interest revenues this year. The last fund, the License Bureau revenues are significantly higher than what they have been in previous years. The transaction counts are level with the same period last year—there's a difference of 365 transactions between the two years—which is really interesting because when you look at the fees, now we're seeing the effects of the legislative work where they increase the fees that the city gets to keep for our transactions. The difference in the revenue is 183,000. So the assistance that we're receiving from the state is definitely helping and we appreciate that. One other key point: we did a little differently this year in the License Bureau. We have a previous full-time employee who was available for some part-time work, and so we hired her back this summer for a short time to come in. Summertime is our busiest time and we have the longest lines, and by having a knowledgeable person be able to come back and step in, she could be helping the customers faster. And during the summer, where a lot of our regular employees are trying to take vacation, it gave us a little extra coverage. So I think that that was a really positive thing that we tried this year. With that, I'm done with my presentation and I will take any questions. [19:55] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Thank you, Miss Kins. Council, any questions? All right, thank you very much for the report. All right, item 5C, Public Works Engineering Department bi-annual report. Mr. Copy, whenever you're ready. [20:18] **Paul Copy (Public Works Director):** Yeah, thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. That's always a tough one to follow with the amount of numbers Carrie gets to present to you. But just quickly, I'd like to start with: this is the infrastructure that we as Public Works and Engineering are out to maintain, inventory, and use to serve our residents. First up, as Carrie had mentioned, we in Parks are finally fully staffed as of last Monday, November 4th. We were able to finally fill our second of our two vacancies in our Parks and Facilities Department. Otherwise, Public Works is fully staffed. Having those two vacancies open all summer created some havoc in the Parks department and Public Works in general as everybody kind of jumped in to try to help out. But our two new employees are Kevin Taco, our new facilities maintenance, and Ben Lofgren, our Parks maintenance tech. Those two fill our Public Works roster, and we really look forward to having them on before winter. If they really get the snow that was predicted, it'll be a welcome addition to the department for sure. So with that, I'm going to just kind of run through each of the departments. In Parks, we struggled really with some of the early season rains with the mowing and more mowing. We really struggled to keep up with keeping all our public areas mowed. We had, as Carrie mentioned as well, a ton of park reservations and special events to get ready for. You know, all of the Market Fest, the parades, the celebrations that we have here in town—over that time frame from April through October, we had 266 park reservations. You know, those guys are out there getting trash emptied, bathrooms cleaned up, pavilions cleaned, so a lot of effort that goes into making those facilities ready for each of the renters. Also this spring, we had a really high rate of vandalism. Every time they'd go to try to open up park restrooms in the mornings, finding damage and graffiti. People can go in the restrooms and cause damage and be generally unseen. We work with the City's police officers quite closely to try to monitor and made some changes with when we open certain restrooms. Otherwise, it was a lot of the normal. All our hanging baskets, the plantings—3,000 annuals were planted by our horticulture staff. Really look great. Again, early season we were still watering, but then we had kind of a drought at the end of the season and it was non-stop trying to keep up watering those things. And then it seems weird I'm talking about hanging baskets and we move right into holiday decorations already in October. They hardly get the docks out and they move right into doing holiday decorations. A short window from mid-October to mid-November to get all of that stuff done. Not a ton of huge projects this year. We did do the Depot sidewalk. As you know, the historic bricks out there were pretty uneven, and we're trying to obviously make improvements through our pedestrian facilities all over town. If you haven't had a chance to walk there, some of the diamond patterns in there are with the old brick. We also saved as many of the old brick that were possible to maybe reuse somewhere else. To get ready for the Public Safety open house, we were able to get a bunch of landscaping done. Everybody was out there—engineering staff and other staff out there helping plant some flowers one afternoon. We had to do underground utilities to tie the two buildings together, so Parks staff jumped in and got that done very quickly. Next up: Streets. This is their bread and butter over the summer—getting little paving projects done, as well as pavement striping. They go and replace all the signs on all the city projects, and this year we added quite a number of County and School District projects too. Otherwise, they were able to get a little bit of tree trimming in this year. Again, a lot of rain early on, they jumped in and helped Parks do mowing. They've already started fall sweeping; they've gotten through the community once already and are starting through a second time. Hopefully, if the snow holds off, they'll be able to get through a second time and get the majority of leaves picked up. Streets and Sewer helped out with the A Street parking lot that the city owns. Sewer helped them out with the parking lot fence, and Streets helped Sewer out with a big manhole repair project this summer. Those two departments really worked well this summer together. Water this summer: April through October, 460 million gallons. In reality, 2021 was actually one of our higher years at about 530 million gallons, but 2022 was 492 and 2023 was 443. So really kind of in line even though we had a really wet spring but then we had a lot of drought in the end. It really didn't spike any usage too high. One of their daily tasks is to get rid of the spent lime. It's a lime softening plant, so the lime that's the byproduct of the softening process gets trucked down to St. Paul for dewatering and disposal. That's pretty much every day or a couple times a day occurrence all summer long. And then with all of the projects going on, they had a lot of Gopher State One Calls (locates). They are everywhere, from homeowners doing projects to many of our own projects. That keeps somebody very busy. If you do the math, that's a lot of locates per day. We've been able to schedule a lot of projects down at the plant. This year, we replaced the dust collection system on the lime silo. It's a pelletized lime that gets delivered and it creates dust; that dust collection system was very antiquated. We also replaced the stairs on the west side of the plant—Miss Crawford will like this—new railings and stairs that aren't all cracked. The new design will help with snow removal. We were able to completely renovate the chem feed room to meet Minnesota Department of Health and OSHA regulations, adding secondary containment—the square box around that tank. We also replaced the regulators and the feed on the chlorine tank. The room is much safer now. We've been able to get the lime slaker tweak dialed in and all integrated with SCADA; that's a great help because everything's talking together nicely and the number of call-outs we were having has dropped significantly. Excited to say that we've had our second of a five-year program to paint all the hydrants in town, systematically going through town about 200 to 225 per year. Residents are super happy about it. Sewer division: Couple of the primary things they do every year is clean and jet the sewer system and televise it. We try to do about 10 to 12 miles per year. The televising has really allowed us to find any system deficiencies and work that into our sewer lining program. We've almost reduced our number of backups to almost nothing. They've been looking at some of the ditches along some of our rural roadways—the picture there is down on Bel Air—removing brush and getting things to drain. We used to use a lot more sand on the roads, which just fills the ditches over time. They did the 4th and Otter Lake lift station renovation with the County's Otter Lake Road Project so they were able to capitalize on the road being torn up. Fleet Maintenance: They are getting in a routine of getting everything done in-house, from preventative maintenance to major repairs. Both our mechanics are DOT inspection certified. Really, the only thing that they send things out for is warranty work. They love taking on unique projects. This year, they worked very closely with Police—and I'll say also with Fire—on overhauling how we outfit and get in the new squads so that they're all the same. This adds a lot of uniformity. I think they did six new squads this year as well as one of the Chief's vehicles, and a couple of fire vehicles next year. They're coming to the end of the implementation of AssetWorks, our work order management system. This is a pretty robust system that a lot of the counties use and we kind of piggyback onto that system, saving us a little bit of money. Public Works Administration: Mary and Mark work very hard with our Public Works open house. Mary helps facilitate and set up our Farmers Market—18 Fridays, June through October. She was able to represent the city at the State Fair again this year to promote our Farmers Market. Fall cleanup: we did move it from the old Public Works to the new Public Works this year. We were going to do that before but we hosted the fire department at the Public Works building the last couple years. This allowed everything to be maintained on a hard surface. The route through the site worked very well. Engineering division: Street Rehabilitation project went very smoothly. We were able to wrap up the Public Safety project completion—that was a sigh of relief. One of the big things behind the scenes was the lead water service inventory that was required through the Department of Health. We had to inventory building records, little file card cabinets, looking at every single property in town to see what their services are made of. Once we hit submit, we were approved and they said we had 30 days to send a letter out explaining all this to all of your water service customers. So far, we've gotten over a thousand responses to the survey. A lot of communities hardly got a 1% return, so we've gotten a pretty good response to it. This summer was very busy working with County road projects as well as the School District project. Other than that, project reviews and right-of-way permits—we typically do 30 to 50 a year. Jason utilizes us a lot for GIS mapping for zoning updates. Other than that, that's what I have for you tonight. [40:48] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Very good. Thank you, Mr. Copy, for the detailed report. Sounds like you guys had a busy but productive summer. I do want to call out the water treatment department because, in a good way, I had an opportunity to tour the water treatment plant in late August and climb all the way up to the top of the North water tower, which was really cool—you can see St. Paul and Minneapolis from there. But it was fascinating to see the sheer scale of how much water we pump out of the ground, clean, make safe, and send out to our homes. I think most people kind of take for granted: you turn the faucet on, water comes out. It is a lot of work that goes into it. Council, any questions for Mr. Copy? Council member Walsh. [41:38] **Council Member Walsh:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You mentioned manholes. Just a question: Manhole covers—we talked somewhere maybe informally about a new product to put down in that dip because the manhole cover has to be a little lower than the street grade, right? Any progress on that? Is that a budget item? I've got a couple like on 4th Street towards Otter Lake Road and South Shore Boulevard where people tell me the manholes are pretty deep. Any update on that product? [42:15] **Paul Copy:** Um, so what we've been doing is adjusting them with newer products for the rings that we're using. It prevents the water and sand from infiltrating. Everybody thinks the manholes sink; it's really the street. The manholes are 8 to 20 feet deep, they're solid, immovable objects. It's the street in that upper foot or so that actually heaves and sinks. But we are mortaring them and the products we're using for rings are much more stable to prevent that sediment from infiltrating and causing settlement around the manholes. [43:10] **Council Member Walsh:** Are you taking requests for where to fix those? I could give you a couple of spots. [43:16] **Paul Copy:** Good plug for the City's website! You can always go on the website and enter a location or an issue that you're having. Or you're welcome to email me directly. [43:35] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Council, any more questions? Council member Edberg. [43:45] **Council Member Edberg:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I have three comments, two of them serious, one a bit more whimsical. I want to pay a compliment to the Parks division. I'm a trained horticulturist; the city looks beautiful. The work that the staff does in maintaining our baskets, our public plantings—I love driving through downtown White Bear Lake. It's just phenomenal. Unsolicited, I'll put in a plug that City residents have an opportunity to support that with donations. Second one: you kind of undersold some of your numbers. Mayor, you are absolutely correct about water. If you took all of the storm sewer pipe and all of the drinking water pipe that we have and laid it end to end from City Hall going north, we have enough that it would go from here to Two Harbors. That's how much it takes for our community to function. It's all underground, nobody sees it, but that's the infrastructure that we have to maintain. The third—I noticed two kind of dissimilar things—we seem to have some artists in town who like spray painting, and you mentioned that regarding park bathrooms. We are only in year two of five of painting our city hydrants. I'm wondering if there might be some adjudicated individuals who have particular skills and talents? Monochromatic, perhaps fire engine red? Let's look for ways of advancing that project. Thank you. [46:58] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Council, any other questions? [47:10] **Lindsey Crawford:** Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. Council member Edberg, I'm sure the police department could probably help identify some of those people, some of those artists in the community. No, but you know, we've done a really good job, I think, of starting to highlight Public Works. We honor them now with our Proclamation for Public Works Week, we had our first open house ever. A lot of people, I think, don't understand what Public Works does—some in this industry say that they "make normal happen." And they do. When you flush the toilet and you turn the water on to take a drink of water, that's all Public Works. I'm really proud of this Council and of our staff for beginning to recognize the value. So, thank you for your update. [48:30] **Mayor Dan Joas:** All right, we are going to move on to item 6A. First reading of an ordinance amending the municipal code regarding business regulations for cannabis and hemp related businesses. Mr. Lindall, you're up. [48:40] **Jason Lindall (Planning/Zoning):** Thank you, Mayor, members of the Council. As you mentioned, this is a first reading and public hearing of an ordinance. This item was initiated by staff as a result of the state legislature passing Chapter 342, the adult-use cannabis law, in 2023. Also in '23, the City established edible cannabinoid businesses and allowed them in any business zone provided the site also had a current tobacco license or liquor license. Also in '23, the City passed a moratorium on other cannabis-related businesses to allow time for study. The state made some tweaks in 2024 and created the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). Chapter 342 covers a lot of things, but for our discussions tonight, it does four primary things: 1) It permits local governments to require registration. 2) It establishes minimum limits for cities based on population—one for every 12,500 residents. In White Bear Lake, that equals a minimum requirement of allowing for two. 3) It allows local governments to establish zoning regulations. 4) It allows buffers: 1,000 feet from schools, 500 feet from daycares, treatment facilities, or parks used by minors. The city managers' office surveyed surrounding communities to see if they were capping their businesses. All but one have accepted and are using the minimum cap. Maplewood has decided not to place a cap. [53:08] **Lindsey Crawford:** Mr. Lindall, I want to just add this research that I've done: some of these cities are in the same stage as us, so this is preliminary information, but it's the most current. [53:16] **Jason Lindall:** Important caveat there. The ordinance before you tonight provides definitions, sets out a requirement to comply with zoning regulations (which will include a Planning Commission and City Council review process), establishes the caps on retailers at one per 12,500, sets an application process based on first-come-first-serve, and establishes fees. It also places operating regulations including compliance checks, hours of operation, and display of license. The Council should conduct that public hearing. Staff is here to answer questions. The City Attorney is also here. [55:40] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Thank you, Mr. Lindall. Let's hold off on questions for now. I will open this up for a public hearing. I don't have any names on my list, but anyone who wishes to speak, please come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record. [56:22] **Hison Haile:** My name is Hison Haile (H-A-I-L-E). My address is 2000 County Road E East, White Bear Lake. I've been here a few times. I just want the city to see where my store is. I'm already selling liquor and low-dose THC products, and I've been tested by the White Bear police more than four or five times and I passed. I've been trying to work with the city to have a dispensary there. I just hope the city can see that and work with me to be able to have that opportunity. That's very much what I wanted to say. [57:11] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Thank you. Anyone else like to speak to this issue? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the Council. I have a couple questions. I'm going to start with Mr. Anderson, our City Attorney. At the last meeting, or two meetings ago, we talked a little bit about this. There was some back and forth about the law regarding one for every 12,500. Have we gotten any clarity on what that really means? [57:56] **Monte Anderson (City Attorney):** Mayor and members of the Council, I'm not aware of any rule. The rules haven't been published yet. There is some rule-making authority, but they have not established those rules. We're left with the statutory language that provides that a city has the ability to limit the number of retail businesses to "no fewer than one registration for every 12,500 residents." [58:42] **Mayor Dan Joas:** And I believe at our last meeting, the working knowledge was "do you round up?" Can you speak a little bit to where that's coming from? [58:55] **Monte Anderson:** It's my understanding that's based on OCM guidance. The only place we were able to pin that down is in a PowerPoint presentation that OCM put on back in late summer. There's been no published rules or case law at this point. The general approach of most registration ordinances has been consistent with that advice, albeit it doesn't seem to come from anything other than the OCM's interpretation. [1:00:16] **Mayor Dan Joas:** I assume it's from that guidance that we relied on for our draft ordinance, which reads in relevant part on Section 1129.50: "The number of cannabis retail registration available will be calculated by dividing the state demographer's estimate of the City's population by 12,500 and rounding up to the nearest whole number." Is that correct? [1:00:46] **Monte Anderson:** Yes, that's correct. [1:00:50] **Mayor Dan Joas:** So, I think 12,500 times 2 is 25,000. I believe we have 24,000 in change in the City of White Bear Lake. So, I don't know how else to interpret that other than we only need one for the first block of 12,500, and if and when we get to another block, we would add a second. Does that logic jibe with the black letter of the law as it's written? [1:01:49] **Monte Anderson:** I think it boils down to how you interpret the language. I think there is a colorable argument on both sides. If you look at the language alone on its face, I don't disagree with your interpretation. I think where OCM gets to their interpretation of "rounding up" is when that is paired with language that local governments cannot prohibit these businesses. If under your strict interpretation, cities with fewer than 12,500 people could theoretically say zero. Your interpretation is certainly reasonable without more rules or case law, but taking a stricter approach may put you at more risk from an aggrieved business owner. [1:04:10] **Mayor Dan Joas:** As a matter of good drafting, would it not make sense to just simply mirror the language of the statute into our ordinance, which then would be in place if and when we did receive clarification down the road? [1:04:47] **Monte Anderson:** That approach is fine. I would encourage the Council to provide some thoughts on your desires for how to interpret it. When language is ambiguous, what was the Council's intent? [1:06:05] **Mayor Dan Joas:** My intent would be that we mirror the language of the statute. I interpret that as we only need one if and until our population reaches 25,000. I personally think that's defensible in court. My policy objective is to limit this as much as possible, at least to start. I'll open it up to the Council. Council member Edberg. [1:07:44] **Council Member Edberg:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm content to say: Is there a way that we mirror the language but also signal that our intent is that we will comply with whatever that subsequent interpretation by a regulatory entity or by a court is? [1:09:05] **Monte Anderson:** If there is a mandatory authority like a published Court of Appeals opinion or a Supreme Court opinion, I think we'd have to follow the law. It gets a bit dicier with AG opinions, which are not binding, or potential rule-making authority which may not be consistent with the statute. [1:10:45] **Mayor Dan Joas:** I'd rather start slow. If it were clarified to say no, we're required to have two, I could accept that if it came from the Court of Appeals or the Legislature. Administrative rule-making probably doesn't mean much to me because that's a process in and of itself. [1:11:13] **Council Member Walsh:** Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think OCM rule-making is going to be the first authority we get. We're not going to get a court decision for a while. Whether you like it or not, I think their rule-making is going to be the authority. I think it's a risky fight. I think we got to be nimble. Let's take the rounding language out for now and leave the straight statute in there. [1:14:55] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Does anybody object to just simply having the language in our ordinance mirror what the state statute says? (No objection). Okay. [1:19:25] **Council Member Walsh:** Another question. First-come-first-served. Have we thought that through? What if on day one you get three applicants? [1:24:50] **Monte Anderson:** Prevailing methods around the entire state is first-come-first-served because it's cleanest. Staff time-stamps them. If you have a completed application and you've paid your fee, you get the first timestamp. People might be camping outside City Hall. [1:26:45] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Mr. Lindall, are paper applications is it an online submission? [1:26:50] **Lindsey Crawford:** If anyone submits an electronic form to us, we do get notification via email. It would be timestamped. Someone could file online versus coming in and waiting until 8:00 AM. [1:28:41] **Monte Anderson:** And part of the application requirement is they have to have a copy of a valid state license and/or written notice of pre-approval from OCM. That will be a couple months out still. [1:30:52] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Item 8, new business. First reading of an ordinance amending the zoning code regarding zoning standards for cannabis and hemp related businesses. Mr. Lindall. [1:31:11] **Jason Lindall:** Thank you, Mayor. The Planning Commission reviewed this and recommended approval. Mr. Haile also testified there, restating his desire to reduce the school buffer from 1,000 feet to 300 feet and rezoning his property from B2 to B4. The standards I'm presenting tonight address all 14 license types. For retail dispensary locations, the direction was to limit that to the B4 Zone as a conditional use and apply full buffers. Of the 12 surrounding cities we polled, White Bear Lake is the only community that is making the uses conditional and applying the full buffers. We have cultivation (Industrial zones), delivery services (Business Warehouse), and events (maximum 4 days, prohibited on city property). For dispensaries, we're limiting them to B4 with 1,000-foot buffers from schools and 500 feet from daycares and parks. I have a map showing eligible sites. [1:49:10] **Council Member Edberg:** I can't find where the third location is. [1:49:15] **Jason Lindall:** working west to east across the northern half: Northwest quadrant of 35E and 96; further east at 96 and Birch Lake Road (a bank and Health Partners clinic); and all the way at Highway 61 and 7th Street (a veterinarian clinic). On the south side, the most likely is the Northwest quadrant of White Bear Avenue and 694. [1:53:57] **Council Member West:** I'm looking at the summary regarding odor management plans. Why isn't there an odor management plan for the meso-business, micro-business, or testing facility? I'm not a fan of the smell. [1:54:40] **Jason Lindall:** Good question. In the chart, those are subject to the manufacturing supplemental regulations if those components are present. If they do manufacturing, they are required to have an odor management plan. [1:56:07] **Council Member Walsh:** Just a question: in the definition of "School," we took a pretty strict definition—10 or more persons under age 21 in a classroom setting. We also included schools operated by Minnesota State Colleges (Century College). [1:58:50] **Council Member Edberg:** State law does not require us to use the maximum buffer; it permits it. It strikes me that our choice of buffers is too restrictive and I would encourage us to think differently about the buffering size to bring us into greater alignment with the communities around us. [2:00:15] **Mayor Dan Joas:** I want the most restrictive buffers. I couldn't keep a straight face and support a zoning code that makes it permissible for you to put a dispensary closer to a school than tobacco. [2:01:50] **Council Member Edberg:** Mr. Lindall, what is the current buffering for off-sale liquor? [2:02:10] **Jason Lindall:** We do not have a buffer for off-sale liquor. [2:02:18] **Council Member Edberg:** So we can expose our children to liquor? I submit that the three should be harmonized. [2:04:18] **Jason Lindall:** Off-sale liquor stores are plotted on the map as blue dots. Some are within the buffer zones. [2:04:55] **Mayor Dan Joas:** That's unfortunate, but what's done is done. We can prevent as best as possible from that happening in greater numbers going forward by bringing cannabis in parity with tobacco. [2:09:00] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Item 8B. Resolution ordering a feasibility report for the 2025 proposed pavement rehabilitation project. Mr. Copy. [2:09:38] **Paul Copy:** This year, staff looked at a number of things. One is obviously the reconstruction of areas that have not been updated with curb and gutter. Secondly, our Municipal State Aid system. We receive about a million dollars a year, but in order to get that money, we need to do eligible projects. This year, we proposed Division Avenue and 12th Street. We have just over 4 miles of roads that need to be upgraded to current standards. The two big areas are the Rolling Park area and the downtown area south of 4th Street. By 2027, we anticipate all but the last one little mile of random segments will be done. [2:15:35] **Council Member Edberg:** I'm interested in knowing: when will this be done? [2:16:35] **Paul Copy:** Within the 2020s. By 2029, they all should be completed. [2:19:55] **Council Member Edberg:** I would move approval of the feasibility study. [2:20:10] **Council Member Walsh:** Second. [2:20:15] **Mayor Dan Joas:** All those in favor say aye. (Aye). Resolution is passed. Miss Crawford, item 10, communications from the City Manager. [2:21:10] **Lindsey Crawford:** Thank you, Mayor. I have a handout for each of you. Wednesday, November 20th is the Chamber Legislative Reception. Also, the Downtown Holiday Open House and gazebo lighting ceremony will be on Thursday, November 21st at 6:00 PM. That's what I have. [2:22:50] **Mayor Dan Joas:** Thank you, Miss Crawford. High school students, thank you for being here. You stuck with us for almost two and a half hours. 21 years ago, I sat where you were for this assignment when I had Mr. Malum for American government. I encourage you to participate in local government as you get older. Thank you again for coming. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. [2:24:50] **Council Member Edberg:** So moved. [2:24:55] **Council Member Walsh:** Second. [2:25:00] **Mayor Dan Joas:** All those in favor say aye. (Aye). We're adjourned.