[Music] [Music] [Music] Good evening and welcome. Tonight is Monday, June 9th, 2025. This is a regular meeting of the Minnitankka City Council. I will call the meeting to order and ask you to stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] 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. [Applause] Miss Larson, good evening. Would you uh please call roll? Wilburn here. Calbertt here. Rome here. Kley here. Foster Bolton here. Shaq here. Wearsome here. Next item is approval of the agenda and I I believe we have an addendum. Mr. Funk. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council. There is an agenda for your consideration. It's related to item 13D, use of the community investment fund to finance renovation of Ice Arena B refrigeration improvement project. Uh we just as staff want to make sure we're clear in the motions that are required uh of the council this evening. Uh when you look at the original staff report, there are kind of three recommended actions. One is to continue the public hearing and accept comments. That is correct. Uh item two is a motion to adopt the resolution. What staff is recommending for your consideration is an expansion of that second motion. And in the agenda in front of you, it states, "Motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the use of the community investment fund to finance improvements to ice rink B and award the contract for right, excuse me, and award the contract for the rinkb refrigeration improvement project, project number 25205 total mechanical services, Inc. in the amount of 2,137,400 which includes option two add and voluntary dedux. It's really the second half of what I just mentioned to you. We just want to make sure we're very specific on awarding the contract to the contractor noted in the agenda and the dollar amount. Uh that's not specifically spelled out in the resolution. It doesn't really necessarily need to be, but we just want to make sure we were clear on that uh what motion you're approving this evening. And then the other the third item uh there's a third recommended action that also remains the same. So are still three recommended actions for agenda item 13D. We're just adding language to the second part of that recommended motion. Happy to answer any questions on that if that didn't sound too convoluted. Uh mayor and council turn back over to you. Thank you. Mr. Funk, I do have a question because just at the bottom of the addendum it says recommended action no action required informationational only. So that that confused me a bit because it sounds like we are taking actions. Should should that not be there or what am I not getting about that? Yeah, I think that was that was a carryover. It's probably a carryover. Very good question. Cross that out. I'm going to cross that out and we'll be good. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, we've got um we've got the um agenda and we've got an addendum. Is there a motion? Council. Council member Calbertt. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move approval of the agenda as amended. Is there a second? Council member Shack. Thank you, Mayor. I'll second. Okay, we've got a motion by Council Member Calbert and a second by Council Member Shack. Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilburn, yes. Calbert, yes. Raley, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shack, yes. Wearsome, yes. Motion carries. Item five is approval of minutes. We have two sets of minutes. Uh the first is the May 5, 2025 regular meeting minutes and the second is the May 19th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. Is there are there any comments or is there a motion? Council member Sha. Oops. I'm sorry. Do you have a comment? I I do. I just wanted to mention that I did mention a few um sort of minor um changes to uh the May uh 5th regular meeting minutes. Um some of them were just grammatical and then there was just sort of a a a correction of uh or or an addition to something that I personally know I said that I thought should be included. Very good. Council member Mey. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, yes. I had something similar I spoke with Mr. Funk about. I hadn't heard back from staff yet. So, I just wanted to uh make sure that uh I think on pages 9 and 10 um I made some updates. Mr. Funk, are you aware of uh the status of those? Thank you, Mayor. Sorry about that. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Mey. Uh yes. So, for the all all the items noted by council regarding the minutes, uh those have been passed on to our city clerk. uh as you know, she does go through and listen to the audio recording and then once she um verifies uh the actual changes, we will indicate that to you by email. So, we'll send that out to you from the city clerk. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Funk. Um and then I I made some similar changes. Um one of which was making sure that we got um Ralph Spanheim's um um name um spelled correctly. Um we want to recognize him, so we want to do that. So anyway, so with that, we we all we had a number of changes. Um, is there a motion? Council member Shaq. Thank you, Mayor. I I will move approval of both sets of minutes noting those requested changes. And Council Member Foster Bolton. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Shack and a second by Council Member Foster Bolton. Miss Larson. And it is Miss Larson. Um, indeed. Please call roll. Wilbertton. Yes. Calvert. Yes. Romey, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wearsome, yes. Motion carries. Next item is um special matters. And we have three special matters tonight. The first um is um um item 6A is trunk highway 7 corridor study update. And uh Mr. Olsen or um or is it Mr. Kuno? Kuno. Mr. Kuno. There you are. Excuse me. Pardon my mispronunciation, Mike. I apologize. No concerns. Uh, good evening, mayor and councel. Uh, Mike Kuno, deputy public works director, filling in for Mr. Manchester tonight. Uh, I am here to welcome Paul Glazer with Bolton and Mink and Faith Xiang from with Mindot. Uh, MDOT is leading a Highway 7 corridor study and they're here to update us on the progress of the study as well as take feedback from the council. Also here tonight is Phil Olsen, our city engineer, who's been working with Mindot on this study. Uh, with that, I'll turn it over to to Paul and Faith who will give a short presentation and then turn back to the council for questions and comments. Thank you. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Um, good evening, mayor and members of the council. Thank you again for inviting us here today. Uh we I am Faith Jean um the Mindot project manager for this study and we are here today to share a little bit about um the revised or refined proposed alternative for the study area as well as share an update on where we are at with the study. So I'm going to turn over to Paul to um to do that presentation. Yeah, thanks for having me tonight. Um, this presentation's a little longer than what we have time for, so I'm going to go pretty quickly through it and skip some pieces, but I'll hit the highlights of the presentation for you all. So, our intended median outcomes, we want to look through these refined alternatives tonight that for Highway 7. We're going to present our evaluation of those deter of those alternatives and then gather feedback from you. So some of the needs that we identified on the study uh have been vehicle safety, vehicle mobility, walkability and bike ability. So those are the major corridor needs out there. So segment one, this this is uh the first segment of the study. It goes from St. Bonafacious to to Chanhassen uh or Shorewood area, Highway 41. Uh we'll go through these alternatives that we looked at. We first looked at um excuse me the no build alternative and this is something that we look at with every project first. We look at what's out there today and how does it operate today and how does it operate in the future. Um usually it's not an alternative that we would select um for a lot of reasons. Usually it doesn't fully address the corridor needs and in this case it does not. Um the existing corridor out here is two lane. uh for this segment generally it has high-speed signals uh that have been contributing to crash problems and it's a um pretty um circuitous route. Uh it's had a lot of runoff the road crashes um as well and head-on crashes. So the first uh build alternative that we looked at for this segment was a a roundabout corridor with median barrier. Uh this corridor would this corridor would incorporate roundabouts at most of the major intersections. Highway 92, Kingspoint Roads, an existing roundabout. Uh Cass 44, uh 13 Rolling Acres Road, Mini Washar Parkway, which is side stop control today would be converted to a roundabout. And then Highway 41. Um this does address the safety needs really well as well as some of the side road mobility concerns. One other piece with this alternative is median barrier would be installed between these roundabouts uh for access control along the corridor. The second alternative which is similar but different. We wanted to look at what would different intersections look like outside of roundabouts along this corridor. So we did look at some different intersection alternatives with alternative 4. Um, this alternative has a signal which would be revised in St. Bonafacious. Uh, it kept the roundabout at King's Point Road. Um, CASA 44 would be a green tea intersection. There's one on Highway 12 near Montrose if you're not familiar with what a green tea looks like. Cass 13 would be an RCI, most likely a signalized rci. Miniwashed Parkway would be an rci. And then 41 would be a signalized rci. So, RCIs are intersections where you uh can't make a direct left out. Uh you can make a left in. To make a left out, you need to take a right and then go down to a U-turning location and make a make a U-turn. Uh they are proven to be safer intersections and uh they do work on this corridor and this alternative does have some benefits for mainline travel time and it does improve safety. It comes at the cost of higher impacts because this is today a undivided corridor and usually you see rci type intersections on divided corridors. So at the intersection locations they would have to be divided. So high level how do these rank comparatively the no build not surprisingly doesn't do very well. It doesn't rank very well for safety. It doesn't address the side road delay that's out here. um it doesn't address the ped and bike concerns very well. So, it does not score all that well. Um the two alternatives, the the roundabout corridor and the what we call the reduced conflict intersection corridor, um both do address the needs fairly well uh with the roundabout corridor being a little bit more advantage advantageous when it comes to u the side road mobility um and has less impacts overall than the rci corridor. So the technical recommendation for segment one is likely going to be is the the roundabout corridor. Um so and publicly this has been presented and the feedback has been fairly receptive to that alternative. So segment two which uh Minnitanka is probably most concerned about which is from highway 41 to highway uh 494 uh we looked at four alternatives one being the no build alternative. So we'll skip through a couple slides. Um the no build um again not not an alternative that really addresses the need. Um, this is a four-lane high-speed signalized corridor. Uh, a lot of accident history at the signals, a lot of mobility challenges at the signals, particularly on the side roads. Um, the benefit of the no build is it it it would minimize costs. It would be a cost savings and minimize amount impact, but it wouldn't really address the major needs out here. So the first uh alternative we looked at was can we convert these intersections that exist today on this corridor to other types of intersections and those being atgrade intersections. Um so we looked at roundabouts basically from Highway 41 up to County Road 101. So that would be 41 Oak Street, Christmas Lake Road, Old Market Road, and Vinehill would all be converted to a roundabout. Um, Highway 101 would be a unique intersection. It would be called a continuous flow intersection. There's actually not one in the state of Minnesota right now. There's several in Utah. Um, they're they're large intersections. They can handle a lot of traffic. Um, but they do struggle in other areas, particularly for pedestrians because they're they're very large. Um, Tonka Wood would be an existing would remain an existing signal and then Wilston would be a signalized rci. So signalized rci, there's one in the state of Minnesota. It's on Highway 65 at Viking Road. So they're a newer type of intersection for signalizing an RCI. Uh this this alternative does pretty well for safety. Um and it it it's a little bit more challenging with the pedestrian environment, but the roundabouts do slow people down. So that that's a positive on the on the western side. Um some of the larger intersections though will still be challenging for peds. It is lower cost than grade separated alternatives but less overall benefit. So the next alternative we looked at is probably the the other end of the spectrum, right? So it's what if we have a four-lane high-speed signalized corridor, the upper end of what you would convert that to would be a freeway. Um so we did look at converting this to a freeway. Um, and it does score very well on from a benefit standpoint, but obviously the the trade-off is high cost and high impact. Um, I will caveat this slide and said we looked at interchanges along each of these intersections. In reality, when this would come to be developed, uh, most of these locations likely wouldn't have an interchange. They'd have a grade separation and then a selected few of them would have an interchange. So you might see two to three interchanges along this stretch of roadway, not six. So So just some images here what they could look like and we can back up. We have images in the slide if we have time and people are curious what they look like. And then alternative four um so we said okay there's the acade solution and there's the freeway solution. um neither seems perfectly fitted to the corridor. What if we did a hybrid scenario? So, this is alternative 4. Basically somewhat combining those two alternatives and kind of continuing our roundabout corridor that we started on the west in segment one and going through about Old Market Road. So, you'd have roundabout intersections, Highway 41, Oak Street, Old Market, and then potentially Vinehill. Vinehill is kind of like a demarcation point in the volume and kind of how the traffic pattern works that somewhere around that point would be the freeway conversion start. So Vinehill potentially a grade separation and then 101 as an interchange, Tonka Wood as a grade separation and then Williston as an interchange. Um so basically the western portion of segment 2 would be at grade and then the eastern portion would be freeway. that matches up pretty well with the volumes out here. So, there is a pretty large volume drop at 101 and there's a lot of traffic between 101 and 494. So, um this this alternative does really well for mobility and safety as well and definitely improves the bike and pedestrian safety. Um, one of the challenges it's still a high cost alternative. Even converting half the corridor to freeway is going to be costly. So, So, how did these score? Um, no build, just like the previous segment, doesn't score very well. Uh, doesn't address the needs. Um, the ACT grade does pretty well. Um, but it it it introduces some delay to the corridor that you don't get with the freeway and the hybrid alternative, particularly at this high volume kind of eastern end of this segment. Um the grade separated alternative, the freeway kind of alternative scores the best but also has the highest impact and highest cost. Um so in that area it does not score well. And then the hybrid kind of balances those needs pretty well. Um so right now the technical recommendation for that stretch of road is the hybrid. basically taking a portion of it, converting it to an atgrade atgrade roundabouts and then converting the rest to freeway. Very good. There are some uh bicycle and pedestrian improvements also being proposed. On segment one, we are looking to do a continuous trail. On segment two, we're really focusing on the crossing of Highway 7 and trying to improve the crossing. Um, so we are investigating on segment two different locations where we could do grade separated crossing, especially if they're at grade alternatives. And then with a freeway conversion, we'd get grade separation with the the interchanges or the grade separation. So that would be one additional benefit of that solution. And the next step in the plan is to finish our public engagement, make our final recommended alternative, and then look at implementation, which would look at how how do we fund these projects, who leads them, who coordinates them, and how do they phase out um over time. So, and that's going to happen through this summer and then we'll have a final report in September. So, very good. Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for your for your presentation. And I um I'm going to just ask if council has any specific questions they'd like to ask. We don't want to take too much time, but we really appreciate you being here and this is an important um issue for our community. So, um Council Member Foster Bolton. So, the final report is going to be Can you go back? So, it's in August and September. Yep. So, that's when you that's when we um you say how much this is going to cost essentially, right? The final report will have estimated costs in it. We have some of that information now. Um and the implementation plan will also break out. Okay. If we if we do these in multiple projects, what do they cost? Okay. So, and my question to the staff or whoever is like when is this money going to need going to need to be raised? Do you know what I mean? like and what what's our Mr. Future have a thought on that or or Mr. Olsen? But go ahead, Mr. Kuno. Yeah, obviously the the project is quite a ways away. Um, you know, this is just the initial report kind of outlining the the proposed improvements and and we would have time to then work with MDOT on on some of those factors and um, you know, what additional improvements we would need. Uh, Phil, I welcome your input too as he's worked with MDOT on this. Mr. Olson, good evening. Mayor and Council, thank you. So, this right now is just a planning document to really understand what the corridor is and the intersections and to identify the right plan moving forward. Um this is a planning document. So the implementation stage would be next. So after this document is complete then we look for ways how to implement which projects are to be priority and to move forward that way. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm so sorry. You're good. That imple implementation process takes a year, five years. That's what I'm looking at. Yeah. Uh at this point there isn't funding identified for any of the projects in this document. So after the project or after the document is complete then we start to look for funding priority and that type of thing. So um it's beyond you know 1 to 5 year range. Some of us may know none of us may be on the council by the time we're actually talking about work being done. I mean this is this is probably what 10 to 15 years um start to finish. Mr. Mr. Funk. Yeah. Thank you mayor and councel. I think that that's I mean that's the this is the first step in this whole process is just understanding the scope of the project. Uh in that implementation phase I think you've heard uh mayor and councel uh Mr. Wearsome or uh mayor worms talked about the work that the city of Minotaanka is doing with the other 12 or 14 cities along the corridor. Uh and we've been studying a TMO which is a transportation management organization. And so there's the the work of the TMO that's getting lifted off the ground. If you recall, the city of Shorwood received $200,000 from the state of Minnesota's seed money to start that TMO. So, that work is happening. So, there'll be a consultant that's going to be hired and that will help lead this process. So, all the cities along this corridor have a vested interest in in these outcomes. And so, there'll be it's hard to say exactly the timeline today, what that all looks like, but it it is decade plus type of work. And um I think we've talked, mayor's talked about just the work with uh with the federal government and advocating for funds and working u with our colleagues with the state of Minnesota on pulling funding together, identifying priority projects. It's not going to all all happen in one year. So there's what we've seen with other highway coalitions and you can use like I 94 up in the St. Michael Albertville area when you drive up that way. There's lots of construction over the years that's been a result of of the work similar to this. um they were in this spot 20 years ago and so it it's just this ongoing work and identifying projects and identifying the funding. Thank you, Mr. Funk. Um Council Member Romey. Thank you, Mayor. Um just a quick circling back to the Minnetonka segment. Um I probably just missed it. You were talking about pedestrian safety. If you go with the technical recommendation for the hybrid model, how um my word touches is uh is right on the border and it goes over to Minnetonka High School. So I'm on one side, Minnitankka High School is on the other side. We've had a lot of issues and deaths and things like that. How does that um is that first seen in the plan? I'm not going to ask you to go into detail about what it is, but I just wanted to make sure that that I was understanding that that is going to be either a pedestrian something higher, but you were saying something at grade, so I wasn't quite sure. Yeah, it it varies a little bit by what alternative is ultimately selected. If if something more at grade is put in at Vinehill, you're probably going to see a grade separated pedestrian overpass near the near the high school. Great. If it goes to a freeway alternative, you kind of get that with the interchanges on each end or pedestrians for pedestrians because you're taking Highway 7 and you're separating it from Got it. the the side road traffic. So that way pedestrians can cross and not have to interact with Highway 7. So excellent. Thank you. So thank you all. I mean this is this is an important early step. This is not the first step, but it's pretty darn close to the first step. and and I know and I've shared with the council that in past years um I've gone with the transportation alliance and and we're going to do that again this year. Um our message to um our federal officials, our our representatives and senators was that we talked about Highway 7 and we said we're coming. We don't have a plan yet. We're coming. Um I think I think the meeting um with the transportation allian is in September. um with this we can say we're coming and these are some of the things we're looking at but we don't have a plan um but but we're making progress and I think that's really important but I I really think um it's it's a long you know we'll say it's intermediate term but it's you know that's that's 10 years plus before we would we would have a a totally new roadway and it's about safety I mean it really is the one nice thing that happened when we go to Washington. Every person I talk to, every elected official I talk to, whether a senator or um a representative, um they're familiar with Highway 7 and they don't argue. They say, "You're right. Highway 7 needs the work that everyone, you know, we don't have to sell lat. Um we are going to have to ask for a lot of money at some point." So, um anyway, thank you very much. I think this is an important first step. Mr. Kuno, do you have anything you'd like to add? Nope. Thank you very much for your work and good to have you here. Welcome to Vinnitanka. And I'll just add I I I did for the sake of time skip over this slide, but it's probably an important slide. This these are the and not not a great slide, right? These are the crashes, severe crashes that happened on Highway 7 in 2024, and it was not a good year for Highway 7. There was five fatalities and three severe injury crashes. So, highlights the need of why we're we're seeking the funds and with you to do this project. So, right. Well, we're in we're in this together. And one other question that I didn't ask um and it's a little bit of a dangerous question, but um you're clear it's clear on some of the recommendations for the um intersections, but are in this in these plans are there recommendations for closures of access to Highway 7 from side roads and things like that that currently have access and may not in the future with a with a freeway conversion. If there was in in a segment of the corridor, there would need to be access closures that come along with that. The exact details of the how those would be handled and where they would connect and where those connections would be made would be developed later, right? Um through the process, there would be some level of access closure or change with the um at grade alternatives potentially as well. Most of that will be conversion to right in right out where they use the roundabouts, the U-turn on the corridor. So, all right. Well, thank you. Thank you both for being here. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much, Mr. Kuno. Thank you so much. So, that was um special matter information. Um and then the next item is um a a presentation by the Excelsier Lions Club. And I believe uh we have a representative. Welcome. And um I want to say that um it's Josh Radzib. Uh Radzy. Yep. Rad. Well, I apologize for my pronouncing, but that's that's all right. Welcome to you both and yeah, please introduce yourselves and make your report. Thanks for having us. Um my name is Josh Radzy and this is uh Jim Flatam. I am the community liaison for the Excelsure Lions Club and um Jim is our president. Um today I'll tell you just a little bit about the we'll keep it as brief as possible. I'll tell you a little bit about the Excelsure Lions Club, who we are, what we are, and why we're here today. Um the Excelsure Lions Club has about 65 members. Um today we do a lot of community projects. Uh we have a meat raffle that goes through the winter at Haskells. We do a pub crawl for childhood cancer and we have a golf tournament as well as some other things that we volunteer and participate in throughout the year. Um we're really excited to announce that we're actually going to be heading the um Excelsure Christmas Market this year um in downtown on Water Street that we would invite um you know people from all over the lakes um to come and join us. It'll be fun. It'll be free. We're super excited to to put that message out there. Um, so that's a little bit about our club. We've actually been asked to during the pandemic and you know, we all went through changing in our environment and the Excel Share Lions Club barely survived that and like I said, today we have 65 members and we're we're really thriving and um we've been able to give a lot back to the community and we're really excited about that. And in doing so, um, the Lions International, I believe, is who has, um, come to us and said, "Hey, can you help us get the Minnetonka Lions going again because it used to be such a really great club." So, we're here today. Jim can tell us a little bit more about that and how you guys can help us. Yes, as Josh mentioned, we've been asked to sponsor the rejuvenation and rebirth of the Minnotonka Club. So, we've been hostingformational meetings at the uh, Sheridan Minneapolis West Hotel. Uh the next information meeting is Wednesday uh the 7th at 7 PM and we're trying to put the word out in the community that the Lions uh exist and that the Minnotonka Club is reopening. Um, so we'd like for your support in helping us create that awareness and just um knowing that we're trying to bring that back into your community and have uh people who live in Minnetonka and work in Minnotonka participate in serving and being a part of the uh community of Minnotonka and helping to raise funds and give back to your community. I know many of you are aware of what the lions do. I was here last year and presented to you. So you may remember me. I recall Dr. Wilburn's father is a lion or was a lion. And so we're very passionate about what we do and we're very excited to help bring the club back to Minnetonka. We've offered support in the interim um to this community and we want to really see a a new uh Minnetonka Lions Club founded back here. So we're working hard to do that for you. Um we're hoping to have a presence at the farmers market or any other city approved uh events where we can be and and spread information. So hopefully you'll see our faces at community events as we go forward and and hear more about the club being regenerated. Great. Well, well, thank you very much. Um, council, any questions? You know, I will just say one, welcome to Minnetonka. great to have you here and I do thank you for coming last year and yeah I you know I'd be happy to um you know talk further because I I really appreciate the work that the Lions uh do or does the Lions Club does and um yeah service organizations in our community are big contributors to our city. So um I mean I've got some events this week that I'll be attending and being involved with. So, um, wish you well and, uh, yeah, we, um, I can, I'll speak for myself and say I would very much welcome, um, having the Lions Club back in Minnetonka as a presence. So, wish you well and um, want to help in any way we can. Wonderful. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you. So, then the um, next item on the agenda, next special item is the proclamation for Pride Month. And I've asked Council Member Kley to read that proclamation. Council member Kley. Thank you, Mayor. So, the LGBTQ plus Pride Month, June 1st to the 30th, 2025. Whereas the month of June is celebrated as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer pride month, commemorating the historic 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City in the first pride month in New York City in New York in June of 1970. And whereas Pride Month brings awareness to historic and present day discrimination, harassment, and violence toward individuals who identify as LGBTQ plus and whereas Pride Month affirms the dignity, equal rights, and visibility of individuals who identify as LGBTQ plus, builds community, and se celebrates sexual identity, diversity, and gender variance, And whereas LGBTQ plus people have made and continue to make great and lasting contributions that strengthen the fabric of society. And whereas all people deserve to live with dignity and respect free from fear and violence and protected against discrimination regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. And whereas celebrating Pride Month influences awareness and provides support and advocacy for LGBTQ plus community and is an opportunity to take action, engage in dialogue to strengthen alliances, build acceptance, and advance equal rights. And whereas the city of Mitanka includes and celebrates the LGBTQ plus community as part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And whereas the city of Minnitonka calls upon the community to work together to promote equal rights and eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists. Thank you. Thank you, Council Kley. So, that's it for our special matters. Um, next item is reports from the city manager and council members. And I'll turn first to Mr. Funk. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, good evening again, council. A couple things for your consideration this evening. Uh first off, it's uh we opened Shady Oak Beach and so thank you to Mr. ODay and our team. Uh this last Saturday, June 7th, uh we opened up and so there are season passes available, daily passes available. And I just note that I think you've heard from staff in years past. Sometimes we've had some challenges with hiring uh lifeguards. This year we we was went like a breeze and so really good efforts on our staff part and and so things are off and running very well. Uh, also starting this last weekend was or this last week was the farmers market. So that starts again, it started on June 3rd and will run through September 30th. That's on Tuesday evenings from 2:00 to 6:00. Uh, we had our first farmers market and happy to report 600 people were present and so it's off to a really good start. Uh, we did change locations this year. It had been up at the Rigidale Commons the last two years. Looked at a change in venue and at least from the first week numbers are significantly up. So, we're we're pleased about that and people are excited to be back closer to our city campus. Uh, also want to mention that coming up on June 21st from 1:00 to 4:00, we do have the sounds of blackness. So, our DEI senior coordinator Jason Alexander has been working with a number of partners and that is on your agenda this evening as we look at partnering for uh bringing in the sounds of blackness. So, we invite anyone from the community to this free event. We'll have food trucks, music, dancing throughout the whole afternoon and it is free and there are no tickets that are required. Uh I think then oh I should also mention all this last Saturday as well. A lot of things happening this this last week. We had our first of two annual drop off events and so thank you to Will Manchester, our public works staff and other members of our team from other departments that help out. I always get a couple comments. Hopefully you do as well. residents really appreciate uh the the availability of that drop off and so very well attended as always and weather was good for it. So again, thank you to our staff and to the community that took advantage of our a one of those drop off events. The next one will be September 6. So I'll mention that later here this summer. And then I'll just close up by saying just a little fun thing that um our one of our staff members brought to our attention that tonight is a rare full moon. It's the strawberry moon. Uh so if you're not aware uh tomorrow night, June 10th into Wednesday, June 11th, it's the strawberry moon. It'll be the largest and lowest in the sky until 2043. So if you get out and about, you'll see a red colored moon in the next couple nights. So just a little fun fact for you. With that, I'll end I'll end my comments. Thank you for that fun fact, Mr. Funk. That that's good. So council members, any anything that you'd like to report? Council member Shaq. Thank you. So, it seems like a while ago now, but a couple weeks ago, we celebrated our um and thanked our boards and commissions members at uh dinner and we had a very nice speaker and I just um the impact that these volunteers make on our community and and the ad um insight and advice that they provide the council is really invaluable and it's a great way to get involved with the work that we do here at the city. So, I really encourage people when we call for applicants in the fall, uh, late fall to sign up. And, um, you don't get much by way of compensation, but every year we have a very lovely thank you event with, um, very engaging and interesting speakers. So, I st thank staff for that and just want to publicly reiterate my thanks to the boards and commissioned members for their service. Thank you, councelor Shack. Um, other comments, anyone? Council member Calbertt. Thank you. Yes, I I totally agree with Council Member Shack. You know, these are incredible people and I I have the um privilege of being the council liaison to the Economic Development Advisory Commission. Um they've had a meeting uh since the the last uh regular council meeting and we were they were taking their first bite at the economic um improvement program and uh the people on that body have a wealth of knowledge. I know sometimes uh staff has remarked that they you know they learn from them. I certainly learn from them. Um and if you have expertise um to lend to our sustainability commission or our um planning commission um it's very gratifying. I know council member Shaq and I were both on the planning commission and you do learn a lot and um you really get involved in the issues that um shape the city. So um it's a great way to cut your teeth on um public service um and do a service to the city. So, um, and I just want to thank, um, the people on the EDAC because, uh, it was a really good meeting and I, we have a lot of new members on our commissions, and I was able to, um, actually do my job and provide some context for them on sort of where the city council is at on some of the issues that the newer members wouldn't know about. Um, I also wanted to mention that um the I'm on the national um energy environment and natural resources committee for the National League of Cities and uh we do have phone calls when we don't meet in person and we are getting ready for our summer leadership uh meeting which will be uh next month and um it's very gratifying to do that work. So, we had our first phone call getting ready for that this month. And I just want to thank um Jacece Alexander for his incredible work on our community events, our cultural events that celebrate um the rich uh tapestry of cultures in our city and um making sure that there are things to celebrate that speak to everyone in our community. And I'm really jealous cuz I work for the city of St. Paul and I was on the um Black History Month committee for four years at least maybe five and we could never get Sounds of Blackness. So he's got he's got the inside scoop somehow even though we tried and um so I just want to say you know June this is in celebration of Junth which has to do with the ending of slavery and I can't think of a better occasion to celebrate in our country and um it's also pride month and so I just want to say happy pride to everyone that it's important to um and uh I think something that I've been thinking about a lot lately is um there's a there's a lot of strife in the world. Um there is a lot of um conflict um here and abroad and um there are there have been some terrible things that have happened in our country uh recently. Um, two Israeli young diplomats who literally dedicated their lives to peace were shot in front of a museum and 12 people who were marching for the release of hostages were set on fire, one of which was a Holocaust survivor. And um I just want to say that um there are people that are trying to make their voices heard to protect the most vulnerable residents in our country and um and around the world and that um we have to take care of each other and if you know um peace starts with us. So, I just want you to think about reaching out to your neighbors, checking in with them, making sure that they're okay. Um perhaps consider um contributing to a nonprofit that supports u vulnerable members of our community um here or elsewhere because um we have to take care of each other and be kind. So, I just wanted to say that. Thank you, Council Member Calbertt. Um anyone else? I've got a couple things that I want to mention. First of all, um 81 years and three days ago was June 6th, 1944 D-Day, which um led to the liberation of um of Europe and the discovery of a lot of horrific things that had happened uh during World War II in Europe. Um, I can tell you that on June 5th of 1944 and June, the morning of June 6, 1944, my uncle was in a C47 dropping gliders behind um behind the lines um as part of the D-Day um invasion u that was ultimately successful and changed the course of history. So, I want to thank all veterans and and recognize um that important event in our history. Then um you know um ju I want to just add a little bit to what council member um Calbertt had to say and I'm looking at our strategic plan and uh we have six pillars in our strategic plan and one is about community inclusiveness and I'm just going to read this. Build an engaged, accepting and compassionate community that embraces diversity and varied perspectives to create an inclusive and equitable city for everyone. All people should feel welcome and engaged, enhance community representation through art and imagery, and create and expand equitable opportunities for accessing programs, services, and facilities. And um adding to what council member Calbertt had to say, um these are challenging times in our country and in our world. Um we um we are experiencing in our society and society around the world um hatred for people who are different than other people and that has no place in a free society. It has no place in our city and um you know we can disagree without vilifying the people who disagree with us. We can be different from one another without vilifying people who are different than we are. We want to be inclusive. We want to be welcoming. And I'll even go so far as to say we want to be loving because we need we need that. And without it, we will not be a successful society or a successful city. So let's just, you know, there are times when we see things and we get mad and we say, you know, let's not say it. Let's try and elevate ourselves to be uh better than that and be kind and recognize that even though people are different than we are, even though they have different perspectives than we have, they deserve our respect and our compassion. We do not have to agree to be respectful and to be compassionate. So, pardon my soap box, but I just think it's an important message in such challenging times that exist. And there are plenty of things that we can all get very that are happening in our world that we can all get very excited about and upset about. But the point is that we should still do it in a respectful and kind and considerate way. So, um I'm done now, but I wanted to I just wanted to share that point because I think it's really important particularly as we consider um some of the we consider Pride Month. we consider um the things that uh um that uh we're celebrating in our community, it really starts with each of us to make the decision to be kind and respectful to our fellow residents. So, thank you for indulging me. So, that brings us to item number eight. Um citizens wishing to discuss matters not on the agenda. This is an open mic opportunity. If someone has something that is not on our agenda and you would like the council to be aware of it, please come forward, state your name and address, share it with us. We will not take any action action on what you um uh share with us today, but we will um uh turn it over to staff and they will make a report back to us and we you will hear back from us um regarding your concern. So, is there anyone who would like to uh make a report? All right. Anyone? All right, seeing no one, we are going to move on. And um next item on the agenda is bids and purchases. And we have no bids and purchases tonight. So that is item the next item is item 10, the consent agenda. And these are items that require a majority vote. And so the way the consent agenda works is that these are items that are typically quite routine. So, we will uh read them into the record and we will vote on them in one motion and one vote. If someone either in the audience or in the c on the council would like to pull an item for uh deeper conversation, we will um vote on the items that have not been pulled and then turn it over to the person who um pulled the item um for them to make a comment and then we'll act on those on the items that have been pulled. So item 10 A is the 2025 community survey and organizational merit. Item 10B is a resolution authorizing performance measurement reporting program. And item 10 C is a resolution supporting the reappoint of a board member to the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District Board. Would anyone like to pull any of those items? Council member Wilburn. I'd like to pull 10B. Very good. We will uh we will pull item 10B. Is there anyone else would like to pull something otherwise? Is there a motion on the remaining items? Council member Calbertt. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move approval of items 10 A and 10 C. Council member Kley. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Cal Kley. Excuse me. Council member Calbertt. The alliteration's getting made. to council member Calbertt and second by council member Kley. Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilburn, yes. Calbertt, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. We summon, yes. Motion carries. And now returning to um um item 10B, the resolution authorizing performance management reporting program. Council member Wilburn. Yes. So, um, as I was looking at this, uh, resolution, um, I had some discussions with Mr. Funk that, um, like the the what is it? $7,600 that that we get from doing the work. Um, that's staff does the work. Um, that um, like that's not a it's not a huge amount of money. So, I had questions about um is it worth it? How much staff time goes into it? Is this a fund that like all the cities pay into and we get money back out if we fill this thing out, but otherwise it just our money goes away. Um and Mr. Funk wasn't sure on the second one where the where the money comes from, but he did say that like these are metrics that we that we are already collecting. So, it's not a big um it's not a big ask to for the for staff to fill out the the money, fill out the forms and get the money. Um, but it just struck me that these are sort of the kind of things when we talk about looking at what we've been doing and if we need to continue doing them, these are the kind of things that we need to take a good look at and say, well, is it worth the amount of time and effort we're putting into for for what we get back. So, that was it. I have no objections to it to this particular one. So, yeah. Very good. And, um, Council Member Romey, just to follow up on that question, perhaps staff u, Mr. Punk can answer the question. What are these used for? My understanding was is that this is helping the state. Is that correct in terms of evaluating the effectiveness of local governments? Mr. Funk. Yeah. Thank you, uh, Mayor, Council Member Mey, and Council Member Wilburn. I I invite I'm going to Mr. Nelson to come up as well, our finance director. Uh, Mr. Nelson, his team put together report. As council member Wilburn mentioned, it is pretty dimminimous work on our I mean, not not a lot of effort. I say not a lot of effort. Mr. Nelson can quantify that when I say not a lot of effort. Uh because it's it's reporting metrics that we do track already. So it's not as though we're needing to create data, track down data. It's data that we have. We can easily pull it together, put it in the report, and and receive the $7,600. It's something the state started back in 2010, well intended at that time. I think I'd shared with council member Wilburn earlier. I'm not sure what the state does with all this data. Um we we get $7,600 for filling out the report. what the state does with it. I can't answer unless Mr. Nelson has a better response than I do. Mr. Nelson, welcome. Good evening, mayor, council members. Um, yeah, to follow up on Mr. Funk's uh conversation on this. It it really is data that comes out of our our budgets to been to begin with. So, we um pretty much throw this report together pretty quickly on that end of it. We don't take any additional staff time. It's numbers that are already been generated for the most part on on that end of it. the state has I think there's I don't have the report right in front of me but I think there's 35 different criteria or measurements that they're looking for and they put out a report then of all the cities that have filled out this report. I don't really know what the the true benefit is of that because if you're not having the same measurement across all cities all cities are a little bit different. I don't know what your true benefit is but um like I said is $7,600. It doesn't take us a whole lot of time. um it helps us a little bit on that end of it and we go through and I don't know where the the funding is. I think it's just a statuto or um through the legislature that was um a law passed a number of years ago on that end of it. So um it's funding that's there and available and we're taking advantage of it I guess. So thank you Mr. Nelson. Um any other thoughts or comments on this? You know my only thought is I mean Mr. Funk's been pretty aggressive about putting a performance management program in our, you know, in as part of our operating system. And so my guess is we're collecting this data already. Dropping it into a report probably is is it's it's probably profitable for the city to pick up the $7,600 with in having the information that we already collect. So, I mean, if it was a lot of work to um, you know, a lot of staff time to chase things down to fill us, then maybe we'd have a different perspective. But I think this is with the performance management system we've got. And and I go back to a boss that I had a long time ago who said, you know, you are what you measure. And if you measure it, you value it. And if you value it, so I think it's I think the the discipline is good. And if we're already doing it, I feel comfortable with it. So, all right. Let's see. Do we have a motion yet? Council member Wolverine, would you like to make the motion? Sure. I move that we pass the resolution uh for 10B um resolution authorizing per performance measurement and reporting program. Very good. And u council Calbert. Uh second. Okay. And council member Mley, did you have a comment or were you gonna say? Okay. Sorry about that. All right. All right, we've got a motion by council member Wilburn and a second by council member Calbertt. Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilburn, yes. Calbert, yes. Romeley, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wearsome, yes. Motion carries. And um item 11 is also consent agenda items. These will require five votes. And um item 11 A is acceptance of community education funds for Junth. So, if does anyone want to report uh pull that or would you would just like to vote? Council Calbertt, I would like to make the motion uh to I move approval of item 11A, acceptance of community education funds for Junth. And is there a second? Council member Wilburn. Second. All right, we've got a motion by Council Member Calbertt and a second by Council Member Wilburn. Couns um Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilburn, yes. Calbert, yes. Romey, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shack, yes. Wearsome, yes. Motion carries. Item 12 is introduction of ordinances, and we have none. Um, next is item 13, which is public hearings, and we have several public hearings tonight. First, um, item 13A is the temporary onale liquor license for the Rotary Club of Minnetonka Foundation at 14600 Minnotonka Boulevard. And Miss Wishnack, that is your report. Thank you, mayor and council members. Uh this is a temporary license for uh selling liquor at the um Summerfest at city hall here and the city campus. So we have done this uh before with the Rotary Club. We have not had any challenges with alcohol at the event, which is a very positive thing. Uh we of course have police officers on duty as well uh just to manage crowd issues, that sort of thing. Um as with all temporary license holders and just because it's a city event doesn't mean they don't have to provide insurance. They do have to do that on their own. Uh and they have fulfilled those requirements. Um and so we are recommending approval. Just a sidebar, um they do have access to our machine that actually reads uh people's licenses rather than trying to interpret uh the actual age of somebody. It's a a much faster way to get through and calculate people's age uh to ensure they're above 21. With that, mayor, I'll turn it back to you and the council for a decision. Thank you. All right. Um thank you. Um Miss Wishnack, council, any questions on this item? All right. This is a public hearing. So, I have to open the public hearing and I will ask I I see a familiar face here. Um, is there anyone else anyone who would like to come forward and comment on this item? Mr. Roseman, good to see you. It's great to be seen. Absolutely. It always is. Oh, and it's such a pleasure to be uh back in front of you again this year for such uh to be able to support such a wonderful event as is Summerfest on on June 28th. My name is Chris Rosenland. Uh 8672 Meadowail Drive from Eden Prairie and I'm here uh representing the Minnetonka Brewery Club Foundation uh in support of our temporary liquor license for uh providing uh alcoholic beverages at Summerfest. Um the Minnitaka Rotary Club is a club for building responsible youth and the club that's more fun than you want it to be. And we meet every Wednesday morning uh over at the marsh from 7:15 to 8:30. And uh we also count uh you've been a visitor uh Mr. Mayor and uh and uh Mishack is also one of our members. So we're very pleased to have you all there, but you're all welcome to attend as well as anybody in the uh in the audience. Um the proceeds 100% of the proceeds of the or the net proceeds of our beverage sales go into our foundation which supports uh grants, donations and scholarships to organizations such as beds for kids resource west um empty bowls, ICA food shelf uh and we also provide uh scholarships for Minnetonka and Hopkins high school. So um in addition to that we also do work as part in in partnership with other clubs to support clean water projects in Central America and in Africa. Um and we also are part of Rotary International's overall efforts towards the eradication of polio. So that's where the funds are going from from this great event. We've enjoyed I think this is probably our ninth year doing this with I think there we had a little commercial there in the middle. called uh co um but we're very very excited to be a part of this uh great community event for the city of Minnotonka. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Rosland. And uh thanks thanks for the work that Rotary does. Um I know we've got an an active club and um I would invite um anyone listening and watching to uh please attend. It's a it's a great group of people who care deeply about our community and as uh Mr. Rosenland said, "It's as much fun as you want it to be." Um, they they all they they do a lot of great work and they have a lot of great time doing it. So, uh, thank you so much for your work. Thanks for the kind words. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item? Go to Summerfest. It's awesome. Very good. All right. I'm um Is there anyone else um for the public hearing? I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the council for consideration. And is there a motion? Council member Shack. Thank you, mayor. I will make the motion to grant the temporary on sale liquor license to the Rotary Club of Minnitonka Foundation. And is there a second? Council member Romey, I'll second. All right, we've got a motion by Council Member Shack and a second by Council Member Romey. Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilburn, yes. Calbertt, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wearsome. Yes. Motion carries. Item 13B is a similar item. It's another temporary on sale liquor license for Boom Island Brewing Company LLC at 5959 Baker Road. Again, Miss Wishnack. Thank you, Mayor and Council members. Again, another summer event. Uh this one will be on July 12th uh of this summer and it is the anniversary party for the business and they are holding what's called a block party. And the block party involves music and food trucks and games and special release uh beers that they've uh brewed at their property. Um there's a lot of um fencing that goes on. They have to have a plan for their vendors, that sort of thing, and staff has reviewed all of that. Uh also to note, the music will be done by 1000 p.m. which is required by ordinance. And uh we have all of the proper paperwork and all of the necessary items from the business. We do recommend approval of this temporary liquor license as well. Mayor, if you have any questions. Thank you, Miss Wishnack. I don't have any questions. Do any council members have any questions? Seeing none, I'm going to open the public hearing and ask if anyone would like to come forward and um with any comments on this item. I see somebody with a Boom Island uh shirt on, so I thought this might be the person who is going to comment, but uh how are you this evening? Hi, thank you so much, mayor and council members. I'm Laura McCauley. I'm uh coowner and events manager for Boom Island Brewing. We are so excited to be celebrating 14 years as a business. Um almost six at this location in particular. Um so we'll be hosting a block party. It's basically Boom Days. We're rebranding it and we're doing an actual live cookout. So, we will have a catering company actually grilling out all day long with our live music and um an awesome dessert truck, giveaways, uh beer releases, all the fun stuff to be had. So, this is a free event. Everyone is welcome and we hope to celebrate with all of you. Very good. Thank you. Um council, any questions for um All right. Well, I think I think we're good, but thank you so much and and good luck. have a great event and I hope the sun shines. All right. Um, so is there anyone else who would like to comment on this item before I close a public hearing? Anyone? All right, we'll close public hearing and bring it back to the council for comments of Council Member Calbertt. Thank you, Mayor. Uh I had um the privilege of going to Nights and Pints uh just a few short weeks ago at Boom Island and what a it was such a fun event. One of the many um bands that my daughter plays in was playing their sort of Celtic and maybe I don't know like Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know that it it it's super it's super fun. And people were in costumes. I know they had sword fighting and people are dressed up as fairies and knights and all kinds of uh cool things. So, um they do a lot of fun things down at Boom Island. So, I highly recommend that um people check it out because that that was just sort of an unexpected delight to go down there and see everyone in costume and everything. So, very good. Any other comments or a motion? Council member Wilburn. I move that we grant the temporary on sale liquor license for Boom Island Brewing Company LLC. And is there a second? Council member Foster Bolton. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Wilburn and a second by Council Member Foster Bolton. I will say that um um I'm very pleased that Boom Island chose Minnetonka when they decided to move out of the city of Minneapolis. We're um they've been great neighbors and um and um it's a fun place and uh we've we're fortunate that we have a lot of interesting venues in our community, but we're glad Boom Island is one. So with that, um Miss Larson, would you please call roll? Wilbur? Yes. Calbert, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Where'some? Yes. Motion carries. So item 10 C, also a public hearing item, is Roland Investment LLC refinancing of Chase at 9M Creek, which is located at 5709 Roland Road. And once again, Miss Wishnack, we missed you while you were gone. So, you know, it's good that we can kind of pile on a little bit. That's right. We have a lot to do. Um, totally switching gears from liquor licenses, though. So, we're going to move into finance and uh really this is about refinancing prior bonds that were issued to this project on Roland Road. Um if you don't remember the site or don't remember what it looks like, here it is. Uh it's a lovely building that uh sits right on the creek on NM Creek. It is 106 units of housing. And the original bonds that were issued, the multif family housing revenue bonds were uh to help with acquisition and construction and equipping the whole building at that site. Just a note, a side note, it's not totally germanine to the the issue that at hand, but you did have a requirement at that time for 21 of the units to be affordable housing at 50% AMI and that will continue 30 years from 2015. So in 2045 um those would continue to exist. So just a a note for you on that. The borrower is now requesting uh the refinancing of these prior bonds and it would be then for the city to issue tax exempt revenue refunding bonds not to exceed around 13.5 million. And that would repay that outstanding bond and then it would uh refinance the whole project. and uh Huntington Bank would be the uh entity purchasing the bonds from the city. This evening, it is required that you hold a hearing for this action and following that hearing, you have to consider the resolution for approval of the bonds to refund the prior bonds. Then later this evening after your regular council meeting, you'll call into session the EDA. They will also have to have a resolution approving the execution and delivery of um an amended um development agreement. I always like to put the disclaimers about these bonds because it's confusing to the public I think about what they are, how does it affect the city, that sort of thing. as our uh bond council has said as well, Julie Edington is here tonight if you have specific technical questions, but um it does not constitute a general obligation of the city. And that's important to note. They will not be secured or payable by any property or assets of the city um other than just the interest that we cite in the loan agreement. And then it's not secured by any taxing of the city. Also, it's not subject to the debt limitation. So, those of you who have paid attention to our bond conversations over the years, um it does not have any adverse effect on the city's tax um credit rating. Um and even if they encounter some kind of financial difficulty, that still doesn't affect the city's credit rating. They're um and because they're considered private activity bonds, they're not public uh bonds. It also does not affect the maximum uh issuance of $10 million. Uh we talk about this cap. Um it does not count against our bank qualified obligations. So that's good for us because we're bonding for other projects. And uh finally, Julia is here to answer any questions. The actual action for this part of the meeting is adopting the resolution authorizing the housing revenue bonds for the benefit of this entity. And there's some statutory notes. I'm not going to read it all because you'll probably read it back into your motion. So, mayor and council members, I'll turn it back to you to have any questions or discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Wishnack. Um council, um this is a somewhat routine item, but is there do you have any questions for Miss Wishnack? Um Council Member Romey. Thank you, Mayor. Um my apologies in advance as a newer council member. Just wanted to make sure that I and maybe other people are are kind of aware of of uh you know kind of the the situation here. I think I spoke with Mr. funk about this uh earlier today and I think it just to confirm you know what the purpose of this bond was originally um to you know kind of confirm understanding of of that again and and my understanding is it's a taxexempt bond private activity in order that we issued based on that we were able to get probably a lower interest rate for this borrower than they would have been able to get as a commercial loan. And therefore, they were able to borrow in order to complete and build this project back in 2015. And the bank has an interest in it because they aren't taxed essentially on the interest income that they receive. Is that correct? Am I understanding that correctly? What everybody gets out of this? Yes. Okay. And and let me just turn to Julie Edington. That's my understanding as well. and and you would agree or would you like to add anything? Okay, perfect. So now here's my where my question maybe comes in. We're basically extending this. It's like you're refinancing your mortgage only on a a higher level. Um so these guys are refinancing their mortgage. They're going to get that lower interest rate for an additional 10 years. The bank, is that correct? Miss Edington, welcome. Thank you. Um you are correct that they are refinancing. So we had a a a deal that was done in 2015 to start the construction of the the um item that was on the the um that development. Mhm. Yes. And uh they in 2015 they had a a larger um a larger amount of interest. Mhm. And today um when we approve this project again it's a refunding um they're going to have a better interest rate and that's really why they're doing this. is to get a better interest rate. So I understand just like you know our own individual mortgages the rates have gone down so they're they're refinancing but they're also just like when we do it as an individual refi they're getting another 10 years. So they're ex existing mortgage um uh debt is getting folded in then and extended for an additional 10 years. Correct. At a lower rate. Correct. Okay. So my question is then uh I guess what is the benefit? I guess this might be for staff to city because basically they're going to get a lot another 10 years on this loan. So instead of a third, you know, instead of going from 30 years from 2015, they're going to be going 30 years from 2025. Um, and we still have 21 units of affordable housing that are still their POA is going to end in 2045, which is 30 years from the original 2015. So, I just was wondering if there's any thing that the city is getting in consideration for basically giving um, you know, this development an additional 10 years of of lower refi if there's anything in it for for kind of our taxpayers. the city does have a small fee for helping out with us. So that's that's what they get. Um and then um this the bank can prepay at any time as well. And that's probably what would happen at the end of the of the new bond issue. they would likely um or may uh decide to prepay ahead of time. You mean the developer or the owner? The Yes, the entity. Okay. Right. Yep. Yeah, I get that. But they're still going to get 30 years from 2025 till 2055 on this new loan at a lower rate. Correct. I think it's 2045. 2045. Yeah. Oh, so it's a 20 year 2045 on the affordability is I think what I was answering. Sorry. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm talking about the loan, not the POA. So um the period of affordability for anyway I was just trying to understand what you know it seems like we're we're giving some additional benefit to the developer to the owner of this development and just was wondering what you know get an additional affordable housing or anything like that. Um just was wondering how this is working and why we're we're doing this. But that's all. Thank you. I I did have a comment Miss Wishnack. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Headington. Nice to see you. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Mayor and Council Member Mey and other council members. Um, I think that when you as a city aren't putting actual funds from the city, I think that's maybe the difference here. Um, there's not um an issue with the city. The city's not responsible for the payment of the bonds, that sort of thing. We're not the safeguard. We're not doing anything um in terms of uh securing the loan. And I think that makes it way different than maybe other transactions that we're doing. Uh which is putting up public money. Um maybe we're using the affordable housing trust fund. You know, you name the funding source. And usually the city is doing that kind of transaction which is when we ask for more years of affordability or something like that. This is an activity private activity bond. Uh we're the conduit for it. We do have a policy about this in our um policy book about how we we will approach those. So, okay. Thank you. I just know like for variances and things like that when we give variances sometimes to developers, we ask for, you know, something. I didn't know if it was going to kind of a same thing with this, but thank you for um council. Any other comments? You know, I might just add a little bit. you know, um we we have 21 units of affordable housing at 50% AMI. And you know, part of the this costs the city nothing. And in fact, we get a little bit of a fee. Whether that whether we're making a profit on that fee or not, I don't know. But um to me sending the message to the development community that this is a good place to do affordable housing and we will work with you over the time to make to make your affordable housing project work better and longer. I kind of like having that message out in the development community that Minnetonka is a city that will work with you and uh and we we are committed to affordable housing and we want we want to help you make that possible. So even though we get nothing per se, I'm I'm satisfied that we're going to have this affordable housing and that we're making this a more viable project for the developer. So I I see that as a benefit even though it's not a direct benefit, one person's opinion. So with that, let's see. Um let's see. We need to have a um we need to have a public hearing. So I will um any other comments from council? All right, then I will open the public hearing and would anyone like to come forward and comment on this um this item and this action regarding the um issuance of multif family housing revenue refunding bonds. Yes, please come forward. State your name and address. Uh good evening council members and mayor. Uh my name is Lyanna Stefaniac. I represent Roland Investments LLC. Um I was actually the original presenter back in 2015 before this body. So, um, thank you for having us here tonight and thank you for considering our refinance. Um, we've been very happy to be, um, members of the Minnotonka community. Um, we're very proud of our project. Um, we've had 100% occupancy since we've moved in. Our affordable units have been very successful in the community. Um, and has brought new residents to Minnotonka that may not have otherwise been here. So, um, thank you for being our partners with this project and we looking forward to continued relationship. Very good. Thank you. I'm going to ask my council quickly if they have any questions for you. Okay, seeing that. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the audience who would like to comment on this item? Anyone? All right, I have to keep asking that. So anyway, I will close the public hearing and I will bring it back to the council for um comment or emotion. Council member Shaq. Thank you, Mayor. Um just a brief comment because I had you know I had the same thoughts that council member Romey had um when I was re reviewing the packet and you know I kind of went back to contract law like what are we giving and you know really just lending our name and I think you know I I think maintaining a viable operation is valuable to the city and our reputation. Um, you know, I didn't courage maybe and and I and I don't know. I mean, the the property looks very nice. I haven't been on property in a long time. So, I think they do a great job maintaining per but perhaps we can encourage whether it's some, you know, use the savings, whether it's to implement some sustainability elements or something, you know, um, that would be a good gesture towards the city. But I'm, you know, I'm supportive of this and and I think we would want to be giving more um if we were expecting some continued term of affordability. So, thanks Sha. Any other any other comments? Council member Romey. Thank you and thank you council member Shaq for those comments. I agree. Um, I just, you know, kind of was hoping to to kind of confirm understanding of this and I guess in future, not saying for this, you know, hopefully we want to be good partners and hopefully there will be other developments like this as well. Um, just, you know, perhaps something to think about in the future when we're in situations like this, either, you know, something as a sign of goodwill, maybe a few more years of affordability, I don't know, um, for, you know, one or more of the units, things like that we can think about in the future. So, now that we kind of understand how it works, it's helpful. Thank you. And I'll be supporting. All right. Um, Council Member Kley, I just want to make a quick comment because I wasn't um I didn't think about it a way that um Council Member Rome thought about it and um I kind of as she was talking about it, it did really help me understand it and it kind of process process it better. And so I get where she's coming from and you know I I do appreciate the affordable housing especially at 50% because you know we've been trying to get down even lower than 50% at 30%. But uh but um one of the things what she said when you refinancing then you get that extension it is a benefit more of a benefit to the developers especially if you're not extending the um the affordability out another um 20 or 30 years because I've always thought about when people when the developers get um an incentive to develop in our city or anywhere. Um, I've heard this time and time again in other cities as well, not just in Mitaka, but in Minneapolis. I've heard people talk about, well, you know, the developers get, you know, funding to create um, they get like tiff or they may get bonding or whatever. And people always talk about that and I really never understood it. And I was just talking to Mike today is that I'm really I'm in my fifth year and I'm starting to really understand like the nuances of everything that's happening um, as being a council member. And so, um, when she was explain when Rome was explaining it, I start to think like, yeah, I I get what she's saying that we could, um, in the future maybe have a conversation about this. It would be a good study um study question or conversation, our study session to talk about how can we address this in in the future because I I do see where, you know, maybe we could do more in this area of um requesting more if you're going to extend the loan longer. um then the affordability should be longer because sometimes I think well they getting this money but why can't the housing continue to be affordable like maybe like land trust you know you those houses are always affordable so maybe apartments should always be affordable it shouldn't just stop at 30 years when the loan is complete but we'll see thank you um Miss Wishnack um I think mayor and council members I think I should mention too that this does sit in a current tiff tiff district. So it I don't think want you to think this is your only opportunity to negotiate, renegotiate, that sort of thing. Um because these are usually straightforward refinancing decisions and whether or not you want to participate in that is your question tonight. if you wanted to renegotiate and extend um affordability, that to me is another conversation that usually comes along with tax increment, which is already issued for this project as well. So, I I would hold that thought perhaps and and it's something that's always on our radar as staff. That's why we did the housing dashboard to make sure we know when things expire and when we have those opportunities. Um and that Oh my goodness, we have a slideshow. Snafu. Um, we'll get back to the right slide, but the um, you know, the fact that you're not you're not done with this conversation is my point. So, with that, mayor, thanks. Um, thank you, M. Wishnack. Um, council, any other comments? You know, the thing that I would say that the notion that has been brought forward tonight that I think deserves some further conversation, not I don't want to hold this project up. I think um I think the merit is there and and we want to move forward. But I think that idea of um when you I mean clearly when you extend the term you reduce the monthly cost the the the developers cash flow goes up because the term has been spread out and if and I don't know if um statutoilally we can tie um the afford the length of the affordability to the length of to learn because I think typically a statute the statute says 30 years and we're kind of stuck with 30 years and everything we've done has always been 30 years. We haven't done other than um land land trust homes within reach which has a 99-year uh land trust uh term. Everything that we do is 30 years. I'd love to be able to extend that. I don't think we have the legal flexibility to do that and I'm not an attorney and I'm not going to ask that question tonight. But I think it's a question that is worth considering at some future point. If that possibility existed, the longer we can make our our house our affordable housing affordable, the better it is for the city and for our residents. So, you know, just I think that's a worthy I appreciate council member and council member Shaq and um council member Kley for bringing up ideas along those lines because if there is a path that way, it would benefit um our residents and benefit our um affordable housing policies. though beyond the scope of tonight, but something maybe to put on the uh to put on the parking lot. So, with that, we'll leave it. Would somebody do we have a motion? Would somebody like to make a motion? Council member Calbert. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to uh make the motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the issuance of multifamily housing revenue refunding bonds for the benefit of Roland Investments LLC pursuant to Minnesota statute as amended. I'm not going to say the statute and approving the execution and delivery of the bonds and related documents. Thank you. Council council member Calbert. Is there a second? Council member Kley. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by council member Calbert and a second by council member Kley. Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilbur, yes. Calbertt, yes. Romeley, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wearsome, yes. Motion carries. Next item is the use of the community investment fund to finance renovation of ice arena rink B re refrigeration improvement project. And Mr. Kuno, welcome again. And uh that's your report. Thank you, mayor and councel. Item 13D is the Ice Arena Rink B refrigeration improvement project. I'd like to point out that Kelly OD, our recreation director, and Kevin Moss, our facilities manager, are here tonight uh eagerly awaiting the outcome of this item. Uh we have three recommendations tonight. Uh the one the use of community improvement funds requires a public hearing. So the first recommendation is to continue the public hearing and accept comments. The second is a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the use of community investment funds to finance improvements to ICE rank B and award the contract for the project and the third is amending CIPs and authorizing the public works director to spend the allocated funds on the project without exceeding the budget. Uh this project is related to the strategic profile for infrastructure and asset management desired outcome 5.1 to improve reliability and efficiency of our utilities and facilities as this project will extend the operational life of the facility as well as provide energy reduction and associated cost savings. So the existing refrigeration system was installed in 2003 and uses R22 refrigerant which was banned by the EPA in 2020. Uh so that type of refrigerant is no longer allowed to be manufactured or imported into the US. Due to the age and type of system, a new refrigeration system is needed. Uh the new the old system will be removed and replaced with a new ammonia system refrigeration system. This new system will include all new refrigeration, electrical, mechanical, and safety equipment. As you may recall, this project was originally bid last fall. Uh, one single bid was received at that time that was significantly higher than our budget. So, that bid was rejected. At that time, direction was given to review the project for potential cost savings, uh, revise the construction documents, and readvertise the project to try to reduce the project cost. Recommendations from contractors included extending the project schedule, reducing the number of condensers on the project, and allowing contractors to provide value engineering suggestions with their bids. Council authorized the ad for bid on March 3rd and bids were opened on May 22nd. Two bids were received with a low bid coming from Total Mechanical Services. Based on the bids, ad alternates, and voluntary deducts, staff is recommending awarding the base bid with ad alternate number two, uh, which is fence screening around the new exterior equipment and, uh, also taking the voluntary deduct for a total construction cost estimate of 2,137,400. with construction contingency and indirect costs. The total project cost is estimated at $2,335,000 which is about $550,000 less than the project bid last fall. The 2025 through 2029 CIP includes $2 million for the project which is proposed to be funded through the community investment fund. The remaining $335,000 for the project is coming from amendments to previous year CIPs and delaying a proposed vestibule improvements project that was going to be in the 2026 CIP. If awarded, the project will be completed in three to in a 3 to fourmonth time frame over the summer of 2026. So, the three recommended actions tonight are to continue the public hearing and accept comments. Uh motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the use of the community investment fund to finance improvements to ice rink B and award the contract for the rink B refrigeration improvement project project number 25205 to total mechanical services incount 2,137,400 which includes option two ad and voluntary dedux and number three amend the 2020 through 2024 the 2023 through 2027 and 2024 through 2028 CIPs and authorize the public works director to expend the allocated funds for project costs without further council approval provided the total project costs do not exceed the project budget of $2,335,000. I'll turn it back to the mayor and council for questions. Thank you, Mr. Kino. Um council, any questions on this item? Looks pretty straightforward. So seeing no questions, the a public hearing is already open. So is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak to this item um use of the uh community investment fund to pay for these improvements to the refrigeration system um for rank B. Is there anyone? All right. All right, seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and I will bring it back to the council for consideration. Council member Shack. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'll start by saying I I think this is a worthy project. We've been down this road. I I mean, I think I don't have any questions. I appreciate the time and effort that staff put into getting us um into a more favorable position. With that said, as I considered this and and really thought philosophically about where we've been on some of these recreational items in our discussions over the last couple years, um I understand that the ice arena's run at about a $200,000 in the red as far as the the fund. Um and that this um refrigeration system is estimated to last about 20 years. So, if we're talking about we're running about $300,000 a year in the red with this. And so I want to consider as a council as we go forward and we consider other recreation decisions that perhaps we have a philosophical conversation about how we value whether something cash flows or doesn't or what we what our philosophy is as a council on how um you know I I think about ice arenas and I think that that serves a very specific population and I think about some of the other conversations and and thoughts I've had about other projects and they're maybe not philosophically consistent with, you know, my position on the ice arena. So, it's something that I'd like to just put out there to the council to think about maybe as we consider our study sessions and maybe we can think about a matrix or something that identifies, you know, what what is cost what things are costing us to run and um how we can maybe use that to make some consistent decisions and perhaps um try to be have policy that's philosophically consistent kind of across the board. when we talk about recreation. Thank you, Council Member Shaq. Um, are there other comments? Council member Romey. Thank you, Mayor. Um, yeah, I'd like to kind of second that idea of having kind of a matrix or something where we are are looking at, you know, everything from is this an enterprise fund, is it something that's cash flowing or not. Um that said, um hockey and and being on the ice is such an identity issue for us here in Minnesota. That would be a tough one to say no to, but I definitely think that it's if we're going to be rational about this and in a time when, you know, budgets are really tight and it's doesn't look like it's going to get any better um in the foreseeable future in terms of cost to build and cost to construct, then um I think that's a very worthy topic for discussion. Thank you, Council Mary Calbert. Um, I appreciate all of these um, comments and I I've been asking for sort of rubrics and criteria for scoring all kinds of things and I I just think it's a you know just a good maybe a best practice. That said, there are many the thing about government is it's not a business and I'm not always expecting a return on what we provide to the community. And so, um, I think that is part of the I think part of that rubric is you maybe considering some of the intangibles also. So, um, anyway, uh, I appreciate what was said and I'm always all for, you know, trying to be consistent, but also keeping in mind that, you know, some things you can't put a price on. And, um, some of that has to do with comm community building and, you know, just creating a a community where people can recreate, doing the things that they can do. And we're just not always going to um get a return on investment because we're a government. We're not a business. Other other comments, council members, you know, um I talked to Mr. Funk about this a little bit today, too. And you know, I think the the point that government is not a business, I think is a very valid point. At the same time, um at a time when budgets are challenging, um we need to we need to ask ourselves the hard questions. And you know, it's not like um we should expect that okay, well, we're only going to pay for things that everybody in the city uses because to be honest, there's no place in the city that everybody in the city uses. And we, you know, and it it comes down to kind of a rhetorical question of what kind of city do we want to be? And we want to have the amenities that make our city attractive. And some are going to be profitable like Williston. They're going to more than break even. and some are not. Um, and so some of the questions that I would like because I I agree that having the rigor um to ask hard questions, you heard me say earlier, you are what you measure. I mean, it is worth measuring. But one of the measures is not only um are um does uh pro does something operate at a profit or a deficit, but what do analogous um offerings in other cities, do they operate at a at a at a profit or a loss? Because I mean um you know, I just went back when I I moved here in 1982, demonstrating how old I am. And um my brother and I would go to rink A, not rink B, to open skating and we would see Jill Trenery there skating on the ice in Minnitanka, a Minnitankka girl who later was a three-time world champion figure skater who learned to skate here. Now, you know, so when you consider that, you know, how much value can you put on saying, "Well, my city had a three-time world champion figure skater who, by the way, happened to learn on the ice that our city owns." Now, again, um, some people may value that a lot, some people may value that not at all, but but I think that's part of it. We we should look at these issues rigorously, but then also look them in the broader context. How do we compete with with neighboring cities? um are are we the only city that um runs our um our uh skating rinks um and and not have them cash flow? Well, if that's the case, then maybe we need to take a look at um doing things differently. If we're in the same boat as everyone else and oh, by the way, this is, you know, the state of hockey, well, maybe that's just one of the costs that we bear to be to happen to be in Minnesota now. So, I just I think it's a fair question. I appreciate the the thoughts of my fellow council members. We should um be rigorous. We should hold ourselves accountable, but let's also kind of look at it in a way that brings the perspective that is appropriate. Mr. Funk, excuse me. Thank you, Mayor. Just excuse me. Thank you for the opportunity just to say a couple um comments. One, I I know we talked about the age of the uh system here this evening. So, it it's a 23-y old system. Um and so, the new life expectancy is 20 years. And and why I say that, it's part of asset management. And it's also one of the pillars in our strategic plan is we have a staff that's dedicated to ensuring reliable highquality infrastructure with all of our buildings and facilities. So we're we're recognizing this is also an asset that we need to maintain and part of that maintenance of that asset is really reflective of how many people use it. And I know this wasn't in the staff report. Uh just to give you some context that facility that I inc facility has 250,000 annual visits in comparison to Willist Willist's about 300,000. So, it has it's very useful in our community. Uh, there are 6,000 public skate participants that use the facility each year. It's in generally in operation 17 hours a day and 340 days a year. So, it's it's a facility that does get used by our community quite extensively. So, just for context to understand it is something that gets used a lot. Right. Thank Thank you, Mr. Funk and that that context was very helpful. So, any comments? Any further comments from councel or a motion from anyone? Council Calbert. Thank you, mayor. You know, you have to raise your hand above above council member Wilbur's head. Okay, there. There we go. Because I'm not like I was sitting, but you do not have to duck down. That's that's above and beyond the call. So um but I do just want to reiterate I I think all the comments up here on the deis are very important and the context is important and that's why there are many variables that go into thinking about things like this and they're they're all very important and we do want to be prudent with our investments. So, um, with that, I would like to, uh, make the motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the use of the community investment fund to finance improvements to ice rink B and award the contract for the rink B refrigeration improvement project number 25205 to T total mechanical services, Inc. in the amount of 2,1374 uh $137,400 which includes option to add in and voluntary deducts and amend the 2020 to 2024, the 2023 to 2027 and the 2024 to 2028 CIP to and authorize the public works director to expend the allocated funds for project costs without further Council approval provided the project costs do not exceed the project budget of $2,335,000. Thank you, Council Calvert. Is there a second? Council member Romey. Thank you, Mayor. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Calvert and a second by Council Member Romey. Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilbur, yes. Calvert, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton. Yes. Shaq. Yes. Where? Yes. Motion carries. That brings us to other business and we have um a couple of um important items. Um 14A is to expect accept the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report and it is comprehensive um and related audit reports with the city's audit firm uh Bergen KDV. And uh Mr. Mr. Funk, I'll turn it to you first. Yeah. Again, thank you, Mayor and Councel. Uh, tonight I'm pleased to introduce our auditor. Uh, he's already come up to the podium, Mr. Andrew Grace, who's from Bergen KDV, who will present the results of the city's 2024 financial audit. I'm also proud to share that our audit reflects what we already know about Minnitankka to be true, and that is Minnitanka is in a strong financial position. These results confirm that we are being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars and that our financial practices continue to align with the city's strategic priority of being a well fiscally managed city and managed organization. Uh the strategic plan have copies of that strategic plan in front of you. It just happened to be we had a number of extra copies because we've had our financial or excuse me our strategic plan refresh. So those copies are in front of you. But I would just point to you to financial strength. And the definition is that we're a financially responsible organization that delivers results. And I think that's really what we're here tonight is to show you those results. Uh those three outcomes or those three desired outcomes are noted also in front of you, which is high level creditworthiness, improve alignment between expenditures, and identified priorities. And I think you've heard Mr. Nelson and I talk to you about priorities budgeting. Uh that goes to I think even what Dr. Council member Wilburn mentioned earlier just with going back to uh the state of Minnesota and doing programs for so many years and so we are going to take that deeper dive uh coming up regarding uh priorities based budgeting and also expanding sources of revenues uh excuse me expand sources of revenue for capital improvement projects. Um then I just also want to take a moment to recognize and thank our outstanding staff uh particularly our finance team uh led by Darren Nelson for their professionalism, diligence and commitment to excellence. Uh my appreciation also goes beyond the finance team because it's it's more than Mr. Nelson and our finance team, myself. It takes all of our directors, our managers, and really any of our staff that have any part of um controls in terms of our um expenditures and purchasing authority. And without following our systems and processes, this work won't happen. And so that behind-the-scenes work ensures that not only do we meet our financial obligations, but do so with transparency, integrity, and long-term stability in mind. And I know Mr. Nelson has a few, I think, probably some comments at the end. But with that, I'd like to turn it over, mayor and counsel to Mr. Grace, who will walk us through the highlights of the audit. Thank you, Mr. Grace. Welcome. All right. Thank you, city manager Funk. Um, Mr. mayor, members of city council for having me here tonight. Uh do have the audit report to to present for the year ended December 31st, 2024. I do believe we have a PowerPoint presentation I think loaded as well to highlight. There we go. Uh wanted to start by talk u taking a look at our independent auditor's report that's included in the annual comprehensive financial report. So the city's uh annually prepares that um acter as we call it and our role is to provide assurance uh as to the basic financial statements as to whether they present fairly in all material respects the financial position and changes in financial position of the city. Uh and happy to report that we are providing a clean unmodified opinion on the financial statements which is the best that we can give as your auditors. We also provide uh some other reporting. Uh I did want to highlight that here. Next, next being the report in accordance with government auditing standards. Uh this report talks about internal control over financial reporting. Our role as your auditor is to provide in writing any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses that come to our attention as part of our audit. Uh and we had no findings to report for this year. Uh we also had a single audit and that's required whenever the city expends more than $750,000 or more in federal awards. that does trigger an additional single audit or a compliance audit. Uh and that was on the highway planning and construction grant. Uh we did note uh there that we were able to provide a clean unmodified unmodified opinion on compliance. Uh also had no internal control findings to report related to that program. Uh the last uh report that we have here is a report on Minnesota legal compliance. The office of the state auditor requires that we do report on their Minnesota legal compliance guides. That includes certain state statutes that relate to min uh that are applicable to Minnesota cities. That includes taking a look at certain statutes that relate to the city's deposits and investments, uh contracts and bidding, conflicts of interest, other miscellaneous provisions, and we had no findings to report this year. One other uh uh piece of communication is our communications letter, which is also in the uh the agenda packet that includes all other required communication in accordance with audit standards. So that talks about the the scope and timing of the audit. Uh significant risks that might have been considered when planning and performing the audit. Uh and some other information that's again required by audit standards. Uh also in that communications letter as a courtesy we do provide some charts and graphs uh try to color up the the numbers a little bit and make this a little bit more interesting. So we do have some trend data to take a look at uh this evening starting uh with the general fund taking a look at revenues expenditures as well as the assigned and unassigned fund balance here over the years presented. Uh if all services remain the same over those five years you'd still expect to see increases in each of those categories with inflationary and and cost related increases. So we do see uh expenditures and revenues at a high point in the years presented uh revenues at about uh 52.4 million expenditures at 49.8 8 million uh with uh again unrestricted fund balance and ending at about $27.5 million. Uh the next chart that we have highlights the uh again unrestricted fund balance uh which is made up of assigned and unassigned fund balance as well as the next year's annual expenditures which then provides a ratio there that you see to the right. That ratio helps to evaluate the city's financial health. It also uh kind of relates back to the city's fund balance policy. uh you can see that uh that ratio has declined since 2020 and that relates to some spend down of fund balance that has been planned uh within the budget. Uh but also um again is that measure of financial health uh and that's at about 50% here for 2024 which is which was in line with the city's fund balance policy. Uh again same u same information here but just in bar graph format. Also wanted to highlight general fund revenues here over the last 5 years. Uh here in 2024, we did see about 11 and a half% increase. Uh the majority of that increase occurred in a couple different categories. Property taxes increased about $2.7 million with an increase in levy. Uh also saw increases in license and permits. That increased to $ 1.9 million, which with with an increase in in permits issued. And then intergovernmental revenues increased about $610,000 with an increase in in public safety aid. Uh next on the expenditure side, did see an increase there of about 7% here comparing 2023 and 2024. Uh public safety had the largest increase of about 7 uh% or about $1.5 million with um salary increases. Uh general government increased about $ 1.5 million again related to salaries. And then parks and recreation had um some additional grant activity, the relief grant uh which did provides uh for some addition additional expenditures here for 2024. Uh next highlighting uh the budget to actual results and this is a a good way just to highlight um city council's role as it relates to the financial statements and that's adopting and monitoring the budget. Uh the final budget called for just over $50 million in revenue, $51.1 million in expenditures and after net transfers out anticipated a decline in fund balance of about $1.3 million. On the revenue side, that came in better than anticipated by about 5% or $2.4 million. uh majority of that being driven by uh building uh excuse me, licenses and permits with increased building activity. So that area was overbudget by about $2.2 million. Uh charges for services uh were over budget by about 35 uh $3,000 or about 16% with increased recreation activity. Also an increase uh or more um private duty um police um services than anticipated. And then miscellaneous and investment income is typically budgeted conservatively just based on uh just being conservative for market rates. Uh that came in uh over budget by about $268,000. That was offset by taxes uh due to um timing of delinquent collections. On the expenditure side, uh expenditures came in under budget by about 2.5% uh mainly driven by um vacant positions uh again related to salaries coming in uh less than anticipated. Uh also wanted to highlight the Marsh fund. This is a new activity uh over the years here for the for the city. So continue to monitor uh this fund's operations and specifically highlighting the budget to actual results here for 2024. Uh the budget called for about 1.4 million in revenue, anticipated about 1.6 million in expenditures and anticipated a decline in fund balance about uh of about $212,000. uh there were more activity and related costs than anticipated ultimately resulting in a deficit this year of about $327,000. Uh the following charts here um do um highlight the enterprise funds of the city. These u present a bit differently in that these are full acrruel funds uh to uh give the readers information to evaluate whether the uh user charges that are established uh to provide resources for these services whether those are uh sufficient to cover uh their operate uh the related operating expense of providing that service. Uh here in 2024 uh the water and sewer utility operations did provide an operating income of about $4.2 million. Uh we also provide a metric excluding depreciation. Depreciation expense is a non-cash operating expense. This gives a a bit better indication in terms of cash flow uh in this fund and that was a positive $9.2 million here for 2024. The envir uh environmental fund operations uh related to the recycling programs um was fairly consistent between 2023 and 2024. Uh ultimately provided a surplus for the year of about $149,000. Uh the Wilston Center uh also saw surpluses here in 2024 uh of about $36,000. That was the highest in the years presented and as as uh noted here, continues to be a positive trend here over the years presented. Grace Bay Marina has had very consistent operations here over the years presented. Um about a 3 uh $3,000 surplus uh here for 2024. And then the storm water operations also had uh consistent operations a surplus of about $1.7 million for 2024. Uh one thing uh to provide some additional information here just on performance of these funds we did provide operating ratios. Uh anything below 100% means that there is a surplus there that is uh being um uh put away in reserves there. uh when you see a lower percentage, it typically means that there are heavy infrastructure needs and that there are more resources maybe than other funds uh to again put resources away for the any future capital needs that are being planned for. Uh and as such, the utility fund was at about 54% here for for um 2024 compared to about 73% back in 2022. Uh there were some significant maintenance projects back in 2020 uh excuse me back in 2023 um uh that caused that to be a bit higher uh but it's a uh back to um similar levels back uh dating back to the previous four years. Um the other thing to to highlight here um all all funds here for 2024 did provide um surpluses um all were very similar in terms of um performance between uh the past two years. Uh one other thing I wanted to highlight is the unrestricted net position in these funds. Um that is the metric of financial health uh when it comes to this full acrruel basis of accounting in these enterprise funds. Uh the Williston center is the one fund that is in a negative unrestricted net position at the end of the year. If we compare that to the cash and investment balances, you can see that all of those are positive over the years presented and that relates to some of the full acral items that are included in the financial statements. So the Williston Center does have a significant amount of employees in in that particular fund. And so on a full acral basis of accounting, it takes into account the pension liability and the OPED liability, which are liabilities the city will not have to actually write a check for, but but is but is a a true liability in terms of the unfund uh portion that that's unfunded at the state level and the proportionate share that the city is being allocated. So if you factor that out of the Williston Center operations, uh it does have positive uh um um balance there uh over a million dollars. So all all funds in in um uh sound financial position. The last chart that we wanted to highlight is the tax capacity, tax levy and tax rates. Uh and um you can see here that the um tax capacity rate has decreased uh over the last 5 years. was at a low low point back in 2023 at about 34 at about 34 a.5% uh here for 2024 and overall uh basically meaning that the um uh market values uh which are tied to the um total tax capacity are increasing at a greater rate than the city's tax levy uh which is why it's at a a lower point than uh the 2020 to 2022 time frame. That's a high level look at the financial uh reports uh and also the financial analysis. next like to open up for any questions. Thank you very much. Um, Council Member Foster Bolt, can we go back to the communications letter? Sure. Um, and I just want to have it explained because I don't and you you kind of touched on it when you were talking about the the Williston Center and the OPB or whatever that Sure. Yep. Yep. OPED because it talks about um significant risks identified and I don't get that. I don't I don't get what I'm reading. Sure. Yeah. It is some it's audit related language. Um there is a new audit there was a new audit standard a couple years ago that did require that we have to now provide in writing um to uh the governing body any risk that we considered when performing our audit. And not to get too technical in terms of audit standards, but audit risks is a function of inherent risk and control risk. Control risk relates to the internal controls that the city has in place. Those are things that you can control in terms of how many, you know, um, checks and balances that you might have. The inherent risk is something that you cannot control. And those risks that you're seeing in there are inherent risks that we identified that we don't believe any city that we audit can control. that you know for example just due to the nature of a management position. Yeah. There's always a risk that management could override those controls because the management position is u you know a senior position and and and they may have ability to override some of those just based on the nature of that position for example. You know assets because of because they hold a value there's always a risk that they can be misappropriated. um because revenue is such a significant number in your financial statements and because there's so many complexities and how those are are recorded, there's always a risk that those could be recorded improperly. So, it's it's nothing that's related directly to the city of Minnetonka. It relates to um all cities that we audit. So, there's no unique risks in this particular city that we don't see in all cities that we Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you for that explanation. Um because it's a um I appreciate Council member Foster Bolton raising that too because that was I I you know please explain significant risks and and so that was uh you I appreciate you doing that. Absolutely. Um are there other questions uh council members? Um I mean my um uh my three favorite words are no no findings or no significant findings. That's that's uh those are my three favorite audit words. Um and you know I think that that's one of the challenges that no system is foolproof as you've just suggested. I mean, if you if you have a um we have checks and balances because we don't have just one person looking at our financial reports. We have um a lot of people um looking at them and they get a lot of scrutiny, but but you do when you're in a position of authority th those are the things that do uh potentially keep you awake at night. So, um I appreciate the uh the diligence and uh the good audit report. It's very gratifying. Any other comments? Yes, Council Rome. Thank you. Actually, um, just a quick question. You do a lot of these for a lot of city cities. How would you say Minnetonka stacks up fairly well in terms of h, you know, being able to um, produce an annual comprehensive financial report? That's an elevated um, level of reporting. It's not required by state statutes. It's something that the city, you know, elects to do. Um, and and having, you know, a report with no findings. I mean, you're in the top tier just based on, you know, that that piece alone. Obviously our our role as the auditor is just to give you just that opinion you know in terms I wish I could give you you know a bit more but but uh I think just kind of based on those results I think you can you can feel feel good about being kind of in that top tier. Thanks. I just wanted uh I I pretty much assumed as much but I wanted to acknowledge staff for that and also let um anybody who's watching or listening also know that from a coming from a third party that means a lot. Thanks. Thank you council member. Council member Calbertt. Thank you, Mayor. Um I work for our capital city and the finance department and every other morning I am on our um act for uh meetings where we're, you know, going over all the things that we need to, you know, pay attention to to make sure that we have no findings or no significant findings. And I I just want to say one thing. It makes it so much easier when we have a a highly functional ERP system. And so I just want to extend like extra acknowledgement to our finance staff because we were working on a new ERP. it didn't work out and and I know that there are there are functionality issues and so to produce this kind of result with a less than optimal tool to run the kinds of reports and keep the kinds of records that you need to keep um to have a clean audit report um just shows that our finance staff and and any of the staff that deals with our finances um I just want to thank all the staff for making those reports possible, for keeping the kind of records that um every department needs to keep to make sure that um that Mr. Nelson has what he needs to um you know, help our auditor produce these findings. And um I'm just very proud. You know, it you would hope that every city or every level of government can have a clean audit report, but it's not. It's it doesn't happen with every city. and we've had such wonderful um audits ever since I've been on the council. So, um I you know, it just makes me very proud of our staff and the work that they do and and thank you to you as well. Thank you. Thank you, council. Are there any other comments that would um um now I think our task is to accept the uh 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. So, um Mr. um Mr. Nelson, excuse me, uh, Mr. Mayor, council members, I just want to sneak in real quick. Um, I want to thank Mr. Grace and his staff as well too with uh, Berg and KDV. They do a great job. Um, we work hand in hand with them throughout the year. If we have questions that come up throughout the year, we don't know how to handle something, they're there for with a phone call to help us, guide us through through that so we don't run into issues when we come out this time of year and audit time and stuff like that. So, um, like to thank him, his staff. um like to also think the departments, every employee throughout the city contributes to this document. Whether they're purchasing something, whether they're paying a bill, they're coding a bill, it all goes into and follows our internal controls and really lays into our final document that gets put together on that end of it. So, want to shout out to them. Um want to shout out to to Joel Mary, our assistant finance director, and Zach Hacksaw, our senior accountant. Those two put hours and hours into this document and there aren't many cities actually prepare the ACT for the way we do. Um, a lot of times the auditors prepare it for for them. Um, we do it in-house here and that saves us some money on our end, but it obviously puts some more illness on them to to make sure it gets right on on that end of as well too. So, just wanted to say that real quickly. So, thank you for all the accolades. Appreciate it. And u glad we're had another great year on that end of it. So, thank you. Great. And um well, I want to thank you both. Um um our our auditing firm. Thank thank you very much for your excellent work and you know um Mr. Nelson and your team um um you guys you guys work pretty slavishly um um over all of this but you know Minnetonka's had a history and a legacy of strong financial reporting and we we get awards for the excellence of our financial reporting and um that didn't start just with the appearance of uh of our current staff. We've got a we've got a proud history in that and and one of our six financial pillars is um financial strength and and I'm proud of that and I'm you know and it didn't start with me being on the council. It started long before I got here and it's it's it's part of it's part of our brand. It's part of who Minnetonka is and so I think it's a reflection of our values but also the excellent work of our staff and and our um supporting staff. So thank you all very much. It's a big deal. Thank you so much. Now, from an action perspective, we do have to accept the report, right? So, um, Council Member Shaq. Thank you, Mayor. I'll make the motion to accept the 2024 annual comprehens uh, yeah, annual comprehensive financial report and related audit reports with the city's audit firm, Bergen KBB. Very good. And, Council Member Foster Bolton, I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Shack and a second by Council Member Foster Bolton. And and I will just add, you know, council, it's good for us to add ask challenging questions. I mean, this is, you know, we are stewards of the public trust and so our job is to ask challenging questions. And so, um, I'm I'm It's gratifying to have an excellent team doing this work, but it is our job to ask. So, I appreciate all the good questions that came forward. So, Miss Larson, would you please call roll? Wilburn? Yes. Calbert, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shack, yes. Where'some? Yes. Motion carries. So that brings us to item 14B, which is a request to amend resolution 2019-031, which approved the preliminary plat of Oakland Estates for a four lot subdivision at 1922 Oakland Road. And Miss Thomas, I believe that is your report. Good evening. Uh, thank you, Mayor Rissa, members of the council. Some of you will recall the Oakland State subdivision. It's located on the west side of Oakland Road, a four lot subdivision that you all approved back in 2019. And as is the case with all multi- um lot subdivisions, the approval included a condition requiring that development occur and be maintained in substantial conformance with certain plans. And one of those plans was the grading, drainage, and erosion control plan. Um that plan essentially defined the initial development area of the site. It's shown uh on the right hand side of your screen outlined uh in red. To date, a house has been constructed on one of the lots at 1930 Oakland Road and a house is currently under construction at 1934. the owner of the Southerntherly lot, uh, Lake West Development, is here this evening, uh, requesting an amendment, uh, to that condition of approval requiring compliance with that certain, uh, grading and development plan. Specifically, the amendment would uh increase or expand the development area uh, approved by the plan, and the increase would allow for construction of a pool and an accessory uh, building on the site. In the in support of the request and as was outlined in in your uh attachments to your written report, the owner notes that there were several trees uh that were saved on the northerly lot um that were slated for removal as part of the original development plan. They also note uh that the expanded tree area or expanded um development area though larger would not require extensive grading and that there would be uh trees uh preserved um even within that expanded area. Staff uh does not support this request for three reasons also outlined uh in your report. Um, first is that the trees that have been preserved to date that were slated for removal again are on that northerly lot. That's a lot that's not controlled by the current applicant. Second is that the expanded area um if it were submitted in 2019 and staff had reviewed that this plat would not have met the tree protection ordinance. uh removal of trees, high priority trees specifically would have been over 35% which is the threshold um outlined in the ordinance. And then finally um the owner has suggested that there are trees that staff is noting would be removed in in this development area that um can in fact be saved. Um our city forester has been to the site and and has noted that substantial damage has already been done to those trees. So, it's doubtful that um they would survive in the long term. So, with that uh short presentation, staff is recommending denial of this request, and I would turn it back to the council for your uh questions or comments. Um, thank you, Miss Thomas. Um, council, any questions for staff on on this item? Council member Romey. Thank you, mayor. Um, I just could you sorry, uh, Miss Thomas, kind of explain again the issue of the the tree ordinance issue. Um, I'm not quite getting that. If some of the trees were not demolished, but they're not controlled by the applicant right now. I'm I'm just kind of sorry, a little fuzzy there. Miss Thomas. Certainly. Uh, council and Mr. Mayor. So, uh, the diagram on the left shows the development area that was approved in 2019. And as part of that, uh, staff noted that there would be a certain number of trees that would be removed just based on the grading plan. Um here there were four trees uh shown on the northerly lot as removed in the 2019 plan. Um the current proposal again shows that expanded area. What staff did was we looked at how many trees would be removed if this expanded area um had been shown in 2019. And and obviously there would be more trees. These trees in the northeast corner of the site on lot one that were shown for removal in 2019 have not been removed to date. And so I I do understand the applicant's argument that there are actually four trees uh to give as it were. Um the concern that staff has is those four trees are owned by this property owner and they would have the right under this um 2019 approval to remove those trees. So the owner of lot 4 um doesn't um doesn't have the the means or the legal means to protect um those trees on lot one. Does that answer your question? Yeah. And so previously in 2019, sorry this was before my time, those were all um owned by the applicant at that point and since then lot one has been sold. Uh Mayor Worerome and and council members, I'm I'm not certain if that um lot was specifically owned by the applicant, but that lot was part of the plat at that time. Okay. All right. Thank you. I think council. Yep. Are there any other questions, council members? So, um all right, no more questions. So, um Mr. Freom, I don't know if you have any um if anyone from your team would like to make some comments, um please come forward, state your name, and um and uh tell us tell us what you want us to know. Good evening. Good evening. I don't know which one to use. Well, good evening. Thank you, mayor. Um, and good evening, council and staff. Uh, so my name is Kelsey Thompson. I'm with Lake West Development. Our address is 14525 Highway 7 in Minnotonka. Um, we did prepare a little presentation for tonight just to clear up some confusion around this request. So, uh, Julina here is going to pass out some packets. We have some for staff as well. Very good. Thank you. I think there are three packets for staff. So, however you want to divvy those up. [Applause] [Music] Everyone get one. Go ahead. All right. Okay. So, um, page one of this packet and I'll just start there. Uh, this is page 394 in the staff report. Um, just again over an overview of the four lot subdivision. So, there's lot one on the north that staff referenced with the saved trees. Um, lot two, lot three, and then lot four. So, lot four is the remaining property here that Lake West still owns. uh we decided to um pull a building permit and and begin construction on this home uh which you'll see a picture of in a few pages. Um so with that we are after our our you know home construction has started um we have applied for a pool permit in the backyard and that's really what we're here for and about um is to get in that pool permit. Um and I'll explain that in a little bit. So, there's been a little bit of confusion just about this project and tree removals. And so, I'm just here tonight to kind of clear up some of that confusion. Um, but that red line is what uh the staff report is showing as the development limit line. Um, and within that line would be the development area. Um, also known as a silt fence line. um according to the plan and I highlighted this section here in the background that says this site will be developed and maintained in substantial conformance with a grading drainage and erosion control plan with the date of February 7th of 2019 which is uh basically a screenshot of that erosion control plan um on this page and again just going to walk you through a little bit of our proposal here tonight. So you can turn to the second page and if you have any questions you can certainly stop me to ask. Um so again this is uh another page taken out of the staff report 395 um page two in our packet. Um so what I did here was I so the the the area where that yellow is that uh the staff report highlights that's the area where the pond or the not the pond the pool is going to be um going into. But we thoughtfully designed the pool and the landscaping plan to preserve those five trees that are highlighted in green. So the staff report is showing and calculating that those trees would be removed as a part of these plans and that is not the case. Um our plans do show those trees being preserved. Um and I'll get into that in a little bit more uh in the next few um pages. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Can I just ask a quick question? Um, I thought those were the trees that our forester said couldn't be preserved because they had been damaged. Are those different trees? Um, those are the trees that the forester did say that they had concern over, which we addressed and I'll get into in a couple of pages. You'll see pictures of those. Yeah, you bet. Um, and we did note, of course, that those trees on the north um were preserved only because that was an assignment we were given by by the staff was to go out and just take full inventory of the entire site. Um, so we weren't arguing that we to that we could that we were trying to count those trees. Just wanted to note that they were that they were preserved, although vetted for removal. Um, and just wanted to address that the two options staff had laid out for us are we could wait the two years um to remove the trees to put in the pool for according to the the tree ordinance. It doesn't apply after you get the certificate of occupancy two years after that point. um where we could request this amendment to that that red line um that staff report is calling a you know development limit line. Um and really those that if you can see the response in red that 2-year wait period doesn't really apply to this because our pool plans are in conformance with the approved grading plan. They don't remove any more of the the high priority trees. Um and it doesn't change the grading plan that was approved in 2019. you can move on to page three. Um I'll meet you there. And so again, here's another page pulled out of the staff report 396. This was just uh a calculation of those trees. So I just um cross out and read the 2025 approval or proposal. Um so we're proposing to remove 22 of the high priority trees which is 30% um well under the 35% threshold of high priority tree that are allowed to be removed. All right. Um so page four is just a picture of this site. Maybe some of you have driven by the site. Maybe you're familiar with Oakland Road. Um, but 1934 Oakland Road, which is the subject property that Lake West still owns out of the four lot subdivision, that is on the left. You can see it's been constructed. Um, and then 1930 Oakland Road is the lot three. That's, if you look back at the site plan, I guess that's on the screen, you can see lot three is the one that's just to the north of lot four. Lot four is kind of the pizza shaped um lot. [Applause] All right. And then so page five, this is showing the grading, drainage, and erosion control plan. If you're all tracking, um, so this is the plan that the resolution references. This is a plan that staff has referenced in their staff report. Um, so I highlighted in blue just where that uh you know this on this plan the legend calls that a silk fence line which is commonly referred to as development limit line or it could be um a grading limit line. Um but I just wanted to point out that there are like the you can see those two um dry well storm water management systems on lots three and four that are circled in blue. those are systems that need grading to um install that and to construct that that is outside of that line. So just pointing out that that line the silt fence line with this plan doesn't necessarily limit all the grading that needs to take place on the sites. All right. Um so then moving to page six. is getting a little bit more um just kind of puts it together I think in a better perspective. So I colorcoded this plan. Um so this again is that grading drainage and erosion control plan. So the purple line is highlighting the um silt fence line or the the grading limit line or um whatever you want to call it the um I think he called it the development area line. Um, and in the red on lot three is the neighbors approved grading limit line or disturbance area line um with the work that they did in their backyard to put in the dry well storm water management system that you see in the big um 15 foot by 100 foot kind of rectangle in the backyard there. So that's something that we'll have to do on our lot as well as part of our approved plan. Um, so again, outside of that approved the the purple line, um, they've got an area that they graded that was like just over 10,000 square feet. And then bringing you to the lot south of that, which is lot four, the lot Lake West owns. So, we're requesting that that line also be a um amended or change as a condition of approval um from this 1934 or sorry, from this um 2019 plan. And that yellow or orange area is where we're requesting to put in a pool. Um, and those five trees that are highlighted in orange are the five trees that we are preserving as a part of our plan. [Applause] Okay. Are we we're following? I've got just a few more to kind of go through here. Um, so this next page, so page seven, this is uh certificate of the neighbors lot. So 1930, the one just to the north that graded in their backyard. Um, this is a I I did highlight it. So that's um not part of their their plan, but I highlighted this, but all of the um all of the like where the the silk fence line is, you can see that's highlighted there. And that red dotted line, um that's there. This is a document that I got from the city um that shows their approved grading plan and their site plan again showing that storm water facility and again showing that that was outside of the original silt fence line or or grading limit line and they had that amended sil fence line or grading limit line. All right. Um the next pages I think somebody had asked oh no this is pictures of so page eight and nine two pictures of the neighbors backyard just if you want another visual. Um, I know sometimes reading these aerial plans is is hard to see, but this is the neighboring property to the north of us, their backyard that they graded into beyond that originally approved silt fence line. [Applause] And then page 10, this is taken from the staff report from page 400, the staff report, but this is also um a page from the actual resolution from when Oakland Estates was approved in 2019. And so this is the section that's outlined in red uh that the staff report references um subject to staff approval Oakland estates must be developed and maintain maintained in substantial conformance with the following plans which it points the p plans of the grading drainage and erosion control plan dated February 7th which we reviewed already. Um, and our response to that is that the pool permit plans are in substantial conformance with the grading, drainage, and erosion control plan dated February 7th, 2019 as shown in the pool permit application plans. Um, which which the permitting review team, staff, engineers are have been reviewing. Um, and and so we'll we'll see that in the next page. So page 11, these are our pool permit design plans. Um, so we we've worked we reworked these several times with staff direction to to preserve and save those five high priority trees that you'll see with a big red circle around them. So that big red circle is the critical root zone that the ordinance allows you to disturb, you know, no more than 30% of that critical root zone. So our design for the pool and for the pool apron uh do not exceed impacting more than 30% of that critical root zone of those five high priority trees. Again, we're rural. We're we're the the resolution um states, you know, 25 high priority trees are allowed to be removed or no more than 25 trees, which is 35%. We're our plans to remove 22 of those high priority trees. So we are preserving more um than what would be allowed and are have thoughtfully designed this to really integrate this pool with the existing landscape to preserve these trees um and to be thoughtful about that. [Applause] And so this is the plan that we're that that we the applicant are saying is is in substantial conformance with the originally approved 2019 grading erosion control and um drainage plan. [Applause] And oh, I should mention too that on this plan um so the engineering team asked us to throw um to put some spot elevations up on the on the corners of the pool and on the corners of the pool apron just to show that we are in conformance with the existing grades that are there. Um so that you see the 967s on the corners of the pool plan. So, just showing that there's no extra grading that is required for to put in the pool and there's no extra um tree removal for the high priority trees that would be required to put in the pool. So, just trying to clear up some of that confusion. Um we know that there have been multiple design iterations. So, just want to make sure that um we're clearing that up. on page 12. These are the three reasons that staff uh the staff report has laid out to recommend denial. Um I think that this was we went through these in the staff presentation, but just what we have a response to each of these. So, one is, you know, the trees that we're showing um on this plan in front of you on the screen, the ones that are circled in purple on the very top of the screen on lot one. Um staff has mentioned that, you know, we can't take credit for those those trees, and we totally understand that. We aren't asking for um to take credit for these preserved trees as we meet the tree ordinance. Um, and we're moving less than 25 high party trees with our pool plan. Um, which is under the 35% that's allowed to be removed. Uh, and we were just following again staff's direction to take full sight inventory to make sure that no extra high priority trees have been removed in the last six years since this was um, approved and we found that actually several trees had been preserved. Um with that uh the second bullet point is if the development area proposed had been submitted in 2019 it would have not complied with the tree protection ordinance with the 30 35% of the high party tree removal threshold. Um we are we disagree we are not exceeding that threshold. Our plans clearly show that the five high priority trees are um behind the house are being saved with the pool permit application and the design um and is in conformance with the approved grading plan. And then the third bullet point which is after that little calculation table um says that um you know the trees that the owner claims could be preserved are the large spruce and pine. Um staff's concerned about these trees surviving due to um some damage sustained during construction. So immediately upon notice of this um the contractor promptly repaired the tree protection fence and we treated the bruised bark on the two tree trunks that this is referring to which you can see in pictures three and four and I don't remember who asked the question but um these are the pictures I was referring to. So, picture three, you can see those three trees um behind the house that are kind of more in a vertical alignment that are being preserved. Um there's a little black spot on the tree trunk where you can see we have treated the marking the bruised um tree trunk there. Um the silt fence or the the tree protection fence is erect um as well as the two trees that are just behind the house um a little bit more to the north. So these two pictures are showing those five trees, those five high priority trees as which which our pool plan again shows as saved. Um all right, with that I'm on the last page now. So this is page 15 should have um an excerpt from the tree protection ordinance which we just wanted to reference um the purpose of the tree protection ordinance which I'm sure you're all very aware of and but uh the the purpose it says the purpose of this subdivision is to encourage tree preservation by reasonably limiting the removal of trees during construction site work and land development activities. And our response to this is we're not asking to remove more high priority trees than what was approved in 2019. Um and we're not we're and we are asking for reasonable use as it's related to the tree ordinance of the property at um 1934 Oakland Road. Um so these trees are the the trees that are are vetted for removal and the grading plan whether there's a tree or whether the pool permit is approved or not. We're not changing anything to the approved plans. So, we're just trying to get some clarity around this to um ask for your um to ask council to to give staff direction to um approve of the of the amendment to the line to allow for the the pool permit um to allow us to put in a pool in the backyard of 1934 Oakland Road. That is our request. If you have any questions um I'm happy to answer them. I know there's a lot of pages to flip through um regarding a pool permit as it relates to the trees. Um I also have um uh Julina here who would like to speak um about this and I'll invite her up to the podium. [Applause] Please state your name and address and and please be brief. Hi, my name is Julina Fratham and I am a future resident of 1934 Oakland Road. I'm uh almost a senior at Minnitanka High School and I have a younger sister who is about to be a freshman at Minnitankka High School who wishes she could be here tonight but can't because of practice. But both me and my sister hoped that this application would be approved. we would enjoy it. And I was informed that there could be a potential wait for the approval. And for me, that would not be ideal because I was hoping that I would have fun and spend more time with my family and friends before I leave for college. And so therefore, my family and I hope that you would not you would find our application not unreasonable. Thank you for your comments. All right. Um, and is there anything else? No. If you have questions, I'll All right. Um, well, any questions for Miss Thompson? Council. All right. I think you're good. Um, yeah, I might. Okay. Looking through. There's a lot of stuff there. Go ahead, Council Member Romey. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'm just just want to clarify a quick couple things here. So, there seems to be a couple things. um that are in contention and one of which are the trees that staff say are probably not salvageable or likely to die subsequently. Is that correct? Versus our applicant here who is saying that these trees have been treated and you know are not going to be removed and because they've been treated they are likely to survive. Is that am I am I getting the gist of that? Is that what you're arguing or what you're asserting here? Yes, thank you for that. Um, yes, I would say that you are correct in your statement and that um I think there's been some confusion around whether these trees are being preserved with our landscaping info plans or if they're being um asked to be removed and we are here to clarify that we are not asking for removal of these five high priority trees. Yep. Thank you. I get that. Um, I think the the what's that issue here is whether staff, you know, based on experience believes that these, you know, you may not remove them, but if they're already damaged, they could die anyway. And so that's what I would want clarification on. So that would be um the first thing that Yeah, thank you for for clarifying that. I understand that you're not proposing to remove it. So I'm just trying to clarify this point of contention here. If staff could um perhaps respond to that. Uh, mayor, Miss Miss Tom, Miss Thomas, please. Uh, Mayor Worome and Council Member, um, we're certainly um glad to see that the tree protection was reinstalled around these trees and in a larger area and that there's protection there. I think that um the city forester isn't here um this evening but has already suggested that just based on the damage that was already done when these photos were taken um is concerned about the the survivability if you will of those trees. Um we there is no confusion on staff's part. We understand that it's the applicant's uh intention to not cut down these trees as part of um this proposal. So we're not confused about that. We understand that. Um, but we do believe that the damage has already been done to these trees. And I'm sorry, can I follow? Go ahead. Thank you. Um, and would staff also say, I know we don't have our forester here tonight, which is unfortunate. Um, that all five of those trees then are presumed probably not sur would not survive. Is that am I understanding that correctly? Correct. And so also then would if if those five were not to survive would then um the tree ordinance then would not be met the requirements. Is that is that am I understanding that is also the the case? Uh Mayor Woreram and council member Romele. Um yes th those five I would have to look back on um the the numbers. Um I think that it's staff's suggestion if I may go back to um this diagram. Um I I I want to clarify if I may that the the term confused was used a lot in the presentation and I I don't think that staff is confused about what the applicant is proposing. I think we just have a a a difference of opinion on this. Um, if this line, this red line had been in place, uh, in 19 not 1990, 2019, if this red line had gone back as proposed here, staff would just as we did in all of these other cases, have suggested that those trees would be removed because that was the development area. Um so that that is the contention here that in in 2019 had this development area had the red line expanded back to cover this what we're now showing as yellow area these trees would have been counted as removed all of them but they're not all being removed now there's five so that's what's being and then I'm sorry could you this is just a little confusing not maybe for staff but for for some of us reading this. Um and so the other lot also could you speak to the fact or to the assertion that the lot three um had their silt line or development line extended and what that means you know what that means here I'm just not mayor and council I'll um refer to the diagram that the applicant provided here. So, if you will look at page seven, um they're suggesting that the development area, the disturbed area, um extended to that silt fence. Staff reviewed um the grading plan, which is shown as part of this and found that that was substantially compliant. Um particularly, and we understood the um storm water retention area, which is also shown on the applicant lot. Um if you look back on page six. So again um staff just we just disagree with the findings of the applicant. You disagree with the fact that the grading plan? I mean because obviously the neighbor had to get this. I don't know if if you know the the applicant owns does no longer own lot three I assume, right? And so the the new owner applied for that um you know kind of extended grading for the for the area um for the storm water management well. Is that correct? Uh Mayor Worerome and uh council member Romele. No, that that is incorrect. Oh um the grading plan um if staff were to draw this uh red area, we would not draw it the same as the applicant has here. We did understand that there was a storm water retention area on this site um with this grading plan and we found that to be in substantial conformance with the original 2019 plan. If you look at the very first page, you'll see on each of the lots um two, three, and four um storm water areas outside of um that red line. And so you're see saying I'm sorry that you foresaw that there might have to be grading done for those wells um for that grading. And so if this applicant came and said, "Hey, we want to um do that for ours," then that would maybe be a different scenario here that they would need to do grading in order to install the same well that lot number three did. Is that correct? Uh mayor and council, yes, that would be correct. And I don't believe that we would be back here before the council on that specific request because the um storm water area, I don't know if you can see my cursor was shown on both of these these construction of those storm water areas. Perhaps this line should have been, you know, there should have been a circle around these these storm water areas at the time, but the council clearly approved storm water retention areas there and the construction of those. So, a lot I'm sorry. No, go ahead. No, you're good. You're good. Well, if I may. Um, the the concept of a silt fence area is a new concept to me. And I understand silt fences and we require that they be put in, but I don't recall the council being um privy to um having to make decisions about the locations of silt fences. we make decisions about buildable areas and I believe the diagram shown on our screen right now um shows the buildable area whereas the the areas shown in orange and red here um may have to do something with silt fences but don't have anything to do with buildable areas and I believe the applicant is attempting to conflate the two and extend their buildable areas and in reality we don't talk about silt fence areas. We we let we let other people within the city deal with silk fences. As a council we don't make those decisions. Is that a fair statement from a development perspective? Uh Mayor Woram, I would agree with that statement. Yes. Very good. So, so we we we see some conflation here when in reality the buildable area was approved and has never been extended on either lot that we're talking about. Is that correct? Uh, correct. Okay. So, we're really being asked to um I mean one question and council member mailing brought it out clearly. Are the five trees in question going to survive? that we don't know the answer to that and the city forester who we do trust um has told us that the survivability of those five trees is likely. So the idea of conforming with the is unlikely and so therefore the conformability of the proposal with the tree ordinance is highly unlikely and we are talking about the extension of the buildable area which has not been done on either lot. Is that do I have this correct? So, um I I pro that pro provide that as um information for my fellow council members um for us to discuss and um and we're not going to debate it. So, I think thank you very much for um No, Mr. No, Mr. Freom, we are not we are not I'll tell you what, you're out of order. Please, you go sit down. Buildable areas is on plat. Oh, that's that's fine. we're going to discuss here. Um, we've heard from you and now now it's our turn to discuss it. So, council, I'll bring this back to you, Council Calbert. Thank you, Mayor. So, [Applause] first I'm I'm going to preface my my remarks by saying I always appreciate Lake West and Mr. Fratham kind of going to bat for, you know, their the person they're building for or for, you know, what it is that that they're trying to accomplish. they, you know, and I also appreciate that um they often um buy and try to develop or develop some of the more difficult properties. I also have a long memory about this particular property and um and I want to make clear also that I am not anti-development and I am willing to be flexible um even if it means tree impacts, tree loss, other impacts if it's for something that's community benefit or if there are conditions outside the control of the applicant or the developer. that make that you know that it's outside of their control and if we you know are somewhat flexible that it might allow development especially for say affordable housing or some other community benefit but in my opinion those conditions are not met here. I I um I appreciate the mayor helping sort of clarify the thinking and line of questioning on this. And I also um I do um I I we have to take the recommendations of staff very seriously because they they want development in our community and for them to deny is not is not easy for them and I don't I don't want to if if I were to sort of ignore the recommendations I would never do so lightly. There's also a pattern from this particular developer um in activities like this and it's almost like clockwork. So I wasn't surprised to see this come back um because I do remember when when um this property was was sold and and Mr. Fratham came before the council and asked if he could cut down all the trees because it was really hard for um people to envision what their home would look like with all those you know pesky trees in the way. And my question to Mr. Frotham at the time was um do you know in our city survey year after year what people value the most and it's the green space and the tree canopy and that is why they live here and so at the time I remember my words I said that's a hard no from me and um and in other developments the same developer has used our tree protection ordinances as a cudgel against this council by following the letter of the law while absolutely violating the spirit of the law and cutting down a huge number of trees on the east side of Plymouth Road. And let me tell you, people call me up, they are upset about it. It's not just me that's upset about it. And um so this is a pattern of um of behavior from this developer that just does not make and and I also have to say this developer has come forward including with that development that was this close to approval from this body and has come forward with other very intriguing and compelling ideas for development that were perilously close. But it's when we have to deal with things like this that it's very hard to see past sort of poor behavior um and expectation of this body to cast aside our own ordinances which are meant for not just protection of the environment but character of neighborhoods and um you know sort of health of of you know our water quality and so on and so forth. There are reasons we have these ordinances and they're, you know, they're not just to be cast aside lightly. If it was, if there was some huge community benefit, then fine. But a pool ain't it. And um there isn't any kind of, you know, uh external conditions that are making it impossible to develop this property. There is buildable area. You can build a beautiful home there. I just walked down that street twice in the last few weeks and have been looking at th those four lots. So, um part of our job here on the Deis is to encourage development and still preserve the essential treeline character of our neighborhoods and the health and welfare of our community. And so, um, I I just, you know, I personally am going to follow staff's recommendation in this case because the conditions for us to cast aside our ordinances and grant a variance are not met. Councilor Shaq. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I appreciate Council Member Kel Kelbert's historian um nature on this particular project cuz it it does refresh my memory and I agree with everything that was said and so I'm not going to repeat it. But I will say that on my best day when I have a very compelling situation before me and a challenge to staff's recommendations, I am hardpressed to trust anybody other than the experts that we have on staff. That is not today. Today is not my best day. We've got a developer who has not been totally credible when it comes to our tree ordinance and has not given us any reason to override the experts that we have on staff um through just good faith. I can't do that and history proves that that's not prudent in this particular instance. And so I, you know, and and I totally agree. If this was something compelling and um a public benefit, I would think about it harder. But but a pool, I mean, I I love to swim, but this is, you know, I I can't um I can't get there. And Council Member Wilin. Okay. So for those of us who weren't here in 2019, um can st can you it's so originally I was going to ask if it would be possible to have the forester comment on whether uh whether they believe that the trees might survive after the after the repair and stuff. But now I'm wondering if that even matters because of this whole buildable area thing. So, could you like explain more to me about what the buildable area is and what would be needed to change the buildable area, etc. Miss Thomas? Yeah. uh Mayor Woram uh and Council Member Wilburn, I would again define this area as the development area of of the site. Um which was again approved in 2019. Um the the buildable area of the site as defined by code is what the setbacks are. Um the developable area is shown in this this red area because that's what was approved by the council in in 2019. Um that initial developable area. Um and I I apologize and maybe Miss Wishnack can explain this better. What we are suggesting is if this red line had been drawn as the applicant is suggesting in 2019, all of the trees in that red line would have been seen as removed. Uh would have been viewed as removed. I should clarify the high priority trees and this development would have been over the 35% threshold uh in 2019. And so um the development line was was drawn as it were. Um certainly if the line was um pushed one way or the other um different trees uh may have been removed and not removed. So what staff has been suggesting is that um this developable area on the site, the development area um would not meet the tree protection ordinance because of the removal of the trees in this yellow area. The applicant has suggested that they intend to save those five trees. So, it really um the developable area or the development area doesn't really matter that much because they're saving those five trees. Staff uh has suggested that those five trees um will not survive uh given the the construction impacts that have already occurred. Yeah, I think um just to add to Miss Thomas's points um and as a reminder for the council, when you sign off on these projects and when you do a plat, this plan is identified by date on the plan set and is part of your action. So, as staff, we can't just say, "Oh, no, you can't follow this plan." um and hence why the developer has to come before you again because he's trying to amend your original action. So again, that might not be clear for the public. It's probably clear for you, but for the public, it it's part of the record and the resolution when this was originally approved. So that's the probably the important piece about what's being asked tonight. There was an original condition that said this map should be followed. I'm making it more simplistic than it is, but hopefully that helps. Thank you, Miss Wishnack. Thank you, Miss Thomas. So, um, is there any other information that council needs to uh make a decision on this or do we have the information we need? And would somebody like to make a motion? [Applause] Um, I'll I'll ask one more question. And I I understand I'm a newer council member and so I I you know, I don't have the history like council member Wilburn. So just trying to kind of look at the the facts here and and so my understanding is is that if applicant waited 2 years then they could go ahead with this and my understanding from applicant was from the report was a little bit like well no that wouldn't be possible because construction equipment couldn't get back there but it looks like the house is already built so it I I don't I'm having trouble understanding that argument. So, I think the argument, you know, if if it can't if it couldn't get through in two years, it certainly can't couldn't get through now since the facade is built. Um, so if if that isn't the case, I invite applicant um or I would, you know, be open to hearing why that wouldn't be. Otherwise, um, you know, I would, you know, hearing the buildable area and all of these other um, issues, it seems like that would make sense. um more sense than for us to go back unless we're basically gra granting a variance um as if this was a brand new project, which it's not. So, so I'm you know, I'll tell you what, we're we're we're not we're not going to debate it. I appreciate council member's question, but but we've we're I think we're at a point where we can make a decision. Um you can um if if it if we approve the staff's recommendation tonight, that's not to say you couldn't come back, but the passage of time is really the thing that would enable a pool to be built here. Um um because um after 2 years um of owner ownership of the property, to me, that's the more more likely approach because if we said, "Well, we're going to wait and see if those trees survive." Um we can get an opinion from the forester. The forester's already weighed in. If we say we're not going to believe the forest or we're going to believe those trees are going to survive. I would argue that it's going to take two years. I mean, how long does it take for a tree to die anyway? So, so it's moot. We're we I think it's highly unlikely that we are going to modify what's happening tonight. Um the passage of time may do that. Um, but I I don't So anyway, I'm I'm predicting. I don't know how my fellow council members are um going to vote, but I think we should I think we're in a position to take action. If we could get a motion, let's take action and decide where we are. Council member Calbertt. Thank you, Mayor. And um while I appreciate uh private property rights, I still have a problem with the two-year rule. So, because I really like But it is our rule. It is our law. It is our today today. So, we'll keep working on that. But, um, uh, thank you, mayor, and I'd like to make the motion to adopt the resolution denying the request. Is there a second? Council member Foster Bolton. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Council Member Calbert and a second by Council Member Foster Bolton. Are there any last comments any council members I'd like to make? Um, Miss Larson, please call roll. Wilburn, yes. Calbertt, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wears, yes. Motion carries. Um, next item is appointments and reappointments. We have none. Um, item 16 is adjournment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Council member Wilurn. Excuse me. I move adjournment. Is there a second? Council member Calbertt. Second. All right. Uh, we've got a motion by Council Member Wilburn, a second by Council Member Calbert. All in favor say I. I I. We are adjourned. But don't go away. I know. Just like a five minute break. Okay, we'll take a five minute break. Okay. Sorry. That's right. We've got an EDA meeting which shouldn't take long, but it will occur. Are you ready? We're going to start. We don't need the city manager. Okay. We'll just We'll just go. We are rebels. Cannot stop. That's right. We should put our all our hands in. Right. All right, good evening everyone and welcome. Um it is still uh Monday, June 9th, 2025. This is um um a meeting of the city of Minnetonka Economic Development Authority. Um I will call this meeting to order and I will ask Miss Larson to please call roll. Foster Bolton here. Shaq here. Wilburn here. Calbert here. Haley here. Kley here. wear some here. Next item is approval of the agenda. And uh Miss Wishnack, I believe, um do you have anything to add? There are no changes. Thank you. All right. All right. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Council I mean Commissioner um Calbertt. Thank you, Mr. President. So moved. And is there a Commissioner Foster Bolton? I second. All right. Got a motion by Commissioner Calbert and a second by Commissioner Foster Bolton. Miss Larson, please call roll. Foster Bolton. Yes. Shaq. Yes. Wilurn. Yes. Calbertt. Yes. Romeley. Yes. Kley. Yes. Wears. Yes. Motion carries. Item four is approval of the minutes. And we have one set of minutes. The February 10th, 2025 EDA minutes. Um, does anyone have any comments or a motion? Commissioner Calbertt? I move approval of the February 10th, 2025 EDA meeting minutes. And a second. Commissioner uh Shaq. Thank you. A second. All right. We've got a motion by Commissioner Calbert and a second by Commissioner Shack. Ms. Larson, please call roll. Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wilburn, yes. Calbert, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Wearsome, yes. Motion carries. Item five is business items and 5A is the Roland Investment LLC refinancing of Chase at 9M Creek found at 5709 Roland Road and there is a staff report and Ms. Wishnack. Uh yes. Uh just a note that your action is a little bit different on this one than it was in the council action. So, um, you know, the recommended action at the bottom of the screen is adopting the resolution approving the delivery and execution of the amended, it's called an assignment and subordination of the development agreement and tax increment financing documents with Roland Investments and Huntington National Bank. So, what you were doing the first time was approving the bond to be issued. Now, we're doing the actual loan agreement. So, very good. and the loan agreement is um in the packet. Council or I mean commissioners, do you have any questions of staff? So, seeing seeing none is um Commissioner um Wilbur, I move that we excuse me that we adopt the resolution approving the execution and delivery of an amended and restated assignment and subordination of development agreement and tax increment financing documents with Roland Investments LLC and the Huntington Huntington National Bank. Thank you, Council Member Wilburn. Is there a second? Commissioner Calbertt. Thank you, Mr. President. I second. All right. We've got a motion by Commissioner Wilburn and a second by Commissioner Calbertt. Um, are there any last comments by anyone? If not, um, Miss Larson, would you please call roll? Foster Bolton, yes. Shaq, yes. Wilurn, yes. Calvert, yes. Rome, yes. Kley, yes. Wears, yes. Motion carries. So, I'm proud to say that I called Miss Larson by the correct name the entire night. So, that was good. And it's much easier in the EDA because, you know, I mean, these things happen so quickly. But anyway, so the last item on the agenda is adjournment. Is uh Commissioner Commissioner Wilburn? I move adjournment. And is there a second? Commissioner Calbert. Second. Okay. A motion by Commissioner Wilburn. A second by Commissioner Calbert. All in favor say I. I. We are adjourned. [Music]